#This took me 7 and a half hours to doodle all of them-

[slothyollama101]

Dandys World but everyone has glasses

Most of these characters I drew for the first time, some I've already drawn before

This was very fun :3

Glasses-less vers. below

[rosey100]

It had been almost a month since they started "hanging out" after the party and JJ and Varina have gotten closer each passing day, But unotified by both of them (mostly JJ) have been super close where they gave each other pet names while getting to know one another. It wasn't in til they're repeated siblings find out about them it was honestly( Zoe first) Mazzi and Vera who noticed how they act like Varina would be daydreaming out of nowhere with lovey dovey eyes or JJ could be making hearts with his breakfast. JJ was not sure if he could love someone else after the party but he gotten over it slowly and didn't wanna be hasty with anyone else and Varina wasn't sure that JJ would feel the same way about her.Mazzi agreed til she stated the times he was talking to someone on the phone way different when he would be if his friends and how he was going out almost literally of two and a half months without his skateboard or book bag and he would be all smiley when come home (JJ couldn't deny those facts ).For Varina though it was a shocker that her sister Vera figured out of all people who would notice she was the doodles she made and all the time she sneaks out when theirs parents are too busy or when everyone wasn't gonna be home (Varina couldn't try denying it).It took a lot of thinking and a lot of convincing (from mostly Mazzi then friends) for them to finally realize they're true feelings are to

"Just say it already!"

(OK,just a casual night time picnic.. with a girl...just the two of us...alone together far away from your friends and now you're sweating now before you even get the chance to tell your feelings to her-)

*Running to JJ waving*

"JJ! HEY JJ!"

"VARINA! *cough* Varina Hey! I didn't see there."

"Got here sooner then I thought, man you have no idea how hard it was just to make sure my parents- "

Meanwhile JJ's mind

(Wow this is really really happening, she's actually here..with me..and I thought she wasn't gonna be able to come and i ¢an'tevenwa!ttot@llher- hold on J! JUST CLAM DOWN! Just clam down man! You got this J! You got this! )

"Not gonna tell you what took me so long to get here when I got the chance but thankfully I found a quick route here. So we're watching the fireworks form here? "

"Ha? Oh!! Yeah the fireworks! Yeah right here, watching them right here yeah!."

"Ok haha?"

"Hopefully you don't mind, *hovering a bag and shaking it* I thought I could bring some snacks for us tonight."

"Oh that's pretty good, I just got us some drinks too. It RC and lemon lime soda."🤷🏽

*Giggles* " Alright then you lay down the blanket, I'll see if we have enough snacks and we'll get ready. "

In JJ's mind

( WOW! I almost forgot how much smarter she is and she's so cute when she talks like that -)

"Alright you got the blanket?"

"Huh I got a blank chest!?"

*😳

"The Blanket! Did you bring a blanket to watch the fireworks on?!"

"Oh the blanket I think I..I ?!"

"Please... don't tell me, you forgot "

"I mean it's not like I am the one who has it- I did bring the blanket" *pulls out a dark blue plaid blanket out of his backpack*

"You can be sure a darling dork "

*Lays down the blanket on the ground*

**Sits on the blanket**

"Ahh I definitely picked the best place for tonight."

"It sure is, I haven't seen this many stars since I was 7."

"Oh really now?"

"Yay I was a Wild kid then a Wild Kratts kid to be exact."

"Cool, Hey was one too when I was 5, though my mom would be frantic for the stents and crazy things that I and the other get into" 😄

"Seriously I was the definition of a wild child" 😌

"Ya right Goody Two-shoes,even my sister Zoe couldn't lie like that time she was stuck in a cave to get a tarantula when she was 8 even my Uncle Chris almost went to get a jackhammer and she still got out with over six of them."

Six tarantulas at 8 are not even crazy for anyone who would try🫢😆

I'm not joking it happened my dad was the one trying to wake up my mom when she faded.🤣

|*Both laying down laughing and talking for a half hour when waiting for the fireworks to come was getting more different*|

"The sky really pretty at night"

"Yah sure is pretty"

"Varina? I want to come clean."

"Yes J?"

"I didn't tell you to come to just see fireworks."😔

"Huh?!"

"I lured you here to..to -"

"JJ? *nervously*

"I wanted to tell you that I...I "

"You what JJ!!"

I love you

*😧

"You uh Love me*😳

"I..I mean... I love UVD lights"

JJ

"I mean you just a friend for comfort after all, I mean"😅

" I think I should go* stand up walking away angrily*

Huh what!?

*quickly walks to her after realizing*

"You know? It's not every day you could've said it's shright before you got me over here!!"😡

"No! Wait Varina!"

"Leave me out of this JJ!"

"No! Listen I'm sorry I didn't mean it"

"Oh I'm sorry*turns around* , Guess you mean a friend for laughs huh!"

"No Varina it's not like at all"

"Then what do you want for me "

" If you listen to me I'll tell you if you weren't yelling at me and Why you are getting mad for was it because what I said!"

"It's not that "

"Then what did I do "

"You're so serious"🤦‍♀️

*😑🙎🏽

*Whisper to herself * "Cause I love you "

You lor-

"CUZ I LOVE YOU!!!

*🫢

"I..I You love me?!?!"

*😮‍💨 "Cats out the f**king bag "

"Ya but I threw him out first."

"Look I'm sor-

"No Varina listen"

"I know I said that time I was love with her and all that but I was love blind then, I never saw her the way I see her now and tha-

*😤😔

"That's over now, I don't have those feelings her I have for her ever since that party and I never thought it'd would be you"

*🥺

"There not once I haven't stopped thinking of you, I never once thought about anything else it was you, but you were already heartbroken and at first I figured nothing but me feeling sorry for you."

"I didn't think I would feel the way I do or if I ever know how I feel now!?"

"I didn't know if you felt the same way I thought no one would since the night but you were first person to be there for (besides my friends and my little sister who planned to kill her if she knows where she live) me."

"And here I think you're going with me to get a rich kit friend fam."

"Varina, I never thought you felt that way"

"As rich kit"

"As just a friend "

*😔 "Varina"

"You are the best thing that ever happened in my life and you're passionate, you're inventive , you're kindhearted and you're the most beautiful person I've seen inside and out."

"Wow! 🥺 Its just feels so strange yet better to let all that ou-

*Places both hands on her face pulling her to his lips *

*Kiss*

**😳**

*Steps back*

"I..I'm sorry I just got.. ugh I uh." 😨

Jimmy?

Yes

"Have you ever been closer to someone?"

"For a hug?"

A kiss * come close to him hand on his chest*

"Well.. I guess...I don't know...we should you know?"

*🥹

"Just shut up you big dum dumbing head"

*Pulls him by the caller*

Kiss

Varina and Vera Varmitech belongs to @jokerislandgirl32

Zoe, JJ, Mazzi Z belongs to me @rosey100

[lukelxiv]

I believe in magic. I believe in things outside of scientific explanation. I believe in fate.

When my father had an arteriovenous malformation in his brain burst, he hit the floor face first. My step mother thought he was dead. I had randomly decided to get off early that day, living about 30 minutes away from where I worked at the time. This town was closer to my father than the city I worked in. So, as I sat outside in the sun, doodling, I got the call from my adopted brother. He told me my dad was being rushed to the hospital and that he'd had a stroke.

I immediately packed my bag, and my husband and I sped to the other side of the state, pushing the speed limit most of the way. We made it across the pass about half an hour before there was a landslide that closed the pass for 3 days. If I had still lived in the city, I might not had made it to my father for days. If I had not gotten off early that random spring day, I might not had made it to my father for days.

When we got there, the diagnosis was grim. He'd bled in his brain heavily, he did have a stroke after the burst and he was currently in surgery attempting to save his life.

In my purse, I had packed the medicine bag my father gave to me when I was 7. It was soft buckskin, with a little carved salmon trinket on one of the strings made from polished abalone shell. I had kept that medicine bag amongst my most treasured possessions since childhood and I would often hold it close when life was tough and I didn't have anyone to talk to about what was happening to me.

My father told me, very seriously when I was young, to never open it. Ever. It would let all the magic out. You can bet that 7 year old me was so curious to know what the magic inside looked like, what items had been placed there that had been deemed magical and held such otherworldly allure. I never opened it. I would smell it often, and it smelled like lavender and sweet grass and something I could never really place, but it was warm spice and smelled like home. There were small stones in it, but I never knew what colors they were or where they came from. This was all part of the magic.

My father made it out of surgery, full of tubes and his eyes swollen shut with the bruises he'd got from falling on his face. We were told he'd likely never regain consciousness and would be in a vegetative state until we decided to pull the plug on the machines that were breathing for him. I was 25 years old and I was not ready to lose my father. I felt I was too young to say goodbye to the man I had had such a wonderful, tumultuous, agonizing relationship with.

My father had been an addict most of his adult life, and those of us who have addict family members know the struggle and the pain of watching someone who means the world to you make choices, driven by their disease, that puts them further and further off the path of health and happiness. I wanted him to have time. He needed more time.

I, stubbornly, refused to believe this was going to be the outcome. That I would have to say goodbye to him there and then. So I refused to believe it. I took the medicine bag out of my purse and put it in his left hand and asked the nurse to please keep it with him at all times. I wanted him to have all the magic in that bag. I wanted it to be real. I wanted him to open his eyes and say 'Hey, Bug. I didn't mean to scare you.'

He had another stroke the next day and was put into surgery again. Bless the nurse who told the doctor that she would not remove the medicine bag from his hand, nor would he. That it needed to stay with him, period. I hope that woman is blessed beyond measure wherever she is at now.

I remember asking the universe, the Great Spirit, the gods of my father to please, please, please give me one more year. I was not ready to let him go yet. I was not ready for the heartbreak of saying goodbye. I could not stand it. So please, Great Spirit, Universe, Gods of my father - please give me one more year with him.

I talked to him once he was out of his second surgery. For hours. I would tell him what had happened - he had to he scared that he could not open his eyes and was stuck in darkness with machines beeping around him and people poking and prodding at him. I told him he was in the hospital, what it looked like in his room, how he was laying, what it looked like outside his window. I would touch his face and hands gently, his legs, his arms. I named them as I did so he could feel them again. I told him he could find his way out of the darkness, but he had to fight through it. He had to try for me.

The 5th day came and he squeezed my hand - so tightly it took the breath out of me. 'I'm HERE', is what that hand squeeze said, 'I am HERE and I am FIGHTING and I love you'. I squeezed his hand back, he squeezed mine back, and it went on like that for a few minutes. It was the strangest and yet the best hug I've ever received. He was there. He was fighting.

The days progressed with him being able to squeeze hands to communicate - once for yes, two times for no. His medical team was amazed. He began to heal. I had to leave to return to my side of the state and to a job that would not allow me further time to tend to him 8 days after his incident. He opened his eyes on day 9. I was not there to see them, but I know he looked for me. I hope I did not disappoint him by not being there when he did.

My job kept me busy and underpaid enough that driving or flying over to see him was not in the cards. But he got to go home. He got to see his grandkids. He got to sit outside with the sun on his face. He got a tracheotomy to keep his airways clear and so that he didn't inhale food, but he would call me and as best he could, tell me how much he loved me. I have a voicemail saved from him that I listen to when I need to hear his gravelly voice again.

One year, to the exact date, my father was back in the hospital. He got pneumonia and sepsis, blue coded (where his heart stopped entirely for a few minutes) and was declared brain dead. There truly was no coming back from this one, and I knew it when I saw him. He was there, but his spirit was already somewhere else. This was simply the shell that was left over. The magic had been used up.

I never knew what happened to my father's medicine bag. I like to imagine that it left with him, after the magic was spent and the wish had been granted. I like to imagine he's still out there somewhere holding onto it for me until I see him again.

I am thankful I never opened it. I am thankful that it had enough magic in it to grant my father one more year on this earth, one more turn around the sun. I am thankful to the Great Spirit, the Universe and the gods of my father who listened to me that day and gave me the magic I so desperately hoped for.

I believe in magic.

[a-supernatural-writer]

hcs for poly! tlb with a fem! s/o who’s style is dark academia and is really blunt/logical and smart. she basically gives off a ‘mysterious, quiet, dark, critical’ vibe (she also doesn’t really know how to handle people who are extremely emotional and she doesn’t know how to soothe someone. she’s just really oblivious/clueless when it comes to others feelings). i’m so sorry if what i requested doesn’t make sense or if it was too much. i am seriously incapable of writing anything without making it look like an essay lmao. love your work btw 💕✨

Dark Academia Fem! S/O 

Poly Lost Boys x Fem reader

I had so much fun writing this! I love the dark academia aesthetic! And it made perfect sense and it wasn’t too much! Having a lot actually helps me expand and write more so thank you. And I’m the same, once I have an idea, I write a lot, so you’re all good! And awww!!! Thank you!!! 💗💗✨✨ I really appreciate it! I hope you enjoy!

Okay, so you are very different compared to the large number of characters on the boardwalk. Your style consisted of button shirts, sweaters or turtle necks, dress pants or a plaid pleated skirts, cardigans or waistcoats, oxford shoes or even wire framed glasses if you wore them for seeing or just for the look. 

To say that you caught the boys attention would be an understatement. You seemed to stand out amongst the crowd and they became curious. You were a mystery to them and they love the challenge. 

Somehow, someway, after days or weeks later, you became good friends which soon lead to you dating four trouble making punks. It was tough on both parts, but it happened, and hey, you weren’t complaining. 

You were very blunt when you first met them, not really interested in them and more or less interested in the book in your hands. It took a lot of “accidental” run ins to even get you to hang out with them. 

You slowly opened up when they offered to take you out for dinner at a local diner. They’re constant joking soon had you letting out small, almost whisper-like giggles and tiny smiles that sent them into a frenzy. 

When you would start talking about yourself, your ideas of fun were different from theirs. You liked museums, opera houses, bookstores and going to theaters to see plays. The games you played were chess and cards, and the music you listened to was old. You were pretty sure they thought you were boring but you actually peaked their interest. 

After a while of being friends with them, they asked you out. You liked them and the only logical step was to see if you liked them the same way they liked you was to date them, so you said yes. 

In general, them having a girlfriend with a 1940s/1950s dark prep look was fun. David and Dwayne like it the most. Paul next, then Marko. 

David actually really likes picking out your clothing on most days. You have an extensive collection of clothing with material from cashmere to linen, all the colors consisting of browns, black, cream and even a little dark green. 

His favorite thing to put you in is trench coats. Doesn’t matter what color it is, he just likes seeing you in them. Also, there are a handful of times that he has MADE you wear his trench coat. Yeah it almost swimmed on you, but he thought it made you look cute and it fit in perfectly with your look. 

Dark academia isn’t only your style, but it’s your way of life. David is the one that plays chess with you. You had to reteach it to him and pretty soon, the two of you had your own little set up in the cave that was always ready for a game of chess. 

David is sort of like you… in a way when it comes to others feelings. But deep down he knows that he really likes you and tries to show it the best he can. He took you to a theater to see a play that you were constantly talking about and so he took you on a date. You being you, didn’t realize that’s what it was until he told it straight to your face. Let’s just say you were speechless for the next hour. 

Also, when it’s just the two of you, deep inside the cave where your nest is, classical music is playing from your record player. It could be Beethoven, Tchaikovsky or Mozart. Whoever it is, David is the one that will listen to it with you the most. I think he really enjoys classical music and he enjoys it even more if the two of you are cuddling in your bed. 

Occasionally Dwayne would join the two of you. You would be sitting in between David’s legs as Dwayne sat in between yours, his head leaning back against your chest. It was like a cuddle pile… cuddle train?? Whatever you wanted to call it, it was cuddling while the three of you relaxed listening to classical music. And it was darn cute. 

Dwayne loves listening to you go on and on about any books you were reading at the moment. Whether or not it was nonfiction or even about any type of history. He was down. He lived through a lot and he knew about half of the stuff you gushed on about, but for some odd reason, it never bored him when you talked about it. 

He would be the one to get you new books, leaving you sweet little notes tied to them. Of course you thought it was just him being nice and thanked him for it without thinking there was any romantic meaning behind it. Yeah he was one of your boyfriends but it never really crossed your mind that way. He would just shake his head at your obliviousness and give you a small peck on the lips. 

Don’t ask him why, but his favorite look on you is a light cream colored blouse with a plaid skirt and Mary Jane shoes. Dwayne is a leg man so… he’s very happy when decide to show off some skin if you decide not to wear knee-socks or stockings with it. Even if you did wear them, he would still be attached to your side the entire night. 

Like David, Dwayne would bring you out to a lot of places that were opened late at night. If there was an art exhibition in town or even a museum that was open late, just say the word and he will happily drive you on his bike. Heck, David might even tag along. 

Also, late night bookstore dates… oh my heart, it’s too sweet it hurts. There are times that he does have to throw you over his shoulder when the bookstore is closing and you're pretty much refusing to leave. When he does that, you just stay frozen over his shoulder, not knowing if you should be blushing or cursing at him for carrying you like a sack of potatoes. 

If anything, you and Dwayne connect very well. You’re naturally very quiet and so is he. Not much is said between you two but there's a mutual understanding that can’t be explained. While the others are out causing trouble, you and him are on the sidelines watching hand in hand or your reading and he's just staring at you as you do so. 

Paul and Marko kind of give you whiplash. They’re loud and rowdy and definitely 100% opposite from you. But they interested you. They had a very chaotic outlook on life which made you ask many questions. 

Paul found your look sexy. He’s horny and you give off preppy school vibes, he’s living for it 24/7. Constant teasing of you giving him ‘private lessons’ which results with you whacking a book against the back of his head. But it doesn’t stop the reddening of your ears which doesn’t make him stop.  

This man is also your designated jewelry expert. You only wear some accessories and they're very simple. So you are very surprised when Paul finds you jewelry that is your style and collects it for you. You like leather watches, guess what, he’s got it for you. You want some fancy victorian looking brooches, he’s got that too. Simple rings with a single jewel in the middle, expect constant ‘will you marry me’ jokes, but he gets you the best.

Also, he’s not overly big into your music selection. He does try to get you into his type of music, which you only like very few and far between. But when you do get him to listen to your type of music, it’s only if you agree to listen to his music the next night. You guys come up with a system and decide to switch every few nights. 

Each of the boys have their favorite look on you and Paul's is when you wear a button-up of any color with a simple black tie, a pencil skirt and a pair of Dr.Marten boots. He especially likes the tie… for reasons. God damn it, you know the reasons, get out of here. 

He’s a very affectionate boy and he finds your looks over confusion some of the cutest shit he’s ever seen. Probably the first one to tell you that he loves you and you honestly like glitched out. Did you feel the same way? Yes, but poor little thing you doesn’t say it right away, but Paul knows that you aren’t really used to saying things like that without warming up to it. Which is okay. He knows even if you don’t say it. 

He definitely steals one of your blazers to put pins on it. Marko helps, putting a few patches on it that they both know you would like. It’s the one item that stands out in all of your clothing and you will wear it if they ask you to. 

Marko definitely thinks the look is cute and it suits you very well, but why no color?! You wear dark colors but nothing bright like the colors that are on his jacket. He tries to slip in some colorful clothing into your everyday look, it never goes as planned but you give him an A for effort. 

He loves how dark you can be at times though. You want to go to a local graveyard just because? Sure! Let’s go! He’s your designated graveyard buddy. You have many date nights there, looking at all the different gravestones and finding it interesting when you jot down some names in one of your notebooks. 

Speaking of notebooks, you have many of them. They were filled with notes from books you’ve read, real life observations or even just some random poetry and short stories that you wrote. Marko would go through them a lot and even sometimes draw little doodles or rough sketches that were thought up from your writings. 

When you spend nights down at the Boardwalk, your go to drink isn’t a slushie or a milkshake or even a soda. It’s coffee or tea. Yeah, and only Marko knows your drink orders by heart. None of the others seem to remember them correctly which you thank them for trying but Marko has got them all beat. 

Marko likes seeing you in sweaters and in your trousers or linen shorts with chelsea boots. If anything, when the two of you are alone, just wearing a knit sweater and shorts were perfect for him. He likes how cozy and warm you look. He’s very happy when he cuddles you and you are warm. 

Now when they tell you that they’re vampires, you think that they’re joking. Vampires aren’t real, they’re a work of fiction. Yes there was a real man named Dracula, but there was no way that they were actual vampires. 

Then they showed you hard proof and then there was no denying it at that point. Instead of running away, you were fascinated. You wanted to understand your boyfriends vampire ways that lead to you conducting extensive research and a notebook dedicated to them. 

They showed you everything about them, how they feed, to which you didn’t bat an eyelash of watching them feed one night. You were one morbid chick but they saw that as a plus that you didn’t react. You had graveyard dates for crying out loud, nothing really surprised them at that point.

Flying came next and they had a lot of fun showing you just how high they could go with you in their arms. You never screamed at the height, you were too caught up in seeing the overhead view of the town. You could get used to seeing a view like that every night.  

Then came the other things; how they slept before you came along, what actually hurt them and what didn’t. There was one time that you stared at their vampire faces for hours because you were taking notes on how their facial features changed. 

Soon you had to stock up on more turtlenecks because of the many bite marks they would leave behind from feeding on you if the weather was bad one night. It wasn’t tough adapting to their occasional feeding. A lot of your clothing already covered up your skin so it was easy to hide from people on your nights out. 

Not too long after, they popped the question. Would you want to be a vampire? Live forever, never grow up? Be with them for all eternity? You didn’t really need to think about it for too long, you knew what your answer was and so did they even if you didn’t say it out loud. You loved your boys and not much would change.

When you did change, it was entertaining for them to watch. You soon started taking down notes about your progress, comparing and contrasting your experience to their own. 

To the eyes of many, you became even more dark and mysterious. You had an aura around you that drew people in, it’s what got you your four vampire boyfriends, only now, it brought in your meal for the night.

[r0zyp0zy0zy]

Hi, sorry if you’re not writing but, could you do prompt #7 or #24 your choosing with yamaguchi? Just basically a gn!reader who is flustering the shit out of him or smthing ty <3

Haikyuu!! Prompt list trial

HQ!! Prompt list

Sorry this took so long! I’m feeling a little slow with writing lately. Thanks for your request, and I hope you enjoy!

Words: 1275

Warnings: suggestive, teasing Yamaguchi

Pairing: Yamaguchi Tadashi x GN!reader

Prompt(s): #7- "..so if I do this, you'll get harder?"

It wasn't exactly fair what you were doing, but it was way too fun to stop. You hadn't meant to find out that the beloved Yamaguchi had a crush on you, but it was difficult not to listen to the teasing of his teammates. Obviously you reciprocated his feelings, (honesty who wouldn't), and your chest bubbled in excitement. You were in the same class as Ennoshita, occasionally participating in study groups with him, and the two of you got along pretty well. It wasn't too odd that you had asked to watch the boys he talked about so much practice, and Ennoshita was ecstatic that you wanted to experience the first years' talent.

You were sat on the bleachers pretending to do homework, peaking down at your paper occasionally to doodle. It was cute how Yamaguchi would glance at you after he served, and you would always smile encouragingly. He was just so adorable and so blushy that you couldn't help but have feelings for him. Before one of their matches, you DIYed a cheerleader outfit like you saw in America, matching the length of the short skirt/shorts.

You cheered playfully along with the other students that came to watch the match that would determine whether the team was going to nationals or not, flashing your pom-poms around beside Yachi and Tanaka's sister. You weren't quite sure who the other guys beside you were, but they seemed nice enough. The match was confusing and you had no clue what was going on half of the time, but you cheered the loudest whenever Yamaguchi was serving.

"You guys did awesome!!" Yachi pumped a fist into the air as she ran towards the boys with you, gripping your hand tightly. The two of you had gotten a bit closer during the match, and you now had her number in your phone.

"Y-y/n-san," Ennoshita blushed as he took in your outfit, "I didn't realize that you would be cheering for us today."

"Yep! I made it last night!" You twirled in a circle, showing off your handiwork, "though it would look better with a number on the back."

"You can put my number on it, y/n-chan,~" Tanaka and Nishinoya said at the same time, clasping their hands together and fluttering their lashes. Sugawara slapped his palm on both of their heads and whispered something in their ears. The two boys' eyes widened and they started giggling, which was a concerning sight.

"Locker rooms, guys," Daichi reminded the team, and you watched as they made their way to the change rooms.

"What was that about?" You wondered aloud to Yachi, following her down the hallway where the boys disappeared. She just shrugged, a cheeky grin forming on her face.

The two of you waited outside of the boys' locker room, listening to the chaos that was inside.

"—how were we supposed to know that it was that y/n-san?" Nishinoya asked someone, and your interest piqued at the sound of your name.

"I'm pretty sure there's only one y/n-san in the school," Tsukishima replied, to your confusion. "And I told you not to hit on them because Yamaguchi has a crush on them."

"Awe Tsukki,~" Tanaka said. "You're such a good friend to him."

You glanced at Yachi quizzically, who was looking away guiltily. Well she obviously knew Yamaguchi liked you. Your face reddened with happiness, and a smile broke out onto your face. Your heart swelled at the thought of a blushy Yamaguchi, arm carefully locked with your own and a blush on his face.

"Would it be alright if I took the bus with you guys?" You asked Yachi airily. "I don't wanna sit in Tanaka-san's car for another couple hours."

"I-I mean you would h-have to ask c-coach Ukai I'm p-pretty sure," she replied, a flustered blush on her cheeks.

It was odd how easily convinced the Karasuno volleyball coach was to let you on their ride, even if you had been at their practices a few times. Ukai let you have a seat to yourself near the back of the bus, overlooking the rest of the vehicle. When the boys finally started to fill in they didn't notice you at first, but once Hinata locked eyes with you he shouted out a loud greeting.

"Hi y/n!!" The redhead beamed. "Why're you here? Did you watch the whole game? Did you see our quick attack?!!"

"Calm down, shrimpy," Tsukishima mumbled as he pushed past the smaller boy, "don't overload them with questions."

"Oh, I'm just here because Tanaka-san's driving made me incredibly car-sick," you shrugged. "I didn't feel like puking out the window a second time."

You saw the green cowlick of Yamaguchi's hair peak over the tall blonde's shoulder, and you could tell that he was cowering away. Tsukishima found himself a seat, blocking off the edge with his gym bag.

"Sorry Yams," he grinned cheekily, "looks like you'll have to find another spot."

Yamaguchi's face flushed a cherry red as he looked around, knowing what his best friend was trying to do. He bit his lip once he noticed that all of the other seats were taken, either by his teammates or their luggage. He gulped and turned over to look at you, grip tightening on his bag strap.

"U-uh, can I, uhm, can I sit here?" The nervous boy asked quietly, trying to mask the shake in his voice.

"Sure!" You accepted happily, offering him the window seat. He held his breath as he shimmied by, immediately regretting facing his body towards you. His cheeks flared another spout of dark pink.

Yamaguchi sat down and let his bag fall to his feet, and he looked out the window anxiously. The two of you didn't say much once the bus began to move; his legs couldn't stop bouncing with nerves, and he occasionally turned his head slightly to peek at you. He admired your appearance through his eyelashes, watching you nibble on your lips. Yamaguchi gulped and turned back away, his mind racing with thoughts of your puffy lips.

A small smile broke onto his face as he felt your head lean against his shoulder and he blushed. Your hand slowly slipped onto his thigh and his breath hitched, trying with all his might to not get hard. Which obviously failed when he felt a twitch in his dick. Yamaguchi shifted uncomfortably, awkwardly hunching over to conceal his erection.

"...are you hard?" You whispered questioningly, so quietly he almost couldn't hear you. "Wow, you are."

Yamaguchi choked on his own saliva processing what you said, and he felt his face flush so hard he swore that blood vessels broke, "I-I'm sorry," he whimpered, rubbing his legs together, "I-it's just when you touch me l-like that..." he trailed off.

"..so if I do this, you'll get harder?" You whispered in his ear as you slid your hand onto his inner thigh, gently massaging it.

"U-uh," he squeaked, "y-yeah..." Yamaguchi was sure the bus had gotten hotter with your hand between his legs.

"This is ok, right Yams?" You nibbled on his earlobe and he whimpered out a quiet breath.

"Y-yes," Yamaguchi swallowed harshly. He let his grey-green hair cover his eyes as you continued to massage very close to his erection,. "I-I like you," he confessed softly, glancing at your e/c eyes.

"I know," you uttered into his neck. "I like you too, cutie."

[bts-reveries]

expect the unexpected | 16

(smau at the end)

Last night you got an emergency phone call from your dad saying that your mom was currently in the hospital. And because your sister just recently moved out of their house (to Canada to be specific), your dad called you to help out. 

Of course it was urgent, having you to hurriedly pack after the phone call and leaving the morning after.

Which is right now.

“Sohyun’s outside,” you tell Jin, holding onto your luggage. Sohyun offered to pick you up and take you to the train station since she was the one opening the bakery today. She said, and I quote: “Jin’s going to take you? Wouldn’t you have to bring all three kids with you? It’s 6 in the morning, I’ll just take you!”

A yawn escaped out of Jin’s mouth, he was sitting on the couch with Haneul on his chest. All three kids were awake to watch you off. 

“Okay,” Jin says, standing up from his seat. Minseok and Soojin get up as well, running to the front door. Minseok opens it for you.

“Mommy, when are you coming back?” Soojin asks, hugging the door frame as you walk past.

“I’ll be back in a week, don’t worry, daddy will stay and take care of you three,” you tell her, stopping right outside the door.

“Will we be going to work with daddy?” Minseok asks you. You don’t know why they’re asking you when Jin is right behind them.

“That or daddy will work at home,” you tell him. “Now give me a hug and kiss, I have to go so I don’t miss my train.” You let go of your luggage, kneeling down to hug your kids, giving them both a kiss on the cheek. “Be good and listen to daddy okay? This is his first time taking care of all three of you by himself for as long as a week, don’t stress him out.” This was also the first time you’ll be away from your kids for this long and this far. 

“We’ll be good mommy,” Minseok says, smiling up at you as you stand up. 

“I know you will,” you say, booping his nose. “But make sure your little sister and brother do too.”

“I’m always good!” Soojin yells, raising her arms up. 

“Sure,” you laugh, ruffling her already messy hair. You then face Jin and Haneul, walking up to them to give them a big hug. Jin wraps an arm around you, placing his cheek on your head that you placed on his chest so you’re then facing Haneul.

“Especially you, be good okay?” You say, raising your eyebrows at him. He responds with a few blinks. Then a big yawn. Jin pulls his head away from you to place a kiss on your forehead, making you look up and he presses another one on your lips. 

“I can take care of them no worries,” He tells you. “Now go, Sohyun’s waiting.” You nod, leaning over to give Haneul a kiss on the cheek as well. 

You gave Jin one more kiss before you pulled away from them, grabbing your luggage and walking off.

“BYE MOMMY!” Soojin yells. You turn around and wave at them. Soojin is frantically waving while all three of your boys are waving sleepily. 

Let’s hope that Jin remembers to take your two oldest to school today.

-

*ring ring!* 

“I’ll pick you two up later okay? Make sure you finish your lunch, I love you!” Jin yells out of his car window as he dropped off Minseok and Soojin at school. 

“We love you!” They both yelled before running off to their friends.

Jin rolled the windows up before picking up his phone, it was Yeonjun.

“Good morning sir! I stopped by to grab coffee before heading to the building. I’ll bring it up to your office when I get there. I also have your schedule for the day and--”

“Oh, Yeonjun, I forgot to tell you, but something urgent happened last night with Yn’s mom and she had to leave for Gwangju this morning. I’ll be working from home today, do you mind just sending me today’s agenda?” Jin says. He puts the phone on speaker, placing it on the passenger seat and driving out of the school’s drop off. 

“Oh, I see. Yes, I’ll send it to you right now sir. Do you want me to come over and help out?” Yeonjun says. Jin tilts his head to the side, thinking. He looked at Haneul from the rearview mirror and, for once, he was calm and quiet.

“I should be okay. It’s just Haneul I’m taking care of right now. Thank you though Yeonjun, I’ll call you if anything-- oh and are you already at the building?”

“Yes sir, I just pulled up umm I have your co--”

“You should give the coffee to our receptionist,” Jin says. You're sure that Yeonjun can see the smile Jin had on his face right now, just by listening to his voice. 

“You mean Miya? She’s just a friend-- coworker even,” Yeonjun responds, nervousness lacing his voice.

“Sure, sure she is. Well then you shouldn’t even have any worries giving them to her since she’s just a “coworker” right?” Jin says. 

“Good bye sir,” Yeonjun says, hanging up the phone. 

“Haneul-ah, do you want to stop by Auntie Sohu’s?” Jin says, looking at the rearview again. Haneul’s face instantly lights up and he starts smiling and kicking his feet.

“Yes yes!” He yells. Jin smiles, taking a left and driving straight to the iconic 24/7 Heaven. He figured that if he starts off the day well with Haneul, maybe he’ll be good for the remainder of the day. At least while Jin is working.

I guess you can say he’s bribing his son with dough.. cookie dough... baked cookie dough.. cookies, okay yeah he’s bribing Haneul with cookies.

-

Jin opens the door to the bakery, letting little Haneul run it.

Haneul waves at the workers, they knew him at this point. Although Haneul is raising his head, looking around for a certain someone.

“Haneul!” yelled Rina as she walked out of the kitchen. “Good morning~” She says, waving at him from behind the counter. Rina then looks up as she sees a figure coming closer.

She burst out laughing right when her eyes landed on Jin.

“What?” Jin asks, quite offended that that’s how she reacted to seeing him.

“Dude,” she says, pointing at Jin. “Did you mean to come in like that?” Jin frowns, looking down at what she was pointing at. His eyes widened when he saw what he was wearing. His blue pajama set with the super hero masks all over. He scratches his head.

“I guess I got caught up with making sure the kids got dressed and ready for school, I forgot to check myself..” 

Rina waves her hand in front of her, “no worries, Jungkook once walked out of the house without pants on to walk Sian to school. It happens.”

-

“Say thank you to Auntie Rin,” Jin says, carrying Haneul. He had his arms hugging a small bag of cookies.

“Thank chuu~” He says, holding up a little finger heart.

“You’re welcome,” Rina says, waving at them. “I’ll see you two soon.” The two walked out together and made their way back to the car.

“Can we go to Uncle Taetae now,” Haneul says, reaching into the bag. “I want to draw.” 

Jin shakes his head. “Daddy has to go to work now, you can draw when we get home.” Haneul pouts. Taehyung recently opened up a small art school where he gives little art lessons to young kids, maybe even adults. Anyone is welcome really. But it’s aimed towards kids. Okay in all honesty, it’s for kids. But Taehyung couldn’t say no to the parents who wanted to join.

And by parents I mean the moms of the group. 

Anyways, since The Scenery opened, you often took Haneul there while his siblings were in school. It felt like a little preschool as he was able to play with other kids and he was pretty good at listening to Taehyung whenever he was teaching him. He’s definitely going to be the artist out of them three. 

It was a quiet walk to their car, but all of a sudden Jin hears sniffles coming from Haneul. He furrows his brows as he looks down at his youngest.

Silent tears were streaming down his soft cheeks.

“Oh- Why are you crying?” Jin asks. They got to his car and Haneul wasn’t answering, but continued to sniffle. Jin opens the back door and places Haneul in his car seat, buckling him up. Haneul continued to sniffle, wiping his eyes with his little fists.

“Haneul-ah,” Jin says. Haneul refused to make eye contact with his dad, keeping his eyes down instead. “Haneul,” Jin repeats. “Why are you sad?”

“I want-- I want mommy,” he says in a low voice. Jin sighs.

“Is it because we can’t go to Uncle Taehyung’s right now?” Jin says, Haneul nods. Jin stood there for a bit, thinking.

He knew that he could just take Haneul to The Scenery and drop him off there, come back when he’s done with his meetings or when he needs to pick up his oldests, but it didn’t feel right. He can just make Haneul happy, taking him to Tae’s, and be able to do his work peacefully, but it felt wrong. It would be a win win for both of them, but deep down, he knew you wouldn’t want that. As much as possible he wants to be with the kids, even if he has to work at the same time. I mean, that’s what you do.

“Okay well why don’t we compromise,” Jin says, knowing well that Haneul has no idea what that word even means. “If you come to work with me, we can go to Uncle Tae’s after, deal?” Jin offers Haneul his hand to shake and Haneul grabs it, not knowing exactly what he just agreed to.

-

“Mr. Kim I sent you the link to your meeting, it should be starting in approximately ten minutes,” Yeonjun says over the phone. Jin was currently sitting at his desk with his laptop open in front of him. No longer in his pajamas by the way, he’s now in his white dress shirt and tie. 

“Okay, I’m logging in right now, thanks again Yeonjun.” Jin clicks on the link that Yeonjun sent him, entering the meeting that he had with Mr. Lee. They had to discuss his new location that was opening in Busan. 

“Alright Haneul, I set up your little table over there for you to draw. My meeting shouldn’t take too long so just draw for a bit and then we can go to Uncle Taetae’s,” Jin says, putting Haneul down as he was previously sitting in his lap. 

“Good morning Mr. Lee,” Jin says as soon as he got into the meeting, immediately seeing Mr. Lee’s face on the screen. 

Haneul walks to his small table, he looks over at his dad and sees him smiling as he is conversing with his business partner. He turns to the piece of paper in front of him and starts to doodle.

~

An hour and a half passes by, which in baby time is FOREVER, and Haneul begins to get bored. His dad was still not done talking to Mr. Lee. 

Haneul decided that he was over drawing and that he didn’t want to go to Uncle Tae’s anymore. He just spent an hour and a half doing what he would be doing at The Scenery and he’s tired of it. 

Haneul picks out his best drawing and walks up to his dad. 

“Daddy!” Haneul yells, holding up his drawing. It was a bunch of scribbles and shapes, but, if you looked very hard, it kind of looked like a nice house next to a big green tree. “All done!” 

Jin looks down and laughs, turning back to the screen. “I’m sorry sir, I’m currently on daddy duty so I have my son with me here.”

“Oh it’s alright, can I see him?” The older man asks. Jin nods his head, turning to the side to pick up Haneul and having him sit on his lap.

“Haneul this is Mr. Lee, he’s helping us open up another building in Busan. Say hi,” Jin says. Haneul shyly waves at the screen, then he turns around and wraps his arms around Jin’s neck. 

“Oh he’s a shy one isn’t he,” Mr. Lee says, smiling widely on the screen. “He reminds me of my youngest grandson. He’s just like that.”

“He’s usually not so shy, I think he just misses his mom and isn’t used to me being home alone with him like this,” Jin explains. “Haneul-ah,” he says, turning his head to look at Haneul. “Daddy’s just going to finish up okay, you can go finish your drawings.” Haneul whines in response, turning his head to the side, away from Jin’s face. Jin laughs awkwardly towards the camera. 

“I’m sorry about this,” he tells Mr. Lee.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s okay.”

“Haneul can you go down please?” Jin whispers to Haneul, he mumbles a small ‘no’. Jin sighs, smiling back up at the screen. “I’m afraid we’re going to just have to continue this meeting like this sir.”

-

Finally, Jin’s meeting ends and he closes his laptop shut. Fortunately, there wasn’t much left for him to do the rest of the day. Majority of today’s schedule was just photoshoots where he did not have to be in attendance. Other meetings were postponed to a later date, so now he was free for any father-son bonding. Although if he was at his office in his building right now, paperwork is what he would be doing.

Jin pats Haneul’s back, “you want to go to Uncle Tae’s now?” Jin waited for a response but all he could hear was light snoring. 

Haneul had his head resting on Jin’s shoulder while one arm was wrapped around his neck and the other was holding on to his drawing. Jin grabs the drawing from Haneul’s little hands, placing it on his desk. He then gets up from his seat and makes his way to the living room.

It wasn’t often that Jin was home alone this early with the kids. Actually, it was almost noon already, he should be preparing lunch for himself and Haneul. 

“Haneul?” Jin coos, patting his son’s back in order to wake him up. Haneul doesn’t budge, instead cuddling closer into Jin’s shoulder. “Aigoo~” Jin looked at the time and there were still a few more hours until they had to go pick up Minseok and Soojin. “Alright, maybe we could nap before we pick up your siblings,” he says, walking to the couch and slowly sitting down so he doesn’t wake his baby up. “Just for an hour,” he says, as he lays his back down on the couch. “Then… then we can get your siblings..”

Right when he shut his eyes, he was gone.

-

expect the unexpected

♡ part sixteen: just clingy ♡ 

pairings: ceo, dad!jin x interior designer, mom!reader

a/n: little disclaimer, i have no experience in the medical field, this was just a google search. to my medical field readers, i sincerely apologize.

also i just wanted to say THANK YOU to those who messaged me after reading my a/n from my last update. i really didn’t think much of you would read that, even more reply to it. thank you to those who understood me and are willing to give feedback to help motivate me post more hehe, it really does help a lot. idk if some of you read my replies to those asks, but i get excited whenever i receive asks from you guys, even if i don’t reply to them as fast as i see them, i read every single one of them! i have a lot of fun seeing what you all have to say and i also enjoy talking to you all. some of you even help me create the next updates! it’s really a lot of fun whenever i get to talk with you guys. having no asks or comments on my previous updates felt like i was talking to a wall😅 so im thankful to know that some of you are still out there🥺 please continue to give jin all the love! the same as the other members 💗

i also want to mention/clarify that i will continue this au until the very end! some of you have been confused in my last update a/n when i said i was hesitant to do what i had planned and that will depend on how well this au does and i was referring to a surprise i had for the end of this series this au will still have its ending when the time comes! but that surprise for the ending of tmbmil series is still tbd (to be decided).

and lastly i wanted to thank @justinetingball for naming taehyung’s art school💜

taglist: @silentlyimpractical @jillianmarie @waddlebby @cecedrake2217 @ddofa @samros95 @sope-and-shine @joonjoonsmiles @codeinebelle @aianloveseven @Chamchamcham @princessjazzyjazz @notvantaes @casspirit0705 @ramyagovindraj @brinnalaine @ephyra1230 @betysotelo18 @thoughtfultaledreamer @salty-for-suga @cosmicdaylight @dreamcatcherjiah @kookoo-kachoo @justinetingball  @josierosie @jayhope88 @butterflylion @hobiismyhopeu @momma-said-that-it-was-oke @ygbubs @catspancake  @somewhereofftheglobe @strawberryforever25 @rjsmochii @prdshobi @beeeb05 @eatjeanjin @taekookcaneatme @Cheeely14 @kookietsukkie @anpanman-sonyeondan @glitteringcoffeefreak @chocobetterknot @alpaca1612 @ohmy-fandoms @liljooniecutie @Jikachoo @preciouschimine @fan-ati--c @Joondala @httpmuffin @dammit-jjk @jikooksgirl19

TAGLIST IS CLOSED!

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[fridayfirefly]

Bruises

Read Bruises on AO3

Masterlist

Written for Maribat March Day 30 - Goodbye

Bruce picked up his phone on the second ring. It wasn't unusual for him to get phone calls at eleven o'clock at night - he was a busy man, after all. What was unusual was the fact that the call was from an unknown number. Bruce very rarely gave out his personal number. "Hello?"

"Bruce?" a tiny voice questioned through the phone.

"Emilie?" Bruce recognized her voice, even though it had been ten years since the last time he spoke to Emilie Graham de Vanily (now Emilie Agreste). He never knew what had happened to her, just that one day she stopped answering his emails and her phone number was disconnected. Bruce wanted to reconnect with her, but at the time it seemed like Emilie chose not to speak to him on purpose.

"I'm sorry for calling so late at night. I know we haven't spoken in a long time, but I'm in Gotham and I need your help."

Bruce didn't hesitate for even a moment. "What do you need?"

Twenty minutes later, Bruce pulled up in front of Gotham International Airport. He didn't recognize Emilie at first, not until he got out of the car and she called his name.

"Bruce!" Emilie had changed. What surprised Bruce was that the first thing he noticed was not the black eye that marred her face, but the little blonde boy who stood at her side.

"Hello, Emilie," said Bruce, pointedly ignoring the fact that she hadn't told him about her son.

"Hello, Bruce. This is Adrien," she introduced.

"Hello." Adrien greeted Bruce quietly, his eyes trained at the ground. The white cast on his arm was decorated with little doodles. Bruce assumed that Emilie had drawn them with the pen she tucked behind her ear.

They all got into Bruce's car with little fanfare. Emilie sat in the passenger seat. Adrien sat in the back and was asleep before they left the parking lot.

"Did your husband give you that black eye?"

Emilie didn't waste words explaining the situation. "Yes."

"What about Adrien's arm?"

"I told Gabriel a long time ago that if he ever touched Adrien, I would leave him. Either he forgot or didn't believe me. I'm keeping true to my word. In the morning I'm going to a lawyer to file for divorce papers and a restraining order, and to press charges for Adrien's arm."

Bruce nodded, "I have a whole team of lawyers that you can use." He kept his eyes fixed on the road even though all he wanted to do was stare at her. It had been ten long years since he had seen her face to face.

Bruce first met Emilie during his junior year at Gotham University. He'd been a mess before that. He could barely stay sober long enough to go to class, and his grades were a testament to that fact. Emilie Graham de Vanily came to Gotham University as part of her study abroad program, in which she would spend two semesters at an American university, then return to Paris to finish her degree. She was Bruce's exact opposite: no-nonsense and dedicated to her studies.

The first time Bruce met Emilie, she slapped him in the face. It was the first day of the semester, and he was incredibly hungover. He only showed up to get the syllabus so he knew what the best days to skip were. Bruce sat down next to Emilie Agreste and started flirting with her, an action he had gotten very good at over his years at Gotham University. Emilie told him three times to knock it off, getting increasingly less polite until she eventually slapped him across the face and stormed out of the classroom.

Emilie must have slapped some sense back into Bruce because decided to apologize. She didn't forgive him immediately, but after a few weeks of sitting together in class, they decided to study together. By the end of the semester, they were meeting up every weekend to hang out. Bruce stopped drinking so much, started going back to Wayne Manor on the weekends, started talking to Alfred again.

Bruce asked Emilie out at the beginning of her second semester. To Bruce's disappointment, Emilie declined, but with a gleam in her eye that let Bruce know that there was a chance that their relationship could become more than platonic. They spent the semester together, sharing meals and inside jokes, study rooms and secrets. Bruce was certain that when he asked her out a second time, as they both stood in the airport, waiting for Emilie's flight to Paris to board, she would say yes. Instead, Emilie pressed a kiss to his cheek and told him, "Third time's the charm, Bruce." Then she got on her flight and they never spoke again.

Bruce found out three months later that she was recently engaged. He was never sent a wedding invitation. He tried his best to forget her entirely, after that.

"We're here," Bruce broke the silence as he parked the car in front of Wayne Manor.

From the backseat, Adrien rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "Maman?" he mumbled.

Emilie got out of the car and opened up the backseat, helping Adrien to his feet. "Tu es en sécurité, mon fils," she whispered to him, assuring her that he was safe here.

Alfred opened up the front door and welcomed Emilie and Adrien into the house, offering to escort them to their rooms. Bruce was suddenly reminded of the time difference between Paris and Gotham. 1 AM in Gotham was 7 AM in Paris - early morning. It had been at least 24 hours since Emilie and Adrien last slept.

"Are you sure we should go?" asked Emilie, yawning through her sentence.

"Of course. I'll get everything for the lawyers taken care of by morning."

Emilie nodded. "Thank you, Bruce."

Emilie and Adrien left the foyer, following Alfred. Bruce made his way to his office and got to work.

Some time later, Alfred entered the room. “Miss Graham de Vanily and her son have just gone to bed.”

“Thank you, Alfred.”

“You should go too."

Bruce shook his head. "I have too much work to do. I need this paperwork ready for my lawyers in the morning." At the top of his desk were divorce papers for Emilie, papers for the termination of parental rights, and two restraining orders, one for Adrien and one for Emilie, both against Gabriel Agreste.

"What you need, is some sleep. You'll be no use to Emilie and Adrien if you're dead on your feet tomorrow morning."

Bruce sighed, casting one last glance at the half-filled forms. "Alright."

----------

At the breakfast table the next morning, Adrien and Dick had become fast friends.

“If you were a superhero, what would your name be?” Dick quizzed the younger boy.

“That depends on what my powers are.”

Dick wrinkled his nose in objection. “You don’t need powers to be a superhero, you just need training.”

Bruce was certain that he had said the same thing to Dick at one point. Dick heeded the words like gospel - now he spent most of his free time training to be Batman's partner. Though Bruce had already told Dick that he wasn't allowed to fight crime until he was thirteen, Dick seemed to think that enough skill might make up for the two-year difference.

"Okay. What would your superhero name be?" asked Adrien

“I would be called Robin, after Robin Hood.”

“I’ll be called Peregrine. Did you know that the peregrine falcon is the fastest type of bird? They can reach speeds of up to 240 miles per hour. I learned that from one of Mom's movies."

Bruce could recall that Emilie narrated a few nature documentaries in her rather brief film career.

Emilie walked into the kitchen, her black eye hidden by a thick layer of concealer. "Good morning, boys." She looked a bit startled, and Bruce realized that he hadn't told her about Dick.

"Emilie, could I talk to you in my office?"

"Sure."

As they made their way down the hall, Emilie remarked to Bruce, "You didn't tell me you had a son."

"I was.... distracted, last night. I adopted Richard a few months back. I was there when his parents died and he reminded me of myself when I was his age."

Emilie nodded. "I'm glad Adrien has someone to talk to here."

They continued down the hall, stopping at the door to Bruce's office.

"So what is it that you wanted to talk about?" asked Emilie as she entered his office.

Bruce held up the forms on his desk. "Divorce papers, restraining orders, termination of parental rights, and a police report for the injuries he caused. I wanted to know which papers you wanted to be filed and when. "

"I want them all filed, as soon as possible." Emilie's voice was hard.

"Are you sure?" Bruce didn't want to ask, but he felt the need to double-check.

"Bruce, I spent ten years of my life with Gabriel. I let him manipulate me into thinking that he was a good man. And he had his good days. There were days when I remembered why I fell in love with him in the first place. He was so passionate..." Emilie's wistful voice turned cold. "But passion turned to obsession, love turned to hate, and he couldn't stand me but he couldn't let me go either. I was willing to give him second chances when I was his only victim, but I can't let him get away with hurting Adrien. If I don't leave now, if I let him get away with even one of the bruises he's given me, then Adrien and I will never be free of him."

Bruce nodded. "We can get to work on these after breakfast."

"Wait." Emilie gently grabbed his elbow. Bruce turned to face her. "Once the divorce is finalized..." Emilie paused and took a deep breath. "Remember what I said at the airport, when we were both young?"

Bruce nodded and quoted her, "You told me: 'Third time's the charm, Bruce.'"

Emilie gave him a small smile. "Third time's the charm. If you still want me, ask me again."

Bruce knew that Emilie had been through a lot these past few days. He didn't want her to make a decision she would later regret. "Are you sure?"

"I've said goodbye to you one too many times, Bruce. I never want to say goodbye to you again."

There was a deep, earnest honesty in her eyes. Bruce knew that there was no longer anything holding her back. There wasn't anything holding him back, either. "Whatever you need, Emilie, I'll give it to you."

Emilie smiled, a hopeful look on her face. "Tell me I can stay."

"Forever."

@maribatmarch-2k21

[insertsomthinawesome]

15 and 25 for the art asks? :D Also 7 for poses? (If that's not too many questions)

It's not too many at all! There's 30 questions so I think it's pretty unlikely we'll get them all anyways. xD

15. How long does an average piece take you to complete?

Oooh, that’s actually a bit of a hard one to answer, cause it really depends on what exactly I’m drawing, if that makes sense? Like that set I just posted two days ago with the Diluc and Kaeya outfit swap with Ignis and Noctis. It took a day (maybe 4-6 hours?) to get all the sketching done for that. I don’t remember how much time exactly each piece of the image took after though?? So I would guess it took 24 ish hours maybe?? (Actually now I’m thinking that’s too high. xD) But I like right now I’m working on an illustration, so lighting, background stuff. It’s also on the complicated side, to me. Um, and I’m not sure how long it’s taken at all. xD Rough guess based off the vibe though is probably 18 – 24 hours per large illustration or multi-picture detailed image set? Some of the smaller doodles (like the asks) don’t take more that 4-6 hours, probably more around 2 hours if I was better at focusing. xD

25. Do you like to draw in silence, or with music?

Music all the time. Sometimes I forget and leave the music off, but usually that lasts only about a half-hour before I notice and turn something on. xD

7. How often do you use references?

Um, if we’re talking images online, almost never. It’s something I want to/should get better at, I used to be in the habit of doing so and got out of it asdfasdf. A lot of times however I’ll use myself as a reference, or friends if they are so willing. I’ll look at my hands or sit the way I’m thinking of, that kinda thing. :D

[misscaptainamericana]

five

word count: 3103

Nicole woke up staring at her ceiling with a sigh. “Alexa, turn on the first plug.” She said with a groggy tone but the AI turned on the Christmas lights around her room anyway. Rolling over to face her dog, she smiled as Kennedy snorted. “Good morning to you too bud. Gotta go outside?” The dog excitedly agreed and licked her face before hopping off the bed. “Alright, let’s go.” The two made their way downstairs and she let him out into the backyard. She smiled at him as he went off sniffing around the backyard. She went into her kitchen, grabbed a mug and started up her Keurig machine. After placing a k-cup into the slot and starting to brew her coffee, she did a few stretches. The dirty dishes in the sink caught her glance a few times along with the several ingredients spread out across her countertops. With a sigh, she grabbed her two-thirds of the way full-with-coffee and added an adequate amount of creamer before letting Kennedy back in. Nicole stopped to give him a treat before the two of them made their way back upstairs. She would normally set her coffee on the nightstand on the right side of the bed before crawling back in but she noticed there was something on it. As she got closer, she could tell it was a post it note and what was on it caused her to chuckle. She set her mug down on the opposite corner before sitting on that side of the bed to read it. It was a little note that said call me with his number and a small doodle of a spider from daddy long legs. She couldn’t help but smile as she recalled her joke she made towards his height the night before. Reaching back across her bed, she grabbed her phone off the charger and put  his contact information in as daddy long legs. Opening up a new text conversation, she took a photo of the sticky note before texting him.

 July 23 10:47 AM

Nicole: uhm, thank you for this? :) (crying laughing emoji) (attachment: photo of sticky note with spider drawing and his phone number) Chris: Ah, I see sleeping beauty has woken up.  Nicole: yeah, yeah, yeah. How’s DC? Chris: Pretty good, on my way to a luncheon actually. Nicole: yikes, well I hope they actually give you some decent food. Chris: I know it won’t be half as good as the food in Texas. Nicole: damn straight, i’m having leftover pizza for breakfast as we speak Chris: Soooooooo jealous (crying single tear emoji)

 July 26 2:47 PM

Chris: (Selfies of him and Dodger) Chris: I’m telling him about his new buddy! Nicole: you two are the cutest Chris: How’s Kennedy doing? Nicole: He’s good! I got his little kiddie pool full of water and he is just happy as can be Chris: That’s great, I hope they can meet soon. Nicole: me too :) they'd have a bunch of fun running around the yard together Chris: Oh definitely. I ordered Dodge that tennis ball launcher thing and he LOVES it. They have a common interest!

 July 29 7:13 PM

Nicole: movie night :)  Chris: Oh yeah? What are you watching? Nicole: Please tell me you know that your own movie came out on netflix today lmao Chris: Oh boy. Nicole: You know, I didn’t think I would like you with long hair but...fuck Chris: I hope you’re actually watching the movie and not just ogling at me. Nicole: I am! 

 August 4th 4:57 am

Chris: Shooting is about to go into full swing here so if I seem rushed or don’t reply right away, that’s why. 

9:22 am Nicole: no worries! :) Same thing applies for me but when I’m streaming or filming so I get it.  Nicole: I hope you have a fun day at work? That’s a thing for actors right? A good day? An interesting day? A productive day?

6:21 pm Chris: (crying laughing emoji) I’ll take all of it, thank you. Are you free?

8:56 pm Nicole: Not exactly, break time on stream. Doing some lunges while eating some string cheese, Ken is using the potty.  Chris: Oh? How long have you been streaming today?  Nicole: Four hours almost, I’d say this game is hard but I think I’m just not good at stealth or shooting games. Chris: I see, I see. Remember, stretches and water! Nicole: yesssss daddy long legs, talk to you after?  Chris: I gotta head to bed, but I’ll talk to you tomorrow for sure. Nicole: okay :( i hope you sleep well and have a good start to your work day tomorrow. 

 August 7th 6:38 pm

Chris: I asked dodge for a backrub and all I got was a sloppy kiss to the face. (selfies of him and Dodger) Nicole: awwwwww :) Hard day at work? Chris: Been a couple of long days, yes. Nicole: well i would happily give you a backrub. Chris: Then what are you doing girl, get your ass up here. Nicole: we both know we have to work :(

 August 16th 2:42 am

Nicole: CHRIS!!! WHAT THE FUCK?!?! I just watched Before We Go!!!!! WHY IS THERE A CLIFFHANGER?!? I NEED TO KNOW WHAT THE NOTE SAID  Nicole: THAT IS SO RUDE I COULD CLEARLY SEE WORDS ON IT!!!!

5:33 am

Chris: Baby, you know I didn’t write the movie, right? Chris: Either way, it’s open to your interpretation. Do you want them to end up together?

8:37am

Nicole: I don’t know… I just want them to be happy. Nicole: and they were so happy together. 

2:42 pm

Chris: See, so no cliffhanger. In your mind they’re happy together. Nicole: I guess :(

 August 17th 7:16 PM

Nicole: I miss you so much, my bed is very empty now that you’re not in it. (selfies of her in skimpy pajamas) Chris: Shower looking empty too? Nicole: hardy har har Chris: Cmon, that was a good one. Are you really still pouting from yesterday? Nicole: maybe. 

 The few weeks had gone by fairly quickly, the texts had gotten a little less infrequent, and they seemed to be settling into the long distance rhythm of things. They were still facetime-ing each other every night that Nicole wasn’t up late streaming, but he would always try and facetime her when he had free time. It was an early Thursday afternoon when she got a call. Accepting it and setting her phone up so it could rest against the computer screen she smiled at her phone screen as he waved to her, “How’s filming going?”

“Oh it’s going good, we’re getting closer to the end of filming. We’re just doing a lunch break and wanted to see what you were up to.” He shut the door behind him before sitting down on the couch.

“I’m just editing some of the videos I’ve filmed this week. My friends are supposed to message me when they get off work so we can find out what games we’re playing this weekend.” 

“Oh yeah, what are the options?” He asked while trying to find something to prop up his phone. 

“Well we finally finished Wolfenstien: Youngblood. The game that we’ve been waiting for, Telling Lies, comes out tonight so we’re going to play that probably on Friday. We might just play Overwatch on Saturday.” 

Chris finally got his phone propped up before opening his bag, “What’s the Telling Lies game about?”

“It’s a sequel to a detective game, I don’t know how to explain it.” She paused to laugh slightly, “Basically there is a big database and you search keywords to access different videos and you have to piece together what happened in the case. It has the really gorgeous girl from Love, Simon in it so I’m excited.” 

He playfully raised an eyebrow, “Is this you giving me twenty-four hour notice to dump me?”

“No!” Nicole said with a loud laugh, “I just, she’s pretty to look at it. What’s for lunch today?” 

“Ham sandwich, salt and vinegar chips, a pickle, and apple juice. Did you eat today?”

“Yeah, I had an acai bowl this morning, but my morning was like not even two hours ago.” 

Chris nodded while chewing a bite of his sandwich and she smiled at him as she pulled her legs up onto her chair, “So, I sent the video over to Nick and the other lady so they could review it.” 

“Why didn’t you send it to me?” He asked with a small pout.

“I didn’t know you would want to see it.”

“Of course I would want to see it… That was our first date, that was us falling for each other. I’d like to see it played back.”

Nicole laughed slightly, hugged onto her leg, “You know I had to edit the bulk of your flirting out right?”

“So, where’s the flirting cut?” 

“On my hard drive.” 

He smirked, “Can I have a copy of that?”

“I can put it on a flash drive and give it to you next time I see you, yeah.”

“I’d love that.” He smiled before going back to his lunch as they continued to talk about their plans for the rest of the week.

 August 28th 6:12 pm

Chris: Hey beautiful lady. What are you up to? Nicole: getting ready for stream (selfie) Chris: You look so gorgeous Nicole: Yeah? You digging the blonde hair? Chris: Absolutely loving it Nicole: What’s my handsome man up to at this lovely hour? Chris: (sends photo of lasagna in the oven) Just made some dinner, about to put it in the oven Nicole: Looks yummy, I only had peanut butter toast and some apple sauce. Chris: Please tell me you’ve had actual food to eat today. Nicole: I had eggs and bacon today, it was when I woke up but the answer is still yes.

 September 8th 11:48 pm

Chris: Hey, strange question, are you up? Nicole: Yeah, why? What’s up?

 Nicole was taken off guard by the facetime call coming through her phone. “Uhm, Alexa, turn on the first plug.” She checked her hair and appearance in the camera before hitting accept to see him lying on his side shirtless in bed, “Hey. How are you doing?” 

She smiled as his accent came through her phone speaker, “I’m doing good, just finished streaming like an hour ago. How are you?” 

“I’m good, I’m good. Y’know, I actually got to tune in for a little bit.” 

“You, uh, you did?” 

“Is that okay? The game looked interesting.” 

She nervously laughed, “No it’s fine, I just didn’t think you had a lot of free time and if you did have it I didn’t think you’d be watching me play video games.” 

“I keep most of my nights free, sweetheart.” He smiled as he saw her blush and look away from the camera. “How have you been? I know it’s been a while since we’ve actually talked.”

“I’ve been alright, sent over the final edit to your manager and the three other people on that email thread yesterday. Kennedy ate a bee last week so that wasn’t fun but I sent you that picture at the vet, uhm…” 

“Yeah, I’m sorry I forgot to follow up on that. He doing okay?”

“Oh he’s great now. He was coughing for a few days after but he’s good. Uhm, I’ve been watching your old movies while on the couch with him.”

“Oh really?” He raised an eyebrow before adjusting his place in bed, “How is that going?”

Nicole laughed slightly, “Uhm, Not Another Teen Movie was truly an experience.” 

Chris couldn’t help but laugh, “You didn’t like it?” 

“I didn't say that. It was just very much not what I was expecting.” 

“Oh yeah, and what were you expecting?”

“I guess I just wasn’t expecting a stupid comedy. That sounds like such a dick thing to say but I watched Red Sea Diving Resort first and I really thought all your movies would be like that. It was different, like the two were on very different ends of the spectrum.” 

“Did you watch anything else or did you give up after that?”

“I watched Playing It Cool and I really liked that one actually. But first, Not Another Teen Movie happened, so then I put on Gifted and grabbed a bottle of wine and cried on my couch.”

“Gifted is a really good one, and Playing It Cool was a lot of fun to make.”

Nicole smiled, “I didn’t even mean to start watching them. I just… You said you were busy filming and I missed you. I had nothing else to do so in my mind I was like maybe if I watch his art I’ll miss him a little less.”

“I guess the missing is mutual then.”

Her breath caught in her throat for a moment, “It is?”

 “Of course it is. I wish I wasn’t so busy, I’d come back down there so we can make that pizza.”

“Oh yes, the infamous take home kit I didn’t tell you about.” She smiled as he laughed. Rolling over on her side, she propped her phone up against her water bottle before laying back against the pillow. “Do you work tomorrow?” 

“Nope, I’m off for four days. Go back on Saturday and Sunday so we aren’t as much as a hindrance when we film in public locations. Did you-uhm.. I don’t know how to ask this.” He paused with a laugh looking her over, “What happened to the blonde? Was that a wig?”

Nicole reached up and pulled on one of her curls, “Yeah, I wear a lot of wigs.”

“Is...That a wig?” He asked cautiously, causing her to giggle and shake her head. He raised an eyebrow leaning into the camera waiting for her to explain, “This isn’t a wig. This very curly coily afro is my natural hair.”

Chris nodded in response, “So, when I was there was it straightened or-

“I was wearing a wig when you came over, yes.” 

“Seriously?”

“Seriously serious.”

He couldn’t help but smile, “That was a really great wig, I didn’t even think twice about it.”

“That’s kinda the point.” She said with a little laugh watching as he propped his phone up on a pillow next to him. 

“So, that’s your natural hair with nothing done to it?” 

“This is my hair taken out of the braids, so the curls are looser than they normally are. I’m going to wash it tomorrow and then it’ll be really small tight coils. But when it dries it's still very big, coily, extra thick hair.”

“Why didn’t you wear your hair like that when I was there?”

“I just...It’s complicated really but the short answer is I think I look better in wigs.” 

“I think you look beautiful right now.”

“Well, thank you.” She said quietly, hugging tighter onto her pillow before looking at him, “Maybe next time I see you I’ll make sure my braids are out and you can see it.”

“I’d like that...How does taking time off work for you?”

“Well, it’s not often that I do but when I do I plan ahead. You know, you record more videos so they can continue to post. I put out a tweet like hey guys, I’m sick or visiting family. Streams are postponed but videos will continue, I’ll be back later, yada yada.” 

“You wanna come stay at my house for two or so days?”

Her eyes widened at his question and she had to wonder if she had even heard him right. “The fuck?”

 “I mean, if that’s overstepping just forget I-” 

Nicole started to laugh nervously, “No, no, I’m just extremely excited that you want to spend time with me and my brain just shot out the first thing that came to mind. I am so sorry.” 

He laughed that beautiful laugh and she smiled, “So, Boston or around there or something… Uhm, when?” 

“Tomorrow.” 

“T-tomorrow?” “Yeah, we could fly you out tomorrow, stay the night, get two full days, and fly home the day after that. I’m filming this show. It's only like 30 minutes away but I would feel bad pulling you away from your work and then making you sit here all day until I get home.” 

“I mean, I wouldn’t mind…It would probably be super weird for me to be alone in your house though, you know what. Forget I said anything. Yeah, I think I could throw a bag together and head over. Do I just go to the airport and ask for the pilot or how do rich people things work?”

He laughed, “Well don’t call it a rich people thing for starters because that makes me really uncomfortable. But the building is sort of by the airport you guys have there, it’s on the other side of it all. I’ll send you the address and then I guess it’ll be five your time. I'll text you what FBO it is and the time. It won’t be before nine because I know you don’t like waking up super early. Uhm, but yeah. We’ll get you all set up. Do you wanna bring your dog?”

“I can bring my dog?” 

“It’s a private jet, why not?”

“A private jet? They just go whenever you want that fast?”

“Well, I called them while you were streaming and I figured if you couldn’t take time off at least I could go down and see you.”

Nicole couldn’t help but smile, “You were gonna come down and see me again?”

“Of course, baby. I miss you.”

“I miss you too.”  She took a deep breath before nodding, “Alright, so do you want to stay on the phone with me while I pack for our little trial trip?”

“A trial trip?” 

“I didn’t say that.” Nicole let out a nervous laugh as he spoke over it, “No, no, you gotta tell me now. What’s a trial trip?”

“No, Chris. It’s stupid. I was thinking out loud, I couldn’t stop my mouth.” 

He smiled, “Tell me.” 

“You know, a trip to see if this could even be something. Short and sweet in case things go wrong.” 

He paused with a nod, “But what if things go right?” 

“Well, I guess we will plan for the next trip when I get back home.” 

He couldn’t stop smiling, “Okay, I’m gonna get some sleep since it’s almost one thirty in the morning here.” 

“That’s understandable. I’ll talk to you soon.” She said blowing him a kiss as he waved before hanging up the call.

(Next Chapter)

[your-world-with-nct]

— merry christmas petals !! i know i haven’t posted anything festive lately, but i hope this chenle gift makes up for that 🥰 and for those of my followers who don’t celebrate christmas, hope you enjoy this blurb nonetheless <3

💌 • 7:25pm

“chenle, start playing, the first few guests are here!” mrs zhong called, rushing to the front door to welcome you and your family to her enchanting christmas party.

bestfriend!chenle came to his senses at his mother’s words, abandoning his spot on the couch to sit at the grand piano’s stool in the foyer. his swift movements caused the letter he’d been staring at for the past half an hour to fall out of his pocket, the crinkled note laying on the floor next to his new puppy.

however, chenle was too distracted by you to notice daegal scurrying down the hallway with the small note in her mouth, drooling all over the precious words he’d been scrutinising while waiting for your arrival.

after greeting you, daegal showed the same enthusiasm at your appearance that chenle did, dropping the now-wet piece of paper by your feet and letting out high pitched yelps when you complimented her reindeer headband — not that she understood, she just loved the attention, similarly to her owner who was currently pouting at you shifting your focus from him to his dog.

“hello? she’s not gonna thank you or anything, you know,” chenle teased, returning to his seat behind the piano whilst you continued to ignore him.

“pfft, calm down, don’t blame me — everyone loves her,” you reasoned out, stepping away once you saw daegal licking your brand new shoes, a christmas present from mr grumpy who was currently playing ‘let it snow’ on the piano.

as the mischievous puppy ran off, your eyes were drawn to the soggy piece of paper she left behind, picking up the slimy note and approaching chenle, “uh, lele, what is th— is this one of my santa letters from ages ago? why do you still have this?”

he wouldn’t have been as defensive if you hadn’t seen what was on the letter, as soon as you saw the doodles around the page, you knew exactly was was on it. in massive, barely legible six-year-old y/n’s handwriting: ‘dear santa claus, my christmas wish is for chenle to confess to me’ - but with slightly more spelling mistakes and an abundance of smiley faces covering the words.

it was an annual tradition, up until you had turned eleven: you and chenle would write your letters to santa together, then your parents would ‘send them off to the north pole’, and on christmas day, ‘santa’ would’ve left you your perfect present and a cute note in weirdly familiar handwriting. this was the one year your parents couldn’t grant your wish, instead gifting you one of those voice-controlled secret diaries.

it was an annual tradition, up until you had turned eleven: you and chenle would write your letters to santa together, then your parents would ‘send them off to the north pole’, and on christmas day, ‘santa’ would’ve left you your perfect present and a cute note in weirdly familiar handwriting. this was the one year your parents couldn’t grant your wish, instead gifting you one of those voice-controlled secret diaries.

chenle’s parents had stashed your old letters in a box once you two discovered that santa wasn’t real, hoping that one day you’d find the collection and reminisce on your childhood innocence together.

“why did daegal have it then? have you been carrying this around for the past few weeks or something?” you weren’t creeped out by what he was doing, more curious as to what his reaction was when he first saw your christmas wish.

“i-i know it sounds weird, but ever since i found it i couldn’t stop thinking about it. i know you wrote this more than ten years ago but i really hope it still applies today, because i wanna make that wish come true,” chenle paused to see if you were okay with what he was saying.

quickly sensing his hesitation, you sat down on the piano stool next to your dear friend, urging him to continue with a small nod.

“what i’m trying to say is we may not be the same people as we were when you wrote this, but those people are still a part of us; the only difference now is that we’re mature-ish young adults and i have a better understanding of love than i did when i was six.

“i’m in love with you, y/n, and the part of me from when i was younger still likes you too. i hope that part of you still likes me because this would be very embarrassing and it would make my christmas gift just a teensy bit awkward,” his cheeks flushed red, as he buried his head into your shoulder, overwhelmed with his own confession, although he’d been planning this moment ever since he found the letter.

you planted the softest of kisses on chenle’s forehead, the adorable whiskers appearing on his cheeks when he broke out into that cheesy grin of his that you always had a soft spot for.

“oh, chenle, angel, i’ve always loved you, i never stopped and i’m not planning on stopping any time soon. i guess little chenle and little y/n had a better grasp of their relationship than we do now,” you laughed, eliciting a delightful yet loud chuckle from the boy whose head rested on your shoulder, mimicking something you’d seen daegal do before, “sooo, about that christmas gift?”

once the words came out of your mouth, you saw chenle’s brother holding a large pole with mistletoe tied to the end of it, dangling it over where you two were sitting.

“well... it’s more of an early christmas present but,” his glance flickered from the mistletoe, to your lips, then to his brother on his tiptoes, and back to you, “you know what to do, right?”

you jokingly rolled your eyes at the transition between nervous, flustered chenle and confident, cocky chenle, caressing his cheek with you hand before connecting your lips in a long awaited kiss.

slowly detaching yourself from one another, he grinned at your close proximity, “see why that would’ve been awkward if you rejected me?”

‘zhong chenle never fails to make me laugh during a serious moment, huh,’ you thought to yourself, sneaking another quick kiss after noticing your families attempting to spy on you two - key word ‘attempting’.

“merry christmas, you dummy,” you joked, enveloping chenle in a tight embrace, humming to yourself in satisfaction after hearing him say, “at least this dummy is yours now.”

there may not be a santa claus, granting the christmas wish of every child who ended up on his nice list, but there was a chenle, who took it upon himself to give you the most memorable christmas of your life by making your wish cone true. he was the magic of christmas you were looking for.

[hitsuackerman]

What in the World? (Akaashi Keiji x Reader) pt.12

a/n: it begins >:)

Akaashi’s lineup: @alluring-akaashi @oikawalmart-hq @extrasugafree @bbykiyoomi @apricotjihyo @awings @simpformiya @sayakaaaaaa @colorseeingchick @demursv1ogs​ @chrisrue15 @beanst0ck @something-that-idk (i have no idea why i can’t tag some of you :( huhu )

links: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11, part 13

Time flew by so fast in this dimension. Now that you were well adjusted and loving the new life here, it had not dawned on you that 7 months had already passed. Things were moving smoothly and pleasantly.

“Here you go.” Akaashi handed you a snack bar. The two of you (well maybe three if Bokuto is included) were practically inseparable. The team had finally managed to pin the both of you down and confirm that you two were indeed dating. “Did you sleep well?”

Walking to school was still a thing both of you did. Except this time, fingers were intertwined and barely any distance between the both of you. The only time you two let go was when the school gates were near. Still, walking down the hallways, Akaashi made sure to always brush his fingers with yours.

“I did!” You pulled him in to kiss his cheek. The small smile he gave you still made your stomach butterflies flutter. “I did have a weird dream last night. You and Bokuto-san switched personalities. Seeing you do his ‘HEY HEY HEY’ was just so wrong on all levels.”

“Is there a quirk that can do that?”

At this point in time, you barely relied on your quirk. The feeling of accomplishing things without it’s aid was much more satisfying. Of course, Akaashi still reaped its healing benefits and took note of how his stamina had improved.

“High chances. If we can have a washing machine as a pro-hero, then there’s bound to be a quirk swapping quirk.”

“A washing machine?” He brushed his thumb on the corner of your lip to wipe off a crumb. “Even now, your world still surprises me.”

“It’s great if you hear it.” Leaning on his shoulder, you tightened your hold on his hand. “Living in it is a completely different story. It’s been, what, 7 months since I arrived here and I am more than content with not having to rely on my quirk.”

“What about your combat skills? Shouldn’t you still be sharpening them?”

“I wish I could.” That was true, though. “I’m pretty much useless at 30%. Even if I wanted to lift boulders or shit, I have to maintain at least 40%. The difference is small but the output is huge. I don’t get my quirk’s logic.”

“Well, it’s still early.” The gates were now in sight but he refused to let go of your hand. “I’m pretty sure you can work on your quirk. The others won’t arrive within 30 minutes.”

“It’s been 5 months and you’re still curious to see how I fight?” You giggled.

“Yes.” He nodded. “If my girlfriend trained to be a hero, I’d love to see how you move.”

“Well, you made that sound sexy~” You nudged his elbow. “Think we can have a little action before we head to the gym?”

“It’s 6:30am, (y/n). It’s too early for that.” He teased. Yet his steps were a little faster than before. “But, I guess I can’t oppose the idea.”

The next thing you knew, your back hit the wall as Akaashi hungrily kissed you. With your legs wrapped around his waist, your fingers found themselves coming through his hair. Pinning you even more, Akaashi’s hand undid your ribbon and unbuttoned the first two. Letting go of your lips, he trailed kisses from your cheek down to the crook of your neck.

As he was softly sucking on your skin, you loosened his tie and undid the two buttons as well. Tugging his hair, you were face to face with him again. Lust filled eyes staring back into yours. Leaning in, you gently kissed his lips before returning the favor. Activating your quirk, Akaashi felt his feet leave the ground. Knowing what you were about to do, he could feel you turning the both of you around.

Skillfully placing the both of you on the floor, Akaashi leaned on the wall as his hands began to roam higher and higher up your skirt. Having you straddle him this early in the morning was rather pleasant in all aspects. Tilting his head a bit, he gave you much easier access and felt you sucking on his skin a little harsher this time.

“Make sure it’s hidden under the collar.” He managed to whisper. Hickeys were a common thing to have both your bodies. He smirked at how your only response was a nod.

Caressing your cheek, he admired the way your face glowed even more. Pulling you in softly for another kiss, he felt his stomach fluttering when you smiled.

“We should probably head to the lockers now.”

“Fine.”

“We can continue this in my room later.” He whispered before kissing you deeply.

“Counting the hours~”

Moments later, you were now pumping air into some volleyballs. Morning practice for today would only take an hour so there was plenty of time to freshen up before the homeroom. Now that the gym was packed with your boys, you rolled out the volleyball cart and positioned it beside the net.

Everyone was now used to having you as a ball girl. In fact, some of them even tried to challenge you by purposely hitting the ball too hard or too low. With your hero training, it was nothing but a walk in the park. You did notice, however, that your body began to sweat a bit more. The after effects of not using your quirk for a long time was showing.

Nothing bad happens, though. Just panting and sweating.

“Aghkaashe!” Bokuto yelled. “Can you and (y/n)-chan help with my math later?”

“I don’t mind. What about you, (y/n)?”

“Sure thing~” You approached your two favorite boys. “Bokuto-senpai, how well did you do on your previous quiz?”

The captain’s golden eyes sparkled.

“HAHAHA! Thanks to you both, I managed to get a 32/50! Whatdya think?!” He punched the air and grinned widely. When the both of you applauded he began to jump up and down while shouting his trademark.

“Calm down, Bokuto-san.” Akaashi tried to stop him from jumping up and down. His friend obeyed and gave a cheeky thumbs up.

“God, I love you both so much~” You giggled at their exchange.

“But you love Ahkaashi more, don’t you (y/n)-chan?” Bokuto added as he shouldered Akaashi. This time, his deadpan face was holding a soft smile.

“Of course!”

When Konoha’s alarm sounded, each of you began to clean up and prepare for the rest of the day. With how often you did it, it had now become second nature to you. Yukie and Kaori even admitted that you adapted much faster than they had anticipated. Once all of you were now freshened up, the gym was locked once more and each player looked forward for the after school practice.

“Exams are approaching.” Akaashi said as he let you step into the classroom first. “Have you prepared your notes?”

“I did. But, you do remember that the subjects you have here are way too easy for me, right?” Placing your bag on your desk, you took a seat and faced Akaashi. “Shall we study in your room or mine?”

“we can take turns.” Now that he was seated, he fished out one of his notebooks and placed it on his desk. Not that it was needed, it merely became one of his habits. Watching as you dragged your chair closer to him, he offered you a pen and flipped the notebook open.

“So, what do you want me to draw?” This had become one of your recent traditions. Before the start of homeroom, Akaashi noticed how you liked to doodle on his notebooks. Deciding that a special one was needed, he took the liberty of buying a blank journal for you to fill with whatever it is you saw fit.

“Hmm, I recall you saying that you designed your own hero costume.” He saw how your eyes lit up. “May i see what it looked like?”

Starting the sketch, you began to draw a figure and dressed it with your costume.

“So, my costume isn’t flashy unlike the others.” You explained. “A quirk like mine doesn’t really need a lot of support items so I went with mobility and comfort. I decided that simplicity was key. Just the normal jacket, shirt, pants, and boots. The only support item I had were my gloves.”

Sketching your gloves, Akaashi couldn’t help but adore just how focused you were. Tucking in a loose strand of hair, he felt the butterflies in his stomach churning once again as the corners of your mouth formed a smile and your cheeks turning a faint hue of pink.

“What do your gloves do?” They looked like standard fingerless gloves.

“The material was specifically designed to aid in manipulating my quirk. It concentrates the energy I release and wraps around my hand. Sorta like a human torch~” It was a bit difficult to explain how it worked knowing you didn’t listen to the man who gave you the item. As long as it aided you, it was fine.

“What were Todoroki-kun’s support items?”

“Shoto’s support items were mostly temperature regulators. Wristbands and a big one he wears like a backpack to help even him out.” You drew his support items rather well.

“Can you try to sketch Todorki-kun’s face?” Letting you draw your friends was something he wasn’t so comfortable with. Not for that reason of course. He merely assumed that it would be a sensitive topic knowing the circumstances of how you arrived in his world. When you giggled, he tilted his head.

“About time you asked~” Beginning to draw your childhood friend, you continued. “I honestly wouldn’t mind drawing my friends for you, ya know? There’s no way I can introduce you to them so sketching them would be the best alternative.”

“I’m sorry.” He held on to your free hand. “I just didn’t want to make you uncomfy.”

“You never make me uncomfy. Keiji~”

It was a quick sketch of half and half but a good one. He squinted his eye when he took note of the scar. He had heard of Tokoyami and Mina, but this one merely showed a boy about his age with a nasty burn on his face.

“Shoto’s got one helluva back story.” Your thumb began to brush Akaashi’s knuckles. “That scar was given to him by his mum when he was around 5 or 6 years old. It’s sad but he grew to accept it and is now healing.”

“You were engaged before, right?”

“For a while, yeah.” You handed him back the pen and closed the sketchpad. The bell had now rung and right on time, the teacher entered the room. Just as she was relaying a message, you were rummaging in your bag for a notebook.

“Please introduce yourselves~” The teacher said.

“Bakugo Katsuki”

“Midoriya Izuku.”

- - - - -

a/n: sooo... what yall gonna do now? :’)

[imjustthemechanic]

The Price of a Soul

Part 1/? - Agent Russel Part 2/? - The Letter Part 3/? - Miss Lake Part 4/? - The Stewardess Part 5/? - An Assassination Part 6/? - Fallout Part 7/? - Face to Face Part 8/? - Deals, Details, and Other Devils Part 9/? - Baggage

We all knew Peggy was going to go look for Steve one way or the other.

-

Peggy’s call to Daniel was very brief.  “It’s me,” she said to him.  “I’m coming home.”

“You are?”  He was surprised.  “What about Dottie?”

“Thompson seems to believe he has everything well in hand.  He certainly no longer needs me around to be somebody who ‘thinks like these Russian girls’.”  She held the receiver away from her mouth as she heaved a frustrated sigh, not wanting to subject Daniel’s ears to the roar.  “This is going to blow up in his face and I want to be as far away as possible when it happens, so that nobody can claim it was my fault.  You don’t happen to have anything that needs investigating in Australia, do you?”

“No,” said Daniel.  “The platypus is very odd, but scientists assure me it evolved on this planet.”

It wasn’t much of a joke, but jokes were not Daniel’s forte, and Peggy chuckled appreciatively regardless.  “I have such a story to tell you, darling,” she said.

“Maybe you can tell it over dinner,” he suggested. “It’s been a while since we did anything outside of work.  We’ve both been busy with the Underwood case, and now that it’s out of our hands maybe we can relax a bit.”

Peggy’s first reaction would have been to say that she was tired and annoyed and not looking her best, and to request that they put it off until later… but Daniel was right, it had been a long time. Peggy was not very good at ‘dating’. She was simply not the sort of person who could turn herself off for a romantic evening when there were other things weighing on her mind.  She and Steve had never dated – they had worked together, enjoying each other’s company in that context until they came to an agreement that they wanted to continue doing so for the rest of their lives.  It had been the same with Daniel.  The ordinary sort of courting rituals were a bit of an afterthought.

“Dinner sounds lovely,” she said.  “But nowhere fancy, please.  I’m still not looking my best and I don’t want to have to dress up.”

“Just good ordinary food, I promise,” Daniel told her. “Tomorrow night?”

“It’s a date.”

Before she headed for the airport, Peggy did try to drop in at the Automat to let Angie know she had to leave again, but unfortunately Angie was not working.  One of her co-workers, an older lady called Pearl, promised to pass on the message.

By the time she finally got off the last plane in Los Angeles, it was very late, and all Peggy wanted to do was take a long, hot bath and collapse into bed.  She decided to forgo the former in order to give her face one more day, but unlike the night she’d first been sprayed, she managed to put off the latter until she’d at least changed into her nightclothes.

- 

In the morning she did feel very much better, and since it was three hours earlier on the west coast than the east, she even managed to wake up at a reasonable hour.  She took her bath, which stung only a little, and by the time of her dinner date with Daniel, Peggy was well on the way to feeling like herself again. As he’d promised, they didn’t go anywhere formal, just a little diner that served hamburgers and chips with milkshakes.

“You said you had a story to tell me,” Daniel said.

“Mmm,” Peggy agreed, her mouth full of strawberry milkshake. “Do I ever!  I assume Thompson gave you at last some details of what happened at Sing Sing.”

“Only the bare bones.”

“Right.”  She dipped a chip in mayonnaise.  “Well, I and two men sat guard outside Fenhoff’s cell half the night, only to hear a fuss at the room next door.  They determined the next day that she’d made herself a suppressor out of lipstick tubes…”

“That sounds like something you’d do,” Daniel observed with a smile.

“I am a bit hacked off she thought of it first,” Peggy agreed.  She went on to tell him how Lake had been taken into custody more or less by accident, and the embarrassing interview that had followed.  Then she told him something else.

“I went back in the middle of the night,” she said. “You see… when Lake came to see me here, pretending to be Agent Russel, she left a letter in my purse.  I got fingerprints off it to compare to the ones we found in her room at the Botticelli Gardens so I know it was her. It had six numbers and a drawing.” Peggy grabbed a napkin and wrote them out, with the doodle of the shield below them, and pushed it across the table for Daniel to see.

“Does that mean what I think it means?” he asked.

“It can hardly mean anything else, can it?  But it does – I spoke to her about it.” Peggy took the napkin back and stuffed it in her purse, intending to destroy it later as she had the original letter. “She said she’d been there, and she described the crash and the wreckage, and how we would find him if we looked.  I know it’s a trick of some sort,” she added.  “I asked her why she was telling me this and she insisted it was out of the goodness of her heart, which obviously isn’t suspicious at all… but she wouldn’t make it sound suspicious unless she wanted it to, and so…”  She shrugged. “I haven’t the foggiest idea what to make of it all.”

Daniel nodded slowly.  “And now it’s going to haunt you,” he said.

“It already is.”

“Peg.”  He reached for her hand.  “I know you’re still in love with him…”

She shook her head and pulled away.  “Don’t start, Daniel.  I’ve told you before, it’s not a competition.  Steve will always have a place in my heart but he’s dead, and I love you.  I’m not ‘settling’ for you, I’m not…”

“Peg,” he repeated, holding up a hand.  “I’m not trying to compete with him.  I’m just saying…”

“Sometimes I wonder if I even do remember him,” Peggy said, “or whether I’ve just overlaid him with some childish fantasy.  A man who isn’t there can be anything I want him to be.”

“I’m not trying to compete with him, I know I can’t do that,” Daniel said, “but I also can’t ask you to forget him, and I know you won’t feel like you’ve done right by him if you don’t make every attempt you can to bring him home.”

Peggy hung her head.  She knew that was where he’d been going, and she’d been hoping that if she talked about other things long enough, he’d give it up.  She should have known better.  “I’m sorry,” she sighed.  “Every so often I tell myself I have forgotten, I tell myself I’m over it, and then something happens like this, or like that bloody vial, and I find myself thinking…”  She had not worn makeup, and now she was glad of that as she reached up to scrub treacherous tears out of the corners of her eyes.  “Was there something I could have said or done to change his mind?  It’s not that I didn’t try, but he didn’t need to die like that!  Life could have gone on.  Even if it wasn’t life with me, he gave so much, and he deserved so much more…”

Daniel wordlessly handed her a handkerchief. She blew her nose.

“So it’s… it’s not so much that I’m still in love with him,” she managed… though if she’d said she wasn’t she would have been lying.  “It’s just that I listened to a good man die, and there was nothing I could do.  He said it was his choice, but it wasn’t the same as Barnes.  It just wasn’t.  So I stood there at the Stork Club wearing that red dress he liked and hoping for a miracle but feeling like a fool.  And of course, he never came.”

Daniel reached for her hand again, and this time she let him take it.  “I think a lot of us were hoping for a miracle,” he said.  “He’d been missing before and he’d reappeared, so it didn’t seem possible that this really was it.  I always promised myself I’d find some way to thank him properly for saving my life, and then I never got the chance.”

Peggy didn’t trust her voice not to break if she tried to speak again, so she just nodded miserably.

“If I do want to repay him,” Daniel added, “I can think of worse ways to do it than by bringing his body back.”

She looked up sharply.  “Daniel…”

“It’s a trick, I know, you said it’s a trick,” he held up a hand.  “And I know you think the best thing to do is leave it alone, even if that’s not what you want to do, but now that we have this information, I don’t think we can just do nothing with it.  Our job is to defend the security of this country, and if there’s a possibility the Soviets know where Captain Rogers’ body is and we don’t, that security is at risk.”

Peggy shook her head.  “If they know, they have him already.  They wouldn’t risk letting that leak to us.”

“Then we need to determine that,” said Daniel. “And honestly?  If we don’t do something…”

“… it’ll eat at both of us for the rest of our lives,” she finished for him, wiping her nose again.  “I wish I hadn’t told you.”

“No, I’m glad you did.”  He paused.  “You didn’t tell Thompson, did you?”

“Of course not.”

“Okay, good.”

“The problem is, I’m pretty sure this is exactly what she planned,” Peggy said.  “It’ll drive us batty until we go and check, and when we do there’ll be nothing there. We’ll have wasted the government’s time and money and we’ll look like fools.”

“So we’d need to secure private funding, then,” Daniel said thoughtfully.

Peggy’s eyes narrowed – there was only one thing that might mean.  It was hardly an unreasonable idea.  Howard had already spent months of his own time searching for Steve, and he still occasionally revisited the quest with new ideas and technology.  He certainly had the money.  There was just one problem.  “If you think I’m going to let Stark go about this unsupervised you’re mad, Daniel Sousa – and you and I both know that I am out of vacation days.”

“You still have sick days,” he said.

“I’m not sick.”

“You were injured in the line of duty.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Peggy shook her head.

“You were attacked with a chemical weapon…”

“It was essence of paprika, Daniel, I will live!”

“… with a chemical weapon,” he went on in mock outrage, “and Thompson didn’t even offer you time off to recover!  I am going to insist you take at least two weeks, to make sure there are no long-term side effects.  Imagine what that stuff might have done to your lungs!”

“You’re hopeless!” Peggy informed him, but it was difficult to sound angry when she was actually so relieved.  Daniel knew her far too well – it would have just gnawed on her mind until she finally had to sneak off and see for herself. She would be bitterly disappointed, she knew, when she got there and found nothing but ice and ocean, but at least she would know.  “So… if we find the crash site, we take the credit, whereas if we don’t, Stark takes the blame?  That’s very underhanded.  Have you ever considered going into politics?”  Her joking had just the narrowest edge of hysteria on it, but if that were what kept her from lapsing back into tears, so be it.

“Wow,” he said.  “That may be the meanest thing you ever said to me.”

“You deserve it for taking me from tears to laughter and nearly back again in a single dinner!”  Peggy waved a chip at him.  “I’ll call on Stark in the morning.  Heaven knows, if somehow he finds out about it through some other channel I won’t have to worry about whether I can sleep at night because he’ll never give me a moment’s peace about it as long as he lives.”

“Just tell him to keep it on the down-low,” Daniel said. “You don’t need a bunch of press following you.  And we definitely don’t want Lake knowing we fell for it.”

“Don’t worry about Stark, he’s as subtle as an angry hippopotamus,” Peggy snorted.  “And as for Lake… something tells me she already knows.”

- 

That night, Peggy decided to try that bath she’d been wanting, and found it not too terrible.  She felt an odd mix of dread and elation, a weight off one shoulder and a new and worse one on the other.  Dottie really was still her responsibility, but she was so fed up with the affair that there was a level on which she thought if Thompson wanted the case, he could bloody well have it.  As for the matter of the coordinates…

No matter how much Peggy wanted to hope they might find him at last, in her heart she knew whatever was at that spot in the arctic, it wouldn’t be the mortal remains of Captain Steve Rogers.   The question was what it would be. The best possible outcome was just barren ice.  The worst was… something Peggy probably wouldn’t be able to think of and couldn’t prepare for if she tried.  She would just have to be ready for anything.

[crimsonbluemoon]

6, 3, 7 H2OVanoss! You know me heh ( •ॢᴗ•ॢ⋈)

Ahhh Owlbun! So I hope this fits the perimeters of a cute-meet cause I don’t know if it does but I think it does? Idk, its cute, please enjoy this mess of a story. >.> It’s a diff style than I normally do, but….hope it works out!

AU: Coffee shopTrope: Meet cutePrompt: “You had no idea, did you?”

Pairing: H2O Vanoss

If Evan was being honest, he hadn’t expected the chalkboard wall at his coffee shop to make much of a difference. The Owl Cafe was a staple in the community, and he had an okay group of regulars that liked to come in and check out his new blends on the daily. There were ones he knew by name, like the 6 year old girl Momo who loved Brian’s hot chocolate, or the late-night writer Kryoz who always seemed to appear when the place was deserted. Some regulars he didn’t catch names for, so he titled them as he saw fit; Runner man, vlogger teen, cute sweatshirt guy. All had their place in his cafe, which was steady in its sales. He wasn’t rolling in cash, but it was enough to pay Brock and Brian, so he felt that he was doing alright. 

The chalkboard had been something of a whim. A friend when he was younger had a wall in his bedroom with chalkboard paint that Evan had always enjoyed drawing on before bed. When he’d bought the cafe two years ago, he hadn’t really remembered the fun times he had scribbling across the bedroom wall. He was too focused on payments and attracting customers to stroll down memory lane. That had changed three months ago when bumping into Lui, the two speaking about their times as a child. The wall came up, of course, and Evan couldn’t let the memory go for days after. Lots of his customers had children, and college kids were always quick to bore when waiting for coffee. So one night, after a really good week at the shop, Evan went out and bought the paint in order to make his wall next to the waiting area a drawing board. 

The result was amazing; people loved coming by and adding their own doodles to the wall, filling it with different styles of art or funny sayings. There were always the punks who tried to draw dicks or write derogatory marks, but street justice tended to stop the crimes far quicker than Evan or his friends picked up on them. Evan enjoyed looking at the board at the end of the night, seeing what secrets it held from the customers he served. He tried to guess who drew what, or where each blurb of inspiration writing came from. Was the struggling mother of three the one who drew the calm beach? Did the preppy college girl express her darker thoughts in the corner of the board? Or was that old couple who shared a coffee really sweet enough to write their 70th anniversary with a heart around it? All of the pieces of the board was a collection of minds, hearts, and souls, and the nights didn’t feel complete for the shop owner without gazing at them in appreciation.  

His favorite part was the confessions; like an anonymous message board, people left words of secrecy every day. Evan felt it was a safe way for customers to express themselves without having to reveal their identity, and so far he hadn’t gotten any confessions that worried him. Brock always enjoyed reading the romantic ones where someone would claim their love for a friend, an ex, or a person they could never have. Brian’s favorites were the weird claims; he made Evan keep the ‘I like smelling feet’ confession up for three days. Evan couldn’t really say he had a type he sought out, because all of them were fun to read. If anything, he liked taking in the handwriting of the confessions, seeing whose were quaking with fear or more broad with confidence that only anonymity provided. 

It was nearly two months into owning the board that a message caught his eye; it didn’t have much color or outlandish design to it, so Evan wasn’t sure why it stuck out to him so much. But the writing just…looked different. Friendly. A little messy but with long enough strokes to show some care went into it. The words only took up a small part of the board. 

I come here every day because I think the owner is nice. And maybe cute? I wanted to ask for his name, but I’m too nervous.

Evan blinked in surprise, feeling his face heat up when he read it again. Someone…confessed about him? It was sort of risky, since this was his shop and he could have checked in on the board at any time, but it was also endearing. Someone was too shy to approach Evan, but felt strong enough about him to confess on his wall? He read the line two more times while he cleaned off every other drawing and confession, leaving the words in the middle of the board. Slowly, his eyes dropped down to the basket of chalk at the bottom of the wall, fingers twitching by his side. Despite having it for months, he’d never actually written on it. He left designing the morning greeting to Brock, as he was the artistic one of the three. But now…

He kept the confession where it was, drawing a little circle around it with the red chalk. Then, with block letters bright enough to catch any returning customer’s attention, he wrote out a simple reply. 

It’s Evan. Nice to meet you.

He didn’t think about the teasing Brian would rain on him, or how unlikely it was for him to get a response. The confessions were meant to be anonymous, not openers for conversation. So sure that his words would be left unanswered, Evan didn’t look once at the board the following day, trying to keep focused on making his customer’s happy. Any time he wasn’t working, he rushed into the back, trying to stay occupied so he didn’t stare at the wall. The day dragged on forever, but when the final customer was out the door, Evan nearly fell flat on his face vaulting over the counter to move to the board. 

“Desperate much, buddy?” Brian’s shout from across the shop went ignored when Evan scanned the wall, looking for any sign of a response. At first, the words around the response were disheartening; nothing connected to what he’d said. The drawings were still cute, and he wanted to read the confessions, but his heart slightly dropped at the sight. Had he scared off the anonymous messenger? He felt his frown start to capture his lips, but then his eye picked up on something. A blue circle had been wrapped around Evan’s words, and a line of chalk was drawn to the left of the board. Curious, his eyes tracked the line. Like thread in a maze, Evan was led to a familiar handwriting. 

Your name fits you! I’m…Jonathan. Is that okay? 

“Jonathan.” He rolled the name around in his mouth, his smile small when he finished. He knew instantly what his new secret penpal was asking, and he found the red chalk from before in order to scribble out his answer. 

That’s totally okay. I bet your name fits you, too, though I’m not sure who you are. Care to give me a hint? 

And for the next two weeks, the hints poured out. 

I like to wear blue a lot. Luke says it matches my eyes. But I think yours are prettier.

Evan counted seventy three customers with blue eyes who wore blue that day, but it did little to limit his search. 

I saw you drop that lady’s coffee on purpose. She deserved it for treating Brock like that. You’re a really good boss.

The incident had been in the morning around rush hour, which probably meant his penpal was at least his age. 

You only wear hats when you clean the mocha machine; it really looks good on you. 

Except this was something he did at night, so maybe he had different shifts throughout the week? 

Whenever little Momo comes in, you always give her the best smile. Sometimes I wish you’d smile at me like that.

Evan’s face hurt from how many smiles he gave out that day, but there had been nobody who hinted at knowing why he’d been grinning so much. 

You’re so beautiful. I really want to ask you on a date. 

Evan’s face flush red for the rest of the night. 

After the days of trying to piece together just who ‘Jonathan’ was, Evan was almost ready to throw in the towel. The little banter between them was fun, and peeks of Jonathan’s personality came out with doodles or smilies at the end of his sentences. He mentioned his friends, his dog, and if Evan closed his eyes, he could almost make out a voice to the words. Everything just felt so familiar about this guy, like he was already seated comfortably in Evan’s life. But he just couldn’t come up with a name, or anything to sink his teeth into. 

So, with a shot of courage (Brian may have supplied the alcohol) and nothing to lose, Evan wrote out one final message. 

Anything but coffee, and I’ll say yes.

Evan tried not to look at the board, just like the first day, hoping he wouldn’t scare away his crush by staring the wall down. Brock and Brian helped distract him, jokingly picking out old men and toddlers as ‘his secret admirer’ before laughing at the outlandish suggestions. Evan tried to smile and joke with them, but his shaking hands when giving out the orders always proved how nervous he was. Each time a customer came up to him, his back tensed, wondering if it’d be his penpal. But they never were, always asking for sugar or a bag for their half eaten muffin. 

When the last minutes of the day ticked away, and just a few regular souls lingered in the cafe, Evan finally broke. He left Brian and Brock behind the counter to walk up to the wall, hands shoved in the pockets of the apron to hide his twitching fingers. Slowly, his eyes scanned the board, trying to find the blue handwriting he’d grown to adore over the couple weeks he’d gotten to see it. But there was nothing; his crush hadn’t replied. 

“I scared him away.” Evan sighed and pressed his head to the chalkboard, eyes closing in defeat. His shoulders slumped down, unable to hide his disappointment. He’d just wanted to know who this guy was, because starting to fall for a chalkboard he technically owned was starting to feel a little creepy-

“Um.” An unsure voice made Evan bite back a groan, trying to keep his composure. Even if he was being ghosted by an anonymous customer, it didn’t mean he could ignore his other ones. Pulling back from the wall, Evan turned to catch sight of a familiar face. Cute sweatshirt guy had been a regular for months, always polite but never one to really engage in much conversation with Evan or the others. He always contributed it to the slight stutter in his speech, which only seemed to come out in longer sentences. It was actually kind of late for cute sweatshirt guy to be at the cafe; he’d bought his coffee close to an hour ago, and though he normally left right after, he’d seemed to linger now. He’d been one of the people who’d come up to Evan, looking like he was going to burst out in a confession, only to ask for creamer.

And sugar.

And a new cup.

…And more creamer.

For a coffee he always drank black.

“Wait.” Evan’s breath hitched in his throat as his eyes widened on the blue gaze nervously watching him, fingers curled into the worn down sweatshirt that was identical in color. 

“Yeah, I’m-that was me. Jonathan. Who you were-I’m the guy tha–that, um, fuck. Luke said I should’ve just-but the wall was…was our thing.” Jonathan’s face lit up in color at the confession, the nervous laugh that poured out loud and uncontrolled. It echoed from the emptiness of the cafe, and both men jumped when Brian swore and knocked over a stack of cups in surprise. Tagging that as future Evan’s problem, he turned his attention back to Jonathan, who looked ready to let his sweatshirt swallow him whole. The smile he gave only lifted half his mouth, proving he didn’t feel confident. “You had no idea, did you?”

“None,” Evan admitted, hands pulling out of his apron at the defeated look that sunk over Jonathan. 

“Right, that’s- I don’t have to ask you on a date if this isn’t what you…if I’m not who you-”

“Ask me!” Evan cut him off fast, not wanting to let Jonathan feel rejected for a second longer. He rushed forward, snagging hands that tugged the end of torn sleeves to entwine their fingers. Blue eyes widened above him, but Evan refused to let his racing heart of reddened cheeks stop him from repeating his confession from before. “Anything but coffee, and I’ll say yes.” 

“Dinner? Can I-would you like to get food with me tomorrow?” Like a puppy, Jonathan’s body perked up at the possibility. Evan laughed before lifting their hands to cup Jonathan’s cheeks. He pushed up onto his toes, feeling the slight intake of his customer’s breath before he answered with a kiss.

But just to be safe, he wrote ‘yes’ on the chalkboard the next morning.

[shadow-dancing]

Guitar Man (Taeil)

Listen: Guitar Man ; Every time I’m With You ; New Kid in Town

Genre: white collar worker!Taeil, guitarist!Taeil, some angst, moonlighting Words: 2, 217 

It was another crowded night at Pandora's Box, the pub in town that your uncle owned. Lately there has been a guitar playing man who was drawing in hoards of people to visit, & your uncle couldn't be happier by the boom in business. You weren't into pubs or bars—the stale air & smell of booze was a big turn off for your sensitive sense of smell, & the songs that usually blared at a billion decibels were not your cup of tea. Your uncle was singing this guitar man praises every night when he came home from work, & it was driving you slightly mad.

Your friend, Taeyong, was absolutely floored that you have never heard this person live when your uncle literally ran the place. "Come on, Y/N, the guy's great! Just go listen once, trust me."

You gave in after 3 weeks, & visited the establishment on a Monday night where you hoped the crowds would be less compared to the weekends. The pub air hit your nostrils like a sucker punch & you silently gagged as you made your way to the bar. You recognized the bartender, it was Johnny, the gentle giant whom you've known since your uncle opened the place about 3 years ago.

"Hey Y/N! What're you doing here?" Johnny asked with a wave. He was aware you were not a big fan of pubs.

"Came to see the newest sensation, of course," you smiled wryly, sitting gingerly on the bar stool.

"Ah, Taeil. He's great, the bars been busier than Times Square on New Year's Eve these past weeks. I think boss is considering hiring him permanently," Johnny nodded. "Have you eaten?"

"Not yet."

"I'll get Kun to make some fish & chips for you."

Soon you were tucking into your fish & chips with some iced Ribena. It was starting to get really crowded, & Johnny eventually got busy enough that he was making 3 drinks at the same time. You were tempted to leave; the amount of people in the relatively large space was probably over the maximum capacity at this point, & people had to jostle their ways around trying to find seats. At 7:45 the band that was playing stopped, said their thanks, & got off the stage. A relatively short young man, clad in a striped shirt under an oversized denim jacket & his dark hair side swept, took their place, a black guitar case slung over his shoulder & a bottle of water in hand. The crowd started murmuring excitedly, which gave you all you needed to know—this young man was Taeil. You were startled by his appearance when he turned around—he was wearing a white half mask to cover the upper half of his face.

Taeil adjusted the mic to fit his smaller stature, & perched on the stool that had been brought out for him. You watched as he produced an acoustic guitar from the case, & tuned it. He cleared his throat, took a quick sip of water, cleared his throat once more, & leaned into the mic a little.

"Good evening everyone—"

The crowd interrupted him with hoots & cheers. You rolled your eyes. Let the man speak, dammit.

Taeil smiled politely as the cheers died down. "I hope you all enjoy yourselves tonight."

You pushed aside your empty plate, sipping your drink. A hush fell over the crowd as Taeil started playing.

"Are we going insane? Do we need to explain? I feel like we know it."

Your heart leaped. Taeyong & Johnny were wrong—he wasn't just good, he was damn good. The crowd slowed their activities, their eyes trained on him as he sang. The kitchen grew quieter as Johnny & Kun paused a moment to listen.

"I could lose it all it won't be daunting Somehow I don't think I'd even care Cuz every time I'm with you I feel wanted We could make believers if we dared"

As he finished the song, the people sighed; some wiped their tears & kissed their significant others, while others wallowed in loneliness. Taeil realized the mixed reaction & wanted to stammer an apology, but the crowd burst into applause & screamed for another song. He took a swig of water & started on the next song.

"Baby I don't know why, but somehow I always seem to get tangled up in my pride"

Taeil's set ended at 9.30, much to the dismay of the crowd. He waved shyly as he hopped off the stage & disappeared through a back door. Johnny & Kun resumed their work. & you gulped down the rest of your drink. Taeil's set was over, there no longer was a reason to hang around. As you lay in bed later that night, your heart was still pounding, the sweet vocals resonating in you ears.

You found yourself at the pub after work the next day. Johnny looked up as you approached, & you knew he could tell you couldn't get enough of Taeil. At the same time as yesterday, Taeil took the stage at 7:45, & today he asked the band to accompany him as he played a rendition of Got My Mind Set On You, Oh Pretty Woman, & Part Time Lover.

"Okay break time everyone! I need to hydrate!" Taeil laughed, leaving the mic.

He squeezed past his adoring fans & made it to the bar, where he asked for some lemon tea. Johnny handed it to him, & he downed it pretty fast, almost choking on the ice.

"You okay?" You asked, offering some serviettes.

"Yeah, fine. Forgot my bottle," Taeil reassured. He flashed you a smile, before heading off to the stage again.

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

Taeil scrubbed a hand over his eyes as the sun started to hang low. Work was exhausting as always, & he was more than ready to just up & leave the place. He glanced at his watch—4:55PM. 5 more minutes & he could clock out. He looked around to see what his colleagues were up to; Jungwoo was yawning widely as he typed away at his laptop, Yuta was scrawling away busily on some paper, probably doodling, & Jaehyun had his earphones plugged in—Taeil could make out some TV drama playing on Jaehyun's Netflix account. Taeil exhaled, glancing at his watch again.

Another 2 minutes to freedom.

He pushed his papers aside, pulling out a binder full of guitar chords from his bag. He flipped through the sheets to find a song to play at the pub. Are You Lonesome Tonight seemed good for a first song, maybe for the second song he could play—

"Aw yes! Finally time to leave this place!" Yuta announced loudly, standing up to stretch his arms.

"Not so loud! Do you want the boss to hear?" Taeil hissed, putting a finger to his lips.

"He left like 45 minutes ago," Jungwoo pointed out, shutting off his laptop.

"What? Really?" Jaehyun asked, taking his earphones out.

"Seriously? I thought you were watching that stupid TV drama because you knew he was gone!" Jungwoo exclaimed.

"No, I watched it because I don't want to do work. Tomorrow's a holiday for heaven's sakes why are we even here when we could've taken the day off."

"Oh whatever let's just get out of here," Yuta grumbled, packing up. "The pool table at Daydream is calling my name."

"Taeil, you joining us for pool?" Jungwoo asked. "Yuta is gonna go up against Doyoung later."

"No it's fine, I have something to do tonight. I'll see you all tomorrow, bye," Taeil said as he walked out the door.

He quickly got into his car, & drove home for a quick rinse. He found a clean shirt & threw on a black jacket & was out the door again with his guitar in hand. He was glad the owner of Pandora's Box let him play; he was tired of the tedious routine of his work days, & playing for the crowd for 1.5 hours was the one thing he looked forward to everyday, even if it meant he had to take a 2 hour drive to the pub. He had chanced upon the pub after the previous place he used to frequent got shut down due to poor business. He didn't even realize the crowds got less, as he was so focused on his playing.

Traffic was lighter than usual today, to which Taeil chalked up to being related to tomorrow being a public holiday, & most probably took the day off to make it a long weekend. He parked in his usual spot, & entered the front discreetly. It was pretty early, so there were only a handful of people inside. Johnny, the bartender, looked up as Taeil approached.

"Hey man, you're early today," he noted.

"Yeah, traffic was good. Can I get some water?"

Johnny slid him a glass of water.

"Is that musician gonna play tonight?"

Taeil almost choked on his water as he accidentally eavesdropped on the conversation of the fellas at the table behind him.

"I should think so."

"Tsk. What's so great about him? He just sings songs & strums his guitar. Anyone can do it!"

"Uh, I mean, not everyone has the—"

"Pass me a guitar & I could sing as good as him."

"Can you even play guitar."

"Does it matter?"

"Yes it does, you nitwit."

Taeil was mildly amused by the exchange, but also by the fact they thought they might like to take his place. In no way did he believe he was superior over them, but being a musician wasn't as easy as prancing on the stage with a guitar.

He wowed the crowd as always that night, and at 9.25 he looked at his binder stuffed with sheet music. What shall his final song be?

You watched intently form your seat, Taeyong cheering next to you; Taeil was absolutely glowing tonight, & everyone was all ears. He sang Elvis, & even played Piano Man by Billy Joel. You noticed the crowd seemed to be a little thin today, yet it didn't faze Taeil. He adjusted his mask, & picked up his guitar. A familiar set of chords filled your ears, & you inhale deeply.

"There's talk on the street it sounds so familiar. Great expectations, everybody's watching you."

You bit your lip slightly. What could Taeil possibly mean by playing this song? Was it just a song for tonight or did he have some intention to sing it?

"Johnny come lately The new kid in town Everybody loves you So don't let them down"

The rest of the crowd did not seem to be worried by the song. After all, why should they? The guitar man was simply here to serenade them with his angelic vocals to help them forget about life for a while. You take a swig of your Ribena. You were probably just overthinking things. After all, this song was about fleeting romance. You glanced at Taeyong briefly, & he catches your eye. He smiles, & you feel your heart skip a beat.

"There's talk on the street, it's there to remind you Doesn't really matter which side you're on You're walking away, and they're talking behind you They will never forget you 'til somebody new comes along"

As the pub emptied for closing, Taeil sat at the bar with a glass of water. Johnny was mopping up the beer some patron had spilled all over the floor, grumbling about how uncouth some people can get. Kun was singing softly in the kitchen as he washed up the dirty dishes in the sink, while his kitchen assistants cleaned the stoves & countertops. Taeil thumbed the rim of his glass, suddenly tired. Boy was he glad tomorrow was a holiday cuz he intended to sleep in late.

"You did well today, Taeil," the bar owner said as he rearranged the tables & chairs.

"Thank you, sir."

"Is something wrong?"

"Not at all, sir, just tired," Taeil admitted.

"Not surprised, you did go all out tonight," the owner nodded. "If you're too tired to make the drive home I think Johnny can let you stay in his place, can you Johnny?"

Johnny gave a thumbs up.

"Nah, I think I'll be fine."

The lightbulb above Taeil flickered. The bar owner frowned at it, muttering he should get a replacement bulb for that. Taeil stayed until the owner had to escort his employees out. Sitting in the driver seat of his car, Taeil watched as the lights went out before starting his car. 

It was time to leave. 

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

"Is the Guitar Man coming back?"

"I don't know, maybe."

"I hope he does. He was fantastic."

Johnny looked up. The crowds were less now that Taeil hasn't returned to play for the past 5 days. The boss had called Taeil out of concern 3 days ago, lord knows what could've happened that night that he insisted on driving back despite his tiredness, & Taeil answered that he’s gone elsewhere to play. The boss was disappointed, but understood that sensations tend to fade out after their 15 minutes of fame. 

Johnny returned to his chores; he too had been disappointed to hear Taeil left to go elsewhere to sing. Maybe one day the guitar man would return. 

[gabriel-agreste-has-no-rights]

Rating: G

Summary: Kagami and Nino plan a surprise party for Adrien's seventeenth birthday. With help from their friends, nothing can go wrong this time. Nino's even invited an extra special guest who's sure to make Adrien's night. (Nino & Kagami & Adrien friendship, with a side of Ladrien)

Word Count:  3101 | Chapter 1/3

Notes: written for @marinetteplztakeabreak through the @mlbforblm charity drive!  The donations go directly to Color of Change, an online organization for racial justice centered on the Black Lives Matter movement.  I highly recommend checking them out and reblogging/donating the mlbforblm posts if you’re able!  I have one fic slot left as of 7/23/2020, and many other talented writers and artists are offering incentives as well!  There’s even a giveaway going on; see the mlbforblm blog for more info!

XXX

“Hmm.”  Kagami’s brow furrowed as she stared at Nino’s Operation: Totally Swank Party binder.  The two of them sat on a bench in the park, where she had agreed to meet him after slipping away from her fencing lesson.  “Bribing the bodyguard is a proven technique.  Get me a list of action figures his collection is missing, and I’ll have them by tomorrow.”

“Way ahead of you, dude.”  Nino tore a piece of notebook paper out.  He’d done his research last night after a long phone call with Adrien.  “Glad I can count on you.”

“Of course.”  She neatly folded the paper and slipped it into her jacket pocket.  “I’ll have them shipped to your apartment.  Do you have a plan to dispose of his babysitter?”

Nino sighed and flipped to the page with a doodle of Nathalie with horns at the top.  It was a much more tentative outline than what he’d prepared to deal with the Gorilla.  Hopefully Kagami would be able to help him with that.

“Nathalie’s whole job is to suck out all the fun in my bro’s life.  We’ll never be able to throw this party with her in the picture.”

He’d tried the past three years.  From Hawkmoth transforming him into the Bubbler, to Nathalie locking him in a closet, to Gabe himself nearly arresting him for trespassing, each had been a total bust.  At this point Adrien probably wasn’t expecting Nino to try.

But Adrien was his best bro.  Nino would never give up on throwing him the most poppin’ party ever.  

Plus, this year, he had a secret weapon.  One that even Kagami didn’t know about.

“You seem quite prepared.”  Kagami squinted at the page.  “You’re sure Max can play his part?  The Agrestes use my mother’s security technology.”

“Positive.  He and Markov can hack anything.”  

Max had already wired into the speaker system last time they threw a party for Adrien.  Of course, on Adrien’s birthday, the mansion would be too obvious a target.  That’s why the plan just required getting his bro out of the house altogether.

“I’ll trust you, then.  What exactly is my role?”

Nino grinned, placing a hand on her shoulder.  “You, my good bro, will be sneaking Adrien away from his fake fencing lessons.  Adrien says you’ve done it a thousand times, and his pops still barely knows who you are.  You’ve got like, some kind of invisibility superpower.”

“I simply have practice.  That’s all.”  She took his pen and began making notes in his binder.  “Nathalie will realize we’re gone approximately forty-five minutes after we leave.  The Gorilla has set patrol routes for finding Adrien when he goes missing, which I can map out for you.”

“If he takes the bribes, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Kagami was already sketching out a map of the city on a clean sheet of paper.  Geez, how did she remember all that?  He doubted he could even draw the path from his apartment to Alya’s.

“I don’t want to take any chances.  We cannot fail Adrien.  Do you have a venue reserved already?”

“Huh?”  Nino scratched under his hat.  Kagami was pretty rad, but it was hard to follow her train of thought sometimes.  “Oh, right! I was thinking the hotel.  Now that Chloé’s not a total jerk—”

“No.  Too obvious.  Nathalie will find us within the hour.”  Kagami frowned and tapped the pen against the back of her hand.  “The ice rink will be our best option.  It’s out of his bodyguard’s patrol zone, and it can accommodate all of Adrien’s friends.  We hid there all the time when we were dating, and no one ever found us.”

“Sure, sure, there’s just one problem.”  He grinned nervously and tapped his fingers together.  “I, uh, don’t know how to skate.”

Kagami tilted her head and.  “Really?  No matter.  His birthday is twenty-one days away.  You have plenty of time to learn.”

Over her shoulder, he watched her write “Teach Nino to ice skate” in her crisp print.

“Uhh… well, I guess that works.”  Hopefully everyone else knew how to skate already, or they could just enjoy the food and cake from the seats surrounding the rink. Nino could technically do that too, but he didn’t want to miss hanging out on the ice with his best bro.

“I’ve seen you parkour with Alya.  You seem like you’ll learn quickly.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”  Nino chuckled.  “Just get ready to watch me starfish out there.”

Her lips pursed thoughtfully.  “If it proves too difficult for you, I can try to find a backup location.  I doubt one exists that will fit everyone you’ve listed, though.”  She flipped back to the guest list, which included all of their classmates from the last few years, Adrien’s whole fencing team, and a few other friends like Luka and XY.  Pretty much everyone Adrien had ever interacted with was on the list.

Except for one special guest, but Nino had left her out on purpose.

“No, no, it’ll be fine!  I’m just joking, dude.”

“Oh.”  Her face pinked a bit.  “How are we going to deliver the invitations without alerting Nathalie or Adrien’s father?

“I’ve started planning that too.”  Nino flipped forward a few pages.  “The most important guests—ones who aren’t gonna snitch on us—will get their invites a week in advance.  The rest will get theirs by text on the day of.  If they can’t come, they can’t come.”  It was the best solution he’d been able to come up with.  He was sure that even if people did have plans, most would drop them for a chance to party with Adrien Agreste.

“Hmm.  It still feels too obvious.  The fencing team in particular may give us up.”  She frowned before scratching a few names off the list.  Well, she was on the team herself; she would know better than anyone who could be trusted.  “You’re right though.  This does seem like the best plan.”

Nino grinned.  One nice thing about Kagami was that when she gave a compliment, he knew it was sincere.  If she agreed with his birthday plan, then it was as close to foolproof as it could be.

“Sweet.  I think that covers everything for now.”

“A very productive planning session.”  Kagami nodded before holding out her fist.

Nino laughed and bumped knuckles with her.  After a year of hanging out with him and his bro, Kagami was finally getting the hang of fist bumps.

“Meet me at the ice rink at eighteen hundred on Saturday.  We’ll begin your lessons then.”

She closed the binder and handed it back to him, then stood and walked away.

“Skating lessons with Kagami, huh…” 

This was either going to be a legit time, or he was going to make a total idiot of himself.

XXX

“Come on, Nino, you’ve got this!”  Alya called encouragement as she and Marinette lapped him again.  He frowned at their backs.  How was it that even Marinette, certified clumsiest girl in Paris, could be a better skater than him?

“Focus, Nino.”  Kagami snapped her fingers.  She stayed near him, slowing her pace even though she could’ve skated rings around him.  “Your girlfriend’s praise will only become reality if you practice proper technique.  Keep your weight centered.”

“Right, right.”  He pushed off from the handrail and tried not to flap his arms.  This time, he made it a solid twenty seconds before he slipped and went skidding across the ice.  His hat slid off in the opposite direction, but Kagami quickly retrieved it.

“Don’t try to go so fast.  Catching up to Marinette and Alya isn’t your goal.”  Kagami’s advice was blunt, but helpful.  Nino didn’t mind her getting to the point.  He knew his skating needed work, and no matter how many times he fell, she didn’t lose patience with him.

It was nice that Alya was so far ahead, honestly.  It meant she didn’t see him look like a total dorkasaurus every time he fell.

I’m doing this for Adrien, he reminded himself each time.  He didn’t need to be a pro skater.  He just needed to be able to stay upright.

“You make it look so easy.”  He frowned as Kagami glided backwards.

“I’ve been skating since I was six.  It makes a relaxing hobby.”

He snorted.  “How is anything about this relaxing?”

“Hmm.  Perhaps you’re thinking too hard.  It makes you hesitate, place your weight incorrectly.  You’re a musician, aren’t you?”

“Huh?  Yeah, you know I’m DJ-ing for the party.” He had no clue why Kagami was asking, though.

“Skating has a rhythm.  Maybe you’ll feel more comfortable timing your strides with music.”

He tapped his chin.  “Y’know… that’s not a half bad idea.”

“Not half bad?  Does that mean only half is good?”

“No, no, the whole idea’s good!  It’s just an expression.”

He slipped his headphones over his ears and picked one of the slowest songs on his playlist.  It was a waltz in ¾ time; hopefully that wouldn’t trip him up.

“Alright, here goes.”

He took a deep breath and pushed off from the wall.

One-two-three, one-two-three.  The music was smooth as the ice under his skates.  Kagami kept pace with him, smiling as he counted the beats under his breath.

Something about it did feel different.  Maybe it was that he stopped overthinking; maybe it was just the magic of music.  Either way, he went the whole six-minute song without falling on his butt.

“Not half bad.”  Kagami smiled.  “...Did I use that right?”

“Heck yeah, dude.”  They fistbumped.

“Way to go Nino!”  Marinette gave him a high five as she and Alya caught up.

“Thanks for teaching my boyfriend, Kagami.  I owe you one.”

“You owe me nothing, Alya.”  Kagami’s cheeks turned red.  “We’re all working together to ensure Adrien’s birthday is perfect.  Teaching Nino is just one step in that plan.”

“Well, I still think it’s really cool of you.  Oh!  And speaking of the party, my mom says she can cater.  I’ve already sworn her to secrecy.”

“Awesome!  What about you, Marinette?” Nino took his headphones off to better hear the conversation, but his legs still knew what to do.  “Are you gonna get Adrien a totally rad birthday cake or what?”

“Yeah, absolutely!”  She nodded.  “I’ll just have to drop it off before the party.”

“You’re still sure you can't come, girl?”  Alya asked her.

“No, sorry.  I promise I would if I could, but I—I’ve already made a commitment.  But I’ll have the cake here on time, I swear!”

“And one of his fifty birthday presents, right?”  She nudged Marinette with her elbow.  Marinette nearly fell, but Nino wasn’t sure if that was from Alya’s bump or her words.

“I—I don’t have those anymore!”  Her shoulders slumped.  “It turns out, planning presents fifty years in advance works a lot better if you can see the future.  They’re all out of style by now.”

Alya laughed at that.  Nino couldn’t help noticing that Kagami had gone silent, though, her gaze locked on the ice in front of them.

“Something wrong, bro?”  He asked her.

She shook her head.  “Adrien’s party won’t be perfect if Marinette isn’t present.  I thought she of all people would understand how much she means to him.”

Marinette gasped.  “I… I’m sorry, Kagami.  Adrien does mean the world to me, and… I promise, I’ll make it up to him.”

Nino was forced to stop as Kagami grabbed the handrail and locked eyes with Marinette.  Some kind of silent conversation seemed to pass between them.  He looked to Alya for help, but she just shrugged.  By now he thought he’d understand the girls, but maybe some things would always be a mystery.

“See that you do.  He deserves that much.”

This wasn’t some kind of love triangle over Adrien again, was it?  Kagami had stayed good friends with all of them after she and Adrien broke up.  Marinette was probably still crazy in love with him, but that was nothing new.

“It’s okay, dudes.  The party’s still going to be perfect.  I’ve got a special surprise planned for our favorite bro.”

He winked at Alya, who grinned back.  She’d been the one to help him pull it off.

“A surprise?”  Marinette clapped her hands together at the same time Kagami raised an eyebrow.

“I didn’t factor any surprises into our plans.  Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

“It’s not much of a surprise if everyone knows, is it?”  Nino said.  “But you’re right, I should have told you, Kagami.  I just wasn’t sure if it would be awkward for you, knowing who Adrien’s crushing on now and all…”

“It’s not an issue.  Adrien is a wonderful friend.  That is more than enough for me,” Kagami replied.

“Adrien’s... crushing on someone?”  Marinette asked, her eyes wide.  

Oops.  Kagami might have taken it well, but Nino should’ve waited until Marinette was gone.

“What’s the scoop, babe?”  Alya raised her eyebrow, and Nino threw his hands in the air.

“I thought you already knew!  Why do you think we worked so hard to get Ladybug to show up for his party?”

Marinette caught hold of the hand rail before her legs slipped out from under her.

“Adrien has a crush on Ladybug?”

“Oh.  That’s all?”  Kagami asked.  “I’ve known that for months.”

“You have?”  

“Was it supposed to be a secret?  He keeps posters of her in his fencing locker.”

Marinette still looked like she was blue screening.  Alya glared at Nino, and he gave a nervous smile.  What was he supposed to do?  Kagami had a point; the dude wasn’t exactly subtle.  

“Anyway.”  He coughed.  “Our bro likes Ladybug, and she’s coming to his party, so he’s going to have a totally cash money time.”

“Cash money?  You’ve been hanging out with Luka and XY too much, babe.”

Marinette giggled at that.  She got her feet back under her, and they started skating in unison again.  So… she wasn’t that upset?  Whew.

“Oh, speaking of XY, I gotta get him here to help set up the special effects,” Nino said.  “I already got permission from Phillipe.  We’re going all out, courtesy of the actual cash money Kitty Section and XY’s last collab made.”

“How did we end up friends with so many rich people?”  Alya mused under her breath.

“It sounds like the plan is in motion, then,” Kagami said.

“Yeah, it’s going to be perfect!  Adrien will love it.”  Marinette grinned.  “Thank you two for putting all this together.”

“Anything for my best bro.”  Nino shot her finger guns.

“He deserves a party worthy of his friendship,” Kagami added.

And he was going to get one.  This year, of all years, Nino refused to let anything go wrong.

XXX

Three weeks later, on the night of September twenty-first, Nino paced the blue chairs surrounding the perimeter of the ice rink.  His friends wove between the chairs, setting up tables of food and games.  His turntables were already in place at the head of the rink, and XY was hooking them up to the speaker system.

“Nathalie’s schedule?”  Nino asked as he passed Max.

“Hacked and adjusted.”  Max flashed a thumbs up.  

“Great job, dude.”  He clapped him on the shoulder before moving on to Rose and Juleka’s station.

“Presents?”

“Stacked and organized!”  Rose saluted.

“Sweet.  Make sure to leave some extra space, there’ll be more where those came from.”  He continued his path to where Chloé was lounging in a chair and scrolling through her phone.

“Chloé, status report.”

“No trace of Adrikins on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, or YouTube.”  She flipped her ponytail.  “You should check your tone, though.  I’m not some peon you can just order around.”

“Right.”  He rolled his eyes.  Classic Chloé.  At least she was taking her job seriously, though.  “Thanks for all your hard work.”

“You’re welcome.”  She smirked.

Her job was one of the most important.  If the media caught wind of Adrien’s location, the party would have to split before he even got here.  To prevent that, Max had jammed the wifi and cell service so that only his computer, Chloé’s phone, and Nino’s phone had wifi.  If anyone wanted to post about the party on social media, they’d have to wait until after it was over.

Everything was looking perfect.  There wasn’t much else to do but wait for updates from Kagami.

19:00.  Arrived at the court.  No sign of Adrien.

19:04. Adrien has arrived.  Bodyguard bribed and driving away.

19:05. En route to ice rink.  Adrien was suspicious, but believed my excuse of buying him birthday orange juice.

Nino shook his head with a smile.  How did Kagami type all that without Adrien noticing?  At least everything seemed to going smoothly on her end, too.

He started pacing again.  According to Kagami, a casual stroll from the school to the ice rink took twenty minutes.  It was longer than Nino wanted to wait, but the location had to be far enough away to avoid notice.

His phone beeped again.  He unlocked it to see a selfie of Kagami and Adrien smiling wide, though Adrien was practically unrecognizable in the oversized hoodie and bright blue wig Kagami had borrowed from Juleka.

Alya’s chin rested on Nino’s shoulder.  “Aww, look at them.  All grown up and ready to rebel.”

“Psh, Kagami’s been rebelling for ages.  Adrien could still learn a thing or two from her.”

“Oh look, she sent another one!”  Alya clicked his phone.

In this photo, the two of them were pulling funny faces.  Adrien stuck out his tongue, while Kagami puffed out her cheeks and gave him bunny ears.

Nino laughed and put an arm around his girlfriend.  “We did a great job with them, didn’t we?”

“Absolutely.”  She smiled before zooming in on the background.  “Looks like they’re in front of the parking lot.  They’ll be here any time now.”

Sure enough, Kagami texted, 19:25. Two minutes away.

“Right!”  Nino gave her cheek a quick kiss before running to his turntables.  He snatched up the microphone, and his voice blasted through the speakers.  “Alright, dudes!  Adrien’s about to walk through those doors, so everyone hide!”

Their friends dove behind tables and chairs.  All of them except XY, anyway.

“What’s the point, dude?  He’s gonna see all our sick lights.”  XY pointed to the laser lights next to the turntable.

“That’s why we switch them off,” Luka said, pressing the button.  The rink fell into darkness.

“Ohhhh.”

Nino pulled the two of them under the table with him just before the double doors opened.

[zeraphias]

guess whos just doing this for fun!!!!!!!!! answers under cut

1. digital.. i can do traditional sketches but beyond that…

2. pretty much since i was a little baby kid? but ive only been posting art on tumblr since like. one or two years ago? i think only one year

3. beyond middle and elementary art classes, one. and i never will again. i hate drawing and art classes!!!!!!!! that shit sucks!!!!

4. tumblr, instagram & twitter. its all in the pinned post babey. although when i was younger i had a deviantart but uh. we dont need to talk abt that

5. oh just people!!!!! people are fun to draw!!

6. arms raising in any sort of way why is the body like that. hands i can handle. legs and feet i can handle. arms raised? no.

7. less than i should.. i try to and i want to but im also so lazy. too much work.. references make everything easier tho so if u draw use them

8. just for fun. altho if u want to pay me for my art just let me know :) . i have considered doing it professionally but i get burnt out and unmotivated easily. and also if i had to draw professionally i would actually hate art forever

9. uh. very little. my current drawing set up that i had is Unavailable so its destroyed any comfortable drawing i can do. its also why i hadnt posted any art until last weekend. im working on figuring out a new set up. but even before that i dont draw everyday, thats tiring !!

10. sort of? kind of? idk people will always be better at u than something and people will always be worse at something than u thats just life. i like bits and pieces of my art and i dislike other parts. i dont like showing my art to strangers in real life !!

11. a lot!! i think. i dont keep track of who i follow that much? i do on twitter but on tumblr…. ive had this blog for like 6 years thats too much to keep track of.

12. absolutely!!! altho u may have to elaborate.. my process sometimes changes based on what im drawing

13. uhhh i like drawing for others but if im drawing shit for myself then it typically stays in the For Myself area. i have over 800 canvases in procreate and ive only posted like. 150 drawings. most of the stuff i draw is for myself.

14. i dont think i have ever collaborated but i wouldnt mind it i guess? if i ever did it was with my friends like years ago

15. 2-4 hours. up to ten or twenty hours if its something longer or bigger. that multipart bioshock piece took around 12-14 hours and it was a couple of days.

16. i draw less but i do more fully finished pieces now. its mostly just circumstance. in class i always doodle and draw but since i havent had proper classes in a year and a half i havent really been drawing as much. but i do have more time which means i can finish pieces more easily

17. uh. i guess? it depends what theyre drawing? like if its people then i think i could give advice but.. idk i only give advice if asked to? and i dont really think about it?

18. side profiles last night lol.. i think ive figured it out??? in general im still trying to find a way to finish pieces that im satisfied with. like with lining and coloring i mean.

19. backgrounds. easily. that shit is annoying!!!!!! nightmare hell realm and all that

20. hair i guess! its pretty simple for me and i like doing it

21. uhhhhhhhhhhhhh…………. sort of? i like trying things and improving so………. i guess.

22. yes. i like to compare my old art to my new art! i actually have sketches from forever ago that ill go back and redo just to see the differences! its funny thinking abt it bc at the time of drawing ill be like. I Am Superior To My Previous Selves and then the next time i look at it im like. what the fuck is wrong with that little guy

23. more original art definitely!! my original art folder has over 400 pieces and any other folders has like. 100 or less

24. depends! mostly inspired nowadays. i mimic artstyles that i like a lot of the time and it helps expand upon what i already have. i am an amalgamation of things i love and enjoy. i dont really get jealous about art anymore

25. with music, podcasts, videos, anything really! i cant draw and talk tho. i cant really read or write while listening to stuff. sometimes im able to put on music and read or write but if i have to concentrate too much then i turn off the music lol

26. i use procreate!!! like. exclusively.

27. uhh around 20-40 layers depending on how complicated im making it? layers all get merged at the end

28. -

29. -

30. other artists!!!! other art!!!!! i will just see the most pretty things and im like. i want that!!!!!!!! that’s pretty and beautiful!!!!!!! i have an entire folder dedicated to just. pretty art. thats also the entirety of my saved photos but. uh. anyways yeah!!!!!! other people’s art makes me want to do art because its inspiring and nice!!!!!!!!!! mwah @ other artists