#active wear usa

[activewearmanufacturer]

Keep These 3 Points In Mind To Grab The Best Sports Clothing

With the right appearance and features, sportswear enhances your workout performance. However, when buying sportswear, there are several things that you should look out for and pay close attention to. SHOULD BE WELL-DESIGNED Well-designed sportswear will let your body move easily and won’t irritate your skin by causing friction. They will be lightweight and will look fashionable. To hold all the…

[libraflyter]

I find the tags here talking about why children’s media rules aren’t stupid is important. The issue is *continuing* that mindset after people get old enough to fully understand reality vs fantasy. To be old enough to have life experience to have discernment.

Anyone who has ever been around 3-6 year olds know they mimic everything. They play based on what they see adults and other kids do and around the media they have access to. They also have no sense of self preservation, are capable of immense creativity, and combining both because you had to turn away for one minute … of course this is the one situation where media rules make sense.

It never occurred to me there would be regional risk factors but that also makes sense. That different countries’ S&P wouldn’t just be moral variation but also the literal environmental differences. The US allows private ownership of guns - therefore S&P is much more aware that children can get access and makes rules accordingly. Countries with much stricter gun control: guns are more like fantasy items and so can show up because there isn’t a real life danger.

People know that the whole "don't portray [harmful action] because viewers might recreate it" thing is a rule for children's shows right? It's supposed to be shit like "don't show peppa pig playing with fire so we don't get sued if a kid watches it and burns their house down." Not like, fanfiction for adults.

[headspace-hotel]

I'm trying to write a post about tick safety and avoiding tick bites, but a lot of the info on websites is like "Avoid going in the woods, in plants, and where there are wild animals" and "Activities like hiking and gardening can put you at risk" and I'm like thanks! This is worthless!

As ticks and tick borne illnesses are expanding their range, I think it's important for people to be educated about these things, and I think it's especially important to give people actual advice on how to protect themselves instead of telling them to just...avoid the natural world

Rough draft version of Tick Advice:

Ticks don't jump down on you from trees, they get on you when you brush against grass, brush, bushes etc.

Ticks get brought to an area when they get done feeding from an animal and fall off them. In the USA, the main tick-bringing animal is deer, but I've seen plenty ticks on feral cats and songbirds.

Ticks get killed when they dry out so drier areas with more sunlight are less favorable to ticks.

The above is useful for figuring out whether an area is likely to have lots of ticks, and how vigilant you have to be in that area.

Wear light-colored, long pants outside. Tuck your pants into your socks, and tuck your shirt into the waist of your pants. Invest in light, breathable fabrics idc

IMMEDIATELY change out of your outside clothes when you come back from a tick-prone area, wash them, and dry them on high heat to kill any ticks that might be stuck on.

Shower and check yourself for ticks after coming inside. Hair, armpits, and nether regions in particular. You can use a handheld mirror or rely on touch; an attached tick will feel like a bump kinda like a scab

While you're outside, you can just periodically check for ticks by running your hands down your legs and checking visually to see if anything is crawling on your clothes. Light colors make them easy to spot, and they don't move fast.

Combing through each others' hair to check for creepy crawly critters is a time-honored primate ritual and is not weird. When hiking, bring a friend who will have your back when you feel something on your neck and need to know if it's sweat or a tick

If you're careful, you can usually catch ticks before they bite you, but if one does bite you, it's not the end of the world. Since tickborne diseases are different regionally i suspect this advice will differ based on where you are, but the important thing is remove the tick with tweezers (DON'T use butter, a lit match, or anything that kills the tick while it's still attached, please) and contact a doctor to see what to watch for. Most illnesses you can catch from ticks are easily treatable if you recognize them when symptoms first appear

[notchainedtotrauma]

On The Subject Of Bots: A Former Bot Farm Operator Speaks On The Process (Also spread this video all over this website. I mean it. Spread it. For a whole set of reasons-one of them being antiblackness)

ID [ Close up of a woman in a car wearing a green shirt. She has a dark brown ponytail. She says: 'I'm a a former tech employee that created and sustained a bot farm between 2015 and 2018 in California USA.

Wanna give you guys some information because American bot farm operators are pretty rare. Most bot farms operate oversea. I don't know if there's anyone like me in the US that can tell you this stuff is what I'm saying.

I'm typically way secretive about this but it's gotten so bad I need to talk about it

So what is a bot farm ? Something that an individual or a company purchases. You get a set amount of bots that look like normal people, go out, and spread your message. And here's the work that goes ino that:

I as a operator have to create each individual fake person. I have to create a bio. I have to create a username, a real name, then I have to generate content that has to be supportive of the message the client is paying for.

Positive opinion of the company or the individual. If anyone has ever tried to create content (you know that) that takes time and also that takes ideas; it's not easy.

Finally you need to program these bots based on activity. Bots respond to what you do.

You think that you going around and liking things is invisible. It's not. You're leaving a footprint across the app. That footprint is tracked by people like me. So based on what other people like or comment on, I program my bot to go and search for those people, find them, and then interact with them with my content that supports the message that I created.

This programming also includes research to find the people that are the most susceptible to believing the message that you're selling, and targeting those people. This is just a scratch on the surface of what it takes to program one of these. And people are buying hundreds of them.

Now here's the interesting part. The software to run all these bots is not free. And the time that it takes to create all the things that I just told you about also not free. All of this stuff costs money.

And it represents money when you see it. If you're seeing non stop videos posted with a certain agenda, someone's paying for that. So when you see a dump/ a ton of media that's telling you all the same message, do not say wow what a thing happening right now.

Please instead say wow who's trying to buy my opinion on this topic ?

End of the video ] End of ID

[missroy33]

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[alanicglobal]

How to Wear Activewear?

Wearing sports clothes is not as easy as you think it might be, you need to make sure all the elements of glamour has its own space and performance has its own. Know more: https://tinyurl.com/y53kunnw

[mollymason-abdl]

Hihiii I’m Molly!

Im a British girl (but I live in the USA so you get the accent and the right time zone yay!) who loves diapers, humiliation, age play and darker kinks and dynamics!

✨ I loveeeee diapers! I wear almost 24/7!

✨ I am an actual bedwetter. I’m just not ready to be potty trained, clearly

✨ I’m really into deep humiliation and age play is a big catalyst for that for me. I love to be teased, made to blush and to talk about and admit all the embarrassing things about what gets me excited 🙈 feel free to send me asks and anons to make me blush!

✨ but please do not spam my dms. I can get kinda overwhelmed easily and I don’t always get opportunity to answer 1:1 messages!

🍭 L I N K S 🍭

✨ while I will be active on my social media channels there’s a lot of censoring I have to do so I don’t get deleted! ✨

Just for fans - is the platform I will be most most most active on. Daily posts, weekly cam shows where I give away customs every week, 1:1 messaging and access to all my horny diaper brain thoughts on the daily. I also post all my full clips to JFF too! Right now my page is on sale & it’s the lowest it’s ever been. It’ll go back up next week so grab it while you can!

All of my own content is tagged #mollymasonabdl so you can find all my content photos in one spot!

——————————————

All of my own text posts, journal entries, horny thoughts will be linked under #mmtextpost

[laurellynnleake]

AIR QUALITY WARNING

Hey fellow Northeasterners on Turtle Island, aka the USA and Canada! Recent wildfires are spreading smoke and dangerous air conditions across New England. I only realized this because of social media, so I'm spreading the news further with maps for visuals. Things are officially UNHEALTHY so everyone needs to be careful, especially anyone with heart or lung conditions.

If you're in NY, MA, RI, CT, NJ, etc, please be careful!

Close your windows (consider sealing them if it's really bad)

Wear respirator masks (ex N95s) outside

Turn on air filters if you've got them

Use fans inside to keep cool and keep air moving

Check for air coming in around window AC units! You can probably still use your AC, but remember that their filters generally don't block smoke.

Remember, wildfire smoke doesn't just include burnt up trees but can include all kinds of hazardous materials, so the less outside air inside your house the better. If you've got any DIY Corsi-Rosenthal Boxes around for COVID-19 filtration, they excel at filtering out other dangerous particles too. Here's a diagram for making one, :

Also, try to avoid strenuous activities (ex moving furniture, climbing lots of stairs, etc) and listen to your body's needs. If you need to lay down and do nothing for a while, go for it. Stay hydrated, especially if your throat is getting scratchy! If you've got asthma, make sure your meds are close by.

Take care of yourselves and each other out there!

-----------

6/7/23 UPDATE:

Thought I'd add more context and sources for people to look up their own areas! The above map shows the current outbreak of wildfires across the West Coast and Midwest, versus the huge plumes of smoke traveling across the north, middle, and east of the continent, including Mexico. Click the source link to explore the map yourself.

IDs are in the alt text!

[neon-ufo]

my friend is running a 70s sci-fi flavoured stars without number campaign and im currently in my 70s fantasy era so here's a space barbarian i made for it 👀

his name is ire and he swore vengeance against space USA

i took inspiration from moebius' designs for jodorowsky's dune as well as just the general awesome 70s pulp fantasy covers!

You can read a short backstory under the cut, or a longer dive into his culture and character on his ToyHouse profile

He is a member of the powerful Kron tribe from the primitive* planet Magentero (*primitive in comparison to futuristic technology most others have in this setting).

After his tribe's lands were colonized and his people decimated by the Unified Stars Alliance, he was chosen to avenge his people as one of his tribe's champions.

The Kron mark their significant kills - enemy generals, champions or leaders - with scarification, and Ire himself has thus far collected 5 such scars. His tribe's blood is lilac, but most of their enemies bleed red, so the scarring ceremony uses special pigment to make the scars heal red.

It is considered a serious threat in his culture to wear an enemy's flag tied around his arm, as it marks the place where the next scar will be placed. It's seen as a proclamation of war, or a sign of an active bounty.

Ire is likely not his real name, but a name he wears until he gets his peace.

[jacensolodjo]

I love certain people but if at any point the thought process is 'besides the invasion of Ukraine, russia is actually okay because it stands up to the USA/West etc.,', I'm gonna have to wonder where the FUCK y'all have been the past fucking 100+ years aka YOUR ENTIRE LIFE russia has been not okay.

I want y'all to think long and hard every time, EVERY TIME, russia is in opposition to something the USA/west does. (always be suspicious why they are against it. believe it or not a country isn't always against something because it is morally/ethically right to be against it. they are against it because they don't like the other country. Surprise! while you may shrug and say 'same difference' haha read on) and then WATCH WHAT THEY DO. you WATCH. they will do THE THING THEY JUST CHIDED THE WEST ON DOING. Maybe a month later, maybe two months. Who knows. BUT THEY WILL DO IT!! IT IS THEIR THING!!! Or even better, IN THEIR HISTORY they have done the exact fucking thing they just chided the west on doing. And no I'm not even gonna say 'oh a hundred years ago they did this thing'. But they did this thing they are chiding the west on within living memory. or are ACTUALLY ACTIVELY DOING IT!!! While saying to the world 'ohhhh bad evil West, you no good West, how AWFUL!!!' They will shake their finger about war crimes and GUESS WHAT THEY ARE DOING RIGHT NOW??? They don't get to sit there and say SHIT while they do the same thing they're saying is bad. Any other country pulls that, they get hung out to dry. russia does it? Why is it okay?

It's called fucking whataboutism and it is still alive and well in russia. It was invented there and you are FALLING FOR IT EVERY FUCKING DAY. Because why? Russia is not your friend. Russia is killing the people you say you care about. Russia is killing people. EVERY DAY. Just because one day it also says it is against the shit you are does not mean you start going "yay russia! you tell 'em russia!"

Russia knows what you dislike about your own damn country, about the West, and it mocks you for agreeing with it for going 'bad West'. You earn points with absolutely no one. You merely look silly when, inevitably, russia does the bad things it does later after you have praised it for saying the same things you do. When it was advantageous for it to go 'bad West'. Or when it does something politically that you say is awful when the West does it. Because, again, it is STILL bad no matter what country does it.

After it has murdered Ukrainians. Chechens. Georgians. Siberians. Jews. Muslims. Gay people. Trans people. Black People. Asian people. The people you claim to give a fuck about. The people it has been murdering for decades. For centuries.

You want to sit there and go 'yay russia' because it happened to go 'naughty West'? Imperialism is Imperialism is Imperialism. Just cause it's a different flavor of it doesn't mean a goddamn fucking thing. It does the same bad shit you hate the West for doing. Russia just wears an ushanka while doing it.

I grew up with 'russia bad'. Idk when things stopped with 'russia bad'. But can we go back to 'russia bad'? Being anti-USA/West does not make some entity good. Take that fucking thought out of your head. russia bad. say it with me. russia. bad.

[transgenderunionthug]

The copy pasta that's going around about not wearing divisive back patches is unfounded and fear-mongery. It also has no basis in any of the punk scenes I've been active in on either coast of the USA.

If you're a visibly marginalized person and someone wants to jump you, they'll try no matter if you have patches specifying your identity or not. If you're not visibly marginalized and you have a patch identifying you as a marginalized community member and someone wants to hurt you, they'll wait till your back is turned either way. The idea that having a political or identity patch on your back will make bigots immediately attack you like they're a bull seeing red is really silly.

Wear whatever you want wherever you want. It's not punk to let these unfounded "punk rules" that a scared 13 year old probably came up with direct your diy, but it is punk to proudly be who you are with no fear.

[activewearmanufacturer]

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[mommywilliamsblogss]

It a new weekend for all adult baby who wear there diaper 24/7 without shying and always be proud about it in both private and public mommy is also glad for that this a new outfit for you if you are a real adult baby who dosent have an outfit or best outfit in his apartment or nursery am using this opportunity to ask you out now if you are a real abdl baby and you dont have a mommy who takes care of you you just any ordinary baby with no mentality just be proud of yourself with having me as your future mommy who is going to be with you forever you dont have to doubt me anymore am a real mommy not a fake ass as other mommy over there my nursery is free of charge let get to know each other and have a couple of time in my children's room i have alot of all babies stuffs in my nursery if you need me for pickup just drop your home address and location you're usa,germany,uk,australia,france,canada am active and dont forget to follow and reblog mommy loves you❤️🥰🍼👶🏻❤️❤️❤️👶🏻👶🏻👶🏻👶🏻🚘❤️👋

Es ist ein neues Wochenende für alle Adult Babys, die ihre Windeln 24/7 tragen, ohne sich zu schämen, und immer stolz darauf sind, sowohl privat als auch in der Öffentlichkeit. Mama freut sich auch darüber, dass dies ein neues Outfit für dich ist. Wenn du ein echtes Adult Baby bist, das kein Outfit oder bestes Outfit in seiner Wohnung oder seinem Kinderzimmer hat, nutze ich diese Gelegenheit, um dich jetzt nach einem Date zu fragen. Wenn du ein echtes ABDL-Baby bist und keine Mama hast, die sich um dich kümmert, bist du nur ein normales Baby ohne Mentalität. Sei einfach stolz auf dich, mich als deine zukünftige Mama zu haben, die für immer bei dir sein wird. Du musst nicht mehr an mir zweifeln. Ich bin eine echte Mama und keine falsche Idiotin wie die anderen Mamas dort. Mein Kinderzimmer ist kostenlos. Lass uns einander kennenlernen und ein paar Stunden in meinem Kinderzimmer verbringen. Ich habe viele Babysachen in meinem Kinderzimmer. Wenn du mich zum Abholen brauchst, gib einfach deine Privatadresse und deinen Standort an. Du bist in den USA, Deutschland, Großbritannien, Australien, Frankreich oder Kanada. Ich bin aktiv und vergiss nicht, Mommy Loves zu folgen und zu rebloggen. du❤️🥰🍼👶🏻❤️❤️❤️👶🏻👶🏻👶🏻👶🏻🚘❤️👋

[genderkoolaid]

out of spite at the people who think transhet men have straight male privilege, i was planning to look into violence against straight transmasculine people specifically. i was going to look through the aovatp and see what i can find about the victims' sexualities, but i wanted to first ask if you had any information on their seuxalities already from your research. no worries if not, i just figured i'd check.

100% support that. I think straight trans men especially see a lot of erasure from other queer people, who are quick to portray them as cis lesbian victims of lesbophobia.

Here are the victims on the Archive who I know would be relevant:

Khleo Finnie (USA) - Assaulted and slashed along with his wife while being called slurs

Maria Paola Gaglione (Italy) - A cis woman who was murdered by her brother to "teach her a lesson" after getting engaged to a trans man

Unnamed trans man (Qatar) - A member of the Qatar royal family fled and went into hiding with his girlfriend after his freedom was restricted by his family.

Phillip (Malawi) - Assaulted by police officers along with another trans man for "doing lesbian activities"

John (USA) - Murdered by the ex-husband of his girlfriend in the late 1986. "During the murder trial in 1990, the defense proposed the argument that it was not a “real murder,” as John was just an “it”." (Hung Jury chp. 9)

Nicole Saavedra Bahamondes (Chile) - A camiona (butch lesbian) who was murdered, and had been previously harassed by cis men who sought to "correct her" and "make her a woman." She lived in Valparaíso, a region known for its lesbophobic violence.

^ Unnamed camiona (Chile) - Whipped with chains while being called lesbophobic slurs. Also from Valparaíso.

^ Carolina Torres (Chile) - Brutally beaten and permanently disabled by cis men who specifically targeted her, and not her femme girlfriend, for being a camiona; during the attempted murder, they asked her "Why do you dress like a man?"

Kavi/Kaveri (India) - Murdered and had his body burned by two cisgender men because he was against one of them dating his friend.

Jorge (Ecuador) - Forced into conversion therapy where he was physically abused and made to wear sexy feminine clothing (his girlfriend was also subject to similar treatment).

Manoj (India) - 17-year-old who was tied up, beaten, locked in, and threatened with murder by his family after coming out as a straight trans man. He was also taken out of school and forced into marriage with a much older man.

However there definitely are other people on that list who might be of interest to you.

[missroy33]

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[rambleonwaywardson]

Clegan Olympics AU - Gold Over America

Masterpost

Read on AO3 (this is a new installment in the Clegan Olympics AU series on AO3)

Author's note: This is NOT the official epilogue. However, I went to see the Gold Over America Tour recently, and I couldn't not write this. Takes place about 5 months after Sous le Ciel de Paris

---

“You holdin’ up okay?”

Curt asks Bucky some form of this question every single night. Are you okay? How you holdin’ up? How’s the leg feel? You sure you’re good for the next number? We can fill in for you if you need a night off.

Sometimes it bugs him – usually when he is, in fact, in more discomfort than he cares to admit – but more often he’s coming to recognize it for the friendly concern that it is. He’s slowly starting to accept the fact that he isn’t a teenager anymore. He isn’t indestructible, and there are people here who care about him and actively want to help him stay healthy.

That’s what we call growth.

Bucky blinks, frozen in the middle of wrapping his knee with tape. Tonight is only his second time since Paris tumbling without a brace and he’s probably overcompensating with how much he’s wrapping the joint. He might as well just wear the damn brace. “Huh? Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Thanks.” He tilts his head and squints, taking a second to actually think about how his leg feels, before concluding that physically, yes, he is fine, if a little sore. 

He nods again. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

Curt smacks his hand and makes a quit it motion. He grabs the tape out of Bucky’s hand and starts unwrapping it from around his leg as Bucky sputters in protest. Then Curt hands him his brace instead. Bucky glares at him, but he takes the thing and goes about strapping it around his knee.

“No reason not to wear it if you’re this jittery,” Curt says.

It’s early January, a brand new year, and they’re at Capital One arena in Washington, D.C. It’s their third week of the Gold Over America Tour, a fun sort of victory lap for USA’s Olympic gymnasts as well as some of the other gymnasts from the U.S. and from around the world. It’s performative instead of competitive, promoting camaraderie, strength, and resilience through a mixture of gymnastics and fun dance numbers.

In short, it’s a two month long cross-country excursion where the gymnasts basically just get to have fun and interact with fans.

Since they’re in D.C., they’re close to home, and Bucky’s been distracted like this all day. He hasn’t been able to think straight from the moment he woke up on the tour bus, all jumpy and worried about seeing his boyfriend and if he would actually show up or if he’d decided in the month since they last saw each other that Bucky wasn’t worth it after all. Then when Gale actually did meet them in the stadium for rehearsal, Bucky was so excited that he kept getting distracted and tripping over his own feet. Not to mention the amount of time he spent just staring at Gale in complete awe when they all went out to lunch earlier, or the fact that he was nearly late for the show because he was doing god-knows-what backstage.

And now they’re here, in the middle of act one, and Bucky is thrown all out of whack again. Curt tells him to get his head on straight, and Bucky flips him off.

Beside them, Croz is changing into a different competition shirt and pants. He glances up at Bucky, a teasing smile on his face. “You see him out there?”

Bucky nods as he gets to his feet and starts tugging his own pants on. “Just for a second.”

One, perfect second during the opening number where the noise of the stadium faded to quiet and it felt like everything around him was moving in slow motion. It’s hard to see into the crowd through the lights shining on them, but Gale is in the front row, right by the spring floor. And Bucky was drawn to him like a moth to a flame.

Curt rolls his eyes. “Not like you didn’t know he’d be here. You’ve been with him all day.”

“It’s just… different.” Bucky shrugs, shifting his weight from leg to leg to test out how the brace feels. “It’s the first time he’s getting to actually see me do this since…” Well, since the Paris Olympics five months ago. Since that last fateful day in Bercy Arena that nearly destroyed John’s career (again) and tore them apart.

It’s the first time since then that Gale gets to watch Bucky be a gymnast. The first time since then that he gets to watch Bucky do what he loves to do. 

Originally, before tickets went on sale, before Bucky fucked his leg all over again, they’d hoped to do this tour from September until early November, giving them enough time to recover from the Games and choreograph the show on the front end, and enough time to get back to work for the 2025 competition season on the back end. And then John Egan, one of the stars of this show about strength and resilience, got hurt, went AWOL, spiraled into oblivion, what have you, and it looked like they’d be doing the tour without him.

Once he came to his senses and started at least attempting to crawl his way out of the hole he tried to bury himself in, though, he insisted he wanted to do it. 

The doctor, of course, said he was risking his career doing any form of gymnastics so soon, so they came to a compromise.The tour was postponed until mid-December to give his knee time to heal, and he, for the most part, keeps his skills fairly low impact. There’s one part of the show where each member of the Olympic team performs part of one of their routines, but other than that, most of the skills they’re doing here are easy by their standards in order to preserve their bodies, whether that means doing one less twist or flip or letting themselves fall onto the mats during their landings. John isn’t the only one that needs to be careful – they all do. So, as he claimed to the doctor, anything he’s doing on the tour really isn’t more than he’d be doing in his training gym back home at this point.

That doesn’t keep everyone from worrying about him, though.

For the most part, it’s gone well. Performing on tour with his friends, meeting so many fans, and traveling around the country has been a blast. He keeps up with his rehab regimen, frequently doing the whole rest, ice, compression, and heat deal on the bus between cities, and he’s only had to miss a show once due to overuse of his leg.

He’s doing what he loves, and truly he’s finding his love for it again after a rough couple of years. But now, things are different. He has two loves, and the other is in the audience tonight. They’ve been apart for a month, and yet when they saw each other this morning, Gale still jumped into his arms, kissed Bucky like it was nothing, looked at him like he was everything.

“I’m so glad you’re here!” Gale had exclaimed, with that bubbly, candy-sweet smile that is so rare and makes Bucky’s heart jump when he sees it. “I miss you.”

I miss you. I miss you. I miss you. It made Bucky feel all sappy, hearing those words, seeing Gale’s freckles and dimples and the real, unequivocal love in his eyes. It made him feel special, wanted, loved.

Bucky still wonders what he did to deserve that. He still thanks the universe every day for giving him a second chance with the most amazing guy in the world.

Croz puts a hand on Bucky’s shoulder, bringing him back to the present. They can hear the music of one of the girls’ numbers pumping through the stadium; it’s coming to an end, which means he needs to get ready to head out. “He’s proud of you, you know,” Croz says. “You should’ve seen the way he watched you during rehearsal.”

Bucky is quiet for a second, and then he nods hesitantly. He and Gale got into a bit of an argument when Bucky said he wanted to go on tour, after he had already promised to take time off. They didn’t speak for at least a day, and Bucky remembers being so afraid that he was about to lose the only good relationship he’d ever had all over again. He was so afraid he’d have to choose between gymnastics and Gale after all. 

But eventually, Bucky managed to push all that aside and try his hand at instigating a real, open discussion about what him on tour would look like and what precautions he’d take. They held onto each others’ hands and Bucky told Gale what he wanted, what he needed. Gale laid out his concerns, but also reiterated his overall support of Bucky’s career. And they talked. And listened. And Bucky never knew how good healthy communication could feel before. 

Gale was also there every step of the way as Bucky healed, rehabbed, and then started getting back into the gym again just about two months ago. He was there for the ups and downs, running to help Bucky stand back up when he fell, cheering him on with every forward step. 

He never gave up on Bucky. 

He’s proud of you, you know. 

“I know,” Bucky says to Croz. He thinks he might even believe it. 

“Alright, you’ll get to play with your boy toy later,” Curt jokes. He grabs Bucky’s hand and hauls him to his feet. “Come on, you’re up.”

Bucky has to admit, performing his big comeback number – which he’s come to think of as his “I’m back bitch” number – is incredibly cathartic. He wanted to perform to Elton John’s “The Bitch Is Back,” but the production team said it wasn’t “family friendly” enough. 

No fun.

The number starts out with a dark stadium, and there’s a video on the big screen as he gets himself to the center of the floor. It shows a few highlights of his career, his Championship wins, his best Olympic moments, him goofing off with Curt and Croz in the gym. A recording of his voice plays over it, something about how, at some point, everyone faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles, or comes to a crossroads that might determine the course of their life. 

“…In my case, an injury that should have ended my career.”

Every night, Bucky stands in the middle of the floor, dimly illuminated by the light of the big screen. He doesn’t really even know what he says in the video, doesn’t remember. He hasn’t listened to it since it was first recorded, and he blocks it out night after night, except for the end.

He swallows thickly and looks up, sees a clip of his horrifying fall off high bar, cut before he hits the ground. Then a clip of him collapsing after rings back in August, unable to rise. Every night, it makes his heart beat too fast, makes the blood rush in his ears, just for a moment. But then every night, he hears his own voice, smooth and confident: “We rise to the occasion, no matter how hard it might be. We don’t give up, because giving up is not in our nature…”

There’s video clips of his recovery, after both incidents. Videos of him doing painful rehab after high bar. Videos of him back in the gym after rings. A shaky clip of him laughing after landing a tumbling pass again for the first time, running right to the cameraman for a hug.

Gale. He’s running to Gale. 

And it makes Bucky’s heart soar.

The video ends.

John Egan is a guy that likes attention, so standing, feet shoulder-width apart and hands on his hips like a superhero, in the middle of a dark arena as lights flash wildly around him and the beginnings of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck plays is very on brand for him. The flashing lights cast his shadow, long and fleeting, across the floor in all different directions until, finally, they light up and stay on, spotlighting him from all sides. He lets the wild grin overtake his face, pushes back against the pit in his stomach, the buzzing in his head. He shoves all the adrenaline he feels into this moment. He puts both hands in the air in a salute, as if he’s at a competition, and then he launches into a tumbling pass that has the crowd going wild. 

The original plan was for him to do a whole floor routine, but he’s trying to save his leg as much as he can, so he does his big opening pass and lands on an extra mat that the techs positioned in the corner, then he does a few easier passes before the lights fade out on him. A spotlight pops up over the high bar, where Curt jumps up and does a few giants, a couple release moves. Then there’s Croz on parallel bars. Alex on pommel. Brady on floor. Then to finish, Bucky jumps up on high bar, the apparatus that tried to break him, just to prove a point. He does a couple of easier releases before jumping off, a single flip, nothing fancy.

It gets him a deafening round of applause anyway.

The Thunderstruck number, every night, drives a range of emotions through Bucky like a truck, for better or for worse. It shoves salt in old wounds, forces him to relive some of his worst moments. And yet it feels so damn good, in a way, just to show people – “hey, I’m here. I’m still fighting. I’m not giving up.” Just to tell them – “if you’re fighting your own uphill battle, don’t stop. Please don’t stop. You don’t have to give up.”

So yeah, it’s cathartic. It makes him feel powerful. It makes him feel in control. It makes him feel like he did something right, at the end of the day. 

But he much prefers the more lighthearted parts of their show anyway. The ideas that spawned from a bunch of friends goofing off in a gym between practices. The ones that show their personalities and let them be silly and let them be a little stupid and let them be human instead of just athletes. 

There’s a Texas Hold ‘Em number where the guys and girls all dress up in cowboy hats, the guys in white shirts and jeans and the girls in sparkly leos. 

There’s some absolutely badass dance numbers from the girls, which Bucky loves watching. They’re full of attitude and confidence that makes him a little jealous. 

Then there’s the girls’ rendition of Pink by Lizzo followed by the guys’ take on I’m Just Ken. All the guys on tour get to wear neon tank tops and shorts as they animatedly jog out onto the floor. Nearly all of them spread out and start doing stupid exercise motions: Bucky pretends to lift weights while Brady does push ups, Croz does jumping jacks, Alex does sit ups, and the others pretend to box or jog in place or something.

Meanwhile, a spotlight illuminates Curt over on the balance beam, an apparatus that none of the guys have a clue about. He stands on it, all wobbly but exuding confidence, and he salutes a judge that isn’t there before trying out some of the girls’ skills. A wolf turn, a switch leap, a side aerial. Night after night he fails pretty miserably, sometimes nearly falling off the beam all together. He gets a lot of laughs from the audience before doing a pretty pathetic dismount and running to meet the other Kens on the floor, where they join hands and passionately sing the end of the song.

Every night, none of them can keep themselves from laughing, and they often nearly mess up their choreography, tripping over themselves and trying not to double over from the ridiculousness. Usually, that’s Bucky’s favorite number to perform.

But not tonight.

“So here’s the thing, DC,” he says into his mic as he comes out from backstage, passing the girls as they exit. He walks across the floor, back in his white tee and jeans instead of his Ken fit. “We’re gonna do something a bit different tonight. ‘Cause not only is this place my home, but it’s actually my lucky day, ‘cause a special someone is in the crowd tonight. You may be able to see him, right up here in the front row where I can look at his pretty face.” He points to Gale, who’s sitting in one of the best seats in the house, just feet from the spring floor. The man in question rolls his eyes as Bucky stops at the edge of the floor, right in front of him. Beside him, Marge laughs and shoves his shoulder. Benny reaches over and ruffles his hair. 

“What’d’ya say we bring him up here?” Bucky asks the crowd.

Gale shakes his head as if he has a choice. As if they didn’t literally rehearse this earlier today. He didn’t have a choice then, either. 

“Yep, come on, beautiful.” Bucky holds his hand out expectantly, until finally, after a very pointed I hate you glare and a long-suffering sigh, Gale takes his hand, stands up, and lets Bucky lead him onto the floor. 

The camera locks onto them immediately, showing them on the big screen for the entire arena to see. Gale is dressed in dark jeans, a gray t-shirt, and a worn leather jacket, looking as perfect as ever with his messy hair and beautiful… everything. 

Usually, the next number would be a delicate, choreographed dance combined with some skill demonstrations. A love story. Literally, it’s choreographed to Taylor Swift’s “Love Story.” On a normal night, it consists of Bucky, Brady, and Croz each dancing with one of the lovely dancers they have on tour with them. The story-telling choreography is interspersed with the guys showing off some basic skills on parallel bars, high bar, and pommel horse. 

Tonight, Bucky’s dance partner gets this number off. He felt a little bad asking her if that would be okay, but the moment he explained what he wanted to do, she all but threw herself out of the mix for this one show. 

“Yes. Do that. You have to do that,” she insisted. 

And so Gale, even before he knew the plan, didn’t really have a choice. 

Gale Cleven’s moment of fame at the Paris Olympics turned into a bit more than a moment. He’s had companies fighting to sponsor him, wanting to throw him into commercials and ads all over the place. Despite his lack of interest in social media, his following has skyrocketed. Little kids are getting into horseback riding because of him. People remain obsessed with the “Clegan” love story, and they always comment on Bucky’s videos asking about Gale.

This crowd, packed with people of all ages from 3 to 93, loves him just as much. They go absolutely nuts when the camera focuses on him as he takes Bucky’s hand and they walk over to the pommel horse. “Give it up everyone!” Bucky yells into his mic. “Gale Cleven, Olympic silver medalist, your local equestrian legend, and my lovely, amazing boyfriend.”

They’re in a stadium filled with thousands of people, but the only person that can see Gale’s blush is Bucky. 

Bucky helps Gale hop up onto the pommel horse as the lights around them dim and a spotlight shines on the parallel bars to their left. The song begins to play out over the arena: “We were both young when I first saw you…”

Gale watches Croz and his partner start their dance around the base of the parallel bars. He got to watch during their rehearsal earlier today, but now he’s pulled away by the feeling of a hand wrapping over his hip. He glances over at Bucky, and his breath catches. 

They wait in the darkness for their part of the song, and as they sit together on the pommel horse, Bucky’s eyes are locked on him, even in the dim light. Shadows flit across their faces, eyes reflecting fleeting teases of the light flickering around them. Bucky has a strong arm wrapped securely around Gale, supporting his back.

He leans in close to whisper, “I’m glad you’re here. I wasn’t sure…”

Gale’s hand finds Bucky’s free one. “Don’t tell me you thought I wouldn’t come.”

Bucky shrugs. Because part of him did think that, no matter how ridiculous he knew it was. They’ve been video calling every other day since he went on tour, but it doesn’t compare to the surety of having Gale in his arms. Before Gale can say anything else, though, the lights start to rise around them at the end of the first chorus. 

“So I sneak out to the garden to see you…”

They stay sitting at first, Gale leaning into Bucky’s hold while Bucky points up at the ceiling, acting like they’re stargazing. They smile and laugh before Gale jumps off the pommel horse, still holding Bucky’s hand, and walks around to the other side, leading Bucky into a backflip off the horse.

Typically, Bucky’s part of this number is far more choreographed, seeing as his partner is usually a professional dancer. Gale Cleven… is not a dancer. So they have to improvise a little bit. Bucky’s decided it’s fine: what the audience loses in terms of seeing competent dancing, they gain in terms of seeing a real love story.

At the part that says ‘so close your eyes,’ Gale spins so his back is to Bucky, and Bucky’s hands cover his eyes. Instead of the usual sequence Bucky and his partner would do, involving lifts, rolls, dips, what have you, he simply twirls Gale around before kissing him softly – to cheers from the crowd. He takes both of Gale’s hands in his, and they spin around together, laughing the whole time as the camera records it all for the big screen.

Later, he’ll come across a video of this moment on social media, and he’ll save it to his favorites, to watch when he has a bad day.

He grabs Gale by the waist and lifts him easily up onto the end of the pommel horse, and he walks around to the other side as Gale spins around to meet him. Bucky takes his hand, kisses his knuckles gently, and helps him down again. Then Gale jogs off into the shadows, leaving Bucky to hop onto the apparatus to do some circles and flairs. 

He comes back as Bucky dismounts, and they grab onto each other’s hands from opposite sides of the pommel horse, looking into each others’ eyes. Then comes the only real original choreography that Gale agreed to do: drawing from his equestrian experience, he grabs onto the pommel and, in one swift motion, throws his leg up over the end of the pommel horse, as if he’s mounting a real horse. Bucky comes around behind him, and Gale draws his knees up so he can be lifted off the horse bridal style.

Gale can’t help but laugh as Bucky spins him around once, twice before setting him on his feet. They end up standing in front of the apparatus, pointing to the imagined sky once again as the lights around them fade out.

Cast in partial shadow as Brady and his partner dance around the high bar, they hold onto one another and spin slowly in circles, a twirl thrown in here and there. Gale whispers things like “you owe me” and Bucky replies “please, don’t act like you’re not having fun.”

“Dancing in front of thousands of people is a little outta my comfort zone.”

“They love you,” Bucky says, genuinely. Because they do.

At the end of the song, all three pairs come together on the spring floor. Bucky lifts and spins Gale one more time, and at the very end, when the other pairs look like they might kiss but stop just short, Gale is the one to lean in that last inch or two, kissing Bucky in front of thousands of people.

“Je t’aime,” he whispers as he pulls away, and it makes Bucky freeze. Je t’aime. I love you.

Whenever he hears those words, his mind still flashes to that day when he stormed Gale’s barn to declare his love after the Games were over. They’ve said it since, of course, but not often. It still feels… New. Special. Scary.

And yet Bucky wants to shout it into a hot mic for this entire stadium to hear. He won’t, but only because he knows Gale won’t like it.

And because the sound techs learned the hard way to triple check that Bucky Egan’s mic isn’t hot.

So his heart hammers in his chest as he looks into Gale’s eyes. Croz and Brady are already walking off into the shadows with their partners, but John and Gale remain center stage, Gale’s arms wrapped around Bucky’s neck and Bucky’s hands holding firmly to Gale’s waist. Like they belong there. The roar of the crowd is deafening, but all Bucky hears are Gale’s words echoing in his head.

I love you. I love you. I love you. 

He lifts a hand to cup Gale’s jaw, stroking a thumb over his flushed cheek. “I love you,” he says back, and he kind of can’t believe he had such a hard time saying it before. 

He’s on tour with some of the best gymnasts in the world, performing every night in front of thousands and thousands of fans. He’s got several Olympic medals to his name. His leg, while still not a sure thing, has healed well enough to let him do this. To have fun with his friends in the most extravagant way. To make him really believe that he might have another Olympic season left in him.

And all of that… it’s the stuff he’s hoped for since he was a kid.

It’s all enough to make him wonder if he’s dreaming sometimes. But right now, he has this moment. Right now, above all else, it’s the way Gale smiles at him that puts him on cloud nine, makes him think he did something right.

It’s that soft, just-for-him smile that lights up his world and makes him feel like he can do anything. He wants to be the reason for that smile for the rest of his life.

So he smiles back, and he says it again. “I love you.”

…

…

Here’s a shitty video of the real Love Story number