#also this was so annoying to record and then cut up and put together so. enjoy this fndkfn

[thekidsarentalright]

all clips of patrick on siriusxm celebrating srar's ten year anniversary!

[concord-and-cliches]

turnabout disco

(id in alt text and under the cut, sketches also under the cut!)

[Image ID: Part one of two of an Ace Attorney/Disco Elysium crossover fancomic. Panel One: Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey stand, facing Harry Du Bois and Kim Kitsuragi. Harry, with a thoughtful hand on his chin, asks Phoenix and Maya, "You're looking to get your hands on the autopsy, huh?" Panel Two: Phoenix, looking deferential, says, "I know the prosecution might've told you to keep it under wraps, but it would really help out our investigation." Panel Three: Harry, hand still on his chin with a thoughtful expression on his face, says, "Hm." He continues, "Well, I wouldn't be a Superstar Cop if I followed orders all the time, so…" Panel Four: In the upper left corner, there is an image of a typical autopsy report from Ace Attorney, as it would appear in the Court Record. Harry says, from off-panel, "Here! Have at it, kids." Phoenix and Maya look down at the report with pleasantly surprised expressions. Phoenix says, "Wow, really?" Panel Five: A slightly altered copy of the previous panel. Harry, again from off-panel, says, "Sure! Just one whiff of you gave me working class vibes, so you're alright in my book." Maya, with a smug and teasing expression, says, "Nick, I think he's calling you poor." Phoenix, with an annoyed expression, says, "Maya, don't forget who signs your paychecks."

Part two of two of an Ace Attorney/Disco Elysium crossover fancomic, a continuation of the previous image. Panel One: A close-up of the autopsy in Phoenix's hand. Most of it is cut off, except for one section: "SEX: Male". The "Male" is written in blue with blocky letters. Underneath this, in grey, "pigs gonna have sex" is written, and there is a small drawing of a pleading face emoji next to this. This is also crossed out by the same blue that "Male" is written in. Panel Two: Phoenix and Maya, with wide eyes, look down at the paper. Panel Three: A copy of the previous panel, except they are now looking off-panel at Harry and Kim. Panel Four: Harry, pointing finger guns, says with a confident expression, "We put the body in a giant fridge shaped like a bear, too. Just so you know." Behind Harry, Kim looks at him with a frustrated expression, saying, "You can stop telling everyone about that any time now, detective." Panel Five: A distant shot of Phoenix and Maya standing together in silence. Panel Six: A copy of the previous panel, except, from off-panel, Harry is saying, "Did you get to the part where I shoved my hand down his throat, yet?"

An Ace Attorney/Disco Elysium crossover fancomic. Panel One: Harry Du Bois and Kim Kitsuragi are looking around Miles Edgeworth's office. Kim is in the back, looking at a bookshelf, and Harry is looking at a chessboard. Text in the panel reads: "PERCEPTION (Sight) [Easy: Success] - There's a chessboard with blue and red pieces. The blue pawns have spiky hair and the red knights have edgy swords." Panel Two: A close-up of Harry with wide eyes and furrowed brows. Text in the panel reads: "CONCEPTUALIZATION [Hard: Success] - WAIT." Harry also has a thought bubble with little images of Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth inside it. Panel Three: Kim looks over his shoulder as Harry says, from off-panel, "Kim. Kim. Kim." Panel Four: Harry turns Kim around by grabbing his shoulder, and Kim has an annoyed expression. Harry says, "Kim." Panel Five: With his arm still outstretched on Kim's shoulder, and still wide-eyed and determined, Harry asks, "Lawyers can be gay, too??" Panel Six: Kim looks on with a blank expression. /end ID]

[thehorrorsoftheblackbunnymask]

Just curious in the prison AU how did the character yk react when being arrested? I’ve seen a few videos and some people like yk resist arrest or like make it difficult for the cops to load them into the car and others just kinda let it happen? I’m just curious on how much of a struggle did the cops have when trying to arrest the proxy’s/pastas

THIS MAY INCLUDE SPOILERS FOR FUTURE PARTD OF THE PRISON AU, IF YOU DONT WANNA SEE, SCROLL PAST.

I like to think the proxies got raided, so I'm going to take some inspo from my Insane Asylum AU

Maybe Toby left a piece of evidence that led the cops right to them. For this mission, the Proxies were staying in a motel. It was the middle of the night, Toby's watching lord knows what, Hoodie's looking at some photographs he took of the victims, and Masky's smoking outside. But, as Masky's smoking, he sees bunch of cop cars in the distance. He'd run inside and tell them that they gotta leave now.

However, they got caught. Hoodie would probably be the most willing. Hoodie's the most logical of the group and he knows damn well that he isn't going to get away unless they all have a plan. He'd have the most annoyed look on his face but he wouldn't do anything.

Toby almost gotta away. Toby's had so many run ins with the cops, starting back when he was a late teenager. He would've gotten away to if his tics didn't start to act up like crazy. He'd be screaming, maybe bite a cop or two, they wouldn't definitely put a muzzle on him because he'd been sent to jail before, as mentioned in Part 1.

Masky is similar to Hoodie where he's more so annoyed then anything. But, I can see him being extremely paranoid about what the Operator and Slenderman are going to react, not even Kate has gotten caught and she works alone. He'd curse out the cops, but during the car ride, he'd be mumbling to himself, and maybe even have a panic attack.

Now to everyone else!

Ben, Jeff, and EJ were also caught together. They were all hanging out in a cabin where Jeff killing the current residents. However, Jeff had left a piece of evidence at one of his old crime scenes that led the cops to them.

EJ was dissecting one of the people Jeff killed with Ben looming over him, smoking a blunt while asking him hundreds of questions. Jeff would come over and now all of them are looming over this dead guy's body, his stomach cut open with his kidneys ripped out.

I just wanna note that these guys were the hardest to find because they're not always together, EJ eats the evidence, Ben's killings rarely leave a mark on the real world, and Jeff is good at what he does.

When the door got kicked in, the cops stared at the three in horror.

Since Ben was high as hell, he'd start laughing while saying they were fucked. Might I add, if Ben wasn't high, the three of them deadass could've escaped no problem because the cabin had a TV.

Ben was caught first and he'd be laughing, yelling "Fuck the police" while spitting on the floor. The most unserious motherfucker.

EJ killed a good chunk of the cops, but then his hunger kicked in. He ended up eating a cop, but he was able to get knocked out because of it.

Jeff got carried away and got knocked out as well.

Liu's arrest was actually recorded on live TV.

After going on a minor killing spree in a city he was in, he was seen in the background of some guy's livestream.

Liu's identity was roughly unknown by the police, and they had a few sketches of what he might look like, and unfortunately for him, they had one that was really close.

When Liu realized he was being followed by a helicopter and a few police cars, he booked it. The entire chase was live, and in broad daylight too.

He ended up cornering himself after he ran into an abandoned building. When he realized he was caught, he just sat down and waited for the cops to catch up.

When the cops walked in, they saw him sitting on top of a crate, his head facing the floor as he spinned a knife in his hand, humming a lullaby to pass the time. Tbh with you, he let himself get caught. When Jeff found out, he was so fucking pissed off. When he saw him enter the inmates ward, he yelled and playfully hit him for 30 minutes straight, Liu couldn't care less tho.

[quillpokebiology]

Bisharp Body Language, Behaviors, & Culture

Pawniard and Bisharp behaviors are some of my favorite pokemon to analyze due to their unique groups and interesting social cues. Their social cues and behaviors extend to when they have trainers and are born in captivity, and I think it's important for trainers to understand their pokemon. So, here are some Bisharp behaviors and cultures explained!

Body Language & Behaviours

Tapping

Many trainers might have noticed that their Pawniard/Bisharp will tap random surfaces. This behavior is just used to get your atention in order to tell you something. Maybe their hungry, maybe there's danger, and they want to warn you, but they are trying to get your attention for a reason.

Thiddling

(Idea from Eve-of-Halloween on Deviantart)

I think this behavior is very cute. It's a courting act where Pawniard/Bisharp tap their blades together or tap their partner/potential partner's blades in a rhythmic order.

Scraping

Sraping is a behavior where Pawniard/Bisharp scrape their blades together in order to threaten another Pawniard/Bisharp. This behaviour is used as a warning that they're about to attack. If a wild Bisharp does this to you, turn the other way because it most likely means that you are in its territory and doesn't want you there.

Bowing

Pawniard and Bisharp bow for 2 main reasons; bowing to their superiors to to invite someone to a friendly battle. Bowing to their superiors often includes keeping their blades behind their back, while bowing to initiate a friendly battle has their arms extended forward and their hands out.

Scouting

A behavior seen more commonly in Pawniard than Bisharp, and certainly not Kinggambit. This includes a group of Pawniard leaving their camp to go check their territory for any danger. With trainers or with humans, this behaviour includes getting up early and walking around the house or yard to check for any unwanted company.

Marking

Marking is when Pawniard/Bisharp mark their territory by carving their clan's symbol on rocks, trees, or other materials around them. This behaviour is more common in Pawniard than it is Bisharp, and Kingambit don't do it unless they're in captivity and their aren't any other Pawniard or Bisharp to do it for them. This behavior makes a lot of sense in the wild, but it can be annoying when your Pawniard ends up carving things on your walls or driveway.

Courting

Bisharp have a few different courting behaviors. This includes displaying their blades, gift giving, cutting up their partner's food, or sharpening their partner's blades. This behaviour can be a bit difficult when their mate isn't a member of thr Pawniard line, but they do pair very well with Gallade bcuz Gallade court in similar ways.

Clapping

The line claps for similar reasons we do; they like something. I'm just putting this here to explain the next part.

Laughing

Bisharp don't laugh the same reasons we do. We laugh when something is funny, but Bisharp will laugh to show power. It's common for Bisharp to laugh after a fight, and the behavior is seen as mocking. If you recently caught one, you should teach them that you're not mocking them when you're laughing. Or, if you want to accommodate your Bisharp, try clapping when you find something funny because clapping is also their version of laughing.

Clanging

Clanging is when Pawniard line members clang their heads together as a form of greeting. It's used as a way to form deeper bonds amongst their pack.

Culture

I just want to say that each Pawniard/Bisharp pack/clan has different cultures and behaviors, and they're not all the same. I go over it a bit in my Pawniard Facts post, and I'll go over it as well in my Bisharp Fact posts, but I am going itno more detail here!

Writing & Symbols

Each Pawniard pack has their own symbols for their clan, which they use to mark their territory. While they don't write as much as Weavile do, there have been recorded cases of them drawing symbols that aren't their or other clan symbols that they use to communicate with one another.

Naming

The Pawniard line does, in fact, name each other! It's usually vocal sounds coming from the mouth, and they may even have symbols for their names. This extends to their trainers. If your Pawniard/Bisharp/Kingambit always refers to you with a specific soundz that means that they have named you. And while it's hard to translate what these names mean, as scientists aren't fully sure if what their symbols mean, they have figured out some, and many Pawniard/Bisharp/Kingambit are named after things that are around them; like different trees or rocks.

Affection

Because of the blades all over their body, the line isn't much for physical affection. Instead, the line will show affection to one's they are close with by doing acts of service or do something I like to call "Allogrooming but without the grooming bcuz idk what it's called," where clans will have dedicated times to just relaxing and communicating eith each other. For trainers, this behavior can translate as your partner following you around or giving you gifts.

Honor

So many Bisharp clans have such a high focus on honor. The most honorable thing a Bisharp can do is become a strong leader, so evolving into a Kingambit is one of the best things you can do. But since only one clan can have a kingambit, other Pawniard and Bisharp just focus on becoming stronger for their clan and Kingambit.

Mourning

Like humans, the Pawniard line buries their dead. They're often buried with different stones or beloved objects. Researchers understand the beloved objects part, but they're still trying to figure out what the stones mean. They will have funerals foe their dead and different clans have different ways for their funerals. Some clans will have moments of silence, some will have battles, and some will celebrate their fallen friends next chapter into the afterlife.

Integration

The Pawniard line prefers to keep to their own clans, with integration of clans not being a very common thing. BUT, it isn't unheard of. It mostly happens when a Kingambit manages to take control over multiple clans, resulting in larger territories and more clan members. Integration can also happen with outer species as well. Members of the line are known to accept other humanoid pokenon into their clans, like Charcadet or Gallade, but they also get along very well with the Aegislash line. Researchers believe it is because Aegislash is attracted to any pokemon that has organized societies and have power, making it easier for the Aegislash to befriend said pokemon. Works for Bisharp's favor, since now they have something to protect them from fighting types.

Hope this helps! It was very fun researching the structures of their socities and their behaviours. If you use any questions, please ask me!

[angelwonie]

CHERRY CHAPSTICK || hwang hyunjin

PAIRING: hyunjin x fem!reader

WORD COUNT: 8.9k

SUMMARY: being hopelessly in love with your best friend is bad enough in itself, but when you decide to spontaneously kiss him at a party and he kisses you back — that's when it gets complicated. or maybe it's not complicated at all.

GENRE(S): smut, fluff, childhood friends to lovers, mutual pining

WARNINGS: smut [unprotected sex, fingering, praise, manhandling, use of petnames], consumption of alcohol, hyunjin is a simp

happy birthday deni @cosmic-railwayxo my gf!! i love you so much and i hope you like this gift babe

It’s not all that difficult to pretend Hwang Hyunjin is your friend.

Okay, clarification – Hwang Hyunjin is, in fact, your friend. For real. No pretending is required. You suppose that’s a given after he’s been by your side for the past seven or so years. And through all those years, he has time after time proved himself to be the shoulder you can lean on no matter what. Which means that your friendship is perfect. 

In a perfect friendship, there is no room for secrets, though. No facades or lies. So maybe it’s not a perfect friendship, after all. At least not on your part. Because you do keep secrets from Hyunjin. One secret, actually. One thing you can never tell him, no matter how badly you want him to know, just because you’re way too scared of losing him. 

The fact that you’re madly in love with him. 

Your best friend. Hwang fucking Hyunjin. It’s the most annoying thing ever. Only you are unlucky enough to fall for the one person you shouldn’t fall for. 

Your self-pitying is cut short when you hear your phone buzz and the phone caller ID shows up on the screen. Of course, it’s Hyunjin. You sigh, rolling out of bed as you pick up. 

“Hello?”

“Hey, I’m outside,” He greets you. “Are you ready?”

Ready? It takes your brain a second or two to process what he just said and then it hits you. You’re supposed to meet up with your friends and go to an art museum together. One look at the clock on the wall tells you you’re already running late – you’re supposed to meet them at the museum at 1pm, which means you have less than twenty minutes left. And you’re still in your pajamas.

“Uh,” You bite your lip, frantically searching for a shirt to wear as you hear Hyunjin giggle through the phone. That alone makes you smile despite your situation – he’s got such a pretty laugh. If you could, you’d record it and listen to it every night before going to sleep. 

“It was a rhetorical question,” He says. “I know you just woke up. Just hurry up, okay? It’s cold out here, so wear a jacket.”

“Okay.” 

He hangs up and you’re left smiling, not only because of his laugh, but also because he cared enough to tell you to put on a jacket. Of course, he did, you mentally scold yourself, because he’s your friend, dumbass. You put your clothes on quickly so as not to keep Hyunjin waiting for too long and apply your cherry Chapstick – the one you've been using ever since Hyunjin mentioned cherries were his favorite fruit. 

You walk out the door with your jacket slung around your shoulders around ten minutes later. 

He’s leaning against the wall of your apartment building, looking down at his phone with his black hair falling into his eyes in a way that looks totally planned, because there's just no way those hair strands arrange themselves like that naturally. What is he, pretending to be a model because God forbid if one day passes without some random girl asking for his number? You scoff a little too loudly at the thought, and it makes his head snap up, eyes meeting yours as he puts his phone in his pocket.

“Finally,” He drawls, dramatically as always, as the two of you start walking in the direction of the bus stop. It’s automatic now – when you’re going somewhere, you always take the bus together. “I would’ve freezed to death had you taken any longer.” 

“Oh, shut up,” You nudge him with your elbow, smiling when he lets out an all too loud ‘ouch’, rubbing his arm like you just punched him with all your might. “Why are you so excited about this, anyway? Haven’t you been to that museum, like, seventy times?”

“So?” He furrows his brows. “It’s still refreshing to look at paintings, even if you've seen them thousands of times. Art is timeless, you know.”

You hold back a smile. Hyunjin really has a way with words. You don’t think you’ve ever heard anybody talk the way he does – like the whole world lies in the palm of his hand but he doesn’t realize it. But maybe that’s just your own feelings talking. Either way, the way he speaks is one of the things you love most about him, and so, it has simultaneously become one of the things you have to pretend to hate. 

“And there you go with that hopelessly romantic talk again,” You’ve reached the bus station, so you stop walking, and so does Hyunjin. 

The air’s not as cold as Hyunjin had claimed, but with how much wind there is, you don’t regret putting on a jacket at all. You lean against the bus stop sign, eyes darting to look at Hyunjin as you wait. He’s deep in thought, you realize, with his hands buried deep in his pockets and his gaze scanning the area like he hasn’t seen it a billion times before. He really does find beauty in everything, you think to yourself. The wind ruffles Hyunjin’s hair and he closes his eyes to feel the breeze – a simple act yet it’s enough to make you question whether you’ve got a hopelessly romantic mindset, too. 

Maybe you only have that when it comes to him. Is that even possible? You suppose it’s just as possible as falling in love with your best friend – unlikely, but not impossible at all. You’re living proof of that.

The bus arrives and Hyunjin looks back subtly as he’s entering to make sure you’re following. It’s sweet. He’s sweet. Oh, what a tragedy this whole thing is. Probably even more tragic than those Shakespeare books you read unwillingly because Hyunjin said they were his favorites. 

The bus is almost empty, so you plop down next to Hyunjin in some of the front seats. Your leg bumps into his accidentally and you snatch it back far too quickly, but he doesn’t seem to notice, glancing out of the window, tapping his fingers on his thigh to some tune. For a while, you look at his movements, trying to figure out what song he’s playing, but you give up soon enough when you can’t seem to recognize it. It’s way too early for that kind of thinking, anyway. 

“We’re here,” You say when you arrive at your stop, well aware that Hyunjin knows it. That’s just another part of your routine, you guess. He picks you up, looks back when you enter the bus and you announce the stations for him even though he’s got it memorized. “They’re angry we’re late, aren’t they?”

“Probably,” He sighs. “I’ll just tell them the bus was late.”

It feels like your whole heart swells up at his words. Yes, Hyunjin knows you don’t like to get blamed for things and yes, he’s your best friend, so it would seem that it’s only natural he tells a white lie to save your ass. 

Except Hyunjin doesn’t tell lies. He’s like the god of honesty or something, because you swear, all these years you know him, you’ve never heard him tell a lie. Not even when he and Changbin were planning your birthday party – when you asked him why he was busy, he told you straight up he was choosing what cake to buy. Changbin pretty much beat him up for that, and yet he did the same exact thing the year after that. Now there’s no beating up at stake and he’s willing to cover for you? 

“Why would you do that?” You mumble to yourself as you walk behind him, the museum coming into view.

“Just ‘cause,” He says as you catch up to him, and you realize he must’ve heard you. “It’ll take up our time if they start whining about it. I’d rather look at paintings than hear them complain for half an hour.”

Ah. There it is. The reason he’s willing to lie. Of course, it’s because of the paintings, you should’ve known. He’s obsessed with them, after all. See, this is where having purely platonic feelings for Hyunjin would’ve been a major win. It would’ve been so much less painful if you weren’t getting your hopes up each time he did something remotely affectionate – you would’ve simply thought of them as friendly acts, not signs of his undying love for you. Guess you really are like Hyunjin, after all, if not a romantic, at least you’re hopeless. 

“Good point,” You say, voice faltering just a bit. 

After that, you just walk alongside him in silence until you reach the museum. As expected, your friends are standing out front, some of them talking loudly in between each other, and others smoking cigarettes. The smoke reaches you when you walk closer, and from the corner of your eye, you can glimpse how Hyunjin scrunches his nose up in disgust at the smell. Cute, you think to yourself, letting out a soft laugh. 

“Hyunjin, Y/N,” Changbin is the first one to spot you, and soon every one of your friends is looking in your direction. “What the hell took you so long?”

“The bus didn’t arrive on time,” Hyunjin says instantly. 

You look at him and he sends you a soft smile – one that drowns out the sound of Changbin’s annoyed voice and makes you zone out for just enough time to make Minho grab your wrist and pull you inside, muttering something about ‘wasting time’ under his breath. The two of you enter the museum first and show your tickets to the staff and stand in the hallway, waiting for the others. 

“You’re making it obvious, you know,” Minho says as you smile in Hyunjin’s direction, and it makes you turn to him with a confused expression. “That you like him. It’s only a matter of time before he realizes it, too.”

You sigh in defeat. There’s no use in lying to him, he’s got you all figured out already, so instead, you just mumble a small ‘I really hope he doesn't’ and glare at him when he chuckles. 

“You shouldn’t look this depressed even before he’s rejected you,” He comments and you scoff. Like he has any idea what it’s like to be in love with your fucking best friend. “What do you know, maybe he likes you, too.” 

You roll your eyes at the way Minho wiggles his eyebrows at you, but you don’t get to do much more than that because all of a sudden all of your friends are there. Hyunjin is there, too, his shoulder brushes against yours when he stands next to you. How do you know that it’s him before you even turn to look at him? You have no idea, but you can just kind of tell the warmth you’re feeling is radiated by him. And it turns out to be true when you turn your head to the side, almost losing the ability to breathe when you’re met with his gaze already set on you. 

He looks beautiful even in the poor lighting provided by the lamps above his head, eyes shining with this light they only hold when he’s surrounded by what he loves the most. Art. You can tell he’s happy even though he’s not smiling or laughing. It’s silent, his happiness, but for someone like you, someone who’s spent years looking at him, learning how to read him, it’s evident nonetheless. 

“Someone’s happy,” You hum to Hyunjin after your friends have vanished to look at the erotic paintings, giggling like school girls and boys. 

“Them? Yeah, they’re really enjoying this.” 

“I meant you,” You follow him when he slowly walks to look at one of the paintings, examining it. His brows furrow and his jaw is set when he’s focused, and right now is no exception. “One would think you just won a million dollars from the way you’re skipping around.”

You don’t say that you think it’s adorable or that if it were up to you, you would come here every day just to see his eyes sparkle like that. His stare leaves the painting when you utter those words, moving to look at you with an expression you can’t figure out. Which is weird, because you know exactly how to read Hwang Hyunjin. Usually. But now, his eyes are a little widened, his lip pulled between his teeth, fingers tapping his hip like he doesn’t really know what to do with his hands. It stresses you out a little and makes your heart jump in your chest because you could swear for a moment his gaze fans down to your lips. 

This only lasts a second or so, though, because soon enough, he turns his attention back to the painting in front of him. No words, no nothing. You walk a little closer, feeling kind of hurt that he’s so uninterested in holding a conversation. Maybe he senses something is wrong, or maybe his timing is just perfect, because not even a minute later, you hear him gasp quietly, shuffling next to you.

“Look,” He says just as you’re about to ask him what’s going on, and you turn around to look out of the window like him. You immediately recognize the vehicle you’re met with, a smile slowly spreading itself over your face. “It’s that food truck you mentioned last weekend, isn’t it? The one with the hamburgers you wanted to try”

“Yeah, it is.” You grin wider. He remembered. You were rambling about that food truck while he was trying to finish his homework, so you didn’t really expect him to listen. But he did. 

“Let’s go, then,” He smiles, eyes still trained on the vehicle and sparkling. 

“Wait-” You start, but before you can say anything else, his fingers wrap around your wrist and he drags you through the hall in a hurry. The paintings surrounding you start to blur when he starts running, his hand tugging at yours and forcing you to pick up the pace, too. He runs out the door and you shiver when the cool air hits your skin – now you’re really regretting leaving your jacket in the dressing room. Sensing your slight hesitation, Hyunjin whips his head around to look at you for a moment, before pulling at your hand again and jogging up to the food truck, 

You’re left catching your breath as he orders something, just now realizing that you left all your friends behind at the museum. Hyunjin seems pretty unbothered, though, handing the seller his card, his cheeks a little red – probably from the cold air or all the running. You’re a hundred meters away from the museum now, and surely, your friends have noticed your absence, but you can’t really bring yourself to worry about that when you see the satisfied smile on Hyunjin’s face as the seller hands him his order. 

It’s only then that you notice his hand is still holding onto yours, and you pull it back so quickly you hit your thumb on your thigh. It hurts a little, but the pain is dull compared to how fast your heart hammers against your chest – it’s like when you’ve run a few laps too much around the stadium, and it makes you feel dizzy and nauseous as hell. Hyunjin sends you an inquiring look, but you avert your gaze, waiting as he takes the order from the man inside the truck. 

You’re so stupid. What if he understands you like him now? What if you’ve just ruined everything? You can’t act this weird. You’re supposed to be his best friend. But a friend wouldn’t react like this to his hand touching yours. 

“Let’s sit,” You say this as he walks closer to you, partly to break the tension, but mostly because he’s making you nervous with the way he’s eyeing you cautiously like he’s trying to look into your soul and find out all your secrets. “There’s a table over here.”

You plop down on the chair furthest away from Hyunjin, even though it sparks up a feeling of guilt in your stomach. He might look like he doesn’t notice this – to someone that doesn’t know him, at least. But you do know him, and you can see how his jaw tightens, gaze a little absent. You can basically see the thoughts racing through his mind. You wonder if one of them has the suspicion that you like him. 

“You realize we can’t go back inside after running out like that? Our tickets are in Lisa’s bag,” You say after a while, breaking the awkward silence. You don’t want it to be awkward. Not with him. So the best thing is to just pretend nothing happened. Essentially, you think, nothing did. “You won’t get to look at your precious paintings.” 

Hyunjin shrugs and his gaze softens. “You said it yourself, I've seen them a million times before.” 

You nod, reminded of the hamburger in your hand. It’ll get cold at this rate, you realize, and bite into it, mostly because you don’t know what else to say to Hyunjin. The food is great, though, so you’re thankful he brought you here. And thankful he remembered. But instead of thanking him, you’re acting like a crazy person – all because you’ve got this stupidly huge crush on him and everything he does makes your heart beat faster. Even though he probably only means it in a friendly way. 

Wow, this is getting impressive. At this point, you’re just friend-zoning yourself so he won’t have to.

“Is it good?”

“What?” You look up at him with your mouth full of food. Hyunjin’s lips quirk upward, and it makes you want to die as you swallow. Why do these things always happen to you, of all people?

“The hamburger. Was it worth it?”

“Oh,” You say, this time making sure there’s no salad between your teeth. “Yeah. It’s really good.”

“Good. Let’s go then, if you’re done eating,” He smiles and stands up. Looking down at the lack of hamburger wrapping in his hands, you realize he didn’t buy anything for himself at the food truck, and it makes you knit your brows together in confusion. Why did he run all the way here, then? Especially when he could’ve stayed inside and admired those paintings he’s always gushing about instead? 

You stand up, too, but as you take the first step in Hyunjin’s direction you basically trip over your feet. Or, as it turns out once you lower your gaze, your untied shoelaces. “Shit.” 

Hyunjin interrupts your intentions of tying them by kneeling down himself, making you freeze in place as his fingers come up to tie the laces. You don’t say anything – just look at him from above, the way he moves his fingers swiftly, the way his muscles flex when he does it, and the way he needs to shield his eyes from the sun as he stands up (way too soon, according to you), flashing you a smile. It’s genuine and cute – one of the rare times he’s not laughing at you or smiling because the situation requires it.

“You should be more careful. Not tying your shoelaces is dangerous, especially for clumsy people like you.”

Your breath hitches in your throat, but you don't really get to react in any other way because suddenly, your friends jump out from behind the corner of the building you ran away from, crying out when they spot you. They’ve been looking for you, that much you can gather, but your eyes linger on Hyunjin, and Hyunjin only. 

Vaguely, you can hear how they’re complaining about you and him ‘leaving them out’, but you can’t really focus on the words spilling out of their mouths, mind occupied with replaying the picture of Hyunjin tying your shoes earlier, the way his smile made you weak in the knees. You seriously need to stop thinking about him this way.

But you can’t. Not when you’re so hopelessly in love with him. 

—

Parties aren't really Hyunjin’s thing.

Of course, he enjoys spending time with his friends, and he doesn't really mind hanging out as a group and drinking. But these kinds of parties – sweaty bodies everywhere, all too loud music and cheap alcohol mixed with the sight of people hooking up in the open – he genuinely despises. There are way too many people and way too little space. 

You don't feel the same way about parties. That much is obvious from how you're dancing with Changbin in the middle of the living room belonging to someone whose name Hyunjin doesn't remember. You’re on your third, maybe fourth, drink already, but who’s really counting. Except for Hyunjin, of course. Your laugh is louder than usual, it reaches his ears even though he’s standing a couple meters away, hiding in a corner. He’d never admit it, but the only reason he ever comes to these godforsaken parties is because you beg him to. And because, usually, he has to drive you home afterward. 

He doesn’t mind it as much as he pretends to, though. 

“Hyunjin!” 

Your words are slurred as you fall into his arms suddenly, but it’s a miracle you even managed to spot him in that state of yours. He crunches his nose in disgust at the reek of alcohol surrounding you and pushes you away from him so he can grab at your shoulders. The way you pout is cute, he thinks and shakes his head immediately as if that’s going to get rid of his dumb thoughts. His eyes fan down to your outfit – the all-too-low cleavage of your top and the short skirt that hugs your hips. It’s shameful how his pants feel too tight all of a sudden, so he averts his gaze. He’s too late, though, because you already noticed.

“Do I look pretty?” You ask him and swirl around, like what he needs right now is to get a better look at your legs. It takes all in him to keep his eyes on the back of your head until you turn around to face him again. 

“You look drunk,” He replies, albeit not very convincingly due to the light shiver in his tone, holding your arm tighter when you almost trip over your own feet. 

“I’m not drunk,” You protest, but lean into his touch nonetheless. The way he holds you against his chest when someone tries to pass by leaves your heart pounding at a dangerously fast speed and makes you feel a little lightheaded. That has nothing to do with the fact that you’re drunk, though. But the words you let escape your mouth after that do. “I like it when you hold me like this.”

Due to the alcohol in your system, you don’t really realize what you’ve said, but Hyunjin does. And it feels like his heart is about to beat out of his chest. He hopes you can’t hear it, because god, how embarrassing would that be? Here he is, feeling nervous over something you said while being both drunk and his friend. It’s natural for friends to like hugging each other. Right? 

“Aren’t you gonna say anything?” Hyunjin can feel how you lean more of your weight on him, your smiling face a little too close to his own. He can hear your breathing clearly now, and the hand that holds onto his shoulder for support is burning his skin. “You’re lucky you look so cute right now or I would’ve gotten real mad at you.”

His breath hitches, but he doesn’t think you notice. Or maybe you do. He can’t really tell in this poor lighting and with the way your thigh rests between his legs. It’s distracting. You are distracting. 

“But, then again,” You lean so close to him that your noses almost touch and he can feel your hot breath on his lips. “You always look cute. When you’re focused and you furrow your brows. When you’re looking at paintings and your eyes light up. Even when you’re scolding me and your jaw is set, I find it cute. Because you’re doing it out of concern for me. You’re always so nice to me. Always so sweet. It’s not all that weird that I fell in love with you, actually.” 

That’s when it all slows down. It’s like the world outside is nonexistent. His eyes are wide, and he’s pretty sure his hands are starting to shake. He looks at you – your wide smile, the way your gaze drops to his lips for a second longer than appropriate, and how you’re tilting your head to the side. You’re going to kiss him, he realizes. You’ve just told him you like him and now you’re going to kiss him. He can feel your warm hand rest on his chest and he wants nothing more than to pull you closer, even though he shouldn’t. 

What he should do is push you away. Tell you you’re way too drunk and you won’t remember any of this tomorrow. But he doesn’t. Because there's still that part of him that reminds him you haven’t even drunk that much, that you’re completely aware of your actions. It’s still you – your sparkling eyes, soft hair that smells of strawberries, and touch that drives him insane no matter how innocent it is. His best friend. The girl he’s in love with. 

When your lips press against his, Hyunjin knows he wouldn’t be able to pull away even if he wanted to. 

You taste of whiskey and cherries, the latter presumably from the chapstick you’ve been using for the past couple of years – the one Hyunjin has been dying to know the taste of for a shameful amount of time. It’s even better than he expected. Your hands are in his hair, and his fingers rest against the bare skin of your stomach, spreading goosebumps all over it. Experimentally, he urges you to open your mouth and when you do, he lets his tongue slip inside. 

He pulls you closer, and you sigh contentedly into his mouth in response, pulling at his hair. It feels so good – feeling his lips on yours after only having imagined what it would be like to kiss him. And he’s kissing you back, just as fervently. It’s like a dream come true. You slip your hands under his shirt, way too drunk on him to even think about where you are and that you’ve just confessed your love for your best friend. Alcohol is good for something, after all, you suppose. 

Feeling your fingers trace his abdominal muscles brings Hyunjin back to reality, and as much as he wants to let you touch him, he remembers you’re at a party. And there’s alcohol in your system. This is wrong. There’s no guarantee you even meant what you said, or if you’ll remember it tomorrow. So, as much as he doesn’t want to, he pushes you away. 

“You need to go home, Y/N,” He says upon seeing your confused expression. “You’re drunk.”

For a moment, none of you move. You’re just staring at him with your lips swollen from kissing, pupils wide, and Hyunjin thinks you must be the most beautiful person alive. But there’s a hint of pain hidden in your eyes when he meets them and it sparks up guilt in his stomach. He wants to hug you, but he doesn’t. You’re drunk and overreacting. Tomorrow, if you even remember anything at all, you’ll be thankful he saved your friendship from going under. Because there’s no way you’re actually in love with him, after all. 

“Come on, let’s get you home, alright?” He wants to grab your hand, but you pull away. 

There’s no reason for you to be this upset. He’s drunk, you’re drunk, it happens. And so it’s only natural he wants to pretend nothing happened. You’re best friends, after all. But it still hurts and the alcohol still flowing through your veins only urges you to speak your mind.

“If you didn’t want to kiss me, you could’ve just said so.”

And before you can think twice, you leave him standing there and ask Minho to drive you home. He doesn’t ask any questions and you’re thankful for that. 

Right now, it doesn’t feel like you have any answers. 

—

You’ve never avoided Hyunjin before.

Not when you were mad at him for listening in on a fight you had with your mom, and not after he caught you making out with his best friend in high school. Sure, both you and him got mad sometimes, but you’d always talk it out. Or, as it would be more accurate to say, he would talk, and slowly, but surely, you’d come to realize there was no reason to be mad. And everything would be back to normal. 

But the thing is – this time you’re not mad. Just embarrassed. And scared. Really fucking scared. And since Hyunjin is the source of those intrusive emotions, your smart brain came up with the idea of avoiding him until you magically fall out of love with him and will be able to tell him that the kiss was a mistake you regret making. 

It’s a horrible plan, really. But it’s all you’ve got.

And it works just fine for, like, thirteen hours. Out of which you slept ten. 

In the morning, Hyunjin calls you, but you ignore it. He doesn’t call again, probably coming to the conclusion that you’re still asleep. Then, you skip class to avoid him. Stupid move, because that just makes him send you even more messages, asking you if everything’s alright. And the worst part is, you want to respond to them. You really do. This is Hyunjin, after all. Your best friend. You’re missing him already. Why did you have to be so stupid and kiss him? You could’ve just let him live in ignorant bliss and saved your friendship, but instead, you chose this. You really are stupid. 

All in all, dodging his calls and skipping class is manageable, but you can’t really keep avoiding him when he quite literally grabs your hand as you’re on the way to the bathroom, pulling you into some empty classroom. 

“What are you–” You begin to say, but he cuts you off.

“You’re avoiding me,” It’s not a question. His gaze is hard and you look down – partially because you’re ashamed, but mostly because you’re afraid that if you look at his handsome face you’re just going to start crying, reminded of how he pushed you away yesterday. “Why?” 

That is a question, but it’s so dumb it makes you scoff. Does he really not know why you’re avoiding him or is he just playing dumb? It seems pretty simple to you – you told him you like him, he rejected you, and now avoiding him is easier than facing the truth. But he doesn’t appear to understand that, eyebrows raised as he eyes you cautiously. 

“Why?” He asks again, and so you cave. 

“Because,” You lock eyes with him and feel all those emotions you felt at the party all over again. “I told you I liked you yesterday. So now I’m embarrassed to even look at you.”

Silence falls over the room after you say that, your fingers fiddling with the hem of your shirt as you wait for him to say something. Anything. 

“You were drunk,” He sighs after a while. “I didn’t take it seriously. You don’t need to be embarrassed, so let’s just forget it ever happened if that’s what you want.” 

One second passes. Then two. He thinks you weren’t serious. That’s amazing news – it means you can just lie about it and never talk about it with him ever again – so why don’t you feel relieved? If anything, it makes you feel even more miserable. Because maybe – just maybe – you’d hoped he’d say he’s in love with you too. Or at least that he’d take you seriously, because, fuck, this is serious. And honestly, lying about it for another seven years seems worse than telling him right now and getting it over with.  

“I meant it,” The words fall off your tongue suddenly – an outburst of feelings you hadn’t originally intended to share. “What I said yesterday. I wasn’t even that drunk, that was just an excuse.”

You suck in a breath. One. Two. Three. It’s fine; you’re fine. Just say it. You can’t exactly back off now, either way. Hyunjin’s expression is unreadable, but that might just be your heart banging in your ears so hard you can’t focus on anything else. Okay. You can do this. 

“I’m in love with you, Hyunjin. I’ve been in love with you since I can remember. It was bound to slip out sooner or later, I guess. This just kinda makes me wish it happened later.” 

There. You said it. 

Hyunjin’s face remains unchanged, only a small spark in his eyes indicating he heard you. A few strands of his hair fall into his forehead, but he doesn’t push them away. It’s like he wants you to step forward and do it yourself. You don’t have the courage to do that, though. Instead, you just stand there and look at him until he decides to say something. 

“Why?”

His voice is soft and welcoming, so you reply right away. 

“Because you don’t feel the same way about me. And I’m scared nothing’s gonna be the same between us after this.”

He looks at you and it feels like he’s staring right into your soul. Though you suppose he wouldn’t need any special powers to do that, since you basically exposed all of yourself to him right now. He’s only silent for three or four seconds, but it feels like years as you’re standing there. You’re in the chemistry classroom, you realize, so if you were to run away now you could just say you were afraid a professor would catch you. You never get that far, though, because, at that moment, Hyunjin decides to finally speak. 

“You always do that, you know,” You furrow your brows, but he only smiles shyly. In surprise, you notice how his cheeks are tinted light pink. He’s blushing. You haven’t seen him blush since, like, sixth grade, when your mom called him handsome. “Jump to conclusions. I pushed you away yesterday because I didn’t want you to do anything you would regret later. Like drunkenly kiss your best friend that is hopelessly in love with you and give him false hope.” 

It takes a minute for his words to sink in, but when they do, it feels surreal. Is he saying what you think he’s saying? He must notice your confused expression, because he walks closer and leans his face down so it’s parallel to yours. 

“I’m in love with you, too, stupid,” His nose touches yours and you shiver. “Did you really think I would’ve gone to that food truck if it weren’t for you?”

You giggle as if trying to hide the way your heart is doing loops inside of your chest. “The hamburgers really weren’t that good.”

“I knew you were lying.” He smiles, tilting his head to the side. You can feel his breath on your face, his eyes sparkling in the poor lighting of the lamp above your head. When his hands settle on your waist, you feel like you’re about to float into the air. “Can I kiss you?” 

There’s no hesitation when you nod and that’s all the convincing Hyunjin needs. He leans forward to close the space that is dividing you from him and presses his lips to yours softly – carefully, as if not to hurt you. His tongue swipes across your lower lip and you hold onto his shoulders like you’re afraid your knees will give out. The kiss, his hand settling on your cheek to caress the skin, the softness of his lips – it's perfect. All of it.

Until suddenly, the door flies open and you jump away from him like you just burned yourself. 

“What are you guys doing here?” 

Hyunjin’s fingers leave your waist, and it makes you look toward the person that interrupted your moment. You start fixing your clothing awkwardly as you lock eyes with Changbin, whose gaze flicks from you to Hyunjin and back again, before the realization hits him and he audibly gasps, covering his mouth with the palm of his hand. 

“Oh my god,” His dramatic tone makes you roll your eyes, but really, you can feel your whole body heating up. “You’re hooking up and you didn’t tell me?” 

“We’re not ‘hooking up’,” You’re not looking at Hyunjin but you just know he’s scrunching his nose up in distaste. “We’re… figuring things out.”

“Well, maybe you should figure them out somewhere else, because I have class here in three minutes.”

Changbin sounds amused, and you can see from the corner of your eye how Hyunjin glares at him before taking your hand in his and leaving the classroom. You’ve almost arrived at the dorms by the time it hits you that he’s actually holding your hand. Hwang Hyunjin is holding your hand. And not just loosely, like he’s done since you met him when dragging you off somewhere – no, this time, he’s deliberate about it, interlacing his fingers with yours and walking right next to you. 

The warmth you feel settle in your chest isn’t just because of the temperature change that occurs as you walk into his dorm, that’s for sure.

“Minho’s not here?” You ask, looking around. You’ve been here plenty of times as Hyunjin’s friend, but this feels different somehow. It doesn’t exactly help your nervousness that the dorm is empty, except for you and him. 

“Went out with his girlfriend, I think,” Hyunjin lets go of your hand to pull his sweater over his head, probably noticing the change in temperature like you. Maybe it’s stupid, but you can’t help the way your eyes linger a little too long on the stripe of skin that is exposed when he unintentionally drags his shirt up with the sweater, your brain going into overdrive when you see how his muscles flex as he drags it down to cover his stomach again. Unfortunately, it seems that this doesn’t go unnoticed by Hyunjin. “Are you uncomfortable or something? Because if you need time to think this over or something, I’m okay with that.”

“What?” You look up to meet his gaze, feeling your face heat up. “No, I don’t, I was just… Thinking about how I like your kitchen.”

You’re fucking stupid. You could’ve said anything – literally anything – but you chose this? And just like you fear, Hyunjin notices your embarrassment, and you can clearly tell from the look he’s giving you that he’s got you all figured out already. That’s one of the disadvantages of falling in love with your best friend, you suppose. 

“You’ve seen my kitchen, like, a thousand times,” He points out and you send him a glare when he purposefully leans on the counter so his muscles are even more visible. “I don’t think you’ve seen my bedroom, though.”

Your heart jumps up to your throat as his eyes scan your body, lip pulled between his teeth. It’s not like him to be so straightforward, and you can see how his cheeks are turning pink from what he just said. Cute. That makes you feel a little less nervous, though your heart still pounds against your chest when you walk closer to him, grabbing hold of his shirt to press your lips to his. 

His touch is warm when he wraps his arms around you, his mouth moving against yours slowly. He’s taking his time, a sigh escaping past his lips as he parts them, letting your tongues interlace. You’re the one to start walking towards his bedroom, fingers pulling at his hair and he helps you open the door. His hand feels warm on your waist when he pulls away from the kiss to rest his lips against your cheek and sit down on his bed, pulling you along. 

Situating yourself in his lap, you connect your lips to his again, but he doesn’t let you ravish in his taste for too long before he starts pressing kisses against your jaw. It’s not like you mind, but you grind your hips against him in revenge nonetheless, noticing how his grip on your waist tightens and he sucks down on the skin on your neck, making you moan out softly. One of his hands works to unzip your jacket and push it off your shoulders, the other slipping under your shirt and sending shivers down your spine. 

“We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, you know,” His fingers trace your skin slowly and the sound of his voice when he rests his mouth against your shoulder – all raspy and quiet – is enough to have your underwear soaking through faster. If he thinks you want to stop now, he’s insane. 

“I want to,” He looks up at you with hooded eyes, smiling when he lifts your shirt over your head. Then, his hands come up to slide your jeans off and you help him by lifting your legs a little, now sitting down on his bulge with only your panties and his sweats dividing you from feeling all of him. He drags your hips along his experimentally and you whimper quietly, feeling how you’re soaking through your panties and probably onto the fabric of his pants. “I want you, please.” 

His eyes grow a little wider at your words and you help him unclasp your bra, letting it fall to the ground. You whine when his fingers find their way between your legs, rubbing against the fabric of your panties softly. Wriggling in his lap to create friction, you hold onto his shoulders and he gives in quickly, pushing your panties to the side so he can press his palm against your clit and rub it, eliciting a moan from you. 

“You’re so wet,” He mumbles against your shoulder, pressing kisses to it as he starts dragging his fingers through your folds, all while the palm of his hand keeps rubbing against your clit. “And so pretty.” 

Your fingers work to get rid of his shirt, and he helps you by lifting your hands. This makes you whine at the loss of contact between his fingers and your pussy, but he only smiles as he brings it back between your legs, rubbing against your heat agonizingly slowly. You buck your hips into his hand to feel more, but that only causes him to retract it, looking at you disapprovingly. 

“You’re so annoying,” You groan at him, feeling your pussy throb, hungry for his touch. “Can’t you just-”

But you don’t get to finish that sentence as he pushes two of his fingers inside of you, making you gasp loudly and hold onto him tighter. He starts pumping them in and out of you, stretching you out so well and making you squirm in his grip, your breath uneven. You’d expected him to start off slowly, but he doesn’t – he buries himself knuckles deep inside of you and his thumb rubs your clit in a steady rhythm. The kisses he litters all over your collarbones are soft – a contrast to the way he’s fucking you with his fingers that – as you notice upon looking down between your bodies – are glistening with your arousal. 

“Feels good, baby?” He asks, and you clench around his fingers in response, burying your head in the crook of his neck. 

He starts pushing his fingers in and out of you faster, hitting that spot that makes your toes curl and makes you moan his name. It’s getting hard to keep yourself up now as you’re approaching your orgasm, Hyunjin’s hand grabbing at your tits while the other makes you clench around him repeatedly. Your thighs are starting to shake, that familiar feeling of pleasure stirring up in your stomach. The feeling of his hard cock poking into your thigh doesn’t help at all, only serving for your moans to grow louder when he rubs your clit faster, more precisely. 

The sound of your pussy squelching with arousal as he drives them into you fills the room along with the moans you let out into his ear, and you feel his cock growing harder from underneath his sweats. Even though it’s difficult to gather your thoughts enough to think of anything else other than how good he’s making you feel, you manage to bring your hand to palm him through his sweats, which earns you an even quicker pace of his fingers that’s making you see stars. 

“Fuck, do that again,” He moans and you comply, grabbing his dick through his sweats and making his hips buck into your hand. You whimper at that, tightening around his fingers, nails digging into his biceps. “Want to fuck that pretty pussy of yours so bad. You want me to, don’t you?” 

You nod frantically, pushing your hips further down on his fingers and moaning his name with each movement. You’re so close now, clenching around him like crazy, pretty much bouncing on his fingers to feel him deeper. He brings you to the edge quickly, continuing to rub your clit as you cum, soaking his fingers with your slick and moaning in a way that would’ve made you feel embarrassed if it weren’t for how lost in the pleasure you are. 

“Oh my god,” You breathe out when he retracts his fingers, licking them clean of your juices. 

He looks up at you worriedly. “Are you oka-” 

You cut him off by kissing him, opening your mouth, and swallowing his moans when you palm him through his sweats again. He slips his tongue inside your mouth, and groans when he gets a taste of your cherry chapstick – he wants to bottle up that sensation and replay it every night. Your hands move to slide his pants down, and you grind down on his dick, now only divided from you with his thin boxers. 

“I want you, please, Hyunjin,” You’re way past getting embarrassed, begging him without even batting an eyelash. “Want your cock.” 

His worried gaze turns lewd, and he helps you pull his boxers down, letting his cock spring free. The sight is mouthwatering, and you know he notices you staring from the way his lips quirk upward in a soft smile, reminding you exactly why you’re in love with this man. He pulls you into his lap again, so close that your tits are pressed against his chest and his cock rests against your clit. You whine when he drags it through your folds, soaking it in your juices but not really creating any friction. 

“You’re so impatient,” He coos, positioning himself at your entrance and pushing just the tip in, causing you to clench around nothing. “You want my cock, princess? Want me to fuck you stupid?”

“Mhmm, please.” 

Hyunjin smiles, grip tightening on your hips as he pushes you down on his cock, a moan leaving your mouth when he enters you fully. It’s painful only for a few seconds – then, feel the throb in your pussy grow again and so you start moving up and down slowly, moaning softly each time you sink down on his cock. He’s biting his lip, watching your movements, and letting his hands come up to play with your tits. 

You push your chest out into his hands, bouncing up and down on his cock and feeling your walls suck him in tightly like you don’t want him to ever pull out. And you don’t. It feels so good to have him inside of you – you can feel every bit of his dick clearly and he looks really hot, with his eyes half-closed and a sheepish smile on his features, tongue darting out to wet his lips. 

“You look so pretty fucking yourself on my cock,” How he manages to look so angelic while saying that, brushing your hair away from your face, and at the same time making you clench around him frantically, you don’t know. “Wish I’d fucked you sooner, princess.” 

His words make you whimper, and you feel your thighs burn from the way you’re bouncing on his cock already. You hold onto him, but it doesn’t stop your legs from shaking and you whine, annoyed. 

Hyunjin’s hands move to your hips when he sees you struggling, and you whimper a little when he lifts them with ease before pushing you down on his cock again. It’s a whole different sensation when he does it. He’s fucking you much harder now, driving into you from a deeper angle that makes you see stars, legs giving out completely, and letting him do all the work. Hyunjin doesn’t seem to mind that, though, small groans leaving his lips as he helps you ride him.

“You’re so fucking pretty, baby,” He whispers and presses a kiss to your jaw, not slowing down in the slightest. “My pretty girl.” 

You’re feeling a little dizzy from both the praise and the way he’s hitting all the right spots, fingers probably leaving marks on your skin from how he’s holding onto you, ravishing in the way you whimper his name with each roll of his hips. You can feel the knot in your stomach tighten yet again, and there’s no way you’re going to last much longer with the way he’s splitting you open on his cock. 

“Fuck, Hyunjin, I-” The words die down in your throat as he keeps rutting into you, your eyes rolling to the back of your head when his dick hits the spot that makes you curl your toes in pleasure repeatedly. “I’m gonna cum.”

“Me too.” 

He groans and captures your lips in a kiss as his cock twitches inside of you, the feeling pushing you over the edge and making you clench and unclench around him repeatedly when you cum. He follows not long after, shooting his cum into you and moaning softly at the sensation of your walls sucking him in. You whine when he pulls out, but the sound is soon replaced by a hum of appreciation when he lies down on the bed and pulls you down so your head lies on his chest and he can wrap his arms around you. 

“I love you so much,” He says, burying his face in your hair. 

You smile. “I love you, too.”

And as you’re left regaining your breath in each other’s arms, Hyunjin still feels the faint taste of your cherry chapstick on his tongue. He wouldn’t have it any other way. 

– 

You never thought facing your friends after everything that happened would be easy, but it’s safe to say you weren’t expecting to hear party horns go off the moment you entered the cafe at which you decided to meet. 

“Congrats on bagging your best friend, Y/N!”

“Are you out of your mind? Be quiet,” You really want to kick Changbin as he shouts that as loud as he can, but you settle on sending an apologetic smile to the people sitting by tables around you and glaring at him instead. Looking to your left, you meet Hyunjin’s gaze, but he doesn’t seem as if he’s about to run away, so you decide that Changbin hasn’t lost his title as your friend just yet. You’re really thankful for the way Hyunjin squeezes your hand reassuringly, winking in your direction – even if it doesn’t exactly help calm your heart down. 

“If I were you, I wouldn’t care that much,” Minho comments as the two of you get seated. “Changbin’s pretty much spilled it to everyone, anyway.”

“What?” 

“Not everyone,” Changbin protests immediately. “Just a few trusted individuals.”

“A few hundred, you mean,” Minho snickers. “Either way-”

“Stop lying, I literally only told those girls from NCTU-”

“Either way, we just want to say we’re happy for you. Even if this means I’ll have to witness you kiss,” Minho shudders playfully and you can’t help but smile. “You look happy together, and that’s enough for me.”

“Just please don’t break up before spring break,” Changbin adds. “It will make the camping trip so awkward.”

You smile at them, feeling as if a big weight has been lifted off of your shoulders. They’re happy for you. You feel Hyunjin squeeze your hand, and you whip your head around to look into his eyes that sparkle with adoration. 

“Don’t worry, I don’t have any plans of letting Y/N get rid of me that easily.” 

Butterflies swarm in your stomach, just like they always do when he says something this cheesy and sweet at the same time. You suppose you’ll feel this way for another seven years. And then seven years more. You smile, and he smiles too. He leans down to press a kiss to your lips and you can’t help the way you feel like the happiest girl in the world when your lips move together. 

“You guys are so gross.” 

Hyunjin laughs as he pulls away, and so do you. Moments like these make it worth waiting seven years to have him.

[intuitive-revelations]

Trying to put together a pseudo-theory/diagram about the Guardians of Time / Six-Fold God and how the Toymaker, Maestro, Harbinger etc. fit into it...

... and man does it annoy me we're somehow now up to seven Guardians instead of six in the expanded universe.

This was going to be a quick rant, but has somehow turned into more of a full dissection, so buckle in for some major overthinking about Doctor Who lore from someone who has other stuff they should be focusing on.

History of the Guardians in the DWEU

To recap, we're introduced to two guardians in The Ribos Operation:

White Guardian: Light and Order

Black Guardian: Darkness and Chaos

1980s Doctor Who Magazine stories like The Legacy of Gallifrey and Power to the People continue to depict just these two (though the prior is filtered through a possibly unreliable in-universe narrator and the latter is fairly tongue in cheek). These give two possible origins of the Guardians of Time.

The prior implies the White and Black Guardians were manifested by Rassilon from within the Matrix, and entrusted with the Key to Time. While the wiki suggests this somewhat aligns with a comment by the Tenth Doctor in a recent book suggesting Rassilon could be considered a singular 'Guardian of Time' (a bit more on this book later), I wouldn't put much stock into it. Reading it now, The Legacy of Gallifrey is filled with a number of inaccuracies (though tbf, this may be more a matter of its publication date than any writing error) and as a whole comes across somewhat as pro-Rassilon propaganda, something somewhat supported by the ambiguous framing device.

The latter notably depicts the Guardians as having been a single entity of the same species as capital-G God, but split into two once God placed them in the universe. Interestingly, this does somewhat align with the later Big Finish depiction of the Guardians as below the "Grace", god-like being(s) from outside the universe.

We then get Divided Loyalties, which clarifies there's six in all, similarly forming a 'Six-Fold God'. This is directly connected to the existence of six parts of the Key to Time. It also names two more:

Crystal Guardian: Dream and Fantasy (supposedly the Toymaker)

Red Guardian: Justice and Truth

Also mentioned are "twin Guardians" of something, though the Toymaker cuts himself off before finishing.

Divided Loyalites provides an alternative account of Rassilon's meeting with the Black and White Guardians and his naming of the Great Old Ones. Rassilon speculates that the Great Old Ones are the Time Lord equivalents of another universe. Though he only knows of the two, somewhat fitting The Legacy of Gallifrey's telling (also by Gary Russell), he speculates that there may be more Guardians: Guardians of Justice, Mortality and/or Imagination. Also, fitting the idea that the previous story might have been propaganda, Mortimus dismisses this new account as 'rubbish', for "What can be more advanced than the Time Lords?". Finally, somewhat contradicting the rest of the book, the record suggests there could be more than one being known as 'Toymakers', perhaps supporting the concept of him having his own 'pantheon' as we are seeing now.

This idea of there being six Guardians is later supported by the more recent "The Whoniverse" reference book, which depicts six Guardians at the beginning of the universe, though admittedly there is room for more off-image, if one assumes they're spread evenly in a circle.

Craig Hinton expanded on Divided Loyalties's ideas, as well as those from books like Millennial Rites, in The Quantum Archangel. This is most explicitly shown in his writing notes published in Shelf Life, where the Guardians are envisioned as the high eschelons of the previous universe's Time Lords, a bit like the other Great Old Ones, and also seemingly welding this version of the Toymaker's origins with the original concept of him being one of the Doctor's people (which still may or may not be true, depending on the Doctor's origins). They also consider the Eternals and Chronovores their children. He gives a list of six Guardians, higher Time Lords (mostly) from the previous universe, who act as vessels for fundamental elements of the new universe:

The White Guardian – The Guardian of Light in Time, the Guardian of Structure, He Who Walks In Light.

The Black Guardian – The Guardian of Dark in Time, the Guardian of Chaos, the Guardian of Entropy, He Who Walks in Darkness.

The Red Guardian – The Guardian of Justice and Morality in Time, the Guardian of Right, He Who Walks in Judgement. Eventually, this will be the Doctor (see Aspects of Evil).

The Azure Guardians – The Guardians of Balance in Time, the Guardians of Equilibrium, They Who Walk Both Paths.

The Crystal Guardian – The Guardian of Thought in Time, the Guardian of Dreams, He Who Walks in Dreams. Also known as the Celestial Toymaker…

The Gold Guardian – The Guardian of Life in Time, the Guardian of Sentience, He Who Walks in Life.

He also identifies them respectively as the equivalents of the following of the previous universe's "Time Lords" (as they're not literally so, I'll refer to them as 'Pre-Time Lords' from here on out):

President – Black

Chancellor – White

Castellan – Azure

Matrix Keeper – Crystal

The Renegade – Red

The Matrix – Gold

Notably there are some odd 'asymmetries'. For one thing, the Azure Guardian seems to actually be made up of two beings (if they're a former Pre-Time Lord, maybe they "bigenerated"?), presumably being the 'twin Guardians' mentioned in Divided Loyalties. Meanwhile, the Gold Guardian, instead of perhaps being the Pre-Time Lords' Gold Usher equivalent, is actually a manifestation of their version of the Matrix.

The Red Guardian is also notable for being a renegade - the equivalent of the Doctor of the previous universe. Per Aspects of Evil, a Hinton story published in the charity anthology Missing Pieces, the Doctor in-fact not only was once the Renegade/Red Guardian, who may also be the Other (and thus the Timeless Child?), but eventually will be again once their life is over.

Regardless, all seems well and good: we now have six members of our "six-fold God" of ambiguous origins. While we do see a 'Beige Guardian' and hear about a 'Green Guardian' in Happy Deathday, a 35th anniversary DWM comic, these are seemingly entirely fictional in-universe, characters in a video game played by Izzy Sinclair.

More recently, the Leftbridge-Stewart series has dipped its toes into this part of the lore, with the Azure Guardian actually appearing in-person in An Ordinary Man. Interestingly, he is also referred to as the "Rainbow Guardian of the Quantum Realm". While the rainbow element is a bit unclear, the 'quantum' aspect may suggest his two-part nature relates to quantum superposition and entanglement.

A few months later, this is followed by another Leftbridge-Stewart story, The George Kostinen Mystery, which features the "Silver Guardian of Space and Matter"...

...which is a problem.

Now we're seemingly stuck with seven Guardians, not six. (Or arguably eight, if you count the Azure Guardian twice.)

An Aside: Time Lord Legends for Time Tots

Arguably we might even have two or three more Guardians too! That Tenth Doctor novel I mentioned earlier, Legends of Camelot, features a Time Lord legend naming more, based on Arthurian lore. Removing Ten and Donna's interjections and comments, the full thing reads:

Once upon some times, in a universe before and after our own, two powers existed: the Guardian of Might and the Guardian of Magic. In an endless battle, the Guardian of Might would try to defeat the Guardian of Magic through strength, and she would try to defeat him through cunning. Yet so closely aligned were they that neither could ever triumph. The Guardian of Might, known as Arthur, wished for the universe to be ruled by order. The Guardian of Magic, known as Morgwen, championed the forces of chaos. The fight continued until their very universe grew close to collapse, but neither would concede. The final hope was Merlin. Merlin, Champion of Neutrality, offered a solution. No more stars would be razed, no more galaxies destroyed. He took one small planet and created on it a scenario that was designed to encompass both might and magic, order and chaos – a scenario of swords and sorcery, knights and monsters, honour and deception. Each Guardian would choose a player, and the game would play out as it may, until one side had triumphed. The war would be over, the universe would be rebuilt. The Guardians agreed, and the game was played. Arthur chose a player and gave him his name, and Morgwen did the same, with Merlin as the neutral adjudicator. But the final triumph never came. If ever Arthur approached victory, Morgwen would force a reset and choose a new player, hoping for a different outcome. Merlin discovered her perfidy, and knew his plan had failed – and that other dimensions were now threatened too. While the two Guardians were distracted by their game, he compressed reality around them. Like carbon into diamond, so their dimension became the Druse, known also as the Crystal Cavern – a place imbued with such powers it would send them into the deepest possible sleep. Yet the Guardians were so mighty, it could not be guaranteed that sleep would last for all eternity. Merlin therefore imprisoned himself with them and joined the Guardians in their slumber within the Druse. He recreated the game scenario in his dreams and fed it into theirs. Thus, believing they were still playing the game, the endless battle between might and magic, Arthur and Morgwen would not realise they were imprisoned and so would not attempt to escape. And still they sleep, and still they fight, and so will it continue within time and without time, eternally and never. Yet travellers in eternity beware, and approach not the Druse, lest you rouse the sleepers and bring their fight to your reality.

Now are these 'Guardians' actually connected to the Guardians of Time?

I think...sort of.

The descriptions of each one certainly sound like they match the scale of the Guardians of Time, as does their behaviour, being convinced not to fight each other directly, causing intergalactic scale damage (as we discover the Toymaker is capable of in our universe in The Giggle), but instead by influencing mortals, or ephermals.

They also seem to match certain roles seen in the Guardians of Time. The Guardian of Might champions order, like the White Guardian, while the Guardian of Magic champions chaos, like the Black. Meanwhile "Merlin", who may or may not be a Guardian himself, champions neutrality and acts to bring balance, similar to the Azure and Red Guardians. Of course, while this shows a clear similarity between this book's Guardians and the Guardians of Time, it also implies they're redundant.

The solution seems to appear in the detail that these Guardians, even in their empowered forms, originate in another universe. Which universe is less clear, as they seem to exist parallel to N-Space, but also "before and after our own". Either way, it suggests that the same history that led to the Guardians and Great Old Ones entering N-Space (and the Division trying to escape to the next universe in Flux), may have occured before, whether as part of the same universal cycle, as part of the Dark Times, or within a completely separate universe.

Whether this version of "Merlin" connects to the Doctor and/or Red Guardian, however, is another question entirely. Ten actually mentions his recurring role as Merlin in the book, but say he definitely wasn't this one (yet anyway).

Back to the Silver Guardian

So we can discount Legends of Camelot's Guardians, but what about the "Silver Guardian of Space and Matter"?

Well... I see two possible approaches to fix this, without fully ignoring any member of the group.

On one hand, technically there is some ambiguity over whether the Guardians have jurisdiction over just Time, or both Space and Time (and presumably the whole universe). While the prior is the classic name, most descriptions suggest the latter. Even The Giggle explicitly refers to them as "The Guardians of Time and Space".

One could argue, therefore, that it might be that only the "Guardians of Time" are limited to six, and there could be more outside of that number serving the rest of the universe. If so, then the Guardian of Space and Matter might be part of this latter group.

However, it's pretty hard to justify the other Guardians not including space as part of their domains. It should also be noted that when the Toymaker says there are six Guardians in Divided Loyalties, he is explicitly referring to "Guardians of the Universe", seemingly nixing this theory.

On the other hand, a group of six + more is a surprisingly common theme throughout the Doctor Who universe, specifically in Gallifreyan culture. There are six chapters, but also the shadow-y CIA (not to mention other organisations, some of which even refer to themselves as 'chapters', like "Chapter 9" and "The Final Chapter"). There are six founders, of somewhat ambiguous identities, which may or may not include the Other, who may be a seventh. Even Gallifreyan numerology seems to reflect this, with circular Gallifreyan using a base-7 number system:

(There are also six known Menti Celesti, which seemingly lines up with this too. However, we've yet to learn of a seventh at the current time, so who knows? That being said, unlike the Guardians (for the most part, more later), the Menti Celesti seem to exist in opposite pairs: Life and Death, Pain and Hope, Time and Fate, so they may not follow the same pattern.)

This could suggest a seventh 'shadow' Guardian, separate from the other six. Our sources so far would suggest it's the Silver Guardian, given they weren't included in previous accounts, but this doesn't seem to match what little we know about them.

Other possible candidates could be the Crystal Guardian (given the Toymaker's uniqueness, not to mention 'Crystal' not exactly matching the colour naming scheme, though silver technically doesn't either - perhaps he was being unreliable in including himself as one of six in Divided Loyalties), or perhaps the Red Guardian, given their connections to the Doctor/Other, who might also be a shadow-y seventh figure in the founders of Gallifrey.

Alternatively, it could be the Azure or Golden Guardians, both unique in their own ways, the prior consisting of two entities, the latter having formed from something like the Matrix (and thus possibly consisting of many, many individual beings).

A Possible Fix?

While I'm not sure if this is the theory I'll stick with in the future, I do have my own interpretation which might offer a solution.

I think it's notable that among the 'main six', only the two members we've seen the most, the Black and White Guardians, seem to serve as direct opposites to one another.

Order/Chaos.

Light/Darkness.

It is also only these two that directly seem to link to 'Time'. The White Guardian represents order, the Black, entropy. While the exact nature of time remains uncertain to physicists, one common definition uses the arrow of time enforced by the second law of thermodynamics: the rule that over time, the universe will approach a state of chaos over order. Over time, the entropy of the universe tends to a maximum.

(This can also be applied to discussions of the Big Bang and possible fates of the universe, including the concept of repeating universes, either by quantum fluctuations long after heat death, or by cyclical processes like the Big Crunch/Bounce, something also relevant to discussions of the Guardians.)

This leads us to two conclusions:

If there is a divide between the "Guardians of Time" and the rest of the "Guardians of the Universe", it's probably around the Black and White Guardians, explaining their prominence.

The nature of the Black and White Guardians may be unique, even compared to the other Guardians.

To expand on point 2, I think it's possible that Power to the People was more accurate than we've given it credit for. While the idea of the Guardians splitting from one 'god' could be interpreted as connected to their joint identity as the 'six-fold God', it's not very compatible with the more common version of their origin as individual Pre-Time Lords.

(Unless one imagines the Pre-Time Lords all being in their 'Matrix' at the time of their entry into N-Space, I suppose, with the Gold Guardian once being all of them? Hmm... that's not part of this theory, but I suppose could be utilised as part of an alternative at a later point...)

Instead perhaps the White and Black Guardians alone were once a single "Guardian of Time", one of the six, before fracturing into two?

This may not even be that unique a circumstance. As we've acknowledged, the Azure Guardian is somehow made up of two entities, and we know there may be multiple Toymakers, not to mention his "sister" Hecuba, plus Maestro and Harbinger (though their nature might be different - as we mentioned before, the Guardians consider Eternals and Chronovores their children, so it may be that Maestro is less a Guardian and more one of these).

However, perhaps the strongest evidence other than Power to the People itself might be in one of Hinton's stories I've previously mentioned.

Aspects of Evil depicts a far-future Doctor, on the verge of death. He is approached by the White and Black Guardians who reveal that he has all his life actually acted as a servant of the Black Guardian, and a force for chaos in the universe, in combat with forces like the Daleks and Cybermen, who were always acting to impose their own "order" on it.

Along with these forces, the Valeyard is named as the Doctor's direct opposite, serving the White Guardian's goals as they served the Black's.

Not the Master, born alongside the Doctor, but the Valeyard, who was split off from them.

I think this may be a sign that the White and Black Guardians have exactly the same relationship. They weren't born together as opposites, but emerged as such, split off from one another.

One could even make the argument that they represent exactly the same thing (albeit, with Aspect of Evil's revelation, in reverse). The Valeyard represents an inevitable evil to the Doctor's good, emerging far in his future. The Black Guardian represents an inevitable chaos to the White Guardian's order, again emerging far in his future, just by the natural consequence of entropy.

Thus our final six-fold line-up of Guardians of the (current) Universe, ignoring any off-spring, reincarnations and such, might look like the following:

The (Grey?) Guardian of Time, split into the White Guardian of Light and Order and the Black Guardian of Darkness and Chaos.

The Red Guardian of Justice and Truth

The Gold Guardian of Life and Sentience

The Azure (and Rainbow?) Twin Guardians of Equilibrium and the Quantum Realm

The Crystal Guardian of Dreams and Fantasy

The Silver Guardian of Space and Matter

It's definitely messy, but might be the best fit for now. However this very much remains an open question, and there's lots of alternative solutions that could be proposed...

...

(...or you could just do the sane thing and ignore the inconsistency.)

[otrtbs]

if y'all wanna read something so unserious rn i have 1.3k words of bartylus under the cut with nowhere else to put them so

“Tell me how you did it.”

“What?” Barty looked up from his desk in the back of the classroom, momentarily stopping himself from carving his initials into the wood. 

When he finally looked up, he was met with an annoyed-looking Regulus Black. His dark eyebrows were pulled together as he frowned down at Barty’s carving. Barty has spent his entire life convinced that Regulus was a vampire. Pale skin (even in the brutal summer), strikingly dark green eyes, and raven-colored hair. He always spoke in a calm and measured cadence, dressed like he was from a different time, looked perpetually cold, and ignored everyone besides his brother Sirius- who was in the year above them and was also most likely a vampire. Barty swore that even Regulus’ canines were sharper than the average person’s were. 

Regulus slammed a white sheet of paper down on the desk and Barty couldn’t help the slight smirk pulling at his lips as he looked down at it. 

A cumulative summary for every class that Regulus Black has taken with every grade recorded in neat, black, ink. At the very bottom, circled in red pen, and where Regulus was pointing to with his bony-ass finger, read:

Rank: 2

Barty knew what he was implying but he enjoyed seeing Regulus so wound up. “Your middle name is Arcturus? What kind of name–” 

“How did you do it?” Regulus repeated, interrupting Barty as his frown deepened. “It has to be you, right? I saw your last test and you made a perfect score, so. What did you do? Did you steal an answer key for every quiz and test? Blackmail? Bribery?” 

Barty blinked at his bluntness before he recovered. “Has it ever occurred to you that maybe I’m just really fucking smart? Maybe that’s how I got to the top of the class. You know, with my brain.” 

“You never take notes, you spend half of the class time carving penises into the desks with your pen and then the other half of the time asleep, I’ve never seen you open a book to study. I call bullshit. I spend all of my time studying and reviewing and–” 

“Like a loser,” Barty coughed under his breath. 

“And you sit in the back like some burnout. High and above it all,” Regulus finished with a glare. 

“Maybe if you lived a little like me instead of shutting yourself up in a Millionaire Mile Mansion, you’d score higher on your tests,” Barty smirked, returning to his carving. 

“You also live in a Millionaire Mile Mansion,” Regulus deadpanned. “And your definition of fun is setting fire to abandoned buildings so forgive me if I don’t–” 

“That wasn’t me. You can’t prove that,” Barty cut in quickly. It was an accident. There had been a burn ban in the summer that Barty had taken a little too lightly and before he could stop it, the entire abandoned pharmacy had gone up in flames along with the field surrounding it. It was still an unsolved arson as far as Sheriff Lupin was concerned, and it was going to stay that way. 

“Relax, I’m not going to tell anyone,” Regulus softened after a moment. “Just, tell me what you did. Do you have flashcards or something?” 

“Flashcards?” Barty snorted. 

“Fuck you,” Regulus shot back before he turned to leave. The classroom was empty apart from the two of them and when he made it to the door, he looked back at Barty once more. “What you’re not coming? School is over.” 

Barty shrugged. “I have detention.”

“For what?” 

“My wonderful art skills,” Barty grinned gesturing to the desk littered with his handiwork. “And hey, Regulus?” 

Regulus stopped once more, one foot already out of the room and a scowl back on his face. 

“Good talk,” Barty finished. 

Regulus left without another word. 

The next day, Barty slipped into the back of class just before the bell and he counted down the seconds until the day was over. Mainly, he watched Regulus because he wanted to talk to him. Ever since their previous conversation the day before, Barty thought about speaking to him again. It was nice, when Regulus was talking he couldn’t scowl, and his features softened just enough that made his uncanny beauty more human. Besides, Barty enjoyed eliciting some emotion out of a boy who seemed so unreachable. 

“I hope you’re ready for my Valedictorian speech in May,” Barty taunted as Regulus gathered his things to leave at the end of the day. 

“It’ll be shit. You couldn’t give a motivational speech to save your life,” Regulus muttered under his breath. 

Barty slammed a hand dramatically against his heart. “You wound me. I was planning on telling everyone to go fuck themselves but we’ll see what I feel like on the day. Either way, you’ll be watching me from the second-place spot.”

Regulus attempted to push past him but Barty began walking alongside him, keeping in step. 

“What, no detention today?” Regulus scoffed. 

Barty shook his head as they pushed through the crowds of students gathering in hallways and chattering about their days.

“Why don’t you walk home with Sirius?” 

“Why are you still talking to me?” 

“Rude.” 

Regulus pushed through the heavy metal doors out into the sunlight. It was still too hot to be comfortable. Unbearably stifling heat that wouldn’t leave until late October. Barty followed closely behind Regulus. 

“What are you doing?” Regulus continued, shoes slapping against the pavement. 

Barty shrugged. “Making a friend or something.” 

“Well, I don’t want to be your friend,” Regulus shot back quickly. 

“Oh come on,” Barty sighed. “Us Millionaire Mile kids have to stick together or the proletariat children of the town will rise up and kill us or something.” 

“Shut up,” Regulus scoffed, and then after a moment he added, “I’m surprised you even know the word proletariat.” 

“If we’re going to be friends then you’ll have to stop insulting me so often,” Barty returned, struggling to keep up with Regulus’ quick walking pace.   

“We’re not friends. I spoke to you once and instantly regretted it.” 

“See another insult. You’ll have to get better about that.” 

They continued their walk home, past the center of town with the single grocery store, past the church and the creek and the railroad, and past the burned lot of land- that Barty had absolutely nothing to do with- until they reached Clairmont Street, more commonly known as Millionaire Mile. 

Clairemont Street contained all of the houses with wrap-around porches and antique glass windows that scattered sunlight in stained-glass brilliance on the hardwood floors. Houses with porch swings and neat trimmings and large yards with gardens that bloomed no matter how dead and withered everything else was. Houses straight out of a Southern Gothic novel. The Millionaire Mile Houses were houses for judges and politicians and their sons, for families who founded the town- or, like in Regulus’ case, houses for oil heirs staying out here because that’s where the oil was. 

As they walked, Barty managed to wear Regulus down with his quick remarks and little jabs. He could tell that Regulus didn’t mind his presence as much as they walked under trees and shop awnings– anything to keep them in the shade and out of the direct sunlight. 

“Look,” Barty began as they were about to part ways. Regulus lived in the middle of Millionaire Mile, right where Walburga liked to be. She could see everything and know everything that happened on her street. Nothing escaped her scrutiny. But Barty and his father lived in the very last house on the street. Shoved into the corner and tucked away out of sight. “I know it kills you that the burn-out kid in the back of the class is smarter than you, but I’d be happy to tutor you some time. Since I'm so much better than you without even trying.”

Barty couldn't help the smile he gave at Regulus' look of indignation.  

Regulus shook his head as he bounded up the steps to his house. “If we’re going to be friends, Barty, you’ll have to stop insulting me so often.” 

[keepingitformyself]

learning to warm cold hands

A/N: i don’t know what this is????? just a bunch of love nonsense because i was in the absolute mood for love (you’ll see). will it make sense? idk. the ending was intentionally made abrupt… hope u like it tho :]

synopsis: two people who love each other belong together. that’s it.

pairings: natasha romanoff x reader

genre: fluff?

warnings: none i don’t think…

please do not repost my work anywhere for any reason at all. if you do see this happen to any of my stories, please let me know. thank you x.

—————————————

natasha still doesn’t know how to deal with it; being loved.

but every little obstacle she has ever faced in her life has been that she had to deal with it.

sometimes she’s still a bit astonished at the fact that she has an entire family who has her back, a sister who calls just to annoy her, a best friend who defends her, and you who she comes home to, to kiss and to love endlessly.

natasha thinks that in some sense she had always been in love with you. for the amount of time you’d know each other she thought it was so strange that it took so long for you to be together.

you were always there, in plain sight. then one day, the stars decided to align and you were there and she had finally seen the light.

so yes, natasha decides that you were the best thing she’s ever had to deal with. being in love with you? she will own up to it for as much as she can.

she has accepted the scary fact that she must let herself be known. she shall let you unravel her and climb inside her heart and choose to stay. she will deal with the consequences of it later, but she hopes not.

she carries a polaroid of you in her wallet as a reminder of this. it’s there when she opens it to pay for dinner with you, or groceries, or when she sees a bouquet of lillie’s she thinks you’d appreciate.

and when she comes home to your shared apartment you’re there in the kitchen cooking a meal for her.

‘my grandmas recipe. i know you loved them when she came to visit us.’ you say as you stir a pot on the stove. she lets out a laugh through her nose and comes up behind you for a hug.

‘i made it dairy free for you. i know you’re trying to cut that off a little.’ natasha’s heart swells even bigger.

when the food is ready and the table is set and you’ve put the lillie’s in a vase at the center of the table, you will sit together and eat. natasha will listen to you as you tell her about the dish.

how you cried chopping the onions and had to take a break in between, how much you thought about her liking this meal while you made it, and how you specifically only used red and orange peppers because you remember her telling you that ‘green is boring when it comes to vegetables’ and when you’re done with your rambling you’ll reach over the table and kiss her.

she’ll tell you she loves you and you tell her she has onion breath and you’ll both laugh and god being in love is such a beautiful thing.

but everyone has their bad days.

you usually enjoy the rainy weather but it’s that time of the month and it’s effecting your mood swings greatly. natasha offers to go out and buy your favorite snacks and a deli sandwich from the bodega two blocks down.

you decline her offer with a sad smile and hide yourself under the covers of your shared bed. natasha sighs, she knows you better than that. she knows how badly you want all those things but she also knows how much of an inconvenience you feel like when you get like this. she tries to let you know that she’s okay with going out in the rain to make you happier.

you don’t budge, instead you groan into the pillows and hide further into the sheets. ‘i just need to be alone for a while.’ you mutter, a bit annoyed.

with a new determined mindset she decides she’ll give you the space you need. she brushes off all comments you made and grabs her coat before quietly leaving out the front door.

the rain doesn’t bother her one bit. she makes it to the bodega in record timing and orders from the deli. your order leaves her mouth as if she were ordering for herself.

‘can i have teriyaki grilled chicken on a sourdough with three slices of mozzarella and honey mustard, some grilled onions on the side too, can you also toast the bread for about thirty seconds longer? please, thank you.’ she orders for herself and smiles at the man working the grill then sets off on finding your desired snacks.

she’s quick with it, easily acquiring the cucumber lime gatorade you love so much, a payday bar and baked hot cheetos. she pays at the front where her deli order waits and rushes home to you.

she checks her phone on the way only to find it with four missed calls from you. the worst comes to mind and she’s home within two minutes.

she finds you on the couch looking small, her heart drops when she spots the tears that stain your cheeks. ‘i thought you were upset after i told you i wanted space.’ you mumble out. natasha sighs and sets the stuff down. she takes careful steps towards you, afraid you might disappear if she does anything too quickly.

‘no..’ she grasps your cheeks, her thumb brushing along your cheekbones. ‘i just wanted to make you feel better.’ she kisses your forehead. ‘it wasn’t anything to do with me being upset.’

you look down almost in shame. you hate being so sensitive, it makes you worry even more and you feel like an even bigger bother when things like this happen. your mind gets way ahead of your heart and you let things bother you that you know shouldn’t.

natasha notices the wheels turning in your brain. she recognizes the mental battle you’re having with yourself. your shoulders slump a little, she knows you’re tired. you’re biting your lips to keep from saying anything.

‘hey..’ natasha whispers. her heart clenches a little. it’s such a silly thing, all this. the normal you wouldn’t have let anything get this far. she laughs a little at the fact. screw periods.

‘why are you laughing?’ you’re confused and your girlfriend is laughing at you. it makes her laugh a little more and you grow a little impatient.

natasha pulls you in closer. her arms enclose around your waist and her chin rests on your shoulder. ‘i love you, okay?’ she whispers it in your ear.

she hugs you tighter.

‘whatever you’re thinking right now is only half true.’ she tells you. you’re just as confused as ever and you’re about to ask her what she means but then she’s pulling away and grasping your cheeks in her hands.

‘i want to be inconvenienced by you.’ the look in her eyes is as soft as ever. her lips have a slight tremble to them. ‘please bother me, like all the time.’

‘you are the very notion of my existence. i want everything that i do to be for you.’ she says it with that raspy tone in her voice, you know she means everything she’s telling you.

you are putty in her hands at this point, she went out and ordered your favorite comfort meal in the pouring rain…after you told her not to. because she knows you. the intimacy of it all, she knows you and she chooses to stay after the stupid things that come out of being with you.

she notices the slight furrow of your eyebrows, you’re processing what she’s just told you. you never say anything, instead you pull her in and bury your nose into her shoulder. natasha hears your inhale and she holds you even tighter.

she smells like home. like the candle you love to leave on all day, the fabric softener you use to wash her clothes, that perfume you complimented her on your first date.

a silent understanding settles between you both.

you feel the absolute removal of any walls when around each other. you have seen sides of natasha not even her own best friend has seen, or her sister.

she makes the corniest jokes, you always laugh, sometimes snort and that makes you laugh even harder. when you’re having dinner it’s silent. but it’s a good silence. the silence is comfortable and she’s holding your hand while the other is holding her spoon and when either of you talk, it’s listening and you feel like the most heard person in the world.

it all feels so perfectly warm in the bubble you’ve created together. you feel so seperate from the rest of the world in the best ways possible. in the they don’t us like we know us kind of ways.

you pull away to look at her. your heart is cradled in her hands.

[chrissdollie]

a/n: in honor of my bday today (20 years :,)) !! i hope u guys enjoy wc: 651

"matt, turn off the lights!" chris hisses, whispering. all of your friends stood in your kitchen, getting ready to surprise you on your birthday. pink decorations and balloons are all around the house for your special day. nate, standing next to chris, giggled. "ooou, chris we can't, your girlfriend's coming" he teases jokingly

"shh, shut up!!" nick covers his mouth with his finger. you unlock the front door, coming home from errands, unsuspecting of the crowd in your home. as soon as you step inside, your friends jump up in unison. "surprise!!" they shout, cheering.

you stand still for a moment, your mouth slightly open. chris practically sprints over to where you're standing, grabbing the bags from your hands (after giving you a kiss on your cheek, of course).

"thank youu!" you smile toothily, although slightly regretting your choice of clothing. you were wearing a brown fresh love hoodie and jeans, hardly any jewelry on.

you walk in, closing the door. you greet everyone kindly, giving kisses and hugs as you receive happy birthday wishes and presents. you look at the counter, seeing a hello kitty cake all pretty and decorated just for you. you gasp quietly.

nick hugs you from behind, "mom baked it for you. it's red velvet." you turn around, squeezing him back. matt comes over, wrapping his arms around your shoulders and presses a kiss into your hair.

"can we have cake now?" you giggle once nate immediately nodded, agreeing with you. everyone comes together as you stand behind the counter, behind your adorable cake. chris grabs a lighter, igniting the candles.

"happy birth-" they began, but you cut them off quickly. "wait, don't record! i need to fix my hair." you turn around as people put their phones down and chuckle, letting you do your thing.

after they successfully sang happy birthday, you waved your hands over for your boyfriend to take a picture with you first. he happily obliges like a lovesick puppy and stands at your side, an arm around your waist as nick holds his phone for a picture.

but before the picture is captured, he swipes a bit of buttercream frosting with his finger and boops it on your nose. you scrunch your nose, laughing as nick took the photo with you looking into chris' eyes.

"my turn!" nick slams the phone down onto the table and runs next to you. after the photos were taken, you grabbed a kitchen knife and sliced the first piece of cake. "it looks so good." you gush.

you hand out slices to your friends, while chatting to them joyfully. once mostly everyone had finished, chris stood up off the chair he was sat on and ushered you (in larray's deaf blind mute vid with the triplets, at 16:30 when chris and larray are telling matt to call nick a sissy) towards a big box with holes at the bottom.

"oo" you walk over, confused on what to do since there was no way to unwrap it. "pick it up from the bottom." matt tells you, recording on his phone. you do so and gasp loudly "oh my goshhh, shut up!!!"

an adorable brown puppy sits under the box, looking up at you with big, gorgeous eyes. she has a plain pink collar already wrapped around her neck. you cover your mouth with your hand while the other pets her soft fur.

"do you like it?" chris asks, awaiting your response. "yes!! thank you!" you grin, picking the puppy up into your hands and cuddling her sweetly. you rise up and kiss chris softly. "i love you, thank you so much." you pouted slightly, feeling incredibly happy. "love you more, baby." he smiled brightly.

"eugh, your lips are chapped." nick icked, while pointing at chris who rolls his eyes, annoyed. "you should use Space Camp." he pulls a watermelon flavored lip balm out his pocket.

what should the puppy's name be?? lmk! also sorry for crappy ending </3

[vinelark]

please share some outtakes im on my knees

oh man most of my outtakes are like, slight paragraphs/scene rewrites, but here are some bbts lines/alternate dialogue options that didn't make the cut!

chapter 1:

But it’s not like Tim could’ve told the kidnappers to call Bruce right away, not until today’s little attempt, which was another check in the failure column. No one else knows Tim has been practically living at Wayne Manor, and if they did it might raise too many questions. Tim can’t create an unnecessary trail of connections between Bruce Wayne and a random kid, especially a random kid in a situation where superheroes and vigilantes might then show up. He knows too well how quickly those connections can snowball if someone puts together one right conclusion, like hold on, Robin just did a quadruple flip—

---

sb aww are you jealous robin excuse me sb that no one’s made @robinsass yet robin absolutely not kon i said i’m not KON. sb http://twitter.com/robinsass i got u robin i’m calling oracle sb no worries i have five backup urls robin joke’s on you anyway unlike nightwing there are no hq photos of me. also i wear a cape. why do you think i wear a cape kon sb to cover the fact that you have no ass : (

chapter 2:

“Oh, no,” Tim wheezes when he’s done hacking up half the marina. He twists to sit heavily on the wet concrete and starts scrabbling at his shoelaces. “My shoes.”

Kon rolls his eyes. That’s it. No more saving rich kids; Kon is putting a wealth cap on all future damsels in distress. “I’m sure they’ll dry.” Or he can buy a new pair—Kon had looked Tim up after the whole kidnapping thing, just to make sure he healed up okay and everything. Kid’s parents are definitely loaded.

---

“Hey—Superboy, hey, are you good at beer pong?”

“Uh,” Kon says. “For PR reasons I don’t think I should answer that.” The answer is that he has no clue, having never played, but if he said that then half the media would have a field day with how his lack of cliché teenage rebellion secretly indicated he wasn’t so human after all. If he lied and said yes, somehow that same half of the media would clutch their pearls over him being a Bad Influence.

“Oh,” Tim says. “Well. Well, I am very good at it.”

“Um. Okay.”

Tim’s face falls. Kon has no idea why he suddenly feels guilty about this.

---

"But for the record, I’m not scared of you,” Red Hood says. “All I have to do is press a button and have Batman run you out of town if you get too annoying.”

“Batman is off-world,” Kon says, a little smugly.

Hood glares through his mask in a way that tells Kon he knows that, and is annoyed that Kon does too. Good. “Then I guess that leaves me in charge.”

chapter 3:

“What are you going to get Superboy?” Steph says. “Maybe a nice cheese plate?”

“I am going to frame Dick for tax fraud,” Tim mutters. He’s taken to hiding the charcuterie board Kon made in one of his city caches now, because Dick kept sneaking it onto the dinner table every time he visited the manor.

---

“What the—” Muffled talking on the other end. “He says he’s not sure,” the girl says to someone else. “Tim, explain this to me in small words.”

“Um.” Tim rubs his temple. “I’m with Superboy. He—found me. And took me somewhere, somewhere safe, so I’m okay for now.”

It does not escape Kon’s notice that Tim doesn’t mention the part where he apparently gave his gas mask to a kid and got a full dose of fear toxin. He raises an eyebrow, but Tim is doing a great job of avoiding eye contact.

There’s a long beat. “Oh my god,” the girl says.

“Yeah.”

“Oh my god. You are so lucky I don’t have time for follow-up questions. Call me as soon as you’re home.”

(bonus chapter 4:

Kon spares a moment to be impressed that Tim has already figured out where they are, and says, “Because any good date starts with a good snack.”

Tim’s hand spasms where he’s rolling back the jacket cuffs. “A good date, huh?”)

[kimbapisnotsushi]

going insaneeeee pls give us more stz / semiten hcs 🙏🙏

anon i would be HONORED to!!!!

semiten get together because ushijima doesn't realize that tendou's feelings are supposed to be a secret

not that he like. outright tells semi i just mean that ushijima sets them up a lot bc of it

semi: "yeah so the record shop is doing this exhibit downtown over the weekend, and—" ushijima: "tendou would be happy to go with you. you should ask him" semi: ". . . what"

ushijima is the number one semiten wingman without even realizing it honestly

also despite tendou's tendencies to wreak havoc i think he and semi are a super lowkey quiet couple when it comes down to it!! they probably get a lot of "you guys are dating??? it doesn't look like it" comments from other people tbh but they don't care, as long as they know each other's intentions then it's fine <3

the only times they do pda is when tendou particularly wants to rub it into someone's face that he's got the most amazing boyfriend in the world or just wants to brag about semi in general. especially if someone is being really annoying ABOUT semi

some asshole: "yeah i don't know why semi's so popular, it's not like he's anything special-" tendou, grabbing semi's hand: "oh would you look at that my SUPER-HOT and SUPER-SWEET boyfriend offered to get me boba!! isn't he so nice??? isn't he the best??? everyone else should learn from you or they might get broken up with. come on eita let's go before they close :3"

and then he gives the most cutting glare to said asshole because he knows for a fact that said asshole refused to buy anything from the vending machines for his gf when she asked

(GOD now i'm thinking about a fic where tendou realizes his feelings for semi + confesses bc other students keep going to him for help to confess to semi and tendou's like "well of COURSE so many people like him he'd be a great boyfriend! wait—")

anyways when they get to the boba shop tendou is the one who treats as compensation for dragging semi into his scheme

OH ALSO if ushijima gets all of tendou's pining and yearning and ranting then reon and yamagata gets semi's :333

it's worse for reon actually because i champion the "reon and tendou roomies" hc which means he goes back to his dorm room at the end of the day after listening to semi and has to face tendou . . . he bears a heavy burden on his shoulders

any time a classmate says some rich kid shit that pisses shirabu off he's like "i should have fucking gone to karasuno" under his breath and the first time tendou hears him say it, tendou laughs so hard he almost passes out

goshiki's obsessed with gacha machine collections. once he chooses a series he's going to do his best to get all of them. right now he's working his way through collecting an ice cream float series where all of the colors are violently neon gradients

(yes this is bc i saw an ice cream float one in real life. yes they were very pretty and i regret not giving it a chance)

the others help him out too!!! whenever they see a machine that has it and goshiki isn't there they always take a chance for him. shirabu got him a new one for his collection and was like "ugh here i don't understand the point of all this but it's useless to me anyways i know you've been looking for it" bc he wouldn't know being emotionally vulnerable if it socked him in the face. and then goshiki almost cried

he won't say it but that's his favorite one

what does goshiki do with them you ask??? uhhh. good question

he keeps the ones he doesn't use on his desk!! otherwise he puts them on his phone or backpack or whatever. and whenever he gets extras he passes them on to other people!!

he becomes really well-known amongst his classmates for being the gachapon items dealer LMAO

i think yamagata is also really really good at all other sports as opposed to, like, the others who are only really good at volleyball. he always dominates during the sports festival and also causes beef with like every other sports team at shiratorizawa

kawanishi hates the uniforms. he's like the shoujo high school romance rebel bad boy cliche come to life when it comes to the shiratorizawa uniforms. he'll leave them untucked and wrinkled and he'll shed them like snake skin the second he can. it's stiff and heavy and hot and he HATES it okay he wasn't built for this!!

on that note i think he and semi share similar fashion tastes!! they go shopping together a lot and hence kawanishi hears all of semi's lamenting about shirabu

look i truly really genuinely do believe semi tries. but shirabu makes it so HARD.

give me the fluffy slice-of-life comedy where semi tries to become Mentor of the Year and wears down shirabu's walls like sandpaper. i just think it'd be really fucking funny you know???

hold on . . . i have things to plan now . . .

[loud-trash-arcade]

Fuck it, I wrote fanfiction @sadgayscientist and @reaninateor, I wrote this because of you two:) if you read it let me know what you think😊I’m new to posting fanfics on Tumblr, and this is my first fanfiction, so I’m open to criticism, but pls be nice:) also this is based off the image at the bottom

Daniel cain had worked with Herbert west for many months, the two had slowly gotten closer to a point where he would consider them friends, but lately he has noticed his feelings when it came to Herbert weren’t exactly platonic. He noticed little things he wouldn’t notice when he was just observing someone normally, like the way Herbert’s glasses sat on his nose, the way his eyebrows furrowed when he was thinking, and how he would twitch when he got annoyed or bored, he also noticed how Herbert seemed to look at him differently, like he was trying to figure something out. Dan knew that his feelings toward his friend weren’t non-intimate, he worried about this, he was pretty sure it’s not normal to have romantic thoughts about your friend, especially if that friend was a man. What made this worse was the fact that they where constantly very close together, whether doing autopsies on dead bodies, or forcing Herbert to eat dinner for once, they were always either side by side or across from one another.

Dan stared at Herbert, he watched him carefully cut through the skin of the corpse in front of them, he watched him smile as he did so, Dan could never tell if he was smiling because he was happy he was working, or smiling because he was cutting through someone’s skin, he figured it would be best not to find out.

“Dan!”

Dan looked over in surprise,

“Daniel I would highly suggest that you stop staring at the corpse and hand me the cloth I’ve been asking for, for the past two minutes!” Herbert huffed, looking up at Dan in annoyance and tapping his fingers on the table in frustration, a scene that Daniel couldn’t help but find cute. Dan then realized what he had just been asked and quickly handed Herbert the cloth. “Are we done then?” Questioned Dan. “Not quite, I’m just cleaning up this body so I can bring out the rats.” Herbert explained, turning away from him. “You haven’t experimented on rats for awhile, why are you switching back? Get tired of the screaming when you inject human subjects?” Dan snickered. “Daniel you do realize that a scientist must return to smaller subjects in order to have proper results, I am not giving up on human subjects because the noises they make are irritating.” Herbert looked up at Dan in playful annoyance, a small smile playing at his lips, as Dan looked back down at him, he realized his mind was going in a direction he would rather not confront, and subconsciously he thought about what Herbert’s lips would feel like against his, realizing that a thought like that was going to land him in a very uncomfortable situation given the fact that he could feel blood rushing down, he quickly decided he needed an excuse to distract from the current problem he was facing. “Mind if I put on some tunes?” He asked, glancing over at the dusty record player in the corner. “ I do not understand why you want to distract yourself more by listening to music, but if you must.” Herbert said, not looking up from the table. Daniel hurried over to his record stash in the corner, grabbing his newest edition, his Tears for fears “songs from the big chair” record, he hadn’t gotten to play it yet, so he was quite happy to have a chance too. He put the record on and hurried back to the autopsy table as the first notes of shout played. He returned to the table to find Herbert carefully putting the body away and searching for the bag in which he kept the rats. “Have you ever loved someone?” Dan jumped at the sound of his own voice, he hadn’t meant to say that out loud, he looked over at Herbert, who had stopped what he had been doing, seemingly thinking. He looked back at Dan. “Why do you care if I’ve ever loved someone?” He said it in his normally cold tone, but Dan could hear a hint of amusement in his tone, damn it, Dan needed an answer to Herbert’s question.” I was just wondering if you planned on marrying the reagent.” Dan tried to say in a goofy tone, but it came out sounding shaky and nervous. Herbert looked back at him, once again looking as though he was trying to figure something out about him, Herbert smiled, “I don’t believe that is a question I can answer truthfully Danny.”Herbert grabbed the clear plastic bag containing the rats and returned to the table. Dan, still trying what the actual hell he meant by that, returned to the table with him. He tried to distract himself from his annoying thoughts by focusing on the lyrics in the background, and returned to helping Herbert set up the reagent. Dan barely knew what Herbert used in the reagent, and how the fuck it could bring dead things back to life, but with Herbert it was usually better to leave some questions unanswered, Dan recalled the time in which he asked Herbert something about iguanas and their habitats, and Herbert went on a thirty minute long rant about iguanas, their habitats, what they eat, and their mating habits, Dan didn’t mind Herbert’s long winded explanation on iguanas, he looked so happy explaining, he just let it go for a few minutes. Daniel then realized Herbert was using his rant as a distraction from the fact he had put blood in the microwave again. “Daniel, pass me the syringe please.” Herbert asked pleasantly. He seemed to be happier than he was before. Dan passed over the syringe. He noticed the last notes of “everybody wants to rule the world” in the background, he thought about Herbert’s entire goal with his experiments, what would happen when he finally reached his goal of

successfully bringing the dead back to life, part of him hoped it would still take awhile for him to figure it out, he feared Herbert would leave him once he succeeded, he doubted this, but there was still that nagging fear. He didn’t know why he was so infatuated with his best friend, he guessed it was some strange obsession at first, but at this point he had come to accept it: he was pretty sure he was in love with his best friend, why? That’s a good question. Maybe it was because of how excited he got when something he loved was brought up, and how fast he talked, the rare time Dan could get him to laugh, he wished he would never stop, Daniel didn’t know why Herbert insisted on hiding his happiness in exchange for his cold exterior, but he assumed that was another question he would never get an answer too. “Dan, are you there? Snap out of it!” Dan jumped and looked down to see Herbert once again staring at him in annoyance. “Daniel if you don’t stop zoning out you’ll be no more use to me than a dead ant.” “Damn it sorry” Daniel laughed, looking down, “I’m just a bit out of it today.” “Clearly” Herbert remarked,” now are you going to help me inject the dose or continue staring at the wall like it’s got you in a trance?” Herbert looked up at him and then returned to his work. Daniel helped him inject the reagent by holding the rats head up as Hebert injected the needle into the base of its neck. Daniel put the rat back down. The two watched the rodent lay still, and then spasm suddenly and come to life. Herbert pulled out his notes and watched the rat as it quietly looked around. “Interesting.” He said, looking curiously at the subject, “this one’s not shrieking!” “Is it really all that rare for one to come back and not immediately lose its shit?” Dan asked.””Actually, according to my recent studies, it is.” Herbert spoke like this was common knowledge, even though it definitely was not. “Is that good?”Dan asked. “I do not think you understand Danny, this could possibly be a breakthrough!” Herbert basically yelled this in excitement, Dan didn’t think he’d ever seen him so happy. Herbert started walking towards him and waving his hands. “This could mean so many things!” Herbert said with a huge smile. “All this because one of your experiments isn’t trying to brutally murder you?” Dan said, trying to mask how nervous he was getting as Herbert continued to invade his personal space. “Yes Daniel, this means my reagent is working properly!” If Herbert got any closer he was going to be pressing up against him, and that was not a situation Dan needed to be in, he tried to back up but ended up falling backward, and not wanting to fall, accidentally grabbed on to Herbert’s jacket and pulled him down with him. Well fuck, now Herbert was basically on top of him, but Herbert, unfazed, and now sitting between his legs, continued ranting in excitement. “Danny, this means we’re close to success!” Dan registered the playing of “head over heels” in the background, how fitting. Herbert put both of his hands down on the pavement next to Dans legs and pushed his face closer to his. “Danny! We brought the dead back to life and they’re not mindless zombies!” Dan didn’t register what he said before Herbert was kissing him, and he was kissing back, the universe had to be fucking with him, because as he and Herbert were kissing he could here “something happens and I’m head over heels!”In the background. The kiss definitely took him by surprise, he hadn’t expected Herbert to initiate anything between them, he was obviously wrong about that. Herbert pulled back, he looked like he had made a mistake, his cheeks were red, and he looked surprised. “I’m sorry Daniel, I don’t know what came ov-. Daniel cut him off with a kiss again. When he pulled back Herbert still look surprised, but there was a faint smile. “Why did you do that?” Herbert asked him. He didn’t sound regretful, just a little confused. “Because I’ve wanted to do that for awhile” said Dan, in a cheerful tone. “Oh, I wasn’t aware you felt that way.” Said Herbert blushing a little,

“ I didn’t know how to tell you how I felt, but I am most definitely glad you reciprocate the feeling.”Daniel smiled. “I’m glad too Herbert, but you’re kind of crushing me.” Dan laughed as he said this. “Oh, I apologize.” For the first time Daniel could hear Herbert speaking in an embarrassed tone, he couldn’t help but laugh at the sound of it. “Well, I am going to go and make dinner, do you care to join me?” Said Dan jokingly, expecting Herbert to make an excuse to continue with his work, as he normally does. “Yes, I suppose I will.” Herbert said as he returned to the table. Looks like Dan was incorrect again, he guessed the earlier events might have something to do with it. “Well I’ll see you upstairs then, love you.” Dan hoped the love you wasn’t too much, luckily Herbert answered with a simple response. “Love you too Danny.” And with that Daniel went upstairs to cook dinner.

Hope you liked it:)

[strawbrygashez]

Cal x Derick HCs \(^_^)/ tw for sh and uhh I guess things similar

•Literally the most freaky couple ever. They cut each other, can and will tell you the most disturbing facts out of no where like how successful certain suicide methods are and the process of body a decaying, will be that annoying ass couple that sit in the hallway together, will tell each other that they thought about killing each other the other day and swoon over it and .. just stuff like that. Horrible for each other but also they are on the same exact wave length and it’s like they can read the other’s mind.

•They talk about the weirdest shit that won’t make sense to anyone but them and neither of them are ever caught off guard over what the other is talking about. like Cal talking about aliens or Derick talking about how how he’s gonna get a new box cutter to cut himself soon because he lost his old one. To them it’s just the same as an old couple talking about what was in the newspaper today.

•Cal bought them matching friendship charm bracelets 😋 they collect charms that remind each other of the other. They both wear them all the time.

•They have a little jar of each others blood. How romantic🩸maybe they’d put some into necklaces that have a tiny little jar u can put whatever into.

•Derick is always holding Cal from behind since he’s a good amount taller. He does it even more so because it makes Andre uncomfortable seeing them handsy.

•They write poems together! A common theme in their poems is dying and being one together.

•Romeo and Juliet core. They want nothing more than to die together one day

•Not only are they freaky but they are also cringe. They are that video of that girl saying ‘stop ✋’ after some dude recorded her resting her forehead against her mans forehead. They cuddle all the time and once Cal comes out and tells his parents he’s with Derick and they accept it, they are all lovey dovey when Andre is over and it makes him want to vomit.

•Cal likes how tall and weird/out of it Derick is. When he’s quiet he’s almost got this kinda Michael myers thing about him and cal loves it 😛 He’d probably beg him to dress up as some silent horror movie character for Halloween so he can ‘freak out’ cal. Weirdo.

•They find the weirdest books and movies to show each other. Like really weird dark or artsy shit. The only thing they don’t have similar taste in is music. Cal can’t stand Derick’s screechy black metal and Derick thinks most of Cals whiny emo grunge music is lame but it’s alright :) They can settle on stuff like NIN, KMFDM, Type O negative, Deftones, Prodigy, and Rammstein. (And maybe just a little Marilyn Manson)

•Speaking of bands, once Derick gets with Cal he’s inspired by all of Cals band shirts to get some of his own. Mostly all of them are black metal bands but Cal will still steal some every now and then because the designs are admittedly really cool. Derick would only wear one of Cals if he absolutely had to (also I dunno if Cals shirts would fit him too well bc I think Derick might be a tiny bit broader)

•Andre becomes an absolute angel in Rachel’s eyes compared to Derick. While Andre just made her kinda uncomfortable and worried, she’s sure Derick has a dead body in his basement 💀

•Cal and Derick smoke and drink a lot. Their favorite place to is in grave yards.

Kinda related, not really, but they like to lay down on the ground together in grave yards and talk about how they want to be buried together ‘like this’.

[hillbilly---man]

Random Tumblr Ask Question:

What would you do if you went into your kitchen, and found a living clone of yourself?

Context: This person is YOU from this morning, but instead of doing the tasks you did, they were in the kitchen. For all other purposes, they're you. They're not an imposter, they have your memories etcetc.

This is such an interesting question!

I think after trying to figure out HOW it happened and also verifying somehow that it's real, the two of us would have to sit down together and figure out how we were going to work this out.

Putting it under a cut bc it got really long lmfao

Assuming that the other me is here to stay, we'd need to come up with some way of differentiating ourselves. It would be really arrogant to act as if I'm the original (I'm sure the other me feels the same way), so something like Jessica 1 & Jessica 2 wouldn't work. Maybe we color code ourselves?

We would have the logistical challenge of basically existing in two places at once. We only have one social security number, one car, one bed, one job, etc. Obviously I'd tell my friends and family about this, but it could get complicated when it comes to official things. We'd probably have to legally continue living as one person.

And share the bed, unfortunately. (There's a guest bed but it's not as nice as my bed lmao)

I'm tempted to be like.. "we can take turns going to work!" But it would be difficult. I have a hard enough time keeping track of shit at work as it is .. I don't need to be literally absent half the time too. Maybe we can take turns on a quarterly basis. One of us would probably spend time doing a side hustle of some sort while the other is at work. It couldn't be a full second job (with a schedule) unless the hours were outside of my own work hours; it might look suspicious/fraudulent. The additional income would help pay for the increased food/bills/etc.

On a ... More unfortunate note, we'd have to share medication. Most of what I take is no big deal. We'll let the one working in the office have the vyvanse. We'll supplement the prescription vitamins with OTC stuff. I guess we'd alternate doses of the MS medication (and other stuff) and cross our fingers that nothing bad happens from being under-medicated lol. We'll alternate MRIs and doctors appointments too. Hopefully nothing happens to one of us medically that makes our records inconsistent; if that happened I guess the affected one gets to keep going to that doctor

When it comes to social engagements, I think we'd have to take turns. I think I'm probably kind of dull sometimes and annoying at other times, so I wouldn't want to subject my friends to two of me at once. Not to mention that a lot of things cost money, and it's not always in my budget to pay double for stuff.

I guess we'd have to come up with some system of deciding whose turn it is for things. Coin flips, random number generators, tests of skill? Not only for events and stuff, but also for stuff like who gets to keep the cell phone and who has to buy another one. Who gets to keep the Tumblr account and who has to make a new one? I wouldn't mind y'all knowing, but sharing an account would probably get confusing and people might confuse us for a DID system (which to be clear isn't a bad thing, it just wouldn't be accurate)

Big decisions would have to be up for discussion. Are we applying for a new job? Are we trading the car in? Where should we move to? I imagine it would be kind of like being married, but to a more controlling extent than I think would be healthy in a marriage. We'd need to agree on tattoos, piercings, haircuts, hair dye...

Oh, we'd also have to start discussing our days and try to keep records so we can keep things straight

Actually, it might just be easier to buy a fake identity off the dark web or something. This is complicated

Thanks for the fascinating question to ponder!!

[mj-iza-writer]

SP Special Containment part 4. Human Weapons Whumpee

If you want to get a reminder of how this story is going or need to be caught up, use the hashtag #sp special containment. I'm sorry this has taken so long to post.

The director gave an odd look when Caretaker, Agent Mcgee, and Andy entered their office. He eyed the ice pack.

"It didn't go well I take it", the director sighed.

"Aramais threw slippers at my head, and I had to be rescued", Andy sat in a chair.

Mine threw her lunch at the cameras and told me to leave before they lost it", Agent McGee leaned against the wall.

"Whumpee said my heart was beating out of my chest", Caretaker sat in a different chair, "they get spooky when they know something isn't right."

"You didn't tell them anything?", the director sat back.

"I didn't have time too, she said I smelt like secrets, and needed to leave", McGee frowned.

Caretaker sighed, "I told them I wasn't at liberty to talk about it, they shut down completely, and had no interest in me."

"I made a mistake and left the speaker on while we talked. Aramais knows something is up. He is demanding a meeting with you and the other two weapons to be present. He says he wants you to tell them that they shouldn't know what's going on. He gave a warning that a cornered weapon is a very dangerous thing to play with", Andy paused, "he is refusing to eat until you talk to them."

The director groaned, "great."

"We have decided this is far to dangerous for them and us", Caretaker spoke up, "I suggest you explain to them what is going on."

The director sighed, "can we force feed Aramais."

"If you want to try be my guest, I'm not getting anywhere close to him to force a tube up his nose", Andy looked at him angrily, "I took slippers to the head. You need to talk to them now."

The director eyed the three of them, "okay fine, bring them to the board room. Let's get this over with. Each of you bring two guards with you as well. We've never had them together in a room before, I don't know how this will go. I'll be in shortly."

They all grabbed the wheelchairs and went to get their human weapons.

Andy peaked into Aramais's room.

"I don't have the slippers, what did the director say?", Aramais frowned.

Andy pulled in the wheelchair, and grinned.

"Well, first they mentioned to force feed you, but I told them not in a million years am I attempting that", Andy locked the chair into place, "they have okayed a meeting, the other two are being grabbed right now."

Aramais stood and walked to the chair, "full offense, the director sound like an idiot."

"We were joking saying we should have them take care of you three for three separate days", Andy started to strap in, "tell you guys to be on your worst behavior."

"I'd do it, I'd chuck the slippers at him", Aramais waited patiently as he was strapped in, "speaking of, can I wear those please, my feet are cold."

"I'd record the whole thing in the monitor room to watch later", Andy laughed as he put the slippers on Aramais.

Aramais looked around as he was wheeled to the board room.

"I think this is my first time out of that room", Aramais sighed.

"You were considered high risk do to your rank", Andy stated as they wheeled the chair down the hall close to the room, "you were supposed to be given two caregivers actually, but one of them didn't make the cut. You seemed to like me enough that they left it at one."

"You didn't annoy me that's all", Aramais muttered, "plus you're good to me, and I appreciate that."

Andy saw the room ahead, "here we are. I enjoy taking care of you if that helps."

Aramais nodded, "thankyou, I appreciate you taking care of me."

They entered the room.

"Oh no, you're here", Aramais laughed, "who let Jaimie in?"

"I was about to say the same thing", Jaimie smirked.

"Is this a problem?", Agent Mcgee jumped up, "we've never had you three together, and we are a bit on edge."

The guards also stood at the ready.

"No, we just like to pick at each other", Aramais laughed, "Jaimie and I were classed in the same level so we were teamed up quite a bit, we're friendlies."

Jaimie nodded, "it was for our entertainment, and it annoyed our trainers."

Caretaker rushed in, "sorry we're late, Whumpee wasn't wanting to come out at first, then they wanted to look out a window for a few minutes."

"We have Whumpee here to", Aramais grinned.

"Is that okay?", Andy sighed.

"Everyone gets along with Whumpee", Jaimie smiled.

"I had no idea it was you two that were being held here", Whumpee smiled.

"They've been keeping secrets", Aramais stated, then eyed someone as they walked in, "I bet you that person is the reason", Aramais whispered.

"Good we are all here", the director smiled weakly, ignoring Aramais' comment.

Caretaker, Mcgee, and Andy stood behind their charges as the director climbed up the podium steps.

"Hmph", Aramais sighed.

"I'm sorry?", the director looked at Aramais.

"I don't think you are in any position to stand above us and talk down to us, any of us, our caretakers and the guards even", Aramais stated in annoyance, "I know only one of us has actually seen you. You haven't earned any of our respect, and you're keeping secrets."

The director sighed, "you're a hard one, so the rumors are true."

"Not hard, just not a pushover", Aramais came back, "you have to earn my respect. Just like Andy did."

The director stepped down from the podium, "very well, your point is made clear."

Jaimie grinned.

"So we might as well get right to it. I didn't want anything said until it was fully confirmed, as in people are triple checking paperwork. Their is a chance one of the trainers evaded capture, and we don't know where they are", the director glanced at each one of them, "we didn't want to make you three uneasy. Especially if there was an error."

Aramais frowned at the news. He glanced at Jaimie, then at Whumpee.

"Who is it?", Aramais looked back at the director.

"It's uh, it's Whumpee's trainer", the director looked down, "I'm sorry, all of the holding facilities are on high alert. We started the moment we found out."

Whumpee gulped loudly.

Aramais and Jaimie both looked at Whumpee.

"That's a problem, a very big problem", Aramais gritted their teeth, "he was one of the harshest trainers their, Mitch was a living weapon himself. He was above my level even."

The director sighed, "that's why I didn't want you to know, I'm hoping it was an error."

"You don't make errors", Whumpee almost whispered, their mouth dry, "it's not an error."

"Whumpee?", Aramais frowned.

"He's here already", Whumpee looked down, "I haven't said anything as I thought it was my imagination."

"We don't know that", the director stepped toward Whumpee.

"I've seem him, I've smelt him", Whumpee squeezed their eyes, "they're here."

"You know for sure", Jaimie looked at Whumpee.

"Yes, the day in the cafeteria. Right before the sedative took affect, I saw him, I thought it was because of my blackout, my brain was imagining him", Whumpee looked at the director in tears, "he wears a guards uniform."

"You smelt him even", Caretaker leaned over the wheelchair, "are you sure?"

"Yes", Whumpee cried out, "I know that scent."

"You weren't going to tell us", Aramais looked back at the director, "you were just going to let this slide, and while you did that Whumpee was being targeted."

The director couldn't even speak, 'what now?', was his only thought. A lump sat in his throat as he watched Whumpee fighting panic mode. 'WHAT NOW?'

Taglist. As always please let me know if you want to be added or taken off of the list. It's not a problem at all. @villainsandheroes @the-beasts-have-arrived @sacredwrath @porschethemermaid @monarchthefirst @generic-whumperz @bloodyandfrightened @freefallingup13

SP Special Containment tags. @written-by-jayy @notpeppermint

Thankyou to those who gave me a push to finish this. Part 5 is in the works and hopefully won't take two months. I hope you enjoyed.

[sk8termikey]

Chapter 9 of 21 Questions

better interface on wattpad

Lily loml🌻

Bro

The triplets 1st podcast is today

I’m so excited

It seemed awesome already from the trailer last week

I knooow

Kinda mad if it's every monday bc it’s my closing day

Sucks to be you

I love my day off even more now💃🏻💃🏻

Jk i’ll wait for you to watch it tonight like you do for the other vids

Thanks bestie😞

<33

Also the fact they’re gonna have guests is really cool

I really can’t wait to watch the first one

I know they probs have a few episodes recorded

But i hope it won’t be too much work for them now

Ye

3 vids a week

Esp nick who has to edit

Nick our king >>

Fact

Btw i might be home a bit earlier bc the café is kinda dead rn

Just the old couple that comes weekly and they’re almost done

So you won't wait much for me to watch the podcast

Yayy

The one together for 50 years?

I love those old ladies, they’re so cute

Fr and they always leave a huge tip

We don’t deserve them😞

Anyways see you in an hour or so ig

See you soon🫶🏻

When Alex put her phone back in her pocket, the “old ladies” as described by Lily were getting ready to leave. When they reached the counter, they both gave the blonde a sweet smile as one of them pulled out a bill from her wallet.

“The chocolate cake was delicious as always, but did you guys change anything?” One of the ladies asked.

“Yeah Lily did!” Alex knew that her friend would be excited to know that someone had noticed. “She tried adding some chocolate shavings before putting the cake in the oven.”

“Now I’m going to have a hard time deciding which one I like most, but it was as good as the usual recipe. You'll tell her that it reminds me of how my mum would make it”.

Alex couldn’t help the smile growing on her face. The couple had never once been rude to her and her other coworkers when they would come. Lily was always glad when they would compliment her food and it helped improve her self-confidence as chocolate desserts were basically the only thing Lily had mastered. Alex was really happy that she would be able to pass on the message to her friend.

Alex was finally able to close the café after the happy couple left and because the day had been a slow one, she had had time to clean little by little so that she didn’t have much left to do now.

~~~

When Alex arrived home, Lily was waiting for her on the couch. The TV was already set up on the Cut the Camera YouTube channel and some snacks were waiting for the two girls on the table. Alex told Lily to start the podcast as she would just be grabbing a can of Dr. Pepper in the fridge. As Lily did so and clicked on the video, the first out of many “Good morning Campers” from Nick Sturniolo could be heard in the house.

The podcast first started with Nick, Matt and Chris talking about looking alike, which is something that never bothered them much as they know that their viewers are easily able to differentiate them – even Lily could do it without problem by now.

As they then mentioned the fact that some pairs of best friends sometimes looked more alike than them, Lily and Alex exchanged a quick glance before laughing. Even though they had been friends since middle school, they had barely anything in common regarding their physical appearance.

The podcast kept dwelling on growing up as triplets, regarding the impact it could have on their friends but also the annoying comments they would always get from people. However, as they were mostly talking about the negative outcomes, they decided to start listing the positive aspects of growing up with two other people. Nick, Matt and Chris all agreed that being a triplet was the same as having built-in friends who were here for you at all times.

A couple of minutes later, Chris highlighted the support he always felt from his brothers and that the three of them being on the same page is something they all feel lucky about.

Then, as the topic of constant comparison was being tackled, Lily and Alex were quietly listening. The two girls felt very close to the triplets in the way that they were learning about their struggles. Them being so open about it was an opportunity to understand how the Life as Triplets was. What hit the hardest was the moment when Matt summarised the small conversation by explaining that no matter if it's about similarities or differences, people still find a way to compare them.

The podcast eventually finished on a more light-hearted tone as Nick, Matt and Chris were laughing about their high school experience when someone would meet one of them without knowing that they were a triplet. This would lead to them pretending to be one another just for a two seconds conversation in the hallways – and then at the end of the day, debriefing who came up to talk to each of them.

“I just loved it so much, oh my god!” Alex exclaimed as the video ended.

“Me too, like– I absolutely adore the Wednesday and Friday videos but this type of content is so refreshing I don't know”, Lily agreed with her friend. “I feel closer to them, make it make sense I guess”.

“I get you don’t worry, I know we’re gonna have another perspective of their lives and they’re gonna enjoy giving it to us as much as we’re gonna enjoy learning about it.”

“Exactly like…” Lily thought for a few seconds, “an inside point of view of not only the Sturniolo Triplets but simply Nick, Matt and Chris as people, just individuals. This is what they're trying to make people realise, they're not only triplets – even though that's a bit of their brand I guess – but they are also their own person.”

The two girls were just really excited to see more of this new project from the triplets, although Alex had to share some semi bad news:

“However, I have no idea if I’ll have the motivation to watch an hour of podcast every Monday when I come home from work”.

“Oh yeah, I understand”. Lily put a comforting hand on Alex’s shoulder while trying to find a solution. “Just pick a day and we’ll catch up at that time!”

“I mean, I might not even watch it weekly if I’m honest so– I won’t mind and it might actually be best that you watch them whenever you want like when they come out if that’s what you prefer and I’ll postpone my ‘watch podcast sessions’ until I have enough attention span to listen to them for a whole hour”, Alex explained.

“If that’s okay with you yeah I’m fine with that”, Lily let out a smile. “We’ll still have to discuss it obviously”.

“Of course”, Alex immediately agreed. “Lots of new info we’ll have to talk about!”

What they didn’t know yet is that watching the next podcasts on their own would finally enable Lily to choose her favourite triplet as she would realise that one of them might be a bit too relatable for her taste, and maybe a tiny bit too attractive on camera.

Thank you for reading. Votes and comments are always appreciated if you like this story :) The story is co-written w @/little_grapejuice on wattpad