#and “interrupting others” and that they always seem like they’re “putting on an act”

[little-red-fool]

You ever see a famous person and you’re just thinking. There’s something undiagnosed about you.

[suzukiblu]

WIP excerpt for Cheshire behind the cut; “Billy adopts Conner and it actually goes pretty good!” (( chrono || non-chrono ))

He takes a moment to lean down and neaten Tawky’s bowtie and sweater for him to make sure he still looks like a proper gentleman, since Lynn squished him kinda hard a couple times in there and there’s the whole lack of opposable thumbs issue making it a little harder for Tawky to fix himself up, and Tawky purrs appreciatively. Normal tigers don’t actually purr, but Tawky isn’t particularly interested in being normal, he always says. And it’s super-cute, so Billy’s not gonna tell him to. Like, he wouldn’t either way, but double-definitely he isn’t gonna. 

“Do you think Lynn’ll want a bedtime story?” Billy wonders. Tawky looks thoughtful. “I know, yeah, we did get a lot of books, maybe that’d be like . . . overwhelming? To pick from, I mean? I guess I could pick out a few he could pick between, but . . . well, maybe just if he has trouble, you think?”

Tawky purrs approvingly. Billy beams at him, then neatens his fur a little more and straightens back up. He knows it’s way harder for Tawky to talk when he’s a stuffed animal, but he’s always a great listener no matter what and really pays attention. 

“Cool, yeah, I think it’s a good idea too,” he says, figuring he’ll pick some out in his head first and then just separate them from the others if Lynn needs some help narrowing things down. “Did you like the salmon? I thought it was so good, oh my god. Um–gods. I never know if I should say ‘god’ or ‘gods’, it’s not like I’m really religious or anything, you know, it’s just that I know some gods, so like–” 

“. . . are you talking to me?” Lynn asks warily from the doorway of his room, and Billy brightens reflexively and looks over to him. Lynn’s wearing a pair of dark blue pajamas with the top unbuttoned and pulled on over his T-shirt like an open jacket, which–hm, maybe Billy should tell him that it’s not really meant to be worn like a jacket? But also that seems warmer anyway and he would definitely want to be as warm and, like, cozy and stuff as he could if he’d gotten raised in a lab run by total assholes who didn’t even tell him stories, so . . . 

Also . . . well, the world is this brand-new big and scary place full of strangers and stuff he doesn’t know, so maybe Lynn feels a little safer with the “S” on, come to think. Billy, like . . . gets that idea, really. 

He definitely gets that idea. 

“Oh, no, sorry, I didn’t mean to, like, interrupt you while you were getting changed or anything,” he apologizes. “I was talking to Tawky. He’s a great listener!” 

Lynn looks at him for a long moment, then flicks his eyes down to Tawky and looks at him for a long moment. 

“. . . right,” Lynn says slowly, just barely raising an eyebrow. “Uh. I . . . bet, yeah.” 

Billy beams at him. He’s just so glad Lynn and Tawky like each other. Or like . . . have a good impression of each other, at least? Like–that’s really great, that they like each other. 

“Definitely!” he agrees cheerfully. “Do you like the pajamas? Like, they’re not scratchy or anything, right?” 

“. . . they’re linen,” Lynn says. 

“. . . um?” Billy says, wrinkling his nose in confusion. Linen? That sounds, like . . . kinda expensive, maybe? Is linen actually expensive or does Solomon just think it is ‘cuz he’s from like a few thousand years ago? ‘Cuz Solomon has opinions about purple dye. And black dye. And, like–cinnamon and stuff like that. “. . . I think Batman maybe has a shopping problem.” 

Lynn looks down at his sleeve and eyes the cuff of it skeptically. 

“The tag said ‘Frette’,” he says. “Is that a brand or something?” 

. . . Billy pulls his new phone out and just . . . googles that, real quick. 

. . . . . . Billy puts his phone back and decides to never google anything ever again. 

“I think Batman definitely has a shopping problem,” he says, still feeling a little lightheaded from the price listings he saw. 

Um. Maybe he wants to sit down for a sec, actually. Or, uh . . . a minute. Or so. 

“Does Batman buy everything?” Lynn asks, looking skeptical again. 

“Well, the Justice League paid for everything, we’ve got like, grants and donations and stuff, but Batman was the one who made me fill out a requisition form and did all the ordering and everything and picked out the apartment,” Billy says with a shrug. “I didn’t really know what to ask for, though. Like–the windows, but not all that much else, really. Oh, and comfy furniture and a big enough kitchen for both of us. And the beanbag chairs ‘cuz those are cool and I thought maybe you’d think they were cool too? Though I didn’t know the apartment was gonna be this big, I just wanted us to be able to eat in there and stuff. Like, um–you know, dinner and all. Meals.” 

“‘Meals’?” Lynn repeats, his eyebrows just barely furrowing, and Billy feels kind of embarrassed to outright say it, but also he doesn’t wanna, like . . . not say it, so . . . 

“Like family meals?” he says. He kinda said it before, but he also kinda just phrased it as “hanging out” at the time, he thinks. Well, they were about five minutes into knowing each other, so yeah, that’d felt less . . . presumptive, he guesses he’d thought? “I just think it’s better to, um, have those. Like, at least when we can and stuff.” 

“. . . oh,” Lynn says. 

“Do you wanna pick out a book for bed?” Billy suggests. Lynn stares blankly at him for, um . . . yeah, Billy’s definitely lost count of how many times Lynn’s stared blankly at him. Well, Lynn just kinda does that, it seems like, so yeah. 

“A book,” Lynn says. 

“I mean, we got so many,” Billy says. “And it’s easier to go to sleep if, um, you wind down a little bit first? And reading’s usually good for that, y’know?” 

“. . . sure,” Lynn says, still staring blankly at him. 

“I mean, you don’t have to,” Billy says sheepishly. His parents did it for him, so . . . “Just I thought maybe it’d help?” 

Lynn stares at him some more. Billy smiles as encouragingly as he can at him. Lynn, um . . . stares some more. 

Yeah, he definitely just does that, Billy thinks. 

[spideysbruh]

Still Want It All

a/n- this is kinda a part two to i want it all, but it can be read alone !!!

~~~

A couple of months after Y/n and Timothée get together, their press tour is about to start. Y/n has no idea how they're going to hide that they're together. They honestly can't keep their hands off each other.

Things have been great, Timothée just met her parents and they absolutely loved him, telling Y/n how great he is and how well he carried himself at their dinner.

She met his parents as well, she was extremely nervous, but it went well. He told her afterward that they’d never reacted this nicely with any other girl he’d brought home, they thought she was pretty, nice, and charming.

They’ve been seen out together a handful of times, but it didn’t cause anything too crazy online, since they had filmed a whole movie together and have posted each other online before.

Y/n liked that she could still post the occasional photo or video of him, and whenever he posts a story of her, it just comes off as two friends hanging out. Which is true to an extent.

They’re in a news building right now, getting ready for their first interview of the press tour. She’s sitting next to their director, Aaliyah, and Timothée is on the other side.

They answer a handful of regular questions about the movie, making jokes here and there. Aaliyah gets a question primarily for her and Timothée takes the opportunity to lean back in his chair and make eye contact with Y/n behind Aaliyah. She raises her eyebrows at him, wondering what he wants.

He grins and sticks his tongue out at her, making her snort and shake her head.

He does little things like that throughout the day, poking her side, flipping her off, and even sneaking a quick glance at her boobs making her jokingly roll her eyes.

“You're a sick fuck.” She says at the end of the day as they head into the elevator to get to their shared room.

“What did I do? I'm just a chill guy.” He sarcastically says, pushing their floor number.

She laughs, “Shut the fuck up.” he chuckles and as soon as the doors close completely he grabs her face, kissing her fervently.

She hums and kisses him back, her hands tangling in his hair, tugging on the strands gently.

He pulls away and sighs against her lips, “Been wanting to do that all day.”

She smiles and quickly kisses him again before the doors to their floor open.

He takes her hand in his and walks to their room, swiping the card to unlock it.

The weeks pass and they get used to acting like nothing more than just friends for the interviews, maybe a little flirting here and there, but nothing out of the ordinary for them.

Timothée is always touch starved throughout the days, but sharing a room with her every night makes it worth the wait.

Today, they have a few fun one on one interviews, the first one being a 'friendship test'

“Hi! I'm Y/n L/n.”

“And I'm Timothée Chalamet. And this is the friendship test.” He said, interrupted by Y/n giggling.

“You said that really seriously, it was weird.” She laughs, nudging his arm.

“Oh, my bad.” He chuckles, admiring her for a second.

She smiles and looks at the card in her hand, “Do you remember when and how you guys first met?” She reads, looking back up at him with a smirk.

He hums and thinks for a moment, having to look away from her to resist the urge to kiss her. He puts his finger on his chin to make it seem like he's thinking about it, which makes her laugh again.

“I do, I remember being reallyyyy fucking nervous because it was you, and you're awesome and brilliant and extremely talented. I remember thinking you probably wouldn't talk to me off camera.” Y/n says, blushing at the memory, “But then you came into the room and you were the nicest dude ever! You introduced yourself like you weren't literally Paul Atreides, and then you asked if I wanted to get lunch with you in the cafeteria. Which really helped for our chemistry on set and everything.” She finished.

“You know what's crazy? I was nervous to meet you because I had already seen your audition tape and you were just fucking spectacular that I thought I'd look stupid next to you.” He laughs, Y/n's mouth drops at his words.

“Don't play with me, bro!” She says, he chuckles and shakes his head.

“I'm so serious. I knew you were extremely talented from the second they showed me your tape.” He shrugs, crossing his arms and meeting her eyes.

Y/n pouts, “You never told me that.”

Timothée eyes her mouth and bites his lip before responding, “Well we never talked about this before.”

“That's true. Okay okay, your turn.” She says, watching him grab his card and scan over it.

“Best moment together outside of filming?” He reads, they both smirk as a rush of other kinds of memories fill their minds.

They make eye contact and burst out laughing, Y/n shoving Timothée while laughing, “There's so many.” Y/n says, trying to make their laughing seem normal.

“So so many.” Timothée helps as he leans back towards Y/n, and then feigns thinking.

“Ummm, I'm thinking of when you went to that Sabrina Carpenter concert with me instead because my friend flaked on me and you let me serenade you the whole time.” She replies, trying to think of one that was innocent and doesn't expose that they're dating.

“Awww I was thinking the same thing.” He says, touching her arm.

“Were you really?!?!” She asks, surprised.

“No.”

She rolls her eyes and lightly shoves him with her shoulder, “Well I like that one. It was still pretty early on too, like we only knew each other a month or two by that point, but you still came with me.” She smiles, “What would you say, then?”

Timothée hums, “How about when we had that movie night, and I met your cat and you cooked for me? You made that one puerto rican dish, remember? I'm forgetting the name.”

Y/n smiles at the memory, that was the night that she knew she liked him more than a friend. He was so cute and respectful, he even had a second plate.

She blushes at the fact that he thinks of that as one of their best memories.

“Yeah, I wanna change my answer to that one too, actually.” She giggles, Timothée watches her carefully before looking back at the cards in front of them.

Y/n clears her throat as they switch to standing face to face for the next exercise.

“We're gonna have you guys compliment each other, you can write them down on those cards.” A crew member explains as he hands them markers to write with.

“Wait, y/n turn around, so we don't see what we're writing.” Timothée says, grabbing her shoulders and turning her away from him, he turns himself too as he starts writing.

“Wait oh my god, you're writing so quickly.” Y/n giggles, “There's just soooo many amazing qualities that I have, huh?” She teases, jokingly flipping her hair.

Timothée laughs, “There really are.”

She blushes at that as she writes down her compliments. “Okay, I'm ready when you are, Timmy.” She smirks, knowing how much he likes when she calls him that, maybe just not right now.

Timothée groans and turns around in sync with her. “You can go first, y/n/n.”

She sighs and reads her card, “I wrote that you're a very kind and generous person. You always look out for the people you care about. Which I find very admirable.” She says, smiling at the way his eyes soften at her words.

“Thank you.” He appreciates, “Um, I wrote that I love how good you smell.”

It's quiet for a second until y/n speaks, “Are you serious?” She wonders.

“No.” He shakes his head, making her laugh, her booming laugh echoing across the room. Y/n once again shoves him as she laughs, Timothée snorts and watches as she calms down, patiently waiting with a small smile on his face.

“I'm sorry, T. Go ahead.” She giggles, wiping her eyes.

“I actually wrote that I love your laugh. I like how when something is really funny to you, you basically lose all sense of mobility and just shove the person closest to you. And your laugh always fills the room with so much delight and makes everyone else happy too. It's never a bad thing to make others cheerful.” He finishes, seeing her smile widen at his words.

“Thank you, Timothée. You don't even know how many times I've gotten crazy looks because of my laugh.” She grins, he huffs and shakes his head at that.

“People just hate happiness, I swear. Your laugh is adorable.”

“Thank you.” She blushes and looks down at her card, “My other one that I wrote was that you're very witty. You always know how to lighten the mood and make someone feel better when they're down.”

“I try my best.” He nonchalantly says.

“Well, you're really good at it. You've helped me a couple times!” She says, placing her hand on his arm.

“Thank you, thank you.” He responds, running a hand through his hair. “I also wrote that I love how confident you are. You never let anyone harsh your mellow, and you're extremely comfortable in your own skin.”

“Well, that's what a lifetime of bullying does to a person.” She replies, jokingly shaking her head.

“Stop, were you actually bullied?” He asks, reaching over to comfortingly rub her arm.

“Oh yeah, to this day!” She laughs it off.

“Why would they bully you?” He asks in genuine disbelief.

She shrugs, “Too weird or something, who knows?”

“Well, I love you just the way you are.” He says, she blushes and leans over to nuzzle her head against his shoulder for a second.

“Awwww thank you Timmy, I love you too.” She smiles, his cheeks redden at that and he sighs.

The next exercise is a mind meld, they have to name the same things at the same time.

“Okay, condiments.” She says, and he nods, “on three… one, two, three. Ketchup!”

“Ketchup!” They say in unison, Timothée cheers and jumps around, making her laugh.

“Dude, we're literally so in sync.”

Timothée agrees and places his hands on her shoulder, shaking her a bit as he jumps up and down excitedly. “We're not done, T. Your turn.”

“Right, right…. okay a color. One, two, three- green!”

“Green!” They once again say in sync.

“Bro!” He exclaims, clapping as she giggles.

“Bab- bro we're so.. mind melded.” She catches herself, making him laugh.

“Hell yeah we are! Let's finish strong. Animals!”

“Okay okay, one, two, three- Giraffe!”

“Whale shark!” He says at the same time that she says giraffe, she frowns and stares him down.

“Why the fuck would anyone say a whale shark?!” She questions, he sighs and defeatedly lays on the ground, jokingly putting his arm over his eyes.

“Just leave.” He jokes, Y/n snorts and lightly kicks at his legs.

“Come on, we're gonna get this on the second try, watch.”

“Join me down here.” He says, peeking up at her, she giggles and jokingly groans as she sits down next to him.

“Okay, one two three- elephant!”

“Peacock!” He yells, y/n frustratedly sighs, putting her face in her hands.

“Timothée! Once again, why is peacock the first animal you thought of?!” She teases, he laughs and sits up.

“I don't know!” He chuckles, admiring her as she sighs.

“Okay, third time’s the charm! Let's think more domestic, okay?” She says, meeting his eyes, he nods, “one.. two.. three- cat!”

“Cat!” he says, y/n cheers and lunges forward, tackling him to the floor.

“THAT'S HOW YOU DO IT!” She exclaims as Timothée laughs, wrapping his arms around her. “We're literally the most mind-melded people ever.” She jokes as she pulls away.

Timothée grins, “I think it's safe to say that we passed the friendship test.”

“Oh yeah, with flying colors.” She knowingly smiles and takes his hand to help him up.

~~

After filming that, they have a one hour break for lunch and Timothée keeps trying to hold her hand and kiss her in risky places.

“I miss youuuu.” He whines as they walk down the hall.

“Baby, we've been together all day.” She giggles as he intertwines their fingers.

“I know, but-” She's cut off by him pushing her into a private bathroom, “Timothée!” She exclaims, turning to face him.

“Yeah, but it’s literally torture not being able to kiss you whenever I want… and do other things.” He complains, pouting at her.

“I'm sorry! I just wanna make out with my girl for a minute or two pleaseeeeee.” He begs, softly kissing her cheek.

“You're such a horny little fucker.” She giggles as he kisses down her neck.

“I didn't say I wanted to fuck… unless you want to.” He suggestively says, raising an eyebrow.

“You know what, you did say for a minute or two…. you'd still have about a minute for cleanup. Give or take.” She teases, he playfully tugs on her hair at that.

“Funny.” He says, and then leans in to kiss her, sliding a tongue between her soft lips.

She moans and wraps her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. He groans and lifts her to sit on the sink, she chuckles into it and wraps her legs around him. He rubs his crotch against hers and she pulls away.

“Don't get any ideas baby, we're not having a quickie right now.” She mumbles against his lips.

He sighs, “No no, of course not. Just a fun little makeout of course.” He goes back to her lips as she giggles.

His hands respectfully stay on her thighs, squeezing them occasionally as they kiss passionately for another minute or two before reluctantly pulling apart.

“I guess we should go eat.” He says begrudgingly, helping her off the sink.

“Yeah I guess so.” She says, reaching forward to fix the collar of his shirt.

He smiles lightly and gently rubs some smeared lip gloss from underneath her lip before opening the door for her.

“After our last interview today, I'm all yours tonight.” She promises as they walk down the hall.

When the video posts a couple of days later, Y/n watches it in their hotel room while Timothée is showering. She laughs at how cute they are and can't help but love how it's kind of obvious that they're together… or maybe not.

She's reading the comments when Timothėe comes out in only his underwear, his hair dripping as he sits down beside her, kissing her head before speaking.

“What you doing?” He mumbles, looking at her laptop.

“Mmmm, reading the comments on that friendship test we did.” She says, he chuckles and leans in closer so he can read them too.

THE WAY HE LOOKS AT HERRRRR

BRO HES IN LOVE W HER ISTGGGG

or maybe they're just friends promoting their movie..

THAT FACE SHE MADE AFTER HE SAID HIS BEST MEMORY W HER OH M HHHGGH SHE LIKES HIM FR

the way for his compliments he said he “loved” them… oh he wants her

that was so funny when she tackled him to the ground, BUT THEN HE HUGGED HER 🥺🥺😭😭😭😭 she's so lucky

HE SAID HER LAUGH IS ADORABLE 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

“You in love with me, Timmy?” She says softly, he laughs and turns his eyes away from the screen to her.

She smiles and kisses his lips, setting the laptop on the dresser as he slowly deepens the kiss.

He caresses her face, “Of course... How couldn't I be?”

“I love you.” She moans as he kisses her neck, he sensually licks at it before softly sucking a small purple spot onto an exposed spot. “Timmyyyy, people will see.” She whines, but doesn't make any effort to stop him.

“Mmmm, let them, you can do me next.” He mutters, nipping at the collar of her shirt. She giggles, tangling her hand in his hair. “I love you, y/n/n. These past few months have been the best of my life.” He says, his lips now centimeters away from hers as he speaks.

“You still want it all with me, baby?” She wonders, he nods and pecks her lips, pulling her to lay on top of him.

“Of course I do.”

*

[eatmyheartoutjpg]

Part 1. Part 2.

YOUNG HERO ii ;; You get involved with the Flaxan invasion. (This may be boring, but it sets stuff up!!! BEAR WITH ME)

04.05.25 Masterlist

You’d started feeling restless whenever you weren’t on duty.

Your body always betrayed that tension—fingers drumming, knee bouncing, eyes blinking too fast. Balling your fists. Biting your lip. Your whole frame screamed unease when you weren’t doing something, anything.

There was always someone who needed help, somewhere. But you were told to stay put. Stay on call. You were reserved for larger-scale disasters—ones the others couldn’t handle. So while weaker, greener heroes were dispatched to smaller missions, you waited.

Now, you stood beside Cecil in the GDA control room.

He was in the middle of coordinating chaos, barking orders into multiple channels. The main screen showed a full-scale alien invasion—Flaxans. Their first appearance on Earth.

Teen Team was already deployed. You knew them. Familiar faces. Not the best fighters, honestly. Not the worst, but far from cohesive. Their coordination was shaky, barely holding together under pressure.

Your eyes stayed locked on the screen. You listened in.

Robot’s voice buzzed over the intercom, something about the Flaxan tech. Advanced. Too advanced. More than the Teen Team could handle. You didn’t like this.

Your stomach twisted.

They didn’t have a real powerhouse to anchor them. It was a fight they shouldn’t have taken alone.

You turned slowly toward Cecil, who was still focused, still commanding.

“Cecil, I’ll go—” you started.

“Stay put.” He didn’t even look at you. Just moved on, speaking to Donald.

You listened. You always did. Orders mattered. Trusting Cecil mattered. Acting on your own could compromise strategy. You weren't a rookie. You weren’t reckless.

Your heart thudded harder when you saw Atom Eve throw up a barrier, shielding civilians as she took heavy fire. It cracked. Then shattered. You felt your legs twitching, your brain buzzing—already breaking down every move you’d take if you were out there.

One by one, the team started to falter.

“Cecil—” you said again, jaw clenched, hands shaking with restrained urgency.

“We’re sending you in, kid,” he said, cutting you off this time.

He didn’t need convincing.

You were already moving before he finished.

“Keep fighting. Backup will arrive in thirty seconds,” Robot’s voice crackled calmly over the comms, even as explosions rocked the battlefield around them.

“I’m kinda running outta things to explode, Robot!” Rex shouted back, dodging blasts. “I don’t have thirty sec—onds!”

“They’re killing me faster than I can—” Dupli-Kate gasped. Her duplicates dropped like flies, barely giving her time to recreate them. “Regenerate!”

“Backup has arrived,” Robot interrupted flatly.

It hadn’t been thirty seconds.

No one complained.

You returned to the med-bay after the Flaxan invasion, following Cecil’s orders. He seemed to be more wary of your health.

The moment you stepped into the lobby, the sterile brightness hit you hard—rows of medical personnel in white uniforms moved toward you in a blur. Under the harsh, artificial lights, they looked more like specters than staff, the overwhelming white of their clothing and the room itself blending into one suffocating sheet of color. It reminded you of snow blindness.

Everything felt heavier. Your limbs, your lungs, your thoughts. Fatigue was catching up to you, finally dragging its claws down your spine after being kept at bay during the fight.

They were speaking—probably asking questions, checking vitals, listing injuries—but your ears refused to register any of it. All you could hear was the slow, muted thump of your heartbeat. You nodded absently at their words, your gaze scanning the lobby.

Still pristine white. Spotless. Like always. Strange how a place so clean could host some of the most grotesque things behind its closed doors.

Then you saw it.

A trail of blood snaked along the edge of the hallway, partially smeared, but undeniably fresh. You squinted at it.

Unusual.

You were normally the only hero sent to the med-bay with such frequency—Cecil’s doing. No one else bled in here. Not like this. It stood out like a splatter of red on untouched snow.

You took a quiet step forward and politely waved off the staff, “Excuse me for a moment.”

“Wait! You—”

You didn’t catch the rest. Their voices melted into the background, distant and warped. They didn’t try to stop you—no one ever did. You held a certain unspoken authority here. People made room when you walked, even without meaning to.

You followed the trail in silence. It grew thinner as it went, vanishing in spots where it had been stepped through or dried. You didn’t notice how the same medical staff were quickening their pace behind you, trying to keep up, trying to reach out. But you weren’t present enough to notice. Your mind buzzed too loud for anything else.

The trail ended at a familiar automatic door.

You stopped.

You knew this room.

Omni-Man’s.

Your chest tightened, alertness returning in an instant.

The door hissed open.

Your hand curled into a fist on reflex, expecting a threat. An intruder. Maybe a killer returning to the scene—but that was unlikely. This was one of the most secure facilities on Earth. Still, caution never hurt.

Then a voice broke the tension.

“Mom…?”

You blinked.

A boy stood in the room. Your age.

Mark Grayson.

Omni-Man’s son.

You’d seen him in passing. Heard his name mentioned. But now he stood there in a bloodied hero suit you didn’t recognize, red staining him from collar to boots. He was smeared in it—some his own, some not. It clung to his face and hands, dripping down onto the tile, soaking into the sheets under his comatose father.

He looked like he was on the verge of tears. His eyes were red-rimmed and heavy-lidded, his breath uneven.

“You’re…” he began, voice hoarse, almost broken.

“Sorry. I thought a threat was here,” you said quietly, eyes shifting away. You hadn’t meant to intrude.

You never knew what to do in moments like this. Social situations were… complicated. You gave everything to this life. Traded your personal time, friendships, comfort—for a cause. It left you just, dependable, calm.

But it left you unable to comfort others.

You didn’t comment on the gore. Didn’t acknowledge the way he shook slightly, either from exhaustion or emotion. You figured he probably didn’t appreciate you walking in on something so personal.

Then came the footsteps. Heavy, hurried.

You turned to see the medical team again, panting, finally catching up.

“You need medical treatment..!” one of them managed, nearly breathless from trying to keep pace with you.

You looked at them, confused, before glancing down.

Oh.

Your suit was soaked. It clung to your body, drenched and sticky, as if you’d been dipped into a vat of blood. You hadn’t even noticed. Somewhere between the invasion and now, you’d tuned out the pain, the weight as usual.

Mark stared at you in disbelief. You were in worse shape than him, and yet you’d carried yourself like you were untouched. Untouchable. You seemed more invincible than he was.

You’d ignored your condition again. This was becoming a pattern.

You really did need to work on that—on acknowledging the people here who tried to take care of you. You’d promised yourself you would.

“Were… you were at the Flaxan invasion,” Mark finally spoke, his voice dry and strained, his vocal cords sounding frayed.

You tilted your head slightly.

So he was there too.

It must’ve been before you arrived.

A/N ;; I have writers block, but somehow pumped this out. Hope it wasn't too bad! This series might get lengthy, I have a ton of ideas for it but it's a bit difficult to express in writing.

[serapharua]

୨୧ 一 BOYNEXTDOOR AS HYBRIDS

bnd ot6 — GENRE : imagines headcanon fluff hybrid au — WARNING : none — REQUESTED : nope. ☆ — BND MASTERLIST

note : these are all so easy to guess

SUNGHO as an orange cat hybrid :

Sungho has this vibe that’s neat, well-mannered, and thoughtful, but with just enough unpredictability to keep you on your toes. Orange cats are known for their slightly chaotic but lovable personalities, and while Sungho isn’t always loud or wild, he does have this mischief to him. He feels like the type who’ll politely side-eye you, quietly judge, and then do something subtly funny when no one’s expecting it.

He’s the kind of hybrid who always looks clean and put-together, sleeps in the sunniest spots, and acts aloof until he decides you’re worth his time. But when he does choose you, he’s surprisingly clingy, curling up beside you and giving soft purrs (or snarky remarks).

Also, yes, I do know that an orange cat isn't a breed of cat, just color type, and I'm mainly saying orange cat cause that stereotype fits him well, but if I had to give him a breed, then I think he’d be an Abyssinian cat breed.

♡ Meticulous groomer. Always neat.

♡ Sharp reflexes, likes observing others from a distance.

♡ Might act like he doesn’t care, but he notices everything.

♡ Gets annoyed when his nap is interrupted.

♡ Probably bites playfully but says, “I was just testing your reflexes.”

♡ Will show affection when no one else is around, secret softie energy.

He’s got that classic orange cat attitude

RIWOO as an otter hybrid :

Riwoo gives off soft, serene, and gentle vibes, like the calm ripples of a stream. He’s not loud or flashy, but his presence is comforting, almost therapeutic. Otters are known for being affectionate, clever, and low-key playful, which matches Riwoo’s subtle humor and warm nature.

He feels like the type of hybrid who loves small, cozy spaces, probably nestles under blankets, or curls up with his tail around him when he’s tired. He’s someone who needs time to open up, but once he trusts you, he becomes a loyal and slightly clingy companion, always nearby or subtly checking on you.

♡ Loves water, showers too long, bath times relaxing.

♡ Fidgets with objects: pebbles, pens, rings, classic otter behavior.

♡ Very touch-oriented when comfortable: shoulder leans, gentle hand-holding.

♡ Sensitive to loud noises or big crowds. Needs quiet recharge time.

♡ Carries emotional depth but expresses it in soft, nonverbal ways.

♡ Can be unexpectedly stubborn about tiny things, like a favorite mug or routine.

He’s the hybrid who swims around quietly, seems shy, and then suddenly dunks his friends underwater just to tease them, then pretends it wasn’t him.

JAEHYUN as a Labrador hybrid :

Jaehyun radiates the dependable, affectionate, and endlessly upbeat energy that’s a signature Labrador. Compared to the often silly golden retriever, Labradors tend to feel a bit more grounded, but just as friendly. They’re the ultimate companions: loyal, playful, emotionally intuitive, and always trying their best to make others feel good.

Jaehyun feels like the hybrid who shows up early to help, carries everyone’s bags without being asked, and makes sure no one’s left behind. He’s got a strong sense of responsibility, but he’s also incredibly goofy when he’s relaxed, tail wagging, eyes sparkling, ready to play or joke around.

♡ Makes friends with everyone. Even the shy ones love him.

♡ Natural protector, he checks in on people without making a big deal about it.

♡ A little clumsy when excited. Knocks over a water bottle, apologizes too much.

♡ Gets super motivated when praised. Becomes 10x more helpful.

♡ Probably loves snacks and would do anything for treats (or compliments).

♡ Learns quickly, especially when it means he can help the group.

He’s the kind of Labrador hybrid who’ll rest his head on your lap when you’re sad, then suddenly jump up and say, “Wanna go for a walk? Or ice cream?”, just to cheer you up. A soft heart in a sturdy frame.

TAESAN as a black cat hybrid :

Taesan has that distinct black cat energy: calm, cool, maybe a little aloof, but in a way that draws people in rather than pushes them away. There’s a quiet confidence to him, like he knows exactly who he is and doesn’t need to prove it to anyone. Black cats are mysterious, observant, and often misunderstood, which fits Taesan’s introspective and creative side.

He’s the hybrid who slips out of a room without anyone noticing, then shows up again with a thoughtful gift or an idea no one else thought of. Not overly talkative, but when he does speak, it lands, his words have weight, and his humor is dry and smart. He watches more than he speaks, but he notices everything.

For his breed, I of course am learning towards the Bombay cat breed, basically THE black cat. I see him having like medium length fur, he definitely would be annoyed if it were longer. I see Sungho to have fuller-looking ears and Taesan having kinda like thinner yet still fluffy ears. How a Bombay kitten looks.

♡ Likes dark corners, soft music, and quiet nights.

♡ Has a habit of staring intensely, but he’s just spacing out.

♡ Scary good memory. Remembers the thing you said three weeks ago in passing.

♡ Hates being told what to do, will ignore you on purpose.

♡ Rarely shows affection in public, but has a soft spot for certain people.

♡ Purrs? Maybe. If he really trusts you. But you’ll never hear it again.

He’s the black cat hybrid people whisper about, “I heard he only opens up to one person.” But he’s not cold. He just values connection deeply, and once he gives it, it means something.

LEEHAN (lion hybrid) :

Leehan has that quiet, noble presence that fits a lion hybrid to a T, not the loud, roaring kind of lion, but the calm, observant one who watches from a distance and only acts when necessary. Lions carry a natural grace and subtle dominance, which fits Leehan’s grounded, level-headed personality. He doesn’t beg for attention, but when he walks in, people notice.

There’s also this duality with Leehan: the composed “king of the jungle” exterior… and then moments of absolute softness, like a lion lazily rolling onto its back and batting at butterflies. His fans notice both sides, his mature, protective energy and his quirky, unexpectedly funny one.

♡ Very still. Doesn’t move unless he needs to. Majestic lounge mode.

♡ Protective over younger members, probably covers them with his jacket or stands behind them in crowds.

♡ Has a strong presence even when silent. Commands attention without trying.

♡ Will blink slowly at you when bored or unimpressed.

♡ Has “unusual interests” energy (aquariums, aliens, random trivia).

♡ Deeply loyal. If he considers you his pride, you’re family for life.

He’s the lion hybrid who seems unreadable at first, but once he opens up, you realize he’s thoughtful, incredibly observant, and kind of a dork in the best way.

WOONHAK (bear hybrid) :

Woonhak has all the energetic charm of a playful cub with the warm, comforting presence of a gentle giant in the making. Bear hybrids are known for being affectionate, expressive, and a little clumsy in the cutest way. That’s exactly Woonhak’s vibe: someone who’s big-hearted, goofy, and gives the best hugs, even if he accidentally knocks stuff over while doing it.

He’s the hybrid who bounds into a room, instantly lightens the mood, and then clings to his favorite people like it’s the most natural thing in the world. He’s very touch-driven, emotionally honest, and fiercely loyal. You’ll never have to wonder how he feels, he shows it, loud and clear (sometimes literally).

♡ Big reactions. Loud laugh, loud surprise, loud joy.

♡ Eats a lot. Always has snacks. Probably offers them to others constantly.

♡ Craves physical affection, hugs, leaning, grabbing hands, etc.

♡ Has a strong sense of fairness and will speak up if something feels wrong.

♡ Gets pouty when scolded but bounces back fast.

♡ If you’re sad, he’ll sit right next to you, even if he doesn’t know what to say.

Woonhak is the bear hybrid who’ll wrestle you for fun, then pull you into a bear hug after. He might growl when he’s annoyed, but he’s all warmth and softness underneath, especially with the people he loves most.

Word count : 1410 | serapharua, 2025.

[amostimprobabledream]

When blood runs warm (Law x Reader)

Okay okay so I've only been watching One Piece for a few months, I don't know WHY I'm writing for a character I haven't even properly met in the anime yet but unfortunately Law is very much my type, sooo...here this is, excuse me. Also available on Ao3! https://archiveofourown.org/works/63259555

There had always been something about the ocean that comforted you. The way the waves roll in and out like breaths, the call of gulls overhead, the smell of it. It’s hard to describe, but you’ve always associated it with relaxation.

But that was before.

You sat on a deckchair, holding a book up to your face. You can’t really say that you’re ‘reading’ because you’re not. None of the words on the paperback clenched in your hands are sinking into your brain.

Partly it’s to do with the noise.

You know the group, you’re closest to Nami since she’s your co-worker, but her friends have dropped into your office to pick her up for after work drinks or meet her for lunch that you were familiar with their faces long before she started inviting you to join her. But even with being well aware of Luffy’s eating habits or Zoro and Sanji’s passionate dislike of one another and so on, but on the beach it’s like somebody took the dial of their volume and turned it all the way up. Right now they’re busy trying to set up a volleyball game and arguing about who is on what time and if the net is secured and whatever else people can possibly find to disagree about volleyball before you even start playing it.

But the other reason?

Is also sitting on a deckchair a few feet away.

You’ve met more people thanks to Nami – as much as she has a bit of a temper on her, you can’t deny she’s also a very sociable person and friends of her friends are also friends. Apparently, the guy sitting near you is called Law and he’s a “friend” (though he insisted otherwise) of Luffy’s, which caused some raised eyebrows since Luffy is goofy and happy-go-lucky and Law is���not.

He's also fucking gorgeous. Dark ruffled hair with some scruff on his chin and he’s well-built – apparently, he’s a doctor but he has to spend some time in the gym to have a torso like that. Even more intriguing is the tattoo spanning across his pecs, some kind of symbol in the middle though you’re not quite sure what it is. He has some on the backs of his hands too but you’re too far away to read the words.

He also seems completely disinterested in everyone around him running around in skimpy bathing suits, instead frowning down at some thick-looking book in his hands that could well be a medical textbook. You don’t know anybody who would sit reading a medical textbook at the beach, but since Law is acting like he was dragged here at gunpoint, you wouldn’t put it past him.

You turn a page, shifting in your deckchair. You should be enjoying yourself more than you are, but you feel a little self-conscious. Though you’ve gotten to know Nami’s friends, you’re still not one of them and you don’t want to make a total ass out of yourself by barging in on what they’re doing. Plus, jiggling around trying to smack a ball sounds like a recipe for disaster.

You want to say something to Law, strike up some kind of conversation. But he looks both irritable, hot and also engrossed in whatever it is he’s reading. Wait, no, that’s three things. Still, you know there’s nothing more annoying than someone interrupting you when you’ve gotten to the good part of a book with “What are you reading?!”

So you sit there in the shade, wavering in indecision, watching Zoro spike a volleyball directly into Sanji’s face and the blonde spit a truly impressive stream of vitriolic swearing back. A smirk tugs at your lips. Some things stay constant, which is reassuring.

Luffy has much less compunction with bothering Law than you do, and approaches with a grin.

“Hey, Traffy! We need another player! Come and play!” he demands, like a kid on the playground.

“You don’t need me.” Law counters, not even looking up from his book. “You have enough people.”

“Yeah but Usopp said he thinks he’s got sun stroke or whatever so he’s sitting the next one out.” Luffy pouts. “C’moooon, don’t be so boring!”

Both of you know he won’t drop this until Law agrees, so he heaves himself to his feet with a sigh, like it’s costing him a great amount of energy to do so. Though you’re disappointed he’s walking away, you take a moment to enjoy the sight of his muscular back and narrow, grabbable little waist as he follows after a bouncing Luffy.

Maybe now you can actually concentrate on this novel now you’re no longer being distracted. But no sooner do you settle onto your side and flick the page again, still not particularly taking what’s happening in, when you heard footsteps scuffing the sand and glance up.

“Hey, are you done tanning?” you ask Nami with amusement.

“Not quite, but I’m taking a break. You’re not going to hide in the shade all day, are you?” Nami teases. “C’mon, let’s go check out some of those tide pools.”

You smile. That does sound kind of fun, and you know she likes her gemstones.

“Sure, why not?”

You toss the book back onto the lounger and follow after Nami. You were starting to get a little chilly sitting in the shade anyway. You follow her across the soft white sands, taking in the expanse of sea, the clear blue of the skies, and feel a surge of invigoration rush through you. So what if you can’t bring yourself to talk to Nami’s hot acquaintance? You’re not working and hanging out with a bunch of people at the beach on a beautiful day. It could be worse.

The tide is starting to come back in, slowly but surely, and you make sure to keep an eye on it as you and Nami scramble over the rocks, peering into the little tidepools, though there’s not much in them besides some confused fish or the occasional crab.

“Oh, look! I think I see a starfish!” Nami says.

“Really? Show me!”

Nami’s enthusiasm is infectious and it’s nice to be doing something other than just sitting there. It's only a bit later that you realise you’ve both wandered away from the shore considerably, and now the tide is starting to return – it’s crept past the rocky outcrops and is sloshing around knee-height where you are.

“Hey, come on, let’s head back, the tide’s getting further in!” Nami calls to you from where she is, scrambling nimbly down the rock.

You descend more slowly and follow her, wading through a tangle of seaweed that brushes over your skin.

“I’m coming, hang on a second!” you say. “Nobody can run through water, y’know!”

Your feet keep sinking into the soft, wet sand beneath you as you follow after Nami back towards the shore, where the volleyball game is still going on with ferocity-

Pain.

Pain lances through your body like a shock of electricity. Right at the bottom of your foot, something sharp had pierced the flesh and you let out an involuntary cry, the saltwater stinging where the pain had bloomed, which stings like a bastard. Tears well in your eyes and you freeze, not wanting to aggravate whatever had just happened.

“Why are you just standing there? Hellooo?”

Oh fuck, you hadn’t accidentally stepped on something poisonous sea creature that had been struggling against the waves, had you? Nausea grips you at the thought. It couldn’t be a jellyfish, they don’t usually just sit at the bottom of the sea waiting to be trod on…

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Nami’s voice comes to you, urgency and concern blending together as she waded closer. Her eyes flick down and she flinches. “Oh my god!”

Blood has blossomed from the cut around where your leg disappears into the choppy waters, unable to see your foot thanks to the sediment stirred up by the lapping waves and your own footsteps. Your heel is throbbing, tremours of pain snaking up your body from your leg upwards. Your other leg wobbles as you shift most of your weight to it, you’d lift your foot but you don’t want to spill any more blood into the sea if you can help it.

“Shit,” says Zoro from his spot, eloquently.

By now everyone who was playing the game has stopped too, much to your dismay, but the red circling you isn’t exactly something you can hide.

“Quick, we need to get her a first aid kit!” Sanji says, beginning to shrug off his little short-sleeved hoodie.

But before he can heroically rescue you from the cruel ocean, he’s almost literally pushed aside by another figure, swirled in dark ink and with an equally dark scowl on his face.

All you can do is stare up at him like a deer in headlights as Law stalks towards you, the waves sloshing around his legs. His eyes flick down to the redness swirling about you and you’re grateful he’s able to maintain a poker face, you don’t want to see how bad it is reflected clearly in his expression.

“What happened?” he asks, and in a different situation you might have taken the opportunity to admire the thick, dark tattoos writ large across his muscular chest. His voice is urgent but controlled – you instinctively recognise it as his “doctor voice”.

“I don’t know, I was walking and suddenly there was a sharp pain and then my foot was bleeding.” You say, goosebumps breaking out across your flesh and you have the peculiar urge to cover yourself up, now feeling vulnerable in just a bikini. “It probably looks worse than it is.”

You have no idea if that’s the case, but it’s something you’ve heard people say about injuries before, and it sounds good, business-like and professional. You’ve got this, you’re not freaking out and panicking and causing a scene and-

“I’ll be the judge of that.” Law says, shortly.

Just as you’re about to rue the fact you’ve already managed to annoy him and you’ve barely even spoken to him, suddenly Law is right beside you. Without a word, he bends and wraps one arm around your back and the other hooks behind your knees. With a squeak, he suddenly just casually lifts you up out of the water. With your foot previously buried in the sand, it stings anew as it makes contact with the salt water, and you hiss between your teeth. Blood drips into the ocean, the bottom of your foot coated in it. You see a droplet of it, vivid red as a ruby, fall from the ball of your foot, flashing maliciously for a split second in the dying sunset. Your body shudders, both from suddenly being pulled from the water and the pain.

“You’re alright,” Law says to you in a far more soothing tone than before – you feel it rumbling through his chest. “I’ve got you.”

He's just saying it so you don’t freak out and struggle, you know that, it’s probably a part of medical training to keep patients as calm as possible, but even with that logical explanation in your mind, you can’t stop the pulse of pleasure him saying that to you in his smooth, deep voice.

“Shit, that looks bad.” Sanji says. You notice he looks a little irritated at the sight of Law carrying you out of the sea like some kind of bodice-ripped novel cover – no doubt he’d have liked to do it himself.

“Sanji!” Nami scolds him.

“It’s okay, it doesn’t even hurt much.” You lie – it hurts a lot, but Luffy, Zoro and the others are also staring at you and you’d probably tell them you were fine if your leg was falling off it meant you could stop being the centre of attention, because this is so embarrassing.

Law scoffs, as if he knows you’re lying, and strides down the beach with you, like you weigh nothing at all and he does this sort of thing all the time. If it wasn’t for the bolts of pain lancing up your leg every second, you’d be appreciating how nice being carried by him is – he’s a natural.

“Oi, make yourself useful,” he calls over his shoulder. “Someone go to my car and get the first aid kit. My keys are in my jacket pocket.”

He sets you down on a vacant deckchair, sitting and propping your foot in his lap so it doesn’t get any sand in the cut. You grimace as blood mixed with water drips onto both the lounger and the fabric of his board shorts, but Law doesn’t bat an eyelid. You suppose he must be used to this kind of thing.

Luffy brings him the medical kit, peering curiously at your foot.

“Didja see anything when you got hurt?” he asked, tilting his head.

“No, the water was too murky.” You reply, watching as Law flips open the box and begins rooting around for bandages.

“Huh. I’m gonna go see if I can find anything!”

Luffy runs off, like a dog chasing a frisbee, and you’re relieved everyone else seem to have decided it best to let Law do his thing and resume what they were doing. It was making you uneasy having so many eyes on you, over something as annoying and inconvenient as this.

Law inspects the cut before he begins cleaning the blood off the bottom of your foot. His touch is surprisingly gentle, and you watch him quietly, aware of how warm his hands are on you, his fingers strong against the smaller bones of your feet. He sprays the area of the cut with disinfectant, which stings but you don’t even flinch – cutting it hurt far worse.

“Lie back and stick your foot up.” He instructs. “It’ll lessen the blood flow.”

“Do you think I’ll need stitches?” you ask as you do as he says, unable to keep a tinge of misery out of your tone. You don’t want the last part of what was otherwise a fun day to be ruined by being whisked to the emergency room.

“We’ll see if the bleeding stops,” Law replies, and his voice is so sure and confident that you immediately feel slightly better. “If it doesn’t, then yes. But hopefully it won’t come to that. Let’s get you bandaged.”

“At least it wasn’t a jellyfish.” You say dryly.

He gives a soft huff that might have been a laugh, and you can’t stop the bubble of pleasure that you said something that amused him, it feels like a victory. Law reaches into his first aid kit and plucks out a roll of bandages, before he gently takes your foot. His hands feel warm, and you can’t help but notice how nice they are. Strong fingers, tattoos on the backs of them. You can’t properly make out what they are with the light in your face, but they look pleasing whatever it is.

He starts bandaging up your foot and you can’t help but hiss a bit at the pressure on your feet, the bandages quickly staining red, throwing your mind to blood on snow. You realise belatedly that you were holding your breath.

“Just hold still a bit longer, there’s a good girl.” Law says, not looking at you but his eyes on his hands as he makes sure the bandages are secured.

Once again, your body seems to have other priorities, and a spike of arousal hits you like a punch to the gut. You’re very much glad that any twitch or odd reaction to that can easily be attributed to being in pain or simply responding to having someone you don’t know well touching your feet. Still, the words roll around inside your head, good girl, good girl.

“Sorry, this is probably the last thing you wanted to be doing at the beach.” You say.

“I’m not exactly a beach kind of guy, so this is hardly some great loss.” Law grunts as he works. “Anyway, I’m glad I was here, it’s always better to have someone around who has proper medical knowledge.”

“Still, that must be kind of inconvenient.” You muse. “Always having to be on alert in case someone gets hurt and needs help, even if you’re supposed to be on your own time. It’s not like if somebody steals a handbag, suddenly an off-duty lawyer is called to prosecute. Or if someone faints from hunger, if you’re a chef standing nearby, you’re not meant to just whip out a grill and serve him lobster or something.”

Law looks at you like you’re a complete idiot and you instantly shut up, blushing. God, you must either sound stupid or completely ungrateful at his help. You’d like to go bury yourself in the sand somewhere, but good luck doing that on your fucked up foot.

Once he’s done bandaging you, he gives your foot a little squeeze.

“How does it feel now?” he asks and you really wish he’d stop talking to you like that, in that smooth, deep voice. “Any numbness? Tingling?”

Oh I’m tingling alright, but not on my foot.

“No, nothing like that.” You reply, wiggling your toes. “It aches a bit but it’s not so bad now.”

“Good. Hopefully it should stop bleeding within a few hours or so.” He says. “But for now you’ll just have to stay off it as much as possible.”

“Why, you going to carry me to the car when it’s time to pack up and leave?” you ask in a teasing voice.

He glances over at you and raises his eyebrows.

“If necessary, yes.”

Why does he keeps saying things that throw you off balance? Is he doing it on purpose? You bit your lip, then glance over at your stuff.

“Well, thanks for keeping me a little company. I was getting bored with the book I was reading anyway.” You say.

“Oh yeah? What is it?”

“It’s the third in this series I’m reading, it’s a fantasy series about a boy who enters other worlds through a drawing, but I’m finding this one kind of boring.”

“Wait, you know that series?” Law sounds surprised. “I picked up the first book a while back, but I haven’t found the time to finish it yet.”

“Oh, I loved the first one! The way they set up the whole quest was so much fun.” You say, unable to stop yourself from gushing about it. “Have you read the author’s other series about the princess?”

“No, but I’ve heard it’s good.”

“So good!”

Before you know it you and Law are busy geeking out over various novels and comics you’ve read, with Law even recommending you some of the latter and you recommending him the former. You’re so into talking about it that you stop worrying about getting blood on everything or if you look okay in your bikini or if you’re annoying him by talking too much. It all sort of just fades away as you lament how you have to wait until next year for the new series of an anime you like to come out.

“Hey you two, we’d better get out of here, the tide’s getting closer.” Nami approaches, holding both her bag on one shoulder and yours as well, and tosses you your hoodie. “Last thing I want is to end up stranded.”

“Right, yeah.” You say, pulling it on and zipping it up, now the sun is slinking off over the horizon, a chilly breeze is creeping in. “Be right there!”

Nami nods, then turns and yells for Luffy and Zoro to dig Usopp out of the sand before the water reaches him first, and a smirk tugs at your lips.

“You rode here with Nami, yeah?” Law asks you, rolling his eyes at the racket going on behind you.

“Yeah, she picked me up on her way.” You ask. “Why- ah!”

Law stands and gives you a wry look.

“Don’t wriggle, I’ve already carried you before, it’s not a big deal.”

“Just warn me next time.” You reply, but you’re glad you don’t have to hop up the steps to get to Nami’s car and risk your bandages getting all soggy and sand-encrusted.

Law smirks at you and your stomach twists as he carries you up to Nami’s car, depositing you in the back as if you’re made of something fragile. You fight back the urge to grab his arm or something.

“Thanks,” you say, which is only a fraction of what you actually want to say, but now you’re not alone with him in your little nerd bubble, your previous enthusiasm has vanished.

He just nods at you before he shuts the door, which feels like full stop to your unfinished sentence. You try to keep your expression casual as you buckle yourself in, and Nami slides into the driver’s seat with a groan.

“Man. The beach is fun, but I’m beat.” She says. “Want to stop for drive through somewhere?”

“Sounds good,” you nod, as the car sets off. Nami side-eyes you as you switch on some music and sit back without saying anything.

“Okay, what? Why that kicked puppy face?”

“Nothing, I just realised I left my flipflops on the beach.” You reply with an embarrassed smile. “Oh well, they didn’t exactly cost much.”

“Uh-uh, try again.” She demands and you huff. She knows you too well. “Does this, by any chance, have something to do with a certain doctor?”

“Just…I feel like I annoyed him.” You reply, fiddling with the zipper of your hoodie, dragging it up inch by inch and listening to the satisfying rasp of teeth. “You know, ruining his day off and talking too much.”

Nami snorts, but her expression is not unkind.

“Trust me, if you were annoying Traffy, he’d let you know.” She says, shooting you a playful, teasing smile. “And he definitely didn’t seem to mind whatever it is you were talking about.”

You lean back in your seat with a little smile. Maybe you’ll hear from him again – both your numbers are in the group chat Nami set up for today’s trip. Perhaps he’ll be curious to know how his ‘patient’ is getting on, or he’ll update you on if he decided to take you up on the book you told him to read. Maybe.

A pop song both of you love comes on shuffle, and Nami grins and begins joining in, the wind whipping through your hair as her car shoots down the road. With a small smile on your face, a strange feeling of possibility rising in your chest as you think of Law and wonder what he’s listening to, if his mind is wandering to you like yours is to him, you find yourself singing along.

[keijimilk]

Kiss it Off

toji smut featuring. . .

NSFW! 18+ -> makeup s*x, squi*ing, overst*mulation, piv s*x, very soft dom toji, oral, etc.

- intended lowercase because i work on fics on my phone and switch between that and a laptop. keeping it lowercase helps me in terms of writing tysm!

- word count 1k+

laughter and bustle filled the air of the lavish galleria event. a watercolor sunset casted a midnight purple with faint traces of orange across the horizon. emerald eyes cannot help but stare at you- your flared sleeve, burgundy dress that reaches the tops of your knees, a slit that teases a glimpse of thighs, and has a deep dip that exposes the plush of your cleavage. but you’re ‘modest…’ and you have a sheer wrap that makes him have ideas he’d love to explore with you in the restroom. you wear black heels to match the tint of his hair…he loves how you look in them.

especially on this special occasion - a luxurious after party for the successful deal of Aven Corp., owned by toji fushiguro- a multi millionaire that stakes his claim in multiple "investments" that dominate the coast.

now, toji partook in the talking and drinking flutes of champagne and other fancy liquor with some of his more prestigious partners, their plus ones and invited guest.

among the bustle of the evening you come to find that with the glamour, he seems to be unaware that he’s "naturally" flirtatious and becoming quite familiar with the other women around the large polished table- and bar. you’ve been on his arm all night, but it no wonder they’re magnetized to him. and with his charisma, he’s entertaining them.

while you should feel at ease - like his drunken colleagues - he’s a player. always has been and becomes more apparent when he’s tipsy and at the top of the world…but could you blame him?

he’s been stressing through the last few months and finally the business deal pulled through. you want him to relax and let loose, though your heart drops at the disrespect you feel is happening.

you pout at the audacity…toji can be a cocky man. he’s humble by nature but is greedy, and wants all that he can possibly get.

his ego isn’t going to ruin your night with him, a hot shower at the flat sounds better than staying for this event and the after party…

you stubbly touch along the taught muscle of his thigh underneath his burgundy dress pants, wanting his attention. mystic green eyes glance at you with a raised brow. wondering why you would tease while he is attentively talking with colleagues. he puts his hand up to tell them ‘a moment’ and turns to you.

“yes doll?” he directs the swivel of the exhale of heavy cigar smoke away from your face. you almost roll your eyes at his blatant ignorance of the way he’s acting.

“i-“ your plead to leave was interrupted by a woman with hazel eyes, filled with lust, and the intent to talk to your man.

“i cannot believe aven corp. has expanded, it’s so big, as your partner, I’ve been thinking we should plan the future of our companies,” she flashes her million-dollar 'camera' smile and completely ignores your presence.

“oh most definitely, Sae. such a smart woman,” he chuckles with a wink and she blushes as toji passionately and professionally continues, “our projections foresee the next stages of our…” you’re so pissed off to the point where you phase out whatever 'business talk' they were speaking about, as this was the last time that you allowed him to hurt you like this tonight.

the sound of toji calling your name brought you out of your mood for a moment.

“what did you need hm?” he gently speaks to you and brings his arm around your waist.

pulling away from him faster than you meant to, you blurt to him, “i’m going to the restroom.” gold twinkled from the chandelier into your eyes and reflected the sullen, suffocating look you gave him. toji’s gut was telling him something was off as he watched your silhouette until he could no longer see you along the ocean of people.

he shrugs, knowing you’d be back. so he waits.

and he waits…

and waits...

every time he tries to make conversation with the nobodies at his table, your face flashed in his eyes- he hated seeing you looking at him the way you did.

though after more than several intolerable minutes without your return and the inkling of you being in discomfort, toji had to come find you.

swiftly, he excuses himself from the table.

through the futuristic corridors that were dark as midnight and had golden specks that resembled stars twinkling. long strides head towards a tucked away women’s restroom on the far east wing near a valet exit, he hopes this was one you chose.

as soon as he was going to pop his head into the restroom to call for you, your beautiful meek figure emerged from the heavy door. he notices the way your hands tightly clench onto your slim chic clutch bag.

he hesitates before speaking, feeling waves of passive anger roll off you. your energy is off putting- toji never misses anything.

"...you were gone for a while angel, you okay?" he decides to tread carefully. as much as you want to scoff at him, walk away and find a ride home like you decided in the bathroom, the sharp venom toji had placed in your heart at his actions, beseech you to seethe out.

"i'm m'kay, are you okay?" being sarcastic, you bat your eyes and speak coquettishly- observing his brows crinkle in confusion and his pouty lips open to question you.

"...of course why wouldn't i be?"

"oh my! i thought by the way you've been shamelessly eyefucking those consorts and fueling their fantasies that you had to have bumped your fucking head!" your voice rises above a harsh whisper, although it did not matter- partygoers we're nowhere to be seen.

it's always been hard to tell how toji's feeling, as he never fails to hide the mix of emotions on his face. but now, confusion and anger have overtaken his features. a clenched jaw and narrowed eyes examine you then it quickly turns into a incredulous humourless laugh.

"babe, you cannot be serious," he reaches to grab your arm but you snatch it away from his grasp with the look of a wounded fawn.

"you have to be blind not to notice toji, i'm done. i'm going home while you entertain yourself." you immediately stepped to leave, definitively deciding to grab a cab. strong hands grab your upper arms to stop you. gasping, toji pushes you against the wall. he's staring down at you in a way you've never seen before. it's cold, icy, and he looked hurt- he tries to hide it but you can tell in the crinkle of his eyes. he paused and you froze.

"...angel, don't leave. i wasn't-" toji wavers.

"y-you were." you meekly state, he begins to loosen his grip but doesn't let you go.

"...i want to go home. let me go toji-" mystic green eyes sharpen as he presses his strong body against you. he's contemplating. the silence is deafening and his grip has yet to cease.

you're his.

"no." he gruffs out.

"no?" you parrot in disbelief, with a pout toji cannot help but want to taste. so he does.

you squeak as toji kisses into you mouth slowly waiting for you to kiss him back.

he felt so good...so warm...his body completely flush against yours, so much so you melt. you accept his kiss and taste the blend of his favorite on his tongue. toji lets go of your arms in favor of caressing you with his large palms, over the smooth skin of your thighs, to reveal more of you by hiking up the silky red dress. his fingers ghost across the flimsy material of your cute lace panties- toji has been wishing he could move out the way all night. toji pauses when you whine and push on his chest.

its you remembering how he made you feel earlier, every overly flirtatious act created a painful pang in your heart so much so that it overruled your lust for him in this moment.

he was trying to distract you.

"n-no toji, i wanna go home." you whisper against his lips. you bite on your lip and stare at his confused expression and it breaks your heart even more.

you push him off, which you knew he allowed you to do, finally understanding you were upset.

he calls after you but you don't turn around.

toji stalks you to make sure you get into a cab by the valet exit and rubs a palm across his face. he feels a strange feeling in his heart that this argument wasn't unprecedented. he would never compromise your trust in him, but upon your reaction he does began to...recall earlier actions he could've withheld. but he cannot help it. he doesn't mean to, but if it helps strengthen a relationship with his business partner that benefits him, which ultimately benefits you! so he cannot believe his baby is acting like this. but the more he thinks about how sullen you looked earlier maybe he took it too far...

-

you're in the shower when you burst into tears.

he's such an entitled asshole who thinks that he can just flirt with other women like that, and in front of you! you're driven to your thoughts under the hot water.

both of you have been together for 4 years and yet toji never really engaged with women to where you thought he was flirting. at first, the way he allowed the them to bat their eyelashes at him bothered you. though then, he wasn't acting borderline promiscuous. he was reserved.

when you brought it up to him he blinked a few times and waved you off, claiming he wasn't flirting, he's 'pushing a deal'. toji held your cheeks in his hands and whispered that he 'only loves you'.

of course he's charismatic and you love that about him. but whether it was the whiskey in in blood or the huge boost in ego at his latest conquest, he still shouldn't wink and flirt with other women.

throughout Bali, Cape Town, Los Angeles- you turned an eye to how he carried himself at after parties. though tonite was the first time he’d eye them so brazenly. how could he do this in your presence- to your face?

does he think that he’s absolved from your wrathful heart!...

no- you pause as the hot steam cleanses away the resentment. you cannot lash out at your love, and you’re too tired to formulate the emotions that arise when you dwell on it.

with a final soak, you decide to see what his next moves are. as that’s all of you left to offer.

you shut off the water and did your nightly self-care routine to at least pamper yourself at the turn of the nights events.

you opt to wear a ice colored gown inserts of your usual choice of toji’s tees-his scent right now would overwhelm you.

moisturizing, you dim the hanging lights above the large california king bed, and snuggle into the covers and that’s when you realize, you cannot escape him- his musk permeates in the sheets.

…

the sound of the front door closing resonates throughout the condo waking you from your slumber. you found it hard to sleep without his warmth and as a result, slept lightly. glancing at the alexa on he nightstand, you read, '2:20 a.m'. quickly, you sink deeper into your espresso bean coloured duvet, eyes threatening to water again. its been 3 hours since you've left the gala.

"doll...?" he whispers guiltily, and you subconsciously melt at his voice. you don't contemplate answering him fearing that your voice would break.

the sounds of his movements are almost noiseless to your ears, but they draw nearer.

he flips on the soft lights above the bed on, piercing eyes inspect your form.

"i'm sorry m'kay?" he apologizes sincerely, "i was being an shitty boyfriend, shitty partner- i don't care about them. i never flirt with the intent to be with them i-it just comes out. shit," he says your name and you hear the crack in his voice, "i'm really sorry. i could barely stay after you left, i had to finish the speech...and i left right after."

toji doesn't expect you to respond and thinks you are actually asleep. he smacks his lips and curses himself for ignoring you tonight when you obviously needed him, when you accompanied him to all of the insufferable gala's and parties, it was more than he could ever dream of- sharing his life and pleasures with you.

partially underneath the covers, you're gnawing at the plush bottom of your lip, biting back the weakness in your heart.

he still flirted with them...and his apology was heartfelt...but toji is a hardheaded, stubborn man.

he does what he wants, repairs the damages, and dismays your qualms.

you hear him shuffle away, opening the doors of the dresser until they descend towards the master bathroom.

'click'

hearing the bathroom door shut and hear the shower running, you frown. the anger you feel has worn off and been replaced with resentment for his actions. he crossed a line tonight. has he done this at the international gala's he attended without you?

the thought unsettles you enough to bring a few tears back to your puffy eyes, and you're struggling to breathe again…

you hope that whenever toji comes back he won't notice your sniffles. a unfamiliar feeling lurks now, the thought of him wrapping you in his arms as he attempts to console you makes you feel dreadful as its the same arms he probably envelops other women with...

you tuck yourself under the duvet and attempt to push thoughts of him to the back of your mind.

...or at least you try to. you didn't realize the shower turned off moments ago.

then, the covers are pulled off your warm body, although it was careful, you turn to meet moss colored orbs that gaze at you so intently.

"I knew you were awake... babe - "

ugh! he's unbelievable. you burst from the heavy blanket, attempting to dart out of the room before he tries to explain.

before you can even reach the doorframe he has his grip on your arms,

"fuck off toji. i am not talking right now." you nearly yell, "i’m tired - please... i don't want to deal with this again…with your habits. i want to rest. we can talk in the morning."

"no, i need you to know that-" he pauses because he's still having to hold your struggling form still, "i never meant to hurt you."

"but you did, you did..." you yell with tears welting in your eyes. toji's heart wrenches at the sight.

"i did hurt you, i know baby. i am so sorry. i never realized how...my tactics are inappropriate." he confesses and hugs you tenderly. large burly damp arms envelope your weeping, smaller frame.

he's licking your every wound- repeating that he's sorry, that he won't hurt you like that ever again. he rubs your back and waits for you to calm down before asking you if he could carry you back to the bed, to which you nodded.

your tummy jumps at how easily he lifts you, instinctively holding onto his button down, arm around his neck.

*poof*

he plops you on the soft duvet and hovers above you.

"i love you..." scarred lips lay a kiss on your forehead, trailing to your cheeks, another to your left ear, then the right. "...so much." his lips slowly descend to your soft, quivering pout. his gentle pecks test your waters.

he pauses for a moment and you whisper, "...do you really?" he senses your vulnerability and molds his half clothed body into yours, his warmth radiating and melding with yours. you're avoiding his gaze and your hands are lightly place on his chest, guarded.

he's hurt that you're questioning his feelings for you, but he knows he has to make up for it- having betrayed your trust.

"i will always love you. 'though i fucked up tonight...and other times." he lowers his voice, "i will prove it to you baby, can I apologize for my behavior?" his voice is soft and consuming.

"...are you drunk saying this?" you narrow your eyes, wanting to trust what he's saying.

"no baby, i'm not. i am never going to do this again." and for a long moment he stares into your eyes, forest green irises reflect shame and regret.

"...promise?" you hold out your pinky to which he immediately wraps his around it.

"promise." he firmly says, and toji's letting out a breath he did not know he was holding.

toji's strong hands gingerly grasp your hands and slowly moves them to his shoulders, calculating your feelings.

now, he notices your eyes and posture softening. toji takes this as an invitation to show you just how sorry he is.

you grip his shoulders as he starts kissing down you neck, soft tongue licking then nipping gently at the tender skin. sucking to leave beautiful warm behind each bite.

you sigh as he massages the curve of your hips as he comes up to leave another bite. rugged hands trace the edge of your gown, lifting it above your head. he loves the fact you have the cutest panties on, only because when he goes to remove them, he's able to rip it to shreads, earning a gasp from you.

giggling you chime, "you're such a brute."

"it's blocking me from this pretty pussy," he slides the tattered fabric off, "it's got to go, doll."

with a shuddering breath, you let toji caress your fluffy breasts as he engages in a sloppy smooch. letting his warm, tongue dominate you completely. softly, you moan into the intense kiss as he pinches and pulls your perky nipples.

"toji, i need..." you whine as you feel the increasing wetness dampening your upper thighs from his grip on your breasts.

"yes doll? you need me here?" he pauses his maddening flurry of kisses to swipe his fingers along your slick, rubbing your clit a few times just to hear the saccharine whimpers that escape from the stimulation. he taps firmly on your bud with force, and it leave your legs trembling.

"mhm yes, yes- there toji." and as soon as the whisper leaves your lips, he lowers his body to be flush against the bed, opening your gorgeous legs wider.

the softness of his lips as he kisses all up your thighs is comforting, and you shiver as he licks closer and closer to your flower.

a breathy sigh emits from your chest once he finally plants the fattest glob of spit on your cunt, and slurps everything up.

flicks and long, long strides of his tongue massage your puckered clit slowly drawing the most delectable sounds from your throat. the firm grip on your thighs tether you to him.

toji thinks the way you sound akin to a bird singing. as you sink your fingers into his hair from his sucking on the nub, the pitch of your voice heightens and increases. toji groans into your warmth as you pull on his noir locks.

his tongue dips down further in the honey that oozes, your breath shakes which each dip and drawn out flick.

" -aah, i'm super close t-toji." you whine as he fickers faster at your throbbing nub, humming into you.

he finds your sensitivity so endearing, his left hand extending to reach your breast, has you teetering closer to the edge.

"ooh, toji, toji, toji..." you chant and feel the white lightning throughout your spine and the warm numb overcome your being.

he retreats to holding your trembling form down so he can get each movement of his mouth to be consistent and to caress you just right.

your subtle gasps and moans have toji leaking copious amount of pre. staining his grey sweats. toji wipes the lower half of his face with his palm, licking the skin right after.

your fluttering gaze has the gruff man lowering his pants and stroking his shaft as he hovers over you again.

"can i continue princess?" he pauses and watches your dreamy gaze softening.

"please continue..." you breathe. not a moment wastes as he leans in for another filthy kiss, pushing your legs apart again to wrap around his waist.

toji breaks your feverent movement of love, " 'm so sorry for earlier doll...i never meant to hurt you."

to which you reply with a coquettish smile, " 'tis okay, toji, i forgive you."

he smiles pleasantly and rubs your sides, " 'm so fucking cute." toji shudders as he begins to rub the tip of his dick along your sensitive bud. pre weeping profusely from the strawberry colored slit. you sigh with each swipe, rubbing his cock all along your wetness.

then he slips an inch inside of the warm, fluffy tightness. groaning hoarsely, he moves up to cage you in. sliding in inch by inch, muttering a sting of curses from how you were delectably scratching his toned back, he breathes into the juncture of your neck.

"fuck t-toji..." you moan with a shiver.

"i know b-baby quite the...the stretch. 'm gonna make ya feel good doll. just - fuck- relax..." he pulls back to watch you go limp with a couple gentle thrusts. he's splitting you open and you gush around his length.

"you...y-you -ah, ah- always do." you whimper as he's already hitting that spot with the sheer girth and delicious length.

he then starts the deepen his hips, and hammer into harder, increasing his pace slightly. toji growls and puffs out hair, trying to hold out, but god, you're so fucking soft and warm around him, wringing and milking his dick.

"toji, toji! right t-there..." you shakily stutter out, gripping onto his biceps, then reaching around his neck. sweat drips from his forehead and chest as he pounds heavily into the sopping mess between you.

"fuck, so perfect. you're made 'f me huh? t-taking me so well like 'ta angel 'ya are..." he punctuated the last few wards with power thrusts, then pauses. it feels like the coil within is about th burst as you feel all of him at once. full to the brim.

" 'ha, 'mm gonna cum toji. fuck, fuck..." you whine as his dick kisses your cervix with his grinding thrusts.

"fuckin' make a mess on me, let it go." he urges and feverently pulls at and caresses your breast. and on cue, his deep timbre has you gushing and squirting all over his cock and abdomen.

the force almost pushes his shaft out but he was grinding you through the last few waves of your orgasm.

swiftly, he brings your legs to his shoulders, "i know you got one more in 'ya angel..."

you moan at the stretch in your legs- "mhm toji!" all you can think about is him, feeling him plug you full and it feels so safe.

he's fucking into you recklessly now, overstimulating himself as well. his fingers come ro dance on your clit, rubbing fast circles. you're pawing at his back, chest, and tugging on his hair at each swipe and thick movement of his dick filling you up.

"t-thats it! that's it, baby." he coos and groans at the sight of your eyes fluttering and agape pout.

the rush of the orgasm comes quick, and you squirt again, whole body warming and trembling as he pounds into you over and over. toji cannot hold back this time and cums right after with stuttering hips. ropes of succulent essence flood your sweet cavern, oozing around his cock as he slowly comes to a halt.

you both moan in unison as he stills, still plugging everything in snug.

"so...how...how was that apology?" toji ponders in the comfortable afterglow. a cheeky smile crosses his features.

you snort and giggle, then moan as he shifts slightly, "s-shuddup ol' man."

[artandmartini]

Mild Venom: The Last Dance spoilers

One thing I think would’ve made TLD better even if it had the same plot and ended the same way is more reciprocal affection.

I think the biggest problem of the movie symbrock-wise is that all affectionate/romantic scenes are mostly from Venom. Eddie seems to just be tolerating Venom most of the time. They’re suppose to be ride or die at this point. They’re suppose to be best friends he said it himself! I think if more scenes showed Eddie’s love or at least fondness for Venom, then more fans would be happier with the movie.

To be clear tho, I didn’t hate the movie but I do think it’s a step down from how their relationship was previously. Obviously I wasn’t expecting it to be so explicit with loving pet names and sloppy make outs but more implied in the way the previous movies did it.

Some examples I came up with for Eddie loving venom moments (actual spoilers):

Eddie complaining to the bartender that his fun vacation time with his “friend” was interrupted when they got punted into Marvel universe instead of talking about thanos and meta humans and how annoying aliens are. I want to believe they had fun in Mexico!!

Eddie smiling (and being grateful!!!) when Venom made him a cocktail. Also he shouldn’t have a headache venom can heal him.

When Venom says “You always take me to the best places” Eddie replies with “anything for you, bud” (but make it sound like babe)

More bonding over stuff they’d do in New York. Eddie can talk about food and Venom asks if there are bad guys there and Eddie says They can be the lethal protector there

More scenes in the Casino!!! It was so short :((

They should’ve tried to cheat at cards at least to show they also have a mind bond. It could’ve been cool or funny!!

A woman trying to hit on Eddie but he gets awkward and rejects her cause “I’m here with someone”

Mrs Chen could mention Ann and Dan are married and Eddie is happy for them but implied he’s sad cause he can’t marry venom

While separated in the Area 51 lab, Eddie is significantly distressed about it and talks about feeling hollow inside or like with a missing limb

Eddie should’ve been given the option to sacrifice Venom save himself and the world. But he CHOOSES NOT TO he says “but I need him” like the trailer suggested!!!

Have Eddie explain to the scientist women what being with venom is like and how he makes him feel (like the end of the first movie). Not only is this sweet but will allow the scientists to be more sympathetic towards symbrock and explains their willingness to help them and also to bond with the other symbiotes later in the movie

Have Venom apologize for hardships he put Eddie through and have Eddie assure him he’d do it all again if given the choice

Have Eddie shed a tear (at least 1!!!) when he wakes up without venom for the last time

The rest of these are more significant changes to the movie but still in keeping with the general plot:

Venom should’ve kept the codex a secret for a while and just told Eddie the xenophage was just revenge for the symbiotes imprisoning knull or something

Eddie can tell venom is acting strange and suspects he is hiding something (like in the comics re: their pregnancy)

The codex truth is revealed after the dance with Mrs Chen when they get attacked by a xenophage but before they get separated and taken to Area 51 leading to the sacrifice venom convo

When they reunite, venom admits he kept it a secret cause he was afraid Eddie would leave him but Eddie reassures him it’s them til the end

The rest of the movie plays out the same. But I think these choices would’ve really solidified their bond. It would’ve been more painful at the end but more satisfying!!! If you wanna make angsty tragedy then go all the way don’t half ass it

They’ll also have more scenes for their RomCom/Valentine’s Edit

[throneofsapphics]

old faces, part 11

Rowaelin x f!Reader

Summary: you and Rowan meet again after seven years, and deal with the fall-out of a secret. 

Warnings: mentions of violence

Word Count: 3159

A/N: I know it's been 6 months, but I'm just getting back to a place where I'm able to write this story! I'm sorry this took so long <3 thank you to @whisperingmidnights for your help with this part

series masterlist

“Your plan is to piss them off?” Fenrys looked at you like he prayed you were joking. 

“It’s not my whole plan.” 

“But it’s part of it?” 

“Figure out how desperate they are, and I can get a good gauge on how dangerous or useful the object is.” 

“Don’t underestimate their intelligence,” Fenrys cautioned. 

Rowan wanted to snarl at the male, he might as well have agreed this was the best plan. It was a good plan, he could admit that, there was only one pitfall - a very big one. It puts you in harm's way. No, it makes you even more of a target than you already are.

“What if it backfires?” Aelin asked, and Rowan both admired and was incensed by how calm she seemed. “What if others become suspicious, start asking around, and end up wanting the same thing they do?” 

“There’s always a risk,” you chewed on your bottom lip. He was about to open his mouth, to say ‘exactly’ or, ‘it’s too great of a risk,’ when you turned your gaze on Fenrys, then Aelin, then him. 

“From a strategic standpoint … if it weren’t me -” 

“It is you,” Aelin interrupted, but you continued as if she hadn’t said a word. 

“What would you say? What if the potential knowledge we’d gain is of great risk to Terrasen? Aren’t we better off knowing?” 

“It’s not much of a question if you put it like that,” Fenrys muttered. He didn’t look particularly happy about it, but Rowan knew he agreed. 

He turned to Aelin. ‘What do you think?’ his eyes asked.

“She’s right.”

Gods. He knew he would, if it wasn’t you, if it was nearly anyone else he’d task them with figuring it out. 

“We know a few Akkadian males are searching for some kind of artifact or weapon,” Fenrys started, ticking things off on his fingers, “and that it’s possible they are working independently, that they want to keep this secret. We know they have … dangerous knowledge of your past, and they’re connected with some kind of underworld.” 

There’s no real other way they’d know Andal - a male he’d like to kill one day, if only for the fear and pain in your eyes when his name was said. 

Aelin pinched the bridge of her nose. “We see if it draws some kind of reaction, see if anyone else is surprised, if he’s really acting personally or if he’s a scapegoat.” 

He prepared himself to protest, but your past words ‘don’t coddle me,’ echoed in his mind. With your characteristic stubborn tenacity, you’d already set your mind to this. At least you were letting him help, at least he could do something to help keep you safe. Rowan latched onto that mentally, onto the small consolation he got. 

“We need to ensure your safety,”  he emphasized, sending you a challenging look. Rowan knew this wouldn't be as desired if they didn’t all go in on it together. Sure, you could do something similar on your own, but he knew you well enough to tell when you didn’t quite want to. When you wanted help, even if your stubborn pride kept you from agreeing to or asking for it. “You won’t -,” Rowan paused and correctly himself, “don’t need to do this alone. Anymore.” 

You agreed, and the planning began. 

-

After two long hours of hashing out every detail, reviewing and reciting them until Rowan was satisfied, Fenrys and Aelin looked ready to explode. You found some comfort in it, but even you were tiring. 

When Rowan and Aelin locked in on one of their silent conversations, you turned to Fenrys, angled so they couldn’t see your face, and mouthed “leave.” 

He winked, and made a poor excuse for a departure, but they didn’t seem to care. 

There was an impending sense of doom, perhaps your mind playing tricks on you, but you couldn’t help feeling like something - maybe everything - would go wrong, no matter how much planning you put into it. 

The Queen and King stood as well, murmuring ‘goodnights,’ before you could say anything. Fuck. 

Your ill-thought out plan had not included that. 

Aelin stopped at the door, hand on the brass knob, Rowan a few steps outside, paused as well. Golden hair fell like a curtain over her shoulder, her head turning  as you slowly stood, teeth digging into your bottom lip. 

Time slowed, her eyes tracked the movement, darkening when they reached your mouth, teeth digging into soft flesh, perhaps imagining them digging in somewhere else. You certainly where. Step by step, you crossed the room towards her. Your footsteps sounded obnoxiously loud, thundering almost as loud as your heart. She turned fully to face you, hand letting go of the door. 

Less than a foot away, you stopped. Eyes glimmering, she tilted her head - daring you. 

This time, you didn’t back down. Hands reached, cupping her palms - still she waited. You could see how the patience cost her, a small curve of your lips and she nearly snarled, but you cut off the words forming, pushing forward to close the gap. 

Soft lips, slow movements, hands wandering, grazing over shoulder, down sides, settling on hips - moving all over as if you couldn’t wait to memorize. 

A low whistle from the hallway - who, you didn’t care, but heard Rowan’s snarl as a response. Aelin’s arm wound around your waist, drawing you closer, shifting your attention back to her. 

You felt Ceri’s magic, likely just down the hall, and stumbled back. 

Hurt flashed over Aelin’s face, through her eyes, mouth parting in dismay. 

“Ceri,” you hissed, “and company,” you added as an afterthought.

The hurt faded, replaced by a smile and a knowing nod as she stepped out of the doorway. 

“Tomorrow,” she said, the word a promise and a plea. You nodded, but couldn’t shake the sense that tomorrow might not come. You cursed yourself for thinking so negatively, for winding yourself up into a state of gloom. Things would work. They had too. There was too much at stake, and too much to lose. 

Four sets of shuffling footsteps - Ceri accompanied by the little … gang, to say the least. The three E’s, Edde, Edie and Elias.

Ceri burst through the door, her friends trailing more cautiously behind her. 

“They can spend the night, right?” 

“I don’t think that’s how you ask a question,” Rowan said dryly. 

You fixed her with a sharp look before she could roll her eyes. 

“We- we can go,” Elias said, voice barely carrying. He’d always been the most cautious of the three 

You opened your mouth, already ready to agree, seeing the sharp look Rowan fixed her with out of your peripheral, but Ceri cut in first - 

“Please, can we spend the night here?”

“Yes,” you laughed and waved them back towards their rooms, shooting a kind smile towards her three friends. In all honesty, you were surprised she asked, but figured she only did it because Rowan and Aelin were also present. 

-

“You might as well adopt the three of them,” Aelin commented. She’d meant it half as a joke, but saw how your eyes brightened. 

“Maybe when this is all over.” There was a distant look in your eyes, accompanied by the slightest upward tilt of your lips. Not the distant gaze of someone in pain, but someone thinking forward, thinking of the future. 

‘Maybe’ might as well be a yes, considering your expression - and if the three of them agreed, of course, but she couldn’t see them declining it.

Aelin didn’t know how anyone could turn you down, not with your pretty eyes or -

Rowan coughed next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. Not pleased with looking away from you, she managed to turn her attention to him. 

“Going to stare all night?” He asked silently. 

Aelin didn’t dignify that with a response, instead let her eyes flash briefly to your lips, before murmuring goodnight’s to all of the room’s occupants, noticing the flush on your cheeks as you tracked her gaze. 

Aelin was out the door as Rowan gave his own goodnight’s, and she already knew that once they were back in their rooms he’d gripe that she happened to be the one closer to you. 

Two fingers touched her lips, her back pressed against the stone, mind wandering - wondering when she’d get to kiss you again -

You appeared in the open doorway, eyes wide with panic, head snapping back and forth - had your magic told you something? 

Aelin realized she trusted you implicitly as you tugged her back inside, slamming the door behind her. 

“Aelin and Rowan decided to stay a little longer,” you yelled - a course of acknowledgements coming from further down the hall, already in one of the rooms. 

“He’s - they’re both down a hall or so,” you were blinking rapidly, your breaths obviously intentional. And you didn’t need to clarify who ‘he’ was. For your sake, Aelin forced a tight, tight lid on her anger - and saw Rowan do the same. 

She felt Rowan’s wind sweep past her - buffering against your shield, she felt it as a small crack opened for him - letting his wind slide into the hallway, likely clearing all traces of their scents, along with Ceri and her little gang’s away. When had she become so attuned to your magic?

She heard him as he crossed closer - pausing a few feet away from the door - before continuing on, making it to the end of the hall before he backtracked. 

“I redirected our scents, not erased them,” Rowan murmured quietly - although your magic would block any noise from escaping.

“So he knows where,” you said aloud, arms wrapping around yourself. 

Rowan moved quicker than she could, his arms laid gently over your shoulders, almost hesitantly. When you didn’t flinch, when you leaned into him instead, he tugged you closer, brought your chest to rest against his, other arm wrapping around, fingers running through your hair. 

Aelin saw when you let your beautiful mind stop running, your face tilting, cheek pressed against him, arms coming around his waist. The moment when you relaxed, and let Rowan give you comfort like a lover would. 

-

Another familiar, but friendly scent tricked through the door. Fenrys. He was both grateful and annoyed with his timing. 

“You can let him in,” you sighed. Rowan tightened his arms around you, afraid the moment might leave before he truly got the chance to enjoy it. “And you can let me go,” you whispered. Aelin was by the door now, her hand perched right above the knob. 

“I’d rather not,” he muttered, but stepped back anyway. 

Maybe the day had been too long, and likely he was reading into things but he saw a flash of disappointment on your face. 

Regardless, he’d stepped back just in time - the door swung open, revealing Fenrys - looking unusually grave. 

“I didn’t interact,” his tone indicated he would’ve liked to, very much so, and the words proved Rowan’s inkling from earlier - the wolf hadn’t gone far at all, and having known the male for decades, he wouldn’t for the rest of the night. 

-

Laying back in bed, staring at a ceiling he’d memorized hours ago, Rowan rifled through his memories. 

Maeve had a vague interest in acquiring the types of objects made by your family, but the makers were, as far as she knew, always in Antica. Unattainable. To Maeve, the individual objects wouldn’t have been worth hunting down, not when she could acquire a source. He wondered if one day, if Aelin hadn’t come in and drastically changed his - all of their lives, he or one of the others would’ve received an order to find you or a member of your family. 

Somehow, thankfully, she had no idea your mother made her way into Wendlyn. He figured yours or her magic must’ve kept you hidden, that made him wonder how they’d found you.

It was obvious, he realized with the barest tinge of guilt. Your position in Aelin’s court would undeniably bring attention to you. Expose your abilities and bloodline in a way you’d avoided for so long. That brought the question of why you had accepted, considering it’s you, you knew the risks - hence why he felt the barest tinge of guilt. Maybe, after so long, you were sick of hiding. It wasn’t any use debating, rash decisions were uncommon for you, and rarely did you tell him exactly why you made the choices you did. A bit like Aelin, but not in a good way, but unlike Aelin if he asked you he’d usually get a straight answer. Usually. 

Nothing from his past campaigns with the Akkadians, past experience with the two Fae currently stirring too much trouble, gave guidance on how tomorrow could play out. 

The plan. One he’d made them go over countless times until everyone in the room looked like they wanted to kill him, that’s when he knew to call it quits, if you stuck to it then maybe things would work out. Too big of a maybe for him, but there was no other choice at this point. 

“Try to sleep,” Aelin murmured sleepily, he heard sheets rustling and felt her head rest on his chest, hand sliding over his stomach to rest just below his ribs. 

“We’ll see,” he kept his voice low, and traced circles into her back, the bare skin warm and smooth under his calloused fingers. Her breaths were even, and she’d already fallen back asleep. 

Rowan closed his eyes, and figured he could at least try and follow his Queen’s suggestion. 

-

Fenrys tried for his usual jovial manner in the morning, but it was obvious he was on edge over breakfast. You waited to call him out until after Ceri and her friends had left, accompanied by guards.

“At least pretend everything is normal,” you pushed your food around on your plate, “or you’ll tip them off and ruin our big plan.” 

The second half was laced with some sarcasm, in hopes to placate both you and him. He snorted, but none of the tension left his body, if anything it seemed to increase. That was a failure. Hopefully the rest of the plan would work out - even with the sense of doom still hovering over you like a storm cloud.

Finally letting the spoon clatter to the plate, your hand went up to trace your scar, thumb running over the still raised skin. It shot back down as you saw Fenrys tracking the movement. Most days, you hardly noticed it, but the habit reemerged once in a while. 

You glanced at the clock. Another part of the plan. Maybe you should’ve come up with a more interesting name for it. You brought it up to Fenrys. 

He let out an edged chuckle, “operation don’t cause another international incident?”

“Technically,” you tapped one finger against the table. “They started the incident.”

The statement did feel a tad childish, but in a good way, a way that lightened some of the invisible pressure pushing your shoulders down. 

“So you admit there already is one,” some of the tension had actually left his shoulder and a small sense of accomplishment filled you, but you just shrugged. 

“Operation mitigating international incident.” 

“OMII isn’t a worthy enough acronym.” 

Fenrys’s eyes lit up at the last word. Acronym. 

After taking the time to come up with your name, the two of you were nearly late - having to cut through a secret passage to make it on time. 

O.S.H.I.T. 

Successfully hinder international tactless-assholes. Hyphenated because according to the two of you, “O.S.H.I.T.A” doesn’t have the same ring. You’d also agreed to only inform their Majesties of the moniker if the plan was successful. 

“Why do I feel like you two were up to no good?” Aelin leaned over, no more than a queen consulting one of her advisors, whispering to you. 

“We would never intend to cause trouble, your majesty.” 

A very un-royal like curse came from her lips, thankfully just loud enough for you to hear, and you fought back a smile. Fenrys winked at you from across the room. 

-

Sun warmed your skin, the temperature absolutely perfect for an early summer mid-morning. They’d requested you stay in the castle until all parties had departed. But, there was no reason you couldn’t wander around some of the gardens. Fresh air was good for you, and you felt like you’d spent far too much time in a stuffy castle recently. You ached to get back to your home, considering everything went fine, hopefully that would be sooner rather than later. Not that you need permission, you reminded yourself. 

You had to fight to keep a big grin off your face. All of the worrying, all of the stress and pressure felt worth it now that you were on the other side. 

Yes, their eyes had flashed with anger when you ‘responded to the inquiries,’ publicly and slid them a handful of notes, drawing curious eyes from their companions. It had been a relatively simple plan, but you’d spent hours rehearsing answers to every feasible and not-so-feasible reaction, making it feel much more complex than it should’ve. But they’d departed that same night, and with them left a weight off your chest. 

At least, that’s what you thought before the cool flat side of a blade pressed against your neck, angled so the slightest wrong movement would have you bleeding out on the floor - dead within a minute, something clamped around your wrist - iron, and your magic winked, reduced down to a mere puddle. Some, but not nearly enough to get you out of this. 

“Don’t move,” a voice snarled in your ear, breath warming your neck. You didn’t dare swallow, didn’t dare attempt to form any words. It wasn’t them. Not the two Akkadian’s who’d been haunting you for the last week. Who had they sent? How many others were involved?

Despite your efforts to clear your mind and focus on the current … situation, names kept whirling in your head, making it near impossible. 

Ceri. Rowan. Aelin. Fenrys. Edde, Edie, and Elias. Reya. Ani. Ines. 

‘Safe,’ a familiar and wise female voice murmured in your ear, ‘they are all safe.’  Your chest loosened a fraction. Your mind reeled through every defensive maneuver you knew, and none of them would guarantee to get you out of this alive.

You froze as his hand slid around your front, you couldn’t glance down to see, did you want to see? But … just the briefest pressure of something sliding into your pocket, a crinkle of paper. Why would they slip you a note? The thought fled from your mind with his next words. “Listen carefully,” he hissed, “to what happens next - your life depends on it.” 

Why now, you thought, why when I have so much to live for?

[gay-dorito-dust]

Heyy hope you’re doing well!

Can I request a fem reader with Bi-Han and Kuai Liang? Reader is a highkey mischievous little shit and her favorite pastime is annoying the hell outta Bi-Han (Kuai Liang probably has to stop his brother from crucifying her lol)

Thanks!

Ngl this is extremely rubbish as idk where else to go with this in all honesty. 🦦

Regardless of how you had inserted yourself into the lives of brothers, Bi-Han and Kuai Liang, but one thing was definitive; you enjoyed being the thorn in Bi-Han’s side. From the deep furrow in his brow, the appearance of frown lines and the look of pure annoyance within his dark eyes that were usually in a perpetual state of fatigue in due to his duties of being Grandmaster, those were the highlight of your day. What wasn’t a highlight however was the aftermath where Bi-Han would chase after you throughout the Lin Kuei with an ice dagger.

Much like he was doing right now;

‘Y/n! When I find you, I swear I’ll make an example out of you for disrespecting the Grandmaster!’ Bi-Han shouted, running towards Kuai Liang, ice dagger in hand. ‘What have they done now brother?’ Kuai Liang asked even though he didn’t need to, his eyes drift to the top of his brothers’ head, where sat two pigtails tied with what looked like vibrant pink hello kitty hair ties. Kuai Liang had to try and stop himself from bursting out laughing at the ridiculous sight.

Bi-Han looked at his brother, unamused and annoyed that his hunt was interrupted. You couldn’t have gone far, that he knew for certain, but if there was one thing that Bi-Han has come to know about you was the fact that after pulling your pranks, you’d often seek out his brother for protection against his wrath. It had been your primary escape route in the past, so it made general sense to Bi-Han that you would try and utilise your only way to evade facing the consequences of your actions. ‘From your poor attempt of hiding your snickers, brother. I’m going to assume that you got a right good look what they did to me.’ Bi-Han grunted. ‘Now, where are they?’

Kuai Liang shrugged. ‘Haven’t seen them.’

‘Nows not the time for lies, Kuai Liang.’ Bi-Han warned.

‘I’m being serious Bi-Han, I haven’t seen them. But I’ve heard from some others that they’re with Tomas at the training grounds.’ Kuai Liang said and a brief moment of silence befell the brothers as they stared the other down. ‘You better hope that they’re with Tomas.’ Was all Bi-Han said before he ventured down the hallway, leaving Kuai Liang alone…or not because a voice from behind the younger brother spoke.

‘Is he gone?’

Kuai Liang sighed as he peered over his shoulder to look at you. ‘Yes he’s gone but reallly? Putting his hair into pigtails and hello kitty hair ties?’

‘Not my best work, I know, but I was bored and was running out of ideas and so I thought that the hair ties would be a nice touch.’ You shrugged as you stepped out from behind him, and breathing out a sigh of relief when you couldn’t see the cryomancer anywhere. ‘You can’t always keep doing this, I won’t always be here to shield you and if you’re not carful one day he’ll catch you in the act.’ Kuai Liang warned you, crossing his arms over his chest. He felt as though he’s had this conversation with you multiple times but it doesn’t seems as though his words have stuck with you; for it seemed that recently you were pranking Bi-Han just to tempt fate.

So needless to say that Kuai Liang couldn’t wait for the day where he’d get to say I told you so, would be a severe understatement. For as much as he loved you, it was only a matter of time before Bi-Han inevitably started taking methods in catching you faster.

‘Do you take me for a fool, Kuai Liang? There’s no way that Bi-Han could ever catch me in the act.’ You boasted with a smirk, having grown confident that whilst Bi-Han knew it was you, he had yet to actually catch you. ‘I’m far too slippery for him to catch! I’m gone before he even knows what hit him, and I mean that in both the literal and figurative sense.’

Kuai Liang raised his brows. ‘Oh really?’

‘Really.’ You stated confidently, your smile practically beaming.

‘Then who’s that behind you?’ Kuai Liang asked and immediately the air started to go cold and your smile dropped as slowly but surly you looked over your shoulder to see a murderous Bi-Han stood there, ice dagger still grasped tightly within his hand. ‘Hey Bi-Han.’ You swallowed thickly. ‘Did you do something different with your hair today? It looks nice, suits you even.’ You chuckled nervously as your hands began to sweat upon hearing Bi-Han growl out a single warning from behind his mask.

‘Run.’

‘Good idea.’ You replied swiftly before running off to find some place to hide as Bi-Han followed soon after. Kuai Liang gave it a couple of moments before then deciding to run after the pair of you to mediate the situation like he always did.

[rocknrollsalad]

rating: gen cw: deadbeat dads, school, workplace injuries, mentions of blood, mentions of loss of body parts tags: al munson is a shitty dad, wayne munson is the best dad, pre-teen eddie, they're doing their best, eddie's a brat but it's developmentally appropriate word count: 1620

-

“What are your days off?” 

The question came as soon as Wayne said “Hello”. Nothing in response, no clues as to who it was, just the question coming like Wayne had interrupted someone else’s conversation. Of course, he knew exactly who it was. Not only from the voice but the approach. 

Eddie had never been one for waiting or formalities and he was practically a teenager now so the impatience only seemed to worsen. If Wayne had enough hair to go gray, he was sure it would be white and all because of Eddie. 

“The weekend. If you need me to come and get you, I got plenty of time and Marty’s on tonight so if I’m a little late he’ll be fine.” 

“I don’t need you to come and get me.” The “I’m not a baby was barely implied. Wayne could hear Eddie physically stop himself from adding it. 

“Al there?” 

“No.” Again, Eddie reacted in a way that didn’t fit the question. 

Wayne was starting to put some pieces together. Not the purpose of the call. Eddie was annoyed with the questions but wasn’t offering any clarification either. Wayne would lay good money down that his brother had been gone for a while. Well past the day he said he’d return. 

It had Wayne doing the math, to see if he really could make it out there and back before he had to clock in and how much time would have to stop at the store. The phone cord didn’t allow for much pacing, but there was a well-worn groove in the kitchen floor from many other calls like this that Wayne slipped right into. 

“Water and electricity still on?” 

“God, yes. Will you stop acting like I’m five? You know I know how to get power from the neighbors anyway.” 

“Don’t do that, though. Call me first, then we can resort to theft.” 

“Ugh, dad’s right, you’re always ruining the fun.” 

Oh, so Al hadn’t been gone long. Wayne was wrong. Which meant a much better chance that there was still food in the house. Meaning a trip out there could wait a few days. Letting out a slow breath, Wayne looked out the small window over the kitchen sink. 

He was ready to scramble all available troops to respond to an “emergency” here and it was all for nothing. It’d take a few moments to bring his heart rate back down and stop processing every variable. 

Worry stayed though. Eddie needed something and had nowhere else to turn but a man a solid forty-five minute drive out. It didn’t matter how many times Wayne offered the room up, Eddie insisted on staying out there. Not that Wayne thought it’d offer much relief for himself but at least less frantic drives. 

“Yeah, yeah. How dare I try and keep you from jail. What an asshole,” Wayne scoffed, meeting Eddie’s attitude with some of his own. 

“Alright, whatever. I gotta go.” 

“Ed,” Wayne scrubbed a hand over his face and said a quick prayer. He needed all the help he could get to remember this was his nephew and not the brother he’d spent half a life fighting with. Eddie didn’t know better, he was doing what he saw but it pushed all the same buttons. “Why did you need to know my days off?” 

“Nothing. It doesn’t matter, they’re the wrong days.” 

“Typically they’re the good ones, boy. Why don’t I come pull you from school early on Friday and you can spend the weekend out here?” 

“I don’t want to. Dad’s gonna be back on Sunday and we’re getting pizza.” 

That stab to the heart was enough to hunch Wayne’s shoulders. Both he and Eddie knew that Al wouldn’t be back this Sunday, possibly not next Sunday. As hard as it was, Wayne made a few sounds to say he understood. This would be the time or something. 

“Alright well, why you calling for my work schedule then?” 

“Nothing, it’s stupid and you can’t do it so it doesn’t matter. It’s dumb.” 

“I’m not going to ask again, Ed.” There was a warning in Wayne’s tone that he didn’t like to use but felt necessary. 

For a few seconds, at least. The silence on the other end had Wayne regretting his choice. He was too harsh. He tried to be easy on the kid, none of this was his fault, but he needed to know where the lines were or else he really would end up like his dad. 

Since Wayne took a bit of the blame for Al, he was trying to improve this go around but it was easy. He didn’t know anything about raising kids and really hadn’t learned much between Al and Eddie here. He wasn’t supposed to be the parental type. 

Sounding a bit more like the child he was and less like a delinquent fighting with a cop, Eddie finally spoke again. “There’s a career day on Thursday, it’s totally stupid but everyone’s dads are coming.” 

Sucking in a breath, Wayne felt that stab again and went to sit down. He had to proceed with caution here, obviously, Eddie was already struggling with this. Wayne didn’t want to make it worse. 

Eddie didn’t share the same sentiment and filled the silence. Something that was usually facts about medieval Europe or he was big into aliens right now. 

“All the other kids keep saying that no one is coming for me and that my dad doesn’t even love me enough to stick around, he’s not coming to the school. And, like, my dad loves me. They just don’t get it that he’s gotta do stuff. We can’t eat air.” 

“Okay, kid, but–” 

“They’re all just jealous because I don’t have anyone telling me to do things.” 

“Now that makes sense,” Wayne said, thankful Eddie couldn’t see the wince on his face or the way he had to swallow the lie with a lump in his throat. 

“I got detention all week for trying to punch Ricky Demchuck because he wouldn’t stop.” 

“What have I told you?” 

“I just got so mad,” Eddie ran the words together, reliving the moment. 

Again, Wayne left a bit of silence. He couldn’t bring himself to yell at the kid. Wayne would have done the same in his shoes. Except Wayne knew he’d have done more than try…and got more than detention. 

“My job is pretty boring, not sure it’ll help.” 

“You could tell them about that guy who lost his hand.” 

And like that, Wayne heard his nephew. Not a bitter and sad kid trying to be an adult but the Eddie that came out when things were comfortable for a bit. It also reminded Wayne that eleven year olds would love the horror stories from the plant. If he toned down the language and tried to work in a lesson about safety, he’d be a hit. The stories had worked with Eddie for years now. 

“What time do I gotta be there?” 

“Noon, I think. After lunch! We’ll be in the gym, not our classroom.” 

Wayne didn’t know where the classroom was. The gym was a maybe but there’d be other adults. 

“Sarah and Michelle are bringing their granddad and Donovan’s bringing his brother who’s a soldier,” Eddie stopped himself there but there was more. Likely the whole roster of guests. 

“So an uncle won’t even be that lame,” Wayne said, trying to laugh. 

“An uncle would be so cool!” Eddie missed the joke and that was probably for the best. “Will you really tell them about that guy’s hand? Even the bloody parts?” 

It was so easy to picture Eddie, sitting on the couch with an excitement that neither Wayne or Al had ever shown for anything, it had to have come from Eddie’s mom. Those big eyes and rabid smile, waiting to hear more, was something Wayne hoped for every visit. Hell, it was why Eddie knew the story to begin with. 

“I might have to tone down some of the blood, not all kids can handle that. Y’know, not all adults can either now that I think about it. Wouldn’t want to stress out your teacher.” 

Eddie laughed and Wayne knew things were going to be okay. What was losing a bit of sleep to make the kid happy? 

“That’s even better! I bet you could make Mrs. Woolbright scream!” 

“I’m not going to torture your teachers.” 

“They torture me,” Eddie snapped back so quickly it was like he’d set everything up just to say that. 

“Yeah, yeah. Must be tough having to do all that schoolwork,” Wayne laughed. “Look, I’ll be at your school at noon so mind your p’s and q’s until then, yeah? I’m not driving all that way to learn you been suspended. And maybe I can get me one of them school lunches.” 

Eddie groaned and told Wayne the teen years were way closer than he wanted them to be. “Fine-ah.” 

“And don’t just eat cereal for dinner tonight.” 

“Jesus Christ, Uncle Wayne. All the time you’re telling me not to eat cereal. I know, I know. I gotta go, okay? I got some stuff to do.” 

“Well sorry for keeping ya, boy. See you on Thursday.” 

Much like the call started, it ended without a word. Wayne repeated that he’d be there for Eddie and got a dial tone in return. As weird as it was, it spared a lot of awkward silences that Wanye was thankful for. 

He went and put the career day on his calendar and carried on with his day. If he was going to do one thing for that kid, it would be showing up. Never mind lame stories or a boring job, he’d be there. Always. 

[eomayas]

all the rumors are true • bbh

pairing: idol!baekhyun x f!idol!reader

genre: fluff & angst

synopsis: your secret relationship with baekhyun getting revealed, and what comes after.

warnings: none!

a/n: very self indulgent lmao i had this thought a few days ago and needed to get it out! the ending is a bit choppy i ran out of thoughts. heavily unedited and not proof read 🫣

“yes, i take care of all of them,” you laugh, nodding at the radio show hosts question about if it’s hard being a leader to a group of 4, including yourself. “especially our youngest.” you say, glancing over at sunny, the baby of your group.

“what’s the age difference between you and her?” the host asks.

“six years,” you say, making the host gasp.

“ah, so you’re 28… that means she was 16 when you debuted?” the host looks between you and sunny, both of you nodding. “wow, so you probably have had no time for dating since even before debut!”

you laugh, though it’s 90% true, which sucks. “yes, because she was so young when we were trainees—we all were—i was always with them to make sure they stayed out of trouble and weren’t around strange people,” you say, your eyes sliding over all of your members. “so, no, there hasn’t been a lot of time to date. but i’m not mad at that because i was taking care of my babies.” everyone chuckles at the last bit and mingwa puts her head on your shoulder.

“y/n needs somebody to take care of her!” heejin, the second to youngest member shouts. you smile and shake your head at her words, though they’re unbelievably true. if only the public knew that you were, though. that instead of laying your head on a soft pillow every night, you lied down on a hard chest and let strong arms hold you tight, while soft kisses on the top of your head lulled you to sleep.

“girl, i’m your candy,” sunny sings quietly. you don’t cut your eyes at her immediately, but the panic bubbles in your chest. nobody mentions her singing, or sings along, but sunny and mingwa share a quick look that freaks you out, makes you paranoid that in a few hours when the video recording of this session is posted, speculations will start.

you glance at sunny, hoping to catch her eye, but she’s engrossed in what the host is talking about. you can barely hear above your heartbeat in your ears, the blood rushing through so quickly it’s starting to give you a headache. you try to discreetly regulate your breathing, trying to remember those videos talking about square breathing that you found online. nobody seems to notice, except mingwa who taps your forearm and looks at you with concern that you brush off.

you manage to make it through the rest of the interview as normal as possible. you start talking a lot less, letting your members share more about themselves and the group, and nobody except for mingwa clocks that you were mentally somewhere else.

saying your goodbyes, the four of you get up and shuffle out of the radio station and into the outside world where dozens of cameras await. the shutters fly at rapid pace, and the flash on some of them are nearly blinding, but you and your group smile and pose, despite the chaos happening.

shuffling into the car, you let the three others get inside first. you take the last seat in the sprinter van and buckle yourself in, resting your head against the headrest. “y/n, are you alright?” mingwa asks, concern clear and evident in her voice. you let out a breath and sit up, turning around to look at sunny.

“why did you start singing ‘candy’, soojin?” you ask, using her full name. she looks at you with wide eyes at her government being called and holds her hands up in surrender. “do you know what people are going to say?”

“sorry, mom,” she shoots back, giving you an incredulous look. “all they’re going to say is that i’m acting exactly like how the youngest person is supposed to be acting—interrupting you and singing over everybody. nobody is going to say anything about you and baekhyun.” you press your lips together, stumped because she’s most likely right, even though you have an inkling in the back of your brain that somebody is going to take notice, and make something out if it.

“well, you don’t really want people thinking you go around interrupting everybody,” you chastise. sunny rolls her eyes at you and sighs dramatically.

“we are quite literally the perfect group—i don’t know why you are so worried about our image all the time,” she says. you decide that the conversation is over, and sit facing forward again. sunny doesn’t understand that everything, at the end of the day, falls on you. people look at you like you birthed these girls and raised them up yourself. if one of them screw up, it falls on the entire group but rests on your shoulders to clean up. your image is so important to uphold, because there has only ever been one scandal to your groups name at the beginning of your careers that you did everything possible to stop the public from shaming you and the girls. it’s not easy to do that.

the ride is silent, save for their nails tapping against their phone screens. you sit with your eyes closed and your head leaned back, ready to dive into bed and maybe call baekhyun. maybe.

“would it really be that bad if everybody knew about you and baekhyun?” sunny asks, cutting into the silence. you open your eyes, but don’t turn around. the hair on your arms stands up at his name being mentioned so loudly, somewhere that isn’t the safety of your dorms.

“yes,” you reply. you think about the uproar it would cause, and what it would do to your career. his would be fine, of course, because the dismissal is never the same for men as it is for women. your group would probably have to disband, or you’d have to leave. it would look terrible, especially since you are the leader, if this was public news. “it would be awful, sunny. i cant lose my career over a man.” and while a nasty pang of guilt rips through your chest, it’s the truth.

“but… you told me you think that you love him. that’s not enough?” when she says these words, it’s like she’s 16 again, asking you why the world was mad at your group for a rumor about heejin. her voice is small, naive almost, and it reminds you how far apart you two really are.

you can’t help that your eyes start to water. “soojin, can we talk about this later?” you ask, blinking back the tears. you swallow thickly and pull your headphones out of your pocket, turning up your music loudly to block out any thoughts of you and baekhyun, and the public finding out.

getting back to the dorms, you head straight for your room. you close the door behind you and pull out your headphones and sigh, your head pounding. flopping onto the bed, you bury your face in the pillows and close your eyes.

you’re disrupted by a knock only moments later, and you let out a breath before telling whoever it is to come in. “y/n?” sunny’s voice calls from the doorway.

“yeah?” you roll over and sit up on your elbows to look at her. she gives you a sheepish smile and comes over to your bed, crawling in bed next to you like she used when you guys were trainees and she kissed her family.

scooting over, you make space for her to rest her head on your shoulder, your arm wrapping around her. “sorry for earlier. i guess i’m just trying to see the positive side to it,” sunny says.

“it’s fine,” you sigh. “i’m just super paranoid.”

“is baekhyun?” she asks.

you shake your head above her. it’s amazing to you that he seems to have no qualms or fears about your relationship becoming public. he’s fine with it being a secret or being news, and it makes you feel like shit, like it looks like you’re afraid of being seen with him. though it’s far from that. “no, and i guess that’s what makes me more stressed out. because he’s too chill about it, and doesn’t seem to be worried.”

“he’s old,” sunny snorts and you chuckle. there’s only four years between you and him, so she’s technically calling you old too, but you don’t say anything. “are you gonna tell him you love him?” she asks after a beat of silence. you still against her and she lifts her head to look at you.

it’s a sensitive subject—you and baekhyun haven’t said it yet. you won’t say it, because you’re afraid it’ll open a dam of bad things starting to happen. like once it’s out in the open, the worst possible thing could happen to your relationship. “maybe. i don’t know. probably not,” you ramble.

sunny gives you a sad look and squeezes you into a hug. she doesn’t say anything, and neither do you, but enough passes between the two of you. i’m here for you, she says. i know, you say back.

baekhyuns hands are on your ribs, holding you firmly and pressing you flush against the side of his car as he takes you into a nice, soft kiss. your arms snake around his neck, your fingers playing with the ends of his hair at his neck.

his lips move slowly against yours, his tongue slipping into your mouth with ease. your chest burns with adoration and want, and him tugging you closer to him only makes you throb. pulling away, his mouth chases yours and you let him kiss you again, this time letting him tilt your head back so you’re practically lying against the car.

it’s risky to be out in the open like this, but the parking garage is secluded and for residents of his apartment only. you would see and hear anybody coming through, but so far you haven’t in the last seven minutes.

you pull away from him again, and stop his advances by gently pressing your fingers to his lips. “baekhyun,” you say softly. he kisses your fingertips and then your cheek.

“yes?” he says, looking into your eyes with an intensity that makes your knees weak, so much so that you rest your weight against the car.

“can we go inside?” you ask, your fingers dancing on his cheek. he nods and kisses your palm before grabbing it and taking you to the elevators. baekhyun wraps an arm around your shoulders and pulls you into his side, kissing your temple for a long time, all the way until the doors open, and then pulling you down the hallway to his apartment.

he helps you out of your coat and hangs it up. “what do you want to eat?” he asks as you step out of your shoes.

“bold of you to assume i’m hungry,” you tease, but you’re always hungry around him, and you are hungry right now. baekhyun rolls his eyes at you and repeats his question. “i don’t know. chicken? ramen? rice? whatever you want.” you say, kissing his lips. he holds you close for a beat before letting you go so he can get something started for the two of you.

you bound to the living room and sprawl out on his large couch, turning the tv onto one of the many shows you two have started watching together. you get comfortable and pull a blanket over you, snuggling into the cushions while he busies himself with the task of making dinner.

baekhyun comes into the living room with two bowls of food a few minutes later. you sit up and thank him as you accept the dish, crossing your legs and resting the bowl in your lap. “what did i miss?” he asks, and you catch him up on the show in between bites.

you two eat in a close and comfortable silence. he’d probably have his arm around you if it wasn’t uncomfortable while you two were eating. the close proximity is enough though, your knees touching and his right arm lightly bumping into your left.

you set your bowl on the table, ready to get up to get a drink but baekhyun gets up quicker than you, already knowing what you want. he goes into the kitchen and comes back with two glasses of water. it feels like the world is slipping beneath your feet, and you could cry because of him.

this is the taking care of that heejin said you needed. you finally have it—he’s always like this with you, feeding you, making sure you’re well rested and fed and just okay. he takes whatever worries you have and throws them on his back and just lets you be.

after dinner, you and baekhyun retreat to his bedroom. you lie on his bare chest, a hand resting on his stomach and your ear against his heart. baekhyun mindlessy plays with your hair, his fingers digging into your scalp soothingly. your eyes can’t help but flutter close—there’s no point in trying to fight sleep. you’ll wake up with him tomorrow.

the speculations didn’t start the next day. no, everybody thought it was so cute and funny that sunny blurts out random things while her older members are talking. there were compilations made from your groups content; interviews, your group vlogs, and more. it was funny, honestly, that they adored her disruptiveness.

the speculations started four days later. and when the news broke, the internet nearly stopped working because there were pictures and videos. so many pictures and videos, that it felt like somebody may have been stalking you. there were pictures of you and baekhyun kissing against his car, of you two in his car, of you two getting out of his car, of you two going for a late night walk near the han river.

and then there were videos—albeit, mostly can made—that served as proof that you two really are dating. there’s the longing looks shared at award shows, zoomed in videos of you two standing next to each other on stages, hands brushing. the other videos are just more reasons to believe that you two are dating; heejin saying you need to be taken care of, and then clips of baekhyun taking care of his own members. videos of you talking about your ideal type, and clips proving that you must have been referring to baekhyun, or jaír got really lucky that you found him.

it’s overwhelming.

when the pictures surfaced, you and mingwa were in the practice room dancing to your debut songs. the alert popped up on your phones at the same time, but mingwa grabbed hers first. you heard her gasp and ran over, thinking she might’ve twisted her ankle, but instead were met with her guilty eyes and her perfectly fine ankle.

you didn’t know what to do when you saw the photos. your heart stopped and your felt sick. your head started pounding, and it felt like a rug was being pulled from underneath your feet. you didn’t know what to do, so you started crying, falling to the floor in a heap. you weren’t sobbing, but your were audibly crying, and mingwa wasn’t sure what to do. you managed to get yourself together, and excused yourself to your room, avoiding any staff members on your way.

and now you’re on the phone with baekhyun, trying not to burst into tears as he keeps telling you everything will be ok. “baekhyun, this was such a bad idea!” you cry, pressing your forehead into your hand.

“what was? dating me?” he asks, slight offense in his voice.

“yes!” you shout, but you don’t even believe yourself. “w-we shouldn’t have gotten involved.” you’re adding fuel to the fire, hoping he’ll just break up with you so you can say those photos aren’t real, and that you’re not longer dating so everybody can leave you alone.

“you don’t mean that,” baekhyun says, his voice soft on the other line. it makes you feel like shit. “do you?”

you shake your head, though he can’t see you. “no,” you say meekly. “but we- y/n, you knew this could happen even before we started dating.” he interrupts, shutting you up. you press your mouth into a thin line. “don’t try to push me away now, y/n.” the overuse of your first name makes you feel like you’re being scolded by an elder.

“okay, i’m sorry,” you say, sighing. baekhyun parrots you and you press your body into your mattress. now would be the ideal time to tell him you love him, but it feels like it would be a poor bandaid to apologizing for saying that you should have never agreed to date him. “i don’t know what to do.” you mumble.

“let our companies handle it. you just get some sleep,” he says. you chew on your bottom lip, wishing that he was here with you.

“okay. goodnight, baekhyun,” you say. i love you, you want to add.

“goodnight, y/n.”

when you wake the next morning, your group, managers, and baekhyuns team are all in the dorm lounge. you freeze when you see him, ready to jump out of the nearest window because you know exactly what is about to happen. “we need to release a statement,” your manager says, beckoning you over to everybody.

gingerly, you walk over to your girls, sitting next to heejin at the end of the sofa, the furthest you can get away from your boyfriend. “so, i assume it’s true? the rumors about you dating? you can say no, but i’ve seen the pictures,” baekhyuns manager says, looking over at you. you nod, and when everyone keeps staring at you, you pipe up and say “yes”, your voice hoarse.

“great. how long has it been?”

“seven months,” baekhyun says, his eyes flicking to you. heejin gasps beside you, grabbing everybody’s attention.

“oh, sorry!” she says, waving everybody off. “liar!” she whispers. you told her that it’s only been four months.

both of your guys’ managers read from what looks like a checklist of things, asking you questions and scribbling down answers so they can formulate each of your statements.

“are you happy?” your manager asks, not looking up from the sheet. it’s an easy questions, and you both answer ‘yes’ with ease. “are you in love?” the question lodges your heart in your throat, and the room gets eerily silent, so silent that you could hear a pin drop in the next room.

you don’t know what to say. you don’t want to lie, and look terrible, but you don’t want to tell the truth and further complicate your relationship.

you glance over at bakehyun, and find him already looking at you. you know what you’re going to say the moment your eyes meet, and you feel your stomach flip on it’s side. your heart melts like goo in your chest as you say, “yes”, admitting after many long months the one thing that’s been clawing at you in the back of your mind.

your manager scribbles down your answer and turns to baekhyun. “baekhyun?” he asks. his eyes never leave yours, and it feels like you’re the only two people in the room, despite the fact that there’s about 10 feet of distance between you two.

“of course,” he says it so sincerely that you drop your gaze to your lap, your face turning red and a smile overtaking your lips. your group members giggle and elbow you in your side, equally as happy to hear the news.

you feel over the moon, and your past paranoia is put away and shoved into a box that you choose to ignore for a moment. both of your teams curate statements, and they’re sent out less than an hour later. you and baekhyun take the rest of the day for yourselves, driving out far to the beach and hanging there all day until it gets dark, and your teeth start clattering because of the weather. and when you get in the car, he kisses you and you quite literally feel the love has for you, and your brain goes fuzzy to the point where all you can remember is his name, everything else being put to shame.

the responses you get to your relationship are much more positive than you expect, and of course there are negative comments, but not nearly as many as there are of the positive comments. people cnat help but gush at how you found your person, and are finally getting to get taken care of.

but, of course, cameras are on you more heavily than in the past. and now, when you go on variety shows solo, they want to know about your personal life before knowing about the group. you learn to get used to it, giving way to basically nothing, and sometimes sharing more than people expect, when you want to.

like, when you go on a variety show alone with a bunch of other idols, the same show baekhyun had been on in the past, they bring up an interview moment where baekhyun says that you’re the better dresser of the two of you. you’re asked the same question, and you answer baekhyun, and follow up with admitting that you’re wearing his clothes at that very moment. that makes the internet go crazy, searching high and low for pictures of baekhyun wearing the same item, comparing how it’s massive on you but fits him snugly.

or, when you attend the end of the year award shows and exo performs, the camera is on your group more often than you’d like to admit. there are fancams dedicated to your reaction of his groups performances, everybody focused on how you react to baekhyun specifically. of course, the same thing happens to him with you, and he’s a lot more shameless about his support of you.

you group responds well to your now public relationship. you’re able to get all five of you together more often, and they look at him like a bigger brother. sunny often tags along on your dates and asks about baekhyun and genuinely treats him like her uncle. she makes a lot of jokes about the two of you, mainly on camera. like, when you’re filming content for you groups vlog, she asks how baekhyun asked you out, and then sings the bridge of ‘blooming days’ by CBX, and does the dance too. the internet eats that up, constantly sharing the clip because it truly was funny.

despite the public news of your relationship, though, you and baekhyun manage to keep it private. besides what you choose to share, you can easily dodge questions about your private lives and keep the mystery alive. it does help your relationship now that more people know—there’s no threat of getting caught, or the constant feeling of breaking the rules. it’s easier now, and better than ever.

[a-dumb-sarcastic-bisexual]

Nimona headcanons plus a little bonus at the end

Whenever the trio gets home it's like a switch is flipped off inside their brains and all they want to do is be lazy and relax 

They’ve got very busy and stressful lives and a pretty small home so it’s not uncommon for them to yell when they’re asking a question instead of just getting up

And if they can’t hear each other they’ll just call the other person

One time Ambrosius was yelling asking them what wanted for dinner and was interrupted by Nimona calling him 

He answered the phone and all they said was “What’d you say I couldn't hear you” he didn’t even question it he just kept talking 

Nimona brings dead animals home 

I have this small headcanon that the first time she shifted into her human form was when she met Gloreth 

So before that she was living mostly as different animals and she kind of learned their ways and those ways stuck with her 

So there is a small part of her that sees Bal and Ambrosius as incompetent hunters (can you blame her)

The boys always thank her for her doing a good job and then they wait for her to leave the room before they freak out because MY GOD SHE BROUGHT A FUCKING DEAD RAT IN THE DAMN HOUSE 

There have also been times when she’s brought live animals inside the house the trio spent half an hour trying to get a traumatized bird out of their living room 

I just know for a fact that Bal has a crazy amount of brain damage 

This man has used his head as a weapon and has been hit on the head more times than I can count 

So I feel like he has a really hard time remembering the little details he gets really bad migraines and headaches pretty frequently his eyesight is absolute shit and he has to wear contacts or glasses and he gets really bad vertigo if he doesn’t take care of himself 

This worries the shit out of Ambrosius and Nimona but there isn't much they can do except deal with the symptoms when they show up

So I was thinking about the fact that as far as we know Nimona never told Bal about what went down with Gloreth

But I know that the boys would try and heal the damage that Gloreths legacy left behind  

And in the middle of everything Bal turned to Ambrosius and said “I just wish that fucking eyesore was gone” 

He didn’t have to ask what he meant he knew it was the statue 

So Ambrosius got to work trying to get it torn down 

A lot of people including some distant relatives that he hasn’t heard from in years tried to argue that it was an important monument and that her story touched a lot of people 

To which Ambrosius responded with “I’m her direct descendant if anyone gets to choose what happens to that statue it should be me” 

It was a couple of months into Nimona’s return when the demolition was approved 

The boys had asked him a while after he came back if it was something he wanted 

And all he said was “As long as I get to help” 

It was super therapeutic for both Nimona and Ambrosius 

Like don’t get me wrong the damage she did to Nimona is still there 

And Ambrosius will always have a complicated relationship with his lineage 

But tearing down the “fucking eyesore” heals something inside them

It was supposed to be a month-long process but Nimona and Ambrosius kept going and it was completely gone after two weeks

When all was said and done they collapsed on the couch and went through just about every single emotion you can go through

A little bonus I made my mama watch Nimona with me and here are some of my favorite comments: Mind you when I first put the movie on this woman was acting like I was pulling teeth

“I like the queen she seems nice” (and then she freaked out when she died)

“So they’re nice to him 'cause he’s gold I would just steal the armor what does he have without that?” “Money Mama” “Ah”

“Why are they so mean to him he’s just a baby?” (talking about Bal)

“She’s just like you especially with those freaky eyes” (when Nimona met Bal)

“Oh, so she’s the rhino…. Makes sense”

“Awe she’s cute I can't hate her” (about Nimona again)

“Oh wait she isn’t cute that’s freaky” (when Nimona was the demon baby)

“That’s like you and your sister” (Bal and Nimona interrogating the squire)

“Hey, mama is arm chopping a love language?” “I’m worried that you would even ask me that”

“Oh he’s got issues huh?” (after Ambrosius’ internal freak out)

“Can he die a little quieter… and faster” (after the Director stabbed “Ambrosius”)

“Oh fuck that little blond girl”

We had to pause the movie right before Nimona started her rampage because we were getting tired and I woke up to her in front of the tv with it pulled up on Netflix and she turned to me and said “Can we finish it already?”

“If she sacrificed herself I will never forgive you”

“Do you watch anything with straight people?” “Mama you literally ship them” “That's not an answer” (this is right after Bal and Ambrosius kissed)

“Is there a next part?..... so when’s the next one coming out?” 

Once the movie was over I told her some people thought Ambrosius and Bal were related and she looked me dead in the eyes and said

“You’re joking. No you have no be kidding… He literally said it in the movie!” “Said what Mama?” “oh I love him so much and I lost him whatever will I do” 

And then she kept making fun of Ambrosius for the next three minutes

I asked her who her favorite was and she said Nimona I go “aweee you love me” she looks me dead in my eyes and says “don’t make it awkward”

[mellowwhumps]

WWE 2025, Day 3: It’s Not You, It’s Me

Left behind / Attempted Martyr / “Get out while you can, and don’t look back.”

[Daidiao Hsu & Daitiao Xu + Cicadas] — part 1 // 756 words

CW: someone nearly dies…? i swear they’re alive after this (how many times am i gonna say this skdfhsk)

@whumperless-whump-event

——

It’s a losing battle, really. They weren’t prepared for their targets to show up anywhere near their proximity, out of anywhere in the whole universe, for stars’ sake. 

The market is bustling with creatures of varying shapes and sizes, and in its chaos, Daitiao spots the offenders turning into a crowded walkway, gesturing for Hsu to follow them.

The company hadn’t given them enough information to go off of, just six vague figures from whatever botched security footage they could salvage from those three hours of somehow stealing the company’s prized possession and leaving. Leaving! Just like that, after all the security measures they were meant to put in place. 

Once again, nothing’s going as Hsu said it would. Nothing. 

It almost hurts as much to witness.

”Daitiao! Daitiao, it’s not working, gone on too long, we have to fall b— nnh—” The slash of a knife nearly meets their face as they stumble back, instinctively shielding their face. They passed the round-eared intruder that knife, back when they were still under Hsu’s control, when most of them were. It was supposed to last longer.

They fidget with their gun, hands shaking as they fail to shoot. “I— m-my trigger’s failing, why…“ 

“Dai, behind you!” As though in unison, another shot comes straight to them from behind and they struggle to dodge, trying to get closer to the other and failing once more, another enemy interrupting them. The pulse of concentrated energy clips their skin as their assailant’s tightly secured hood dips from the recoil, and as brief as it is, they know what they saw, talented in remembering faces as they are. 

That number one idol was supposed to be dead. 

The last alien’s eyes are gaining focus, trying to shake off the last remnants of Hsu’s powers as the idol (or so is suspected) shakes them, trying to pull them to their feet and usher them forward. ‘Run’, they spy one of them saying in the universal language, ‘we shouldn’t stay, we’ve been sighted more than we should have.’

The round-ear, dodging a final swipe for their weapon, harriedly plunges the knife straight into Hsu’s chest as they sprint to join the rest of their group. 

It should have been a fatal stab. The most generic placement of a knife against remotely humanoid-shaped beings like them. Hsu falls to the ground, sprawled and writhing, a choked sob escaping their lips, and their body halts in place, frozen. 

“Go. I can…I’ll call back, they’ll pick me up. They can—” Hsu drifts into a bout of coughs, wheezing for breath, eyes wide and darting and landing on them. “Just go catch them. P-please, Xu. I’ll– I’ll be alright.”

The other speaks all too naturally, as though reassurance was ever a thing used by either of them. Was Hsu even reassuring them, or was it some other thing, confident as they always seemed to act, hated as they always were? Someone with the exact same build, almost the exact same face. Even the same personality, once upon a distant time. For a moment, they thought they were the one bleeding out, somehow switching to an outsider’s perspective. 

Doppelganger, only having existed in this form to try and take the other’s place, to propagate itself after. It’s not like Hsu never knew from the start. Gun to throat, eye to mirroring eye. Both of them were only trying to survive, weren’t they? All of them.

They need to stop pretending they understand anything. All they need to do right now is go, but the juvenile word leaves their mouth anyway as they turn to face Hsu. 

“Promise?”

And oh, isn’t that just a sight. 

Hsu’s much too long gone to hear their words, tears still flowing down from their unfocused eyes as they whisper the same childlike mantra repeatedly. Don’t leave me, don’t leave me. It’s coated in the same compelling voice they typically use to command someone, as unconscious an action as it is. Had they been someone else, they would have stayed.

They don’t understand. They don’t get any of it, won’t ever get any of it. They need to get out, out. The both of them can’t fail more than they already have. Xu turns on Daidiao’s half-opened distress signal in record time, yanks Daidiao’s hopefully working gun from its holster and runs back out the corridor to continue giving chase.

Looking back again is not an option, they whisper to themself, eyes alight with familiar, feverish heat. Final resort, their ace in the hole.

[timeagainreviews]

Bursting Your Bubble

Liam Lynch once said- “The internet is a glimpse into how rude people will be in the future.” At the time it felt like just another funny little line from his song “Internet Killed the Video Star,” (not to be confused with the Limousines’ song of the same name) but nowadays it feels prophetic. Just this morning I made the mistake of reading the comments section and it’s thrown my day off considerably. From the comforts of our keyboards, we can write horrendous things. Treat strangers with contempt. It’s sometimes easy to forget there are actual people on the other end of our glowing screens. Insularity breeds contempt for the different. We live in our little bubbles.

It would be easy to blame the posters, the content creators, the influencers. A few bad apples spoil the bunch. But as psychologist Philip Zimbardo would say- don’t blame the apples, don’t blame the barrel, blame the barrel makers. The people who put the apples into the barrel in the first place. Despite everything Russell T Davies’ “Dot and Bubble,” is trying to say, one question hangs over it and the rest of this season- who is the barrel maker? Things in Finetime are anything but fine, but by whose design? One might assume it’s Susan Twist’s character, but who is she? This is the overarching question of season one, but is the question beginning to feel a bit drawn out?

From the outset, “Dot and Bubble,” acts as a sort of Black Mirror version of “Blink.” We’re given a young blonde woman who finds herself in a dangerous situation that requires her to look at something she would usually ignore. All the while, the Doctor and his companion are forced to talk to the young woman through a screen. The difference here is that while Sally Sparrow had gumption, Lindy Pepper-Bean is about as useful as a wicker toilet. She lives in “Finetime,” an actual bubbled world. Her “Dot,” device then creates yet another bubble around her head. It’s bubble inception. The bubble tells her when to wake up, how to walk, and even when to pee. (Shout out to my boy Dr Pee!) Because of this, Lindy lives an unobserved life where hard questions need not bother her.

Everything about Finetime is a hyper-realistic nightmare of overstimulation. It’s like “A Clockwork Orange,” meets “The Stepford Wives.” Lindy can ignore her problems when there’s always a new Ricky September video on the horizon. As Frank from Brad Neely’s “The Professor Brothers” said- “We danced like those people in the hyper-tight light of fried chicken commercials.” Lindy and her “friends,” can completely ignore the fact that their friends have slowly begun disappearing. They don’t even seem to notice when they’re the only ones in the room, how would they notice gigantic slugs eating each other?

With Ncuti Gatwa away filming season four of “Sex Education,” the show had to do a couple Doctor-lite episodes. These are usually hit-or-miss among fans, but as “Blink,” proved back in 2007, they can become fan favourites. The Doctor and Ruby’s roles are reduced, but this episode does a good job of making them feel like a recurring part of the story. Even though they spend the bulk of the episode in what looks like the intro to “The Brady Bunch,” it never feels like we’re being underserved.

Lindy’s friends float around her like talking heads in her holographic bubble. But she keeps getting interrupted by the Doctor and his bad vibes. Even though Ruby is also invading her privacy despite not being on her friend list, Lindy is willing to hear her out. We’re not told why up front, but there is a reason Lindy can believe Ruby might feasibly be tech support, but the Doctor could not. Due to Lindy’s impatience, Ruby is forced to talk to Lindy as if she were a child, but not so much that she catches on. Anyone who stops Lindy from either working or playing is a massive drag to her. She really just wants Ruby and the Doctor to go away. How do they not know how society works? Why are they asking such stupid questions when the answers have been drilled into everyone since they were children?

We learn that Lindy’s mother is Penny Pepper-Bean, but she’s actually another Susan Twist cameo, so she could be anyone. Thankfully, both the Doctor and Ruby recognise her this time, and it’s not in an aborted timeline. I saw someone mention on Facebook today that they felt the Doctor recognising her felt rushed, and I couldn’t disagree more. It was high time we got something from this storyline. While it has been nice to genuinely be curious about Doctor Who’s mysteries again, this one has felt like a lot of the same. With the Doctor and Ruby now clued in, we have somewhere else to go in the future. Maybe now Susan Twist will come out from behind the mask and we can learn something more about her. Maybe now the Doctor will start looking into her involvement.

I’m usually not interested in fan theories as they’re often filler content when YouTubers and bloggers don’t have anything else to talk about. But here I believe we’ve been given quite a lot to work with to formulate a theory or two. I know I said “It’s probably not the Rani because it’s never the Rani,” but at this point, if she’s not the Rani, they’ve wasted their biggest opportunity to reintroduce audiences to her that the show has ever had. At this point, it would be weird if she wasn’t the Rani. The things she’s been involved with have all of her usual hallmarks. We have genetic manipulation in “Space Babies,” humans are being treated like lab rats in “Dot and Bubble,” and then there’s the whole disguising yourself in plain sight aspect. At this point, the bigger question isn’t whether or not she’s the Rani. The bigger question is why wouldn’t she be? Why would the show come so close to revealing her and then pull back?

Ruby finally convinces Lindy to look beyond her bubble where she witnesses her co-worker being eaten by one of the Man-Traps. Usually Lindy could just ask her Dot to guide her to safety, but for some reason, it feels more than ready to direct her right into the open mouth of a Man-Trap. Lindy must walk without the aid of her Dot, and man does she suck at it. She quite literally cannot walk talk and chew bubblegum at the same time. Part of me was worried the episode was going to spend all of its time making fun of young people and their phones. It’s cliched and honestly, I’m tired of it. But within the context of the episode, Davies isn’t attempting a technophobic condescension toward the youth of today. Instead, the episode endeavours to highlight the danger of relinquishing your thoughts and actions to outside entities. If we let others tell us what to like, who to like, or how to live, you may as well become worm food.

Having narrowly escaped death by slug, Lindy is forced to bumble about outside while the Doctor and Ruby direct her like the most exasperated form of Google Maps ever. An interesting aspect of this scene that I’ve not heard anyone talk about is the greenish-blue blood seen from a body being dragged away. You may not know what I’m talking about, but I’ll post a picture below. You may look at that and say “That’s not blood, that’s slug goo.” But where else in the episode do we actually see the Man-Traps leave behind any kind of snail trail? I’m going to go out on a limb and say I think the people of Finetime are blue-blooded, and considering what we learn about them, it makes sense. Blue blood is often a symbol for aristocracy, but it can also be used as a way to imply an inbred nature. In this case, we could infer that the citizens have blue blood because they don’t “dilute,” it with the blood of non-white people. Oh did I not mention the Finetimers are racists? More on that in a bit.

Throughout most of this episode, only one of Lindy’s friends seems to be concerned with the fact that people are going missing, and that’s Gothic Paul. Gothic Paul was a nice little addition to the episode because a trans man plays him and they didn’t make a big deal about it. He wasn’t even killed for being trans. He was killed for being delicious and too dumb to notice. A diversity win! Compare this to Chibnall’s gay representation where a character says “By the way, I’m gay,” and then spiders eat her face. LGBTQ+ people are allowed to exist in such a manner that it doesn’t feel like “kill your gays,” when they kill our gays. Representation has been so good that it’s not even problematic that a drag queen made a child disappear. You know, the thing all of those conservatives are worried about with drag story hour? That’s just the Maestro’s schtick. 

After the battery in Lindy’s Dot goes dead, she’s basically a sitting duck. That is until she hears a familiar voice call out. A voice belonging to none other than the dreamy Ricky September. Maybe it’s the insular nature of being a pop star, but Ricky isn’t bogged down by his Dot. Instead, he’s learned to appreciate existing offline. Because of this, Ricky reads things about their people’s history. And even luckier for Lindy, Ricky can actually walk and move about in the world. After a bit of starstruck awe, Lindy takes his hand as he leads her away from danger. It’s almost sweet if you don’t suspect what’s coming.

Ricky leads Lindy to Plaza 55 where a door leading to the river flowing beneath the bubble can lead them out into the Wild Woods. Knowing a bit about coding, Ricky simply needs to type in two digits every five seconds and the door will come open eventually. With no Man-Traps about, Lindy needs only to sit tight and let Ricky work his magic. While she waits, Lindy is able to charge her Dot which enables the Doctor and Ruby to contact her again. The Doctor infers that the Dots can see the Man-Traps, but willfully encourage people to walk directly into their mouths. As it turns out, the Dot hates Lindy and her friends about as much as the audience does. The AI has gone rogue and it’s taking these airheads with it. Sadly, this is also when the episode starts to get bogged down by the season's overarching plot.

The Doctor deduces that the Man-Traps are eating the people in alphabetical order. This leads him to believe that the AI must have created the Man-Traps, otherwise they would eat whoever, whenever. The reason I feel this feels bogged down by the overarching plot is that I can’t imagine these golfball-sized Dots being capable of growing creatures in a laboratory. The most they can do against Ricky and Lindy is act as a projectile. They don’t even have thumbs. Because of this, it’s logical to imagine that there is a third party involved. It’s not hard to imagine who that third party is, considering Susan Twist’s cameo. But in the meantime, we as an audience are left in a state of limbo where this is either part of some greater plan, or an unsatisfying plothole. Albeit, not an incredibly episode-breaking one. After all, the Daleks manage quite a bit with only a plunger.

With Lindy’s Dot trying to bash their brains in and Lindy being next in line, alphabetically speaking, we are finally introduced to who Lindy actually is as person. Using her mega fan knowledge about Ricky September, she informs the Dot that Ricky’s name is a stage name and his real name is Coombes. Ricky can barely believe the betrayal from the woman he’s tried so very hard to save. But her gamble pays off as the Dot refocuses its attention on Ricky, giving Lindy enough time to escape to the river while the Dot strikes down poor Ricky. As face turns go, this is one of the worst in Doctor Who history. However, it’s not entirely without warning. Certain lines of dialogue have clued us in to Lindy’s true nature throughout the episode.

Before we leave him behind like Lindy so callously does, I’d like to take a moment to talk about Ricky September, as I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him. It was hard to tell what the Dot does to Ricky because the camera looks away, but he could have survived. Why I think this is because they spend a lot of time building Ricky up as a character. Both the Doctor and Ruby have shown a romantic interest in him. There have even been rumours that there would be a sort of love triangle between the Doctor, Ruby, and Ruby’s boyfriend. On top of that, we’ve got another blonde-haired blue-eyed person with RS for initials. Even further, the S in both names indicates a point in time- September and Sunday. And just because Ricky comes from a community of racists doesn’t mean he is one. Like he said, he does a lot of reading. Perhaps he’s learned better. Or I’m wrong and he has a Dot-sized hole in his head.

Finally, we get to see the Doctor and Ruby in the flesh. Even more finally, we get to see them both in the costumes they wore in their first costume reveal! Lindy gives the Doctor and Ruby some shitty excuse about Ricky turning back to save more people. She even gives a begrudging thank you to them, but ultimately can’t bring herself to let the Doctor help her or her friends. Lindy and her fellow survivors can’t bring themselves to interact with the Doctor because he’s black. It’s as heartbreaking for the Doctor as it is infuriating to Ruby who can only stand there and watch her friend experience this ugliness. But the Doctor is still the Doctor and he’s a bigger man than their small minds. He continues holding out a lifeline to some of the most undeserving group of spoiled narcissists to ever grace the screen of Doctor Who.

I’ve seen people complain that the Doctor does this. That it doesn’t mesh with the same character who once punched a man who was racist toward Bill. But that was the Doctor drawing a line and defending his friend’s honour. The Doctor’s compassion is so great that he’s willing to forego his sense of self-respect to save lives. This is the same man who tries to reason with racist genocidal aliens, he doesn’t stop just because they look human. I know I would have let them die, but the Doctor is a better person than me. That’s not to say any of this is easy for him. It very clearly cuts him to his core. Ncuti Gatwa gives an earth-shattering performance here, and when you consider this is the first scene he filmed after the Giggle, it’s fucking astounding. This is the exact type of range I was hoping they would bring to his character.

As a white member of the audience, I am left with a lot of uncomfortable realisations. Like, I barely batted an eye at the fact that Lindy’s friends were all white. I’m also left wondering how many people the Doctor has saved in the past who might have also treated a black Doctor differently. But I also feel like this ending took me by surprise for a different reason than my own ignorance. I simply never expected Doctor Who to go there. The topic of racism is not new to Doctor Who. Martha experiences quite a bit of it, especially in “Human Nature.” But even their more recent attempt with “Rosa,” fell short by implying that in 3000 years, no other black person would stand up for their rights. It was an oversimplification of the civil rights movement that left me wondering if Doctor Who was capable of tackling such heavy issues. I never felt like the show properly addressed the Doctor being a woman, so believe me when I say how much I appreciate them addressing the Doctor’s race. Even further, I loved that it ultimately isn’t the Doctor who will suffer from their racism. Their prejudice has doomed them without anyone else’s help.

It’s weird to look at this episode on the TARDIS wiki and see the Dots and Man-Traps listed as the main enemy. Because really, it’s Lindy who is the real monster. It’s Hoochy Pie and her wack-ass trumpet. Also, can we not come up with a better name than Man-Trap? What about Erascists? They erase e-racists. Just some good little sluggy bois taking out the trash. I stan a king. The Dots hate those evil trust fund dickweeds, and honestly, same. Evidently, the name Man-Trap was introduced in Doctor Who Unleashed, which for the 4th week in a row, I’ve forgotten to watch. One of the side-effects of Doctor Who’s screwy release schedule is that now I completely forget Doctor Who Unleashed even exists. One benefit, however, is that I often get to rewatch the episodes the next day with my partners who didn’t want to stay up late. The benefit is that I’ll notice things I missed the first time. It also allows me to experience the stories for what they are, as opposed to what I expected them to be.

Being able to watch “Dot and Bubble,” with hindsight has given me an even greater appreciation for this story. Over time, I feel people will eventually regard it as one of Davies’ best. Its tone and themes remind me of something you would find in the Seventh Doctor era, which is high praise coming from me. Ricky feels like the promise of a character like Pex from “Paradise Towers,” properly realised. Hopefully, like the graffiti says- “Pex lives.” Dylan Holmes Williams does a fabulous job directing as the episode wastes nothing. It’s a Doctor-lite episode that manages not to waste a moment of screen time with the Doctor. In less than five minutes, Gatwa manages to be the command performance in an episode of solid performances. But much like “The Fugitive of the Judoon,” this strong episode remains feeling unresolved due to the plotline still hanging over its head. Once we have the hindsight of knowing how it fits into the greater storyline, it could appreciate in value. One can only hope.

[soupfield]

listening to ep 100 of riptide and thinking about the parallels of the encounters with jay’s dad

in their first encounter, at the block, jayson ferin (grizzly, man, i’m sorry but why does it have to be spelled that way) knows exactly what to say to intimidate jay. he ridicules her choice to become a pirate, insults her friends. but he also shames her for having left featherbrook island. for “leaving her mother all by her lonesome.” jay’s response is that her mother can handle herself, though her father continues on, speaking at her rather than to her.

the majority of the conversation, jay pleads more than argues. she doesn’t need to prove him wrong. she just needs to convince him to let her friends live. she doesn’t move to attack or defend, just walks up to her dad, head down, and puts her fist on his chest. she immediately surrenders. says she’ll return home, do what he says, begging him to let the others go.

this doesn’t pan out of course. gillion acts, fights against jayson for the sake of his friend, for her freedom. but jay’s internal conflict, the secret she’s spent all this time lying about, her genuine care for her friends but her want to somehow appease her father, to find out what happened to ava. there’s uncertainty. and jayson sees this, and uses it to punish them. by forcing her to punish them. there’s nothing else she can do.

she shoots gillion in the chest.

in episode 100, as the crew has just left zero, they’re ambushed by the navy. as jay’s father lands on their ship to arrest them, something is different. jay has committed to her choice, to her co-captains and her crew. jay speaks against him.

“you shouldn’t be here.”

jayson ferin doesn’t know his wife is sick, that her magic is leaving her. jay herself has only just found out, but it makes sense that she hasn’t been able to return home as a wanted pirate. jayson doesn’t have that same excuse, yet he’s been absent for years. he doesn’t visit home often, not even before jay left to be a pirate.

when her father asks why, jay says “of course you wouldn’t know. always blind to everything around you, especially your family.”

he speaks as if he’s looking past her, trying to separate the person he sees from the daughter he raised. trying not to think about how much she looks like ava.

“my family would never forsake their duty on some immature whim of emotion. i see no family-“

jay interrupts him. “yeah? and what about mom? you ever once think to look over her? check in on her maybe?”

and jayson’s response is what really stands out to me.

“my wife can take care of herself. how dare you use her to provoke me. is this how far you have fallen?”

he’s contradicting his words in the block. not that he really meant what he said, as he didn’t truly care about jay leaving her mother. he cared about controlling the situation, and his wife was an easy card to play to make jay feel guilty.

as jay challenges her father, he assumes she’s trying to play the same game. weaponize their remaining family to gain control. she isn’t.

“when was the last time you saw her?”

jayson ferin is silent.

“i saw her a week ago. she’s very sick, dad.”

he doesn’t seem to even consider that she’s telling the truth. skirting around the subject to insult jay’s character before addressing it.

“try to trick me all you want. but it will not be me who dies a fool. and do not dare use my wife to bargain.”

“that’s just like you, dad. just like you to think i’d use mom as a bargaining chip and not tell you out of pure concern for her. i would’ve stayed and helped. but, y’know, you have so much navy on the island no i couldn’t even do that for mom.”

there’s such a contrast in how jay holds her self during the block and now. her father never allowed her to be her own person, wouldn’t have acknowledged it even if she’d tried to do so. and she knew that in the block, knew it long before she left featherbrook. it may have been easier had she gone back home with jayson after the block, but it would have been a betrayal. not just to her crew, but herself. she knows better now. knows what she wants and what she’s worth.

“so you know what? you continue to do your thing. be a bad husband, be a bad father, i don’t care. right now? i’m gonna get you off my ship.”

and she shoots at him.