#and MM got away with it because it's a weird fucking game

[onewomancitadel]

I'll reserve judgement until I actually play TOTK but they did a story-heavy Zelda once which elevated the gameplay and its mechanics and it was great, without leaning into twee anime tropes

[ankababy]

A Home (part 6)

Part 1 Part 5 Part 7

Chishiya x reader x Niragi

Y/N, the lovebug, the sweetheart ever—oh, and those two ig…

“…And over there,” you pointed to a faded storefront with a half-shattered window. “was where I used to go shopping with my friends. God, we spent so much money on the dumbest things. It was never even about what we bought, really. It was about the excuse to just… be out. Y’know? Just walking around, talking, looking at boys, giggling.”

You laughed to yourself. “There was this one time, right outside that door—” you gestured vaguely at the entrance. “my friend almost got hit by a car because she was too busy ranting about how much she hated a boy. She just stepped into the street like a complete idiot. We had to grab her by the back of her hoodie and yank her back before she got flattened.”

Niragi, walking to your right, let out a sharp breath through his nose. “Dumbass.”

“Right?” you beamed at him. “She was so mad at us after, too, like we had embarrassed her, but it was fun. We had fun. I miss them.”

You didn’t say it with sadness. Just a simple truth. You missed them, but you weren’t dwelling on it. There was no point in that.

On your left, Chishiya still wasn’t looking at you, but you knew he was listening. He always listened.

Niragi, though, was half-distracted, glancing into broken windows and abandoned stores, searching. “We better find a damn gun shop soon.” he muttered. “Or at least some assholes carrying the right bullets.”

“Mm.” you hummed thoughtfully. “What do you even do with that many bullets?”

Niragi shot you a look. “What the fuck do you think? Shoot people.”

You gave him an unimpressed glance. “Obviously, but like, how do you not run out all the time? You shoot at everything.”

“Yeah.” he said. “So I need more.”

Chishiya finally spoke. “You’re acting like he has any self-restraint.”

“Hey, fuck you.” Niragi shot back.

You smiled to yourself. Even their bickering had settled into something more natural, something less venomous.

You adjusted the bag on your shoulder, glancing around at the empty streets. It was eerie, walking through what once was a lively city, now nothing but quiet. But you kept talking. Filling the silence, filling the space between you and the two broken boys at your sides.

And they let you.

You stepped up onto a broken concrete barrier, testing its stability before deciding it was safe enough to balance on. The edge was uneven, cracked, and worn down by time and nature, but you didn’t care. It gave you something to do while you talked—something other than just walking.

Niragi barely spared you a glance, too busy peering into the ruins of an old electronics store, while Chishiya didn’t even react.

Still, you kept going, balancing carefully as you continued to ramble. “This place was so much better before everything went to shit.” you said, arms stretched out slightly for balance. “There was always something to do. Always somewhere to be. I could be out all day and still feel like I hadn’t done enough.”

You took another careful step forward, teetering for just a second before catching yourself. “Now it’s just… empty. I mean, I get it, obviously. Death games and all that. But it’s weird, right? The silence?”

No answer.

Of course, no answer.

You glanced down at them, unimpressed. “You two are so fun to talk to.”

Chishiya didn’t even bother looking up. “You talk enough for all three of us.”

“Wow.” you said, dryly. “That almost hurt my feelings.”

Niragi snorted. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

You gasped dramatically, pressing a hand over your chest. “I am a delight, actually.”

Niragi just rolled his eyes, looking back toward the stores. “Sure.”

You let out an exaggerated sigh, taking another step forward—but the concrete under your foot crumbled slightly, throwing you off balance.

Without thinking, you grabbed onto the closest thing to you.

Which just so happened to be Chishiya’s head.

He let out a soft hnn of irritation, but he didn’t move away. Didn’t push you off. He just let you use him for balance, barely sparing you a glance.

“…Alright.” Niragi smirked, watching. “That was fucking funny.”

You finally steadied yourself, fingers still in Chishiya’s hair for a second longer than necessary before you pulled away. “That almost felt like you helping me, Chishiya.”

“I did nothing.” he muttered, brushing his hair back into place.

“Exactly.” You grinned. “And that’s exactly what I needed. You’re so stable.”

He shot you a look, unimpressed. “Is that supposed to be a compliment?”

“Yes.” you said, completely serious. “I’m going to start using you for support more often.”

“Don’t.”

“No promises.”

Niragi snorted, kicking at a stray piece of rubble on the ground. “I swear, the shit you get away with…”

“What can I say?” You hopped off the barrier, landing lightly on the ground next to him. “I have a certain charm.”

Niragi just rolled his eyes again, but you caught the ghost of a smirk tugging at his lips.

Chishiya, as expected, said nothing. But he didn’t complain when you kept walking next to him, a little too close, just to bother him.

“How many days do you guys have left?”

Chishiya didn’t even hesitate. “Four.”

Niragi, on the other hand, just blinked at you, clearly not having an answer.

“…Niragi?”

He shrugged, kicking a piece of debris out of his way. “Dunno. Doesn’t matter.”

You frowned. “What do you mean, doesn’t matter?”

“I’ll go play today.” he said, completely unbothered. “I’ll be fine.”

Wow. Okay.

You stared at him for a second longer, something unsettled twisting in your stomach.

Maybe it wasn’t a big deal—to him, at least. But it was to you.

Still, you didn’t say anything. Not yet. You just sighed, stuffing your hands into your pockets as you kept moving.

“Alright.” you said eventually “Just don’t die, okay?”

Niragi shot you a look. “What, you’d miss me?”

“Yes.” you said immediately, no hesitation. “Obviously.”

That caught him off guard for a split second. Just a second. Then he scoffed, rolling his eyes as if he didn’t believe you.

You let it go. For now.

Instead, you found other things to focus on—like the fact that there were plenty of climbable structures around you.

“Hold on.” you said, pausing near a rusted-out car. “I wanna try something.”

Neither of them reacted, which meant neither of them told you not to do it. Which, in your mind, meant you had full permission.

So, naturally, you stepped onto the hood, testing its stability.

Nothing happened.

Good enough.

You took another step, then another, making your way up until you were balanced on the roof of the car.

Niragi didn’t even look at you. He was busy rummaging through the ruins of an old sporting goods store, checking shelves for anything useful. Probably bullets.

Chishiya, unsurprisingly, didn’t care either.

Still, you kept going, stepping up onto the ledge of the store’s broken window frame.

And then, for the fuck of it, you jumped—landing lightly on the edge of an old streetlight pole that had fallen at an angle, one foot in front of the other as you balanced your way down.

Still, no reaction.

You huffed, shaking your head as you hopped back down onto solid ground. “Tough crowd.”

Chishiya gave you a glance, completely disinterested. “You say that like it’s new information.”

“I keep hoping it’ll change.”

“Your mistake.”

You groaned dramatically, dragging a hand down your face before turning to Niragi, who was still focused on his little bullet hunt.

“And you.” you said, hands on your hips. “Nothing? Not even a little bit impressed?”

He snorted. “I’ve seen better.”

You gasped. “Excuse me?”

He just smirked, shaking a box of bullets in your direction before shoving it into his pocket.

You narrowed your eyes, but didn’t say anything else. Instead, you just kept moving, hopping over debris, balancing on curbs, talking way too much.

And the whole time, they stayed beside you. Not because they were entertained—not because they cared about what you were saying—but just because.

And that was enough.

You walked ahead of them, hopping onto the curb and balancing your way across it like you were walking a tightrope, talking and talking, the way you always did.

They let you.

They always let you.

But they didn’t really listen.

Not really.

Chishiya walked with his hands stuffed into his hoodie pockets, eyes half-lidded, letting the noise of your voice filter in and out without attaching much importance to any of it. He was perceptive, sharp as ever—he always knew where you were, what you were doing, if you were about to do something reckless—but that wasn’t the same as caring.

And Niragi? He walked beside you like you weren’t even there, flicking through boxes of bullets, stuffing them into his pockets, only responding when you directly addressed him.

And even then, he was a dick about it.

But why wouldn’t he be?

Neither of them had a reason to be nice to you.

The three of you were together out of convenience. That was all.

They weren’t your friends.

They weren’t fond of you.

They weren’t bonding with you.

They were using you.

Maybe not in some grand, intentional way—but you were useful.

You cooked for them. Cleaned up after them. Brought them things. Did the kind of things a normal, kind person would do.

And they took it.

They let you give and give and give, and they didn’t think twice about taking from you.

Because why would they?

Chishiya wasn’t sentimental. He wasn’t the type to form emotional attachments, didn’t care about things like warmth and kindness. He watched the way you doted on them, and he let you, but he didn’t feel anything about it.

And Niragi? Niragi was a sadist. If he liked you, it was for the wrong reasons.

He liked watching you react to him. Liked how easily he could get a rise out of you. Liked how you let him push and push and push without ever pushing back.

And maybe, in some deep, twisted, rotted part of him, he liked the attention. The way you always seemed to orbit him, always checking in, always caring.

Not that it mattered.

Because at the end of the day, if you were gone, if you disappeared, if you never came back—they’d survive.

They’d move on.

And that was something you hadn’t realized yet.

Or maybe you had. Maybe, on some level, you knew what this was.

Maybe you were just ignoring it. Maybe you thought if you were good enough—sweet enough—they’d learn to care.

Maybe you thought you could fix them.

But you couldn’t.

Because Chishiya was a sociopath.

And Niragi was a psychopath.

And you?

You were just a stupid, sweet thing with a bleeding heart.

And Niragi knew the way your hands always found their way to him—little touches, little grazes, a hand on his arm, on his shoulder, in his hair.

You touched him like he was something soft. Something fragile. Something human.

Like you actually cared.

And that was the problem.

Because he liked it.

More than he wanted to admit.

It wasn’t just that it felt good—though, fuck, it did. It was the way you did it. The way you offered it, like you wanted to touch him. Like it was just natural for you to do it.

Niragi didn’t get that kind of touch.

Not before the Borderlands. Not ever.

People didn’t touch him. Not like that.

They hit him. Dragged him. Held him down.

But this? This was something else.

And the longer he had it, the deeper he got into it.

Like a drug. Like a sickness.

Like something he didn’t want to need, but did.

And it pissed him off.

Because you were too fucking good at it. Too sweet. Too easy. You weren’t even trying to pull him in. You were just doing it. Just being you.

And he knew, deep down, that was what made it worse.

Because it wasn’t fake. He was used to fake. Could deal with fake. Could sniff it out and spit it back in their faces.

But you meant it.

And it was fucking him up.

Because no one ever had.

And then there was Chishiya. Chishiya, who saw it all.

And he knew.

Knew that Niragi was getting hooked.

That Niragi was drowning in something too deep, something he couldn’t control, couldn’t claw his way out of.

And Chishiya? He found it interesting.

Because you weren’t doing anything on purpose.

You weren’t trying to manipulate, to twist, to trap.

You just loved.

Freely. Easily. Without thinking.

Like an idiot.

Like someone who had never been hurt the way they had.

And that was the most fascinating part.

Because why the fuck would you love Niragi?

Why the fuck would you love either of them?

What the fuck was wrong with you?

It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t logical.

And Chishiya hated things that didn’t make sense.

But he couldn’t stop watching. Couldn’t stop wondering. Couldn’t stop waiting to see what you’d do next.

How far your bleeding heart would go.

How deep you’d let yourself fall.

~

You sat curled up on the couch, staring at the door.

It was late.

Too late.

You were tired, your limbs heavy, eyes burning, but you waited.

Because Niragi hadn’t come back yet.

And you weren’t going to bed until he did.

The room was quiet, save for the faint hum of the city outside—empty streets, broken streetlights, a dead world that never really slept.

Neither did you.

Not when he was still out there.

And then—finally—the door swung open.

Your body jolted with relief before your mind could even catch up.

“Niragi.” you breathed, pushing up from the couch.

He was fine.

He looked fine, at least. A little scuffed up, maybe, but no blood, no injuries that you could see.

Still, you moved to him fast, your hands already reaching, already checking, already touching.

And fuck, he loved it.

Not that he’d ever fucking say it.

But he ate it up.

The way your hands skimmed over his arms, over his chest, down his sides, pressing gently, making sure nothing was wrong, nothing was broken.

Your fingers traced over his wrist, his knuckles—checking for cuts, for bruises.

Your hands were so soft.

So careful.

Like you actually gave a shit.

And Niragi just stood there, letting you do it.

Letting himself have this.

He didn’t stop you. Didn’t shove you away. Didn’t sneer at you or say some cruel thing to make you flinch.

Because he didn’t want you to flinch.

Didn’t want you to stop.

He wanted to stay in this moment, feeling your hands on him, feeling you worry for him, care for him.

It was fucking disgusting.

He should hate this. Should push you off, tell you to fuck off, to quit acting like you mattered.

But he couldn’t. He just stood there, soaking it in, letting you be sweet to him.

Letting you be you.

And knowing, deep down, that he’d never let anyone else touch him like this.

Though Niragi stiffened under your touch the second his eyes flicked up—and there Chishiya was. Standing at the entrance of the living room, leaned against the doorway, watching.

“The fuck are you looking at?” Niragi snapped, voice sharp, defensive.

Like a cornered animal baring its teeth.

But you barely even reacted. Didn’t even flinch. Just turned your head, eyes widening slightly, just noticing Chishiya standing there.

“Oh, hi.” you said simply. So soft. So sweet. Like always.

Then you turned right back to Niragi, resuming your gentle little check-up like Chishiya wasn’t even there.

And that—that made him take a real look at you.

At the way you touched Niragi like he was something fragile. At the way you worried for him, cared for him, without expecting anything back. At the way you gave him everything—your patience, your attention, your affection—so freely.

Chishiya didn’t like people.

Didn’t care for them.

Didn’t want them.

But he liked you.

Not in a deep way, not in some grand, meaningful sense.

Just in the simplest way.

He didn’t hate you.

Didn’t find you annoying.

Didn’t want to twist you apart just to see how you worked.

He just… liked you.

But what he found interesting—what he found worth noticing—was that this thing you had with Niragi…it had changed.

At first, you were just too good to Niragi.

Soft where he was sharp, warm where he was cold, patient where he was volatile.

But now?

Now, you were too good for Niragi.

Chishiya saw it clear as day.

You were light. Niragi was rot. You were soft. Niragi was jagged edges and broken glass.

And yet—you still loved him.

Still touched him like he deserved it. Still waited for him to come home. Still gave and gave and gave, without ever asking for anything in return.

Chishiya wondered how long that would last.

Because Niragi would take.

Oh, he’d take everything from you.

Until there was nothing left.

At first, Chishiya assumed you were just like every other fool in this world—naïve, weak, desperate for companionship in a place that had long since burned away any need for softness.

But you weren’t weak. You weren’t desperate. You chose to be this way. Chose to care, chose to wait, chose to be the kind of person who would sit here, hours past a reasonable time, waiting for someone like Niragi.

And the worst part?

You were too good for him, too.

Chishiya wasn’t like Niragi. He wasn’t violent, wasn’t cruel just to be cruel, didn’t thrive off of making people squirm.

But he wasn’t kind either.

He wasn’t warm.

Didn’t care about anyone but himself.

That was the truth. That was the foundation of his survival.

So why was he still here? Why did he still let you talk to him, let you touch him, let you pull him in with that unbearable gentleness?

He had no reason to.

He didn’t need you.

And yet—here he was. Standing in the doorway. Watching you with Niragi. And it wasn’t Niragi he was paying attention to.

It was you.

Because you had changed something in him, too.

Not in a dramatic way, not in the way you probably hoped you changed Niragi, but something small, something subtle.

He wanted to stay.

And Chishiya didn’t stay for anyone.

But for some reason, he stayed for you. Just like he did when you sat in the tub.

Maybe it was curiosity.

Maybe it was the way you never seemed afraid of him.

Maybe it was the way you made him feel like he didn’t have to be anything other than what he was—cold, distant, detached—and you’d still talk to him the same way, still look at him like he was worth talking to.

It wasn’t love.

It wasn’t even real care.

But it was something.

Something he wasn’t used to.

Something he found himself unwilling to let go of.

So he stayed.

Even though he knew he shouldn’t.

Even though he knew you were too good for him.

He stayed anyway.

You exhaled slowly, still looking Niragi over, though he was clearly fine. He was covered in sweat, the scent of gunpowder still faint on his clothes, but he wasn’t hurt. No limp, no blood, no signs of any real struggle—he had made it through whatever game he played just fine. That didn’t stop you from fussing over him, brushing over his shoulders, his arms, his chest, making sure there weren’t any hidden wounds.

“You should shower.” you told him softly. “Then go to bed.”

Niragi scoffed, rolling his eyes, but he didn’t argue. Not really. “I don’t fucking need you to tell me that.”

“I know.” you hummed, your voice still gentle. “Do you want me to make you something before you sleep?”

He stretched his arms behind his head, acting like he was thinking about it, but then shrugged. “Nah. I’m not hungry.”

You nodded, letting him go without a fight, watching as he stalked off toward his room. You heard the door close.

Finally, silence settled over the apartment again.

You sighed and sank onto the couch. It was only then that you noticed Chishiya was still there.

And not just standing.

He sat down next to you.

You blinked, a little surprised. He usually wasn’t the type to linger when he didn’t need to.

“Didn’t think you’d stick around.” you admitted, turning to him with a small, tired smile.

“You seem exhausted.” he commented, tilting his head slightly.

You let out a soft laugh, leaning back. “I am exhausted.”

“You don’t have to wait up for him, you know.” Chishiya said simply. “He’s not a child. If he dies, he dies.”

You gave him a look. “You don’t actually care if Niragi lives or dies?” you teased, nudging his arm lightly.

Chishiya hummed, nonchalant. “I care about you.”

Your breath caught for a second.

It was a small thing. A tiny admittance.

But from Chishiya? That was practically a confession.

Still, he didn’t let you dwell on it for too long.

“I just think it’s a waste of your energy.” he continued, shifting his attention toward the ceiling, like this conversation was barely worth his focus. “You’re always giving.”

“I like giving.” you murmured.

“I know.” he said, glancing at you again.

Like he wanted to understand.

Like he couldn’t.

“Why?” he finally asked.

You frowned slightly. “Why what?”

“Why do you love so much?”

Your lips parted, taken aback by the wording.

Love?

You didn’t really think of it like that.

But Chishiya saw things most people didn’t.

And maybe he wasn’t wrong. Maybe it was love. Even if it was reckless. Even if it was stupid.

You sighed, stretching your legs out. “Because I know what it’s like to not get any in return.”

Chishiya was quiet. Not his usual, detached quiet. It was something heavier. Something thoughtful. Like, just for a second, he was looking at you and seeing something he recognized.

But instead of saying anything about it, he only hummed.

And the two of you sat there, in the dim light of the apartment, neither one of you moving.

It was comfortable.

It was simple.

It was good.

“You’re running yourself ragged.”

You tilted your head toward him, blinking slowly. “Hm?”

“You wait up for Niragi. You cook for us. You take care of everything without asking for anything back.” He glanced at you, unreadable as ever. “Why?”

You sighed, rubbing at your eyes. “Didn’t we just have this conversation?”

“You told me why you love.” he said. “Not why you let yourself burn out over it.”

You exhaled through your nose, letting your hands drop to your lap. “I dunno. It’s just who I am, I guess.”

“That’s not an answer.”

You let out a tired laugh. “It’s the only one I’ve got right now.”

Chishiya didn’t say anything to that. He just looked at you. Like he could pick apart your brain if he wanted to, lay you bare—and you’d let him do that without him picking your brain apart, wink wink nudge nudge—and analyze all the little pieces. And maybe he could.

But instead, he only let out a quiet hum, leaning back into the couch, as if he had decided to leave it at that.

You yawned, stretching your arms above your head, exhausted. You had been running yourself into the ground, and now that Niragi was home safe and you were sitting down for more than five minutes, it was all starting to catch up with you.

Chishiya noticed.

Of course he noticed.

“You should sleep.”

You hummed in agreement, but you didn’t move. You were comfortable like this, the couch just soft enough, the apartment just warm enough.

And maybe… maybe you didn’t want to be alone just yet.

You curled up slightly, resting your head against the back of the couch, letting your eyes slip shut. “Just a minute.”

Chishiya didn’t respond.

But he watched.

You were falling asleep.

Next to him.

You were comfortable next to him.

And that meant something.

Trust.

Something so small, so simple—so natural to you.

But to Chishiya? To Chishiya, trust wasn’t something that came easily. It wasn’t something that should be handed out without second thought.

And yet, you had given it to him so freely.

He stared at you, at the way your lashes fluttered slightly, at the way your breathing slowed, at the way your body settled like you belonged there.

Like he was safe.

And maybe he was.

Maybe, for once in his life, he actually was.

Even though Chishiya had never cared much for safety. Not in the way normal people did, at least. Self-preservation was a basic instinct, sure, but that wasn’t the same as wanting to live. Wanting to be safe. Wanting to keep going because life itself had meaning.

He didn’t see the world like that.

He played these games with the ease of someone who had nothing to lose. There was no desperation in him, no deepseated will to fight for his survival. He observed, he analyzed, he calculated. If he lived, he lived. If he died, he died. The only thing that interested him in this world was the people in it. Their psychology, their choices, the way they cracked under pressure or thrived in chaos. He didn’t want to find someone that fascinated him, but if he did, then maybe this whole thing would be worth watching for a little while longer.

You were interesting.

Not in the way most people were. Not in the way Aguni was, not in the way Mira was, not even in the way Niragi was, violent and cruel and unpredictable.

You were interesting because you weren’t like them.

You were the opposite.

Soft where the world had hardened. Gentle where life had been cruel. Giving where most had nothing left to offer.

It didn’t make sense.

You were too good for this place. Too good for Niragi, too good for him, too good for the entire twisted system of the Borderlands. And yet, here you were, offering yourself up like it wouldn’t get you killed.

Like it wouldn’t get you used.

Because that’s what he and Niragi were doing, wasn’t it?

Using you.

Chishiya was well aware of it. Niragi might not have been as conscious about it, but he was. You were valuable. You cooked, you cleaned, you took care of them. You were something warm and bright in the middle of a world that was nothing but death and brutality. You offered safety and comfort like it was nothing, like you didn’t even consider the weight of it, like you didn’t even care if people deserved it or not.

But Chishiya? Chishiya knew better than to believe in things like unconditional love.

He knew better than to believe in things like you.

And yet, here he was. Sitting next to you, watching the way you slept so easily beside him.

Because you trusted him.

Because you were comfortable with him.

That meant something, didn’t it?

It should have meant nothing to him. He should have written it off as just another one of your foolish little choices, another thing that made you weak. Trusting people was a liability in a place like this.

But there was a part of him, deep in the pit of his hollowed-out chest, that didn’t want to break it.

Didn’t want to lose it.

Which was ridiculous.

He didn’t like himself.

Didn’t want to like himself.

He was empty. Utterly empty. He had nothing to live for, nothing to die for. He played these games not because he wanted to survive, but because he wanted to watch, to see, to understand the twisted depths of humanity. And yet, somehow, he had ended up here.

With you.

You, with your too-soft voice and your too-gentle hands. You, who made Niragi lean into your touch instead of flinch away from it. You, who smiled so easily, like this world hadn’t already taken everything from you.

He didn’t understand you.

But he wanted to.

He hadn’t wanted anything in a long time.

And that was a problem. Because if he wanted something, that meant it could be taken away.

And if there was one thing Chishiya had learned in this world, it was that nothing lasted forever.

~

Waking up on the couch was an experience.

Not one you were used to, but not necessarily a bad one, either.

The cushion beneath you was slightly stiff, the air in the apartment cool against your skin. You blinked, eyes adjusting to the soft morning light that bled in through the windows, and slowly sat up.

You were alone.

At least, in this room.

That was okay.

You ran a hand through your hair, sighing softly as the memories of last night settled in your brain. You hadn’t meant to fall asleep out here, but you had. Right next to Chishiya, too.

That was… unexpected.

You didn’t remember him moving, didn’t remember him telling you to get up, didn’t remember anything past the slow lull of your conversation.

Had he stayed? Had he left the moment he realized you had drifted off? You weren’t sure. Either way, you were alone now, so you pushed yourself up from the couch and made your way toward the kitchen. Your body felt slow, still heavy with sleep, but you ignored it. You pulled out a chair at the counter and sat down, elbows resting on the surface, mind already wandering.

Thinking.

Thinking a lot.

You had that problem sometimes.

Your thoughts never really stopped.

Even in the quiet of the morninng, they rattled around in your skull, picking apart the things you said, the things you did, the things they did.

Chishiya.

Niragi.

They were so different, yet somehow they were the same. They weren’t gentle, they weren’t kind, and yet… you stayed.

Why did you stay?

You had options.

Not many, but they existed.

You could have taken a room somewhere else in the Beach, you heard about that place. You could have joined another group. You could have attached yourself to someone softer, someone easier, someone who would give you something back instead of taking and taking and taking.

But you didn’t.

Instead, you were here.

With them.

Maybe it was because you saw something in them. Something fragile beneath all that cruelty.

You weren’t stupid. You knew that Niragi was a psychopath. You knew Chishiya was a sociopath. They weren’t good people. But maybe that was exactly why you wanted to be here.

Because someone had to love them.

Someone had to look at them and say, You deserve kindness.

Maybe it wasn’t true.

Maybe they didn’t deserve it.

But that didn’t change the fact that you wanted to give it.

Because you had spent your whole life giving.

And you never really got much back.

You sighed, rubbing at your face, trying to shake the weight of your thoughts. It was too early for this. Too early to sit here and psychoanalyze yourself. Too early to pick apart why you were so drawn to people who were incapable of loving you back.

You needed to move. Needed to do something.

So, you stood up. And you started making tea. The soft clink of the kettle settling onto the stove filled the quiet apartment.

But even that peace didn’t last long.

You heard the heavy drag of footsteps down the hall, sluggish. Then a loud, exaggerated yawn.

“Fucking hell.” Niragi grumbled as he entered the kitchen, rubbing a hand through his mess of hair, which wasn’t tied back now. “You’re loud.”

You hummed, unbothered. “Didn’t know making tea was a crime.”

He scoffed, walking past you to the fridge, digging around with barely opened eyes. “If it wakes me up, it is.”

You poured water into the kettle, setting it to boil, glancing at him. He looked like shit. Not in a particularly bad way—just in a Niragi in the morning way. His shirt was lopsided, one shoulder exposed, and his pants hung loose at his hips like he had barely bothered putting them on right.

“Want some?” you asked, tilting your head toward the tea.

He side-eyed you, face still slack with sleep. “Tea?”

“Mhm.”

“No.”

Didn’t expect any other answer. You nodded, turning back to the stove.

He pulled out a carton of something from the fridge, staring at it like it personally offended him. Then, he sighed. “What’s for breakfast?”

“You tell me.” you said simply, already knowing where this was going.

He shot you a glare. “You’re making it.”

“I’m making tea.”

He clicked his tongue. “You always make breakfast.”

“Then it’s your turn.” You turned to him, arching a brow. “Unless you can’t cook?”

He rolled his eyes so hard you thought he might see the back of his skull. “I can fucking cook.”

“Then there’s your answer.” You gestured to the kitchen. “Go wild.”

For a moment, he just stared at you. Like he was considering making a scene, picking a fight, shoving the responsibility back onto you. But then something in his brain seemed to shift.

Because if he did argue, that would make it seem like he couldn’t cook. That he needed you to do it. And his pride was too big for that.

So, without another word, he turned, grabbed a pan, and started making breakfast himself.

You smiled to yourself.

As much as Niragi loved to be a menace, there were ways to handle him. Push him in the right places, challenge him the right way, and he’d do whatever you wanted just to prove you wrong.

You went back to your tea, listening to the faint sounds of him moving around the kitchen. The clatter of a pan on the stove, the rustle of a bag, the soft sizzle of oil heating up. He wasn’t slamming things around, wasn’t throwing a fit about it.

Because Niragi could cook.

And he’d be damned if he let you think otherwise.

You leaned against the counter, watching him move around the kitchen. He didn’t look like he particularly enjoyed cooking, but he knew what he was doing. The oil sizzled as he cracked an egg into the pan, not a single wasted motion, no hesitation.

“So,” you started, voice light.“what’re you making?”

“Food.”

You smiled. “No way. I thought you were making explosives.”

He huffed a quiet laugh through his nose, but he didn’t look at you, too focused on flipping the egg.

You tilted your head. “I mean, you do know how to make those, right?”

Niragi grinned. “What, you want me to teach you?”

“Maybe.” You shrugged. “Could be fun.”

He turned to look at you then, eyebrow raised, like he was checking to see if you were joking. You weren’t. He snorted. “You’d fucking blow your hands off.”

“Wow. No faith in me at all?”

“Not when it comes to handling shit that explodes.” He went back to his cooking. “You can barely handle me.”

“Oh, but I do handle you.”

His hand hesitated over the pan for just a second before he picked up the spatula again. His grin didn’t falter, but you saw the way his shoulders stiffened ever so slightly.

Interesting.

“You’re getting bold.” he muttered.

You just smiled, pouring the hot water into your cup, letting the tea steep. “Maybe I’m finally rubbing off on you.”

Niragi scoffed, scraping at the pan a little harder than necessary. “Keep dreaming.”

But the thing was, you kind of were.

The fact that he wasn’t throwing a fit about cooking. The fact that he was talking to you this easily. The fact that—despite his bad attitude—he was still here, still listening, still responding.

He wasn’t used to someone like you. Someone who didn’t cower or get annoyed, who didn’t push him away or try to control him. Someone who just let him be—let him be an asshole, let him be himself, and still treated him like he was worth something.

You watched him for a moment, the way he moved, the way he functioned.

“How’d you learn to cook?” you asked.

He didn’t answer right away. Then, “What, you think I was born knowing how to do this shit?”

“No.” you said patiently. “That’s why I’m asking.”

He made a low noise, like he was debating whether to answer at all. But then, after another moment, he muttered, “Had to.”

That was it. No elaboration, no explanation. Just had to.

Your fingers curled around your cup, warmth pressing into your palms.

People like Niragi—people who grew up like him—didn’t learn things like cooking because they wanted to. They learned because no one else would do it for them. Because there was no one else to care.

You just nodded, taking a slow sip of your tea. “Well, you’re good at it.”

He side-eyed you, as if suspicious of the compliment. “No shit.”

You just laughed. You took another slow sip of your tea, watching Niragi as he flipped the eggs onto a plate. Even in the smallest, most mundane actions, he was rough. Like he didn’t know how to be gentle, like he didn’t care if the eggs broke or if the pan got scratched. It was all just muscle memory, getting things done in the most efficient, thoughtless way possible.

But then again, why would he care?

You tilted your head slightly, chin resting in your palm as you looked up at him. And you really did have to look up at him. You were shorter, and with the way he stood—like he was always trying to take up as much space as possible, standing tall, broad, arms loose but ready—it made the height difference feel even bigger.

“Yesterday was a two, I’m playing again today.” he said, like that explained everything.

It didn’t.

“And?”

“And that’s not worth shit.” he scoffed, finally glancing at you. His expression was almost annoyed, like you were asking something painfully obvious. “I need something bigger.”

You frowned slightly, stirring your tea.

You didn’t understand. Not really. His visa wasn’t in danger yet, so why? Why throw himself into a game the very next day? What was the rush?

Before you could ask, a familiar voice came from the doorway.

“I’ll come.”

Both you and Niragi turned.

And there, standing just at the entrance of the hall, was Chishiya.

Again.

Niragi’s face immediately twisted into something incredulous. “Why the fuck are you always in doorways?”

Chishiya blinked at him, unimpressed as always. “They’re good vantage points.”

“For what?”

“Everything.”

Niragi stared at him for a long moment, like he was trying to decide if he was being fucked with. Then he just scoffed, rolling his eyes. “You’re such a little freak.”

Chishiya didn’t react.

You smiled a little, sipping your tea. “You’re going together?”

“I guess.” Niragi muttered, dragging a hand through his hair.

Chishiya hummed, stepping fully into the kitchen, leaning slightly against the counter. “Might be interesting.”

You knew what that meant.

Chishiya didn’t need to go. He wasn’t playing because of necessity, because of his visa. He was playing because he wanted to. Because he was looking for something to entertain him, something to stimulate that cold brain of his.

Just like Niragi.

You watched them both carefully, but neither of them looked at you. They weren’t friends, they weren’t allies. But they worked together when it suited them.

And somehow, despite their differences, it did suit them.

You set your cup down gently. “Be careful.”

Niragi smirked at you, grabbing a fork and stabbing into his food. “You worry too much.”

Chishiya didn’t say anything. But his gaze flickered to you, just for a second. If he really was going to a game today, he’d need to eat something. You already knew Niragi wouldn’t give a shit about that, so—

“Do you want something?” you asked, voice light, warm, just as naturally sweet as ever.

Chishiya glanced at you, then at Niragi, who was stabbing at his eggs with zero grace, chewing aggressively.

“I’m not making his fucking food.” Niragi stated, loud and clear, as if the mere thought of it was offensive.

You almost smiled, unsurprised. “Didn’t ask you to.”

“You would, though.” Niragi muttered through a mouthful of food, jabbing his fork toward you.

“I’ll take tea.” Chishiya said simply.

Niragi turned his head, brows raising. “That’s it?”

Chishiya just blinked at him. “I don’t need anything heavy before a game.”

You hummed, already moving to make it. “You say that, but you could still eat something small.”

“I could.” Chishiya said, not committing.

You looked over your shoulder at him. “Do you want to?”

Chishiya just tilted his head slightly, considering.

And Niragi? Niragi scoffed, pushing his plate away slightly. “If you make him food, I’m not eating next to him.”

That made you sigh. “Why are you like this?”

“Because I don’t fucking like him.” Niragi shot back.

Chishiya, of course, was entirely unaffected.

You, however, just smiled, grabbing another cup to pour the tea. “You two live together, you know.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to eat with him.” Niragi muttered, crossing his arms.

You didn’t argue further, setting Chishiya’s tea down in front of him, and looking at him expectantly. “So? Small bite of something, yes or no?”

Chishiya exhaled lightly, as if the entire conversation had exhausted him. Then, after a pause— “Fine.”

You beamed.

Niragi groaned. “Oh, for fuck’s sake—”

“You’ll live.” you told him sweetly.

Niragi grumbled under his breath, picking his fork back up and stabbing into his food like it had wronged him.

And Chishiya? Chishiya just watched you.

~

The day had passed in silence, for the most part. You had spent it in your room, away from them, letting them exist without you hovering, without your warmth pressing in on them when you knew—despite how much Niragi pulled for your touch and how much Chishiya lingered in your presence—they needed space. They weren’t used to people like you, weren’t used to someone always being there, always giving a fuck, and even though they tolerated it, you knew when to let them be.

So, you left them to it. Whatever they did, wherever they were, you didn’t ask. You didn’t go searching. You just curled up in your room, lying on your stomach, flipping through a book that you weren’t really reading. Your mind drifted to things you’d never say out loud, things you weren’t even sure why you thought about. You wondered if Niragi was still as angry as he always was when you weren’t in the room. If Chishiya, left to his own devices, ever let his mind wander to you the way yours wandered to him.

You wondered if either of them even needed you, or if you were just something warm and entertaining.

Still, you didn’t regret being you. You never did.

It was sometime in the late evening when you finally emerged, stretching out your stiff muscles as you walked into the living room. Niragi was there, sprawled out lazily in one of the chairs, flipping his knife over and over between his fingers. The one you gave him. His eyes flickered to you the second you stepped in, a habit of his now, like he had to acknowledge you every time you were near.

You didn’t think much of it.

“…Shouldn’t you be getting ready?” you asked, tilting your head.

Niragi huffed. “Yeah, yeah.” But he didn’t move.

You raised an eyebrow. “Then why are you still here?”

He spun his knife a little faster, then caught it, flicking his eyes up at you. “I don’t wanna walk with him.”

Oh.

You blinked, then exhaled a soft laugh. “Really?”

Niragi scoffed, stretching his long legs out, slouching further into the chair. “He’s annoying.”

“You’re going to miss your game just because you don’t want to walk next to him?” you asked.

“Maybe.”

You rolled your eyes, stepping closer, nudging his leg with your foot. “Come on.” you coaxed, voice gentle, light. “Don’t be a baby. Go.”

He gave you a look, like he found it funny when you pushed at him.

Then, before he could get another word out, you lifted your hand, pulling the black hair tie off your wrist and stepping behind him.

You gathered his hair, fingers threading through the strands, tying it up into that half-up style he always wore. It was second nature to you, the way you handled him, the way you touched him so easily, as if you weren’t touching someone who had probably never been handled like this in his life.

Niragi stiffened for a second, his usual instinct, but then—he let you.

You felt his shoulders relax under your hands, felt the way his head tilted slightly into your touch as you secured the tie, keeping his hair out of his face.

It wasn’t even a thought in your mind that this was something he should have done. It wasn’t something you even considered he might not want. Because Niragi wasn’t the type to say no to you when it came to touch, not anymore. And you? You weren’t the type to stop giving it.

“There.” you murmured, stepping back slightly, admiring your work.

Niragi tilted his head slightly, rolling his shoulders. “Mm. Not bad.”

You smiled, patting his shoulder lightly. “Now, go before you miss your game.”

He scoffed, stretching his arms above his head. “Yeah, yeah.”

Still, he didn’t move right away. And you caught it, the way he lingered, the way he let his fingers twitch against his thigh like he was debating something, like he wanted something.

You thought about it, then, about how easy it was for him to take when he wanted something, and yet, when it came to you, he waited. He didn’t demand it. Didn’t just grab at you.

He waited.

And that was all you needed to know.

So, with a little smile, you leaned down, pressing a warm hand against the side of his face, your fingers just barely brushing his ear. A simple touch, but a grounding one. A comfort, soft and unspoken.

“That should last you a while.” you hummed.

Niragi’s tongue flicked over his teeth, his eyes half-lidded as he rolled his jaw, tilting his head ever so slightly into your touch.

You didn’t comment on it. Didn’t say a word.

And neither did he.

Then, just as easily, you pulled away, stepping back, gesturing toward the door. “Go. Win your game.”

Niragi exhaled, standing up with a stretch. “Fine, fine. I’m fucking going.”

You grinned. “Good.”

He gave you a look, something unreadable flashing through his eyes before he clicked his tongue and made his way toward the door.

You watched him go, your head tilting slightly.

~

The night was quiet, the streets even more so. The only sound was the distant faint echo of something far off in the city—maybe another game, maybe just the wind. The air smelled like blood and sweat, the remnants of the game they had just won, but neither of them seemed to care.

Niragi sat on the pavement, one knee propped up, cigarette dangling between his fingers. He took a slow drag, letting the smoke sit in his lungs before exhaling it through his nose. The embers burned red in the dark.

Next to him, Chishiya sat with his arms resting on his knees, staring straight ahead. He didn’t look tired, didn’t look affected—just there, as if he hadn’t just walked out of a game where death had been a very real possibility.

Neither of them spoke for a while.

“…Didn’t think you’d actually come.” Niragi muttered, flicking the ash off his cigarette.

Chishiya hummed, tilting his head slightly. “I’m here.”

Niragi scoffed, rolling his tongue over his teeth. “Yeah. Here you fucking are.” He took another drag, exhaled, then turned his head slightly toward Chishiya. “What, you wanted a front-row seat to me dying or something?”

Chishiya barely glanced at him. “I would’ve left if that was the case. Boring way to go.”

Niragi let out a sharp laugh, bitter. “You really are a fucking asshole.”

Chishiya didn’t deny it.

Silence stretched again, the only movement coming from Niragi bringing the cigarette back to his lips. Then, after a moment, Chishiya shifted, resting his chin on his hand.

“You know,” he said, voice as flat as ever. “for someone who acts like he has nothing to lose, you sure do have something keeping you around now.”

Niragi’s eyes flickered to him, narrowing slightly. “What the fuck does that mean?”

Chishiya smirked, barely. “You know what it means.”

Niragi clicked his tongue, tapping his cigarette against the pavement. “Tch. You think just because she babies me, I give a fuck?”

Chishiya gave him a look, one of those slow, unimpressed ones, the kind that made it clear he didn’t buy a word coming out of Niragi’s mouth.

Niragi held his gaze for a moment, then scoffed, rolling his shoulders. “I don’t need her.” he muttered.

“No.” Chishiya agreed easily, shifting his gaze back toward the street. “But you want her.”

Niragi’s jaw twitched.

Chishiya wasn’t wrong, but fuck, did it piss him off to hear it out loud.

Another silence stretched, Niragi finishing his cigarette, flicking the butt onto the pavement. He pressed it out with the toe of his boot, watching the embers die out before exhaling a slow breath.

“…And what about you?” he asked suddenly, his voice lower, more serious.

Chishiya didn’t answer right away. He sat there, still, his eyes slightly narrowed as if he was thinking. Then, finally, he said, “She’s interesting.”

Niragi scoffed. “Bullshit.”

“Believe what you want.”

Niragi wasn’t stupid. He knew there was more to it than that.

He also knew Chishiya well enough to know he wouldn’t say it.

Still, he had a feeling they were on the same page about one thing.

That girl—their girl—was different.

And no matter how much they tried to ignore it, she was changing things for both of them.

Niragi pushed himself up with a grunt, stretching his arms over his head. His joints cracked, his muscles ached, but he felt alive. Winning felt good, even if the game itself had been bullshit. The adrenaline had long since settled, replaced with exhaustion that he refused to acknowledge.

Chishiya stood up too, though with far less effort, far less noise. That was the thing about him—always so fucking quiet, like a ghost slipping through the cracks. He brushed some dust off his pants, then shoved his hands into his pockets, looking about as unbothered as ever.

Niragi rolled his shoulders, then tilted his head toward Chishiya with a smirk. “Hope you enjoyed the show, asshole.”

Chishiya didn’t even glance at him. “It was predictable.”

That pissed Niragi off, just a little. “Predictable?” he repeated, stepping closer. “You wouldn’t have lasted a fucking second if you had to play without me.”

Chishiya finally turned to face him, that same infuriating smirk on his lips. “And yet, I did.”

Niragi sneered, stepping even closer, looming. “Yeah? You wanna test that theory, little man?”

Chishiya didn’t move. Didn’t flinch, didn’t look away. He just let the words hang between them, let Niragi stand there with all his anger, all his frustration, and met it with nothing. That was the worst part about him—he didn’t fight back, not in the way Niragi wanted. He just existed, untouchable, always one step ahead, and fuck, was that irritating.

Finally, Niragi exhaled sharply through his nose, clicking his tongue. “Tch. Whatever.” He turned on his heel, shoving his hands in his pockets, starting down the street. “Let’s go.”

Chishiya followed, not because Niragi told him to, but because he was going back to the same place.

Back to you.

Neither of them said it, but both of them were thinking it.

It was late, their bodies ached, their minds were running on fumes, but they both wanted to go back to that apartment. It wasn’t home. It never would be. But you were there, and for some fucked-up reason, that was enough to keep them walking.

Niragi was the first to break the silence. “If she fucking cries or some shit when she sees me, I’m gonna kill her.”

Chishiya hummed. “No, you won’t.”

Niragi shot him a glare. “Shut the fuck up.”

Chishiya just smirked. “She’s probably still awake.”

Niragi scoffed, but yeah. You probably were. Waiting, worrying, being the soft thing that you always were.

It annoyed him.

It also made him walk a little faster.

~

The moment the door cracked open, you were already moving.

It was late—too late. You had been sitting in the living room, hands curled around a cup of tea that had gone cold hours ago, waiting for them. When you heard the click of the lock, you shot up from your seat, setting the cup down with barely a thought.

And there they were. Niragi first, stepping inside with that cocky grin, and Chishiya just behind him, calm.

They were fine. At least, that’s what it looked like.

But that wasn’t enough for you.

You hurried over, your hands already reaching for Niragi before he could say a word. You grabbed his arm, checking for cuts, bruises, anything. His shirt was open, a little disheveled, and your hands smoothed over the fabric, searching.

“Are you okay?” you asked, voice soft, full of worry.

Niragi rolled his eyes. “You’re so fucking annoying.” But he didn’t push you away.

You ignored him, moving to check his hands next, turning them over in yours. His knuckles were a little red—maybe from gripping his gun too hard, maybe from something else—but no real damage. That was good.

Then, you looked up at his face. His eyes were dark, tired. He smelled like gunpowder and sweat, and there was a hint of something metallic—blood, but not his.

You sighed. “You scared me.”

“Tch.” He pulled his hands away, stuffing them into his pockets. “I didn’t ask you to wait up.”

“I know.” You looked at him, really looked at him. And there it was—the smallest flicker of something, something beneath the sharp words and the smug expression. He liked that you waited. He liked that you worried. He just didn’t know how to deal with it.

You smiled at him anyway. Then, you turned to Chishiya.

He was watching you. Of course he was.

He always watched.

You stepped closer, and unlike Niragi, he didn’t move away. You reached for his sleeve, fingers brushing against his wrist. “You?”

“I’m fine.” Chishiya said simply, but he didn’t pull away.

You checked anyway. Your hands ghosted over his arms, his shoulders, even though he showed no signs of injury. He let you, let you fuss over him, let you touch him, and the fact that he didn’t stop you told you more than words ever could.

“You’re both okay.” you murmured, more to yourself than anything. You finally exhaled, some of the tension melting from your body.

There was silence for a moment.

Then Niragi scoffed, shifting his weight. “Are you done playing nurse or whatever?”

You looked back at him. “I could make something for you before you sleep.”

Niragi snorted. “I’m going to bed.” But the way his eyes lingered on you for a second too long told you he liked the offer.

You didn’t push. You just nodded, watching as he walked off toward his room, muttering under his breath.

That left you and Chishiya in the quiet.

You turned back to him, tilting your head. “And you?”

“Not hungry.”

You smiled anyway. “Alright.”

And just like that, it was over. They were home, they were safe, and you could breathe again.

For now.

You reached out, fingers just barely brushing against his sleeve again, a soft touch. Chishiya looked down at it, then back at you. His expression didn’t change—still unreadable, still detached—but he didn’t move away.

“Go to bed, sweetheart.” you murmured. Your voice was warm, affectionate, like honey poured over an open wound. It didn’t ask. It didn’t demand. It simply was.

Chishiya should have scoffed at that. Should have rolled his eyes. Should have thrown something back at you, maybe something condescending, maybe something cruel, the way he did with everyone else.

But he didn’t.

Instead, he just stared at you, silent, weighing something in that brilliant, calculated mind of his. He was trying to figure you out again, picking apart your words, your tone, your kindness. Because people like you—soft, good, endlessly patient—were people he was supposed to hate.

And yet.

He shifted, stuffing his hands into his pockets, his posture as lazy as ever. “Hm.” he hummed, something noncommittal. And then, he turned and walked off, heading toward his room without another word.

You watched him go, a small, knowing smile tugging at your lips.

Chishiya should hate you. He really, really should. You were everything he despised—overly trusting, endlessly warm, a person who believed in people even when they had given you every reason not to. He hated people like that.

Because they were stupid. Because they were naive.

Because they got hurt.

Because he couldn’t be that.

But you weren’t stupid. You weren’t naive. You knew the kind of people you had let into your home. You knew what Niragi was, what he was. You knew, and yet you still loved them.

That should have disgusted him.

Instead, he found himself listening to the quiet sound of your breathing as he walked away. Instead, he found himself thinking about how you didn’t even flinch when Niragi got mean, how you didn’t snap at Chishiya for his words, how you just existed between them—sweet, steady, unshaken.

Instead, he found himself doing exactly what you said.

Going to bed, sweetheart.

❤︎︎ @lizntstoptalking @cherryheairt @fiction-fantasy-folks @monkey4lifer @psychicyouthfox @so-dramatic1 @mypsychoticlove @unhinged-sorcerer @rattymess @mochii-writes @adanfore @scarlet703 @fluentgoddess @maxinehufflepuffprincess

[gh0stsp1d3r]

ℳ𝒶𝓎𝒷𝒶𝓃𝓀𝓈 𝓈𝒾𝓈𝓉ℯ𝓇

Series Masterlist

Chapter 9 - they’re not you

Once you both pulled away for air again, you shook your head to yourself and turned your head away, embarrassed. He furrowed his eyebrows.

“I can’t do this, Rafe.” You told him, your heart raced and your hands got clammy.

"Why? Just because of your little brother and his friends? You're letting them run your life now?" he asked with a scoff, reaching out to grab your jaw and forcing you to meet his gaze.

“Stop, Rafe.” You slapped his hand away, he let your jaw go and held his hands up in defense.

“Fine, but the doors always open for you.” He said, putting his hands down. You stood up, and he did now as well.

“I’m being serious. I’m not doing this again, I broke up with you.”

“And I treated you badly, but I told you, I’m better now. Tryna be a better man, for-“ he continued, looking back at you now.

“For your dad, Rafe. Not for me.” You interrupted.

“And for you.”

“Yeah, right. You got girls practically lining up for you. Go fuck one of them.” You scoffed this time, going to open the door when he grabbed your hand, pulling you towards him again.

"But they're not you, y/n," he said, his voice filled with sincerity, which took you by surprise. You were speechless for a momenr, unable to form a response.

“I can’t, Rafe.” You repeated quietly.

“Give me one more chance.”

“Rafe…” you sighed. “I’m sorry.”

You both stared at each other, before you shoved his chest lightly, pushing him off of you and heading to the door.

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

“Are you kidding me, Sarah? That doesn’t even make sense. Wards on the island? Like, the same island we are on, Sarah?”

“Yes, he’s back. Mm-hmm.”

“The second I see him, I’m turning him in, I swear.” Kiara sighed. “I don’t know how you do it. Every time I wanna complain about my dad I just think about your dad.”

“Oh, glad to be of service.”

“Works every time.”

It was silent before Sarah spoke up again.

“Hey, have you seen y/n? I went over to Ricky’s, and I didn’t even see her there.”

“No. Haven’t seen her, JJ, or John B in a while.” Kiara said.

“Weird.”

Sarah looked over, seeing Topper speaking to someone. She stared for a moment, before looking the other way, trying to avoid him.

“I didn’t know Topper was going to be here.”

“Sorry. My mom invited like the whole island.”

“Shit.”

“It’s not a big deal.”

“Shit.” Sarah repeated.

“I’ll keep him away.��

“Here’s the game plan, get the girls, go find Pope and Cleo, get down to South America as quick as possible, cool.”

“Seems a bit vague, I gotta say, John B. Also, me and my sister don’t got a passport, so-“

“Hey, look, don’t bore me with the details, all right? We’ll figure that out later. Hey, look at me.” John B whistled when jj looked over to see Kiara, staring for a moment.

“Yeah.”

“Gonna get Sarah. Gonna get Kie, little rendezvous mission. Back on the boat, get out of here.”

“Well, the other day, Mike and I got kind of got into a little bit of a tiff, all right? And if I go over there right now and Mike sees me, he’s not gonna let Kiara out of his sight, book. Mission blown, we can’t go down to South America.”

John B sighed, “look, just don’t get seen. All right?”

“You’re right. I’ll stay here.”

“No, no, that’s not what I was saying-“

“I got your six,” he hopped over, starting the engine of the boat.

“Yep. Great.”

“I’ll keep her running, dog, alright?”

John B sighed, walking off the dock and over to the party.

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

“God damn, where can I get any harder shit?” You murmured to yourself as you walked through the party, a drink in hand.

Right now, you needed to get drunk. And fast.

You rummaged through coolers, until finally finding your drink of choice with a smile.

“Y/n?” Kiara asked, not expecting to see you.

“Hey, kie, hey Sarah!” You waved to them, going over.

“Where have you been?”

“Working, lurking,” you said with a shrug, downing the drink you had in your hand. Kiara and Sarah raised their eyebrows.

“I didn’t know you were invited.” Kiara said.

“I wasn’t. Shit, I need more than that. Is this a party or not?”

“Yes, it is.” Kiara said, handing you another from a cooler next to her.

“Thank you.” You popped it open.

Mr. Carrera stood on the stage and began to give a speech.

“I would like to thank my daughter…” he paused upon seeing you, remembering the argument you had with him and how you stole.

He cleared his throat before continuing, making a smirk fall into your face as you tipped your cup at him.

“But most of all,” he held out his hand for Mrs. Carrera, helping her get up on the stage. “Thank you, Anna… for 15 years. For making this restaurant a symbol of our life. I love you. Figure eight, the cut, everyone’s together here.”

You had to stop yourself from rolling your eyes and scoffing, just scarfing down another drink, before going to the cooler and grabbing another, and walking down the dock.

You took smaller sips this time, a stumble in your step as you walked. You looked at the sunset, before someone called out your name.

“JJ?” You furrowed your eyebrows, turning to see him on the boat.

“Shit, you look like a mess.” He said with a small laugh.

“I am a mess.” You told him, getting onto the boat with him. “What are you doing here?” You asked him, sitting on the seat next to him.

“Long story, basically Singh kidnapped Big John, and they’re somewhere in South America, now we’re trying to get everyone so we can go to South America.”

“South America?!”

“Yeah. Crazy, ain’t it?”

“Very! I can’t- I can’t go to South America!”

“Then don’t.” He shrugged, leaning back while acting nonchalant.

“I lost my other job going on your trip I can’t lose these.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.” You stood up, getting on the dock. You looked out at the water, standing before sighing and falling back into the boat.

“Knew you would.” He said with a laugh, you hit his side and he pouted, smile falling.

“Ow.”

“I didn’t even hit you hard!”

“Yes you did!” He said, standing up and going over to the fence.

“No I didn…” you trailed off, he furrowed his eyebrows and looked to where your eyes were.

“Shit.” JJ muttered under his breath, seeing Kiara walk towards the dock. He tried to hide behind the fence, but she clearly saw him.

“JJ.” She spoke, coming over to him. You sat back in the boat, watching the exchange with an amused smile. “I saw John B, thought you couldn’t be far..”

“I wanted to keep my distance. Wouldn’t want to ruin the party.” He pointed over to her parents.

“We were wondering where you guys ran off to. You okay?”

“No… Look, long story short, we’re mounting a full search and rescue mission right now because big John got nabbed.”

“What do you mean, got nabbe-“

“I said the same thing, Kie!” You told her, tipping the can at her.

“Shut up and drink your beer!” JJ told you over his shoulder, before turning back to her. “Kidnapped, snatched, abducted, that kind of thing. To South America by Singh. So we have to get down there as soon as we can.”

“South America? Right now?”

“Yeah, I know. It’s a long shot, but we’re making a plan right now.”

“I mean, you come in here after stealing from my dad like, hey, we’re all good let’s go to South America.”

You came up to them, listening to it. You scoffed at her words, she turned to you and furrowed her eyebrows.

“You’re seriously still stuck on that?” You asked her.

“Yeah, I am, y/n. And I never forgot how you stole from my mom.”

“Eh. I’ve stolen from a lotta people, hard to keep track at this point.”

“So, is that a no? Uh, you’re just gonna ghost us?” Jj asked Kiara, ignoring you.

“Jayj, I’ve been wanting to talk since we got off the island. We need to talk. It’s all I can think about. I just can’t do any of that right now.”

“Okay, so, you’re saying you don’t wanna be a part of the plan when big John is up for execution right now. Okay. Cool, that’s a no.”

“I can’t!”

“Cool, all right. That’s all I needed to know.” He turned back to the dock, before turning right back to Kiara.

“It’s just that- actually, one last thing, when you see Mike could you just let him know that I uh, don’t feel bad about the money clip? Okay? Just let him know I actually needed it. So thank him for me- us, actually.” He motioned to you and him, winking before walking off.

“Appreciate that. Thank you.” You told her with a smile, following behind your brother.

She scoffed, making both of you stop in your tracks when she asks.

“What is wrong with you? You’re really acting like you don’t care? I mean, seriously, you’re like, acting like I don’t care. Like, I love you dude.”

He was taken aback, you spitting out the beer you had into the ocean. He turned around, eyebrows furrowed.

“What?” He paused. “Kie, I mean, thanks. Okay, great, no, look,” he walked back over to her, you staying behind this time. “It’s not gonna work, okay? I’m gonna go help my best friend save his father. Maybe I’ll see you at the break when I get back.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

“If I get back.” He mumbled, grabbing your arm and practically pulling you over to the boat.

“What the fuck was that about?”

“I’d rather not talk about it right now, y/n.”

“Oh, shit, did you guys fuck?” You asked him, a little louder than intended, she heard it.

“Shut up, dude!” He slapped his hand over your mouth.

He just gave you a look, making your eyes widen and you prop your legs up. “Shit. Unexpected turn of events.”

——

“What happened, dude?” You slurred, walking with the two of them.

“She cheated, that’s what happened. After everything I’ve been going through, she’s off hooking up with Topper? I mean, what the hell?”

“Shit. Topper? She’s gotta be real low for that. He’s so… ugly.” You spoke with a snicker.

“You hooked up with Rafe for months. That’s not any better.” JJ retorted.

“No, there’s a difference. Because-“ you covered your mouth when you hiccuped. “Because Rafe isn’t hideous.”

“How many drinks has she had today?” John B asked, pointing to you.

“I lost count after 7.” You told him, hopping into the boat with JJ. “But I am sober enough to know the clocks ticking. Let’s just leave ‘em.” You shrugged. But John B wasn’t on the boat, and just stood on the dock.

“John B, what are you doing?” JJ asked when he saw him move, staring out as Sarah wrapped her arms around Topper. “Oh, don’t even think about it, dude-“

“Get in the boat, dude!” You exclaimed, he ignored the both of you and began to walk over to Topper and Sarah.

He was like a goddamn zombie, his anger controlled him as he walked over.

“Not right here, bro, not right here-“ Topper started, not looking for a fight.

Sarah got in front, but he pushed her off of him.

“We’re not doing this.” Topper spoke, John B shoving him.

“Feel good about yourself?”

“Stop!”

“You need to chill out, bro!”

They argued.

“I would just walk away.”

“Should we just… let him go at it?” You asked JJ, watching him push and shove Topper.

JJ didn’t answer, just watching.

“For once in your life, would you please just turn around and walk away?” Sarah grabbed him, turning him to her. He stared at her for a moment.

“Please. Please don’t.”

“Hey, no hard feelings bro.” Topper laughed behind him.

“We good?” He asked, and John b turned around to look at him.

John B socked him in the face, making you wince at the loud sound it made. Topper grunted as he fell to the ground, he shook his fist.

“You like that shit, Top? Huh? Huh?”

John B ignored Sarah as he grabbed Toppers collar, hitting him multiple times in the face, hard blows hitting his face.

“Shit.” You mumbled, both you and JJ running over to him.

Kiara’s dad pushed him off of Topper, he shouted at John B. You and JJ grabbed John B, pushing him away as him and Mike shouted at each other.

“Get off of him!” JJ shouted at Mike when he came too close to John B.

“That’s what I’m talkin’ bout! The three of you, get out of here!” He shouted.

“Fuck that’s supposed to mean?” You shouted at him, glancing back at him before focusing back on shoving John B away.

“You happy, Sarah?!” He shouted, both of you pushing him back onto the dock.

“She’s a cheater. That’s who she is. I should’ve known.” John B ranted as they walked on the dock.

“Any idea what you just did?” you mumbled to him. Suddenly, the drunkenness didn't seem so fun anymore.

“C’mon, we gotta go.” You motioned at John B as you untied the ropes, hearing sirens in the back.

The three of you sat in silence, your mind racing with everything you did in one crazy fucking day.

—-

Taglist

@cassie0sstuff @rafesgiirl @fals3-g0d @tiaamberxx @callsignwidow @saintnourah

[joojeans]

˚◞♡ ⃗ I Dare You Pt. 1

♡ Bestfriend!K x Afab!Reader

♡ Summary: You’re sitting on the floor with your friends playing a juvenile game–truth or dare. Things have been spiraling out of control for some time now, but what happens when you’re dared to turn on one of your best friends without touching them? Can they handle it? Can you handle it? Spoiler alert: neither of you can. Find out how things go from seriously fucked up to seriously fucked, one member at a time.

♡ WC: 2.5k

♡ Content: cocky yudai, praise, body worship, mild exhibitionism, pinch of thigh riding, dry humping, dominant k, reader begs a lil, unprotected sex (be smart), scratching, dirty talk, creampie

♡ SERIES MASTERLIST | NEXT

Fuck, it’s your turn.

Every truth and every dare have been getting increasingly more out of hand. Nicholas has already admitted to fucking in K’s bed and Fuma shared a hesitant kiss with K. You can’t even begin to imagine what will be asked of you.

Luckily, you’re not the type to turn down anything when it comes to truth or dare. You’re no bitch.

“Truth or dare, y/n?” 

It’s Fuma asking, so you almost feel safe. Or, you would, but he’s been surprisingly less… gentlemanly tonight. Whatever is in the air seems to have gotten to him too.

“Dare.” You’re no bitch.

Fuma ponders for a moment, rubbing his jaw. His eyes glance away from yours to look at K and he smirks. “I dare you to give K a stiffy.”

“You dare me to wha–”

“Without touching his dick.”

As if the clarification helps. It doesn’t. You tilt your head and look at K, curious about what he thinks of the dare. “I can’t exactly do that without his consent, you know.” 

Aha. An easy out. Surely, he won’t agree to it, right? You’re just friends. That would be weird.

K shrugs, crossing his arms with a self-satisfied smirk as he leans back against the couch. “You can try. It won’t work, though. I have amazing self control.”

Fuma rolls his eyes. “This is exactly what I thought he’d say. You have to prove him wrong, y/n. He’s so cocky about everything. Knock him down a peg. Please?”

Your tongue pokes into your cheek as you think about it, glaring at an all-too-confident K. Seeing him look so sure of himself does make you want to show him that you’re more powerful than whatever self control he claims to have. Plus, you’d be able to hold this over his head forever. That sounds fun.

“Alright. I’ll do it.”

K’s jaw slackens just slightly. Clearly, he wasn’t expecting you to go through with it, but he quickly recomposes himself, eyes daring you further. “Let’s see it then. Give it your best effort.”

What K seems to be forgetting is that you’re not only a girl, but you’re his best friend. You know how to seduce a man, but even more, you know exactly how to get to K. You don’t become someone’s best friend without learning about what makes them tick along the way. You won’t need long.

You crawl across the floor to where K is sitting. He moves his arms out of the way, expecting you to sit in his lap or something. Nope. You push him forward enough so that you can sit on your knees between his back and the couch. His hands float awkwardly in the air, not sure where this is going. You smooth them down with your hands to let them rest at his sides.

Your hands take up residence on his shoulders, massaging them. K winces slightly at the feeling. You’re throwing him off because nothing you’re doing is what he expected. You dig your fingers deep into his flesh as you move, working at his neck and along his shoulders. You hum, the sound closer to his ear than he expected–evidenced by the way he stiffens momentarily under your hands. “So strong, aren’t you, K?”’

He nods. “Mhm.”

Your hands glide down to his upper arms. They’re doing less massaging and more fondling here, cooing at the strength of them. “I can tell you work soo hard. You do such a good job perfecting your body, mm?” You let your nose nudge against his neck as if it were an accident, pressing your chest against his back. “You’ve got a perfect figure. I bet every part of you is perfect from head to toe. You’re so gorgeous, K. So fucking strong and firm.” To add insult to injury, you make a sound somewhere between a sigh and a moan.

K is struggling to keep up his unwavering facade, his eyes squeezing shut for a moment as he tries to reign himself in. You knew all this praise would get to him. He always preens when you give him even the smallest compliment. This is more than he’s used to handling.

Determined to prove that he’s not fazed by you, he takes your hands and guides them down his chest to his abs. He presses your palms flat against the material of his shirt, the defined muscles easy to feel even through the fabric. You’re hovering over his shoulder at this point, so you turn your head to face him. He mirrors you, looking right at you as if he expects you to give up now that he’s pushed you further.

“God, K.” You practically moan it and his tongue swipes over his bottom lip. “I know I said every part of you is perfect, but I didn’t expect you to be this perfect.” You chew on your lip for his eye, hands grazing up and down his abs. You feel them tense under your hand and you have to keep from smirking at him. You can’t even see whether or not there’s a tent in his sweats–intent on holding his eyes–but you’d be willing to bet everything there is one.

“Want to feel something even more impressive?” K’s words catch you off guard this time, one of his hands pushing yours further down until it meets the resistance of his waistband. A few fingers slip past, touching the skin underneath and you gasp silently. He’s not wearing underwear?

Your eyes are all over his face, jaw slack. He’s good. You don’t push your hand further inside his pants, but you don’t remove it either. You don’t want to and you weren’t prepared for that outcome. This was supposed to be about K.

“Alright, alright.” Fuma interrupts the bubble you and K have found yourselves in. “Enough. I said no touching dick, didn’t I? Besides, you already did it. He’s going to spring right out of his pants if you push down any further.”

You glance down and see that K is, indeed, straining against his sweats. You want to feel victorious but, instead, you feel hungry. You can’t seem to take your eyes off what you’ve done to K. You. You did that. To your best friend.

“I don’t care that she got me.” K's hand wraps itself around your wrist, not pulling it from inside his pants. “Look at her eyes. I got her too.”

Your cheeks heat up at his words. It’s as if you forgot that all your other friends could see you practically salivating over K’s dick. You look up and around the room to find them all looking at you incredulously. Are they surprised to have seen you seducing K like that or are they surprised to see you cock drunk in the middle of the living room for a cock you’ve never even had?

You start to pull your hand back, but K’s grip tightens around your wrist. He removes your hand but keeps hold of you. “Excuse us.”

Before you can make sense of everything that just happened and is continuing to happen right now, K is dragging you down the hallway to his bedroom.

“K, what are you doing? Why are we–”

K closes his bedroom door once the two of you have passed the threshold, gathering you into his arms and slotting his lips against yours. He hums, you whine. Confusion, relief. You follow his lead, kissing him with the impatient intensity he kisses you with. He falls onto his bed with you beneath him, hands brutishly grabbing at your hips. He pulls back just enough to glance down, hand sneaking inside the bottom of your shirt to touch the warm skin of your hip.

“K–” You gasp for breath, hands holding onto the front of his shirt. “We aren’t having sex.”

He laughs, looking back at you with stars in his eyes. “Duh. We’re just going to make out for a while because you caused a problem for both of us. Would you rather we go back out there and keep playing as if we aren’t so fucking horny right now?”

You scrunch your nose, not wanting to admit that he’s right. “Well… no. But–”

“Exactly. Just kiss me.”

K catches your lips with his again, slotting his knee between your legs. You instinctively grind yourself against it and you feel embarrassed, especially when K smirks against your lips. “Go on, pretty,” he coos. “Get yourself off on me. I’m feeling nice.”

You smack his chest playfully, but your fist clutches at the material of his shirt, hips grinding against his thigh. You sigh, leaning your head back to enjoy the sensation until K lifts your face back up with a strong hand. 

“I said kiss me.” 

You both lean into each other at the same time, lips and tongues everywhere as they work with and against each other. K fights your tongue for dominance, groaning when your grinding against his thigh occasionally brushes against his erection. His hands start to guide your hips, making sure you graze over his cock each time. He wants to get off too, after all.

Unfortunately for you, all this does is make you even more needy. You could’ve gotten off perfectly fine on his thigh, but feeling his cock against you, even through the layers of clothing, is making you want more. Need more.

“Fuck, K,” you groan, hips lifting to feel as much of him as you can. 

“Hmm?” He teases, knowing very well what you’re on about as meets your hips with his, firmly pressing himself against you.

You whine and you sigh. He feels so fucking good. You can’t believe you’re about to say what you are.

“God, fuck. K, just fuck me. I can’t stand it.”

K chuckles, lips dropping to your neck. “That’s not a very nice way to ask your best friend for something like that.” His lips busy themselves on your neck, his hand reaching down to unbutton your jeans. “Ask nicely.” He pulls down your zipper.

Frustrated, you almost tell him to fuck off. But you know you can’t at this point. You need him to fuck this out of you. You can’t be left with this feeling or all you’ll do when you see him from now is think about what he’d feel like inside you. You swallow your pride.

“Please, K.” Your breath catches in your throat when he lifts your hips, shimmying your pants down your legs, your underwear coming off with them. “I need you inside me so bad, please.”

He’s holding himself up on one arm as he grins down at you, free hand palming himself through his sweats. “There we go, princess. Was that so hard?” He leans in to kiss you again, sighing into your mouth as he frees his aching cock from his pants. He guides his leaking tip up and down your folds, testing your entrance to see if you’re ready for him or if he needs to prep you. He doesn’t.

“Fuck, baby. You’re this wet for me? Starting to think you wanted me to fuck you even before that stupid little game.” 

One of his hands holds the side of your face as the other guides himself inside you, both of you moaning at the feeling. He bottoms out easily with the help of your overwhelming arousal, his hips finding their rhythm without any time needed to adjust.

“S-shit,” you moan, each of K’s thrusts entering you with power behind it. Your hand reaches over his shoulders and pulls at his shirt until it’s bunched up at the top. You grab at his bare back, nails digging into his skin when he kisses your cervix particularly hard. “Feel so fucking good, K.”

K’s eyes are fixed on the sight of himself disappearing into you over and over, his mouth hung open in awe. He hisses at the sting of your clawing, but only proceeds to fuck you harder, wanting more of it. He uses the hand that’s not keeping him up to pull your hips up in time with his thrusts, wanting to sink his cock as deep inside you as humanly possible. “You take me so–” He groans. “Fucking well.”

You whimper as the pleasure is quickly becoming overwhelming, your hand clapping over your mouth. You weren’t exactly planning to be fucking with your friends just in the other room tonight. K notices you trying to keep quiet and smiles at you, smug. “Feels too good, baby?” He picks up his pace, clearly trying to make it more difficult for you. “You wanted them to know that you could get me hard but you don’t want them to know you let me fuck it out on you?”

K tsks and leans in until his lips are by your ear. “They’re not stupid, pretty. They know you’re in here wrapped around my cock.” He nibbles at your ear, cursing under his breath when he feels you clenching around his cock like a vice grip. “Gonna cum all over my cock with them just outside, aren’t you?”

He pulls back to look at you as you whine, covering your hand over your mouth with his own, looking down at you like you’re his prey. “Do it, then. Cum for me.”

Something about the way he’s looking at you with dark, determined eyes and the way his hand is trapping yours and the way he’s fucking into you at a relentless pace despite how slowly he’s talking… it’s all too much. Your toes curl as your orgasm approaches, biting the inside of your hand hard to keep from crying out K’s name where everyone outside can hear it. Your eyes roll into the back of your head and K watches with lustful eyes, his own hips stuttering from the feeling of you cumming on his cock.

“Fuck, y/n. You’re so fucking sexy–fuck.” The veins of his arms are straining, trying to keep himself steady as he fucks into you a final few times before pumping you full of his cum. 

The fatigue hits you both immediately. You were running on such high adrenaline levels this entire time, and the sexual release also released the adrenaline. K slows, breathing ragged, until he pulls out of you and falls onto his back next to you. You lie there panting for a bit, both of you trying to make sense of what just happened.

It’s you that turns to look at him first. He feels your gaze and turns his head to meet you, lips pulling into a playful smirk. “I should tell them how wet you were for me. You know, since they got to see how hard you made me.”

You smack his chest, narrowing your eyes even as you laugh. “Absolutely not! We will never speak of this again. You hear me?”

K hums, lids lowering as he turns on the charm. “You really think that, don’t you, pretty?” He pauses, allowing you to nod your response. “Mm, you’ll see. You’ll be begging me to fuck you like that again in no time.” He leans forward, pressing a kiss to your forehead. “I’ll let you pretend until then, though.”

[deezy1478]

happy valentine's day! here's some husbands shooting the shit on their honeymoon:

“Was this the dumbest idea ever?” said Jim, wheeling his suitcase to one side as he looked round the room. It was the cheapest, most bare bones one they had – the kind they used to stay in when they traveled for a show, stretching the leftover money as far as it would go on booze and takeout and maybe a new video game when they got back home.

“The motel or marrying me?” said Dustin, closing the door behind them. Jim elbowed him in the stomach and Dustin took it in his stride, swinging his overnight bag against the wall and passing Jim with a hand on the small of his back. “Money changed you, man. Look at this – a microwave? A whole bed to ourselves?” he said, sitting down on it and giving an experimental bounce. The springs squeaked unpleasantly. “Aw, fuck yeah. That takes me back.”

He lay back against the pillows and held a hand out for Jim, and there was just barely enough space for him to wriggle against Dustin’s side until he found a position that didn’t make his back start to seize up. When he was settled they chatted a little about the more memorable motels they’d stayed in – the one with rats as big as Walter, the one that smelled mysteriously of cheese, the one where Jim had gotten bitten to shit by bedbugs the night before a match – and then they leaned back to find shapes in the water stains on the ceiling like they used to.

“Don’t ask me how I know this, but… that one kinda looks like Dan Barry’s dick,” said Dustin, pointing at a fat, blobby one near the window.

“Don’t ask me how I know this, but… yeah, you’re kinda right.” Dustin turned his head so fast his neck twinged and Jim’s mouth went all tight, letting him stew for a good few seconds. “He sent me a picture once. By accident. Meant to go to Jess but he hit Jim.”

“Uh huh,” said Dustin. “Mm hm. That right.”

“What, you think he was shooting his shot?” said Jim, turning and grinning at him. “You’re saying I missed the Dan Barry train?”

“I think you did, dude. Could’ve ridden that thing into the sunset.” He gestured to the ceiling blob. “Could’ve ridden that thing into the sunset.”

Jim shuddered and elbowed him again.

They ordered takeout and Dustin collected it from the front desk – a couple of Taco Bell value boxes and a Red Bull each from the vending machine in the hall, really leaning into the bit – maybe a little too hard, Dustin thought as they both lay back on the bed when they’d finished and the lumpy mattress dug in between his shoulders, but whatever. They’d both been feeling a little nostalgic in the run-up to the wedding, driving off-route a bit on the way to the motel from the courthouse so they could pass by the old Legion Hall in Hellertown where they’d both been booked on the same card for the first time.

“Hey,” he nudged Jim. “Do you actually remember that day? The Chikara Young Lions tag thing?”

“Sure,” said Jim, because of course he did. Dustin had been sifting through his memories since they’d pulled up outside it, trying to pick out those specific couple matches from all the others he’d had in there over the years and hoping he’d remember a flash of bright blonde hair or a weird, honking laugh from across the changing room, but nope. At this point it all felt like it had all happened at least three lifetimes ago.

“Do you remember me there?” he asked.

“Yeah,” said Jim, because of course he did. “I watched one of your matches from behind the curtain. Some guy in the crowd was trying to start shit the whole way through, shouting at you – and you climbed up to the top turnbuckle, looked right at him and yelled tug my balls, asshole. Then you did a moonsault and got the pin.”

Dustin smiled over at him. “And you saw all that and thought, I’m gonna marry that guy some day.”

Jim smiled back “Pretty much,” he said, and Dustin had to look away, back up at the ceiling – thinking about all the years stretching between that moment and their first kiss.

“Jesus. I was a dumbass for so fuckin’ long.”

“Nah,” said Jim, quietly. “Wouldn’t change any of it.” He knocked the back of his hand against Dustin’s. “But sometimes I think, like… what if we could’ve – y’know. If… never mind.”

“No, go on.”

Jim was quiet for a moment. “Do you ever wish…” he said eventually, “or do you ever think about, like – what would you do now with a twenty-two year old me?”

“Uh,” said Dustin, “probably give him a juice box. Y’know… ask what his favourite dinosaur is.” Jim snort-laughed. “Had your balls even dropped by then?”

“One of them had, for sure.” Dustin turned his head, grinning, about to ask which ball but Jim had a funny little look on his face that made him stall. “You really wouldn’t���?” he asked, trailing off.

“What, you think I wanna throw my back out trying to keep up with li’l baby Cipps?” said Dustin. Just thinking about it made him want to slam a bottle of Aleve. “Li’l flippy baby Cipps? Cartwheeling round the bed?”

Jim huffed through his nose. “I just thought… I dunno.” He looked back up at the ceiling. “I was like… bendier, back then. And stuff.”

Dustin reached over and gave Jim’s chest a slap like it was the hood of an old car. “Still bendy enough for me.”

“Yeah?” said Jim, and he tried to smile but something wasn’t quite right – something still lingering at the edges of it.

Dustin rolled onto his side and looked down at him – at the thin lines across his forehead and at the corner of his eyes; the creases that ran from either side of his nose to his mouth that he’d catch Jim pulling at in the bathroom mirror.

“Hey,” he said, cupping Jim’s jaw and tilting it gently towards him. “Gonna be after you in the nursing home, Cipps. Chasing you down with my zimmer frame.”

Jim laughed then, bright and goofy and wrinkly as fuck, and even after ten years it still hit Dustin like a mack truck that Jim had kissed him back on purpose, moved in with him on purpose, said yes on purpose, said I do on purpose.

And now he was lying next to him in a shitty motel bed on their honeymoon on purpose and looking up at him, waiting for whatever came next, and Dustin had no idea where they’d be in ten, fifteen, twenty years – God knows he could only hope they had that long – but he knew about the next few hours. He knew about the next five minutes. He knew about the next few seconds as he leaned in and kissed Jim, wrapping an arm around his warm, narrow hips.

[writingtraumaforever]

Uncontrolled Chaos: Chapter 16

Notes: Things are tensing up!

Summary: Sonic and Shadow finally get in touch with Tails.

Chapter Select!

Link to my AO3!

Start:

“Got any twos??”

“Mm.. go fish.”

“Damn.”

Shadow draws another card with a sigh, sitting in the floor while leaned back on one hand and holding his cards in the other. Sonic is sitting criss-crossed with his elbows on his knees and cheek rested in one hand while holding his cards in the other.

In other words: very bored.

“Got any sevens?”

“Fuck you, you’re cheating.”

“I’m not! How would I be cheating???”

“I don’t know. Some sort of weird chaos power I don’t know about??”

“…A chaos power that allows me to see game cards??”

“It would be baller at the Casino Zone.”

Shadow sighs and rolls his eyes at this, tossing his cards on the floor in front of him before pushing himself up to stand, “I need a drink.”

Sonic watches him before standing up as well to follow behind him, fully prepared to grab his guest a beverage only to find Shadow helping himself to the fridge.

Weird.

Shadow seems so comfortable in Tails’ place. Like he’s use to it or adjusted to it or something. 

Honestly, there’s a lot about this Shadow that’s odd to Sonic. But he doesn’t quite know how to bring any of it up without potentially making things awkward.

Ever since Shadow held Sonic’s hand in the hospital, Sonic hasn’t dared to push the matter. Though, he has his suspicions..

Like maybe this Shadow thinks of Sonic as a brother or something?? Like Tails.

Tails would totally hold Sonic’s hand in a stressful situation.

Bro things, ya’know??

Shadow pulls out a water bottle before turning back to Sonic as he opens it, “No contact from Miles yet??”

“Nope,” Sonic shakes his head, popping the ‘p’ with a shrug, “He’ll call soon, though, I’m sure.”

Shadow hums and drinks from his bottle, “So.. what exactly caused this need for everyone to up and go on their own self discovery adventures, anyway??”

“Oh! Well. It’s a long story,” Sonic says as his eyes drift away, not really wanting to rehash the whole Starfall Islands fiasco.

“We literally have nothing but time,” Shadow deadpans, “Unless you want to play another round of Go Fish? Or Uno??”

“Nah, I’m good,” Sonic insists with a little snort, “What if we went for a run instead??”

Shadow quirks a brow at how adamant Sonic seems to no want to talk about what happened with him and his friends, “…Rouge said not to leave because GUN likely was surveilling us.”

Sonic smirks at this, “Can’t surveil what’s too fast to see.”

Shadow huffs, crossing his arms, “I’m not potentially getting GUN involved anymore than they already are.”

Sonic tilts his head at this, looking at Shadow with a quirk of his brow before leaning against the nearby counter, “Why are you so scared of them??”

“I’m not scared,” Shadow answers with a little frown, looking down at his water bottle as he rubs his gloved thumb along the ridges of the cap, “I simply don’t wish to have to cross paths with them if I can help it.”

“Ya’know— Shadow works for GUN.”

“So I’ve gathered..,” Shadow mutters, taking another drink. 

“You don’t seem too thrilled about that.”

“Why would I be??” Shadow huffs, seeming to have been poked in the wrong place with how he snaps, “To think any version of myself would dare to work for that corrupted monstrosity of an organization after what they did?!—“

Shadow pauses upon seeing how Sonic’s ears fold back a bit at his raised voice, sighing and collecting himself before muttering, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. It’s just.. frustrating is all.”

Sonic just looks at Shadow a moment, brows knit a bit as he tries to think of something to say that won’t trigger the guy again.

“..I think— not to defend the guy, but… I think Shadow just wanted to protect the earth in the best way he knew how. And he thought GUN was a good place to start.”

“Why would that be the place to start??? They’re cruel and corrupt—“

“Hey. No arguments here on that,” Sonic snorts with a shrug, “I don’t really care for them much either..” he pauses a moment before adding, “Maybe ask Rouge?? She knows Shadow way better than I do. Maybe she could provide some insight.”

“It still blows my mind she knows another version of myself so well,” Shadow admits with a shrug, “I’ve barely even spoken to the bat back on my world. Let alone worked as her partner.”

Sonic snorts a bit, “You and her’s dynamic works shockingly well here in this world. Honestly, I was glad to see the two of them getting close..”

“How come?” Shadow asks, his ear twitching with curiosity.

“Well-.. I mean, I just.. it was nice seeing you, ya’know.. not alone..,” Sonic admits as he rubs the back of his neck, looking away a bit shy.

Shadow smiles a bit at this— something Sonic still hasn’t gotten use to— and takes another sip of his drink as he eyes the blue hedgehog a bit analytically..

“Didn’t realize you cared.”

“Yeah, well. I got a big heart,” Sonic plays off with a little grin, winking at Shadow and causing the black hedgehog to chuckle in response.

“That you do..”

Sonic just smiles a bit as he looks at Shadow only to jolt a bit when the sudden ringing of his communicator goes off from the living room.

“Ah shit— Tails!”

He dashes into the living room, picking up the communicator in seconds.

“Tails, buddy! Was startin’ to worry about ya!”

“Yeah, sorry,” the young fox smiles sheepishly on the screen, rubbing the back of his neck with a wrench in hand, “Got carried away making modifications on the Tornado and didn’t hear my beeper go off.”

“Hey, no sweat, pal! Just glad to see you’re alright,” Sonic winks, glancing up as Shadow slowly makes his way into the living room.

“Heh. Yeah,” Tails chuckles, concern growing in his eyes then, “By the way— are you alright?? Your message said it was an emergency..”

“Oh! Yeah, um… okay, you may wanna sit down for this.”

Tails blinks before slowly moving to sit down with an “ohhh boy. Okay, shoot.”

“Alright,” Sonic takes a deep breath before speed running through his explanation, “So Shadow apparently went on some top secret GUN mission the other day, and briefly went missing after an explosion only to be found knocked out a few miles away. They took him in and treated him, but when he woke up, he was all weird and stuff. But the real weird part was that all his scans showed he didn’t hit his head or anything, so Rouge suspected something else was going on. He refused to talk to anyone but me, so I got pulled in and he talked then. And boy did he have some crazy stuff to say. He acted like he didn’t know Rouge and held my hand—“

“He held your hand???”

“—Ya. That’s what I said. Anyway, Rouge mentioned his Chaos Energy was off the scales when they found him, so we kinda figure maybe something happened with that. Then Shadow explained he had used the fake chaos emerald to chaos control— oh, except he wasn’t on a mission for GUN, but was on a mission with us instead! So he used chaos control to save another me’s ass—“

“Woah woah woah..,” Tails interrupts, holding his hands up with a lost expression on his face, “You’re losing me, Sonic.. a mission with us?? I’ve been away, and—“

“No, no, no, there’s another us.”

Tails blinks at Sonic with a perplexed expression and Sonic just nods as if it makes total sense.

“…what??”

Shadow sighs, having heard enough of Sonic’s poor explanation and walking over to stand behind where the hero sits on the couch to be seen on screen.

Tails blinks at that, looking surprised, “Oh— um.. h-hi Shadow.”

“Hey Kid,” Shadow smirks slightly, “Sonic is absolutely atrocious at communication—“

“Hey!”

“—So let me just paraphrase the situation. I am not this world’s Shadow. I come from a different world where our timelines are slightly off. The running theory is that my use of the fake chaos emerald along with your world’s Shadow’s use of the fake chaos emerald somehow possibly switched us up. Or on a more morbid theory, your Shadow died in the explosion and the universe had to somehow mend this loss with another version of him. Either way— we’re pretty confused over here and could use your brain.”

Tails stares wide eyed with his mouth dropped open. Sonic can’t tell if it’s because of everything Shadow said or the fact Shadow said so much to him.

Sure as hell, Tails chuckles and, “I think that’s the most I’ve ever heard Shadow say. This world’s or not.”

“Right?!” Sonic laughs, “It’s weird, right???”

“Very,” Tails nods, though his smile fades a bit then, “But this is serious. If there’s alternate dimension jumping involved, there’s no telling what sort of damage this could do to space and time itself!”

“Like what??” Sonic frowns, Shadow leaning over him to listen too.

“Like— oh, gee.. um.. well lots of things, really! There’s endless possibilities with this sort of stuff! Gravity changes. Time jumps— Black holes that could swallow up entire worlds!“

Sonic and Shadow both swallow hard at the same time, not fully having realized how potentially diar their situation actually was.

“…Sweet!” Sonic says sarcastically, “We love world-swallowing holes.”

Shadow snorts a bit behind him and Sonic’s head snaps around to narrow his eyes at this Shadow’s immaturity. 

“Get it together, Shads,” Sonic chastises playfully and hypocritically.

He then returns his gaze to Tails on the screen, “Exactly how much time would we have before something like that happened??”

“Oh, there’s no telling,” Tails shrugs with a frown, “Again, this is space and time we’re talking about. Could be years. Could be seconds.”

Shadow’s hands clench a bit tighter on the back of the couch, Sonic’s own body tensing every second they talk about this.

“…Awesome.. so uh. You think you could—“

“Already typing the coordinates back home in,” Tails responds, Sonic breathing a small sigh of relief that his little brother is coming back home, “I should be there by morning!”

“Great!! Don’t exactly know where to even start without our team’s genius here to carry us,” Sonic boasts, trying to stay optimistic despite recent revelations.

Tails offers a sideways smile, moving to stand again, “Well this genius needs to get the Tornado tuned up and flying!”

“Right. Do that. We’ll be here waiting!”

“Alright, sounds like a plan. Bye, Sonic!”

“See ya, buddy!”

The connection is ended.

Sonic lets the communicator fall on his lap with a light thump, tilting his head back to look up at Shadow from his upside down angle. Shadow looks back down at him with a small frown.

They both sigh.

“Why must you always bring drama, Edgelord??”

[dont-offend-the-bees]

Charles/ the cat king and your 22nd song please

Song 22: Six Days in June by The Fratellis Look. This is FIRST wrapped song fic request I got, anon. And it was such a GOOD song, and I wrote the first section, and the first section was so good I got scared the rest of the fic wouldn't live up to it. I know this is a short and weird rarepair hatesex to non-hate sex unrequited love song-inspired one shot but it's also lowkey my magnum opus. So THANK YOU. Don't worry too much about the background, this is set very loosely in canon-verse, in some prospective alternate reality season 2/3 where Edwin is having his hot boy summer and discovering himself and Charles is trying to figure out his own feelings in probably a not super well thought out way. CW for mild but non-explicit sexual content/themes. 2.5k, unrequited love, background endgame Payneland, angst. Enjoy 💛 Also on Ao3

“You think you're all that, yeah?”

“Oh, sweetheart, I know I am. You want my references? Or did you want me to prove it some other way?”

You're playing a dangerous game, batting at that loaded pistol in his ribs. You don't know him well (yet, yet), but you know a man who loves with his whole chest when you see one. It's in the knuckles; bloody from holding on.

His jaw tics. “Go on, then.” He squares up. “Show us what you've got.”

Your smile cuts. “Alright.” You brace for impact. “Let’s dance.”

The first time, is… well. Let's just say it isn't your finest work. Finesse is not what this guy's coming to you for, after all. He's here to prove a point. Prove to you — or himself — that you're full of shit. That you're all talk. That you don't deserve to touch his little BFF with a ten foot pole (or a ten inch di— y’know what? No. Too easy).

And it may not be your best, but by god, you do not give him the satisfaction of being right on that count.

Weeeellllll, he's inexperienced. You can blow his mind with, what? Forty percent effort? Sixty, tops.

He's just the cutest shade of pink when he leaves, shrugging angrily back into his little retro jacket, all ruffled and indignant.

“Satisfied with my credentials, yet, officer?” you drawl.

His ear tips are dark, his collar jerked up around his blushing throat as he stalks away. “Shut up.”

Your laughter follows him out of the cannery, echoing off the high warehouse walls. “Call me!”

It's a joke, obviously. This was a fun little tumble, a chance to knock Mr. Righteous Protector down a peg and have some pretty passable sex in the process. Nothing more or less than that.

Except obviously the joke sailed right over his head, because he turns up like a bad penny a few days later with some more poor judgment to spend on you.

Fortunately for him, you’re not short on that, either.

“So has my score improved, or…?”

He huffs, hunting around for his left loafer where it skittered under the bed. “Piss off, cat. Was just… checking.”

“Checking, riiiiight. Y’know, if you need a second opinion, you could always invite Ed—”

The right loafer flies through the air and kicks you in the face.

“See you next time, then.”

“Not gonna be a next time.”

“Mm-hmm…”

“...Zip it, Whiskers.”

“Charming as ever. Won’t you come on in.”

Since three times is a pattern, that’s about when you stop doubting he’ll show up again, and again, and again. And that you’ll let him in every damn time; or at least when you’ve got nothing better to do.

Terrible idea, honestly. You give it a week.

You never see him for more than an hour or so.

You never see him in any mood besides pissed the fuck off.

And above all, you never see what the hell it is Edwin sees. The boy with the easy smile, the loyal knight in shining loafers. The best friend, the right hand man, the big, soppy puppy heart that a nice boy like Edwin couldn't help but fall for. No, no you don't get that.

You just get what's left over. The claws he never hones because he’d sooner sink them into his own stomach than leave his mark on anyone else. The parts he's too ashamed to show to anyone he gives a damn about; a category you most assuredly do not fall into. But hey, that's fine. A person like you can't be too careful about who you start fucking.

You can't go around screwing anyone who's nice to you — god only knows what ideas you'll come away with!

(That's not to say he isn't nice, of course.)

(Unfortunately he is, despite his best efforts. God, it can never be just a hatefuck with some people — it has to be worried eyes, trembling hands, little gruff check-ins on your wellbeing when you're trying to get fucking railed.)

(You try and focus on it for the boner-killer it is; and not for the sweet, unconscious thoughtfulness of a guy who holds the heart of the man you love precisely because he couldn’t handle it roughly if he tried. No, no, you shove that thought as far away as you can push it.)

(Dangerous thought to entertain, for a guy like you; a guy with his heart on a hair trigger.)

He shows up when he likes; or when he needs. When his skin is too tight and he needs an outlet for that electricity in his ectoplasm. He kisses you like it’s a contest; and you're nothing if not competitive.

He’s not running the show, though. Nuh-uh. You only kiss him back when you like. Or when you need.

The fact you haven’t turned him down once yet is purely coincidental.

He's got you on your back — and you've got him on your hips. Pretty standard. You’ve done this dance enough to have a few favourite positions locked in; and this one gives you a hell of a view.

He’s looking pretty comfy up there — eyes closed, head thrown back, riding it out — and you like to keep him on his toes, so you give him a little shake, bucking like a bronco, laughing at his surprised face when he falls forward, when he catches himself on your chest and stares down at you with wide eyes and that little annoyed scrunch forming in his brow.

Then the line smooths, he squints, laughs — smiles. At point blank fucking range.

You take the hit. Right between the eyes.

You never stood a chance.

You’ll look back on that as the day he snuck his hand through your ribs and clicked the safety off.

He shows up when he likes. When he needs. Sometimes, increasingly, when he’s bored.

“How can you be bored again?” you grouse, fingers attacking his belt. “Don’t you have like a cute mystery-solving husband to bother?”

He scowls. He’s been doing that less and less lately — you’d forgotten how out of place it looks on his lips. “He’s not my… Edwin’s out,” he says, flatly.

“Out where?”

Oof, now that’s a chilly little silence. And a very, very loud one.

“Let me guess,” you drawl, dragging his zipper down tooth by tooth. “You’re not the only one gettin’ some tonight.”

He grabs your face and kisses you, hard.

More reliable than telling you to shut your big mouth.

“See you next time.”

It’s an old familiar exchange, an automatic call-and-response. You wait, palm metaphorically outstretched for the return, the denial, the brush-off.

He slips through the mirror without giving it to you.

You laugh. “Brat.”

Always leave ‘em wanting more.

He kisses words out of your mouth. He crashes into you like a wrecking ball. He throws it all down like a gauntlet, the fucking, the being fucked. He grasps and grinds, scratches and squeezes, lets those little claws out of their casings.

And those big brown eyes find your face every goddamn time. Like he’s watching you, like he sees you; like somewhere along this stupid, fucked-up little journey, he started caring. Caring what you like, caring what makes you snarl and scream, caring about how deep he can sink his claws before the blood wells.

(No, it can never be just a hatefuck with some people.)

(God fucking dammit.)

You’ve got him on his back, this time; and he’s got you on his fucking nerves, right where you like to be.

“Look, leave off, yeah?” he snaps.

“You sure?” You roll your body, feeling the electric tickle of those ghostly hands where they press into the dip of your spine, pinning you close. “Kinda getting mixed signals.”

“Y’know what I mean,” he grumbles, jaw twitching, avoiding your eyes.

You sigh, and fold your arms on his chest. Relaxed, non-confrontational. Idle hands, idle motions. Like you’re just sunning yourself and not, y’know, in flagrante delicto, as Edwin might charmingly put it.

Ah, there he is, again.

Damn ghosts. Always lurking in the corner.

“Look, I am not here to be your therapist,” you drawl, waving your spoon in a lackadaisical manner. “I’m just saying, from experience, little friendly advice: dick isn’t gonna solve all your problems. Not even my dick.”

He sits there, shirtless, cross-armed and endearingly grumpy (god, when did he start hanging around, instead of dipping before the sweat can cool?), his nose wrinkled up at your can of tuna. You roll your eyes.

“You can’t even smell,” you snidely remind him.

“Still mingin’. Wouldn’t kick you out of bed for eatin’ crisps, but this…” He shakes his head — and catches up to what you were saying. “And I don’t need your friendly advice.”

There was a very brusque, British-y compliment in there, somewhere, and you pause to pick it up and admire it. You’re a bit of a collector.

“Coulda fooled me.” You suck the spoon into your mouth, with relish, enjoying the way he grimaces and squirms as you withdraw it with a slow, exuberant pop. “Mm. Now, that’s the good stuff.”

“Does this have a point, or what?”

“The point, you little pest, is that I know what I want, and I go for it.” The compass of your spoon wavers, rocks. “And what I want is, oh, nothing extravagant. Good food. Good sleep. Good sex. Maybe someone around to help handle that last one, someone, oh, I don’t know… someone tall. Handsome. Cute smile, cute accent. Pulse optional.”

You let the ever-present spectre of Edwin Payne fill in the shape you paint; while the spoon settles on the true north right between Charles shitting-goddamn-fucking Rowland’s eyes.

He scoffs; mulishly, adorably oblivious. “You decided you loved him in, what, a week?”

You snatch the spoon back upright, and flick it like a tennis racquet. “And how long’d it take you?”

He shuts his mouth after that.

Maybe, one of these goddamn centuries, you’ll learn how to shut yours.

It ebbs and flows, the shape of your arrangement.

In the wake of that conversation it gets a little spiky for a while, just like the good old days; baring teeth and raising welts.

Then you get back to yourselves, a bit — the new versions that actually, against all the odds, have fun together. The Charles that laughs with you, who scrunches his entire face into uncontrollable giggles when you tickle his skinny little waist with your claws. The Charles who asks if you’re alright when he’s bending you in half, and sticks around for lazy kisses and a little light bickering in the afterglow; who turns up staring at his feet when he’s about to ask you for something he doesn’t think he ought to want. The version that’s so easy to love, it’s all too easy to see why Edwin does.

And then it gets… quiet.

Too quiet.

“C’mon,” he says, with a little hiccup — guy can not hold his enchanted liquor. “Let’s — let’s play something. That’s what you’re s’posed to do, yeah?”

You laugh, swiping the bottle. It’s pricy stuff. Wasted on this kid, really. “Uh, yeah, if you’re twelve.”

“C’mon — missed out on uni, didn’t I? Mm, let’s play… what’s the one… the two truths one. Two truths and a lie, yeah?”

“Jesus Christ.”

“You first. Go on, pusscat!”

You hum, hoarding his silly little pet name for your collection as you make a show of inspecting the bottle. “Alright… two truths. I took a vacation in the eighties and spent it as one of Freddie Mercury’s cats,” you count off on your fingers, that’s one. “Esther Finch owes me two hundred and seventy dollars, eighty-six cents, and my virginity,” that’s two. “Annnnnd…”

Your third finger hesitates, half-extended; your thumb teasing the loosening corner of the wine label. You affect the sarcastic tone like a warding spell.

“And this is the most rare, most expensive wine I got; I brought it out to keep you here longer because I’ve been missing you sooooo much.”

He snorts, and buys what you’re selling. “Yeah, right. Mate, you know you’re not s’posed to make it obvious which one the lie is, yeah?”

You’re probably not supposed to play when you’re a being who can’t fucking lie, either.

But hey, there’s always a workaround.

He shows up less. He fucks you less. You masterfully pretend you don’t give a shit either way.

He shows up once or twice a month and loiters, and chatters. He makes jokes and menaces your cats with penlights and tries to be so annoying that you won’t notice the cogs turning in that pretty little head. Maybe, if there’s enough frustration in the air, one of you’s lucky enough to get their dick sucked.

He hangs around, and you bite your tongue against the urge to tell him to pull. The fucking. Trigger.

(You could pull the trigger. You know you could. In fact, you probably should; call time on this grubby little charade and put both of you out of your misery.)

(But you’re a selfish old creature. Greedy, grasping. And you always want what you can’t have.)

(And you can’t have him. You never could.)

“See you next time.”

He pauses. Glances back.

“Yeah,” he mumbles. “Next time.”

He leaves.

You pour yourself a stiff drink.

“Well,” you say to the empty room. “It was fun while it lasted.”

Thanks, mate. For everything. Think I’ve figured it out.

Take care of yourself, yeah?

-C

Of course you send a couple spies. Just to check it out.

What? You never claimed not to be a nosy bitch.

They return with drooping whiskers, pitying voices that raise your hackles. They return with news of your ‘boys’ smiling, laughing. Holding hands.

They don’t describe the kiss in detail. Why would they? You wonder who initiated. Wonder if Edwin leaned in, all neat and prim and knowing like that time he kissed your cheek. Wonder if Charles did that thing he does sometimes where he bends and sways in like a too-tall tree in a breeze.

You shouldn’t ask.

You ask anyway.

Curiosity killed the fucking cat.

You punch a wall that night. You get mad at yourself.

You realise it’s something he would do. You get even madder.

You fall asleep with blood on your open knuckles and it doesn’t do jack shit to distract from the smoking crater in your chest. You didn’t think it would.

If there’s one bright side to all this — and honestly, you’ll take what you can get — it’s that you did, technically beat out your initial expectations.

You lasted longer than a week.

If you take it all together, anyway, all the time in-between, snatch every last hour, stack ‘em up. If you count the ‘off-season’. If you let the days you spent apart exist as days where he implicitly wanted you enough to string you along, to keep you as an option.

Count those days, and you made it half a year. A Christmas fucking miracle.

If you take out the empty days, well. Then you lasted barely six of them.

[pennzance]

The Mega Man Story (Classic - Legends)

I got the notion to describe, in silly detail, the story of the mainline Mega Man series.

Okay, buckle up.

Classic: 20XX, Dr. Light and Dr. Wily create advanced robots and because this is the Saturday morning cartoon of video games, they all have big eyes and are very colorful. In a fit of jealousy after being treated unwell by the scientific community, Wily steals Dr. Light's six 'Robot Masters' and uses them to try and take over the city/world. Rock, a lab assistant robot Dr. Light made because he has a thing for musical names, volunteers to become the heroic Mega Man, takes on the six robots and defeats them, using their weapons and abilities to also defeat Dr. Wily. Mega Man runs home at sunset and is greeted by his sister Roll who does nothing else for a very long time. That's MM1.

MM2 sees Dr. Wily, who escaped at the end of the last game, return with EIGHT new robot masters, mostly iterations or combinations of the original six designs. Mega Man sets out again and beats them all despite some truly BS level design decisions, fights a big dragon that is never mentioned again, also fights a big version of Guts Man that gets referenced later, and takes down Wily who is, shocker, an Alien! But not really. Wily surrenders and claims he is reformed, and Mega Man gets an oddly melancholy walk home as seasons change.

MM3 kicks off when the reformed Dr. Wily and Dr. Light work together to build Gamma, a giant peacekeeping robot that is surely a necessity because if Wily could threaten the world with robots, anyone could, right? To power Gamma, they send a new set of 8 robots out into the solar system to mine rare energy elements, but the robots go crazy and cause trouble. Mega Man is dispatched with his robot pup Rush who has a jet mode that will never be this good again to rectify this problem and gather the energy elements but runs into a problem on the way named Break Man, the series' first recurring mini boss. After recovering the energy elements and dealing with a somewhat unexplained threat called Doc Robot who was copying the abilities of the bosses from MM2 (weird coincidence, that), Break Man and Mega Man have a short fight before the former runs away and Mega Man finds out Wily took Gamma and ran off because of fucking course he did. Pursuing him to a new fortress and failing to question where he gets these things, Mega Man battles a new Yellow Devil and Wily, but as he wins the fortress begins to collapse, trapping both MM and Wily. A mysterious Break Man saves Mega, leaving Wily's fate unknown, and Dr. Light reveals that Break Man was really Racer X - I mean Blues, Rock's long lost big brother and the FIRST true Robot Master, hereafter known as Proto Man.

MM4 is our big Red Scare episode as a new threat named Dr. Cossack appears. His 8 robots try to take over the world, but Mega Man has a charged shot now, so this goes poorly for them. Upon assaulting Cossack's stereotypical Russian fortress, it is revealed that Cossack only did all this because Dr. Wily kidnapped his daughter, Kalinka, the 4th named human in the series who is consistently forgotten about from this point onward unless Roll requires a gal pal. Plot twist, though, as Proto Man has rescued Kalinka in a no doubt interesting yet unexplored side story and Mega Man goes to deal with Wily, which goes about how you would expect given the aforementioned charged shot and one of the last decent rosters of master weapons the series will see for some time. Dr. Wily escapes again.

MM5 starts with Dr. Light being kidnapped by, gasp, Proto Man? Who has 8 new robots he is attacking the city with? How could this be? Mega Man takes them all on with the added wrinkle of finding letters in each level that spell OUT MEGAMAN V to unlock best bird Beat, a helper robot built by Dr. Cossack who is absolutely busted in this game and will only ever get worse as time goes on. The charge shot is also bigger in this game and the master weapons sort of suck (looking at you, Power Stone), but once the 8 robots are done with Megaan goes to Proto Man's fortress which has one of the best level tunes in video games and a series of bosses called Sentinels which all seem to be variations of the same type of robot. Mega Man confronts Proto Man, who almost takes him down in one shot, but then Proto Man appears and reveals that the other Proto Man was really Racer X- I mean Dark Man, a combination of all the abilities from the Sentinel robots who does just a ridiculous amount of damage. Proto Man helps Mega Man recover but then peaces out like Patches at Radahn and Mega Man defeats Dark Man solo before, guess what, going after Dr. Wily because of course he was behind the whole thing have you learned nothing? In Wily's fortress with the ACTUAL best level music in the NES games (come at me if you think you're hard enough), Mega Man takes on Dr. Wily and we get the first appearance of the infamous 'Wily Capsule', a final boss fight vehicle that appears and disappears which has the best boss fight music in the Classic series (and you know I'm right). Wily loses and escapes again.

MM6, the final entry on the NES and one of its best games on a technical level, starts off with a tournament because we hadn't had one yet and they were in every Anime of the time. Mr. X, the tournament benefactor, reveals that he is evil and takes the top 8 competitors and uses them to try and conquer the world. Mega Man, who was inexplicably NOT included in the top 8, goes to stop him aided by Rush but because Light saw Gurren Lagaan at some point he now has adaptor abilities which combine Mega Man and Rush into either Jet Mega Man or Power Mega Man and provides a bit of gameplay variety. Mr. X is of course stopped and of course revealed to be Dr. Wily in an incredible thin disguise but still with a second fortress somehow. This time, Mega Man actually arrests him after the final battle for a nice change of pace.

MM7 is the classic series’ first SNES entry. Wily has been in prison for a few months and his lack shitposts makes his lab wake up 4(!) Robots who wreak havoc and free their master. Rock, Roll and new ally Auto all get to have dialogue and an intro stage and we also get introduced to Bass and his own robot dog/wolf Treble. Bass presents himself as an ally to Mega Man and promptly disappears for a while as Mega Man deals with the 4 robots. Mega Man gets the Super Adaptor along the way which combines Jet and Power modes from the last game after watering them both down for 'game balance.’ After that, Wily raids the Robot Museum and steals Guts Man because he may have an unhealthy appreciation for Dat Ass and 4 more Robots show up to cause more issues. In Ghosts and Goblins Man’s level, Mega Man finds Bass injured after an apparent skill issue and sends him to Dr. Light to get fixed up, and duels Proto Man to win his shield which is never this good again. Mega Man also burns down a forest to rescue Beat, who now does nothing but pull him out of fatal pits. After the robots are defeated, Mega Man returns to the lab to find it in ruins and Dr. Light reveals that Bass was really Racer X- I mean working for Wily. Mega Man does battle with Bass in Wily's fortress who has his own Super Adaptor now because he stole it when he trashed the lab. (It is a commonly accepted fan theory that this is also when Wily obtained Light's plans for a super advanced robot with free will, but I’m sure that will never come up again) Mega Man trashes Bass and Wily, and kind of maybe depending on your version threatens to just kill Wily outright because he's ‘more than a robot’ but doesn't and Wily escapes with Bass.

Mega Man 8. It’s on the Playstation. Shit happens. Hey, Mega Man 9-

Okay, okay, fine. Two robots in space crash into each other until they both break and fall to Earth. Dr. Light, played in this installment by Elmer Fudd, tells Mega Man to check out the crash site, where he encounters Wily liberating some sort of energy and finds one (1) robot. What happened to the other one? No one cares and he's never seen again, moving on. Light repairs this space robot and he introduces himself as Duo after... just a lot of violence. Duo's purpose is to hunt down and eliminate 'evil energy', Wily's newest toy, and he and Mega Man team up to take on Wily in his underground tower thing that makes no goddamn sense. There are snowboarding sections and they jump jump the shark if you ask me. Mega Man beats Dr. Wily and nearly dies but Duo revives him because he is a champion of justice and then leaves to Space and never comes back in the story. Oh. There were also 8 robots Mega Man had to beat, but... I mean, come on, of course he did. And Rush can be a motorcycle in this one for... reasons.

Anyway, we actually have to go back to the SNES now because, for some reason, Capcom did. Mega Man and Bass is a side game where you can play either of them, but the story is the same. A robot named King is leading a robot rebellion, including some familiar faces. Proto Man gets CUT IN FUCKING HALF trying to stop him, but he gets better somehow. After King gets his ass kicked, it turns out Wily built him to rebel, but King rebels against Wily because of fucking course he did. Anyway, King dies and nothing else of note happens, this is one of the clunkiest games in the series from a gameplay standpoint, especially the GBA version.

Mega Man 9, we have entered the 'retro 8bit era.' Robots go crazy, and like sensible people the government arrests Racer X- I mean Dr. Light immediately because Dr. Wily released a deep fake video that shows Light trying to get Wily to join Light on a world takeover bid. Because no one has a brain in the Classic series at this point, Mega Man must stop the 8 rebelling robots and clear Light's name. It is discovered that the 8 robots in question, one of which is a lady this time, marking the arrival of the Classic series’ THIRD CANON FEMALE CHARACTER were going to be 'recycled' soon, which is news to pretty much everyone that robots apparently have expiration dates. It turns out Wily convinced them to rebel because that shit is kinda whack and it's kinda understandable why they might be a little upset. Anyway, no time for moral quandaries in the Saturday morning cartoon show of the Classic timeline, Mega Man goes to Wily's house and wrecks it and rescues Dr. Light from the fake robot police. The idea of expiration dates for robots is never discussed again. Fucking A.

Mega Man 10, everyone gets the flu, called Roboenza to explain why it affects Robots,  and goes nuts. One of them is a Sheep, and I am not fucking kidding about that. Mega Man stops them but gets the flu too. Roll sacrifices her dose of the limited supply antidote so Mega Man can go after Wily because of course it's his fault. Mega Man goes on to beat up a sneezing, coughing, miserable looking Wily who ALSO has the flu, and takes him to a hospital he escapes from, but not before piling ALL the antidote on his hospital bed in a weird sort of apology for getting everyone sick. You can play this game as Bass or Proto Man as well, but... meh? The DLC lets you fight the Mega Man killers from the I-am-not-doing-THAT-to-myself-right-now Gameboy games, which is pretty cool. All in all, a Mega Man game of all time.

Mega Man 11, flashback to Wily with a ponytail that is still somehow bat-wing shaped and an apparent ethical dilemma over installing both a turbo setting and a steroid setting into robots. This is apparently what caused the split between Light and Wily, and only now, 30 YEARS LATER, does Wily use that tech in 8 new robots to try and rule the world. Mega Man, also upgraded with turbo mode and steroid mode because Light is a fucking hypocrite, defeats them all and goes after Wily, who only has one fortress this time because the budget was cut to the bone by Capcom and who cares about Classic Mega Man in 2018, am I right? As a side note, Wily wailing "Why does he always win?" when he gets defeated gives me serious Saturday Morning Sonic Cartoon Robotnik vibes and I kinda feel bad for him.

There are also some arcade fighter games where it gets revealed Wily is working on his 'Masterpiece', a super robot called Zero who I am sure isn't gonna come up again.

Certainly. Ahem. 

X Series: 21XX, Dr. Cain, an archeologist, unearths a capsule and a journal from a man named Thomas Light. Inside the capsule is a super advanced robot named Mega Man X, who was undergoing ethical testing inside that capsule for an unknown length of time, all of which is described in detail in Light’s journal. As a result of Light’s brilliant engineering and life’s work of trial and error, X is intelligent and has free will. Dr. Cain, an archeologist, does not READ the journal goes all in on making robots with free will based on X's design called Reploids. This seems like a good idea to everyone involved, for some reason.

Sometime later, a Reploid named Sigma who leads a law enforcement force called Maverick Hunters is called in to deal with a red Maverick who is just murdering everyone around him. It should be noted at this point that the X series is the edgy Adult Swim older brother of the Classic series. Mavericks are Reploids who have, through their free will, decided to do some murder. Sigma wins the fight against the red Maverick, but unbeknownst to everyone gets infected with a hyper advanced virus that makes him... Reploid Hitler, basically? Very, uh, Reploid supremacist. This takes some time though, and IN that time, X joins the Maverick Hunters and the Maverick Sigma beat is repaired and ALSO becomes a Maverick Hunter. His name is Zero, and he is Inafune's favorite, and I'm sure nothing bad will happen as a result of that.

MMX1, bad things happen! Sigma leads a rebellion against the humans and Mega Man X gets caught napping on a highway. He gets attacked by some Boba Fett looking motherfucker named Vile and Zero saves him, assuring X that he will someday get to wear the hero pants, but not today. Zero then disappears for most of the game and X has to fight 8 Mavericks who are all animals of some shape or description. During his travels, X encounters a strange capsule that has a holographic recording of Dr. Light that laments that there is always conflict and then kits X out for absolute war. X goes after Sigma's flying fortress and fights Vile again, who captured Zero. Vile wins again because he is driving a huge mech with punching fists and there are no walls to jump on, but Zero busts out and blows himself up to take out the mech and X mops the floor with Vile's face. Zero dies and X faces such terrifying fortress bosses as A Wall, a Spider, and Sigma's dog. And Sigma is also a wall? And he has a lightsaber. Also X gets to do Hadokens for some reason. Widely regarded as one of the best SNES games of all time.

MMX2, the most important thing you need to know here is that the green biker dude dies. An attack by Mavericks on some sort of factory prompts X to ride in like a badass and save the day, but shadowy figures known as X Hunters are out to get him.

Side note, it's a little weird that X who is the origin of ALL Reploids is just... out and about? Like, he has a job? What the actual- Anyway, never mind.

Agile, Violen, and Serges all attack X at various points throughout the game, using the disembodied pieces of Zero as bait. X rescues all of Zero's parts though and then beats up all the X Hunters, who it turns out are under the command of Sigma who came back somehow. X blows Sigma up real good and they lived happily ever after for about a week.

Side note 2 here, Serges is implied in some dialogue to know... WAY more about Zero and X than he ought to? Like he might be a Reploid version of someone from the past. It's weird and I doubt it'll come up again, but I thought I'd mention it.

MMX3, some Reploid named Doctor Doppler claims to have invented a cure for the Maverick Virus, the thing everyone blames for Reploids becoming Mavericks. The cure, however, turns out to be MORE MAVERICK VIRUS and X and Zero have to go do the FDA's job and shut that shit down. You get to play as Zero in this one, and if you do the right stuff he takes a giant insect mini boss to the face and gives X his lightsaber. Oh, Zero has a lightsaber now. Had. Anyway, X defeats the 8 Mavericks contracted to stand in his way and also Vile who came back somehow (no prizes for guessing how). X goes after Doppler who is, you may have guessed, been getting his strings pulled by Sigma. Plot twist, though, Sigma IS the Maverick Virus! A reformed Doppler hits him with an anti-virus and Sigma dies for good. I'm sure he's not gonna come up again.

MMX4, Because he is Inafune’s favorite, Zero's got a girlfriend and is having bad dreams about the man who built him and all of the relevant story in this game. X has some game busting awesome black armor called, fittingly, the Ultimate Armor. A bunch of Reploids belonging to something called the Repliforce decide they aren't appreciated very much after an attack that destroys a floating city is blamed on them, so they... rebel. And do... violence... because violence was blamed on them. Sigh. Anyway, Zero's girlfriend has a brother named Colonel who is.. a.. look, he's in the Repliforce, you figure it out. The General of the Repliforce leads his troops to be bad guys but for good reasons and X don't care because he is literally Nova Striking his way through the whole game and skipping everyone's dialogue. Zero fight Colonel and wins, and then has to fight his girlfriend and win but now she’s dead. X confronts Magma Dragoon, a former Maverick Hunter who was ACTUALLY the guy who destroyed that sky city and is now, gasp, a Maverick. Instead of Zero’s girlfriend, X fights a guy named Double who was a Maverick Hunter but also a double agent working for the real bad guy. X and the General fight even though they both know the REAL bad guy is Racer X- I mean Sigma because of fucking course he is, and Sigma tries to shoot Earth with a space laser. X Nova Stikes Sigma into oblivion and General sacrifices himself to stop the laser. Zero questions, infamously, what he is fighting for.

I need to stop for a second to point something out: why are the animal-themed Reploids so disposable, plot wise? Magma Dragoon has SOME impact on the story, mostly because he's a Ryu/Ken reference, but all the animal themes Reploids just... don't matter. The last time we saw any Maverick Hunters that had animal themes, they were already rebelling alongside Sigma. Are the Maverick Hunters racist? Or... species-ist? Hm. Questions for later.

MMX5, there is another problem in Space. The Eurasia colony is going to drop because Sigma saw Gundam and doesn’t have an original bone in his body, and the Maverick Hunters need to do things to prep a laser/rocket to stop it. X and Zero do things and fight a Reploid twink named Dynamo who has objectively awesome music. Also, Guns N Roses is here. Like, the actual band. Yeah, it’s nuts. The Maverick Hunters also have some sort of command structure in this one, so it isn't just X and Zero doing everything by themselves, but they do everything by themselves with Alia, an operator, yakking the whole way through. Eventually, Zero takes the rocket and flies into the colony to stop it, and the resulting crash site turns into some cyberspace interdimensional vortex thing for reasons I'm sure someone can explain, and X has to go find Zero. Along the way, he meets some familiar fortress bosses, and eventually finds Zero in a murderous mood. See, it turns out Dr. Wily built Zero(SHOCKER), and since X is a creation of Dr. Light they have to fight now. X vs Zero is basically the point of this whole game? Like, it's the only part anyone remembers that's any good here, and it has the BEST music of any boss fight in the X series. X and Zero both win by losing, and then Sigma shows up and he double loses. He's been hinting strongly at this point that he knows who made Zero and is somehow in contact with him which is funny cause Wily is SUPER dead by now, but whatever. I'm sure it won't come up again.

MMX6, it comes up again! Some Dr. Wily looking Reploid name Isoc has built some super Reploid named High Max and neither of them matter because this game's story is actually about Alia and her old friend/mentor/science buddy Gate and his looks-exactly-like-Zero Nightmare virus which is actually the Maverick Virus which is really Sigma. I cannot be bothered to care about this one really, but there's tentacle nightmare things and Reploids to save and just... I'm so tired, you guys. After Sigma dies again, Zero puts himself in a capsule to fix his Maverick-ness, and despite being Inafune’s favorite he's never seen again for the rest of the series.

MMX7, IN 3D! Whay? Why not! Meet Axl. Why? Why not! The Earth is a total wreck at this point and a new group of vigilantes called Red Alert have stepped in to 'help out'. Their help is not helpful, and Axl defects from Red Alert to the Maverick Hunters, teaming up with X to... what? Not playable? The FUCK YOU MEAN NOT PLAYABLE? ZERO?? INAFUNE YOU SONUVABITCH-

Ahem. So anyway, Axl and... Zero fight all the Mavericks and find out Sigma is behind it all yay woo hoo okay, moving on. Side Note, X DOES become playable, but there’s a lot of stuff you have to do first and… it’s… ugh, it’s so dumb. Honestly this should have been all the forewarning we needed that Mighty No. 9 was gonna be bad. It hurts, guys. It hurts so bad. Moving on-

MMX8 there's a space elevator and some Reploid named Lumine and Sigma is there and it turns out LUMINE is the bad guy, what? And Sigma is basically a zombie now and Zero and Axl are STILL. HERE. And I'll be honest I didn't play this one. The SNES style demake floating around the internet is pretty good though, even if it isn’t finished yet. Worth a look, please go support it.

So, the timeline gets wonky here. At some point Zero goes into stasis but we don't know if it's the SAME stasis as the one he wakes up from in 22XX and apparently a whole thing called the Elf Wars happens where X uses the power of some super software being called the Mother Elf to wipe out the Sigma Virus entirely and then builds a utopia called Neo Arcadia. Humans, of which there are not many left at this point because of all the colony dropping, live in Neo Arcadia in a totalitarian police state where the Reploids are kept in line with an iron fist and energy is scarce. TLDR, shit gets bad, and it gets worse when Inafune’s golden boy gets his OWN series called

Mega Man Zero. 22XX, a scientist and her friends are getting a genocide from some big old robots, and in their desperation awaken a red Reploid. Calling him Zero, the scientist, Ciel, implores him to protect her, so he scoops up a gun and starts blasting. Zero gets a lightsaber from a weird, disembodied voice and uses both gun and sword to cut down everything in his way. Ciel asks him to join the Resistance, a group opposing Neo Arcadia's treatment of Reploids and working to find a solution to the energy crises. Zero, who slept so long he's got no memories, agrees to help them take out Neo Arcadia's leader, X. Along the way, he does battle with the Four Sages, Reploids high up in the Neo Arcadia command structure who are based on X himself and who do not matter as characters really. Ciel reveals that X is really Racer X- I mean a Copy of the original X who is a ghost now, and Zero goes to Neo Arcadia to stop him. In a solid Zero vs X fight, The copy eventually goes down and Zero ends up facing an army of mooks in a Bolivian Army Ending, his ultimate fate unknown

MMZ2 until he comes strolling out of the desert like a fuckin' BOSS to some of the best opening stage music in the series. Seriously, the man was chopping up baddies in the wasteland for a YEAR straight, and only collapses from the weight of his own badassery. Some guy who doesn't matter picks him up and drops him off with the Resistance, who are still Resisting Neo Arcadia, despite Copy X's demise. Ciel is making a lot of progress on her new energy source, but it isn't UITE there yet, and some twink named Elpizo is agitating to just go burn Neo Arcadia to the ground because he is the not-so-secret bad guy of the game. Zero does some missions, the Resistance does Elpizo's thing and gets its ass kicked, and Zero has to clean up the mess with more missions. Elpizo goes a little nuts and decides to free the Mother Elf, which is actually the Dark Elf and is kept sealed in its jar by X's physical original body. Zero tries to stop him, but the twink gets his way and X's original body blows up real good, releasing the Dark Elf which proceeds to turn Elpizo into its puppet bitch. Zero takes out Elpizo and the Dark Elf flees, and ghost X basically shows up to say "Something wicked this way comes."

MMZ3. Meet the series; true antagonist, Dr. Weil. With a monster called Omega under his thumb, Weil has returned from exile to take over Neo Arcadia. Omega beats up a whole bunch of people who don't matter, but Zero forces it to retreat. Plot twist, Copy X is back and taking advice from Dr. Weil because that's obviously going to work out super well for everyone involved. Using Copy X as a puppet, Weil turns all of Neo Arcadia's forces to wiping out the Resistance, despite all the work Ciel is doing to alleviate the energy crises. Both sides are trying to locate the Dakr Elf, and Omega gets to it first after they rocket the hell out of a populated area. Zero and Copy X fight again, but Copy X triggers Weil's trap card when he tries to use all of his power and blows up. Zero and Omega go at it, and Omega loses so hard he reverts to his larval state, which is revealed to be Racer X- I mean the Original Body of Zero. Weil gloats about this and says that the heroic Zero is just a poor copy and that the original Zero, operating now as Wily probably intended, is a demon of destruction. Hero Zero says F that and dominates Omega in a fight that has a theme called Cannonball which is absolutely one of the best boss tracks in video games. After the battle, the Dark Elf is freed from its curse and resumes being the Mother Elf (look, don't ask, I have no idea), and ghost X appears to Zero in a dream and says he's retiring, disappearing for good. Ciel names her new energy system after herself.

MMZ4, oh snap, we forgot that Weil is still in control of Neo Arcadia and that place is a horror show now. People are trying to flee the city since the rest of the planet is now marginally habitable, but Weil is a poor sport and doesn't wanna let people have free will or grass. He has a plan called Operation Ragnarok, which basically calls for the nuking of everything on Earth that ISN'T Neo Arcadia so everyone HAS to watch his vacation slides. To that end, he tries to use a satellite cannon called... Ragnarok... to blow up everything not Neo Arcadia, but his chief minions turns on him and blows up everything ONLY Neo Arcadia. Weil -somehow- survives this because he is, gasp, a Reploid! But not just ANY Reploid, he is a human who was exiled and stuck in a Reploid body so he would have to suffer for all eternity. Why? Why not? Anyway, he takes over the Ragnarok satellite and Zero goes up there to stop him. They have a fight, Zero wins, and Weil fuses with the satellite because he is a very poor lover. Zero has only a few minutes to defeat Weil and make the satellite break up, and this leaves him no time to escape. Zero saves the world one last time, and Ciel cries on a hilltop over his death.

Mega Man ZX: I am skipping this because it is an open world metroidvania Mega Man Power Rangers and, while cool, is something of a dead timeline with two games where the story was honestly JUST starting to get good and then they never made another one and I'm bitter.

Speaking of bitter, Mega Man Legends!

Mega Man is a digger, a person who delves into ruins and retrieves energy crystals called Refractors. He, like most Diggers, searches for the legendary Mother Lode, a treasure no one describes really well or seems to know where it is. Down on their luck, Mega Man Volnutt (his actual name) and his companion Roll Caskett (they are NOT dating, honest) travel in an airship called the Flutter with her grandpa Barrel and a little monkey named Data until one day they crash on an island called Kattelox.

So, about the island. Everything is islands. The world is covered in water, but we've been assured that this is the same timeline as Classic and X, just SUPER far in the future. Anyway, back to the plot, meet the Bonnes! They're pirates, and they are our Team Rocket-esque antagonists who CANNOT catch a break. Mega Man saves the town of Kattelox and gets to diggin' in the islands various ruins, finding keys to unlock something called the Main Gate. Convinced the Main Gate holds a great treasure, the Bonnes try everything they can to get into it, but Mega Man comes out on top, which pisses off and arouses Tron Bonne. Mega Man gets into the Main Gate only to find a robot called Mega Man Juno, who identifies him as Mega Man Trigger. A LOT of lore gets dumped here, but basically Mega Man Volnutt is an amnesiac part of something called the System which keeps the population if 'carbons' in check on the planet. If they get too populous, bam, the System does a genocide. Obviously not a fan of thus, Volnutt and Juno fight, and Volnutt wins. Juno gets the last laugh tho, using his knowledge of the system to back himself up and set the island's ‘reinitialization’ (genocide) in motion anyway. Mega Man stresses about this until Data comes in and saves the day by directing the System to wipe Juno's backup data and stop the genocide. Data reveals that, aside from being a literal save point, he's Volnutt's memory backup from his time as a Purifier unit. He never elaborates on this in a way that is helpful. They bid the island farewell and fly off into the sunset, the Bonnes trailing behind in a makeshift boat because all their stuff blew up when they came at the king.

MML2, Roll is looking for her dad when she finds her mom! Her mom is acting super weird though, calling herself Yuna when her name is actually Matilda and riding a robot dragon. Mega Man, now with a significantly higher pitch of voice, travels to the center of a vortex and finds a naked girl, Sera. Sera tells everyone that they can find the Mother Lode with 4 keys, and the hunt is on. Oh, also, the Bonnes find out about all this because they are masters of not being important enough to actually catch when they are sneaking around. They proceed to do very little of actual consequence for the rest of the game.

Mega Man is eventually confronted by Yuna/Matilda who tells him Sera is trying to use him to reactivate the 'Carbon Reinitialization Program', or as previously stated, the Genocide of the whole world. Not down with this, Mega Man goes after Sera, but gets badly damaged in the attempt and ends up remembering things Data SHOULD HAVE TOLS HIM BY NOW, like how he and the last true human, known as the Master, were close, and how the Master asked him, specifically, to destroy the System that does all the Genocides. Mega Man decides to do that, and goes Elysium, which is on the moon, to fight Sera. Yuna helps and Sera is defeated, and the day is saved, and then everything starts to go VERY poorly. Sera inhabits Yuna's original body, Yuna is still in Matilda's body, they AND Mega Man are both stuck on the Moon with no way to get home, and the Master System, in lieu of doing a genocide the way it wanted to, is instead waking up all manner of bad machines on the surface to do it the hard way. Roll and Tron decide to work together to build a rocket to go get their boyfriend back, and

That's it. That's the story. I'd say that it's the story 'so far', but...

Well, it's been 23 years since Mega Man Legends 2 was released, and there are people around here who still have nervous, shattering breakdowns whenever someone utters the words Legends and Three in the same sentence. We may get an X9 or a MM13 someday, but they aren't going to advance the story or the timeline.

So, until Capcom decides to get Mega Man off the moon, this is where we are.

[crystallizedkingdoms]

“anyway, it fell down and exploded. i’m so sorry.”

Remember when Magnus lied about Avi breaking Johann’s ukulele in The Suffering Game graphic novel? What was the fallout of that lie?

wc: 642

you can also read this on ao3 <3

“Babe.”

…

“Babe! Come on!”

Johann huffs and further turns his back onto Avi, examining the ukulele in his hands, scouring for any hint of damage. He keeps his mouth shut despite Avi’s pleas of innocence.

“You know I would never touch your instruments like that. I don’t know why Magnus would say that!” Avi insists. He rushes around to sit in front of Johann on his bunk, careful not to hit his head on the bunk above him, but Johann only turns away from him again. Avi groans. “At least talk to me?”

Johann mulls it over as his fingertips trail across the wood grain of his instrument, his lips parting as words begin to form on his tongue. “This shit is made of authentic, solid koa. Do you know how hard it is to get that stuff off the one island it grows on, and onto the mainland? Or onto the fucking moon?”

“I know, I know, just—” 

“I paid good money for her, I’m taking any threats against her well-being very seriously, Avingaq.”

The dreaded full first name. Avi shivers. “Please, Johann, It’s just a weird prank by Magnus! I’ve got nothing to do with this. It’s clearly fine and has not exploded.”

“Mm… but what if you fixed it, like, really fast. You’re an engineer.”

“If I could fix your instruments at all, let alone in like, what, half an hour? From being totally exploded? You’d never have to go back down on land ever again.”

“Not true, I don't go to land just for repairs— but not the point.” Johann does one last look-over the ukulele, paying extra attention to the seams of the upper bouts, and when he’s content, he finally places it onto his lap. He crosses his arms, still refusing to look Avi in the eye. “Yuki looks fine, thank you very much for your concern.”

Avi breathes a sigh of relief. He snakes his arms around Johann’s waist and rests his cheek on the side of his head. “I’m glad it’s okay. I told you, I would never throw your stuff. I’ve gotta talk to Magnus about what he—”

“Okay, but like, what if Magnus was mistaken? He obviously doesn’t know all the instruments I have or what they’re called. Maybe… maybe my charango’s in pieces and you’re hiding it from me!”

“Nope!” Avi tightens his grip on Johann’s body before he can wrangle his way out, and pushes him to lie on his bed. “Nope, we’re not doing that! Magnus lied! I’m innocent! Everything’s fine!”

Johann whines, pulling his ukulele to his chest to shield it from Avi. “Don’t push me too hard, or you’ll really hurt my baby.”

“I have never heard you talk like this before, babe.”

“That’s because I’ve never been in emergency crisis mode in public like that,” Johann says. Then, he sighs, loosening his grip on the ukulele to gently set it on top of its case, which sits on the floor. He has to awkwardly crane himself from Avi’s embrace and the bed, but he makes it work. “You will not tell anyone this happened.”

“Mhm, yup.”

“And I’m going to kill Magnus next time I see him,” Johann growls.

Avi nuzzles into Johann’s neck and plants a kiss on his skin. “Oh, yeah, of course,” he says, clearly distracted.

“He’s gonna,” kiss, “be fucking,” kiss, “dead on the ground,” kiss kiss kiss, “okay wow, you win, that feels nice.”

“I don’t win until, respectfully, you shut up.”

“Well, you’re going to have to stop me right at the source, then.”

Avi pulls himself away from the comfort of Johann’s neck, and he catches a glimmer of Johann’s adorable still-kind-of-angry pout on his lips before he captures them in his own. Without another complaint, Johann melts into Avi’s sweet kiss, and his stress melts along with it.

[aajjks]

DHP!JK

the game in question: how long will this relationship last? one is heavily tied to dopamine pills while the other is seconds away from drinking a glass with lysergic acid. it costed sarang a lot of money to retrieve such a powerful drug but she’s sure her efforts won’t be in vain after tonight. she made sure no one was looking before putting the tab in jungkook’s drink then swirling the alcoholic beverage around—one sip of this will have him so high he’ll start marry her or even better, fuck her. she’s already booked a hotel room just for her and jungkook—this night is all about them and nobody else. not even you.

she holds jungkook’s denim jacket close to her face before inhaling his sweet scent. “ah~” she exhales, her face in complete bliss as she sniffs his jacket again before taking the collar of his jacket between her lips leaving a pink stain on the expensive denim. she’s sure you’ll lose your mind when you see it; maybe she’ll wait awhile before sending the video. she wants the reveal to be like an easter egg/mystery hunt for you: jungkook is cheating but how long will it take for you to find out? or better yet, how long it take for you to find out before you’re heart gives out from all the dopamine you’ve taken?

it’s a sick joke, a very sick joke but sarang finds it hilarious. she’s got both you and jungkook wrapped around her fingers like puppets on a string and she’s the puppet master. “mm…just one more” she says aloud before taking another whiff of his floral scent that has her clenching her legs together with desire filling her eyes.

just a little longer…one sip and he’s all her’s.

~🫧

How long does he have to go to deal with Sarang.

And the fact that you still haven’t texted him, where the fuck are you and who are you so busy with? Because it’s literally like 12 am right now.

Do you really not care about him? It’s breaking his heart and his eyes are filled with tears because of your absence. He misses you so much but you don’t have an idea about that.

He doesn’t want to go back outside because he feels so out of place, maybe he should just go home now. Jungkook wipes his tears and composes himself.

He exists the bathroom but He’s really surprised to see Sarang there, on the bed.

“Umm?” she’s got his unfinished glass of whiskey in her hand. “Hm?” She hums back, “what? This is actually my hotel room.” She smiles at him.

Jungkook realizes that and his mouth forms an “o” shape. “Umm well okay. Thank you for letting me use the hotel room now i gotta go home.” He sighs.

Sarangs smile fades, “alright.” She quickly turns the act back on and shrugs. “Here’s your drink though, you look like you need to finish it, and here’s your jacket too.” She pushes her hand with the whiskey glass out and Jungkook walks over to her and takes it.

Sarangs heartbeat is quickening.

Just one sip.

Just one sip.

Just one sip.

Just one sip.

And Jungkook ends up gulping the whole remaining drink up.

“Woah slow down kookie.” She’s so fucking happy, it worked.

Now he will be trapped forever.

“Sit down with me for a little bit before you go? Please kookie, I really think that I owe you an apology for whatever happened with yn..” she pouts.

Jungkook sighs, and ends up listening to her.

As soon as he sits down from a distance infront of her, her perfume is strangely familiar, calming.

He feels at ease.

After 20 minutes or so, sarang finally shuts her mouth but Jungkook feels so weird all of a sudden.

Jungkook feels a weird sensation in his head, there’s some blurred vision suddenly as he looks at her and his grip loosens on the glass.

“Nghh give me.. my j-jacket now.” He stutters out and she hands him the jacket.

Jungkook takes it and goes to the door to get out so he can go home, he feels so good right now, it all feels fucking amazing.

He turns the door knob over but it doesn’t open.

He tries again, but now his mouth feels so fucking dry, and his heartbeat is rapid.

“Aw is the door not opening, kookie?”

Jungkook closes his eyes and opens them again.

“Oh yn yes.. the doors not happening honey… Am I at home already?”

Sarangs mouth feels butter as he says your name but it looks like the drug has finally worked and he’s hallucinating right now.

“Yeah kookie,. You’re home, you’re right where you should be now come to me. I missed you a lot today.” She opens her arms, puffing her chest out a little.

She doesn’t even need to do that because you’re flat, she’s better than you in every aspect, but he doesn’t see that so tonight she will make him see just how better she is than you.

Jungkook smiles and immediately goes to the bed, and before he can say anything else, you’re snuggling him up against your chest,

your familiar scent has him feeling so happy and safe.

“Oh yn I’m soo glad you still love me.”

you still love him.

You still haven’t forgotten about him.

He was just overthinking.

Thank God.

[graciellasamma]

My AU of Previously On

Sup guys! As you can see on the title this is pretty much of what my version of RvB Season 15 Episode 5 “Previously On” because that episode is my favorite in season 15 because of how funny it is on their story of their retirement. If you want to know about the AU I made, then I suggest to go look at my oc “Frøy Kurenai.”

I hope you guys like it!

Grif: (groaning) Lots of bullshit, I don’t know where to start.

Tucker: Before or after the temple? If it’s before, this is gonna get NSFW real quick.

Sister: Oh yea.

Horobi: Oh God...

Izu: “Temple?”

Tucker: Ho yeah! After we captured Hargrove, we partied fucking hard! See, Chorus has this ancient relic called the Temple of Procreation that when activated makes-

Wyoming, Simmons, & Grif: WE SAID WE WOULDN’T TALK ABOUT THAT!

They quickly look at each other and Grif and Simmons quickly look away, embarrassed. Wyoming just blushed in embarrassment.

Blake: Wait. It doesn’t due as the same implies right?

Sarge: Oh it does! It was all like a planet-wide aphrodisiac! Things got real Bohemian! (knowingly) Mm-hmm!

Tucker: Yeah, y’all keep saying that! But everything felt normal to me!

Sister: Ya, it was completely normal.

Washington: Surprising no one.

Weiss: Gross!

Yang & Urataros: I wish I was there!!

Weiss & Momotaros: DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, YANG/YOU PERVERTED TURTLE!!!

Ruby: Ugh, from you Yang, I’m not even surprised.

O’Mally: Hehe, let me ease up Papa Wolf’s concern over his pup’s virginity. Once the idiot with the sword over here activated the temple. Frøy got bored and decided to play Monster Hunter on his Nintendo while hearing music with his earphone.

Jiro: So he didn’t do anything... weird?

Doc: No not at all, we just doing our business while Frøy too distracted by his game and hearing music.

Jin: I don’t get it, what are they talk about??

Horobi & Aruto: We’ll talk about it when you’re older!!

Felix: Locus was already off of Chorus by the time the planet-wide party began.

Grif is still looking away from Simmons.

Simmons: Can we-can we change the subject?

Ramon: why are you guys so nervous?

Caboose: (To Ramon) Oh, they’re just upset because they got locked in storage closet during the whole thing and Reggie and Flowers were in-

Gamma: Yes, and of course they were.

Ikazuchi, Yang, Nora, Momotaros, & Vice: WHAT?! HAHAHAHA!!!

Wyoming: THE SUBJECT. CHANGE IT.

Frøy: Hold on, I thought you were the one who-

Wyoming: I SAID: CHANGE IT.

Washington: To actually answer your question, after the war on Chorus we decided we were due some time off.

York: We’ve earned some R&R. Even Carolina, Tex, and South agreed!

Tex: When did I ever agree to th-

South: It was for the best. Clearly. (Takes a glance at Carolina)

Carolina: I thought I’d give the simple life a day in court.

Gamma: Surprising. Everyone.

Grif: No more adventure? Hell yeah, I was on board!

Butch: We were all on board.

Simmons: Kimball set us up on this isolated moon, and she built us some of the most awesome new bases, ever!

Shot of the new Red and Blue bases, which look like luxury condos.

Tucker: Everyone adjusted to the peace and quite differently. Some of us were natural!

Grif: Don’t hate the player.

Theta: Sarge got hopelessly depressed after not dying heroically on Chorus!

Sarge: Hogwash! Baseless slander!

Simmons: But you said-

~*~*~

Cut to the Red Team, including Lopez, outside their new base. Sarge walks up.

Sarge (flashback): I am hopelessly depressed after not dying heroically on Chorus! We need a new enemy...

Hearing this, Red Team quickly scatter.

Sarge (flashback): ...something to fight. Where y’all going?

~*~*~

Back in the Bases, CT looks at Carolina.

CT: Sarge wasn’t the only one having a hard time adjusting to inaction.

Everyone looks at Carolina.

Carolina: What?!

Washington: Fortunately, we found a tutor.

~*~*~

Cut to Carolina and Grif in a small ravine, Grif sitting cross-legged on the ground and Carolina  standing up, looking at him as though he were a wise master. Or Yoda, maybe.

Carolina (flashback): (dead serious) Help me, Grif. Help me be the best at being lazy.

Grif (flashback): (wise and mysterious) You’re not ready, padawan.

Carolina (flashback): I can try!

Grif (flashback): No. There is no try.

Felix (flashback): (offscreen, yelled) YOU SAID THE LINE!!

~*~*~

Flowers: (narrator) The peaceful times didn’t last too long. Turns out this planet has some native lifeforms!

~*~*~

Loud thumping as Flowers, Frøy, North, Simmons, Tucker, and Grif run across the scene. We hear the sound of a dinosaur roaring.

Simmons (flashback): AHHHH, RUNNN!!!!

Grif (flashback): I CAN’T DIE AS FOOD! OHHH HOOO, THE IRONY!!!!!

North (flashback): HOW IS THAT IRONY?!?!

Frøy (flashback): HAHAHA!! I’M HAVING SO MUCH FUN!!!

~*~*~

Carolina: (narrator) While everyone debated if dying as food was technically ironic, Caboose went and made friends with the dinosaurs.

Hiromi: Why would he do that?

Grif: (narrator) Because of course he did.

~*~*~

Carolina, Flowers, North, Frøy, Tucker, Grif, Sarge, and their AIs are staring up in awe the camera, while we see the shadow of a dinosaur with a Caboose-sized figure on its head.

Caboose (flashback): (offscreen) Awww, who’s a good boy?! Awww, you are a good boy!

Felix (flashback): Holy shit!

Flowers (flashback): CABOOSE, get down from there!

Church (flashback): How the hell does he get up there without getting eaten?!

Frøy (flashback): Can I eat it?

Sarge (flashback): Tell him to fight me!

Theta (flashback): Ummm Sarge, you do know you are gonna lose that fight in a heartbeat, right?

~*~*~

Tex: And let’s not forgot, trivia night.

Everyone except Felix, Wash, Delta, Theta, Carolina, Caboose, and Donut groans at that.

Felix: Hey, you guys wanted to give me a party, and that’s what I got.

Tucker: Easy for you to say! You got all the answers right!!

Simmons: You gave us hard questions.

Felix: Are you serious? It was easy!

York: It was a trick question!!

Ryutaros: What’s trivia night?

Delta: They are like pub quiz, one of us has to ask the question that we made while the rest of us have to answer the question correctly.

Theta: We decide to make a theme on all the questions from his favorite movie series!

Tucker: Which is Star Wars by the way. (glaring at Felix)

~*~*~

Everyone gathers around for trivia night.

Grif (flashback): Anakin Skywalker.

Felix (flashback): (monotone, like church) No.

York (flashback): C-3PO.

Felix (flashback): (monotone) No. That’s a droid.

Sarge (flashback): Grif.

Felix (flashback): No. He’s not even a Star Wars character Sarge.

Sarge (flashback):............. You sure?

~*~*~

Felix: WHAT PART OF “THE MOST ANNOYING CHARACTER IN THE STAR WARS UNIVERSE” DID YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?!

Sarge: It was a trick question!

Felix: Oh come on! I gave you plenty of hints! Even Caboose got it right!

Caboose: I nearly said Tarkin because he is mean.

Frøy & Church: Well not all of us is a Star Wars nerd like you, so sorry if we don’t know all the characters!!

Felix: Oh fuck you both!! (Giving them the middle finger)

Grif: (narrator) And then DONUT somehow managed to burn down our bases!

~*~*~

Donut standing in the foreground, while the bases burn in the background.

Donut (flashback): Whoopsy-daisy!

~*~*~

Grif: (narrator) Ah-ha, why, why, oh why?!

Church: Some of them were crying, and some of them didn’t care.

Tucker: And you were one of those people who didn’t give a shit.

Church: I expected things to go wrong from the start. Don’t blame me if I didn’t help with the problem, dickhead!

Donut: (offscreen, still unfiltered) I told you, it was a simple mishap with my vanilla-satin-scented candles. Sheesh.

Flowers: DONUT! CLOTHES!

Donut: Party pooper!

Kintaros: Why is he naked?

Leo: THAT’S your first question?

Aruto: Why did you have a candle in the first place?

Wyoming: We need them to remove the stench that was coming from the kitchen.

All eyes from the Reds and Blues glared at Carolina yet again.

Carolina: I was trying to find a hobby, so don’t blame me.

Frøy: Are you kidding me?! I wasn’t able to use the toilet because of both Grif and Sister were stuck in the bathroom for weeks because of food poisoning, and the toilet clogged because of that!!

Grif: I regret ever tasting that MRE.

Jiro: I know how you feel.

Both Jiro and Ramon glared at Riki because of the stench in his room and his cooking skill.

Simmons: Anyway, we lost 80% of our rations in the fire, so these two fat-asses (looks at Grif and Sister) over here started going around and eating native plants!

~*~*~

Grif and Sister approach some wild mushrooms that glow a mysterious blue coolor.

Grif (flashback): Oh, hey there, sexy.

Sister (flashback): These look good.

~*~*~

Simmons: (narrator) Oh, and as it turns out, the mushrooms are basically crystal meth ON crystal meth!

~*~*~

Cut to Grif and Sister running by, in order, Sarge fighting a tree, Carolina fixing a Warthog, and Simmons going for a walk.

Grif (flashback): (super fast) Heyhohowyadoin’? Good?Okay. I’mgonnagoforarun. AlotofpeoplesayI’mnotfast,butI’msuperfast. Don’ttell anyybodythough,it’soursecret, Okay, bye!

Sister (flashback): (super fast) I’msofullyetIhavesomuchenergy.

~*~*~

Back to the base.

Grif: Yeah? Well, at least I didn’t spend my summer learning Esperanto!

Simmons: (ashamed) I thought “Esperanto” was Spanish for “Spanish.”

Church: Spanish is just Spanish! Me and Delta told you thst multiple times but you kept saying Esperanto is Spanish!

Simmons: I know...!

Frøy: And now you’re the only one in the universe who speaks a dead language! How appropriate!

Simmons: (sigh) Mi estas tiel sola. (I’m so alone.)

Caboose: And Freckles got a new body! He can use any bathroom he wants now!

~*~*~

Freckles walks threateningly into the scene. We then cut to a wide shot to reveal he’s hopelessly small, with Caboose and Tucker looking at him.

Freckles (flashback): (like a chipmunk) Prepare to be exterminated!

He shoots Caboose. Caboose dramatically falls.

Caboose (flashback): AHHH! Tucker! You’re supposed to be playing dead.

Tucker (flashback): (leaving) Riiight...

~*~*~

Back to the base.

Tucker: That’s right around when we tried to raise some money for new bases by selling off our movie rights!

Delta: I believe we didn’t have any-

Ruby, Jin, Ryutaros, Aruto, Leo, & Vice: You have movie rights?! Awesome!

Pyrrha: Even with my fame. No movie company has asked for me to be in any of their films.

Izuku: What rights did you own?

South: Us and for some reason Reservoir Dogs. We still have no idea why we own that.

Grif: Yeah well, Hollywood really screwed the pooch on that one.

Church: We should have burned the script when we had a chance.

Weiss: Was it bad?

Doc: Well it received positive reviews and critical acclaim. They just got us and the story all wrong.

O’Mally: Ugh, they just have to ruined my character.

Simmons: Oh, but we were rich!

Grif: And then we realized water parks were way more awesome than bases!

Carolina: So we built the galaxy’s greatest... water park.

CT: 101 on how to waste money on useless stuff, we don’t need.

~*~*~

Cut to the water park. Where all the boys even Washington jump in the air with joy. Carolina, South, and CT refrains.

Boys (flashback): Yay!

Girls (flashback): (with disinterest) Yay...

~*~*~

Ruby, Jin, Vice, Ramon, & Ryutaros: That’s so cool!!

Yang: I wanna swim! I’ll get my bikini!

Wyoming: Don’t bother.

George: What? Why?

Grif: BECAUSE OF DONUT-!

~*~*~

Mirroring the shot from before, Donut is in the foreground as the park burns in the background.

Donut: Whoopsy-daisy.

~*~*~

Grif: I MEAN HOW?! HOW DO YOU BURN DOWN A WATER PARK, DONUT?!

Delta: It is highly illogical of how he did it.

Donut walks in, now wearing his armor.

Donut: 1) Lube isn’t normally flammable! And B) I didn’t burn down the whole water park! Just the park part!

Caboose: And then we formed the best band ever!

Washington: Tucker thought it might attract... chicks.

Tucker: Which worked.

~*~*~

Cut to Grif and Tucker arguing over the name, with Caboose watching on the drum while Frøy was on the mic and while Church and Felix just standing and floating at their partner’s side while watching the whole argument.

Grif: The Talking reds!

Tucker: Mötley Blüe!

Grif: How about redmau5?

Carolina: Hey, I heard you boys are looking for a backup singer.

Tucker: Uh, yeah! Chick singers are awesome!

Grif: Can you sing, though?

Frøy and Church does a killing gesture knowing their sister’s voice.

Carolina: (confident) Can I sing?

~*~*~

Cut to the base.

Tucker: (unconvincingly) Carolina sings. So good.

Carolina: Thank you.

Simmons: Oh, and we’re definitely not hust saying that because she could kill us.

Wyoming: And break every bone in our body.

Grif: (strained) So. Good.

Tucker: I mean... Frøy wasn’t bad.

Frøy: Please stop it.

Simmons: Sarge decided to make his own enemy, so he built an evil robot army to invade our valley!

Tucker: But the robots malfunctioned and attacked the dinosaurs!

Theta & Iota: And it was the awesomest battle ever! Of all time!!

~*~*~

Cut to the Reds and Blues watching an enormous battle happening offscreen. We get explosions and roars and some flashes of red light plus a black plume of smoke coming in from off-camera.

Theta/Iota (flashback): Woah.../Wow...

Washington (flashback): I have seen some amazing things in my life, but this...? This takes the cake.

Frøy (flashback): I think I can died happy now.

~*~*~

Back to the base.

Vice: Now that is so cool!

Ryutaros: Are the dinosaurs still alive?

CT: Yeah they are, they just destroyed the robots and left. Haven’t seen them in awhile though.

Carolina: (snickering) And then Grif convinced Simmons Game of Thrones really happened.

Leo: What the heck is Game of Thrones?

Ikazuchi: A really good TV show ever!

Blake: And Grif convinced him that a fictional series actually exist?

Simmons: He explained it to me in very convincing manner.

South: And apparently, after that, we learned Simmons has a knack for-

Simmons: (panicked) Don’t say it!

~*~*~

Grif and Simmons are standing on top of the base, mirroring their positions in the first episode.

Simmons (flashback): Nuh-uh.

Grif (flashback): Uh-huh.

Simmons (flashback): Oh, shut up!

Grif (flashback): Seriously, dude!

Simmons (flashback): Nah, nah, no way!

Grif (flashback): Yeah, way!

Simmons (flashback): Dude.

Grif (flashback): Dude.

Simmons (flashback): Dude!

Grif (flashback): Dude.

Simmons (flashback): Dude!

Grif (flashback): Yeah, dude.

Simmons (flashback): That’s awesome! Man, I’m gonna go visit!

~*~*~

Weiss: Seriously?

George: Wow, you’re must be an idiot for falling for that.

Ryutaros: Wai! Simmons-no-baka!

Simmons: What? I can’t believe in it? Anyway, Sarge found a new enemy! One that would keep him busy for the rest of our time here.

~*~*~

The Reds are gathered outside the new base, watching Sarge walks on camera again.

Sarge (flashback): For far too long our people have been oppressed, crushed, under the weight pf ourselves! If we don’t start standing up to our mortal foe gravitty, by god who will?

Washington, Frøy, Church, Felix, Carolina, and Tex are watching nearby.

Carolina (flashback): Are we really going to let this play out?

Washington (flashback): Why not see where it goes?

Felix (flashback): This is gonna be good.

Church (flashback): Something we can agreed on.

Frøy (flashback): You both are just cruel.

Lopez is in the Warthog, Sarge nearby.

Sarge (flashback): Buckle up, friendo! It’s time we take this fight to the enemy!

Lopez (flashback): Por farvor no. (Please no.)

The Warthog goes flying off a cliff.

Sarge (flashback): Chaaaarge!

~*~*~

Simmons: But that just meant Blue Team had one more Jeep than Red Team.

Tex: Not the First time either.

~*~*~

Back to outside the base: Donut, Grif, Simmons, North, South, Wyoming, and CT are standing there, while the warthog is on fire in the background.

Sarge (flashback): Gentlemen and lady, we simply cannot let Blue Team have tactical superiority over the canyon! This means war! Red. VS. BLUE!

Lopez (flashback): (offscreen) Mierda... (Shit...)

~*~*~

Back to the base.

Tucker: That helped us realize just  how outdated this whole Red Team-Blue Team thing really is.

Simmons: So, we had a meeting to debate a new form of government.

Yaiba & Naki: Oh this should to be good.

~*~*~

The Reds and Blues are facing each other outside their base, Carolina having joined the Blues this time.

Grif (flashback): I vote anarchy.

Simmons (flashback): You can’t vote anarchy, you dumbass!

Omega & O’Mally (flashback): But it fit us so well!

Flowers & Doc (flashback): No!

Tucker (flashback): Monarchy! Whoever holds the magical sword, (draws his sword) Excalibur!

Caboose (flashback): Party Paryarchy!

Felix (flashback): Jedi Order!

Frøy (flashback): Of course, you’ll choose that.

Felix (flashback): Hey, up yours Frøy.

North (flashback): Democracy?

Sarge (flashback): Military Dictatorship!

Carolina (flashback): Matriarchy.

CT (flashback): I like where you’re thinking.

South (flashback): Fuck yeah!

Tex (flashback): We can make an agreement on that. (smirks)

Church (flashback): Typical.

The girls (flashback): Hey!

Church (flashback): Not all of us are girls in this valley! Heck, most of us are pretty much a dude! Of course, it’s freaking cliche.

Caboose (flashback): Oh! How about Malarkey?

Flowers (flashback): Caboose, that’s not a type of government! It just means meaningless talk and nonesense!

Long silence.

~*~*~

Washington: (back at the base) Malarkey won.

Theta: There was also the time when Frøy built a bomb and it blew up and make a wormhole to a new universe.

Grif: And what came out was really, really, really weird.

~*~*~

Everyone is gathered up.

Wasington (flashback): This has to be one of the strangest things I’ve seen ever... Of all time.

Frøy and female Frøy are looking at each other with Church and Felix floating at their partner’s side also in their opposite gender. Both wear identical armor and have identical weapons.

Both Frøy (flashback): THIS IS AMAZING!!

Both Church, Felix, & Tex (flashback): This is a fucking nightmare.

~*~*~

CT: The destruction they caused was enormous.

Frøy: (sigh) Too bad she had to go home. I never met someone that I could have so much fun with.

Church: Thank God for that!! I don’t think I could handle another Frøy and Felix.

Felix: I could say the same for you, asshole.

Tex: I suppose to be the one to say that\, consider that I have to be the one to handle the both of you cockbites.

Church & Felix: Shut up, bitch.

Donut: Oh! And don’t forgot York and Carolina’s wedding!

Ruby: (gasp) Really?! That’s amazing you guys!

Leo: Congrats, you two!

Sakura: Omedetō!

George: Congratulation!

Ikazuchi: Mazel tov!

York and Carolina: Thanks.

~*~*~

Carolina was in a nice Cyan dress with York in a suit holding each other hands. Behind Carolina were CT, South, and Kimball while behind York were Wash, North, and Tucker while Frøy as the Ring Bearer with Church, Felix, and Tex floating at his side. In the center is Sarge marrying them.

Sarge (flashback): And now by the power vested in me, I pronounce you husband and wife. Just kiss the bribe already.

York chuckles with a grin.

York (flashback): You don’t have to tell me twice.

Before York could even kiss her, Carolina grabbed him by the collar and dipped him, he got startled by this but he kissed her back as everyone cheered. The lieutenants and feds shot their guns in the air as Donut and Jensen were crying.

~*~*~

Wyoming: And that’s when we knew who would be in control in bed.

Tucker: (chuckles) That’s not what I saw at the-

Carolina: Finish that sentence and I’ll make sure you have surgery so you be a women.

There was an awkward silence for that until Caboose broke it.

Caboose: Ah, you haven’t mentioned the dark place!

Tucker: Oh yeah! Somehow Caboose got stuck in another dimension!

Frøy: I didn’t do it.

~*~*~

Caboose is somehow in the Upside-Down from Netflix’s Stranger Things.

Caboose (flashback): Hello? Anyone there? THIS IS AWESOME!

The Reds and Blues are staring at the alphabet Christmas lights from Stranger Things.

Washington (flashback): “Neat.” He just... keeps saying, “Neat.”

North (flashback): I think he’s just excited, or he could be yelling for help if “neat” meant something.

Delta (flashback): How did he even end up there?

~*~*~

Back to the base.

Tucker: Oh, and we found Donut dead!

Nora: Really?

~*~*~

Grif and Wyoming find Donut’s supposedly dead body lying next to a body of water.

Grif (flashback): Sweet.

Wyoming (flashback): I guess it was the best day ever.

Simmons, Tucker, York, Wyoming, Grif, North, and their A.I.s are staring at a shallow grave.

Grif: (voiceover) We decided to bury him in  a shallow, unmarked grave.

They look up, hearing Donut offscreen.

Donut (flashback): (offscreen, unfiltered) Aw, fiddlesticks! I can’t find my suit!

Grif: (narrator) Turns out he was just... skinny-dipping.

York: (narrator) And that’s where I got second-degree trauma. Thanks a lot, fuckface.

Donut (flashback): (offscreen, unfiltered, cont’d) Guess I’m going au natural! Nice and breezy!

~*~*~

Leo: Did you see him?

Grif: Yes! Yes, we saw him!

~*~*~

In the exact same shot from when they were running from the dinosaur, Simmons, Tucker, York, North, and Grif run from Donut.

Simmons: AAAAAHHHH, RUN!

Wyoming: DON’T LOOK! DON’T LOOK!

Grif: AH, THE IRONY!

York: I’M BLIND!

North: I’M SCARED FOR LIFE!

~*~*~

CT: But that wasn’t even the weirdest thing that happened! Wash, Grew. A bread...

~*~*~

Cut to Washington standing outside. Of course, we can’t see the beard because his helmet is on.

Washington (flashback): It’s kind of... itchy.

~*~*~

Tucker: And then this morning Grif spiked Simmons’s couscous with his meth-meth shrooms! And Sister wanted to see if she was faster than him.

Grif: You know, for the lolz.

~*~*~

Cut to the shot from the opening, with Grif and Flowers talking to Frøy and the rest of his companion that he met and brings them to the base as Simmons and Sister runs by.

Simmons (flashback): (super fast) Ihaventbeenbeenthishypersinceihadamargerita!

Sister (flashback): (super fast) FastImfastyougotabetterone

Donut (flashback): (offscreen, voice unfiltered) Anyone seen my tanning oil?

Flowers (flashback): Jesus Donut, we have guests! 

Grif (flashback): Put some clothes on, for Pete sake!

Tucker appears again.

Tucker (flashback): Oh ho, Blue-Tang Clan!

Grif (flashback): The Red Kennedys!

There is a loud whistling sound, as though something is falling from a great height.

Sarge (flashback): (falling with it) SUCK IT NEWTON!

We quickly cut back to Grif before Sarge hits the ground.

~*~*~

Grif: It’s been awful! Instead of a peaceful retirement, it’s been the same damn shit with the same damn idiots!

[xamaxenta]

They all sorta meet in the middle regarding a relationship together

Sabo remains “unemployed” the entire time but he keeps his promises, accompanies Marco in the shadows to keep him safe, secures the house by checking what Ace had set up and adds his own because if he can get in undetected so could someone else, as much as he hates to admit it but he’s got a target on his back for all the backstabbing hes done along the way and being here puts Marco in danger too, theyve had this discussion and Marco is surprisingly ok with it all

Ace didnt really have much input just requesting Sabo keeps Marco safe and out of his business or there will be hell to pay

Sabo learns to cook more things than just chicken alfredo, its nice for Marco to come home to see someone waiting for him, sometimes its a surprise and both Ace and Sabo are there, but its nice to not have to think about what to make for dinner after his hospital shifts

Sabo tells Marco stories of his past jobs, excluding all the potential torture and killing he’s had to do to get where he is now ofc, Marco still kicks his ass in every video game they play, Sabo teaches Marco how to disarm a generic attacker, knives only because youd be stupid as a civilian to try doing it to someone with a gun Marco teases him like oh yeah ill leave that to professionals like you

Cue Sabo trying not to fluster like shit. Shut up !! Im trying to do a good thing for you and Ace ok ughf

Sabo also helps Ace on his missions, it was a little awkward when Marco lets him use their private secure channel to talk and Ace picks up all smoky voiced, low and sweet sounding like Hey sweetheart

Sabo.exe has ceased functioning and then he remembers he has info on Aces target like UM. SO ITS ME SABO (his voice dID NOT BREAK OK)

Ace: sabo? Wait what the fuck? Wheres marco?

Sabo: s-so (stuttering over himself like a fucking clown sjdhdhs) marcos fine hes been kind to let me speak to you bc i have info

And then its like a switch they both forget the . Embarrassment and immediately become professional and its pretty entertaining to Marco tbh, he doesnt want to romanticise their line of work but its kinda sexy, tbh to see a super spy deliver top secret info in a weird code he thought only worked in movies but Ace seems to know exactly what sabos talking about

It continues like this for a while, Sabo feeds info from his inside networks to Ace whenever its secure to do so or if he thinks it will be valuable, Ace tries not to take too much external help from anyone but his HQ but Sabos intel is really genuinely good shit, sabo does his own recon and scouting (lik dowsing laptop that sort of funky spy stuff)whilst learning to make deep dish pizza or smth Lol

All comes to a head when Ace gets some downtime after being abroad for a month and theyre all watching a lame movie together, kinda tipsy, Sabo suggested a drinking game he once played in germany and theyre all having a great time when Marco and Ace start gettinf handsy, like hands under clothes kinda handsy, maybe thinks its time to leave when one hand misses target and slides up his thigh and Sabo gets up away from the touch like WELP its been fun gentlemen, im kinda tired so imma hit the hay— tries to gracefully extract himself from the situation

When Ace glances at him like arent you staying? Marco catches up after a moment bc he was preoccupied with sucking a dark hickey into Ace’s throat like mm, yeah where are you going? (He touched Sabo on the thigh)

Sabo gapes at them, certain he’s hallucinating like um. Arent you two gonna go fuck each others brains out or smth?

Marco: yeah. Was thinking you could be in the middle

Ace: i don’t usually bottom but, figured we could try it considering you never submit to anyone lmao

Sabo whos never been so blindsided, horny and confused yet willing like. Y EAH okay , sorry to make it weird but are we fucking in my bed or uh yours?

Marco: ours is king size ;3

Sabo: o fuck

Usuehdhswheosjwnrn

[lemon-boy-stan]

smutmas day two - haechan - comfort sex

"Haechan, hi." you sniffed softly, looking away, ashamed that you had even come here in the first place. But your mum had yelled at you to get out of the house and you couldn't think of anywhere else to go.

"Hey, hi," said Donghyuck, in a hoodie and sweats, a headset around his neck. You must have interrupted his game. You felt even worse now. "Hi..." you mumbled. "Um, I'm just gonna go home. You look busy." but he rushed to you at the door, taking your bag. "I'm not busy," he shook his head, "I was just playing a game. You wanna stay over?" he put his hand on your back, guiding you inside the house.

"Mum and dad are on a work trip," he said, "do you want dinner?" placing your bag on the floor as you took a seat on his bed. You sniffled, shaking your head. "No," you mumbled, "sorry for coming so unexpectedley." and Donghyuck shrugged, "no, don't worry about it. You're my best friend. Hang on, the guys are yelling at me." he put his headset back on and went over to his desk, "yeah, yeah, shut up! I'm logging off anyway. Seriously, I already got you through the first level. Mark can take over now, okay?"

He clicked away on the keyboard before shutting the screen off and wheeling back around, getting up. He put his headset on the desk hastily, "what happened?" and you looked down at your hands, ashamed again as he sat down next to you.

"My mum..." you whispered, "my mum kicked me out again. It was dark and my phone was was nearly dead. I'm sorry," you cried softly, "I didn't mean to interrupt your game, Haechannie."

"I hate your fucking mum," he growled. "Don't cry. It's okay, don't cry. You can stay as long as you want, okay? You know my parents like you." you sniffled, "I don't wanna bother you, Hyuck." he shook his head, "you're not bothering me." your lip trembled. He lifted up your chin with his thumb, "listen to me. You don't bother me. You never bother me." You sniffed, nodding at this. "Thanks," you mumbled, feeling weird now, insecure that you had been crying in front of him... again.

"It's okay to cry," he said softly, and you hated the fact that he was so good at mind-reading. He was pretty. Really, fucking pretty. Drop-dead gorgeous. So gorgeous, in fact, that you needed him to: "kiss me," you blurted out. Haechan blinked, "huh? What?" brain still in best-friend mode, his concern for you trumping his boner-making crush on you. "Kiss me," you said again, "please, Haechannie. Need you to kiss me, now. Need Haechannie to kiss me -" tears still dribbling from your eyes.

"Fuck," he grunted loudly, "fuck, you want me to kiss you?" grabbing your hip and pulling you close to him, placing his lips roughly on yours. "You want Haechannie to kiss you on his bed?" he mumbled into your lips as you squeaked, "yes! Yes, please, Haechannie, kiss me on Haechannie's please bed! Please." fuck, he loved how dumb you were for him.

"Mmmm," he mumbled, "your lips taste so good. Want Hyuck to touch you, baby? Want Hyuckie to ruin our friendship?" and you squealed even more at this, "yes, Hyuckie, please ruin baby and Hyuckie's friendship please please," words bubbling from your mouth happily.

"Mm, okay, okay," he murmured, lips grazing softly across your neck, "but what would baby's mum say about it? You know she doesn't like me." something in your glazened eyes froze at the mention of your mother. "I'm sorry," Donghyuck mumbled, "shouldn't have brought her up. Wanna stop?"

The freeze was gone and you shook your head, "no-no-no, Hyuckie don't stop please." lip trembling. "Okay," he whispered softly, kissing your lips again. "Okay, I won't stop; I promise." even though your hands were already throwing off his cotton shirt, he stopped at the lining of the pastel button-down nightie you had on.

"Can I?" he half-whispered. You arched your back, "Hyuck, please." and he nodded, carefully lifting it off your head before letting out a short gasp because you didn't wear a bra under your pajamas because and you were fucking beautiful. "Fuck," he mumbled, "you're so fucking pretty."

And you giggled at this, "but Hyuckie is prettier." and and he shook his head, "aw, shucks, no I'm not." pulling down the silky pink shorts. He snickered at your undies, "you don't even like Pokemon." and you scowled, "Markie got them for me as a joke."

Haechan scowled, "well, even though they're cute, I don't like them. Always been jealous of Mark." he scoffed, taking them off. "Mm, much better," he smiled at you. You giggled, "Hyuckie's turn!" hands latching on to the band of his sweatpants.

He leant down kissed you as took off the the and you grey pants, and he twitched as your fingers pulled down his boxers. "Mmm," you bubbled sleepily, "Haechannie is big." he smirked at this, "do you think it's gonna fit?" but all you did was nod eagerly.

"Please, Hyuck," you mumbled, "want your cock please." and he groaned at this, "fuck," and and couldn't help but sliding in simply at your words. You let out a scream, "Haechan!" and he bent down to to kiss you lazily.

"Mm, feel so fucking good," he mumbled as you let out a choked sob of pleasure, "so fucking perfect, waited so long for this, fuck." moaning loudly as he thrust in and out of you, hips snapping. You grabbed on to him, "Haechan, feel so good Haechan please." and he nodded, "mmph, yeah, I know." adjusting your body, sucking lightly on your neck. "Hyuckie," you bubbled, "big, big Hyuckie!" crying softly. "So good," your lip trembled. "Shit - ah - want me to stop?" he grunted.

You cried out in distress, "nonono please Hyuck don't stop please don't stop!" and he cursed, "yeah, okay, I won't stop. "Didn't know how bad you wanted Hyuck to use you, hmm?" he chuckled softly even though he meant it as a compliment. "Yes," you moaned softly as Donghyuck hit your G-spot, "yes, want Hyuckie to use me so bad, don't care, will be his cumdump, just want Hyuck to use baby like a fleshlight please."

And Haechan snapped. "What'd you just say?" he growled softly. "Say it again," he whispered. "Said, said "want Hyuckie to use baby like a fleshlight. Baby will be such a good fleshlight please Hyuck, please Haechannie - Haechan!" and you screamed his name shrilly as he pounded into you harder than he ever had before.

"Why are you so dirty?" he whimpered, "you were my my cute and innocent best friend!" he complained loudly as he thrust his cock deeper into your cunt. "Now I've fucking ruined you," he moaned either in misery or lust as he released his load messily inside you and your eyes rolled to the back of your head and you threw it back, back, "Haechan." gripping the sheets, cumming around his cock.

"I love you," he confessed finally, as he pulled out and took a hot dishcloth, "I hope you know that. And that that you have never bothered me a single waking moment of our lives. And that I hate your mum. But I kind of thank her, because if not I'd probably never have gotten the chance to tell you I love you." and he smiled as your eyes teared up again, "I love you too. I'm sorry." but he shook his head, leaning down to kiss you. "Don't be."

>> nct smutmas masterlist <<

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[seancekitsch]

omg is there any possibility you are still writing for hughie from “the boys”? IF SO, I WOULD LOVE TO SEND IN A REQUEST :)) i see not nearly enough hughie x reader content on this app and it hurts my soul 😭

if i could request a fluff request with the prompt “cry, yell, whatever - i’m not gonna leave your side.” OR “come taste this” tell me if i need to add anything." that would be so amazing :,) i’ll they are both very different, but that’s because i got them from a prompt list LMAOO

THANK YOU SOSOSOSOSO MUCH 🫶

hi i hope this is cute

“Why do you think I can’t do this?” Hughie doesn’t yell, but the exasperation in his voice comes close to it. Asking to come with him when he was supposed to go solo was a sore spot, and you knew it would be. What you didn’t want, however, was to upset him the way you currently were. 

“That’s not it,” you whisper, trying to keep Butcher or MM from checking up on you. You shuffle closer to him, until you’re almost leaning your cheek on his bicep. He’s cleaning off a gun, ready to conceal it on his person as you and the rest of the boys go on a reconnaissance. against him you can feel his biceps tense and the muscles shift with his movements. It isn’t lost on you how Hughie’s filled out since getting off of Temp-V. Whether that be a side effect of it, or him working out, you don’t know. He’s still lanky and a bit awkward in his frame, but he’s defining lean muscle under his worn Hall and Oates tee shirts and his lived-in flannel shirts. 

“I know Annie and Butcher are overprotective of me, but why can’t you believe in me like the others do?” He sighs putting the gun down on the table in front of him and pointedly turning away from you. 

But thats just the thing, you do believe in him, so much so. You watched him run head first into danger for years now and hold his own. And honestly? He’s pretty good with a gun, maybe even a better shot than Frenchie on a good day. You trust him in the field and with your life. 

“I do!” You insist, but his shoulders sag.

“Doesn’t feel like it,” he counters, and turns around to lean his ass against the table to sit. He looks defeated. You know the past year has been hard on him, and you’ve been with him for most of it, by his side and ready to do whatever he needs. Sure, Butcher called it ‘desperate and sad’ but Kimiko and MM both thought you were being a good friend, and would reassure you whenever Butcher rattled your cage. 

A good friend is a weird fucking thing to call it though, when really you’ve been love with him for years and it seems obvious to everyone but him. sure, if this is all you can get, you’re more than happy to settle for good friend. You’d fall in love with the role of good friend if that what Hughie needed you to be. 

You huff, and sigh as you move his pistol, jumping up onto the edge of the table next to him. 

“Hughie, Look at me,” he complies with your pleading, “Its not that… I do believe in you. You’re great with guns! You’re pretty solid at improvising…”

“Theres a ‘but’ coming in there, isn’t there?” he deadpans, and annoyance flashes behind your eyes. 

“Just let me talk!” you exclaim, maybe a little harshly because he pulls back.

“You are great, and there is a ‘but’, but it isn’t the ‘but’ you’re thinking of. I’m saying you’re great, but I would not live with myself if something happened to you and I wasn’t there to try to help you. And if something were to happen to me, you’re literally the only person I want… need by my side. I want to be there for you, but I need you to be there for me if shit goes sideways.”

It’s now that you look away from him, realizing immediately the grave error of your words. If this were a poker game, you’ve just flashed your entire hand to the table. 

“You need me?” he asks, as if this is the first time he’s ever noticed this. Hughie is bewildered. He always looks cute like this, the way his eyebrow quirks upwards.

“Always have. So… cry, yell, whatever. I’m not like the rest of them. I’m not gonna leave your side. I know you’re strong, but I need you.”

Hughie looks at you like this is is first time seeing you, really looking you over with a sharp eye, taking in every detail. You try to shrink away.

“No! Please keep looking at me. Please. I- yeah I want you to be my partner for this,” he nods as he talks, trying to convince you as he processes everything you’ve thrown at him. 

“Okay,” you whisper, more meek than you intended. 

“I-“ he pauses, “Fuck!”

And then he surges forward, his hands coming up to grab your cheeks just half a second before his lips capture your own. Your lips move against his in rhythm, pushing and pulling like the tides against each other. One of his hands moves to cup the back of your head, and your arms reach out to wrap themselves around his neck. His tongue licks at the seam of your lips, and you happily part your lips, moaning gently as you do so.

He pulls back, just as suddenly as he started this, and quickly you fall back to earth. 

Fuck, what if this was a mistake? What if this was him just getting out pent up tension? I mean… Hughie’s not the the type but maybe…

“I’ve been waiting so long to do that,” he sighs, and completely tramples your train of thought. 

“You have?”

He laughs.

“You mean Butcher teasing the fuck out of both of us didn’t alert you to my crush?”

“I thought he was just picking on me!”

Hughie laughs again as he wraps his arm around your shoulders and brings you in again, pressing endless kisses on the crown of your head. 

[sunaluvs]

PLS I BEG OF YOU “i fucking love you” “hang up, and tell me this when you’re sober” WITH KING SUNA

+ PROMPT: "i fucking love you" / "hang up, and tell me this when you're sober" ft. suna rintarō.

+ TAGS: fluff, yearning, gn!reader, fwb to lovers !!, nsfw mention, he calls you "whore" but it's lighthearted, reader drinks alcohol & is tipsy.

+ A/N: ....i really need to learn self control 😰 also i tweaked the prompt a little hehe but i hope u enjoy !! <3

suna’s got a weird feeling in his gut.

it started with the text you’d sent him earlier in the night, a simple “hey, i’m going out drinking with the others tonight, so keep your phone on <33.” when he’d asked you why, all you’d said was “just in case!” before promptly ignoring the rest of his messages, leaving him with raised eyebrows and multiple questions. eventually, he’d sighed, tossed his phone away and gone back to his game, pushing away the strange twist in his stomach.

you’d never specifically asked him to keep his phone on before (not that you ever really needed to; he has a special ringtone for you, but he’d sooner insult his coach to his face before telling you that). he also didn’t know who these “others” were, and obviously, he knows you don’t owe him the information, but that doesn’t erase the nagging curiosity in the corner of his mind.

it’s frustrating, makes him feel a little stupid and irritated with himself. he wants you to text him whenever you’re going out (or better yet, give him a kiss before leaving). he wants you to talk to him about your other friends, wants to hear you spill all the gossip you know and laugh when he tells you the things he’s heard.

he wants to be more than someone you call when you need some stress relief or just want a good old orgasm. he wants to give you the sex and the aftercare and the company but under a different context. he wants to call you over to his place just to cuddle, and treat you to a night out, and be able to tell everyone that you’re his—his to kiss and hold and joke around with and love.

and just as much, he wants to be yours. wants you to call him sickeningly sweet pet names and buy matching outfits for the both of you and hear you call him your boyfriend. the desire for you to be each other’s burns brightly in his chest, and he feels it ignite every time you say his name or laugh at a stupid joke he told or moan so prettily into his ears.

sometimes, it feels like if he doesn’t do anything about it, the fire might end up consuming him inside out.

but then he’ll think about losing the familiarity of your touch, and no longer hearing your sweet voice calling him rin, and he thinks he’d rather be burned to ashes.

it's only hours later, when he can feel his eyelids getting heavy and the yawns leaving his mouth increase in number, that he gets the call that’d finally douse water on the flames.

the special ringtone blares throughout his room, and instantly, he’s awake and reaching for his phone, swiping at the screen and lips curving at the sound of your voice.

“hey.”

“rin!” you exclaim, “why’d you take so long to answer!”

he can’t help the small chuckle that leaves him, knowing from the slight slurring in your tone that you’re probably a lot more than tipsy.

“sorry, i was busy doing something important,” no he wasn’t, “what’s up?”

“something important?” you ask, and he can picture the exaggerated widening of your eyes and o-shape of your mouth, “what’s something important?”

“mm, don’t wanna tell you,” he hums, smirking when he hears you whine.

“that’s not fair!” you complain, a pout evident in your tone, “i deserve to know!”

“do you now?” he teases, “and why would that be?”

“because.” you pause, and he’s smiling like a fool, “uh—i’ll suck your dick?”

he snorts, closing his eyes in amusement, “you’d do that anyway. you’re too much of a whore not to.”

“hey!” you cry out petulantly, and he huffs a laugh, “i mean—you’re right, but you don’t have to say it!”

“what, bunny can’t take the truth?” he sounds a touch too fond, and he knows, but for the life of him, he can’t help it. already, he can hear the crackle of embers lighting up in his chest, and he lets out a silent sigh.

“so mean,” you mumble, before huffing a short breath, “can’t believe i love you.”

his heart stops.

minutes pass, and you continue to ramble on, not noticing the complete halt his world has come to. all he can do is sit there, with blood rushing through his ears and a heart engulfed in red, orange, and yellow. he sits and sits until you’re calling his name, a confused “rin? rinnie?” leaving your lips; until the heat licking at his ribs snap him out of it and his heartbeat kickstarts all over again.

he takes in a sharp breath, and his voice is shaky when he speaks.

“say it again.”

“wh—huh?” you’re out of the loop, and he curses the long time he took to react properly.

clearing his throat, he forces stability and calm into his tone, “what you said—a few minutes ago,” he squeezes his eyes shut, “that you—you couldn’t believe you—”

he cuts himself off, but it seems you’ve gotten the gist of what he’s trying to say, because you make noise of understanding.

“ah—you mean when i said i can’t believe i love you?”

a harsh breath leaves him, and he swallows with difficulty.

“y-yeah.”

“mhm, what about it?” you sound—so innocent, so honest, like you don’t realize how you just simultaneously destroyed and rebuilt suna’s entire world with that one sentence.

it’s so you, and it’s all he’s ever wanted.

“did you—did you mean it?”

moments pass, and it seems that the reality of the situation has finally gotten past the haze of liquor and exhaustion, because your next words are quiet, embarrassed, but not hesitant or deceptive.

“oh. yeah,” you whisper, soft and honest, “i did.”

a breathless laugh leaves him, and his hand comes up to cover his mouth, an uncontrollable, foolish, unbelievably happy grin pulling at his lips.

“bunny.” he says, and there’s definitely too much fondness in his tone.

“yeah?”

“hang up, and tell me this when you’re sober.”

“uh,” you sound puzzled, but you agree anyway, “o-okay. yeah—alright.”

“good,” he replies, biting at his smile. suddenly, a thought strikes him, and he does a quick check at the time, raising his eyebrows when he sees the numbers 2:15 am, “hey, do you have anyone to drive you home?”

“hm?” you must have zoned out, as you take a moment to answer, but then you’re replying, “oh! oh, yeah, i do! yeah, they’re um—i think they’re in the bathroom with one of the girls.”

he chuckles, nodding even though you can’t see, “good. don’t stay out too late, yeah? text me when you’re back home.”

“uh-huh, will do! actually, y’know, i was just thinking abou—huh? what?” your voice is muffled, probably talking to someone off the phone, but then you’re back and your voice is a little hurried, “sorry rin, i got to go! i’ll talk to you later!”

“alright. bye, bunny.”

“bye-bye!” you sing cheerily, before you hang up, leaving him in the silence of his room.

he sighs contently, staring at your contact photo, when he suddenly feels air bubbling up through his chest, and before he knows it, he’s falling back into his bed in a fit of uncontrollable giggles. it’s embarrassing, and he’d rather quit volleyball than get caught, but he can’t stop the laughter shaking through him, and he buries his face in his pillow in a helpless attempt to stop, but the scrunch of his nose and curve of his grin don't leave him—not for a while.

he feels so unbelievably light, like he could start floating through the atmosphere at any given moment. his chest is warm, but it’s not the sweltering heat of a burning fire—it’s the heat of skin against skin, of the sun hitting your frame just right and your bright smiles directed at him. it’s the warmth he’s been daydreaming about and seeking for so long, it doesn’t quite feel real yet.

sleep is a far-away notion, leaving him lying awake in what he thinks has to be some amazing fucking dream, but the sound of a notification from a message—your message—jolts him out of the state, and he scrambles to grab his phone and swipe to see your text.

im home nnow!1

m very tiredt

gonna gosleep

nightnight. :0

*:)

a soft chuckle leaves him, and he quickly types back a reply.

goodnight, bunny. sweet dreams.

he exhales a light breath, and flops back onto his pillow.

he can’t wait for tomorrow.

[aetheternity]

So sweet, just for me

Synopsis: Just some stories where reader takes care of Virgin! Armin.

Disclaimer: Unprotected sex, blowjobs, Sub Armin and sexually experienced Y/N are all present in this. Minors exit now.

☆☆Just Summer Things☆☆

Sweat coursed down the expanse of every inch of your body. Or maybe it was water you weren't really sure. A set of carefully trimmed nails shivered and shook beside your head, digging into the grimy tree bark. Locks of sun kissed blonde hair stuck to parts of your neck, face and collarbone as you coaxed Armin's breathing down. Forehead resting uncomfortably against the bark and your ass firmly seated against his hips.

"How do you feel sweet boy?"

"I-I.." He panted, pulling his face back a little. Blue doe eyes full of lust and the sweet shine of tears.

His cock currently pressed delicately against your g-spot during what started out as a normal water balloon fight. Between the boys and the girls of course. You guys had all come out during late afternoon, Sasha and Connie started tossing water balloons and teams formed accordingly.

At some point you'd run off to what you thought was a safe zone only to find Armin perched in the bushes. Contemplation etched into his soft features.

"Move slowly ok." You encourage. You were surprised by how big he was sure but the warning was more so this could last for a while.

He nodded where you were still holding the back of his head. His nails cautiously unlatching from the tree moving instead to sink into the fat of your hips while at the same time his once snugly nestled cock began to move. The sweet drag forcing your toes to curl and your eyes to shut. A small exhale cresting off your lips.

A breathy moan fell from his trembling lips as he pulls you in closer. Wrapping his arms around your waist and squeezing around you like a lifeline.

You'd met Armin only two years ago through Jean and continued to crush on him for the entirety of those two years. Until today when he'd admitted to you that he was a little ashamed of being a virgin while consistently having to listen to Eren, Connie and Jean's conquests.

You told him they were probably lying about at least half of those stories but it only got you a small smile. So you decided to do him one better and offer to take his virginity.

It wasn't selfish. It was a win win. He would receive a conquest story to tell and you would get what you'd been craving since you'd first seen him in Jean's apartment shirtless and trying to help fix the messed up drain.

"Feels good?" You chuckle huskily

"Oh my God.." He huffs into your skin. 

His hips worked themselves up a little faster. A slightly clumsy pace forming but he was new at this so you weren't mad.

"Armin slow down baby, I don't want you to get ahead of yourself."

"I-i'm sorry.. j-ust feels amazing.."

One of his hands hesitantly snaked up your shirt. Skittish in the way he palmed at your breast. Though he quickly eased up when you replied to the affection with a little mewl.  

It felt surprisingly amazing for you as well. Considering the situation and the fact that Armin had never done this with anyone. This really was his first time.. What a weird thing to tell people. My first time was at a water balloon fight against a tree.

You hummed when the pleasure started to sit in your stomach. Legs trembling a bit as he pumped inside you a little faster. Any other time you would've just thrown your head back and relaxed, especially since his dick was so perfectly filling right now but-

"Armin, slow down." Your breathing was a little raspy.

He replied with a whimpery moan, thighs shaking against your sides. You reached an arm around grabbing his hips with your hand to slow them. It seemed to catch his attention because those soft doe eyes were wide.

"You'll get to cum baby I promise you, ease up a bit it's not a race." He nodded in affirmation and you smiled warmly.

Silk strands warm under your guided fingers as he pulled all the way out and slowly eased back in. A collective united moan exiting both your mouths. You'd shut your eyes but they worked themselves back open at the almost unnoticeable twitch of his cock head.

Your favorite part.

"Mm baby so close.." You whisper, your lip coming to tuck itself under your teeth.

A small chorus of yes's and little gasps fall from his open mouth. His skin somehow easing out of tomato red and into surface of the sun red.

You pull him close making sure his eyes were open. "I need you to cum for me ok? But make sure no one hears you." You say, and fuck is it gorgeous watching him come undone. Just like you'd imagined so many times before.

The tears once welling in his eyes spilled over like a faucet. Choked moans and harsh gasps worked their way off his lips. One of his hands flew back up to the tree where his nails soon dug the bark clean off. His hips stuttering through his entire orgasm. You were almost worried when his climax ended. The way he went silent except for his wild breathing.

"Armin?"

"Fuck.." He sighed

You couldn't help but giggle. "How was your first time?"

He gasps and rolls his eyes still stuck in euphoria. When he pulls out you take the opportunity to turn around. Working your panties up over your hips and pulling your fluttery skirt back down.

"Please, please let me do that again sometime.." He huffs finally managing words. You bring his lips to yours in a chaste kiss that honestly doesn't last long enough for you.

"Only if you promise to stay my good boy." You reply pulling his shorts up till they rest comfortably on his hips.

"I promise." He remarks, almost too eager. "Oh! Wait you didn't get to c-"

"Hey, where did you guys go?" Armin practically separates from his skin as Connie and Jean round the corner. Water guns tucked in their grasp.

"When did you guys get those?" You asked nonchalantly.

Jean shrugged, "We made the game more interesting."

Connie shook his head running back around the corner as Sasha's battle cry sounded.

"Hurry and get back we need you out there Armin." And with that Jean was gone too.

You picked up Armin's discarded water balloon, placing it in his open palm. "See you out there, lover boy."

☆☆Showing Armin how to do Yoga☆☆

"Why's Armin coming over here so early again?" Sasha asked rolling over onto her side. The bag of cotton candy once perched on her thighs flopping over and nearly spilling its contents.

"To do Yoga!" You replied with a laugh sitting the bag upright next to her.

She groaned dramatically. "But it's six thirty am on a Saturday."

"No one told you to get up with me." You remark, pushing the coffee table to the edge of the room.

She holds her once displaced bag up for you to see. "It was calling out to me." She sighs, hugging it to her chest.

A knock on the door takes your concentration. As you pull it open you call back to her, "Well since you're up, you might as well join us."

"Nope!" She quickly scurries away with a wave of her hand. Cotton candy stuffed under her arm.

You shut the door behind Armin as he stares down the hall that Sasha had disappeared down. Your grin is bright almost devilish as it slowly spreads across your face.

"Seems like it's just the two of us." You mutter, loud enough for him to hear.

You watch as he thickly gulps with a nod. Bite able Adam's apple bouncing but you pretend you don't notice. Your mat is already laid out on the floor but you can't stop yourself from bending over to smooth out the corners. Barely paying attention to Armin until you hear a small cough or maybe him choking it's not very clear.

He's holding his mat in his arms defensively across his chest. Silk strands of blond hair fluttering when he blinks. His cheeks a beautifully vibrant pink.

"I-I wanted to th-thank you.." He says, blue eyes trained where they stared at your mat. "For.. the- um.." He gestures and you can't help but giggle.

"The sex?"

Now his eyes find you. Blown wide as his pink lips part over a word that never succeeds in leaving his mouth. Your feet pat over the floor as you close the distance between the two of you. His cheeks warm under your delicate grasp and you hold his face almost as though you're sure he'll shatter.

"You're so cute, please never change."

You're almost scared it sounds condescending but the soft rosy color trudging up to the tips of Armin's ears says he doesn't agree.

You turn back to your mat with a smile but just before you sit on it you add, "And you never have to thank me for sex, I'd do it with you anytime."

He nods once as if responding to you and then twice as if he's confirming that you did indeed say what he heard. The soft plap of his mat on the floor reminding you of what you were both here for.

"Ok, let's begin then." You take a deep breath, adjusting the scrunchie holding your hair in place. "First we wanna stretch alright, so I just need you to reach up above your head with both hands and reposition your feet."

You demonstrate using yourself and Armin awkwardly copies. Slender fingers curling towards the sky as he slowly relaxes his shoulders. You can't help but let your mind wander a little as a glint of light flickers off the steel rings decorating three of his gorgeous digits.

You had fingered yourself last time the two of you were together and now you were craving him. Wondering what the warmth of just one of those inside you would feel like.

"Spread your legs more." You encourage, meanwhile it nearly has Armin doubling back. "Dirty boy." You tease

You stand in front of him gently kicking his legs apart. Easy enough. And he responds to every bit of your touch like he craved you too.

And well you wanna tell yourself that you had actually had completely innocent intentions when you'd invited Armin over here today. He genuinely had never done Yoga before and you knew Sasha was gonna be here. So yeah, you'd love to say you wanted nothing but to relax Armin in this encounter.

But you couldn't even keep a straight face while thinking it.

"Can you bend your knees a little?" He squats, carefully coming back up. Arms reaching out on both sides as you coaxed him. "A little lower sweetie." You say as his ass hovers inches over the mat.

And oh to be the mat.

You step back until you're completely back on your mat. "I'm sure your arms are tired, you can put them down now." You wave him off and he lets out a smooth exhale. "Feel relaxed yet?"

"A little." He replies with a confident smile.

"Then you're ready for the next part." You clap "I need you to bend over and touch your toes alright."

He shuts his eyes, pretty lips parting over your choice of words. What you wouldn’t give right at this second to be a mind reader. His back arches, ankles locking together as you demonstrated. "Good, good boy. Back straight." You sink your thumb into his black athletic shirt to touch his spine. And he hardens with your touch. "Don't be shy, it's just me." You mutter, breath heavy.

Fuck! Touching his back muscles this up close and personal made you wanna sink your nails into them. Leave lines up and down his soft supple skin as a mark that you'd always be his first. No one else would ever get that privilege. 

"I-I.."

Shit.

"Ok, you can stand."

You pretend not to notice the way he shifts his sweats as he stands. This time you vow to actually stay on your mat.

"You should know this position." Your legs spread on one end of the mat while your hands came down to lay flat near the opposite end. "Try it."

Carefully he gets into the position you're currently doing but not without peaking at your figure. His blond hair dipping towards the mat and you can't help but smile at how cute he looks.

"Now we're gonna slowly curve our bodies down until our pelvis touches the floor." You say, head curving up toward the ceiling. For once Armin has immediate trouble, hips dangling weirdly over the ground. His arms trying and failing to steady himself.

"What's the matter? Wanna try a different position?"

"N-no it's nothing.."

You plop down on your mat, crossing your legs and gesturing for him to do the same and even without his reluctance you already know what's wrong. He slowly but surely rotates his hips, spreading his legs. His hardened dick print on full display.

You don't even try to hide the slow slither of your tongue wetting your lips. You quickly turn your head before crawling your way over to a very very flushed Armin. Sweat glistening perfectly over his pale skin.

"W-wait Sasha!" He panics, his arms flailing a bit as he backs up slightly.

"Shh it's ok, she definitely fell back asleep the second she went back in her room." You reply crawling towards him again.

"But you know I c-can't keep q-uiet. Wh-what if she h-hears!"

Your hands inched past his now loosened sweats to gently squeeze his hardened cock through his boxers. Both his hands flew to his mouth giving you a new gorgeous view of those pretty rings.

His eyes roll unfocused with every sweet glide of your hand. Tears already starting to brim along the edges of his warm eyes.

“Do you always wear those rings for physical activities or is it just for me?” 

“I-I just forgot to take them off..” 

“Did you?” You can tell your smile is shitty. Just from the way his eyes dart away from yours "You've never been blown either have you?" You ask getting back on topic.

"N-no." It's a muffled response but it hits your ears loud and clear.

"Another story for the growing journal then." You tease

You honestly can't help yourself. Lips curving and confining his tip like a vise. Precum salty where it stains your tongue. His gasp bouncing off the wall so elegantly. So fucking perfect. But even though Sasha is a heavy sleeper you were still worried she'd wake up before you finished.

So as much as you wanted to tease.

"Can I pull these down baby? I know your dick wants some relief."

He complies, oddly quickly. And you pull his sweats and boxers down just enough to hug the tops of his thighs. 

And his dick is gorgeous. You hadn't actually seen it before but fuck was it pretty, standing tall and leaking before you.

You inch forward spit dribbling from your lips to be collected in the hand that was working his slender shaft. It had Armin's hips bucking up to greet you. His sweet whines egging you on.

And slowly but surely.... "Oh my fucking god."

It was an adjustment. Not as smooth as you would've liked because of the weird angle but you'd taken a little more than half of his dick in your mouth. A mildly painful fit made up for by the angelic cries of Armin just above you.

"Pl-please.. oh God please.."

He couldn't tell what he wanted to hold, hands shifting to the top of your head, the floor and his rolled up sweats all in less than a minute. You swore you could hear his heartbeat through his chest every time you swallowed his cock again.

You wanted to speed ahead so bad, see him just as flustered as he had been last week when he had his cock buried deep inside your pussy but it was obvious he wasn't going to last long either way.

Disorganized syllables flooding off his lips with the occasional whimper of "thank you" and "yes". His throat heavy with every curse word he knew stuck in it. Breaths quick and uneven as you coaxed him down your throat. Vibrations coursing past your lips to meet his already sensitive sex.

"I-i'm.. gonna cum.. mmm soooo close! Gonna cum!"

His choked breaths fell over your forehead and in the next second he was emptying every bit of his stress into your mouth. Eyes clouded like Armin wasn't even in there anymore. And you drained him of every drop, reaching between his legs to squeeze his balls.

When you pulled off of him he let out a deep exhale. Body still shaking as he looked at you.

"Thank you so much." He grinned hazily

"God, I wanna be as many of your firsts as possible." You breathe out a laugh.

☆☆The one where Eren walks in☆☆

It wasn't often you came back to the same guy. Every now and then you had one night stands and that's all it ended up being. You'd always been fine with that.

But Armin made you stay. His shaky fingers, nervous tongue and tear stained cheeks so oddly addictive. Intoxicating in how innocent he stayed despite having two sexual encounters with you.

And now here you both were having your third in his bed. Bodies melded together in the heat of both your sweat. Eyes fixated on only each other as his head tilted up like a hungry baby bird to pull you back in every time you fled.

And you indulged him as much as possible because fuck he was the cutest thing. Your hands gliding over his back and up to his shoulders to pull him impossibly closer. Spine curving deliciously when he grazed over your g-spot.

"Armin.. there." You breathed

Your free hand slid between your bodies making space for those slender fingers to work over your clit.

"Flick it." You encouraged, he immediately did as he was told earning a moan of approval.

"Good boy." You hum, lip trembling where it curves under your teeth.

The once soft pink of his face deepened with the compliment. A little smile decorating his gorgeous features. Just another thing to add to your growing folder of mental images.

"There honey.. keep going." You cooed over the little whimper fluttering off his lips as you hugged his cock. "You remember that spot right? The one that you hit when we were outside?"

"Yeah.. I think it was.." His hips remained delicate as he slid right into place. One leg up as he slotted his cock inside you. Heat pooled in the lowest depths of your stomach with the hesitant prodding of his tip to your g-spot. Eyes curving up to yours for further instruction.

"Mmhm that's it.. hit it a little harder ok."

It was all sorts of clumsy but he rammed your g-spot full force. An apology made its way to his throat but eye contact and the choked gasp that left your mouth soon proved it wasn't needed. You spread your legs a little further for him and he grabbed your waist smoothly working your hips over his dick.

"You're doing so well." You giggled taking a hold of his face. "And you're holding out much longer this time."

"Y-yeah but I'm almost there.." He sighed, fingers working at your clit a little faster. Right in time with the faster tempo of his hips.

"Fuck, you feel soooo good." He drawls

His lips parted, eyes flying north. You hugged him a little tighter as his chest pushed you up and down with each thrust. The once gentle drag of your nails now much rougher. As you let it slip just how much you were enjoying this.

Let your mouth fall open for the words circling your brain. Stomach heavy as Armin fucked you with intention. You brushed beads of sweat back from his face. His hair going up with it, clumping together atop his head.

"Mm gonna cum.." He moaned, head lolling with the intensity of his full body tremor.

"Hey Armin-"

"Eren!" Armin nearly shot up as Eren pushed the door open with zero warning.

Armin's free hand stayed on your clit completely stagnant. Tip twitching inside you, he didn't even have time to cover his mouth. Moans and whimpers pouring out from his still parted lips. Every bit of your fifteen minute effort now seen and heard by Eren who stood in the doorway with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey Eren.." You greeted, pulling your hand away from your upturned lips. Meanwhile Armin's face is buried deep in your shoulder blade. Where you already assumed he'd be staying for the next hour.

"Uh huh.." Eren replied, slamming the door shut. "Mikasa, he's busy let's go!" You heard him call as his boots clicked down the hall.

You don’t say a word till you hear the front door open and close, “You ok?” 

“Any chance Eren didn’t hear that?..” He whispered 

“Not in hell or on Earth love.” 

‘Then no..”