#and SO. while falling under All of those umbrellas. i still think this show is good.

[zincbot]

hi urge to rewatch bojack horseman. what are you doing here

[redrose10]

Hey, i’m fairly new to this so idk if I‘m doing this correctly but can I make a request for a story? Yoongi is quite shy with affection so how about an angst/fluff oneshot where the reader is very clingy and affectionate but he doesn’t play into it, because he’s shy and shows his love for them in a different way (acts of service, etc.) They’re together and reader feels hurt/grows distant, thinking they’re making him uncomfortable, but it has a fluffy ending. You can do what you want from this, but I just had that in mind for quite some time:)

Thanks for the request. I hope you like it!

Yoongi x Reader

Summary: Yoongi’s cheeks have magical healing powers, but you feel too guilty to use them.

Warnings: Mentions of anxiety, panic attacks

*******************************************************

“Yeah I know they’re driving me crazy any more. They’re always touching me and grabbing me and pulling me in different directions. I think they squeezed my cheeks like twelve times in a span of ten minutes. I know….yeah I know…this was a mistake. I just wish they would back off a little you know. Sometimes I regret ever getting involved with them.”

That conversation you had accidentally overheard your boyfriend having with his brother on the phone haunted you for the last month. Overthinking every little movement became the new normal for you.

Yoongi would come home from work. Normally you would run and jump into his arms peppering kisses all over his cheeks. But as you replayed those moments in your head you realized he rarely ever kissed you back, you would hardly even call it a hug. It was more of a way to hold you there just so you didn’t end up dropping to the floor. So now when he came home you would simply greet him with a smile, maybe a light shoulder squeeze if he seemed in a particularly good mood.

While cooking dinner you always had your arms wrapped around his waist. Sometimes you would talk about your day. Most times you would just sway along to a melody he hummed. Now you were suddenly aware of how he’d flinch every time you snaked your arms around him. He’d stand tense until finally giving in and relaxing under your touch. Now he was standing at the stove tending to a steak so you focused on keeping up with the dishes and setting the table instead of holding him close.

Gone were the days of holding hands. There were no more goodbye kisses. No good morning kisses followed by jokes about your horrible morning breath. No massages, no cuddles, no running your fingers through his hair.

But every morning your coffee was made and your lunch was packed. At night when you got out of the shower your towel had been in the dryer and was neatly folded on the counter and still warm while your pajamas were laid out on the bed. Every Sunday there was a fresh bouquet of flowers on the kitchen table. One day you forgot your umbrella at home and of course it started pouring. The office secretary placed it on your desk saying Yoongi dropped it off in a rush so he couldn’t stay to talk, but he still got it there. When you texted Yoongi asking if there were any painkillers in the cabinet for your headache so you knew if you needed to stop on your way home he said there was a bottle. When you got home there was a cup of tea, the painkillers, and your favorite dinner waiting on the kitchen counter, a receipt for the medicine just purchased today was in the trash. But there was still something that didn’t feel quite right between the two of you.

The worst of it was always at night. For the last three years you had been together you had grown accustomed to falling asleep safe and warm and comfy in his arms. It all started a year into your relationship when one night you had a particularly bad panic attack. The first one he had witnessed. Softly he pulled you close against him whispering comforting words while stroking the top of your head. It was the fastest you had ever been able to recover from an attack. Over time the panic attacks slowly subsided. So that became your favorite way to fall asleep. You never really asked him. You just always managed to squeeze your way into his arms. Of course he never fought it. He wasn’t that type of person. Three weeks ago he mentioned getting the best sleep he had in a long time. That was the first night you had forced yourself not to crawl into his arms. You felt guilty for causing him so many restless nights of sleep before that.

Then tonight as you laid in bed facing the opposite way from him you couldn’t help but start to feel terrible about everything. You had been selfish. You knew from the start that Yoongi was not super affectionate in a physical sense. He didn’t mind a kiss here or there or some hand holding to help you get through a crowd, but you were definitely more into physical affection than he was. The more you thought about it you started to feel awful because you had been forcing it on him all these years. Thinking that since you were in a long term relationship that it was okay even if it wasn’t like him.

But it wasn’t okay and judging by the phone call with his brother he was getting tired of it..tired of you.

So you need to apologize…

But what if it’s too late…

What if he’s completely done with you…

He’s going to break up with you…

It’s all your fault…

He hates you…

You ruined this relationship…

The room felt like it was spinning and your heart was beating too fast. You couldn’t catch your breath and you could feel tears begin to fall. You tried to shake the thoughts, but they kept coming and getting more intense. This was normally the time you would snuggle in closer to Yoongi and he would reluctantly squeeze you tight and remind you of your breathing exercises. But he was fast asleep unaware of the turmoil you were going through. Not wanting to wake him you gently scooted out of the bed and headed for the kitchen. But once there it all became too much. You started crying and shaking, hyperventilating. The simple task of warming up some milk all of a sudden seemed like moving mountains. So instead you sat at the kitchen table trying to control your breathing. You focused on the cars driving by on the street below, counting them as they went as a way of distraction.

You were on only on your seventh car when Yoongi walked into the kitchen. His hair ruffled and tshirt loosely hanging off his shoulder. He flipped the switch on the wall and squinted at the bright lights. Silently he got to work warming up a cup of milk. Once it was the perfect temperature he poured it into your favorite mug. It had a picture of a cat playing the piano. It reminded you of Yoongi. You started to cry harder again.

He sat in the chair next to you without saying anything. He took your hands and placed them on his cheeks encouraging you to squish them like your own personal stress balls. One of the very few and very rare things he did to initiate physical touch between you two. He saved it for moments like this when he knew you were really struggling. You told him once that his cheeks had magical powers or something because they always brightened your day.

But for the first time you didn’t follow through on the action. You couldn’t. You cringed thinking about all the times you had made him uncomfortable by doing things like that.

“Y/N, talk to me. Please.”, he whispered setting your hands down, but not letting go.

“I’m sorry Yoongi. I’m so sorry for being selfish.”, you sniffled.

He chuckled, “I’m gonna need more of an explanation than that.”

Finally you looked up at him and you could see the tenderness in his eyes, but it was also mixed with fear.

“I’m sorry I’m so annoying. I’m sorry I’m always hanging on you and touching you and squishing your cheeks. I can change. Please give me a chance. Please don’t leave me.”, you cried.

“Y/N”, he sighed, “Is this…Is this why you’ve been so distant lately?”

You nodded feeling another round of tears forming.

Yoongi grabbed your hands pulling you onto his lap, something he’d never done before.

“Y/N, I’m not the most affectionate person. I never have been and even though I try I probably never will be. I prefer to show you how much I love you through words or by my actions. But I know that you are very much a touchy kind of person and that is okay. I love that about you. If I didn’t I wouldn’t have spent the last three years madly in love with you. I look forward to coming home and you running into my arms. Sometimes I’m not sure who is more excited to see me, you or Holly.”, he chuckled, “I love when we cook together and my favorite time is at night when you’re wrapped in my arms and I know that that you’re warm and comfy and safe. I don’t want any of that to change. I don’t want you to change Y/N. I love you just how you are and the last month has been killing me, but I knew you’d either work it out on your own or come to me when you were ready. I didn’t want to rush you.

It was too much to hold off any more and you wrapped your arms around his neck instantly melting into him.

“I’m so sorry Yoongi. I overheard you telling your brother how you were tired of me and you regretted getting together with me and I panicked, but I should’ve talked to you first instead of getting in my head.”

“What? Conversation with my brother? I never said anything about ooohhhhh.”, he said before his eyes widen at the realization. He helped you up and started dragging you to the bedroom, “Don’t worry about that. It will all make sense soon.”

Two weeks later it was your anniversary. You had just walked into the living room expecting to find Yoongi in the kitchen or maybe his studio after not hearing from him for the last few hours, but instead he was in the middle of the room surrounded by roses while down on one knee and with a slightly shaky hand he was holding open a small black velvet box. “Y/N, I love you more than I ever thought possible. I didn’t know love like this could even really exist. I want this forever and ever and ever. I want all the kisses and hugs and affection from you. Will you marry me?”, he asked. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”, you exclaimed bouncing up and down before pulling him up off of the floor and into a kiss. He slipped the ring on your finger watching you admire the sparkle.

“Do you like it?”, he asked and you nodded, “Of course! It’s gorgeous.”

“Good because uh this was what I was talking to my brother about that day.” You looked up at him confused. He continued, “A few months ago I asked my mom for help picking out a ring. She got really excited and wanted to make sure you got the perfect one you deserved so she took me to every single jewelry store she could find and was constantly grabbing me and pulling me to look at different rings. Then she got my Aunt involved and then they got your mom to come along and then your Aunt was there and then they asked your best friend. Next thing I knew I had a whole group of people grabbing me and dragging me all over the stores. One saying look at this one. Then another one saying no get this one. My mom kept squishing my cheeks asking if I was planning to look like a boiled dumpling on my wedding day. It was a lot.”, he sighed, “So that day on the phone I was complaining to my brother about it. He gave me the number to his jeweler and I just bought the ring that way. I couldn’t go to one more store with them. I know they meant well, but I was going to loose it if my cheeks got squished one more time in the middle of a mall somewhere.”

The relief you felt was immense.

“Yeah, but your dumpling cheeks are just so cute though.”, you giggled already happily squishing them together. He feigned annoyance, but when you tried to pull away he quickly grabbed your hands placing them back on his cheeks so you could continue.

“This is the life you’ve chosen.”, you laughed pointing at the ring on your finger.

His smile grew, “Yep, these cheeks are yours forever and ever babe.”

[alchely]

My Top Gallavich fics

So, under the advice of the lovely @iangallagherisadeadman I've decided to compile a favorites Gallavich fic list along with a brief rec of each, this won't be a strict top 10 cause I'm not gonna torture myself into excluding some of these stories on some made-up self imposed arbitrary rules.

A bunch of disclaimers: most of these fics are long fics, going from 30k words up, I'm not purposefully excluding shorter fics, I have read plenty of them, but they do have a harder time sticking in my head months after reading.

Most of these fics will be explicit, just read the tags on the fic itself if you want to find out more.

Some of these fics don't have links because the authors chose to lock them and as such make them unlinkable, in order to read them you will need to go through the author's page while you're logged in your AO3 account.

This ended up ballooning out of control and is A LOT longer than ten fics, I apologize in advance :p.

YOU'LL NEVER SEE US AGAIN – spoonfulstar - 231k words

Mickey and Ian have been students at Marceline boarding school their whole lives, as their time at the institute draws toward the end they will start to discover many things, about themselves, about each other and about the world they live in.

THIS FIC! I CRIED! The number of fanfiction that are able to make me cry can be counted on a singular hand, the emotional stakes get higher and higher as the story goes on, leading to a beautiful and bittersweet climax.

This story will make you think and feel deeply about topics you'd never think a shameless fic would delve into.

I am obsessed with Mickey in this fic, he and Ian grow up in an environment that could not be more removed from South Side Chicago and yet his personality is still so recognizably and distinctly Mickey.

The story goes very dark at times, and the fic itself could be considered lengthy, but I assure you the author has made sure to not make you feel it. Those 200k words flowed so well the story did not feel long at all.

HELP ME (TEAR DOWN MY REASON) – wehangout - 34k words

Mickey is a detective and Ian becomes a suspect in an investigation except Mickey already knows him because he's his favorite dancer.

This fic falls under the umbrella of fics where “Mickey is so in love with Ian he does something unbelievably crazy”.

Oooh boy, this fic, it's written in second person (yes you've read that right), tbh out of all fics I've read from this author I think this one was the easiest to adjust mentally to the change in perspective.

I loved Mickey’s “love” in this, just… This raw connection to Ian, the perfect cocktail of feelings, I could read that all day long.

IN ANOTHER WORLD – Roryonic - 249k words

Mickey does not get sent to prison at the end of S5, what happens after and how his presence influences future events (mostly Ian, but also every other Gallagher as well as his own family).

As far as I'm concerned this fic is the closest to a perfect S6 and beyond fix-it. The dialogue writing in this story is so close to canon Shameless that I could picture entire scenes in my head with the actors playing the characters, with their body and personality quirks.

Sometimes I find myself describing this fic like it's the actual show's deleted scenes, “Look, Mickey has his own storyline! And Mandy is here! And the existence of Yevgeni does not become a plot hole!”

There are some Mickey lines in this fic that to me are as canon as if they'd been in the show. Absolutely iconic writing.

I love this author so here's a rec of some of their other longfics, however I highly suggest a lot of their other much shorter stuff as well:

BATTLESHIPS AND LOVE BOATS: Ian and Mickey start their “no strings attached” kind of sex relationship a little later than canon but their attraction and love is just as strong. This is a sort of High School AU that turns into a Prison AU that turns into something else and every shift is just as lovely as the next.

YOU SMELL LIKE LOVE: Ian and Mickey are childhood friends, to the point that the rest of the Gallaghers might as well consider Mickey a seventh brother, mmmh, I sure wonder how things will start to change. Look, I never thought I'd love a childhood friends AU for Gallavich yet here I am, if it's good it's good.

ME AND THE DEVIL: Mickey unconsciously calls for a vengeance demon and Ian Gallagher shows up at his door, because Mickey is a stubborn dumbass they fall in love instead. This story has a lot of twists and turns and the premise is only the very beginning of the story. I LOVED it!

THE INCREASINGLY POOR DECISIONS OF IAN GALLAGHER – Shamelessquestions - 309k words

Ian is a dancer in a club, he accidentally gets involved in the affair of a dangerous mafia don, but the true danger is the attraction he and the mafioso’s right hand Mickey feel for each other as soon as they meet.

What. A. Classic. Truly, an unforgettable story, and I don't mean this in hyperbole, I read this story around… 2016/2017 during my second round in the Shameless fandom, then I read countless other fics in a lot of other fandom and yet this story was the only one that my mind retained from back then, to the point that I could still remember some of the finer details as well as the final plot twists when I came back to reread it.

The plot is constructed beautifully and the original characters (part of the Shamelessquestions fanfiction universe, as they come back time and time again in every one of their AU to fulfill their role in the story) are just as vibrant.

What a story, truly.

Favorite original character in this AU: Sal, his downfall is so satisfying and yet so pitiful to read.

TEENAGERS SCARE THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF ME – Mellow_Yellow - 221k words

Ian finds something scary and calls Mickey for help, even though they had only reconnected that very day after two years of not seeing each other. Together, they get sucked into a situation they weren't at all prepared for. Can they even admit that they're in over their head?

The very beginning of this fic is SO cinematic it grabbed my interest from the very first scene and didn't let go until the end, DO NOT search for spoilers.

The only warning I'll give is that it does deal with a bit of gore and what I'm personally gonna define as slight psychological horror. That's it. Enjoy!

BROKE STRAIGHT BOYS – dancermk - 66k words

Mickey becomes a porn actor for a site where he has to pretend he's straight and not enjoying the copious amount of gay sex he's having on camera, enter Ian, another actor under the same agency and their off the chart physical chemistry.

This story has, needless to say, some really, really good smut. I especially loved their first time together, but every sex scene in this story is seared in my mind.

ETHERIZED AGAINST THE SKY – Snarfle - 213k words

So, I debated whether I should add this fic or not, but I think if there is one fic that will stay in my mind long after this Shameless binge of the past couple of months it's this one, and it should absolutely become one of those fic that everyone in the fandom should read.

After Mickey gets shot by Kash his life takes a completely different direction and he ends up in a group home where, through many difficult times, he turns his life around.

So many iconic moments in this fic, some funny as fuck, some sad, some so absurd that I'm surprised they weren't lifted straight from Shameless, one so gruesome in the very first chapter that I was surprised to have such a visceral feeling from just words on a screen. Yeah, this story will stay with me for a long time.

OLD RULES FOR NEW SIDE PIECES – Shamelessquestions - 217k words

Ian is a Fed and he spots Mickey looking suspicious in an art museum, the mutual attraction is overwhelming, Mickey is not what he seems and Ian is already with someone else, but that's not gonna stop him from pursuing what he and Mickey have.

Putting it as bluntly as I can, this fic made me face the realization that I love cheating fics (if the cheating happens to someone else to bring together the endgame couple). I have already reread this fic twice and I could probably go for another one and not get tired of it, it's that good, and out of all this author's fics it's probably my favorite.

Favorite original characters in this AU: It's a three way tie between Dre, Ivan and Carrie, they're all very captivating in this story.

Other fic from this author I'd recommend cause I really love their style:

LOST IN TRANSLATION: Ian meets a very attractive man while he's in Ukraine who doesn't speak English, a mere language barrier won't stop him from flirting for hours. (adorable)

YOU MAKE ME FEEL HUMAN – Dragona - 66k words

Ian is an assassin, he meets Mickey and thus begins a very sick love story.

To say I'm obsessed with this fic is an understatement, I suggest to everyone to just go read the original author’s own description of the fic, it sets the tone of the story magnificently.

This is an Ian Gallagher that almost resembles Jerome (also played by Cameron in Gotham) but like… a slightly more subdued and saner S1/S2 version of him. I love the layers that get peeled right in front of my eyes, the madness that creeps in a bit more every chapter. I LOVE this story.

DRIED INK - 87k words

This fic combines my two favorite Gallavich-specific tropes, one being ‘Mickey comes back from prison after s6, Ian is with someone else’ and ‘Ian cheats on that someone else for Mickey’

I love the Gallaghers in this and how unsurprised they are at Ian going back to Mickey right away. It's a little jewel of a fic.

Mickey tries SO hard to stop himself and Ian in this but their love is too magnetic, they're irresistible to each other.

THE QUESTION OF NORMAL – blue_newman - 92k words

Ian is a prison counselor, Mickey is in prison, they fall in love and it's beautiful and Ian is incredibly devoted to Mickey in this fic and I fell in love with them both in this.

KINDA RAW – catgrassplantdad - 6k

Quite simply this is my favorite short pwp fic.

Illustrating those “five times” in one night that Mickey references in 11x01.

This fic is so hot, I love it <3

QUATERVOIS – DodgerBear - 51k words

Soldier Mickey gets stationed in the middle of nowhere and meets a farmer called Ian who makes him question everything.

Falling under the same umbrella of “Mickey does something crazy for Ian” fics and this is why it stuck in my mind even if it's been a while since I've read it.

I LOVE this story, their dialogues and everything that happens in it. The setting is lovely and you will fall in love with the description of Ian’s farm.

Other fic by the same author that I also loved:

BURDEN OF PROOF: Cop Mickey gets caught in a legal battle between the two oldest Gallagher brothers, something doesn't feel right though…

THE WORDS HE DOESN'T SAY: Mickey is released before Ian in s10 and has to meet a court-mandated therapist. The story is from the therapist POV and goes AU from the beginning of s10 in that Mickey gets involved back into Yev and Svetlana’s life, the dialogue is, quite obviously, the main attraction of the story and it's really well done. (Also, written in first person).

THE MENAGERIE – CrossMyDNA - 147k words

Ian decides to re-explore his bdsm preferences at The Menagerie where he meets sub extraordinaire Mickey on his very first visit.

Shameless is undoubtedly the fandom that opened my eyes to what bdsm could be back in… approx 2016? When that other popular bdsm fic was still around *ahem*.

So it definitely feels like a sign that coming back into the fandom this fic now exists and is SO GOOD.

Obviously it's very explicit, the smut in this fic is one of the best I've ever read.

The chemistry between Ian and Mickey sizzles off the screen and can absolutely be felt even in moments not of the nsfw variety, absolutely recommended!

MICKEY MILKOVICH’S GUIDE TO FLIRTING – whatwouldmickeydo - 40k words

An s2 “missing moments” between Gallavich, completely canon compliant, all under the pretense that Mickey is following a step by step guide to flirting.

I wish this fic was describing canon moments, not kidding a single bit, I wish I could somehow magically manifest these scenes into existence they're that good and fit that well into canon.

M8TE – gallawitch - 53k words

Omegaverse fic where Ian and Mickey both start using an app and end up matching with each other, even though a connection is made almost instinctively, coming to terms with it with a sound mind will take a bit longer…

Hey,had to have at least one of these on here lol

I love omegaverse and this was everything I wanted from it, couldn't have asked for anything better really <3.

SHACKLED – MyRelapse - 19k words

Ian has a change of heart and he decides that Mickey IS the one he wants, even if he's still in prison, so he keeps in contact and goes through every hoop imaginable to have him back as soon as possible.

Reading this made me so happy like I could burst, love it.

WAITING ON MY OWN TOO LONG – Ride4812 - 266k words

This rec more than any other on this list is what I'm gonna consider self indulgent because it covers the trope I always craved to read in such a satisfying way: Canon AU where Mickey comes back from prison after 8 years, Ian has found someone else but the moment the two meet again they fall back into each other right away.

The series is made up of 4 smaller fics:

One more night

Something more this time

No more lonely nights

Ain't this life so sweet

(I will point out here and nowhere else that the last installment of this series has some segment that probably needed to be re-read a couple more times, but by that point I was too invested, and the quality fluctuates a lot only in certain parts)

The writing style is very direct and to the point, which I love, the smut is very present and written beautifully and most importantly never boring.

Ian is a MESS in this fic and had me Stressed™, mostly cause for some reason I can't handle too much casual depiction of drug abuse and addiction (I know, ironic considering the fandom).

Conflicts and resolutions are never clean cut, they don't necessarily resolve quickly or definitely or the way you probably imagine they should and I find this level of realism very satisfying.

Taking a bit of space here at the end to also rec a couple other Ride4812 fics that I also loved:

COUP DE FOUDRE - A model/photographer AU where Ian and Mickey fall in love the instant they meet and do some crazy things because of that.

HOPE HE MIGHT - A lawyer AU where Ian and Mickey are on opposing sides for the same client, an interesting murder mystery steeped in a religious cult.

Generally I feel like this author is really good at depicting just how unapproachable Mickey can be to anyone that isn't called Ian Gallagher and I eat it up every time.

WHAT THE NIGHT DOES TO THE DAY – andchaos - 9k words

A Gallavich childhood friends AU with a quite original arrangement for the story and the various segments of their lives. Very satisfying read.

RANSOM – BeckyHarvey29 - 112k words

Terry sends his sons to kidnap a Gallagher child to force Frank into paying back the money he owes, unfortunately for him Mickey and his brothers kidnap Ian, and a whole other kind of story unfolds.

Mickey and Ian falling in love in this fic is such a good read. I don't wanna spoil anything of how that or the kidnapping plot goes, since the two are so intertwined. Just know that it will be worth it.

UNDER LOCK AND KEY – Suzy_Queue - 106k words

Ian is assigned the night shift at his new job where he provides spare keys to his fellow college students stuck outside their dorm rooms. To make matters worse his shift coworker is the oh so infamous Mickey Milkovich.

I am magnetized by the way this author writes their pining for each other, their attraction and obsession, how it blooms and unfolds. This fic in particular had me develop a very bad case of tunnel vision, couldn't really turn away until I finished reading it all.

I still haven't read everything this author has to offer, but so far I also loved:

INHUMAN: A mysterious force starts attacking people close to Mickey and it all seems to lead to a mysterious redhead Mickey is oh so coincidentally obsessed with. Very cool paranormal story.

THESE FOOLISH GAMES: Mickey takes over as the boss of the local branch of a trampoline park, where Ian is one of the employees, they annoy each other to no end but what they don't know is that they're secretly texting each other.

IS THERE SOMEWHERE – andchaos - 48k words

Mickey is born with no words on his skin, convinced he's going to live a life of misery cause no one will ever say the words he's destined to hear, he's not a very happy guy. Here comes mute boy Ian who crashes into his life and won't let go.

A classic Soulmate AU, I love that like in a lot of other Gallavich fics their physical connection and compatibility usually comes before their emotional one, it is one aspect that I feel distinguishes their relationship to many other fandom’s ships.

LAST NIGHT AT THE VERONA GRAND HOTEL – the_rat_wins - 27k words

Mickey starts working at an ancient hotel who's supposedly haunted. Mickey doesn't believe in ghost stories, he is much more interested in this one guest he meets at night during his shift.

What a cinematic experience this fic is! Absolutely recommended, the length of it makes it so you can read it in the same time it would take to watch the same story in movie format.

Other fics by the same authors that have impressed me:

FADE THIS ONE TO BLACK: Ian dies of overdose in a pile of snow outside the club, when Mickey finds him there he vows to do anything to get him back.

I don't know why but this fic in particular gives off the vibes of being a pilot for a ya urban fantasy TV series, except we gotta imagine everything that comes after the first episode lol

NO LIE: Ian and Mickey are Soulmates and as such they can't lie to each other. This series is short and sweet and full of feelings, perfect

PARAGRAPHS – pink_ink - 100k words

Ian becomes a reading tutor for ex-convicts, Mickey is among them and Ian starts paying him more and more attention.

This is a story where they meet under very different circumstances and where they've lived slightly different lives compared to canon and yet they're still able to find each other in the end.

Also, sign me up for every fic where Ian has to work just as hard to help Mickey and care for him as the opposite, where Ian's brand of stubbornness is the only way to get through to Mickey.

I'm also adding a couple of ongoing fics, just two to not overwhelm too much.

NONE THE WISER – Loftec - ~218k words

Ian starts visiting Mickey’s diner, it takes a while and yet no time at all to warm up to each other.

I'm captivated by the author's writing style. I love Ian's and Mickey’s relationship. I love how they sort of take their time and yet pine helplessly for each other.

I'm obsessed with the fact that the whole point of the fic doesn't appear until two thirds of the way in cause the diner scenes were just too good to pass up on lol (and I 100% agree with them).

INTRO TO QUANTUM DATING – spoonfulstar - ~563k words

Canon Mickey and Ian meet in University. A college slice of life but drenched in the casual (and not so casual) darkness of canon shameless.

The dark humor in this is fenomenal and left me gasping laughing so many times.

Unexpectedly Ian in this fic is pursuing a linguistics oriented degree, which was what I studied when I tried university, the topics are explained in such an accurate way I have to assume the author studied them themselves and that this story is somewhat a reimagining of their own college experience because if not this would be an absurd amount of accurate research to make.

Reading this fic feels like living through the American college experience from the comfort of my home lol.

As I said before, this author's way of writing does not weight you down even with its length, the story flows perfectly from one scene to the next and before you realize it you've reached the end and you have to accept that 500k words weren't even enough.

Let's end this list with some quick recommendations

WHILE WE'RE MAKING OTHER (PEOPLE'S) PLANS - kyasticlikestea

Mickey is volunteered to organize someone's else's wedding after he managed to salvage his own so well, he'll do it, but his own Southside way.

THIS IS THE ROAD TO RUIN - bricoleur10

Ian and Mickey never go to rob Ned, the story unfolds differently from there. A fix-it with a lot of Gallavich longing , very good smut and some really good dialogue.

HEY, HONEY MINE (I WAS THERE ALL THE TIME) - serveteas

Mickey talks about his crush with Iggy and accidentally pronoun-slips. Short, to the point, funny af and I just really love it. Takes place after their fight at Kash’n Grab in s2.

AGAINST GLASS - AllThatMatters

Ian gets traded from one club to another as a dancer (and more) and ends up in the Milkovich family's club. This is a Mafia!Mickey story with some pretty tight sub-plots, I love his brothers in this.

ONE OF A KIND - fckyeahgallavich

Mickey breaks his finger and it has to be set in the hospital, chaos - of the homophobic kind - ensues. Protective!Ian, I wanna hug Mickey in this.

IAN THE FRIENDLY GHOST - Ravenheart

Ian is haunting an apartment and Mickey starts living in it, Ian is maybe starting to have a crush on him. This isn't angsty!

BLOOD IN, BLEED OUT - brewrosemilk, Whatsastory

Historical AU. Perfectly innocent bystander Ian Gallagher is thrown into the affairs of the Ukrainian Mafia back in 1954, his relationship with Mickey will span decades and he won't remain innocent for long, the mafia can corrupt anyone.

TEENAGE RUNAWAY - sadwhales

Ian comes to live and finish high school with his half siblings on the South Side, he's immediately captivated by a boy sitting under the bleachers, maybe his North Side naivety will catch his attention too.

GARDEN SONG - melwrtiesthings

A glimpse into their lives in their West Side apartment, a lot of initial angst due to a manic episode and then a lot of recovery and healing and learning more about themselves.

[hemmingsleclerc]

Rainy Days ┃OP81

It was a typical rainy day in London, with dark clouds hanging in the sky and the streets glistening from the constant drizzle. Oscar found himself stuck in the rain with his girlfriend Y/N while they were walking around the city enjoying the few days off he had due to racing.

Oscar, normally the calmer of the two, ventured to be the extrovert in the relationship for once. He looked at Y/N with a mischievous glint in his eyes and said, "I have an idea to make this rain more interesting."

Y/N raised an eyebrow, her wet hair sticking to her face. "¿Will you dance like that video of Tom Holland singing umbrella?" she asked, eyes shining with excitement.

Oscar chuckled, remembering the iconic video his girlfriend had shown him a couple of times. "It wasn't exactly what I was going to say but it's close somehow"

''So what were you going to suggest?''

Oscar smiled big at him like a little boy: "I was actually thinking we could spend a little time together in the rain."

Y/N laughed: "Do you want us to dance in the rain? Are we going to recreate those scenes from romance movies?" she asked excitedly.

Oscar feigned innocence: "Come on, it'll be fun."

"Okay, Piastri, but you better have some amazing dance moves hidden under that racing suit of yours."

They found a relatively empty square, raindrops hitting their umbrellas as they prepared for their improvise dance. Oscar laughed out loud every time Y/N slipped in the puddles of water, but he always had a firm hand on her waist, preventing her from falling. Y/N, on the other hand, made Oscar spin around while she laughed at how cute he looked with his hair all wet.

Some fans who were stuck in the rain were surprised to see the unexpected performance, some taking photos and videos to capture the moment. Oscar and Y/N, oblivious to the growing crowd, spun, laughed and dove, hugging the rain-soaked dance floor.

Oscar tried to make a daring turn, but his racing instincts took over and he slipped. In a comical turn of events, he found himself unintentionally sliding on the wet pavement.

Y/N laughed and helped him up as the spectators applauded his entertaining show. Despite his slip, Oscar showed a charming smile and bowed, thanking the applause and hugging his girlfriend's waist and giving her a kiss.

As they continued their walk in the rain, no longer caring how wet they were, Oscar turned to Y/N with a mischievous smile: "Well, that was one way to make a splash in London, don't you think?"

Y/N shook her head, still laughing, "You're lucky you're a fantastic runner, honey, because your dancing skills need some work."

''Still, I know you would do it again.''

''As long as it's with you, I would do it a million times''

[5he-wants-revenge5]

My beloved dove.

Hey! So, I really hope this saves, but if your reading this that means everything worked out just fine! My Tumblr has been having some issues as far as saving and uploading my work.

This is just a little something I had been writing about for our beloved Wesker. I didn't really know where I was going with this but I hope you enjoy!

Cw: angst? Mentions of childhood abuse, reader is lowkey showing signs of Stockholm syndrome but is actively battling it in a sense because reader does love Albert but knows he's a monster.

Surely when you had met him all those years ago, you knew very well what kind of man he was... What kind of man he is. Never did you think it would get to this point.

Meeting Albert Wesker had been a blessing and a curse, one that you couldn't ever hope to get rid of. Having been a part of the umbrella corporation, you had seen a thing or two.

Working with Wesker and Birkin had made the horrors slightly easier all those years ago, though in truth it wasn't much in the grand scheme of things.

The raw guilt of what you did, how you played a part in ruining the lives of others, used to eat away at you no matter the fact you've gotten better at handling it; Albert seemed unfazed.

Nothing could bother him, not the slightest bit of gore or dirty work got under his perfectly smooth skin. For a while, it had made you sick with jealousy, yet you were also grateful to have a strong sense with your emotions.

The time when the two of you became something more was honestly a blur. One second it was nothing more than fleeting glances and lingering ones creating a raw sensation that no other could spark in you.

Then, after what felt like years of working slowly at the walls built high around his heart, you had gotten your ticket in.

But at what cost?

Sitting here in your brand new house in some rule part of Africa, you wondered how you did it.

How on earth have you, of all people been so utterly lucky in breaking past barriers that had been sealed for the better part of your lovers whole life? It was mind-blowing.

You didn't even ask where the two of you were going to relocate when everything first happened, simply letting the love of your life whisk you away from everything and everyone you knew.

That didn't even matter right now, you didn't feel anything. Perhaps all these years desensitized you? Perhaps you were now just as cold as your lover was, maybe even something worse.

You were not stupid, not in the slightest. You knew what Albert was doing in his study right now, what he was working on and planning for the future...

How could you feel nothing? Not even a single bit of sadness clung to you. You missed nothing, as long as you had Albert.

"Why so glum, Dear heart?" Spoke the voice that you grew to adore.

Turning your head, you peered over the back of the couch where Albert was standing. A small ghost of a smile gracing your lips, admiring him in all his glory as per usual.

"I'm not glum at all, just simply thinking about things." You answer honestly.

Albert hummed in response, coming to sit beside you on the rather comfy couch.

Slowly removing his dark sunglasses, he rubbed his temples. Working for hours on end in fluorescent lights often gave him headaches, sometimes migraines.

Your eyes peer over at him, finding the sculpted and defined shape of his face as pleasant as always.

It's still hard trying to grasp how you could fall in love with such a seemingly normal man. That was until he showed his true colors

He had told you about his childhood briefly here and there, never saying too much but enough for you to get the picture. He was abused, it wasn't something he liked to hear however.

When you had originally said that out loud, Albert just stared at you. He knew very well that his childhood was not sunshine and rainbows, but he hadn't ever thought of it the way you did.

There was something about you that changed him, mildly. He would always be the same. No amount of love could fix his twisted way of thinking.

You hate him for it, hate how much you have come to love what truly is the real definition of a monster.

You wouldn't say that out loud either, never. He couldn't hear that from you of all people, the only person in the world who is capable of keeping him sane.

You lean over slightly, resting your head against his chest. The leather of his suit is smooth against your skin, a soft and tired sounding sigh leaving your lips.

"I love you, Albert." You say quietly, knowing the weight of your words given all the damage he's done not only to you but to the world.

His heart swells because he believes you. Albert turns just enough to wrap a possessive arm around your back, keeping you close to his side.

He doesn't ever say it back, at best you'll get something along the lines of "I adore you too" or maybe a quiet "You are everything to me."

Albert sighs, nodding in agreement. He knows you love him, and he knows deep down he loves you too. He has no idea what love is supposed to feel like, but if he did, he was certain that this was it.

[r7leee]

wild heart | t.b.

HEY CHAT!!! guess who’s backkk 😎 so uh there’s absolutely ZERO towa content on this app and i know my girlies are hungry so this is what we’re doing now!!! take it or leave it

pairing: towa bird x fem!bsf!reader

summary: you’re falling messily, horribly, sappily, all around in love with your best friend, towa. thinking she doesn’t feel the same, you stay quiet. little do you know, you should have higher expectations…

warnings: friends to lovers, kind of slow burn?, cursing, reader likes/liked men at some point, really just fluff

word count: 2900, should take about 22 minutes to read (whoops)

“you say i got a reckless streak in my snakeskin boots and levi’s jeans”

YOU’D ONLY MET her a few months ago, but if you knew anything about towa bird, it was that she was an absolute ladykiller.

“how do you do it?” you remember asking her over coffee. towa finished her sip, looking at you with a puzzled expression.

“do what? sip my coffee?” you snickered.

“no. have so many girls fawn over you.” a look of realization came on her face. in response, she just shrugged.

“i don’t know.”

“what do you mean?! there’s gotta be something,” you said, shocked. all she did was laugh and shake her head.

“charm? don’t know what you want me to say.”

the moment you met, she had actually just gotten broken up with by her most recent ex. you remember that day so clearly; how you both ran into each other on the sidewalk, the coffee stain on your shirt, how she apologized so fast you thought she’d explode out of fear.

she insisted she give you her number, take you out for lunch sometime soon as an apology. you thought she was cute.

turns out, the real towa was just hiding under her misery. she was funny, jarring, bold.

and you didn’t know why, but every time she showed up at your apartment after a night out, or you two were out in the city and she told you about the amazing girl she’d met the night before, you couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. not even just that; hurt. jealous.

there was no reason to even be as upset as you were; really, they never lasted.

towa would show up at a party, get drunk, find some girl, they’d fuck, then a few different things could happen: towa would forget to ask the girl’s number, the girl would have a boyfriend (ouch), the girl would barely remember the night before, etc.

the most charming part of it all, though? she’d regain her composure so quick, it was almost like nothing happened. you admired it, even celebrated a little when it happened. even if it was bad, you wanted her, and that’s something you couldn’t deny.

“i think you got a wicked smile, and those angel eyes with timeless style”

even if you didn’t know it, those feelings were mutual. heavily.

honestly, towa didn’t even know why she still did this. this constant cycle of fuck, forget, repeat. well she did know why she was doing it, but she hated the reason.

she wanted you. all of you. she had a good sense of detecting crushes, and the second she felt her heart pang looking at you, she knew she was a goner.

the day she knew she liked you, you were at the beach. the both of you went together with some friends. while towa was swimming in the ocean, you had just wanted to tan. you looked gorgeous, laying on your back, reading a book you specifically curated for that day.

but your beauty wasn’t stopping her from getting you in the water.

towa had told one of her friends in the water with her she'd be back in a second as she stepped out and onto the shoreline. she pulled her hair out of her eyes as she glanced at you, eyes fixed on your book. she smiled unconsciously at it.

once she walked over to the umbrella the group was at, the group greeted her. she said hi back before leaning down to your level. "you should get in the ocean," she mumbled.

"mm," you scrunched your face. "it's cold."

"and it's hot out here. come ooooooon," she whined, almost similar to a kid being refused dessert. it made you giggle.

"towa, i love you, but i'm just not feeling it." she sighed, shaking her head and standing back up.

"alright, fine." she glanced at you one more time, pretending to walk away, before she quickly snatched the book out of your hands, dropped it on the sand, and picked you up.

your friends laughed as you shrieked, laughing a bit too. she slung you over her shoulder, walking as fast as she could to the sea as you pleaded her to stop, both of you laughing so hard your stomachs hurt.

once she was in deep enough, she threw you into the cold sea. you screamed as you fell, but quickly regained your composure to splash towa in the face with salt water.

the way you laughed, how your wet hair looked, and how your gorgeous eyes reflected in the sunlight told her enough to know she was gaining a silly, high-school crush on you.

“i could smoke you out for fun in my leather vest. i love you 'til the death, you’re a bullet in my chest”

surprisingly, you had no idea towa even did music until a while after you met. you were at her apartment for dinner, when you asked, “what do you do for work?”

she’d mentioned needing to do stuff for her job a few times, but never exactly what she did.

when she told you, you were shocked. “why didn’t you tell me?! that’s so fucking cool!” you exclaimed.

“cause i don’t think it’s that good!”

that night, you looked her up on spotify and listened to her full discography, even if it wasn’t the biggest. you had no idea how she could think it wasn’t good. it was amazing.

against her wishes, you were there, front row at her next show. she was playing a festival and you stood at the front of the stage for three hours before she came on.

you caught her eyes almost immediately. a small smile spread on her face and she softly shook her head, quickly continuing the song.

when you looked at her outfit, you were taken aback. she was wearing a new leather vest you’d never seen with a long-sleeve black shirt, her usual levi’s jeans, and her usual jewelry. but it was her shoes. these snakeskin boots. you gave them to her for her birthday and she’d never worn them until today. you thought she didn’t like them.

after the show, she led you backstage. she was laying back on a couch, sweaty, gulping from a water bottle you brought her. you nervously tapped your hands on your thigh. “you did great.”

she finished gulping, wiping her mouth. “thank you. it wasn’t my best show, though. kind of embarrassed you saw that.”

“i thought it was great.”

“i messed up a bit, though.”

“i didn’t even notice,” you reassured. she sighed.

“you sure?”

“100%.” she let the topic go, nodding her head. you sat in awkward silence for a second. the tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife. “you’re wearing the boots.” she glanced down at them.

“oh, ya.”

“thought you didn’t like them.”

“no, i do, it’s just…didn’t have a good time to wear them. until today. thought they’d look good with the outfit.”

you nodded in understanding. “i mean, they do look good. but boots? on stage?

“mm, wasn’t thinking. just thought it looked nice,” she lied. truth was, she wanted a reminder of you to be on her, no matter the pain. you just shook your head.

“fuckin’ dumbass. you look nice, though.”

“awwww, thanks, darling,” she teased, suddenly leaning over to kiss your cheek.

this was a banter you two had; acting like a couple jokingly. anyone with eyes could see it wasn’t casual for either of you, but you two were just oblivious and doubtful.

you smiled and blushed. “of course, honey,” you said through a giggle. she patted your thigh, kicking off her shoes.

“come on, let’s get you home.”

the next morning, videos of the performance scattered the internet. there was one particular video you saw: it was when she noticed you in the crowd. the text read “OMFG DOES SHE HAVE A GF??? WHO IS SHE LOOKING AT LIKE THAT WHATTTT”

the whole rest of the day, you were smiling and giggly, happy someone thought you two were more than just friends.

little did you know, towa had seen the same video and felt the same exact way.

“oh you, i can’t believe that you could tame my wild, wild heart”

even if crushes weren't that unusual for towa, this was to a new extreme. you were always somehow there, in the back of her mind.

when she was trying to go to bed, when she was watching a movie you mentioned you liked once, when she had any time to herself, her thoughts always drifted to you. it was eating her alive.

suddenly, to your surprise, the nights she spent out decreased. she started to take care of herself more, becoming less hungover and more energetic.

you two hung out more, making it almost a weekly ritual to meet up for dinner at one of your apartments. you would either cook or order dinner, catch up on the latest gossip, and laugh as the warm glow of the kitchen lights illuminated your faces.

you both always wanted to reach out, feel the other's skin on their palm. but you never did. you both opted for scooting a bit closer when the other wasn't looking and hoped that was enough. it made towa’s heart pound and she didn't know why.

you were making her crazy.

"i'm pretty quick, shoot from the hip with words that whip, but i'm in your grip"

it didn't take long for her to tell you how she felt. that's kind of just how towa was; quick. just like a stereotypical lesbian.

you always teased her about it, saying you'd never agree to go as fast as she did. and you always believed that. until it happened to you.

the two of you were having breakfast at a restaurant (towa paying for part of losing a bet.) you were just chatting and cracking jokes, like usual.

you took a bite of your food, but after you swallowed, you noticed your best friend staring at your face. "what? did my makeup smear?" she just laughed and shook her head.

all of a sudden, she was leaning over the table. "got a bit of food right...here." she wiped the bit of crumbs away with her thumb. she could feel your skin heat up under her fingertip, and honestly, she couldn't blame you; she would've been doing the same.

in fact, she was doing the same as she finished off with a soft "there" and sat back down.

what followed was an awkward silence as you both looked everywhere except the other's face. you looked back down and tried to start eating again, but there was an undeniable lump in your throat.

you heard a soft laugh from the end of the table. "you're cute when you do that." you almost choked.

"i'm sorry?"

"you heard me," she stated, taking a sip of her juice before continuing. "you're cute."

you didn't know how to respond, just sitting with your mouth hung wide open. "uh- thank yo-"

"do you wanna go out?" she cut you off. again, a few seconds passed. "like, uh, you know, to just, like, a museum or something...later...like, in a few days."

"as friends?"

"as whatever you want it to be."

that was all the clarity you needed. you immediately said yes.

"throw your lasso, come and catch me, babe. i'm indiana jones, you're my last crusade"

you weren’t sure if the museum counted as a date. you absolutely wanted it to, but the whole event was a little friendly.

you just walked around like you two normally would with anything, albeit a little awkwardness. she offered you to stay the night at her place, and of course, you couldn’t turn that down.

the both of you ended up on her couch, you in her clothes, watching indiana jones. “it’s for nostalgia,” towa had told you.

after being out in the chilly winter air, you and towa were wrapped in one of her blankets. she only had one, since the others were in the wash, so you had to share.

the contact was killing you; you could barely pay attention to the movie. every time towa moved to make herself more comfortable you felt shock waves through your body. it was almost kind of pathetic.

she noticed this but didn't say anything, simply continuing the tease the shit out of you.

at a certain point, she spoke, causing you to jump. “you know, if they were hot enough, i’d let somebody betray me and send me down into that firey pit of hell any time they wanted." you were confused.

"what?"

"i mean, if they were hot enough." you snorted.

"seriously? that's like, a death wish!"

"okay, imagine the hottest person in the world. if you let them do anything to you for a chance of them liking you back, would you?" you thought for a second.

"no."

"bullshit! fucking bullshit," she exclaimed.

you just rolled your eyes, defending yourself. but, when you thought about it that night, you realized you maybe would've let towa do that. maybe.

"gravel in my throat and sweetness on my tongue. this ain't my first rodeo, my bad, i should have known."

when the two of you were going out, before you were officially "girlfriends," towa was trying to gauge you. when you two were together, walking down the street or looking at clothes, she'd ask you "do you like this shiny material, or like, soft?" "okay, i know you think her hair makes her hot, but is there anything else there? at all?" "do you think he's funny?" to a comedian on tv.

you barely even noticed the sudden questioning since it was so spaced out. i mean, she did things like this constantly. she always wanted to get to know you better.

but, since you started going out, her questions turned from funny and lighthearted to trying to figure out if a certain pair of pants would make you like her more. she just wanted to be perfect for you, even if she already was in your head.

as time went on, the questions started to get more and more obvious she wanted to set a precedent of what you liked. which was what led to surprising news to her.

you two were sitting on a park bench after a walk. taking a sip of water from your water bottle, you looked around. towa examined your face, smiling at its natural beauty. your eyes darting around were angelic to her. "you said you had a relationship in college?"

you turned to face her. "ya?"

"what was she like?"

"oh...uh, it was a guy..."

"oh." she sat for a second. "really?"

"really."

"have you ever been with another girl, then?" you shook your head. "woah." she had to process that for a second. in her head, you were kissing girls left and right in your younger years, but you weren't. "so like...when did you find out you liked girls?"

you recalled the memory in your head. "a few years back. i don't know, i just saw two girls kissing on the subway and i was like, 'i kinda want that,' y'know?" she nodded.

"have you ever been kissed by a girl?" okay, this conversation was taking a huge turn. you quickly shook your head.

"i mean, no, but i always thought it'd be...kinda nice..." you trailed off.

all of a sudden, she was scooting closer to you. "come here," she mumbled, before quickly adding, "if you want to, of course."

"yes," you replied too quick. she smiled and cupped your cheek in her hand. then her lips were on yours and it was beautiful.

it was only for a quick second, but when she pulled away, she had a bit of your lip gloss on her lips and they were so soft, you were spiraling. "you want anoth-"

you didn't even let her finish before you went back in. she giggled into the kiss, keeping her hand on your cheek.

“the open road is the loneliest, come ride by my side into the sunset”

it took months to get to this point, but here you were; on a picnic on a date in the city, staring off into the sunset. your head was on towa’s shoulder as you stared off at the sky, full of vibrant oranges and pinks.

her hand was unconsciously stroking your hair, admiring with you. “hey,” she mumbled. you looked up at her.

“hm?”

“so, uh…i know we’ve kind of like, been going out for a while now…” oh my god. was this it?

“i was just…meaning to ask you if you’d maybe want to like…be my girlfriend?” you were so happy you thought you could explode. when you didn’t respond within a couple seconds, she quickly added “and totally not to like, rush you or anything, i was just won-”

you quickly shut her up by pressing your lips to hers. when you pulled away, you said “towa, oh my god, yes.”

her cheeks were softly tinted red as she fell back on the blanket. “okay! good, i thought you’d say yes, i just wasn’t sure-”

you quickly leaned down to kiss her again. “you ramble when you’re nervous,” you teased with a smile.

“shut up.”

[fivessuit]

I finished that essay I was telling you guys about!

TLDR for those of you that haven't seen my blog, I had to write a paper in the form of an open letter. This means that I had to write in response to someone that has a different view than me. I chose to respond to someone's blog on here! Thank you to @dontspoilthis for sending me the post that I ended up using in the paper! For privacy purposes I will not be including the blog name however. Here it is for those who want to read it :)))

Exploring Lila's Decision: An Open Letter to a Tumblr User

Hello [insert blog name here].

I have read your tumblr blog post about how you believe Five Hargreeves and Lila Pitts make a good romantic pairing. While I disagree with your statement, I do think that it used solid evidence from the show and was well thought out. With the last season of The Umbrella Academy having come out a little under nine months ago, people are still very much talking about season four and voicing their opinions on it. This show has been well loved for over six years by many of us, and has fans all around the world. Five and Lila are both exponentially strong characters, therefore when we saw them get together on screen there were some mixed reactions from all parties; everyone had something to say about Five and Lila’s relationship. 

Based on what I read in your post, you believe that Lila decided to marry Diego, Five’s brother, out of convenience. Additionally, you say that Lila wanted to create the family that she never got to experience as a child. Both the Hargreeves siblings as well as Lila had very callous upbringings, many days filled with training and mastering their powers. This made it so none of them experienced a real parental figure or family. At the end of season three, we see the Hargreeves and Lila go their separate ways, all powerless, and at the beginning of season four we see a time jump of five years and where they all end up. This shows that life for all of the Hargreeves sucked after they lost their powers and they had to be real and functioning members of society. This made it so, according to you, Five and Lila’s normally explosive personalities made them be a good pair throughout this season. They had the most chemistry, as well as they realized how similar they both were when they got stuck in the subway together for seven years. 

If you take everything else out of the equation, I too would fall in love with somebody if I had to spend seven years trying to survive with that person. That part is not unrealistic. Also, I think that over the years we all have grown attached to these characters and genuinely want them all to be happy in the world they find themselves in. Especially Five, who spent forty five years alone and then had to awkwardly transition back into society in the body of a child. Some argue that Five falling in love with Lila was out of character. However, you and I agree that Five would absolutely act in his own self interest after fighting for so long. He is old, tired, and lonely. He craved love and affection (which was shown when he fell in love with a mannequin in the apocalypse). I do see where you are coming from when you say real world love is unpredictable and messy, and that these two characters acting this way made them feel more real. In different media we often wish to see characters feel the things we want to feel, therefore watching Five and Lila fall in love despite societal norms was liberating in a way. 

While I do understand and respect your view, I would like to bring in points that might not have been considered previously. When filming the fourth season, Aidan Gallagher, who plays Five, was nineteen years old. However, there has been tension building between Five and Lila since season two of the show, this was well before Aidan was of legal age. This, combined with nineteen year old Aidan and thirty four year old Ritu (who plays Lila) having a non-rehearsed kiss, makes me reasonably uncomfortable. I totally understand being an actor and intimate moments being part of the job. However, I do believe that this is a bigger problem in all of Hollywood with actors having huge age gaps and being forced to be intimate. Additionally, the writing of this romance feels a bit like trying to get us as an audience on board with a condemnable act: cheating. Sure, Lila was miserable in her marriage. However, she should have broken off the marriage way sooner instead of cheating on Diego with Five. The way the show panned out, it seemed like we were supposed to focus on this new found love between Five and Lila and just ignore the heinous act being done to Diego. The writing for Five and Lila’s affair came entirely out of left field and had nothing to do with what was set in previous seasons for Five’s character arc. The main writer for the show, Steve Blackman, said himself in an interview that, “[He] felt that Five had to have a love story” (Blackman). From this interview, it seemed that the writers didn’t have an exact plan for who would be Five’s love interest, therefore making this affair feel forced. The way that this was executed showed that the writers had little care for what was already written for Five, Lila and Diego. The whole point of Lila and Diego’s relationship was that they worked and talked through issues they had. When Five and Lila return to the family after escaping the subway, we do see the realization set into Lila that her relationship with Five was strictly situational, and she did miss both her children and Diego. While it is on brand for her to be hard headed and stubborn, as well as putting her own needs first, she does realize that she made a mistake. Finally, Five and Lila’s relationship is the most unrealistic due to the fact that for an entire season, Lila was trying to kill Five after she found out that Five killed her birth parents. This was never expanded upon or resolved for the entirety of the show. Therefore, it seems a bit odd that Lila would essentially disregard this to be with her parents' murderer.

Moving forward, I think that while we may not agree on Five and Lila as a pair, I think we both can agree that them getting together was important for the storyline. Diego realizes he hasn’t been putting enough effort into the marriage, and Lila puts her needs first. However, I don’t think that Lila is in love with Five. He was a convenience and an accessory to her going back to the thrill of the hunt. She loved the sensation and the situation, she did not love him. Lila having an affair with Five acted as a hurdle in order to further the character development of all parties involved.

If you made it to the end, let me know what you guys think!

[94blazed]

OBSESSION

PART 2

WC: 13.5K

Genre: smut. fluff. crack. angst. (switch pov)

Rating: M (minors dni)

Warnings: dom jk, rough sex, detailed smut, oral, toxicity, cursing, choking, slapping, spitting, nipple play, hickeys, unprotected, fingering, multiple orgasms, cock warming, simps, obsession, slight yandere, dirty talk, depression, alcohol; consumption.

Summary: Seven wednesday jungkook. You and Jungkook have been delusional about each other your whole lives, but when Jungkook is off the market, you start to wonder if it was all just one-sided. After the break-up with sohee, you became friends with benefits right after a simple hookup, but when he receives a text from his ex..

a/n: final part of the two part series! - no hate to sohee this is fiction! enjoy ! :D

TAGLIST : sign up here

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Jungkook received a notification.

- unknown: Do you like her?

- JK: who is this?

- unknown: Sohee.

- sohee: Y/N, do you like her?

- JK: why are you asking me this?

- sohee: because I still want us.

Jungkook pauses for a moment to glance at you, but you were too busy looking at the movie.

- JK: how did you get my number?

- sohee: how about you?

- JK: what?

- sohee: do you still want us?

- sohee: come outside.

Jungkook looks at you for a moment before he opens his mouth. "hey, I'll be right back. The pizza got here." you furrow your brows a bit, you could've sworn there wasn't a knock at the door, but he must have used the app, so you shrugged it off.

jungkook's pov:

Unlocking the door, you made sure no water got inside from the pouring rain. As you closed the door, you heard her speak up, "You don't want to come under my umbrella?"  "No. what are you doing here, Sohee?"  "I just wanted to see y-"  "cut the bullshit. what did you actually come here for?"  "Jungkook, do you actually like her?" After a brief pause, you replied, "Yeah, I do. why is it your concern?" she retorted "It's just...she's such a groupie whore. I mean, remember the way she used to look at you when we were together," she laughed.

"Remember how she would always be all up on Namjoon and Jimin? It's like she was attempting to keep track of who was the next fuck on her schedule" With a clenched jaw, you responded, "Sohee, you're so obsessed it's concerning. You do know those are her best friends, right? and me? we were a thing before you came along." you laugh "I'm honestly glad you were the one who fucked up" Sohee rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. so make up your mind, Jeon. Who's it going to be?"

y/n pov :

"Did he go help deliver the pizza? what is taking so long?" You get up and make your way to the front door. peeking from the blinds, you withdraw yourself from the window, opening the door, you ask, "What's going on?" Jungkook snaps his head towards your direction, while sohee smirks. "Oh, he didn't tell you? He wants to get back together. said you were only temporary." Before you look at him for any reaction, you slam the door as you begin to search for your keys. Tears on edge, but you refuse to let them fall, thinking that this was all going down the drain once again.

Hearing the door slam, the creaking of the floorboards grew louder with each step. "y/n, whatever she said, it isn't true," he says. pausing, you met his gaze, tears threatening to spill. "No, she's right. I felt like this was only to please our pleasures once again. temporary."  "y/n" he says grabbing onto your arms "this isn't temporary. It never felt temporary. Yeah, maybe before, maybe. but this moment to me right now feels endless. I don't know if you feel the same way about this, but I don't want this to end. not again" You didn't want to entertain your hopes, because when you did, it only led to disappointment. but this time, at this moment, it felt different. "Sohee wants me back after everything, but she was in the wrong, yet I know my worth. You showed me my worth."

Pausing, he looks into your eyes, never losing focus. "You've been my worth since the first time we met. I came to the realization that these aren't feelings of pleasure. They're more than just pleasing, and every time I would see you, be around you, hear your voice. I would feel this warm, bubbly feeling every time, and it never failed to come upon me." As he confesses his feelings, you felt the same way, yet a question lingered.. "why didn't you tell me about Sohee?"  "Because I was scared, y/n. I overanalyzed the situation and feared rejection, so I needed a distraction. a distraction from you." Although his response stings, you couldn't suppress your response any longer.

"It hurt, Jungkook, seeing you with her, especially after all that we have done together. You had the opportunity to prevent this situation, but you made it even more difficult than it already was. that night you introduced us to Sohee? was the night I intended to confess my feelings for you. I liked you a lot, Jeon, but then you and Sohee happened, and I had to know my place."

As the two of us sat in silence, the sound of the rain grew louder by the second.

He swallowed thickly before speaking. "You're right, and I admit it I feel like an absolute idiot an asshole at that for not putting more effort into us. I thought finding a distraction would help my situation, but it only made it worse. for you and me." tilting your head in confusion, he continued, "You know, ever since I got with Sohee, it didn't feel the same as what we had. It's like I had a void in my heart that has only grown with each passing day, month, and year. I believe it was the guilt that I had for not taking responsibility for our relationship."

"So, yeah, Sohee and I have been over since New Year's. She left me for her ex the same night before the final countdown. I've been emotionally drained since that night and looking back on what I had before, It was you who filled the voids. You made me feel needed back then and now. So, yes, this is a confession, and right now, in this moment, I'm hoping you feel the same." Looking into your eyes for confirmation.

The tears from before finally broke through. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this moment," you said, reflecting the same smile. He embraced you by the waist. Enjoying the moment he gradually released his grip around your waist.

With a gentle gesture, he tucks a strand of hair behind your ear, as he finally whispers the words you've been waiting for since the beginning, "so, does this mean you'll be my girlfriend?" You withdrew slightly, allowing yourself to meet his gaze with a smile. Latching your hand around his neck, you pulled him into a kiss. "Does that answer your question?"

Throwing you that bunny smile, he replied "No but I'll take it" he said jokingly, latched back onto your lips, melting into your embrace, not caring about how drenched he was from the rain. He lifted his thumb and gently pulled down on your lower lip, slipping his tongue past your lips, tongue against yours. As he tapped your leg, you eagerly jumped up and wrapped your legs around his waist, cupping the curve of your ass. He then proceeded to guide you to the edge of the bed, where he lowered you onto the plush mattress.

Jungkook pulled back for a moment to remove his drenched sweater, revealing his black compression shirt. loving the way the wet fabric clung to his abs that you admired so much. Resuming, he placed his hand under your chin to kiss you at a better angle. With his other hand, he smoothly slid it under your shirt, caressing your belly before cupping your breast.

Letting go of your lips, he slowly lifts up your top, revealing your girls. Officially you were wearing a lace bra with the detachable hook between the valley of your breasts. Detaching the clip he watches them bounce as they were held together. without wasting any time, he dives into them, starting with your left nipple, the contact never fails to make you moan. Of course, he didn't forget the right one, and with a pinch and pull, you were sent over the edge.

With a pop, he resumed cleaning up his left over saliva, tongue collecting every drop, tongue not leaving your chest he dragged it down between your breasts, over your belly, and arrived at the button on your pants. On his knees, he tugged on the material with his teeth, looking up through hooded eyes. "May I?" giggling, you land your hand on the top of his head. "You may." he undid your pants and flung them behind him. Now, looking at his favorite pair of panties that he loves so much. He honestly didn't want to rip through them, so he gently hooked them under his fingers and slowly pulled them down over your knees. Dropping them to your ankles, he picked them up and put them on the nightstand next to him. He slowly spreads your legs wide enough to observe the arousal you've accumulated down your folds, without noticing how he licked his lips—making him want to devour you whole. He lowers himself to suck on your inner thigh, biting in chunks and nibbles. Finally getting close to your pussy, you jolt when you feel a glob of spit trickle down your folds, you can't help but moan. Kook takes his fingers to his mouth, taking out his tongue to stroke in between his V-shaped fingers to demonstrate your pussy. putting them into his mouth, collecting all the saliva he can, and places them on your clit, as you whine at the feeling, slipping them down and inside your hole.

Squirming a bit he grabs your thigh securely, preventing you from moving. Sucking in a breath, you feel his tongue toying with your clit, the coldness of his lip ring swiping against your folds making it even more difficult to be still; "Baby stop moving," you're trying, really trying. Plunging his fingers deeper, he adds another to watch you struggle. With the way he's impacting your pussy, you instinctively tangle your fingers through his hair. Now imagine when he's in balls deep,  interrupting your train of thought he nibbles on your clit. His tongue now has taken the place of his fingers, hand coming around your thighs to rub at your clit "god this fucken pussy" whimpering you feel that familiar burning sensation in your belly building by the second "ju-jungkook im gonna cum" letting go of your clit, he looks up into your gaze, "then cum my pretty girl" and that fucken name has you coming undone, “so wet.. all for me yeah?”  jungkook drank up your arousal like he hadn't drank in years.

stabilizing yourself, you look up to see Jungkook already in his boxers, simply by the contour of his cock has your climax developing once more, walking up against you, pussy now against his clothed cock, he speaks "Tell me y/n. what exactly is it that you want, hmm?"  "You jungkook" slapping your pussy, he answers. "You're going to have to be more specific than that my love?. I'm going to ask you once more." Leaning down, he swipes his tongue along your earlobe, "what specifically do you want y/n?" not hesitating you answer, "your cock jungkook. your big fucken cock,"  heart now hammering at the thought of his cock tearing every last bit of your sanity, "you got it baby."

He finally dropped his boxers to the ground, the sound of his dick smacking against his abdomen echo's around the room. positioning himself, he finally sinks into you, both letting out a synchronized moan. Slipping through your core Jungkook let's out a groan, "f-fuck this pussy never ceases to amaze me." sucking in a breath at the burning sensation you composed yourself knowing this would only last for a moment. Pussy clenching Jungkook hisses at the feeling, "oh, fuckkk do that again". "Go faster and I'll do it," Jungkook cracked open an eye. "Oh really?" he stated "Yes, pleasee" you added. Jungkook complied, but instead, he wrapped his tatted hand around your throat, applying slight pressure on your airway. "alright then, answer this. who does this pussy belong to?" he asked. "Yours, Jungkook, '' you responded. As the pace picked up, he tightened his grip, making it difficult to breathe. "Do you desire this cock? or do you want me to stop?" he asked. "NO, no, I'm sorry," you replied. "Then I'll ask again. who does this pussy belong to? Who do YOU belong to?" he says in a firm tone, tightening his grip on your throat, "YOU JUNGKOOK, it has always been you. I belong to you completely, every inch and every breath in my body." you responded, "That's right baby, you belong to me and no one else. every inch." He released his grip, allowing you to catch your breath, as he increased the pace. Jungkook then leaned in to bite the salty skin of your neck, leaving a few territorial marks. Slowly pulling you flush against his chest, as an instinct you wrapped your legs around his waist, as he positions himself against the headboard.

"Jungkook, faster," you commanded. He complied, proceeding to deliver a rapid speed that consistently aimed at your g-spot. Instinctively, you dug your nails into his back, eliciting a pleasurable groan from jungkook, He gradually released your hips, allowing you to take control and ride him. As you tighten your grip on his length, obscene noises uncontrollably spill from his lips, struggling to articulate his pleasure. "shit y/n just like that baby" He gently raises your hips, grinding thickly into your walls making sure he can see his bulge plunging through your belly. “fuck fuckk kook just like that”  “yeah?”  you couldn’t even speak at that point. Drunk on his cock. 

Clenching tighter, he utters, "fuck it's the way that you can ride." You sense the pressure building, "kook I'm close, please." he leans in for a reassuring kiss. "Hold on a little longer, my love. I'm ngh-almost there." you reach a point where your entire body is stuttering. Despite the strain, you feel his cock twitch, knowing that his climax is near. With a few more strokes, he reaches, "now ruin me baby" releasing the pressure you smear his abdomen while he simultaneously paints your walls. Exhausted, he collapses on top of you, cock still inside, as you both pant in unison.

After both of you have stabilized your breathing, you gently brushed his hair away from his eyes, lifting his head to meet your gaze. chin resting on your chest, you maintain eye contact and offer a smile before bringing him in for a kiss. "How was it?" he asked. "as always, my love, perfect," you respond with a smile. "hmm good," he replies as he pecks your nose as he slowly withdraws from you, hissing at the feeling of emptiness. He proceeds to the bathroom to prepare a warm rag to clean you with, and although you are still sensitive, you comply. As you sometimes spend the night, you have clothes stored in the dresser next to his. After dressing, you help change the sheets while he cleans himself.

After cleaning up the mess you two created, both of you slide into bed. Allowing him to hold you, with his arms encircling your waist, tracing circles beneath the soft material of your shirt. He plants a kiss on your hair uttering, "I have loved you since day one." You smile at this heartwarming sensation, holding onto his arm until you drift off to sleep. From that day forward, the routine has remained unchanged.

PRESENT

July ‘23

You two moved into your apartment, sohee was nowhere to be seen since that day. This year, you all graduated from university and celebrated with a party for the occasion, alongside other colleagues. You and Jungkook are content to be together. "I fetched you a smirnoff screwdriver. sorry, it was the only one they had left," you smile kissing his cheek. "kook, it's okay. I appreciate it a lot thank you" but before he can respond, Jimin inserts himself by sitting between the two of you. “so what are you two love birds talking about?” Jungkook rolls his eyes while you chuckle at the remark. “nothing jimin what do you want” “Nothing I'm just curious about what you got my best friend for her graduation gift” jungkook raises an eyebrow "Well, I was just about to mention it-"  "Do not hesitate, Jungkook. please share" namjoon interrupts "I was just-" "well go on" jin inserts “I WAS JUST GETTING THERE” everyone laughs at jungkooks outburst, "someone offer him a tequila shot," taehyung yells "even tequila can't help that," Hobi responds.

“well, I just wanna say I’m happy for you two, as always jungkook. you better not break her heart or I’ll kick your ass”  “Yeah yeah like that’s gonna happen”  “Keep it that way” jimin replies, blowing a kiss to you farewell as he returns to the kitchen. “I’m sorry he’s a little overprotective”  "It’s okay I understand, I wouldn’t want anyone to hurt you either. but on another note, I do have a gift for you though" he grins, lending you his hand, taking it, together you made your way through the group of individuals that occupied the living room and into the neon uv-lit hallway. This is Jin's residence, which he rents out seven rooms, all of which are occupied by the other boys except for one that was reserved for the two of you; and that’s where you two were headed. opening the door, you spot a small white piece of paper resting on the bed before you. approaching, you grasp the paper. only to see the bold lettering 'SURPRISE' curious about this surprise, you turn around but were directed to take a seat on the bed. you observe jungkook removing his shirt, of course, you can’t complain, but questioned, “babe what are you doing?”

“It's Saturday baby, 7 days a week, remember?” 

“fuck”

⋆

a/n: obviously she was still sore from yesterday lol . but thank you sm for reading this little series of mine! I hope you enjoyed ! all feedback is appreciated <3

⋆ ⋆ ⋆

taglist: @jjklves @ane102 @moonbinniehappy @caro134340lina @bbtsficrecs @heartjiminie @ta3bae @hyunjinswifeee @sherituhhh @myabae @whoa-jo @jiminsthings @1uvjeons @junecat18 @capital-koreasofia @tatamicc @goldenhopeworld @ahsluva @starbrightday @psykvo

for those who I couldn’t tag i’m sorry ! :(

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

You're Special to Me

Can you write a fic where Remus keeps on comparing himself to roman (negatively) and the other sides also doing it, albeit unknowingly. It’s alright if you can’t, no pressure! – anon

Read on Ao3

Warnings: self-esteem issues, self-doubt, remus has some abandonment issues

Pairings: platonic creativitwins

Word Count: 3761

The others have a nasty habit of comparing Roman and Remus. It starts to get grating after a while. Good thing Roman's always thought his brother was the best.

1.

“Remus?”

Remus pokes his head out from under the whale carcass, adjusting the brim of his rain jacket to see Logan wading dubiously through the trail of viscera from here to the door. “Oh, hey, Pocket Protector, whattya need?”

“We had a brainstorm scheduled to start five minutes ago.”

“Oh, yeah, I was wondering when you were gonna show up.”

“Yes, so if you wouldn’t mind—wait, ‘show up?’”

He tosses a chunk into the piranha tank and the water froths up. “Yeah. You asked to have a brainstorm with me, so I was waiting for you.”

“Ah, I see. Typically brainstorms are held in the study or the living room.”

“Yeah, Ro’s are.”

Logan blinks. “Hm?”

“ Roman’s brainstorms with you are in the living room or the study or whatever. That’s ‘cause he can do the whole write-stuff-down-talk-it-out thing. I gotta be doing something.”

Logan dodges a spray of…something Remus isn’t going to name but rhymes with a really frizzy hairstyle, clutching his notebook to his chest. “Would you opposed to having a brainstorm in one of those locations if you bring something to do?”

“Peachy keen, Lolo, but there’re rules about me bringing my projects to places.”

“That is true,” he mutters under his breath, “is—so I take it you would prefer to have the brainstorm here as you…work?”

“Yep.” When Logan doesn’t say anything for a moment, Remus lowers his bone saw and glances over at him. “Is…is that okay?”

“Well, I’m going to have to change my state of dress, and take audio recordings that I’ll have to transcribe later, but yes, I believe that is acceptable. You’ll have to give me a moment to change.”

“Yeah, sure, go ahead.”

Logan nods and weaves his way carefully around the mounds of blubber starting to grow around Remus’s work station. Remus watches him go, a chunk falling slowly off of his shoulder, before he looks back at the carcass. He still has a few hours of work to properly strip it to where it’s usable, and this kind of work is nice for brainstorming ‘cause it’s mostly rote at this point, but there’s a sudden greyness to everything. Like if he raised his tools and tried to keep going the whale might turn to paper in front of him.

He sits there amidst his carnage, the faint sound of the piranhas nibbling away in the sloshing water behind him. He looks down at his hands, at the calluses and old scars. The bone saw lies limply across his knee.

Logan didn’t seem angry that he’d misunderstood what he wanted, but he did seem disappointed. Like he really wanted Remus to not be doing this and come to the study to do the brainstorm. Like Roman. But Roman’s process wasn’t Remus’s process and Logan had asked specifically to brainstorm with Remus.

The familiar sound of rain boots squishing through viscera brings him back, glancing over to see Logan wading through toward him with a recorder in one hand and an umbrella in the other.

“Whoa, cool jacket.”

“Thank you, I had Virgil help me design it after the one you made for him.” Logan brandishes the recorder and eyes the whale corpse. “Well, shall we get to it?”

“I’ve already got a few ideas.”

2.

Remus bounces up and down on the balls of his feet, barely resisting the urge to flap his hands. This is it! He’s finally been allowed to join in on the communal baking day where everyone gets to make their own dessert for movie night. He stayed up late last night thinking of all the delicious things they could make and finally, finally got his list down to just five options. He’s really leaning toward the strawberry fruit tart but the lemon squares look so good but the pumpkin spice cookies would be so much fun to decorate—

Something shoves him gently into the wall and he grins as Roman ruffles his hair a little too hard.

“Roro!”

“Hey, Re, you look excited.” Roman chuckles as Remus chews excitedly on his costume collar. “You ready?”

“I’ve been waiting all day for this!”

“Roman? Is Remus there?”

“He’s all yours, Padre.” Roman winks and ruffles his hair again. “Go get ‘em.”

Remus bounds into the kitchen, startling Patton a little as he sets something on the counter. He reaches into his pocket for the piece of paper—he even wrote it on paper this time to make it easier—and opens his mouth to explain his options, when—

“Good, I wondered where you were. Could you go ahead and measure the white sugar out for me?”

Remus pauses. Patton looks at him expectantly, holding out the cup. He takes it slowly, glancing at the containers and bowls already amassed on the counter. “Uh—what?”

“The white sugar. Granulated sugar, if you’d prefer. It’s in this one over here—“ he indicates a white paper bag— “and it just goes in that bowl there.”

A bit of grey flickers across his vision. “But we haven’t chosen what we’re making yet.”

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t tell you. We’re just gonna be making chocolate chip cookies.”

He frowns. “Ro said we get to choose what we make.”

Patton’s smile twitches a bit. “Oh, I just figured it would be—since we always have chocolate chip and it’s your first time—the others have already made their choices, they did it yesterday—“

Patton keeps talking as the list in his hand slowly greys out. They did it…yesterday? And didn’t tell Remus? But Ro said that he could pick…

“…so I figured this would be the easiest.” Patton’s still talking. “But if you really, really want to make something else, then—“

“No,” he grits out, shoving the list in his pocket and going over to the sugar, “I love chocolate chip cookies.”

“Oh, good. I’m glad, I love them too! Yeah, so that just goes in there.”

As they bake, or as Patton tells Remus what to do and watches him carefully as he does it, he can’t help thinking that this isn’t at all what Roman said it was like and how he doesn’t…really want to do it ever again. But at least he can eat as much of the cookie dough as he wants while Patton isn’t looking.

3.

“…hey, Snakey?”

Janus looks up from his book with the patented what-did-you-do-how-much-of-your-mess-am-I-going-to-have-to-clean-up expression and Remus squirms under it. He raises an eyebrow.

“Would you teach me how to dance?”

The expression morphs into one of surprise in an instant. He sets down his book. “Certainly, I can teach you. What for?”

”There’s a, uh, thing in the Imagination next month that me and Ro are putting on and we, uh, part of it’s a ball thing.”

“Mm. Will the rest of us be invited?”

“…I think so? I dunno, I need to talk to Ro. We, uh, no one else knows about it yet.”

“Ooh, a secret, I do love those.”

“Are you gonna help me or not?”

Janus chuckles, getting to his feet and holding out a hand. Remus takes it and blinks as Janus takes them to a room in the Imagination he’s never seen before. Which in and of itself isn’t all that weird, because there are plenty of things that Ro makes that he never sees, but this one feels…familiar, almost. Like he’s seen it in a dream or something and only just now actually being able to picture it clearly.

At the very back of the theater, hidden in the shadows, some of the red seats look a little faded.

“Alright,” Janus says, “we’re going to learn a very simple waltz.”

“Okay. What do I do?”

“Well, you’re part of Thomas, and Thomas knows how to do a box step, which means most of it is already in there somewhere.” Janus taps the side of his head. “So, put your arms around me—no, no! Remus, put me down.”

“You said put my arms around you.”

“Not like that, like this.” Janus takes one of his hands and puts it on his waist, holding the other one out to the side. “Don’t—we’re not about to charge someone, Remus, relax.”

He goes all noodley and Janus sighs, making him stand back up with his arms not held out like he’s brandishing a weapon. Once they’re standing in a way that he approves of, he starts explaining how the steps work.

“Can you show me your box step?”

“While I’m holding you?”

“Good point.” Janus takes three very large steps backward and folds his arms. “Go ahead.”

Remus does his box step. Janus looks at him with his head tilted and sighs again. Every time he sighs a few more seats get a little greyer.

“I suppose it could be worse. Now, here’s what I’d like you to do: hold onto me, yes, like that, and do your box step. I am going to do an opposite box step and we are going to just try that, okay?”

Remus nods, looking down to make sure he doesn’t step on Janus, and starts his box. Janus moves back but he’s moving in a way that makes Remus have to let go.

“Hold onto me.”

“But you moved.”

“We’re dancing, Remus, we’re going to move.”

“But you—okay.”

Despite Janus’s patience—and fond exasperation that sometimes isn’t quite as fond—Remus can’t help but get hot behind the ears at how his body just doesn’t seem to want to do any of this. But every time they turn to face the back of the curtain, he sees memories of Roman dancing effortlessly in the big palace ballroom and he grits his teeth.

The curtains have gone grey by the time Janus calls an end to the misery of a lesson.

4.

“C’mon, Emo, you can do it…” Virgil’s next inhale is almost a whine. “Shh, shh, it’s…it’s okay, just…just try and breathe.”

“It’s not working.”

“That’s ‘cause you’re panicking—“

“I know I’m panicking! Knowing I’m panicking doesn’t help!”

Remus winces as Virgil almost shoves him away, He goes, because when someone’s having a panic attack and they let you know you’re making it worse, then you leave. But he can’t pull away too much because Virgil is hurting himself and that’s why he got summoned in the first place.

“Little spider,” he tries again, and Virgil lets him shift a little closer, “I’m…I don’t know what to do.”

Not the thing to say when someone’s having a panic attack. Virgil sobs again, curling up even tighter, beginning to make small hitching noises whenever he can draw breath.

“Remus? Virgil? What’s—oh. Oh, no.”

”Ro?”

Roman hurries toward them, falling to his knees next to the shaking pile of Virgil, immediately pressing a kiss to his head and going to wrap his arms around him.

“Wait, he doesn’t want to be…” Remus trails off as Virgil immediately clings to Roman, latching on like a limpet and refusing to let go.

“Hey, shh, it’s okay, Stormcloud, I’m right here. Shh, shh, shh, you’re alright, you’re safe, nothing’s gonna hurt you right now.”

It’s not fair of him to be jealous when Roman gets Virgil to calm down almost right away. It’s not fair of him to be resentful that Roman’s who Virgil wants when he’s upset. It’s not fair to be upset or offended by what someone needs to come out of having a panic attack. That’s not cool, it’s not right, it’s not fair to Virgil or Roman or himself.

But Remus watches Roman cuddle Virgil and press gentle kisses to his forehead, and he looks down at his own hands that still have some Kraken slime on them from when he got summoned, and he sinks out before Virgil’s feeling all the way better.

He hates himself a little more for it, but not as much as he hates himself for not being the person that Virgil wanted.

5.

It would be easier if Roman were shitty about it.

If he made a point to hold it over Remus’s head, or if he tried to help out of pity or pushed the others into including Remus when it was obvious that no one really wanted to, it would be better. But no, Ro doesn’t even seem to know it’s happening. Which is shitty in and of itself, but the others don’t even realize they’re doing it sometimes and it’s never where Roman is anywhere within earshot. It’s just glaringly fucking obvious that Remus is not Roman and everyone else fucking knows it.

It would be better if they weren’t both Creativity. It would be better if Roman and him weren’t constantly lumped together. It would be better if he was actually capable of truly hating Roman.

But he can’t. Because Roman’s his brother and he loves him more than he hates himself.

He doesn’t hate himself, not really. He loves his energy, loves his drive, loves his willingness to do whatever, explore whatever, be whatever, he wouldn’t want to be like anyone else because then who would be him? But he hates the way that the version of himself he wants to be is the exact fucking opposite of everything he has to be in order to not be always a little bit worse than Roman.

Even his fucking Kraken prefers Roman.

He’d shown up to Ollie’s pond with his favorite chum and the ball with the holes big enough for his arms so they could play catch, but Ollie had sniffed around and seen that there was only one of them—and it wasn’t Roman, and he’d drifted off into the corner of the pond to sulk. No amount of coaxing or bribing had been able to make the Kraken do anything more than half-heartedly chuck the ball not even halfway across the pond.

Remus left before he started crying and went to the dark underwater sea cave deep underneath the black tower’s subbasement. He shifted enough so he could breathe underwater and curled up in the thick kelp forest where no one would be able to find him unless they poked around with a flashlight. The kelp dissipated the sound waves of his sobs, a tentacle in his mouth to muffle them even further. Along the bottom of the cave, tiny tetra fish nibbled at his scales.

He’d stayed there for at least an hour before he realized that no one would come to look for him, so he’s been drifting ever since. Every so often the tears return, the kelp absorbing them as readily as ever, at least until they taper off again and he just floats there, in the water while the fish nibble the dead skin away from his scales. There was something comforting about the greyness of the water, how smooth and quiet it was, how easy it was to just look at the shape of the kelp and the movement of the fish and just drift…alone.

Yeah, it’d be much easier if Roman was shitty about it. But he isn’t, and that’s just another way that he’s better than Remus.

+1.

Remus doesn’t even have time to lie down and close his eyes before someone’s grabbing him around the waist and sinking him into the Imagination. They crash into a pile of pillows and he gets a mouthful of one, spluttering.

” Ro!”

”Hey, you always do it to me! Payback time!” He barely gets himself free before Roman’s throwing a pillow at him. “Now arm yourself!”

“What—“ he dodges Roman’s swing— “hey!”

“No talking, only pillow fighting!”

Remus manages to get the big green pillow up in front of his face just as Roman launches himself off another pile and come barreling down at him. He rolls onto his side and swats Roman across the face. Roman yelps and laughs and swats him back.

“You’re not winning this time!”

“I didn’t win last time! I— ack!”

“C’mon, Re, I know you can do better than that!”

“Oh, it’s on.”

The two of them turn the pillow piles into a war zone, launching projectiles and themselves from various places until Roman gets Remus’s arms pinned and he can bap him lightly in the face over and over and over.

“ Ack—ppth—Ro!”

“Do you yield?”

“Yeah, yeah, you— pffthp— I fucking yield.”

Roman chuckles and presses a big smacking kiss to Remus’s cheek, rolling off of him and sprawling out across the pillow carnage with a contented sigh. Remus winces, pulling himself into a sitting position, grabbing one of the plushier pillows to hold.

They’re in one of the higher tree canopy tents, he realizes as he takes in their surroundings without the distraction of plush warfare. Overlooking the massive waterfalls with the help of the full moon and the soft glow of the amber lanterns overhead, he can spot a few of the others in trees surrounding the falls as the rush and roar of the water fades soothingly into the background. The soft sweet smell of fresh water wafts upwards, mixing with the cool night air. He curls up a little more, hugging the pillow, watching the water rush by.

“So,” Roman grunts as he sits up a few moments later, “are you gonna tell me what’s wrong?”

“What? Nothing’s wrong.”

“Mhm.” Something pokes his side and Remus yelps. “You sure?”

“Yes! Yes, I’m sure, I— eep!”

”You really sure?” Fingers keep poking and kneading his sides and trying to get under the pillow. “You really, really sure nothing’s wrong?”

“I said no!”

He moves without thinking. One second Roman’s sitting next to him and the next he’s sprawled near the other side of the tent. A horrible itchy guilty mess starts building in the back of Remus’s throat and he looks away before he can watch the shutter fall over Roman’s face.

Because that’s why Roman did all this, isn’t it? He noticed Remus was upset and because he’s a good brother, he took him to their favorite sleeping spot and had a pillow fight with him and asked him if he was okay. Because Remus isn’t like Roman and he didn’t appreciate any of it and then he just shoved Roman away when all he was doing was trying to help and he really is just the worst brother ever, isn’t he?

”I could’ve done that better,” he hears softly before the gentlest arms wrap around his shoulders and there’s a warm chin on his left one, “I knew better, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make it worse.”

“You’re fine.”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, Re, I just—I’m worried about you.”

“…you are?”

“Yeah. You’ve been—you’ve been kinda grey lately, you know? I’ve tried asking the others if they know what’s been going on, but they don’t—whoa, hey, hey,” Roman whispers when Remus starts to sniffle, “hey, c’mere, let me cuddle you, hey, talk to me, what’s going on?”

“‘M sorry, it’s not your fault, promise—“

“Hey, hey, uh-uh, none of that, you’re okay.” Roman pulls him into a weird pretzel ball of limbs and hooks his chin over his shoulder. “Does it have something to do with the others?”

“…it’s not their fault either.”

“Now I think we both know that might not be entirely true.”

“‘S stupid.”

“It’s making you upset, Re, it’s not stupid.”

“But it’s true!”

“What’s true?”

“You’re—you’re better than m-me.”

Roman goes very still for a second, then he pulls back and cups Remus’s face in his hands. “What the hell do you mean, ‘I’m better than you?’”

And just like that, the whole sorry story comes driveling out of him. About how Logan didn’t really want to do the brainstorm, about how Patton didn’t let him pick what he wanted to bake, about how he couldn’t comfort Virgil properly, about how hard trying to learn how to dance was, even how Ollie didn’t want to play with him. And Roman looks at him and his face falls and then he’s shaking his head and squishing Remus’s cheeks a little.

“You’re not worse than I am and I’m not better than you. We’re different, and that’s fine and good. Who gives a shit if Logan got a bit messy, you’re the one who can multitask way better than anyone else here. You have the discipline to actually train with all of your weapons and you can fight with all of them. And who the hell does Patton think he is that he can regiment who can bake what? I’ll bake with you next time and we can make whatever the hell you want. And as for Virgil—you know he only started coming to me because he missed you, right? I’m serious,” he continues when Remus’s eyes almost bug out of his head, “he said that your energy was really comforting when he was growing up and I have a similar one so he started coming to me. Don’t tell him I told you that, though.”

“I won’t,” he mumbles, but he’s still too caught up on everything else.

“I don’t give a shit what they all think, you hear me? I think you’re incredible and you’re my brother. I’m the only one allowed to start our stupid sibling rivalry shit.”

”What about me?”

“Fine, you can start it too. But only us, okay?”

Remus sniffles. “But then why didn’t Ollie want to play with me?”

“Because you don’t sneak him treats when you play Toss.”

”Wait, you what?”

“Uh, I mean—“

Remus grabs a pillow and thwacks Roman over the head with it. Roman bursts out laughing and half hugs, half tackles Remus to the ground.

“You’re fucking great all on your own, Re, you don’t need anyone else’s approval.” He leans up a bit. “But you always have mine, okay? I’m always gonna think you’re the greatest.”

“Even when I put slime in your bed?”

“I’ll get you back by putting dragon splines in yours.”

“You better not.”

“Don’t put slime in my bed, then.”

Remus gives another sniffly little laugh and Roman ruffles his hair. They both lie down to look at the waterfall, arms wrapped around each other.

“…hey Ro?”

“Mhm?”

“You’re the best brother ever.”

“No,” Roman says, booping Remus’s nose, “ you are.”

General Taglist: @frxgprince@potereregina@gattonero17@iamhereforthegayshit@thefingergunsgirl@awkwardandanxiousfander@creative-lampd-liberties@djpurple3@winterswrandomness@sanders-sides-uncorrect-quotes@iminyourfandom@bullet-tothefeels@full-of-roman-angst-trash  @ask-elsalvador @ramdomthingsfrommymind@demoniccheese83@pattonsandershugs @el-does-photography @princeanxious@firefinch-ember@fandomssaremysoul@im-an-anxious-wreck@crazy-multifandomfangirl @punk-academian-witch@enby-ralsei@unicornssunflowersandstuff@wildhorsewolf @thetruthaboutthesun @stubbornness-and-spite @princedarkandstormv  @your-local-fookin-deadmeme @angels-and-dreams@averykedavra @a-ghostlight-for-roman @treasurechestininterweb @cricketanne @queerly-fluid-fan @compactdiscdraws@cecil-but-gayer@i-am-overly-complicated@annytheseal@alias290@tranquil-space-ninja @arxticandy @mychemically-imbalanced-romance@whyiask@crows-ace @emilythezeldafan@frida0043 @ieatspinalcords @snowyfires@cyanide-violence@oonagh2@xxpanic-at-the-everywherexx@rabbitsartcorner @percy-07734@triflingassailantofmyemotions @virgil-sanders-the-gay-emo@cerulean-watermelon@puffed-up-bees@meltheromanstan@joyrose-fandomer@insanitori@mavenmush@justablah65@10paradox10@uhhh-hi-there-i-am-nervous@cutebisexualmess@bella-bugatti-frogetti-baguetti@ultrageekygirl

[bigassbowlingballhead]

“I can’t watch Heartstopper”: In Defence of Queer Cringe

“Cringe” is a term that comes up often; nearly anything can be labeled as cringey—a pop song, a text from an ex, or anything associated with Katy Perry. This dismissive label typically reflects discomfort with earnestness or vulnerability, especially in a media landscape that leans toward irony and detachment. I've also noticed it being used in discussions about the 2022 Netflix show ‘Heartstopper’. The thing is, Heartstopper is cringey, it’s a television show about teenagers in love, it’s going to elicit some eye-rolls—the overt sweetness, dreamy visuals and earnest storytelling—this “cringe” is not just an aesthetic choice, it’s a vital part of a broader cultural conversation. But so, what? Isn’t there a place for earnestness in storytelling, especially in a genre often fraught with angst and tragedy? 

Heartstopper follows Charlie Spring (Joe Locke), the kind, shy, and funny protagonist you’d expect from a popular young adult novel. He navigates Year 10, then 11, and finally Sixth Form with the support of his friends, family, and, most importantly, his perfect book boyfriend, Nick Nelson (Kit Connor). When people label Heartstopper as “cringe,” it often comes from a place of skepticism. They roll their eyes at Charlie and Nick’s heartfelt declarations of love, at the large, supportive friend group that all seem to fall under the rainbow umbrella and criticize the storytelling as unrealistic. Yet, in 2024, while no one claims that homophobia has been completely eradicated, it’s important to remember that this show depicts two middle-class English boys in love. It’s hardly a gritty topic.

The real issue is that queer narratives, especially those aimed at younger audiences, tend to be held to a higher standard than their heterosexual counterparts. We’ve watched countless seasons of shows like One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, and Pretty Little Liars, filled with melodrama, outrageous plot twists, and questionable acting. Yet those shows are given a pass because they fit familiar teen drama tropes, while queer stories face scrutiny for not being “serious” enough.

For many older queer viewers, Heartstopper acts as a healing balm; it’s not just refreshing—it’s revolutionary. The show beautifully captures the sweetness of young love and the journey of self-discovery, presenting a reality that many have longed for but rarely encountered in mainstream media. In this context, the moments deemed "cringe" become acts of rebellion, challenging the idea that queer narratives must always be rooted in trauma or tragedy.

So, while Heartstopper may be cringey, it’s essential to recognize the significance of it. It speaks to a generation craving them kind of representation that acknowledges joy alongside struggle. We shouldn’t hold queer narratives to a higher standard of seriousness while allowing their straight counterparts to thrive in melodrama and absurdity.

Fun fact, for this post, I asked some Tumblr users (yes, Tumblr still exists, don’t worry about it), what they think of the cringe label, and they responded with a resounding: “yes, and?”

SCREAM THAT KATY PERRY LINE IS SO HFDKSFHKSDLFHDKL

this is great!!! I hope you get an A

[blookmallow]

selfshippers,or 'x Reader' people as you said do know about the source material, and likely enjoy all of those gory details, however part of the appeal is being the only 'exception' to the murderer/slasher because they love the reader so dearly, or are obsessed with the reader. Sometimes is masochistic,sometimes people,willingly,depict their relationships with these characters as abusive. Some fantasize about being killed by the slashers themselves. All that falls under a fantasizing umbrella,along with (not always,but often) being a way to cope with the reader's own trauma, since a slasher is fictional and cannot truly hurt them and permits exploration of their own trauma within their own limits. Also, while i see it feels out of character (i.e the period thing) theres nothing wrong in seeking comfort even within twisted fiction,and I'm sure that a lot of the readers have their own lore and backstory that explains why a slasher would be so lenient towards them. Some love the out of character,some cringe and dislike it, but it's all harmless.

it Is harmless but i have the right to think it's weird and annoying just the same as they have the right to make them :y

I'm not harassing them and nobody else should either, thats not what im doing here

i love a "scary/dangerous person but they're soft for the person they love" but some characters it's just nonsensically out of character to write those fantasies for. we saw someone try to flirt with him as if he's harmless and he kidnapped her and cut her in half. we saw someone try to show him kindness and affection and he killed her and wore her skin. art the clown is not a character who would have a one special exception. if you want to fantasize that he would and that it's you, sure, do that, I can't stop you. do what you want, y'all can be weirdos if you want but im still gonna tell you you're weird

[ran-orimoto]

[ Like always, @teclajellymon made me notice I hadn’t cross-posted my monthly (laughing) Junzumi one-shot here, so ,thank you, Tecla. Again.This time I offer you a different Junzumi, not really the one you’re used to because Izumi isn’t really that present in this, except in an indirect way. Actually I think it’s high time I started dealing with creating a family background for Izumi , and soon for Junpei as well. So, something different for September. But hello, it’s already October✨ .]

{La gente che incontri nella pioggia } | {Those you meet under the rain}

If Blitzmon hated him so much, because there was no way he could bring himself to believe he was detested by Nature itself, he should tell him that right away, so they could find a good compromise allowing him to live a normal life.

He wasn’t asking for that much. He just wanted to be safely allowed to jump on a train taking him far from home, get off at a random stop, take a stroll through the narrow streets of a park and their shadows, wandering in a maze made of hundred alleys.

Until it dawned on him the building complex he had been led to looked way too familiar along with that little square before it, the benches, the trees scattering leaves on their white marble, the residents hurrying to the glass door, eager to go back home after a long work day and just giving a glance to that young bizarre stranger they had never seen before.

Probably.

And his ravings, with which he had been repeating the same two or three sentences, suddenly quieted down, getting stuck in his throat as if to warn him there was someone else who wanted to talk as much as he wanted to, though with much more resolution.

…

“If you…I just…I mean, nothin-“ He knew it was just a mischievous illusion that had just made him believe the scenario in front of him had shaken like if devastated by an earthquake.

Still, what came afterwards, the chilly feeling of drops falling on the tip of his fingers, the sensation of wiping them as they slipped down his skin was real, just like the expletive he soon muttered with all the irritation building up in his bosom.

At that point, after having done, indeed, not done that so many times, it would have been better if he just gave up getting angry at himself and that matching part of his spirit he had left who knew where.

He was a peculiar gone case, constantly perservering in forgetting his umbrella at home. Buttoning his shirt up downstairs while keeping the TV turned on in the background, a woman blabbing and pointing at a map dotted with glowing clouds dominating the screen, hadn’t helped, either, apparently.

Blitzmon had nothing to do with his tendency to make the same mistakes all over again, no matter Izumi herself had scolded him over that once, back when he had showed up at a meeting of their group soaking wet from head to toe…Grinning like an idiot because he believed that would magically calm her down. He hated being treated like Takuya and that afternoon she unfortunately had, which was the reason why he hadn’t been able to enjoy the rare shower of attention he had been receiving by no one else but her.

Much stronger than before, no longer sounding like someone shifting furniture by making wood legs slid and screech against the floor, the second thunder of that tempest ensured Junpei heard its roar loud and clear at that round.

Ok, ok, I get it. it’s high time I went back home.

After all he had nothing to do there.

Needless to underline how he didn’t dare to speak after that rumble, but even if he had had, his usual blabbing would have come out in the form of incoherent stutters, even worse than the ones he had been fighting against for hours. To the boy who’s still deathly afraid of the voice of the skies, those shouts would almost sound deafening, like the steps of giant dinosaurs created by special effects in those documentaries he often enjoyed watching; like the prelude to an imminent end of the world.

Thus, petrified yet trembling at the same time, - out of both terror and cold-, unable to go further or back, he stood still in the heart of that cascade seeming to have gained tonnes in weight. Water was getting heavier, thicker, freezing, infiltrating not only in his shoes and socks, but also in the opening spaces of his gakuran.

If he was restored to his mobility, he was sure he would stay where he was, maybe exploiting that silent bless just to crouch down and sigh, because the subsequent, abrupt drop of temperature was brought by a mist of condensation quickly swallowing his surroundings in a humid blur. He had paradoxically got lost in a place he knew pretty well. Though he was aware in what exact spot he was, he found himself getting progressively confused about which direction would have led him to the station in brighter, -literally and figuratively-, circumstances. Whether he headed for right or left, or took the path behind him ,whose contours were fading in the spectral greyness in leaps and bounds, it wasn’t granted he wouldn’t disappear as well, swift hypothesis that made him resign to the fact he had exchanged his rationality for a mush of nonsense.

Like usual, nothing new there. No matter how often he would keep on getting caught in the storm, he would always go through all the stages of that descent into the most recondite parts of his brain: it was precisely in those moments when he tossed the crumbs of his common sense away like bread thrown at pidgeons, he would understand why they had been secluded in such depths.

In most cases he would manage to snap out of it by himself. The puzzle his present had transformed into would tidy its tiles; the shivers running up and down his body would start making him feel more alive than ever; his orbs, which had been wide open for the whole time being, would feel like having just come out from the darkness to make him realize there was another kind of fog that should concern him more than the one hovering over Shinjuku, and he would need to dissipate it as soon as possible before he developed a cold or worse.

He would with his willpower, his hands, or…An umbrella.

An umbrella that wasn’t his, of course. Although he was in that emaciated state, he could have never had doubts about that.

The metallic tip pointed at his chest, piercing through the pall of moisture like a sword, didn’t obviously belong to him.

He blinked at the item suspended in the air, exclusively focusing on its cylindrical shape as if it was being held by an invisible ghost and not by a tall man in the flesh. It could be stated he was ignoring that silhouette on purpose, not finding it reassuring to acknowledge the only elements of the enviroment that were clearly visible were that stranger and his two umbrellas, -the one he had unsheathed against him and another perched on his shoulder to protect his well-combed strands from the rain. His blonde strands.

“Prendi,” To him, it was much easier to convince himself an umbrella had just spoken with a tenebrous tone, -in italian, nonetheless!-, than accepting that man, an ordinary human, had. “Oh! I’m talking to you,” Still, Junpei’s foolish intent became increasingly harder due to those tugs given to the item to highlight the peremptory message. “Will you grab this umbrella, per l’amor del cielo…? Oh mio Dio, possibile che siate tutti degli idioti?”

Now there were so many other things making him shudder: the tangible exasperation expressed in an advanced italian, almost dialectal, which he would have never been able to translate without a vocabulary, the boiling impatience clashing with the azure of peaceful mornings, wrinkles creating furrows on the surface of a wide forehead, -the type itself you would associate with men endowed with remarkable intelligence-.

No…It wasn’t weird. He might not be a great observant, -or so he was bound to believe for reasons-, but back when Izumi had decided to organize her twelfth birthday party at her place, oh if he hadn’t stared.

It wasn’t a miracle if he could still recall some specific details after years from that day, still vividly blushing at the memory of her endeared mother giggling at that Junpei-Kun being such a shy child, unlike the other boys, even someone as reserved as Kouji who had been amiably chatting with the welcoming couple, quenching their lovely curiosity’s thirst by replying to any question of theirs.

In his defence, he couldn’t help it: in spite of how different she looked from Izumi, with those soft auburn curls framing her angular features, the woman was so beautiful he hadn’t been able to keep himself from wondering Izumi would grow up in such a gorgeous adult someday. Whenever she asked him about his hobbies, he would avert his gaze and stammer on his own answer, which would make the woman gently laugh and occasionally coo.

He absolutely wasn’t like that, but he had let Izumi’s parents temporarily consider him as a polite, timid, bashful friend of their daughter. He had told himself he would introduce himself properly next time they would cross paths, but it seemed it wasn’t an urgent necessity for now, -or, perhaps, it was never going to be-, judging from his behaviour in the man’s regards.

In Signor Orimoto’s.

“Ehm…No,” He mumbled, internally screaming since he had no idea about what he was exactly doing. He chose to pick a courteous expression he had learnt to heart from a list of useful phrases any tourist going to Italy should keep in mind. The magic formula that would rescue him from his embarrassing trouble in the blink of an eye. For Heaven’s sake, what had he done? “No, grazie, S-Signor Orimoto.”

“N-no grazie?” The man predictably repeated and the echo of his own idiocies made him wish his briefcase, brimming with the most desparate, useless bits and pieces, could make him sink underground. Nevertheless, what happened was that he got dragged to the entrance of the building, under a roof which made the rain tapping turn muffled and even relaxing at some extent, -if he could just calm down!- “No grazie?! What does that even mean? Vedi se prendi questo ombrello! And hurry, please! I have to pick Izumi up.”

So, she isn’t at home. I see. This whole mess for nothing, He found himself cracking a smile of incomprehensible relief, making the adult fairly perplexed.

“No!” Waving his hands in front of his visual field, now shadowed by the tangle of his longish bangs, he attempted to recompose himself without success. He would have bowed repeatedly, if he hadn't known it would spoil his hairstyle even more. " Signor Orimoto, I thank you again, but I don’t really need your umbrella. It only takes two minutes to get to the station. I-I will be fine, no need to worry about me, eh eh.”

“I know where the station is and I still insist you do,” If he could forget that tragicomedy he was living in and mute that sort of scold, he would take his time to appreciate that unique dance of fingers of his. As collected as she wanted to be, Izumi would try avoiding being so colourful in her silver tongue as much as she could, keeping her hands on her thighs and making them hang onto them when the urge became too unbearable to control. “You can keep it until you see Izumi again. It’s just a spare umbrella. We are the ones not needing it.”

His irises , now filled not only with honey but also with uninvited melancholy, jumped back into the insubstantiality of a non-existent horizon. Though that was what he initially wanted, he didn’t get the so-longed result of succeeding at kicking some certain thoughts away.

You see, the fact is that I never get to see Izumi-Chan. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been here in the hope of talking to her after so long. But now…I’m kinda glad my plan has failed so miserably. What would have I told her if she had found me here, seriously?! How could she have believed I was just taking a stroll?! Couldn’t you have just called her, idiot?!

It came a spontaneous consequence for him to ask himself if that hadn’t been some kind of punishment for his incorrigible immaturity, his indelibile cowardice. Actually , if he could be honest with himself, in that pattern of concatenated events he could definitely identify something similar to a law of retaliation. He had been dreaming about meeting Izumi in a sunny afternoon for days, picturing her surprised response, her shining, alluring jades conveying the same happiness he was feeling, whereas in his reality he had run into her father in the middle of a pouring disaster and had also annoyed him with that attitude of his.

Again, what was he thinking he was doing?

“So you won’t accept to borrow my umbrella.”

Overwhelmed by the speed of that unappreciated stream of consciousness, he limited himself to hang his head in a willing mutism.

“You have deliberately chosen to go back to the station without my umbrella.”

Then, he raised his chin, and ,somehow, the man found that funny enough to burst into a series of entertained chuckles.

“You have retreated into the shell again, haven’t you? I guess I have insisted too much. It’s just that you boys are so reckless nowadays. You are all the same, cookie-cutter.”

“I’m n-not reckless,” At those insinuations, he couldn’t continue escaping from the direct contact with him any more. “I just…I just…” But it dawned on him it wasn’t like he had a lot of arguments to cling to, especially in front of a skilled, respected diplomat. He couldn’t really complain about how he didn’t want to be compared with people like Takuya, the only impulsive one of their group, when he was...When he was just stupid. So stupid. And now he had been left questioning if there was an actual difference between their flawed personalities. Simultaneously, he couldn’t really explain him why he had been rejecting his offer with so much determination, either.

“Yeah, it feels strange to label someone like you reckless,” After a second of startled hesitation, the man pretended to be clearing his throat with a fake cough. “But today I felt like I’ve got to get a glimpse of a side of yourself I would have never imagined it even existed.”

“You mean…The side of myself that can speak?”

He regretted having been so blunt, externalizing a wave of ashamed disgust towards those recollections they shared.

“More or less, yeah. I like finding out what you boys hide under your surface. At first I told myself Takuya acted without thinking, would hurt himself by putting his hand in fire, but then I have realized he does that because he puts his safety behind the one of those he cares about,” Like that, he went on scrolling through a past spent with Izumi’s friends, an amount of time he seemed to have greatly benefited from. At a certain point Junpei got the impression Izumi was by his side, as he was convinced there was no one else who knew them so well. Yet, he might have been wrong for all those years or, probably, it was merely one of the special gifts the family had been given. As far as concerned himself, he could only blather in that way when it came to Izumi’s endless list of good points and talents. “Kouji often gives you the impression you are bothering him, but the truth is that there are just days he doesn’t feel like being in the company of other people. Kouichi is placid, it’s soothing to chat with him, but sometimes I get the feeling he has gone through a lot and I will start pondering my words, -you know, I tend to talk a lot and my wife says I should shut up because I sound like a parrot, ah ah-. Tomoki is one of those lads you should never understeem. Of course, he’s the youngest of you all, so I used to treat him differently, if you get what I mean. I’m glad he made me notice I should have given him more credit. He’s so clever and he can also handle debates brilliantly. And finally-“

“And finally there’s me…Who can speak,” He didn’t know if he was feeling a pang of envy at those compliments addressed to the others, but he recognized he was at fault there since he had been running away from an enormous amount of chances. During his middle school years his crush on Izumi had…Changed, and a hunch would always suggest he should decline each of Izumi’s invitation at her place, bizarre as it sounded, -and bitter as it would taste later-.

“I admit I couldn’t believe to Izumi’s words when she told me you are not like that. Junpei non è cosi’, Papà. Non è cosí. Then, I asked her what you are like.”

“A-And what did she tell you?” The desire to vanish in a hole, which was supposed to take shape in the ground beneath his feet out of blue, became even more annoying after that display of excited interest. He thanked the rain for having sewn a curtain of hair on his face, as he was feeling tremendously self-conscious about the scarlet blood animating his cheeks and the lucid enthusiasm reflecting in his orbs. And could he be blamed about that? He absolutely wanted to listen to what Izumi thought about him. He was eager to find out if she had some peculiar opinion about him!

“She told me…” Since he was wavering, he didn’t intend to suspect he was manufacturing some lie not to make him curl up in his taciturnity again. “Papà, Junpei is Junpei.”

“J-Junpei is Junpei…” Well, that…Wasn’t what he was expecting. He wasn’t going to deny it, though he wasn’t sure whether he was disappointed or jealous because, like usual, the others seemed to blow her mind, her senses , and her sweet descriptions held such a grace they were structured as impalpable poetry carried by the wind. He could invent time machine, travel back in centuries and millennia to pick the first flower ever that had been bathed by dew, hurry back to give it to her and everything would be the same.

Of course, it would, because I don’t want to make Izumi-Chan fall for me by impressing her. Still…Still…Junpei is Junpei. What does that even mean…?

“I wonder if you know what it means,” As if he had read his mind, the man’s pensive comment overlapped with his internal struggles.

“No, I don’t.” But I wish I did.

“But how is it possible you don’t know who Junpei is?” Both flinched at one of those sporadic lightnings dashing down the wall of the waterfall, unannounced. “This damned thunderstorm is getting worse, isn’t it?”

“You should call Izumi to ensure she has been waiting for you somewhere safe instead of being here, wasting time chatting with me,” Almost comforted by that break fracturing that dialogue of theirs, Junpei promptly seized the moment to sneak out of that inconvenience.

“Hey, calma, calma, ragazzo. Izumi hasn’t finished her photoshot yet. She will call me when she does. And talking to you boys is never a waste of time. I want to know my daughter’s friends because I want her to be surrounded with wonderful people deserving to be part of her life. My wife wasn’t that pleased when she heard Izumi had a group of friends made up of boys. I was so happy, instead. The more people in my little pupa’s life, the better. That’s why it’s important for me to know you better day after day.”

It made sense, Junpei nodded to himself. He might not be the protective kind of father he imagined he would be, but he was legitimately worried about who Izumi hanged out with.

“I-I see,” He nodded for a second time just to fill the the void the man had left behind his speech, now caring about playing a more active role as an interlocutor.

”So…who is Junpei? May I know who he is?”

Without tossing that mess of mahogany attached to his forehead, he cautiously peeped at the man, at the way he was looking at him with those eyes encarved with the same jades whose shimmering he had been marveled by for years. It was a new-found familiarity, a welcome light generated by a very pleasant warmth. He smiled at himself, a grin of cautious pride his rebel strands would never manage to reach and camouflage. He could tell him more about himself. He wanted to, in spite of all that awkardness he would have to trudge through. After all, ridiculous or not, the awareness he didn't know who Junpei was yet didn't imply he had no idea about who Junpei wasn't. “I've recently decided I want to study opera singing. Oh, and I like playing piano. There's that too."

In the hope of discovering who he was, of course.

“Wow! Sembra tosto!”

“What?”

“Opera singing is hard. You must be really passionate to want to take such a path. What pushed you to make such a decision?”

”I-I,” His neck was going to sustain a big tomato instead of his head very soon. “I-l like i-italian. And I like entertaining people, seeing smiles or tears on their face, it makes any sense.”

”Junpei, ma è meraviglioso!” The bento he had frantically prepared in the morning took the way upwards from his stomach, once a powerful pat landed on his back. That lean man astoundingly concealed such a power in his muscles it made him trip in his own fears about him again. He kept on torturing his poor shoulder blades like that, chirping with renewed spirit. At that point the real question was who Signor Orimoto really was. “Then, it’s mandatory: you have to come home like the others do and tell me everything about opera. Would you look at how life mocks you? Years ago I would refuse to go to opera with colleagues, now my daughter has got a future opera singer as friend.”

Speaking of Izumi, an old-fashioned ring started vibrating in the pocket of the man’s elegant coat, right when he needed for providential help the most.

“Oh, it’s my little pupa!” As soon as he let Junpei go, the boy risked to fall on his knees, panting, with his tongue out. The only force preventing him from indulging in that state was his panic, immediately catching some words he would need to repress as soon as he could.

“No, please! Perfavore!” He cried, but in vain. When a father received a call from his daughter after a tough day of work, he would isolate himself from the whole universe to savour every single second spent with her.

“Izumi, you don’t know who-“

So, he resorted to other methods, simple yet, -he hoped-, effective. Italians spoke through gestures, so it would be hilarious if the man couldn’t get the meaning of his clasped hands, his frame oscillating back and forth, his gritted teeth, his,- detail he preferred omitting-, puppy eyes he didn’t even want to know what they looked like on him.

Please, I beg you, don’t tell her I came here to visit.

And Signor Orimoto back-pedalled at once, not resisting to give him a playful wink, though. “You don’t know who is probably coming to Japan…!”

He wasn’t certain if he was just imagining Izumi’s squeals guessing the mysterious guest without a shred of hint, but what mattered the most was that she would never know about what had happened that afternoon.

Still… Still, both she and her mother failed to understand why ,all of a sudden, the man started becoming a fan of opera, eventually also buying CDs to put in the background of the house’s library.

Years ago it had beem the turn of football, sport he had always detested, and videogames, -yes, videogames-, after a while he had begun watching documentaries about far and dangerous zones of the world and tv series about doctors, -the only one of those unexplainable interests he had ended up dropping very quickly-.

Signora Orimoto wasn’t that content about that new passion of her husband’s. At all. If she wanted to take an afternoon nap, she would have to plug her ears due to that music making the walls of their house quake.

…

”So, will you take this umbrella for once and for all?”

He scratched his chin, mulling over the persistent request with more affection now.

“I suppose, I will. Va bene.”

So he would find a more solid excuse to meet Izumi without making a fool of himself.

After all, Junpei was Junpei.

XXX

Italian notes (surprise, surprise~~~)

• Prendi: “Take it”

• Per l’amor del cielo: For Heaven’s sake.

• Oh mio Dio, possibile che siete tutti degli idioti?: “Oh my God, is it possible you all are a bunch of idiots?” Signor Orimoto was trying being *polite* and having tact in the regards of poor Junpei, eh XD?

Vedi se prendi questo ombrello: it’s a colloquial way to urge someone to, -in this case-, grab an offered umbrella as soon as they can.

• Junpei non è cosi’, Papà. Non è cosí: Junpei is not like that, Papà. He is not like that.

• Pupa is girl in sicilian. I like thinking Signor Orimoto enjoyed Sicily a lot, but that will be another story XD. However, it might also be connected with pupi siciliani, dolls used in the traditional theatre from there. By the way, I don’t think it’s that common as an affectionate nickname for your child, but my sicilian grandmother calls me that.

• Ma è meraviglioso! - But it’s wonderful !

[milllies]

Good afternoon or evening everyone, today I want to ult the Wriollets and speculate a little (actually bomb some people and a ship). And so, Fontaine came out not so long ago, but many of us have already fallen in love with the ship of Risley and Nevi, I want to tell you that it is very justified, then I want to try to express my thought correctly. And so, let's start with the fact that Risley is an exception for Nevillet in terms of intimacy. Canonically (it is said to the developers) that Nevi does not have close relationships with people, but as the judge himself tells us (literally from the beginning of plot 4.1) “I have close relationships with Risley" (Not exactly, but that’s the gist of it; those who have gone through the story will understand), this should already make us understand that the relationship between them is completely different, not the same as others. Next, Risley begins to talk about Nevi before introducing himself and helping us ONLY because we are friends of Nevillet, out of trust and respect for him.Only for this reason. I think that if we had come from someone else, they would have persecuted us with sled rags. The Duke himself says the following: “I am ready to do anything extra, just to prove my respect and trust in Nevillet.” This is 100% canon, let's move on.

We can see how the relationship between the Duke and the judge is again different, since Risley, one might say, was the only one who believed that he would cope with the task, again, the level of trust is extremely high. Next, the same scene with the word “wow”. Risley was really joking, BUT he did it because he is essentially such a person, and also did you see his face while he was looking at Hydro Dragon? We all saw his smile too. Admiration, that’s how I would describe it. He trusts Nevi and knows that he will do everything as needed (by the way, in the original voice acting he still breathes when he looks at Nevi).

Next, we will look at a romantic trope that is very popular in France: Two people under one umbrella in the rain. This always means something romantic. You can see this technique in the animated series “Lady Bug and the Super Cat”. In one of the episodes, Marinette did not want to leave the school building because of the rain, but then Adrian appears with an umbrella and a scene occurs between them long staring contests. As a result, Adrian gives up his umbrella and leaves, and Marinette falls in love. As we know, they are a canon couple, so one umbrella for two is a very popular romantic trope. This happened with Risley and Nevi. The Duke does not like to rise from under the water, but at the first call from the judge, he goes to talk to him in the rain and finds him standing alone on the side of the road. Risley holds an umbrella over him, two under one umbrella. (you can find this out from his voiceline about Nevillet). Can I not talk about the fact that they constantly talk about each other and tell the traveler how much they trust each other. What did I want to say? This ship has a canonical basis. More than.

But the same Risley and Clorinda do not. We know nothing at all about their relationship at all. Outside the plot, nothing is known about their relationship (and in the plot too), the creators did not bother to leave at least something. People who ship really like to take phrases out of context, “Miss Clorinda. My door,” for example. These people have to cut or glue something to make their pairing work, while Risley and Nevi shippers don't have to do anything, we've already been given everything on a platter. The only argument of Risley and Clorinda shippers is “They look good; Risley flirts with Clorinda (I didn’t see a single moment like that, maybe you can show me?). Oh, he invited her to have tea (he asked Nevi and us to stay for tea. Man obsessed with tea, leave him, he offers it to everyone)." I never heard anything intelligible, to be honest.

Just because it’s hetero, that’s all. There are no more arguments. People like to invent things that don’t exist. And why doesn't anyone talk about Clorinda and Navia? In terms of, my women deserve more attention. They make sense and their relationship is revealed to us. Clorinda is so worried about Navya and makes sure that nothing happens to her at all, my moms were finally able to go to a cafe together in a long time! They were also together in an animation about the beach. Together all the time, and more recently in the plot. I want to say one thing, you can certainly ship whatever you want, but don't tell people who ship more reasonable pairings that yours is canon simply because the characters interacted in the plot and that's it, without having any additional canon information, and everything is yours" the arguments "are made up from thin air.

Them🥰 (there should be another photo there, but alas, I didn’t download it)

[rockinlibrarian]

Post-Umbrella Academy S4 Reaction Part Four: On How to End a Story (obviously spoilery but under a cut)

Okay! I'm back and have a moment to write again! It's Field Trip Week in my real-life job which means I've been a LITTLE exhaused, and sunnymarbles has been having me dye their hair in sections each night which is taking some time as well (artists, you know). -actually I started typing this paragraph and got called to dye hair again because they're going out in public tomorrow so can't be having half-dyed hair. And I do still have work tomorrow (one last field trip!) so I ought to go to bed but DANGIT I'M SICK OF BEING INTERRUPTED FROM WRITING.

SO, when last I left you with my TUA S4 reactions, we discussed my favorite part of the season, so now it's time to discuss my least favorite part. As I said in my FIRST reaction post, I ENJOYED Season 4, right up until the very last moment.

The literal very last. Because until that moment, there was still time to turn it around.

Discussion about exactly why the ending didn't work for me, and me making shameless comparisons to Legion again, below the cut.

But see, the comparison is important this time, because both shows ended with the same cop-out twist: "Our characters have messed up SO BADLY that the only option is to completely erase the events of the show from existence!" The biggest difference, though, was that I finished Legion feeling peaceful, and thinking that if it wasn't a completely happy ending it was at least bittersweet. It was only later that I looked at the last episode and noticed the plot holes, the deus ex machina, the deliberate ignoring of earlier canon just to fit what they were trying to make happen-- it was actually a pretty messy ending.

But here's the thing-- the characters were ready. They'd all grown and learned lessons and forgiven trespasses and so forth. So I felt happy for them.

And the events of the show had been erased from existence, but time was happening over again, with the promise that THIS time things MIGHT go better. Not guaranteed. The fix-it I wrote for the end of Legion was merely putting the pieces in place to assure that.

But although the end of the Umbrella Academy was less messy plot-wise than Legion's ending, the CHARACTERS were still a mess, and that erased any feel-good feelings I could have had.

I suspect one reason I enjoyed all the rest of the season better than a lot of people was that my blorbo, Viktor, was the only one who hadn't backslid in his growth-- the only one doing relatively well, and, to be frank, the only one that really seemed to be doing anything useful to the plot in the course of the season. Everyone else was falling back on bad habits both tangibly and emotionally, getting into subplots that never reconnected to the main plot, and honestly most of them were back at the lowest points of their lives at the moment the Cleanse erased them. As I said in his essay, it would have worked if Viktor had made the ultimate sacrifice while saving everyone else, and that's because he would have been going out a hero. For everyone else it felt much more like simply giving up-- a hopeless suicide.

But again, I held out until the very end, the post-credits, hoping that they would at least, like on Legion, get a fresh start. Or if we could see them in the Afterlife working out their issues in a space that they couldn't destroy-- and it's not like this show DOESN'T canonically have an Afterlife where characters can hang out coming to peace with what their lives had been. The characters were not in the right place emotionally to end in a way that would leave the audience feeling good about it.

I feel kind of lucky that I'd already started noodling with a crossover where those characters really COULD work out their issues in...well, another universe, if not the Afterlife. Now it became all the more obvious-- the Hargreeves desperately need to end up at Summerland. They need therapy from people who specialize in people with superpowers. They need a peaceful place to chill together and reconnect into the family they kept threatening to be but somehow failed to be when the series ended. So I've got my little fix-it to work on.

But let that be a lesson for other creators. You can do an everybody-dies ending, you can reset the entire universe, but you've got to do it in a way that really involves all the characters and leaves us with a sense of hope. Otherwise, what was the point of the story you were telling? You have to end your story, not just let it fall apart. You have to convince the audience that this is inevitable.

Speaking of terrible endings, I shall now abruptly end this essay, because it's midnight and I have work tomorrow and I'm falling asleep at my computer. I will write more soon!

[alpaca-clouds]

Arcanepunk is a strange Genre

I am trying to talk more about the punk genre. I am trying.

So, let me talk about another punk genre, that is a rather strange example of the punkpunk genre. Because it is one of the rather small genres of the genre group, but the examples that exist are surprisingly strong.

Arcanepunk in general refers to a story or aesthetic, that involves both magical and technological elements. Often times we see it as a world that has some steampunk-y or teslapunk-y technology, but also uses some sort of magic. Though definitionwise there is no reason why it could not be in even higher developed. Shadowrun, which mixes Cyberpunk with magic, is often also considered as Arcanepunk.

One of the reasons that Arcanepunk can be considered rather big, for the fact that it is one of the lesser known subgenre under the punkpunk umbrella, is, that it has some entries that are rather big.

Most notably, of course, there is League of Legends, which very firmly falls into the Arcanepunk setting, and with that all media that comes out of the LoL franchise. Including - yeah, it is on the nose - Arcane.

Other big examples are the aforementioned Shadowrun, arguably some of the Warcraft lore, Warhammer, and also Pratchett's Discworld.

The irony is that for a genre that has some really big franchises tied to it, there is a lot less of other stories within the genre - and the term is just rather unknown, leading also to the fact that there is a lot less of smaller novels and comics that really lean into the genre.

Of course there is also the fact that Arcanepunk once more is not always that strong on the punk aspect.

Let me talk about League of Legends, because frankly: Out of all the big Arcanepunk examples, LoL and Shadowrun are the ones I am most familiar with.

Now, those who mostly know Arcane might actually think that it is fairly strong on the punk aspect. After all Arcane very much places an emphasis on how unjust the system of Piltover and Zaun is. While one could argue that the characters most rising up against the system are the villains, it still does show there is a need to rise up against it. And the council of Piltover is most certainly not depicted in a sympathetic light.

However, if you look at League of Legends, the lore is often a lot more... complicated. Because League of Legends has the issue of "there is no real main character". For the most part they want players feel good about playing any of the champions, but given that some of those champions are colonizers, if not just outright fascists. But again, you can play them. So they all need to be main characters of sorts. Hence: The overall narrative cannot go and say: "Actually, this is super bad and we should focus on the rebellion against it." Which would actually put more punk into the story.

It really makes me wonder, how Riot plans to deal with this going forward, given that they decided that Arcane is now part of the main canon - but I digress.

You can see a similar thing (from what I know) in Warcraft and Warhammer. Due to all the factions being equally playable, a lot of the associated media tends to be held back onto picking sides - even though it is bitterly necessary.

And Shadowrun... Oh, well. Shadowrun is another issue entirely. One that I will talk about seperately. Some day. Not today.

Well, at least there is still the Discworld series. Because those are very much on the punk side of things. After all, more than anything Pratchett was simply based.

[lxmiko]

luxiem as random things . . .

—

(continuation of the title) . . . they remind miko of

TO BE HONEST, i just needed a space to ramble and what better place to do it than tumblr as a “fanfic” (it’s more like just a bunch of random thoughts)

the bullet points are not written in a certain order!! so don’t be surprised when at one point you’re reading fluff and then the next you’re reading angst D:

enjoy!

character(s): all luxiem members

—

vox akuma

folding the corner of a page to bookmark

sitting in a movie theater by yourself

putting out a lighter with your bare hand

play fighting with puppies and when they bite you playfully

the sound of heels clacking on the ground

motorcycles and cigarettes

incense that smells sickly sweet and makes you dizzy

cheating by playing cracked games but still somehow losing

—

mysta rias

when your hair tie leaves a mark on your wrist cause it’s too tight

leather chokers

colored sunglasses

putting on eyeliner in the bathroom at the location of a gathering a few minutes before it starts

nails tapping on desks

cramming into a photobooth to take photos with your friends

convenience stores in movies where the cashier’s always extremely annoyed, thinks you’re stupid, and chews bubblegum

—

luca kaneshiro

roses and gunpowder

gold chunky jewelry

late night car rides with music blasting and potential injuries by the end of the night

untied shoelaces you tell yourself you’ll tie later

hairties that are hanging on for life

movie marathons of childhood movies and falling asleep on the couch during it all

not knowing how much of your forehead to show when putting on a beanie

—

ike eveland

rings of water left after you lift a cold drink from a table

warmly lit libraries

cupping hot drinks with both of your hands and blowing on them

lipstick dabbed away on napkins

long fuzzy socks

iredescent flowy fabric under the sun

the feeling of tears drying on your cheeks from the breeze while on a rooftop

—

shu yamino

fluffy blankets

when you get under a blanket as you’re about to sleep and it’s cool to the touch instead of warm

the color grey

the cool feeling of metal touching your skin

when a cat leans into your touch

your partner waking up and surprising a very sick you in bed with a sandwich and juice made fancy with one of those cocktail umbrellas cause they can’t cook

playing childhood games on sketchy websites because the original webs were too old and taken down or were sketchier