#and his side of the family is weird towards my mom and so I’M in a weird grey area & neither of my siblings came down for the funeral

[kitnita]

.

[withwritersblock]

More Hearts Than Mine -Meeting His Family

~More Hearts Than Mine by Ingrid Andress~ Author's Note: I forgot that Jack didn't play this game lowkey so pretend Jack is playing <3 Also I don't really like this one as much as the other one but it's still cute Summary: Y/N meets Luke's family for the first time Warning: cursing? maybe lowkey forgot Word Count: 3,128 Luke Hughes x fm!reader

It was several hours before the game even started and she was standing in the bathroom finishing up the final touches of her makeup as her heart was beginning to pound. Today was a huge day for his family. It was the second time in their careers where the Hughes brothers would be playing together. Sure, it was a big deal when Jack and Quinn did it before but now that Luke was officially on the team it's become even more exciting.

It had happened once already in Vancouver. But since this was going to be the last time this season it would occur. His parents flew out to Jersey to experience it. Which meant she would be meeting his parents and Quinn for the first time. 

Him meeting her family was a little different as her family was normal. His family was an empire. Sure, the few times they’ve briefly met on FaceTime went well. But it was completely different where she would be left alone with his parents for the entirety of the game. 

Luke was left alone for a maximum four minutes with her family the entire three days he was there visiting. Obviously there were different circumstances but it was scary. They were planning on getting a late lunch before the game started to see each other since Quinn had to leave early the next day. She delicately tapped her finger against the underbags of her eyes trying to see if the product will stay. Luke peeked his head through the bedroom door, his hair still messily laid across his forehead. 

“Hey beautiful,” he muttered as a small smile spread across his lips. She rolled her eyes as she fought off a smile forming on her lips. “We’re going to meet them at my place first and walk from there,” he explained as he leaned his body against the door frame. All she could muster up was a nod. “Baby, it’s going to be fine,” he whined out as he walked towards her, wrapping his arms around her waist. 

“Was that helpful when I said that to you last week?” she asked, her head tilting to the side. He clenched his jaw as he fought the giggle leaving his throat. “Would they be weirded out if I wore your jersey to the game?” she asked, her eyes forming a puppy dog look.

“Oh my god, please wear it,” he muttered as he delicately pressed his lips to her cheek. “My dad was trying to figure out if he was going to wear mine or Jack’s, so if you wear mine the decisions already made,” 

She squinted her eyes as she looked towards him through the mirror, “So your mom just was planning on wearing Quinn’s?” she asked a small chuckle leaving her lips. 

“She wore Jack’s last time,” he said in a shrug. Y/N began pulling away from him walking towards her dresser to add some jewelry to her outfit. 

“Remind me to stop after we have two kids, I can’t handle all that,” she said nonchalantly. She froze for a moment waiting to see if Luke would comment on it.

He simply smiled and said, “Well what if we have a kid that likes theatre and not sports?”

“Well, then I’ll consider having another one,” she mumbled, avoiding his eye as she struggled putting on the necklace. Luke walked towards her, taking note of her struggling. She pulled her hair away from her neck as he also struggled to get the necklace on. But she didn’t mind, she liked him being that close. 

“So you want at least two kids?” he questioned as he finally settled the necklace. She spun around and met his gaze shyly.

“I’m sorry I said that, it’s too early-”

“No it's not,” he said as he rested his hand on her cheek, “It’s good we talk about those things now,” he let out before he delicataely pressed his lips to hers for a brief moment. “So, two kids?” 

“Three,” she let out with a smile. He nodded as they started walking out of her bedroom.

“Three’s a good number, we know that very well,” he said as he chuckled slightly. 

“How many kids do you want?” she asked him as she watched him grab his keys from the kitchen countertop. He shrugged.

“However many you and your uterus decide,” he said in a teasing tone as he checked his phone. She barked out a laugh. “Come on, Jack’s getting hangry,” he mumbled as he took a hold of her hand guiding through her apartment building.

~

They stopped just outside of his apartment door, when he started to turn the door knob, “Wait,” she mumbled. He shifted his gaze towards her bright eyes. She was taking unsteady breaths, “What if they hate me?” she asked barely above a whisper. His eyes widened as he shook his head. “I mean, I’m the first girl you’ve brought home, what if-” he shut her up by taking a hold of her cheeks and kissing her. She felt her body relax as he kissed her. “Huh, that really does work,” she mumbled as she pulled away.

He nodded his head, “Like magic,” he said with a dramatic wink before he pushed the door open. He rested his hand onto her lowerback as he guided her into the apartment. 

“Fucking finally, I’m starving. Can we go?” Jack said as he jumped up from his sitting position on the couch. Luke rolled his eyes as he kept his hand on her lowerback as they walked past the kitchen. His parents stood up from the couch with wide grins on their lips. Quinn remained on the couch, shyly watching his youngest brother show off his girlfriend. 

“Jack, it’s not about you, remember?” his father jokes. Jack huffed as he sat down back where he was sitting before. 

“I told you guys, she’s cool. Do we really need to do this whole thing?” Jack muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. Y/N smiled softly as she scanned the apartment.

“Yes, we see a new girlfriend of yours like every two months. Y/N must be pretty special if Lukey wants to bring her home,” Ellen said as she walked towards Luke giving him a big hug before she walked towards Y/N to give her one as well. “Oh, you smell lovely,” 

“Thank you,” Y/N mumbled, unsure of how to react to the land of royalty she was in. She was being dramatic but now she feels guilty for giving Luke so much grief of him being afraid to meet her family. His father walked towards the pair giving Luke a huge hug before he walked towards Y/N giving her a brief hug. 

“How was your morning?” Ellen asked Y/N and she took a hesitant breath. The quick conversation she had with Luke regarding the possibility of kids popped in her mind. She wasn’t going to say that.

“It was good! We stopped and got coffee in the coffee shop in my apartment building before we got ready to come over here.” she replied with a smile on her lips. 

“Oh what’s your drink?” Ellen asked as Luke wandered towards the center of the living room to see Quinn eyeing Y/N and his parents. 

Quinn would never admit it but he was overly protective over Luke. He was the definition of the older brother role to a T. “You gonna stop being an ass and meet my girlfriend?” Luke asked teasingly as he kicked his leg against Quinn’s shin. Luke turned his head around to see Y/N talking happily with his parents. His heart fluttered slightly at the sight. 

“Was starting to think you didn’t know what a girlfriend was,” Quinn chirped as he stood up from the couch to wander towards his parents and Y/N. 

Luke smiled half heartily as he wanted towards the group as well. He quickly planted himself beside her, looping his arm around her waist. She was tense and nervous and feeling his arm around her body calmed her down.

“I’m Quinn,” he let out as he reached his hand out, she responded by shaking his hand. “Luke says your brother plays hockey?” he asked. She nodded dramatically. 

“Yeah, he’s a goalie,” she mumbles. Quinn nods before Jack lets out another loud dramatic groan. 

“We should probably feed him,” Ellen mumbles as she awkwardly bumped her arm against Y/N. 

“Thank you, my God,” he groaned as he stood up from the couch, heading straight towards the front door. 

His family exited the apartment, practically in a line with Luke and Y/N hanging in the back as he hand did soothing circles across her lower back. “Are you doing okay?” he whispered as they were in their own bubble as his family were joking together a few feet ahead of them. 

“Pretty sure I can’t breathe, but I’m okay,” she let out as they walked closer to his family to get engaged in the conversation. He rolled his eyes playfully as they walked towards the restaurant that was only two street lights away. 

“When did you move to the city?” his mom asked her as they continued down the street towards the restaurant.

“I moved here when I was eighteen, I’m studying to be a secondary teacher,” she explained. 

“Any specific speciality?” his dad asked. 

“I think I want to do more math or sciences, I haven’t really decided which side I want to go yet,” 

They walk into the hole-in-the-wall rustic restaurant in a huge group, Quinn already called ahead to reserve a large booth for them to eat at. It was a typical pub place, some limited things on what the boys could eat before the game but it was close. The hosts guided them to the back corner of the restaurant where there were corner booths that could hold up to eight people. 

Luke guided her into the booth so she would sit between him and Jack, the two people she was comfortable with. Quinn scooted in beside Luke, allowing his parents to sit beside Jack. Luke quickly began running his hand up and down her thigh trying to calm her down. 

“This place is cute, do you guys come here often?” Ellen looked between the three of them. 

“If we win, we usually get dinner here,” Jack said as he flipped the menu open.

“Y/N and I’ve come here a few times for lunch,” Luke said as he smiled towards his mom. She smiled softly towards her youngest as she dropped her gaze towards her menu.

“What do you usually get, Y/N?” his dad asked. 

~~~

She stood in Luke’s bathroom as she adjusted her makeup from earlier in the day. Luke stood beside her as he contemplated on wearing a hat with his dark blue checkered suit he was wearing. He leaned behind Y/N and threw the hat through the doorway to land on his bed. He sighed as he turned on the faucet to get his hair slightly wet. 

“You okay?” she asked as he took in a sharp breath as he ran his fingers through his hair. He sighed, avoiding her gaze.

“Hate playing against Quinn,” he mumbled as he then begna to take a hold of some gel to run through his hair.

“You guys will do great,” she reassured as she dropped her mascara back into her makeup back. She took a small step towards him as she delicately rested her hand onto the center of his back as she ran reassuring circles. 

“He’s fucking rockin’ right now-”

“So are you,” she muttered as she pressed her lips against his shoulder as she met his gaze in the mirror. He smiled softly as he saw his mom lurking beside the door, his cheeks flushing red. Y/N pulled away from him as she began fixing her hair slightly.

“Mom,” he let out breathily as he shook his head. She smiled awkwardly as she chuckled nervously. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you two,” she said as she raised her eyebrows excitedly, “There’s a lot of family and friends that decided to come to the game. Suite’s going to be a bit more crowded than I thought. Just wanted to give you and Y/N a heads up,” she said as she tapped her hand against the door frame before she walked out of his bedroom. Y/N’s eyes widened as she shifted her body towards Luke. His own eyes went wide.

“It’ll be fine!” he offered as he quickly wrapped his arms around her body and pulled her closely to his. 

“Lukey! If you are not ready in five, I’m leaving without you!” Jack shouted from the living room. Luke pulled away as he leaned down and pressed his lips against hers urgently. She responded by running her hand along the base of his neck.

“That’s a handy new trick,” he mumbled against her lips before he pulled away from her and looked back at his own reflection. His entire body relaxed as he took a deep breath. “It’ll be okay, it’ll be fine,” he let out trying to convince himself and Y/N. He quickly kissed her cheek, “Bye, my love, I’ll see you after the game,” he said, meeting her gaze before he walked out of the bathroom. She smiled towards him before looking back into her own reflection.

She was prepared to spend hours alone with his parents but multiple family members, extended family he rarely even sees. It was terrifying. 

As she was applying lip gloss, his mom entered the bathroom again. A nervous smile on her lips. “Luke said you were gorgeous but you are even more pretty in person,” she said as she looked into Y/N’s eyes through the mirror. 

Y/N’s heart hit hard against her chest as she tilted her head to the side. “That’s really sweet, thank you,” she mumbled as she brushed her hair away from her face. 

“Does he treat you well?” she asked.

Y/N turned her gaze towards his mom and smiled softly. “He’s a gentleman and kind and he makes me laugh. I’m not saying this just to say it when he genuinely makes me a happier person,” she explained, her voice cracking up slightly as she spoke. 

“After every game he brings me a singular rose to add to my vase in the kitchen. Even on road trips, he’ll bring back a few roses. I’m not even sure how he gets them, we travel to the arena together a lot and somehow after he leaves the locker room he has a rose in his hand!” she said chuckling, Ellen began laughing too, “I’m sure he gets one of the interns to get it for him or he has a secret stash in the locker room. I have no idea.”

Ellen pulled her into a hug as she sniffled slightly, “Had no idea he was such a romantic.”

~~~

The game ended in a disappointing loss for the Devils but it hurts a little less only because it was Quinn’s team. Luke’s parents and Y/N were waiting for Luke and Jack to leave the locker room when Quinn jogged towards the three of them. 

He hugged his parents, “I’m glad you guys were here,” he said as he pulled away. He walked towards Y/N giving her a hug as well. She hesitantly returned the hug as this was the first time Quinn truly acknowledged Y/N’s presence, “He’s smitten over you,” he whispered against her hair before he pulled away. She felt her cheeks heat up at the sentiment. 

“Good game, son,” Jim muttered as he slapped his hand against Quinn’s arm. Quinn smiled before he dropped his gaze.

“We’re flying out soon, I wanted to say goodbye before I bolted out of here,” he muttered before he hugged his parents again. Y/N tuned out the conversation as she watched a few of the Devil’s players leave the locker room. It was usual for Jack and Luke to emerge later in the crowd especially after a loss. “It was nice meeting you, Y/N!” he shouted as he jogged back towards the away team locker room. 

After a few more minutes Jack and Luke began walking out of the locker room in the same suits they wore heading into the game. Luke walked out holding out a singular rose with a blush spread across his cheeks.

“You weren’t kidding,” Ellen let out as Luke continued towards Y/N. She glanced towards his mom before she walked towards him.

She gladly took a hold of the rose as she gave him a hug, “I’m sorry about the game,” she mumbled as she pulled away. He shrugged before he pressed his lips to the side of her head before he walked over and met up with Jack and his parents.

“They’re disgusting,” Jack muttered as they continued towards the parking garage, Jim and Ellen laughed as they gave Luke a quick hug before they walked towards their cars.

~~~

She had stepped out of the shower, running her fingers through her hair as she started to walk towards the living room when she overheard Luke talking in his living room.

“You like her?” he asked his mom.

“Luke, she seems perfect for you. She’s a little shy like you but she makes you happy, right?” Ellen offered. Y/N smiled to herself, feeling her heart swell. 

“You have no idea, Mom,” he let out with a huff of air. 

Y/N walked away from the door towards the bed as she slowly laid down onto the mattress, she smiled to herself.

After another ten minutes, Luke snuck into the bedroom, a hoodie covering his body with a pair of black sweatpants. He shut the door delicately behind him, standing by the door he stared towards her with such admiration. She met his eye as she watched him pull his lips between his teeth.

“What?” she asked softly as he shook his head. He excitedly jumped onto the bed, she erupted in giggles as he submerged her body beneath his. “What are you doing?” she asked as he rested his head onto her chest. He slowly ran his hand up and down her side.

“I just feel like I haven’t seen you,” he muttered as he delicately pressed his lips against her exposed collarbone. Her hands slowly ran through his curls that were damp from the shower he took earlier after the game. “I miss being alone with you,” he muttered as he shut his eyes. She hummed as she delicately pressed her lips against his forehead.

[luveline]

Hi, I’ve never sent a request before so forgive me if this sounds weird I’m still learning how to use Tumblr lol but what if Eddie and reader go to Roan’s school for parent-teacher conference and her teacher shows them something Roan wrote or made expressing how much she loves her new mom and her new little family🩷 and reader cries from how happy and loved Roan and Eddie make her feel🥹

ty for ur request, it doesn't sound weird at all! eddie and roan —you and eddie attend roan's PT conference, stepmother!reader, 1.2k

You hide from the biting winter wind in Eddie's side. “Is it supposed to be this cold?” you ask. 

“You sound surprised. It's December,” he says, though he puts his arm over your shoulders to cover as much of you as he can. “I told you to wear a coat.” 

“The coat ruins my outfit,” you say. 

“You being cold ruins the outfit.” He nods towards the step up into the school building. “You could say the outfit ruins what's underneath–” 

“What's wrong with you?”  

“An appreciation for my wife?” 

“Stop saying that, you're confusing people. Steve asked me last night if we got married in private–” 

“You're always talking to Steve,” Eddie complains, “he doesn't even call me anymore, he just wants to talk to you.” 

He'd called to ask if he was still babysitting, actually, but Eddie wouldn't know that because he and Roan had been playing monsters at the time, speaking to each other in gruff tones while they made sandwiches for dinner. 

“You have a problem.” 

Eddie can't decide whether to bicker or dote, squeezing you tightly, a promise about new problems lost to the growing ruckus of the elementary school after hours. Some parents have brought their children, but the majority stand chatting in lines to see the teachers. You and Eddie have come through the main entrance of the building rather than the side door where Roan enters, and the walk to Mrs. Lundy's room is longer than usual, though far from unpleasant. Light shines through the windows where a rainbow of creatures have been painted, leaving glowing shapes of apricot, cerulean, and lilac on your skin as you pass. 

“You're like a Christmas tree,” Eddie says. 

“I just need some tinsel.” You point at the decorations hanging from Mrs. Lundy's doorway. “Like that.” 

“You want some tinsel? I'll get you some tinsel, baby, just give me a minute. And maybe distract her.” 

You refuse to help him steal from Mrs. Lundy, and spend your time in line waiting with his hands held firmly in yours to prohibit any theft. Eddie moans about being jailed but is otherwise content. He quite likes it, actually, rearranging your fingers to stroke your knuckles. 

Mrs. Lundy is smiling, happy to see you and brag about your girl. She starts with Roan's general education, her behaviour, her grades, though this young she doesn't have grades so much as milestones. Roan is smart but no wizz kid (not that you care), she's kind (but not always good at sharing), she's loud, and rambunctious, a great artist, and she's very, very happy. 

“She talks about your wedding all the time. Every day. She tells us she's going to be the flower girl, and the best man, and that she has a beautiful dress.” Mrs. Lundy beams. “She's walking on sunshine.” The teacher's smile turns soft, almost wistful. “Well, she's Roan. You know what she's like better than I do.” 

Your cheeks ache with pride. 

“She's a good kid,” Eddie says. 

“Yes!” Mrs. Lundy reaches across the desk for a turquoise-coloured folder. “There was actually something I wanted to share with you both… You know we have creative writing assignments, and obviously we help them with making real sentences, but what she has to say is very much of her own volition.” 

Mrs. Lundy pulls a sheet of paper from the folder and puts it down in front of your hands. “The prompt was what makes you happy,” she says. 

The first sentence is simple. 

My mommy. 

A drawing of you decorates the page above the lines, so clearly you, your smile wide and pink. 

My mommy is kind and I love her. Dad sayd the wedding is speshul becase he loves her, but she will be my mom. She makes me so happy. Mommy says she loves me all of the time, and she brushus my hair. My best part of the day is when Y/N comes home and hugs me. We are so happy, and Lucky gets dinner. I love my dad too, and Uncle Wayn. 

Her spelling errors have been corrected in green pen, and her backwards letters are written forwards for her to copy. You read the entire paragraph in a blur, thinking about how long it must've taken her to get it all down, nearly an entire page in her bubbly handwriting, big letters running off of the page. 

“Needless to say,” Mrs. Lundy says, “that most children write about their families, or their pets, or their toys. But Roan was extremely focused on the word love. She's clearly going home to a loving home every night.” Mrs. Lundy smiles at Eddie. You nearly miss it, reading the paragraph again, and then a third time. 

“Can I take this?” you ask, clearing your throat, tears brewed and bobbing on your waterline, desperate to be shed. “Is that okay?” 

Eddie laughs and elbows you in the arm. “Come on, it's hardly news.” 

You wipe your eyes before you can cry in front of them both. “I'm sorry, just– can I?” 

Mrs. Lundy beams again, emphasising the well-worn smile lines at the corners of her lips and creasing beside her eyes. 

You hold it together well for a little while. Eddie talks over your wobbly silence, a hand on your shoulder, assuring Mrs. Lundy that you're all, in fact, very happy, and he's just glad that Roan is being a good student and friend to her classmates. Mrs. Lundy's kindness and Roan's love letter to you has knocked you entirely off kilter, and you're crying before you've reached the car. They're happy tears. 

“Come on,” Eddie says, taking the paper you've folded carefully from your fingers as they clench. “She's said nicer to you in person.” 

And sure she has. Roan loves hitting you with the saccharine when you're not expecting it. Drying her hair after bath time, totally distracted, she'll kiss your cheek and say, “You're so pretty.” She sprinkles I love you's wherever they'll fit like her dad does, and she shows it with little gifts and cuddles and invitations. Y/N, do you want to have a fashion show with me? Y/N, can we have ice cream in bed? Can I do your hair, please, mommy? 

“It's different. It's different,” you insist, scrambling to find the words. “She's…” You rub your eyes. Your makeup is smudging, but you can't help it. “I don't even know what to say.” 

Eddie shrugs. Lean shoulders, a loving arm behind your back, the car in sight but getting no closer, he comforts you in the middle of the parking lot while the passing headlights kiss your shoes. “You know how much she loves you, babe. This is a good thing, right? You're not upset?” 

“Not upset,” you clarify. 

“Okay, good. Is this a bad time for me to say that I am profoundly jealous right now? I used to get all the drawings and cards, I used to get Mother's day gifts. I have a mother's day card up in the attic… might have to get it out,” —he kisses your cheek— “just to cope.” 

You laugh through a sniffle. “Let's go get it,” you say. 

He presses Roan's assignment back into your hand. “You can keep that one, but don't get it out around me. I'm serious.” 

[igotlovestruck]

not me! [ lando norris ]

[ 𝗣𝗔𝗜𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦 ] — dad!lando norris x mom!reader . ⊹ ✶ ㄔ 🫂 °.   *

[ 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗗 𝗖𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗧 ] — 782 words . ⊹ ✶ ㄔ 📲 °.   *

[ 𝗗𝗘𝗧𝗔𝗜𝗟𝗦 & 𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦 ] — fluff, comedy . ⊹ ✶ ㄔ ℹ️ °.   *

࣪˖ 💭 .. 𝗘𝗬𝗔’𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗦 ⌕ another one from baby reveal 📸 and first written fic for 2024! 😆

this work is purely fictional. names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. © httpsuniverse, 2024. do not steal, repost in other platforms, translate and/or claim this work as your own.

“alright, milk’s in the fridge. burp him after giving him that, make sure to do it gently or he’ll vomit on you. i made food for you as well, so just reheat that in the microwave.” you instructed your boyfriend of 4 years as you fix your bag last minute. “i know you don’t need it, but this is the number of any emergency services. you have mum, max and dad’s number, right? call them if you can’t reach me.”

“yes, babe.”

“okay, good. now let’s talk diapers–”

lando stands up from his seat and walks behind you, planting a kiss on your shoulder before hugging you from behind. “i got this, baby. don’t worry.” he says, “me and luke will have fun today, nothing to worry about. i’m his dad and i know for sure i can handle taking care of our baby.”

you sighed, finally zipping your bag and titled your head so you could look at lando. “i know you can, but it’s just… it’ll be the first time i’m spending almost the whole day without luke. it feels weird.”

“only without luke?”

“lando, i have spent many days without you by my side. most of them because you travel around the world while i finished university back then, not to mention we were in a long distance last 2020.” you reminded him, it was crazy to think that 2020 was four years ago and back then, your relationship with lando was just starting. it was a challenge for the both of you, but having known each other since kids (all thanks to your brother), you managed to get through it. but today, lily offered to take you out on a little date while oscar was with his family. “okay, the baby wipes are in the room, there are also unopened ones in the luggage–”

“babe, i’ve got this. don’t worry about me and luke, just focus on your day with the lily.” lando reassured, picking up luke from his crib and started bouncing him. “right, lukey? mummy should enjoy her day with aunt lily, tell her that we’ll be fine. we’ll be fine, mummy! daddy will do a great job!”

you let out a laugh when lando tried to voice luke, you grab your stuff before walking towards your boys. you plant a kiss on luke’s forehead and on lando’s lips, “okay, i’ll go now. lily’s waiting for me at the lobby, you sure you can do this?”

“duh, easy peasy.” lando smiled confidently, “now go, have fun with lily. don’t forget to send me pictures of your adventure in melbourne!”

within seconds, you were out of the door and it was only lando and luke left behind. luke looked at his dad, sucking on his pacifier as if waiting for lando to say something. “okay, little man… mummy’s gonna kill me if i don’t give you your milk on time so let’s just put you on your little jolly jumper here while daddy prepares your milk.”

luke stares at his dad while he puts him on his jolly jumper. when he was settled in he started bouncing and making little happy noises while lando walked to the fridge. lando smiles at his son, luke was almost 7 months old and his dad still couldn’t believe it. a little baby that’s half his, half yours, made with love and born in a loving household.

lando settled luke on his back, making sure that he was protected enough not to roll and fall from the bed. he fed luke, smiling as his baby kicks his little feet and his little hand hold the baby bottle. luke had almost half of the bottle when he lets go of it, meaning that he was done with it. lando held him up and burped him, smiling when he heard the little man’s noise. lando held luke for a while, showing him the view of their hotel and pointing out things that luke would find amazing.

“okay little man, it’s time for tummy time!” lando cheered, gently putting luke on his stomach while letting him play with the teething toy you brought. lando was grabbing the tv remote om the other side of the room, when he came back, he saw luke’s tiny middle finger standing and the others folded. “lukey! oh i gotta take a photo of this.”

lando was laughing as he took the photo, immediately uploading it on instagram for a good laugh. a few minutes later, he sees your name appearing on his phone screen. “hey baby! how’s melbourne with lily?”

“LANDO, IT’S ONLY BEEN AN HOUR SINCE I LEFT AND YOU ALREADY TAUGHT HIM BAD STUFF!”

“NOT ME!”

ynfewtrell and landonorris

liked by oscarpiastri, maxfewtrell, carlossainz55 and others

ynfewtrell well, guess i know where luke learned it from 🙃

view more comments

landonorris not me! i didn’t teach him that

ynfewtrell not me my ass

maxfewtrell 😆

landonorris we really are banning you for life max

maxfewtrell you can’t ban me for life yk

oscarpiastri which one is lando

ynfewtrell tbh, i don’t know which one... 🤔

user both are little lando norrises

user not y/n using the 🙃 emoji 😭 yk she’s pissed

user someone’s sleeping on the couch tonight landonorris

landonorris as if i’m sleeping on the couch, i just got a podium in ‘straya 😎

ynfewtrell yeah? you’re not sleeping on the couch tonight

ynfewtrell because i’m locking you out of the hotel room

landonorris not funny 😔

[beauty-and-passion]

TBOB PART 2: OF FLATLAND, EXWHYLIA AND EUCLYDIA (3/4)

Hello, everyone, welcome once again to another post about Bill’s dimension. One day this analysis will end, I promise. But today is not that day: today is the day we will talk about Bill’s family.

And oh boy if there’s a lot to talk about.

Please check all previous posts to understand this one (and the masterlist too!).

<- Previous post - Masterlist

_______________________________

PART 4: OF BILL’S FAMILY

“If you think Stan’s relationship with his family is bad, Bill’s is worse” - Alex Hirsch, NYCC 2015

_______________________________

Loved and ostracized

Everyone loved me immediately and the mayor dubbed me the “best baby of all time”, made my birthday a holiday and gave out free knives. (...) Truth is I’ve always been loved and admired by all!

Of course Bill starts telling his story with a huge. Fucking. Lie.

How can I be so sure? First of all, the hyperbolic way in which he talks about his birth as if it’s the second coming of Christ. Then, all the previous points of this endless analysis.

Considering everything we have until now, I find it very difficult that Bill’s birth was celebrated by everyone. Surely his family celebrated it - if his society is similar to Flatland’s, having a regular son would’ve been enough to make them very happy.

But also… he’s just an Equilateral. And if his world has social classes based on the number of sides, then he’s from a middle class. I doubt the birth of another Equilateral was a reason big enough for huge celebrations.

Also, let’s not forget what Bill himself said in the TBOB: you should make a new reality and a meaning for yourself. Well, what if this is the reality he made? A place where he was immediately loved and admired by everyone?

_______________________________

Scalene and Euclid

Sooo… those are the names of Bill’s parents.

Honestly? They’re interesting. Even if I’m a bit weirded out by Scalene: in the only image we have of Bill’s parents (the grayed-out triangles on thisisnotawebsitedotcom) neither of them looks like a scalene triangle. On the contrary, they both look equilateral.

It’s a bit strange, you know? As if a person has “Neanderthal” as their first name. “Neanderthal Smith” or similar. Sounds strange, doesn’t it?

While speaking of Euclid, I think it’s a nice name. It’s the same name as the dimension they lived in and no, it’s not as weird as it seems: in our world, some people have the same name as the country they’re from, so it’s not so weird.

But hey, the most important thing is that we canonically have the names of Bill’s parents! We know he had parents and we know details of his relationship with them!

And this raises A LOT of questions.

Let’s start with his mother: we know she loved him, at least a little bit. She sang him lullabies and told him she loved him, despite his strange eye. So we can be sure at least one of his parents didn’t mind his deformity so much.

Also, this part in TBOB after Bill and Ford's breakdown, in which a very, very drunk Bill talks to his mom:

“I’m gonna be back from school soon, don’t forget to cut out the crust off my sandwiches or I’ll —”

I don’t know you, but to me, this sounds like the threat of a spoiled child. Something like “cut the crust off or I’ll throw a tantrum”. And yes, this implies Bill was a spoiled child - or at least, a child who considered himself above others, mother included. So yes, I can imagine him throwing a tantrum at his mother for something stupid like some crust on his sandwiches.

But again, even more questions! How was his mother towards him? Was she submissive? Was she combative? Was she ready to answer to every little whim of her son like a Flatlander Woman or did she ask for some respect? Considering how bratty Bill is, I'm more prone to believe she was very lenient towards him.

While speaking of his father, I find it very fascinating that we know absolutely nothing about Bill’s relationship with his father. We know his mother loved him (maybe to the point of spoiling him too much)… but his father? Did he care about Bill? I suppose so, considering Bill visited a doctor (unless it was his mother’s decision only, but I doubt it).

And about his job: was he a Tradesman? Bill attended school, but was school supposed to teach him about his future job too? If not, then this was up to his parents, right? Presumably, it was his father’s job to teach Bill how to be a Tradesman, a bit like in the Flatland society. If that’s the case, then why we don’t have any information about this? Why no memory at all? Bill seems to care about his father too - if we assume that the top hat he has was his father’s. So at least he cared enough to keep something of him.

Was his father a bad guy? Was he cruel? Or was he so blinded by society’s rules to torture his son and think he was doing it for his good? In that case, I would understand why he did everything he did - but beware: understanding doesn’t mean accepting. It would be a bit like Filbrick Pines’ situation: I can get the reasoning behind his actions, but that doesn’t make him Father of the Year. Maybe it’s the same for Bill’s father. This wouldn’t be the first parallel between Stanley and Bill, after all.

_______________________________

An Irregular masquerading as Regular

Time to talk about Bill’s eye.

We can safely assume Bill’s rare mutation was having his eye on the face and not on the side - which, from the Euclideans’ perspective, meant having an eye on his insides.

Now, imagine with me: you have a child and you see that your baby has no eyes. No eyes at all, not even an eye socket. I bet you would freak out, at least a little bit. You would probably send your baby to a doctor and ask if there is something they can do.

The doctor checks the baby and gives you both good and bad news: your child has eyes and they work. But they are inside his body. In his goddamn stomach.

And if all of this isn’t enough, your child starts telling you that sure, he can see a lot of things! He sees things you cannot see - no one else can see.

Now, would you say: “Oh, no problem. He can see things no one can, so he’s fine and his eyes work well”? Or would you probably freak out even more and fear your son is having goddamn visions because he’s probably dying or has a tumor or who knows what?

I can understand why Bill’s parents brought him to a doctor. And I can understand why the doctor thought the best solution was to “blind” that eye. As far as Euclideans know, there are no “stars” and there is no “above”. It’s as if someone in our world says they can see rotating hypercubes in real life. Would you think they’re perfectly fine or question if they’re insane/growing mad/getting very sick?

So yes, even if it's insane for us, from Bill’s parents' POV, giving him medicine to make him blind was for his own good. Does that make them Parents of the Year? Hell no, they were literally blinding their own son, of course it’s terrible and insane and if someone tries to do the same they should be immediately thrown in jail. But for the rules of Euclydia’s world, this was probably the best thing to do.

And personally, I ADORE the tragedy of this. The tragedy of giving something to your son that will permanently blind him, but trying to make it at least bearable - he’s still a child, he doesn’t really understand what he’s drinking, but you think it’s for his own good, your whole world think it's for his own good, so you use something silly that he likes, like straws, because this will make the medicine - the impairment - more tolerable. Uuurgh, it’s so tragic I love it.

And it’s even more tragic, if we consider that even after billions of years, even if he talks about his doctor and the medicine as something bad that wanted to “blind” him, Bill never forgot the straws. He still loves the straws he was using so much, to the point he still gave them a place in his book.

But since there’s always room on the angst train, also think that by making him blind, Billy would’ve probably stopped talking about these visions (at least, according to his parents). And if he stopped, it would’ve been easier for him to fit into society. He would’ve followed the rules and standards. He was a Regular shape after all, so if they took away that hidden-and-yet-so-present pieces of Irregularity he had, he could’ve become a respectable member of their society. One who didn’t go around, talking about weird things no one could see. Things that were against the law.

Again, it’s not me saying this, it’s Bill:

“Technically, talking about a “third” dimension was illegal in my world.”

This makes Bill’s character EVEN MORE fascinating. He could’ve been the Apostle of the Third Dimension. He could’ve spoken to everyone, because he had something of everyone - he could’ve been a bridge between Regulars and Irregulars, because he was both. He could’ve changed his world or died as a martyr.

But in the end, he chose the third option.

And we will talk about it in the next post.

See you soon with the fourth and final post on this part.

Next post ->

(How about a coffee? ☕)

_______________________________

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[chaoticbardlady99]

She's My Religion (Part 1: She's Cold, She's Dark, She's Cynical) Astarion x F! Reader

   Hello! I have been plagued with an idea! Enjoy! This will probably be a four part story, but I am not sure just yet!

Title from song “She’s My Religion” by Pale Waves

CW: Parental death, grief, murder, domestic violence, mentions of physical abuse, mentions of emotional abuse.

Synopsis- You are a paladin under the Oath of Vengeance. You escaped the noble life that was unwillingly thrust upon you. Now, on your way to kill your evil step-father while trying to find a solution for the parasite in your head- you find out he’s promised your hand in marriage to Lord Cazador Szarr and that he’s taken your mom’s life. Looking for some comfort- you go to Astarion, but you don’t hear the words you were hoping for.

*Gif does not belong to me- could not find original owner

Karlach whoops and cheers as she releases you from a rib crushing hug- Wyll and Gale are grinning from ear to ear. You are all elated for her that Dammon was able to figure out how to cool down her engine- even if temporarily.

  You know that she doesn’t want to hear about the future and the harm not going back to Avernus will cause so you don’t say anything while Wyll tries to lecture her. You are barely listening as the two of them go back and forth, but when Wyll glances back at you with a look that screams, “Can you please help me out over here?”

  You chuckle at your close friend’s distress and shake your head at him. Wyll adores Karlach- you know he would give her his own heart if he could. He just needs to let her come to her own decision- you’d like to think that Karlach might decide to go back until they can come up with a permanent solution. However, at the end of the day, it’s Karlach’s decision. You are just as unhappy with the impending doom your bubbly companion is facing, but that is not your weight to carry.

  “Unfortunately Wyll, I am going to support whatever Karlach wants to do for as long as I can emotionally tolerate it,” you give Karlach a playful punch in the arm, “you’re not allowed to die on me, ya know?”

  Karlach rolls her eyes and smiles- pulling you in for an awkward walking side hug.

 “Don’t worry Soldier- I’m not planning on going anywhere.”

    You all begin to head back to camp from Last Light Inn when Jaheira calls you from afar, waving you over. You look at your companions and they look back at you- equally as confused. You tell them that you will catch up with them in a little bit and they leave you there alone. Cautiously, you walk towards her- she did just threaten to kill you not even 72 hours ago and what an eventful 72 hours it has been. 

  You killed a devil, almost died killing that Devil, found out Astarion’s life is in far more danger than initially thought, watched Astarion convince a weird man to drink himself to death, watched an even weirder man be inhabited by a dead lady, fought shadows, and now, Karlach can hug people. 

  Life could not be any weirder, but you gladly welcome it over the mansion you had been trapped in after your mother married your step-father. The day you escaped from there had been bliss- despite how much you miss your mother. Your mother had been of noble human blood before she met your father (an elf). After one late night tryst and falling pregnant, her title had fallen significantly. She married your father and you had all lived happily together in Baldur’s Gate. You grew up poor, but Duke Ravenguard always tried to make sure you and your family had been taken care of. You grew up with Wyll Ravenguard and you have been tight knit friends almost your whole lives. 

  Until you were 14.

  Count Bridril Von, a high Sorcerer, had not forgotten your mother nor her breaking her promise to marry him by becoming pregnant by another. After your father died, he found your mother and enchanted her to become a mindless puppet. She would break occasionally, but ultimately you were left to fend for yourself against your 9 step-siblings (5 girls, 4 boys) and Bridril Von- who enjoyed taking out all his anger and hatred for your father on you. The only times he would claim you as one of his own would be when you had competed in various competitions and won- outranking his sons. The publicity he got from having a little sharp shooter and for “raising his darling step-daughter after she so horribly lost her hero father” was incredible. You became a show pony- a pretty, malleable little thing that was forced to perform and excel so that she could be treated with basic respect.

 The minute you were able to escape the Mansion from the Hells, you ran to the docks, bought a ticket to Silverymoon, took an Oath of Vengeance, and now you are here with an illithid parasite in your head. At first you had thought you were the unluckiest person in the world when you were kidnapped by a mind flayer, but your companions have quickly made the whole journey worthwhile- Astarion especially.

  You had met him before in your previous life as a troublemaking bastard and you had had conversations before- nothing too crazy nor serious, just quips and flirting back and forth. Astarion had been at the mansion frequently or you at the palace because your oldest step-sister, Daisy Von, is (was?) due to marry Lord Cazador Szarr. It was no secret to anyone, not even Daisy, that Cazador wants to marry you due to your likeness of a long lost love of his, but you are not of royal blood. Cazador would lose his alliance with Bridril if he married his boorish, rebellious, and unwanted step-daughter- despite your many achievements. You were grateful. You didn’t want to marry the man and Daisy was foolishly smitten- she could have him for all you care. That was your mentality before you knew he was a Master Vampire.

  Your family and Astarion’s ‘family’ spent a lot of time together. Astarion had become your escort around the palace grounds because Bridril did not want you to take the spotlight away from Daisy. 

 Originally, it had been Pale Petras, but you had unceremoniously kicked him in the balls after he had said something rather unbecoming towards you and had to be physically dragged away by Leon before he tried to kill you or worse. Astarion had immediately taken a liking to you for that alone. 

  When you had stumbled upon each other at the beach after the Nautiloid crash, it had been a little over two years since you had last seen each other. Without the watchful eyes of Cazador, your friendship and romantic relationship has blossomed. 

   You had been weary at first, worried that he was just getting close to you because he knew how much it would piss off Cazador if Astarion were to be with the one person Cazador could not have. Now, you are about 95 percent sure that isn’t the case, but you remain alert- just in case. 

  You are used to being used for an upperhand in the world and you hope everyday that you are more than an advantage against Cazador to him because he truly means everything to you. 

  Which is maybe why you are quite agitated with Jaheira taking precious minutes away from you that could be spent with your love. You offer her a smile as she holds out a letter.

 “A letter? For me? Oh Jaheira, you shouldn’t have!”

   Jaheira hides her amusement behind a scowl, “it came through here magically. Rolan was able to calm down the little portal it came flying through- I suggest waiting until you reach Baldur’s Gate to be sending and receiving mail.”

   You apologize and walk towards camp, opening and reading the contents in the letter. The letter rips open your entire body and it feels like the ground is going to cave in. You read and reread the letter multiple times- standing between the edge of Last Light Inn and the edge of Camp, not even 5 feet away. 

  Tav,

  My name is Mary, I was your mother’s lady in waiting. You were always so busy that we never got the opportunity to meet. I am sorry to tell you that I only have bad news.

 The Count had received an offer from Lord Cazador Szarr two weeks ago regarding marrying you that he is not going to refuse- initially he was, but then you continued to not come home and he became bitter. 

  Cazador expressed urgency regarding getting you back to Baldur’s Gate. Bridril has hired mercenaries to hunt for you.

  Bridril killed your mother- the whispers in the castle say it was not an easy or quick death. My understanding is that you took an Oath of Vengeance so I hope Bridril is on your list. Your mother was the kindest woman I have ever had the privilege of meeting.

   I know she would want you to know that she loves you, is proud of you, is watching out for you, and knows you are off to do great things. 

  Keep vigilant and may Selune bless your path.

  -Mary

     No. This isn't happening to you. You are only days- maybe even a week or two away from going back home, killing Bridril, and freeing your mother. You were going to be a family again. You wanted to introduce her to your companions and buy a nice little home to live in with her like you used to when you were little. You were going to tell her all about your adventures, your time on the Pirate ship that took you to Silverymoon, your life there as a Paladin, and his whole fucking excursion.

   She’s gone and the wail that threatens to crack open your chest is suffocating. You quickly walk to Astarion’s tent, where you have been sleeping most nights, and he’s not there. Of all the times you really need him to not be doing anything and yet! You shove the letter back in the envelope and absentmindedly throw it to another part of the tent- not looking and not caring. Your grief feels like it may kill you and you just need to be held- to know and feel like you aren’t completely alone in the world right now. 

    After a brief chat with Halsin, you discover Astarion is hanging out with Shadowheart behind her tent. You make haste that way- hoping they won’t be too mad that you are interrupting their wine and gossip time. You had gotten back earlier than anticipated and in other circumstances you might wait until he is done, but you aren’t in your right mind. 

  You approach the tent and hear them talking on the other side, facing the forest, and sitting on a log. The tears begin to manifest in your eyes as relief floods you- you are so close to feeling okay again.

  “How bloody hard is it to nicely, lovingly tell someone that you’ve been deceiving them this whole time?”

  You stop dead in your tracks. 

  No. 

  “Look, there is no good way to say it,” Shadowheart says, “you just need to own up to it and then be honest about all of it.” 

 “Oh yes because ‘I planned on seducing you, sleeping with you, and manipulating you from the start’ is such a great opener,” Astarion scoffs, “there has to be some other way to make it flow with the rest of it. A better way to tell her.”

  “No need,” you speak up miserably, coming around the corner, “you just did. Wasn’t that hard was it?”

  Astarion and Shadowheart look absolutely shell shocked to see you standing there. Astarion looks like he’s about to throw up as he gets up and looks at you softly, a pleading, panicked look in his eyes.

  “Darling!” he says, getting up, laughing nervously“you’re back early. I- can we-”

  “Whatever we are,” you say with a glare, tears now pouring and with as much hatred in your voice as you can muster, “or whatever you were pretending I was to you- it’s over.” 

  Astarion’s entire face falls while he’s staring at you and he looks like he might cry, he opens his mouth, “Darling, pl-”

   Shadowheart looks like she is about to speak up for him too, but you are far too angry, far too hurt- far too lonely right now in the world to let yourself be tricked into staying with him. They are best friends, she’s probably in on it too. 

 “No! I hate you so much!,” the venom in your voice being watered down by your anguish, “I hate you more than I thought I could ever hate anyone- undead, dead, or alive! I trusted you and you used me for your own gain- so unkindly, go fuck yourself!”

   You spin around on your heels, race over to your tent, and tie the flaps tightly shut. You slump to the ground and just sob- grabbing your mother’s old blanket that you had stolen before you left. You scream into it silently and all the pain in your body is threatening to make you burst apart at the seams. You wouldn’t be surprised if you did. 

  In less than an hour you have lost your mother, Astarion, and potentially your freedom. Astarion had used you to get one up on Cazador and he succeeded. Now that he knows what Cazador’s ritual is- he’s decided he’s done with you and every step you make has to be done cautiously because one slip up and you are going to be the consort to a fucking Master Vampire after fighting to avoid this for so long. All because Astarion just had to poke the bear. 

Astarion signed your fate using your blood as ink.

   Your throat is raw and your head is pounding by the time your lungs feel like they know how to properly breathe again. You hear someone knock on one of the wooden beams of your tent and you scoff.

  “It’s just me Tav,” Wyll says softly, “can I come in.”

     You get up and untie the tent flaps numbly. You look at Wyll, eyes puffy and red- your face streaked with tears. As Wyll walks into your tent, you get a glimpse of Astarion looking crestfallen as you invite Wyll in. You just scrunch your nose up in disgust at him before closing your tent. 

    Wyll is sitting down on your bedroll and you sit down right next to him- both of you looking at the ground. Wyll gently puts his hand on top of yours and smiles at you with his signature gentle, I’m here, grin.

 “My mom’s dead, Wyll.”

  “What?” 

 “Bridril killed her. She had snapped out of whatever hold he had on her when he agreed to marry me off to Cazador,” you choke out between sobs, “he killed her for trying to protect me. Now? I am officially going to be married off to a Master Vampire the minute I step foot in Baldur’s Gate if Bridril has his way.”

  “Oh Tav…”

 “And then! To make matters even worse?,” you look at him with disbelief and your voice sounds borderline hysterical now, “I overheard Astarion and Shadowheart prepping his ‘I’ve been using you this whole time and I’m ready to break-up’ speech. He was trying to figure out how to be nice about it.”

  Wyll stares at you with bewilderment. He is absolutely silent as you break down sobbing again, but he pulls you into him and you put your head on his shoulder.

  “I fe-feel so alone,” you manage to say coherently, “and so frightened.” 

  “I know you do my dear friend,” Wyll strokes your hair as make a mess of his shirt, “but you have Karlach, Gale, Lae’zel, Halsin, Scratch, and even an Owlbear Cub for Gods sake!”

  You smile at the emphasis on your rather dangerous furry friend. Wyll had asked what you were going to do with him when you got back to Baldur’s Gate and when you didn’t have a plan- both of you were a little horrified. You both decided to send it to Daisy as an engagement present once it’s big enough to stomp on Cazador and Daisy mid-wedding.

  “And besides,” Wyll says, “you’re my closest friend. I won’t allow you to be alone nor face this alone. I’m probably the best monster hunter you know.”

 “You are also the only monster hunter I know.”

  Wyll rolls his eyes and smiles brightly at you, “That’s besides the point, but I am going to let you sleep. You look like you need it.” 

   Wyll places a soft kiss on your forehead before he leaves your tent.

  “Thank you Wyll.”

    He turns around and smiles, “Any time Tav.”

_________________________________________________

Tag-list: @spacebarbarianweird @domainoflostsouls

[sunlightmurdock]

My Future In You | 2.2 | Bradley Bradshaw x Reader

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Masterlist

Synopsis: Bradley’s twenty-two years old and not where he’s supposed to be. He’s supposed to be out of the academy by now. Instead, he’s retaking his senior year of college and praying to god that he gets into flight school. Mav’s gone, his mom’s gone. He’s mad at the world. Then, a hook up at a Halloween party changes his future even more than he could have imagined.

Warnings: accidental pregnancy, references to abortion in a few chapters, angst, will be fluff eventually, enemies to lovers kinda thing, requited love but they’re idiots your honour, smut, pinv, unprotected sex, mentions of pregnancy / birth complications

…

A little past 1am, legs stretched out ahead of you, draped across Bradley’s legs. Some old straight to TV movie playing, giggling like a couple of teenagers. Bradley loudly voices his complaint as he picks up a m&m that had been thrown at his forehead.

He’s in just a pair of shorts, his hair dry now and his curls a little shorter than normal. Navy regulations. You kind of miss the length that he used to have on the back and sides, but this look suits him too.

“I’m just saying, you’re the one who fucked my roommate.” You shrug, mock-nonchalantly, and pretend to focus back on the movie in front of you. It’s some dumb story of a small town cowboy.

In the mood for dramatics tonight, Bradley throws his head back and groans.

“Before I even met you!” He chides, sitting forwards and snatching the candy from you before you have opportunity to turn any more of them into projectiles.

“Then you texted her after you’d already knocked me up.” You remind him, playfully calm.

“Ah, ah — She texted me, it’s not like I would’ve fucked her again — and let’s not forget that you had a whole boyfriend until you were in your second trimester.” Bradley points out.

“And stop saying knocked up. Makes me feel weird.” Grumbling like a discontented teenager, Bradley nudges your leg with his so that you have to look at his face and see his little frown.

All of that seems so far away now. Ryan. Your roommates, who you’ll probably never see again. Christmas with your family. You’ve barely even thought about it all since you got here.

“I’m sorry, Bradley — how should I be phrasing it?” You tease.

His lips tug at the corners, threatening to disrupt his dramatic frown and disarm his little act. A small shrug of those broad, tanned shoulders.

“All those couples at the parenting class keep saying ‘when we found out we were expecting’. That works.”

“Mm, but when I found out I was expecting I cried for three days and when you found out you implied that I was a whore and offered me money. Our story doesn’t really sound like theirs’.” You remind him. He presses his lips together in a line. That feels so far away now too.

He remembers the anger he felt towards you back then, which is a complicated thing in itself. He remembers why, and how — and everything about that first week, actually. He remembers being so furious at you for making that choice without him. A complete stranger, complicating his future when he had just stepped out of his complicated past.

The anger still makes sense to him. He doesn’t feel it anymore, he isn’t proud of the way he acted, but he can look back now and know that it was all just fear.

Going from being a scared little boy and looking after a sick mother, to being an adult and having nothing to care for but himself, to then meeting you. It hadn’t felt fair to have that all stripped away before he had started it.

But now, when he thinks of this living room being empty, or that small room being an office instead of a nursery, it makes this all seem so much more bleak.

The movie credits roll, leaving you even more confused about what the plot was supposed to be. Bradley sits up and pushes himself onto his knees, then parts your legs for him to dip between. You’re sighing softly now, contented as he presses his lips to yours.

“I don’t think you’re a whore,” He mumbles against your mouth, making you chuckle softly against him. “And I’m glad that I knocked you up, for the record.”

Another soft chuckle. He presses his lips warmly to your skin. Cheeks, jaw. A gentle tour of your face.

“You are?”

“Yeah, you’re hot pregnant,” Bradley beams at you, earning himself another little laugh. “And — y’know, I’m excited for the kid too.”

Looking up at him, your fingers circle over his smooth, freckled shoulders. A few moments of silence pass between the two of you before a commercial comes on and disturbs the bliss.

“Time to put the baby to bed, don’t you think?” He asks. You glance down at your swollen stomach and back up at your new boyfriend. Smiling at him, you give a defiant shake of your head.

“We aren’t tired.” You decide.

A soft groan and he cups your belly in his hands, feeling soft fluttering kicks to unfortunately support your claims. Smile growing into an embarrassingly amused beam, you watch Bradley as he pushes your shirt up and peppers kisses across your stomach.

“Tell him to give his old man a break, some of us have to be up in a couple hours,” Bradley murmurs into your skin, earning himself an applause of his new favourite sound. He looks up grinning at your laughter. “What?”

“You, being somebody’s old man,” A quick scrunch of your nose and a shake of your head, laughter still bubbling through you. “Weird to think about.”

His cheeks redden like the tops of his ears, then he grins. Sitting back on his heels, his hands slide along your stomach to rest at the very bottom. Again, he feels a soft little kick against his palm.

“Y’know, I think he’s nocturnal. I barely felt him this morning and now he’s wide awake.” You explain.

Another shrug, smiling as he leans down and kisses your stomach once more. “Wanted to stay up and watch a movie with his folks.” Bradley muses, making you smile. Absentmindedly, you card your fingers through his fluffy, air-dried curls. His lips press warmly to the underside of your belly, “No harm in that.”

Fingers trailing from his auburn curls, down over the tanned muscles in his shoulders as he peppers kisses across your stomach.

“He’s got you wrapped around his finger already. Old man.” You tease, nudging at his leg with your foot. He chuckles softly, cool breath tickling your skin. Another kiss, then he looks up at you.

“Me? — Mama’s the one letting him stay up late.” Bradley prods, sitting up and bringing his mouth to yours once more. The kiss is slow, lazy, his hand cupping your hip. When he leans over you now, your stomach always bumps into his middle. He’s going to miss it when it isn’t there anymore.

Turning his head, he presses his face into your neck and nips softly at your skin. You hum, keening towards the feeling. It becomes growingly tender, lips replacing teeth, tongue soothing over the warm spots left behind.

Finally, he sits back up and kisses your lips chastely. “Will you come to bed with me?”

“You can go ahead, I won’t wake you up.” You promise.

“I know, but I like falling asleep with you.” He squeezes softly at your hips, remembering to be gentle with your sore joints these days. He sits forwards and kisses your mouth again, then again after that. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that he isn’t going to stop until you agree.

Pushing against his bare chest, he sits back on his heels and raises his eyebrows at you.

“Fine…” You huff, extending your arms for him. Slipping his hands into yours, he’s on his feat with an annoying level of ease that you can no longer manage. He tugs you up with him.

“I’ll lock up.” Ducking around you and kissing your neck, he leaves you with a gentle pat on the ass and then moves to make sure all of the doors and windows are locked and that the lights are off. You pad along the hallway to your shared bedroom and peel your shirt over your head.

Over the past month, you seem to have really popped. The kid is really making himself known in there. Enough so, that you’re well into the stage now of wearing exclusively maternity clothes or stretching out Bradley’s old gym clothes. Tonight, given the lingering heat, you opt for an old basketball shirt that Bradley hasn’t fit into since high school. Before he grew a foot and lost eighty pounds in his junior year.

It’s not huge on you at this stage of your pregnancy, but gives you the reprieve of a waistband pressing into your stomach.

Bradley’s chest hits your back before you even feel him approaching, turning his face into the crook of your neck, almost knocking you over with his weight.

His hands skim under the shirt and up over your stomach, making an all-too-familiar beeline for your breasts. He groans softly into your skin, growing half-hard against your back.

“Mm-mm,” You’re smiling and shaking your head at him all at once. “You need to go to bed, remember?”

“Fuck,” He breathes out, eyes closed, soft skin under his palms. If he pressed any harder into your back, he would knock you onto your front. “I do.”

Your palm slips between the two of you, reaching back to cup him over his shorts, stroking just loosely over the length of his hardening cock.

“Would be pretty difficult to sleep with that, though.”

“You’re such a tease.” He mumbles into your neck, kneading softly at your breasts. He rolls his hips forwards slightly, using your hand for friction on his increasingly hard cock.

“Are you flying tomorrow?” Your head falls back to rest against his shoulder, his lips sucking softly at the curve of your neck. His realization courses through him like relief, you can practically feel it.

His head shakes quickly. “In a classroom all day.”

Your palm squeezes softly around the tent in his shorts, a quiet hum, mock consideration, leaving your lips. His hands push at the shirt, slowly dragging it up your middle and tugging it over your head.

His eyes feel heavy on you, hands trailing featherlight along your sides. Bradley reached out slowly, pressing a soft kiss to your shoulder as he takes hold of the band in your hair. He’s especially gentle as he takes it down and turns his face towards your hair.

Illuminated by the soft light of the bedside table, Bradley’s becoming increasingly gentle with you — each time that you’ve slept with him recently, you can feel that he’s being more careful than he would normally be. He knows that you’re sore and more tired than you would normally be, but he never once declines the opportunity to have you.

Today is no exception as he turns you towards him, palms skimming along your back, squeezing at your ass as he holds you against him. Laying you down slowly on your shared bed, he notices your lips quirk softly as he covers your body with his.

“What?”

“Nothing.” You give a small shake of your head and lift to kiss him, still smiling when you pull back. He squints at you, studying the amusement on your features. It just makes you want to smile, is all. Him being so wordlessly soft; knowingly gentle. It doesn’t take a conversation or a warning. He knows your limits.

He knows you so well these days. The kind of shampoo or deodorant to pick up. Exactly which spots to press his fingers harder into when he’s giving you a foot rub. Exactly how to make you scowl at him and melt into his arms moments later when he’s being annoying. Your chest heaves with a particularly deep breath.

Bradley’s lips are on your chest, his hands skimming along your thighs, kneading at the flesh.

“Tell me you want me.” It’s a pant, really, just breathless. He rocks himself against your core, sitting back on his knees and squeezing at your hips. He takes that plush, pink bottom lip between his teeth and just stares down at you with the prettiest mahogany coloured eyes you’ve ever seen.

Teasing at an almost smile, you bite the inside of your cheek to contain it. A soft shake of your head and he smiles back at you. You glance down, watching him palm over the tent in his shorts. Finally, you meet his gaze once more. “I don’t think your ego can handle being any bigger than it already is.”

“It can take a little more,” Bradley hums. He exhales, adam’s apple bobbing in his throat as he watches his ring and index fingers dip through your folds, gathering your excitement on the digits. “Tell me you want me.”

You do. So badly that it makes you hot. Makes your muscles go tense. Makes your chest tighten.

“I want you,” It’s an admission that you never would’ve given him months ago, weeks ago even. There’s a lot about you now isn’t the same as it was a few months ago. It’s right on the tip of your tongue. I love you. It’s insane — terrifying, actually. You swallow and stick to what you know, “I want you.”

It would slip so effortlessly off of your tongue. When he’s buried into you, breathing hard into your ear, your face buried into the curve of his neck and god — he still smells exactly like him, now mixed with your body wash that he’s adamant he doesn’t steal. So natural, just another breathless, meaningless exhale in the middle of sex.

“You feel so good,” Bradley groans out, his thick fingers sliding along the nape of your neck and up into your hair. He curls them into your roots and flexes his fist just softly. Just the right amount of tug, a gentle pull that has you moaning against his jugular. “Fuck, baby… you…”

He turns his head, lips grazing your jaw and working lazily along to your lips. When he gets there, finally, it feels like your heart is going to explode out of your chest. He kisses you slowly, his tongue in your mouth and his hand in your hair. In your shared bed.

The mattress is softer here and he never wakes up with a sore neck because of the shitty pillows. Sometimes he wakes up with a sore neck because of how his body is wound around yours, but he doesn’t mind that as much. Moaning into his mouth as he fucks into you slowly.

“You’re so fucking hot.”

A breath catches in your throat and you aren’t sure whether it’ll turn into a laugh or a cry. Ultimately, it settles into a soft moan, your breath tickling his earlobe and making him shiver. Then, it becomes a laugh. He sits back on his knees to get a good look at that grin on your face.

Stretching out his shoulders, he guides your thighs over the tops of his. He gives them a soft squeeze and slows down a little, giving a breathless nod. “I mean it. You’re so fucking perfect, just like this.”

He wets his lips with his tongue, eyes trailing ever so slowly along your body, rocking his hips forwards tenderly. Briefly, you think that he’s going to say it. It doesn’t happen. Just more expletives, shallow breaths, eager grunts. More kisses, his hands on your skin.

After, when you’re settled into his old basketball shirt, under your sheets, and he is wrapped around your body from behind, his big palm sprawled out over your stomach — you’re okay with it. The silent knowledge that he must be on the same page.

The next morning, he has to be up before the sun is even halfway risen. He’s growing proficient at doing it without waking you. Showering silently and dressing in the bathroom, laying his clothes out the night before. It always makes you stir when he slips back into the room and leaves you with a chaste kiss on the lips, and a soft peck at the top of your rounded stomach. Still, you’re okay with that too.

You squirm a little, laying back against that perpetually uncomfortable plastic-leather mix exam chair. The gel is a lot more uncomfortable when you’re still hot from the mid-day Florida heat than it had been on those snowy mornings back in Virginia. Still, it’s all routine by this point. The cold jelly on your stomach, comfy pants that can easily be pushed down a little, warm sweater to combat the always high air conditioning.

You’re missing the part of your routine that has always made you comfiest: Jake sitting outside in the waiting room. He’s states away, Bradley’s stuck in work, you’re all on your own. It’s just a routine check up — just to check if he’s breach. You’ve been telling yourself that all morning. It hasn’t stopped you from sitting on the carpeted floor of his nursery and staring at his crib, still in the box.

Your heart swells at the idea of meeting him. You’ve been picturing him a lot recently. Your nose, Bradley’s lips. Soft morning cuddles, sleepless nights, constant diaper changes — it’s easy enough to tell yourself that you’re ready, it’s just more of a complicated thing to be certain that you are. Even if you’re not ready, he’ll be here in a few short weeks. You need to remind Bradley to pick up screws for his crib.

The doctor’s brows knit together, she adjusts her glasses and wiggles the wand a little bit, then looks back to you. “Hm, have you been experiencing reduced movement at all, Miss Seresin?”

The question throws you. Blinking at her, chilled from the whir of the air conditioning, you shake your head. Your throat squeezes. “No, not at all. He was kicking a lot last night.”

Both of you look back to the screen. He’s moving now. Little legs just kicking softly in that familiar black and white hue. A quick glance across, you stare at your sweater on the chair where Bradley should be sitting. It’s too cold in here. You’re not sure if you’re allowed to move to get the sweater.

“Hm,” She nods her head slowly. Her face is calm enough, her tone doesn’t give you any clues. The thought that crosses your mind hits you like a speeding semi. Blunt force, speeding — out of left field. Six and a half months of no contact and all of a sudden, sitting alone in this exam room, too cold, you want your Mom.

It’s clear that you’re panicking, and the doctor continues with as much caution as she can. She speaks to you like she’s trying to soothe a crying child, but it isn’t patronising. Her neatly groomed brows raise at you, “Any fatigue, bleeding, stomach pains?”

“I’ve been tired, I guess.” You squeak. She softens, reaching out and placing her hand into yours. Your throat tightens. “Is he okay?”

“Yes, he’s just looking a little bit smaller than we would have expected for this stage in the pregnancy,” Your heart sinks, and the side of the exam table suddenly feels especially empty without Bradley there. The doctor continues on as comfortingly as she can. “I’d just like to run a few tests while you’re here — just to make sure that we’re prepared to make the end of your pregnancy as safe and comfortable as possible.”

As she turns and leaves you trapped in that little grey room with the closed blinds, shutting out any semblance of sunlight, all that you can think about is the first appointment that Bradley ever came to with you. Everything going on back then and how badly you had wanted him to not even show up. How confusingly nice it had felt to have him holding your hand through it. Your head falls back against the exam chair and your eyes burn with tears.

You leave the office with a pamphlet on fetal growth restriction, potential causes and side-effects. It might not be that, she tells you, some babies are just smaller and that’s just fine. They just want to keep a close eye on you these last few weeks. Early delivery is a possibility.

You’re dialing the number out of pure instinct. Flowing tears, running to Mommy — there’s a natural link there. Some kind of hardwired impulse, probably. Chest heaving, blinking back searingly hot tears, you listen to it ring and ring. It’s just a Wednesday morning, maybe she’s at the office. It just keeps on ringing.

Bradley frowns as he listens to the busy dial tone, pulling back and checking his phone. You’d promised to call him when you got out of the appointment. He checks down at his watch. Maybe Jake got a couple of minutes to call you. He has to be back in class. He texts you that he’ll catch you at home and turns.

If his mind were clearer, he might have noticed the stare on him as he turned. The familiar blue eyes, blown wide open. Maverick pales at the sight of the boy at the end of the hallway. Familiar sandy brown curls, a brief look at Bradley’s face. The mustache he had been trying to grow when Mav saw him last has grown in now. Maverick swallows.

He hasn’t seen this kid in almost two years. Not a single phone call or text. He hadn’t even known where Bradley was living after he moved out of the house in Norfolk. And now he’s here, standing at the end of a hallway in a random Navy base that Mav wasn’t even supposed to be at this week. Dressed in his khakis, he’s a kind of familiar that makes Pete Mitchell’s stomach churn.

“Bradley?”

…

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[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for stealing jewelry and a few other items from my hoarder aunt?

This was a few years ago now, I wanna say maybe 2018? My dad has two sisters, Z and K. K is married to a hoarder and has some hoarding tendencies herself so their house and particularly their garage is a mess. Not biohazard levels of mess but for sure just dusty, dirty, and stuffed with with ancient unusable garbage. K and her husband don’t have any kids, they’re both in their mid-70’s and both are in pretty poor health, so Z flew down from Florida and asked my father and I to come help clean. We agreed and came down for a day.

I have a weird relationship with my aunts. K took care of their mother until she died, and until she died my father would be at his sister’s beck and call. He would frequently abandon his own family to go help K and his mother. I don’t blame him for this, he wanted to help his sick mother, but I do blame K for using him as free labor. He built the house K is hoarding in, destroying his body in the process. Now that I’m an adult I don’t really speak to either aunt, like I had no contact with Z since Z’s second wedding in 2013. K is much closer location-wise but I don’t speak to her either because she’s just kind of off putting. The last time I spent time with her we went shopping and she kept telling me stories of her miscarriage and how annoying her husband is and pointing to someone and loudly asking “you think that’s a man or a woman?” Like I understand we are family but K and Z are as close to strangers as family can get to me. This doesn’t even cover my mom’s opinion of them and their treatment of her. Both Z and K have a history of manipulation, deception, and are both very vindictive and ignorant. She hates them both to the point of paranoia. My sister and I have a similarly low opinion of them both, but we both are more tolerable, myself especially.

So we arrive and we clean, Z and I working together to throw away a bunch of shit and my father worked on installing a new dishwasher. I stumble upon this gorgeous hanging lamp that looks like a large full moon. I text my mom about it and she flips. “That’s mine,” she says, “your father and I found that on the side of the road one night when we were first married.” So I load it into my dads car because it’s so pretty and it belongs to my parents. “Hey, you better ask if you can take that” Z says and I flat out tell her that it belongs to my mom. She shrugs and we continue to work. I find another really cool set of hanging lamps and a solid wooden lamp base carved to look like a gazelle that probably belonged to K’s husband’s parents and I took those too, with no input from Z.

These items weren’t lovingly packed and carefully stored away. They were sitting in plastic bins stuffed with dozens of boxes disintegrated plastic gloves and tools that were more rust than anything else. Towards the end of the day we discover some jewelry boxes and I take those inside to go through with K. A lot of it was junky costume jewelry but there’s some incredible pieces including a pair of 14k gold hoops that look like rams heads, a cool brass ring with an enameled signet with the Sagittarius archer, and a huge silver heart pendant. I carefully set aside the items that I would like to take home and K didn’t say anything, either because she didn’t notice or didn’t care.

Finally when we got home I showed my mom all of the cool stuff I found and she kind of scolded me, saying I should have asked to take this stuff and I brushed it off by joking that this was payment for my cleaning services. She was very happy that I rescued her moon lamp though.

I’m wearing that chunky silver heart pendant today and am thinking about it again. K doesn’t have any children so the only people who would ever inherit this junk would be either myself or Z’s kids, but Z’s daughter is no contact with Z and Z’s son lives on the other side of the country. We own the property that K lives on, pay for the taxes on it and pay for the maintenance on it all without charging K anything, so even when she and her husband die my family is going to have to clean it anyway and I can assure you I would be the only person who would actually want to sift through the garbage to find cool stuff. I feel like I saved this stuff from the landfill. I wear the jewelry I took, we have that really cool gazelle lamp displayed in our living room, and my sister said she was going to use the hanging lamps I brought home for when she has her own home. But of course I technically stole all of it and for sure will not be giving it back, even if she noticed it’s missing. AITA?

What are these acronyms?

[call-me-strega]

How to Become a Step-Dad: Lore

Edited: 10/16/2023

While I am currently in between writing chapters I thought I’d release a little bit of the lore that will be incorporated in the story or that I think is canon but might not get mentioned since the story is mostly Jason’s perspective.

What’s up with Jason?

So in this au Jason went through basically all his canon backstory and stuff already so that’s established and done with. Some smaller points that may or may not come up are things like his possession of the all-blades, his time on Nanda Parbat, Talia essentially adopting him, or his experience being Catatonic. Speaking of which, I have decided his resurrection came from his righteous anger combining with the ectoplasm in Gotham’s atmosphere, and he is essentially a revenant for the purposes of this story (he’s about a fourth ghost? Or maybe 3/4ths? 3/5ths? Idk yet).

He does already have a reputation in the Infinite Realms as “The Avenger” and “Son/Knight of Gotham” due both to the existence of city spirit Lady Gotham and the ghosts of people who’ve died in Gotham. He actually has a rabid fan club who want him to kill the Joker( if he became a ghost he’d be tried and banished to the nightmare realm).

I am also going to use “the pits are corrupted ectoplasm” trope in the story. However, they’re gonna be corrupted less in the sense of being straight-up poison and more in the sense of eating a weird mushroom with weird side effects (rage, slightly sentient/vocal core, white trauma streak)

As for his relationship with the Bat Family, we’ve moved to a point where everyone’s more or less made up. For Jason and Bruce specifically, they are now more civil. Their relationship is less “ What you’re doing is wrong and you have to stop.” vs “ I’m just doing what you won’t” and now it’s more “ I don’t fully approve of your decisions, but as long as you’re not killing people and coming home for dinner, I don’t care enough to nag you about it” vs “ You’re my dad and I love you. Plus actively killing people is no longer super necessary so I will give in but I still enjoy pissing you off”.

In terms of sibling relationships, Jason has like the cool older brother vibe but he’s actually the semi-responsible one that feeds you when you come over and makes you do homework and sleep properly. He’s still down for shenanigans but is low-key a mom friend. (Dick is not the “responsible one” he is a certified chaos gremlin. Not to say he can’t be responsible, he’s just not the one enforcing these things. He cares more about your social, emotional, and/or, mental state and would help you skip school to steal a penguin or go to ComiCon or smth if you said it was a “mental health day”). I think he has semi-regular hangouts with his siblings on a weekly basis.

I like to think that he and Damien did have a bit of interaction when they were both with the League so they do have a close bond there. He’s definitely apologized to Tim a bunch of times and they’re pretty close now they like scheming together, especially on how to annoy Bruce. Overall he’s largely made up and re-integrated with the family. It’s going to be mentioned later in the story that they resurrected his civilian identity as Jason Todd, so he can publicly be seen with his family and also to do work with the family.

This brings me to my next point of lore: that as Jason gains more control of Crime Alley, he focuses his efforts more into charity work. He’s helping the people get their education, get better access to healthcare, get better job opportunities, running soup kitchens, etc., and doing more humanitarian-focused work. He has got a pretty firm grip on crime and drugs so he’s shifting his focus more towards helping the people now. Even just being part of his gang can be helpful because he works with the Goonion (Goon Union) and offers good insurance plans and stuff. That’s part of the reason they resurrect his civilian identity is so that he can start working with/taking over the Wayne foundation.

What’s up with Danny and Ellie?

Okay so first things first in the story Danny is going to be the ghost prince (not king yet for a long while) and he acts as a junior member on the Council of Ancients who rule with Clockwork acting as his main regent. Meaning that Council + Danny make decisions and Clockwork is Danny’s ghost dad and is formal regent but mostly just handles things with help from the council. Essentially, after at least a couple thousand years Danny will be considered “of age” or eligible and take over the Infinite Realms; and after several billion he’ll become the ancient of space/reality and essentially become a god or primordial being of sorts. Also being of age is different than being an adult ghost. To be an adult ghost you need to have been a ghost for at least 20 years after your lifetime, unless you’re an eternal kid ghost like Youngblood or BoxLunch. So ghosts like Technus, the Box Ghost, and Lunch Lady are all adult ghosts. Whereas ghosts like Johnny 13, Kitty and maybe Ember either aren’t yet adult ghosts or became adult ghosts recently. Ellie ranks as princess and second-in-line, she’ll go through a similar process and eventually join the Council, become a diplomat, and/or rule as regent if/when Danny leaves the Ghost Zone. I’m gonna say all other afterlife’s and stuff are connected to the Zone and their respective leaders make up Phantom’s Court. (So basically he’s king and they are like the nobles). They all govern their own territories and Phantom handles any rouges or conflicts. When Ellie gets older she’ll move between realms on diplomatic missions to lighten some of Danny’s work. I haven’t decided what this means for anyone who is currently mortal and/or liminal. I might just have them live, fulfilling lives and pass away and move on to different afterlives. Or I might have them take places within the Phantom’s court or as advisors. And on the topic: Jazz, the Fenton parents, Sam, and Tucker are all fairly liminal, Jazz and the Dr.s Fenton a bit more than the other two. Everyone in Amity has a little bit of liminality, but not enough to affect their life spans or anything. Also, Vlad is still currently his usual, creepy, Frootloopy-self. But after screwing him over in this fic eventually, I want to have him arrested by the ghost police and spend several thousand years in ghost prison before he gets let out. Then he works on improving his relationships and post-redemption he’s going to be like that annoying, overbearing Uncle who tries to be cool and annoys you but ya don’t hate him. Another thing I wanted to go over is their obsessions. I wanna say the halfas all have dual obsessions bc it fits nicely with the half-and-half concept. Danny is protection and space. Ellie is freedom and family. Vlad is power and love. If I include Dark Danny he’ll be power and destruction and a reformed version would have control and safety.

As for his rouge gallery? Danny is able to help them find healthier outlets for their obsessions so they've become less of an issue. Now they kind of just act like Danny's annoying friends and/or extended family. The ones who were straight-up evil though are on indefinite time out in ghost prison though (e.g. Spectra and Freakshow). The gang still comes to visit him and Ellie from time to time though and he regularly sees them when he goes back to the realms for prince duties and stuff.

What’s up with Amity?

So after he turns 18, Danny decides to tell his parents about being Phantom. He’s legally an adult now and has been working toward getting emancipated anyways so he might as well. They took it like how I imagine slightly homophobic parents would react to learning their child was lgbt (side note: the Fentons are pro-lgbt. When Danny told them he was bi Jack said “Me too son!”, happy to have something to bond over). He tells them about the portal and becoming Phantom. They believe him and they are devastated and guilty.

In the next few weeks, they get into a couple arguments over them wanting to “fix” his ghost half. He blows up and tells them that by doing that they’d end up killing him and that Phantom is a part of who he is and they’ll just have to accept that. That night Danny leaves and with help from Sam stays in an apartment with Jazz near her college. He takes a two-year gap to get a handle of Infinite Realms and GIW stuff, plus doing a few small jobs to save up some money. Within that time the GIW gets taken down and the Fentons reach out bc their love for their children is stronger than their dislike of ghosts. Their relationship is still strained but getting better.

Dani also gets de-aged during that time and Danny decides to take care of her (partly for healing purposes and partly cause he wants to). His friends help forge documentation for her and he fights with Vlad over custody but ultimately wins and makes him pay child support. He’s saved up enough money and with a little help from Sam and Vlad gets an apartment in Gotham. He got a scholarship and is doing mostly online classes at Gotham University. He’s currently working part-time (I have not decided as what but I’m leaning toward mechanic). Vlad paid to have him enroll Ellie in Gotham Academy so she wouldn’t have to go to public school and Danny allowed it since it’d get her a better education. Ellie is going to start first grade in about 3 months since they moved to Gotham in June. (Just for reference, Damian is currently 12 and in seventh grade since I've decided not to move him up.)

Everyone in Amity knows about the discord between the Fenton's before Danny leaves. They don't necessarily know about Phantom though. Everyone kind of assumes Danny came out, fought with his parents then left. When some of them find out about Ellie another rumor circulates she was the topic of the fight. Regardless, the Fenton drama is kinda an open secret and most people sympathize with Danny. Whenever he comes back to town to visit a lot of people are really nice to him and Ellie, which he thought was weird until he learned what people thought was going on. Now he just takes advantage of their misunderstandings.

What's up with the GIW?

The GIW manages to get a hold of Ellie after Danny leaves Amity. When Vlad and Danny +Team Phantom find out they team up to rescue her. Danny also recruits people that he's met during his time away. For this mission, he recruits Constantine and Captain Marvel/Shazam. When the Fentons find out they want in too, almost as an apology gesture. They no longer want to try and "fix" Danny and are okay with Ellie's existence. They view her like family and want to help out. A lot of their views are still prejudiced but they're getting better, however, that's not the only thing straining their relationship. This is a step in the right direction though.

So they go in and infiltrate first in order to get Ellie out. Then they destroy the facilities behind them as they leave. Constantine and Captain Marvel then go back to the JL to work on getting to Anti-Ecto Acts repealed, something that is still in progress during the beginning of this fic. That's why they are gonna lay low while they’re in Gotham. The GIW attempted to experiment on Ellie while they had her but the containment unit they used destabilized her ectoplasm. She retains all her memory but is mentally and physically de-aged. Frostbite assesses her and says she needs to get extra ecto and to be near another halfa aura to help develop and stabilize her own systems. That leads to Vlad and Danny fighting over custody before Danny inevitably beats Vlad into the ground and walks away with custody and child support.

I think a full reveal about identities will happen after Danny gets confirmation that his existence is no longer illegal. It'll probably be after Jason asks him out but before he accepts because he wants Jason to know what he's getting into. Jason will probably be shocked but accept it relatively quickly. I haven't decided yet if I want him to live a mortal life with them and then die (either to move on or become a full ghost) or if I want him to be basically immortal like them and give him a position in the court.

~~~~ Find chapter one here

Chapter 2 now here

[schrijverr]

I Didn’t Mean to Say I Do, but I Do. I Do. 4

Chapter 4 out of 50

Secret marriage of convenience buddie slow burn AU, where Buck and Eddie have been married for years so Buck could adopt Chris and no one at the 118 knows.

In this chapter, Evan offers his support to Eddie after Shannon has left and the three of them slot into a life together with ease. There are some ups and downs, but they’re managing… until the hospital bills come in.

On AO3.

Ships: Buddie (slowburn)

Warnings: ableism, emotionally abusive parents, child abandonment, homophobia

~~~

Chapter 4: Three Lives Becoming Intertwined

Evan watches Eddie gather himself for a moment. It’s a little weird what he’s doing, getting caught up in this divorce even more, but he can’t help himself. Evan has always liked helping people, listening to people at the bar had been nice, feeling like he could lighten their load. Same as why he’s working on the Johnson farm now, their usual farm hand had gone off to college and there wasn’t anyone they could ask. So now, a year later, here he still is.

And it is the same thing with the Diaz family. He thought Shannon was pretty from the second he saw her and when she blurted out having nothing more than an egg run as a social life, he felt for her, wanted to make her feel better. Then she talked about her divorce and on instinct he turned into a shoulder to lean on.

Now, Eddie shows up looking all out of sorts and panicked, Shannon having left him and Chris – and him, but he’s trying not to think about it – and Evan can’t help but want to help. Eddie doesn’t seem like a bad guy and he is obviously trying. It can’t be easy, being a dad that young and then suddenly also having to do it alone.

So, here he is, hearing Eddie’s side of the divorce.

Eddie tells him about getting papers served to him while he was in Afghanistan, nestled between the cookies his mom baked him and a few drawings from Chris. How he wanted to try and work it out, but Shannon refused, insisting they wouldn’t work and implying it was his fault. He is vague about why it is his fault, but Evan doesn’t push.

Then he continues about coming home and being subjected to his mom’s judgment about Chris. “I would also be crazy if that was directed at me for years. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to handle it longer, but I’m home now. She never has to speak to my mom again if she wants.”

He sighs and runs his hand through his hair again. He’s been doing that the whole time and it’s sticking up in all kind of ways. Evan thinks it looks kind of cute, but he doesn’t comment, just makes a noise to indicate he’s still listening, encouraging Eddie to go on.

“Like we were working towards a future where we’d have our own lives, but still be there together for Chris. Figuring the house and the finances, you know, straightening out the mess that was our divorce. Then she’s suddenly gone.”

“Did she say why she left?” Evan asks, an inkling of curiosity for himself, but he’s mostly invested in Eddie. It’s easier to focus on him than on himself.

Eddie looks away and murmurs: “Her mom’s sick. Cancer.” He sucks in a deep breath, before groaning: “Which probably makes me a horrible person, but I don’t get why she didn’t talk to me, you know. We could’ve worked something out, even if it was just Chris having her on holidays and birthdays, or a fucking goodbye. But no. She’s just gone.”

“She didn’t mention it at all?” Evan frowns. Now that he thinks about it, he can’t recall her talking about it either. Though a small part soothes the ache about her leaving without saying anything at the news that she’s taking care of her sick mother, she probably didn’t wanna drag him into that, because he would have. Quietly, he forgives her for leaving him. Not Chris, though.

“No,” Eddie sighs. “I know she’d been calling with her mom more, but I didn’t ask, because I wanted to give her space and her own life. It’s already bad enough that I’m living on my own couch. Though… I guess I can take the bedroom now.”

A hand goes through his hair again and he looks completely overwhelmed when he says: “Fuck, how am I going to explain to Chris why mommy isn’t there to tuck him in? And I have to go work and then I’ll have to explain to my mom why she’s babysitting and she’ll have everything to say about it and I’ll- I- I can’t-”

“Hey, Eddie, breathe, breathe,” Evan tries his best to calm the spiraling man.

He doesn’t touch him again, but his voice is strangely soothing and Eddie manages to get his heart rate under control. He doesn’t know why it’s so easy to open up to Evan, but it is. He is letting himself spiral, show anything other than being in perfect control. He hasn’t done that with anyone since Shannon told him she was pregnant.

“I’m okay,” he manages after a few seconds. “I’m sorry. I’m dumping everything all on you. I don’t even know why you’re letting me do that.”

“Because you need someone to listen,” Evan shrugs as if that truly is his reason, as if someone needing someone is truly enough for him to drop everything. Then he grins at Eddie – making his insides squirm for reasons he doesn’t want to get into – and says: “Plus, I hate to tell you, but I have been upgraded to Chris’s best friend recently. So, it’s my duty to make sure he’s okay.” His face drops a little. “I really hope he’s going to be okay.”

Eddie follows his gaze to where Chris has sat himself down on the floor, talking to the chickens as they mill around him. He is giggling to himself looking so happy and carefree. Eddie wishes that will never leave and something constricts in his chest. “Me too.”

They both fall quiet for a moment, watching Chris play. It’s nice, sharing his son’s delight with someone for a bit without judgment or a loaded history hanging over them.

“I don’t wanna lose him, you know.” The soft confession comes before Eddie can think about it, too honest for his taste the second it leaves his lips.

“You’re not going to lose him,” Evan says and Eddie can hear that Evan believes it, so much that he almost dares to believe it himself too.

However, he doesn’t dare. He knows he’s too much of a screw up for this to work out. Hell, it took only a few months of being back, before he drove away Chris’s other parent, that doesn’t exactly bode well for the future. So, he morosely says: “You can’t know that.”

“Come on, man. You can’t give up on him,” Evan says, trying to go for a tease, but it comes out a lot more genuine. He wants this to work out. He wants Chris to have a parent who cares for him. He has gotten strangely attached to the kid and it’s healing something inside him to see him have people that care. He needs Eddie to keep fighting.

“I’m not giving up on him,” Eddie says heatedly, which unknots something in Evan’s chest. “I love that kid, of course I’m not giving up. Never.” Then he turns insecure again and he can’t look in Evan’s direction as he adds: “I just- I know I can’t do it alone, I also don’t know how long I can do it with my mom, before she wins or I snap.”

His heart breaks for Eddie, who desperately wants to do right by Chris, but for whom life has made it incredibly difficult to do so. “You’re not alone.”

“What?”

“Uh, you’re- you’re not alone. I’m in your corner,” Evan says sheepishly, only realizing after how weird it is to say that. It’s not as if he’s Chris’s stepparent, he and Shannon never even properly dated, just fucked a few times. He’s closer to a babysitter, yet here he is.

“Why?” It’s comes out ruder than Eddie meant to, but he just doesn’t understand. Shannon left and she was Chris’s mother, why is this guy still here, still wanting to help. He’s not going to get anything out of it like he did from Shannon.

Evan shrinks into himself, it’s small but it’s there, before he covers it with bravado as he jokes: “Is it weird if I say the kid grew on me?”

“A little,” Eddie tells him honestly, because he never knows when to stop himself.

Luckily, Evan takes it in stride. He chuckles a little and says: “Yeah, thought so.” Then he becomes more serious and says: “Look, I know Shannon had it hard, but her leaving is going to hurt him. A lot. Chris is going to need someone to fight for him. Not to get personal, but my parents kind of didn’t care. I’d hate to see that for someone else, especially when you do care.”

“And that’s enough to want to stay here and back me up?” Eddie asks, not really believing that someone like that can be real. “Shouldn’t you be out there, seeing the world or something?”

It’s unfortunately close to what Shannon said to him a few months ago and Evan realizes with a start what he didn’t realize then; he doesn’t want to do that.

He traveled for a few years already before coming to El Paso and no matter how many crazy experiences he’s had, none of them have filled the gaping hole in his chest like meeting Chris has. He likes getting to see the kid grow up, likes knowing he’s had a hand in it. Likes knowing that he can help without screwing everything up.

“Nah, I’ve seen enough of the world. Besides, Mrs. Johnson would kill me if I left her high and dry like that,” he tells Eddie easily, squirming slightly when he sees those brown eyes are awe filled as they look at him.

“How are you a real person, man?” Eddie asks him. It isn’t a question, it’s a complement.

Evan can’t take complements like that, so he puts on his most shit eating grin as he says: “I don’t think I have to give you the birds and the bees talk, dude, you put that shit in practice already.”

“Oh fuck off,” Eddie finds himself exclaiming with a matching grin. For the first time since he was nineteen does he actually feel his age, his youth. Shannon leaving is one of the worst things that has happened to him to date, but today isn’t a total disaster.

In the end, Eddie spends the rest of his day with Chris, spoiling him as much as he can to make up for the heartbreak he’s going to bring him. He can’t bring himself to tell Chris just yet though, needs a little longer to process himself. So, he takes up Evan’s offer for help and lets the other tuck Chris in bed and watch him for the night.

It’s weird, to be in the Diaz house. Whenever he and Shannon hooked up it was in the little sideroom the Johnsons provided for him and when he watched Chris, it was at the farm. too But now he is in her home and she no longer lives there.

There are traces of her here and there. It’s clear she decorated, but moved out. There is no other personality anywhere except Chris’s.

The next morning, Eddie comes in to find Evan sleeping on the couch that he’s been using for a bed these past few months. Watching him sleep like this makes him realize how young he is. He must be around his age. He wonders how he ended up here. He says he saw a lot of the world, but this is one hell of a place to strand.

When he thinks about it, he doesn’t know much about him, just that he ended up here somehow and works for the Johnsons and has shitty parents. Shitty enough that he’s willing to stay here and help Eddie to prevent Chris from having a childhood close to his own.

In a way, Eddie relates to that, he never wants Chris to feel like he has to be the man of the house, he wants to do better. Be there for him.

He thought Shannon wanted that too, but apparently not.

Eddie still isn’t sure how he’s going to explain that to Chris and he tries not to think about it, instead quietly sneaking to the kitchen as to not wake Evan. He starts up coffee and makes two mugs, putting one on the coffee table and sipping the other.

Once the mug is empty, he goes to get Chris. The two of them do Chris’s PT exercises, before letting him go to the kitchen for breakfast. They can get dressed and brush their teeth after they’ve eaten and seen Evan out the door.

Evan gets woke up by an excited four year old crashing into him. Chris had been thrilled about Evan watching him for the night, not questioning the impromptu sleepover or the lack of mommy for the night. He seems equally thrilled that he’s there in the morning.

“Hey, little man,” Evan greets sleepily. “Did you get out of bed yourself?”

“No, daddy did. We did the morning movies,” Chris informs him excitedly.

That confuses Evan, but before he can ask, Eddie’s voice answers: “We did his PT exercises. We call them the morning movements, but the we’re working on the full word.”

“Ah,” Evan nods, still not fully awake, because he stares at Eddie for a second. He’s still dressed in his night guard uniform, looking a little disheveled and rumpled.

Eddie must interpret his look some acceptable way, because he snorts: “There’s coffee right there. Hope you’re not sick of eggs yet, because it’s the only thing I can make.”

Indeed there is a steaming mug waiting for him and it is one of the nicest things someone has done for him in years. He has to swallow a lump in his throat, praying his morning voice covers it as he states: “You’re making me breakfast?”

“Yeah, it’s the least I can do,” Eddie smiles, looking a little bashful and sheepish.

“You don’t have to, but thanks,” Evan smiles back, probably looking more fond than he intends. It is crazy how fast they’ve become friends considering their history. “Not sick of eggs yet.”

“Thank god for that,” Eddie grins, then he disappears to make breakfast, while Chris tries to tell him about this dream he had. It’s a little confusing, but Evan tries his hardest to pay attention.

Breakfast should be an awkward affair, but Chris’s presence makes it easier to talk, so it ends up being pretty nice.

Though, Evan does have to hurry to make it back to the Johnson farm on time to get started for the day, trying not to feel Mrs. Johnson’s judgy eyes. He’s probably going to be grilled during lunch so she can take the gossip back to Church come Sunday. Evan really hopes for Eddie’s sake that he’ll manage not to crack.

Meanwhile Eddie and Chris take a shower and a bath respectively, before brushing their teeth together. Chris is too young to have the motor skills to do it himself yet, but Eddie doesn’t mind. He loves getting to spend mornings with his son, never wants to give any of it up. His heart constricts at the reminder that Shannon was willing to give this all up.

When they’re both dressed, he doesn’t put Chris on the floor to play to his heart content while he naps on the couch, instead he puts Chris down on the couch and takes a seat on the coffee table so they can have a talk. “Hey, mijo,” he starts. “I wanted to have a little talk with you.”

“Okay, daddy,” Chris replies, so open and trusting, it makes Eddie want to vomit.

“You may have noticed, but mommy wasn’t here last night,” Eddie says, hating every word. “She is not going to be here tonight either. Mommy is gone. She left and she is not going to be here for a while.” He can’t bring himself to say forever, can’t crush any hope Chris might have like that, even if the custody papers that are burning in his bedroom drawer tell a different story.

“Mommy is gone?” Chris repeats in a small voice, lip starting to wobble.

“Yeah, mijo. She had to go,” Eddie confirms, heart ripping in two as he reaches out to Chris to pull him in his lip.

“But she didn’t say bye bye,” Chris tells him, as if that is going to change anything. To him it probably does. When you go, you say bye bye, so Shannon can’t be gone, because she didn’t say bye bye. Eddie sadly knows it doesn’t work like that.

“She had to hurry,” Eddie lies, because what else is he going to tell him? That mommy didn’t want to be his mommy anymore and dropped him with her fuck buddy and left without saying goodbye, because she didn’t want to risk getting stopped? No, thanks.

“When you went, you said bye bye. You said bye bye and you came back. When is mommy coming back? I want mommy,” Chris demands, voice becoming less and less comprehensible as he breaks down in tears.

Eddie hugs him as close to his chest as he can, stroking his back as he lets Chris sob. He wonders if Shannon had to do the same when he left, then remembers Chris was too young to remember, he just remembers the bye byes from their calls.

Chris sobs for an hour and nothing Eddie says makes it better. How can it? The whole thing reminds him of the brief period he was home before he re-enlisted, how Chris had cried and cried and he felt so out of his depth. That doesn’t even begin to compare to how he feels now.

In the end, Chris cries himself to exhaustion and Eddie has to use the time to sleep too. He lies down on the couch, Chris on his chest. He’s so big already that his feet rest on his thighs, tears burn at the realization how much he missed, how much Shannon is going to miss.

The sleep he has is fitful and barely there, both he and Chris are cranky and miserable for the rest of the day. They cuddle up on the couch and watch cartoons as Eddie ignores the voice in his head that sounds a lot like his mom telling him it’s bad for Chris. He needs this. They both do.

Dinner is a silent affair, just the two of them poking at the sad excuse for a dinner. Shannon usually cooks, because Eddie is hopeless. Another hole she left, another place he’s failing. He hates that he’s going to have to ask his mom for help at some point.

Evan comes around after dinner and gives Eddie a look when Chris isn’t as excited as yesterday to see him. He can see his own heartbreak and understanding reflected in Evan’s eyes when Chris asks: “Are you going to leave too?”

“No, buddy, I’m here to stay,” Evan tells him with such conviction that both Chris and Eddie believe him. Eddie nearly cries, because this stranger has shown so much compassion and kindness for his son and he can’t ever repay him or verbalize how much he is already doing, even two days into knowing each other.

After that they fall into a routine quite quickly. Surprisingly easily too. Evan has a planner side, getting out a notebook and some paper and figuring out a schedule that works.

Eddie spends the days with Chris, waking him up and doing the morning routine, usually eating breakfast with the three of them, before Evan has to leave for work. Eddie naps as Chris plays, until dinner, which Evan has started to eat with them after Chris asked him to stay one day and Eddie didn’t say no. After dinner Eddie leaves for work and Evan puts Chris to bed, before spending the night.

At first Evan sleeps on the couch, but Eddie knows from personal experience that it is not comfortable, so he tells him to take the bed. Technically they’re sharing, but they never sleep at the same time, so it’s not that big a deal.

They run so smoothly that it takes a week and a half before his mom finds out Shannon left. And that is only because Mrs. Johnson mentions she hasn’t been around while at Church and then Chris cries when mom asks when they go over for Sunday brunch (which is still required even if Eddie doesn’t go to Church itself anymore).

The lecture he gets is one for the books and Eddie actually storms out in anger, not going to Sunday brunch for two weeks, until his mom comes to his house to drag him there. Eddie thanks his lucky stars Evan is out at work when she does, since he doesn’t think they’d survive them meeting just quite yet.

His mom does eventually learn that it is Evan on who he is relying and she has a few choice of words for that too, which sting more than Eddie expected.

Even though they mostly function on opposite schedules, they have become quite good friends in the quiet moments they have together and the moments they share with Chris. It’s nice to have someone to share being a parent with, someone he can turn to when Chris does something adorable, someone that has his back when it’s difficult.

He defends Evan, screaming at his mom how Evan has done more for him and Chris than she has and that he’s not trying to take Chris from him, but is actually helping.

“You’re as bad as Shannon was, letting any stranger without a clue into Chris’s life. How is that going to keep him healthy? Neither of you know how to take care of a special child like Chris. You are going to get him hurt and it’s only a matter of time, before Evan leaves too,” she hisses. “Why would he want to spend his life here with you, huh? Do you even know what his motives are? Or are you too blind, still following Shannon’s lead?”

“Evan isn’t going to leave,” Eddie tells her, but he can’t tell her why, he just know that when Evan promised Chris he is here to stay, Eddie believed him.

“We’ll see about that,” mom huffs.

“I guess we will,” Eddie shoots back, before slamming the door closed.

When Evan comes back with Chris from doing groceries later, they find Eddie sitting at the table staring into his coffee. He smiles when Chris comes in and engages enough that Chris doesn’t notice anything is off when he leaves to go play, but Evan does.

“Are you okay?” he asks, taking a seat across from Eddie.

“Yeah. Mom came by, heard you were helping. She didn’t like that,” Eddie sighs. “And I can’t even blame her entirely. I don’t know why you’re doing this, Evan. Chris is my kid, I’m gonna fight for him, I got myself in this mess. You don’t have to give away your youth to take care of him. Why are you still here?”

“I- I can go if you want me to,” Evan says, sounding insecure.

“Please don’t.” The words are out before Eddie can stop them, but he doesn’t regret them when Evan relaxes again and smiles. Eddie gives him a crooked smile and says: “It would be a bad look if you left after I yelled at my mom that you wouldn’t.”

“Yeah, that would be a bad look,” Evan grins back.

Both are quiet for a second, then Evan breaks it again: “And you didn’t get yourself into a mess or giving away your youth. Or mine. Chris is a good kid. The best. I care for him. It would break my heart to leave him.”

“It would break his too,” Eddie says, not adding that it would break his own as well. Evan is his only friend, he can’t imagine what it would do if he left too. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Me too.”

And that is that. Evan is staying. Something that becomes more permanent when Helena tells Mrs. Johnson about what her ranch hand has been doing and she decides to give it a whole new spin, before unceremoniously kicking Evan out and firing him.

Eddie doesn’t even question it, before offering Evan a place in his own home until he figures it out. He slots in at home as easily as he as he has in every other aspect of his life. Their life.

He gets a job in construction instead and Chris gets to an age where he goes to kindergarten. Their routine grows and changes with them.

Morning routine is still Eddie’s responsibility and they eat breakfast as a family, before Evan leaves for work. Eddie drops Chris off at school, then sleeps. He does pick up and spends the afternoon with Chris, before Evan comes home.

Evan can actually semi-cook. He’s not great, but he’s not as horrid as Eddie. They have four meals they eat in rotation. It works for them.

They eat together, then Eddie has to leave for his night shift and Evan does nighttime routine. He is quite smug about it when Chris informs Eddie that Evan is better at doing the voices when reading stories.

On the days Evan doesn’t have to work, they all sleep in, having a lazy breakfast. They go on drives or make outing to the ice cream parlor. When they can afford it they go to the zoo or to a museum. Both know they get some looks, but they’ve learned to ignore those. They’re friends, maybe unnaturally close, but that’s for Chris’s sake.

When Eddie doesn’t have to work, they do the reading together, both voicing the different characters – hence the comparison – before dropping on the couch with a beer. Usually they stay up later than they should, Eddie’s opposite schedule ingrained and Evan who is easily convinced that another hour isn’t so bad. Those are the nights they bond.

For all they do together, they have spend that much time together where they can talk about personal things. Not for child ears things.

But during those nights Evan gets the full rundown of the Diaz family with all its members, Eddie’s childhood and how he wants to do different, better. He also gets more about meeting Shannon, their brief love turned into a marriage that fell apart almost quicker than their love had come together.

Meanwhile, Evan opens up slightly about his own childhood, the one he ran from, the sister that left him and let him go in turn. He hasn’t gotten a letter back in years, tries not to let it get to him. He hasn’t exactly been diligent in writing them either, too caught up in parenting, too unsure what to say, where to begin.

When Chris has to get two surgeries, they sit with each other in the hospital. Eddie wasn’t there for the first one, he imagines Shannon sitting there by herself – or worse with mom – and doesn’t blame her for breaking under the pressure.

He does blame her for not being there when Chris asks if mommy is going to come now that he’s in the hospital, like she had last time. The way Chris breaks all over again when Eddie has to answer no, much like he had during that first birthday and Christmas.

It doesn’t get better after those two hospital stays either. The bills come in the mail and Eddie finds himself at the kitchen table instead of the couch on with Evan one of those precious days he doesn’t have to work. He runs a hand through his hair as he stares at the number. He chokes out: “We’re not going to be able to pay these, even if we both get a second job.”

“What are we going to do?” Evan asks, looking equally as pale as he meets Eddie’s eyes, the calculator hanging uselessly in his hands.

Resigned determination comes over him and he feels detached from himself as the simple answer comes to him: “I’m gonna have to re-enlist.”

~~

A/N:

Nothing said about Shannon this chapter is meant as hate to her or her choices and I hope it doesn’t come across like that. It’s just Eddie’s POV and he’s angry at her, understandably so. However, I do think Shannon has valid reasons for leaving too, even if she could have gone about it a little better. (I actually have a whole Shannon backstory for this verse, but idk if I’ll write it down)

[lost-girl-2021]

Adopted Spider AU Idea

Okay so I had this idea for a avatar AU, where Spider is raised/adopted by the Sully’s from a young age and they don’t tell him Quaritch is his father. As far as he knows, his mom was a pilot on the Na’vi’s side and died during the battle. They didn’t really want to lie to him, but when Kiri gets to go see her birth mom, he wants to see his too, assuming she’s in a pod or something like Grace is. He’s already just so sad when they tell him he can’t visit his mom, because she’s not anywhere anymore, that they can’t bring themselves to break his heart and make him feel any more like the alien he is. So, they paint Paz as a brave warrior and keep it vague enough that they won’t get caught in any lies. And that was enough for (maybe five to eight year old) Spider. Besides, he loves his mama (Neytiri) and papa (Jake) and all of his siblings. Even before he was old enough to fit into a mask, they would visit him constantly and teach him about the woods and their home. When he was around seven or eight and old enough to go outside, he was instantly welcomed into his family’s home and never spent a night alone again.

(Also, in this, I’m aging Spider down to twelve, Neteyam is sixteen, Kiri and Lo’ak are fifteen, Tuk is eight. So, Spider’s the youngest Big Kid and his siblings are protective of him not only because he’s human and tiny, but because he’s also younger. I think to do this logically, it’d have to be a situation where Na’vi kids age faster than human kids, like maybe there ages start to even out/slow around puberty or something. Idk, haven’t super thought it out.)

Anyways, the rest of the movie stuff still happens. Except, it’s Kiri, Lo’ak, and Spider (Tuk is at home, silence bought with the promise of bringing her back fruit or something cool). When Lo’ak calls in about the Avatars, Neytiri flips, because she knows her children are all capable and strong and skilled, but those are her babies. And Spider— the boy who never remembers his spare mask and is always finding something death-defying to try? She thinks she’ll have the Na’vi equivalent of a heart attack.

So, they’re trying to head back home, get attacked and when Quaritch approaches Spider, Lo’ak and Kiri go crazy screaming at him to get away from their brother. And Lo’ak also recognizes Quaritch as the somehow reanimated murderer who was also Spider’s birth father. He’d overheard a conversation, years before, between his parents and Neteyam. His parents had explained it to the oldest and Lo’ak had accidentally found out as well. He ended up sneaking into the lab shack and finding a picture of the man (and his file). So, when Quaritch asks for Spider’s name, Lo’ak flips.

“Don’t tell him! Don’t say a word!” Lo’ak screeched from a few feet away.

The Avatar didn’t even glance his brother’s way. “I asked you a question, boy. What’s your name?”

Spider glanced at his siblings, heart racing. “Spider. . . Socorro.”

“His name is Spider Sully, he is my family!” Lo’ak hissed in English this time. “He is not yours!”

“Miles?” The man kneeled in front of him, looking at him strangely.

Miles. Miles. Miles. When was the last time he’d heard that name?

“Nobody calls me that.” It came out a near-whisper and he looked towards his brother. “Why does he know my name?”

“Don’t believe anything he says! He’s a ghost! A demon! He’s a liar!” Lo’ak screamed back, before one of the Avatars covered his mouth.

A little ways away, Kiri looked just as confused, still fighting against her captor as she tried to lean his way. Spider risked turning his gaze back to the man in front of him. He looked . . . weird. Emotional.

“I thought they’d send you back to Earth.”

“You can’t put babies in cryo.” He said as bravely as he could manage. “Why do you care, dipshit?”

The man’s brow furrowed as he settled a heavy hand on his shoulder. “Because, I’m your father.”

Spider reared back, breath catching loudly inside his mask. He looked over the large man’s arm, meeting his older brother’s wide-eyes.

“Lo’ak?”

“He lies!” The boy hissed, thrashing harder, two Avatars pinning him down this time.

“I’m telling the truth, Miles.”

“Don’t call me that.” It came out as a whisper. “My— my name is Spider.”

Quaritch gave him a curious look, letting him go and standing up once more. He turned away from the boy as another Avatar grabbed him, pressing two fingers to the communicator around his neck and calling out some code talk Spider didn’t have the capacity to process anymore.

He glanced down at the pack strapped to his loincloth, double-checking that the light hadn’t started blinking. Everything was working correctly, the seal had been done right when he’d left that morning. His parents always insisted on checking his mask when he put it back on after morning meal. His spare was strapped to his brother’s waist, Lo’ak learning long ago that Spider couldn’t be trusted to remember something so important. Spider had visited the shack the day before with the others to visit Grace and Max had replaced his mask and battery before they left. He should be fine.

But, it was kind of hard to breathe. And it was getting harder to focus. He sucked in a breath, looking over at his sister. She looked just as lost as him, yellow eyes locked onto him. She whispered to him, words reaching him from across the semi-circle.

“Be calm, little brother. Be calm.”

He forced himself to breathe in once more.

__

By the time Spider felt somewhat normal again, it’d been almost a half hour. Just . . . standing. Waiting. Spider wondered where their parents were. Spider and Lo’ak were five feet away from each other, but it felt like twenty. Both had guards on them, but they whispered as softly as they could while still being able to hear each other.

“Why does he know who I am? Is he really my . . . ” Spider asked, glancing towards the large Avatar called Quaritch.

“He’s not.” Lo’ak insisted. “You don’t have a father, like Kiri. We just have Dad. That demon is going to lie and try to trick you— he’s a monster, Spi. Don’t let him get inside your head. If he talks to you, don’t— “

A short whistle made Lo’ak stop speaking. All three of the Sully kids turned their heads South. Another call sounded. Mama.

Instead of Spider getting left behind, Quaritch flat-out yoinks Spider up onto his shoulder and hides him, cuffing him to a branch or him or something. And the chopper is arriving to pick them up, so he’s out of there first with Spider and—

Spider thrashed, mask fogging from tears and heavy breathing. He looked down, eyes meeting with his mom’s.

“Mama! Mama, please!” He screamed, trying to get away, to reach towards her.

He could see that she was crying too, climbing a tree like she could go high enough to grab him. He could see his dad, looking up at him, looking so angry. Angry at Spider? Angry that he was weak enough to get caught? Spider clawed at the monster— Quaritch, they’d called him. The man just tightened his grip. Spider didn’t care if he fell, didn’t care if he ended up tumbling towards the ground. His dad— his real dad would catch him. The year before, when Neteyam first got his Ikran, he’d taken Spider for a ride. Spider had fallen, goofing off in a way that a new rider couldn’t handle. He’d been caught by his dad before he could even have time to scream. Dad always caught Spider. Every time he fell from a tree or tripped over a root— dad was always there. Because, Spider was too weak. Spider was too human.

The whole thing ended up super long, so part two will be up later.

[passionateseadruid]

Snake Kings Bride 11

notes: Unfortunately this will be my last chapter for a while... I need to restructure the story, figure out some personal matters, and focus on College and my dreams. I will however be posting a new mini series. Chapters will be longer and release monthly and I should be back to this in a month or two.

You felt bad for your new baby Fenrir. You and Lucifer adopted him and brought him home just yesterday and Lucifer is already being possessive over you two. He placed a strict order over the entire palace. All doors and windows were to be locked, all curtains were to be drawn. No one was allowed to leave the building much less look outside. So it was just the seven of you here today. You, Fenrir, Renesmee, Nina, Styx, Pluto, …and Lucifer. 

Lucifer had been acting weird since last night when he placed the order. He promised that it would only be for today. Before he locked himself in his room.

And stayed there surprisingly… no breakfast in bed, no snuggling up to you in your sleep, no watching you from the corner of the room or from beside the bed… he was actually giving you space?

Sweet! 

You hoped out of bed and got showered and dressed for the day. You may not be able to take Fenrir out with you today but that certainly doesn’t mean you can’t make his first day memorable. You dressed up an a maroon turtleneck, black leggings, and some fuzzy socks, going for a full wine-mom/soccer-mom vibe. 

“It’s so weird that I’m a mom now!” You excitedly tell Nina as she escorts you to Fenrir’s new room. For some reason, last night Lucifer insisted that Nina stay posted by your side at all times today. Nina looked different today, wearing a black double breasted mundir jacket and fitted pants.

“I’m sure Hell is buzzing at the news of a new prince joining the royal family.”

“Him and I are going to have the best day ever!” You had no idea what the future held. Would you even be able to escape Hell? Could you take Fenrir with you if you can? What will happen to him if you can’t? Would you be willing to stay in Hell for him? How are the rest of the staff going to react to his presence?

“Mommy!” The young hell hound smiled and ran to you as you entered his room. Renesmee has just finished buttoning up his vest as she young pup came running to you. He was a bit plump for someone who was in a rough system like the hellhound adoption center. His fur was as white as snow, much like one would expect from a Samoyed puppy. A gray cotton vest, light blue shirt, and black pants. Renesmee wore a gray shirt and black plaid dress.

“Hello my sweet darling!” You pick him up. “Look at you! From pauper to prince!” 

He giggled and hugged you. “Thank you for the new clothes mommy!”

“Of course sweetie! You’re so polite! What would you like to eat for breakfast today?” You walked toward the kitchen with him in your arms. 

“Bacon and eggs!” He cheered.

You two walked into the kitchen and Pluto was glaring at you two. She wore a simple black dress that went down to her knees with a v neck cut, the sleeves were frilly and went to her elbows, and to tie it all off there was a red fabric belt nestled right under her chest. You set him down at the kitchen Island, gave a small friendly wave to Pluto, and set up some music you could listen to while you cook. The song-Baby I Love You by Random Encounters-ramped up slowly as you pulled out the carton of eggs and pack of bacon from the fridge and the frying pan from the lower cabinet. You swayed back and forth as you cooked. Not noticing that your new tot was being escorted into the parlor by Pluto as Nina watched and shrugged it off. 

After about ten minutes you finally finished  making the food and were ready to serve him when you saw that he wasn't there anymore. "Oh no." You started to panic. you set the food down and started to run through the various halls and rooms of the palace as Nina was hot on your tail. "Fenrir? Fenrir?! Come out sweetie!"

"Oh you're looking for the boy? He's in the parlor with Pluto." Nina finally informed you.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?!" You both ran to the parlor.

"You didn't ask me sooner. I'm a succubus, not a mind reader." She said nonchalantly, not out of breath or breaking a sweat at all.

The two rushed in to the parlor to see him transforming into a human form. His human form was again small and round, but instead of white matted fur he has short messy platinum hair, and instead of red eyes and white irises he has red irises. She looks over and sees a human woman with dark drown hair and an olive skin tone, round cheek and a beautiful curvy, plumper figure, as well as the same dress as Pluto was wearing. The two look over at you shocked.

"P-Pluto?" You stuttered as you pieced it together

She looked down bashfully and folded her hands behind her back. "Y-yes... my lady." She transforms back in shame. 

She walks towards Fenrir and picks him up. "Why did you take him?"

She hesitated before you motion for her to speak her mind "I... I don't want him to be raised by a racist who only wants to use him for sport or for work!" She yelled at you, anger brewed on her face.

"I Would never! I love him with all my heart! I love all the hellborn species equally." You try to reassure her.

"Wait... really?" She seems genuinely surprised

"Yes!" 

"but... his majesty-

"Is not me! I'm not like him and I never will be!" You set Fenrir down and took Pluto's hands. "I stood up to Lucifer and Charlie because of the way they treated your kind. And I'll do it again in a heartbeat..."

She looked away. "I'm sorry your highness."

"Dont call me your highness. We are equals Pluto. don't let anyone else tell you otherwise." You pulled her face up and noticed the tears in her eyes. You wiped them away and smiled at her.

She hugged you, her figure shaking slightly as you held her. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I've been so rude to you since you got here, yet you've done the one thing I've never been brave enough to do!"

"What do you mean?" You pet her trying to calm her down.

"You stood up to the king! and the princess to boot! I-I could never..." She looked at you in awe.

"Are you kidding? Pluto you the bravest and strongest person I've ever met! Plus the only reason that I'm still standing is because for some insane reason he's in love with me! But regardless... I did it because for as long as I'm here, I'm going to protect the most neglected of society."

"Really?"

"I promise." You gave her a reassuring smile. You then turned to Fenrir to see him working on a puzzle with Styx who had joined the group in favor of Nina who had disappeared. "Where's Nina? and how long have you been here?"

"She went off to go make out with her wife. And since Pluto started crying." Styx's response made Pluto stutter embarrassedly.

"Why's your hair blue? Why are your horns different? Why are you so tall compared to the other imps? Why are you so stoic and sad?" Fenrir kept asking them questions about themself as they were the only one really focused on the puzzle.

"I'll go make you three some breakfast." Pluto offered.

"Thank you but that's really not necessary." You smiled.

"I know but I'd rather be anywhere than here right now..." She rubbed the back of her head and left.

You giggled a bit and placed Fenrir in your lap. "Focus on the puzzle. It's good for a growing boys brain."

"Okay Mommy!" He happily started to jam pieces together willy-nilly.

You sighed and looked over at Styx. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course you may." They said not taking their eyes off the puzzle.

"Why is everyone wearing black today? Is it a national holiday? ...Is hell considered a nation? A region? A province?" You said that last part more so to yourself than to Styx.

"To answer your second question, Hell itself works as both a nation and a kingdom. Each ring works as a micronation or a territorial state. And within the pride ring there are nine cities-formerly called the nine circles-and each city holds subsections, usually ruled over by either an overlord or a member of the Ars goetia."

"Of yeah Renesmee told me about that. Each ring is stacked on top of each other like a cake!"

"Like a cake?" Styx raised their eyebrow at me.

"That's what she said... though, she was hungry when she told me about it..." You trailed off in thought.

"Well she's not exactly wrong." Styx shrugged.

"Can I ask you one more question?" 

"Sure." They shrugged again.

You hesitated for a moment, only for a moment. "What do you know about this ring?" You showed them your ring.

"This is known as the Serpents grasp. It's said that whoever is in possession of it is doomed to have their soul devoured by the devoured by the devil himself! But that's just a false allegation. See the real story is far more interesting. See about 250 years ago a man fell in love with a beautiful woman, but she was engaged to another man so he made a sacrifice to Lucifer himself to give him charm unlike any other to woo the maiden and the girls family into giving her to him instead of her fiancé. But in exchange for this deed Lucifer demanded the first born girl of their family tree. Which was the girl you took the place of. Most believed he wanted her as a wife or a concubine. But he already had Lilith who... really only cared about the sinners of Hell instead of people like me and Pluto. Pluto had it the worst though, Lilith seemed to personally despise the Hellhounds so in the last years of her marriage to the king Lilith would often give Pluto outlandish tasks. But she got away with it because Lucifer couldn't bare to loose her..."

You looked at Styx in disbelieving, shocked by what you just heard. "But if he was so happily married why did he want the first girl from that family?" 

"He wanted a nanny for Charlie." They said nonchalantly.

You were taken aback by their attitude. When you went to say something you were cut off by Fenrir handing you two puzzle pieces.

"Mommy… the puzzle is broken." His lip quivered.

"It’s not broken! It’s just that those pieces don’t go together." You searched for the correct puzzle piece. "See?" You connected the pieces and they fit together nicely.

"Mommy’s magic!" He stared at you in adoration.

You guys spent a few hours watching movies and TV shows doing puzzles while you watched. Giggling, snacking, and cuddling. Fenrir even wanted to frame all the puzzles you did together. 

But it all came to a stop when Pluto cleared her throat and you, Fenrir, and Styx looked at her. Pluto motioned to the door, her and Styx gave each other a look (a silent understanding of sorts), before Pluto nodded at Styx. Pluto then took Fenrir from your lap and held him as Styx pulled you to your feet and pulled you out of the Parlor.

Through the winding labyrinth Styx lead you to Lucifers study. You don’t get why he needed a workshop, an office, and a Study. Rich people shit.

Much like everything else in the palace it was garnished with white and gold and covered head to toe in red. There were beautifully intricate book shelves. Horns and wings carved and painted into the walls and furniture. There was a beautiful curtain at the far wall satin fabric with embroidered Fleur-De-Lis on it. The curtain weren’t fully closed. A small piece of the fabric exposing the marble window.

You slowly crept closer to the window, curiosity pulling you closer with little to no resistance.

And there it was… the reason Lucifer didn’t want you to leave. The reason why he didn’t want you to look outside. The reason he locked himself in his room today. There were monochromatic angels descending from the skies. …And they were slaughtering every soul in their path…

[aaakikoo]

SOMETHING PRECIOUS

summary -> when you think that you have nothing in your life other to get married to the prince your parents set you up with, someone else comes along your way.

paring -> bodyguard b. katsuki x f! princess reader

an -> finally I posted the first part after a month of posting the m.list 😭. We are already on the first part and I want this to end.

warnings -> cursing, crying, jealousy, (cheating?), injury, blood, smut, tell me if I missed any!

series m.list - this is part 1

“Are you ready, your highness?” You heard outside your bedroom, “almost done, wait up!” You yelled back at your maid, she was waiting for you to exit the room so she could finish her cleaning duty.

“Alright I’m done, see you later.” You waved at her as you began walking towards to the main hall. You were meeting with your parents, the king and the queen of the kingdom.

Your father had told you that the discussion would be serious so you didn’t know what to except.

Your father has always been loving, he cared for you and wished you the best, but sometimes he could be a little too strict, and a little hotheaded too. But overall he loved you so much.

As you arrived at the main hall and the guards opened the doors for you to enter.

The second you walked in you saw your as as always beautiful mother, the queen of the kingdom. She always understood you so well and she was so sweet to you during the hardest times.

Your eyes drifted to your father as he was smiling at you. However the figure standing next to your father was unfamiliar.

You took a seat infront of your mother and behind your father.

“Hello, I am here.” You joked, “y/n, we have to discuss a serious topic with you.” Your mother began.

“You know there have been an increasing level in crimes recently right?” She asked already knowing her answer.

“Yes, mother.” You replied back while fidgeting with your hands under the table.

“We’ve been trying to solve the issue in the kingdom, there have been more peace in most parts but there are still a high level of crimes in the shady areas of the kingdoms.” Your mom said before taking in a deep breath.

“As your parents we are worried for you.”

Your father spoke, “so we hired you a bodyguard. He is a retired pro-hero that will be by your side to defend you at any minor incident.”

You didn’t know what to say at this point, speechless.

“Hello, your highness. My name is Katsuki Bakugou, it is a very much pleasure to meet you.” You turned around to look at the man’s face but you couldn’t.

He half bowed at you with his left palm on his right chest.

“H-hello.” You said in response.

“Darling, he will be guiding your room at night and he will be following you during the day, if you feel uncomfortable you should tell me immediately so we can change the bodyguard.” Your mother said with eyes full of hope for the best.

“O-oh okay, mother.”

“Soo..what’s your name?” You asked while taking a sip from your drink.

“I have already told you, your highness. It is Katsuki Bakugou.” The man in black tux suit said.

“Oh right, what’s your favourite food?” You asked him once again.

“I like anything spicy.” He replied with all seriousness.

The weird part about this conversation is that while you are sitting in the sun sipping from your drink he was standing right behind you so you can’t even see him.

“Why don’t you take a seat?” You looked at him now.

“I am here to defend you, not to be your friend, your highness.” He said not bothering to look at you.

You scoffed and stood up, heading back to your room annoyed. Not expecting his heavy footsteps to be following along. You sighed.

You woke up the next day early and worried. You were supposed to be meeting with the prince from the neighboring kingdom. Right, the annoying one. His family are just as wealthy as yours, if not more, with a lot of money and power, huge armies and a lot of resources.

Your fathers goal is for you to marry the prince. So that those two kingdoms can unite and the power would still remain in the royal families.

However there was only one issue.

You absolutely despised the prince, his name is Shouto Todoroki.

You absolutely hated his white shiny that would flash at you whenever he’d show his annoying smirk. You absolutely hated his cocky attitude and his idiotic personality. You hated everything about the man.

It is the fourth meeting this month and you’ve already had enough.

After getting ready you got out of your bedroom only to be met with tired red eyes.

“O-oh good morning, Bakugou.” You greeted, “good morning, your highness, slept well?” He asked, “yes, have you?” You asked the man, knowing the answer yourself.

“Not so very well.” He replied, “good news for you then, I’ll be having breakfast with my family so you can take a rest.” You said leaving, not bothering to hear anything from him.

“Good morning, y/n. Excited for today?” Your father said just as soon as the butlers and the maids left the dinning room. “No, father.” You replied drinking the last sip of your tea.

“Why not, sweetheart?” Your mother asked, “I don’t like the prince.”

Your mother laughed.

“That’s nonsense, he will be your future husband.” Your dad said cleaning off his plate, “I am aware, but I do not like him, father.”

“Well unfortunately, you’re not getting married for love here. go to your room and get properly ready and dressed, the royal family will be here in a few hours.” Your mother waved you off as she called for the maids to clean the table.

You quickly got out and headed to your room. As soon as you hopped on your bed you screamed into your pillow.

“Why does this have to happen with me?” You thought.

A knock on your door drew your attention as you yelled, “come in!”

A tall blond man walked in, “had a good breakfast?” He asked, “yeah except for the fact that we talked about the that prince Todoroki and his family are coming to see us, for the fourth fucking time this month!” You yelled the last part.

“I suggest you watch your mouth, your highness. Nobel princess don’t speak like that.” He joked as he crossed his muscular arms over his chest.

“Nor am I Nobel, and nor do I wanna be a princess.” You said annoyed.

A moment of silence followed.

“I hate prince Todoroki, everything about him annoys me, his looks and his personality and all the above again. But my father is so eager on getting us married for power.” You complained to the blond man who had absolutely zero business in your life.

“I would sit and comfort you, but that’s not my job. Get up and get dressed, these are orders from the queen.” He said seriously and you sighed.

Another of moment of silence follows as you got up from your bed.

“I have thought of running away many times.” You let your mouth run, when you realized what you had said you slapped your lips.

“Y-you aren’t going to tell that to my parents, right?” You asked worriedly as Bakugou nodded.

“That’s not a part of my job either.”

You smiled a little bit. “I’ve always thought of running away. There were a lot of days where I felt super lonely, nobody understood me because they all cared about money, power and fame. I have no friends here, and I do not want to get married to someone I don’t love.” You vented to the blond man next to you, you felt hot tears rolling down both of your cheeks, you tried whipping them away before you saw that your bodyguard was handing you a handkerchief.

“Don’t cry, princesses don’t cry.” He said as you took the handkerchief from the man, he gently patted your head as you both heard your maid from the other side of the door.

“Your highness, are you inside? The queen sent me to do your hair!”

“You may enter.”

Bakugou quickly pulled away his hand from your head before muttering a “see you later” and leaving.

“It’s all done, your highness! You look so incredibly good, I know the prince will love the dress!” Your maid in excitement.

“Thank you, looks good indeed. You are free to leave now.” You said as she bowed to you and left.

You took a deeper look at yourself, dark wine red dress pared with white heels, a pretty blow out and perfectly matched makeup, in addition to golden jewellery dangling around your neck, behind your ears, around your fingers and wrists.

You left your room to see Bakugou standing there, he eyed you quickly before taking a step behind you so you can walk in front of him.

As you arrived at the main hall you felt your stomach drop when you saw the prince. You wanted to throw up already. Bakugou pulled your chair for you to sit on as he stood behind you.

“Who’s this?” Prince Todorokis mother asked.

“How about we let him introduce himself.” Your mother said.

“Good evening, my name is Katsuki Bakugou, I am Princess y/n l/n’s bodyguard.” He said as he bowed down to everyone.

“You may take your leave.” Your father said and just like that, the blond man was gone.

After a good five minutes of the kings and queens speaking to each other, the prince said, “you look wonderful as always princess, can’t wait to have you all to myself.” You almost gagged at his disgusting comment, you didn’t reply though only a nod with a smile.

After the long meeting and boring meeting, you headed back to your quarters to see your blond bodyguard already guarding it.

When he saw you approach he opened the door to your room. You looked around for a second before whispering to him, “get in with me.” You told him and he obeyed.

You sat down at your bed and kicked off your heels, “how was the meeting, princess?” Bakugou asked taking your heels and putting them in your closet.

“Fucking shitty” you spat.

“How so?” The blond asked, looking around your room, to avoid your gaze.

“That stupid fucking prince, he pisses me off so much!” You said annoyed.

“Cheer up, at least you won’t see him for probably another month, right?” Bakugou said trying to lighten up the mood.

“Yeah, we probably won’t have another meeting but he always just appears by himself randomly. That dog.”

A knock on your door draws your attention as you scream “enter!”

Your mother comes in and Bakugou half bends when she completely enters the room.

“Y/n, come with me. We’re discussing something important.”

You stared at your mother with nothing to say. “I’ll be there in a moment.” You said and she wasn’t satisfied.

“Your majesty, I’ll escort the princess very soon.” Bakugou spoke and she smiled.

“Thank you, we are waiting y/n.”

As you took a seat with your parents both their attentions drew to you. Your father put down his cup of tea as he dismissed the maids.

“What did you want to talk about?” You asked.

“Since you left earlier with no explanation whatsoever. Which is by the way so disrespectful of you, me and your father and prince Todoroki’s parents discussed the wedding.” As your mother finished her statement you groaned.

“Y/N!” Your father slammed his fist onto his chair and yelled. Both you and your mother were shocked.

“Pay attention! Your wedding is going to be in a year. So we will start preparing starting next week, to make sure that it will be the best wedding ever this kingdom had seen.”

“Father. You know I don’t love the prince.”

“Y/n. You know this isn’t about love.” Your mother said as your father was rubbing his forehead.

At this point you didn’t bother anymore. You dismissed yourself and headed back to your quarters.

Your parents words were running in your mind like crazy, after all they really don’t care about your feelings at all.

[thecynthh]

confide - M.S

summery - y/n escapes to the balcony of you and matt’s room while a whole party is still buzzing under you, he finds you and lets you know that he still loves you no matter what

notes - MORE FLUFF, guys we needed more fluff, i can make a part 2 with smut in it if u whores like this one 🫶

a/n - this is me putting off smart ass 🤗

——————————————————————————

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trying to escape the madness of the party happening underneath me i choose to sit on the outdoor couch on the very high balcony i sit at. i started the mini fire pit in front of me as all the supplies for it was just in a box near the door. 

the blanket that embraces me is fluffy and soft, as much as i love matt i couldn’t breath in that horrible blanket of tension his mother threw onto me. i was drilled with questions by her knowing the reason for the excessive amount. matt went through a rough break up before me, and i can’t blame her for wanting to make sure her son doesn’t go through something like that again. 

the fire crackles and pops while i just enjoy the city lights and soft jazz that plays on the upper level of the penthouse, i lay my head down on the other seat cozying up on the bamboo woven couch, the thick padding cradle me as i feel myself being lulled to sleep. 

not long after i fall asleep im woken up by the sound of the sliding door behind me, a shadowy figure walks to the side of the couch, it was matt. 

“hi sweetheart, did you get tired?” matt says, folding over to get closer to my face, the glow of the fireplace reflects every chiselled feature in his face.  i give him a soft nod while he peels his suit jacket off resting it on the chair that is also stationed towards the fire.

“hey move your head up,” i do as i’m told and he slides into the seat on the couch my head was recently covering up, he lays my head back onto his muscular thigh letting me use him as a pillow. 

“im sorry, i was so overwhelmed by your mom,” i say shameful of when i tripped over my words and made a fool of myself. 

“yeah, nick told me about it, he already told her to calm down on the questions, he also led me here to you and i don't think my mom is the only factor of you coming up here.” he says, dipping his head down to kiss my forehead. his fingers push my hair away from my face as i turn to look up at him. 

“i don’t know matt, i feel weird. i don’t belong in this sparkly dress or these high class parties. i’m so new to all of it, and don’t get me wrong, i love all of this and you so much to keep pushing through but if i’m being honest it’s really hard for me to be down there.” i hope matt understood what i meant by all of that because it really felt good to get off my chest. 

“i get it, we grew up differently, but that doesn’t change anything between us. i dont care if you were dirty and homeless on the street as long as i knew who you were i would have picked you up, housed you and loved you forever. and i'm willing to do that right now too. i don’t care if my family is worried about me, because i know that i'm alright now. you healed me.” he cupped my cheek making sure my eyes were still connected to his while he assured me of his intentions and beliefs. 

“i know i’m not what your mom envisioned who you would be with, so thank you for all of this. from the dress to the heels and your sweet words, thank you for sharing your beautiful life with me.” i sit up and begin to straddle matt, my red dress pools around us while i take matt in for a large hug. he returns it pushing my head into his neck letting me become way more calm then i was when i came up here. 

i look back up to him with a tear escaping from my perfectly done eye make up. “don’t cry please, it breaks my fucking heart when you cry.” he kisses the tear before it can run fully down my face fully. “how about we go to bed, i’ll get you all cleaned up and all i have to do is tell nick and chris that i’m not feeling well and we can cuddle all night, sounds good?” i eagerly nod, giving an enthusiastic yes. 

he wraps my straddled legs around his torso and carries me inside, keeping me bundled up in my blanket as I'm moved to the bed, before promptly putting out the fire i started. he retreats back to me bringing one of my silk black cami tops to change into while he goes to my large vanity and brings back a soaked cotton pad to use to clean my face of running mascara and concealer. 

he gently rubs and wipes across my face seeing him extremely focused on the task in front of him. he tosses the stained pad and he lets me crawl into bed. “okay i’ll be back im just going to find chris or nick to update them, i won’t be long.” he lingers at the door handle while telling me his exact actions while he heads out the door.

i check my phone for messages and notifications while before he comes back to our room, he strips off his button up abandoning it in the hamper that crowds a corner of the room. his dress pants hang low on his hips as they fall slightly while he pulls his belt through the multitude of loops on his pants. 

he’s now just left in his plaid print boxers as he slips under the charcoal grey duvet and snakes his arms around me pulling me in, embracing me just like he said he would. his chest is flush with my back and his legs entangle with mine. he’s warm and still smells like the intoxicating cologne he adores. i take a deep breath in being very content in where my life ended up and how i’m now engaged with my fiance and now letting the rest of his family know at a party. life is great when you find your person.

taglist - @westwiing13 @comet235 @mayhem73

[opreaadriann]

Side Story - Cecily’s New Family

It’s always about family, isn’t it? You do things to make them happy, to fulfill their expectations of you, to make them proud. But what if they don’t make you happy? What if they fail every expectation they set? Maybe that’s when you’re supposed to start looking for a different family.

My name is Cecily Knight, 7 years old, and today I start my first year at Richmond Elementary School. I have absolutely no plans of actually talking to any of these kids, so I can’t wait to get back home.

I take my seat in a small classroom alongside the other 19 kids. We all watch as our teacher starts off with an introduction, acting real nice, like we’re little, immature, nose-picking infants. Ugh...

At the end of her little speech, we go through each of the tables, introducing ourselves. It’s a relatively long-winded process where the kids either talk too much or they just don’t say anything. One even starts crying for their mom. Embarrassing.

The person that talks before me is a tiny red-headed kid with a huge grin on his face. He gets up and says, “Hi! I’m Isaac Freeman! My favorite hobby is disrupting ant trails!”

That’s a weird thing to say. He somehow ends up looking at me and probably notices my confused look. “What? You got a problem with my hobby, princess?”

Tsk…

“No, of course not! And I guess you also eat your boogers while they try to find their way back?”

The other kids start laughing as the red-head doesn’t seem affected by what I said. I think I would cry if someone else said that to me. Instead, Isaac Freeman decides to actually stick his finger up his nose and say, “Yeah, I do. So what?”

I didn’t have a comeback for that. Besides loudly screaming “Ewww!” followed by sticking out my tongue.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get any more chaotic, a tall dark-skinned kid suddenly jumps from his table and punches the red-head right in the face. “You don’t do that in front of girls!” Aha, a white knight. Carl read me some stories about these fictional characters.

The red-head falls on the floor as the teacher starts running toward the shouting for them to stop fighting.

🙇 Full story on Patreon. 🙇

[strawberrym1lkkkkk]

I have a Poolverine AU where they save a bunch of people from a burning building but couldn’t rescue a mom and dad. They find the little girl crying on the ground and they decide to adopt her instead. Her name is Lily.

“Wait,” Logan said, turning toward the sound. Wade followed his gaze and spotted a small figure huddled on the curbside. A little girl, no older than six, sat with her knees tucked to her chest, tears streaming down her soot-covered face. Her big, round eyes were filled with a mixture of fear and sorrow, her tiny frame shaking as she cried quietly.

Wade’s heart ached at the sight. His usual quips died in his throat, replaced by a rare, gentle tone. “Hey, kiddo,” he said softly, kneeling beside her. “Are you okay?”

She shook her head, her tiny voice breaking as she whispered, “My mommy and daddy… they didn’t… make it out.”

Logan clenched his fists, his heart twisting at the realization. Wade was silent for a moment before he gently placed a gloved hand on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” he murmured. “I wish we could’ve saved them.”

The little girl continued to cry, and Wade felt something shift inside him—a fierce protectiveness he hadn’t known he was capable of. He glanced up at Logan, his usual cocky demeanor completely gone. “We can’t just leave her here,” Wade said firmly. “She’s got no one now.”

Logan met Wade’s gaze, his eyes reflecting the same turmoil. He had always been reluctant to get too close to people, especially kids. But something about this situation, about Wade’s unexpected tenderness, stirred something in him too. “What are you saying, Wade?” Logan asked, though he already knew the answer.

Wade straightened up, determination in his eyes. “I’m saying… we adopt her. You and me. We’ll be her family.”

Logan’s eyebrows shot up. “You serious, Wade? Us? Raising a kid?”

“Why not?” Wade replied. “I mean, sure, we’re a little… unconventional, but who better to protect her? And I don’t know, Logan. I think maybe we could give her a good life. A weird, crazy life, but a good one.”

Logan considered it for a moment, the weight of the decision heavy on his shoulders. He had never imagined himself as a father, but looking at the little girl—lost, alone, and needing someone—he couldn’t just walk away. And he couldn’t deny that Wade, despite all his flaws, had a heart bigger than most.

With a resigned sigh, Logan nodded. “Alright, Wade. We’ll do it. But this is going to be a hell of a challenge.”

Wade’s face lit up, and he pulled Logan into an impromptu hug, much to Logan’s dismay. “Oh, you big softie, I knew you’d come around!”

The little girl looked up at them, confused but hopeful. Wade knelt down again, wiping a tear from her cheek. “How about it, kid? You want to come with us? We’re a bit of a mess, but we’ll take care of you.”

She sniffled and nodded slowly. Wade grinned and picked her up, holding her close. “Alright then, welcome to the family. What’s your name?”

“Lily,” she whispered.

“Well, Lily,” Wade said, glancing over at Logan with a smirk, “you’ve just been adopted by the weirdest, most badass duo in history.”

Logan rolled his eyes but couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth. They had no idea what they were in for, but one thing was certain: this little girl had found her new family in the most unlikely place.

As they walked away from the chaos of the burning building, Wade carrying Lily in his arms, Logan by their side, they knew that life was about to change in ways they couldn’t imagine. But for the first time in a long time, it felt like the kind of change they could welcome.