#and its like I don’t mind that she doesn’t answer my texts like god knows I hate texting

[straows]

𝘚𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘰 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘥, 𝘯𝘰 𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘺, 𝘕𝘖 𝘔𝘈𝘕. 𝘐’𝘮 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘺𝘢𝘭𝘭… 😔

𝘐 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘴𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘵𝘸𝘰. 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘞𝘌𝘌𝘋 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘣𝘶𝘺 𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬.

You were quick to leave the house. Feeling sick to your stomach, and salty tears burning down your cheeks, you pulled out of the drive. You looked like a hot mess. Wearing an oversized t-shirt and nothing but leggings and some socks, you shouldn’t be on the road.

And you damn sure shouldn’t be driving.

Your phone was blowing up though, the contact ‘Handsome man❤️’ get popping up. One call, two calls, three calls, and before you knew it you racked up 75 missed calls, and 124 messages.

After running a few red lights, and almost pit maneuvering some old bitch for going to damn slow, you made it finally to your girls house. And before you could even knock on that door, the lady herself had ripped the door open from its hinges and yanked you inside.

“Ho, I have seen you on Life360 driving like you ain’t got nothing to lose! What the fuck is wrong with you?” She glared at you, worried for sure, but her anger melted in the face of your teary, puffy and red face. “Oh what happened? Here sit down and I’ll get you a drink.”

“H-he thinks I’m ugly and- and he knows I’ve been working out now and-“ your sniffles kept breaking up your sentence, soft voice cracking under the pressure of heart ache.

“Baby he does not think you’re ugly. Have you seen that man? Have you seen the shit he comments on your post? If he wasn’t your boyfriend I’d have half the mind to report his ass for harassment. Dude is thirsty.”

Now that did make you laugh, a little smile rose to your lips before you sighed and stared at the ground before finally talking about what happened. And you told her everything.

“That’s why you’ve been losing so much weight? Girl that is for the wrong reason! You are so fine already, woman what the hell is wrong with.” Your best friend sat down beside you, shoulder to shoulder, thigh to thigh as she wiped your face.

“I don’t know… it’s just the way he looked at her.” And the water works started all over again.

“He was drunk- and now I know the saying drunk words are sober thoughts but I don’t think that applies to this situation.” She held your hands before letting you rest your head on her shoulder. “That man is in love with you, y/n. Yeah, he’s a dumbass. And yes, you did gain weight but that was some sexy weight.”

You found yourself smiling again as you looked up at her. “Yeah?”

“Hell yes. If I was a man I’d be tappin’ that ass so quick!” The woman laughed along with you, smiling before leaning forward and handing you some water.

“So you think he was just talking out his ass?” You looked over at her, eyes no longer glossy from crying.

“Yes! Didn’t you say he just watched Transformers? You KNOW what that movie does to him- makes him act all weird n shit.” Your friend’s lips curled in disgust and you couldn’t help but cackle.

“Oh my god he does do that doesn’t he?” You couldn’t not laugh. It was like a kid trying to be a gangster, except it made Gojo act like an asshole. “He’s so weird.” You smiled fondly, the pressure on your chest elevated a little bit.

“He is so weird! Why the hell did you pick him? And after all the fine ass men I tried to set you up with.” Your friend got up and grabbed some snacks.

“Um, they weren’t fine, you just wanted them to give you free weed by extension of me.” You rolled your eyes but laughed when she glared at you.

“We would have BOTH gotten free weed.” She threw a bag of chips at you, before noticing your phone still blowing up. “Damn- 300 unopened texts?!”

“Should I answer him?” You looked down at your phone, the phone still locked but you could see the number of texts and called.

“Yes. Girl I promise you he loves you. And even if you do gain weight, you look good with some thick on you. Like white on rice I’m finna be on that ass if you don’t answer that phone cause it’s starting to piss me off.” Your friend left the room to give you some privacy.

You smiled as you watched her walk away before finally picking up the phone and opening it.

“BABY! PLEASE ANSWER ME!”

“DONT DO THIS I LOVE YOU!”

“I MEANT TO RESPOND I WAS JUST SHOCKED!”

“I REMEMBERED WHAT I SAID AT THAT PARTY- BABY I DIDNT MEAN IT!”

“PLEASE RESPOND TO ME Y/N I NEED YOU TO KNOW THAT I DIDNT MEAN IT!”

“I JUST WATCHED CARS, YOU KNOW WHAT IT DOES TO ME!”

“BABY YOU COULD BE 900lbs AND I WOULDNT CARE!”

“PLEASE!”

“I WILL KEEP TEXTING YOU!”

“AND CALLING!”

“BABY!”

“NOT TO MENTION I WAS DRINKING YOUR BAD BITCH JUICE!”

“PLEASE IT WAS THE WINE NOT ME”

“I LOVE YOU. I LOVE YOUR BODY. YOUR FACe, YOUR PERSONALITY, I LOVE YOU!!!!!”

Sighing softly, you finally answered one of his many calls. Picking up the phone, you could hear his breath panting into the phone, little sniffles heard on the other line.

“Baby?” His voice sounded so sad it broke your heart. “Look I know you’re mad, and you have every right to be I was an absolute prick- I’m so so sorry!”

“Satoru…” looked down at your knees, you took a moment before answering, “that’s the reason I’ve been dieting and doing all this… I just want you to look at me like you did that woman…”

“Baby, fuck that woman! I was not in my right mind CLEARLY, because I said some stupid shit! I love YOU and your body. Baby I love you for you. And yes, you had some extra weight put on, but I loved it. Knowing that I was making you happy enough to relax and eat freely? I was so proud.”

“Really?” You asked, your bottom lip quivering as your heart did flips. “Even my belly?”

“Baby your belly makes me feral. I see it freely when you wear a dress? My cocks hard instantly. I don’t know what it is but I love that shit. But I love YOU more. If you wanna lose weight? That’s fine, I’m here with you. Hell I’ll go with you to the gym. But you wanna gain weight? Oh baby I am so fine with that too.”

“You really mean all this?”

“Yes. On my life. On the elders’ lives. On the neighbors and his children’s lives, and on the life of that stupid ass American president, I’m in love with you and everything you do. I will forever feel like shit for doing this to you baby I’m so sorry.”

“I love you.” You cried into the phone, happy tears as all that heavy weight of anxiety and sadness rushed straight out of you.

“Please let me come get you, or you come here- or- or I’ll come to you- anything you want y/n.” Gojo was shaking on the other line he was talking so fast. You had this man so wrapped around your finger he was sweating. The thought of him hurting you- in anyway, had him going through more phases than Bella did when Edward dumped her.

“I’ll come home. I miss you.” You were quick to get up and grabbed your things. “I love you, I’ll see you when I get there.” Quickly hanging up, you gave your friend a bone crushing hug before rushing to your car.

When you pulled into that driveway, Gojo was standing outside by the front door. And when you opened your door he yanked you out of that car so fast, wrapping his arms around and pulling you to his chest.

“I’m so sorry,” he pressed a quick kiss to your lips, then your nose, eyes, corner of your lips, your forehead, cheeks and chin, no part of your face went unkissed.

Giggling at all his antics, you wrapped your hands around his nape before pulling him into a deep, but loving kiss.

His hands grew tight around your waist, keeping you close as could be as he pressed further into the kiss. Mind you, y’all hadn’t been with each other in weeks. Let alone touched, hugged, kissed or cuddled.

The neighbor rushed out of the house, his ass on fire he was so angry, “quit kissing in the got damn drive way!” Grabbing his hose he immediately aimed it at you two.

Gojo merely flipped him off and deepened the kiss. A giggle split you two apart, you couldn’t stop smiling. Like the happy ending to a movie, Gojo guided you up the steps and inside, but not before he slapped your ass playfully.

After that day, things went back to normal. Hell, even better than normal. Gojo did not go near your wine, nor did he watch Cars 1 or 2. He always had a hand on you, an arm around your waist or an arm around your neck. Where you were, he was.

You gained the weight back, and Gojo did as he said he would. The happy weight you gained was like an aphrodisiac, this man is insane. He’s bending you over the counter, the couch, the bed, the shower, everywhere. He’s fucking you in the walmart bathroom, in an alleyway, at a bar. Hell he cannot not be around you or touch you.

It’s safe to say he’s definitely in love with you. But so are you. And that makes y’all the best couple.

𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴

𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴

𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴.

𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥’𝘷𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘸𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘢 𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘵. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘺, 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘢𝘴𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘐’𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺 😏.

𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘮𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘶 𝘩𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘦

@thesecretlifeofmo @hanakotateyama @fishrene @moonchhu

[queenangella]

.

[elliespassagerprincess]

write something abt gamer!Abby pls!!

Headcannons: gamer!abby anderson x reader

live footage of Abby, after dying in Valorant:

☆ Gamer Abby who worked two jobs at one point to be able to afford all the new games and set up.

☆ Gamer Abby who spent over 3000 dollars just to upgrade her pc.

☆ Gamer Abby who had everything in room because she wants to feel close to her games.

☆ Gamer Abby who felt embarrassed when you came over for the first time.

☆ Gamer Abby who apologizes for all the posters and stacks of games that littered her room.

“Why are you saying sorry?” you asked her, confused as you sat on her bed.

“This isn’t very sexy” she comments looking down at the floor.

“It is” you shrugged "everything you do is sexy Abs"

☆ Gamer Abby who memorizes all the lore to different games, and she tells you all about it, even though it sounds like gibberish to you.

“Wait what?”

“baby focus” Abby said with an annoyed tone.

“So Ellie is Joel’s daughter?”

“Oh my god don’t you listen?” Abby says dramatically.

“She isn’t his biological daughter babe” “oh.. so who’s Sarah then?”

All Abby could do was sigh.

☆ Gamer Abby who spends hours playing, but pauses her game when you send her a text.

☆ Gamer Abby who face times you while she’s playing, because she just wants to be with you.

☆ Gamer Abby who feels self-conscious when you are in her room when she plays.

☆ Gamer Abby who gets teased by her friends when they are all on a call.

“why are you so quiet Anderson?” she heard Mel ask through the headphones.

“Her girl is there, she doesn’t wanna scare her away” Nora says witch a chuckle.

☆ Gamer Abby who always feels like she talks too much about games, but falls in love with you all over again when you say: “its ok Abby, tell me about it”

☆ Gamer Abby who moves her gaming set up and posters into another room when you move in.

You walked into the room, the room that was once so colorful with games, was now empty. Naked.

“What the fuck Anderson?”

“I moved it all”

“yeah no shit… why would you do that?”

“this is our space now and I thought you know- we could… I don’t know decorate it together?” ☆ Gamer Abby who is wayyyyyy to good with her fingers, and she gets all shy when you mention something about it.

“What are you looking at?” Abby asked without taking her eyes off the screen you hummed before you simply answered “you”

You watched as Abby shook her head with a chuckle.

“I now see why you’re so good with your hands, these games are definitely teaching you something” you said with a wink and Abby almost pissed herself.

☆ Gamer Abby who uses cheesy game related pickup lines

“You must be as good as Yoshi with that tongue of yours” “Did you just cast aeroga on me? Because you swept me off my feet”

“You don't have to turn on a game to play with me”

“Nice pants! Mind if I loot them?” You never got the references but it always made you blush.

☆ Gamer Abby who almost cried when you gave her plushies from the games she was obsessed with at the time.

☆ Gamer Abby who tries teaching you how to play.

“C’mon baby it’s not that hard”

“Abby I keep dying”

“you’re dying because you aren’t focusing”

“Abby I don’t want to play anymore”

“please baby, for me?”

☆ Gamer Abby who almost combusts when you understood one of her references.

“What did you just say?”

“you said just look for the light that’s a the last of us reference, isn’t it?”

“Marry me” ☆ Gamer Abby who finds out you’ve been practicing her favorite games, and you learned the lore to surprise her.

☆ Gamer Abby who wakes you up at 3am because she was yelling at Nora for making her lose.

☆ Gamer Abby who begs you to play with her because she thinks it’s hot.

☆ Gamer Abby who was scared of being herself before she met you.

☆ Gamer Abby who wants to dress up as Mario and princess peach for Halloween.

☆ Gamer Abby who knew that you were the perfect girl when you let her decorate your shared room with a few posters.

☆ Gamer Abby who is really happy, being with you.

☆ Gamer Abby who could see the two of you getting old together. And she hoped when you were 73 one day, that you’d still be playing together

[hannahssimblr]

Seven on the button, and the doorbell rings. I hear it from the garden as I empty the contents on the lawn mower into the bin, grass stains on my new shoes, sweat on my brow. Dad comes to the back door. 

“Bell,” he says. 

“Is it someone for me?”

“I assume so. A young woman.” 

“Didn’t you let her in?”

“No. I spotted her from my office window.”

I scoff. He’s so weird. Why wouldn’t he just answer? I wipe the grass from my hands onto the sides of my shorts, kick my dirty shoes off on the patio, and head down the hallway to the sounds of Ivy plonking on the piano. 

It’s Evie, in her usual denim shorts and a thin green cardigan, hair straight and shiny and wearing a shy smile. Despite seeming slightly frazzled, she looks so nice, like she’s put in effort, unlike me, all grass stains, sweat, and hair that is no doubt sticking up at some wild angle. I run my fingers through it. 

“Oh, hi,” I say. “I didn’t think you’d come so early. I… still have to shower.”

“Oh, God, sorry, am I the first one here?”

“Yeah, but come in, anyway. My sister is just practising for her piano lessons. She hasn’t played all summer.” I roll my eyes as the door clicks behind us. “In case you can’t tell. She’s a bit shite.”

Evie doesn’t respond, but looks around her with those big green eyes taking in her surroundings, skating up the panelled walls to the Georgian coving, the ceiling roses around the lights, all restored, faithful to the original house. It occurs to me to wonder, for the first time, what her home looks like, and the differences between our upbringings that didn’t matter an ounce on our little escapist slice of the beach.

“Do you want tea or something?”

She nods, and I take her through to the kitchen. There, she perches on a stool at the island and rests her elbows, trying not to be so obvious to her gawking. This time, she takes in the kitchen, this bespoke, perfect show-house-like kitchen with all of its integrated appliances, the state-of-the-art hob that’s barely used, the skinny cupboard made specifically for all the herbs and spices that still have the plastic wrap on them. It’s nice, sure, it’s like something from a magazine, but I would prefer this was the type of house that had magnets on the fridge door instead. 

“I’m sorry I’m early,” Evie says with a rueful smile. “I thought you said seven.”

I drop a tea bag into a mug for her. “Yeah, I said seven in the text, but I suppose I should have been more specific.”

“More specific about…?”

“That seven doesn’t actually mean seven, you know? That it means, like, sometime after eight.”

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t know you expected me to decode your text.”

I laugh. The misunderstanding was my fault, really, and if I’d thought about it for even a minute, I would have known that Evie, a girl who likely doesn’t go to a lot of parties, wouldn’t know the procedure. I don’t mind that she’s here at all. I am happy to see her, but the fact that she is in my house at the same time as my family is awkward. Every time I hear someone moving about in another room, all my muscles tense up. I cannot bear for her to meet them, and be able to make some kind of judgement about who I truly am through the encounter, or worse, expose herself to their judgement and scrutiny. 

As though on cue, my mother’s heels clack through the hallway, increasing in volume until all I can do is mentally prepare myself for her entrance. I curse under my breath while I fill Evie’s cup with boiling water. 

In freshly pressed trousers, she strides into the room. All jangling keys, and an air of busyness about her, so self-absorbed that it takes a moment for her to realise we have a guest. She stops dead, and surveys Evie in dull surprise. She’s like some kind of wild, feline predator, and witnessing her interactions with people who don’t yet know her ways is excruciating. 

“Oh, hello.”

“Mom, this is my friend Evie. Evie, this is my mom,” I say. 

Evie fidgets in her seat. “Hello missus Turner,” she says, and it’s so polite that I squirm.

Mom lets out a short, percussive laugh. “Oh, no, darling. It’s just Colette. Are you one of those girls from the Holy Faith school?”

“No, actually, I’m not. I’m from Tullamore, in Offaly.” 

Mom’s eyes glaze over so immediately and obviously that I cringe. 

Pulling the tea bag out, I clarify, “She’s one of my friends from holiday.”

“Ah, Shane’s sister.”

Evie picks the mug from the counter and cradles it in her hands. “No, um… No, I’m not.”

“Ah.” She’s already rifling through her handbag. “Jude, have you seen my reading glasses? I haven’t been able to find them all afternoon.”

“Did you check the office?”

“Why would they be in there?”

“I’m just asking, did you check?”

She huffs. “Why would you suggest the office? Why on earth would I have left them there?”

“Because this is your house, and you can go into any of the rooms you like. Sorry if that’s an outrageous suggestion.”

“You know I’m never in there.”

“Well, maybe dad mistook them for his and took them in. I don’t know.”

Evie stares into her mug. I am aware of the atmosphere we’re generating here, my mom and I, but it’s hard not to descend into this childish bickering every time we speak to each other lately. Even seeing her ignites this rage in me, as she is a reminder of the injustices thrust upon me, and every time I see her smug face, I think about the position she has put me in. Dad too, obviously, but I mercifully don’t have to see him outside of occasional mealtimes, and whenever someone makes a noise that disturbs him.

Eventually, mom struts out of the room and flings open the door to the living room, curtly calling on Ivy to get ready to leave, and I thank God. I won’t relax until they do. 

“How’s your tea?” I ask Evie, and she responds with a grateful smile. “It’s lovely, thank you.” I know she’s lying. I don’t know how the nuances of creating drinks I don’t enjoy. There are rules about the correct amount of milk, and how long to brew the tea bag. Maybe I shouldn’t have bashed it around in the cup with such vigour, as though transferring some of my contaminated energy into it. I wonder if she can taste it. 

“That’s good,” I say, and we lapse into a long silence.

Beginning // Prev // Next

Corresponding LG Chapter

[justauthoring]

Shadow of Yourself [11/18]

Prompt: “You’ve changed, Eli. I barely even know who you are right now.”

A/N: we are so close to the prom episode and therefore the tournament and OH MY GOD i am so excited lol

Based off of: Cobra Kai 04x04, 04x05, 04x06 and 04x07

Warnings: some swear words (because tumblr apparently doesn’t like that)

Pairing: Eli Moskowitz x F!Reader

Tag List: @moonydrafts - @ashwhowrites - @traveleraroundsworld - @truly-abysmal - @likecherriesinthespring - @hollxe1 - @asonofpeter - @scarlett-verse - @musically-ambiguous - @kayda1 - @moon-zoons - @dwcode - @day-dreamsinthedark - @leilani788 - @silvermagnolias - @hawkinsavclub - @animewolflover278 - @gruffle1 - @b-tchymoon - @maggiecc - @beetea38 - @hawkinsavclub1983 - @crpytids - @embersparklz - @kimilight - @httpjiikook - @marauderssmut - @fyckcore - @multinci - @lqveabby - @oh-well-whatever-nevermind - @redskull199987 - @silvermagnolias - @shortneko - @okjaeminn - @thecyclonetragedy - @vamproq - @siriusfahey - @cobrakaigirlie - @kaylinfayezink - @oursuh - @aphroditelxver - @minl0u - @cherrywinepoison - @bath1lda - @fixalice - @fallsofserinity - @maisieibae - @ssrcsm​ - @notplutos - @kaitieskidmore1​ -

THE NEW DO:

Eli had walked you home after you’d calmed down. 

He’d asked you if you wanted to stay over, that he didn’t mind letting you take his bed and he’d take the couch – that he was sure his mother wouldn’t mind either and had been asking about you anyways. But you declined. You didn’t want to impose and still, despite all but sobbing on him, you didn’t know if spending the night at Eli’s was the best idea.

So, instead, you’d both compromised and he walked you home.

An awkward goodbye that consisted of silence, warm cheeks and a hug, before Eli turned to walk off; not without inviting you out with him and the rest of Miyagi-Do/Eagle Fang out tomorrow. Apparently, they were all going to the drive-in movie tomorrow and Eli remembered hearing Sam say she’d text you about it, but wanted to ask you out just in case. The thought had made your heart flutter and a warmth to flood you – it’d taken you a moment or two to find your words and nod.

I’ll pick you up tomorrow, then.

That’s what he said before leaving, a simple wave your way and assurance he’d see you tomorrow.

The butterflies that had fluttered in your stomach were undeniable, and you’d almost completely forgotten about your mom until you opened the front door to find her sitting on the couch, before promptly jumping to a stand when she heard you come in. One look at her face and the worry was plain, her eyes were puffy and red and you couldn’t help the small bit of guilt you felt realizing she’d been crying; though you’re sure you looked much the same.

“You weren’t answering your texts,” she breathes, shoulders falling as if a weight had fallen off of her. “You can’t just not answer your texts.”

Hugging the sweater Eli had given you (and the one he refused to let you give back), you glance down at your feet. “I’m sorry,” you whisper, “I wasn’t thinking.”

Your mother sighs, “look, Y/N, you have every reason to be upset and I’m not gonna ask you to forgive me. You don’t have to talk to me. Just, please, don’t run out of me like that again. I was so worried.”

Nodding, you bite your lip. “Okay,” you concede, not knowing what else to say. Really, you didn’t want to say anything else. “I won’t. I promise.”

“Now, get to bed,” she says, stepping back as you finally raise your head to look at her. “It’s late.”

You watch as she hastily brushes back strands of hair, the messy bun on top of her head half-hazardly falling out of its elastic. She looks tired, bags under eyes and stressed, and part of you feels guilty – for reacting the way you had, for not listening to her, for just running out and not even giving her the chance to explain. But when your lips part to say something, anything, you’re still angry and hurt and the fact is you don’t want her to leave more than anything else. 

But she’s still going to.

“Goodnight,” you offer quietly, moving to the stairs.

“Goodnight, honey.”

You leave it at that, silently making your way up the stairs until you make it to your bedroom, letting the door shut softly behind you. Once alone, you stand there for a moment, lips pressed tightly together as you think of your mom, just downstairs, clearly upset and the fact that, by the end of the week, she won’t be there anymore.

You’ll be home alone all again.

Slipping Eli’s hoodie off of your shoulders, you bundle it in your own hands, holding it to your chest as you slump to the ground. Bringing your knees up, you hug yourself, bringing the hoodie up to your nose, you breath in, taking in the familiar scent, and trying to ignore the way your body reacts in response, a small smile despite everything curling onto your lips.

At least there was that.

-

“Robby?”

You reel back at the sight of the boy, the drive-in being the absolute last place you expected to see him – not to mention, you could’ve sworn you just saw him talking to a boy in a Cobra Kai t-shirt. You’d known he’d been staying there, the sensei that had taken over having taken some sort of liking to him and offering him a place to stay but… but you didn’t think he was still staying there.

That, and the fact that he’s still not answered any of your texts and you were starting to think something terrible had happened to him–

Turning at the sound of your voice, Robby’s eyes widen.

“Robby!” His name leaves your lips in a breath of relief, rushing towards him, oblivious to the pair of eyes that follow behind you. “What the h*ll! I’ve been texting you and you haven’t been answering me!” Not even giving him a second to speak, your eyes flicker around, taking the truck behind him and the sight of Tory and Kyler inside. “I thought… Are you?” You can barely finish the words, eyes flickering back to him in disbelief.

It’s all piecing together bit by bit.

“Y/N–”

“You said you weren’t going to join Cobra Kai.”

Avoiding your eyes, Robby huffs; “it’s not what you think.”

Crossing your arms over your chest, you scoff; “it sure looks like it.” Then, shoulders slumping, you take a step towards Robby. “Why haven’t you been answering my texts, Robby? I was worried.”

“Things have gotten complicated,” Robby sighs, “I haven’t had the time to respond.”

“Yeah, complicated because you did exactly what you said you wouldn’t and joined Cobra Kai.”

Eyes narrowing, Robby just shakes his head; “I have it under control.”

In disbelief, you can’t believe what you’re hearing. “Yeah, I’ve heard that before.”

He glares at you, and you have to resist the urge to reel back at just how angry he looks. You haven’t seen him look at you like that since when you first joined Miyagi-Do – funnily enough, that had been when he thought you believed in Cobra Kai.

Now look at him.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about, Y/N. So, don’t act like you do.”

Blinking, your lips part, stunned. Stunned that Robby would actually say that to you. And most of all, hurt because this was starting to sound almost entirely too similar to so many conversations you’ve had before with another boy. And the look in his eyes felt like Deja vu staring back at you, like a slap to the face, when you realize just exactly what’s happening right in front of you.

“Robby–”

“Piece of shit.”

You never get to finish what you’re going to say as the words leave Robby’s lips. He’s stepping around you in the next second, barely giving you another glance and confused, you spin around to see where he’s going only to pause when you realize just exactly who he’s heading towards.

Sh*t.

“You should watch where you’re going, kid.”

“Yeah, same goes for you.”

Quickly making your way over to Robby, you falter in your step as your eyes meet Eli’s. You also notice Bert and Nate behind him, the both of them quickly rushing to stand slightly behind Eli as Robby walks up to him, the other boy who’d been there moving to stand next to Robby instead.

This did not end well.

“Look who it is,” Eli calls, walking up to Robby threateningly.

“Eli,” you plead, his name leaving your lips before you can stop yourself. You rush towards him, pressing a hand to his chest to stop him as you glance back at Robby briefly; “it’s okay. Let’s just go.”

Eli meets your eyes and it almost looks like he’ll listen to you, until;

“You betrayed Miyagi-Do,” Nate spits at him, “traitor.”

Eyes falling shut in frustration, you realize it’s too late to hope for this to end peacefully.

“Oh, there’s a traitor here for sure.”

And there comes Tory.

Glancing over your shoulder, you turn, facing Tory as she makes her way over, eyes set straight on Eli; Kyler and a few other Cobra Kai’s behind her. 

“He’s gonna get what he deserves.”

“I don’t think so,” a new voice speaks up, and your eyes widen when you see Sam, Miguel, Chris and a few others from your class making their way up to the group, obviously standing on Eli’s side. “Not if I have anything to say about it, Princess.”

There’s a moment of tense silence, either side just staring at one another, before Demetri cuts in.

“Hey, guys. Can you believe that they have Mr. Pibb and Dr. Pepper?”

Everyone turns to look at him and as his eyes meet yours, you raise a brow.

The meaning is not lost on him.

“Oh, shit.” He huffs, “not another rumble.”

“Careful, Larusso,” Tory taunts, “your mommy isn’t here to play peacemaker.”

Sam’s eyes narrow; “what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Guys, stop!” Miguel cuts in, voice desperate; “we can’t do this. We’ll beat them on the map.”

Letting a small smile grace your features, you find yourself proud at Miguel’s reluctance for violence – at the very least unsupervised and regulated violence.

You’ll take what you can get.

“You remember what happened last time we fought, right?”

Turning to Robby in disbelief, your lips part.

Why would he–

“Okay,” Miguel nods, playing into the bait. “Meet us at the baseball diamond in thirty minutes. And no weapons.”

So much for his reluctance to violence.

“Yeah, we won’t need them.”

“Yeah.”

Turning when the rest of your group does, you can’t help but let out a sigh.

You just wanted to watch a movie with your friends.

You’re proved wrong however when Miguel says that you won’t be fighting like he expects – he assures you all that you’ll still make your move, but there’s no need for it to get violent. So, slightly puzzled, you sit squished between Sam and Demetri in the back seat of Eli’s car, and watch as Robby, Tory and the rest of Cobra Kai make their way onto the baseball field, eyes peeled for sight of any of you.

Only for the sprinklers to turn on just then, dousing them in water.

“Dude,” Eli laughs, “genius move! We didn’t even have to throw a punch!”

Demetry laughs, reaching forward to nudge Miguel lightly; “my favourite kind of victory.”

Letting out a laugh, you can’t help but agree.

-

Johnny isn’t quite as impressed with Miguel as you are.

“You just poked the bear,” Johnny huffs at his student. “What do you think’s gonna happen?”

Confused at his response, you turn to look at Demetri.

“Think they’re just gonna leave well enough alone?”

Mr. Larusso walks in just then; “from everything I heard, it sounds to me like Miguel practiced restraint.” He offers, coming to Miguel’s defense. “Found a way to get out of a bad situation without anyone getting hurt. What did you want him to do, get in a drive-in switchblade fight?”

Honestly, you can’t help but agree.

However, as Mr. Larusso turns to Miguel, setting his hand on his shoulder, smiling and proceeds to compliment Miguel, it isn’t hard to see the way Johnny’s eyes narrow.

“I’m proud of you,” Mr. Larusso grins. “You’ve taken Miyagi-Do teachings to heart.”

“Okay, Larusso,” Johnny huffs, “we need to have a talk.”

Yup. Just as you figured.

Only, neither of them get to say anything as everyone’s attention falls on the two new men who have just walked into Mr. Larusso’s dojo. One, you instantly recognize as John Kreese, but the man standing next to him is a new face.

Yet, even just one look at him makes you feel instantly nervous.

There’s something off about him.

“Gentlemen,” the new face grins, “it seems we have a few things to discuss.”

With that, you and the rest of the students are quickly ushered inside; both Mr. Larusso and Johnny not wanting any of you to hear what John Kreese and Terry Silver you learned his name was, had to say. Of course, none of you listen as everyone gathers near the sliding doors of Mr. Larusso’s dojo, opening the doors while everyone shoves their head through to try to get a peek at what’s happening.

It’s hard to hear exactly what they’re saying, but one thing you can tell is Mr. Larusso looks madder than you’ve probably ever seen him look.

“Your dad’s pissed,” Miguel whispers to Sam, noticing what you had; “who is that guy?”

Just as confused, Sam shakes her head; “I have no idea.”

“He looks like Highlander,” Bert offers.

“The Highlander,” Nate corrects, “there can be only one.”

“Well, whoever he is,” you speak up, worrying your lip. “I don’t trust him.”

No one responds – but everyone's face is clear; they feel the same.

-

Making your way around the corner, your face brightens at the sight of Moon, offering her a smile and a wave when she does the same. You only briefly meet Yasmine’s gaze along the way, her offering a small, somewhat forced smile that you don’t bother to respond – you were happy for her and Demetri, truly, but that still didn’t erase the years of torment that she had inflicted on you.

And without an apology, you weren’t so willing to forgive.

So, continuing on your way, you hold the textbooks in your arms to your chest, gaze on your feet before you catch sight of purple, and your eyes widen when you realize that that purple is Eli. 

He’d changed his hair.

It looked... good.

He’s standing with Demetri, but your gaze is focused on Eli completely and wholeheartedly. 

Picking up the speed in your step, you move to greet the both of them, only to falter when you hear what Demetri’s saying.

“What about you and Moon, eh? Did I detect a note of rapprochement in the air?”

Steps faltering, all excitement quickly fades through you as Demetri’s words register in your mind, the disappointment heavy on you as you feel your shoulders sag. A glance back reminds you of who you’d just seen walk by, and the pieces come together as a weight falls over your chest. You take a step back, nothing bothering to listen to what Eli has to say in response – truthfully, you’re too afraid to hear what he has to say back, fearing the worst.

And because of that, you don’t hear him vehemently correct Demetri that he and Moon were just friends and were better that way or the way that Demetri smiles knowingly at that and your name leaves his lips as Eli’s cheeks warm.

You also don’t notice the both of them see your figure hastily rushing off either, not until, at least, you hear Eli call for you.

Your body stops on its own, doing so without evening realizing, and when you turn back to face him, Demetri has walked off and it’s just Eli.

Forcing a smile on your lips, you pretend like you hadn’t just been eavesdropping on them. “Hey,” you smile, moving to fall into step with him, briefly meeting his gaze before you let your eyes wander to your feet, watching your steps. Eli pauses slightly at that, wanting to have stopped and talk to you, but he follows after you quickly regardless. 

“I, uh, like the purple. It suits you really well.”

It’s what you’d wanted to say to him anyways.

“Oh, uh, thanks,” he grins distractedly, touching the side of his head. “I felt like a change was due.”

You smile up at him, nodding; “I liked the red, but the purple really suits you.”

He smiles, but doesn’t say anything in response. You turn to him just as the both of you turn the corner, his lips parting to say something as the look on his face turns to one of concern. Only, he doesn’t get to finish what he’s saying as the both of you are interrupted by Miguel, Demetri and Sam rushing up to you.

“Yo,” Miguel calls, pulling your attention on him. “You guys won’t believe this. Sensei got drunk and went on a Twitter rant.”

He holds his phone out, Eli easily grabbing it as you raise a brow; “I believe everything except for the part where he knows how to tweet.”

Demetri snorts; “that’s what I said.”

Sticking your tongue out at him, you move to lean over Eli’s shoulder, ignoring the slight moment of pause from him as you grow closer, letting your eyes flicker across what sure enough is a series of tweets from Johnny himself.

Tomorrow night. Eagles reign supreme.

It’s time for the Valley to see what karate is all about!

IT’S ON: LAWRENCE-LARUSSO REMATCH! hashbrown dead meat.

You snort; “hashbrown?”

Meeting your eyes, Miguel shrugs; “he doesn’t really understand how to hashtag things.” Then, shaking his head, he sighs, “it looks like he and Sensei Larusso are gonna have a rematch.”

“Wait,” Eli calls, “so they’re really gonna fight?”

“Apparently,” Sam shrugs, “should’ve seen this coming.”

“Who does he even think he’s tweeting for?” Demetri calls to attention, “you’re his only follower?”

“I don’t know,” Miguel sighs, dejected. “H-He seems serious about it.”

“Yeah,” you grin, unable to stop yourself as you point at the phone; “he ‘hashbrowned’ dead meat.”

Eli and Demetri chuckle, and you like the fact that Eli responds so positively, but Sam and Miguel just frown at you.

Biting your lip, you offer an apologetic smile.

“So, this is real?” Eli grins, looking entirely too pumped; “Sensei and Sensei are gonna throw down?”

Sam and Miguel nod.

“That’s awesome!”

-

Johnny’s tweets get around – whether that’s because of the students actually finding his tweets or word getting around from namely Demetri and Eli, the entire class is there at the dojo when you arrive. 

Well, everyone but Eli.

When you ask Demetri, he just shrugs, not sure himself. It worries you, given you remember how excited he’d seemed over the match between your two sensei’s, but you barely have time to worry either way because the match is starting before you can do much about it. And reluctantly your attention is stolen by the match as Johnny and Mr. Larusso makes their way to the sparring deck, Miguel and Sam moving to either side of their respective sensei to help keep watch of points.

Chris is center front of the group, his phone stretched out on a tri-pod to catch every second of said match.

The match starts after a few short words are shared between both Mr. Larusso and Johnny, stepped away so none of you can hear. And you watch as Johnny manages to get the first point, a strike to Mr. Larusso’s arm, but Mr. Larusso is able to easily gather said point right back in similar fashion.

It continues on like that, intense sparring that results in the match ending up two to two until whoever gets the first hit wins.

You’ve never seen a match quite like theirs. They’re pretty much equal in strength, the match being able to go either way, and it’s hard to keep up with their movements as each one moves with precise and quick movements.

It ends with the both of them striking each other straight in the chest, knocking them to the ground.

“Point, Lawrence!”

“Point, Larusso!”

Confusion falls over everyone as Miguel turns to Sam; “are you sure?”

“Are you sure?”

“Check the replay!” Demetri calls out next to you, everyone quickly moving to do just that, gathering around Chris who rewinds the video just until the moment of the final kick.

It doesn’t really help clear anything.

“Go to another angle,” Johnny shrugs.

“There is no other angle,” Chris turns to him, confused.

“Don’t you guys have another phone?”

“I–”

“Hawk?”

Turning alert at Miguel’s voice, your eyes instantly flicker upwards, glancing at Eli who had caught Miguel’s attention and instantly seeing what was wrong. His face is covered by the hood of his hoodie, hiding most of his face, and his shoulders are curled in on himself, and it isn't hard to tell there’s something wrong.

“Shit, Eli, what–what happened?”

Pushing your way forward, you pause right in front of Eli.

He avoids your gaze, refusing to meet your concerned gaze, as he raises his hand, pushing his hood off.

Your eyes widen, lips parting as he reveals just what had happened – his mohawk had been ruthlessly cut off, half-hazardly, strands of purple hair sticking up from the sides, while the middle is completely shaved, uneven in it’s cut. You’re honestly surprised he’s not cut anywhere given how rough it looks like his hair had been shaved. But what really catches your attention is how red and puffy his eyes are, something that’s clear now that his hood is no longer covering his face.

Hands falling to your lips, you feel your heart break in worry for him.

Johnny steps forward, moving to a stop right in front of Eli; “who did this?”

Eli only hesitates a moment; “Cobra Kai.”

There’s a collective series of sighs, but you hardly care. You rush to step forward, moving towards Eli as Johnny steps back, giving you room.

“Kreese and Silver did this,” you hear Johnny call out, “they need to pay.”

“Eli?” You call softly, hand falling on his arm as he moves to pull his hood up, hiding himself once again. “Eli, are you–”

He just turns away from you, shrugging your hand off of him.

“Jesus, Johnny,” Mr. Larusso huffs, “please. Kreese tried to kill you last time. You wanna fight them both?”

Frowning, you turn back to Eli, but he won’t meet your eyes.

“Damn right,” Johnny argues, “look at what they did.”

“Dousing the fire with gasoline, that’s your answer? Why am I not surprised?”

Distressed, Miguel steps towards Johnny; “sensei, stop.”

Johnny just disregards him. “You still think your way is the only way. You were so proud when they pulled their little sprinkler prank. But if they stood their ground and kicked ass like I taught them, this never would’ve happened.”

“If they fight every time they’re provoked, where does that lead?” Mr. Larusso recalls, throwing his hands up. “Back to the hospital? Or to jail?” Come on, just ‘cause you spent time in both–”

“Enough, dad,” Sam cuts in, voice pleading as she steps in front of Johnny, as if protecting him from her own father. “Johnny’s right. It doesn’t matter how many times we stand up to Cobra Kai, if we don’t strike back, they’re gonna keep coming at us.”

The silence that follows is thick.

“And you were worried about my influence on your kids?” Mr. Larusso breathes, “is that what you wanted, Johnny? To have my daughter and the rest of my students acting like you?”

“You don’t have to worry about it anymore.,” Johnny assures, taking a step towards Mr. Larusso. “Cause we’re done.”

“Works for me.”

There’s a moment where the two just stare at one another, before Johnny concedes, stepping back and calling for Eagle Fangs to follow him. You straighten out at that, panicked as you move towards Eli, watching as Johnny hesitates, staring back at Miguel, who only after a moment, reluctantly follows Johnny.

Eli makes a move to walk off and you grab onto his wrist, grip tight, pleading; “Eli, just wait. I just want to know you’re okay–”

“Just leave me alone, Y/N,” he brushes you off, ripping his wrist away from you. The action stuns you enough that you don’t move at first, body freezing at his harsh words and his complete dismissal of your concern. His back turns to you and he doesn’t offer you another glance back as he walks off, following after Johnny.

Your hand hangs in front of you, bewildered.

When Miguel walks past you, he frowns at you, but doesn’t say anything, slowly following after the rest.

Biting your lip, you hold back the tears that threaten to fall as you watch them walk off.

As you watch Eli walk off.

-

You stare down at your phone, those tiny little letters staring back at you.

Read.

Yeah, you can’t help but scoff. Read, but still blatantly ignoring you.

“Hey, everyone, gather around. I have news.”

Sighing, you push your phone into your back pocket, moving to gather around Mr. Larusso with the rest of the students.

“The All Valley committee just announced big changes for the tournament.”

“What kind of changes?” 

Handing the paper over to Sam, Mr. Larusso smiles; “see for yourself. It’s a whole new ball game.”

Leaning over Demetri, you squint to read the letter.

“They’re introducing skills competitions?”

“Yup.”

“Kata, board breaking, weapons display?”

None of that even matters to you as you read what’s below it.

Glancing up you meet Sam’s eyes, “and there’s gonna be a separate girls’ division.”

She nods, “so that means…”

Mr. Larusso smiles; “there’s gonna be two All Valley champs.”

“Wait,” Chris calls, puzzled, “what does that mean for the bet with Cobra Kai?”

“There’s a Grand Champion trophy for whichever dojo wins the most points,” he explains.

Sam shrugs; “all I know is the girls’ division is mine.” Then, pausing, she falters, turning to you; “I mean…”

You just laugh, shrugging as you hold your hands up; “it’s all yours, Sam. I hardly doubt I have the skill to compete with you.”

“It could go either way,” Mr. Larusso cuts in before Sam can reply, smiling at the both of you. “At the very least, I’m positive we have one of the winners here.” He gestures to the both of you, a reassuring smile on his lips as he meets your eyes.

Turning to meet Sam’s eyes, you can’t help the smile that curls onto your lips at Mr. Larusso’s encouragement.

You? Win? You doubted it… especially if you ended up having to face Sam.

Still, it felt nice to know someone at least believed in you.

“And that just leaves the skills and the boys,” Mr. Larusso smiles, turning to the rest. “I’m counting on you guys.”

Demetri and Chris pause.

“Who, us?”

“Yeah,” Demetri nods, “we’re a bunch of Rudys. I mean, sure, we’re good for the occasional inspirational moment, but we’re not exactly center mat material.”

“Demetri,” you call, frowning up at him. “That’s not true.”

“Uh,” he pauses, pointing his finger at you. “Yes, it is.” And honestly, he doesn’t even look the slightest bit offended or disappointed by his own words – he wholeheartedly believes them.

“We were much better off with Miguel and Hawk,” Chris reminds.

“Or he who shall not be named.”

Robby.

“Rhymes with ‘Dobby’,”

“Yeah, I’m gonna go on a whim and assume they knew who you meant, Demetri,” you snort, setting your hand on his arm with a shake of your head.

“Look,” Mr. Larusso sighs, “I know you’re missing some of your friends. And of course I wish Robby was here.” Letting your gaze fall to your feet, you hug yourself. “But it’s time to put the past behind us, all right? Don’t worry. By the time the tournament comes around, you’re gonna realize this was the best thing that could’ve happened to us.”

-

He’s not answering any of my texts.

I think he’s embarrassed.

Why? I would never make fun of him.

Yeah, and he knows that but he doesn’t want you to see him as some loser.

Oh…

Look, I’ll talk to him okay? 

Okay… thanks, Demetri

Of course.

Setting down your phone, you let out a heavy sigh, hands running across your face.

You were happy Eli was at least still talking to Demetri, but you couldn’t deny you were a little hurt that he’d all but shut you out. You thought things had been going well between the two of you, that your friendship was starting to mend bit by bit and… you’d even thought maybe something more would happen. 

For him to just completely shut you out, refusing to answer your texts, ignoring you when you try to visit him…

He doesn’t want you to see him as a loser…

That’s what Demetri had said, and you guessed, when you thought about it like that it did make sense. You’d known that that mohawk had meant something more to Eli than just some haircut, that it had been a staple of change in his life. It wasn’t hard to tell it was something that gave him confidence, that made him feel better about himself and you don’t think you’re wrong to assume that he probably thought it was what defined him as a person now.

Hawk. The kid who could fight. The kid who kicked ass. The kid who wasn’t bullied anymore.

The kid who wasn’t a loser.

Without that mohawk, he must’ve thought none of that was true anymore.

You only wish you could tell him that that wasn’t the case. Be there for him like he’d been there for you…

“Y/N!”

Eyes falling shut at the sound of your mother’s voice, your shoulders sag. It takes you a second longer to gather your courage, leaving your phone on your bed as you make your way out of your bedroom and down the stairs, stopping just in front of your mom who’s stood by the front door; a suitcase in one hand and her purse in the other.

She’s leaving.

“I’ll text you when I’ve landed, okay?”

Nodding, you wrap your arms around yourself. “Sounds good.”

“I’ve left you money as usual, but if you need anything else, just text me. Extra too for your prom dress.”

“Okay.”

“You’ll be good?”

“Always am.”

Frowning, your mom raises her brow at you.

You concede; “I’ll be good.”

“Okay, well, I gotta go.”

She makes a step towards the door, and your body flinches, the thought of running and hugging her crosses your mind – but you don’t move.

“Bye,” you offer quietly after a moment, raising your hand in a wave.

She looks disappointed, but doesn’t say anything.

She leaves in the next second, the door falling shut behind her with a soft click.

-

“So, that’s new…”

Eyes trailing after Tory, you can’t help but nod at Moon’s words.

“I didn’t know she was even allowed back,” you mull, turning to look at Moon as her eyes follow Tory for a moment longer, before meeting yours. “Pretty sure Sam had to give the okay first, and last I saw, she was anything but okay with it.” Watching Tory disappear down the hallway, you shrug; “clearly she changed her mind.”

“It’s weird,” Moon mumbles, “having her back.”

“Yeah,” you breathe, “I agree.”

Moon shifts beside you, her hand falling on your arm; “enough of that,” she brushes aside with ease, causing you to blink at her in confusion as her face breaks out into a bright grin. Her eyes twinkle with mischief, a sight that instantly makes you feel apprehensive. Over your short time of knowing Moon, that look has never meant anything good.

“Are you excited for prom?”

Oh.

“Um, yeah, I guess,” you shrug, unsure. 

The truth was, you weren’t that excited. Not as much as you should be. After everything that had happened recently, with Cobra Kai and Robby, and then Mr. Larusso and Johnny splitting, your mom leaving and now Eli… well, it was hard to really feel excited for such a thing in the midst of it all.

Especially, because you’d always hoped you would go with Eli and it didn’t really feel like there was a high chance of that happening.

“Come on!” Moon laughs, pulling at your wrist, “you’re not even the least bit excited?”

You pause. “Not really,” you admit, “I don’t even have a dress yet.”

Her eyes widen, lips parting as if you’ve said the most unbelievable thing ever.

“What?”

Jerking back, you frown; “I’ve been really busy with school and karate and–”

“Are you free after school?” 

Turning to Moon, you hesitate; “well, no… Mr. Larusso said he was going to focus on the boys for this class so–”

“Perfect,” she smiles, not bothering to let you finish your sentence. “Then me and you are going dress shopping.”

Your lips part; “oh, I dunno Moon… I don’t really–”

“You don’t have to go to karate, yeah?”

“Yeah…”

“Then, I’ll find you the perfect dress,” she assures, squeezing your hand tightly in her own. “I promise you.”

You meet her eyes, seeing just how excited she is and you find as you stare back at her, you can’t say no. Not when she’s looking at you like that and certainly not when she looks so excited.

“Okay,” you smile lightly, nodding. “Sounds like a plan.”

She practically squeals from excitement. “Perfect! Trust me, Y/N, I’ll find you a dress that makes you stand out from everyone else.” Then, pausing, she smirks at you; “one that’ll maybe catch the eye of a certain boy, yeah?”

It isn’t hard to tell who she means.

Cheeks burning, you avoid her gaze. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about…”

“Sure,” she laughs, shaking her head as she drags you along the hallway.

-

As soon as you got home from Moon practically dragging you to every bridal shop she could possibly find, not settling on one dress until she was absolutely sure she’d found the right dress, you were more than exhausted. 

Your feet dragged beneath you as you made your way up your driveway and to your front door, your bed calling for you as you held your dress tightly in your arms, fishing for your keys. You’d had homework that you were supposed to get done, but it could wait another day, and honestly, all you wanted to do was fall asleep and never wake up again.

But, despite all that, you couldn’t deny you’d had a fun day. Moon was incredibly sweet, if a little pushy, and she made you feel like a goddess in almost every dress you’d tried on all whilst making sure to find what she deemed the ‘perfect’ one. What you’d settled on had surprisingly left you feeling excited for prom, even if you currently had no date and were positive no one would be asking you anyways… Prom actually seemed exciting to you now, and you were oddly looking forward to wearing your dress.

You were never one to dress up and honestly, going out of your comfort zone was something you avoided. You’d learned over the years that it ended up just embarrassing you more than it ever made you feel beautiful.

Yet, the dress in your hands did make you feel beautiful and you had only Moon to thank for that.

With a small smile, you shift the dress, flipping your keys in your hand, only to pause at the sight of Eli sitting on your front porch.

“Eli?”

He jumps at your voice, sitting up straight when he realizes you’re standing in front of him. Almost instantly, he moves to his feet, your eyes following him as he steps towards you, eyes distantly flickering to the bundle in your arms before meeting your gaze.

“Hey,” he calls softly, hands shoved into the pockets of his sweats.

“Hey,” you breathe.

He looks different then the last time you saw him. The most notable changes are the fact this time he isn’t teary-eyed and the strands left from his mohawk are completely shaved off, leaving him with a buzzcut. But, you notice it just like you notice everything about Eli the way he’s not curling into himself or hiding, and he’s meeting your gaze without an ounce of hesitation and he just appears… more confident.

Even if only slightly.

“What’s, uh, what’s up?” You ask, head tilting to the side in curiosity.

“I just came back from class,” he explains, scratching behind his ear.

“Oh,” your face falls with understanding, eyes softening. “Johnny was able to find a place to train? I know Miguel was saying he wasn’t sure where–”

“Uh, no,” Eli cuts in, making another small step towards you. Your brows furrow at his words. “I was actually at Miyagi-Do…”

Your eyes widen; “wait…”

“Yeah,” he nods, “I joined Miyagi-Do… I, uh, wanted to be there for Demetri and um, well, you too.”

You can hardly believe what you’re hearing.

There was a time where Eli would’ve scoffed at the mere mention of Miyagi-Do.

“Woah,” you laugh lightly, “I missed one class and we get a new student.”

Eli chuckles at that, shrugging; “we… I missed you there. I wanted to see you and apologize for not responding to you… I shouldn’t have ignored you like that, it wasn’t fair of me and–”

Taking a step towards Eli, you shake your head; “Eli?”

He pauses, meeting your eyes. “Yeah?”

“It’s okay,” you assure, voice soft. “I know you needed time. And I’m glad you figured it all out.”

Even if I would’ve liked to be there for you too.

His smile brightens at that, and there’s a moment of silence before he asks what had clearly been on his mind; “where, uh, where were you?”

“Oh,” you jump at that, stepping back and staring down at the bundle in your hands, cheeks warming slightly. “Moon and I were out shopping,” his eyes widened at the sound of his ex. “For, um… a prom dress for me.”

His lips part; “I didn’t know you and Moon were close.”

You shrug, “she’s good company.” Then, ignoring the way it makes your heart hurt, you tease; “you lost something good with her.”

Eli shakes his head. “We’re better as friends.”

You try to ignore the hope that floods through you at that.

“So, uh… prom.”

Body tensing, you meet Eli’s eyes; “yeah… prom.”

His cheeks flush, the tension turning awkward as he avoids your gaze, staring down at his feet and your body feels like it’s electrified with anticipation.

Was this it?

Was he going to ask you?

“Should be fun.”

It takes everything within you not to show just how disappointed you are.

Your shoulders sag and you almost feel like crying as the words you’d so desperately hoped to hear from Eli don’t happen. 

Forcing a smile to your lips, you nod; “yeah, should be.”

His lips part, as if to say something, before he stops himself, body faltering as he turns, “well, I should… I should get going.” He says, and you try to ignore the disappointment that courses through your veins.

“Oh, okay… sure,” you nod, stepping out of his way. “I guess I’ll see you at class, then, huh?”

Meeting your gaze fleetingly, Eli nods; “yeah, I’ll see you then.”

You wave at him as he walks off, waiting until he’s completely disappeared out of sight before you let your shoulders fall, biting your lip to stop the tears that threaten to fall.

You’d… You’d really thought he was going to ask you.

It was stupid of you to get your hopes up.

Eli probably didn’t even like you in that way. Not anymore. He probably wanted to ask Moon, and you hardly doubted he really thought the two of them were ‘better as friends’. It was silly of you to ever think otherwise…

Not when prettier girls existed.

Glancing down at your dress, you swallow thickly.

Yeah, it really was stupid of you.

[so-long-soldier-writes]

Falling in Love is like Falling Asleep (Slowly, Then All at Once)

liam dunbar x theo raeken

summary: liam knows things theo doesn’t know he knows. A harmless movie night is the easiest trap to set.

tags: movie night, sleepovers, texting, mutual pining, feels, trust, homeless theo

word count: 1.5k

a/n: i haven't posted in a hot minute, and i'm so sorry for that, and i'm also sorry that this is for tw, but the gays are stuck in my mind! i acknowledge my tvd requests and promise i'll get to them when i have the inspo, but for now here's this lil piece

12:48 pm

Liam: hey

12:54 pm

Theo: Do you need a ride?

12:55 pm

Liam: no

Liam: mason and corey are coming over to watch a movie tonight and i don’t want to be a third wheel

Liam: can u come

12:57 pm

Theo: No.

12:58 pm

Liam: wait why not

Liam: are u busy?

12:59 pm

Theo: No.

1:00 pm

Liam: okay then come over

Liam: my mom’s really chill and she’s baking brownies rn

Liam: my dad gets off work at 7 but then they’re gonna go out on a date or sum

Liam: they won’t be back till late and then they’ll just go to bed

Liam: please

1:04 pm

Theo: No offense, but I have no interest in watching a movie with you three chatterboxes.

1:05 pm

Liam: yes you do, you just don’t want to admit it

Liam: you secretly love us

1:06 pm

Theo: I tolerate you.

1:07 pm

Liam: you love us

Liam: 😘

Liam: theo i’m serious i really don’t want to third wheel

1:10 pm

Theo: And you think I do?

1:11 pm

Liam: no but at least we can third / fourth wheel together

Liam: hey 111, i wish you’re gonna come over tonight

1:12 pm

Theo: If you say your wish, it doesn’t come true. 

1:13 pm

Liam: that’s not true

Liam: c’mon theo please

Liam: it’s not just that i don’t want to third wheel, i want your company

Liam: and you should relax and watch a movie, you’re too tense all the time

Liam: no offense

1:15 pm

Liam: please

1:16 pm

Liam: please

1:17 pm

Liam: please

1:18 pm

Liam: theo, please?!?!?!?!?

Liam: theooo i stg answer your phone

Liam: come overrrr

Liam: i’m gonna be bored without you

Liam: my mom’s brownies are really good, she bakes

Liam: please

Liam: theo

Liam: i’m summoning you

1:19 pm

Theo: Oh my god! Shut up!

1:20 pm

Liam: oh good you’re back

Liam: pleeeeaasseeeeeee come over

1:21 pm

Theo: If I come, will you stop blowing up my phone?

1:22 pm

Liam: YES

1:23 pm

Theo: Okay, fine. ONCE.

1:24 pm

Liam: 😘😘 i’ll see you at sevennnnn

Despite getting a ‘yes’ on attendance, Liam’s still slightly surprised when he hears the familiar truck engine pull up to its usual spot by the mailbox. He opens the door when Theo’s footsteps reach the top step, and pops out from behind the dark green entrance with a smile. 

“Hi.”

“You’re a menace.”

“I’ve been told.”

Theo follows the little beta deeper into his house. He meets his mom, who ends up being as sweet as Liam describes, and greets Mason and Corey, who are bickering about what to watch. Up until the movie is decided, he opts to talk to Jenna in the kitchen rather than the pack of misfits across the room. Fifteen minutes later, though, her husband comes home and he knows he’ll have to succumb to the crazy soon. 

Sooner rather than later - Theo was hoping he’d have at least a little more time - Liam jumps up to hug his dad, then pulls Theo by the arm all the way to the living room. He plops down on a blanket on the floor and practically tugs him down with him, offering a half-assed sorry afterwards. Theo huffs, but settles beside him. He takes note of Mason and Corey sitting rather close to their right, and copies Liam as he leans his back against the couch. Jenna and David leave ten minutes later, leaving twenty dollars on the counter top, and about thirty warnings to not burn down the house. The DVD finishes its previews right as the door locks. Theo realizes he’s trapped now. 

It’s not that Theo doesn’t want to be around Liam, that’s not the case at all. The problem is the setting, where it’s late at night and a movie’s playing. It’ll be hard to control his heart rate and even worse to prevent his nightmares if he falls asleep. If he were a normal boy, without supernatural DNA, and if Liam were the same, he would kill for an opportunity like this. He’d agree immediately and sit beside him without hesitation. As the night went on, he’d inch closer and closer until practically cuddling the other boy, if he let him. 

But Theo can’t, and he won’t, and he stays still, and controls his heart. A few times, Liam’s shoulder brushes up against his and his focus dwindles. At one point, Liam moves his head close enough that his lips brush Theo’s cheek. It was an accident, by the way he moves away quickly, but he’s not too embarrassed, because he goes right back to his ear, this time with a better understanding of where Theo is. 

“You can relax, y’know? This isn’t a pack meeting or anything, this is just us hanging out. You don’t need to pretend around me, or any of us.”

Theo struggles with that. One, that Liam can sense he’s holding back, and two, that he’s putting so much strength into his mask, he’s missing the movie entirely. 

“What are we even watching?”

“Ant-Man, because there’s one scene at the end that Corey finds really funny, and he’ll happily sit through the whole movie just for those three seconds,” he explains. “But Paul Rudd is hot, so Mase and I don’t mind. Plus the movie is pretty good, I have to admit.” 

Theo doesn’t respond. His mind sits on the idea of Liam finding the man on the screen hot. It’s not that he doesn’t agree, it’s the fact that Liam finds him hot. 

Liam. 

Who dated Hayden. 

Who begged Theo to come tonight, because he “wanted his company,” and sent about a hundred kissing emojis to beckon him over. 

Liam, who just grazed his lips against Theo’s cheek and didn’t even flinch. 

Theo’s mind is suddenly really busy. And between the dark room, and the peaceful atmosphere, and the fact that he’s not in his truck, staring up at the fabric headliner, but leaning against Liam’s shoulder - how did that happen? - he starts to feel tired. He hasn’t slept well in days. Weeks, really. Maybe even months. 

Scratch that, Theo’s not sure he’s ever slept well. The last day in his mother’s womb was probably the last good sleep he’s ever had. 

But right now, next to Liam, inhaling his scent, close to Corey and Mason, - two people he used to doubt but now trusts - Theo feels himself nodding off. 

Liam thinks the man on the screen is hot. 

Liam’s beside him, touching him, almost kissing him. 

His head is spinning. 

Tara’s not in eyesight or earshot of him. The movie tunes her out. Liam grounds him. 

His head slumps from Liam’s shoulder to his lap, but he barely notices. 

Liam does. 

“Mase, give me that blanket.”

“This one?” He holds up a suede blue one.

“No, the weighted one.”

“Oh. Here.”

“Thanks.”

“Is he sleeping?” Corey asks in a whisper.

“Not yet, almost.” Liam drapes the blanket over him, from his shoulders to toes. Theo shifts slightly to welcome its warmth and the comfort it brings. 

Something heavy caresses his body, but it’s nice. He nestles his head deeper into his pillow - Liam’s lap, unbeknownst to him. A gentleness massages his head - Liam’s fingers playing with his hair - but he’s too relaxed to find out the source. In record time, Theo dozes off. His heart rises and falls steadily through the night. He doesn’t wake, nor cry, nor sweat. He sleeps peacefully, indulging in the comfort of the new environment. 

Liam falls asleep with a hand still in his hair, backed up against the couch. He’d watch him sleep if he could, make sure he doesn’t wake from a nightmare, but the gentle lull of his anchor’s heartbeat puts him to sleep quickly. 

Corey laughs silently at his favorite part - Thomas the Tank Engine  suddenly becomes so massive, he breaks through the house’s roof. He throws his hands in the air in a quiet cheer. 

When the movie’s over, Mason collects him into an embrace to sleep. 

The sun rises early in the morning, but Theo doesn’t. Everyone wakes up one-by-one and takes extra precaution to be quiet. Liam knows things Theo doesn’t know he knows. He wanted his company tonight, but he also wanted him to sleep. He hadn’t expected his crash to be in his lap, but Liam is certainly not complaining about it. 

Corey’s the last to wake. It’s nearly nine. Theo fell asleep at ten. Liam wants at least one more hour, a full twelve hours of undisturbed sleep. It’s likely he’ll be too embarrassed to come back to another movie night. Liam’s prepared for that. But he desperately hopes that this rest instead convinces him to stay more often, even if it means sneaking carefully through his window. His mom’s already approved that, if it gets him off the streets. 

“Is he still asleep?”

Corey receives three sets of fingers to lips. He apologizes silently with wide eyes and wild gestures. Mason corrals him out of the living room and into the kitchen. 

Theo’s still sleeping at ten. His heart’s still steady. He looks beautiful, painted in sunlight.

One more hour, Liam decides. At least one more. 

[emmatgc]

Wonderful World Part 9

I Found Love (where it wasn’t supposed to be) 

Seon Yul POV 

“And I've moved further than I thought I could

But I missed you more than I thought I would

And I'll use you as a warning sign

That if you talk enough sense then you'll lose your mind

And I found love where it wasn't supposed to be

Right in front of me

Talk some sense to me” 

This is Seon Yul’s current favorite song listening to it upon arriving at their rented dorm just outside the hospital they will be studying for a short course. This is on replay button. He can’t help but feel this is his song for her and towards her. It is 1pm in Germany, and it is 8:00pm in Korea. He wasn’t able to call upon landing an hour ago since everything went fast when they were fetched by the dorm master and showed their place. He doesn’t want to be rude and all, so he just texted Soo Hyun, smiling like a teenage boy “I’m here” and I miss you already”. 

He is now sitting and wondering if he calls her since its kinda late at night 

“I don’t know exactly where this feelings of mine started for HER. When my Mother told me to stop my revenge plans years ago, God, it feels like a decade ago but still raw.  All I wanted was to ruin her and make her feel the pain I was feeling. It started with a lie, everything. It wasn’t coincidence, I planned everything and somehow, the outcome was something I didn’t anticipated. I fell in love with her not knowing it was love. They say the opposite of love is hate and I believe that’s what happened to me. I tried to move on, and moved out away from her after that fateful day I went to her book signing event. That was 6 years after and I still felt the same. I was scared but I was sure. I wanted her. I don’t want anybody else. Hells be damn. I’d be lying if I didn’t feel conflicted. She killed my Father so how I can love her? It is twisted. I know. I wish I had answers but I don’t and I don’t care. Still, I would be fine if she didn’t love me back because the last thing I wanted is to force her and hurt her. We bleed the same. Now, she is saying we should give it a shot. Now, I am more than scared that I ever was. True, I want her but do I deserve her, really? What should I do now? God, I am acting like a greenly teenager having a huge crush on a teacher. Haha She is like a strict teacher in my eyes and I always have a thing for strong older woman. It is the reason I didn’t have girlfriends really and those younger than me, I treat them as lil sisters. I was attracted to more mature woman and Soo Hyun is just perfect. She is perfect. She was my torment but now she is my savior”

Checking his phone now, thinking of calling her… he continued in his thoughts 

“When I saw her at the airport time froze. I froze! I cannot believe my eyes. Is this some joke or am I dreaming? Then she hugged me and there it made sense. It is real. Honest to God, I wanted to kiss her right then but I held back for her sake. I didn’t know if she was ready. People say Im crazy but indeed I am. Now that I have her, or shall I say, we have a chance, she didn’t say she loves me yet, or is in love with me, we will take it slow like she said. Im happiest that I’ve ever been and I don’t want this to end. This is something new and everything is uncertain but she said “yes” to a chance and Im gonna try my very best to make her happy. I am sure of my feelings, the question is, will she be able to love me back?”

Soo Hyun POV

It is 8:00pm now, and Soo Hyun was restless and nervous. Will he call? Was it true, what happened at the airport? Maybe I am dreaming, maybe its all a bad joke. She is rumbling by herself. Then, her phone rang 

“I’m here and I miss you already” 

She dropped her phone and thank goodness she is in a couch. Her heart fluttered and her stomach felt butterflies. My gosh, she said, I am acting like a teenager! What should I reply then? Should I reply? Maybe tomorrow since its late already, he needs to rest but wait, our time zone is different now, she realizes. She prepared herself a tea to calm her nerves and it allowed her to think. Think about him and what happened at the airport. 

When Yoo Ra told me they were going abroad, I was shocked and I admit, I was feeling weird. Was I jealous? I know Yoo ra likes him. But I cannot stop thinking about him since he left the orphanage and I tried to stop thinking about him but I can’t. Im too old to feel this way. He is way too young for me and I….I killed his Dad. How can he love me like that? It is crazy. He is crazy. Whats crazier? Why am I feeling this way too? I want him but I know this is wrong. Who dares love the killer of his dad? This is some punishment from the Gods! Yet, if this is a sin then I guess I am willing to take. I want to be happy and I want to move on. I want to choose life and happiness and he….he makes me happy. I don’t know why and how but he does even those years ago, when we were at odds. I cared for him a great deal already. Not as guardian but as person, as a woman, too. Seon Yul didn’t know, I called the hospital and got Yoo Ra’s contact number. I lied that it has something to do about their work at the orphanage but really it wasn’t. We talked. She said “you are both crazy for each other and so if you have any feelings for him, then go with me at the airport and say it directly to his pretty damn face! Yoo ra is great. She is feisty. She should be the one with Seon Yul but He likes me instead. He is in love with me, he said. I like him, too. I want him in my life but truly, I am not sure if this is the same love I had for my husband yet. He was the only man in my life for a long time. But, I had to give my heart a chance this time. Gosh, am I doing the right thing? We bleed the same. The song I love entitled “where is my love” the lyrics there “Don’t she know, we bleed the same” hit me when I listen to it. When he was scared, I wanted to comfort him. When I was scared, he wanted to comfort me. He is like me with all the pain, the agony and sufferings. We can heal each other. We can move on. Together, we can. 

Drinking her tea..she continued “When I saw him at the airport, for the very 1st time, I found him so handsome. My heart skipped a beat. My goodness, I was crazy and acting like a school girl in front a crush! He is like the boy next door type after all. You know the guy across the street. Very pretty, handsome but really prettier than me. Haha.. I can sense his shock and disbelief and I wanted him to feel secured that I am giving this, Us…a chance. I like him and I want him to stay in my life. I don’t know how , or when it will stop of if I will stop but for now, it is what it is. I finally admit, I like him, too. I cannot deny it anymore. 

 It is 2pm now in Germany, Seon Yul is settled and he is worried because she didn’t replied. Is she asleep already? It is after all 9pm. He was about to call it a night when his phone rang… “I am glad you are there safely. Have you eaten? Don’t forget to eat promptly.” 

Haha he laughed. She is always thinking about feeding me and still so proper in her texts! Their “feeding” moments started the very 1st time they got to know each other. They talk over food and it made Seon Yul like her all the more. Seon Yul’s eyebrow slightly raised because she didn’t say she missed him back but it is ok he said, one step at a time. Trust the process. He wanted to reply “goodnight” already since he worries she might stay late if they still talk but he has to try. The boy has to try. He misses her already and he just wanted to hear his voice. 

There were 3 rings and finally, she answered. Seeing her phone rang and his name sent shivers to Soo Hyun. She is so nervous. 

Hello? She said. Hi, he replied.  Both were smiling. 

Seon Yul held his breath and there will silence. As always, Soo Hyun, the “mature” of the two, as she says it herself and she takes pride in it, ask how is he. 

How are you? I am glad your plane landed safely, Seon Yul.

It was a good flight. How are you? 

I am good. Im about to rest. 

Oh, Im sorry , I shouldn’t have called. We can..

NO, its ok. I am glad you called. 

Butterflies felt in his stomach. She is the only one who ca make him feel that way.. So…he said, he cleared his throat. Sorry, I don’t really know what to say, I’m such a mess. Im nervous, Soo Hyun. 

She laughed and replied “I am nervous, too. We are both crazy”. 

We are hahaha 

Have you eaten? You haven’t answered me yet. 

Do you miss me? You haven’t answered me either. 

Both answered simultaneously “I have, said Seon Yul and I do , said Soo Hyun. 

He has eaten and she misses him. 

Both seemed happy with their replies. 

Soo Hyun? 

Yes? 

What are we now? 

Hmmm… I don’t know. 

You don’t? 

I..am not sure but, exclusively dating? 

Seon Yul smiled so wide. His face is gonna hurt if he won’t stop smiling. 

Ok. 

OK? 

Yes. OK. We are dating. Exclusively. 

You don’t sound happy, Seon Yul? 

I can show you how happy I am but it won’t be appropriate Soo Hyun 

She shivered again. She finds him sexy just this instant. 

Is he flirting with me? Soo Hyun wonders. 

He sense the tension and maybe the shyness of Soo Hyun, and he broke it off, still smiling. 

We will take this one day at a time. Nice, easy and slow Soo Hyun, don’t worry. 

They thought they will talk for a minute or two but ended talking 2 hours. They talked about his room in Germany. She was pleased to know the decorations and such. He told her about his scholarship and she was very much impressed. He loves impressing her.  He asked about the orphanage and it seems they are comfortable as they can at least for now. They are friends after all and to level up, is another thing. 

You better rest and sleep now, Soo Hyun. 

Alright. Goodnight Seon Yul. 

Take care please? She added. 

Always. Goodnight and I…I love you. 

You are playing dirty, Seon Yul. 

I’m not. You are. 

See you, I mean, let’s talk again tomorrow. 

Someones excited to see me home already huh.mm

Let’s put the phone now, she said and embarrassed. They both laughed 

Goodnight. Goodnight.

They finally put the phone down and she slept. He on the other hand has to prepare for a meeting. They are now somehow together. They are exclusively a “thing”, dating” They like that word. 

For 5 weeks, the long distance “Sort of relationship” they have was a challenge but not a big one. Yet for Seon Yul, he started missing her so bad already. Seon Yul had a great time in Germany and in his last few days, he was ready to go home. He wants to see her so bad already. 

Yoo Ra will have a different flight and different day to go back. She will stay over for another week. Seon Yul can’t wait to go home. He wants to bring something for her. Yoo Ra helped him tour the city. 

“I meant to ask you, did you and Soo Hyun talked? That day at the airport. How did it happened? 

Yoo ra being funny and jealous of Seon Yul being in love and she, still single, said “I told her if she won’t pursue you, I will?” 

You did what? Seon Yul, about to get furious

Hahahaha..she laughed so hard. Relax, greenboy. I was joking. To cut the story short, we talked. Girl talk. That’s all. So, stop asking already. 

He bought her a cashmink scarf from FRAAS, an 18th century famous german brand. She likes scarfs and he wants to put it on her. Winter is coming and he also bought her a jacket and scented candles. He bought also Kaweco Fountain pens. Of course pens, he said! She needed pens for writing and book signing. Yoo ra can’t help but laughed at him. “You haven’t even bought 1 thing for yourself and Soo Jin, you are a bad friend, Seon Yul” She smacked him at the back. 

He bought a tea set for himself and wanted that tea set for them to use when she visits his home soon. He imagines Soo Hyun having tea at his house. He also bought basic building blocks for the kids in the orphanage. HE never bought a lot for someone ever before. Not even for her mother or father. He has it bad, he thought. 

Yoo ra bid goodbye and they will see each other in Korea next week. 

Seon Yul was packing when he heard his phone rang. 

It is Soo Jin 

Hey bro! I heard you are arriving tomorrow. I want to fetch you but I believe somebody is fetching you tomorrow, right? I don’t want to be the third wheel. Haha, Yoo ra said the same thing. Ill see you soon! Im gonna be mad if I don’t have a gift, bro! 

Seon Yul laughed and thought to himself he has the best friends in the world. Another less to worry in this crazy world they have now entered. 

Soo Hyun texted Seon Yul. “Ill see you tomorrow. “

See you tomorrow. 

I miss you… Seon Yul was shocked to read and he read it again to check if he is wrong or just sleepy right now. But it says right there, she missed him. It’s progress, he said. He giggled. 

He replied “I miss you more. See you tomorrow!”

The next day, Soo Hyun was early. She was excited. She missed him dearly. He was gone more than a month and the yearning and longing was strong for him. She can’t deny it further. 

An hour later…there he is. 

He has arrived. All wearing his gorgeous smile , pretty hair, in white. She wants to run towards her but her feet seems stuck and she can’t move. He is back. He is now my…my Seon Yul. Distracted, Seon Yul hugged her first. He smelled her and squeezed her. 

“Hi” he said. 

Hello, she answered. Welcome back…welcome home. 

Yeah, it is good to be back. 

Let’s go, she said. 

Wait, he said. He took the scarf and put it on her neck. The fuchsia pink scarf. He bought 3 actually. You look beautiful, he murmur.

There, you are ready now. We are ready now. 

Where to? He asked. 

Anywhere with you? she replied.

He chuckled. Sounds romantic, he replied.  They both have huge grin and acting so in love. 

Let’s go. He held her hands. This time though, she interlocked her fingers in his. They were holding hands, properly and romantically now. 

The dating era is about to begin. 

Indeed, they both found love where it wasn’t supposed to be. 

Note :  I do back up research on this story ever since just because also I am a researcher myself. From the places in Korea to the songs, the inspiration and just currently, about Germany, and its famous hospital areas and gifts. Originally, I intended for this to be a 1 shot story but I want to honor and craft slowly this slow burn love story of our favorite characters. They deserve it. I hope you are feeling what I am feeling. I surprisingly enjoyed this for months now. Writing this one, my ever 1st fanfic is very challenging but enjoyable. Now, instead of 10 chapters, this would be probably be 12 at least. So, thank you for sticking with my story. You don’t know how much it means to me. Here and on X (twitter) thank you so much for your support! Next chapter is called “Secret Lovers”. Enough said, the title is everything and more. See yah!

[yae-energy]

pick up the phone !!! pt2: electric boogaloo

synopsis: my take on whether they’re a caller or texter

cast: maki zenin, yuta okkotsu, toge inumaki x black fem reader

cw: cursing, (yuta’s part is a teeny tiny bit self indulgent 😬 <3 mb y’all)

—

maki - texter (occasional caller)

- doesn’t mind being on the phone since it’s you, but is more of a texter

- answers immediately like it’s almost scary

- is a bullet texter 🤷🏽‍♀️ idk she give me those vibes

- like i feel if you’re asleep or smth and she wants to talk to you she WILL spam you

- does not care

- has dnd on but allows your notifs to go through <3

- calls you when she can’t sleep but the second y’all get otp she’s knocked out

- like you’re talking about smth stupid and when you don’t hear her answer you’re like

“this bitch 😶”

- will facetime you but her camera is always off when she does

- however, if your camera is off she will be mad

“yeah go ahead and turn that camera back on you’re not slick 😐”

“mmcht 😒”

- has your contact photo as the picture she took of you kissing her cheek on y’all’s first date

- but then has your name saved as smth like

- “weirdo 🤥”

- always, always. ALWAYS. texts you good night

- she will not sleep until she does

—

yuta - caller (facetime)

- loves seeing your face

- facetimes you nonstop

- litterally twice a day he is obsessed with you

“babe can we facetime ☹️ i miss you”

“baby i wanna see your face, facetime me”

“facetime??? 😁”

- loves when you guys eat on the phone together cause he thinks its a date !

“bae can you pass the salt? 😋”

“boy if you don’t getcho corny ass on somewhere 😭”

- you still do it though cause it makes him laugh, it’s y’all’s little inside joke

- loves facetiming you on wash day cause he likes to watch you detangle your hair

- finds the way you work the different moisturizers and curl definers through your hair satisfying

- tells you you’re pretty nonstop

- has your contact saved as “my pretty girl 💕”

- and the photo is of a picture he took of you during golden hour when the sun was hitting you just right

- sends you good morning and goodnight texts

“good morning beautiful, hope you slept well <3”

“goodnight my love 😴”

—

inumaki - texter

- this man is a menace

- A MENACE I SAY

- litterally texts you all day

- like you could be at work and here he is blowing up your phone like a madman

“love, im at work 😭”

“i didn’t ask all that but ok”

- does not give 1, 2, or 3 fucks

- is always

- and i mean

- ALWAYS

- sending you those flirty meme pictures

- he thinks they’re so funny 😭😭😭

- sends hella tiktoks

- doesn’t know how to start a conversation to save his life though so he’ll usually just send something random asf in hopes of getting your attention

- works every time though

- checks on you to make sure you’re having a good day and to remind you to eat and drink water

- sends imsg games

- is an 8 ball god so you hate playing with him

- whenever you start losing you send darts and he get real quiet

“you always do this bs 😒”

- your contact photo is of you wearing a tinfoil hat he made cause he’s gotta protect you from the aliens !!!

- your name is set as “❤️❤️❤️”

- gets the point across perfectly in his opinion

[hizznbyte]

Maybe the real Blood Magic is the friends we made along the way /ref

Answering OC Lore prompts Part THREE! yeah

Ft. Trinity “Trick” Ambrose and Trip Sterling and maybe some other dudes ? We’ll see. 15 questions again this time.

26. If they were a food, what would they be?

Trick would be lamb -or whatever we call sheep meat. Trip on the other hand? Maybe a martabak [mmmmmmh]

27. How close are they to finding answers?

It’s on the tip of their tongue… so, so close it’s maddening

28. What do they not know how to do?

Trip doesn’t know how or when to ask for help. Trick doesn’t know when to stop

29. What powers do they have?

They both harness the power of the grimoire left behind by the Nevermore but both harness its magic differently. Trick is bound to it by blood and engravings in their skin while Trip has decoded its text and harnesses its power through music [and the summoning of a bell]

30. Have they had to watch somebody they love/care about die right in front of them?

Trip has. Twice.

31. Who’s their villain [antagonist] of their story?

Debatable. You could argue Trick and the Demonics are the central antagonists since Trip is the protagonist, but knowing the story myself I can’t call them the villain. There are others who have done just as bad as they have… I actually don’t know? Surprising!

32. How many OCs do you have?

A MILLION BILLION GAZILLION!! Okay I have a lot. In BM:TA alone there are like, five main characters, five secondary characters, 27 supporting characters and 2 “gods” that are just there. There’s probably more I’m just counting characters relevant to after arc 3?

33. What weather do they prefer?

Trip “enjoys” the rain, a gentle breeze and sky with a sliver of sunlight. Trick enjoys the thrill of a storm.

34. Do they keep an item belonging to someone no longer with them?

Aside from Trip’s bell collar, bike, and violin [all originally being Trick’s] not in TA. This is more prominent in THKB.

35. Is everything that happened their fault?

Yes for Trick. Sorta.

36. What do they like to do for fun?

Trip likes doodling, going for a bike ride, reading nd studying, and most of, playing music ! Trick likes sewing occasionally.

37. What would’ve happened if they hadn’t made that ONE decision?

If Trick never made a deal with the Nevermaster the rest of the narrative wouldn’t have happened, no one would’ve gotten hurt and they wouldn’t have used the grimoire, but it also means that they’d be trapped where everyone is out hunting for them. Likewise if Trip never accepted the Evermaster into her heart and soul, the narrative of which side “won” would’ve ended much differently.

38. Do they have a happy memory they ever think back to?

There was this one time, Trip finished school for the day so her guardian took her to this secret spot deep in the restricted area of the Einkan highlands, and there was this shoddily built playground set that she ADORED and it’s one of her fondest memories of the past, even if it wasn’t the prettiest.

It’s hard to say for sure if Trick wants to recall anything from the past.

39. What inspired you to make your OCs?

Honestly, I can’t say. They appeared in my mind once and I drew them and they never left. But I guess… I really liked furry media as a kid [as in, anthropomorphic animals] so I made a character who I kinda based on me and she became a part of my old identity. That’s Trip. Trick was only supposed to be a human form of her, but they were still the same person until I started thinking about angsty lore and one day I decided to split them apart. They’re still closely related in canon though I just. I guess they are just very important to me and influenced by the media I consumed around me so.

40. If they were a flower what kind would they be?

In terms of aesthetic: Roses or Spider Lilies for Trick, White lilies for Trip

In terms of symbolism: [Above apply] Adonis’ Flower, Forget-Me-Not for Trick, Lilies and Daffodils for Trip

[yuraslefttoe]

hey, it's me again! I came to pester you with questions!! *there should be a scary laugh, but it sounds more like mean giggles*

(by the way, I’m thinking about sending you such long texts with questions (because I have a lot of them!!) once one or two weeks, if you don’t mind. . . . . . .you don't mind..??? (god, I hope you don’t get tired of me..!) I'm so sorry, please, I'm just very interested!! *qwq*)

ok, let's start with the sweetest part, prelude. ACTUALLY, I DIDN'T EXPECT THAT YOU REPLY SO QUICKLY, GOD, NOT PASSED A FEW HOURS!!!!!! I THOUGHT YOU HAD TOO MANY QUESTIONS SO I DID NOT EXPECT A SO SOON REPLY!!

I’ll remind you once again how much I adore your work (after all, you deserve it!!), and I’ll also say that I specifically shouldn’t talk about posts tagged with the  adm, because I’ve read your tumblr and twitter in its entirety several times, I even have a separate album in my gallery with answers that particularly interested me, there are several hundred screenshots there and I don’t regret anything! (sorry if my hyperfixation may be intimidating!!)

*=^._.^= ∫*

and now the questions!!!! 

1. my wife doesn’t have a tumblr, but her suggestion interested me and can be seen in the first two screenshots(the translation sounds like: “after the release of “red hour” I have an assumption that andrey is more... athletic than misha. either this is because of ferry’s drawing style, or he really has such wide shoulders")so now we are interested to know about the physique of your characters!! maybe some of them are thin, or vice versa, a little overweight. and what about physical training? did you have any headcanons for this??? ( by the way, when I ask about “characters” I mean not only misha and andrey, but also europe and maya, because they are also worthy of attention <зз) 

2. what about the abbreviation "dyusha" for andrey? in russian it is... not used very often, but still, it sounds very cute. so it would be interesting to know how you would feel about this? 3. I also want to hear about the names of the characters!! how did you choose them? I mean........ how did it happen that from ☺europa☺ you switched to 👹MiKhAiL👹?? (I'M SO SORRY, BUT MISHA'S FULL NAME SOUNDS SOMETHING THREATENING. MY UNCLE'S DOG HAS THE SAME NAME EHE- *ᕕ(ಥ▽ಥ)ᕗ*) 

4. and lastly, let's return to my wife for another moment. she suggested that andrey was now also in a time loop. what do you say about that? and also in enigma, she noticed that misha seemed to be addressing the second person in the lines: "and if you wanted to be anything more than just free" and "you’ve seen a hundred lies I see that all the time". is this second person a viewer? or maybe one of the previously mentioned characters??

the last photo, by the way, is one of the sketches that I found so far in my gallery! ^^ 

initially it was planned to attach two sketches, but andrey turned out TOO bad, I’m ashamed to show him. someday I'll redraw it into something normal.... maybe. but! I really like the pic with misha and the wolf(I hope this is the wolf you were talking about lol. google didn’t show me anything else, and I’ve never been to ikea myself, ehe...) 

(and I don’t want to post all this yet, because running a tumblr was certainly not part of my plans, haha)) I registered here solely to read your blog, and not to maintain my own) 

sorry again for possible illiteracy, and also for the chaotic nature of my thoughts, haha, I don’t know how to adequately express them in english.. and also, I’m really REALLY apologize that the text was too long, next time I’ll try to be shorter...

okay im gonna try and answer everything here in a coherent way so sorry if nothing makes sense

im just fine with lotes of questions :) answering asks and responding to comments is one of my favorite things ever and i brings a verry big smile to my face

on andrei: i consider him to be a skinny little gut but not exactly unathletic, and in addition i think he would have basic combat training and probably be good with firearms. misha is probably a very average bodytype, nothing special, not particularly athletic.

i do not speak russian (though ferry has recently encouraged me to learn so maybe in like four years ill be able to form a sentence) so i dont know anything about the short forms so you can do whatever you want. if you coin it and peoples tart calling him that i will not stop it from happening

i do not name my characters, i usually let me friends name them (i think that the only one i named was europa and his partner). going forward maybe ill try to make it more cohesive

the time loop idea im seeing thrown around alot is really cool and while i havent particularly wrote any of my songs about that in general i see it fitting into the loose narrative i have going on. also in enigma misha is definitely talking to andrei whenever he says the word "you" but it could also be to the listener because the entire theme of enigma is 4th wall breaking and meta shenanigans like that

that sketch is SO CUTE oh my god

[smoments]

✧ part 11: memories of a stranger // a satosugu reincarnation au

chapter 11: one single thread of gold

“Yes, and I think I should have received this point as well…”

Shoko generally excels at keeping her emotions out of academic situations, primarily because she doesn’t actually care much about school. She works hard, sure, but sometimes, when she’s sitting in class and listening to her third professor that day drone on and on about neuroanatomy and its various perspectives and all the too-complicated labels for every little nuance of what should really just be collectively gathered into the brain, she thinks that she wouldn’t be particularly upset if her school spontaneously combusted, preferably with her inside it. If not the entire school (this, after all, would be asking for a lot), then just her classroom would more than suffice. Unfortunately, the remaining fragment of self-preservation she possesses prevents her from advocating for such a thing, and perhaps also her morals (if slightly less so). 

Even so, morals are currently taking a backseat to the annoyance bubbling up inside her at the insufferability of her teacher. Actually, maybe it isn’t the teacher’s fault, but she has better things to do than argue for a few points on a test, even if her grade is hanging on for dear life.

God, it was stressful dealing with idiots.

After successfully debating (arguing) her way into a better grade, Shoko gets Satoru’s text on her way to her community service club - this is unfortunately located across campus and consists of less community service and more socializing while discussing the importance of community service, the latter of which suits her just fine - and wrinkles her nose in confusion.

“Wouldn’t him fumbling be bad enough without the additional beating?” She mutters dryly, wondering who Satoru thinks he’s fooling with the world platonic. How do you platonically fumble someone?  

dw you won’t.

Shoko pauses, unsure as to whether she’s giving him too much credit, and decides to throw in something to cushion her fall in case Satoru does screw things up and then tries to blame it on her. 

probably. idk tho

She tilts her head curiously when a call from Utahime comes in, stepping aside to answer and nearly bumping into four different people. Campus is rather crowded at this time of day, even with her slight holdup after class - of course, Satoru was lucky enough to be off all afternoon. Hopefully he’s making the most of their time together, especially because she’s pretty sure Suguru did have somewhere to be today.

“Shoko! A… friend and I booked appointments at this spa nearby, but they cancelled on me last minute, and it’s a nonrefundable reservation!” 

“Oh? Who?”

“...my friend! You don’t know them.”

Shoko stifles a giggle. Utahime has always been a subpar liar.

“You don’t have any other friends. Unless you asked one of the guys to go to a spa with you? I’m sure Nanami would very much appreciate it.” 

“Ugh, Shoko, you sound just like them right now! Don’t do this. Just meet me there in an hour.”

“Fine. But I’m paying you back. And you know, if you’d just asked me, I would’ve come along peacefully.”

“Like hell you would’ve! Anyways, hurry up and- Ahh! They have mini jade rollers, Shoko! How cute!” 

On second thought, Shoko hadn’t really wanted to go to her club anyway. 

Besides, her being in a good mood is practically community service all on its own. 

-

Satoru shifts slightly from where he’s lounging on the couch, wondering vaguely what’s taking Suguru so long in the bathroom. He wouldn’t blame him if he’d grown tired after hours of stagnancy; sitting in one spot for so long took quite the mental toll on a person, which was a concept that the school system did not seem to understand.

He knows that he, for one, is completely exhausted. His scant few hours of sleep is finally catching up to him, and though it’s nearly time for lunch by now - his mind travels to potential meal ideas when he realizes this, and he wrinkles his nose at the idea of trying to scrape something edible together from the few items he currently has in his fridge - he wants nothing more than to sprawl out on his admittedly average bed and have a good, long sleep to make up for his early rising. 

But he doesn’t let himself entertain this idea for too long, since he doesn’t want to waste any time with Suguru in his dorm.

That sounds bad. His intentions are innocent, though!

Regardless, if Suguru really is taking a breather in the bathroom, he feels a pang of guilt at the idea that he wouldn’t have thought to simply ask him for a break. Surely he knows that Satoru wouldn’t care! Does he really think him that insensitive? He might be rude sometimes, but he’s not heartless. 

When did Satoru start worrying so much about what other people did or thought, anyway? Wasn’t he the type to take everything in stride, letting everyone else act freely in the hopes that they’d step back and allow him to do the same? 

He grumbles as his eyelids grow heavy and he rolls over once again, his cheek pressing into the plush cushion that rests beneath his skin.

Has his couch always been this comfortable?

He’s sure it hasn’t. Isn’t. But he feels so warm suddenly, a sense of comfort encircling him like a down blanket. He’s barely hanging on to consciousness, haven given up fighting sleep and instead letting it brush over his eyelids, easing them shut. 

It won’t be for long; just a couple minutes of rest, and then he’ll be full of renewed energy that he’ll be able to throw into his art. 

He’s a light enough sleeper that any movement will probably awaken him, anyways.

And Suguru might still be a while.

This is the last coherent thought that Satoru recalls putting together before he slips fully into unconsciousness.

He wishes it had ended there. Unconsciousness was not such an unpleasant place to exist. It turned out that dreams could be far, far worse. 

He’d thought he was over it.

He’d thought that horribly gut-wrenching dream from last night was finished and done with, that he would never have to recall its exact occurrences in such a high level of detail again. He didn’t imagine for a second when he shut his eyes that it would all come back to him while he was in his most vulnerable state, or he would have forced himself to stay awake until it killed him.

The last thing Satoru expects to see when he finally tears himself from sleep is Suguru standing over him, something like worry creasing the smooth surface of his face. He’s still mid-panic, still in a state of attempting to gather his bearings. Horror seizes him as he zeroes in on a specific detail that would have been minute at any other time, in any other place. 

It’s Suguru’s long, dark hair - down around his shoulders. 

Down like it was when Satoru killed him. 

And is Suguru’s silhouette swimming in his vision now, or is he just imagining it? Is the red armchair directly behind him blending into Suguru’s face and painting half of it bloody, or are his eyes playing tricks on him? That look on his face- does he suddenly appear so incredibly hurt, like Satoru has somehow wounded him beyond belief without meaning to, or is it just him? Is he moving, even, or is he just standing there silently? Standing at all? Is he a corpse? An apparition?

Satoru tries to pull himself together. He does his best to twist his expression into one of calm, despite the fact that he hasn’t yet caught his breath and he’s growing dizzier with every second he stares into Suguru’s eyes and attempts to discern whether he’s still breathing. When he finally manages to speak, it comes out strangled, forced.

“Y-your hair is down.”

Suguru’s face flushes. And maybe Satoru should be wondering what he could possibly be so embarrassed about, but he’s so busy admiring the indisputable sign of life coloring his cheeks that he cannot bring himself to consider what seems like an insignificant detail in comparison. 

“Yeah. It wasn’t cooperating too well today. Look, Satoru, I shouldn’t have-“

The sound of liquid bubbling over from the kitchen cuts Suguru off, and his head snaps toward the entrance, the guilty look in his eyes fading temporarily in favor of confusion. 

He hurries into the adjacent room while Satoru sits up and rubs his eyes, his heart rate slowly settling. 

He must be losing it. 

He’s never been this unstable in his life. It’s easy to make such a criticism now, of course, when he’s in a calmer state of mind.

When he can think clearly. 

Still, given this second of reprieve, the remaining shred of his sanity manages to come up with a single, perfectly formed decision:

He will not tell Suguru about this. 

He’d been lucky to get a neutral response from him the first time around, given that a random person somehow possessing a sketchbook full of painstakingly crafted images of him would have thrown him off at best, and creeped him out at worst. But this? ‘Hey, I had a dream where I killed you, but I don’t know if it was a dream so much as a premonition? Or maybe it’s happened already, but in a different reality? Well, we better hope it wasn’t foreshadowing anything, huh? Haha.’

Absolutely not. 

“Satoru! Did you put milk in this!?”

An exasperated voice snaps him out of his thoughts. He glances towards the entrance and nearly laughs when he sees Suguru standing there with a hand on his waist, brandishing what looks like his (broken) tea kettle threateningly.

“Yeah. What, was I supposed to drink the coffee black?”

“I practically do this for a living, you know! You could’ve just asked me. What will we do now? And when you’re so tired, too. Coffee would have been the perfect pick-me-up...”

Suguru purses his lips disapprovingly, which only heightens Satoru’s amusement. Perhaps they’re both a little unstable, if Suguru’s having a breakdown over a kitchen appliance. He feels his shoulders relaxing, and his mouth curls into a grin.

“I can’t have my guests working, Suguru! Don’t worry about it. I never used that thing anyway.” 

“That isn’t really the issue here…”

A shadow passes over his face as he speaks, and his expression drops once again, as though he’s just recalled something important. Satoru eases himself off the couch, planting a reassuring hand on Suguru’s shoulder as he strolls past him and into the kitchen to survey the extent of the mess. He thinks he feels Suguru flinch at his touch, and the crease in his brow deepens. Is he truly that worried about the coffee? Perhaps it was expensive. 

The counter is surprisingly impeccable; he’d expected much worse, in all honesty, given Suguru’s slightly disproportionate reaction, and he brushes his hands off casually after disposing of the napkins he used to wipe up the spill. 

“See? Don’t worry so much, Suguru.”

Suguru gives him a tight smile, one that doesn’t reach his eyes - Satoru would know, because he’s spent what feels like years taking in every smile. He frowns.

“Uh… Should I make more coffee?” He offers in a voice that admittedly sounded more enticing in his head. 

“Please don’t.”

Suguru cracks a small grin, then, and the warmth of it makes Satoru almost dizzy with relief. 

Because although he can’t deny the inexplicable hold that these visions - these dreams - have over him, there is little to support that they are anything besides horrific amalgamations of his worst fears. 

He’d wanted, at first, to believe that he and Suguru had known each other in another lifetime - it was such a pretty concept, an invisible string to tie them together regardless of the circumstances. It no longer mattered what difficulties might befall them, because they were simply fated, and so life would bring them back together. 

But when innocent emotions and a soft, hazy sense of familiarity sharpened into memories that Satoru was sure he wouldn’t have wanted to live out in the first place, let alone recall, it lowered his inclination to place faith in what suddenly seemed so incomplete, so groundless. He began to balk at the thought that his mind knew something he didn’t, and that once-comforting notion quickly turned into one that terrified him. 

And the string became something like a tightrope, a sequence of events into which they were fated to fall over and over. 

It became something with the potential to pull them apart.  

-

The portrait is finished in nine days: it’s practically a record for Satoru, not that he’s counted until now. Even so, it’s plain to see that it’s one of his best works. That isn’t just him being self-obsessed; everyone’s told him so, including his teacher, who was initially reluctant to grant him an extension but immediately changed her tune when he submitted the final project. 

It’s Suguru, of course - he’s cast in bright, morning sunlight and stood in front of a tranquil lake that glitters in streaks; places where it’s blanketed in beams of light. His expression is soft, his gaze directed towards the surface of the water, which reflects his surroundings - the treetops, their leaves pale and hazy, the little yellow and blue forget-me-nots that dot the shoreline, and his own silhouette. Gentle ripples tug at the edges of his figure, blending all of his colors together and turning them into barely defined puddles of paint. Beyond the scenery but also reflected in the lake, so translucent they’re barely visible, lay frozen scenes taken from Satoru’s memory (scenes that are meant to represent the course of a person’s life, he’ll explain to anyone who asks) - Suguru laughing, his expression open and free, a golden tint to his face - him facing dead forward, face cold and unreadable - (this one is placed farther away from the silhouette itself, on the outskirts of the water) - Suguru against a brick wall, his face bloodied. This was a smile that he would have preferred to exclude, but it haunted him persistently until he put it down on paper. To make up for it, he’d painted in another - a genuine, attentive beam that made him blush every time he laid his eyes on it. And, of course, one self-indulgent image of the two of them together on a bicycle, the bright blue of the sky barely distinguishable from the water itself. 

It was a painting that would have been beautiful even if the subject was not. Even if the subject were somebody entirely different. But to Satoru, Suguru was the painting. It was why he needed him there, solid and moving and directly in front of him, when he began. It wasn’t like he needed to see Suguru’s face to remember what it looked like; it was simply that his presence was the inspiration Satoru needed to understand what he wanted to convey. To him, this painting was not a shallow depiction of a face. He wanted to capture the essence of the person in it, to encompass all of Suguru’s various sides and sharper corners and breathtaking smiles in a single image. 

And he thinks he has succeeded, because when he looks at it, he can almost catch a glimmer of movement from the corner of his eye in the ripples at the lake’s surface; he can almost feel the wind in the trees, can almost get so lost staring that a wave of indescribable loss and longing surges through his windpipe, threatening to swallow him completely. Longing for what, he has no idea; Suguru is right by his side, after all. 

He doesn’t know whether it’s the kind of thing that others can see, too, if his execution was a success. Even if it was, even if it does procure the same kind of emotion in others as it does within him, he can’t imagine anyone else feeling so strongly about it - about Suguru. Not because he doesn’t think him lovable, but because to Satoru, he is overwhelmingly, incredibly so. 

He turns to him now. They are standing side by side in front of the finished artwork - Suguru’s first look. Satoru feels like he could die, he’s so nervous, and he’s not even entirely sure why. It’s been silent for many seconds too long. 

He’s just taking it in. Stop being so impatient. Did you expect him to jump for joy the second he saw himself? Even you wouldn’t do that. 

Finally, when he thinks he can’t take another second of quiet, Suguru speaks, his voice soft.

Has he been wearing his hair differently these days? Something looks off about it. There is something out of place in his movements as he turns halfway to face Satoru, a sense of transience that Satoru cannot quite pinpoint.  

“It’s… beautiful, Satoru. Absolutely stunning. You’ve outdone yourself, as usual.”

[theoddcatlady]

Nearly lost my temper at work yesterday

For a bit of background, I work at an insurance company. I’m not exactly changing the world, but it pays well and it’s usually pretty chill. Except for yesterday, which I just really need to rant about. It was a bunch of little things that stacked up to my… almost explosion.

The water cooler was dripping nonstop. Citrix servers had gone down and that was the main program I use for work. I had a pounding headache from the bright lights in the office and my skin was all dried out from the artificial air. And for fuck’s sake, Barbara would just not leave me alone.

I’m not a people person. I can answer the phone and be amicable enough, but I’ve never been like BFF’s with my coworkers at… any of my jobs. Most of my coworkers get I’m here to do my job and get paid. Barbara though, good god. She just doesn’t get the hint. And I can’t exactly mouth off to her because she’s been with the company for like two decades so if she complains I’m the one in trouble… not like she’s done work for the last five years, but I digress.

“So is this your boyfriend, Ellie?”

I chewed the inside of my cheek as Barbara plucked one of the pictures in my cubicle up, cooing and aww’ing. I hated being called Ellie. “He’s so cute!”

“Andrew is my brother, actually. I’m not seeing anyone at the moment.” One of the only other people I can tolerate in this world. I grabbed the picture and not so gently snatched it back, setting it down. The vein in my forehead probably popped out another good inch as I saw that Barbara had left a greasy thumbprint on the glass. I’d need to clean it when she was gone.

“Oh!” Barbara cocked her head to the side. “You don’t look alike!”

“I’m adopted.” Desperately I stared at my computer, willing Citrix to get its shit together so I could tell Barbara I was busy working. I was not going to be that lucky.

“You know, I have a son about your age.” Barbara started fiddling with the other things in my space, my notepad, the pens. “He just broke up with his girlfriend, and I was wondering, I bet the two of you would love to have coffee together…”

“I’m sorta preoccupied with other things at the moment than dating. And I hate coffee. I’m more of a tea person.” Jesus Christ, I was at the point where I was begging the clock to speed up. Even with the systems down, I still wasn’t allowed to leave until four. Just in case they came back on, even though they never had in the past. I wouldn’t mind getting paid to sit on my ass and do nothing if fucking Barbara would leave me alone.

“At your age?”

Oh, here we go. I rolled my eyes as Barbara tutted her tongue at me. “You need to get on that, honey, otherwise you’re going to be unmarried at thirty! After that it’s all downhill, not to mention how this could effect your future children- is something wrong with your arm?”

Shit. I hid my hand under my desk. “No!” I spared a glance and almost starting cussing. Of all times to start shedding, this was not a good time. “Bathroom emergency, move it!”

I shoved past Barbara, accidentally pushing her to the ground in my haste. I heard her snap after me but I didn’t care. I scooted into the bathroom and slammed the door behind me.

I held my hand in front of me to see more skin start to flake off, revealing the putrid muscle and flesh underneath. Fuck me. Today had to be that bad, huh?

My brother used to call it my ‘zombie mode’ to make me grumpy, but it’s not really like that. I keep my sanity, but I just start rotting and falling apart at the seams. It’s been like this since I was a kid, though I do tend to rot quicker when I’m having a shitty day, so Barbara can get fucked.

There’s really only one way to speed up the process so my skin grows back normal and healthy, and it sucks.

I sent Andrew a text, telling him to come pick me up as soon as he could and to bring my large coat. He knew what I meant. With a sigh, I double checked the lock before I pulled my shirt off, bra following onto the floor. Where the underwire was pressing against me the skin was already starting to come off. I gritted my teeth, grabbed on, and yanked.

It doesn’t hurt, not when my skin’s already dead. Sometimes a bit of the live skin comes with it and oh that hurts like tearing a hangnail, but it’s hardly lethal.

Pus and blood spattered into the sink as I ripped more and more of my skin away, both lumps I once called breasts slapped on the ground with a wet sound. I could see tumorous, bulbous growths starting to form in the fat. With most of the skin on my torso gone, I moved onto my arm. I groaned with relief as I finally scratched away at the sore, ripping away more skin and flesh.

I had skinned my entire upper body and was finally starting to feel relief when I heard a timid knock at the door.

“Sweetie? Ellie? Are you okay?”

Barbara’s voice made my blood boil, but right now she was exactly what I needed. I cleared my throat before approaching the door. “Sorry, Barb, I… I threw up. Everywhere. On my clothes, on the sink. It looks like a horror film in here. I called my brother to come get me, but could you please bring me stuff to clean up? I am not leaving this for Willis to clean up tonight, he’ll probably quit.”

“Oh, of course, sweetie! Don’t worry about work, I’ll handle it.”

She even was nice enough to cover her eyes as she handed me the cleaning supplies through the crack in the door. I scrubbed that floor and counter spotless, filling a garbage bag with bloody paper towels and gore so that no one would assume I butchered someone in the bathroom.

My brother gave me my trench coat when he came to pick me up and acted like he was helping me out of the building as he escorted me, in reality he was making sure I wasn’t bleeding over everything.

Now I’m home, enjoying a few seasons of Friends as I heal up. Andrew is a coroner and if I didn’t have him, I probably would’ve lost my mind and eaten Barbara on a bad day years ago. Whenever I’m done ‘shedding’, he brings me home a few human body parts so I can eat. I usually add them to whatever junk I’m eating, but Barbara was nice enough to bring me some chicken noodle soup. Now it’s chicken noodle soup plus a kidney, but hey, what can you do.

Whoa, feels good to get my shitty yesterday off my chest. Thank god it’s Friday.

[xgoldxnhour]

The hangover truly showed its true colors as her mind could barely think straight or even recollect a few instances from the previous night. It seemed difficult to forget an entire wedding (or the ten minutes with an Elvis impersonator) but yet here they are. Fucking married. “Yeah, fuck me. Fuck us.”

Her gaze falls on their intertwined fingers, cloaked in rings of gold as evidence of their silent commitment. After a year of sneaking around and glances and texts and walks and sultry kisses and needy claims, it was all sanctioned in a single night. His question rang in her ear despite the answer being somewhat obvious. There was no doubt that she was in love with him—she wouldn’t keep coming back otherwise—it was just in the matter for how long. It almost felt like since the beginning at this point. But now, staring into eyes of cerulean glass, the past no longer mattered but the promise of a future as man and wife.

“Can’t really regret something I don’t remember doing.” She smirks, leaning closer to his touch, trying to read his thoughts on the same question. Were the words said out loud last night? I love you. Were they said aloud before? In drunken bouts or nights with entangled limbs and sheets, sheen in sweat and what could only be described now as love. “No…I don’t regret it.” El finally confesses as her thumb glides over the top of his hand, jutting past the ring. “It was always gonna be you.”

Slowly, his words settle, sinking in bone deep. It’s either you or no one. She wonders how long he’s wondered that, hoped for them. How many times as they sat across at dinner or laid in bed or sat on the floor with a glass of wine. How long did they look at her and pray, God I hope one day that I get to make her my wife. Suppose they were tired of the hiding. Subconsciously. So, when they had the chance. No expectations, no quarries, it was time to set all worry and logic aside. Of course, they’d make up excuses. Work, safety, timing. But it took unveiling and stripping away the conscious layer of shoulds and shalls to find the true conqueror. Why not?

“I mean. Just makes it easy, right? No…wedding planning or bridezilla…or figuring out which 500 guests to invite. No picking a venue. It fits us more, doesn’t it? Something just ours, but not that serious that we need a million people to know we…actually love each other. Just you and me.” It was spontaneous, spur of the moment much like most of their time together. Lying back, she pulls him closer to her this time and leans up for a longing kiss. With her husband. “Guess that means we’ve got a honeymoon to plan then, Mr. Grimes.” It’s the same lips, same touch and oh, so different. The meaning is different. The promise held behind it. Stolen kisses continue as it seems she can’t get enough of kissing her husband, hand gripping in his hair. “I love you, Blue. Finally…I get to call you mine.”

There was a slight wonder what will the rest of their days look like—hell, what would next week look like? Do they keep it a secret for just a little while longer. Just to have it theirs? Or is it an immediate response, combining their lives, intertwined in all spaces and realms of the word. What did that mean for business? Was that going to be something they continue on separately or as one unit now. Wholly partners.

vegas. both of our characters wake up married after a drunk night in vegas. (Mafia verse)

What happens in Vegas, leads to intoxicated matrimony.

A disco ball, confetti and an Elvis impersonator—what started out as an elegant night on the town after some business became something to celebrate. After multiple drinks and the insane music near intolerable, the two instead went out on the town, hand in hand. Blue and Birdie, inseparable since day one. It all started as business as usual, until she was spending the night more than coming home. His presence became more intoxicating than the indulgence they shared each night. Long talks, sultry kisses, tangled sheets. An easy existence to fall into behind closed doors, exclusive, for their eyes only. Business as usual again.

Spirits were high, as was the alcohol intake. The city was alive and they felt it too. The city of exuberance and pleasure—what could go wrong? Perhaps it started as a joke, though unsure who exactly started it. Something about Vegas being the eloping capital of the world—alongside its number of divorces. “So, what? Marry today, divorce tomorrow. Marrying you for a day beats…decades with anyone else.” A joke. The two were never quite good at just jokes. The next thing they know they’re hurrying to the chapel, practically making out in the lobby. A business suit and a cocktail dress, there was nothing more spectacular than this.

The vows were written for them, something printed off the internet but it felt like as real if they wrote it themselves. God, she could get lost in those eyes forever. The officiant barely got to the end of “By the power invested in me—“ until Rick had already dipped her over, sealing it all with a kiss. Marriage. No one back home would fucking believe it.

The couple burst through the doors in cheers, El on his back, his hands holding at her legs until they made it back to the car. “Can you believe it, Blue? We’re fucking married.” She murmurs against his lips, words dripping into soft moans, making sure the window between the driver’s side and the back were closed. Sharing another bottle of champagne to celebrate, they retract back his hotel room, crossing the boundary with Rick carrying her bridal style. For the first time that night, Rick makes love to his wife.

Sheets and clothes litter the floor, feathers strewn about. An absolute mess of things but nothing out of the ordinary for these two. The sun beams through the curtains as the circadian rhythm ends and somehow stirs herself awake. El stretches, eyes squinting as a raging war erupts from her head. Something fierce and nauseating. Fuck, how much did they drink?

“Mmm. Rick?” She mutters, reaching over until her fingertips reach his skin, as though molded by her hand. That’s when she sees it. A gold band wrapped around her ring finger and the most elegant gem she’s ever seen. It nearly frightens her, pulling back—as if she wasn’t looking at her hand. “Rick—Blue. Wake up.” El stirs her husband awake and when he finally turns his head with that familiar dreamy gaze she shows her hand and the ring. God, it was beautiful. “I don’t quite remember bonding ourselves to holy matrimony.” One night in Vegas and they fucking elope, when did they become a walking cliche.

[familyabolisher]

now that it's been a fair few months since the release, how do you feel about nona the ninth as compared with the first two entries in the series?

you know what! i like it a lot, and i think a good number of the criticisms leveraged against it were unfair. certainly it’s less cohesive than gideon and harrow were – compared to its predecessors, it leaves us with a maddening number of unanswered questions that can’t be tackled through inference or else left ambiguous in ways that could be compelling (what happened in the interim between the two books? how did pyrrha come to be with camilla + palamedes, and how did harrow’s body get there? what happened to gideon’s body? what’s up with the barrage of new concepts that the book introduced and left hanging: the messenger(s), the tower, the devils, the cradle creature?), such that it felt quite a bit less tightly formed and plotted than the other two. i think gideon and harrow had a good balance of internally asked-and-answered questions and questions that were posed with intent to be answered at a later date, whereas nona was heavily skewed towards the latter such that it felt a little off-kilter. i do think some of that disorientation comes from the fact that tamsyn muir is a very precise writer; i don’t know that i’d be picking up on the comparative thinness of nona if it weren’t for how gideon and harrow were both so fluently composed in the first place. but the point is, it’s definitely there; i don’t at all think that a pared-down nona incorporated into alecto would have been ‘better’ (contrary to some people’s opinion, i don’t think any parts of nona are superfluous), but nor do i think it wholly holds up on its own.

it also has a handful of other weaknesses – i have a fairly high tolerance for tmuir’s humour, which when it lands manages to land really well but when it doesn’t it doesn’t, and i think nona often erred on the side of doesn’t, and it felt a little too heavyhanded at points; which has been a consistent problem throughout, tbf, but, idk. tmuir can be a very subtle writer when she wants to be, but, again, when she isn’t, she … isn’t. and that began to grate a little, after a while?

however, at a certain point i’m willing to throw over the instinct to be nitpicky about Form or Structure or whatever and say that the actual content of the text – the discourse it managed to develop, the direction it dragged the body of the series in, the sorts of themes and ideas it articulated – was really, really strong, such that i’ve been chewing on it for months now. i think the fact that i still think about the scene with john’s ‘creation’ of alecto almost every day is a testament to the sheer weight that got thrown behind that passage – at the end of the day, whatever structural weaknesses the book may have is secondary to the fact that it made me feel the need to go eat sandpaper. a book that makes you need to go eat sandpaper is a good book!

also, god, some of tamsyn muir’s writing! there are times when she leans into a voice that a less skilled writer would deploy to create something excessively florid and, frankly, pretentious, but she’s laid the kind of groundwork throughout where there’s substance and meaning and precision to the prose voice that makes it equal parts chilling & joyous to read. some of many passages i’ve been rotating in my mind:

“Green thing,” said the Captain. “Green-and-breathing thing, big ghost, the drinker, transformed, what will you eat now? Where will your body go? What did he do to you, to make you this way? You eat yourself. I gorge on unliving marrow.” It was true; the Captain looked as though she were withering before Nona’s eyes. She cried out in haste: “Don’t ... stop that! I can’t stop it, but you can stop it. Stop hurting her ... She doesn’t know what you’re doing.” “You cry mercy?” said the Captain. “Yes—mercy—yes,” said Nona. “I have crossed the face of the universe,” said the Captain. “I poison it to match my grief.”

“They concoct their own vengeance,” said the Captain. “Their justice is not my justice. Their water is not my water. I came to help. I am made a mockery. The danger is upon you, and you do not even know ... they are coming out of their tower, salt thing. There is a hole at the bottom of their tower. I will pull their teeth. I will make it blank for you.”

He said, From my blood and bone and vomit I conjured up a beautiful labyrinth to house you in. I was terrified you’d find some way to escape before I was done. I made you look like a Christmas-tree fairy ... I made you look like a Renaissance angel ... I made you Adam and Eve … Galatea. Barbie. Frankenstein’s monster with long yellow hair. He said, As the world went up I remade us both. I hid me in you ... I hid you in me. And when we were together ... once the shaman had claimed the sun ... I became God.

He coughed fretfully—batted another metal-fisted hand at Paul, who had instinctively surged forward—and he said, “Look at you, you cock-o’-the-walk, you filigree piglet, you scum. A whited sepulchre ... Ninth blood on your foreign sword...”

He said, I just wanted to be in the lab. It felt like I could sit by those two bodies, those two kids, and make time go away. I could sit next to them for six minutes, I could sit next to them for six hours. Just listening. They were my moreporks and possums. I was hearing their bodies in all that silence, all the bacteria that weren’t growing ... what wasn’t building up in the gut, what wasn’t pooling at the joints. They were my silent night. I should have been doing paperwork and closing reports, but I hadn’t opened the computer in days. I couldn’t stop thinking about their palms, their hands. I touched their hands so often. I’d touched their hands before, but not like this. Even when I wasn’t touching them I could feel their skin on my skin, that temperature that wouldn’t change. I kept thinking I was touching them when I wasn’t. M— said I should probably get tossed in a rubber room, but she wasn’t scared I was nuts. She was scared I wasn’t. He said, You know, I can’t even remember how it came together now. There was no catalyst, no revelation. I was too far gone for revelations. It was like I’d been dozy and now I was waking up. So, my two kids, the guinea pigs, they were U— and T— on their certificates, you know, their old names. I thought about using those but it didn’t seem appropriate. They weren’t around to say yes or no. I was starting to really care about that. What they would’ve thought, what they would’ve wanted. My two kids with their frozen brains and their perfect internal temperatures. There wasn’t a place on the poor bastards I hadn’t breached with a thermometer, and now I was knocking before I came into their room.

literally just the phrase ‘the shimmering white figure of the dead Kiriona Gaia’

The rock loomed so big above, so awful in the electric light. There were so many people standing above her, her body, the baby’s body. The baby with the big black eyes. The scrap of meat with the purple mouth.

John loved her. She was John’s cavalier. She loved John. For she so loved the world that she had given them John. For the world so loved John that she had been given. For John had so loved her that he had made her she. For John had loved the world.

i’m not one for close reading but there are so many lines and passages in nona that i just want to go through with a fine-tooth comb, word by word, because everything is so deliberate and so infuriatingly good, lmao. i actually struggle to care all that much about the points where tamsyn muir is bad because when she’s good she is running circles around just about anyone else in genre fiction at the minute, and frankly when you’re doing the kind of things that she’s doing i think you get to use homestuck fanfiction and 2010s internet humour as your building-blocks as often as you like. 

i’ll also say that i think the john chapters are the strongest pieces of writing that taz muir has put forth in the entire series, including the whole of harrow, which is already like genuinely one of the best-written books at least in contemporary genre lit (and probably in a far wider-reaching net than that) that i’ve encountered in recent memory. john 1:20 is permanently lodged in my brain; i am never escaping john 1:20 disease. i reread it when i’m bored sometimes just to make myself insane.

anyway, i’m really looking forward to revisiting nona in the wake of alecto and treating the two as one unit, because i suspect that a lot of nona’s weaker points will disappear or else become more coherent when considered as part of that broader whole. if we remember that nona was originally act one of alecto – well, it makes total sense for there to be a lot of questions posed in act one, with the assumption that they will then be developed and answered in acts two, three, four, and five. + something like paul, who imo felt very random and unresolved, makes far more sense as a near-the-end-of-act-one incident; it’s introducing a sudden change, doing something we as audience have never seen before, and setting up the other four-fifths of the narrative to carry its implications. my point is, nona to me makes a lot more structural sense as an opening to a more expansive text; which is exactly what it is. pro-nona the ninth account, its weaknesses stem from the fact that it’s a breakaway from alecto and i’m just not pedantic enough to mind all that much about internal coherency if that coherency can then be achieved in the last book – which i suspect it can! where nona’s good, it’s really fucking good.

[marve2014]

No Time Like the Present

Wednesday Addams x fem!reader 

Part Three

Summary: Aftermath of Part Two

Warnings: Minor mention of violence, kidnapping.

Minors DNI

Word Count:3.1k

Authors Note: All characters aged up to 18.

Coming too everything is hazy feeling like you just woke up from a bad nap. You can’t really make out any distinct voices, you just hear a bunch of beeping; your attempt to sit up and open your eyes goes terribly wrong and ends up causing you to feel lightheaded so you lay back down. You take in your surroundings slowly, recognizing you’re in a hospital room but can’t remember what you did to get placed here. You notice the only pain you have is in your head and you don’t seem to have any wounds anywhere. You press the call button next to your bed that rings the nurses’ station, and you wait for someone to come in. Instead of being greeted by a nurse, your mother comes rushing in and smiles widely seeing you awake. She brings you a cup of water and sits next to you on the hospital bed  

“Oh, my sweet girl, you gave me quite the scare.” Your mother says as she runs her fingers through your hair and gently cups your face with both hands “Never do that to me again.”

“I’ll try not to.” You smile back at her “What exactly happened? My head is pounding.”

” I’ll grab some medicine for that and be right back to answer any questions. You have a visitor though; I’ll send them in while I’m gone.” As your mother leaves you adjust the bed and try to get more comfortable; hearing the door open you look up and find Tyler standing there holding some flowers and a stuffed bear. “Glad to see you alive, I don’t think I could handle training another person on the espresso machine.” He laughs and sits down in the chair next to your bed. Taking the stuffed bear, you cuddle it and then pull Tyler into a hug. “Thank you, for the gifts and coming to see me.”

“Well, it’s not every day a normie gets caught in the middle of Nevermore problems you’re the talk of the town.”

“On great. Can’t wait to read about myself in the paper.” You gently laugh. “Tyler… I know I’m going to sound crazy, but A monster killed that kid. All I remember is him holding Wednesday in the air and then dropping her as the monster attacked him. Wednesday! On my god! Is Wednesday okay?!” 

"Wednesday is perfectly fine. Apparently, your scream scared off whatever it was before it could turn to you or her.” Tyler explains. 

“Oh, okay. Well good. Good, good, good.” You fiddle with your hands refusing to make eye contact with Tyler. “Has, um, she asked about me? You know what never-mind. I don’t want to know.” 

“Well actually, she has been by every hour, on the dot. You have about 7 minutes until she walks through the door again”

“Are you serious? On God, I look like crap. She can’t see me like this!” you squeal and pull the covers over your head  

“Yeah, you don’t really have a choice. T-minus five minutes until darkness walks through the doors.” Tyler laughs and pulls you from the blanket and pats your fizzy hair down

“Have you spoken to her?…” 

“Nothing too serious. Just checking up on you and her constantly asking if I saw anything strange, that kid lived though- “Tyler is cut off by your room door opening to reveal a stoic looking Wednesday Addams. 

“Leave us Tyler.” Wednesday demands not taking her eyes off you. 

“I mean it’s not like I was here first or anything, but sure I’ll leave. I’ll come back right after my shift, okay y/n? Text me until then. “Tyler hugs you and waves bye too Wednesday as he closes your door.

“Hello Wednesday, fancy seeing you here. How ya been?’ You joke trying to take some of the tension out of the air. Wednesday doesn’t say anything she just stares at you and then moves to take the chair Tyler was previously sitting in.

“As much as I enjoy hospitals and the pain they bring people, I would much rather not see you inside its walls.” Wednesday States as she pulls a black dahlia stuffed figure from her purse and throws it on your bed. “Tyler said sick people like gifts, so there.” 

“Well thanks, considering you think I’m a nuisance and all.” You mumble and pick up the stuffed flower 

“That is what I wanted to explain. I can’t bring myself to say the words, so I wrote it down. Please read this.” she demands as she hands you a letter looks like it was written on an old timely typewriter. ” I’ll wait here for you to finish it. “

“Okay then.” You begin to read the letter: y/n, when I called you a nuisance, it is not what I actually meant. I find you very nice to look at and sitting with you was not terrible. You are not abysmal at crowd control and make a very good espresso. You also called me pretty, which no one has ever done, I didn’t hate it, your smile made me blush and that has never happened either. You make me feel sick in the best way possible. Please forgive me for the way I spoke of you to Tyler. Also, if you ever show anyone this, I will deny it and have to kill you. Regretfully, Wednesday Addams.

You glance up at Wednesday and see her eyes coldly staring at you waiting for a response.

“You have to buy me an iced coffee every time I see you for the next two weeks. Only then will I forgive you” you say as you smile up at her.

 “I suppose that’s fine.”  she agrees.

“Now that, that is out of the way! What the hell happened last night and what was that thing?” you question.

“I think it would be best if you stayed out of it and stayed out of the woods. Also, don’t chase after anymore random boys going into a dark forest alone.” Wednesday says as she starts to stand up. 

"Wednesday, nice try but not even someone as cute as you can keep me from the truth.” You smugly state. “I guess I’ll have to figure it out on my own. “

“This isn’t a joke y/n. You could get hurt if you go searching for answers alone.”

“Guess you’ll have to let me help then. Plus, the sheriff and my mom are friends and the coroner’s office is here in the basement if you haven’t noticed.”.

“This isn’t some Nancy drew situation. That kid Rowan is dead even if no one believes me.  The monster destroyed him. You could have already been killed by him. Do you not understand that?” Wednesday begins to raise her voice just the slightest as you sit up in bed more and look her directly in the eyes. 

“You may be used to people not caring about what you do or the dangers of it, but I was there to. I am fully aware of what could have happened.

Your intense stare off with Wednesday is interrupted by your mother walking in the room with the medicine for your head.

“Hello dear you must be Wednesday; Tyler told me you had been stopping by to see our y/n.” 

She walks over and inserts a syringe into your I.V. as she looks back and forth between you and Wednesdays heated stares. “Am I interrupting something?" your mother asks awkwardly.

“No, you weren’t I was just leaving. I must get ready and meet Enid for the Poe Cup.” Wednesday abruptly stands and walks to the door turning back to you. “I will use Enid’s phone and text you; this conversation is not over.” Walking out without another word. 

“Well, she’s just a delight.” Your mother chuckles and runs a hand over your forehead and into your hair

“Laugh all you want mother; I’m going to marry that girl.” You smirk as you feel the drowsiness from the medication taking over.” Gonna marry her mom, just you watch.” 

Your mother laughs at you and presses a kiss to your forehead watching you drift off to sleep. “Whatever you say sweet girl, whatever you say.” 

You wake up a few hours later to two voices arguing back and forth you immediately recognize one as your mothers and the other as Sheriff Galpin’s. 

“I don’t care if you’re the sheriff. You’re not taking to her until she has no medication in her system, and she’s discharged! “ 

“I need to corroborate the Addams girl’s story. The sooner I do that, the closer we can get to finding some answers.” 

“And you can get those answers when she has no narcotics in her system.” 

“Fine. I’ll wait. But the second she’s clear, I’m talking to her.”

“That’s fine. But don’t you dare ask Tyler to get information out of her or so help me, it won’t be some bear that’ll be your problem; it’ll be me.” 

You hear your door being pushed all the way open and lean up to see your mother walking through.

“How are you feeling sweet girl?” She asks as she grabs you another glass of water and a straw.

“I feel better, the pain is more of a dull ache, not as bad as it was earlier.” You smile and take the water from her. “Was that Tyler’s dad you were arguing with?” you ask.

“I was hoping you didn’t hear that, but yes. He’s being a real pain about talking to you. You need your rest before talking to anyone about what happened. If you want to tell me about it, that’s fine. But that stays between us. I don’t care how friendly me, and the sheriff are.” 

“Thank you, I still don’t even know how to process everything, let alone try and remember it all.” You sigh and start to try and move. “When do you think they’re going to let me out of here?”

“If you’re feeling fine, we can head home once the discharge papers are ready. You don’t have a concussion or anything, you’re only here because I insisted. Let me go see if I can find a nurse. I’ll be right back.”

“Thank you, mom.”

“You’re welcome sweet girl.” She gives you another kiss on the forehead as you feel your phone begin vibrating. Looking down you see a text from Tyler

Best Coffee Maker in the World: How much longer they keeping you hostage? Work sucks without you here. I’m so bored.

Y/n: I get to leave once the papers are readyyyyyyy. Come to my house when you’re off, not the hospital lol. 

Best Coffee Maker in the World: Okayyy. Gonna need to know how the talk with Wednesday went. I’ll bring snacks! 

You read Tyler’s last message to you and start getting your stuff ready to leave, picking up the stuffed black dahlia from Wednesday and bringing it closer to you, cuddling it to your chest and smiling you wonder how the Poe cup is currently going  

Finally, back at home, you’re relaxing when Tyler walks in the open doorway

“Glad to see you home how is your head feeling? Tyler asks as he makes his way to your chair.

“Head feels fine just want to curl up in a ball under my blanket though” you laugh and get under the covers  

“So now did your talk with Wednesday go?” 

“Good, for her I suppose. I do however think she is going to learn the hard way that I don’t listen well to being told what to do. “You smirk.

‘Okay then ma’am only one of you is allowed to look like a killer and that smile is giving off major serial killer vibes. So, tone it down you weirdo.” Tyler laughs as he hits you gently with a pillow. 

You were about to tell Tyler bout Wednesday’s letter when you feel your phone ring and unknown number comes up. You answer and are surprised to hear Wednesday on the other end. 

“Meet me at the gates of Nevermore at 8pm sharp. Don’t be late “

The line went dead right after, and you look at Tyler to make sure you didn’t just imagine the phone call.

“You heard her as well, correct?” 

‘’Yes y/n, I heard her as well. So, is this a date? A friendly meet up? Did she say anything else?” He questions.

“Tyler... you heard the same things I did. Does it sound like she asked anything else?” You reply rhetorically and roll your eyes.

“Okay, geeze, you’re so testy sometimes.” He moans. “I’m heading out, tell me how tonight goes. If I don’t see you at work tomorrow, I’ll see you the following day. Okay?” He hugs you and walks out of the room,

You decide to go downstairs and make some food to pass the time until you had to leave and go to Nevermore. Heating up some leftovers from your mom you contemplate what Wednesday has in store for the both of you. Thirty minutes before you need to leave you change into some black leggings and a black cable knit sweater that way you can still be comfortable. 

Debating on what to shoes to wear, you settle on black doc martens to truly complete the all black look that you hope would make Wednesday Addams proud. You notice that it is time to leave, you leave a note on the counter for your mother as well as send her a text letting her know that you were going to see Wednesday. The drive to school is uneventful and you arrive at 7:55p.m. You pull to the side of the gate and put the car in park looking around to see if you can locate Wednesday anywhere. Suddenly, the passenger door opens and Wednesday hops in.  

“Thank you for coming. I think I found something useful. That night in the woods... Rowan showed me this photo his mother drew 25 years ago before she died.” Wednesday unfolds the photo and shows you a drawing of herself. “Apparently she told him that if this girl ever showed up at Nevermore, she would be its demise, that he needed to kill her.” 

“So, you think that you’re the demise of Nevermore?” You quietly ask as Wednesday stares out the front window.

“I’m not sure, but there’s a watermark on the photo that is related to an old secret society, The Nightshades. Mrs. Thornhill says they were disbanded, but I think I know where their library is.” 

“And you called me because?” 

“You said I couldn’t keep you from the truth, and two pairs of eyes is better than one. So, let’s go. We don’t have all night.” Wednesday states as she begins to get out of the car. 

“Yes ma’am.” You grumble and follow her.

You both make your way through the dark halls coming upon a statue of Edgar Allan Poe. There is a book at the base of the statue with 10 weird sentences. You look over them before speaking aloud. 

“They’re riddles. Each line. 

The opposite of Moon – Sun

A world between Ours – Nether

Two months before June- April 

A Self Seeding Flower- Pansy

One more than one- Two 

It’s leaves weep to the ground- Willow

It melts in the sun- Ice 

It’s beginning and end never found- Circle

Ever Rule has one- Exception.

The answer will give a sharp cracking sound. ‘’ you say as Wednesday is writing down each answer.

“Snap Twice” Wednesday snaps twice and the statue shifts, revealing a staircase. You both head down into what seems to be a large room lined with rows of books, photos on all the walls of young-looking students. You notice Wednesday stopping and staring at one photo in particular. The names on it are Mortician Frump and Gomez Addams. You put two and two together realizing that they are her parents.

“Did you know that they were a part of The Nightshades?” You ask as you see her looking at some of the books.

“No.” She answers coldly, you see her stick a book under her jacket before you feel fabric being placed over your head. You scream for Wednesday as you are placed in a chair and ropes are tied around your wrists. You hear Wednesday speaking with someone she calls Bianca before the cloth bag is removed from your head. 

“What the hell is going on and why was I just kidnapped?!” You scream at the group around you. You look at Wednesday who seems to be cool as a cucumber.

“Really Wednesday, a normie?” The girl you assume to be Bianca says.

“Just untie us and let us go. I don’t even go here; I could care less. I’m here for Wednesday, I don’t even know any of you. Well, besides tall, dark, and broody over there.” Nodding towards Xavier. “I don’t go to the normie school, I’m homeschooled. So, there is literally no one for me to tell.”

“We could always initiate Wednesday.” Xavier says as he stands behind both you and Wednesday. 

“I would rather die. Xavier, untie Y/n. Now.” Wednesday reveals that her wrists have been unbound for the last 5 minutes while Xavier undoes your ropes. Wednesday grabs your hand and makes her way to the stairs before turning around and scowling at the group “It’s people like you who give kidnapping a bad name.” Wednesday pulls you up the stairs not once letting go of your hand. You can feel the blush starting to spread across your face from the simple act of hand holding so you keep your head down and let Wednesday take the lead. 

“Well, that was fun.’’ Wednesday states as you both make it back to your car.

“It kind of was. Also, I saw you steal that book. I expect more information tomorrow while you’re buying me coffee.” You laugh as you go to open the car door. You notice Wednesday look hesitant as she still has a hold of your hand. 

“I’ve never held someone’s hand before. I don’t hate holding yours.”

“Well, that’s good to know.” You joke.

“This was a date if you didn’t know, it went quite well. I will be leaving you now. I need to complete my writing time. Goodbye y/n. I will see you tomorrow.” Wednesday lets go of your hand and immediately walks away leaving you dumbfounded. You get in the car and start it, heading back home thinking about the way her hand felt in yours. You arrive home to an empty house, your mother still a work. Heading to bed you receive a text from what you now know is Enid’s phone number wishing you goodnight. You can’t wait to tell Tyler about this tomorrow at work. 

Getting to work, you and Tyler talk before the Nevermore kids come for outreach day. You tell him everything that happened last night from the kidnapping, to the holding hands, and what Wednesday said to you. Tyler looks up at you smiling

“You do realize that you’re now dating THE Wednesday Addams, correct?”

Taglist: @deadpool-in-a-snood @wednesdayiswoe @lixeira @laurenmusic17 @antilost @donnabenevientosbitch @greygsworld @yukiunoo @dumb-ass2 @athenablack1959 @futurepiratekingluffy @cupiocalamity

[goldenxbby]

cold cuts in the moonlight

part 2 and part 3

εїз pairing: fezco x f!reader

εїз warnings: not much just blood, slight arousal, and poorly explained art history... BEWARE 

εїз word count:  5669 hehe

εїз summary: fez doesn't know where else to go except outside your window.

εїз a/n: this is like my very first time writing and sharing a fic so pls be nice i don’t know what i’m doing. this is based off everything we’ve seen in the first epi of season two of euphoria about an hour after the big fight (ahhh). i couldn’t decide whether to make the pov lexi or y/n so i just half based it off lexi so it can be used either way. also i plan on making this a series so if literally anybody likes this i shall try and post again.

She had just finished washing her face using the self-care tactic as a form of distraction since absolutely no one was answering their phones. She thought at least there was some normalcy compared to the commotion from this night's party.

returning to her dark room she flopped onto her bed grabbing her phone connected to its charger. She went straight to her messages for the 5th time tonight to look over Fez’s text. At the party when he put his number in her phone he sent himself a “:))”. It made her giggle when she first looked at it, but his time it sent a pang of worry and nostalgia through her heart. 

She missed the warm fuzzy feelings she had felt on that couch with him almost an hour ago. The moment before she saw Fez’s smirk turn to a tense stare. When his eyes had those little twinkles of light swimming in a pool of deep blue she so badly wanted to dive into, and not a complete shield of darkness blocking out the person who made her cheeks blush and whole body warm from head to toe. She worried where he was, what he was doing, what he was thinking, what he was thinking of her- no shit that was stupid why would she even be in his mind right now? She was a speck in the night he had. He must have had a million more important and interesting things running through his head than her boring self. He probably had already forgotten about her. 

Well, shit. Now her heart had shifted past her stomach and all the way outside her body, probably touching bedrock. She needed another distraction or she knew she would start her self-loathing monologue and that would definitely make this night even worse.

Opening twitter was a mistake. Having to look at the car crash that was her drunk and definitely high east highland peers tweeting about the pummeling and sharing videos of Nate Jacobs being unconsciously dragged out who knows house sent fear down her body. Not because what Fez did scared her she was more shocked than anything. No, she felt fear because seeing how everyone reacted to the fight made her realize her reflex after seeing Fez almost murder Nate in front of everyone was to be concerned about him. A man she barely knew and had shared maybe 6 sentences of conversation with. A conversation that left butterfly’s in her stomach and cheeks hot, a conversation that made her feel desired, listened to, comfortable, excited and seeing feelings she’s not sure she’s felt in a long time… or maybe ever. 

God, how was she falling for a guy who will probably never speak to her again? A guy that she barely knows. Why was the thought of falling make her feel thrilled? 

All those ideas took a pause when Rue's name popped up on her phone with a text notification. 

“rue: you talk to fez?”

Getting a text from Rue that wasn’t a reply was surprising, but getting one about Fez was even more. Staring at her phone with the idea that Fez might have also been thinking about her and even went out of his way to text someone he trusted about it made her bite her lips trying to hold in the joy. 

Oh, fuck those thoughts came back. What if she was totally delusional? Why the fuck would Fez talk about her? I thought we registered that he already forgot about her? He clearly wasn’t asking Rue about her. Rue probably saw them on the couch. Duh, they were at the same party and anybody that saw them together would be asking her the same question. The duo was extremely contrasting from the outside and she knew that but she also knew it felt like one of the rarest connections anybody would be lucky to have on this earth. 

Shit, she needs to reply. Rue can see she’s read the text. Trying to think of something that wouldn’t give a tell of her emotions was hard under the time constraints she gave herself. She landed on “wdym?”. Jesus the fuck was that? She never texts like that she knows Rue knows she has to use urban dictionary to talk to anybody their age. One message and she’s already failing at coming off as normal. 

*ding* 

Oh God is Rue gonna bully her now she must know somethings up? With all her anxiety right now she can not take Rue's teasing. Uneasily opening her phone with her eyes closed and holding her breath she finally takes a peak.

“rue: he asked for your addy?”

 Holy. She felt holy at that moment. Like all her dreams were manifestations like she must be God's favourite like an angel would appear out of nowhere and grant all her deepest wishes. And then it actually happened, it actually fucking happened. Unbeknownst to her at the time though. 

A soft tapping from her window barely took her out of her thoughts. Looking up from the phone she was disassociating into, she saw some of the light from the moon above her had been blocked in her window. Getting up and pulling her curtains to the side with a squint she saw him. 

His expression completely different from the hostile glance he gave her leaving the party earlier. The look he was wearing now staring down at her held innocence in it somehow. He quickly changed his questioning pout into a sincere half smile when she whispered “fez?”. That half tug of his lips and her name leaving them made her almost jump to open her window. 

You know when the Roman Empire fell and everyone was in such deep poverty that they became obsessed with the church? And all the paintings at the time were of saints with those golden halos? 

Well, Fez’s halo was white right now under the moonlight and he was swiftly becoming the saint she’d obsess over to divert from the poverty that was being away from his company. That’s all she could think about as the words “What are you doing here?” left her mouth. 

Fez's face dropped down looking at the ground then back at her the questioning unknowing look coming back to his face. “Ima be honest wit you, I’m acting on my gut rn instead of my head.” he chuckled. Making her smile up at him. She gained a confidence she’s only ever felt around Fez “We’ll does your gut wanna come in?”. All the self doubt she had held minutes ago was completely gone and the only thing filling her head was… just Fez. She could only think of him and trying to keep him with her for as long as possible.

 “…yeah.” he clearly took some time to think over his answer. Like his confidence had dissipated now having to actually go through with the wants that brought him to his current spot. Moving to the side to let Fez in she’s confused when he doesn’t enter. But looking back she noticed Fez taking his shoes off and then handing them to her with a “Not tryna get yo floors dirty ma.” which makes her giggle and whisper “Thanks.” while taking them. Bending down and out of his view, she places them next to her dresser and by the time she’s standing up he’s in her room. 

If Fez could have seen where she had been crouched over he wouldn’t have stood so close. Like there was barely fucking millimeters between them. If he had more room then maybe just maybe the wind wouldn’t be knocked out of him. Feeling her body heat radiate off her, her beautiful big eyes looking into his in the darkness, looking at her lips that must hold magnates in them because he had to force himself to stay right where he was and not smash his against hers.

 All that forcing and not breathing left silence in her room with only her breathing being heard. Since it seemed he wasn’t talking anytime soon she tries to think on her feet to not seem as awkward as she truly was. And all that came out of her mouth was a soft “Hi.”. This made Fez’s lost look change to a small smile. He replied “Hey.”. 

Is she really blushing at that? Jesus, how embarrassing is it that a small word like hey from his lips which were painfully too far away for hers could cause her to blush so fucking hard right now? To try and conceal her cheeks she looked down which probably wasn’t the brightest decision. 

It was so blaring she would have been confused why she was only just now looking at his beaten up hand, but Fez’s face existed so she didn’t question herself. Without think she let the sentence slip “Can I?” and looks back up to his doll like eyes. 

His smile was now gone and she could tell he was biting the inside of his lip but before she could feel like she violated his comfort he nodded his head. Finally stripping his gaze from her and looking to the side.

She went back to surveying his fist and let her hand go to caress his knuckles. Hearing him take a breath in she looked back at him worriedly, but he was already looking down at her. “Fez, are you okay?” she questioned sympathetically. Switching his sight again Fez replied “Life’s been worse ya know?” which immediately caused her to respond with almost an eye roll “That’s not answering my question.”. 

At first, she thought fez was taking his regular time to communicate as it was well known to anybody that had a conversation with Fez that he wasn’t necessarily a fast talker. But then the silence grew and he still wasn’t looking at her, so she opened her mouth with nothing prepared to say just hoping it would come to her in the moment like an idiot. 

She didn’t have to worry about what to say though because Fez finally spoke and looked back into her eyes with a new intensity that caused her to gulp saliva that wasn’t even in her mouth. 

“You know it doesn’t matter how high I get… I can never run away from that feelin of stress in the back of my head and let life slip away…” he paused “and I hate going to those stupid party’s, they’re always filled with annoying kids that either say two words to me buying shit off me or say the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard.” he laughed lowly “…but when you sat next to me… I…” his eyebrows contorted “I felt this comfort… like shit was alright, right now, and when you spoke it was like entertaining like every time you left I was waiting for you to come back and tell me another crazy fucking fact.” he finally smiled again but then looked down to his feet “I just cant be at home rn… you know?” taking a breath in he found her eyes “and I felt like if I’d wanna be anywhere else it be wit you”. 

Five hours, five minutes, five seconds ago she would have never thought she would have heard anything so touching, so romantic from anybody… especially Fezco. That confession left her brain completely blank. It was usually running at 200 mph but she always just chose not to share what was going on in there… since no one would listen anyways or maybe they never heard her? That felt better to believe at least. 

Oh, she should replying now, right? Shit- okay what the fuck do you say to that? Fuck fuck fuck. She was really regretting never putting herself out there with guys before (I mean it’s not they were going for her either so it wasn’t fully her fault). If she had an ounce of experience she’d know what to say to Fez but she really couldn’t think of anything like her brain was literally empty. But she can’t leave him hanging or he’ll think she’s disinterested and she was the complete opposite, so she must speak like now.

“You need water.”

Great, that was really romantic. Really communicating her feelings, isn’t she? Fez replied blinking slowly at her “huh?”. Well, the words have already started spilling out her mouth why stop now right? “When’s the last time you drank water tonight?” she questioned. “I don know?” Fez said back clearly confused about where her detour was going. “Exactly, you need to stay hydrated, stay here and I’ll get you some water.” she spits out at an unnatural speed. 

Running past her bed through her door she leaves Fez alone in the darkness of her room. Smiling at her cute and obvious awkwardness, Fez goes to sit on the end of her bed. Shuffling a little he looks down at her comforter. Sliding his hand on it to feel its softness he laughs to himself at the contrast of his roughed up hand touching her frilly and flower covered blanket. It hit him then, the pang in his heart realizing that steering himself into her perfect life with his mess of shit you could try to call a life, (you know based on the technicalities) would be selfish of him. That his danger vs her innocence would ruin her like the blood that had stained the white long sleeve shirt he was still wearing. 

Looking away to shake the realistic thoughts out of his head, Fez searched her room. Not looking for anything in particular just searching for something to take his emotions away. It landed on a polaroid of her from winter formal on the corner of her mirror. 

God, she was so beautiful he wished he could jump into the picture and transport back to that night. He'd grow a pair of balls and ask her for a dance instead of watching her from the sidelines all night. Maybe even get a kiss. His eyes kept moving around her room watching the decorations she chose to place all over. The clutter covering every surface, like her make-up and hair shit and stuffed animals and books of course she had a healthy selection. 

Then his eyes found it. Something he recognized. The deep green knit was perfectly folded on her dresser. He had forgotten about the clothing item. Not out of disinterest but just from everything else going around him at the moment didn’t leave much space for him to think of it. But she did. And she cared enough to take it with her and neatly fold it in her space. 

Her room was like a window into her brain, her otherworldly brain. everything around him made him feel like he wanted it to become a part of his daily routine, being here physically or through reminders like his clothing. He wanted to become a part of this.

A knock makes his head whip towards the door. It's soft and he can tell it’s coming from her. He walks up and before his hand reaches the knob he hears her voice softly whisper his name. Smiling at the call he opens her door fully and sees her with way more than a water. She smiles sheepishly as he gives her a questioning but humorous look “I couldn't open it with my hands full.”. He lets a laugh slip through his lips “I see dat.”. 

She walks past him into her room as he closes the door and dumps all the content onto her bed except a plate that stays in her hand. They both look down at the pile and she explains “I thought if you hadn’t had any water in awhile you probably haven’t eaten either, so I tried to make a sandwich, but I like never make them so I thought it probably won’t taste too good, so then I put chips so you don’t starve because of my terrible sandwich making skills…” Fez laughs switching his gaze to her “and then I thought your hand must hurt really badly, but we don’t have ice so I grabbed peas to work instead, and I realized that I hadn’t had water in a while either so grabbed one for myself.” she breathes out and smiles at her work while her smiles at her. 

Looking up at him she speaks “Well sit down.” and motions to her bedside. “uh sorry.” Fez murmurs and sits, grabbing the water while she hands him the plate of food “thanks.”. Without replying she reaches for the pillows he rests on shifting and fluffing them to properly support his back. Noticing her putting on the caretaker role Fez chuckles “You know I didn’t come here for you to take care of me?” she retorts back taking her hands from the pillows “I know but you deserve to be taken care of.”. Fez doesn’t want to fight her on what he deserves and doesn’t as he knows she definitely believes he’s a better person than he actually is and is strong minded enough to argue with him over the truth he’s known all his life, so he falls silent looking at his lap. 

A dip in the bed forms as she goes to sit next to him. Handing him the plate and grabbing her water bottle and the frozen peas she sits next to him. The cold of the peas reminded her whose hand they should be in. Without thinking she grabs his and places it on her thigh to properly hold and support it, which causes Fez to place the plate on his lap. She lays the peas on his knuckles as softly as possible and he winces. A “sorry.” escapes her mouth as she looks back at Fez’s face. “It's okay just the adrenaline’s startin to wear off.” he jokes. She nods, thinking “Oh I think I have some ibuprofen in here!” Fez goes to say it’s fine but is cut off before he even begins to speak seeing her turn and bend down searching in her bedside table. “I know it’s in here.” she states. His eyes instantly go to her ass that’s basically on full display at this moment. His eyes widen and to catch his breath he looks away while also trying to adjust the plate on his lap as high as humanly possible.

“Got it!” she exclaims and goes back to her original position while pouring two pills into her hand. She then ushers her hand in front of Fez’s face expecting him to take them out off her palm with his fingers. But her whole body tenses as he connects his lips to the side of her hand using it as a funnel and quickly sipping water. Not to help them go down his throat though, as he’s mastered dry swallowing, but to help the cottonmouth that’s formed from looking into her eyes while connecting his lip to the side of her palm, damning himself for ending the interaction too quickly. 

She tried to act as nonchalant as he appears so she goes back to iceing his hand on her lap. Laughing at herself thinking about how what she was doing wouldn’t be called iceing rather peaing, which helped her slip back into the same comfort she felt sitting next to Fez on the couch earlier that night. 

“So do you wanna talk about what happened or for me to entertain you?” she looked up at him smirking. Fez smirked back replying “Entertain.”. Looking up at the ceiling she took a second to think of what she could possibly entertain Fez with. “Hm, well I know you enjoyed the history shit.” Fez laughed at her almost forgetting where his hand rested “Yeah that pee shit was wild.” his remark made her add teeth to her smile. “Well, something almost as wild as the pee shit was like… well you know about medieval art right?” his smile then grew “Do I look like I know anything about art?” he threw back to her with a quirked eyebrow. She laughed “Well arts easy like that though, you don’t really need to know about it or what it means you can just make up what you think it means.” he looked jokingly judgy towards her. 

“Arts like the OG pick your own adventure story, you know? Everyone can believe what they think it means and it’s all valid and different and even the artists original meaning doesn’t matter, and it’s even better than pick your own adventure stories cause the longer the piece of art is on earth the more meanings it can have it’s like infinite.”. Fez whispers almost under his breath “fearless…” she laughs at his comment adding “Even like something like… a leaf, that can have so many meanings in art like nature or life or death or delicate or weak, it’s never ending.” she contently smiles at him. 

“What do you think it means?” Fez asks, his eyes quickly scan her eyes then lips then eyes again. She looks straight on not being able to handle his intense stare “Uhh well the way it’s captured matters like its context, but if you asked me to just picture a leaf and what the picture I created in my head means I’d say…” she closes her eyes and Fez uses that as an opportunity to taste her sandwich just in case it’s actually bad then she wouldn’t have to see his reaction. “I’d say it means to me humankind… the way it has those lines that look like a skeleton and how they are ever changing, but are resilient through difficult circumstances and flourish after the hardest times in their lives… and all inevitably die.” she opens her eyes looking over to Fez who looks almost starstruck, which she first takes as a huge compliment but then realizes that his reaction was definitely towards the sandwich half hanging out his mouth. It made her giggle “You weren’t even listening were you?”.

She could barely speak through her laughter, but Fez swallows as quickly as possible bringing his eyebrows together “Nah nah I was.” replying “Oh really?” she looked doubtful towards him. This caused Fez to sit up straighter and state “Yeah, but I disagree with the skeleton thing I think they look more like our nerves than our bones.”. She turns away not out of embarrassment more out of trying to hide the smile that had formed from seeing that he listened. Someone actually listened to her. 

Placing the peas back on his knuckles as he continues eating her sandwich “Sorry for doubting you it just looked like you were really into the food.” she looked back at him sharing her smile “I mean yeah it’s a good sandwich.” Fez complimented. “Thanks, I tried to make it like I’ve seen my mom do I just don’t make ‘em cause the cold cuts gross me out.” she shared.

“Why would you touch ‘em if they gross you out?” Fez asked genuinely “Cus I’m not trying to starve you out of my own selfishness Fez.” she joked. “You sure know how to make a guy feel special y/n.” he smiled and took another bite which caused her to blush and look down at her lap to hide from him. 

Looking at her reaction caused Fez’s heart to warm like it was in front of a bonfire. This warmth that grew over his body made him reflex his fingers to hold onto her thigh, fully grabbing it. She went blank feeling the electricity from his touch and dampness in her pajama shorts.

“…The medieval art?” he asked, afraid he made her uncomfortable but not wanting to let go of her. “Oh yeah…” she looked up at him “Um, in a lot of medieval paintings like especially family photos women would carry ferrets.” there, she was back and he relaxed probing her to continue “Ferrets?”. She laughed “Yeah they’re like weasels, like longs furry slinky’s.” Fez almost coughed up the bite of food in his mouth from her remark which cause her to laugh “They always had these ferrets with them cause they were like a good luck charm for fertility.” Fez's eyes widened. She nodded “Yeah, wild and they would even have them in their rooms while fucking. Hoping it would help bring them a baby.” with a suggestive glance Fez asked, “You learn all dis from reading?”. 

God she was praying the absence of light in her room could hide her obvious tomato coloured cheeks. “Yeah it seems weird but at least I know to never get a ferret as a pet.” she laughed. “You ont like kids?” he questioned becoming serious all of the sudden. Blinking at him she replied “Hm? no? … I just- I wouldn’t want one anytime soon…” she said worried she offended Fez with her lame joke, but he moved past it quickly. 

“You know the more time you spend with kids you realize they smarter than adults.” taking in his words she answered with a small “hm”. 

“Like life distracts us and complicates shit and maturity is just stupidity adults hide behind.” Fez claimed. “Well if that’s true then everyone that goes to east highland are extremely mature.” she jokes causing Fez to chuckle but quickly reply “Except you.”. taken aback she lets out a breathy “really?”. She quirked her eyebrows at Fez “Yeah ma you one of the smartest women I’ve ever met.”. 

That would have been a minimal compliment from anybody except Fez, who was raised by his grandmother, one of the only people he’s ever loved, he believed she was the smartest woman in the world and claiming y/n wasn’t far behind was like saying his vows for Fez. With a genuine “thanks fez.” she looked down again shyly. 

“When’s the last time you ate?”

“Hm?” Fez’s question caused her to look back up “You went off on me not starving but what about you?”. Fez’s care made her whole body temperature go up at least 50 degrees “I- I already brushed my teeth.” she stated pointing at her lips. Fez scoffed dramatically “So did I.” which made her smile. “I care about my hygiene y/n.” Fez rolled his eyes to make her laugh even more “Sorry Fez.” she joined in on the joke making her movements more comical. “So have a chip to earn my forgiveness.” He angled the plate towards her “But it’ll make my breath stink.” she argued “And the mustard on that sandwich hasn’t made mine?” he pushed. She looked into Fez’s eyes deeper, confessing “Fez you could smell like literal dog shit and I wouldn’t care.”. he wasn’t sure if that statement was supposed to make his dick twitch but the knowledge that her seemingly sarcastic joke was her way of saying she liked being around him, made blood continue to rush to his groin. 

Fez picked up a chip and silently placed it on her lips which she rolled her eyes at, but took in her mouth. “Mhm that’s good.” she moaned as she grabbed more from his plate. Fez was just trying to make it look like the feeling of her lips on his fingers didn’t make him feel like he could hear angels sing and almost completely forget about the bloody things he had done a couple of hours earlier. 

She went on to explain to Fez how one of Amrita Sher-Gil’s portraits was basically the first diss track, as she felt he enjoyed her ramblings on fertility ferrets in medieval paintings enough to talk about one of her favourite painters. 

Fez could tell she was getting tired since her speech almost started to become as slow as his and seeing that she ate all of the contents on his plate a while ago he thought he’d suggest for her to get some rest. “Ma, I don’t wanna keep you up you should get sum sleep.” Fez turned his head towards her resisting the urge to cup her face. She yawned “Fine, but you have to stay.”. 

Fez looked into her eyes contemplating leaving in case she’d do something she’d regret “…fine.”. She smiled jumping up like she had gained all her energy back. Grabbing his plate and now thawed bag of peas she ran on her tiptoes out of the room. 

With the click of the door, Fez was left in silence. He felt his phone vibrate grabbing to unlock it. 

“ash: where tf u @????”

“fez: im out.”

“ash: u think it a good idea bein' out rn?”

“fez: ill be back in the morn.”

“ash: where r u fez”

“fez: ill be back in the morning.”

“ash: fuck FINE”

Fez was so annoyed with Ashtrays interrogation he didn’t hear her door open. "What are you doing?” Fez jumped a little “I was texting Ashtray” she came closer standing in front of the bed. “No I mean what you’re wearing, I thought only psychopaths wear jeans when they sleep?” now fully in bed, swaddled in her comforter she looked up at him waiting. Fez anxiously chuckled. if she asked him to cut off both his legs right now looking at him like that… he’d do it. 

“Aite close your eyes.” he said standing up. She quickly covered her eyes with her palms. "You have boxers on right?” She felt the bed dip and comforter open “Yes I have boxers on.”.

Taking her hand off her face, she looked into his eyes “I ain’t a man whore y/n.” Fez smirked at her which made her smile. “I know that.” she whispered as their faces were now as close as they were when he first came through her window. they smiled and looked into each other's eyes till Fez said softly “come er.”. She happily scooted into him, holding onto his upper waist and laying her head on his chest trying not to be too loud when sniffing in his scent. Fez held onto her waist and shoulder, keeping her as close to his body as possible looking down at her she said “you know for a non-man whore you sure do give it up fast for the first night.”. Fez laughed at her like her jokes could never get old or stop completely surprising him. She continued “if you wanted to cuddle me so badly you could have just said that at the beginning and we’d be here way faster.”. “am I really giving off that vibe?” Fez laughed. “no I’m just teasing you.” she said scrunching her face. 

He looked into her eyes like he wanted to devour her which made what he then said surprising to y/n “You know this ain’t a date right?”. With her confidence now depleted she felt embarrassed and rejected even though she was joking before and had her legs tangled with his. She scoffed trying to play it cool “Yeah Fez, jeez I’m not a kid.” he looked confused saying “Nah nah I know I mean… if I took you on a date, it be like a real date like to the diner or sum romantic shit.” he ended confidently. “oh.” she looked down now blushing then looked back up at him “Well if you asked me to go on a date to some romantic place like the diner… I’d say yes.”. fez smiled with his teeth “Would you go on a date wit me y/n?” he questioned with audible excitement. “I’d love to… but you can't ghost me, can't leave after tonight with no texts and expect me to wait by the phone for you.”. “Pft like I’d do that?” he played but y/n’s face became humourless “Fez.”. “I promise, I promise!” he said almost lifting his hands up to show defeat “good.” y/n smiled rubbing her cheek into his chest. With her eyes closed, she finally allowed herself to lull to bed. 

Fez felt regret at that moment. He wished he would have lied to y/n. He should have convinced her he wasn’t hungry. Maybe if he didn’t down the sandwich she made him he’d be able to grow some balls and kiss her. But he was too insecure about his breath and wanted the first time he kissed her to be perfect. So he just looked down at her in adoration knowing that if he hadn’t of acted on his gut tonight he wouldn’t be falling asleep with a smile on his face and the girl of his dreams in his arms. 

Then it hit him. How innocent she was compared to him, how cruel he was compared to her delicate nature. Scared that by bringing her into his life he would break her like the leaves she once talked to him about. But he never felt the way he does about her for anyone else, in all honesty, he never thought he would. Fezco always imagined having a girlfriend as something that would do more bad than good. Sure he has had casual sex but he never muttered more than five words at them just wanting to get from point a to b not really caring who with. Dealing with a whole girlfriend on top of all of his other extreme stressors seemed pointless. He'd never thought he would want to open up to someone that deeply or have feelings for someone that was even close to love. But with y/n… he wanted it all. To learn everything about her, to share everything about himself with her, to become a part of her life, to spend more moments wrapped in each other’s arms, to listen to her ramble about her random interests, to laugh with her, to make love with her, to love her and to protect her… He knew if he was going to allow himself to try his wants with her he’d have to promise to himself that’d he would protect her in any way possible.