#and not use grammar checking because i did not fucking notice that myself nor could i have corrected it

[anaalnathrakhs]

german assignment is kicking my ass

[weasleysjoke]

Daydreaming

Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader

Summary: There were two features of Reid’s that drove you insane: his lips and his hands. You couldn’t help yourself to get horny because of the gestures he made while reading. It got to the point where you embarrassed yourself daydreaming of him.

Words: 2.7k

Warnings: Smut, Oral (Female and male receiving), Penetration, Chocking, Dom Specer.

A/N: As I always remind, English is not my first nor second language so if there’s any grammar error please don’t come at me. I had to write this because of my obsession with Matthew’s hands.

Y/N, calm fucking down. There’s people dying and you are being a horny asshole. Breathe and concentrate.

I have to remind myself constantly to keep my eyes on the files and not stare at Dr. Sexy Hands. Spencer and I have been stuck on the commissary, on a little village lost in the middle of nowhere, to keep reading the files of a few suspects that fitted the profile of a murderer we were investigating.

“Y/N, I think I found something.” I hear Spencer’s voice calling me and I turn to give him my full attention. “This guy fits perfectly the profile and his mother died a month ago. That could be enough motive for his psychotic breakdown.” As I read the file of the man, I realize that Reid’s completely right and we start calling the team to let them know.

It only toke us an stressful evening to finish the paperwork and we go back to Virginia on the plane during nighttime. Everybody seem to be extra tired and had fallen sleep just as we sat on the plane. Spence and I were the only ones who were awake, blaming it on the amount of coffee’s that we toke that day.

Reid and I were the only ones sitting by the plane table, both with a book on our hands. To be honest, I was paying 0 attention to the book. Since I started on the BAU a year ago, Spencer and I always had a weird type of tension. Everybody knew I was hella attracted to him, but he didn’t notice any of the many signals threw at him.

He was so fucking oblivious for this type of things. I can believe how a genius profiler couldn’t see that I had the hots for him since day one.

As a profiler there are things that you pick out of people, and even more if you have a crush on them. There were two things that drove me insane about Reid: his lips and his hands.

HIS MOTHERFUCKING HANDS.

On one side, when he started ranting about stuff he knew or was passionate about his lips would dry out. So, with that happening, he had the constant need of travelling his tongue throw his plumped lips to hydrate them.

HE. WAS. CONSTANTLY. LICKING. THEM.

I almost caught myself moaning out loud on the conference room one day that I was extra horny, and Spencer was explaining to me the movie he saw that night. His eyes were fixed on mine and my eyes kept travelling from his to his lips and moving hands. Emily, who sat by my side, smirked and shot me a knowingly look.

On the other side, HIS HANDS. Everybody knew he could read 20.000 words per minute, which was crazy by itself. To help his reading his hands followed rapidly the sentences and flipped the pages with ease.

It may sound stupid, but I got wet several times just watching him read. Reading Reid combined his two most attractive features. His lips moved following the words and his hands accompanied the book pages.

So, after all the tension accumulated in these few days of work, Spencer currently reading by my side felt like a sick joke. A fucking punishment.

All I could think about is how his full lips would feel against your neck, travelling towards your tits and sucking hardly on one of your nipples while the other one was being pinched with his long fingers. How his mouth and hands would feel against your core, his tongue against your clit and one hand against your neck.

You hadn’t realized that everybody had already got off the plane, except for Reid who couldn’t get out of his sit because you were blocking him.

“Y/N!” His hands made a set of movements in front your eyes to wake you from the daydream you were having. His eyes were looking at you worryingly. “Are you okay? You look kinda flushed, maybe you are getting sick.”

“Oh! Sorry, Spence. I was just daydreaming, or more like nightdreaming since it’s 2 am.” I tried to joke.

“Did you know that most people spend 47% of their waking time daydreaming every day? Although, there’s no consistent theory or definition among psychologists on the different types of daydreams.”

To be honest, I did not hear a word he just said. My eyes were locked on his lips and after he said the last word, he drew his lips against his lower lip.

I moaned.

I. FUCKING. MOANED. OUT. LOUD.

Somebody kill me right now.

Embarrassed I falsely coughed. “I didn’t know. That sounds interesting, Reid, but we should leave already. It’s so late.”

Spencer seemed to be speechless because he didn’t say a word just a ‘goodbye’ left his lips after getting to the parking lot.

I fucked it up, I need to talk to Emily and drink a bottle of wine.

“Emily.” I groaned as I hear she picked the call.

“Y/N, I was asleep. What happened? Is there something wrong?” She asked worryingly but annoyed at the same time.

“I messed up. I messed up so badly. I don’t think I can ever look at Spencer’s face again.”

I heard her laugh. “What happened? Do you wanna come to my place and explain it to me?”

“Sure, prepare the wine.” I hang up after hearing her laugh again.

In less than 10 minutes I’m already ringing her door.

“Hey baby, come in.” Emily greeted me and passing me a glass full of white wine.

As I sat down on her sofa, I give a big gulp and sigh. “I moaned. He did his lip thingy while ranting about daydreaming and I spent the whole travel in the plane thinking about him, his hands. You know what he does to me! And then, I was just staring at his lips and couldn’t help myself but moan out loud. I’m so embarrassed.”

Emily starts laughing so much that tears started falling of her eyes. I sigh because I knew that she would react like that and I finish my glass and grab her full glass of wine and finishing it in one gulp.

She stops laughing but a smile is plastered in her face. “How did he react?”

“We made it back to the parking lot without crossing any word. He just muttered a ‘goodbye’ and left.” I sigh again and close my eyes feeling already dizzy because of the wine.

I pour myself another glass and drink it.

Emily stares at me till I finish my third glass. “What if you call him and tell him, finally, that you’ve got the hots for him?”

“You know what?! I’m going to do it.” I pick my phone from the table and ring him.

As he picks up, Emily whispers “Put it on speaker.”

I pressed the speaker option and hear Spencer’s voice: ‘Y/N?”

“Hi, Reid. Remember that I was daydreaming on the plane?” I continue without waiting for a response, but he murmurs a ‘yes’. “All I could think about is about your mouth on my pussy and your hands on my neck.”

“Oh my god” I heard Emily say.

“You don’t fucking know what your lips and hands do to me every time you are reading, and you read a fucking lot, Reid.”

I stop my rant and wait for him to say something, but I’m left waiting.

I sigh on defeat. “I’m sorry, I just thought I had to let you know. I’m not going to make things weird in work and if you want to I can stop talking to you. It would hurt but-“

“Y/N” I hear his voice come out my phone like a growl. “Where are you right now?”

Fuck, I’m wet again.

“I’m at Emily’s right now.” I say unsure.

“Give me 15 minutes, I’m coming.” And then he hangs up.

WHAT?

HE IS COMING?!

TO GET ME?!

“Emily, what did just happen?”

“You are getting laid, my girl.” She says loudly. “Are you wearing cute underwear?”

·

I receive a text from Reid saying to come down and I obey immediately saying ‘goodbye’ and ‘thanks’ to Emily.

I see Reid’s car and just as I got into the passenger sit and put the safety belt, he starts driving.

“Y/N. I couldn’t stop thinking about the fucking sound you made on the plane.” My eyes grew wide and turned to stare at him. “I never thought you could actually be attracted to me, although Morgan and Emily always kept insisting that you did.”

I chuckled. “Spence, I’ve always tried to make you notice me, but you are so fucking oblivious. I thought you didn’t want anything from me.”

“How could I not want anything from you? Are you crazy? You are stunning, funny, and so fucking smart. You’ve everything.” He says staring at me as he just parked in front of his apartment.

His eyes drift off to my lips and proceeds to lick his.

And again, I moan out loud.

“Fuck, Y/N. Let’s get inside before I fuck you right here in the car.”

Jesus-fucking-christ.

I’ve never heard him sound like this, a new kind of confidence occupied his body and it showed.

As we reached the lift, the tension between the two of us was so dense I couldn’t breathe steadily. The door dings and opens, Spencer grabbed my hand and takes me to his apartment. Without waiting a second after closing the door, he led me into his room.

“Sit down.” He ordered me and I don’t hesitate to do it. “Before we start this, I want to tell you that I won’t be gentle. Also, this ain’t going to be a one-time thing, after this I’m going to ask you out on a date. Just so you know that I’m not playing with your feelings or that this is a one-sided thing.”

“Reid, I need your lips on mine, right now.”

“This is the only time I’m going to take an order from you, baby.”

He launched himself over my body and went for my lips. With my bottom lip between his teeth, I opened my mouth granting pass to his tongue. As our tongues dance with each other a loud moan left my mouth.

“Y/N… those fucking sounds are going to be the death of me.” He lifts my weigh while turning around and I end up straddling him. “Remind me again of what you daydreamed back in the plane.” He says while leaving kisses on my check and continued with my jaw.

“You started biting my neck…” he proceeded to do that going for the sweet spot just below my ear. “Fuck.” I moan.

“What else?”

His teeth nipped strongly on my skin and I closed my mouth to try to not make a sound, failing of course.

“I imagined you eating me out and then chocking me.”

He separated his head of my neck and looked at me with a new sparkle in his eyes. “If you behave, I might just do that, baby.”

Between kisses, I toke his shirt off and he toke mine, followed by my bra.

“Fuck, I’ve dreamed so many nights about these two. Had to jerk off so many times in my shower thinking about coming onto them.” I moaned at his dirty talk; I should have known he was good with his words in bed too. “Maybe we could do that another time, now I’m going to give my full attention to this right here.” He said while cupping my pussy with his hand.

He pushed me into the bed on my back and toke my pants and underwear off. His mouth traveled between my tits and continued on my abdomen. He started kissing my thighs but every time he got close to where I needed him the most, he started kissing my other thigh.

“Please, Spencer.” I implored.

“What do you want, Y/N?” He arched an eyebrow.

“You know what I want, Reid.”

“Use your words.” He blew air into the center of my core.

“I need you, your tongue, fingers… I don’t care. I need you. PLEASE.”

“If you beg me like that, baby.”

His tongue attacked my clitoris while two of his fingers entered me.

“Spencer!” I screamed.

With a smirk, his tongue continued lapping my clit while his fingers curled inside me. His mouth left my core to give attention to my boobs. His fingers still working in and out and his teeth nipping my nipples was starting to be too much for me. My legs started trembling and sweat was covering every inch of my body. The warm sensation was overwhelming and as he pinched my nipple and bitted the other one, I came.

“Fucking hell Reid.” I moaned. As I came down of my high, he licked his fingers.

“You taste so good, baby. It almost feels like a sin to taste like this, I wanna eat this pussy every day.”

My mouth opened speechless at his words.

Is it possible to be already wet again and ready for more? Because Spencer just had made it possible for me.

“I want those pinks lips wrapped around my cock. Now.”

He grabbed the back of my thighs lifting me up again to straddle him. We get into a deep kiss in which I get to taste myself and help him get out of his pants and boxers. His cock completely erected stood now on his stomach.

Licking my lips hungrily, I went directly to wrap the tip with my lips and tacking it out making a ‘pop’ sound.

“Shit.” He groans.

With the help of my hand, I start slow movements on his length. I take him fully on my mouth earning a loud moan that went directly to the inside of my pussy. His hand grabbed my hair, stopping me for a second.

“Y/N, I’m gonna come in your mouth if you don’t stop.”

“Do it, Reid” I bob my head faster and I toke his balls on my hands massaging them.

“Holy shit.” He growled and came inside my mouth. His saltiness fulling me. “That felt so good baby.” He sighs and cups my face bringing it to his.

We kissed and I smiled. “Now, can I finally have that cock inside my pussy?”

He tucked my hair with his hand making my neck to be on full exposure to his mouth. “Come and ride me baby.” Ordered while attacking my neck again.

He’s going to leave me so many marks.

I positioned my pussy right on his cock and pushed it inside me. We both groaned at the same time.

“You feel so good around me.”

I moaned at his words and started riding him. We both were a moaning mess, but he seemed to get frustrated.

“I need to go faster.” He pushed me into my back. He pushed himself into me, getting more in depth in this new position. My legs were on his shoulders and his cock was deeper than ever. One of his hands traveled to my clit drawing circles on it and his other hand positioned on my neck with a light pressure.

“Harder.” I demanded between moans.

He did what I said and putted more pressure on my neck.

“Y/N, come for me.” As if I just needed to hear him say it, my whole body reacted to his words giving me one of the best orgasms I have ever had.

“Oh my god.” I moaned. My clenched pussy wrapped around him was what he needed to have his release.

“Baby, that was the best sex I’ve ever had.” He said lying on his back and getting off me.

We lied catching our breath.

“Same, Spence.”

He then seemed to be on deep thought.

“What are you thinking about?”

“That now, everytime I read all I’m going to think is about you moaning.”

I laugh at his response. “Finally, you will suffer some consequences for being hot without realizing.”

We laugh.

“As I promised,” he started and turned all his body to face mine, “do you wanna go out with me on a date?”

I looked at him sweetly while we cupped my cheek with one hand, getting my hair out my face.

“Of course, idiot. It was time you asked.”

[master-sass-blast]

Winter Stay-cation.

*insert pithy quip here*

Summary: A massive squall hits New York City. The snow, combined with a deep freeze, brings the city that never sleeps to a standstill once the police issue travel bans. Fortunately, you and Piotr know how to keep yourselves entertained during your impromptu stay-cation.

Pairing(s): Piotr Rasputin x Reader, Nathan Summers x Wade Wilson, and Ellie Phimister x Yukio.

Rating: G for fluff.

Word Count: 3.4k.

Set after “It’s Truly Magical.”

A/N: The movie quote from Day Five is from Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window.”

Taglist:  @marvel-is-perfection, @chromecutie, @girl-obsessed-with-things, @super-darkcloudstudent, @dandyqueen, @leo-writer

“—continuing into the middle of next week, if not longer. Expect heavy snowfall and temperatures below freezing, with windchill taking things below zero over the weekend.”

“Good grief.” You shake your head as you watch the weather report on the morning news. “It doesn’t get that cold when I fly full speed.”

Piotr, your husband, hands you a cup of coffee and shrugs. “January is ugly month.”

You smirk into your mug. “Bet this doesn’t compare to Siberian winters.”

“Not really,” he admits with a chuckle.

“The Chief of New York City’s Fire Department has issued a statement reminding residents to be careful when using their fireplaces and to monitor children and pets.”

“Yeah, yeah,” you quip, “Don’t use fireworks as kindling, we got it.”

Piotr snorts.

“In addition, the Police Department has issued a travel advisory in light of the predicted precipitation and sub-zero temperatures. All none-essential travel is restricted until the cold snap passes.”

“Groovy. Tell that to half the city.”

Piotr grins, shakes his head again, then turns the TV off. “Looks like we will have to keep ourselves occupied here this week.”

You cast a disparaging glance outside –where the snow is already up to Piotr’s knees—then say, “Like we were going anywhere else.”

 ***

 Day One

 There’s an upside to when the “deep freeze” hits. It’s already winter break, meaning there’s no coordinating classes, figuring out how to pick up students that don’t live at the mansion, or having to get up at the balls-ugly hours of the early morning in the stupid, frigid cold.

The two of you wake up at your leisure, around nine o’clock. You laze around in bed for a bit, snuggling and chatting and smooching, then head downstairs for breakfast. You wind up setting up shop at the dining room table, catching up on grading and filling out end of the semester report cards.

“Can you check these for me?” Piotr asks, handing you a stack of essays from his art classes. “I already made content-based marks; I am just not sure about English grammar.”

“Fun fact: most native English speakers aren’t sure about their grammar, either,” you joke with a smirk.

Piotr snorts, then checks his computer clock before standing. “Is about lunchtime. I was thinking soup and sandwiches?”

You nod. “Sounds tasty.”

“Would you like anything in particular?”

“Surprise me.” You make a contented hum when Piotr leans over the table to kiss you, then smile as you watch him head to the kitchen.

You really are the world’s luckiest woman (a sentiment you feel even more keenly when he comes back with a fresh cup of hot cider for you).

 ***

 Day Two

 “We should clean.”

The two of you are sitting on the couch. Your laptops sit on the coffee table, displaying the completed efforts of uploading grades to the online gradebook that the school uses. Two mugs that once contained coffee sit next to either laptop.

You look up at Piotr. You’re tucked against his side, head leaning on his shoulder while his fingers trace designs on the sleeve of your sweater (which is technically his sweater, but that’s neither here nor there). “Huh?”

“We should clean,” he repeats as he scrubs at his face with his free hand. “House could use it.”

You crane your neck to look over his shoulder. “We don’t really have that many dirty dishes.”

Piotr snorts, then raises an eyebrow at you. “When was last time we vacuumed? Or deep cleaned bathrooms? Or washed windows?”

“We can see out the windows just fine!”

Piotr grins and shakes his head. He stands, holding his hand out to you. “Come on, myshka. Clean home, clean mind.”

“I’ll have you know that my mind is nothing but dirty, and I’m offended that you would dare insinuate otherwise.”

Piotr laughs and helps you up. “We can start upstairs and work our way down.”

 ***

 Cleaning with Piotr isn’t so bad. He carries his fair share of the workload, does things to their proper doneness, and is a firm supporter of blasting tunes while cleaning.

“Take! Me! On!” You bounce up and down in time with the beat while you clean the sliding glass doors in your bedroom that lead out to the balcony. “I’ll… be… gone! In a day or two!”

Behind you, Piotr laughs. He’s hauling out a trashbag from the bathroom –no doubt filled with the sheer amount of crumpled paper towels it takes to get the place sanitary again. “I see you are enjoying yourself.”

“Absolutely not. I’m suffering endlessly. I’m going to die any minute now.” And then, to prove you point, you flop to the floor dramatically (taking care to use your powers to cushion your landing).

Piotr lets out a choked gasp, then clutches at his chest. “You keep scared me!”

You look up at him and laugh. “You know I can catch myself! You’ve seen me do that before!”

“Changes nothing!” He lets out a ragged breath, hand still pressed over his heart. “I could have heart attack.”

You giggle, then lift yourself off the floor with a swirl of wind. You land nimbly on your toes before him and wrap your arms around his waist. “Aw, now who’s being dramatic?”

“I fail to see how concern for your well-being is dramatic!”

You suppress a grin, opting to pop up on the balls of your feet and kiss him instead. “I’m very sorry I scared you, baby.”

“Is okay.” He kisses you gently, then gazes down at you with a rueful smile on his lips. “What am I going to do with you, myshka?”

“Dance with me?” You flash him an impish smile, then start bouncing in time to the music again.

Piotr chuckles, then takes your hands in his and bops along with you.

The two of you dance around the room –well, as much as what you’re doing can be called dancing. You sing the lyrics of the song to each other, not sticking to any particular key or tempo.

You laugh when Piotr lifts you into his arms, bridal style, then squeal in delight when he spins the two of you around.

It’s perfect.

 ***

 Day Three

 You wake up to the sound of Piotr’s phone chirping –because, even on vacation, he still keeps a daily morning alarm.

He groans as he comes to, then laughs when you roll over him and shut off his alarm for him. “Well, good morning to you, too.”

You set his phone back on his nightstand, then straddle his hips and plant your hands against his brawny chest. “You’re not making me clean today.”

Piotr smirks up at you, bushy eyebrow raising in challenge. “Oh?”

“We’re spending today in this bed,” you continue. “Just you” –you tap his chest—“and me, and as few clothes as possible. Sound good?”

He pretends to mull it over, even has he takes off the shirt he’d been sleeping in. “Are we allowed bathroom and meal breaks?”

“I’ll allow it.”

“Ah, very generous. Thank you, benevolent myshka.”

“You’re very welcome.” You giggle when he grins –then let out a delighted yelp when he rolls suddenly, pinning you between him and the bed. You sigh as he kisses you, eyes fluttering shut. You arms wind around his neck, holding him against you while his hands smooth down your body.

 ***

 Day Four

 Cabin fever starts setting in between the third and fourth day. There’s only so many chores you can do, only so many papers you can grade (and you’re out of papers to grade, which doesn’t help your case), only so much sex you can have before you’re gonna start losing your mind.

Fortunately, Piotr is well-attuned to you and your mental states –meaning he notices that you’re getting twitchy before you dip into pyromania to keep yourself entertained.

“We should do something fun today,” he says during breakfast. He spreads some sour cream over his plate of blinis, then adds cottage cheese and sausage meat. “Perhaps play some video games. Ellie has been pestering me to play some multi-people games with her and Yukio.”

“Could be fun,” you say before stuffing your mouth full with Nutella-covered blini. You swallow, then ask, “What did she want to play?”

“Ah… she had two. I think… Falling Guys and Among Us?”

A slow, wicked grin stretches across your place. Fuck yeah. “Let her know we’re in.”

 ***

 Piotr, unfortunately, turns out to be none too good at Fall Guys.

“No!” He wails, then flops back against the couch when he gets thrown off a platform and into the slime. “I could not run away!”

“You have to anticipate the enemy’s movements,” Ellie says over Discord. She’s already qualified and is spectating you and Yukio. “Predict their strategy, then counter.”

“I think it is less strategy and more ‘giant hands do not play nice with tiny controller,’” Piotr grumbles good-naturedly.

“Or maybe you got your butt kicked like a scrub,” Ellie fires back.

“I never contested that,” Piotr chuckles.

“Alright,” you say, eyes glued on your pink and yellow striped player. “I’m almost there, there’s plenty of slots left –no, you fucking pigeon! Let me go!”

“Language,” Piotr murmurs between bouts of laughter.

“It’s always a pigeon!” Ellie groans. “Fucking skyrats.”

“Language, NTW.”

You qualify for the next round (no thanks to the damn pigeon, who qualifies, too). Egg Scramble is next, and you wind up facing off against Ellie and Yukio for the win.

“Damn it!” There’s the sound of something hitting the floor –most likely Ellie throwing her controller—when she and Yukio get booted out. “Yellow always loses!”

“Is that it?” you ask while the loading screen plays. “Are we at the final round yet?”

“There’ll be one more,” Yukio says. “To finish whittling down the competitors.”

Sure enough, there’s a round of Tip-Toe –which you get through by the skin of your teeth—and then you and eight other players are sent to the finale.

“Okay, Hex-A-Gone. You’ll want to just hop from tile to tile,” Ellie advises you while the level loads. “It makes the tiles last longer.”

“Don’t be afraid to drop a couple levels at first,” Yukio adds. “You can carve out one of the lower levels, meaning anyone that falls above you will have further to go and will be more likely to get out.”

“I appreciate it, but don’t expect any miracles,” you say, laughing self-deprecatingly.

Piotr kisses the top of your head. “You can do this, myshka.”

You follow the girls’ advice; you let yourself drop down two levels, then start hopping from tile to tile to start carving out the platform.

“One guy’s already out!” Ellie announces. “You’ve got this!”

“Shit! I fell!”

“That’s okay,” Yukio reassures you. “Find a decent mass of tiles and hop, don’t run. Make them last.”

“The pigeon grabbed another player,” Piotr marvels, shaking his head.

“Yeah, well, they both died, so fat lot of good it did them,” Ellie mutters.

You keep going, bounce from brightly colored hexagon to brightly colored hexagon.

“Only four left!” Ellie lets out a whoop. “Holy shit, you’re gonna make it!”

“Don’t jinx me!” you laugh as you dodge another player’s attempt to grab you. “Don’t jinx me!”

“Three left –two! It’s just you and one other guy!”

“You’ve got this, Y/N!” Yukio cheers.

You dive for a clump of tiles –and miss. “No!” You groan, then laugh as your character plummets into the pink slime. “Damn. I’m never going to do that good ever again.”

Piotr wraps an arm around your shoulders in a conciliatory hug. “You did wonderful job, myshka.”

“He’s right. That was really good. The winner fell a few seconds after you, so it was basically a coin toss as to who was gonna get the crown,” Ellie says while the winner’s animation plays on screen.

“Yeah! Great job!” Yukio congratulates you.

“Wanna do another round?” Ellie asks as she flicks between skins and accessories for her avatar.

Yukio laughs lightly. “Baby, we were going to get lunch.”

“Oh, right.”

“Perhaps we can try other game after lunch,” Piotr suggests. “‘Fall Guys’ is okay, but makes me too dizzy.”

“Yeah, sure. Text me when you guys are done eating.”

***

 Among Us doesn’t go much better for Piotr, if only because he doesn’t adhere to the strategy of the game. He does his tasks without fail –which usually leaves him alone, and thus a prime target for killing or pinning a murder on. He’s also a terrible liar, which makes it easy to tell when he is the impostor.

You laugh as Piotr’s little red spaceman goes floating into space. “I honestly feel bad.”

“I don’t,” Wade says (he and Nate hopped on the Discord call when Yukio sent them an invite). “Pay for some acting classes, Chrome Dome! Give us a challenge, at least.”

Piotr starts grumbling in Russian, but it gets cut off when the round starts up again.

(You all still wind up losing because Nate’s the other impostor and racks up bodies like nobody’s business.)

“I’m still waiting for when Ellie and Dad get the impostor role together,” you comment as the defeat screen flashes on your laptop screen.

“What, so we all die in five minutes?” Wade grumbles. “So we can suffer the agony of betrayal and not honoring trust again?”

“It’s just a game, Wade,” Nate sighs. “And I apologized already.”

“Is our relationship ‘just a game’ to you, Natey? I gave you an alibi –and then you shanked me in the shower like rejected prison bitch!”

“Language, Wade,” your husband pipes up, voice world-weary. “Please.”

You all start another round once Wade calms down –which, admittedly, takes a while and a great deal of coaxing from Nathan. You grin when you see that you’re an impostor alongside Yukio –then giggle to yourself when a plan pops into your mind.

You start stalking Piotr around the map. You fake doing tasks alongside him, acting as his shadow as he treks around the map. On the corner of your screen, you watch your kill timer wind down, then wait for the right moment once it runs out, and—

Downstairs, in his art studio, your husband lets out an indignant scream when your character murders his.

You fall back onto the bed and cackle.

 ***

 Day Five

 The squall rages on outside. The world is practically buried in snow. It’s a sea of white outside your bedroom windows, blinding and sterile.

You peer at the swaths of snow blanketing every inch of ground, every tree branch, and every shrub, then nestle further under the blankets. “Ugh. I don’t even want to get out of bed today.”

Piotr chuckles, then wraps an arm around your waist. “How come?”

“Have you seen what it’s like outside? It’s disgusting!”

“I thought you liked snow.”

“I do. That’s how you know it’s bad.” You sigh as you eye the fat, fluffy flakes falling from the sky. “I wish I could, like, go outside. Go to a store or something. Leave the house.”

“Is not safe to drive yet.”

“I know, I know.” You sigh. “Is it bad that I miss the color green?”

“Nyet. Is normal.”

You smile, just a little, when Piotr kisses the back of your head. You roll over to face him. “Can we build a blanket fort today?”

He raises an eyebrow. “What… here? In bedroom?”

“Yeah. We can make it look all pretty, and snuggle in bed, and watch movies, and have sex…”

“Bozhe ty moi.” Piotr snorts, then takes a moment to study your face, your eyes. “You really want blanket fort?”

“Kind of, yeah. I just… I want something new to look at.”

The corner of his mouth turns up in a soft smile. He presses his lips against your forehead. “Alright, myshka. Let’s make fort.”

***

 “When a man and a woman see each other and like each other, they ought to come together. Wham. Like a couple of taxis on Broadway.”

You let out a content, relaxed sigh, then wriggle closer to Piotr.

The fort, admittedly, is simple –but you don’t mind. While you were taking a shower, Piotr assembled the whole thing, just to give you a little surprise.

He’d brought up a couple floor lamps from the main floor, then clipped some fairy lights to them before draping the largest quilt in the house over top to make the room. He’d pinned some throw blankets to either side of the quilt to make the sides, then made the bed and assembled the pillows so the two of you could have a nice, cozy, comfy den to watch movies in.

The recurring, delighted thought of ‘he made it for me; he made it for me because he knew I wanted one’ loops around in your brain like a bumblebee drunk on fermented crab apples. You grin, then loop your arms around Piotr’s neck and kiss his cheek.

He grins, cheeks flushing ever so slightly. “What was that for?”

“You made me a blanket fort.”

“You asked for one.”

“Yeah, but you made it for me. You could’ve just waited until we could both work on it.”

He shrugs, lips curving into a soft, pleased smile. “I wanted to see look on face. You were very happy.”

“Correction: I am very happy.” You kiss the tip of his nose, then his lips. “I love you, Piotr.”

“And I love you, Y/N.”

 ***

 Day Six

 You know it’s bad when you wake up before Piotr.

You look over at your husband, who’s still slumbering away next to you –and sawing some logs, no less—then out at the winter hellscape outside, and decide there’s only one thing for it.

You’re channeling your inner Great British Bake Off contestant and demolishing the kitchen.

***

 Piotr comes downstairs around ten in the morning –which is a miraculous amount of sleep in time for him—but by then, the damage has already been done.

There’s a cake cooling on the counter (you’d found a box of cake mix in the back of the pantry and decided to use it as a warm-up. The mixer is working overtime on a double batch of sugar cookies –plus there’s already chocolate chip cookie dough chilling in the fridge.

You look up from the cookbook you’d been perusing –you were thinking pie next—and flash your husband a slightly sheepish grin as he gapes at the kitchen. “Uh… good morning?”

“Myshka…”

“I made cake.”

“I can see that.” Piotr drops his heads into his hands and makes a noise somewhere between a groan and a laugh. “Why?”

“Because being trapped inside is stressing me out and I want to cope by eating my weight in desserts.”

Piotr sighs, then lifts his head. He eyes the mixer, then the increasingly sheepish expression on your face. “How much is that?”

“In the bowl or in the fridge?”

“Bozhe ty moi.”

“Look, the way I see it, we can share—”

“You have that much correct. We do not need five million cookies.”

“Excuse you, I’m only making three million. Also, do you know where the lard is?”

Piotr’s face scrunches up. “Lard? Why—”

“I wanna make pie.”

He pinches the bridge of his nose. “We already have cake. And goodness knows how many kinds of cookies.”

“But those aren’t pie.” You smile impishly at him. “Plus, like, pie has fruit, so it’s good for you. You like fruit. Think about how good it’ll be to eat something with fruit after all the cake, and the cookies…”

“Or I could just eat fruit.” He sighs, resigned and slightly frustrated, when you bat your eyelashes at him. “I will check pantry.”

***

 Day Seven

 “—as of today, authorities are lifting the ban on nonessential travel—”

“Yes!” You launch yourself into the air, twirling around and pumping your fists before landing lightly on the couch once more. “Finally!”

Piotr laughs and shakes his head. “What, is staying inside with me so terrible?”

“Absolutely not.” You crawl across the couch and into his lap, then give him a loud smooch. “I have enjoyed every single day of your company. However, you’ve got about fifteen minutes before I start repainting the walls out of sheer boredom.”

Piotr bursts into raucous guffaws. He puts a hand over his eyes, shoulders and stomach shaking with each laugh. He sighs, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes as minute giggles slip past his lips. “Well, we do need to restock on food. And flour and butter, since someone decided to open bakery yesterday.”

You pointedly ignore the pies and full cookie jar sitting on the kitchen counter. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

He snorts, then pats your thigh. “Get dressed, myshka. We will go shopping.”

“Fuck yeah!” You zip up the stairs.

Downstairs, you can hear Piotr start laughing again.

[throughtheglassdarkly]

Missing Pieces, part 7

Hello, lovelies, it’s me, Yova. I know our darling Derek typically recounts our motley’s mishaps. However, our poor chronicler was called away for a bridal cupcake catastrophe just before our date with Day’s former partner and lucky you, I’ve graciously offered to help with this part of the story.

Pam, Bella, and I dropped Derek on his feathered head in front of Sprinkles (not that one) and then picked up Officer Break for lunch. We were not sure where to go for lunch; mostly we were too busy trying to figure out how to handle Brenda. Pam, though, ever resourceful, found a quaint out-of-the-way spot. One of those places that does breakfast and lunch and closes by four in the afternoon.

I had texted Marigold about Officer Break’s ability to see us as we are and what, if any, court prcedents needed to be observed. But I did not hear back from her straight away. Unsurprising, really. There’s no cell signal in the Autumn Court’s Hallow.

Lunch was, for lack of a better term, awkward. Officer Break was practically brimming with excitement, while the three of us were completely unsure of how to broach the subject of Changeling society as a whole. I started with gently explaining what we were, for Officer Break had taken to calling us the Weird Folk. Then an explanation of Arcadia and the process by which a human became a Changeling and escaping back through the Hedge. In all honesty, Brenda took it all in stride. She kept nodding thoughtfully when appropriate, then she asked something that floored us all: “My partner is stuck there. How do I get him back?”

Day does not deserve this woman.

She was not pleased when we told her she couldn’t, nor should she try to find her way back into the Hedge. She was unaware of how lucky she was, but she would not let go of the idea of saving Day from the Gentry’s clutches, especially after she had come into contact with his Fetch. This put us in a bit of a conundrum, as we of course knew what had befallen Day. However, we were not sure what Officer Break would do to Day, given his crimes. Also, out of deference to Day, we tried our hardest to not let her know that we knew him.

Thankfully, when she asked that question, we were able to realize she really did see Day through rose-colored glasses. We were able to talk Officer Break out of storming the Hedge by offering to help her find Day’s Fetch and she agreed to meet us later that evening at the Biergarten.

After lunch, the ladies and I piled back into my truck and talked about the issue at hand, and how we were going to get Day to come along and face his former partner. Thankfully, Day is a man tied to his vices. So, one stop at the liquor store for two packs of Marlboro Reds and a big bottle of Wild Turkey later, we arrived at his flat.

He was afraid we had brought Brenda with us and tried to pass himself off as an old lady, but opened the door at the promise of booze and smokes. Day lives, as you might expect, surrounded by his own filth. There was a sandwich on the counter that I swore was about to grow limbs and start talking soon. I gave him the cigarettes but withheld the booze as I let Pam explain our plan to meet Brenda later.

Day, of course, at first refused to come along if Officer Break was going to be there. I did understand – it is hard to face someone who admires you so much and not want to disappoint them or admit you aren’t worthy of their admiration. The fact that she could see through our masks was another factor to consider. All perfectly reasonable reasons to not face her.

But we were not going to let him weasel out of it. Between Pam’s motherly guilt trip, Bella’s cuteness, my scathing honesty, and the bottle of Wild Turkey on the line, Day relented. While he was in the midst of over-fretting, Marigold returned my text. Typically, she observes all grammar rules when texting. But this time, what I got was all caps “HEDGE TOUCHED” followed by four exclamation points. I could feel her excitement through the phone and messaged her back, asking what that meant. What she told me is that apparently even passing through the Hedge leaves its mark, though the courts hadn’t seen a Hedge-Touched human in a long time. She asked to interview Brenda. It was adorable.

Once Day had agreed to come, we left him to grumble and make himself presentable for that evening (otherwise no Wild Turkey). I dropped Bella and Pam off at Derek’s workplace as Pam hoped to lend a hand and I believe Bella wanted a free cupcake. I personally went home to decompress and change my outfit. And here, lovelies, I will hand you back to our chronicler, as not long after this he was freed from cupcake hell.

Hey, it’s me again. And when she says “cupcake hell,” she’s not joking. All I got on my phone was a panicked text from my boss, “BRIDEZILLA: ALL HANDS ON DECK” and I had to show up. When I got there, I barely managed to duck a flying tray of absolutely lovely chocolate cupcakes that had been piped and decorated to perfection. A very angry woman and a man with a long-suffering look on his face were at the counter and she was shrieking, “I ASKED FOR MARBLE CUPCAKES, NOT CHOCOLATE AND VANILLA CUPCAKES, AND THIS FROSTING IS CLEARLY MAGENTA WHEN I ASKED FOR FUCHSIA, DO I LOOK LIKE A WHORE TO YOU?!”

So that was my next five hours (also: I checked the order form and she clearly selected two different types of cupcakes. Bitch.). Thankfully, Pam showed up and added an extra set of hands while Bella helped herself to a few of the three hundred cupcakes the team at work had previously made. That evening, after artfully designing chocolate dicks into three hundred marble cupcakes, I joined the rest of the motley at the Biergarten. Brenda was there well before us and was waiting at an outside table, looking between her phone and a notebook. It about took all of Pam’s, Bella’s, and my strength to shove Day up the walk toward the restaurant.

Yova started trying her usual bullshitting and schmoozing with Brenda, who called her on it and said she didn’t need to get awkward. “Well, it’s about to get even more awkward,” Yova told her as the three of us pushed Day around the corner. “Remember how we were loath to talk about your partner earlier? It’s because it wasn’t our place to tell,” Yova said, stepping aside and motioning for Day to step up.

Day greeted her about as awkwardly as humanly possible: “Hey, girl, how’s tricks?” She put her notebook and phone away, took in a deep breath, pinched the bridge of her nose and said, “Day, I swear to fucking Christ,” as she walked up to him. Her hands balled into fists at her side and she just stared up at him, taking him in. After maybe thirty seconds of staring in silence, she raised a fist and placed it firmly in the middle of his chest. “You have some balls making me worry about you like that,” she said. “Well, if I didn’t, it wouldn’t be me,” he said. She shook her head and admitted that she was completely unprepared for this. “Look, I’m not saying that what happened that day when we were looking for Pam was totally uncool, but I mean, in my defense, what was I supposed to do? I was stuck. I became this… thing,” he said.

Brenda closed her eyes and said, “It’s my fault. I was the one who brought you out there. I’ve been beating myself up for this pretty much ever since it happened.” “Well, uh, I… forgive you?” he said. “That wasn’t very convincing, but I’ll take it. It’s pretty much more than I’ve ever gotten out of you, so I’ll take it,” she retorted. He told her that he’d accepted what he’d become and suggested they leave it at that and move on.

We told Brenda about how we were planning to investigate Day’s Fetch and asked her what she knew about him. She told us that about two weeks after Day disappeared, the Fetch just showed up to work one day, with no clue what had happened and what people knew, and they tried to arrest it, which didn’t work. She kept digging around, looking for the Fetch, and found out where it would usually go and who it liked to run with. She said it was trying to keep a low profile until it started paying the rest of us a visit. “Okay, I guess I get all that, but why were you trying to look for me?” Day asked. “Because you’re my partner. Well, were. I’ve got a new one now. But partners are supposed to have each other’s backs and I know you always thought I was annoying or naïve, but, you know, I did learn a lot from you. And I know that somewhere inside that callused, possibly cholesterol-soaked heart, there’s still something there. And I – I dunno. I thought maybe I could bring back that part of you that still actually believed in the job.”

Day told her that there was one thing they’d have to clear up before they went any further: “Everything they said I did, it’s all true. I did plant evidence, I did fudge paperwork. I didn’t always follow proper procedure, because those were the types of people who game the system to get away with it. We were never going to get them. So, I did what I had to do to put those sons of bitches away for life. And if you ask me if I was gonna do it again, the answer’s yes. So if you can understand that and accept it, then we’re square. But if you can’t, I don’t know.” Brenda admitted she’d noticed some of the things Day had been doing, even if she didn’t know the lengths to which he’d gone. “I’m good at my job and can tell when things aren’t right. I know you can do good things. Maybe right now you’re not doing a good job at doing those things, but I know you can, and I’m patient enough. I can wait until you realize that yourself.”

While this was going on, Yova and I were whispering to each other. “I think Day’s tiny little heart grew three sizes this day,” she told me. “Maybe, but three times zero is still zero,” I said.

We decided to make our way inside the biergarten and look around for anything that seemed out of place. Brenda talked with the bouncer for a few minutes and flashed her detective’s badge. She waved us over and the bouncer let us in without IDing any of us, even Bella, who looks 17 if she’s a day. The first thing I noticed about the bar is that there were peanut shells everywhere: buckets and buckets of peanuts set out and people chawing on them and tossing the shells wherever. Bella got instantly lost in the France-Brazil game. There were college kids cheering and older people drinking. We even saw a couple of other changelings sitting at the bar itself. They were obviously super drunk and obnoxious, yelling curses whenever a player fucked up.

Our group managed to snipe a table as another group got ejected for being too rowdy and we ordered some food and drinks. Over the noise, Brenda told us that she was surprised we picked this spot to go to, since it was one of the spots Day’s Fetch tended to hang. “Near as I can figure it, we wait for him and his crew to show up and see what we can do,” Day said. Yova told her our original reason to come there was to suss out who the loyalist was and we were quickly realizing there was probably some overlap between those two groups. When there was a moment of calm, Yova put on her most charming smile and asked Brenda for a favor: “My girlfriend would very much like to interview you.” Being helpful, I said with no small amount of grinning, “You said the G word.” “She did!” Bella piped up. Yova gave us both a look a death but Brenda hesitantly agreed to talk to Marigold and we started to eat.

While the others were noshing and drinking, I kept an eye on our surroundings and managed to spot that the two obnoxious changelings at the bar had spotted us and they seemed to be paying more attention to us than to the game. One of them was a very large moss-covered man and the other was a smaller woman with buzz-cut hair, grayish skin and cat-slitted eyes. “We got eyes on us at 2:00,” I said. Day suggested we talk to them and see what they were up to. “Probably the least-threatening one of us should go talk to them,” Yova suggested, and we all turned to look at Pam.

Pam got up to go talk to them, convincing Bella to go along with her. She tried to be friendly, extending a hand and introducing herself. The woman looked at her with a “really?” expression. Bella tried talking sports with them and the mossy man actually opened up a bit. The woman finally shook Pam’s hand and Pam tried to get them to join us at our table. As they packed up and started to walk over, I heard a buzz from a few tables away over the din. When I turned to look, I spotted a small figure in a Brazil hoodie pick up a phone. I couldn’t tell anything about who it was other than that they were short and slender. But the timing of the buzz seemed to be just a little too perfect.

I nudged Yova and motioned with my head to the figure. She grabbed an empty glass off the table and made her way toward the bar, not necessarily walking straight toward the Brazil hoodie but taking a path that looked like she was weaving around people. She tried to get a view of who was in the hoodie. She couldn’t get a clear look at the person’s face but she could see that she was wearing a skirt and was texting like mad.

Pam got the other changelings to sit down at our table and the woman introduced herself as Deb and her compatriot as Greg. She said that they didn’t see a lot of other changelings around, which is why they were staring. We hadn’t seen them at any of the freehold events, but given how large the freehold was, that wasn’t too surprising. We all introduced ourselves and explained that we just got back. Greg kept trying to engage Bella in soccer talk while Deb said the two of them didn’t do the whole Court thing and asked if they could get back to their own spot. I couldn’t help but feel that her nervousness wasn’t really because of us: she seemed to be looking out in the street as she was talking to us.

At the bar, Yova was chatting up the bartender to see if she could get Day one of the giant birthday glass boots full of beer without putting it in an actual glass boot. “My friend is lovely, but awfully clumsy, even when sober,” she tried to explain. While she was doing this, she tried to keep her eye on hoodie chick and see if she was still watching us. The girl in the hoodie got up and started walking past Yova. Yova took that opportunity to step back and right into her path, bumping into her. As she stumbled, Yova got a quick glimpse of her face: she was a pretty young woman with tan skin and wavy dark hair. She looked familiar, but Yova wasn’t sure why. She pulled the hood over her face a little more and made a beeline for the exit.

Yova got back to the table, put a beer in front of Day and told us she was going outside to smoke, asking if any of us wanted to join her. I’d been keeping an eye on the hoodie chick and saw her interaction with Yova, so I volunteered to step out with her, as did Brenda. Pam decided to lock Deb into a conversation about her kids. She was forcing Deb to be an active listener and it was awful. Outside, Brenda asked us what we were doing. Yova quickly explained the situation and Brenda volunteered to go take a look for the girl in the hoodie. After she’d been gone a minute, we decided it would be smarter for us to go after her.

Back at the table, Deb got a text and tried to put it away before Pam could see, but Pam got a glimpse: “I can’t shake the cop.” Pam tried to ask her if someone was in trouble and Deb said, “No, we have to go. Greg, we’re going.” She grabbed Greg and tried to pull him out of the bar. Pam, bless her, managed to distract her long enough with discussions about Girl Scout cookies or something to delay her a bit. After Deb and Greg got out the door and dashed, Pam, Day, and Bella hurried out after us. Day ran ahead of the other two and found me and Yova looking for Brenda. We waited until Pam and Bella caught up, then all of us made our way forward.

Eventually, we found Brenda outside of an in-process construction site. She looked annoyed but also determined. She told us to keep our voices down and that the chick in the hoodie went into the site. She said she wanted to go in there but knew it was a bad idea, so Day helpfully volunteered the rest of us to go in there. He reached down, scooped up a mud patty and spat it over his hands to make rock fists. Brenda looked at him with mild disgust, saying, “That is so in character. I don’t know what you did. But it is absolutely you.”

We decided that somebody needed to go in and do some recon. Day nominated me. Brenda rolled her eyes and pointed out that aside from Yova, the walking strobe light, I was the most brightly colored one there. “It’s okay, he’s been trying to get me killed ever since we got pulled into Arcadia.” “Whaaaat? Come on, bird brain!” Day told me. “No! I’m not talking to you after you befouled my wastebasket!” I snapped. Bella volunteered to go in and poofed out of existence. The last thing we heard as she wandered off is, “I’m going to do this while looking better than any of you.” Yova and I looked at each other. “She’s going to get herself killed,” she said. “Yeah, but when she does, at least we won’t have to put up with her any longer,” I said.

Bella slipped into the construction site and up to the second floor. She was able to hear mumbled voices coming from within a tarped area. One was a feminine voice and the other was a much deeper, masculine one. The deeper voice said that they had to get out of there and he wasn’t staying put in the construction site for another night. “Well, at least we’ve got to stay put until we’re sure they’re gone,” the feminine voice said. “I’ve had it up the here. Just shut up and let me think,” the masculine voice responded. There was a tense and awkward silence between them and Bella slipped back out and made her way back to us.

Now this next part, I need to explain. Bella has a tendency when she slips out of sight to want to surprise people by coming up behind them and saying things. It freaks the hell out of you. And we were already on edge because of what was going on. So when I heard a voice behind me, with no context and no warning, saying, “I found something,” you’ll understand why I turned around and decked Bella right in the face. I didn’t hit her hard, but enough to make a point. “Ow, you asshole!” she yelled. “Oh, it’s you!” I said, feigning surprise. As I saw her stumble back, I felt something really off, like I was losing a little bit of myself. You might remember a few chapters back, I told you how if we Beasts lash out without thinking, it can cause us to lose a little Clarity, the part of us that helps us determine where Arcadia and the real world differ. I was able to take a deep breath and focus, but that moment definitely made an impact.

Bella told us that the two people in there were trying to mimic her and Day. We quickly decided our best course of action was to go in and beat the ever-loving shit out of the Fetches. Pam and Brenda kept watch outside while the other four of us slipped in. We almost all managed to be stealthy. Almost all of us. Yova stubbed her toe on a piece of plywood. She cursed and it bumped into the scaffolding, making a rattling noise. We came to a stop and I whispered that maybe we could be quiet and they’d think it was just a stray cat or something. “Oh, sure, that always works,” Day snapped. “Fuck off!” I hissed.

While we were bickering, Yova and Bella heard the sound of heavy footsteps coming from the floor above. Bella dropped into the shadows and Yova shimmied up a ladder, peeking over the top and spotting Day’s Fetch looking pissed as hell and holding a firearm. She called out, “Hello!” and flared her brightness to blind him. He stumbled back, yelling, “What the hell?!”

Outside, Pam spotted the flash from the second floor and clearly recognized it as Yova’s, but she also saw a secondary flash from a couple of floors up. She pointed that out to Brenda and Brenda gave her a pair of binoculars, which Pam used to look up. The angle wasn’t great because it was so high up, but Pam managed to see a figure we knew very well stepping close to the edge of one of the rafters, walking carefully across it, and trying to make her way to a piece of scaffolding leading down: that bitch-ass Aurora. Pam explained to Brenda who Aurora was and they made a quick plan for Brenda to tail Aurora and text Pam if she was getting close.

Back inside, Yova decked Day’s Fetch as he charged her, whaling him smack in the nose. As Day, Bella and I heard the fight break out, we also heard someone else coming up from the basement. Day directed us to go up and help Yova, while he charged at the noise, only to see Pam, who told him about Aurora and Brenda tailing her. He told her to stay close to him and they followed us up to the second story. Around this time, Day’s Fetch ran forward, tackling Yova over onto the edge of the scaffolding. Day jumped down onto the scaffolding, trying to pull his Fetch off of Yova. He didn’t quite get it off of her but did manage to loosen its grip a bit. He pulled his Fetch up and got a solid look at him, which he later admitted shook him quite a bit.

Yova let out an unholy shriek, chilling all of us, and she started glowing bright red, going full battle bard. Day’s Fetch didn’t let go, but it was clearly second-guessing its choice in opponent. Around this time, Bella’s Fetch made its way down and saw regular Bella. It had a hammer and glared at Bella, yelling, “This life isn’t yours anymore. Get out!” It charged and got Bella in the shoulder with the hammer, which looked like it hurt like the dickens. Around this time, I charged forward with a flying kick, getting Bella’s Fetch in the back of the neck. It went down hard, dropping the hammer and holding up its hands, surrendering.

Bella was seething with anger, looking at her Fetch, but seeing her own face in pain was making her second-guess things a bit. As much as she was reeling, she picked up the hammer. “You took everything from me! And even now, you’re still trying to take it from me!” she said. “I didn’t have a choice! No, please, just hear me out! We didn’t have a choice! We didn’t have a choice to exist! I’ll leave here if you promise not to kill me. The only reason I’m here is I don’t want to lose what I have. It’s not just the things that used to be yours,” the Fetch begged. Bella had about as dead serious a look as I’ve ever seen on her face as she said, “Yeah, well, I didn’t have a choice, either.” She turned to look at me and I gave her a slight nod. She turned back, she brought the hammer up and slammed it into her Fetch’s temple as hard as she could.

The Fetch went down, twitching and barely breathing. Bella didn’t’ stop. She hit it over and over and over again with the hammer until she finally stopped, sobbing. I went in and hugged her tightly. She told me later she felt like something was slipping away as she was watching her own body reverting to a pile of greasy rags stitched together with uneven, stained thread. We both watched as shadows seeped out from the tatters and flowed into the night.

Bella was clearly not in any state to do anything more and I wasn’t going to leave her by herself, but the fight kept going on around us. While Bella was dispatching her Fetch, Pam got a text from Brenda: “She’s doing something, I can’t tell what. Staying still.” She decided to climb up to the fourth floor, where Brenda told her Aurora was making her way to. Yova punched Day’s Fetch into Day. It tried to break out of the hold that Day had on it, but Day had it tight.

“You’re not going anywhere, you beautiful son of a bitch,” Day said. “All right, you’ve got every right to be pissed, but I just want to get out of this city! The only reason I’m here is that white-haired bitch told me she’d get me out of here.” Day tightened the grip on its neck and said, “Nope, time’s up, you bastard. Just think happy thoughts." "Why do you gotta make it weird? No, scratch that. I know exactly why you’re making it weird,” the Fetch sighed. Day squeezed hard and we all heard popping and breaking as he squeezed the air out of it. Once it passed out, Day dropped it. He looked over at Yova and asked, “So, how was it with me on top of you?” She looked at him and decked him hard enough where he got whiplash. And I felt every single part of me burning with the glee that comes from being a master of the petty arts.

Those of us who weren’t busy being petty, rage-fueled, smarmy, or weepy (read: Pam) climbed up to the fourth floor and saw Aurora gathering a few items – nothing that seemed terribly important, but if she was putting them together, they obviously were. Aurora was placing them in the moonlight and starting to dance around them. Pam called forth a broom made out of wind to scatter the items and Aurora started freaking out. Pam kept her cool, telling her that she thought she’d help Aurora clean up her mess. “Well. My guess is you’ve already killed my babies. So…” and with that, Aurora ran straight for the edge of the building and dove off. After a minute, Pam realized she didn’t hear her land.

Down on the second floor, I happened to be looking in the right direction as I saw a flash: it looked like a hole opened up and a white blur fell through it, then was gone. “Uh, guys? I don’t think we’re catching her tonight,” I said.

The rest of the night was anticlimax. Yova managed to get a grip and collect herself. Pam came down from the fourth floor. Day popped his nose back into place. Bella was staring at her hands and generally being a space cadet. I didn’t want to leave Bella alone in that state, so I stuck by her, making sure she wasn’t going to do anything crazy. Yova suggested that we get in touch with the Knights of the Widows’ Walk and let them know they could come and pick up Day’s Fetch. We found some zip ties and restrained Day’s Fetch and Day slung it over his shoulder and we turned to go.

As we were getting ready to go, I saw a small glint from the moonlight shining on the pile of rags. I knelt down and picked it up: it was a small silver ring with a pink heart-shaped stone and smaller diamonds around it. I took one look at Bella and realized she was not in any state of mind to think about what that might mean, so I pocketed it and decided to ask her about it after she was back to being her old self.

We headed out of the construction site to see Brenda waiting for us. “Mission accomplished?” she asked. “Let’s just say we didn’t lose,” Day said. Brenda took a look at Bella, who wasn’t looking at much of anything, then looked back at Day. “I’m really, really glad you’re okay,” she told him. He told her that she could come see him and they could hang out. “Sure, just not at your place,” she said. “What’s wrong with my place?” he asked. She griped about how the one time she went over to his place and practically caught scabies. “It hasn’t changed,” Yova said. Brenda shook her head and said, “You know what, I’ve changed my mind. I will come over and help you clean up and get the place up to the health code.”

We piled into Yova’s truck and stopped by the drop box, leaving a message for the Knights, then went off to get some much-deserved rest. And that’s where I’ll end it for now. Next time, I’ll get you some resolution about the whole loyalist situation, I promise. Until then, may you have the reflexes of a freaked-out secretary bird whenever you encounter a Bridezilla.

A big thank you to Yova’s player, @basically-andromeda, for writing her part of the recap!

[giasonesdream]

Track Your Fic’s Success on AO3

Fanfic Writing on AO3 (for ARMYS)

I'm not sure why I felt the need to make this, but I have heard writers talk about this topic before, of not getting much traction on their fics. There's a part of it that really does fall on the readers, but this is a post to maybe help get you on the right path or maybe change your perspective on the stats given to you (aka kudos, hits, comments, etc).

The 10% Idea

Basically, this is just something to keep in mind if you see that there aren't many kudos on your story.

I used to have a friend that said pretty much this: If the amount of kudos is 10% of the amount of hits you have, then it's deemed a good fic. That is to say, even if your story only gets 50 kudos out of 500 people that read it, you're in the clear.

I'll be using screenshots of my own works as example because I have a range of decently well-received stories to not well received at all.

So this one has almost exactly 10% the amount of kudos.

This, which has only a whopping 5 kudos is in the 10% (it’s actually not it’s 2am and my brain is shitting itself but I’m gonna make a point with this one regardless so leave my math error alone}

Meanwhile, this fic only has 55 kudos even though, presumably, over 2k people read it.

There are a few things that should be taken into consideration here:

THE SHIP: it's no shock to anyone -especially writers- that there are favoured ships in our fandom. Taekook and Jikook take the first place spot followed by Yoonmin (this one actually was named the top ship on all of ao3 a couple years ago!) along with yoonseok/sope maybe Namjin? This is all to say, if you write about a ship that isn't necessarily popular, not many people will read your work. That isn't to say that you should only write for certain ships. Please write what you want and what you feel! I cannot stress enough that all of this should be for fun or maybe even practice if writing is your passion.

But let’s look back at the three fics I pointed out. The first one with 400 kudos is taekook, so it had a better chance of getting seen by more people. In fact, 4k people clicked on it and potentially read that story...but the next fic with only 5 kudos is yoonmin. Aren’t they a popular ship? Why did only 100 people read it? And vhope isn’t necessarily a popular ship now (it had its time earlier on back when Rookie King came out, and the veterans for that ship are still fighting, me included!) but 2k people clicked on that and only 55 of those 2k liked it enough to leave a kudos. So, if it’s not the ship, what else could it be?

THE TAGS: tagging a story is very detrimental when posting on a site like this or any other, really. Many people like to narrow their searches down based on the criteria. Being able to filter what fics a person sees can make or break a work’s traction. My yoonmin story is a horror fic, and I’m sure there aren’t very many readers looking to get scared. As an avid reader myself, there is no denying that I -as well as many other readers- are interested in reading smut. Whether it be a one shot that’s quick and easy, or maybe it’s a slow-burn that tallies up to just being a written rom-com series, if you specify in the tags that smut is in this story, people are more willing to give it a try. For the vhope fic, I didn’t mention smut, but I did put in the tags some subgenres of smut. You can’t have “over stimulation” without sex, right? 

But, again, I feel the need to stress this: do not write smut if you are not comfortable with it! Despite the fact that a lot of us are thirsty, shameless fiends, there about just as many people that are only here for the cutesy, lovey-dovey shit. That taekook fic doesn’t have any sex in it, nor did I ever mention that there was a possibility of sex. It doesn’t go past being flirty in the span of 2k words. So, then, if a fic with a popular ship can do well without having sex in it, what else is making people click on it?

THE SUMMARY: I...am such a huge advocate for summaries. There’s a nice fine line between going into too much detail or not enough. This is why I normally go the route of putting in an excerpt from the story and then add a TLDR (Too Long Don’t Read) in the form of an “OR” followed by an incredibly oversimplified idea of what the story is about. As you can see, I didn’t do that for the yoonmin fic. I only put in an excerpt that -quite frankly- is boring narrative. The reason as to why I chose that in the first place is because the horror aspect of the fic is where any dialogue comes in- which brings me to the next point!

This could just be me, but I do tend to click on stories that have dialogue in the summary. This is going to depend on if the reader cares more about dialogue or narration, but think of the story as if it were a new movie coming out or preview to a new episode of a show. Do these videos only broadcast the actors simply moving around? No, they like to add in clips from scenes, use dialogue where you can sort of understand what the context of the scene might be, but not enough context so you’ll want to watch and see what the fuck they’re talking about.

So, if you’ve gotten to this part, you have probably realized that all I did was just tell you how you can market your writing so that more people will click on it and possibly read it all the way through. And really, these aren’t necessarily sure, guaranteed ways of becoming the next “The Fic” in our fandom, but I can assure that just taking more time to consider these aspects can allow you to contemplate what works for you as well as the audience. 

That’s that on that. The next thing I want to talk about some stuff I didn’t cover that are just as important:

Comments (and Bookmarks)

This is probably the biggest thing I ever hear/read/see artists of any sort complain about. And with good reason! As a writer, it truly does wonders to get feedback of almost any sort, even if it’s just a critique on how something was worded. Comments mean that we’re not just throwing our art out into a vast void. Effort was put into the art we created, so if you enjoyed it, effort put into commenting is much appreciated. But this isn’t another rant begging the audience to please just let us know how you felt. No, I’m here to mention that we should not let the number of kudos overshadow the interactions.

More examples. And keep in mind that taekook fic. Feel free to scroll back up and look at the amount of comments on that work. Now take a look at these:

So, 8.1k read this fic...and only 250 people liked it...but boy did this story cause some sort of reaction because people W E N T O F F! And rest assured, none of the comments were necessarily negative. The majority of them are just people being like “wha- how could they >.<”

Everything seems to be pretty even across the board. 2.6k readers, 220 kudos, about 20 or so comments (that’s excluding my replies). 

As I mentioned before, comments are so important. The taekook fic I wrote that seemed to garner enough traction where 4k people read it and 400 people liked it enough to leave a kudos, only a handful of those readers left a comment. It kinda makes me think of instagram. How strange does it look if a picture gets 10k likes but only has maybe 10 or 20 comments. Something seems a bit off, doesn’t it? I can see how this sounds entitled, but my sole purpose in bringing this up is because those numbers can be discouraging. And I want to stress how important it is to look at your works, cherish the comments you get even if the number of hearts seems low in comparison. Some of my most heartfelt comments are on that Taegi fic just above. And it makes them all the more special because this has been my favourite story to write. So even though not many have read it (whether it be because the ship isn’t popular or I didn’t do a good job of summarizing the fic where it seemed interesting) the people that clicked on an liked it felt the need to comment some absolutely amazing words. And those are the comments that should keep you going and growing.

I’ll also just add this little tidbit because it wasn’t something I noticed until recently, you should also check the bookmarks. People are able to leave comments and tags in their bookmarks, and I believe those to be extensions of comments. Not only did people feel like saving this work you wrote, but they might just let out some of their feelings in the tags, like the tags section of a tumblr post or the comment on a retweet.

There is no rule or formula that I particularly know of for getting more comments -aside from using the note section to say “let me know what you think” or “comments are always appreciated!”. I think this aspect somewhat depends on the story itself. That taekook fic I wrote is probably one of the more “cookie-cutter” things I have written. Tropes are great, they normally have a plot and formula that people can follow and know what’s going to happen. And they’re tropes for a reason: they’re common and entertaining. I know I don’t always like to go the route of writing tropes. I have accepted that the style in which I write is not always catered towards the general audience, but that is completely okay!

As I said before, this is for fun. You write because you have a story you want to tell, and you feel so passionately about it that you take the time and effort to write it. If my numbers have proven anything, it’s that your fics will find their niche. It’s always going to fit someone. And it’s important to really appreciate those that seem to like what you’re writing, even if the greater audience doesn’t vibe with it.

And that’s that on that.

So, since we’ve gone over all this, I just wanted to say that I am open to helping writers. I know this post probably isn’t the best representation, but I’m pretty damn good at spelling and grammar. I’m not a novelist, don’t have any published works floating anywhere on the New York Times Best Seller list, but I have been writing since I was seven years old. With fifteen years of experience and having worked with authors in the past on potential books, I am always more than happy to pass on any knowledge I have gained over the years. If it’s wording something to make it flow better, trying to fill any plot holes or answer questions of character motivations, of if you should be using “there”, “they’re”, or “their”, I would love to help. All ya gotta do is message me :)

*mic drop*

[moonlightburr]

To clear up my allegations.

Hello there! You probably don’t even know me (ofc this Tumblr account is dead lmao.) But I’m called Burr. I play ROBLOX and this will be a ROBLOX related post. My ign is PrincessFionna2000 (changed to JenniBURR). I am making this post to clear up all my allegations created by a user named “Alovia”. First, I’ll start with how this all first started. I was playing a game on ROBLOX, a game called WCA (White Castle Academy) I am a host in the game and was only there to play and help the other hosts when they need me. Anyways, Alovia joined in hours later. I teleported her in the game because she was my friend and of course, I had to include her. Though I never liked being together with her anymore but I still had the guts to be nice to her. (She’s not really the Alovia I know anymore, she became a thot.) Anyways! She got named and stuff and noticed that I had admin commands in the game. I can safely assume that she thought I would help her and give her what she wanted because of it. She bullied the people in the game, criticized their clothing choices and annoyed me a lot of times even though I was dealing with things. Then after a while I left my friend and Alovia for a while because I had to do something else. When I teleported to my friend, they were in the lobby. Both of them reset. This time, I only teleported my friend in the game while I left her in the lobby. Minutes pass by and her friend came to join. Both of them obnoxiously spammed the command “!help”. I was annoyed so I never even responded to it. Anyways, I told a person who hated Alovia and then teleported that said person in the lobby to talk to them. Once again, I had to deal with something and teleported back to him. The first thing I saw when I teleported back was Alovia’s friend dressing up inappropriately followed by Alovia who was also dressing up inappropriately. After a few moments of listening to their rude words, I teleported the person back to the school and then teleported to my friend who needed my help leaving Alovia and her friend stuck in the lobby. Since I was already that pissed off, I told the person who was hosting to kick both of them and so he did. After a few minutes, she messaged me, I never got to see her full message but the only message I saw was “You didn’t help us.” She then unfriended me (I didn’t know she unfriended my boyfriend until I saw his account) after leaving that message. Then, I noticed that she unfriended me and my boyfriend, I messed up her group that she made me an admin of. I kicked all the members and left messages in the group wall leaving her the only member in the group. (She made the group private now.) After a few days, she messaged me on discord. At first, I didn’t respond to her pathetic messages, when she messaged me again, that’s where I took action. Sadly, she deleted her rude messages to make me look bad but don’t be fooled, she messaged me first. She trash-talked my boyfriend, talked shit about me, how she planned to frame my boyfriend’s friend because she wanted to be the only one ruling the empire and also told me to kill myself (this is already a classic but c’mon Alovia, be original). Here are the all the messages! I found the rest of the messages before she deleted it!  (Please read EDIT#2 below) #1: https://gyazo.com/e8c860fccdb5a6800223d76134da3c93 (NEW) #2: https://gyazo.com/c668063a203f02218bc524ac5e8e8eb8 #3: https://gyazo.com/c4388fb49d4a310e5e6db1123f4b8bcd #4: https://gyazo.com/bc92a59eeef769fe597f26f9ab304aed Now Alovia is denying that Malivous is her instead she’s her friend. THIS IS MY PROOF TO PROVE YOU AND MALVIOUS ARE THE SAME PERSON: https://gyazo.com/153db964fb7470ab3888764b6702e8db Alovia’s Discord name changed her name from Malvious, Milania Trump and lastly Milanya trumps!

**DO NOT BE FOOLED, ALOVIA CHANGED HER DISCORD NAME.**

Here’s the reason why I showed that screenshot:

Alovia is a Filipino. She can speak and understand that language. Therefore it’s easy to identify her. (I know a bit of information about her when we were still friends)

Now this was the next thing she did:

She joined the same game with her friend again but this time, she told everyone I scammed her for “15 dollars.” (I was in the game but I kept on getting kicked due to my internet being too slow but eventually left.) The thing was, my currency isn’t in dollars and to get a dollar using my currency I need to reach 50 php. My friend told me about it so I asked my friends to tell them to give proof that I scammed them after that I never heard of them again. Or so I thought.

Hours passed, she joined our discord server (WCA server) and still told everyone I scammed her, (there were people who believed her but I managed to prove to them that I didn’t scam at all.) and gave out fake evidence.

Here’s the “evidence” she provided :

https://imgur.com/a/AkfnJ

The thing here is, that isn’t me. To prove my point, i’ll show my evidence to prove that I am not the person who she was talking with (This was obviously badly scripted)

#1: https://gyazo.com/53f34dd8151b545ce4a3fd2a843d8fad

#2: https://gyazo.com/d712edc10c5a4c2df1536fe99514acf8

Now, I asked a person who knows me if he thinks that the person in the evidence she provided is me. He told me that he does not think that the person in the screenshot is me because he knows I’m not like that. She badly interpreted me which would not fool my friends or anyone who knows about me. If you know me that well, you would know that I am not a person who scams because of my own desires. You would also know that I do not frequently use emojis (I don’t like using the winky face emoji nor any emojis aside from the heart emoji.)

Now hear me out, a friend of mine helped me with this. The time she messaged “me” here doesn’t make sense. I left around 6:20 PM as stated by my friend and came back at 9:30 PM. But in the picture shown, it says that I messaged her around 8 PM. How would I do that if I left discord at 6:20 PM? The answer is simple, because the person in the screenshot is not me.

Now here’s her second evidence. The proof that in her audit log in her group “The Sister’s Convenant” that she “gave” me 2000 robux through that group.

https://imgur.com/a/8xk8Q

But the thing here is, I left the group a long time ago. I never came back because I didn’t like it. (I was forced to join her group.)

Now here’s my proof. (This isn’t edited, Alovia.)

https://gyazo.com/40be98ef73fdad4e7dd53c7e02217d3a

You can clearly see that only 2 groups gave me robux. This is because these groups commissioned me for art and paid me through their groups.

Now to make this fun, check the dates on her so-called evidences. It doesn’t add up, right? Why would she give “me” robux on 11/15 but I asked for it on 11/18! Oh no!

Sorry, Alovia. But this clearly proves that you are a liar and only accusing me of something I could never do. Also this only proves you using “inspect element” to edit the words. Now Alovia,SHOW THE TRUE UNEDITED AUDIT LOG! 

I’ll be waiting for it.

Now this is her most recent “evidence”. “My” discord tag.

I already gave out proof that I never talked to the person in the first place. And in the picture, it clearly says I blocked her. But why can I message her? Why can’t I see the messages she sent? It’s because it isnt me.

Here’s her “evidence” anyways.

https://imgur.com/a/9rwhH

Now let me show you show easy it is to fool people by editing that.

#1: https://gyazo.com/87f13055dea6f448932351ebc5458d44

#2: https://gyazo.com/48acb930d7fccceb74baea53f0c6c223

#3: https://gyazo.com/2f4200cb87c32462b78eef473a936d60

#4: https://gyazo.com/79fd558ab4dc423285cfecac21c8659d

#5: https://gyazo.com/88adbec5a9d8984a119629bbd8e48d25

I used paint so it’s not really believable, right? But at least I tried.

Anyways, I’ll update this post more as soon as she gives more of her fabricated evidences. 

Have fun trying, Alovia. You will never win. Go ahead, keep calling me a scammer. You’re only making yourself look bad. These fabricated evidences of yours will always find a way to be proven lies. Provide the real screenshots and the real discord tag of that said person. I’ll be waiting for it. Fufufufu~

(Also the bold tags, I got lazy putting bold tags on words lmao.)

--EDIT #1: Fixing my grammar. (Whoops that’s embarrasing.) --

--EDIT #2: Found the deleted messages. (I actually took a screenshot of it, sent it to my boyfriend and forgot about it, whoops xD) Since she still thinks my evidences are fake, I’ll ask my most trusted friend to open my account and provide screenshots. 

Sorry, Alovia but, Checkmate. It’s a game over for you.

Admit that you’re just a big fat liar who’s a lowlife. Stop sucking and riding dick and get educated you fucking thot. You need to learn a lesson.

--UPDATE : 11/21/17-- As of now, I won’t be responding to any of her claims and fake evidence anymore. This post has covered everything she accused me about. I don’t really wanna waste my time on a lowlife roblox thot who rides dick for money. Anyways, Alovia, just a message for you, stop being stubborn.

--END--

EDIT : 6/20/18 Found out she has been impersonating as me. Sad to know she doesnt have a life. I'm not gonna give you attention anymore so go back to sucking dicks you filthy disgusting obese rat. I hope you choke on dicks, tysm ♥