#and one day mikey is like DUDE where the fuck are my glasses

[mychemicalgoremance]

Frerard except gerard cannot own up to his attraction to mikey. Instead he steals mways stuff to make Frank wear While they fuck

[drinkpisser]

HOW IT CAME TO BE, CHAPTER 6 !! 🛸👽⭐️

so,, hi!! :3 I know I went on a whoooole tangent last time about how I was gonna take a break but for some reason every time I do that I end up becoming even more motivated to post/write and this chapter was basically made in almost record time ( ・д・) aaaaneewayz,, I've figured maybe the way to go is to write slightly smaller chapters so I don't burn out so quick 🙏 BUT YEAH!!!! ENJOY AND THANK YOU FOR READING IF U DO !!! <3333 :D🫶

READ THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER !! 🪐

begin reading chap.6 under the cut ‼️

CHAPTER 6: WE'RE NOT JUST DREAMERS

Gerard, Ray, Jamia and Frank had decided to meet up on a brittle Autumn's day. Tragically, they soon came to learn that Gerard being the oldest meant he was the only one able to drive without legal measures obstructing their stride.

What did this cause, you ask?

Well.

"Gee, pick us the fuck up! We're freezing out here!" Frank yells down his cellphone, wind muffling his voice.

Gerard, already exceeding the speed limit, hits the pedal with his foot twice as agressively than before.

"I just got offa' my shift, dude, wait!" He screams back with a struggle.

Thrusting towards the sidewalk with a "skrrrt!" of the car's wheels, Gerard manages to find Frank and J (a nickname acquired for Jamia) waiting outside the local burger joint, munching away with cold hands from holding their XL shakes. Almost instantly after they pile into the back, the car shoots off. J shrieks, a good half of her burger flopping onto her jacket, now glued together with artificial cheese.

Mikey, hiding under his hair, clears his throat as though he is intimidated. Pushing up his cracked glasses and sniffling, he shuffles around in the car seat.

"You okay, lil' brother?" Gee asks, noticing his timid mannerisms.

Mikey nods, "I still don't know these guys very well is all," he sheepishly turns to them.

Frank and J are now kissing passionately in the back of Gee's shitty Golf GTI. Frank briefly sideyes his poor witness, pulling away from J considerately.

"Yo," Frank grunts. J smiles. Mikey waves.

Gerard hits a sudden and sharp stop, turning to the rest of his companions- Mikey nearly flies out of the window, thank god for seatbelts.

"Where's Ray?" Gerard wonders.

"Not at a fucking gas station." Frank stares directly at the camera. What? There's an imaginary camera representing the audience?

"I swear I haven't seen him, since, like, last week. When we went to the skate park." J adds.

"Well, I walked him home and stuff after that but he hasn't said anything about cancellin' on us today," Gerard observes, "I think I'll drive to his house cause he ain't here." He points to the outside of the café where Ray had supposedly arranged to meet about half an hour ago. Gee zooms off once again.

Zoom!

Ray's house can only be described as modern- like your average, run of the mill family home. He hadn't moved out yet, unlike Gerard, so chances are if something is wrong, then his parents will answer the door; Ray always rushes to the door when he knows Gerard is behind it.

Gerard shuffles along, hauling his ass out of the car in a slight panic. Gee knocks three times.

"Coming!" A voice chirps from behind the door. Thank goodness, It's Ray. Opening the door, he whistles unknowingly.

"I totally forgot about meeting up, sorry I'm late! Uh-" Ray stumbles on his words.

"What's goin' on?" Gerard quizzically stares, tilting his head slightly.

"You see, erm," Ray gently grabs Gee by the collar, ushering him inside like its some secret operation that they're gonna go out and get cookies after this.

Gerard wide-eyedly blinks, going along with it.

"Yknow, everyone's in the car." Gerard suggests passively.

Ray opens his bedroom door, kicking away some clothes blocking their entry.

There sat two extraterrestrial beings on his unmade bed. One angelic, however animalistic, and the other slightly grotesque- similar to a guard Gerard had seen on the mothership. Somehow, Ray didn't see the resemblance and just let them right in to his home.

"I made some friends today!" Ray exclaims with joy, clasping his hands together.

Gerard stands gulping in petrification.

"Th-th-the the-" Gee shakily points a finger, as though he is about to detonate.

"What? They're just people, Gee! They asked about you, actually. Rico and Sly ring a bell to ya'?"

"Sly's one word for it," Gerard squints in speculation, "but it don't ring no bells to me." His fear shifting to anger, he stares deadpan at the two aliens who's gazes increase in sincerity.

"Rico" appears to be analysing Gerard's every move, from the way his mouth awkwardly jerks to the left as he speaks to the delayed seconds between each blink of his eye. They've met before. That blinding, white aura radiating off of her skin screams familliar to Gerard like a kettle on a stove. The absence of light makes it easier for Gerard to distinguish her features, just plain old missable stuff- like her blank third eye resting on her forehead, or the scales running down her body. Despite the intimidating presence she gives off, she could easily be percieved as attractive, unconventionally.

All at once, he remembers.

This is a face only he'd see again when his time was due to leave planet Earth.

But why? Why today? What about his friends? His little brother waiting in the car?

"They said something about you needing to go with them? I dunno, family-friend emergency?" Ray informs.

Gerard, his lips beginning to tremble, shakes his head repetitively.

"I can't go yet." He persists through suppressed tears.

"I just can't. Why don't we-"

"There's no need, Gee. Just go." Ray had suddenly begun to act odd, or had Gerard just suddenly noticed?

The more he thought, the more that dawned on him.

Ray isn't this gullible, right? Letting total strangers in, (in our case, aliens) and believing them when they want to whisk Gerard away somewhere unknown? Ray couldn't ever endanger his best friend like that.

"You need to go with them." He adds.

The doorknob behind Gerard had started to insistently creak, before opening with a hustle. Behind said door, entered a paradoxical sight. Another Ray, wearing Gee's striped scarf that he had lended to him, cozied up in his winter coat and his hair tied back under his wooly hat. Behind him, stood Frank, J, and Mikey, who had come along in pure bewilderment.

"I was INSIDE the cafe, dumbasses! It's freezing out there!" Ray exclaims.

"What the fuck... Am I seeing double?" Gerard questions, double taking back and forth between the two Toros, beginning to feel lightheaded and faint.

The three quickly notice the absurdity of this situation, gasping and shrieking at the cloned Toro. Cunning as they are, the aliens always have an instant, emergency resort to being caught. Dissapearing, making Gerard out to be some fool.

The Ray that had lured him into the house begins to disintegrate, it's skin reducing itself to nothing but sands of atomical matter. All that remained of it was an anatomical skeleton hanging on the wall.

Likewise, Gee also begins to dissapear, losing consciousness upon the uncanny sight of his best friend's face melting off, and he flops face-first onto the carpet.

Momentarily, his surroundings cannot decide where they are. Shifting, like a cracked chromatic abberation. Perhaps it's the underlying fear of waking up on that damned ship, lying next to the guilt of unfinished interactions and sayings of goodbyes. Of course, this didn't happen. He just remained. On Ray Toro's carpet.

Without allowing himself a minute of recuperation, he sits up with haste.

"You all saw that, right?!" he pleads.

The three had sat around Gee in a huddle, as though they were whispering away their conflicted thoughts.

"Hello?" he sneers with slight annoyance.

"I told you all that he wasn't lying. I believed him since the beginning!" Ray defends, rushing over to his drawer of handmade tinfoil hats and conspiracy magazines and waving them around enthusiastically.

"Yeah, well, I dearly apologise for not wanting to be involved in some body-snatching shit!" Frank snaps.

"Maybe we should be more concerned as to where he went," Jamia intervenes.

Huh?

Gerard rubs his eyes, soon finding that he was watching from a screen. He struggles to grasp hold of any materialised items, before ripping a virtual headset off of his eyes. The room, if it is one, is dark. Darker than the nights at summer camp, especially without the radiance of the moon keeping him company. Registering the slight malice of the unusual spying eye machine, he tosses it against the solid void, hearing the crash which allowed Gee to confirm the precise proximity of this ambiguous area.

Something taps him from behind, holding a flashlight, visualising the essence of a metal door blocking Gee from uncertain freedom. He hastily turns around in apprehension, before momentarily losing his tension.

"Oh, Lola, it's you," Gerard fails to hold back a slight smile, "You've grown quite a bit."

Lola, who now is less pint-sized and more adult sized, stands up from their sat position, towering over Gerard. Of course, it isn't intimidating at all- moreso, it feels protective and almost reassuring.

"But-" he pauses, growing in upset.

"That means they didn't keep to their fucking side of the deal!"

Lola shakes their head, as though they themself had realised something was wrong with the establishment they'd grown up in. Unsure of any other method of interacting, they open their arms for a comforting embrace.

Gee, disoriented, slowly lies into Lola's thick, fuzzy fur, clinging. Lola truly is the alien-critter depiction of a teddy bear, if there isn't already one. Residing within the two laid an innately strong sense of trust, and by the lonestanding fact that they'd been imprisoned together, it was made clear that their bond was about to strengthen even further.

Tears well up in Gerard's eyes semi-automatically, grateful for Lola's presence but resentful towards the cliffhanger he'd been pushed off from, not being granted a chance to leave the way he had anticipated or had been promised. All he wanted was to say goodbye, leave things in tact. Now, to him, it's all destroyed. Pointless; every friendship that he'd lived around had hit an iceberg eroded by exasperation- and he couldn't even do his usual, futile act of overexplaining the strange phenomena revolving around it.

"Goddamnit," he sniffles, eyes puffy and words slurring, "why can't it just be okay for once?" Gerard weeps into Lola's shoulder.

With their soft paws, they stroke Gee's fluffy ginger head of hair and hold him tighter. They sit together for a little while, not speculating or discussing a plan of escape, but adjusting to eachother's company. Close, but wary. Friendly, but not quite friends yet.

Lost in thought, but on their guard. Perchance they'll escape, or maybe they won't. For now, it's a waiting game. Nonetheless, Gee can't help but wonder from here on out:

How is it going to be?

[mychemicalroadworkahead]

Hi I’m gonna be an insufferable prick and explain a bunch of my comic series because uhm. I really like it.

General content warnings: self harm, suicide, drugs, eating disorder, addiction, death, sexual assault, murder, and probably other stuff but those are the specific things I want you to know of.

First off, characters!

Toby: he’s 20, has adhd, homeless, and like. 5’7”? He’s got roughly shoulder length hair and was dating Jesse first and yeah (I’ll get into the polycule stuff later). He does not like going to bars with Jesse because people always treat Jesse like a little kid (and Jesse always pays for him, he feels bad about both things) but he agreed to go to stonewall inn because he’d been hired at a new job that day and Mikey and Jesse wanted to take him out to celebrate. He killed Mikey on accident because he got scared when the fights started breaking out and had a piece of broken glass in his hand as a precaution and Mikey tried to drag him to a back alley so they’d be safe and Toby got scared and shanked him without realizing that it was him. He realized and immediately ran away. (No he didn’t call 911 because fun fact: EMS wasn’t created in the US until 1973 and stonewall happened in 69.)

Jesse: he’s the mc in the comic, he’s 19, has anorexia (if you saw the original drawings yeah I changed it), and had fungal meningitis as a child that resulted in the loss of his right leg, and because any prosthetics that were available at the time were incredibly expensive and he has the balance of a drunken newborn, he’s wheelchair bound (he does always fold his left pant leg because he thinks it’s funny and also it keeps it out of the way). He started dating Mikey first out of him and Toby. He made it to the back alley where Mikey tried to take Toby and ran into Mikey’s body. He was, understandably horrified. While he was still in shock he made his way home (which took roughly an hour and a half) and realized he needed someone to be with him so he went to his friend James’s house and they. Okay so they end up fucking. And it is a pattern that continues. It’s important to the comic plot I promise. But it’s a whole thing and then James eventually goes okay dude this is really bad for you like I think you should actually talk it out yknow and then Jesse just sorta goes oh yeah you’re right and promptly goes home and develops a self harm addiction and he was. Sorta using random bits of metal he found on the ground outside and a guy sees him picking one up and assumes he’s gonna use it to do cocaine and is like yo if you wanna do drugs with other people I’m about to shoot up some heroin if you want some and he just goes yeah sure and yeah anyway he gets aids. And then he finds out and he kills himself via overdose.

Mikey: he’s trans and 18 and he had leukemia and he wanted to be a doctor and yeah I love him he’s my favorite if he lived long enough he would’ve been an EMT but he didn’t because Toby killed him and he doesn’t know it was an accident so he assumed it was a hate crime and he’s understandably pissed about it because he sees it as like fucking hell I was already gonna die young from leukemia but then my fucking boyfriend fucking shanked me and cut me off sooner than I should’ve been. He also narrates the entire comic so any boxes of text are just him talking. He’s like 5’9” and he doesn’t like sex jokes because they embarrass the shit out of him. He’s only actually seen in the last issue of the comic where he’s in the afterlife which is just the back rooms with Jesse and the fight each other and then just end up collapsing in a corner and Mikey starts sobbing because fuck Jesse killed himself and he feels bad that he felt like that and just starts compulsively apologizing and saying he loves him and idk I think that would be the end of the comic. He’s also got a little heterochromia spice because why not

Benji: he’s 23, Italian American, like 5’5”, has hyperosmia, and is a heroin addict (he’s the one that offered to share with Jesse). He’s also married* to Jane and he loves them very much. He started off with smoking cigarettes and it escalated in the order of weed, cocaine, heroin. He started smoking and drinking as a teenager to try to keep his ptsd at bay (he was sexually assaulted by a friend walking home one night), and it’s a combination of the distraction and high that got him addicted (once he started doing coke he stopped drinking because they were both expensive and he didn’t want to spend that much). He has a decent amount of trust issues for obvious reasons, but he would, and on many occasions has, trusted Jane with his life. He was at stonewall celebrating his and Jane’s second wedding anniversary.

Jane: they’re 25, Native American, queer, an alcoholic, and will fuck you up if you hurt someone they’re close to. They’re also 6’1” and have 4 foot long hair. They’re a cashier at the corner store and they know a lot of people because of it. They have a soft spot in their heart for rats because there were so many where they grew up and they kept them as pets. No one knows what sex they were assigned at birth but everyone they’re friends with accepts that this is unimportant. They’re alcoholism didn’t really have a reason to happen, they were just drinking frequently and one day realized it had been almost three months since they were last sober. It took them a while but at the time of the comic they’re two months sober. They are the one that found Jesse’s body.

Lauren: she’s 22, demiromantic, lesbian, Latina, has adhd and auditory processing disorder, and is a smoker. She works at the library with Jesse and they’re besties. Her favorite genre of book is horror because her dad got her into it. Her mother died in childbirth but her father made sure she had everything she needed and as much as he could provide. She’s incredibly close with her father and she makes dinner for them at his house once a week. She dated Cali for a bit before the comic but they broke up roughly two years prior to the start. She is in fact named after her mother because why not. She was not at stonewall initially but she joined in the riots the second day.

Caliope (Cali): she’s 23, asexual, transgender, is dating Alex, and has bipolar disorder. She’s a bartender at the Stonewall Inn and she stayed through all the rioting. She’s decently polite but if you don’t respect her don’t expect her to give you the time of day. She loves her job and her favorite drink to make is an old fashioned but she hates the taste of liquor. She has been known to mix wine and soda occasionally, but mostly drinks the orange juice when she’s working. She’s absolutely the subject of the song Lola by the kinks.

Alexander (Alex): he’s 21, bisexual, transgender and has ocd. He’s in a t4t relationship with Cali. He works at a gas station and actually adores pumping gas for people because he likes the smell. One of his main compulsions is clenching his hands which he developed because of his job. He has motor tics as a comorbidity with his ocd and his neck is in constant pain because of it. The tics piss him off just as much as his compulsions do. He was bringing Cali dinner and got caught up in the riots on the 28. He ended up with a broken arm.

George: 64, autistic, Italian and Irish, has bipolar disorder and chronic pain disorder, owns and runs the corner store. He’s also Adam’s uncle and was his primary caregiver for about 13 years because his wife’s family died in a house fire on Christmas Eve. He was home sick that year so he couldn’t go. He’s a cheery old chap despite the loss, and tried his best to raise Adam right and well. He struggled with alcoholism for a bit before his wife died, but the circumstances of her death made him get his shit together. He feels terrible for the things he did before he got it together and he wishes the people he hurt could understand how sorry he is.

Adam: he’s 47, Hispanic and Italian, gay, has ocd, and helps run the corner store. His mother was George’s sister in law, more specifically his wife’s sister. He has vague memories of his family, but he was 6 when the fire happened. He figured out a cocktail of over the counter drugs that helped to reduce symptoms of his ocd, but the compulsions still come out occasionally, though they’re mostly in the form of obsessing over intrusive thoughts. He’s constantly very worried about hurting people, and the intrusive thoughts do not help at all. He had a pretty good childhood all things considered, but he was mostly isolated by other kids. His favorite part of working at the corner store is restocking because he enjoys the mind numbing quality of the repetitive movements.

James: he’s 20, autistic, aromatic, African American, and Jesse’s best friend ^. He’s decidedly an artist, in a sense that he spends every available waking moment writing, drawing, or baking. He loves poetry and realistic fiction novels, as well as street art and photography. He once spent an entire day working on an amazing drawing just to be horrendously disappointed when he woke up to discover that not only was it a dream, but he couldn’t for the life of him remember what he was drawing. He’s a local handyman and enjoys fixing things. He’s a very loving person and he’s been friends with Jesse since they were kids, as they lived next door to each other and were both bullied in school.

And now for the polycule because I feel like it needs it’s own explanation:)

Polycule in general: okay alright so Toby and Jesse started dating in high school then they graduated a bit after and then a couple months later Mikey graduated and he met Jesse at a library and Jesse worked there so they would see each other a lot. So Jesse asks Toby hey would you be cool if I started going out with this guy in addition to going out with you and y’all would be metamors and Toby is like yeah babe that’s chill and so Jesse asks Mikey out and he says yes and they did all the polyamory rigmarole and then dating stuff and then one day Mikey’s like hey I’d really like to meet your boyfriend and Jesse’s like oh alright so they all meet up and Mikey and Toby get along great and they keep hanging out and eventually Mikey and Toby start dating as well so then they’re all three dating and they do cute little three part dates where they draw names for who gets to pick the food who gets to pick a movie and who gets to pick a board game and they love each other so much.

General setting of the comic: Hoboken, NJ, and New York City in late June of 1969, specifically starting on June 28 at around 3:15 am.

*not legally for obvious reasons, but they absolutely consider themselves to be spouses.

^yes yes I did name them after Jesse James

[ks-dreams-fantasies]

Act Like It -Johnny Tuturro

Hey guys thank you so much for the support on my last post , I deeply appreciate it. Here is my first Johnny imagine. I’m in love with the guy, go Watch Graceland if you haven’t. Hope you enjoy it

Special thanks to @breanime​ for supporting me with my first story. Go check out her stuff she’s amazing

Warning: Teasing, Language

Word Count: 1.8k

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It’s been two months. Two months since I’ve joined Graceland, and everything was going great. I had finally been able to have intel on a gang leader that I’ve been investigating for the past couple weeks. Word on the streets was that Lorenzo was partying at this club called Moomba tonight and it was my chance to show up and get his attention. The problem was that I couldn’t go alone so I decided to go ask one of the guys.

Johnny and I have been flirting since the first day I entered the house, and everyone told me he had developed a thing for me. I would be lying if I said I didn’t like the guy. He was funny, always respectful and let’s be honest super attractive. Totally my type.

I went downstairs, grabbed a banana and headed to the living room where Mike, Jakes and Johnny were sitting and laughing at something Jakes said.

“Hey guys! I need a boyfriend” I said looking at them peeling my banana. Before they could speak, I continued “I mean, you know this dude, Lorenzo? I’ve been looking at his files for a while now and he’s going to this club tonight and I need someone to pretend to be my boyfriend. I heard he loves to go after women that are in relationships, likes the chase I guess” I shrugged looking at them taking a bite of the yellow fruit.

The boys were both looking in Johnny’s direction waiting for him to say something.

“So, Mikey, what do you say?” I smirked knowing it would annoy Johnny that I didn’t think of him. 

“So, it means I’d have to hold your hand and stay by your side the whole night?” He asked me, catching on on what I was trying to do.

“We’ll probably have to kiss --- I hope you’re okay with that” you said trying not to laugh.

“NO! I – I mean Mike has a thing with Charlie and Briggs… f-for a case they’re working on.” He looked at me and then at him. “Right Mike? “ He said to his friend, his eyes pleading him 

“Oh yes ! I almost forgot about that. Sorry (Y/N) I guess you’ll have to ask someone else” he said, holding his smile.

“I’ll do it” Johnny said almost shouting. Feeling all of our eyes on him he continued “I mean, I’ll come with you, I’ll be happy to, w-well for the cause” He said smiling at me, his cheeks red.

I looked at him, finishing my banana. “Sure, thanks Johnny, I’ll see you later guys” I said winking at him, turning around and leaving to go upstairs while I could still ear them whispering about what just happened.

A couple hours later I heard a knock on the door while I was getting ready “Hey (Y/N), I’m ready when you are, I’ll wait for you downstairs” Johnny said while I was applying the last bit of my makeup.

“I’ll be down in a sec” I answered back.

I looked in the mirror one last time before going down to the living room. I opted for this red skin tight dress with a low cut in the back and I paired it with my black strappy heels. I decided to let my hair loose and my makeup was natural but it still was enough to emphasize my features.

When I arrived downstairs, Jakes and Johnny’s eyes were on me

“Well, if I knew you’d look like that I would have proposed to come with you” Jakes said looking at me and then smirking at Johnny, looking for a reaction.

“Shut up dude” he responded to him “You look beautiful mami” he said smiling at me.

“Thank you, Johnny” I blushed “Ready to go?”  He nodded.

“Have fun lovebirds, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do” Jakes said laughing while Johnny flipped him off.

When we arrived at the club, I scanned the place, trying to find Lorenzo. When I spotted him, I dragged Johnny to the bar next to the V.I.P section where him and his friends were sitting. From where we stood, I could see everything that was happening behind me because of the mirrors that were placed behind the bar. Johnny ordered us two drinks and payed the bartender.

“So, what’s the plan here? Should we – “

“Grab my ass” I said cutting him off

“W-what?”

“He’s looking our way, you’re my boyfriend. Act like it” He didn’t waste a second and he grabbed me pulling me closer to him.

I gasped looking up at him “Was that good enough for you mama?” He said his lips resting next to my ear.

“I-I think we can do better, don’t you think?” He chuckled slightly amused.

He wrapped his hands around my neck, looking me dead in the eyes, pushing his lips on mine. I was slightly taken aback by his action, but I went with it. For a moment there, I didn’t think of anything else but him. The kiss was smooth but rough and sensual at the same time. Johnny was a good kisser no doubt about it. My hands rested on his arm while his other hand found my hips pulling me even closer. We pulled apart, both out of breath.

“Was that better? You think we got his attention?” He said smirking, looking down to meet my eyes.

I turned my head to the right, blushing, meeting Lorenzo’s stare. “Yeah, I think we did, he’s definitely looking at us now” I said turning back to face him

“He’s not looking at me” he said “It’s all you sweetheart. I mean every guy in here is practically drooling at the sight of you” he continued licking his lips

“Every guy including you Johnny?” I asked moving my hair to the side, smirking

“Especially me” he answered looking at my lips “I’m making everybody jealous right now if you didn’t notice. Even the bartender is staring at you”

I smiled “Are you flirting with me?”

“Maybe – Is it working?”

“Maybe” He laughed. We spoke for a bit as Johnny finished his drink excusing himself before going to the bathroom.

“Here you go darling” the bartender came to me giving me a drink “From the guy in the booth over there”he said pointing in Lorenzo’s direction. As I turned around, he was already looking at me, so I decided to go over to him. Two guys were standing in front of the booth and Lorenzo tapped their shoulders giving them a sign to let me pass.

“Hi! I just came to say thank you for the drink?”

“Lorenzo” he responded smiling

“Well Lorenzo, you sure know how to get a lady’s attention”

He chuckled “See, I couldn’t help but notice you sitting by yourself over there, empty handed”

“Oh well I’m not really alone, my boyfriend just had to use the bathroom – I should probably go before he comes back, he tends to get jealous” I said biting my lips “Thank you again Lorenzo”

“Wait! I didn’t get your name darling” he said standing up as I was leaving his booth

“(Y/N)”

“Well (Y/N), if you ever get tired of him, I’ll be here next Friday, you’re welcome to join me” He said smirking and looking behind me as Johnny came back to the bar area.

“Thanks for the offer, I’ll think about it” I said winking at him and going back to Johnny, swinging my hips, knowing damn well Lorenzo was still staring.

“Everything good?” He asked putting his hand on my arm.

“I got his attention, he was flirting and even invited me back here next week, so I guess the plan worked” I said shrugging my shoulders taking a sip of my drink.

“Great, so what do you want to do now? You want to go back ho-“

“I wanna dance, come on”I said downing my drink and pulling him to the dancefloor.

He took my hands and turned me around so that my back was against his chest. Both his arms around my waist, he came closer to my ear “You really are beautiful (Y/N)” he said leaving a kiss below it. I smiled as I started to sway my hips against his to the beat of the song that was playing. He followed my every move.

His hands were touching me, and I could feel his breath on my neck. All I could think about was the kiss we shared earlier, I felt so many emotions and all I wanted to do was connect my lips with his again. I turned around facing him. As we continued to move in synch, I put my head in his neck, kissing it slowly, enough to get a reaction.

“Fuck (Y/N), what are you doing?” he said groaning lightly.

“The things I would do to you right now Johnny, you can’t even imagine” I responded gently nibbling on his skin. I felt his hands pulling me closer to him.

“S-Stop playing” I moved my kiss to his jaw slowly reaching the corner of his mouth.

“I’m serious! You think I wasn’t messing around with you when I asked Mike to pretend to be my boyfriend earlier?” I said in between kisses “I just wanted for you to come with me. So, it would give me an excuse to do this” After the words left my mouth, I connected my lips to his.

He pressed me in closer to his body, if that was even possible, deepening the kiss. We were both almost out of breath, but we didn’t want to pull away. The kiss was eager, needy, his teeth grazing my bottom lip as we moved back.

“You want to get out of here” he asked me

“Yeah let’s go” he pulled me by my hand, and we were out before I could even make out what had just happened moments ago.

The minute we arrived back home and saw all the lights were off, Johnny closed the front door, pushing me against the wall as he attacked my neck with his mouth. A soft moan leaving my lips as he chuckled lightly “Shhh baby, we don’t want to wake the others” he said picking me up, wrapping my legs around his waist and taking me upstairs to his room.

The next morning, I went downstairs to make breakfast for everyone. As they were all sitting at the table talking and waiting for the food to be ready, Johnny walked in the kitchen. He grabbed a glass of orange juice and then proceeded to kiss my shoulder as he walked behind me.

“Good morning baby, slept alright?” he asked me as he sat down with the others. I just smiled at him and finished fixing all the plates.

“So, (Y/N), after what I heard last night, I guess Johnny took his role pretty seriously huh?” Jakes said smirking down at him as I was putting all the food on the table blushing

“Oh my god, shut up man” he answered throwing him a piece of bread while everyone laughed.

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Thanks for Reading  

Hope you liked it, let me know what you think

-K

[suchalonelysunflower]

Tell Me What You’re Thinking (c.h)

Pairing: Calum Hood x Fem! Reader

Summary: You overhear something you shouldn’t hear. But Calum will make it right, won’t he?

Warnings: ANGST. Language (including insults), mentions of alcohol, drugs and cheating. MC with low self esteem. Some grammar mistakes (English is not my first language, I’m sorry)

Word count: 4 k

Author’s Note: hi I’m back with the angsty shit. This is very self indulgent, and I put Mitchy as a bad guy here, so sorry if you like him? Reblogs, Commets, Feedback and likes are very welcomed and encouraged! I love to hear from you guys ❤️ hope you like it and Happy Reading ✨🦋🌻

My materialist // wanna be part of my tag list?

You sighed as you finished your last paper. It was finals week and you were officially done with your exams and term papers for the semester. The last couple of weeks were rough and no one knew that more than you and your boyfriend Calum who has been by your side through this whole stressing process.

You smiled to yourself as you remembered the encouraging words that Calum often said to you. He knew how hard you worked in school and at your part time job in a law firm, and you appreciated how much he cared for you in times of stress and frustrations. Always cheering you up from the bleechers as you made a name for yourself.

Calum promised that once you were done with school for the semester, he was going to take you out on a well deserved Holiday, just the two of you and Duke as you celebrated another six months worth of work done. Everything was already planned for the next weekend and you couldn’t wait.

You reread your final essay one more time and decided that it was enough for today and if there were any mistakes left, then you’ll deal with them tomorrow. Now the only thing in your mind was a cozy blanket and a feel good movie. But first, you needed to get some food and drinks for your mini celebratory self care session.

The thought of asking Calum to come join you crossed your mind, but you quickly remembered that tonight was boys night. Every couple of weeks Calum and his friends have a little night out to catch up and decompress all of the stress of the week. Tonight was Calum’s turn to host boys night as they decided to have a quiet night in, so they must be having a good time downstairs and you didn’t want to ruin the mood.

With that thought in mind, you carefully placed your laptop on Calum’s side of the bed and carefully untangled your legs from under the covers so you wouldn't wake up Duke, who snuggled with you every time you had to work to keep you company. You put on one of Calum’s hoodies and headed downstairs trying your best to not make any sound.

Before you even reached the last step of the stairs, you could already hear your boyfriend’s laugh and it made your heart flutter. Even after almost three years of being together, his laugh still gives you butterflies every time you hear it, falling even more in love than what is possible.

Once you were in the kitchen, you started looking into the cupboards as you searched for your favorite snacks, but in the end you were unable to find any, thinking that maybe Calum has hidden them somewhere on the top shelves where he knows you can’t reach.

Letting out a small huff, you debated with yourself the option of climbing up the counter or admitting defeat and go ask your boyfriend for some help. Luckily, you didn’t have to decide as you heard a familiar voice behind you.

“Well, if it isn’t my favorite scholar” Said Ashton with a light chuckle “What are you doing here? I thought you’d be out tonight since it’s boys night”

You smiled as you let him wrap his arms around you to give you a hug. Ashton was the first friend you made when you moved to LA a couple of years back, he was the one who introduced you to Calum in the first place, and you were very thankful for having him as a best friend.

“I had to finish up some term papers, so I had to reschedule my girl’s night for tomorrow” You explained to the black haired man “And what are you doing here? Need a refill?” You ask, pointing to the empty glass he was holding.

Ashton nodded, “Yeah, but I also needed a time out. Mitchy is kinda being very obnoxious today” He said with a sigh.

Mitchy Collins was a close friend with the boys for many years now, but you can’t say that he is a friend of yours. It’s not like you haven’t tried to befriend the singer, on the contrary, you both had multiple chances to get to know each other but he either ignored you or made things very awkward between you. And, to be honest, you were not that excited to become his friend either. There was something weird about him, a bad vibe per se, that made you not trust him at all. He was always very loud, obnoxious and downright rude sometimes and it made you very uncomfortable. Both Calum and Ashton knew about your uneasiness with Mitchy, so they didn’t push it too far and you were thankful for that.

“Oh?” You asked, trying to mask your discomfort “What is he saying this time?”

“Just a bunch of bullshit, to be honest. He is very high right now and thinks he’s above everyone else” Ashton said, taking a seat on one of the kitchen island stools. You did the same as you offered him a glass of water.

“Are you high right now?” You chuckled.

“Nope. Calum and I decided to stay clean tonight cause tomorrow we start early in the studio and the weed kinda messes up our pipes” He explains.

“What about Luke and Mikey?”

“They are not here yet, they said they needed to finish up something for a song and then they will meet us here” Ashton shrugged, not giving it too much importance “And what about you, darling? How was your day?”

You began to tell Ashton about how you finally finished the semester and how excited you were for your little getaway with Calum next week. However, every couple of minutes you were interrupted by a loud laugh or an obnoxious comment coming from the living room where the rest of the boys were sitting. Sometimes their loud comments started loud conversations that neither of you could help but overhear, but you did your best to ignore them. But some things are easier said than done.

“I’m telling you man! You can do so much better” You heard Mitchy’s voice echoing through the house, followed by a chuckle from Calum who mumbled something among the lines of “Fuck off”

You furrowed your eyebrows as you stopped the conversation you had with Ashton in order to pay attention to what was being said down the hall. You looked at Ash with a confused face, wondering what they could be saying but at the same time not knowing if you should continue listening to their private affairs. You were about to open up your mouth to continue what you were saying until another comment made by Mitchy caught your attention.

“You have to admit she is the worst sometimes. All she does is boss you around like you are some kind of puppet. She is the definition of annoying”

You sat up straight as you looked at Ashton, who mirrored your puzzled expression.

“Is- is he talking about me?” You asked in a whisper.

Ashton shook his head “I don’t thi-”

“I swear! What does she even do besides work and study all the time? She barely has time for you. You said it yourself! And when she’s not doing any of those things? She’s nagging around and clinging to you like you’re a damn purse! That’s who Y/N is”

You froze in the spot. So they were talking about you… and did Calum really say you don’t have time for him? You don’t even get time to yourself and he knows that! He said he was okay with it, that he understood and supported you through and through… Guess not.

“I still don’t know what you saw in her, dude. She’s just plain boring, playing to be a good girl when in reality she has zero personality” He continued his rant “She does nothing for you! Honestly! I’m surprised you made it this far with that bitch”

You knew that wasn’t true. He never really made an effort to get to know you! how could he be saying all those stuff? You did everything for Calum, all your goals, your plans are for the both of you. How could he know that if he never really talked to you? But you had to admit that that first comment really hurt. You were always doubting yourself at the beginning of your relationship with Calum, always feeling like you weren’t good enough, or pretty enough, or smart or fun or hot… To fight off those kinds of feelings was a difficult job to say the least, but Calum was always there to fight them with you, reassuring you that he loved you. He loved every part of you and he will love you forever.

“Is she at least a decent fuck? Cause I don’t see her doing anything remotely interesting in bed” Mitchy laughed “If she’s not she’s just wasting your time”

You noticed how Ashton suddenly stiffened next to you when he heard Mitchy’s comments. His knuckles turned white as he gripped his fists at the side of his body “Okay, that’s enough” But you were quicker, grabbing onto his shirt as a sign to make him stay there with you and not cause a scene.

His eyes found yours and you could see the anger build up on them, you knew that he would defend you no matter what and you loved him for that. But you knew Calum would defend you over there, he wouldn't let him talk about you that way.

“Ash, please” You pleaded, tugging on his shirt for him to take a seat again. But he preferred to stay standing next to you, almost like guarding and shielding you from any other comment that might hurt your feelings.

“I can’t let him talk about you like that!” He hissed. But you just shook your head.

“I know, Ash. I know. But Cal will handle it” You said confidently, trying to keep yourself together.

You knew Calum would not let those comments slide. Even if you weren’t in the room with him, those comments were awful and very hurtful, no one deserves to be treated like that, especially by someone as close as a friend of his.

You waited for his intervention, but your heart crushed when the only thing you heard from him were laughs.

“She’s a good fuck” That’s all he said.

The grip you had on Ashton’s shirt suddenly flattered as you fought the lump in your throat “Y-you said he wasn’t high” You whispered to Ashton, who was just as frozen as you were after hearing his best mate’s comment.

“He’s not” He said, standing tall next to you. As much as he wanted to go in there and give the guys an earful, he knew you needed him here with you.

Out of all the things Mitchy has said, out of all the insults and belitments, that’s what he says? That you’re a good fuck?

You knew that you could be annoying sometimes when you got happy. You just wanted to share that happiness with everyone around you and you thought… you thought that Calum liked that. You were not a bad girlfriend, you always tried your best to make him as happy as he makes you; to love him as much as he loves you, cause he loves you. Doesn’t he?

If he loves you then why is he letting his friend say all of this stuff about you? Why is he not saying anything? Does- does he agree with him?

The tears started rolling silently, half of you not believing what you were hearing while the other half clang to the idea of Calum defending you at some point.

“Oh I know!” Said Mitchy after a while “I can introduce you to someone! Right now, actually. Her name’s Vanessa and she’s crazy hot, dude”

He can’t be serious.

Ashton looked at you with pleading, furious eyes. Almost begging you to go and let him deal with them. But you grabbed his hand and made him stay. This has to be it. This has to be the chance for Calum to say something.

“You’re kidding right?” The curly haired man asked. Making you let out a breath of relief.

“Not at all! Think about it. We go, you meet her, you fuck her and done!” He said like it was nothing “Y/N will never find out cause she’s stuck up her ass. Your fans will never know or they won’t care cause they don’t even know you are in a ”relationship” to begin with! You are single to their eyes. And you get a decent fuck from someone who looks the part and knows how to have fun! It’s a win - win!”

Your heart stopped as you waited for Calum to answer. To tell Mitchy to go fuck himself. To tell him that he loves you and would never do that to you.

“I don’t know, man. I’ll think about it” Calum shrugged “Plus, if we go out I’ll have to tell Y/N. She’s upstairs finishing some shit for her university”

“Fucking hell… see! I told you! A stuck up bitch” Mitchy said, making Calum laugh.

But their laughs and the rest of the conversation grew numb to your ears. Your body trembled as the tears came flooding in, holding in the sobs that were tearing up your throat. How could he? He was really thinking of cheating on you.

You could feel every little piece of your heart shattered as you search for some kind of leverage that could hold you still so you don’t fall and break. You felt ill, disgusted and heartbroken.

As you tried to get up, you felt your knees buckle and almost fell to the ground if it weren’t for Ashton holding you up. He was still there and you knew by the look in his eyes that he was not going anywhere.

He was just as disgusted and angry as you. He couldn’t believe all the things that were said tonight, all the things that Calum failed to make it right and hurt you in the process. He knew that if he were in that room that the conversation would’ve died the moment it started. He would never let them talk about you that way.

“I-I can’t-“ You cried, moments away from hyperventilating “I can’t stay here, Ash”

He nodded, pulling you into a hug and kissing the top of your head for reassurance “Go upstairs, love. Grab your stuff and we’re getting out of here. You’re staying with me tonight, okay?” Ashton let go of you and started walking towards the living room where the rest of the guys were still talking.

“Ash” You called, making him turn around “D-don’t make a scene, please”

He sighed as he muttered a quiet “okay” before turning around, leaving you alone as you went upstairs to grab the bare necessities to spend the night, you’ll figure out the rest later. Right now you just needed to get out of here.

You opened the bedroom door and almost collapsed at the entrance. Duke came running towards you, sensing that there was something wrong as he started to whine and tried to jump into your arms. That only made you cry harder as you realized that you were leaving him too. You fell to the floor and patted the puppy as he tried to wipe off your tears with his tongue, breaking your heart even more.

A loud voice cut you out of your thoughts. You could hear Ashton yelling, although you couldn’t exactly figure out what he was saying. This meant that Calum knew you heard everything and that, if he had at least some decency left in him, he would come and get you. You needed to act fast.

You stood up and grabbed the first big bag that you could find. Inside of it you threw your laptop, your books, your charger, some clothes and some bathroom essentials. You debated on whether or not to take with you a picture of you, Calum and Duke… it was your favorite memory with them. But the damage was stronger than the nostalgia, so you threw that picture to the ground before you left the room that once belonged to you.

You were running down the stairs when you passed Calum running up them. You ignored him as he stopped in his tracks and followed you to the hall.

“Y/N!” He said, desperate to try and stop you “Y/N, baby, please! Hear me out!”

“Hear what?! I already heard enough!” You said as you turned around.

Calum’s face was almost unrecognizable. The fear in his eyes, the desperation in his voice and his close off body language was not something you’d normally see in him. The “I fucked up” expression showed all the regret in the world, yet you didn’t seem to care at the moment.

“I. Heard. All of it, Calum” You cried through gritted teeth, anger boiling inside of you as you stared at the man you thought you’d marry “All of it and not once did I hear you say something to try and defend me. How do you think that made me feel?!”

“Baby-“ He tried, but you cut him off.

“I work my ass off all day and night for you, for us. For me to go and see you on tour like you ask me to, knowing damn well I would go to the ends of this fucking earth for you! Catching up extra classes and shifts so I can go with you. I cancel everything to be with you. I gave up everything for us to be together. I barely even have time for myself as I try my best to be something worthy of you!” Your tears were staining your face, but you pushed away the pain for a moment, knowing that once you break down it’s over “I try my best to be a good girlfriend, a good friend! I loved you with all my heart and this is what I get after almost three years? A good fuck? That 's it?”

Calum’s world fell to the floor as he tried hard to fight off the lump in his throat, whispering in a broken voice “Loved?”

“That’s all you get from it?” You ask defeated “Calum I would’ve never let my friends call you names, insult you or offend you in any way. I would’ve gone to the ends of the world for you, defended you till the day I die. All because I trusted you to do the same for me and you failed me, Calum. You broke me. You let him call me a bitch, a stuck up, worthless, stupid, bossy, annoying… should I go on? Cause those words are now printed in my memory, next to you agreeing to all of those things. Is that what you think of me?”

“Baby, I swear it’s not like that!” He said, grabbing your hand and trying to make you stay “I fucked up! I know! You are right, I failed you and you don’t know how much I hate myself for it! But please, love. You know I could never think of you like that… you are the most wonderful person there is! You are kind, smart, loving, beautiful-“

“Did you cheat on me?” You ask bluntly.

“What?”

“Did you cheat on me?”

“No!” Calum said instantly “No, I would never!”

You nodded “Yet, you thought of it.”

Calum opened his mouth to say something, but you cut him off again “Is that why you never made our relationship public? So you could have a free pass whenever you want to? Cause I thought it was to protect our privacy, for us to have a normal life in the midst of the chaos that is to date a celebrity. When you told all of that I thought “wow, this is a guy with integrity and with values” Yet I don’t know what to believe now. I thought you loved me-“

“I do love you-“

“I thought you loved me” You said, the tears were already dry as the anger came flooding in “But you don’t hurt the people you love. You don’t break them like you did to me. You don’t let anyone hurt them, even if they are not in the room with you. And you don’t cheat on them like you were going to tonight with that girl Vanessa while I waited here like an idiot for you to come home and spend some time with me”

You pull your hand out of his grasp, holding onto your bag as you heard Calum cry “Y/N-“

“You are free to do whatever you want now, Calum. Cause to the eyes of your fans you are single, and I am as well”

You turned around and saw Ashton waiting by the door with his keys in his hand. He opened up the door for you as you walked by, ignoring all of Calum’s pleads for you to stay.

“So you are just going to leave?!” He yelled, not knowing what else to do. “Whe- Where are you taking her Ashton?”

The black haired man made sure that you were already sitting in his car before turning around to face his friend “I’m taking here with me and away from you cause that’s what she needs now. So don’t bother calling or showing up cause you are not welcome right now. And don’t even try to call Luke or Michael cause they already know and we won’t support you on this” Ashton said as calm as he could. He already told him off, but the anger of seeing you cry in front of him still resided in him.

“I- I love her , Ash! You can’t just take her away from me. I’m her boyfriend!”

“Correction, you were her boyfriend. And I can take her away and I will cause she asked me to” He said taking an intimidating step closer to Calum “Cause while you were here talking trash about her behind her back, planning on how to cheat on her. I was back there, holding her while she broke down crying cause she couldn’t believe that her boyfriend didn’t stand up for her and let a fucking stranger insult her all night long! You weren’t there to see her eyes water or her lip tremble. You weren’t there when she begged me with tears in her eyes to not make a scene cause all she wanted to do was to get out of here. She is the most amazing person ever, she is a light in all of our lives and you extinguished her without a second thought. You might be my friend, but she is too and I love her and I will defend her no matter what, she doesn’t deserve this kind of crap you just showed to her. So don’t count on me to try and help you get her back, I won’t blame her if she doesn’t”

Calum felt small as Ashton walked away from him, closing the door with a bang and leaving him all alone in his big house. Well, almost.

“Dude, that was intense” Mitchy laughed as he placed a hand on Calum’s shoulder “So, wanna go now?”

A blind rage fell over Calum as he heard the mocking laughs of his so-called friend, acting like his life just didn’t fall apart in front of him.

Calum grabbed the singer by the neck of his shirt and pushed him forcefully against the wall “You are going to get out of my house and never come back. You hear me?!” He yelled to his face, almost letting out steam from his nostrils as he was sure he could kill him right now.

“Dude, what’s wrong with yo-“

Calum quickly grabbed a bottle from his nearby mini bar, suddenly gaining all the courage he should’ve had hours ago, and throwed it to Mitchy’s feet, making him jump “Get the fuck out!” He yelled, grabbing bottle after bottle, glass after glass and throwing them into the ground “OUT!”

Only when the last bottle was smashed into pieces did he realize he was completely alone.

And only then did he allow himself to cry for the loss of the love of his life, walking away from him and leaving him to pick up the pieces of two broken hearts.

part 2

Tags: @iknowyouthinkimbulletproof @talksoprettyjjx @mystic-232

[another-tmnt-writer]

Friends?

Donatello x Reader

Author: Admin Mo

Prompt: (From Admin Mo’s roommate, who is a shameless Donnie Simp) Could you write one where the reader has known the boys for like a really long time and Donnie is just super shy and like…doesn’t talk to her for the whole time until she confronts him and asks him what’s up?

Note: Yes, yes I can. Love you, dude <3

Warnings: None?

Word Count: 0.7k

You had been friends with the turtles for somewhere around seven months. Was it eight now? Something like that. Your uncle was Vern “the Falcon” Fenwick and your meeting with the boys had been mostly an accident. April had asked Vern to meet her somewhere for an emergency, and Vern, well honestly, Vern wasn’t the brightest bulb and had brought you along for some fun niece-uncle bonding time. He didn’t even realize he’d fucked up until he went to the rendezvous point and the green van was waiting there.

Whelp, it was too late to fix it now.

So, you met the turtles. It was fine, they were fun, they were about your age. You got along with all of them great. Well, all of them except for Donnie. It wasn’t that you didn’t get along with him, per se, but you never had the chance to. Every time you went down to the lair, he’d coop himself up in his lab until you left.

At first, it had been fine. He needed his space, you recognized that, but after a while…you were beginning to wonder if you’d done something to upset him. So, you decided that the best way to find out was to go ahead and ask him yourself.

It wasn’t a particularly busy day in the lair. You could hear the steady thumps of Raphael training. Mikey was playing video games, Leo was up in his room sharpening his swords, and Donnie, as always, was in his lab tinkering on something.

You walked into the lab, trying to make some noise as you did. You didn’t want to scare him and make him drop something.

“Hey, Donnie!”

Your efforts, it seemed, were in vain, because at the sound of your voice, his phone clattered onto his desk.

“H-Hey, (Y/N)! Uh, what’s up? Is something wrong with your laptop?” Donnie cringed at his own words. Why had he just said that? Why was that the first thing that popped into his head??

“Oh, no, my computer is fine. I just…um…I had a question, if that’s okay?”

He pushed his glasses further onto his snout with a large, careful finger. “Of course. What, uh, what do you need?”

“I just…Did I do something wrong?” You asked quietly, your hands shaking. You bit your lip to stop it from trembling.

Donnie was quiet for a long moment, staring at you. Confusion warped his features. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I, uh…” You took a breath. “Maybe I’m over thinking this…but I spend a lot of time with your brothers and they all seem to be fine around me and I was wondering if I’d done something to offend you or upset you and if I did, I’m really, really sorry and I hope we can be friends…”

Donnie absorbed what you’d just said, thinking through your words another time before he dared open his mouth. “You didn’t do anything.” He shook his head. “I promise, you didn’t. I guess I just didn’t really…know how to approach you when we met. And I thought that eventually, I’d learn how, but then I got busy and seeing you just…it makes me nervous. I don’t know why. My hypothesis has something to do with the fact that you’re so nice and pretty and I honestly don’t know how to process that. I haven’t had much practice.” He paused, inhaling another breath. “So I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel like that. I…” he chuckled to himself. “Well, I’ve always felt like we were friends. From here on out, I’ll try to make more of an effort, though.”

You hugged him, which caught him off guard, but he seemed to enjoy it, wrapping his long lean arms around you and pulling you closer. You left his lab after that, taking a spot on the couch next to Mikey, but as you raced him in Mario Kart, the only thing you could think of was this: Donatello thought you were pretty…

[babymetaldoll]

Danger Days - Chapter one: “Nobody puts Baby in a corner”

Pairing: OCx Matthew Gray Gubler + My Chemical Romance. I know. Weirdest mix ever.

Summary: MCR has only one more drummer audition before they have to start touring again. None of them knows their last chance is a girl. Matthew Gray Gubler's girlfriend.

Word count: 5,4K

Warnings: Cursing, and funny shit so far.

A/N: Ok... I don't know if you'll ever read this shit, but I am in love with this story. So, I'll start posting it.

Masterlist

Chapter one | Chapter two | Chapter three | Chapter four | Chapter five | Chapter six | Chapter seven | Chapter eight | Chapter nine | Chapter ten | Chapter eleven | Chapter twelve | Chapter thirteen | Chapter fourteen | Chapter fifteen | Chapter sixteen | Chapter seventeen | Chapter eighteen | Chapter nineteen | Chapter twenty | Chapter twenty one | Chapter twenty-two | Chapter twenty-three | Chapter twenty-four |

::: Los Angeles, October 13th, 2010 :::

There are many ways to be locked down: quarantine, jail, or long trips. But being locked down with pretty much strangers has to be the worst. Or weirdest. Or more exciting, depending on how you see it.

Frank Iero walked fast. He was late. In his defense, Iero was always late. He didn’t try to make it on time today because he didn’t want to tour. But they had to. He just wanted to stay fucking home for a while. That’s precisely what he had said to the band when they saw the schedule for the following months. He was tremendously worn out. But he had to. The thing that made it all worse for him was knowing they had to get a new drummer, ‘cos Bob was out of the picture, and they didn’t have a replacement yet. They had tried a few guys out there, but they didn’t seem to get it. It wasn’t just playing the songs. It meant being part of it. Whatever that means.

They only had one more option on their list, and they were all hoping it would work, ‘cos they didn’t really have a lot of time to find someone else.

Ray was sitting on the floor in the practice studio, playing with his guitar, all alone in the place. It was early, and he knew it. Well, he was on time, but he knew everybody was always late for rehearsal.

- “Hello?”- a brown-haired woman walked in with a tall, thin guy and smiled- “I’m Joey. I’m here for the drummer audition.”

It sounded more like a question than a statement. Ray stood up and shook her hand, smiling.

- “Ray Toro, nice to meet you.”- he looked at the guy and shook his hand

- "Matthew Gray Gubler, my pleasure."

- "I’m sorry the rest of the guys aren’t here yet,"- Ray apologized as Joey looked around and sighed. She hated it when people were late.

- "Maybe we can go get a coffee"- Matthew suggested, and the young woman nodded- "I saw a place just around the corner."

- "Do you want one?"- she asked Ray

- "Yeah, sure"- he said, confused by her unexpected gesture.

- "How do you drink it?"

- "Lots of cream, lots of sugar"- Joey smiled and nodded.

- "Ok, Mr. Wolf. We’ll be right back"- Ray chuckled when he noticed she had gotten the Tarantino joke and watched her and who seemed to be her boyfriend walking out the room.

- "Are you sure you wanna do this?"- Joey frowned and looked at Matthew after he just shot the question while they walked out of the coffee shop.

- "What?"

- "Don’t get me wrong, it’s just that you don’t know any of those guys"

- "Yeah, I know, but they are a professional and major band! This could be great for my career"- he nodded and stared at his girlfriend, cupping her face with a hand and looking right into her eyes.

- "I just don’t want you to feel discouraged if you don’t make it"- he whispered.

- "Why wouldn’t I make it? You said I’m an excellent drummer, I’ve worked with many great bands, I’m good at my job!"

- "I know you are the best drummer, Yami"- Matthew quickly answered, trying to rearrange his words- "I’m just trying to say do your best, I know you are gonna be great."

He held her hands as he stood in front of her and looked into her eyes sweetly.

- "I’m just scared those guys are gonna break your heart."

- "Come on! If they don’t like me, it’s their loss."

Joey would say those things, but she was a nervous wreck inside. She wanted the band to love her. She needed the job, her career as a drummer really needed a boost, and since her last band had broken up, she only got small recording sessions and a few backup gigs with some bands. But that was it. Working with My Chemical Romance was just what she needed.

- "So, where’s the drummer?"- Gerard asked and looked around- "I hate when people are late, it’s rude! It shows you don’t care."

- "You just got twenty minutes late"- Mikey quickly said and raised an eyebrow at his brother- "So shut up."

- "Wait, he has a point"- Frank added and looked at Gerard for a second, who was walking around the practice studio playing with his hair- "We can be late, we are the band, he can’t be late, he is auditioning."

Ray was about to correct his friend when Joey and Matthew walked into the room.

- "Hi!"- she said and smiled- "Here’s your coffee"- Joey walked to Ray, and he thanked her immediately.

- "How much is it?"

- "Dude, don’t worry, it’s just coffee,"- meanwhile, Gerard, Frank, and Mikey shook Gubler’s hand.

- "Nice to meet you, Joey"- Frank said and looked at the guy in front of him, thinking he seemed familiar- "Wait, did you play a gig with Mellon Collie last week?"- Matthew frowned and shook his head, while Mikey turned to Joey and asked.

- "Can you get me a coffee too? I take it black with almond milk."

- "Make that two!"- Gerard said, raising his hand, and Joey looked at Ray, not getting what was going on.

- "So, Joey, we checked at your resume, and to be honest, it’s pretty impressive,"- Frank said and grabbed the sheet of paper from upon an amplifier- "You’ve played with some great bands, like the Distillers."

- "Thanks"- Joey said and smiled, but Frank raised an eyebrow at her, not getting why she had answered.

- "She is Joey"- Ray explained- "He is Matthew, her boyfriend."

- "Hi"- Joey waved, and the whole band looked at her astonished- "Yeah, girl drummer, I know…"

- "I’m sorry, I just… Joey didn’t sound like a girly name"- Frank apologized and cut her a short smile.

- "Don’t worry, it is not the first it happens"

Joey lied. It was the first time it happened. It was uncomfortable ‘cos it made her feel the band wasn’t expecting to audition a woman for the position. Maybe they didn’t want her. She thought her resume implied she was a girl, but apparently, it didn’t.

- "So… well, you’ve worked with amazing bands"- Frank repeated- "Why do you wanna work with us?"

- "Well, I admire your work. I think touring with you represents a significant challenge in my career. And mostly because I don’t have a job, and I really need one right now."- the band looked at Joey in silence until Mikey chuckled. At least he got the joke.

- "Tell us more about you,"- Gerard asked as he lit a cigarette and kept walking around the practice studio- "You can sit down if you want."

Joey nodded but didn’t move, she wasn’t feeling comfortable in the room, and a part of her wanted to stay on her feet and close to the door, ready to run away.

- "I’m from Seattle, so grunge was my biggest influence growing up. Ever since I was six, I wanted to be Matt Cameron or Jimmy Chamberlin… or Kim Gordon"- the young woman made a pause and sighed. She wasn’t feeling the love.

- "I studied music at Berklee after my first band experience, mainly because my dad said if I wanted to be in music, I had to have proper education."

- "Tell us about the bands you’ve worked with"- Ray asked.

- "I’ve worked with Dashboard Confessional; we did a small tour last summer. On the road, I’ve been with Julieta Venegas, she is an amazing Mexican musician."

- "You toured with Vampire Weekend"- Matthew added and looked at his girlfriend.

- "Right! When their drummer broke his arm. That was a fun tour"- Joey added and smiled- "Well anyway, in the studio I’ve recorded with Fiona Apple, Brody Dalle, Amanda Palmer, some small jazz bands I met in college, Johnny Lang… I’ve tried to work as many different musical genres as possible."

The band nodded and stayed in silence. Neither of them knew what to say.

- "So… do you wanna hear me play?"

- "Yeah! Sure"- Ray smiled at her, and Joey walked to the other room, at the other side of the glass, and say behind the drum set.

- "What did you prepare?"- Ray asked as Joey put on the headphones and nodded.

- "I have three songs for you to pick: “It’s not a fashion statement,” “Famous last words,” and “House of wolves.”

She looked at the band talking to each other as Matthew stood on a side and smiled sweetly. She knew things weren’t peachy so far, but she tried her best to get the job. She really needed it 'cos she was running out of savings, and she had no other job prospect but a few commercial jingles.

- "Wolves"- Gerard answered, and Joey nodded. Joey took a look at the drum and sighed. She was left-handed, and the drum was someone right-handed. Jo didn’t want to make a fuzz and change it, 'cos she felt the band wasn’t already into her. But at the same time, she wanted to kick ass and show them how good she was.

- "Just give me a second."

Joey stood up and rearranged the drum. Gerard looked at Ray, annoyed but making his best not to show. Mikey was stuck at his phone, barely paying attention to anything around him, and Frank stared at Matthew, trying to remember where he had seen him before.

- "Ready?"- Ray asked as Joey sat down again and tried the drum.

- "Yeah, much better, sorry for wasting your time"- Gerard looked at her, feeling she knew he was annoyed, and tried to change his bitchy face. It was too late for that anyway.

Joey started playing and just focused on the music, making her best. She had rehearsed the songs for weeks and even added a solo. She heard all the live versions she could and was sure she was doing a good job.

- "I don’t know, guys"- Gerard texted the band so Matthew would hear them.

- "I like her"- Ray answered

- "That’s your cock talking"- Frank answered and chuckled- "She ain’t bad, but I don’t know if she works for the band."

- "She sounds cool"- Mikey said out loud- "Maybe we could jam a little with her."

Frank and Gerard turned to him with widened eyes, surprised and embarrassed he had answered his comments aloud, so Matthew could hear.

- "Yeah, I saw the text, but talking is faster"- Gerard had to turn around to hide his face, red of anger against his brother, and make his best not to look at Matthew, who nodded and got the hint.

- "I’ll wait outside."

Frank stared at Mikey, who stood up and looked at Joey playing eyes wide shut, making her best to give a good impression. At least it worked with Mikey and Ray.

- "Thanks for making us look like an asshole"- Frank argued and huffed- "What was wrong with answering the fucking text?"

- "Dude, grow up…"- that’s all Mikey answered and stayed in silence until Joey finished the song.

She raised her eyes from the drumset and stared at the band, pretty scared of their reaction. Mikey and Ray smiled at her, while Gerard and Frank were serious and totally… annoyed? Bored? she couldn’t really figure it out.

- "Do you want me to play anything else?"- the young woman asked, afraid she was gonna get a cold no as an answer. Gerard was about to do it until he saw his brother walking over and grab his bass.

- "Wanna jam a little?"- Joey quickly smiled at Mikey, thinking maybe he liked her job, which was always a nice feeling, especially when trying to get a job.

- "Yeah! Sure!"

They played Destroya and improvised for a while. Ray joined them, and the three of them actually had fun for a good twenty minutes jamming.

- "That was pretty good"- Gerard said as he walked over and put on his dark glasses- "Unfortunately, we have to go."

- "Where?"- Mikey asked, surprised- "We had a clear schedule today."

- "Yeah, well, we totally forgot about an interview, and we are running late, so…"- he made a pause and looked at Joey.

- "Sure, I have to get going too, I have to reach the studio in an hour so…"- she stood up and shook Mikey and Ray’s hand- "Thank you so much for your time, I had a lot of fun with you."

- "Thank you for coming!"- Ray quickly answered- "I’ll walk you to the door."

- "Don’t worry, it’s just there anyway"- Joey smiled and turned to the other two guys- "Sorry for taking so much of your time. I hope you have a good day"- she shook their hands too, and they nodded with a sympathetic smile.

- "You too"- Gerard whispered.

- "And the answer is Criminal Minds"- Joey said and smiled at Frank, who looked dumbstruck- "See ya!"

And the young woman walked out.

- "Fuck! that’s it!"- Frank grumbled, and no one got why- "That’s where I’ve seen that guy."

- "What?"- Gerard asked him

- "Her boyfriend is on that tv show"- but it seemed it didn’t matter to Gerard one tiny bit.

- "Oh… who cares anyway…"- Mikey turned to his brother and punched his arm.

- "Did you have to be so annoying?"

- "I wasn’t annoying!"- Gerard nearly yelled, feeling insulted.

- "Dude! you were rude at her! and she did nothing to you!"- his brother was about to his him a lecture, but it seemed it was going to be useless, Gerard wasn’t even listening.

- "Oh! Come on! I wasn’t!"

- "Yeah, you were,"- Ray added and teamed up with Mikey- "You were a bitch, and she noticed."

- "So what?"

- "What if she felt bad about it? or what if she is pissed with us?"

- "If she is pissed, she is pissed! do you care?"

- "Why are you so mean? she was great!"- Mikey was surprised by his brother's attitude.

- "Yeah, she was good, but are you actually considering having a female drummer?"- Ray and Mikey looked at him in shock.

- "What the fuck is your problem with her being a girl?"

- "I don’t have a problem if she is a girl, a boy, or a cat. I’m just saying she is not the right choice for this band."

Ray and Mikey kept looking at him, confused. He had never been such an ass before

- "Come on, Frank, back me up here!"

- "I agree"- Iero simply said- "She was a good drummer, but… what are we gonna do with a chick on tour?"- Ray couldn’t believe his own ears.

- "Seriously? she was awesome! Perfect timing, great improvisation, and she had the ear to follow every single fucking curveball we threw her."

Gerard knew Ray was right, he heard it too, but he just didn’t want to work with Joey. Why? he didn’t know. He just looked at her and thought she couldn’t be on a bus with them, or on stage with them, or anywhere with them. As simple as that.

- "My vote is no"- he sentenced.

- "She is the best we’ve had"- Mikey argued right away- "And I’m saying yes."

- "Nope, I’m with Gerard"- Frankie claimed- "I just don’t want her in the band."

- "You fucking assholes, I’m saying yes, and it’s a tie!"- Ray felt he was five years old, calling that conversation “a tie” and arguing under those stupid terms with his friends.

- "Great! so that means no!"- of course, Gerard’s childish answer made him feel a little better about himself.

- "Seriously? What the fuck is your problem with her?"

Mikey asked his brother and stood right in front of him, just to push him to answer with the truth.

- "You said you wanted to make a fantastic show. You said you wanted to do something no one could ever expect from us, so we made this album that we love after years in the studio. It’s completely different than anything we’ve made! Do you know what would also be something no one could ever expect? having this amazing female drummer!"

- "But why her?"

- "‘Cos she is the best we’ve seen!"- Ray stepped into the conversation, trying to make some sense from Gerard and Frank.

- "Dude… I don’t know"- Iero whispered- "She was good, but… wouldn’t it be weird to have a girl on the bus with us?"

- "That’s what keeps you from saying yes?!"- Ray was honestly shocked- "Because you won’t be able to fart and walk about in your underwear?"

- "I wasn’t planning to stop any of that…"

- "Then?"

- "I don’t wanna have problems with my wife!"- Frank finally assumed and sighed- "I’ve had enough of that shit already"- the band stared at him in silence. Mikey was the only one who spoke his mind.

- "Wuss."

Matthew walked in silence, holding Joey’s hand until they reached his car. She sighed and sat at the passenger seat, thinking she didn’t want to call her parents and ask for another loan. The last time she had sworn to herself, it was never gonna happen again.

- "If they don’t hire you, it’s their loss"- Gubler finally whispered and looked at his girlfriend with a sweet glance- "You are awesome, and everybody knows it"- Joey sighed and cut him a short smile.

- "Thanks, Akumu."

- "And besides, they were assholes."

- "I know!!"- Joey waved her arms, absolutely upset- "That’s so disappointing 'cos everybody said they were so nice!"

- "Are you gonna call Tucker?"

- "I don’t know"- the young woman whispered and sighed- "He was so excited, and I don’t wanna disappoint him"

- "You did your best, Yami… maybe they didn’t want to work with a female drummer"- Joey thought about it for a moment and nodded.

- "Could be. I did my best anyway. Maybe they were all having a crappy day. Anyway, can you drive me to the studio, please? pretty, pretty, please?"- Matthew laughed and stared at his girlfriend with a warm look in his eyes.

- "Only if you kiss me first"

- "That’s blackmailing"

- "Maybe, but I’m driving, I make the rules"

- "Damn… fine! but just ‘cos I’m late"

Joey giggled and leaned in to kiss Matthew, who caressed her cheek slowly.

- "It’s gonna be ok, I promise"- he whispered, trying to comfort his girlfriend, and she nodded. She knew he was nice to her, but she still felt her life was totally out of focus.

- "Hello?"- Joey picked up her phone as she walked out of the studio after recording for the day. She was working in a small studio recording jingles. It wasn’t much, but at least she wasn’t selling drugs to survive.

- "How was it?"

- "Tucker, hey…"

- "So? When do you start? did they love you? of course, they did!"

- "Yeah… well…"

Joey didn’t want to tell his friend and break his heart. Tucker was so excited Joey was auditioning for My Chem ‘cos he knew the band for years. And though he had offered Joey to introduce her first, she refused, decided to audition under her own terms. Which sucked.

- "What?"

- "I don’t think they liked me"

- "What are you talking about? you are fantastic!"

- "You know it, I know it, but I don’t think they got it…"

- "What did they say?"

- "Nothing really, just… ok, just don’t tell them I said this, ok?"

- "Cross my heart and all that shit, what happened?"- Joey rested her back against the wall and sighed.

- "Gerard had a bitch face the whole time like he hated the guts out of me, and I don’t know why! then Frank wouldn’t even look at me, nothing, he wasn’t there, so I’m guessing neither of them wanted a female drummer, 'cos they all thought I was a guy."

- "Why?"

- "Apparently, Joey is a guy’s name"

- "So you didn’t put your real name in the application? brilliant!"

- "What for? So they can’t spell it? Anyway, can you imagine Mikey thought I was an assistant or whatever and asked me to go get him a coffee when we got there? They thought Matthew was auditioning and ignored me the whole time!"

- "Shit can’t be right! they are not like that"

- "Well, in the end, Ray and Mikey were the nicest. We jammed and had fun for a while, playing a few of their songs. But neither Gerard nor Frank even looked at us. It felt they hated me."

- "Maybe they were having a bad day, but they are very nice people."

- "Maybe… anyway… thank you for your support."

- "What are best friends for?"

- "Getting beer?"

- "Right, when are we getting beer?"- Joey smiled and sighed.

- "Next time I’m in New York or when you come to this shitty city."

- "If you hate Los Angeles so much, why don’t you move?"

- "‘Cos I’ve got my life here, I guess."

- "You know it’s just ‘cos you are dating that nerd

- "I happen to love that nerd!"- Joey laughed and shook her head, thinking Tucker didn’t even know Gubler and he already knew he was a nerd- "Anyway, gotta go, I have a class in an hour."

- "Are you taking a class?"

- "No, dude, I’m teaching in a community center in Santa Monica."

- "Aren’t you lovely! I’m proud of you!"

- "Shut up!"

- "As long as you don’t teach them to drink as we did when we toured together."

- "Hey! I’m no longer 20!"- Joey argued, laughing- "I’m a role model for those kids now!"

- "Yeah, sure! Talk to you later!"

Tucker hung down the phone and walked around his house for a minute. He loved that kid. He met her when she was still in college and toured with Thursday for a few dates with her old band. She was like a little sister to him. And it hurt to think she was wasting her talent in shitty sessions with shitty bands when she could be doing something better with her skills. Something meaningful. And it honestly made him angry to think his friends had been mean to her.

- "Hey, dude!"- Gerard picked up the phone, excited to see Tucker’s name on the screen.

- "Hey! why were you an asshole today?"- Gerard frowned and took out his sunglasses. He was in his backyard smoking, and he was not getting what his friend was talking about

- "Sorry, what?"

- "You were an asshole today with my friend"

- "Dude, I’m gonna need more information"

- "I asked Joey to audition for your band because I thought you would value her talent, and you ignored her?"

- "I didn’t ignore her… wait!"- Gerard wasn’t getting what was going on- "You know her?"

- "Of course! for the last… shit, I don’t know, like five or six years, we toured together, I taught her a lot, she is like my little sister!"

- "Yeah, she is an excellent drummer, but… I don’t feel she is suitable for the band."

- "Why?"

- "‘Cos… she has tits"- Gerard whispered, and Tucker made one long eternal pause.

- "Wow… ok, I see why she said you were an asshole."

- "She did?!"- Gerard felt so insulted he clenched his fist.

- "And she wasn’t wrong. I’m so sorry I asked her to go to your audition. It was a waste of her time."

Tucker hung down the phone and dialed Frank. He knew he had been pretty hard on Gerard, so he made his way to stay calm and not yell, at least not right away.

- "Ho, man!"

- "Hey Frank, listen, my friend, Joey was today auditioning for your drummer position. How was that?"

- "Joey? The girl? Do you know her?"

- "Yeah, I set the audition for her, actually. She is one of my closest friends, so how was it?"

Frank looked around at Ray smoking next to him in a small bar, then took a sip of his beer and decided the best thing to do was clear: lying.

- "She was awesome. Too bad the position is already taken 'cos she was real good"

- "I see, and that’s why you acted like an asshole?"

- "I didn’t!"- Frank knew he was busted

- "Dude, she told me everything. You didn’t even look at her!"

Ray’s phone hummed, and he read the text Gerard had sent them: “The chick is friends with Tucker. She sold us.” Toro chuckled and looked at Frank red in anger, trying to explain to his friend why he had been mean.

- “Too little too late”- Ray typed and sent the text. Mikey read them and chuckled while he ate a bowl of cereal and milk back in his house.

- "They deserve it for being assholes"- he said out loud and sighed.

He looked around at his home and realized he was talking all alone. His wife wasn’t around. His wife was never around anymore. But that was something Mikey didn’t want to think about, not then, not never.

- "Can you believe that bitch?"- Frank turned to Ray as soon as he hung down with Tucker- "She called our friend to snitch on us."

- "Well, you kinda deserved it"- Ray simply answered and sipped his beer- "You and Gerard should apologize to her."

- "No way, can we just let it pass?"- Iero was honestly upset as he lit another cigarette and remained in silence for a moment- "She was excellent, I give you that, but I don’t fucking want a girl in the band right now"

- "To avoid arguing with Jamia?"

- "Yeah! Shit has been hard lately, and I don’t want her to be threatened by anyone anymore"- Ray looked at his friend, nodding.

- "We should all talk about this seriously, we only got a week before the first show, and we have to rehearsal with the new drummer."

- "I know"- their cell phone hummed again, and they all read the exact text.

- "Meeting in my house now"- Gerard sighed as soon as he read his brother’s text. He surely knew what it was all about, and he had no intention to continue that argument, though he had absolutely no choice.

- "I hope Mikey at least asks for pizza"- he stood up and walked inside the house- "Honey, I’m going to Mikey’s"- he announced as he walked into his wife art studio and found her working on a collage on her desk

- "Say hello to your brother from me, hey! can you pick something for dinner?"

- "Sure, I’ll see you later"- he kissed her lips and cut her a short smile

- "Wait, turn around"- she asked, and he slowly moved over- "What happened?"

- "Nothing"- Lynz raised an eyebrow and waited for the honest answer- "We just had a bad audition for a drummer this morning. It turns out she was friends with Tucker Rule, and he called me an asshole for being mean to her."

- "Were you mean to her?"- Gerard made a long pause and stared at his wife’s expression change- "Why did you do that?"

- "I don’t know! I just didn’t like her!"

- "Was she right?"

- "Yeah"

- "Was she nice?"

- "Yes"

- "Was she hot?"

- "No! definitely not!"

- "Then what was the problem?"

- "She is the best we’ve had so far, but I don’t wanna turn everything we’ve been working on into “they are working with a girl” and get the attention away from the music."- Lynz nodded as she listened to her husband’s words.

- "You are making it seem like no one had ever had a female drummer or musician on stage before."

- "No, it’s not that, it’s just that…"- Gerard thought his answer carefully- "We haven’t, and we are so deep into the spot I’m afraid it will impact our show the wrong way"- Lynz made a pause and stared at her husband’s face

- "What did the band say?"

- "Frank is with me, and Ray and Mikey disagree."

- "Why is Frank with you?"

- "‘Cos he thinks having a girl on the bus is weird."

- "I was the girl in a band, and it wasn’t weird at all!"

Gerard knew that would be the subject in the conversation eventually as soon as he started talking about this with his wife.

- "I think you are acting kinda selfish and a little sexist."

- "No, we are just trying to do what’s best for the band."

- "Do whatever you want. I’m just giving you my opinion."

Gee felt Lynz was judging him. And he knew he would never win that fight.

- "I’m gonna talk about it with the band"

- "Ok, see you for dinner"- Gerard kissed his wife again and walked away feeling like a douche.

Had he been an asshole with that girl?

And besides, Gerard had lied to his wife when she asked if the girl was hot, ‘cos he actually thought so. He would never admit it in front of her anyway. And neither in front of anyone else. Never.

Matthew waited for Joey outside the community center, where she taught drums for kids in need as a way to keep them from being in the street and teaching him a new skill. He thought that was amazing and felt pretty proud of his girlfriend for giving the community her time and knowledge. He waved at her as she walked outside and cut her a big smile.

- "Hey! I didn’t know you were picking me up today!"

- "I wanted to surprise you and cheer you up!"- Joey leaned over and kissed Matthew sweetly.

- "Thank you so, so much!"

- "I’m the best boyfriend. I know."

- "What’s the plan?"

- "Wanna ask for Chinese and watch a movie at my place?"- it was a bit disappointing plan ‘cos that was pretty much every day in their routine, but Joey smiled and nodded.

- "As long as I pick the horror movie tonight, sounds perfect."

After a few minutes of driving, Matthew turned to his girlfriend and whispered.

- "I forgot tomorrow we’ll have table reading. We are gonna start shooting this week. I’m sorry I won’t be able to hang out so often."

- "Don’t worry, you have to work, and I need to get a new extra job ‘cos it’s obvious and I didn’t get the MCR shit…"- her cell phone interrupted her as she spoke. An unlisted number was calling- "Hello?"

- "Joey… Svein… björn...dottir?"

- "Yes?"- her last name was mispronounced entirely, but she was pretty used to that.

- "Hi, I’m Ray Toro, from My Chemical Romance."

- "Hey, Ray! How are you?"- Gubler wide opened his eyes as he turned to his girl for a second. She was honestly surprised the band was calling her.

- "Good! listen… I hope I’m not interrupting."

- "Not, it’s cool"- Gerard turned around and walked the other way just ‘cos he didn’t want to see Ray do what he was about to do.

- "Great, the band and I were talking, and we want you to come to the studio tomorrow to do a second tryout… do they even call it “tryouts”? more like an audition, I think."- Ray started rambling as Joey wide opened her eyes in shock.

- "Sorry, what? do you want me there again?"

- "Yeah, so we can jam a little, try a few new things. We are having trouble deciding on one drummer, so we need a bit more info. Besides, we couldn’t finish today so… can you come tomorrow at ten?"

- "Noon"- Frank said, thinking he didn’t feel like waking up early to meet that chick.

- "Sorry, at noon"- Ray corrected, embarrassed.

- "Noon…"- Joey had absolutely nothing to do at noon, but she wanted to make believe she had a life- "I think I can move a few things… to meet you."

- "Awesome! See you tomorrow"- Joey turned to Matthew as soon as she hung down and nearly screamed.

- "They want to see me again!!! I can’t believe it"- the young woman jumped on the seat completely excited- "I thought they hated…"- but suddenly, it hit her.

- "Congrats, Yami!!"- Matthew yelled and grabbed her knee, which was all he could do, considering he was driving.

- "No, it wasn’t me. It was Tucker."

- "Did you call him?"

- "He called. I didn’t want to tell him about the shitshow I was through this morning"- Joey grabbed her phone again and looked for the last number that called.

- "What are you doing?"

- "I’m canceling. I’m not gonna go if they are only doing this ‘cos my friend forced them."

- "What?! no! just go and kick their asses!"- Matthew quickly grabbed the phone from Joey’s and hid it in his pocket, far from her reach- "You are going tomorrow, and you are proving them wrong."

- "I don’t want to! Akumu! Come on! it’s gonna be embarrassing and awkward to see them knowing Tucker called them to get me a second chance!"

- "No! It’s gonna be awesome ‘cos you are gonna kick ass!!"

Joey whined for another while, honestly trying to get out of that awkward situation. But by the time they reached Matthew’s, he had convinced her she had to do it.

[ichitora]

「 Birth 」

:: Because this day is not only about his birthday

» with Chifuyu Matsuno and Toman founding members

《Content Warning - Canon divergent - AU, third POV, Comfort, just characters interacting with each other, platonic relationship, tr dvd booklet 1 minor spoilers》

【 notes - Happy birthday to my one and only, Kazutora! 】

The traffic light turned red.

The road was heavily busy for an unknown reason to which Kazutora paid no heed. His eyes were on the vehicle before them. A classical music played, filling the silence of what seemed to be an empty shell of a car and somehow isolating them to the noisy businesses that surrounded them. It didn’t disturbed him. Not when it’s his friend, Chifuyu who’s maneuvering, eyes stuck on the road as well.

A smoke made its appearance not too far from them, probably just a few cars away. It looked raging mad by the way its darkness occupies the sky. Kazutora raised his eyebrows.

“Huh? What was that?” Chifuyu mumbled under his breath. He propped his arm on the door and leaned his head on his fist. Kazutora did the same on the opposite side, hoping to take a glimpse of what’s going on outside.

“Damn these kids!” They overheard an annoyed old man on the neighboring vehicle. It was so loud that not even the music could cover it. Kazutora tilted his head more.

It was a small car on fire. Barely recognizable as the firemen did their best to put it off. The only thing that’s left was its bones, scrap materials no one would use.

So, that’s why the traffic became heavier.

Kazutora tucked his yellow side bangs on his ear, smirking as he squinted his eyes for a bit.

“What a lame ass.” Another person said, neither Chifuyu nor Kazutora made an effort to respond. Kazutora glanced at Chifuyu, watching the raven haired man with a tiny smile on his lips. For that moment it was as if they shared one brain cell. One brain cell that provides a huge impact straight down to their hearts.

It was some kids’ doing they say?

Of course, it only reminds them of a certain person.

Both of them didn’t have the guts to bring it up though. Their heads are connected under one idea, yet they prefer to keep it to themselves, putting it as a way of telepathic communication. It didn’t have to be talked about.

It wasn’t as if it’s a sensitive subject for Kazutora and Chifuyu, in fact the memories of the past with 𝘩𝘪𝘮 stood to be the teas they share when they have nothing else to do in the pet shop.

And how funny it could be that 𝘩𝘦 is the reason why both of them are settled in the car at the moment.

It didn’t take too long before they arrived, taking the items they brought with them until they halted in a specific family grave.

Now, the air feels like chunks of solids that are heavy to breathe on. The wind passed by from time to time, the leaves reminding them to remain reverent within their stay. Chifuyu sat like what he usually does, not minding his slacks attracting some dirt. He took a few foods out of the plastic bag, not missing the iconic peyoung yakisoba he and Baji used to share. Alongside it was a small cake and a few cans of drinks.

Kazutora, with his hair resting on his nape and shoulders, followed, going down like a frog to take another yakisoba with him. His eyes scanned the engraved characters on the marbled tombstone that didn’t look like one to him. For him, the characters before his eyes just morphed into a person he also had been longing to see for a long time.

Oh lord, he wanted to hug him so bad.

If the deities would grant him permission to see and embrace him again, he will not hesitate to do so and not let go.

“Oi, Baji.” He greeted. Chifuyu said nothing, preparing to split the yakisoba to offer it to Baji. Kazutora was certain he had something to say. He has thought of it multiple times on their way here as if he’s memorizing a script, however the way his heart clenches made him lose all the words he knew. “I...”

“... I saw a car on fire a while back.” That caught Chifuyu’s attention. He gazed at Kazutora. The wind blows, allowing him to see how his sandy eyes shone upon his words.

Within Kazutora’s smile, it reminded him of the first best birthday he ever had in his entire childhood. The memory that stayed with him after his brain forced to control, alt, delete the existence of his traumatic past.

The vehicle was burning so bright in their eyes. Just the same way it ignited their friendship the same day. Before Kazutora could even gather himself, he already had a friend who would dedicate himself to stay by his side.

September 16. It wasn’t a bad day at all, he just got the best gift he would treasure to this very day.

It aches.

Time flies as some would say, but the memories don't. The memories that can contain different emotions every second just stays. It knows how to keep up.

The longer Kazutora envisions Baji sitting in front of them, the more he wanted to tear up.

But he can’t.

His tears are too shy to show their existence. He does not intend this day to go down like that.

“I’d always share my birthday with you, you know that.” Kazutora’s voice almost wavered. Chifuyu bit his lower lip, looking down. There weren’t many words, yet the feeling felt too overwhelming to take in, it naturally oozes out from them without them knowing.

Kazutora sighed. His heart feels like it's dropping every second. He’s breathing under the water and every inhale stings.

“We used to eat peyoung yakisoba together,” Kazutora whispered, just enough for Chifuyu to hear. “One for you, and one for me.” His hand was trembling a bit as he opened the food. “But I guess this time you have to split it with this dude beside me, huh.”

Chifuyu smirked. He raised his noodle like a glass of wine. “Happy birthday.”

The containers collide. “Cheers.”

Perhaps it wasn’t just his birthday the two of them are celebrating.

Kazutora would rather like to put it as the birth of his and Baji’s precious friendship.

“Baji and I exchanged punches the very first time we met,” Kazutora stated just a little while as he and Chifuyu alternatively told Baji some stories of how their lives went. The grave stood there like a diary, both hoping for their words to reach the deceased wherever he will be. There then the older lad tilted his head, emitting a jingling sound from his earring. “He pierced my ear the same day.”

—

Chifuyu chuckled. “Well, that’s Baji-san for you.” He smiled. “I remember Mikey-kun telling me a story one time where Baji-san used to name himself Edward while he was named Michael— Mikey for short, just when they were still kids.”

Kazutora stood in disbelief. He beamed, averting his eyes to the Baji family grave. “Really? What a lame-ass. I never have heard of that.”

“I couldn’t believe it as well. I tried imagining myself calling him Edward-san instead of Baji and I just couldn’t take it seriously from there.”

They snickered.

“Edward,” Kazutora mumbled, both of them laughing again. “Who the fuck would name themselves as Edward?”

“You know, if Baji-san hears us right now he’ll be annoyed.”

“Oh, what is he gonna do? Rise from his grave? Because if the answer is yes then I wouldn’t stop calling him Edward.”

It was a simple conversation, yet it lifted up some of the unspoken woes they do their best to keep within themselves. It became like this. It was as if Baji was just with them. This place had become their comfort zone that they are a few steps away from committing weird shit right in front of his innocent tombstone.

Kazutora sighed, their chuckles fading out. He placed his hands in his pockets. “... Mikey.”

He didn’t know why the name slipped out of his mouth, hence the name also brings him back some memories, rather reminding him of one of the reasons why things have ended up like this.

And as if he was a summoning expert, he felt a presence on his back.

Kazutora didn’t move.

Chifuyu’s eyes widened for a split second with the newly arrived person’s appearance, still in his casual black tees and checkered coat, paired with black pants. His hair that is as dark as night, danced to the chilly breeze of the wind.

The light atmosphere they built up had been adulterated. None of them said a word. Kazutora didn’t have to look back at who it was. Just the aura was enough to be aware of who’s with them without a doubt.

Mikey stood with hands in a praying position, shutting his eyes with his silent prayers for a few moments before straightening his posture. All of them were like statues, waiting for someone to try to break the silence. The yellow-eyed lad breathed slowly, feeling his heart slowing down in heartbeat.

Manjiro Sano.

Kazutora wouldn’t deny how awkward they are currently. Mikey forgave him and they ended on good terms. yet the graze in their friendship can no longer be mended. They’re now left as two individuals who pay respect to each other, without resentment and without regret as to how they want to put it.

“I—“

“It’s been a while, Baji,” Mikey said. His voice never ceased to strangle Kazutora in his words while Chifuyu was just there, paying witness to what can unfold next. “I hope you’re happy.”

Kazutora smiled. A genuine one. “... He is.”

Chifuyu, Kazutora, Mikey— seeing the three of them together all fine with each other would surely give relief to Baji wherever he may be, that’s what Kazutora would like to think. At least that thought comforts the weight he always carry with him since the beginning.

He didn’t die in vain.

They all looked at the grave with their sincere eyes, as if it was telling Baji that he could always be at peace. It was mixed with emotions of missing a loved one with a glint of happiness no word can describe. It felt like a story ending where one way or another they have to bid their farewell and go on.

“The others... they’re waiting.”

Chifuyu and Kazutora glanced at him, faces painted with confusion. There then they noticed a group of people not too far away from them. The latter’s doe eyes thought he was looking at something unreal, chest rose and fell— puzzled. The edges of his lips stretched involuntarily all the way towards his ears. He couldn’t believe he’d be seeing them all at once today. Not when he hadn't seen them together for years.

Pah chin, Draken, Mitsuya—

It’s the rest of the Toman founding members.

What he heard next was another surprise.

𝘔𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘺…

“Kazutora, happy birthday.”

Thus, the rest of the day was Chifuyu tagging along with Tokyo Manji Gang’s founding members for Kazutora’s birthday that also served as a small, unexpected reunion.

“I already ordered some food on UberEats. Thank you very much, Kazutora!”

The gang cackled.

“O-oi! Mikey— I didn’t even bring my wallet! Chifuyu!”

“Doesn’t sound like a me-problem at all. That’s on you, you bastard.”

“Don’t worry too much, Kazutora. Pah Chin got us!” says Mitsuya in his gentle voice.

“Oi, why am I even dragged into this?!”

Perhaps, Kazutora's day could still get better without him knowing.

[heyheydidjaknow]

Three cheers to publishing on time. Can I get a what what? Anyways, here’s the next chapter. The previous chapter is at the bottom of this chapter. Go figure.

Chapter 3

“Okay, I think I got it.” It is possible you are going stir crazy. You would not be surprised if you were, but you have more pressing matters that, ridiculously, involve the timeline of fucking Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012. You had not just stood the headassery of season four and five, but conquered it, tamed it, if you will. You do not remember the last time you ate. “So the only way I’m going to survive this series is if I somehow, through some sort of spiritual bullshit, get to become at least somewhat adept at ninjitsu.” You sigh. “But the only reason he trained her is because of her psychic bullshit.”

You stumble towards the kitchen to eat for the first time in days. “Actually, you know what? Fuck that.” You open the refrigerator, salivating at the food. “I’m just gonna buy a fucking gun. Dodge bullets, bitch.” You pull out a large slab of meat, tossing it on the counter. “If they aren’t going to actually incapacitate people, I will.”

A sudden thought stops you in your tracks. “Wait, so, what timeline am I on?” You feel your heart drop. “Because if we’re doing the whole thing…” You shake your head. “You know what? Prepare for the best and accept—that’s backwards.”

You put the meat back. Something about the existential dread kills your appetite. You crawl back into bed, close your eyes. ‘How long have I been in here?’ The time had admittedly swirled in on itself, your brain completely fried from all the contemplating death. ‘At least long enough to be in the no-man’s-land where I’m not hungry.’

You freeze up at the sound of knocking on your window.

Your eyes slowly pan over to the covered glass. You rise to your feet.

You shake your head, trying to remember to think rationally. ‘This place is very high off the ground for a stalker.’ Despite yourself, you quickly go to the kitchen, grabbing the largest frying pan you can find and slowly approaching the window.

‘There isn’t even a proper ledge out there. You’re being paranoid.’ Slowly, you reach for the curtain, yanking it open.

You scream at the sight of the hanging figure, only realizing you recognized said figure after a couple seconds. Thoroughly embarrassed— ‘Yeah, I could never be a ninja.’—you slide the window open, face red. “What do you want, Raphael?”

He wears a shit eating grin. “What, scared?”

“Of a shadowy figure in my window? Yes.” You sit back down on the bed, voice cold. “You gonna just hang out there or what?”

He climbs inside. “Alright, so here’s the situation.” He sits on the windowsill; you feel the secondhand vertigo. “Donnie—first of all, where have you been?”

“Binging the most traumatic part of your lives so far on my phone so you and your brothers don’t get killed by swole Shredder.”

His face went pale. “Shredder?”

You blink, a factor you had admittedly completely forgotten becoming apparent. “You don’t know he intends to come to the city,” you remember. “That’s—”

“He what?”

You sigh. “He is the least of your concerns at this particular moment. What about Donatello?”

“No, back up.” His smile was completely gone. “When is he getting here?”

You shrug. “I dunno.”

“You don’t know?”

You put your hands up at his obvious rage. “Dude, it is honestly not that big of a deal right now. He doesn’t even get close to killing your dad until the end of season two.”

You are decidedly not helping matters. “He gets close to—”

“Are you gonna repeat everything I say or are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

“I’m gonna—what?” Raph is quite clearly not taking this news well.

You try to calm him down. “Take a deep breath, alright? It might not get to that point, but you have to tell me what’s going on first.”

He growls in frustration but follows your instructions. “Mikey found out that he can apparently talk to people online, and he found this site where he can talk to—”

“I’m gonna stop you right there.” You pick up your phone, typing away. “You can’t, under any circumstance, let him go talk to Bradford.”

“Well, I know it would be bad--”

“You misunderstand.” You get up, starting to grab your things. “Bradford is working for the Shredder.”

This seems to be news. “He’s what?”

“Working for Shredder.”

“But he’s—how?”

“You have bigger concerns than the how, currently.” You read the page you had pulled up again. “How long ago did he find this guy?”

“Yesterday, I think.”

“Then… hold on.” You read the summary of the episode in question more thoroughly. “Okay, so we aren’t totally fucked, but we gotta make sure he doesn’t see him again.”

“Wait, hold on.” He walks after you as you try to find your jacket. “Why? How could Shredder—”

“If he goes, he’s gonna talk to him about general shit, right?” You slip it on. “At some point, in return for learning his secret bullshit, he’s gonna want info on you and your dad.”

“Then the Shredder will know where we are!” The horror in his eyes is apparent.

“Exactly.” You pull on your shoes. “That, and you’ll have to confront foot soldiers, which isn’t good for anyone.”

“Wait, is Mikey gonna be alright?”

“I mean, he gets kidnapped, but—”

“We’re going. Right now.”

“Awesome.” You were already one foot out the door. “Close the window on your way out.”

You rush down to the first floor of the building, nodding acknowledgement to the door man as you look up and down the street. ‘He has a dojo or something, right?’ You try googling his dojo, only to find that, not only is it a chain, but that they are all incredibly spread out. ‘It’s at times like these,’ you contemplate, running towards the closest one, ‘that I wish I could drive.’

It takes you about 10 minutes of running to get to the place, only for it to be closed. You feel tempted to throw your phone.

‘Wait, when does it—hold on.’ You already hate timelines. You sit down on the curb, pulling your phone out again to find some clips. ‘So, Chris and Mikey meet up some time after patrol, order pizza, and then it’s sunrise.’ You look up at the slowly lightening sky. ‘Okay, so that means they’re currently ordering, right? Because it was clearly dark in that last scene.’ You put your head in your hand. ‘I mean, it is, right? Because those are just wall separator things, not windows, since the sky was very clearly green in that next scene.’ You get to your feet. ‘So I just need to find that billboard with that specific graffiti and main message and we’re good to go, right?’ You groan. ‘But there have to be a thousand billboards in fucking NYC.’

You stop, smiling slightly at the graffiti. ‘Is that not a purple dragon?’ You grin, going back to running. ‘I just need to get to Chinatown, right? Is that their territory?’ You swallow, turning a street corner. ‘I guess we’ll find out.’

The buildings tower around you as you wander the streets, the quiet desolation ringing in your ears with the force of a gong. The pounding of your feet against the pavement does little to stifle the silence. The gang in question may not be a challenge or concern for vigilantes, but to you? You are barely a flower now, bright and beautiful and oh so easy to crush. But you cannot and will not stand still for long. The walls of the alleys you run crush your sides and the darkness strangles you, but despite the beating of your heart begging you to stop, you cannot. How can you?

You can stop what comes next. That is what fuels you. Never mind the fact you must stumble to a halt to vomit into the nearest dumpster who knows how many times, the taste of acid staining your tongue. You can rewrite history.

But you cannot.

You walk around for approximately too long before correctly citing that this is, in fact, futile. You start to panic.

You turn back around. ‘He goes back to talk to his brothers, right?’ You feel your body start to shake. You keep your phone to your ear, pretending to talk to someone as you run around like a headless chicken so as to not get bothered, hopefully. ‘Then I still have a chance to catch him before he leaves, right? At least he won’t get kidnapped.’ You look around quickly, slipping into an alleyway and prying off a manhole cover, climbing into the sewer. You pull the cover back into place and start running along them, the smell nauseating in the darkness suffocating. ‘Please tell me I remember where this stupid lair is.’

You laugh in relief when you see the abandoned subway, sprinting down the tunnel. ‘I can catch him,’ you promise yourself. ‘I can catch him before—’

You slam into someone. They grab your wrist before you fall. “Yo, are you alright?”

“Mikey!” You feel your whole body relax, but the relief is quickly squashed. ‘Thank fuck.’ You grab his shoulders. “You can’t see Bradford again.”

“Wait, what?” He groaned. “Did Raph set you up to this?”

“What? No!” As the adrenaline and panic start to wear off, you feel your body begin to falter at the excessive strenuous physical activity, panic, no food or water for two days and sleep deprivation. You dig your fingernails into your palms to try to keep yourself grounded. “He just said that you were friends with him or something and I went looking for you!”

“Look,” he sighed, letting go of you and not noticing the obvious slur in your voice, “I get it, alright? Not all of us can have a super awesome friend like Chris—”

“He’s working for Shredder, dipshit.” You feel the ground spinning as your skull rips itself apart. “Coolness be gone, that bitchass Dogpound fucker.” You have no idea what you are saying. ‘Huh,’ you muse, struggling to stay on your feet. ‘Usually, it takes longer than this to shut down.’

“Shredder?” You cannot feel things, so you have no idea what his actual reaction is. “He’s here?”

“Yep.” And with that, you collapse.

--

Suffice it to say, when you wake up, you feel like absolute shit, with a pounding headache, extreme fatigue, and an obvious desire to not move from the bed in which you lay.

Thinking hurts. You decide against it for the time being.

You hear typing, soft muttering, the scratching of pencil against paper. You do not want to open your eyes; whatever you are laying under is warm. You try flexing your fingers. You can, but it is barely worthy of being called a twitch. You feel sick and gross and sticky and like you are eating yourself from the inside out, but you are also very aware that moving will not help matters. Besides, what small part of you is not covered is absolutely freezing.

You let out a soft groan from a particularly egregious pound from your head. You hear the typing stop.

“Y/N?” Donatello’s voice is incredibly soft. “Are you alright?”

You do not answer. Your throat feels like it is filled with sand.

“Oh, right.” You feel the mattress shift under you. “You—right.” He clears his throat. “You, uh, probably want to know what happened, right?”

You find yourself in between sleep and consciousness. You do not exactly understand what he’s saying, but his voice is pleasant to listen to.

“Mikey carried you back,” he explains. “He said you started talking about Chris Bradford working for The Shredder and collapsed.” A pause. “Leo thought it would be a good idea to go take him down since he already spilled the beans.”

‘You aren’t helping.’ “Everyone got out alright.” He is writing something. “We don’t know how much Shredder knows or how he found us; Master Splinters said that the war has just begun or something to that effect.” He pauses again. His voice is almost hesitant now. “If you spoke, I’d ask how…how this ends, who wins the day.” He chuckles dryly. “Now that I say it out loud, I guess it’s pretty clear that you wouldn’t tell me, would you? Rightfully so, I guess; I don’t know exactly how that sort of information might change things. Still,” he sighs, “it is so… so frustrating, having information just out of reach, especially for someone like me. But you—… you probably know that too, don’t you?”

It is not as if you can refute what he says.

He clears his throat. “A-anyways,” he rambled, voice tight with awkwardness, “sorry for ranting. This would be totally embarrassing if you weren’t so clearly incapable of coherent thought.” You hear the shuffling of paper. “As far as your health is concerned,” he continues, “without being able to take a blood test for obvious reasons, I can only conclude based on a totally-not-creepy physical exam that you’re just incredibly malnourished and exhausted. I don’t really have anything to actually prescribe you, but ya know… eat. Drink, too; just perform basic bodily functions.”

He looks down at you from his seat at the foot of his bed, your eyes having fluttered shut again. “I…” he took a breath, starting again. “Remember what you said the other day? About me being able to kill you with my bare hands?” He looks back over at the line of code he is working on, ignoring the minute shaking in his hands. “I remember… do I kill someone?” He swallows, eyes focusing on the letters in front of him. “I can’t really imagine it, why I’d want to.” He covers his face with his hands. “I know I’m a ninja, but it’s just—” He feels his voice start to rise. His eyes focus on your sleeping face; he calms back down for your sake. His words are slow and deliberate. “I always thought that we were doing all this for a fight we’d never have, that we would never have to do something like that, because… well, I don’t remember why, but I just—…” His voice dies in his throat.

‘Staring at her like this is creepy.’ He stands up, gathering his things. ‘You can’t get yourself worked up over something like this. You just met her, and your hesitance is not anyone’s problem but yourself.’ “Just…” Despite himself, he mumbles out a soft plea. “Please, don’t let me do something stupid.” He does not know who he’s talking to

He slips out of the room.

You would not remember this happened.

He would.

Table Of Contents

Chapter 2

Chapter 4

[xxfanfiction-emo-trinityxx]

Lunch Break - MCR + Reader

Request: ok but fam jam mcr highschool au

Word count: 845

A/N: I… don’t know what “fam jam” means, so you get this instead.

“If they tell me to ‘just swim’ one more time, I’ll-“

“You’ll what?”

“I’ll…”

“Yes?”

“Slam your guitar over their heads?”

Both you and Ray turned to Frank with raised eyebrows.

“That’s a tad bit violent, don’t you think,” you asked him, but Ray shook his head.

“I think, that might actually work,” he considered.

“You can’t- okay forget it. Frank, we’ve finally got to teach Ray how to swim properly,” you decided.

“Did he almost drown again,” Gerard asked, joining the conversation as you walked down the hallways of the high school towards the lunch room.

“He didn’t even get in,” Frank explained.

“You really are going to drown one day if you don’t let us teach you, dude,” Gerard frowned in concern.

“I know, I know,” Ray sighed, stopping at his locker, “I promise this summer you can teach me all you want, but if I drown in anyone’s pool, that’s on you.”

“We won’t let you drown,” Mikey promised, scaring all of you. He had the talent of appearing out of nowhere without warning.

“We wouldn’t let our lead guitarist drown,” you agreed, patting Ray’s back, who grinned.

“Yeah, let’s hope so,” he nodded.

“Cool, now that that’s been cleared, can we finally go for lunch? I’m starving,” Frank whined.

After Ray had put his heavy geography book into his locker, all of you turned and continued your way to the lunch room, where you picked up your food, and searched for a free table. You found one in a corner, and settled down, while the discussion, as so often these days, circled back to the upcoming band practice. It was hard to find a time where all five of you were free, and this weekend seemed like the perfect opportunity. And since your next show was coming up next month you all got eager to practice more again.

“Okay, okay, guys, but listen, I got news,” Gerard eventually interrupted the heated discussion between Frank and Ray, who were talking about how to play the chorus of one of the songs best. “You remember how we discussed going on tour this summer?”

Everyone nodded.

“Yeah, but we also discussed that we’d need a van or something,” you reminded him.

“Exactly! And I got news concerning that,” Gerard grinned, and Mikey nodded eagerly. The other three band members were curiously listening. “Okay, so, my – our – grandma Elena, she’s been to some of our shows, right? So she came over yesterday, and told Mikey and me, well she told us that she’s gotten us this old, fucked up van, and she’s giving it to the band as a gift, or like an investment, and she wants us to go on tour with it.”

There was a moment of stunned silence, everyone processing Gerard’s words. Only Gerard and Mikey were sitting there, grinning widely.

Frank was the first one to jump up.

“Fucking hell yes,” he cheered, hugging Ray, who also began cheering.

“Oh my god,” you could not quite believe what you had just heard, the words sounding too good to be true. And then Frank and Ray hugged you, and you hugged Mikey and Gerard. All of you were cheering and grinning like idiots, so much that the students at the neighboring tables started to send you weird looks, weirder than usual, but neither of you cared.

“We’re going on a fucking tour, guys,” you laughed breathlessly, and hugged Ray again, who was running his hands through his short cut hair unbelievingly.

“Oh wow,” Frank mumbled, and eventually all of you managed to calm back down.

“We’ve got so much planning to do,” Ray suddenly realized, “we need to ask venues to let us play, and we can try to contact people we know in other states and we-“

“We’ll do all of that,” Gerard agreed, “but not now, later. Now we celebrate.” He picked up the tetra pack of apple juice from his tablet, and lifted it into the air as if it was a glass of champagne. Then he waited for all of you to do the same. “To an amazing summer, to an awesome tour and to My Chemical Romance!”

“To My Chemical Romance!” The rest of the band laughed, and you knocked your juice tetra packs against each other, before taking a tiny sip, on which you almost choked from all the laughing.

After lunch you had just two more classes but neither of you was able to pay attention. Instead Ray started to make a list of cities he definitely wanted to visit along the tour, quietly explaining to everyone what was so special to him about each and every one of them. Frank had somehow started to write a new song somewhere in between his notes for philosophy, and Mikey and Gerard stuck their heads together whenever the teacher was not looking, to design a logo to paint on the van.

You just sat in the middle of it all, and grinned to yourself, knowing this summer would be without a doubt the best one so far.

Taglist (if you want to be added or taken off, please let me know):

General: @justawriterinprogress @robinruns @jayloverthe3rd @lookalivefrosty @butterfly-writes @rene-royale @angelevansfalls  @starduststyx

MCR: @deadlovers

[singthebodyelectric-tmnt]

I Sing the Body Electric 4

Michael

Michael woke up a few days later in an unfamiliar place. Strangely, he didn’t feel the need to panic. “Oh. Hey, dude. Didn’t think you’d be able to visit us yet...Well, I mean, visit me”. Michael turned to see the older Mikey in a kneeling position. “Give me a minute. I’m finishing my prayers,” said Mikey. Michael knelt next to him. He looked at the shrine Mikey was praying to and realized with a sinking feeling...this was a shrine that looks like Gram-gram Karai’s shrine at home.

This one had incense burning in a small holder and had a single picture of a human man, a woman, and a baby. Whoever they are, they must be very important to his brothers in this dimension. Michael lowered his head and quietly said a prayer just like his father taught him. When he looked up again, his counterpart closed the shrine and held out a hand to him with a smile. “Thank you,” Mikey quietly said. “It means a lot man”. Then after a minute, he commented, “I didn’t know you spoke Japanese” Michael rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t. Dad just started teaching us after our Gram-gram Karai...well, he taught us how to care for her shrine” Mikey blinked, not sure what to say to that statement. He then led Michael out of what he assumed was a dojo. “Karai’s your grandmother?” “Technically she’s our ancestor. We only knew her for a short while but...we love her you know? She’s amazing...was amazing...I...I really wish we could have gotten more time with her” Michael’s eyes welled up with tears. It still hurts thinking of Gram-gram. He felt a hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry for your loss. Hey, you know what? It’s not the same of course but...umm, our Karai? She’s our eldest sister here”. Michael brightened up just a little. “Your sister? That’s so cool!” Mikey chuckled, put on a helmet and pads, and picked up his skateboard. They headed toward the kitchen then Mikey put out a hand for them to stop.

They could hear arguing that was getting louder coming from the kitchen. Mikey sighed then looked at Michael and gave him a pained smile. “We can skip the kitchen for now. You don’t need to see that”. He turned a confused Michael around in the other direction. “Where are we going?” Michael asked. He noticed this lair was very somber, with a lot of grey tones. “To give Donnie the heads up,” Mikey replied. They reached an enclosure that was probably the entrance to Donnie’s lab. Mikey knocked on the door. There was no answer. Mikey sighed. He knocked again. “Donnie”. Nothing. Mikey knocked louder this time, “Hey, Donnie-” Loud footsteps came crashing and something violently wrenched the door open. “STOP IT WITH THE RACKET. WHAT DO YOU WANT!?” Donnie looked furious, eyes much more bloodshot red, and he was jittery with his mask off. Michael hid behind Mikey. Mikey’s eyes widened, hurt. Then he narrowed them and shot out a hand putting Michael firmly behind him. Donnie seemed to realize that it was Mikey that he shouted at and he shrinks back putting his hand up. “I-I didn’t mean...Mikey...I-,” sputtered Donnie.

Mikey looked away. “You might wanna avoid the kitchen. Raph and Leo are at it again”. Mikey turned and walked away from his brother. A hand shot out and grabbed Mikey’s wrist. Mikey didn’t bother to look back. “Mikey…Please…I’m sorry” “Are you really? Then what, the next time I come by, you’ll shout at me to ‘Get the fuck out’ like the last time I tried to talk to you?”, Mikey spat. Donnie shook his head, “No! I’m sorry about that time...I was stressed and-” “You’re always stressed, Donnie. Is that really an explanation or is that an excuse? You need help, man” Michael watched Donnie slowly let go of his brother. Mikey walked away without looking back. Michael stared at Donnie’s distraught and heartbroken expression. His eyes widened when he saw Donnie scratched at a scale on his arm then pulled it out making it bleed. Donnie didn’t seem to notice. Michael scrambled after Mikey, “Hey...um...Your brother… Donnie...he...his arm… his arm is bleeding” Mikey winced...then pushed on. “He gets mad when you point it out to him and does it some more. The best thing to do is ignore it”. Michael shook his head, “Dude, no. That’s not…” “I know. Just...just leave it. Please,” Mikey said quietly. Michael stopped and looked at his counterpart in concern. Mikey sighed and patted Michael’s shoulders. “Come on, let’s have some fun”

---

“Dude...Is--Is this safe?” Michael asked, eyes wide at the steep drop of the building. Mikey adjusted his helmet and pads. Then he positioned his skateboard over the edge. “It is! Think of this as a huge half-pipe, yeah?” Mikey said excitedly. Michael frowned. “Sure….but it’s made of glass…” “Plexi. It’s pretty sturdy. Here, I’ll do a run so you can stop worrying,” Mikey bumped shoulders with Michael. He positioned himself on the skateboard. But before Michael could stop him, their surroundings suddenly changed. “Woah!!!” They both landed on their bums and looked at their surroundings. It looked like they were inside the sewers again...except this time it’s spacious with lots of clear water flowing through. Mikey helped Michael up and looked around. “Oooh. It looks like the lair except it isn’t as colorful as your home but it isn’t...um...grey as mine” “You think this is Mike’s home? Let’s find him!” “Yeah!” “Race ya!” The two orange-clad boys ran off giggling and chasing each other. They soon found a large area and heard voices.

“So, can you tell us why you called us here? Is it because of the kids you guys said you have been “visiting” lately?” Mikey put up a finger to his lips and Michael nodded as they quietly sneaked closer to the group they now realize were the four Splinterson brothers and two humans. The lady with fire red hair leaned on a table and said excitedly, “And can you tell us what they’re like? Please? The last dimensional versions of us were older” Mike came out with beer bottles in both his hands and passed them around. Leonardo chuckled and nursed his bottle. “Really young. Although one Leo just turned eighteen, the other is just fourteen. Why do you want to know, April, Casey?”. “That’s their April and Casey?” Michael asked, surprised. Mikey tilted his head. “They look like ours….but a lot older”. Michael blinked, “Really!?” “Shh!” April took a swig of her beer, “Professional curiosity. Not like Donatello will tell us what he’s working on” Donatello was on a table, tinkering with something. “Believe it or not, a stable portal to each other’s dimensions,” he explained without looking up. “Don and Donnie are working on a portal on their end”. “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” Michael whispered gleefully. Mikey looked away thoughtfully. “I guess that’s why he’s much more irritable as of late”. Michael stopped hand waving and frowned. “You...You don’t mean that, right Mikey?”. Mikey sighed, “Yeah...sorry”. “Don and Donnie, huh? You guys gave them nicknames already?” Casey said amusedly. Raphael clinked their bottles together as he passed by. “Makes it easier to figure out who’s who,” Raphael said. He settled next to Leonardo who, to Mikey and Michael’s surprise, took out a cigarette and lit it. “Not in the lab, Leo,” Donatello reprimanded without looking up. Leonardo moved to an open window. “Sorry, Donny. Anyway, April, what were you asking again?” “You were talking about the other Turtles! Tell me about them, please guys? What do they look like? How are they different from you?”

Leonardo chuckled. “Well for starters, one set of turtles are different species and ages from each other” “Oh my gosh! Really? I'd love to see that!” “Same! Ah man, that must be awkward tho, huh? They probably don’t have that much in common with each other…” Raphael looked at Leonardo and smirked. “Actually, the kids are really close. Like their own Raphie is the biggest, the eldest, and their current leader-” “Oh my gosh!” “What, no way!” “Yeah- I know! But he’s such a good kid. His brothers are very protective of him and him of them. He’s a lot calmer too. Must be because all his brothers are different types of hyper-” “So he offsets them!” April finished, her eyes shining. “He sounds amazing!” “He is! He knitted sweaters for Klunk and Raph’s Chomper-” Mike put down his beer bottle eyes wide and a touched smile on his face, “He did? That’s--wow. What a sweet kid”. “I know! Let me finish. He also gave Leonardo his blessing to train Leon to take over as leader sometimes...speaking of which--,” Raphael, Mike, and Donny put down what they were doing and glared at their brother. “---Leo, I hope you didn’t give the kid a hard time. He was acting out at the table” Leonardo lifted his hands in frustration, almost dropping his cigarette. “It wasn’t me!” He sighed. “But you’re right. I didn’t do anything to stop Leon and Leo from fighting and it turned into a huge misunderstanding...I’m sorry”. He put his free hand on Raphael's shoulder. “Good thing Raphie was there, huh? You all should have seen it. Leon...Leon’s a good kid but he’s...he’s so carefree. But I can see so much potential in him, and Raphie confirmed it. The kid is a natural- it’s a shame I also see he doesn’t know how to follow instructions or doesn’t have that much confidence in himself--” Mike came over and nudged his brother’s shoulders. “He’s a teenager . An actual teenager living his best life. From what I see, their Splinter raised them as actual kids instead of ninjas”. He looked wistful, “I’m so happy for them”. Michael looked down, red in the face. He felt a pat on the head and he turned to see Mikey, also smiling wistfully, “Don’t be sad, man. That’s a good thing”. Michael looked confused, “But...what does that mean?”. Mikey doesn’t answer him. Leonardo smiled, “Heh. You’re right, Mike. I’m happy for the kid too. As for Leo...the kid is quite capable and knowledgeable but...something’s off. Like really off, I can feel it. I hope the two of them won’t resent me too much when I train with them”. Raphael leaned back and sighed, “Same with Raph. He’s actually a quiet kid but I could feel something’s wrong. I could feel the anger and frustration but I don’t think it was at me or Raphie. Like it was directionless and directed everywhere” Leonardo took a drag of his cigarette and smiled wryly at his brother. “Looks like you’ll have to guide him, Raphael”. Raphael rolled his eyes and chuckled. They all looked over at Donatello. Donatello continued working. April poked him. “Come on Donny, spill-” “No”

“What? Why?” “Patient-Doctor Confidentiality” Raphael frowned. “The kids aren’t our clients-” “Even more reason to not say anything. It’s not any of our business-” It was Mike who interrupted. “That’s all well and good, Donny, but as your brothers, don’t think we do not notice how your arm bleeds or your recent sliced thumb the last time we visited the kids”. Raphael and Leonardo got up in alarm. Mikey looked down and glared at the floor, frustrated. Donatello sighed in annoyance. “It’s fine. I’ll handle it”.

Mike frowned, “If you say so. But if you need help-”. This time Donatello looked up and gave his brother a fond smile, “Yeah, don’t worry. If it’s too much, I’ll ask for your help”. Raphael shook his head. “Or mine. It sounds like my area of expertise too”. Donatello went back to what he was working on. “It’s better if I handle it. They open up quicker and better to someone familiar. Even if that person is a different version of themselves” April tapped her chin, “I don’t want to diagnose without getting the full picture but...it sounds like sensory overload that is triggered due to...something. Stress is a factor but another could be trauma-” Donatello shook his head, “April, I’m sorry but what did we all agree on in early diagnosis?” April rubbed her arms sheepishly. “Sorry, Donny. I can’t help it. How about you Mike?” Mike turned his head and was about to reply… then he swiveled his head in the direction of Mikey and Michael and grinned. The boys gulped. “I could tell you, but I think it’s better if they can explain themselves. Boys, come out” Michael rushed out and hugged Mike. Mike gave out a laugh and a slight “Oof. Hey, bud”, while Mikey lagged behind. Mike put a hand on Mikey’s head and rubbed it. Mikey chirred quietly in response. Michael chirred back happily. “Woah, ASL, Japanese, and Turtle speak. You guys are really talented, you know that?” Mike commented, impressed. “Ooh! They’re here? How are they? Are they alright? How did they feel when they traveled here?” Casey asked intrigued. April rocked on her heels excited, “Hi kids! You probably have guessed but I’m April O’Neil and this is my husband, Casey Jones! You’re welcome to our humble home any day” “Wow! Casey and April are married here? Tell them I give my thanks, Mike,” Michael cheered and he hopped up and down excitedly. “Married...Woah...uh...um tell them thanks! I’d love to meet them face to face,” Mikey said. Mike relayed what the boys said and April clapped her hands excitedly. “I can’t wait to meet you all! When Donny finishes the portal anyway” “Actually-” “What’re your hobbies? I’d love to get to know you!” Mike grinned, “Little Michael here-” “Hey!” “who is a smidge smaller than me, is a really good cook. You should see him in the kitchen. He also uses a kusari-fundo instead of nunchakus, am I right?” “And saws! But I can use nunchucks too when I use ninpo-” “And Mikey here is a master prankster like me. He can dance and is really creative. Come on dude, own it! Also, you’re like what 5’6? I’m a 5’4 man. You’re tall, kid. And you’ll grow even more I bet” Mikey slightly retreated into his shell, embarrassed. Michael nodded enthusiastically. “They’re both good skateboarders. Must have gotten it from me-Hey, Raph, not cool!” Leonardo chuckled because Raphael had thrown a well-aimed grape. Michael kept bouncing up and down. “This is so, so cool!” Mikey put a steadying hand on Michael, “What were you guys saying about clients and diagnosis and stuff?” “Hey guys, the kids wanna know about our day jobs. Is that cool?” When Donny, Leonardo, and Raphael nodded their heads, Mike replied, “We’re therapists, and April and Casey work in the same field too. Analyzing behavioral patterns come out naturally to us” Mikey scrunched his nose while Michael let out an “Oooo!”. “That’s...cool? What do you guys do?”. Mike patted his plastron proudly and gave a huge grin. “I’m a certified youth and school counselor! I deal with kids from all walks of life regularly” Raphael collected his and Leonardo’s empty bottles. “I’m a physical trainer with certification in both exercise and trauma work. I handle physical and mental recovery from...er...really bad stuff”. Leonardo put out his cigarette and threw it away. “I’m a social worker. I handle displaced and marginalized people in the city. I also am sensei to….a bunch of rowdy mutant kids”. Donny put down his work to reach for something glowing. “I’m a behavioral therapist with some overlap in trauma. I deal with the rehabilitation of mental health disorders” Casey scratched the back of his head. “Mine is a bit complicated. Closest I can get is nutritional and exercise therapy. You...you cannot believe the things people do to their bodies,” he shuddered. “I’m a psychiatrist with a specialty in pharmaceutics. Anything that needs medicine, I supply” Michael was gob-smacked, but Mikey looked confused. “I’m surprised but...why would ninja need to do all that stuff?” Mike gave the boys a sad smile. “Because there is an influx of mutants in the city and see, there aren't a lot of people willing to help them or the humans lower in the social ladder who desperately need help”. He gestured to his brothers and sister. “So we did what we could and stepped up. We’re kind of all they have at the moment”. Both Mikey and Michael stared at their counterpart in a new light and deep admiration. Mike scratched his cheek in embarrassment. “And I have never been prouder, my dear children. The battlefield has changed, and so you all adapted in ways I have never expected,” said a soft voice. Out from the shadows, a grey rat hobbled towards them all. He took Raphael’s outstretched arm and sat in front of Michael. “From what I have gathered, you apparently have guests, Michelangelo” “Yes, Master Splinter. You can’t see them but Michael and Mikey are here. They are very young, father” “I see? How old?” “Mikey and his brothers are eighteen. Michael is thirteen and is the youngest of his brothers” April gasped and put a hand over her mouth while Casey sucked in a horrified breath. Splinter closed his eyes. “Each iteration gets younger and younger. I grieve for the innocence lost, and I am sorry” Both Michael and Mikey looked down solemnly. “It is a shame I cannot see or hear them-” “Excuse me, Father, but this is what I have been trying to say since earlier,” Donatello interrupted. He gave a grin and pulled out seven crystal wristbands and pointed to a floating, glowing, orb. Donatello looked to the side and chuckled as if he responded to something only he could hear. “The portals are done and stabilized on all our ends. We can now visit each other”

[mermaidcashton]

i hate to admit it

author: claire (@mermaidcashton) ship: michael clifford/reader prompt/AU: this is a gift for the wonderful @h0tsos who wanted soft, subby Michael in an enemies to lovers capacity (and i snuck some coffee shop!au in there as well, and some weebness because, well, it’s Steff and Michael) wordcount: 4k+ warnings: swearing, alcohol mentions, explicit sexual content a/n: • written for @maluminspace & @h0tsos ‘s 5sos fic writers collab (which was a gift exchange this time around) • i do not give permission for this (or any of my writing) to be reposted, by anyone, on this or any other website. please don’t do it! • title from ‘this means war’ by mariana’s trench • ‘my hero academia’ is a manga/anime series. there are references to it and a few of the characters in this but you don’t need to know anything about it to understand what’s going on.

i hate to admit it *** “So, they’re like...superheroes?” 

Luke sipped on his glass of rosé, nodding like he understood whilst making a face that showed he absolutely did not.

“Yeah, dude, pretty much!” Michael nodded along with your co-worker with so much enthusiasm he looked like one of those dogs people put on their dashboards. Except less cute. Wait, no - not cute. Definitely not cute at all. Good save, you. Couldn’t have your own internal monologue thinking you felt anything for the moron you were forced to work with 3 times a week was anything more than an annoyance you had to endure. With a butt that wouldn’t quit. Dammit, self! 

Michael took advantage of Luke showing an interest in his (and yours) favourite anime, and began bombarding him with half baked theories, predictable favourite scenes and shitty character analysis. He nearly knocked his own hat off as he flailed his hands around in an attempt at explaining the dynamics of a battle from the second season. Luke smiled politely. 

You snorted into your drink as you drained the last of it; you were definitely going to need another. If Michael started fanboying over Deku again, you were going to scream.

As you placed the empty bottle onto the wood of the coffee table, you took another glance around the apartment you were in. You’d never been up here before, despite spending a minimum of 20 hours a week in the coffee shop downstairs. But after this evening’s staff meeting tackling such issues as ‘who forgot that milk needs to be kept in the fridge overnight’ (Luke), ‘who is putting too much whipped cream on hot chocolates’ (Michael), and ‘who wrote ‘THIS COFFEE IS HOT, BUT U R HOTTER ❤ ) on a customers caramel macchiato’ (Luke again), Ashton had invited you all upstairs for a ‘employee chill’. You had been surprised a week or so into your employment when you had found out that the manager was also the owner who lived in the apartment above Screamin’ Beans; he was only in his mid twenties, but the more you’d experienced his drive and determination, the more your surprise had dwindled. Ashton really was a great guy, with one big flaw; Michael. They had been best friends for years, hence him moving into the apartment when he came back into town and the job Ashton had given him; which in your humble opinion was the equivalent of setting a monkey loose on the milk frother.   

Michael had sealed his fate with you the same day he’d started work. He arrived 10 minutes late (from upstairs), sleepy eyed and shy smiled. His fluffy blonde hair was spilling out of his beanie, and he kept biting his very pink lip bottom with sharp little teeth. The way he pronounced your name was adorable. You’d burned your hand on the espresso machine. Strike one. Things unravelled quickly after that. He was ‘too shy’ to take orders and work the register so you were stuck there all day talking to goddamn customers about why it wasn’t a good idea to have 3 pumps of every syrup while he hid behind silver machinery and dirtied way more jugs than you deemed necessary. Strike two. And then he’d dropped a latté into that ladies bag - sorry, very expensive bag. Michael had let out a ‘uuuhhh’ sound like a malfunctioning robot without moving for so long that the furious customer had stopped trying to yell at him and focused her rage on you instead. When he had eventually come to whatever passed for his senses, Michael had power walked into the employee bathroom and didn’t return until Calum arrived to join the shift and assured him the woman had left, twenty minute later. You were beyond strikes. You’d been so sure you could talk Ashton into scheduling you together as little as possible. There was no reason to put you down to work nearly every shift together, especially shifts where only two staff were on! Except, apparently there was because he kept fucking doing it. Every time you pressed Ashton on it, he’d say something about how he needed Michael ‘trained by the best’, or ‘matching availabilities’, or he thought their ‘energies combined well; auras are meshing, y’know?’ The one might have been on you for catching him as he was returning from his Vibe Check Yoga class at the studio down the street. 

He’d also emphasised that Michael needed more friends now he was back in the city, and you two had loads in common! You both liked pop punk! You’d rolled your eyes. And Italian food! A ‘tch noise. And anime! Okay, you’d bite. 

The next time you’d gone into work, you’d engaged Michael in a conversation about ‘Tokyo Ghoul’ and recommended ‘Demon Slayer’; things started to pick up. You didn’t fantasise about locking Michael in the walk-in fridge the whole shift. And then…

“You watch ‘My Hero Academia’, right?” “Uh, yeah! I love it.” “Me too! I just ordered a Todoroki tee yesterday. And another Deku one, of course; gotta rep my main man!” “Oh..cool! He’s your favourite?” Of course Michael was a basic bitch. But hey, that’s fine. Deku was fine. He was the main character, after all. And he’s a little less whiny in the recent manga issues, you guess. And the way Michael’s face was right now - open, comfortable, lit up like the 4th of July? That was good, too. His eyes were so green.  “Yeah! Who’s your favourite character?” “Well, I would die for a bunch of ‘em, but I’m a Bakugou girl at heart.” You laid a palm flat on your chest, choosing to ignore the feel of your heart beating faster than it had been five minutes ago beneath it.  Michael wrinkled his nose. “Bakugou? But he’s like...he’s so mean! And angry!”

Oh no. You’d had this conversation before. You locked eyes with Michael, hoping he could see the warning in your eyes. Don’t do it, ho.

“Like, he’d probably make a better villain than hero!”

“You okay, boo?” Calum slid into the space on the couch beside you, holding out a fresh beer for you to take. “You look deep in thought.”

You hummed and accepted the bottle from him, letting go of your train of thought as you caught sight of Luke trying to prove he could get his overly long leg behind his head. Michael and Ashley F. were both actively trying to avoid getting kicked in the face with a sparkly boot, whilst Ashton was just monitoring the situation very intently; you’re not entirely sure when he last blinked. 

You snorted again as Luke’s foot slotted into place in a position you were 85% sure he would not be able to get out of again without assistance, possibly from the emergency services.

“I’m fine. Gotta be one of us capable of thinking here, y’know.” You teased, looking sidelong at Calum. He laughed, rubbing a hand over his freshly shaved hair; he’d always been as easy to get along with as he was obnoxiously handsome. “Hey! You’re lucky I know you’re talking about the human pretzel over there! And I guess, your boyf-” Big brown eyes glittered at you over the hand you’d slapped over his mouth. “-fwendth.” Narrowing your own eyes at your friend, you hissed. “Shut up! I would rather die.” Calum waggled his eyebrows incessantly at you until you relented and dropped your hand. “You knew who I was talking about, though.” Ugh. Smug was not a good look on Calum. “You know, smug is not a good lo-oh fuck, is that the time?” The clock behind Calum’s head showed 8:58; your auction ended at 9:00. You fumbled into your bag for your phone, unlocking it and flicking straight to the app you needed. Phew - still the top bid. “Whatcha doin’?” Calum hooked his chin over your shoulder, blowing your hair out of his face before settling down. 

“Bidded on a really cool, limited edition figure. One of my all time favourite anime characters. The auction is about to end.” You explained,  making sure Calum could hear you other the cacophony of sounds associated with Luke trying to get his other leg behind his head. You both watched the seconds tick down, your username sitting securely by the words ‘Winning Bid’. At two seconds to nine, the page refreshed, then refreshed again; it was over.

‘Winning Bid: BIGRED69’ “Uh...what happened? That’s not you, right?” Calum asked, tilting his head to look at your face, and the rage it contained. BIGRED69. He’d done it again. 

“Uh oh, Y/N - what’s wrong?” Ashton’s voice pulled you out of your internal screaming, and you looked up at him. 

“She’s losing her weeb shit at a heavy eBay loss” Calum answered for you, nodding solemnly as he pulled away from you, giving you room to bonk him with a cushion. “Oh! That’s too bad, but that’s another thing you and Mikey have in common!” Ashton beamed. “Mikey!” Oh no. Oh no, no.

“Yeah?” Michael sloped over, getting his black boot caught on the corner of the leopard print rug as he did. Ashton caught him with an ease you suspected (knew) came from practice. “Why don’t you take Y/N to see your anime dolls? She collects them, too!” Ashton looked so pleased with himself and his suggestion for further ‘bonding’ for you and Michael, and Michael looked like he’d been force fed raw lemon at the phrase ‘anime dolls’, so you let it go on your own behalf. Except now Michael was waiting expectantly for you to follow him to his room and Calum was shoving you off of the couch to get you moving. Fuck your life. You sighed as you got up and started walking. “Fine, let’s go; you can show me your Todoroki body pillow and then we can get on with our lives.” Michael let out a small hiss like an angry kitten, his cheeks colouring a pretty pink. He spared a glance at everyone left in your wake. “I, um, don’t have a body pillow, you guys.” “Suuuuure!” You rolled your eyes, waiting for Michael to enter his bedroom so you could follow. The blonde flicked the light on and moved slightly further in so you could pass him, before shutting the door with a small ‘click’. You decided not to comment on this action, looking around at the posters on the walls and figurines on the shelves instead. You were undecided on whether or not you were going to comment on how cool a lot of Michael’s shit was. A ‘Full Metal Alchemist’ poster over his bed, a full shelf of Funko Pops from movies you loved, framed prints of album artwork by Waterparks and The Maine. Fuck. You were really aware of Michael staring at you with an almost hopeful (?) look on his face as you let your eyes travel around his room before he could show you his ‘anime dolls’. Fuck. Your stomach felt fluttery, and you thought you might have a serious problem here, before you caught sight of a very different problem on Michael’s desk. 

A rare Kirishima Eijirou statue - box signed by the voice actor - you’d been outbid on last month. By BIGRED69. What were the chances a different one was sitting by Michael’s laptop?

“So,” You said, trying to keep your voice neutral and non-murderous. “Where do you get your collectibles from?” “Forbidden Planet, Tokyo Toys, eBay…” Michael rattled off, until you interrupted him. “Where did you get that one? Looks rare - it must have been difficult!” 

“Oh! eBay! It was, but I have an app for it, so…” Michael grinned, looking pleased with himself. An app? “An automatic bidding app? You sniped me?! That’s cheating!” You squeaked; you could not believe this. It was unbelievable.

Michael blinked at you, head empty. “BIGRED69?!” You managed to make the world’s stupidest screen name sound like a terrible accusation. Which it was.

Comprehension dawned on his stupid, beautiful face all at once. “Oh my God! That was you that I’ve been fighting for this stuff? No way! But you didn’t know it was me?”

“Why the hell would I know it was you!” You threw your hands up, and Michael just stared dopily back at you.

“‘Bigred69?! Obviously I assumed you were 12!” Michael let out a squawk of protest, before folding his arms defensively across his chest.

“Clifford!” “What?” Michael’s tone became more insistent. “My last name! Clifford!” You pulled an exaggerated ‘so?!’ face, throwing your hand in the air again. 

Michael had the unmitigated gall to huff, like you were the biggest idiot in the room; like he wasn’t always the biggest idiot in every room, all rooms, ever, in the history of rooms. “Clifford the Big Red Dog!” He said, insistence heavy in the words.

You often swore you could almost hear the old internet dial up tone trilling inside Michael’s brain when customers at the coffee shop asked him such difficult questions as “What dairy alternative milks do you carry?”, “Where is the bathroom?”, and even once - you swear - “What’s your name?”. In Michael’s defence, that last one had been asked in more flirtatious-than-not tone by a brunette who clearly had some kind of vision problem (he’d been dressed more horrendously than usual that day beneath his uniform apron; was that a utility vest?!), but had fluttered her eyelashes at your idiot colleague so hard, for so long, you’d been concerned she’d be leaving without what little vision she’d arrived with. But still. Idiot. Michael, not you. And yet, now it was you with your brain puttering through the information you had with the shrill electronic sound of the 90’s in your head. “Clifford the- are you for fucking real?” This could not be real life.

“It’s totally clever!” Michael asserted, continuing in earnest once you scoffed in reply. “No, listen! Because of Clifford, and also, I had red hair when I made it, and 69 is funny - it is! - and, well-” His face flushed slightly before he puffed his chest out a little, apparently deciding to commit to his defence of his screen name. “I’m big, so it works on like, loads of levels!” 

This could not be happening to you. You were decidedly not standing in the bedroom of a coworker you simultaneously couldn’t stand and also couldn’t stop thinking about kissing as you restocked the counter fridges in the evenings, as he explained that his auction site handle was a combination of a previous dye job, an insinuation about his dick and a massive fucking dog. You could not let Michael have the upper hand here, but you were floundering. So you fell into more familiar, more pathetic territory. 

“If you were called something like ‘deku-loving-loser’, then, sure - I would have known it was you!” “Who’s 12 now?!” “Uh, still you!” Okay, so this wasn’t your finest moment, but you were in it now. And you’d really wanted the Kaminari figure tonight. Michael didn’t even like him that much!

“The point is, you totally sniped me! And you get stuff about basic canon wrong! And your understanding of the characters is one dimensional! And, and...your hat is stupid!” Well, shit. In your defence, Michael’s hat was stupid. You could feel how hot your face was, and Michael’s eyes looking right at it was only making it worse. You couldn’t read his expression at all; he looked like he was searching for something, and you didn’t know what it was, or if he’d find it. You could only assume he had when he took the most decisive steps you’d ever seen him take, reaching you in two huge steps and cupping your face with both hands. Michael kissed in a way he didn’t do anything else; he felt sure and certain as he pressed his lips to yours, moving them with intent. Your brain became overtaken with television static almost immediately as you moved your mouth in time with his, opening your mouth immediately at the questioning press of his tongue. You had enough of yourself left aware to yank his stupid fucking hat off his head as you tangled your fingers in his blonde hair, Michael’s hands sliding down to clutch at your waist as you swayed with the kiss. As Michael pulled back ever so slightly, you took the opportunity to press your teeth into his plush bottom lip, the way you’d thought of doing in afternoon slumps on shift. The whine that came from deep in Michael’s throat made a split second decision for you. 

You pulled back further from Michael, yanking your top off in one go and starting in on the buttons of his black shirt before he fully registered the sight of your bra and the top of your full breasts.  

“Shit, Y/N, are you…” Michael trailed off as you pulled his sleeves down his arms, and the shirt off this body. Your eyes met his as you popped the button on his black jeans and placed your hand on his zipper. “Do you really want me to overthink this, Michael?” A moment’s pause, then he shook his head vigorously, leaning down to pull his boots off once you’d yanked his jeans to his knees. By the time he was left in his (funnily enough, black) boxer briefs, you’d discarded your own jeans and were knelt at the foot of his bed in your soft, lilac underwear. Michael’s breath hitched as his gaze drifted down your body, taking it all in under the artificial light of the room. “Get over here, Clifford…” You teased, trying not to second guess what was happening. Michael broke out of his trance and more or less threw himself onto the bed, settling his head on the pillows and pulling you on top of him for another kiss, and then another, and another. By the time you pulled back to catch your breath, your head was spinning. You braced yourself on your forearms on the bed, taking the time to admire Michael’s body beneath you. 

You’d seen the tattoos on his pale, strong arms before, but they looked different in this context; the contrast between the milky skin and dark ink made your stomach swoop. The blonde hair on his head is also a contradiction; to the dark hair on his chest and the hair trailing down his stomach and disappearing under his waistband. Your mouth felt very dry as you let your gaze continue downward, to the straining bulge beneath the fabric.

You flicked your eyes back to meet Michael’s in question, your fingers suddenly resting on the waistband of his underwear. Michael swallowed thickly, and then nodded once before fixing you with a gaze of pure anticipation. 

No use waiting around. You propped yourself up onto your knees over him and pulled on the fabric decisively, not stopping your motion until his underwear bunched up at his ankles. Holy shit.

You always knew Michael had to have at least one redeeming quality, and you’d finally found it. His cock was huge, hanging heavy and hard between his fuzzy thighs. The head was flushed the darkest pink you could ever remember seeing, and the slit was already shiny with precum. 

If a voice in your head that sounded unfortunately like Calum pressed that Michael had lots of qualities you secretly found redeeming, you ignored it in favour of getting straight to business.

“FUCK! FUCKIN-” 

Apparently, Michael hadn’t been prepared for you to take half of his impressive length into your mouth in one go. You sucked with intent, casting your eyes up to take in the sight of him. His pupils were already starting to blow, and you’d barely done anything. God, that was so sweet.

But then Michael threaded his fingers through your hair, his hand pressing ever so slightly into your scalp. The blonde wasn’t pushing down, but his grip was firm. You could feel the weight of his hand on the top of your head as you held his cock in your mouth, and that shit? Would not stand.

You grab the wrist brushing your hair a second before your other hand finds his idle one, fingers twisted loosely in the sheets. Once you’ve captured both wrists, you guide both to the same point above Michael’s hips, before slamming both into the mattress with purpose. 

If you’d had time to think about it, you’re not sure how you would have expected Michael to react. He didn’t really put out the energy of a man who’d properly fight you for control, either in a domineering way or with more of an air of fragile masculinity. Perhaps a bit of questioning but ultimately compliant as long as he got his dick sucked. But the wanton moan that kicked out of Michael’s chest as you settled into a tight grip on his wrists where you had them pinned on the sheets with intent? That was unexpected. That was interesting.   

Your mouth had remained still on his cock whilst you got his wrists pinned down, more cockwarming him than blowing him. But now you had him so pliant and under your control, it was go time. You pulled back up his cock, wrapping your lips tightly around the head of Michael’s cock, and sucked with gusto. Another groan from above you. You worked your tongue all the way around the head before pulling back enough to flick it into Michael’s sensitive slit. “Oh my fuuu- Y/N, God, I-” Michael was starting to writhe, his hairy legs rubbing into the sheets beneath you. You could feel his wrists moving along with the rest of his body, but you knew you’d made it clear you’d wanted him pinned, and he made no move to get his hand free. Good boy. You sank steadily back down Michael’s length, at least to the six inch mark, before pulling back up, hollowing your cheeks as you went. Back down a little further, then up, back to teasing the head, using your tongue. Michael couldn’t predict what you were going to do next, and it was clearly pushing all of his buttons. You could taste the precum that his cock kept kicking out into your mouth and throat, and see the flush spreading down his neck. By the time you’d pulled, drool beginning to build at the sides of your mouth, Michael was a mess, moaning as much as he was breathing. This could get addictive, you thought to yourself as you let your mouth drop to his balls, and your thumbs press into the pulse points on his wrists. You hummed before you released his left ball from your mouth with a wet pop, and that’s when Michael started begging. “Please, please, Y/N, I wanna-” he panted, cutting himself off over and over. “You’re so beautiful, lemme- God, fuck, it feels so amazing, you’re- I’ve been good, I’ll do anything, please…”

You pretend to consider his pleas as you dragged your tongue over his right ball, dipping into all the creases and leaving them wet behind you. Drawing back up onto your knees, you released one of his wrists so you could push his sweaty blonde bangs back from where it was plastered to his forehead, drinking in the vision before you. His green eyes were nearly completely black, blown out with arousal. The sheen on the skin of his face and body made him glow. His lips were chapped from his teeth tugging on them, and the pink of the matched the flush spread from his cheeks down his chest. And the wrist you were no longer restraining hadn’t moved a centimeter, still pressed firmly to the mattress. Michael was a good boy. And you knew how to treat good boys. With no preamble, you took Michael back into the wet heat of your mouth, relaxing your throat and not stopping until your nose was buried in the soft thatch of trimmed hair on his crotch. You took a moment to situate yourself and enjoy the deep whines bursting out of Michael’s throat into the quiet of his bedroom, before you began to move again, swallowing around his cock. You saw his thighs begin to tremble to the side of you before you heard him speak. “Fuck, fuck, Y/N, please, I’m gonna-” You hummed as hard as you could, pushing Michael’s wrists with that little bit more force into the bed as you did. Michael let out his loudest whine yet - bordering on a sob- as he came, shooting down your throat as he writhed beneath you. 

You swallowed everything he gave you, and when you were sure he was finished, you pulled off slowly, and gently, releasing his wrists as you stood back up on your knees.

Michael looked blissed out, staring dreamily up at you with bright, adoring eyes. He still was yet to move his hands. “Hey.” “Hi.” You smirked down at him. “I believe I heard something about you’d ‘do anything’?” You shot a quick glance at the figurine on his desk, and down at yourself. “I had some ideas…” 

collab masterlist • my masterlist

[4birds-of-a-feather]

Chapter 27 - Wonder whose arms will hold you good and tight (when it’s exactly twelve o’clock that night) [part 3]

Birds Of a Feather

(In the previous chapters: after a wild match of a new game called I Have a Ball, the gang can finally start the party; among the guests there are Chris and Matt of Soundgarden, Layne and his girlfriend Demri and a couple of Mudhoney guys; to avoid an embarrassing situation, Sara suggests a game of Never Have I Ever which, despite Stone’s objection, is endorsed by several guests: now they can finally get to the heart of the party)

At this point the guests had basically split in three groups: some of them were stuffing their faces in the kitchen, others were dancing and listening to the music and some were taking their seats in a circle in the middle of the living room to play the game. “I can’t believe I’m doing this!” whined Stone as he sat down on the carpet “What did you plan for midnight? Musical chairs or broom dance?” “Stop complaining Gossard, nobody forces you to play if you don’t want to!” Cornell retorted to him and then went on “And actually I planned something great for midnight… you’ll see” “Should we be scared?” Layla wondered aloud as she noticed the devilish grin on Chris’s face. “Not much more than usual” Mike shrugged as he sat on the couch between her and Lukin. “Anyway, there’s no children games or grown up games: a game is a game, then it depends on how you play it” the girl explained then turned around immediately when she heard someone beside her open his mouth. “Yeeeah, and it depends on how much play you get” Elias spoke like he came out of thin air. “Elias?? Where have you been?” “When you grow up, I’ll tell you all about it, my darling one” the guy gave her a blatant wink “Let’s just say that it involved physical activity with a blonde bombshell…” “I didn’t know that indoor plants could be blondes...” “What do you mean, Mr. Cameron?” “I mean that, apparently, you have a thing for ficus plants and you also find ‘em incredibly blonde; I saw you sprawled between them half an hour ago, but I never took you for a-fuck, what’s the name?” “... Dendrophiliac?”  “Yes, exactly! Thanks, Layla, you’re an angel” the drummer flashed at Layla one of his sunny grins, while Elias began to whine. “Matt, what a low blow! I expected that from everybody in this room – except you and Ed, and look where my admiration for you has led me!” “... What kind of hippie freak are you, O’Reilly? Hell, going at it with a vegetable?! And it wasn’t even a carrot or a pickle, what is your damag-” Jeff had looked at him all perplexed, but he was fortunately interrupted by loud coughs made by Layla. “Soooo, everybody here knows the rules?” the girl asked, but was met by skeptical looks “Jeez, what kind of adolescence did y’all have?” “One that didn’t include fun, apparently” Elias shrugged, still licking his wounds after his previous skirmish with Matt. “Ok, I get it: first of all, grab the poison of your choice” and, as she said it, she filled herself a glass of tequila that had been previously hoarded in the middle of the circle with many other kinds of booze. Soon after Sara had shrugged and grabbed a bottle of beer, while Demri helped herself to a glass of sangria and then, one by one, everybody followed their example and was having something alcoholic clenched in their hands. “Very good” Layla cleared her throat “One by one, each one of us begins their sentence with ‘Never have I ever’ and then proceeds to say something they have never done; if you did the thing that has just been said, you have to take a sip of your drink” “Milady, you had my curiosity, but now you have my attention” Lukin declared, a hand upon his heart. “Now, this is the most important rule, so pay attention: you have to remember that the winners are the ones who have their glasses at their fullest” “... Layla, are you telling us that having a life as interesting as a sloth’s is the key to success?” Cornell scratched his temple, glancing at her in a perplexed way.  “I think she is” “Well, I have a question” Stone, unexpectedly, raised his hand “You talked about glasses, but many of us have chosen bottles, so it would take ‘em more time to empty that instead of a glass, right? Doesn’t that sound like a huge advantage to any of you?” “... he’s right, they have more booze to drink, that’s unfair!” Mike chimed in, pouting and waving his glass of whiskey in the face of everybody. “That’s not what I meant, Cready, lemm-” “But you can always grab another glass after you emptied the first, man! That’s what I’m gonna do” Lukin patted Mike on the shoulder, showing him his own glass of gin, and the guitarist returned to being his usual cheerful self. “Ok, so, who starts?” Layla asked, rolling her eyes. “Well, since you suggested the game in the first place, it’s only fair that you’re the one who goes first” Eddie answered gently. <The fact I’m also eager to know the things you did and didn’t do has got nothing to do with it, of course> “Oh, ok so ne-” the girl was answering but was immediately cut off by Stone. “Err-Ed, it was actually Sara who suggested it. Or the mysterious person she heard it from” “Huh? Oh yeah, you’re right, you go first, Sara” the singer admitted and mentally counted how many rounds were there before Layla’s turn. “Yeah, Sara, you can start” Layla winked at her friend and everybody else agreed but someone else chimed in again. “I have an idea. Why don’t we all drink a glass of something and the one who empties it faster starts?” McCready suggested.  “That’s what I call starting with a boom, I’m in, man! So 3… 2… 1-” Lukin immediately went along with him and brought his glass close to his mouth. “Nuh-huh, we’re gonna take it slow, it’s less funny if we all get drunk before the start” Layla innocently explained. “Now that’s not exactly true, miss” Lukin addressed the girl in a contrived way. “Everybody shut up! Sara will begin, end of the story” Stone took over and everybody simply agreed without further questioning. <Haha, I got the power> “Well, well, well” Sara tapped the bottle of beer against her lips “Never have I ever…” she stopped and looked Jeff directly in the eye “... got a love letter” Layla promptly gulped a sip of tequila, leaving Ed lost in his thoughts: he couldn’t believe that the Boston piece of shit could be able to make such a significant gesture. “Mikey, what the fuck are you doin’?” “Taking a sip, obviously” “... who wrote you a love letter? When did that happen?!” “My love life isn’t any concern of yours, Stoney” and, that said, McCready finally drank a bit of his whiskey, then turned to a pouty Lukin “Dude, why that sad face??” “...”  Lukin didn’t open his mouth because he was already near the stage of an alcohol-fueled coma, but Mike perceived his silence as a sign of possible discomfort and shame. “Don’t tell me that nobody ever wrote you a love letter!” he added, shocked “That is outrageous! But you don’t have to cry about it, if you want I’ll write you one” “... Elias, put that glass down; nobody’s gonna believe you” Stone changed his victim, who rolled his eyes but did as he had said. In the middle of all that noise, Demri and Layne shared a glance full of complicity and drank almost at the same time, while Chris and Matt clinked their glasses and unironically did the same. “Nobody specified if it had to be sincere or a bet would suffice as well, so…” Cornell smirked, then looked at Eddie, who hadn’t moved a muscle “Ed, you’re not drinking?” “Yeah, I-I’m usually the one who writes ‘em” the singer let out a nervous chuckle, then turned to the girl who was sitting next to him and that was muttering something under her breath “Everything ok, Sara?” The young woman’s gaze at Jeff was literal lava, ready to boil all over him. “That piece of shit… he doesn’t even have the balls to admit it, fuckin’ unbelievable” she snorted, then added in a loud voice “Somebody in this room is so full of shit it’s not even funny” When Jeff gave her a perplexed glance, she went on: “Yeah, I’m talking about you” “Man, what does she mean with that?” Elias went near the bassist in order to satisfy his curiosity, but the guy just shrugged. “She must have forgotten to take her medicine, you’ll get used to it” Jeff reassured him as he kept eye contact with Sara. <So what? Only because I’m lucky with girls, it doesn’t mean I gotta receive stupid love letters every day… And since when is this any of her business? Is she jealous? She fuckin’ hates me, how can she be jealous? And why does she fucking hate me anyway? Can’t we just have fun without problems for once?> Seeing the vein pulsing on her temple, Eddie put a hand on the girl’s arm: “Don’t mind him, you know how he is” he paused a second, then beamed with enthusiasm “Now it’s my turn!” “Who said that?” Stone asked after gazing from Sara to Jeff during their exchange like the spectator of a tennis match. “Well, we’re following the order…” Eddie explained pointing at Sara sitting next to him, then at himself, then towards Lukin and the other people sitting on the couch. “Who decided it’s counterclockwise?” Mike wondered. “How can you say cun- cou- caunt- county- oh fuck, how can you say that fuckin’ word when drunk?” Lukin tried to make a point. “Sadly not drunk enough, my friend” Mike wiped invisible tears from under his eyes while the bass player patted him on the leg. “Who cares if it’s clockwise or not, let’s go on!” Jeff huffed at Stone and flailed his arms, anxious to go on with the game, mostly to shift the attention on something else. “So – cough, cough! – can I?” Eddie hesitantly demanded. “Yeah, sure!” everybody prompted him to go on. “Ok so… uhm… never have I ever… got back with an ex” he said looking intently at the carpet beneath his feet. Some people drank, some people didn’t. Mike drank from his glass as Layla left hers untouched and gave him a puzzled look.  “Really, Mike?”  “What can I say? The soul is willing but the flesh is weak”  Layla nodded embarrassed and when she looked at Eddie, he looked down again pretending not to be staring at her, now acting preoccupied with his fingernails. <So she didn’t. But she wanted to. Does she still? She would be back with him already if it  wasn’t for the snow. It’s just a matter of time anyway… Shit, I should have asked ‘Never have I ever WANTED to get back with an ex’. I’ll wait for my next round... Will it be too obvious?> “Guess it’s my turn now” Lukin shrugged then stood up from the couch for no reason. “You don’t have to stand up to say the thing, Matt” McCready reminded him but he acted like he didn’t hear him. “Never have I ever… lied to a friend to avoid a greater evil” he stated then plopped back down on the couch with a burp. “Wait... this is a normal question” Jeff frowned as he, like everybody else, was expecting some senseless stuff. “Isn’t it alright?” Lukin asked and was about to stand up again, not without any effort, but Layla promptly pulled him down right away. “It’s alright, Matt, the question is perfect” she said and proceeded to drink from her glass. Steve, who hadn’t drunk in the first two rounds, did the same, just like Sara, Mike and literally everybody else. “Mikey, you basically did everything” Layne joked. <Yeah, finally something I actually did for real> the guitarist pondered and smiled. “Well, once I said I had troubles at home with my family and couldn’t make it to rehearsal. But I actually went to a party and got shitfaced” “YOU DID WHAT?” Stone and Jeff attacked him almost at the same time while the others just laughed. “You liar! And I was even worried about you” Stone shook his head. “You were worried only because you had paid to book the practising space in advance!” the other guitarist retorted, sticking his tongue out at him. “Do it again and I’ll bust your head wide open” Ament threatened pointing his finger at him. “You’re one to talk! Did you forget when you came late to soundcheck at the Off Ramp and said it was because of a jammed brake pad in your truck you had to check?” Mikey ironically asked “But what you actually had to check out was instead that girl from 7-Eleven?”  “YOU WHAT? GUYS, I’M SERIOUSLY DISAPPOINTED” Stone folded his arms and gave them both a scolding look. “Well yeah, I can understand Mike, but I thought you were more focused on art, honestly” Eddie chimed in with a shitty grin on his face. “Huh, not you too, please!” “What does it mean you can understand me? I’m focused on my art too” the guitarist acted offended “Sometimes you just need a break, you know?” “Come on, give Jeff a break! And you’re right Mike, don’t listen to them! It’s your turn now” Layla tried to bring peace in the gang and asked him to go on with the game. “Thank you, Four Eyes! It’s your turn, Judas” Jeff looked up at the girl, then stared at Mike with narrowed eyes. “Ok, so… uhm… never have I ever flown on a dragon” he said as he brought up his glass as if he was making a toast.  “Hahaha, shut up! That’s not valid, man” Elias blurted out laughing at the guitarist’s face, just like anybody else in the circle. “Why not? You shut up” “Err, Mikey, actually… I think Elias is right in this particular circumstance: you can’t make unreal statements” Layla scratched her head and tried to convince him without irritating him. “Oh sorry, Miss Boulais, I didn’t know this rule. I’ll come up with something else” McCready reassured her and Layla sighed with relief “Never have I ever… been to Mongolia” Everybody giggled and Layla facepalmed. Of course nobody drank. “Mike, the aim of the game is not drinking, you know that, right?” Layla whispered into his ear. “Don’t worry, I’ve got my strategy!” he winked at her and then asked the group before taking the umpteenth sip “So? Nobody? Ok, looks like I gotta drink then” “You seem to ignore other rules too though, did you know that?” Lukin broke the silence right when Layla was thinking about her statement. “Which rules?”  “Once you said your Never have I ever, you can’t actually change it… unless you take a penalty” Matt went on to explain and for a moment Eddie detached from the situation and observed the scene as an external spectator. <Two drunk grown men debating about the rules of Never have I ever, and it’s not even midnight> “He had to change it because it wasn’t valid, not because he wanted to change it himself” Chris pointed out. “Right, Chris, thank you! I love you man, did I ever tell you? Oh, and what was this penalty supposed to be anyway?” “Easy. You had to drink all player’s cups. But since you didn’t want to change it yourself…” Lukin shrugged and Mike suddenly sat straight up on the couch. “OH, BUT I WANTED TO!” “Haha, but you just said-” Layne chuckled at him while Demri muttered to herself she was expecting this comeback. “FORGET WHAT I SAID” “But Chris just said-” Cameron wanted to join in the fun too. “FORGET WHAT HE SAID, FUCK CHRIS, OK??”  “And he said he loved me!” Chris pretended to cry on his drummer’s shoulder and Matt patted his head. “Stop being an animal, Cready, and let Layla speak. It’s her turn” Gossard reproached him and Mike sulked like a child. “Ok so… mmm…” Layla collected her thoughts and then spoke in one single breath “Never have I ever led anyone to believe I liked them whereas I actually had a crush on their best friend and so was just leading this person on to get to their friend”  “This is… very specific, El” Sara squinted at her, trying to understand what her friend was up to. “It’s just an average game question” Layla shrugged but didn’t convince the other girl. <She’s a worse liar than Mike> Only Stone and Jeff drank, therefore getting a reproach from Layla herself. Ed didn’t drink and this was a sort of answer to Layla’s little suspects about him and her roommate. She smiled at him but was almost more shocked about someone else not drinking. “... Mike?” “Yes, babe?” “You didn’t drink” “Sure I didn’t. I’d never be such a jerk to a woman!” he replied with a disgusted face making everybody laugh, whereas Layla beamed and kissed him on the cheek. “Your kindness is stronger than your thirst, I’m impressed” “My turn now!” Elias yelled and everyone focused on him “Never have I ever… thought a friend’s mom, ehm, a friend’s parent was hot”  “Wow, a dirty question, who would have thought!” Sara rolled her eyes but also drank soon after.  “What??” her roommate was sincerely surprised.  “Well, that was really unexpected… color me impressed!” Steve grinned at her, raising his glass high in her honor. “Some dads are really something else, you can’t deny that” Sara justified herself and high fived Demri, who had just taken a sip as well “Let’s just say that this particular man made me re-evaluate the role of hideous Speedo swimsuits in society” “Amen, sister” Demri let out a loud cheer and patted her on the shoulder. “Are you really drinking?” Cameron gave Cornell a weird look. “Don’t you remember the story about Kevin’s mom?” the singer clarified. “Haha right, I forgot”  Mike drank but nobody was surprised. “Oh for fuck’s sake, Jeffrey!” Stone reacted sadly at Ament drinking from his cup. “You’re such a bigot” the bass player grinned broadly. “I’ll never let you anywhere near my house and my mother again”  “It’s not your mom that I find hot, don’t worry” Jeff tried to reassure him but got an unexpected reaction. “Why? What’s wrong with my mom?” “N-nothing, it’s just-”  “So you think my mom is ugly?”  “Not at all, Mary Carolyn is such a nice woman”  “Oh, so now you’re on a first name basis! Do you think you have a connection or something?” “No, you just said that-” “Keep your dirty hands off my mother!” “You’re all making it up. I only meant that-” “Jeff, you’re stuck in a vicious circle. The only way out is to drop the subject and make your Never have I ever statement, since it’s your turn. Trust me” Steve gave precious advice to Jeff, who nodded and focused on what to say.  “Never have I ever burnt bridges with somebody without any reason and without giving them the chance to explain themselves” “... Damn, Ames, you take no prisoners” Chris let out a low whistle, and the bassist shrugged, waiting for the inevitable glasses raised, but they never came. “Fancini, you ain’t thirsty?” he raised an eyebrow and received a middle finger as a reply. <Yeah, there was absolutely no fuckin’ need to hear ya explaining why the fuck you acted like an utter piece of shit – the reasons were all there, so you can put this bottle up your ass!> the girl thought, trying to ignore him. “Seems like nobody’s gonna drink this round, so… BOTTOMS UP!” Layne clapped his hands while Jeff stood up and emptied his cup. “I swear I wanted to say the exact same thing, I had it on the tip of my tongue!” Mike whined – he hadn’t taken a sip because he hadn’t totally understood what the hell his bandmate had said, but if that question had allowed him to gulp down his drink, then he was sure that it had to be something brilliant. “Well… seems like it’s your turn, Stoney!” Layla chirped, a bit in high spirits but with her hands steady, now intent on refilling Ament’s glass.  “Never have I ever avoided to face something important until the problems became bigger and uglier, so I regretted not doing anything about it before” Stone laid it out as simple as that without losing the smirk on his face, looking left and right at the bunch of friends. <That was pretty easy…> Gossard thought <This is not a New Year’s party, it’s a reunion of the Unfinished Business Club... Well, am I the one to talk?> When Stone and Layla made eye contact, the girl thought the question was directed right at her. Everybody knew about her ex boyfriend by now. What they didn’t know was that their relationship was over before the “Eddiegate” and way before she put an actual end to that. She’d always been aware that things weren’t good, that she was just too attached and insecure to let him go. <I chose an allegedly perfect boyfriend who was never actually there over dealing with actual people and the whole process of getting to know each other. I was so scared, and still am, that I’d rather not risk it and preferred a relationship that didn’t make sense anymore> At the same time Layla instinctively looked at her left towards Eddie and stole a quick glance of him knitting his eyebrows as if he was pondering something. He didn’t seem someone who would avoid obstacles to her, she couldn’t imagine him running away from problems, she liked him for being honest and straightforward. <Yeah, I do like him> she said as she figured out she had two reasons to drink and took a sip from her cup. As Stone spoke, for some reason Eddie’s mind immediately went to the mixtape he had sent over to them a few months earlier. All his feelings about his family, his mom, his dad, his stepdad, everything he had kept bottled up for so long and suddenly came out all at once. At times he thought it was too bad or too late, some other times he even believed there was still hope for him. It was always either black or white for him, nothing in between. And he started to think that maybe if he had addressed his issues before, his life wouldn’t be the rollercoaster of emotions it was.  <Thinking about roller coasters…> he said to himself as he looked towards the right and saw Layla drinking. Eddie saw the situation very clear for a minute. How could he blame her for trying to get in touch with her boyfriend again, when he did absolutely nothing about her in the meantime? He had never told her anything or asked her out, except for the failed attempt to go to the movies with her alone. Was it too late for that too or was there any hope left? In doubt, he drank from his glass too. Next to Stone, Jeff had let out a huge sigh and rolled his eyes: leave it to his best friend to pour some lemon and salt over the wound, then worsen the situation by twisting a rusted knife inside of it and letting it fester. He suddenly felt a great wave of fatigue washing all over him, and pinched the bridge of his nose because he had the feeling that a headache was behind the corner; it didn’t matter how many miles he had tried to put between himself and the first half of that particular year they were about to say goodbye to: the past had its ways to come back and bite you in the ass, and his nights spent by mulling over years and years of regrets and lost chances could prove it. Just thinking about Andy was still able to give him nausea, because his mind inevitably drifted to the last time he had seen him – hooked up to the machines, an unrecognizable empty shell where once had stood a bright young man, full of hopes and dreams bigger than his own life. Andy’s addiction had always been the notorious elephant in the room: everybody knew it was there, but nobody acknowledged its existence. They had tried to make him understand how serious his situation was – how jeopardizing it would have been for their careers – and, for a while, it had seemed to work: he had been sober for a few months and was positive about their future, confident about their imminent success. In the morning of that goddamn day he was supposed to go to the gym with him, but instead had called him to say that he didn’t feel good; his voice had been kinda scratchy, but Jeff had thought nothing of it – he was sick and didn’t need a nanny around, the day after he would have been good as new, that’s what he had told himself… that’s also what he had repeated to himself when he had stepped inside the hospital that same evening, cursing himself because he should have understood that something was wrong in his voice and it hadn’t been the sickness talking, but the heroin. He had also cursed Andy for throwing their jobs out the window, then cursed again himself for being a shitty human being who in that moment could only think of financial stability and not the fact that his friend wasn’t there anymore and that the lifeless corpse lying on the bed was a reminder of how nobody – not even the brightest fellows – in the end can save themselves. Now his thoughts drifted to the last New Year’s Eve party he had attended, where Andy had been gushing nonstop over The Miracle by Queen: he had been sober for a while and his eyes were literally sparkling while he talked about the English band’s latest single and eponymous album. Nobody could compete with the level of enthusiasm that Andy always showed when he talked about Queen – nobody, except maybe one person. Jeff raised his head and looked in front of him, where a pale-faced Sara was sitting with her legs crossed: even from his place he could see how in this moment her dark lipstick and metallic eyeshadow stood out on her face. <Avoided to face something important until the problems became bigger and uglier… regretted not doing anything about it before…> Stone had been a direct witness of how messed up he had become five years before, when he had spent a whole week being dead worried and then it had only taken Sara a few minutes to make his world crumble around him, but he didn’t think his friend would be capable of using that piece of information to gain some advantage in a stupid game… right? Unless Stone had suddenly developed some serious telepathic skills, it would have been simply impossible: after all, it was a conclusion he had come to just in the last few weeks, so the deliberate jab at him had to be ruled out. After more than five years, Jeff had finally convinced himself that yes, that infamous day he could have indeed done something more; he could have persisted, insisted to talk to her and demanded some explanations after she had told him to leave her alone forever because, apparently, he had ruined her life and there was nothing he could do to fix it. She had clearly been in distress and he had obviously noticed it but, foolish as he was, he had preferred to indulge her instead of pushing the subject further on and trying to understand how he could help her. Sara had always been a reserved person – one could say that she resembled a vault – but maybe, with the right words and intentions, he would have been able to breach her notorious armor of stubbornness and pride, and she wouldn’t have disappeared for so many years, or at least they wouldn’t have been in those horrible terms. Maybe. He let out a sigh and drank from his glass and, in that exact moment, the girl fixed her gaze on him and noticed that he was already staring at her; she wrinkled her nose and turned her face away, as to avoid his inquisitive gaze: the last thing she needed was someone trying to understand what was going on in her mind. <Fuckin’ Gossrad and his disturbed competitiveness…> He was referring to that goddamn July of 1985, she was sure of it; he hadn’t been there when the outburst had taken place but he surely had comforted Jeff after it: that’s how those two rolled, talking shit about each other but always rushing to the aid of the other one whenever something – someone – terrible had happened to him. And that’s what she had been for Jeff: something terrible – something terribly weird, irritating, plain stupid like only a teenager can be; something to laugh about with his friends, to parade around like a shitty trophy, to forget as soon as the game had ceased to be funny, along with his old fake-ass personality and behavior, and never again to be talked about. It didn’t matter if her heart clenched whenever he laughed because he still got wrinkles around the corners of his eyes, like he used to do… she had to bury that annoying buzz deeper, alongside their old selves – fake or not – that they had so meticulously killed.  No laughter or smile could carry the same meaning of five years before. She couldn’t be fooled: she was the first one whose eyes couldn’t smile anymore, no matter how broad the grins she displayed were. She also couldn’t care less if anybody – her aunt Liliana, Leo, even Eddie – told her that she needed help, that she couldn’t go on like this, always internalizing, always stifling what she really felt, always thinking she had to face everything on her own… they could keep on babbling, she was still the one who in the end got to make the decisions. <Ok, my whole life has been a perpetual avoidance of every fuckin’ problem until it has all become a majestic mess, and there isn’t a single day that passes without me thinking I could have done something better with my life… so what? Does this give everybody the right to tell me how I should or should not live? Don’t think so> The girl finally ended her internal monologue with a scoff and emptied her glass, without the slightest intention of making eye contact with anybody. 

[growntolovesecrecyfic]

Grown to Love Secrecy - Chapter Two (Petekey)

Can be read here.

Summary:  Mikey Way hates Oscar Wilde but Pete Wentz convinces him to read The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Chapter Two: Walking on Fire

--

Pete spent a lot of summers in cramped vans, and hotel rooms with sweaty dudes and expensive musical instruments and this summer is no different. The slight homoerotic tension between Pete and almost every dude he’s ever met is strong, not that Pete or any of his friends minded.

They all kiss sometimes and most of the time the press pays not mind as it’s not that big of a deal and other times tabloids have him and his friend kissing on the front cover everywhere with the F-slur painted across in bright red telling the world, “Hey, look! Pete Wentz kisses dudes!”

The tabloids have a lot to say and quite frankly, he doesn’t care anymore. All press is good press, right?

Pete spits into the sink of the Walmart bathroom that other bands from Warped have occupied that morning. Today was Patrick’s day on the bus bathroom.

He rinsed his mouth and stepped aside, letting Andy take the sink for his own routine. He walks over to the wall where Joe is and leans against it. The eggshell-colored wall was cooled against his hot skin after being out in the Dallas heat.

“Hey, man.” Joe greeted Pete to which he responded with a nod, “so any plans for after our set?” Pete thought for a moment, remembering that he did in fact have plans with Mikey tonight. Not that anybody in the band needed to know that.

“No, not that I know of. You?” Pete asked while fiddling with the drawstrings of his clandestine pajama pants. Joe shrugged before responding, “Just regular life on the Warped, you know?”

Pete nods and they exchange some more small talk and soon enough, Andy joins them, and they’re ready to take on Warped.

As they exit the Walmart, they pass families whose kids stare in adoration and parents stare in disgust. It’s not that uncommon for people to recognize them. Fall Out Boy was getting big fast and it did stress them out as they felt the pressures from their record label to push out a new album as soon as possible to keep the momentum going. Warped is their salvation for that summer. No record label, you’re constantly busy doing the thing you love and sometimes you’re in bumfuck nowhere and nobody knows who you are, those are the best kind of places.

After walking out into the parking lot, the trio realize that they’ll need to find some place to eat before their set that morning. They have three hours to kill before practice and without a car and Patrick still on the bus, it is their civic duty to fuel up now and get Patrick something he’ll like, like oatmeal or something.

And later that morning when Pete met a fan who was uncontrollably crying and threw up on his shoes, he could tell that it was going to be a painfully long day.

And he was right. After their set, they met with some fans and he had some run ins with some reporter asking about Jeanae or whatever her name was. He chooses to forget those years in his life. He ignores her texts, fake pregnancy positives and whatever sexual favor she asks of him that day. It’s been pissing him off that entire day and he wanted to let off steam. The only positive that came from that day was Patrick buying him some new underwear for a late birthday gift and his new fuckbuddy, Mikey Way. He promised to meet with him tonight and Mikey told him that the bus was empty. Pete feels that he’ll finally cop a feel tonight.

Laughter and The Smiths fills the My Chemical Romance bus however the guys were nowhere to be found except for a pair of boys at the back of the bus on the floor, “Rusty? Really?” Mikey asked and Pete just responded with grin and nodded enthusiastically.

Mikey shook his head, “Nuh-uh, I don’t believe it one bit. You don’t even look like a Rusty!” Mikey accused.

“Dude trust me! I would have been Rusty Wentz!” Pete cringed a bit at the thought but turned into a fit of laughter after seeing Mikey clutch his stomach and roll over on his side, hand covering his mouth trying to contain his laughter.

After a few minutes, the laughter finally died down. Mikey removing his glasses to wipe his eyes and Pete coughed as he tried to catch his breath before something caught his eye.

“What’s that, Mikeyway?” Pete asked. He points at an object to show to Mikey where it is.

Mikey turns to see where Pete was point at, “Oh, that’s some book that Gerard has been trying to get me to read but never did.” He answers as he gets up and gets it from his bunk. He sits on his bed and goes through the pages, “I have beef with Oscar Wilde.”

Pete chortles at Mikey’s last statement as he sits on the bed next to him, “Yeah? I love him. He’s one of my favorite writers.”

Mikey looks up at older man, furrowing his brows and slowly handing him the book, “Really? Never thought you were the type.”

“To what? Read?” Pete joked.

Mikey was quick to defend himself, “No! I never thought you were into this type of literature. It’s darker and like a horror, I guess? I think that’s why Gerard likes it so much.” He moves closer to Pete, hesitant to lay his head on his shoulder but swallows his doubts and gently place his cheek against his right shoulder.

Pete smiled, eyes moving from the book and on Mikey now, “Do you mind if I read this to you? Maybe I can learn you a thing or two.” His grin was wider now, and Mikey couldn’t help but smile back at him. He loves this. He loves that it’s them. Them alone. And with him.

“Sure. Maybe you can teach me how to love Oscar Wilde at the end of this?” Mikey asks. Pete only laughs, “I can’t teach you to that. It’s up to you if you want to love him. You chose to hate him so why not choose to love him?” Pete asked, his eyes back on the book.

“Well, we can’t choose who we love now, can we?” Mikey asked. It was more of a question for himself rather than Pete. He’s had this struggle within himself for a long time. The first boy he’s ever kissed was his best friend in 8th grade and they haven’t talked since. He’s been quiet about their whole fight and why he came back home with a black eye (and broken heart).

Pete stilled at Mikey’s question then resumed to his reading. He turns to the preface, “Do you wanna start here?” Pete asks Mikey in a whisper. He nods and Pete continues, “The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things.”

Mikey raises his head from Pete’s shoulder, raising his eyebrows, “Hm, wow. That’s kind of deep?” He readjusts himself, “Do you mind if I put my head on your lap?”

Pete smirks, “I mean… What do you plan on doing down there?”

Mikey didn’t get it immediately but lightly smacks Pete on the arm when he does, “Dude! No! I’m not that type of guy.” He exclaimed, his cheeks and nose turning pink. Pete laughs in response, rubbing his arm.

“I don’t believe that, Mikeyway. I’ve heard the rumors about you.” Pete shook his head and set the book down, placing a hand on Mikey’s thigh.

Mikey froze up a bit. What rumors? Why is his hand there? Why is he feeling so lightheaded? The warm knot in his stomach is forming slowly but surely. That can’t be good, right?

“Uhm, wh-what rumors?” Mikey asked. He’s genuinely confused, being behind Gerard’s shadow for most of his life he didn’t know that people cared enough about him to start rumors about him.

“Oh, you know.” he grinned at Mikey, moving closer to him. He put his other hand on Mikey’s other thigh, moving them both up slowly. Mikey’s breath hitched and Pete took this as a ‘yes’.

Mikey shook his head. He didn’t know.

“The ones about how you’re always willing to fuck after a show and your tight jeans no underwear combo,” Pete stops when his face was inches away from Mikey and whispers, “I just wanna know if it’s true.”

He leans in closer, capturing Mikey’s lips into his own. Mikey let out a small gasp in shock before Pete does so. He didn’t know what to do with himself. Yes, Pete and he kissed before but not like this. He couldn’t.

He moved his head away from Pete and pushed him off.

Pete was confused, Mikey never did that before. He looked at him and tried to read his face, but it was confusing him.

“Uh, did I do something wrong?”

Mikey’s heart was pounding so hard and fast, he didn’t really know what to say. He wanted to kiss Pete but he’s so confused. What rumors? Who’s saying those things? Nothing could leave his mouth. It was all different thoughts racing through his brain that day.

He shakes his head and brings Pete’s mouth back to his again.

[wayward-mikaelson]

Centuries Fourteen

Word Count: 1760

Pairing: None

Characters: Reader, Dean, Sam, Jack, Cas, Michael, Angels

About: Winchesters and Michael try and get the Reader back to the bunker out of Hezekiah’s reach

Warnings/Trigger Warnings: Language, Tension, Jealously, Car Crash

A/N: Had a hard time doing this one. I’ve been in a bleh mood. There are two more parts to this so hopefully this will be finished. Thank you to all who have stayed along for the whole ride.

*This work contains content meant for the 18+ crowd.

**Please DO NOT copy and paste my works WITHOUT my permission and WITHOUT giving me the proper credit. I work really hard on all my word and the thought of having them stolen is just sad. You may, of course, share the link to the story.

***This work is also posted on Instagram, WattPad, and Archive Of Our Own. Go show some love over there too

****Please go follow all my other accounts: Instagram, Twitter, WattPad, and Archive Of Our Own

*****Requests are CLOSED. I’m sorry. 

Forever Taglist: @hobby27​ @donnaintx​ @myinconnelly1​ @elansaidaris​ @magssteenkamp​ @440mxs-wife​

Dean/Jensen Taglist: @akshi8278​ @sandlee44​ @squirrelnotsam​

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Chapter Thirteen

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When I finally come to, I roll over and hold my throbbing head. There's a faint ringing in my ears still. When my eyes adjust I see I that I'm in an entirely different room. I get up and feel the whole room spin around. I groan and feel strong, steady hands on my shoulders.

"Hey there, take it slow," I look up and see Michael kneeling down in front of me. "You've been out for about a day." He turns and grabs a glass of water off the night stand and offers it to me. While I drink, I notice the room is empty, except the two of us.

"Where's Dean and Sam?" I urgently ask as my heart began to race. "Where are we? If you so much as left them, I will kill you."

Michael shushes and cups my face, forcing me to look into his face. "Relax, darling," his calm voice washes over me and I stop talking. "They're fine and unharmed. We are two towns over at another motel. They stepped out about an hour for some food." Michael slowly lets go of my face.

"How'd you get us out?" I ask handing the empty glass to him. I watch as he turns and sets it on the nightstand beside us. As he gets to his feet I notice the small grimace on his face. "Are you okay?"

Michael nods and sits next to me on the bed I'm on. "Getting you guys out was challenging. First,getting you out was the priority since Hezekiah has some sort of obsession with you. So I got you here and went back for Sam and Dean once I made sure you were safe. They were harder to get out but I managed. When we got back here, you were still out so we started to ward the room to make sure we all were hidden."

"So you're weak," without thinking I take hold of his hand and hold it. "How were they tracking you?"

Michael gives my hand a gentle squeeze. "I told Dean and Sam that it's possible that Hezekiah has some recruits which can make it possible for them to channel Angel Radio one way to a specific angel or angels they want to get a message from. A little different from praying to one another or crying out for help."

"Look about earlier," I start to say but Michael cuts me short.

"You don't need to say anything." Michael took his hand back and stood up. "I understand if you were in the moment. Like you said, it was silly and stupid."

It feels like a cold dagger was pushed into my chest. "Michael," I whisper as I get off the bed. "That's not what I intended to mean."

"Then what?" Michael turned on me. He takes hold of my arms and backs me up into the wall. "I confess that I'm in love in with you and that for some out of this world reason, I hoped that you felt the same. I mean when we kissed," I watch the hard expression on his face melt into sadness. "I felt you completely give into to me, only to imply that it was stupid and silly."

I look down at the ground. "I'm sorry," I say. I couldn't get another word out when Michael lifts my chin up to look at me. I use my free hand to remove his hand and slip past him. "What else was I supposed to say? Or do? I love Dean and have feelings for you. It's all so fucking confusing." I turn around and Michael is just staring at. I try and say something else but the door to the motel swings ope.

"We gotta go!" Dean walks towards me and grabs my upper arm and starts to pull me out of the room. "There are angels popping up everywhere. Mikey, you good there? Can you walk or do I need to drag your ass out too?"

I look back. I can tell that the warding is affecting him more. "I can move on my own, thank you." Michael grabs things from around the room and follow us out. Sam is waiting by the car and I notice Cas's truck in the next spot.

"What's the plan?" I ask once we get to the impala and Dean lets me go. "How many angels are there?"

"Cas, do you want to tell them?" Dean's voice sounds firm and tense. There is clearly irritation in his words. "Or should I?" Dean looks up and I see the anger, the fear, the worry, all of it, in his green eyes.

"Heaven has been compromised." Cas looks down at the ground. All he ever wanted was to get Heaven back to being the way it was before and now he is thrown back all the way to square one.  "Apparently for the last year, Hezekiah has been slowly gathering followers to finish out Michaels original plan. Get YN on their side, kill Michael, and rule over Heaven and Earth. Obviously that didn't pan out according to him and now he's leading a full on attack." Cas looks at me. "It's going to be bad."

"So the plan is," Sam leans on the impala and looks at me as well. "Use what angels we have on our side as Dean and I get you back to the bunker. Find the Oz key thing Charlie used and get you the fuck out of this world until it's safe or until Hezekiah is dead."

I look back at Dean. He nods his head as he fumbles with his keys. "I won't go," I look back at Sam. "You can't make me."

I feel the familiar feeling of Michaels hand on my arm. I look at him and I can't help but see the side glance that Dean gives. "I have to agree with them. This is our only safe option. Don't worry, I'll ride along with you guys." Michaels thumb begins to rub my arm. Dean's side glance turns into furrowing his eyebrows.

"You will be riding along with the other angels," Dean says in a much more deeper voice. I know that tone too. He wasn't happy. I guess that Michael sensed that to, because he lets go of my arm and takes a step back. "In fact, why don't you go get in that truck right now."

"He does have a good point, Dean," Cas's voice is heard again. "I can drive behind you guys. Jack is more powerful. Having an archangel with you will help make sure that you guys get the to the bunker if anything were to happen to us in the back."

"That's a good point," Sam says looking at this brother. "I can see that you don't like the idea, but it could be our only shot."

We all look at Dean. I can see the fight in his eyes. I scoot pass Michael and place a hand on Dean's face and the other on one of his hands. His eyes meet mine and they soften and he gives me a small smile. "Alright," He says taking a deep breath. "I don't like it but I see everyone's point and you all are right. Now let's get this show on the road. YN, you're up front."

We hit the road as soon as we all are situated. The road is empty for about fifty miles until we hit the country road. Then we see them, the angels, lining up along and across the road. I look behind me and see Cas's truck behind us and the glow of Jack's bright orange eyes. Michael's eyes were also glowing bright. Looking back up front, I see a few angels fall with their vessels eyes being burnt out.

"I got you sweetheart," Dean's hand rests on my legs and I see look at me with a faint smile. "We will be back at the bunker in no time." When Dean looks back at the road, it's only to swerve out of the way of the gathering of more angels. "What the fuck?! Does this dude have the entirety of Heaven at his disposal?"

"Just focus on driving," Sams voice is heard right behind me. I can hear him mumbling something under his breath. Hopefully some helpful spell that Rowena taught him.

Then the high pitch sound from earlier rings in my ears making me cry out. Dean's hands fly to his ears and groans, letting the impala swerve around. Sam is heard doing the same thing. In what feels like minutes, the impala hits something and glass shatters all around us. The ringing in our ears stops and the excruciating pain shots through both my legs.

"Everyone okay?" Dean groans. He see me staring at my legs. "YN?" Then he sees what I see.

In my right thigh, sits a giant shard of glass. In my left thigh sits a piece of metal that's about half the length of my arm. I turn my head to Dean to see the horrified look on his face. "It feels as bad as it looks," I say calmly over the pain that is telling me that cutting my own leg off is the only option to make it all go away.

Dean reaches over to try and pull the metal out. I know he means well well but he doesn't see it from my angel. I smack his hand away. "Don't touch it," I say taking a deep breath. "If you remove any of these, I will bleed out."

Suddenly my door opens and there Michael gently but quickly pulls me out. He walks a few feet from the car and set me down. "Dean, Sam," he says firmly. "I'm going to need you two to pull these out while I heal her. If we do it fast enough, we can buy dean and her some time to get away."

Dean and Sam at my side without a word. Dean has hold of the metal, while Sam has that shard of glass. Michael has two hands under theirs and his eyes meet mine. "Now," He says and his eyes glow softly as Dean and Sam pulling the items out. I cry out for a brief second before the pain is gone. All feeling returns to my legs.

Dean helps me up and before we could make a plan to get away, we are surrounded by angels. I have this uneasy feeling that one of us or all of us weren't going to make it out of this in one piece.

[mychemicalficrecs]

Hi! First I have to say that your account is AMAZING! Second, I was wondering if there are any Frank/Gerard College/University AU’s?

Thanks, anon! There absolutely are, here are some of them!

Frank/Gerard College/University AUs

Skin of the Canvas by sinsense, 42k, Mature. The typical nude model is someone like Phil. Phil is forty-nine and paunchy. He's starting to go gray at his temples and in his pubic hair; he likes to pose on a stool, curving his back and curling his fingers together between his knees. Phil is secretly awesome -- he likes the Misfits and builds model trains -- but he's not what Gerard would call prime ogling material. Neither are any of the other models who have posed for the life modeling or anatomy classes Gerard has taken. This semester, Anna was kind of cute, but she whined about the conditions the entire time she was there. In his four years of art school, anyway, Gerard has never once dealt with being attracted to the model. But this guy is hot --- Or: Gerard goes to art school. Frank is a nude model. Somehow their relationship gets off the ground, in spite of everything working against them.

Interview with an Artist by mistresscurvy, 5k, Explicit. Frank stared at the syllabus. He was certain that this final project couldn't have been on there the first time he looked at it. He would have remembered something so completely fucking impossible.

Subjects Aren't the Only Thing You Learn in College by Andromedas_Void, 4k, Explicit. “What?” Gerard asks, bending his right leg and slipping his foot under his left knee. “Your neck is obviously bothering you so I’m giving you one of my patented massages. If your body doesn’t feel completely boneless after this, then you’ll get your money back,” he grins. “If I’m not paying you in the first place, do I still get my money back?” Frank laughs.

Sure of You by shiningartifact, 11k, Explicit. In Gee's senior year of college, waking up with sex hair and a vague memory of the girl who gave it to her is just another Friday morning. She's fine with that. She is. And then she meets Frank.

she (within the measure of a day) by mrsronweasley, 9k, Explicit. Gerard steps out in heels for Halloween. Everybody enjoys it. Some enjoy it more than others.

A Clockwork Killjoy by The_Divine_Fool, 13k [WIP], Not Rated. Alone in the world and miserably twenty-something, Gerard decides to move in with his little brother Mikey, who lives in the middle of nowhere, working and earning his Bachelor's degree at the local community college. But creepy stuff happens in Nowhere, and it's up to Gerard to save his new friends and his own brother from a sinister conspiracy.

sing for ourselves alone (speak into the microphone) by ineffableangel, 4k, Teen And Up Audiences. The college radio DJ has played 22 Mountain Goats songs in a row without comment and I feel like someone should call and make sure they’re okay.

Fragile Bones by action-cat (clytemnestras), 8k, Explicit. I don’t feel like a girl today, Frankie. I feel like a fucking prince

Get up, get out and be social (Frerard) by Rachel_Carter, 5k, Not Rated. Gerard is working on an art assignment in a coffee shop where he meets Frank, a pre-med student. When Frank gives Gerard his phone number, their relationship develops.

Heaven Beside You (Awkwardness Within) by RedSkittleCure, 7k, Explicit. The really hot guy turns to him, and Gerard sees that he’s got a fucking nose piercing and pierced ears and Gerard is just really, really fucked because this guy is so out of his league, it isn’t even funny. “Hi!” the guy smiles, sticking a hand out, “I’m Frank!” Gerard stares dumbfoundedly at the waiting hand, waiting a few seconds too long before taking it, “Gerard,” he manages to spit out, mentally taking extremely detailed notes of the calluses on Frank’s hand. Fuck, he’s such a creep. OR: The one where Frank works very hard and woos Gerard via passing him notes in class

no justice in photographs by poppunklwt, 20k, Mature. Frank, a psychology major, is in his third year of college and is roped into taking an art class by his advisor. Ray and Bob are his roommates (possible bandmates, too?) and Gerard is the cute student employee at the library who Frank likes to sneak glances at while he doodles. Frank doesn't know if he can balance a new band and a new crush simultaneously. Or, the one where Gerard offers Frank a little bit more than just help with his art project.

Teenager by dangsu, 7k, Mature. "For someone who hates teenagers, Gerard Way seemed to only hangout with Frank and Mikey." Frank is a scrawny eighteen year old kid and Gerard is a crazed college graduate who hates teenagers and the Midwest.

Dissolve Me by everythingintransit, 80k, General Audiences. Gerard Way sunburns easily and talks too much and has mastered the art of creating paninis in the dining hall and eating them while running to class. He drinks iced coffee when it's below zero outside and carries crystals in his pockets party for comfort and partly because they weigh him down like an anchor that refuses to sink. Gerard Way finds himself in love during his sophomore year of university with a guy that he sometimes goes bowling with. This guy is named Frank Iero and runs a radio show after hours where he talks in a sexy rough voice about things that can get him into trouble if anyone bothers to listen. But Gerard listens. Gerard Way can do magic. Lightbulbs shatter when he gets excited and he can walk through a thunderstorm in dry clothes. Yet he's powerless when it comes to Frank, and the relationship he's seeking ends up looking close to impossible from where he's standing. But he's in love, and love is patient and kind and shattered glass, shit like that. Love is something he deserves.

Majoring In Disaster by hell_highwater, 17k [WIP], General Audiences. Punk bands! Political statements! Lab work! Hating your rich parents! Being oh, so in love with your best (and only) friend! Life ensues many twists for college biochemistry students Gerard and Frank.

Trapped In By All These Mountains by brightlightbaby, 7k, Teen And Up Audiences. “I’ve got to tell you, I don’t usually do this much physical labor for a dude I just met.” “Really? I thought a tough guy like you would be out tarring roofs and mowing lawns for all the guys.” “No, just for the pretty ones. Or the ones who pay me enough.”

In All Our Lives by stoplightglow, 27k, Mature. “Everything’s connected," Gerard says. "It isn’t just art history. Art is history. Art is culture. Without the crucial backbones, it all disappears. So when one timeline gets messed up—” He looks despairingly up at the ceiling. "—it all goes down." For all those times you thought, you know what Bandom is really missing? Time travel, arson, and art history.

Life as a Process by ViciousVenin, 57k, Explicit. Frank's college experience isn't exactly what he was hoping for. He has no idea what he wants to do with his life, his RA scares him, and his roommate Gerard seems pretty weird. Really weird, actually, but not in a bad way. As the two of them get closer, Frank finds that Gerard is one of the most interesting people he's ever met, and cute as fuck to boot. Frank just wishes he could figure out what Gerard is hiding...

Pull by falter, 7k, Not Rated. College is a hell of a lot easier with a steady supply of decent coffee. Too bad that's not what Frank's getting.