#and poor darling gene

[velvetydream]

꒰ : 🍃 [ A fox's heat ] ”♡ᵎ꒱ˀˀ ↷ ⋯

Summary : Due to an unfortunate event your boyfriend started to act weird, you should soon know why.

Pairing : Tighnari x fem! Reader

Word count : 1.9K Words

Genre : Smut with plot

Smut content ➵ Breeding / Mating Kink, Possesiveness, Praising, Raw (Wrap it up people), Knotting, Petnames

Authors note : I love Nari sm omg

It was a quiet morning; Tighnari was out with Collei, and you decided to sleep long before getting ready slowly, eating a nice breakfast, and cleaning Tighnari's workplace before helping the forest ranger outside. The sun was shining down today, but luckily, the trees of the rainforest cast some nice shadows to be safe from the heat. Wiping the sweat from your forehead you talk calmly to a new forest ranger, assuring he wasn't going to die from the fruit he ate. The poor boy came from Mondstadt and never saw the fruits or vegetables from Sumeru, probably.

"Master Y/N! We need your help!" Colleis's shrill voice screamed for you; immediately turned around to catch the young girl running to you, your warm hands on her shoulders. "Collei? What happened? Calm down, darling, and explain." It was strange that Tighnari wasn't with her, so something must've happened, you just hope that stupid man didn't decide to eat some unknown mushrooms again. "Master T-Tighnari he.. We found this flower patch we had never seen before. He picked some up and started to inspect them, and then he fell unconscious! Cyno is with him now, but..! I don't know what happened." She was rambling again; she always was when something happened to her friends or anyone, actually. "Okay, my love, calm down, lead the way, and we'll bring him back here; you two, come along!" Calling over two more forest rangers, Collei quickly started to lead the way; it was a short walk, but luckily, not too far away.

Upon arriving, you could see the fox-eared man sit up, arm on his knee as his hand holds his head. "Nari! What happened? How are you feeling?" Crouching down in front of the man now, you could see the blush on his face; oh no, was he getting a fever from those flowers? Maybe an allergic reaction. "He sat up shortly before you came, he hasn't spoken a single word since then." Cyno stood behind you now, explaining the situation to you and making you nod. "Okay, let's bring him back. Cyno, could you help carry him, please? I think he starts to have a fever, probably some reaction to the flowers; I'll have to make some medicine to hopefully wear the effects off." Cyno nods as he picks Tighnari up, the arms of your boyfriend around Cyno and the other forest ranger now. Still not talking, his eyes in a haze, this was definitely bad.

Looking down as they get a few steps away, you crouch down to touch the flowers despite Collei's protest, but they have no effect on you; they smell rather pleasantly. "Are you sure it's a good idea to touch and smell them?!" Collei was obviously worried about you, which made you chuckle, shaking your head. "It's fine, I'm pretty sure they won't affect normal humans but Tighnari.. it must be because of his fox genes.. Let's take some with us, but please you take them, I want to inspect them some more without exposing Nari further to them." Collie nods as you quickly plug a few flowers before Cyno's voice calls you to catch up with them. "Comming!" Running after them now, you worriedly look at Tighnari; his whole body was slumped over, his tail dragging after him as his breathing was rather hard.

"Good, please lay him down here Cyno, put that on his forehead. I'll start the medicine." Handing Cyno a bowl with ice cold water and a rag as you start to gather everything to hopefully ease the symptoms. If you knew what flower that was and what exactly the effect they had on him, you could make something much better, but this will have to do now. "Nari, open up; this will make you feel better.." His glazed eyes look at you and then the medicine as he shakes his head, trying to roll away from you onto his side just to groan in pain. "Stubborn fox, seriously, you're a forest ranger and practice medicine yourself, yet you refuse to take this.." Groaning now, your hand grabs his shoulder harshly as you push me onto his back, sitting down on his stomach to pin him down, his body thrashing. "N-No! Stop!" Finally, he spoke, yet that won't get him around the medicine. "It's your own fault to go inspect and try everything you don't know." You tell him, as your hand grabs his chin, pushing your thumb into the corner of his mouth; he opens it, his sharp teeth shining as you let the elixir trickle down into his mouth, making him swallow by holding his chin up and mouth closed.

"Is that how he always takes his medicine?" Cyno stands beside the bed now as he watches you stand up as Tighnari falls asleep. "Yeah, he hates to take them; either I put them into his food or drink, but then he sometimes notices and throws it away, so I mostly settle for this way." Wiping some sweat from your forehead after fighting the fox, you put the washcloth onto his forehead and the blanket back over him. "Well, I'll go check on Collie; make sure to take care of him." Cyno closes the door after himself after you bid your goodbye, looking over to the sleeping fox now, hoping the symptoms would soon wear off.

Getting back to your studies now, you open the book where you left off as you start to examine the gems you have found, trying to determine what they could be. Lumine even brought some last time she visited from Liyue and Inazuma which was such a great find.

Immersed in your studying, you didn't notice your boyfriend waking up, scanning the room until his eyes landed on you. Standing up on wobbly feet, he walks over to you, his arms laying around your shoulders immediately, as his face hides in your neck, jumping a little from surprise. "Nari! You're awake, how are you feeling? Is the fever going down?" Looking over your shoulder, he was still beet red, his eyes half-lidded and still hazed. "You smell so sweet.. My beautiful mate.." He groans into your neck, before meeting your eyes. Oh fuck. "Nari.. Don't tell me.." He groans softly from the way you say his name, confirming your suspicion even more. "Need to breed you full till you can't walk anymore." His sharp teeth graze your neck, over the mark he had left long ago, marking you as his mate. "Help me.. Please.. It's so hot I.. I can't take it anymore.." He whimpers.. he never whimpers. Those flowers must've triggered his heat to come early. Normally, it should've still been a few weeks at least, but something must've been with these flowers to trigger it.

"Alright, let's take care of you.." Standing up, Tighnari starts pawing at your clothes desperately, pulling your shirt off of you, before attaching his lips to your soft buds, moaning from the feel of them in his mouth. "So soft.." He moans before he pulls his own shirt over his head, revealing his porcelain skin to your eyes, pushing you onto your back on the bed now before he already pounces on you. "I'll make you feel so good, breed you full till you carry my cubs." Kissing down your neck, small little moans escape your mouth as your hand's card through his soft hair, softly scratching his ears. "I love you so much you're so gorgeous.." He mumbles against your skin as he kisses down to your chest and to your stomach. Softly pulling your pants and underwear off of you, his soon following the pile on the floor.

"Have to prep you first so you can take my knot, my love." He whispers against your stomach as his fingers softly glide through your folds, circling your clit a few times softly before moving down as he pushes two fingers into you carefully, your body arching from the feeling of his fingers. They hit just the right spots inside you, hitting the soft gummy spot perfectly. "You're so gorgeous, my darling; how beautiful you'd be all swelled up with my cubs." Moaning from his words now, your walls tighten on him as more slickness coats his fingers from the arousal. "You would like that, right? Have little cubs of our own, running around.." He kisses your neck softly, as his fingers work you open for his knot to come.

"I think you're prepped enough, mh..?" He pulls his fingers up to his face and sucks them clean with a moan before looking down at you as he pushes himself up a little bit. "Ready my love?" Nodding as an answer, he alines his length with your entrance as he starts to softly push in; his size made you arch and moan every time; he was so big, especially now that he was in heat. His head rested on your chest for a while, giving you time to adjust before you tapped his shoulder blade softly to signal him to start moving, which he didn't waste any more time and did. His thrusts at first were slow and deep but grew in pace quickly. Tighnari was never able to last long once he was inside you, but he would last for many rounds, making sure he bred you perfectly full.

"M-My love.. ah.." He kisses your chest softly as he starts to suck the left bud into his mouth again, his right hand coming up to play with the other one. "N-Nari.. oh archons.." Moaning softly, you could feel his length start to pulsate meaning he was rather close, you yourself close to the edge. "Come my beautiful mate~" He murmurs into your ear as his fingers softly circle your clit making your back arch as you drift into the pure bliss of your orgasm. Meanwhile, Tighnaris's thrusts were getting sloppy as he felt his knot swell before emptying his load in you, his knot preventing anything from escaping as it locks him into you for a while, his body softly laid down half on you to make sure he didn't crush you.

"Beautiful.." He mumbles, brushing a few strands from your face, still connected to you, his hand rubbing softly over your stomach and down, knowing exactly you were right now filled with his cum. Exhausted, you drift off into sleep as Tighnari pulls the blanket over you two, planting many kisses on your cheek and temple before the door opens, making him groan and growl possessively. "Okay, dude, I'll leave you be in a bit, I just forgot to give her these gems; seriously, don't go too hard on her." Before Tighnari could throw a book from his bedside table at him, Cyno disappeared again.

Later on, you wake up with many blankets and pillows around you now like a nest, your body cleaned, and a new pair of underwear on you; as you look behind you, you see Tighnari finally asleep without a blush, finally calm. It would definitely take a few rough days for his heat to be over, but you were used to it and loved to help him. Hand rubbing softly over your stomach now as you look down, hopeful that maybe finally, after years of being together, you'd get pregnant.

[heartfullofleeches]

ily fletcher and foxboy darling but i also think fletcher and childhood friends bunny darling has potential where darling thought they were the same species but one day bro just ended up like twice their size

God, that's so cute tho- Imagine Bunny Darling is a city bunny who only got to see Fetch during the summer/fall months when they were little. Their visits became less and less frequent til they got too caught up with school/work to make time to travel.

The pair haven't seen each other in nearly a decade since Bunny Darling's last visit...giving ample time for the farmer to grow and morn the long days without his dearest friend.

-

"Fletcher! Fetch?"

Everyone's so happy to see you. One step off the bus and you're already crowded by a sea of familiar faces- Asking how you've been. If you even remember them after all this time. Like you could ever forget....This town, this people. They'll always have a place in your heart no matter how far you travel or how long you're away.

You pray you still have a place in his....

"Fletcher? Are you out here? I'm back! Fl-"

A broad shadow splits the welcoming committee in two - strong arms falling around you as it reaches your position. As if lifting paper, the figure plucks you off your feet with minimal effort - squeezing you tightly to his chest as fresh tears drip onto your fur. You've never seen a bunny so big, but you'd recognize that sniffling from anywhere.

"F...Fletcher?!.... Is that you?!"

His voice falters, disbelieving of the sight before him now. "You came back...I got your letters, but I didn't think you'd actually...."

Your crane your head to look up at the larger rabbit as he place you down, finding it difficult to meet his damp eyes from the lowered bill of his hat. "Wha...How? You were barely a hair taller than me the last time we met. How is this possible?"

Fletcher chuckles. Only you'd have a reaction this cute. "My old man....my other old man had some pretty strong genes. Summer after you left was the growth spurt of several. Biggest rabbit this town has seen if I had to say...Big enough to keep you from wandering far from home again if ya try...."

Fletcher shoves his cap down further, shrinking back to that little bunny you knew all those summers ago benath its cover. "Sorry. Never been too good at making jokes myself. You are staying, though - right? I don't think my poor heart can take parting with you again..."

[icarusredwings]

Watching interviews from the olden days and finding gold.

Finding out that Hugh Jackman having to "be the alarm clock" for James Mcavoy and Micheal Fassbender because of how hung over they were is simply hilarious.

Also finding out that James slammed them into a Lexus (only doing 12 miles an hour) got thrown 10 feet, immediately got up and looked back to see Micheal (who was once on the back of the golf cart) now sitting upright in the drivers seat after smacking his head on the seat and got a gash scar on his leg from it- Only to start "maniacally laughing" and literally RAN AWAY once blamed, Is also so young cherik coded.

These crack heads definitely were getting into some nonsense trouble.

Micheal saying he thought the scene from the strip club with charles and angel "I thought we looked like the two old men from the muppets"

Micheal calling the x men "Charlie- boy's kids". Perfection.

Also the way James looks at him when ever Micheal just bursts out into song is so pure. The "wow this idiot... thats my idiot." Glitter in his eye.

James finding out that Micheal isn't american by driving up to him on a vespa, and screaming at him in his normal voice is so funny.

"Fuck you erik-"

"His names derik."

"How long has he name been derik?"

"Since the begining- you just keep calling him that."

Even the bloopers of Hank and Charles are such a vibe.

"Hold your breath but make it look like you aren't holding your breath" Man these leather suits gave them so many problems fr.

"I already said im not a man. I cant jump this damn wall!" I think storm says as the director goes right up to hugh and is like "Litsen when I say so youre gonna jump this wall" and hughs like idk about that mate. "Ill be talking to you through the big microphone that everyone hates" says the director. "Were gonna take the batteries out if it" says someone else.

Hughs stunt double: *screams*

Hugh: Let it go sis

Hughs stunt double: *dies*

Something about how the directors talk to hugh and how hugh speaks directly to multiple set members makes me feel like half the cuts they had to make was because of him joking and being a silly theater kid LMAO

Everyone randomly dancing all the time, including old magneto.

James too. The blooper of him violently killing a bug on the chess set in the plane scene is so "insane charles" iconic.

Also poor Evan peters. He kept slipping everywhere. And theres so many shots where hes just standing there in charater getting absolutely soaked while charles and Logan do some ridiculous shit lol. Him at panels is so awkward too. Describe your character " hes a little weird uhhhh hes fast. Hes quick. He talks fast he runs fast..... uhhh its like at the atm waiting for the bastard infront of you to move out the way" "I wish my dad magneto could try these 😀" "thats my dad"

Evan also wishes they would have done the scene in apocalypse where he tells him hes his son and all the metal in the room drops. Im someone has written this already but that sounds great.

"THATS MY SON, QUICKSILVER!" Shouts Micheal multiple times. "My boy!" "Its in the genes darling." "I had him when I was very young 😁"

[silentcryracha]

❍ ‗ Cleaning with Lee Know ‗ ❍

Pairing : Lee Know x f reader

Summary : chapter two of a cute standalone miniseries. It's what it says in the title

Genre/ Warnings : scenario/imagine/headcanon, drabble, it's fluff, minho runs the house like the mf military, but he's also best boyfriend #2 so it's okay, pet name 'kitten' used endearingly and not sexually (you're his fourth cat why lie), a lil suggestive but no smut

Word count : 780 words

A/n : none

ps: There could be grammar errors. Do NOT repost on other socials. Leave feedback if you feel like it, otherwise enjoy! ♡︎

masterlist

series masterpost

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Living with Lee Minho was mostly fine. It really was. More than fine, actually. He is a great cook, he takes care of the pets, he's clean, he's tidy. What more could you ask for in a partner? Especially when you shared an apartment.

The thing is that, when it came to cleaning specifically, he was strict with it. Not constantly, like he wouldn't yell because a couple of plates were still in the sink after dinner or because you forgot to clean the cat's litter.

But let's say, once every two-three weeks he would just wake up super early and just completely overthrow the house upside down. Seven am sharp, headphones in his ears, a pair of gloves and by eight the house would be already a mess.

The kind of mess that you have to create before eventually fixing everything back up, but a whole war zone nonetheless.

He would let you know that he planned on doing this a bit earlier, but he wouldn't force you to work with him. But yes, of course you were helping, otherwise what kind of shit girlfriend would you be?

You were lucky enough that you found a man who's basically the whole package, better treat him right. Besides, working with four hands is always going to get thing done faster than two.

He didn't wake you, so by the time you woke up at least an hour had already gone by. Which kinda bothered you, but it was also sunday so...it's gonna be fine.

You got up, preparing yourself for the absolute mess you were going to find, and sure enough, you were right. Suddenly you felt something against your leg, which made you look down quickly.

"Oh hi, my darling, good morning" you cooed at one of the red and white cats, and as soon as he meowed you knew it was Doongie. You smiled, bending down to pet him a bit as he purred.

"Poor baby, did your dad already disrupt your beloved beds? It's okay, I'll make sure to clean those first."

At that point you walked in the kitchen, seeing Mr. Clean himself scrubbing the sink while humming softly to himself. As if he felt your presence, he turned his head back giving you a small smile.

"Good morning kitten" the pet name always made you smile, so you walked up behind him, giving him a back hug and a kiss on the neck. Then backing up, coughing jokingly.

"Ew you're already all sweaty" you whined as you took off his headphones.

"Well it's hot as fuck outside and working does, generally, make you sweat." he replied, throwing the sponge in the sparkling clean sink and wiping his forehead with the back of his arm.

"I know, I know. I sweat twice as much, unfortunately. Except that you have the good genes so you basically don't smell. And look annoyingly attractive." he laughed as he walked to you, who were standing in front of the fridge taking out the stuff to make coffee.

"You don't smell bad either. I actually quite enjoy your scent" he jokingly sniffed your neck, tickling you, which made you giggle and push him a bit.

"You're such a cat. That, or the pheromones must be working overtime" you poured the water to make the coffe.

"Whatever, you smell good and only you could get me horny at-" he glanced at his wrist watch, "Eight twenty in the morning. Call it hormones, black magic, whatever" you laughed.

"Well it was you who decided to get the whole house upside down...so now you gotta wait for the reward." he whined jokingly as you smirked.

"Well then we better hurry up, just in time for a nice afternoon...nap"

---

As you usually would, you ended up splitting the chores or the parts of the house. Sometimes you'd have the task to clean the floors while was cleaning all the shelves and surfaces, so you'd go back and forth around the apartment, sharing a kiss or usually him a playful butt slap.

Other times while you cleaned the bedroom, he'd clean the bathroom so you would communicate through very loud and mostly-purposefully off key singing while the background playlist played from the tv in the living room.

Yes, he would run the list of chores like the military, but at the end you could both enjoy a fresh, clean and amazing scented house. And usually some good delivery to reward yourselves. And also because at that point you'd probably be too exhausted to cook or annoyed to already get the newly cleaned kitchen dirty.

So you'd save the energy for *other things*;)

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

[orionlain]

𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟: link

𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐯𝐞, 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐱 𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐚𝐟𝐭𝐨𝐧

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐲𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦, 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦, 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 summary: a tug of war for your affection, between the aftons.

𝐖𝐢𝐟𝐞? 𝐍𝐨, 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝.

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏: 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞

How long has it been since he felt your soft body? How long has it been since he traced his calloused fingers against your thighs? How long has it been since he tasted your lips, the lips that fulfilled his hunger? It's been months. But it felt like ages, it felt like centuries to him.

You were so busy, after all, it's your last year of high school. You barely had time to see him, you barely even had time to go to the house. You were so caught up in your studies, so caught up in excelling school that you left the poor old man bothered and wanting. He dreamed of you every night, he replays that memory of you whining beneath him every time he’s alone. For months, you unintentionally made the man more ravenous. And god, you may be the only person that makes him weak.

Other than thinking and craving you, he fulfilled his time with, of course, work. And drinking. And smoking. And berating Michael. His workshop in the basement was hardly ventilated, it smelled like the wisp of smoke and whiskey if you step in. He continues to work with the hinges, the metal parts and the screws. The tools in his hands work like a magic wand as he twists and turns the unfinished animatronics. He was lost in his work, in his creations, in his thoughts about you and your— his son's voice echoed above him.

“Michael, can you shut up will you?” He groaned loudly. As usual his ‘brat’ did not care for his pleas. Out of irritation, he got up from his desk and workshop. He went up the stairs, and the surroundings danced with the thump of his steps.

“Oh for the love of god. Michael, did you hear me, you damn-” He cuts off.

“Uh, Hi. Nice to see you again, Mr. Afton.” How much he missed your voice.

His face immediately softens. Oh, how much he missed your vanilla scent. He could see you in your whole glory. You were in a white sweater which draped on your shoulders, with a brown flowy skirt covering your bottom. Shoes that were creased, had freckles of dirt, but he didn’t mind, not at all. At that moment, thousands of thoughts ran in his mind. How much he wanted to grab you and—

“Father. Are you just gonna stand there and stare? Say hi.” Michael’s blunt tone snapped him out in a second.

“Where's my manners!” He brushes off and smirks. Puts on his most charismatic smile, he walks up and his figure towered over you. He held his hand, for you to shake. The same hand that made you moan. You clear your throat and shake his hand, he could feel your delicate gentle touch, one that he missed dearly.

“It’s good to see you again, darling,” There's that pet name again.

“It really is.. I’m so sorry I haven’t visited for a while.” You uttered, flashing that same smile he always loved. “I’ve been working really hard in school. Didn’t have the time to visit the house, however I’m still talking to Michael-” You cut off, when Michael grabs you by the waist, his hand holding the side of your body. You laughed and pushed him away. “Stop! I’m trying to talk to your dad!”

“Oh c’mon, love, hearing you chat to that old man makes my eyes all droop. Won't you just come to my room already, loser?” Mike whined in a playful tone, with mischief. The older man looked at his son, with a grin, a sore fake grin. William didn’t say a word, but his dark smile went along with the words of: ‘My, my, son, you’ve gotten so bold.’

Bold. He fucking hated that. How he wishes his blood was dumb and stupid, but of course he had to inherit his father's genes. To know every, single, damn, thing. To be so clever to Williams' charm and insincere smile. His son never knew what truly happened, but he was quite perceiving. Sometimes Michael would look at his father with a stare filled with thousands of words and disdain. Sometimes Michael had the blood of competitiveness running through, when he sees you and his old man talking. Like father and son, they say. And with you, it was definitely; like father, like son.

The glint in William's eyes was clear. You didn’t notice though, of course you don’t notice. After all, his honey words were always believable to you, but how he wished this time you noticed. He wished this time you could see that glare, that speaks of how much you were his. But of course you didn’t, and that infuriated him. You were too innocent, which is fine, you were malleable and he could mold into the perfect wife. However, you were malleable, and Michael could easily mold you into a girlfriend. That thought made him infuriated. You made him infuriated.

Yet, you turned to William and smiled. A warm and friendly smile, with that pretty face and pretty hair. No, no, he can’t stay mad at you. How could he? You had a smile that could rival any woman in the bar. You had eyes, so doe, you looked like a little bunny. And that body of yours, oh, how could he stay mad at that?

“I’ll be here for the night, Mr. Afton, is that okay?” Still sweet as he remembered.

“Oh darling. You are always welcomed here.”

———————————————————

The summer heat glistened upon your skin, shining upon every ripple you had. Your eyes sparkled beneath the sun, and you wore a purple swimsuit. Purple? Were you trying to kill him? You didn’t know that was his favorite color though.

Your body rests on top of a beach chair with lavender stripes, sitting in front of the pool of the Afton’s backyard. Turning your head to Michael who was wearing red swim shorts, seeming to be staring blankly, with his walkman cassette player in his ears.

“Mike.” He didn’t respond. You snapped your fingers at him, “I said, Mike!”

“Wha- what?” He took his headphones off. You turn your body to face him, looking at him like an investigator. You pointed at his ear looking quizzically. “Is that.. A piercing?” He had a shit-eating grin on his face, with his eyes turning into a smug look. He giggled, almost school-boy sounding. “Yeah, yeah.” He waved his hand dismissively.

“Mike!?” He only continued to laugh, holding the cassette close to his chest for stability. He wipes the tears off his eyes. “Hey, it’s not that bad is it?”

You shake your head, laughing a little as you facepalm. Sometimes you never knew Michael was up to, smoking, drinking, vandalizing, you couldn’t tell. He would go weeks without telling you something, or he’d come back after an hour and tell you immediately. There was always something unpredictable about that boy. But you digress, you find his antics amusing and funny.

“What would your dad think?”

“Oh c’mon! It's just a stud in my damn ear!” You look at him even more puzzled. “But- but how did you-”

“In the bathroom.”

“The bathroom!?” You perk up more, now sitting up from your seat. He looked at you, with a smirk, “I was with my mate, Jeremy. I was under some bridge in the middle of who knows what. He got a bowl of hot water, with the sewing needle. And then, womp, pierce my ear by pushing the needle in.” Your mouth went a little agape. You two sat there in silence. Until you burst out laughing.

“Christ, Mike!” You laughed, holding your stomach. “Shush, don’t tell my old man-”

“Tell him what?” You and Michael turn your back to William, hovering over you guys like a hawk. Was he always there? Mike rolled his eyes, his face turning into a more sour expression. He lifted his hands and shrugged up in a surrender.

“Nothin!” He said with a mocking tone, a light smirk. You continue to giggle, but it turns out to be a more silent, hiding one. You looked at the father with a smile, “Hi, Mr. Afton!”

You were always much more polite than him, he thought. Much, much more polite. William put his hand on your shoulder, slowly rubbing it up and down. Your face flushed a little, and your body froze a bit. That touch reminded you back to the memory of his calloused fingers wrapping around your wrist, grabbing you to his chest. That touch reminded you back to the time where he held your face as he put his leg between your thighs. That touch. William had to hold back a chuckle and a grin as he looked at you. Michael, on the other hand, gave his father a funny look.

“What did you say, Michael?” He continued to interrogate.

“I said, nothing. None of your business.” The boy spat back. “No, no, no. Something about a piercing, hm?” You look at their back and forth. Back to Willams’ hand on your shoulder and his face hovering over you, to Michael's annoyed expression and his body in front of you.

“Yeah. A piercing, so?” Williams' chuckle laced with anger and poison could be heard in response to that. “Did I ever say you can have one, boy?”

“What's the big deal about it? Henry told me you were a bit of a frivolous man back in your college years. Why can’t I be ‘frivolous?” He said ‘frivolous’ with his hand making air-quotes, his father raising an irritated brow. “Boot-cut jeans, disco collars, and lots, lots of ladies. I know you’re not just a serious and stuck up man. Please, your dorm room was filled with the moans of-”

“Bloody christ, just check on Evan and Elizabeth for me, can you?” He said in a loud tone, with his fake smile twitching. Michael stood up sighing and groaning loudly, and before he made his departure, he ruffled your hair. Leaving the walkman on the beach chair beside you. You knew a little that they never had a great relationship, but god, did that make you feel uncomfortable. It was as if the tension was tied around your neck like a tug of war. Never once did they swear or yell, but it almost felt like they did. So many words beneath a sentence, hidden by a smile that felt taunting. You had an awkward look on your face, as you saw Michael walk away, staring blankly wishing you knew more what's hiding behind the clear passive aggressiveness between the two. How you wish you knew why there was so much hostility between them. You were lost in thought, but you immediately felt the grip on your shoulder tighten.

You look up, your wide eyes facing William as you bend your neck a little. “Hello, darling.” He said with a smooth baritone in his accented voice. You could never get over how attractive he sounded. As you face him, you take a full look at him. His torso covered in a purple short sleeved dress shirt, you could see the edge of his skin, the springlock marks that traveled on his chest and neck. He could see you take a peak, he grinned a little.

“My son, always a troublemaker, isn’t he?” He laughed afterwards, playing it off with an innocent dismissive hand wave. “Always been a pain in my ass.” He chuckled, saying it like a joke, but his piercing glare and smirk said otherwise. He looks at you now, but with a bit of a less harsh look. “How’s it been?”

You stared at him, that grip on your shoulder not getting any looser. You giggled, and rubbed the back of your neck. “Ah, busy. Sorry I haven’t, uh, visit you.. I was so caught up in my studies, Mr. Afton.” You said softly, while looking at the poolside, staring at the glistening shine of the water. Hearing the laughter of the three siblings, as you fiddled with the straps of your purple swimsuit. “Thought you forgot about me, love.” He says, with a teasing tone.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! Nono- I didn’t forget about you-” You babbled nervously with your words, but he put his finger to his lips, making a shushing sound. “I’m messing with you, doll. I knew you were just being a good student and studying. Unlike a certain boy I know.” He laughed, but then his eyes went down onto you. “You wouldn’t forget me, not after the time we had.” A heat went down your cheeks.

He bent down to your level, playing with the lavender straps of your swimwear. “Besides, darling, you know I can’t be mad at you.” Humming as he stares at your pretty face. “You’re such a good girl, you know?”, he hushed. His breath close to your neck, his voice warm to your ears. You felt your heart beat faster, as your eyes widened.

“And lord, that bikini looks ravishing on you.” He whispered.

Then he stood back up. His palm on your shoulder becomes much looser. He gave you a pat on the shoulder, and turned his back from you. Giving you a single small wave as he walks away, and leaving you on the beach chair utterly flustered and bothered. He just leaves, and goes back fixing Elizabeth's inflatable toy. Why does he do this to you? Why does he tease and leave you such a mess? The butterflies tighten even more around your stomach, the space in your throat all choked up. And there he is, musing to himself as if he didn’t whisper such things to you. The only semblance of his vulgarity, is his stare from across the pool, that went from your thighs to your chest to your face. It was shameless. You knew it. And he knew it.

“Hey, loser!” Micheals shout rings into your ears, and you snap out of it. He quickly grabs your hand closer to the pool with a playful grin, “C’mon, you can’t just sit there all day.”

“Mike- jeez!” You chuckled softly, and soon Michael wrapped his arms around your arm. He shoves you into the pool with him, both of you falling into the body of water, splashing onto the poolside. Some of the water went onto the younger siblings body, a giggle and whine ensued on them. Most of it, though, flew onto the older man. An irritated smirk formed onto his face, as he swept the water off his hair. You all were in a fit of laughter. But with Michael around you, William hid in a fit of rage. However, he shaked his head and kept a fake smile, continuing to fix Elizabeth's plastic blow-up toy. “Brat.” He mumbled.

You then reached out of the two younger kids, waving your hand to them, a gentle smile on your face. Evan reached the pool slowly, tipping his toes into the water as you gave him a cheer of encouragement. Elizabeth, on the other hand, dived into the tube around her torso, splashing onto your face. “Liz, my goodness!” Your laughter echoed into the backyard as the water ran through your hair, you held her hand as she paddled through the swimming pool. Michael looked at you as you talked to her, to his brother, his smug grin turning into a soft smile. Eyeing you with a look of enderament. Floating in the pool, watching you, admiring you.

“Michael.” The blunt voice called out, the boy turns his head to the older man. “Keep an eye on your siblings. Have fun with your ‘girlfriend’, son.” He chuckled and crossed his arms, the word ‘girlfriend’ sounded almost laced with poison.

“I will.” The boy gave out a passive-aggressive smile

____________________________________

Your hand digging into the bowl of caramel popcorn on the small patio table, stuffing your face full of it. You had a towel on top of your back, as you held your legs into your body. Michael rested upon his chair, staring into the sunset that fell beneath the picket fences in front of you both. His hand was also filled with popcorn, and devoured it quickly. While Liz and Evan had passed out, sleeping on the hammocks. Besides you, was some rickety boombox playing “Boys Don’t Cry” which played with a mild noise while you two rested upon the chairs. You looked at Michael, his face always reminding you of the time that his dad revealed his secret. Where you find out Mike had a crush on you. You hadn’t confronted him about it, you were too awkward to do so.

You both sat there silent. Till you broke the ice. “So.. remember that sleepover where I helped you with homework? Can you tell me why you were late with the teacher?” Michael immediately coughed up his popcorn, and sat up.

“Didn’t I tell you she got her panties in a twist?” He said with a dismissive wave. You rolled your eyes at him. “Yeah I know, but that's not it, is it?”

He paused for a moment, and sighed, he put his head to the side in a somber tone. Your face softens and you give him a look of sympathy. Tilting your head to the boy beside you. “You know, you can tell me, right? That's what best friends are for.” He groans and shakes his head in a sad smile, but he gives in.

“Bout my grades.” He uttered. “I mean, it's no big surprise, since I’m quite the hassle to deal with. Bound to have shit grades.”

“But uh..” He took a moment and continued on, “Teacher came up to me and the first time I wasn’t getting yelled at. She went up to me and was like: what's home like?” He stared into the sunset slowly fading into the horizon, the red and the purples mixing with one another.

“First time I was ever vulnerable.” He turned his head and looked at you, with an awkward look on his face.

“Don’t like home. It’s not warm.” He didn’t further elaborate on that.

You sighed, but smiled at Mike. Patting him on the back with your gentle and dainty touch. You run it back and forth, giving him a bit of warmth. His eyes immediately lightened up, and he laughed. His mood, lifting up just from your hands. “I have a lot of friends. Yet, a nerd like you takes the cake.” He says, with an amused tone, you chuckled in response. “I know. But I hope you know this nerd is always here to listen.” You said, he scoffs but it was clear he smiled softly.

Another silence goes between you two.Then you’ve curiously look at him, “Are you still with Sarah?” He gave a cringed expression on his face and ran his fingers through his hair in a nervous manner. “Ehh..”

“Are you serious? This is the second girl of the month.” You pestered, scolding him with a baffled smile on your face. “It just didn’t work out, alright! It's ok— I mean, she moved on fast. Saw her with a guy the next day.”

You facepalm and shake your head. “What’s your type anyways?” Oops! You shut your mouth instantly, knowing you slipped out a stupid obvious question. You already knew Michael liked you, ever since William revealed his secret in the last sleepover. Yet, here you are beating around the bush. Cringing at yourself, wishing you had confronted Michael earlier if he had a crush on you or not. But it can’t be, right? Every girl in your guys’ highschool had the hots for your best friend. There was not a chance, right? You can’t ask that question. How would you put it into words that weren’t an awkward jumbled mess?

“Eh.. man I don’t know.” He answered plainly, and he was silent afterwards. Until he abruptly said, “A nice girl.”

“A nice girl?” You tilt your head at his answer. He rolled his eyes at you with a bit of a chuckle that left his mouth. “Yeah, I mean, what? What did you expect?”

“Well.. I just, you know. I thought there may be more.” You responded, shrugging your arms. You continued on, “I mean most guys give you a list of what they want in a girl.”

“What? You thought I'd give you a list?” He laughs, now putting a piece of bubblegum into his mouth. “Sure. I wouldn’t mind if she's hot, then I got something to ogle at. But.. a nice girl is– well nice. I wouldn’t even mind if this girl was a bit of a geek.” He responded, chewing the gum in his mouth.

“So you would go out with a nerd.?” You looked at him, raising your brow. “I guess.”

You giggled at his response, holding your stomach a little. “I can’t imagine it!” You mutter in between your laughter, while Michael turns his head and lets out a huff. Crossing his arms, while he rolled his eyes again. “Piss off, cunt.” He nudges at you playfully. But he quickly retreats back on laying on his chair, and gives a small sigh.

“Sometimes you remind me of my mum.” He says quietly, but you still hear his sentence. You still laughed, but it was slowly dying out as you saw Michaels gaze. Filled with admiration. You both stare at each other for a moment. Not a single word coming out of your mouth. Not a single noise between you two. But just from his stare, you could feel yourself becoming a bit rosy. You had the chance to say something, and break the tension, confront him about if he has feelings for you—

He stood up, and dusted off his swimsuit shorts. “I think I’m gonna clean up now.” He sighs, while stretching his back a little. He then went towards his younger siblings on the hammock, shaking them a little. “C’mon time to wake up. Or else father’s gonna be all up in my ass again.” Aggravated, pushing them a little. The two wake up all groggily, dragging their feet on the ground as Evan went back into the house trailing his bear plushie on the ground, while Elizabeth rubbed her eyes with her arm as she mumbled an insult towards her older brother.

Michael looks back at you, as you were sitting on the chair. He puts his hand on the top of your hair, ruffling a little. You groaned as he does while he pops his bubblegum. The boy leans toward you a little, and gives you a small smile, gentle and soft. “I’ll see you in a bit.” He says, and plants a kiss on your cheek. He then faced away from you, but you could see a red tint on his face.

Your best friend then goes back into the house. While you sat on the beach chair, taken aback. Mouth agape. Did he just blush? Did he just kiss you, on your cheek?

But before you could fully grasp what happened, you felt a tug on your strap. You gazed at the movement, and soon enough you felt the familiar touch on you. “Darling.” That pet name, which is all so memorable to you. You see the older man, who is suddenly behind you. His steps and body are so quiet, it almost made you think of how he’s so fit for a criminal. You quickly sit up from his presence, as if he commands you to pay attention to him. You look at him, bug-eyed. “Yes?” You bumbled with your response. He always found it so cute that you were always so nervous around him. A fawn so delicate and fragile, a bunny so tense and afraid.

He circled around you like a shark, putting his two fingers around his shoulder, you felt a shiver running down your spine. Only until now, you realize how uneasy he made you feel. You could almost feel your hands slightly tremble. He gazed at you like some wolf waiting to feast on a lamb, like some fruit waiting to be opened and tasted. An uncomfortable silent pause before he says his next word, he then bends down to your chair facing you eye to eye. His gray eyes pierced right through, but oh, he had such a gentle grin on his face. It was so contradictory. His smile was so sweet, yet his eyes and cold touch on your shoulder said less. It lured you right in.

Most people, when you look into their eyes– there would be a bit of a sparkle of light. You found nothing but an empty pupil. Although, it didn’t feel intimidating. Yet. “Still looking pretty as ever.” He traced his thumb on your face, while you sat there silently, helpless.

“Uhm. Thank you, Mr. Afton.” You responded, as a way to fill the silence, to fill that restless feeling in you. You didn’t bother to look away and turn your face to the side, you fear something bad will happen if you do. “Darling.. Would you mind if I ask a question?” He asked, but it’s almost like he would still inquire if you said no. You shake your head, signing to go ahead.

“Do you like Michael?” He asked, still rubbing his thumb on your cheek. You paused at first, “I don’t think so.”

“You don’t think so?” He repeated, and chuckled. But that chuckle was unnerving. He still traced his thumb over your cheek but more slowly this time. Almost tauntingly. “Yeah I don’t think.. I do.” You said, but then your eyes went towards the house.

“Are you sure?” William teased, but it hid a dark intention behind his words.

You look at Michael, seeing him through the window. He was watching TV, while bothering his little brother. He looked alot alike to his father, but much more softer. His skin is more tanner, his face less hollower. His hair messy, unstyled and spiked cuffs around his wrist, his usual jean jacket around his body. He had eyebags, just like William but it wasn’t so sunken. He had more of a boyish look to him, amateurish and juvenille. You can admit, he was good looking. He was attractive, even. And he's alway been nice to you, always been more softer with you than anyone else around him. And he’s always been sweet, always had a laugh that made you smile.

He was good to you, good for you, maybe you do like– “Look at me.” You then felt your face forcefully grabbed. Your cheeks almost squeezed, as your eyes squint in pain. William's eyes were harsh, even cruel looking as he stared into you. “Don’t look at him, look at me.”

“I said. Don’t look at him. Look at me.” You immediately complied, and gazed at him back. Your breath almost caught up in your throat, and your eyes all nervous and wide. He had a scowl on his face. “Do I have to repeat myself, hm?” He said, a tone laced with malice.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry-” He put a finger near your lips, in a shushing motion. “Listen here darling. I know, I know, Michael is your best friend. But I don’t think he's good for you.” He says, honey-like, his words soothing and smooth. There was a glint in his eyes as he said it.

His finger then traced down to your throat, and softly tugged at the ribbon of your lilac swimsuit between your cleavage. He was playing with it. Teasing it. “He’s not good for you.. No, no, no, not at all. I don’t want your soft little heart broken, it’s not meant for a harsh boy like him.” He tutted. “He’ll use you.. You know how teenage boys are.” He said it like a fact.

“Will you believe me, sweetheart?” He patted your cheek, in such a sickly sweet manner. “Will you believe me, when I say he's no good for you?” You paused before you spoke, but his words sounded so genuine, so heartfelt. You nodded your head softly. Still so malleable, how he loved that.

“That's right. What a good girl.” He hummed from your response. “Now, I think it’s time for you to get cleaned up. Hm?”

“Yes. Mr. Afton..” You responded, and he chuckled a little from how quiet and nervous your pretty voice sounded. His scowl turned into his usual polite smile. He then took your hand and made you stand up on the ground, drying the wet hair with a towel. Patting you on the back, as he moves you back into the house. How easy.

[starhvney]

𝐒𝐔𝐁𝐉𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝟑 | 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟔: 𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄

𝐂𝐖: blackmailing? kinda, no yeah blackmailing, gene smokes, allusions to reader being paranoid

𝐀/𝐍: so sorry for the long wait on this next chapter, writers block will kill you. i edited but am posting this at 1 am so if there's any typos pls let me know so i can cry about it thanks

𝐖𝐂: 4,900 +

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 ☆ 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 | 𝐀𝐎𝟑 | 𝐅𝐈𝐂 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 | 𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊𝐒

a week passed, then another, then another. it was now officially well into autumn and you had yet to be confronted by ivy again, or bothered by any other student for that matter. 

“an off-season soccer tournament? during school?”

“yeah,” laurance grins, dressed in his soccer uniform and some beat-up sneakers as he walks alongside you and aphmau. “don’t be too sad without me in our classes.”

a playful scoff leaves your lips as you roll your eyes at him, placing a hand over your chest.

“i’m heartbroken, devastated even. however will i survive without you, laurance?”

amused snickers leave his mouth, face scrunching as he covers his face before comically recomposing himself, imitating your dramatic pose. 

“i know, please forgive me. i’ll come back for you, my darling!”

“wait, what other schools are coming?” aphmau questions, brushing past both of your bantering. “enough for you to be out the whole school day?”

he nods, fluffing his hair with his fingers and sighing.

“yeah, nahakra high and… o’khasis prep is coming.” he groans under his breath, shoulders dropping as he shakes his head in disappointment. “that game is gonna be a total shi—“

he clears his throat.

“—i mean, it’ll be… a humbling experience. they’re hard to beat anyways, but our team right now is not doing so well.”

aphmau hums thoughtfully. “well, good luck? i wish i could come watch and cheer everyone on.”

laurance suddenly perks up, taking long steps forward and turning around. there’s a pep in his step as he walks backward, grinning at the two of you. 

“during free period and athletics i think you’re allowed to come watch if your teacher lets you. you should ask.”

“oh? guess we’ll finally get to see how you became the captain your sophomore year.”

he shrugs, lips curling up smugly as he tilts his head back.

“you’ll be sooo impressed.” he gloats, tone humorous.

“uh-huh…”

his eyes focus back on you, eyes glinting in mischief. 

“if you come to watch me, i’m gonna call you out on the field to play on the team.”

“huh?” you raise an eyebrow. “no way, then your team would for sure lose.”

“nah, i bet you’re secretly a pro.”

“i’m not, but aphmau is pretty good.”

the girl looks up, shaking her head. “what? i’m okay at it, but…”

“garroth told me you totally clocked zane in the face when your families went to the park a couple weeks ago.” laurance snickers. “wish i could’ve seen that.”

“rude!” aphmau scolds lightheartedly. “i felt really bad about that!”

“oh, whatever. that little cyclops deserves it.” he rolls his eyes.

“laurance!”

☆

now that you didn’t have ivy breathing down your neck, you felt… really happy going to school. you grew closer with the volleyball team at practice every day, as well as lucinda and a few of the other girls you’d run into in your classes. you ended up seeing that meif’wa girl again too, and the little freshman was sickeningly adorable.

you also met jeffory, and while you felt for poor travis and his one-sided crush on the volleyball captain, you couldn’t blame katelyn for her choice of boyfriend. he had sat with katelyn a few times at lunch, and you’d see him coming in to help with the girls’ after-school practice as you were leaving for the day. you’d yet to find a flaw in him, unless being much too kind-hearted could be a flaw.

speaking of travis, you’d finally met his friend dante that he and aphmau had mentioned a few times. he wasn’t as elusive and mysterious as he had been when he was just a name floating in your brain, and was instead… quite the dork who was trying way too hard to be a ladies man. he was pretty funny, though, so you couldn’t even be mad at his shitty pick up lines and awful attempts at winking. 

although, despite all these new friends and feeling like a normal high school kid again, you still felt on edge. like you were only in the calm eye of the storm before getting your feet swept out from under you by the hurricane.

that hurricane really was imminent, and it came to you in the form of the tall senior you crashed into as you rushed to your next class, praying you wouldn’t be any later than you already were. the boy is much taller than you, and his lean muscles and firm frame didn’t provide a very comfortable cushion for you to run into. stumbling back with a surprised noise, you immediately go to apologize before even looking up. 

“i’m so—“ you start, stumbling on your words as your eyes land on sharp deep blue. “—um… so sorry.”

unruly black hair hangs over gene’s dark lashes as he looks down at you, eyes narrowing and canines peeking out in a cat-like grin. he looks like he had just caught your little mouse tail underneath his sharp claws, and you know that the hurricane’s winds have now swept you back up in the storm.

his tie is loose, top buttons of his uniform shirt undone, sleeves messily rolled up to his elbows. how has he not gotten dress coded for this? scratch that. maybe he did, and he just doesn’t care. 

suddenly he shifts his face from amusement to a rather sarcastic-looking pout, his performance not very convincing with the smug look still shining in his eyes. you’re sure that those upturned, almond-shaped eyes and the dark circles underneath them couldn’t appear innocent even if they tried.

“you know it’s rude to run into people like that, i could’ve gotten hurt.”

you can’t help the unimpressed pinch of your eyebrows at his words, especially as you crane your neck to look up at the boy who nearly knocked you over despite your momentum.

“i didn’t mean to.” your words are more clipped than you mean for them to be, your alarm overpowering the control over your voice.

“running in the halls is against the rules, you know.” he clicks his tongue, shaking his head as you begin to try and walk around him. “but you’d never break the rules, right?”

you pause at the strange inflection in his voice with his last sentence, his words loaded with a different motive. turning around, you see a flash of satisfaction across his face, and you feel like a rabbit just caught in a hunter’s snare. his hand reaches into his pocket, pulling out his phone.

“…what?”

long legs stride forward, his torso hunching over as he leans towards you, facing his screen around for you to see. the picture very clearly shows you on top of ivy, hair wild as you pin her down, fist pummeling into her face.

you remember now, seeing him at the end of the hall as you stood up, curiously staring at you. you didn’t remember seeing a phone in his hand, but that must’ve been why he was there.

“i gotta say, you did an impressive number on her. i swear i thought she fucked up your face a little too, but you came back the next day all badass like nothing happened.”

“what do you want?”

“woah,” he grins, holding his hands up in defense. “no need to get aggressive. i just thought you might need some persuasion. to hang out with me and my friends today.”

“…you’re blackmailing me… to be your friend.”

he snickers, sliding his finger across his phone screen to show more pictures. others clearly show ivy being in the fault. one showing her fingers yanking back on aphmau’s ponytail as you two try to walk away, another of you pulling aphmau behind you defensively, and another of her ripping her nails into your hair and face.

“i don’t know if i’d like to call it blackmailing. after all, i could bend this situation any way i want. really, it just depends on if you’d give me a chance. i promise, i’m really not as bad as i seem.”

at first you say nothing, eyebrows furrowed as you try to catch one of the many thoughts that frantically race around in your brain for a solution.

“i’m sure laurance said otherwise,” gene continues. “but we’re really not awful people. i mean, we’re not great either, but we’re cool. besides, i think you want someone like me on your team in case the mrs.ro’meave-wannabe in this picture here decides to yap about what happened.”

you stare at the screen, heart racing. not only were you at risk, but so was aphmau. had he caught her in the halls today, too?

“just give it a try, this is your choice here. why don’t you have lunch with us outside by the bleachers today so we can get to know each other? i know a secret of yours, so if we become friends i can share a secret of mine with you.”

“are you secretly normal?”

laughter bursts from his mouth, and for a moment he looks so genuinely entertained with your words that the youthfulness in his young age actually shines through his rugged appearance. you’re not sure if you maybe secretly pissed him off or if he strangely liked the attitude you were giving him, so you find yourself standing there awkwardly as he gathers himself.

“no, not really.” he begins to walk away from you while shaking his head, more chuckles leaving his throat as he slides his phone back into his pocket and makes his way down the hall. “see you at lunch.”

“…shit.”

☆

you ended up zoning out for the rest of your morning classes, your head empty despite its screams to try and find a solution to this. garroth and katelyn sent wary glances your way pretty much the whole day, but left it alone when you didn’t tell them for the third time when they asked. as the lunch bell rang, you made the excuse that you weren’t feeling the best, and was gonna see if the nurse would give you some medicine. they shrugged, giving you one last worried look before making their way to your friend group in the cafeteria.

you were pretty sure eating outside was against the school’s rules, so your heart was racing when you made your way to the doors that led to all of the athletic fields. after your stressful searching you soon find the three of them behind the bleachers near the soccer field.

gene and the angry-looking boy lounge on the ground, and the silver haired girl is perched on one of the thick beams holding the bleachers up. their attention is immediately set on you as they hear the ground crunch under your feet, all three eyes turned to where you awkwardly stand.

“there she is.” gene gets up and strides towards you, throwing an arm around your shoulder and guiding you closer to his group.

he smells like cigarettes covered by cologne and… paint? your eyes meet a can of spray paint in the other boy’s hand before trailing up to see an sk symbol freshly graffitied onto one of the thicker pillars.

on school property? guess laurance wasn’t exaggerating about them.

“since laurance so rudely interrupted our introduction to you last time, let’s reintroduce ourselves, yeah? i’m gene hyun,” he gestures to himself, deep voice almost lifting in a teasing way  before pointing at his friends. “that’s sasha morozov, and that’s zenix brandt. say hi, everyone.”

“you’re already breaking the rules, i like this new look on you.” sasha speaks up first, lips curling up in a smile that didn’t meet her eyes. “it would be nice to not be the only girl in this group.”

“can’t take the pressure, sasha?” zenix teases with a grin.

“or maybe i just can’t stand your face, zenix.”

“shut up, you love me.”

“i’m not that desperate.”

zenix scoffs. “me neither.”

“will you two quiet down? you’ll scare away our new friend here. hey, we introduced ourselves to you, so now it’s only polite for you to do the same.” gene nudges your shoulder once before letting you go.

you shortly give your name, chest brewing with an uncomfortable fog as you debate just running back inside. either way you risked your reputation, so your feet end up sticking to the ground as you swallow at the dry feeling in your throat. 

“you didn’t get anything to eat?” sasha questions, sleepy eyes pointedly looking down at your empty hands.

you look down at them as well, as if you hadn’t very purposefully walked past the cafeteria so no one knew you were off doing something you weren’t supposed to. you turn to glance back towards the school, before looking back to shrug at the girl.

“um… no, i forgot.”

dark silvery eyebrows turn up unimpressed before she plucks an apple off of her tray and tosses it to you. it catches you off guard and you clumsily catch it, fumbling and nearly dropping it down into the gravel.

“…thanks.”

she shrugs, humming a small “mhm” in return.

“…hm. you know, thinking about it, i dunno about that name.” gene suddenly says.

“right? i think we should give her a nickname instead.”

…what? your name wasn’t hard to pronounce in the slightest. before you can protest they’re already discussing the matter, tossing around name ideas they should give you like you were their new pet.

“what about dolly? since she’ll be running our errands for us like a little doll.”

“no, that’s too much. hm… she really did give a good beating on ivy despite being smaller than her, she’s got claws. how about kitty?”

“hm, a cute pet’s name, i like it.” sasha says, leg swinging off the side of where she sat.

“sasha and kitty for sk. i like it.” zenix adds, smile taunting as he looks at you.

your eyebrows pinch together, voice tight in irritation. “my name isn’t hard. i don’t need a nickname.”

gene’s eyebrow raises, challenging as he tilts his head.

“oh? sounds like the voice of someone who’s bold enough to let a picture of her fighting skills spread around.”

you scoff.

“listen. i hate to say it, kitty, but we have the upper hand here. we know it’s a bit devious, but we just want you to join us. you wouldn’t reject people wanting to be your friend, would you? especially ones that are also bad and break the rules.”

“i’m not going to—”

“no? well if that picture starts floating around who do you think will be your friend? us, or those goody two shoes friends you hang out with?”

“it’s none of their business what happened.” you snap, your brain scrambling for responses and too exhausted from the conversation to come up with any.

“then why don’t you say that to one of them?” gene hums in taunting amusement, head tilting as he looks at you through his lashes. “look behind you.”

your heart thuds and drops in your chest as you turn to see laurance, walking up to you in his soccer uniform, eyes narrowing at gene.

“is he bothering you?” he looks to you, brows furrowed.

your mouth drops open, trying to find something to say. his eyes seem to catch onto the draining of the blood from your face, his hand reaching out to grab your arm and pull you closer to his side.

“come on, you don’t need to be hanging out with—”

“no need to get so defensive, laurance. she wants to hang out with us.” gene cuts him off.

laurance freezes, eyes narrowing as he looks between you and the trio. “huh?”

gene stares at you, a toothy grin on his sharp features. 

“yeah,” you barely keep your voice steady as everyone focuses on you. “they’re not so bad once you get to know them.”

“…what?” laurance questions again, as if he thought he was hallucinating your words.

“yeah, she’s a real sweet girl. i really think i’m starting to see the error of my ways because of her.” gene takes a few steps closer. 

“really?” laurance asks, tone disbelieving.

“yeah! in fact she was just telling us to stop hanging back here and tagging up the place. i’ve never felt more moved.”

sasha and zenix nod along to his words, taking his lead as he looks to them. gene then waltzes right up to you, handing you a crumpled and folded slip of paper.

“here’s my number. text me later, i may need some help on my homework later. why don’t you go with laurance and we’ll catch you later.” he chuckles. “i can really picture our friendship blossoming.”

you give a half-hearted breath of a laugh in return, backing up with laurance. 

“okay, later.”

you feel sick. 

“are you okay?” laurance asks you once you’re out of earshot, leading you to the benches where the soccer team sits, the area pretty empty at the moment other than a few players practicing on the field.

“huh? oh yeah, i’m good.”

he stares at you, fingers tapping against the other. 

“…you sure? you know, those three are really good at acting and putting up a front. i really don’t think—”

“i know! trust me, it’s fine.”

his eyebrows furrow like he wants to say something but changes his mind, glancing back at the empty bleachers you were just behind. 

“you know eating outside during lunch is against the rules though, don’t you?”

you hold back a sigh. 

“…no, i didn’t know.”

laurance sighs looking at the apple still clutched in your hands. “…is that all you have for lunch?”

“oh, yeah. i forgot to… get some.”

he looks back up at you, before reaching into the soccer team’s snack box and handing you chips and a cheese stick.

“you don’t need to—”

“eat.” he raises a challenging eyebrow when you hesitate, lips curling up in appeasement when you start peeling open the cheese wrapper.

a call of your name falls from his lips, prompting you to look up into concerned eyes. 

“be careful.”

☆

as you change in the locker room out of your sweaty athletics uniform, your phone buzzes on the bench.

gene: meet me near the back of the school

you suppress a sigh, keeping your face neutral in front of your group of girl friends beside you.

you: ok

aphmau was able to catch you alone in the hallways at one point, round eyes wide with worry. apparently she had also been confronted by gene, but that guy from her werewolf class had supposedly interrupted their talk, cutting the confrontation short.

you weren’t as lucky, you groaned internally, as you swung open the back doors to the school, finding your way down the stairs and spotting gene by the fence line. he’s changed into casual clothes rather than his school uniform, you note, the dark and grungy clothes a polar difference from the neat school uniform he was forced to wear. 

“…what is it?”

“walk with me to my house.”

any anxiety you feel is overridden as you shoot a sharp glare up at him, nose wrinkling in disgust. “no. why would i do that? are you some kind of pervert?”

gene barks out a laugh, head throwing back as he holds up his arms defensively. “woah, put the claws away, kitty! it’s nothing like that. i won’t claim i’m a good guy, but i’m not a total piece of shit either. i need you to meet my mom.”

“…what.”

“i’ll explain on the walk there.” he nods at you to walk along with him, beginning to make his way down the street.

you hesitate, teeth gritting. before you realize it your feet have carried you after him, catching up to the long-legged boy.

“if you try anything i’ll beat the shit out of you. i don’t care if you’re bigger and taller, i’ll find a way.” you threaten, even if you weren’t confident in your own words. 

gene seems amused by your threat, something you’ve begun to notice as a trend. “unless you were forced to take taekwondo as a kid i’m afraid you have no chance. i can appreciate your attitude, though. having a backbone looks good on you.”

you release a quiet sigh, glancing over warily at his tall frame, noticing the bit of lean muscle that cling to him. despite being on the thinner side, you knew he was most definitely right.

“what is it you want me to do?”

he hums. “ah, right. so, my mom’s been on my ass lately about hanging out with sasha and zenix too much… saying they’re bad influences.”

he scoffs, hands tucked into the pockets of his black jacket.

“i just need you to pretend like you’re a new friend of mine, helping me out with school and otherwise being a good influence. should be easy enough for you, you don’t need to even act.”

you huff. “why choose me?”

“why not? besides you doing this for me… and the whole picture thing… you seem pretty cool. maybe i just want to be friends.”

you don’t say anything to that, instead sending him a wary glance as he barks out an amused laugh in return.

on the way the two of you make it to a gas station, where gene turns to walk towards its doors rather than continue down the sidewalk, much to your chagrin.

when your footsteps stop from behind him he turns, looking back at you with a sigh.

“listen, i don’t live in a shady part of town necessarily, but at least come inside with me.” he says, his usual teasing cadence gone as he waves you to him. 

though he wasn’t implying anything you feel a shiver run up your spine, fingers drifting to zianna’s locket as your eyes drift around at the cars passing by. you spot one, all black, parked near the side of the building.

black rims, black paint, blacked out lights, blacked out windows.

no, it’s nothing.

plenty of people have all black cars.

but…

quickly, you shuffle after gene, listening to the doorbell chime as you rush into the door after him.

he gives you a questioning look. the one time he wasn’t really trying to tease or scare you and you looked the most scared. he doesn’t question it though, instead telling you to look around while he buys what he needs.

you sigh, walking down the store aisles, eyes drifting to the different candies. turning to go to the next aisle you nearly bump into a taller man. he looked average. tanned skin and brown hair… but when you look into his eyes…

there’s a certain emptiness to the shade of brown you look into. something cruel and unforgiving—something you didn’t even see in gene’s. despite their warm color, they lacked any sense of care. it sends a cold chill starting from your cheeks and down your back, like someone had dumped ice water over your head.

“excuse me.” you mutter, shuffling past him and quickly putting yourself right next to where gene stood.

he glances at you from the corner of his eye, turning to see the man in the aisle. it’s a few seconds where he doesn’t say anything, face cold and unexpressive as he stares down the man until he leaves the store empty-handed.

the cashier, a rather unimpressed looking woman in her mid twenties glances over to you, raising a thinly plucked eyebrow.

“this your new girlfriend or something?” she glances down at your uniform, lip curling as she stares judgmentally back at gene. “...she looks a little young.”

“what? no, don’t be ridiculous,” gene scoffs. “just my little brothers friend. she’s coming home to study with him, so i’m walking her.”

the cashier deadpans at him. “yeah, okay. if you’re buying these for that lil’ girl i can’t sell em to you.”

“does it look like i’m buying these for her?” he gestures to you with one of his hands, giving an exasperated look to the cashier. “i mean she looks like she makes all a’s and never gets in trouble. c’mon.”

your eyebrows furrow. sell what to him?

the cashier looks you up and down for a moment before sighing, reaching down to the cabinets below her and pulling out a red cigarette case. your eyes widen and you look to gene, who only scoldingly stares you down from the corner of his eye.

“don’t say a thing and act natural.” is what you read from the dark blue irises challenging you to say something before he slides the money over the counter.

the cashier checks him out, narrowing her hooded green eyes at you once more with a concerned glint to them before humming. “you’re good to go. see you later.”

“thanks, donna.” gene casually replies, shoving the cigs in his pocket and ushering you out of the store.

you two walk in silence for a moment, making it a ways down the street before he reaches into the back of his jean pockets, pulling out one of the cigarettes and an old lighter. he lights one, huffing out the smoke and glancing down at you. 

“want one?”

you shake your head. he shrugs, stepping around you to walk on your other side when he sees you blink rapidly from the smoke blowing in your eyes.

“more for me.” he smirks, taking another deep inhale and looking away, slowly letting out his next breath.

“…how did you even buy those?” you ask, frowning as he flicks ash onto the concrete. 

he reaches into his pocket, pulling out his wallet and sliding out not his normal id, but instead another version that was flipped horizontally, the “under 21” warning nowhere to be seen.

“fake id.” he shrugs. “been using it since last year.”

it’s about ten more minutes before the roll of nicotine meets the end of its life. gene stops, crouching down for a second to snuff it out, before carelessly flicking it out onto the street.

“littering?” you narrow your eyes.

“what? it’ll decompose.”

“no, it won’t. not for a long time.”

“whatever.”

“littering is really lame.”

gene scoffs, rolling his eyes. “c’mon, kitty. loosen up. the world will keep spinning to see another day.”

you huff, running back to scoop up the discarded cigarette, still warm from both its flame and staying snugly between gene’s fingers. he stops to look at you, eyebrows raised and pinched, the corner of his mouth turned down in confused amusement. you walk back to him, flipping up the top of the box that still hung out of his jeans and shoving the cigarette down into the empty spot.

he raises a brow before his head tilts back in silent laughter, eyes closed.

“okay, fine, miss goody two shoes.” he laughs, before turning onto the pathway up to a dull blue house. “remember, just act like you’re a new friend of mine helping me out with my grades.”

he pulls out a key chain, unlocking the door and waving you inside. “hey mom, i have someone i want you to meet.”

the inside of the house… is not the environment that you’d expect for a guy like gene to live in. it was perfectly clean, the furniture neat and the fresh scent of lemons and lavender clinging to the air.

an older woman with a taller stature than you and lighter gray-blue hair appears from the hallway, face stern as she looks at her son.

“a new friend? if they’re anything like—” she stops her train of thought when her eyes land on you, face changing to a friendlier expression. “oh, hello sweetie. you’re… gene’s friend?”

gene huffs. “don’t sound too surprised.”

you control your breathing, already feeling guilty pulling in your chest as you prepare yourself to lie to this woman. you raise your hand to shake hers with a small smile, nodding along.

“yes ma’am. it’s nice to meet you.”

“it’s nice to meet you too! i’m maria.” her face is brightened as she grabs onto your hand, shaking it back. “oh, gene, honey. i’m surprised such a proper-looking and lovely girl wants to talk to you! she’s adorable.”

“what?” he sighs, looking much less intimidating than usual as he watches his tongue in front of his mother. “…anyways, mom, she’s been helping me with school. she makes amazing grades and never gets in trouble… right…?”

you nod.

“wow, i can’t believe you made friends outside of that little club of yours—”

“—it’s a gang—”

“—i’m so proud. do you need a ride home, sweetie? gene and i were just going to leave for dance lessons.”

“oh, that’s okay. i can walk.”

maria shakes her head. “oh, but a girl like you shouldn’t walk alone on the streets, especially with the traffic right now. we’re not necessarily in a dangerous part of town, but still.”

you freeze, before nodding. “if you don’t mind, that would be nice.”

“of course not! gene lets go.” she nods, pulling her keys out of the purse on her shoulder and walking out the front door.

you two stand there for a moment before you turn to gene with a raised eyebrow, a smirk fighting to break out on your face.

“…dance lessons?”

his nose crinkles before he bends his torso, the scent of cigarettes still fresh on his breath as he slits his eyes at you.

“don’t you dare utter a word of that to anyone, or everyone in the school will know about that picture.” he whispers, before straightening himself and pacing forward towards the door. “c’mon, sweetie, time to go home.”

©starhvney, 2024. please do not steal or repost my works as your own.

[hana-no-seiiki]

but like midnight darling with popular boy! reader though (inspired by our lord and savior @heartfullofleeches ‘s post about breeding)

for new readers: midnight darling is where my yan! college based ocs come from. you can read more about them via the first tag to this post or my masterlist

everyone would be goddamn pregnant. literally and figuratively. you’d think reader would be cautious enough to use protection since they sleep with so many people but nope! it just feels better when they do it raw yknow?

it’s come to the point that the goons made a system to prevent you (and by extension them) from getting an std at the very least by examining every single person on the campus daily.

dw they’re rich they can handle it.

in any case, by the time you reached your third year you’ve already impregnated most students and all of the teaching faculty with wombs. you’re literally a baby away from causing a crisis equal to those dodgy fertility clinics and the government from hounding your ass.

for some reason none of the rich kid’s parents sue you because like child, like parent they are super obsessed with you and particularly the genes you’d provide their family. besides it’s nothing a quick cover-up can’t handle.

like the only reason you haven’t been sent to jail is because you have connections to many people in power (mostly parents that wanted your sperm).

you had your doubts about your safety until you overheard in a dinner with crisanto salvador (main yan! rich kid) of his dad asking him if they could somehow implant a womb in the poor guy just to hold your baby. (which actually leads to advancements in reproductive technology in the future, im seriously tempted to change the mc’s canonical sex since it makes sense now oh god-)

there are some of the insane yans that use your child as a threat to keep you theirs in which you retaliated by using other yans to save your children.

cold-hearted or not, those babies are completely innocent and your responsibility, so as much as possible you do everything in your power to keep them out of harm’s way.

…

there’s definitely an underground market for your jizz i’m sorry-

©️ hana.no.seiiki - yun | 2023

[cinnamonest]

okok we’re all aware of the idea of diluc wanting a traditional housewife bla bla ok fine.. but IMAGINE his daughter, his beautiful, precious daughter darling who he’s been conditioning to becoming that ideal traditional housewife (he says he does it so you’re more charming to rich suitors in the near future buut he really just means himself) finally rebels against him. goes out drinking, partying, tries to attack monsters and men alike (poor diluc failed to notice how much she’s been hanging out with her uncle kaeya..) and now she’s starting to have arguments with him and talks back… gosh, imagine the heart attack he’d have.. bless his poor soul..

Your brain anon?? Impeccable, I see the vision

Envisioning it one of two ways — one, single dad Diluc that is struggling to rationalize your behavior, ultimately blaming it on your mother in some way. If she’s remembered fondly, perhaps her untimely death left you without a proper female figure, or if it was a less amicable relationship that spawned you, perhaps he blames himself for poor judgement, reproducing with someone who ultimately abandoned you both (which indicates very poor behavior in the genes and all).

He gives you chances to rectify your actions, tells you to behave in a way that honors the family, but you refuse. You continue to talk to boys (ones of a lower class than you at that!), even disappearing overnight with them, smearing the family name. It crushes him, makes him upset at you, makes him furious with them, to the point that he has to stop the murderous urges before they become too strong.

But they’re boys — of course they’re going to take the opportunity when you hand it to them like that. What, it’s not as if they should be expected to control themselves — the fault of it all falls on you, naturally.

If you're going to keep up the unsightly behavior, then, the only real option is to keep you confined to the home, where you can't embarrass him and disgrace the family name by whoring out and engaging in casual relations.

But the damage is done — you’ve already tarnished your reputation, he tells you, beyond the point of repair. He can’t arrange for you to be married at this point. Even if he did, you’d probably just make things worse by being an unruly wife, maybe even, gods forbid, continuing to run around and have affairs. Since you chose to bring matters to this point, the only option is to keep you at home, where he can monitor your behavior and actions, for the foreseeable future.

But alternatively, with wife!reader, the man is obsessive both towards you and your daughter, the latter platonically — but still, he can barely fathom the behavior he’s witnessing.

This is obviously the result of your influence. You're rubbing off on her, when he very specifically warned you that there would be consequences for not instilling good behavior. You've been teaching her what, to be some kind of temptress, rather than setting her up to be a good wife? Do you want to completely ruin her future?

He's one of those fathers that has a soft side for a (platonically loved) daughter, though, so he can't be too harsh on her… besides, it's ultimately your fault anyway, so it's only logical to punish you whenever your daughter is said to have slept with some boy or done something unsightly. You're the one that gets taken behind closed doors for 'talks’ about what you've done wrong and made to promise that you'll fix things, that you'll stop encouraging and allowing this behavior. It's for both of your sakes, after all.

[hotvintagepoll]

[Not accusing you, just coming here to sob lol XD] Noooooo why did you allow for Jeremy to be murdered like this! :,( He had such a hard fight last round and it was such a deserved and close win, now he's being ripped to pieces! My poor darling! </3

Because someone had to go up against Toshiro Mifune, and this is the way I wrote the bracket for the final rounds. (If it wasn't Jeremy it was going to be Gene.)

[kneelingshadowsalome]

WHAT WILL KÖ AND HIS BABES FUTURE WILL BEEEE IM CRYINGAHA will it get better? Worse? IM WORRIEDJABA , get married? Eventually having kids? ?? Live together?

I am not well

König gets into trouble after the Graves incident, that's for sure. Just as some people suspected, he probably gets suspended for a rather long period. It's a tough time for both of them, K doesn't really know what to do with himself when he's not killing people working. He goes to the range a lot, tries to improve his accuracy, goes to the gym daily to get at least some of his usual adrenaline high. Poor Engel gets so much love every night it starts to get a little annoying >:((

But they'll get through that rough patch eventually, and K returns to work after solemnly swearing he won't shit in his own nest anymore (*or else* he gets the boot for good). He also gets some of the shittiest jobs for a while, people avoid him even more, but getting back to the field is all in all a huge relief for König.

On the other hand, Engel has a calming effect on him. Now, König can't get "fixed"... but he's not as out of control as he used to be. When he returns to his lady night after night, gets to hold her and these two get to know each other more, the sharpest violent edge is honed away. Love and trust simply has that effect on this guy because he's not actually a psychopath devoid of empathy (might be a sociopath with a nice little personality disorder or two on the side).

König would sooo want to live together at some point. I'm pretty sure that special ops soldiers like him have a nice, fat payroll. He's bound to have some savings and he would try and get a nice little place with a small garden or a yard (he doesn't want to live in a rented place) and basically demands they move there after 4–6 months.

Tbh introducing him to parents and friends is nearly impossible. He wants his Engel all to himself and would be controlling regarding who his darling sees and how often. Toxic much? Yep. Annoying? Very! And he doesn't want anyone to see him or come to know who he really is (has the biggest fear of rejection and truly thinks he's a monster).

When it comes to children, König would have the biggest fear of passing down his genes. Doesn't consider himself as father material at all, and only gets traumatic flashbacks from his childhood just from thinking about having kids.

But marriage is something he thinks a necessity after a while. He thinks himself a gentleman (and to a certain extent, is...?) and that walking down the aisle is the next natural and logical step when he has finally found that special someone.

So if Engel is willing to live in a controlled and extremely loyal and loving relationship with König, they will have quite the cute, domestic setting and happy times together despite this guys violent tendencies.

[gabessquishytum]

Since his imprisonment over a century ago, cinema has changed. Dream knew the camera would always be the next big thing in storytelling and that the movie would become a new medium that the next generation of storytellers would manipulate and mold.

So Hob proposes movie night. They go in order of the decades, from just before he was captured up to the present day. So far Dream has really liked the 1926 rendition of Phantom of the Opera, Gertie the Dinosaur, and the 1939 rendition of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The film for this movie night is Gene Kelly's Singing in the Rain and then afterwards Wizard of Oz, but he's not alone.

Del is still feeling a bit rejected by her family and decides to pop around her siblings to see what they've got going on. Destiny let her get lost in his maze, Death took her into the deep ocean to say good bye to an ancient whale, Desire took her to a club where she made a guy hitting on her dance forever, and Despair just sat around in her own self misery and Del nearly succumbed to boredom. Dream is the only one left to humor her and brings her with him for movie night.

It goes off about as well as to be expected. She loved the film, particularly enjoying Cosmo's Make Them Laugh and Dorothy's Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Dream also liked the film, though it wasn't one of his favorites. Just something bright and colorful to pass the time. But this gives her an idea. Things always seem to work out when people are singing and she just wishes that everything with her family would resolve in something as simple as a song.

So she makes everyone sing. The first victim is Hob who wakes the next day singing to his appliances and every sentence afterward. Which is weird for him, but he can't stop. He can't get through a lesson without making it into a song. Which is becoming disturbing by lecture number three. He goes home and contacts Dream.

Who is having his own issues. The Dreaming and its denizens can't stop singing either. Matthew has turned into a songbird and the music is starting to chafe his nerves. He goes into the Waking and finds all of humanity has joined in a discordant musical number. Lovers sing about the virtues of romance, street punks are dancing in lines and singing about how they're going to cause trouble. A woman screams herself bloody about her lost dreams and passions. He makes his way to Hob's apartment, where he comes down with a song himself.

It's a heart wrenching screed about the loss of time and opportunity. About how he just wants to love and be loved in return. Red-faced, he disappears.

Hob heard every word he said and opened the door too late, leaving them both to scream themselves hoarse about their feelings. A song that perpetuates until Hob passes out from exhaustion and is ferried onto the Dreaming. There they have a heart to heart in the form of a ballad which culminates in a big, sweeping movie musical style kiss.

After the first few deaths from exhaustion, Death comes to her sister. Even she is not immune and through a large musical number, shows Delirium the extent of the damage she's caused. Del doesn't feel bad, until she hears her brothers and sisters sing. The whole universe is in a chorus of pain and misery as they struggle under the weight of her gift. So she removes the curse and sulks. Her sigil dims and she retreats deep into her realm.

Until she hears her siblings collectively calling for her. She appears in Hob's living room. The popcorn is popped, the room is darkened and she can see everyone sitting on the couch or the floor except for one place on the couch, between Death and Hob. Dream is comfortably sitting next to his new human lover, his head on his shoulder. They invite her in as the movie is just about to start. They're watching Meet Me in St. Louis.

- 🤜 anon

MY HEART. Poor darling Del, she certainly meant for it to be a good thing. But nobody really wants to be singing for more than a short amount of time. I wonder what Dream and Hob sound like while singing? If Dream’s singing is as unique as his laughter, I'm sure it was truly... something. But hey, Del unwittingly performed a minor miracle by bringing the idiots together at last. Who knew that all it would take was a romantic ballad after 600 years of pining?

Del enjoys Meet Me in St Louis a lot! She likes the slightly disfunctional family, particularly the little sister who gets into all kinds of shenanigans. The best part is being with her family, though, especially because they're all on their best behaviour! They even have a good ole sing along to the Trolley Song. Delirium revels in the slight chaos and finally feels properly appreciated by her entire family <3

[streamdotpng]

It was not uncommon for strays to wind up on an Addams’ doorstep. In fact, while many in both the outcast and normie communities tended to give the family a wide berth, there were many still that would give to them those they could not care for. Outcasts whose gifts were not like the rest of their families or normies who carried the gene unknowingly. All those who would have been abandoned and left to fend for themselves, instead, are given into the Addams' care. Their family spans most continents and their reach extends even further.  

If you know where to look, the Addams are not hard to find. 

This is why when one early morning, wailing is heard on the doorstep of the Addams mansion, Morticia did not need say a word before Lurch had already gently scooped the crying bundle up and brought them into a makeshift nursery. (Morticia liked to keep at least one or two of the rooms in the mansion prepped and ready for the just in case.)

The nursery itself is plain. Simple wallpaper and nothing even remotely interesting like death traps or torture devices. The ghosts and ghouls that regularly haunt the halls and rooms know to keep away and so not even an eerie draft finds its way to flutters the tattered drapes that cover the windows .

The matriarch and grand-matriarch meet Lurch in the nursery who stands still as a statue with the still wailing swaddled infant. Only the two enter while the rest of the family wait in the hall outside the room. They know by now not to step foot inside until Grandmama has given the all clear for others to enter.

("What do you think it is?" Pugsley whispers, leaning back against the wall.

"A baby." Pubert whispers his reply from his spot near the doorway.

"Well, yeah, but what kind? A boring one or a cool one?" Pugsley asks.

"Perhaps a Siren? This one seems to have quite a pair of lungs on them." Gomez offers from his spot opposite Pubert.)

Everyone watches as Grandmama checks over the baby for any signs of injury or poor health. The grand matriarch also checks for any indication of whether this baby is an outcast. There is bated breath while she does her diagnostic until she abruptly straightens up and calls out "All clear!".

Jostling one another the boys all gather around the still crying infant. Morticia gathers the small thing into her arms and tries to soothe it but to no avail.

"Are we sure the poor thing is unharmed?" Gomez asks, tears of sympathy already forming in the corners of his eyes.

"He's as healthy as a horse!" Grandmama exclaims with a cackle, "With the lungs of a goat!" 

"Maybe you were right, Dad, and it’s a baby Siren." Pugsley chimes in.

"Not a Siren. The eyes don't match." is Grandmama's reply.

"Hmm, then are they hungry or something? Mama said I'd cry and cry whenever I was hungry." Pubert offers from his spot by Morticia's elbow.

"Perhaps. Lurch, please, be a dear and prepare a bottle of normie formula. We don't want to risk feeding them something they can't quite handle." Morticia says.

"Hrng." Lurch replies.

While Lurch begins his preparations, a shadow falls near the doorway and rhythmic tapping is heard.

"Good morning, my darling Raincloud, and good morning to you, too, Thing. It would seem we will be having a guest joining us for the foreseeable future." Morticia calls out, never taking her eyes off the bundle wrapped in her arms.

The two make their way into the room and once close enough Thing makes his way from Wednesday's shoulder onto Morticia's to get a better look at their new guest. Wednesday, herself, stops a few feet away.

The baby stops crying.

All at once silence fills the room as everyone looks down at the now silent infant. Grandmama and Morticia share a look before Grandmama makes a shoo-ing gesture for the oldest to step out of the room. At once, the wailing starts back up again and when Wednesday is motioned to step back into the room and closer to the baby, once again the infant falls quiet.

The elder members of the family are well aware of what this spells out but fear the reaction from the eldest should they verbalize it. Looks are shared as they silently try to figure out what to do.

Wednesday quietly steps closer until she is standing next to her mother. The baby still has its eyes closed but he also begins squirming. It’s almost as if he can sense her presence nearby. There is a moment where tension builds within the room. Morticia does not want to force anything onto her oldest, but it is clear to everyone that this infant at the very least feels comforted by Wednesday's presence.

Wordlessly, Wednesday opens her arms to take the swaddled infant from her mother. She hasn't held a baby since Pubert but here she was now. Morticia carefully transfers the baby into Wednesday's arms and her heart melts as she watches this baby free one arm and blindly reach for her daughter. She worries for a moment that the contact might trigger a vision but all she sees in her daughter's face is a warmth that has been absent for some time.

It is decided without speaking that they will be keeping this stray.

The rest of the day is spent rearranging furniture and with Wednesday's blessing adjusting the layout of her room to accommodate the new addition to the family. Morticia knows that Wednesday is no stranger to caring for an infant. She helped just as much as Gomez and Lurch with the care of Pubert when he was born.

Still, she quietly discusses with Grandmama about what all they will need to do and teach. Better to be prepared than caught unaware.

While the boys and Thing do all the heavy lifting and the matriarchs do their planning, Wednesday sits curled on a recliner in the living room with the newest Addams cradled in her arms. For all the words in her arsenal, she cannot describe what draws her to this fragile creature. She supposes that it does not matter in the end. An Addams is an Addams, be they born or made.

The swaddled babe that she holds has nothing to indicate where they've come from or why. There also isn't any immediate indication if this is a normie baby or an outcast one. Wednesday supposes that they will find out in due time. She takes the bottle Lurch had left with her and gently brings it to the little one's lips. Without hesitation, they latch on and begin suckling from the bottle.

There is some relief there as that means there are no injuries that would've distracted the baby from wanting to eat. Wednesday sits and watches as they drink every ounce of formula.

Idly she thinks to herself that they'll need a name for the baby. She would prefer to wait until they know the sex and species in order to try and give a name that would allow them to still maintain a connection with whatever culture they may belong to.

Though her family accepts all into their home and lives, they like those who were not born into the family to maintain some connection to their original culture and species in case they ever wish to rejoin them. They would always be considered an Addams and welcomed with open arms, but they understood that sometimes that initial decision to join them was not made by them but on their behalf.

For this reason, Wednesday would hold off on name ideas but this did not mean they were not already hers.

She is still young, she knows. Barely in her twenty-fifth year, and yet. She knows that this child is meant for her. Perhaps there is a force out there that has seen fit to end her self-isolation. Either way, she knows that she will love this child like her own.

Every ounce of love that she has kept hidden, pushed down, and locked away will be set free and poured into their growth.

Popping back in with an update. Had been MIA cause of working two jobs pretty much back to back the last couple of months but finally got my financials to a spot where I can manage with just the one. Missed quite a bit it seems while I was gone but I look forward to catching up.

(Fun Fact: This chapter takes place before the one where Pubert starts at Nevermore)

whuh

im lost, if it weren't for the fun fact i would've FULLY thought enid just yeeted her child at wednesday 😭

but god, i love the way wednesday got so soft with the kid, that's adorable. Reminds me that Wednesday's og concept was an odd kid yes, but still full of love regardless

[gryffindormischief]

Thoughts on Olympic Swimmer!Hary?

A/N: How about a little ficlet?

Ao3

---

eidolon

Silence under the water, complete isolation, one focus and everything in his body working toward that focus - that's what Harry loves about swimming. It's what lead him from swim lessons to swim team to private coach and now to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

Sponsorships and attention are more a means to an end than anything. He'd gladly pass that bit off to some poor sod who likes to grin and have his photo taken.

That's where he and his dad differed. His dad was captain of the UK hockey team back in the day and lead them to victory in a huge upset to everyone's expectations. And James Potter, by. his own admission, did go through a 'poncey period' before he met Lily Potter née Evans and she handed him his head at a charity ball. But even at his most humble, James Potter is a media darling.

Harry James Potter got all the sportsmanship, drive, commitment, perseverance, and whatever else it takes to be good enough for the Olympics. He did not, however, get any of the 'media darling' genes.

It worked when he started out. He was 'that cute shy newbie.' Now, he's twenty-six, competing in his second Olympic Games, had just shattered his previous record (along with the world record), and he is ready to toss up his breakfast at the thought of the press conference where he's about to be served up like a main course.

The dull rumble of conversation escalates to a roar when Neville shoves him into the room, camera shutters clacking loudly while reporters shout his name and random bouts of applause break out from the British press.

Apparently everyone's quite excited to win something.

Neville looms at Harry's side, then at his side glance, claims a seat just out of the heavy lighting meant just for Harry.

He takes a few questions, soft balls about how exciting it is to win, if he's proud of the achievement, what it means for the rest of the Games...

Then he catches sight of a flash of red in the crowd, and his heart starts pounding. He ignores a few new shouts of his name and pushes his glasses further up his face as he looks closer. It is her. Lingering off to the side, under the glow of the exit sign. God she's just so beautiful. Especially when she turns to him - like she is now - and her brown eyes glimmer like starlight.

And though Harry has learned to tune out the cacophony of sounds at a presser, his ear still recognizes sudden silence. It's almost comforting for a second, like when his whole body dips under the water, like when it's just the two of them with too much take away, a crackling fire, and no responsibilities.

Neville groans at his elbow, not like when he really screws up, but like when he grins and shakes his head because Harry's a loose cannon. He whispers, "Your mike is hot, and you definitely said that out loud."

Harry feels his face warm as he quickly looks toward Ginny, who's burying her laughter while the reporters turn to find Ginny Weasley, captain of the UK Women's Football team - currently the team to beat - lingering in the shadows.

She glances toward Harry and he grins. Ginny steps backward into the hallway, and disappears.

Harry chuckles. "Sorry - Ginny Weasley coming to watch me compete is still my biggest win."

[butididntpourthewhiskeys]

D O P A M I N E

Chapter II

182 days earlier.

With his face all serious and fully focused on securely guiding the tiny hand into the tiny sleeve, he just sits there on the little rocking chair in the middle of the nursery room. A six month old baby on his lap, his tiny head gently leaning against his chest. The little baby hiccups once, and it makes him smile. He lowers his head to press a gentle kiss onto the bald head. A natural reaction towards anything that this little human does these days. He just can’t help it. 

“Are you having the hiccups again, darling?” he whispers to his son, satisfaction on his face when he finally manages to have both tiny arms gently covered in the teddy-textured romper that Taylor’s friend got him last week. Of course, the little hood has two cat ears. People do know whose child this is, after all, when getting them baby presents.

“Baby? Do you know where we put the USB cable for his little travel mobile?” 

Just when Matty turns the little real-life teddybear on his lap around to face him, he hears Taylor yelling up the stairs. Matty decides to open the zipper of his romper a little more. After all, they’re still not ready to go and he doesn’t want him to get too warm or even sweaty in his onesie. His mother lectured him just last week how dangerous it is for babies at his age to get ill, just from sweating and being exposed to cold winds when outside. He carefully removes the little hood from the bald head, can’t help but smile at the big green eyes staring at him in curiosity. The little man hiccups again. He smiles. Matty knows that Marly is a little miniature version of himself. It’s the shape of his mouth, his stubborn forehead as well as the shape of his hands are just a copy of himself. But the one thing he can’t deny is the fact that he’s got Taylor’s eyes. The same pure, beautiful eyes he knows so well - directly in the baby’s face. He would’ve loved for his son to have more features from his mother, but it seems that this little man will have to live with a majority of his father’s genes. The poor thing. 

Matty steals the chubby cheek one last kiss, then slowly gets up with his son on his arm. He takes a few steps outside of the nursery room, finds Taylor standing down there, right at the beginning of the staircase. She looks stressed. Stressed, and tired and he can’t even blame her. They both didn’t get any sleep last night, again. Partly because the little boy in his arms was crying because of his tummy ache, and partly because this is officially the first time they’re going to be traveling with Marly on a plane and it makes Taylor more nervous than anything else. She just stands there, as beautiful as always. Her curly hair in a loose bun, just patiently waiting for him to give her an answer that she can work with. 

“Have you tried the bedroom? I think..”

“No it’s not there.” she replies, ready to become as dramatic as always when she’s late for a flight and looking for something in the very last minute. 

“What about..” 

“Found it, honey!” Andrea yells from the other end of the living room, and Matty has to laugh at Taylor’s face, gently presses one last kiss onto the little head on his arms before walking down the stairs, just watches his wife roll her eyes over the fact that, as so often, her mom is a life saviour in anything baby-related. 

“Thank god we have grandma, huh?” he whispers to the little bundle in his arms, then comes to a stop at the end of the staircase and leans in to press a sluggish but happy kiss onto Taylor’s lips. He finds himself as so often in this domestic bliss he used to be so disgusted by. Being parents and doing parenting stuff. Sleepless nights not from clubbing, but from calming a crying baby. Things he used to despite, only to now find that it was all he ever needed. A family with the only person he ever truly loved. A home. Being needed. In a real way. In a purposeful way that he’s never known before.

Still annoyed by the fact that it was her mother who found the USB cable, Taylor just sighs, steals the little boy on Matty’s arm a tiny kiss before continuing to pack in the kitchen. Andrea places the cable next to Taylor, then approaches the two boys at the end of the staircase, smiling widely at the little boy in Matty’s arms. Matty just laughs at Andrea’s face. It’s interesting how every grown person suddenly lights up by the sight of this baby in the house.

“Oh my god Taylor, where did you get him that little bodysuit?” Andrea says in a giggle, both her hands already on the little bald head covered in the cat-ear hood, her lips wandering gently to the tiny forehead. She signals Matty that she can take him for a second and he agrees before allowing her to gently take the baby from him.

“I got it from Martha, actually. Isn’t it so adorable?” Taylor laughs at her mother, who’s already busy showering the baby in her arms with kisses. Taylor takes one last look at her phone just to check the time. 11:21 am. Ten more minutes before they really need to leave the house if they want to catch their flight. Standing in her kitchen, right in front of the counter, she unzips the bag full of tiny empty bottles, counts them one last time before closing the bag again. She unlocks her phone once more, looks at the list of things they need to bring.

“Baby?” she yells a second time today, almost startles as she feels his hands on both her arms from behind within a split second. She turns her head to the side, has to giggle a bit about herself, just like he does. 

“m’ right here, no need to yell.” he teases, moves his arms now to hug her tightly from behind, before pressing a big kiss onto her left cheek. 

“Sorry, I’m stressed.” 

“Oh really? No one can tell.” he says with a smart smile, feels her protesting in his arms because she can’t keep packing without having her arms available. Matty gives her one last kiss right on the soft cheek he loves so much, and finally lets her go. She just passes him the big nursery bag, together with the little toddler backpack that Marly’s still too little for. But she loves this little backpack. It’s green and has Paddington the bear stitched onto the outside. A present from Matty’s mother. The perfect carrier to fill with Marly’s favourite toys. Matty takes it from her, leans in for another kiss. He’s a bit clingy today, and she doesn’t mind. She doesn’t hesitate, places her hand on his cheek for a second and gives him a quick but gentle kiss before he disappears outside to give the bags to the driver. 

Just in that moment, almost like automatism, loud baby cries are to be heard in the air. Taylor has to laugh at another sound coming from the end of the living room, which is where her dad is sat at, naturally replying to Marly’s sharp cries with a loud and clear “oh no, my poor buddy”. A normal grandpa reaction to whenever those heart wrenching baby cries are audible in the house. But Taylor is used to this. Whenever Matty leaves the room and Marly sees him physically leaving, he starts crying loudly. A normal type of attachment anxiety that is normal for this stage in his development, as her pediatrican assured her just a few weeks ago. 

“Oh, my sweet boy.” Andrea already soothes him, but the little face is red and teary. Someone is certainly not happy right now. 

“Daddy is just bringing the bags to the car, honey.” Taylor laughs, already approaching her son, taking him gently from Andrea and right into her arms. Within a second, her hand is on his head, her lips on his cheeks and the baby calms down again. He knows his mother well. Nothing can make him calm down faster than she can. 

“I think we’re good to go?” Taylor says then after having calmed her baby a bit, rubbing his back up and down. 

“Are you excited for Houston? Mhm? Your first big trip on a plane? Goin’ to Texas?” Andrea says to Marly, putting on her best Texas accent and making Taylor laugh. Andrea’s baby voice is something new she discovered after her son came into her life. Marly however, looks unimpressed at his grandmother. He has no idea what he’s in for, it seems.

“What did I just hear? My boy’s tearing up?” they both hear Matty yelling in a thick accent from the hallway, making both her and Andrea laugh. Taylor looks down to her son, whispers a gentle “Is that daddy?” into his ear. She feels nothing but love in her bones, by witnessing how the baby’s face changes as soon as his dad is in sight. The grown man is hiding behind the winter jacket that he’s holding up with both hands, playing a very bad and obvious version of hide and seek with the baby. With every ‘boo’, the little boy on her arms squeaks a little louder, and it makes Taylor cackle. He loves his dad more than anything. It’s hard not to notice.

“Is your daddy being silly again?” she grins, gladly hands him to his father, who just dramatically presses his nose into the tiny neck, breathing that baby smell in, deeply. 

“When has daddy not been silly? That’s the actual question to ask.” he says to both Marlowe and Taylor, makes her just shake her head with a grin on her face. 

_______________

With her head turned around, she takes one last look at her parents, has to laugh quietly at the sight. The little carrier with the sleeping baby is placed securely between the two grandparents yet both of them still seem to not trust the seatbelt that is wrapped tightly around the maxi cosi. Scott’s hand is still on the hood of the carrier, whilst Andrea takes a look at Marly every few minutes, just making sure the baby’s still asleep and happy before going back to reading her book. 

“Your parents are more intense than our entire security team, you know that?” she hears him say from the seat right next to her, immediately has been able to read her mind as so often. She breaks a smile, doesn’t deny what he just said. In his grey shirt and his curly hair tucked back as always, Matt just sits next to her, still focused on his phone where he was just answering a few emails from Ross and Jamie. She looks at his face, notices the little familiar frown on his forehead and eyebrows whilst staring at his phone. His hair is a mess, as per usual. But she loves is that way. The little grey hairs in between his brown curls still make her laugh to this day. He used to hate his grey hair but she’s glad he learned to embrace it in the past years. Taylor swallows. She doesn’t like that empty look in his eyes, that she’s witnessed so often these past weeks. She can feel this pain radiate from him. She knows him too well to think that he’s dealing with this as good as he pretends to be. Taylor reaches for his left hand, forces him to continue typing only with the other one. He notices her gentle gesture. Their hands now intertwined. Her small thumb drawing circles on the back of his hand. One look into her face is enough and his emails are so unimportant all of the sudden. She signals him that she wants to be close to him right now. Their noses almost touching as he leans his head further down, just to steal her soft lips a gentle kiss. 

This is how it was always supposed to be. The two of them together. Against the rest of the world.

“Are you okay?” he asks quietly. Just quiet enough to ensure that no one else on the plane takes part in their conversation. Taylor just nods, takes a deep breath and leans her head against his shoulder to kiss him once, right over his incredible smelling shirt. Nothing can compare to his smell. Nothing. She looks into his eyes one more time, and he understands that she can tell immediately what’s going on. Even if he tries, he can’t hide anything from her. 

“Are you okay?” she whispers then, and he turns his head to focus on his phone again. Taking a deep breath, Matt nods. If there’s one thing he promised himself not to do, then it’s putting his dark thoughts and feelings onto Taylor and the family they built. After all, Taylor’s wellbeing is still the center of his attention right now. Not only did she give birth to his son earlier this year, but also carries his second child right under her heart, already. The most beautiful secret he could’ve ever hoped to carry with himself over the holidays. And he knows how exhausting being a parent to a baby is already. Even without the early symptoms of pregnancy. She handles it so beautifully, never complains, still manages to get everything done at the end of the day with a smile on her face. Being a new mother, being a great partner, a good daughter, an excellent friend and above it all, an artist. If one thing is for sure, it’s that they both will never be able to stop creating. Not just humans, but also music. All of this at the same time. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t want to show her these other thoughts on his mind, ever since the day he got the call. Ever since the day he found out that one of his oldest friends had died after a long battle against the same substance that almost took his own life, years ago. They weren’t close anymore, lost contact for quite some time already. But nevertheless, receiving these news was just another reminder of reality. The reality that his own battle with addiction had almost taken his own life, too. 

He notices how his thoughts drift away, just until he feels Taylor’s hand softly stroking his up and down. Her gaze is still fully focused on him, both her hands around his, her thumbs drawing circles on his skin. 

“Hey..” she whispers then, picking him up from his train of thoughts. He looks at her again, forces a smile, and leans down to kiss her bangs. She shouldn’t worry about him. The last thing she should do right now is worry about him. 

“I’m good, my love. Don’t worry.” he says quietly, his free hand now busy fixing the little strand of hair behind her ear, that always falls out of her little bun. She nods, but he knows she doesn’t believe him. 

“I think when we’re in London over Christmas, we should go see Trevor’s mom and his sister. Would be nice for them to meet Marly, don’t you think?” she says, but his reaction tells her that he’s not having it. 

“Definitely not.” he says, his face now stuck on his phone screen again. She’s confused, to say the least, but doesn’t let this one go right away. 

“Why? I’m sure they’d feel so supported knowing that you…”

“Tay, we’re not doing that. I haven’t seen them in years and it’ll stay this way.” he says, a stone-cold tone in his voice that almost makes her shiver. She hasn’t experienced him reacting like that in quite a long time. But she’s not surprised. The news of his childhood friend passing has been tough on him. She just wishes he would talk to her about it, or open up to her brother, or George. Just anyone. 

“Why do you not want to..” 

“Because I was the one buying him the fucking drugs in the first place, Taylor.” he says, way louder than he intended. It gets quiet all of the sudden, the shocked face of his wife right next to him killing him in an instant. He knows that his parents in law clearly heard this comment as well. A massive amount of shame overcoming him. The same feeling of shame on his chest he had years ago. Years ago, when he promised her to be better and didn’t keep his promise. The same amount of shame that he feels everytime when he thinks about his past and who he was before she allowed him to love her. Before she gave him a chance, just one, and changed his life forever within a few weeks while touring the world. Sneaking into her bed after a twenty hour flight. Playing in front of massive crowds with butterflies in his stomach. That feeling of life falling into place, while also falling into her loving arms. He never wants to go back to who he was before her. Never.

“I’m.. I’m sorry.” he says instantly, his voice calm again. He feels this massive brick on his chest now, just by looking into her eyes. She’s worried. There’s no question now. 

“I didn’t mean to..”

“I know.” she says, swallows once. She’s not mad at him for giving her a short-tempered answer. She’s worried about his suppressed emotions. Worried that these feelings will lead him back to the dark place he was at years ago. Years before their relationship was as solid as it is today.

“I’m sorry, my love. I’m just..” he stops, turns his head to face the ceiling of this airplane. He’s looking for words. She carefully notes every single movement he makes, with patience, just hopes that he can find the strength in himself to finally open up. She knows his face so well, has studied every frackle for years. She can feel in her bones when he suffers. And he does, ever since the day he got this call. 

“I don’t like revisiting these.. times.” he says then, turns his head to face her again and prays that she will understand him. 

“I don’t like being in these circles, with these people from back then. It’s just.. I feel a lot of guilt. You know that. And.. If I wasn’t there, we all know Trevor wouldn’t have..” 

“Will you stop right there?” she interrupts him in a strict tone, already placed her hand on his. “Do not even start blaming yourself for what happened to him. You know better than anyone that this is a disease, and..”

“Still, Taylor.” he answers then, swallows once. He got quieter in the end, just looks deep into her eyes, trying to find the connection with her that he craves so much in this moment. She knows what he’s trying to tell her. She knows that sometimes, what you know and what you feel is just completely different. 

“I just.. I don’t…” he stops, struggling to vocalise what he feels. And as so often, she gives him the space he needs to collect his words. She doesn’t say anything, just lets her hand stroke over the skin of his, and patiently waits for him to start talking again. The same kind of patience he always shows her whenever she’s completely worked up in something. The same patience he’s showed her endless times in the past years. 

“I feel like.. I have a new life.” he says then, and she feels herself getting emotional, just by seeing him emotional like this. “I’m so proud of what we’ve built, and.. and who I became because of you and the little one, and I…” 

He stops, and Taylor moves closer to him. Her forehead alredy leaning against his. He’s got his eyes closed, and she knows why. He’s close to tears and doesn’t want anyone to notice.

“I’m not ready to go back to.. to that, you know?”

Taylor listens, then nods. Her hand on his stubbly cheek now. She lets both their noses touch for a second, then leans in to give him a gentle kiss. Just before she can let go, Matt gives her lips another kiss, just because. Just because he wants her to know that no matter what, he will always appreciate her more than any other person in his life. 

“I know.” she replies, nodding gently while looking at him. She hopes he will ever know just how happy he made her by becoming who he is. Becoming who he was always meant to be. A good person. The most attentive partner. Her best friend. Her rock.

Matt takes a deep breath, thankful that she’s as understanding as she always is.

“m’ sorry for being an arsehole today.” he now mumbles into her head, appreciates that she’s already cuddled herself against his arm again. She’s tired, too. He can tell. 

“It’s okay.” she mumbles, then yawns loudly. 

“Take a nap, baby. As long as the little monster back there is sleeping.” 

Taylor has to giggle at his answer, but nods while closing her eyes. He’s not wrong. If she’s learned one thing in the past six months, it’s to appreciate every timeframe to get some sleep. Especially now, while growing another little monster in her belly. 

_______________

“How can you ever be mad at that little face? Like.. how?” 

Taylor has to laugh at her younger cousin Maureen, who’s just watching her struggle with her tantrum-throwing baby. Apparently, Marly has established a new game to play with his mom at the table, which is him throwing down anything he can find with his hands on the table in front of him after waking up from his afternoon nap. They’ve finally made it to her aunt Alison’s house for a small family gathering. Her mom’s side of the family has come all the way from St.Louis, and it’s the perfect occasion for everyone to finally meet Marly. She knows that this trip could’ve happened a lot earlier, but traveling with a baby is one of the things that made her anxious even early on. She knows how big the public interest in her child is, and traveling across the country with him meant planning their security to a tee. 

“After six months with no sleep it gets a lot easier, trust me.” she replies to her cousin with a laugh, can see Matt talking to Dylan and Scott at the end of the table. She’s so glad that her family accepted him the way they did. After everything that happened and all the times he had to prove to them that he’s right for her. Not just as a boyfriend, but also as a life partner. A pretty long road from her parents questioning his every move, to now loving him like a second son. 

“Marly, this is enough.” Taylor now sighs, holds him close on her lap before trying to pick up a napkin he just tossed onto the floor for the fifth time. Taylor feels exhaustion kick in. It started in her legs, and now wanders all the way up to her arms. She should’ve put on a different outfit today. She’s not showing yet but the jeans she’s wearing under her shirt are already a little too tight. With every single bend down, she feels a lot of pressure on her stomach. Not a very nice feeling.

“Someone’s in a mood today. Come bother daddy for a bit.” she suddenly hears Matty say, feels him reach for his son from her arms within seconds. She can’t help but smile at him. It’s one of the most beautiful things for her to know that they have this connection. He could feel her needing a break. He could tell across the room. She knows he’s always on the lookout for her, no matter if it’s at one of her concerts with thousands of people, or simply in the living room with her family. They have this way of not speaking, and still communicating. They always had. 

With his son on his arm, Matty just walks to the end of the family’s livingroom. He stops in front of the picture wall for a second. Taylor follows the conversations around the table for a bit longer, but can’t help and stare at the two boys at the end of the room. Matty remains standing in front of the picture wall of the family living room. His arms tightly around the little torso. He’s talking to his little son, points to one of the pictures and smiles at the baby’s reaction. Taylor smiles. He’s clearly showing him pictures of his mom as a little kid. She smiles, and without knowing he turns his head, looks right into that face he fell in love with years ago. Their eyes meet and for a second, they are alone in the room. Taylor doesn’t react, doesn’t have to say anything for him to see her. See her in a way that no one in this room, no one in this world sees her. His stare then gently turns into a smile. The same smile that has been making her knees go weak for half her life. He winks at her then, finally ends up making her giggle. No matter what, he’ll forever stay this way. 

_______________

Two hands are clutching into his thick curls, almost causing a painful sensation on his scalp. But he likes the pain. He especially likes this pain. He’s addicted to it. And it certainly doesn’t stop him from putting in even more effort than he did a minute ago. 

“Fuck, I..” she moans once, and it satifies him more than anything he could possibly think of. He knows she usually doesn’t let go like this. He knows she’s one of the most well-put together girls on this planet. He hasn’t heard her moan like this before, isn’t used to these profanities escaping her mouth, but he loves it. He loves being the cause of her completely losing herself in this hotel bed. 

Through the corner of his eye, Matty can see her letting her head fall to the back. Blonde, shoulder long straight hair on his pillow. He can’t wait for the sheets to smell like her. 

He stops for a second, looks up at her with a provocative smirk on his lips. He knows he’s got her all around his mouth still, and edging her like this will most likely drive her insane. But he loves it when he brings her to her edge. When she’s got that desperate look in her eyes, begging him for a sweet release. Her. A woman who’s never had to beg a man for anything before. 

She looks down at him, almost doesn’t understand why he stopped. Her chest is heaving up and down. Both his hands securely around her thighs, pressing a few wet kisses onto these. She just drops her head on the pillow for a second time in the past five minutes, her hands both wandering to her naked breasts. Almost in an exhausting manner, she keeps her hand on these, then looks down to the side to catch a glimpse of his eyes.

“You’re horrible..” she murmurs, still clearly bothered by her ruined orgasm. He just laughs into the soft skin right on the inside of her thigh, kisses the spot a few times before he looks up at her and into her frustrated face.

“Wait, you weren’t done yet?” he asks with a smirk on his face, then laughs again. She moans annoyed, her hands now landing on his curlyhead. She looks at him waiting patiently to go back to where he was just busy, just notices him kissing her between her legs again. Sluggish kisses being pressed on her sensitive skin. This is certainly not what she needs to finally release these pent up feelings in her lower stomach. 

“You wanna come, baby?” he asks then, a whisper escaping his mouth while his finger is drawing circles on her lower stomach. The look into his eyes almost drives her insane. She feels everything in her screaming for release. Insane how good it can feel to allow yourself to feel these things. To just follow your instincts, and fulfill your needs. Even with the wrong guy. 

“Yes.” 

“How badly do you want to come, baby?” 

“So bad.” she moans, eyes closed and a feeling of gratefulness overcoming her as she finally feels his lips on her sweet spot again. He’s sucking and licking. Sucking and licking. Sucking and…

“Fuck, yes.” she suddenly moans out louder, her hands a steady grip on his head. He knows she’s at her point of no return. He closes his eyes, his lips sticking onto the magic little pearl between her legs as closely as possible. He knows how to drive her insane. Her little desperate moans in his ears, her hands almost pulling his hair out and her hips pushing themselves so closely to his mouth that he can almost feel her lifting herself up from the soft mattress. Both his hands on her sweet little bum now, as he fully burries himself in her most private part. Her orgasm overcoming the both of them with the sweetest contractions that bring nothing but release and peace over the both of them. Matty slowly removes his lips from her sensitive spot, proudly kisses the outside of her lips a few times. This was a good one. This was one of the better orgasms she’s shared with him. It’s been a few weeks now that they’ve spent time together. A few weeks now since this incredible woman has let him get closer to her. As close to her as not many people get to be. 

Matty takes his time with her, his hands slowly moving from her bum cheeks to the side of her naked hips. He continues showering her with kisses on the soft skin. She’s breathing heavily, her eyes still closed and both her hands clutching onto her bare breasts. She’s got this serious look on her face, that he knows too well whenever she’s trying to come down from an intensive orgasm. Matty slowly crawls back up to her, his nose touching her temple once. She needs some more time to come back down to earth, and he gives her all the time she needs. He reaches for the big silk sheets that she kicked to the end of the hotel bed right when things started to get heated between them. Matty carefully covers her naked body. The last thing he wants is for her to be freezing. The blonde woman with the shoulder long hair suddenly stirs, looks at him with tiny eyes and a satisfied smile. He laughs, slowly leaning down to steal her nose a kiss. 

She giggles quietly, both her hands around his neck now. 

“Thank you for making me come.” she says then, her comment resulting in a breathy laugh against her lips. She’s as smart and sexy as it gets yet she can be the most awkward woman he knows at the same time. 

“I like making you come, darling.” he mumbles, steals her lips a kiss before he slowly rolls to the other side of the bed. She looks after him, watches him reach for the package of ciggarettes next to the bed. He slowly gets up, slides his briefs up his legs and disappears at the end of the room. She hates that he does that. She hates that he’s got this habit of not being able to stay in bed with her for too long. Because what she really craves is the minutes after the sex. Enjoying the peaceful quiet with someone, not being alone. 

Under the sheets, Taylor takes one last breath. Insane how good he can make her feel. Insane that this is the first time she’s been able to have just sex with someone. Nothing more. No feelings involved. No responsibilities or complications. Taylor slowly sits up, looks after him disappearing at the end of this huge hotel room. She takes a few seconds to collect her thoughts, quietly reaches for her phone right next to her on the little marble bedside table. She takes one look at her Home Screen that is Olivia and Meredith cuddling together and finds a message from Karlie.

‘Enjooooooy Tay! Hope you can walk tomorrow’

Taylor has to smirk, just locks her phone again and decides to get up. She looks around the luxurious hotel room, tries to spot her underwear somewhere. Right after they got back to Matty’s hotel suite after the concert, none of the two had been able to keep their hands off each other, which resulted in her clothes being spread out in this room. She quietly gets up, reaches for his white shirt that he wore earlier when they got here. She wraps the fabric around her torso, closes just the one button in the middle to cover her body. In her newfound dress, she quickly makes her way to the bathroom and closes the door quietly.

_______________

She pulls on the little string attached to the teddy bear. The gentle sound of her favorite lullaby starting all over. She looks at the sleeping baby in bed, her hand gently stroking the chubby cheek one last time. She never thought it would hit her so hard to look at her baby and see so much of his father in him. The little frown on his face whenever he’s asleep. The stubborn look he’s been carrying since the day he was born. A literal miniature version of the person she loves so much. Taylor slowly moves the two big pillows to each side of the bed, protecting him from rolling over. She’s glad she’s placed the little boy in the middle of the big guest bed. That way, she can carefully sneak out of the room. She checks one more time on her phone if the baby monitor app works. As she closes the door quietly she can already see him sleeping peacefully, right through the screen of her iPhone. She takes a deep breath. Hopefully they will all get some more sleep tonight. 

Taylor slowly makes her way down the hallway of the family house. Every time she passes one of the family photographs she has to smile. What she loves about Alison’s house is the fact that she’s as obsessed with hanging up childhood pictures of herself and her siblings as Taylor is. Taylor remains standing there, has to laugh at the framed picture on the wall right in front of her. The two blonde sisters are playing in the sand. It almost looks like it’s somewhere at the Jersey shore. A place where her great grandmother had a beautiful house and spent most summers at. Taylor smiles. The closer she looks, the more she sees Marly in her mother’s face. They do have a lot of similarities. 

Suddenly, she hears a sound coming from the guest bathroom, at the end of the hallway. She stops for a second, looks confused around. She didn’t know anyone else was up here? After all, the loud laughs and buzzing conversations of her family around the thanksgiving dinner table downstairs are still very much audible up here. She slowly makes her way down the stairs. With every step, all the laughs and conversations are getting louder. She quickly scans the cozy warm living room. The lights have been dimmed and a few candles on the table light up the room in the most cozy way. She scans the entire living room, trying to find the curly head. But he’s not here. Just when she was about to turn around and go back up, she feels her father’s hand around her wrist. He looks down at her, giving her a gentle smile. 

“Is he asleep?” he asks, seems to have just gotten up to go to the kitchen and grab another bottle of wine from the fridge. Taylor nods, and he can clearly see that she’s relieved. A sleepless baby is one of the hardest things about being a parent. Scott knows that better than anyone.

“Yeah finally. Have you seen Matty?” she asks then, a little confused that she hadn’t seen him in a while now. It’s been almost an hour since she last saw him in the family bustle. Before she took Marly to bed, he was just about to head to the shops with Andrew to get some more gravy that Alison forgot. It’s clearly been some time since she last spoke to him and it’s not very typical for them.

“Is he okay?” Scott then replies to her, and Taylor feels her stomach drop for a second. She didn’t expect this reaction from her father, and it seems to only result in her getting worried again. A feeling she hates.

“What? Why?” she says, and her father seems to understand what his tone caused in his daughter. He gently shakes his head, smiles slightly to soothe her.

“No, I just.. he was quiet today.” 

Taylor nods. She knows that her parents also noticed that something has been bothering him. After all, they’ve seen a lot of Mattys in the past years. The version of himself being absolutely lost and hurting her to the core, the version of him trying to change to have any chance with her, and also the Matty who became a father. She should’ve known that they would notice. After all, they’re family.

“I know. I think… he’s dealing with a lot right now.” Taylor says, and her father nods. She doesn’t have the capacity to explain anything further right now. Instead, her dad gives her a gentle kiss onto the cheek and walks past her. 

In her grey jumper and her hair still in a loose bun, Taylor slowly makes her way upstairs again. It seems to be that the noise she heard from the bathroom has been her husband after all?

She can see light coming from the crack of the bathroom door. She carefully remains still, standing in the hallway and waiting for some kind of confirmation that it is indeed him.

“Matty?” she asks then carefully, hoping she wasn’t wrong. Within two seconds, she hears a window closing and a lock that’s being turned around. He stands there, in front of her, looking almost startled. 

“Are you okay? Is everything alright?” he asks, a bit panicky. He stands there, looking at the blonde woman in front of him, searching for any indicator that something happened or whatever could be the reason for her calling him and searching for him in this house.

“I’m.. I’m good, I was just looking for you.” she says then, secretly loves the fact that his big hands are already on her upper arms, almost as if he’d have to convince himself that she is, in fact, alright. 

“Good. Good.” he says, his voice calming down a bit. She looks at him confused, just standing there in the hallway, right behind the open bathroom door. She isn’t used to this hysterical version of him. She knows that his biggest fear is always and has always been that anything could happen to her. But this is not quite the setting in which he usually reacts like this. 

“What are you doing up here?” she says then, and he sighs. His shoulders are shrugging gently and she knows he’s hiding something from her. 

“Just… had to take a call. And.. just wanted to take a dump in peace without my wife close.”

She looks at him, a look on her face she knows so well. He’s trying to be funny, trying to make her laugh instead of her questioning what he just said. But he knows she’s smart. He knows he can bullshit the entire world but not her.

“Ah, and how did that work out for you?” she says then, and Matty almost has to laugh quietly. But Taylor doesn’t let him be, just carefully places her hand on his stubbly cheek. She knows he’s got things on his mind. But there’s no way she will allow him to not let her in. It’s something they’ve both overcome these past years. And she won’t allow him to take 5 steps forward and 7 steps back now. 

“Go in there.” she says, signals him to walk back into the small guest bathroom. He just watches her take a few steps, and grins. His dirty little mind. She rolls her eyes, then locks the door. 

“Stop with the smirk.” she says, both her hands now on his chest. She presses her stomach against his, and she loves feeling his arms wrap around her lower back. Her nose gently touches his and it feels like reconnecting again after days of exhaustion. For the first time in what feels like ages. 

“Do you not like me smirking anymore?” he whispers against her forehead, and she shakes her head.

“It’s the sex smirk. But there’s no sex coming your way, mister.” she whispers back and makes him laugh. He gently breathes out some air and presses a kiss into her forehead, right over the blonde bangs. The most natural movement for him.

“You smoked.” she says then, upping her head and looking straight into his eyes. He swallows, because once again, she’s seeing right through him. He sighs. He used to lie to her to not break her heart. But that’s not working anymore. She knows him too well for any of this to work. 

“I didn’t.” 

“You smell like ciggarettes, babe.”

He sighs. She’s got him. Taylor awaits any type of reaction, but nothing. He then looks back up into her eyes and she understands.

“You used to find that sexy, remember?” he says boldly, and Taylor rolls her eyes. How could she forget. 

“Are you.. are you really okay?” she asks then, a more serious tone in her voice. “Because.. because not only did you smoke tonight, but you also had wine. And.. and I’m not policing you because that’s not my job, but you have been sober for two full years and it worries me that you do both of these things in one…”

Matty just shakes his head. He’s mad. Taylor can already feel his anger radiating from him. 

“Thanks for the conversation.” he says in irony, removes himself from her arms. And it breaks her heart. It breaks her heart to feel him pull back from her in this moment.

“Matt..”

“What?”

She looks at him, both her arms crossed now. She sighs. She feels this anxiety in her chest again. The same anxiety that raises every time they fight, or anytime he doesn’t seem to let her in. A deep, old fear creeping up that she knew so well. Ten years ago. 

“I just worry…”

“I know you do. Because I had a glass of red wine. Because I had one cigarette with your cousin. Makes a lot of sense, baby.” he says then, and she hates his tone. He’s sarcastic. He’s aggressive. All of the things he shouldn’t be when talking to her.

“Don’t baby me.” she says then, but he just shakes his head, all angry. She can’t believe that he doesn’t understand her. She can’t believe he just dropped her loving arms. She can’t believe they’re having this conversation again. 

“Hey, I love you. And I want you to be.. to be healthy. For you, and for your children.” she says then, and it’s the first time she’s used this word in plural. Because she knows exactly what it does to him. All the anger from before vanishes in the air. And what’s left, is pain. The pain he radiates ever since the news broke. Taylor doesn’t know what else to do to help him out of this.

“I.. I need a second, okay?” he says then, a lot calmer than before and it kills her inside. She swallows, just nods and watches him leave the bathroom. All alone she remains standing there. She thought their little argument would end in a hug and a big kiss. But instead, he’s asking her for space. It really has been years since this. She takes a deep breath. He’s okay. He’s okay.

[wyrmfedgrave]

Pics: Inspiring HPL.

1. Irvin S. Cobb - American writer, editor, humorist & columnist hailing from Paducah, Kentucky¹.

He was the highest paid staff reporter on the NY World newspaper².

Irvin would write 60+ books & around 300 short stories.

Some of which were adapted into silent movies. And, 2 of his later tales were actually filmed, by the famed John Ford³, during the 1930s!

2. Cobb's "dark side" (horror works) of the otherwise lighthearted comedian & the story in question.

3 & 4. Comedic frontpieces(?) for books by Cobb. The 2nd even boasts an Abraham Lincoln quote!

5. Cover to Cobb's collection of other authors's short horror tales.

6. Inside art from Fishhead's ending...

1913 Addendum -

Intro: Irvin Cobb's infamous short story "Fishhead" is set in the back- wood bayous of the vast Reelfoot Lake⁴.

Plot: The tale concerns the murder of a local outcast freak by "poor whites."

With its surprise Jaws⁵-like ending, this gruesome work reminds readers of an issue of EC comics⁶!

Criticism: Lovecraft lauded Cobb for, "... Carrying on our (own) spectral tradition is the gifted... humorist, I.S. Cobb, whose works... contain some finely (made) weird (tales)."

Of the plot, Howard stated that, "Fish- head" (is) an early achievement, ... banefully effective in its portrayal of (an) unnatural... hybrid idiot & the strange fish of an isolated lake."

Lovecraft further opined, "It is (my firm) belief... that... few short stories of equal merit have been published anywhere (else)..."

Legacy: Cobb's "Fishhead" is seen as a major influence on Lovecraft's own "Shadow Over Innsmouth."

Robert M. Price⁷ noted that, "What (Howard) found revolting was the idea of interracial marriage (&) of different ethnicities mating, (thus) 'polluting' the (white? human?) gene pool."

Fishhead is supposedly "the son of a Negro father & a halfbreed Indian mother." It's never mentioned what her other half was from...

This is the same premise behind HPL's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth."

Except that Lovecraft calls them Deep Ones & has a whole city that's been 'turned'...

More when we get to this story...

Notes:

1. Paducah, as 1 out of 9 U.S. Creative Cities, is a haven for thinkers, artists & creators!

Architectural Digest recognizes this city's historic district as 1 of the most beautiful main streets in America.

There are 20 downtown blocks listed in the National Register of Historic Places!

Weird Shit: Paducah's nickname is "The Atomic City."

This was because it was once the U.S.'s only uranium plant, making atomic bombs for our Defense Department...

2. The NY World newspaper began (in 1860) as a leading voice for the US Democratic Party.

But, once under Joseph Pulitzer, it became a pioneer in "yellow journalism."

Catching readers's attention with sensational (sex, sport & scandal) news stories.

This raised their circulation past the 1 million mark!!

Best known for being among the 1st to publish daily comic strips.

They actually created "Hogan's Alley", "Everyday Movies", "Little Mary Mix- up" & "Joe Jinks!"

Merged with The NY Telegram in 1931.

Revived - online - in 2011 by Columbia U. But, hasn't had any new content since 2016...

3. John Ford was an American movie director who won Oscars for "The Informer", "The Grapes of Wrath", "How Green Was My Valley" & "The Quiet Man."

The best of his many Westerns are "The Searchers", "Stagecoach" & "My Darling Clementine."

4. Reelfoot Lake is a real lake best known for its shallowness - about 5½ feet on average.

It's located in western Tennessee &, strangely enough, no swimming is allowed there...

The lake is named after an 1800's Chickasaw warrior with a deformed leg...

Reelfoot Bayou, with its cypress trees, flows out of the lake to join the Obion River - which runs straight to the Mississippi.

5. "Jaws" is, of course, director Steven Spielberg's 1st international master- piece.

And it doesn't need any hype, from me, for you to see it again!

97% on Rotten Tomatoes!!

Enough said...

Make it so!

6. E.C. Comics was an American publisher specializing in horror, crime, dark fantasy & sci-fi comicbooks.

William Gaines printed mature tales of war, adventure, satire, etc...

Noted for its stories high quality, shock endings & progressive social awareness.

Among the themes that EC creators touched upon are: racial equality, anti- war sentiments, nuclear disarmament & even early environmentalism!

Sadly, official censorship forced EC to focus on its "Mad" magazine - which became it's greatest success!!

EC has just been revived, by Oni Press, on this past February of 2024!!

Good times guaranteed...

7. R.M. Price is an American biblical scholar, author & an authority on H.P. Lovecraft.

His works include: "Deconstructing Jesus", "The Reason Driven Life", "The New Lovecraftian Circle", "World War Cthulhu", "The Disciples of Cthulhu", "Arkham Detective Agency", "The Da Vinci Fraud", "The Apartheid State in Crisis" & more great stuff!!

Price was the editor of the greatly lamented Crypt of Cthulhu, Midnight Shambler & Eldritch Tales fanzines.

He even edited a whole series of Mythos anthologies for Chaosium.

Today, Price is editor of The Journal of Higher Criticism!

Busy little tentacle, ain't he...

[hypocriticaltypwriter]

Another lil halfling! But she got her Papa’s gene, Xavier’s Ex was a were-owl! So she also has little wings but her’s are going to be on her back- you can now see why Xavier was semi scared of him when they shifted and why he left- (please ignore the poor quality picture, I drew her so small I needed to zoom in so you could get a good look at her 😭)

MORE BABIES!!! 🥹 Oh she's just as darling as her bubba.... I'm loving these lil pajamas on em too 😭 she's just so cute I'd protect her with my LIFE