#and the second he’s not Working he switches to Phoenix

[cowboysmp3]

imo if Phoenix and edgeworth started dating and didn’t announce it i don’t think anyone would realise 1. bc they’ve always Been Like That and 2. edgeworth is far too autistic to break the social norms he’s created and engage in ANY PDA around any mutual friends

[tip-top-cloud-surfer]

Endings and Beginnings - Rooster

Pairing: Rooster / Fem!Reader (Wife!Reader)

Word Count: 1.7k

Warnings: Pregnancy, Second Person POV ("You"), No Physical Description about Reader

This work, all of my other works, and my entire blog are 18+ Only.

Summary: It's Maverick's retirement party but Rooster's far more concerned about you, his pregnant wife, than anything else.

A.N. Rooster is retired in this story and it's set a few years after TGM.

Edit: Part 2 is now out!

Master List

Maverick was officially retiring from the Navy. Or finally, depending on who you asked. The Hard Deck had been cleared out for the party and several generations of naval aviators, active and retired, and their families were spread out around the space. Drinks were poured continuously, there was pizza and snacks and even a cake with a Tomcat on it for later.

“Are you sure that you’re okay to be here?” Rooster asked you softly, grabbing your hand.

“I’m fine,” you assured your husband. “Just pregnant.”

“Very pregnant,” Hangman added, causing Rooster to glare over at him. Phoenix whacked Hangman on the arm your behalf, causing the blond to huff and complain. “What? It’s true!”

“I’m fine,” you repeated, squeezing Rooster’s hand. “I’ll sit down if I need to and there’s plenty of water and snacks that I can eat.” You released his hand and nudged him in the direction of Maverick, who was chatting with a few pilots his own age. “Go, mingle. Shoo. It’s a party. Party.”

“Only if you promise to let me know if you need to go home or to the hospital or—”

“—Rooster, I’m fine. The baby isn’t coming for another two weeks. Now, go. I think Mav’s been trying to subtly introduce you for an hour now.”

“Keep an eye on her for me,” Rooster told the others before heading over to Maverick.

The newly retired pilot was all smiles as he chatted with his old friends. But as soon as Maverick spotted Rooster walking over, he quickly moved to pull him over to the older crowd of pilots.

“She finally kicked you over here?” Maverick asked, referring to you.

“Apparently, I’m hovering too much,” Rooster joked with Mav.

“Well, it’s a perfect time to reintroduce yourself to everyone.”

Maverick gestured around the half-circle of former naval aviators. Slider, Hollywood, Wolfman, Chipper, Sundown, Merlin, and Viper all nodded to Rooster and Rooster shook their corresponding hands. It had been a long time since he saw any of them, what with the whole paper incident, but Slider still dragged him in for a noogie like he was eight-years-old.

“So, you were Maverick’s RIO in that whole business?” Merlin asked, referring to the mission.

Even though the mission was still highly classified three years later, the fact that Maverick and Rooster had barely made it out alive wasn’t. Well, that and word got around when an old smashed up Tomcat was unloaded off of a carrier.

“How was that?” Merlin continued.

“Most terrifying experience of my life,” Rooster responded, half-joking, half-serious.

“I understand completely,” Merlin mused, causing Maverick to smile and shake his head.

“That’s not why you turned in your wings, is it though?” Viper asked with a knowing expression.

“No, no,” Rooster replied immediately. “When I got married and my wife and I started to plan for having our family, I decided that I wanted to be there for every step. And I didn’t want her to worry about me coming home at the end of the day. So, I finished up my service requirements and retired.”

And, well, for a kid who lost his father to the Navy, Rooster’s reasoning didn’t raise a single eyebrow. Every naval aviator knew the risks involved in their line of work and while technological advancements helped decrease training accidents and fatalities, they were still always a possibility.

He wouldn’t—couldn’t—let his child learn about him from pictures, like he had to with his own father.

“And Maverick says that you’re switching to commercial?” Wolfman spoke up.

“Yeah, I have one more test to take and then I’m ready to fly, but I probably won’t start until we’re settled with our baby,” Rooster explained, nodding along.

“Your first one?” Viper guessed with an all-knowing smile.

“How could you tell?” Rooster inquired, earning a chuckle from the other fathers in the group.

 “You got that look in your eye.”

“Not too different from the rookies at flight school,” Hollywood added with an amused smile.

“It’ll pass eventually, but the first one always gets you jittery,”  

“Being a father is like learning how to fly—utterly terrifying at first, and there’s definitely a learning curve to it, but once you’re up there and you’ve leveled out, you won’t even remember what it was like before you learned in the first place.”

“I keep telling him to relax. He’ll be a natural,” Maverick spoke up, squeezing Rooster’s shoulder.

Rooster glanced through the crowd to check on you and found you sitting at one of the tables with your feet propped up on the opposite chair. You looked calm, but uncomfortable—though you’d told him that ‘nearly nine months pregnant’ and ‘comfortable’ did not go together no matter the situation.

“But speaking of, I should probably go check on my wife,” Rooster replied, his nerves and ‘Mother Hen’ tendencies, as Hangman called them, shining through.

“Of course.”

“Don’t let us keep you.”

“It was an honor to meet all of you again,” Rooster offered in goodbye, before checking on you.

The retired naval aviators watched him go and then turned to Maverick.

“God, he looks just like Goose,” Slider replied quietly.

“And with the mustache and the Hawaiian shirt too,” Wolfman agreed, sharing looks with the other retired naval aviators.

“Yeah, he does,” Maverick stated softly, watching Rooster weave through the party. “Just wait until you see him at a piano.”

Rooster slid through the crowd over to the back tables. You were still sitting with your feet propped up, a full glass of water in front of you, and your usual easygoing smile on your lips. Bob, Phoenix, and Hangman were keeping you company and spread out around you.

“You alright?” Rooster asked, walking to your side.

“I’m fine. Just wanted to sit down for a little bit. Baby Bradshaw seems a little excited about the party,” you stated, your hands resting over the swell of your bump. Rooster placed a hand under yours, where Baby Bradshaw tended to kick for the last few days. “How’s Mav doing?”

“I think he’s enjoying himself a lot. He hasn’t seen his old TOP GUN buddies in a while, so it’s nice for them to all come out to see him.”

“Well, Penny can be very convincing when she wants to be,” you mused with a smile.

Wordlessly you moved Rooster’s hand to the side, where the baby was pressing on you. Though you were growing tired of being pregnant, you didn’t think that you’d ever get tired of the way that Rooster just flipped a happy switch whenever he felt your baby.

“What are you all doing over here?” Rooster asked, turning back to the others.

“Actually, we’ve got a poll going about the baby,” Bob explained to Rooster.

“What are the votes?”

“I think it’s a girl,” Phoenix declared confidently.

“Which means that it’s a boy,” Hangman stated, just as confident.

“You only said that after you found out that Rooster and I think it’s a girl,” Phoenix retorted, causing Hangman to shrug his shoulders.

"So what?”

“I think that it’s a boy too,” you offered up. “The way that I’m carrying says that it’s a boy.”

“It’s not an exact science,” Rooster pointed out.

“No but call it mother’s intuition.”

“I guess I can’t argue with that.”

“God, you’re so whipped,” Hangman grunted, earning an elbow to the side from Phoenix.

Rooster and you ended up leaving the party among the first wave of people—mostly elderly and people with small children. But not before you received a whole bunch of random baby gifts from all of the people who missed your shower a month earlier.

“Do you want a hot bath when we get home?” Rooster offered, glancing over at you as he drove home.

“Maybe,” you sighed, shifting in your seat.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Just uncomfortable. Nothing either of us can do for that.”

“You want more of that tea that Penny got you then?”

“Yeah, maybe that’ll help,” you murmured, leaning back in your seat. Your hands rubbed up and down your bump, trying to soothe yourself. “I think that Baby Bradshaw just got a little overexcited about meeting everyone all at once. But maybe some tea and a bath will help.”

“Coming right up,” Rooster assured you.

You pulled into the driveway and Rooster walked around to help you out. Usually, yo would just push his hand away and insist that you were more than capable of getting yourself out of the car, but this time you happily accepted his help.

“Are you sure that you’re alright?” Rooster asked worriedly.

“I’m fine,” you replied, pecking his cheek. “Just slow.”

Rooster walked with you to the front door, keeping a protective arm around your waist. You walked into the kitchen and Rooster instantly moved to heat up some hot water for your tea. You leaned on the countertop, just looking completely uncomfortable with your existence.

“I’ll grab the bags out of the car and then I’ll start your bath,” Rooster promised, pressing a loving kiss to your forehead.

“Thank you.”

Rooster jogged down to the car and gathered whatever bags were sitting in the trunk. He left the go bag in the car, just in case, before heading back into the house. He wasn’t even completely through the door when he spotted you waddling towards the stairs.

“I’ll run your bath, babe, just sit and relax.”

“I’m not going to take a bath,” you called back, moving up the stairs slowly.

“You need help?”

“No, I just need to change.”

“Oh, okay,” Rooster replied, setting down the bags.

“Also, don’t walk through the kitchen yet,” you warned him, grunting a bit as you walked.

“Why?” Rooster asked, moving to stand at the bottom of the stairs.

“There’s amniotic fluid all over the floor and I haven’t gotten a chance to clean it up yet.”

“Amniotic . . .” Rooster trailed off before the realization hit him like 10 G’s all at once. “Babe!?”

Part 2

[gabbytheplatypus]

Kiss cam

In disbelief, Jake stared at the kiss cam, its lens squarely focused on him and his girlfriend, who was happily chatting away with her friend over the phone. He knew she wasn't interested in sports at all, yet she had joined him and his friends to watch the event. Now, she was on her phone the entire time, which he considered very rude. She was talking so loudly that everyone around them was beginning to stare. And now, because of that stupid kiss cam, they had become the center of attention.

Softly, Jake nudged her, but she ignored him. He shook his head, hoping the camera would move on. But it remained fixed on them. "Babe—" he began.

"Shut up for a second, Jake," she snapped, her voice cutting through the noise of the stadium like a knife. He heard his friends on his other side suck in their breath, and he turned to glare at them. They were only making an already embarrassing situation worse.

Bradley leaned over, "If you wanted someone to boss you around, you could've just asked me." Jake shot him a pointed look, but couldn't help but grin slightly. The small comment had at least somewhat eased his nerves.

"Babe, look, please—" he tried again, desperation creeping into his voice, wanting to just get over with it.

"Jake, this is important. Kate just broke up with her boyfriend," she interrupted, her eyes still glued to her phone.

"Can't you deal with that later?" He had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. His patience was wearing thin.

"No. Now shut up."

Relief washed over him when the kiss cam finally moved to another couple, a nice-looking elderly pair who kissed, smiled, and waved at the camera. His shoulders slumped as he exhaled. Maybe this day wouldn't get any worse. Except, of course, it did.

The kiss cam zoomed back in on them. He heard Phoenix and Coyote whispering to each other but couldn't care less. He was stressed. Usually, he was good at dealing with pressure—as a fighter pilot, he had to be—but all the stares made him uncomfortable. He was seconds away from standing up, finding whoever was responsible for the camera, and strangling that person with his own hands.

"Babe—"

"How are you so annoying, Jake?" she shot back, her tone full of irritation. A gasp sounded from behind him, and the people around them stared in shock. His girlfriend either didn't notice or didn't care.

This whole situation was starting to make him worry if he would get his first gray hair that day.

Bradley leaned in again, "You know Jake, if this doesn't work out, I think I know a guy who might be interested." But Jake chose to ignore him yet again.

Mercifully, the kiss cam switched to another couple. The man held a sign that read, "She's my sister," sending laughter through the crowd. The cam then moved on to Hangman and his girlfriend yet again. Jake wanted to disappear. Maybe he could just throw himself off the building.

He shook his head and crossed his arms, feeling utterly defeated. Then, suddenly, a hand was at his jaw, turning his head to the side. He felt soft lips on his, and a mustache rubbed against his skin. His eyes closed instinctively, then opened in confusion. Firstly, his girlfriend didn’t have a mustache, and secondly, she didn’t kiss nearly as well as this person did.

His skin prickled with electricity as he stared at Bradley, who held his chin while kissing him like his life depended on it. Slowly, Jake's eyes closed again, and he kissed back, snaking his arms around the other man's neck. One of his hands wandered into Bradley's hair, and he heard him gasp when he slightly tugged at his hair, the noise making him smirk a little.

His girlfriend punching him brought him back to reality. He stared at her in shock as she went to slap him again, but Rooster caught her hand. She stood up and walked away in a huff, but as much as Jake wanted to feel bad for her, he couldn’t bring himself to care. Not when the man next to him was kissing him again, the kiss cam long gone, and the crowd clapping.

It felt like a movie. Phoenix and Coyote high-fived each other. Jake couldn't bring himself to be mad. Not while he was kissed with such passion that the rest of the world faded away.

As they finally pulled apart, Bradley's eyes searched Jake's. "You okay?" he asked, his voice a soft murmur that only Jake could hear.

Jake nodded, feeling a warmth spread through his chest. "Yeah. More than okay."

Bradley smiled, his hand lingering on Jake's cheek. "Good."

Jake glanced around, noticing the amused and approving glances from their friends and the crowd. Slowly his body relaxed, all tension fading away from his body.

"Let's get out of here," Bradley suggested, his voice full of promise.

Jake didn't need to be asked twice. He stood up, his hand still entwined with Bradley's, and they made their way out of the stadium, not caring in the slightest that the match wasn't even finished yet.

[itsphoenix0724]

Dancing With Shadows (Azriel x Reader)~Chapter 1

Summary: Living your life with a long-distance relationship has never bothered you before, but when you surprise Az with a plane ticket you finally get to see how it works in person.

Warnings: SMUT, phone sex, mutual masturbation?, toys

Word Count: 1.9k

A/N: Bad Phoenix for starting another series while still having an incomplete one. I'm sorry (I'm not)

The morning light is just starting to creep through the gap in your curtains as you roll groggily over to the other side of your mattress. The Facetime call crackles over the end of the receiver as the brightness of your phone blares 7:00 am into your still sensitive eyes. You can hear Azriel vaguely fumbling with something over the other end, followed by a curse and the line quickly muting itself. You laugh silently, opening the camera and calling a good morning. It’s around noon across the ocean, and your slow rainy Saturday seems chaotic for Az already.  

“Did I wake you?” He asks, face now lighting up your phone screen. You’re taken aback by his beauty for a second, hazel eyes boring into you through the camera. He’s wearing a tight compression top, and his black hair is slightly tousled and damp with sweat. He must’ve been working out. 

“No not at all. I heard a crash, are you okay?” you ask, voice still crackly with sleep. A delightful red color sweeps the highs of Azirel’s cheekbones. 

“I dropped a weight.” He supplies and you can see his shoulders move with a shrug. He sets you back down, now propping up the phone so you can watch him continue to lift. Your mouth almost waters, but you manage to reign yourself in. 

“I wish you would wait for Rhys or Cas.” You can’t see Azriel’s eyes while he’s reclined on the bench, but you’re sure they’re rolling at the mention of his roommates. You move about your own apartment, getting ready for the day. Changing into a comfy set of pajamas you settle in to read comfortably on your couch. 

You never minded the distance between the two of you.

Maybe that’s because it’s always been like this. You’d met Azriel on a dating app after you and your friend got wine-drunk one night and you switched the location to London. The two of you matched and it’s been the best six months of your life. He’s been kind, caring, and better than every guy you’d ever met in New York City.

Obviously, you want to be able to kiss and hold your boyfriend, hopefully, soon you can accomplish that. You bought Az a plane ticket so he’ll end up here for a week over Valentine’s Day. You just hope he’s able to make it, you did opt for a cancelable flight just in case he can’t get time off work, but he works in cyber security so he should be able to take it with him if needed.

You’ve finished your book, and Azriel is cooking dinner on his end of the line. The phone propped up against something on his counter, Cassian walks into the kitchen, clapping him on the shoulder before noticing you. 

“There she is!” Cas steals the phone focusing on his face as he greets you with a broad smile. “How are you, princess?” Azriel snatches the phone back, letting a jealous stream of curses spew out of his mouth. 

You can see him glaring at Cassian but as your laugh echoes back his eyes soften. 

“I’m good, how are you.” Cassian gives a noncommittal shrug, stealing a piece of something off the cutting board before calling his goodbyes. 

“He needs to learn to mind his business,” Azriel mutters but shines a bright smile when you laugh again. 

“You’re such a baby.” You reply, still trying to fight laughter down at his pouting. 

“I’m not a baby, I just don’t enjoy when Cassian flirts with you.” Az supplies moving about the kitchen. 

You enjoy watching him cook. 

You shamelessly ogle his back when he turns to the stove, loving the way the fabric of his shirt accentuates his broad shoulders.  He moves like smoke. Gracefully gliding around the kitchen, pulling different spices and chopping different ingredients for some kind of stirfry. 

Azriel being so good with a knife probably shouldn’t turn you on so much. 

He has to hang up the phone to eat dinner with his roommates, so you blow him a kiss as he promises to call you back when he can. This leaves you to get ready for the little surprise you have planned for him. 

You shower, styling your hair to perfection and applying some makeup before changing into the midnight blue lingerie set you picked out for him. You tie a barely-there black robe around yourself, make your bed, and light a few candles around the room to hopefully set the mood. A wicked idea flashes across your mind, so you make your way to the bathroom and slip a shoulder out of the robe snapping a picture quickly and sending it to Azriel’s contact. 

“A little surprise to unwrap later ;)” It says that the message has been read at the bottom of the screen. Dots line the bottom of your screen, and you bite your lip as you await his response, heat coiling in the pit of your stomach already. 

“What’re you trying to do to me, Sweetheart? I practically choked on my dinner” comes his response, and the previous heat turns practically boiling. A second text comes through a second later “I’ll be done in five minutes. Don’t you dare even think about touching yourself. Wait nice and pretty for me okay?” You double-check to make sure all your toys are charged, waiting patiently for Azriel’s Facetime call. 

You can practically feel yourself dripping down your thighs in anticipation.  

He calls four minutes later. Setting your phone up on your dresser you answer strutting over to the edge of the bed so he can see all of you. All you can hear is the sound of Az’s breathing and the lock on his door clicking shut. 

“Take it off,” he practically growls and you play with the tie before you pull it apart and let the black silk pool around you on the bed. “You look absolutely fucking beautiful.” His pupils blow wide as he looks at you feeling like a goddess with his attention. 

“Do you like it?” You tease, fluttering your eyelashes and sending him a sugar-sweet smile. 

“That’s a ridiculous fucking question, I want to devour you.” His voice is like midnight water, ripples feel like they’re caressing down your spine as you shiver. Even now, even over the phone, it thrums through your chest like guitar strings, reverberating and ricocheting around your rapidly beating heart. 

“Tell me what you want me to do Az,” you gasp out, waiting for him to give you some direction, eager to be obedient. Az takes a moment to admire how the blue lace clings to your skin, delicate gemstones glittering like you’d ripped the stars straight out of the sky. 

“Lay back on the bed.” He rumbles, shamefully stealing an eyeful of your ass as you turn to crawl up to your pillows. “And as much as I love this outfit, I need you to take it off. Right Now.” You strip yourself out of the lace set, tossing it onto the carpet. His eyes blow out as he admires your naked form. You hear Az settle himself on his own bed and the sound of his belt unbuckling makes your mouth water. You’ve seen his dick before, obviously, but you wish that you could wrap your mouth around him right now. 

“Are you touching yourself?” You mutter into the quiet, the sound like a bomb exploding around your buzzing anticipation.

“Not yet.” he grinds out. “I’m waiting for you.” his jeans and shirt hit the ground moments later. You eagerly drink in the dark ink you can see swirling around his collarbones.

“I wanna suck you off so bad.” Your brain goes into that empty fuzzy space that only happens when you and Az do something like this. A pained sort of noise falls out of his mouth, a mix between a whimper and a groan. 

“Are you wet for me?” He questions, quirking a dark brow. You hum your difference, shrugging a bare shoulder. “You don’t know? Why don’t you find out for me?” You skate your fingers down your body, gliding them through your center. Your fingers come away slick with your arousal, and you circle your clit once letting out a breathless moan that makes Azriel’s eyes roll.  

“I want you.” You mumble as you continue to toy with yourself and let your mind run wild. Images flash behind your eyelids, thoughts of Az between your thighs and him pounding you into the mattress so hard his hands leave bruises on your hips. 

“Get your vibrator.” He orders and you slip your hand into the drawer of your right nightstand. You find the pink bullet and flick it to the lowest setting. “Run it down your body, slowly.” Following his instructions you drag the toy down your body until you reach your center. You can hear Azriel’s labored breath as he exhibits self-restraint. He wants nothing more right now than to make you cry with pleasure instead of that toy. “Give me a show now, Sweetheart.” He kicks off his underwear, finally palming his rock-hard cock. 

You do exactly as he asks flicking the vibrator up another setting as you finally allow it to touch your clit. You throw your head back with a moan, fisting your other hand in your bed sheets. You imagine it’s his tongue or his fingers. A thousand fantasies flash in your brain as you push down a little harder, hips canting up to meet the toy, grinding yourself into it. Azriel jerks himself, his own fantasies playing on a loop. He keeps his eyes open though, refusing to take his eyes off of you for even one second. 

He doesn’t even think he’s blinked since the moment you answered his phone call. 

“Az, I wanna hear you cum. Please.” You beg, you need to hear him to get yourself there. Azriel bites back a guttural moan, he’s still having trouble wrapping his brain around the fact that you actually want to hear him be loud. He’s been quiet his whole life, not quite used to having someone who never wants him to stop talking. “Please,” you beg again and he snaps letting a whimper escape out of his lips. All of his moans slip out after that. It’s music to your ears as you turn the vibrator up another speed and slip a finger inside of you, curling your fingers so you can barely skim the spot that makes you see white. 

“I’m close,” he promises and that helps you push yourself toward a blazing crescendo right as Az explodes alongside you. You stand on shaking legs and collect your phone from the dresser before slumping back against the pillows. “You’re amazing,” He mutters into his pillow, eyelids drooping in his state of bliss. 

“I bought you a plane ticket.” you can’t control it as you blurt it out. “For over Valentine’s Day…if you want to come.” it tumbles out, suddenly insecure. 

“You what?” Azriel shoots up shock straight, looking at you with wild eyes. “Are you joking?” 

“No, I’m not joking. I’m sorry if it’s too forward–I can cancel it, I should’ve talked to you about it first.” You curse, already pulling up the airport's website to cancel the ticket. 

“Don’t cancel it.” Azriel cuts in, “Of course I want to come. I’ll be there, whatever it takes.”

[topgun-imagines]

Dinner Plans

Requested: yes

Summary: You may have forgotten to mention to your husband that his friend’s were coming over for dinner. What could go wrong?

Word count: 1.0k

Warnings: allusions to smut.

Pairings: Robert ‘Bob’ Floyd x Wife!reader

The smell of fresh biscuits was the first thing that Bob noticed when he stepped into his house. The delectable scent calmed him slightly. He allowed the stress from today’s training to roll off him in waves. With a sigh, his eyes slipped shut as he let his duffel bag thud as it slipped from his fingers. “I’m home Honey!” A few seconds later you rounded the corner with a towel in your hand. Bob relaxed even more as you flashed him a large, warm smile. His arms wound around your waist and he breathed in the comforting scent of your raspberry and vanilla perfume.

He softened like butter when you began to play with the short hairs at the back of his neck. Your husband released a breath he didn’t realize he was holding before he nuzzled his face into your neck. There was a soft smile on your face as he peppered kisses across your skin. “How was your day, Baby?” You whispered, pecking his jaw afterwards.

Bob groaned lightly into your neck causing you to coo quietly. The feel of his arms tightening around your waist sent butterflies into your stomach. You loved that even after years of being together, he could still make you feel as if it were your first date all over again.

Kissing your neck one last time, your husband pulled back. He offered you a tired smile as he slipped his sweater off. “I think I’m going to head out to the garage for a little bit.” You nodded softly, patting his forearm with a gentle smile. He placed a chaste kiss to your cheek before heading off toward the garage.

You moved back into the kitchen, smiling when you heard the familiar sound of your husband's drums fill your home. Your phone chimed in your pocket causing you to jump slightly. Grinning at her text, you quickly sent Phoenix a thumbs up. She and the boys would be here in the next twenty minutes or so.

Your music filled the kitchen once more, drowning out the sound of your husband letting out his frustrations. There were only a few more things that you needed to do to finish off dinner. After checking on the large pot of stew on the stove, you switched off the burner. You moved to set the table, double-checking that there were enough plates for everyone. The last thing you had to do was take the biscuits out of the oven.

Humming quietly along with your music, you moved the stew to the pot holder in the center of the table. After that, you transferred the biscuits onto a larger plate and moved it to the table as well.

It was then that you heard the ringing of the doorbell. The fact that your husband may not have heard it slipped your mind as you headed toward the door. You grinned widely as you opened the door, accepting the hug from Phoenix as she threw her arms around you. Bradley, Jake, Coyote, Fanboy, and Payback all offered you small smiles as they moved into your home. Jake closed the door behind him while you rushed forward with Phoenix, animatedly chatting about the recent gossip at your work.

Everyone gathered around the kitchen, the boys helping themselves to the beers in the fridge. A few seconds later everyone grew silent, focusing on the steady beating of the drums coming from the garage. You watched as the boy's jaws dropped. Phoenix just smirked. Of course she knew that her WSO was an expert at playing the drums.

Rooster turned to you with a shocked look, his eyes darting between you and where the noise was coming from. You could only grin as you lifted one of your shoulders in a shrug. Before you could stop them, every single one of the male aviators began rushing toward your garage causing you and Phoenix to sigh. She rolled her eyes at her friend's childish behaviour. The two of you followed after them, stopping at the door to your garage.

Your husband had a large blue covering his cheeks. When the boys had burst into the room, Bob had instantly stopped drumming. His sticks had clattered onto the ground as he froze in his spot. He wasn’t exactly trying to keep the fact that he could drum from the boys, he just didn’t want to deal with the teasing that he knew would come with them knowing. You offered him a shy smile, watching the blush rise further onto his cheeks as the boys started asking questions.

Bob sighed as he stood up. He answered a few of their questions as he made his way to you. When he reached you he smiled slightly, cocking an eyebrow as he glanced around at his friends. “Sorry honey,” You whispered with a sheepish smile. He only shook his head lightly, pressing a chaste kiss to the apple of your cheek. Phoenix nudged you gently when he pulled back. She shot you a teasing smile as you glared at her.

You rolled your eyes as she snickered quietly. Leading the group to the kitchen, you all sat down around the table and began dishing up. You sat down next to your husband after grabbing a glass of water. Bob set his hand on your thigh and squeezed softly.

The rest of the meal passed relatively easily. Conversation flowed smoothly, everyone seeming to have forgotten what happened in the garage. That was until Jake spoke up from the end of the table. “Why the drums, Baby on Board?” Sighing as the rest of the group laughed quietly, your husband took a bit of his biscuit before responding. His response left everyone gasping quietly before breaking out into laughter. Jake was left with a beet-red blush on his cheeks.

“Well,” He started before sipping on his water. “I figured it would be better to bang something other than my lovely wife to let my frustrations out. Maybe you’ll understand one day, but I don’t wanna break her, Bagman.” Your husband smirked when he was finished. You stared at him with a look of amusement and shock. That definitely was not what you were expecting him to say.

[mrsjobarnes]

Not the Only Cowboy - Chapter 5

Summary: Jake had never been the type of guy to fall first, maybe you’ll be the one to change that. 

A/N~ Sorry this took so long guys, I had writer's block, and then uni started and it got put on the back burner! However, I’m back and ready to finish this story! Also a huge Thank you to @angel-0f-verdun for helping me with this!

Jake Sersin x Nurse!reader 

Word count: 1,172

Warning: Abuse, Angst, Violence 

Likes & comments are welcome! 

Please do not steal my work! 

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2 weeks. It took you two weeks for you to leave the guest room. You requested time off and were granted 2 weeks but after that, you’d have to go back, back to the place that no longer felt safe since Blake had found you. 

He had crossed the country to find you, he didn’t care about the restraining order or that you had only packed the essentials and moved. No, you were still his, his to control, his to break, his to own till death, and even after that. You were his baby, his honey, his sugar, and he needs you back home. Your love hasn't always been like this. He was your college sweetheart, you were his tutor. His smart, kind, patient, and outgoing Y/N/N. After he graduated he went into the Navy to be a navigator and you continued your nursing school. Once you had graduated you became a civilian nurse serving on base. It was picture-perfect if you ignored the screaming matches and the occasional pushing and shoving. It didn't get bad until you were treating some of the naval men and he saw them flirting with you. 

That's when the abuse started, he’d beat you within an inch of your life in places no one could see. He’d even threaten to shoot and kill you if you ran away. No one noticed till you were wearing long sleeves in a Virginia July. That's when your charge nurse Maggie asked you. You tried to lie but the 55-year-old saw right through you. She slipped a paper in your locker later that night with several phone numbers to call for help. You knew that she was just looking out for you but, at the moment you felt hurt and angry. Thankfully, the calm part of you kept that note and hid it in your locker. After six months of plotting with Maggie, the clouds parted and Blake was given orders to be deployed for 2 months. You took that as your chance to run. After saying your goodbyes, you sold your car and changed your phone and phone number, opened up a new bank account and purchased a plane ticket to your new haven.  

It was your haven until he showed up. Destroying all you had built up, all of the work you’d put into making this place feel like a safe place had just been squashed by him. So here you are lying in Phoenix’s guest room, scared he’ll break through the second-story windows or the door.  He’d threatened to kill you before who’s to say he won’t kill Phoenix to get to you? You need to start over again, how far would you go this time? Coast hopping didn’t work, maybe you needed to go to a northern state, he did hate the cold. Maybe in a small town in Montana, get a job at a hospital this time. Yes, that should work. You’ll just choose the smallest town possible, maybe ditch your phone and switch to a pager, they still had those right? You hear a knock at the front door. Your blood runs ice cold, and quickly you run into the ensuite bathroom and lock the door. 

“Hey, Y/N it’s just me,” says Phoenix. “I bought groceries, what do you want for dinner?” she asks from the kitchen. You slowly exit the bathroom and start to head to the door, placing your hand on the handle you stop. Maybe you should just run at night and just take what you had here, grab your car, withdraw most of your money from the bank and run. By not telling anyone it would keep them safe right? Turning around, you text Phoenix that you’re not hungry and ask if she is going out tonight. She replies that she is, unless you want to talk. You tell her to enjoy her night and start researching on a private browser about where to go, maybe Sidney, Montana. It seemed small enough that no one would think to look there, now to look at apartments. After googling for about 30 minutes, Phoenix shouts that she’s leaving. Walking over to the window you peer out waiting till she leaves. Once the coast was clear you quickly started packing a bag and making a mental checklist of what you needed to do. 

Pack 

Shower 

get food

Leave a note 

Call Uber to the base 

Bank and gas 

— 

25 minutes had passed and all you needed to do was get food and gas then stop at the bank, but first, you needed to get your car.  You bring all of your things to the door. When all of a sudden you hear someone knocking at the front door. “Fuck” you whisper under your breath. Quietly you grab a kitchen knife and look through the peephole. When you are met with the most perfect green eyes. It was just Jake, you sigh and put the knife down. “Go away Jake,” you say through the door.

“Phoenix gave me a key, I’m coming in,” he asks. 

“No, go away,” you say. He doesn’t listen and slowly enters the apartment. You grab the knife and point it at him, enraged he didn’t listen. “I said don’t come in Jake,” you say, clenching the knife for dear life. As he crosses the threshold, the two of you make eye contact. He has never seen someone so broken and scared, it breaks his heart.  

“Hey Y/N” he says slowly approaching, you clench the knife trying to push back the fear. It's Jake, he’s not going to hurt you, but you thought the same thing of Blake. How could you have been so stupid? “Y/N Imma need you to put the knife down darling, I just want to talk okay?” he said, itching closer to you. 

“Jake please leave, I don't want to talk. I just want to be left alone” 

“No it looks like you're trying to run” he says pointing to the suitcase and backpack next to the door”. 

“Why does it matter if I do? I have only brought trouble into the team's life. I've taken over Phoenix house and probably have a write-up at work for causing a scene. So just let me go, you’ll be fine without me.” you say hesitantly placing the knife down. 

“No” 

“No? What do you mean, No?” you say looking into his eyes. 

“No, what about me? I know that’s selfish but you can’t leave me. I was an ass before I met you, I didn't care if I died on a mission as long as I went out in a blaze of glory, but now you’ve given me something to care about, someone who wants to come home too. So please stay, we can get you help. Cyclone says he could look into it, he just needs your permission.” Jake hesitantly walked up to you and cupped your face. 

“Can you promise that you won't hurt me? '' You say as your eyes glisten with tears. 

“I promise,” Jake says, pulling you into a hug. 

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[the-ace-with-spades]

I have the urge to write a seven-season-long medical drama, so here is a concept for Top Gun Hospital AU with ER hate-to-love hangster AU that no one asked for.

as a warning: this is a bit incohesive and silly

All the aviators are doctors and all the WSOs are nurses. With the exception of Bradley (but there’s an explanation for it).

Mav — cardiothoracic surgeon; Ice — former neurosurgeon and Chief of Surgery, current Head of Patient and Medical Services (so, entirely admin). I imagine they have the same kind of relationship as House and Cuddy in this, including Ice keeping an entire legal team for Mav’s unconventional practice methods. They've met during med school and had been rivals up until they both finished general surgery residency. Slider is an OR nurse turned anesthesia nurse. Goose was an ER nurse and met Mav during his rotation as a med student and died after an incident in the ER during Mav’s residency (that was the moment he switched from emergency medicine to surgery).

Phoenix — emergency, but she managed the impossible (like Mav) and switched from obgyn residency after the first year (only chose obgyn in the first place because of her mom, a renowned obgyn in Oregon), she's still really passionate about the obgyn field but didn't enjoy the work enough to do it for the rest of her life; Javy — general surgery; Payback — emergency with sub-spec in pediatrics; Friz — respiratory medicine; Omaha — oncology; Yale — ortho surgery.

Bob — a former OBGYN nurse, left because of a toxic work environment, working in the ER six months now, Phoenix's favorite nurse now, duh; Fanboy — started in peds oncology, had to switch because it was too hard on him mentally and is now peds emergency; Halo — started as a palliative care nurse, switched to oncology after a few years; Harvard — OR nurse, switched from general team to ortho

Hangman is the new trauma surgeon starting in their ER. Born and raised on a ranch, was expected to take over the ranch but never wanted to. Thankfully, he had too perfect grades to not send him to college — his parents wanted him to be a vet, which obviously didn’t happen, so he could stay close to the family business. He moved to California for his MD. He has terrible bedside manners with patients and patients’ family, but is surprisingly decent with kids, has lost respect for nurses sometime during his first residency year, and had a terrible case of Ego hit him during his trauma surg fellowship.

Now, about Rooster:

Bradley got into a pre-med program, Mav (who had set up Bradley’s college fund) said he’s not going to pay for it since he doesn’t want Bradley to be a doctor (long hours, lack of work-life balance, burnout, high stress, etc. It was more complicated because Mav still has the Goose trauma). So they had the fallout, Bradley moved out and deferred college to find a way to pay for it and, wanting to gather hospital experience, started working as a CNA in Peds ICU at a children’s hospital which accidentally was having a new CNA intake at the time. He liked it, actually loved it, and started hesitating whether he should continue with pre-med and be like Mav or go for nursing, like his dad. Year after, he got an offer from the hospital that said hey, we’ll fund some of your BSN as long as you work for us while you study and then work for us for another four years after getting your license. So he became a nurse, got certified as peds nurse after working two years in PICU and after another three, switched to the Pediatric Rapid Response Team, where he stayed for another two years before getting a spot as a senior nurse in adult/peds ER in a different hospital.

His relation to Mav and Ice only came to light a few months after the hiring process, as Bradley didn’t even know they worked there when he applied and it’s still a hash-hash topic in the ER. He’s been in the ER for almost three years now and has become an unofficial second-in-command as one of the few with substantial experience.

I imagine he’s definitely one the best nurses you could have as a patient — he’s honest but in an empathetic way, he’s worked in the most demanding environments with the most complex patients (ICU and RRT), he’s skilled and experienced in most procedures. Because he is one of the few male nurses, he’s the one dealing with inappropriate patients, aggressive patients, patients that need restraint, frequent flyers, etc. and he genuinely doesn’t mind — he is the perfect mix of calm and firm that makes him very reliable in most difficult situations. He is absolutely most reassuring and guiding with new stuff, be it new nurses or med students that don’t know what’s happening, and he doesn’t judge. It does help, too, that he was partially raised by two very cocksure surgeons and therefore knows how to deal with doctors that turned a bit too arrogant.

Before I go to the hangster part of this shit, I want y’all to know it all started because I found this Rooster-coded scrubs:

I imagine that he buys most of his scrubs since the work-issued scrubs don’t fit well on men (most unisex ones are very much just female fit stamped with unisex label) and peds nurses can have lots of cute ones so the kids feel less nervous around them

Also, this is a warning that yes, Bradley is trans in this scenario, too, because I said so. It's relevant to a few scenes, I think?? and there's tw for transphobic OC

Now, a bunch of scenarios I can see for this AU:

On the first day at his new workplace, Jake makes a reputation for himself. He confuses Nat, in her hospital-issued scrubs and with her doctor tag clearly on display, for a nurse and literally talks over her in front of a patient. Same thing happens with Billy because he’s Filipino and there is a large number of Filipino nurses everywhere and he’s stereotyping. Then he makes another patient’s parents agitated. This is when he meets Bradley — he takes over to talk to the parents and calm them down before it can escalate, basically shushing Jake out of the room. Jake doesn’t clock he’s a nurse at first — he’s a big, very fit, very well-built, very handsome dude with a questionable mustache who looks comical in a pastel pink scrub top with a teddy bear pattern and a matching headband on his forehead, but also the sheer shock of how different to all the nurses he looks gives Jake a pause  — so he doesn’t say anything even if it pisses him off a nurse just forced him out of the room.

*

It starts innocently with Bradley though — Bradley comes up and asks, “Jake, can you put the narcotics order into the system for Lily?” and Jake scoffs and corrects, “Doctor,” tapping his full tag with Dr. Jacob Seresin.

Bradley, as the nurse’s tag says, raises an eyebrow and says, “Doctor Jake, can you put the narcotics order for Lily?”  Natasha, standing behind him, snorts. Jake doesn’t even have the time to tell him off because he’s already gone when his brain processes.

*

Natasha drops off a patient on him — a taxi driver who had a stroke while driving and had been in a car accident, that had been thrombolysed but might need emergency surgery because of a suspected GI bleed. He’s stable, so they're going to check if he can be admitted to neurosurg and wait for his turn there or if Jake will need to take over before that.

Bradley hands him a tablet the minute he walks into the room.

“What’s that?”

“Results,” he supplies before going back to setting up an oxygen cylinder at the bottom of the bed.

“I didn’t order that,” he notes. The blood and urine panels are what he would order with suspected operable GI bleed but he’s barely looked at the patient’s case before he walked in there.

“I did,” Bradley tells him as he switches the oxygen from the wall socket to the tank supply. “Faster this way.”

“No,” Jake says, blood boiling. “You do exactly what I tell you to do and only that.”

Natasha raises her eyebrows, high on her forehead. Bradley doesn’t hesitate — waves on Bob from behind the glass wall and they both grab each side of the bed.

“I supposed you want to put the CT order yourself then,” Bradley says as Bob takes the small back monitor and attaches it to the frame. He steps on the bed brake and rolls out the bed, straight into Jake and Nat, fast enough that he moves out of the way on instinct. “Better do it fast because it’s free now and I’m going.” *

“Did you see that? Who the heck does he think he is?” Jake asks Nat.

“Better put that CT scan order,” is all Natasha replies as she walks away.

*

It’s Reuben’s patient, an eleven years old boy with blunt trauma, and Jake makes a verbal order to Bradshaw, who is the boy’s nurse. “I understand but I think that—” and Jake goes, “If I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it.”

The whole room gets quiet and everyone looks to him — Reuben, Mickey, and the technician are wide-eyed.

Bradley just says, “Alright,” in a perfectly leveled voice and leaves the room.

 Mickey is not making eye contact as he quips under his nose, on his way out of the room, “You do realize he basically runs this ER, right? You’re making your life a lot harder.”

*

Jake orders IV fluids for one of his patients which is also in Rooster’s section that day and he bleeps the order info to Rooster. Fifteen minutes later he sees that it hasn’t been filled and is like, hah, I knew there is a reason I hate that guy. Finds him when he passes Jake in the corridor and is like, “I want you to start the IV for room 7. Now,” and Rooster  just tells him, “No, do it yourself or find someone else.” 

They have a little back and forth as Jake follows him down the corridor which ends with another, “No.”

There’s still no charge nurse in the ER (she’s on medical leave that will most likely end with her leaving employment, from what Jake gathers) so he makes a datix and the ER nurse manager (Warlock) following up is apprehensive because obviously, he knows Bradley, and hears about what actually happened — Bradley was getting an igel for a toddler from the peds side and deemed it more important than starting a bag of saline to bust someone's blood pressure.

Jake feels like an idiot.

*

Jake and Reuben are charting next to each other and Reuben gets bleeped his patient’s lab results. Jake, who is also waiting for lab results, complains about how he sent a pod to the lab before Reuben. Reuben just gives him a look and says, “Yeah, that’s because I asked Bradley to put my request in.”

And Jake is like, “What does he have to do with anything?”

Reuben looks at him like he’s dumb and says, “He has more sway with the lab,” and walks away with his tablet.

*

Javy is doing a consult for Nat and stops to chat to Jake (they know each other from residency days) and Bradley comes by and says, “Maggie’s becoming hypotensive again,” and Javy observes as Jake looks at the nurse that came, gives him a very long, very detailed look and licks his lips.

He manages to think Oh before Jake asks, “Maggie?”

The nurse looks seconds from rolling his eyes. “Mrs. Lawrence? Room 5?” 

“That's Margaret.”

“She prefers Maggie.”

And it goes on, with Jake standing there rigid, puffing up his chest and cocking his hip out. “Did you start the fluids?”

“Finshed already.”

“Start another bag.”

The nurse looks unimpressed and instead of confirming says, slowly, like he’s talking to a child, “Her fluid balance is positive. She’s usually on pressors.” Jake’s face gets red and he goes, “Then put an order for her.”

It’s kind of funny to observe and to be fair, the nurse does give Jake a minute to go over what he said, leaning his elbow on the counter, eyebrows raised, before he points out, in that damn slow, unimpressed tone, “I can't put orders for things like pressors."

He hands Jake the closest tablet and starts walking away.

Jake calls after him. "What, you're not even going to draft it for me?"

He doesn't even turn around and Javy is silently shaking from the laughter he's holding in, "I thought I wasn't allowed to do that, doctor."

*

Mav comes down to the ER to talk to Rooster on a slower day — about how they’re about to sponsor a new CRNA for the cardiothoracic surg unit and maybe he could put a good word for their development team for Bradley and yada yada.

It happens like that: Mav comes down, Bradley is charting next to the monitors station, Jake is going over a scan on the opposite side when The Dr. Mitchell himself comes down and stops next to Bradley. He gives Bradley and his pink Paw Patrol scrubs a look and clears his throat a couple of times before Bradley raises his gaze toward him, turning away a second later and ignoring him again.

Jake is freaking out — this is The Dr. Mitchell and one of the reasons Jake wanted to work in this exact hospital, along with the rumored to-be-announced cardiothoracic surg fellowship under Dr. Mitchell he had his eyes on. He’s been thinking about how to make contact with Dr. Mitchell since he started in the ER and here he is, telling unresponsive Bradshaw, “I heard you’re looking to go back for your Master’s in the near future.” Bradshaw doesn’t say anything and Dr. Mitchell adds, “We have a CRNA development spot for—” and Bradley tells him, not turning away from the screen, “I’m not an OR nurse,” and then taps his card on the computer’s reader to log out and walks away.

Dr. Mitchell is a fucking legend, a VIP of this hospital, so Jake just stands there, contemplating how the heck Bradshaw could do that and hears him mumbling under his breath, “Really slick, Mav,” and jumps on the opportunity to say, “I’ll be talking to his supervisor about this, his attitude is unacceptable, Dr. Mitchell.”

And Dr. Mitchell turns to him, raises an eyebrow and asks, “Excuse me?” 

“The nurse you were talking to. He might be senior in here but his attitude’s been horrible and I’ll personally step in. This won’t happen again.”

Dr. Mitchell gives him a look before slowly saying, “I suggest you mind your own business, Dr. Seresin,” and walks away.

Nat is silently laughing a few feet away and Jake asks her what’s so funny. His heart dead-ass stops when she says, “You do know Dr. Mitchell is Bradley’s dad, right? They might not be on the best of terms but that’s still his son.” And Jake has the urge to bang his head on the keyboard in front of him. 

* 

TW for transphobia.

There’s a new nurse practitioner to be (graduated, about to get her cert) that's rumored to be a candidate for the charge nurse position. Izzy. She’s quite young for that, younger than Bradley for sure, must have barely worked in the clinical area before going for her Master’s. Jake doesn’t know if it’s on purpose but the nurse manager and Bradley keep on putting her in his section.

She’s—well, she’s a bit too in his face. She agrees with everything Jake says and doesn’t roll his eyes at him, which is boring, and she’s, for an NP, not that knowledgeable. She doesn’t argue with him, which is a change, and Jake starts to hate it after about five hours. Her voice is saccharine sweet, she keeps on standing a bit too close to him at all times, and she’s decent with patients, but she keeps on asking him about the smallest of things.

Jake’s section is less busy, usually, since he deals primarily with trauma in the ER, but she never bounces off to help others when she is free, like Bradley did. She’s clinging to his section, a little bit, and he doesn’t get why. It’s not like he is any nicer to her than to Bradley or any other nurse.

She is busy taking bloods and Bradley finds him when he has a second alone, finally, and enlightens him about why.

“If you don’t believe me, you can just ask any other nurse. Everyone noticed.”

“If you really think that then why do you keep putting her in my sections?”

“I don’t. She’s senior as an NP, she’s taken over allocation from me now.”

Jake’s mind only focuses on one detail. “You were allocating yourself to my sections?”

“Only because no one wants to work with you and because I’m actually certified in trauma.” That makes sense. It’s not like Bradley would work with him voluntarily. “Look, all I’m saying, you watch out — you fool around with her and then reject her and she’s going to HR. I know the type.”

“The type?”

“You know, the girl that thought she’ll become a nurse, snag a rich doctor and never work again? Well, it’s not always women, there are guys who do that too, but in this case, she’s very much the type.”

“And you think she’s trying to—snag me?”

“She’s certainly not going after the residents that are getting paid twelve bucks an hour or Reuben who is married,” he points out. Which, again, fair, even if he didn’t know Reuben is married prior to this strange conversation.

Jake stares at him, processing, until he blurts out, “I’m gay.”

“Then you’ve got nothing to worry about,” Bradley says after a second, eyes barely noticeably a bit wider, before he walks away.

“Was he bothering you, doctor?”

She calls him doctor, always, and it honestly makes him grit his teeth. Now even more. He’s got a bad feeling about it.

It gets confirmed later when Jake is taking care of a six-year-old girl who had fallen down the stairs. She’s dehydrated and Izzy’s just tried to put a cannula on her three times before Jake told her to grab the bedside ultrasound and not make the girl cry even more.

Bradley passes by the room and Jake’s learned that he can’t leave a distressed child alone, so he comes in and gets the parents and the girl relaxed. He’s about to go in and tell him to leave it alone until Izzy brings the ultrasound when Nat grabs him by the arm and tells him, “He was in a Rapid Response Team, I’m pretty sure he can put a cannula in blind. Just let him do it.”

And he does let him. Watches, expecting the girl to burst into tears at any moment but she never does. Bradley’s literally been in the room for less than ten minutes and it’s all back to calmness.

Izzy comes back with the ultrasound. It should not have taken her so long to grab it. “What is he doing there? That's my patient.”

"He said he can put the IV line without the ultrasound.” Well, Nat said so. Jake can’t believe he’s saying but, “He’s a peds nurse, he’ll be fine.”

“I’m sure the girl's parents wouldn’t want him anywhere near her.”

This sets alarm bells in Jake’s head. “What do you mean?”

"People like him shouldn't be around kids," she says, to his horror. She leans in, way closer than needed, and conspiringly whispers, "Dr. Seresin, haven't you known that he is, you know, a she in disguise?"

He’s dumbstruck. "I'm sorry?"

"He's actually a woman, just pretending to be a man because he's mentally—You're the doctor, I'm sure you know better than I how the brains of people like them work. He shouldn't be around that girl, is what I'm saying. I certainly wouldn't like him around my child, if I had one."

Jake didn’t know this about Bradley but he understands what she means, even with how awful she is about it. This, however, should not be a piece of information thrown around in public if Bradley didn't wish to disclose it, and certainly not in such a manner. "And how do you know that, exactly?"

"Nurses share a locker room, it's not hard to notice how she, you know, mutilated herself."

Jake doesn’t say anything out loud but mentally he is preparing datix report in his head. He catches the ER’s nurse manager before he goes home, too, because that’s some shit he doesn’t stand for. He might be an asshole but he’s not a bigot.

Next time he comes to work, Bradley is back in his section and Izzy is no longer employed.

“Thanks,” Bradley says, when they’re at the station, next to each other, in a relatively slow moment. “If I went on my own, we’d have a weeks-long investigation that would probably end with her or me moving to a different unit.”

“She said this shit to your face?”

“Kept calling me she in front of patients,” Bradley admits after a moment. “I think most of them thought they misheard but—I knew.”

“Well, good riddance then.”

Bradley snorts, but he’s looking down at the tablet in his hands, smiling, and wow, the apples of his cheeks are so round and his eyes so bright and Jake can't breathe for a second.

---

(there might be a second part coming because I meant seven-season-long medical drama literally-- including Jake realizing he's an idiot, Mavdad drama, Jake having his hands inside Bradley (in the literal, surgical sense) and jealousy that could rival the McDreamy/Dr. Grey drama)

[a-reader-and-a-writer]

Nevermore

AI-Less Whumptober 2023: 11. Fainting, 19. Left Behind, 23. Forced to Watch, 28. Oxygen Deprivation Fandom: Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick, Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, f!reader (Raven) Summary: When there is a malfunction during training, Rooster is forced to watch as his world comes crashing down. Word Count: 1153 TW: Character Death, Oxygen Deprivation, Passing Out, Panic

Notes: Thank you to @topguncortez for looking this over for me! 💕 Part of @ailesswhumptober's event

Bradley groaned as he sunk down deeper into the rec room couch. He absolutely hated these training days. Most of the time he was stuck in this tiny room for hours just waiting for his turn to get into his plane and then he would maybe get an hour up in the sky—if he was lucky. And there was very little to pass the time in here besides one uneven foosball table, a handful of magazines from the mid-2000’s, and a radio connected to the planes currently in the air. 

It wasn’t so bad depending on who he was waiting with. But since they had downsized the Dagger squad, he was currently alone with Hangman as his only company. While the two of them had cleared the air and moved past most of their past grievances, it was still awkward hanging out one-on-one like this so they usually just kept to themselves. If only Bradley had been able to switch places with Coyote today. Then he and Hangman could have kept each other occupied while Bradley could have spent this waiting time with you.

It had been bittersweet when Phoenix was promoted out of the Dagger Squad. She more than deserved it but everyone knew the squad just wouldn’t be the same without her. However, Bradley had been overjoyed when he learned you were selected as her replacement to fly with Bob. 

He had first met you a few years ago when you were both stationed at the same base. It was instantly clear there was a connection between you and things had gotten pretty serious pretty quickly. However, when you found out you were being transferred a few months later, the two of you mutually agreed long distance wasn’t for you and you parted on great terms. But ever since you joined the Dagger Squad, it was as if no time had passed and you both had picked things up where you had left off. 

Neither one of you wanted to put much pressure on the relationship by talking about the future, but Bradley already knew that now that he had you back in his life, he never wanted to let you go again. He just hoped you felt the same way. 

Ten minutes later, Bradley had just begun to doze off, lulled to sleep by the constant chatter over the radio, when suddenly Bob’s tone shifted, his words sharp with an edge of concern and nervousness. “Hey, Raven, what’s going on? Are you okay?”

“Somethin’s wrong…”

Bradley bolted upright on the couch at the labored sound of your voice. Jumping to his feet, he tore across the room and snatched the radio receiver before anyone else could. It was highly frowned upon for those waiting in the rec room to use the radio, but Bradley didn’t give it a second thought as he called out to you, “Rae? Raven, what’s happening?”

“Roo...Oxygen’s not working…Ca-can’t breathe… 

No. That can’t be right. The oxygen systems are always inspected before every flight to ensure something like this doesn’t happen. You had been given the all-clear this morning along with everyone else. Yet as he continued to listen to the radio, it was abundantly clear that you were struggling for every breath.

“Lt. Floyd.” Oh shit. Cyclone was monitoring training today. “Is your oxygen compromised?”

“N-no, sir. It’s just Raven’s.”

This was both good and bad news. On one hand, at least Bob wasn’t also being affected and he would be able to stay alert and focused on the situation. But on the other hand, if something happened to you, there was little he could do to help. He didn’t have any steering or altitude controls in the back seat and all emergency overrides were out of his reach. 

Grabbing the radio, Bradley carried it over to the window so he could try and see what was happening. Luckily, there were a few clouds covering the worst of the sun’s glare and he could just make out the planes far off in the distance. Two were circling at a normal altitude, but the third seemed to be steadily climbing.

Cyclone must have noticed this too because his voice crackled out of the radio, “Lt., drop altitude to below 10,000 feet immediately and return to base…..Raven? Do you copy?”

“....can’t….breathe….”

“Why is she still going higher?” Hangman murmured as he approached the window to stand next to Bradley.  

It seemed counterintuitive but Bradley thought he understood what was happening. Right now you wouldn’t be thinking logically about how to fix the problem, you’d just be straining to get air into your lungs. He could almost see you with your arched back, wide eyes, heaving chest….and fist clenched tightly around the stick as you unwittingly climbed higher and higher.

But then your plane seemed to level out for just a moment—before it began to plummet towards the ground.

Hangman inhaled sharply, “Oh my God…”

“Raven! Raven, wake up!” Bob’s voice was frantic as he cried out, “We’re going in! She’s unconscious and there’s no one on the stick!”

“No, no, no, no!” Bradley screamed, his fist slamming into the window over and over. This can’t be happening. This can’t be…

“Altitude dropping rapidly! Raven, please! Wake up! What do I do?”

“Lt. Floyd…eject.”

“What?” Bob sounded horrified at Cyclone’s command. “No. I can’t. I have to do something! I have to help her! Just tell me what to do!”

“There’s nothing you can do but save yourself. Now eject. That’s an order.”

“But–”

Hangman snatched the radio receiver out of Bradly’s hands and yelled, “Bob, you have to punch out right now! Your chute won’t save you if you go much lower.”

“I can’t…I can’t leave her.”

Hangman turned to Bradley, his face a mix of pain and sorrow as he held out the receiver. They both knew what needed to be done.

Squeezing his eyes tight to keep his tears from falling, Bradley grabbed the receiver and whispered, “Do it, Bob. She’d want you to.”

There was a momentary pause. Then, “I’m sorry.”

A loud bang blasted through the radio as the canopy was torn open and Bob’s seat jettisoned from the plane. Bradley looked out the window, his eyes scanning the sky until he just barely made out the tiny plume of color that had appeared as Bob’s cute deployed. It would be a rough landing, but he had ejected just high enough that he should be alright.

The same couldn’t be said about you. 

Bradley sank to the floor as your plane spiraled closer and closer to the ground, bile rising in his throat at the knowledge there was absolutely nothing anyone could do to save you now. All he could do was watch it happen.

Then, just before your plane slammed into the ground in a fiery explosion, he heard one final word whispered through the radio.

“...R-Rooster?” 

Taglist:@loverhymeswith,  @green-socks, @mayhem24-7forever, @tavners, @the-untamed-soul, @inglourious-imagines, @topguncortez @footprintsinthesxnd, @airhogger, @notroosterbradshaw, @straightforwardly, @bonnieelizabethparker, @srry-itshockeyszn, @flyinlove, @fandomhopped, @sweetheartlizzie07, @yjwnoot, @wanderdreamer, @pansexualwitchwhoneedstherapy, @fangirlinc, @sparrows-corner, @ryebecca, @mads-weasley, @trencher4lyfe, @merlehs, @sunshineflowerchild789, @imjess-themess, @callsign-phoenix, @maggie8002sq, @je-suis-prest-rachel, @tellrock35, @shanimallina87, @mak-32, @ohtobeleah, @blue-aconite, @deppresseddyslexic, @horneybeach1, @wkndwlff, @writercole

[lucky-guess]

do you have any shadowknight headcanons?

So! My second post on shadow knights! I'm not complaining, I freaking love the shadow knights-

Here's the first one: Shadow Knights

Because nothing was specified, I'm going to do both as a species and characters! I'm assuming this was for MCD: Marigold.

Shadow Knights as a species:

-Obsessive. Usually it's focused on revenge, a desire for power, just pure blood lust, and so on. But it affects each person differently, and they all can obsess over separate things. It is controllable and containable. Some shadow knights view letting your obsession take hold of you as weak, while others see it as the only way to live.

-Their eyes are reflective, like an animals. This is both in and out of their shadow knight form.

-Switching between forms is horribly painful, but they usually don't notice, as they are usually blinded by emotion to even process it. The ones in the nether stay in one form all the time, so they never even realize. The more control over when you transform, the more you realize how painful it is.

-Intense sense up grade. Increased hearing, sense of smell, touch, sight, all of it. It's part of the reason Laurance's sight was so easy to restore(even though it wasn't fully fixed). It's important to note that it's even better in shadow knight form.

-The sword and armor does actually just appear on them in that form, and it's impossible to take off. They can put the sword in its sheath, but that's the extent of it.

-Animals and shadow knights usually aren't the best mix, but it depends. Funnily enough, most domestic animals respond well to them. All wild animals, on the other hand... not so much.

-Not a single shadow knight was ever pure of heart. Someone with a pure heart cannot be turned.

Shadow knight character things:

-Gene has been messing with shadow knight recruit memories to make them more willing. For whatever reason(lore reasons I'll get to later), it wouldn't work on Laurance.

-Part of Sasha wanted Aphria to never find out about her being... y'know, dead, so she could live a peaceful life in Phoenix Drop.

-Zenix genuinely cared for Dorian and Aphria, but ended up deeming connections like that weak.

-Zenix never got to know that Dorian wasn't Garroth's real name.

-Gene's obsession is vengeance. Sasha is worried what he'll do with himself once he achieves it...

-Sasha's obession is simply living as she wants, however she wants. It used to be revenge, but she's moved past that.

-Zenix's obsession is power. He'll do anything for it.

-Vylad has disconnected himself from emotion so much that he doesn't have an obsession.

-Laurance refuses to admit he has one, because he isn't a full shadow knight. In truth, it's his humanity, and who is connected to that. His friends, family, and loved ones. What keeps him sane. That's what he'll lose his mind over. Funny, isn't it?

[mariacallous]

If you’ve been on TikTok at any point in the past six months, chances are you’ve stumbled across them, as I first did during a fairly routine doomscroll one night this summer. For me it started with two videos somewhat incongruously tagged #homeremodeling and #housedesign. One of them featured a CGI man summoning a baby phoenix outside of a tree that he planned to turn into an apartment. Then a robotic AI voice started to narrate how the CGI man, identified as “Little John,” was going to build it. Over the next 90 seconds, Little John transformed the tree into a maniacally space-efficient luxury unit in an AI-generated ballet of flying galvanized square steel, ecofriendly wood veneer, and expansion screws.

The other video, featuring nearly identical CGI and the same hypnotically flat AI narrator, followed the story of a couple with a billion children that, like Little John, decided it was time to improve their home. And those two videos were only the tip of the galvanized steel iceberg.

There are hundreds of accounts posting these videos to TikTok right now, and they’ve become immensely popular, racking up millions of views. Even the “character” of Little John has become a meme of his own, with people making skits where they pretend to be him.

The videos struck me as a fascinating case study of how TikTok trends have evolved—or rather devolved—over time. What was once an app full of human beings making content in conversation with each other has become a dizzying world where irony and sincerity, memes and spam, blur together into a slurry of bizarre content no one is quite sure what to do with. As I set out to discover who was making these videos, I assumed that lifting the rock would reveal an even stranger world of broken social networks, AI content farms, and shady engagement hacks, wiggling just beneath the surface of the web. Which it did! But stranger still, in the end, it turned out these videos hadn’t become huge as a TikTok trend at all.

In 2022, an account popped up on TikTok called @​​designer_bob. From the start, it exclusively posted videos with a specific format: Some kind of weird domestic issue must be solved with extreme home renovation, the action animated in a surreal CGI style with a spunky stock music soundtrack. Within a month, the account had a viral hit: a video about designing a bedroom for four children, which has been viewed more than 10 million times.

Designer Bob’s formula proved perfect for TikTok’s algorithm, which is constantly analyzing, in microseconds, what catches your attention and recalibrating to what it thinks you want to watch. There’s a hypnotic quality to these videos. “The storyline is just fucked up enough to grab your attention early on,” says social media analyst Rachel Karten. And because there’s a process happening—a home renovation—the user can’t look away.

Once Designer Bob’s videos started going viral, hundreds of other accounts started posting similar content. One account called @dy02449xjp, which had been sharing clips from 2000s romcoms like The Proposal and Two Weeks Notice, switched over to weird home renovations in January 2024. That same month, one of their videos went exceptionally viral. It’s been watched more than 44 million times.

Along the way, the aesthetic and style of these videos started to change. The early viral renovation videos from Designer Bob were silly but could sometimes be mistaken for genuine design content. Newer videos were more ludicrous, the renovations more fantastical, their action narrated by a droning AI voice. That’s just the way TikTok’s remix culture works, says Alex Turvy, who studies digital culture.

“We’re going to see trends like this become more and more absurd until they burn out,” he says.

There’s even a spin-off meme specifically about “galvanized square steel,” to the point where some users have questioned whether the whole meme is a viral marketing campaign for galvanized steel.

“I think lore is a really good word to use here. Now the videos blow up and do well because there is lore around them,” Karten says. “Lore sustains virality.”

The more I watched these videos, the more desperate I was to understand who was making them. In the case of Designer Bob, the account bio links to an online candle and crystal store run by a company based in China called Whisper Wisp. And the ​​Designer Bob Facebook page lists Hong Kong as a base on the Page Transparency section. Still, it seems unlikely this is a covert marketing campaign for a candle shop. None of Whisper Wisp’s social channels are nearly as popular as the Designer Bob account. (Whisper Wisp didn’t respond to any of my messages.)

Details about who’s behind the Dy02449xjp account are even more scarce. There is a Facebook page with the same username sharing the same videos. Beyond that, nothing. No other connected accounts, no storefronts or identifying information. If there’s a scam or an upsell coming, it hasn’t dropped yet. For now, at least, Dy02449xjp appears to be pursuing TikTok engagement for its own sake.

Many of these accounts use some variation of the name “Home Designs” and similar logos of a small house, which strongly resemble the branding of an architecture and interior design program called HomeDesignsAI—a major clue, I thought, toward solving the mystery. I was able to track down HomeDesignsAI’s COO and cofounder, Denis Madroane. But he was just as confused as everyone else about how popular these renovation TikToks have become.

HomeDesignsAI is a Romania-based startup that launched in 2023. The app allows users to upload a photo of a room or floor plan and transform it using AI. Madroane says he started seeing TikToks that used HomeDesignsAI last year. He says he and his team thought they were pretty funny—but they’re not seeing much upside.

Madroane confirmed that Home-DesignsAI does have a TikTok account, though it doesn’t really participate in the memes. It has a little under 900 followers, and its biggest video has around 195,000 views. Which seems fine—until you compare it to the unofficial Home-DesignsAI accounts on TikTok. The biggest one, @homedesign369, has 2.4 million followers and is consistently getting millions of views per video.

“Our official account is severely underperforming compared to the numbers averaged by user-generated content,” Madroane concedes.

But as it turns out, none of the most viral Little John TikToks were made using HomeDesignsAI software. So, mystery unsolved. And before this summer, no one on TikTok seemed to know where these videos were coming from. That is, until Candise Lin, a Cantonese and Mandarin tutor based in the US, noticed the trend going viral and revealed the missing piece of the puzzle—at least for confused Americans—in a TikTok video of her own.

It turns out we haven’t actually been watching videos made by TikTok users. They’re coming from a completely different app. As Lin explains, these videos come from Bilibili, China’s closest equivalent to YouTube. On Bilibili, Little John is known as 大壮, or Big John. “Galvanized steel” is even a trending search term. According to Lin, there are two Bilibili users known for creating this kind of content, an account called 疯狂设计家, or Crazy Designer, and another called 设计师王姨, or Designer Aunt Wang. I was able to find dozens of other accounts, as well.

The unhinged home renovation videos on TikTok are machine-translated versions of videos from Bilibili. Chinese content makes the jump across the Great Firewall like this fairly often. Videos downloaded from TikTok’s sister app Douyin are a regular presence on TikTok. But the fact that these were not made for English-speaking audiences would explain the robotic narrator, bizarre syntax, and Chinese iconography seen throughout.

After digging through Crazy Designer’s videos, I was able to find one of the videos I had come across on TikTok back in June, about a couple designing a house for a billion children. Crazy Designer titled it “One Billion Children per Room,” and it’s part of a series, all with titles like “A Million Children per Room,” “Two Million Children per Room,” and so on. After watching it on Bilibili and reading the comments underneath it, I started to realize what these videos are: They’re shitposts. This jaundiced real-estate porn is meant to satirize the housing crunch in cities like Hong Kong and Shanghai, and the commenters are all in on the joke.

In the end, it appears there isn’t any kind of scam or engineered marketing stunt here after all. It’s just two cultures laughing at the same uncanny user-generated content, filtered through some perfunctory layers of AI translation and lost context. And according to Lin, Bilibili users are now aware of how popular Little John videos have become in the West. They’re mortified that Americans are watching.

[a-reader-and-a-writer-for-all]

Nevermore

AI-Less Whumptober 2023: 11. Fainting, 19. Left Behind, 23. Forced to Watch, 28. Oxygen Deprivation Fandom: Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick, Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, f!reader Summary: When there is a malfunction during training, Rooster is forced to watch as his world comes crashing down. Word Count: 1153 TW: Character Death, Oxygen Deprivation, Passing Out, Panic Notes: Thank you to @topguncortez for looking this over for me! 💕 Part of @ailesswhumptober's event

Bradley groaned as he sunk down deeper into the rec room couch. He absolutely hated these training days. Most of the time he was stuck in this tiny room for hours just waiting for his turn to get into his plane and then he would maybe get an hour up in the sky—if he was lucky. And there was very little to pass the time in here besides one uneven foosball table, a handful of magazines from the mid-2000’s, and a radio connected to the planes currently in the air. 

It wasn���t so bad depending on who he was waiting with. But since they had downsized the Dagger squad, he was currently alone with Hangman as his only company. While the two of them had cleared the air and moved past most of their past grievances, it was still awkward hanging out one-on-one like this so they usually just kept to themselves. If only Bradley had been able to switch places with Coyote today. Then he and Hangman could have kept each other occupied while Bradley could have spent this waiting time with you.

It had been bittersweet when Phoenix was promoted out of the Dagger Squad. She more than deserved it but everyone knew the squad just wouldn’t be the same without her. However, Bradley had been overjoyed when he learned you were selected as her replacement to fly with Bob. 

He had first met you a few years ago when you were both stationed at the same base. It was instantly clear there was a connection between you and things had gotten pretty serious pretty quickly. However, when you found out you were being transferred a few months later, the two of you mutually agreed long distance wasn’t for you and you parted on great terms. But ever since you joined the Dagger Squad, it was as if no time had passed and you both had picked things up where you had left off. 

Neither one of you wanted to put much pressure on the relationship by talking about the future, but Bradley already knew that now that he had you back in his life, he never wanted to let you go again. He just hoped you felt the same way. 

Ten minutes later, Bradley had just begun to doze off, lulled to sleep by the constant chatter over the radio, when suddenly Bob’s tone shifted, his words sharp with an edge of concern and nervousness. “Hey, Raven, what’s going on? Are you okay?”

“Somethin’s wrong…”

Bradley bolted upright on the couch at the labored sound of your voice. Jumping to his feet, he tore across the room and snatched the radio receiver before anyone else could. It was highly frowned upon for those waiting in the rec room to use the radio, but Bradley didn’t give it a second thought as he called out to you, “Rae? Raven, what’s happening?”

“Roo...Oxygen’s not working…Ca-can’t breathe… 

No. That can’t be right. The oxygen systems are always inspected before every flight to ensure something like this doesn’t happen. You had been given the all-clear this morning along with everyone else. Yet as he continued to listen to the radio, it was abundantly clear that you were struggling for every breath.

“Lt. Floyd.” Oh shit. Cyclone was monitoring training today. “Is your oxygen compromised?”

“N-no, sir. It’s just Raven’s.”

This was both good and bad news. On one hand, at least Bob wasn’t also being affected and he would be able to stay alert and focused on the situation. But on the other hand, if something happened to you, there was little he could do to help. He didn’t have any steering or altitude controls in the back seat and all emergency overrides were out of his reach. 

Grabbing the radio, Bradley carried it over to the window so he could try and see what was happening. Luckily, there were a few clouds covering the worst of the sun’s glare and he could just make out the planes far off in the distance. Two were circling at a normal altitude, but the third seemed to be steadily climbing.

Cyclone must have noticed this too because his voice crackled out of the radio, “Lt., drop altitude to below 10,000 feet immediately and return to base…..Raven? Do you copy?”

“....can’t….breathe….”

“Why is she still going higher?” Hangman murmured as he approached the window to stand next to Bradley.  

It seemed counterintuitive but Bradley thought he understood what was happening. Right now you wouldn’t be thinking logically about how to fix the problem, you’d just be straining to get air into your lungs. He could almost see you with your arched back, wide eyes, heaving chest….and fist clenched tightly around the stick as you unwittingly climbed higher and higher.

But then your plane seemed to level out for just a moment—before it began to plummet towards the ground.

Hangman inhaled sharply, “Oh my God…”

“Raven! Raven, wake up!” Bob’s voice was frantic as he cried out, “We’re going in! She’s unconscious and there’s no one on the stick!”

“No, no, no, no!” Bradley screamed, his fist slamming into the window over and over. This can’t be happening. This can’t be…

“Altitude dropping rapidly! Raven, please! Wake up! What do I do?”

“Lt. Floyd…eject.”

“What?” Bob sounded horrified at Cyclone’s command. “No. I can’t. I have to do something! I have to help her! Just tell me what to do!”

“There’s nothing you can do but save yourself. Now eject. That’s an order.”

“But–”

Hangman snatched the radio receiver out of Bradly’s hands and yelled, “Bob, you have to punch out right now! Your chute won’t save you if you go much lower.”

“I can’t…I can’t leave her.”

Hangman turned to Bradley, his face a mix of pain and sorrow as he held out the receiver. They both knew what needed to be done.

Squeezing his eyes tight to keep his tears from falling, Bradley grabbed the receiver and whispered, “Do it, Bob. She’d want you to.”

There was a momentary pause. Then, “I’m sorry.”

A loud bang blasted through the radio as the canopy was torn open and Bob’s seat jettisoned from the plane. Bradley looked out the window, his eyes scanning the sky until he just barely made out the tiny plume of color that had appeared as Bob’s cute deployed. It would be a rough landing, but he had ejected just high enough that he should be alright.

The same couldn’t be said about you. 

Bradley sank to the floor as your plane spiraled closer and closer to the ground, bile rising in his throat at the knowledge there was absolutely nothing anyone could do to save you now. All he could do was watch it happen.

Then, just before your plane slammed into the ground in a fiery explosion, he heard one final word whispered through the radio.

“...R-Rooster?” 

Taglist:@valoraxxx-blog, @m3laniehearts, @autumnleaves1991-blog, @rule107, @vintageleather, @impossiblebagelcowboyfreak, @sugarcoated-lame, @slutforadambanks, @americaarse, @reneki, @ynbutbetter, @imagineadream, @sadpetalsstuff, @salty-thembo, @rachelizabethgraham, @duckandrobin, @queenbbarnes, @grincheveryday, @uselesslyromantic, @chouricojr, @king-of-milf-lovers, @high-fidelities, @shaded-echoes-recs, @dempy, @nik2blog, @dumb-fawkin-bitch, @uselesslyromantic, @choochoo284, @littlebadariell, @thescarletknight2014

[crazyk-imagine]

Time Continues when You Stay

Pairing: Jake “Hangman” Seresin x Civillian!eader 

Characters: Jake “Hangman” Seresin, Civillian!reader, Reader’s friends (Sammy, Danielle, and Cassie), Javy “Coyote” Machado, Robert “Bob” Floyd, Natasha “Phoenix” Trace, Reuben “Payback” Fitch, Mickey “Fanboy” Garcia

Warnings: Minor use of curse words, fluff, slight angest, Jake making some smexy comments, the infamous thigh squeeze, Jake and reader are the sluts of the group, Bob and Sammy make a close second, Javy lives to make fun of Jake, the squad made another bet, this starts off as cute and gets slightly darker, the squad cares about Jake 

Word Count: 1,656

A/N: Did I forget I finished this earlier this week? Maybe. Did I post this before working on the second chapter of another one of my stories? Maybe. Am I listening to Shane and Ryan play mortuary assistant while doing this and then switch to my new obsession One Tree Hill? Yes. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“One uber ride for a future Mrs. Seresin.” 

You scoff as you sit down. "Now you're on board with the nickname they gave me." 

"I figured why try to fight it when they won’t stop." 

"Oh, you're so sweet." 

"I know I am, that’s why you like me." 

"Right now, I'm trying to figure out why I do." 

"Hey, hey," he reaches over and places his hand on your thigh, lightly squeezing it. "You know you're only lying to yourself." 

"You mean you are." 

"Shut up." 

"Now who's getting their feelings hurt," you tease him. 

"Keep talking like that and you won't be walking right at the bar tonight." 

"Promises, promises." 

-

"Look who finally decided to show up." 

You roll your eyes at Javy’s comment. "Look at the whore." 

"Hey!" Your friend Danielle shouts. 

"I was talking to your boyfriend," you smirk. 

"Hey, not cool. I'm the one that helped get you two together," he points to the two of you. "So, really, you should be thanking me... or naming your first kid after me, whatever comes first." 

"Wow." You lean your head on his shoulder, "he's been hanging around you for too long." 

Now it's Jake's turn to scoff. "That's hurtful, sweetheart." 

"I'm not sorry." 

"I know and that's why I'm thinking of your punishment for later now." 

"Gross." 

"At least they're not as bad as Bob and Sammy," Danielle points out. 

"They could be worse than them if given enough alcohol," Javy adds. "Even then they go to the bathroom drunk as hell. They have the decency to pretend like they aren't gonna fuck." 

"Hey, hey. We don't expose you so, you don't need to expose me like that.” 

“There’s no fun in that,” Danielle teases you before walking away and her boyfriend following after her. 

“Are we as slutty as they say we are?” You ask him. 

“I don’t think so.” 

“We are,” you whine to yourself. 

“That’s rude of you to say sweetheart.” 

“If you’re saying somethings not so slutty then it is. You’re the prime slut of the group.” 

“You sure you’re not thinking of Chicken?” 

“Oh, I know I’m not.” 

“This calls for an early punishment.” 

“No,” you tell him, keeping him at arm’s length as you run away until he catches you and wraps his arms around you, pulling you into him. 

-

Natasha shakes her head, passing Mickey and Reuben forty dollars, a twenty-dollar bill to each of them. 

“I told you he’d act sappy with her,” Reuben says, while counting the money in a taunting manner. 

“Would you cut it out and give me my share?” Mickey snatches the money from his friend. 

“Leave them alone. They’re happy,” Bob chimes in. 

“Oh, look. The other sluts have arrived,” Natasha teases him. 

He adjusts his glasses avoiding everyone’s gazes. “That’s- that’s- you guys are being rude.” 

Sammy stands beside him, wrapping an arm around his waist. “Are you guys being mean to my Bobby boo?” 

“Us being mean to your boy toy,” Mickey starts off. 

“Never,” Reuben adds, wrapping his arm around Mickey and Natasha’s shoulders. 

-

“I love this.” You spin around in his arms, holding him by his waist as you rock side to side. 

“Love what?” He pulls your arms off him and spins you around, pulling you into a slow dance. 

“A lot of things.” 

“What kind of things?” 

“Oh, you know. This.” 

The corner of his lips tugs upwards, “and what does this entail? I’m going to need some more details. I need you to use your words, sweet girl.” 

You sink your teeth into your bottom lip before smiling. “I love… the fact that you got enough courage to ask me for my number and here we are.” 

“Oh, is that what you’re saying happened?” 

“Yeah, because it’s the truth.” 

“I wouldn’t say that I needed to gather enough courage to ask for your number.” He spins you again. 

“You did though.” 

“Nah, I just needed to get my feet moving to get to you before your uber showed up.” 

“Same thing.” 

“Not really because I was going with the feeling.” 

“What feeling?” 

He keeps one arm around your waist and holds your free hand with his. “You remember when you asked how I felt when I’m in the sky?” 

You nod. 

“I can remember pushing myself through the crowd and out the door to get to you and my heart…” 

“Your heart stopped?” You joke with a light chuckle. 

“Almost.” 

You quiet down, staring at him as he avoids your gaze as your hands slide up his arms and settle around his neck. 

“My body was in auto pilot, and I was behind you out that door asking you for your number feeling as buzzed as I do after flying.” 

You hum, curling your arms further around his neck, hugging him. 

He smiles, tucking his head into your neck. 

“I’m glad you told me that.” 

“Don’t let it go to your head,” he mumbles against your skin. 

“Too late.” 

You pull back and stare into his eyes. “I need you to wake up.” 

He furrows his brows. “What?” 

“Wake up. I can’t- I can’t lose you, Jake.” 

“Sweetheart, what are you-” 

-

“I need you to wake up,” you sniffle. “I can’t look any of your friends in the face and tell them you’re gone. I know it’s selfish of me to ask but please don’t make me do that, honey.” 

-

He blinks and everything is gone. “Sweetheart? Hey, sweetheart? Where’d you go?” 

-

You squeezed his hand tighter when he begins to lightly jerk his legs, pushing yourself out of the stupidly annoying (for no reason) hospital chair. “Jake. Jake. Hey, hey Jake.” 

He opens his eyes and stops, the feeling of your hand on his head gets him to shiver. 

“Hey there,” you greet him with a teary-eyed smile. 

“Hey,” he replies, sounding horse and in need of water. 

You hand him the cup of water Bradley got you earlier that day but never drank. “How are you feeling? I should get the doctor.” You point over your shoulder, “I’m going to go get the doctor.” 

“No,” he shakes his head, reaching for you, wincing at the pain in his side. “Don’t leave,” he groans. 

“Jake, stop coming closer and lay down you mad man.” 

“How’d they let you in? Isn’t it supposed to be immediate family only?” 

You avoid his gaze and fluff his pillow. “I may have told them we were a step further… in our relationship than we actually were.” 

He smiles. 

“And what was that?” 

“We’re engaged and my ring is being resized. That’s why I don’t have it on right now.” 

“You came up with a story and everything. Wow,” he teases. 

You pout and lightly smack him, barely touching him. He grabs your hand and pulls you closer to the bed, wanting you to sit beside him. “I don’t want to hurt you, honey.” 

“There’s only two ways you can hurt me. One, by sitting on my catheter. And two, not sitting on this damn thing with me so just please, give this hurt cowboy a break.” 

You accept the hand he holds out for you and sit beside him, staring at your adjoined hands. 

“What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?” 

“Nothing.” 

He feels the way your hand starts shaking. “Hey, hey.” 

You don’t turn your head around and purse your lips together, trying to hold yourself together. 

“Look at me, sweetheart. I’m right here.” 

“But you almost weren’t!” 

“What are you-” 

“The doctor said they lost you for a few minutes but that you were going to be okay. When she said those words I- I thought I lost you.” 

“But you didn’t, see. I’m right here. I’m right-” 

“You almost weren’t.” 

He pauses, thinking about what to say next. “I think even if that was the case, you wouldn’t have left me.” He pulls your hand up, placing it over his heart. “You didn’t leave even when you thought I was gone. I think you’d follow me towards the ends of the earth,” he says, with a teasing smile, repeating the same thing your parents told each other all the time when you were a child. 

It holds a promise to the person it's being said to… even when things get tough, neither of you are going to leave the other, you’re going to get through things together. 

“I regret telling you that,” you wipe your cheeks with one hand and attempt to pull your other one out of Jake’s grasp but fail as he keeps a hold of it. “Jake-” 

He shakes his head, reaching for your waist, pulling you closer. 

You do, slowly and gingerly to not aggravate any of his injuries. 

He wipes your cheeks, “why’s my pretty girl crying? You know I only like it when you cry out for me and not like this.” 

You scoff, inwardly rolling your eyes. “Don’t say things like that when you’re-” 

“Enjoying the moment with the future Mrs. Seresin.” 

“Stop. You can’t say things like that.” 

“Oh, I can when it’s easy to get you riled up.” He opens his arms, placing your hand on the side of his neck. “Lay with me.” 

“I don’t-” 

He shakes his head, “you won’t win against me, and you know it.” 

You don’t fight him and give in. 

-

Javy, Natasha, Bob, and Bradley all fight to get into Jake’s hospital room. 

He shushes them and gestures for them to be quiet, “don’t wake her up or I swear I will live up to the so-called back story to my call sign ten times harder than usual.” 

Everyone slowly walks out of the doorway with their hands up, mumbling their apologies. 

“You didn’t have to do that,” you mumble. 

“Yes, I did. They wouldn’t have left unless I said something.” 

“You’re so kind.” 

“Only for you, sweetheart.” He pecks your forehead, “only for you.”

Return to: Part I

[i-eat-worlds]

Stab O’clock

Phoenix gets stabbed, whump ensues.

Thanks to @snaillamp and @whumpy-daydreams for helping with the medical stuff in this! Aaron and Phoenix belong to @pigeonwhumps

cw: medical whump, dubcon medical care, past medical abuse, graphic depiction of medical procedures (tube thoracostomy), needles, blood, implied current abuse, fear of punishment, wound fingering, immortal whumpee, wishing for death, past death, comfort believe it or not

“Firebird!”

Phoenix rolled away from the voice calling their name, trying to drag themselves deeper into the alleyway. If they were discovered like this, it wouldn’t end well. You couldn’t fight if you could barely breathe.

“Firebird!”

A black, blue, and orange uniformed hero rounded the corner, and Phoenix shrunk back further. Absurdly, they wished they could bleed out and die quicker, so they could heal. Being found like this was sure to end badly. Injured heroes were useless heroes, and useless heroes got punished. The hero called out for them again, moving towards the alley way.

They held their breath, hoping the hero would walk by and ignore them.

They didn’t.

Instead, the hero turned into the alley, dropping to their knees in front of them. He mumbled something into his coms before he looked at them. “Hey Firebird, I’m Exhale, I’m a medic.” He gestured to the patch on his left arm. “I’m here to help you, yeah?”

Medics? Who had sent medics out for them? That was a gross waste of resources. Phoenix shook their head. “ ‘m immortal.”

Talking was hard. Every word stole precious, precious air that was getting harder to take in by the second.

Exhale nodded. “Good to know, thanks for telling me.” He quickly located the wound on their chest and started quickly cutting the fabric away.

“No, ‘m immortal.” Phoenix whispered, pushing his hands away. “You don’ need to do that.”

“Not how that works. Let me help.” Exhale pressed a clear, sticky bandage over their chest. It was clear he wasn’t planning on arguing.

His hands wrapped around them, checking their backside for another wound. “ ‘m sorry,” they wheezed.

“It’s alright.” His hands pulled away. “I need you to lay down. I’ll help, yeah?” Phoenix let him gently set them down on the ground. This moved them out of the shadows, casting streetlight over their upper body.

Their chest still felt heavy and tight, even though the weird bandages he’d put on helped a little bit. It did nothing for the pain, every movement of their rib cage extending the burning ache. In the distance, they could hear sirens. Stupidly, Phoenix wondered if the sirens were for them.

That was silly, though. Why would they need an ambulance? It wasn’t like they were going to die.

“I’m gonna need to decompress your chest,” he said. He was holding something in his gloved hand, but Phoenix couldn’t really see what it was. “It’ll probably hurt, but it’ll also make it easier to breathe.”

They whimpered as Exhale pressed his fingers next to their sternum, only a few inches away from the wound, then slid them across their chest. In the corner of their vision, they saw light glint of of a very long needle.

They didn’t have time to really process what it was until after it was driven through their chest.

Shocked, they gasped, breathing hitching and head popping off the ground. Exhale didn’t seem so surprised, pressing his hand onto their shoulder to keep them from moving too much. “You’re alright, you’re going great.”

It certainly didn’t feel like that.

“The ambulance is on its way, they’re a few minutes out.” For some reason, he was still gently squeezing their shoulder. It wasn’t that they minded, it was just odd.

It was easy to tell that the ambulance was coming, sirens screaming through the night. Phoenix closed their eyes to try and get away from bright flashing lights as it parked. It was so easy to keep them like that.

“Phoenix, can you open your eyes for me?” He shook their shoulder a bit, but when they didn’t respond, he switched to grinding his knuckles into their sternum.

Their eyes popped open, and they raised the arm on their uninjured side to try and push his hand away. “I need you to try and stay awake, for me, yeah?”

The ambulance ride passed in a blur. So much was going on. While Exhale was starting an IV, another paramedic was attaching them to a monitor. An oxygen mask was looped over their face and then they were covered by a blanket. They felt a strange coolth running up their arm, and they realized that they’d been given painkillers.

It was too much, really. All the care and attention would've been better spent on someone who wouldn’t live anyway. The thought of having to pay for this made them nauseous. Hopefully Kai will believe that they tried to say no, because Abbie wouldn’t care.

Phoenix heard the arrival alarm go off as they were rolled into HAL’s medbay. Aaron, along with a cache of other nurses met them by the door. They clumped around the stretcher, and Exhale started rattling off a long list of words and numbers that they didn’t understand at Aaron.

“ ‘m sorry,” they mumbled to them, but he was too busy talking to hear them. “I promise ‘m sorry, sir.”

Nobody responded. Of course they didn’t. They were being annoying, and they needed to shut up.

“Three, two, one, lift!” Somebody called, and they were hoisted off the stretcher and set back down on the table. The movement caused pain to flare in their chest, and they groaned loudly. The assault of hands returned as they were attached to the medbay’s monitor, nurses swarming around them.

“You with me, Phoenix?” Aaron was standing at their head. His face looked weird upside down.

They nodded, feeling the tears starting to build. “Yes, sir.”

“Good, good.” Aaron’s eyes flickered up, watching as their blood pressure cycled. “We’re gonna take an x-ray, okay. Just lie still for us.”

Someone pulled an x-ray machine over the bed, and Aaron backed away. There was an awkward moment of quiet as the machine hummed and wirred, and then everyone briey stared at the radiograph that Phoenix could neither see nor interpret. Aaron rattled o a list of stuff he needed done, and the room descended back into organized chaos.

“I’m gonna need to place a chest tube. You’ve got blood in your chest, so we're going to put a tube in and drain it out so you can breathe better,” he explained as he rubbed cleaning gel on his hands.

Phoenix swallowed nervously, giving up on holding back tears. They could feel the pain of the scalpel slicing through their chest, of cold metal pushing their ribs apart, of hands digging around inside them as they died and resurrected and died again.

“You’re lucky someone is willing to help you at all. You know you don’t deserve it.”

A nurse pulled the blanket all the way to their belly button, revealing the myriad scars that covered their body. Burns, several GSWs, an old wound from a spear, and the long, thick, almost keloid scar from the thoracotomy.

“If you stopped fucking moving I wouldn’t need to paralyze you. It’s not like you need to breathe.”

Their attention was drawn by Aaron’s voice. “Phoenix, I need you to keep breathing for me. In and out, in and out.” He looped a mask around his face, then plunged his arms into the sleeves of a waiting gown. While he spoke, the nurse wiped the skin around their chest and up their arm with a stinky orange solution.

“Please, ‘m sorry, sir,” they gasped. The monitors screeched as their heart rate spiked. “I promise, sir, ‘m sorry for getting hurt.”

Aaron’s eyebrows furrowed. “I’m not mad at you for getting hurt, Phoenix. I’ll never be.” Cold flared in their arms, but they were too scared to recognize it as pain medication. Latex snapped as he donned a pair of sterile gloves.

The squelching of viscera echoed in their brain.

“If you don’t stop screaming I’m going to cut it. I can literally see your aorta. Don’t test me.”

He started to unfold a drape on their chest, looking up at a nurse on the other side of the table. “Can you get Joseph in here? They need more support than I can provide while I’m doing this.”

Phoenix whimpered, tears rolling down freely down their cheeks. They’d known that Aaron’s kindness wouldn’t last forever, that it was too good to be true, but it still hurt. And Joseph as well? Was he going to hold them down while Aaron cut them open? Or would they just slit their throat and be done with it?

“I told you I wasn’t fucking around. You could’ve prevented this if you would’ve just kept still.”

“I‘m sorry, please, I promise, I’m sorry, sir.” They tried again, desperately. “I didn’t mean to get hurt. I know I don’t deserve it, sir. I know. I promise, sir, I know.”

They gasped for air, hand clawing at the tide of the table.

“Can someone gag them please? I don’t want to hear them breathing like that. It’s annoying.”

Joseph appeared in the entryway to the room, quickly crossing on the side away from Aaron. He was wearing his full INSUPA uniform, med patches and all, same second in command stripes as the person in the alley had. Was Joseph Exhale?

It didn’t really matter now. He was going to hurt them anyway.

“Can someone hold them down? They move too much when they resurrect.”

“Hey Phoenix, can you look at me?” He was smiling at them, but he still looked terrifying.

They tore their eyes from the needle in Aaron’s hand to look at him. “That’s good. Eyes on me, eyes on me.”

“Don’t look at me like that. You know it's your own fault.”

Joseph kept talking to them, voice low and calm. “Is it okay if I hold your hand?” They nodded, knowing their answer didn’t really matter anyway.

“We’re gonna take care of you. I know it’s scary.” His hands were calloused and hard, and he gently started to massage the top of their hand with his thumb.

Why hadn’t he killed them yet? What was he waiting for?

“Stop crying. It’s distracting me.”

Aaron touched their chest. Fear exploded in their gut, along with boiling waves of nausea. Even though they knew they’d come back, they didn’t want to die.

“Aaron’s starting the local now.” Joseph said, squeezing their hand a little.

“I don’t care that it hurts. Just keep still.”

The needle punctured their skin, and they did their best to not wiggle away. There was an acidic burn in their chest as the medication took hold.

“I know it burns, but it’s nearly over,” Aaron said, grabbing another syringe. “That’s the first round of local anesthetic in, you’re doing great.”

Joseph smiled at them again, and Phoenix wondered what the point of the medication was. Weren’t anesthetics supposed to make things hurt less? That couldn’t be right.

They were supposed to be dying.

“Pain meds? That would be wasted on you. I don’t think it’d even work.”

Aaron swamped out the syringe for a scalpel, and their eyes went wide with fear. This was how he was going to kill them then.

“Eyes on me, remember?” Joseph’s voice was commanding, and their eyes snapped back to his face.

“I’m sorry sir,” they said, voice filled with fear.

“I didn’t know you were too stupid to follow even simple instructions. Stop. Squirming.”

They prepared themselves for the pain of being sliced open, waiting for the agony to spread along their ribs.

“Tell me if it starts to hurt,” Aaron said. There was a strange pressure on the side of their chest, and the metallic smell of blood filled the air.

It was strange, but it didn’t hurt. It was supposed to hurt.

“It’ll go faster if you don’t cause problems.”

There was an uncomfortable tugging and pulling sensation, and then Aaron’s finger slid inside their chest. They suppressed the urge to cringe away.

“They need more local.” Joseph said, his tone switching from soft to business when he talked to Aaron.

“ ‘m okay,” they insisted. They didn’t need any more superfluous medication wasted on them. It already wasn’t as bad as they’d thought it’d be.

“I wouldn’t have had to do this if you’d just behaved.”

Joseph kept holding their hand as Aaron reached for another syringe. “You’re doing great, keep it up,” he assured them.

The burning sensation returned, and then they were being spread open again. A rush of blood splattered onto the floor, splashing on Aaron’s gown.

“What, are you afraid of a little blood?

He stuck his finger into their chest again, rotating it around inside them. “Any pain, Phoenix?”

“No, sir.” They were crying more now than before.

He snatched the tube off the tray. “Give them another point-two of Eropental.”

“If you complain that it hurts one more time, I’m going to just leave the rest of the shrapnel inside.”

Joseph let go of their hand to administer the medication, and for some reason, Phoenix didn’t like it.

Meanwhile, Aaron was deep in concentration. He carefully threaded the hard, plastic tube into their chest, then quickly connected them up to the strange looking drainage machine and opened up the clamp. “Tube’s in.”

It was quickly filled with blood. “Now all we gotta suture it in place. You’re nearly done, Phoenix.

“It’s kinda useless to stitch them, since they'll heal up anyway.”

This, at least, they were familiar with. Aaron had stitched them up way more times than was justied for any one person.

Joseph was back to holding their hand now. If they’d made it this far, the punishment would probably come later. “You did great, Phoenix.”

They didn’t believe him, but they weren’t going to argue.

“Just catch up after you heal. We don’t have the time to carry you back. You have to pull your own weight.”

Aaron dosed the wound liberally with another round of anesthetic before he covered it with several layers of gauze and tape.

The blood was practically flowing out of them, out of the tube and into the pump. “We’re gonna get you scanned next,” he said as he tore off his blood flecked gown and gloves. “Hopefully your healing is doing a good job of patching it up.”

Joseph squeezed their shoulder. “We gotcha.”

For a brief moment, Phoenix let themselves entertain the thought that they weren’t going to be killed at all. If Aaron was expecting them to heal, then maybe they’d be okay. But the anxiety settled in there chest again.

Now they had to do was survive what Abbie would dole out to them.

Aaron and Joseph had let them off easy.

Abbie wouldn’t.

Taglist: @/pigeonwhumps @rainydaywhump

[fyodoro]

what if. kanade/rui x reader who is desperately begging them to take a damn break for once

-> 𝐂𝐫𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐇𝐚𝐳𝐞

They can’t help but keep pushing themselves, it’s in their nature. However, maybe this once they’ll take a break…

CW) overworking, mentions of poor eating habits, kanade’s bad habits

With Kanade Yoisaki & Rui Kamishiro

Rui Kamishiro

Rui is always on the move, whether it be performing, directing, education, he is always on the go. From an outside perspective it looks utterly exhausting. But Rui is used to this routine, it’s not exhausting to him at all. Although, it may be too much to take at once sometimes…

He won’t say it out loud, he’s too ashamed to admit it. But right now, Rui is exhausted. He’s been coming up with blueprints for hours on end right after school, only taking a “break” to meet up with his troupe at Phoenix Wonderland, coming back and working himself to the bone again. He’s drained and tired, and still refuses to take time for himself.

But as his partner, you knew what was going on. Even if he never said it, it was painfully obvious to you. The dark circles under his eyes getting darker, moving more sluggishly, always yawning… he needed a break. If he wasn’t gonna take one himself, then you were gonna make him.

The walk home from school was quiet, but not awkward. You were silently observing his face, even while he’s exhausted, he’s still the most beautiful boy you’ve ever seen.

“Is this something the matter, (Name)?”

“No, nothing’s wrong! I’m just a bit worried. You look tired. Actually- you’ve looked exhausted all week, and you’ve been acting different so-“

He cut you off with a soft chuckle, “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing my love, I’m just surprised you noticed. But I’m fine.”

“Rui, you know you aren’t fine. And when we get to your place I’m not letting you sit at your work station. You’re going to relax today.”

Rui knows there’s no point in arguing with you, he always caves in the end because he can’t stand being against you. And besides, he knows he needs to rest as well. And the best way to relax is having you with him.

The moment he opened the door you threw your bag on the floor, flopping onto his bed. Rui followed suit, all the pent up tiredness crashing down on him the second he hit the bed. He felt his eyelids grow heavier and the world go a bit quieter around him, only focusing on your resting figure next to him.

“(Name).. come here, so tired..”

He can barley form a sentence, and you knew you finally got him to rest. You switched into a more comfortable position and laid closer besides him, wrapping his arms around you.

“See? Taking a break isn’t all that bad..”

Kanade Yoisaki

Kanade is known for her unhealthy work habits, or just her habits in general. Never going outside, living off cup noodles, always at her monitor screen. It’s worrying to anybody, especially you.

You’ve tried pulling her away from her screen for a moment so she could relax a bit, but she always goes back not even an hour later. Honami has tried helping on multiple occasions, but Kanade will always be Kanade.

You watched as Kanade played with different tunes and pitches, finding what was best for the new song she was composing. She looked tired and bored, going at this for hours now. You knew at this point she wanted a break, but wouldn’t give herself one.

An idea popped into your mind, surely it would work. You got up out of Kanade’s bed and made your way to the kitchen, telling your girlfriend you would be right back.

“Honami, can you help me make three cup noodles?”

“Of course I can, but why three? One for you and Kanade, but a third?”

“I wanna make her a bigger serving, you know she loves cup noodles, if we make two and put them together, it’d be a treat for her. And.. yeah, third is for me.”

Honami smiled and nodded, giving you a hand in preparing the noodles. She thought it was sweet of you to do something like this for Kanade, considering she barley leaves her room for anything and forgets to eat a lot.

Once the noodles were done you thanked Honami and went back to your girlfriend’s room, preparing yourself to get her off that monitor.

“Kanade, I brought you something.”

She looked up, her eyes lighting up when she saw the noodles in your hand, smiling slightly when she saw how much was in the cup.

“(Name), you didn’t have to..”

“I did. I need you to take a break, Kanade. You’ve barley eaten today and you need some rest. Can you do that, please?”

Usually, she would be stubborn, telling you to leave her noodles on the table and she’ll eat it in a minute. But this time, she actually got up. Taking the cup noodles from your hand and sitting on the floor where her table was, you followed suit.

“There’s so much.. and it’s good. Thank you, (Name)..”

“Anytime Kanade, I do love you after all. Just please, try taking these breaks more often. I’m worried for you.”

She smiled and leaned into your side, you couldn’t tell if she fell asleep or not. But if she did, you didn’t wanna wake her.

[dorizardthewizard]

Galactik Football season 3 rewatch, eps 13-15

Episode 13:

Funny how the Pirates, who have the most motivation to find the contact, are the ones supporting an immediate evacuation whereas Brim Simbra is going for the “no need to panic people” route

Brim Simbra: He's right. Especially since many people will leave Paradisia right after the final anyway. The evacuation has to take place calmly.

Well fuck all the retail workers and support staff on Paradisia then. You guys are at more risk because we'll only announce a proper evacuation once all the visitors are gone <3

Again they missed their chance to have D'jok and Sinedd taunt each other at the start of the match, their roasts used to be hilarious

The way Mei is just watching them with her hands crossed sfdjhds girl, be ready!

Man I complain about Sinedd but D'jok's behaviour is annoying me more

Lol why did they just let the cat walk in, didn't they know about the incident at the start of the season?

Damn they really joker-ified Harris

Brim Simbra this wouldn't be a problem if you'd just ordered an evacuation

Luur came to watch the match in his football kit I guess

Damn, Galactik Football tournament finals can never go on without a disaster huh?

Why does it look like everyone has left the stadium already (that is a FUCK ton of people by the way, SEVERE danger of fatal crowd crushes. Which wouldn't be happening if you pre-emptively evacuated everyone, BRIM SIMBRA) but D'jok, Mei and Sinedd are still taking their time getting off the pitch?

I find it a bit hard to believe that D'jok's so far gone he'll literally just stand there as the stadium falls apart around him. In season 2 it was because he was in shock at least, and anyway this is all kind of a re-hash of the end of season 2 but worse

This is so funny they're just standing there 😭 Unbothered

I do love Sinedd saving D'jok and that his excuse is that he can't fight him if he's dead dsfjkdf it's hilarious

Seeing the flux effect on the 2D animation is so uncanny!

They seemed to be able to switch to using the flux for different purposes pretty quickly, like in football it mostly just gives them more power/speed/agility but they immediately have no problem channeling the Breath outwards and shooting it at stuff

It's a huge moment though, seeing them use the flux outside of football. If there were more seasons it could have been cool to see this as a can of worms opening and a debate around the potential loosening of the rules, with a balance between the benefits flux can bring vs the dangers

Sinedd you dumbass they would have left already, that's how evacuations work. Although I see him being too scared of losing them again to think rationally

TRAIN BRAWL! TRAIN BRAWL! Spider-man 2 eat your heart out

RIP Harvey, a real legend. And flux war veteran!

Of course she's a serpent lady

ooo look you can see the space jump gates! Cool little bit of background lore on how travel works in this universe

Where tf is Sinedd

Ahh Phoenix is going down with the ship, pretty cool moment

DAN DAN DAAAAAN

Episode 14:

Aww Thran and Ahito holding hands 😭😭

MARK JUST... DANGLING MICRO-ICE BY THE LEG?? It's kind of cute he's comforting him in his own way, although Micro-Ice's very valid reaction to all this is still played for laughs lmao

Ok so how sentient ARE the robots in this show? Sidney is obviously very sad about Harvey being gone, and we've seen the Technodroids have normal conversations before. But everyone's reaction whenever Sidney gets sad is just 😬😬😬 awkward LOL. Are robots like second class citizens in this universe? No one believes their emotions are as real as humans? But are they?? So many questions

Artegor coming over to help Aarch with unpacking sdhsdfjj and blaming himself for encouraging them to go to Paradisia 😭 Their hug 😭😭 Going feral over them

Wuh... in the middle of a good natured conversation he just,, throws the trophy? Why? It's so random 😂😂

So did Aarch and Artegor actually resolve their dispute, as dumb as it was? Oh it was just thrown in to have drama for a couple of episodes and now suddenly they're good? Ok sure

Aw Norata seems so much happier now, look at him excitedly showing off rare flowers

So these kids just.... use the flux? And NO ONE has noticed this yet? It's just... they were notified IMMEDIATELY that Rocket had used the flux to save Tia, how is this continuous use going undetected? I guess we already had that question considering Tia already knew how to use the flux in season 1, but with her you could at least make soooome sort of assumption of her being sheltered somehow as a daughter of diplomats. Maybe the flux society only noticed Rocket's flux use so quickly because they always make sure to track GF players really closely, but still if these kids are just chilling using it all the time, on GENESIS, it looks like the flux society are worryingly shit at their job lol

But that's the thing, season 3 introduces SO many crazy new concepts – new tournament, mixed flux teams, players moving to other teams, using flux outside of football, characters moving to different roles to shake up the status quo... so much interesting stuff but the execution just flubs it, especially with the character development.

Damn Tia's got gymnastics skills!

Oh so the last time we saw Sinedd, he was running back into a collapsing stadium to find his parents and we had no idea if he'd made it or not, and now the next time we see him he's just chilling walking with his team? I don't know much about direction in shows like this but I feel like we should have had a scene where he reunites with Mei at least before this??

Actually come to think of it, D'jok ends up on the Snow Kids' ship during the evacuation and we never get to see their reaction to him! Of course at first they all just want to survive and are obviously worried about him, but what about after? Was it awkward? Did they talk? TELL ME

Sinedd is a dick cutting Mei off like that but kind of sweet to see him refer to the Shadows as family

Wait have D'jok and Sonny interacted since Sonny got healed? I feel like we're sorely missing some father and son interactions here, and D'jok has been really needing it! And where's Maya in all this??

Mei is right to question the “parents” with how sketchy they're acting, but it's tough. Sinedd's finally got that part of himself back and there's no way he'll consider the idea of losing it again.

New flux society guy agreeing to move the date of the GFC, ooooor you could try and catch this guy? Useless mfers

Episode 15:

Show really doesn't give us any detail on how someone actually masters another flux. Like how does it work?

Oh Mei's getting sick now from the Smog, but how did Sinedd get over it? He did have symptoms of Smog poisoning in season 2 but I don't remember him ever getting cured like Artegor did? Aarch had to quit the Shadows because it had gone too far, is it actually something you can just overcome? Is it different for everyone? Is it down to overusing it? So many questions!

I like that Mei was just like. NOPE this is hurting me, even if I liked you I ain't staying! As she should.

Ooo Yuki's mastering the Elektras' flux!

Wait so everyone thinks team Paradisia are actually from the planet? Which iirc only became habitable not that long ago? I'm confused on the origins of these girls, how are they cyborgs? Do they have any lives and family outside of the team Lord Phoenix assembled? I mean they're not androids? I feel like since they're closely connected to a main character, they should have gotten some more backstory.

Oh so D'jok left team Paradisia already? Why exactly? He seemed all about winning with them. We don't even get a scene of him leaving them and their reaction??

What?? D'jok's just decided to do coaching all of a sudden? Because of one little encounter with kids playing football?? He was obsessed with winning tournaments like 5 minutes ago how did this change come about??? Like. I can SEE the vision and D'jok becoming a mentor figure is a fun idea but... we need to see the steps of getting there!

That Lightnings girl is so cute though

Mei says she only left temporarily but um... sis that was not the impression we got lol you disappeared abruptly and sent everyone heartfelt farewell messages

English dub goofs up again: D'jok says he'll never go back to the Snow Kids after what THEY did, but then goes on about how HE messed up and they'll never take him back. And again, what made him realise he was behaving poorly? You can't just set up a character's development, then suddenly show them once they've reached a conclusion. Was is the near-death experience? The fact Mei still wanted to help him despite how he'd acted? His loneliness finally catching up to him? I WANT ANSWERS

Mei: Don't you want to play for the cup? D'jok: We've done it, Mei. We've won twice! What's the point?

OK this is super interesting, I'm gonna link @millimononym 's post here about D'jok's potential arc (hope that's ok!) because I think it fits really well with this. For a guy obsessed with destiny, hitting his peak early could really mess with him. You could have such an interesting arc about this and accepting that life goes on and that our lives don't have to be defined by reaching some greater goal or purpose. It's about doing it with your friends and, if the show delved a little bit more in the whole post-flux war climate, it's also about being a symbol of hope for a planet that basically suffered the apocalypse. People joke about how the Snow Kids won three times in a row straight away, instead of doing the anime lose -> train to get better -> win scenario, but you could actually address this and use it to the story's advantage!

Aww Lun-Zia can't do it :( I can't remember what happens but it would be cool if she actually couldn't master the Breath, sometimes no matter how hard you try things just don't go the way you want

Wait so um... is no one questioning how the Paradisia girls still have their flux even though the planet is dead? And what are the girls even doing right now? They have no home and no Lord Phoenix, who took care of everything for them. And where did Nina-8 come from??

The Elektra's support of Yuki is so cute. Also kind of interesting lore that their planet is far from the other planets, and hence its residents find it very hard to connect to the flux, so much so it was assumed they didn't have one. A cool explanation for why the team hasn't shown up yet!

Oh she's been selected by the Wambas!! Of course they would want her on their team after seeing her play at Paradisia. Well that wrapped up nicely! Still, this confirms she was just some rando on the beach. And what was she up to before the tournament anyway? I wish we got to know more about her

Mark immediately has a crush on Nina-8 but somehow not Nikki-4 who looks just like her? XD

I don't mind Yuki staying with the Elektras actually, its the Elektra's first GFC and I can see her wanting to go further with them. And sometimes that's just life! Going on new adventures

[quinloki]

I feel like all these blorbos and thots are rotating around in my head like one of those cd players you can put different cds in

It’s like Oop that cd is done time to switch but it’ll be back around

🫠🫠

Rn I’m thinking of the aftermath of getting yoinked with Marco by teach in a modern au and like

Can the cd change to something fluffy I’m done with this rn

>.>

I may have plans to use that scenario in one of my Marco x Reader stories, so I'm not going to really dive into it here

but yes, oh so yes, because it would not be too dissimilar from all the Marco/Reader/Shanks conversations, but with slightly less power imbalance, and more opportunity for cruelty. Teach isn't going to be sweet like Shanks, and it's a real toss up behind why he took you both.

Is his goal Marco? Is it you? Is there something else in his plans and he needs you both for it to work? Ah but Teach just has such a vibe around him like this man fucks for fun. He doesn't have to like Marco to take him, he just has to know Marco won't enjoy it - knows Marco will actually enjoy it less if Teach makes him feel good.

Probably knows all he has to do is describe what he'd do to you to get the Phoenix to comply.

I mean, Marco's going to slaughter this man with his own two hands the second he gets the chance, no matter what Teach does or doesn't do. It's one thing to have a fight that's between Families, but dragging you in is a breach of the rules. (More so if you and Marco aren't officially anything more than just friends.)

Okay, I've been a little bad ending focused, but man the idea of Marco, spattered in blood, suit or whatever just a wreck (modern AU), standing over Teach's corpse, and there's just this look of frozen shock on Teach's face, because for all the power Marco had Teach never thought he'd unleash it on family - even ex-family. Teach's miscalculation being you, of course.

Marco warned him, and warned him, and Teach laughed it off, and the second Marco had the opportunity, he took it.

Like, if we're talking Mafia AU I just feel like Marco's body count was zero. He's never permanently hurt someone. His moniker of Phoenix isn't just because no one can take him out, it's because all his targets survive - maybe not financially, maybe their gang falls apart, etc. Maybe they even spend some time in the hospital in a coma - but no one had ever even lost so much as a hand.

His family teases him that goose egg of a 0 is a symbol of rebirth bestowed upon him and his enemies. Everyone rises up from Marco's ashes.

but not Teach.