#and the stupid firework looking thing is meant to be my flash

[queerhairycowboy]

decided to do a sketch !!

[my-moony-and-padfoot]

All I want is you

~~ All I want for Christmas is youu ~~

Word count: 2 600

It's fluffy, it's just fluff. That's all there is. Well, a tiny little bit of angst but I mean, it needs to be there alright.

TW: There is some curse words but that about it, and like few mentions about past abuse but you won't even really notice it (two sentences, maybe)

“I want to kiss you on new years.” Sirius whispered, looking at Remus from where his head was laid on the pillows, and Remus had propped himself up on his elbow, looking back at him. He looked a little puzzled, but Sirius just smiled softly, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind Remus' ear, though it only barely stayed there. “At midnight, watching the fireworks.”

“There's going to be people. Everyone who's spending Christmas here.” He said, but Sirius' smile didn't falter like it usually did when he was reminded about all the secrets, denied from doing things he desperately wanted, but couldn't. “People are going to find out.”

“Fuck the people.” He whispered with a grin, though it quickly turned back to the soft, sleepy smile he had been wearing for the past half an hour. “I don't care re. Not anymore. You're my boyfriend, and I want to spend new years with you, kiss you and be with you, and I should be allowed to do that without caring what other people think.” Remus blushed, ducking his head down for a moment, hiding it to Sirius' chest, making both of them laugh, though they tried to be quiet as James and Peter were sleeping.

“Are you sure?” Remus asked, turning serious again as he lifted his head up, looking at Sirius , trying to search his expression for any lie or nervousness, discomfort, unsureness, anything he could. But there was nothing he could detect, his smile looked sleepy, and soft, but confident at the same time. His eyes were clear, and happy looking, nothing was saying that something was wrong, everything seemed okay, so maybe it was.

“Yes. Remus, I'm sure.” He said, Remus smiled now, leaning down to give him a kiss. “Only if you want to, of course. If you're comfortable.”

“Anything you want, I want too.” He whispered, against his lips, pressing them down for another soft kiss before leaning back up, to look at Sirius. But he didn't understand why now, why did he want people to know now, why didn't he mind anymore. For so long he had been scared of his parents finding out, or the school, of something happening if people found out. “But… why now?” He asked after a moment, Sirius looked away momentarily, and he couldn't really tell what the expression meant that flashed on his face.

“It's not-.” He started, but trailed off as he looked back at Remus, the smile coming back once again. “I just don't care anymore. I don't care if people know, or my parents, I want them to. I want to be able to talk about you, to hold hands with you outside of our dorm or the empty common room. I don't want to lie anymore, it doesn't feel right.”

“Okay.” He whispered, nodding slightly. “Why on new years.”

“I wanna see James' face when he sees, or realizes, y'know, putting the pieces together.” He laughed, making Remus laugh quietly as well. “No, well, I do, but-” he said, pausing to lean up to give Remus a kiss. “It's new years, moony. I wanna kiss you at midnight, what's so bad about that?”

“Nothing.”

“Okay.” He whispered with that stupid dopey grin that made Remus' heart flutter, so he just smiled back. “It's Christmas tomorrow.” He said after a while, watching Remus' amber eyes, that looked so bright and soft in the candle lighting, it felt like he could look at them forever, get lost in them.

“Technically, it's Christmas now.” He said, glancing at the clock, it was almost two in the morning now, they should've been sleeping a long time ago.

“Smartass.” Sirius said, shoving him playfully, making him laugh and fall to the pillows next to Sirius, hoping they hadn't woken up their friends, though he didn't really care.

——

They slept in the next morning, though Sirius sneaked back into his bed before James and Peter got up. They had gone to the quidditch pitch to play for fun, he, James and Peter, and some other Gryffindors. They had done that for the past few years, going to play for fun on Christmas. Remus has stayed behind, it would be really cold to just sit in the stands and watch them. He didn't like being on a broom that much to actually play with them.

He glanced at the door when he heard it open, seeing Sirius walk in, and close the door behind himself. Remus focused back on writing, though smiling slightly to himself, he had just finished the sentence as he felt Sirius lean against him from the behind, wrapping his arms around Remus, head on his shoulder. “Watcha doing?”

“Writing a letter to mum.” He said, turning slightly to look at Sirius, giving him a chaste kiss before Sirius leaned back up, rounding the chair and hopping up on the desk. Remus smiled as he took a look at his boyfriend, he seemed to be in a good mood, he was smiling, and there was a small blush coating his cheeks that Remus was sure was from the shower he had just taken. His hair was still wet, and it was soaking the jumper he was wearing at the shoulders. “Have you ever thought about drying your hair?”

Sirius shook his head, as if on purpose getting rid of the water by shaking his head fast, quite like a dog would after a swim or a bath, Remus just smiled, quickly signing the letter and folding it up. “Wait there moons.” He said, getting down, and quickly walking over to his trunk, pulling something out and walking back over, hopping back on the desk. He handed Remus a gift that was wrapped in dark green wrapping paper, with way too much tape, it honestly looked like a child had wrapped it. But Remus liked it, at least he had tried.

“Did you wrap it yourself?” He asked with a small laugh, and Sirius just nodded. “Or did you hire a five-year-old to do it for you.”

Sirius rolled his eyes, though he smiled. “Open it.”

“Okay, okay.” He said, shaking his head, as he started to unwrap the gift, smiling as he saw what was inside. There was a bracelet, laying on top of a book. The bracelet had black and sage green beads on it, with a round charm on it, when he turned it over and looked closer, he saw that a constellation was carved on it. It was Sirius' constellation, he smiled at it.

“You don't actually have to wear it, I know you don't really wear jewelry, but-” he said a little nervously, running a hand through his hair, studying Remus' expression carefully. “But, I just thought you might like it. I found the charm from Hogsmeade one day, without the carving, did it with charms anyway, then I made that. I found the book there too, I hope you like it, or don't like have it yet.” He rambled on as Remus didn't answer, but kept studying the bracelet.

“You made this yourself?” He asked, amused as he looked up at Sirius. He smiled shyly, as he nodded.

“Do you like it?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I do, love it.” He whispered, glancing at the book, reading the cover. “Thank you, baby. And no, I don't have it yet, the book I mean.”

“Oh, good.” He sighed. “Can I put it on you?” He asked, again a little shyly, and Remus nodded, looking at him. Sirius smiled brightly, as Remus handed the bracelet to him before holding out his hand. Sirius opened it, carefully wrapping it around his wrist, closing it, and letting it fall in place.

“I'm never taking it off.” Sirius just grinned, leaning in to give him a kiss. “Close your eyes.” Remus said then. “I have a gift for you too.” He supplied when Sirius looked confused at his request, but then he nodded, closing his eyes, holding out his hands.

He reached for something in the drawer of the desk, placing it in Sirius' outstretched hands. He opened them as he felt weight there, smiling at the teddy bear he was now holding, it was holding a light pink heart, and Remus had slipped a bar of chocolate into its arms.

“Thank you, moons.” He whispered quietly, still looking at the teddy bear. “I love it.”

“I'm glad.” Remus smiled, happy that he hadn't gone utterly wrong with his gift. “I'm gonna take it away if you name it something stupid, though.” Sirius laughed, looking at him.

“It's moony.” He smiled after a moment of thinking, hopping down to go place it on his bed, Remus rolled his eyes, but smiled at him anyway. He tucked the chocolate bar in his pocket, picking up the pouch that held his chess pieces. “C'mon let's go, James wants to play chess, and you have to come see when he loses.” Remus nodded, getting up from the chair and following Sirius down to the common room. “His team lost in quidditch by the way, again. I don't think he should be captain anymore, I think I've proved myself so many Christmases in a row now that-”

“Remus, please don't tell me you actually believe that bullshit.” James asked, cutting Sirius off as they reached the common room, Remus just laughed, shaking his head as he took a seat on one of the sofas next to peter, starting to watch as Sirius and James started to set up a game of chess.

“I'm telling the truth.” Sirius grinned after a while, glancing at Remus as he put his pieces into place. “James is just too afraid to admit that I'd make a better captain than he does” James threw one of his chess pieces at Sirius, who set it on the side of the board, as if he had already won one from James.

——

It was a nice day. Remus liked spending Christmas with his friends, though they didn't even do anything special. He had watched Sirius and James play chess, but ended up reading a book, they had gone down to the great hall for Christmas dinner, then they had sneaked to the kitchens, settling by the fireplace with hot chocolate and marshmallows to roast.

“Can we do something tomorrow?” James asked, shuffling the deck of cards they had picked up to play some games before going to bed.

“Like what?” He asked, taking the cards he was dealt by James. “Don't look, you cheat.” He said, shoving Sirius out of the way when he leaned in to peek at his cards, he just laughed, taking his own cards as well.

“I don't know.” James said, nudging his glasses up as he looked down at his cards. “We could do something Christmassy.”

“Christmassy.”

“Shut up.” He said. “We could make snowballs chase everyone or maybe mistletoes, I don't know, I wanna do something fun.”

“It's not Christmas tomorrow, though, aren't you kinda late on this?” Peter said. “Maybe we do something on new years, let's give them a break.”

Sirius glanced at Remus, both starting to smile like they knew something the two didn't. “What?” James asked.

“Just thought about something funny.” Sirius said. “I'll tell you if you win.”

“Not fair. You always cheat.”

“I don't.”

—

After a few more rounds of games, Peter and James made their way up to bed, they stayed behind on the excuse of wanting to play more, and that they'd gather all their stuff before going to bed. Sirius gathered the cards, twisting the rubber band around that kept the deck together and set it down on the table, then he leaned against Remus' shoulder, looking into the slowly dying fire.

“I’ve never really liked Christmas.” Sirius whispered after a moment of silence. “It was never- fun y'know.”

“I know.” He said, rubbing Sirius' side for a moment, pulling him a little closer by his waist. “But, did you have fun today?”

“I did.”

“That's good, love.” He whispered, smiling slightly to himself as he leaned his head against Sirius'. “I did too.”

“You barely did anything.” Sirius laughed quietly. “You didn't even come to play with us.”

“You know that I don't play quidditch.”

“Well neither does lily, and she still came with us.” he said, turning to look at Remus. “And Frank, and peter and you know he's shit at playing, but he still came.”

“I'm pretty sure Lily came because of James.” he said, making Sirius roll his eyes. “And if Frank was playing, Alice must've been watching, no?”

“Well- yeah but it has nothing to do with you coming to play with us.”

“Have you considered that I can't stay on my broom for the life of me.” He said with a laugh, and Sirius laughed too, his head hitting Remus’ chest. “I'll come next year.” he whispered after a moment, playing with Sirius' hair before he looked back up.

“You said that last year.”

“Mm, maybe. But it was like freezing cold today. I'm not gonna freeze myself just to watch you guys play.”

“You said that last year too.” he said with a grin, and Remus just smiled. “If you'd play with us, you'd be warm.”

“I'm not playing, Sirius.”

“Fine.” he said, rolling his eyes, resting his head back on Remus' shoulder after a moment, it was quiet for a while.

“Should we go to bed?” Remus asked, and

Sirius nodded slightly, getting up from the floor, helping Remus up as well. “Are you going to your bed?”

“Yeah, I don't wanna wake up at seven just to sneak back into my bed.” Remus nodded, gathering their things from the table, watching as Sirius blew out the candle and offered his hand for Remus. He smiled, taking it and following Sirius up to their dorm. “Goodnight.” He whispered, taking both of Remus' hands into his when he had set the things down. “I love you.” He smiled, standing on his tiptoes to give him a kiss.

“Love you too.” He whispered with a soft smile. “Sleep well.” He said, kissing Sirius’ forehead before slipping into his bed, Sirius did the same, both getting under the covers and closing the curtains around their bed, though both let a small crack open, just so they could look at each other.

Remus fell asleep after a moment, feeling really tired even though he hadn't done much. Though he couldn't sleep that long before he was woken up, it was one of the curtains opening from his bed. He slowly opened his eyes, looking up at Sirius, who was standing next to his bed with a sheepish smile.

“What's up, love?” He asked quietly, propping himself up on his elbow before looking back at him.

“Couldn't sleep.” He whispered, playing with his fingers. “Can we cuddle?” Remus just nodded, laying back down and moving, so there would be space on the bed for Sirius as well. He climbed in next to him, closing the curtain before he laid down. He rested his head on Remus' chest, curling up to him, closing his eyes with a content sigh.

“Why couldn't you sleep?” he asked after a moment, starting to play with Sirius' hair.

“Couldn't sleep without you.”

“Okay.” He smiled, kissing his head. “What about tomorrow?”

“Don't care. Wanna be with you.” He mumbled, and Remus nodded again, pulling the blanket better over them both.

“I love you, baby. Sleep well.” He whispered, kissing his head again before laying back down against the pillows, closing his eyes.

“Love you too, moons.”

A/N:

Hi, hello :) Merry Christmas (if you celebrate)

I hope you're well, and that you liked this little Christmas fluff thingy.

I had so many Christmas things planned and under writing but then I just didn't write them, so have this. The other ones were a lot more angsty so I thought I'd be nice for Christmas and not write what I usually do. Hopefully you liked it anyway.

I've posted a fic three times this month?? That's so weird, I don't know what's gotten into me. Anyway this is probably the last fic of this year, so see you next year maybe?

Also,

Happy new years

Side note: I'm like hundred percent sure Sirius would be horrible at wrapping gifts, and you can't convince me otherwise.

Oh, also. If anything seemed, unhinged, it's because this is the product of me writing right before I fall asleep, or really early in the morning. So you're welcome I guess.

<3

[nomoreusername]

Resolutions

Pairing:Brenda x Teresa

Summary:Brenda and Teresa end up sitting outside in New Year's, talking about what they're supposed to do.

Both girls were sat outside the balcony, staring at the ground below them as they tuned out the party behind them, music blaring, fireworks being set off outfront, friends talking about their New Year's kisses, and more. The world was just them and their red solo cups, Teresa’s halfway filled with punch and Brenda’s almost out of Coke.

“So new year new you?”Brenda sighed.

“Maybe. Possibly,”She sighed, her eyes flickering over to the girl before fixating on the ground again, her hand trailing around the edge of the drink to give her something to do.

“Hopefully?”She questioned, moving a still short piece of hair out of her eyes.

“That depends on how it would go. If I followed through on my resolution,”She admitted.

“What resolution makes you that nervous?”

“Coming out to my family.”

Her face almost paled as she put the cup to her lips, sipping in hopes it would fill the queasiness in her stomach.

“Teresa,”She whispered, her voice full of sympathy.

“My mother already thinks about the things she wants to do with her grandkids. I don't know how to tell her that chance isn't very likely or just isn't the same as what she thought. I don't know how to tell either of them that I’m not what they expected. That life plans they had for me could be thrown off track by this. I just don't want them to look at me and think I’m someone else. Because I’m not. I’m still Teresa. I’m just a Teresa who likes girls.”

She hadn't said anything aloud about her fears yet. She hadn't even written them down. She just sat with them, hoping for the best.

“Of course you’re still the same incredible Teresa. It’d be stupid to think otherwise,”She promised, placing a hand on her shoulder. Placing her hand over it, she loosely wrapped her fingers around her wrist as she looked over at the girl.

“So any resolution for you?”She asked simply.

“I want to tell this girl I like how I feel. I’m just not sure how it would go.”

“You mean you don't know if she swings that way or?”

“She does. I just don't know if she swings for me. The signals from her are just confusing sometimes, and I don't want to mess up our relationship. I want it to be something more.”

“If she does, I’m sure she feels the same. You're pretty cool,”She assured her.

“Well, Jorge said the same thing. He’s basically my dad and you're my best friend though so neither of you actually count.”

“Your best friend and dad know you better than anyone so you should maybe believe us?”

“Yeah. Maybe,”She sighed, lightly drumming her fingers against her cup, looking up at the sky as more bright colors flashes off.

“You could see if you could find her here. Kiss her at midnight?”

“That would definitely be something.”

As they both went silent, Teresa checked her watch. Half an hour until the new year. Half an hour until they should think about whether or not they actually meant their resolutions.

To a new year, where Teresa would come out to her family.

To a new year, where Brenda would tell Teresa she's in love with her.

To a new year.

[c0zmo-writes]

Notes for chapter 4 of Flock Together.

Chapter 4- This is not enough, this is not enough to prove it yet, no I need to hit the bottom

@crawlingcarcass @raineisinkless @katslitterbox @possum-quesadilla

Chapter title is from “Hand Me My Shovel, I’m Going In!” by Will Wood and the Tapeworms.

“Well, I am worried. There was nothing else around us that could’ve looked like that. My flash was off, so it couldn’t have been something caused by the light,”

This was inspired by a photo I took in The Conjuring House. The first photo had nothing out of the ordinary, the second one taken right after the first had a human-like silhouette.

“I wanted to go back to you, but it was like somethin’ was tryin’ to keep me movin’ forward.”

Hey guys. Remember in chapter 3 when Lydia saw some mushrooms that reminded her of fly agaric. The same mushrooms that attract and kill flies. Those ones.

“I dunno, I just got this really strange feelin’. It was kinda… familiar? In a way? Like somethin’ I’ve felt before.”

I wonder what that could be :)

“I think you’re pickin’ stuff up from your therapist,” Beetlejuice chuckled.

“That’s the point of therapy, isn’t it?”

Shilo is finally in therapy! She needs it. Her therapist, Wendy, is very aware of Beetlejuice’s existence and the fact that he’s a real harpy. She thinks it’s rad.

“it was like somethin’ was callin’ to me, callin’ to my soul, almost. God, that sounds really stupid when I say it out loud, but I dunno how else to say it.”

Live footage of me trying to sound poetic.

“So, now that that’s over with,” Beetlejuice said, his ears twitching, “the birds sound pretty damn hungry.”

He can hear the birds gathering around outside.

“Shilo whistled as she tossed birdseed on the lawn to attract the attention of the crows. Every day, she whistled the same tune and sprinkled the same food in the same spot. After months of doing this, the crows recognized that the song meant feeding time, and Shilo beamed as they flocked to her like she was some morbid Disney princess.”

She started doing this in chapter 10 of Birds of a Feather, and now she’s befriended her local corvids! They leave her trinkets sometimes. Makes Beetlejuice just a wee bit jealous.

“Fireworks?”

“Yeah, you know, the colorful explosions? They happen every year.”

“That’s what those were!? For years, I thought Juno was fuckin’ attackin’ me! I hate those things.”

Once he made it to America, the poor guy had to deal with the sounds of rockets exploding every single year. He always kept his distance from busy places, but he couldn’t hide from the noises.

“However, any foraging sites gave no information and WebMD just said Beetlejuice was either stressed or dying of every ailment known to man (and then some).”

Sorry girl, your monster boyfriend had a brain aneurysm /j

“She also found that it was located in the middle of the fairy ring of doom.”

What an interesting detail.

[simpforfandoms]

Fireworks

word count: 2.9k

Chapter 2 in my series. As always, I enjoy any constructive criticism or comments. So please do tell me! Hope you enjoy it!

masterlist

series masterlist

Washington, D.C. July 5th 00:01 EDT

Well, here you were. Stuck in a tube of all places. It all started when you and the boys found a project, Cadmus. Is that what it’s called? You couldn’t remember. Turns out the project was superman’s clone. For some reason, the boys thought it would be a good idea to release the so-called clone. Now you were all for it at first. Robin sure knows how to make a girl agree. But honestly? You should’ve been against it. You’ve seen enough sci-fi movies to know the clone is always evil. But at last, you were blinded by the charm of Robin. Of course, the clone went berserk. Just your luck! Betrayed by your sister and now a stupid clone was trying to kill you. Fantastic! Note the sarcasm. Back to the problem at hand, you were stuck in a tube. 

Kid Flash is the first to talk, “W-What do you want?”

“Isn’t it obvious, we’re going to be cloned,” You remark. 

Sometimes KF needs to use his brain.

KF just ignores your remark and keeps going, “Quit your starring your creeping me out!”

He needs to learn when to shut up.

“Umm, KF, how about we not tick off the guy who can fry us with a look,” Robin replies reasonably. 

The boys start talking to the super clone. Probably to distract him from Robin escaping. 

“He can talk!?!” Kid Flash shouts. 

No shit sherlock. You swear Kid Flash is the slowest person you have ever meant. No pun intended.

“Yes, he can” The clone retorts. 

“Careful now you’ll upset him,” you say rolling your eyes.

No one acknowledged your words. Weird.

“It’s not like I said “it” 

“Might’ve well had,” You say.

Again no one acknowledges you. Aqualad and Robin continue to talk with the strange boy. While you’re trying to see if they can hear you. Your thoughts are cut off by Robin laughing.

“Guys Kid Canary is muted! This is the best thing I’ve seen all day!”

The boys all turn to look at you yelling at the robin, but seemingly no sound comes out. Or at least that they can hear. They all laugh at you, even the clone smiles. 

“God, I hate you guys!” You yell one last time. 

“Anyways, as I was saying we could introduce you to superman,” Aqualad states.

“No they can’t, they’ll be other wised occupied,” A voice interrupts.

 Following the voice is a creepy middle-aged man. Great.

“Activate the cloning process.”

“HA! Knew it!” you yell in victory, though no one can hear you.

“Pass, Batcave is crowded enough” Robin states.

You laugh at that, Robin notices and smiles at you.

“And get the weapon back in its pod!”

 A man in a yellow helmet goes towards the clone.

“Hey, how come he gets to call supey an it?” KF exclaims.

You swear he’ll be the reason we all die.

Kaldur looks at the clone and says “help us”

The clones shove off the yellow helmet guy. The creepy middle-aged man doesn’t seem to pleased about that. The middle-aged dude goes on a rant about the clone being a weapon. 

“That’s harsh,” you say though no one can hear you. You ponder why you’re in a soundproof tube. It’s not like you have a sonic scream. It’s pointless.

As the clone walks out, machine-like claws attach to you and the boys. The claws start to electrocute you and the boys. It hurts. But it’s not the worse pain you’ve ever had. 

While you were caught up in your thoughts the clown returns by breaking the door open. The claws stop the electrocution. Relief floods your face.

“You here to help us or fry us?” Kid Flash asks.

“MY GOD KID FLASH SHUT UP FOR ONCE” You yell at him. 

Surprisingly he acknowledges your scream and sticks his tongue out at you. The clone breaking in must’ve ruined the soundproof system.

Robin interrupting your thoughts says, “And she’s back, I did not miss that voice”

“Shut up, you can’t get enough of me” you reply nonchalantly.

“What? I-“Robin's cheeks flood red. It’s obvious he’s trying to fight the urge to blush.

“Not to interrupt your flirting but WE’RE STILL STUCK IN LAB TUBES!” KF exclaims.

“Oh right,” Robin then quickly undoes his lock and falls out of his tube.

“I’m glad batman isn’t here, he would’ve had my head for taking so long”

“Seriously? The whole league will have our heads after tonight!” Kid Flash responds.

Robin presses a button and lets the rest of you guys out.

“Ugh I really don’t want to think about the league right now,” you say

“Let’s get out of here” Robin says

“I’ll have you back in pods by morning,” The middle-aged man says

“That dude is not whelmed, not whelmed at all” Robin says as you and the boys run out.

—————

After some running and fighting your back to the elevator entrance.

“Oh no not this again,” you say

“C’mon we don’t have time,” Robin says grabbing onto you and kid flash grabbing onto you.

“Oh my god oh my god oh my god, I’m gonna die” you whisper into Robin’s chest.

“Oh calm down Kid Canary you’re fine, look we’re safe on an edge,” Kid Flash says. 

“Superman can fly? Why can’t I” The clone says

“I don’t know but you can still jump buildings in a single bound. Still cool.” Kid flash replies.

By now you’re holding onto Robin for dear life trying not to fall off the edge.

“I swear to god if we don’t get out of this elevator soon-“

“I’ve never meant a sidekick who’s afraid of heights” Robin chuckles

“I’m not afraid of heights I’m afraid of falling” you respond

“I figured that, as you are literally giving me bruise by holding on to me” 

You mumble a quiet ‘shut up’

Just then an elevator comes down.

Robin states “Guys this will have to be our exist”.

Aqualad and the clone kick down the door. Man, you need a better name for him. Robin grabs ahold of your waist and takes you to the entrance. As you land on the floor you shrug Robin off a brush yourself off. Robin notices this and lets out a snort.

“Cuties aren’t real Canary”

You roll your eyes. More creatures come and you and the boys start running. 

“Go left! Left!” The clone says

“Right.”

You don’t know why you listen and follow him. You follow him to a dead end.

“You’re crazy. supey you trying to get us repodded” KF says

Supey begins to apologize but robin stops him. 

“Don’t apologize this is perfect.”

You guys go into the vents and the creatures follow you. You get out of the vents quickly. The creatures get stuck in the vents. Robin pulls out his wristwatch.

“I hacked the motion sensors” Robin states with a smirk.

“Sweet. now I can finally move around” Kid Flash says as he takes off to sub-level.

You and the boys follow him. KF knocks out the creatures in your way. Supey breaks the stairs behind you to prevent the creatures from following you guys.

As you guys make it to the floor a door closes preventing you to make it to the street. Kid Flash runs into it. Supey and Aqualad try to open it. Robin tries to hack it open, but more creatures are coming.

Robin kicks open a door, “This way”.

You and the rest of the sidekicks follow him. You’re cut off by more creatures. Surrounded really. 

“Crap” you mutter

You all get out your weapons ready to fight but the genomorphs don’t fight you. 

“Go I’ll handle him” Guardian, you learned, says

“I think not, project blockbuster will restore Cadmus” The middle-aged man appears and drinks a serum. Project blockbuster you presume.

The man transforms into a monster. Superboy takes on the monster and throws him into the ceiling.

“That’s one way to bust through the ceiling,” Robin says as he takes out his grabbing hook. He grabs ahold of you and takes off.

“Do you think he planned that?” KF asks

“I doubt he’s planning anything anymore,” Kaldur says.

When you all make it up superboy gets thrown into you. At once you all start fighting the monster. Aqualad and Superboy punch the monster and Kid Flash trips it. When the monsters is down you and Robin attack it with ninja stars. The monster gets up and attacks Supey, punching him into a beam. Aqualad pulls his arm back with his water. Now the monster attacks Aqualad. Kid flash tries to help but gets thrown down. Aqualad is punched thrown multiple beams. This gives Robin an idea.

“Of course! KF get over here”

Robin explains the plan to you and KF.

You help implant bombs into the beams while KF distracts the monster. Aqualad and Superboy punch beams down. KF gets the monster to the middle.

“Move!“ 

The beams explode causing the building to collapse. Superboy and Aqualad cover you, Robin, and Kidflash. Superboy lifts the ruble up. 

“We did it” Aqualad says, panting

“Was there ever any doubt?” Robin says

You, Robin, and KF all high-fived each other. Instant regrets flash once you realize how hurt you are.

“See the moon” KF says to Superboy.

“It’s beautiful isn’t it?” You said smiling

“Yeah,” Superboy says in awe

Just then Superman appears. Oh shit.

“And superman. Do we keep our promises or what?”

The whole Justice League appears. That includes your sister. You can’t even look at her.

Superboy shows Superman his symbol. Superman seems displeased.

Batman starts, “Is that what I think it is?”

“He doesn’t like being called an it” KF states

He really has no filter

“I’m Superman’s clone.”

The justice league seems shocked by that.

“Start talking.”

————-

After explaining what happened, well mostly Robin explained. You just stood there feeling your sister’s look of disapproval. The justice league started to talk amongst themselves.

“What do you think they’re saying,” KF asks

“They’re probably talking about how annoying you are” You respond

“C’mon babe you know you love me,” KF says leaning to give you a side hug before he could you moved away, causing him to fall to the ground.

Robin just glared at him. Before Robin could say anything Batman did.

“Cadmus will be investigated. All 52 levels. But let’s make one thing clear-“

“You should’ve called” Flash interrupts

 “End results aside, we are not happy. You hacked the Justice League systems, disobeyed direct orders, and endangered lives. You will not be doing this again.” Batman finishes.

“I am sorry but we will.” Aqualad states.

“Aqualad, stand down”

“Apologies, my king, but no. We did good work here tonight. The work you trained us to do. Together on our own, we forged something powerful, important.” Aqualad finishes.

“If this is about your treatment at the hall, the four of you-“ Flash says

“The five of us and it’s not” Kid Flash says sternly

“How do you expect us to trust you after what you just pulled?” Your sister asks

“We don’t. We want you to have faith in us. Faith in what you taught us.” You say

“Batman, we’re ready to us what you taught us, or why teach us at all” Robin says

“Why let them tell us what to do. It’s simple. Get on board or get out of the way” Superboy says.

It takes a moment for them to respond until Batman lets out a disgruntled ‘fine’. 

Before you all walk away to your respected hero Robin hands you all a commutator thing

“Here to keep in touch,” He says then walks to Batman 

————

Gotham City, July 5th, 1:34 am

On the way back to Gotham you and your sister sit in complete silence. Until your sister says “We agreed that you and your friends can have a team. By doing this we have put our faith in you. Do not let us down”

“I think you don’t trust me,” you say

“I do. I’m just trying to protect you. Ever since mom and dad died-“

“Protect me from what?!?! I can protect myself and you have to understand that!” You respond angrily 

“You can’t! That’s the thing. You don’t have the canary cry. I can do my best to train you in hand-to-hand combat but that’s not enough.” Your sister says frustrated.

“Batman and Robin do just fine without superpowers,” you say as you and Dinah pull into the driveway.

“Well, you aren’t Robin! Robin is intelligent and skilled-“

“Are you saying I’m not?!?” You interrupt her

“Y/n that’s not what I meant!” She says as you walk away.

—————

messages you dick

Dick

I can’t believe my sister

What she do this time?

She said I wasn’t intelligent 

Well you are intelligent, if I wasn’t at the top of the class you would be

EXACTLY

I mean I get her frustration because I did disobey her today but come on

Oooooo you disobeyed her

Shut up

What did you do?

I snuck out and hanged out with people I wasn’t supposed to

You snuck out?

Y/n the goodie two shoes snuck out?

I don’t believe it

Ik it was unlike me

Then why did you do it?

It was for the greater good

Ok superman

Enough about me how was your die?

Well I almost died

WHAT

I’m kidding!

it was kinda boring

I doubt that, your life is always interesting

Well if you must know, I’m currently grounded for arguing with Bruce

Then how are you texting me?

A man has his ways 😉

I’m just gonna assume you have a spare phone

Do you always have to ruin the fun?

yes.

I have to go to sleep now it’s pretty late and I’m exhausted 

Ok

Goodnight

—————

You set your phone down and look at the time

2:35 am

You didn’t realize it was that late. You hear a knock on your door.

“Come in!”

Your sister sits down on your bed and sighs

“Look Y/n I’m sorry. I was just so frustrated and worried about you. I said some things I didn’t mean. You are intelligent and skilled. And so much more than that. I guess it’s hard to acknowledge that you’re growing up. I have faith in you. But I don’t think you should join that team.”

“What? You literally are contradicting yourself.”

“I don’t think you’re ready. Robin has trained since he was 3. The boys have way more years of experience than you. You’ve only been doing this 2 years while they have done it 5.”

“But I’ll get experience by joining the team!”

“Y/n I am your guardian and what I say goes. You are not joining the team” She says as she gets up from your bed

“I hate you!” You yell as she shuts the door.

Your sister is such a jerk

———————

That morning you wake to a million ‘texts’ on the communicator

5:15 am

Kid Flash

IM SO EXICTED FOR TODAY WE GET OUR OWN BASE AND TEAM

Robin

Why are up so early it’s 5 am

Kid Flash 

Why are you?

Robin

Good point

12:34 pm

Aqualad

I believe it is almost time to head to our new base

Kid Flash

YOURE RIGHT

Robin

Calm down it’s the old Justice League headquarters 

Superboy

Yeah I stayed here last night not that special

Kid Flash

YOU CAN TEXT

Superboy

Black Canary taught me how

She also taught me how to put it on silent mode

1:25

Kid Flash

ROBIN YOU WERE SO WRONG THAT PLACE WAS AMAZING

So was that hot chick

Robin

I added her to the chat you dumbo

Miss M

HIIII

Kid Flash

HELLO

Robin

Hi

Aqualad

Hi

SuperBoy

Hi

Robin

@kidcanary why weren’t you there but Black Canary was?

Kid Flash

I was wondering that too but didn’t want to say anything 

———-

How do you respond to that?  “Oh black canary doesn’t want me on the team because I’m inexperienced but she’ll let an complete newbie on there. I didn’t even know she went, she didn’t even tell me.”

Yeah

No. 

So you respond with “I’m not joining the team”

———-

Kid Canary

I’m not joining the team 

Kid Flash 

Please tell me you’re joking

Kid Canary

I’m not.

Robin

Why?

Kid Flash

NOO I NEED MY TWIN WITH ME 😭😭😭

Kid Canary

Black Canary said I’m inexperienced

——-

There it was. Saying that made it a reality. You could feel the hot tears roll down your cheeks.

Knock

“Can I come in?” Dinah said 

“No.”

She opened the door anyway. Once she saw your tears she instantly felt regret.

“Batman called. It took a while but he convinced me I should let you join. But promise me you’ll be safe.” 

You squealed in excitement and hugged her

“I will! Thank you, thank you!”  you yell

“Don’t thank me, thank Robin”

———

Wayne Manor, Gotham City, 1:30 pm

“I convinced Black Canary to let her join the team. But this is the last time I do any favors for you. You’re supposed to be grounded.” Bruce Wayne, or Batman, says to Dick Grayson.

“I know I know but this was important” Dick replies.

“Dick you have to separate romance and work,” Bruce says

“What? What do you mean? I don’t like her! I never said that! Where did you get that from! Whatever Wally told you it’s not true! He’s not trustworthy!” 

“Master Dick, might I remind you, Master Bruce is the world’s greatest detective,” Alfred states as he gives Dick a pat on the back.

“I don’t like her” Dick mumbles as he walks back to his room.

"He's growing up Alfred," Bruce says.

"Well, what do you expect, the boy is nearly 15,".

[kwonhoshi0]

𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐲 | h.c

navigation | requests : open | 5th february 2021

pairing : midoriya, bakugou, todoroki x gn!reader [separate]

genre : angst to fluff

warnings : season 3 spoilers, violence, eating, drinks

themes : heartbreak, idiocy, violence

: since the training camp you had been a target for the league of villains you fought hard to get your classmate back and that made you an instant target since you showed how powerful you can be but that also means no one can know about your relationship with [ - ], if they did that would be mean he’s also a target and the thought of that terrified you, so it’s for the best.. right.

> quirk : telekinesis | eleven stranger things |

[ midoriya ]

> it was no secret that you’re powerful

> deku trained with you a lot so he knew what you were capable of

> he was the one who truly let you embrace your quirk praising you

> he always told you he’s proud of you afterwards

> so when you told him you couldn’t be with him anymore he was devastated

-> scenario

> you had been thinking about the threat of the lov and how much they wanted to get rid of you, it’s a matter of time before people catch you going to cafes and on dates with the green haired boy, since you were getting more publicity each time a villain attacked it was difficult sneaking around

> breaking up with deku never once crossed your mind, only for his safety, he was already a target but they don’t know he’s all mights successor so you’re still a lot more targeted but if the lov found out you’re dating? you could only imagine the worst

> you knocked on his door, he opened it with a smile on his face as usual ‘hey baby’ he pulled you into a hug, noticing you trying not to hug him back he looked at your face ‘hey is something wrong?’

> you were trying so hard to keep a straight face, to make this hurt as much as possible so he wouldn’t come back, you knew if he tried to get you back you wouldn’t be able to resist

> ‘izuku..’ you paused breathing in, ‘we can’t be together anymore’ he looked at you for a couple seconds before breaking out in a laugh, ‘ very funny, don’t say things like that!, we need to finish that series we were watching..wait-’

> your face hadn’t changed, the only different being the small beads forming under your eyes, ‘you’re being serious?’ he said with a shaky voice, his eyes were slightly shiny tears threatening to form, his entire face fell

> ‘i’m sorry’ was all you said before you attempted to leave only being stopped by his hand ‘midoriya let go-’

> ‘not until you tell me why, y/n we’re so happy, you were happy yesterday and now you’re saying you don’t want this anymore? what happened, you told me you loved me, was that a lie’

> you tried so so hard not to sob yelling how much you love him right there but you already started crying

> ‘y-you’re crying, why would you be crying if you don’t care about me, if you didn’t care you would’ve left minutes ago so why’

> ‘izuku i couldn’t keep putting you in fucking danger it’s driving me insane, we can’t go out to eat without worrying someone will recognise us and hunt you down, i need you to be safe and this is the only way’ you pulled your arm away from him wiping away the tears on your cheeks

> he pulled you back towards him his nose touching yours, you didn’t push him away, he took his thumb swiping it across your cheek wiping it of the fresh tears

> ‘then we’ll deal with it together, not apart’

[ bakugou ]

> he knew how you felt because everytime aizawa mentioned being targeted he couldn’t help but notice you not looking at him or glancing at him as much

> you comforted him after each nightmare or any doubts he had after he got kidnapped

> whispering to him while he layed in your arms ‘bakugou you are the strongest person i know, you can’t blame yourself for anything, nobody blames you, they never have’

> you were his comfort, his teddybear

-> scenario

> the last few days you had been distant from him which didn’t make him worry much since you’re both busy sometimes and you both understood that

> but when you refused to look at him and gave him short answers after class he got worried

> ‘y/n, what the fuck is happening’ you couldn’t look him in the eyes

> you put on your best straight face and said ‘bakugou we can’t be together’

> there was silence for a couple seconds

> ‘teddy bear..’

> it hurt, it hurt so bad seeing him upset over you, you couldn’t even comfort him, so you left

> you sat with the dekusquad afraid of running into him and sobbing

> after you left he stood there for a couple seconds, he wiped away a couple tears forming as all the memories of you flashed through his head in a second, he held the necklace you got together, a promise necklace

> he sat at his normal table not talking to anyone only glancing at you, you weren’t talking to anyone either, not even touching the food in front of you

> after a couple minutes you got up and grabbed your bag after the many protests from todoroki and midoriya telling you to eat

> mina saw you getting up ‘hey bakugou is y/n okay?’ he only ignored her watching as you hurried off to what seemed to be the girls bathrooms, mina followed after you. he couldn’t lie and say he wasn’t worried

> ‘y/n?.. wait are you okay, come out of the toilets’ she watched as you slowly came out with puffy under eyes and teary eyes ‘oh my god y/n what happened’, you explained everything, how you broke up with him because of how dangerous it was being with him, how he would be safer without you

> ‘y/n i’ve never seen bakugou happier then when he’s with you, if things are meant to be with you two then things will work out, i promise’

> you both walked back to class only to see him and a couple students already there, you weren’t planning on going back to lesson saying you’re injured but you knew aizawa would’ve sent you to recovery girl only for there be nothing to recover from

> you sat in your seat trying your hardest not to cry or move or even glance at him

> he watched you every couple seconds, eyes softening when he noticed a tear drop from your eyes watching as you quickly wiped them away sitting up straight

> he knew you love him but he doesn’t know why you left him

> a couple days past and he couldn’t help but notice how puffy your eyes looked

> he missed you, a lot and his nightmares had increased in the last 3 days

> you did everything to avoid him

> but finally you had to talk to eachother because aizawa paired you up, you asked aizawa if you could swap ‘y/n you and bakugou are great training partners, plus he doesn’t hurt you enough to send you to recovery girl like he does others’

> you sighed walking to your designated training area

> you didn’t want to hurt him more than you have emotionally this past week so you barely tried

> ‘you’re not trying’ he states, you looked up at him regretting it instantly seeing his eyebags and crimson eyes, not twinkling as they usually do

> ‘sorry’ you said quickly getting ready to dodge again

> ‘for what’... ‘huh?’.. ‘what are you sorry for’ he said searching your eyes for an answer

> ‘everything’.. ‘y/n that’s not a fucking answer’ frustrated he walked over to you pulling out a necklace that hid under his shirt

> ‘we got these as a fucking promise, a promise we would always be here, are you even wearing yours’ his hand reached over to your neck, his eyes lit up for a second when he realised you were still wearing it

> ‘i know you still love me, so why the fuck-’

> ‘bakugou you’re in constant fucking danger because of me, we can’t do anything together without having to worry, i want you to find someone that you can be in a normal relationship with, not someone who can’t even go outside with you without fearing the worst’ you let a couple tears slip out wiping them away as fast a they came

> ‘don’t be fucking stupid come here’ he pulled you towards him engulfing you in his scent which you missed greatly, ‘dumbass, we make these fuckin decisions together, which means you have to deal with me, we aren’t breaking up over some stupid villains alright’

> you held him tighter than you have before

> he made sure that for now you order take out rather than going out to eat and when you do go outside you made sure to wear masks and go with some of your classmates

> he does all of this because he loves you that much and he cares that much

[ todoroki ]

> you pined over eachother for months before todoroki had the courage to talk to you

> the conversations always flowed really well and there was no awkward pauses thinking of what to say

> you fit with eachother like a puzzle piece

> since you’re the first person he’s felt this way about you had to, show him affection and how it w o r k s?

> like when you hug him he doesn’t understand why people like hugging until you do it, he feels warm and safe in your arms and he now understands why he sees people hugging a lot

> when you first kissed it was like sparks and fireworks were going off around you, you didn’t plan on kissing him then but you had just hugged him so he was close and you looked up at him as he looked down at you smiling a little, with that you closed the space between you pressing your lips to his

> your relationship since then has been a comfortable and safe relationship for you both, that was until the training camp incident when you realised how much danger you were really putting todoroki in

> aizawa was talking to you in the staff room about the safety precautions you had to take and how you have to be careful with your relationship with todoroki

> a part of you was hoping he’d say you have to break up for safety reasons but he knows you don’t want that, even if it was for the best

> todoroki is going to be an amazing hero who will save thousands of lives and you could be the undoing of that future

> so you had to do it

-> scenario

> ‘hey love, what are we doing outside’ you were stood outside the dorms, you wanted to tell him here just so no one would interrupt

> ‘i uhm..’ this is a lot harder than you thought

> you looked at your feet refusing to look into his eyes knowing you’d breakdown

> ‘todoroki i can’t do this.. anymore’ 

> ‘can’t do what?’ when you didn’t look at him again he realised

> ‘what.. what happened baby we were normal yesterday did i do something wrong?’ you ignored him shifting your feet a little

> ‘do you not love me anymore’ it broke your heart that he thought that, you’re doing this because you love him not because you don’t .. but you had to say this to get him away

> ‘i..no i don’t’

> refusing to look at his face you ran back in tears falling down your cheeks as you ignored your friends asking if you’re okay and shut yourself in your room

> no more laying on his chest while you talk about random things at 3am, no more feeding him soba and no more holding hands running in the rain

> it was all too good to be true and now it’s over

> the next couple weeks you wanted to see him, check how he was doing but you couldn’t so you stuck to quick glances, sometimes you met his eyes in the process cursing at yourself

> your friends noticed you were off, ochako midoriya and iida asked why you weren’t hanging out with them

> you didn’t want to cause todoroki more pain so you hung out with the bakusquad so todoroki could stick with his friends without it being awkward

> you’re already friends with some of the bakusquad but you just didn’t hang out with them as much

> ‘y/n why do you look so.. lifeless’ denki asked you, you would usually be happy to talk to people and be playful but recently you had just stared at your food and soba only to be reminded of him

> ‘i don’t know’ you lied, your friends were worried about you

> todoroki was good at hiding things, he was a lot happier with you smiling while with you and around you but now he doesn’t have you

> a part of you thought he was over it already but you knew that was just you overthinking it

> ‘you know what, we should have a class movie night !, mopey you’re coming’ you looked at mina for a second before realising you’re who she’s talking to

> ‘mopey’ you raised a brow, ‘yeah you haven’t been yourself lately we want the old y/n back!! ..you haven’t even gamed with us’ kirishima spoke up making you smile sadly

> and then you realised todoroki probably won’t be at the movie night since he only went because of you ‘okay, ill go’

> that night you sat inbetween denki and bakugou scrolling through your phone while the dekubakusquad picked a movie

> ‘hey dumbass, why’d you look so fuckin dead’

> ‘not sure’.... ‘that’s bullshit’ he responded staring at his own phone

> ‘mhm’ was all you could say before the movie started

> as you looked up you realised todoroki was sitting in front of you

> how were you going to get through this..

> the movie begun and you quickly realised it was one of your favourite movies, it was the movie that you and todoroki had your first kiss watching

> clearing your head of these thoughts you carried on watching

> half an hour later it got to the part where the guy finally kisses his crush and you felt tears in your eyes, holding them back as you remembered todoroki kissing you during this scene

> you felt someone move from in front of you, your eyes widening as todoroki took your arm pulling you up close to him

> ‘what are you-’

> ‘y/n i chose this movie because i wanted to be able to do this again’ he cupped your cheeks smashing his lips to yours, you couldn’t pull away this is all you wanted and missed

> as you both pulled away he said ‘i know you don’t love me but i want to help you learn to love me again and i prom-’ you cut him off as you felt guilt bubble up inside of you remembering what you said

> ‘i lied.. i said that i didn’t love you because i needed you to leave, i broke up with you because of the target, i can’t have someone finding out about us and using you and hurting you as a way to get to me i would be taking away your chance at becoming a great hero, i can’t do that it’s selfish’

> he looked at you as the sides of his lips curled up in a small smile

> ‘a part of me should be mad at you for breaking up with me because of hero stuff but i understand, i’m relieved you love me, i love you and you love me that’s why we’re going to be careful and make this work’

A/N :

pain only pain, why do i do this

taglist : @blazedbakugou @todoroki-shoto-is-life @luluwiie

[bloodorangesoup]

Happy Twenty | S.R.

Summary: At the age of sixteen you and Steve made a pact that, if you were still both virgins by the age of twenty, you’d be each other’s firsts, just to get it out of the way.

Pairing: 30sPreSerum!Steve x Reader

Word Count: 8.2k I’m sorry

Warnings: NSFW 18+ | childhood friends to lovers | a lot of lead up | protected sex (obviously) | slight overstimulation | corruption kink if you squint, spin in a circle, and chant my name 3 times | innocent steve | a lot more fluff than I originally intended

Notes: Before this I had no idea condoms were a thing in the 30s. This is my first Steve one-shot and I don’t know how much I like it because it’s kinda all over the place but it is a thing. It’s also the longest one-shot I’ve ever written so bear with me. Please let me know how I did and any other Steve stuff you’d like to read! Happy reading!

The first fireworks were lit as the clock struck twelve, patriots all throughout Brooklyn not being able to wait even a second longer to celebrate the country they loved so much. The three of you had decided once again to watch the first fireworks of the Fourth from Steve’s rooftop. It was a half Independence Day celebration, half friendship tradition to kick off both of your birthday’s together.

Bucky was sitting up on your right, elbows resting on his knees. Steve laid on your left, his hands folded and resting on his stomach. You laid in between them, your arms stretched above your head. A smile graced your face as you watched the fireballs shoot up in the air and burst into color.

“Happy birthday, kiddos,” Bucky said, a cheesy grin plastered on his face.

“You’re not much older than us, punk, you’re only seventeen,” Steve scoffed back. Your smile grew, watching your two favorite boys. You dropped your left arm down to wrap around Steve’s shoulders and bring him closer to you.

“Hey,” you said facing Steve, “you’re supposed to be nice to senior citizens,” you nodded towards Bucky.

“Ah, shut up, Y/n,” Bucky laughed, you and Steve following.

Silence took over the rooftop, the three of you admiring the colors painting the night sky. Your arm was still around Steve’s shoulder; you only noticed when you turned to look at him and realized how close your faces were. He turned his head, sensing your stare. Noses almost touching, the two of you stared into each other’s eyes for a moment before you flashed him a big smile.

“Happy sixteen, Stevie,” you whispered to him, admiring the flecks of green mixed into the blue of his irises. Steve’s smile grew, he let out a little breath of laughter.

“Happy sixteen, Y/n.” You glanced over his face one more time before looking back up at the fireworks, not wanting to miss the rest of the show.

Steve stayed facing you, taking in the rare moment he could stare at you in all your beauty. He shouldn’t have had a crush on you, you were his best friend, but he chalked it up to you being one of the only girls that ever gave him the time of day. His eyes drew down your eyebrows, remembering how excited you had been when your mom had finally let you start plucking them, to your eyes and they way they crinkled at the corners as you beamed at the sky. Every time a new firework would go off he would watch as the blues, greens, and pinks highlighted your cheekbones. He didn’t even realize he was staring until a gum wrapper hit him in the face. Looking up at the direction it came from, he met Bucky’s knowing look, one eyebrow up and a smirk. Steve just shook his head and looked back up at the sky.

Around one o’clock, Bucky had to walk back home. The three of you slowly walked your way down to the door of Steve’s apartment, stalling to prolong your time together.

“Alright, I really gotta get going now. Mom’s gonna whoop me if I’m not home by two,” Bucky said, putting his hands on yours and Steve’s shoulders before bringing you two in for a hug, “happy birthday, idiots.”

“Bye, Bucky,” you rolled your eyes.

As Bucky walked off, Steve unlocked his door and motioned for you to come in. Another birthday tradition you two had begun was to have a sleepover the night before. You would never tell Steve, but the only reason your parents were okay with it was because they figured they would never have to worry about Steve making a move on you. You hung up your coat and immediately made your way to the radio, a gift Steve had received the year before. Spinning the dial through the channels, you landed on one that had slow jazz music playing.

Steve got two cokes from the icebox and set them down on the small coffee table in the center of the living room. You sat on the floor across the table from him, setting up the checkerboard on it.

“Wish Bucky could’ve stayed this year with us. You know the only reason his mom gives him a curfew now ‘s cause he spent the whole night out with a girl last month?” Steve said as he moved his first piece forward.

“Big trouble for a date? Why’d he do a stupid thing like that?” You moved your first piece.

“He said he was this close to losing it,” Steve pinched his fingers together, “said he got his hand up her skirt though. Can you believe it? He’s only seventeen and he’s already almost lost his virginity,” Steve shook his head and sighed exasperatedly as you both made your moves.

You scanned the board, trying to find a safe spot, “You know, honestly, a lot of boys our age are starting to talk about that now, even some of the girls. Is it such a crazy idea?” You moved your piece.

“Maybe not for you guys. Girls tend to do anything to stay away from me,” Steve said with a disappointed sigh.

“Hey, it’s not that bad. And what do you mean ‘you guys’? It’s not like I’m one of the prettier girls or have any boys coming up to me at school or any of the dance halls, I haven’t even had my first kiss yet!” The both of you had stopped looking at the board.

“Neither have I,” Steve shot back immediately.

The air stilled, you and Steve looked at each other, thinking the same thing but not wanting to be the first to say it.

“Stevie?” you snapped him out of his head. He cleared his throat and raised his eyebrows at you, telling you to go on. “Maybe these things would be easier if we just got it over with, y’know?” You hoped he was understanding where you were going with this, not wanting to have to explain and face his surprise.

“Yeah, I mean yes, I guess it’d be easier,” he mumbled, avoiding your eyes.

“Steve?” You said again, firmer this time. His head snapped up, eyes meeting yours. “Would you wanna kiss me?” you asked slowly.

Steve stared at you for a second, waiting for you to laugh or tell him this was some practical joke Bucky had set up. Instead you were nervously twiddling your thumbs and turned your head down.

“Yes.”

You quickly looked up, eyes widening. Your mouth opened, words wanting to come out but failing. Closing your eyes and taking a breath you spoke, “Okay, let’s kiss.”

Shuffling to the other side of the table, you kneeled in front of Steve. Too nervous and too worried that saying anything might ruin the moment, Steve eyed you anxiously, the silence in the room instead being evaporated by the music softly playing behind him.. You took another deep breath before talking.

“I don’t know how to do this,” you said honestly, “everyone says it comes naturally but I’m kinda nervous.”

Steve let out a sigh of relief, at least he wasn’t alone in his worries.

“Neither do I, but I think we can figure it out, right?” Steve sat up straight, “I trust you.”

“I trust you too,” you nodded your head, sitting up on your knees, “alright, let’s just...do it.”

Wasting no time, you leaned forward, grasping Steve's face and kissing him quickly. It was a satisfactory medium, somewhere between a real kiss and a peck. As you pulled back, you saw Steve’s blushing face. He looked shocked, like he hadn’t known you would do that, but the corners of his mouth tilted up. You could feel the blood rushing to your face, the familiar heat taking over your cheeks.

“That wasn’t so scary,” you said, a smile growing on your face.

“Yeah, that was actually pretty nice,” Steve mimicked your smile.

Hands still on his cheek, you licked your lips before scrambling, “If you want, we could try again. Y’know the real thing. Just so we know what it’s like, though. Only if you want to.”

A wave of confidence overcame Steve, and before he knew what he was doing he had his hand on the back of your neck and was pulling you in. You gasped as his lips met yours once again. Leaning your head to the side, you parted your lips, prompting him to do the same. There was a moment when your lips interlocked that clicked in your head, the both of you knowing that this was how it’s supposed to feel. Too busy enjoying the rush of the new experience, you two kept going, giving each other kiss after kiss until Steve literally had to pull back before he’d have an asthma attack.

Breathing hard, you let your hands drop from Steve’s cheeks. You felt a big smile creep its way up your face, a laugh bubbling out of your chest. Steve looked up at you, catching his breath. He watched as you touched your cheeks and shook your head, a laugh slowly escaping him.

“We did it Stevie!” You lunged forward, wrapping your arms around his shoulders. He let out a breathy small chuckle, hugging you back.

“We did, Y/n. Thank you.”

You pulled back and laid down on the carpeted floor, Steve moving to lay next to you. The two of you fell into comfortable silence. Staring at the ceiling, you contemplated your next question.

“Would you wanna lose our virginities together?” You asked, still staring at the ceiling.

Steve choked on his breath, eyes widening and head turning quickly to look at you. Hearing this you gasped and looked back at him.

“I don’t mean now, Jesus, Steve, I am not ready for that,” you giggled. Steve slowed his beating heart. Truthfully, if you had meant right then he would have said yes. After that kiss, he would’ve done anything you’d ask him to.

“What’d you mean, doll?”

You turned on your side to face him, resting your head on your palm, “I trust you, you trust me. I say we make a pact.”

“A pact?”

“Yes, a pact.”

Steve turned to his side to face you, “Alright, what’s this pact?”

You thought for a moment, “If by our twentieth birthdays we’re both still virgins, we do it together.”

Steve watched you. You spoke with all the confidence of someone who’d done this a million times but he could tell how nervous you really were.

“Deal,” Steve put his hand out for you to shake. You shook your head and grabbed his hand, pulling him in for a quick kiss.

“Enjoy that, it’s the last one you’ll get until we’re twenty,” you laughed, sitting up and moving back to your place on the other side of the table. Steve just laughed back at you and pretended to study the board, his mind too occupied with the feeling of your lips on his.

~

Highschool had ended for you and Steve, Bucky having graduated the year before. Over the years you had grown into your looks, your new maturity giving your face and your body a newfound attractiveness. Steve couldn’t help but notice how many more guys had talked to you in senior year, or how frequently you’d be invited to the dance hall on Friday nights. Still, the two of you remained best friends, Steve continuing to be the only boy to get the majority of your attention.

Steve really tried to right his head, but something had changed in him the night you two turned sixteen. You kissed, and he liked it a lot more than he should have. He couldn’t hide his feelings for you behind the veil of friendship anymore, he couldn’t even blame it on you being pretty. No, this wasn’t some new thing, he’d liked you for far too long for it to just be that. Stronger than his attraction, however, was his love for you as a friend. So he zipped his mouth shut, hoping that in a few years he might be able to kiss you again.

During the summer of your eighteenth birthday, you had gushed to Steve and Bucky about a guy named Charlie from The City who had asked you out on a date the week before. Steve sat with a faux smile on his face as you described how tall he was, how his green eyes shone, and how he was a whole two years older than you. He hated himself for it, but Steve couldn’t help but feel a little bit jealous. It’s not like you two had dated or done anything other than hug ever since that night on your guys’ birthday, but he didn’t like the idea of another guy kissing you the way he wanted to.

Much to Steve’s disappointment, the guy from NYC had really stolen your heart. Ten months after that first time you had told the boys about the amazing first date he had taken you on, you were walking back to Steve’s place with him and Bucky with a spring in your step.

“What’s got you so excited, doll?” Bucky had asked with a smile, pinching your side. You giggled and scanned the street, seeing people outside of shops eating ice cream and riding bicycles.

“Too many people out here, I’ll tell you guys when we get back to Stevie’s!” You giggled, looking as excited as ever.

The three of you rushed back, both boys curious about what had you so giddy. By the time you had made it to Steve’s front door you were jumping in place, biting your tongue to stop yourself from spilling the news too early. As soon as the three of you were inside and the door was shut you ran to the couch, sitting down and looking up at the boys, waiting for them to be ready to listen. The two sat on the floor in front of you, Bucky getting equally as excited and Steve smiling at the way your eyes were lighting up.

“Okay, y’know how Charlie and I have been together for about ten months now?” The boys nodded their heads, Bucky glancing at Steve as his smile faltered. “Last night we were in his apartment and,” you took a deep breath, “God, guys, we did it!” You clapped your hands together. There was a beat of silence before Bucky spoke.

“Wow, congratulations, doll,” Bucky said, kneeling up to give you a half hug. “He wasn’t an ass about it was he?”

“No, no of course not! Though, it wasn’t as fun as everyone had said it would be. But I don’t even care, I feel so grown up!”

Steve’s smile stayed plastered across his face. He wondered if you remembered the pact you two had made, feeling stupid for even having thought that maybe you would have wanted to keep it. Bucky walked you home that night. Before leaving, he patted Steve on the shoulder, giving him that same knowing look he had four years ago, this time with a sympathetic smile.

A few months had passed, Steve and you had celebrated nineteen, and the air was starting to heat up. Steve had passed up Bucky’s offer to go to the community pool, already knowing he would have spent the day sitting in the shade as Bucky chatted up girls. He sat in the living room, fanning himself and trying to escape the heat, when you showed up on his doorstep in tears.

“He said he doesn’t love me anymore, Stevie. I don’t know what happened,” you said through shaky breaths. Steve immediately knew who you were talking about and pulled you into his apartment, bringing you into a hug. He let you cry to him for nearly three hours, wanting nothing more than to punch that jerk of an ex-boyfriend in the face for doing that to you. And he did. Actually, Bucky did but Steve got a kick in there.

As time went on, you healed. You got over Charlie and Steve was happier than ever to see it. He had been there for you on countless nights when you couldn’t stop the tears from coming, when you decided to burn the little gifts you had received during the relationship, and when you started to smile again and would ask him to take you out to the dance halls. Steve had begun to forget about the pact he had been so hung up on as he realized he was falling in love with you. He had decided that, if his life continued with you smiling and dancing with him like that, he didn’t need to kiss you or lose his virginity with you, he just wanted you happy.

Unbeknownst to Steve, through the months you spent recovering from your breakup, you began to develop feelings for him. You had no idea why it took you so long to realize that the exact kind of guy you were looking for was in front of you the whole time. You were the happiest you could be when you were around him and he never failed to show you how cared for you were. Guilt coursed through you for falling for your best friend, your insecurities pointing out every reason there could never be anything between you two.

Almost a year had passed since Charlie had broken your heart and you found yourself happily sitting on the roof of Steve’s apartment with him and Bucky once again.

As first fireworks of the night had burst in the sky you let out a content sigh, “Happy twenty, Stevie.”

Steve turned to you to find you already looking back at him. In all honesty, Steve carried just a tinge of disappointment through this birthday. Even though he was happy just to have you by his side and watch you in all your joy, he had never completely forgotten about the pact you two had made, secretly dreaming of what could have been and how it could have led to more. But alas, you beat him to it, and he knew he would have to continue silently pining for you.

His eyes glossed over the brightness of your smile, remembering how the fireworks reflected off your face when you were sixteen and noticing how your cheekbones seemed more lifted and pronounced than they were back then. Steve focused on your lips. They were fuller nowadays and always accentuated with a thin layer of rouge. As he looked back up to your eyes you looked at him expectantly. Realizing he was caught staring, Steve cleared his throat and wished you a quick happy twenty back. You gave him a light chuckle, reeling inside at the fact he was so distracted staring at you.

As if on cue, Bucky’s voice broke through the awkward tension that had just formed, “Alright kids, happy birthday, but I gotta go.”

“Leaving so early again, Buck?” you asked, turning your attention away from Steve’s rosy cheeks.

“What’s your excuse this time?” Steve chimed in, sending Bucky a thankful nod for saving him from his embarrassment.

“Bec’s got a date to see the fireworks that I need to chaperone,” Bucky answered, burying his hands in his pockets.

“A date? To see the fireworks on the morning of the Fourth?” you asked incredulously, even Steve wasn’t buying it.

“Yup. Why else do you think Ma’s got me chaperoning it for?”

You and Steve just nodded and the three of you made your way down. Truthfully, Bucky didn’t actually have to chaperone Rebecca’s date, there wasn’t even a date at all. But he knew Steve better than anyone else and could tell how bad he had it for you. Bucky’d been hoping for years that he’d make a move and this was just another opportunity to leave you guys alone and give him a chance. Once Bucky was gone and you and Steve had gone back into his apartment, you two set up your usual routine, Steve would grab the drinks while you set up the checker board.

“I can’t believe we’re already twenty,” Steve called out from the kitchenette.

“I can’t either,” you shook your head as Steve set your coke down on the small table in front of you, “it feels like just yesterday we were here turning sixteen.” The last part made Steve stop in his tracks for a moment, his thoughts immediately going to the kiss from that night. You studied him, trying to see if he was thinking of the same thing you were. He recovered quickly, shaking his head and moving to the radio.

The tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife. Your heart beat out of your chest, you knew what you wanted deep inside yourself. As he searched for a good channel, mustering all the courage you could, you spoke again, “Hey Stevie?” Your voice was shakier than you would have wanted to admit.

Steve’s body was rigid, almost like he knew what you were about to ask. To say that he was anxious would be an understatement. He had hoped for years of this exact conversation, but he’d never imagined that he would actually get to have it, and he had no idea how he would manage to survive through it.

“Yeah,” his voice came out gravelly, he coughed and swallowed the lump in his throat, “yeah, Y/n?” He fiddled with the dials on the radio to avoid having to face you.

“Do you remember that...pact that we made, when we turned sixteen?”

Steve had yet to actually get a channel going, quiet static being the only sound consuming the room.

“Yes,” Steve nodded his head, pausing for a beat, “that if we were both still virgins by tonight then we would have sex, so that we would be each other’s firsts.”

You kept quiet for a moment. At any time up to this point you could have talked your way out of what you were insinuating, but the next sentence out of your mouth would put everything out on the table.

“Would you still want to do it?” You asked quietly.

“Why?” Steve asked, “You’re not a virgin anymore, Y/n, you don’t need to have sex with me to lose it.” There was a hint of bitterness in his tone, so light that, if it was anyone but you, it would have gone undetected. You paused as Steve finally found a channel with slow music playing, not knowing exactly how to respond to him. Getting up, you walked over to where Steve stood by the radio, standing behind him. Wrapping your arms around him, you rested your head on his shoulder, tilting your head to the side to whisper in his ear.

“I trust you Steve. I know I’m not a virgin, but I want this.”

Steve was nearly shaking, this is exactly what he had craved for so long, but now that he was actually living it he was more nervous than ever. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he got deja vu of the night that had started this four years before.

“I trust you too,” Steve spoke into the air. Those words cemented all the questions and doubts that had been running through both your minds. This was happening, there was nothing to think about but each other.

Steve held your wrists, breaking apart their hold around him, and turned in your arms. There was a moment of silence as you faced each other, both of you wondering if the other could hear your pounding chests.

“Just like before,” you said, looking into his eyes. You were the “experienced” one in this situation, you wanted to calm Steve’s nerves as much as possible.

“Yeah, just like before,” he nodded. You gave him a quick half smile before dropping your gaze to his lips. Pressing your hands onto his back, you pulled him into you. His hands found your waist, resting comfortably on the curve of your hips. Letting out one final breath, you leaned in and kissed him. This kiss was different from the one you two had shared when you were sixteen. Kissing no longer being the intimidating part, it was more confident and full, neither of you holding back or shying away.

You slid your hands to rest on his shoulders, leaning up into him and pressing your chest flush against his. Steve could feel your breasts push against him, not being able to help the shuddered breath that escaped his nose. With shaky arms, he slid his right hand further down and let it rest right above your ass.

Suddenly, Steve felt your tongue glide against his lip. He wasn’t sure if that was supposed to happen, all he knew was that he really wanted you to do it again. When you slid your tongue in one more, Steve followed, leaving a heated mingling of lips and tongues moving against each other. You seemed to be getting into it, so Steve took a small leap of faith, moving his hand down until he was completely cupping your ass.

Moaning into his mouth at the feeling of his hands on you, you reached for his left hand. Pulling it off your waist, you slowly raised it to sit right above your ribs, dangerously close to your chest. Steve’s breathing slightly quickened, understanding exactly where you were taking him. He moved his hand the rest of the way, gently cupping the swell of your breast, whimpering into your mouth. You slowly walked the two of you back until the back of his knees hit the couch. Tearing away from the kiss, you gently pushed his shoulders down until he was sitting and staring up at you with red cheeks. Breathing hard, you grabbed Steve's hands, bringing them up to the first of many buttons running all the way down the front of your dress.

“Open it, Stevie,” you softly command, the words coming out as more of a plea. Steve’s eyes widened, only realizing right then that he would actually be seeing you naked. He nodded his head and swiftly began to unbutton the top. He fumbled as he got halfway down, his heart beat rising as he saw your bralette under the small opening he had made. Sliding the dress off your shoulders and letting it fall to the floor, you stepped out of the pool of cloth, leaving you in only your undergarments. Steve couldn’t control the way his eyes raked down your form. He never thought he’d be able to see a woman like this, especially not you. Shifting uncomfortably in his spot, you could tell Steve was starting to get hard.

“We’re a little uneven, Stevie,” you giggled, motioning to his fully clothed body.

“Oh,” Steve let out a little laugh, “yeah, okay.” He quickly removed his shirt, leaving his undershirt and pants on. You didn’t comment on it, figuring those would come off later as he got more comfortable.

“Do you know how to take off a bra?” You asked. Judging by how pleasantly overwhelmed he looked, you knew the answer was no. You had only asked because you wanted to talk as you went along to cool his nerves, also wanting to know just how much you were ruining his innocence. He shook his head so you stepped forward in between his knees, bringing his hands up and holding them to the clasp of your bra.

“There’s three hooks holding this thing together, just hold each side with one hand and push them together to unhook them, okay?” You spoke to him how you normally would, trying to get comfortable by reminding him that it was just you. Unbeknownst to you, that was the exact reason he was so nervous.

“Alright,” Steve bit his lip. He fumbled with the hooks for a few seconds until he finally got one undone. Smiling to himself, he quickly unhooked the other two and held the fabric taut against you. He looked up at you, his heart pounding, he knew what was next.

Sliding the straps off your shoulder, you took the fabric from Steve’s hands, forcing him to drop them to his side.

“Keep your hands on me, pumpkin, don’t be shy” you said. He slid his hands up your hips to your waist.

“Right, we’re way past being shy with each other now,” he joked, looking relieved when you laughed with him.

“Yes we are,” you smiled at him fondly, “you sure you want this Steve? There’s no shame in backing out now if you don’t.” You dropped one of your hands to caress his face.

“Yes,” he replied shakily.

He held your hand to his face, reaching his other hand up to the front of your bra, hooking his index finger over the fabric in the center. You let your grip on the band slacken, allowing him to pull it from your chest, looking into your eyes. Steve let his gaze wander down to your chest, a gasp escaping the back of his throat as he took it in.

“Oh-oh my god,” he murmured to himself, licking his lips as his eyes darted around trying to get the full picture and memorize every detail.

Taking hold of them once again, you slowly turned Steve’s hands to hold your palms to the backs of his. Steve swallowed hard as you brought them forward to hold your breasts, moving his hands to squeeze them softly. His eyebrows furrowed, his jaw hung slightly open. You dropped your hands to your sides, letting him massage your breasts and move them around in his hands.

“I, um, I don’t know what I should do. I don’t wanna mess anything up,” Steve started, his hands coming off your chest and hovering in the air. You shook your head, grabbing his wrists and bringing his hands back to your chest. Steve could feel your hardened nipples under his palm and held back a groan, the sudden urge to have them in his mouth fogging his head.

“Do whatever feels right,” Steve looked at you warily, “I promise I’ll tell you if something isn’t right, Steve.”

Nodding at your reassurance, Steve began to rub his thumbs over your nipples, flicking them back and forth. With one last glance up at you, he leaned into you and wrapped his lips around one of them, swirling his tongue around the hard bud. Your head fell back as a moan rose from your chest, a gasp cutting it off as he used his hand to pinch the other.

Tangling your fingers in his disheveled hair, you jumped when you felt his hand slide down your stomach to cup your pussy. You breathed out his name as he rubbed over you, switching to suck on your other nipple. It all became too much, you used the hand in his hair to pull his mouth off you, his lips popping off your sensitive nipple.

“Wait,” you said, breathless, “I wanna try something.”

“Okay,” Steve replied quickly, his hands moving back up to your hips.

You sank to the floor and sat on your knees. Steve had absolutely no experience, but he had a feeling he knew what was about to happen. A wave of nervousness washed over him, he could learn to be good at sex if he tried hard enough, but there was no changing his body. His hands fell over yours that were already working down the zipper of his pants. You looked up at him, he could see how dilated your pupils were, he saw the same eyes that would give him comfort during his dark times and would stare down anyone who had anything nasty to say to him. He took his hand off and gave you a quick nod and you got to work.

Slipping off his pants, you let your hand rest over the erection pushing against his boxers. Palming him, you leaned up to kiss him again. You slipped your hand under the band and slid your hand onto his dick, feeling how hard and hot he’d gotten from just touching you. Sinking back down to your knees, Steve lifted his hips so that you could completely take off his boxers.

You relaxed a bit at the sight of his cock, it wasn’t small by any means, but it wasn’t too big where it’d make you worried about how he’d fit in you. Wrapping your hand around his shaft, you began to stroke him up and down, spitting on your hand to ease your movements. Steve’s back fell against the couch, moaning as your thumb brushed over his tip and spread the precum that had leaked out.

“Ah- fuck, your hands are so soft,” Steve whimpered. He was in absolute heaven. He had never imagined having a girl touch him could feel so good. One thing he knew for certain was that he’d never be able to look at you the same way knowing how it felt to have your hand wrapped around his dick.

Steve looked down at you right as he felt you lick a line up his shaft, circling your tongue around the top. Meeting your lust filled gaze, he let out a stream of moans and whimpers as you sucked on his tip and took him into your mouth, bobbing your head. You took hold of his hand and placed it on the back of your neck, giving him access to guide your movements. He kept his touches light as he pushed your head up and down, feeling your tongue on the underside of his cock. Not before long he was pulling you off on him and instinctively jutting his hips forward.

“I’m gonna come, Y/n,” Steve said to you worriedly.

You giggled and slid your hands up his thighs, “That’s kinda the point, Steve.”

“No, I don’t wanna come yet. I wanna come when I’m having sex with you.”

Biting your lip, you nodded, “Okay, c’mon then.” You grabbed his hand and walked to his bed. Before getting carried away, Steve quickly ran to his bathroom cupboard to get the box of condoms he had stashed away. Sitting him down, you grabbed his face and kissed him hard. Steve’s hands wandered along your sides, reaching behind you and groping your ass with both hands.

Pulling back, you grabbed his chin and looked him in the eyes, “Do you want to lead the way or would you rather have me take charge?”

Steve blushed at your offer, slightly embarrassed at his lack of knowledge. He told you of his choice of the latter before pulling you down to kiss him again. His thumbs hooked under the band of your panties, his finders kneading your behind. With a nod of approval, Steve slowly pulled them down, his pupils blown as he saw the fabric pass down your mound.

Surprisingly, Steve didn’t need to be told to touch you this time. He looked up at you, asking for permission as he held onto your thighs, spreading your legs apart. With a small nod from you, Steve pushed the pads of his ring, middle and index finger through your folds, his brow furrowing at the wet heat pooled between them. You let out a small whimper as his fingers brushed over your swollen clit, Steve eyes quickly looking up at your expression.

He brushed his fingers over the sensitive bud again, “That feel good?” His voice had become huskier and it was only fueling the pleasure his light touch was giving you.

“Mhm, yes,” you moaned when he suddenly slipped a finger in you, “Oh God, Steve!” You braced yourself on his shoulder as he used his other hand to push your thigh up, placing your foot on the bed frame so that you were spread open for him to see. Steve watched as his finger slowly went in and out of you, his nerves jolting at the idea of his dick replacing it. Before he could even question his own actions, he leaned down and licked a stripe over your clit, the unexpected sensation sending shockwaves through your body. Steve had spent years imagining what it would be like to fuck you, but all that was on his mind at that moment was the desire to spend eternity with his mouth on your sweet cunt. You felt yourself start to grind your hips over his face and, for the second time that night, had to pull his mouth off you.

“Later Stevie, please, I want to feel you in me, right now,” you said desperately. Steve simply muttered an okay, his brain still foggy and high off the taste of you, and reached back to grab a condom. Slipping it over himself, he threw the wrapper somewhere to the side and looked at you. His breath caught in his throat at the sight of your naked form crawling onto the bed next to him.

“I don’t know if other people do this or not but I’m gonna try getting on top of you, okay?” You asked, looking equal parts nervous and antsy. Honest to God, your nerves were crazy; Charlie hadn’t tried anything other than missionary with you, you were terrified of doing something wrong.

“Okay,” Steve breathed out, “you ready?” You nodded back to him. Steve laid down on his back, his shoulders lifting up as he rested on his elbows. Swinging one leg over him, you shifted until you felt his dick rub against your pussy, your slick coating it and leaving a sheen. Both you and Steve moaned at the contact, groaning as you rolled your hips over him again.

Using one arm to hold yourself up, you leaned down and kissed him, slipping your tongue in his mouth. Sliding your hand down in between your bodies, you grabbed Steve’s cock, lining his tip up to your entrance and, breaking the kiss, lowering yourself down on him.

Steve let out a deep groan, he had no idea this is what it would feel like. His mind raced as he focused on how warm and soft you felt wrapped all around him. As you began to grind your hips over his, Steve reached up and held your breasts in his hands, squeezing them and pinching your nipples. Your head fell back, your breasts bouncing in Steve's hands as you rode him.

“Shit, Y/n, that feels so good, God, you’re so warm,” Steve said through gritted teeth. He could feel himself getting close, he wanted to hold on so bad, but the pleasure was too overwhelming and new. Pulling you down for a kiss, he remembered how he had touched you earlier and lowered his hand to rub over your clit. Your body jumped at the added pressure, Steve could feel you clench around him, your hips stuttering with every thrust. With a loud groan Steve released into you, his warmth spurring you on more. You continued to ride him through his orgasm, Steve’s hips bucking up as you took him for everything he had.

Screwing his eyes shut, Steve’s jaw fell open and his hands balled into fists at his sides, a guttural moan leaving the back of his throat as you kept fucking yourself on him. His balls clenched and his abdomen tightened, a gasp pulling at him when you quickened your pace. Shaking his head he began to whimper, cursing under his breath and chanting out your name and small “too much”s.

You regressively slowed the movement of your hips. Leaning down to kiss him, you brought your thumb up to his face to wipe a stray tear that fell. Steve took deep breaths to collect himself, looking you in the eyes as his hands came up to rest on your hips. Bracing your palms on his chest and feeling his rapid heart beat, you lifted your hips to pull yourself off him, Steve letting out a hiss as your tight walls released him.

Steve’s eyes stared up at the ceiling as you laid down next to him, your forearm resting on your forehead to cool the heated skin. Removing the condom and throwing it in the small bin next to his bedside table, he looked over at you with a soft smile before eyebrows furrowed and he turned his head completely toward you.

“Did you come?” Steve asked. It was less of a wonder and more of an interrogatory question, as if you had thought you could get away without doing so.

“I don’t think girls are usually supposed to,” you responded with a shake of your head. You really, honestly didn’t know if that was even possible and would have been satisfied if the night's festivities had ended right then.

“Why not?” Steve genuinely questioned. You shrugged your shoulders before he lifted his back off the bed, his body slightly hovering over you, “Well, I want you to.”

Raising your eyebrows, the words left your mind, only allowing you to whisper a small “okay” back to him.

Resting his weight on his forearm, Steve lowered his face to yours, kissing a trail from your cheek to your lips. His hands wandered down your stomach to your warm cunt, his fingers running through your folds again, spreading your slick all over his fingers. You let out a small whimper into the kiss, still sensitive from riding him. He began to leave tiny kisses leading from your mouth to your chest, his lips pulling in one of your nipples and sucking hard. As much as Steve loved having his mouth on your breasts, the only thought in his head was how much he wanted to taste you again.

Steve backed up to the foot of the bed, wet hand spreading your legs apart as he licked a line from your entrance to your clit and circled his tongue around it. A moan dragged its way out of you, your hands shooting down to tangle themselves in his hair. He continued to lick you in any and every way he could think of with his one goal in mind.

Your back arched as you felt a finger slip in you, Steve’s tongue never stopping, making you squirm. As his digit moved in and out of you, you could feel your stomach burn with anticipation, but you knew it still wasn’t enough.

“Ah, Steve, add another one, please,” you gasped out, your head thrown back against the sheets. Following directions, Steve slipped another finger into you, groaning at the feeling of your walls fluttering around them. His lips left your clit for a moment, his head rising to look at your chest as you breathed hard and fast and your face as whimpers left your mouth, a small sense of pride swelling up in his chest at the sight of what he was doing to you.

“Curl your fingers, Steve, please, fuck,” you cried out. Your hips began to lift and fall on their own, grinding over Steve’s face as you felt his fingers curl and massage the spongy sensitive spot inside you.

You let out a loud moan, not being able to control your body as your stomach began to twitch and your thighs began to shake. Tensing, your mouth hung open in a silent yelp as you felt the burn in your abdomen spread throughout your body, your orgasm crashing over you. Steve sucked your clit lightly as he felt you squeeze his fingers, proud of himself for successfully returning the favor and making you feel even remotely as good and you had made him feel. You laid limply in your spot, small aftershocks running through you as Steve pulled his fingers out of your and cleaned you up with a few more licks.

Crawling up the bed to lay beside you, Steve’s arms and legs brushed against yours. Silence washed over the room, the only sounds being your steading breathing and the faint music playing from the radio.

“That was a lot better than I expected,” you said truthfully. Steve glanced at your profile for a moment, a flash of disappointment hitting him as he realized the pact was over. There was nothing for him to hope for anymore, he was sure nothing beyond this could ever possibly happen between you two.

“What were you expecting?” Steve asked quietly, turning his head back to the ceiling.

“Not that,” you let out a small chuckle, “When I first did it, y’know with Charlie, it really hurt, and he didn’t really do anything other than come and stop there. It didn’t feel good like this did with you.”

“It didn’t?” Steve’s eyebrows furrowed again, frustration bubbling inside of him at the mention of your ex-bastard.

“I didn’t even know it was supposed to,” you said shaking your head, “this was a lot better.” You turned to him, eyes drifting over his eyelashes highlighted in moonlight down to the soft curve of his pink lips. The words were on the tip of your tongue, threatening to spill out if you looked at him any longer. You tried to tear your eyes away but you couldn’t.

“Stevie?”

“Yeah, doll?” He turned to meet your gaze, his eyes flickering down to look at your lips before moving back up. He wasn’t sure whether or not to be embarrassed about being caught staring at you like that anymore.

You couldn’t take it anymore. Body moving faster than your mind, you leaned in and kissed him, your hand resting on his chest. Steve’s hand found your naked waist, holding you to him as he invited your kiss and returned it. Both of you could tell there was something different about this kiss, no longer fueled by sexual tension or disregarded as some juvenile learning exercise. No, this kiss was purely happening because it felt right, because it just made sense.

Pulling away from him, you rested your forehead against his for a moment before sighing and rolling back onto the bed. Another wash of silence, both of you having something to say but keeping quiet.

You let out another sigh before closing your eyes and speaking, a sad tone lacing your voice, “I don’t know what happened Steve. It’s like one day we were best friends and then out of nowhere I like you.” The voice inside your head chastised you for allowing your feelings to get in the way of such a good friendship but it was quickly cut off.

“What?” Steve couldn’t believe what he was hearing, he was sure some cruel part of his brain had imagined you saying it, still, he desperately wanted it to be true, “you do?”

You nodded, shame ran heavy through you, yet there was a hopefulness in Steve’s tone that made your heart skip a beat.

“I’m so sorry, I know I shouldn’t but I can’t help it,” tears welled up in your eyes. You were sure you had just ruined the best friendship you’d ever had. Steve looked at you to find tears running down your cheeks, he could see your lips tremble and felt his heart break at the sight. Throwing his arm around your shoulder, he pulled you into his chest, shushing your cries and comforting you like he always had.

“Please don’t cry, doll. Y/n?” He tried to get you to look up and listen to him but your face remained burning in the crook of his neck. Not being able to hear your uneven breathing and sniffles he held your jaw and pulled your face to his, his lips softly brushing yours. Your faces were so close you could feel the soft puff of breath leave his nose.

“Y/n?” Steve tried again with a whisper. You opened your eyes, immediately looking into his hazy blues. Your eyebrows tilted, silently telling him to go on.

“I have loved you for longer than I can remember.” Steve’s heart was racing, finally having admitted the truth he had worked so hard to contain.

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?” you asked quietly, your voice croaky from crying.

“I never thought you could want someone like me,” Steve answered honestly, his eyes casting down to escape your gaze.

“I’ll always want you.” Your hand laid over Steve’s on your jaw. Sliding it off and moving to rest it on his cheek, your head moved forward, your lips catching his. This kiss was soft and sweet, neither of you needing to find an excuse or reason. It was innocent and genuine, despite your prurient position. Pulling away from him, you smiled at him, wide and expressive of your joy. Steve smiled back, ecstatic and in awe of how lucky he was to have you.

Letting yourself roll back over onto the bed, you opened your palm, fingers searching for his before intertwining together. Steve’s thumb rubbed back and forth over your knuckles as you two fell into comfortable silence.

“Bucky’s gonna blow his wig when he finds out,” Steve chuckled. You couldn’t stop the loud laugh that rumbled through your chest.

“Yeah, he is.” Tilting your head up you found Steve’s eyes already trained on you, a fond smile on his face. Giving his hand a squeeze, you let your head rest on his shoulder as you closed your eyes, ready for a peaceful sleep to overcome you.

[zarara]

something else?

pairings: dense!diluc x traveler!reader, a little kaeya x reader moment plot: read it and find out (pls my brain is laggy but one day i will write a summary) genre: fluff, angst perhaps note: i am apparently capable of writing fairly straightforward stories

if there was anything in the world you would pay to have an endless supply of, it would have to be tea… though the idea of infinite mora sounded as interesting, you were sure your talents in combat would make sure you didn’t find yourself broke or clueless like zhongli.

it’s just that tea was perfect — coffee was a close contender but the bitter aftertaste always found you having to pile it up with more sugar than healthy. tea also had no aftermath on your already deranged sleep schedule. it tasted sweet but rich, it was efficient, and it was warm.

you usually enjoyed your daily cup of tea in the solitude of your chambers but today you were making an exception because kaeya, your superior and over-the-top flirt of a friend, insisted you take your evening snack with him at the tavern.

“there isn’t even a snack provision at the tavern! it’s a tavern for archon’s sake!” kaeya is great at ignoring your complaints as he pulls you into the seat next to him.

“i asked sara to bring some honey roast over for us,” kaeya winks at the young man handling the counter in lieu of an order and you hurriedly pipe up a “tea for me please!”

“now, would you please stop your whining, you baby?”

your mouth drops open, “i’m the baby? you were the one begging to take me to drinks instead of helping me finish that pack of hilichurls!”

“i did mention that i got rid of that abyss mage for you when you weren’t looking.”

“i don’t understand you, kaeya,” you take hold of the cup that the man behind the counter sets down, “but anyway, what is it you want from me?”

kaeya smirks over his glass of dandelion wine, “ah, quite straightforward, aren’t we?”

you kick his shin ungently, “let me ask again: what do you want?”

kaeya takes a sip and becomes uncharacteristically quiet. in fact, he doesn’t even comment when you keep staring at him.

“kaeya…?”

before you can continue to investigate what’s up with him, you hear a familiar voice behind your shoulder.

“well, what have we here?”

“diluc!” the red haired man takes place of the young man who looks relieved to not have to bear witness as a bartender.

“hello, y/n, how do you do?”

you smile, the warmth in diluc’s voice going unmissed, “i’m just fine, although a certain someone has taken it upon themselves to ruin my ritual of tea and silence.”

kaeya props a hand around your shoulders, “i’m just repaying you for getting rid of all those gnarly hilichurls.”

whatever was bothering kaeya a moment ago seems to have disappeared, especially in the presence of his arch rival, diluc.

diluc calmly reaches over to lift kaeya’s hand off your shoulder as if it’s the corpse of a slime he’s picking up and hurls it away. “please, kaeya, i thought you didn’t pursue women who’d clearly expressed their lack of interest.”

“and i thought you were too superior to everyone else to stick your nose in their business.”

“well,” you butt in before the two can actually slit each other’s throats, “i thought it was reasonable to agree to work under jean but i guess we all have things we’re wrong about, don’t we?”

diluc’s expression dampens into something like sadness when you mention your overworked state but you brush it off by chugging the rest of your tea. “oh, before i forget,” you rummage through your meagre backpack before removing a package, handing it over to kaeya, “this is for you.”

kaeya looks perplexed, looking between you and diluc, and slowly places a hand on the package, “for me?”

“a client painted the scenery from luhua for me because i found his paintbrushes and supplies, and i know you like your souvenirs, so you can have it.”

“....” kaeya is still speechless and diluc has you pinned with a look of suspicion.

“but why would give it to him?”

“because i go to luhua way too often already and i know kaeya is usually stuck around monstadt so…”

“that’s incredibly sweet of you, my love,” kaeya regains his senses and as you stand up to leave, he pulls you into a hug.

“you’re welcome, boss,” you smile as you pull away, “anyway, i must be on my way.”

“do you think the traveller is with someone?”

maids at dawn winery sure do love to gossip.

“with her looks and strength, for sure! my bets are on master diluc.”

okay, look, you didn’t meant to eavesdrop on them but they were right there when you came out of the washroom. you were going to walk out and pretend like you hadn’t heard them but hearing diluc’s name shook you.

“no,, what about mr kaeya? i heard they hang out after long, tiring quests all the time.”

“but she and master diluc love to discuss-”

all righty, time to evacuate.

“!!”

you manage to keep a poker face as you throw the door open in their faces and stride past them, making your way to the room with diluc.

you quickly dash in, closing the door behind you. you knOW your face is flushed so you turn away from diluc.

diluc frowns. that’s weird. why are you hiding from him?

he rises from his chair, “y/n? is everything okay? are you hurt?”

“y-yeah, i’m just embarrassed.”

you feel yourself being turned around by two big hands on your elbows.

diluc’s concerned eyes meet yours and you almost melt into a puddle of slimy plasma because he’s so hot even though he’s just worried.

“you’re red. why are you red?”

“...i’m fine.”

as if he’s aware of your flustered state, he moves closer to your face in order to look into your eyes which makes a new batch of blood flow to your face.

“y/n, you need to tell me what’s wrong. is it a fever? i can call—”

“nO! it’s nothing. just—!” you break away from his (very intense) hold and move away into the room for fresh air. “stupid me.”

“no way, she did not!”

diluc is immensely frustrated with venti. he has the most unusual reactions to everything diluc says and usually he doesn’t give a shit, but this is about you and your weird state yesterday, so yES he gives a shit!! >:-(

“yes, she did. i’m telling you she did. why are you—”

“oh, i heard you, i just can’t believe that the calm and strong little traveler would lose her cool and around you of all people!”

“heY, what do you mean? i’m perfectly fine as a person to lose one’s cool around.”

yep, diluc has no idea what he’s saying.

it’s just

he thinks the world of you

he really, really likes spending time with you (even when you guys are just talking about the fatui’s next move! or how you found new cool ways to take down an abyss mage!)

you’re so sweet and you don’t take his words for what they’re not. you’re not taken aback by his bluntness and you’re able to make him laugh.

what more does he need in life

well, apparently, venti because he has no idea what to do after you suddenly left the dawn winery that day.

“ugh”

“you’re really worried, huh?”

“was that not crystal clear by now? i came all the way to windrise to talk to you!”

venti chuckles his annoying chuckle

“okay, okay, i’ll help you,” diluc sighs as he waits venti to go on, “here’s what i think: she likes you back.”

..

what

diluc.exe has stopped working

man just blanks out

short-circuits, fireworks, malfunction — you name it.

“diluc?”

“no.”

“what do you mean, no?”

“first of all, why did you say ‘likes you back’? i- i don’t like her or anything. and secondly, no, she does not like me.”

“i’m going to pretend like i didn’t even hear the first part. about the second thing, here’s a question for you: why?”

“because she likes kaeya!”

venti pauses, “i was not aware there was another contender. diluc, you bastard, tell me all the details next time.”

“does this mean she just hates my guts?”

“no, it just means she may or may not like you. back.”

“i told you—!” venti stands up breaking off diluc’s sentence midway, brushing grass off his palms.

“take her to dinner or something tonight and ask her.”

“ask her? ask her what— wait, where are you going, you stupid bard— ASK HER WHAT?”

life is hard for a traveller

you’ve just managed to finish delivering grilled fish to a jack who wants become more manly when katheryne sets you thREE more commissions saying there was a crazy influx of requests suddenly.

you barely manage to uproot two hilichurl camps, and by the third quest, you’re quite dead inside. if only some rogue eye of the storm wasn’t terrorizing civilians.

you’ve gotten in a hit or two in when you skip over a stone and fall right on your face

“fUCK!”

shit

ouch

ouch shit

that hurt

you manage to twist around and keep the eye away with a half-earnest windblade attack and try to sit up.

damn it, is this the pitiful way you die? dammit, you at least wanted to drink your evening tea—

a flash of fiery thunder catches your attention

is that…?

“y/n! stay where you are!”

yup, it’s diluc in all his dark knight hero glory. he finishes off the stupid green eyeball in less than three fire-charged strikes.

you sigh in relief, falling back against the grass.

“hey, hey, hey,” diluc enters your field of vision, red strands falling into his face as he leans down to cradle your head in his lean arms, “where did you injure yourself?”

you tremble a little as you try to lift your foot, “a-ah, my right foot. i twisted my ankle probably. thanks for fi—”

“shh-shh, you’ll have plenty of time to thank me. come on, can you sit up?”

you grab his wrist and prop yourself against his chest so that you’re practically in his lap.

“that’s great, let me take a look at—”

“mhm!! don’t move. please,” you can feel diluc’s breathing tense behind you as you lean into him, “i think the eye hit me while i was down- my neck— ah, fuck—” your hand comes away from your nape soaked in red, “it’s bleeding.”

“it’s all right, you’ll be just fine. just get comfortable and i’m going to lift you up. think you can manage?”

you nod as one of diluc’s hands comes to rest under your knees, folding them and the other tenderly embraces your upper back.

“tell me if it hurts too much.”

he heaves the both of you up and the shock stings your exposed neck a little but you’ll survive.

everything is beginning to become blurry so you lift your hand to feel diluc and meet his chest. despite everything, you smile, aware he’s speaking because you can feel him vibrating but the words are all mushed up and you can feel yourself slipping away.

even though usually you would panic at feeling your consciousness fading but right now, it’s okay because it’s diluc who’s holding you and you know it’s him because just before the black collapses on you, you hear him.

“you’re fine, kitten.”

“—up! y/n, it’s me.”

mhhm, what a sweet voice. so soft and melodious.

“y/n, i can see you smiling in your sleep,” the voice comes closer, “come on, everyone’s really worried.”

the world materializes in front of you as you fight against the closing of your heavy eyelids. “barbara?”

“y/n! you’re alive!”

“i am?”

why would you not be alive?

…

oh

right

the eye

stupid thing

wait a minute,.,.,.

you remember diluc saving your arse.

oh righT

that’s because he did!

he—

he was holding you?

you were in his lap????????

wait a minute!! that sounds wrong

“am i dreaming?”

“really, of all the people you know, do you really see yourself dreaming of me, traveller? last time i saw you, you wanted to steal the holy lyre from—”

“y/n!!”

holy shit

that’s the voice of your saviour

noo

noo

stop the clock

you’re not ready to meet him!!!!!!!

“ah, it’s master diluc! he was so worried about you the whole time you were dead— i mean, asleep,” you redden as the tall man appears in front of you, “kaeya had to force him to leave and get some food but—”

“ahem!” diluc cuts barbara off with a strong clearing of his throat and she throws him a look before standing up from your side.

“i guess i’ll leave you two alone then!”

“wait, barbara, you should stay—”

and she’s gone.

you slowly look up to face diluc

“how are you feeling?”

“much better,” he sits next to you and you smile, “thanks to you.”

diluc frowns as if remembering something unpleasant, “i really wish you wouldn’t just bear all the load.”

“you found out from…”

“kaeya mentioned he hadn’t seen you around the town square as he usually does and when i went to speak with katheryne, she said she’d had no choice but to send you off on extra commissions.”

you look down, “i’m sorry. i wanted to ask someone to come along but everyone seemed busy and—”

“you never checked up on me though,” you bite your lip, “i would have known.”

“that’s- that’s because you’re always busy, what with the winery and your dark knight—”

“y/n,” you stop speaking with a pout and diluc raises your chin with his finger, “promise me you’ll tell someone next time things get so overwhelming. tell me, i’m never going to be occupied enough to not help you out.”

you blush agaiN

stupid kind diluc

“thanks, diluc.”

“and you can stop feeling sorry for me.”

when you look at diluc he looks he’s just caught you red-handed.

“what—”

“i wanted to help you,” you nod, “what’s more, i think i quite enjoyed it.”

“enjoyed. . . carrying an injured woman to safety? you might have a saviour complex, diluc. or perhaps, some sort of a kink.”

you expect diluc to lash back with a defensive retort but to your absolute and complete surprise, he smirks.

the man smiRKS

he’s all ;)

“oh? i won’t deny that,” your stomach suddenly feels queasy all over again as diluc inches closer (and you’re wondering in your head WHEN DID SATAN, OR WORSE KAEYA, POSSESS THIS MAN?!), “but while we’re on the topic of kinks and enjoying ourselves, you seemed to quite like sitting in my lap.”

“diluc!” your exclamation is one of disbelief because you cannot believe that diluc, the man who has never once made an inappropriate joke around you, is openly accepting that he has a kink and is accusing you of having one.

“what? am i wrong? when i tried to move, you stopped me immediately.”

“y-yeah, i did, but—” you’re trying with all your heart to defend your actions but diluc has managed to come close enough to tap his fingers against your outstretched knee. “it was— you were warm and my neCK was bleeding. was i supposed to just die out there?”

“i suppose you’re right, i am warm.”

“exactly.”

you seemed to have dodged a disaster because diluc is distracted by the cuts on your knee and the bandage around your ankle. his slender finger dance down your shin to touch the fabric of the white material tied tightly and he gently holds it.

“does it still hurt?”

“i don’t know, i haven’t tried walking.”

“do you wanna?”

you nod eagerly and diluc offers his hand but before you can be tempted into taking it, you cross your arms.

“why should i hold your hand?”

“because we need to first test if you can even walk without help.” diluc looks confused and you decide that whatever demon possessed him moments ago is long gone.

“correct answer,” you take his hand, and slowly stand up.

“hmm,” your right foot hurts a little but it’s better than you imagined. you tell diluc that.

“that’s a relief,” you reach the door of the empty cathedral and diluc puts his hand on the door, “would you like to take a walk?”

“is diluc around?”

“ah, he said he’ll be back in five. he’s personally delivering some paperwork to the acting headmaster.”

“alright, thanks!”

you’re excited!! it’s friday and today, you and diluc are going aLL the way to liyue to get dinner and stargaze as a post-dinner activity. diluc said he was friends with xiangling who’d always wanted him to come and try her dishes out sometime and he’d asked you earlier if you’d be interested to join him.

of course you were. it sounded like a date! in fact by the way you had spent all afternoon choosing the deep maroon skirt and contrasting white blouse, you were convinced to view it as a date.

“y/n, i apologize to have kept you waiting,” a breathless (and dashing) diluc appears by your side and you smile.

“no problem, diluc, i heard you were doing some important work.”

the both of you leave the tavern, “not exactly important, but let’s just say that while i may not be interested in the knights of favonius, i do value my life somewhat.”

“jean’s scares you, too, huh,” you laugh.

it’s not like diluc is realizing this for the first time but: you’re beautiful

like yeah, you have great hair and dazzling eyes that are bright when you’re happy and a dangerous smile but in the night, in this ethereal lighting, you’re taking his breath away.

“this place looks so fancy,” you’re seated across from him as you play with the ends of your hair. “when i come to this inn, i usually remain on the periphery but wow, this is quite impressive.”

“well, xiangling did say she got pretty famous as a cook around here.” diluc feels dazed especially since half his attention is occupied by how adorable you look.

the night progresses like this; diluc captivated by your blinding beauty and you trying to wrap your head around the fact that you’re on a daTE with diluc.

“oh, hey, look, it’s a silk flower!” you run over to the short, maroon plant, plucking a few flowers out, “xingqiu was telling me how much he loves these.”

he kneels next to you, smiling, “they are quite the pleasant plants.”

“they sorta remind me of you.”

“me?”

diluc touches the stem as you play around with the buds, “yes. for starters, you’re both red. and you both smell nice. you make wine, these make clothes. and if you think about it, wine is the silk of alcohol.”

his fingers collide against yours in the quaint flower, “that’s an intriguing comparison. wine and silk. . .” before you can pull away, diluc takes hold of your hand, pulling you up after him.

he can feel you stiffen a little and then mold back into place, your tiny hand squeezing against his bigger one. the road has become quieter as you travel further from the inn, and more stars start to peek out from the sky.

“thank you for taking me out to dinner, diluc.”

“thank you for having dinner with me, y/n.”

you suddenly giggle a little as if remembering a memory. “what’s funny?”

you look at him and then back down, biting down on your lip — a terrible habit really but especially terrible right now, because it only draws his attention to the soft pink lips he was trying not to look at the whole night (which was made even harder when xiangling decided to serve you the spicier dishes).

“that time you saved me from the eye, you called me something right before i fainted.”

diluc smiles fondly, “kitten?” he is pleasantly surprised when you giggle again, cheeks tinting the loveliest pink. “what’s this? could it be you enjoy being called kitten?”

you squeeze his hand slightly, “maybe…”

diluc’s heart almost gives out on spot

he’s sO whipped for you it hurts physically

“y/n—”

before he can say anything else, you pull him ahead with you because well,,,, you’re embarrassed

“come on, we should go stargaze before it gets too late.”

diluc smiles and allows you to drag him to the clearing at the edge of a cliff.

“i remembered this cliff from one of my adventures,” you plop down onto the grass and hesitantly, diluc follows

“hmm, it’s very peaceful here. i’m going to have to note this down as one of my future hideouts.”

you grin, “don’t reveal that to me. i might end up following you here and you won’t have any of your good ole introspection time.”

your tone is teasing but for once, diluc feels that his needs for alone time are being acknowledged by your light-hearted threat. he shifts closer, heart on the verge of bursting.

“i like you, y/n,” it comes right out of his mouth, clear and loud, the way diluc always dreamed of confessing but never managed to nail during his endless practices

you, on the other hand, are at the risk of a heart attack. you don’t want to pretend to be clueless and dense — diluc did ask you out for dinner when he could be spending the evening doing something more intellectually enriching — but at the same time, you feel like you can’t be sure enough

because it’s diluc!! he’s so complicated, he has so many layers

“you like me?” you keep your gazed fixed on the stars above just so you can mask your disappointment in case he clarifies that he likes you but, of course, as a friend who easily gets in trouble and happens to be around his tavern all the time

but inside diluc’s head are alarms. literal ALARMS. red, blaring alarms.

“i- you have no obligation to accept my feelings or give me answer but i’ve been meaning to tell you for a long time now. i really like you in a way i didn’t think possible. you’re so kind and funny and you make profound judgements about people, without being swayed by the biases that surround them and you’re so brave. but i know you have many men courting you and you did seem to have a soft spot for kaeya so this is—”

“i like you, too, diluc.”

diluc.exe has stopped working part 2 the finale

no more brain cells for him

“diluc?”

“you’re being honest?”

“of course i am. i’ve liked you ever since you took down that abyss mage with me. i don’t know how i’m expected to not fall for the dark knight hero.”

despite his dislike for the nickname, diluc blushes and you laugh at his small adorable smile

but the next moment it’s as if a switch has been flipped and suddenly his flustered face turns into a look of lust

his hands are on your waist, pulling you close until you can feel his hot breath against your lips

your hand comes up his face, tenderly cupping it and your lips crash

diluc groans against your lips when your other hand gingerly finds his hair and to say the least, you are extremely attracted to the sound of him groaning, low and deep

“come closer,” your plea is almost petulant as your grip on his hair tightens. diluc lifts you into his lap, arms around you

but he suddenly pulls away and it kills him to do so because you are a sight to behold, lips redder than ever, mouth half open, and breath heavy

“what in the fuck—” your dismay is clear as you frown at the concerned expression on diluc’s face, “hey, what’s wrong? did i—”

“why did you give kaeya that gift?”

for a moment you think you must be dreaming because it would be absolutely ridiculous if the man stopped your make-out session just to ask you—

“i mean, why not… me?” diluc’s voice has become small, gaze averted as if he’s scared he messed up

you sigh, bringing both your hands to cup his face, squishing his cheeks slightly to make him look at you

“listen, diluc, i have no feelings for kaeya. he’s just one of my nicer superiors and i wanted to thank him for being understanding. and i meant what i said that day — it genuinely reminded me of how he’s stuck around the favonius headquarters.”

diluc processes what you have to say and then, after a few silent beats:

“he’s only nice to you because he’s into you.”

“diluc, will you please just make out with me?”

you pull him back into a kiss and this time, he returns with more passion, one hand boldly cupping your ass and you can’t help but shiver at the sensation of his warm hand

you begin to reach under his shirt when you realize something

“wait, diluc,” you sit up, twisting to look up at the sky, “we were supposed to stargaze. you seemed so excited about it, you even called it the post-dinner activity.”

diluc caresses your arm as he slowly restores the distance between you, eyes on your lips.

he whispers against the nape of your neck, “i’m sure we can think of another post-dinner activity,” his fingers graze your stomach, “right, kitten?”

[coexiising]

Good Neighbors - Chapter Two

SUMMARY ✦ Your parents host a dinner party for the new neighbors. 

WARNING(S) ✦ Nothing

MASTERLIST ✦ Here. 

It had been three days since your last encounter with Anakin Skywalker. Three days since you could’ve sworn he winked at you. Not that you were counting . . . No, you were most definitely not doing that.

Since then you had been doing, well, essentially nothing but thinking back to that moment of the two of you talking. And it was probably stupid, since it was just two neighbors talking to each other. He was just being nice to you and that was all, there was nothing to think more of. There were way better things to keep your mind on, like going to your part time job and focusing on finishing up your classes to get your degree. You were busy, but that didn’t stop you from stopping whatever you were doing and glancing through your window to see if you could catch a glimpse at your new neighbor.

You blamed it on stupid infatuation. He was incredibly attractive and you were bored, and you weren’t the only one to think so, since your mother the other day said something about inviting your new ‘attractive neighbors’ to dinner one night. You hated how quick you were to say it was a good idea.

One thing that you learned was that your window was right across from your neighbor's master bedroom, which meant that when the curtains were drawn back, you could see right into their room. Which really wasn’t often, since it was only a side window and they had a much bigger window in the front of the house that was open way more often. But sometimes, if you looked at the right time, you could see Anakin or his wife walking around or talking with one another.

You wondered what she was like. She was very beautiful, with coffee brown hair that stayed in natural curls. She also had a good sense of style, always looking classy and elegant that made you feel out of place every time you and her were outside at the same time for whatever reason. It was wrong to be comparing yourself to her, you shouldn’t, and again blamed it on some stupid fantasy you had made up in your head. It was childish, sure, but it wasn’t like anything was ever going to happen.

You could hear him now, downstairs in the open hallway leading to your kitchen and dining room, talking to your mother about something you couldn’t quite make out. It was later in the evening, almost seven, and your family decided to give the courtesy of inviting the Skywalkers to dinner tonight, something you had been looking forward to since your mother informed you a day prior. Splaying your hands on the front of your black dress, you made sure that there were no creases, looking in the mirror to do one final once over of your appearance. You looked nice, maybe nicer than your family were going for, but no one would comment on it anyways. There was a golden necklace around your neck that had been given to you for your birthday a few years ago, which accented right off of your chest. Once you were satisfied, you opened the door to your room and walked down the steps, getting closer to the voices of your parents and your guests.

The second you got to the ground level of your home and saw the backs of both Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala, you made a beeline for the other direction, deciding to make a detour to the kitchen, stumbling over your feet. You didn’t see all of him, but you could see that Anakin was wearing a dark navy blue dress shirt and those black pants that he was always in, the ones that you always ended up looking at for more than the normal amount of time. Pressing your palms into the countertop, you took deep breaths, trying to compose yourself. This shouldn’t be so hard, you were making a big deal out of this . . . Right? You once again had to repeat to yourself that he was married and there was no way that anything could happen, even though deep down you wished that something would.

“There you are, why didn’t you come down earlier?” Your mother asked, walking into the room and heading for the oven, the smell of something cooking taking over your senses and taking you away from your thoughts. “Anakin was asking about you.”

You almost choked on the air you breathed in. “He was asking about me?” Your tone was a little too questionable and she turned to look at you behind her shoulder, her eyebrow raised and a tiny smile on her face. “I mean, why was he asking about me?” You asked, attempting to save yourself.

“I don’t know, something about a ball and his kids, did they almost hit you or something?”

Oh, right. The incident at the barbeque. Of course that’s why he was asking, that’s probably the only time he had thought about you.

“So, anyways, go out there and be a charmer. Your brother is terrible at it and you know your father is probably boring them with business stuff,” She said, going back to the meal she was preparing. You nodded, deciding it was finally time to face them and get your own awkwardness out of the way.  The walk to the dining room was brisk and you saw that your father was, in fact, talking about something business related. Padmé seemed somewhat interested, but Anakin was definitely not listening by the way he stared down at the table. You almost laughed, before realizing that your father was talking to you now and you had no idea what he was saying. You were too busy looking at Anakin, seeing his blue eyes dart to your own the moment you walked in the room.

You faltered for a moment. “What’d you say?” You glanced at your dad.

“I was just saying that you finally joined us!” He said, giving you one of his kind dad smiles. You flashed one back, meekly sitting in the only seat that was open at the table, conveniently right next to the person you were trying to keep your distance from. As you pulled your seat out and sat down next to Anakin, your father started talking to Padmé again. You were glad that the attention had seemingly been taken off of you and you could try to keep yourself together for the rest of this dinner.

Though that didn’t seem to be in your favor.

“Luke wanted me to tell you that he was sorry about kicking that ball again, he seems to be really broken up about it, not sure why,” Anakin said to you, turning his head to look right at you again.

You laughed, looking down at your hands in your lap and shrugged your shoulders. “I don’t know, you may be hearing from my lawyers soon,” You joked, facing him and seeing a grin on his face. “But you’re one, right? So you should be good.”

“I’m not sure, you have a good case,” He joked, taking a sip of his wine. “I haven’t seen you around in a while, still picking up shifts for your friend?” He remembered.

You nodded. “Yeah, but I’m all done now. We get off for the Fourth tomorrow anyways.” The summer holiday had come quickly this year, but it was still something to look forward to. You loved all the fireworks and the food that came with the celebration. In addition to that, it was your family’s favorite holiday as well, meaning that everyone would go out to celebrate like you always did with the traditional block party that the Skywalker’s would now be invited to. It was as if Anakin would never get out of your life no matter how much you wished to avoid him.

Perhaps it was silly, this whole idea that you could have some type of romance with him. He was married, and it seemed like they were happy together. They had two beautiful children together, nothing could ever change that fact.

“That’s good, your mother was telling us all a while ago about the party. You guys sure love to throw them,” Anakin teased, taking a sip of his glass of wine. You watched his lips meet the glass, noting how pink they looked in the correct light. It took you a moment to compose yourself, looking down at the table and taking the biggest breath you could take without him noticing.

You gave a nod, opening your mouth to say something but being greeted by your mother walking in the room with different pots in hand. Finally, a good distraction that could get your mind off of the hunk of the man beside you. Padmé said something about the food that you couldn’t quite make out, reaching to grab one of the serving spoons while you grabbed for the other. Right as your hand hit the wood handle, Anakin’s own hand came down on yours, him not knowing that you were going to reach for the same one.

“Sorry,” You said, hoping that he would mistake your blush from the contact for embarrassment. Luckily, he only gave you a glance and pulled his hand away.

“You first.”

You took some of the food onto your plate, looking down at it until you were sure that the blush had diminished. The room was so hot at this point that you thought that it was possibly on fire. But it wasn’t, it was all because of how close you were to your neighbor, so close that you could feel his presence right next to you and you could smell the cologne that you had smelled the first day that you met him, bringing you back to the moment you looked into his eyes for the first time. You were sure that if you thought about him any more that you would combust right then and there. So you focused on eating, staying silent while the others made small talk.

Minutes passed by and you felt somewhat comfortable again, reaching beside you to grab your phone to check it under the table. Messages blinked up at you, almost illuminating your face as you read: Y/N! Please pick up. I left my computer at work and my brother has my car. I need it tomorrow so that I can work on my thesis, please, please, please can you get it? It was your best friend. Your heart practically thumped out of your chest at the opportunity to get out of this whole ordeal, where you could take your time to get the computer as long as the Skywalker’s would stay over. And then you would have an excuse for your mom instead of just sneaking off to your room.

“Mom, it’s Julia,” You said, holding up your phone so that she could read the text. “I’m sorry, I really need to stop by work and get her computer. It’s important.” You knew that she wouldn’t be happy about you leaving, but nonetheless she said you could go and you were already halfway out the door when you heard your father shouting your name.

Turning around, you saw that he was standing up with Anakin, a firm hand on your neighbor’s shoulder. “Anakin has offered to drive you. It’s late, you know how bad those roads get at night and I would feel more comfortable if you went with him,” Your dad said. You didn’t really have much room to object, since Anakin was already walking into the entrance area and putting on his coat, a black one that matched the same ‘put together’ style that he always seemed to have.

“Okay,” You said, feeling your nerves turn you almost inside out.

“We’ll be back as soon as we can,” Anakin said to everyone, walking behind you out the door and closing it.

You walked to the car alone with Anakin, basically jumping out of your seat in joy the moment you sat down.

[pockyxx]

“ how the haikyuu captains confess ”

daichi x fem! reader, kuroo x fem! reader, ushijima x fem! reader, bokuto x fem reader and oikawa x fem! reader

genre: fluff.

daichi 

people already though the two of you were dating

he always does typical boyfriend things i.e holds bags, compliments, the only thing that was missing was  physical intimacy 

he’d be on the fine line of romantic and straight forward 

he kinda already knew that you knew he liked you 

he got the team’s advice on what to do but it was useless bc they’ve never been with a girl RIP 

“Y/n, I’m glad I caught up to you!” He seemed a little more nervous than normal but you brushed it off as just nervous for his up coming practice match. 

“Hey Daichi-san, what’s up?” You closed your locker, finishing up with your own club activities. The two of you continued to walk while also keeping up the conversation, Daichi holding the door open for you. 

Your heart slightly fluttered as you walked so close with them, wondering if today was the day that Daichi was finally going to confess. One of the first years had accidentally let it slip one day when you stopped by his practice. 

“Well, actually, there’s been something on my mind. It’s been on my mind for a while, honestly.” He stopped walking, nervously opening his backpack to grab something. 

You gave him an innocent look even though it’s been a moment you’ve been waiting for for a long time. 

“I like you, y/n. Like a lot.” He extended his hand and offered you your favorite candy bar, something that he always carried around with him. “I like when I get to see your bright smile, and your laugh makes me feel so warm inside. I just like the person I am around you and how you make me want to be a better person all together.” 

It had been clear that he hadn’t exactly planned what he was going to say but it was still meaningful nonetheless. 

“It took you long enough.” You flashed a cheeky grin, “Hinata told me by accident, I’ve just been waiting for you to finally spill the beans.” You laughed, filling his heart with joy. 

“So this means you’ll let me take you on a date?” He wondered, blushing and making a mental note to make the younger boy run extra laps. You nodded rapidly, taking his hands in yours, proceeding with your walk. 

kuroo 

have you seen how he talks to his team 

he would have his confession planned for a week 

He’d be rehearsing that shit in the mirror every morning

he’d probably get really freaked out the day of though 

when you say you like him back and confess in a similar manner he’s as red as a tomato 

he practiced on kenma and get his advice

“Are you a carbon sample? Because I want to date you-” Kuroo was instantly cut off by his younger friend who was still glued to his game. 

“You’re really going to finish off such a sentimental confession with a stupid chemistry pick up line. That’s gross.” He commented as Kuroo was left scratching his head. He’d been planning on confessing to you for a while now but was still stuck on what to say. 

“But she loves when I made chemistry jokes.” His face dropped, conflicted with what to do. Was his friend right? Do girls not like that sort of thing? 

“Well you better decide quick because her she comes.” You had turned the corner with all their refilled water bottles and his heart began to race up. What would happen if you said you didn’t like him back? It would create such an awkward relationship between you two; which wouldn’t be good between a captain and a team manager. 

“Here are your waters.” You passed both volleyball players their drinks as you rested your hands on your hips, “what were you guys talking about?” 

Kenma kept a straight face while Kuroo flushed slightly. Pressing a finger to your lips, you thought of a way to lighten the clearly tense mood. 

“You’ve defiantly being improving your serves, Kuroo-san. I’ve been keeping ion you!” You covered your mouth, not wanted to let out a laugh at such a cheesy joke. That was Kenma’s cue to walk off, giving Kuroo the thumbs up to proceed-- it was now or never. 

“Well, there’s something you should know too, chibi-can.” He swallowed any anxious nerves he had, “You make my heart flutter every moment I see you; you just take me breath away and not just because of you looks. I like how funny you are, and you always seem to put a smile on my face. I know this is very random but I’ve been holding in my feelings for a very long time and I thought I was going to explode not being able to tell you.” 

You smiled, bashing your eyelashes, you never knew your captain had feelings for you. Heck, your crush had feelings for you. 

“So basically, what I’ve been meaning to ask is; are you a carbon sample? Because I want to date you?” He held his breath, wondering if Kenma was going to be right. His heart pounded even faster at the sight of your lips twisting to an even bigger smile (if that was even possible). 

ushijima 

it could go one of two ways 

either he could be super blunt and hit you with the ‘I like you y/n.’

OR it would be over the top and only because he consulted tendou

tendou’s probably watched a handful of romance animes and has ushijima prepares chocolates, flowers, the whole 9 yards 

ushi is just nodded and taking notes like... 

just confess to her at the summer festival, girls love that, bonus points if you do it under the fire works.

tendou’s words rang through ushijimas head as he walked side by side with you at the summer festival. he’d done everything tendou had instructed him to up until that point. he’s bought you the best taiyaki, he’d let you hold his hand as to not get lost in the crowd and he’d even won you a small stuffed animal that now rested under your arm pit.

“I think the fireworks are about to start.” you hummed as wakatoshi realized he needed to get into the right position.

“then why don’t we go someone more private.” he offered you a rare smile as your cheeks started to burn up with fluster.

it wasn’t like ushijima was a cold heart person but seeing him suggest something so thoughtful, your heart fluttered with the idea that someone greater was about to happen.

nodding, you let ushijima pull you off as the two of you got a better of the sky that was soon to be filled with a display of lights. he’d taken you away from the crowd, up on a small empty lot of gross that was elevated compared to the rest of the festival.

“y/n, I enjoyed tonight.” he cleared his throat, catching your attention. you nodded in agreement,

“hopefully we can go to more festivals today, of course if your not busy with volleyball!” you smiled happily. ushijima was quick to respond.

“I’d like that very much.” he paused, “y/n, i’m often told that i don’t show emotions well or that i’m very blunt.”

you watched him with curious eyes, stating that that wasn’t all ways a bad thing.

“that’s right. this is a time where i think it’s good to be blunt. you see, y/n, i enjoy spending time with you and that i like you, very much.”

bokuto 

it accidentally slipped out 

he always gets a little shy when he think about it so he simply doesn’t 

you’ll be something fairly mundane and he’ll just pause and go 

“you do that so well, that’s why I think I’m in love with you.” 

you’d get flustered because it was so out of the blue 

he’d fill akaashi in the next day and akaashi would make him re-do the confession

“You’re so good at cleaning the white board, y/n, but I guess everything you do is good because that’s why I like you.” You and Bokuto had class room chores together after school and he was watching you, in a hazy spell, resting his hand on his head. 

You blushed, not knowing if Bokuto was actually being serious or if he was just being overly kind. You just pretended like you didn’t hear him, continuing with what you were doing. If you can confessed your feelings back and he wasn’t serious, you would’ve died of embarrassment. 

“Bokuto-san are you going to help or not?” You turned around seeing Bokuto covering his face as he rested his head on the desk. “Uh, Bokuto-san are you alright?” 

He looked up at you only for you to see what you recognized as his emo mode. You frowned your eyebrows as he jumped up, bursting out with emotion. 

“No! I just confessed to the girl that I like and, and, and I wasn’t ready!” He grabbed his bag and ran for the door, “please forgive me for not doing my share of the work, y/n.” 

You were left speechless, watching as the gray haired boy ran away. You laughed realizing what he meant and put you into such a happy mood you didn’t even care that you had to finish all the chores. 

The next morning, you were greeted at the gates of Fukuordani by Bokuto who held a box of you favorite snack and a small teddy bear. Shyly extending the gifts out to you. 

“I bet you know what I’m going to say, so just, uh, please take these.” It had been what Akaashi had instructed and you took them with pleasure. 

“These will make up for all my hard work yesterday keeping out classroom spic-and-span.” You giggle, Bokuto looked at you with pouty eyes as you continued, “and if you didn’t run out so quickly you would’ve know what I like you too.” 

His eyes gleamed as you covered your slightly blushing face with your hand. Bokuto engulfed you in a hug and the two of you becoming boyfriend and girlfriend. 

oikawa 

he’s been confessed to so much that confessions make him nauseous tbh 

he’d make it very personal and romantic, though 

if not romantic he’d want it to be just the two of you 

he knew if he told any of the third years about if his plans, they’d ruin the moment; showing up to film the whole experience (mattsun and makki) 

he would secretly be the most nervous out of all of them 

You were helping Iwaizumi and taking over his cleaning shift with Oikawa. Oikawa was kinda glad the ace had a dentist appointment, so he could finally get you alone with out his team mates or fan girls there to ruin the moment. 

“Say, y/n-chan, I’m pretty lucky to have such a pretty girl helping me clean up.” His eyes were on the ball he was rubbing the marks off of, not really seeing your expression, defended by the sound of his heart thumping rapidly. 

You frowned, liking Oikawa was no easy task because everyone seemed to like him. Sure, he complimented you now, but he always compliments girls. It hurt your heart not knowing how sincere he was. 

“Don’t worry about it Oikawa-san, I’m always happy to help.” You sighed, finishing pumping a deflated volleyball. The Oikawa you had grown to love wasn’t the pretty, flashy volleyball player but the determined captain who always brought out the best in his teammates. It was the hard working, smart and passionate Toru that made your heart do flips. 

“Y/n...” His voiced trailed off, you noticed there wasn’t a cute little ‘chan’ following it. You turned to face him, not realizing your vision had gone blurry from tears pooling in them. 

“Are you alright?” Out of concern he placed his hands in your shoulders and that seemed to snapped you out of the spell you’d fallen under.

Rubbing your eyes, you nodded, looking down at your feet to avoid Oikawa’s gaze. You wished he’d let go of you, so you heart could just go back to its normal pace.

“Y/n did I say something to upset you—Im sorry.” He seemed to be holding his breath until he saw you shake your heard, reassuring him he’d done nothing wrong. Toru sighed.

“I hate seeing you upset, do you know that?” Surpised, you looked up at him, almost beckoning him to eleborate. Oikawas mind was racing— he wasn’t planning on confessing right there and then but he decided to sieze the moment.

“Out of all the girls I talk to, you’re the only one that makes me feel like this...” With your mouth gapping he took your hand and directed it to his chest where you could feel his rapid heartbeat.

“Oikawa-san...” You trailed off, at a loss of words. Between the hand touching his toned chest and the honey-like words coming out of his mouth, it sent you into over drive.

“Everything about you makes me crazy and-and well y/n... i like you!”

Nodding off, your brain couldn’t fully comprehend what your body was doing. leaning forward, reaching up to his lips you. kiss. him.

“Woah.” Oikawa breathed out, shocked at how you reciprocated his feeling until he was brought back to his usual behaviour, “so... you wanna go out with me?”

[peterprkrsbtch]

sapphire - part 2

Peter Parker x reader

A/n: Part 1 is up on my page! There’s a couple flashbacks in this one so I put the dates before so it doesn’t get confusing. If you enjoy this one, like or reblog to share! I already wrote part 3 and it’s my favorite one yet so that’ll def be up soon :)

tag- @juliannaamonroe​

Warnings: swearing, make out, violence

(September 1)

We’re one minute away. Come out hoe!

You smile as you read the text, glancing at yourself in the mirror again, nerves and excitement ablaze in your stomach. You’d been planning for this day since last winter, and now it was finally here. You adjust your carefully styled hair and double check that the natural makeup you applied was sitting on your skin correctly.

Of course it was. That goddamn injection sometimes made you feel like a vampire out of twilight and sometimes you still got surprised when you saw your own face while passing a mirror or a particularly reflective window. You smooth down the ruffles of your short black skirt and tug the top of your tank top down so a bit more of your curves show.

You put on your white sneakers and tug your shirt back up to cover your chest again. We’ll have to work up to that, I guess. A long honk sounds from outside your apartment building and you curse as you scramble to grab your backpack and phone before running down and out the front steps.

“Awwww,” You say sweetly at the sight of the two girls who had become your best friends. “That’s the shirt you were wearing when we met, Ally.” You jokingly brush away a tear, pretending to be ultra touched.

“Best damn day of my life.” Ally says from her spot in the drivers seat, laughing at your dramatics. She may be joking around, but her sentiment makes your heart clench. This year really was going to be different.

***

(July 3)

You quickly realized you needed to find some Midtown friends if your plan for senior year was going to work. If you dared to show up looking, well, like you do, completely alone and friendless, you might become even more of an outcast than you were before. The first month of summer had been the least lonely time of your year so far, thanks to a certain Spiderman.

The two of you spent most of your nights together, flying through the city, fighting crime together, and talking. The “slow” nights that used to fill you with boredom quickly became your favorite when he was involved. The sound of his laugh and the jokes he makes during fights quickly became the highlight of your days.

But you couldn’t let yourself get too distracted by him. After all, neither of you knew what the other looked like. The only other boy you’d ever found remotely cute (other than celebrities) was nerdy Peter Parker from your high school. He wasn’t your usual type and he seemed to be just as shy as you were, so you had little (zero) hope that it would ever lead to anything more than a smile during the hallway if you accidentally made eye contact.

Sorry Spiderman, but no way in hell are you gonna make me lose my focus. The loneliness you had felt through the last three years of high school was too much. Your plan had to work. So that night as the two of you patrolled together, you softly mentioned that you were going to a pool party tomorrow and wouldn’t be able to meet.

He seemed a bit disappointed, but you brushed it off, trying to remember the names of the girls at your school who seemed nice. Peter, however, couldn’t focus on anything other than the fact that you had told him where you would be tomorrow. There was only so many pool parties in a city like New York.

You tried not to think about who was under the Spiderman mask out of respect and, to be honest, it seemed like a pointless endeavor. Peter was not the same. No matter how tired he was from patrol, he always had time to lay awake before he fell asleep and picture what you would look like under the mask.

There wasn’t very many people who understood Peter’s secret life. None, actually, until you. Maybe that was why he was so intrigued by you, because you were so similar, but in his heart he knew that wasn’t it. He liked you. And he hated himself for it. But once you mentioned the pool party, he made sure to take one long last glance at the color of your hair before you two said goodbye. Just in case he happened to see that same hair tomorrow.

(July 4)

You were so, so nervous. Your closet of exclusively sweats and hoodies was trashed as Part 1 of your plan, much to your mother’s happiness. She had always been honest about her hatred of your junior year clothes and was extremely excited to purchase everything you needed. As distant as she was, you had to give her a little credit.

Although you’d been wearing the new clothes for the past month, this was the first time you were doing it so publicly. Your denim shorts exposed miles of smooth leg, and you’d decided to wear a red tube top in honor of the holiday-not to mention it really showed off your curves. You’d meticulously done your hair and makeup like you’d been practicing the past month and prayed that somebody would talk to you today.

You’d seen the flyer for the Fourth of July party on Instagram, which had been step 2. Unfortunately, you had two followers. Your mom and her boyfriend. Step 2 is a work in progress.

One long walk later, and you’re in front of the address. You swear you could explode of nerves right there, but instead you take a deep breath and force your legs to carry you inside the house and towards the people out by the pool.

Your eyes are so focused on your destination, the glass sliding door, that you barely notice when you bump shoulders with someone, causing you to drop your phone.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going.” You say, reaching down to grab your phone.

“Oh my god, stop. That was totally my fault.” You stand back up to see the girl who was speaking, and you recognize her immediately. Her name is Ally, and she’s a part of the most popular group at school. Despite her long black hair and sweet smile, you haven’t heard many good things about her. Not the type of person you were looking for.

“Do you go to Midtown? I don’t think I’ve seen you around.” Ally says, making no move to walk away from the conversation.

“Yeah, actually. My name is Y/n?” You don’t miss the way her eyebrows raise and her eyes widen with confusion and shock. You’re embarrassed now, realizing maybe you weren’t as invisible as you’d thought. In an effort to explain away the last few years, “My dad left a couple years ago and it was pretty hard on me, but I’m all better now.” You flash the most dazzling smile you can manage and hope she accepts it.

“No way, mine did too!” She gasps as she grabs your hands. You feel a small pang of guilt at that. It was a lie, you had no idea who your dad was and frankly, you didn’t think your mom knew either.

The conversation starts to flow between you and Ally easily as you make your way out to the pool. “This is my best friend Betty.” Ally introduces you to the sweet-as-pie girl and the three of you quickly fall into a conversation like you’d known each other forever. A few of their guy friends tried to come up and talk to you, but she just waved them away. “Leave us alone, we just met our new best friend.”

You felt bad for judging Ally so harshly earlier, blindly trusting the stupid rumors you’d heard about her. Popular or not, the three of you got along better than any of the other friends you’d tried to make throughout your life. They do briefly make fun of your instagram before forcing you to take and post pictures with the two of them by the pool. They both tag your account.

Peter didn’t seem to share the good luck you did. He’d dragged Ned to 6 different pool parties across the city and saw no one who looked like Sapphire. Disappointed, he spent the night patrolling alone and dodging fireworks.

***

(September 1)

Since that day, you’d become a trio with Ally and Betty. The day after the pool party you’d woken up to nearly 1,000 followers on your instagram. Everyone from Midtown who never gave you a second look when you had your hood shoved over your head now wanted to be your friend.

The three of you spent the rest of your summer days together, and you fit into the popular friend group better than you could have imagined. Maybe you watched too many teen movies, but you expected them to be mean. The only mean one was Flash, and even he was basically harmless. You’d given up Saturday night patrols with Spiderman for a weekly girls night with your new best friends. You thought having new friends and a bustling social life would’ve made it easier to forget about Spiderman, but somehow he seeped into every area of your life.

That damn laugh. As Ally and Betty sing along to the radio loudly, you bite your lip to stop a dumb smile from rising to your lips. God, just thinking about him made you flustered. As Ally drives into the school parking lot, nerves bubble in your stomach.

As if you aren’t stressed enough, your brain decides this is the perfect moment to remind you of the one night this summer you and Spiderman haven’t talked about since.

*** (August 14)

The two of you were sprawled out on a gravel rooftop next to each other. Not the most comfortable of relaxing spots, but you’d both grown tired of flying around under the summer heat with no hint of trouble for miles.

“This sucks.” Spiderman huffs out.

“Rude.” You reply quickly, even though you know he isn’t talking about you.

“Oh, no,” He immediately sits up. “I didn’t mean you suck, I just meant, you know, because there’s not much going on right now and it’s hot and-” He sees your cheeky smile and stops himself with a laugh. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s cute.” You bite your lip. The fuck did I just say? Before you can begin to explain, he jumps to his feet.

“Spidey sense, let’s go!” You jump up too and follow after him as he jumps off the building. Thank god. I’ve never been so grateful that someone’s in trouble. The fight was tough, even with the both of you. These men had strange guns that keep firing at you and Spiderman even though you’d tried multiple times to crush them with your powers.

“The guns are magic-proof! I can’t destroy them!” You yell over to Spiderman as you take down one of the men in between punches.

Somehow, two men get ahold of their guns and corner you. Just as you start levitating to fly over them, a web shoots from somewhere behind them and the men and their guns are yanked away. Spiderman wastes no time and you swear he seems angry with the two men as he webs them to the wall next to their friends before picking up the guns and violently smashing them on the ground.

You’re still frozen in shock, watching him. When he seems to be satisfied with the broken pile of guns on the floor, he runs back over to you. “I’m so sorry, I know we promised-” You finally break out of whatever trance you were in to place a finger over his lips, casting a disgusted glance towards the men staring at you from their webbed cocoons.

“Not here.” You say quietly, and fly the two of you quickly up to the roof. He blinks for a second, his head spinning from the speed. You rarely use your full speed, especially with him, but you had to get out of there. “Okay, go ahead.” You say after a second of silence.

“I’m so sorry, I know we agreed not to get in each other’s way, and I know you can handle yourself, probably better than I can. Hold on, I didn’t mean I handle you. That sounded weird. Anyways, I just got so angry when I saw those men pointing their guns at you I had to-” He’s talking about the agreement you two had made when you first started working together. You both obviously were skilled, so you agreed that you wouldn’t interrupt each other’s fights unless asked.

“Spidey, I really don’t care you interrupted. It was hot.” JESUS CHRIST NOT AGAIN. You immediately winced and slap a hand over your mouth. “Oh my god I did NOT mean to say that I’m so sorry.”

Your rambling is cut off as Spiderman’s hand travels up to the bottom of his mask and you think your eyes might fall out of your head with how wide they become as he begins to pull it up, revealing the soft pale skin of his neck.

His jaw, chin, and then lips become visible as he lets the mask rest on his nose. The 0.5 seconds that have passed since you stopped talking feel like an eternity until he suddenly leans forward, crashing his lips into yours. Spiderman is an amazing kisser, you decide, as you gently kiss him back.

WHAT AM I DOING? Your mind is going haywire but instead of stopping, you deepen the kiss and nearly smile when he lets out a low moan. Everything you’ve told yourself about focus and distractions flies out the window when his gloved hands clutch your waist and pull you closer to him than you thought possible.

It feels like it’s only been a second when he pulls away, but your eyes flicker to his swollen lips and you know it must have been longer. You smile as you stare at his lips, only inches from yours, but as your gaze moves to the rest of his exposed skin the smile drops slowly.

Your rational mind comes back. It’s easy to forget when you’re with him that you’ve only known each other a couple months. How could you do this? Your first time making out with a boy, and he doesn’t even know your name.

“We shouldn’t be doing this.” You whisper as he starts to say something.  “Sorry, what were you going to say?” He blinks slowly and takes a deep breath before stepping away from you.

“Nevermind. See you tomorrow.” And he swings away from you. You silently curse yourself for being such a big mouth, wanting to know what he would have said. You can’t help the small voice in the back of your head, telling you that you made the wrong decision.

You raise your hand to run your fingers along your tingling lips before flying home as fast as you can.

***

(September 1)

You wince at the painful memory before reminding yourself everything was back to normal the next day and neither of you mentioned it again. You still weren’t sure if that was good or bad. You force all thoughts of Spiderman out of your brain and even give Ally an encouraging cheer when she successfully parks on her first try.

You don’t remember Midtown having so many fucking students last year, but maybe it was because they were all staring at you. Any confidence you’d had as you opened Ally’s car door had disappeared as everyone around you turned to gawk. The bright smile you’d pasted on a second ago quickly fell and you glanced at Ally nervously.

“Come on, girls!” She says enthusiastically, grabbing an arm from you and Betty as she breaks the brief moment of awkward silence. God bless you Ally. As the three of you hoist your bags over your shoulders and make your way into the school, you mouth a quick thank you her way, hoping she can see your genuine appreciation. She smiles at you. “I’m happy we’re going into this year as three instead of two.”

Betty leans forward to smile at you. “Me too, y/n. I’m really happy you’re here.”  You smile back brightly. There really was no one as sweet as Betty.

“You won’t be so happy I’m here when I talk your ear off during class.” The three of you continue laughing and joking your way down the hall to stop at your lockers.

“Oh my god, is that Y/n?” Ned interrupts Peter’s latest ramble about his night with Sapphire. Usually, he really did listen. Ned was fully invested in the superhero love story, as he called it, unfolding. But the sight of a girl notorious for hiding in her own baggy clothes across the hall in a miniskirt and tank top was more important.

“Y/n?” Peter asks, confused why Ned wasn’t paying attention. But when he turned around to see what Ned was staring at, he understood. He’d seen you around school the past three years, but never like this.

You looked like a fucking model. And everyone in the hall couldn’t help but stare. “Holy shit.”

“Right, dude?” Ned breathes out, the two of them shamelessly staring. “Why didn’t that happen to me over summer? Oh my god, of course she’s friends with Betty.”

Peter laughs as his best friend goes on about “two pretty best friends” but he can’t take his eyes off of you. The light in your eyes as you joke with your friends, making them double over in laughter, feels strangely familiar. Or maybe that’s wishful thinking on his part because you’re extremely pretty.

He watches in surprise as you and Ally walk up to the AP Chem classroom, waving goodbye to Betty sadly as she heads off to English. You turn to walk into the classroom after Ally, but you pause and look back down the hallway-right at him. Instead of yelling at him for being a creep like he expected, you smile at him widely before heading into the class. He exhales deeply and glances down at his schedule quickly, a smile appearing. AP Chem.

Of course his thoughts are still consumed by Sapphire, but it was hard to ignore you especially after seeing his name on the seating chart next to yours in the back row. Plus, Sapphire was the one who’d shot him down after he finally tried to make a move after catching onto the hints he thought she’d been dropping.

He felt bad for thinking that about her, he didn’t blame her at all. He knew there was a million reasons they shouldn’t be together-and he didn’t want to know specifics on why he wasn’t good enough. Sapphire hadn’t brought up that night since, and he was fine to pretend it never happened.

You were already in your seat at the lab table, but Ally was still standing next to you waving her hands wildly as you two spoke. He doesn’t want to interrupt so he freezes in place, unsure of whether or not to go sit down. He’d thought you were cute, and a little shy like him in freshman and sophomore year and he remembered the many times he would look at you from across the room like he is now.

His eyes had been quick to find you whenever you two were in the same room ever since the first day of school freshman year when you smiled at him in the hall. Even last year, when all he saw of you was a curled up lump at your desk or a sliver of hair peeking out from behind your hood he still noticed you.

Luckily for him, the bell rings and he slides into his seat just as the teacher begins speaking. “Hi, Peter.” You lean over to him, your shoulders nearly touching, and whisper so the teacher doesn’t hear. “I’m y/n.” You smile warmly as his cheeks and ears turn light pink.

“You don’t have to introduce yourself. We’ve gone to school together since we were 6?” Now it’s your turn to be embarrassed and you purse your lips together.

“No, I know, just-” Peter notices you seem a bit frustrated as you glance around the room and then lean even closer to him. “Everybody thinks I’m new.” You nervously mess with your bracelet.

“You do look a bit different.” He points out and you raise your eyebrows before sighing slowly and shrugging.

“I was just sick of feeling invisible, you know. Not because I care what anyone here thinks. Last year was just, really, really lonely.” Peter watches you intently as you speak, hanging onto your every word.

Your confession made him sad. If only he’d been brave enough to ask if you were okay. You pause for a second and meet his eyes. Any other guy in this school would’ve laughed at you by now. You gesture to your outfit and nervously adjust your skirt. “I’m also not a superficial person. It wasn’t about changing how I looked, I just needed the confidence to put myself out there.” You pause and nod towards Ally with a smile. Peter glances over to Ally and sees her blow you a kiss, which you catch across the room with a giggle.

I miss you! She mouths with a dramatic frown and this time Peter laughs quietly with you. “I thought she was a bitch before I met her.” He looks at you with surprise to find you smiling at him. “But,” you hold up a finger for dramatic effect, “because I put myself out there, I met my best friends. A lot of people around here judge on appearances. I’m not like that anymore.” You say with confidence.

“That’s really cool of you.” Peter whispers back, and the sound sends an involuntary shiver down your spine. He’s so close to you and the feelings you thought you left behind two years ago don’t seem so left behind as you stare into his warm eyes. “For the record, I’d be your friend no matter what you look like.”

Peter has only been this nervous a couple times before in his life, and he can’t help but feel like he’s betraying Sapphire with the way he’s thinking about you. He watches as you smile warmly at his words and extend your hand towards his.

“Friends? Even though I'm so much uglier now?” You pout your bottom lip out, a smile tugging at the corners of your mouth. He nearly laughs out loud and has to remind himself you’re still in class. “I know guys go wild for the homeless man sweatpants look.” You’re both trying to hold back your laughter, shaking silently in the back of the class as he raises his hand and grabs yours.

“Friends.” Peter isn’t sure why he keeps going, but he does. “And just so you know, you were never ugly. I don’t know why you tried so hard to hide yourself last year, but even then,” the words leaving his mouth sound confident but Peter takes a deep breath before looking up from his lap to meet your eyes. Your wide eyes and surprised smile give him just the confidence he needs to finish. “You could never be ugly.” Peter can hear his heart beating.

You blink at him. This boy could not be real. Here he was, basically implying that the one thing you had wanted all along, for somebody to notice you, was true. Not only was it true, but it was Peter fucking Parker telling you this. Despite everything that had changed you in the past year, the giddy feeling in your bones brought you back to sophomore year and pining over Peter.

“Really?” Your smile spreads and he seems to let out a deep breath of relief.

“Yeah.” He smiles back at you until your sweet moment is interrupted by a fat ass syllabus dropping onto the lab table in front of you.

“Fuck,” you whisper. “This class is gonna be so much homework.” You turn the page so Peter can briefly see the list of projects alone, and it’s enough to make him cringe.

Something about the way the whispers travel back and forth between you all class makes you realize you hadn’t fallen into a friendship this easily, even with Ally. Even with Spiderman, your brain points out.

A red and blue suit swings into your mind and you are hit with a wave of guilt. Not two hours ago I was thinking about my make out with Spiderman, and now I’m comparing him to Peter? 

You have all but one class together, and you can’t help but glance in Peter’s direction any chance you get. The only time you don’t see him is at lunch, even though you look all around the lunch room for him or the boy he’d been standing with this morning. You thought it would be too creepy to ask him where he’d been.

Finally, the last bell of the day rang, and you were sure if you didn’t have superpowers you would’ve been exhausted. School is kinda draining when you actually acknowledge people. Ally and Betty share your complaints about being tired on your drive home, all three of you agreeing you need naps. You kiss them both on the cheek and wave goodbye before heading up to your room.

Forget what I said about having superpowers. I’m fucking tired. You lay down on your bed, groaning into the pillow at the thought of having to patrol tonight. You sat up abruptly. You’d never dreaded patrol, it was always the thing you looked forward to. You glance towards the suit in your closet and sigh.

It’s not patrol I’m nervous about. It’s him. You feel incredibly guilty about today. I’m not a two timer. If I want to like Peter, I have to talk to Spiderman about that kiss first. You start to make your way over to the closet before another wave of exhaustion hits, sending you straight back to your bed.

After a nap. Then we’ll talk.

[broadstflyers]

A/N: I am so excited to be starting my first ever series. This is inspired by Taylor Swift’s “Cardigan” because her music creates stories in my head that I must write down on (digital) paper. Please keep in mind this chapter is written in past tense, and the story probably won't be in present tense for at least another few chapters. Let me know what you think! If you want to be on the tag list for the next chapter, or drop any (constructive) feedback, you can take this survey here.

Word Count: 2.3K

Warnings: None

Summary: They say at fourteen you’re too young to know you’re in love. But what if you aren’t?

Navigation: chapter two

Grade: 9 Age: 14 --------------------------------- As sure as you are that spring comes after winter, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and seconds turn into minutes, you know you are in love with Joel Farabee. Not the gushy “I want to hug you and kiss you and never let you go” love, the intense “I want to burst at the seams because I just want to scream it on the rooftops and tell you and it literally crushes my heart that I can’t” love.

Yeah, that love.

The problem?

You were only fourteen when you knew.

Yes, the grand old age of fourteen. The age you were supposed to be nervously texting multiple boys, wondering if you were going to be asked to the ninth grade dance and worrying about who your first kiss was going to be, or even the first person you were going to hold hands with.

It started on the first day of school, but the start of it all was less than romantic. You shuffled up the hallway with one of your best friends, your feet felt like lead.

“What’s wrong?” Luna whispered in your ear.

“I really hate math,” you huffed. It was the last period of the day, eighth period, and you had to spend it in what was probably going to be a room full of rambunctious athletes who would be itching to burst out of the room at the very sound of the bell. How did you know this? Because you had been stuck in a class like that ever since the beginning of middle school. It made for some laughs, yes, but for some reason a pessimistic attitude bitterly swarmed around you in dark circles. Also, math in general made you anxious, and it didn’t help that the last few years you had to fend for yourself because of your lack of friends in said class.

“Well, at least you’ll have me this year,” Luna attempted to reassure you and your looming anxiety.

“Yeah, but I wonder who’s going to be in our class this year,” you mumbled. Your stomach swarmed with butterflies, but you’d rather call them icky moths.

Luna opened her mouth to respond, but you reached the door frame before her. Before you could even make it through the entrance, you made eye contact with a group of rowdy boys sitting at a table directly in front of you. You stopped dead in your tracks. They paused in their shouting to turn and look at you and Luna, since you were only about seven or eight feet away.

You scanned their faces, and you recognized most of them. They were mostly hockey players that played for the local team that looked for a shot at the NTDP in just a few short years. It was Syracuse, hockey was a pretty big deal there. There was also the prospective varsity quarterback and his star wide-receiver, these labels given to them at just fourteen. Of course, more athletes. Suddenly, you locked eyes with this boy you strangely have never seen before. His hand was hovering in air over his friend’s head with what you could only assume is his friend’s pencil in a lame attempt to keep him from grabbing it.

He blinked a few times, and you might have blinked a few times, you honestly couldn’t remember.

You snapped out of your trance and looked over to the board that said, “Welcome class! Pick your seats for the first day!”

“Hey,” Luna nudged you and grabbed your arm, “let’s sit over there.”

She lead you to a table adjacent to the boys’ table, despite your unheard protests of being “too close” to them.

You took your seat huffing, and you pulled out your binder and got ready for class, something you wished the crazy boys would pick up on. Thankfully the bell rang, your teacher shut the door, and class began.

That’s the first time you saw him. Not very eventful, but hey, you two were awkward fourteen year olds just entering grade nine. Of course things were not going to be all fireworks and love at first sight.

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

A few classes went by, and the only disturbance that occurred was when the class was taking one of those horrible diagnostic tests. See, you really hated disturbances, interruptions, anything relating to that matter.

So when this dude named Joel (you learned his name when he was yelled at for playing rap music in the middle of class) started fooling around with his friend while you were trying to figure out why letters were in math now, you weren’t happy, to say the least.

And when he locked eyes with you and made a silly face, yours did not move in a rather unamused manner. You simply blinked and looked back down at your test.

You missed his face slightly fall, but it was short lived when the teacher yelled his name from across the room and made everyone jump ten feet. He was quiet after that.

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

It was a random Tuesday in late October.

You and Luna were chatting about your previous classes, until you both stopped in your tracks and you raised an eyebrow. Everyone in your class was standing up and congregating away from tables. You could hear the ominous music creeping over everyone’s heads.

“Oh no,” you whined to Luna.

She winced. “We’re being assigned seats, aren’t we?”

You nodded. You both stood in the sea of kids and awaited your fate.

“Alright, everyone,” your teacher said. “You guys have been extremely chatty lately.” She paused to side-eye Joel and his friends.

He opened his mouth to protest, but he quickly shut it when she frowned.

“So you leave me no choice, but I must assign seats,” she dramatically said as she unveiled the new seating chart on the board.

Everyone pushed and shoved to the front to see where their name lied in the cards of fate. You heard some soft celebrations and loud protests.

You nudged your way in and scanned up and down the board. Luna wasn’t at the same table, but she was sitting facing towards you at another table. Hopefully you and her would be able to make eye contact. You scanned until you see your name fall right next to someone who you would rather forget you treated so poorly. It was there in bright, bold red.

Joel Farabee.

“Aw man,” you and a voice said in unison. You looked up at your side to see that it’s him. Oh dear brother. Did you both just admit out loud that you don’t want to sit next to each other? You and him rolled your eyes at each other, huffing that you’ll be forced to be in each other’s presence.

And you knew he was thinking some sort of variation of what you were: how dare your teacher.

You trudged over to your seat and plopped down. He threw down his stuff and sat next to you. You could sense his extreme dislike for your rather serious demeanor. Hey, you could crack a smile.

Just not around him. And for the life of you, you couldn’t figure out why. It’s almost like if you did, you knew you would never stop...

You both avoided eye contact, you played with your pencil as he yelled to one of his friends across the classroom about some stupid video game.

And that’s just how it was for weeks. You’d both come in, sit down, he’d scream to his friends, you’d fight shooting him a really dirty look.

Until one day, you accidentally did. Now, later when you told Luna, you swore up and down you didn’t mean to, and it was just the fact that seventh period gym was terrible (but when was it not). Okay, so maybe you were fed up with him yelling about whatever rap song came out, or whatever Instagram model popped up on his feed (that made you shutter).

But what you did wasn’t really admittedly the nicest.

“Joel, do you always have to yell so freaking loudly?” you snapped.

He feigned a stunned expression, or maybe he really meant it, who knows what goes on in that boy’s seemingly empty head.

“Do you have to be such a downer…like all the time? Kinda ruins the vibe bro.”

You rolled your eyes. “Thanks Joel, because the number one thing I care about is ruining your ‘vibe’,” you put that word in air quotes, “and not getting any work done in this class, bro.”

Now he rolled his eyes. “Look, you could benefit from loosening up a little, you know? You’re kind of just, not a fun person.”

A look of real hurt flashed across your face. One that he caught. “No,” you punctually state. Then you turn your seat so you completely have your back to him and you’re facing the board.

Meanwhile Luna and your table-mates watched the whole situation unfold. Okay, and maybe most of the class.

And when the bell rang and he called your name, you simply decided you didn’t hear it.

“He’s calling you,” Luna prodded.

You just shook your head as you continued down the hallway to the bus. On the bus, you had some thinking to do.

Did he really think of you as...boring? You usually didn’t let the immature words of boys get to you, but this, this really hurt.

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

“I’m sure he didn’t mean it,” Luna insisted that evening while lying on your bedroom floor that same Friday evening.

“Yes he did, and he’s kind of right,” you begrudgingly conceded. “I haven’t been the nicest to him,” you sigh into your hands, “and maybe I should be.”

“Well, what’s stopping you?” Luna curiously asked.

“I, I don’t know.”

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

The following Monday, you winced and leaned into Luna as you approached the classroom. To say you were terrified is an understatement.

But you took a deep breath, held your head high, and locked your face into a neutral expression. You never let anyone get the best of you, and you weren’t going to let Joel out of all people be one of the first.

Luna offered a small sympathetic smile as she made her way to her seat.

Your heart beated out of your chest anticipating his arrival. Sure enough, you caught him out of the corner of your eye. He took his time and strutted around the room to talk to all the friends he had. He was obviously looking to avoid you, too.

Coward.

Eventually, he made his way to his seat. He cleared his throat, but you didn’t budge. Ever heard of being saved by the bell?

“I’m going to hand back everyone’s quizzes from last class,” your teacher announced. You audibly groaned. That quiz did not go well. Who puts diamonds and boxes and something called factoring in math?

Sure enough, she shoved a C- into your sweaty hands.

“Dang,” you whispered.

You glanced over at Joel’s paper. 100%.

Are you kidding me?

His prying eyes had the audacity to spot your C-, as if you didn’t pry on his paper seconds before.

“That’s rough,” he said, trying to make eye contact with you.

“I- um, yeah, it is,” you choked out with your eyes still glued on your paper.

His heart broke when he heard your wavering voice. He had to do something.

“Can I see it?” He quietly asked, when quiet usually isn’t typically his demeanor.

You furrowed your brows in confusion. “Uh, sure?”

He took the paper and started drawing stars around the C- mark, very messily, may you add.

You went to take the paper back, but he moved it away from your grasp.

“One second,” he pleaded. He stuck his tongue out in concentration.

You tried to see how badly he was defacing your quiz, but the position of his arm prohibited you from peering over to see.

“Done,” he proudly said as he slid the paper back over to you.

Instead of a plain old C-, there was now...a C- with stars around it.

“Joel, this is very lovely and all, but why the stars around the C-?”

He smiled with his sickeningly sweet toothless grin, and your heart absolutely backflipped into oblivion.

“That’s not a C-,” he goofily joked, “that’s the moon, y/n,” he said through a smile. “See it?”

You looked up from your paper and looked at him in the eye. Your hands shook from adrenaline, your heart was fluttering, goodness, you didn’t know how you could feel any lighter.

That smile was going to be the death of you.

“Yeah, Joel,” you cracked a smile, “I do see it. Thank you,” you sincerely said.

Crack a smile.

You cracked a smile.

His heart skipped a beat. He knew instantly he was going to do whatever it took to keep that smile on your face for as long as possible. He didn’t care what he would have to do.

He smiled once more, and he turned to his buddies to shield his face from you. He didn’t want you to see how red it was turning. He proceeded to explain to them how perfect his stars were and how no one could top them. Something along the lines of “Bro, you have to see this one, it’s so perfect bro…” He also told them how he made you feel better while slapping his chest, for some reason, as in yeah, I made the mopiest girl in school smile. He sounded like he was priding himself on it.

His smile, the way he talked about you, those freaking stars. You’d let him draw those all over your arm instead any day.

At that age, you may not have known why there were letters in algebra, but you knew that the way he made you feel wasn't the same as you did with your two other crushes back in middle school. This just felt...absolutely weird.

But absolutely right.

And that’s the story of how at just fourteen years old, you knew you were absolutely screwed.

[spookyspaghettisundae]

Long Live the Kings

My heart started racing before we arrived at the courthouse.

We exit the car to free Spider from his escorts, and the guards refuse to release him. They’re loose cannons.

They think they’re heroes.

We shoot before they draw, but fire is returned.

Duck for cover behind the car, glass breaking and metal twisting. Within seconds, more armed police officers appear, storming outside the doors, then the shootout escalates. Hundreds of fired rounds shred our car, the vehicle eating most of the bullets meant for us.

With screeching tires and police sirens blaring all around, we speed away through bustling inner-city streets, with other cars in traffic dodging out of the way, crashing into a trash can here, or pedestrians jumping out of the way where we wheel across the sidewalk to dodge incoming traffic. Cars collide behind us as red lights are jumped, a police car lifts over the collision, and it slides along asphalt until a truck smushes it into an accordion.

There’s nowhere to run when they’ve got cameras and reinforcements everywhere. Helicopters swoop through the valleys of skyscrapers, and SWAT file out of vans at the next crossing to cut off our escape.

Forced into taking a hard left, crashing through some benches in a dirty lot between some blocks, the car breaks down entirely when a helicopter sniper shoots through the trunk and disables our back wheels. The car rocks up and down and skids to a halt with a firework of sparks spraying out behind it.

Duck for cover again, return fire. Heart pounding. Automatic fire from armored SWAT sweeps across concrete wall, and I get shot in the arm. Against my will, taken by the momentum of the bullet winging me, I stumble out of cover, and some sniper blows my head off. My lifeless body flops to the ground.

That was just one of many scenarios percolating in my brain. Versions of how everything was about to go horribly wrong. Because when ever had anything in my life gone completely right?

Rolling through the city in another stolen car in broad daylight, bright rays reflected from towers of steel and glass, flashing, and blinding me every other second until we stopped at a red light. Through these mirroring surfaces, I was staring into the sun, oblivious of the vast sea of people passing us by on sidewalks and inside other vehicles. The noise of the city was just that—background noise. Radio static.

To banish the imagery of everything going down the drain, I was trying to envision a way for things to work out right.

It kept having the opposite effect. I kept picturing the worst possible outcomes, fueled by the graphical violence of action movies I had watched in the past.

Call me a pessimist, I guess. I prefer to think I am a realist. Not that I had a healthy relationship with reality, but—

The leather of the passenger seat creaked as Rocco turned to us. He held out rubber masks—caricatures of former US presidents, crumpled in his black-gloved hands. He wiggled the masks in front of me and D, arching a brow as we hesitated to grab the items.

My palms were sweaty from my own gloves and gripping the shotgun on my lap, covered by my leather jacket to conceal it from random onlookers who might catch a glimpse inside the windows of the car.

It wasn’t even noon yet, but the city had already heated up. Sweltering heat. Cooking us in the car, contrasted by air conditioning cranked up so high that it was freezing. A clash of temperatures.

D snatched one of the masks with dark skin and comically big ears; it looked like former president Barack Obama. That left me with the other one, which also featured comically big ears and another stupid grin on it—former president George W. Bush.

“Why do I gotta be this tool?” I asked. “This guy sucks.”

Rocco smirked and gestured to the Obama mask in D’s hand, then said, “You can trade with him.”

“Hell no,” D mumbled.

Rocco waved his own mask around. A roadmap of wrinkles, a caricature of Ronald Reagan.

“Look, it’s not like you are this person. I’m takin’ the worst one, yo. I kinda look at it, like, ‘look at these shitheads’. They’re the OG criminals, the motherfuckers with all the money and power to change the world, but they ain’t done shit. That’s the real criminal shit. I wasn’t even born when this motherfucker was fuckin’ up the country. If we’re gonna bust some caps, I want the OG shitheads to finally take a fall for it.”

“What’s wrong with this guy?” D said with a glance to the Obama mask. “I’m okay with bein’ this guy.”

Rocco smirked again.

“What, ‘cause he’s black like yo’ ass? You gonna drone-strike me, like Bin Laden and all those brown kids overseas?”

Rocco guffawed.

D was not having it. “Shut up, you trickle-down stream o’ piss.”

Rocco laughed harder. Tossed a Bill Clinton mask onto Boombox’s lap, who was busy driving all this time.

Boombox shot a glance at his mask and mocked a southern drawl when he said, “I didn’t have sexual relations with that woman.”

“Of course not,” D said. He grinned into the rearview mirror. “You’re still a virgin.”

That prompted a middle finger from Boombox, and more laughter from Rocco.

I couldn’t help but stifle a giggle myself. Finally, a distraction.

It lasted another whopping ten seconds until my heartbeat started pounding again. The car rolled up outside the courthouse building. Boombox swerved from the lane into a vacant parking spot across the street where the sunlight no longer blinded me.

He left the engine running. Everybody went quiet, but the leather of gloves cracked. Weapon safety switches were disengaged. D gripped the Obama mask with one hand, his other rested on an automatic rifle hidden underneath the jacket over his lap.

D shot a glance at me. I didn’t know what it meant. I often couldn’t decipher his stony-faced expressions and wondered for a moment if he was unsure about me tagging along for this stunt.

But I hadn’t even asked to. I figured Rocco preferred to have Lisa filling in as their number four, because she was packing some serious muscle and I was—well, let’s be real—I was wimpy. Rocco, however, had said he wanted someone smart. When I had told him that was not me, he had said that he needed someone who could think outside of the box. Also, not me. And when he then had sighed and said he needed someone who could keep a sharp eye on things, I just gave up on protesting. Clearly, he trusted me with this, or he wanted me along for the bumpy ride, or both.

Afterwards, Baby Joker had told me it had to do with getting back in the saddle quickly after the incident with Brubaker. Like getting back behind the wheel of a car after a car accident, so you don’t grow afraid of driving.

Something like that.

So, where was I?

Right.

Outside the courthouse. To free Spider.

Trying not to think about us all dying in a hail of bullets.

D broke eye contact. His shoulders were rigid with tension. I was nervous.

The towering building loomed above us. I pictured how many armed guards and police had to be in and around the courthouse right now, ready to march and shoot at the drop of a hat.

A silvery prison bus turned the corner and drove towards the courthouse building at a languid pace. All our eyes were trained on it.

Our timing had been right. Perfect, even. It just had to stay that way.

Maybe this wasn’t going to go to hell immediately, after all.

Boombox calmly drove us over to the parking lot, closing in on the transport bus. He matched the languid pace and passed by them from the opposite side of the bus door opening where the vehicle stopped.

We slipped our masks on and got moving in a flash. Within a handful of breaths, I was sweating inside this grotesquely oversized mask. The gun in my hands weighed a million tons.

Boombox stayed in the car and never killed the ignition while the rest of us got out. I walked up to the bus driver’s window and tapped it with the barrel of my shotgun. The driver’s eyes went wide, and I shook my masked head before he could react. His mouth was agape, but I don’t think he said anything.

D and Rocco jogged, disappearing around each end of the bus.

Muffled shouts.

“Down, motherfuckers!”

“Get down!”

“Move!”

“Don’t you even fuckin’ think about it!”

Clattering. Shuffling. No gunshots.

Yet.

The bus driver twitched, and the muzzle of my shotgun scraped across the window while I shook my head again.

Shit, I thought. He might have already done something. Alerted someone. Part of me thought of shooting, but then I figured I didn’t want to shoot the guy. Maybe he had family. Or maybe he was one of the slime-people in disguise, “elevated” by demons like Brubaker, and things would spiral out of control once I blasted one of them wide open in broad daylight.

My heart was pounding. The imagery of things going to hell returned.

The only thing to wipe it all away was D and Rocco returning around the bus, hustling, shoving along a third man.

Spider.

I had not known what to expect. Because of Rocco being short and wiry, I had not envisioned such a tall and muscular man, especially not one who looked to be in his late forties. I had also pictured a man of color, but Spider was one of the pastiest white guys I had ever seen. A stubble of salt and pepper on his head and face, a roadmap of scars that had to have come from countless knife fights, and a faded, vicious-looking spider tattooed across his entire face, stretching from forehead to chin, and covering his cheeks. He reminded me more of a younger Loki, like he belonged more in a biker gang.

And he had the meanest, coldest eyes I had ever seen.

Spider was still in chains, and the shackles forced him to waddle like a penguin as D pushed him along, right into the car. We all piled inside, and the tires screeched as Boombox took us away.

This hadn’t even taken a full minute.

The sirens, the yelling, the shouting, the car chase—none of it happened. I sighed in relief as reality set in; a reality far more forgiving than my fucked-up fantasies of everything going wrong. A few things did not add up, but I would sort those out in a moment of boredom.

So, there we were. Driving off. Heads on a swivel, Boombox carefully melting into the traffic of busy inner-city streets, past a construction site.

Spider was sandwiched between D and me on the backseat.

His energy was weird. It was stoic, but not calm. By comparison, let me put it this way: D is stoic and calm, Rocco is fidgety and energetic, Boombox is nervous and bouncy.

Spider? Stoic, yet vibrating intensely. Like he was on the verge of ripping a telephone book apart in his bare hands. His stare straight ahead, fixed upon the road ahead of us, was smoldering. When our gazes met for a few seconds, they locked. There was something painfully blank about it—a thousand-mile stare that buried the many lives he had taken.

Then he craned his neck to look behind us, like D had been doing.

Lifted his hands, chained together with cuffs, rattled them.

“Get this shit off of me,” Spider said. Steady. He enunciated every word clearly, like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. His burning gaze met mine again.

I put the gun down and grabbed some bolt cutters, then clipped through the first chain. Clipped through the chain connecting the handcuffs to the ones around his ankles. Spider nodded at me and grunted.

D clicked his tongue, swore out loud. “We’re bein’ tailed.”

“Yeah, look like suits, like FBI or some shit,” Rocco said. “Get ready. Gonna get ugly when we switch cars.”

Boombox drove us through a darker arcade of palm trees, and under a bridge connecting two buildings, then took a smooth turn into a monolithic parking garage. The momentum of the car swiftly riding up a ramp provoked a gasp from me, and Spider shot me a skeptical glance. I was kind of happy now that I was wearing the stupid mask—I kind of dreaded what it might be like if Spider knew I was a woman.

Instead, he looked back like D. So did I.

“Fuck, man, this has gotta be a trap,” Boombox said, whining in tone. “I told you this is gonna be a trap.”

Just as Boombox took us up another coiling ramp to a higher floor of the parking garage building, a black sedan followed. Two figures sat inside, both dressed in black suits, wearing sunglasses.

Rocco was right, they looked like government agents. A man and a woman. They reminded me of that TV show. That’s why I’m going to call them Agent Sully and Agent Shoulder from here on out. She had copper hair and he had broad shoulders.

You get the idea.

Spider growled. “Yes, this is definitely a trap. I didn’t speak to no lawyers. Court hearing came out of the blue.”

“We gotta be quick,” Rocco said. His shoulders were hunched, poised to jump out of the car and start blazing away. “They might be callin’ the cavalry while we are speakin’.”

Spider grunted in agreement.

“Give me a gun,” he said.

I didn’t hesitate and handed Spider my shotgun. He seemed like the kind of guy who had far more experience wielding one than I did, and even though I had shot some dudes on Bateson’s island, I was not as hardened towards this as you might think.

That had only been a few months ago, and I still had nightmares of seeing a man’s skull explode from a spray of bullets I had fired.

We jumped out of the car the second it stopped on the third story, taking cover behind it, and Boombox jogged over to the next vehicles.

The black sedan pulled up onto our floor and turned. Made an abrupt stop.

Agent Sully and Shoulder got out. Each of them held a service pistol in hand but kept them lowered by their sides.

They smiled.

Despite us having taken cover behind our first car and aiming bigger guns at them, they smiled in unison.

It was the creepiest thing.

“We are the swarm that devours the crop,” said Agent Sully.

“We are the rivers running red,” said Agent Shoulder.

“Fuck off,” Rocco shouted at them. Muttering to us, he said, “For fuck’s sake, of course they’re fuckin’ demons.”

The agents started walking towards us, as if they didn’t care about being littered with bullet holes before they got too close. Which—given how the demon posing as Detective Brubaker could turn into an insect swarm and had survived a hand grenade blast that way—these two assholes probably didn’t care too much about getting shot.

“We are there to hold your hand when temptation takes you,” said Agent Sully, halfway across the lot towards us.

Some guy in a pastel blue polo shirt and white slacks exited a door from the staircase onto our floor. His eyes went wide when his gaze bounced back and forth between the former US president masks, a guy in a prison jumpsuit with a spider tattooed on his face, our rifles, and the two FBI agents walking towards us with their own drawn pistols.

Then Agent Shoulder lifted his gun and shot polo-guy in the head with a sideways glance. Tourist polo-guy crumpled to the ground, leaving a trail of blood and brain matter on the wall behind him. I lost my ability to think straight, shocked over how Shoulder had just murdered an innocent bystander without hesitating.

“We are the heralds of your end,” Agent Shoulder said, breaking out into revolving laughter.

Everybody on our side stopped his laughter as they started shooting at the agents, with a staccato of thunderclaps from rifles erupting all around me.

A cluster of bullets swarmed around the two agents and froze. Like some real science fiction shit—the bullets had slowed to a complete stop and now hovered mid-air, caught in an invisible bubble around the two agents. We all stared at this mind-boggling phenomenon, dumbfounded.

Both agents still grinned at us like they were deranged cats, playing with their food.

Like this was just some sick game to them.

“You’re trash,” said Agent Sully. “You think your puny human toys can hurt us.”

Agent Shoulder said, “You’re fucked. You were fucked the moment your species crawled out of the primordial ooze.”

Agent Shoulder snapped his fingers, and the cloud of bullets sprayed in every direction.

We all flinched and ducked for cover just in time as the hail of stopped shots shook different parked cars in the enclosed space, leaving bullet holes and spiderwebs of cracks in various windows. Some car alarm went off, complete with blaring horns and flashing lights.

“Move,” Rocco said with a growl. Then he shouted it, “Get a fuckin’ move on!”

But the engine Boombox was trying to start, it just chugged and choked. Boombox fidgeted in the seat of the getaway exchange car and slapped the steering wheel.

“It’s not workin’! What the fuck?”

Agent Sully stopped laughing and Shoulder spoke as they continued walking towards us, “Oh, no. You’re in luck. You are very fortunate.”

“You are getting a personal treatment,” said Agent Sully. “Nobody will hear the slaughter. Human minds are so pliable. With just the right amount of nudging, they can close their eyes to any horror. Scream and shoot all you want; nobody will come to your aid.”

“We will rip out your entrails—”

“And play jump rope with them, you pig-fuckers.”

The FBI agents holstered their guns. They removed their sunglasses and pocketed them. Agent Shoulder cracked his knuckles like a showoff getting ready for a fistfight.

“Fuck this,” Boombox said.

“Yeah, fuck this,” Rocco repeated. “Let’s waste these sons o’ bitches.”

Spider demonstratively took another shot at them, but the slug froze mid-air in front of the agents, repeating the same bizarre phenomenon. It then flew back at us and lodged itself in the side of our first car.

Attempts at revving the car engine ceased. In its place, another motor started chugging—Boombox got back out of our secondary getaway car. He yanked the cord again, and a chainsaw in his hands roared to life.

“Scarface time, you cockroaches!” he shouted.

Rocco yanked his mask off, revealing a face covered in a sheen of sweat and a toothy grin. His eyes flashed with the same madness I had seen at Bateson’s mansion.

“Let’s fuck these motherfuckers up.”

D kept his mask on but slung out a knife. Rocco slung a metal baseball bat out from underneath the passenger seat of the first car.

Just as Boombox walked past us, the smile on Agent Sully’s face vanished. She glared at Boombox and stared at him with hatred while the rest of the guys approached for close combat. I was too afraid to act, bouncing back and forth between looking for something I could use as a bludgeon and my instincts screaming at me, telling me to stay in cover, or just run the hell away.

Boombox froze where he stood and started shaking. I don’t think any of us understood what was going on until it was far too late. The trembling made his limbs quake, and the chainsaw continued chugging and growling, all the way until it rose towards his own head.

Agent Shoulder started laughing again when Boombox started screaming, when Boombox started sawing into his own shoulder and neck and training the tool right there to continue chewing through flesh and bone.

I was frozen with horror. The wet crunching and slapping sounds made me want to throw up.

“You never had a chance, suck-pigs,” said Agent Shoulder.

Muffled by his mask, D hollered, “Boom! What the fuck are you doing?”

Sully’s eyes went wide. Boombox’s screams intensified.

She was doing this. Somehow, she was doing this to him.

Rocco jogged past Boombox and towards the agents with his bat raised.

With a yelp, Rocco flew past me, smashing backwards into the side of our car. Upon impact, his ankle bent in an unnatural angle with a loud crack, and he collapsed, screaming in pain. The baseball bat clanked as it rolled towards me.

My paralysis finally broke. I grabbed Rocco’s bat and clutched it with all my might and the little courage I could muster.

D was already up in the faces of the agents, taking jabs and swings at Sully. Boombox stopped sawing himself, prying the chainsaw away from himself, with blood and sinew trailing from the spinning chains like molten string cheese; then he fell onto concrete grounds, choking, gurgling. His limbs now trembled with weakness as he held himself up, and the chainsaw motor went dead.

I charged at Agent Shoulder, but the bat never connected. Probably the best swing I would ever manage with a baseball bat, driven with all my sudden fury. My vision blurred with tears as I strained against invisible forces holding me back, and then my muscles began to burn.

I couldn’t move. Frozen in the middle of my movement, like the hail of bullets.

“Pathetic,” Agent Sully muttered.

I smacked myself in the face with the bat and saw stars. Then someone grabbed the bat out of my hands and clobbered my side with two swift slaps, sending me tumbling onto the ground.

“Humans are helpless,” Agent Shoulder said, pointing the tip of the bat at me.

“You missed your chance,” said Sully. “You could have joined us. Now you can all die like dogs.”

“Fuck you!” D said, grunting as he lunged at Sully, who side-stepped away from his jab with the knife.

Spider walked into battle. He did not run. Once the stars had cleared and I ripped the rubber mask off my head, I could see him wrestling for control over the bat with Shoulder.

“Fuck,” D said with a groan, having stabbed himself in the belly with the knife.

His arms trembled the same way as Boombox’s had when he sawed himself. Boombox slapped a palm against concrete in his helpless flailing, still emitting awful gurgling sounds behind us.

This demon bitch was controlling us. I don’t know for sure, but I’m going to say it was mind control. I still felt the tendrils of blackened nails, clawing at the back of my mind, pulling strings, and whispering filthy lies of comfort.

Just surrender control. We can take it from here.

And an invisible force sent Spider flying headfirst into a nearby car, followed by a loud THUNK.

Mind control and fucking telekinesis, the big whopper of superpowers.

We were fucked.

I crawled towards the chainsaw, despite knowing the danger. Boombox twitched beside the power tool. See, just to be clear: I didn’t even want to do this. I was being controlled.

“You’re all just meat-puppets waiting for someone powerful to take the wheel,” said Sully.

I started hunching over the chainsaw and grabbed it. My hands were not obeying, because I couldn’t even issue the command. I was screaming into a plastic bag over my head, stuck in the back of my mind and forced to witness someone moving my body against my will, being suffocated while I had to watch. This fucking demon had hijacked my hands and yanked the cord. Yanked again. And again.

The bloodied chainsaw chugged, roared to life again, splattering my mask with Boombox’s blood once the chain went spinning again.

As I turned with it to face the agents, it was not to attack. My body was about to wreak havoc—on D—and I could only watch as D was dropped onto his knees by an invisible force, his knife’s handle sticking out of his stomach and his wrists and hands twisting in ways that the human body shouldn’t. He started screaming in pain.

Spider was reeling, stumbling around as he struggled to stay standing, and his tattooed face was covered in his own blood.

“Isn’t this fun?” Agent Shoulder asked, spittle spraying from his lips.

I continued lurching towards D, step by step, puppeteered with the running chainsaw in my burning arms. I fought against it. But I could do nothing. It was like she was tapping into all the bad imagery I had brewed up in my brain, of all the things going wrong—and making them even worse. Of all the violence and destruction, pushing my body to translate it all into the worst version of reality.

“Why do you keep hitting yourself?” Agent Sully asked, dripping with mockery.

The agents laughed in unison, but their eyes burned with humorless hatred.

I screamed—a mixture of agony, fury, and sheer terror. D’s eyes went wide as he watched me raise the chainsaw above my head, ready to bring it down on him.

Then Sully’s head exploded. It was just there one second, then gone the next, a ragged stump of bone and torn flesh, with blood spurting out from it and spraying us. The sound of a deafening gunshot arrived with delay, and the fire in my limbs subsided as the shot echoed through the parking garage.

I staggered back, stumbling around like I was drunk.

Agent Shoulder’s face fell—that sense of sick pleasure and superiority had been wiped away in an instant. He stared in disbelief as Agent Sully’s body flopped around, limbs flailing while her body dropped to one knee and then tumbled forward, until it stopped moving.

Then he screamed as I brought the chainsaw down on him. Sully’s decapitation had returned control to me. I was screaming again, all fury now. Shoulder screamed back at me before the chainsaw could connect with his belly, and I was flung away from him. I got lucky, too, because the chainsaw flew out of my hands as his telekinesis crap threw me across the parking lot.

That hurled me onto a car hood, cracking headlights before I rolled off and slammed back-first onto concrete, knocking all the wind out of me, and leaving me reeling, gasping, coughing.

Then I witnessed Shoulder’s head explode like Sully’s. There one moment—gone the next. Another walking corpse that wobbled around before collapsing, with blood pumping from a ragged neck, and a spray of blood having coated the ceiling and people around them in red.

Just as I was getting up to my feet, a figure approached from the ramp. Shoes clapped against ground in a steady pace.

A man in black neared; black leather jacket, black denim pants, shiny black boots that jingled with each step. He carried a rifle so ridiculously long that it had to be about as long as he was tall. Smoke still billowed from the barrel while he walked towards us. Slicked back dark hair and a prominent widow’s peak crowned his head. A cold gaze swept across our sorry asses. He stopped by the corpses of the two demon-agents and nudged them with the tip of his boot, surveying his work.

Crouched down and started examining the bodies.

Let’s call him “Slick” for now.

That big-ass gun—which I learned later was normally used to punch holes into tanks—must have been the reason their heads exploded the way they did. The twitch around his lips hinted at satisfaction over his handiwork.

D leaned against a car, cautiously pulling the knife from his stomach, and grunting as he pressed a palm against the weeping wound. Spider gripped his own head, shook it, and blinked in confusion. Rocco was limping and dragging himself towards Boombox—

Fuck. Boombox.

I rushed over to them and checked on Boombox with Rocco; we arrived by his side at the same time.

Boom was still breathing, but when Rocco turned him onto his back, he stared past us like he had gone blind. I struggle to find the words to describe what he looked like otherwise. The chainsaw had cut through his collarbone and shoulder and neck and—

It was a fucking mess. The pool of blood beneath him had grown to an alarming size.

There was no parallel dimension in which he was going to survive this. I knew it. I did not want to admit it to myself, but I knew it.

Boombox spoke with gurgling, guttural noises, squelching out parts of the words, “Forgive me Father, for I have sinned.”

Rocco had tears in his eyes as he lifted his friend with an arm behind his shoulders. The boss’s hand trembled as it hovered over the horrific injuries, searching for a way to do something—anything—but clearly finding nothing he could do. Boombox was drenched in his own blood, and it continued to pump out of him in multiple places where the chainsaw had ripped into him.

“Hold on,” I said. I lied, “Hold on man, we can get you patched up.”

“Fuck, it’s hard to breathe like this,” Boombox gurgled. “Hey, you wanna hear a better Clinton joke?”

Then his eyes rolled into the back of his head and his body went limp in Roc’s arms. Rocco’s nostrils were flaring, and I expected him to shout in rage, but nothing came.

Slurping, squelching noises echoed through the hall, loud enough that the blaring car alarm could not drown them out.

Two piles of black sludge followed up the ramp behind Slick.

D stumbled about and looked as dizzy as I felt. Keeping his hand pressed against his self-inflicted knife wound, he spat on the ground, retching before he swore. Glaring at the moving piles of tar.

“Fuck.”

The piles of sludge grew to staggering heights. They assumed vaguely humanoid shapes. Shiny black orbs opened and blinked and glistened where eyes should be.

Above mouths filled with rows of razor-sharp teeth, maws opening and closing hungrily, dripping with dark slime.

Vampires. Just like the one that had attacked us in the old crib. The “lab creations”, as Bateson had described them, or whatever the hell they really were.

Spider’s face twisted as he stared at the abominations and muttered, “What in the fuck?”

He bent over and grabbed the baseball bat off the ground. Spider also struggled to stand, probably woozy from a bad concussion, though he looked the least vulnerable out of all of us now, despite him still being clad in a prison jumpsuit, with cut chains dangling from his cuffs, and blood coating his entire face.

Rocco was still preoccupied with his dead friend, but now his gaze kept hopping up and down between Boombox and Slick with his two tar-vampire buddies. I could practically hear Roc’s teeth gritting and grinding.

“And just who the fuck are you?” Rocco snarled. Yelled. Snelled?

Slick reached back and shoved the huge rifle into the hands of one of the sludge vampires. For some reason, I had never pictured them to be carrying a gun.

The stench of raw sewage hit my nose, forcing me to cringe. Slick patted down his pockets, produced a small pack of cigarettes, and took his time in bringing a smoke to his lips.

With tears streaming down his cheeks, Rocco said, “I’m talkin’ to you, motherfucker.”

Focused on the cigarette, Slick lit it up with a cheap electric plastic lighter and took a deep drag. Then he finally made eye contact with Rocco.

“Maybe you have heard of me before. I am Mister Renaissance.”

Shivers shook my spine.

The wave of hate from D and Rocco was so tangible that the city’s heat just grew a couple of degrees hotter.

“I feel like apologies are in order,” said Mister Renaissance.

“Fuck you,” D said. He ripped the mask off his sweat-covered face and held the knife out in front of him.

Not to attack but pointing the blade’s tip at our enemy.

Renaissance blew out smoke. He acted so cool that it was almost as sickening as the awful stench assaulting my senses.

“What I mean is—I am sorry about sending the Welding Mask Killer after you. Seems to me like we have mutual enemies playing us for fools, pitting us against each other. A shame about Welding Mask, but I’m not going hold it against you for defending yourselves.”

He thought Lisa was dead.

None of us bothered to correct him.

“So, you wanna know how to kill these demon assholes? Permanently?” Renaissance asked.

“Why the fuck would you wanna tell us?” Rocco said. “What has fuckin’ changed? You wanna kill us first, now you wanna kiss? What the fuck?”

Roc finally let go of Boombox and slowly rose to his feet—or foot, as he wobbled when his broken ankle gave way, and he braced against me, grabbing his arm, while I joined him in standing.

I wasn’t even thinking. My heart was pounding, and my body was just ready to run. We had lost several people fighting a single one of those lab-grown tar-vamps when we had a sci-fi weapon, and now we were facing two of them, one armed with a big-ass gun, and Mister Renaissance, who—I shit you not—kinda looked like young Gary Oldman in Dracula and may have also had some weird superpowers.

After blowing smoke out of his nostrils in a strange sigh, Renaissance said, “What changed? You went after Bateson. You microwaved that crazy bitch. I hear she’s pretty pissed. And you have no idea how happy that makes me. I could only be happier if you had fried her for good.”

“How the fuck are you out in the sun?” D asked.

Renaissance waved his cigarette at the narrow openings to the outside. “Shade’ll do. And sewers.”

Rocco sneered, flashing a hideous grin. “Ain’t no shit changed. Y'all motherfuckers wanna keep us humans around as a buncha cows, right? Demons here wanna kill everybody, and you’re just makin’ sure you can keep the burger supply runnin’.”

Renaissance puffed more smoke and puckered his lips.

“You’re not wrong. Anyway, I set up the court hearing, knowing you’d go get Spider. And knowing the demons would come after you. This is my peace offering, from me to the South Side Kings. By the way, why were you fighting in the Bank of America building?”

Rocco shook his head but answered, “Bateson brought us there to negotiate, but she sucked ass at negotiation. Kinda like you. Why’s it matter?”

Renaissance grunted.

“Never mind. That crazy old medieval witch has it out for all of us alright.”

I spoke up. Because I had to know. I was worried that Rocco, or Spider, or D was about to unleash all hell and pick a fight that would get us all killed. They weren’t stupid, but they had pride, and if they were only half as upset as I was over the dead body of Boombox between us, then their blood had to be boiling.

I asked, “Okay, so, how do we kill these assholes? C'mon, man, sweeten the deal. Bateson was all talk.”

Renaissance flicked ashes onto the corpse of Agent Shoulder.

“Brain the host. Brain it good.” He nodded at the dead agents.

“Host? You mean these were people, human bodies before? What happens if they take one of us? Is there a way to get 'em out?” Rocco asked.

“Yes. I guess. There used to be a way to remove a demon from the host, but it required a weird old piece of wood—”

The vampire pointed at his own nostril, as if poking it into his nose.

“Jam it up there, real deep. Start rooting around. Then pull the disgusting shit out. It’s like a brain worm. The hooked stick was supposedly holy or some shit, either Egyptian or, like, made from the cross of Christ. Not sure. All we’re sure about is that it got lost in the shuffle of the centuries since these cosmic dick-bags last mucked around on Earth.”

D asked, “That’s fuckin’ all? Just blow their fuckin’ heads off?”

We really had been overthinking things.

“If they’re not transformed, yet—yep. Destroy the human’s head. No coming back from that,” Renaissance said. “I understand this is a lot to take in. We can talk more if you want. I understand your first instinct is not to trust me, and I can’t blame you. I recommend getting out of here and calling me once the dust has settled.”

The vampire produced a small business card from his pocket and dropped it. The thing fluttered and spun and landed on the ground between the dead agents. Renaissance swiveled and waved to the two sludge vampires, and the squelching noises accompanied them backing away and turning and following him back down the ramp.

Spider walked over there, baseball bat in hand, until he reached the card and picked it up.

Rocco exhaled sharply and looked between me and D and Boombox, then shook his head.

Tears still clouded his vision, I could tell.

“I need you two to get Boom’s body into the trunk,” he said.

I was on board. I dreaded picking up his body—it was awful, but I didn’t want to leave Boombox here, either. I had only known him for a few months, but he had been a good kid. Well, okay, he was a gangbanger, so maybe not a good kid. But he was “good” in the most tenuous sense of the word, okay? I liked him. I had somehow gone quickly into thinking of him as a friend, more than people I had known for way longer than him.

Arriving by my side, D let go of the wound on his own stomach. Blood still seeped out from his shirt. I winced at just seeing that, realizing that I had emerged from this encounter the most unscathed out of all of us. I almost wanted to tell him to let me carry Boombox on my own, until I learned just how heavy a lifeless human body is—I gasped and grunted as I lifted Boombox’s legs and nearly fell on my ass when I couldn’t drag him or lift his entire body.

Emitting a pained noise, D bent over and picked him up by the shoulders, clearly doing more of the heavy lifting than me.

Spider returned to us and said, “Put him down. We’re leaving him here.”

“The fuck you say?” Rocco said. Sharp words, furious. He narrowed his eyes at Spider.

The big man stepped towards him. Towered over Rocco as he got up in his face.

“I want all the motherfuckers around town to know that the Kings spilled their blood here today. To know the Kings leave no survivors with these demon fuckheads. I want people to think it was us.”

Rocco shook his head. Violently.

“And I ain’t gonna leave no King behind. You didn’t know Boombox, man. I brought that kid in after you went to go do time, and I taught 'im everythin’, yo. He was royalty, like the rest of us, and he should be buried like a King if we got a chance to do it for 'im.”

Spider’s unblinking stare sliced into Rocco, scanning him up and down.

“You’re just a lieutenant again, Rocco. I made you boss, but now I’m back on the streets. We are all Kings at this round table, but I am calling the shots again.”

They stared at each other, and it was like invisible lightning and explosions crackled between them.

Without turning to look at us, Spider said, “Put him. Back. Down.”

My arms were aching, and D was hurt. That’s why I knelt and put Boom’s legs and lower body back down on the ground. I swear. Laugh at me all you want.

D’s head turned with a painful slowness until his stare burned into mine, and he shot me the angriest look I had ever seen from him. The stoicism I knew from him was wiped away, I could physically sense how furious he was—at the demons, the vampires, at Spider, and now at me.

“Your soldiers are wounded,” Spider said, still looking down at Rocco, easily standing over a head taller than him. “And you yourself ain’t in any condition to carry a dead man.”

Rocco’s chin quivered.

“You didn’t know 'im, boss. I made him a man. We can't—”

“We can and we will. We’re gonna show this fuckin’ city not to fuck with the Kings.” Spider tilted his head, and I half-expected him to grab Rocco by the throat. I had never been this scared of any of the other gang members.

Spider asked, but the way he said it felt far more like an order, “Are we cool?”

We were not cool.

The sweltering heat continued to radiate through the open spaces through which daylight poured in from outside the parking building. We all stood still while motes of dust danced in the rays.

D groaned as he knelt and put Boombox down to rest with all the gentle gestures he could muster. His gloved hand ran over Boombox’s face and shut his dead friend’s eyelids.

“Now let’s get the fuck outta here before we have to deal with the next motherfuckers wanting to step up,” Spider said. He finally peeled his gaze off Rocco and stared at me.

Nodded at me, then nodded at the getaway car behind me.

I didn’t want to waste any more time, and I needed to escape D’s angry gaze, which flashed at me when he looked back up from Boombox.

I kept the president mask up until I sat inside the car, then ripped it off. I felt like I was suffocating under it. I gripped the steering wheel for a few seconds, as if it could help ground me. Then I fired up the vehicle. The others soon piled inside, taking different seats.

Spider was studying the business card in his hand, flipping it over.

He asked, “You think this 'Renaissance’ motherfucker is gonna set us up?”

Rocco was running his hands over his head, and he exhaled sharply when he answered, “One hundred percent, boss.”

Tears mixed with the sweat on my face as I tried to look away from Boombox’s dead body on the concrete, laid to rest in a huge pool of his own blood. The car bounced and thumped as I wheeled over the corpses of Agent Sully and Shoulder.

“Fuck 'em all,” Spider said with a sneer. “This is a new era. The Kings aren’t small fry anymore. From what I heard, you did good in my absence, Rocco.”

He stopped flipping the card and stared at Rocco on the seat next to him.

“We’re gonna rule this fuckin’ city. Honor your man back there, and remind everybody why the fuck we’re called the Kings. To think more than twice before fucking with us.”

I had a very bad feeling about this.

And my instincts had gotten pretty good.

—Submitted by Wratts

[beaubokuto]

━ amnesia

pairing: shoto todoroki x f!reader

genre: angst

summary: shoto todoroki didn’t understand what went wrong when you broke up with him. he didn’t understand when you held his hand as you said goodbye. and he didn’t understand why you left him completely.

a/n: inspired by amnesia by 5 seconds of summer. also kind of inspired by a tik tok by @ leannaeileen ;D. i live for bakugou and todoroki friendship SO i added some of that in here hehe

tags: angst, swearing, suggestive humor, post break up, friends to lovers to strangers, sad, breaking up, pining, mutual pining, comfort, some fluff, characters are aged up, pro hero todoroki and pro hero reader, reader has an undescribed quirk, smut, dom!todoroki and sub!reader, rough smut, size kink

unedited

His eyes dart back and forth. He is most definitely seeing things correctly, but he wants confirmation. He needs confirmation.

Your eyes find his easily. The eyes which he has not seen in years.

His name slips off of your tongue with hidden nostalgia. He barely has time to process.

You look more beautiful now than you did when you left. Your hair is shorter, your skin clear.

You are the epitome of stunning.

Literally. He can’t move.

You weed your way through the human traffic of the mid afternoon streets to meet him. He greets you with a fake smile, though he quickly feels it turn into a real one. One he once only reserved for you.

“I cannot believe that I am meeting you in the streets, of all places.” You tell him once you are close enough. “I was on my way to meet some of the boys for lunch and catch up.”

Some of the boys. You meant Deku and Bakugou, he is sure.

Why didn’t they invite him?

“You look amazing.” Todoroki tells you before he can stop himself.

You take the compliment. “I try. You look good, too. But you’ve always looked good.”

He tries not to take it to heart despite the aching the casual conversation brings.

He tries not to think of you telling him that you loved him. He tries not to think about the ring that sits in his bedside table that he can’t seem to get rid of. He tries not to think of your lips on his.

He tries not to think about how you broke his heart with a few simple words and a plane ticket.

“This is awkward.” He finally says.

Your smile falters, but you nod nonetheless. “It is a bit awkward talking to strangers, huh?”

You were shaking as you grabbed his hand, connecting your skin for the last time. You traced your fingers over his.

You were hoping for a spark. A shiver of connection in that moment of weakness. And when you didn’t, you let go.

“I’m so sorry, but I can’t do it anymore.” You told your boyfriend of years.

You expected him to question your reasoning. You expected an argument, a fight. You expected him to want you to stay. For him to ask you to stay.

But he didn’t.

Shoto Todoroki only stared at where your hands were just connected in his and said, “okay.”

It didn’t take long for you to fall for him.

You first met the boy during his years at UA. You weren’t in his class, but you ran into each other often. Whether it was in the hallway, or at lunch, it felt as though you came into contact with him more often than not.

“Are you stalking me?” You joked with him one day as you walked beside him towards the lunch hall.

Shoto Todoroki seemed to fluster for a minute, “No, no. No. We are just... going to the same place. At the same time.”

You giggled and nudged him with your shoulder. He wasn’t even knocked off of his balance a little bit.

“It was a joke, Todoroki.” You took your eyes off of him in favor of the hallway in front of you. “And since you aren’t stalking me, wanna sit with me at lunch?”

He started to question how you knew his name, but decided against it. Shrugging his shoulders and shoving his hands into his pockets, he said, “Yes, I’ll sit with you.”

The friendship blossomed slowly.

It was a helicopter leaf falling from the tallest tree, full of twists and turns and maybes and possibilities. It was a stone being skipped across a calm lake, creating ripples through the water and destroying the once stability in the most beautiful way possible. 

It was watching a movie that you couldn’t take your eyes off of, no matter how desperately you needed to pee. It was reading a book that you couldn’t put down because you needed to know how it ended before going to sleep.

It was a cherry blossom in the spring, only to disappear come fall. 

Because falling in love is falling out of a friendship.

“C’mon, Todo!” You begged, gripping his arm in an attempt to bring him with you. “Movie night! Everyone is going!”

He didn’t budge. He was effortlessly standing against your feeble attempt, hands in pockets and eyes on yours. 

“What did I say about calling me that?” He asked.

You gave up and looked at him. “Fine! I promise that I will never call you Todo ever again if you come to movie night.”

There was a pause.

“Liar.” 

And then a shrug.

“But fine. I’ll come.”

You first discovered that you were starting to fall for the boy during the winter.

You always thought that winter was the most beautiful time of year. Snow glittered the ground and casted the sky in bright whites and greys, lights for the holidays decked halls (or whatever the song says). 

And one afternoon, you found Shoto sitting alone.

He was sitting at a desk in one of the empty classrooms, staring out of the window, eyes watching the snow fall from the sky to the gound below. You found yourself at the doorway. 

Most of the others were gone for the holidays. It was winter break, after all.

“Please don’t just stare.” Todoroki interrupted the silence. 

“Sorry.” 

He didn’t lift his head as you walked to him, placing yourself in the seat in front of him. 

“What are you thinking about?” 

“Nothing in particular.” He said. You knew that there was something going on in his mind, but you didn’t push it.

He finally glanced at you.

And that was your moment of realization. It was no drastic touch of fireworks, or static electricity that conducted at his touch. It was no bright flash of memories as your heart pounded.

It was the reflection in his eyes as he looked at you. You could see yourself in them, and that was the epiphany. The look of someone in love, and it was you.

You decided to ignore your realized feelings.

The love for him would remain to yourself. Mainly for the sake of friendship, but slightly because you knew that he did not feel the same way.

He realized that he felt for you very slowly. He didn’t know that it was love, at first.

He just knew that he felt very protective of you and he had never felt that with anyone before. He felt good with you by his side. 

He felt his chest flutter when you could ask him about his day; he felt his hands shake at his sides when you would grab his upper arm when you laughed.

Todoroki hadn’t noticed that he was in love with you until Deku pointed it out. It was two days after returning from winter break, and they were sitting in the dorms.

Izuku Midoriya was Shoto Todoroki’s self proclaimed best friend. Although Shoto was incredibly individualistic and would rather sit by himself than hold a long discussion, he didn’t mind a friend.

“Are you going to tell her that you’re in love with her?”

Shoto turned to him, confusion masking his features. “What do you mean?”

Deku giggled. He tilted his head. “You’re so funny.”

“I wasn’t making a joke.”

Deku laughed again. This time he turned to his friend with a slight smirk, a quip on the edge of his lips. “You’re in love with her. We talk about it all the time! You are there most of the time when we do.”

“Oh.” Oh.

You were laughing, tears close to spilling over your cheeks. Shoto even had a small smile.

Deku and Bakugou had just gotten into (another) argument. It was about something stupid, as it was more often than not. It was only a week into spring and you didn’t realize how accustomed you had gotten used to being in the dorms with only Shoto as company.

Katsuki Bakugou ended up calling Deku a series of names, and ended the argument with a solid, “This is why you eat alone at lunch, you piece of shit cumrag!”

And that is was caused a series of laughter through the classroom. Classes hadn’t begun yet, so you were sitting next to Mina Ashido and Hitoshi Shinso along with Todoroki and Tenya Iida.

Sensai Aizawa interrupted with a simple opening of the door.

“Get to your respective classrooms.”

A bunch of you got up, some with small smiles and some with fear of being yelled at. You left, too, but not without mouthing a small “piece of shit cumrag?” to Todoroki.

He still hid a smile even after you were gone.

“I think you’re handsome.” You told him one afternoon. 

He was in your dorm room. He spent a lot of time there, if he were to be honest. Sometimes Bakugou, or Mina, or Shinso or some other students he didn’t pay attention to would come in. You were good friends with Mina and Shinso from the other class, so Todoroki knew them by name at that point. 

But that day it was just the two of you. You had a movie playing as background noise. You were sitting next to him on your bed, centimeters between touching.

It took him by surprise, causing him to look at you with a raised brow.

“Thanks.” He responded, cautious. “What made you say that?”

“I don’t know.” You shrugged. “I was just thinking it so I said it.”

Your relationship with him was ninety percent you flirting with him and laughing and touching him and one percent him rolling his eyes with a smile. Even before your realized feelings, you found yourself naturally flirting with the boy.

“Well, I think you are handsome too.”

You chuckled at his attempted joke and pushed his head with your hand.

When you first became friends, he was startled at your endless flirtations. He had never met someone who flirted openly the way you did.

He knew that you did it for the tension, that you liked to tease. You flirted with everyone. But he felt kind of... different when he watched you flirt with other people.

You had joked about “exploding” with Bakugou, flirtations effortlessly releasing from your lips when Todoroki felt the need to leave.

“It’s called jealousy, dumbass.” Bakugou told him.

Being in love with Shoto Todoroki was much like being in love with silence.

It was being in love with a quiet library. It was sitting alone at the beach with only him beside you, no words between you. It was a breeze through leaves with no animals around to hear.

It was rummaging through old boxes and finding books you used to read. It was the taste of vanilla ice cream.

You were the one who broke through the silence.

“Can’t I spar with anyone else?” Todoroki asked Sensai Aizawa. The students all turned their attention to him.

It was some random training day. Three classes came together to spar and practice their quirks against each other, randomly assigned by the teachers. 

And when Aizawa said your name alongside Shoto Todoroki, you were excited. He, however, was not.

“No, your partner is picked.” Aizawa said. “Now get to it.”

“Sorry, but I will not be participating today.” Todoroki said as an announcement. “I would rather fail this than fight her. Thanks.”

You spun on your heels to face him. “You’re kidding.”

When he didn’t say anything, you stared him down. “Todo, it’s just sparring.”

“I don’t want to spar you.” He turned his attention back to the teachers. “Can I spar Deku? Or Bakugou? Someone more... powerful?”

You could not believe it. You chuckled humorlessly, causing some of the students to mutter under their breath to each other. 

“Someone more powerful?” You crossed your arms. “C’mon, let’s fight. You want someone more powerful, you’ve clearly never witnessed me pissed off. C’mon.”

“No.”

You let out another chuckle and rolled your eyes. “No?”

“No.”

“Fine.” Aizawa shrugged. “Todoroki, you’re with Deku. Bakugou, calm down your new partner before she gets as angry as you.”

“No, sir.” You whipped your head back to the front. “I think I’m good too.”

You were livid. You had never felt that much anger and embarrassment erupt through your body. It started as a small irritation, but soon you were burning with the heat of anger.

Shoto Todoroki followed you.

“Hey, wait.”

“No, I don’t think I will.” You didn’t turn around as you stormed to your room.

He didn’t stop following you, turning through the corridors behind you. You might as well be steaming through the ears. 

“Why are you so mad at me?”

“Because I’m in love with you!” You confessed, pure anger diminishing your filter. You couldn’t stop words from falling from your lips as you turned to him. “Because I’m in love with you. And it’s humiliating to basically be called weak by the guy you’re in love with in front of everyone. Because I thought we were friends.”

“We are friends. And that’s why I didn’t want to fight you.”

You scoffed. “Yeah, sure. Just fuck off, okay.”

No one had seen you for days following.

Most figured that you didn’t want to see your best friend, others made up stories of you leaving campus. None of them knew that you had confessed to said best friend and got nothing in response other than “we are friends”.

You were wallowing in self pity and anger turned sadness. 

“If you’re going to drop out, do it.” Shinso said. 

He was one of the people you didn’t mind still having around. He had no correlation to the two-toned boy you were avidly avoiding. And, to be honest from both sides, he liked to have someone who wasn’t scared to talk to him.

“I’m not dropping out. It’s been two days.” You threw a pillow at him. He caught it. “Two days is not a long time to get over the love of your life.”

You left your slump after another couple of days.

When you emerged from your pity party, you looked like garbage. You tried your best, you truly did, but you couldn’t get rid of the bags under your eyes and the exhaustion on your features.

You hadn’t even cried. You were just tired, and tired of being angry.

You managed to avoid Todoroki for a majority of the day, though you did manage to get stares. No one was subtle at UA.

Until lunch.

The second you entered the lunch room, you knew that you should walk right back out.

As soon as you walked in, your eyes found Todoroki’s. It didn’t take long. You always found your way to him.

You immediately looked away and sat next to Mina and Bakugou.

"You have to tell her now.”

They were all there: Deku, Bakugou, Kirishima, Uraraka, Iida, Tsu, Sero, Denki and Jiro. And all of them were staring at Shoto Todoroki.

“I...”

“No excuses.”

“You have to tell her.”

“Did you see her, idiot?”

“She looks miserable.”

“You gotta tell her.”

“This is peer pressure.” Todoroki stated.

“Yes.” Deku nodded. “But it’s the best kind.”

"Hi.”

Your step stuttered and you froze in your spot. You found him standing at your room door, hands clasped behind his back. 

You couldn’t help but wonder how long he had been waiting for you to return to your room.

“Hi.”

“This is awkward.” He said.

“It is a bit awkward, huh?” You shifted on your heels.

“I wanted to tell you that I am sorry.” He said. You started to interrupt, but he stopped you, “Please don’t say anything until I’m finished. I am sorry. I should have just sparred you, it was not that big of a deal. I made it one.

“You are a big part of my life. You have always been a friend to me, and because of my recent adaptation with my quirk... I didn’t want to hurt you. That’s why I didn’t. Not because you aren’t strong, your quirk is not weak in the slightest, but because I was worried about accidentally hurting you.

“I should have told you that instead of just being dismissive. I realize that. I didn’t realize, though, that it would make you as upset as it did. 

“And I also should have told you that I love you, too.”

You shook your head. He could have said a lot more, but you stopped listening. You had to face downward instead of looking him in the face.

“You’re shaking your head.”

“I’m sorry.” You held back a smile as you looked back to him. “It’s just... I wasn’t expecting you to tell me that you love me.”

“I didn’t realize it as quickly as I should have.”

“You could have taken a hundred years.” You reach for his wrists. “Thank you for your apology, I know that you had to be talked into it.”

His eyes flickered between yours. “You know me pretty well.”

“I know you better than most.”

The start of the relationship was the happiest you had ever been. You understood why people called it the “honeymoon phase”. 

You were nothing but smiles, and everyone was surprised to see him smile and gleam at your presence too. 

Neither of you were for public displays of affection, but one thing the both of you did like was holding hands. You liked the feeling of his fingers intertwined with his, and his warmth or coolness depending on which hand you found yourself holding (Yes, his quirk did that. It was kind of cool.)

He liked the feeling of your hand in his, too. He liked having your support, the structure of you holding onto him.

He also noticed how you didn’t flirt with anyone else anymore. You were still pretty outgoing and kind and funny, but you stopped your funny flirtations with the others. Not with him, though.

“Dang, my boyfriend’s looking sexy today.” You jokingly nudged him.

He knew that he looked the same as he did every day.

Shoto Todoroki rushed into your room with tears staining his cheeks.

You instantly shot up in your bed, staring wide eyed and fully awake despite being asleep minutes before. You didn’t need to know what time it was. 

“Todo?”

He didn’t say anything as he just came over to you and planted his body next to yours. You didn’t say anything either as he curled into your body with his head on your chest.

You laid back down and took him down with you. You wrapped the covers around you both and ran your hands through his mixed hair. 

You didn’t care about a boy being in your room in the midst of the night. You didn’t care about getting caught, or someone asking questions when he left in the morning.

You cared about your boyfriend’s tears that stained your shirt. 

“Get some sleep, you’re okay.” You whispered to him and planted a kiss to his forehead. 

That was one thing that Shoto loved about you.

You didn’t ask him questions, you didn’t push him to explain himself and his feelings to you. He was aware of his social constipation, and you didn’t force him to speak about things he didn’t want to.

It was the little things.

Kissing came naturally between you two.

The first kiss was nothing special, but it was the most special thing for the both of you. It was a goodnight kiss, one that he planted on your lips as if it were a second thought when in actuality it was something he had been considering since he woke up that morning.

It was a small peck on your lips, a second when everything seemed to fit perfectly together.

After that, the kisses were often in the absence of others. He would kiss you goodnight before going to his own room, or you would steal kisses between homework and study nights. 

He found out that you liked to be kissed on the neck, so he did it more often. Every once in a while, he would sneak one while giving you a hug after lunch.

It was everything you asked for and more. The butterflies never left either of your stomachs every time your lips connected.

Growing up with Shoto Todoroki was full of love and light.

You watched as he grew into his powers. You watched as he grew stronger and lighter, watched as he slowly started to become confident in himself. You watched him become himself, finally.

And he watched you, too. Watched you grow alongside him, become a better person and hero. He watched as you became confident in him, too.

You grew together. You grew into individuals and a couple all at once.

It was the beauty of love: everything was all at once and not at all.

“You should move in with me.” Todoroki told you over dinner one night.

You were in a fancy restaurant, and it was a date that he planned. You thought that he might propose, you had an inclination that Deku had been hinting at it for the last couple of months.

“That was more of a statement than a question, Todo.” You took a sip of the expensive wine. 

“More of an observation.”

You giggled and took his hands in yours. “Do you want me to move in with you? Or is this something one of the guys put into your head.”

“If I did everything they wanted me to, we would be married with five kids by now.” He joked. “But I am serious about you moving in.”

“Then fine.” You moved back in your chair. “I’ll move in with you.”

Growing apart was something unexpected and unfathomable until it happened.

It was slow, small things that made you notice the distance. The sleeping facing apart at night, the small pecks instead of passionate kisses. Saying “goodbye” more often than “I love you”.

It was different, to be in love as teenagers and to be in love as adults.

One of the first fights you ever had was a rough one. It started with an argument about safety, and then it spiraled into a fight about more than that.

You were yelling while he was frustrated. He rolled his eyes at your angry taunts, only egging you on. You couldn’t get your point across and neither could he.

“Can we just drop it?”

And that was the end of it. You didn’t bring up the fact that he said “that’s why I was in class 1-A and you weren’t” and he didn’t bring up the fact that you said that his “family trauma had nothing to do with you now”. 

The next several days were full of tension and near silence.

In the midst of the distance between you two, he came home late one night with gloom drenched over him.

He didn’t say anything as he ran into your arms, and you took him in without a second thought.

“You’re home now, it’s okay.” You told him with your voice muffled against his chest.

You felt him nod against you. He grabbed you tighter and pulled you impossibly close to his body. 

Neither of you thought about the tension from the previous fight. Because you were overwhelmed in love for each other.

“Do you want to talk about it?” You offered. Your hand still found solitude in his hair. 

Todoroki shook his head and brought himself back. He held his hands on your hips, maintaining his touch on you. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize.” You placed your hands on his face, wiping away stray tears. “Some days are harder than others.”

He kissed you then. His lips matched with yours similar to how puzzle pieces line perfectly with each other. This kiss was soft and bound with his love for you, passion behind it and breaking through the cracks.

You and Todoroki had done a lot of things in the past. Turns out, he was pretty kinky, not that you complained. He had tied you up; you’ve been blindfolded and spanked. Name it and you two have probably tried it.

This time you could tell that there was something different, he kissed you with softness that was usually found only in aftercare. 

You let him lead you to the bedroom, let him lay you on the bed. Your lips never left his for more than a second or two. 

“Todo...”

“Shhh, don’t speak.” He planted kisses down your neck. He kissed to your colar and left the lightest kisses to your breasts. 

Your back arched when he kissed your ribs, and you felt him smile as he kissed your stomach. His hand traced your thighs so lightly that he was nearly hovering.

“Let me use you for the night.” He looked back up to you with pleading eyes. “Please.”

You didn’t think twice, you just nodded. You had done it before, and if you were honest you didn’t mind. That was all he needed to pull his hands down, taking his underwear with it. 

His size never ceased to make you nervous and mouth water all at once. Since high school, Todoroki became bigger in stature. He was buff, tall, and just overall... large. And his cock was not much different.

His fingers rubbed you only twice before he lined himself up.

On instinct, you put your hand against his thigh in efforts to keep him out. He looked down at you. You brought your hand back, giving him the go ahead.

You weren’t wet enough to take him, but he bottomed out either way. The pain made you ache and your back arch again.

“Shit,” You moaned. He brought himself out and back in, slamming into you. “Fuck!”

He was splitting you in half. And you wanted him to.

You would wake up to cold sheets and fall asleep to silence. 

You would work alone with a smile plastered on your face only to come home and feel the emptiness.

“You would be perfect for the position here!” The voice on the other side of your phone said, muffled only slightly by the speaker. “We look forward to your decision! Take as much time as you need.”

It was the happiest you had been in a long time, bringing a bright feat to your mind at the thought of moving somewhere else with such an amazing opportunity.

Some of the divisions in Europe had teamed with the States. They offered you a pro hero job that fit your quirk perfectly, and they wanted you to come by the next month.

It would be faultless.

When the door opened to signal that your boyfriend had arrived home, you rushed out to greet him. “Guess what?”

He blinked up at you for only a millisecond. “What?”

“I got offered a job!” You couldn’t stop smiling. “It’s overseas, so I want us to talk about it.”

“That’s great.”

His voice nearly mocked your excitement, monotone and deep. He was bored. 

Your heart shattered. “ You don’t have to come with, of course; but if you don’t want to come we can figure out long distance. It would be--”

“Why don’t we talk about this more later, yeah?” 

You were frozen in place. You wanted a bit of excitement. You wanted a hug, a congratulations. He knew that you had always wanted to travel, that this was the perfect opportunity for you to chase your dreams. 

Your entire mood dropped the second he shit all over that.

“Yeah, yeah.” He kissed your cheek as he walked past you. “Welcome home.”

Talking to Shoto Todoroki was not much different than talking to a brick wall.

You would voice your concerns only for him to wave you off. He would tell you not to worry, he would tell you that everything is fine when it clearly was not.

“We should talk.” You told him as you readied yourself for bed. 

“Can we talk tomorrow?” He asked with his eyes closed. “It’s been a long day.”

The same response you would get every day.

“Sure.”

You would talk the next day.

Falling out of love was much like falling into it.

It was turning off a light before bed, the lightbulb taking it’s time to dim out. It was watching the water drain from the bathtub until the last drop fell. It was a forest fire in the rain.

It was redecorating your bedroom and liking the new layout much more. It was the feeling of drinking water after running suicides. It was sitting down after standing for hours.

It was a cherry blossom in the spring, only to disappear come fall.

Because falling out love is falling out of everything.

“I’m so sorry, but I can’t do it anymore.” You told your boyfriend of years.

You expected him to question your reasoning. You expected an argument, a fight. You expected him to want you to stay. For him to ask you to stay.

But he didn’t.

Shoto Todoroki only stared at where your hands were just connected in his and said, “okay.”

You had placed your ring into his palm. 

You stood to collect some of your things, just little things that you were going to take with you for the night. You expected him to watch you. You expected him to catch your eye at least once.

He didn’t.

He didn’t move at all, still staring at his hands that stayed clasped on the table. He didn’t look up at you, didn’t acknowledge you putting your shoes on.

You were at the door when he finally jumped from his seat and spun around. He raced to the hallway of the apartment complex.

“Why?”

You froze in your spot. Your heart broke in your chest, splintering every bone in its wake.

You turned around.

“Why?” You repeated. 

“Why?” He visibly swallowed. “Why can’t you do it anymore?”

Your eyes flickered between his. You could see the unshed tears lining his eyes, and you could feel yours as well. But you mainly witnessed his confusion, his anger that burned beneath the heterochromatic eyes you fell for.

“Why can’t I do it anymore?” You repeated again, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world. “Shoto, we’ve been walking on eggshells for the past year! I have been holding my breath every single day, not knowing if I were going to see the warm or cold side of you that day. We would go weeks without talking, without looking at each other. Do you really want that in a relationship?”

Todoroki started to make an excuse, to form an explanation. But no words could come out. 

He started to speak your name when you stepped closer to him.

You took his hands into his again, and he felt as though he was simply a speak of sand on a beach beneath your touch. 

“Shoto, I love you. I have always loved you, and I will always love you.” You stared at the intertwined fingers. He wished you would look up at him. “And you claim that you love me back, but I truly don’t think that you do.

“Because what our relationship has been... that hasn’t been love. It’s been pain, over and over and repeated again and again. For you to be in love, it means letting me in. Letting me get close to you and know your thoughts and feelings.

“And you have never allowed me the pleasure of getting to know you.”

You finally looked up at him with those beautiful eyes. The beautiful eyes that were filled with tears at that moment, the beautiful eyes he caused that much pain to.

As he stands in front of you, Todoroki imagines a life without you in it.

He imagines a world in which he never met you, never found friendship in you. Never fell in love with you. It is nearly impossible, you are such a profound person in his life.

He wonders if he can forget about how your smile makes his stomach churn.

“Do you want to come with?” You offer. You motion to the streets behind you. “Do you want to come to dinner, too? I’m sure the guys won’t mind.”

Todoroki hesitates. 

Your presence alone is overwhelming. It’s been years and he can feel his heart pound in his chest when your eyes meet his. He can still feel his head cloud at the sound of your voice.

He desperately wants to hug you, to feel your skin against his again.

“I don’t know if...”

“Oh, please no stupid excuses.” You say. “Please?”

And then, “I miss you.”

He doesn’t wait a second more, “Yes. I’ll come.”

masterlist

[sunnysviolin]

Broken Melody

Haha made myself sad......like actually really sad. Anwayyyyy yeah here you go. Why did I call it this? I just...yeah I was listening to Stand by Me, and it made me emotional (It’s the Darby Walker version if any of you actually listen to my music mindscapes lol) I discussed this with my bestie, and I have a ton more that can go into this, but this is just the start. uhhh TW: Death

Hero was born in a flash of fireworks all around the world. He is born as one year turns the next, not even a full five minutes after the clock struck midnight. 

He is born exactly on his due date, already punctual, a quiet sweet babe that gives one perfunctory cry and settles against his mother. On the back of his tiny right hand is a cluster of curling wavy music notes, all a soft grey. He was born before his soulmate. He doesn’t have to wait long, exactly three months later the colors fade in- soft purples and blues. Coincidentally their next door neighbor had her baby the same day. 

When they take over a gift to meet Mari a month later, both sets of parents know it’s not quite a coincidence. It’s fate. 

He doesn’t remember their first meeting, but his mother says he laughed loud and long and Mari squealed in joy merely at the sight of one another. Soulmates were confirmed by first touch, but apparently the two of them hadn’t needed it. They had been inseparable, unable to communicate, but knowing that together they were whole

When their mothers had tried to separate them, both infants wailed and wept. They had apparently had to wait until the two were deep in sleep before his mother could pick him up to bring him home. To Hero, there’s never been a day without Mari’s presence. 

In the mornings she is either the first thing he feels, or he gets the joy of sensing her come alive and the lackadaisical burn of her morning stretches. At night she is the last thing he thinks of, a quiet warmth on his hand, holding it as he drifts away, the press of phantom fingers settling him into quiet dreams. 

Finding your soulmate this early is almost unheard of. It’s rarer than rare, but to the two of them it’s just their life. It’s all they know. They’re aware they’re lucky, and everything is good. No one around them has ever seen such a strong bond. Most of the time the two of them don’t even need words, just side glances and a shared energetic connection. 

Mari loves to say that she knows Hero ‘like the back of her hand’, a joke that inspires more groans than laughs. Hero tolerates it and every time gives her a kiss over his mark on her. Their love burns bright and long, cool colored music notes lighting a soft fire under their skin. When he’s thinking in class, he can’t help but run his fingers across the mark, when she’s studying, she leans her head against it. 

There is no secrets between them, nothing hidden. It wouldn’t be possible to hide anything, not with a connection like that. Not with what they have. Until there is a secret between them. Something Hero had somehow missed. 

Hero is the first person to know Mari died. Before Sunny’s mind caught up with his body and he rushed down the stairs. Before Basil ran forward to stand beside his best friend. Before Mari was even fully gone. Hero knew. 

He and Kel had been laughing at silly ties. Kel was trying to convince him to wear something exceptionally stupid to his beloved’s recital, and Hero can’t help but indulge his little brother’s antics. They’re holding ties up to his chest and giggling when there’s a rush of unfamiliar anger in Hero’s chest. He pulls away from Kel, and he presses two fingers to his mark. 

Nothing. No response from Mari. Strange. Wrong. He presses again, the swooping feeling in his stomach growing. He waits. Nothing. Kel looks at him and asks what’s wrong. His parents stop their chat. 

Nothing. Just righteous anger. 

He’s never felt anything like this from his girl. She’s been angry plenty, she’s been sad, she’s been petulant. With a bond like theirs, he knows all of her different emotions, good and bad. But this is...overwhelming. 

Hero sits down on a nearby stool and stares down at his mark, his mind whispering something is Wrong. A momentary shock, a stabbing mirage of pain in his neck that makes his hands fly up to his throat as he chokes on nothing, and then emptiness. He had thought he felt nothing before but he was wrong. This was truly nothing. 

Hero flies past panic and straight into shock. His parents are walking forward, and Kel is standing next to him calling his name, but Hero can’t hear. He lets his hands slowly release from where they had been clutching his neck and looks down. 

His soulmark is black. Mari’s music notes, which had faded in and out of color in a watercolor ombre that reminded him of her piano playing, are black. Hero thought he knew what a black soulmark meant. It meant your soulmate died. That had always just been a fact. Black meant they were gone. Black was something to be sad about.

Hero wasn’t sad. Hero was confused. Nothing had prepared him for the reality, the ripped jagged edges of half of him being torn brutally away. He couldn’t understand it. Where were her colors? Her pretty purples to match his deep blues? Where was his girl? He couldn’t feel her, not even the anger which had come on so suddenly. He had never not felt her before.

His father is on the phone, talking frantically with someone, and his mother is holding his head against her chest, petting his hair over and over. He supposes she’s trying to comfort him. He can’t feel anything. He’s pretty sure he just died. He tries breathing, and he can, but it doesn’t feel like it works. He tries again, to the same effect. Hero out of the blue wonders if he will ever feel a real breath again. Maybe not. 

They get in the car and race out of the store. His father speeds, and his mother is saying something. He and Kel sit silently in the back, Kel staring at him with wide eyes. Hero can only look down at the black notes on the back of his hand. He hasn’t tried touching them, not yet. He doesn’t know if he ever will. Maybe if he doesn’t this won’t be real. They won’t actually be there. 

They get home to pandemonium. Police cars and ambulances and the eerie sound of Mari’s mother wailing as her father shouted elaborate curses at the officer’s holding him back. Hero’s father parks haphazardly in front of their house, and they all get out. 

Their parents send them into their own house with strict instructions to stay in the living room. Then they go to see if there’s anything they could do to help. Hero could have told them there wasn’t, but it wouldn’t really matter. 

Hero sits Kel on the couch and tells him not to move. Then he walks into their backyard. He walks in a daze out the door, past the patio that he and Mari liked to do their homework on in the Spring, towards the fence he and Mari peered at each other over sometimes when they felt like being silly. 

He would peer over now, and she would be looking back at him. His marks would go back to the way they were meant to be, and everything would be okay. She would be there in the pretty white dress she had chosen as her outfit for the night, the same dress he was choosing a tie to match to. She would smile and call him silly, and tell him that she knew him like the back of her hand and he knew her just as well. That she would never leave him, not ever. Hero stands on his tip toes and looks.

She’s under their favorite tree. Her toes don’t touch the ground. She’s in her pretty white dress. It is stained red. His girl is under their tree. Her arms hang limply by her sides as she sways in the wind of the October night. Her music notes are black. 

Hero already knew he had died right alongside Mari, but now he’s sure. 

[accioxreparo]

light of my life

synopsis: All Fred wants to do is forget the war and everything that happened and he finds his perfect escape all the way in New York. In you. 

pairing: Fred Weasley x american!reader

warnings: mentions of the war, angst with a happy ending cause I refuse to have it any other way, also a slightly racy scene, there isn’t too much detail, it’s more implied

a/n: basically I’ve been making my way through @ickle-ronniekins masterlist slowly but surely and I know we’re all in a mood tonight but this was stuck in my head and it’s now noon four in the afternoon and I haven’t slept all night cause I was so focused on this whoops

~~~~~~

Fred Weasley has always considered himself to be reckless. 

As a kid he’d sneak into the shed behind the house and steal one of the brooms they kept in there. It took four falls, a sprained ankle, and broken arm until he taught himself how to fly. 

When he and George started at Hogwarts he promised they’d make a name for themselves. One completely unlike their brothers. Only two days passed before they planted dungbombs all over the dungeons. The smell that lingered alone meant Potions was cancelled for the rest of the week. Sure they’d been given a month's worth of detention but they had people from every house congratulating and thanking them for just as long..

It was only their second year when they decided they were going to open their own joke shop after leaving Hogwarts. Despite all the setbacks they’d had over the years Fred had never been more sure of anything. Even his last year, as he and George sat in their dorm late the night before their escape, they were positive they were making the right choice. 

Maybe running a joke shop in the middle of a war hadn’t been the safest thing. Especially not when they were using the basement level as a safehouse for members of the Order. Maybe it hadn’t been the best idea to provoke the Death Eaters wandering Diagon Alley. But it’d been five months since the attack at Bill’s wedding and Fred had been just so completely done with seeing their stupid faces parading around every day while he worried about whether or not his family was dead. 

Finally he couldn’t help himself. A couple well placed tricks lured a fair bit of them to an ambush. Maybe if he’d thought it through a little, listened to the plan instead of going off on his own, their shop wouldn’t have been burned to the ground during the fight. He, George, Bill, and Charlie had taken out a dozen Death Eaters that day though so maybe, just maybe it had been worth it. 

Except his only remaining safe haven was gone. The war he wanted no part in had taken too much from him. His shop he’d spent years building alongside George. His family home that he watched burn down. His youngest brother who he hadn’t heard from in months. So yeah, maybe it made him just a little more reckless. A little more desperate. 

But he was Fred Weasley after all and things had a funny way of working out in his favor. He would go on raids and taunt the Death Eaters like there was no tomorrow, which he supposed in a way there wasn’t. He was on the run for months but never once had he even been close to getting caught. 

There was a war raging and even though the life he’d always known had gotten ripped out from under him, there he was. And by Merlin did it make him feel unstoppable. When the Battle of Hogwarts came he stood tall and confident, a smirk gracing his face. He was Fred fucking Weasley. He was reckless and invincible. 

But then he died. 

Well, almost. 

One moment he was laughing at whatever joke Percy of all people had made and the next...well he wasn’t too sure what happened the next. He remembered bricks, a lot of them, and the sound of people screaming his name. Flashes of black, emptiness mingled with...had those been fireworks going off above the school? They couldn’t have been. He remembered not being able to breathe, this crushing feeling surrounding him until suddenly...it wasn’t. 

There was this strange gap in his memory before suddenly he was blinking his eyes open in the hospital wing. The tear stained face of his mother had been the first thing he saw. It was as each member of his family cried as they hugged him that he realized he may have been Fred Weasley but he was, in fact, not invincible. 

It took two days until Madam Pomfrey even let him sit up in his hospital bed. Another week passed where all he could do was think. Think and watch the aftermath of a Battle he’d missed play out around him. It was during that time that he came to a conclusion. 

“What do you mean you’re leaving?” 

His mum wasn’t too happy about it. It had only been two days since he was discharged and she was smothering him senseless. Though he supposed he could understand where she was coming from, she’d almost lost a son after all. Nevertheless it was a reminder of just that. A well meaning, nagging reminder that he had almost died. And he would have absolutely none of that. 

“I mean that as of tomorrow morning I will no longer be in this house,” Fred didn’t look away from where he was stuffing whatever useful items he could find laying around into a backpack. He wandered from the living room to the kitchen only to have his dad, Charlie, George, Ginny and Harry go uncharacteristically silent at his arrival. 

“And just where do you think you’re going to go?” Molly followed him into the kitchen, hands on her hips as she watched Fred stick some bottled up potions ingredients into his bag. 

“Anywhere,” Fred shot around, a grin on his face and a bottle of lavender sprigs in his hand. “Everywhere.”

“Sweetheart,” She didn’t notice the way he winced at the name. It was never a term he’d heard directed at him before. Dear, sure maybe every now and then. Troublemaker was usually the go to. But sweetheart? Never. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea. Especially after -”

“After what? After you thought I had died?” Fred purposely ignored the way each one of them grimaced at his words. “That’s exactly why I have to go!” 

“Running off to who knows where? That’s your plan?” 

“I don’t have a plan. I just know -”

“Oh, even better!” Molly threw the dish towel in her hand down on the floor and pointed an accusing finger between everyone for a few moments before finally focusing on Fred. “You’ve always been the most careless out of everyone, you know. I will not let you -”

“Will you just listen to me!” All it took was a shout and a stomp of his foot for Fred to feel like a child again. He needed to be heard, though, and nobody was listening. Everything came pouring out all at once without him meaning for it to. 

“I’ve done nothing, mum! I can’t sit in this house, in this place, after being a breath away from dying and pretend like everything is okay! I’ve always thought I was daring and out there and sure, maybe a little careless but I’ve never even left this bloody town. I’ve gone from here, to the school, to the shop and back a thousand times over but never anywhere else. You know what that shop was? It was safe. It was what I knew. I loved it, of course I did. I still do and one day we’ll rebuild. But I can’t go back there after being at death’s door without leaving first because then there’s no point.”

The kitchen of the Weasley house had never been silent but it was now. Nobody dared to speak a word. The more silence that passed, the more Fred’s words sank in and the more everybody realized that maybe he had a point. Even if they didn’t agree with it all, who were they to tell him what to do? Who were they to tell him to stay put and do as he always had when he was clearly so desperate to go? 

A few minutes of tense silence and awkward glances passed before Fred finally sighed to himself, stuffed the lavender sprigs in his bag, and muttered, “I’m leaving tomorrow morning from King’s Cross if any of you care to see me off.”

***

The war hadn’t been easy for you. It hadn’t been easy for anybody, especially for the people dealing with the brunt of Voldemort’s attacks in England, realistically you knew that. Still, it didn’t stop you from firmly believing that the world was conspiring against you for a time. Now that all was said and done you prided yourself on having bounced back quickly. 

You’d been at the helm of several restoration projects at MACUSA and now just a short while later you walked through the streets of Mac Square with ease, a smile on your face. It felt normal. Traces of the battle that had happened there were nowhere to be found. There were no more piles of ashes. No more scorch marks and stains littering the sidewalks. No more ruins to clean up. It was as it had always been. 

Well, almost. 

Standing right in the middle of the Square was a giant display of dark granite blocks, names carved on every inch of the space. Wooden benches sat every couple of feet but hardly anyone sat on them. Everyone had been much too eager to get on with their lives, pretend the past had never happened. There you sat though, staring at the words etched at the head of the display. In memoriam. 

“What do you do here everyday?” The voice startled you. A laugh rang in your ears as you held a hand to your chest, a hopeless attempt to slow your heart rate down again. “Sorry if I startled you.” 

The person didn’t hesitate to sit beside you on the bench. He, like most people, paid no mind to the display. Instead he turned, placing one of his legs on the bench so he was facing you. It took a few moments for your breathing to return to normal and finally you looked at him. Quite frankly, he wasn't what you were expecting. 

He was around your age, quite tall and well built. His bright red hair was an odd length between short and long and rather messy. He was donning jeans, worn white sneakers, a Weird Sisters t-shirt, and a windbreaker jacket whose sleeves were currently pushed up. 

“Do you always sneak up on people like that?” You said after a few moments, not missing the smirk on the person's face. 

“I’ve been told I’m usually rather loud,” He shrugged easily and settled further into the bench. “You were just very concentrated on your staring.” 

“And it didn’t occur to you that maybe that was for a reason?” The faint smile on your face gave away how amused you really were. 

“Well you’ve been sitting on this bench for the last ninety minutes and I simply figured you were either dead, asleep, or in desperate need of a distraction. Lucky for me, it was the last one.” The person reached into his pocket and pulled out a pouch. He plucked one of whatever was in there out and tossed it into his mouth, grimacing as he bit into it. 

“What you’re really getting at is that you've been watching me for the last hour and a half.” You gave in and turned so you were facing the person you had yet to learn the name of.

“No,” He shook his head and ate another one of whatever item was in the bag. Jellybeans, upon closer inspection. “I’ve been watching you for the past week.” Just as you were about to mention how bad that sounded he motioned towards the building behind you. “My flat is just over there and every day I can look out the window and see you sit on this very bench around lunchtime and stare at that wall. Why?” 

His forwardness surprised you. For a brief moment you debated telling him. But he was a stranger, after all, so you decided against it. “Are you always this brash?” 

The stranger didn’t hesitate. “Unfortunately for you, yes.” 

“I don’t even know your name.”

“Then I’ll tell you,” He popped another jellybean in his mouth and nodded. “As long as you promise to tell me why you sit in front of this wall every day after.” 

“I’m not promising you anything. Not without knowing your name.” 

Your statement seemed to please the stranger and he smirked, offering you the pouch. You took a couple jellybeans but didn’t eat any just yet. Silence filled the air and for a moment this strange look flashed in the strangers eyes. It was gone as quick as it had appeared and soon he nodded. “I’ll make an exception but just this once.” 

“Oh how kind of you.” You offered him a smile because you recognized the look all too well. 

“Do I get to know your name at least?” He returned your smile, seemingly relieved to still have you as a distraction. 

“Maybe,” You shrugged and ate one of the jellybeans. Blueberry. “If you’re lucky.” 

“Fair enough,” The person grinned and ate another candy. He spit that one out quickly and made a disgusted face. “Liver.” 

“That’s your name? Liver?” Your smirk quickly softened when he laughed again. It was a sound you would be happy to get used to. 

“No,” He put away the pouch of jellybeans, having been put off by the last one he’d had the misfortune of biting into. “Though it’d be a fine name wouldn’t it?”

“If that’s your thing, sure.” 

He studied you for a few moments, staring in a way that had you wishing you could peer into that mind of his. “Fred Weasley.” 

The sudden beeping of your watch had you quickly standing up, pulling the bag at your feet onto your shoulder. “Well, Fred Weasley, it was nice talking to you but I have to get back to work. The members of the MACUSA Cabinet are sticklers for punctuality.” 

“Wait,” He, Fred as you’d found out, sat up on the bench and you paused your movements easier than you normally would have. “What about your name?” 

Something about him and the way he looked at you in that moment made you want to sit back down beside him, meetings be damned. You weren’t above toying with him a little though so you gave him another soft smile. “I said I’d tell you if you were lucky. Are you lucky, Fred Weasley?” 

Fred thought about what you were asking him. He thought of the countless things he’d gotten away with at school. Of all the fights he walked out of without a scratch. Of the fact that he was sitting on that bench at that moment talking to you. He grinned and finally nodded once, “I’d say so, sure.”

“Well then,” You lifted your bag higher on your shoulder and slowly took a few steps backward. “If you’re so lucky then I’m sure you’ll find me soon and I’ll tell you then.” 

You walked away in the direction of where the MACUSA offices were, a newfound ease to your every step. Meanwhile Fred watched you walk away, already wondering when he’d see you again, until you were just a blurry figure in the distance. 

***

After five hours of running up and down to different meetings the only thing you wanted to do was go home and sit. The last thing you were expecting to find was Fred Weasley standing in the middle of the lobby. Though you had to admit, he as a welcome distraction. He looked out of place, the jacket he’d been wearing earlier a stark contrast to all the suits and dress robes. 

“Told you I was lucky,” Fred pushed himself off of the pillar he’d been leaning on the moment he saw you step off one of the elevators. 

“I wouldn’t call it luck,” You sighed as you approached him, the two of you already making your way out of the building side by side. “Maybe good listening and decent investigative skills is more accurate.” 

“I’ll take it,” Fred laughed and held the door open for you as the two of you left the offices. He had no clue where he was going but he trusted that you did. “Now I believe the grand prize for my successfully locating the MACUSA offices was the pleasure of knowing your name.” 

You didn’t say anything though, not right away. The two of you walked at least three blocks before you looked around to make sure no one was looking and took out your wand. Fred watched as you touched a series of bricks and a portion of the wall faded away to reveal a new alleyway. He followed you without hesitation. 

The apartment buildings looked like every other complex he’d seen. Upon closer inspection though, they were each different. One had flowers painted all up and down the sides, enchanted so they were blooming. Another looked like a dozen single homes stacked on top of each other. Yet another had a phoenix watching over a playground, flying between a couple different buildings. 

You watched Fred spin around a few times, taking in everything that now surrounded him. There was a light in his eyes that you’d seen only a glimpse of that morning, one that held wonder beyond belief. It was going at full force now and you felt a strange desire to keep it there. “You hungry, Fred Weasley?”

***

“Ever heard of twenty questions?” 

“Can’t say I have, Y/N,” Fred answered through a mouthful of waffles. You’d told him your name on the way to the diner and he’d wasted no time in repeating it over and over to himself. He threw his head back against the vinyl booth the two of you were sitting in and made a satisfied noise. “Would you believe I’ve also never had breakfast for dinner. What do you think it is about nighttime that makes waffles so good?” 

“Forbidden fruit I guess.” 

“So how’s this game of yours work?” 

“Pretty simple,” You drank the rest of your coffee and moments later a pitcher came floating from the counter to refill your cup. As the cream and sugar mixed themselves into the coffee you reached into your bag and pulled out a pen, placing it on top of a napkin. “I ask you a question, you answer. Then you ask me a question and I answer. We keep going until all twenty questions have been asked.” 

“Where’d you learn this game?” Fred asked without thinking as he picked up his milkshake. The pen scribbled a single tally mark on the napkin and he quickly put down the large cup, shaking his head. “That doesn’t count!” 

“Afraid it does,” You laughed when he glared at the pen before turning back to face you. “We played it at the beginning of every year at Ilvermorny to make the incoming first years feel more welcome. 

“Ilvermorny.” Fred repeated what you’d told him, as if testing it to see if the word was real.

“You have heard of it, haven’t you?” It was your turn to frown when the pen scribbled down another tally mark. 

“I have,” Fred nodded but avoided your gaze, instead focusing on digging the cherry out from under all the extra whipped cream he’d insisted on ordering with his milkshake. “I just don’t think I’ve ever really realized what was out there in the real world.” 

“Well you’re here now,” The words left you without warning. They brought the smile back to Fred’s face though so you couldn’t bring yourself to mind. “Ask away.” 

And he did. He asked you about Ilvermorny and you told him basic things like your house and what it was like. You, in return, asked him about Hogwarts and all he’d told you about was his own house and the dozens of situations that occurred while he was there. An hour passed and the two of you had made your way through almost the entire game. Fred had ordered another milkshake and you had had two more cups of coffee. 

“Eighteen, what were you doing at the MACUSA offices earlier?” Fred leaned forward on the table, lowering his voice to a whisper as if you were swapping trade secrets back and forth. “You don’t seem like the government type. No offence.” 

“None taken,” You smiled before following his movements, leaning forward and accidentally spilling a bit of your coffee. “And if you must know I was meeting with the officials who are in charge of the classes taught at Ilvermorny. Now that restoration is complete I’m supposed to start teaching there again.” 

“So you’re a professor,” Fred’s response had come out as an observation instead of a question. He’d quickly mastered how to get around the pen marking every single thing he said as another tally. 

“Of sorts,” You gave a shrug and pushed your coffee aside. “Despite what they’ll have everyone believe the curriculum is dated at best and incompetent at worst. I taught myself more than any of my professors did and since then I’ve been working on rewriting the teachings of a school hundreds of years old so you can only imagine how that’s going for me.” 

For a very brief moment Fred thought of his last year at Hogwarts and all the times he’d snuck around for Dumbledore’s Army meetings. He thought of the fact that it was only the start of his career during the war. The lessons they’d worked on had come in more handy than anyone knew. He thought of...no. He refused to think about it any longer so instead he quickly shook his head and forced another smile onto his face. “I believe it’s your turn.” 

“Nineteen,” You didn’t notice Fred’s break in his own composure and thought to yourself for a moment as you dug a pile of dragots out of your bag and set them on the table. “Why are you here, Fred Weasley?” You quickly continued when you saw the smirk cross his face. “Here meaning America, not the diner with me.” 

He laughed at your clarification. The two of you had only known each other for a few hours at best and it already felt like you knew him inside and out. He liked the idea more than he cared to admit. 

“I needed a change after everything,” Fred shrugged, watching your face carefully for any sign of disappointment in his answer. He never found one though. Instead you looked at him, a soft grin on your face and maybe it was the homey feel of the diner or the colored lighting that softened your every feature or maybe even just the ease he felt while talking to you but he knew exactly what his last question would be. “Twenty, would you consider doing this with me again tomorrow?” 

Your answer came almost immediately. “Absolutely.”

***

Two months after that dinner at Red’s Diner, Fred was moving into your apartment in the Art District. Upon seeing the building that was yours, one with painted birds fluttering across the bricks, he’d told you it suited you with a smile. That night as the two of you were eating dinner at Red’s he kissed you for the first time, admitting to you in a quiet whisper that for the first time since he left home he felt okay. 

As much as you wanted to, you didn’t press the topic any further. You were comfortable around Fred and yet everything he did was wildly unpredictable in the best ways. Life with him was never boring and it was exactly what you needed. It had been a long time since you yourself had felt fine with your own life but with Fred it was so much more than that. He was home and you didn’t hesitate to tell him that. 

A month after he moved in you told him about the wall he’d first found you sitting in front of, the one meant to commemorate those who had died in the war. You told him about your own part in it, the fights that raged on for days in the biggest wizarding hubs in America. Despite what was believed, England wasn’t the only place invaded by Death Eaters. You told him about the names you stared at on the wall. Your best friend. Your little sister. Your father. Countless people you’d met at school. 

Fred held you close as you told him everything. You spoke so easily about what you’d gone through while he didn’t even dare think about what he had lived through himself. He came to the realization then that maybe you were stronger than him in ways he couldn’t even begin to fathom. It was after realizing that when he came to the conclusion that he loved you, completely and wholeheartedly. And he told you so. 

Three months after that was the first night you woke up to screaming. The moon was shining high in the sky and you’d been startled awake when Fred shot up in bed gasping for air, eyes wide and bloodshot. You were quick to reach for him but when the sound of your voice couldn’t bring him out of whatever trance he was stuck in you crawled into his lap. Your hands reached for his face, bringing his eyes to meet yours. The sight of tear stains on his flushed cheeks surprised you. So did the sudden realization that he was gripping his wand tightly in one of his hands.

“Hey,” You spoke gently, still cradling his face in your hands. “You’re okay, I’m right here.” It took a few minutes of your soft reassurances before he finally looked at you. He was brought back to reality and relief flooded his entire body. His wand fell out of his hand to the floor and he collapsed into you, wrapping his arms tightly around your frame as he buried his head in your chest. He shut his eyes and tried to keep his cries silent. “I’m right here.”

Two hours later Fred had managed to fall back asleep but he hadn’t let you go once. You were sitting against the headboard of the bed with his head in your lap, gently running a hand through his hair that had grown considerably longer. His breathing had evened out but you didn’t dare move him. A pain shot through you at the memory of him crying into your shoulder and you wanted more than anything to know how you could help him. Instead you were left wondering what it was that had woken him up and left him so scared. 

You were brought out of your own sleep the next morning by the feeling of Fred aimlessly drawing random shapes on the bare skin of your thighs with his fingers. He was considerably calmer now but when he looked up at you you knew he was still thinking about the previous night. 

“Did I wake you?” His voice was hoarse and the usual smile he wore every morning was nowhere to be seen. 

“No,” You lied. Fred needed your reassurance and you were more than willing to give it to him. “Been awake for a while.” 

Fred watched you for a moment as he tried to gauge how you were feeling. He hated being pitied more than anything else but there was no trace of the feeling on your face. A little bit of concern, sure, but that was to be expected after what he vaguely remembered putting you through. Mostly though you met his gaze with the same look of adoration you gave him every morning, one he usually returned. But at the moment his mind was hurtling out of control and never before had he had anybody at his side to deal with it alongside. 

He shuffled a little on the bed until he was more comfortably curled up into you. You felt like peace and that was something he was currently craving. “Can I -” He bit his lip and went silent, suddenly not sure if it was okay. “Can I tell you about it?” 

“Of course,” Your answer was automatic despite not knowing what ‘it’ was. You didn’t have to know, though. Nothing he could say, nothing that had happened, would ever change how you felt about Fred Weasley. You hugged him tighter to reassure him of that.

Several minutes of silence passed. The faint chatter coming from outside the window was the only noise that filled the room. It was almost cruel, Fred thought, the way everybody else went on with their Saturday morning while he sat there helplessly reliving that stupid war for the thousandth time. Finally with a shaky sigh he began telling you his story. 

“I saw it all happen.” You knew what he meant the moment the words left his mouth. 

“I can remember the night Harry yelled about you-know-who being back clear as day. I can remember him crying over Cedric Diggory’s body and the screams of his father when he saw that his son was dead. God, at the time I wanted nothing more than to be in that stupid tournament and I hate the fact that now I’m glad I wasn’t. I hated him, you know. Cedric. All because of a bloody game of Quidditch he beat us in. I’d give anything to take that back.”

You pretended not to notice the damp feeling soaking through your sleep shirt. Tears. 

“Nobody believed him. A boy died and nobody believed Harry. Instead we were all tortured for a year. The ministry likes to pretend they didn’t make it happen but there’s no other word for it. She made us write lines in our own blood, what else do you call it? And my dad -” He stopped, a particularly loud and shaky exhale leaving his body as he gripped you tightly. “He almost died that year all because nobody wanted to believe it. And George and I we’d just had enough of it, you know? So we left. For just a day everyone in that school was a child again and we made it happen. I don’t regret it, not at all. But maybe if we had stayed, maybe if we had made just a little more of an effort...maybe then my brother and my sister and our friends wouldn’t have had to fight off Death Eaters alone. They shouldn’t have had to, they were children. We all were. But nobody believed them and they were children and they watched somebody we cared about die that night. Why didn’t anybody believe them!” 

Everything you were hearing was new to you. Fred had told you about his family countless times, true, but never like this. He’d mentioned them by name a few times and told you stories about the summers they were all home but this? He had literally been in the middle of the war right alongside the Golden Trio you had heard so many rumors about. He was shaking, sobbing into your shoulder again and you had no idea what to say. So you settled for holding him, a silent promise that none of that would ever happen to him again, not if you had anything to say about it. 

It wasn’t until his breathing had evened once more that he worked up the courage to speak again. He swallowed thickly and his voice cracked but he powered through. Oddly enough a small weight had lifted off of his shoulders but there was still something holding him down. 

“I was never scared. I knew exactly what was coming. That’s why me and George opened the shop in the first place. Because people have to find hope somewhere after all. So we laughed and we made jokes and we made other people happy and that was enough. Death eaters burned down our house but we rebuilt it. Ron was poisoned by one of them but Harry saved him like always. Dumbledore was murdered by a professor at the school who we trusted but even then we were okay because we, the Order, knew exactly what to do. Not even at Bill’s wedding was I scared. They attacked and people were killed and others went missing but I wasn’t scared. I was furious. I was angry and I did everything I could to make sure those Death Eaters knew it. I was -” 

Fred stops again. He’s not hesitant because of a bad memory this time, no. He remembers the day he and his brothers fought the Death Eaters in Diagon Alley and what happened as a result. Shame burns through him at that moment. At the reminder of what he did. 

“I wanted them to go away, that’s all. It - It was war and you do desperate things and I didn’t mean to do it. But dark magic is hard to control, most of all a curse like fiendfyre. I’m the one who cast it and I put it out eventually but not before it reached the shop. I stood there and I watched it burn and I told George, Bill, and Charlie that it was the death eaters who cast the curse. They believed me. After that I fought and I ran and I laughed and fought some more and I was never scared, not once. Maybe that’s why.” 

You couldn’t help yourself. Fred had stopped talking but he wasn’t done feeling. That you knew for a fact. It’s what prompted you to ask, “Why what?” 

You didn’t even notice that you’d been crying yourself until Fred turned his head to look at you, frowned, and reached up to wipe away your tears. There was no hesitation in your movements as you leaned into his touch and gently placed your hand over his own. He looked only at you as he continued. 

“Why I died.” He paused once more to reach for your other hand, intertwine it with his own, and press a soft kiss to it, reassuring you that despite his statement he was still there in your shared room right next to you. 

“Madam Pomfrey told me after I was being particularly difficult one night. Percy had brought me to the hospital wing after the blast that knocked down that wall in the courtyard crushed me. She said she was the one who checked me herself. I was dead. She told my mum with tears in her eyes that I was gone and suddenly two minutes later I was opening my eyes again. I didn’t know why they were all crying. I didn’t know why they hugged me and kept repeating that I was alive. I didn’t process any of it until I woke up a couple nights later because I couldn’t breath. I was being crushed under the weight of a thousand bricks but I opened my eyes and there was nothing there. Only me and the dark room and flashes of every single thing that I had done during the war who’s ending I missed. That’s why I really left. Because that night was the first time I was scared. The worst part is that I wasn’t scared of the war that wasn’t even happening anymore. I was scared because I really thought I had accomplished a lot and it took dying to know that I really didn’t.” 

“Look at me,” You said after only a few seconds, once it was clear that Fred had finished telling you his story. He listened to you, sitting up fully and watching as you turned to face him completely. “You are here and well and I could not love you more. What was that thing you said. You made other people happy and that was enough. I’ve heard your stories, each one you tell with the widest grin. I’ve seen you play with those kids from two floors down and the smile you put on their faces. I absolutely know that even when things were dark you did everything you could to bring a little light into the world. And listen to me, Fred Weasley, that is way more than enough and I never want to hear you say or even think otherwise. Okay?” 

For a minute all he did was stare at you. He wasn’t quite sure what it was he was looking for but very slowly a soft smile grew on his face and he found himself nodding. Then without warning he launched himself forward, held your face in his hands, and kissed you. It was hard and passionate and filled with a thousand emotions. He was positive then, as the two of you moved together, wrapped in a blanket of love and reassurance, that he never wanted to leave your side. You were the one who made his world good. You were the one who made him feel better and loved beyond belief and that was really all he could ask for. 

***

The door of your apartment slammed shut behind you and almost immediately you were pushed against the wall. Frantic, wandering hands quickly removed Fred’s jacket and unzipped the front of your dress. Even in between heated kisses you could still taste the chocolate malted milkshake he had drank at Red’s earlier. A laugh escaped you at the fact as you gripped the bottom of his shirt and pulled it over his head. 

“Why are you laughing, this is a very serious moment,” Fred asked, a smile playing on his lips as he slipped the dress off your shoulders. 

“No reason,” You shook your head, kissing him once more as you unbuckled his jeans. Another laugh soon escaped you when he nearly fell over trying to get them off. 

“You’re so mean,” He teased, pulling the long sleeve shirt you’d been wearing underneath the dress off. Then he glanced at the thigh high boots you were wearing and sighed. “Darling, I really do love the sight of you in those boots of yours but they are such a hassle to get off at times like this, you know.” 

“Which is why last time I wore these,” You quickly moved to unzip them, taking them off one at a time with a smirk on your face. “You had me keep them on.” 

Fred wasted no time in reaching for you again once the boots were off, lifting you off the floor and wrapping your legs around his waist, carrying you in the direction of the room. “You know,” He said once reaching the bed. “The lease on the apartment is ending soon.” 

“What a -” You were cut off by your own moan as he sucked a mark on the skin of your neck. “An odd thing to bring up now of all times.” 

“I just thought,” Satisfied with the mark left on your skin, he started peppering wet kisses down your body, stopping every now and then to bite softly and speak words in between. “Maybe we’d try living somewhere else. Like London.” 

“Are you serious?” You couldn’t keep the smile off your face. There had only been a few times when the two of you discussed meeting Fred’s family and each time had ended in a firm ‘one day’. The statement surprised you but didn’t distract you from the feeling of your legs being pushed apart the farther down Fred went. 

“Of course,” Even as he kissed the soft skin of your thighs you could feel the smirk playing on his lips as he heard your breathing quicken. “I’ve been dying to show my fiancée off to everyone, you know.”

“Maybe we should -” A sudden gasp escaped you at the feeling of the fabric of your underwear snapping against your skin. You glared a bit when Fred chuckled softly at your reaction. “We should discuss me meeting your family later. Maybe when we aren’t half naked?” 

A real laugh escaped Fred at your words but he quickly smirked again and resumed his previous actions. “As you wish.” 

***

Nervous was something you hadn’t felt in a long time. But it was all you felt now as you stared at the home you knew was the Burrow. The Weasley family home. An endless stream of butterflies fluttered in the pit of your stomach and you had to resist the urge to fiddle with the glittering ring on your finger to calm yourself. That was how you’d lost it only a few days ago in the middle of moving all the boxes around your new apartment in one of the wizarding boroughs in London, only a couple blocks from Diagon Alley. 

The decision to move came easy for both you and Fred. He was confident that he could face everything and everyone again. The morning he’d told you everything was the morning he realized talking it through with you was more than helpful. And you had happily handed over the revised curriculums to the Headmistress of Ilvermorny only a day before leaving New York. From what you heard, there was another school who could do with the same treatment and you were eager to assist. 

It’d been exactly eleven days since the two of you had moved to London. While Fred had seen his family a couple times now, he was insistent on wanting to give you a big reveal. The only person he’d let into the apartment was George, who upon meeting you loved you instantly. The three of you had spent all day talking, swapping stories usually at Fred’s expense. 

Finally that morning he’d woken you up with a grin, had you get ready, and told you it was time for your first Weasley family dinner. Or lunch, technically. 

“Hey,” Fred stepped in front of you and immediately saw the nervous look in your eyes. He held your face in his hands and kissed you softly, resting his forehead on yours right after. With that one small movement your nerves faded away and you visibly relaxed. “Everyone is going to love you. Promise.” 

“I’m trusting you on that,” You spoke after a few seconds, a smile making its way onto your face. With a satisfied grin, Fred took your hand and pulled you in the direction of the house. 

You were fully expecting to be ambushed the moment you walked through the door, you were prepared for it. Instead you were met with a silent house. Fred wasn’t phased though, he simply led you through the rooms. You walked through a living room whose walls were covered in moving pictures, the kitchen where a pile of pots and pans were washing themselves in the sin, and finally into the backyard. That’s where everyone was waiting. 

“She’s real!” 

“Shove off,” Fred rolled his eyes at the sudden exclamation as he finally stopped, still holding onto your hand to keep you comfortable. He looked at you, the look on his face softening when he did so. “This is everyone.” 

“You aren’t going to introduce me?” You asked, a slight smirk making its way onto your face. 

Fred laughed and glanced around at everyone else before matching the look on your face. “They’re going to ambush you one by one anyway. Figured I’d save at least one of us the trouble.” 

That was all the confirmation anyone needed to hear. Before you knew it you were being pulled into a tight hug by the first person to reach you. 

“We’ve heard so much about you, dear!” Molly was beaming as she held you at arms length. “Even prettier than he said. Told us about you in every letter he sent, you know.” 

“Did not,” Fred, who’d taken a step back and was now standing beside George, met your eyes, saw your smirk widen, and immediately knew he was never going to hear the end of it. 

“He did too,” Ginny walked up to you next and glanced between you and her brother. You recognized the familiar mischievous glint in her eyes and already knew you were going to love her. “Mum read them out loud and everything.”

“Mum!” 

“Sorry, dear,” You could tell by the tone in her voice that Molly wasn’t sorry at all. She simply smiled, squeezed you once more, then walked over to Fred placing a hand on his cheek. “They were adorable.” 

“I think she even has one framed,” You recognized Charlie by the dragon tattoo peeking out from under the sleeve of his shirt. He didn’t hesitate to throw his arm over your shoulders in greeting. “What was it you wrote? ‘Her smile shines brighter than the city lights, mum, I swear.’” 

“Who knew you were so poetic?” Ron mimicked Charlie’s movements, leaning on your other shoulder. He looked at you with an amused smile. “You really bring out the best in our dear, Freddie, Y/N.” 

For once Fred didn’t mind the teasing. It was worth seeing the way your eyes lit up, head tossed back in laughter alongside his family. He wondered as he watched Ginny pull you towards the table why he hadn’t introduced you sooner. You fit right in with everyone and he loved it. He loved you. 

It was Hermione who finally mentioned the ring you were wearing as you piled food onto your plate. She grinned, taking your left hand to examine it. “When’s the wedding, then?” 

“The what?” Came chorused from no less than eight people. 

“Don’t tell me none of you noticed,” Fleur said, suddenly appearing on the other side of Hermione to look at the ring. 

“It was obvious,” Percy, who was already eating, shrugged. He’d been the only one to quietly give you his congratulations, smiling excitedly as he did so. 

“Why didn’t you tell us!” Molly scolded, flinging one of the dish towels at Fred who quickly ducked out of the way. 

“Why’d you think I wanted everyone here? Just for fun?” Fred defended, not moving fast enough to dodge the balled up napkin Bill threw at him. 

“You could have at least said you had news or something,” Bill appeared behind you and Fred quickly, hugging you both at once. “This is huge.” 

“It really is,” Harry agreed, placing a hand on Fred’s shoulder. “None of us thought you’d be next.”

“Well,” Fred only smiled, wrapping his free arm around your waist to pull you close and kissed your cheek softly. You looked up at him, practically beaming. “Only the best for my love.” 

“You should’ve told us sooner,” Arthur happily smiled at the scene from where he was standing right beside Molly. “Your mother’s been waiting to plan another wedding since Bill and Fleur’s.” 

It wasn’t a lie, as evidenced by the flurry of questions that were shot your way. How’s and when’s and everything in between. Needless to say as all of you sat around the table that summer afternoon several decisions were made. Upon being asked by Molly when you two wanted the wedding to be Fred had immediately told her as soon as possible. She smiled at the sight of him looking at you with pure adoration and pushed back the happy tears in her eyes. 

The conversation finally changed topic as the afternoon went on. Night had fallen and everyone had drifted from the table to around a fire that had been enchanted to act more as decoration and less like a heat source. You sat on a blanket that had been laid on the grass, happily leaning against Fred who held you to him. 

“We’re going to reopen the shop,” George announced with a smile when everyone started talking about what they were going to do now that the ministry was finished being rebuilt. Fred had been quick to tell him the truth about the fiendfyre incident after returning to which he only received a nod and an ‘it’s fine, I knew’. “We’ve already started building up our inventory again.” 

“Really?” Everyone had been waiting for the day the two of them would decide to reopen the shop. The structure had been put up quickly after the end of the war. All that was left was the cosmetics on the outside and the matter of stocking everything. 

“Besides,” Fred grinned as he glanced around at his family. “Everyone needs a little light in their life right?” 

It was late at night, after Fred dragged you up to his childhood bedroom insisting that you needed to see it and sleep there at least one night to get the full experience, that he pressed his lips to yours in a way that left your head spinning wonderfully. 

“You’re mine, you know,” He whispered the statement into the night, afraid that if he spoke too loud he would ruin the moment. “The light of my life.” 

The words he said to you were soft and beautifully intimate and unlike anything you’d heard before. After everything, wars and trauma and so much else, you were there together in that moment in time. And you were ecstatic. You kissed him again, softly, and smiled as you spoke against his lips, “And you’re mine.”