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peachlicks79 · 2 months ago

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Before the Storm

Before The Storm

"This should be it. Thanks for coming with me, Lena." Kara held the door open for her friend as Lena slipped past, the crisp step of her high heels getting lost in the bar's happy hour noise, patrons yelling over the pumping base and lively karaoke. Kyrptonian eyes were bright as she peered at the bottles lining the walls like an alcoholic library. They were both here on prelude to business for tomorrow: Kara for an interview with the art gallery that was setting to open tomorrow curating works from all human and alien walks of life, and Lena taking a financial investment in an up and coming woman-owned business in the arts. Their meeting inspired a casual stakeout of the places around, and they had stuck to the bar beside the art gallery where Kara had done some research and found out the owners were friends and visited to support often.

"Of course, Kara. It's nice to have a night out sometimes." Red lipstick parted in a fond smile as the CEO took in her blonde friend sweeping by her and leading the way. It was always interesting seeing Kara in different situations in her reporter role. While Lena normally didn't frequent these types of establishments other than the monthly get-together with the Superfriends, it was an even rarer sight to see the Kryptonian around other aliens outside of her Supergirl role.

Victoria Chase had made a name for herself after the storm of Arcadia Bay, photographing the horrific event and raising money for the town's rebuild outside of her family name years ago. The incident had piqued Lena's interest, the adopted Luthor feeling the tell-tale call of bloodline and needing to make a name for herself outside of it garnering many a look at the art portfolio Victoria had taken to posting online. After five years and times of travel capturing more and more natural horrors, Victoria had stated in a press announcement she was looking to open up her own art gallery, away from her parents' Chase Space, with her partner, Max Caulfield in National City. Their motivation to do so was for inclusion of all, aliens and humans alike, to come together and share in expressions of art concerning global warming and other natural events that had taken away homes and towns and cities. A portion of their proceeds would go to charities, and further the awareness of supporting more green ecological steps and inclusive diversity.

Alien Amnesty had been put into place for the better part of three years, but Lena knew better than anyone a law passing would take time to cement itself socially. Noticing the ease of which Kara carried herself between the tables and people, Lena was grateful this establishment had succeeded in making aliens and humans alike comfortable. When Kara beckoned her over to a snagged table and three sets of double shot glasses in front of her, Lena made her way over and raised an amused eyebrow.

"Normally you're an eat first, drink later type." Her statement was met with a wide smile and sparkling blue eyes gently pushing the drink in front of her.

"You don't have to if you don't want, Lena," Kara started, then nodded up as she raised a toast to the ceiling. Lena's eye followed as Kara continued, holding her glass out for her friend to cheers against. "But there was a poster saying we would get a free appetizer if we ordered two drinks, and a free photo after five!!"

Polaroids draped down the pillars and sides of walls, and the ceiling was covered in stories. It looked like a community effort for interaction, and at that the dark-haired woman acquiesed to a quick clink against Kara's glass as she tipped her head back and took the offered drink. Warmth bloomed through her as she swallowed, her chest tightening as she watched Kara down hers, the blonde a mix between business and casual as she slapped her palms down on the table, letting out little taps against the hardwood.

"Whooo, that's new!!" Tilting her head, Lena couldn't help but laugh, Kara's outburst louder than the crackbreak of the pool balls behind their shared space.

"What is?" Kara fanned herself slightly, crossing her legs and bumping Lena's a bit as she repositioned herself. She had taken to wearing more pants as of late, explaining that she enjoyed her costume's suit better with coverage, and it reflected nicely of the fall weather. The blonde may be indestructible, but sensation was sensation and Lena knew better than most the effect of clothing and how it could be worn as an armored aesthetic.

"They serve alien drinks here. Wierdly enough, it tastes better than where we normally go."

"Are you sure you don't want to stick to human alcohol where it won't affect you so you can get more free potstickers?" Lena teased, leaning back and enjoying the relative ease the drink brought her. Kara gasped, mock glaring.

"How did you know my plan? And what if I wanted something else?" Lena threw up a hand in a motion that excused her friend's sentence and laughed. "Darling, I know you better than that."

Blue eyes blinked slowly at her, and Kara's smile deepened as she leaned forwards. Not for the first time Lena's eyes dipped to those pink lips, then blinked to take in all of Kara downing another drink. It had been a fairly hectic week with Alex and J'onn running Supergirl into multiple mob jobs, National City thugs scurrying under the last covers of summer parties and illegal rings where out of towners had taken to coming to. It wasn't anything outside of the ordinary, but Kara had confessed to Lena she preferred the direct fights of alien tussles where she didn't have to hold back as much to hurt anyone. There hadn't been a lot of down time as of late for a one on one get-together, and Kara seemed determined to catch up now since the season was changing and the last they had been out had been near the start of the summer. Lena didn't miss the assassination attempts as more and more time passed and the city understood she had a good communication with Supergirl, but the CEO refused to admit she looked forwards to the blonde superhero always arriving in the nick of time. Damn her and her masochistic streak.

Around them the place burst into a roar of excitement, and Lena blinked. Both her and Kara looked back at the open door where a pair of women had come in, and one was currently in a headlock by a tattooed punk who popped up from out behind the bar. The shorter brunette was laughing, freckles highlighted by the heat of the sun, and in a smooth motion stepped away and a shutter clicked from a polaroid camera. The print captured just in time as the pixie-cut blonde stepped forwards and hooked a leg behind the knee of the lean woman, effectively sweeping the blue-haired punk off her feet and nonchalantly tipping her back onto the floor in a move that would do Alex Danvers proud. Before a real scuffle could begin, a flash of red flannel had settled between the two women and Kara and Lena looked on with interest when another woman with a feathered earring playfully flicked both of them on the nose.

"Cut it out, Chlo, and really, Victoria? Couldn't you and Max have visited any earlier?"

A snort came from the taller blonde, elegantly righting her hair as she took the shorter brunette woman's hand in hers and walked deeper into the bar, where patrons nodded happily to the newcomers and raised hands for high fives.

"Tell that to this one over here. . . she really Maxed out her excuses with the jetlag from France."

"Tori!! You said we wouldn't kiss and tell."

"Oh, so it's YOU I should be grilling, Mad Max!! Not surprised, only disgusted. C'mon, I found a song that suits you both to a T."

Kara and Lena turned back to each other and laughed, a little surprised and both delighted. Victoria Chase and Max Caulfield had touched down in the area, and they were privy to a slightly hectic reunion with their friends. Kara recognized Chloe Price as the punk tattooed owner from the research she had done, and it was a bit of a shock to Lena as she recognized Rachel Amber, if only from her guilty pleasure of watching old campy horror movies in her rare spare time. The Oregonian actress was soon to shoot a movie, little else was known about it. While they watched the four set up by the karaoke where Chloe nodded to the host, Kara and Lena received their three free orders of potstickers and both asked for a different dish on the menu, plus Lena another drink. She'd asked a bit earlier, and Kara had told her she really only ordered 3 alien shots and normal alcohol. Their bar food was turning out to be quite delicious, and Lena noticed Kara was turning a bit red as she looked at her, finishing off the third of the doubles she had gotten.

Behind them, Chloe Price had picked up the mic and was mimicking playing an electric guitar while whipping the cord around in circle as she jammed. Kara and Lena could see the mischievous glint to her as she herded her two friends and partner into a round table and the bar started thumping as aliens and humans alike cheered -- how did Lena just now figure out this was a gay bar?

"To a happy belated birthday to Queen Bee of Blackwell, long may it suck ass so we can forget the fucking horrors there -- to Sticky!! Icky!! Vicki!!"

The crowd went wild. Kara and Lena laughed along with them as the blonde prepared to lunge towards the cocky punk, and they both watched as Max yelled too as Rachel cheered and easily tipped Victoria back into her seat. Charisma flowed out of Chloe as the beat hit, and suddenly Chloe was singing as she mobbed the mic and took over the karaoke floor.

"I don't want a girl who gets a car for her Sweet 16 Or spends a stack of dollar bills on a limousine--"

Kara spit-takes into the air and gapes while Lena freezes.

"I want a girl who takes a bus and who wears baggy jeans--"

Their eyes meet and Lena's eyes hammer. Those words slam into her and she remembers the early first times of meeting Kara, where she had told her she'd flown there, on a bus, after not needing her parking ticket validated. God, her attraction to the blonde had been so very obvious in hindsight. Kara had stood for someone who understood in the first moments of meeting her, and Lena remembered how much it had hurt when the truth had come to fruition. They had slowly pieced it back together, but damn, had it been hard, and she had ached, ached to see how much of Kara she had missed after that reveal.

"Rockin' Nike Airs, what the hell are Louboutins?!"

The kryptonian watched with wide eyes as Victoria Chase kicked off her a sneaker and it hit the upside of Chloe's head. The punk just laughed and continued to skip around, showmanship kicked into high gear as she hit energetic beat after energetic beat.

"Don't want no fake tan, short skirt, Daddy's money don't work!! Shop until you drop on the toooown~!!"

Lena flushed hard as she watched Kara's gaze snap to hers, then down, almost helplessly sliding down her legs before the blonde looked up, guiltily wide-eyed. In the background Max was keeping Victoria from strangling Chloe, laughing a bit herself, and Rachel was getting up, slinking to join her loud girlfriend.

"I want a girl stronger than her father Someone who will laugh at tryna fit in the crowd~"

Kara's eyes are seeming to be an apraisal, and her fingers are grabbing for a potsticker. At this point the song is pointed and from what Lena knows of Victoria Chase, the photographer had been fairly successful in being everything that this song wasn't. Clearly Chloe was making fun, and as Victoria stopped promising violence, Lena watched as she saw Max gently kiss her, grabbing her polaroid camera and snapping a selfie of the four as Chloe pulled Rachel firmly to her side, where they started to sway, looking into her the actress's eyes.

"And all we used to dream about~ Is getting rich and getting out~"

They both watched as Rachel and Chloe touched their foreheads together, singing a beautiful symphony, and then Rachel pulled away to do a twirl, Chloe expertly pulling her close again and dipping her, then pulling her back up to grin at each other. Lena felt her heart clench, partly of her own history, but also because of Kara, who she could see watching her, seeing how she was taking the song. Somewhere deep inside, Lena felt a tie to this song, or at least to the chorus. What she wouldn't give for more time with Kara, especially after it had taken them so long to come back together. Her penthouse had only known happiness when Kara had been there, and it was slowly becoming something more than a place to cry as she pulled herself back together and out from her family's legacy.

"Move to the nicer part of town Where we'd have numbers on our house It took awhile to figure out~"

The Oregonians were all smiling at each other, clearly having remembered the horrors of Arcadia Bay and knowing all of their relationships and friendships were stronger after it. Lena looked to Kara and found her steadfastly looking back, and suddenly Lena is reaching out, Kara's hands in hers, and they cheer to Chloe as she gallantly spins Rachel away from her back to her seat and resumes her birthday callout to Victoria.

"What type of girl that I'm about Who brings the real man out of me -- Rachel knows!!"

The crowd laughs at that, and Lena hears the tempo pick up again, Kara's hand firmly in her own even though the kyptonian is trembling.

"I don't really want no trust fund baby I like my women independent. And I say to people, that's my lady And we don't need nothing e~e~else"

The room was stifling hot, the crowd around them joining the singing. Kara was looking at Lena like she had so many times before, and Lena wondered how many times they had been down this road of calling it friendship while giving to each other everything past friendship and any sort of label. Lena recognized this was ridiculous, but as a businesswoman and a Luthor, she had been raised to stamp down anything that was short of exposing imperfection. Two double shots in wasn't anything near what she could take, but Lena blinked and was reminded, she was in a gay bar with her best friend and it had been upwards of three years since she had Kara in her life. Kara, who had seen her so broken at her worst, and had promised to always protect her. Kara, who even when they were at their fallout and Lena had desperately tried to hate, had not given up. The Luthor may be in her blood, but Lena wondered now what that meant when Kara and her were just women at a bar. Not a reporter and CEO, not a Super and a Luthor, but two best friends, and this song-- Chloe was outdoing herself.

"Don't want a girl who takes selfies, Want her makeup free!!"

This time it's Max that launches herself at Chloe, and the punk laughs as they both hit the floor, wheezing and continuing the song, pushing the photographer away by a palm at her forehead.

"Don't want no mean girl lady, let's call her Sticky Vicki!!"

Victoria has launched herself on top of the pile and Rachel shrugs and joins in. Lena wonders for a moment if there's a chance tomorrow will be cancelled, and that's what it takes to shake the moment. As Rachel yanks the mic from Chloe and yells,

"HER DADDY TOLD HER HOW TO FIX CARS, MAYBE SHE COULD FIX ME!!"

Lena and Kara pull away from each other as as a couple more of Chloe and Rachel's employees head to the front, good-naturedly pulling them off of each other, and Lena thinks this is enough. It's enough that she's here in this moment with Kara, watching women who have built a life from scratch with efforts and the bonds of friendship and love, and she tilts her chin, wobbling a bit as she leaves money on the table and in an instant Kara is at her side, sliding the money back into her purse as she supports Lena's elbow. Kara leaves her own money on the table and they make their way out, giggling as they hear,

"Wanna girl with common sense Who's dripping in confidence DON'T WANNA DIE TO GET RICH BUT SHE LOVE FIFTY CENT!!--"

The shrieking laughing of karaoke dies out the moment they hit outside, and Kara pulls Lena to her front as she slips into a back alleyway beside the bar, Lena tucking into her front as she registers the DING~ of the bicycle's bell as it zooms by. It's not that late by any means, but there is a chill in the air as the breeze picks up around them. The slit in the length of her dress gives Lena some reprieve for how hot it was inside, and she heats up again when Kara unconsciously nuzzles a kiss to her forehead. The alleyways are the only shadowy part of the city's street, illuminated up by the full moon, and before Lena knows it, Kara is asking her a question.

"Do you trust me?"

She's nodding instinctively. It's Kara. The blonde had grabbed her jacket and she used that to tug around Lena, enveloping her in a blanket of warmth and the scent of her best friend. Lena's heart rate ratcheted up, not used to the easy way Kara seemed to hold her close. It had been a while since Kara had told her she was Supergirl, and while they'd hugged, Lena hadn't been in Supergirl's arms since before she had known. That changed now as Kara smiled at her, then gently pulled her into a bridal carry. Lena yelped, burying her face in Kara's neck in embarrassment.

"Shhh, I've got you."

"Kara, I can WALK!!"

"Mmmn, I like my women independent."

Lena pulled back to smack Kara playfully on her arm, then shrieked and held herself back close again. They were in the air, above the tree and cityline, and the moon was full and beautiful and so very big. It illuminated Kara's face as she continued to smile at her, and Lena couldn't understand how anyone could be so beautiful and kind and out of this world -- because Kara was.

"I didn't expect tonight to go how it did." Kara's voice was soft, and she was still looking at Lena, direct and open and with a look that Lena had seen before. Had seen so many times before, and she knew she had mirrored, whether they were alone or not. She mirrored it now, leaning into Kara's shoulder and taking solace in the solidness she knew Kara Danvers was. To her surprise, she could hear the kryptonian's heartbeat, and it was a speeding stutter.

"How did you expect tonight to go?"

In the silence that followed, Lena watched as Kara slowly pulled both of them steadily higher, away from the ground and the city, felt Kara's heartbeat start to speed even faster as Lena used the privacy of the moment to place her palm over Kara's pounding chest. The moon was so different to look at like this, a quiet observer of the earth as it reached out endlessly to touch everything with its light. Lena looked at Kara then, really looked at her as she had before Kara was a friend, before she had to hide her interest with respectable friendship. Kara's pupils were wide, and Lena felt supported in more ways than just the physical as she was shown the world as Kara saw it.

"I expected karaoke to shake you up even more than it did."

Lena let out a laugh, and Kara tilted her head to the side.

"Darling, I've heard Roxanne."

Kara snorted.

Then, a beat.

"I have a song for you, I'd like to share. If it's okay."

Lena could feel Kara's breath on her, a little shaky, and she smiled. Shifting a bit, Lena paused.

"Only if you let me step on you."

Kara's whole body flushed.

"Wh-What?"

The CEO couldn't help the fond smile she had for the reporter. Repositioning herself, Lena righted herself and stepped on Kara's feet, so now they were face to face. Even with the slight breeze around them, she felt safe and warm, Kara's body heat actively ramped up around her. The blonde's cheeks were red, and she shakily grinned as she pulled out her phone, Lena's hands seeking to hold onto Kara's shoulders.

"First met her on the west side of Cali Only took one look and girl you had me"

Lena could feel the harsh tremble of steel as Kara wrapped an arm around her waist, eyes bright and open as she gazes at Lena. They're so high up above everything that they're the only one that exists, and the brunette forgets that once upon a time she's ever been afraid of heights. She had been afraid of a lot of things before Kara, and even due to Kara, but never of Kara. She doesn't recognize the song, but she leans into the warmth of the blonde, bravely listening to what Kara wants her to hear.

"Driving down the Hollywood Hills through the Valley Coastline and even cruising Malibu"

A rumble happens, and suddenly Lena is listening to the silky croon of Kara Danvers singing to her so high up in the air, in front of the full moon and glowing from a soft determination as she holds her.

"There's nothing like that shotgun view Arm out the window, surfing old school"

On a whim Lena lets go of Kara's shoulders and spreads her arms out. She's painfully thinking about the Titanic, but Kara smiles as she sings and the superhero does a slow twirl in the air with Lena, slowly reaching out with her own wingspan and supporting Lena's hands, gently pressing their palms together as their fingers intertwine. Lena is watching as Kara's pupils grow, her body radiating an intense heat, and she presses closer, smiling as she listens to the blonde serenade her.

"Sunflowers black and yellow all over you One hand on the wheel the other holding you"

She's on fire. Her own heart is beating hard in relation to Kara and it's Kara who's in front of her who has always been there, who has been her anchor and her wings and her happiness. Slowly the blonde trails her hands back over Lena's forearms, her elbows, her back, holding her close and slowly twirling them, and it's Lena who reaches up and gently slides her hands into Kara's hair, tangling through and gently taking the back of Kara's neck and holding her. It's so intimate, she's wanted this for so long, and Lena knows, she's always known.

"Took a shot and knew I couldn't miss When you lean if for that first~ slow~ kiss~"

The song continues as Lena's heart pounds, and she can feel Kara steadfastly holding her, will always hold her, and she leans in, letting herself stop as she slowly closes her eyes and trusts in the moment and in Kara Zor-El.

Kara leans in.

"This is the moment that I reminisce. No matter where we are I can't help but remember~"

The song continues on perfectly, and Lena sighs against Kara, tasting her smile and feeling the fullness of her heart finally share the peace of perfection. She's surrounded by Kara, and for once, Lena is enough, has always been enough.

"I know you were the one for me~"

It's sweet. The present moment is so sweet and Lena holds Kara close, batting her eyes open and looking into vibrant blue. Kara's face is split into the largest smile she's ever seen her wear, and she's so beautiful, and Lena tells her, tells her how grateful and thankful and how much Kara means to her, and Lena can feel the purity of this moment as Kara holds her close and they spend countless other more moments just like this.

- - -

The next day during the Chasefield Art Gallery meeting, Victoria Chase and Lena Luthor bond over the success they've fought for being trust fund babies.

- - -

A/N - Dear Lord, what have I done? XD I hadn't cackled like this in a long time for creation -- Melissa Benoist, absolute happy birthday, thank you for your service in acting, may you have a long and happy life ahead of you <3 PS Dear Lord I remember seeing her in person at a Rose City Comic Con so long ago and I almost punched the arm off of my friend I got way too excited hyperventilating XD Violence is never the answer XD

Songs are -

Trust Fund Baby - Why Don't We Sundress - Austin Mahone

#dear lord #yes there are some weirdass references #it was time for the october cackles #XD #supercorp #melissa benoist #happy birthday #lena luthor #kara danvers #chloe price #rachel amber #victoria chase #max caulfield #chasefield #supercorptember #Ambehr Writes

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arosnowflake · 7 months ago

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Something I don't see acknowledged directly very much when it comes to writing minority representation is this: you have to be okay with messing up.

A lot of the time when talking about writing representation, we talk about the importance of doing research, and rightfully so: research is, obviously, absolutely integral to writing good representation. But research has its limitations; when this is acknowledged, we talk about how important is it to find sensitivity readers and talk to actual people in the minority group you are writing about. Which is also true! This is good advice! The point of this post is not to counter or argue with this advice. The key aspects of writing representation are research, and listening to the people actually part of the minority group you are portraying. Ideally, everyone writing any minority has done extensive research and gotten sensitivity readers for their project.

In practice, however, it's more complicated than that. Research takes time and energy, and on top of that, requires learned skill to do properly. Chances are, you won't be able to find a person from the minority group you're representing to interview/talk to, and sensitivity readers might cost money that you don't have. Furthermore, not every writing project is created equal; a novel manuscript intended for professional publication is not the same as a fanfic one-shot, and while the first may justify (even require) years of research and paid sensitivity readers, the second doesn't.

And even if you think you're doing everything right, you might not be. As I said, research requires skill; it's very possible that you will be under the impression that you've researched thoroughly, only to realize that, actually, you were researching the wrong things in the wrong places and have based your writing on inaccurate and/or limited information. You might start a project on a time limit, thinking you can do the research, only to run out of time because you underestimated the amount of research after all. Your sensitivity readers are human, with opinions and biases and limitations in their life experiences; their feedback reflects the opinion of one person, and cannot be taken as the word of an all-seeing god. You might publish your story and realize that they had blind spots that affected the representation in your story, or that their opinions are not actually nearly as universal as you believed, and now a not-insignificant portion of the people you'd tried to portray is uncomfortable with your story.

The truth is, there is no magic cheatcode to doing representation well. Hell, there are a lot of ongoing debates on what it even means to do representation 'well', or what 'representation' even is; these are not stagnant, universal concepts. I'm not going to go further into that because I don't think it's particularly relevant to this post, but y'know, even if you DO actually manage to do everything perfectly, you won't please everyone. You have to be okay with that.

So, once you realize that despite your best intentions and efforts you are imperfect in ways you cannot meaningfully rectify, you can chose between two options: cut the representation entirely, or accept the possibility (or even the certainty) that you'll mess up.

This choice is going to be context dependent; I cannot make it for you, and there is probably not going to be an objectively correct answer. As a writer, you have to make choices, and as previously discussed, those will not please everyone.

But too often I see writers avoid writing minorities entirely because they're scared of messing up. They stick to very narrow minority groups (if they incorporate any at all), and abandon attempts at representation at the first real hurdles. They realize they messed up in previous attempts (either due to self reflection or outside criticism) and get so overwhelmed by guilt and panic that they avoid ever trying again. The possibility of messing up scares them so much that they convince themselves they're better off not trying at all.

I'm here to tell you: not only is it possible you'll mess up, you WILL mess up. If you commit to trying to write outside of your lived experience, you will mess up at some point. You'll write a scene on a farm that will have farmers laughing their asses off at the inaccuracies. You'll make confident statements about dinosaurs that will have paleontologists rant to anyone who'll listen. You'll write a trans character that will make trans people roll their eyes back into their heads.

The solution here is not to avoid writing about farms, dinosaurs, or trans people; the solution here is to do what you reasonably can to be accurate, and accept the flaws caused by ignorance. Make note of your mistakes and do better next time. If you avoid writing anything you're not absolutely 100% confident writing about, you won't get to write a whole lot, now will you?

Stop being scared of messing up and make your peace with it. You are not doing yourself or anyone else any favors by refusing to write outside of your own experience out of fear.

#my posts #writing wise

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spiderh0rse · 8 months ago

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freeman's mind notes part 10, e46-50

e46

if he was hardcore... But you said TWO EPISODES AGO that you were

he doesn't mind too much that his new job seems to be killing people

mocks the xenians about earth gravity

thinks in the south, particularly florida and louisiana, you shoot at rescue helicopters to signal them. Well. i can't say anything to the contrary.

minefield >:[

tries to open ANOTHER giant metal door

haven't bombed this place enough? Well, no!

squirrel on the roof could be payback,,,

yells as he almost slips on the stairs

"this must be how old people feel about stairs..." and me! Stairs are a MENACE and a HAZARD TO SOCIETY. what is wrong with RAMPS, HUH?

we hear a sniper round impact the HEV suit

tries to pry open another large metal rolling door

"GRRAAAHHHHHHGHHHH"

not yet shot enough to take off all the orange paint

almost walks into a tripmine in plain sight. He's getting tired.

talks about snipers the way some people discuss clown husbandry

climbs on around this bullshit

figures out Xen's lower gravity

are there coyotes in new mexico? uh. probably

he thinks we'd be better at math and subsequently further along in technology if we had more fingers. I'd agree with that

MAYBE killing scared unarmed people doesn't make him the good guy

asks after a random guys finger amount

e47

he is not going to wait in this room

thinks things are just going to get worse forever

dumbfounded that this guy is afraid of a couple tripmines

either made vaguely uneasy by clowns or expects the other scientist to be afraid of em

doesn't notice the rockets as he shoots the headcrabs

sneezes :(

yeah he's realizing what's up with the rockets now. Doesn't seem too afraid though

checks a body for money. Admits the soldiers would have taken any

thinks a platform might have spikes that come out of it. Jumps onto it, wondering if he can trigger it. Sir.

considers the spike platform may be for an abattoir

squeezes on by some bars and onto the elevator

hivehand looks awful. He shoots it. No hivehand.

"BLAHHHHHHH."

surprisingly DOESN'T shoot at someone that runs towards him

"friends are like weeds that scream"

just wants a VEHICLE

always meant to learn how to hotwire a car

sobs when stuff starts shooting at him unexpectedly

the tank is NOT supposed to be here

its CLEARLY rocket launcher time

hes never joining the military

e48

new intro! a portion of On A Rail.

sobs as the tank shoots at him

"TELL REALITY TO STOP CHEATING"

grappling hook mention

boops out entry of the gladiators

ANOTHER sniper

yells at the soldiers that there's a sniper outside

can't turn off the radio. Smashes it.

he wouldn't make a good surgeon.

he likes when people call him "sir." I'd forgotten about that I just feel like being polite when I address his more insane notions.

Eddie mention! This time to sell the contents of that giant room full of ordinance

"this might be a warzone but theres money to be made here" war profiteer

can Eddie even handle this many guns? He'll sure try. He gets a sparkle in his eye. Same one he had before going to Panama. That turned out! A way!

if he knew where he were going a few hundred people would be alive rn

he's always wanted a Crown Victoria from a police auction. Drive it around with the stripes, put some fake blood on the hood...

does seem reasonably friendly towards that one guard for a bit. Not enough to wait for him but enough to be almost nice

"nee!"

"hoop bup pah!"

admits he's kind of dropped the kill everyone policy he had

he wants to train a chimp on karate to attack everyone but him

man this guy just LOVES roleplaying as Respectable Professions (Meant To Be Here optional)

shoots the guard on accident. Feels a bit bad but mostly just angry

e49

thinks soldiers are less likely to change history than any random people

...okay he can bust down large doors. Okay.

"I'M NOT ALLERGIC TO BEES, ASSHOLE" sentence you do not hear often

just taking so much electricity to the face. Yelps every time he does

wants to hook up the vortigaunts to a generator

screams when the trampoline bounces him up. does a weird little whine immediately afterwards

the last time he was juggled in the air did NOT go well

"everybody wins! :D especially me"

kills SO many snarks and avoids the nests

fucking love how he rambles when panicking

he had to deal with people shooting at him in ventilation shafts in high school

gasps multiple times when grenades are launched at him

walks right on by a battle when it doesn't affect him directly

shotgun chess! Kill them in the right order or else

doesn't really like chess because some guy can memorize board positions and guess what you'll do

DOES like memorizing chemical bonds

decides he wants the aliens to win these fights

"thank you, oh dark ones, i pay homage"

deeply panicked about the explosive-small pipe situation. Doesn't want to think that ambush is tbe only use of that pipe

just glad no puns were made

e50

likes that being stuck in this tube more than other places because it's not immediately deadly

ghost noises

he's a ghost with a shotgun!

I'm pretty sure he believes in ghosts and thinks he owes them murder now. He likes having ghosts on his side

"in the shining they let him out to kill his family but that doesn't really apply to me"

he's getting a bit silly with the ghost thing

wonders briefly if HE'S a ghost

random guard gets to join the Freeman Fan Club because the ghosts do not order his death

ITS ANOTHER LOBSTER

as always the bouncepads don't work well

jaunty "sir yes sir" to the military radio calling in

hes got time for exploding shit. He'll make time.

less communication is the best communication

very good at aiming the airstrikes

would love an airstrike map for the whole world

glad the military is going to leave him alone now

the HEV doesn't do shit against 50 tons of rock

#KHEKSHFH FELIXBINDLE IS HERE #the little blue guy (sopping wet) is felix freeman #gordon's brother from felix's mind #freeman's mind #gordon freemind #mindverse #OH YES :felixbindle: was made by the excellent artist Prinnamon #as seen on tumblr #CORRECTION: felixbindle failed to show up upon posting to my great dismay #hes adorable. check out prinnamon anyways #rmanotes

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captaindibbzy · 8 months ago

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No I get it, it isn't a direct connection! :)

There is a significant portion of the population who can't get all nutrition they need from a purely plant based diet. By removing the option people staying at these unis have to travel further/outside campus in order to get nutrition they need. If they are staying somewhere without cooking facilities they can't fill that gap in by cooking at home, so they are reliant on take aways. It costs more money.

There's also a problem in a lot of meat substitutes are common allergies. "Plant based meat" is often gluten based, soy is another, nuts are notorious. Means those people can't eat there either.

Autistic people often also have food problems, and by removing some of the most common foods they are removing options. People with avoidant food disorders too. The kind of people who might need help regarding care during their education.

So by making the decision for these people at the top level they are removing the agency of people to choose, which will primarily fall on to people who can't go elsewhere. Thus: fuck disabled people.

I doubt these people thought about that though.

Fuck disabled people I guess.

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orokay · 2 years ago

Note

I’m so curious about your OC Mallorie, what is her backstory? What does she do specifically for Cerberus?

Oooooh >:) I've both been hoping someone would ask abt her and dreading it bc I have information floating around in my head but not a lot of concrete stuff planned out on her background, especially the early stuff.

I know her mom passed away when she was pretty young and her dad was in the Alliance but did something that caused him to get dishonorably discharged. The pair moved to Omega when she was in her tweens, maybe a bit earlier, and her dad joined up with the Blue Suns. She spent a lot of time on her own since her dad did a lot of off world contract work and at one point he just never came back. She assumed that he'd been killed in action, but at some point she learns that he'd either come into a lot of money on a job or cut a deal with someone or something and just decided to start a new life elsewhere. As I said, this part is the most fuzzy for me because I have basic ideas for it, but I haven't ironed out exact details lol.

Growing up, her dad did the bare minimum (and often less) of parenting, but he and some of his buddies did teach her a bit on how to defend herself, mainly so she could defend their apartment while he was away. She put those skills to use to survive on her own once he disappeared.

It was the usage of those skills and her desperation for companionship that caught the attention of and made her easy prey for a Cerberus recruiter named Marina. Marina befriended and took in Mallorie when she was at her most vulnerable and when Mal was sufficiently dependent on her, she introduced her to Cerberus. By the time Mallorie realized what Cerberus was, she felt trapped. She was very young, had no support system outside of the group, and the only person who 'cared' about her was in the group. She didn't believe she'd be able to leave alive and if she did, she didn't think she'd be able to build up a life for herself, especially with the looming risk of Cerberus hunting her down. She kept those feelings close to herself and wasn't seen as a risk because of her dependent relationship with Marina.

IIRC, Phantoms are a new type of unit because they use a lot of reverse engineered reaper tech. I initially had her as a former Phantom, but because of that info, I'm thinking she was trained in a sort of Phantom prototype unit (maybe based off of N7 Shadows since they seem pretty similar) and those units went on to get 'upgraded' with reaper tech around ME3.

She was in Cerberus for seven years, a large portion of which was combat training, but also included low and high risk missions the further along in her training she got. Her conscience ate away at her the entire time but she still didn't think she could leave as the more she saw what Cerberus was capable of, the less she believed she could get out in one piece even with her acquired skill sets. During her time with them, however, she encountered an alliance agent that she began sending whatever data she could get her hands on in an attempt to alleviate her guilty conscience. Most of the stuff was likely junk, she wasn't ever important enough to access anything big generally, but she needed to do something. It was when she did stumble upon and send out data on something big that she was finally found out. She was tortured for information on her contact, but luckily the base she was being held in was raided by a Hierarchy patrol before they could kill her. She was brought to the Citadel for medical care and, wishing to avoid deeper questioning on why she was on the base to begin with, hitched a ride off station as soon as she was stable enough to not die in transit, ending up back on Omega.

I wasn't going to do this initially, but here's some stuff copy & pasted from a conversation about her that goes more into the context of her mindset that contributes to why she joined and stayed with Cerberus:

I think it manifests in self destructive behaviors like trying dangerous things on a whim or nearly picking fights with people who could definitely kill her by making stupid comments to strangers on Omega, or, going back further, joining a human supremacist group after her father abandoned her when it genuinely goes against who she is as a person. I definitely need to go back into her profile and see what I had that caused her to join Cerberus, but I think whatever it was was definitely helped by them swooping in when she was young and incredibly vulnerable and giving her a place to belong. I can imagine there are probably Cerberus recruiters who get people to join the same way people recruit for cults. I think the woman that Mal killed in that one short bit I wrote three billion years ago who was sort of implied to have been an ex of Mal's (I think I was still mostly closeted back then and the intention wasn't there, but when I reread it a year or so ago I was like "….the subtext…") was either the person who recruited her, or at the very least the person who kept her from really looking behind the curtain for a long time. Eventually her morality did win out (obviously) but she definitely stuck around longer than she would have because she didn't want to lose the only friend she had and kept talking herself out of seeing what Cerberus was until she couldn't anymore. In a lot of ways, Mal is extremely lonely and gullible in the sense that she'll do anything for a sense of connection. If you tell her you care about her, she'll do anything or be anyone to make sure you keep caring about her, because she's terrified of being left behind and doesn't believe that the person she really is is good enough to keep people invested. Literally brought a Vorcha into her home and nursed him back to health and then kept him around afterwards, when they're considered by most to be like… pests. I definitely think she did it because she's a genuinely good and caring person, but I also think that an underlying part of why she opened her house to him even after he could technically go out on his own is that she saw an opportunity for friendship. I think she gets less desperate to hold on to all of them and starts to relax once she realizes that the rest of the group genuinely cares about her and won't be going anywhere, but I think there was definitely a period at the beginning of her friendship w/ everyone where she would do anything to keep them around which probably manifested mostly in her doing dumb stunts to keep them entertained or like… always trying to pay for stuff or whatever.

#i hope this is somewhat coherent sfjkdf #there's a lot of context missing i feel #but i'm soooo bad at explaining my characters like this it all makes perfect sense in my head #but when i type it out it's just goop #i wish i could beam my character channel for her on discord into everyone's brain #we mostly just talk abt the omega crew in the context of them all being little stinkers together so their pasts (at least my characters)#are a bit less fleshed out than their present shenanigans #mallorie #answered asks #some extra info about her: she never learned how to drive #she never finished high school (her education likely stopped when she first moved to omega-#altho she may have gotten some practical education after joining cerberus she never got a hs diploma)#she meets bugly and raska after becoming a regular at their corner store and regularly ordering the galaxy's most atrocious sandwich #her background makes sense in my head #but every time i try to type it out i can never get it to sound right #for the most part we made these characters to explore #the lives of a bunch of nobodies on omega #and a lot of our stuff about them is silly #which really contrasts with their dark dark backstories jsklfjd #like most of them had bad lives but they found #in each other a group of people that makes #living even on omega fun #not art

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bountyhunter-s-bane · 3 years ago

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Thunderstorm

Pairings: Cad Bane x M!Reader

Rating: Teen

Word Count: 1.6k+

Summary: Cad Bane and his apprentice hunter (Reader) wait out a thunderstorm on Ryloth. Neither seem to have much fondness for the weather (content warning for astraphobia)

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

Your latest hunt brought the pair of you to Ryloth. Not perhaps the wide welcoming landscapes or the friendlier towns (under siege by the Separatist forces), but every planet seemed to have a hidey-hole for the less hospitable kinds of people, such as smugglers and bounty hunters such as yourselves. This one was a bar stuck into the side of a cliff and surrounded by dozens and dozens of ramshackle huts for refugees trapped on the planet, either trying to eke out a living or waiting for the first opportunity to get to somewhere safer.

Cad Bane left his freighter outside the outskirts of this shanty town, and instructed you to stay and keep watch whilst he got to business. As you were left sitting there and waiting, staring at the lack of scenery, you figured you would have preferred to join him at the bar. The air was muggy and heavy and the wrong kind of warm, all alluding to the thick black clouds gathering on the horizon. Where you were now however was bright sunshine, and to keep from melting you took shelter under the wing of the fighter with Todo as company. The droid kept up light conversation, both of you bouncing discussion back and forth regarding your latest job. This one was apparently meant to be person gathering over information gathering, something that Cad tended to interchange depending on the current prices going. Both were often available after all, and both could be equally dangerous and fleeting. But for now, you were waiting on your contact to gain the whole picture for what you and Cad would be collecting.

The clouds were almost overhead before Cad returned from his meeting, about as stormy as the oncoming weather.

“Trouble?” you asked.

“Our information and money source didn’t turn up on time,” he grumbled. “I commed him only to find out he’s not going to be in until tomorrow. Waste of time.” He turned and thumped a hand against the side of the freighter, face wrinkled up further from frustration. You remained calm, albeit disappointed as well. The waiting times between missions were often the dullest times you had to deal with. Being made to wait reeked of a particular kind of person that neither of you enjoyed working for, so long as they paid up at the end.

“So we stay the night, wait for him in the morning,” you said, folding your arms as you lean against the side of the freighter. Cad looked down to you, an expression of grim resignation on his face. Taking a moment to rub at the bridge of his nose, he heaved out a tired sigh.

“That’s right,” he replied. You watched him as he slowly sat down on the ground next to yourself and Todo, digging into his coat for a toothpick to start chewing on. His irritation was rolling off him in waves. If you disliked being made to wait, he hated it. Sure, he could be patient while waiting on a target to come out into the open, but there was a difference between patience and being practically grounded on the planet. As he stared up towards the line of black clouds, he felt a gentle weight lean against his side. You shuffled quietly into more of a comfortable position, thinking perhaps that the motion was subtle, up until he raised an arm away from you and draped it heavily over your shoulders.

“The view’s nice at least,” you commented.

“I can agree to that. ‘Least until that storm hits.”

The storm finally broke a few hours later, the tension in the air about as thick as soup. Cad tasked you with going out and finding a place to get food from, which was much easier said than done when wandering about a ramshackle village. Eventually you were able to find a Twi’lek family serving out some wrapped up meals, a couple portions of which you obtained having bargained several credits and an hour of small-talk. It was difficult to bring in any information into this place, so people were getting what they could however they could. While the family seemed keen to move on, they weren’t going to risk getting a ride out with a bounty hunter and his apprentice, it seemed.

A sheet of rain cascaded down, causing you to flee back to the freighter, shielding several foil-wrapped parcels of hot bread and hunks of dried meat under your coat. There wasn’t exactly a kitchen or a section of the ship where a person would sit and eat, and so normally you and Cad would simply eat meals in the freighter’s cockpit where there were seats. Tonight Cad had set up a small burner for heat and extra light, over which you could hang up your sodden coat. With the majority dampness deposited to dry off, you handed over his portions in silence and plopped down into one of the seats. Raindrops pattered across the front viewport, filling some of the empty space as you both dug into the meal.

“It’s weird. It’s raining but still kind of warm”, you commented.

“That’s Ryloth storms for you. Be grateful for the warmth, it’ll get real chilly at night”, Cad replied.

Lightning flashed in the distance. You counted the passing seconds under your breath and around mouthfuls of food. Eventually the grrmmm of thunder sounded, but not before several other flashes of lightning had struck. The distant sound sent cold shudders down your back.

“Shouldn’t we be worried about the ship?” you asked nervously.

“It’s parked close enough to the cliff. Natural lightning rod. It’ll be fine,” Cad replied, hand-waving your concern. He trusted his own intuition on keeping his possessions safe, and so leaned back in his seat as he watched you sit back as well.

“…I can’t actually remember the last time I saw a proper thunderstorm.”

“Don’t be sappy, lad. You get used to them, and sure get to hate them with some of the planets we gotta work on.”

“I’m not being sappy. I’m being grateful.”

The lightning got closer, brighter. The thunder started to sound closer to each flash, becoming more harsh until it wasn’t a grumble and more of a CRACK. Cad blinked slowly, feeling more lethargic with the evening rolling in but still very much perceptive of the room. The lightning kept him on edge - too similar to a blaster flashing blue. He could see each flinch you made, the way you recoiled from the viewport in time with the loud thunder. It wasn’t the usual sort of fear he saw on your face when the pair of you faced a situation that had gotten out of hand, that sort of fear came with excitement and adrenaline. This fear was paired with a cold helplessness.

“C’mon, get up,” he grumbled, getting to his feet and pulling you up from your seat as well, reaching out for the burner. “It’s getting late. It’s quieter in the bunk room anyway.”

“It is?”

“Yeah. Makes it easier to sleep and all.” For all his snark, there was an ulterior intent to Cad nudging you out from the cockpit. Discomfort remained in his gut even after moving you away, even now in the soft quiet where you relaxed. No rumbling thunder in here. True to Cad’s earlier warning, it’d gotten quite a bit colder, even in the cramped interior of the freighter’s bunk room. The burner was set on the holotable and cranked up, but that wasn’t going to keep anyone warm without hugging the little machine, and no-one wanted to burn the engine fuel for a cosy night if you were on ground instead of in space.

The silence turned weirdly heavy as you kicked off your boots and Cad draped his coat over one of the seats. You were already shivering from the change of temperature, and Cad wasn’t looking too hot either. By the time you’d set aside your jacket, you were glancing from your own personal bunk to the space that was blankets and leathers and pillows that Cad had built up for himself over time. While you were glancing at the bunk, Cad was looking at you. You were pretty sure you both had the same idea. And while you were hesitant to suggest it, Cad was anything but shy.

“Peh, get over here.” He grabbed your wrist and tugged you over the bunk. “If you got ill from the cold that’d cost us both credits and time.”

Your continued hesitation got you a firm nudge in the back that sent you teetering over to fall into the bedding.

“Kriff’s sake, that was uncalled for!” you snapped, much to Cad’s delight.

“Come on, you were acting like I was going to bite you.” His sly smile became a grin. “I mean, unless you-”

“That is a conversation for another time,” you said, feeling heat rise rapidly in your cheeks. Cad snorted, sitting down into the bunk as well.

“Seems like the perfect time for this conversation.” Whatever response you had died on your lips as you felt a slight rumble through the ship, just noticeable enough to catch your attention. Cad noticed it too, the heated look in his eyes fading as the moment slipped itself into the cold room, and he settled in close to your side.

“....So….” Your words trailed off.

“Just get your rest. And stay close to me.”

Rain clattered softly off the metal overhead as the thunderstorm passed overhead. Sometimes you could feel another rattle in the metal of the ship, and you wondered whether it was thunder or your own imagination. Cad was fast asleep, but part of you knew that he’d be awake the moment something bad happened. He’d also managed to coil himself around you, contact generating warmth while one arm rested heavily over your chest. Possessive. Comforting. For all his grit and teeth (and you did think about those teeth more than you probably needed to), he pulled out stops to keep you alive and well under his wing. You’d noticed this protective streak with all his possessions, and wondering if he considered you as such. And really, how bad was that in the end, when he held you like this and gave you that smug grin that caught your tongue so often.

You relaxed and let yourself fall asleep as well, to the sound of the rain.

#cad bane #cad bane x reader #can you spot the moment I backed out from the moment of confession #alas I am a romantic and I love the pining

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hardcasey · 4 years ago

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Sweet Tooth

Won't Fade into the Background - Part 2

Pairing: Toast x F!Reader

Summary: You are an owner of a bakery on Coruscant and end up running into a certain clone with a penchant for baked goods.

Word Count: 7k (I got carried away lmao)

Rating/Warnings: T, Mostly fluff again, though it gets a little PG-13 at the end. Nothing too crazy tho.

A/N: Who’s more of a background clone than everyone’s fave boy Toast? I decided to give him the classic bakery au meet-cute that he deserves. <3 Not proofread so let me know if there are any glaring errors!

“You sure you don’t need any help cleaning up?” Your employee, Vella, called from the front of the shop.

You poked your head out through the little window that separated the kitchen from the rest of the store. “I’m good, Vel. Go enjoy your Friday night.”

“Alright, night boss,” The Twi’lek woman gave you a mock salute and laughed when she saw you roll your eyes before turning and heading out the door into the busy Coruscant streets.

You turned back to your current task, taking inventory. It was not the most glamorous job, in fact it was your least favorite part about owning your own business, but it had to be done. With a sigh, you started counting, quickly losing yourself in the monotony.

You were the proud owner of a small bakery on Coruscant. It was not the most lucrative job by far, but it had always been your dream to bake for a living, and you were proud to have achieved that goal so quickly. It had taken a lot of hard work to get to where you were now, along with quite a bit of luck. You had been finishing up your last year in culinary school when you walked by a place for rent right in the heart of the city. It had been right around when the war started, and the owner wanted to sell off the space as quickly as possible. You had the sneaking suspicion that he may have been involved with the Separatists and was trying to jump ship and flee the planet. Honestly, you didn’t really care what his deal was, only that he was giving you the place for a steal. Seppie or not, you were thankful for him. There was no other way you would have been able to afford a place in this part of the city otherwise.

You had dropped a considerable portion of your savings into the purchase and renovation of the bakery, and there were times that you were subsisting off of nothing but cheap instant noodles, but everything had worked out in the end. The prime location meant there was a lot of foot traffic and it didn’t take long before you were turning a profit. And the quality of your pastries and baked goods earned you a loyal customer base, and you had many regulars that stopped in for a cup of caf and a little treat on their way to work.

Once you finished up taking inventory, you headed out to the front to start cleaning up, stacking the chairs up on the tables so you could start sweeping. You were saving up for a droid that would sweep the floors for you, but you were still a ways off from that so you had to do it the old fashioned way.

It was then that you noticed there was someone looking in through the window, clearly ogling the display of pastries and cakes that was there. The light from the setting sun pouring through the window cast their face in shadow, so you couldn’t tell who it was.

Might as well invite them in, you thought to yourself as you leaned the broom against the wall. After all, the bakery wasn’t technically closed yet, though you almost never had customers at this time.

You swung the door open and were about to say something to the figure when you saw them jump, clearly not realizing you were there.

“Oh, hey, I’m sorry for scaring you! I just wanted to let you know that the bakery is still open if you want anything.” You said gently, holding your hands up in a placating manner.

Now that you were outside, you could see the figure more clearly. They were a human male, with tan skin and warm brown eyes. He was wearing a grey uniform and his short dark hair was partly obscured by a matching grey hat. He seemed very familiar to you, and you were about to ask if you knew him, before it hit you. Duh! He was a clone. You weren’t used to seeing clones in anything other than their distinctive white armor, so it took a moment for your brain to put two and two together.

“Oh, uh, I was just looking, ma’am! I’m very sorry.” He said quickly, the same way that a kid who had just been caught with their hand in the cookie jar would. He looked so sheepish, as if he was about to bolt any second. You weren’t sure why he was so apologetic, he was just looking through the window. A bunch of people did that.

“No need to apologize, everyone looks through the windows.” You said, flashing him what you hoped was a reassuring smile.

“I, uh, just wasn’t sure if you were gonna run me out or something,” he told you, averting his eyes and rubbing the back of his neck.

“Why would I do that?”

“Not many businesses are open to clones, and I wasn’t sure. I’ve never seen any clones in your shop and I guess I just assumed.”

Okay, that lowkey made your blood boil. Why would anyone discriminate against the clones? They were the ones putting their lives on the line to protect the Republic, for kriffs sake! You hadn’t interacted with many clones, but the ones you had run into were nothing but polite and respectful.

“That’s terrible! We absolutely allow clones here! You know what, come inside. There are still some pastries leftover from today. I’ll put them in a box for you and you can bring them back to your, er, squad? Company? Your friends!” You finished breathlessly, a little embarrassed you knew so little about anything involving the military.

“Are you sure? I-I don’t have any money to pay for them,” He said sadly, his eyes darting down to his shoes as if there was suddenly something fascinating about them.

“Nonsense! They’ll be going bad soon anyway and will just end up in the trash. You’ll be doing me a favor, honestly.” Without allowing him to protest further, you grabbed his elbow and tugged him into your shop. In the back of your mind you registered how big his bicep felt, which surprised you. He looked fit, yes, but it wasn’t like he was some meathead. Maybe his uniform just did a good job of disguising how strong he was. You felt yourself blush once you realised the path your thoughts had veered down and quickly pushed them out of your mind.

“It smells good in here,” he said to no one in particular as he dropped his harm and headed behind the counter to start filling a box with leftover pastries.

You smiled at him, before you realised something. “Forgive my manners, but I didn’t catch your name.”

“CT-1928, ma’am.” He replied, his back straightening ever so slightly as he did, as if the action was ingrained in him.

“Do you have a nickname? I know a lot of clones go by them instead of their number.” You said delicately. You didn’t want to offend him by asking, but it felt so strange, so dehumanizing, to call him by a number.

“Oh, uh, my brothers call me Toast.” He said, once again sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. “It’s not the greatest nickname, but it’s the one that stuck.”

“Haha, I think it’s cute. And don’t worry, my parents used to call me Possum when I was little, because I used to climb around and get into the trash. It was cute until they said it in front of my friends, then they started calling me that too.”

He laughed at that, his shoulders relaxing, his posture not so stiff. “My brothers started calling me Toast because the first time they served toast in the cafeteria after I got my assignment, I ate so many pieces I made myself sick.”

“Pfft. That’s amazing,” You laughed as you shuffled things around so you could fit one last croissant inside. You got the sense the clones didn’t often get to have sweets, so you were going to make sure Toast could bring as many back as possible. “So are you here on shore leave?”

“I’m actually a member of the Coruscant Guard. So I’m here often. Well all the time. I walk by this place every time they send me off to run errands, which is often since I’m still the new guy.”

“Oh, that’s cool. That means you work with senators, right? That must be… something.” You’d read stories on the holonet about some of the more notorious senators and you doubted they treated the clones particularly well.

“I haven’t personally worked with any members of the senate, though a lot of my brothers have. Most of my day is spent staring at security cameras. So, pretty boring. Though I’m not complaining.”

You tied up the package with a neat little bow before handing it to him, another bright smile flashing across your face. Something about his earnest, open demeanor was very endearing to you and you secretly hoped you’d get to see him again soon. If not anything else, you could at least learn a little more about the clones that dedicated their lives to protecting the Republic, since your knowledge on the subject was apparently so lacking.

“Well it’s good to hear that you’re local. Hopefully you can stop by again the next time you’re running errands. And feel free to invite your brothers too!”

“T-thank you, ma’am. That is very kind of you.” He said before taking the box of pastries in his hand, holding it almost reverently. He was trying to hide it but you could tell he was very excited to eat some sweets later.

With one last nod he headed out of the store, the bell chiming lightly after him. You stood there, simply watching his receding form blend into the crowd, catching yourself smiling at the prospect of seeing him again.

~~~

Toast hadn’t made it three steps into the barracks before his vode were descending upon him. Well not really him as much as the box full of sugary confections in his hands.

“What ya got there?” Jek inquired, already tugging at the ribbon to investigate the box’s contents.

Toast shoved his greedy hands out of the way and marched over to the counter where they kept the caf machine, which was in a perpetual state of disarray. The caf machine was old, probably older than any of them, and saw high traffic 24/7. Honestly, with the amount it leaked and sputtered, it was a miracle the machine was still functioning. Toast hoped it would at least until the war was over because when it went, Fox would be in the grave right next to it.

“You know that bakery on the way back from the Jedi temple?” Toast inquired as he placed the box on the counter, starting to pick at the knot so he could open it without cutting the ribbon. It was a pretty striped pastel pink and he wanted to keep it.

“The one with the little tooka-shaped cookies?” Rhys’ eyes went wide with excitement.

“Yeah, the lady who worked there saw me looking inside and then gave me all the leftover pastries from the window.”

“For free!?” Jek exclaimed as he shuffled back towards the box, “What did you get? Did you get an eclair? Please tell me you got an eclair.” Toast nodded and handed his brother one, who promptly dug in.

“What’s this about eclairs?” Stone rounded the corner, instantly noticing the box and saddling up to him. “Did you get sweets?”

Toast spent the next few minutes divvying up the various pastries between everyone. He chose something made up of many thin layers of dough, filled with chopped nuts and soaked in honey. Baklava, he thinks it was called, or maybe balaclava? He didn’t know the difference. But he didn’t care as he devoured it, savoring each bite like it was something precious. He glanced around and saw all his brothers were experiencing similar states of bliss, if their expressions were anything to go by.

~~~

He didn’t have a chance to visit the bakery for the next two weeks, too busy running around dealing with mess after mess. One day, a prison riot. The next, bomb threats at the senate. Everyone in the guard was so exhausted and in desperate need of a break. So when Hound mentioned he was taking Grizzer for a walk, Toast decided to tag along so that he could get some fresh air. Well, fresh for Coruscant.

At some point they’d run into Rhys and Thire, on the way back from patrol duty. Neither of them were in a rush to get back to HQ to receive new marching orders, so they ended up tagging along.

Their little group wandered the streets, just walking with no direction in mind. Grizzer had his snout pressed close to the ground, desperate to sniff everything. Toast smiled at the massiff’s antics from behind his bucket, before glancing around and realizing they were just a block away from the bakery.

“Hey, guys. Wanna stop at that bakery? It’s just over there.” Toast asked, pointing his finger at the little awning in front of the shop.

Thire looked at him as if he had two heads. “Why? Do you think we’ll get handouts again? Not that I’m complaining, free is free, but didn’t you get those because it was the end of the day and she was planning on throwing them out? It’s the middle of the day now…”

“Well, she said I could come back whenever. And that I could bring you guys too.” Toast felt his cheeks heat up for some reason, suddenly feeling embarrassed. What if she was just being polite, and he wasn’t really supposed to come back? What if he brought too many of his brothers and she thought he was taking advantage of her generosity?

He was just about to suggest they should move on when Rhys piped up. “Well, what are we waiting for? C’mon.” He was already halfway to the bakery before anyone could respond. Rhys had a major sweet tooth and nothing motivated him more than some sweets. Hound and Grizzer were right on his heels, having missed out on the pastries last time.

Toast caught up to them quickly, with Thire right behind them, though they all froze as soon as they made it up to the doors. There were people inside this, lounging around sipping drinks and chatting. Could they go in? Would people get mad?

All his vode were waiting for him to do something, and his eyes searched frantically around the storefront as if he would find an answer there. And, surprisingly, he did. Sort of. Because hanging right in the window was a sign that read ‘CLONES WELCOME’. You had to have hung it after your interaction, there was no other explanation. Something about that made his heart race.

All of a sudden, you appeared in the window, a friendly grin on your face as you pointed at the sign and waved for them all to come in.

“You didn’t tell us she was pretty, vod,” Thire whispered as they shuffled their way inside. Toast could just feel the shit eating grin from under his brother’s bucket. He just gave a noncommittal grunt as a response, which only made Thire laugh.

The group of them stood awkwardly in the threshold of the store, not really knowing what to do with themselves. A few patrons looked over to see what was going on, and Toast braced for some sort of outrage at clones invading their space, but after a few seconds they all turned back to whatever they were doing before.

Toast stood there dumbly, just staring at you. He hadn’t really been able to take a good look at you the last time, too distracted by how strange the whole situation had been. But now he could see that Thire was right. You are pretty. Very pretty.

If you noticed how tongue-tied he was, you didn’t show it. You just greeted them with another smile and oh Maker that smile. It was the kind of smile that lit up your whole face and Toast wanted to see it every day for the rest of his life.

“Hi! Is this your first time here?” You asked, cocking your head to one side.

“He’s been here before.” Hound answered, shoving Toast to the front of the group.

“Oh, are you the one from a few weeks ago? Toast?”

You remembered his name! He was pretty sure he was about to melt into a puddle right then and there. It took a second to realize that he hadn't answered yet and he quickly sputtered out, “Y-yeah. That’s me.”

“I’m glad you came back! And you brought your brothers,” You turned to address the rest of the clones and offered out a hand, “It’s nice to meet you all, what are your names.”

Hound, always the people person and the one most used to interacting with the public, stepped forward and shook your hand. “I’m Hound. That’s Thire and Jek. It’s nice to meet you ma’am, I’ve heard you’re a great baker, though I wouldn’t know first-hand.”

You cocked an eyebrow at Toast, “You didn’t share?”

“He was out on patrol, I swear!” Toast stammered, holding his hands up in front of him.

“Hmmm, I guess I’ll take your word for it. Though I think he should get to pick out what he wants first. It’s only fair.”

“Really?!” Hound exclaimed. His enthusiasm seemed to rub off on Grizzer, the massiff sitting up on his back legs and wiggling excitedly before letting out a happy bark. “Down boy,” Hound ordered, placing a hand on Grizzer’s hand to calm him down.

‘Awe, he’s just excited,” you giggled as you bent down to give him some pats of your own. “Can he eat treats? I have some by the door that I give to some of the other dogs.” You asked Hound as you straightened back up.

“Yes, he loves treats. Would you mind if I took them to go? I don’t want him spoiling his dinner.”

“Of course! Now pick out what you all want. And you can put a box together to take to your brothers.”

You spent the next twenty minutes helping them pick out pastries, answering questions so they could pick out something for each of their brothers. After they had made their selections, you sat with them at one of the tables and chatted. Well, you mostly asked questions and they all talked over each other in their excitement. Still, you enjoyed the time with them, happy to provide a place for them to relax and unwind. Their jobs seemed incredibly stressful and by reading in between the lines of some of the things they told you, they seemed to be mistreated by a good portion of the senators, made to run menial errands or be the punching bags senators took their frustrations out on. You could especially see it in Toast, in the way he was so scared of offending you, how he would avert his eyes all the time and flinch if someone spoke too loudly. It honestly made you want to burn down the senate building.

Everyone had finished eating when Thire looked down at his wrist and exclaimed, “Oh kriff, it’s been over an hour! Fox is gonna kill us.”

Toast scoffed. “Correction: Fox is going to kill you and Rhys. Hound and I are off right now.”

“Bring him an extra tiramisu to smooth things over.” You said, already wrapping one up and adding it to the rest of their haul.

The group scrambled around, putting their buckets back on and grabbing the various pastry boxes you’d filled for them. Toast paused before turning to you. “Um, we don’t have any credits on us right now, but I can bring some tomorrow. The Guard has a small discretionary fund we can-”

You stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. It’s on the house.”

“A-are you sure? That was a lot of food…” Toast didn’t want her to lose money because of him. After all, he was the one that brought his brothers here.

“It’s okay, seriously. I actually started a little program where customers can buy a coffee or a pastry or whatever for a clone. There’s actually a little bucket next to the register that I set up,” you turned and pointed at it so he could see. “It was actually my employee Vella’s idea. She came up with it the day after we first met, and it’s been pretty popular. There are a lot of people out there who are really thankful for what you guys do, you know.”

Toast didn’t know what to say, but he felt like he wanted to cry at such a nice gesture. “That is… really kind of you. Thanks.” It didn’t feel like nearly enough, but they were the only words Toast could form at the moment.

“Of course,” you said, giving his shoulder a little squeeze. “Now go catch up with your brothers, and let the rest of them know they’re always welcome to a free drink or pastry here.”

Toast thanked you once again before heading outside to where his brothers were waiting, trying to convince himself that your hand hadn’t lingered on his arm for a beat too long. No, it was just wishful thinking.

As he and his vode made their way back to the barracks, Rhys threw an arm around his neck and said, “Wow, Toast, your girlfriend is the best!” earning him snickers from the rest of the group.

“She’s not my girlfriend!” Toast tried to protest.

“But you want her to be~” Hound teased. And he was right, Toast wanted that more than anything in the galaxy right now. But he knew it was impossible. You were beautiful and kind and funny and perfect and he... was just a clone.

“It’s not like it could ever happen anyway,” Toast sighed.

Thire nudged him with his shoulder. “Psssh, we all saw how her hand lingered on you. She definitely likes you.”

“Definitely,” Rhys echoed.

Toast smiled under his bucket. It might be a pipe dream, but in that moment he allowed himself to indulge in the fantasy.

~~~

In the following weeks, you fell into a sort of routine. Toast would stop by your bakery at least once a week, sometimes more depending on his free time. And you cherished every moment you got to spend with him. Sometimes he would bring fellow members of the guard along, and every visit ended with your stomach cramping from how much you’d laughed at their various antics. You were confused how such a chaotic bunch of individuals were able to come together as an effective police force… that is until you met Commander Fox. His talent for wrangling them deserved a medal in your opinion.

As much as you enjoyed his brothers, you really looked forward to the times where you and Toast were alone together. He’d always come to you with some wild story of an eccentric prisoner or a crazy heist perpetrated in the lower levels. Honestly you hadn’t expected him to be such a gossip, but you were hardly complaining.

In return for his stories you started teaching him how to bake. It started off with him just watching you work as he talked, sometimes asking questions about what you were doing or peaking over your shoulder to get a closer look. Eventually he became an assistant of sorts, spending his time grabbing ingredients for you and washing the dishes once you were done with them.

Today was the day you were going to convince him to bake a loaf of bread with you. You were going to start him off with a simple loaf of white bread, one that didn’t require much kneading and didn’t have a long proving time. You had already pulled out all the ingredients, bowls, and utensils and were waiting patiently for him to arrive.

By the time you heard the bell ring and saw him coming through the door, you were tapping your foot in anticipation. He wasn’t late - in fact he was right on time as always - but you were just itching to see him.

“Toast! You’re here!” Ugh, that was the best greeting you could come up with? you cringed internally. Luckily, he didn’t seem to mind your banal greeting, a smile on his lips as he pulled his bucket over his head and placed it on a nearby shelf. You found yourself longing for a reality where he greeted you with a peck on the lips along with that sweet smile. Maker, you had it bad for him.

His eyes flashed over to the ingredients on the counter. “What are you making today?”

“I’m not making anything today. But we are. I think it's time for you to try your hand at baking. And in honor of your love of toast, we’re starting off with bread.”

He rolled his eyes at that, but the corner of his mouth still quirked up, showing off one of his dimples. “Isn’t bread kind of hard to make though? Maybe we should start out with something simpler…”

“Where’s your courage, soldier?” you teased, poking a finger at his chest. He huffed and you laughed. “Now c’mon, wash your hands and get your apron on.”

He ended up taking the top half of his armor off, in only his blacks from the waist up, his sleeve rolled up to his elbows. You were half thankful and half disappointed the apron covered the way his form fitting shirt stretched across his chest. At least you wouldn’t be distracted, but boy oh boy did you want a closer look.

The two of you chatted about your days as you started working on each of your loaves. With so few ingredients the process went quick, and soon enough you were kneading the dough.

“Now this is called the slap and fold technique. First get your dough together in a ball like this… and then you slap it down!” You demonstrated by taking your lump of wet dough and slapping it down on the table. “Then you just fold it in half and repeat. We need to do it for about five minutes.”

“I think you mean we knead to do it for five minutes,” Toast said with a cheeky grin.

“Blegh. Terrible.” You flicked a bit of flour at him as punishment. “I think you knead to be locked up for that pun.” Toast just laughed and continued working, the smile on his face never dropping.

Once you were ready, you shaped both of the loaves and put them in the oven. When you turned back to him you couldn’t help but giggle. He was absolutely covered in flour.

“What? Do I have something on my face?” He asked, face suddenly becoming serious.

You stepped close to him and brushed his face clean with your thumb. “On your face, in your hair, on your shirt. I think you managed to get flour everywhere except the apron.”

“Well you were the one throwing it at me!” came his retort as he used his hands to shake his hair out, turning it from grey back to its lovely dark color.

“Touché. Now let me help you get cleaned up. I think you got some on your back. Somehow.” You grabbed a washcloth and wet it under the sink and started using it to wipe the flour off his clothes.

“It’s one of my many skills from cadet training.” He told you, eyes twinkling, as you dabbed at a spot you missed on his face. You could feel his lips moving as he spoke. Stop thinking about how soft they probably are, you chided yourself.

“You’re just lucky you’re so charming.”

That made him blush and avert his eyes, which would have been cute if you weren’t worried you’d gone a bit too far. You didn’t want to embarrass him or anything. You had thought the two of you were flirting, but maybe you read the situation wrong. You were notoriously bad in the romance department, something Vella had told you after the third time you had missed a customer trying to flirt with you.

Toast cleared his throat before turning back to you. He noticed you’d stepped back away from him and sighed internally. That would have been the perfect time to kiss you or ask you out or something. Anything other than dancing around each other like you two were doing now. Despite the fact that his brothers believed you two were already together - no matter how much he protested - he still wasn’t sure if you felt the same as he did. He had his suspicions, but what if he was wrong? You were his only friend outside of his brothers and he didn’t want to do anything to mess that up or make it awkward.

He thanked the Maker you didn’t tease him, just turning and starting to wash the dishes. He grabbed a bowl and joined you at the big industrial sink, dunking his hands in the warm sudsy mixture and used the sponge to start scrubbing at the stubborn bits of dough that refused to come off. The two of you worked in silence, though not an uncomfortable one, Toast was glad to find. Just as he was finishing drying the last bowl, he remembered something.

“Oh, uh, I almost forgot. Do you know Senator Amidala?”

“Not personally, but I’ve heard of her.”

“Well, she is throwing a banquet or something in a few days and the bakery that was supposed to handle the desserts fell through at the last minute. Thorn suggested you as a replacement and asked me to ask you if it was possible.”

“Hmm. It depends on how long I’d have, and what kind of desserts she wants. Plus how many guests she’s having. I’m not saying no, but I’m not sure how realistic it is. It’s just me, Vella, and two others on staff.” You had started pacing, already running the logistics through your head.

“What if me and the rest of the guard helped you?”

You paused your pacing to look at him. “That could work… but would you all even be able to take off work?”

“Well, it’s been pretty slow this week and we’re spending most of our time getting ready for the party…” You responded with a noncommittal hum so he pressed on. “How about I call Senator Amidala and Commander Fox on the coms and we can get everything worked out?”

“Yeah, sure. That’d be great.”

For the next twenty minutes you hashed out the details with Senator Amidala - Padmé, she insisted you call her - and Commander Fox. Eventually you settled on an order of one large, four-tiered cake and a hundred little fruit tarts. Fox had been hesitant to lend out his troopers until Padmé had offered to replace the old coffee machine in the guard’s office. The party was in three days, so it would be a tight deadline, but you were sure you could do it. Especially with the guard’s help. There was also the motivating factor of the hefty payment Padmé was offering. It would be enough for you to buy an army of cleaning robots!

As soon as you hung up you were already placing an order of the ingredients and messaging your employees to tell them about the job. You were so focused on your task that you jumped with the oven’s timer dinged. Toast stifled a chuckle behind his hand and you shot him a look as you pulled both loaves of bread out of the oven. Both loaves were a perfect golden brown and looked absolutely delicious.

Toast hovered over your shoulder as you placed the bread on the cooling rack, and you had to slap his hand away a few times as you waited for them to cool. Once you could hold them safely in your hands, you handed Toast his loaf and took yours in your hands. “C’mon, let’s take a picture together with our bread.” You tucked yourself into his side and held your loaf up as he snapped the picture.

Once you were satisfied with the picture you relented to his puppy-dog eyes and cut into the bread. You both slathered a piece in butter and tapped them together as if they were wine glasses before taking a bite.

“Mmmmmhhh,” you both groaned in unison at the first bite of warm bread. There was nothing better.

“This is so good.” You mumbled in between bites.

“So much better than anything in the caf.” Toast agreed, his eyes half-closed in bliss. Before you missed it, you snapped a picture. Toast with his toast. It was perfect.

~~~

You stared at the sight of the twenty clone troopers in front of you, decked out in aprons and hair nets, standing at parade rest in a line as Commander Fox, also in an apron, paced back and forth, hands behind his back, as he gave them their orders.

“Now I want you all on your best behavior. It may seem like you’re on a break, but I want you to treat this as if you’re still on the clock,” He stopped pacing and turned to his men, “Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, sir!” They all responded with a salute.

You took that moment to snap a picture of them all, Fox’s head snapping towards you at the click of the camera. “I want to remember this,” you told him, fighting back a smile.

You turned to Padmé, who had insisted on coming to help out herself, bringing along her two droids and a Jedi to offer some extra hands. She came complete with a chic outfit for the occasion and you envied how good she looked at six in the morning. You showed her the picture and she asked, “Can you send that to me?” Fox huffed loudly and the two of you broke out into a fit of giggles.

Once you got a hold of yourself you started listing out tasks that needed to be done to Fox. “We’ll need people to clean and cut the fruit for the tarts. Another group can help with mixing and cutting the crust. For the cake, we’ll also need one group handling the batter, and another the frosting and decorations. And we can rotate who is on dish duty.”

Fox immediately started delegating out tasks to his troops and you assigned a member of your staff to help each group. Everyone quickly scrambled to start working on their tasks, the troopers clearly very excited to help.

Throughout the day you flitted from group to group, demonstrating how to do things when needed. Your employees were handling everything so well and you made a reminder to yourself to give them a nice bonus after this. You stepped away from where Vella was showing the boys how to make flowers out of frosting and found Toast lecturing his brothers about the right way to measure flour.

“You can’t just scoop it out straight from the bag, you’ll use too much that way. You have to sift it in like this,” He started demonstrating the proper technique for them, and you noticed he had somehow managed to get flour all over himself again.

“Good job, Toast,” You said as you passed him, brushing the flour out of his hair as you went. “Keep up the great work, boys!” You gave them a thumbs up and moved onto the next group, dodging the R2 unit as it made a beeline to the fridge, a tray of freshly cut fruit balanced on its head.

The next two days passed by smoother than you could have hoped. There were only a few minor incidents. Hound tripping over R2 and spilling some batter, Thorn having to scold Jek and Rhys for eating half of their frosting. Nothing you couldn't handle. Commander Fox had everyone working like a well oiled machine, making sure everything stayed on time. Throughout both days, Padmé’s protocol droid busied himself with taking pictures of the event, and Padmé promised to send them all to you after the party.

It got down to the wire, but you managed to put the last slice of jogan fruit on the hundredth tart with forty-five minutes to spare. Your employees handled loading everything up into the speeder to take them to the venue. You watched them out of the corner of your eye to make sure things went smoothly. Padmé came up to you and thanked you profusely for rushing such a huge order and promised to promote your business to all her friends before she and the rest of her entourage hopped into the speeder with your employees and took off for the party.

You turned back to the clone troopers, who had already finished washing up most of the kitchen. “Don’t worry about the rest, guys, I’ve got it. You should probably start heading back and start getting ready.”

“Trying to kick us out so soon?” Fox mused.

You laughed. “Actually, before you go, I have a little surprise for you all. As a way to say thank you and as a pick me up before the party. I know those things can be tiring.” You went and retrieved the gift you had stayed up all last night working on, keeping it behind your back until you were right in front of them.

You held out a plate of cookies shaped like their helmets, each one customized to look like the helmet of each of the troopers there. You had recruited C3-PO to take reference pictures of all of their helmets while they were working, and the droid had really pulled through for you, even managing to get detail shots for you.

“Woah, are these our helmets?” Stone asked as you handed him his cookie.

“Look, it’s me.” Thorn said to Fox as he waggled his cookie in front of his brother’s face. Fox rolled his eyes but even he couldn’t fight his smile away.

You beamed as each of the troopers examined their cookies and thanked you for them. They all groaned as you forced them to get together for one last picture and the shutter had barely flashed before they were scarfing down the cookies.

Once they were done, Fox and Thorn started hoarding the group through the door. Before Toast could follow his brothers, Fox turned to him, “You stay here and help out with the rest of the clean up.”

Toast blinked for a moment before he responded with a “Yes, sir.”

He waited until he was sure the last of his vode were out the door before he turned to you. He planned on saying something funny or romantic, but all his words failed him as you launched yourself at him and pulled him into a big hug. “Thanks for all your help. I couldn’t have done this without you.” You told him, your voice muffled from your spot pressed against his chest. He returned the hug and rested his cheek against the top of your head.

You couldn’t be sure if it was him who tilted his head down or you who tilted your head up, but you soon found yourselves nose to nose. Maybe sleep deprivation lowered your inhibitions, because you soon found yourself raising up on your tiptoes and pressing your lips to his. His arms tightened around you as he returned the kiss, letting out a groan as you both melted into each other. It started off sweet and gentle, but quickly developed into something more heated as you swept your tongue across the seam of his lips. He let out another tortured whine as he opened his mouth up to you, pulling you flush against him with one hand falling down to grab your ass while the other hitched your leg over his hip.

Eventually you needed to come up for air and reluctantly parted from him, a blush rising to your cheeks as the string of saliva that connected you broke and dribbled down your chin. He wiped it away with his thumb before bringing his forehead to rest against yours. The two of you stayed like that for a while, gazing into each other's eyes as you caught your breath.

You brought up one of your hands to brush a bit of flour out of his eyebrow. “You managed to get flour on you somehow. I don’t think we even used flour today.”

He grinned at you. “It’s one of my many charms.”

You giggled and pulled him back in for another kiss. Your lips had just met when you heard a camera shutter go off and you both whipped your heads around to the source of the noise.

Vella stood in the doorway to the kitchen, camera raised and a shit-eating grin on her face. “Haha, I knew it! Thire owes me ten credits!”

Both of you blinked at each other for a moment before joining in with her laughter.

#toast clone #clone trooper toast #toast x reader #toast clone x reader #clone wars fanfic #star wars fanfic #reader insert #won't fade into the background #fun fact: toasts ct number is the year sliced bread was invented

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noritoshiikamo · 4 years ago

Note

Sorry to put in another request ><

I was wondering if you had a lil back story on how Gojo and childhood friend met? Like maybe something absolutely teethrotting cute?

hehehe halooo!! i miss u maam. sure sure, i think childhood series has the cute background for me (definitely my personal favourite). i did touch about it a little in the story but im just gonna make a little hcs (wait im sorry it got too long and sorry if it's not sweet enough dhhjhehfhknf) i only touched their childhood and up to middle school antics, lemme know if u wanna know their chaotic mess in jujutsu college

headcanon of gojo satoru's childhood series that lives in my head rent free:

childhood portion of their lives (6-11 years old ish)

- gojo and his childhood friend born in the same year and they were 6 years old when they first met - if you asked her mother what happen to her father, depending on her mood, her mother would tell that her father died/disappeared/ran away and she just learned to stop asking about her father ever since. - gojo clan had hired her mother as the estate's caretaker where required her to be around every friday till sunday so she would follow her mother there because money is tight, she couldn't afford babysitters for 3 days straight - in my head, i find that gojo is actually a shy kid; he has no parental figure in his life, depending on caretakers so he likes to keep it to himself and lives in solitude and being put in such high and heavy position at such a young age, he has no friends to talk too - that was until she barged into his life - "you need to be my friend. i'm bored," was all she said while grabbing his arms. he would be so confused, blushing madly because some random girl is holding his hand and he kinda liked it - he didn't find it annoying that she would say this and that and asked him to do this and that which probably why there's a picture of him in her dress holding her tea cup set, he would do anything she wanted - she would be his loving, doting wife who serves a pot of fishpond tea and plate of random leaves and he would be her loving, loyal husband - she was his only contact to the world outside and he started to look forward for fridays and dreaded sundays where she would leave - i feel like they would be each other's kisses; not forcefully but just like innocent, accidental kiss. they would be 7 by that time, they had ran off into the further part of the estate in the garden where they built a makeshift playhouse and would spend hours playing house and just sat there enjoying each other's company. it was almost 6pm, the view of the sunset was beautiful and gojo couldn't stop looking at the way the sunlight enveloped her face. he didn't quite understand what he was feeling for her, but he likes the feeling to stay. "do you think when we grow up we can still be friends?" he would ask, placing his hand on top of hers nervously. she would smile eagerly and nodded, taking his hand in her own. "of course we would. my mother said we need to go to high school together so we can be better." she didn't realise that he was staring at her; in his mind he was thinking of the way her skin warming up, her lashes, the way she did her hair differently daily. "i think we should get married," he stated boldly, giving her soft hand a squeeze. "okay, i think we should too. promise?" she held a pinkies out and he laced it. "promise." he was leaning to kiss her cheek when she moved. their lips touched just a brief but it was enough to seal everything. "i'm sorry!" both of them blurted out at the same time, the silent enveloped them before they burst out laughing. all grown up, gojo/y/n thought that y/n/gojo had forgotten that memory but they silently wished for more - her mother would have so many pictures of them together -totally two peas in a pod, like her mother would watch happily as the two kids ran into a pile of leaves or snow, hand in hand giggling like nothing in the world could ever stop them

junior high them would be like (12-15 years old)

- she stopped visiting often when they started junior high school. 12 years old gojo was upset that she could only visit him once a month. her mother said she was busy with schools and club but promised that she would visit him soon. gojo instead was homeschooled. - "why can't i go to her school?" he would ask his caretaker one day and he would receive same answer every single time: you're a sorcerer and head of gojo clan, you don't go to normal school. lucky y/n, he would thought. - she kept her promises, they would spend time in his room listening to music, she would tutor him and play games. -she would steal his clothes, definitely like his hoodies or random tshirt. - things i would feel like they would be bragging about: first kiss for both of them, when her friends bragged about having boyfriend, she would talk proudly about how she's dating gojo satoru (without gojo satoru knowing) and he wouldn't correct when his family member/caretakers called her his girlfriend (they thought he was blushing because he was embarrassed, but he was just excited to think of her as his significant others) - gifts that i would see him giving her bcs he's love drunk fool and would do anything for her: anything she sat her eyes on for more than 10 seconds. the oversized teddy bear? bought. the cactus she would then killed by overwatering it? bought and murdered in 2 weeks. that pink bicycle with basket in front and ribbons on the handles? bought despite she had no idea how to ride it. friendship bracelet? bought and worn by them. it was a red string, nothing special but was to believe it symbolized the link between two people who are destined to be married. - i also feel like at prime age of 15 they would be so curious with anything like gojo would sneak out at night so they would hang out with her friends at one of their house when their parents are out. there would be sparkling wine that their friend sneakily stole and they would had their first cigarettes together. she likes it but gojo hates it. they'll play games like 7 minutes where her friends would force them in the closet. it would be so cramped because gojo is tall and she sat just below her chin. it would started to smell like the cigarette she had smoke and a mix of her shampoo too and gojo could feel his own body betraying him. - "y/n?" he asked, "what do you think we should do?" she shrugged. "i think you shouldn't move. i can feel your boner." gojo would be so flustered and panicking that she would have to quiet him down with a kiss. it would be their second kiss, more conscious of where their hands were and the feeling of his tongue slipping in hers. "3 minutes more!" said a voice outside but they were too engrossed only a hmm came out as he pulled her closer. their caretakers would be disappointed to see his thigh between her leg and his hand underneath her shirt. she tasted like her chapstick and the way she mewled against him made him weak. when one of them yanked the door opened, gojo didn't push her away, he looked annoyed and they would teased them for the rest of their night. - it kinda disappointed when she would tell him to forget about it. that it was just a game. disappointed too because she stopped visiting him. he missed her, his texts and emails were ignored and he felt broken hearted. what happened to our promise of forever? - they'll meet each other again when they both went to tokyo metropolitan curse technical college and that's another whole chaotic mess. she could see behind his god complex and chaotic attitude, he was still the shy 6 years old boy who would blush every time she touched him and to him, she was nothing but an old dimmed flame lit up again. their hearts pounded like hell but he would tease her and she would pretend to ignore his every single words. shoko and geto could definitely see the sexual tension between them and the urge to just shove them in a closet was real at that time and what was with the matching red string bracelets?

#bohica160 #hjfdhdjkfdjkfj #childhood series #gojo satoru #gojo satoru x reader #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jjk headcanons #jujutsu kaisen headcanons #gojo satoru headcanons #writing: request answered #writing: hcs

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fortune-fool02 · 4 years ago

Text

A Caring Friend

Caesar Zeppeli x female reader

Requested by: anonymous

Caesar with a caring mom friend who helps him and his siblings get enough food. Caesar needs hugs. So do his siblings.

I’m sorry this took so long. Thank you for your patience.

Please enjoy.

[Name] stood by the table, counting the portions of food that she had laid out and marking them down. Working as a baker did hold benefits of both money income and doing what she often enjoyed doing most. Baking was in her blood, just like her mother and her grandmother. The [Surname] family were known for their amazing baking skills and produce. Something that [Name] was proud of.

After marking down everything she had laid out on the table, a variety of different cakes, bakes and all manner of things, she packed them up neatly and put them in a bag before heading outside. The day had already faded, leaving behind the cold touch of the night sky. Nights in Italy could always be a tiny bit nippy, especially in the Winter seasons. But it was still a beautiful place, a place that will always be home to [Name].

The [Hair colour] woman headed down the street after locking up the bakery, taking another route instead of her usual path way home. Her family were not often ones who appreciated selling off their goods for nothing but [Name] could not care less at this moment. A few missing ingredients would not hurt their wealthy business. Plus, she saw this as more of “a favour for a friend” rather than business.

The street lights faded, growing dimmer and dimmer as she walked further down the familiar alley. Cautious still flickered and whispered around in her head, telling her to be careful of where she wandered despite having been here multiple times before. Slowly peaking around corners before she turned had often helped her many times before. Thankfully, she did not have to travel too far before reaching a familiar building.

Her knuckles knocked against the door and she waited patiently for an answer. The small peak hole opened for a moment, a pair of emerald green eyes could be seen before it closed and the sound of locks being undone could be heard. Moments later, the door opened to reveal a familiar face.

“Hello [Name]. It’s nice to see you.” Caesar spoke, earning a smile from [Name]. The Zeppeli family had run into such misfortune years ago when their father just left without a word, leaving the children to fend for themselves. Caesar, the eldest of them, took it upon himself to try and provide for his siblings. A hard choice indeed with the weight of responsibilities dropped down on his shoulders with enough force to break his back but he refused to let it. He did not care what crime he was to commit, he would ensure his siblings were safe and healthy, while finding a release for all of the anger and rage that his bastard of a father had left for abandoning them.

[Name] could not allow him and his siblings to struggle like that.

Smiling, she entered the house and wiped her shoes on the doormat before entering properly, “Thank you, Caesar.” she spoke before setting the backpack down and starting to pull out the baked goods she had. Much to the delight of the younger siblings, who swarmed down to try and be the first to grab their favourite. It was always a good thing she baked more. She chuckled softly at the sight of these hardened thugs act like the children they once were, fighting over sweet treats.

“Marco, stop pulling your sister’s hair!” Caesar’s scolding pulled [Name] from her thoughts, the youngest boy huffed a bit before letting go of his sister’s hair and continuing to eat his pastry. She turned towards Caesar, pulling out a small handful of Caesar’s favourite cakes.

“Here you go, Caesar. I was able to bake these for you.” The blonde haired teenager hummed lightly, his expression remaining fixed with his light scowl that was always carved into his features, something that was part of him now, and had been for a while. [Name] didn’t blame him, how could she?

“Grazie.” Taking one of the small cakes from her, he took a few bites of it, his hunger clear but he wanted to savour the taste and flavour.

“Are any of your siblings feeling ill? I can try and get some medicine for you if you want.” She suggested, only for him to shake his head, finishing the cake and reaching for another.

“No, we are alright.” Nodding, she accepted his answer, knowing that he wasn’t one for being questioned. [Name] moved towards the other siblings, smiling and chatting to them. Caesar remained to the side, emerald green eyes watching them. His siblings all looked so happy when she was around, no they didn’t look it, they were happy. She was the reason they had food each day, or at least most days, she wanted to make sure they were all healthy. [Name] was the reason they had hope that the days would get better, that the light would shine again for them.

Perhaps she was also the reason why he also believed such things?

#caesar #caesar zeppeli #jojo bizarre adventure #caesar x reader #caesar zeppeli x reader #jojo bizzare adventure x reader #jojo #jojo x reader #jojo battle tendency #battle tendency x reader #battle tendency #jojo part 2

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allaboutthebooz · 4 years ago

Text

Still Learning Pt. Three

Summary: After having everything stolen from her, the reader meets Bucky and they form a relationship, that works for the both of them. She needs money and he needs the company. There are rules that need to be followed. What will happen when the rules are broken?

Pairing: Bucky x Reader

Warnings: Cursing, drinking

A/N: Sorry this has taken so long. Just when I find a groove, it gets knocked off course. But it's finally here and I hope you all enjoy.

After getting your drinks, Bucky decides to get a little invasive. “So, how come you are here by yourself?”

Y/N lets out a small laugh. “I’m not. My friends decided they would rather dance than sit with me while I wallow.” She juts a thumb behind her, point to the small dance floor. Bucky looks past her to see a few people dancing. Most were couples dancing a little too inappropriately, but there were two women dancing together, and he assumes they’re Y/N’s friends.

Turning his gaze back to his company, he gives her a quick look over. Her jean jacket covering her upper body, but he notices her dress. The soft silk material, covered in a combination of blue, red, and orange, clinging to what curves her can see. Her hair down, but half was pulled back into a braid of some sort.

He looks at her face. Not noticing the look behind her eyes, until now. He should have been able to tell that she wasn’t happy. He’d seen the same look on his face, often when he’d look in the mirror. The mask she wore, similar to his.

“Wallow?” He asks.

She nods. “Yeah, I haven’t had the best luck lately.”

“Want to tell me about it? Maybe talking to a stranger will help.”

She shakes her head and huffs. “I doubt it. I’m in deep shit and have no clue what will happen.”

“Maybe I can help?”

She looks at Bucky, silent. He can see her debating what to say.

You’re not sure how long you spent staring at the man next to you. The man who wanted to know what kind of trouble you were in, after only knowing his name for thirty minutes. Looking down at the glass in your hand, you bring it to your lips and take a long sip from it.

“Fuck it. Why not tell it to you. Not like you’ll be able to find me again.” Looking back at Bucky, you see his jaw clench just slightly.

“You never know.” Is all he says. His voice gruff.

You open your mouth to start your story, when you feel two bodies press close to you. Looking to your right, you see Lexie and Deanna standing there. Both focused on Bucky.

“You okay?” Dee asks, her mama bear side starting to show.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You sure?” You feel Lexie grab a strand of your hair at its end. “Sorry we’ve been ignoring you.”

“No, it’s alright. I was actually thinking of heading home. I’m pretty tired.”

Both girls groan. “You’re supposed to be having fun.” Dee pushes.

You look over at Bucky, giving him a quick smile before turning back to your friends. “You know that’s impossible right now. I can’t focus on having fun when I’m about to lose my apartment. I’m gonna get home so I can get some sleep. I have to edit some photos and have them turned in tomorrow.”

Deanna opens her mouth to respond, but Lex puts a hand on her shoulder. “If that’s what you want to do, that’s fine. We know you have a lot going on right now. We just thought getting you out of the house would help.”

“And I appreciate it, but once everything if normal again, then I can start having fun.”

“Well, we can go. Let’s settle our tab.” Lexie says.

“No, you two stay. You’re actually enjoying yourselves. Don’t let me ruin your fun.”

“Are you sure?” Deanna asks. “We don’t mind.”

“Yeah, stay. I’ll get a cab.” You start to stand. Hugging the girls, they head back to the dance floor. You turn back to Bucky. “It was nice to meet you.”

You notice the panic slightly raise in his face. “Wait. I’ll go with you.”

You raise your eyebrows. “Back to my place? I don’t think that’s such a great idea.”

“No, not there. Why don’t we just walk around for a bit. Maybe see if there are any diners open or something.” He suggests.

You find yourself staring at him again. Your eyes rake over him. His dark hair, his blue eyes. His leather jacket and Henley shirt clinging to his chest. His thick thighs clad in dark blue jeans. Were you going to let this man keep you company? Were you going to open up to him? You probably won’t see him again after tonight and he seems like a nice guy. There was something familiar about him and you weren’t sure that you were ready to say goodbye.

“Okay. But just for a little while I really should get home and edit those photos.”

Bucky smiles wide and follows you out of the bar.

“I know a place that’s open all night. They have great food.” You suggest.

“Lead the way.”

You move down the sidewalk, Bucky beside you with his hands shoved in his jean pockets.

“So, you’re a photographer?” He asks.

“I am. Mostly fashion right now.”

“That’s cool. Anything I might have seen?”

You laugh. “Not unless you read Vogue.”

“No, I can’t say that I have. I really haven’t had time to do a ton of reading. My work keeps me busy.”

“Oh yeah? What do you do?” You ask, looking him over.

He stares at you like you should know who he is and what he does. “Uh I guess you could say that I work with the military.”

“Doing what?”

“Linguistics.”

You make an impressed face. “Sounds interesting.

It’s Bucky’s turn to laugh. “Yeah, I guess it can be.”

You both walk in silence for a while. You can feel Bucky’s urge to finish your conversation that was interrupted.

“You’re still wondering why I wasn’t wanting to stay and have fun, aren’t you? I can feel your curiosity growing.” You smirk at him.

He gives you a shy smile. “Yeah, I am. We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. I don’t want you to think I’m overstepping.”

You look up at the night sky. The stars barely visible beyond the city lights. Sighing you say, “A month ago, my ex-boyfriend stole every single penny I had to my name. He destroyed my credit. He opened a couple of credit cards in my name and a loan from a bank in my name and never paid them. He disappeared and I haven’t heard from him. The cops haven’t bothered to find him. So I have no money, except what little cash I managed to withdraw before it all happened.”

Bucky stops walking, making you stop too. “Are you shitting me?”

You laugh. “I wish I was.”

“Son of a bitch.” He says, before continuing his stride.”

“Yeah.” You both walk a bit further before you stop in front of a wall full of windows. “This is it.”

He opens the door, allowing you to step inside first as he follows.

After settling into a booth by the windows, you both spend the rest of the night talking. He asked a few more questions and you explained to him that you were pretty much out of a job and would soon lose your home if you didn’t make enough money to pay your rent.

Eventually, you convinced him to move onto a different subject. Before you knew it, the sun was starting to peak from behind the other buildings. When a ray of light blinds you, you squint and look out the window.

“Oh shit. We literally talked all night.”

“I guess we did. I’m sorry. I know you needed to get home.” Bucky apologizes.

“You know what? I’m not even upset. This was way more fun than sitting at my desk in an empty apartment that won’t be mine for long.”

You start to gather your things as Bucky lays a few bills on the table. You both step outside, pulling jackets on. You look at Bucky and wonder what to do next.

“Well, I guess this is goodbye.” You say.

“It doesn’t have to be. I’d like to see you again.”

You bite your bottom lip. “I don’t know. I’d like to see you again, but my life is such a mess right now.”

“It doesn’t have to be. I’d like to help you.”

“How can you do that? You got a ton of money laying around or something?”

“Or something. Why don’t we do this again tonight? I can explain everything then.”

“I don’t know, Bucky.”

“How about this? I’m going to come back here to have more of those delicious pancakes. You can join me and let me help you. I’ll let you decide. I’ll be here at 7. If you show, we’ll talk. If you don’t, I’ll leave you alone.”

He gently leans in and kisses your cheek.

“I hope I see you later.” He hails a cab and opens the door for you, closing it once you’re settled in the backseat and walking the opposite way down the sidewalk.

‘What the hell was that?’ You think.

The taxi dropped you off in front of your building. You hand the driver some cash, telling him to keep the change. The whole drive home, you kept thinking about what he meant by wanting to help you. Did he have a job for you? Did he want you to take some headshots for him? You didn’t know much about him, except that he worked with the military, and he didn’t seem like he was the model or actor type, so headshots were out of the question.

You walked up the stairs to your apartment still pondering why Bucky wanted to help you and how he planned to do it. You get to your floor and move down the hallway, your apartment at the very end with your door facing towards you. You’re almost in front of it when you notice an envelope taped to your door. You peel it off, curious, and stick your key in the door to unlock it.

Stepping through the entrance, you lay your purse on the counter in the kitchen, peel your jean jacket off, and then your shoes. Once you’re somewhat settled, you peel open the letter and pull the piece of paper out of its snug exterior.

‘Y/N,

I hoped you would be home when I came by. I didn't want to do this how it's been done, but I don't have a choice.

I know how tough things have been for you the last month and I've done everything to try and help. You've been a perfect resident. Always paid your rent on time. You've always been nice to everyone here. However, unless you pay your rent by the end of the week, I'm afraid that you will be forced to move out.

I've tried talking to Tom to get him to understand your situation and though he is sympathetic, he can't pay the mortgage for the building without your portion of the rent.

I'm sorry there's nothing more that I can do for you.

I would hate to see you go, but I do not have a choice.

Let me know as soon as you can, if you are able to pay your rent and we can work something out.

Again, I'm sorry.

David’

Sign you crumble the paper into a ball and let it drop onto the counter.

‘Perfect.’ You think. After having a great night, you should have known the bliss wouldn't last for long.

You wanted to cry, but suddenly felt too exhausted. You decide to get a few hours of sleep, before trying to work or do anything else.

Peeling your silky dress from your body as you move towards your bed, you unhook your bra, tossing it aside, and finally collapse onto your mattress. You barely pull the covers over your mostly naked torso before you fall asleep. Dreaming of the blue-eyed man you had just spend your evening with.

TAGS:

Still Learning- @chipilerendi @vicmc624

Marvel- @shreddedparchment

Forevers- @jamielea81 @dnnwnchstr22 @also-fangirlinsweden

*If you would like to added to the tag list, please send me an ask. I am able to keep up with them better that way!

#bucky barnes #bucky x reader #bucky reader insert #sebastian stan #sebastian stan x reader #marvel #marvel series #marvel reader insert

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container-of-apple-juice · 4 years ago

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Someone requested Naruto’s first time eating cup-ramen foreeever ago. I reserve the right to edit this lmaoo

—

“You are responsible for feeding yourself from now on. Do you understand? Guards will no longer come to fill your fridge. Do you still have the key I gave to you?”

Naruto blinked up at the third hokage from his spot atop the kitchen counter. Only when he saw the man’s eyebrows draw together in frustration did Naruto remembered to nod emphatically at him in response to his question.

But what did that mean? He only had milk in his fridge...

“Good. There is a shop not far from here where you can go to buy groceries. Here is your monthly allowance.”

Naruto jumped as the taller man thrust his arm out toward him, holding out a handful of notes for Naruto to take.

“Spend it wisely.” The third nodded minutely as Naruto took the money from his grasp. He glanced briefly around the small apartment in the silence that followed. He kicked a crayon at his feet.

“Clean this place up, would you?”

And with that the third left his apartment, neglecting to lock the door behind him. Naruto guessed that was his job now. To make sure he clicked his door if he wasn’t planning on leaving the apartment that day.

He looked down at the notes in his hand for a long time. He’d never been given this...allowance before.

He glanced to the right at his nearly empty fridge.

He thought it was strange that the third had mentioned the guards “filling his fridge.”

It had never seemed full to Naruto.

He was sick of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, though. If he never had to bite into another mushed up peanut again he wouldn’t complain. Maybe this would be...cool?

He wondered what kind of things he could buy to eat. And where was this “shop” that the third had mentioned?

He hopped down from his spot on the counter and walked over to his tattered sandels where they lay by the entrance to his apartment.

Naruto noticed that everyone seemed to wear shoes when they were outside and, besides, he didn’t particularly like the way rocks dug into his heels, so he quickly learned that shoes were an absolute necessity if he was leaving his cold room in favor of the wide and open outside.

He reached for the doorknob but jerked back when he realized he didn’t have his key. He ran abruptly over to his unmade bed and plucked the weirdly shaped metal piece off of his pillow.

Upon reproaching the door he took a deep breath, as he always did, and twisted the knob open.

He had run into a few other people (including the old woman from his first adventure outside) on quite a few occasions over the months he’d been permitted to leave his apartment. None of them seemed like friend-material, though, sad as Naruto was to admit it.

They all reacted in a similar way, seeming shocked at Naruto’s presence, only to quickly follow up their surprise with worry or disgust; no one staying for longer than a minute before turning heel and nearly running in the opposite direction.

Naruto even tried to strike up a conversation with a few of them, but no one was interested in anything he had to say. He was just happy when they didn’t spit on him at this point. He shuddered at that particular memory.

He sighed out a breath of relief when the hallway outside of his door was totally empty this time around. He figured he was better off traveling alone than somehow scaring off anyone he happened to see. He didn’t want to upset anyone, he knew better than anyone that the outside world was a scary place.

He wished he could make them see that he was no one to be afraid of.

Naruto shrugged off the thought as he made his way toward the now familiar set of stone stairs that led him out of his apartment complex.

He pocketed the key and gripped his allowance tighter in his tiny fist.

Somehow the two items felt equally as important, and he didn’t want to lose either one.

He figured that any “shop” with food for him to buy would probably not be near the forest or the river (which he often favored over the more crowded area of buildings and people.)

He swallowed down his nerves and walked toward the stone path that lead toward the cacophony of bland colored buildings full of people that probably wouldn’t want to talk to him.

He tried not to notice the ugly looks thrown his way as he walked.

Why did everyone hate him?

He shook his head, trying not to dwell on those thoughts and instead trying to savor the warmth of sunlight on his skin.

He opened his eyes (when had they slipped closed?) and noticed a taller woman exiting a nearby building with a bag in each hand, one of which had something sticking out of the top-

Bread!

The guards had always brought Naruto a loaf of bread! That must be one of the shops that the third had mentioned! (Bread shop!)

He bee-lined for the store in question which had a sign reading “Quick Mart” just above its entrance.

He felt a gush of air as he entered the building and froze in the doorway. He could only see one other person in the building aside from the person behind the desk toward the front.

The older woman seemed to be passing her items to the man behind the counter. Naruto watched aptly as the woman in question passed each item to the man who was clad in a bright blue apron.

Naruto’s breath caught in his throat when the woman passed what he assumed was her own allowance over to the man behind the counter.

He noted the information for future reference and cast his gaze toward his feet as the woman passed by him on her way out of the store.

He felt his cheeks heat up as he walked further into the shop. Bread. He could find bread. That was a start.

Five dollars??

He only had....30!

He leaned up onto his tippy toes and grabbed the bag of bread anyway, not knowing what else to do.

He wandered the isle until he found jelly as well, cursing himself for buying the same thing that the guards always bought for him.

The jelly was only three dollars but...

He shuddered.

He was so tired of peanut butter and jelly.

He shoved the jar of sickly sweet paste back onto the shelf along with the bread he had grabbed earlier, not caring that it was out of place among the colorful glass jars.

He could buy anything he wanted now! Being outside always brought new things into his life. It’s what he loved the most about it! He refused to buy the same thing he had always been given.

He fidgeted nervously as he glanced at different items on their shelves. Anchovies?? Olives?? What the heck was that?? And why did they want almost a quarter of his allowance for such a tiny jar...

He turned a corner sharply and gasped at the sign that laid directly in his line of vision.

$1.00

Naruto had that. He definitely had that. Thirty of that.

There were like, thirty days in a month.

Perfect.

He grabbed as many of the little styrofoam square containers as he could, piling them high in his arms before realizing he couldn’t possibly hold thirty of them.

He hurried over to the counter near the front of the shop with his bounty, dropping three or four of the identical items behind him in the process.

“I’ll be right back!” He shouted at the man behind the counter, probably louder than necessary.

He didn’t bother reading the man’s expression as he quickly turned on his heel and ran back toward the isle he had come from.

The plastic squished uncomfortably against the bare skin of his arms as he cradled them once more, but he paid the feeling little attention as he trudged toward the front of the store once again.

“I have thirty dollars!” He yelled once again, throwing the remaining containers up onto the counter before him.

“......do you need a bag.”

It didn’t really sound like a question but Naruto cocked his head to the side in response anyway.

The man behind the counter held up a thin piece of plastic with handles, expression as bored as ever.

“To carry everything?” The words were unimpressed as the man glanced behind Naruto at the containers of food the younger boy had dropped in his excitement.

Naruto let his jaw drop open. Who knew it would be that easy??

“Yeah! That’d be awesome, ykno?”

“It’ll be ten cents.”

“Oh, uh- I don’t-“

“I’ll just take it out of your total.”

Naruto shifted his weight at the words, not totally understanding the situation but hoping it wouldn’t cost him any of his bounty.

He watched nervously as the man scanned item after item, neglecting to place a good portion of them into the bag.

“You said you have thirty dollars?”

“I-I think so!” Naruto thrust the notes toward the man just as the third had done to him.

The man took the notes from him, seeming to avoid touching Naruto’s skin as he did so.

A few awkward moments later and Naruto was leaving the shop with two bags full of what he was hoping would be enough to last him the next thirty days.

He delights in the fact that the bags are not too heavy as he carries them back to his apartment.

He’s pocketed cool rocks that were heavier than this!

And, trust him, you could not eat rocks. This was already turning out to be a great trip outside.

He skipped the final steps toward his complex and trudged triumphantly up the stone steps.

He leaned one bag against the wall as he unlocked his door and happily scooped it up as he made his way inside.

He glanced at his refrigerator briefly.

He still had milk in there, it was only two months old.

Naruto didn’t think he needed to refrigerate the things he’d just purchased, so his milk wouldn’t need to be thrown out or anything. Not that there wasn’t more than enough room anyway.

He tossed the bags down haphazardly against the counter of his kitchen and eagerly plucked one of the styrofoam containers out of the bag.

He looked at the images on the container. He couldn’t understand what the words were trying to tell him, but he saw a picture of a microwave and water. He could work with that.

He haphazardly tore the plastic and cardboard from the styrofoam cup and let them fall gracelessly to the floor of his kitchen.

He set the cup down on the counter and let out a shuddering breath. Why was he nervous? He had a bunch of these cups, surely if he messed one up he could simply try again until he got it right.

But he should take his shoes off first, yeah.

He kicked the shoes in question off toward the door unceremoniously before turning back toward the counter.

.....maybe he should clean the place up first, like the third had said.

Nearly an hour passed as Naruto picked up his few scattered possessions. He may have gotten distracted by his art supply box, though. He wanted to draw the man from the shop that he’d visited. If Naruto couldn’t talk to anyone, then he could at least draw them- so he would remember them! Plus, he was always looking for an excuse to use his favorite blue crayon. He vaguely wondered if he could buy one of those bright blue aprons that the man wore.

His scribbling was interrupted by the rumbling of his stomach and he froze. He mechanically set the crayon back inside its box.

He tried to channel his nervousness into excitement over his new food options.

Well....option.

He left his drawing and supplies as a mess on the floor behind him (he’d cleaned enough anyway.)

He was grateful that the little styrofoam cups he’d purchased had pictures on them- he neglected to check the directions before he purchased them all, but thankfully he could understand pictures well enough.

He peeled back the top of the cup about half way and peered inside.

What the heck was that?

There were little yellow, green and orange bits inside the cup.

He picked one of the orange bits out and popped it into his mouth.

His face scrunched up instinctively. It wasn’t bad necessarily, it was just...bluh. Nothing special. He appreciated the new texture it brought to him, but he hoped it would be better once he followed the picture’s instructions.

He walked over to his sink, struggling to reach the handles to turn on the water from his place well below the counter. He often hopped up onto the counter to turn the water on, but he’d recently been just barely able to turn it on if he stood on his tippy toes...and lifted one foot...and hopped a little.

The cup quickly overflowed with water and he panicked, jerking it away from the aggressive stream before any of the bits inside had the chance to spill out.

He placed the brimming cup on the counter and hopped in place until he could effectively turn the faucet off.

With a relieved breath he slumped his shoulders, vaguely wishing (once again) that he was taller, before shrugging off his initial panic in favor of returning his attention to the cup of..noodles.

He noted the little indent on the inside of the cup that he assumed was the “fill line” which was indicated in the drawing.

He dumped out some of the water, using his fingers to hold back the dry yet colorful bits as he did so.

Once the water lie just above the line he nodded successfully to himself, pleased with his work.

The microwave was an entirely other journey. He definitely had to jump up onto the counter to reach that thing.

He’d only used it once before, when one of the guards (he had spiky brown hair and a scar on his face) had brought him a bag of microwaveable “popcorn.”

Naruto took careful note of the cup of water and dry food in front of him as he climbed onto the counter with a hop.

He stood barefoot atop the countertop, reaching for the microwave and opening it with ease. He glanced down and grabbed the styrofoam with both hands, reverently placing it on the center of the tray within the tiny compartment that was his microwave.

He swiveled the container so that it’s directional pictures faced him from inside the microwave and he saw the number “4:00” followed by the word “minutes.”

Naruto wasn’t very well versed in reading, but he had caught on rather quickly to numbers, seeing as they dictated how many hours of sunlight he was allowed within a day.

He pushed the number 4 followed by two zeroes on the machine before him, following the actions that the guard had taken on that one day so long ago, with the popcorn.

He missed that guard. He wondered where they had gone since then, seeing as he’d never seen them again.

He pressed the big circular button toward the bottom of the machine which he’d learnt made it start and jumped slightly at the glowing light from within that subsequently sprang to life before him, spinning his noodles around on its little plastic tray within.

Naruto leant onto his knees from his spot atop the counter, staring into the microwave behind the black dots that obscured his view.

He watched his new purchase spin around and around for the entire four minutes- never once noticing an outside noise. His apartment had always been disturbingly silent.

Before the second beep had its chance to disrupt his silence Naruto had jammed his fist into the large button near the bottom of the microwave.

Steam erupted from the tiny styrofoam cup before him and Naruto felt his jaw go slack at the sight.

Was that normal? Had he done it right?

He reached into the small compartment and grabbed the styrofoam cup. It was warm to the touch.

Naruto was careful not to spill its contents now, scared that he would somehow disrupt the cooking process, or whatever magic was going on inside its malleable confines.

He placed it on the counter before him and lifted the paper lid back, jumping slightly as more steam broke loose.

Peering inside Naruto noticed that the contents remained mostly the same as before he had “cooked” them.

He went to prod at the stiff mass submerged within the steaming water and yelped as the hot water scorched his fingertip.

Pouting, Naruto looked around him. How was he supposed to eat something that he couldn’t touch??

He nearly cried at the thought of wasting his allowance. The third would be so disappointed in him.

—

Hours had passed and Naruto had all but chalked up his recent purchases up to a major failure. Maybe he could give the rest of his useless styrofoam cups away to his new friends? (Well, the weren’t his friends yet, but maybe they would be if he offered them his useless noodles?) it seemed sad to even consider.

He had scrapped his drawing of the blue-apron-man as well- the memory only serving to remind him of his bitter failure. All creative inspiration left him and he’s spent the past several hours watching the sun make its way across the sky from his singular window.

His stomach churned angrily at him. How could he be so bold as to buy so many of the same useless thing? He dreaded his next meeting with the third.

Feeling numb, he approached the kitchen counter once more.

He gazed skeptically at the now-cold cup of “noodles.”

He managed to jump up onto the counter with what little strength he had left and stared longingly at the traitorous cup.

The lifeless colorful nuns within the cup called to him uselessly and Naruto dared to prod at the stiff lump that had expanded marginally below the water line.

He could touch it without pain, now, at least.

A small sliver of hope thrummed within his chest.

He pinched a section of the cold, wet noodles between his fingers experimentally.

Dull excitement sparked within him as he raised his wet fingers to his lips and tongued the damp frills of starch.

Oh.

Oh!! Oh yes

Naruto eagerly shoved his tiny fist back into the cold liquid and grasped a full hand of noodles this time, spilling the yellow liquid onto the counter in his haste and all but hitting himself in the mouth with his excitement.

There was so much flavor! It was cold, but exciting! Unlike anything he’d had before- oh yes-

He greedily scarfed down all of the damp, soggy noodles, all from his place atop the counter of his kitchen.

Yes

It wasn’t a waste! He hadn’t failed after all! He felt his stomach sing as he raised the cup to his lips and drained the rest of its contents into his mouth.

Before he could even process his success he had emptied the cup.

It worked.

He was suddenly so thrilled that he had used all of his allowance to buy more of this.

He was determined to try it before it had cooled completely next time.

Oh yeah, he could get used to this.

#long post #I rushed the ending idk this had been sitting in my drafts sooo long now #my fic #text #naruto uzumaki #naruto #uzumaki naruto

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neil-jortson · 4 years ago

Text

It’s only a matter of time

This is a hc about what I think would happen to the foxes in quarantine. I made this as a part of the gift exchange from @aftgexchange for the Tumblr user @wishbonetea . It was an awesome experience to do this exchange and I hope to do it again!

Summary: a collection of ideas about how the foxes lives would have to adapt during quarantine

word count: 2k

The foxes in quarantine: a bullet point fic

The year is 2020. Matt, Kevin, Andrew, and Neil are all professional exy players. Neil and Andrew fought hard and finally got put on the same team that past season.

Dan is an assistant coach for a college team in the same city that Matt plays in. Nicky lives in Germany with Erik and Aaron is just finishing up his residency in medical school. Allison is a major fashion designer who donates more money than she keeps. Renee works with the peace corp and is currently out of the country. Everything is good.

Dan and Matt are expecting their first child in less than two months and are trying to clean up the spare room to begin making a nursery for the baby.

On the tv in another room plays a news reporter talking about a virus on the horizon in China. They don’t think much of it and continue about their days.

Andrew and Neil lived a fairly domestic life, one they never thought they would live, with two cats and a nice set of kitchen knives. (They were a house warming present from Aaron: “it’s ironic” he would say when asked why he purchased the set.)

When Andrew and Neil heard about the novel virus, they simply changed their in-depth arguments about a zombie outbreak to arguments on what to do in the event the virus becomes a big deal. Little did they know some of their “predictions” would turn out to be correct.

Everyone went about their normal lives just keeping an eye on the news before things seemed to change at the drop of a hat. The country was shutting its borders and not allowing flights in from other countries. There was even talk of cities going into lockdown.

Renee was trying to catch a flight home with the rest of her crew. When she made it back into the states, she found she had nowhere to go. Allison invited her to stay at her apartment in NYC. She was not aware of how long they were going to be stuck there (not that Allison was against sharing an apartment with a beautiful girl like Renee).

It became more real to the rest of them as the Exy season was postponed until further notice.

Kevin didn’t know what to do with himself and Neil. Was. Devastated.

It was only a matter of days before they began to get antsy about not going to the court daily. Neil and Kevin had shared anxious words as they hadn’t heard what the Moriyamas would think about them not receiving the normal amount of money this season. Andrew tried to put their minds at ease, but with no words of communication from the crime syndicate, they were getting worried.

Dan and Matt were probably the most stressed of the bunch. The information they had gathered was that most of the Foxes were in good shape to handle the virus even if they were to get sick, but there wasn’t any data on how the virus would affect pregnant women. Dan feared for the health of the baby because of this uncertainty. She and Matt decided that they would follow the government regulations for quarantine and that when groceries needed to be picked up, Matt would be the one to go out and get them.

Wymack’s thoughts were focused on his foxes and how they would be affected by the pandemic. He thought of Matt and Dan bringing a baby into the world at an unlikely time. He thought of Andrew and Neil who never could commit to quitting smoking (even if Neil just liked the smell). He worried about Aaron working in a hospital. For Nicky's mental health while being stuck at home and away from people. He worried that Kevin would start drinking again without the regime of Exy to keep him on track. He was concerned about Renee and Allison living in one of the worst cities to be stuck in when a pandemic hits. He thought about every person he had had as a fox before them and after them. He spent most of his time checking up on the foxes and the other portion of his time reaching out to organizations to see what they needed. He volunteered when he could and spread the word when he couldn’t.

As the foxes settled into their lives stuck at home and thousands of miles apart from one another, things settled into a new normal.

Andrew and Neil lived in quiet harmony when the quarantine first began. Neil went running every morning in a park that was not very crowded and when he would come home he would head straight to the shower. Eventually, Andrew convinced him to buy a treadmill because he was worried about Neil getting sick. Although, the way that he phrased it, it would seem he didn’t care either way. (Neil saw right through him)

Life for them was simple but draining.

The longer the quarantine went on, the worse off Neil and Andrew became.

Andrew found himself talking more and more with Betsy as being stuck at home was leaving him alone with his thoughts more than he would like. He felt old emotions creeping to the forefront of his mind as he was stuck in a two-bedroom apartment with two cats and a man he “hated.”

Being stuck at home for Neil was his own personal hell. He paced around the apartment often and felt no true release from running on the treadmill. Neil felt the same way he did when his mom and he were snowed in at a safe house in the mountains. He walked to the corners of each room and took stock of the items in the home. He felt himself get more and more on edge as the days went by.

Dan and Matt were better off when it came to mental health. It also helped that they tried not to take out their worries on one another, they were a team. They enjoyed each other's company and would try to hang out on opposite sides of the house as much as possible. They knew when they started to push each other's buttons and would back off when they started going too far.

Matt knew that Dan felt bad about not being able to leave the house so he got a kiddy pool for her to sit in outside. It wasn’t much, but Dan enjoyed the fact that Matt was thinking of her when he went out shopping. They spent many afternoons sitting in the tiny pool that barely fit them and laughing at the different antics of their crazy neighbors that day.

Nicky got a hold of everyone's schedule and decided that they should do group facetime calls every week. It was really hard to find a good time because everyone lived in different time zones and Aaron had a rotating doctor’s schedule, but Nicky was able to find 45 minutes a week when everyone was awake and not at work.

Dan and Matt had finally found proper places to put all of the items that had been in the nursery and were just beginning to start the vacuum cleaner when they heard an alarm go off on Dan’s phone.

It was time for them to talk with their old team.

Everyone slowly joined the call and Nicky was just as enthusiastic in welcoming every person who joined.

Nicky was especially delighted when Kevin answered the call and the foxes came to find out his hair had grown out longer than he ever let it before. (He claimed it wasn’t professional to have longer hair but he looked better than ever with the length.)

When Allison joined the call, some of the foxes were surprised to see Renee sitting right beside her. Renne’s hair had grown out and Dan noticed that there was a distinct line from where she had been bleaching her hair

Dan asked, “Hey Renee, what are you going to do with your hair?”

Renee responded with “I’m really not sure yet, but I think I want to grow it out with my natural color”

Allison whispered something in Renee's ear and she blushed.

All of the foxes took notice of this and decided that maybe it was time to settle one of the few remaining bets from college.

Neil and Andrew were the last to join the call and they seemed pissed off. Right before they noticed they were a part of the call, they seemed to be arguing in Russian. They quickly noticed they were on camera and stopped arguing but they wouldn’t really look at one another.

Nicky asked them how they were doing which Neil responded with “We’re fine” and Andrew scoffed at the word.

Nicky knew better than to dig around in their personal business so he let it drop and began to ask Aaron and Katelynn how their dog was, was it still cute, can they show it on the camera?

They responded by turning the camera to let everyone see the sleeping puppy at the edge of their bed. This answered two of the questions because as everyone could see, the dog was still very cute. They told them about a run into the vet they had to make because “the little fiend” has a knack for eating things he’s not supposed to.

Dan and Matt told everyone how the pregnancy was going and told them the tale of woe trying to find the perfect crib for the baby’s room.

“When it arrived, we opened up the package and it was bright green! Who in their right mind is going to put their baby in a bright green crib? It’s ridiculous is what it is” complained Matt when Dan had finished telling them how long the package had taken to arrive.

While everyone was talking Andrew and Neil had seemed to calm down and Neil had placed his head on Andrew’s shoulder. Things weren’t always sunshine and daisies but they weren’t really mad at each other when they fought.

After everyone had caught up there was a lull in the conversation that Neil began to fill. He told them about the time they had to rescue King Fluffkins. They had gotten King recently just a few months prior to the quarantine coming into effect. This was the first time that the team had heard Neil say the words “King Fluffkins” out loud. It is needless to say that they laughed for a long while hearing Neil say the ridiculous name the team had given to their cat. When they calmed down they listened to Neil explain how King had gotten out of the window they kept partially open for smoking. Andrew had to hold on to Neil’s waist as Neil propelled himself out the window to get a hold of the cat at the edge of the window sill. King had dug her claws in and Neil almost fell out of the window. They got her inside but put a lock on the window to ensure she didn’t make her way out there again.

That story pushed their time to when they needed to say goodbye. Aaron’s shift started in under an hour and he needed to get to work. They all said their goodbyes and set up a time for the following week.

It helped everyone to talk amongst themselves and to hear what had been going on while they were at home. They were all worried about what was going on, but it seemed as though they were becoming more connected, even across the vast distance.

It was only a matter of time before this came to pass and Neil and Andrew would get to see Dan and Matt’s baby.

It was only a matter of time before the exy season started up once more and the Moriyamas demanded a larger cut from Neil’s salaries for the break he was on during the pandemic.

It was only a matter of time before Nicky could come and visit the twins for Christmas.

It was only a matter of time before all of the foxes felt their lives returning to a slightly new normal.

It was only a matter of time.

#the foxes in quarantine #it would turn their world upside down but these kids will be alright #aftg fic exchange #aftg #all for the game #tfc #the foxhole court #neil josten #andrew minyard #andriel #matt boyd #dan wilds #allison reynolds #renee walker #hints of renison #nicky hemmick #aaron minyard #kevin day #david wymack

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1-800-roflmao · 4 years ago

Text

Wash Day Delight Pt. 2

Fandom: Undertale (Video Game)

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Warnings Apply

Relationships: Papyrus (Undertale)/Reader, Papyrus (Undertale) & Reader

Characters: Papyrus (Undertale), Reader, Original Characters, Original Female Character(s), Mentions of other AU Papyri and Sans

Additional Tags: Reader Is Not Frisk (Undertale), Reader Is Not Chara (Undertale), reader is poc, reader is mixed, Reader has curly hair, Undertale Monsters on the Surface, Friendship, Wholesome, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, I’m Bad At Summaries, Not Beta Read

*Anyone else have that one curl that is your favorite? Like you just can’t stop messing with it? Also, promise the other skeletons will be joining in soon. For now, enjoy some fluff.

PREVIOUS || NEXT

As soon as she heard the bell above her door ring and the door settle closed with a click, she was rushing around her office tidying up and filing paperwork. She knew Papyrus would not waste any time if he could help it. She only hoped he took it easy on the little old woman. She had a feeling Mrs. Ida was tougher than she looked, but considering this was only their first meeting, she couldn’t help thinking she looked as fragile as a porcelain doll. “Please don’t break my client, Papi,” she pleaded, shutting and locking the last drawer on her desk for the day.

Her business was still small so she didn’t have any need for filing cabinets just yet, but it had been picking up. Most of her clients were elderly, which was to be expected when one dealt with wills, funerals, and burials. She wished more young people thought of wills. A properly notarised and established will could ease the mind, not only because it dictated what happens to your earthly possessions after death. No, a will could make sure your body and memory is honored how you wished despite you no longer being there. She had witnessed one too many funerals that were practically an insult; honestly, some it would have been less offensive to simply spit on the dead’s grave.

Just as she felt her brows pinching, she huffed and closed her eyes as she took in a few calming breaths. It does no one any good getting mad on her own. A little snort escaped her at that thought. Her getting “mad on her own” was the catalyst for her to start her own business. “ANGER IS NOT INHERENTLY BAD. IT IS JUST HOW YOU DIRECT IT!” She made a mental note to thank a certain tall, pointy skeleton in her life for those words. She sent a mental thank you to his therapist as well.

As her mind jumped from one subject to the next, her hands and feet had stayed moving. By the time she zoned back in, she had finished tidying up and sanitizing the office. “Bad habit there,” she muttered, tossing the soiled paper towel into the bin tucked underneath her desk. A quick peek inside determined it wasn’t nearly full enough to toss and nothing in the bin would smell or pose a hazard. It could go another day.

Peeking at the clock as she locked the windows and pulled the curtains closed, she noted it had been only a couple minutes. Papyrus wasn’t back yet, surprisingly. She should be thankful as that means he didn’t rush and possibly her client wouldn’t be recovering from whiplash. She swears that skeleton could give a cheetah a run for its money. What’s terrifying is he is not even the fastest of the monsters she has met. Monsters were something else.

A couple minutes later and she had finished all her closing tasks: office locked up, hall and waiting area swept and wiped down, the last of the windows curtained, and furniture and often touched places sanitized. She’d even given the guest bathroom a quick clean up and gathered the dirty mugs and empty plate from the little refreshment corner she provided for clients waiting. Slipping her phone from her pocket, she checked the time with a quick double tap. Goodness, had Mrs. Ida parked that far down? Maybe she didn’t like parallel parking on these streets and instead parked in one of the hidden lots just off teh main road? Or had the two gotten lost?

A bubble of anxious energy caught in her throat as her mind jumped to the possibility that they were in trouble. She forced herself to take a breath and simply breathe. No, this was a safer area. She’d moved and chosen to place her business here for that reason. It did little to comfort. She was not ignorant to the fact that no matter how “safe” a place is, it is not completely immune to danger and the unfairness of life. Plus, Papyrus was a monster. And sadly, the portion of humanity that didn’t like change, didn’t like different, turned their prejudices to them or just broadened their spectrum of hate. What was even sadder was that some people of color, people who should know better and know how it feels to be treated as subhuman, hopped on the bandwagon; they were just happy it wasn’t directed at them anymore.

The pinch and strain in her forehead told her she needed to calm down. She breathed in slowly, deeply, and held it, counting down from ten as she rolled her shoulders back and let them drop. Once she hit zero, she let the air held in her lungs out in one long, even breath. She could feel the tension melting off, the bubble gone, and overall she felt lighter. Mal would be proud. She almost missed the munchkin flicking her forehead any time he saw her frowning. It reminded her of her mother telling her to “fix her face.”

Moving on, she saw she had a few notifications, but none were messages from her friend. She wished he sent something if it was going to take time for him to get back. She peeked out the front door and squinted down the street, both ways, trying to locate the two. She couldn’t see either, but she did see Papyrus’s red sports car parked just in front.

The area she lived in was considered the downtown area. It was mostly small businesses, shops, restaurants, a couple bars further over, and if you traveled just a few minutes further, you would hit the residential area. Well, the official residential area, anyway. And in the opposite direction was the main center of Ebott. Most business owners in downtown lived above their work space and some even rented out rooms. Her little office was on the quieter of the two main streets that had mostly offices, a little cafe, and a couple shops. This was Eighth Street. If you wanted to party, go to Sixth Street. That was where all the bars, clubs, taverns, and odd little gems were. She enjoyed going to hunt down her favorite food vendor.

Stepping outside, she sighed as the cool night air kissed at her cheeks and the exposed skin of her arms, causing goosebumps to rise. She was tempted to wait outside for him, but he expected her ready to go once he got back. One more glance at the clock on her phone and she decided to wait for him inside. He was an adult. She needed to have faith he could take care of himself. Plus, she had no clue which way they had gone and it would do no good to possibly wander in the wrong direction searching for them. She muttered a quick little wish for their safety before turning around and going back inside.

Like others on this street, she lived above her office space on the second floor. It felt nice to know her mortgage payments went to owning both her home and place of business one day. It also just felt good to have a space all to herself. She loved her mother and siblings, but she had been ready to go. Scooping up the dirty dishes on her way back to the little hallway, she balanced the tray in one hand and fished out her keys with the other. She could thank those years of waitressing and retail for two things: multitasking skills and patience. Keys secured, she found the right one, and unlocked the doorway to her haven. She left the door unlocked and just slightly ajar to let Papyrus know where she was and to let himself in.

It was clever how the building was set up. The ground floor had an office space, waiting area, guest bathroom, and small hallway connecting all three. The extra door in the hallway just looked like it would lead to a broom closet. It tickled her inner child each time she had to slide the false wall away and reveal the stairs that led up into her second story home. Stepping up the first few steps, she slid the wall back into place, then flicked a switch to turn on the lights in the stairwell before she quickly ascended the rest of the stairs.

On the landing, she tapped a foot on a nearby standing lamp and it filled the living room with gentle, warm light. She prefered using lamps over built in lighting. Most lighting in apartments were bright white and blue toned, while she had grown up with warmer, off white bulbs. She also was simply used to a dimmer environment back in her mother’s house. They didn’t keep lights running all day long. Only time the lights were on was at night for a bit and if you needed to look for something. She liked to consider her home cozy and welcoming despite the low lighting.

This space was enough. It felt bigger than it was since it was just her living here. It was hers, and it felt amazing every time she walked around her home how she wished, cooked what she wanted to eat, placed things where she wanted, and one day, she’d maybe get a pet. Removing her shoes at the landing, she slipped on a pair of slippers and padded across the vinyl flooring. While it was nice not having an inch of permanent carpet in her home, she had learned these sorts of floors could be chilly and it was a habit not worth breaking to wear house slippers or slides inside.

She beelined for her bedroom after dropping off the dishes in the sink to take care of later and tossing her mask into the trashcan. Now, she needed to get changed and do something about this hair. The “previous arrangements” Papyrus had spoken of was their weekly workout session. Usually, he would pop in after she had closed up and the two of them would take a jog or walk around the block, then hit the local gym. Her hair being down during a workout was just asking for frizz, tangles, and possibly it getting in the equipment at the gym. Plus, it was just hot as hell to keep it down while moving that much.

While she just wanted to toss off her clothes and bra without a care and face plant on her bed, maybe veg out on the couch, she knew she couldn’t cancel on Papyrus. Her drip for today was a four piece pantsuit gifted to her by Black and Edge for her birthday not long ago. Something about her needing to look powerful as a business woman and “none of her current attire was up to their standards.” The two had amazing taste though, so she couldn’t get too mad at them dissing her wardrobe. The blouse was made from a soft fabric in her favorite color. A black corset style vest with an honestly beautiful work of art of the back comprised of hand stitched embroidery and silk fabric, with matching silk lacing. The pants were custom fit--how they knew her measurements was still a mystery, but she suspected Wine had something to with it-- and also black. The long trenchcoat that matched with it that she hadn’t worn today was made of a heavy fabric in her favorite color with that same patterned silk lining the inside. It was hanging in her closet. She carefully removed the peices she wore before laying them on her bed neatly to avoid unnecessary wrinkles. She was pretty sure this suit was the most expensive thing in her home.

Digging through drawers, she picked out a pair of athletic tights, a sports bra, and a t-shirt the pun lovers of the skeleton family had given her. While it didn’t have a pun on it, it made for a lot of fun interaction when she wore it. Across the chest was written “Bet you Can’t Read the Back of This Shirt” and on the back “Bet You Can’t Read the Front of This Shirt.” The amount of people who try to slyly look at the other side after reading one then slinking away after realized they had been tricked was always amusing.

It took less than a second for her to unclasp her current bra and throw it into her hamper. It took a bit more time to slip on and clasp her sports bra. She took a moment to debate using the the j-hook before deciding it couldn’t hurt to have a little more stability. She froze as she heard movement in her house, something sliding, and then footsteps. She only began moving again after hearing Papyrus annouce his presence. She practically ripped her tights up her legs as she was very aware of the sound of his now bare feet clicking across her living room and getting closer. Her shirt was tugged over her head and arms slid through her shirt sleeves just as he poked his skull through her bedroom door, which she had apparently left open in her haste. Whoops.

Once Papyrus was sure he wouldn’t look like a nightlight bobbing along on his way back to his friend’s home, he finally left the cover of the bus stop and back onto the sidewalk. His mind was running over everything that had happened that evening. He wondered what possibly led the elderly human to assume he and his friend would be… canoodling, canoodling was a word he could handle to describe what she was hinting at. He preferred his magic to stay put right now. An exasperated sigh fell from his parted teeth as he considered the possibility that he was just overthinking and overanalyzing. The elderly human was probably just pulling a dirty jape on him. The next time they met, he would have to return the favor. Of course with a more classy, sophisticated jape, but a jape none the less.

“Papi!” she greeted with a little wave, blowing at her now mussed up hair from rushing to get dressed. She eventually had to push it out her face as it simply kept falling back. She was sure she looked a right mess at the moment.

∆∆∆

His sockets took in just how dark it was getting. How long had he been out? Did it really take that long to pretty much jog to the bus stop? Or had he taken that long to recover? A glance at the sky revealed the stars were in full view now, but the moon was still low. He focused on his hearing, but didn’t hear the usual ruckus from Sixth Street; so, it couldn’t have taken too long.

“NO SENSE IN WASTING ANYMORE TIME STANDING HERE!” he declared with a little stomp of his foot. “AND NOW I HAVE NOTHING HOLDING ME BACK!!” he practically cackled as he launched into a sprint, tearing down the sidewalk. She had better be prepared, especially considering all the extra time she had been given unintentionally. He refused to fail in his duties as her best and greatest friend. One such duty was pushing and supporting her goals. He had been ecstatic when she had told him she wanted his help with improving her health and getting in shape that first time. Not only had she come to HIM out of everyone, but now he could hang out with her even more.

Papyrus didn’t stop running until he had to hit the brakes infront of her front door. He noted that the lights had been turned off downstairs, but he could see warm light filtering through the second story window. Making his way inside, he closed and locked the front door, sliding the bolt at the top of door to secure it. There was two ways in and out of her home, this front door and the “back door.” The back door actually led to a side patio that wrapped around back to connect to a second staircase outside. He locked the doorway in the hall as well before practically bounding up the stairwell.

He made sure to call out your name once he reached the landing, “READY OR NOT, I HAVE RETURNED!!!” he added with his best impression of Edge’s cackle for humor. As he removed his shoes and set them on the rack against the wall, he could hear shuffling and little thumps from across the small, cozy home. His toes lightly clicked against the floor as he made his way to her room. As he got closer, he could hear the shuffling get more urgent and a little curse here and there.

“HUMAN, ARE YOU ALRIGHT IN HERE?” he didn’t know what he had expected when he peeked into her room, but his teeth clicked shut audibly as he tried to stifle a snort and keep himself from grinning. The human had apparrently been hurrying to finish dressing and had just pulled her shirt down. He had peeked in just as her head finally popped through her collar, or rather all he could see was an adorable fluffball. Her curls which had been relatively neat and orderly before was now... well, everywhere. He could see her lips which were now pouting after a failed attampt at blowing her hair out of her face. Her nose crinkling cutely in aggravation as she brings a hand up to shove the errant curls back.

His sockets focused on her fingers which had been all but swallowed up by her hair. The digits sinking in and he couldn’t help wondering how it would feel to tangle his own digits into her tresses. Was it as soft as it looked? Or would it be coarse? It wasn’t his first time wondering such things. She had a habit of playing with this one particular curl at her nape. He would often catch her twisting, pulling, and twirling that one lock of hair endlessly. That one curl now sticks out cutely anytime she wears her hair down and his phalanges itch to play with it like she does anytime he sees it.

“Papi?”

The skeleton jolted as he refocused on the present as her voice, so much closer than before, and a fleshy palm passing his vision. He blinked as her face came into view, looking up at him with a warm flush to her face. Well, what of her face he could see as she had released her hair and some had fallen back in her face again.

“I know my hair’s a mess right now, but I didn’t think it was so bad to leave you speechless,” she muttered, looking away as her hand came up to play with THAT curl again. He tore his sockets from her fingers deftly twisting the curl and brought a hand to catch hers, moving it away. She released the curl with little resistance, but still refused to look at him. That little curl snapped back and while he wished he could appreciate and marvel at how it did that, he had a friend to comfort.

“WHILE YOUR HAIR, YES, IS A MESS RIGHT NOW,” he held back a wince as her shoulders hunched a bit, “I DON’T THINK THAT’S A BAD THING!” he added with a bright smile. He could see her chancing a peek up at him from the corner of her eye. If she didn’t like people touching her face suddenly, he would have simply turned her head himself. Good- NO, GREAT friends respect boundaries. “IN FACT, I THINK IT’S VERY… OH, WHAT IS IT YOU HUMAN’S SAY?” he paused, pretending to think for a moment before snapping his phalanges, “CHIC!!! NO, FIERCE!! YES, I LIKE THAT ONE MUCH BETTER!” Was his volume control out the window at this point? Yes. Did he care? No. Because now she was looking at him fully, head tilted back and forcing curls to fall away. Her flush seemed to have worsened though.

Papyrus watched her as she took a minute to suck in a deep breath and exhale, closing her eyes briefly. The shock had apparently worn off as she now looked up at him bashfully from under her lashes. “Papi, has anyone told you you’re too much sometimes?” she asked with a little shake of her head as she seemed to be fighting back a smile.

Leave it to Papyrus to bring her mood back up in mere moments and hype her up to a point she might consider leaving the house like this. If only her hair didn’t pose a safety hazard at the gym and didn’t trap heat like a lion’s mane in the savanna. “Thanks, Papi,” she wiped a tear that had gathered in her eyes and took another moment to calm down and catch her breath.

He knew it was probably one of those questions that humans didn’t expect answers to, but he just grinned wider and answered anyway. “NOPE! AFTERALL, THE KEY TO POPULARITY IS LEAVING THEM WANTING MORE! NYEH HEHEH!!” And now his evening was even better as her laughter rang in his skull and she was smiling again, genuine and joyful.

∆∆∆

“ANYTIME FOR MY FAVORITE FLUFFY HUMAN!” her skeleton friend boasted. She just quirked a brow at the affectionate descriptor. She couldn’t say anything about it though, since half the skeleton household had nicknamed her as such. She couldn’t even argue that it didn’t fit. It was better than “Curly” atleast, or the various food and drink related nicknames Sugar and Oak had tried on her.

Sighing, she loosed her hand from her friend’s grip and stepped back. “Come on, let’s get out of the door. Can’t be good for your back and neck,” she ushered him in with a gentle tug to his hand. He stepped inside with little urging and almost immediately he was rolling his shoulders and stretching. He must not have realized how long they had been in the doorway. Thankfully, her home had higher ceilings than normal, but sadly the doorways were still made for average sized humans so anytime the Papyri or Oak visited, they had to duck through the doorways. She was saving up for renovations for atleast the first floor to be more monster accommodating one day.

Letting go of his hand, she padded across her room and into her private bath. While her bathroom wasn’t extravagant, it atleast was nicer and bigger than any bathroom she had used before now. Correction, it was the nicest before she visited the skeletons’ house. She could have lived in that tub. The water pressure in the shower had been amazing as well. Stepping up to the sink and vanity, her eyes scanned the counter top for a particular item. “There you are,” she mumbled as she picked up the spray bottle. It was filled with water and detangler, just the miracle she needed to help her tame this mane and hopefully get it pulled back into atleast a ponytail. Maybe she should go with a pineapple puff? No, too many loose ends to get caught on equipment. A bun then? Or a braid? After checking how easy her hair would cooperate, she settled on two thick french plaits.

She hadn’t even gotten to pull the trigger once before she heard Papyrus in the doorway as he ducked through and stared at her with curious empty sockets. Even without eyelights, she could feel where his focus was. It was on her hand poised with a spray bottle aimed at her hair. Rather than saying anything or asking what he wanted, she pulled the trigger and started the process of dampening her hair. It wasn’t until her curls started to get weighed down with moisture that Papyrus finally spoke up.

“HUMAN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Her gaze locked with his visage in the mirror as he had moved closer. His gaze wasn’t on the spray bottle anymore and rather on the top of her head. What was so interesting that he had to move closer? While this bathroom was on the bigger side, it wasn’t quite big enough to not feel cramped with a towering skeleton monster sharing the space as well.

“Taming this hair down,” she stated simply and she could see his teeth part to ask another question, most likely “why” she was doing this after his encouragement. “Papi, you do remember where we’re going tonight right?” She didn’t continue speaking until he nodded, “Sorry to tell you, but this FIERCE hair is a little too much for the gym. It gets caught on a shit around here, rather not think of what it could get caught on at a place with heavy weights, equipment, and the occasional fool who can’t keep his or her or their hands to themselves.” She’d started off wanting to play it off lightly with a joke, but some frustration had leaked into her voice as she remembered there were still people who didn’t understand you couldn’t treat others like a petting zoo.

It’s not like touching her hair is completely off limits. Just ask first, most times she’s fine with it so long as they don’t over do it. Plus, she worked to hard to ensure the health and texture of her hair for it go unappeciated by not only herself, but those close to her. Strangely, none of her skeleton friends, except one, had recently tried or asked to touch it. Only one had tried and she had gotten on him about consent. That had been Cash, back when they had first met, but now he was pest about it and she had taken to telling him no just to spite him.

Papyrus had originally ducked into the bathroom to ask if he could get himself a glass of water while he waited, but had been struck with curiosity as he saw his human friend aiming a spray bottle at her head, more specifically her hair. It was similar to the spray bottle they had used to discipline the cats back home at one point. He was aware that humans had various products--thousands he had discovered--for their hair. Especially the women of the species, but the men weren’t exempt either. It had been overwhelming the first time he had stepped into a store on the surface. They just had an overwhelming amount of choices for pretty much everything.

Zoning back in, she noticed Papyrus’s teeth had just closed, “Sorry, did you say something? Fraid I missed it,” she piped up apologetically as she started wetting her hair again. Maybe it would have been easier to just duck her head under the shower at this point. “Papi?” she called as he didn’t answer, peeking up at him again in mirror, but he ssemed to be lost in his thoughts again. Sighing, she left him to it and picked up a wide tooth comb and began working out knots gently as she could.

∆∆∆

He wandered closer for a better look as she began spritzing her hair. He could smell that the bottle didn’t just contain water. It didn’t smell bad though. No, it smelled warm and comforting, just like her. His sockets locked onto how the water seemed to bead and run down her hair, reminding him of how water would just roll off a duck’s back. Some of the beads got caught on the kinks and turns her hair would make, but her fingers helped to gently coax the water to absorb until her hair started to lay down with the excess moisture. He’d asked what she was doing, but much to his shame, he was hardly focusing on her answer.

He nodded to her question. Of course he knew where they were going, but wasn’t quite understanding why the place mattered? Then again, now that he thinks about it, he had never seen her wear her hair down when they went to the gym or on runs. He’d simply assumed it was her preferred look for those moments and he enjoyed seeing all the different updos she could manipulate her hair into. He wasn’t afraid to admit he didn’t want her to “tame” her hair as she had put it right now.

He more heard her explanation, rather than actively listening, but understood what she saying. It made sense. It was practical reasoning. He kept quiet as the last bit registered with him and held in a dejected sigh. He had hoped Cash was pulling everyone’s legs about her not liking others touching her hair. His alternate was almost also pulling pranks and getting lectured for it. “Of All Things For Cash to Be Serious About…” he muttered, not caring if he was pouting.

He let himself get lost in the practiced movements of her hands. She hadn’t shooed him away so he guessed he was permitted to stay and watch. He took note of how she worked a comb through her hair, the teeth were wider than the gag comb Sans carried in his hoodie pocket and she gently worked out knots starting at the ends and moving up. Once she deemed her hair knot free, she had grabbed an even funnier looking comb. This one had thinly spaced teeth, but had a long piece extending from the relatively small comb part. She used the long tapered part to part her hair down the middle then in what seemed effortless, she twisted one side of her hair and stuck the long bit through it like a hair pin. To his surprise, it stayed in place and didn’t unravel. Was she going to do this to the other side as well? Combs were an odd accessory, but he wasn't judging.

His head tilted as it almost looked like she getting her fingers tangled, but he finally figured out what she doing once she started moving. He watched in muted amazement as she braided with practiced ease, fingers gathering new hair to work in as she moved from her temple to her nape. The braid was chunky and laid neatly against her scalp, while the rest rested against her shoulder and neck as she finished it. She plucked the comb from her hair and ran the teeth through the end of the braid before twisting. The end result was a neat curl at the end that worked like magic to him keep the entire thing from unraveling. His jaw had dropped open without him noticing, only clacking closed as heard her giggle. Her fingers were already braiding the other side as she smiled teasingly up at him in the mirror.

Cheekbones flushing pink with magic for the second time that evening, Papyrus was thankful there were no windows in this room as he was sure his friend would not appreciate him throwing himself through it to get away from his embarrassment. “IT’S RUDE TO STARE,” he griped, only flushing more as she smiled more. “NO, STOP THAT. CEASE!” he commanded, straightening up with a flustered glare as she was practically grinning up at him now.

“Stop what, hmm?” Oh no. “And what do you mean it’s rude to stare? Weren’t you staring at me this for the past… ooooh, couple minutes?” Damn it.

Papyrus had nothing to say in defense, but a mess of words poured from his jaws and stars, maybe he should try throwing himself through that wall there. It couldn’t be that thick. He was sure he was practically glowing by now and he should just respond with his normal snark, but his usually brilliant mind was failing him at the moment. Once again he found himself muffling an embarrassed screech in his palms as a human woman laughed. Atleast this time, said woman was trying to comfort him and bring him back down to earth with familiar warmth and comfort that was all her.

#papyrus x reader #papyrus x self insert #papyrus x y/n #papyrus x you #papyrus #poc reader #curly haired reader #thick hair struggles #undertale #undertale au #fanfic #fic #undertale fic #fluff #oh so fluffy

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one-boring-person · 4 years ago

Text

Just A Babysitter. (Part Four.)

The Lost Boys x reader (mostly Laddie x reader)

Warnings: none.

Context: (Y/n) and Laddie go to the Boardwalk to spend some time together, whilst Michael and Star get intimate in the hotel.

A/N: I'm sorry this is so short, it's more of a filler part, really. I'll ty and get a better part up later.

Part One Part Two Part Three Part Five Part Six Part Seven Part Eight

Laddie is practically bouncing off the walls when I tell him the next night that we're going into Santa Carla by ourselves, no Star, no vampires, just the two of us, the youngster spouting nonsense about going to buy comics and candy, hoping I'll take him on some of the rides Star normally won't let him go on. With a bright smile, I assure him we'll have fun, though I am confused as to why Star doesn't want to come with us; I did ask her to join me, but she declined me almost as soon as I said anything.

My answer arrives as soon as I hear the familiar sound of someone entering the cave, the footsteps only newly familiar to me: Michael. As he lights the room, he catches sight of Laddie and I leaving, instantly coming over and stopping me with a harsh grip on my arm.

"What the hell did they do to me? What did you do?!" He accuses, voice laced with horror and fear, as well as panic.

Pulling my arm from his grip, I give him an odd look before replying.

"It's not my place to say." I reply, sourly, pushing past him with Laddie in tow, knowing Star will most likely work her magic, in whatever way that is. All I know is that Laddie does not need to be around to find out, and neither do I.

Exiting the cave, Laddie and I ascend the steps, shivering a little in the cool night air as it swirls around us, the raging water somewhere below us loud in the otherwise quiet night. As we emerge over the top of the cliff, I allow myself to laugh when the young half-vampire races over to where my motorcycle is hidden, reaching up and trying to push the bike forwards.

"You won't get very far with the brakes still on." I call out to him as I join him, kicking out the stand and releasing the handbrake so he can at least try to push it. A surprised gasp of pride leaves him when the motorbike moves, though I don't tell him that it is, in fact, me pushing the vehicle onto firmer ground, not him, knowing full well that the Triumph is much too heavy for him.

"You wanna ride up front for once?" I offer him, smiling when his face lights up. Climbing onto the bike first, I settle myself before reaching over and picking the little boy up off the ground and placing him in front of me, brushing some of his long hair out of my face. Directing him to hold onto the unoccupied areas of the handlebars, I make sure he's secure and start the engine, chuckling when he jumps a bit from the sudden vibration - my bike feels a little different to the motorcycles the boys ride.

"Ready?" I question him, revving the engine for emphasis.

"Yeah, let's go!" Laddie encourages, excitement evident in his voice.

"Ok, you better be holding on!" I warn before throwing the bike into gear, starting off at a relatively slow(ish) speed until we hit the road, where I push it up. In front of me, Laddie screams in joy, enjoying the new perspective he's getting from riding in front of the driver for once, delirious cries of exhilaration escaping us both as we thunder down the main road. Thankfully, there aren't many other vehicles driving around, giving us mostly free run of the flat expanse of concrete, allowing me to make the ride more interesting. I keep the speed at a controllable high, making sure I can easily brake without giving us whiplash should I need to, though I manoeuvre the bike in a slalom in any case, whooping with the boy in front of me as we go, my chest pressing into his back as I try to make us as streamlined as possible.

Too soon, the bright lights of Santa Carla come into view, prompting me to slow down as I take the first turn into town, trying my best to obey the traffic laws I don't care about, not in the mood to be pulled over tonight. In record time, I manage to skip all the traffic lining the streets and pull up on the Boardwalk, turning the engine off when I finally find a safe spot to leave the motorbike. Climbing off, I help Laddie off, only to have to catch him again when he falls, his legs shaking from the thrill of the ride. Grinning, I lift him onto my back, carrying him further into the busy area with some ease.

"Where do you wanna go first?" I question him, looking at him over my shoulder as he glances around, eyes wide and impressed as always.

"Comic book shop, please!" He requests, pointing over my shoulder at the Frog's store to my right.

"Okie dokie, let's get going." I agree, heading over towards it, Laddie holding on tight as I go, his fingers gripping the front of my leather jacket eagerly. Upon entering, the two boys who run the shop, Edgar and Alan, give us a suspicious look, though they don't come over, instead just allowing us to look around at the comics on offer. Letting Laddie down, I go over to a particular one which catches my eye: Vampires Everywhere. A chuckle escapes me at the name of it, knowing how true the statement technically is as I take it with me, flicking through the pages briefly as I continue to browse, joining Laddie when we've both picked out three or four each. I take them over to the checkout, where I hand them to Edgar, who is manning the till, his brother currently guarding the comics outside the vicinity of the shop. As the boy comes across Vampires Everywhere, he looks up at me, eyes narrowed.

"Are you aware of the bloodsucker problem around here, too?" He asks, voice a little gruff for a young kid.

"The bloodsucker problem?" I question him, playing it off as a bit of a joke.

"Yeah, Santa Carla ain't the fairy town everyone makes it out to be." Edgar informs me, drawing a scoff from me.

"There is no one in the world who calls this place a fairy town. But no, I wasn't aware we had one. I thought that was the next town over." I respond, shrugging my shoulders in mock concern.

"Well it isn't, so you better make sure you and you're kid are protected against them when they come knocking."

"Ok, I'll make sure my brother and I are appropriately prepared for this. Thank you." I say, giving him a tight smile before paying and leaving, Laddie trailing behind me.

"Right then, where to next?" I ask him, smiling down at him as he considers my question.

"Can we go in there?" He points at a little store selling trinkets, some of the wares already catching my eye.

"Sure, let's go!"

Going over to it, we start browsing, eventually buying a couple of small things before the cycle is repeated, again and again, until we are forced to buy a bag to carry it all in, the money David and the boys have collected from victims over the years finally coming in useful. I manage to get a small something for each of them, as well as a tonne of new stuff for Laddie, who needs to experience some sort of humanity before it is taken from him. By the end of the night, he has a new leather jacket, a bracelet, some figurines and some badges and patches to go on the coat, whilst I've come out of tonight with a new necklace depicting a striking scorpion.

After hours of browsing and going on the rides, we find ourselves back at my bike, eating a portion of fries between us as we watch the crowd become thin, both of us in a good mood after the time we spent together. I notice that Laddie has started yawning more frequently, though, so I quickly make the decision to get home before he falls asleep on the ride back, binning the empty packaging and helping him back into the front of the bike.

"Lets get home, hmm? We can show Star and the boys everything we got." I encourage him, smiling when he grins excitedly, quickly breaking off into a large yawn as he does so. Climbing up onto the bike, I start the engine and swiftly peel off into the traffic, going as fast as I dare in order to get home at a decent time. The roads are mostly empty again, but the drivers that are present are unbearably slow, so I try to overtake as much as possible, nearly spinning off course when a lorry looms up out of nowhere, Laddie screaming out in pure ecstasy at the dangerous turn of events. From his reaction, I deduct that he's been listening to Paul a little too much, taking on the happy-go-lucky vampire's attitude with ease. I smile at the bought, knowing Paul will be happy to have another adrenaline-junky in the gang, though I doubt Dwayne will be too pleased after trying his hardest to teach the young boy the safer perks of being a vampire, despite often ignoring his own advice.

Within fifteen minutes, I've pulled up outside the cave and hidden the bike, lifting Laddie into my arms as I realise he's just as exhausted as I am, his eyes drooping closed even as he tries to fight the sleep off, at least until he's shown off his new stuff. Carrying him down the walkway, I grab the rest of the stuff and enter the familiar confines of the sunken hotel, quickly looking over at the bed in the corner of the room, swiftly finding it still occupied by both Star and Michael, though the latter has sat up and is eyeing his hand in amazement. At my arrival, he looks up, blue eyes finding me with ease as I shift Laddie's weight in my arms, trying not to interrupt anything especially not Star's sleep.

Awkwardly, I shoot Michael a quick smile in greeting before going to sit on my armchair with the half-vampire in my arms, cradling him against my chest as we wait for the boys to return, Laddie keeping his eyes open as much as possible whilst we do so. After a couple of minutes, though, I notice he has fallen asleep against me, clearly exhausted after the night out, even if it hasn't been a particularly strenuous one. Smiling to myself, I rock him a little, happy that the boy is around to keep me sane, uncaring of whether or not Michael is watching me from across the room, his curious gaze not completely unnoticed, though I do look up to stare him down as I finally register the loud laughing of the other boys returning home, evidently having just fed. None of them come into the main room, most likely going straight to their sleeping positions, a quick look at my watch confirming this to me, my own tiredness catching up to me as I make the decision to get some sleep.

Standing carefully, I take Laddie over to his cot, where I tuck him in after removing his new jacket and his usual shoes leaving all of his new stuff beside the bed as I bid Michael a good morning and excuse myself to my own room. As I enter, I notice someone is sat on the bed, his lanky yet short frame sprawled across the space lazily as he waits for me to recognise him, his face just visible in the light from the other room.

"Marko? What're you doing here?" I question, smiling a little as I pull off my jacket and boots, removing all my jewellery as I go.

"Well, I heard you have the others some attention last night, and I wanted some, too." The vampire responds, his grin almost audible as I sigh and shake my head, knowing full well that I can't refuse him.

"You know I'm always open to giving you attention. You don't have to wait until you want to make even with the others." I point out as I slip into the bed, pulling the covers over us as he moves to wrap me in his arms, spooning me with his head resting just behind me, his frigid body temperature radiating through his jacket and into me, though the duvet helps to keep me warm. Humming in contentment, I draw small patterns onto his hands as I try to lull myself to sleep, enjoying his presence immensely.

"God, what would I do without you guys?" I muse, my eyelids drooping closed as my voice softens, the chuckle that resonates behind me only serving to make me fall asleep faster.

He goes to reply, but I don't register it, my mind not quite with it as I allow myself to drift off in his arms.

Part Five

#david(thelostboys)#joel schumacher #the lost boys #vampire #dwayne(the lost boys)#kiefer sutherland #marko(the lost boys)#paul(the lost boys)#star(the lost boys)#laddie(the lost boys)#santa carla

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