#and theres still snow from the last snowstorm!

[theonlythingimfuckingisstupid]

Ugh. Insurance need to get this claim through so I can get a rental car and get to work tomorrow

[salandition]

Its,,,,, so basic but Maybe Leon and Reader are training out near Circhester and get caught in a snowstorm? They find an old cabin amongst the trees and tHeReS OnLy OnE BED and they have to keep warm,,,, (Love your writing btw)

A/N: yes, the classic trope. I will gladly take a bite out of it :) Also this one kind of really dragged on, so it’s a bit long lol took me way too long to finish. if any of you recognize the title, ur a real one 

Chilly Down (Good Times, Bad Food)

Leon x Reader

--- --- ---

You feel like you should have expected something like this to happen. Despite what a great guy Leon is and how fun it is to hang out with him, he was sort of a magnet for trouble. He had an ability to draw in unfortunate events wherever he went it seemed. 

So you’re not completely surprised when you and Leon are hit with an unexpected snowstorm while training together outside of Circhester. Are you a bit miffed about it? Yes. But surprised? No, not really. 

“Training with the Champion is great and all,” you yell over the storm, one arm in front of your face to uselessly protect you from the snow, and your other hand is holding tightly onto Leon’s. Grabbing hold of him was almost more important than making it out of the storm- if you lost sight of Leon during this, you might never see him ever again. He’d find some way to end up on an undiscovered continent, you just know it. “But I think I’ll pass on your invitations after this!” You finally finish, continuing to trudge through the snow with him. 

“You know, usually I’d argue, but I think that’s fair,” Leon laughs, and then immediately shuts his mouth as a rush of cold air hits him and tries to travel down his throat. He hacks a few times- a few ice crystals probably hit his uvula or something- and then you feel a harsh tug on your hand. “Look!” 

Leon points toward a dim but very much real yellow glow in the distance. Immediately, the two of you head for it- desperate for any shelter you could be given. Part of you was doubtful, wondering if it was just some luminescent Pokémon or a random streetlight. Though even a streetlight would be better than nothing- that would mean you were back on the route’s path and could find your way back to Circhester if you were lucky. 

But it wasn’t a random streetlight. Thank whatever Gods that may exist- the light was coming from a big, sturdy wooden cabin, a sign being viciously blown by the wind read that it was even a hotel. What are the odds? 

“This is literally the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” Leon yells as you both make a run for the cabin. 

“I believe it!” 

You almost fall with the amount of force that you and Leon enter the cabin with- both frantic to get out of the biting cold. You actually do fall, tumbling into a roll on the ground and snow scattering everywhere as Leon fumbles for the door and slams it shut before you bring too much of the storm inside. 

Heavily breathing, you don’t even notice the lady behind the counter before she coughs. 

Leon looks up with a beaming grin, laughing as he huffs and puffs, leaning against the door. “Hell of a storm, innit?” 

Not the smartest thing to say, but the lady gives out an amused snort anyway. 

“I’m assuming the two of you will be purchasing a room?” She tilts her head with a gleam in her eye. Something tells you that business isn’t going so well if she’s working in a hotel in the middle of nowhere and she’s still charging when you’re both obviously stranded- but hey, that’s life. You look up to Leon as you stay on the floor, hands on your chest as you continue to try and catch your breath. 

“Let me see,” you huff and wheeze, “those Champion benefits,” another huff, “big guy.” 

It’s not that funny but Leon laughs so hard that he starts to slide down the door, knees buckling beneath him, and you think that’s really funny so you start laughing too, rolling on the floor. The lady watches all the while, and if you notice a flying Rotom recording you while you and Leon lose your minds over nothing, you don’t say anything about it. 

Once Leon manages to shuffle over and pay the woman at the desk after your post-adrenaline delirium, she gladly shows you over to your room. You’re suddenly feeling exhausted after trudging through a snowstorm, so you don’t pay much attention to what she says as she leads you there- but it’s not like you need to. Leon does most of the talking as he keeps you steady with an arm around your shoulder. 

You don’t notice the look the woman gives you, nor do you notice the look Leon gives back. All you feel is the comforting rub of his hand on your arm, and it’s nice. 

“Enjoy your stay, you two,” is the only thing you pick up from her before the door is shut and you’re left alone in your newly-purchased hotel room.

There’s an important detail here, and that detail is the fact that there’s only one bed, and you’ve never shared a bed with Leon before. Sure, you’re friends, but you’ve never been the cuddling-type of friends. This detail is completely missed by both of you as luck would have it because as soon as you and Leon manage to remove your clothes, you’re out like a pair of lights the second your backs hit the mattress. 

No, the problem and important detail doesn’t really announce itself in your mind until morning comes. Well- afternoon, actually, if you managed to look at a clock. 

When you awake- at first, it’s not strange. It’s not strange until you recognize the hand around your waist, hair in your face, and legs entwined with yours- which is definitely not something that’s a usual occurrence for you. Recognizing all of these details, your eyes snap open, and you begin to take in the situation as it is. 

Leon and you both stripped down to your underwear, definitely cuddling, and definitely in the only bed available in the room as far as you can see. And from what you can tell with how the walls shake and the windows vibrate, the storm is still going strong. 

Right. 

“Leon,” your voice is hoarse from sleep as you smack your lips, your hand lifting up to shake Leon’s arm that’s wrapped tightly around your waist. “Leon, you daft idiot, wake up,” 

“Mmmgh,”

“I’ll… I’ll steal all your Pokémon, and run off to another country. Wake up, Leon.” The threat is creative, but lacking any real malice behind it as you continue to shake Leon’s body. A few more rough shakes and he finally blinks his eyes open. 

“Where… where am I?” He mumbles almost incoherently as he blinks a few more times, lifting himself up on his elbows as he takes in his surroundings. A bit of drool falls from the corner of his mouth. 

It’s kind of cute, but also kind of gross, and Leon is still kind of on top of you in nothing but his underwear. You begin to wonder if he’s ever going to notice- but finally, his expression seems to come to life as his mind wakes up and he looks up and down your body again. 

“...Right. Yeah, my bad.” Grunting, Leon finally rolls off you and to the other side of the bed. You want to laugh at the pinkness of his ears and cheeks if you weren’t vividly aware you probably looked exactly the same, so you bite your tongue for now. Apparently, the both of you have agreed to ignore your partial nudity for now as Leon holds his head in his hands, keeping his gaze off you as he asks, “why on Galar am I so tired?” 

“Maybe we were supposed to die,” you snicker, sitting up yourself and bringing up the covers as you do, trying to stay somewhat-modest. “And now our brains are realizing we’re actually alive and it doesn’t know what to do.” 

Despite himself, Leon giggles. “Yeah, maybe.” 

The window shakes from more pressure of the storm outside. It gets your attention for sure, and you realize that you should probably check your phone to see when this storm would even end. Very, very slowly, you shuffle out of bed, analyzing the floor and looking at how scattered your clothes are. It takes your tired mind a minute to find your bag, but when you do, it’s not good news. 

Of course there’s no service. 

“Ugh,” you groan again. “This sucks.” 

“Put on some clothes,” Leon says from the bed and you roll your eyes.

“They’re drenched, mate, and so are yours,”

Leon’s head snaps up from his hands at that. “Really?” You’ve got no reason to lie about that but he scatters toward his clothes anyway, feeling the damp and dirty texture of them with his own hands, as if that would change their outcome. You’re definitely not checking out his butt as he bends over to pick them up, because that would be silly and childish. 

Very nice view, though. 

Leon sighs. “Of course. Don’t suppose this hotel has a store of any sort?” 

“Good one,” you laugh. “Probably not, but I’ll check the bathroom for robes-“

“Oh, let me do it,”

“Why?”

“I’ve really got to pee, mate,” 

“Right on, then,” you point him toward the direction of the bathroom and Leon immediately makes himself sparse. You can only laugh as you watch him go, and while you wait, you gather all of your wet clothes and start to hang them all around the room so they might dry while you wait out the storm. 

“Good news,” Leon comes out of the bathroom and you look over your shoulder, seeing him hold up two white, fluffy robes. He tosses one your way and you catch it easily, wrapping yourself up quickly and Leon follows suit. “So, roomie,” Leon raises a brow at you, hands on his hips, “what do we do now?”

You wave your phone that’s in your hand. “We got no service, so we should probably check in with that lady who was at the desk if she knows anything about the weather reports.” Your eyes move to look at the bed. “And maybe you should talk her into changing us to a room with two beds.” For both of your sakes. 

“Right,” Leon nods. “Let’s go, then.”

More bad news, though. The lady didn’t know anything about the weather other than the fact that these storms usually lasted a day or two, so, in her own words, ‘if you’re lucky, you won’t be here much longer, but I can’t assure that. Also, you’re charged per night, per room.’ 

And all the rooms in this shotty little hotel only had one bed, so the idea of getting privacy at night was a lost cause. You weren’t the biggest fan of wasting your money or Leon’s on two rooms, anyway, especially since the owner seemed to be somewhat rude. So that’s nice. 

‘At least she had food’, Leon had told you positively, and you suppose he was right. She had a rather weak list of a menu, but ‘at least there was a menu’ so you wouldn’t have to eat whatever berries you had in your bag. The two of you seemed to dance around the fact that you were going to most likely be sleeping partly nude again tonight, except this time you’ll both be a lot more awake and conscious of it. You distracted yourself with the mediocre food that tasted mildly burnt or undercooked, no in-between, and playing with what Pokémon could fit in your small hotel room instead until both of your eyes were drooping and you couldn’t delay the inevitable any longer. 

“So.” You stand on one side of the bed, Leon on the other. Both of you stare at each other with your hands on your hips. 

“So,” Leon nods. 

“Should we… make rules?” Looking down at the bed and up at Leon, you know that technically you guys could try to stay on your side of the bed and probably not touch each other all night. 

But you were keenly aware that this man is a cuddler and you had a subconscious habit to scoot over to the warmest thing while you slept, so it seemed like physical interaction was going to happen one way or the other.

“I think that’s a bit pretentious,” he scratches his chin and shrugs. His nonchalance is downplayed by the heat on his cheeks and the sweat on his temple. “It’s fine if we… Cuddle. Right?” 

You suppose so. “I guess,” you purse your lips. “Typically friends cuddle with clothes on, though. And these robes are too awkward to sleep in.” 

“I mean, we did it before.” 

That’s true, but again, both of you were a bit delirious. But you can’t really argue with that, and you’re getting tired of dancing, so you nod and sigh. With a burst of courage, you square your shoulders, narrowing your eyes. Leon looks at you strangely before he squawks, his hands flying to cover his face when you remove your robe, the material falling and pooling around your feet. 

“Some warning!” He chokes and coughs. You laugh through your embarrassment, quickly getting on the bed and under the covers. 

“Come on. We could be sitting here all night. Lose the robe,” you cheer him on and Leon glares at you through the spaces of his fingers. “Lose the robe! Lose the robe!” 

“Stop!” He laughs and you giggle along, but it slowly ebbs and abruptly comes to a halt when Leon does, in fact, lose the robe. It’s too much to ask for him to not notice how you stare, so of course he does- humming proudly as he snuggles under the covers. “Speechless?” Leon smiles. 

“Don’t push it, I saw you ogling me the first time,” 

He coughs when you smirk. 

“Fine. Come here and cuddle me if you’re so smart.”

“Fine, I will!”

“Do it.”

“I’m gonna.”

The two of you lay under the covers, Leon’s arms open and beckoning, and you- frozen, not moving an inch. It’s not until he gives you a cocky look and starts to wiggle forward that you finally bite your lip and shove down your ego, rolling over to his side. It should be awkward, and it is, but only because the two of you somehow manage to fit together perfectly and that’s a bit odd. Your head resting against his collarbone, his arms wrapped snugly around your body, your legs entwined in a comfortable and fitting manner. It all happens almost instantaneously as if you’d both done this for years, as if it was a habit.

“Not that bad, right?” Leon murmurs in your ear and hums when your fingers trail little patterns across the skin of his waist and back. You mostly just did it to ease your nerves, not realizing how intimate the action was, but you figure it’s fine if Leon seems to like it. His hands explore your hair and the nape of your neck, the feeling making you curl further against him with a sigh. 

“Not bad,” you whisper. “Still odd.”

He hums but doesn’t prod the conversation along any further.

Several odd minutes pass, your breathing slowing as your body relaxes against Leon’s. Right as you find yourself on that warm, lulling cusp of falling asleep, there’s a brushing feeling against the top of your head. Leon’s body shuffles and lowers on the mattress and you’re about to whine a complaint about him moving around so much- but you’re silenced by the feeling of lips against your forehead. 

The hand that was previously teasing the skin of your neck trailed up and lightly grazed your cheek as Leon’s lips moved across your forehead to your brow. The actions are relaxing, yes, but your body tenses regardless because friends don’t do this. 

“Leon,” your whisper is like a shout compared to the dark silence in the room. Leon freezes up instantly at the sound of it and when you open your eyes, his head is angled in a way with his lips still pressed against your temple so you can’t see his expression. “...What are you doing?” You lick your lips nervously.

“...I thought you were sleeping.” Is all he has to say. You can’t say anything in reply to that because it’s fairly obvious to the both of you that no, you weren’t sleeping. “Um.” The air that leaves his mouth is hot against your skin.

From where your head rests, snug against his chest, you can almost feel the thundering pace of his heart more than you hear it. You idly wonder if it’s possible for hearts to beat in sync with one another. 

“Leon,” you say again when he doesn’t offer any explanation. He sucks in a shaky breath, his arm propping up from under him as he finally comes into your field of view; his eyes downcast and refusing to meet yours as he scoots away from you and lays his head back on his pillow. His hand lowers from your cheek down to your waist, touching your skin and then jolting back and insecurely moving against his chest, instead. 

“Sorry,” he whispers, “that was a bit creepy.” 

You remember the feeling of his heartbeat, and you don’t think that’s creepy at all. 

You reach your hand forward, tenderly cupping Leon’s jaw as he had done to you. Finally, he looks at you- his golden irises shining like glowflies in the darkness. The moment held between you now is a stark contrast to the harsh snowstorm outside- if you strain your ear, you’d be able to hear the whistling of the wind and the creaking of the trees. 

For now, all you can hear is your heart in your ears and the voice in your head saying kiss him, kiss him, kiss him. 

You’re aware that friends don’t do this. They don’t look at each other like this and they don’t press their lips against each other so softly- meekly. Lovingly. Maybe if you’re experimenting, maybe if you’re a different type of friend. But you and Leon aren’t like that, you’ve never been like that. 

So if things are different now, that’s something that’s a treasured secret between you, him, and the snow. 

[hqmillioncorn]

FFxivWrite: Day eighteen.......Gown!

‘The party’s only just begun! But for some reason I’m already feeling hungry..’

babycorn and cherrypit get to go to a fancy little ball!!!!!!!!!  her friends are there and theres lots of food!!!!!!! but    babycorns worried about some small things but enough about her   how are her friends doing? 

It had all started when Aymeric had decided he wanted to invite EVERYONE over for a fancy little dinner. A get-together, if you will. However, when he saw just how many people were going to be seated at his dinner table he suddenly, and very spontaneously, decided that they should hold a fancy ball instead.

At least, that’s how Babycorn understood it happened. Maybe there were more intricate reasons that led to all this but she didn’t have time to think about that right now.

There were more important matters to deal with, like how to survive the cold outside of the ballroom for starters. She was freezing her little pom off with the sudden mini snowstorm that had just decided to hit at the perfect time.

Solving the problem was easy, all she would need to do to get warmer was to go inside the fancy not-so-little ballroom she was hiding from. It wasn’t that she was scared of all the people inside. 

Though that fact probably wasn’t helping.

It was because Babycorn had unfortunately been too slow in escaping the grasp of very eager Ishgardian stylists. Pretty much all of her friends had been quick enough to go out and make their own preparations, with some of them helping each other. Unfortunately, Babycorn had frozen up at the worst moment and gotten essentially trapped in their trap.

As Babycorn was being dragged away she noticed that Andres was willingly going the same way as she was. When she asked him why he was going this way on purpose all he told her was that he wanted to see “what would happen.”

She really didn’t get that guy.

Now he was nowhere to be seen and Babycorn was stuck wearing the most gaudiest and unfitting ball gown in the world. It was so heavy to walk in and having to walk here in snowfall made it even worse. 

On the bright side she did avoid having to get her hair done too, she made her escape in the nick of time and had chosen to just tie her hair back in two ponytails instead.

Babycorn sighed and looked through the window. The inside of the ballroom looked so warm and everyone looked like they were having a lot of fun…Talking and dancing around…But none of that could compare to the amount of food on display that Babycorn was nowhere near close enough to take for herself.

Her friends were probably somewhere inside too but without knowing exactly where they were Babycorn stood no chance of running inside and hiding with them before she would trip or someone asked her to dance or something.

All this made her wish that balls were something having to do with throwing toy balls instead, like how she initially thought.

She gave another long sigh again, leaning her head on the window. Behind of Babycorn, Cherrypit was very busy running around in his fancy little suit and kicking up snow. Of all the perks of being dead, maybe not being affected by the cold too much was probably one of the best ones.

“Snow! Snow! Yummy!” Cherrypit took a bite out of a snowball he was holding and looked back at his sister. They were supposed to go inside maybe a few minutes ago? (he’s two years old cherrypit doesn’t have a good grasp on time) But all Babycorn was doing was looking sadly inside for some reason?

He didn’t really get it but he liked playing out in the snow so…he was just gonna keep doing that for now.

———————————–        

Aymeric had been very enthusiastic in announcing that anyone who wanted to come to the ball could come. As a result, the vague ballroom location was packed. Though, to be fair, it wasn’t too full since it had been sort of a last minute thing. Either way most of the guests of honor still felt more comfortable hanging around each other instead. All of them were crowded around the dessert tables talking with each other rather than mingling with the guests.

Unless you were B’ig Nunh or Himbo Hooters. The latter of whom took one look at the food and decided to introduce himself to the caterers personally to start cooking food that didn’t need to have someone lick a salt rock beforehand to add flavoring.

Reese grabbed another few small chocolate cakes from a dessert tray. This whole shindig was just a little unforgettable for her, but the desserts were managing to take her mind off of things. 

That and…looking at Andres every few seconds was a lot more distracting. “You’re saying that you asked for them to put that thing on you?” Reese pointed at the huge (vertically speaking) powdered wig on top of Andres’ head.

Aside from the huge powdered wig there wasn’t anything different about how the way Andres was dressed.

Andres nodded, which almost caused the wig to tilt all the way down and fall off. Luckily, Reese managed to hold it up just in time. “Hey thanks. Don’t worry, nobody was using this.” Andres pointed at the huge wig on his head.

“That’s not really why I was asking that.”

“No, no ,no, no. Listen, this is what it's all about.”

Without any warning, Andres took a few cookies from the plate and stuffed them into the powdered wig. There was a smug smile on Andres’ face as a few of the cookies tumbled out of the wig and onto the ground, though a few managed to stay inside. “I’m saving these for later.” Along with a bunch of cookies and sweets Andres had also managed to somehow fit a whole Ishgardian supper in there.

And no one around them was none the wiser. If Andres couldn’t have a grand heist that involved all of his friends and the Ishgardian treasury that may or may not exist. Then this would be the next best thing.

“I see…” Reese looked down at the rolanberry tart next to them. Then they looked back up at the powdered wig on Andres’ head. Thinking about it, there were probably more desserts she would want to eat before eating some of the rolanberry tart but she also still wanted to eat some of it…

Without a word about it to Andres, Reese took the rolanberry tart and expertly hid it in the powdered wig. “Perfect!” they said to themselves, they dusted their hands off of powdered chocolate and took another small strawberry cake. Andres stood there, none the wiser.

“Oooh?! Are we putting food in Andres’ rich person wig?!”

Lunya jumped in, in her hands was a plate of freshly baked biscuits. “Stand still, I want to see if I can throw these in!” Before Andres, or really anyone could stop her, Lunya spun the plate of biscuits like some sort of frisbee and threw them right at Andres’ wig. Lunya missed the wig completely but did manage to throw the plate just right so that it landed right on the tippy top of the wig itself.

“Yes!!” Lunya pumped her fist into the air. “One thousand points!”

“Please don’t throw food into Andres’ wig.”

“Like I didn’t just see you stuff a whole cake in there.”

Reese looked away, trying to think of a rebuttal. Before she could, she saw something tug on the tablecloth. Both she and Lunya looked down to see Coco staring back at them underneath the table. “Hey Coco, did you want another snack from up here?” Lunya asked, she had been sneaking him desserts from the table for a while now.

“Yea…” Coco quietly said. He was still a little shy around so many people so he was choosing to hide under the table for now. Don’t worry though, he was still dressed up in fancy little guy clothes. Lunya and Reese had already snuck around two full courses under the table and all that was left was whatever dessert he asked for. Lunya smiled, and pet his very fluffy hair before handing him a frosted cookie.

“Yippee!” Coco said in a hushed tone. Before getting scared back under the table by a couple walking by.

Lunya noticed them walking by too. Her attention was drawn over to the corset one of them was wearing. “Holy shit.” she bumped her elbow lightly on Hanabi to catch her attention, she needed someone to know about this.

Hanabi (who was well on her way on eating everything the ball had to offer in food) put down her plate full of every dessert imaginable and looked down at Lunya. “Mppmmhh?” she asked, which translated to, “Yes? What is it?”

Lunya pointed at the couple and whispered to Hanabi. “Check out the outfits on those guys. I mean that corset? Really? On that dress? Can you believe it??? They’re not going to last ten seconds on the dance floor! It looks so uncomfortable…And bad.” Ishgardians probably knew less about fashion and comfort than they did about adding spices to their food.

Hanabi snickered, “So true…!” She’d eaten the food happily because it was tasty but she couldn’t help but notice it was missing some flavoring. Well, before Himbo made his way to the kitchen at least.

As Lunya pointed out another horrible corsage, Hanabi decided to ask a question. “I was wondering if I can put some food in Andres’ big wig too?” She wanted to take some leftovers back to the inn with her just in case she got hungry later.

“Sure!” Lunya answered on behalf of Andres, who was a little too busy talking to complete strangers who were also rich to answer for himself. “Just make sure you aim the food above his head!”

“Will do!” Hanabi grabbed a tower of empty plates and looked at the other food tables around the ballroom. Not only that, there were a few servants walking around with small food on small plates. Hanabi was determined to try everything. “Wish me luck!” She turned to the others and then before anyone could stop her she took off running straight towards the appetizers.

As Reese and Lunya watched Hanabi take off towards the opposite end of the ballroom Lunya noticed that Vertical was also looking in the same direction as them. She was just standing there, wearing the dress that Lunya had made just for her just so she wouldn’t come to a fancy party in bloodstained armor or something.

“I’m glad you liked the dress, Vertty!”

Vertical looked down at Lunya, her expression unchanged. “👍” Vertical said.

“How did you say that with your mouth??????”

“🧍”

Vertical gave Lunya another thumbs up and went back to scanning the crowd of people in front of her. Spotting B’ig in a crowd wasn’t particularly hard for anyone but it wasn’t even close to being a challenge for her, “There he is.” Vertical noticed B’ig running back towards them. It took her a total of 0.9 seconds to spot him, her new personal best.

B’ig screeched to a halt in front of everyone. “You guys won’t fucking believe this!!” His expression was already telling everyone that whatever had just happened was something he was very happy about.

“What happened?” Vertical asked.

“I was talking to these cute girls and they told me I was the cat boy they’ve ever seen!” B’ig was glowing with pride, the heart on his moogle hat glowing even brighter red.

Vertical raised an eyebrow, though underneath her hair it was hard to tell she did that. “Just…the cat boy they’ve ever seen?” That sure was a sentence that B’ig had just told her.

“Yeah! That’s me!”

“You’re probably the only cat boy they’ve ever seen.” Khaljan quickly added before disappearing off into the shadows again. Neither B’ig or Vertical saw where he’d come from or where he went.

———————————–        

Alright, enough was enough.

Cherrypit was officially tired of playing in the snow and wanted to go inside to play with his friends. “Bebe! Bebe! Wanna go in!” Cherrypit tugged on his sister’s very elaborate dress with as much strength as he felt was needed. “Bebeeeee” he whined.

Babycorn wanted to listen to Cherrypit but at the same time she was afraid of what would happen if she went inside. She was going to trip on her dress and make a fool of herself for sure. Both sides of what she wanted were so equal in sides that Babycorn ended up freezing in place with complete indecisiveness.

“Bebeeeee!” Cherrypit yelled even louder. He let go of his sister’s dress and decided he was going to carry her inside at this rate. “Bebe! Go!” Cherrypit stretched his arms out, which ripped apart his little expensive suit, and grabbed Babycorn with both hands. “Okay! Bebe! We go in!”

Now high in the air, Babycorn snapped out of her panic. “Huh? Oh! C-Cherry!? Wait! Hold on a mi-”

Cherrypit didn’t even hold on a second before he ran into the ballroom at full speed. He’d already been transforming out in the open around Ishgard ever since they beat Thordan anyway. 

There would be nothing wrong with scaring a few ball guests.

———————————–        

As expected the ballroom erupted in screams from guests unfortunate enough to not have known about Cherrypit beforehand. Others however were more on the line of “Ah yes, it’s that little two-year-old little Warrior of Light that can make other limbs come out of his limbs.”  Then they carried on with whatever else they were currently doing.

“There she is!” Reese was wondering where Babycorn had been. All this time she assumed that Babycorn had just decided not to come in the end. “Babycorn we’re over here!” Reese waved her hand in the air so Babycorn could tell where they were. Initially thinking nothing about how she was somehow suspended a few fulms in the air.

“Wait a minute.”

Cherrypit jumped onto the dessert table with Babycorn in hand and then gently set her down next to the chocolate pudding. “Thanks Cherry…” Without wasting a second Babycorn stuck her hand in the pudding and began stuffing it in her mouth. Cherrypit decided he would sit in a bowl of salad someone had moved to the dessert table for whatever reason.

Reese watched as Cherrypit crunched a leaf in his mouth. “Ah.” They really did waste no time.

Lunya ran over to look at Babycorn. Her eyes widened when she noticed the gown Babycorn was wearing. “Oh god Babycorn what did they do to you?!” It looked so BAD on her!!!! What had they done?! “AAAH! They could have made you look so cute! I’ll never forgive them for this!” The dress had too many ribbons! It was too gold!! And it had the ugliest skirt Lunya had ever seen!

Hanabi just came back with plates full of food. She was having no trouble carrying the tower plates in her hands. “Woah! Hi Babycorn!! I brought some food! We can share if you’d like! By the way, what are you wearing?!” Hanabi was so taken aback she almost dropped her plate full of mashed popotos with butter.

Thankfully Vertical was quicker than gravity was and managed to grab the falling plate just in time.

“Here you go. 👍.” Vertical placed the plate on the most stable part of the plate tower she could find.

“Waa! Thanks Vertical!”

Babycorn leaned into the bowl of pudding and cried. “I don’t know what I’m wearriiiing! They just put me in thiiiis!” Not only was there pudding on the gown, there was pudding in her hair too. Which was arguably the best looking part about her. If there was anything Babycorn knew how to do it was style her hair in exactly two different hairstyles.

“Well you’re not going to be wearing it for long!” Lunya hopped onto the table and grabbed Babycorn over her shoulder, making sure to not cover herself with chocolate pudding too. “Let’s go! Cherry! Follow behind me okay?” It would do no one any good for them to get separated here.

Cherrypit nodded and hopped out of the salad bowl taking a few more leaves with him.

Lunya took off, with Vertical, Hanabi and Andres following behind her, to right this terrible wrong.

“Wait, why is Andres coming?” Babycorn asked, “...What’s that on his head?”

“He’s got the food.” Lunya elaborated.

[songbirdsingingthings]

Chilled - Spencer Reid x Reader

WARNINGS: I mean, this is a cm fic so theres gonna be some gore involved, but nothing too insane. If you do get squeamish really easily though, this might not be the fic for you? 

The air finally started to have a certain chill to it, one that no matter what you wore, you felt it in your bones. That paired with your day job left you feeling no warmth, not even if you were lit on fire yourself. And now, in the middle of January, you and the team have to travel to North Dakota, of all places, for a pretty touchy case. Since it was an above average winter, snowstorms were pelting the state at a quite alarming rate. This posed the perfect opportunity for the unsub they were hunting - as they would dump the bodies in huge snow drifts. The local authorities only started to find the bodies when snow started to develop an off putting color.

“Remember to bundle up my lovelies, you are going to be braving some serious sub zero tempetratures! I don’t want any of my favorite agents turning into popsicles.” Garcia says as she’s handing out the files to everyone at the round table. Peeling back the manilla folder, you almost wish you hadn’t. The discoloration on the snow was perfectly nauseating and what made your heart drop more was the shape that the corpses were in. There was clear evidence of asphyxiation and stab wounds on the body and, however, something didn’t feel perfectly right about the way that the person died. Not being able to put a finger on the thought, you slid the manilla folder into your bag and stood up like the rest of your team.

“C’mon, Y/N/N, better get going, yeah?” Derek asks, waiting for you to start walking. You nod and start walking out with everyone else, only for you all to get stopped by Erin Strauss. “Hello agents, before you leave, we wanted to leave you all with something.” Standing up on your toes to peer over the guys in front of you - seriously, did Hotch, Morgan, and Reid have to be so tall? - you get a look at what she and some of her own agents were holding. Pristine new FBI jackets with those classic faux fur lined hoods were folded in her hands along with what looked like windbreaker sweatpants. “So you don’t get cold.” Erin states plainly, passing the clothing out to the squad.

“Wow, these are great!” Emily said excitedly,  threading her fingers through the faux fur. 

“And to think I packed three different windbreakers,” you joke, taking your time to unzip the jacket and slide your arms through it. You sigh and as the material instantly makes you feel a lot cozier.

“Jackets like these were actually first invented somewhat recently in 1936,” Spencer starts.

“‘Recently’?” you quip, flashing Spencer a smile.

“They were invented by a man named Eddie Bauer who almost lost his life to hypothermia when he went on a mid-winter fishing trip.” Chuckling a little, Derek patted Spencer on the back and jogged quickly to the plane due to Virginia’s January chill.

“If you're cold now, Morgan, I don’t know how you’re gonna react when we step out of the plane in North Dakota!” JJ laughs, earning a nudge from Emily.

Finally, everyone piles onto the plane, taking up seats and instantly turning on the seat warmers. You settle gently in the window seat of the two-seater, and Spencer quickly joins you.

“Mind if I sit?” He asks, motioning to the seat to your left. 

“Not at all,” you smile. Both you and Spencer considered the other as good friends, maybe even best friends. You started a mere two years after Spencer did. Since the two of you were around the same age - him a few years older - and were newer to the force, you found instant solace and comradery in the other. Over the years, you and Spencer became a lot closer. Whether it was caring and being there for him when he had his dilaudid scare or either of you sleeping over at the other’s houses when the nightmares became too much, you developed a strong relationship full of trust.

“All I’m saying is that if we get there and it looks like the frozen planet Hoth, I’m going to be pissed.” You joke as the plane starts its descent. 

“Oh come on Y/N, pretty boy will wrap you up in his jacket to keep you warm.” Derek said, ruffling Spencer’s hair. A light blush graced both of your faces as you began to gather any strewn files.

“Let’s not tease, Morgan, Capisci?” Rossi says, giving you a gentle smile. Rossi was always nice to you. He provided a much needed parental figure at the BAU, giving you tough love or a gentle guiding hand when needed. Soon enough, the squad was able to leave the place and be driven over to the local police precinct. The details that the police chief had were dished out to the team and talked over multiple times. It was tough, to say the least. They had no leads, no suspects, and no new facts.

= 3 Days Later = 

Energy for the team was at an all time low. The heating was starting to slowly die, new bodies kept showing up everyday, and you were still no where close to finishing this investigation.

“Let’s go over everything again.” Hotch begins, his statement being said for the third time within 2 hours. “The victims are buried beneath at least 2 feet of snow, it takes between 1 and 3 days for anybody to recognize anything’s up, and there are stab wounds and evidence of asphyxiation…” Hotch droned on which led you to faze out a bit. All you could think of were your cold body, your cold feet, and your cold ass fingers. That’s when you realized something.

“O-oh my God.” You say, standing straight up as you re-examine the pictures. All eyes in the room turn towards you, curious. You start to pace the room as you hold the crime scene photos in your hands. “I know that there are stab wounds and asphyxiation evidence, but neither of those are what killed them. The wounds are in non-fatal areas of the body and the asphyxiation wasn’t severe enough to fully kill them.” You say, your mind going miles a minute.

“So what are you saying killed them?” JJ asks, leaning forward.

“Hypothermia,” you breath out, “the stab wounds prevent the victim from getting anywhere too far and look at the frostbite on the hands,” you say pointing to the darkened limbs.

“It’s progressed far enough to make your hypothesis possible.” Spencer says, standing up as well.

“Okay, so where could the unsub be keeping his victims in a place remote enough to leave them out in the cold?” Rossi asks, looking between you and Hotch.

“Garcia?” Hotch simply says, listening into the speaker on the table.

“Already there captain, I’m sending you the locations now.” Penelope sends three different locations to the squad making everyone gather around the computer.

“Alright Prentiss and Morgan go to the first one, Reid and L/N to the second, and Rossi and I will take the third, let’s move!” He says quickly. Everyone gathers their things and you and Spencer share a look and nod. Each duo climbs into their own car equipped with cold weather tools and sped off to the different locations.

“Great find Y/N,” Spencer says, giving you a reassuring look. You flash a weary smile at him and step on the gas, speeding off to the location.

The place looks like it’s straight out of a horror movie. There’s an old raggedy windmill on the left of a shabby wooden cabin, bordered by huge fir trees.

“My God, this place is terrifying.” You murmur, pulling your gloves on and your gun out of your belt. Spencer is on your right as you start to slowly make you way towards the building. Out of the corner of your eye you spot a tiny little shack just south of the windmill. “Spence, you take the house and I’ll take the shack, okay?” you whisper, making sure that no one else but him could hear you. Spencer looks a little shocked at you.

“Y-Y/N, are you kidding? We need to stick together on this!” He says quietly, grabbing your hand. For some reason, neither of you are shocked at his action. You only squeeze his hand tighter.

“I’ll be fine Spence, I promise. We’ll get a cup of hot chocolate after this, okay?” You say, giving him a small grin. Spencer nods back giving you a smile as well.

“Yeah but you’ll just ruin yours with too much whipped cream and cinnamon. It totally defeats the purpose of the hot chocolate.” He quips back. You give him a quiet laugh and nod, squeezing his hand one last time before you head towards the shack. It was a ways away from the main house making your trek a little longer than Spencers, but you finally made it to the small wooden building. You drew in a breath as you began to see footprints with small bits of red in them. Your gloved hand reaches for your flashlight. You jump as you hear increasing steps behind you and turn around quickly, aiming your gun and squinting your eyes until you realize it was nothing but a deer passing by behind you.

Be cool, Y/N, you’re fine. You’re good.

You kick open the door to find the unsub about to attack a near naked girl, knife in hand and a wild look in his eyes.

“FBI stop what you’re doing right now, drop the knife!” You yell. The man turns around to face you, knife still in hand and charging towards you. You fire a quick shot to his leg making him stumble, kick away the knife from his hand, and cuff him. You finally turn your eyes onto the girl who was terrified. “It’s okay, you’re okay now,” You say, helping her stand. That’s when you notice the condition that she was in. Her lips were almost purple now, the rest of her skin turning blue. You shrug your jacket and long sleeve shirt off of you as fast as you could putting both of them on her. You stuff your gloves on her hands and shimmy out of your windbreaker pants, leaving you in nothing but athletic shorts and a tank top. Screw it, you could bear these sub zero temperatures in these clothes for a few minutes, this girl needed warmth. An instant chill settled into your bones making your teeth chatter in seconds. You shout for Spencer as you help the girl to the door and make the unsub stand up, dragging him in front of you. Your friend finally came into view, running at full speed towards you.

“Y/N, oh my god, are you okay?” He asks you. You nod as you let out a sigh, already knowing that your lips are starting to stray towards periwinkle. You could see the rest of the team running towards the shack. Derek took care of handling the unsub while Emily helped the girl back towards the vans, surely to help try and heat her up.

“I’m pissed,” you chatter out, causing Spencer to raise an eyebrow. You roll your eyes and start rubbing your hands along your bare forearms, trying to generate any kind of warmth. “This place looks exactly like Hoth, and Morgan is gonna end up being right because I would kind of love to have your jacket right now.” You chatter-laugh, one of the weirdest sounds to ever come out of your mouth. Quickly nodding, Spencer starts to shed his jacket off of you, but stops halfway. “Spencer what the hell are you doing, my fingers are all already numb, it’s gonna hurt like hell to warm them back up.”

“I actually have a more efficient idea, but we might want to go into the car first.” Giving no complaints, you and Spencer raced back to the backseat of a car, waiting for him to blast the heat. He does so, but it’s still not warming you up.

“Is this seriously what you had in mind? Because I’m still feeling like a popsicle and Garcia will be very made to hear that.” You say chuckling nervously.

“No, it’s this,” Spencer says, opening the front of his jacket. He brings you close to him and rezips the jacket, making you pressed right up against him. Not that you would go around talking to it about just anyone, but he was built underneath that cotton gray shirt.

“Sp-Spence what are you doing?” You whisper-yell quietly, your cheeks burning up. 

“Skin to skin, it’s one of the quickest ways to get warm.” What was interesting was that you weren’t really opposed to being in this position with Spencer. Actually, you kind of really like it. You get to feel his heartbeat and snuggle your head under his chin, which makes Spencer flush this time.

“Spencer,” you whisper, causing him to glance down at you.

“Yeah?” He murmurs back. You feel his heartbeat quicken, affirming what you were hypothesizing.

“Can you hold me?” You ask. He had never heard your voice speak so softly and so… lovingly. He felt special being able to hear you like this, seeing you like this. He always loved the fact that the two of you were such great friends and were able to confide in eachother, but he wanted more now. He wanted to see you like this a little bit more. So, he did as you asked and wrapped his arms around your cold frame, dismissing the cold that transferred into his body from yours. After a few minutes you were starting to feel a lot better but made no effort to leave. Instead, you snuggled into him more and let your hands splay out against his chest. You heard him hum lightly, pressing you further closer to him.

“Y/N.” He whispers this time.

“Yeah?” You respond, looking at him. The two of you make eye-contact and make no effort to break it.

“Can our hot chocolate outing be considered a date?” He asks, his face now mere inches away from yours. You nod instantly and bring your face closer to his.

“Can I kiss you?” You ask, bringing one of your hands to cup his cheek. Spencer doesn’t even wait to nod, he just closes the gap in between you. The kiss was sweet and tender, like gingerbread cookies right out of the oven. Spencer now brings both of his hands to your cheeks and deepens the kiss, making you melt into him. Things were starting to get a little more intense, that is, until the door to the car opens causing snow to blow onto the seats.

“HEY! IT IS FREEZING OUTSIDE AND-” You cut your words off as you see Morgan, JJ, and Prentiss looking at you and Spencer, all with smirks on their faces. You see two faces turn a little more frustrated, digging into their pockets and fishing out twenty dollars each. Emily smirks and takes the bills from JJ and Morgan, earning groans from the two of them.

“Y’all seriously couldn’t pace things?” Stumped, you look at them with your mouth hanging open.

“You bet on us?” Spencer says, his voice raising in volume.” Chuckling, the three of them close the door to the car leaving just you and Spencer, flabbergasted.

“So how about that hot chocolate now?”

[asian-hero]

3 and 9 with todoroki and his s/o, the story is just his s/o showing him the traditions they had in their childhood, and at the end of it all todoroki is happily cuddling them next to the fireplace (❤️, i’ll stop for now fkebskfneks)

A/N: Excuse me, ❤️ anon, what do you mean you’ll stop? Never stop sending in prompts please

“Will you make a gingerbread house with me?” + “I don’t remember the last time I truly enjoyed Christmas” from Tis the Season prompt list (feel free to send in a prompt(s) and a character!)

Summary: Todoroki Shouto’s never experienced the fun of Christmas, so you take it into your own hands to show him just how fun the holiday can be

Words: 2,268

December 1st. The first day in which it’s acceptable to start counting down the days to Christmas. The snow would begin to fall from the sky, turning the boring pavement below your feet into a winter wonderland. Winter was a time for you to bundle up inside by the fire, enjoying a nice, warm drink while you spent time with those you considered your family. Christmas was the time when you could finally relax and forget about the every day stresses of life, whether it be your work, or simply living, you could just take a break from reality. 

With all of these wonderful things happening around winter, it truly did not surprise you when Shouto had told you that he’d never celebrated Christmas. 

Back when the two of you were in your first year of dating you had found out about the lack of warmth in the Todoroki family. It wasn’t something that he particularly wanted to tell you, but he felt like it would help to better explain why he ended up being inept when it comes to certain areas of knowledge. Childhood memories that you thought were standard, such as snowball fights in the cold, decorating a tree, and opening presents, weren’t a thing in his family, and by the time that reconciliation came, he was already an adult who no longer saw use in those things. 

It hurt your heart to hear about his childhood. Not only from the fact that his family was torn apart from such a young age, but also by the fact that he seemed to be so resigned to the fact that because he was an adult, it meant that he wasn’t allowed to do all of the fun things at Christmas time. He seemed to accept the fact that his time had passed, and you didn’t like it.

In fact, it was the very reason that you were currently out at a grocery store, looking for every single Christmas-y thing that you could do this holiday season.

Well, that and the fact that this would be your first Christmas that you two spent together. So, there was that too.

You’d already stopped by the craft store, picking up some cute multicolored string lights that you could use to decorate your home with, along with a fake tree that was on sale, some cute ornaments that you thought he’d like, some sticks that would make the tree at least smell like a real tree, and, of course, some stockings for the two of you to hang by the fireplace. You would’ve been done with shopping, but they didn’t have any gingerbread house kits, and you felt like that was an important part of Christmas, and you didn’t want Shouto to miss out on a single thing. Luckily for you, the kits weren’t sold out, and you were able to snag two cute looking cottage kits for you and Shouto to decorate when he got home. 

By the time you had finished up your shopping, the sun had begun to set, tinting the sky with a warm orange, though the weather was anything but. Thankfully, Shouto was still at the agency, with a short text from him telling you that he wouldn’t be home for a few more hours. That allowed you to get everything set up for when he came back. 

First, you decided to set up the tree in a corner of the living room, clicking all of the parts together and fluffing out the branches. Setting aside the bag of ornaments next to it, you moved to hang the lights all around the house, letting them droop slightly as you strung them all around the house. A gleeful laugh left your lips once you finally plugged in the lights, basking in the glow of the multicolored bulbs. 

By the time you had began to set up the gingerbread station, you heard the soft click of the lock. Just in time. Humming a soft tune to yourself, you waited until the man of the hour walked towards you, an adorably confused look on his face.

“(Y/N)?” When you hummed, not taking your eyes off of your gingerbread house, he sighed, moving closer until he was standing behind you, peering over your shoulder curiously, “What are you doing?”

“Designing a wonderful house for my little gingerbread people to live in,” You stated, a smile resting on your face, “Care to join me?”

He gave you a flat look, “Aren’t we a little too old for this?”

The look you gave him made him want to go back in time to when he uttered those words and slap himself. Just as he was about to take it back, you turned your body to face him, an unsure look on your face.

“I thought it’d be fun for us to do some Christmas activities together,” Grabbing one of his hands in yours, you gave him a shy smile, “Will you make a gingerbread house with me?”

At that cute look on your face, he felt his face mirroring yours, an excited voice in his head yelling at him to say “yes!”

So, that’s exactly what he did.

“You’ll have to help me out though,” He spoke, rolling up his sleeves as he stood beside you, his own house in front of him, “I’m not any good at these kinds of things,”

For the next hour, the two of you decorated your gingerbread houses. You had to do everything in your power to not laugh at the sight of Shouto’s house, watching as the icing began to slide all over the place, making it look as though his house had been through a big snowstorm. Though, from the look on Shouto’s face, it seemed as though he was close to losing it, too.

“How are you doing, honey?” You asked, stifling a small giggle that threatened to leave your lips.

Giving you a glare with no trace of malice, he turned back towards his mess of a house, “I’m telling a story. I’m sorry that it doesn’t suit your taste,”

“A story?” You gasped, a wide smile on your face, “Oh do tell, what’s the plot?”

“It’s about a family who’s stuck in the middle of a blizzard,” Just as he spoke, the gingerbread walls gave out, caving in and crumbling beneath the weight of the sugary snow above them, “And how they should get better property insurance.”

At that, you couldn’t hold it back anymore. Bending over, you let out an obnoxious sounding laugh, feeling tears begin to form in the corners of your eyes. As you gripped the counter for dear life, you could also hear the light giggles coming from the man beside you, shaking his head at his luck. Once you could finally breathe properly, you pinched his cheek, enjoying the way that he squirmed. 

“Well, your gingerbread people should be thankful that at least one of us knows how to build a proper house,” You spoke, plucking his people and placing them next to yours, “They can stay here until they get that insurance money,”

He snorted, rolling his eyes. “Oh, how gracious of you,”

Once the two of you were finished with decorating your houses, you pulled him over to the living room, where you promptly shoved him towards the bare tree, grabbing the bag of ornaments as you went. With a giddy smile on your face, you held the bag in front of him, allowing him to look at the absurd amount of ornaments you bought.

“Help me decorate the tree!”

Picking up an ornament shaped like a bowl of noodles, he looked at you apprehensively. “I’m not sure if I’ll be too helpful,”

You waved him off, pulling out a long trail of silver garland from out the bag. “Who cares? Theres’ no rules to decorating a Christmas tree, and I’ll love it no matter what it looks like,” You gave him a fond smile, one that took his breath away, “Because it’s ours,”

With that, you didn’t wait for his response, slinging the garland onto the bottom of the tree, slowly working your way up to the top, “Now hurry up and pick out some cute ornaments! I grabbed a bunch, so hopefully you’ll find some that you like,”

It took a few more seconds of apprehension before you felt Shouto’s body beside yours, the noodle bowl ornament that once rested in his hands now hanging on one of your plastic branches. Giggling a bit to yourself, you dug in the bag, looking for the ones you thought were pretty.

All that could be heard in your house was the soft clinks of ornaments being pulled from the bag, and the occasional question from Shouto, asking for the fiftieth time if where he placed the snowman ornament was okay, if he was doing it right. After a while, you quietly pulled away, making sure to not be questioned by the man. Carefully, you rummaged through the bag filled with all of your impulse Christmas buys, letting out a quiet sigh of relief when your hand met with a bundle of mistletoe that you had carelessly thrown in there. Pulling it out, you moved to grab your phone off the counter, connecting it to your speakers in order to put on your Christmas playlist.

Once the soft sound of music began to ring throughout the house, walked towards Shouto, a mischievous smile playing on your lips.

“You’re really trying to get into the holiday mood, aren’t you—“

Just as he turned around, the teasing remark he had died in his throat. Eyes widening slightly, he felt his heart begin to race. When he continued to stare at you with shock, you couldn’t help the laughter that was bubbling in your chest.

“I know you haven’t really celebrated Christmas before but,” You paused, stepping closer to him,  your chests nearly touching, “You have to know what this is, right?” 

He gave you an amused look, seemingly having recovered from his previous shock. “You know you can kiss me any time? You don’t need—“

Once again, he found the words being stolen from his lungs as you grabbed a handful of his shirt, tugging him down to meet your lips in a soft kiss. 

Surprisingly, it felt different. When he first saw the green plant in your hand, Shouto wanted to roll his eyes, not truly understanding why kissing under the mistletoe was a tradition in the first place. It wasn’t as if the kiss would be any different, nor did it have any actual authority in making sure people followed the holiday tradition. But, when you pulled him down and pressed your lips against his, he felt as though there was something new in your kiss. It was almost as if he could feel all of the joy and love and all of those feelings you’re supposed to feel on Christmas. Not to say that he couldn’t feel your love in all of the other ways you show him affection, but there was something about the silly tradition that made him really feel all of the emotions you were trying to convey to him. 

It was at that moment when he realized just how hard you were trying to make Christmas special for him. How hard you were trying to cram in every single holiday tradition into his memory, just because you knew how he’d never gotten to experience those things. Despite him telling you that he was never sad about missing the holiday, how he didn’t even really understand it being anything other than a capitalist scheme, you still wanted to show him what Christmas could be.

Pulling away to catch his breath, his arms wrapped around your waist, not letting you get too far. As he continued to stare down at you, slightly dazed from all of the emotions he was feeling, you patted his chest, your face beginning to heat up at all of the attention.

“So,” You started, tilting your head slightly, “How was your first mistletoe kiss?”

He bit his lip, pretending to think it over in his head before leaning in closer, brushing his nose against yours, “I’m not too sure, let me try again,”

By the fifth or sixth kiss, he finally told you that he loved that tradition. Though, he already knew it was one of his favorites after the first one.

As the evening had rolled in, and you’d finished most of your activities for the day, the two of you found yourselves on the couch, bundled into a blanket while watching the snow fall outside, the soft glow from the string lights being the only source of light. Wrapping your arms around his waist, you squeezed him gently, a content sigh falling from your lips.

“Thank you for putting up with me today,” You spoke, trying not to disturb the peaceful air that surrounded the two of you.

You heard him scoff, his hands reaching up to tangle themselves in your hair, rubbing the back of your head soothingly. “You shouldn’t have to thank me, in fact, I feel like I should be the one thanking you,”

When you lifted your head, the words you wanted to say about to slip out, he gave you the warmest smile you’ve ever seen, and everything you wanted to say, wanted to argue, simply left your mind.

“I don’t remember the last time I truly enjoyed Christmas,” he spoke, his eyes sparkling with joy.

“So thank you for showing me that Christmas isn’t all that bad.”

[softestsaddestbitch]

December TC Challenge

stole this from @elder-edda (sorry for creeping! just, given the usual demographic of the tc community I was excited to find another 20-smthg)

1) what color is your tc’s hair?

He has just, simple brown hair but he’s starting to go grey which, no lie, is 100% doing it for me.

2) is your tc married?

Yes? He doesn’t wear a ring and I believe she kept her last name which makes me think it’s more of a civil partnership since they’ve been together since the early 2000s at least. But he also will refer to her as “my wife” and was telling me once that they waited until “after they got married” before moving in together.

3) if yes, do you care? would you do something with them regardless of their marriage?

I know these questions are general but I do take offense at the idea of being a homewrecker/other woman. I’ve met his wife, she’s really nice.

4) what’s your worst memory with your tc?

I put my foot in my mouth SO OFTEN. Good lord. Especially my last semester at that school? He was acting weird and I had just realized after fucking ... four years?? that I romantically liked him. So I kept bringing up my weird age fixation and other bs bc I have adhd and am possibly autistic?? and can’t read a room to save my life.

5) what’s your best memory with your tc?

One year we had a really bad snowstorm, so bad in fact that I had my first-ever snow day. The college that I used to go to has four campuses across as many cities, and C has to drive in twice a week to my (old) town from his. Now, morning classes had been canceled but afternoon classes had been given the go-ahead. C, who does not check his emails until he arrives at campus, evidently did not get this message until he was already in town and therefore didn’t have a morning class, but did have an afternoon class. On this day I had a late morning class that had been reinstated, but my prof didn’t get that memo so I also was on campus but didn’t have a class. So I went to visit his office, which I had been doing throughout the semester (I didn’t have a class with him at the time) and we just ... hung out for like 2 hours. It was so nice and one of the anecdotes he told me still haunts me lol.

sidenote: at the time, I hadn’t yet realized that I liked him, but I still went out of my way to visit him. Damn I was a dumbass.

6) does anyone in your school know how you feel?

ish? I told a classmate but in a “haha joking” kinda way. And a friend who went to that school knows. No one at my current school knows.

7) does your tc know how you feel?

I think he might? might have a lil inkling which would explain why he started acting so weird my last semester. Or at the very least was told/realized how bad it could look that he was getting so chummy w/ a student.

8) do you think there’s any chance your tc reciprocates your feelings?

He and his wife have been together for around 20 years now. No. No, I don’t think so. Maybe in an alternate universe.

9) are you getting your tc a christmas present? if so, what is it?

I have in the past! Specifically like, a tin of cookies lol. I’ve also given him an actual present when I left. I do intend to send him a Christmas card every year but not this year because ... you know ... the apocalypse.

10) have you ever flirted with your tc?

Flirtation inherently has intent. So, no. How he interpreted our interactions I don’t know.

11) how long have you had a crush on them? what began it all?

SO! TIMELINE!

I was at my old school from September 2014-April 2019, I had C for the first time in September 2015. Like I mentioned above, I did not realize I had a crush on him until literally the middle of my final exam of my class with him December 2018, so I’ve only consciously had a crush for about two years now. However, as I also mentioned, I went out of my way to stop by his office, even when I didn’t have a class with him. And my relationship with/feelings towards him are complicated so I’m not going to say I did so solely because I like him, but I would put it maybe closer to somewhere in 2017. You don’t plan your schedule around someone you don’t feel strong feelings for.

12) do you believe you’ll get over them shortly after you stop taking their class/have the chance to spend time with them?

As of today, it has been been exactly a year and a half since I last him in person. In the time since, I have cried over missing him, routinely gone back to keep up with his current research projects, and made his picture a part of my home screen. I almost exclusively listen to the playlist I made for him -  so much so my Spotify Wrapped is pretty much that playlist with a few extras.

13) what kind of grades do you get in their class?

Haaaaaa pre-supension I was failing his classes. My first semester back I got .... a mid/high 70? and I finished my last class with him with an A+ and the essay I had written for his class had the highest grade between the two classes so..

14) does your tc ever do any tiny, little things that you adore?

When he puts a hand in his pocket and leans against the wall. When he tucks his hair behind his ear because he keeps falling in his face (he has long hair, a little past his shoulders). When he can’t stop himself from googling something even if its in the middle of class. How you can ask him anything at any time. The way he would chuckle at my jokes. How his handwriting hasn’t improved in decades. How easily he brushes off toxic masculinity. His candidness and willingness to share little anecdotes. The way he used to always smile whenever he saw me. That he goes home everyday to have lunch with his wife.

15) are you their favorite student?

I was! And it was obvious to other students that we had a friendly, casual relationship too. For a time, if his other students had questions about him they would ask me, and I usually had the answer. I didn’t matter in the long run, but I was. 

16) do you two share any tastes? movies, books, music, etc.

He’s a legal historian, I’m a baby legal/political historian. We also like the same historical cooking youtube channel.

17) is your teacher religious?

I doubt he would say he’s religious, but I feel like we have a similar relationship to religion which is to say no formal association, but had profound effects on our childhoods and subsequently, presumably, how we view things as adults.

18) do you masturbate to them?

Yes.

19) do you communicate with them outside of school?

I sent him a meme once. And asked about the socialist uprising scandal he was apart of. I also almost emailed him while at a museum exhibition with my history friend. These are all through email.

20) do you have any tc songs or songs you relate to your tc? what are they?

SO my number one song this year was “You are the Reason” by Calum Scott because, you guessed it, of him. But also:

I Lost a Friend - Finneas When You’re Ready - Shawn Mendes You Are in Love - Taylor Swift Break My Heart Right - James

& given the season, especially w/ what transpired last year, Last Christmas by Wham!

21) what’s your favorite thing your tc has said/memory you have with them?

One time he kinda trailed off in the middle of lecture after stating that he thought of xyz a particular way which contrasted one of the popular schools of thought, and the way he plainly said, “well, yeah, which I guess ... is I’m arguing it” almost like he was semi-surprised with himself has always stuck with me. 

But also, in addition the memory I shared earlier, we spent an hour and a half talking about grad school and what to expect and how to get there. 

22) do you plan to continue a relationship with them after you leave school?

I trid, I really did. But he doesn’t “socialize with students part or present” so I can’t exactly see him. But I did get some academic-related from him at the beginning of the year.

23) how will you deal during the summer? will you see him/her?

He’s a hermit who used my last vacation before I moved to go on all the vacations he had to postpone because he was working on his last book. And this past summer ... Covid. This question is obviously directed at high school students, but in general, he lives in the back of head always, and when I’m in my hometown for the summer my heart aches because theres a none-zero chance I’ll see him, but I know I won’t.

24) does your tc support gay rights?

Yes. He’s never been put in a position that I know of where he had to outright condemn homophobia, but in one of his classes, he actively made the choice to make the very first reading of the semester about how women in ancient times had more agency than assumed, and also how the woman in the case study was a lesbian.

25) what class do you have with them? And what period? Do you have them every day?

History classes. I won’t get into specifics because it’s kind of an eclectic mix and I’m paranoid someone from the area could come across this. But I had him twice a week every semester that I had him. Again this kind of question is more so applicable to high school students, not so much university students.

26) have you ever drifted out during a lecture thinking about them and missed information?

No. In his classes he is too enthralling, and I’m a good student otherwise.

27) have you stalked them online? what did you find out?

In theory. He’s a fifty-year-old history professor whose reaction to a description of the big lipped/tiny face filter on snapchat was “that sounds disgusting.” The man doesn’t have social media, and if he does those privacy settings are on so students can’t find him he thinks he’s very professional. I do visit his mini-bio section on the college website fairly often tho.

28) have you ever run into them outside of schools? what happened?

I did once. He introduced me to his wife, who said “oh you’re E! C has talked about you” and it apparently he had done so positively, and blew my mind because this was back when I was failing classes and also, as a person, I don’t believe that people think about me when I’m not there. They gave me a restaurant recommendation and afterwards his wife surprised me a they were leaving the restaurant because ... we had listened to them, and they also went there for lunch that day.

29) has your tc ever spoken of teacher-student relationships? what did they say?

It had recently come out that it had been found out that another professor had been in a relationship with a student and he’s the one that brought it up before class one day (with all of us not just me). He didn’t say anything for or against it, just that it was generally discouraged, but that most schools did have policies in place to handle the situation.

30) do you regret telling anyone about your tc? if you’ve kept it a secret, why have you done so?

Absolutely not. I can’t tell my best friends because they’d do nothing but give me shit for it and it would call every time I mention him into question. But the friends that I have told ... its been so freeing, and like a weight has been lifted from my heart. One friend in particular I unloaded on her all my emotional shit pertaining to him this past summer and she was so understanding it legit since then I’ve been less distraught when thinking about him. It still hurts, but it feels less like I’m suffocating now.

[sea-salted-wolverine]

Okay so last week was a shitkicker and was literally so bad I spent the better part of the week trying to delude myself into thinking it was a good day. Like, we're talking, "the sun is shining and I'm here to see it so today is a good day" and "I'm having a bad day- fuck me I am not haveing a bad day- I'm having a good day- I'm not having a bad day". Denial is a powerful tool for mental health, apply judiciously. I get that everyone on earth is kinda having a shitty year but it feels like things just kinda escalated in my little corner

The 7th had a huge snow storm that brought traffic to a stand still. No one could leave the house and university class was online anyway. Batshit customer demanded to pick up her gear anyway. I drove in because I was the only person with keys to the shop that could get to the building. It took me a solid 2 hours going 15mph on the highway. The snow in the parking lot was up past the fenders of my truck. Crazy lady gets 10 out of 18 of her survival suits back but the other 8 still have holes in them because our only repair tech is also the only one who answers the phone or runs the computer or handles customers or cleans or disinfects anything or stores gear. I'll give you one guess who that person is.

Did you guess me? Good for you. Fun fact this was not the case in October.

Crazy lady swans off through the snowed in parking lot and because she cant find the exit, blasts straight through the ditch and onto the road.

I say fuck it and leave. I've been at work for 2 hours. I have made 24 dollars for my trouble. It takes me another hour to get home.

The 8th is Saturday and I'm supposed to be at work. No one can drive. There was another 10 8nches of snow last night. I say fuck work and go to dig out the plow truck. The canopy over the plow truck collapses as I walk out to clear the snow of it.

I do not scream.

My partner and I get the truck running and go plow people out of their driveways and then go do the shop.

We come back home and the heater doesn't work. We just spent most of last week frantically trying to limp the thing along because no heat at -20°F is in a word fucking unpleasant. At least now its 40 degrees warmer because if the snowstorm. We take it apart again. The house smells like diesel. The house smells like exhaust. The house is not cold because the wood stove can keep up at 20 above zero but it won't keep us through the winter.

There is no saving the oil heater. We need a new one.

Its 730 and neither of us have eaten. I start rice in the pressure cooker so I can throw a tasty bite on top and call it dinner and that dies too. Explosively.

Dinner is half cooked rice and microwaved curry.

Sunday is spent finding a way to stretch our increasingly thin budget to buy a new heater. Between us we actually have 2275$ and we will still cover the mortgage. Somehow. All our Christmas gifts will be hand made this year. The next thing that breaks will stay broken.

Monday, power outages due to snow storm. No wifi, no zoom meetings. Another 8 inches of snow. This is now more snow than my city gets for the full year.

My boss calls sobbing. The dog died. Joey, an 11 year old, 130lb mastiff with a tumor the size of a football on his liver has been her constant companion for at least 8 years. The pandemic has confused the bejesus out of him because while he loves the lock down and going out to play every hour or so he doesnt really like the concept of strangers in masks. Hes a guard dog and doesnt understand that men in masks coming into the shop are not here to kill mom they're wearing masks so they don't kill mom.

Mondays the shop is closed anyway and I spend it installing the new heater. It doesn't quite fit in the space the old heater came out of but its warm.

Tuesday, I go to work, everyone cancels class, I once again gently explain to a regular that eugenics is bad. I would like to curse him out. I cant. He drops a grand on scuba gear and leaves, talking about how great his trip to Mexico will be.

I do not scream.

A friend calls to ask how I'm doing. Not great. Yea, her niether. She asks if I want to go out to the backcountry with her over the weekend. I explain that my leg physically does not move and I'm downing copious amounts of advil to remain upright. The doctor sent me in for an MRI but has not yet called back. Plus I'm supposed to go to Valdez for the weekend and actually go diving. That I can do with limited use of my leg.

She says yikes, take it easy, take care of yourself, I love you.

I say, yikes, I'm tired of taking it easy, I wanna play, I love you too.

Hit me up if your plans open up and we can do something gentle on your leg. She says.

God yes. The cold woods away from people sounds like paradise. I dont even care that it will cause me rending physical pain to get there. I need a break.

Its Wednesday. I go to school. I get pulled over. Miraculously I dont get a ticket. I'm white female and conventionaly attractive, maybe not so miraculous. I rolled through a stop sign but I'm pretty sure I couldn't afford a ticket.

I get a text in class. One of the instructors who works with the dive shop has tested positive for covid. I haven't seen the man in 2 months. I needed a spare instructor but he was nowhere to be found. But hey, evidently that's a good thing.

I go to work. I vacillate between doing the job a 4 people and having nothing to do.

I go to the grocery store because I misjudged my last monthly grocery run and even though I'm increasing my exposure I'm out of cheese and tea damnit.

The store is packed. Pandemic who?

My partner and I haven't had a date nite in a while and this week has been shitty. I want a nice dinner. I pick up a couple boxes of the carton sushi which isnt terrible and is about as nice as I can justify on the new budget. I grab a gallon of milk and a few other things. I forgot my wallet in the truck and the cashier is chill and sets my stuff aside while I grab it.

I pay and take my stuff home and realize I left one of my bags at the store. No cheese or tea for me.

Thursday. 10am my phone goes off with an emergency alert. The govoner has grown a spine in light of recent elections and is instituting a voluntary lock down. My state has 500 new cases a day. That might not sound like a lot but theres only 300,000 people in Alaska and we've got poor medical infrastructure.

Unfortunately Alaska is full of Alaskans and nobody can tell us what to do. Nothing changes. 7pm rolls around and I'm teaching scuba classes in the pool.

I load a few hundred pounds of scuba gear into the back of my truck. In a wet wetsuit. In the snow. In a fabric facemask. 6 feet apart. In the pool.

I dont get paid for pool time.

Over the summer we had 6 dive masters including me, all big burly dudes, much better suited to picking things up. Its November and I'm the only one.

The kids I'm teaching are going to Hawaii. They're 10 and 13 and so wildly excited about breathing underwater its beautiful to watch. And they're traveling to an island. In a pandemic.

Friday.

Unload scuba gear so it doesnt get stolen out of the back of my truck while I'm at class. Were doing a make up lab today. Hey of the five student in my class only one of us has covid so theres that.

My boss calls an let's me know that shes left for Valdez without me. If I'd like to make an 8 hour drive by myself in a snowstorm I'm welcome to follow.

I'm in class till an hour before shop closing. I'm not driving across town so I can run on the open sign for half an hour.

The shop stays closed on Friday.

Saturday.

I explained to everyone we had business with that the shop would be closed over the weekend and Friday. I planned on being in Valdez. Hell I canceled plans to be in Valdez.

I open the shop and immediately field calls about why we werent open. I start to explain about the Valdez trip and logistical difficulties and then I realize that shes not mad about that. The woman was here before I opened early this morning. We have never been open that early. The hours are on the door.

A regular comes in. Hes also confused as to why I'm here.

Sunday finds me curled up in bed, reluctant to leave. Getting out of bed has not played out well for me recently.

A friend comes over to chat with my partner about specialist rifle parts. This isnt that wierd, he works at a gun shop and they've been discussing upgrading my partners current rifle set up.

He is wearing a full Scottish kilt. Red tartan. Looks very lovely.

I make zucchini bread and my proportions are a little off because I have too much zucchini so it's a little over moist but it's good. I'm recovering from an asskicker of a week and next week will be better.

Monday morning:

Baby brother has covid

Dads getting the results of his rapid test tonight.

Mom isnt getting tested because she says she doesnt have symptoms but that's not the fucking point mom.

So, I'm not going home for thanksgiving. I'm not diving in Valdez. I'm not skiing backcountry.

I'm not sick. I'm not flat broke yet. I dont have a ticket. I have a job. I have people who care about me. Im managing my physical and mental health as best I can. Im just fucking exhausted.

[voidselfshipp]

Worry too much

Cw: food

Ok to rb.

Summary: tumnus meets a cute dragon Lady who takes his heart.

A/n: James McAvoy + cute character = New f/o I had a crush on him since I was a lil kid so I need to write it since I saw the movie again today.

When the winter started, tumnus had no way to Keep warm,the normal Fire didnt work as well as he wanted.

The only Fire thats better than the normal one was a dragons.

But where was he going to get that? Specially because there was no way that he'd get close to one.

So the fawn had to make do with what he had,for the first months he used normal wood and Fire.

But the world had different plans for him, one Day he rescued a poor half dragon, lost and cold he offered her a home in his own.

--This damn Fire-- said tumnus throwing another wood in the fireplace.

--oh why, let me help--she blows into the Fire, and the flame grows in size.

--Ah,ive uh been meaning to get myself a ....better Fire? Does that make sense?-- he chuckles nervoudly handing her a cup of tea.

The half dragon takes it, drinking from it.

--s so-- said the fawn sitting with her-- whats your name

--jerico, yours?

--tumnus, nice to meet you-- he said drinking from his cup, he looks away-- your names very pretty-- he whispered in hopes that she wouldnt hear It.

--Why, thank you! Yo too-- said jerico.

The fawns cheeks Go red-- a ah thanks!

The snowstorm got worse that night.

-- thats okay you can stay as long as you need-- said tumnus closing the door.

--youre too kind, thank you

--just uh! One thing..ah yes, theres only one bed,I can take the sofá though! No problem there

--no need! Dont, we can share

--i dont want to annoy you, im sorry, I dont mind at all taking the sofá

She takes his hand shaking her head-- no you dont bother at all

He sighs nodding,looking out the frosted Window.

Its already night, and after dinner, they went to sleep.

Tumnus slipped into bed, his flute on his night table.

He felt her move all night Long, its late night, he turns around and he sees her.

-- hey-- he said softly turning on his side to face her-- is everything alright?..

--Yeah yeah I cant sleep though..

--i can play my flute, maybe thatll help

--go ahead, lets give it a try

He grabs his flute sitting up.

He plays softly, he hears her yawn, then rol around to her side and some minutes later fall asleep.

He chuckled and put the flute down, laying down Next to her.

His back against hers, the wind blew hard and the room went cold.

Out of necessity, and maybe because he had a crush on her, he spoons her,feeling the warmth of her body take over.

The Next morning she was against his chest, he smiles softly caressing her chocolate brown hair.

-- hmm,morning--jerico said snuggling closer to him

Tumnus blushes and hugs her tightly-- did the melody help?

She giggles and nodds-- yeah, hey its getting cold, come here

She pulls him closer and he smiles pressing his head against her bicep.

--hungry?--he asked.

-- yeah, but we can stay a bit longer, besides your chest is so fluffy and comfortable

The fawn smiles and buries his head on her hair.

They stay for a bit longer, and as the fawn goes to make breakfast, he hears the half dragon stumble into the kitchen and sitting by the Fire.

--What were you doing lost in the snow last night?-- he asked.

--i wanted to make my way into the market and uh I got lost if im not flying I get lost

--i see

He sits by her and hands her a tray with food.

Both end up spending the heavy winter togheter.

It was obvious that they had a crush on eachother, between flirting and cheeky remarks.

--Well morning-- jer hugs tumnus from behind as he cooks, he snuggles closer and she rubs her cheek on his soft beard, he humms and leans closer.

His hooves click against the wooden floor.

--howd you slept?--he asked pressing a kiss to her cheek.

--well enough-- she adds lifting him up by the waist and carrying him to the sofá, where they crash.

He giggles and turns around-- breakfast remember?

--ughh fiiiiine

She lets him go and after they eat breakfast she wraps the scarf around him-- please be careful, you sure you dont want to go on my back?

-- Its alright dear, ill go by myself

She sighs and hugs him, he hugs back-- be back in an hour!

She nodds.

A blizzard forms just as tumnus arrives, jerico pulls him in by the scarf and closes the door.

-- thank god that storm didnt catch you

-- hey id be okay its not the first time id get caught in a storm

-- still...

He chuckles and rubbs his nose against hers-- you worry about me too much

She chuckles and looks away.

He shyly kisses her, and she kisses back cupping his cheeks.

The fawn smiles and hugs her.

--see? You worry too much

She giggles and helps him putting the supplies away.

As they sit on the sofa, snuggled near the Fire place he rubs his cheek against hers and her hand caressed his curly hair.

Tumnus smiles kissing her again, and as jerico kisses back his tail wiggles.

-- dont go out for the rest of the day

--i wont get sick

--says who?

He laughs-- see?! You worry too much

--And you love it

-- you know I do

Their noses meet and both laugh cuddling by the warmth of the Fire.

[allbeendonebefore]

Which cities do you think could survive the apocalypse

not toronto, its gone, theres no more toronto. it was a snow based apocalypse. they’re done. it was nice but now there is anarchy because now the cn tower can no longer function as the Lightning Rod of All of Canada’s hatred. Lucas Wilson, thankfully, was rescued last minute by his real alien parents from outer space who knew this whole kerfuffle was coming; he managed to escape the planet with several Canadian Tire bills, some roll up the rim tabs he had been saving for a special occasion, miscellaneous paperclips and coffee mugs stolen from the office, a lifesize poster of himself, his pet raccoon named chip, and the mythical chalice of lord stanley.

some intrepid saskatchewanians band together, Stoon and Regina set aside their differences and build a Roughriders themed bunker which they call Diefenbunker 2.0 and they return to a socialist, agriculture based economy while stockpiling and fiercely guarding their potash. Anyone who tries to breach the perimeter will be spotted 3 days away and football tackled to the ground. The last haven of universal healthcare is here, but only if you cheer for the right team.

Winnipeg, having learned nothing from the Great Floods of the 1950s and the 1990s, drifts away. Selkirk thrives (and by thriving i mean there seem to be still people there who haven’t been flooded out, so compared to winnipeg it is thriving.) Honestly, people are still questioning why Winnipeg was even where it was in the first place. After a while she stops drifting, hikes inland for a bit, and resettles somewhere completely different. With territories in dispute, she once again claims Rat Portage for the non-existent political entity of Manitoba just ‘cause.

Halifax quickly takes advantage of their archaic battle fortresses and offers shelter to all Maritime provinces- sadly the latest shipment of PEI potatoes  is trapped in ice and everyone starves because of the crap agricultural land around Halifax. There are only so many blueberries to go around and the competition for lobster remains fierce. Meanwhile, St. John’s presumably sits on the edge of the rock waiting, watching for the cod to be replenished. Also there’s probably a bad snowstorm but they don’t notice even though its like july or something.

Quebec City is well prepared, perhaps surprisingly, for the apocalypse. Despite their abundance of well built log shelters, buff lumberjacks, and carefully guarded supplies of maple syrup (because they’re not letting That happen again), something is amiss. Preparations are made to turn the Chateau Frontenac into a shelter for refugees from Montreal but sadly Samuel was too late to save him- the island sunk into the St Lawrence like Atlantis because no one could agree on the language laws required to efficiently evacuate. The sandbags required for the oncoming flood had also been mysteriously destroyed only days prior, and the budget for the evacuation - mysteriously 3 times the specified amount - disappeared with a certain number of crime families. A funeral was held for Etienne M. Maisonneuve at what was estimated to be the former site of the Bell Centre. Efforts were made to find Lord Stanley’s cup for the event, but in vain.

There is a forecast in Vancouver and Victoria for high winds, high tides, and 20 cm of snow. No one survives. Victoria laughs with her dying breath- she sprawls protectively over her prized begonias and english roses, dead deer surrounding the perimeter of her garden. It begins to snow. Vancouver, contemplating having to live on the other side of the mountains, concludes falling into the ocean is preferable.

Calgary is a desolate wasteland. Their new arena, finally coerced out of tax payers by like 5 separate billionaires, drifts down the engorged Bow river past the sagging yet noble remains of the Saddledome. While the downtown core is a ghost town, it’s not really that surprising because the entire population pretty much started abandoning it in droves in like 2015 when oil crashed so really it was only a matter of time - Calvin B. McCall did what he does best in an economic crisis and had already made tracks to mooch off the economic diversity of his rival to the north…

Stumbling onto main street Yellowknife, the stranger falls into a local coffee shop and is brought to his feet by his bolo-tied pardner slash nemesis. He finds Whitehorse and Iqaluit having brunch with their host, and the three blink in mild shock at the poor condition the hiker is in. “Oh, hey Ed, hi Cal, grab a chair.” Yellowknife waves them over. 

“Terrible, it’s absolutely terrible.” Ed’s fingers shake around his coffee, the Gateway to the North clearly troubled by something. “Zombies in West Ed, political factions dividing the legislature grounds, C-connor…” his voice breaks. Calvin leans over for a comforting if awkward side hug.

“It’s over now,” Whitehorse makes every attempt not to roll her eyes. “Southern politics are overrated, just turn off the news and you won’t have to think about them anymore.”

[The END]