#and they’ve also made some stupid decisions

[steddieas-shegoes]

falling is easy, catching is hard

rated m | also on ao3 cw: recreational drug use, implied sexual content tags: friends with benefits, secret relationship, shotgunning, mutual pining, getting together, love confessions

HAPPY BIRTHDAY @sidekick-hero!!! Sandy, you deserve the world, but this 3000 word thing will have to do for now 💖

💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗

December 19, 1985

Steve Harrington needed sleep.

Eddie Munson had the only thing that would put him to sleep.

But Eddie Munson also held a grudge, a reasonable one, but an annoying one.

“You want me to sell you the last of my good shit? For half price?” Eddie snorted. “You’re out of your damn mind, Harrington.”

“Munson, please. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important,” Steve begged.

“Why would I do you any favors? You never did me any.”

Eddie crossed his arms over his chest, waiting somewhat impatiently for a response from Steve.

Steve didn’t have one.

Eddie was right; He didn’t really deserve a favor from someone who had let his friends make his first senior year absolutely miserable.

But Robin’s voice looped in his head: “Be vulnerable sometimes, Steve. People may surprise you.”

“Listen man, I just really need to sleep, alright? I’ve tried everything else.” Steve sighed. “This is pretty much my last hope.”

Which was a truth and a lie. He’d already tried smoking some weed, knew that it worked.

Eddie’s forehead creased in the middle.

That’s kinda cute, Steve thought to himself before shaking his head. Now wasn’t the time to get distracted by big, brown eyes and shiny lips.

“You been to a doctor?” Eddie asked.

“The sleeping pills make them worse.”

“Make what worse?” Eddie pushed.

“The nightmares.”

Eddie nodded once, understanding flitting across his face as he relaxed his arms by his sides.

“How long you been havin’ them?” Eddie asked as he walked around to the bench at the picnic table, opening his lunchbox.

“I guess…technically years. They’ve been worse since July though.” Steve knew he had to be careful about what he said, couldn’t give away more than what the public knew about what happened at the mall, but Eddie seemed trustworthy enough to handle this part. “Doctors said it’s normal for trauma or whatever.”

Eddie nodded, whispered something under his breath, and shuffled through his box.

“Forgot you worked at the mall over the summer. Kinda crazy what happened,” he said as he pulled a small discolored plastic bag from the box. “I’ll make you a one-time only deal, Stevie.”

Steve ignored the butterflies in his stomach at the nickname, kicked at the dirt under his feet, and gestured for Eddie to continue.

“I’m not giving my product away for half price. I’m a businessman and that’s not a smart financial decision for my business.” Eddie held up a hand when Steve looked like he was going to argue. “But! I will share a joint with you right here, right now, for free.”

“Um. What?”

“I was gonna smoke this one tonight as a celebration for passing all my first semester finals by the skin of my teeth. I don’t mind sharing if you don’t.” Eddie’s smirk made the butterflies even worse.

Steve was going to regret this.

God, he was so stupid.

“Yeah, okay.”

Smoking with Eddie the first time was nice, but the second, and third, and fourth times were even better.

— — — — — — —

January 16, 1986

“You’re late, Stevie. I was starting to worry you’d gotten frostbite.” Eddie’s smile warmed Steve from the inside out, the shiver wracking his body more to do with the growing fondness he had for the curly-haired man in front of him.

Eddie was bundled up like they were in Antarctica, and to be fair, it was below freezing outside right now.

Steve offered to meet somewhere else, but Eddie insisted they come to his usual spot.

And then Steve saw it: Eddie had built them a fire. It was small, he probably didn’t want to draw any attention from the road, but it was throwing heat that Steve craved.

“Come warm up before we get into it,” Eddie waved him over, his gloved hands looking out of place.

Steve was used to seeing shiny rings on his fingers, blisters on his fingertips from playing too much guitar.

Steve stood next to him in front of the fire, holding his own gloved hands out to try to warm his body as much as possible.

“Any reason I couldn’t just come to your house or something?” Steve asked, not quite getting rid of the attitude in his tone.

“My Uncle has tonight off. He’s a pretty chill guy, but I think actively watching me sell drugs to someone would maybe cause a heart attack.” Eddie sighed. “I told him I had a date tonight so I couldn’t really have you show up after that.”

“A date?” Steve grinned, nudging Eddie’s arm. “I didn’t even bring flowers.”

Eddie rolled his eyes, but looked away to cover a blush. “Yeah, well, don’t expect me to put out until there’s a dozen roses in my hand.”

He meant it as a joke surely, but something in Steve’s chest clenched at the thought of spoiling Eddie like that. Maybe not roses, that didn’t quite seem his style.

“I’ll try to remember them next time,” Steve managed to say, nearly choking on his own words.

What was he even doing? Flirting? Eddie didn’t even consider him a real friend, why would he want him to bring him flowers?

“Got a new strain tonight. It’s supposed to be a little stronger, but fades faster, so you should be good to drive back home in a couple hours.” Eddie pulled the baggie out of his pocket, lunchbox long gone after meeting twice a week for the last month.

Steve wasn’t really a customer anymore, no matter how they tried to keep up appearances that he was.

He still tipped Eddie, or tried to, but usually Eddie ignored it and just said it was a favor to help him sleep.

“How strong?” Steve finally asked as Eddie pulled the lighter from his pocket.

“Might make you a little floatier than usual. Not hallucinogenic, though.” Eddie knew he couldn’t handle that kind of trip. That’s why he stayed away from his other offerings. “I tested it out myself earlier this week.”

Steve wasn’t reading into that.

“Okay.” He fought off a shiver, this time from actually being cold. “Guess it’s worth a try.”

“I’ll drive you home if it’s too much.” Eddie’s offer was kind, going above and beyond what a dealer would do for a customer, but Steve wasn’t reading into it. “Or you can nap it off in the van for an hour or so before heading home. Whatever.”

Eddie lit the joint, breathing in long and slow, holding the smoke until Steve was sure he would pass out before slowly letting it out.

He handed the roll to Steve, who didn’t think about what Eddie meant by stronger, and took his normal pull, choking halfway through.

Eddie’s eyes widened as he took the joint from him, his hand grabbing onto Steve’s arm as he coughed.

“Jesus Christ, man, you good?” Eddie asked him.

“Yeah,” he coughed. “Sorry. It is a lot stronger.”

Eddie searched his face, relaxing as Steve’s breathing went back to normal. “Good?”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe take it slower?” Eddie teased. “Or- no never mind.”

“Or what?” Steve asked, already feeling the heaviness that came with smoking.

“Ever shotgunned before?”

Steve’s heart stopped. He’d venture to say he was even stone cold sober again after that question.

“Um. No.” He hadn’t. He’d wanted to with Nancy, figured it would be the only way she would be interested in trying weed, but it never worked out. “Would it be easier?”

“Yeah,” Eddie nodded. “Usually. We can give it a try if you want.”

Steve nodded before he really processed what he was being offered.

Eddie’s mouth would be very, very close to his. Possibly even on his.

And he’d be sharing breath with him, probably more than one if it worked.

Eddie pulled the picnic table closer to the fire and sat on the bench. He patted the seat next to him.

“Might as well get comfy, then,” Eddie said.

Steve sat next to him, close enough to feel the warmth coming from his side, close enough to hear Eddie’s hitched breath when they made contact.

Close enough to want to be closer.

“Alright, so I’ll start with a small one, and you just have to breathe in when I breathe out.”

“Is it-” Steve played with a loose thread on his gloves. “Your lips are gonna touch mine?”

Eddie suddenly looked nervous, like he regretted offering this at all, and Steve couldn’t allow that.

“I don’t mind! I mean, I want you to!” Steve panicked. “Like, it’s fine! I know we have to for the whole thing to work.”

“Yeah. Um, it’s not like, weird or anything. It’s just me helping you get high.”

It wasn’t weird, but it definitely was hot.

Eddie took a drag, leaned into Steve’s space, and cupped his jaw, tilting his head back for easier access.

Steve couldn’t breathe.

But he had to, that was the whole fucking point of doing this.

His lips parted and Eddie’s warmth coated him, covered him better than the fire.

He breathed in as Eddie breathed out, his hand seeking contact with anything solid to keep him on this earth.

He found it in Eddie’s hip, his fingers gripping tight as Eddie lingered beyond the point of the smoke clearing from his mouth to Steve’s.

Their lips brushed lightly, an agonizingly soft touch that Steve tried his best not to chase as it drifted away.

He bit back a whine at the loss, opening his eyes to see Eddie still surprisingly close, pupils huge.

It’s just the weed, Steve thought to himself.

It definitely wasn’t their almost-kiss.

Steve breathed out, swallowing once the smoke was gone from his mouth.

“Good?” Eddie asked.

Steve should answer him, should nod and thank him for doing this, maybe ask him for another hit so he could try to blame his fidgeting on being high.

But Steve wanted to kiss him.

Not shotgun, not barely brush lips, not act like this wasn’t something more than what it started as.

Robin told him he deserved nice things, and he deserved to be happy, and he did.

So Steve let himself try to have a nice thing.

“Again?” Steve asked, leaning in before Eddie had a chance to take a drag.

“Woah, big boy.” Eddie’s hands grabbed his shoulders, not pushing him away, but holding him back from making contact that he so desperately wanted. “Think that first hit might have gotten to you already. Let’s take a minute.”

“No, I-”

“Steve. You’re high.”

His tone was final, and something about the way his eyes darted away made Steve think that maybe this wasn’t the first time someone tried to make a move on him because he was giving them something.

He didn’t know Steve was into men, either.

Steve could just tell him, though. Let him know it’s not just the drugs, that he’d already had feelings for him before.

But the high was kicking in and Steve’s tongue felt like an iron weight.

“How about I get you some water?” Eddie asked, pulling away and walking swiftly to his van.

Steve didn’t protest. He did need some water.

Eddie sat on the other side of the table when he came back, handed over a bottle of water with a small smile, and watched as Steve gulped most of it down.

“This is good shit,” Steve admitted, slurring his words a little from the effort of moving his mouth. “Better than usual.”

“Yeah, it’s a nice treat once in a while.”

They sat in silence for another 30 minutes or so, though the time didn’t even feel like it was passing to Steve until Eddie stood up and guided him to the passenger seat of his van.

“Wha-?”

“I’m gonna drop you off at home. You got someone who can help you get your car tomorrow?” Eddie buckled his seatbelt, Steve tried not to be too endeared. “Maybe Buckley? Or Wheeler?”

Steve’s brows furrowed.

Nancy had barely talked to him in months, not since she gave him one awkward hug after Starcourt. Robin couldn’t drive, or at least said she couldn’t. That’s why he drove her to school and all of her work shifts.

“Maybe you could?” Steve suggested.

Eddie sighed. “I’ll see what I can do.”

— — — — — — —

February 14, 1986

Steve got him flowers.

He hadn’t seen him since the night he drove Steve home.

By the time Steve woke up the next morning, his car was parked in the driveway with a note on his keys that said ‘Promise there’s not a dent on her.’

And then Eddie had ignored his calls. He’d conveniently never been at his spot anytime Steve had ever met up with him before.

He couldn’t even pass a message through Dustin because Dustin was too curious for his own good and would probably figure out that Steve wanted to kiss him.

Which is all Steve thought about for the last month while he figured out what to do next.

Robin was no help at all, said he should just corner him after Hellfire one night and make a move if he wanted him so bad.

As if that could ever be an option.

This was his last chance, though.

He’d confirmed with one of his bandmates – Garrett, maybe? – that he didn’t have plans tonight and refused to sell on Valentine’s Day.

Steve stood in front of Eddie’s trailer, a bouquet of white and pink daisies in his hand, feeling particularly stupid.

The van was here, so Eddie was here, but Steve couldn’t bring himself to walk up the steps and knock on the door. This was maybe the most idiotic thing he’d ever done and he probably should leave before he was seen by someone.

“Steve?” Eddie opened the front door, confusion clear even from a distance. “The hell are you doing here?”

“I said I’d bring you flowers.”

He felt so dumb, standing here holding a bouquet of flowers for a guy who didn’t even want to sell drugs to him anymore. He considered dropping the flowers and making a run for it, but Eddie leaned against the door frame and scrunched his nose up.

Like he was trying not to smile.

Like maybe Steve did something right.

“Better bring them in so they can get water, then,” Eddie said with a hesitant smile.

Steve would take any type of smile, as long as it meant he wasn’t being sent away with his tail between his legs.

He rushed inside, didn’t think about the smell of Irish Spring coming off of Eddie, or the way his arm brushed against his side as he passed him.

Steve stood in Eddie’s trailer, taking in what Eddie called home, holding the flowers in front of him with hope.

Eddie closed the front door and walked over to him, holding his hand out.

“You didn’t have to get me flowers just for me to sell you drugs again, ya know.” Eddie smiled sadly. “I would have let you buy if you really needed it.”

“You won’t return my calls so how would you know if I needed it?” Steve countered.

“Ouch.” Eddie sucked a breath in through his teeth. “You’re right. I, uh, was giving you some space.”

“What made you think I wanted any?” Steve took the flowers back from Eddie’s hand, setting them on the coffee table behind him. “If I wanted space, I wouldn’t have bothered calling at all.”

“That’s what Wayne said, but-”

“Well, maybe you should’ve listened to Wayne.” Steve sighed. “I’m sorry I fucked things up by wanting to kiss you. I’m sorry if the flowers are too much. I’m sorry if I’m too much.”

Steve couldn’t look at Eddie after his confession, or his attempt at one. It may have been more of an apology, but he figured his intentions were clear enough.

“Steve. Stevie. Look at me.” Eddie cupped his cheeks, that familiar warmth covering Steve in safety. “You’re not too much. Don’t ever, ever let anyone tell you that you’re too much. You were so high, I didn’t wanna take advantage. I thought if I just left you to think about it long enough, you’d realize what happened was just from the weed.”

Steve shook his head, reaching his hands up to circle Eddie’s wrists. “It wasn’t just the weed. You’d know that if you let me talk to you before now.”

Eddie rubbed his thumb along his cheekbone, eyes dancing across the freckles that covered Steve’s surprisingly sun-kissed skin. “I’m sorry I didn’t let you explain.”

“You’re forgiven if you listen now,” Steve took a breath, letting his hands run down Eddie’s arms and settle on his hips. “I like you. A lot. Definitely more than a customer should, more than a friend should, maybe more than a regular boyfriend should. It’s okay if that’s too much, but it’s what I have to give.”

“You’re really something, Stevie.” Eddie leaned in, pressing his lips to the corner of Steve’s mouth. “I think I’ll take what you’re giving if that’s alright with you.”

“Please,” Steve breathed out as Eddie’s lips crushed against his fully.

Steve always felt so much, always gave so much, hardly ever had anyone who would take what he had to give.

But Eddie was taking it, forcing it from Steve to his own body, his own heart, like it was the only thing he wanted or needed.

“If you wanna buy tonight, you’re gonna be real disappointed,” Eddie gasped out against his lips when they came up for air minutes, maybe hours, later. “I don’t sell on major holidays.”

“Is Valentine’s Day a major holiday?” Steve asked, brows furrowing.

“It is when I get to have you in my bed.”

Steve’s eyes widened. “Oh.”

“That sound okay to you, big boy?” Eddie was smooth. Who could have possibly guessed?

Steve barely got out a ‘yes’ before Eddie was pulling him down the short hallway to his bedroom and rattling off things he wanted to do to him.

Steve Harrington probably wasn’t getting any sleep tonight.

But Eddie Munson would make it worth his while.

[7weaslesinacoat]

i keep seeing this and i saw another post saying something similar but it genuinely icks me so much when i see something like-

“insert character is actually a horrible person!” or “insert character is actually a good person!”

especially in comics, because first off-

these are fictional characters, i know we all love them- but they’re just placeholders with a name and personality that we tell made up stories about. they can’t be a piece of shit, because they aren’t anything, so don’t get so worked up.

second off when they DO come across that way, especially if the character is a protagonist or a “good guy”-

and then in one specific story or one timeline there is a dickhead version of them (batman is a great example, nightwing, talia al ghul- it happens so much in comics chat 😭) then i see so many fans or members of the community jump on the hate train for not just that characterization, but the character as a whole.

this also happens when said characters are given flaws to make them more realistic, talia al ghul is a huge victim of this (and usually MORE SO than most dc characters because she is subconsciously profiled all the time).

anywho, i see all these people dogpiling on a character even though 90% of the time that characterization is just a choice by the writer.

comic writers aren’t looking at protagonists and long standing characters and deciding “yeah they’ve actually been racist this whole time”, no, a couple writer made a stupid decision that got published. and the great thing about comics is that not everything you have to imagine as canon! not every iteration of batman is the batman that you love! and that’s ok, that doesn’t make a character bad.

and it definitely doesn’t excuse hating on fans of that character because your canon of that character doesn’t fit another’s.

(i feel like what we should be doing when discussing characterization is be aware that it is all taking place in comic books- like “oh my god i hate all star batman” or “in canon deathstrokes done some weird shit” instead of saying “i hate batman.” “deathstroke is a pedo”—even though he kinda is—

because what about media where he’s an anti hero? and what about the millions of media where batman’s *not* a dick? if your evidence for your claim is specific, make a claim about the specific evidence, and not the masses of unrelated data)

[hauntingkiki]

HIII!!! can i request venture wedding hcs? how would their wedding be like with reader? How would they feel while getting ready?

IM CRYINGGG OMGG

SOMEONE PLEASE REQUEST A WEDDING ONESHOT SO I HAVE AN EXCUSE TO WRITE IT🙏🏻

Venture x Reader Wedding Headcanons

OverWatch

2nd POV

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

- let’s just start this off by saying; BABY IS STRESSING OUTTT!!

- they’re about to marry their best friend. YOU! the most BEAUTIFUL GIRL/PERSON IN THE WHOLE WORLD

- when they’re changing into their suit/with their groomsmen (a few guy colleagues and some of their guy family members) sloan is getting pep talks and words of encouragement from everyone in that room. not a single bad vibe is in the room!

- wedding theme!: whatever you want it to be. a classic, white wedding? you got it! gothic/vampire? hell yeah!

- ^ but! with your choice of theme; sloan also has some huge crystals (that match the theme ofc) that they’ve gotten from expeditions for table decoration!

- the location was kinda on sloan, they picked where they wanted to have the wedding BUT! they made sure YOU were okay with it before making it the finalized decision. if you didn’t like the location, don’t worry! they have like A MILLION MORE

- everyone in both of your families helped pay for the wedding (if needed), like your parents paid for your dress/suit and sloan’s parents paid for their suit

- when they were at the alter, they were sooo nervous, their hands playing with the rings on their fingers and the bracelets that were around their wrists to calm their nerves

- but when you walked down the isle with your father/father figure, all their nerves just melted away.

- you looked so GOOD in their eyes! their heart was racing, their eyes got watery, their face got hot (they cried) (you did too)

- your vows were pretty standard (if there’s spanish vows then yall did that too!)

- but when yall had your first kiss; you know this sucker dipped you into the kiss, twirling you like in those cheesy romance movies (LIKE IN TANGLED AT THE END)

- and now the reception.

- for the food a verity of sloan’s family meals and your family meals, most of them being hand made to avoid a lot of cost

- alcohol/champagne obviously. all the adults are either drunk asf or tipsy (if you have family who smokes/does drugs, it’s totally up to you if you want that in your environment!! i will not be saying anything about that because it’s very different for everyone)

- the younger kids who can’t drink get something fizzy! like apple cider or something!

- father daughter/mother son dance to whatever song you’d like:)

- sloan did a mother-child(son) dance to songbird by fleetwood mac OR mi cariñito by pepe aguilar

- first dance! sloan could not stop smiling like a fucking idiot, they were SO IN LOVEEE

- you both shed a few tears during the dance (and through the night)

- you two slow danced to (options because i can’t pick)

i only have i eyes for by the flamingos

unchained melody by elvis presley

here, there and everywhere by the beatles

bring it on home to me by sam cooke

amor eterno by rocío dúrcal

- everyone was BAWLING THEIR EYES OUT

- then the music played for the dance floor and it was some great songs! like;

september, earth wind and fire

i wanna dance with somebody, whitney houston

how sweet it is, james taylor

something stupid, frank n nancy sinatra

crazy in love, beyoncé

uptown girl, billy joel

rude, magic!

every little thing she does is magic, the police

and obviously some other songs!

- (FOR THE GIRLS/PEOPLE WEARING DRESSES) yall know the garter toss? where the groom goes under the brides dress to get it off all ‘sexy’ with the most embarrassing song on the planet while your family watched?

- yeah. yall did that.

- obviously with no littles present (14 and younger went somewhere else while this was happening)

- the song? pick your poison

get low, lil jon & the east side boyz

yeah!, usher

earned it, the weekend

let’s get it on, marvin gaye

grind with me, pretty ricky



- ^ COMPLETELY RANDOM, I WAS LOOKING FOR SONGS FOR THE GARTER TOSS AND THE PINK PANTHER THEME STARTED PLAYING…AND WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS BY QUEEN I CANT

- sloan definitely used their teeth to take it off, probably also got a little carried away too; kissing your legs and running their hands up and down before snapping back to reality when their mother literally SCREAMED at them for being under your dress for almost 5 minutes

- after the wedding, the two of you got to your hotel/air bnb and just relaxed, got out of your fancy outfits, took makeup off, showered (together LMAO) and just got comfy!

- you both just kind of talked about the night and what you wanted in the future and other things:)

- let’s just say you two didn’t get a lot of sleep afterwards😳

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

did i just write this all in one sitting? yes. yes i did.

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED!! THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN TO WRITE I LOVED IT!!

would you guys be interested if i made a wedding playlist for the (hypothetical) oneshot?😳

[annmariethrush]

It’s so crazy to me that some people’s mental destiel is S4/S5??? My mental destiel is hardly ever earlier than S11. They are very middle aged men who are married semi domestic best friends who get on each others nerves and have a collection of kids they take care of but still have to get their arguments broken up by the live in brother in law. This is the Dean who has nearly forgotten that Cas is a fucking angel because he’s so domesticated around Dean. A Cas who lets Dean shove him around and listens to him on impulse because he trusts Dean’s judgement. They’ve both killed and worse for each other, made stupid decisions and forgiven each other. They still stand too close together and make prolonged eye contact, but they also have movie nights and chat while Dean cooks or have quiet coffee together. This is the Cas whose happy place is the bunker’s kitchen watching reality TV and the Dean that dresses them up like cowboys.

I love the passion and intensity of their relationship in 4&5, but that is just part of their past to me and they are the crazy domestic middle aged guys from late seasons.

[bp-zb1fics]

Tall & Handsome & wants birthday kisses

pairing: ricky x reader

genre: highschool au (same verse as shy, shy, shy), fluff, romantic tropes

tw/tags: longtime friends, birthdays, coming of age vibes, a lot of banter, feels, cuteness, vandalism of school property, gyuvin will be fine, violent thoughts that are mostly unserious, many kisses, rizzky

wc: 1128

summary: for ricky, the best birthdays are spent with you

a/n happy ricky day~ little late here but it's 520 somewhere ~

Read part 1 here~

“You know I’m going to miss you right?”

You’re 12. It’s Ricky’s last birthday with you before his family moves and puts oceans and time zones between your friendship.

“We have each other’s SNS,” he points out. “You already made me promise to send pictures when the plane lands. Don’t make it weird.”

“But I will,” you insist. “I’m just saying, you know, it’s going to be weird not seeing your ugly face all the time.”

“You’re ugly,” he retorts because puberty is starting to get to the both of you, making it awkward and strange in ways where only you can understand what the other is going through.

“I hope you stay ugly forever.”

“Take that back.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Nope.” You have the audacity to make a face at him.

“Take it back.”

“Okay, tell me you’ll miss me too.”

“Ugh, you’re so annoying.”

“Say it or I won’t take it back and you’ll just be ug-”

“Okay, okay, fine.”

You look at him expectantly, arms crossed over your chest with the most infuriating expression that a 12 year old can muster on your face. He takes a deep breath, staring back at you.

“I’ll miss you.”

“Really? Is that it?”

“Did you ask me to say anything else? I said it.” Okay fair enough.

“Fine. I knew you’d miss me anyways.”

God, you’re annoying. It’s even more annoying when you give him your gift and it’s an amazingly huge sketchbook along with a pizza-themed birthday card where you’ve written too many words for him to even read in one sitting. And it’s the most annoying when Ricky gets off the plane and he’s in his new bedroom in his new house and he realises that-

-well, he actually really misses you too.

__________________________________________

“Happy 16th, Ricky-ah!”

It’s been four years since Ricky’s had a birthday with you beyond the greeting messages you’d send, maybe a short call if the timing is right.

It’s absolute chaos. (But that’s mostly Gyuvin and Junhyeon’s fault)

Somehow, they’ve managed to turn his desk into a- he didn’t even know what to call it. Black construction taped over the top, someone (definitely Gyuvin) managed to hang silver streamers right from the ceiling above and his chair completely covered in gold foil and shiny red cellophane in some sort of convoluted throne.

They also tried to surprise him when he walked into the classroom but jokes on them, Ricky learned how to hold a poker face and keep himself from flinching a long time ago. Probably from that time when you were 10 and made a game out of who could give each other the bigger scare. It was stupid. So stupid that Ricky decided to learn how to do that because you were so cute when you were frustrated.

Oh cute what? He’s pretty sure 10 year old Ricky didn’t have any reasoning like that.

He’s just letting you put that silly plastic crown on him because he’s nice and it’s been awhile and he doesn’t want you whining about it to him the whole day. Nevermind that the look he gives Gyuvin promises blood, murder and death if the other boy so much as said anything. 

(Gyuvin says something anyway, Ricky’s really going to punch him one day no he isn’t )

You even get him one of those little cakes from that convenience store and cafe near your school. It’s your lunch break and you’re leading the birthday song, sitting across from him, clapping your hands as Gyuvin, Junhyeon and even Gunwook decide to try and do their own harmonic rendition.

“Make a wish, Ricky-ah~”

Maybe Ricky’s definitely deaf from Junhyeon’s creative decision to belt the song out at maximum volume. Maybe his fist is twitching in an effort to resist the urge to sock the shit-eating grin off of Gyuvin’s face. But suddenly, all he can see is how your eyes shine, even if that’s probably from the light or the glow of the candle.

Ricky makes a wish and he realises that-

-well he might actually like you more than he thinks. (And by more than he thinks, yes, like more than friends).

__________________________________________

“So now will you tell me what birthday gift you want?”

Your boyfriend gives you that coy look which honestly, you don’t know how he’s capable of doing at your young age.

It’s been pretty great so far. You had birthday lunch with the dog mafia, their unofficially adopted children and a few other friends at Ricky’s favourite pizza place. And you’ll have dinner with his family later.

Right now, you’re at his house, lazing the afternoon away because Ricky had insisted on spending time together, just the two of you. Honestly, you’re pretty sure he was about one more side comment away from actually strangling Gyuvin if you hadn’t tugged him away.

“Remember when I turned 12 and you called me ugly?”

“Eh, all of a sudden?”

“You never took it back.”

The incredulity of your stare is very much felt by both of you. Dumbfounded, literally.

“What- are you- is this for real? You’re kidding me right?”

He takes your hands in his, pulling you towards him so you’re staring right at each other. You tilt your head back, seriously he needs to stop with the rizz.

“Take it back.”

“Seriously?”

“Take it back.”

“Okay, okay I'll take it back. God, anything else you want?”

He leans in, pressing his lips to yours. You jump a little, not exactly expecting that. And then you melt. He pulls back, leaving a hint of strawberry and the smell of his cologne.

“19.”

“What?”

“I want 19 of that for my birthday.” He’s managed to keep a completely straight face but you have eyes and the pink on his cheek and at the tip of his ears is definitely not a trick of the light. Well, two can play a game.

You lean forward, cup his face in between your palms and peck him on the nose a few times, giggling. 

One. Two. Three. Four.

You press light ones over each eyelid, propping yourself up to kiss his foreheads, littering small ones all over his cheeks. 

Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen. Four-

Maybe you lose count at some point, your lips lingering over his, soft and sweet. You playfully bite at his bottom lip before pulling back to look at him. He’s definitely trying not to smile too much.

“For the record, I never really thought you were ugly.”

“I know.” Your nose scrunches up and he kisses the corner of your mouth.

“You’re lucky it’s your birthday”

“Ah, so can I have 19 more?”

Honestly? He can have all the kisses he wants. Even on days that aren’t his birthday.

[acescorazon]

Title: Changes

Chapter: 8/?

Rating: M

Word count: 2054

Chapter excerpt:

Buggy would choose his own comfort over his pride and happiness a thousand times. He wants to live a comfortable, peaceful life. He doesn’t really have to like Mihawk, he just has to put up with him and pretend they’re friends. He wants the beatings and insults to stop, that’s all he wants. He wants to go back to being happy or being the closest thing to being happy like he was before Cross Guild formed. He needs this ally. He needs a cordial relationship with Hawkeye. He hates him, but he wants everything to just STOP.

Buggy forces one of his signature smiles across his lips, “Okay… Let’s give it a try. Yeah, let’s do it, let’s have dinner together. This will be good for us…” Just who is he trying to convince? Himself or Mihawk? The sentence just left his mouth, and he already feels a sense of dread rising in the pit of his stomach, but what else is there to do? Nothing seems like the right option, and he’s tired of having to fight with himself. He just wants it all to end. 

|Ch1|Ch2|Ch3|Ch4|Ch5|Ch6|Ch7|

Buggy shouldn’t be reconsidering Mihawk’s dinner invitation right now, but he is. He’s stupid, right? This is just some ploy to get Buggy to let his guard down and then when he least expects it, Mihawk is going to attack him. No, wait…Mihawk doesn’t have to stoop so low and do that kind of thing, and he knows that. If Mihawk wanted to beat his face in, he could do it whenever he wanted to, he doesn’t need to put on an act and deceive Buggy…Yet, Buggy’s mind still has trouble accepting the idea of Mihawk genuinely offering Buggy his friendship, and instead continues to come up with all sorts of theories about how Mihawk is going to betray him and hurt him like he always does. Buggy doesn’t want to get hurt…

In the same breath, the same brain that is telling him that Mihawk is going to betray him and laugh in his face afterwards, is also telling him that maybe there’s a chance Mihawk isn’t lying. Maybe there’s a chance that Mihawk really does regret hurting Buggy. Maybe there’s an ounce of humanity in Mihawk, and Buggy just hasn’t really seen it outside of Mihawk’s training sessions with Buggy’s men. 

Oh, but, then again, Mihawk really doesn’t deserve to be forgiven. He’s been so awful. He’s hurt Buggy time and time again, and he’s made him feel so worthless and less than human. He’s the one who made Buggy want to die yet somehow afraid to die at the exact same time. Buggy has never done anything to deserve this type of treatment from Crocodile or Mihawk, yet they’ve been treating him like a piece of trash since the very first day they showed up on Emptee Bluffs Island. 

But…Maybe he should just accept this apology, even if it’s not one hundred percent genuine. Buggy’s so, so tired of taking a beating from his fellow members of Cross Guild and living a fucking nightmare, so maybe he should say he forgives Mihawk and move on, even if he could never truly forgive Mihawk in his heart. Buggy needs all the allies he can get right now, and if being Mihawk’s ‘friend’ means that the beatings will stop and he will potentially convince Crocodile to leave Buggy alone as well… Then maybe…Maybe accepting Mihawk’s apology wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

Buggy feels so many things, so many conflicting things and he’s afraid to make a decision because what if he makes the wrong choice? He just wants his life to go back to being peaceful and happy. He knows that’s a little difficult right now considering his current status, but… he’d like to have as many good times as possible while he’s still alive. 

Buggy has no idea how long he was just standing in the middle of the training grounds, staring at Mihawk, but it must have been long enough for Mihawk to decide that Buggy wasn’t going to make a decision on his own and try to gently urge him to join him for dinner. “I assure you, Buggy,” Mihawk says with a sigh, “I mean you absolutely no harm. I simply want to improve our relationship.” Okay, but how can Buggy take that for the truth? “I know you were unbelievably drunk when you told me all those things the other night, but I am not mad at you for speaking your mind. In fact, I respect you for having the courage to stand up to me.”

The mere mention of the other night when Buggy got piss drunk and then confronted Mihawk brings back embarrassing memories that leave Buggy’s face burning. Ah, that… he really should have apologized for that, but then he got ‘sick’, and plus, he doesn’t like talking to Mihawk…and then on top of all that Mihawk’s been so weird and confusing lately, so he never really got the chance to… uh…you know. Mihawk chuckles, and the sound of his laughter snaps Buggy out of his panicked thoughts, “You don’t need to be embarrassed or anything.” He assures him, “I needed to hear that, and I know that a simple apology can’t make up for all that I've done, but I'm sorry and I really want us to start over again.” 

Buggy chews on his bottom lip. What does he do? This should be an easy decision for him. He should just tell Mihawk to fuck off… But, he’s struggling to say those words, and it’s not just because he’s afraid that Mihawk will beat the hell out of him either. This is stupid, why is he so confused? What are all these conflicting emotions and thoughts? Why can’t he just tell Mihawk that he doesn’t want to have dinner with him, nor does he want to forgive him, ever…? 

What does he do?!

What does he do?

….

Buggy would choose his own comfort over his pride and happiness a thousand times. He wants to live a comfortable, peaceful life. He doesn’t really have to like Mihawk, he just has to put up with him and pretend they’re friends. He wants the beatings and insults to stop, that’s all he wants. He wants to go back to being happy or being the closest thing to being happy like he was before Cross Guild formed. He needs this ally. He needs a cordial relationship with Hawkeye. He hates him, but he wants everything to just STOP.

Buggy forces one of his signature smiles across his lips, “Okay… Let’s give it a try. Yeah, let’s do it, let’s have dinner together. This will be good for us…” Just who is he trying to convince? Himself or Mihawk? The sentence just left his mouth, and he already feels a sense of dread rising in the pit of his stomach, but what else is there to do? Nothing seems like the right option, and he’s tired of having to fight with himself. He just wants it all to end. 

Mihawk seems just as surprised by Buggy’s willingness as Buggy himself is, “Ah! Really? Then how about we have our dinner tonight?” Wait, he wants to have that dinner tonight? Uh, wait, Buggy thought he’d have a few days to mentally prepare himself for all this, he didn’t think that Mihawk would rush into this whole thing like it’s nothing. Is it seriously possible for him to have a change of heart so quickly, and for him to actually be eager to be Buggy’s friend? God, Buggy hates this, he’s never been so confused in his life. He doesn’t want to say he liked the old Mihawk better, because he didn’t, but at least the old Mihawk was easy to predict. This newly changed and remorseful Mihawk is so… God, he’s weird, and that’s the only accurate way to describe him. 

Buggy’s voice cracks slightly as he finally mutters a reply, “Uh, yeah…Yeah, that sounds good…” He tells Mihawk, but he’s lying. He doesn’t know how he can just go about his day normally when he knows that he’s going to have dinner with Mihawk later tonight. Mihawk smiles at him again, which only adds to Buggy’s feelings of dread and confusion, and after that, he tells Buggy that they can either eat together in the tent they use as a cafeteria on the island or that he and Buggy can go back to Mihawk’s tent and enjoy dinner and a glass of wine. Honestly, Buggy would rather eat in the comfort and safety of the cafeteria, where there’s a chance someone might be around at all times, but he also knows how his children are, and if Mihawk and Buggy are seen together in the cafeteria… God only knows what they’ll do or how they’ll react... 

In the end, Buggy leaves the decision to Mihawk, and he should have known what option Mihawk would choose. An aloof loner such as Mihawk would obviously pick the comfort of his own living quarters over the chaotic and noisy cafeteria Buggy has set up on his island for all his men to enjoy, but he’s still a little surprised by Mihawk’s choice regardless. “Alright, I'll see you at my tent at say…Eight?” Mihawk suggests, and all Buggy can do is nod because what else can he do? He’s made his bed and now he’s going to have to lie in it, but he’s definitely not going to get drunk again, he’s really not the type of person who should be drinking…ever. 

Buggy tries to relax and go about his day as he normally would, but the horrifying knowledge that he’s going to be having dinner with someone whom he’s supposed to hate and fear lingers in his mind, refusing to leave. He constantly wonders if he’s doing the right thing or if he’s doing something stupid that will result in him getting hurt or worse. Yet, he doesn’t want to go back on his word and tell Mihawk that he doesn’t actually want to have dinner with him because then what…? What if that pisses Mihawk off or causes unneeded tension to rise between the two?

Good grief, he doesn’t know how he’s supposed to be handling all this.  

Eight o'clock approaches a lot quicker than he would have liked it to, and Buggy still isn’t mentally prepared for all this. Why is it that when he wants his days to go by quickly, they don’t? Instead, they seem to drag on for hours and hours at a time, always moving at a snail's pace no matter what Buggy does. But then, when he wants his days to slow down, they often pass him by in the blink of an eye. Is that not unfair? Buggy didn’t want to have dinner with Mihawk so soon… He needed more time to prepare for this...

The dinner his men cooked tonight happens to be another sea king, and Buggy’s so tired of eating beasts that look like they come straight out of fairy tales, but sea kings are the best thing for a booming island like Emptee Bluffs island, which has hundreds of mouths to feed now and is only growing in the numbers. Buggy grabs his food and a drink from the cafeteria, and then idles for a moment, unsure if he should really be having dinner alone with Mihawk in his tent.

He has to do this though, he has to get on Mihawk’s good side and start over with him. Things can’t remain the same between them, they have to change.

Buggy takes a deep breath and tries to calm his racing heart down a bit, slowly making his way towards Miahwk’s tent. He really doesn’t want to do this. He should just stand Mihawk up or send one of his men to tell Mihawk that he’s suddenly busy, but… he wants to live a good life. He needs to do this, and finally turn things around so he doesn’t have to live a life of constant fear… Who cares if he isn’t ready to forgive Mihawk yet or if he doesn’t want to forgive him at all? He should just shut up and do what’s right for himself for once…

It’s okay, everything will be okay. Mihawk said he wouldn’t hurt him, and he even said he’d put his sword away…It’s okay, everything is going to be just okay. Buggy seriously just needs to calm down and breathe. It’s fine, he’s fine. This is good for him. Maybe. Probably.

Buggy blinks and all of a sudden he’s in front of Mihawk’s tent, holding his dinner tray. He doesn’t even remember the walk over here, he just spaced out the entire trip as he tried to convince himself that what he’s doing is the right thing, and that maybe, just maybe Mihawk is being sincere… But then again, maybe he’s n—

Oh, for the love of God! 

“Hawkeye?” Buggy calls out in a soft whisper, and when he doesn’t get a response the first time, he tries calling out to him again, this time with a little more volume in his voice, “Hey, Hawkeye, I'm here…!” he announces, and as soon as he gets permission to come into Mihawk’s tent, he takes another deep breath and proceeds to rip the band-aid off. 

God, what is he doing?

[days-until-burnout]

Prompt: Boat boys lost at sea except they are actually lost at sea.

Good Luck, You’re going to need it!

good luck? oh anon. sweet summer anon. me, struggling with boat boys? you'll never catch me lacking (yes, i am being silly and playful) made it platonic but can be read romantic if you wanted. i'm not the boss of anyone<3 and now, enjoy!

_____

📧 Day 11 -

Character - Etho & Joel Words - 787 Time - 30 mins Content - Pirate (to be) AU

“You are on my side.”

Etho looked up, unsure why he expected something different. They’ve been at it for a couple days now (at least a couple days since they’ve been awake or aware), and this was the only sight he would see. For miles and miles in every direction, the ocean. Waves. Foam. The occasional birds passed by. And very rarely, some animal or creature would pop up nearby to breath then swim down, leaving them alone again. 

Which reminded him. 

“What side are you even talking about?!”

The other, the only other being with human speech who resembled a human, Joel, looked back a him in offense, like he committed the biggest crime by simply questioning his stupidity. He glared at him, prompting him to jerk upright toward his boat, hands on the ledge and leaning forward, and how he wished Joel would tip over. He needed something to laugh about, or he’d go insane, very likely. 

“You are on my side! We agreed on this! You stay on your side, I stay on mine!”

Joel’s voice was also… not bad, but he wanted to be mad at him to feel something, anything, so he made the executive decision to suddenly dislike his voice. Loud like seagulls’ screeches with the lung capacity of whales. It was jarring, but Joel liked to talk, spewing nonsense and stupidity, but it kept them sane, somehow. Etho hated that it made him guilty for disliking it, even if for made up reasons. 

“We are stranded in the ocean! Does it look like I have any control of where my boat goes?!” 

“Swim away then!”

Another thing, too, their current predicament. Last he remembered, he’d woken up in a small boat, a raft, almost at the same time as his current companion. And their boats had been tied together, not with rope or chains, but by some force of nature that kept them drifting together. Magic was palpable all over their situation, going off by their lack of hunger and thirst and need to relieve themselves. Simply sat on their respective boats, at the mercy of the waves on the wind, and, well, absolutely everything but themselves. 

They should’ve tried to swim, probably. They never tried, so they had no idea if what would even work. Even then, if they jumped out and swam in any given direction, there was no real way of knowing if they’d find land or another ship or anything. For all they knew, the whole world sunk and they were the only surviving people because of some magic boats. 

Yeah, that was dumb. 

Joel was dumber, however, throwing his leg overboard into his boat. Joel was climbing into his boat. Hey, wait!

“What are you doing?!” He shook himself, raised his voice which startled him, but kept moving. He stayed in place, unsure if Joel was dangerous or stupid or desperate, if he kept his cool, he would be able to push him overboard and keep himself safe. So he stayed put, not because he was also curious to see what would happen, or because he kinda wanted this to happen. No, it was precaution and preparation, nothing more. He didn’t miss the touch of someone else, obviously not. 

“Shut up,” Joel hissed as he put both feet down, knees bent and arms outstretched for balance, seemingly waiting to see what would happen. Nothing did, and he looked stupid, and Etho snorted. Joel’s glare snapped to him, “I am going to strangle you and throw your body overboard.” 

And Joel tried, of course he tried. 

Etho caught one of his wrists, their respective free hands grabbing fistfuls of shirt. Etho pushed him away, Joel tried to put pressure. It was the dumbest fight ever, barely moving an inch in any direction, all too aware that sudden movements would tip the boat. They weren’t going to risk it. Regardless of their personal feelings. 

“I’m going to kill you,” Joel said through gritted teeth, his fist sliding alongside the bone of his collarbone. That hurt, a little, and the pressure almost eased a little after Etho made a face. Ah, right, they couldn’t really hurt each other. Another funny little aspect of their hopeless situation. They felt the other’s pain and feelings, which was wonderful, really. 

They had their pathetic fight for a couple minutes after, then Joel simply collapsed into his chest, Etho wrapping his arms around him. Because it was Joel who wanted the contact. There was the whistle of a steamboat, but they didn’t bother investigating as they felt a sudden wave of exhaustion crashing on them. They’d deal with everything else later, not that they’d be going to part ways any time soon. 

_____

i probably should consider cutting my time 🤔 or limit it more. but then again, i like dont like 'unfinished' stories, so i'd probably keep going until i reached a satisfying ending. we live and we learn i guess, doesn't hurt anyone to try different things anyhow, i was going to do another writing but eh, brain said no more writing today lol

[bentannin]

I will say the one thing I did not expect when the vod released on Monday was for the Ashton takes to swing in the OPPOSITE direction.

And while I definitely agree that some of the initial reactions after ep 77 & 78 ranged from concerning to just plain bad (harsh but some of them were genuinely bonkers; sending hate to Tal, painting characters as straight up abusive and manipulative, referencing one of the player’s irl trauma), the new wave of “Ashton did nothing wrong” isn’t exactly much better.

By their own admission, they fucked up. BIG TIME. They disregarded all the warnings and made a big decision without the rest of the group’s knowledge. And not only that, but he actively hides it from them. They have every right to be upset. And when you’ve just experienced a minute of watching helplessly as your friend rapidly loses and regains consciousness, has his arm fall off, and literally bursts into a million pieces right in front of you, it makes sense that you’d react pretty negatively. And while many of the things the Hells told Ashton were harsh, they weren’t completely unfounded.

Has Ashton shown to care about FCG and their well-being multiple times over the course of the campaign? Yes, absolutely. So when you look at their conversation from Ashton’s perspective, of course FCG accusing him of caring about no one would hurt. Of course, because, when asked to name at least one person, there was no hesitation when he said “you [FCG]”.

But when you look at it from FCG’s perspective, it’s a different story:

He was there when they were all given the warnings about the shard. He was there when, over and over and over again, they were told putting two shards within the same body, especially Ashton’s body which already holds two beings (the empress and the half-beacon), would sunder that body. And he was also there when it was decided the shard would go to Fearne, not Ashton.

So, with only that information and having no way of knowing any conversations between Fearne and Ashton (where she says she doesn’t want it, where Ashton says he does, and they decide Ashton will receive it instead), when they walk up the steps of the ziggurat and see Ashton, their friend, glowing and falling apart in immense agony, of course the only things they would feel in the moment are horror and confusion.

And after a minute of desperately trying to keep them alive, of burning his hands on their sweltering skin just to pump in enough health points to keep them standing, because, if he doesn’t, if he fails, Ashton will die with no way of bringing them back, of course FCG would feel hurt.

And not just hurt, but betrayed, because who does that?!

Who puts everyone who cares about them through that? Who looks at every warning and completely disregards them, and then LAUGHS after they’ve just forced their friends to watch as they nearly killed themselves?

The answer, at least to FCG, is no one; no one who cares about their friends would do that to them, so the only conclusion he can come to in a moment wrought with such intense emotion and turmoil is that Ashton clearly doesn’t care.

-

Basically what I’m trying to say is, the Hells are allowed to be upset. They are allowed to express that they are upset. And Ashton, for as much as I love his character and understand the events that led to this major fuck up moment, is just gonna have to take it.

They shouldn’t be punished by any means because they are still a deeply hurt and sad person, but they shouldn’t be completely excused either. What they did was extremely stupid, and the ONLY thing that kept them alive and kept the Hells from losing him, was the love from their friends and probably the luckiest ring trade ever made (long live Aabria).

And yes, the Hells are being hypocrites, they’re all either on similar paths of self-destruction or enabling them, but almost losing Ashton has clearly started to open their eyes. Hopefully the retreat allows them all to process and decompress in order to address that hypocrisy with clearer heads! But for now, it’s just gonna be the initial anger.

[imaginespazzi]

Finallyyyyy, chapter 7. I was dying waiting for it and now I'm already dying waiting for the next so I guess this week will be filled with rereading and rereading the whole fic until chapter 8 comes. Anyways here we go, thoughts on this one:

-Drew. Oh boy. I'm assuming we won't see him in chapter 8 since it'll probably be composed mostly of the day at the bar. The morning, then the bar itself, who ends up in whose bed; and you'll most likely add a lil flashback to something somehow relevant since you've done that for every chapter except 4. But so reunion in chapter 9? or 10? I don't know but I wanna see him reunite with Azzi and meet Stephie. Apparently he was irritated at Paige's decision to go to the GSV, the Drew from 6 years ago probably would've loved and encouraged the idea, if he hadn't come up with it himself. I feel like the fact it irritated him instead shows he's learnt to live without Azzi and the Fudds now, but like Paige wonders if he has, might've still not fully forgiven her and Azzi for taking that away from him. As in, I think it took him a lot of time to adapt and if he's angry at Azzi, it's really only cause he spent so much time missing her, if that makes sense. So if/when we get their reunion scene, I'm expecting him to first be angry, maybe throwing certain questions at Azzi before breaking down. I wonder if Stephie knows who Drew is? That picture is on the stairwell clearly, but maybe she's never really noticed him. If not, I'm really excited to see her reaction to a boy she has no clue about, hugging and possibly crying in the arms of the woman who's probably a sort of sister/mother to him, her mother. Basically, I really want some Drew, Paige and Azzi scenes and Stephie's reaction to the dynamic of the 3; and some Drew and Stephie scenes.

-"But she doesn’t quite know this place, couldn’t tell you where to find the sugar or where the utensils were kept" this was just written beautifully in my opinion idk, just wanted to show some appreciation for it.

-"“They’ve all missed you, you know,” Tallulah says softly, “they try not to do it too much around Azzi but it’s always ‘oh Paige would’ve loved this’ or ‘did you catch that bucket Paige made last night’." They try not to do it too much around Azzi. I just wanted to add this because I think it sorta confirms my suspicions that they might however do it around Stephie. The first time I sent in some of my thoughts on this fic I mentioned how I don't think it's a coincidence Paige and Stephie share so much in common. Though I did say it's Azzi probably passing Paige-like things onto her daughter, I think Stephie's simply grown up in environments that scream "Paige". I think it's beautiful how much her and Azzi have affected everyone around them, not just eachother. But it's also scary because it is about the 2 of them at the end of the day and if they start living separate lives they take away a person important in others' lives too, as we see with Drew, or the Fudds like Tallulah pointed out. I just hope Stephie doesn't have to lose Paige, I know we're guaranteed a happy ending (or maybe that's what you want us to think) but I hope there's never even a small period of time where Stephie thinks she's lost Miss Buecks.

-"“you’re thinking about her mother huh?”" "“your daughter has you wrapped around her little finger huh?”" I'm just a bit shocked that Ruthie guessed she was thinking about the girl's mother, not father. I feel like people's first assumption is that you're straight, the majority of the world is, does Ruthie know Azzi and Stephie? Or does she know Paige? Was just wondering, I don't know, maybe her gaydar's just on point.

-"“No,” Azzi says at the same time as a profound “yes” leaves Paige’s mouth." Ok so nvm my past predictions Paige is still pulling and Azzi is still slightly pushing.

-"Olivia’s livid at Paige and Paige is livid at the stupid #Clézzi tag on tiktok." If they ended up breaking up but confirmed they were a thing you bet your ass you could never get me to use some other ship's #. "until suddenly she stumbles on a video captioned 'and at the end of the day she’ll still always be looking at her'." that's my video, future me posted that.

-"And she knows that if it was Azzi -she hates herself for even thinking this way- she wouldn’t walk away." it's giving me the same vibes as when she was telling Azzi how whilst on her date she kept thinking how Azzi wouldn't order what the girl ordered off the menu, how she would swat her hand away when she tried stealing something from her plate and end up giving it to her anyways, how they'd get yelled at at the movies for giggling too much, and how at the end she would've kissed her. Unfortunately for everyone else, I just think no one stands a chance, she's wrapped around Azzi's finger.

-"even if they were barely a shadow of what they used to be, it's only right that Azzi is still here." but it surprises me that on every flashback after their breakup they still seemed on completely good terms all these years, like why did they break up??? Just cause Azzi wasn't ready for marriage? I feel like something else happened in between but maybe not.

-"“we’re gonna do it together next time okay. You and me, we’re gonna be golden together.”" soo 2032 Olympics? Did they do it??? A year ago from the "present day" I feel like you plan on showing us a flashback in a future chapter but I'm dying to know!!!

Okk that's it thank you for blessing us with another amazing chapter as always and see how quick I was this time? -🪐

Please don't die friend I'd miss you :)

-Drew appearance soon but I'm not fully sure exactly when because idk if y'all have caught onto this yet, but I actually don't outline the whole story beyond just the beginning - middle - end, everything else is just ideas that I fit in when it feels right. The Drew from 6 years ago was a little boy who still held onto hope for his favorite love story. But with time, hope turned into irritation and missing Azzi turned into being angry at Azzi because sometimes that's the only way to deal with the hate. I'm very excited to write both Azzi-Drew and ofc Stephie-Drew.

-I remember that ask! Paige is so entwined into the Fudd's and Azzi's life that even 8 years later, you can still see the remnants of her in their life and that's what Stephie has grown up seeing so really it's not surprising that some of that imprinted onto her as she has a little bit of Paige in her.

-See this is my lovely fantasy world where straight isn't just the normal and I have no other explanation for it. Ruthie does not know Stephie or Azzi lol. I'd like to think 2033 we can avoid straight as the default lol

-I'm never shipping them with other people but as evidenced by some tweets in the last few days, I think other people absolute would ship clézzi lmao but pazzi truthers are still alive in 2033 despite the break up lol

-Unfortunately for everyone else, I just think no one stands a chance, she's wrapped around Azzi's finger. - yep exactly!

-I do love my flashbacks!

I'm very proud of you for how quick you were lmao!

[honourablejester]

I am having a severe flavour problem with the new 5.5e warlocks. And I kinda saw it coming, but I also thought that maybe they’d do something about it before we got here. But, well. Apparently not.

My problem is this: taking up the warlock subclass at level 3 instead of level 1 has turned all warlocks, flavour-wise, into absolute idiots.

“Through occult ceremony, you have formed a pact with a mysterious entity to gain magical powers. The entity is a voice in the shadows—its identity unclear—but its boon to you is concrete: the ability to cast spells.” (PHB 2024)

You have explicitly and purposefully made a deal with something you don’t know the identity of.

Now. You could always play the warlock as having done that, if you wanted to play someone a bit reckless. But. It was an option, not baked into the class. You could also have met your patron any number of ways and decided how to deal with it, going into the pact knowingly and with foreknowledge of the potential consequences. Because you choose your subclass at level 1, your patron and your relationship with them was essentially your first decision as a warlock. So if you were in a pact with a devil, you had the chance to be knowingly in a pact with a devil. It was a choice you might have knowingly made.  

Here, though, your warlock put a phone call out into the void and won’t know for two more levels what exactly picked up on the other side. Which bakes a considerable amount of recklessness and frankly outright stupidity into the class concept.

Weirdly, both sorcerers and even clerics come out of this shift better, of the classes that used to get their subclasses at level 1. Sorcerer, it kind of makes sense, when the magic is in your blood regardless, that it just might take a while for the nature of the magic to become fully apparent. Sorcerers, by the nature of their lore, never had a choice what magic they possessed. It was always luck of the draw and the potential idiocy of their ancestors. And clerics, their subclass is a choice of domain, not patron, so they can still be devoted to their particular god from level 1, and just choose which aspect of them to exemplify at level 3. So clerics, even with the shift of timing, are still making more or less the same choices. Their god is still a conscious choice from the start.

But warlocks are now explicitly stated to be gambling on the nature of their patron for power.

Of course, you can just ignore that. You can say that your warlock fully knows what patron they’ve made a bargain with from the beginning, and it’s only at level 3 that the patron considers them valuable enough to start giving them identifiable, tailored abilities, or some similar justification. Before that, it’s something like a trial period, where they decide if you’re worth keeping on and having abilities that could link back to them. Ignoring the text and telling your own story is still (and always) an option.

I’m just faintly annoyed that they built the idiocy into the text. That the new Pact Magic feature outright states that you were dumb enough to make deals with mysterious voices from the beyond without the first clue who that voice might be.

I mean, warlocks are rather implied to be not the most sensible people from a standing start. But I'd like to have the option of my dumbass having made calculated risks, instead of just gambling blind, you know?

[avenirdelight]

Weird Life

Son Heungmin

Sonny is dating a famous singer. After his national team got knocked out from the world cup, she posts pictures on Instagram that hints they’re dating. [Requested]

She couldn’t hit the right note. The emotion also wasn’t quite there. She had been trying to record the same bridge over and over again. The bridge was her most favourite part of a song, the most special for her personally. So if her vocals hadn’t reached the perfection that she wanted for it, she wouldn’t move on to the next parts.

“James, my love, I don’t think I can do this now,” she said, letting out a long and heavy sigh. She rubbed her eyes before looking at James, her vocal director, through the glass screen. Poppy, her personal assistant, Cindy, her producer, and Max, her recording engineer were all staring at her. Their eyes showed that they were all getting worried and nervous.

“Sweetheart, we really have to finish this song today,” James said. “Listen, if there’s anything I can do to make it easier for you, I’d gladly do it. If there’s anything I can get you—”

“Just get me my boyfriend,” she cried. “Do we know where he is? Pop, has he landed? Do we have any updates?”

“Not yet, honey. Hey, do you know what? I think we should take a little break.”

Five minutes later, she and Poppy were on the rooftop. She stood near the railings, looking down the busy street, resting both hands on her waist as she took deep breaths, trying to keep herself calm.

“I’ve made a terrible decision, haven’t I?” She asked. “What are they saying, Pop? The fans?”

“You’ve turned off your phone because you don’t want to see anything but now you’re asking me?”

She glanced at Poppy with a little pout. “I can’t get it out of my head. Yeah, I know, I should’ve known better.”

Poppy sighed and scrolled on her phone. Her eyes scanned the tweets from the topic that had been trending for the past two hours. “Son Heung Min Dating” was the keyword.

“‘So the rumours were all true??’, ‘I knew it! The matching bracelet wasn’t a coincidence!’, ‘Remember when she was suddenly in London back in February? She must’ve been visiting Sonny’.” Poppy read a few of the comments. She was reading it casually but she suddenly let out a little gasp. “Look what they’ve figured out! Sonny’s flight! They know he’s coming to Los Angeles.”

“Right. And why would Son Heungmin suddenly fly to Los Angeles? Oh! Guess who else is in Los Angeles? Me!” She said animatedly, flailing her hands around, a sign that she was very stressed out. “They’ve figured that out too, haven’t they?”

“Yeah… Someone spotted you at the airport two days ago, there’s pictures. And they’ve connected the dots.”

She sighed. “God, I’m so stupid,” she said, rubbing her her fingers on her temples. “It was supposed to be just a hint, not a total reveal. Or maybe we shouldn’t have done this at all.”

She had posted some photos on Instagram from her trip to South Korea back in July. Sonny was in almost every picture. His blurry back, a little part of his shoulder, a bit of his arm, but not his face. She’d posted it this morning, just five days after Korea’s campaign in the world cup ended. The caption was a simple “Throwback” with a South Korean flag.

Without a doubt, the post blew up because both Sonny’s and her fans were coming up with their own theories about them dating, that they had been developing for a whole year. It was actually the plan, to slowly reveal their relationship to the public, but it turned out that no matter how much she’d prepared herself for it, it didn’t make it any easier.

“We have planned everything out. Come on, it’s okay, we can handle this. It’s under control,” Poppy tried to reassure her. 

She let out another long, exasperated sigh. “Just please get me my boyfriend, Poppy…”

—

When Sonny arrived almost three hours later, she couldn’t even react. She was slumped on the couch in the studio, covering herself with a warm blanket. She had been just sitting and listening to the song blazing in the room, with vocals that she’d recorded so far that sounded absolutely awful to her. It felt like all her energy was drained out from the stress. But Sonny came in with a smile on his face. He said ‘hi’, reached for her hand, and gently helped her to get up so he could give her the biggest warm hug.

“Have you been seeing everything?” She didn’t even return his greeting or ask about how he was doing. Her mind had gotten too clouded.

“Kevin told me some stuff,” Sonny answered as he soothingly caressed her back. “Everything is fine. We are prepared, our teams are prepared. There’s nothing to worry about.” Poppy and Kevin, Sonny’s assistant, had had a call earlier. Poppy had probably told Kevin about her messy state, the reason why Sonny went straight to the point.

“James, can you please turn the music down? Thanks,” she said to James before getting back to Sonny. “So– We’re still going with the plan? We’re still gonna make the official announcement?”

“Yes, we’re going with the plan,” Sonny said, loosening his arms and letting her go so he could take a look at her face. The stress and worry were still all over her face.

She slightly shook her head as her panicked eyes wandered everywhere. “People are gonna say that this is all just PR. They’ll say I need a boost for my new song and you— I don’t know, maybe they’ll say that you’re riding the world cup wave or something, seeking for more popularity, and—”

“Hey, look at me.” Sonny cut her off, holding her face with his hand, trying to get her to look at him and luckily, he succeeded. “People can say whatever they want. They can say it’s PR, but they will be proven wrong when we get married next year.”

She fell silent as she bit her lower lip. Memories flashed in her mind from those talks they had had. It had started with just her and Sonny, then their families joined in, then Poppy and Kevin joined in, then her label and Sonny’s agent joined in. Both her and Sonny were popular figures in their own world, so it took a lot just to make an announcement about them dating.

“Listen. If you’re not ready—”

“No, no, I am.” She cut him off, shrugging. “I’m sorry, it’s just… I feel like we’ve chosen the wrong timing. Maybe we should’ve waited for another week.”

“It’s okay. We get this done before Premier League starts, before you start filming, then we can carry on. I promise we’ll be fine. Okay?”

She nodded and tip-toed on her feet to steal a kiss. Sonny wrapped his arms around her tight as he kissed her back.

“How are you feeling? I’m sorry the journey ended here for you guys,” she said.

“We did our best. I feel better now that I’m with you,” Sonny answered with his infectious smile plastered on his face.  

“I’m so proud of you.” She gave him a smile, running a hand through his hair.

“Thank you. Now how about we finish the song, yeah?”

—

She finished the song with ease. Partly because she was more collected and less worried, but mostly because her muse was there, watching and supporting her. Less than an hour and she was out of the booth; she finished all the parts, along with the ad-libs and all the layers.

The proud look on Sonny’s face didn’t go unnoticed. He pulled her into a hug and patted her head, saying, “That was amazing. You did really well.”

“Thank you. Do you like the song?”

“I think it might be my new favourite.”

“You heard it, guys. The muse approved!” She grinned at Sonny, before turning around and shifting her gaze back and forth between James and Cindy. “All good, yeah? Can we wrap this up? Can I have my two days-off now?”

Everyone agreed that they could wrap up the recording session and she wasted no time on leaving the studio. She hopped on the backseat of the car with Sonny, and Nolan, her driver, drove them to the hotel that they would stay in for the next two days.

Their hands were linked. She rested her head on his shoulder as he looked out the window, watching life happening on Los Angeles’ streets. She, once in a while, looked up to get a glimpse of his face.

She knew that Sonny was jet-lagged and tired. He had flown to two different countries in the past few days. Make it three when he flies back to London in three days. Between his packed schedule, he still made an effort to see her since she wouldn’t go home for another two weeks; a couple of weeks ago it was her who had flown to Qatar to see him. It wasn’t always like this, they weren’t always insanely busy and were in different time-zones. But sometimes it did take a lot to make their relationship work, so every time they had a chance, they would always try to make the best out of it.

“What a weird life that we have…” She mumbled. It was enough to get Sonny’s attention.

“I think it’s a blessing,” he commented. “I mean, I wouldn’t even have met you if I wasn’t an international footballer.”

She giggled, sitting up so she could take a good look at his face. “Yeah. Wouldn’t have met you if I was back home helping my mum run her tea shop… You’re right. We’re living our dreams.”

Sonny stared at her in silence with a fond gaze. They’d been dating for four years, but Sonny still could make her heart skip a beat with no effort. Without saying any words, he leaned in to capture her lips, sending the butterflies in her stomach flying, also with absolutely no effort.

“Hey,” he said when he found her eyes again.

“Hmm?”

“From the very beginning, we know nothing is gonna be easy. But we’ve made it this far. We’re a good team, you know? We just always need to be a good team. And I’ll always try to be a good teammate for you.”

Her lips perked into a small smile. “I know.” She nodded and Sonny smiled back. She rested her head back on his shoulder as she felt Sonny’s thumb caressing her hand.

It was indeed a weird life that they were living. Dating in public? Casually announcing their relationship to friends and family? It didn’t work like that for them. Privacy was a luxurious thing but they couldn’t even complain because they were incredibly privileged to even have this weird life.

But she was grateful that she had Sonny. Someone who understood, someone who was willing to do more, someone that she could hold on to when life got a little bit too insane. Life could take the craziest turns but she knew that in the end everything was gonna be fine, because she had her teammate. And he would always be there, holding her hand and walking beside her, to the future that they dream together.

—

sometimes i feel like i put in too much details and that’s why sometimes it takes forever for me to finish a fic, but people tell me that it’s what they love about my fics. i think it’s not the first time i mention this but yeah, i’m in a dilemma.

i enjoyed writing this one🥺 this might be my new favourite! thank you for everyone who had been reading and requesting sonny fics during this world cup! the demand was high!😆 hope you enjoyed it<3

My Masterlist🤍

[yesloulou]

Totally agree re: your last mclaren post. They could have had a legitimate cross-media star with Daniel and instead they’ve got an unlikeable little pr-nightmare twink with no brain-to-mouth filter and Oscar (lol love ya Oscar but he dgaf to do all their promo).

Even if the car was still terrible, if they’d worked enough with Danny to get it to a point where it was easier for him to drive (mind you he still dragged that shitbox to their first win in a decade), they could have also leaned more heavily into his personality/marketability to make up the gap. Even Renault, for all their faults, knew what they had with Daniel and were ready to dismantle the whole team and rebuild it around Danny - they just didn’t have the time/money to do it.

In short, mclaren once again display their absolute loser-mentality

i mean id love to jump on the mclaren slander train any day of the week but first of all you have to give it to them for promoting themselves with daniel's popularity but at the same time keeping a distance from his persona/brand so when they threw daniel under the bus they were able to detach and cut ties just like that. pretty much came out unscathed. i think mclaren was way more comfortable with lando being their poster child for this reason

from what i know about the mclaren cars, they were just not a fit for daniel's driving style at all. and while it's true good drivers should be able to adapt, the mclarens were one of the most temperamental. to make their car balanced enough for both daniel and lando, mclaren would've needed to make a lot of progress with car development, something they never had the $$$ for. with their automobile sales targeting a market exremely susceptible to economic setbacks, mclaren's finance took a BIG hit due to covid, right before daniel came aboard. in fact the reason they suddenly became so much faster mid way thru 2023 is bc right now they're financially solvent for the first time in years.

looking back i think it was just a very stupid decision for mclaren to sign a very expensive daniel when they didn't even have enough money for daily operations, let alone making cars that could meet daniel's needs. and then it was just plain hateful that since they didn't want to admit to their incompetence, they tried to gaslight daniel into thinking it was all his fault (he ended up really thinking that despite obliterating his driving style to work with mclaren).

obviously i think daniel's team was also to blame for entering the partnership but a) back in 2020 he didn't know whether renault f1 would still exist so he kinda had to jump ship and b) knowing zak brown and mclaren's corporate ways i think some empty promises were definitely made.

[cursedonyx]

Okay so I just read your Professor Sharp and Garlick fic and I honestly can’t tell you how much I loved it. So I was wondering if you’d be interesting in writing any additional Professor Sharp smut.

It could be with Garlick again or perhaps someone outside of Hogwarts (like someone who works at Hogsmeade or the Ministry) or even a muggle if you wanted to go that route. Obviously I’m terrible at making decisions so feel free to pick whatever scenario intrigues you the most!

As far as the details of their relationship I guess it depends on the scenario but I wouldn’t mind something sort of similar to your last fic where they’ve at least known each other for a while and can call themselves friends who are in love with each other (I also wouldn’t mind a tiny bit of jealousy being sprinkled in somehow if that’s not too many things all in one🙈).

Also please don’t feel pressured to write this if it’s not particularly igniting anything for you! I love your writing so much so thank you for even just reading this!💕

Thank you for the request, and sorry it took longer than I thought it would, life can be a real sod sometimes!

I decided to use this as an excuse to continue the Sharp/Garlick fic of before, because why the hell not? Hope it’s what you wanted 💚

Word Count – 2.7k

Warnings – Smut (MDNI 🔞) Jealousy, PiV, Fingering, On the Desk

It had been almost a week since Aesop had allowed himself a single night of indulgence with the fire-haired enchantress that had captured his mind, body and soul with a single look. He could almost pinpoint when he had first become truly entranced with the young and beautiful Mirabel Garlick, the moment she had returned to Hogwarts as no longer a student, but a professor, and his curiosity with her bloomed into obsession.

The years of secret, seemingly mutual pining had paid off, for they had finally ended up tangled in the sheets together after a night of drinking with their colleagues, and everything about it had been perfect. Well, it would have been, were it not for the fact she’d been gone by the time he woke up, leaving nothing but single, long red hair on his pillow and an ache in his cock to convince him it hadn’t all been a dream.

The following days meandering through the quiet halls of Hogwarts reminded him somewhat of a Confundus Charm. When he saw her in the corridors or at meals, she was as cordial and polite and pleasant as she’d ever been, offering wide, warm smiles and engaging him in spirited talk, just as she did with the other professors. Aesop frowned. Surely there would have been some change? Had he really disappointed her so severely she wished to pretend nothing had happened between them?

He elected to remain silent on the matter. If Mirabel wanted to act like they hadn’t done utterly sinful things to each other, then that was fine. He had the memories, at least. She was half his age, and deserved better than a crippled, scarred former Auror. He would be cordial to her, and hope his infatuation didn’t drive him to do something stupid.

He made his way to Hogsmeade, his boots crunching in fresh snow, hoping his order of rare potion ingredients had arrived at J. Pippin’s at last. An afternoon of sorting out his stores would hopefully keep his mind off the shape Mirabel’s breasts made when he slammed his cock into her.

Unfortunately, Mirabel and her breasts remained firmly at the forefront of his mind, to the point where the thoughts of her actually seemed to summon her into being as Aesop rounded the corner and saw her in the flesh just outside of Spintwitches, holding a small, wicker basket, smiling and laughing and stroking her plaits and talking to another man.

Aesop froze, the cold air nipping his cheeks as a searing fury rushed through his torso. He knew that man, the gangly little fuckwit barely four years out of Hogwarts, and if the rumours were anything to go by, firmly in the pocket of Rookwood’s notorious little gang. And he was simpering at Mirabel, his gap-toothed grin wide, his weak attempt at flirting so painfully obvious it made Aesop want to cringe.

Or curse him into oblivion.

His ingredients could wait. Aesop strode through the crowd, coming up behind Mirabel, his glower searing over her shoulder and landing directly on the pimply-faced youth, watching with satisfaction as his gawky smile faded, his wandering eyes growing wide as he stumbled back a step.

“Professor Sharp!” he gasped, and Mirabel turned, fluttering her eyelashes as she saw how close he was. “H-how nice to see you-“

“Hop it,” Aesop advised. The aspiring Ashwinder bolted almost before the second word was out of his mouth. With a satisfied huff, he glanced down at Mirabel, and his breath caught when he realised just how close they were. Neither moved away.

“I see you still strike fear into the hearts of your former students,” she said, softly, ducking her head and fiddling with her basket.

“I expect that is because that particular former student is well on his way to becoming a Dark Wizard,” Aesop muttered. He’d have to notify his former colleagues in the Auror office, especially if the little gyp was sniffing around Mirabel. He raised a hand, hesitated, then laid it on her shoulder. “Allow me to escort you back to the castle.”

“I’d like that,” Mirabel said, with a shy smile. She rested a hand on his arm, allowing him to lead the way, his scowl clearing a path through the crowd more effectively than Bombarda.

Walking the path back to the castle, he was acutely aware of the gentle weight of her hand on his forearm, sliding around to rest in the crook of his elbow, their breath misting before them. He kept his silence, longing to say something to turn the steadily solidifying air between them into something light and jovial, but he’d never been any good at that. And besides, her stalwart refusal to mention their drunken escapade made it clear to him she’d thought it a mistake.

It irritated him. This was the problem with obsessing over someone so young. They never said what was on their mind. He should move on, and stop thinking about the way her skin was a gentle peach, the way the shape of her legs showed even through her robes as she walked, the way her breasts bounced with each step…

And she’d been talking to another man. Not a professor, not even a friend, just some oik she used to know. He glowered as they entered the castle, her hand sliding off his arm as he gave her a curt nod and moved off in the direction of his office.

She followed.

Mirabel followed him all the way to his office, her light footsteps scuffing over the stone floor. Merlin, even the sound of her footsteps was enchanting to him, reminding him how light she was, how easy it was to pick her up to manhandle her, to throw her down to the bed and-

Aesop clenched his jaw. He shouldn’t be thinking like this, not at all!

But then… she wasn’t fragile. She was stronger than she looked, if the strength of her grip on his cock was anything to go by…

He cursed under his breath, shouldering into his office. He swore again when he realised he’d completely forgotten to pick up his rare ingredients. He lowered himself to sit behind his desk, wondering if Pippin would be kind enough to send them to the castle by urgent owl.

“Aesop?”

Mirabel hovered before the desk, the basket held before her legs, the V her arms made emphasising the swell of her breasts, pushing them together. “Is something wrong?”

He almost laughed. Yes, a great many things were wrong, chief of which was her bloody refusal to even acknowledge they’d slept together! But he couldn’t tell her that. If he was to have any chance of lying with her again, like he craved, he couldn’t afford to frighten her away.

But he was still pissed off.

“You should know better,” he said, firmly. “Rookwood’s little gang are notorious, and it’s not safe to associate with any of them.”

Mirabel raised her brows.

“Aesop, I’m not a student anymore,” she said, defensively. “I knew him from when we were both pupils here, he just wanted to say hello. We used to study together in the library on Wednesdays.”

“Yes, I’m sure a hello was the only thing on his mind,” Aesop clenched his jaw as Mirabel placed her basket on the desk and put her hands on her hips, emphasising their curves and pulling the material of her robes taut across her belly. He tried very hard not to look. “As a teacher of this school, it’s even more important that you’re not seen to be… fraternising with dangerous criminals.”

She frowned. “I wasn’t fraternising,” she said. “I was just being friendly. I hope you don’t think you have to watch my back all the time, I’m quite capable of making my own decisions and dealing with whatever consequences stem from them.”

A chill shivered over his shoulders, and he rose, striding to her and taking her face in his hands. Her skin was soft and warm and smooth, nothing like the rough stubble that coated his coarse skin.

“I won’t allow it,” he rumbled. “Mirabel, you must be more careful. If something happened to you…”

“I don’t need you looking out for me,” she whispered, her hands rising to his.

Aesop took a breath. Another denial, another refusal. It hurt more than he cared to admit, more than a single night of passion warranted. He had to hear her say it properly, to move on.

“I want to look out for you,” he said, brushing his thumbs over her cheeks. “Mirabel… I understand if you don’t want me, that night in Hogsmeade was… well. But I understand if you feel it was a mistake.”

Her slender brows drew together. “Mistake? Aesop, I don’t think that at all.”

He paused. A mixed signal. He didn’t like mixed signals. “You haven’t said a word about it,” he said. “You’ve been acting like nothing changed.”

“I didn’t think anything had,” she said, taking his hands from her face and slowly lowering them, his fingers drifting along her neck. “My feelings for you haven’t changed, why should my behaviour? I rather thought you believed it was a mistake, you’ve barely said three words to me since.”

He blinked. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I still want you,” she whispered, lowering his hands to her breasts, small and firm under her winter robes. “I still want to be with you. You’ve cast a spell on me, Professor, and I have no desire to escape its bonds.”

Her words sent a bolt of electricity through him, stiffening his spine and cock simultaneously. Hearing her call him Professor in that soft voice of hers, the mention of bonds conjuring the image of silken ropes around her velvety wrists in a candlelit chamber, the fact that she still wanted him, despite his fears. There was no butterbeer to smooth the way this time, no, they were both stone cold sober, and by the flush blooming over her throat as he cupped her breasts, she was as invested in what was to come next as he was.

He tucked a hand around her waist, the other winding under her plaits to cup the back of her neck, drawing her close to him. Her lips were an inch away from his own, and he hesitated, the old fears bounding through his mind. Relationships between the staff was frowned upon, and if Phineas caught wind of any affiliation other than one that was strictly professional… besides, she was too young, he was too old, she was too beautiful, he was too gruff, she was lithe and supple and perfect and deserving of more, he was in his forties and crippled and scarred and…

Mirabel closed the distance, sealing her plump lips to his with a gentle sigh. Aesop responded without thought, kissing her fiercely as she wound her arms around his neck, relishing the softness of her lips, the gentle, rose-scented breath that rushed over his tongue. He gripped the back of her robes, his hand flattening against the small of her back, and the temptation to tear them from her form was almost overwhelming, each of her soft moans slipping between her lips, into his ears and straight down to his cock, throbbing against his leg.

He pushed her back against the desk, her tongue flicking out to run over his as he lifted her onto it, her legs parting for him, rising to wrap around his waist and tugging him against her. He repressed a growl with difficulty, but a low sound rumbled in his chest all the same, and Mirabel sighed, sinking against him.

“I love it when you do that, Aesop,” she said, batting her eyelashes at him, a wicked smirk on her lips. “You have no idea what it does to me.”

He did growl this time, and he didn’t think he could have held it in if he tried. He groped for her robes as her hands slid over the buttons of his waistcoat, the cold air of his office nipping at his skin as his waistcoat and then shirt came undone under her nimble fingers. He slid her robes up over her slender thighs as she brushed her fingers over his chest, tracing the dark hair spread over his torso. Aesop returned the favour, prying apart the buttons at the top of her robes, revealing the small peaks of her marbled breasts, ducking his head to take one of the rosebuds into his mouth.

Mirabel moaned, the sound music to his ears as he wound his tongue around her nipple, savouring the sweetness of her flesh. Her hands gripped his hair, encouraging him, and with a wicked grin, he denied her, raising his head to kiss her again, his hand sliding along her slender thigh to dance over the tight curls hidden between them. She whimpered, tilting her hips up to his hand.

“Aesop…” she whined, writhing. “Please touch me.”

The keening words cut through him, flaying his desire open and leaving nothing but hunger for her. It was all he could do to restrain himself from the sinful sounds she made as he sank his fingers into her, pressing his thumb to her most sensitive parts. Mirabel whined, grasping handfuls of his coat as she rutted herself against his hand, each drawn breath expulsed in a sharp gasp.

It was a struggle to keep his focus as she whimpered and wailed against his movements, his fingers curling up to rub over the most sensitive parts of her, buried deep in the core of her being. Her hands slid down to his belt, fumbling with the fastening as he attended to her, her face pressed to his shoulder, her luscious hair coming undone from its plaits as she drew his cock out, her slender fingers gliding along him and making him shudder.

With a yelp, Mirabel pushed his hands away, the force of it enough to make him stagger back a pace. A frown crossed his brow as she gazed up at him, her expression wild. She leaned back on the desk, parting her legs further and gracing him with a full view of her sex, her parted lips and glimmering green eyes failing to draw his gaze away.

“Come on in,” she purred.

He launched forward and slammed into her, the force of it pushing her back onto the desk. She let out a cry of passion, her hands grasping at his back as she hooked her legs around him, muffling her voice against his shoulder. Aesop’s mind scattered as he was enveloped in fire, gasping some himself as she tightened her walls around him. He gripped the desk, a hand braced against her back as she writhed, a heat condensing in his abdomen as his hips flexed faster of their own accord.

Shit, not yet, not yet!

With a low growl, he drew back from her, his cock drenched, ignoring her whine of protest. He tugged her forward and turned her around, bending her over the desk, yanking her robes up to expose the perfect peach of her arse. He slid back into her, her high-pitched whimper music to his ears, pressing his chest to her back as he thrust into her repeatedly, his teeth at her neck, one hand rising to wrap gently around her throat. His other hand found hers as she began to gasp and cry out in earnest, her legs taut against his, her arse shaking with each merciless pound of his cock.

Aesop’s release was sudden and breathtaking, pitching him forward to crash against her back with an almost startled yelp as she clenched around him, draining him dry. He took a moment to catch his breath, each ragged inhale taking in the scent and taste of her luxurious hair, dishevelled and coming loose from its plaits. He raised his head, seeing her cheek pressed to his desk, her eyes half-lidded and clouded with bliss, a line of drool sliding from her lips to pool on his paperwork.

“Aesop…” she murmured. “I-if this is what it’s going to be like all the time…”

He managed a low laugh. “I hope so, Mirabel.” He pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek, unwilling to withdraw from her just yet. “But next time, let’s find somewhere a bit more comfortable.”

[brynalyn]

lol glip is so upsetti that you're speaking out about your experience on chost that theyre flooding the floraverse tags with ms paint whining about how people are mean

Just saw this and it’s really funny lmao. Like sure, just post through it, try and cover everything up however you can and have a pity party about it, just slander the victims and deny any wrongdoing like you always do, or claim it wasn’t wrong and actually the other person is bad for being upset. That always makes things go away and leads to healthy conclusions and healing 🤪

at least I can own up to my past and have always made 300% effort to change and learn when I’ve fucked up. If I did something that hurt someone, I apologized and stopped the behavior. instead of just blaming the other person, bc that would be abusive of me! And delusional, which I don’t feed into anymore. Accountability feels freaking awesome…. too bad glip is the eternal victim and it will always be someone else’s fault. Lmao.

I’m still not gonna read what they wrote bc they have no respect for me and certainly are rehashing things I have already experienced a significant amount of guilt for, as well as manipulative guilt tripping and gaslighting over, things I’ve long since apologized and changed for, things that were insignificant molehills yet I still got shit for it years later. Im not going to read how it was actually okay for pengo to treat me and others like shit, how my reaction is wrong somehow, how I’m the bad guy for originally trying to connect, or giving good faith that I wasn’t being abused. I’m not gonna get guilted for trusting people I looked up to and being upset and confused when they weren’t trustworthy!!! I’m not some fabled perfect victim obviously but that never stopped my abuse, the things I experienced from being real. If Glip believed their own bullshit they would have taken the care to look and read what I’ve said and sent them both currently and in the past but just like when I first learned glips true nature they just don’t give a shit if it’s not about them/someone who constantly kisses their ass and lives in it. If someone shows discontent over being punched down on all the time, or disagree with glips story they’ve told where they are the victim in every way, they’ll get all sorts of manipulative and abusive treatment….. ask me how I know lol.

Suffice to say I totally believed glip about everything and that was a really stupid decision on my part I found out. Then I rightly felt like, betrayed and as if I had been misled, which I had been, but all that was seen as ‘kf behavior’ or something. Feeling hurt about an artist you look up to deceiving people for years is wrong guys it’s evil according to glip. According to them we should all forgive everything bc they are the victim, forget about it and move on, and also bow down to all their opinions and whims and take all their shit without complaint. Be a good doormat or you might find out how they really feel about you. Super healthy behavior all around. God I’m so glad I left lmao.

[pr0serpinas]

Some wee writer thoughts on chapter 7 of oceans brawl.

Man, I agonized so hard over this. I actually ended up combining two shorter chapters into one very long (for me) one because I just needed Sebastian to get on the road to picking himself up and was sick of dwelling on it myself. Haha, sorry, Sebastian.

But really, for how long I have been working on this (I actually started writing it in June and didn’t publish til August), it’s really…not as long as I thought, and I’m feeling a bit disappointed? I’d tell you the word count, but I’m on my phone. I had the very stupid (seriously, very stupid, don’t do this) idea to put the entire fic in one document that I just continually add onto, and it’s got to the point where the app hates it/me and won’t give a word count anymore, I’ve got to be on my computer. But I have, eh, maybe 4 chapters already written and an idea for more. I guess I just started with the aspiration of writing to the scale of some other works in the fandom, ones that have 6-figure word counts, and I’m not going to get there, most likely. If I had to guess, I’d say I’m somewhere between half and 3/4 done, which would be 34k-50k? I understand this is still a perfectly respectable number! It’s just like, man, the amount of brain space and time I have put into it doesn’t translate into a word count as much as I thought 😭 I digress!

Really struggled with the decision over whether to include Anne. My impression is that a lot of people in the fandom prefer that she is dead, either showing it for plot purposes or having it offscreen. And it was a decision that made me a little nervous because I don’t want people to be disappointed. But I’ve just spent some 24k words showing that Ominis can’t be Sebastian’s anchor. This is because of my own personal feelings and experiences: someone can love you more than anything (and Ominis does, whether he fully realizes it or not), and it isn’t enough to pull you out of your own head. For me, this is especially true if it’s someone whom I know will always be there for me: my mom, my fiancé, etc. When I’m in a certain mood, words from near-strangers are almost more impactful because they’re least expected. Because Sebastian has had this incredibly fraught, tenuous correspondence with Anne, actually seeing her in person would be incredibly powerful in ways that Ominis’ gentle consistency isn’t. But what I mostly want to show going forward is Sebastian making the choice to take ownership over his own life and being responsible for his actions. Bring alive is a choice—sometimes a conscious one. He has to reconcile that he cannot erase his past actions or magically wave a wand and get rid of his addictive tendencies. Ominis will have to learn to live with the fact that he can’t be responsible for Sebastian’s self-esteem, and the unconditional trust that he always placed in Sebastian as children is going to look different now.

I also felt nervous about cursebreaker-Ominis and Unspeakable-Sebastian. Cursebreaker-Ominis has been really well received! The people I’m close to are really, really good about not imagining sebinis to fit any one binary (top!seb and bottom!om, for example). That said, I see a pretty solid preference for Sebastian to do work that’s more physical and Ominis to do work that’s more cerebral in nature, and I know quite a few people who love the idea of Unspeakable-Ominis. Here, I’ve totally reversed it. Sebastian will possibly have the opportunity to explore the nature of dark magic and his addiction (he’s still very much an addict, albeit a non-practicing one), and Ominis can use the skills honed in his family to undo some of the damage they’ve done. It also adds another layer of “things they do not talk about.” Unspeakables can’t talk about their jobs—unless I’m mistaken, I don’t think they’re even really allowed to say they’re Unspeakables. Some readers have pointed out that Ominis has never actually told Sebastian what he does. They are correct, and this is on purpose. It will not get better any time soon.

These two really don’t communicate well, do they? My dearest and most excellent Plums made a very compelling argument that the relationship between them in oceans brawn is toxic. I didn’t intend for it to be, and it has a happy ending. But I can definitely see how it is, at least right now. Their lack of communication will continue to be an issue for a while.

[trashjuicesmidrewrite]

Episode 6 >:) (MID Rewrite)

I had to redo the draft I had from ep 6 because I’m stupid and deleted it when I meant to work on it 🥰 I’m like kinda lucky tho because I spent way too much time introducing too much stuff so I guess it’s okay? Anyways enjoy my dinner (light snack) also for Lorelei’s boyfriend NOT ME FORGETTING JAKE WAS ALREADY A CHARACTER BEFORE WITH A WHOLE DIFFERENT PURPOSE. He’s a whole different character yall I just forgot the name Jake was already taken by the character 💀

Episode 6: Have an Easy Explanation for Once…

Lady Ki’s crowning sparked tension and fear throughout not only Chikara, but the rest of Daemos. All the royalty made sure to reassure their kingdoms they were okay, but not all of them were sure. Especially Garmon.

“It’s true that our tensions with Chikara have grown stronger before Queen Ki took Yakedo’s spot. Still, I’ll work night after night making sure our kingdom is safe.” Said Garmon during his speech

Hesitant applause filled the air as guards started to crowd around Garmon as he re-entered his palace.

The more and more Garmon began to think, the more he thought his speech was terrible. It felt as if he’d be better off if he hadn’t said a word. Could he really call himself a good king if he even did that?

In all honesty he’s been asking himself this question a lot these days. He felt like a cheater, smudged, dirty.

What he did to Yakedo had to be done, but what if it made things worse? What if his judgment was skewed? He did feel like there was some sort of change going on.

He could sense Yakedo calming down, something just got him riled up again. Garmon feels terrible that he panicked. Now Yakedo is suffering in some dungeon when there could’ve been change.

He wants to think it wasn’t his fault, but he also can’t blame Mothando.

Yakedo is a terrible Daemon, capable of things even the worst person couldn’t dream of. So he doesn’t blame her.

He didn’t know who to hold responsible.

Garmon couldn’t go further into his mind before a guard barged into his room.

“GAH! Oh heavens you scared me right out my head…what on Daemos are you doing?”

“My King I’m deeply sorry, I couldn’t find you and I panicked and…uhm…h-here!” The guard hurriedly shoved a scroll in Garmon’s hands.

“What? I-…thanks..?” Said Garmon while fumbling with the tie on the scroll.

When he finally managed to unfurl it, he saw it was from Mothando.

It read: “Hello Garmon. Apologies for the dry introduction, but this is urgent and I’m writing this quickly. I’ve told Yakedo about the decision Chikara made, and his reaction is peculiar. He’s starting to display something that isn’t sadness nor anger. It’s emptiness. We could blame the sitting in darkness, yet he’s been through much, much worse I’m sure. What’s even weirder is that he asked to see you. He didn’t hint at it or was cryptic he said it loud and clear ‘May I see Garmon?’ I understand if you don’t want to be near him, I wouldn’t either, but consider. By tomorrow preferably.”

Garmon’s eyes grew as wide as the moon. Why would Yakedo ask for him?

“My…My king..? May I take my leave?” Asked the guard still standing beside Garmon.

“Oh! My apologies. Yes, I permit you to leave.”

The guard immediately rushed to leave the room. Garmon thought it was odd how unprofessional the guard was, but he decided he may have been a rookie.

He thought he should do a better job at funding training for his guardsman. They’ve never been the strongest, and the only things that saved them from death were the animals they controlled.

Garmon laid on his bed still in his outside wear. He decided to sleep on his decision, this was a tomorrow Garmon’s problem.

Lady Grandma sat in the darkness of Chikara’s deepest dungeon bored out of her mind. She’s been through much worse by the clutches of her father, this was nothing.

“Mio…how’s my favorite grandma doing?” Said Queen Ki’s voice echoing through the hallways.

Something Lady Grandma wasn’t at all used to was Queen Ki using her real name. Throughout her entire life not many have called her that, and she wanted to keep it that way.

Queen Ki then became visible through the bars of the cell. She looked at Lady Grandma like that of prey.

Lady Grandma didn’t want to admit, but she felt genuine fear in Queen Ki’s present. When she was her student, she barely wanted to learn anything. Now she was preforming advanced rituals in order to get what she wanted, and Lady Grandma didn’t want to be a victim of that.

“I’ve…asked you to respect me.” Said Lady Grandma sternly.

“Aw, but you’re going to be my grandmother-in-law…if I get your blessing that is…” said Queen Ki with a sly grin.

Lady Grandma’s blood started to boil. If Queen Ki did anything to Hitoma, she wouldn’t know what to do with herself.

Lady Grandma slowly got up, as a magical aura started clouding the space around her.

“I’ve let you take this kingdom, I’ve taught you magic, and everything you need to know as a queen.” Lady Grandma braced herself assuming Queen Ki would use her magic.

“Yet, I rather die than let a bitch like you marry my grandson.”

“Well then you’re not needed. That was the last phase of the plan you were wanted for.”

“What..?”

Queen Ki formed her scythe and sliced Lady Grandma through the bars of the cell. She was too quick for the blanchette to respond.

Lady grandma could on get a few hiccups and sobs through before the top half of her body fell to the ground.

“You were a great service Lady Grandma…I hope you live your afterlife in bliss.”

Ava woke up by her alarm that she still hadn’t turned off since she got fired. It was way too early to go out there, and she knew she was gonna be half tired till about 9:00.

She wanted to be a bit more responsible, so she decided to plan the day out. Remembering how her dads called her last night, she wanted a way to distract them so she could get rid of the odor that surrounded those five guys

At this point they smelled like ass and fish, and she was bewildered to know that they apparently hadn’t noticed until she said something.

She had to get someone who both knew her dads well and would get them to listen to them.

And that someone was Lorelei.

Ava felt really bad about not responding to her text. Even worse now that she needs something from her, but Lorelei’s her only hope.

She opened her texts, and completely ignored Lorelei’s last message.

Ava: Hey girly!

Ava started to feel dumb as rocks, because she’s never called Lorelei “girly” or used punctuation marks unless she wanted something. It’s hard to break old habits though.

Lorelei: Hi Ava.

This was even worse. Lorelei never used “Hi” without a couple of I’s.

Ava: OKAYYYY IVE BEEN AN ASSHOLEEE but yknow I need u for sumthin my dads r worried about me since YOU TOLD THEM ABOUT MY JOB okay srry shouldn’t use caps but like could you distract them so I can get the guys to take some sort of bath plssss????? 🥺

Ava saw the …’s from Lorelei pop in and out. If she said no she couldn’t blame her, she’d just have to face everything head on.

Then, Lorelei finally responded.

Lorelei: why do you call me girly for these things? I’ve told you it brings back memories and I won’t help you until you promise not to call me that anymore.

Ava felt even more terrible. Sometimes she forgot it was miracle Lorelei still wanted to be friends even after they broke up.

Ava: I’m sorry. I won’t call you that anymore.

It felt like centuries until Lorelei finally responded.

Lorelei: Okay I’ll help. It was my fault just know they called ME and I panicked.

Ava kinda figured they called her first. She knew Lorelei was mad at the time, but not mad enough to get her dads involved.

She looked at the time. It was 7:55. Still way too early, but there’s no way all five of them were gonna shower before nightfall. Ava then caught a stench with her nose

It wasn’t worse than what the guys smelled like, but it was still horrible. It was like a wet cat dog mix.

Ava then connected the dots.

That smell was her.

She hadn’t showered in a bit, and that rain probably made her smell worse from the other day.

She needed to take a shower, and it had to be without any of those guys noticing. If they did, she had to make sure they wouldn’t break down the bathroom door thinking it was some sort of torture device she was setting up.

She absentmindedly grabbed some clothes from her drawer, and slowly cracked open the door.

She saw all five of the men crowded around something on the kitchen counter. The fridge was wide open and looked like a raccoon that was being chased by a bear ran through it.

They were all breathing heavily too, and Ava could hear them all crunching on something with the occasional hiccup or cough. She guessed from almost choking on something.

She normally would be more than pissed off from seeing them roam through her kitchen and turn it into a pig’s paradise, but she needed to get this shower done, and this was the perfect distraction.

She quickly tip toed into the bathroom and locked the door. She tried to look for something to block the door with, but there was just a box of toilet paper, and that wasn’t going to stop anything.

Ava decided to depend on the lock and turned on the shower to get started.

“Oh. My. GODS. Human food tastes so good!” Said Noi while stuffing his face with pre-cooked pasta.

“Quiet down, idiot! If Queen Ava finds out we’re doing this, who knows what she’ll do…” Said Asch in a harsh whisper.

“What was that thing a human on the TV said? Foodgasm? I think I’m having one of those” said Leif while munching on a granola bar.

All the Daemons immediately stopped eating to look at Leif.

“What?” Said Leif.

“You do understand what that word entails right?” Questioned Rhys.

“‘Course I do! I’m not a dumbass, I was making a joke! You don’t know what that word means though, do ya Rice!” Insulted Leif with a rising temper.

“I keep reminding you it’s Rhys not Rice! Is it too hard for your brain to comprehend?” Said Rhys, losing his patience.

“Well it’s spelt wrong first of all! How come the scholars name isn’t spelt R-I-S-E? Your name is stupid!” Yelled Leif on the edge.

“Don’t act like yours isn’t spelt abnormally too. Shouldn’t it be spelled L-E-A-F?” Taunted Rhys speaking in an outside voice.

“Well how’s about both of you chucklefucks got dumbass names! Shut up and let me sleep!” Said a human on the upper floor.

“How about you mind your goddamn business before I come up there and burn your bed so you have nowhere to sleep!?” Shouted Leif genuinely meaning what he said.

“….okay…” said the human sounding defeated.

Silence fell in the room before Noi picked up a bag of chips and struggled to open it. Pierce later snatched it from him and popped it open.

“Thanks…”

Lorelei rushed to put her clothes on so she could make breakfast for Jake. Her whole schedule was changed, and she couldn’t lie, that made her a tiny bit irritated.

What was originally planned was that she’d wake up, make breakfast for Jake, gently wake him up so he could get ready, get a serving for him and herself, kiss him goodbye while he rushes to leave, get ready herself, go out to make good on a few brand deals, make a few unsponsored posts, welcome Jake back from work, make them both dinner, and go to bed.

It doesn’t seem like a lot but social media’s her job. So it kinda is a lot for her. Especially the brand deals.

She needs to go to Pineapple garden to advertise their new wine, and go record Puss’s Sporting Goods commercial for their new cat fitness line.

It was a ton of work, and to distract Ava’s dads of all people would be overkill.

She did made a promise to Ava though. Yes, it’s in exchange for something she asked her to stop doing years ago, but it’d be progress. That’s something she wants more than anything.

Lorelei burst through the door to make breakfast, but when she got there, Jake was already making it.

“Babe? Aw…did I spend too much time daydreaming? Gosh I’m really sorry…” Said Lorelei, who sounded like she was about to cry.

“Nah Lorelei, I woke up early today so I wanted to give ya a break!” Jake looked at Lorelei to smile at her, and Lorelei’s heart started to swole.

When Ava and her broke up, Lorelei was in a really rough place. The only thing to take her out of it was Jake.

His dark brown hair styled in a comb-over, his dark brown eyes, silky smooth skin. She fell in love with his looks but the way he cared for her made her swoon.

Jake looked like he was sweating bullets when Lorelei stepped out of her head.

“Oh shit! Does this mess with your schedule? Damn Lei I’m super sorry” Said Jake looking nervous as ever.

“Oh? Oh! No, no, no, babe you’re fine! I was just think how this kinda lightens things today…” She rubbed the back of her head while she grabbed her stuff.

“Why? Gotta film some stuff today?” Said Jake while he put some bacon on a plate.

Lorelei was going to tell the truth, but she thought of how Jake felt about Ava.

He kinda hated her, not in a jealous sense, but with a more “respect my girlfriend” type of hate. At least that’s what she hopes.

“uh, yeah, Raisin Garden and Puss’s sporting goods remember?” Said Lorelei already feeling bad about the lying, even if it was only a half lie.

“You sure did tell me. My bad I forgot babe” Said Jake while handing Lorelei her plate.

Lorelei wanted to say she didn’t have the time to eat her breakfast here, but Jake took the time to organize it how she liked.

She quickly scarfed down the breakfast by sections and put the plate into the sink.

“Alright babe, gotta go! Bye!” She slammed the door in a rush.

Jake waited for a bit, and Lorelei ran back in.

“And I love you so much!” She blew a kiss at him and ran back out.

Jake sat in silence for a bit before a lightbulb shown in his head

“It’s not called Raisin Garden…Pineapple and Raisin doesn’t even sound the same…”

Ava slowly unlocked the door and cracked it open to see what the guys were doing.

She heard two of them yelling while she was showering, but she couldn’t tell who or what it was about. She just figured it was something dumb and harmless.

Ava saw all five of the Daemons sitting on the couch, seemingly in a bad mood. Especially the purple dude and the green dude, they looked livid.

She assumed they weren’t gonna be in a can-do attitude, and she was honestly relieved. She wasn’t either.

Ava walked out of the bathroom and stood in front of the TV like always.

“Guess we’re in a mood today aren’t we?” Said Ava trying her best to not make any of them angrier.

The only response any of the Daemons had to offer was a few grumbles. Ava thought this wasn’t going anywhere so she wanted to get to the point.

“So you guys smell like shit, as I’m sure you know.” Said Ava while all five of the men smelled themselves and recoiled.

“And y’know there’s this neat thing on Earth called a bath. Maybe even a shower depending on-“ Ava was cut off by a scoff coming from Asch.

“We’re not animals, we know what that is. Just lead us to your nearest river and we’ll get started.” Said Asch while standing up and starting to take off his shirt

Ava started to stammer and slur her words out of panic, “WOAH WOAH HEY!”, She ran to grab Asch’s shirt and pulled it all the way back down. She pulled it so far down it started to rip at the top.

“Woah…either these shirts are weak…or Ava’s the strongest human alive…” Said a mesmerized Noi.

Ava’s face started to get warm as she looked up at a now shirtless Asch.

“Fuck…I made it worse…” she murmured as she backed away from Asch.

“Is this how humans take off shirts here? Weird.” Said Asch while signaling the others to take off theirs.

All of the other four Daemons ripped off their tops the same way Ava had accidentally ripped off Asch’s.

“Okay maybe the shirts are weak, b-but I’m sure you’re still strong Queen Ava!” Said Noi while fiddling with the shreds of the now ruined shirt.

“S-Stop riding my dick and I’ll get a bath ready!” Yelled Ava blushing hard while rushing to the bathroom.

Ava slammed the door shut behind her and looked at herself in the mirror.

She had to give herself a pep talk. So what if there were five shirtless guys in her living room? So what if her landlord walked in she be in trouble? So what if that whole incident was low-key her fault?

None of that matters! Because there’s something those guys don’t know!

She’s Ava, goddamn, Thatcher-Valentino! And sometimes she wishes her dads just decided to take one of their last names so her name wouldn’t be so weird!

Ava pumped up her chest and went to setting up a bath for one of the guys.

Lorelei ran up and down New Rune trying to get everything done today.

The photo shoot for Pineapple Garden went okay, but it definitely could’ve been better. She kept daydreaming and missing when people would say things thinking about how Ava’s dads could already be on their way to her house.

Luckily, the commercial for Puss’s sporting goods wasn’t till 2:00, and it was 10:30 right now. That gives her about three and a half hours to distract Ava’s dads. There was no way it would take Ava more time to get those guys to shower, right?

Lorelei almost ran past the apartment building Ava’s dad lived in overthinking things. She opened the doors only to see Ava’s dads walking out of the elevator.

The unnatural blond was Devon. He had a tan complexion and wore a light blue dress shirt with khakis. Around his waist was a dark blue flannel that had clearly been over worn.

The blanchette was Andrew. He was about as white as paper and wore a typical business suit with a pair of glasses. Lorelei remembers Devon begging him to wear something different, but she guessed he never did.

She was really glad she wasn’t too late, but she had to come up with something that could get them to follow her around. She was terrible at lying though.

“Andrew! Devon! Hi!” Said Lorelei with her voice getting more high pitched as she talked.

Devon’s head whirled seeming confused as to where the voice was coming from until he saw Lorelei.

“Lorelei! Hi! How’s my favorite person?” Said Devon speed walking on his tip toes to hug the brunette.

Lorelei slightly laughed at what Devon called her. It used to be “How’s my favorite daughter-in-law?” Until her and Ava broke up. She thought it was funny how Devon respected her more than her own friend, but she couldn’t start getting snarky now that she’s doing something for her.

Lorelei wriggled out of Devon’s embrace and started thinking of a lie. A lie so good, there was no way they’d think it even was one.

“I’m good Devon! U-Uhm…listen I need you guys for…” she was silent for about three minutes, which was totally not suspicious at all.

“A COMMERCIAL! I-I need you guys to film a commercial with me!”

Dammit. Dammit! DAMMIT!

That was probably the worst thing Lorelei could’ve said. What on earth would everyone on the shoot think if she just brought in two random guys?

She’s got to commit to it though. She’s not gonna break her promise, because she knows Ava might break it back.

“W-What? Really!? Wow, Andrew! I guess my TV debut is finally here!” Said Devon while fake fainting into Andrew’s arms.

“What’s it even for? What would we be doing?” Said a skeptical Andrew, “besides we were going to visit Ava.”

Lorelei desperately scrapped at her brain for something that would make sense.

“haha! Uhm…well Ava she’s…got friends! And she’s hanging out with them! In a completely different part New Rune!” Blubbered Lorelei, “Also…they uh need…A COUPLE IN THE BACKGROUND. Yeah…a couple in the background…”

Devon and Andrew looked at each other worryingly and then back at Lorelei. She didn’t wanna know what they thought was happening.

“Hey Lorelei, we should go ahead to the shoot shouldn’t we? We’ll drive.” Said Andrew while letting Devon get back on his feat and heading towards the door.

“Uh…yeah…Sure!” Murmured Lorelei not at all understanding what the two men thought had happened.

“Wait! Wait! Wait a minute! Not ready yet!”

“What do you mean ‘not ready yet’!? Why do you have to get ready for me to take my pants off!?”

“I just do, okay!?”

Leif and Ava have been going at it like this for about 20 minutes, but it’s felt like 20 years. The other Daemons have been getting sick of their bickering, and all they wanted to do was get this over with.

“Queen Ava, it’s rather childish to think of all nudity as sexual. Just let Leif get clean.” Said Rhys.

“Whichever smartass said that better shut up before I kick their nuts in!” Shouted Ava through the door.

All the other Daemons snickered as Rhys’s face grew warm because of slight embarrassment, “Ah”, was all he could get out.

In the bathroom, Ava was in the farthest corner away from Leif.

“Okay…maybe if I count down it’ll be better for me.” Guessed Ava while putting a hand over her eyes.

“You said that the last two times, but guess where the fuck we are now!” Leif huffed.

“A-Alright but I mean it this time!” Spluttered Ava, slightly peaking through her fingers.

“Ready?”

“You’re just gonna stop me again…but sure”

“three…”

Leif untied his pants.

“two…”

He readied himself to pull them down.

“one!”

Leif fully pulled his pants down and kicked them off his feet leaving him naked. Then he just stood there, not really knowing what to do.

“The hell are you doing get in the tub!” Ava shouted.

Leif was about to dip a toe into the water until both him and Ava heard a shriek from the other room.

“Mrs. Oats!” Gasped Ava shooting out the bathroom door and running toward the other room.

The four men who were waiting didn’t know at all what was going on, but they decided on rushing after Ava to help with whatever she needed.

Leif swiftly followed behind while struggling to put back on his pants.

Ava kicked open the older woman’s door to see a peculiar sight.

Mrs. Oats was chasing a fluffy purple cat running on its hind legs with a broom.

“Hey! Hey! Come on, would you really wanna squish me? Let’s communicate! Old hag to old hag!” Said the purple cat before squeaking out of fear while dodging a swing from Mrs. Oats’s broom.

“Who are you calling old hag? How are you even talking? Answer my questions!” Yelled Mrs. Oats.

“What kind of cat would I be to tell my secrets? Or was that a fox…ugh humans are complicated.” Complained the feline while avoiding Mrs. Oats’s broom like the plague.

Ava and the others watched the two bicker back and forth. The cat’s dodging skills were immaculate, it looked as if it was popping in and out of reality just to escape Mrs. Oats’s broom.

Eventually it got pretty tiring for Ava to watch a magical cat call itself and Mrs. Oats the many synonyms for “old”.

She looked around to see the male Daemons absolutely terrified. With all the shit they looked like they’d been through, a walking and talking cat is where they draw the line?

Yet, the more she looked between the cat and the men, the more worried she got. She wanted to stop the two apparently old women from fighting before she finds out whatever happened.

“Alright ladies! Time out!” Ava declared before cutting between the two challengers.

The purple fuzz jumped on top of Ava trying to reach toward Mrs. Oats.

“Yo! Mamacita! Lemme try to win this round, would ya? See? I know human slang!” Jeered the cat.

“Ma…mamacita!? Ew! The fuck!?” Ava cringed while trying to get the cat off of her.

All five of the men were horrified by the sight, but it was mostly because of the cat’s voice. It happened to sound just like Lady Grandma. Asch especially felt petrified.

“Ma…?” He whimpered.

The fuzz ball immediately froze and slowly turned to look at the man. Its smile widened, looking ecstatic to look at him.

“Asch! Whew! I was worried I’d have to run all throughout this place to find you!”

“Devon…Andrew…excuse my language, but…”

Andrew steered the car illegally left and right all throughout New Rune to get to Lorelei’s apartment.

“WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE GOING!?” Shrieked Lorelei.

“We’re saving both you and Ava pumpkin!” Devon said triumphantly.

Andrew swerved and ran about two red lights before slamming the breaks right in front of the apartment building with a screech.

Lorelei felt she was going to throw up because of her panic. She was way too stimulated and felt like she was gonna burst because of stress.

The brunette squeaked startled at how the window beside her went down to reveal Andrew standing right outside. She hadn’t even noticed they got out the car.

“Sorry to scare ya Lorelei, but you should stay here while we handle that bastard.” Said Andrew while adjusting his glasses with confidence.

Devon snatched Andrew by the collar and ran towards the front doors of the complex.

“The hell do they- wait…no! No, no, no! Come back! Ava’s dads you got the wrong idea!” She banged on the car windows to no avail, as the couple had already disappeared into the doors

Mrs. Oats, the five Daemons, and Ava all sat on the couch before the purple cat that was apparently named Lady Grandma.

“It’s really you…? Does that mean you’re…” Asch didn’t even want to utter what he was referring to.

“Yup! I croaked! Don’t really remember how though…” said Lady Grandma completely fine with saying she’s dead.

Asch sat there in disbelief as the cat-ified Lady Grandma swung her legs while munching on some tuna she stole from Mrs. Oats’s fridge.

“W-What do you mean you don’t know!? Isn’t like the whole purpose of this type of reincarnation is to connect with Daemons with those same memories!?” Fumed Asch, admittedly getting more and more irritated at the older.

“I mean, yeah. I’m thinkin’ someone put a spell in my final moments that I could live peacefully with no bad memories. Which I guess includes how I died. And a lot of other stuff come to think of it.” Answered Lady Grandma while picking at her fur.

Everyone in the room sat there in silence as Asch silently did his best to hold back any tears.

Ava slowly raised her hand to grab the old cat’s attention.

The feline noticed her, “Whoops!”, she said while jumping on her feet on the table, “Forgot we had a couple a’ humans here!” She cleared her throat

“Alright so when a Daemon dies there’s two things that’ll happen to ‘em depending on what the family does!” Explained Lady Grandma while grabbing two sardines from a can she also stole from Mrs. Oats.

She held up one, “No matter what ya do, a Daemon will always get reincarnated into another thing. It’s just what we do.”, she completely stripped the fish of its meat, symbolizing it becoming something new.

Lady Grandma then held up another, “There’s a special spell that can let Daemons keep their memories even while reincarnating…except it’s only the good ones.”, she stripped the meat off this one too, except she chose a few pieces to stick in the head.

“Now,” she started while turning to Asch, “I’ll be honest, I’ve got no idea who did this to me, but if I had to guess it might’ve been your father or Hitoma…” she scratched her chin while thinking.

“What!? What do you mean!? What if it was someone…we’re not affiliated with?” He didn’t want to say “dangerous” that’d include his father and Hitoma.

“Listen squirt, if it was someone we didn’t trust I wouldn’t even be dead! I’d be fightin’! But look at me! Clearly deceased, so the kingdoms clearly fine…I think”

Asch was starting to get tired of all these guesses. Lady Grandma probably didn’t know a thing about what was going on. Asch knew dying was most likely not gonna be the happiest memory, but if she can’t remember much leading up to it, it had to be a struggle.

Asch then remembered something, “Rhys you brought that book right?”

Rhys’s ears slightly perked up, “of course!” He then formed a large notebook out of his hands.

Asch grabbed it and started wildly flipping through it. Rhys started to get anxious by the second.

“M-My prince! Be careful with that, I beg! I had to transcribe the whole thing myself. Th-There’s only one copy after all and they don’t let you take notes in it so I-“ Rhys nervously rambled, but Asch silently waved him off.

“Aha!” He declared, “here! In Rhys’s…legible…handwriting is this!”

Asch shoved the page in the fluffy cat’s face. She stepped away for comfort and scanned the page.

“Eugh, Rhys I forgot how…intricate your writing is…” said Lady Grandma as Rhys grumbled to himself about the comments on his penmanship.

With a bit of deciphering, the page read: “Of course, not all hope is lost. To help the reincarnated gain the ‘bad’ memories back one must take them on a journey of sorts. Bring them to sights and sounds that could jog it, or simply just live life. It takes time, and unless their mind proves to be troublesome, all should be fine.”

“Yup…I see it” the cat meowed under her breath. “One question, how are we gonna jog my memory if we aren’t on Daemos?”

Asch’s train of thought stopped as soon as he tried to think about it. It wasn’t possible. At least he didn’t think.

“It said to ‘simply live life’ right? It’s alien but here on earth is living life.” Said Pierce

Everyone looked at each other with a newfound sense of hope. Except for Lady Grandma.

“Damn it! I don’t wanna remember anythin’ bad!” Spouted Lady Grandma while rubbing her temples.

“We need to know what’s going on in Daemos Ma!” Argued Asch

“Well I’ll be damned if you get me to remember shit!”

The Grandma and Grandson went back and forth for what felt like ages. Mrs. Oats had at some point enough of it.

“Would both of you shut up!” Yelled the older woman, catching both Asch’s and Lady Grandma’s attention.

“There’s nothing I hate more than seeing a grandparent not respect their grandkids! If I had the chance to visit my grandson again, I’d gladly help him with anything for however many years I’m with him!” Mrs. Oats condemned while grabbing the cat by the coat.

“You’re only a kitten! You’ve got 12 years with this young man! 20 if you’re lucky! How can you call yourself a grandma if you don’t even care about your grandson or your own world enough to remember a few bad moments!?” Chastised Mrs. Oats while shaking Lady Grandma.

She dropped the old feline and it landed on its feet. Lady Grandma looked dizzy, as if getting fussed at by Mrs. Oats was a roller coaster.

“Fine…but I need breaks. I’ll be crashing at yours most of the time.” Appealed the purple fuzz.

“Fine with me.” Said Mrs. Oats while signaling for the cat to follow.

Before they went out Mrs. Oats stopped by the door.

“Oh and Ava!” She called out, “before y’all start doing anything, get them boys to take a shower. And take breaks! If they smell like that they must be overexerting theirselves.” Mrs. Oats then closed.

Ava laughed to herself until she realized what Mrs. Oats said.

“WHAT? No! You’ve got the wrong idea! They just stink!” She yelled, but Mrs. Oats had already walked out the door a long time ago.

Ava groaned, “let’s finish this bath day…” she got up and grabbed Leif’s hand to his surprise.

“This is why I hate Ava.” Fumed Jack.

“C’mon babe…don’t say that…” said Lorelei while trying to comfort him.

She couldn’t really act like she didn’t have the same thoughts about Ava at the moment though. She missed the meet up time for the Puss’s Sporting Goods ad, so either they found a replacement or it’s gonna be delayed to a month or more.

She almost broke down two times, and she hated crying. She’d be drowning in tears right now if Jake and her weren’t comforting each other right now. Being in a jail cell is a stressing thing.

Oh yeah. They were in a jail cell.

Ava’s dads had made a scene in the apartment check in center that Lorelei was in some sort of “kidnap” situation. They’d also blamed Jack for it.

Jack was detained for more investigation and so was Lorelei because she was apparently “too defendant of the suspect”. So now they were both in jail until the cops finally realize the two men were probably overreacting.

“At least I know how her dads think of me…” said Jack sounding hurt.

“Babe…”, comforted Lorelei, “Everything will be fine…it’s not like they’ll be in our lives 24/7.”

Despite this, Lorelei could hear movement from the other cell. She put her ear to the dry wall and could barely hear whimpers and sobs from the other end.

She’s never really seen Jack cry, he’s always been so tough. Hearing him cry made Lorelei want to wail, so she backed away from the wall to stop that from happening.

“Sorry Lei…” Jack sniffled, “it’s just I planned this to be a big night for us.”

Lorelei wished she could break through this dry wall, pick up Jack bridal style, and fly them to their apartment so they didn’t have to deal with this anymore.

“It’ll be alright Jack” reassured Lorelei. “Another night. K’?”

There was silence from the other end and she didn’t know what else to do.

Finally she could hear a door opening, and the jingling of keys of a guard. The man walked up to Lorelei’s cell and kneeled down to her level.

“Sorry miss, you and your boyfriend can go ahead and get outta here. Seems like the case was some baloney.” He said, and he got up and fiddled around to find the right key for the cell.

“This is ridiculous! No rocks, no salt, and you’re cleaning me like I’m a child! I am a prince!” Complained Asch as Ava scrubbed his underarm.

Ava mumbled curses at the man as she started rinsing the suds off him. The only saving grace of this was that he was the last guy, but this was a slog to get through.

Leif yapped the whole time about how long it took, and how he only really took ten second showers. Which was not only disgusting, but also you can’t count that as a shower.

Pierce just stared at her intensely the whole time. She couldn’t tell if she had preferred Leif’s constant talking, or if this was fine. It still unnerved her though.

Noi kept talking about anything other than the bath to distract himself that Ava was touching him. Ava could feel every insult that was building up over the past few days clawing at her throat to let them out. It was honestly a miracle she didn’t say anything.

Rhys kept asking a question about every little thing in the bathroom, it was like she was bathing a big ass toddler.

Then there was Asch. It was tiring hearing him constantly blabber about being a prince and how he should have some respect.

Finally, she was done. She threw Asch a towel and some oversized clothes.

Ava then triumphantly opened the bathroom door and crashed into the couch exhausted.

This accomplishment was only temporary, as she heard banging knocks from the door.

They must’ve been police knocks Ava thought. She then comprehended what she just described.

Those were police knocks.

“G-Gah! Everybody go in my room and don’t come out till I say so!” She harshly whispered.

“You crazy? Didn’t you say-“ started Leif but was cut off by Ava pushing him and the other guys into the bedroom.

She rushed to the door to open it as the knocking got louder.

As soon as she opened it, she was shocked with the sight of her dads in handcuffs with a cop between the both of them.

“W-What the!? What did you- what happened?!” Ava yelled.

“These two caused a scene at Rune Complex. They also wasted the police’s time with a fake accusation of kidnap.” Said the cop as he typed something up on his phone.

“We just wanted to see you honey, but everything got so out of control!” Whined Devon. “We’re gonna spend a night in the slammer…”

Ava’s face was now adorned with shock and looked at the cop looking for some sort of explanation.

“Don’t worry ma’am, that’s only for resisting arrest.” The cop put his phone away, “It’s only in county jail too. They just have to do a few weeks of community service.”

Ava face palmed and groaned into her hand, “okay…do I have to do anything or…”

“Nope” the cop cut off Ava “they just wouldn’t stop whining about wanting to see ya. Have a good rest of your night ma’am.”

The cop tipped off his hat and led the couple to the elevator as Ava closed the door.

She pinched the bridge of her nose while walking to the bedroom door. When she opened it, she saw no one.

She was confused, her room was kinda small so there’s no way five large guys were gonna hide in here.

“Queen Ava! Look!” Said Noi, his head peaking out of Ava’s wall.

Ava stared at the ginger with disbelief. That was definitely a solid wall, and there’s no sign of damage. Were these guys ghosts or something?

“C’mon! We can’t settle in until you give us your blessing!” Hurried Noi as he got out of the wall, and grabbed Ava’s hand to lead her to the it.

Ava closed her eyes and braced herself for some sort of impact, but it never came.

She slowly opened her eyes to see something that’d only be possible in her fantasies.

In front of her was a large grand staircase with a dark lavender carpet and golden steps and handrail.

These stairs led up to six doors each with corresponding colors that matched the five men and her.

Was this in her apartment the whole time? Could she just walk through this spot in the wall and be here? Here alone. Away from anything else.

It felt like a dream. Her legs were feeling wobbly and she could see dots in her vision. She couldn’t tell if she was about to faint, or her body was trying to handle this newfound excitement. She should’ve known it was a mix of both.

Ava collapsed on the ground to all the Daemon’s surprise.

As Ava started to lose consciousness, she could still hear the five men bickering about what they should do. She couldn’t care less right now though, she wanted to explore this place forever once she wakes up.

AANNNDDD WE’RE DONE. This took a while especially with the setback I stated earlier but I’m rlly glad it’s over. This was a really long episode and I really hope you guys enjoyed. Also I really hope you imagined Lady Grandma’s new form kinda like Turbo Granny from Dadadan bc that’s what I was going for lol. The next ep might not be to the same scale to this one but only time will tell. I REALLY HOPE YOU ENJOYED.