#and this is where the parents start getting involved

[teenidlegirl]

⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀𝓑eauty 𝓞f 𝓣his 𝓜ess ♡ 𝓒hapter 𝓢ixteen

꒰⠀⠀⟡⠀.⠀military!miguel⠀𝓍⠀fem!neighbor!reader⠀.⠀⟡⠀⠀꒱

⠀ ᰦ 󠄀 ྀ .⠀♥︎⠀summary.⠀time has passed and your pregnancy has progressed, meaning you’re starting to show. the wedding of peter and mj has arrived, you are the maid of honor. unfortunately, miguel is the best man. an awkward ceremony for you both.

⠀ ᰦ 󠄀 ྀ .⠀♥︎⠀content.⠀angst, some fluff, pregnancy, brief religious themes (mention of churches), emotional distress, swearing, mild arguments, mild violence, jealous!miguel (yessir hehe)

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several weeks have passed and your pregnancy has progressed. you’re starting to show, a little baby bump. the sight always makes you smile, knowing your little bundle of joy rests in there. since your decision of keeping the baby, you’ve been happy. you’ve been searching baby clothes and nursery stuff nonstop. you created a nursery pinterest board of cute nursery ideas. aesthetics are your thing so you have been searching for both boy and girl themes but also neutral themes as well. so many cute and creative ideas, you have over 200 pins saved.

since this new turn in your life, you have also been thriving. work has been good, publishing top worthy articles which leaves a very pleased jameson praising everyone in the office and offering cookies. that surprised everyone to see their grumpy, sassy ass boss so cheerful but they didn’t complain. happy boss, happy work life. one day you even got sent home early, crusty from your work because he was very happy, and there was no way you would decline that offer. you also informed jameson of your pregnancy and future maternity leave which he of course grants and congratulates you with the baby.

you finally told your family about the baby, which created a cheerful screaming and hugging apocalypse. another grand baby for the family. there were questions about the father but you avoided answering or say it’s complicated. however, you did tell the truth to your parents because you can never lie to them. they wanted to kill miguel but the last thing they want is to complicate things than they already are. instead, they support you and the baby as the caring parents and grandparents they are.

while you’ve thriving on the new journey, miguel still lingers in your mind. his number is blocked to prevent further communication of regret and lame ass apologies. you’ve also taken further lengths such as blocking any social media accounts of his. that bastard deserves tasting his own medicine. he doesn’t know you’re staying at anne’s but is aware you aren’t home. your friends vowed to never tell miguel your whereabouts. although, they would tell you how upset he was whenever they encountered him and begs to them to know where you are. your reaction was scoffing and rolling your eyes. know the asshole knows how it feels, fucking irony at its best.

however, a part of you deep down misses him. after weeks of not seeing him, you felt a bit of relief when miguel finally returned. you truly believed he would never come back and didn’t want to be involved with the baby, that it was the end of your relationship. technically it was the end and it hurts to admit that. seeing him for the first time after those painful weeks made you want to run into his arms and cry. don’t be mistaken, you’re still fucking pissed at him. but that doesn’t discard your feelings for him, the love you have for him that still lingers in your fragile heart. no matter how much you hate miguel, a small part of you still loves him. that is the shittest part of all.

no matter the pain he caused you, that love never vanished. that proves how deeply you love miguel and the impact he made in your life. love is a fucked up thing. you’ve already learned two lessons about it. the first broken your heart, the second rotten it. how could it ever be repaired from such damage? it will be a long, difficult recovery but you’ll get there eventually. this baby will restore your heart.

moving on with life, major events are happening. first and foremost, the wedding of peter and mary jane.

the long anticipated ceremony has finally arrived. the day your best friend marries the love of her life, who is also your friend. you all have been excited for this day to come. originally the ceremony was going to be taken place at a church but mary jane wanted an outdoor wedding and peter had no problem with that, he liked that better anyways. a simple outdoor wedding decorated in neutral colors.

it’s a big day for peter and mj but also for everyone, including you since you’re the maid of honor. since you’re pregnant and have a tiny baby bump, you had to get a size up of your dress to accommodate your gradually expanding belly. it’s still tiny but visible which you don’t mind. the dress matches with the theme, a pretty ash gray satin mermaid tail gown. you and the girls get ready as well help mary jane get dressed in her wedding gown. you and anne assist her getting the dress on, lyla did her makeup and styled her hair. just a cute girls moment, dressing up and doing each other’s makeup.

after doing the finial touches on mj’s appearance, you all step back to admire the bride’s final form. the three of you stare in awe of your beautiful friend. the gown, hair, and makeup, it’s all perfect.

“you look so beautiful.” lyla smiles with glossy eyes.

“honey, you look like an angel.” anne compliments.

“the most gorgeous bride ever.” you add.

mj began forming up her own tears. “aww you guys!”

“no no no! don’t cry! the makeup!” lyla warns.

the bride softly chuckles, fanning herself so the tears dry up and not ruin the perfect makeup. “i’m trying not to, just can’t help it sometimes.”

the four of you gather together in a group hug, letting out all the emotions without tears.

“you guys look beautiful too.” mj gestures at the matching bridesmaids gowns.

“especially ms. maid of honor here.” lyla gently nudges your shoulder playfully.

you roll your eyes, unable to not smile. “oh shut up. the spotlight is supposed to be on mj, not me.”

“whaaat? i can’t help it how cute your little baby bump looks in that dress!” the short-haired woman gestures at your brief pregnancy belly.

“how’s the baby doing?” anne asks.

“they’re okay, just chilling in there.”

“they’ll definitely love the food and cake later.”

you snort. “don’t doubt it, we’ll see what they like and don’t like tonight.”

“too bad you can’t drink, you’ll be missing out on all the good shit, especially the wine.” lyla jokes.

“gotta make sacrifices.” you shrug, laughing.

“and it’s worth the sacrifice.” mj approaches you and gently takes her hands in yours. “you are so rocking this little baby bump, i’m glad they’re a part of my wedding, even though they’re unborn.” her kind words about your baby makes your heart warm.

“yeah, too bad miguel isn’t here to see it.” lyla said.

“wait— isn’t miguel here?” anne inquires, making the room go silent. “isn’t he the best man?”

oh shit.

miguel is the best man. peter chose him to be his best man since they are friends since high school. he is the best man and you’re the maid of honor, meaning you have to walk down the aisle together.

oh fuck, you completely forgot.

you suddenly feel your heart drop at the realization. you have to walk down the aisle with the man broke, rotten your heart. the man who left you alone for three weeks without communication. the man who betrayed your heart and trust. the deeper you think, the heavier your breathing becomes.

your three friends look at you with concerned looks, approaching your carefully.

“hey, you okay?” anne places a gentle hand on your arm, bringing you back to your senses.

“yeah, yeah i’m fine.” you quickly reassure them, waving it off. “just forgot about that…”

“are you sure? mj asks, a serious glint in her eyes. “if that makes you uncomfortable, we can him switch out for someone else or we can—”

“no no no, no switching around. it’s totally okay, don’t worry about it, please.”

“honey, i’m not allowing that asshole near you and the baby. i’ll gladly ask peter for eddie or harry to take his place by any means necessary.”

you shake your head. “no, mj please. i’m not allowing my shit interfere with your wedding. this is your special day and i will not allow my personal shit to ruin that, no fucking way. please don’t worry about it, i’ll be fine and it’s only a few seconds then we go our separate ways. the baby and i will be okay.”

the room goes silent as your words sink in. you can tell she heavily disagrees, so does lyla and anne, but accepts it. the three of them trust you and promise to keep a cautious eye on miguel at all times.

⠀⠀⠀⠀ ┈ ୨ ₊ ┈ ౨ৎ   ┈ ₊ ୧   ┈

the wedding is about to start. the bridesmaids and groomsmen are called to gather for the ceremony. you are the first one ready and walk to the door that leads to the backyard where everyone is sitting and waiting. as you make your way towards the door, there is already someone else waiting in the small room. you recognize that tall, broad figure and chocolate locks of hair any day. suddenly, your blood went cold and heart rate increases.

the clicking of your heels gave you away as miguel turns around a little too excitedly. his eyes widen and lips part open in pure astonishment. those wide brown eyes trail over your appearance, how the ash green compliments your skin tone beautifully, how the dress captures your curves perfectly. your beauty never fails to take his breath away.

but really captures his attention is the tiny visible baby bump wrapped in ash green.

you’re starting to show. it’s so tiny yet visible, visual evidence of the tiny life growing inside you. the tiny life that will become a combination of you and him.

the guilt strikes in like a knife.

his heart beats in both guilt and glee.

guilt because of the pain he caused you and glee because of the baby is finally shining through.

this is first time he sees you after a month and a half. since your argument and your disappearance, miguel has been drowning himself in guilt and shame more than ever. it’s been eating him alive. he has shed so much tears than he could count. your disappearance left him a mess. he couldn’t eat, he couldn’t sleep, he stopped visiting the boxing gym because he never left his home, he didn’t bother to shave due to no motivation so miguel had a stubble for a while.

he was so dysfunctional because he lost you.

now here you are, a month and a half later, standing in front of him like a fucking goddess while he still feels like an absolute piece of shit.

“you… you look… beautiful…”

his weak ass tone and attempt to be flattering makes you roll your eyes in disgust. unfortunately, you can’t deny that miguel looks handsome in that tux. how it snugs up his broad shoulders. those brown locks slicked back, unlike its usual waviness. the intoxicating scent of his cologne, musky. the scent that you love and drives you fucking crazy.

it was an uncomfortable… painful silence between you two as you wait for the bridesmaids and groomsmen to arrive, standing at opposite ends with great distance. you glance around anywhere to avoid his gaze while miguel struggles internally what else to say and simply admire you in silence. his palms opening and closing as a sign of anxiety.

his eyes admire you with remorse while yours look out the window at the crowd of people waiting for the ceremony to begin. with an anxious breath, miguel takes slow caution steps toward you, reaching out with a shaky hand but you catch him.

“don’t you fucking touch me.” you snap.

panicky, miguel immediately takes back his hand and stops, still leaving reasonable space between you two as he stares at you with remorseful eyes.

“i-i’m sorry, i just—”

“cállete.”

and he does.

your fingers rub the temples of your forehead as you exhale deeply. “mj wanted to switch you out with the other guys so i wouldn’t have to walk with you.”

miguel frowns at that but remains silent.

“but i told her no because i didn’t want ruin her wedding because of me.” you spare him a glance as you lower your hand. “peter chose you to be his best man and switching you with someone else would’ve made things complicated and i didn’t want that.”

that makes him feel more guilty. the last thing you want is to walk down the aisle with the man who broke your heart indefinitely yet you refuse to change that because your friends are much more important than your own needs and discomfort.

“so i’m going to say this once,” you glare at him, making him anxious for what you’re about to propose. “the only time you’re gonna touch me is walking down that aisle for our friends. don’t even think this means anything. the minute we part ways, you stay the fuck away from me.”

your cold tone and piecing eyes of anger sends an unpleasant shiver down miguel’s spine. he understands your reasons and obeys, no matter how much it pains him to be in the same room as you but not able to be close to you. he doesn’t deserve to. a light nod reflects his understanding, sealing the deal.

the bridesmaids and groomsmen finally arrive. lyla and anne kept skeptical eyes on miguel, which didn’t go unnoticed by him. it was time to line up, the maid of honor and the best man in front then the rest behind them. lyla with harry and anne with eddie, leaving you with miguel. everyone had their arms linked, making you hesitant to do the same with the man who hurt you. miguel senses your hesitation, which he doesn’t blame you for, and offers his arm to take. with a quiet sigh, you slowly link your arm with his. normally you would grip onto his bicep but considering the current circumstances, your hand simply hangs over without touching him, only your arms linked together. the fabric of his sleeve glazing against your skin. both your hearts leap with great anxiety as it invades your bodies.

you are touching each other for the first time in months, in which feels like an eternity.

you pretend it doesn’t phase you as the ceremony music begins playing outside. while his heart beats like crazy, miguel sneaks a glance at you making sure you’re okay but you focus ahead. both of you prepare yourselves as the doors open and multiple heads turn around awaiting your arrival. taking a deep breath, you and miguel take your first steps.

while walking down the aisle with linked arms and the small bouquet of flowers in your free hand, suddenly everything feels like in slow motion as your mind begins playing tricks on you. your imagination takes you to where you are expect you’re walking down the aisle in your own wedding dress, your dad by your side and miguel standing at the altar. it was your own wedding. a dream you never imagined before. sure, you loved miguel and wanted to be in a long relationship with him. marriage seemed a bit serious since the relationship was still fresh at the time. however, marrying miguel in fact seemed like a dream, if only things were different and you didn’t hate his guts and he wouldn’t have abandoned you.

you snap out of that dream as soon you and miguel approach the altar. you don’t hesitate to unlink your arm from his and walk to the bride’s side, making miguel frown briefly before heading to the groom’s side. once everyone was in position and peter joins, the wedding theme song begins and everyone rises from their seats awaiting the bride’s arrival.

once mary jane arrives and joins peter at the altar, the ceremony begins. as you watch your friends exchange their vows with tearful eyes of happiness, miguel’s eyes never tore away from you.

although it’s shitty of him to not pay attention to the wedding, especially his friend getting married, miguel is solely focused on you. those brown eyes solemnly looking at you the entire time. the longer he stares, the more he drowns himself in guilt. admiring you in front of an altar triggers his imagination in a painful way. miguel envisions his own wedding, dressed in a similar tux, you in your own wedding gown, you two getting married instead. the vision was too emotional, causing a thin layer of tears in his eyes that he quickly blinks away.

the only time his eyes tear away from you is when peter and mj finally kiss as husband and wife, offering a small smile of happiness before looking back at you, watching you cheer and clap.

⠀⠀⠀⠀ ┈ ୨ ₊ ┈ ౨ৎ   ┈ ₊ ୧   ┈

the reception was quite nice. everyone savoring the delicious food from the amazing caterers and drowning themselves in wine and other drinks. classic hit songs blasting through the speakers, children running around chasing one another, everyone seems to be happy and enjoying themselves. the newlyweds smiling at each other as they dine as husband and wife for the first time. giggling as mary jane fails to attempt giving peter a piece of cake which gets smeared over his mouth.

you sit with at a separate table with lyla and anne along with relatives of mary jane. tons of gossip and compliments about the newlyweds over wine. sadly, you can’t participate in the wine party due to the baby but honestly you don’t care much. the food was what you were looking forward to and damn it’s delicious. your baby likes it too.

while you dine and gossip with your friends, miguel observes from afar. throughout the reception, his eyes remain locked on you. every time you smile or laugh, his heart flutters. watching you so happy and being yourself is a sight miguel misses a lot. his mind flashes back to the times you were smiling and laughing at him when you were together. those cute, sweet moments just you and him. utterly in love and had nothing to care about but each other. he misses the way he used to make you laugh or smile. seeing and making you happy was his goal. the way your pretty lips curl up showing off that beautiful smile. the angelic sound of your laughter blessing his ears.

expect you weren’t smiling and laughing at him, your friends get the privilege to witness that, not him. the guilt and sadness returns, smacking him in the face. miguel lost that privilege and he isn’t sure if he’ll ever get it back. watching you being so happy not only makes his heart flutter but also ache with immense guilt. he isn’t the one making you happy, other people are. he’s the one making you angry and upset.

the guilt was stressing himself out that miguel excuses himself to head to the restroom. the last thing he needs is more tears of guilt, especially at his own friend’s wedding. he just needs to clean himself up and try not be a sulking bastard.

rising from your seat, you plan to get more food despite your friend’s protests saying they would do it for you but you heavily insist you’re fine. as you select your food from the caterers, your shoulder accidentally collides with someone else’s.

“oh shit, i’m so sorry!”

“ah that’s alright.”

a deep, rich baritone voice makes you look at who’s voice that belongs to. your eyes dilate immensely. a man with thick brown hair, a beard connected with compelling sideburns. goddamn he is handsome. your eyes briefly scan him up and down. he waits a simply tux yet you can tell this man is buff as hell. he is at least 6 feet tall or taller, either way he’s tall.

“i wasn’t looking where i was going, i’m sorry.” you offer him a sheepish smile.

“no damage done, sweetheart. i’m still standing.”

the endearment term makes your heart flutter, especially in that rich tone of his.

you chuckle shyly. “still, sorry about that.”

“you were caught up on food, can’t blame you.”

“yeah, it’s just that good.”

“logan howlett.” he offers his hand to shake.

you give your name as you shake his hand, noticing how warm and calloused it feels against yours.

“i saw you up there at the altar, one of the bridesmaids, huh?”

“maid of honor.”

“ah, bride’s best friend?”

you nod, softly smiling. “yep. you?”

“just a mutual friend, i know kaine, peter’s cousin.”

your eyes lighten up in surprise, partially because kaine is one of miguel’s military buddies. does logan know miguel? “oh, cool. you in the military too?”

logan shakes his head. “no, construction guy. met kaine in high school.”

“construction, huh?”

“12 years, don’t plan on stopping any time soon.”

oh so he’s a construction worker, you like this man even more. your interest in him grows.

“what about you, sweetheart?” logan asks.

“journalist.”

his thick brows eyes in amusement. “oh, you like writing big fancy stories?”

you snort, shrugging. “it’s my only talent. but it doesn’t compare to building, that’s hardworking.”

“writing is hardworking too, sweetheart.” he offers a wink with a smirk, making your heart swoon.

goddamn, this man is something else. he’s making you a bashful mess with his attractive voice, the sweet nicknames, and flirtatious antics.

you have felt like this since miguel—

no, do not think about that asshole.

“you want some?” logan gestures at his glass of what appears to whiskey, seems like it.

“oh i wish but this one won’t let me.” you glance down at your pregnancy belly and place a hand on it.

logan’s eyes follow yours and widen slightly in surprise at the visible tiny baby bump. “oh, definitely can’t. congratulations, though.”

you softly chuckle. “thanks.”

he glances back at your hand and takes note of the absence of a ring wrapped around your pretty finger. his curiosity increases. “i’m gonna be bold and you can slap me all you want, you just by yourself? no boyfriend or husband?”

“yep, it’s just a sperm donor.” you lie quickly.

it would be awkward to tell logan the truth that the father is here eating and drinking just like everyone else. since you refuse to include miguel in the picture and you two are basically broken up without officially saying it, you simply believe a sperm donor is a good excuse. with this shitshow, it honestly feels like it.

logan hums, contently. “well, congrats to you both.” he gestures at your baby bump.

suddenly, it was time to dance. everyone gets with their partners and head to the dance floor. glancing around, miguel doesn’t seem to be here. perhaps he had to take a breather to get his shit together. you know he’s been watching you the entire time. you can feel his eyes on you, making your body on fire.

logan notices your somber state, making him frown slightly. his eyes follow yours to the dance floor. an idea pops up into his mind.

taking one final sip of his whiskey then setting down the glass down on the nearest surface, logan offers a hand. “dancing isn’t my thing but one chance doesn’t bite, you up for it?”

you look back at him with slightly wide eyes, a bit surprised by his offer. a man offered to dance with you at the same party miguel is. although he isn’t here at the moment, he will show up and see you dancing with another man. part of your heart still beats for him but you remind yourself the pain he caused you. besides, the idea of miguel getting jealous excites you. honestly, you don’t give a shit.

“fuck it, why not?” you shrug and take his hand, making logan smirk in amusement.

with your hand in his, logan guides you to the dance floor and join everyone else in slow dancing. his left hand takes your right and his right hand captures your waist ever so gently, making your heart flutter at the sensation. your right hand rear on his shoulder, feeling the muscles underneath the tuxedo. your bodies pressed against one another. his musky scent invades your senses, just so intoxicating.

you and logan began moving slowly, small steps side by side following the rhythm of the music. it was casual slow dancing while making small talk. logan would throw occasional flirting, making your cheeks your warm and rolling your eyes playfully. you flirt back to match his energy, increasing the tension.

finally, after getting his shit together, miguel returns from the restroom. just as he heads back to his seat along with friends, his eyes caught your figure on the dance floor, causing miguel to stop in his tracks. those thick brows furrowed in envy and confusion at the random ass man dancing with you.

who the fuck is that?

why is that fucker dancing with you?

his blood boils in envy and slight possessiveness at the sight of another man dancing you, or just you being with another man in general. an uncomfortable feeling sits heavy on his chest. suddenly his breathing intensifies, fists clenched at his sides.

that guy shouldn’t be dancing with you or have the honor to be close to you, it should be him. no another man should be allow to so close to you like that. no another man deserves to touch you.

but is miguel really deserving of that honor? especially after what he put you through.

not only is it painful to watch you with another man but also you carrying his child. seeing another man’s arms wrapped around you while his child rests peacefully in your belly. panic invades his body as miguel continues to stare solemnly at you with this random bastard. the strongest urge to storm over there and yank the bastard away from you was getting to him. however, miguel knows he can’t do anything because it isn’t right. he broke your heart, the relationship basically ended which means you’re allowed to do or be with whoever you choose.

but the sight of you with another man causes immense pain to his heart. you seem to be moving on and miguel is still trapped in everlasting guilt. this makes him panic because he’s losing you for real. he lost you the moment he left you alone but now it truly feels like he’s losing you forever.

with the possibility of losing you forever, miguel is losing you and the baby. because of his stupid behavior, he’s losing you both. his fears pushed you away into the arms of another man. it feels like you are slipping from his grasp and lost in the void forever. the dreams and hopes of you becoming a happy family is now slipping away. when he finally came back after those painful three weeks, miguel wanted to become a father and have a family. after much thinking, he decided he was ready for it. however, that possibility is now fading away.

he wants you back, he wants to be a father, he wants to have this baby with you, he wants to have a family, he wants to raise this child with you.

but it seems like an imagination now.

miguel snaps out of those panicky thoughts when logan gently pulls you closer by the waist. suddenly, his blood goes cold like ice. a scowl settles on his face as jealousy flows through his veins. his fists tightened at his sides, nails digging into his own skin.

all common sense and morals fly out the window as miguel begins storming his way towards you and logan. however, before he could reach the dance floor, he collides with one of the waiters, knocking out the tray of appetizers onto the floor. the sound of steel hitting the ground causes several heads to turn, including you and logan. thankfully most of the guests were still partying and dancing.

“chingado…” miguel curses.

“hey man, what the hell?” the waiter, a scrawny looking man no taller than 6 foot.

that whiney tone triggers miguel’s already pissed off self, glaring down at the scrawny idiot with piercing eyes which makes him gulp anxiously.

“pinche huevón, watch where you’re fucking going.”

“y-you’re the w-who bumped into me! you should be the one to watch where you’re going!”

oh that was the last straw.

“mira, cabrón…” miguel yanks the waiter by the collar with harsh force, earning a few gasps from bystanders. “te calmas o te calmo porque yo—”

as miguel raises his fist and the guy begins to flinch like a coward, a firm hand stops him from doing something he will regret.

“alright, let’s clam down, shall we?” eddie comes to the rescue, firming holding miguel’s wrist.

miguel shoves off eddie’s grip and yanks back his hand, lowering it at his side then walks away, mumbling various spanish slang.

heavily sighing in frustration, you roll your eyes at the stupid argument but mainly miguel’s behavior.

“fucking idiot.” logan mutters.

you scoff. “definitely an idiot.”

⠀⠀⠀⠀ ┈ ୨ ₊ ┈ ౨ৎ   ┈ ₊ ୧   ┈

finally, the reception is over and the newlyweds took off in their car to begin their honeymoon, waving goodbye to all the guests. as majority of the guests leave, you stay to help clean up. logan decides to stay a little longer to help you and also to spend more time with you in general. you can’t deny you like him. after a while and everything is cleaned up, you head to the parking lot with logan by your side.

“i don’t think i’ll do this shit again.”

you laugh at his grumpiness. “it’s not your thing, i get that. especially not with this one controlling me, this is probably the last time i’ll be able to party.” you gesture at your pregnancy belly.

logan briefly looks at your baby bump than back to your eyes, offering a very faint smile before leaning down a bit. “now you better be nice to your mom, kid. don’t give her too much trouble.”

your heart warms at the cute interaction between logan and your baby, even if they’re not fully developed yet, it’s still heartwarming.

standing at his full height, he looks back at you. “i might have not been excited to go to this since this shit ain’t my thing but meeting you was the only good thing today.”

there goes your heart skipping a beat again. “well, it was definitely nice meeting you, logan.”

“i don’t mind if we meet up again, just not at a party again, if you’re up for that?”

knowing what he’s implying, you can’t bite back a grin. “i wouldn’t mind either.”

after exchanging numbers, you bid each other farewell with light hug. before he leaves, logan insists on walking you to your car but you tell him you rode with your friends and they’re waiting for you. you two share one final smile before he leaves. while your eyes remain on him, you hear footsteps approaching.

“soooo, snuggling up with sideburns hottie?” lyla smirks, strolling up beside you.

“oh shut up.” you roll your eyes, grinning.

“what? i don’t blame you, he’s hot as fuck. those sideburns are something else.”

“can’t deny that.”

“so, when’s the first date?”

your eyes widen in shock. “jesus, lyla. we literally just met, you know i’m not dating right now.”

“you didn’t exchange numbers for no reason.”

another eye roll. “just as friends, nothing else.”

“does he know that?” she raises a brow.

“yes, i told him.”

she raises her hands. “alright, alright, just saying. however, mr. asshole probably got the wrong idea.” lyla looks past you as she lowers her arms.

turning around, you find miguel observing from afar. you lock eyes for a moment, the first time since walking down the aisle earlier. you notice the jealousy written all over his face. those furrowed brows and clenched fists at his sides. you roll your eyes again before looking away, not caring anymore.

“i don’t give a shit, the asshole can watch what he had lost.” such defiance in your tone.

it’s the truth, you don’t care if miguel gets the wrong idea about you and logan. that man hurt you and deserves to watch you thrive without him.

“ooooo, i like this badass tone.” lyla smirks.

without sparing a final glance at miguel, you and lyla walk away together to join anne on the journey back home. pretending that he doesn’t exist.

miguel, on the other hand, solemnly watches you walk away with your friend just like any other moment. always watching you walk away from him, vanish from his eyes. realization hits that this may be the last time he’ll see you until who knows when. he can’t live without seeing you again yet miguel doesn’t know how to change that.

with a sad sigh, miguel turns back and walks away, carrying the guilt on his shoulders as usual.

𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓. ♡ @reverieblondie @nina-from-317 @kavimoo @aly29a2001 @lazyjellyfish300 @tojishugetiddies @aphinthestars @novelaaaaaaaa @imamexican @obessgurlll @deputy-videogamer @lovehadlovelost @agoddoesnotplead @saintdiior @whoopwhoppghost @tomalymme @skadiloki @asterrrrose @glossygreene @youcantseem3 @resident-clown @kutsipie @zuevcs @totorotales-08 @meowgirl1 @sukunash0e @sirendyes @leahnicole1219 @lisa-takeshi @yehet-moi-ohorat @slowlyshycomputer @wasitforrevenge @webshoootrz @f1-hoff @chaeriescola @espressopatronum454 @trocaderoisyummy @totallygyomeiswife @mcmiracles @celestialgarden23 @tatatida @whdhjfjvjvjfjdhsj @nocturne-light @xenop0p @juneonhoth @ghostsdoll @marshmallowsforever ( if you’re not tagged, age/age-range is require since this fic is 18+, context for reasons why )

© teenidlegirl. don’t steal, plagiarize, or translate my work. ♡

[missdynamighttt]

heyy your last drabble was soo nice and fluff i loved itt if you arent busy can you please do a fic where katsuki is a a single father to a 15 year old girl (reader had passed away-dunno how) and he was cleaning the house when he found something inappropriate like drugs or sum? i wanna see how katsuki reacts...and maybe if you like some agnst since reader is dead ya know?

WHAT IS IT WITH ALL THESE ANGST REQUESTS... THIS MAKES MY CHRONIC LONELINESS WORSE... nyways, i hope this meets your expectations and i hope you like it 💜💜

the bakugo household was unusually quiet that afternoon, the kind of quiet that made katsuki's instincts tingle. his fifteen-year-old daughter, keiko, was out with friends, and he decided to take advantage of the empty house to do some cleaning.

katsuki had always been meticulous when it came to keeping the house in order. after losing you, he had thrown himself into caring for your daughter, determined to be both mother and father to her. the house was a reflection of that effort—tidy, organized, and filled with small touches of your memory.

he reached keiko's room, the door slightly ajar. stepping inside, katsuki began tidying up, folding clothes, and organizing her desk.

that’s when he noticed something unusual sticking out from under her bed.

curiosity—and a sense of parental duty—took over. he reached down, pulling out a small, hidden box. his heart dropped as he opened it to find a small bag of what unmistakably looked like drugs.

for a moment, katsuki just stared at it, disbelief washing over him. his hand clenched around the bag as a storm of emotions swirled inside him—shock, anger, fear, and an overwhelming sense of failure.

he sat down heavily on her bed, the weight of the discovery pressing down on him. his mind raced with questions like: how did this happen? why didn’t i see the signs? where did I go wrong?

the thought of keiko, his little girl, getting involved with something like this made his chest ache. memories of her as a bright-eyed toddler flashed before him, the laughter, the innocence. now, it felt like he was losing her too, and he couldn’t stop it.

anger bubbled up, not just at the situation, but at himself. he had promised to protect her, to be both mother and father, to guide her through life’s challenges. and now this?

he ran a hand through his hair, trying to steady his breathing. "you’re better than this, katsuki," he told himself. "that little girl needs you. pull yourself together."

by the time keiko returned home, katsuki was sitting at the kitchen table, the small bag placed in front of him. the moment she walked in, she froze, her eyes widening as she saw the expression on her father’s face.

“dad…?” she started, her voice trembling.

“sit."

keiko sat down slowly, her gaze flickering between him and the bag.

“want to tell me what this is?” katsuki asked, his voice low but heavy with tension.

she opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. tears filled her eyes, and she looked away, ashamed.

katsuki took a deep breath, fighting the urge to explode. “kei, i need to know what’s going on. why do you have this?”

“i’m sorry,” she whispered, tears streaming down her face. “i didn’t use it, i swear. i was just…holding it for someone.”

his jaw clenched. “and you thought that was a good idea? do you have any idea how dangerous this is?”

“i know,” she sobbed. “i’m sorry, dad. i didn’t know what to do. they were pressuring me and it just—"

katsuki’s anger softened slightly at the sight of her tears, but the fear and worry remained.

“kei,” he said, his voice softer now, “i already lost your mom. i can't lose you too. we’ll get through this, but i need you to be honest with me, okay? you have to trust me.”

she nodded, wiping her eyes. “i trust you, dad. i-it's just, they were scaring me that if i didn't do it for them, i wouldn't be their friend anymore, and—"

katsuki sighs, looking at his daughter. her words... she almost reminded him of you. "i get it, kiddo. your... mom, was like that too."

keiko raised an eyebrow. its been awhile since he's mentioned you. he never really talked about you, but keiko knew he was thinking about you all the time. even if he didn't admit it.

"did... mom hide drugs for her friends, too.?"

katsuki's eyes narrow at her, clearly telling her it was way too early to joke about something like that. but, still.

"no. not that i know of, anyway. your mom was.." he sighed. "she tried her all too. to please her friends. even if they were shitty sometimes."

keiko raises an eyebrow, confused. "do you mean.. auntie mina and..?"

katsuki raises an eyebrow before exhaling, shaking her head. "no. as annoying your aunt is and the others are, no. its just.. old friends of your mom who didn't see her worth. took awhile before i helped her cut them off."

"what did.. mom's old friends do?"

"just..." he breathes, unsure how to go on. "lots of shitty things. always leaving her out, ordering her around..."

katsuki scoffs. "it was a dark place for her. even after i helped her out, she couldn't go to school without crying when she saw them."

katsuki sighs again, looking at her. "kei... as much as i love your mom, i don't want you to go through that too. she would hate that, okay?"

kei is taken aback by the new lore she finds out about her mom, not sure how to approach the multiple questions she has in her head.

"..what did mom do, when she cut them off? she didn't have friends back then?"

"yeah. your mom didn't have friends for awhile. eventually got into ua and met your uncles and aunts. and, well, me."

"what if.. what if i don't meet new friends, dad? what then?"

katsuki's chest panged a little at the thought of his daughter, all alone, with no one to talk to. but no. he wouldn't let that happen while he was here. but he knew a dad and a friend wasn't the same thing.

"kei... you have your whole life ahead of you. you're fifteen. you more than enough time to have friends."

keiko bites her bottom lip, unsure how to articulate her thoughts and worries to her father.

"dad... this is stupid, but... can we hug? its just... the last hug i ever got was probably when i was and—"

katsuki's heart squeezes at his daughters request, walking over to her daughter from the table and pulling him into a bear hug. it was awkward at first, but it eventually sizzled down into something bearable.

"even if you didn't have any friends, there's always izuku's girl and your uncle's twins... i know its not the same but i'm here for you, keiko. always."

keiko's eyes well up with tears again, hugging her father back. and as they stay there, katsuki felt relief despite knowing it wouldn’t be easy, but he was prepared to fight for his daughter’s future—no matter what it took.

[rose24207]

May I request a George Weasley x Slytherin reader where after being dating in secret for a while they decide to stop hiding but George's friends are mean to her when he's not around and she doesn't want to say anything because she knows how important they are for him but George eventually finds out and defends his girlfriend? a bit angsty with a fluff ending please

What they’re like

Summary: George confronts his friends after overhearing hurtful comments about his Slytherin girlfriend, defending her fiercely and making it clear that their behavior won’t be tolerated.

Genre: angst, fluff

TW: bullying

A/N: love the idea! English is not my first language. I hope you enjoy it though! Requests are open and welcome!

Masterlist

You’d always known dating George Weasley wouldn’t be easy, especially not when the two of you came from different houses. A Slytherin dating a Gryffindor was bound to raise eyebrows, but you thought the worst of it would come from your own housemates. You hadn’t expected his friends—people George trusted and cared about—to be the ones who made it so hard.

It started small. A muttered joke in the common room when George wasn’t there. A pointed glance or a scoff when you passed by. At first, you told yourself it didn’t matter. They didn’t know you, not really. George did. That should’ve been enough.

But then the comments grew sharper, more direct.

“Wonder how long this one’s going to last,” one of them said after you’d walked by.

“She’s probably using him,” another replied. “That’s what Slytherins do, right?”

It stung, but you kept your head high, pretending not to hear. You didn’t want to burden George with it. You knew how much his friends meant to him. If you said something, it might make things awkward for him, and that was the last thing you wanted.

Still, you couldn’t hide how it was affecting you—not entirely. You started avoiding Gryffindor Tower unless George was with you. You lingered at the edge of conversations when his friends were around, smiling tightly and letting their barbs roll off your back. Or at least, trying to.

Fred noticed first.

It was during a free period when Fred overheard it. He’d been on his way to the courtyard when he spotted you in the library. He hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, but a familiar voice caught his attention.

“Poor George,” one of the Gryffindor girls said, her voice dripping with mock pity. “He has no idea what he’s gotten himself into.”

“Do you think she’s told him yet? That she’s just using him to make her parents angry?”

Fred frowned, stepping closer.

You were sitting just a few tables away, your back straight, your shoulders tense. It was clear you’d heard them, but you didn’t turn around. You didn’t say a word. Instead, you buried your nose in your book and pretended they didn’t exist.

Fred’s jaw tightened. He wasn’t one to get involved in George’s personal life—it wasn’t his style—but seeing you sit there, clearly hurt and refusing to show it, struck a nerve.

Fred cornered George that evening after dinner.

“Oi,” he said, grabbing his twin by the arm. “We need to talk.”

George raised an eyebrow. “What’s up?”

Fred didn’t answer right away, pulling him into an empty classroom instead. He shut the door behind them, crossing his arms as he turned to face his brother.

“It’s about Y/n,” Fred said.

George frowned. “What about her?”

“She’s dealing with a load of crap from our so-called friends, and I don’t think you’ve noticed.”

“What?” George asked, his confusion quickly shifting to concern.

“I heard some of them in the library earlier,” Fred said, his tone sharp. “They were saying awful things about her—calling her a user, a manipulator. And she just sat there, George. She didn’t say anything, didn’t react. She just took it.”

George’s face darkened, his fists clenching at his sides. “Why the hell didn’t she tell me?”

Fred sighed, his anger softening into something more understanding. “Because she doesn’t want to cause trouble for you. She probably thinks you’ll feel torn between her and them.”

“That’s not—” George started, then stopped, running a hand through his hair. “That’s not fair to her.”

“No, it’s not,” Fred agreed. “So what are you going to do about it?”

The next day, George waited for you outside the library, leaning casually against the wall as if nothing was wrong. You smiled when you saw him, your heart lifting at the sight of him.

“Hey,” you said softly, stopping in front of him.

“Hey,” he replied, reaching out to take your hand. “Walk with me?”

You nodded, letting him lead you down the corridor. It wasn’t until he steered you toward an empty classroom that you started to feel uneasy.

“George?” you asked, your voice hesitant.

He closed the door behind you, his expression unusually serious. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?” you asked, though you already knew what he meant.

“About my friends,” he said. “About the things they’ve been saying.”

You looked away, your throat tightening. “It’s not a big deal,” you said quietly.

“The hell it’s not,” George said, his voice rising slightly before he softened it. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because they’re your friends, George,” you said, finally meeting his eyes. “They’ve been there for you forever. I didn’t want to ruin that.”

“They’re not my friends if they’re treating you like this,” he said firmly. “And they don’t get to insult you and act like it’s okay. None of this is okay.”

Tears prickled at the corners of your eyes, but you blinked them away. “I didn’t want to cause problems for you.”

George stepped closer, cupping your face in his hands. “You’re not causing problems,” he said softly. “They are. And I’m going to set them straight.”

“George, you don’t have to—”

“Yes, I do,” he interrupted. “Because I love you, and I’m not going to let anyone make you feel like you’re anything less than amazing.”

Your breath caught at his words. “You... what?”

“I love you,” he repeated, his voice steady. “And I don’t care what anyone else thinks. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

The tears you’d been holding back finally spilled over, and you threw your arms around him, burying your face in his chest. “I love you too,” you whispered, your voice muffled.

George held you tightly, his warmth and reassurance wrapping around you like a shield.

The Gryffindor common room buzzed with its usual energy, students chatting and laughing as they settled into the evening. George stood just inside the entrance, his eyes scanning the room for the familiar faces of the people he once considered his closest friends. His jaw tightened when he spotted them clustered near the fireplace, laughing over something one of them had said.

Fred had offered to back him up, but George insisted on handling it alone. This was personal.

He strode across the room, the crackling firelight casting long shadows as the group fell quiet at the sight of him. The easygoing George they were used to was gone, replaced by someone far more serious.

“Alright,” he said sharply, planting himself in front of them. “We need to talk.”

The group exchanged uneasy glances, but no one spoke.

“I know what you’ve been saying about her,” George continued, his voice low and dangerous. “About my girlfriend. Do you think I wouldn’t find out?”

One of them, a lanky boy named Callum, had the nerve to shrug. “We were just joking, mate. No harm meant.”

“No harm?” George repeated, his voice rising. “You’ve been insulting her behind her back—making her feel like she’s not good enough. How the bloody hell is that ‘no harm’?”

“She’s a Slytherin,” another boy muttered, avoiding George’s fiery gaze. “You know what they’re like.”

George’s fists clenched at his sides. “Don’t you dare generalize her like that,” he snapped. “You don’t know her. She’s smart, she’s kind, and she’s been nothing but patient with you lot while you treat her like dirt.”

“George, calm down,” Callum said nervously.

“No,” George said firmly. “I won’t calm down. She’s my girlfriend, and I love her. If you can’t accept that—if you can’t respect her—you’re not my friends.”

The group fell silent, the weight of his words sinking in. Some looked ashamed, while others refused to meet his gaze.

“She didn’t even tell me,” George continued, his voice thick with frustration. “She didn’t want to make things harder for me. She sat there and took your crap because she knew how much you all mean to me. And you used that to make her feel unwelcome.”

“George, we didn’t mean—” one of the girls began, but he cut her off with a glare.

“You did,” he said coldly. “And you can take your half-arsed apologies somewhere else because I’m done. If you can’t show her the respect she deserves, then you’ve lost me too.”

He turned on his heel, leaving them in stunned silence as he made his way back to the portrait hole.

Fred was waiting for him just outside, leaning casually against the wall.

“How’d it go?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“They won’t be bothering her again,” George replied, his voice still simmering with anger.

Fred smirked. “Good. About time they got knocked down a peg.”

George shook his head, his expression softening as he thought of you. “I just hate that she felt like she couldn’t tell me.”

“She loves you,” Fred said simply. “She didn’t want to hurt you.”

George nodded, determination settling in his chest. “Well, she doesn’t have to worry about that anymore.”

Thank you for reading!

[kiryoutann]

i wanted to rant about simon.

what do you think so far like what are your actual headcanons for the canon simon vs this simon from this series?

my feelings about the actual simon is quite vague. i've read far more fanfictions than bothering with the actual material so my picture of his is not really...constant? idk

but with this simon, he scares me. just to think about people that can engage in such romantic and sensual acts with little to no feeling involved.

or the mc's father. her dad makes me feel such an anger and injustice that i don't know how to express it and i know we probably won't get a satisfying update on him.

you don't like your wife fine i could understand the distance between them, but how can somebody forget their child no matter if they share the same blood or not, after all the time he raised her

leaving all that behind just to start a whole new life. how can that not eat somebody alive

OHH this is actually a good question. honestly for me, simon is probably one of the hardest character to write about because he doesn't give away too much. too calm. too know-it-all.

we're just gonna talk about the romance aspects!

but based on my head-canon of the canon simon, he has those younger years where he avoids romance, but not this actively and aggressively. it's more because he has too much on his plate (anger management issues, PTSD, depression) than because he think he's not good enough for some happiness (but he also doesn't expect/hope for it.)

canon younger (probably 6-7 years after he killed Roba) Simon lives his life without the need for things to turn out in certain ways. as he gets older (yes, the 2022/2023 ghost) and better mentally, he's become a little more open to the idea, though.

he's still not actively seeking romance, settling on one-nightstands and things that don't require any strings attached. however, he's not completely closed off to the idea too. if he has someone he likes AND TRUST (this is already a high wall to get over), he might act on it. but again, not really actively pursuing it and knows he doesn't need it.

and this might come as a surprise, but he's actually the biggest flirt out there—well, at least when it's only the two of you. when in front of his taskforce, he goes back to acting like he's the calm, collected, cool, stoic, scary lieutenant that everyone knows. can't have you ruin his reputation, right?

"it's private but not secret," with him. though it's not loud PDA, sometimes he lets his hands linger in places like your waist, your hips, shoulders. his love language is act of service, gift giving, physical touch—he makes sure to always appreciate you with compliments and love affirmations, but he's never really a man who's big on words.

WHILE THIS SIMON, hmmm.. he's a bit more complicated. and a mess. at some point, you can think of him as the younger version of canon simon we just talked about to simplify it, but even that's not really accurate considering the different ways they handle "all that sappy stuff" (as simon would say). this one actively and AGGRESIVELY avoids romance.

and while they both (my ver. of canon simon and this simon) sort to flings and one-nightstands, the canon simon is more careful and actually follows the boundaries he draws himself. while this simon outlines the boundaries, follows his rules until an interesting bird enters his orbit, violates them, and destroys them himself before he goes around saying "you read that wrong, darling."

NOW, ABOUT THE FATHER. . .

RIGHT! in my opinion, it's better for them to get a divorce actually and Dad still plays a role in MC's life rather than just leaving her. like, i know it'll still hurt the MC but, at least she can still have both of her parents even though in different houses! at least she doesn't have to feel neglected in her childhood.

okay, you hate someone you thought you would love forever, but abandoning your child? whose very existence was created because of you? talk about the Dad will come up in the sequel. hell, he'll even make an appearance with his two ballet loving new daughters. imagine how MC will feel.

sadly, this happens a lot in real life. fathers leaving and starting a new life without thinking about his "old" family. how people shame single mothers but never the absent fathers. people shame many women who have "daddy issues" or call them "fatherless" yet never call out men's incapability of being a real, PRESENT father.

[dearlot]

NO ORDINARY GIRL | lottie matthews

— pairing: mermaid!lottie matthews x gn!reader

— summary: a collection of stories involving your relationships with the mermaid!yellowjackets, starting with how you meet lottie.

— wordcount: 2,260

The moment you finished unpacking your bags, you headed to your favorite place whenever you're here on holiday: the beachside. It's wonderful there, almost a vacation home in itself. Your parents always reprimanded you for neglecting to spend time with your grandparents since this was their home, but you couldn't care less. Maybe they shouldn't have chosen such a cool spot to vacation. And besides, you were on vacation! You should be spending time at the beach and not at home.

The room that you stay in is filled with seashells and rocks you've collected over the years.

Coming here is all you really look forward to when summer rolls around. You collect things in your hometown, but the nearest beach is miles away, and even though you're an avid collector, you're also lazy. Seashells are your favorite. You love touching them, and you love how each of them is unique to one another. They're never the same. Like snowflakes.

It's an odd day, mainly because there's barely anyone out on the beach with you. Usually, it's packed with tourists and townspeople alike. But today there's just you, the new ice cream man whose name you learned is Chris (the one you remember from your childhood died a few months back. Poor guy. He used to give you freebies on your birthday), the old lady who likes to feed the seagulls, and this weird girl whose head you can see peeking from behind a rock. You've been watching her for a few minutes and wondering if she's alright. She looks alright, I mean, what you can see of her, at least. You thought she was drowning at first because of how long she's been in the water, but she's not calling out for help or thrashing around. Then you realize how dumb you sound. Of course she would be in the water, you're at a beach! You shake your head and scoff in embarrassment, getting up from the bench and thinking you could find more shells by the water's edge. Which just happens to be near where the girl is.

Maybe she's a collector like you? You could do with a friend here you think. You could impress her with your vast collection of shells and rocks. Your lips twist into a smile as you walk closer to the grey boulder where the girl hides behind, thinking about how you're going to introduce yourself later. For now, you need those damn seashells. You've only scored a few of them so far and it's the worst collecting day ever. None are even spilling out of your pockets like they usually are.

When you pass the boulder, you're only able to see the girl's face, which is just as pretty as you thought it would be, and her fiddling around with seashells and other beach junk. She doesn't seem to notice you as she smiles to herself and places her things in a neat line that's color-coded. She's cute, you think. Now you have to work 10x harder to come up with an introduction.

You turn back hopefully, half expecting her to be looking right back at you. But you don't see that. All you see are the waves crashing against the rock and a half-hidden scaly purple tail where her feet should be. You stop in your tracks immediately, leaning forward ever so slightly to get a good look at what you think is your imagination playing tricks on you. Blinking furiously, you brush at your eyes just to make sure, but no, what you see is genuinely real. The girl's tail flaps happily as she hums to herself and messes with her beach junk.

"What the fuck?" you murmur to yourself, definitely a little too loudly.

The girl gasps, her tail slapping the water and nearly splashing you as she scoots herself back. She looks at you, frightened and in shock before she dashes away. She's a blurred streak of white and blue as you watch her swim back into the ocean. You try to call out for her, running into the shallow water to see if she's still out here but there's nothing. Did you just witness a real mermaid?! You're frozen in utter surprise, and you only get a hold of yourself and move back to shore when your feet start tingling from the cold. As you walk back, you notice that she left behind her things, and you bend down to look at them.

Holy shit... she had a pearl?! You've been looking for one of these for goddamn years. Do you take it? No, you'd feel bad. But maybe... You glance up sheepishly before slowly slipping it into your grasp and then into your pocket. You're sure she has plenty of pearls. The rest of the stuff is just beach junk minus some shells you already have, but you decide to take all of it back home. Maybe you could return tomorrow and catch her again?

Yeah, that sounds like a plan.

No one says anything about the amount of junk in your hands when you arrive home, and you plop it down by your bed before faceplanting into the pillows that smell like your grandma's perfume. It's not even 6 pm yet and you're tired. You feel like getting some rest... At least sleeping meant you'd be seeing that mermaid girl faster.

When you wake up, you feel something swirling around in your stomach. Something that feels like you're anxiously waiting on something but you can't remember what. The longer you lie in bed, drifting between sleep and consciousness, the feeling gets stronger. You decide to get up and rub your eyes and stretch, washing away the sleep from your body. The smell of breakfast downstairs fills your nostrils and you sit up, tossing your blanket off before planting your feet on the floor.

"Ow, shit!" Something sharp poked your foot. You look down to see the beach junk you brought home yesterday and realize why you felt that strange sensation in your stomach earlier. Okay, maybe you're a little excited to go to the beach today. You really hope the mermaid is there. You'll have to be extra careful if she is since you don't want to scare her off again.

After you scarf down your breakfast and take a shower, you stuff the mermaid's things into a mesh bag and scour through your grandparents' garage to find that old scuba diving gear you know they still have. You've thought it over: if she isn't there, you think you know where she hides out. There's this small island not far from the beach that's perfect for a mermaid to live. You've never been to it, but you've passed by it dozens of times while boating with your dad and grandpa. You hope you're right, but if not, a nice trip to a cave would be nice either way. There are probably more things to collect in there that you've never even thought of.

The trip to the beach feels like the longest walk of your life.

You keep dropping the equipment and some guy tried to buy it off you which took up entirely way too much time of your life.

But you made it. Finally. You walk around a bit to look for her but she's not behind the rock or anywhere in sight. Scuba diving it is. As you finish putting everything on, you feel a little discouraged by the small dot the island makes in the distance, thinking that you might've overestimated your swimming abilities. Whatever. You grab the bag with a small pout and flip-flop into the water, hoping all of this will be worth it.

Turns out this scuba diving stuff is pretty exhausting. You've had to rest your arms and legs by drifting in the water for a few minutes before resuming. And you've been jumpscared by this dolphin a few times. You nearly shit yourself when you saw it first, assuming it was a shark, but it didn't try to attack you or anything. You don't know why it keeps coming back to fuck with you, but it almost looks like it leaves to go tell a friend about it. Fucker.

When you reach the island, you decide to take a 15 minute break for your body's sake. There's a lot more walking ahead and you know you'll thank yourself later.

After you get up and start walking around, observing the trees and nature all around you, you suddenly spot it. The cave. There's no way she isn't in there. You march your way through cobwebs and branches just to reach it but once inside, you're glad for those cuts on your arms and face because goddamn is it beautiful. The water is a cerulean blue and shines brightly in the sun due to the open hole at the top of the cave. You feel a sense of calmness wash over you just from looking at it. The rocky walls of the cave seem almost alive just as you are as the reflection of the water cast shadows upon them. And speaking of the walls, they seem to have markings on them. You walk closer, squinting your eyes to make out what you think are the words S + J. Hm. Maybe this cave is a popular spot for couples?

The more you look around, the more the cave looks lived in. There is some beach junk similar to what you found the girl playing with yesterday placed neatly in a pile in front of a rock. It has a name carved on it.

"Lottie?" you whisper to yourself. Is that the mermaid's name?

"Don't touch it!" Someone hisses.

You let out a choked gasp and turn around, eyes darting all over the cave before you see her. She's in the water with only her eyes above surface level almost like she's hiding from you. They almost seem fully black because of how big and wide they are. You quickly get up and the girl flinches in response. You assume she's going to retreat so you speak up before she can swim away again.

"Wait, I brought you your stuff back." You hold out the bag for her to see and shake it like a human would shake a bag of dog treats to get their dog's attention. "You left it yesterday..."

Slowly, you inch forward and softly place the bag before her. You scoot back to give her some room and wait.

The mermaid eyes you curiously and with some skepticism, but swims forward to swipe the bag from the surface. You watch as she opens the zipper quickly and shuffles through the items with a smile on her face. She looks back up at you when you shift on your feet and pauses before frowning. "Where's the pearl?"

Shit.

You left it at home for yourself.

"Uh, there was no pearl when I found it." you lie, giving her your best confused look. "Must've washed away or something."

She frowns once more and places the bag back on the sandy surface. "Thank you. I like collecting this type of junk. The others say I'm weird for spending so much time by the shore, but I like studying humans."

The others? Studying humans?

"You're welcome. You're Lottie, right? That's your rock?" you nod towards her 'junk' rock.

She confirms with a nod and reveals more of her body as she swims up and places her elbows on the rocks. The bra? Scales? Covering her chest is a magnificent shade of different kinds of purple. Her tail that flutters gently in the water matches it.

"I didn't mean to scare you yesterday," you mention, sitting down in the sand and running your fingers through the grains. "You kinda scared me as well. I've never seen a mermaid before."

"I've never seen a human so up close either. I usually just observe from afar." Lottie replies and puts her chin under her palms. "Why'd you bring my stuff back?"

"Dunno." you shrug. "You collect stuff like me. Thought maybe you'd appreciate it or something..." You trail off at the end, looking down and blushing. "Plus, I thought you were pretty."

Her tail splashes against the water hard at your comment and she clears her throat, feeling embarrassed. "What do you collect?" She's curious, she'll admit it. She's not even supposed to be interacting with humans under any circumstances, but you intrigue her. You don't seem like a threat anyhow.

"Anything. Shells, rocks, fossils, random things I find off the street. I have a whole collection of receipts from when I go out to eat."

"Can you...show me your collection?" she murmurs shyly, removing her face from her palms and nervously tapping her nails against the rocks.

"Sure, but how? I don't think I can make it here again, no offense. It's a hell of a swim." you chuckle, smiling at how her eyes shine brightly after you agree.

"I can help with that. I can bring you back to the beach in seconds!" she exclaims, her voice high and excited. "Or you can piggyback on one of my dolphins."

You barely have time to process what she just said before she speaks again.

"Can you show me right now? Please?"

You feel like everything's happening all at once and don't know how to reply, so you simply nod.

Hey, maybe you can even bring her back the pearl you stole from her. She'd probably like you even more.

lottie taglist: @heliolottie

[brionysea]

#i'm never getting over Max being the only one defending Mike in early S3#even his best friends since childhood are fed up but she's still defending him and saying it's not that bad#max wants to be his friend so bad#and then.#she met El and got on a feminist side quest because she convinced herself he's actually a raging misogynist#i love them<3#they're so fucking stupid#sometimes you need that sidequest to become truly close friends and it's beautiful#also yes to the caption (I got sidetracked)#people need to stop putting words in Mike's mouth and just stay on his level#platonic madwheeler#mike wheeler#max mayfield

you get me @stranger-feathers. I also got distracted by max's feminist side quest in my tags before going 'no, stay on topic' and deleting them, but it's interesting, actually!

the only context s2 max had was how sad mike was (which these two have their own understanding of, while the rest of the group seems to struggle with knowing how to deal with them) and how it was because of el - survivor's guilt, the trauma from seeing a girl turn to dust in front of you to save you, whatever

that, combined with the wheelers home life being - while not like max's, Not Fun - is how mike ended up driving hopper nuts by hanging out in the cabin for 6 months straight. mike missing el + mike not wanting to be at home + mike feeling comfortable talking back to hopper the way he isn't with his parents + mike feeling the pressure to be in a romantic relationship with el but not knowing how to do that = mike and el making out for months on end and only rarely having a real conversation

el, as always, doesn't really have the context to know how things work and is just going along with it until max tells her she gets a say. when el was living with hopper, she missed mike so much it became a point of conflict (as a cover for el's lack of autonomy, which mike never really did to her; when el was living in mike's basement, she wandered around all the time, and in s3 mike was only repeating HOPPER'S words of el not being 'allowed' to go shopping; hopper recently locked mike in a car and went off on him, of course mike thinks max is insane for breaking his rules), so el would listen to mike more than hopper during a petty disagreement. mike treated her better; he never sold her out to brenner, for a start. even when el DID listen to hopper and stay hidden, she ended up hitchhiking to new york or wherever to go against his rules, because she didn't think breaking them made her stupid

so the set up is a whole lot of mike's feelings crashing together and influencing his actions. hopper, by virtue of mike's talent for being so annoying, forgets about that (despite the s2 scene where hopper saw mike's feelings finally explode, precluded by the two of them arguing over el) until hopper interacts with mike's parents at the end of s3 and sees that they have NO IDEA where their son is, in contrast to joyce freaking out trying to find the kids while hopper made fun of her. then the whole time the kids actually were in danger and joyce was right, as usual, which seems to make hopper chill out. max, who spent s2 trying to get mike to talk about his feelings so they could be friends, also seems to forget that he has any the second el gets involved

which, let me be clear: el definitely needed feminism. her friendship with max, which el initially refused because of jealousy over mike, was so needed. el keeps getting hidden away and controlled by men (brenner, mike, the boys, hopper); sometimes for her safety, sometimes that's just a thing they say while not realising or caring about how they're also suppressing her autonomy, and not questioning their patriarchal need to control women and girls, but in s3 that doesn't seem to be an issue anymore. because of the tone shift, it's not really addressed, but the best I can figure is that el's safety was no longer a problem because nancy burned down the lab and ran them out of hawkins (look at that! legitimate feminism! solidarity among girls - barb's justice - improving el's quality of life!!! I love it here)

I think mike, by virtue of living in a sexist society, WAS sexist. not to the extent that the fandom makes it out where he's the bane of all evil, but he was so caught up in the emotion and fear of losing el again that he wasn't questioning whether his need to keep el tucked away and safe from the world was fair to her until max raised the issue. before that, while mike was trying to be straight, he was kind of infected with the more blatant heterosexism, because that's 'normal' (think billy being such a ladies man that max knows what happy screams are, but also calling women 'cows' and 'bitches'; lucas and mike calling women 'a different species' is like Baby's First Dehumanization)

before that, when it actually seemed like an organic character flaw rather than mike conforming, you see it the most with max - 'this is the boys room' 'yeah, so?' 'so you should go home' comes to mind. max was probably making it a bigger issue than it is, the way mike's SHE'S CONSPIRING AGAINST ME comes across (she kind of was though lmao - like, sexism is definitely a real problem that max isn't making up and people taking that kind of challenge as a personal attack when it's not is really common, but max DID seem to be making Girls vs. Sexist Mike a whole thing), but it wasn't a baseless accusation. probably, max just can't stand up for herself when people are sexist towards her and was using el as a buffer. in s2 max only asked lucas if they weren't including her because she's a girl, even though mike was the one to make the weird boys room comment and max argued with him about other stuff 2 seconds later, and she didn't do more than roll her eyes at billy

remember how mike mouthed off to hopper because he can't mouth off to his parents? max does the same thing to mike because she can't with billy. hopper and mike are emotionally and physically safe to engage with, and the show spending a lot of time trying to convince you otherwise (hopper is legitimately scary at times, like when he threw the door of el's room open thinking mike was in there again but it was really MAX, the girl with a violent home life, which must include things like violently slamming doors open as a precursor to more direct violence) without anything actually HAPPENING proves it. they're not safe because they were born with no moral impurities, they're safe because they put the active effort in to be safe. they could be just like everyone else, which s3 puts a lot of emphasis on, but they ultimately choose not to be. nobody is born a feminist. women tend to get there faster because we're directly harmed by misogyny, but after their argument, both mike and max do listen to each other. mike apologises to el for acting so controlling and jealous, and max works with mike to protect el (from flayed!billy) in starcourt

mike could so easily be Not Our Mike. his family has money and a nice house, unlike will. mike has white privilege and never has to deal with racism, unlike lucas. mike doesn't have a visible disability like dustin. he's not a girl like max and el. mike could EASILY slide under the radar as that wheeler kid with the big house without having to deal with any of this, but he feels more at home with the outcasts of society instead. the mike we initially meet is so lovable because he'd been choosing to be true to himself rather than taking the easy route for years. or in mike's words, I guess, asking will to be his friend was the best thing he's ever done

max defending mike and choosing the words he uses to defends himself with is actually something that can be so personal

[maddy-k-reads-all-day]

Snow Day! - Kate is Alive AU part 3!

Part 2:

“So Riley, this is Margret. She works at the Kensdale Library with me.” Kate explained. 

“Nice to meet you…” Margret replied, “I see that you’re the one who put me in this difficult position!”  

“I’m… sorry?”

“Since Kate is supposed to be dead and now you’re missing, I had to explain why there was a dead body in Kate’s office to the police!” Margret explained, “Well… at least I managed to turn it in our favor.” she sighed, rubbing her temples. 

“YOU TOLD THE POLICE TO WATCH THE TAPES!” Kate shouted. Riley looks at Margret with panic and confusion. 

“Hold it. You’ve got it all wrong. I pinned the crime on Hameln in order to get the police to look into them more deeply.” 

“What did you say?” Riley asks. 

“I simply explained that I knew Joanne and a number of others were looking into a cult that had been involved in the kidnappings of multiple children. I said that the cult had been making anyone who was looking into them ‘disappear’.” “There’s no way they believed all that.” Kate sighed. 

“Oh they seemed to totally buy it actually.” Margret nodded, “Because I made sure to phrase it in a way that didn’t sound completely insane.” she said in a way that felt like a personal jab at Kate. “I showed them all the evidence I had on hand of the kidnappings. I showed them the letters from the parents whose kids watched the show. I explained that the cult had created the cartoon in order to brainwash children and make them easier to trick and lure away from home, as well as teaching dangerous lessons to make kids turn against their parents and go into unsafe places. I told them if they didn’t believe me they should watch the tapes themselves. They asked me if I had more evidence, and I said I’d be able to gather all of it for them and give it to them. We’re meeting again to discuss it on Saturday.” 

“We’re giving them ALL OF IT?!” 

“Kate, calm down. This is why we made copies of everything, remember?” 

“That’s actually really smart.” Riley marveled. 

“You can thank Peter for that.” Margret winked.

“So you need me to gather a copy of everything before then?” 

“Remember which of us has a job Kate?” Margret says, raising an eyebrow, “It shouldn’t take long, considering I organized it all.” 

“Organized she says…” Kate sighs, rolling her eyes. Margret furrows her brow. 

“It would be if you put things back where they belong!”

“Ugh fine…” 

“Um… so I guess I’ll watch the next tape by myself then?” 

“No, I'll watch it with you.” Margret says, flopping down next to Riley. Kate looks appalled. Now that Margret was right next to them, Riley noticed the bags under her eyes. “Oh PLEASE I deserve a break don’t I? After I saved your behind again?” Kate sighed and rolled her eyes.  

“Well alright. Margret, this is Riley, my brother’s child.” Kate explained, “And they found out something interesting…” 

“What’s that?” Margret questioned. 

“When I watched the tape with them, they brought out an interesting side of Amanda and Wooly that we haven’t seen before… and we learned some interesting things from it.” 

“Oooh. Interesting. How’d you do it?” Margret asked, getting way too close to Riley’s face. 

“I didn’t do anything too crazy, I just answered incorrectly on purpose sometimes to see what they’d do.” 

“Oh I see, the exact thing Kate told me NOT to do unless strictly necessary.” “Look, we needed to gain Rebecca’s trust, so actively upsetting her didn’t seem wise.” 

“But Amanda says she trusts me.” 

“By some miracle.” Kate sighed before leaving the room. Margret looked over Riley’s shoulder at the tape they had. “Snow Day hm? I don’t think I’ve seen this one yet.” She takes it from Riley and places it into the VCR. “Let’s see what you got!” she laughed. The tape starts with Amanda and Wooly looking out a window. 

“Wow… it’s really coming down out there…” Wooly mumbles.

“You know what that means…” Amanda says excitedly. She looks at the screen and grins. “Hi there, I’m Amanda!” 

“Oh! And I’m Wooly!” Wooly smiles. Amanda keeps looking at the screen.

“Oh, it's you!” She gasps. “Hey we should play tag next time, okay?” The voice prompt appears.

“Sounds like a plan, a man… da!!” Amanda gives Margret a weird look. “Yeah I don’t know what that joke was supposed to be…”

“Do me a favor and never tell a joke again.” Amanda scoffs, “Anyway… today we’re having a snow day!” she cheers, jumping up and down. Wooly does not look so excited. “Oh! But before we go outside-” 

“Do we have to go outside?” Wooly groans. “It’s going to be so cold!” Amanda gives him an annoyed look. The tape glitches a bit. 

“That’s why we’ll need our snow gear!” Amanda beams. Three blue plastic bins appear. Each one has a different picture on it. The first has a picture of a snowflake. The correct answer. Riley observed. The second has a picture of a rain cloud. Why would your rain gear be in the attic? Riley wondered. The third has a picture of building blocks. Now those aren’t even clothes! “I pulled out these three bins from the attic! Can you tell me which one holds the winter clothes?” Amanda asks. Riley taps their finger on the TV screen at the rain cloud.

“No silly, that’s for rainy days!” Amanda smiles, “Try again!”  

“That wasn’t too weird…” Margret mumbles. Riley taps the bin with the building blocks on it. 

“Ugh… why did I even bother bringing this bin down?” Amanda grumbles, “try again.” Riley taps on the building blocks again. “Obviously that is not the answer!” Now only the snowflake box remains. Riley taps it. “That’s right! Now let’s get our snow gear o-” the tape freezes. Margret and Riley wait, but the TV stays frozen. 

“This TV is such a piece of junk. It does this all the time… all the TV needs is a good WHACK!” Margret says, smacking the tv. The tape unfreezes, Amanda and Wooly hold their heads in pain. 

“Ow!” Wooly shouts. 

“What was that for?” Amanda whines. The tape glitches. “Let’s get our snow gear on!” Amanda says. The tape fades in and out and now Amanda is dressed in her snow gear, wearing a puffy coat, gloves, snow pants, a warm hat, a scarf, and big winter boots. 

“Amanda… wears my snow-stuff?” 

“Not here.”

“Huh? Then where is it?”

“It’s not my job to keep track of your stuff Wooly.”  

“But I put my snow stuff in the box!”

“This is a bin.” 

“Then where’s the box with the snowflake on it?!” 

“Didn’t we throw all the boxes out recently?” Amanda asks. Wooly’s face goes blank. 

“Oh…” “Oh well.” Amanda shrugs.

“Guess I’m not going outside…” Wooly sighs. Amanda looks at Wooly and then at the bin.  

“Well my old winter stuff is here… I guess I’ll allow you to use it. Just this once…” she sighs, “Hold on…” Amanda gets up and leaves the screen for a couple seconds while Wooly puts on her old hat and gloves. Amanda returns with some old beat-up winter boots. 

“Amanda, I think this glove has a hole in it.” 

“Yeah Wooly, that’s why those are my old gloves.” 

“Why do you still have these? I’ve never seen you wear them…” 

“I don’t even know how they ended up here to be honest…” Amanda sighs sadly. She hangs her head low in silence for a couple of seconds. “Amanda… by any chance… Do you have a coat I could borrow?” 

“Do you really need a coat? I mean, you got all that wool, don’t you?” Amanda asks. 

“I mean…” 

“Ugh… fine.” She sighs, she takes off her scarf and wraps it around Wooly. “There, happy?”

“Amanda, this is not a coat…” 

“Well I’m not a genie Wooly. Deal with it.” Amanda suddenly claps her hands together, causing Wooly to flinch. “With that settled, let's go outside!” Amanda cheers. The tape glitches to Amanda and Wooly in a snowy backyard. It is still snowing. 

“Hey look Amanda, I can catch snowflakes on my tongue!” Wooly says, though it is a bit hard to understand him with his tongue out catching snowflakes. 

“What are you five?” Amanda scoffs. Wooly looks sad. “There are lots of things we can do on a snow day! My favorite thing to do is… is…” Amanda bends down and starts gathering snow into a ball then she turns around and chucks it at Wooly. “Snowball fight!”

“Oh I’m gonna get you for that!” Wooly bends over and makes an even bigger snowball that he chucks at Amanda. Amanda smoothly moves out of the way. 

“Miss me! Miss me!” she taunts, bending down to gather a new snowball.

“I won't miss again!” Wooly chuckles. Amanda glances behind her to see what Wooly’s up to and gets a snowball right in the face. She turns around and reveals her arms are full of snowballs. “Oh dear.” Amanda manages to hit him with half of them. 

“Grrrrr…” Wooly bends over and starts making another snowball. Amanda gasps and runs behind the picnic table, which she tips over to make a shield. Wooly looks up. “HEY THAT’S NOT FAIR!” Amanda hits him in the face with another snowball. “You're cheating!” Amanda turns to us and giggles. 

“I’m going to hide behind here and make snowballs and you can throw them at Wooly for me okay?” Amanda whispers. 

“Ooooh fun.” Margret grins, cracking her knuckles. Every time Amanda holds out a snowball, Margret would tap the screen directly at Wooly’s face. Then she noticed a glitch where she could just keep tapping the screen and Amanda wouldn’t even need to hand her a snowball.

“Uh…” Amanda looks confused and a little bothered by this.  

“What are you doing?!” Riley hissed. 

“What? It’s fun!” Margret cackled. 

“Until he gets angry!” 

“Haha! Wooly doesn’t get angry!” 

“ENOUGH OF THIS!” Wooly screams, throwing his scarf on the ground. Amanda watches him head back towards the house. 

“Wha? That’s not right… you’re supposed to come over and get me in the face with a snowball remember? That’s how this always goes!” Amanda calls out, sounding really disappointed. Wooly ignores her and storms inside. “Ugh now look at what you did. Now I can’t have my snowball fight.” Amanda pouts, crossing her arms. Then she looks at the snowball next to her and chucks it at the screen. “What should I do now? Should I build a snowman, go sledding, or make a snow angel?” she asks us. The voice prompt appears.

“Snow angel!” Riley calls out. Amanda smiles and flops down in the snow waving her arms and legs to create an angel. She gets up to see what she made and frowns. 

“It doesn’t really look like an angel.” she grumbles. It looks like an angelic version of a certain cartoon mouse. Riley thinks. She kicks snow over it and turns back to the screen. “What should I do now?” she asks. The voice prompt appears.

“Talk to Wooly. Get him to come back outside.” Margret suggested. Amanda scowls. She elbows Riley playfully. Ooooh.

“Wrong. The options were to go sledding or build a snowman.” Amanda explains in an annoyed tone. “Try again.”

“Talk to Wooly.” both Riley and Margret said in somewhat unison. Amanda looks annoyed at the idea, but considers it.

“Mmmm… Fine!” she groans, “Wooly!” she calls out loudly. There is no response. “Oops guess he doesn’t wanna come back outside so we’ll pick something else!” Amanda shrugs. The voice prompt appears again. 

“Go inside and talk to him for real!” Margret taunted.

“Oh so you want me to clean up your mess.” Amanda groans, rolling her eyes and trudging back inside. She finds Wooly sitting on the couch sipping some hot cocoa. “Wooly!” she shouts. Wooly gets startled and starts choking on his cocoa. 

“UGH! Amanda?!” he gasps, sounding extremely irritated, he takes a deep breath and regains his composure, “You’re back quickly, was it too cold out there?” Amanda furrows her brow. He wears a smug smile. “No… it’s just… our friends kept asking me to bring you back outside.” Amanda grumbles. Wooly’s smile vanishes instantly. 

“What so they can shove five more snowballs down my throat? Hard pass.” 

“Forget it. I’ll build a snowman by myself!” Amanda grumbles. Wooly looks extremely bothered by this. 

“Fine, I'll come.” he mumbles, following Amanda outside. She rolls her eyes. Wooly digs his scarf out from under the snow and puts it on. 

“Are you stupid?” 

“What?” 

“That’s been sitting in the snow for-” Wooly tilts his head in confusion. “It will make you more cold!” Amanda exclaims. 

“Oh.” Wooly takes the scarf off and drops it in the snow once more. 

“Alright what were we doing again?” Amanda taps her chin in thought. 

“Building a snowman- OOF!” It seems the tapping the screen glitch is still in effect and Wooly had gotten hit in the face with a snowball once again with an amount of force that knocked him flat on the ground. Amanda glares at the screen. 

“Do you hate him or something?” Riley hissed. 

“Actually yeah.” Margret shrugged. Riley gives her a weird look. “I’m joking, I just really like to tease him sometimes. It’s funny and there’s never any consequences. Unlike with Amanda…” I’m not so sure about that. Riley thinks, remembering what happened to Joanne and shuddering. “That reminds me I have never seen the Amanda demon attack someone so violently before…” Margret said, tapping her chin. “That’s because it-” 

“So are you guys going to apologize to Wooly or?” Amanda scoffs, tapping her foot. Wooly’s face lights up with joy. The voice prompt appears. “I’m sorry Wooly it won’t happen again HA!” Margret taps the screen again, this time Amanda smacks the snowball to the ground. 

“No! Bad! Bad!” Amanda scolds, waving her finger, “I told you to stoppit!” What is she, a dog? Riley thinks. “I’m trying to have a snow day here and you’re messing it all up!” she screams. 

“Th-thanks for saving me…” Wooly says, twirling his fingers awkwardly. Amanda rolls her eyes. 

“I didn’t do that for you.” she groans, glaring directly at Margret. “Ugh. Let’s just build that snowman.” Amanda sighs, then her smiley demeanor returns. “To build a snowman how many snowballs do we need?” she asks. The voice prompt appears. 

“Two.” Riley answers. Amanda scowls. What did I do this time?

“No, that's not right.” she grumbles, shaking her head. 

“I thought it was…” Wooly mumbles. Me too Wooly, me too…

“Try again.” the voice prompt appears again. 

“Fifty-seven!” Margret beams. Amanda has a creepy, clearly annoyed smile on her face. “I’m really starting to like this whole, pushing Amanda and Wooly’s buttons game.” 

“I just answer some questions wrong sometimes to get a reaction, you’re just bullying them!” Riley protested.

“Whoops, did I go too far?”

“That’s an understatement.” Riley replied. Seriously… I don't want to get attacked again…

“How many snowballs do we need?” Amanda asks. The voice prompt appears yet again. 

“Three?”

“That's right!” Amanda beams. 

“Ugh but three is going to make this take forever! Can't we just do two?” Wooly complains.

“What happened to having a bit of patience Wooly?” Amanda says, winking at the screen. 

“I see what you did there.” Wooly sighs. Amanda looks quite proud of herself. “But seriously it's cold out here, let's just do two.”

“We're doing three!” Amanda insists.

“But Amanda-” 

“My d----” the tape glitches loudly, static covers the screen. “My da----” the tape glitches again. “My dad---” behind the static Riley hears Amanda let out a little screech of frustration. “And I always made our snowmen with three snowballs! Always! It has to be three! It has to be!” 

“Amanda… huh?” Amanda throws her coat in Wooly's face. 

“Wear this if you're so cold. I'm making my snowman!”

“Amanda! Put your coat back on, you'll get a cold!”

“I’d rather catch a cold then listen to you complain all day!” Amanda scoffs. Wooly looks offended by this.

“I- I'm fine Amanda I have my wool… I don't want you getting sick.” Amanda rolls her eyes and starts rolling a snowball. “Amanda put your coat back on!” Amanda ignores him. He walks over and puts her coat over her shoulders and starts helping her roll the ball. 

“Wooly… ugh whatever.” Amanda stops and puts her coat back on. If you start working on the second snowball, we'll get this done quicker.” 

“Ah, okay.” Wooly goes and starts forming another snowball. While he's doing this, he starts humming a little tune. Hey I recognize that song! I think I used to hear this on the radio… a long time ago… What was it called? Riley wonders.

“Wooly, what song is that?” Amanda asks.

“I… don't know…” Wooly mumbles, “I just know they used to play it on the radio ALL THE TIME. It was pretty annoying actually.” 

“I think I remember that… Do you remember any of the words?” Amanda asks.

“No…”

“Hum it again.”

“Um… okay…” Wooly starts to hum the melody again. 

“I think you're humming it off-key. Didn't it go…” Amanda starts humming along. 

“Yeah yeah! That's right… then it went…” Wooly starts humming a different part. 

“Yeah… but like… I think the notes were a bit higher?”

“Quit being such a critic!” Wooly pouts.

“Oh sorry, I’ve just never met someone so bad at humming before. How can you be bad at humming? It’s so easy!” 

“Is this snowball big enough?” Wooly asks flatly, glaring daggers at Amanda.

“Yeah I'd say so. I gotta finish the body and work on the head… you go get the rest of the stuff?”

“Rest of the stuff? What else do we need for a snowman?” Wooly asks. Riley taps on some sticks on the ground behind him. “Oh yeah, our snowman needs some arms! Help me pick some out!” Wooly runs over to the sticks. Does it matter? Riley wonders. They tap on a random stick. “No… that's too short. We're making a snowman not a T-Rex!” Riley taps a different stick. “Haha no. That's way too long!” Riley taps a different stick. Wooly picks it up. “I don't like the way this one feels.” WOOLY QUIT BEING SO PICKY!!! Riley thinks in annoyance. Margret picks a stick that is sticking up out of the ground. Wooly goes to pick it up, then realizes it's stuck in the ground. “Oh! It's a little sapling! A baby tree!” He giggles, “we can't use this little guy. Ah! Hold on!” Wooly disappears off-screen for a couple of seconds and comes back with his scarf. “Here… so we don't lose track of where it is!” 

“Wooly I'm done! Do you have the other stuff?” Amanda calls out offscreen.

“No!” Wooly calls back. 

“What's taking you so long?” Amanda asks, walking over. 

“Look Amanda, I found a baby tree.” 

“Oh… we'll have to dig it up.”

“What? Why?!”

“Look Wooly, it's too close to where our water pipes are underground-”

“Why do you know that?”

“Don't ask. The point is once its roots grow big it will make a big mess. We'll have to move it when the snow melts.” 

“No seriously why do you know about this-”

“Same thing happened at my house one time. There was a tree that grew too close to the piping system and my d--- had to get the tree removed and the pipes replaced. It was a massive pain in the butt.” Amanda explains. 

“I feel like this is getting really off-topic from the episode…” Wooly mumbles, looking unsure. 

“You asked.” Amanda shrugs, picking up the long stick and the short stick.

“Amanda those aren't the right sticks!” Wooly protests. 

“Right sticks? What are you talking about?” Amanda says, looking confused. The tape glitches and Amanda and Wooly are standing in front of three snowballs. “Alright, which snowball goes on the bottom?” Amanda asks. Riley taps the smallest one. “What? How do you even think that? Did you mishear me? I said on the bottom.” Amanda scolds, “Try again.” She's taking this really seriously… Riley thinks. Riley taps the biggest one. “That's right. Now which one goes on top of it?” She asks. Margret taps the medium snowball. “Right. And the smallest one goes on the very very top.” Amanda says. “Help me Wooly.” 

“Oh okay.” Wooly says. Amanda and Wooly take the medium snowball and place it on top of the biggest one. Then Amanda reaches up and puts the head on. The tape glitches and a smiling face is now on the snowman. 

“I think we outdid ourselves, Wooly.” Amanda says proudly. Wooly walks over and places two round snowballs on either side of the snowman's head.

“Look, now it's you.” He smiles. Amanda squints her eyes at the snowman. 

“Hmm…” the tape glitches and another snowman appears next to hers, with two snowballs instead of three. It bore a striking resemblance to Wooly. “Look! It looks just like you!”

“Okay I don't know if it looks just like me.” Wooly chuckles.

“It's round like you.” Amanda points out, poking Wooly's wool. “Oh wow that's soft…” she mumbles, still poking Wooly. 

“That tickles!” Wooly laughs. “Wait a minute- HEY!” Amanda runs off-screen giggling.

“Now where was that sled?” Suddenly, a bunch of random cartoon sound effects start to play. While that's happening, the opossum sneaks over.

“Hey! It's you! What are you-” the opossum kicks the two snowmen really hard and they come toppling down on top of Wooly. Amanda returns to find Wooly under a pile of snow.

“Wooly! What happen-” she notices the opossum scampering away. “That little-”

“I think we should kill him.” Wooly says, but it's muffled under all the snow. Amanda pulls him out. 

“That’s my line-” Amanda pauses for a moment and takes a deep breath, “No no it's fine…” she says through gritted teeth. “It's just snow after all…” 

“FINE?! HOW IS THIS-” 

“Now let's go sledding-ing-ing-ing-ing!” She beams, lifting up her sled. The tape glitches to them standing in front of three hills, Wooly appears to be shivering and huddling close to Amanda. “Can you tell me which one is the biggest?” Wooly looks at the biggest hill and gulps. 

“Or maybe a smaller hill…” he mumbles. Riley taps on the medium size hill. “Mmm… I don't know…” Wooly sounds unsure.

“Biggest hill! Biggest hill!” Amanda chants. 

“Actually I… I think our friend's pick will be fine.” Wooly laughs nervously. Margret taps on the biggest hill. “Nooo!”

“Yessssss! Let's gooo!” the tape glitches to the top of the hill. “Alrighty then! Front or back Wooly?”

“I mean…”

“Well if you go in front it'll probably be faster since you're-” Amanda compares their heights, “nevermind I'm taller.”

“Why did you count your hair in that?” 

“Okay fine we're the same height so it doesn't matter.” 

“I don't even want to do this.” Wooly whimpers. 

“Whatever I'm going in front.” Amanda says, sitting on the sled. She looks back at Wooly and taps the empty space behind her. He stares at her. She glares at him. “Okay I'm going. Have fun being alone up here next to those spooky old woods.” Amanda says. There indeed were some spooky-looking woods behind them. Wooly gulps.

“Wait! Wait! I'm coming!” Wooly sits down on the sled behind her. Amanda kicks the sled and makes it go down fast. Amanda is laughing her butt off the whole way down. “Amanda… what's that bump up ahead?” Wooly asks.

“Huh? Uh-oh.” There was a big log in the middle of the snow. The sled hit it and flung Amanda and Wooly into the air and back down face-first into the snow. “THAT WAS AWESOME LET'S DO IT AGAIN!” Amanda shouts excitedly. 

“I think I saw my life flash before my eyes… ACHOO!” 

“Oh come on Wooly it wasn’t THAT bad was it?” 

“I'm COLD.” Wooly snaps, before slipping on some ice and landing back into the snow. “UGH I HATE SNOW DAYS!” Amanda looks at the screen awkwardly. “I'm cold, I'm wet, and I WANT TO GO HOME!” Wooly shouts miserably.

“Well this is new…” Amanda mumbles. “C'mon Wooly, pull yourself together…” 

“I just wanna go home…”

“Okay okay… we're going home, we're going home! Pick yourself up… wow you are cold…” she says, helping Wooly off the ground. She unzips her coat and wraps it around him.

“I told you I don't need that.”

“Put it on.” Amanda says sternly. Wooly puts on the coat. Amanda immediately goes to zip it up. “Ugh why do you always have so much wool? The zipper keeps getting stuck! There we go! Sheesh! They don't call you Wooly for nothing!”

“Amanda…” Wooly grumbles. 

“I'm just teasing you a little. Chill out. Oh wait-” Amanda starts to giggle. Wooly rolls his eyes. “Alright Wooly, let's get home!” Amanda beams. The credits theme starts playing and the credits roll. The Hameln logo appears and starts glitching all over the place before the tape falls out. Weird. Riley thinks. 

“Interesting… I've never seen Wooly get upset like that before…” Margret pointed out, “though it could just be that I haven't been watching the tapes as long as Kate…”

“It’s rare but… I don’t think we want to push it… see about Joanne’s death-” 

“Alright Margret, I think I have everything.” Kate sighed, looking and sounding completely exhausted. 

“That was fast… I need to double check…” Margret said skeptically. 

“Wait-” “Guess that means you’re on puzzle duty Riley!” Margret said with a wink, making finger guns at Riley. When am I not on puzzle duty? Riley wonders. They look back at the fallen tape. I really think we should be a little more careful around Wooly…

Authors Note: Not 100% sure how canon they act in this. I think at some point I might've stopped caring a little. I decided I wanted Margret to be silly. We need a comedic character in these trying times. What with all the angst and whatnot.

[bluejaysandblackbats]

Keepsafes

Fandom: Batman, DC Comics

Summary: AU where Martha and Bruce survive, and they adopt the batkids.

Chapters: 14/?

Characters: Bruce Wayne, Thomas Wayne, Martha Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Harvey Dent, Dick Grayson, Cassandra Cain, David Cain, Talia al Ghul, Damian Wayne, Jason Todd, Tim Drake

Relationships: Thomas Wayne/Martha Wayne/Alfred Pennyworth, BruHarvey, BruTalia

Additional Tags: Canon Divergent AU, Hurt/Comfort, Bruce Wayne is Not Batman, Angst, Alfred Pennyworth Knows All, Bruce Wayne Only Has One Child, Bruce Wayne is Not An Only Child, Bi Bruce Wayne

Chapter Fourteen: Bed

Bruce did his homework while Harvey worked on a class project with another boy from their school. He lay back on his bed, glancing up from his book at Harvey when he thought Harvey was distracted. “So, Harvey, you live here with Bruce all the time?” the other boy questioned. 

“Yeah… It’s closer to the school and the Juvenile Committee, too. I’ve got that after school most of the time,” Harvey answered. Alfred brought in a tray, carrying everyone’s dinner, and Bruce hopped out of bed to help him. 

“Thanks, Alfred. Are you about to eat?” Bruce asked. Alfred nodded. “Have a nice meal, Alfred.” 

“Thank you, Master Bruce. You as well,” Alfred smiled. Bruce ate his pasta quietly while Harvey and his partner kept working on their history project. Bruce didn’t want to butt in or be unnecessarily pushy, so he didn’t say a word. Besides, Bruce was halfway through his junior year work, and it wouldn’t have been fair to interject when it came to their homework. Harvey was a straight ‘A’ student involved in every extracurricular activity he could fit into his schedule before JCC. Harvey loved school, and he was driven to be the best at everything he did. Harvey was the definition of a go-getter. 

The other boy looked around the room and scratched his head. “There’s only one bed in here,” the boy noted. 

“Harvey’s room is down the hall. We always do homework in my room,” Bruce answered before taking a large bite of pasta. 

“Does your butler cook on a schedule?” the boy questioned. 

Bruce squinted at the boy. “Alfred cooks whatever he feels like cooking,” Bruce sternly answered. Harvey looked up at Bruce, and he widened his eyes. “He’s very important to us… More than a butler.” Bruce softened as he said it. He’d started getting used to seeing Alfred as a third parent, but he’d nearly forgotten that no one outside of his home knew that. 

**

After the other boy left, Harvey and Bruce cleaned up, and Bruce sat on the edge of his bed. “Goodnight, Harvey,” Bruce whispered. His voice was unemotional despite the tightness in his throat at the idea of Harvey not wanting to share a bedroom anymore. He knew they were too old, and it seemed weird to other people, but Harvey was his best friend and no one should’ve been allowed to change what that meant to either of them. 

The fact that Harvey probably would’ve slept in his room if that boy hadn’t mentioned the beds sent Bruce into a childlike rage. It took everything in him not to throw a tantrum about it. Still, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to sleep in his room alone. He’d been bunking with his parents on and off because worrying about Harvey kept him up most nights. After Harvey went to bed, Bruce knocked on his parents’ bedroom door. “Master Bruce?” Alfred whispered. 

It wasn’t unusual for Alfred to answer his parents’ bedroom door. They’d all sort of moved into the main bedroom. “You wanna watch some TV?” Bruce asked. Alfred nodded. One of his parents would usually sit and watch TV until Bruce fell asleep. Alfred was the best company in Bruce’s opinion. He’d tell Bruce stories and work on little things. Sometimes he’d tell Bruce about his little personal projects. 

Alfred turned on Men Behaving Badly because Law & Order came on immediately after. “Alfred, I love you,” Bruce whispered as he curled up and closed his eyes.

“I love you too, Master Bruce. This brings back memories of you as an infant,” Alfred smiled. 

“It does?” Bruce asked. 

Alfred pulled Bruce’s blanket up over Bruce’s shoulder. “This was my time with you when you were small. We would watch late-night movies on CBS… You’ve always liked to have company with you while you slept. We worried you would never sleep on your own. And when you were about three or four, you said something interesting to me. ‘Mummy and Daddy don’t sleep alone.’ I couldn’t argue with it,” Alfred smiled as he went on and on about how sweet Bruce was as a baby. 

“Alfred, when did you realize you loved Dad?” Bruce whispered, interrupting Alfred without meaning to. 

“When I saw the way that he spoke to people in professional capacities. He never chastised people for mistakes. In fact, he was so gentle when I started to work for him, that I feared that he had no fight in him at all. I imagine you’re more like Martha than Thomas in that respect,” Alfred whispered.

“Hm?” Bruce asked, half asleep. 

“I know you didn’t go to summer camp… And I know you’ve been going to the gym after school to meet with Ted Grant for boxing lessons,” Alfred smiled. Bruce tensed up, but Alfred patted his back. “I understand that it comforts you… All I ask is that you be careful, and you should call me if you ever run into any trouble.” Bruce relaxed and nodded. 

“Always, Alfred,” Bruce reassured him. 

“And Master Bruce, sometimes people need to know how you feel about them. How else will you know if they’re able to return your affections?” Alfred asked. 

“Every time I open my mouth to say what I want to say, I push—. I’m dismissive without trying to be. I try to convince myself that I’m alright with being on my own, but I think you’re right about me. I’ve always liked to have company. I guess that will never change… No matter how badly I try to make it so,” Bruce whispered. 

“You’ll be alright in time. I know you will,” Alfred whispered, “Now off to bed. I know you don’t like to watch this show.”

“I like to listen, though,” Bruce joked. 

Alfred smiled down at him. “Oh hush,” Alfred replied. 

**

Harvey woke up in a cold sweat, nauseous and shaking as he exited his room and stumbled out into the hallway. He walked straight into Bruce’s room and climbed into his bed. Bruce woke up and draped the blanket over Harvey as he trembled from the cold and shock of his nightmare. Bruce moved close enough to see Harvey’s face in the dark. “Harvey?” Bruce whispered as he tried to lock eyes with Harvey.

“I feel like I might throw up,” Harvey whispered. 

“Okay. You can throw up. I never liked these sheets anyway,” Bruce whispered. Harvey hyperventilated as he tried to explain his gruesome dream to Bruce. The memory of his dream seemed to disappear in thin air before he tried to speak. “Come up here. Lay on my chest for a little bit.” 

“Bruce, I shouldn’t—.”

“Harvey, you can’t breathe, and you’re shaking. Come up here,” Bruce interrupted. Harvey obeyed and pressed his ear against Bruce’s chest to listen to his heart. Bruce hesitated before rustling a gentle hand through Harvey’s hair. He started humming the tune to Blue Velvet .

“You never told me you could sing,” Harvey whispered. 

“I’m not singing. I’m humming… And if you tell anyone any different I won’t speak to you for a week,” Bruce replied. 

“What’s it like getting trained by a famous boxer? Do you feel like Rocky?” Harvey asked. 

“Nuh-uh. I feel like a ninety-pound weakling every time I spar with him… But that doesn’t bother me. It’s the way the little girl tells me what I’m doing wrong in the ring. She’s a cute kid. Don’t get me wrong, but it kills me when she does that,” Bruce replied. 

Harvey smiled. “How old is she?” Harvey whispered.

“She’s five or six maybe. But it’s just—. Dinah’s a little pain in the neck. I wouldn’t wish her on my worst enemy,” Bruce joked. 

“Aww, give her a break. She probably wants to be your friend or something. I bet she’s a cutie pie,” Harvey whispered. 

“That’s the problem. She’s too cute. I don’t have the heart to tell her to buzz off… And I think she’s the daughter of Mr. Grant’s friend,” Bruce replied. Harvey yawned. 

“I should go back to—.”

“Can’t you stay this one time?” Bruce asked. Harvey made a soft noise as he moved his head from Bruce’s chest as he lay beside Bruce. “I wish you’d tell me why things have to change.” 

“Bruce, I told you—.”

“You told me what someone else told you. You didn’t tell me why you wanted to stop,” Bruce mumbled as he turned away from Harvey.

[mychlapci]

As someone who gets horny for world building, I was trying to figure out where all the dratchrod babies go

Instead, my mind jumped to an au where the majority of cybertronians are infertile (from war injuries or smth) but due to some shenanigans the crew of the Lost Light got magically healed and they're all volunteering (or being voluntold) to get pregnant to give the rest of cybertron babies

lost light as a breeding facility drives me crazy. do they have a baby quota to fill?.... tbh i do have many and varying headcanons about cybertronian parenting, but since i am first and foremost a strict feral sparklings truther, i would imagine the dratchrod babies are indeed brought to cybertron, since, well, most cybertronians dont know how to raise three litters of dozen feral babies, anyways. i dont think any of it is planned, the lost light just starts sending babies to cybertron and they had to be like Okay well we’ll do something with these.

[bentnotbroken1fanfiction]

So, @secriden I promised I would come home and give my thoughts on your thoughts, so here we go.

Style not knowing would have changed how quickly his emotions changed for him, because him knowing and feeling bad about tricking him and him running out of time with Fadel definitely contributed to him being in a hurry and trying to get Fadel to tell him the truth, but I still think the emotional vulnerability would have still happened, because he did see him at that grief support group, and then the subsequent confrontation with Fadel told him that Fadel is closed off for a reason and that Style has beaten down his walls and he hates it, but he can't stop missing him. I think Style, even not knowing he is a hitman, would have respected him a little bit more after that and would have tried to get to know him because he was happy about him being his boyfriend. it wasn't about the car anymore at that point. It may have taken longer, but he would have opened up about his mom and Fadel would have opened up about his parents and Style would have whiddled him down trying to figure out why he was so closed off at first. He probably would have pushed more about the ever been in love conversation because he wouldn't have been worried about pushing his buttons.

You were also right about how Style not knowing would have affected him during the week time skip, because Fadel shut off his phone, so Style would have spent that whole time wondering where the hell he was and if he has been ghosted or left. Like he would be legit upset, unless he believed Fadel when he said he had to help out a friend, but seeing as how Style is apparently a bit jealous, he would probably assume he was being dumped. Now, if he went to Kant about this, Kant could either come clean, or he could just continue his with the BS lie, and tell Style that it's fine or if they left them, then good riddance.

So, Fadel coming back would make him both happy and angry and then if Fadel starts acting suspicious of him, he'll be like..whoa whoa whoa, sir. you're the one that left me high and dry and worried, not me. Shouldn't I be the one angry here??? Because he has no idea Fadel thinks his a snitch or that he's even a hitman. I can also see Fadel becoming more and more conflicted because Style just....isn't acting like he knows Fadel is a hitman lmao He'd even do scary shit and Style would just get turned on by it and they'd end up fucking and Fadel would go back to Bison like...are you sure he knows??? Because I held a knife to his throat and instead of acting scared he asked if I would use it in the bedroom??? How did you determine that he was a snitch???

And Bison has to admit that he doesn't actually know? Sorry, bro, I just assumed that because Kant chose him to help us trick you that he had to involved in the whole thing...and then they will fight because what the fuck do you mean you and Kant got him to trick me into dating him!!!???

so then he goes and confronts Style later about that little tidbit, which Style immediately admits too, but insists that his feelings were real so Fadel decides to just bite the bullet and ask him if he's working for the police...and Style is like ????the police???? why the hell would I be working for the police??? and he's like...so you and Kant aren't spying on us? and again Style is like ???why would I be spying on you??? I just wanted to help my friend get in your brothers pants, which i guess is kind of fucked up and all, but like....why would I spy on you guys??? And then Fadel has to come to terms with the fact that Style didn't know and that Kant sent him into this completely blind and he's grateful that he didn't kill him right off the bat.

Have you thought about how it would go if Kant didn't tell Style that Fadel was a hitman? Style would still be hiding something from Fadel and maybe he's thrown off how forward Fadel is now that they're dating but he'd regroup and lean into it and would totally be down for a double date with his BFF and if Kant is making a special night for Bison why can't Style do the same for Fadel and then Fadel disappears for a week and Kant is a sad moo who isn't helpful and then Fadel is back and Style is so happy but Fadel gets that call from Bison but Style has no idea.

So I have actually thought about this scenario a lot. It would have been even more fucked up for Style, because he would be even more oblivious and innocent than he is in canon. Because yeah, he started to follow Fadel around for a car (and then for the principle because he got intrigued by the chase) but that is nothing compared to knowing the truth of them being hitmen.

Now, him still being unaware would have changed things a bit. He wouldn't have acted weird or suspicious immediately after Fadel agreed to date him. He would have fully embraced it. Did you see the way he was grabbing Fadel's face at the end of episode 4 when he agreed to be his boyfriend??? Style was so fucking happy about winning him over. That was genuine joy. And if Style has anything going for him, it's that he can't hide his feelings for shit. When he is happy, he lights up and bounces around.

So he would have never acted strangely and Fadel wouldn't have had that moment of WTF is going on here? I think he still would have been hesitant to trust Style, but I don't think any red flags would have been raised like they were in canon. Fadel really took a second to try to figure out why his newly acquired boyfriend would suddenly not want to be touched by him or why he was running away. Without that interaction, Fadel wouldn't have had that thought.

Style still would have gone on the double date because he is still actively talking to Kant. Kant just isn't telling him the truth. Style would have noticed Kant being a little off, but he would be way too obsessed with Fadel and seeing him and getting laid to wonder too much about what is going on with Kant. He'd just go a long with Kant asking him to take Fadel back home because at that point it wouldn't be a strange thing to ask. He'd probably just assume he wanted to do something with Bison, even after the fake out with Babe. He probably would have been like..ok Kant has it handled. You still wanna bang? And of course Fadel would be like...yes. because those two are compatible and kinky AF and would be fucking like rabbits, (i mean honestly. I don't know how Fadel gets anything done anymore with Style trying to touch his titties every five minutes lol)

Now, him not knowing may change some of their conversations, but probably not as much as you'd think. Before he knew the truth, he was already wondering about what Fadel was hiding. He's seen him kick three men's asses without breaking a sweat and has seen that he goes to grief support group regularly, so Style is aware that Fadel is hiding a lot of things and Style is a curious person. He would have 100% still tried to figure him out and find out what his deal was. I think they'd still talk about their parents and have the trust conversation. It just might not have as much layered meaning because Style actually doesn't know, but he WANTS to. He wants to know Fadel.

What would that mean for Fadel thinking he is a snitch later? Well, it would hurt a lot more. Because if Fadel reacts the same way as he did at the end of episode 6...and then slowly tries to find out what he's been lying about, he's not going to come up with a lot because Style wouldn't be lying. he would have no clue that he was being suspected of anything. He'd be totally clueless as to why his boyfriend is acting strange.

Fadel would also probably get frustrated at that because Style wouldn't act like a snitch would act. (He acts strange a few times in canon and Fadel would definitely be looking back on those moments with suspicion after the fact) So, if a confrontation happens, whether violent or not, Style would end up feeling more betrayed than Fadel. and Fadel would come face to face with the fact that Style literally didn't know a damn thing and he's spent all this time treating him with suspicion and anger and maybe even trying to punish him for hurting Fadel, when his feelings were genuine. I think Fadel would then redirect all the anger and frustration he feels at Kant for NOT telling Style who he was and tricking him into this whole thing because Fadel could have killed Style and it would have been the wrong thing to do because he was oblivious the whole time.

It would have definitely been interesting to see that all play out. I think it would have shown even more true concern from Style towards Fadel, and more confusion for Fadel when he'd try to catch him in lies and come up empty.

[possamble]

What are your headcanons about Marcille's mom if you have any? It's interesting that what drew Donato to her was cause she lived the history he studied, or that was said somewhere at least. She must've had an interesting life.

so this was going to be just a normal answer but then I realized I have a Lot of Things To Say. so here goes, a compilation of what we know for a fact from the canon, what I've extrapolated from the visual cues and details, and my theories based on all of that.

Things we know for a fact about Marcille's mother because they were explicitly stated in the manga and supplemental materials:

She was a court mage for a Tall-man kingdom at the southern part of the Northern Continent

Donato, a court historian, fell in love with her because she had lived through the history he was studying, and he courted her for 17 years (age 15 to 32) before getting married

She was a cheerful person who rarely showed extreme emotion and took things as they came

She always cooked a huge meal for Marcille on her birthdays

She remarried a gnome after Donato's death and a short distance away from Marcille's childhood home

Pipi, Marcille's pet bird, was actually older than Marcille and originally belonged to her mother (bird died at 62)

She was extremely heartbroken when Donato died and ultimately ended up instilling a deep fear of mortality in Marcille with her words

the only time she showed extreme emotion in front of her family was when Donato could no longer eat his favourite dish near the end of his life.

She scolded Marcille for being cruel to ants (implying she can have a stern side when needed)

Things that are explicitly shown but mostly through visual cues

She has a very distinctive style of dress always involving a ribbon choker (mirroring Marcille's habit of always wearing a matching choker with any of her outfits that don't cover her neck)

She was almost stereotypically good at housekeeping and traditionally "wifely" things (very frequently depicted wearing an apron or doing some domestic chore when not at work, seems to have been an avid cook).

She knits? (also, note the affectionate smile as she's looking at Donato and Marcille reading a book together in the full panel)

She was as excited for Marcille's milestones as Donato was.

She didn't tell Marcille much about elven food

(there are a couple things that this panel in particular implies:

She lived a good deal of her life (if not being born and raised) in a mainly elven country in the West, implied by her knowing enough of an elven region's cuisine to prefer Tall-man food over it

seems to have a pretty carefree and casual demeanour overall, if this is how she replied to Marcille asking her about it (sounds like she never gave her culinary preferences that much thought to begin with)

slightly related to number 2, it seems like she and Marcille had a fairly casual parent-child dynamic (especially in comparison to the Toudens' memory of their father)

(local elf tastes Italian food once and never goes back))

However, she seems a lot more... serious in most of the other times we see her? Almost like the very stereotypical archetype of a graceful elf.

Subsequent conclusions about her personality:

Usually pretty carefree and cheerful at home, has been a loving and attentive parent throughout Marcille's childhood (while not being so doting that she didn't discipline Marcille).

Slightly more conjectural theories on her personality:

Had a much more graceful and professional personality at work, which would explain the more serious portraits we see of her.

Given that both she and Donato had positions at the royal court, it seems a little odd that she'd go out of her way to do all the housework herself, so maybe she just enjoyed doing it?

Now taping all the evidence together and toeing the line between analysis and fanfiction:

It's clear that she loved Donato very much and was utterly devastated by losing him. But there's one thing that really stuck out to me in what little we see of her:

Doesn't she seem... angry? The way she's gritting her teeth, clutching the tablecloth, and how this is the first and only time we see her eyes opened that wide. In the following panel, you see her being quiet and dejected after her initial outburst. She's still crying very intensely, but her brows are furrowed, and she's not really responding to Donato's affection in her body language.

We're not told the details of how she felt about losing Donato other than that it upset her. But this, to me, implies that she was angry and resented that he was aging, that the end of his life was approaching. An "it's not fair" type of preemptive grief. And if this was the first and last time she cried like this in front of her family, she was either very good at coping in private... or very bad at letting herself feel unpleasant emotions until they become unavoidable and end up overwhelming her.

It's not too remarkable a detail on the surface. It's even reminiscent of what the audience has seen of Marcille. But... when it comes to the big picture, you'd think an elf who voluntarily chose to marry a tall-man and have a half-elf child would have been better prepared for this.

It kind of recontextualizes her cheerfulness to me.

"I'm sure everything's gonna be okay!" (or some variation thereof, depending on what translation you have).

And this is stated to contrast her extreme grief when finally confronting Donato's failing body and eventual death. But I'm wondering if... maybe this optimism was why she was so upset. What if she went into all of it thinking "everything's gonna be okay"? What if she was a little young by elven standards, and just followed her heart thinking that her own resilience would get her through anything?

Of course, only to get completely overwhelmed when she actually loses Donato. She turns into a completely different person. And that's heartbreaking on its own-- but what the audience sees is the effect it had on Marcille. Can you imagine being her, watching your invincible and upbeat mother suddenly lose all the light in her eyes in one go?

I've already made a huge post about how I think Marcille models her "work persona" off her mother, but another thing that stuck with me as I was looking for more details in the manga was this:

copy pasting from the other post i made about it lmao it's like... the second she resigns herself to lifelong pain and terror, there's another portrait of her mother facing her like this. with their heads bowed, in mirrored body language of resignation and despair and sorrow. Except it's posed like Marcille is still looking at her mother but her mother is looking away.

It took me a second to realize, but I think that it's a visual metaphor for the fact that Marcille's mother was the only long-lived role model she had-- and she failed to model healthy grief for her daughter. I don't say this as an accusation or to disparage her as a character, but just as a matter of fact. In her, Marcille was seeing herself older and losing a short-lived spouse or loved one of her own, and all she saw was hopelessness.

But her mother didn't mean to instill hopelessness and terror in her. She wasn't really thinking of how it would truly affect Marcille at all (at least, that's how I'm interpreting her looking down and away from Marcille in the metaphor), she was just sad. And she, in her own way, was trying to protect her daughter and help her prepare for future losses.

What she meant was "loss is inevitable, and you have to learn how to be in pain but live on anyway." What Marcille heard was "loss is inevitable, and you will be scared and hurt for the rest of your life."

Again. Marcille's mother doesn't feature explicitly in the story the way her father does -- but in so many ways, her shadow, her silhouette, her reflection is always hanging over Marcille.

All that to say... headcanon-wise (everything from here on is 100% without evidence lmao), I'd like to think that she matured and realized that she failed Marcille. I imagine her being regretful about it, wanting a chance to fix it but never finding a way to insert herself back into Marcille's life when Marcille is so so so busy becoming the most accomplished mage possible. I imagine her being herself again, now, so many years after her loss and after remarrying -- but with her cheerfulness tempered with a lot more wisdom and the pain of having gone through loss like that. I think the second Marcille actually tells her what happened in the dungeon, she'd want to go running to her daughter again -- if Marcille tells her the full truth instead of just being embarrassed she let things get that far. (oh, the tragedy of her wanting to be more like her mother and an accomplished adult who doesn't need to be babied... being embarrassed to actually tell her mother how much she fucked up...)

There's also the tension of her having remarried -- I know that there's at least a little bit of resentment that Marcille harbours about that, because she's childish like that at heart even if she makes an effort not to externalize it. I think that her mother would be aware of that, potentially adding to her sense of guilt and apprehension at trying to reappear/intrude on Marcille's life. I honestly don't think Marcille has met her stepfather -- or even considers him a stepfather rather than "mama's new husband" and kind of a total stranger. I think she and her mother actively don't talk about it in their correspondence, like an elephant in the room.

but, ultimately, I think her mother is on her side no matter what. Ancient magic? Dark necromancy? Sure, she'll feel guilty and like she was partially responsible for setting Marcille down such a painful path, but she wouldn't care. that's her daughter!! she would've moved back west and been petitioning for her at the court, buying a house right next to the Canaries barracks and visiting her every day that she wasn't on a mission. And if her husband had opinions on Marcille becoming a "dark arts user," he either gets over it or it's divorce with him. Yes, she might have had her optimism completely humbled by losing Donato like that -- but she's still headstrong and self-assured and she doesn't care what people think of her. It's her way or the highway and she's always going to be in Marcille's corner.

(She also needs a name lol. I went with Juno, just to be cute about "Marcille"s closest real life equivalent being Marcella, which is the female version of Marcellus, which in turn is a diminutive of Marcus, which was derived from Mars. Absolutely in love with Marcille potentially being named after Ares/Mars the fucking god of war btw)

[heytheredeann]

Today on Very Serious Spy Scenarios, imagine Illya and Napoleon at the beginning of their partnership, with Napoleon happily pushing all of Illya's buttons every five seconds to try and see what will get him punched and what not. Illya is endlessly frustrated with him, especially because he CANNOT get a rise out of him, no matter how hard he tries.

And then one day, when they are arguing, again, Illya is getting desperate to Win This and so this conversation ensues:

Illya: "What's your problem, your parents never hugged you as a child?"

Napoleon, completely unfazed: "Actually no, my father barely spoke to me and my mother lowkey disliked me, so."

Illya:

Napoleon:

Illya:

Napoleon: "What?"

Illya: *getting teary-eyed*

Napoleon, now a little scared: "Peril?"

Illya: *bear hug attack*

[astro-b-o-y-d]

Did I ever talk about the roleswap AU idea I had where Bill and Mina were in place of Dipper and Mabel, and Ford was in place of Stan? I don't have a LOT of ideas for it but I was thinking about it last night at work.

[multiplekittens]

Next time I say it might be fun to commit to three projects with a tight, hard deadline, with one of the projects requiring me to learn two (2) entirely new skills, please bonk me on the head with cartoon hammers until I turn into a squeaky toy

[unproduciblesmackdown]

love my own like theatrical relationship to shakespeare which is a) being so slow to realize like "oh, i've loved theatre? everyone doesn't just feel this way & go 'of course acting onstage would fucking kick ass' & adore rehearsals and hanging around backstage and in greenrooms and changing and performing & etc?' never really occurred to me" and b) my response to most encounters w/shakespeare being "wha" when it comes to anything granular yet the relevance still in the spirit of things lol

namely one prominent example being i was an on campus college student where said campus has a shakespearean theater literally three blocks away, and we had like a freshmen orientation weekly class there doing shit with actors and checking out the theater, not to mention like punchcards to see four shows free (to write up about afterwards but yeah sure whatever) and this wherein also you always got student discount tickets And there were pwyw performances....kicked ass. i went there for shows so many times. i have never fucking known what tf is going on in any of the like dozen shows i saw there when a) audio processing can be tricky enough for real life modern vernacular parsing and b) sure am not used to ye old very stylized language nor any other qualities of shakespearean material so lots of times when i finally started to kind of acclimate to the language it would be like "oh wait that was the conclusion? ok. hoorayyyyy" like also c) You Have A Great Time Seeing Shakespeare Productions Anyways like again i loved going anytime. it's Theatrical and if people are just putting their damn backs into delivering and performing the material it's An Experience even if you're really not following lmfao. and i suppose one can read the text / familiarize oneself beforehand

also like my first and really one of my only like regular theatre performing experiences was my literature class in fourth grade doing a few scenes from julius caesar. i was so hype for getting cassius like one of the most prominent roles? a guy? an antagonist if you're caesar or dante??? oh Fuck yes. b/c of technical difficulties we got to perform it twice in a row when we did a field trip to some other school to perform our respective [scenes from various shakespeare plays] altogether. even back then i was way into it and cared about stuff like "we have like no Effects to make it that dramatic when we kill caesar. or like, non silent. bit awkward" and "also i like, don't know how to act and am just winging it. and of course, i'm also like 9" like in theory i do like to know How to do something vs trying to make it up myself. somewhat lol. a balance, who can argue w/that

beyond that there's also lots of things i just didn't quite realize "counted" lmfao like, when you're a theatre gay with a parent req'ing you go to church every week but you have a good time being in the choir....i was sure on those tenor harmonies & singing loud. and going relatively often to various live theatrical events, having an engaging enough time there, but also would've assumed anyone would be into it And that that's not really the same as actually being in them, of course. but that most of my firsthand experience was just sticking w/ballet for like a decade, and kind of live theatrical performance adjacency there. don't say shit, for years was effectively just like, an ensemble for the occasional performances, but even then it's like hoorayyy i Love rehearsing and being onstage and backstage and dealing w/costumes and coordination behind the scenes and shit. and eventually being like, a distinct individual character in shows, so despite again nobody saying shit you're still somewhat interpreting and doing whatever character work while also enjoying the bennies of [it's dance, so also it's choreographed]....even more clear like oh i love backstage and rehearsing and behind the scenes and onstage and putting together stage character makeup, and i don't mind tackling technical difficulties, and etc etc. didn't even necessarily have the reference like, idk, wouldn't / doesn't everyone feel similarly. classic ye old memory of like being idfk 7 or some shit simply getting to walk with classmates behind a backdrop to the opposite wing of a stage, and loving that lmao. combines a love for [backstage] and [secret passages] type deal lol, big fan of these elements

also in 7th grade doing a theatre/drama class for a few months and we couldn't really get like all this in depth extensive stuff b/c you know, intro course for like 8 weeks for rando middle schoolers, but idk it was just illustrative lmao like after julius caesar, us slapping together some kind of script and my getting to be this fun little theatrical(tm) antagonist guy again? feedback was "what was supposed to be happening" but could've stood to have learned that the enthusiasm and affinity i felt for acting onstage was perhaps indicative of enthusiasm and affinity for acting onstage rather than just, idk, the exact kind of baseline experience any & everyone would have lol. not that i would've necessarily had the chance to really do anything with that knowledge, but even now, ofc i don't particularly anticipate getting to use it, but it's great having that knowledge like ohhh i see. the entire time i've been huge into doing theatre with all these kind of adjacent & gently overlapping brushes with it. gotcha

[ettadunham]

trying to look into the mechanics behind shadowheart's questline is a trip