#anyway. i’m going to double check what i’ve already got and then start on my deck!

[fingertipsmp3]

Sometimes I love being a hoarder who never throws anything away. Just added an Italian dictionary to my cart on wob, then went “wait, better make sure I don’t own one” I do own one 🤦🏻‍♀️

[joelalorian]

Fall Into Me - Chapter Nine: I'd Fall for You Twice if That's What You Wanted

dbf!Joel x f!reader

Summary: Joel is hanging on by a thread as a single father to a tenacious 10-year-old Sarah. Feeling like he's drowning, like the world is about to spit him out, he needs some help before he breaks in half. At your dad's insistence, you show up in his life and change everything.

Story is inspired by the song Fall Into Me by Forest Blakk. Chapter titles will be lyrics from the song.

Word Count: 3.2k

Chapter Warnings: Explicit, under 18 take a hike. No outbreak AU. Lots of feelings. Sarah, Tommy, Emily, and JB unknowingly banding together for the win. Joel is his own warning. Inappropriate (or entirely appropriate?) use of a massager. Age gap of about 9 years (Reader 24/25, Joel 33/34). No use of y/n. Reader has a nickname used only by her dad and Joel uses various terms of endearment (darlin', sweetheart, etc.).

Thank you so much to everyone who reads this self-indulgent story and extra thanks to those who comment and/or reblog - you all make me feel like a rock star!

Dividers by the wonderful @saradika-graphics

Chapter Eight | Main Masterlist

“Girl, you’ve got it baaad,” Emily teased, watching you eye your phone every five seconds. The pair of you were getting drinks at your favorite watering hole the Saturday before your first full week of officially teaching.

“I can’t help it, Em. He’s got this, like, hold over me or something,” you replied sheepishly, one hand tucking your phone away in your back pocket. You were starting to annoy yourself with how often you checked for texts from Joel.

“You’re in love, that’s what happens.” Emily shrugged and sipped at her fruity mixed drink. “How’d the holidays go?”

Your expression lit up as you told Emily about your first major holidays with the Millers. Having spent some holidays with them while you were still away at school, your dad already fit into their family dynamic seamlessly. You were a happy and much-loved addition to the festivities and there was plenty of laughter among the adults at how badly Tommy botched dinner for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Why Joel and your dad ever let him try again after the wreck that was Thanksgiving dinner was beyond you. Thankfully, your dad saved the day both times with his unparalleled grilling skills.

“So, it’s safe to say that JB’s still happy about you and Joel being together?” Emily asked after your own laughter at recounting the mess died down.

“Is he ever,” you replied with a shake of your head. “He loves to rib Joel on making an honest woman out of me. Joel takes it in stride, but I’m kinda afraid that it’ll scare him off if my dad keeps it up.”

“Oh, please! That man is clearly head over fuckin’ heels for you. Hell, he’s already told you and JB that he loves you, he’s not goin’ anywhere!” After taking another sip of her drink, Emily shot you a pointed look. “When the hell am I gonna meet Joel, anyway? I feel like you’re actively hiding him from me.”

You stilled.

Were you doing that? You didn’t think so, not at first, but… If you were honest with yourself, there was an element of truth to Emily’s accusation.

“Shit, Em. I’m not doing it purposefully, I swear,” you replied beseechingly, pausing to figure out how to properly explain things. Finding a scratch in the tabletop suddenly fascinating, you stared at it while continuing. “I just have to share him so much already, between Sarah and my dad, even his brother – not that I begrudge him spending time with any of them, especially Sarah! It’s just… when I have time with him, I want to keep him to myself. You know what I mean?”

God, that made you sound so selfish. You looked up to find Emily grinning at you.

“What?” you asked, confused.

“I’ve never seen you so in love. It looks good on you.” Emily clinked her now empty glass against your half-full one. “Just promise me that I’ll get to meet him soon. We could do a double date or something, so it doesn’t take away too much of your precious alone time.”

Over another round of drinks, you made plans for a few Fridays from now, quietly hoping Joel wouldn’t mind.

Heading home, you longed to see Joel, but it was late, and he was spending time with Sarah. He went to great lengths to make sure his daughter did not feel left out or neglected while the two of you explored your relationship, setting aside time for just the two of them to hang out. You loved that about him and knew how important that quality time was for Sarah. Besides, you planned to head over there tomorrow to get a little quality time of your own ahead of the busy week ahead.

In the morning, you slept in and lazed around the house for a while, taking the opportunity to relax and ease into your day while your dad puttered around until mid-day. You hadn’t heard from Joel, but that didn’t bother you – he knew you planned to come over. Around one o’clock, you headed over to the Millers, picking up some pizza and beer on the way.  

Pulling up in front of the house, you found your usual spot in the driveway taken by your dad’s truck while Tommy’s truck blocked the remaining space. With a huff you parked along the curb. You would have ordered more pizza if you knew everyone would be here.

“Howdy boys,” you greeted as you walked in. “I come bearing pizza and beer, though I fear we’ll need lots more with this crew.”

Only one set of eyes turned away from the football game playing on TV as they all greet you in return. Getting up from his beloved corner spot on the couch, Joel took the pizza and beer from your hands and placed them on the coffee table before pulling you into the kitchen for a proper greeting.

“Hi darlin’, I’ve missed you,” Joel murmured, his voice already raspy from yelling at the TV. He pulled you close until your bodies were flush together and kissed you deeply. Like a magnet, your fingers threaded through his messy curls, tugging gently as he nibbled your bottom lip.

“Mmm, I missed you, too, handsome. Didn’t know you were having company.”

Joel flashed his big cow eyes at you, eyebrows pinched together regretfully. “’M sorry, baby. I didn’t know they were coming by to watch the game ‘til they got here. Apparently, my TV is the best, so here they are. Hope that’s ok. I’ll kick ‘em right the hell out if you want me to.”

The thought did cross your mind.

“Nah, enjoy the game with the boys. I’ll sit with you guys for a bit then hang with Sarah until they leave.” Still wrapped in each other’s arms, you nuzzled the tanned skin of Joel’s neck and he hummed.

“You gonna stay over?”

You shouldn’t, not on a school night – your first as a bona fide teacher – but you had so little time together. “Sure. Just don’t keep me up too late, Mister. Those kids are exhausting, and I need my energy for the first day.”

“Miller! Stop neckin’ with my daughter and get your ass out here!” your dad’s voice bellowed through the house, causing the two of you to spring apart.

“Jesus, Dad,” you sighed, pecking Joel on the lips one last time before following him out to the living room. When would the game be over?

Surprisingly, you enjoyed the time watching the game with everyone. Even Sarah came down to join you all at half-time, book in hand, and sat between you and Joel reading. It was a lovely afternoon and a lovelier night as Joel held you in his arms, whispering words of praise into your hair until you fell into a deep slumber.

Your first week of teaching passed in a blur. After a month of assisting the prior teacher before his official retirement, the students knew you and respected your authority, setting the stage for an overall lovely experience. You started off with earth science lessons and most of the kids were engaged and eager to learn. Of course, you had a few little challenges with difficult students testing their boundaries, but you felt good about the way you handled each situation.

You stayed later after the students were dismissed, using the time to organize the room to your liking and get the lesson plans in order. Sarah perched at one of the long wooden tables working on her homework while you completed your tasks. The pattern offered you and Sarah some quality time together and the young girl found great enjoyment in putting you on the spot, especially when her dad was the topic at hand.

“JB keeps telling dad he needs to marry you,” Sarah blurted randomly Friday afternoon. “Do you want to?”

Staring at her wide-eyed, unsure what to say, you merely shrugged. Why was everyone so focused on the two of you getting married? You only started dating a few months ago!

Tilting her head to the side with a little smirk, Sarah replied, “That’s not a ‘no’.”

She was getting to be as bad as your dad and Tommy.

“You could be my stepmom! I always wanted one since I didn’t get to have a regular mom.”

Despite Sarah’s cheerfulness at the idea, your heart ached for all the real mom-related experiences she didn’t get to have. You knew exactly how that felt. If marrying Joel wasn’t already something you hoped for in the future, it would be after hearing Sarah expressing her desire for a stepmom, for you as a stepmom.

Sarah kept talking, while you lost yourself in thought.

Would you be a good stepmom?

God, you hoped so.

You never had one, JB chose to never get too serious with anyone after your mom, but you heard enough horror stories from your friends about their own stepmoms through the years. It sounded like a thankless job. But all the people you knew with stepparents had both birth parents still in their lives, so maybe your experience would be different.

The late bell chimed, drawing you out of your ever-spiraling thoughts.

“Come on, nugget. Let’s get you home,” you said, pushing thoughts of marriage and step parenthood to the farthest recesses of your mind.

“If you’re not gonna marry my dad, could you at least move in with us? It would be so great if you lived with us!”

Jesus fucking Christ in a handbasket. This kid sure knew how to keep you on your toes.

Leaning over the bar top with hunched shoulders and an aching back, Joel picked at the label on the beer bottle. He didn’t often visit the bar after work, not since Sarah came into his life, but he finally had some extra money and felt like treating himself. You stopped letting him pay you months ago, when the two of you became more to each other than just babysitter and boss, and he stashed that money away each week, saving it for what he didn’t know.

At his side, Tommy carried on about some chick he met a few weeks ago. A pretty attorney who was way out of his league and already turned him down twice. Like a dog with a bone, Tommy showed no signs of giving up yet.

“You better be careful, brother. She may get a restraining order against you if you don’t take it easy,” Joel said, voice a rich rumble.

Tommy waved him off with a chortle. “Oh please. She’s loving it. Chicks like that like being pursued.”

“If you say so.” Joel didn’t know this woman or what she liked, but he knew for a fact that you would hate it if a guy relentlessly pursued you after turning him down, not once, but twice. He smiled at the thought of you kicking a guy like that in the fucking balls to prove that you were very much not interested.

He full on laughed at the thought of you kicking his little brother in the balls, causing Tommy to glance sideways at him.

“What’s so funny, huh?”

“Nothin’,” Joel grumbled, clearing his throat. Thoughts of you continued to invade his mind, just like they always did. You were always on his mind, and he loved it. If only you were always in his bed… Joel cleared his throat. “Hey, uh. How do you know if it’s too early to ask a girl to move in?”

Tommy groaned. “Why you always askin’ me this shit? How am I supposed to know? I have less actual relationship experience than you do.”

“Who else am I supposed to ask, huh? JB? Don’t imagine that’d go over too well,” Joel replied with a defeated shrug, but Tommy conceded the point.

“You need more friends, man.” Clearing his throat, Tommy gave it a moment’s thought. “Well, the way I see it, you love her, and she loves you, everyone knows it, and JB and Sarah are both happy for the two of you. Moving in together seems like the logical next step, right?”

Joel nodded, still uncertain.

“Only the two of you can know if the pace is right. Seems to me like you both waited long enough for the right one to come along. You’ve both been through some shit, why waste any more time?”

Damn, when did his little brother become so insightful?

“Alright, I get your point. Do you think she’ll say yes if I ask?” As secure as he was in your love for each other, Joel still floundered a bit at each new step in the relationship department.

“I dunno, brother. You’re just gonna have to grow a pair and find out.”

“Fuckin’ grow a pair,” Joel grumbled, punching Tommy in the arm, hard.

The pair bickered through another round, like brothers do, before calling it an evening. Eager to see you and Sarah, Joel didn’t want to waste away the evening in the bar with Tommy. As they walked out to their trucks, Tommy stopped Joel with a hand on his shoulder.

“Listen, brother. In all seriousness, I think she’ll say yes, so just ask, ok?”

Joel nodded his thanks and confirmed plans for watching the game at his place on Sunday, before climbing into his truck. The trip home didn’t take long, and for that Joel was grateful. His back ached after a busy week of hard labor followed by an hour sitting hunched over the bar. He’d kill for a massage.

The house was quiet when he walked in, no sign of you or Sarah on the ground floor. Kicking off his work boots and dropping the truck keys onto the hook near the door, Joel slowly climbed the stairs to the second floor.

Light flooded into the hall from Sarah’s bedroom, the sound of giggles and low voices echoing in the air. He moved slowly, quietly, until he could just peek around the door jamb. You sat on Sarah’s bed, the little girl perched in front of you, as you braided her wiry curls.

The sight melted Joel’s insides into a gooey puddle.

This. This was exactly what he wanted to come home to everyday.

He had to ask you to move in.

Just as he straightened up with a silent groan, ready to enter the room, Sarah’s sweet little voice left him frozen in place.

“I think you’d make the best stepmom.”

“This again,” you griped playfully. “You do, huh? Why?”

Was this something Sarah brought up before? Joel held his breath, waiting for Sarah’s response.

“Because you love my dad and you love me, you’re always kind even when things go wrong, you’re smart, and you like spending time with me. But most of all, because you do the things a mom does even though you’re not my mom and you don’t have to.”

He caught your gasp even though you tried to hide it from Sarah. You were as affected by Sarah’s heartfelt, innocent confession as he was. His adorable, sweet little girl knew you’d make a great stepmom and he agreed with all her reasons. If possible, he fell further in love with you in that moment after seeing you through his daughter’s eyes.

“Well, you’re right, nugget. I do love you and your dad, and I hope that one day, when the time is right, I can be your stepmom. Until then, we’ll just keep doing what we’re doing, ok? I’ll still love you to pieces even without the official title.”

You choked out the words, on the verge of tears, and Joel felt his own eyes begin to water. Unable to bear it any longer, he swept through the doorway and pulled you both against his chest in a big bear hug. His precious girls. He loved you both more than words could express.

“Daddy! You’re squeezing too tight! Imma burst!” Sarah shrieked with laughter as he tossed her onto the bed and began tickling her with one hand, his other still holding your close.

“Did you…” Your eyes searched his, a hint of worry hiding in their depths, and Joel grinned, pressing a tender kiss to your forehead.

“I heard it all,” Joel confirmed, confidence bolstered knowing you wanted to marry him at some point. Conveying every feeling held in his heart through his eyes, he added, “Move in with us. Please.”

Your eyes flicked back and forth between his, searching for confirmation. “Are you sure?”

“I’ve never been surer of anything in my life, darlin’.”

The three of you celebrated with ice cream after you agreed to move in with them before putting Sarah to bed. By then, Joel’s back ached something fierce and you offered to use the message gun he forgot he had.

“Lay face down on the bed, my love,” you directed, watching with adoration as he tugged the shirt over his head, jeans hanging low on his hips. The muscles rippled in his arms and back as he settled on the soft mattress. “Ready?”

“Yes,” Joel murmured, huffing when you climbed over him to straddle his ass.

Turning on the massage gun, you put it on the middle setting and pressed the ball against the flesh of his traps. Even through the device, you could feel how tight those muscles were. It must be where he held his tension. Over the next half hour, you worked the massager over his back, soaking in the grunts that bordered on pain and relief. Somewhere along the way, the groans turned pleasurable, and Joel rolled onto his back, leaving you to straddle his thighs as the bulge in his jeans grew.

Joel’s hands moved to undo the button on his jeans, but you batted his hand away with a mischievous grin. With wide, wondrous eyes, he watched you adjust the setting on the massager and run it along the seam of his pants.

“Oh fuck,” he hissed, cock twitching with interest at the vibration. “Don’t stop.”

Hands gripping your hips, he bucked up into the delightful buzz of the massager, a steady stream of moans falling from his lips as the vibrations spread from his balls upwards to the head of his cock. Fuck, if it felt that good through his jeans, how good would it feel directly on his cock?

“Do you want me to increase the speed setting?” you purred, pressing the massager harder against him.

“Oh God, fuck. Yes… ungh. Please.” The words fell from his lips in a series of whimpers as you adjusted the settings. Within moments, he moaned a bit too loudly and came in his pants. You didn’t let up on the pressure though, the vibration drawing out his orgasm until every last drop of his load was blown and his body nearly convulsed with the overstimulation.

Chest heaving, he watched you switch off the massager and run your fingers along the large wet spot on his jeans, his cock twitching tiredly in response.

“That was fucking sexy,” you murmured, enthralled with the mess you just made of him.

“Yeah? Lemme see that thing. Think it’s my turn now, pretty girl.”

Tbc

Taglist: @mellymbee @untamedheart81 @anoverwhelmingdin @runningmom94 @leilanixx

@pedropascalfan221 @lovelyjess69 @sarahhxx03 @sofiparallel @tammythr

@lulawantmula @islacharlotte @allyourfavesinoneblog @lover-of-books-and-tea @pedropascalsbbg

@ashleyfilm @brittmb115 @lilmizmoz @loveisacowboyyy @shotgun-shelby

@deninoe @casssiopeia @caitlynsixxx @skysmiller @missladym1981

@marirxse @lizzie-cakes @tynakub

[tamamatango]

HAPPENING……MAYBE!! (Addressing the anime rumors + Keroro’s birthday plan revealed)

*holding my hand out toward you with sparkles framing me* Let’s take copium together!

Not the post I was planning to make next, but here’s a sudden update for a couple of reasons. Some very exciting rumors which you may very well have seen have been floating around for the last day or so, and while I was initially hype as fuck to corroborate it as fact, there’s a little asterisk to the whole thing that I wanna tack on before we shit our pants too much. In addition, the official accounts have revealed what they’re planning for Keroro’s birthday this year, and while it’s not that closely related, I might as well cover that too.

So, a summary of what alleged info just came out:

A typically reputable anime news/leak account, SugoiLITE, shared yesterday that the Keroro anime series is planned to be broadcasted in Spring 2025, and a new movie is planned for 2026. However, the only publicly verifiable info hinting toward this is a recently released interview in an anime magazine with animation director Fumitoshi Oizaki (from the original series, and was also credited on April’s PV), where he describes the series and movie projects but does not specify the series name. This info is per another credible reporter, blogger ryokutya.

Now, here is my translation of Oizaki’s quote as presented in the post: “Details haven’t been made public yet, but I’m working on a series to be broadcasted next spring. Concurrently, a movie scheduled to be released in 2026 has also started production.”

Sadly, the blog post does not specify which anime magazine this was in, so I don’t have the full context for the interview or the question asked. I checked a few table of contents from recently released anime magazines and didn’t see Oizaki’s name in any of them. My hunch is telling me that it’s Newtype, which doesn’t have a digital version, so there’s no feasible way for me to have it that quickly. So yeah, we’re kinda stuck with that quote floating in the void for now.

I can’t go too deep into it so you’ll have to trust me on this one, but I’ve got a little knowledge myself about roughly how and from where anime leaks usually get sourced. It is very possible SugoiLITE does indeed know this information in advance, but it’s also equally possible he only saw this same quote and extrapolated the most likely scenario from it. If it is the latter, I’d say he made a pretty safe bet anyway.

In the quote, what I chose to translate as “concurrently” can also mean “in parallel”, so the interpretation I’m getting is that the spring 2025 series and 2026 movie are connected and being developed in tandem. Ryokutya also guesses that the work in question is Keroro since it does have a project announced. I’ve speculated that the new series will air in either spring or summer next year for a while now (BNP has a mysterious gap in their schedule, with two series airing in January and the Gintama spinoff announced in late 2023 being pushed to October). A movie in 2026 also make a lot of sense, since it’s the 20th anniversary of the first movie. Oizaki does work on other franchises with recent relevancy, such as Kaleido Star which had its 20th anniversary in 2023, and some works in the Shigeru Mizuki-verse like Akuma-kun and last year’s Gegege no Kitaro prequel. But given the specific language in the quote and just Occam’s razoring it down to the fact that we know Keroro is getting things already, I think this double feature is pretty likely what’s going on. Maybe it’s the hopium talking, but it’s certainly not a reach (trust me I’ve made reaches before I was here for the nothingburger that was the anime’s 15th anniversary).

Okay, tl;dr: Given the one available source we have and the credibility of both reporters involved, I think there’s a pretty good chance the anime will really be next spring and there will be a movie in 2026 as people have been corroborating. But the probability that this is an educated guess and the probability that it’s confirmed are pretty much equal at the moment. So get excited! But not too excited. Just like a bit above average excited. You may draw the party popper pull string back about three quarters.

When I first started drafting this post, I was looking forward to saying that we’ll likely find out next month what the truth is, knowing that today the official accounts were going to reveal what this year’s Keroro birthday celebration is. But…they explicitly stated there will not be any new anime info at the event they have planned. Booooooo. Well, here’s what we are getting:

It’s actually not a physical event like they held last year. This time, they’re commemorating Keroro’s birthday with the first episode of a new live radio show called “Kero! to Radio”, featuring Keroro’s voice actress Kumiko Watanabe and Tamama’s voice actress Etsuko Kozakura. It will be broadcasted irregularly on the official Keroro YouTube channel, and next month’s premiere will be here. There will be various different segments of the show which feature messages and questions sent in by listeners. Submissions are sent in via the program’s Onsen page, which also has details about each segment. You do need an account to send messages, but I don’t think a Japanese address is required unless you want to enter the optional raffle. I’ll play around with it later and potentially do a separate post going more into the show’s structure if that’s something people are interested in (obviously you need to know Japanese to really get anything out of this, so I’d like to gauge if it’s worth it first).

While it’s disappointing that there seemingly won’t be any news about the new anime revealed on the legendary birthday, it’s pretty neat to have another VA radio show. It seems like this is sort of following in the footsteps of Keroro and Giroro’s Earth Invasion Radio from back when the original show was still airing, although Keroro Channel also had been doing its own livestreams featuring the BNP/Kadokawa staff running the channel giving updates about the series’s various collabs and stuff (the majority of these episodes were done before the new anime announcement). It’s unclear if this is going to replace those or not; this is quite different structurally. It would be really cool if they rotate the voice actors out each episode and change the segments up a little since the broadcasts are irregular anyway. I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

*Exhale* All right, that’s enough yapping for today. I know the wait for more concrete details on the anime has been excruciating, especially now that we have a very tantalizing possibility dangling right before our noses. But if spring really is the airdate, it can’t be too much longer now. We already waited over a decade—what’s a few more months, right? Heh heh... (I’m dying Squirtle.)

[hmhas-00]

Ch. 11

Hit Me Hard & Soft

A/N: i've been so busy but here's ch11!! I hope you like :)

Billie’s POV

I waited a while, checking my phone for a reply constantly but got nothing. I forced myself out of bed to get ready for rehearsal. I start the bath and undress, putting a Netflix show on my phone. I lower myself into the hot, bubbling tub and prop my phone up on the side.

I spend a while here, leaning my head back on the rolled up towel I set up for myself. I zoned off, thinking about switching out a few songs for tonight’s show.

As I drifted off into a daydream, my phone began buzzing. I opened my eyes to see it was Remy calling. Before I could dry my hands off, it slid towards the edge of the tub. My attempt to catch it failed, and my phone fell inside the water.

“FUCKING HELL BRO.”

I fished it out of the bath water, trying to answer the call anyways, but the screen was completely glitched out. Immediately, I got up and tried to dry it with a towel, shaking the water out of the charging port, only to realize my phone was completely messed up.

“You have to be fucking kidding me!” I grunted, sitting back down in my bath and throwing my useless phone at the floor. This is the least relaxing bath I’ve ever taken in my life.

I quickly drained the bath and took a shower, trying my best to not get into an irreversible horrible mood. When I finished getting ready, I threw an oversized hoodie over my outfit, put my hair in a pony tail, and left for the venue to start rehearsal.

******

“In the bathtub? No wonder you weren’t answering me.” Finneas tuned his guitar, prepping for sound check.

It was already 4:30pm, and we were getting ready before the concert at 7pm. Finneas joining me on stage for the next three days was the main thing keeping me going.

“Yeah, I was gonna ask, do you have an extra phone I can borrow for now?” I laughed, waiting for our sound guy’s sign to start testing the mics.

“We can get the team to get you a phone by tonight.” He laughed along with me.

“Actually, I was gonna tell you… Before I drowned my phone, I texted Remy.”

“You did?” He looked at me, wanting to know all the details.

“Yeah, I don’t know if you saw her instagram post, but when I saw it, I just wanted to talk to her… Tell her how much I miss her.” I looked down at the mic, fidgeting.

“What did you text her?”

“It’s literally so dumb. I feel so stupid, dude…”

“Tell me!” He begged, excitedly.

I cleared my throat and paraphrased, “I said… I saw your wall, it’s incredible.”

He laughed, leaning back and smacking my arm. “Literally no one… Trump fans.”

“Shut the fuck up!” I cringed at myself, laughing with him. “And then I just double texted her, and told her I missed her, and I wished I was with her in her newly painted room.”

“That’s rough, man.” He caught his breath, finishing up his guitar sound check. “Please tell me she answered before you destroyed your phone.”

“She called AS my phone jumped in the bath with me, dude.” I groaned, pouting while stifling a laugh.

“Fuuuuck!” He chuckled. “You wanna use my phone and give her a call back?”

“I was gonna call her from the hotel phone after the show. I don’t want her to think I purposely ignored her call.”

“So this is your first time speaking in over three weeks, huh? That’s almost a month. Have you thought about what you’re going to say?” He walked with me to the greenroom as we talked.

“Sort of. I’m going to apologize for sure. Hopefully, it goes well, and she forgives me. Hopefully it won’t lead to an argument. She’ll probably want to talk about it, though. I just don’t want to mess up and say the wrong things, you know?”

“Just speak from your heart. Don’t hide anything, leave it all out in the open. That’s just my advice.” He patted my back and grabbed a snack from the table.

“Yeah. I hope I can do that. I hope she even answers.” I shrugged, thinking about the possibility that she may not even want to talk anymore.

What if she changed her mind. What if me not answering hurt her feelings. What if she was just calling to tell me to go fuck myself instead?

“Let’s see right now.” Finneas immediately dialed her on his phone, putting it on speaker.

“No!” I covered my mouth and held my breath. I guess there would never be a better time to rip the bandaid off.

It rang for a while, the dial tone continuing on, until her voicemail greeting played. He hung up.

“Maybe she’s busy?” He looked at me, trying not to let me down.

“Maybe.” My heart drops. She usually answers Finneas, so the fact that she didn’t, made me feel like she didn’t want to hear from, or about me. Like she figured I was still on my bullshit and Finneas was calling to fix it for me. I fucked up. She’s probably hurt. I double text her, then I decline her call. She must think I’m the worst.

Finneas pats my back and gives me a sympathetic smile. “Don’t worry.” He says.

The day goes on, my body traveled through space and time in autopilot. It passed by in a blink, and suddenly it was time to perform. I tried my best to get excited for the show while Finneas and the rest of the crew hyped me up. Before I knew it, I was on stage catching that adrenaline rush that was so familiar to me.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

After the show, I ran under the stage and back to the green room to grab some water and have a breather. Finneas trailed behind me, plopping on the same couch from earlier. It was a pretty known ritual of mine to immediately have some alone time to catch my breath after a show, mostly to keep the crew or management from rushing me all at once. I gave Finneas a heads up that I’d be getting un-ready in my dressing room, and made my way over.

I stretched my arms over my head and let out a giant yawn as I approached my room. Turning the knob, I swung the door open, exhausted from quite the performance I had put on, both physically and mentally.

Inside the room sat a pretty brunette facing the vanity mirror, holding an enormous bouquet of white, long stem roses. She straightened her posture and watched me through the reflection. Her back faced me until I stepped in and closed the door behind me.

“Remy?” I took a step closer. She turned around, remaining seated in the velvet stool. I almost didn’t believe it was real. I wanted to pinch myself but I was found half paralyzed, barely able to form full sentences.

“Hey, you.” She shyly spoke, her voice filling my heart with warmth and relief. She held the flowers out to me, standing up and looking at the brown-paper wrapped two-dozen in her hands. She struggled making eye contact and her arm was a bit shaky.

I stepped forward, moving the flowers out of the way and pulling her into my arms. We said nothing for a while, steadying our heartbeats. I indulged in our embrace, swaying back and forth out of habit. I focused on the reflection on the mirror in front of me, taking a mental picture of this moment. Her chin rested on my shoulder, her head only half an inch lower than mine. Her arms wrapped around my torso, and my hands on her upper and lower back. For three weeks, alI I needed was this hug.

Finally we broke the silence, “I’m sorry.” We both blurted out.

I pulled away, looking at her delicate face. She looked back down at the flowers, avoiding my gaze. Her makeup was done so lightly tonight, with a thin winged eyeliner standing out. I looked at her perfectly high cheekbones, noticing just a bit of shine added to them. Her hair was done in loose, wavy curls, with her curtain bangs remaining straight. Her lips were brushed over with a sheer gloss, her lips naturally plump and mauve. At the sight of them, I tucked my bottom lip under my top one, thinking before I let myself speak and ruin everything.

“Remy, I’m the one who should be sorry.” I finally mustered up the courage to talk, although careful not to reveal too much. “I fucked up. I didn’t know what the hell I was saying. I’m an idiot, I thought I was helping, but I was just being selfish. And this whole time I thought I was angry at you, but really-“ I stopped myself, noticing her long eyelashes batting at me.

I paused, taking a deep breath and giving myself a moment to think before continuing. “I was angry at you for nothing. I was wrong. I shouldn’t expect you to listen to everything I say, or make decisions about your career based on-“ I sighed, feeling like I could never find the words. I was tip toeing around the real problem, just like Finneas said. I wanted to be honest with her so badly, I did. I knew I couldn’t. It wasn’t the right time.

“It’s okay. I forgive you. I’m sorry, too.” She looked directly in my eyes. Her stare felt like knives jabbing into my soul.

“No, don’t apologize-“

“Let me apologize. Please.” She started, handing me the bouquet that she had trimmed and prepared herself. “I know I’m not the easiest person to be friends with. I have a lot of baggage, and-“

“Stop. Don’t say that-“ I hated hearing that. I hated thinking I contributed to her feeling this way.

She protested, “No, it’s true. We’ve been friends for so long, and you’ve been there through everything. You did pick me back up, and maybe that does give you the right to feel like you have to protect me and shield me from everything.”

I swallowed, admiring the roses in my hand, while listening to her soft voice.

“But you have to let me make my own choices and my own mistakes. And I need you to support me, because you’re all I have.” She began to cry, “Billie, this month has been so hard without being able to just text you or call you, and then you casually text me-“

I quickly put the roses on the vanity next to us and brought her into another hug. “I’m so sorry, Remy. I’m so stupid. I should’ve been more supportive. I’m stubborn and I think everyone should just think like me. I just wanted you to be happy. And it just felt like you’d be happier if I didn’t butt in on your life…” I gently placed a hand on the back of her head. Her hair smelled like jasmine and vanilla, and felt silky smooth. “It just hurt. Some of the things you said hurt, and I’m so fucking stubborn.”

I pulled away, grabbing both of her hands. A small gasp escaped my lips, “And today, when you called me, the reason I didn’t answer is because my phone fell in the bathtub and it fucking broke, I swear to god I wasn’t ignoring you. That time.”

She nodded, smiling a bit. That smile she held back from me, although minuscule, meant the world to me.

“I promise you, no more telling you what to do, no more harsh, unnecessary comments about your work. I’m going to support you, no matter what. If you ever kill Joe, I’ll be your alibi, we’ll bury the body together.”

She let out a small laugh. I made her laugh. Thank God.

“That was a joke.” I smiled. “I’m sorry for being so-“

She shook her head, “Me too. I’m sorry for complaining so fucking much. I understand why you want me out of there so bad. But I need to keep pursuing this. I feel it. Trust me, okay?” She smiled, letting go of my hands and wiping her tears. “And I’m sorry for saying that shit about you before I left the car. It’s not true. You’re not like that at all.”

I nodded. “It’s okay, I deserved it. I was such a dick, Remy.” I rubbed my eyes and took my hair out of the messy ponytail. “Let’s get out of here. We’ll go anywhere you want.”

“Billie.” She grabbed my arms, grazing my skin softly with her fingers. Her touch gave me goosebumps.

“Yeah?”

“I know you love me.” She looked directly into my eyes.

“You do?” My heart dropped all the way down into my ass. My stomach turned and my knees weakened.

“Yeah, you’re the greatest friend I could ask for.” She smiled.

The word friend echoed in my head, giving me the urge to break my neck right in front of her. However, I thanked my lucky stars that’s what she meant. This meant nothing had changed, and we’d continue as normal. As best friends…

[hayleythesugarbowl]

HEYYYYY it’s been awhile since I’ve asked for something and I thought today I would like to have some more Angela stuff I’m not gonna be picky about it just give me something to feed on and I’ll be happy I was hoping a nice long story that’s all I got for you you can write on it when you feel like it or have the time thanks :))) hope your doing well and have a nice rest of the week ;)

Second Chances || Angela Giarratana x reader

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ masterlist • smosh masterlist ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧⋆

summary: when the smosh cast goes on a company retreat and you and angela are forced to share a hotel room you have the opportunity to rekindle an old romance

word count: 3.3k

warnings: none

a/n: hey!! hope this is what you wanted, i just kinda had this idea and ran with it and i had to include the one bed trope because c’mon. also fem!reader like all of my other angela fics. anyways enjoy!! 💌💋

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~°~❦~°~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     “Everyone say vacation!” 

     Courtney smiled as they took a group photo of you and everyone else at Smosh. You grinned, looking forward to the time  away from work and daily life. 

     You and the rest of the cast had all flown to a sunny beach town for a week-long company retreat and you now stood in front of a large, bustling resort taking in the warm air, the pinkish glow of the now-setting sun, and sounds of laughter and shouting.

     “Alright everyone, we’re going to have to share rooms because apparently this place is busy this time of year and someone forgot to check availability,” Ian announced, turning to his best friend. 

     “Why are you looking at me?” Anthony said.

     Everyone began discussing who they wanted to bunk with—Shayne moving to stand closer to Damien, Courtney and Olivia linking hands, and Anthony and Ian were already discussing who would sleep in the bed closest to the window—and you watched as everyone paired off. You turned to find Angela next to you.

     “So, everyone’s paired up…what do you say? Roomies?” She asked.

     “Roomies,” you answered, trying to smile. Of course, just your luck. You were glad, in a way—you didn’t want to start your vacation off not finding someone to share with and be stuck feeling like this was middle school all over again—but you couldn’t decide which was worse, that or having to share a room with your ex for the whole week. You figured Angela would have felt the same way. 

     You were over Angela. You thought. You two had dated for the better part of 6 months but you had ultimately decided your relationship was better off as strictly coworkers a couple of months ago. You had both had your part in the relationship failing and you recognized that things were better off this way. But you couldn’t keep away the nagging part of you in the back of your mind that constantly thought what if? What if you had made a mistake ending it? What if your story wasn’t over? 

    You pushed those thoughts away—they were no use to you now—and tried to focus on getting though this week without any uncomfortable experiences. 

     You were brought out of your thoughts by  your party moving towards the resort and you quickly hurried to catch up with them. You saw Angela glance back at you but you ignored it and the feeling you got in your chest as she did so.

     You all found your rooms relatively easily after a long trip up many stairs—of course the elevators were out of order for service this week—and many of them were on the same floor. You walked towards the door of your room and slid the keycard in.

     Small. The first thought you had as you walked into your and Angela’s room some hours later was that it was incredibly small for a five star resort hotel. You figured since they were so booked it must have been all they had.

     Which explained why there was only one space that doubled as a bedroom and a living area, one closet, and, you realized with horror, one bed. 

     You heard Angela come up behind you. 

     “This is it,” you gestured to the room. 

     “Where’s the rest of it?” She asked, stepping in and looking around. 

     You set down your suitcase and sighed as Angela glanced around, her eyes landing on the bed.

     “I’ll sleep on the floor,” Angela offered.

     “Angela, I can’t let you do that. I’ll sleep on the floor.” 

     Angela threw up her hands. “So, we’ll both sleep on the floor then.”

     “Doesn’t that seem like a waste of a perfectly good bed?” You asked.

     “I wouldn’t say perfectly good,” Angela mumbled, “I’ve seen documentaries about how they don’t wash those.”

     You rolled your eyes at her internally, but you had to try not to smile. It wasn’t the first time you’d heard this spiel.

     “Well, someone has to sleep in it,” you said.

     Angela pulled at a strand of her hair. You looked at your shoes. This was ridiculous. You could be adults about this. What was the harm if you and Angela shared the bed? There wasn’t anything weird between you. You were…acquaintances, weren’t you?

     Before you could change your mind you said, “We could share it.”

     That got Angela’s attention. 

     “I mean, there’s no reason why we cant, right?” You added. The words even though we broke up were left unspoken between you. 

     “Of course not,” Angela said but she looked like she would rather sleep on the floor. 

     You figured this whole thing must be awkward for her too. Of course, you knew she had moved on from you. You had no doubt of that. But still, you assumed sharing a bed with your ex had to be uncomfortable for everyone, right?

     Either way, it was settled and so a few minutes later you found yourself climbing into bed with Angela on the other side of you, careful to keep your back to her and your body as close to your edge as possible. 

     The last thing you remembered before you drifted off to sleep was hearing Angela’s snores and thinking that you were right back where you were a few months ago. 

                ₊˚ ✧ ‿︵‿୨୧‿︵‿ ✧ ₊˚

     When you woke up Angela was already out of bed and you breathed a sigh of relief that you didn’t have to face her and could avoid a potentially awkward situation. At least that was something, you thought, as you made yourself get out of bed at what you thought was far too early a time to start a day on vacation. 

     You heard the water water running and decided you would shower that night rather than cross Angela in the bathroom. You threw on the first pair of pants you found in your suitcase and began looking through tops in the closet. You finally settled on one and had just taken off your pajama shirt when something made you pause and you stopped moving as you heard a familiar sound. 

     Angela was singing in the shower. You instinctively took a step closer to the bathroom. She was singing some show tune that you didn’t recognize but the sound was so familiar, so comfortable that you felt as if you’d heard the song before.

     You took another step closer. It was a quiet sound, but her voice grew louder as you stood outside the bathroom door and all you could think of was that it was beautiful. 

    You didn’t know why this was affecting you so much. Probably because it reminded you of when you and Angela were you and Angela. You’d heard her sing plenty of times when you were together. In fact, she’d always made you sing with her so she didn’t hyperventilate trying to sing all of Non-Stop. You’d say you had a lousy voice and she’d tell you the angels were jealous of the way you sounded. You stopped yourself before you got lost in the memory. 

     Unfortunately, you didn’t stop yourself in time to hear Angela’s shower water turn off or her singing stop. 

    You were made aware of this by the door opening and nearly hitting you in the face. Angela looked as shocked to see you as you were to come face to face with her. 

     “(Y/n), what are you—” 

     She cut off and her eyes widened as she looked at you. You caught your reflection in the mirror of the bathroom and you immediately understood why. You had forgotten that you were in the process of changing when you had stopped to listen to Angela.

     You now stood in your pants with your shirt in your hand and nothing but your bra on top—you praised all that was good and holy that you had been too tired to take it off last night before you went to bed—and you stood there in shock. You quickly covered your chest with your shirt but it was too late. The damage had already been done.

     Angela stared at you and you couldn’t read her expression. Surprised? Annoyed? That had to be it, you supposed you wouldn’t be too happy either if you got out of the shower to find someone half-naked lingering outside your bathroom. 

     “Angela, I’m sorry, I was just—” You tried, but she interrupted.

     “It’s ok, bathroom’s all yours,” she said, stepping past you and looking at the ground. You figured it was in your best interest to go along and pretend that you had been waiting for the bathroom so you just stepped in and locked the door, trying not to notice how the room smelled like her. Like her perfume, her conditioner, everything that you remembered from before. You looked at your weary reflection in the mirror.

     It’s going to be a long vacation, you told your reflection, but all it did was stare back at you.

₊˚ ✧ ‿︵‿୨୧‿︵‿ ✧ ₊˚

     The next day passed in flashes of beaches and gift shops and avoiding Angela. You had been having fun, or trying to really, despite your living situation.

     Things with Angela were especially awkward after that morning. What was wrong with you?

     I am over Angela. 

     And that became your mantra. As you watched her laugh and talk with all of your cast mates. As you tried not to stare at her and her adorable blue bikini. And especially as you dreaded that night and the horrors it would inevitably bring. At least with everyone else around you could safely navigate your vacation without really having to interact with her. But then you would have to go back to your room and back to your bed and you didn’t know if you could take it. Maybe you were wrong about being able to be perfectly fine with this. 

     I am over Angela.

     And maybe if you said it enough times you’d actually believe it.

    “(Y/n), did you hear me?” Angela tapped you on the shoulder.

     “Oh, no sorry, what?” You asked, dazed.

     “I just asked if you wanted a snow cone, I was going to buy us some,” she gestured to a stand a few hundred feet away. 

     “Oh, no thank you,” you answered and all you could think of was her touch on your arm. 

     You were doomed. 

     “(Y/n), are you ok?” You felt someone come up beside you and you turned around. Arasha was looking at you with a concerned expression on her face. “You’ve been acting weird all day.”

     You supposed you had. “Oh, I’m just tired, that’s all.”

     You risked a glance at Angela and Arasha just nodded but you didn’t think she believed you. 

     After that, everyone started to part ways and go off to explore the city on their own. 

     Amanda turned back to you from where she and Shayne were standing. “You coming with?”

     “I’ll catch up,” you called. You weren’t in any hurry. You stopped to look in the window of a cute little candle shop. There was no reason you couldn’t enjoy your vacation on your own. You were glad of the peace and quiet for a moment. 

     “Hey, where’d everybody go?” Angela ran up to you with a tray full of snow cones. You shrugged.

     “That’s the last time I do anything nice for those lousy—”

     You let out a chuckle. She smiled at you and it was impossible for you not to smile back.

     “So, any place you particularly wanna see?” Angela gestured around as she began eating a snow cone. She held one out to you and you took it.

     “Nothing in particular,” you answered honestly. 

     “Well, then we can see nothing together,” she began walking and you kept pace with her. 

     This was good, you thought. Just a nice, casual walk around the city with Angela like two coworkers would do.

     You made small talk about your job and the things around you and it was easy enough. Angela talked enough for the both of you, so you just piped in when necessary and kept your eyes firmly on the snow cone in your hand. Which was probably why you didn’t see the pole in front of you. 

     “(Y/n), watch out!” Angela jumped in front of you, throwing down the tray of snow cones, and pulled you out of the way just before your forehead connected with the metal pole.

     Your heavy breathing had nothing to do with the near-accident that had almost occurred. Angela gripped your sides tightly and you were closer to her than you had been in a while. For a moment you two just looked at each other before you pulled away and mumbled a quick “thanks”. 

     You were debating wether or not to say more when Chanse walked out of a shop in front of you and fell in to step with Angela. She looked back at you briefly before continued again and as you walked behind them you repeated the only thing keeping you sane. 

     I am over Angela. I am over Angela. I am over Angela.

₊˚ ✧ ‿︵‿୨୧‿︵‿ ✧ ₊˚

     By the time you got back to your hotel room it was late and all you wanted to do was fall asleep and not think about Angela or this day. You were just about to climb into bed when you realized that someone was already there.

     Angela. She must have gotten back before you and was already asleep. You paused a moment to watch her sleeping form—she looked so calm and peaceful—before slipping in to your side of the bed, staying as far away from her as possible. You shivered under the sliver of blankets that you had—Angela had wrapped them all around her. You supposed it wouldn’t be the end of the world if you scooted a tiny bit towards Angela in order to be covered by the warm sheets. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it would do, you thought. Your eyelids began to droop as you shivered again. Maybe if you just…shifted… a little…towards…

…Angela. You awoke that morning and the first thing you saw was Angela. Her head was on your chest and your arms were over her back. Your initial horror dissolved into contentment as she nestled her head into you in her sleep and her hair tickled your collarbone. She felt warm in your arms and you didn’t want her to wake up quite yet. Because she wouldn’t be doing this is if she were conscious. You knew you should just sneak out from under Angela and out of bed before she woke up and found you like this but you couldn’t make yourself. 

     Because as you lay here like this with your ex-girlfriend you couldn’t seem to remember why you broke up. This felt right.  You knew you could never say any of this to Angela—she’d moved on from you like you’d failed to do with her. Because you realized then that you weren’t over Angela. 

     You felt Angela begin to stir and you tried to move your body out from under hers but you only got about halfway when she opened her eyes and blinked at you.

     “(Y/n)?” She took in your close proximity and her head in your chest. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Her voice was gravely from sleep as she said, “Well, I guess we were cold last night.”

     You nodded and let yourself pretended that was it. 

     “I’m going to go get us some more towels,” you said, standing up and walking towards the door. You didn’t even bother putting on a robe or clothes and figured you’d take your chances wearing your pajamas in the hall rather than staying in here with Angela.

     Once you were out of the room you leaned up against the door and took a deep breath. Your cheeks were hot and you ran a hand through your messy hair. 

     “(Y/n), what are you doing?”

     It was Arasha. She walked towards you from a room down the hallway and you met her in the middle.

     “Getting some air,” you said, “You?” 

     “Couldn’t sleep” she answered and you looked out a window, seeing the dark sky and realizing it was earlier than you thought. Probably no later than 5:30 in the morning. 

     “Are you ok, really?” She asked hesitantly when you didn’t answer.

     You sighed. What was the harm in telling her really? She knew you and Angela had dated. Everyone did. She could probably guess on her own; maybe she already had.

     “It’s Angela,” you admitted. “I thought sharing a room with her would be fine since it’s been a couple months since we broke up but it’s not fine.”

     Arasha frowned, “You’re not on good terms? I thought you two stayed friends after your breakup.”

     “No, it’s not that,” you said, swallowing. “I—I think I’m still in love with her.”

     Arasha’s eyes widened and you fumbled for words.

     “Everything she does reminds me of how things used to be and I’ve tried to keep my distance and remind myself why we’re not together anymore but none of those reasons really seem compelling anymore and I know it’s a bad idea and it could never happen but—”

     Arasha put a hand in your shoulder, interrupting you. “I think if you really love her, then tell her. What’s the worst that could happen?”

     “I could make things more awkward than they already are?” You bit your bottom lip.

     “If worst comes to worst, you can stay with me. Amanda snores anyway.” She laughed and you joined her, grateful for her help and advice.

     “So does Angela,” you remarked fondly, “Thanks, Arash, I appreciate it. I’ll find a way to tell her. I just don’t know what she’ll say.”

    “I think she’ll say that she completely agrees with you.”

     You spun around at the sound of Angela’s voice. 

     “Angela, I—”

     She put up a hand. “I heard everything. I was going to ask you to bring up some muffins with you.”

     Arasha backed up. “I’ll catch you guys later.” She gave you an encouraging smile as she went back into her room and left you and Angela alone in the hall. 

     You said, “Angela—”

     At the same time as she said, “I love you too, (Y/n).”

     “I didn’t mean—wait, what? You do?” You stared at her in shock.

     “I still love you. Actually, I never stopped loving you,” she said, more quietly now. She looked so vulnerable then and you wanted to reach out to her but you didn’t.

     “But we said we were better off as coworkers, as—”

     Angela shrugged, “And how’s that working for us?” 

     You thought about the way this week was going so far for you and realized you hadn’t even considered that Angela felt the same way. That everything was just as hard for her as it was for you. If this trip had taught you anything it was that some things—some people—were worth second chances. 

     You closed the distance between her and kissed her. Kissed her like you’d been waiting to kiss her for thousands of years. In a way, it felt like that. As she kissed you back, you thought that this was how it was meant to be. 

     “You know what? You’re right, I think this works a lot better,” you said breathily.

     She smiled at you. “So, what do you say we go back to bed?” 

     “As long as you stay on you’re side,” you teased her, starting to walk towards your room. You were glad things were more comfortable between you. It wasn’t perfect, but you’d make up for the time you lost together. You still had five whole days of vacation, and you were going to make the most of them.  

     “That,” Angela responded, walking through the doorway and turning back around, looking at you with a twinkle in her eye, “I can’t promise.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~°~❦~��~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ˋ°•*⁀➷ hope you enjoyed this babes!! have a lovely week and expect a couple more angela fics coming out soon!! 🤭🎀

[jennarations]

Would love your landoscar fic recs 💌

your wish is my absolute command 🫡🫡

i’ve gone back to college and started student teaching and gotten covid and adopted a kitten all in the last two weeks so i haven’t gotten to read as much but here is what i’ve got! the key is the same as the lestappen fic rec:

> (Title) +/= (Multichaptered/One-Shot)

(Summary)

!!! (Link)

• (Tags - please note these are just the tags I saw relevant to myself, double check the fics themselves for any other tags you might deem relevant!) *(Word count)

Here we go! I’m also tagging some of the bestest and loveliest authors at the bottom of the post, go send them some love!! (Putting it under a Read More for all of our collective sanity)

My one (1) work (shameless self plug heheheh):

> Thunderstruck =

Lando has a childhood fear of thunderstorms and in a record-breaking year for rainfall, Oscar Piastri becomes his new teammate.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/50579323?view_adult=true

• Falling in love, Slight pining, Fluff, Humor *8.1k

—

> If You’re Barbie, And I’m Barbie, Then Who’s Driving the Bus? =

Anyways, the driver room is largely quiet at the moment. But not entirely, much to Lando’s enjoyment.

Buzzing from Oscar’s headphones, loud enough for Lando to hear the words, is a song from Barbie.

Charli XCX, no less.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/48940792#main

• Fluff, Comedy *800 words

> Mortifying! Anyways, =

Mortifying interaction, but he’d survive. Besides, it’s not like the cashier was that cut–

“Cute enough to make you stupid, huh Norris?” He could hear his smile before he saw his face, a proper Cheshire grin.

“Fuck off mate,” Lando groaned, already trying to scrub the cashier from his brain. Except for the Australian accent, he decided; that bit could stay. Maybe his eyes, too, as tired as they had seemed. And his hair, which looked so soft in that kind of ridiculous side part.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/49328047/chapters/124474876?

• College AU, Clumsy Lando, Meet-cute *2.3k

> The New Normal =

He wears a lot of shorts.

Lando had thought that Daniel wore shorts a lot, and then along came Oscar. It must be something about Australians.

Carlos never wore shorts.

Oscar’s pale, unblemished, muscular (and hairy) thighs spill out of the team issued black shorts whenever they sit to film content, or sit in meetings, or whenever Oscar sits in Lando’s general vicinity while wearing them.

They’re not a distraction.

OR Lando’s very healthy obsession with his new teammate’s thighs.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/49335997/chapters/124496539?

• Pining, Slight smut *8k

> Invocations One Fall Away From the Concrete = ♥️

“Okay,” Lando says. “What’s your power?”

“Telekinesis,” Oscar replies a little too easily, like he’s trying not to make a big deal out of it. In fact, he’s already looking back down at his form. Lando doesn’t miss the way he seems completely stumped by the ‘Birth date’ square though.

Telekinetics are far and few between. You’re probably more likely to be struck by lightning twice than to meet a telekinetic. They’re so highly sought after in the hero industry that any telekinetic baby would automatically have a net worth of at least three hundred billion US dollars the second it was born. Moreover Oscar's an Oxy. It’s like, the jackpot of jackpots. This guy’s simply unreal on paper.

Lando scrunches up his face, rolls his eyes and says, “alright.” He shrugs. “Nothing to write home about, then.”

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

AKA the low-key superpowers au where they have to activate their powers doing a really specific thing. Oscar's activation is a mystery to Lando, but it involves a lot of good stuff, pinky promise. (Lando Wink™)

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/49508506/chapters/124953475?

• Non-Driver AU, Superpowers AU, Roommates, Slight Angst, Fluff, Humor *10.3k

> Only Found = ♥️

“Hey, well. No strings attached, right?” Oscar says, strategically.

Lando smiles and says, “hell yeah. And now that that’s established, what’s your stance on aliens? Also, do you still want your cake?”

--

cinderella soulmates au where whatever you lose, your soulmate finds. except: oscar has a soulmate and lando is a No-Match, a person who doesn't have a soulmate.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/49218676#main

• Non-Driver AU, Soulmates AU, Lawyer!Oscar, Streamer!Lando, Angst, Fluff *6.8k

> Carried Away =

"Oscar," Lando said. "Don't hate me, alright, but I've—”

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/48871015#main

• Non-Driver AU, Fake Relationship, Angst, Fluff, Humor *22.1k

> Little Bit of Love =

“I’m freezing,” Lando says. Whines, really. “Don’t be mean, Oscar, I feel like shit.”

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/49143811

• Sick fic, Fluff, Realization of Feelings *4.7k

> Signed Sealed =

Delivered

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/48959461#main

• Text fic, NSFW pics *4.3k

> Smokeshow =

Because Oscar won the American football challenge, Lando had to wear the cheerleader uniform.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/48546973#main

• Smut, Cheerleader uniform Lando, Brat!Lando *3.5k

> I’ll Kiss You First =

“Uh,” Oscar says, when they’re in the car on their way to the airport. “I think you’re—um. Going into heat, mate.”

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/47264011#main

• A/B/O, Alpha!Oscar, Omega!Lando, Smut *3.1k

> Sunflower Seeds =

Not worth dwelling on, really. Oscar doesn’t have to understand him to be on his team. If he were a pitcher, it would be different; Oscar has to get his pitchers in order to do his job as a catcher well. Lando isn’t a pitcher, though. So it’s fine.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/49596088/chapters/125175172?

• Non-Driver AU, Baseball AU, Realization of Feelings, Fluff *8.6k

> Chronically Bitchless But Still Wifed Up = ♥️

Lando wasn’t above throwing his weight around in order to get what he wanted, at least in some circumstances. And he wanted to meet Oscar Piastri.

In general, he wanted to go to a MotoGP weekend and probably could have either bought tickets and waited around there like a normal person or asked one of his actual sort-of friends in the paddock to hang out in their garage, but the more specific desire was to meet Oscar Piastri.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/49301212#main

• MotoGP!Oscar, Driver!Lando, Fluff, Humor *8.3k

> Negative Splits =

So officially, Oscar Piastri, pretty good steepler and pretty bad pacer, was now a professional runner.

They wanted him to steeple, mostly, though he’d be doing cross country in the fall, and Lando had pinky promised him, mid-distance guy to mid-distance guy, that if he wanted to get into the 3k flat indoor then he would get him in.

Oscar didn’t really want to ask how he planned on doing that. Felt safer not to ask.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/48161206#main

• Non-Driver AU, Professional Runner AU, Injuries, Angst, Humor, Hurt/Comfort *10.1k

> Thinkin Bout Your Touch =

Lando’s brain gets so occupied by the thought it shouldn’t come as a surprise really, when a few rounds later Oscar says, “Dare.” Lando blurts out, “Let me suck your dick.”

There’s a long, awkward silence in which they just stare at each other, Oscar’s expression completely unreadable. “Uh,” he eventually says. “I think a dare is something I’m supposed to do.”

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/48704749?view_adult=true#main

• PWP, Blowjob *2.3k

> I’ve Tasted Blood (And I Want More) =

Lando grabs a pillow and hits him with it, while Oscar laughs loudly. His fangs are on full display, white and sharp and pretty. “You know what I mean, you dickhead!”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Oscar says, eyes twinkling. “You want me to use you as a human Capri Sun. You know, like a weirdo.”

“God, you’re making this so much worse than it is,” Lando says, burying his face in his hands. It’s. Well, it’s embarrassing, but Oscar also hasn’t outright said no, so. You know what they say. In for a penny, in for a pound. “So, will you?” And then, just in case, he adds. “Suck my blood?”

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/48136999#main

• Vampire!Oscar, PWP *5.6k

> Legerdemain =

“You’re so modest it’s disgusting,” Lando says. “Michelle’s told me all about it. You winning against some master back in Australia. Anyways, she wants to hop on the bandwagon, get us to play chess, take photos after the weekend. She thinks you could teach me. It would show that you’re pedantic and that I’m pushing past my comfort zone...”

Oscar scoffs. “If Michelle’s only taking photos, why do I need to teach you it? Couldn’t we just pose with a chess set, like the Williams drivers?”

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/49690744/chapters/125422075?

• Chess, Humor, Sexual Tension *5.8k

> What You Do To Me =

“Oh,” Oscar says, because what else are you supposed to say when your teammate says ‘I wish I still had a girlfriend so I could fuck some of that frustration out of me’. “I mean. I uh. I could give you a blowjob? I’d suggest a fuck but I don’t have any lube on me right now and I’m guessing you don’t either.”

Huh, would you look at that. Looks like the award for ‘most insane statement of the night’ doesn’t go to Lando after all.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/47993518?view_adult=true#main

• PWP, Blowjob *2.5k

> Purring in My Lap (cause he loves me) =

The cat thing ends up getting sort of explained in Bahrain, when Lando walks into his driver room and finds a small orange cat sitting on his couch.

Oscar’s cat, presumably.

And he kind of looks like Oscar, too. Slender, lean, and with a slightly grumpy, unimpressed expression on his face. It makes Lando laugh a little. Like owner, like pet, clearly. “Should I just call you Oscat, then,” Lando jokes, giving the cat a little head scratch.

The cat, Oscat, stops rubbing at Lando’s hand and just stares at him instead. Lando would almost say he was looking at him disapprovingly, but it is a cat, so he’s probably just imagining things.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/47878867#main

• Cat!Oscar, Fluff, Slight Angst *5k

> In Limbo =

“So what, you like me?”

Tick this box for yes, and this box for no. Fold it tight. Slide the paper under the desk. Don’t let anyone see.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/49619383#main

• PWP, Dubious Consent *2.3k

> Eyes on Me =

He just doesn’t understand why Oscar stares so much.

It first comes to his attention at the pre-season media shoots. They have to be photographed in the new gear, and the new suits, and all the while a video camera is rolling to capture content for some behind the scenes pre-season footage. Lando likes to look back at the content they film, just to see how awkward he is.

He looks over some of the test photos while the videos load, and he sees Oscar’s eyes on him a lot of the time. Lando’s own are on the camera, his posture relaxed as he goes through the motions of what the team asks of him.

OR

Lando notices just how much Oscar stares at him, until one day he realises just how much he stares back.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/49769368#main

• Mutual Pining *3.8k

> Home Is Wherever You Are =

‘You know, we could ask Carlos to babysit tonight,’ Lando mumbled against his mouth.

Oscar pulled back and hit his husband’s chest while laughing at him and shaking his head.

‘The man just arrived, babe, we can’t ask that right away!’

Lando pouted and pulled Oscar back against his chest. ‘But it’s been so long since it’s just been the two of us.’

OR: Lando and Oscar spend the day with their daughter and friends before finally having some alone time

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/49909321

• Kid!fic, Established Relationship, Fluff *4.1k

> Grand Theft August =

Oscar Piastri, eh? It's not the worst idea he's ever had.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/49975555?view_adult=true#main

• Angst, Humor, Smut *6.9k

> We’re All in the Butter But Some of Us Are Looking At the Cars = ♥️

Under it, the cross stitch with the Mandela quote, there was another one. A different one. Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars. Stars, again. And then the one beneath that was also about stars. Weird, he thought, then went to the till to wait for his sister.

Above the pile, too high for twelve year old Oscar to read, a sign was stamped. SECTION #13: REACH FOR THE STARS.

Twenty two year old Oscar rests his nose to the glass and looks at the clouds.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/49696357

• Angst, Slow burn, Prose, Realization of Feelings *14.3k

> Terraforming =

“WORMHOLES! An Einstein brain child. They are created when FTL objects puncture the bed sheet that is our universe. Going through them should be a trip through timespace, which sounds cool, except it’s not because we never know what’s on the other side—”

“I think you meant fabric, not bed sheet,” Oscar says.

Lando rolls his eyes. “It’s a metaphor, mate.”

“For what?”

“For like. The fabric of the universe.”

“Huh.”

“Shut up.”

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/50099659

• Space AU, Non-Linear Narrative, Angst, Happy Ending *8.8k <- I literally haven’t read this yet because it was uploaded today but i love enzo and all their stuff is fantastic so i’m rec’ing it anyway :)

> Superdense Neutron Star//Post Supernova +

It felt good to laugh. Thursdays already kind of sucked, all of the walking and talking and nothing to do, even when he wasn’t being drilled on the abrupt shift of his career. It was manageable because it had to be; because there was half a season left and a championship spot left to fight for and a team that was still his home, even if he’d just been delivered the eviction notice.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/49981615/chapters/126195823

• Angst, Fluff, Ambiguous Ending *21.8k <- i also have not had the time to read this one because of life, but i trust leaf with my feelings (and my life) so this also goes on the list.

EDIT 11/5: More additions to the list!

> Unraveled =

Lando does not have a thing for his roommate.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/50085112/chapters/126476167?

• Non-Driver AU, Roommate AU, Bartender!Lando, Realization of Feelings *7.1k

> It’s Not Queerbaiting, It’s Saving the World =

Lando bursts into Oscar’s room without knocking. He’s red in the face and panting, sweat collecting on his forehead like he just ran a marathon.

“You need to kiss me.”

or, the drivers stage a protest, of sorts. Oscar might lose his mind.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/49710619#main

• Fluff, Humor *1.6k

> Melepathic. Or Something =

“Thank God we used condoms,” mutters Oscar later, when they’re presentable, no doubt thinking back to last week when they. Well. Lando peeks out the door to check if the hallway is clear. It is.

“Yeah,” he says as he gestures Oscar out. “See you in a few, mate.” Oscar slips through and Lando picks up his phone again, sees a new message. Up for some fun tonight?

sure, says Lando after a moment. Amen to short refractory periods and all that.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/47589115#main

• Smut, Miscommunication, Happy Ending, FWB *8.5k

> What Would You Do (If I Went To Touch You Now?) =

“Okay, so they both like each other. We need to get them together.”

“How? Lando’s too freaked out to think straight and Oscar is the human embodiment of the standing man emoji.”

Charles purses his lips for a moment before he snatches his boyfriend’s phone up from the other side of the table.

“What are you doing?”

“Initiating Mission Landoscar.”

“Did you just make that up?”

Charles waves at him dismissively as he begins texting, and Max lays his head down on the coffee table and prays for strength.

***

In which Max tries to prove to an oblivious Charles how glaringly obvious it is that Lando is head over heels in love with Oscar. When Charles finally gets with the program, Lestappen go on A Mission™ to get the two idiots to admit their feelings for each-other, but it’s easier said than done.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/48745483/chapters/122963314

• Lestappen as a plot device, Angst, Slight Smut, Fluff, Humor, Texting, Escape Room Shenanigans *29.7

> Soft Vanilla Foreplay = ♥️

“Oh shit, you’re,” Lando gasps, smiles. “You’re a. You’re Robin Hood. You’re a kitty Robin Hood.”

Oscar stops grinding. “Can we have this talk tomorrow?”

Lando laughs and comes down to place a kiss on Oscar’s lips. “Yeah. Oh yeah. Tomorrow. Tomorrow would be great. I’m sooooo busy right now. Hmm.”

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/50382910/chapters/127293583?

• Vigilantes, Cat!Oscar, Hacker!Lando, Non-Driver AU, Slight angst, Humor, Happy Ending *8.6k

> Is it Gay to Watch Your Teammate on TikTok? (Asking for a friend) +

He’s sitting on the bed, dinner long since picked at, with his knees pulled up to his chest. He feels close to hyperventilating.

It’s playing on loop, some sappy little edit captioned “i need to find someone to look at me the same way oscar looks at lando”.

And really, who the fuck was going to tell him that Oscar smiles at him like that?

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/chapters/127611460?

• Fluff, Humor, Ship aware Lando (containment breach of RPF), Pining *4.6k

> HOCKEY!!! Shrimp Colors :) =

Montreal puts Oscar on waivers after years - years of bouncing from the feeder team up to the league, and then back down. Edmonton picks him up.

Edmonton keeps him. Lando does, too.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/50562061/chapters/127728067?

• Non-Driver AU, Hockey AU, Leaf puts sports boys into other sports, Angst, Fluff *13.8k

> My Shelter in a Hurricane =

Oscar wants to help Lando get better after the disappointment of Qatar's GP qualification. He doesn't know how...

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/50639854/chapters/127923673?

• Fluff, Established Relationship, Post-Qatar Quali, Slight Angst *1.4k

> Pretty When You Cry =

Lando wasn’t sure if he wanted to cry, rip his hairs out, punch a hole into a wall, maybe shove someone, or maybe all of the above.

Or: the mclaren boys comfort each other after that shipwreck of a qualifying.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/50624551?view_adult=true#main

• Fluff, Slight Angst *1.4k

> Already Home = ♥️

Lando takes a deep steadying breath. “I think I might be in love with Oscar.” He says, and hates how immediately when he says the words, he knows it’s true.

“Right,” Max says, nodding. “And?”

“What do you mean, ‘and?’” Lando says, a little outraged. “I can’t be in love with him! We’re married! This is like, a disaster waiting to happen!”

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/50704861/chapters/128087614?

• Non-Driver AU, Fake Marriage, Falling in Love, Angst, Humor, Fluff *32.5k

> Do You Like Me? Y/N =

oscar & lando have an awkward plane conversation, aided by uquiz.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/50706235/chapters/128091004?

• Fluff *3.8k

> Recreate the Sun =

“You know who you sound like when you say that?” Lando asks absently, tossing the open bag of Skittles to one side and hoisting himself up the bed to rest against the pillows, head tipped back, the jut of his Adam’s apple catching stark in the TV’s flickering light.

On some level, Oscar already knows what’s coming. The Cheshire cat grin Lando gives to the ceiling near enough confirms it.

“Who?”

“Mark Webber.”

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/48632239

• PWP, Weed use, Oscar/Mark mentions *3k

> Landoscar Cooking Show =

Lando and Oscar's love story through food-related posts on Instagram

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/50825998#main

• Picture fic, Social media fic, Fluff *0k

> Little Renaissance = ♥️

And Oscar - people said he didn’t like the spotlight, didn’t know how to capture it and keep it the way Lando did. They always compared the two of them, in that regard. Even after Oscar left. But they weren’t right, the strangers, not after the first year at least.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/50824324/chapters/128393929?

• Future Fic, Retirement, Angst, Pining, Acceptance, Happy Ending, Prose *14.2k

> Those Magic Changes =

“Yeah, right.” Oscar’s beer tastes stale in his mouth. “Sure there’s other perks though, right?”

Logan’s attention has been taken by his phone. Probably a girl, Oscar thinks, or his Mom. Maybe there’s a particularly big fish being shared in the family group chat. He types out a message then locks it with purpose, chucking it face down on the table.

“Yeah, I mean. You know what they say happens when you podium, right? The girl thing?”

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/49308133#main

• Fem!Oscar, Smut, PWP *7.8k

> Sometimes I Start To Think You Hate Me Too =

Lando seems to have come to the conclusion that his strategy of appeasing him isn't working, so he opts for being impersonal, objective. "You were optimistic, Carlos locked up, you both crashed. It was a racing incident, and you - you are being dumb about it."

It doesn't work.

He scoffs, upset, he has never left anything well alone, he digs his heels deeper. "I wasn't too optimistic, I was inexperienced, was I not?"

OR,

The deep fear of yearning, wanting and needing without understanding the jealousy that consumes you. Breaking and breathing heavily under an awfully put facade of everything going well.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/49659349/chapters/125339467?

• Angst, Inner Turmoil, Fluff, Happy Ending *3.7k

> Mine =

All in all, it’d been a shit weekend for Oscar. He knew he was beating himself up over understandable, expected rookie mistakes, he knew it was a great learning opportunity, he knew that the damage to his car hadn’t been entirely his fault on both occasions. Even if he didn’t show it or express it outwardly, it stung to watch his teammate stand on the podium - P3 - after all that’d happened. It hurt even more when that P3 became P2 before they’d even finished celebrating.

Lando moved up in the championship, so did the team. He deserved it, but it hurt like a bitch.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/51053692?view_adult=true#main

• PWP, Dom!Oscar *2.8k

> Sanctus = ♥️

“Nessun maggior dolore che ricordarsi del tempo felice ne la miseria,” Oscar read. Recited. Proclaimed.

“There is no greater sorrow than thinking back upon a happy time in misery,” Lando echoed.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/50752399/chapters/128207113?

• Renaissance AU, Non-Driver AU, Angst, Master/Servant Relationship, Religious Imagery, Fluff, Happy Ending *5.5k

> Anything Less Than Human =

Oscar doesn’t really do entrances. Sure, in high society, it’s deemed necessary to stand at the top of some ridiculous staircase and wait for someone to announce your arrival. But that really only works in your favor if your name has any kind of good status associated with it.

Oscar’s not fortunate enough to fall into that category.

!!! https://archiveofourown.org/works/49902154/chapters/125979850?

• Vampire!Oscar, Masquerade Ball, Consensual Blood Sucking *2.7k

That’s all for now folks!

Authors (i love and cherish u all, you’re simply the light of my life):

@wanderingblindly @eisenberg @ocontraire @celientjeee @nyoomfruits @gaslybottoms and @ venerat (ao3 user)

P.S. whoever the nonnies are that wrote “Grand Theft August” and “We’re All in the Butter but Some of us are Watching the Cars” i would literally pay you to step on me, thanks and good night.

[sasagero]

A3! Tenma Sumeragi SR: "Veludo Way Oshi Spot! ~Video: Tenma~" (2/2)

Taichi: We finally got the chance to come to the burger shop, and the fact that we even get to reserve it just for us makes me super happy!

Tenma: They were supposed to reopen tomorrow, but they made an exception for us and opened early just so that we can film.

Taichi: I’m nothing but grateful towards them!

Taichi: But honestly, I was a little surprised that you wanted to introduce this place for your video, Ten-chan.

Tenma: Really? I’ve taken a liking to this place since we’ve dropped in a few times on the way home.

Tenma: Plus, I learned about this place because of you, so I wanted to introduce it together.

Taichi: Ten-chan! Hearing something like that makes me super happy…!

Tenma: Well, I actually just want to eat the burger I missed out on trying last time, you know.

Taichi: Eeh?!

Tenma: Come on, let’s start filming before we go ahead and order a burger.

Taichi: W-why do you gotta toy with my feelings like that…?!

Tenma: Tenma Sumeragi from Mankai Company’s Summer Troupe here.

Tenma: In this video, I’ll be showing off a place I like in Veludo Way.

Taichi: By the way, I, Taichi Nanao of Autumn Troupe, am in charge of filming! I’m gonna work hard with Ten-chan so that we can make a good video!

Tenma: That being said, the place we’d like to show you all is this hamburger shop.

Tenma: I’m sure there are a lot of students in Veludo Way who owe it to this shop, right?

Tenma: After all, the burgers here are cheap yet delicious, and the serving sizes are big, too.

Taichi: It’s the best spot to make a quick stop at! Plus, the interior’s super stylish and nice!

Tenma: Of course, you can come with your friends, but it might be a nice date spot, too. It’s a good place for any occasion.

Tenma: We thought we’d show you guys our recommendations off the menu today, too.

Tenma: I recommend the curry potatoes and the double cheeseburger, but…

Tenma: This time, I’ll ask them to hold the pickles, tomatoes, and onions in my order.

Taichi: There’s hardly any vegetables left…

Tenma: I wanted people to know that they can order like this and request to have things taken out.

Tenma: If there’s something in there that you can’t eat, there’s no need to worry—just ask them to leave it out like this.

Tenma: Anyways, Taichi ordered the teriyaki burger and cola set.

Tenma: …And he’s already unwrapping the teriyaki burger. You’re in the middle of filming, but you seem super eager to eat.

Taichi: I’ve got a hand free not holding the camera, so if I just put my mind to it, it’s no problem!

Tenma: Well, guess that should be fine… Alright, I’m digging in.

Tenma: …Tasty!

Taichi: That’s delicious—!

Tenma: Beyond the menu items we just showed to you, their menu has a lot of delicious looking dishes.

Tenma: It might be nice to bring a friend so that you can order and share everything you’re interested in.

Tenma: Even right now, Taichi’s decided to snack on my curry potatoes.

Taichi: Didn’t you say it was fine before we started filming?!

Tenma: I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I just thought that you’re pretty dextrous, even with only one hand.

Tenma: And with that, this is the end of our hamburger shop introduction video.

Tenma: If you’d like, definitely come here to eat.

Tenma: Okay, and… post.

Check out my recommended order and what I show off. #RedevelopmentProjectCommemorationEvent #MANKAIVeludo #SumeragiTenma #HamburgerShop #RecommendedMenu #ItWasDelicious

Tenma: …Tasty!

Taichi: That’s delicious—!

Tenma: Beyond the menu items we just showed to you, their menu has a lot of delicious looking dishes.

Tenma: It might be nice to bring a friend so that you can order and share everything you’re interested in.

Tenma: …How is it?

Taichi: Checking on my phone, I can confirm that your behind-the-scenes pics and video got posted!

Tenma: Thanks. Because of you, the video came out well, so I’m excited for everyone’s reactions.

Taichi: Mhm, it’d make me happy if people came to the burger shop because they saw the video!

Taichi: I mean, just watching the video’s made me crave a burger…!

Tenma: That’s because the burgers there are delicious. I understand why you’d want to eat there regularly.

Taichi: Ah, but…

Tenma: What’s up?

Taichi: If Ten-chan’s fans watch the video and rush the restaurant, won’t it become super hard to drop by there?!

Tenma: Now that you mention it, that’s true… That’s not out of the question.

Tenma: In that case, the next time we wanna go, I’d better disguise myself.

Taichi: Yeah! ‘Cause I wanna go eat burgers with you again!

Tenma: Let me try and come up with a disguise that definitely won’t get found out…

---

Previous chapter

[gvfmarge]

My second ever fic!

I wrote this a 2am last night after some… thoughts. I don’t know how to continue it or wrap it up, I’ve never been good at endings. So here it is, I wish I knew how to make it spicier. I also have not edited this whatsoever, so please excuse any mistakes or errors.

Anyways! Hope you enjoy!

•Jake Kiszka x Reader

•18+ MDNI

•Toy play, dirty talk, ummm just filth.

Fed Up

Jake was supposed to have today off, they were supposed to have a free day and it was supposed to be your day with him. But, as it always seems to happen, he had to meet with their manager for a quick follow up that morning on something with the label; you weren’t quite sure what was going on but Jake was mad when he woke up to the phone call at 7:30. He promised he would make it quick and be home as soon as possible, between kisses and tight squeezes he promised to be home by 11am.

Sitting on your couch watching trash TV, your phone lights up with a text from him. You notice it’s already 11:15am.

Jake: We’re so close to finishing up! I’m so sorry love, I’ll be home in just a bit.

You huffed and turned your attention back towards the TV. You couldn’t pay attention to the annoying valley girl laughs or the drunken slurs that poured out of the speakers. You were fed up. The day that you had been looking forward to for weeks was halfway through and you hadn’t got to spend any of it with Jake.

Sinking down into the plush pillows your mind was wandering. You had created this beautiful day full of love between the two of you and had hoped it would end with you two wrapped around each other in bed. You started imagining the last night you were in bed together and the events that took place and your cheeks started to warm. You tried to ignore the thoughts of his hands gliding over your thighs or the sounds of his panting over top of you that night. You tried to ignore the way he looked in pure bliss with you. You knew, you hoped, you could spend tonight the same way. Your thighs twisted together and clinched to keep the deep feeling of lust away, but it was no use. You picked up the remote and turned off the TV. You aggressively picked up your phone and opened his text thread again, hoping that he maybe had texted again that he was on his way; but there was no new texts from him.

You: Okay! Let me know when you’re on your way. Love you! 😘

You watched the blue bubble swoop onto the screen and hoped that he would read it and respond immediately. But when the read receipt didn’t come after a minute or two, you gave up. You trudged your way up the wooden stairs, your feet hitting heavy after feeling defeated.

You thought maybe a nap would pass the time and would wake up to Jake waking you up and you could officially start your day with him. You fell back into the bed and stared at the ceiling fan spinning around and around. A few moments later, you rolled over to your nightstand and opened the drawer. Grabbing your vibrator, you thought it might help your nap come easier.

Rolling your eyes you quickly kicked your shorts off into the floor. You double checked your phone for the last time, making sure he hadn’t texted to let you know he was on his way. He hadn’t.

You clicked the vibrator on and slowly ran it over your stomach, around your belly button and across your hip bones. Just imagining and pretending it was Jake’s tongue licking stripes across your skin. Goosebumps rose across your legs at the feeling. You let out a deep sigh and continued down your torso, making your way with the vibrating wand down the insides of your thighs. Careful not to hit that perfect spot yet, you ran it across your mound and down the crease of your thighs. Finally giving in, you moved it into the sweet spot and let out a muffled moan. You imagined what Jake would say as he was watching you pleasure yourself with your favorite toy. “Good girl, you’re doing so well baby, you look like an angel spread out for me.” His voice echoed in your head as your breathing picked up. You were so close, your stomach was tightening and you felt your legs begin to tremble.

That’s when you heard it. The squeaky floor board at the door of your bedroom gave him away. Your eyes shot open and you sat straight up in embarrassment. You threw your vibrator in a stupid attempt to act like you weren’t just pleasuring yourself. Your eyes met his as he walked into the room, his walk pouring confidence. His eyes dark and lips turned up into a smirk. He reached you beside the bed and ran his hand down your cheek with a soft chuckle.

“Jake, I- I didn’t hear your text come through” you stuttered out. “I didn’t know you were home already.”

“Well I wanted to surprise you but I see I’m the one who got the surprise.” He grinned.

“I just couldn’t wait, I was going to try to nap but it just happened.” You sat up hastily and tried to pull your shirt down far enough to cover yourself, finding yourself embarrassed and feeling too exposed. His hand grabbed yours to stop you from covering yourself. Pushing your hand away, he lifted your shirt over your shoulders and threw it into the pile of clothes on the floor. “Keep going.” He quietly commanded.

“What?” You were shocked. You two had gotten up to some pretty wild times, but this was never one. This was new territory and pleasuring yourself in front of him, for him seemed to be too daunting.

“I want to watch you, I want to see you do what you do when I’m not home.” He sauntered to the end of the bed and pulled off his half buttoned linen shirt. Sitting down on the edge, he held out his hand in your direction, motioning for you to continue.

You cleared your throat and closed your slack jaw, grabbing your vibrator again and trying to reposition yourself to feel more comfortable again. You looked at him and his eyes felt hot on your skin. You could feel his eyes burning into you, ready to watch what unfolded in front of him.

He could sense your hesitation. It was heavy in the room. He rose onto the bed, crawling towards you on his knees. You had never felt like prey to him, you had never felt so vulnerable with him. Jake ran his fingers down your shin in an attempt to soothe your nerves. “It’s just me baby, it’s just me. I just want to see my girl.” He whispered, his demeanor changing in an instant to help bring you back out of the hole you were falling into.

You swallowed and grinned, finally feeling the confidence slipping back into you. Pressing the on button, you slowly ran the toy over your skin like you had done earlier. Teasing yourself again, you slowly made your way back to your throbbing clit. The instant the toy touched your sensitive spot, your head rolled to the side and your eyes squeezed tight. Knowing he was watching, was even more exhilarating. It felt like you hadn’t been touched in years. “There you go baby, just like that” Jake mumbled out, kissing the side of your knee.

Your moans grew louder and louder and Jake could feel your legs begin to shake. “Take it off.” He whispered. It brought you out of the blackness and your eyes popped open along with your mouth dropped wide. “I said take. it. off.” He demanded again, this time with more dominance in his voice.

You removed the toy and instantly felt the build up in your stomach disappear. “Jakkkeeee” you whined throwing your head back. He huffed a laugh and stood up, unbuckling his belt and letting his jeans slide down his legs and stepped out of them. He climbed back onto the bed, again sitting beside your legs and leaned his head against your knee. “You may continue.” He grinned, feeling so proud of himself for getting you into this predicament.

You pouted your lips at him and slowly placed your toy back onto your clit. You instantly jolted from the sensitivity. You had never felt this before, he had never edged you from orgasm before. He had never taken away the one thing he seemed to always want to give you.

Your mouth opened slowly, allowing the growing moans to escape. Your chest was heaving as that pressure began to build again, more intense than before. Your head shot up as your stomach tensed and you knew you were about to see the stars.

“Off.” He demanded once again. Tears filled your eyes and you felt like you were going to actually die from the loss of sensation. “What are you doing??” You almost yelled at him sitting up straight in a panic.

“Just trust me.” He replied, kissing your legs again and running one hand across your stomach, the other palming himself, just trying to relieve pressure for himself. “Okay, last time baby.”

You returned the toy to your clit, hoping he would let you finally finish. Finally end this game.

You were instantly floating in space. Stars flying by your body. Your hearing disappeared and you weren’t sure if sounds were coming out of your mouth. You saw black. Your body convulsed and you came, harder and harder, it seemed to never ease up. Just as you felt that maybe you were floating back down to the ground, you started to remove the toy from your body. “No, leave it there.”

You couldn’t even think, there were no thoughts coming into your head. Just screams. Just ecstasy. Pure bliss. The stars began fading and all you could seem to do was reach for anything your free hand could reach, you grabbed onto his shoulder for leverage; you felt like your whole body might turn into mush. You couldn’t make any sound now, your entire energy was being expelled through your orgasm.

“Yes baby, god I can’t even believe how perfect you are, look at your beautiful pussy fluttering, I can’t wait to feel you on my fucking dick, oh my god” His string of thoughts spilling out into the air as you felt like you had died and gone to Heaven.

“Okay baby, okay” he whispered as he moved your hand away. Your body couldn’t lay still, you had no control over your movements and you were convulsing as you curled over into your side. You felt him slide behind you, kissing every inch of your neck down onto your shoulder. He ran his hands through your hair to try and ground you again.

You were finally able to take a few deep breaths and even out your breathing. The feeling in your body slowly returned and you could finally open your eyes. You slowly rolled onto your back to see the smirk on his lips.

[crystillyzed]

at the rainbow's end // mysta rias

pairing: mysta rias x gn!reader

word count: 4.1k

genre: fluff, staff!reader, mutual pining, wingman elira

content warning(s): swearing, unedited

summary:

After nearly a year of hearing each other's voice, you finally meet him.

a/n: this was originally going to be released as my 100 follower celebration since i hit that a while back and to make up for the lack of event since i don’t have the time to host one. but with mysta’s graduation this past weekend, i didn’t want to keep this in my drafts since i’ve been working on this for like practically a year now.

this fox-dog man means so much to me, even though i can’t really catch his streams due to timezone differences, but he means So Much to me. i got back into writing because of luxiem, but he and shu were the ones who got me back into the swing of writing which is amazing bc i love writing. i just lost all the motivation to do so until i found them last year. even though he’s no longer in niji anymore or mysta anymore, i will keep writing for him. in fact, i actually have like 3 or so mysta works in the drafts lol

and speaking of writing, this is the first long fic i’ve written in 3-4 years. i’m considering crossposting this onto my ao3 as an alternative access to read longer fics bc ik how tumblr is poopy with loading long text posts. i’m a bit rusty when it comes to writing long fics, but i hope you’ll be able to enjoy this as much as i enjoyed writing this 🧡

links: luxiem m.l || main m.l || ao3 ver (if tumblr dies)

You twist your head from your phone back towards your monitor, displaying the Discord window showing your current private call with your blue dragon friend.

“Mysta’s WHAT?”

“Yeah, he’s coming along on the trip,” Elira laughed. “You didn’t know?”

“Apparent-ly! What the hell!! Luca, that motherfucker, I’m gonna beat his ass when I see him!”

She howls with laughter as you ramble on and on about how Luca told you everything about their planned trip but didn’t tell you about Mysta’s planned involvement. Once you’re done, she takes many deep breaths to calm down. “You should come with us! It’s gonna be fun. And, you’ll get to see him again.~”

You can’t really see each other’s faces, considering you’re both in a voice call. But god damn, you can hear the eyebrow wiggle in her teasing tone.

“I can’t,” you groaned, “I have finals when you’re there. As much as I wanna skip it, I really need to pass.”

“Damn, you can’t even get a referral from staff to get you here for a business meeting? Unlucky.”

“Can’t even do that anyway. I already told my professor that my trip’s been canceled, so now I have to take it.”

Though you’re not a liver for the company, you are, however, a staff member for the company. Specifically one of the staff in charge of promotions. Of course, you mainly focus on promoting EN and sometimes the other two now-merged branches. In fact, that’s how you got close to some of the livers.

As one of the staff promoters, you have to speak with the associated livers about PR stream offers and their convention appearance invites. Since you’ve been interacting with the livers the most, you’ve become friends with a few of them. Some namely Elira and Mysta.

Honestly, it’s not that you play favorites with the livers. You try your best to keep your relationships professional with them. But your bond with a specific fox-like man says otherwise.

You see, Mysta has been a joy to be around with. Although you haven’t met him in person yet, you have played some multiplayer games with him. Sometimes you check out the EN Minecraft server to see if the installed mods are working properly. Weirdly enough, almost every time you visit the server, Mysta is online. In fact, that’s how your not-so-business relationship started.

When you first entered the server, after double checking if no one was streaming at the scheduled hour, he was the first person you met. You thought you would run into Selen, Pomu, or perhaps Uki during your visit, but you were pleasantly surprised at his sudden appearance. Luckily, he was kind enough to show you around the server while teaching you some mods. With, of course, the trademark Mysta Rias experience packaged with sexual innuendos and teasing about. Well, except he didn’t go completely sexual considering it was your first time meeting him. He has some decency.

After that, you’ve run into him almost every time you visit the Minecraft server. Every visit eventually turned into hangouts, just you two (and sometimes another liver) chatting and building projects in-game. Soon enough, you and Mysta started to play other games together. You both played games such as Overwatch, Clubhouse, and sometimes League if you felt like torturing yourself for some reason.

Obviously, you had to keep the professionalism on both sides somehow. Your fellow staff members, especially some livers, noticed your close bond with the detective. So they usually send you to his DMs to discuss about any promotion offers involving him. Whenever you have your cameras on for a meeting, he somehow always flusters you with sudden flirtatious marks or something of the sort mid-conversation.

“Hello? Helloooooooo? Is someone there??”

Elira’s voice yoinks you out of your thoughts. Oh god, were you spacing out this entire time? How embarassing.

You clear your throat then respond as if you weren’t thinking of someone just now, “S-sorry, did you say something?”

“Oh my god. It’s that bad,” she mindlessly mutters.

Blink blink. “Huh?”

“Nothing,” she quickly retaliates. With a slight hum, she speaks again, “Since you’re gonna be stuck in hell… Want me to get you something? Like a souvenir or a limited edition thing? I literally have your address, man.”

Oh right, she does. Sometimes you and Elira send gifts to each other like figurines or plushies at random times.

“Nah, I’m good. Thanks for the offer, man.”

“Are you sure? I mean, I’ll still probably send some pics buuut… Y’know… Just saying…”

There she goes again, doing that thing where she wiggles her eyebrows even though you can’t see her fucking face right now. Goddamn it, why did you tell her about your… thing with Mysta? You should’ve known that she’s NOT going to let it go.

You groan, “Just. Just surprise me.”

“That’s so vague! Do you know what that means?”

“Yeah? So? Surprise me.”

“Man… You have no idea how much power you just gave me.” She cackles for the next few seconds, making you start regretting your decision. “Okay, I’ll surprise you. Just don’t forget you asked me to, alright? And no complaining!”

“Okay, alright, fine! I won’t complain! Jeez… Now get to bed, nerd, you have a flight tomorrow.”

“Sheesh, what are you, my mom?” You both chuckle at her remark. “Okieee~ I’ll go pass out now, I guess. Good night!”

“Good night, Ewiwa. Have a safe trip.”

And you both leave call. Well, maybe you should get to sleep too. It’s getting super late, after all.

—

Mysta stares at Elira across the table in disbelief. “Finals? Of all times? Bruh…”

“Haha, yeah! Super uncool and lame and not something I have to worry about soon,” his penguin colleague beside him laughs with a dreadfully crazed look in her eyes. She anxiously reaches out for her soda and starts drinking rapidly.

“Wh— it’s not like I can control it or anything. Shit happens!”

“I know, it’s just…” he drawls off as his gaze lowers to the table. Admittedly, it’s difficult for him to hide his expression. So naturally, the two girls noticed his disappointment. Elira and Petra awkwardly look at each other, then to him, then back at each other.

“Hey, it’s okay, Mysta,” Petra says as she pats his back. “You can always see them next time! Like Nijifest!”

The dragon nods, “Yeah! Or you could see them the next time you take a break. Like going on another vacation or something.”

“If I have enough money for it,” he sighed. But he gives them a small smile to appreciate their attempts to soothe him.

Petra frowns. “If? Mysta, you’re literally one of the top livers in EN, like? Hello? Mr. One Million?”

“But I still don’t know when that’s gonna happen. Might as well be in a year or maybe like half a year or something.”

Elira’s eyes narrow. She quietly listens to their conversation, or bickering at this point, while taking some occasional sips of her drink.

For the past practically a year, Elira’s been one of the victims to both of your hopeless gushing.

She already knew about your friendship since you’ve talked a lot about it before. She knows the stupid hijinks and drunken confessions that you and Mysta told her about off stream. Her eyes closes as a confused thought crosses her mind, Seriously, how are you two not dating already?

Of course, she’s quite aware that the rest of Luxiem are both of your victims. Hell, when Elira’s alone with the other boys, it’s usually them talking about how astonishing that you and Mysta aren’t together. Sometimes, they make bets on who’s going to confess first. It’s obvious!

Even with the two going back and forth, practically becoming one with the background, she closes her eyes and hums in thought. Finals should be finished next week, she mused. Her visible eye opens as she takes a glance at the ashy haired male. But he’s been so busy lately that they haven’t spoken with each other…

The entire EN branch had a full schedule for the past few months. In fact, their schedule was so full that sometimes the livers couldn’t make their own streaming schedules nor stream in general. Mysta, of course, was no exception. As one of the most popular livers in EN, he’s one of the most busiest people she’s ever known. On top of that, you too have been busy recently too. You haven’t been able to hang out with him as of late despite being a staff member yourself. Life really likes to fuck anyone over, doesn’t it?

She could tell that you two haven’t been able to find the time to talk with each other. The staff picked up many projects that practically almost everyone is unavailable, and you were one of said unavailable members. The only times the livers could contact you was through Slack or by email for business inquiries. But things should be slightly slowing down, for now that is.

Although, it would be nice to have you two meet each other once at the same time, even if it’s a coincidental encounter.

Wait a minute…

A devious smirk lifts her lips, her eyes glinting with mischief in mind. She chuckles to herself as she entertains the thought. Hell, it even looks kinda creepy to the other patrons. ESPECIALLY to her coworkers who’s now staring at her with confusion and a hint of fear.

“…Elira? Are you okay?” Petra asked the dragon.

“Hm?” She blinks out of her thoughts as the penguin’s voice pulls her back into reality. Elira stares at her and Mysta, who also looks a bit dumbfounded, before grinning at them. “Oh, don’t worry about it. Just thought of something.”

Blink blink. “Like what?” Mysta asked this time.

Again, she lets out a chuckle and flicks her wrist to wave off the concern. “Like I said! Don’t worry about it! Y’all will see it eventually.”

Soon enough, the waitress arrives with their orders. Elira turns to face her and helps her with the food. On the other side of the table, the two livers tilt their heads in confusion and eventually give each other an unknowing look as the table is served.

—

You lie in bed snuggled underneath your covers, but the lights are still on as you scroll through Twitter on your phone.

It’s been about a couple weeks since your call with Elira. She’s been sending you updates, videos, and pictures of the group’s adventures in Japan. Sometimes, she’d call you before going to bed to tell you what happened during the trip in case it was a story she couldn’t explain over text. Of course, there were times when another liver like Reimu and Nina would join in the call and give you the tea. As much as you wished you wanted to be there while dying in exams, you felt warm as you saw the livers enjoying themselves on their vacation.

Then, you noticed how fast the month flew by. Eventually, it was time for the livers to fly home and say goodbye for a while. They all had different flights, obviously, but there was a specific person who didn’t leave the country yet.

You were looking on Twitter while watching the members’ story time streams on a pop-up viewer. Although, you didn’t see Mysta’s waiting room or tweet indicating his return to streaming yet.

Suddenly, you remembered why.

“He wants to stay back for a bit,” Elira answered over the sound of her packing. “Dunno why, but I don’t blame him. He was in Japan for work last time.”

That he was. Though disappointing it is that you can’t hang with him for a while longer, at least he’s having fun.

“Oh, remember the thing I asked you about?”

She asked you something? When?

“What thing?” You asked.

“Uh… The souvenir thing?”

Oh shit, you forgot about that. And apparently, she noticed your forgetfulness as indicated by her laughter.

“I got you something,” Elira continued, “but I’ll send it to you when I get back.”

“Why not now? You can just ask headquarters to send it to me.”

“It’s not something in a box though.”

You blinked in confusion, unanswering.

On the other end of the line, you heard her chuckle, “You’ll see.”

Your brief conversation did, in fact, make you scared. Although it’s Elira, your local dependable dragon, sometimes she can be as unpredictable as… well… the rest of Nijisanji. Not just EN, but Nijisanji in general. Remember that one time you watched her stream where she suddenly jumped into a hole in that Forest collab? Yeah…

Now, some time has passed since the trip and she’s been home for about almost a week. It’s something not in a box, right? So what’s taking her so long? Is it digital? Or did she fuck up somewhere with the delivery?

Currently, you’ve been juggling schoolwork, personal work, and work-work. Needless to say, it’s been a stressful time, especially around this type of year. Seriously, why is everyone so goddamn busy around this time? Idle thoughts aside, you’ve also been anxiously waiting for Elira’s souvenir. For the past week, you’d constantly check your phone and your PC for any email or DM from Slack and Discord with Elira’s name attached to it. Every time you get DM’ed or emailed, it’s always been another liver or staff member whose name doesn’t start with Elira and end with Pendora.

But hey, at least you got funny memes from Luca and Mysta in the mean time!

Honestly, at this point, you might as well just give up. Maybe she did run into issues, or she just forgot.

You let out a sigh as you refreshed your feed for the umpteenth time tonight, accompanied by the ghost’s voice eminating through your speakers. Yet suddenly, a notification banner from Discord slides down onto the screen.

Elira Pendora

SURPRISE!!!!

Oh.

Huh.

So she didn’t forget??

Confused yet astonished at the same time, you pull down your notifications bar and tap on the DM to see what she sent.

As the iconic Discord logo pops up on your screen, it eventually loads your conversation with Elira. When you look past your previous chat, a message larger than it should be fills about a third of your screen.

A plane ticket to London next week. Seat number and all. And most notably, it has your name.

…

“HUH?”

You frantically tap on the textbox and type.

You

GIRL

WHAGT THE FUCK IS THIS

Elira Pendora

your souvenir! ☺️

You

WDYM SOUVENIR THATS NOT EVEN RELATED TO JAPAN??? 😭😭😭😭

also

HOW DID YUO GET MY NUMBER??? AND MY EMAIL????? :monkas:

Elira Pendora

I had to pull a few strings with staff

just normal coworker things

You

:thonk:

“normal”

Elira Pendora

but like you should go!!!

I didn’t go through all that just for you to not see him

and you really needed a break so 😎

You

??????

but hes Still in japan?????

Elira Pendora

yeah but he’s flying back home next week

I asked him earlier and had to like try to figure out how to get you to meet him at the same time

or like

around the same time 😌

You

man idk if i should thank you or yell at you

Elira Pendora

LMAO EITHER WORKS IT’S OKAY MAN

better get ready!!!

You

wait what about the hotel

Elira Pendora

what hotel? ☺️

i’m sure he wouldn’t mind letting you stay for a few days tbh

and yes I will also pay for your return trip

You

BUT YOUR LEN FUNDS……

Elira Pendora

I KNOW 😭😭😭

but it’s worth it! go get your man bitch!!

but :thonk:

I think I’ll try to pass out now since I have something scheduled tomorrow soooo

GOOD NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!

You

gn ewiwa :D

Well! Looks like you have a trip to prepare for.

—

The gray haired detective lounged comfortably in the AirBnB’s living room, resting on the sofa as he scrolled through Twitter. He let out a chuckle here and there, sometimes full on laughing whenever a funny meme popped up on his timeline.

“Meesta!” Elira called out to him from the kitchen island.

He turned around to look at the unusually giddy dragon. Confused, he asked, “What’s up?”

“When are you heading back?”

“Uh…” Pulling out his phone, he quickly went through his gallery to find a screenshot of his ticket. Once he found it, he examined the ticket for its boarding time and date then put it away. “In like a couple or so weeks. I thought I told you?”

“I don’t think you did,” she answered.

She motioned him to give her the device, or at least show her the screen. Of course, he complied. Though insane she is, he does have immense respect for her and Lazulight. Mysta stood up from his seat and approached her. Once in the kitchen area, he flipped his phone towards her, letting her singular visible eye take a peek.

Elira hummed as she inspected the ticket details then pulled back. “Cool. Thanks man!”

She walked away from the kitchen, carrying a glass of water upstairs leaving him even more confused.

It’s been three weeks since his unusual encounter with Elira. He sits idly at a bench by a luggage conveyor in the airport, waiting for his bags to unload from the plane. While waiting, he leans back into his seat and lets out an exhausted sigh. Luckily, no one is seated beside him, so he could just take up all the space on this uncomfortable bench. Still, he couldn’t help but reminisce onto their conversation.

Was she planning something? Was she just curious? What was she cooking?

Now, he’s back in the dreaded land of England, land of the beloathed. He pulls out his phone and immediately checks Discord. The EN server is lively as always, everyone’s practically home but the sense of energy radiates from the screen despite being digital. Like any other liver, he hops in the conversation a bit, sometimes memeing around with the others in the general channel.

Although, he noticed that your icon hasn’t appeared at least once since he landed. He was even paying attention to the top left corner of his screen for a red dot indicating your message. Normally, you’d send him a meme or something to see while he’s asleep or busy. But strangely enough, you haven’t yet. Maybe he should send you something? Or maybe call?

Mysta continues to catch up and reflect on the livers’ vacation in Japan on the server, his attention eventually caught by a familiar bag on the conveyor.

Welp. Looks like he’ll call you later.

—

Thank god Elira had the brain cells to make sure your flight isn’t after his own. Of course, she had to take in account about the flight times since you’re both literally across the globe from each other going to London. To avoid missing him right after landing, you were booked super early into the morning. But sometimes, there’s a possibility that you might be too early when he lands. And, unfortunately, that seems to be the case.

“He lands around midnight,” Elira told you on phone prior to checking in. “So you should be a biiiit early.”

Yeah, by like, 2 hours.

Man, what the hell are you supposed to do for two whole hours? Well, at least you have your phone AND your luggage. You could even people watch in the lobby. But that’s 2 hours!

What’s even more fucked up is that you can’t really use your phone unless you find the wifi. But airport wifi is kinda shitty, especially in England of all places. Talk about a British debuff.

You let out a heavy sigh and collapse into your seat. Napping is out of the question, even though you’re still kind of tired from the flight. Don’t wanna risk missing him by a smidgen, of course. So you ended up roaming around the airport for a while, getting yourself some drinks and snacks to keep you occupied while waiting for your friend. Luckily there were plenty of places to lounge while waiting, so you found a place to sit and enjoy your haul of snacks while waiting.

You did get to connect to the public wifi to look at some memes, but again, it’s the airport wifi. With how slow your phone’s been loading, you eventually disconnect yourself from the wifi after moments of mindless scrolling.

But then you realized something.

You have absolutely no idea what gate he’s in.

Panicked, you scramble to pick up your bags from your side and stand up. Shit, did Elira tell you what airline he took? God, having data in another country would be so helpful. There’s absolutely no way you’re gonna reconnect to the public wifi, it’s too damn slow! If you did have data, you’d look back to your DMs and scrub through your brief conversation from last night.

With a quick glance at your phone, the clock flashes briefly on the screen. 9:20pm, that means his flight’s arriving in less than an hour. Oh shit.

Immediately, you pace briskly throughout the terminals. As you scrounge through the crowds just to take a good look at the terminals, you ask staff for international flights from Japan along the way to help narrow down as much as possible. Throughout the search, you occasionally checked the clock on your phone. 9:40? Shit, his flight should be here now or soon.

“Mysta!” You suddenly shout, passerbys looking at you strangely as you start calling for his name. Your luggage rolls and bumps against the crevices of the floor, bags jostling as you promptly continue your search throughout the terminals. “Mysta Rias!”

Meanwhile, in the same area…

An ashy gray haired man stands in front of the carousel, waiting for the rest of his bags to drop onto the conveyor belt. He pulls out his phone from his pocket, taking a quick glance at his notifications and Discord. His mouth lowers into a frown, his brows furrowing in worry as he notices the lack of notifications from you. Did they really fall asleep?

Clink-clang!

Sunset kissed eyes shift towards the carousel at the sound. Spotting his luggage on the conveyor belt, he walks over to his revolving baggage and lifts them onto the ground. Maybe he’ll shoot you a dm later when he gets home. The handle on his large case clicks as he pulls it up, soon dragging it on its wheels behind him as he heads towards the direction of the exit.

You continue running and searching for him, frantically calling his name throughout the terminal. Your head turns left and right as you look into the surrounding late night crowd, your gaze briefly analyzing each arrival for any hint of his gray hair or his tallness. As you remain standing in the middle of the hall, looking for him, you see a tall man wearing small shades on the bridge of his nose. Gray side hairs framing his face sway into the air as he lugs his bags from the baggage claim and towards the nearest exit.

Without a second thought, your feet starts moving towards him. “Mysta—“ you call. “Mysta!”

After seconds and minutes of searching for him, calling his name and pushing through the crowd as you chase after him. Just a little more…!

“MYSTA!”

And finally… Finally, you see him.

With a clear shout of his name, the gray haired man halts.

Bewildered, he looks left and right until he turns around to see you panting. His heart stopped as he stares at you astonishly. The ambience of the crowd and muffled intercom speakers drowned out as he zoned onto you.

He looked at you.

The person standing just centimeters away from him.

The person who he thought was someone he’d never meet face to face ever.

The person who helped him find a reason to keep going even in the darkest of times.

It felt like hours just staring at each other. It didn’t even feel like there was an ocean of people swarming about and passing by. Without a second thought, Mysta slowly approaches you as if he were to scare you off. As if he didn’t want to wake up, if he is dreaming.

As he gets closer and closer, you didn’t make a move. No, you merely stared at him with wonder and excitement im your eyes.

You both stood across each other, only a few centimeters apart. He blinks several times, even pinching his wrists to disprove his thoughts. But he felt a stinging pain on each part.

An airy huff somewhat resembling a laugh escapes from him. Relief washes over him, and he whispers with a smile, “…Hi.”

You smile back.

“Hi.”

[greenhikingboots]

Jon’s Pre-Canon Crush

Okay, Jonsa fam. I’ve seen a lot of great posts, especially in the last few months, about Jon’s reactions to Val. Among them, there’s one particular vein I like to assume everyone loves as much as I do. That is, when Jon thinks of Val’s hair as silver vs. when he thinks of it as the color of dark honey. You’ve seen those metas, right? They explain the likelihood of Jon’s future connection to Dany being negative — The air tastes cold. / My tongue is too numb to tell. All I taste is cold. — while his future connection to Sansa will be positive — It had been a long while since Jon Snow had seen a sight so lovely.

Well, in this post I want to expand on the angle of Val-is-sometimes-a-stand-in-for-Sansa. Only, I don’t want to speculate on what will happen between Jon and Sansa in the future, if we ever get GRRM’s last two books. Enough people have already done that, and they’ve done it so wonderfully that I have little to add. Instead, as the title of this post says, I want to focus on Jon’s pre-canon crush. More specifically: I want to focus on what Jon’s thoughts and feelings about Val say about his thoughts and feelings about Sansa.

But let me lay some groundwork first, okay? Until a few weeks ago, I went back and forth on pre-canon crush theories. I agreed they held a lot of potential and were a lot of fun to daydream about — a great premise for a one-shot, to be sure! Oh, and I’ve always loved it when people said things like, “Hey, Jon, your Targaryen is showing.” That’s classic stuff. But did I really think GRRM meant to hint at prior feelings rather than just laying a foundation for future feelings? Again, until a few weeks ago, I wasn’t totally convinced either way. But now I am fully committed to the Pre-Canon Crush Camp, assigned to cabin Jon-Had-Feelings-for-Sansa. [Did Sansa have feelings for Jon too? Ummm maybe? I think there’s some evidence to support that, but not as much. But, hey, that’s not the point of this post. Sorry. Moving on.] So what changed? Well, basically some ideas I’d previously had sunk in on a deeper level. It started with this post from @sherlokiness. It talks about GRRM commenting on a discrepancy in the books, two occasions where Jeyne Westerling’s physical descriptions do not match up. GRRM said the discrepancies were a mistake, a really unfortunate one because it distracts from the times when he intentionally included discrepancies of physical appearances. And basically us Jonsas loved it. Like, “Yep! Make sense! We assumed as much already, Mr. Martin.” And that’s because of the canon line mentioned earlier, right? You know the whole thing, don’t you? Oh, but you want me to quote it here anyway? Okay, fine, I’ll oblige.

They [Ghost and Val] look as though they belong together. Val was clad all in white [bleh, bleh, bleh] …but her eyes were blue, her long braid the color of dark honey, her cheeks flushed red from the cold. It had been a long while since Jon Snow had seen a sight so lovely.

Direwolf. Lots of white. Suspicious ellipses. Blue eyes. Long braid the color of dark honey. Right, okay, got it.  [BTW. Did you know there’s also a point, early on, where Val’s described as having high cheekbones? You know, a feature Sansa has as well!?!?] Anyway, when I saw sherlokiness’s post about GRRM’s comments and the Jonsas relating it to that canon scene with Ghost and Val, I reblogged it. Naturally. And in the tags I said something like, “I’ll have to double check but I’m pretty sure the willowy creature line comes after this line. As in, maybe Jon knew exactly who Val reminded him in that moment and he was trying to talk himself out of his pre-canon crush coming back to the surface.” I’m paraphrasing here. My tags were probably not as clear as that. Also, I was being a bit facetious. It was a thought I’d had before, but just a passing one. Again (AGAIN! Do I say that too much?), I’d been going back and forth about pre-canon crush theories for a long time. But @agentrouka-blog saw my tags and was like, “You might be onto something there.” And then @zimshan saw my tags too and did the double check for me. Thanks! And guess what? GUESS WHAT, JONSA FAM!? I was right about the order. First, Jon sees Ghost and Val, thinks her eyes are blue and her hair is like dark honey, and it is a lovely sight. Second, this line:

Val looked the part [of a princess] and rode as if she had been born on horseback. A warrior princess, he decided, not some willowy creature who sits up in a tower, brushing her hair and waiting for some knight to rescue her.

But guess what else? The order isn’t even the most striking thing. The most striking thing is how closely these two lines appear to one another — within just a few pages!!! That's what zimshan said. So I went back to read it myself. Not just the two lines to check the order, but a little before, and a little after, and everything in between. If you want, you can do the same. It’s ADWD Jon XI.

Want to know what stuck out to me most? The willowy creature line actually seems… so odd, and out of place, and unnecessary. I swear to you. Let me try to explain.

Basically, by that point in the chapter, Jon has already clearly established his take on Val. She’s beautiful, everyone knows it, but she’s more than that. She’s strong and capable. She found Tormund and brought him back to Castle Black when Jon’s Night’s Watch Rangers couldn’t manage it. Like, Jon’s thankful for Val, okay? 

Oh, and he also seems aware that he holds her in higher regard than the rest of the men who keep calling her a princess even though she’s not one. I think he feels smug about it, to be honest. Like, he wouldn’t use these words because it’s ASOIAF, but he knows he’s a budding feminist and he’s proud of himself for it. Like, “I’m so much better than these asshats who don’t respect women and think all Val has to offer is her pretty face.”

How great is that? I love book Jon so much.

Where was I, though? Oh! Oh, oh, oh! This next part is key. Up until the willowy creature line, Jon has not had a single disparaging thought about Val. Val being cruel about Shireen’s greyscale hasn’t happened yet. But for some reason — *Getting too executed. Brain malfunctioning!*

AH! I SWEAR JONSA FAM! If you read the willowy creature in fuller context, it comes across as if Jon’s correcting himself for having a disparaging thought about Val, like he’s reminding himself of who she truly is. She’s a warrior princess, not a willowy creature. But like, why? Why does Jon feel the need to do this? He hasn’t had a disparaging thought about Val, so why correct himself as if he has?

Just because she’s beautiful? Just because he’s tired of other men calling her a princess? I mean, I guess that could be the whole story. That’s certainly how we’re supposed to take it, if we’re taking it at face value. But I’m not convinced. Go read it again, and I think you’ll see that when the willowy creature line happens, it actually feels like a weird logic leap.

The dots aren’t connecting because one dot is missing!!!! Let me put a pin in that for a moment while I turn to other mini metas in our Jonsa fandom. Antis like to say, “Jon doesn’t like girls like Sansa. He doesn't like willowy creatures, he said so himself.” But we know that’s crap, right? The boy who liked Ygritte’s gentle side? The boy who helps Alys Karstark by marrying her to Sigorn? The boy who dreamed his mother was a highborn lady with kind eyes? The boy who wanted to show his hypothetical wife Winterfell’s glass gardens and bath with her in the hot pools?

Yeah, that boy is a budding feminist, like I said.

So again I ask (AGAIN!) why would Jon — who is not especially critical of women in general and has not been critical of Val at all up to this point — feel the need to correct himself by thinking this critical thing about willowy creatures? In other words, why does he lift up Val by putting down some vague idea of other women he’s never had a problem with before?

Well, obviously it turns out that I believe my facetious, tongue in cheek tags more than I realized when I wrote them. My position is that somewhere in the two pages between ...a long while since Jon had seen a sight so lovely… and ...not some willowy creature who sits up in a tower, brushing her hair… Jon realized Val reminded him of Sansa, he felt guilty and ashamed about it, and then felt the need to do damage control. And because guilt and shame are icky, confusing feelings, his damage control took the form of being critical of Sansa even though he isn’t normally critical of such women. 

Am I making sense? How do I explain myself further? Like, why am I so stuck on this idea Jon’s willowy creature line being two pages after the Ghost and Val looking lovely together line must mean Jon had a pre-canon crush?

I think the crux is what I said about the willowy creature line feeling like a weird logic leap — like the dots aren’t connecting because one is missing. The missing dot is Jon being aware that he’s mentally swapped Val with Sansa. He just doesn’t acknowledge this on the page.

Let me be extra clear. I’m now differing from several others who have written about pre-canon crush theories in that I think Jon was aware of his crush. I’ve seen many say it’s all subconscious. But this stuff with Val makes me think otherwise.

I mean, I know Jon has a pattern of dissociation. For him, thinking, and speaking, and acting from his subconsciousness is a common occurrence. So, yes, he could have subconsciously thought Val looked like Sansa and subconsciously felt guilty and ashamed and therefore subconsciously decided to do damage control by subconsciously reminding himself Val is a warrior princess and therefore not a willowy creature.

But I think GRRM was hinting at an exception to Jon’s pattern with these canon lines. Because if the first part is happening subconsciously — Jon thinking Val looks like Sansa and that it’s a lovely sight — then he wouldn’t feel the need to do damage control afterwards? If he wasn’t aware of thinking of Sansa in that moment, isn’t it more likely he’d just carry on with taking Val to meet Selyse, and the odd, out of place, unnecessary line about a willowy creature wouldn’t have been included? What else, what else?

I said earlier that I think Jon’s crush is an innocent, not sexual thing. Let me expand on that. And uuuuuhhhhh... let me clarify that I think that might be changing some over time.  My guess is when Jon was younger, his thoughts were more along these lines: “Sansa is pretty, and a proper lady, and everything men are taught to want. She’ll be a good wife for someone someday. Obviously not me. That’s sinful, I don’t want it, and I’m a bastard so I can’t marry a highborn lady anyway. But objectively, Sansa’s a good catch.” Which kinda matches how Jon thinks of Val at times, right? Like, she’s a catch but he doesn’t want her. He’s not taking Winterfell and a Wife because Winterfell belongs to Sansa and he’s a man of the Night’s Watch, dammit! But hang on a second. Sometimes Jon’s thoughts about Val are more elicit, aren’t they? He thinks about the size of her breasts and she’s the hypothetical wife he pictures romancing in Winterfell. Don’t worry, I’m not saying I’m secretly a Jon/Val shipper. What I’m getting at is this other thing we’ve talked about in the Jonsa fandom. Jone projects his general desires onto Val. He’s getting older. He’s unhappy at the Wall. Winterfell isn’t Robb’s like he thought it would be, and Bran and Rickon are thought to be dead. And Stannis is offering Winterfell and Val to him. Plus he’s now been intimate with a woman, Ygritte. So he knows that sex feels nice. All in all, Jon’s becoming more in tune with wanting Winterfell, and a wife, and a family, and wanting to fu—

You get the idea. ;)

Soooooo. If you buy into the premise that A) Jon considered Sansa a good catch when they were younger B) He’s thinking more and more about romance and sex C) Val is also a good catch and easy to project feelings onto and D) Woopsies, Val just reminded me of Sansa! Well, then where does all that leave Jon? Feeling like he needs to distance himself from positive thoughts about Sansa, right? But without ever thinking her name because of his pattern of dissociation and because GRRM is tricky like that.  Am I making my point clearer, or just talking in circles?  Like, I know plenty of people have already said Val is a switch-back-and-forth-stand-in-for-other-characters. The first two short paragraphs of this post mentions those metas.  But holy smokes! If Jon is aware of A-D mentioned above, that adds a fascinating layer of subtext to his scenes with and thoughts about Val.  Let’s talk about it forever!

Just kidding. I think I’m almost done here.  Basically, I think the willowy creature line is Jon knowingly saying to himself, “Yikes, the thoughts I had about Sansa in the past didn’t bother me much because they were 99% innocent. But they are less innocent now and that’s a problem! You can’t like Sansa! Don’t confuse Sansa with Val,  dummy! Val is a warrior princess! Sansa is a willowy creature and willowy creatures are bad!”

Okay, sure, Jon.  Let me wrap up with one more canon line.

Of Sansa brushing out Lady’s coat and singing to herself. You know nothing, Jon Snow.

We often link this line to Ygritte for obvious reasons, but I’m now in the habit of linking it more to Val and the canon lines mentioned previously. I think GRRM wrote a the three lines — a sight so lovely + willow creature + of Sansa brushing out Lady’s coat — as a subtle continuation of one another. Us Jonsas saw the potential for underlying romantic feelings in the last one, that’s nothing new. But I want to add that it’s a direct contrast to the willowy creature line. As Jon is bleeding out, he can no longer be bothered to put up a front and pretend he doesn’t have feelings for Sansa, feelings that have gotten more complicated as of late.

Oh so subtle. Really not that much different than what others have said before me. But different enough I wanted to mention it. Now someone put it in a fanfic!!

[fans4wga]

Where Are My Residuals? Actors/Writers Share Horror Stories On Picket Line, Social Media

"With all the strike talk about low pay, WGA and SAG-AFTRA members are starting to play a little show me yours and I’ll show you mine when it comes to their (paltry) residual checks.

Just about everyone has a story to share about how their residuals took a serious nose dive with the advent of new media. A recent story in The New Yorker about how actors on the once successful Orange is the New Black never enjoyed a financial windfall only exacerbated the angst felt by actors and writers these days.

Here’s a sampling of their stories:

With all the strike talk about low pay, WGA and SAG-AFTRA members are starting to play a little show me yours and I’ll show you mine when it comes to their (paltry) residual checks.

Just about everyone has a story to share about how their residuals took a serious nose dive with the advent of new media. A recent story in The New Yorker about how actors on the once successful Orange is the New Black never enjoyed a financial windfall only exacerbated the angst felt by actors and writers these days.

Here’s a sampling of their stories:

Jason Belleville (Home Economics): “I wrote on the first season of Cobra Kai, which is one of the biggest shows in Netflix history. I think I have more money in my pockets right now than any residuals I’ve seen from that. I was also was an executive producer of a show for Netflix called Sneakerheads, which was a smaller show, but it premiered No. 1 one in a bunch of countries for a little while. I have yet to see $1 from that. And I was a writer and EP on that, in comparison. Some of them [broadcast shows he worked on] you can still get some money from but obviously, it’s not like it was. But there’s always a steady trickle that comes in to remind you that you once worked, right? The [residual] formats for cable and for networks are clear and transparent. Whether they’re as much as we want them to be or not, they’re at least something that you can rely on. Whereas, some of these YouTube shows, these [shows licensed to] Netflix. This whole strike is about having money you can rely on through the years so you can pay for your mortgage, you can take care of your kids, as opposed to opening an envelope and going ‘oh, it’s a nickel this time.'”

Aisha Tyler (Criminal Minds, The Last Thing He Told Me): I do a show [Whose Line Is It Anyway] that is double and triple and quadruple pumped in the United States and maybe 50 countries, and I don’t see any residuals. I know it’s been very frustrating to me and my co-stars. It’s theft. We generate all of the creative output on that show. We are the writers, we are the performers, we do everything and we don’t get compensated for it. I already I already threw a couple of temper tantrums so you can see I’m a bit more sanguine about it now but we’ve been fighting about it for years and it’s just pure and simple. It is creative theft."

Mike Royce via Twitter (writer-producer, One Day At A Time, Men of a Certain Age): “Some people are wondering how residuals will work for this, and since One Day at a Time had the somewhat unique experience of running on streaming, cable AND network TV, I can tell you how it worked for me. In 2020, season 4 of ODAAT was on the Pop Network (cable). Later that year CBS repeated it, because it was the pandemic and they needed programming. I co-wrote an episode with Gloria Calderón Kellett so we split the residuals. For the Pop showings I got (lower) cable residuals, but the CBS repeat paid me half the network residual (exactly what it should be for a co-written episode) … For perspective, that one CBS repeat of one episode of ODAAT paid me roughly the same as I’ve been paid IN TOTAL for one episode of ODAAT streaming on Netflix 24/7 for the last 4-6 YEARS. In other words, 1 network repeat residual = 5 years of streaming residuals. This is why we’re on strike."

Sarah Sokolovic (Big Little Lies, Homeland): “I can tell you the money I made from residuals dropped in 2015 to less than half in 2018. And the funny thing about it was I was on two, Emmy-award winning shows. It’s not on the side of the individual producers, of course. It’s really about the studios making sure that the basic contract has things in place so that actors like me benefit from their work residually over time. There was a time when I was traveling out of the country, so I had to have my mail forwarded to my mother. She was helping me with deposits, physical checks at the time. She opens a check and she goes, ‘Sarah, it’s three cents’. I said yes. She said it actually costs more to mail it.'”

Marqui Jackson (showrunner, All American: Homecoming): “Just in general, residuals are not what they used to be. You can’t depend on residuals to even begin to sustain a living in between gigs. It’s just kind of like extra money because sometimes they’re as low as a couple of bucks. I don’t think there has been a wellspring of residuals from All American: Homecoming, even though we are doing well. It is hard to fight for the right number when you don’t know what the numbers [ratings] are. That’s part of why we’re fighting because if they’re making money off on our content we should be part of it.”

John Carroll Lynch (Trial of the Chicago 7, White House Plumbers): “I’ve noticed that anything I do for streaming is not even one-tenth of the residual stream that I got for something terrible that I did. I certainly got paid more for an episode of The Visitor, which is a show I did when I first got here and only lasted one season. I got higher residuals by about 100 percent to what I get when it [was licensed to] Netflix. At some level, we’re dealing with a different group of people who have union institutional memory. Disney as a corporation has institutional memory of using unions, often much to their chagrin. That’s true of Warner Bros. and Universal. Apple, Amazon, and Netflix all come from Silicon Valley which has no institutional memory of unions. It’s time to teach them what sharing needs to be.”

Kevin Sussman (The Big Bang Theory) “For me the big issue is residuals for streaming. I’ve known that it’s been untenable for years. I was surprised that it took this long for there to be a strike like this. I’ve seen residuals for my own shows absolutely tank once they go to streaming. I’m lucky because I was on The Big Bang Theory, which was on a broadcast network for years. Since it moved to streaming [like Max and Amazon Prime], it’s night and day. I don’t see how it’s possible for an upcoming actor these days to actually be able to make a living.”

Charlie Barnett (Men in Black 3, Russian Doll): I have those check stories of like $9 coming out. Twenty years ago, if I had the career that I have today, it would be entirely different. I can’t afford to buy a house. We just moved into a smaller place in order to start saving. It would be improper to say that I don’t have a certain amount of privilege in the position that I am. I have to recognize that. But us in these positions in of height, have all the ability to fight for the people who are under us, who are still climbing. Just the background deal that they said is historically different is bullshit. I started out in background. Are you going to tell me that I’m going to sell my image in perpetuity to a studio? It’s insane. What happens to my career for the rest of my life? It doesn’t provide any safety, any protection, any ability for growth for what this industry is, for what it’s always been. These contracts that we have built off of network television have stood for so long. We have not seen any growth through the streaming platforms. It’s kind of the Wild West. The conversation point in saying over and over again, the industry we are funding and continuing to put millions and millions of dollars into, is not profiting us. It’s BS. It’s also mirrored in the fact that half of these execs, their pay is raising continually, year and year. We have not seen growth on our side. And through the writers as well.”

[gabriel-xander]

Don't Forget

[Sans x Female!Reader]

42: All the Goons are Gooning-Gooning

A/N: Happy Valentine’s Day!

♪────✿⁠(⁠✧◕⁠ᴗ⁠◕✧⁠)✿⁠────♪

You had a very funny dream when you took that nap with Sans.

You were some teen boy in the kitchen, doom-scrolling on a social media app. You were getting up to go to your room to sleep, but then your dad stopped you.

“Son,” he said, “before you go to bed…”

You replied, “Yes, dad?”

“Change the coffee filter.”

*Vine Boom Sound*

“Okay.”

And then you woke up.

Dang, you didn’t get to change the coffee filter before you woke up…

You’re a terrible son.

Hm, wait. You’re sure you went to bed Big Spooning Sans, but he’s not here now.

How strange that he woke up before you did. How late is it? You couldn’t have slept for more than an hour or two, right? You checked the time before sleeping, it was barely noon when you got back.

You sit up on the bed, stretching lazily as you are in no hurry to become a functioning member of society.

Damn, you’re still sad you never got to change the coffee filter…

You get up and slip on Sans’ pink slippers because you don’t feel like finding your own. They’re really comfortable, too. It’s a little chilly, so you grab your jacket that you left on the dresser. After that, you dig out the box that was still hiding in there.

You don’t know where to really put it… Maybe you can ask Sans for a place to keep it or something. For now, you’ll leave it on the dresser. You’re not trying to hide things from Sans, and he’ll end up finding it eventually anyway.

Leaving the room, you already hear the speaking voices of Sans and Papyrus downstairs. You try keeping yourself quiet, listening in to their conversation.

“-ood as it could’ve been. we met another version of you, too.”

“WOWIE, REALLY? WAS HE COOLER THAN ME?”

“it’ll be a warm day in snowdin before anyone becomes cooler than you, bro.”

“AS PER USUAL, THAT IS TO BE EXPECTED. AND WHAT OF YOUR MISSION? DID YOU AND [Y/N] FIND WHAT YOU WERE LOOKING FOR?”

“yup. it was a little rocky at first, but we managed to get the job done,” You hear the cheekiness in his tone, “[y/n] made sure we all put our back-bone into it.”

“UGH, I’M GLAD I DIDN'T GO.” Papyrus huffs and crosses his arms, “IF THERE WAS ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU, THAT MEANS ONLY DOUBLE THE TERRIBLE JOKES.”

“speakin’ of, this wasn’t the only time we’re gonna do this. [y/n] and i might go on another trip in a month or so.”

“IS THAT SO? SO, YOU TWO WILL BE DISAPPEARING AGAIN SOON… HM?”

You lock eyes with Papyrus on your way down the stairs. Man, you were trying to sneak up on Sans but there was no helping it the taller one was facing your direction.

Papyrus beams like a thousand Suns, getting those sparkly anime eyes that he does sometimes. He runs to you with his arms spread; you feel so fucking loved.

“[Y/NNNN]!!”

“PAPYRUSSSS!!”

Papyrus lifts you into a hug, arms tight around you while you reciprocate the gesture.

You’re starting to get used to the slight weight on your soul that is Blue Magic. Papyrus will often use it on you whenever he lifts you up to make sure he never drops you. You never realized how subtle it's always been, but it’s obvious now due to experiencing it from the others.

Baby boy baby.

“I’VE MISSED YOU DEARLY SO, [Y/N]!!” Papyrus tells you with love, “IT WAS SO INCREDIBLY LONELY WITHOUT YOU!”

Sans puts his hands on his hip bones, “uh, what about me?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“I GUESS I MISSED YOU, TOO.”

Brotherly love at its finest.

Papyrus sets you on your feet, making sure you’re stable before releasing the slight hold on your soul. He puts his hands on his sassy hips, smiling at you wholesomely.

“SINCE THE HOUSE WAS UNBEARABLY QUIET, I’VE SPENT MOST OF MY TIME WITH UNDYNE. IN FACT, I JUST RETURNED HOME TODAY SINCE YOU BOTH HAVE LEFT.”

☹️ Baby…

You purse your lips with pity, “Awe, I’m sorry, Papyrus. But how are you feeling now? You said this is the first time you’ve been back?”

“OH, I’VE BEEN FINE OTHERWISE,” As he talks, Sans walks over to regroup with you both, “I MORE OR LESS HAVE BEEN SLEEPING OVER WITH UNDYNE. TRAINING, JUST HANGING OUT, HAVING COOKING LESSONS. SHE HAS BEEN TIRED ALL DAY FOR SOME REASON, SO I THOUGHT I SHOULD COME BACK TO LET HER REST.”

Sans snorts, “bet you tired her out being over there all the time.”

You laugh too, “That’s true. You have a lot of energy that is hard to keep up with. Not in a bad way! You know I love your energy so much, Papyrus.”

“OH, I KNOW, I KNOW. UNDYNE IS MY BEST FRIEND, TRUE, BUT YOU ALWAYS SEEM TO MATCH MY ENERGY THE MOST, [Y/N],” Papyrus poses dramatically, “IF ONLY HER OPINION ON HUMANS WEREN’T SO… MURDERY. I BET YOU TWO WOULD GET ALONG GREAT!”

…Yeahhh. Sure. You love Undyne’s character in the game, but if you met her in reality…

Oof, you fear your personalities would clash too much. Especially your ideals…

“Maybe one day, but for now, ‘tis only a distant dream,” You put a hand to your chin in thought, “You know what, though? It has me thinking…”

“about what?”

“Sans, you told him that we’ll be doing this again, right?” At his nodding, you continue, “I don’t feel good leaving Papyrus here all alone. That means we should get a pet! Something to keep us all in company for these reasons!”

“uh…” Sans rubs the back of his skull, “we’re all out of the house now-a-days, though. then we’d have to get two pets to make sure they’ll always have company. but even then, we wouldn’t be able to take care of dogs with how sparse our time is.”

Papyrus scrunches up his face, “I MUST, UNFORTUNATELY, AGREE WITH SANS HERE. (“unfortunately?”) HE CAN BARELY KEEP HIS PET ROCK FED. WHAT HOPE WILL WE HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF A COUPLE OF DOGS?”

“I love dogs, don’t get me wrong. I had a big puppy back at my parents home, but that’s not what I meant.”

“??? huh?” You grin, “I was thinking of something more– independent.”

“???”

“Cats!”

──

Papyrus had rushed to his room to change into something that is “fit to find some kitties.” You and Sans are waiting for him in the living room, sitting on the couch together.

“Hey,” You tap his arm, “why didn’t you wake me?”

“you looked too peaceful, i couldn’t bring myself to do it. ‘sides, i did try waking you, but you were dead asleep,” Sans chuckles, “it was pretty impressive ‘cause that’s usually my job. still, i figured that if you were out cold, that just meant you needed it.”

You check the clock on the far wall, wincing at the time. It’s fucking passed 5 pm, you napped for 5 fucking hours. Damn, you were a lot more exhausted than you originally thought. Or maybe the magic of the DJ machine had affected you more than you thought. You should tell Sans about that, but not now.

“Hm, we should go out to eat with Papyrus for dinner,” You look over at the skeleton, “I don’t really feel like cooking today.”

“that’s a good idea. anything in mind?”

“As long as it’s a place that won’t give a fuck about me looking human, I’m fine with anything. Other than Grillby’s, of course. Your bro isn’t a fan of that place.”

“i think i know a place in the capital. wanna get dressed before we go?”

You smile at him, teasing him and poking his arm, “You saying I look too homeless to go out?”

“no way, hot stuff. ‘m asking just in case since we’re going out for dinner.” Sans bone brows twitch, “uh, crap. i-i didn’t mean it like that, swear. i was just-”

“-I know, I know. You were just being considerate,” You look down at the slippers you stole from Sans, “Do you need these?”

Sans looks down at his own shoes: blue and white with untied laces. He doesn’t wear shoes over his slippers often, but that spontaneous change worked out for you.

The only reason he switched it up now was because your slippers were still packed away in his Void, and he didn’t want you walking around with no shoes.

“nah, they look better on you, anyway.”

You shrug, “Then nah, I don’t need to… change…”

Sans raises a brow, looking over to where your eyes had suddenly moved to. In doing so, he felt a strange dread settling in his metaphorical gut. Your shoulders are shaking from trying to contain your laughter.

How could you be laughing in a time like this?!?!

Papyrus is jumping down the stairs with a new shirt over his battle body. It’s a black shirt with a white print that says “BOY”. Written on top with white marker was the word “CAT” in a classic Papyrus font. It looks really recent.

CAT BOY…

You cover your mouth with your hand, trying so fucking hard not to laugh because poor Sans looks mortified. You lean over to whisper in his acoustic meatus. (A/N: Yes, I had to look that up. Don't expect me to use that ever again, that name is so unserious)

“The internet would have a field day seeing him like that,” You snicker.

“don’t you–” Sans light heartedly pushes you away, “shut!”

“I’M SO EXCITED!” Papyrus bounces in place, “I HAVEN’T SEEN ANY CATS HERE IN SNOWDIN, BUT I HAVE DEFINITELY SEEN ONE OR TWO IN THE WATERFALLS.”

“actually, paps. before that,” Sans pats your leg and stands up, “wanna head to the capital to get something to eat?”

The younger monster tilts his head, “GO OUT TO EAT? I COULD ALWAYS COOK SOMETHING UP FOR THE THREE OF US! I HAVE NOTICED THAT [Y/N] HAS BEEN THE ONE MAKING US FOOD SINCE SHE MOVED IN. I THINK IT’S TIME I HELP OUT AS WELL.”

Hell fucking no. You’re not about to do all that. There has been an obvious reason you’ve been the cook and you’re not letting that change.

Fuck, you really need to find a day soon to tell Papyrus the truth.

“Nope, sorry,” You firmly shake your head, “I don’t wanna clean today or tomorrow. Honestly, I just want to eat out today.”

“UH… OKAY…?”

Papyrus just shrugs it off because he’s a fucking Giga Chad like. Papyrus fucking strikes a pose suddenly, one hand on the hip and the other pointing in the air. Then he twirls really fast, and suddenly the shirt is nowhere to be seen.

“That was really impressive,” You say honestly, your expression mirroring your feelings, “How’d you do that? Magic?”

“LIKE I NEED MAGIC FOR SOMETHING LIKE THAT,” Papyrus rolls his eyes… somehow, “I CAN MANAGE THAT WITH MY SHEER WILLPOWER ALONE.” You legitimately believe that. Like actually from the depths of your soul.

“are you ready then?” Sans asks.

“YEP!”

“cool beans. then we gotta take a lil’ shortcut. we gotta hide [y/n], remember?”

“I SUPPOSE SO. BUT UNDYNE IS MOST LIKELY SPENDING THE REST OF TODAY IN HER HOME.”

“still…” Sans eyes flash with something like concern when his gaze casts to you, “you don’t know who would recognize [y/n] as a human and spread the word. we’re lucky enough no one in snowdin is saying anything, but we can’t be too careful.”

Wait, that just reminded you of something. The fucking cameras. There are cameras all over the Underground, isn’t there? Sans must know about them as well, there’s no way he doesn't. Maybe he’s forgotten about them after all this time (you certainly have).

But if that’s the case, surely Alphys should already know about you by now. So why hasn’t she said anything to anyone? Or maybe she told Asgore, but even then, why hasn’t it been brought up? Unless Alphys is rooting for you the way she roots for Frisk.

Another thing you need to discuss with Sans.

Man, there is a lot you need to talk about with this guy.

Still, you’re not bringing this up since you don’t want to ruin the vibes. This isn’t something anyone needs to worry about right now.

Papyrus’s voice brings you out of your thoughts. “GOOD POINT, BROTHER. IN THAT CASE, SURE, WE CAN USE YOUR FUNKY LITTLE SHORTCUTS.”

“now, i wouldn’t say little.”

“YOU SHOULD KNOW SIZE DOES NOT MATTER, SANS.”

“…wait, what?” Sans narrows his eye sockets, “what’s that supposed to mean?”

“YOUR HEIGHT IS SHORTER THAN THE AVERAGE IN SOCIETAL STANDARDS.”

“…”

You tuck in your lips to hide your smile. Sans gives you an unimpressed look, the expression awkward since he’s still keeping up his smile.

The Comic huffs and crosses his arms, “are we going now, or what?”

“Yeah, yeah. Lead the way, bone boy.”

“READY WHEN YOU ARE, BROTHER.”

──

Sans ends up taking you both to a hole in the wall in the Capital, a small pizza establishment by a huge yellow, triangular monster. His head was a triangle and so was his body.

He called himself Top Chef and said shit like: “Mama Miba!”

Hell yeah.

You three were getting weird looks admittedly, but that was only because you all were playing with your food. The cheese was so cheesy and you managed to pull the cheese at a long distance before it finally snapped!

None of you gave a shit though, you were all having fun with each other. It was only a few days, but you did miss your Papyrus.

After you all had your fill, you’ve boxed the remaining pizza to take it to go. You paid for it since you’re fortunate enough to have your own Gold now without needing to rely on someone else.

Ah, that reminds you that you need to talk to Sans about paying rent again. You don’t think he’ll be open to it anymore since you’re his girlfriend now, but you need to find a compromise anyway.

Anyway, after the pizza dinner, Papyrus gives Sans some directions to a place in Waterfalls. When he short-cuts you all to the location, it looks unfamiliar to you.

It’s quieter yet you can see more houses along the road in the middle path. There’s a hill to the left that curves upward and to the right, leading somewhere else. There is a right path that leads to fewer houses, and the middle path seems to head towards a very quiet neighborhood. The glow stones here are smaller and more sparse as well, giving it an abandoned feeling.

“i haven’t been here in a while,” Sans whistles lowly, looking around with you.

“THIS IS A LOWER PART OF WATERFALLS, AND RATHER ANTISOCIAL, TOO. THE MONSTERS IN THIS AREA TEND TO KEEP TO THEMSELVES. IT IS NOT VERY LIVELY DESPITE BEING POPULATED, SO REALLY, UNDYNE WILL HAVE NO REASON TO BE HERE FOR WHATEVER REASON,” Papyrus poses with a firm nod of his head, “IN FACT, MOST MONSTERS HERE AVOID HER BECAUSE THEY’RE INTIMIDATED BY HER BOISTEROUSNESS.”

What the hell is that word? Is it even a real word?

“OUT OF RESPECT, UNDYNE AVOIDS THIS PLACE TOO AS LONG AS THEY DON’T ACT OUT OR CAUSE REASON FOR HER APPEARANCE.”

Huh. That’s neat to learn about the world. This is obviously another inaccessible part of the game that you can walk around freely now.

Undyne is such a hero for these monsters, huh? Even if she’s rude, she does everything for their sake and respects them deeply. Even if they’re scared of her, the monsters respect her as well.

It would be really cool if it wasn’t so dangerous and hypocritical towards you. 

You grin appreciatively, “You really put a lot of thought into this, huh? I don’t give you enough credit, Papyrus. But your consideration and thinking ahead like this is really admirable.”

“wow, yeah…” Sans blinks in realization, smiling widely, “you really thought this out. even though the surprised adoption hunting was out of the blue, you thought it out while we were out.”

Papyrus, though he tries to play it cool, blushes red. He clears his throat and looks ahead, posing dramatically as his cape flows in the wind.

“HMPH! WHAT, LIKE IT’S HARD?” Papyrus isn’t bothering hiding his self-satisfied grin, “DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THE GREAT PAPYRUS!”

What a cool guy!

Papyrus does his cool anime-girl transformation twirl, his Cat Boy shirt appearing once again.

“I’M SURE I’VE SEEN AN ORANGE CAT, AND A BLACK CAT. THEY NEVER STAY TOO LONG IN ONE PLACE BECAUSE OF THIS LITTLE WHITE DOG THAT COMES BY OFTEN,” Papyrus looks back at the hill that leads up, “IT WILL BE BETTER IF WE SPLIT UP.”

Sans grimaces, “uhh…”

You shrug, “It’ll be fine, Sans. If anything happens, I’ll scream bloody murder. You’ll be able to get to me and find me with your cool shortcut bullshit.”

Hesitation is clear on his face. Looking between you and his brother, he sighs and sags his shoulders.

“alright, alright. if we find anything, let’s meet back up here,” Sans gestures to the area, “cool?”

“RIGHT-O!”

“You got it, boss!” You point to the right path, “I’ll head this way.”

Papyrus points up, “I WILL SEARCH THE AREA ABOVE.”

Sans jerks his thumb to the middle path, “guess i’ll go this way.”

“Alright!” You clap your hands, “Let’s move out, team!”

Papyrus gives you an enthusiastic cheer while Sans only weakly pumps his fist in the air. You three split up from there and begin your separate search.

Just to be on the safer side, you made sure to stick to the shadows and cave walls. There were only two other houses down this way, then it starts to branch out into a wider path.

You do, in fact, make sure to pluck a few glow stones from the walls. Not many, only two but those were pretty big, Hopefully it will be enough for the skin products, you can have Sans and/or Papyrus try them out with you!

Eventually, you reach a deadend. It’s a large field of Echo Flowers that surrounds a pond of the pretty cyan water. There are lily pads and Water Sausages in the pond, but not many.

You love the marsh, the Waterfalls are so nice.

There isn’t anything here though, you should head back and find Sans or Papyrus...

“It is peaceful here, is it not?”

“WAH!!”

You look around but immediately realize that it was literally in your head. Moreso, you recognize the voice and the laughter that is now following it.

Oh, brother! This guy STINKS!

“Sorry, I did not mean to startle you. I suppose I hadn’t made my presence known before I spoke.”

You sigh, “Geez, man. I was this close to tweaking out…!”

“…Tweak out?”

You snort, “Anyway. Yeah, this is–The Waterfalls were always my favorite.”

“Mine as well. Whenever I needed a place to think, or work something out on my own, I would venture deep in Waterfalls. There is an abandoned, lonely dock not too far from here. I would stand there, and stare into the nothingness. It was… It was always humbling.”

An abandoned, lonely dock, huh? It reminds you of Goner Kid…

“How are you talking to me like this?” You ask Gaster, “I don't even have the fragment with me.”

“I suppose it is enough already that you have found it and brought it back here to our original universe where the other piece of me is. It won’t be for long, unfortunately. I suspect after this talk, I would have exhausted too much energy. I won’t be able to communicate with you for another while.”

“So then. Will you finally tell me how this is at all possible?”

You hear some hesitation in his tone. “Alright, but you can’t get mad at me.”

Bruh. Be so fucking for real. He's such a child.

“I am not in your head, not necessarily. Well, I AM, that is how you can hear me, after all. But that is not WHERE I am. More precisely, I am with your Soul.”

…What?

Gaster must sense your anxiety as he immediately follows up with a more in depth explanation.

“I am not possessing your Soul, nor am I IN your Soul. Instead, think of it as… I am riding atop it. Simply latching on for the ride, but never in control.”

You scoff, “And you expect me to accept that explanation? How do I know that’s true?”

For a moment, you feel cold. A stark chillness that overtakes your entire body and soul. Your legs are moving–that’s not you, you’re not doing that. Your body is walking against your will, all on its own. Your body stops near the pond, sitting itself down by the cyan water.

Then, that feeling is gone. Your entire body shudders and you’re in control again.

“That,” Gaster says, though you feel some guilt that you know is not yours. That guilt you’re feeling, it belongs to Gaster. “That was me possessing your Soul and controlling it. Have you felt that at all before just this moment?”

“No… No, not once…”

“Exactly. If I were to ever take control in any way, you will know it. But I do not desire that. In truth, it is the fact that your Soul is so strong in the way that it needs to be, that I was able to hold onto it at all in the first place.”

“I… I can’t lie and say I’m not nervous about you just casually with my Soul, but…” You scrunch up your nose, putting a hand on your chest to will your heart to stop fucking racing, “I guess if you wanted to, you would’ve done something already.”

“If you want, I can share MY Soul with you so you can feel my true intentions. That way, you will know I am not lying.”

“You know what?” You throw your hands up, “Fuck it. Yeah, lemme see that shit.”

Gaster laughs and it bounces (pleasantly) in your head. Next, you feel a heavy warmth that hugs your soul in your chest.

Sincerity. Openness. Honestly. There is no desire to hurt. No desire to deceive. There is confidence and perhaps some loneliness.

Something flashes before your eyes. Your eyes are still open and yet you can see blurry, vague images before you. It’s transparent as if there is a shitty projector right before you.

Blurry figures of a short and tall figure. They seem familiar.

Another image, the same figures. They feel like Sans and Papyrus despite only being unclear silhouettes. There comes a third figure. This one is completely shrouded in smoke and glitches, but it’s pulling the two skeleton brothers into an embrace.

Then it’s gone.

You feel Gaster separate his Soul from yours. Even so, you can still feel lingering emotions.

Embarrassment, sadness, shame, longing, and a yearning to reunite.

The feelings are so strong, you feel yourself involuntarily tearing up. And these feelings are not yours.

It’s quiet.

You were… You were not supposed to see that. Gaster was so willing to be honest with you to reassure you, but he accidentally shared his deep desires, right? Somehow, you just know that’s right.

“My apologies. I hadn’t meant for that to happen.”

Before, you could only hear his voice, and feel a small pressure in the back of your head. But now, you can feel these underlying emotions that don’t belong to you. Because of that, you know of what he just said–he is being sincere.

“What just happened?” You whisper.

“As I am not at my most complete, I don’t have the strongest control of my own Soul’s happenings. Your Soul is still kept to yourself, but I believe I have shared a connection of myself to you.”

He is being truthful.

“So, it's a one-way thing?”

“Essentially, yes.” Gaster sighs, voice tinged with embarrassment, “I guess it’s for the best. I don’t have anything to hide from you, and at least this way you will know I am being truthful. After all, the Soul cannot lie.”

Again, he’s being honest.

You rub at your temples, “Ugh, this is a lot… Is this how I was able to see your fragment, by the way? When the others couldn’t? It’s because you were legit with me?”

“Not ALL of me, of course, but yes. A small, minuscule piece of myself is now with you. With your SOUL.”

“Gotta be real with you, Gaster, I like my privacy.”

“It is not as if I spy on you. Only when I sense you thinking of me, or when I sense you to be alone, do I bother with ‘entering.”

“…Like a Pokemon…”

Gaster sighs, “Yes, [Y/n]. Like a Pokemon.”

Kekeke.

You wonder… “Can you hear my thoughts?”

“Only if you want me to.”

Hmm…

‘I want to French kiss your son.’

…

You try again, but this time you want him to hear. ‘I want to hold hands with your son.’

“Uhm… Okay? Go for it, I guess…?”

Yeah, it’s true. You felt as much when he said it to begin with, but you wanted to make sure. 

“It kind of feels unfair,” You admit to him, “That this emotional connection is only one-way, it feels unfair to you.”

“Do not worry. I truly have nothing to hide, and I am not interested in invading your privacy. If there is something you need for me to know, I will trust that you will tell me yourself.”

“So…” You purse your lips, staring out to the calm waters, “Is there any particular reason you showed up?”

“No, no reason at all. Answering your questions wasn't an issue, but really, I suppose I just wanted to say hello.”

He says that, but you felt that loneliness from earlier. And now too, you can still feel it.

Talking to you now has eased some restlessness within him. Even when you don’t reply and let the silence settle, Gaster feels better. Gaster feels at peace.

Being scattered across space and time, only have that 1 in a 1,000 chance to come across anyone, that must be lonely for anyone. And now that he’s with you…

You think if you were in his shoes, you wouldn’t want to let go. Even if it meant you couldn’t stay around as much as you wanted, you’d take any chance.

And now here you are, teaming up with his son just for the chance to put him back together. To bring him back “to life” and be known again. To be whole again, and to no longer just exist as a concept.

And here you are to give Gaster another chance to come back and to finally be with his creations turned children. Those two skeleton monsters who were originally created to be his assistance in his studies, but he couldn’t help but raise them with genuine love. With your help, he’ll finally get to be with them again.

It’s so hopeful and wonderful-

Ah, these aren’t your feelings. These are Gaster’s.

You don't think he's aware you can feel this. No need to tell him, you suppose.

You stay there for a few more minutes, basking in this moment. Unfortunately, you really do have to get going…

“Alright,” You speak softly under your breath, “I have to find a cat somewhere else. I wasted too much time sitting out in the open.”

As you stand up and dust yourself off, Gaster starts speaking.

“There are not many, perhaps only one or two. The cats are monsters, much like the dogs. However, they are far more domesticated than the dogs, and are willing to be taken in a home.”

“Oh, that’s perfect! I’ve had cats too growing up, so I know how to handle them.”

“You might have some luck near that guard’s house, Undyne. Since, you know,” You hear the cheekiness in his voice, “cats love fish.”

“Ughhh, okay. I guess I’ll check it out. Oh, hey!” You snap your fingers, “Can you be, like, a detector for me and tell me if she’s on the move?”

Gaster replies with confusion, “No…?”

“But you did that for me with Temmie back in UnderSwap!”

“That is only because they had my fragment, [Y/n]. And not to mention, I barely had the strength to control your Soul as a demonstration. What makes you think I can do anything else?”

You smack your lips, “Man, whatever.”

“You can simply regroup with them and tell them to find the cats for you. No need to pout.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got it, I got it.”

“I… I must go now…”

No, he doesn’t. In reality, he can spare the energy to stay around for a while longer. But he doesn’t need to say it to you.

You can feel his real reason why.

Gaster will be too sad to see Sans and Papyrus and not even talk to them. He refuses to control your body for any selfish reasons, but he is not strong enough to face them just yet.

That is why he only communicates with you. Even though Sans knows Gaster is around now, it’s just a step too far for Gaster to really interact with Sans in any way.

“That’s okay,” You whisper gently, “I’ll talk to you next time, then.”

“I–… Yes, Until next time, [Y/n].”

It’s quiet. That small pressure in the back of your head is gone now. You feel it in your Soul that the remnant of Gaster is still with you, but he’s intending to be dormant for the time being unless it’s necessary.

You… get the feeling you should wait to tell Sans. At least until the day he said he wanted to talk about everything in general. Again, assuming Gaster knows your grip about not wanting to hide things from Sans, he must be okay with you sharing this interaction.

Fuck, you should probably write down ALL the bullshit you need to talk to him about at this point.

You walk down the path to return from where you started from. To your surprise, you can already see Sans and Papyrus back at the meeting point. Sans seems to be carrying a super fluffy black cat. One of his hands is holding the cat by the scruff, and the other is holding the cat’s butt for support.

Do not let bro hold cats, what is he doing…

The kitty (it looks like a full grown cat) has warm brown eyes, though as you get closer, they appear more gold. The pupils are thin and it has airplane ears, the fluffy tail is curled up between its legs.

Poor baby. It’s not escaping Sans, though.

Sans smiles in relief when he finally notices you coming over. Ah, you see faint scratch marks on his skull.

“KITTYYYY!!” Life imitates art CaseOh, “You guys found one already!”

You hold your hand out to the cat, letting it sniff your hand first. Its ears perk towards you and start squirming in Sans’ hold. You hold both hands out, taking the kitty from your bone friend.

“this one was a pain,” Sans gladly hands off the cat to you, “it was friendly at first, but after i picked it up and walked away, it started getting angry.”

“Awe, but it’s just a babyyy!” You coo at the baby, cradling it in your arms. “Hi, babbyyy!!”

The cat meows, letting itself be held. You can feel it purring.

Papyrus huffs, “THAT IS ONE DOWN, JUST ONE MORE TO GO.”

“It might be good to check around Undyne’s area,” You hum, giving your attention to the cat, “Obviously I’m not talking about me. You two can look around.”

Sans might be jealous of the cat. “uh, why?”

“Fish.”

“…”

“…”

Papyrus shrugs, “IT CAN’T HURT TO TRY. LET’S GET GOING.”

With that out of the way, Sans escorts you to outside the Waterfalls that leads to Snowdin. And by escort, it was just a shortcut. Your home is down on your right, but you’ll be waiting right out here for the skeletons.

The black cat is by your feet, playing with the random stick you found and is waving around. It’s so cute and fluffy. Miraculously, the snow isn’t sticking to its fur. Maybe it's a cat monster thing.

“Hey, kitty. I’m going to take you home with me, okay?”

The cat meows, suddenly stopping to groom its fur.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

When the cat starts grooming further down, you have enough courtesy to look away. Unfortunately you did catch sight of a small lipstick, you didn’t look away fast enough.

Whelp…

At least you know he’s a boy.

You toss the stick in the snow, waiting idling for who knows how fucking long. Eventually, the cat moves and sits on your feet to escape the cold snow. He’s surprisingly light, and his little toe beans and body have a light brown tone.

So demure.

“wahh.”

…?? You look down at the cat at your feet, thinking it was him. But one, that didn’t sound like him, and two, he’s looking to the left with alert ears. You follow the cat's gaze and smile at the arriving Papyrus and Sans.

Woah, their clothes are fucking torn up. Is Sans limping?? Hello????

Papyrus is holding an orange and white cat with very short hair, dangling the poor cat and the cat is just letting it happen. The cat has a white belly, snout, socks, and a striped tail. You think you see pink toe beans. It also has airplane ears, the tail lowered as it flickers and puffy with irritation.

You can tell this one is a boy too, though most orange tabbies usually are.

You snort, “What the hell happened? Did the cat win?”

“YES.”

“yes.”

The orange cat meows again, but it sounds more like a “wahh” than a meow. The orange kitty squirms out of Papyrus’ hands until he manages to jump down. He starts trotting towards you–Actually, he’s coming towards the black kitty who is waiting patiently.

“wahh.”

The cats begin rubbing against each other, and you can feel them purr against your legs. Ugh, your cuteness aggression is rising!

“Aww, I think they were mad that we were kidnapping them from each other,” You state the obvious, watching them with awe, “It’s a good thing they’re reunited now. They’ll definitely stay with us willingly as long as we keep them together.”

The ginger kitty looks up at you with his round blue eyes, pupils dilated and his tail raised high.

“wahh.”

You obviously need to name the ginger cat Childe, there’s no other option.

You could be funny and name the other one Zhongli or something, or maybe not. You’ll think of something. Or, you can let the skele-bro’s pick a name.

“Come on, kitties,” You gently step away, walking towards the house, “You’re living with us now.”

The black cat follows you first, which prompts the ginger to follow. You’re almost positive the ginger cat could care less about following you, he’s just here for his cat companion.

You unlock the door and hold it open, watching the cats readily go inside. They’re probably going to love having a proper home to live in–a warm home to live in. Hm, you should give them baths and/or check for bugs and fleas.

Bathing cats is basically a death sentence, but you’re willing to do it for their sake. They’re so cute it’s definitely going to be worth it!

…

Meanwhile, Sans and Papyrus stay rooted to where they were, watching with defeat and amazement. The cats clearly favored you immediately, while they fucking nearly died just trying to get them to begin with.

Maybe cats just don’t like bones?

But little do they know that you’re just a natural pussy magnet.

Tags:

@adriixboo

@lemonboy011

@fetusbaconegg

@fluffyart5000

[masons-tours]

Hello 👋 I’ve been sitting on this for a few hours wondering if I should post this or not but I’ve decided fuck it so let me just double down and clear a few things up

I have repeatedly said I think they are casual but yet I’m pushing an agenda that they are in a committed relationship. I’m embarrassing & delusional because I have a feeling it might turn out to be more (we all know my feelings are always off so maybe I should just consult to the magic 8 ball). If I’m wrong & she ends up like just the others big deal I was wrong who cares.

I know I haven’t stalked anyone & I don’t stalk friends, people send me links or ask me to go look, I don’t go looking for him in tagged locations (except game day I love those arrival videos) & I don’t send people to go do it either. Everything I post is from public accounts readily available to everyone else or throwbacks found in the depths of my phone.

My blog has been the same from the start so don’t give me the moral superiority of ‘her page used to fun now it’s just gossip’ because it hasn’t changed.

I get asks so I answer them if I don’t answer people say I’m pushing a narrative to fit a fairytale when in fact it’s probably because I’ve already answered similar asks, your only “pushing back” to cause drama because you think you will catch me out on something or I’ve just run out of bandwidth to deal with the conversation, pick any of these way and I can’t win so I’ve decided not to try. It’s my blog I get to decide what I do and don’t answer if you don’t like it no one is stopping you from going away and starting your blog to talk about what you want.

I’m not some big account who controls Masonblr I’ve got 400 followers which is considerably less than most accounts so If you don’t not wish to be one of the people who follows me anymore because I irritate you so much the unfollow button is located at the top right or you can stay continuing to check up on me dissecting & complaining about everything I do including this because I know you will 👋👋👋 just know you’re wasting your own time not mine.

Please don’t go a defend me or send death threats anywhere because it makes it seem like I’ve sent you (seriously you 🤡 why would you send death threats). So……… Anyway this turned out way too long asks will be back later when I’m ready.

[readyforthegarden]

Breakable Heaven - Part Two

Pairing: Danny Wagner x Female Reader

Synopsis: Being the maid of honor in your best friends wedding is already stressful enough without the best man being the ex-boyfriend who tore your heart to shreds. Stumbling across a dating app with dates for hire, you take a chance, inviting a perfect stranger to pretend to be your boyfriend for the weeklong celebrations. But how long can the charade last when the champagne starts pouring and feelings start growing?

Warnings: drinking, talk of sex, mentions of cheating. 18+ MINORS DO NOT INTERACT!

WC: 4458

“So now that we have our relationship history hammered out, are there any rules you have?” you asked, sweeping the makeup brush across your closed eyelid, leaving a pale pink in its wake. 

“Rules? Oh um…” Danny leaned against the table, already showered and dressed for dinner. You were sitting in your robe and hot rollers, waiting for them to set as you did your makeup. “Really I’ve never done this before. I was just tired of my friends ragging on me for being single, so I used this as a way to go on dates without the risk of being tied down.”

“Not a fan of commitment?” Danny shrugged at your question. 

“My last relationship wasn’t amazing. I just wanted to take some time for myself for a little bit, but they’re all partnered up and want to double date and feel bad leaving me out of couples activities.” he reached over, picking up one of your single shadows, popping open the top. He turned the small circular pod in his hands, watching the iridescent shimmer pick up the light coming from the windows. “They mean well, and truth be told, I do like dating, I just don’t want something serious right now.”

“I get that.” you nodded, following suit with the pale pink on the other eye. Danny watched you blend the pressed powder onto your skin before you picked up a fluffier brush with a slightly darker shade, blending it into the crease. “I’m sorry your last relationship was rough. You seem like a really great guy so far.”

“I could say the same for you,” Danny breathed out a small chuckle. “Yours was so bad you hired a fake boyfriend.” you paused your blending, glancing up at him with a smarmy look.

“Maybe we will have a fight and you’ll sleep on the couch.”

“I just mean that whatever this Gavin guy put you through must’ve been really hard.” you pushed your tongue against the back of your teeth, switching eyes again and continuing your process. 

“He cheated on me.” you finally mumbled, deciding Danny should know your background a bit in order to really play your fake boyfriend. “I came home early from a work trip, got a cab home to surprise him, crawled into bed, my bed, by the way, in my own apartment, and instead of cuddling him, I was cuddling some woman who was sleeping on my pillow.” Danny grimaced, clearing his throat.

“Yeah…no I think you win.” he said as you set down your brush. Looking up at him with a tight smile, you shrugged. Danny watched as your eyes fell, your mind swirling around one of the worst nights of your life. Without thinking, he took a finger, swirling the pad of it in the sparkling shadow in his hands before using his pinky to lift your chin up. “I think your look needs some of this.” he gently tapped his finger on your left eyelid before dipping back into the shadow and going back in on the right eye. When he was done, he had you turn towards the mirror, checking his handiwork. 

“I think you were right.” you smiled up at him. “Anyway, like I said earlier, I’m not trying to make him jealous. I just didn't want to face this alone. The pity looks and pats on the shoulders…no thanks.”

“I get that.” Danny closed the pod of eyeshadow, the plastic snap echoing in the room. There was a silence between the two of you as you continued your makeup, adding a thin black sweep of eyeliner across your lash lines. “I guess, no sex.”

“What?” your brows crinkled, confused at his words.

“The rules,” he set down the shadow on the table and folded his arms over his chest. “I guess having sex would muddle this business arrangement. Kissing is okay, it’s a part of the act.”

“Oh yes, of course.” you laughed, more at yourself for forgetting your own question. Looking back in the mirror, you began applying your mascara. “No sex.”

“That’s really it, I think…” Danny shrugged. “All other boyfriend duties are on the table.”

“One rule, should be simple to follow.” you agreed, screwing the top back onto your mascara tube and picking up your loose powder to set your face before swiping a nude lipstick over your lips. “Okay, give me five minutes for my hair and to get into my dress and we can head down.” Danny nodded as you got up from the table, leaving your makeup clutter all over it before turning on your heel and going into the bedroom, shutting the double doors and heading for the bathroom. 

Slipping off your robe, you took your dress off the hanger on the back of the door. The dusty rose satin slid over your body as you stepped into it, tugging it up your legs and torso, sliding your arms through the thin straps. You only got the zipper part-way up your back, but moved on to your hair, figuring Danny could help you. After carefully unrolling your hair and playing with it so the loose waves sat just right as they cascaded over your shoulders, you set it in place with some hairspray and stood back, taking it all in. Danny had been right about the light smattering of iridescent shimmer on your eyelids, making your irises pop from beneath your dark lashes. 

“Hey Danny?” you called out as you stepped out of the bathroom, towards the double doors. He was standing near the couch, fastening a watch around his wrist as you opened them, concentrating on not catching his arm hair in between the thick links of the band. “Hey, can you zip this the rest of the way for me?”

“Sure,” you stood in front of him, turning around and gathering your hair out of the way. Danny’s knuckles grazed between your shoulder blades as he held the top together. Feeling the other hand gently drag up the zipper, the dress tightened to your body more, and you let your free hand smooth it down over your torso. “All set.” he let go and you stepped away, turning back to face him. He had changed shirts while you finished getting ready, leaving behind the maroon button down for a black one, tucked into a pair of black trousers. 

“You clean up nice.” you smiled up at him, making him grin. 

“You do too.” he replied, stepping back to get a full view as you slipped into your heels. “Actually, no you need to change.”

“What?! Why?” you looked up at him incredulously as he just smirked.

“You’re gonna outshine the bride.” rolling your eyes, you leaned against the back of the couch, crossing your legs buckling the straps around your ankles. 

“Save the flattery for the party.” you moved past him once your shoes were on, grabbing the clutch you’d gotten to match and grabbing a few things from your normal bag, tossing them in. “Are you ready?” Danny nodded just as your phone pinged while you reached for it, Olivia’s name popping up above a message.

‘Gavin is here, heads up.’ your heart sank a bit, knowing it was finally here. You’d successfully avoided him since your breakup, skirting out of parties and events where the two of you would have to be in the same room as soon as you spotted him. 

“Are you ready?” Danny asked quietly. Looking at him, you rolled your shoulders back, putting your phone on silent and tucking it into your bag. You’d brought him here for a reason, and it wasn’t to shy away from everything Oliva, Mike, and her family had in store for the week.

“Yes.” you moved past Danny heading to the door and pulling it open with a little too much conviction, stumbling back in your heels as it swung into towards you. Suddenly a hand was on your waist, and you tilted your head back to see Danny laughing down at you. 

“It’s gonna be fine.” he assured you. “Now let me be a gentleman and get the door.” You let go of the handle as Danny’s free hand took hold of the door above your lead, keeping it open for you to walk into the hallway. Making sure there was a key card in your bag, you snapped the clutch shut just as Danny closed the door to your room. It was only the two of you in the hallway, yet he still slid an arm behind you, his hand resting gingerly on the curve of your waist.

You supposed it was in case anyone came out of their rooms as you were walking, and silently gave him a gold star for thinking about that. Especially with how warm his large hand was against the cool, thin satin of your dress. Reaching the stairs, you nearly whined at the loss of his toasty grip, but instead he took your hand, helping guide you down the stone steps in your heels. 

“God, you’re a perfect gentleman.” you laughed under your breath as he helped you down the last step. His hand stayed laced in yours as you made your way towards the vineyards in-house restaurant and bar. 

“I may not be here specifically to make anyone jealous,” Danny leaned down to speak softly in your ear. “But I can still let everyone know that you certainly upgraded from your ex.” A pink tinge heated up your cheeks as you looked up into his hazel eyes, and he gave you a soft wink. Entering the restaurant, you were greeted by the hostess, who led you over to the large banquet table towards the back, sectioned off by an archway from the rest of the large dining room.

“Oh my gosh!” Olivia squealed when she caught sight of you and Danny, running over in her bright white off-the-shoulder cocktail dress. A string of pearls rested along her collarbone delicately, matching the large studs in her ear. Her hair was now pulled back in a low bun, showing off her tanned and toned shoulders. “You look so pretty! And Danny, you look very handsome.”

“Thank you,” Danny smiled, smoothing a hand down his black button down. “I had to try and compare to her.” he squeezed your hand gently, tugging you into his side. You let yourself wrap an arm around him, hugging him and looking up, playing your part of the happy couple.

“Oh stop, baby.” you giggled. “You’re too sweet.” Danny just leaned down, rubbing the tip of his nose against yours.

“Both of you stop it,” Olivia jokingly said. “Mike and I are supposed to be the ones who are so sickeningly in love, you’re gonna make us look bad.”

“Can’t help it,” Danny laughed. “But we’ll try and tone it down.”

“I’m just joking!” Olivia waved her hand dismissively in front of her face. “Anyway, come on, they just brought out the hor’devours.” Danny kept his hand on your back, guiding you as you both followed Olivia to your seats. It seemed like you were the last ones to show up, the table nearly full. You temporarily departed from Danny’s side, saying hello to Olivia’s parents, thanking them for everything they’d done for the wedding so far. As you walked back to the empty chair, you noticed Danny still standing. You gave him a questioning look as he just smiled before pulling out your chair for you. 

“Do you think we’re laying it on a little thick too soon?” you leaned into him once he sat down, whispering lowly.

“If anyone asks, I’m just nervous and trying to make a good impression on your friends.” Danny whispered back. “Go with the flow, okay?” Nodding, you turned back to the table, noting your wine glass had been filled with a white wine during the small conversation. As you picked up the glass to take a sip, your eyes caught another’s. Bright green eyes stared at you from under light brown hair, unmistakable as you had stared into those eyes for nearly five years. 

“That him?” Danny leaned in close, reaching over for his own glass of wine. Tilting your head you confirmed it quietly. Danny cleared his throat, leaning back in his chair as he sipped the wine, his left arm coming to rest on the back of your chair. It took a moment for you to gauge, but you noticed that you were suddenly a few inches to the right of your place setting, closer to Danny’s side.

“Did you just-” you were cut off by a waiter reaching between your bodies, setting a dinner plate on the charger three inches to your left. Pan-seared scallops sat on a bed of mixed greens, a lemon infused garlic butter sauce drizzled on top with a side of pasta tossed in the same sauce. Mouth watering, you nearly groaned out loud when Mike stood from his seat, tapping the side of his knife against his wine glass.

“Now that everyone is here, I’d like to say a few words.” he began, smiling at everyone. “Olivia and I are so grateful to everyone for coming to help us celebrate this week. It truly means the most to us that our closest family and friends are here to support us as we approach our wedding. We have a lot of fun in store for you all, and Olivia will email out the itinerary to you all tomorrow morning. But for tonight, let’s enjoy our dinner, have a few drinks, and reconnect.” feeling a set of eyes on you made your skin prickle, and you attempted to ignore it, raising your glass with everyone else in cheers to Mike’s speech. 

Everyone was quick to tuck into their food, the scallops just barely steaming still on the plates. A low hum of general chatter filtered through the dining room, friends and vaguely familiar strangers getting acquainted.  It wasn’t until you had taken an entire forkful of pasta into your mouth that Olivia’s mom cleared her throat, directing her attention to you while saying your name.

“How did you and Danny meet?” your mouth worked overtime to chew quickly, but you didn’t need to worry, Danny was ready to perform.

“We met at a bar my band was playing at.” Danny answered, a grin on his face. “I saw her almost as soon as she walked in, and kept looking at her from my kit. I almost yelled at our singer to move when he blocked her.”

“You’re in a band?” Olivia’s voice was surprised, her foot coming to tap on yours from across the table. 

“Yeah, I’m a drummer.” Olivia turned to you directly, her eyes gleaming.

“A drummer?!” she mouthed with a wink, the tip of her shoe jabbing at your ankle as she winked and wiggled her eyebrows. 

“When we were done with our set, I lost her. I looked crazy going around the bar looking for her. I gave up and went to get a drink, thinking she had gone home, when the bartender set a beer in front of me and told me it was covered. I asked by who, and he nodded behind me and when I turned around, there she was, holding another one.” Danny’s left hand reached out, resting on top of yours on the table and squeezing gently. 

“We spent the whole night talking, I’m pretty sure his bandmates are still mad they had to take apart and load his drum kit by themselves.” you laughed as Danny shrugged, making a very unconvincing sheepish face. “Before we left I just knew I had to see him again, so I asked him to dinner and now we’re here.” 

“And how long have you been together, now?” Mike asked curiously. Shit, you hadn’t thought to nail down a timeline in your talks earlier. 

“Oh, um….” you floundered, looking over to Danny with wide eyes. He met you with a similar expression, his mouth open. 

“I think it’s about six months, now?” Danny’s face changed to look like he was trying to figure out a complex math equation. You nodded along, turning your hand around under his and slipping your fingers through the spaces, squeezing back.

“It feels like twenty seconds,” you smiled, keeping your eyes on him in case your lie wasn’t convincing. 

“Sometimes twenty years,” Danny laughed, leaning over and pressing a kiss to your forehead. It was something innocent yet still in front of all of those people, made you blush, a small flutter in your heart that was hard to ignore accompanying it.  More ankle kicks from across the table had you turning to Olivia who was grinning. 

“That’s how it feels with Mike!” she enthusiastically replied, wrapping her arms around one his, hugging him. “Like we’ve known each other forever and not long enough at all.” Mike copied Danny’s actions, kissing Olivia’s temple with a smile. 

“And Gavin, when is your partner getting here?” Olivia’s mom turned to her right, leaning forward to speak down the table. You couldn’t decide if you should pay attention to him when he spoke or keep focused on your plate. 

“She’ll be here on Wednesday, she had a few work meetings she couldn’t miss.” Gavin answered, and it was then you looked up, noting the empty seat next to him. 

“And when did you two meet?” Olivia’s sweet smile was gone, replaced with one that made you reach your leg out under the table and give her shin a swift, hard nudge.

“About a year ago.” Gavin sniffed, now doing everything in his power to avoid your eyes.

“Are you sure?” Olivia pressed. “I feel like you’ve been with Naomi for longer.”

“Liv,” you heard Mike express her name lowly, like a warning, and you stared at her, shaking your head as imperceptibly as possible. She and Mike exchanged words quietly with their heads together before she rolled her eyes and shot you an annoyed look. 

“It’s been a year.” Gavin confirmed quietly, glancing at you quickly then back to his plate. An awkward lull settled over the table until one of the other groomsmen spoke up, asking Danny about his music, picking the chatter back up.

After dinner, most everyone made their way over to the bar area, having a few more drinks before ending their night. Danny found himself leaning against the bar, watching you and Olivia talk to a few other bridesmaids. Something was happening that you were excited about, the way your eyes were dancing as you spoke, a smile on your face. 

He found himself thinking about how pretty you looked, how you were glowing under the warm lighting. Your waves had become more loose over the evening, cascading down your back, a slight frizz appearing from the humidity of the room. Your cheeks were still blushed with pink, more from the wine in your glass now than early when it had been from his pretend affections. How anyone could treat someone so stunning so poorly, Danny couldn’t answer. If you had been his, he wouldn’t do anything to risk losing you.

“Can I get a scotch?” Danny glanced next to him, seeing Gavin addressing the bartender, who had just set Danny’s beer bottle down. Gavin glanced at Danny, who was now focused again on you. “A word of advice, don’t get too attached.” It took Danny a moment to realize Gavin was speaking to him, and he decided not to even look at him when he replied.

“I don’t recall asking for any advice.” Danny hummed, taking a sip of his cold beer. “I will, however, ask you not to comment on my relationship.” if Gavin heard him, he acted like he didn’t, continuing.

“Listen, as someone who has first-hand knowledge, it’s just not going to be worth it.” Gavin shrugged. “She gets boring fast. I’m surprised we lasted as long as we did.” Danny set his beer down on the bar, and finally turned to Gavin, keeping himself level as the anger in his body radiated. Who was this man to speak about you this way, after what he did?

“I’ll say this once and won’t repeat myself.” Danny stepped closer to Gavin, who stood squarely, barely coming to Danny’s chin in height. “Keep her name out of your mouth this week. Do whatever you have to do as the best man next to her, but if I hear you talk shit about her, or do something to her, I won’t use my words to warn you. Got it?”  The two men stared each other down, or well, Danny stared Gavin down as Gavin glowered up at him. 

“Everything okay?” you broke the two from their showdown as you set your empty wine glass on the bar. Danny smiled at you, wrapping an arm around your waist and pulling you into his side, planting a kiss on your lips. 

“Just fine, honey” he answered when he pulled away, smiling at your surprised and breathless expression. “Right Gav?”

“Right.” Gavin nodded, taking the scotch the bartender set for him and walking away as Danny shot him a glare.

“What was that?” you asked Danny, letting him continue to hold you. Danny tore his eyes away from Gavin’s retreating back, and down to you again, shaking his head and taking another sip of his beer. 

“Don’t worry about it.” he replied. Deciding to trust him, you shrugged and shook your head when the bartender asked if you wanted another drink.

“I’m actually getting really tired, I’m going to head upstairs.” Danny discarded his half full beer, nodding. 

“I’ll come with you.” Much like before, he helped you up the stone staircase, holding your hand to keep you from wobbling after your few glasses of wine. Once back in the room, you leaned against the arm of the couch in the living area, unbuckling your heels and tossing them away from you, one by one.

“Danny, could you?” turning your back to him, you swept your hair over your shoulder, showing him the zipper. Without a word, Danny moved to you, dutifully pulling down the zipper until the light pink lace of your strapless bra peeked out from the split material. “Thanks,” he watched as you moved towards the bedroom, going to change and closing French doors behind you. Flicking the bedside lamp on, you began to undress.

As you slipped out of your dress and grabbed the sleep clothes you had laid out, you called out to him. 

“So what did Gavin say to make you look like you wanted to launch him into the next decade?” you asked, unclasping your bra and letting it fall to the floor, sighing softly in relief. Outside the doors, Danny leaned against the back of the couch, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“It really was nothing,” Danny tried assuring you. He didn’t want to repeat what the bastard had said. He wanted to spare your feelings after a hit so soon into the trip. 

“Danny, I’ve known you for twelve hours and I can already tell you’re lying.” you laughed softly as you pulled on the soft cotton sleep shorts and tank top, moving to the bathroom and grabbing a washcloth and your makeup remover. Opening the French doors, you rolled your eyes at a still silent Danny, moving around him and plopping on the couch. 

“He said he was surprised you two lasted as long as you did and that he got bored with you fairly quickly.” Danny kept his head down, not daring to turn and face you. He didn’t want to see the look on your face after a blow that low. 

“Huh,” was all you said, nearly forcing Danny to turn his head to you.

“That doesn’t make you mad?” you just shrugged, focusing on dampening your washcloth with makeup remover.

“I mean, I just think that’s rich, considering most of our relationship, he was a full-time unpaid intern and I was working two jobs on top of classes to support us both.” you scoffed, wiping your face with the washcloth. 

“Really?” Danny asked, unfolding his arms and turning around fully, grasping the back of the couch. 

“Yup.” you replied, popping the ‘p’. “Well, I shouldn’t say it like I solely supported us. His dad gave him an allowance every month, and Gavin made sure we were stocked up on video games, designer sneakers and literally anything other than heat, water, electricity and groceries.”

“Can I please go deck him?” Danny sighed. 

“As much as I would like to say yes, and Olivia would agree, I don’t think she’d like him to have a black eye in her wedding photos.”

“What if I could promise to get a really great editor on those photos?” Danny attempted to reason as you shook your head. 

“Maybe during the reception.” Danny patted the couch victoriously before turning and going into the bedroom himself, closing the doors behind him as you continued wiping your face. Danny changed quickly, opening the doors just as you were ready to wash your face. The two of you moved around each other in a comfortable silence, until you ended up brushing your teeth side-by-side in the bathroom. It wasn’t until you were pulling back the blankets on the bed that Danny paused and spoke again.

“I can sleep on the couch still, if you don’t feel comfortable sharing the bed.” he stood in his pajama pants and t-shirt, slightly unsure.

“This isn’t the first time I’m crawling into bed with a stranger.” you joked, fluffing one of the pillows on your side. “I’m comfortable with it as long as you are. If it makes you feel better, we can build a pillow wall between us.”

“No, that’s okay.” Danny adjusted his own pillows, settling into his side of the bed. The two of you settled in, and you had to admit you were relieved to see that with both of you in the bed there was still enough room that you could stretch out and barely be touching the other person. 

“Goodnight Danny,” you murmured as you reached over and turned your bedside lamp off. You shuffled under the covers, getting comfortable, hearing him do the same.

“Goodnight honey.”

“Honey?”

“I like that name for you, when we’re with your friends.” you heard him shrug under the covers. “Is that okay?” you smiled softly in the dark, it’d been so long since someone had given you a pet name. Even if it was only a ruse, it made your heart flutter.

“Yeah, I’m okay with that.”

“Perfect. Goodnight, honey.” and with that, you and Danny drifted off to sleep.

Taglist: (feel free to add yourself!)

@joshsindigostreak @sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine @ascendingtostardust @sammysprincess @sammykiszkamyass @belovedsamuel @sunfl0wer-power @indigo-starcatcher @sammyscherub @earthlysorrows @lvnterninthenight @allieisacrybaby @losfacedevil @xserenax-13 @sarakay-gvf @shutupdevvie @myownparadise96 @watchingovergvff @gretavanfleetposts @josiee-gvf @joshkiszkatoothgap @madneedshelp @gardensgatedaisy @demonrat444 @dannyandthekiszkas @tearsofbri @paleshadow-ofadragon @happy-harpy-stuff @like-a-woman-in-a-dream @starshine-wagner @objectsinspvce @josh-iamyour-mama @mountain-in-springtime @cal-a-bungaa @capturethechaos @gvfpal

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[tamamatango]

My Project Revealed: The Fabled Fanfiction Come to Fruition

Crossing an item off the bucket list before the dopamine gods give out on me. (Yes that’s the story link in case you want to just go there and skip the whole me not shutting up part)

Back in my most active period in the Keroro fandom, I tried and failed multiple times to write a fanfic; might’ve even talked about it here at some point. But for one reason or another, it just never panned out, and I ultimately fell out of it for a few years before I managed to publish anything. However, I got back into the practice with my next hyperfixation, so now that I’ve returned to frog hell again, I knew I had to do what teenage me could not.

I can’t say this is “the fanfic I always wanted to write,” because I ended up scrapping whatever I had started all those years ago. When this started to come together in my head, it initially seemed way too ambitious given the limited time I have and where my strengths and weaknesses lie as a writer…but I got possessed by the artsy demon or something and started to write it anyway. Whoops.

To Chase a Butterfly asks one simple question: What if Kururu actually failed to save Saburo at the end of episode 229? Okay that’s not really a simple question, considering it leads to a whole emotional and physical journey about grief and companionship and space-timey shenanigans. But basically, Kururu goes “bet” and attempts to bring him back to life. Naturally, the deuteragonist of such a story is…Dororo? Yes, at the central conflict of the story is Kururu’s friendship with Saburo, but it’s Dororo who serves as his confidant/partner in crime over the course of the story, and so I consider this to double as a KuruDoro fic as well—though I will make it clear now that it’s not conclusively romantic, so you can decide if that’s the direction they go in or if it stays platonic, and it works either way.

As of the latest update from. Uh. 15 minutes ago at the time of writing, the fic currently sits at about 60-65% completion and is divided into two parts. Part 1 (chapters 1–6) is the angst/drama-heavy half, which I uploaded in full as a batch drop. Part 2 (7+) is more action/adventure, sort of in the vein of what you’d expect from one of the Keroro movies, and I am updating it chapter-by-chapter, since it was getting too unsustainable to try to dump it all at once. AO3 has the most robust features, so that’s where it’s hosted for now, but I know people have very understandable problems with that site, so I’ll consider porting it elsewhere if that’s something anyone is interested in.

Well, that’s enough yammering from me. If you like the idea, please do check it out. Things are starting to heat up as the climax approaches, especially with the introduction of a surprise third major character who very longtime Kirb fans miiiight faintly recall. And if you’re already following it—it’s been up for a while now, just waited to discuss it here to temporarily save myself from potential embarrassment—thanks for your support, and I hope you look forward to the rest! Part 2 is very research/planning heavy and has been pretty challenging to write so far, but I intend to see this all the way through damn it. And yeah, this is what’s been pulling my focus away from the blog, but there will still be posts here whenever I feel like putting energy into an essay and/or next real info drop about the new anime (BNP gimme something soon please I’m parched).

[luffysprincess]

Genuine question, is Wuwa's story any good? I tried playing it on launch and I only lasted until after we got into the city and the game started throwing all these lingos at us and made us run around the city doing stuff with characters I did not care about yet, so I got bored. Although my biggest gripe was that I played on iOS and they had no controller support, so it felt horrible to control. I end up deleting the game after that and have only pieced together stuff floating around the internet since and I have no idea what to feel.

I've also tried to watch streamers playing the beginning of Rinascita(?) mission but I found myself going "???" on some scenes... Like that church scene where Rover went towards the (supposedly) 'secret' tunnel door thing that led to the confessional. And does that mean the confessional (and the harbor ig) is the only way to enter/exit the city?? And how is everyone in the city so chill with our talking mascot Echo despite the game highlighting in the past how talking Echoes are supposed to be God-tier rare iirc? Once again, I got to the point after Rover rode the boat with Carlotta(?) and didn't feel like continuing, so I stopped watching.

Anyway, I guess the main thing is that I really want to get back into Wuwa cause the characters look so good, but the beginning of the two 'seasons' I've seen so far felt so lacking that I'm worried it'll just go downhill from there... So if you don't mind sharing your thoughts about that, I'd like to seek the opinion of a more seasoned player who has properly gone through the story... Thank you for your time reading this /gen

Hi!! Okay you bring up some good points so I’ll try to address them to the best of my ability!!

You mentioned that on iOS, theres no controller support and I can’t say anything about that issue bc I’ve never played on iOS. I played on pc when it first came out and now on the ps5. So I’m sorry I have nothing to say about that!!

Regarding the story, I actually really enjoy it. There are times where I got confused in the beginning bc like you said they throw a lot of big terms at you but overtime you’ll start to understand it!! I will also admit that the characters you interact with in the main quest of the first season did not pique my interest very much. These two specifically but that is bc I personally found them to be a little bit boring. They are sweethearts!! but I wish there was more to them than just nice girls who are color coded by their elemental power.

However the story picks up and you meet some other very interesting characters that got me hooked bc they were more complex. And very quickly the story gets really good. I don’t wanna spoil anything so I’m trying to be vague about it but it really did outdo my expectations of it.

Within Rinascita, the harbor is the only way to reach the city bc it’s a city that was made in the middle of the ocean. The secret confessional exit in the church is I think just a secret escape way. I say “I think” bc I’m still in the middle of this quest and haven’t explored enough of Rinascita to double check this. I wish I could hop on now but unfortunately the damn PSN is down :(

The reason why everyone is lax with our talking echo is bc word is already out that Rover is incredibly important. I’m not sure how much the rest of the world knows but Rover is essentially very fundamental to Solaris-3. Again I don’t wanna spoil much so it’s vague. Also somethinf to consider is that Rinascita is the land of echoes. They have advanced echoes and know a lot about them so perhaps that’s why.

In general, I’ve not been disappointed by the game story line yet. It’s been really fun and to me the plot has been v interesting. Especially the cut scenes and the fighting that happens towards the end of the quest. Those get me really excited!!

Also you’re so right, the characters look so good!! I wish I hadn’t take a break from the game bc there were a lot of characters that were released when I stopped but I regret not having them now.

Anyways, if you ever try the game out again I would love to know how you feel about it again. And thank you for asking, I hope this was helpful and motivating!!! Keep me updated if you do play wuwa again!!