#anyway. off to work i go! 🫡����

[ducktracy]

this is gonna sound so funny from The Pig and Duck Person BUT i just want to again thank you all and tell you how much the support has meant for my shilling of this film/countless pig and duck posting, i get very stuck inside my head and feel like i have to tamp down on my posting and "if i post too much about the pig and duck something catastrophic will happen" (hyperbole. but i live by a very neurotic set of self appointed rules, even for as freeform and enthusiastic as i am) and my neuroses about these characters is. WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY more deep than i let on on here. some of you know this. wink wink nudge nudge. BUT ANYWAY, i was very worried i would be seen as obnoxious and like a corporate shill or just someone tirelessly posting about the same exact thing SO YOUR SUPPORT MEANS A LOT!! it's a good reminder that i need to CHILLLL OUT. Tumblr is sort of my more relaxed online space to begin with, but i never realized how much i was still sort of repressing/masking/"I Am Normal"-ing myself until letting myself be adamant about the pig and duck since the situation calls for it. SO THANK YOU. thank you for not biting my head off 🙏 i've been very very very excited and happy to hear about everyone supporting this film and sparking a chain reaction (and i will catch up on DMs and replies!! i swear! i've kind of been in a pig and duck PR whirlwind the past few days.. moreso than usual) so just THANK YOU AGAIN. maybe this is silly to make a post about since everyone knows i'm the pig and duck person but my brain can be a treacherous sneak (read this in Daffy's voice. i don't think he's ever said it but it just popped into my head in his voice and i am obligated to put it here) so i'm genuinely very grateful

[sainz100]

📸 by Martin Trenkler

[witchysniffles]

new year's eve

A/gathario ft. sick A/gatha being too stubborn for her own good. 8.7k words (💀) There WILL be a part 2 to this at some point, but given how long this took it might be a minute lol.

All of this was inspired by @flutterytickles's tags on this post about the idea of a professor AU and a New Year's Eve party, and when I say I took that and ran with it...😳

I am MORE than happy to yap about this AU forever, but really all you need to know for this is that everyone's teaching at a small, liberal arts college in Boston. A/gatha was hired as an English professor, but now mostly teaches American history through literature and print culture. R/io studied environmental science with a focus in botany and also poetry in school, and she took a pay cut specifically to teach at a school that would let her do both. Other than that, I feel like it's pretty self-explanatory. Enjoy!! <3

Please don't reblog to non-kink blogs! Minors DNI.

“So it’s not going to be a party,” Rio said. “At least not according to Lilia. But Alice and Jen will be there, and a few other faculty members and some of Lilia’s grad students, and Alice assured me there will be good food, lots of drinks, and probably karaoke if they can find a way to hook it up to Lilia’s TV. Sounds like it’ll be a good time.”

“Hmm,” Agatha hummed. Rio had her on speakerphone on her desk while she was tidying up her office, using the time that barely anyone was on campus to prep for the spring semester without anyone commenting on how many empty energy drink cans she was hauling out to the recycling bin.

“Well you know how I feel about karaoke,” Agatha said. Rio thought she heard the sound of her clearing her throat, but she chalked it up to static on the line. “But is Lilia actually inviting me or is this you asking me to come with you?”

“Both,” Rio said. “Lilia doesn’t have your number and she figured you wouldn’t be checking your work email over the holidays, so she asked me to ask you. And I would like it if you came with me.” Rio paused. “You know, if you want to.”

There was another little burst of noise on the line—this time it almost sounded like a sniffle—before Agatha spoke again.

“Well, I promised Nicky I’d take him to the parade and the fireworks at the Common tomorrow, but that’ll be over and done by eight.” Agatha paused and this time Rio was sure she heard a sniffle. “Let me talk to the kid next door, see if he can sit in after I put Nicky down and I’ll…”

Agatha trailed off, and Rio frowned.

“You’ll…?”

“Hh-hold on, I n-need—”

Rio could hear Agatha’s breath stutter, and then before she could even process what was happening, she heard what sounded like a poorly-stifled sneeze from a distance like Agatha was holding the phone away from her face.

“Bless you?” Rio still wasn’t a hundred percent sure she was hearing things right, but she still spoke loud enough for Agatha to hear and—she assumed—roll her eyes at. What she wasn’t expecting, though, was Agatha’s shaky voice when she brought the phone back.

“D-don’t,” she started. “I’m not…n-nah…not…hheh’EHTtschu!”

That was definitely, for sure a sneeze that time, and though Rio couldn’t see it, she could tell by the involuntary little groan that followed that Agatha wasn’t happy about it. Whether it was about sneezing in general or about Rio acknowledging it with another, more enthusiastic “Bless you!” was anyone’s guess.

“Ugh, sorry,” Agatha said after collecting herself again. “You were saying?”

“I think you were saying something about getting a babysitter? But, if you’re not feeling well we don’t have to—”

“I’m fine,” Agatha said firmly. “It’s just some gunk Nicky picked up somewhere. It’s probably just one of those twenty-four hour things, I’m sure I’ll be fine tomorrow.”

Rio was pretty sure that wasn’t how colds worked, but Agatha’s tone told her the topic was not up for discussion, and Rio didn’t feel like pressing the issue would be helpful. This was Agatha, after all.

Last spring when they’d first gotten paired up to teach an interdisciplinary studies course on floral symbolism in classic American literature and poetry, Agatha had neglected to inform Rio that she was horribly allergic to about half the flowers they’d be talking about, so Rio hadn’t thought twice about showing up to the very first class with a fresh arrangement of native wildflowers to sit on the podium between them as they took turns going over the syllabus.

Agatha had done an admirable job downplaying her reaction for most of the hour-long class, only stifling the occasional sneeze into near-silence over her shoulder, but the second class was dismissed, she’d dissolved into the single most dramatic, drawn-out fit Rio had ever seen, blushing furiously the whole time and still insisting she was fine when she could gather enough breath to speak.

Rio had run up to her own office to grab her own bottle of Zyrtec, sure the whole time that this was going to get the whole class cancelled, and her partnership with Agatha would be over before it had even properly begun. With the meds in her system, though, Agatha had pulled herself together shockingly quickly to teach her afternoon class, and to Rio’s surprise, not only did their joint class proceed as planned (after a serious, Rio-initiated discussion of what parts of the syllabus Agatha was and wasn’t allergic to—which Agatha was also blushing furiously through—and an Agatha-initiated tacit threat to never speak of the incident again), but Agatha had been grateful enough for Rio’s help to offer to repay the favor by taking her out to dinner.

One thing led to another, and now, nearly a year later, they were dating, all because Agatha was enough of a stubborn bitch about her allergies to not keep antihistamines on her.

Rio had never actually seen Agatha sick before, but she assumed she probably wouldn’t handle that much better.

“Hh-ITSchu!”

Another sneeze from Agatha drew Rio from her thoughts.

“Ble���”

“Not yet, I…he’ETshiu! Ugh, fuck.”

“Salud,” Rio said.

“Shut up,” Agatha grumbled. “I’m fine. Just let me talk to the kid next door. I would never say this to his face, but he’s a total loser, there’s no way he’s got plans. I gotta check if Hanukkah changes anything, but I’ll text you when I know?”

“Sounds good. Love you, and get some rest!”

She could practically hear Agatha roll her eyes before she shot back a, “Love you too,” and ended the call.

Not half an hour later, Rio’s phone lit up with a text from Agatha.

Teen’s free to babysit. Pick me up at 9?

It’s a date, she replied.

~**~

Agatha was already waiting on the front steps when Rio’s overpriced Uber pulled up in front of the elegant Beacon Hill brownstone. Her hair was down, falling in loose waves over her shoulders, and she was wearing lipstick­, which wasn’t unheard of, but the deep raspberry red shade of it made something in Rio’s brain short out, and suddenly her only thought was about how badly she wanted to fuck it up at midnight.

As she drew closer, though, she realized that the lipstick was a distraction—and a damn good one at that—from the subtle little signs of illness on the rest of her face. Her makeup was impeccable, but up close, Rio could see the shadows of dark circles under her eyes, the barely-there pinkish tint at the tip of her nose, the subtle crease in her foundation that showed just how often she'd been—

Right on cue, Agatha scrunched up her nose with a small sniffle, and judging by the way her hands twitched at her sides, she was really fighting the urge not to rub it. Rio would never say it out loud, but she was pretty sure it was one of the cutest things she’d ever seen.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey, yourself,” Agatha said. Those raspberry lips twitched upwards, as Rio wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her lightly on the cheek. Her skin felt a little warm for someone outside in the middle of winter. Rio couldn’t be confident it was high enough to be a fever, but she filed the thought away for later.

“So…,” Rio started as she pulled out her phone to look up Lilia’s address. “How were the fireworks?”

Agatha sighed heavily. “We didn’t end up staying. Nicky didn’t sleep well last night, which meant I didn’t sleep well last night, and we only made it halfway through the parade before he decided he wanted to go home.” Agatha sniffled and scrunched up her nose again. “Poor kid was practically falling asleep on his dino nuggets. I put him to bed and hh’he was out like a li-ihh­-light.”

The slight hitch of her breath drew Rio’s gaze upwards, and out of the corner of her eye, she could see Agatha scratching the bottom of her nose with her thumbnail.

“Oh poor thing,” Rio said, definitely not talking about Agatha; that would be ridiculous. “And how are you feeling? You sure you’re up for a wild party?”

Agatha rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “I think I can hiih-handle whatever Lilia’s got planned.”

“You sure?” Rio lowered her phone and met Agatha’s eyes. “Because we can just stay in, especially if you didn’t get much sleep last night. I hear they’re letting Andy and Anderson drink on CNN again this year, and we could do those Lego flowers from Christmas and just take it easy.”

Yeah, Rio thought to herself; that was a safe angle to approach it from. Asking outright if she was under the weather was a surefire way to get her to dig her heels in deeper, and while Rio was pretty sure that was going to happen anyway, she wanted to make sure Agatha knew she had an out if she wanted it.

As Rio had predicted though, Agatha shook her head.

“No,” she said. “I’m fine. I already missed the baby fireworks, and I don’t even remember the last time I got to go out for New Year’s, so I’m not missing this.” She punctuated her statement by audibly clearing her throat, and she glared at Rio for noticing. “And I feel fine,” she snapped. “Stop looking at me like that.”

“Ok,” Rio raised one hand in a mock surrender. “In that case, it looks like we have a choice between a pretty straightforward thirty minute walk, or we can take an Uber that’ll shave a whole five minutes off that time for…” she refreshed her app and her eyes widened in shock as she wordlessly showed Agatha the inflated price on the screen. “Suddenly I’m thinking it’s a great night for a walk. What about you?”

When she didn’t get an answer right away, Rio glanced up from her phone and took in the dazed look that had settled over Agatha’s features, the way those raspberry lips parted, one hand hovering in front of her mouth as her she scrunched up her nose once more in vain before—“hiET’SHhiew—‘ITSHhyu!” She aimed both sneezes into her elbow at the last second and then sniffled wetly as she rummaged around in her purse for…who the fuck still carried handkerchiefs in the twenty-first century?

“Bless you, bless you,” Rio said lightly, as Agatha blew her nose once, dabbing lightly at her nostrils to keep from completely destroying her foundation. Rio couldn’t help but notice that once she was done, she shoved the handkerchief in her pocket instead of putting it back in her purse.

 “Thanks,” Agatha muttered. “How long did you say the walk was?”

“Google says thirty minutes.”

Agatha gave a haughty sniff as she tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Closer to twenty if you walk like you live here,” she said. “I vote we do that.”

There was a part of Rio that thought about protesting further, but she knew it wouldn’t do any good, and besides that, Agatha was a grown woman who could listen to her own body. If she wanted to push herself for the sake of a stupid work party then who was Rio to stop her? And also, Rio selfishly really did want to mess up that lipstick against a backdrop of fireworks.

“Alright,” she sighed. “In that case, vámanos.”

With a swish of her long coat, Agatha set off down the block at such a pace that Rio had to jog to catch up.

~**~

Lilia lived on the top floor of a refurbished tenement building in the North End that was all decorative brick work and copper patina on the outside, with an interior that looked authentically pre-war. Which war exactly was anyone’s guess, but Rio was putting money on Civil.

The chilly night air had made both of their noses run, and they paused in front of the elevator to collect themselves. Rio pulled the sleeve of her sweater over her hand and swiped briefly at her nose. Agatha, on the other hand, took a bit longer to recover.

She’d been mostly alright on the walk over as far as Rio could tell—the fresh air really had seemed to be a good move—but now that they were back inside the dry heat of the building, it was clearly taking Agatha a second to gather herself. She had her handkerchief out and was running it on one finger under her eyes and around her nostrils, but her nose, it seemed had other ideas.

Her breath hitched once, twice, and she tipped her head back, her mouth just open enough that Rio could see she was pressing her tongue to the roof of her mouth to try to hold it back. It wasn’t enough, though, and Agatha let out a particularly vocal gasp right before she pitched forward with an itchy-sounding “hiih’IIShu!”

“Bless you,” Rio said.

“Ugh, thanks,” Agatha grumbled. “Must be the temperature change. I’m fine.”

She at least had the decency to flush as Rio eyed her skeptically, but before Rio could say anything else, Agatha was slipping the handkerchief back in her pocket, sliding open the metal grille in front of the elevator, and waving Rio inside.

“Can you just promise me something?” Rio asked as the elevator groaned and shuddered its way upwards. Agatha didn’t say anything, but she side-eyed Rio curiously. Rio took a deep breath and flexed her fingers at her sides as she said, “Promise me if you reach a point where you want to leave tonight for any reason you’ll tell me?”

“I’m—”

“I know you’re fine,” Rio said. “And I’ll let you be the judge of your own body. I’m just telling you that if you want an out you’ve got one, no questions asked.”

Agatha considered her words for a moment. Her lips were pressed in a thin line as she ran her tongue along the inside of her cheek, and then she sighed.

“Alright,” she said quietly. “Thank you.”

“Any time.”

The elevator jolted to a stop and they stepped out into a long hallway. There was music and laughter and a scent that Rio could only identify as ‘miscellaneous party food’ wafting from their left.

“I’m gonna take a wild guess that Lilia’s that way,” she said. She glanced over at Agatha who just tossed her hair over her shoulder, cleared her throat, and sniffed once more before nodding in the direction of the sound.

“Shall we?”

Rio hesitated for just a moment, captivated by the way Agatha’s mask slid so smoothly into place. She had hardly realized just how much she got to see when they were alone until suddenly she was faced with the Agatha that was ready to actually walk into the party.

The little signs were still there: the way that her foundation was starting to separate and smudge around the tip of her nose, the way her lips parted ever so slightly so that she could breathe without the air catching audibly on the building congestion in her sinuses.  It was an impressive performance. Frankly if Rio hadn’t seen evidence to the contrary, she might have even believed Agatha’s little act.

Of course, the fact that she had gotten to see that evidence to the contrary at all—even if Agatha was denying it the whole time—was also not lost on Rio. It made her stupid, lovesick heart flutter in her chest just realizing that Agatha trusted her that much. It was also mildly annoying knowing that it would be that much harder to tell if Agatha reached her limit tonight, but they’d cross that bridge when they came to it.

She must have lingered a bit too long, though, because Agatha noticed she wasn’t following and raised an eyebrow at her.

“Are you okay?” she asked, looking pointedly at Rio’s hands.

Rio hadn’t even noticed that she was fluttering her fingers at her sides, but the sudden awareness made her stop and flex her hands.

“Yeah,” she said. “Let’s do this.”

Rio reached the door at the end of the hall first and knocked right below the brass 4F affixed to it. When no one answered right away, Agatha tried the knob and found that it was already unlocked. She glanced at Rio with a shrug before pushing it all the way open and leading the way inside. 

Rio's first impression upon stepping into Lilia's space was that it perfectly answered the question, "What if an eccentric gender studies professor with a fortune-telling side hustle had lived in the same rent-controlled apartment since the 70s?" which wasn't a question Rio had been asking, but it was nice to have an answer nonetheless. The entry way led into a spacious living room filled with squashy, mismatched furniture. Decorative lamps on various surfaces gave the room a soft, warm glow, and there were tapestries and artwork covering nearly inch of exposed wall. It was inviting and a little overwhelming in the same way that Lilia herself could be and Rio found that she kind of liked it.

Her second impression was that she and Lilia definitely had different ideas of what "not a party" meant. There were far more people than she had expected here. She vaguely recognized some other faculty members and a few of Lilia’s grad students and TAs who hung out around her office a lot, but she was only halfway through her second year of teaching, so there were still more unfamiliar faces than familiar ones.

"Soo…," Agatha started, leaning close to Rio's ear as she slipped out of her coat, "Are we sure that Lilia understands what a party is?”

Rio bit back a laugh as the hostess in question rounded the corner. “Did I hear a knock? I thought I—oh, Rio, you came!”

Before Rio could react, Lilia swept forward and enveloped her in a brief, but warm hug that had Agatha pressing herself flat against the wall to stay out of the way.

“Oh, I’m so glad you were able to make it,” Lilia said. It wasn’t until she stepped back that she seemed to notice Agatha. Something flickered behind her eyes for a fraction of a second before her wide smile was back in place. “Agatha, it’s nice to finally see you outside of the office for a change. Did you two come together?”

“Sort of,” Agatha said at the same instant Rio said, “Kind of.”

Lilia raised an eyebrow, and Rio glanced over at Agatha who was starting to get a sort of dazed look in her eyes, so Rio quickly took over.

“We split an Uber,” she said. “Those holiday prices are crazy, but if the alternative is the green line on New Year’s…” she trailed off with a shrug and an eye roll, and that seemed to be good enough for Lilia. Or at least, if she had further suspicions, she was good enough not to voice them.

Out of the corner of her eye, Rio could see Agatha bring her hand in front of her mouth in a loose fist, her thumb resting along her jaw and her first finger pressed against the bottom of her nose. It wasn’t entirely out of the ordinary—one thing about Agatha, the woman was always touching her face—but Rio guessed from the way Agatha scrunched up her nose that it was a little more practical at the moment.

Rio was about to come up with some excuse to try to shoo Lilia away, when someone else called her name from elsewhere in the apartment. Lilia glanced in the direction of the voice and sighed.

“I suppose I should go see what all the fuss is about,” she said. "You two feel free to make yourselves at home. There's food in the dining room, drinks in the kitchen, and I think someone brought some..." she mimed smoking a joint as she trailed off, and Agatha snorted. "If you want to do that, though, just do me a favor and take it outside or on the fire escape. The scent lingers in here like nothing else.”

“Understood,” Rio said.

Lilia gave a satisfied nod before turning on her heel and disappearing back into the festivities.

Rio turned towards Agatha just in time to see her shove her face into her bunched up coat and muffle a forceful sneeze into it. She came up for air with a slightly dazed look on her face, her mouth still open in preparation, but after a long moment of anticipation, nothing else happened. Agatha exhaled with an angry huff and hung her coat up on an empty hanger.

Rio did the same after her, except she nearly dropped the hanger when Agatha suddenly swore behind her. Rio whirled around just in time to see Agatha crush her nose between her thumb and forefinger as she pitched forward with a pair of stifled sneezes that were nearly silent save for a soft, choked off little gasp.

 Rio almost felt a little guilty for it, but she couldn’t help noticing just how different these cold sneezes were from Agatha’s allergic fits. It was a strange thing to think about, but with her allergies, Agatha seemed to have some semblance of control, at least at the start. The tickle tended to be a slower, more torturous build that Agatha was shockingly good at hiding, and the sneezes themselves started off as soft, tickly little things that she was scary-good at keeping quiet. This cold, by contrast, seemed to keep her on her toes, sneaking up on her and then backing off just to come back with a vengeance, and Agatha was clearly already getting frustrated.

Agatha released her nose with a heavy sigh and a wet sniffle, and when she noticed Rio looking at her, she frowned.

“What?” she snapped.

“Nothing,” Rio said. “Bless you.”

That seemed to soften Agatha around the edges for a moment, and she muttered a quiet, “Thanks,” before she brushed past Rio into rest of the apartment. “Let’s find the kitchen,” she said. “I don’t know about you, but I could use a drink.”

Rio rolled her eyes, but followed along anyway. It was less than two and a half hours to New Year’s, but she had a feeling it was going to be a long night.

~**~

When Lilia had said there were drinks in the kitchen, Rio had expected champagne, some prosecco, maybe some kind of fancy Italian wines and some seltzers in the fridge for the grad students. What she hadn’t expected was a downright undergrad-rager amount of boxed wine and a rainbow of Jell-O shots, but now that she was looking at the spread, she realized that yeah, actually, this kind of tracked.

There was indeed an array of random seltzers and cheap beer in the fridge along with a couple of bottles of something bubbly with sticky notes on them warning that they were not to be touched until midnight. Rio grabbed a mango White Claw and turned around to see Agatha debating between the wine and the shots like it was a matter of life and death. After a moment, she reached a compromise with herself in the form of downing a purple Jell-O shot and then immediately grabbing a plastic cup to fill with room-temperature Franzia, because sure, why not?

“Hey, Rio, you made it!”

Rio spun around to see Alice approaching with a beer in hand and a bright smile on her face.

“Of course,” Rio said. “I wouldn’t miss it!” She took a sip of her seltzer and surveyed the room. “Although there are a lot more people than I expected when Lilia told me specifically that this wasn’t a party.”

“That’s Lilia for you,” Alice said. “Anything less than a full-on rager doesn’t count as a party to her. But for what it’s worth, it’ll probably start to clear out by 11:30ish. Most people just use this as a rest stop for a bit and then walk to the waterfront to catch the fireworks. But they’re missing out because that’s usually about when Lilia gets stoned enough to break out the oracle cards and that’s worth sticking around for.”

“Sounds like fun.” Rio hadn’t even heard Agatha come up behind her, but there she was eyeing Alice over the rim of her plastic cup of cheap wine. “When do we break out the Ouija board and start telling ghost stories?”

“Oh hey, Agatha,” Alice said. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she glanced from Rio to Agatha and back again like she was trying to connect some invisible dots. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Yeah, good to see you too,” Agatha said flatly. She took a long sip of her wine, and she held her cup in front of her face a second longer than strictly necessary to block her nose from view as it twitched just the slightest bit. A tense moment passed where Rio couldn’t tell if Agatha was actually going to sneeze or not, but she recovered quickly, lowering her cup and shouldering past Rio towards the dining room. “I’m gonna get some food.”

“Ok, bye, Agatha,” Alice said drily. She shot Rio a look. “I didn’t know you two…”

She trailed off, and the implied ellipsis hanging off Alice’s words felt like a set trap for Rio to walk into. She’d had the feeling that her officemates were starting to suspect something for a while—from the sounds of it there was even a betting pool now—but Rio wasn’t going to give anyone the satisfaction of knowing that easily.

It wasn’t so much that they were trying to keep it a secret—sneaking around like teenagers wasn’t really all it cracked up to be when they were both parties involved were closer to fifty than fifteen—but with a kid in the mix, and Rio being so new, and Agatha’s…well, being Agatha, they just…never really cared to make a grand announcement to their colleagues. At some point it would come out, that much they both knew, but for now it was still sort of thrilling to have such a secret that was theirs and theirs alone.

So it was with all of that in mind, that Rio managed to say, “Lilia’s the one who invited her.” She took a swig of her seltzer and wished she had grabbed something harder. “We just split an Uber here.”

“Ah, sure,” Alice said. “It’s just funny; Lilia’s been trying to get her to come to stuff for years now, but this is the first time she’s actually shown. I wonder what changed.”

“Yeah,” Rio mused as she watched Agatha disappear around a corner. “I wonder.”

“Ok, well…” Alice bounced on the balls of her feet and clapped her hands together as she took a slow step back. “I need to track down an HDMI cord to try to set up karaoke, but I’ll be around.”

“I’ll see you,” Rio said.

She gave Alice a half-hearted wave and then followed Agatha’s trail into the cramped dining room where she found Agatha trapped in conversation with a short woman with a neat blonde bob who Rio vaguely recognized from the…admissions office? Student life? Something like that.

Whatever they were talking about, Agatha hardly seemed to be in the mood for it, but the woman clearly wasn’t taking the hint. Agatha had her hand in front of her face again, the knuckle of her first finger moving slowly back and forth under her nose as she nodded absently, her attention clearly more on her nose than her conversation partner.

If Rio had felt a little guilty about watching before, she felt downright voyeuristic now. From the corner of the doorway, Rio had a perfect view of Agatha’s profile, and she watched with rapt attention as Agatha managed to wrestle the tickle back long enough to interject.

“That sounds great, Sharon, but you see, the problem is that I don’t want to, so…” she trailed off with a contemptuous, open-handed shrug, and the woman—Sharon, apparently—just laughed.

“Oh, I’ll get you one of these days!” She wagged a finger playfully in Agatha’s direction before glancing down at her empty cup. “I’m gonna get some more wine, but I’ll email you once we get back on campus!”

“I’ll delete it,” Agatha called after her in a mocking tone.

She waited until Sharon was safely out of the room before whirling around and coughing into her elbow. She recovered quickly enough, but kept her arm in front of her face for a moment too long. Rio could see her shoulders tense and then release as she smothered a trio of sneezes against her sleeve, each tripping over the next like they had taken umbrage at being held back for so long. “Hiih’TSHh!-h’TSHh-TCHhu!”

“Bless you,” Rio said.

Agatha startled at the sound of her voice and spun around to glare at her.

“I’m fine,” Agatha said through gritted teeth.

“I didn’t even ask.”

“Well you were thinking it and that’s bad enough,” Agatha snapped.

Her voice was starting to take on a more noticeably-congested edge, and Rio found herself wondering if she’d have to put her foot down at some point. Either Agatha was a better liar than Rio had thought if she had been feeling this bad this whole time, or she was going downhill faster than Rio had assumed she would, and frankly Rio wasn’t sure which was worse.

“Is this where the…oh. I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

Rio and Agatha both spun around to find Jennifer Kale smirking at them from the doorway like she very much hoped she was, in fact, interrupting something.

“You wish,” Agatha growled. “What do you want, Jen?”

“Maybe to socialize?” Jen said slowly like she was trying to explain the concept to a child. “At a social event? Although I can’t imagine you have much experience with those.”

“Can it, Kale,” Agatha snapped. She took a long sip of her wine and shouldered past Jen on her way back into the kitchen. “I’m not in the mood.”

“Nice to see you too, Agatha!” Jen called after her. She turned back to Rio and rolled her eyes. “You really can’t take her anywhere, can you?”

The question felt equal parts loaded and rhetorical, and given Jen’s…history with Agatha, Rio figured her safest option was to plead the fifth. She ignored Jen’s pointed smirk and took another long drink of her seltzer.

“Well, forget her,” Jen said. “I was actually hoping to run into you here. I heard back from my mother about those old Home Garden magazines we were talking about? She found some of my grandmother’s old issues, and she said she’ll send them out to me next week. I can bring them into the office when they get here if you want to go through them.”

“Oh, sweet!”  Rio had been working for most of the fall on a proposal for a class on Victory Gardens and the development of urban home gardening, and some of the earliest primary sources had proven to be a bit of a bitch to track down. “Yeah, I’ll be in and out of the office the next few weeks before the semester starts, but I’d love to get my hands on anything you’ve got.”

“Cool,” Jen said. “I’ll keep you posted.” She gave Rio a soft smile and looked like she was about to say something else, but Rio took the pause as an excuse to slip away.

“I’m gonna go mingle a bit more. You know, network or whatever, but I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah,” Jen said. “Yeah, I’ll see you.”

Rio grabbed a star-shaped sugar cookie off a platter at the end of the dining table and popped it into her mouth as she slipped out into the living room before Jen could say anything else.

Agatha was across the room, in another tense conversation with a woman Rio definitely recognized from the library, but she couldn’t quite place the name. Dottie? Sarah, maybe? Either way, Agatha saw Rio looking and shot her a sharp glare. Rio took the hint and headed over to where Alice was fussing with Lilia’s ancient CRT TV.

It turned out it didn’t even have an HDMI port, which meant the karaoke idea was getting nixed, but after a little bit of snooping in the cabinet underneath, Rio found a dusty plug-and-play joystick with a collection of old arcade games that was still in working order, and it only took a few rounds of Frogger before a full-on tournament broke out.

Rio lost sight of Agatha as a small crowd started to gather around the TV, but despite that, if she was being honest, she was kind of actually starting to have a good time. As the clock ticked ever closer to midnight, the crowd did in fact start to thin out, and those who were left were mostly reaching a pleasant state of being under their influence of choice. Conversation and laughter flowed easily, and Rio found herself suitably distracted from worrying about Agatha.

That was, at least, until she caught sight of Agatha slipping away from the rest of the party, making a beeline for the bathroom down the hall with her hand against her face.

That got Rio distracted enough that she ran Ms. Pacman straight into a pixelated ghost to a collective groan from her audience, but Rio found herself not really caring. She passed the joystick off to Alice who was going for the high score on Galaga, and picked her way out of the crowd.

“You good?” Jen asked.

“Yeah,” Rio said. “I’m just gonna grab another drink.”

She headed into the kitchen and grabbed another seltzer—a wild berry Truly this time—and made a pit stop in the dining room to grab a couple of those sugar cookies in a napkin before following Agatha’s path down the hall towards the bathroom. She was barely halfway to the door when she heard the unmistakable sounds of Agatha…well, struggling.

“Hih-TSSHhiu! Heihh-hhETshiw!” Rio heard what she assumed was a hand slamming down hard on the edge of the sink, followed by harsh fit of coughing that only seemed to feed back into the cycle as Agatha paused just long to inhale sharply before—“HHET’Sshiu! Motherfucker!”

“Agatha?” Rio knocked lightly on the door with her knuckle. “It’s just me. You ok?”

“F-fuck off,” Agatha growled. Her voice was really starting to go now—it sounded low and scratchy, cracking between syllables—and though she made a point of turning on the water in the sink, Rio could still hear her sniffling miserably.

“Agatha, come on, don’t do this to yourself.”

She got no response to that, presumably because Agatha knew that her voice wasn’t helping her case at this point. Rio checked the time on her phone; it was after eleven now. If she’d known a few hours ago that this was where they were going to end up, she’d have put her foot down at the start. She should have pushed harder when Agatha was still malleable. Now it felt like she was talking to a brick wall. Or a closed wooden door, she supposed.

Just as she was about to get up to go back to the party, she heard Agatha clear her throat.

“If I’b bothering you so mbuch you can just fucki’g leave,” she snapped.

“Agatha, that’s not…” Rio trailed off as Agatha’s words actually hit her.

Oh.

So that’s what this was all about.

“Listen,” Rio said. “I’m not leaving you. Not because of the party and definitely not because you’re sick. You’re kind of fucking stuck with me whether you like it or not, and I’ll give you space, but I’m not leaving you. Take as much time as you need. I’m heading back out to the living room, but I’ll be here for you whenever you’re ready.”

The water stopped running and Rio could hear Agatha sniffle again. She didn’t say anything, but then again, she didn’t really have to. It was enough just for Rio to know she was actually listening. As she started to turn away, she suddenly remembered the cookies in her hand.

“Oh, and I brought you a little something to eat. They’re right out here if you want them.”

There was a narrow little table with a collection of candles and crystals next to the bathroom door, and Rio set the napkin-wrapped cookies on edge before she headed back down the hallway. When she reached the end, she heard the bathroom door open and shut, and when she turned around, the cookies were gone.

~**~

By 11:30, the party was smaller, but rowdier than ever. Lilia, who had been out on the fire escape more than once, was giggling her way through a tarot reading for Jen over the arm of the other couch. There was music blasting from someone’s phone, and a cheer went up as Alice finally broke her high score. Everyone that was left was talking or laughing, and it was easy enough for Rio to slip back into the fray and plop herself on an overstuffed couch cushion without so much as a glance her way.

The minutes seemed to drag by impossibly slow. 11:45 turned to :50, turned to :55, and Rio was starting to think she might have to press her luck and check on Agatha again when she felt a hand on her shoulder, and speak of the devil, there she was. Her hair obscured most of her face so Rio couldn’t get a great look at her, but she tapped Rio’s shoulder and nodded towards the fire escape, and that was all Rio needed to scramble to her feet and follow her.

There was no one out there at this time of night; everyone left was inside, watching reluctantlyas Alice unplugged the game and tuned the TV in to the Times Square ball drop. Agatha slipped out the open window onto the metal platform, and before Rio could even process what they were doing, Agatha grabbed the railing of the narrow stairs leading up towards the roof and started to climb.

“Ok, not that I’m not glad you’re out here again, but what are the fuck are you doing?” Rio asked, trying not to notice just how high above the city streets they were.

Agatha paused and looked back at her. “I wa’t to watch the fireworks.”

She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, like it had been her plan this whole time, and though Rio hated the thought of setting foot on those narrow, creaking stairs, she had to admit that, yeah, she very much did want to watch the fireworks too.

She followed Agatha, and they both scrambled over the lip at the top. After the hazy warmth of Lilia’s apartment, the chill breeze was a welcome change, and Rio had to admit, the view was nice from up here. Rio checked the time on her phone. Two minutes to midnight, and she swore could feel it in the air.

“You don’t have to kiss mbe or adythi’g,” Agatha said. “I just thought this mbight be dice.”

Ninety seconds to midnight.

“Would you stop me if I did?” Rio asked.

Agatha scoffed. “You’d really risk catchi’g this?”

“What can I say?” Rio shrugged. “I’m feeling lucky this year.”

“But I’b gross.”

Rio pressed her cold hand against Agatha’s fever-warm cheek—oh yeah, she was definitely going downhill—and guided her gaze up so she could take her first good look at Agatha’s face in the moonlight.

Agatha’s bright blue eyes were watering so badly it looked like she was crying, and though her mascara had held up valiantly for the last few hours, it was starting to smudge in earnest now. The makeup around her nose was a patchy mess, clinging to the dry, reddened skin where it hadn’t been rubbed off entirely. Her lipstick had honestly held up surprisingly well, although the edges were starting to get fuzzy. All of that coupled with her irritated frown as she sniffled and wrinkled her nose again made her look so pathetically adorable that Rio could almost melt.

“See that’s the funny thing,” Rio said. “You’re saying gross, but all I’m seeing is the most beautiful woman in the world.”

Agatha blushed furiously, but she let Rio pull her closer.

Ten seconds to midnight.

The air was humming with electric energy. Rio was sure there was nowhere else on earth she’d rather be.

Five!

They could hear the countdown from all directions.

Four!

Agatha swore as her nose twitched and she aimed a loud “Hh-ITShoo!” into her shoulder.

Three!

Agatha sniffled and wiped her nose on her sleeve.

Two!

“Last cha’dce to back out.”

One!

Rio smirked. “Not on your life.”

Happy New Year!

All at once, the city erupted around them, but Rio hardly paid it any mind as her lips met Agatha’s, waiting and eager, and for a moment, they were the only two people in the world. Rio could taste the artificial vanilla of Agatha’s lipstick, could feel Agatha’s poor, abused nose against her cheek as she tangled her fingers in Agatha’s hair and savored absolutely everything about the moment.

Agatha was the first to turn away, gasping for breath that couldn’t break through the wall of congestion in her nose, but she didn’t pull away from Rio’s arms.

They stayed like that for a long moment, foreheads pressed together as the fireworks over the water lit up the night sky around them.

“Rio?” Agatha finally croaked.

“Yeah, love?”

 “I dod’t feel very well,” Agatha said. She let her shoulders drop and rested her head on Rio’s shoulder so that her next words came out even softer. “I thigk I’b ready to leave ndow.”

“Oh, you are, huh?”

Agatha nodded weakly against Rio’s neck. Rio bit back a chuckle and carded her fingers through Agatha’s hair, which just made Agatha press closer. She was for sure running a fever now, but Rio didn’t think she needed to say that part out loud.

The fireworks were starting to die down now. The city that slept by 10pm was already quieting again, and a cool breeze blew across the rooftop, making them both shiver. That was enough to finally spur Rio into action. Despite Agatha’s low whine of protest, Rio took a step back, and reached into Agatha’s pocket to find her crumpled handkerchief. She offered it to Agatha who rolled her rheumy eyes, but accepted it gratefully and set about wiping away the tear tracks and the smudged eye makeup. There wasn’t much she could do for her foundation at this point, but after a moment she managed to pull herself back to some semblance of her usual self.

“Ready?”

“H-hold on.” Agatha held up one finger as she inhaled a shaky breath. Her eyes fluttered shut, her lips parted, and she stayed like that for a long moment, before—

Fuck, I lost it.” Agatha scrubbed at her nose with the crumpled handkerchief in frustration before flipping her hair over her shoulder and following Rio to the edge of the roof to step gingerly back onto the fire escape.

The party was well and truly winding down now, but those that were left seemed occupied with champagne and company, so no one seemed to notice when Rio and Agatha slipped back inside. For a second, Rio almost thought they could make a clean break for it. They’d grab their coats and slip outside, and Rio would text Lilia a brief goodbye once they were in the Uber back to Agatha’s place.

That kind of luck didn’t seem to be on their side, though, because Lilia caught them as they passed the kitchen doorway.

“Oh, Rio, are you leaving?”

Rio stopped dead in her tracks like she’d been caught sneaking in after curfew. She could feel Agatha stiffen and clear her throat next to her.

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Rio said with a nervous glance at Agatha. “It’s getting late and—”

“I have to let the babysitter go,” Agatha chimed in. “Rio offered to split a car.”

Her voice was fading in earnest now, but Rio noticed how carefully she was choosing her words so at least she didn’t sound too congested on top of it. Her explanation seemed to be enough for Lilia, who smiled at them both.

“Well, get home safe,” she said. “Happy New Year! And Agatha, I hope you feel better soon!”

Agatha’s jaw dropped and she looked like she was contemplating homicide or suicide or both, but Rio just gave her a shove in the direction of the door and gave Lilia a soft “Happy New Year,” and a shy wave in return.

She grabbed both of their coats out of the closet with one hand while she pulled up Uber on her phone with the other. No way they were doing that walk again tonight.

“Ok, driver’ll be here in three minutes,” Rio said.

When Agatha didn’t respond right away, Rio looked up to see her frozen in pre-sneeze torture, her lips parted, eyelashes fluttering, brows knitting together as she took a breath in, and then—

“Oh fuck mbe!” Agatha scowled and pinched the bridge of her nose hard.

“Oh, pobrecita,” Rio breathed. “Let’s get you home.”

Agatha rolled her eyes, but before she could say anything, the lost sneeze snuck back up on her with a vengeance just as Jen and Alice passed by on their way to the kitchen.

“HHT’SCHiu!”

“Bless you, Agatha!”

“Fuck off, Jen!” Agatha called back.

With that, she flipped her hair over her shoulder, held her flaming cheeks high, and stalked out of Lilia’s apartment, leaving Rio to call out a soft, “Happy New Year, guys!” before jogging to catch up.

~**~

The ride back to Agatha’s place was short and quiet, and even though she hadn’t strictly been invited, Rio followed Agatha inside where Agatha paid the babysitter, kicked off her shoes, and tossed her coat in the vague direction of the coatrack before throwing herself down onto the couch in the parlor.

Rio had been in Agatha’s house more than a few times, but this—Agatha being this miserable in her own home—was new enough territory that she wasn’t quite sure what to do with herself. She shed her own coat and shoes, and picked up Agatha’s so at least they wouldn’t be a tripping hazard later, and returned to stand behind the couch.

Agatha had one hand dangling towards the floor and the other over her eyes like if she blocked her vision, she could pretend the night had gone differently.

“So,” Rio started carefully. “What are you thinking? Do you want me to stay?”

Agatha moved the hand over her face and looked up at Rio with red, watery, exhausted eyes.

“I cad take care of byself,” she said.

“I know you can. That’s not what I’m asking.” Rio leaned over the back of the couch and reached one hand down to brush a lock of hair out of Agatha’s face, curling it gently around her finger. “Do you want me to stay?”

“You’ll get sick,” Agatha whined.

“Again, not what I’m asking. And for what it’s worth, you did have your tongue in my mouth less than an hour ago, so I’m pretty sure that ship has sailed.”

Agatha started to laugh, but it quickly turned into a cough that only seemed to irritate her nose as she quickly brought her hands up to cover an itchy sneeze. “hH-IItschu!”

“Salud, baby.”

“Thagks,” Agatha grumbled. She sniffled wetly and wiped her nose roughly on her sleeve. “Ugh, feel gross! I hate bei’g sick.”

Rio bit back a laugh. “I don’t think most people really enjoy it.” She had moved from playing with Agatha’s hair to scratching lightly at her scalp. Agatha’s eyes fell closed and she moaned into Rio’s touch.

“Let me ask a different way,” Rio said. “Do you want me to leave?”

Agatha’s eyes opened again, and when she looked up at Rio with her flushed cheeks and her sniffly nose, Rio felt like she could melt into a puddle on the spot. The flush in Agatha’s cheeks deepened as she slowly shook her head no.

“Ok,” Rio said. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

“Shut up,” Agatha muttered without any bite.

“Ignoring that because you’re sick,” Rio said.  “Now what do you say we get you somewhere more comfortable than the couch so you can get some actual rest, hm?”

It took a few more minutes of gentle prodding from Rio to get Agatha to her feet and up the stairs, but once she was moving, she seemed to be able to handle herself. She poked her head into Nicky’s room before heading to her own room to change while Rio busied herself digging around in the bathroom medicine cabinet.

All Agatha seemed to have was a bottle of Advil, a box of Zyrtec, and a mostly-empty bottle of grape-flavored children’s cold medicine that was missing the measuring cup. Rio vowed to make a supply run in the morning, but for now, the Advil was probably better than nothing. She filled a glass with water from the sink, and then grabbed the allergy meds for good measure and headed for Agatha’s bedroom.

Agatha had already changed into an oversized t-shirt with an ambiguous number three on it, and a pair of worn flannel shorts that were practically indecent. She’d pulled her hair into a loose bun, and she was just finishing wiping off the last of her makeup with a wipe that she tossed carelessly in the direction of the trash can. It missed by a long shot, but Rio thought it was cute that she’d tried.

“Here,” Rio said, holding out the water and two ibuprofen tablets. “You didn’t have much, but this should help keep your fever down.” Agatha took the meds and washed them down without protest, and Rio offered her the box of allergy meds. “I don’t know if these’ll do much, but they might at least take the edge off until I can run out to the store tomorrow.”

Agatha’s cheeks flushed a deeper pink. “About that…”

“What are you…?” Rio trailed off as she pulled the blister pack out of the box and found it completely empty. “Why was this still in the cabinet if you knew it was empty?”

“To remind myself to buy more,” Agatha said like it was completely obvious and not actually one of the most ridiculous things Rio had ever heard.

“Ok, scratch that then.” Rio tossed the empty package into the trash can. “Do you want anything else?”

Agatha shook her head as she set her water on the nightstand.

“Just hurry up and c’mere,” she said, making grabby hands in Rio’s general direction. It was quite possibly the cutest thing Rio had ever seen, and she wiggled out of her nice jeans and into a spare set of pajamas as fast as she could so she could crawl under the covers with Agatha, who immediately attached herself to Rio’s side.

“I’b sorry I was a bitch earlier,” Agatha mumbled.

Rio chuckled as she leaned her cheek against the top of Agatha’s head. “Lucky for you, I kind of like it when you’re a bitch, because I know you don’t mean it.” Agatha grumbled something unintelligible against her neck, but Rio continued, “And because the sooner you get being a bitch out of your system, the sooner we get to do this.”

“Love you,” Agatha mumbled sleepily.

“Y yo a ti, mi amor,” Rio said. She reached back to turn off the lamp on the bedside table and then pressed her lips against Agatha’s warm forehead as she settled back down.

Agatha was already out, her breathing coming in congested little snores that made Rio’s lips twitch into a smile as she felt her own eyes growing heavy. Her last conscious thought before she slipped into sleep herself was that there was nowhere else on earth she’d rather be starting the new year.

[seaquestions]

i was watching all the garly goals of the 23-24 season, as you do, and it made me wanna get into gifmaking so. remember when i said my hockey hyperfixation could be worse cos i havent gotten to the point of rb-ing gifsets yet? well. ive already made one so think i might just become a guy who Makes gifsets.

[altruistic-meme]

finally reaching the parts of bsd i haven't actually seen yet!! aaaaa!!! :)

[prismit]

couldn't find any documentation on how many cells you get from boss rush, so i worked it out myself! (to the best of my abilities anyway lol, also if this info is out there already then i must have missed it in my search 😅 sorry)

quick note: this might not be 100% accurate, since i mostly used math instead of fighting every boss 6 times lol. but i definitely gathered enough data to find a consistent pattern, so if these numbers are off at all, they should at least be VERY close, and at least 0bc and 5bc are definitely correct.

so, here's the numbers for each difficulty!

Concierge: 24 / 25 / 26 / 27 / 28 / 30

Conjunctivius: 40 / 42 / 44 / 46 / 48 / 50

Mama Tick: 32 / 33 / 35 / 36 / 38 / 40

Death: 80 / 84 / 88 / 92 / 96 / 100

Time Keeper: 40 / 42 / 44 / 46 / 48 / 50

Giant: 60 / 63 / 66 / 69 / 72 / 75

Scarecrow: 50 / 52 / 55 / 57 / 60 / 62

Dracula: 80 / 84 / 88 / 92 / 96 / 100

Hand of the King: 80 / 84 / 88 / 92 / 96 / 100

Servants: 47 / 49 / 51 / 54 / 56 / 60

Queen: 80 / 84 / 88 / 92 / 96 / 100

Dracula Final Form: 40 on all difficulties

ALSO: you don't get any more cells than normal from modified bosses or flawless wins. the 4 trials give the same amount as DIY mode, so there's no bonus there as far as cells go.

[vanillajunmyeon]

i made a jokey comment about current things happening in life (okay mainly new pope and deltarune release date confirmation) and i had to sit through fact checking dude who told me it had already been announced and sent a whole ass LINK and argued with me over the newness of the information when this was a JOKE MESSAGE in the first place why is this dude so annoying 😭😭😭

like wow excuse me i didn't say in my message about toby fox living in the vatican (???) that yeah what was said was the date and time of release which had in fact not been announced

[orcelito]

Planning out my outfit for my concert shit. I think I've got good pants for it, maybe got shoes for it. Gonna look for a blouse tomorrow + possibly some new shoes. Bc the maybe-shoes are those shoes I got for the suit that I HATE. They gave me such terrible blisters. And I think the pants I have would look better with some kind of heel. But if I don't find anything good I can just use those flats. And for the blouse, it's gotta be black and long sleeve and also have enough flexibility to not restrict my playing. Flexible Clothes. All the better to play a funky little tune in.

On top of that tho I've got several assignments I gotta do this week. Gotta make a wireframe prototype for my web app for web programming class. Tonight, really. Bc the official thing is due Sunday but I gotta get it reviewed by classmate(s) (and also review someone else's, too), so better to have that done sooner rather than later. There's also a lab for my C programming class due on Friday, which I need to have done before the end of lab so I can get it checked off. Gonna try to get most of it done tomorrow night, if not all of it, so that I can just go into lab and get it checked off and then LEAVE. Bc if I stay the full lab I will have less than an hour b4 I gotta be at the venue for sound check. And I really would prefer to have more time before that. Tbh the lab probably won't take TOO much work, since it's just using recursion to make a lil maze solver thing. Not too many lines of code, since the recursion does a lot of that. The tricky part is actually figuring out the logic for it properly. But I took good notes on it when my professor talked about it in class so MAYBE I didn't attend the last 2 labs and MAYBE I haven't even started the thing. But it's ok. Fuck it we ball. And ON TOP OF THAT... the assignments, the orchestra prep, etc... I also wanna clean my apartment some, probably on Friday morning, bc nonzero chance of visitors after the concert. Not for long if they do come in. But Still.... #Embarrassed. It's not as bad as it was b4 bc thankfully I did manage to do my dishes. But there's still some things I should get cleaned up.

AND THEN...!!!!!!!!!!

Well I mentioned the prototype thing. I gotta review someone else's prototype, and I also need to update my own prototype depending on what people say about mine. Tbh I'm kinda planning on doing a lower-effort version to start with (instead of trying to make it perfect from the start) so that it'll hopefully be easier to adjust the prototype to whatever the advice is & make it seem like an actual improvement. There's also a presentation over this thing, which thankfully I'm presenting on... Wednesday, I think? But I gotta have the slides submitted I Think Sunday night (when the prototype itself is due). So I gotta prep the presentation alongside prepping the prototype. AND I have a lab for this same class due on Sunday too, so I'm a busy bee!!

And ON TOP OF ALL THAT, I have a midterm exam in-class on Wednesday for my C programming class (same day as the web programming presentation, ugh 🙄), a presentation for my quality engineering in IT class on Thursday (over ISO 9001 quality standard), AND a paper for that presentation's content due on..Friday, I think? It's a group presentation/paper, same group I worked with last time, which Thankfully they can pull their own weight. It's just more to do lol.

God. I'm being worked to the bone, actually. Feels like everything is happening all at once. But then I remember that it's midterms time and I have spring break the week after next. And I'm like. OK, that makes sense.

Just gotta survive the next week and a half... lol...

[aeyumicore]

i would like to propose an idea: pervert xavier and pervert zayne🫡

pervert!zayne & pervert!xavier (seperate)

━ .ᐟ✧ A/N: u stop that right now.....well anyways thx for inspiring me. took a break from sylus beyond cloudfall smut to write this. ENJOY (also i did nothing at work bc i was writing this if i get fired its ur fault sksksksk). also this is not proofread at all

━ ✧.˖ WARNINGS: mdni, male masturbation, perv!zayne, using panties without consent, using photos for masturbation without consent, stealing panties, masturbating in a public setting, pervy zayne

Zayne slumps into his office chair, massaging his temples, exhausted after a 15 hour surgery. He smiles when he pulls out his cellphone, seeing several text messages from you.

[7:15 PM] Y/N: Miss you Zayne! Good luck in surgery!

[10:28 PM] Y/N: I'm getting sleepy, I hope you aren't. That would be horribly negligent ( •̀ - •́ )

[12:32 AM] Y/N: Going to sleep now, good night. I love you Zayne!

[12:32 AM] Y/N: (1 image attachment)

Zayne sighs when he opens the image you'd sent. It's an adorable photo of you under the covers, your sleepy smile illuminating the screen. You're wearing the matching PJ set he'd bought you recently, your eyes squinting from the camera flash as you make a ridiculous duckface. A kiss goodnight.

It's nothing but beautiful, pure, and innocent.

But then why was his cock so fucking painfully hard against the elastic drawstring of his scrubs?

"Sh-shit."

The raven haired surgeon glances at the time. 3:15 AM. There's no way you'd be awake.

His jaw tenses as he battles with what he knows is right and what he knows is wrong. It would be wrong to pleasure himself to the panties he'd stolen from your hamper, that he kept hidden away in the locked drawer of his office desk, that you had no idea he'd taken, right?

Surely, it would be okay. You were his girlfriend, after all. And he spent every waking minute of his life cherishing and protecting you. He'd never hurt you.

Screw it.

He lightly kicks off the ground, his office chair rolling over to the locked drawer of his office desk. With one hand, he's desperately undoing the ties of his scrub bottoms, the other hand fervently unlocking the locked drawer.

As soon as he frees his aching cock, already leaking and ready, he pulls the bottom of his scrub top up, placing the hem between his teeth. His patience wears thin, fingers already beginning to stroke himself before he even has your panties in his other hand.

With one hand, he holds his cellphone out so he can stare at the selfie you'd sent him, your beautiful and innocent face staring back at him.

Fuck, just the sight of your face was enough to get him off.

Zayne's other hand fumbles desperately until they finally meet the delicate lace material of the panties he'd kept hidden away in his office for several weeks now, but never had the audacity to use. He pulls them out with a shaky arm, draping them over his leaking cock.

The sight of the beautiful black lace against his pale aching skin sets him off, his fingers tightening around his shaft and jerking up and down.

"Y/N," he moans unabashedly, nearly forgetting he's still at the hospital. Your beautiful face fills his mind. Your eyes, your blush, your lips.

How beautiful would your lips look wrapped around his cock right now? How good would it feel if it was your lips enveloping around him right now and not his fingers?

"Y-Y/N," Zayne rasps, "I love you." He fists himself viciously, the wet sounds of his fist meeting his shaved pelvis ringing around his tidy and empty office. He wraps your panties around himself, letting the silky material heighten his pleasure, remembering how those panties looked when he pulled them off of you with his teeth.

He moans at the perverted thoughts, muffled from his teeth still gripping onto his scrubs to give him better access to pleasure himself.

It'd been a while since he'd been able to see you, your hectic schedules having conflicted for the past few days. Zayne missed you so terribly. Of course, he longed for the physical intimacy. The way you knew just how to touch him, to kiss him, to shake him to his core without even knowing it.

But more than anything, he missed how you you would look at him, smile at him and remind him why he was breathing.

"Fuck," he curses through his gritted teeth, "I love you so fucking much." Unable to hold himself back, his hips begin to buck up into his fist, and at this point he's basically fucking his palm that's clad with your used panties.

He tosses his phone onto his desk, needing to grip onto the arm of the chair to keep it in place with how vigorously his pelvis is rolling into his fist.

"J-Just like that, my love," he moans, fully losing his mind, imagining you on his lap, riding him in this very office.

At his breaking point, he throws all remaining sensibility to the wind, letting all lust take over. He grabs your panties and brings them to his nose, taking a lung full of your scent. Zayne's eyes roll back as your pheromones evade his senses, and he comes undone explosively all over his desk.

His motions slow to a halt as his brain finally clears. He slowly releases his aching cock, his scarred hands absolutely dripping in his cum and he lets out a broken sigh.

Guiltily, he sets your panties back down and cleans up his mess. It's not until moments later, as he's carefully placing it back into the locked drawer, that he realizes his orgasm was so powerful that some of it had shot onto the delicate black lace.

Zayne grimaces as he wipes his cum off of your panties, thoroughly upset with himself having ruined something so precious to him.

Surely, you wouldn't miss another pair. Right?

━ ✧.˖ WARNINGS: mdni, male masturabation, perv!xavier, using pillow/bed without consent, pillow humping, phone sex without consent?, implied pre-relationship xavier, pervy xavier

I shouldn't.

That's what Xavier told himself.

But she said I could.

That was all the convincing it took for Xavier to push the door of your room open, excitement taking over as he took in the surroundings of your empty bedroom.

It'd only been one week since you'd been sent away on a Hunter's expedition and he was going insane. As your partner, he'd normally be sent with you, but the Association had asked him to stay behind as they needed to split up the manpower this time around.

And of course, you'd asked him to come over and house sit. Water your plants, bring in the mail, open up some windows.

He sat on the edge of your bed, letting his fingers glide off the smooth fabric of your comforter.

God, he missed you.

He can't stop himself from flopping over, letting his hair hit your pillow. You had said it'd be okay for him to stay over if he ever needed to. But that was months ago. And you probably didn't mean in your bed.

He can't find it in himself to sit back up as your scent fills his nostrils, with his face so close to your pillow. Xavier looks up at the ceiling.

So this is where you sleep. This was what you saw when you fell asleep every night. When you dreamt. Did you dream of him? Did you think of him like he thought of you?

God it smells just like you.

No, he shouldn't.

Xavier shifts to his side, fully intending on getting up. But your pheromones are so overpowering that he finds his face fully buried in your pillow.

"Y/N..." he groans, "I miss you." Xavier moans as he feels the familiar ache growing in his crotch. The situation he's put himself in doesn't help at all, your smell only making him more sensitive, the precariousness of his position in your bed making him more excitable.

Xavier shifts, the angle of his erection becoming painful as it continues to harden into the plush of your mattress. But that only makes things worse, the friction of his subtle movements making his eyes roll.

"Fuck, baby," he whimpers into your pillow, his cheeks burning with shame. He grabs two fistfuls of your comforter to try and steady his irregular breathing and calm himself down.

But he's much too far gone.

Xavier rolls his hips into your bed, chasing more friction, more pleasure.

"Hah—hah," he pants, practically drooling into your pillow, "Y/N..." But it's not enough. With one hand, he reaches down, undoing his pants and reaching in to free his cock. It springs free, pressing nakedly into the soft fabric of your bed.

He humps into your bed, his precum smearing messily into your comforter, but he can't find it in himself to care.

But it's still not enough. He wanted you.

With one hand, he grabs your pillow, throwing it under his hips and between his thighs. The perverted thought of your beautiful face resting on that same pillow that he’s so desperately fucking into, without a single clue, drives him utterly insane. 

Xavier’s hips rock erratically into your pillow, his cock jerking against the soft fabric of your pillow case. With every stroke, he continues to leak messily, as if purposely marking his territory, wanting to leave pieces of himself behind. 

“Feels–ngh–so good angel,” he moans into your blanket, his hips bucking wildly now, pretending they were thrusting into you, pounding into your perfect ass. 

“All mine,” he slurs, delirious, nearly about to cum into your pillow, “You’re mine, Y/N.”

But then his phone rings, the vibrations violently interrupting his impending orgasm. 

Xavier freezes, seeing your face light up his screen. He fumbles with his phone, struggling to press the red button. 

Decline. Decline.

“Xavier?”

Shit.

“H-Hey Y/N.”

Xavier groans inwardly, cursing himself, his heart pounding. But the sound of your voice only makes him harder, needier.

“How’s it going? I’m coming home tomorrow! You miss me?”

“It’s going good,” he says breathlessly, his hips continue to move, no matter how much he knows he should stop. Somehow, being on the phone with you only excites him more, the pleasure growing immeasurably unbearable. 

“You okay?” 

Your voice sounds concerned, and Xavier’s heart hammers at the idea that you can tell something is up. Is his voice too shaky?

“No, I’m good. Why?” Xavier bites his lip to hold back a moan, your voice driving him to the point of madness. With your voice in his ear, it’s impossible not to imagine your face in his mind. Your face, taking his cock repeatedly. Your face, cumming on his cock. Your face, taking him down your throat. Your face, calling out his name.

“Xavier.”

Xavier’s eyes widen as you call out his name, biting the inside of cheek until he can taste the metallic rust of blood in his mouth. 

“I miss you!”

His hips falter as he comes undone, exploding all over your bed. His hips continue to roll, his body naturally riding out his orgasm, his fingers gripping his phone so tightly that his knuckles turn white. 

“I-I miss you–too,” Xavier rasps, doing his damn best to keep his voice steady, praying to the stars that you don’t suspect anything. His body continues to fuck into your bed instinctually, his mind still filled with images of you under him, begging for mercy as you leak his cum. 

“Okay, I have to go. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“See you tomorrow, Y/N.”

The call disconnects with a beep and Xaveir finally releases the breath he’d been holding, his entire body shaking with violent gasps. He props himself on his elbows, his entire body quivering, to glance down at the mess he’d created.

Xavier can’t even find it in himself to feel guilty, as he thinks about the fact that he can finally see you tomorrow. 

© aeyumicore 2025.

.ᐟ✧ THIS IS MY ONLY ACCOUNT. I WILL ONLY POST ON THIS ACCOUNT AND AO3. i am not @/aeyumicores or @/aeyumiicore or any variations of my blog name.

✧.˖ i do not permit translations or reposts of my work on tumblr, ao3, or other sites

.ᐟ✦ please do not reuse my blogpost headers, dividers, or layouts. these are original designs of my own.

[ruinix]

Quinn being all clingy after you came home from a business trip. Can I ask for...no smut...or not... idk

Hello, lovely. I don't mind writing no smut. 🫡🥹 I fear I have written this with slight angst… I don’t know why. I’m sorry if you don’t want that. [Anyway, there is a bonus content for this with your POV (it's the voices, i swear), but you don’t need to read it.] Hopefully, you’ll like this. 🧎🏻‍♀️

Blues and Ease

TW/CW: 18+ MDNI, Fluff (cuddles and kisses), showering together (conserve water jk), a dash of separation anxiety Quinn so a bit of Angst, Hurt/Comfort

Count: 1483 words (+ 483) | Masterlist | Taglist

You’re still not home. Quinn paces again and again. You still haven’t messaged him when he told you to text him if you landed. He wants to pick you up at the airport, but you refuse him. Now, he’s here stressing because you still haven’t messaged him.

He's not used to you going on a business trip. You go on vacation, sure, but he’s usually there with you. He’s not used to not seeing you next to him when he wakes up. Not used to the silence of his—and your—house anymore.

He can cope when it’s him on a road trip, because he is not here. He doesn’t see your clothes, your towels, your perfumes, your trinkets, your plants, and everything else in a hotel room. There are no hints and memories of you there. He calls you every time. He sees you doing your stuff—work or hobbies—with yourhome in the background. It eases his soul.

But not this. Not this house with your things and no you. No soft hums. No walking and pacing, just because. No you on lazing on the sofa with whatever show on one TV, reserving the other for him. No keyboard sounds of you typing. No you eating dinner with him. He hates it.

It's the worst. The worst week of his life.

Everything is not right when you’re not here.

His home is not a home without you. He needs you here.

His heart squeezes. Tears glaze his vision. You’re just gone for a week and he’s losing it. He’s usually gone for a couple for his road trips. You must be enduring this. You are so much stronger than him. You are patiently waiting for him while also cheering him on every time. Unlike him who is being all pathetic because you’re just gone for a week—

Quinn hears the front door open and close. He immediately turns and sees you with your suitcase and a huge bag of chocolates…and flowers? Whatever, because relief is flooding his body.

You’re here.

“Quinn, I’m home!” You dash towards him.

You’re home.

Quinncatches you in a tight embrace. He says, “Welcome back.” He buries his face in the crook of your neck and takes a big inhale. Roses, today.

He misses you so much. He misses this. Holding you. Feeling how perfect you feel in his arms. Basking in your warmth.

It doesn’t matter if you didn’t tell him your plane landed. You’re here. That’s enough.

“Quinn,” you giggle, pressing a kiss on his neck, your hands pushing him off.

It makes him swallow a whine. He doesn’t want to part from you. Even an inch distance is making him want to cry.

“I got you chocolates and flowers.” You push them to his arms. “I need to shower,” you say, kissing him on the lips, walking towards the bedroom.

He blinks at the gifts. He thought it was yours. It’s…for him? His heart speeds up. His spirit that was down in the depths of loneliness lifts. You brought him flowers. Him. Flowers. And chocolates.

He feels nothing else but giddy as he places them on the counter and hastily puts them in a vase. He needs to trim up the stems. Put water in it. Research what these flowers are. He has no clue. Later. He’ll do that later.

Now, Quinn wants to be with you. The smallest distance from you right now is making his head spin, his heart ache. He can’t not be with you right now. He’ll die.

He stands at the bathroom door that’s ajar. He can hear the shower running, can feel its steam, can see the trail of clothes on the floor which he knows you’ll put away after your shower. Just one of your silly quirks.

“Can I join you?” He asks, knocking on the doorframe.

“Yes please,” you reply.

He’s so quick to undress. He joins you in the unexplainably hot shower. It doesn’t matter to him even if it’s scalding to the point of burns—it’s not. It doesn’t matter. No hot water can come between him and you. He hugs you from behind, humming when you say you want to shampoo your hair. It can wait.

“Just wanna hug you.” He kisses your temple. “I miss you.”

“I miss you too, Quinny.” You turn your head and smile so lovingly. “But I really need to shower. I came from the airport. It was a long flight.”

He's so mesmerized with the water cascading your skin. With the lightest pout on your lips when he doesn’t let go. With your lips still stained by your lipstick. With how your wet lashes group together. With the curves of your eyebrows. Every feature he has memorized, dreamed about, and kissed. You’re marvelous.

Why did the week rob him of you? Why did it feel like you were gone for much longer? Why did it hurt so much this time?

“Quinn?” you call in worry, spinning to face him, hands on his cheeks. “Why are you crying, my Love?”

“Not crying,” he shakily says. “It’s just water.”

“Don’t lie to me, Quintin.”

He shudders, leaning against the wall, taking you with him. “You weren’t home.” It sounds so pathetic, his voice breaking. “I know it’s work. I know. I understand but you weren’t home. It was so quiet. I’m not used to quiet anymore.”

You turn off the water, hugging him. One hand around waist. One hand on his nape to hold him, forehead to forehead. You let him sob. Every tear feels like the release of every chain weighing him down. Every broken breath comes easier and better. All because of your touch, your warmth, your presence. God, he misses you.

“I don’t want you to think you can’t go on another trip, because of this, because of me. You can. I just…It hurts,” he admits.

Your lips capture his. A small, chaste kiss that eases his soul. You rub your hand over his chest where his heart slowly mends itself just by being with you.

You gently say, “I’ll always come home to you, Quinn.”

“Please do.” He tightens his hug. “Please.”

“I promise.” You grab his cheeks. “Do the same for me?”

“You’re my home.” Quinn presses a kiss on your palms, murmuring his promises and affirmations, capitalizing on your touch. “You complete me.”

Quinn knows you would retort that you two are complete pieces that perfectly fit together. But you didn’t today. You only smile as you repeat his words. Oh, his love for you just grows day by day. Moment by moment.

After a few more minutes of just hugging each other, you shower. Quinn just stands there, while you do your routine. He helps when you need to scrub your back and your legs—he doesn’t mind going on his knees to do so—or wash away the suds from your hair.

Even if he gets soapy, he remains there with a hand constantly touching you. Your hip. Arm. Back. Shoulder. Your finger. The tips of your hair. He can’t not touch you. You let him, perfectly understanding how to soothe his need.

He's happy just helping you shower. Then you turn on him and wash him. He already took a shower this morning, but shamelessly, he can’t turn you away. He’ll spoil right back…later. Now, he likes your attention. He relishes your touch, your stories about your trip, your new skincare finds, and most of all, your smiles. You’re so beautiful. So gentle when you condition his hair.

“There we go. Now both of us are clean.” You brush your nose against his. “Boop.”

He misses that. Your silliness. He’s not making it up when he says you complete him. It’s real. So real because you make him happy. You make him feel loved. That’s enough for Quinn. You’re enough.

Oh, he loves you so much.

When both of you are dry including your hair, you cuddle together on your bed, wearing matching sweatpants and sweatshirts. Both of your hands casually slide underneath your shirts, drawing circles on each other’s backs.

Quinn shares what he did during the week. He tells you about the white socks he mistakenly included with the colors which made it an ugly gray. About the media he’s done for the Canucks’ social media. About the potatoes he stupidly burned this morning because he was out of it. About the dinner with his teammates.

He tells you different things.

Simple things.

But you stare at him with sparks in your eyes. Your gentle voice resonates in his chest as you ask and share too.

It spurs him on to ramble.

On and on.

Until both of you are yawning and blinking slowly. Quinn swears he can hear your heartbeats seemingly in sync. Strong for one another. A little lullaby that pushes you two to slumber.

˚｡⋆ ❀ ˖ Bonus: Your POV ˖ ❀ ⋆｡˚

You stare at Quinn. His hands are all wrapped up around your middle. His legs are tangled with yours. His soft exhales tickle your face, but you let it. You want to tug on his long eyelashes. No, you are going to tug on them when he suddenly murmurs your name. It stops you from pestering him, but it doesn’t stop you from slipping your arms beneath his so you can hug him. He does the same, pulling you further into him. All while still sleeping.

He’s so pretty when he sleeps. So adorable. Pressing a ghost of a kiss on his nose, you continue to silently gaze at him. 

You two slept from yesterday’s afternoon through today’s morning. Quinn is still sleeping, but you’ve been awake for an hour. It’s a long sleep but not surprising. It happened many times before. Just the two of you sleeping through everything. Too comfortable in your private bubble.

Your heart tugs. You’re so comfortable with him. So deeply in love with Quinn.

His cuddles are something you always miss whenever he’s on the road. Even more when you were on your trip. When he cried yesterday… your heart squeezes. It hurts to see him cry—hurts to think about it.

Although, Quinn being so clingy makes you warm all over. It’s his need for you. Not his pain. Never his pain. It’s the way he kept touching you even when you were showering. The way he melts into your touch. You like that. You love that, because you also cling to him. So. Much.

You bought him chocolates and flowers because he deserves them too. Deserves to know your love. He’s always been working so hard.

The shower with him is great, but you can top that. Stealthily, you slip from his hold, replacing yourself with a nearby pillow and a stuffed toy—a bear with a small Canucks jersey and a number 43—for good measure.

Quinn likes baths. He always joins you, so to spoil your beloved, you start a bath. Vanilla sounds great today—

“You were gone,” his panicked voice made you jump more than his sudden touch.

It hadn’t been five minutes. “Just preparing us a bath, Quinn.”

“I wanna do that with you. I’ll do it with you.”

Quinn doesn’t really need to panic or be desperate. You’ll do whatever he wants. You guess your Quinn is still needy and hurt. Good thing, you’re here to make him feel better. You hold his hands tightly, nodding before kissing him. The small shudders that wreck his body thrum your soul.

Well then, you need to call for a day-off tomorrow.

For your Love who needs reassurance that you will be with him forever.

For your Quinn who desperately yearns for your touch.

Well, you also feel the same way, so it’s no big deal. Not at all. Never at all.

[hangup119]

when pigs fly ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 .ᐟ

you will only admit that you actually like kim leehan when pigs start to fly. for now, though, everyone else will just have to suffer the push-and-pull that happens whenever the two of you are near each other's vicinity.

or: your younger brother invites you to join his minecraft server, and chaos ensues.

pairing. gamer!kim leehan + fem!reader

genres + warnings. non-idol au, streamer au, gamer au, rivals to lovers(?), brother’s best friend(?) | profanity, sexual jokes, violent jokes, mentions of violence (only in game!!!! dw), not rly r2l more like u-piss-me-off-but-u-dgaf2lovers HAHA i do not know what i am doing..., y/n is hard to get!!! or is she... 😈

status. on-going | taglist. open | networks. @onedoornet

author’s note. this is completely inspired from the awesome @lionhanie’s bnd playing mc headcanons 🫡 plz show them some support bc this smau wouldn’t be here today if not for it 😿 ANYWAYS FIRST BND WORK LESGOO

reblogs appreciated!

main story ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 .ᐟ

crossover

profiles one | two

01 #needthat

02 woonagi OUT 🔥

03 female acquired 🙏😎

04 day 1

05 𝓲’𝓶 𝓰𝓸𝓷𝓷𝓪 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓶

06 your worst nightmare

07 he’s right behind me isn’t he

08 pretty privilege at its finest

09 ho is u falala ?

10 a christmas miracle

11 burn at the stake

12 negative 1 dollar

13 the birth of y/nhan

14 ur not even that hot 😂

15 this truly was a Friendship is magic

16 like in squid games 🦑🎮

. . . & more to come!

story by hangup119. do not steal.

[kheprriverse]

Depends on the game you want to play. Certain emulators can only play certain games because its made for those consoles (like ryujinx is for switch games, Dolphin for Gamcube/Wii, Desume for the DSs, etc).

Hey zelda friends do any of yall know good emulators for any of the zelda games?

[outtathisworld-imagines]

Backwards cap

——💥——💥——💥——💥——

Pairing: John Walker x F!Reader

Warning: smut 18+ MDNI, minor angst, fluff, swearing, wholesome John moment, not proofread

A.N: If there’s one thing I love more than an insufferable man, it’s an insufferable man in a backwards cap 🫡

Please let me know what else you guys would like! I do have a few other fics on the back-burner (for now!) that I'll start to post soon and just let me know if you'd liked to be tagged in further works too ✨

——💥——💥——💥——💥——

You weren’t quite sure who came up the plan of a ‘friendly’ game of American football by the park near the watchtower but one Sunday afternoon you all found yourselves there in sports gear getting placed into teams.

John somehow ended up allocating himself as a team captain because his direct words were. “I was one- Captain America.”

“More like cap-pain-in my ass-rica.” You retorted with folded arms, he tossed a glare in your direction between throwing the football casually up in the air wearing an old jersey top from his previous football team with a Bear on the back alongside his number, sweats and a baseball cap that said: ‘Women want me, fish fear me.’

He allocated everyone into teams- very original- boys versus girls. Bob insisted he would sit and cheer from the sidelines but you insisted he played, always looking out for the shy, timid man. “It’s okay, we won’t go after you, it’s that asshole we want to tackle the most.” You said, nodding to John who was forming a game plan off to the side.

Bob sighed “Wish I was on your team…”

You smiled, taking hold of his arms and shouting out “Bob is on our team!” John went to open his mouth to fight back but you got on there first. “Nope! No take-backs he is ours now, c’mon Bob.” You dragged him towards Ava and Yelena.

“Let’s just kick thier asses.” Yelena said in a ready to fight tone. “Wipe that stupid smirk of Walker’s face.” You glanced over your shoulder to the boys, surprised to see John already looking over at you with that said smirk on his face. You pondered for a moment, it wasn’t stupid, it was kinda cute and emphasised his sweet little dimples-

“Y/N?” Ava’s voice brought you out of your trance. “On board with that plan?”

“Uh yeah,” you nodded and then squeezed your eyes shut. “Wait-sorry. What plan?”

Bob snorted, catching you admiring John from afar. “Yeah this plan is perfect for you.” He clasped his hands together “You’ll tail Walker. Take him down however you can. Tackle. Taunt him. Flaunt him some skin,” he wiggled his eyebrows and your eyes went wide at his words. He groaned “Come on! Don’t tell me you didn’t put that sports bra under your hoodie for nothing if not for him?”

Yelena glanced between the two of you. “Wait…” pieces clicked in her head and she widely grinned. “You like Walker?” She said almost a little too loud and you covered her mouth with your hand.

“Shh! I do not!” You quietly hissed. “Don’t give him a bigger head than he already has. Plus, I do not like him!” You countered, feeling your palms suddenly getting clammy and a heat rising within you. The rest of your small but perfectly formed team looked at you unconvinced of your argues- especially after you reiterated twice. “Let’s just win this.” You grumbled.

“Let’s do this!” Alexei practically howled.

You all aligned in the centre of the field, a coin was tossed to make it fair who’d start off. Yelena nudged you towards John, you bent over and looked up to him, he did the same, the lid of his cap bumping against your forehead causing you to scrunch your face at the sudden contact. “Ow! That’s a foul!”

John groaned “We haven’t even started yet!” Your eyes widened as if to silently argue with him.

“Why do you even have that cap on? The first part is incorrect anyway…” you joked and Bob and Bucky loudly snorted.

“Sweat catcher. And it is correct.” He matter-of-factly stated.

You sent him a deadpanned expression “Gross.” You replied to both statements, the two of you now on the verge of bickering like children.

He rolled his eyes and flipped it backwards. “Happy now?”

You nodded tightly. You were more than happy at the sight before you. That simple manoeuvre of swapping his hat around sent your world into a frenzy. How his eyes caught the light that wasn’t being blocked, or how much you just wanted to grip onto it while looking into those eyes, how you wanted him in that backwards baseball cap and nothing else…

He practically oozed frat fuck boy energy.

Or just a frat boy you’d like to fuck.

You hadn’t quite decided.

The ball was tossed in between all of you by Bob, bringing you back into reality. The whole team grunted and groaned trying to capture it first. Bucky managed to get it and make the first touchdown for the team. The boys cheered, you all rolled your eyes at them.

The ball was thrown and you held your hands out to catch it, your eyes on the ball coming towards you. So hyper-focused you didn’t realise the super solider was coming towards you either. John had his back to you, his eyes on the ball as well. Your fingertips grasped into the ball just as John crashed against you and you both fell back with a grunt.

You made a winning point with the man still on top of you. “Ugh C’mon Walker! Seriously?” His chest was pressed against yours, both of you twisted together from the way he landed against you. “Move you clown!” His body remained in place but his red flushed face moved, now inches from yours. You could have sworn his eyes were locked to your lips.

John felt the burning heat from your breath dance across his face when you asked him to move- again. His body was on fire from the sudden contact with you, finding himself in a position with you that he had often fantasied about- just with less clothes. “You were in my way,” he spoke with a gruff, finally moving after what felt like years in the eyes of your team but not enough time for the two of you. He extended a hand almost begrudgingly to you and you swatted it away, standing up on your own.

“Ahh jeez!” You walked towards your team looking down at your hoodie now covered in grass stains.

“Would be a shame if it had to come off…” Yelena said in a sing-song voice. The game was nearing its end and you had to pull out the big guns you guessed. It was tight right up to the final point.

The ball was being tossed back and forth and just when the boys were taking the lead with it, you whipped off your hoodie and revealed the black sports bra underneath, suddenly feeling very exposed. All the boys heads whipped to you at the sudden exposure of skin, like flys to honey. John had the ball but was frozen on the spot, a soft ‘holy shit,’ escaped his lips under his breath at the sight of you. He didn’t even realised he licked them like he had been starved for years and you were going to be his first meal.

That gave Ava the chance to tackle him.

He fell to the ground with a breath escaping his lungs. Bob grabbed the football and sprinted to the line and tossed the ball down, winning the game for you and the girls. You all cheered while the boys groaned, John still lying on the ground in defeat.

The three of you all picked up Bob and carried him in the air with the football in his hand.

“You got too distracted!” Bucky complained standing over John who hadn’t budged.

“And you didn’t?! How can you not?!” John’s voice was strained as he sat up. “Look at her! She did that on purpose!” His hand was outstretched at you, not that you noticed. “Jesus fuck,” he uttered under his breath and placed his head in his hands. “I was a back-to-back state champion!” Bucky looked between you and John, he wasn’t swearing over the fact he lost and a knowing smile spreading over Bucky’s face.

“You like her.” John looked at him in disgust, his features softening when you laughed and he looked over to you. “You really fucking like her.”

“Shut up,” he lowly grumbled and joined the group still celebrating Bob.

You all gently placed him down. “You did great, buddy! Proud of you,” you gave him a hug before grabbing your hoodie and holding out to the still backwards cap wearing John who raised his brow at it. “Yanno, just incase you want to dry your tears on it.” He grabbed it with his eyes rolling to the back of his head. How you wished they were doing that under different circumstances.

How you wish he was rolling his eyes back like that in pleasure with him under you.

Or you under him.

That fucking backwards cap.

Your thoughts were cut off when your hoodie ended up over your head as he tossed it back at you. You were about to throw it back when Yelena spoke up. “Since we won thanks to Bob, he gets to choose dinner and our activity tonight!” The boys groaned at the thought, he knew he would pick something that would appease all the girls.

“Karaoke and pizza?” He suggested and the three of you shrieked in excitement.

—•—

Everyone was forced to watch you and Yelena singing most of the night from the sofa. John’s lips curved into a smile every so often when you laughed into the mic, the return noise creating a piercing noise in the room before being filled with your laughter, he also smiled when you attempted the higher pitched notes.

He thought about how he could get you to create those same noises under very different circumstances.

When everyone returned from the park his thoughts were of you. He pictured you in your shower as he was in his, imagining your hands running over every curve of your body and wishing it was his hands instead.

He closed his eyes and envisioned you back in the football field.

In that sports bra.

The way you perfectly you fit under him.

The way you were pressed against him.

He was so close the could have just leaned in and kissed you.

He found himself daydreaming about you more than ever, especially after the divorce. He felt a weight had lifted, like he didn’t have to feel guilty for thinking about you while he was still separating from his wife. He was free, but not without his problems.

John worried that you wouldn’t like that about him, that you wouldn’t even like him whatsoever. You both weren’t always on the best terms with things, there were tense moments, but others where you’d throw a casual flirtatious remark at him that would catch you both off guard. But John had hope in his heart, he did each time your eyes caught his.

“Let’s do something else before we all lose our voices, huh?” Bucky suggested, pulling his fingers from his ears after you both finished singing. “How about truth or dare?“

“Never have I ever!” Yelena yelled into the microphone.

“Why don’t we just do both?” You suggested. “We don’t have a bottle though?”

Alexei downed his beer and placed the glass down on its side. “You do now!”

You all sat in a circle, John directly opposite to you with Bob and Alexei either side of you. Bob spun first and it landed on Ava who picked truth. You barely heard what was being said, you were completely entranced by John who was sadly not wearing the baseball cap backwards but a tight fitting navy top that hugged all the right spots with another pair of sweats along with mismatched socks.

Bob was never the best with socks.

Ava then asked Alexei a question, wanting the truth behind a scandal he was rumoured to be involved in back in Moscow. He smirked and replied “I can nether confirm nor deny.”

You sighed “That’s not how- you gotta tell the truth man.”

“That is!” He argued and you all rolled your eyes, eventually accepting that answer and the fact he had no idea how the game worked.

He did know how dares worked and after a few drinks and lots of laughs at many ‘never have I ever’s’ and truths, you dared Alexei to call Val and ask for more publicity. He did do just that thinking it was more of an ideal opportunity and not a dare.

The tears flowed down your cheeks when she picked up the phone, Alexei said his name and she immediately hung up again.

Bucky then spun the bottle and it landed on John.

“Dare!” He said feeling brave.

Bucky smirked, sitting back a little and embracing a matchmaker role.

“Okay, I dare you to kiss Y/N.”

You and John instantly looked at each other, the room felt thick with tension for the pair of you but the others childishly giggled at the request.

“What? C’mon Bucky,” he groaned, trying to act tough and cool in front of everyone. “I’ll jump from the roof or something else, anything else.”

“You’d rather jump from the roof than kiss Y/N?” Yelena asked, taking a swig of beer. “Or do anything else than kiss her, Walker?”

“No- no! It’s not that-“ he looked to you again, a look he hadn’t quite seen upon your face before. “It’s not that…” he quietly said like he was speaking to only you.

“Then are you kissing her or forfeiting?” Bucky pressed. “The forfeit is a lap dance,” he laughed with a serious look. ‘Kiss it is,’ John thought, the Dutch courage not quite there yet for something as bold as a lap dance. He uttered out a ‘fine’, short and sharply before crawling over the space that separated both and pressing an even more short and sharp peck to your cheek. “That’s not what I meant…” Bucky said aloud.

“Well you didn’t specify where.” John stated factually and Bucky quietly cursed himself knowing John found a loophole in his plan.

You sat frozen in place, your cheek burning. That single swift motion igniting your world and setting you ablaze.

You didn’t even hear the bottle being spun again, the soft clamouring of glass against the floor and then coming to a stop in front of you. You looked up to John.

“Truth.” You asked.

Unsure if that was the right choice, but also doubting if any of them would be the right one.

“Did you like that? Was that okay?” He asked quick, almost desperately, as if it was a question pressing against his chest that wasn’t allowing him to breathe.

The team groaned, you smiled, whether he tried to soften a truth admission from you purposefully or not, you were thankful it was that question.

“Yes…and yes.” You answered both and he couldn’t even mask the grin appearing on his face.

“That question sucked, Walker.” Everyone vocalised, even Alexei droned the same chide.

You smirked shaking your head, shooting John a quick look, he was toying with the lip of his beer bottle almost nervously. “Okay, my turn to spin.” You quickly moved on.

After a few more turns, Bucky spun the bottle and it landed on Bob.

“Truth, dare or never have I ever, Robert?” He asked him in a far too formal tone.

He pondered, too long to be actually considering a choice, especially since he had this one brewing along with Bucky who had Bob as a wingman on his side, he sent him a thankful nod in advance for him essentially completing the job that wasn’t quite executed as intended earlier in the night. The two boys willingly forcing themselves into your love lives. “Dare.”

“I dare John to kiss Y/N on the lips for me.”

John was taking a sip of his beer at the time and choked on it slightly, spilling drops on his top. “Dude!” He yelped “That’s not even a dare for Bob!”

“I accept that dare,” Bob added, you nudged his side and sent him a glare between your lashes at their reckless attempt at matchmaking.

John groaned “We need to set more rules, what if we all did that every time? It would turn into chaos-” he rambled on. He rambled on so much you sprung forward and shut him up with a quick peck on the lips, much quicker and much lighter than the kiss he gave you earlier. His lips sealed shut at the sudden contact that left his body almost levitating.

“There, ya happy?” You sat down.

The two boys groaned “NO!” Everyone yelled in unison and you and John went wide eyed, not realising this was a group effort to get you both together. Or at least attempt to.

“Not like that! Longer!” Bucky’s hands tensed as he shook them in rage.

“Well,” you smirked “You didn’t specify how long.” Using a line from John’s book that sent a proud wave through this body.

“This is why you two are perfect for each other.” You weren’t sure if Ava intended to be as loud as she did with her half attempt at a mumble. You and John looked at each other, the space between you suddenly feeling a lot smaller. “Next round!”

You stood up, everyone looking up to you at your sudden movement. “I just need to grab some water first,” you said walking away.

Eyes fell to John before they all looked at Bob who knew would be the best bet at talking with you. “I’ll check on her,” he slowly stood and followed you to the kitchen.

You heard his footsteps first “I’ll be back in a minute,” you said taking a large gulp of water, the buzz from the alcohol wore off the second your lips touched his.

“That’s okay, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. And say sorry, we didn’t mean to upset you.”

You nodded with a tight lipped smile before the broken words “I can’t,” slipped from your mouth.

“Can’t what?” He asked.

“Kiss him for longer because if I do then I won’t be able to stop.” You pathetically admitted to your dearest friend, more like a little, occasionally troublesome, brother. He came closer to you and embraced you in a hug before pulling back. “Then he goes and wears that fucking baseball cap backwards…” you quietly uttered under your breath thinking Bob would hear you.

But he did.

“Let’s get back, we won’t push you guys any further.” You linked arms with him and returned to the group, only to hear them all arguing.

“That was not a real kiss. A real kiss! Take her breath away dammit!” Alexei boomed.

“Just tell her already, Walker! Or show her…” Yelena’s lips loosened with every drink she took.

“Don’t you think I’m trying to!” He yelled as if he wanted the world to know. “Jesus, do you know how hard it is to get a minute with her? How much I wanna tell her I’ve thought about her every second of every day since I fucking met her?” John was turning red from rage and embarrassment, spilling his guts to his dysfunctional family, everything suddenly crescendoing and then turning into deathly silence when you walked back into the room, hearing it all.

Everyone’s eyes went wide, John stood up.

“How much did you hear?” Ava asked.

“Everything…” you whispered looking at John. “I…I’m gonna head to bed.” You vanished from the room.

John groaned placing his head in his hands “Great going guys…lost my shot before I even had the chance to shoot it.” He stormed off and the team felt guilt resting in their shoulders.

Bob decided to take action.

He left it for thirty minutes, letting some of the tension simmer down before he knocked on a door that opened to a sullen face. “Hey, Walker.”

“Haven’t you guys stirred the pot enough?” He grumpily asked. Bob looked at him with a sad expression, one that no one could deny letting in, he sighed and stepped to the side, a silent invitation in. “What do you want?”

“I just wanted to tell you that she likes you too, because she won’t. Y/N gets nervous around you, she has done for the longest time. She stays up all night worrying about you when you’re out on the field. She even painted her nails your favourite colour for your birthday, but you didn’t notice because you were out all day. And why do you think she wore a sports bra today? Because she remembered you saying you thought they were hot- which is, by the way, not cool to sexualise women like that.” He chided and John’s face flushed. “But she does really, really like you.”

He remained silent for a moment, absorbing all the information he was spilling. “How do you know?”

“Because she actually took the time to let me open up, I returned the favour. She’s the greatest friend I’ve ever had, Walker. I just want to see her finally happy.” He admitted. “So make her happy. And if you don’t we will all make you suffer a long drawn out death.” He darkly stated and John believed that they all would. “Get your girl, Walker.”

John lunged towards Bob, engulfing him in a hug and spun him on the spot. “Bobby! Thank you!” He spontaneously pressed a kiss to his forehead and Bob blinked in surprise. He was about to run off when Bob called out to him.

“Wait! Take the cap and wear it backwards!” He looked at Bob full of confusion. “Trust me.”

—•—

You didn’t even bother moving from your bed when you heard a knock on the door, blissfully assuming it was Bob. Your back was to the door when you called out to come in. “Bob, whatever you’re gonna say…” you sighed “Actually I don’t even know what you can say. I don’t even know what to say! How can I tell John that every single word he said is also how I feel?” You continued to ramble from your spot as you felt the bed dip as he sat, his frame cashing a slight shadow in the dim light. “Shit, how did I let it do this far without telling him?”

“I let it go just as far.”

Your body froze. The air around you suddenly crushing you against the bed. You knew that voice and you knew it wasn’t Bob. Your body slowly started to turn, almost against its will to face the super solider. You lowly gasped seeing him sporting his cap backwards again. Then mentally cursing yourself. “God, why are you wearing the cap like that?” You sat up a little, your back now against the headboard.

John shrugged, hunched forward slightly “Bob suggested it? I don’t know why-“ he looked over his shoulder to you, your eyes wide. “Oh-oh!” He lowly chuckled as he clicked on. “You like a little backwards cap action…”

“Shut up,” you mumbled and hit him with a pillow. He held it against his chest, how you wished you were that pillow. “So what else did Bob tell you?”

“Enough to know.” He admitted. “Enough to know that my own feelings towards you are matched.” He leaned back, your faces parallel. “I really am sorry, I should have said something sooner. Instead I just drool over you and I’m grounded from seeing you in a sports bra.” You bit down on your lip, smiling at his words. His eyes fell to the space between you and him, the two of you wishing there wasn’t one. “Truth or dare.” His voice was quiet, his eyes looked up into yours.

“Suppose since I did truth last time I’ll have to pick dare…” you spoke as lowly as he did, giddy smiles plastered over both your faces.

John mock thought, bringing his fingertips to his lips and tapping them against his skin. “Hmm…I dare you to…” moved closer, breath fanning over your face. “To kiss me for as long as you want.”

“Is forever acceptable…?” You asked.

John smirked. “It is.” Your lips met somewhere in the middle. Instantaneously melting into each other, months of waiting for this moment finally arrived for the both of you, sparks rushing through the two of you at the sensation. John wrapped an arm around you and pulled you onto his lap, you let out a squeak at the sudden move and smiled against his skin as he deepened the kiss.

Your hands wrapped around his broad shoulders as his fingertips dug into your hips causing you to involuntary grind against his. He moaned into the kiss at the move, every dream he had of you now suddenly coming true. You did it again with pure intent and got an even louder reaction. “Fuck, you’re gonna kill me off already.” He moaned against your lips as his hands started to roam under your top.

“So dramatic,” you mumbled with a teasing smile and pulled back a little, his eyes had darkened and his lips were a soft pink and slightly swollen from kissing.

John smirked, his hands coming to rest on your lower back. “Well, I have to get you back for earlier, because two can play at that game…” he gently sat you back a little and took his top off. Your lips parted and he had a smug grin on his face. “Yanno, I can’t count the many, many times you stared at me walking around shirtless in this building...even though I might have done it just to get your attention.” You rolled your eyes, letting your fingers dance across his bare chest before coming up and tracing over his lips. “Wanna show you how much I’ve thought about you, how much I care, Y/N.” He pecked your fingertips, using his to tug at the ends of your top as a silent plea to remove it, you pulled back just a little and quickly removed it, John practically howling at the sight of your bare chest. “Fuck, so fucking beautiful,” he cupped your breasts with his rough large hands, “Such perfect tits,” his lips against yours yet again.

“John…” you moaned into his mouth as he toyed with your nipples between your fingertips and then replacing those with open mouthed kisses, tracing his tongue over your hardened nipples. You pressed your hips against his again, the prominent bulge making itself known underneath you and against your clothed core. “Please show me. I’ve waited for so long, I can’t any longer.”

John moaned against your chest “Of course, baby. But I hope you know that the many next times it’s gonna be so much longer. Wanna savour all of you, always.” You stood from his lap and removed your pyjama bottoms in one swift move and his jaw dropped at the sight. “Holy shit. Did I win the jackpot?” He giddily said and your head dropped bashfully as you swatted away his comments.

John stood up too and removed his sweats you blinked and let out a breathless ‘wow’ under your breath at the sheer size of his cock, standing to attention just for you. He was about to take his cap off when you held out your hand. “No, no, no,” you wrapped your arms around him “Keep it on.” You both childishly and bashfully giggled at the request, feeling like a pair of teenagers. He picked you up, your legs wrapped around your waist as he felt your hot core against the lower half of his stomach, kissing you until he reached the end of the bed. You remained on his lap, his cock already twitching against your clit, both moaning at the sensation.

“I should get a-“ he was about to move when you stopped him.

“It’s okay, John, I’m on birth control.” He almost came at the thought of getting to cum in you. His swears dancing over your skin as he lifted you ever so slightly and sunk you down on his cock. The two of you let out a shuddering breath at the sensation of his cock stretching you out, John embracing your tight pussy around him. “God!” You groaned as you started bouncing, John’s arms keeping you as close as he could to him as you fucked him. You gripped onto his cap so tight your knuckles started cramping but the ache was being replaced by pleasure.

“Oh, shit, fuck, so good, so, so fucking good, baby!” John moaned against your collarbone, his teeth sinking into your skin and causing you to yelp in delight. “Just like that, yes!” His head fell back and you caught his lips with yours again. He could feel you gripping onto him tighter as you reached your climax “Please, god, cum on my cock, I need you to cum on my cock.” He begged which sent you over the edge, your body practically convulsing as you came with John shortly after. He sunk his fingers into your hips as if to keep you in place as he filled you up.

The two of you remained in the same spot, desperately catching your breaths. You smiled as you buried your head into the crook of his neck, placing kisses along his racing pulse line. “Well,” you blissfully sighed “Your cap is right because this woman wants you.” He let out a tired laugh and hugged you tightly.

“I’m all yours and only yours.” He pressed a lingering kiss to your lips. “Let’s get cleaned up, get you some sleep.” He pecked your cheek and slowly removed you from around him with a groan.

You lazily kissed each other while cleaning up, John gave you his navy top to sleep in, almost cumming again at how it perfectly stretched tightly over your chest. You fell back into bed with John by your side. “So…the feeling is mutual then?” You joked and he softly chuckled. He took off his cap and placed it on your bed-frame like it was a trophy case as you fell into a peaceful sleep with your limbs intertwined.

—•—

“You want pancakes? I’ll make you pancakes,” John sleepily kissed you the next morning in the kitchen. “I’ll make you anything you want.” The two of you were the only ones up, you were still wearing his top with your pyjama bottoms leaving him shirtless with his sweats on.

He let you sport his cap, claiming you looked better in it than he did. Backwards of course.

“Sure! Pancakes sound great.” You grabbed him what he might need, he pulled you back from behind into his arms, leaving a trail of kisses up your neck. “J-John!” You giggled “C’mon, let’s make these before they all wake up.” He kept kissing you and you lost your footing, causing you both to land on the floor, almost recreating what happened at football.

You kissed him before sitting up, your thighs either side of his stomach. “Good morning indeed…” he said in a sultry tone while letting his hands roam over your sides.

You barely heard the team walk in you were so enamoured with him.

“Walker, that hat! Jeez, you’re obsessed with that thing.” Bucky walked in shaking his head, not quite seeing that it was you wearing it.

You peered your head up and they all stopped raising a questionable brow. “Morning!” You squeaked and got off John who quickly stood up.

“I’m making pancakes. We weren’t doing anything else.” He said as if he was trying to convince those who couldn’t be convinced from the scene they walked into.

Bob smirked, giving himself a pat on the back for his wingman duties. “Nice cap, Y/N.”

[lavender-vixen]

What would Henry do if he found out his crush was one of the losers’ older sister? Let’s go with Eddie’s older sister. ALSO I love your most recent story, please do more! 🫡

"You’re a Kaspbrak?" (Henry Bowers x Eddie’s Older Sister!Reader)

Henry didn’t believe it at first. He heard the name. Kaspbrak. He felt it in his mouth, muttered it under his breath, let it sit on his tongue like something rotten, something wrong. It didn’t fit you. Didn’t fit the way you stood, weight shifted to one hip, all confidence and sharp smiles and that way you looked at him. Like you weren’t afraid of him. Like you weren’t supposed to be afraid of him. Now it was clear as day.

Now he was staring at you in the dim light behind the school, cigarette burning down between his fingers, heart hammering like a drum. And he felt sick.

"You’re a fucking Kaspbrak?"

You just blinked. Like it wasn’t a big deal. Like this wasn’t the most humiliating thing that had ever happened to him. "Uh. Yeah?"

Henry let out a sharp laugh. Shook his head. His stomach churned. His jaw clenched. Because this wasn’t just some random girl. This wasn’t just some pretty thing he could fuck around with, mess with, toss away when he got bored.

This was Eddie fucking Kaspbrak’s sister. That pathetic, whiny little freak. That useless, pathetic waste of space. Now Henry wanted to put his hands on you? Now he wanted to kiss you, touch you, maybe even keep you? Now he wanted to let you get away with shit no one else could?

No. Fuck no. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t. Then Henry was a joke. And Henry Bowers was nobody’s joke.

Days passed. He avoided you. Tried to. Didn’t work. Because you were always there. Like you were daring him. Like you were waiting for him to make a move.

When you finally cornered him behind the bleachers, hands on your hips, eyes narrowed, lips pursed. "Take it easy on my little brother."

The words hit him like a train. Henry scoffed. Flicked his cigarette. "What, you got some kinda death wish? You think you can just ask me that?"

You didn’t waver. Didn’t blink. "I know I can."

Henry hated that. Hated that you weren’t scared. Hated that you had the guts to tell him what to do. Hated that he didn’t want to shove you off him, tell you to fuck off, end this right now.

Instead, he found himself gritting his teeth, exhaling slow, muttering—"Yeah. Fine. Whatever."

And then he stormed off before you could see just how much he hated himself for saying it.

His boys didn’t buy it. Patrick was the first to speak.

"That was bullshit, right?"

Henry didn’t answer.

Patrick smirked. "C’mon, Bowers. You’re really gonna go soft ‘cause some girl with nice tits told you to?"

Henry shoved him. Hard. Patrick laughed, but he shut up. Because Henry was dead serious.

But he wasn’t soft with you. Not in the way they thought. Not in the way he thought, either. Because yeah, maybe he quit smoking around you, because you told him it made you sick. And yeah, maybe he didn’t go out of his way to trip Kaspbrak in the halls anymore.

And yeah, maybe he let you sit in his car, let you talk about whatever you wanted, let you take up space in his head. But he didn’t take you home. He didn’t let you see Butch. Didn’t let Butch see you.

Not even when Butch asked. "Where you been sneaking off to, boy?"

Henry just shrugged, didn’t answer, didn’t even look up from the dinner table. Butch didn’t like that. Didn’t like it when Henry kept things from him. Didn’t like it when Henry had things of his own. But Henry wasn’t giving this up. Not for him. Not for anyone.

Henry laughed anyway. If he didn’t, he might actually have to deal with the fact that you meant something to him. And that was a nightmare.

And if Henry was going down for it, then he was taking you with him.

Eddie knew. He had known for weeks now. Had known since he saw you climb into Henry’s car, since he saw the way Bowers looked at you, since he heard Patrick Hockstetter crack some disgusting joke in the school parking lot.

Had known and had been praying—praying—that it wasn’t true. Tonight, Eddie had finally had enough. So when you slipped back into the house late, sneakers barely making a sound on the carpet, thinking everyone was asleep—Eddie was already waiting.

Sitting in the dark, hands clenched into fists, voice shaking as he spat—"How the fuck could you do this to me?"

"Eddie—"

"Don’t."

His voice was sharp, angry, unlike anything you’d ever heard from him before. He was breathing fast, his little chest rising and falling too quick, like he was about to have a panic attack.

"Do you even know what you’re doing? Do you even know what kind of person he is?"

You sighed, ran a hand through your hair, tried to keep calm. "Yeah, Eddie. I do."

That was the wrong thing to say. Suddenly, Eddie was on his feet, shaking, screaming at you—"Then you’re just as fucking crazy as he is!"

Henry could see it from a mile away. Could see Eddie losing his shit, could see the way you looked shaken, could see the way you hesitated before walking into school the next morning.

Henry didn’t like that. Didn’t like Eddie talking to you like that, didn’t like you coming to school with that look on your face, like maybe you were thinking about ending this, like maybe you were thinking about leaving.

So when Eddie Kaspbrak walked past him in the hall that day, eyes burning with pure rage—Henry grabbed him. Hard.

Shoved him up against the lockers, held him there, leaned in close. "You don’t tell her what to do, Kaspbrak."

Eddie gritted his teeth, his tiny hands balling into fists at his sides. "You don’t fucking deserve her."

Henry just laughed. "Yeah? Well, I got her anyway, so what the fuck does that say about you?"

And when Eddie tried to swing, tried to throw a punch that barely even grazed his jaw, Henry just grabbed his wrist, squeezed way too hard, grinning as Eddie yelped in pain.

"Try that again, little man, and I swear to God—"

"Henry!" Your voice cut through the hallway, sharp, panicked, furious.

Henry let go. Only because you were there. Only because he didn’t want to scare you off. Not yet. Not when he was this close to having you for real.

That was the same week his father found out. Henry knew it would happen eventually. It was so much worse than he expected. It happened in the worst way.

Henry didn’t think his old man knew shit. But he did. And that made Henry furious.

It happened in the living room, same as always. Butch sitting in his recliner, smoking, bottle of whiskey half-empty on the table, the static drone of the TV filling the silence. Henry had barely gotten through the front door when Butch spoke.

"I know about the girl."

Henry froze. Fingers curling into fists at his sides. "What?"

Butch took a long drag from his cigarette. Didn’t even look up. "The Kaspbrak girl. The one you been sneakin’ around with. Don’t be stupid, boy."

Henry snorted. "Right. Thanks for the advice, Dad."

Butch kept going. "Don’t you dare get her pregnant. You hear me?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever—"

"No. Not whatever." Butch finally looked up, eyes dark, dangerous. "You knock her up, you’re out of my house. Done. You figure your own shit out. I ain’t dealin’ with it."

Henry felt something snap. "Like I’d give a fuck."

Butch exhaled slow. Then he stood up. And before Henry could blink, before he could mouth off again—Butch grabbed him by the shirt. Shoved him hard, back slamming against the kitchen wall. Not enough to really hurt. But enough to make a point. Enough to remind him who was in charge.

Henry saw red. So he did what he always did. He fought back.

The fight was short, ugly, pointless. Henry threw a punch. Butch blocked it, shoved him again, barked something about ‘respect.’ Henry spat on the floor. Then he grabbed his keys and left.

Didn’t look back. Didn’t care. He just got in his car. And drove. Because there was only one place he wanted to be right now.

It was late. Your house was quiet, lights off, everyone sleeping. Henry parked on the street. Sat there for a minute, breathing hard, gripping the steering wheel. Then he climbed out. And up.

Your balcony wasn’t hard to reach. He’d done it before. And when he knocked—sharp, impatient, needing—You were already awake. Already at the window, looking at him with wide, confused eyes.

"Henry?"

"Come with me."

Your stomach tightened. "Where?"

"Just come." His voice was low, rough. Begging, but in that Henry Bowers kind of way.

You didn’t ask questions. Didn’t argue. Just grabbed your jacket. And followed him.

The car ride was silent. Tense. Henry drove too fast, too reckless, hands gripping the wheel like he wanted to strangle something. You watched him. Waited. Didn’t push.

And when he finally pulled up to the quarry, killed the engine, just sat there—breathing hard, staring out at nothing—You knew. Something had happened. Something bad. And you knew exactly how to get his mind off it.

It started fast. Fingers gripping. Mouths crashing. Teeth, tongue, heat.

You barely got the words "Henry, are you okay?" out before he was pulling you into his lap, hands sliding under your shirt, voice all low and rough and desperate.

"Just shut up, baby."

So you did. You shut up. And let him take. Because that’s what he needed. That’s what you both needed. And in the backseat of Henry’s car, windows fogged, bodies tangled, breathless and wanting, nothing else mattered.

Not Eddie. Not Butch. Not this town. Just this. Just him. Just you.

After, it was quiet. Not awkward. Just quiet. You curled up against him, head on his chest, his arm slung lazily over you, the smell of sweat and cigarette smoke thick in the air.

Henry was distant. Eyes staring out the window, lost in something else. You traced slow circles on his skin. Watched him.

"You okay?"

It took him a second. Then he exhaled. Long. Slow. Ran a hand through his hair. "I just can’t wait to get the hell out of Derry."

His voice was flat, tired. But then he glanced down at you. And smirked. "With you."

Your heart skipped. You realized he meant it. Henry meant it. That scared you more than anything. Henry Bowers didn’t make promises. Now he was making one.

And if he meant it, then you were in way too deep.

[yaekiss]

start with stealing (kisses) from mydei while on the (grocery) run

꩜ Room Content: GN! Reader x Mydei, established relationship, SFW, lmk if I missed out anything! ꩜ A/N: AYE AYE CAPTAIN 🫡 ꩜ Spin this wheel and submit a prompt + character for a quick blurb!

Strolling through the market with Mydei never proves to be boring. There are always new wares to see, familiar merchants to catch up with, and your ever-patient lover by your side.

Today, the weather permits for a longer grocery run, with the occasional light summer breeze refreshing you as the both of you drift from stall to stall. Mydei takes his shopping (ahem, the procuring of adequate nourishment) very seriously, sparing no effort in only purchasing the best for the two of you.

But seriously. How much longer is he going to take to buy a pitcher of goat milk.

Your sweet Mydei has been talking to the stall owner for several minutes, discussing about the source of the goat milk, where the goats was raised, what to drink it with... what the goats' names were??? Honestly, you know all too well that Mydei is just going to end up pairing the goat milk with his usual pomegranate juice and cheese again anyway. This was taking slightly too long. (And not to mention how long the grocery list still was. If you want to have any hope of getting everything before they sell out, the two of you are going to have to move on right now.)

Sighing lightly, you shift forward, closer to Mydei. Tapping him on the arm, you ask him, "Hey, what do you think of getting this here?"

"What item?" Distracted by his conversation, he doesn't catch you leaning forward as he tries to look at what you mentioned.

"...!" Mydei's eyes widen when you press your lips to his for the briefest kiss, your tongue swiping mischievously against his lower lips before you pull backwards, breaking away from him. You drink in his stunned reaction, blush high on his cheeks, as if he were some scandalised maiden.

Sauntering off to the next stall, you leave your poor lover behind as he tries to recover his wits. "I...I'll just take a pitcher full of your best goat milk," you hear him say, as he hurriedly finishes his purchase to chase after you.

Maybe you'll have to motivate him with more kisses to maximise your grocery run efficiency!

Extra silly nonsense :3

"Ah... to be young and in love again," the stall owner remarks as they watch the crown prince scamper off after their lover. If they squint, they could almostttt see a tail wagging behind Mydei...

Thanks for reading! Consider supporting me on kofi if you enjoyed this or check out my other works hehe ♡

If you'd like to request a full fic of your own, do consider checking out my event post!

[that-smallinjured-bowylamb]

Hello, nice person!

I’d like to ask for headcanons for Riddle, Deuce, Jade, Vil, Epel, Lilia, and Silver wherein they lose a bet with their lovely significant other and have to wear a maid’s dress that their S/O picks out for a week as payment for losing. If that’s too many characters for you to write or it’s too overwhelming, just Riddle, Deuce, Lilia, and Silver would be fine!

No pressure to answer this ask, take your time if you decide to write or feel free to ignore it! I just thought there’s no harm in asking!

Signed, 🫡🍞 (Soldier Loaf)

A/n: Hiii! Sorry if delayed! But ofc I'd love to put headcanons, Soldier Loaf !!! Lol, I was busy with my drawings, but I hope you enjoyed it! Oopsie, Loaf did you read my rules b4 asking?? Wheteves, I broke one of my own rules anyway 😔... 5 is the limit! I'll do the other ones in the next post (if I can)

💋🪽The winner takes it all, The loser gives it all💋🪽

Gender neutral, use of 'you'.

Characters: Riddle Rosehearts, Deuce Spade, Jade Leech, Lilia Vanrouge, Silver Vanrouge

Upcoming characters: Vil Scheonheit, Epel Felmier.

Genre: Romantic, fluff, relationship?? (Oops! I think you forgot to read the rules... it's okay! Riddle doesn't mind !! he'll let this slide :>)

Summary: He lost the bet, now he has to wear that maid dress you picked out for him. For a week straight. Oh dear.

Warning ⚠️: Grammer, OOC(?), my rules broke b4 I noticed it, not much to be warned abt except the use of 'you', Jade might be a little weird, slight cussy (my fav part of the day), it might be short, goodness there are a lot of unanswered asks in my inbox !!!

Riddle Rosehearts

Okay so maybe he shouldn't have accepted it, but he did anyways, I mean, your his s/o, of course, he'd accept your request. So when he lost? Never had he ever felt so much embarrassment. And the fact he had to wear a maid dress for a week.

Dear rose, he loves you, he really does. But what in the great queen of hearts are you making him out of this? What is the purpose, rose...

Please don't look at his face, he's clearly normal. No, he's not red, please stop teasing him already. If he hears his dormmates laughing? OFF WITH YOUR HEADS!

The view could only be for you, no one else. It'd be embarrassing. But hey, at least he looks adorable in one! It's those long skirt maid outfits, nothing too sexual. It's cute.

Yes, he does the thing. The heart thingy idk what to call it omg. BUT HE LOOKS SO HUGGABLE WITH HIS POUTT AKSJSJDJD

WISJDJJDNSKSJDNSNKWNDKDKSJBDCKJSNDKDJDJ-

Deuce Spade

Okay, so what he didn't expect was you to come by, ask him if he could play a game with you, it was a challenge, but he didn't knew. So, when you explained the rules, he was fueled to play. But the fact you were better than him in that game? Baffling. The fact he also had to wear a maid dress for a week was mad embarrassing. Are you and Ace trying to humiliate him behind the scenes???

The whole week he had to wear a maid dress to school, my bro looked less intimidating with the scowl. Oh, but the outfit was meant for you so dw, your lucky he loves you.

....Just don't expect him to wear that ever.

OMS NO HES NOT GOING TO SERVE YOU-

Jade Leech

Oya. You're quite brave, nagging him to play a silly game of yours. But, as you wish, dear~

As you explained the rules and how it works (buy let's say you were vague on some parts) I'm not sure how you fucking manage to make THE JADE LEECH LOSE but, whatever method works. So when he lost, he sighed. (<-he lost on purpose but he don't know what's coming)

Then you told him to wear a maid dress for a week. Aren't you brave? The fact your asking your boyfriend, no, a literal LEECH, to wear a maid dress?

Fuck yeah he's doing it, I mean he's a butler so why not switch the roles a little bit? So here he is, wearing a silly maid outfit he wasn't meant to wear (but have you seen those fanarts of him wearing it? Damn, he might be better than me) and yes, he is, at your service. Order him however you'd like.

And then he gets cuddles. Bc why not, love, love, soft Jade. (<-I will wait for the day someone tags me in a soft Jade fic lmao/hj)

Oh, but don't think you're off the hook, [Name]. It'll be his turn to win next time you ask. Fufufu~

Lilia Vanrouge (hi Hana 🩷)

Just know he might've been the one that asked you to play a challenge with him ngl. Knowing this guy is known for mischief, why not he play a little game with his precious bat, hmm?~ ♡

So when you agreed to play the game with him, he's excited, for very obvious reasons. Placing down the rules, getting prepared, and strategizing on how to win, you've managed somehow.

Anddd, after maybe 4-6 rounds non-stop (<-at the game) he... lost? Well, isn't this surprising? I wonder what you'll make him do!

In comes your devious plan to make him wear a maid outfit for a week. Well, what a peculiar challenge, but if that's what his precious bat wants, then he'll do it! All for you!~

So he comes to school the next day wearing a maid outfit, everyone is glancing at him, some mistaking him for a girl and tries to flirt with him, but no, he goes: "Ah, my apologies, but this is only reserved for my lovely s/o!~ So sorry, but, I am taken, by yours truly!" *Skips away with the truffle layers just bouncing* I swear his maid outfit is soo adorable I can't-

He shows up to your classroom all dressed in the outfit and was like, "Look! Look! Don't I look adorable???" Yes, you are Lils. No need to barge in during exams 🎀

But, nonetheless he just floats over you with the cute outfit (did I mentioned if the maid outfit had ribbons on the skirt?)

Yeah, that week wasn't him getting flustered, it was you. 🫶

Silver Vanrouge

So he fairly lost because he either didn't focus or just almost dozed off and was too late to do it the last second. He sighs and embraces for the dare that might embarrass him.

An smirking Lilia, dumbfounded Sebek, and astonished Malleus was all looking at Silver.

Wearing a maid outfit.

"...HUMAN! WHAT IS THIS!? WHY ARE YOU WEARING A MAID OUTFIT?? DO YOU KNOW HOW EMBARRASSING IT'LL BE FOR WAKA-" "Phahahhahahaha! Oh, dear Silver- *Wheeze*" "...How peculiar..." the three of them were laughing on the inside [<-except his father- Lilia, though] man, why must you do this to him?

He sleeps around campus the whole week he wore the outfit, it was embarrassing sure, but he's glad you were smiling at your own antics. You're lovely, and he'll let you do anything as long as you aren't hurt or sad by it.

He wonders if this is worth it, though. Oh well, it is. You smiled at it, he smiled at you. That's all that matters. Now, he'll just dream about his and your future together. Even in this outfit...

The End.

Enjoy this pic of Rook with hangers that he's using for practice. Idk what this guy is on.