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moonlightspencie · 2 years ago

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Devils Roll the Dice…

Description: A new recruit to the BAU catches Reid’s eye. Unfortunately for the both of them, she has a past with someone very close to him. Are they willing to keep secrets just to keep one another? (TWO-PART MINISERIES)

Pairing: Spencer Reid x fem!Reader

Warnings: alcohol consumption, sexual references/content (i’ll accept 16+ because its definitely not more than pg-13 material but writing anything sexy makes me feel weird if i know teenagers are reading it)

Word Count: 4k

I took a deep breath, looking in the mirror. I knew we were meeting the new recruit today, and just the thought of it exhausted me. Not that I didn’t like meeting new people. I just hated the break in routine.

We had a concrete team. Kate had already joined. We didn’t need anyone else coming in and messing up a very new rhythm we’d found with each other.

I finished tying my tie, pressing it down, and preemptively steeling myself against the new person. Probably some guy who didn’t know the difference between a tyrannical and enforcing sadist. Half of the students I’d met in recent guest lectures only wanted to go into the field because they’d listened too many crime podcasts anyways.

I walked into the bullpen, taking my seat as usual, ready to turn that cold shoulder at the first misstep of whoever this mystery recruit was. Unfortunately, I felt anything but cold when Hotch called our attention to the figure standing in his office doorway. He stood partially in front of her before he allowed her to stand right next to him as he introduced us. My eyes locked onto her at an embarrassing rate, and I felt far more embarrassed when she caught me and flashed a smirk.

She was anything but shy as a newbie, and for some reason that thrilled me. She wasn’t afraid to get into conversation with the team immediately as she unpacked her things at her new desk. She wasn’t afraid to tell Garcia everything she wanted to know. Much to my surprise, she wasn’t afraid to send me the cutest smiles every time she caught my eyes on her.

“Hey,” she said, walking up to me as I stood in the kitchenette.

Truthfully, I needed the time alone because of her. I couldn’t stop looking at her, and it was becoming a problem considering I was supposed to be doing work. She was just so… Different. She was sweet and funny and so attractive it made my mouth dry up.

“Hi,” I said after a moment. “Coffee?”

She nodded, holding out her mug. I filled it up from the pot in my hands after I topped off my own. She blew on it, looking up at me with big eyes. I watched her, not realizing how long it had been until she broke eye contact, a smile settling onto her face.

“You’re gonna keep watching me blow on my coffee?”

I opened my mouth to say something, but fell quiet when she smiled again. She moved the mug from her face.

“Got any advice for me with the BAU?”

I swallowed. “Uh, you came from Intelligence, right?”

She nodded, brows raised. “Yeah. How’d you know?”

“I was listening earlier. You said it to JJ.”

“Alright, so I know one fact about you other than the eidetic memory,” she said with a chuckle.

I smiled softly. “Right. Sorry, I haven’t been very talkative today.”

“That’s okay,” she said, giving me a reassuring smile. “I’ve tried really hard to get into this unit, so I don’t plan on leaving any time soon. We’ll have time to get to know one another.”

I nodded quickly. “Uh, so, advice. Um, I guess you should know this team is a lot like a family. We really care about each other, and we’re pretty close. Especially us field agents.”

“Good to know,” she nodded thoughtfully. “If you have any more wisdom floating around in that big ol’ brain of yours, let me know. I already heard Penelope calling you ‘boy wonder’, so I’d love to see you live up to that reputation.”

She finished off her sentence with a wink, turning away from me and rejoining the others who still gathered around her desk. She was shiny and new, and everyone wanted to know about her. I couldn’t blame them. I’d love to know as much as I could get my hands on.

One thing I learned very quickly is that she had a habit of flirting.

At first, I thought it was a general behavior she exhibited towards everyone. Then, after some keen observation I came to a terrible and exciting realization: she really only flirted with me.

I think most of it was due to the fact that she just liked to see me flustered. She could make it happen very easily, too. All it took was a sly, under-the-breath comment in passing and my face was turning red.

She’d smile at me, enjoying the tint in my cheeks. I’d stare back at her, just glad to see her smile.

Four weeks in and I was entirely wrapped around her finger.

She wasn’t shy about flirting on cases either, though she was always really good about making sure the only thing anyone ever saw was me being a total dork.

I almost never tried flirting back. I was pretty terrible at it anyways. But there were occasions when I’d make an attempt.

We were working on a case that leaned heavily on the geographical profile, meaning: I spent the entire case in the precinct. I finally cracked it after a few days, and the team found themselves at a farm. One of my least favorite places for a case to be, leaving me very thankful that I wasn’t along for the search and rescue. I really only went to the farm because everyone else was there.

By the time that I actually got to the crime scene, the unsub had already been apprehended. So, I stood near the cars, waiting on the others to come back. It was several minutes before I heard Hotch and Derek walking up and talking to one another. I turned as the rest of the team followed several steps behind. Y/N came into view last, and I couldn’t help but let out a laugh as she walked closer.

She gave me an exasperated smile, throwing her arms up as I took her in. She was covered in dried mud, clearly having taken a fall somewhere gross.

“I tripped and fell while doing absolutely nothing. I feel like you, all clumsy,” she joked, laughing.

I smiled, looking her up and down.

“How are you still pretty covered in dirt?”

“You can’t do that,” she said quickly, looking over her shoulder. “Not right now, anyways.”

I scrunched up my face. She had been much more forwardly flirtatious on cases before now. I couldn’t fathom how this was any different, especially since all I did was make a flirty comment. I guess my facial expression could’ve conveyed more. I seemed to have a hard time concealing my feelings for her when she looked at me the way she did.

“Why?”

She looked behind her again, like she was keeping an eye out for someone. But the only person there was Morgan. Maybe she was afraid of him telling on us for flirting on the job. But he was the one that relentlessly flirted with everyone else. Why would he be coming after us? Maybe she didn’t know that well enough.

“Morgan flirts with people all the time. He’s not going to—”

“Spencer,” she groaned, grabbing my arm and pulling me behind the SUV.

I furrowed my brow again. “What?”

“If I tell you something, you have to promise not to get weird about it.”

“Get… Weird?”

“Like, don’t be all freaked out,” she clarified.

“Okay,�� I said, unsure where this was heading.

She cleared her throat, stealing one more glance at him. She looked back at me, chewing her lip with a coy smile. I had a feeling that now wasn’t the time, but I blushed, unable to stop myself from fully taking her in. Luckily, my upstairs brain started working again just in time to give all my attention to her as she started speaking.

“I’m sure this will make things a little awkward,” she stated, sighing softly, “but, he and I… Uh, Derek and I, we have a history.”

I quirked a brow. “Oh? How?”

She stared at me, expecting me to take a hint that I was most certainly not picking up on.

“We… We were involved. Romantically.”

My brows shot up. “Oh.”

“Yeah. It was only like five months, really, but,” she shrugged. “That happened. Hence why it’s been a little awkward between us.”

She said that bit like it was the most obvious thing in the world, but I hadn’t been any the wiser about it. Maybe it was just another case of me being a little more oblivious than some of my coworkers about behaviors that didn’t have to do with the job. Maybe I was just too enamored with her to pay attention to how she interacted with our coworker.

“I didn’t notice,” I said quietly.

“Good. I’ve been hoping to keep it on the down-low,” she said with a laugh. “I haven’t exactly wanted to endure teasing from the team about sleeping with Derek of all people.”

I swallowed, not having thought about the fact that she’d been… Physical with him. More so, that he’d gotten to be with her in that way. He’d seen her. Heard her. Felt her. All of her. I took in a breath, clearing my head of that image.

“I’m sorry, I should’ve told you sooner if I was going to keep flirting like this,” she said, suddenly a little shy as she shoved her hands in her pockets. “I know you two are close.”

“Yeah. I’m surprised he didn’t tell us about you.”

She laughed. “Our relationship wasn’t completely… A serious thing.”

“Serious enough to last five months.”

She snorted. “Most of the time we spent together wasn’t exactly romantic. He was great, but we both kind of used each other. Hard time in life for both of us back then.”

“Ah,” I said, nodding curtly. “So it was mostly, uh— Sexual?”

She smirked, looking away. “Not entirely just that. But that was a lot of it.”

I nodded again, feeling my cheeks flush. She nudged my arm, pulling my attention again.

“It’s been well over a year now since that all happened,” she said quietly. “I just… I don’t want to rock the boat right now. Being new to the unit, I should probably try my best to be on everyone’s good side, you know?”

“I get it. I’ll stop with the flirting,” I said, giving what I hoped was an affirming smile.

She furrowed her brow. “That’s not what I meant.”

“It isn’t?”

“The flirting is fine, I just think… Maybe we should keep it a little more quiet when we’re around the others,” she shrugged. “If that’s okay.”

“You’re okay with me— doing that?”

“Spencer, I don’t know if you know this, but you’re crazy hot.”

I was certainly blushing now. I swallowed, blinking in surprise as I looked at her. Her smile only grew. She enjoyed teasing me. I couldn’t say I didn’t like it just as much as she did.

“Uh, th-thank you?”

She rolled her eyes. “Quit acting so shy as if you don’t already know.”

My eyes widened. “I’m not acting.”

“Every woman who meets you flirts with you.”

“No they don’t,” I argued, my brows knitting together.

“Are you blind?”

“No,” I said, still in a state of confusion.

She laughed it off. “Alright, boy wonder, we’d better join the group. They’re gathering like vultures.”

I followed after her as she integrated into the group where they stood as Hotch spoke. She was so good at finding her way in. I was thrilled to see how she’d find her place in my life going forward.

In the following weeks, she gave me an idea of what that would look like. Stolen glances at every turn had my heart racing. It went even faster every time she found a way to touch me in some inconspicuous way.

A hand on my arm as she asked about the maps I was working on. A brush of fingers as she’d hand me a coffee cup. Her shoulder pressed into mine to whisper to me some detail of a case that really could’ve been said at full volume.

She usually didn’t step past those boundaries though, ever cautious not to let herself get caught out by anyone else. The comments she made towards me were still relentless, however. I didn’t know how she had it hidden so well.

I, however, had much more trouble hiding my attraction, and I was sure I’d heard some of my teammates whispering to each other about it. They’d give me knowing looks every time I got caught out staring at her. Even Morgan gave what seemed like mostly-good natured glances my way when I paid a bit too much attention to her. Probably only because he didn’t know that I knew about them, and even more likely didn’t want anyone else to know. It would be a tell-tale sign if he didn’t make fun of me.

It felt wrong to be keeping this odd little secret from him. I wasn’t necessarily sneaking around with his ex-girlfriend, but we were still flirting. We were still hiding something from him. I wondered how he’d react if he found out, and hoped for my sake that he was well and truly over it.

Especially after our last night on a case in Georgia. The summer air in the state was hot, and it felt like it was actively pulling air from my lungs every time I went outside. Maybe it was some kind of metaphor for what was to come.

I held back for hours from going to her door. The teasing had been terribly relentless the entire time we were on the case, and the week before. Tension was building, and I knew if I was easily picking up on it, she definitely had to be.

I paced around my room, contemplating my options. If I went to her, there was a chance we’d finally talk about whatever was happening between us. There was also a chance she’d tell me to leave if I attempted to tell her how I really felt, and I’d be left pining over her probably forever. Both were pretty scary.

Either way, I decided it was better than continuing to fall for her without having a real conversation about it. I walked to the door, my hand on the handle.

She stood just outside my door, her hand raised as if she was about to knock when I tugged it open. A smile graced her pretty lips, her hand dropping.

“Looks like we had the same idea,” she stated, pushing past me into my room. “Good timing.”

“It was.”

She chewed at her lip, looking around the space with her arms crossed. I stared at her as she took it all in, waiting for whatever was on her mind to be put out into the open. She looked back at me, apparently reading my mind.

“We’re both waiting on each other to speak up, huh?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“This is a ridiculous thing we’re doing right now. It’s like sneaking around with any of the fun parts,” she said with a laugh.

“I think it’s fun,” I shrugged.

“It could be more fun.”

I swallowed. “Yeah. But I’m happy just to have your attention.”

She smirked, walking towards me.

“I think you’re kind of needy.”

“Maybe.”

“It’s cute.”

I blushed, giving her a smile as I looked away. She still looked at me like she was about to devour me. I could sympathize with all of those animals I saw in nature documentaries as the predator closed in on them. It was in vivid color. She stalked closer and closer, knowing full well that my guard was down enough for her to launch an attack.

“You really enjoy this, don’t you?” I asked. “Knowing you make me flustered. Half of the time I can hardly talk when I’m around you. Everyone knows it, and they all think it’s one-sided.”

She leaned her chest into mine, surely able to feel how fast my heart beat for her.

“Are you embarrassed by it?”

“No.”

Her hands crept their way up under my shirt, leaving goosebumps in their wake as if her touch didn’t feel as hot as the sun. I watched her silently, letting her do whatever she wanted. She couldn’t asked me to jump out of the seventh-floor window with her and I would’ve gone head first without a question.

Panic only crept in when she started leaning in closer to my face, and I realized her lips were on a path that would end with mine.

“Wait,” I said, grabbing her wrists.

Her eyes widened, pulling her head back slightly.

“Are you okay?”

“I just don’t think this is a good idea,” I breathed out.

She retreated from me, and it was hard not to let my body follow hers. She was only a step away, but it felt like a continent’s worth of space. My fingers itched to reach out and pull her back in.

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly, eyes wandering over her face.

She swallowed. “I don’t know what you want, Spence. One minute you’re telling me you want me, the next you’re pushing me away.”

Logic kept trying to overtake my head. It was annoying.

“I can’t… You’re Morgan’s ex.”

She sighed. “I’m also a human being. I am my own person separate from him. One that is very attracted to you.”

I wet my lips, not missing how her eyes followed the action. I felt a fluttering in my stomach just watching her react. She smiled, as always, catching me in the act of being wildly into her. She took half a step forward.

“You’re telling me this is a bad idea, but every time I look at you I’m getting a different message.”

I swallowed. “I know.”

“So, which is it?”

“It is a bad idea,” I started, intending on making it a whole sentence, but not knowing what to say next.

“But?”

“But I don’t know if I care enough to stop it.”

She smirked again, not holding back this time. She reached up, pulling me down to her lips with her hands wrapped in my hair. I wound my arms around her waist, pulling her tightly into me. I relished feeling her body fully pressed against mine, especially when she let out a contented sigh as I deepened the kiss. She started guiding my backwards towards the bed, and I obliged her silent request until the backs of my knees were against the mattress.

“Sit,” she requested, the word whispered against my lips.

I did, peering up at her as she staying standing in between my legs. She grasped my chin in her soft hand, tilting up my head to see me.

“How sure about this are you?”

“I don’t know,” I answered truthfully.

She smiled. “Good. I don’t either.”

She dropped into my lap, kissing me like we hadn’t even stopped in the first place. My hands gripped her hips for the first time, and she was everything I had daydreamed about. Soft and responsive. I couldn’t imagine being the one to let her go, and I found myself questioning Morgan’s judgment in that moment.

It made me feel even better every time she smiled or made a little comment about the ways I reacted to her. Usually I’d be embarrassed, but she just made me feel good.

“Sweet boy,” she mumbled against me, moving her lips from my jaw and down my neck.

My hands found themselves wandering across her back, and my eyes were practically stuck shut as I felt her lips against my skin. I could’ve died right then and there and been happy to go.

But a knock at the door sent us both into high alert. She sat up straight, looking towards the door.

I stood with her legs still wrapped around me before I turned and dropped her on the bed. She bounced on the mattress, looking up at me with a surprised smile.

“Just— Stay here and stay quiet. Please,” I said, then walked to the door, trying to frantically fix my hair.

I cleared my throat as I opened the door, forcing myself to not look like I was embarrassingly close to…

I shook myself out of that thought the second I saw Morgan. He definitely put an end to any sexy thoughts that clouded my head.

“Hey, kid, can I ask you something?”

I furrowed my brow. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I just… Do you know what’s been up with JJ? She’s been a little off. Won’t really talk to me, so I was wondering if she said anything to you.”

I let out a breath of relief. “No, she hasn’t told me anything. But I know Henry’s been pretty sick the past week. Maybe that’s it.”

“Hm,” he hummed, nodding slowly. “Alright, thanks. Just… Worried, you know?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “It’s JJ, though. She’ll be okay.”

“Right, yeah, I know,” he nodded again. “Alright. Thanks, again. You get some sleep tonight, alright?”

I nodded, bidding him a goodnight. I shut the door, seeing her on the bed still. She was propped up on her elbows, smirking at me.

“That ruin the mood?”

I locked the door.

“Not particularly.”

To my surprise, she ended up being the one who wanted to take it slow. We kissed for another hour or so when I got back within her reach, but didn’t go much further. Not that I was in a position to complain. I was ecstatic just to be touching her, and she somehow felt the same about me. I wasn’t sure I’d ever understand why that was.

She’d told me when I’d dropped onto the bed, crawling over top of her, that she didn’t want to go all the way. She said it so sweet. Almost like she was afraid of whatever answer I’d give to her. As if I’d say I didn’t want to kiss her all night long.

Besides, I was pretty sure I’d spontaneously combust if we had gone any further.

We woke up the next morning, still holding onto one another. She had changed into my t-shirt before she climbed into bed with me, and looked absolutely incredible with her messy bed-head and sleepy smile.

“Good morning,” she mumbled.

“It is a very good morning,” I said, pressing a soft kiss to her lips.

Her hand pressed against my cheek, the smile spreading on her face as she looked at me.

“You’re adorable,” she said quietly, granting me another kiss.

I sighed. “I don’t think I want to stop this.”

“Why would we?” she asked with an incredulous smile.

“Because, I mean, we can’t tell anyone about us,” I said with a shrug. “I just thought you wouldn’t want to make this— A thing.”

She wet her lips. “We don’t have to tell anyone in order to be together.”

I contemplated that for a moment. I’d never considered having a completely private relationship. At least not with someone who wasn’t actively being stalked. That was an entirely different scenario. I guess to her, it was probably scary to get into a relationship with one of your ex’s best friends. I couldn’t blame her for that.

I took a breath. “You… You want to keep it a secret?”

She nodded. “If that’s okay with you.”

“I’ll do whatever you want,” I said with a nod, not bothering to filter my thoughts as they came out into the open.

She smiled. “Anything?”

“Almost. I draw the line at murder.”

She laughed. “Team’d catch you anyways.”

I laughed right back, giving her another kiss. She leaned into my touch, shyness creeping into her face.

“I do really like you, Spencer.”

I nodded. “I do too.”

“This’ll be great, you know?”

She smiled brightly, causing one to form on my face. She brushed my hair away from my face, just looking at me.

“Yeah. I know.”

…ANGELS ROLL THEIR EYES (part 2)

#spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x fem!reader #spencer reid x you #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid reader insert #spencer reid fluff #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds reader insert #reid x y/n #reid x you #reid x reader #luna’s spence fics

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invis-o-william · 9 months ago

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Day 2: Wish

All Amity Parkers knew that “wish” was practically a forbidden word. Years of interactions with Desiree had all but guaranteed that. Younger children weren’t even taught the word anymore out of an abundance of caution, after all nobody wanted a repeat of the “Toddler Wish-mageddon” that had occurred just a year prior. The firemen had been cleaning chocolate syrup out of the streets for weeks afterwards. This left the naive and unassuming newcomers as targets for Desire’s power, many of whom didn’t quite believe the city moniker of “The Most Haunted Place on Earth” yet. One of those newcomers was Thomas Kincade, and one way or another he too would learn the consequences of the word “wish”.

. . .

Thomas had barely lived in Amity Park a week before his coworkers started messing with him. He had just been sitting down in the breakroom for lunch when Craig from accounting had sidled up in the next chair.

“Oh hey Tom,you’re new to town, right?” he asked while grabbing a bowl from his bag.

Thomas hummed an affirmative while digging through the box chock full of leftover lo mein that his wife had left him that morning. “Yeah, just moved from Springfield like a week and a half ago, why? Also, it's Thomas.”

Craig pointed a fork his way, “Well you should probably invest in a lunch bag or something. That box is a prime target for the Box Ghost you know. He’s usually pretty harmless, but he’ll definitely steal that thing in a heartbeat if he sees you with it man.” He accentuated his point by tapping on said box with his fork.

Thomas sighed. Although he’d only lived in the city for under two weeks, he’d already seen more than enough of the “ghost tourist trap” schtick. “You can give the “ghost” thing a rest Craig, I think I’ll be fine.” he said with a roll of his eyes.

Craig shrugged, “Alright Tommy, don’t say I didn’t warn you. You transplants never quite believe it at first anyway.”

“It’s Thomas.” Thomas said pointedly. Craig made a noncommittal noise before digging into his meal.

. . .

The next day it happened again. Thomas was working at his computer when his deskmate Maria leaned over the divider.

“Hey Tim, did you see the news this morning?” she asked excitedly.

Slightly irritated, Thomas looked up. “No, I didn’t. And it’s Thomas.”

Maria didn’t seem to hear him as she waved her hands around, “They got some footage of the fight between Phantom and that big metal ghost last night on the corner of Park Place and Amity Row! It looked so intense, and the big ghost is so cool looking!” She practically squealed the last words.

Thomas groaned and let his head fall back. “Look, I get it, you guys are pulling my leg, ‘ha-ha lets haze the newbie’ kind of stuff, but its getting old.”

Huffing, Maria crossed her arms. “How long have you been here now? Two weeks? You can’t tell me that you haven’t seen one of the ghosts yet! Hell, blob ghosts are so common I’m surprised one hasn’t popped into your yard yet” she said with a roll of her eyes. “Just hope you don’t encounter any big ones, you definitely don’t want to run into the Fenton’s with their tank-on-wheels.”

With a sigh and a shake of his head Thomas turned back to his work as Maria shrugged and did the same.

. . .

Thomas was getting fed up. Everyone kept talking about ghosts. “Phantom’s been seen here” and “The whisps have been really active lately” and all that crap. How long was everyone going to pull this? Not to mention that nobody wanted to call him anything but nicknames. Why was calling him Thomas so hard for them???

The last straw was his boss stopping by his desk an hour before quitting time.

“Hey Timbo, everyone on the floor is going to head over to the Mitty Boulevard Bistro after work for dinner, company’s treat. Want to join?” he said, leaning an arm on the desk divider.

Thomas’ eye twitched. “Yeah, sure that’s fine. And please. It’s Thomas.”

His boss smiled, “Great! Originally we were going to head over to the Mexican place on Park Place, but they’re closed for cleanup from that ghost fight last night.”

“Yeah! You can thank Phantom for that, honestly the Bistro is sooo good. I like Mexican food and all, but you gotta try the Bistro’s fries Tim!” Maria said, perking up from her seat.

Thomas had had it. “Ghosts this, ghosts that! I’m so sick of this! Just give it a rest already! And my name. Is. THOMAS. Not Tim, not Tommy, just Thomas!” he cried as he picked up his coat and lunch box. “If this is how all of you are going to treat me, then count me out of the dinner. Honestly I wish you guys would just cut it out already!”

Everyone in the office went deadly silent and stared at Thomas with wide eyes.

“Thomas,” began Maria, “you shouldn’t say that word. I’m sorry that we were teasing you so much about your name, but you really shouldn’t say that word.”

Thomas scoffed, “What word?”

Everyone looked around nervously, “The “w” word,” his boss said, “there’s a ghost who grants them, usually in the worst ways possible.”

Thomas threw his hands up in the air. “What, wish? Now you’re telling me that there’s a wish-granting ghost? If there was, I'd wish she’d make you all see sense right now because ghosts aren’t real!”

The office was deadly still and many held their breath. There was always a chance Desiree wasn’t around, but some still expected her to appear and grant the wish.

Instead the Box Ghost popped in out of nowhere, grabbed Thomas’ lunch box, shouted “BEWARE!”, and vanished.

Thomas could say he knew better now to pack his lunch in a bag.

#dannymay2024 #dannymay #danny phantom #amity park #box ghost #desiree #oc characters #wish is a forbidden word for a reason

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binaural-histolog · 1 year ago

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Zotoro, Scihub, and more Cool Hypnosis Papers

CW: severe nerdery

I don't have an academic background, and while I've been poking around at hypnosis nerdery for a while, I was limited to an extent by what I could get my hands on.

This is especially important when it comes to the academic texts. There's only so many books out there on theory, and a bunch of it doesn't make sense until you go back and read the actual papers.

For example, I knew that Kirsch had something to do with placebo and expectations, but I only had a vague understanding of what and how. A paragraph critique in Theories of Hypnosis wasn't enough to give me the proper context.

Until I decided I was going to rewrite the newbie guide to explain hypnosis from a modern neuroscience perspective and then I was committed to pulling the citations and digging up the actual papers.

At first I was doing it by hand by pasting things into Scihub and downloading the PDFs. This sort of worked, but at some point there are just too many PDFs and it's work to keep them consistent.

This is where Zotero comes in. It's a PDF database that is set up to scan for academic fields and give you a UI for finding, reading and annotating the PDFs. It syncs between MacOS, Windows, and iOS and keeps the annotations and highlights. And even better, it's got plugins.

Specifically, it's got a plugin for Scihub. You can add a DOI number and it'll pull the abstract data for the paper, and then you can right click and it'll download the paper from Scihub automatically.

It doesn't cover everything. Some stuff is too new for Scihub, and I've had to fallback to https://reddit.com/r/scholar to request articles, but there's so much stuff.

In particular, you get the sense of how academic papers can be a conversation, an argument, or a lawsuit. You get to see the most brutal putdowns phrased as passing comments. And the grudges and ego can go on for decades.

There are a couple of papers that I recommend everyone read, because they're just great at summarizing the field and current thinking.

The response set theory of hypnosis reconsidered: toward an integrative model

I love this paper not just because it goes over response expectancy theory from the inception to the general whittling down from "Once expectancy effects are eliminated, there may be nothing left" to response expectancy as 25%-35% of suggestibility and the addition of a "readiness response set" to cover the rest of it... but also because despite Kirsch's hand in response set theory and response expectancies and being in a journal issue devoted to Kirsch's career and achievements, he is not an author to this paper that is reconsidering his work. Instead, he gets a hand clap.

In closing, Irving Kirsch has greatly advanced our understanding of hypnosis. The construct of expectancies that he articulated and championed for decades has well withstood the test of time and replication. We extend our personal gratitude to him for his shaping influence on our personal views of hypnosis and for his many contributions to the field of hypnosis that he so immensely enriched.

I'm not sure what I'm looking at, but I love it.

How Hypnotic Suggestions Work – A Systematic Review of Prominent Theories of Hypnosis

This is a preprint, but it's comprehensive not just in how it picks out theories of hypnosis that are more recent than the book, but also in how it pokes holes and points out weak points in the various theories. It's also recent enough to talk about fun new things like predictive coding and interoception and somatosensory feedback.

Hypnosis and top-down regulation of consciousness

Devin Terhune's papers are always good to read. His papers read like a story where every chapter builds on the last one. This one is a "synthesis of current knowledge regarding the characteristics and neurocognitive mechanisms of hypnosis" and I can't tell you how many times I've read through this paper by accident because I wanted to pick a point out of it and got sucked into it all over again.

#binauralhistolog #hypnosis #nerdery

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lunamkardas · 4 months ago

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COZY GAME?

So last night I saw this really cute looking farm sim game, yes another one, called Grimshire. It's just a demo but the pixel art is charming and it seems really interesting. So far you can only be a bunny or a fox so I picked bunny.

Game opens with a boat horn sounding. I and some random goat lady have been rescued from The Capital where Some Shit Is Going Down and we are both unconscious, dragged to safer shores by an otter named Fin. He lets the town know shit's going down and he's going back out on his boat to see if he can get more info.

We get taken to the town healer and I'm just a little banged up but fine. Goat lady is hurt much worse so she's going to take longer to wake up.

Day 1 Basic "hey welcome to town here's a run down farm house for you to live in new dude, we'd really appreciate it if you contributed to the town's root cellar by growing some stuff" tutorial. Quickly followed by the "You should talk to all 26 people in town newbie!"

They got a small town/hamlet version of Animal crossing's museum thing going on so any stuff I forage or catch for the first time can go there.

They gave me a pump and water pipes straight off the bat so it was SO MUCH easier getting the watering down for my baby farm.

Holy shit fishing is so much easier than Stardew valley my god I love it.

Day 2

Goat lady died in the night from her wounds.

None of us knew her name. The town burned her atop the mountain peak with all in attendance.

Everyone is pretty down about it. Some people mention they hope Fin gets back with news, especially since him and his boat are such an important part of their food supply because they're an island.

My eyes lock onto the root cellar and then to the previously mildly annoying but NOW VERY IMPORTANT game mechanic of food spoiling.

I immediately start selling everything I own including the swank new bed and bookcase I got for collecting specimens and begin rapid fire purchasing as many drying racks as possible, throwing every fish, fruit and mushroom I find onto them to start stocking up.

Day 3

Normal day of collecting and throwing stuff onto the drying racks. Selling junk to buy more drying racks. The game refuses to tell me how to make them myself.

Get a crack at the mines which has an interesting quirk where you actually mine out the rock from the walls and if you remove too much of the supporting walls it can cause a cave in. Also you can very easily find the ladder to lower levels, which I appreciate.

Learned how to make more pipes to improve my pumps range.

Did some logging for the woodcutter. Mining for the Smith.

Day 4

The Mayor and his assistant come get me and start walking me through the root cellar tutorial while telling me that they will no longer be expecting me to pay ANY TAXES under the circumstances. (Waaaaay ahead of you dudes I already pieced together I'm now the most important person on this island and I am panicking a little bit because I'm pretty sure Covid just entered your reality and thank FUCK we burned Goat lady.)

Thank you kindly can I PLEASE get back to foraging and fishing and drying so I can keep both herbivores and carnivores alive while we Quarantine.

Healer lady and her assistant had the same idea about us suddenly being cut off from the outside world. No one's saying 'disease' yet but I have my suspicions.

Anyhoo they put the town up to a vote over what we should build, a new medicine herb garden she definitely knows how to maintain and use or a mushroom hut to alleviate the island hamlet's food needs even though no one on the island knows the first thing about mushrooms.

I am sitting on a fucking throne of fish jerky and dried fruit/veg. WE ARE MAKING THE HERBAL GARDEN.

The other villagers agree and I immediately bum rush the donation box and slam all the wood and rocks we need into it.

Day 5 Herbal Garden is complete and Healer lady is excited to start researching new medicines.

I am desperately mining as much copper as I can to make more water pipes because I only have so much energy each day and I can't be wasting it watering 30 plants.

I also start planting the tree seeds I've been shaking out so I can have fruit trees. Fishing is easy but the island has both carnivores and herbivores and the plant supply is harder to come by every day plus Drying takes Time.

Day 6 The town gathers because Fin is FINALLY back with news!

It ain't covid.

The Capital is Gone and most of the other landlocked population centers are too.

But they weren't empty.

It's Zombies.

It's Zombies and the only places that still exist are boarded up and armed to the teeth refusing all entry or trade because it's ZOMBIES.

Thank FUCK we burned Goat Lady.

10/10 I need this shit now

#Cozy Game #Farming Sim #wtf #inject this into my veins

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mariaofdoranelle · 2 years ago

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Look at Us Now — Ch. 2

Fic masterlist

Thank you for all the love on the first chapter!! I hope you like this update <33

Warnings: language, parents fighting, Fenrys

Rowan heard the chorus of Fenrys’ students before he even got to the place.

“Thank you… Moonbeam!”

He stopped for a second and then hurried up, curious to know what was going on in that class.

When Rowan graduated as an engineer, it didn’t even cross his mind that he’d end up working as a drill instructor for the Air Force. And liking it.

It started organically. His subordinates were trained well enough, but something was off with their coordination while marching, or sometimes they thought it was okay to show up with a stubble. Rowan was doing this job even before being offered the position, or so Colonel Darrow pointed out a few years ago.

It wasn’t what he’d planned for himself, but it worked out perfectly. Rowan was reaching the age of settling down. His cousin Sellene was currently facing a difficult pregnancy, and the thought of being deployed and leaving someone at home like that didn’t sit well with him. Instructing new recruits gave him the stability he wanted without having to leave the Air Force. It wasn’t perfect, but it was exactly what Rowan needed.

His current issue wasn’t the newbies, though. It was the instructor.

“Thank you… Moonbeam!”

Fenrys was sat on a chair, grinning like Hellas himself while all of his students were shouting “Thank you… Moonbeam!” while doing push-ups.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Rowan whisper-yelled so only Fenrys could hear.

His friend turned to him smiling, unfazed. “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m training my little munchkins.”

Unbelievable.

Fenrys was fucking unbelievable.

“So you’re telling me that you borrowed my drive last minute for your class,” Rowan snarled, “Only to get here and teach my class instead?”

“But it’s the military! Exercising is everyone’s class.” He did a double-take on Rowan’s dissatisfied face and continued, “I went through hell as a newbie, it’s really fun to do the same to them. It’s a psychology thing, you should look it up online.”

“You’re supposed to be teaching them gun safety.” Rowan took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. “Starting tomorrow, if I hear a word that you taught them something that doesn’t involve guns, and safety—“

“Okay, okay.” Fenrys waved him off. “There’s no need to snitch me to Salvaterre. Let me fix this.”

Before Rowan could stop him and say he didn’t have time left to start his actual class, Fenrys turned to the 40 new recruits who were still chanting Thank you, Moonbeam and shouted, “Okay, instead of my name, you’ll say Whitethorn. Now!”

“Thank you… Whitethorn!”

Rowan stared at them speechless. Whenever he thought Fenrys couldn’t be more unserious, his friend outdid himself.

“Thank you… Whitethorn!”

”That’s not what I asked you to do at all, Lieutenant.” Rowan added, a hint of resignation in his voice. Sometimes giving up was the smart thing when it came to Fenrys.

“You deserve it. By the way, did I tell you…” he trailed. “Fuck, I lost count. How many push-ups do you think they’ve done already?”

“One more reason you should stick to your job. You suck at doing mine.”

Fenrys chuckled. “You little shit.” Then turned to the recruits again. “Galathynius!” Fenrys shouted. “I want push-ups, jumping jacks and crunches. I want twen-“ He sneaked a glance at Rowan. “Thirty of each! You’re counting for me this time.”

“Yes, sir!”

Rowan’s whole body froze.

He knew that voice. Rowan had long, wet daydreams and nighttime fantasies about that same voice saying Yes, sir to him again, but in a completely different tone and situation. He never thought he’d see her again.

His heartbeat was going a mile a minute when he slowly turned around, and there she was. Fierce blue eyes already trained on him. Rowan forced himself to look back at Fenrys.

“Did you say Galathynius?”

“Oh, that’s what I was going to tell you!” His friend’s eyes sparkled like they did every time he had good gossip. “She’s the class’ nepo baby. Brigadier Galathynius’ niece.”

Oh, that’s great.

Fucking a student was completely against his moral code as an instructor, but Rowan wouldn’t blame himself since it happened before he knew anything. That student’s uncle happened to be the man with highest rank working inside this Air Force base, but if nothing happened in the six weeks following Aviator’s Ball, it wouldn’t happen now.

These weren’t Rowan’s biggest issue.

His biggest issue was wanting to do it again. Which was completely off-limits.

“Rowie, you listening?”

He wasn’t, and Fenrys knew that.

“Sure. Go on.”

“So I’m trying not to be too hard on her because I really want her to put in a good word for me—“

Rowan’s eyes bulged. “I cannot believe you’re giving her special treatment because of her connections to the brigadier—“

“What?” Fenrys barked a laugh. “No! I’m not giving her special treatment because of her great-uncle.” He tilted his head. “He kinda gives a daddy vibe, though… but I’m doing it because her boyfriend’s playing hard to get.”

Rowan could swear his heart stopped for a beat. “Her what?”

Fenrys let out a heavy sigh. “Her boyfriend, Dorian. Hottest man on earth. We matched on Tinder a few months ago. I just explained you the whole thing.”

Months ago. Plural. Which means they were already dating when Rowan slept with her.

Did Aelin use him to cheat on her boyfriend that night? Rowan had vivid memories of her saying she wasn’t married.

He sensed the building ache of his fingernails digging into his palms, hands clutching into a fist.

She didn’t exactly lie, but he felt as if she did.

Rowan should forget about Aelin and her boyfriend. They weren’t his problem.

“So he’s cheating on her?” Rowan asked.

Fenrys shrugged. “He told me they’re in an open relationship, but I don’t really care. If I’m nice, she’ll like me. If she likes me, she won’t mind me fucking her boyfriend.”

“I don’t think that’s how relationships work, Fenrys.”

Relationship. The word felt heavier than Rowan predicted before he said it.

“You have very little faith in what a pretty face and dazzling personality like mine can do, Rowie.”

Forcing himself to not slump his posture in front of the new recruits, Rowan just closed his eyes and lowered his head, rubbing one temple. He felt tired. He didn’t want to argue with Fenrys now about something as meaningless as this.

“Just give me the flash drive, Fen.”

He turned to the newbies again. “Galathynius! I need the flash drive on the desk near the door.”

Great.

If Rowan didn’t play his cards right, he’d have ten weeks of hell ahead of him. A lifetime, depending on which part of the Air Force Aelin was going to after her basic training.

Analyzing her stance now, she seemed a lot sharper the day they met. Recruit training did that to people, though, and the first few weeks always felt particularly ruthless.

Rowan had an extended hand, ready to get this over with, when she shook it.

She shook his hand instead of giving him the flash drive.

Rowan dropped her hand as if it’d burned him.

“Ten on the floor.”

Aelin blinked. “What?”

“Ten push-ups on the floor, Galathynius! Now!” Rowan shouted.

He was right on track, considering this is the same treatment he usually gave to the other recruits. She was supposed to salute him, not make physical contact. These were the rules, and tough was part of the job. Rowan wasn’t teaching children, he didn’t need to be soft.

Aelin didn’t think so, from what he saw as she rose up from the floor. Her fierce eyes were burning into him, eyebrows scrunched.

Rowan would be lying if he said it didn’t send a thrill through his spine.

He didn’t acknowledge it, though. Just grabbed his flash drive and left.

He had been dreaming about another man’s girlfriend. For six weeks. It didn’t sit well with him. Staying the hell away from Aelin Galathynius. That’s what he needed to do.

Rowan flexed his hand, still feeling her touch against it.

Today’s reaction was just the shock of seeing her again, ignoring Aelin would be easy. If he kept it together, he could finish these ten weeks and walk out like this never happened.

“Look, Dada, I ate all the broccoli.”

Rowan kissed the crown of his daughter's head, trying to give her attention while low-key freaking out. "Well done, Mai."

He had completely forgotten to buy Maisie's strawberry yoghurt. Should he go to the store with her and destroy today’s sleeping routine? Ask to borrow some from Aelin's and destroy his pride? Or maybe not get the yoghurt at all and destroy his sanity tomorrow morning, when she inevitably throws a tantrum.

The latter wasn't an option, though. Mais already had a hard time before going to school, she deserved that strawberry yoghurt.

"Daddy, the ice cream?" she asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"What do you mean?"

Maisie sighed, as if she was explaining something obvious. "I was a good girl and ate all the vegetables. Now you give me ice cream."

Aelin.

This new rule had Aelin Galathynius written all over it.

Rowan took a deep breath. “Mais…” he trailed, trying to think of a good way to explain this to her. “I can’t give you ice cream every time you eat your vegetables. It’s not good for your body.”

"Daddy."

"What?"

"That's not showing love."

Rowan pinched his lips together, somewhere between frustrated and amused. Getting cranky on a sugar withdrawal and arguing with him. Her mother’s daughter through and through.

"I don't even have ice cream here, Mais."

"We can walk to Mommy's. She always has ice cream.”

He knew it.

Maisie crossed her arms. "I'm going to count to three. One... two... Don't let me get to three, or...”

"Or...?" Rowan raised an eyebrow.

Maisie's little green eyes drifted around as she thought of an answer, then she shouted, "Or I'll call you!"

It was like time had stopped, his chest feeling tighter each millisecond.

I’ll call you.

He and Aelin argued about their calls every week, but he was so careful about not letting their daughter listen to their fights. How in hell did she pick up on that?

"Honey, I'm home!" A familiar voice sing-sang from the living room, making Maisie leave the kitchen running.

Rowan relaxed for a minute, sighing. This wouldn't solve any of his issues, but it was enough to distract his daughter from the ice cream issue.

He could hear Maisie squealing before he got to the living room. Fenrys was checking the mail Rowan left on a side table while Dorian gave Mais his trademark bear hug.

“You need to change your address at work,” Rowan quietly complained as they watched Dorian pretend to wrestle Maisie and roar like a bear while she shrieked with laughter.

It took Rowan a long time to adjust to Dorian being around, but as Aelin always says, every kid needs a cool, rich uncle with no kids. He was good with Maisie, so Rowan sucked it up until he got used to it.

“You know I won’t,” Fenrys finally answered.

Rowan looked at his friend dead in the eye. “You’ll come here to get your mail for the rest of your life?”

“You’re so dramatic, Rowie.”

“You moved out years ago.”

“And you love my visits,” Fenrys cheered. “So does your little munchkin.”

Well, Rowan had begrudgingly accepted that Fenrys wouldn’t change his address at work before he retired. But Maisie? She loved those two idiots. Probably because they had the same level of maturity as her.

An idea struck Rowan, so he quickly gripped Fenrys’ arm and leaned closer.

“Do you think you can watch Maisie for a minute?” Rowan quietly asked. “I just need to get her yoghurt—“

“Babe, we’re babysitting tonight!” He screamed to Dorian, then crouched on Maisie’s direction. “Munchkin, why don’t you show me your new toys?”

Rowan had no expectations of those two making Maisie follow through her nighttime routine, but this would do. He quickly thanked Fenrys and Dorian, then left to the store closest to the Air Force housing complex he lived in.

Since Maisie was relatively well-assisted, he decided to wander through the aisles and get a thing or another that was also running out.

Rowan could swear he saw a very familiar blur of golden hair, but it was gone before he knew it.

He was thinking about getting some new foods and seeing if Maisie accepted them. He’d recently found a pediatric dietitian online that gave great advice—

Right there, examining every bottle of wine available.

He frowned. Why was Aelin buying wine on a Thursday? Did she have plans for the weekend? That couldn’t be, this was her turn to spend the weekend with Maisie.

Rowan was ready to go talk to her and talk about today’s ice cream issue, but he saw her peeking at him from the corner of her eye and focusing back on the wine.

Oh. That’s how it’s going to be, then.

Well, Rowan didn’t care. She didn’t want to talk to him? Fine. He was busy anyway. They would talk tomorrow after pick up.

He went to the cereal aisle. He got Maisie’s favorite, but what if he tried giving her a more nutritious one?

He started reading the nutrition facts. Picks one up, too much sodium, puts it down. Picks another one, too little vitamins and minerals, puts it down as well.

“Tough choice, huh?”

“Sure.”

This one seemed nice. It also helped that there were some cartoon animals on the box, so—

Rowan felt a hand gently stroking his arm, which made him jerk it away and snap his gaze to the person next to him. A woman. Pale blond hair, pale blue eyes.

“Do you need help to choose?” She asked.

Rowan relaxed. She probably worked here, even though she wasn’t wearing the staff uniform. Maybe something happened with it? He tried to remember himself that some work environments were a lot more forgiving than the military.

“I’m trying to choose a cereal.”

“I always pick that one,” she said before pointing at a box near them.

Organic, vegan and gluten-free. There was no ice cream in the world that could make Maisie eat that.

Rowan grimaced. “I’m not sure my daughter would like this one. I’m actually between these.” He showed her the two boxes and its nutrition facts.

“You have a kid. Cute.” She sneaked her hand on his arm again. What was wrong with the staff today? “Let me show you something…”

Then the inappropriate employee showed him an app that scanned the bar code and rated the food from zero to one hundred.

Rowan’s eyes widened.

This was fucking genius.

He thanked the woman and started scanning everything.

She stayed close for a while, then went away once she was sure Rowan was well-assisted by the app.

Right now, Rowan was no better than Maisie when she got a new toy. How had he never read about this app?

He scanned some to decide, and others just to be judgmental and prove his point. He knew those colorful little things were worse than sugar cubes. He should tell Lorcan know about this app—

“Where’s Maisie?”

Aelin snapped him out of his thoughts, squinting at him with crossed arms.

Oh, she wanted to talk to him now?

“At home. With Dorian and Fenrys.”

She looked unimpressed. “Well, I didn’t know you liked to leave your child to flirt with other women.”

“Are you kidding me?” His mouth opened, then closed again. “I was talking to an employee.”

Aelin’s eyebrows rose up. “You want me to believe that? She clearly doesn’t work here!”

Rowan frowned. Was Aelin telling the truth? The arm thing was weird, maybe she was trying to flirt. Over cereal?

“You know what? I’ll tell you if you tell me what’s all this wine for.” He pointed to her small cart.

“I do not need to tell you what I’m doing during my days off!”

She only wanted him to question what she was doing on her days with Maisie? Sure, he’d do exactly that. “Fine. Then at least tell me why does Maisie think she will get ice cream every time she eats vegetables.”

“Because she’s a kid! She’ll try anything to make you do what she wants.”

Rowan crossed his arms. “You’re telling me you have nothing to do with that?”

Her mouth fell open. “That’s exactly why I don’t want to talk to you between pick-ups. I need a fucking break.”

Rowan let out an incredulous laugh. “A break from your daughter?”

“No, a break from you.”

Rowan pinched the bridge of his nose. Of course. How could he ever forget that Aelin needed space because he was the cause of all her issues?

“Could you please…” he breathed deep. “Just please, give her less ice cream?”

She inched closer. “Could you please, just please, not question the way I take care of my child every fucking day?”

“I don’t—“

“Yes, you do! She’s four-year-old girl who threw a tantrum because she wants ice cream. It’s not rocket science.”

Rowan looked away for a second, trying to calm down and talking in a gentle tone this time. “Okay, but maybe she wouldn’t do such a big tantrum if she had healthier dessert.”

Aelin frowned. “Healthy dessert?”

“Yeah, like grapes, watermelon—“

“FRUIT? You’re giving Maisie fruit and telling her it’s dessert!?”

“Fruit is dessert.”

“When it’s on top of a pie, Rowan.” Aelin’s eyes bulged like he’d just told her the most absurd thing.

Rowan bit his lip, trying not to laugh at her observation. They had talked about this many times already, and he still didn’t know if he found her stubbornness on this subject more comical or frustrating. Probably the latter, at least depending on the day.

He glanced at his phone. Fuck, it was so late. Time really flies with that food-ranking app.

“I have to go now, but I’ll call you—“

Aelin shook her head. “Personal space. Boundaries. We just talked about that.”

Rowan pinched his lips together, then remembered Maisie’s words from earlier. I’ll call you.

“Tomorrow after pick up, then?”

“Sure.” Aelin nodded and went away.

He did a mental note to see if someone could watch Maisie tomorrow evening. They’d probably end up having a huge fight about needing to have fewer fights. It’d be a shitshow.

The real shitshow was getting Maisie to go to bed, though. At least that was how Rowan felt when he was finally ringing Aelin for her goodnight call with Mais. He didn’t know what felt heavier, his limbs or his eyelids.

After grocery shopping, Rowan arrived home to the loudest state his home has ever been. Maisie’s squeals sounded louder than the TV. There was half-eaten chocolate in the couch. Fenrys was holding Maisie by one arm and one leg, spinning her sideways by the sound of *You Spin Me Round* while Dorian filmed everything.

Right before bedtime.

Rowan immediately felt his stomach fold into a tight knot inside.

This was every parent’s nightmare.

The rest of the evening went on exactly the way Rowan predicted the moment he stepped his foot into the house.

Maisie didn’t want Fenrys and Dorian to go. She cried when Rowan told her it was time to wind down and stop playing. Her uncles told him they didn’t bring the chocolate, but Maisie refused to tell him where she got it from.

By the time Rowan almost literally wrangled his daughter into bed, he was afraid he’d sleep in her tiny bed during story time before she did. It happened before.

He was now outside Maisie’s bedroom, giving her privacy with her mom. Aelin would complain about his calls the whole week, but Rowan was a dead man if he didn’t call her to say good night to her daughter.

“Daddy?” Maisie had her hand outstretched when he peeked into the room. “Mommy wants to talk to you.”

Rowan forced himself not to sigh, squared his shoulders and grabbed that phone. An officer going into battle.

He felt too drained to have another fight.

“Just so you know, I don’t give her ice cream every day.” Aelin’s voice sounded a little too quiet, or maybe it sounded like this to him because she wasn’t screaming.

He relaxed. ”Okay. Good.”

“I don’t keep track of how many times I give her ice cream, but it’s probably a lot less than you think.”

“That’s good to know. Thanks.” Rowan meant it. Not knowing or not being able to control some things left him more uneasy than he’d like to admit. Aelin probably knew that.

The silence stretched a little, and he tried to figure out if there was something else he needed to warn Aelin about.

“Good. Rowan, I need to—“

“I found some illicit chocolate today,” Rowan interrupted. “I think Maisie found your new stash.”

Aelin sighed. “That kid is outsmarting me.”

“She is.” He snorted.

“Rowan.”

“What?”

“I need to go.”

“Sure. See you at the pickup.”

“‘Kay, bye.” She hung up when the silence stretched for too long.

Rowan put his phone down and managed to lay on Maisie’s tiny bed. She hugged him, but only settled after squirming a little.

“I miss Mommy.”

“You’ll see her tomorrow.” It was a common thing, Maisie missing one parent while staying with the other. The trick was to acknowledge his daughter’s feelings, but not prompting her further enough to start a meltdown.

“She gives better cuddles.”

Curious, he chuckled and asked, “Is that so?” He’d never not be amused at his daughter’s bluntness.

Maisie nodded. “Mommy’s all squishy and comfortable.” Then she poked his abs so hard he grimaced.

He wasn’t focusing on Maisie’s sudden show of strength, though. He was currently fighting the wave of nostalgia flooding him after his daughter’s comment. Rowan used to know Aelin’s body like a kid knows their favorite toy, and he wouldn’t call it squishy. It must’ve changed after the pregnancy. He wouldn’t know.

He forced himself to focus back on Maisie, who was still frowning with her head laying on his chest.

“You can’t comment on your mom’s body like this, Mais.”

Her frown deepened. “But she comments on mine!”

Rowan held on a sigh. She was a very argumentative little girl, this one. Much like her mother. The ‘but she’s your parent’ explanation was never well-received, so he had to try another tactic.

“But she’s a doctor. She can comment on people’s bodies, it’s her job.”

“I don’t like it when she says I have baby cheeks. I’m not a baby.”

Rowan snorted. “So you’re reading on your own like a big girl tonight?”

Her eyes went wide. “Daddy, you’re mean! I can’t read.”

He chuckled and kissed that light blonde hair. “What am I reading to you, then?”

“No reading!” She exclaimed, “I want a story from your head.”

Rowan hummed and scratched the back of his neck, stalling. God, he was terrible at this.

“There was a family of birds—“

“Doggies.”

“Okay, doggies. There was a family of doggies. There was the Mama Doggie, the Dadda Doggie and Doggie.”

“Doggie needs a name, Daddy.”

“Okay, the dog’s name is—“

“Fleetfoot. Now tell me the rest of the story.”

And Rowan would do, if Maisie hadn’t slept halfway through it.

Which left him time to think about his day. And Aelin. And how they needed to talk about what Maisie said today during dinner. Rowan already knew what he had to do, though. He needed to distance himself from Aelin. Boundaries, like she always says. Forget about the fact that this had already been his goal for a good part of the last five years.

TAG LIST

@aelinchocolatelover

@autumnbabylon

@bookcide

@cookiemonsterwholovesbooks

@courtofjurdan

@dreamer-133

@elentiyawhitethorn

@elizarikaallen

@fangirlprincess09

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@rowanaelinn

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@wishfulimaginings

#rowaelin #throne of glass fanfic #throne of glass #aelin x rowan #aelin galathynius #rowan whitethorn #rowan and aelin #look at us now #enemies to lovers

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djpachipikachu · 7 months ago

Note

omgomg i’m so interesting in you usagi/tmnt iteration!!!

okok first what’s like.. the starting point/inciting incident of the story if there is one?

second what are the characters personalities/inerests like?

HAIIII excitedly kicking my legs

the start of the main plot is when usagi goes back in time and is forced into the tmnt’s era of time ,,, he accidentally comes across an ancient relic in the woods with spot (these woods are made of massive ancient trees with equally expansive entangled roots , like if the ocean itself had been a forest instead of filled with water it is kinda horrifying) and it takes him and spot back to the tmnt era , before the relic itself was even created

i do plan on making a comic for this so it wont start out immediately like that but itll have some like . oneshots/episodic comics of usagi’s adventures before that happens, similar to usagi yojimbo’s way of storytelling

PERSONALITIES!!!! WEEHEEE!!!!!

usagi:

most similar to usagi yojimbo, a mature but still like . silly kinda guy ! in the usagi era he takes joy in chatting with people he meets on his travels, incredibly polite, loves to tell stories of myths and gods to children

although most of his days are spent alone with spot , his steed (spot is like horse sized)

he tends not to attach to people or things very much because he knows how easy it is to lose everything, so as much as he enjoys talking to people, he keeps his distance.

he doesnt dedicate himself to being a hero or anything … he will help if he feels people need the help but all hes really trying to do is survive on his own

hes basically like a formless side character . forced bystander in this story

its for the character development i promise

leo:

cold

hes the leader/general of an army, a bit harsh in his personality, doesnt want to be approachable or get close with anyone

hes stern and quiet and kind of a workaholic, his brothers think he needs a life outside of being a leader and Only a leader

tired ! so very tired !

a lot of shit that he internalizes

however a very strong leader and strategist, he is well trusted by those who follow him and they know that his main priority is to get everyone out Alive, more than fight for their cause

he protects fiercely , just insanely bad at showing it . the worst at social things out of all his brothers easily

forced to be an adult at a young age so he never rly got the chance to form a personality outside of his responsibilities

she likes reading in her lonesome though

raph:

PASSIONATE ! ABOUT MANY THINGS !

theyre the sibling that goes out the most and interacts with people on personal levels the most out of everyone ! they have a good rep in the general yokai public !

they do have problems with anger but a lot of the time they channel it into training newbie recruits , the main motivational speaker , they know how to encourage and pump ppl up

a bit recklessly bouncy in how they fight, imagine rottmnt mikey’s energy with mutant mayhem raph’s enjoyment of fighting

the most down to earth out of all their siblings . arguably the most mentally stable out of necessity

they love feeding pigeons and they teach lion dancing to a children’s dance group in the city !

donnie:

obnoxiously gen z . good god . insanely chronically online . most similar to mutant mayhem donnie

he doesnt go out like whatsoever Partially bc he has chronic fatigue syndrome and its easier for him to just stay home, partially bc his brothers are over protective of him and dont want him fighting in the war

so he helps from afar, piloting drones, targeting firearms into battle, building gear for everyone

he likes engaging in arguments online . most exciting thing to him . little fuckass teenager this guy

kendra is his worst online enemy and rival but also like . his only friend . rly sad . joking is his coping mechanism

he loves researching and learning things, it takes up most of his time when he finds a topic to extensivelt research and take notes on

his main interests are the usual coding, engineering, etc As well as the inner workings of mystic power

mikey:

most sociable next to raph !! a very altruistic spirit

he’s most similar to idw mikey i think , most upbeat and relaxed kinda nature !

However . he’s not at all as emotionally aware as any other iteration mikey

he’s very strong in his opinions, stubborn about being right, can very easily fall into a black and white point of view about things, its hard to get thru to him

he loves to dance the most, its how he uses his mystic power

whew okay yeah they might not be the Most accurate bc im still ironing out the main traits but here they areee

#dj ramblings #tmnt #tmnt iteration #tmnt fan iteration #asks 4 dj #uuau

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flowerandblood · 1 year ago

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You put many thoughts on how complicated your characters are? Lemme tell you what no one from echo chamber called your blind fans won't ever come up to: they are not. Let's take lady B. She is this girl who her father treats like a son but that's where her symilarities to Arya stop. She is weak, doesn't know how to fight (whether with sword or with her schemes), unable to defy Aemond at anything, ends up manipulated every single time, has no idea how to use her feminine charm to get him to do what she wants, generally speaking as someone who is described as being raised in not typical manner for westeros girls she is just astonishingly idiotic, not to mention how you constantly present her as object, sexualise her, give her no agency besides Aemond's sex toy and her story is not heartwarming at all. It's just another story about naive girl being used by her husband in medieval society, the same as many popular aemond fics writers have done before. Honestly do you all consult each other and collectively decide to write the same thing with only changing oc's house (Baratheon/Targaryen/Strong/Velaryon) and keeping the plot the same or you just shamelessly copy each other's ideas for stories and present them as your own when there could be found lots of fics similar to yours in terms of the plot both on tumblr and ao3? I'm aware you could have newbie's reading your stories so they won't notice this, but I have been reading Aemond's fics since the show aired and unfortunately for you I have good memory and when I think of our fics I am reminded of at least 5 with Baratheon reader written before you started to write your own. Should I report you to all this wonderful people who have been there before you of your behaviour or will you come clean and say your stories are inspired by certain fics? Or should I send you fics who are nearly the same as your own so everyone will see what a terrible liar and even worse copist are you?

Okay, this is ridiculous.

Lady B - she should use her charm, but not in the sexual way. So in which way? Smile to him??? He should say not to Aemond and do what? Got hit in the face? She can fight, and she is not Arya. She doesn't want to be boy, she is just close with her brother and father. She wasn't prepare for her role as a wife. She try to survive ad best as she can. 🥲

Are kidding me? Baratheon fem! Reader belongs to first person who write fic with Baratheon female character or what? Of course the same themes and characters will appear, it's the same universe for Christ sake. I didn't read any fic with Baratheon fem before writing my fic and you know what? Send my fic to anyone you want and tell them whatever you want. What you're saying is just babbling, because I know that not a single sentence was copied from anyone. 😘

You won't threat me in my space. Why you're reading my fics if you don't like them? I'm surprised you have energy to write bullshit like that and think that you will make me sad. I have more readers than ever, more and more every day and I'm happy that some of them are waiting for new chapters from me. As for you - read fics by your favorite writers and block me instead of write to me anons like a coward. 💐

#kisses

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taomyou · 1 year ago

Text

The Romance of Reimbursements - Chapter 1

Pairing: Levi Ackerman x Reader Status: COMPLETED Summary: There’s a guy you see every Friday on bus 143, and you think he’s pretty hot. It wouldn't hurt to tell your best friend about him, would it? or, you and Levi take the same bus home from work every Friday, and you fall in love slowly, clumsily, and with all the time in the world to fold as many paper stars as your heart desires. Word Count: 5.3k Tags: slow burn, friends to lovers, modern au, office au, fluff, romance, meet-cute, matchmaking

(A/N: this fic is already completed and entirely available on ao3 here if you would like to read it. i am currently in the process of crossposting everything to tumblr, so please be patient!)

Chapter Navigation Accompanying Playlist

a bird keychain

“Thank you for helping me today! Have a good weekend,” Armin beams at you, sending you off with a wave.

You shoot him a small smile and a wave back before turning on your heel to go for the door. On the way out, you keep your briefcase tucked under your left arm as you wave with both hands to the rest of the people still on the floor.

Once the door behind you is shut and you’re out of your coworkers’ view, you let a smaller, more bashful smile break out on your face as you make your way over to the elevator. Your shoulders loosen up, and you find yourself taking lighter steps. Your arms are swinging freely, not paying any mind to how idiotic you might look. Ordinarily, you'd be walking normally when you clock out, so what has you acting so different today?

Well, it’s Friday, and Friday is when that guy on your bus is there.

✰

You first saw him in September, right around when Armin, Eren, and Mikasa started at your firm.

You remember Erwin begging you to give up your parking spot for Armin; it wasn’t hard to forget when the tall, usually levelheaded man got on his literal knees to ask you to find a different ride to the firm. You worked at a fairly busy downtown building with its own parking structure, but it wasn’t big enough to hold both client and employee cars.

Erwin was only able to negotiate a number of spots for your department, and, even then, most of them were reserved for clients. Erwin reasoned that Armin drove Eren and Mikasa to work, so it would be more logical for a spot to be given to them instead of having you, who drove only yourself, own it.

At the time, you didn’t know them all that well yet. They were freshly hired interns, the lot of them, and you had only worked with Mikasa so far. You were inclined to refuse Erwin, but seeing him on his knees was so… pathetic, and so you found yourself giving him a polite smile and saying you'd try to figure out a new ride.

Part of you also felt bad because Armin had already gotten ticketed 5 times by city security for parking at a client parking spot, and Mikasa had already asked you on several occasions where Armin could park without getting fined (to which you told her, "I don't know any better than you do. Before I got my parking space, I got so many parking tickets that I just stopped counting them.")

You and Erwin weren’t super close. Friends, sure, but you never interacted much outside of work. He was your work superior, and even if he was kind and cordial with you, he was like that with everyone. Perhaps he was more so with you because you were an intern around the same time he was starting out after coming from a different firm.

As the two “newbies,” the two of you would eat lunch together in the breakroom when the other coworkers got into heated arguments about workplace politics on the main floor. You'd eat in silence for a bit to ease out the stress from work, but you’d both talk about random things you did over the weekend when you had extra time before you had to go back to your desks.

You didn’t really peg him as the sort of guy to be into Gundam building, but most of the stories he told you from these small lunch breaks were about what figures he had in progress at home or how hard it was to find a certain model he wanted. You usually talked about the new recipe you tried that weekend or what you had planned for the next week, and he seemed as interested as he could for a guy who knew next to nothing about baking.

Back then, you always brought food from the family-owned Chinese takeout place across the street because... well, you were a struggling grad student without enough time to make lunch for yourself to bring. You'd make little paper stars for Erwin with the chopstick wrappers you got there whenever you saw him after lunch (even when you didn't eat together).

He found it odd at first, but you explained that they were good luck charms (and that you had a habit of folding them for people any time you got your hands on a long strip of paper).

It was a peaceful thing—what you two had going on.

Just two coworkers who ate lunch and talked to each other sometimes. That went on for a long time until those others coworkers went on to other departments or other firms, and the two of you were promoted into your respective positions now and got too busy to have lunch anywhere besides your desks.

Well, more like he got promoted and you were hired full-time after graduation.

And even though there was less time for the two of you to talk like before, when he first showed you his new office, you didn't miss the small jar of white-with-red-lettering paper stars sitting at the edge of his work desk.

Either way, no matter how tight you were with Erwin, you were left without a parking spot now.

He practically leapt to his feet in joy when you said you’d at least try to find a way around it, and he apologized profusely for asking you to give up your spot. He knew you lived relatively far since you had to drive 30 minutes to get to work everyday, so he promised to get you an unlimited-use pass for the bus if you weren’t able to find a ride at the firm, which you took him up on, not wanting to bother your other coworkers with the inconvenience of picking you up from a neighborhood far from the building.

He also promised to give you a spot as soon as he was able to negotiate another one for the department, and you forced him to link pinkies with you to seal the deal.

Now, you weren’t inexperienced taking the bus.

You took it every day in university, only getting a car the summer before your first year in law school. Even if it had been 5 years since then, you figured it wouldn’t be any different. Erwin did promise he’d get you a spot again soon, and you knew him to be a man of his word.

Besides, gas prices were crazy—maybe you’d be better off giving your wallet a break for a while.

The day you first took bus 143, you were wearing an outfit you wouldn’t normally wear to work.

Erwin was the only superior working in the office that day, seeing as the others were off at some conference in the next town over, and he was fine with you wearing whatever you wanted to—within reason, of course. You had on a nice pink two piece blazer and skirt, as well as a white blouse underneath it.

You also remember your outfit because Petra, another one of your coworkers, complimented your outfit and asked if the two of you could go clothes shopping together sometime. You promised to invite her the next time you went out shopping, remembering that she was nearing her first anniversary with her boyfriend Oluo (who worked on the floor above you), and that she’d maybe want your help choosing an outfit.

On the walk to the bus stop, you weren’t nervous at all.

You already looked over the bus route several times at work during your breaks. It was quite the convenient route—you only needed to take one bus, and your apartment was only a 5 minute walk from the stop after the 45-minute ride.

You spent the earlier parts of the week at another office in a different building (with actual parking) because Erwin had sent you to handle some business there, so that explained why you didn’t have to take the bus until the tail end of the week. You had breakfast with Hange that Friday, so you didn’t have to figure out the logistics of actually getting to work since they dropped you off, but you’d figure it out next week.

"Get home safe! Text me when you're home!" They yelled for you through their rolled-down window.

It was good that you waited until Friday to try the bus anyway. You got out early on Fridays, so if you took the wrong bus or got off at the wrong stop, there would still be time to figure out the right way to get home. You were hardly worried about it, but it was nice to know that the sun would still be out if you ended up stranded.

You checked the time on your phone; 3:02 PM. You heard the screech of the tires seconds later, and you went to scan the card Erwin gave you earlier that week.

Well, curse you for thinking the ride would be normal.

It wasn’t until you actually got on the bus that you felt nervous.

After you settled into your seat and put your briefcase on your lap, you saw an admittedly really hot guy sitting right across from you.

He was clad in a neat suit, not unlike the ones the men at your work wore. He had a neat pair of cuff links pinned on his dress shirt and what looked like a watch peeked out from under his sleeve. His hair was trimmed neatly in an undercut, and it looked so impossibly soft and shiny. And even though he was looking down at his phone, you could still see his face quite well. His lips were downturned, his features were sharp and strong, and, worst of all...

His eyes were gorgeous.

They looked to be some shade of blue. Maybe even grey? Silver? You hadn’t even seen them fully yet, and your heart was already starting to race.

You didn’t even want to imagine how you would feel if you made eye contact with him.

You didn’t need to be knocked out of your staring. You knew it would be weird to stare any longer than you already had been, so you busied yourself on your phone while fighting off the blush you felt blooming on your face.

You occasionally stole glances at him throughout the ride, pretending that you were looking out the window he sat in front of, but your eyes never lingered on him for fear of getting caught. He never seemed to look back up at you though, so maybe he didn’t care that you were even there in front of him.

You were grateful for your choice in outfit, since you felt quite pretty in it—you wouldn't want such a handsome stranger to think you had poor fashion taste. Not that he probably cared. He didn't seem to look in your direction at all.

You were grateful he didn't look at you. Well... some part of you was grateful he didn't.

You had gotten bored of switching between the random games you had on your phone, so you took note of his bag. You were so entranced by his face that you hadn't even taken a look at his backpack yet, almost 30 minutes after you got on the bus in the first place.

It wasn't unlike the one you used in university and grad school—simple, black, practical.

What caught your eye, however, was a bird keychain looped onto the outermost zipper. It looked like some sort of white dove, but you didn't know anything about birds, really, so you couldn't guess what kind it was.

It was... cute. It didn't seem to really match him, but you suppose it added to the mystery of him. Maybe his girlfriend gave it to him? It seemed like it could be part of a matching set.

Before your brain could even wrap itself around the idea that this stranger could've been already taken, the bus stopped at 3:40 PM, and he got up from his seat, and left the bus without so much as a sound.

The rest of the ride was a bit of a haze.

You remember you got off the bus 2 stops later, walked the short route to your apartment, and put down your briefcase at your dining table after opening the door. You walked over to your cupboard and grabbed a mug, then you moved over to the fridge to take out a chilled pitcher of water you had in there. As you filled the mug, you felt a quiet bloom in your chest.

In the privacy of your own home, you finally let the blush you’ve been fighting finally reach your face in full, and it seemed that even your cold water couldn’t cool you off. After taking off your heels, you went over to the bathroom to start taking off your makeup.

The first time you looked in the mirror after taking bus 143, your face was alarmingly red.

What was up with you? You saw attractive men all the time, and you'd never been this flustered before. It had to be the mystery of a stranger, right? You splashed water onto your face, trying to calm down your burning cheeks. Hell, even your ears were red.

After you removed your makeup and got dressed in some home clothes, you plopped yourself down on your couch and groaned. This wasn’t you. You weren’t one to even care for looks all that much in partners, and you were all hot for a guy you didn’t even get to make eye contact with.

You decided then that the stranger on bus 143 would be someone you didn't think of outside of the 40 minute-ish ride you just shared. You’d probably never even see him again anyway.

And you were right. You didn’t see him that following Monday. Not on the ride to work, not on the ride home.

When you didn’t see him on Tuesday, you figured he would just be gone forever, and he could stay someone you could form an answer around if someone asked what your type was.

Truth be told, you probably didn’t even have a type. Your university days were filled with LSAT cramming and trying to figure out where you wanted your life to go, and when you got into law school, the academic rigor was too much for you to even consider having a crush on someone. Now, as a practicing attorney, you were able to relax a tiny bit, and you certainly had more time than when you were a student, but you didn’t have any particular interest in dating. People were attractive, sure, but that had more to do with their charms than it did their appearance.

The week continued as normal, with Erwin popping by your desk more than usual to ask about how it’s been taking the bus. He sounded just about ready to give up his own spot given how guilty he sounded, but you reassured him that he was probably the only person in the department that absolutely needed to have his car on him.

Armin, Eren, and Mikasa offered to grab lunch for you (seeing as you didn’t have a car to go out for food anymore), and you spent that entire week eating with them in your office.

You were glad that they were able to explore the city a bit more now that they didn’t have to worry about parking, and it was nice to be able to have lunch with someone else. You hadn't had lunch with anyone since Petra started going to the upper floor to have lunch with Olou. The three of them seemed to really appreciate you giving them their spot too, even going as far as to try and pay for your lunches that week, but you just waved them off and explained you had more than enough money. They weren’t too much younger than you—just 3 years younger—but you knew better than to let them waste even more of their money on downtown food that was already overpriced.

By the time Friday came around, you had completely forgotten about the man on the bus, and your days were filled with paperwork, meeting with clients, and having lunch with your new favorite interns.

Imagine your surprise when, a whole week later, you saw him again, sitting at the exact same spot as last time.

You guess you didn't consider he only takes the bus on Fridays. Or maybe just at a different time, since you got off of work at 5 on other days of the week. Either way, you avoided looking at him altogether to save face, but you still felt a bit of heat reach your face at just the thought of him being there.

When you got home, you went through the same motions as last Friday.

Splashing your face with water, looking at yourself red as a tomato, and groaning into your couch cushions to curse the universe for making such a perfect looking man.

After the fourth Friday you see him, you accept that this is just how your weekly encounters with the devilishly handsome stranger will go.

You don't even get to decide whether or not the stranger on bus 143 ends up becoming someone you think about every week.

✰

You sigh as you step into your apartment, letting your blush settle just as it does every Friday.

The air has gotten colder now that it's January, and you're grateful you wore a scarf today to both shield you from the cold and hide your blush. After hanging your scarf over one of the chairs in the dining room, you head immediately into the bathroom to get a quick check at your reflection, not even bothering to try to get the red to go away. You just empty out your pockets on the countertop, not wanting to deal with the discomfort of your items pushing into your skin in a few seconds.

You know all too well that you need to go take a breather on your couch to cool your face, so you just head over and throw yourself into your cushions, groaning and kicking your legs. In your anguish, you hear the faint ringing of your phone from the bathroom. You barely register it as your phone, but once you do, you bolt up off the couch and rush to the sound and pick up without checking the caller ID.

"Hello?" You say into your mic, bringing your phone up to your ear and trying to sound as neutral as possible.

"Hi! Can I come over?" You immediately recognize the voice as Hange's, so you relax into yourself again.

Before you even try thinking of an answer, you go back to your couch and flop onto it again. You move one of the pillows under your chin and shift around so you're lying on your stomach. Your phone's on the couch itself, and your hands keep your face propped up.

"Huh? Why? Aren't you at work?"

"Do I need a reason to see you? I miss you, and I got out early today!"

You shake your head with a small smile. Leave it up to Hange to joke with you.

"Hange, you live 2 doors down from me, I see you every morning. I got breakfast with you yesterday too!"

You can almost see them nervously smiling and scratching the back of their neck at your comment.

"Still! Can I come hang out? I've been craving some of your cookies, and you haven't made them in so long!"

"What cookies are you talking about this time?"

"I'm feeling like snickerdoodle today."

You roll your eyes, starting to get up. "Yeah. Yeah, you can come. If you're already at my door, it's unlocked."

There's a beep from your phone, indicating that the call's over.

Sure enough, Hange comes through your door in record time and saunters across the entryway and living room to give you a hug.

"Hange! Shoes!" You chastise. You return their hug, nonetheless, and they just laugh wholeheartedly.

They pull away from you before taking off their shoes and walking over to the shoe rack to drop them off. "Sorry! I got too excited thinking about the cookies. Besides, it's been forever since we hung out on a Friday!"

Lately, they've been staying late at their lab on Fridays. Something about some new scientific discovery and wanting the lab to themselves to research.

Oh well, such is the life of a scientist.

"How'd you even finish so early? You're usually at work until night on Fridays."

They laugh and motion for you to move over to the kitchen. They rest their face in their hands at the countertop, and you go to a cupboard to start grabbing ingredients and tools for the cookies they wanted. "Some other guys are staying late to work on a project, so I figured I'd head home after lunch. I got a snickerdoodle ad when I was—wait! Why's your face all red? Are you sick?"

At the mention of your apparently still-present blush, you look up at Hange to see them lean even closer to you.

"What? No, I'm not sick."

"Are you sure? You look really red, even your ears are pink."

You turn away from Hange as quickly as you can to avoid their gaze, opting to go to the fridge and get the rest of the things you need for the cookies. "Don't worry about it. It's nothing."

And just like that, you can almost hear the smile break out on their face.

"Holy shit! Do you like someone?"

You stop moving, milk carton in hand. You quietly shift to put it on the counter before turning back to get the eggs.

Your silence is probably more than enough to get Hange to keep going.

"So you do like someone! Who is it? Who!?"

Your face heats up at Hange's comment, and even though you have all the ingredients out and ready to go, you suddenly feel too shy to start. "I don't like anyone. You're making things up. Seeing things, too."

To that, they just straight up laugh in your face.

"You got even redder! Of course you like someone! Who is it? Is it one of those interns at your firm? Nothing's hotter than an office romance!"

You make a face of disgust at them and decide to start weighing out what you need. "God, no! They're all so young!"

"Well, they're the only people you talk about nowadays, I figured it'd be one of them. It's not your senior at work, is it?"

"No, it's not him. I barely even talk about him, I think I only brought him up when I was talking about how I had to give up my parking spot a couple months ago."

"Well, who is it? Is it me? I can keep a secret," they tease, continuing to badger you.

You roll your eyes at that and sigh.

It wouldn't be so bad to tell Hange about him, would it?

Besides, there's no way you actually like him. No, you don't even know him. You just... think he's pretty hot.

That's all.

Maybe they'd drop it if you explained it was just a stranger you saw every week. Maybe actually telling someone about it would help you not feel as anxious having to see him every week. It wasn't like you actually liked fussing over a man you didn't know.

You've been mindlessly mixing the ingredients together, now switching over from a whisk to a spatula to get the wet and dry parts combined.

You know Hange's gonna get you talking at some point, so probably better to just rip the band-aid off now.

"There's this guy on the bus. I think he's attractive, that's all," you mutter. Hange seems to light up at the information, and the excited cheer from them tells you that you maybe didn't make the greatest choice telling them about your bus guy.

"Well, tell me about him! What's he like? Have you talked to him? What's his name?" You nervously laugh at their questions and sort of bitterly continue mixing the dough.

"I've got no idea. He just sits there, looks pretty, and gets off, like, two stops before the one I do."

They whistle, not seeming to care that you knew nothing about him. "He's gotta be a real looker if he's got your attention with just that! You're gorgeous, your kids together would be beautiful! Describe him to me, maybe I know him!"

You scoff at that, reaching over the counter to give them a playful punch to the shoulder. "No fucking way, Hange. There's no way you know him."

"If you're so sure of that, then tell me!"

You dramatically groan, wanting to play up your frustration, but it's nice that Hange's so invested in this to keep asking questions.

The two of you met 5 years ago, about a month before your first year of law school started.

You struggled to get your couch up the stairs, and they laughed at you for a good minute or two before helping you up.

Turns out, they only lived 2 doors down and were excited to get a new neighbor their age because, quote, "all the people on this floor are old and grumpy!" It worked out that they wanted to hang out so often because you didn't know anyone in the area yet, and you probably would've become a hermit without them to drag you around.

Hange was doing their master's program, though, so it's not like you went out all the time.

On nights where they had too much on their plate, you'd come over with a batch of cookies and your textbooks so they wouldn't feel so lonely working alone. When you were crammed, they'd come over with some poorly brewed coffee and their laptop so the two of you could watch a bad movie when you were done studying. When you both graduated, you shifted to doing more homely activities, like doing laundry together or meeting up to buy furniture, but the two of you still met regularly outside of when you'd bump into each other in the morning on the way to work.

It was nice to have a friend who accepted you as you were. You knew too that they had a larger friend group that met every so often, but Hange never forced you to join them on their nights out. They'd ask, you'd decline, and they'd happily come back sometime later, usually the next day, and talk all about all the fun things they did. It wasn't that you didn't want other friends.. It was just daunting to try and become apart of a group of friends who've known each other for what seemed like forever.

You made other friends in grad school and later at work, but having Hange at your side throughout all the changes of the past couple years was greatly comforting, even if the two of you didn't really know each other's friends beyond quick descriptions and stories.

To hell with it, there's no way Hange knows this guy. They're right, it wouldn't matter if you told them what he looked like.

You grab some plastic wrap from the far side of the counter and start transferring your dough onto it.

"Alright. Let me put this in to chill first, and we can gossip on the couch."

They almost look surprised, but they get over it pretty quickly and rush over to the couch, making a big show out of getting comfortable. You roll your eyes yet again and close up the plastic wrap around the dough, turning to open the fridge and chuck it in.

"Hurry up! I wanna hear all about him!"

You walk over to them with a shy smile, and when you sit down, you wrap the blanket around yourself before turning to face them.

"Well, what do you wanna know?"

"Everything! But let's start with appearance! What color's his hair? What does he wear when you see him?" Your face starts to burn up yet again at the image of him in your head, but you figure you can bear with it while you talk to Hange.

"His hair's black. It's styled in an undercut. He's usually wearing a suit, but he's probably just coming home from work or something."

Hange seems to be a bit surprised again, but instead of lingering on it, they move on quickly to the next question. "And his face?"

"I've never really gotten a good look at it since he's always looking down, but his eyes are this really pretty grey. I.. don't really know how to describe faces without sounding stupid."

Hange's just eating this up, aren't they? They look like they're racking their brain for other questions, so you figure you could tell them about his keychain to give them some more time to think about what to ask next.

"He has a bird keychain on his backpack, it's pretty cute! It's white, and-"

"Did you just say bird keychain?" Hange interrupts, eyes seemingly boring into your soul. You nod slowly.

"Yeah? Does that mean something to you?"

Instead of answering, Hange goes to their back pocket to take out their phone. After some swiping and tapping, they hand you their phone. On the screen is a picture of... a bird keychain? It's pretty blurry, but it looks just like the one that guy on the bus had.

"Hange, you're messing with me. You just googled a picture of a white bird keychain and got lucky, right?"

You see them shake their head, and it takes you a second to process what that could mean.

"Please tell me you're fucking with me. Please tell me you have no idea who I'm talking about." You stare at them intensely, waiting for an answer from them.

"You take the 143, right?"

You nod slowly.

Instead of asking another question, they break out into a huge smile and tackle you into a hug, squealing excitedly. "I totally know who you're crushing on! Oh gosh, I gotta introduce you to each other immediately! You two would be so good together!"

Well, at least you know now he's single.

"I told you, I don't like him! He's just someone I see on the bus!"

They let go of you but keep their hands on your shoulders, that shit-eating grin still on their face.

"Darling, I'm not letting you get out of this one! Oh, this is perfect! We're having dinner on Sunday, you have to come!"

Before you can even protest, Hange starts rambling on about the details (most of which fly over your head) while animatedly moving their hands.

You knew how hard Hange went when it came to things they wanted. They worked relentlessly in their master's program, they were in charge of setting up plans for their friend group, and they even got your landlord to lower the rent a couple years back.

There was no way you could stop them from dragging you to this dinner. You knew that you really weren't going to "get out of this one," whatever that meant.

Better to accept your fate than fight it, you guess.

But... even though you know you'll be embarrassed to death and you'll probably have to figure out a new bus route to completely avoid this guy after whatever shenanigans Hange's bound to pull, you somehow don't regret telling them about him. They look so happy just thinking about you coming to dinner with them (who even is them?), and you don't have the heart to refuse them and break that joy. They'd never pressured you before into hanging out with their other friends before, so... maybe this could make up for you never taking up their offer to go out with the group.

Or maybe you could figure out how to change your identity and move continents by Sunday.

Yeah, maybe you could do that instead.

But first, you'll have to finish baking those stupid snickerdoodle cookies for Hange.

✰

Next Chapter

#levi ackerman #levi ackerman x reader #levi x reader #attack on titan #levi aot #tao.levi #the romance of reimbursements

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vulpiximisa · 3 months ago

Text

im too old for this but ok

I wasn't sure if I was going to write a whole length review of the series since I pretty much blew through it in a span of two days. Which means that I didn’t care enough for it to linger but at the same time, means that the content was good/interesting enough for me to want to consume it immediately.

Came in for seiyuu reasons, didn’t necessarily leave with anything I didn’t expect, but I got what I wanted I guess.

First off to say I didn’t do too much research on this aside from the two seiyuu that I came in for. Saw some glimpses that it’s based off a game series, which are usually hit or misses.

From the get go, I was pretty impressed by the quality of the art. I’m not sure if I mean animation as well, but I guess I’m just astounded by the fact that there are two tones in the shading. I can’t hate the CG monsters too much because the humans look good where they are.

Man, I know I’m not the target audience for this show, this series, but I can’t help laughing at how chunnibyou it is. I mean, the fact that everything is taken so seriously, that wielding giant sword guns is supposed to be cool, we got a high commanding woman with a boob window and a lady jumping into battle with a giant gattling gun dressed like she has to make it to a formal party afterwards. Don’t get me started on Alisa.

Okay I didn’t mean to jump into the male gaze fanservice part first, I wanted to start with how “killing monsters in an apocalyptic world” is such a thing that impresses 10 year olds. Lenka doesn’t help, as he feels like Eren Jaeger but everyone wants to suck his dick. (I actually haven’t watched an actual ep of AOT so I don’t actually know.) Newbie comes in claiming he wants to kill all Aragami (young war soldier analogy?), gets a weapon that is immediately “the special one”, stupid kid jumps in where he’s not authorized because he “wants to help people” and then gets shown that he really doesn’t know anything. The only other New Type is a genius cool girl who knows what she’s doing, he sees some tricks and automatically learns how to do the same. Also he gets to sit in with the commander and somehow makes better battle decisions for her even though he hasn't actually been in many battles. He’s trusted with high rank missions. He’s what every 10 year old boy wishes they were, probably.

Okay, I don’t particularly Hate Lenka, but he hasn’t done so much for me. He is righteous and kind and cares for people but the way the series keeps making him soooo important and cool kinda sucks. I actually started liking Lenka during the whole encounter with Pita, where Alisa was rendered useless but the two stuck out for each other. Where Lenka’s God Arc breaks and he literally gets stabbed and watches more people die right in front of him. Ngl I thought the series could have made a turning point, Lenka actually dying and making way for another protagonist (Kota) djdjdmdmxmxm

I came in for Kota and Soma for seiyuu reasons so of course that’s who I’m keeping my eyes on. Kota’s intro is soooo “the cool friend bro who gets killed in front of protag’s eyes that drives him to become stronger”. So I was kind of surprised he didn’t die 😂😂😂 I mean, Kota didn’t do so much either, we do see that he’s the plain wimpy guy that eventually tries to get stronger and even if he “grew” a little (developed a bullet), I don’t think the series gave him enough time for it to feel good.

Soma on the other hand, got a whole episode to himself. Was A+ 👍👍👍👌👌 I liked the episode a lot and I can tell he’s a fan favorite. Ngl when Soma, Lindow and Sakuya were introduced, I thought they were a trio (and Eric but rip Eric), so I thought Soma was the same age as the latter two. I didn’t realize he was a teen like Lenka and the rest until his episode 😭 Anyway, I’m glad for Soma opening up, but I also kinda would like to see him chill with the gang more. Not possible given the time and place and the series tone. I think I would have liked a flashback or scene of Lindow and Soma because obviously he was affected by Lindow’s “death”.

So anyway, I came in hoping for Soma and Kota interactions and I got that, so I’m satisfied. 👍 Their early interactions was what I expected their relationship to be, but I’m glad they got a “conclusion” where Soma thanks Kota, even if I thought the Kota bullet scene wasnt even all that impressive. (I’d personally prefer if Kota just did a far range snipe that saved him but whatever.)

As for the other characters, we can all agree that Lindow is the Goat. He’s also had death markers on him since the beginning. I did cry for him tho. (Also me laughing because Hirata and Nakai Kazuya in the same place but not butting heads with each other.)

I don’t hate Alisa, more like I hate the idea of what guys see in her. Like her character design isn’t even bad (the hat and plaid is cute but they really could have given her an undershirt, like girl nipslips….), but I literally laughed out loud when she was shivering from the rain after getting separated and Lenka lended his cloak to her like Girl Of Course You’re Cold. I can’t tell if her character arc was concluded or not (I guess? If Lenka snapped her out of it by Being Lindow) but I’m glad Lindow had an impact on her as well that she was able to break away from the mind wash propaganda.

I guess the story itself isn’t anything I’m really into but I like how you get the glimpses of The Three Scientists, who we recognize and it slowly unraveling as we go through the current events. I’m glad there wasn’t a stupid love triangle and that the third guy wasn’t the crazy one, and that he’s actually the “good one”. More surprising is that Paylor is allowed to be in Fenrir and Johannes didn’t like try to kill him to silence him or anything.

Anyway, I think we all been know that Aegis isn’t actually a safe underground haven to save all of humanity. (whathaveibeenfoghtingfooorrrr) I’m not too invested that I’d pick up the games or anything to see the rest of the story.

I like the message of passing on hope, even if the fight feels meaningless. I was hoping Lenka would give the little girl Lindow’s compass, as a You’re Next sign, if she could be like the protag of the next game or something but that never happened.

Uhhh I have it an 8 on MAL, which is pretty high for me. I think the vibes and tone of the series is sound, the ost isn’t my jam but fits with what it’s trying to portray. Of course OldCodex fits right in for the OP. I haven’t played the games but I think this is a pretty good anime adaptation, if only just by appearance.

#pixi watches anime #re god eater

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yvesdeparfum · 7 months ago

Text

yves - fromm log July 2024

translations from Litell_Johnn unless otherwise noted

071524

Yves:

After nail shop I went shopping at Muji and as I came out I met two Engdus in a row How did they recognize me I was squatting down on the street Took photos holding all the stuff I bought ㅋ But usually At places like Daiso or Muji I can be found often I'm an unofficial ambassador '🍎 I'm an unofficial eatbassador at 60 Chicken' Amazing You like chicken?

[6 minutes later]

When's my food cominggg Gonna eat with Buldak '🍎 I'm an unofficial ambassador at Juno Hair. Last year I went at least once a month and sometimes twice' Agh so funny I see everyone has at least one ambassador deal

[5 minutes later]

I'm a house ambassador also My endorphins activate when I get home

071824

Right I'm gong on Oneuniverse.ᐟ.ᐟ.ᐟ.ᐟ.ᐟ I wanna meet Tyla-nim too.. I will practice hard for the festival So that I will not ruin it,,, Let's gogogogogoooo

I see the vlog went downㅜ! Apparently it will probably go up tomorrow because of English subtitling.ᐟ Sorry ㅜㅜ.ᐟ '🍎 I saw a bit of the start and this vlog seems to be edited by Sooyoung-nim, is that right?' Yes I respect the editor-nims so much…. Huuuuueng ㅜ So you saw it already 🥴 So fast..?! You saw the whole thing? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I was worried it was no fun as I was making it Gowon just appears Haaa now you're looking forward to it more Don't It's honestly so low-quality Sobb Thanks Wait for tomorrow Also my fingernail got bent today while lifting a package ㅜ Blood streaming down But The bleeding stopped ㅋ Hang in there until festival, fingernail I'm going to another Yveslog filming tomorrow I'll send some Shop Makeup Yibu selfies

071824

Yves:

'🍎 I ate Qooqoo today' Haaa Takes me back to the days when I worked at the Airport Market Qooqoo location Every day I'd be like Ahh ... I burned another one... As I scooped a waffle onto the tray and I'd eat it I'm sorry

[4 minutes later]

Darn it I was telling a funny story Phone turned off So we weren't allowed to serve burnt ones So every day I'd be like "Welp, sure looks like I burned that..." and I would eat one at a time.. I'm sorry But I really worked hard Branch manager-nim No or I'd say I burned it but I didn't Right Back in my day the minimum wage used to be 6k or 7k.. It's all faint~~ in my memory At Shinsa Middle School? Was it I also worked at the Shinjeon Tteokbokki there We'd get entertainment agency orders and stuff The time I saw Kim Yeon-koung-nim was when I worked at Hongdae Dongburi near Hongik University Station I see that there are many newbie Engdus here Everyone don't leave meeeeeee I'll be good to you sobb '🍎 After you finished work at Hongdae did you hit up the food spots??' No Back in my day, after my shift they would be filming Street Date or whatever it was called for Entertainment Weekly and I'd have to wade through all the people

Yves:

'🍎 Did you join the Loona agency through casting or did you audition there' 1 I went to audition through an Incheon vocal academy > rejected 2 Went to the company's open auditions > they cut off right before my turn because they had too many people 3 Auditioned at Gangnam Dream Vocal > rejected A month later, around 10 o'clock, I was leaving academy to go to my acting lesson My instructor said, "The director at the company you didn't get into said he wants to see you again tomorrow~" I went there and it was Byeonggi director-nim I passed on the spot there Then I prepared for debut Right so in the reject folder I was in that pile and he picked me back out As expected of Father Byeonggi director-nim even sent me a massive bouquet when I debuted ㅜㅜ 🥹💗 This is really a secret but It's a secret so I won't do it When I decided to start over as a soloist I called Byeonggi director-nim on the phone and I cried my heart out But director-nim also cried. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ That's a secret. I mean I was crying while talking about how At any rate gulp sob I was only able to debut during my hard times because blub gulp of director-nim so sob The meaning of those tears are tears of gratitude, that's what I don't know, I think that's how I felt back then After going through a lot of heartburn When I came across someone who listened to my heart That made me cry ~~~~~

Yves:

But seriously we are all together.. Even though we are scattered We can achieve our new dreams where each of us are now And then we can meet againnnn Loona you unpredictable troublemakers I love you '🍎 On a different topic, I'm actually grateful to the people who provoked Yibu at meetings by saying things like "You can't be a soloist" or "You need to be in a group"! Separately from how precious Loona is, it seems like they (unintentionally 😇) gave you a reason to reawaken yourself' Right! I didn't feel hurt even back then On the inside I was like "Darn it who are you to tell me this.ᐟ" thinking that Well no I did feel a little hurt.. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ But I can just show you going forward Feels new to go down memory lane for the first time in a while I love youuuuuu I don't know if all my feelings will reach you But thank you for caring for me and loving me when I'm such a troublemaker~~~~~~~~~ Thinking back on all this, I realize I really am so happy right now Just like the memorable quote from The Light in Your Eyes, let's live in the present 😊💗 The me of today only exists because of me back then I was so overwhelmingly happy back then, too But I'm even happier now so I don't want to go back~ I'm going to make even happier things happen from now on So it's okay

#yves #sns: fromm #fromm translations #fromm 2024

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trickislanders · 1 year ago

Text

(🍹): Just how long have they been separated? Not long? It’s been so long for him since he came to visit this place that Lognei might’ve lost count of the years! It’s obviously his only sight to tell him once he leaves the place. Beach City welcomes plenty of different gems, places have more and unique buildings far from where he and Garnet are standing, and Beach City lacks gem monsters (personally, he actually missed fighting them), but nonetheless, it’s becoming more peaceful and fun, and it’s not even his birthday yet! What really matters to him is that he reunited with Garnet after a long time of his own adventures fighting with titanic sea beasts, lifting her to the air without care of being genuinely happy, unless someone saw him. It’s embarrassing for someone who's a famous trickster.

“Missed you too, mi fine sparrin’ partner! Hahahaaa! Oh, I mean…” Realizing that he’s out of his depth, the king clears his throat to calm himself down. Man, he secretly wished that he could hug her for a long day without stop, but it’s pretty clear that his loud voice could catch their attention, especially his own personal bodyguards. He gently places her down to rub his head so he can act like he’s not surprised that they meet again. "Of course, I’m Lognei, so it’s my name that everyone recognizes through many years.” Secretly blush a bit.

Hearing the long stories from her life, possibly all day if she’s okay with this suggestion. But the wedding rings on the different sides of her hands are worth hearing about! The wedding day! He’s been missing out on Ruby and Sapphire’s special day as he gently held her hands to stare at the shiny rings. "Well, it’s about time that you two, Ruby and Sapphire, finally get your arms hugging with a big kiss! Some of them say that love's so unbreakable that I could use it as a shield! Also, no surprise that it’s inevitable.” He’s proud of Garnet, Ruby, and Sapphire right now. Next time, he’ll make cake for them.

“Oh, them? Well, they are-“ He pointed his thumb at them to explain who they are, but honestly surprised when they hastily went to Garnet with dual blades right next to her, thinking she’d have intentions to attack them with a hand wave sign, “Watch out, King! She’s got her hand with a sign of danger!” They, of course, don’t trust her, for they have never seen anything like her before. Golems with hard stone cores lived on the island for a very long time and couldn’t even tell if she was a harmless or organized attacker. Before things became battlefield, Lognei slowly moved their blades away from her. “Mi friends, she’s no enemy, just our coordinate tour guide for our very unique trip. And now, as your king, I would like to know about this arcade over there; make sure you win me loads of coins, heh?” He smirky orders them as they nod without hesitation and hop away to the place he orders them. "Heh, it works every time.”

He turns his attention to Garnet when they’re finally alone without anyone staring at him, thinking he’s acting like he’s different from him being the mischievous trickster. “Yeah, they’re obviously the newbies for the job as my personal bodyguards, and likely, they takin’ their jobs quite literally. Oh, oh, right. I’ve never mentioned that part yet. It’s going to be a surprise, too. Ah well, I got the new title, I am the King of the Island! You could see my eyepatch to prove it.” He pointed at his signature on his eyepatch, showing how much time he had to put in to earn that title and role as his adventures went on endlessly. He’s determined that he can brag about it.

@trickywanderer liked for a starter!

A boat had come into Beach City’s port one day, which on the surface was nothing unusual. Fresh food from the ocean came there everyday, and was usually brought ashore by Yellowtail’s family, and sometimes it was boat tours for “dolphin” sightseeing, too. Whatever dolphins were.

But today, there was a boat that was a little more extravagant, causing Garnet to raise an eyebrow underneath her star-shaped glasses. No one arrived to oversee the boat, so it clearly hadn’t been expected. But who should disembark from the boat than somebody that the fusion hadn’t seen in ages.

Somebody that she was thrilled to see again.

“Lognei? Is that you?” Although she had gotten better at freely showing emotion, it still wasn’t something that came easy to her; nevertheless, her joy and a smile shone through upon seeing him. “It’s been forever! How have you been?”

She almost added please don’t tell me you stole that boat, but that could wait. Right now she was too happy to see him again.

#traveling is mi thing (ic)#wonderful strong gem (always together)#//same here! been very busy with my time that it drained me!#//and yeah!#//same goes to him!

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garyroachsanderson · 2 years ago

Note

Will never not get over the bestfriend hcs pls bless us with more🛐 Also love your writing!!

hi thank you!! here’s more

141 - best friend hcs

(requested)

GHOST:

long periods of silence where neither of you say anything, but its comfortable. you’re both doing completely different things but it qualifies as hanging out

if you have a personality similar to him: you didn’t approach him at first, you both kind of orbited around each other. he eventually just started hanging out more, being closer to you in battle, until you both decided to hang around each other. you have his back, he has yours.

if you dont: you probably approached him at first. his personality off out you, but you continued your kindness until he saved you during a mission. from that point on, you became inseparable. he has a soft spot for you and you only.

soap probably tried to befriend you at some point, to which ghost scared him off. its not that he’s obsessive or anything, he just wants soap to piss off and find his own friend, because he knows if you were friends with him he’d get you mindlessly injured at some point.

you passed out during a mission after being shot, and it was the only time the team had ever seen ghost cry. you were fine of course—he just thought you were dead because he didn’t know if you could take a bullet.

awful jokes. terrible jokes, even.

one day, you decided to retaliate.

“ay, l.t.?”

“what?”

“what do you call a soldier who shits himself often?”

“…”

“a LOOtenant.”

“go right to hell.”

SOAP:

blood brothers (siblings?). there has definitely been a point where you shook hands and shared blood

you’re the one who gave him his haircut. he trusted you with a razor, and you buzzed it into a terrible mohawk. he thinks it suits him, and tried playing it off by saying he loves it. now, he chooses to cut it like that

many “why are you buying clothes at the soup store” incidents

as the only one who can understand his accent, you often have to translate for him. though, if you have an accent, it has the same effect as putting two phones with ‘talking tom’ installed on them next to each other.

“i dare you to shout that over comms”

“you always fucking win at uno” (he doesnt know how to play and gets angry)

you unintentionally learned scottish

he definitely wanted to be bffs the second he saw you. he simply thinks you are cool

PRICE:

you are a literal teachers pet

you consistently stand up for him when the conversation turns

def a niece/nephew and crazy uncle type relationship. “(reader) gets to hold the guns because i said so”

you two play so many card games you dream of aces and spades

“and why does (reader) get shotgun? i called it first”

“because they’re better than all of you combined”

terrible old man jokes but kind of funny. you know a lot of like 1960s lingo

if you were to ever be injured it would definitely be a NO NO NO SOAP NO NO NO moment

the reason hes taken such a shining to you is because he thought you were stupid when you joined the ranks. when you saved his ass from SEVERAL attacks, his opinion changed.

ROACH:

rock, paper scissors is your favorite game to play together. he cant often beat you, and spends a lot of time trying to get better, which is why when he hits his head he plays rock paper scissors with himself

you helped him instead of crack jokes when he was a newbie, which is why you’re each other’s favorite. he reminded you of yourself when you were younger

alternatively, you were the newbie after roach. he didnt want you to feel the same shame that he did when he joined, so he protected you from the higher-ups jokes, and you never drifted apart

you’re the only one hes ever actually gotten to tell he was transgender. price saw it in his file, and wanted to name him ‘cockroach’.. but he didnt have one. hes kept it a secret from everyone else, though.

on the day of shepherds betrayal, it was you in ghosts shoes. you actually managed to get a bullet in shepherds heart, but he got you as well. you managed to drag him away into the treeline, and you somehow managed to fucking live.

once again, same room! price thought it was only fair.

he has a sewn on patch of whatever your callname is, and you have a sewn on patch of a roach on your shoulder.

#call of duty modern warfare #simon riley #modern warfare #gary roach sanderson #john mactavish #john price #call of duty #cod #headcanons #bffs

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starshipsofstarlord · 4 years ago

Text

There was a Girl...

Pairing | Jace Wayland x reader

Summary | When Clary becomes a shadowhunter, she notices how cold and ruthless Jace is. Every one seems to relate to his pain, not resonating at quite the same level. They’re all mourning nevertheless.

Warnings | Mentions of death, brief smut (handjob), angst, heartbreak, unrequited feelings (for Clary)

Requested ✖️

Quick link to my masterlist, if you’re interested in reading more of my crap 😬

Opening your eyes, you awoke to Jace's chest, his blonde hair falling over his face. You preferred how it looked when it was a little bit scruffy instead of slicked back, and you reached for one of the hanging strands. They were like seams of gold, reflecting from the light that hid within him.

Most people had the wrong perspective on the young man, they only saw a well skilled shadow hunter. But they ignored the smart and witty, yet simultaneously charming person that he was underneath all of his runes. His parabatai Alec was familiar with the set of abilities that his brother figure had, and all that he would accomplish. People thought, because of Jace’s distorted, and confusing past, that he was just another warrior to serve whatever institute that he was sent to.

But in fact, he was not. His duty would always be, to put his family and friends first. He liked to put you on the top of the list, but you always felt the need to scrap that idea, claiming that you could not be his priority from start to finish. It was as though you knew what you future held for you, and how indeed, he could not manage to protect every person that he cared about. The prospect was a great responsibility, far too much for one shadow hunter, even if they be among the best of their kind.

To put such a weight on your own shoulders was defiantly cruel, it would always end in failure, no matter what was done to prevent said downfall. There was never a possibility of saving everyone, that was insanity. The monsters had to kill, in order for you all to remain outside of Idris, and continue on with your heaven sent duty.

“Jace?” You could tell he was awake from how he smiled at the sound of your voice. “Come on.” It was an attempt to encourage him, but you were quick to realise that it wasn’t working. He didn’t like mornings all that much, for good reason too, after all you were shadowhunters.

“Jace.” Your voice became louder and clearer, up to the point where it no longer sounded like your own. He looked away from the screen, to see the new girl watching him. She had an expectant glaze to her green eyes, which were much different from the shield that was covering his own. His pools were surrounded by a shadow of grief, pulling down the entirety of his face to the point where it looked as though he no longer wanted to live.

And that wasn’t entirely incorrect, he struggled at life, often never finding a moment of happiness, and if he did, then he would paint a smile upon his face and wear it to satisfy everyone else around. He had tried to cope with the loss that burdened his heart so gravely, yet nothing made it feel okay. You’d want him to move on, whether it be to lose his vengeful esteem concerning your passing, or find someone else to confide in late at night, to stay up with talking as his head rested upon the pillow, that he needed to wash, so it didn’t smell like you.

Or even, if not to share a bed with this new person, your overall plan as you sat with the angels above would be to find some kind of peace. But that appeared to be the last thing that he wanted as he digitally scoured the city of New York for monsters to uncover, and kill. If he couldn’t protect you, the love of his life, then he would settle for doing so with humans, after all, that had been the way that you had gone. The job had been your passion, yet simultaneously your downfall, and he’d be fine if one of these days he failed to tackle a beast, and it got to him first.

“Clary.” He greeted her, wanting to remove a dangerous monster from the streets by decapitating it. In memory, he would use your favourite blade, spilling blood upon its glowing stake to keep your legacy continuing, although, it did not do much but serve to release Jace’s frustrations. It was a day in which he wanted to speak to nobody, have nobody following him, nor asking him mundane questions about what it meant to be a shadowhunter. Hell, he didn’t even know! To him, the lifestyle was nothing more than accommodated anguish, though, he had been told not to promote it using those words, otherwise, there wouldn’t exactly be many people lining up to join the adverse fight.

And one of the people that he had in mind concerning excitement over a dire and ‘exciting’ lifestyle was Clary. She was naive, and whilst she didn’t know everything, today wasn’t particularly the day in which he wished to explain it to her. It, being predominantly anything. Whilst he had managed to be nice to her during the first few days, it was out of courtesy, considering Alec had an instant distaste towards the wide eyed redhead; he wasn’t sure why, but he supposed that Clary could see a detail of himself that was hidden from the others.

However, even through Jace’s welcoming exterior, was in pain. The feeling tormented him, denying him a break from the patronising pressure, leaving him to hold blame to nobody but himself. The hurt was cemented into his eyes, reflecting as he watched all other tragedies with a stone cold expressions, them hardly affecting him, because he had and was experiencing the worst routine of torture that was possible to him. He had watched you die, and nothing could take those horrific memories from him, no matter how much he wanted them gone.

That was the last time that he saw you. When you passed in his arms, a large wound in your abdomen pouring out with blood, drowning his desperate hands as he tried his utmost to put pressure on the life threatening injury. He wanted to save you but he didn’t know how, his training had always claimed that killing the monsters was more important than saving the life of a shadowhunter from an unknown bloodline. There had been nothing to prepare him for that day in the field, he was a fighter, and taught to be so, not a healer; he wasn’t a medic, he was just a warrior. “What do you want?” Blatantly fell from his round lips as he cast an eye towards the newbie, unimpressed by her timing, or her presence at all.

Clearly, she hadn’t received the memo to leave him be, especially today out of all the rest. Alec, having the personalised intel as to why Jace was emitting a solitary rut understood why he wished to be alone, and respected the space, granting him as much time to himself as he wanted. And whilst Alec was your friend also, he could feel the deep longing that was stabbing his parabatai in the chest, and it killed him too. Your death had been so unexpected, and now without you, there was a void within the institute. And the archer felt as though Clary was trying to fill it, and he saw that as nothing more than disrespect, though she was probably ignorant to the history that wandered the halls.

Her face revelled back at his tone, but nevertheless she continued on with her prying. “I was wondering if I could join you on the hunt, I’m getting better, Izzy even said so.” Jace refrained from rolling his eyes, and contained the feeling that was trying to burst out of his chest. It was anger, directed at everyone that was still alive, including himself. There was no fairness in it, to say that he was sad was an understatement, he was eternally devastated, the death of you had broken him, crumbled him into a figure that he no longer recognised.

“No, you can’t Clary.” He dismissed her, walking away, and going to grab his seraph so that he could hunt this sucker down, and bring upon the same kind of pain to its family as its kind had down to him. God, did you look badass as you swung it, and the thought alone had tears resonating in his unmatched eyes, thinking of how it was the last relic that remained of you.

Walking casually into the armoury, Jace had his hands prized in the depths of his pockets, as his expert and quick fleeting eyes focalised on you, and the weapon within your hold. Your body leant in harmony with the blade, the sound of it woosh-img in the air satisfying to all that could hear; that being only you and the Wayland boy.

“Can i not train in peace?” You groaned, lowering the blade whence you realised that you were being watched. The eyes trailed up your side where your shirt had ridden up, raking over the rune that you had drew upon your skin only this morning. A light laugh fell from Jace’s lips as he stalked forward, taking your seraph out of your hand, and going to lob it upon the ground, but the stern look in your eyes stopped him. Instead, against his nature, he placed it down as though it were made of glass, and rose to stand before you once more.

“Not when you look that good.” The blonde retorted with a sly smirk, sliding his hands up the sides of your hips, finding absolute solace in the feel of your skin. He could be against you forever, and he would not complain, so long as it did last for such a time. “Makes me want to do things to you y/n y/l/n. Terrible things. What would the heads think?” He asked, in reference to those that were in charge of the institute.

Stifling down remarked laughter at his sensually intended words, you raised your forefinger to the space above his brows, and poked him with enough pressure, so that he would pay attention to the notion. “That you’re not thinking with your own.” You went to cross your arms, but instead, Jace grabbed them, moving down to cast his hand over your own.

“Oh, I’m not.” The shadowhunter confirmed, placing your hand upon the crotch of his sweats, applying enough force behind his grip so that you could feel him twitching. “I am indeed having thoughts from elsewhere, would you like to see my sweet?” Licking your lips, you nodded, watching as he peeled the layer away, wrapping your hand around his base, and giving him a few jerks, feeling his pulse race through his cock.

“Tell me more about what you’re thinking my love.” You bit your bottom lip, fluttering your eyelashes up at him, only to reverberate a groan from the blonde male. He panted as your pace quickened, and he was almost certain that he was going to spray his jizz all over the floor if you did not uphold your sexual administrations. His head leant back, as pleasured sounds broke through the clenching of his teeth.

And then, it all stopped as a voice, dressed in absolute disgust, written over with unmotivated shock, interrupted your little exchange. “Really guys, this is a gym, not your damned bedroom. The two of you really are disgusting!” It was Alec, and he cringed at the fact that he had seen his best friend’s cock being stroked in your grasp. Yeah, he wasn’t going to be training today, or at least, not in the asserted place for it.

“Clary.” Izzy called her name, wearing a short lived smile. Whence she studied the expression of the redhead, she was quick to pay attention to the disappointment upon her face. There was confusion laddered in her skin, masking it with creased that made her look worried all at the same time. “What happened?” The Lightwood woman asked concerned, bracing a hand upon said girl’s shoulder.

“Jace snapped at me.” The newcomer informed her, frowning at the prospect, and then after all that, he had stormed off, as though she didn’t even matter. She felt well and truly rejected, like a newspaper that had been tossed in the street, and ending up in a horrible puddle. “I thought he might have liked me, but his attitude says otherwise.”

Izzy twitched her nose; she knew what day it was. There was no way to break it to Clary easy that Jace had no amorous emotions towards her, and so instead of being blunt with the new resident at the institute, she decided to tell the woman a story. “There was a girl...” she began, knowing that after all was explained, that Clary would understand.

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todoscript · 4 years ago

Text

sweetest delight

SYNOPSIS: While Shouto’s out hunting down villains on Valentine’s Day, you try your hand at making some sweets to celebrate the occasion, and in doing so, find your efforts rewarded in more ways than one.

pairing: pro hero!todoroki shouto x fem!reader

genre: smut. fluff. pro hero au.

word count: 7.3k+

warnings: 18+. characters are aged up. dominant!shouto. apron kink. praising. oral (both receiving). face-sitting. 69. cum-eating.

author’s note: god, this is long overdue, but i finally got this thing out after all this time. and of course, it ended up getting out of hand again

“Fuck, fuck, fuck–”

A range of curses spewed from your mouth as the unpleasant smell of your burnt confections permeated the space of your kitchen, threatening to notify the fire alarm overhead of your latest baking mishap. Luckily, you entered the kitchen just in time to dissipate the smoke before it can do so, fanning your towel while navigating to the oven to find your crisp, blackened sweets already ruined inside. The corners of your lips slipped into a scowl at another failed batch of mini chocolate cupcakes at your hand. You slid on a pair of oven mitts to transfer the set off the rack and onto the kitchen counter.

A flicker of optimism in your head presented the thought that they didn’t seem that bad at first glance, going so far as to believe they might’ve tasted relatively fine and that the burnt parts simply added a bitter flavor that would balance the overall sweetness of the decadent chocolate cupcakes. But upon closer inspection, you knew you were lying to yourself.

Flipping the miniature cakes out of the molds, you discovered the sweets were encased in a dreary black outer shell, a sight which made you grimace, wondering how you screwed up so badly to have concocted such a dismal image. You definitely had no right feeding these to Shouto, let alone offer them to him as a Valentine’s Day gift.

As everyone knew, the fourteenth day of February marked Valentine’s Day, the day where couples expressed their love to one another by giving gifts, spending quality time through dates, and displaying many other forms of affection. This year, however, Shouto was called in at his agency to investigate a case of villains whose plan was to wreak havoc on this special occasion.

Now, any person would find it normal to be peeved over these circumstances—having their lover’s free time eaten up by work when they could be celebrating together with a nicely lit dinner or a casual, romantic night at home, and perhaps cap off a wonderful evening with a smooth transition into the bedroom. Much better than spending a day at home alone, pitifully watching couples intertwine their hands together in envy as they walked along the sidewalk beneath your apartment complex, right?

Well, you, on the other hand, were a different case. Rather than sulk around as you waited for Shouto to arrive home later, you decided this would be the perfect chance to whisk up some sweets to surprise him. After all, what’s Valentine’s Day without some chocolate delights on the side, made with vanilla, sugar, cocoa butter, and lots of love and effort. A perfect way to welcome Shouto home from his mission while honoring the festivities, you’d say.

Besides, you understood the situation well enough to recognize that the citizens’ well-being came first before any date of yours. Your boyfriend was a hero, after all, and a Pro at that. It’s not as if you and Shouto hadn’t celebrated Valentine’s Day together before. So long as he came home—intact—prior to the clock ticking to midnight, one day didn’t bother you.

Though… after witnessing the aftermath of several failed attempts at baking thus far, you started to wonder if it would’ve done you better not to get so involved, only to waste resources and pervade your kitchen with an acrid smell.

Still, despite the trials and tribulations, you were determined to come out on top. You tapped your index finger repeatedly against the surface of the marbled counter. “Did I mix up the baking times? Maybe I undermined the portion sizes so the cupcakes started cooking faster?” you speculated out loud, wondering how to troubleshoot the minor errors to come out successful in your next attempt.

After some thought, you decided not to dawdle on your overthinking for too long and shrugged off the idea of redoing another batch of cupcakes. “It’s fine, I’ll just move onto the chocolates then. They’re the star of Valentine’s Day so better to focus on those,” you told yourself. A grin found its way on your face as you rolled the sleeves of your blouse up your forearms. “Alright, let’s get to it then!”

You retrieved a recipe sheet from across the counter, scanning through the contents while overlooking the ingredients lying in front of you. Compared to baking cupcakes, chocolates should be easier to tackle since you weren’t entirely making them from scratch. All you had to do is temper the chocolate melts in a bowl over a heat source, pour them into silicone molds, and refrigerate until hardened and shaped to the perfect, bite-sized delight. Seemed simple enough.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t quite as simple as you thought.

Or rather, you chose to make the whole process more complicated than it needed to be, not realizing the ambitious turn your take on these chocolates was moving toward until you drove yourself into another mess.

Your first trial of bonbons was sprawled out over parchment paper, waiting for your verdict. Eyes roaming the array of sweets tentatively, you absorbed the mixture of pink and white hues with an unsure look on your face. Somehow during the process, you opted to forgo the customary milk chocolates for white and strawberry, which was the closest you could get to matching Shouto’s signature hair colors.

You’d thought it’d be cute for the treats to have a slight resemblance to him as a simple yet sweet reminder that he was on your mind throughout your progress. But staring down at the final product, you wished you guessed ahead of time that the vision you sparked in your head was not going to be as bright and pretty in comparison to what came out.

You frowned at the batch with narrowed brows before begrudgingly scooping a piece and tossing it into your mouth. The sweetness of the strawberry and white chocolates coexisted together to form a smooth texture that left behind a creamy, floral undertone on your tongue. What was incredibly lacking, however, laid in the looks department. The visuals left… more to be desired, to say the least.

With the idea of wanting to use two different flavors of chocolate, you also played on the notion of incorporating a theme. That theme being half-and-half. And half-and-half being splitting the colors on the chocolates right down the middle.

Though not a complicated plan for an adept baker, it was the exact opposite for a newbie like you who had came up with the idea on the spot. With your chocolates appearing in odd shapes and sizes, not one seemed to resemble another, which was the result of both your lack of patience and miscalculations. You had to allow one of the flavors to harden in the mold before adding the other to not prematurely mix the colors, but judging by the swirls of pink and white surrounding the chocolates, that didn’t seem to go so well. Add on to the fact you had some trouble inverting them out of the silicon molds—the edges of the chocolates ending up smooshed or torn off entirely—and you were left with another failed attempt at a Valentine’s present.

“Guess making sweets isn’t really my thing, huh?” You sighed, body slumping forward against the kitchen counter in defeat. Your eyes wandered from your sad chocolates to the hefty amount of dirty dishes piled in the sink. All this, and you weren’t able to make anything worth giving to Shouto. What exactly were you going to tell him when he came home, bearing witness to this entire mess? No, Shouto was probably under enough stress and fatigue as it was after working all day. Plus, his anticipation for a gift would only be amplified if he saw the number of baking supplies you’ve wasted today. At this point, you had to turn in the towel.

“Oh well… I better clean everything up before Sho comes home and start on din–”

Your words were interrupted by the sharp sound of the front door opening.

“I’m home!” an all too familiar voice announced, one that you were more than aware belonged to a particular fire and ice hero.

Surprised, you glanced over at the clock to check the time, which read a bold 6:00 PM—sooner than you expected your boyfriend to arrive home from his duties that day. So soon, in fact, that you weren’t able to even begin erasing any of the evidence littered around the kitchen.

“Y/n?” you heard him call. Freezing in place, you picked up Shouto breathing in a quick whiff. “What’s that smell?” he asked but didn’t wait for a response, traveling through the enormous apartment to find that answer for himself. Hearing his feet shuffling across the hardwood floor, you moved quickly.

“The kitchen smells sweet but also... bitter.”

Sweet and bitter..? you repeated but soon realized what he meant—those damn burnt chocolate cupcakes you left out. While in your rush with making the chocolates, you had forgotten to dispose of them beforehand. Though the bitter smell was not as prominent as when the cupcakes first came out of the oven, it still didn’t evade Shouto’s keen senses.

After shoving the burnt mini cupcakes in a trash bin, you scrambled to the entrance to the kitchen, thankfully cutting Shouto’s path off just in time as you met him there. “Oh hey, Sho, why didn't expect you to come home so early!” you greeted, a cheerful lilt in your tone as you leaned an arm on the side of the doorway, hoping to come off ordinarily chill to avoid any questioning looks. It seemed you achieved that much at least by how Shouto smiled warmly at your appearance.

“You should’ve shot me a quick text or something.”

“Sorry, we managed to track down the group of villains right away and finished the mission smoothly without any casualties,” he explained. “I guess I was in such a hurry to come home and celebrate Valentine’s Day with you that I must’ve forgotten.” The soft look on Shouto’s handsome features had you in a daze for a second; you nearly missed him descending his head to your level so his lips could find yours. Eventually, you broke from your stupor and swiftly turned your head so he planted a peck on your cheek instead.

You were never one to purposely avoid a kiss on the lips like that from him—far from it actually—but you didn’t want him to find any residual sweetness on your lips from the confections you taste-tested that day and have him bring up if you made anything for him. One thing you surely couldn’t avoid, however, was his puzzled face at your uncharacteristic actions. Still, Shouto wasn’t one to overthink the details. Instead, he decided to look at the bigger picture, such as the dirty yet cute, pink and brown frilly apron tied around your body.

“Your apron’s a mess,” he chuckled lightly. The comment caught you off-guard, eyes slowly traveling down to the flour and chocolate stains on your Valentine’s-themed apron. “Have you been cooking?” he asked. You fumbled with your answer.

“O-Oh yeah..! In fact, I’m… still cooking, actually!” you quickly added, making up for your lack of words. “C’mon, it’s probably been a long day for you. You should go freshen up in the shower while I get everything done and cleaned!” You tried shoo-ing Shouto from the kitchen’s vicinity, but he didn’t budge.

“I can help out if you like. I wouldn’t want you to fix everything up by yourself, especially since we’re supposed to spend the rest of Valentine’s Day together,” he said, and as much as you liked to take him up on his kind and thoughtful offer, you had to object.

Firmly shaking your head, you continued your attempts at pushing Shouto to retreat to the shower and scrub off the troubles of his day. “No, you’ve probably done enough work today as it is! Just let me handle the rest, ‘kay?” you insisted, straining a smile. However, your hurried shoving felt almost too persistent than what Shouto found normal.

“Well, what are you making then–” As he tilted his head up to sneak a peek, you followed his movements, elevating yourself onto your tiptoes to block his vision in time.

“S-Soba noodles..! Cold! Just how you like them,” you answered after partially interrupting him. Quirking a brow at your fidgety gestures, Shouto stared at the smile etched on your lips which screamed of suspicion. Now he was sure something was up.

“Love,” he said, his voice a tone lower than usual that made goosebumps appear on your skin, staring at his turquoise and gray eyes warily, “are you hiding something from me?”

“What? Psh, no,” you feigned innocence, shrugging, “Why would you think that?”

Shouto gave you a look, silently telling you that you should more than know the reason why, but you chose to remain ignorant. No point in questioning it any further then. He would have to pry the answer out himself.

Aware that you had no intention of letting him pass voluntarily, Shouto began putting his hero training to use. He side-stepped in a single motion, quickly pivoting on the balls of his feet to slip through your defenses. You didn’t have time to ask yourself what happened before you turned around to watch his reaction to what you left for him on the kitchen counter.

Upon entering the kitchen, Shouto’s heterochromatic eyes were immediately drawn to the marbled white-and-pink sweets sprawled across the parchment paper. His interest piqued, he walked straight to the chocolates with you trailing behind. You could feel the heat in your cheeks slowly rise from the embarrassment at seeing Shouto inspect your sorry excuse of chocolates.

“Hm, no soba noodles, but I may have found something even better,” he said, and you wondered if you heard correctly or that maybe he saw something you didn’t. You rapidly blinked about four times, letting your vision adjust, and yet your chocolates remained.

“You’re kidding… right?”

Shouto lifted a brow at your hesitance. “No, why would I be kidding?” he replied thoughtfully. He took one of the chocolates off the parchment paper, raising it in the air between his thumb and index finger. “You made these for me, didn’t you?”

“I mean, yeah, they were supposed to be a Valentine’s Day gift, but…”

“But..?” A frown settled on his lips, watching you nervously twiddle your thumbs while you held your hands against your apron. “Y/n, you can tell me.” Not liking how you weren’t meeting his eyes, his finger drew your chin up so he could get a better glimpse of your face.

“But they don’t look the part. They’re hideous,” you quietly admitted, your words mellowing into a whisper the more they departed your lips. The way he treated your creations as if they belonged on a pedestal didn’t sit right in your eyes. “So I... didn’t want you to see them, or any of this actually. I thought if you saw what I was doing, you’d get your hopes up for something special, only to be disappointed.” You tried avoiding his gaze again, but Shouto wouldn’t allow it, following your eyes as his hand pried yours apart to take one in his own.

His focus shifted from the pink and white chocolate held in front of him to the uncertainty clouding your expression. “I’m not sure what you mean. They look fine to me.”

“Sho, you don’t have to lie to me just so you don’t end up hurting my feelings. Anyone can see how uneven they look,” you said, pointing at the rest of the batch still sitting on the counter behind him. There was a low chuckle coming from the male’s lips, one that you guessed was out of amusement, but you were too caught in your troubled feelings to be sure.

“Well, I have to admit, they don’t exactly resemble the perfect, visual representation of the chocolates you’d find at the store or anything,” he acknowledged with you mumbling an ‘I told you so’ in response before he continued, “but that’s the reason why I like them. That means you made them for me and there isn’t any chocolate like it. They’re one of a kind.”

His genuine words took you aback, eyes glimmering and cheeks flushed. You were too wrapped up in your need for perfection that you didn’t realize you could consider your efforts that way.

“Besides,” he threw the little bonbon in his mouth, “they taste great,” he said as the strawberry and white cream melted on his tongue with its rich sweetness.

Despite his praise, you thought he had only said that because you knew for a fact that the chocolates did at least pass in the taste department. “But what if they had tasted bad too? What would you have said then?” You were bold enough to question, though half-worried about his answer in the back of your head—worried that he would have to take back those sweet words of his.

“I still would have eaten them, regardless. I’d never waste anything you’ve made for me, you should know that. To me, these chocolates are the sweetest delight not because they’re the best looking or tasting, but because they came from you,” he answered earnestly, bending down to tuck a hair away from your stunned yet grateful appearance which looked as if you were nearly about to sigh out loud in relief. You brought your body into his chest, tucking your head beneath his chin, and he wrapped his arms around you, lips pressed against your hair.

Shouto didn’t grant you much time to bask in your solace however, before beckoning you over to the kitchen counter. He wasn’t done teasing you just yet.

“Normally couples give each other milk chocolates on Valentine’s day. Any reason you decided on white and strawberry then?” Shouto noted, a grin on his lips as you seemed reluctant to reveal your reasoning—lips pursed and fingers playing with the hem of your apron.

“Well, they’re supposed to be your…” You finished by motioning at the crown of your head before pointing to his red and white locks.

Heh... Cute. The grin that was persistent on his features widened, and your response earned you a kiss on the cheek. “Thinking about me, huh?” he teased. You were more than aware of your intentions throughout your chocolate-making process, but it didn’t make the whole situation any less embarrassing when your motives came to light out of Shouto’s own mouth.

You pouted profusely, turning your face in the other direction as you nudged his arm. “Aren’t you going to eat the rest then?” you asked despite your demure demeanor. You couldn’t see it, but you were positive he was aiming that amused expression in your direction, leaning his head on his palm while his elbow was leveled on the counter.

“You made a lot of chocolates today, love. You don’t expect me to finish them all by myself, do you?” You heard the rustle of the parchment liner unsticking to something behind you. Then a finger poked your cheek, and out of curiosity, you followed where the disturbance came from, only to have a swirl of pink and white pushed past your lips.

“Mm..” you hummed surprisingly in delight at the harmonious strawberry and cream flavors coating your tastebuds.

“Tastes good, doesn’t it?” he asked.

“Yeah, I got to taste them before you arrived home.” You rubbed the back of your head. “And um, I didn’t exactly make these from scratch...” You went about divulging your methods to him, explaining your usage of chocolate melts, which all in all saved you a lot of time, considering your earlier mishaps with the brownies—a misfortune you also confessed to as you side-eyed the trash bin.

The dual-haired male laughed with mirth at the disasters you tangled yourself into today. “Seemed like you had an eventful Valentine’s Day at home without me.”

He scanned over your outfit, consisting of a simple buttoned blouse and a pair of jeans. What caught his eye the most was the frilly, laced brown and pink apron tied around your body. You must have bought this specifically to get in the spirit of Valentine’s Day because this was the first he’s seen you in this. Normally you’d wear those plain cotton aprons while you were cooking. Not something so charming and—dare he say—refreshing.

As you were continuing the conversation—going on about how vanquishing criminal organizations was more productive than whatever you were concocting at home—your words faded into the background. Shouto found it hard to focus on what you were saying, while your animated gestures seemed to enhance the shape of the apron against your body, emphasizing your physique.

Recalling the story you just mentioned, he imagined what the scene of you frantically dashing around the kitchen would look like as you wore this cute thing. Was it weird of him to hold fantasies of arriving home, being greeted by your endearing self donning this garment, dolled in its intricacies with a smile gracing the lips he oh so wanted to kiss every day?

Shouto would think so. He’s never heard of any anecdotes of this kind of behavior before. Perhaps it was how dainty and frilly the material appeared against your figure that stemmed such a risqué thought from him. If that was the case, then this apron was no different than lingerie. Or more specifically, those delicate lace babydolls you’d wear for him on those special occasions, in which you displayed the zenith of lust and vulnerability that rendered him a man ensnared by his need to utterly ravage you–

Fuck. Letting those imaginations cross his mind was a dangerous move. He felt himself getting hard, body exercising the willpower not to pounce and concede to his fantasies. Then again, no one could really blame him for thinking of his girlfriend this way on Valentine’s Day. Especially when you looked so damn cute right now that he could just eat you up.

“Shouto?” Your voice diverted his attention from the growing problem in his pants, though only for a moment. When his focus returned to you, all those lascivious thoughts buried in the back of his head made their way to the forefront again. Damn, did he have it bad.

“Is something wrong? You were zoning out for a bit.”

He shook his head, dispelling your concern. However, it was going to take more than that to sweep away the lust consuming his mind. “It’s nothing. More importantly, why don’t we continue tasting these chocolates?” Pulling up a stool, he took a seat next to the kitchen counter.

Just as you were going to mention that you needed to start on dinner soon, Shouto suddenly drew your body in between his parted legs. Thrown slightly off-balance, you instinctively held onto his shoulders to keep yourself steady.

You couldn’t help but notice the hand traveling up your legs as it situated itself on the back of your thigh, but the detail was abandoned as soon as it was manifested. The proximity between you two was too much not to overlook now. Shouto peered up at you with what you made out to be smoldering intensity, and the sight reduced you to shying away from his eyes again.

Of course, Shouto didn’t take a liking to that. With you so close, he didn’t want anything hindering his front seat viewing of your candid reactions. “Baby, look here,” he called to you. You followed his command, turning back to face the grin reaching his lips. “There’s my pretty girl.”

You attempted to open your mouth to reply but found another ball of marbled chocolate placed where words should’ve been.

Soft lips wrapped around him, Shouto had to fight back the urge to groan, feeling your tongue graze the pad of his thumb as he fed you the candy. His other hand, formerly occupied with rubbing subtle circles on your clothed flesh, wandered to the satin ribbon of your apron fashioned behind you.

It wasn’t long until you discerned the game he was playing through the fiery looks and frisky touching.

Well, enter player two.

You brought a hand to his wrist, keeping him there as your tongue made work at licking away the residual chocolate melted on his finger. You moved from his thumb to his index finger, noting not to miss anything with every flick as you confidently returned the heady expression with batted eyelashes.

Shouto breathed in silently through his nose, gritting his teeth, your sultry actions having an innate effect on him, to which you smirked at. There was a slight tug on the ribbon wrapped behind you. It wasn’t firm enough to where the knot came undone, but enough that you noticed his fixation on the material. If he was making an effort to exert some self-control, it was futile at this point. No doubt, he was going to take you before Valentine’s Day was over.

“Hmm, you’re right, these chocolates are pretty tasty. But it’s probably because you’re the one feeding them to me that they taste just soooo good,” you mused, adding a sensual tonality to your voice as you concluded your words with one last kitten lick.

The man before you bit the inside of his cheek, your voice alone making blood rush south. You little minx. He was going to make doubly sure you understood just what you were doing to him.

Finally releasing his hand, you reached over beside you to grab a chocolate off the parchment paper. “For you~” You giggled as you led the confection to Shouto’s mouth. He readily accepted your gift, lips wrapping around the tips of your fingers as the mellow flavors soothed his taste buds. He made a point of re-enacting your little show, tongue languidly lapping your fingers while he maintained steady eye contact. You shuddered at the wet warmth abiding your skin, the suffocating sexual tension in the air causing you to press your thighs together. The action was not overlooked by Shouto, who smiled amidst cleaning your fingers with every brush of his tongue.

“What’s wrong, love? You were so bold and talkative earlier. Cat got your tongue or something?” he teased. A smirk ran across the curl of his lips as his licks turned to kisses he planted on the back of your hand.

After finishing his task of lapping up every essence of sweetness off your skin, he lifted himself from the stool. Doing so made him stand tall over you, and he easily cornered you to where your back met the edge of the counter. Your wrist captured in one of his hands, he wove an arm around you, pulling your body into him.

“You know, there’s something I want to eat right now other than chocolates,” he confessed, forehead pressed to yours and glinted heterochromatic eyes latent with an insatiable hunger. The baritone of his voice sent shivers through your body and a throb aching in your core.

You innocently tilted your head at him. “Oh, is that so? And what would that be?”

He chuckled darkly at your redundant question.

“Why you of course, my love.”

The moment the words reached your ears, he lunged forward to seize your lips. You quickly followed in the sensual movements of his soft lips against yours like it was a practiced routine, not resisting his tongue prying its way into your mouth and submitting to the dance that made pleasure course through your veins.

A single tap on your thigh was your cue to hop into Shouto’s waiting grasp and wrap your arms around his neck. You pulled your bodies closer to where the few layers of clothing you both possessed did nothing to hide your enthusiasm for each other. You could feel your nipples under your bra stiffen at your arousal, growing more sensitive as you pressed your chest to him. Meanwhile, his hard erection shamelessly poked the inside of your thigh to which his grip was poised on remaining firm, grinding your lower half against him.

You expected this was where he intended to have you—right then and there in the middle of the kitchen—but to your surprise, Shouto had other plans. He navigated you two to the dining table as you continued feverishly making out with your legs wrapped around his waist. Never breaking the hot mingle of your lips, he carefully placed you on the edge. His hands were free to roam the expanse of your body, palming at places that elicited airy moans from you as he inscribed the niceties of your bonny apron into his memory. Though he cursed the unnecessary layers that obscured your beautiful flesh from him.

Finding the clothes still on you equally unbearable in the heat of your movements, you were on the same wavelength as him. You sought out the satin ribbon tied behind your back that kept the apron on your form, but before your fingertips could even reach the material to tug the knot loose, Shouto seized your wrists and led your hands away. Your face was scrunched with bewilderment by how sudden his actions were.

Shouto didn’t think he could have a fetish over something as ordinary and domestic as a decorative garment tied around your waist, but this Valentine’s Day was proving him otherwise. He was not about to pass an opportunity to absolutely ruin you in this pretty thing.

“Keep it on,” he ordered, voice deep and commanding.

“H-Huh? What about my clothes?” you stuttered, confused at first. You wanted to ask what spurred him to give such a demand, but you were too caught in the moment to think of objecting to his request (not that you had much choice anyway).

“Let me.” That was all he said before his hands sought after the waistband of your jeans and the buttons of your top. He pulled and undid the apparel until you were left in only your panties and that lovely apron. Your bra was quickly disposed of to the pile next to his feet thanks to the clip being located at the front this time, and he was eternally grateful for the convenience. You didn’t even have to mention anything for his own clothes to float above yours on the floor, sitting back on the table to admire his toned physique, now free for you to ogle in just his briefs.

His hooded, icy eyes concentrated on every aspect of your appearance. He didn’t dare miss a single detail in front of him—from your bare, flushed skin glowing beneath the light fixture to your aroused nipples shaped through the thin fabric. You were a sight Shouto would gladly worship for the rest of his life.

“You’re a sight for sore eyes, my love, and I’m going to enjoy ravaging you until all you know is my name.”

His words alone were enough to send a tingle of anticipation to your cunt. You did not shrink at his assertiveness, instead embracing both yours and Shouto’s desires with open arms.

“You have me, Sho. I’m all yours.”

The man released a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding before inhaling and diving in. Your lips reencountered each other, continuing from where you left off with his tongue chasing after you. You laced your fingers in his soft hair to press him deeper to you as Shouto navigated down your neck. He sucked and licked at your skin; every tug he felt on his scalp compelled him to lay marks as he inched closer and closer to your breasts.

“Ahh.. Sho…” you mewled, feeling his hands grope one of your mounds and tease your slit through your panties. With no intention of letting this apron off your body, Shouto pushed the fabric concealing your chest inward to reveal a perky nipple, seeming excited to be covered by his mouth. Well, who was he to deny such exuberance, especially when he himself was hungry to taste?

Lips enclosing the stiffened nub, Shouto sucked and prodded with fervor. As you squirmed and squealed beneath him, your fingers pulled harder at his strands which he hummed in content at. The tip of his tongue circled your areola, making the slick clinging to your panties damper at the stimulation. The hand occupied between your thighs stroked you against the fabric before pulling it to the side to touch you directly.

“Oh fuck!” you cursed at the contact as Shouto did not hesitate to start pumping a finger into your pussy.

“Damn, you’re so wet down here. Did my kisses and teasing do all this?”

You were too distracted by the precise movements of his fingers working through you to answer, words superseded by your wanton moans. “Keep making those pretty sounds, love. I want you to cry out as I’m ruining you.”

Your noises hit a crescendo when his fingers began curling inside you, stretching into places that lit stars behind your eyes. His thumb rubbed your clit to intensify the fire building in your abdomen. Your back arched on the table as you grabbed onto Shouto’s free hand for dear life, already feeling that flame ready to ignite.

“Sho– Wait, I’m gonna–”

“Don’t hesitate, sweetheart. Coat my fingers with your cum,” he told you, increasing the speed of his thumb against your bundle of nerves as he continually hit that euphoric soft spot.

At his words, your pussy clenched hard around him, practically sucking him in. You threw your head back against the table, releasing a loud cry of his name as your orgasm engulfed your whole body with electrifying pleasure. Chest heaving up and down, your breaths sounded ragged as your vision went white before slowly adjusting to the light.

Shouto slid his fingers out of you and brought them to his mouth, licking at the layer of gloss. He observed your fucked-out state from above and admired his handiwork—your lips swollen, eyes glassy, and sweaty skin adorned with his marks.

“You taste absolutely delicious, you know,” he said almost too sweetly, like he had immediately gotten drunk off drinking the remnants of your orgasm. And, of course, he had to let you know how delectable you were. Shouto provided you a sample by pressing his fingers to your lips. You obediently parted them, welcoming your essence on your tongue.

“Don’t you think so?”

You hummed and nodded in agreement. Shouto grinned, bending down to mix your flavor in each other’s mouths. He finally removed your ruined panties and slid them down your legs. But to no one’s surprise, the apron stayed on your person.

When you parted, Shouto gestured for you to get up from the table. In doing so, you had anticipated this would be the time to head straight to the bedroom, but the night continued to prove you wrong. Shouto was still famished.

“Stand up for a second, baby. I want to lay down as I have my meal.” You didn’t need to guess to know just what he wanted to satiate his appetite tonight.

Shouto laid himself flat across the table, the majority of his legs dangling off the edge. You, on the other hand, were apprehensive at his approach, cautiously wondering if your modest dining table could handle the rampant motions of two adult bodies on top of it at once. Should the legs give way and the table collapses, the gravity of your descent would put all your weight onto him. What if you hurt him as a result?

“Love, what’s the holdup?” your boyfriend called, breaking your train of thought, “Come, your throne awaits.” He patted his chest—a rather peculiar place to sit but your cunt pulsed at the image of you riding that gorgeous face of his.

“O-Okay, I’m just afraid of hurting you, is all,” you said, pulling at the hem of your apron for security.

He raised his upper body halfway to see the hesitance painted on your features. “Y/n, there’s no need to worry, I wouldn’t have thought of doing this if I couldn’t handle it,” he assured, his hand reaching out for you. “Trust me. I won’t let anything happen to us.”

You stared at the hand hovering in front of you and then at Shouto’s eyes glimmering with faith, and you knew you could trust his word. So you take his hand, climbing onto the table and over his body where you straddled his chest.

“Dining tables are meant to be eaten on, right? Well, I intend to devour you until your legs are shaking beside me, sweetheart,” he promised. He stroked up and down your thighs tauntingly. Your breaths hitched as he maneuvered you above his face, moving the flap of your apron so you could feel his cold breath against your lower lips.

“As much as I appreciate all those confections you made for me, they all pale in comparison to the sweetest delight here–” He uttered praises to your core while rubbing the soft flesh of your thighs. “This pretty, soft, and dripping pussy.”

Warmth spread across your cheeks at his lewd words and how close in proximity he was to your twitching center. The one thing you detested about this apron at this moment was the fact it blocked you from what Shouto was doing, the bottom half lying right above his face. To him, however, it made everything all the more entertaining.

Despite being the one trapped under you, it must have felt like you were more in the dark than he was. After all, he was the one asserting dominance in this situation, and with a layer of fabric hiding his face, you had no idea how or when he was going to eat you out. His deafening silence was not offering you one bit of reassurance either. If he truly intended to devour you atop this table, he should just do it already.

“...Sho? Are you—Ah!” Upon questioning him, your words were choked by your surprised squeal, feeling him delicately kiss your folds with chilly lips attached to your warm pussy. You opened your mouth to speak again, yet you struggled to search for words as Shouto’s tongue flattened against you, licking a long strip before latching onto your sensitive pearl. The more he relentlessly sucked and teased, the more you sang out with waves of pleasure quivering through your body.

Hearing your beautiful noises, he chuckled, tongue vibrating on your clit. Every sound you produced made his cock stutter, still leaking and begging for attention beneath his briefs.

Not liking how inactive you were—simply sitting on his face and waiting for yourself to come undone on his tongue—you reached behind yourself to trail your hand down his abdomen. His body tensed, abs immediately flexing at your soft touch. You noticed his ministrations falter in their rhythm.

“B-Baby, what are you doing?” he questioned, pulling himself off of you to concentrate on your hand running along the waistband of his briefs. His fingers dug into your flesh as you found his length, tentatively giving it a pump that gave birth to a strained noise below the flap of your apron.

“You’ve been doing all the work so far, Sho. I just want you to enjoy yourself,” you said. His eyebrows were scrunched, hissing through his teeth at your thumb grazing his slit, mixing his precum around the tip.

“I am enjoying myself—this is all I could ever ask for,” he replied honestly. He lifted the frilly material off his face so you could discover your slick running down his lips and neck, the blush spread across his fair cheeks an more than sufficient indication that he derived nothing but delight from being in this position. He looked like an absolute mess, yet the debauched sight made both your heart and pussy flutter.

“But if you want to join in, I won’t stop you.”

At that, Shouto detached himself from your sweetness for just a second to quickly reposition you above him. You were adjusted to where you were practically on all fours on the table now, facing the prominent bulge raised on his briefs while your fluttering cunt was somehow even more obscenely split in front of him. You were thankful the piece of furniture stayed intact throughout the motions, pleasantly astounded by its strength. However, you couldn’t pause to be impressed by this detail for long. Not when Shouto’s aching erection pleaded for you to continue touching it.

Your hand returned to its original place—wrapped around his heavy length that wept with precum coating the surface of its mushroom top. As you stroked it up and down in a consistent rhythm, you altered your grip to tighten more around him.

“Ooh yeah, that’s it, baby. Just like that… Ahhhh, fuckkkk—” You were rewarded by his praises and groans at the splendid pressure surrounding his dick. It encouraged you to keep up your pace and add another hand to the fray to increase the tension.

“You’re doing so well, making me feel so fucking good, love. Can you add your mouth for me now?” he requested, and you happily complied. Your tongue flattened against his cock, noting every vein and twitch running across your wet muscle that reduced Shouto to muttering obscenities behind you. Reaching the top, you swirled your tongue along the tip before taking the entire head into your warm cavern. Shouto’s thighs flexed, body almost trembling at how heavenly you made him feel. He couldn’t be outdone.

You let out a whine on his cock, feeling his mouth working against you again. This time you felt the effects stronger than before as Shouto spread your pussy lips to grant him better access to tongue fuck you. He stimulated every sensitive area with practiced ease, making sure to flick your clit with extra vigor to achieve the best results. You delivered in your reactions—legs shaking and knees slowly and deliberately being reduced to jelly.

Even ensnared in ecstasy, you did your best to adapt to his intensity, engulfing him more into your mouth. Your hands worked together to maximize the most pleasure you could give him, fondling his balls and gripping the base of his cock.

The lewdest of sounds filled the room in an unrelenting symphony. From your muffled whimpers to your pussy squelching in the presence of Shouto’s mouth purring against you, there was no shortage of bliss evident in the atmosphere. Hearing yourselves in the throes of rapture as you devoured each other’s whole beings like starved animals, you two were simultaneously climbing toward your highs.

“Shit, keep doing just that baby, and I’m going to paint that pretty mouth of yours white,” he warned half-heartedly. You purred, the enthusiasm laced your tone informing Shouto you wanted him to do just that. He was pleased by your response.

“You want it, don’t you, you slutty girl? Well, I expect you to drown me in your honey while I cover your throat with my cum then.” Those were the last words he spared you before proceeding to manifest them into reality. His hands dug themselves in the flesh below your ass cheeks, exposing your pussy to his appendage that swiped away at your clit until shockwaves made you tremble above him.

You were the first to come undone, juices running down your thighs and boyfriend’s chin. Your cries were muffled amidst Shouto’s dick caught down your throat, tightening around his length, which surged with spurts of white all over your mouth. You swallowed every single drop of his seed, wiping at the excess on your lips as you released the hero’s cock with a loud pop.

After taking a moment to catch your breaths, you carefully moved off of each other. Shouto steadied you on his lap, letting you straddle him as he sat on the edge of the table. He intertwined your fingers through his and brought them to his lips to place a tender kiss on the back of your hand.

“I love you, sweetheart.”

“I love you too, Shouto. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

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