#basketball duke news

[clubhoops]

Incoming Duke men's basketball freshman Cooper Flagg has signed a "significant" shoe endorsement deal with New Balance

[chelseajackarmy]

Jayson Tatum

[filmcourage]

Why Long Movies Don’t Work - Rory Karpf via FilmCourage.com.

[g-xix]

so like i know that you don’t really know AMP like that but can i get a fluffy oneshot for ray?? he’s genuinely so fine and funny and respectful so i just need something with him.

☁️Movie Nights | Rayasianboy_

Yeah sure I'll do a short lil drabble, im in the mood fo it

(post-writing grace wants to let it be known that it isn't short. u got 6.7k words here. enjoy.)

Movie nights at the AMP household happened about once every month. What with Duke living so far away and Kai always busy travelling or streaming - about every once a month when Duke stayed the night following a shoot, Kai wasn't too busy with Kevin Hart or some other celebrity chaotically livestreaming, and Agent, Fanum, Davis and Chris were present and available...

AMP movie night happened.

"We should watch a horror-!"

"are you crazy?! Put on a comedy or somethin'-"

"Just 'cus you're pussy doesn't mean we all wanna watch 21 Jump Street for the milli-a-billionth time-"

"I'm with Kai- it doesn't have to be 21 Jump Street- there's some new comedies on Netflix-"

It was always fun. The initial watch of Kai and Fanum arguing it out, Agent and Chris taking their respective sides whilst Davis watched and laughed - all petty debates quickly shut down when Duke just puts on a movie that everyone can agree on...

But the gang wasn't just confined to the AMP crew.

Everyone in the house was summoned when it was AMP house movie night. That included you, of course, as chef for the AMP house and Kai's cousin - he knew you were struggling to put your skills to use and find employment as a 17 year old needing money to support your side of the family as well as live your life. And having been close whilst you grew up, Kai wanted to help you out - hence he asked you to come and help cook at the AMP house and behind the set with the AMP shoots - promising accommodation at the house as well as a wage cut straight from all the money he earnt.

Whilst Kai was your blood relative, the rest of the boys became what you would consider family, also.

You could always play video game basketball with Agent on and off stream, or play little 1v1s on the actual court with Davis. You and Fanum had a special friendship considering he would sometimes just ask for a snack or lurk around the kitchen and have little bits and bobs whilst you cooked - hence there was a friendship that bloomed between you two, centred around food. And Chris and Duke were always interested in roping you into games starting petty wars in the house which you were always happily involved with.

You became the little sister to the AMP house, and this of course, meant that your presence was always necessary for a proper AMP house movie night.

Even if you annoyed everyone by threatening to lie or jump on top of someone.

Unfortunately for you, it seemed as though you were the only one in the house who liked touch. Not in an exclusively romantic or sexual way - no - just wanting to lean against someone or hold onto someone whilst watching movies. In an affirming way. Just for the sake of contact.

Unfortunately for you, being said, as nobody ever agreed with you.

It made sense; being seventeen and the only girl in the establishment, all of the boys made it quite clear that they weren't interested in any sort of contact - regardless of the chaste nature of it. The most you got was normally someone putting the arm around the back of the sofa, behind you - allowing you to somewhat lean against them, lean into their side.

Even Kai, your older cousin you'd grown up with, would disagree to even hugging you sometimes - given that he had always been less into physical contact.

Once, to start the movie night, Fanum had started shit stirring and making the both of you argue (unseriously) about Kai's lack of love or any physical contact. And that had ended with starting the movie an hour later, given that you and Kai began wrestling in the middle of the room (both cheered on by your respective sides), pushing and duelling one another with long polystyrene cylinders you'd randomly found behind a sofa.

There was always chaos and community to be found within your movie nights, and regardless of the movie chosen, or the boys' lack of contact with you... You always had fun.

"You seen Ray anywhere?" Kai ran into the kitchen, cameraman behind him wielding a camera which panned to you upon the question being asked. The fans knew of your existence as cook in the house and Kai's cousin, and despite the occasional shipping with other AMP members which was a bit odd considering your age was also public on your social media platforms - the fans seemed to be pretty chill and found you likeable too.

Kai slid his phone over so that you could see the chat also, knowing that you liked being able to know what people were saying whilst live.

"Which one's Ray?" You scrunched your brows together in confusion, wondering whether Kai had ever introduced you to a Ray before.

"I never introduced you to Ray??" Kai's own brows knitted together in confusion also, pausing his search to acknowledge that fact. You'd seen a thread on Twitter pointing out how similar yours and Kai's body language was having grown up so close, and found it cute that he mirrored your confusion with the same action of scrunching his brows together - a little smile lighting on your face as you shook your head, indicating that you hadn't in fact, met Ray.

Your smile was joined by a slight chuckle as you looked down at the chat on Kai's phone - watching as they flooded the screen with messages such as INTRODUCE HER TO RAY! and GET THEM TO MEET, expressing their intrinsic want for you to meet the enigmatic Ray.

"How long has he been here for?" You asked, checking up on the stove behind you as you asked the question.

"He been in and out the house for the last month or so - you ain't never seen him?" Kai re-questioned incredulously. "Taiwanese mf, like, this tall-" He stretched his arm out above him to exemplify the height. "-shitty haircut, lanky as hell...?"

"I've not seen a single person that isn't black inside this house, Kai." You shook your head to Kai's disappointment. "He been coming into the house for the last couple months though? How've I not seen him?!"

"Shit, I don't know either." Kai shrugged, setting himself on a barstool at the island. (idk what the amp house looks like i j hope there's barstool n a kitchen island) "Chat, you wanna see Ray meet my cousin?"

"Eurgh, I don't wanna meet someone for the first time on your stream, imma be awkward." You rolled your eyes, turning the hob off and stirring the cuisine within an adjacent pot on the stove. "We doing movie night tonight or is that next week?"

"Oh shit I forgot it's movie night tonight!" Kai exclaimed. "Chat, every month or somethin' we all watch a movie together - whole house and AMP gang - you tell 'em about it-"

Between yourself and Kai, the two of you managed to explain the concept of AMP movie nights to the chat whilst you plated up the rice and stroganoff, laughing and joking with the occasional threat of the wooden spoon - only to laugh whenever Kai flinched when you fake jumped at him with the wooden weapon.

"Go give those plates to Fanum and Davis," You gestured to the two plates on the table. "Duke, Chris and Agent can get theirs after they've played whatever basketball game they're playing... Does your Ray friend want a serving too, you think?"

"He can get a portion if he wants, I dunno," Kai shrugged the question away, picking up Davis' and Fanum's plate, awkwardly pulling his own plate of food between his arms and balancing it on his forearms. "Thanks girlie!"

"Yeah you welcome dawg," You mirrored his eccentric name-calling, chuckling as Kai gave his big bursting laugh as he walked out, cameraman following him.

The thought of Ray kept on your mind as you ate your portion, scrolling through your Twitter feed.

A random guy from another country you'd never seen had randomly joined your house? Without you even noticing...?? It felt a bit ironic, considering you spent most your time either in the living room or kitchen - both of which had a view of the front door and anyone who entered or exited the house...

Strange... You thought, chewing on the mushroom as you hard a distant yell of THANK YOU SWEETHEART from a room in the house, Bronx accent indicating it was likely Fanum shouting his gratitude to you for the food.

Switching from Twitter to Instagram, you looked at Kai's recent post - designer covering the boy from head to toe - the post from just 2 hours ago already decorated with several tens of thousands of likes. Quickly scrolling through the comments, you saw someone mention Ray - sparking an idea.

Clicking on Kai's profile, you clicked on the people Kai is following, typing Ray into the searchbar and looking through the profiles until you saw someone that matched the description Kai had given you.

Tall, Asian and not-as-shit-a-haircut as Kai had told you... You tapped on his recent post, one eyebrow quirking up at the subtle definition of his arms that showed with the white wife beater he wore. Clearly not as lanky as Kai had said, either.

You pulled the phone closer to your face as you scrolled onto the next picture, putting your fork down to zoom into Ray's face on the picture.

He had pretty features. Dark eyes and a cute lil smile...

You dropped your phone in shock, scrolling onto the next picture and seeing Ray without a top.

Your eyes widened as you withdrew yourself from your phone, staring into the distance and just grounding yourself for a second... Before picking your phone up again and bringing the phone close to your face to just...

admire.

Because damn was he good looking - broad chest and defined collarbones with subtle ab definition... You couldn't help yourself from zooming into the photo, eyes scouring the picture and just absorbing everything there was to see - marvelling at the pretty boy's posts just as-

"YO COUSIN-"

You quite literally jumped as the door opened, Duke's yell causing you to elicit a yelp as he ambled through the door with a wide grin and Agent trailing behind.

Your fingers fumbled, phone dropping from your hand and sliding across the table - just out of reach from you.

Duke laughed at your response, bending over and hand having to hold onto the kitchen tabletop to stabilise himself as he laughed at at the fear within your reaction - giving you a moment to reach out and grab your phone.... Realising that it had fallen face up with Ray's Instagram picture still on it's screen - your head snapping upwards and making horrifying eye contact with Agent, who had seen exactly what you'd been looking at on your phone.

"Fuck is you reacting like that for-" Duke guffawed, wiping at his eyes as he straightened up, getting poked in his arm by Agent. "What you doing that's got you all scared 'bout us for-"

"Why you looking at Ray's topless pictures?" Agent spilled with the fattest grin, his unfiltered honesty making you slap a hand over your face as you felt blood rushing to your cheeks at his brutal confession of your online snooping. And Duke was quick to snatch your phone from your hands following that - observing your phone screen despite your disputes and laughing as he saw the topless picture of Ray you'd been looking at on the Instagram profile.

"You thirstin' over Ray?" Duke's grin was astronomical as he asked it almost incredulously, holding the phone and pointing at the picture as if he couldn't believe it.

"What?! No- I don't know him - I've never even met him - why would I thirst over him...?" You rushed out, short fragmented sentences reflecting the panic that infiltrated your mind. "N-nothing wrong if I did though... Right?"

Agent and Duke collapsed against one another, bursting into a fit of laughter at your awkward confession.

"GUYS! Shut up! Apparently he's here in the house right now - I don't even like him! He's probably your old ass ages anyways - I don't know-"

"Girl he's your age, he's seventeen too," Duke cut you off, still donning his wide grin.

"Oh..." You felt a strange hope within the pit of your chest, your heart palpitating just a fraction quicker.

"Does that make you like him?" Agent quirked a brow and asked, handing your phone back to you yet continuing the interrogation nonetheless.

"I..." You trailed off as you thought about it.

For the past year or so you'd sort of forgotten or at least left all your crushes and romantic feelings behind - having devoted yourself to doing your job and helping with streams - all too caught up in Kai's influencer lifestyle.... And even when you'd found yourself initially with a micro-crush on Duke, you'd managed to quickly overcome it because of the age difference you knew was more than problematic.

But Ray being your age and literally being in the house with you?

That certainly changed your crush-thought-process.

"No way you crushing on Ray, that's wild," Agent smiled, less mockingly than Duke, as though he actually found it rather wholesome. Which would've made sense, given that Agent had a partner of his own and often expressed his happiness within having a girlfriend he loved.

"I don't know whether I have a crush," You were quick to shake your head though. "I don't know I don't know I don't know- I only found out about his existence like half an hour ago, Agent, I was just seeing who he was on Instagram..."

"Do you like who he is?" Duke interjected his question. "From what you've seen...?"

"I mean..." You found yourself trailing off again. "I don't know, he's cute and all but... Gosh, it's impossible to really know, isn't it? I mean, I've just seen a few pictures of him-"

"-And you like that shirtless pic of him don't you-"

You stared with a stony expression as Duke and Agent collapsed into a fit of giggles at their supposed witty comment.

"God, it feels weird talking to you two about anything to do with... boys."

"Yeah, weird knowing that's your type." Duke added on, making you facepalm.

"He isn't my type, I don't have a type - I don't date much - I don't even know what my type is."

"You should find out," Agent encouraged. "-by asking Ray for his number and going out with him."

"For his number?!" You repeated incredulously. "My God you two are ancient."

"What do you kids ask for nowadays?" Duke asked in confusion, running his hands through his dreads pensively.

"Snapchat or Instagram." You rolled your eyes. "Why am I talking about boys with either of you - you guys don't know shit about picking people up clearly-"

"HEY HEY HEY HEY-" They both rushed to defend themselves, their overlapping defensive shouts laughable.

"Look," You cut their defensive rambles off, raising your hands to gather than attentions, "This is cute and all, I get it, but you gotta understand... I don't even know who this guy is - yeah, I'll admit he's cute and all - but we're being real optimistic saying anything about guy who doesn't even know I exist - like - I just found out that he exists about half an hour ago! He might not even like me if we talked!"

"You too insecure." Duke rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. "You ugly but you aren't awful - you don't need to worry 'bout Ray rejecting you, there's plenty out there for you."

"Well thanks I guess."

"You want us to set you guys up?" Agent raised his brows, Duke's eyes widening and mouth forming an o-shape as he realised Agent's genius, looking at you expectantly with a wide smile.

"No." You stated resolutely, crushing their spirits. "Wait 'til I meet him in person or something. He could be weird or we might just be awkward..."

"Ay say less," Duke nodded his head. "When you gon' meet him?"

"I dunno, whenever I see him I guess? He's done a good job avoiding me, considering I haven't seen him in the house EVER, when apparently he's been in and out for months, now..."

Agent gasped, grabbing onto Duke's arm as another lightbulb idea clearly hit him.

"We should introduce them at movie night tonight!"

"HE'S STAYING FOR THAT?!"

"We'll make him stay." Agent grinned as Duke nodded along in agreement, letting out a little aaaaa! of excitement from their decided plan.

You couldn't even stop them from doing it, as they giggled and ran out of the room - not even taking their portion of lunch that you'd cooked, as they left the room swiftly, gossiping like schoolgirls as they plotted whilst you just sat. Fearing what the duo was planning.

"YOU COMIN' OR NOT?"

You rolled your eyes at your jumpy cousin's yell from the floor below, your continuing to unroll your hair in your attic room, looking at your reflection in the mirror and hoping your curls would fluff out if your brushed them.

There was a knock at the door and before you could even respond, it was busted open.

"You're meant to knock and wait until I say you can come in, asshole."

"Yeah yeah yeah," Kai brushed it off before looking into the mirror and seeing your reflection. "The fuck, are you doing your hair for a movie night? Are you wearin' lashes too?"

You shrugged, feeling Kai's judgement bring a slight blush to your face. You'd sort of convinced yourself that if Ray was staying for movie night (and Duke and Agent were gonna try setting the two of you up) you would put on just a bit of makeup - try make yourself look a little better, you know?

"What you getting all dolled up for?"

You bit down on your lip, wondering whether you should let Kai in on it. Would it be a bit awkward? You'd done just a bit of research on Ray and realised that he was surprisingly Kai's best friend - they were tight as hell... Which meant that telling Kai might just be a liiiittle bit awkward.

"I'm just trying some overnight makeup out," You shrugged after a second. "Euphoria - you know that makeup brand? - they gifted me this, I'm jus' trying it out now... So I can wear it in future, you know?"

Kai stared at you for a second, reading your expression and making you uncomfortable under his gaze, wondering whether he knew you were lying...

"Man, I don't know shit about makeup- just hurry your ass up, we waitin' on you now."

With that, Kai gave you the three minutes you needed to unroll and brush your hair - put a few finishing touches on your makeup - and slip into your comfy hoodie and sweatpants, checking your makeup in the mirror one last time before skipping down the stairs.

You peeked into the living room, Davis catching your eye and gesturing for you to come on in, patting the vacant space besides him on the sofa for you to come sit.

Your eyes scaled down the sofa, seeing Kai - Chris - Fanum - Agent - Duke - Davis...

And no Ray.

"You lookin' for someone?" Agent asked with a knowing grin plastered on his face.

"Nope." You stopped Agent, swiftly advancing from the door to the space besides Davis and ignoring the way you could hear Duke's snickering from besides Agent. "Is that everyone?" You asked casually, finding yourself relaxing slightly as the prospect that maybe you wouldn't have to meet Ray with the pressure of Duke and Agent coercing the two of you into talking and getting close.

"Nah we just waitin' on Ray." Kai responded, throwing some snacks into his mouth. "-OH, that means you'll finally meet Ray tonight!"

"Oh." Your simple response came, Duke and Agent's muffled laughter seemingly ignored by everyone but you.

"He's a nice guy," Kai nattered. "I just met him by accident sometime but he's a nice enough kid - he's your age - you could have a friend in the house if you guys get close too-"

"Fuck you mean a friend, we're all friends here," Fanum cut Kai off.

"We friends tho-"

Kai began wrestling someone at the comment.

You rest your head in your hands for a moment, just letting yourself calm down for a second whilst the duo rolled around on the floor, mock WWE fighting each other at the mere mention of Tyla's friend-zoning.

"What movie we thinkin'?" Duke asked the remainder of people on the sofa.

"We startin' without Ray?" Fanum questioned, Duke just shrugging and mumbling some answer.

"I could do with a horror," You yawned, Davis rolling his eyes and protesting instantly.

"What about a thriller? That's like soft horror, right?"

"The Outsider's one I been wanting to watch for time - check that out-"

"That shit looks scary as fuck, hell nah-"

"Let's watch the opening and if it's all that bad we can try a different film."

Duke pressed play on the movie, Kai breaking up the fight to jump back onto the sofa and settle into his seat to get ready to watch the movie - only to have it paused as the door opened - everyones' heads craning around as the door creaked.

In a pair of Hello Kitty pyjama bottoms and a plain white tee, Ray stood in the doorway.

"You finally come down?!" Kai jumped onto his feet and exclaimed at the quiet boy, Duke pausing the movie. "You was taking longer than HER to get ready!"

Ray looked down the group until he saw the person Kai jabbed his finger at. You. His dark eyes bore into yours, tracing down over your body ever so quickly before meeting with your eyes again. Kai noticing the pause and realising-

"OH- I been meanin' to introduce you two-"

"You Kai's cousin?" Ray questioned, his English broken up slightly, accent evident within his voice which wasn't exactly deep or husky, owning any particularly attractive qualities... but something about it was soothing on the ear, regardless.

"Yeah, you're Ray I'm guessing," You nodded, smiling up at the boy politely, expecting him to be courteous enough to smile back.

Your smile slid off your face as Ray didn't smile back, however. Rude, you thought, internally rolling your eyes and deciding that maybe you weren't all that bothered with someone who wouldn't even smile back at you.

But no, Ray was quite straightforwards in stepping around the boys towards you and giving you a handshake... Which felt strangely formal - until Ray kept his hand intertwined with you and pulled you up to your feet with surprising strength, making you let out the slightest of gasps as Ray put an arm around your back - pulling you into a hug instead.

Your hands slowly wrapped around his body in response - just slightly shocked at... Well, everything.

A) Whatthefuck he was STRONG?! Sure, you'd seen that he had muscles from his Instagram posts - but shit, he wasn't exactly ripped - and he certainly didn't look like he had enough muscle to lift you up just with one hand

B) Ohmyfuck, he's so comfortable just giving a hug? No awkwardness, no weird lead up, just coming over here in front of everyone and pulling me into a hug? That shit's nice as Hell I gotta admit-

C) Damn he smells good - is that like... Pine? Something warm and comforting a lil like vanilla... or maybe some sage too...?

D) OhmyLORD he is tall. You and Kai were both cursed blessed with the short genes of your families, and donned similar heights... Which meant that Ray practically enveloped you within his arms and hug, your head resting just below his chest in such a way you could feel a heat rising to your cheeks - making the blush you'd swiped onto your cheeks earlier futile, as your flustered feelings reflected on your cheeks.

You opened your eyes slightly as you felt your mind going into overdrive at the hug Ray gave - catching the expression of the people on the sofa as you did; Kai and Davis looking relatively normal, though Chris and Fanum donned expressions of suspicion - their minds clearly already sensing some tension or connection, and Agent beaming as though everything was coming together - Duke raising a brow with a knowing expression, as if he'd seen this coming and was encouraging you to continue with... with something(???)

Ray was the first to pull back, making you realise you'd just sorta grappled onto him and forgotten that a hug was only meant to last for a moment.

"You two is both the same age too, so I thought it'd be good for you two to be friends," Kai explained, making you laugh - trying to cover the way you were all too aware about the fact that Ray's arm remained around your shoulders following the hug, still holding you sorta close to his body.

"Thanks Uncle Cenat" You pointed out his behaviour.

"You two should go sit on that couch with each other," Agent gestured to the adjacent sofa. "Given there isn't space for another two of you here."

You watched as Duke subtly bumped his fist against Agent, them two thinking they were sooo smooth at the suggestion, making you just roll your eyes and stay silent - not opposed to what Agent had suggested, but not wanting to pressure Ray into it, or appear as too eager or enthusiastic when Ray might not've cared at all.

However Duke seemed to take your silence as an opportunity to drop more hints.

"She'll try cuddle you though, you gotta watch out-" Duke couldn't even finish his sentence without laughing - your eyes widening in horror at the betrayal you felt as Duke spewed the truth. "She likes hugging and bein all physical like that-"

Your face fell into your hands in horror, shaking your head from side to side as the crew on the sofa burst out laughing at Duke's lack of filter, embarrassing you to no end as you hid your burning face within your palms.

You were horrified Duke was baiting you out. What sick sorta plan did he have to get you two together which involved publicly shaming you?? You could still feel Ray's arm around your shoulders despite Duke's ridiculing, but you could already imagine the expression he would wear: a pitying smile or mocking laugh matching the rest of the gang.

Fucking embarrassing.

You chose to look up at Ray - let his expression tell you that you didn't have a single chance with him, now that you'd been outed and embarrassed for being an oddball. That he thought you were weird and that you had 0 chances of building some sort of connection or having a relationship with the only person anywhere near your age within the AMP house.

Yet to your surprise, as you looked up and your eyes met Ray's - you saw no expression you were expecting.

He was fine with it.

He had a blank, unbothered expression, and seemed more interested in you than anything Duke was flacking.

"You want to cuddle?" Ray questioned with no evident nor underlying judgement within his voice. Just a genuine question, in which he didn't seem opposed to the idea - just wanting to know whether Duke was being genuine or not - clearly not wanting to misread the situation and accidentally be too forwards with you.

Your tongue felt heavy, mind whirring into overdrive as you couldn't even begin to respond to his question - a blush forming on your cheeks as your eyes widened with shock even more - after all, you hadn't even expected Ray to want to talk to you. Let alone be so to-the-point with asking to cuddle.

He was a man of few words.

But the words that Ray did speak? They got straight to your heart, and regardless of whether he knew the effect of what he said, he was only making you more into him.

It felt like some sickening fever dream; a guy your age, attractive and forwards with gestures of interest - asking you to come cuddle him and literally fulfilling one of your few visceral cravings; your want for physical contact with someone satiated by Ray, who was willing to do exactly what you'd been craving.

It was just too bad you didn't know how to express it.

Ray's arm slipped away - leaving your shoulders as he advanced across the room, sitting on the adjacent sofa and seemingly leaving you as he manspread his legs out, one arm wrapping around the back of the seat next to him as he looked up and made eye contact with you.

"Come then," He spoke plainly, leaving it open to you as he pat the seat besides him with his hand.

The AMP boys on the sofa let out OOOOOO's of surprise, Duke and Agent grabbing onto and slapping each others' forearms to get each others' attention and ogle at the way that shit was working out. Kai had his brows furrowed in slight confusion despite his grin - just a bit suspicious of the way that Ray seemed to be making advances towards you. Not to mention that they seemed to be working.

But you personally?

You couldn't help but fixate on how good Ray looked. The way that he was sat with his legs spread, white tee pooling at the bottom and contrasting the darkness of his hair and eyes...

You knew you'd spent too long just awkwardly stood staring, and you decided not to let the awkward moment persist - crossing the room and following in Ray's steps as you sat down besides him, hands within your lap as you felt your leg brushing his - that being enough contact to satisfy your shy self for the moment.

"Yo, pass a blanket." Ray said to Fanum, his blunt demand being met with Fanum widening his eyes with shock at the confidence of the boy with you.

"Hell nah gang, I ain't letting you do shit under a blanket with her," Fanum became defensive, despite the smile on his face.

Agent was the one to throw a bundled up blanket over Fanum's head, reaching Ray and letting him unroll it with Fanum scolding Agent whilst Ray gave you a portion of the blanket, throwing it over your body and getting you comfy.

Duke pressed play on the movie, and the screen lit up with colours, allowing the introduction to play out and capture everyones' attention once more.

Ray's hand drifted from the back of the sofa to your shoulders, whispering a "You okay with this?" which you nodded in response to, leaning back into his arm and enjoying the weight of his arm around your back, hand resting against your shoulder - long fingers running down the length of your arm whilst his thumb rest across the top of your shoulder, parallel to your collarbone. Occasionally, he swiped his thumb over your shoulder in a comforting way, giving you shivers which you had to conceal each time he did it.

As the movie played out, the horror began unveiling itself, until the main character found themself alone, in the dark, walking with solely a torch through a liminal space which had your anxiety rising.

"This shit scary as fuck" You heard Ray mumble from besides you, shuffling closer whilst you could feel his arm muscles tensing in clear fear. You nodded with fear in your body also, every muscle anticipating a jumpscare... And feeling Ray shift closer, you leaned into his body too, letting your body meet with Ray's side, head leaning against his shoulder ever so slightly as if testing to see whether he'd back out... Which he didn't. In fact, his other arm wrapped around your shoulders too, his head behind yours as if whilst holding you he was shielding himself from the screen and the awaiting jumpscare.

It was laughable how scared he was, yet you didn't considering the fact that you were also (metaphorically) shitting it. No, instead you wrapped your hands around his arms which sat around your shoulders, gripping onto Ray and scooting yourself into Ray's body, as though uniting the two of you could save you from a jumpscare on the other side of the screen.

Of course, it didn't.

Screams and yells ricocheted around the room as the tension was released by the jumpscare.

Ray's hands tightened around your body at the scene whilst you yourself jumped at the shock, turning your face away from the screen and squeezing your eyes shut, subsequently hiding your face in the crook of Ray's neck, your forehead resting against his skin whilst his hand just accommodated his movement and rest against your lower back instead.

"That wasn't even that scary," You whispered into Ray's ear as you overcame the shock of the jumpscare, bodies still squished together, embracing just in case another surprise scare appeared.

"You joking?" Ray pulled back, eyes widening as he looked at you, whispering incredulously. "This some of the scariest thing I have ever seen..."

"It was just some goofy creature - we didn't even see what it was," You giggled quietly at the frightened boy, even making him smiling a little bit as though your laughter was contagious.

Ahem. The two of you lost eye contact as Fanum cleared his throat, giving the two of you a pointed look to say-

"Shut the fuck up - is what he's saying." Kai's energetic voice broke the atmosphere. "And stop with all that cute shit too Ray, I introduced you two to be friends, I don't like whatever you're doin'."

You felt a blush return to your cheeks, feeling almost caught by your psuedo-sibling. At least he was projecting his distaste onto Ray instead of you, though.

Rolling your eyes as Fanum raised his brows and gave you a shuthethefuckup look as well, you pulled the blanket up to your neck and tucked yourself further up into Ray's body, letting yourself relax into his side.

Your head leaned slowly towards Ray, eventually making contact with his shoulder and just resting there. His arm still tucked around your shoulders, both of your bodies covered with the blanket... You let out a yawn from the warmth the blanket wrapped you with, simulating a cosy duvet tucking you into bed.

"Tired?" Ray whispered, his head leaning on top yours. He was quiet, but you could still feel the vibrations of voice resonating from his chest and against your body which was still leant up against his.

"Lil bit," You replied, feeling your eyes getting heavy.

"You can lie against me-" Ray shuffled himself around a bit - causing you to detach your head groggily, allowing him to readjust himself before beckoning you back - letting you lie with your back towards the armrest - legs across his lap.

You appreciated Ray's accommodating nature and rotated yourself to swing your legs across his, resting your thighs in his lap and lying your body back against the armrest of the chair - though your body was still close enough to Ray's for him to keep an arm around your back - your body still close to his, now flush with his chest and front.

You rested a hand around Ray's body, sorta hugging him, sorta stabilising yourself. The action made a blush rise to your cheeks as you remembered a mere few hours ago when you were looking at his pictures on Instagram and the abs he had beneath that shirt, back when Agent and Duke had caught you and initially planned on trying to set you and Ray up.

You could feel your eyes getting heavier by the second, breathing slowing despite the pace of the movie which had only just started picking up - and it seemed as though Ray just needed to say one thing before you clocked out.

"You're very pretty." His voice was soft. Quiet, as to not let the boys across the room hear. And his fingers gently ran through your hair as you lay back, near to falling asleep - though his words send impulses down your accelerator nerve, increasing your heartrate.

"Big talk from you," You smiled, returning the compliment. "Your insta pictures are... Nice."

Ray's face broke into a smile, his lips curling upwards - more towards the right than the left - his right eye crinkling with the muscles that uncontrollably contracted in response to the pride that glowed within him from the compliment.

"What you doing tomorrow?" The simple question came.

Was he fucking asking you out???

"Uhm, I think... probably working most of the day..."

"You free tomorrow night?" God he was persistent, and God you fucking loved that he wasn't gonna let go.

"Should be, yeah..."

"You want to go out?" Ray questioned. "With me?"

You literally felt your heart exploding, warmth erupting within your stomach happy chemicals flowing through your body at the fact Ray was interested.

Nodding your head with the fattest smile unwipeable from your lips, Ray grinned at your reaction also, nodding to seal the deal.

"I will take you out," Ray spoke happily, still quiet as to not catch the other guys' attentions. "Date style, yeah?"

"Date style." You nodded in agreement, giggling slightly at the fact Ray needed clarification. Cutie.

"I meant it when I said shut the fuck up, you two." Kai shushed the two of you, eyes glued to the screen but viewing experience diminished by your quietly unintelligible conversation in the corner.

"Sorry!" You apologised quickly, grin evident in your voice from the ecstatic feeling that flowed through your body, having been asked out. And Duke and Agent heard your smile within your voice - turning with knowing smiles towards you.

And this time, instead of rolling your eyes or hiding from Agent or Duke, you grinned back, nodding your head as if to say Yeah, it's working out.

Duke's grin multiplied by tenfold, biting down on his lip to try not to laugh out of excitement for the two of you - your first big shipper. Agent however, rolled his eyes, and you watched as a bill slipped from Agent's pocket into Duke's awaiting palm - wiping the smile of your face and replacing it with a look of confusion which Agent noticed.

Taking out his phone, Agent avidly pressed the screen, before looking up - your phone vibrating from your hoodie pocket.

3 New Messages

Agent: Lol before u came down we bet on what'd happen

Agent: Duke bet that you'd end up successfully making moves

Agent: I bet against lol

You: I'm glad you lost that money.

You slipped your phone back into your pocket, breathing out a breath of relief, contentment and tiredness as you got back into a comfortable position - eyes shutting, head becoming heavy and leaning against Ray's chest where he tucked the blanket around your back and put his arm around your shoulders, his fingers finding purchase within your hair and comfortingly running through the curls you'd rolled up an hour ago.

And listening to Ray's heartbeat and feeling his body warm yours through his white tee - ambient noises of the TV in the background as you slowly inhaled and exhaled, drinking in Ray's comforting cologne, you felt yourself slowly slipping away and happily falling asleep in his arms.

BONUS!

Waking up the next day, you were not happy with what you saw on Twitter.

FANUM

I was gonna do a stream having these two mfs meet up but they already seem pretty fuckin cosy 😭

AMP Kai FUCK IS TS i gotta have some mfkn words w Ray 😭 Arm round her n all - I DONT FUCK W THIS BEHAVIOUR WHEN IT INVOLVES MY CUS 🙏🙏 AMP updates 👀👀👀👀 SpeedyBeta WHAT IS THIS WHAT DID I MISS??? TheFroggyBoggy ONG GIRLLL HOW'D THEY GO FROM NOT KNOWING WHO EACH OTHER WERE ON THE STREAM TO BEIN LIKE THIS SpeedyBeta LITR HAHHA SUPER CUTE THO <33

Duke Dennis

He didn't even ask me for no rizz tips.

AMP Agent Still can't believe you won the bet smh 🙄😒 Atl smth acc happened here ✅ KingKennysimp101 Damn the spooning w the blanket n all?? I'm sorry i wasn't familiar with ur game Ray 😭😭🙏🙏🙏 AMP Kai I'm gonna be having damn words with that boy. AMP Davis She aint gonna like this post Duke 😭😭😭 Y/n You're damn right ab that Davis AMP Davis Duke your ass better be running💀💀 Duke Dennis Omw back to Atlanta as we speak 🙏

It's so wild that my first proper write for AMP is for Ray 😭😭 Hopefully this has drawn in some of the AMP girlies tho bc i have a fic in the work for DUKE, FANUM, and AGENT!

(add urself to my taglist if u wanna be notified for when i post them)

Hope you enjoyed reading!! Feel free to interact- whether that be a comment, vote or follow! Requests open, feel free to submit what u wanna see... Much love!!

To see more for AMP and other YouTubers, here's my MASTERLIST

And here's my WATTPAD, with 50+ more oneshots to read

p.s. Customise which Oneshots YOU want to be tagged in by submitting your preferences on THIS GOOGLE FORM

TAGLIST: (sorry I didn't do it last night i fell asleep b4 I could)

@kennysimp101 @speedybeta @thefroggyboggy @zomburexia @zandrax @supaprettyg @gyu-baby @spiritualz @daniiixoxo @koritoji @smh-anon @lila702980 @star-32 @mym3lodii @betashully @fillysmypookie @janialovesbetasquad @lisask8s @mcddyperez

[shanieveh]

REVERSE 07↺: this isn’t the end

wriothesley x fem!reader

Now playing: From the start — Laufey

“Dear Wriothesley,”

The letter was in his hand, like it was in yours before.

Your hand.

One that he used to touch, to feel, to hold.

“I’m leaving, I recently got the scholarship and I dont want anything to disturb me, not even you.”

At that time, he was filled with life, but he understood now. That life was always something he had to sacrifice so much for.

“Thank you for introducing me to your silly tea parties, as we delude ourselves to be the seven deadly sins.”

A breath, a tear, a memory.

“I know you’ll fill that party, the three of us will turn to seven. I would dearly miss being lust, and trying to kiss you.”

He continued reading it.

“So take risks okay! I know you wanted that basketball spot, so practice. Not to much tea now, will you.”

He looks back at his trophy room, one where you once lay with him as he tells you his dreams and aspirations.

“Election is coming up though, how about you start from the bottom and work your way up to the top! Maybe you can get representative of the batch now, oh I can’t wait to see you president!”

Laufey was always your favorite artist, he remembered memorizing a whole song to sing to you. He courted you for months, he loved you for years.

“But I reject you Rio, after all the flowers and songs, I realized this relationship was worthless.”

He was worthless.

He remembered being mad about everything, how can he not when he was the used to being alone in everything. He begged for you to notice him months prior, to just be in the same room as him.

Just a few months later, you came back a new person, a person he never knew. It was like you lost everything, with the brand new friends. But he will always keep his promise.

After all he knew why you had to leave, it was all his fault.

He rejected you, he ignored you, a bit of him loathe your whole existence. Wriothesley couldn’t bear even drinking tea, not until a purple haired girl told him he was allowed to be happy.

And that purple haired, turns to a whole circle of friends, one of his own.

But the duke remembers the clear words he said, running after you, the moment he read the whole letter.

“One day, if we no longer have burdens to deal with, can you finally pick me?”

One day, this isn’t the end.

Even if it meant just being friends, just seeing you from afar, he would do it all for your happiness.

He never understood why you changed, and he never understood why he still loved you anyway.

“So I’ll take my goodbyes. Thank you for the memories and I’m sorry for my rejection, I hope you find someone better.”

——————————[ 06 —↺— 08 ]——————————

the whole campus knows about your 3 year crush on the student body president and basketball captain wriothesley. you were fine with his constant ignoring and rejections until something happened, until you stopped, and a reverse took place... now he won't leave you alone.

TAGLIST I: @vash-yuu @nayukiyukihira @aethion @whodissbitj @astolary @ayayaaayyiirel @randomidk-123 @superdark-soul @sleepy-waffle @kittywagun @ceaether @ichorstainedskin @numwoon44 @eutopiastar @reni502 @fictionalfantasy17 @lucienbarkbark @kyon-cherri @huanator @jqnehr @yourlittlemissworld @zworllyx @unknownlololol @sara-midnight @jaguarthecat @we-wo-we-wo @duhsies @interstellar-equilibrium @ariparri @lolmeowing @aruatsu @k-cris @quacking-simp @vlamouren @semi-orangeapple @tamikahoshiko @imnotgoodwithnamessoidk @portgas459ace @r4yyyyy @vxnuslogy @kazuhasmaid @explosive-wuisa @falors @rirk-ke @shotovhs @aixaingela @ruhaxol @yelleloww @sc1twi @ash4ree

[icysinner]

hometown hero — chapter one | back in town.

𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒: onyankopon finally lives that dream of playing professional basketball, but through the glitz and glamour, he’s still in love with the girl from his hometown.

𝐍��𝐀 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄: word count: 868, this is really long and can u tell i love ony

get added to the taglist. <3

𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 ᥫ᭡ 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 ᥫ᭡ 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀

“y/n, you heard that your man’s coming back in town?” lae asked as you sat across from her, getting a fill and a new design. “i have a man?” you asked her, fake confused because you knew who she was talking about. “onyankopon supposed to be touching down in the city today, you gonna go see him?” she asked, smiling at you. “let’s be clear, he’ll definitely come see me before i go see him.” a laugh could be heard from the both of you. you and onyankopon had an interesting relationship, that was one way to put it.

you transferred middle schools in seventh grade, moving all the way across the country. when you moved schools, onyankopon was your first friend. he was drawn to you because he realized you were quiet, and that if he didn’t make a move first, the two of you would never become friends. maintaining this friendship through school was easy, you, him, violet and tylae even decided on the same high school in eighth grade.

as you all grew up, onyankopon grew a love for basketball. he played all four years of high school, and then he got offers from all types of colleges. you thought you’d lose contact with him after college, because going pro was a dream he was willing to make happen, regardless of who he had to cut off. but onyankopon liked you a lot, enough to make sure he kept contact with you, and he even does now, now that he’s in the nba.

⎯⎯⎯⎯

violet rushed into the door of tylae’s salon, holding her laptop and papers in her hand. her blonde hair was in a claw clip as she sat on one of the waiting chairs. tylae’s salon was closed on the weekend, closed to everyone but the two of you. “girl, why are you running in here like that?” tylae asked as she spun her chair around to see violet. “oh, i was running? sorry.” violet said, smiling. “you guys heard onyankopon’s coming back today? supposedly to see his mom.” sometimes, you and tylae forget that violet is a journalist, and she would know all this information before you two.

“yeah, we heard, vi.” “he’s bringing levi and their manager too.” violet responded, looking through her papers as she talked to the both of you. “you sure he’s only here for pleasure? the man can’t keep himself from working.” you said, rolling your eyes at the thought of his reluctance to stop working. “pretty sure it’s just pleasure, if it is for work, they’re coming earlier than the rest of the team.” violet said, chewing on her gum as she read through her paper.

⎯⎯⎯⎯

sitting in your living room, a cup of noodles in your hand and rick & morty on your tv, your phone lit up with a text from onyankopon.

ony 🤍

just got off my flight, u home?

y/n

what happened to going to see your mom ? 😭

ony 🤍

i’ll see u first, come with me to see my dukes?

y/n

okay, only because i love ur mom

ony 🤍

don’t love me nm? crazyyyy

y/n

no i dont. see u soon love u

⎯⎯⎯⎯

you sat on your couch, still into your show, when you heard a knock at your door. your heartbeat immediately went up, excited to see your friend after so long. you opened the door, revealing onyankopon, who clearly was enjoying that nba money. he had on two cuban link chains, diamond earrings on both ears, (the last time you saw him, he only had one.) and gold fronts in his teeth. he looked good, looked like he just got a fresh haircut too.

“how long you gonna stare, girl?” he asked with a smile, pulling you into a hug. “i wasn’t staring! you’re just so..shiny.” you said with a smile, eyeing his chains. “like the ice, huh? maybe i’ll have to get you some.” onyankopon smiled, walking into your apartment. “you got a nice place here, upped the ante from the last time i was here.” he said, looking around at your decorations. “well, it’s been almost seven months since you’ve been here, and a lot has happened for my bank account in those seven months.” you noted.

“yeah, i heard you on your tiana shit, got yourself a restaurant.” onyankopon commented, “heard all about the place. gotta let me see it soon while i’m here.” he said. “well, when do you leave?” you questioned him, “if you really wanna see, i’ll show you tomorrow.” “i don’t leave ‘til monday.” onyankopon responded, picking up one of the mini jade statues on your end table. “okay, for one, put that down before you break it, and two, why are you here for so long? neglecting your job?” you asked him teasingly, to which he rolled his eyes.

“me and levi are here early, we have a home game saturday.” onyankopon replied, “speaking of, you should come, bring lae and vi if you want.” he said with a smile. “only if we get courtside seats.” you said, jokingly. “of course you’d get courtside, you think i’d have my girl in nosebleeds?”

[cutebat]

I wanted to ask you if Batgirl is in love with anyone? Since in the drawing you made of if Batgirl were Robin you can see how she has a crush on Nightwing, and if Batgirl does have a crush on someone I would love to see the reactions of the Batfamily😈

Yes, Batgirl does have a love interest in her canon story!

She actually fell in love with Nightwing when she first time she came to the batfamily. She's the type of girl who believes in love at first sight. So, when Dick rescued her on one of her missions, she was like, "Yep, he's the one." Because of this, she tries to make him like her back.

But, you know how Dick is. He does NOT fall for young girls. It took him a lot of time to make batgirl know how he's not interested in her and why it wasn't okay for her to be in love with him. Luckily, she finally lets go of her feelings for him.

Then, she started to go after other boys around her age.

After a long time of searching, batgirl finally found her official love interest.

All you should know about him is that his full name is Mitch Sterlingwood. He's basically an heir of one of the rich families in Gotham who fell for batgirl over time. I don't have an official design for him, but don't worry, it'll come very soon, along with other character designs for the my Batgirl series!

Now, for your question about the batfam's resctions...

Quick note! My batgirl story and the yandere stuff are different things! None of them are connected to each other! So, right now, we're doing my canon batgirl story!

Bruce would be suspicious of Mitch at first, but careful at the same time. He knows that the young boy is from a rich family which is why he needs to keep the status part safe. Is that how rich families work? Anyway, then, he would be supportive of her decisions, but he would also make sure her boyfriend won't do anything to hurt his daughter.

Dick would be proud of her moving on from him and finding the one who she truly loves. He's 100% supportive of her and her new boyfriend. He would even try to bound with Mitch.

Barbara would actually be happy for her. She would ask how the date went after she came back home. She's more likely glad that batgirl doesn't have feelings for Dick anymore.

Jason won't know or care that much since he's not around most of them, but he would just wave at Mitch and walk away to continue his thing.

Tim would be like Bruce, but he would quickly accept Mitch. He would ask him a lot of questions about his own life, though that makes batgirl quickly pull him away from her brother.

Steph would be excited to meet Mitch. She would start off by shaking his hand and hugging him tightly before she would ask him tons of questions along with Tim. Finally, she would stop as she took a picture with him and batgirl before sending them off to their date.

Cass would be polite and happy to meet him. She would wave at him with a smile before she patted him on the head and told him to enjoy the date with batgirl. Mitch would be confused by her actions.

Duke would be glad to meet Mitch. He would ask if he would like to go for a round of basketball with him before going on the date. After all of that, the poor boy would be out of breath and sweating. Batgirl would scold Duke for a bit before they leave for their date.

Damian would open the door for him as he eyes him up and down. He wouldn't do anything except stare at every movement Mitch made before he was going to walk out with batgirl. When she leaves, Damian pulls Mitch aside and tells him, "If she comes back crying, I will find you and deal with you myself."

Alfred is the most polite one out of all. He would greet the young boy before offering him some tea and small biscuits. Then, he makes small talk with Mitch before batgirl comes down. The old butler might scold some of the batfam members for trying to scare the young Sterlingwood away.

Selina would also be polite as she basically just asks Mitch some questions about his life for... certain reasons. This would leave him wondering why she wants to know how much jewelry his mother has.

Kate would have some small talk with Mitch about what would happen if he or batgirl was in danger. She would remind him to always protect his girl because right now, she's the valuable one in his life. She's just being a supportive aunt as she should be.

Azrael would simply just sits him down on a chair and make him look into his eyes. Mitch would get nervous before he feels his finger on his chest. "Don't try to do anything stupid. I'll always be watching you." This leaves the boy shaking before batgirl walks over to see what's wrong.

Harper would laugh and ruffle Mitch's hair like how she does to her younger brother, Cullen. Then, she would show him some cool gadgets she made that make him a bit interested as well.

So, basically, they would either make him feel at home or traumatize him.

[lov3jimin]

duke x reader

y/n and duke fell in love from gaming

In the bustling world of online gaming, Duke Dennis reigned supreme. His charisma, skill, and infectious personality made him a favorite among fans, but even someone as accomplished as Duke yearned for something more than virtual victories.

One evening, as Duke prepared to stream another round of NBA 2K, he received a message from a fellow gamer named Y/N Intrigued by her enthusiasm and knowledge of the game, Duke extended an invitation for her to join him on his stream.

Y/N ,a passionate gamer with a penchant for basketball, eagerly accepted Duke's invitation. As they played side by side, their chemistry was undeniable. Their banter flowed effortlessly, and Duke found himself drawn to Y/N 's quick wit and genuine spirit.

As the days turned into weeks, Duke and Y/N 's friendship blossomed both on and off the screen. They spent countless hours gaming together, sharing stories, and laughing until their sides ached. Duke discovered a side of himself he hadn't known existed—a vulnerability and warmth that only Y/N seemed to bring out.

Yet, amidst the pixels and pixels of their digital world, Duke found himself falling for Y/N . Her laughter became the soundtrack to his days, and her smile illuminated his darkest nights. He knew he had to confess his feelings, but the fear of rejection loomed over him like a shadow.

Finally, on a balmy summer evening, Duke mustered the courage to lay his heart bare. With bated breath, he poured his feelings out to Y/N , confessing that she had become more than just a gaming partner—he had fallen deeply in love with her.

To Duke's relief and elation, Y/N 's response was everything he had hoped for and more. With tears of joy in her eyes, she admitted that she too had developed feelings for him. In that moment, amidst the digital cheers and applause of their online audience, Duke and Y/N shared a virtual embrace that transcended the boundaries of pixels and screens.

From that day forward, Duke and Y/N 's streams took on a new dimension as they navigated the highs and lows of their budding romance together. As they continued to conquer virtual courts and real-life challenges side by side, they knew that their love was a victory worth celebrating—both online and offline.

[adrivns]

[  jacob elordi,  cis man,  he/him,  muse 7  ] welcome  ADRIAN  MILES  SHEPHARD  —  or  should  i  say  the  HOTSHOT?  …  a  quick  google  search  tells  me  you’re  a  TWENTY-SIX  year  old  PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYER  who’s worth 80M.  you've  called  penthouse  35C home for  ONE YEAR.  it  seems  you’ve  managed  to  earn  a  reputation  for  being  RECKLESS,  yet you're  also  quite  CONFIDENT.  i'm  sure  as  a  SCORPIO  you're  used  to  people  commenting  on  your  VINTAGE SEIKO WATCH  /  A DEVIL-MAY-CARE ATTITUDE THAT MAKES ANYTHING HE DOES ON THE COURT LOOK EASY  ;  LOGGING ONTO TWITTER TO IMMEDIATELY START BEEF  ;  A GRIN YOU COULD PUNCH  ;  PRAYING HANDS AND A CHEESY QUOTE ABOUT FAMILY TATTED ACROSS HIS CHEST. 

─── personality

positive traits: confident, assertive, resilient, protective.

negative traits: reckless, cocky, blunt, impatient.

likes: pineapple on pizza, call of duty, tony hawk, r/fuckaroundandfindout. VERY passionate about the dark knight trilogy.

dislikes: books with over 300 pages, speed limits, musicals, people who bring their screaming kids out in public, losing (in anything).

there's a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and adrian walks that line every single day. whether it’s trash talking other basketball players or riling up the opposing crowd just for the fun of it, his attitude tends to turn most people off. still, with an $80 million net worth, he’s clearly got the talent to back it up.

─── background

born to college sweethearts william and helen, adrian's upbringing is very much the white-picket-fence-golden-retriever fantasy. he's raised to believe he can do anything he sets his mind to, and he does - selling the most wrapping paper in school history and making the all-states basketball team as a freshman.

sports have always been a staple in the shephard household; william, a former college athlete, first sparks adrian's love for basketball and practices with him the entire summer leading up to tryouts.

adrian quickly makes a name for himself on the court, taking after his dad's talent and competitive streak. he follows in his footsteps all the way to duke, playing one season before joining the detroit pistons as the second pick in the nba draft.

in the following two years, adrian leads the pistons to their fourth championship, wins a rookie of the year award and secures a five-year contract with the new york knicks. although he's always had an aura of being untouchable, his reputation suffers a significant blow in may 2024 when he's suspended for the rest of the season after physically assaulting a rival player.

with the new nba season about to begin, his pr team has suggested he do some image rehab by joining excesstv and showing viewers his more humble and relatable side. adrian has never acted before save for the time he played a dancing spoon in his 3rd grade production of beauty and the beast, but figures the exposure can’t hurt.

─── headcanons

bought his parents a vacation home for their 25th wedding anniversary

played the drums as a kid (if you dig deep enough there's a youtube video from his middle school talent show)

signed a brand deal with nike and lost it a month later after posting a series of controversial tweets

his game day routine includes waking up at exactly 7.15 am, eating a whole tin of anchovies and hyping himself up to slipknot in front of his full-length mirror

always carries around lip balm and applies it like this

every time he has a cold he turns into a frail victorian child on their deathbed

─── current connections

[harryandmeghansussex]

The Duke took on his second run!

The Invictus Games 2025 will be the first winter edition of the competition with the introduction of new sports. Next February, athletes can go for the gold in alpine skiing, snowboarding, biathlon, Nordic skiing, skeleton and wheelchair curling for the first time in addition to the core Invictus sports of indoor rowing, sitting volleyball, swimming, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby and more.

[birdy-bat-writes]

Can I Have This Dance?

Merry belated Chrysler and a very happy New Year to everyone! As a special little gift to @quillsareswords for our Christmas Fic Exchange. I was your secret Santa :D May I present to you, a jolly little holiday fluff! Hope you like it.

also, feel free to check out the other amazing writers posting for this fic exchange :) @glorified-red @quillsareswords @zombybird @citrinesparkles

Pairing: Damian Wayne (aged up) x Fem!Reader

Category: Fluff

Word Count: 1.6k

Warnings: Nothing really, I suppose bad grammar might be one:,D

Please like, reblog and comment, I literally love hearing from you! :) And if I make a mistake (which I probably did because yo girl is sleep deprived yeet) please drop it in the comments and I'll fix it asap. Live y'all!

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

It was the week after Christmas and The Wayne family were all scattered around the country for their post-holiday-pre-new year’s tasks. Bruce was out on a business trip, Dick, Jason, Duke, and Tim were on vacation with their significant others, Alfred was making use of his spa resort gift card, and Barbara, Cass and Stephanie took a girl’s trip in Star City. That left you and your boyfriend, Damian, alone in Gotham. Don’t get me wrong, you were more than happy to be there. In fact, the two of you volunteered to stay back and take some time to recover from your semester finals. You were looking forward to staying with the Waynes and getting to see your family friends again.

Everyone was expected back by the 29th. One small problem: this was Gotham city; the land of unforeseen setbacks and a blizzard had snowed in all the runways at the airport.

Each member of the family was panicking at a different airport and it might have even been a little funny to watch it go down if you didn’t need everyone back for the New Year’s Party in 2 days. If they couldn’t get here before the 31st, which they couldn’t, you and Damian were going to have to decorate alone.

After getting off the phone with everyone you broke it down. You could spend today finding a catering service that could make it in this weather and fishing through the storerooms for decorations. And in Wayne Manor, that was a task. The storeroom was easily the size of a basketball court. Bless Alfred and his color-coded shelves.

On the 31st morning, the last of the preparations were being sorted. The food was tucked away in the industrial freezers and navy-blue carpet was laid out at every entrance, adorned with gold confetti-filled balloons. As you and Damian sat alone on the ballroom floor, untangling the last sets of string lights, you fully realized just how exhausted you were. After your finals, your days were a blur of packing, traveling, and trying to stay awake through every Christmas celebration you agreed (and regretted agreeing) to going to. You never truly had moment to enjoy your time with the family or even the one person you really wanted to be with: Damian. He must have seen you getting into your thoughts and pulled you out with some song suggestions.

“Okay, then, what’s your favorite slow song?”, he asked.

“I don’t even think I have one.”, you replied.

“There’s no way.”

“Of course, there is!”

“You don’t even have one slow song you love? Like a song you thought you’d play at your wedding or dance to with your prom date.” You silently nodded.

“I guess I never thought about it, and I didn’t really dance with anyone like that at prom.”

“You’ve…never slow danced?”

“Nope.” Damian almost seemed like he wanted to say something but decided against it at the last second. “What?”

“Nothing. I’ll be right back.” While waiting on him, you hung the set of lights and looked around the room proudly. Twinkling stars strung with lights from pillar to pillar, reflecting light off the marble floors and satin tablecloths. Not bad. Not bad at all.

You began turning on your heel to go find your boyfriend when you stopped in place, heart melting at what you saw. Damian was kneeling in the doorway with a handful of roses, wearing cheeky grin. “Y/N L/N, would you do me the honor of accompanying me to tonight’s ball?”

“Damian, what are you doing?” There was no one around and no reason to be embarrassed, but you still felt your face heat up.

“At the moment, I’m hoping you’ll say yes so I can show you a magical evening, and slow dance with me.”

As shy as you felt, you couldn’t hold back a smile at what he said. Here was your boyfriend of 5 months, in a relationship well past the stage for formalities, down on one knee with flowers, asking you to a dance like a couple of high school sweethearts.

“Of course, I would love to.” You said softly. With that, you headed upstairs your get ready.

You chose a silky green gown that flared at the waist and paired it with a few simple pieces of golden jewelry. After styling your hair into some soft waves, you reached for your shoes and the tv remote. There was still time until guests would start arriving but if you flipped to some entertainment channel you were sure you would find some station covering the press and for the Wayne Gala. You were barely paying attention to the channels when you heard it.

“…the winds are only getting stronger, and roads are iced over, folks. Gotham city is now on snowstorm watch. We advise all citizens to stay home and stay warm.”

You couldn’t believe what you were hearing. That’s when the landline started to ring back-to-back. The guests were sending their apologies and regrets for not being able to attend. You obviously understood, but you felt your heart sink a little. You had put in so much work for it all to go down the drain. Just then, you heard a knock on the door.

“Come in.” Damian walked in looking just as disappointed as you. He must have heard the news too.

“I’m so sorry, Sweetie.”

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault. As far as I know, you can’t control the weather….or is that another secret you’re hiding from me?”, you joked.

“Yeah, I can control the weather and I choose to swing around the Gotham skies in -30 degrees at night. Great use of my secret superpower, don’t you think?” You two shared a laugh before getting Barbara’s call.

“Hey, you two. I’m so sorry, we just heard about the city shutting down.”, she said.

“Hey, Babs. It’s alright, are you still in the airport?”

“Well, we’re at an airport…”

“Who’s we?”, Damian asked. Barbara flipped the camera to face the whole Wayne family bundled up in scarves, huddled around their suitcases on the floor of some airport gate.

“All our flights got grounded in Metropolis. I’m sorry guy I don’t think we’re making it home tonight either.”

“Aww, well that’s okay. Just please stay warm and safe, okay?”

“You too. Bye.”

“Bye.” Damian turned to you with a look of sympathy.

“Well, I guess it all off then.” You whispered, kicking of the heels you barely finished putting on. “We should just go change into pj’s I guess.”

“We don’t have to.”

“Dami, no one else will be there. What’s the point of having a party alone?”

“We don’t need anyone else, the only person I really wanted to dance with will be there. That is, if she still agrees to accompany me tonight.” You looked at him, his eyes pleading with you. “We can play Axel F.”, he added, drawing a giggle from you. If nothing else, the two of you should get to enjoy the work you put into the place.

On the dance floor, Damian plugged his phone into the stereo system. He offered you his hand to Ed Sheeran’s Perfect.

The first few steps you took were slower than usual. He took you through an almost-waltz, twirling you around and sauntering across the room one step at a time. His hand never leaving yours. You wondered why you had never done this before. It was so much fun. Then again, maybe that had more to with your dancing partner than the dance itself.

You air-guitared and headbanged like rockstars, goofed around through a playlist on shuffle, and then box-stepped again to a Backstreet Boys song you would not stop making fun of him for.

“It’s a good song!”

“Whatever, babe, just remember you can never make fun of me for listening to Nickelback ever again.” Pulling in you in close enough to feel his breath on your skin, he said,

“The backstreet boys are infinitely better than Nickelback.”

“You wish.”

“I’m right and you know it.” That’s when the next song played, and it took you both pleasantly by surprise. Can I Have this Dance from High School Musical 3.

“I haven’t heard this song in ages.”

“Me neither. Wasn’t this one of your favorite movies?”

“Yeah, it was. I so wanted to be the main character in this. She was teaching Zac Efron how to waltz. That was probably the epitome of romance to me when I was younger.”

“Well, I’m no Zac Efron, but like the song says, can I have dance this dance?” taking his hand one more time, you took to the floor holding him even closer as if you didn’t want be away from him for even second. A little before the song came to close, you spotted the grandfather clock at the top of the staircase striking 11:59.

“Damian?”

“Yes, love?”

“Happy new year.” He turned towards the clock, seeing the seconds hand only a fourth of a rotation away from the new year. Smiling, he places his hand on your cheek.

“Happy, New year, Y/N.” and as the bell rang for midnight, he placed his lips on your and everything felt like heaven. Pulling him further into your embrace, you deepened the kiss. When you pulled away you said what he was thinking.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Not even a minute later, the doors to ballroom swung open and roughly 10 people scampered in, tracking snow. It was every member of the family and…Superman?

“It’s nice to finally see you, Happy New Year!” Duke exclaimed. When Damian wordlessly motioned to Superman in the corner, Dick answered,

“If anyone asks, we did not have superman fly us all to Gotham city in a broken-down school bus and there is not a school bus in our backyard. Don’t check.”

“Okay….” You wish you were surprised.

“Nice to have the family back together again.” Damian said squeezing your hand.

“Yeah, it really is.”

[afrotumble]

The full, frank story of a remarkable life’s journey—to the pinnacle of success as a basketball player, icon, and entrepreneur, to the depths of personal trauma and back, to a place of flourishing and peace—made possible above all by a family’s love

Grant Hill always had game. His choice of college was a subject of national interest, and his arrival at Duke University cemented the program’s arrival at the top. In his freshman year, he led the team to its first NCAA championship, and three championship appearances in four years. His Duke career produced some of the most iconic moments in college basketball history, and Coach K proved to be a lifelong mentor. Later, as one of the NBA’s best players and a new face of the Detroit Pistons franchise, Hill was the first person with the potential to give Michael Jordan a run for his money, not just as a player but as a brand. His $45 million rookie contract was almost the least of it. He turned down Nike for Fila, and soon Method Man and Tupac Shakur were wearing his shoes.

Hill writes candidly about all of it, including the transactional impermanence of life in the league and the isolation caused by his growing fame. His parents and friends helped ground him, and eventually he met a gifted musician named Tamia. The love he found with her and the arrival of their two beautiful daughters would be his rock as a brutal and mysterious injury sidelined him, coinciding with his wife’s own serious health struggles.

With openness and insight, Hill relates his entire path, including post-career highlights like his Hall of Fame induction, co-ownership of the Atlanta Hawks, the directorship of the USA Basketball Men’s National Team, and even a yearly gig calling the Final Four. Hill’s father, Calvin, used to tell him that there were always a lot of reasons but never any excuses, and Game is a distillation of a lifetime’s effort to understand the reasons—the good and the bad. At his hardest moments, Hill sought out wisdom from others, stories of inspiration and overcoming obstacles. Now, with Game, he has returned the favor.

Amazon Books.

[blue-florist]

Yk what I think would be rlly cute? If all of the Robins after Dick just picked a new bird, keep the colors or nah but the aesthetic doesn't change. Just so many cute bird names.

Better idea: They start out as Robin and THEN change it to NEW BIRDS!!

(I got a bit creative)

Exibit A: Dick aka Bluebird

I like it cuz it's A LOT of blue and tips of black while Dick's costume is VERY black with tips of blue. Ig he can do whatever since he never had a tradition to follow since he MADE the tradition, y'know?

Exibit B: Jason AKA Woodpecker (the Red Headed kind!!)

Ok let's be realistic that no way Jason would name himself some bird, but idk it could be like a nickname for him, just to include/annoy him :)

Exibit C: Tim AKA Cardinal (THAT SOULD BE HIS NAME WTF UR OLD NAME+ THE FIRST NAME OF THE GUYS THAT TRIED TO KILL YOU??? STUPID AND UNCREATIVE GO GET SMTH DECENT)

I love my boy Tim but I think we can all agree Tim "Detective better than Batman" Drake is pretty dumb choosing names (wth was "Drake"???) so instead I am doing as any DC fan would do and using canon as a basketball going in the trash. SO TIM'S NEW NAME IN CANON SHOULD BE CARDINAL AND I *WILL* FIGHT AND DIE FOR THIS.

Batgirls in my opinion did very much good in the criteria of names and following an aesthetic so Steph gets to stay as Spoiler cuz it's awesome. Kudos for jobe well done :)

Exibit D: Duke aka Goldfinch (or Gold, Goldie, Finch, y'know the drill)

I love Duke but I am renaming him cause "Signal" is a little too much to the left for me, back some steps up babe. I LOVE Goldfinches and since they are Backyard Birds and just active I think they fit him being in daylight.

Exibit E: Damian (???) AKA Sparrow

Idk much about Damian, but for him I chose Sparrow, specifically (image above) the Eurasian Tree Sparrow, cuz 1) it's cute and 2) it's not native to America, to still kinda represent the roots he has on his mother's side of the fam.

[4kennels]

Happy Tails Grooming

Brett and Mike my “new masters” jumped out of the cab of the pick up truck and come around to the back and open the wire gate of the large pet carrier, cage.

Mike pulls out a leash and attaches it to my collar. The pull me out and tell me to stay on my hind legs until they command otherwise.

As they tug me we walk across the parking lot toward the front entrance of a business called the “HAPPY TAILS GROOMING.” Brett and Michael chat and chuckle along the way as I follow silently behind looking straight ahead, ignoring the murmuring from the milling shoppers who notice our arrival, as best I can.

But come on... this is easily the highest level of humiliation I've ever experienced. I am dressed in a black leather dog collar, a pair of daisy-duke denim shorts, a t-shirt with DAWG printed in large letters. Thevt-shirt has been cropped off just below my pecs, i am wearing flip flops. I am being lead by a noisy silver chain leash.

Then a shout from my left takes the humiliation to another level,

"J. C. Webster? I can't believe my eyes!

J, C. is that you? What happened, dude, bad batch of weed?"

I don't want to look, but it's a reflex thing and I turn my head to the left, effectively confirming that it is indeed me...

Mike says “…yes, it's J.C. Webster almost naked in girl's jean shorts that are so small they don't even cover his bush, dog collar around his neck, and lady's flip flops complete his outfit; lovely!”

I'm also the only individual who isn't wearing a normal shirt or top of some kind. And normal masculine shorts.

Brett: “Yes, it's him... say hi, J.C.”

Oh God! I'll never be able to show my face in Atlanta again. The guy who shouted to me is Neil Bankers, my former next door neighbor at my pre-bankruptcy home. He's shorter than me so I always beat him at one-on-one basketball and afterward I wasn't a good-sport about it either, taunting and mocking him and so forth. So, oh yeah, he'll definitely be happy to spread the news in my old neighborhood about the new me.

He's with his buddy, Dwayne Jackson, who calls over, "Woof, woof, grrrr!" and people, that none of us know, laugh out loud and point me out to those who haven't spotted me yet. That's followed by other mocking catcalls, but my eyes are burning from the heat of my face and there's a hollow echoing in my ears, so I don't register much of what is yelled in my direction. When we finally walk into the dog grooming shop everyone laughs even louder... me wearing a dog collar going into a dog grooming shop...

ha, fucking, ha! Ya know, I can't ever remember seeing Mike enjoying himself this much... ever!

Inside Happy Tails Grooming there are a number of people talking among themselves waiting for their groomed dogs to be brought out to them. All talking stops when we walk in, silently everyone openly stares at me. My entire body is blushing and there's no place to hide. It's deafeningly silent now and I get the most intense urge to adjust my package, but don't dare. In the silence time crawls to a standstill and all I can hear is my heart beating and a noisy- nose-breather who turns out to be an old guy standing to my right.

This old fellow finally touches my shoulder, and asks, "What are you?"

Good question.

I ignore him as a huge bear of a man comes out from behind a door to my right, he's leading a beagle and a collie on leashes. Both dogs obviously have been recently washed and groomed. A booming voice from the man, "Here ya go, Robert. Snooky is beautiful again."

He hands the dog's leash to the rude old man who'd asked me what I was, then the Bear of a man booms out, "Here ya go girls, Icetea is ready to go home," and hands the leash of the beagle to two butch looking ladies who smile and give Barry a thumbs-up. "Please pay at the register ."

Then, to the remaining woman, "Pearl is ready too, I'll get her for you."

Turning to us, He speaks loud enough so everyone can hear, "Let me guess... which one of you needs a wash and a cut," and he laughs in a boisterous, but friendly way, as Brett's saying, "I'm Brett Knight, remember me; Junior's brother?" He takes hold of the leash attached to my collar, and now in a whisper all could hear,

"How could I forget you or your brother, buddy! You boys brought that long haired man to be groomed. Your doggie play is right up my alley. What is your pup’s name?”

Not having named me or called me anything but DAWG, Brett and Mike consider and exchanged options.

Finally Brett said “Fido.”

The big man continued, “This one will take about twenty minutes. Do you want to come back... or do you want to wait."

Brett says, "We'll be back," and they leave.

Barry grins and orders, "Down boy and I'll walk you into the washing station."

I'm so used to getting down when told to, I do it and the person waiting for Pearl gasps, as the big man, who's apparently Barry, is saying, "I'm kidding with you, boy! Get up."

I get up pretending I was kidding too, and follow him inside. Well, what the fuck... he does have me on a leash.

Inside the grooming space there's that unmistakable smell of dogs, and that unpleasant strong smell of the perfume in dog shampoos.

Barry says, "Strip, and I'll lift ya into that big tub at the end so you can soak."

There's a medium size dog in the tub next to the big one, he's looking at me with his ears pointing up.

Naturally I hesitate... I mean, "Get undressed, are you shitting me?" I'm smiling, like I get the joke, but he's sincere this time, and says,

"No, Fido... this time I'm not kidding. Unless bathed properly, I won't groom a dog, no matter from the human species or canine species! And, no offense, but you smell like a toilet."

That goddammed dirty rag Mikey used on me earlier! Still, I'm hesitating because this is so far from real life experiences that it boggles my mind.

He's nice about it when he says, "Make-up your mind, buddy... I've got a lot of grooming to do before eight o'clock tonight. I'm good with this kinky stuff, I'm down with and my boyfriend and I dabble in it ourselves. You'll either go along with Brett's wishes, or you won't... I don't force anything on anybody. You need to want me to do it, before I'll do it. Okay?"

What can I do? Brett and Mike have already gone, maybe Brett didn't know about this naked bath... what the fuck, I'm not going to give him an excuse to whip me again. Resigned once more to my fate, I pull off the flip flops and peel off my t-shirt, saying, "Yeah, let's do it."

Barry takes over and starts to unbutton the daisy dukes. I impulsively attempt to stop it, but he is in control, saying laughingly , "Don't worry, I've seen penises before, on you dogs and even a man or many and, frankly, penises aren't much different from breed to breed."

His eyes briefly get big when he checks me out. This unbelievably embarrassing situation has shrunken my dick to the size it was when Brett swatted it with the fly-swatter. He bites his lip, then real quietly murmurs, "Okay, we got ourselves a real little puppy/baby boy here."

As the color of my blush darkens and spreads to my chest, he puts a large hand at the back of my neck, then stoops down to gets his forearm under my knees and picks me up like I weight five pounds.

'Humiliating' simply doesn't cover it.

Without any noticeable strain, he holds me away from his body and then a boy comes in the backdoor... Barry stands there holding me, smiling at the boy. He's about twelve, a shocked expression on his cute face as it registers that a five foot-eight-inches-tall man with a tiny dick is naked in Barry's arms. There's no apparent fucking end to my humiliation... 'humiliation?" there has to be a stronger word than humiliation to describe this stuation. My whole body turns red.

Barry says, "Oh, hi, Roy. Just a sec, buddy..." as he's taking three steps to the big tub and then sits me in the doggie bath of luke warm water. Roy stares at me like he's just seen a space ship land from outer space, but I can't look back at him. The water I'm sitting in smells strongly of dogs and that peculiar cloying smelling dog shampoo I mentioned earlier. Now I'm surrounded by it as I sit on the bottom of a large dog's bathtub with my knees up and out of the water, water reaching up to my nipples. There are soap suds and other unidentifiable matter floating in the water making it too cloudy for me to see to the bottom. Many different kinds of dog hairs float on top of the water sticking to the suds and to me. The skanky water, the dog hairs, plus the small matter of a twelve year old boy gawking at me sitting naked in a doggie bath, combined to have me on the verge of puking, but I pull myself together. Gravel or something like gravel on the bottom of the tub is prickling at my buttocks, and it's totally gross!

Roy, still staring dumbfounded at me, says, in a monotone voice, "I'm collecting for the newspaper, Barry."

Ignoring Roy, he says to me, "Would ya stand-up for a second, buddy? I gotta grab that bungee cord down there somewhere."

I slowly stand up and Roy gets a second look at my shriveled dick. He looks up at me and I look away, then glance back to see him pointing at my penis, then pulling his hand back to cover his mouth, laughingbquietly. I'm surprised my fucking head doesn't burst into flames I'm so embarrassed.

Barry is clueless, he pulls a bungee cord up from the bottom, saying, "I'm busy now, Roy; can ya ask Steve at the register for the money, I'd appreciate it, honey."

Roy says, "Um, sure... why you washing a man in the big dog tub?"

Barry laughs, and says, "He just wanted to try it, honey... you run along now."

I glance over at him and when he sees me looking he points to my crotch, and then back at me holding his fingers an inch inch apart and I again avert my eyes gasping.

Roy giggles... I hate giggling! He leaves the shop walking out the door Molly and I came through a couple minutes ago. I can hear him saying to someone, Molly's grooming a tall naked man with a one inch teenie weenie." Tears of rage form in my eyes... how much humiliation can one guy take?

Barry is humming a soothing sound, unconcerned about the interruption, he quietly says, "Let's get you secure in here so you can enjoy your soak."

Pulling a thick bungee cord from the other side, under my knees, and then pulling on the cord raising my knees further out of the water, she attaches thebcord to this side. Elevating my knees like that would have dunked me backwards under water except Barry anticipated that and got his big hand behind my neck just in time. He then strings another bungee cord lower, just in front of my ankles, pulling my ankles back and I'm pretty much secured in place.

My face is still hot and red from my encounter with Roy, but logic tells me I'll never see him again in my life so I'm willing myself to put it out of mind. Barry's oblivious to my distress; he sweetly asks, "Can you hold onto the sides for a few minutes yourself, puppy? I'll be right with ya soon as I finish Lance. You just enjoy soaking in there for a while, okay?" He's being very nice about everything, but "COME ON!!" I'm naked in a fucking dog bath, for christsakes, and this place is as busy as Grand Central Station!

Lance is apparently the poodle in the smaller cage. Barry carries him to the grooming table and hooks a slip collar around the pouch's neck, then a bungee cord is stretched just under his belly in front of his hind legs. The dogs been washed and dried already, his white hair very clean looking and fluffy. Barry wastes no effort, everything is done efficiently, but not in a hurried manner.

He likes what he's doing, I guess. Music plays in the background although Barry himself is mostly silent except for calming sounds he makes as he handles the dog. He cups the poodle's snout to manipulates the head as he uses clippers to groom the dog in a typical poodle cut. First the bare clippers get the belly and back and parts of the leg etc. Then, a clippers over comb method is used to evenly cut the longer hair areas. It's a silly looking cut if ya ask me, but it's what the dog's master wants.

Brett left instructions for my grooming too, "Not shaved Barry, but down to the scalp. A buzz cut."

He'd said, "You got it, buddy!" So that's that; and, ya know what... after a while you can accept just about anything. It's like I told Mike..."Boys like Me, who get bullied all the time, begin to accept it and even think they somehow deserve the bullying. Nothing specific, just that they deserve to be dominated and humiliated." That's pretty much where I am now, I guess.

Brett just overwhelms my senses, one outrageous humiliation after another. It's never over and now there's Mike to contend with too, a tag-team match... and as a result, here I am getting groomed at Happy Tails Groomers.

Barry takes about ten minutes with Lance. While he's grooming him, me and the pointy eared dog in the bath next to mine, watch his every move. As I said,

Barry's a large man. He's almost a foot taller than i am and almost three times as wide as I am, with huge hands and thick wrists. Done with Lance, he pets him and is tender with him, cuddling with him like i wish i had someone do me. Lance, contented and happy, yips a couple of times and is then put back into a cage where he immediately lies down and goes to sleep.

Barry pets the pointy eared dog sitting in the bath next to mine and murmurs comforting sounds to him before finishing with, "I gotta do this big puppy first, hope ya don't mind, Butch ," as the dog focuses on Barry's every word, looking alert. Then, before he can begin washing me a bell sounds and he goes out front to see what's up. He's a loud talker out there and I can hear him talking to the owner of her next grooming appointment.

A minute later Barry's back leading another medium size dog, of unknown breed, into the cage next to Lance's. Lance immediately wakes up and the two dogs go about smelling each others asshole through the bars.

Barry plucks the sponge from the tub he washed a dog in earlier, squeezes doggie shampoo onto it, and drops it into my bathtub, saying to me, "Pinch your nose closed, puppy, I'm dunking you under." With unhurried, smooth movements, he places his meaty hand partially behind my neck leaving his thumb over the front of my shoulder, I got my nose pinched closed as he knocks my other hand away from the side of the tank and firmly pulls my torso down dunking my head, shoulders, and chest and stomach into the yucky water. I'm submerged from the top of my head to just above my dick with my thighs, knees, and most of my calves out of the water draped over the bungee cord. I'm holding my breath for all I'm worth with eyes tightly closed. Barry's using the dog-bathing sponge in his left hand to scrub my face and head, then behind my neck and shoulders. Long strokes under my arms and down my sides. He manipulates my body with the one hand shoulder grip and at one point my head comes up near the surface for a second and then is forced down again as the sponge forcefully scrubs my chest. I desperately need to breath and try sitting up using the bungee cords for leverage, but my stomach muscles are no match for Barry's hold on my shoulder. The dog hair and germ infected soapy/shampooie water feels almost greasy and I force myself not to think about it. Barry methodically wipes the sponge over my torso, then reaches under to get my back. A few more swipes over my head and she pulls me up. I come out of the water gasping for oxygen, sputtering and spitting out water that slipped past my lips, "How many dogs get washed in this water before he changes it, anyway?"

But, oh man, it's so wonderful to be able to breathe again. My whole body, covered in dog hairs, is tense as my heart pounds and my chest heaves, but at least there's oxygen available to breathe.

Barry continues to be unconcerned about any of my many distresses; apparently dogs get panicky too and he's used to it. Being sure of his skills he remains calm, quietly making soothing noises and then soothingly says, "You're fine, puppy... no worries. Oh, did Barry keep ya under too long? If I did I'm sorry. Arms out in front, please... and don't worry so much, I've got ya, you're safe."

He squeezes the back of my neck and continues with, "This is fun for me, doing you boy puppies, I mean... and especially one as cute as you. Never fear though, I'm not going to hurt you." He adjust his palm behind my head supporting me and that, plus the way he talks, has a very calming influence on me and there's something trustworthy about him too, so I loosen my death grip on the sides of the tub and hold my arms out in front of me as he requested. Barry uses the sponge to wash up and down both arms, then extra scrubbing on the palms of my hands which are dirty from walking on all fours. Leaning over me he reaches the bottle of doggie shampoo and squeezes another good amount on the sponge, all the time easily holding my head out of the water with his other hand. He says, "Relax, okay? What's your name, cutie?" Falling under his control I all of a sudden feel like a little boy, I squeak out, "J.C. Webster," sounding like a little kid. He goes, "Well, relax, J.C., or maybe i should call you FIDO. I've got control of everything, can't ya tell?" I mumble, "Yes, sir, ah... do you expect anyone else to come through? It's kinda embarrassing." He goes, "Probably not, but what's to be embarrassed about. Roy's seen naked males before, I'm pretty sure."

I'm thinking, "Getting washed and groomed in a dog grooming salon? I don't fucking think Roy's seen that a lot!"

And he says, "What's to be embarrassed about?" Is he out of he fucking mind?! Anyway, he doesn't appear to have a mean bone in his body, plus he has a calmness about him and he's nice, so I lay back against his hand and let my arms float among the dog hairs and, whatever else is floating there, and more or less just surrender myself totally to his care. "Good puppy" he purrs, "Let Barry take care of you. Okay, puppy?"

Now I'm in one of those trances, feeling like I'm in a dream, like I'm floating on air. I'm also getting kinda used to the strong odor of the dogs and their shampoo by now too so I let myself drift off into Barryworld, mumbling, "Sure, it's okay, thanks sir. This is nice." And, this mood he's put me in is nice... he has such a calm manner about him, it's no wonder dogs instinctively trust him. It's peaceful knowing he'll be kind to me too; so different from the way I feel when I'm under Brett's or Mike’s control. Using the sponge, freshly covered in doggie shampoo, he washes my groin area with me opening my legs wide giving his full access to my little pecker and long scrotum, she murmurs, "Good boy, let's get your hiney now, okay?" I go, "Okay, Barry," as he's reaching under me running that sponge back and forth in my crack, them he's rubbing the sponge all over both my bubble butts, then the back of my legs and up to my knees. A few more swipes over my asshole, Barry smiles, and in baby-talk, says, "Let's make sure Barry cleans your bumper real good." I smile back at him as I drift off into space.

He moves to the front of the tub to finish washing me so I again hold onto the sides keeping my head above the dirty water. He washes my calves and then my feet. "You have nice big feet and long toes!" he quietly says, as he's wiggling my big toe. I smile at that too; it's wonderful being under the control of someone who's nice, who's kind. Barry drops the sponge into the tub and takes large nail clippers off a side table. Holding my foot out of the water by cupping the heel in her palm, she cuts my toenails down to the quick. The nail clipper looks like a regular one only stronger with a spring to help cut through tough dog's nails. They cut through my toenails like cutting through nothing at all. Finished with the nail clipping of the first foot, he massages it, digging his thumbs into the arch until it almost hurts, but not quite. When the water presses against the top of my toes it feels funny. I've never had my toenails cut down this far before; the sensations of the water against new toe areas is strange. He finishes with my other foot and is now holding one of my wrist in his large hand cutting my fingernails the same way he did my toenails. After he cuts them, my fingernails are so short only the pink part remains, looking like they have pale pink nail polish on them.

Finished both hands, he unhooks the front bungee cord and casually picks me out of the water, his arms under my knees and his other meaty hand behind my neck; I like the way Barry's carrying me. It's like I weight nothing at all and I feel like putting my arms around his neck the way I did with my daddy when I was a toddler... but I don't.

Looking back at the tub and the dirty water, I see my finger nails floating on top of the water mingling with the dog hairs. Dog's toenails are probably dense enough to sink slowly to the bottom of the tub and could be the prickly things I sat on when first put into the doggie bathtub. "Pinch your nose again, puppy. We've going for a dip in the rinsing tank." It's a large deep plastic container that looks like a small above-ground pool. I pinch my nose with both hands, squeezing my eyes shut tight, like a three year old might do before being dunked in the pool by his mommy, "Wheeeee!" He dips me in, totally submerging me with water up to his muscular shoulders. Then up out of the water, then right back down into the water again. Pulling me out entirely now, me dripping with water, still some dog hairs clinging to me, but cleaner ones this time. Thinking this wasn't all that bad, I wipe the water out of my eyes and open them to see two girls and a guy come in the same back door Roy used. All of them are about twenty years old, maybe a year or two older. The girl points at me, and says, "Oh my God! What the hell, Uncle Barry? Ya taking in the homeless now?"

They all laugh nervously as Barry's setting me on the drying table. I'm on all fours because that's the way she set me down. My dick shrinks even more, to a bare nub, and my face is glowing red, the heat on my shoulders is uncomfortable... all from my blush. The three unexpected guests slowly walk around the tank to get a better look, as Barry says, "Oh, hi, Cheryl. Cover your eyes, honey, or you'll embarrass FIDO."

Barry's hooking me up the same way he did with the poodle; a slip collar around my neck, pulled tight. I'm comatose by now and anything anyone says sounds like a repeating echo. I look straight down at the table top without moving a muscle, hoping perhaps if I don't move no one will notice me. Barry's movements continue to be unhurried and efficient, and as he stretches a bungee cord under my belly down near my groin and another one over the back of my knees, he says,

"He not a homeless person, just one of you college kids goofing around with some friends... a dare of some kind. A kinky dare and you know me and kinky, don'cha, Cheryl. We go together like bread and butter."

I can't move forward or backward, completely immobilized and my brain is frozen, while my body's on fire. Each second feels like an hour!

Molly takes what looks like a Q-tip, but larger, and swabs inside each of my nostrils, I try to move my head but the collar just tightens on my neck, my head barely moves.

He goes, "It's okay, relax, FIDO," then to Cheryl, "What can I do for ya, honey?" Cheryl's beside her uncle now; to entertain her two friends she's straining her neck taking an exaggerated look under me at my almost non-existent dick. Without answering Barry, Cheryl directs a question at me instead, "Did you have an accident with your penis, or something? And your bag of nuts, what do ya call that? It's long." One of the boys says, "Scrotum, Cherly... it's the god-damnest scrotum I ever saw." The boy and the other girl come over to peer at it. The other boy says, "I knew a kid in high school who had an infantile penis like this, but not this small." Then to me, he asks,

"Whadda you do, lay across the toilet when ya gotta pee?" Barry's like, "Shhh, enough of that naughty talk! You'll hurt his feelings." In my head I'm counting to one thousand as fast as I can blocking out whatever these horrible college students are saying. Around one hundred I lose count and hear the first boy say,

"Uncle Barry, come on, we wouldn't embarrass anyone for the world, but that scrotum is destined for the carnival. You know, pay an extra dollar to see the world record holder for longest scrotum behind the curtain." Cheryl's persistent with her question, and she reaches over to poke my one inch dick, asking me again, "What happened?" I couldn't talk, I'm only capable of making whiny sounds as Barry says, "Okay, Cheryl your friends are embarrassing him now. Stop it! Look how red he is right down to his bumper. What can I do for you?"

As he's chastising Cheryl for embarrassing me, he inserts a thumb into my mouth and pinching either side of my jaw bone with her other hand forcing my mouth to open, then plugs it open with a rubber stopper and checks inside with a penlight. The three college students snicker and talk quietly behind their hands, then laugh in bursts. Barry clicks on a large electric tooth brush and brushes my gums and teeth with it, as Cheryl's going, "Ewwwww. Do you use that on the dogs?" Molly says, "Enough, Cheryl! Why are you here?" Cheryl giggles, then asks, "Can we borrow your Jeep for a few hours? We'll have it back by the time you close." Cheryl's right... the toothbrush is undoubtedly the same toothbrush she uses on the fucking dogs; why would she have one for humans? This, the college kids and the doggie toothbrush, is really too much and puke rushes up from my stomach. I gag stopping the puke at the back of my throat as

Barry recognizes the situation and forces my head back and up at an awkward angle, stopping the vomit from getting into my mouth. "Now you've upset him, Cheryl. Don't be such a bitch, okay." He said it in a sweet way though, not angry, as he continues the dental hygiene part of my grooming. As the big dog toothbrush twirls on my teeth at the back of my mouth, near my throat, I gag repeatedly but he has my head totally immobilized and, as usual, ignores my discomfort. "Okay Cheryl, you know where the keys are," then to the boy "Artie, would you hold his head in this position for me a second, I need to get a tool to scrap some tartar off his back molars. Artie laughs, but says, "Yeah, sure," and grabs my head twisting it further up, neither of us speaks as Barry scrapes my back teeth with something that feels like a chisel, then sprays water from a bottle into my mouth and a doggie mouthwash refreshes my breath.

Barry looks inside my mouth with the penlight again, as Artie says to no one invparticular, "This is without question the oddest goddamn thing I've ever seen," and everyone, including Barry, has a good chuckle over that. Just when I'm positive my ass is going to catch on fire with humiliation Barry tells Artie he can let go of my head, he gives one painful final push up and then releases me.

I've a pounding headache now and the vomit's right at the back of my throat. Barry says, "Hey, he's just a curious kid who wonders how a dog feels getting groomed. Go on all of you now, let me finish up with this big boy." Then it all caught up with me and I did throw up in my mouth... not a good thing. Little by little I swallow the puke at the back of my throat as Barry pets my head making some of those soothing sounds he'd made while grooming the poodle, as the three uninvited guests leave, giggling and laughing out loud, Barry says, "Sorry about that, J.C., but you don't need to be embarrassed. You can't help it if you have a one inch dick." As if that's accurate or is all there is to it! Good grief, he's awfully nice but out of touch. Come to think of it, I guess he'd need to be out of touch to dog groom a college student.

Molly, with me still secured to the drying table, goes through a series of massages and rubs that, along with her soothing voice, manages to calm me down. They're nobody here but me and Barry now and that's such a relief! Barry murmurs, "That's a good boy,"as he goes back to work, this time swabbing my right ear with one of those big q-tips, then the other ear. Throwing the swabs away, he gets a larger one, dips it in some cream and walks behind me to swab out my asshole. My body jerks, and he quietly says, "Almost done," as the swab twirls inside my hole,

Then further up until it's twirling on my prostate making my dick twitch and was really arousing me. I was breathing heavily

“With puppies we have to expess the dogs anal glands. Is puppy okay?

I was starting to drooling and approaching an orgasm when out comes the swab and into the trash it goes.

It's all so mind-blowingly bizarre, but it feels good and we're along so I fall back into a serene trance... so grateful I'll never see any of those college kids again. It's peaceful and I'm grateful for that. Ripping open a sterile pad, Molly pours something from a brown bottle on it, then reaches under me and pull back the foreskin of my little cock to wipe the head with the pad. I hop a half inch off the table and he gently pats my ass, making those calming sounds again.

Turning his finger over, he wipes inside my foreskin all the way around, the liquid feels cold. "That's a good puppy," he coos, as she tosses the sterile pad in the trash. Patting my head, he quietly says, "I'll get you dry and then you're ready to be groomed." Flicking a switch on what looks like the world's biggest hairdryer causes it to nosily blows a huge amount of warm air over me. It's like being in a wind tunnel. As my body dries, the doggie hairs stuck to me dry as well and are, one by one, blown off my skin and up against the back wall to drift down joining other dog hairs on the floor from earlier washings.

As I'm being dried, Barry washes Butch, who has patiently waited in that medium size tub next to the one I was in. Butch observed every move Barry made while washing me and when he picked me up and brought me to the rinsing station the dog moved to the other side of his tub and watched every move Barry made there too. Butch now gives all his attention to Barry as he's bathing him. The dog's infatuated with Barry apparently, and so am I. He washes him just like he did me except the dog is only about one sixth my size and he doesn't tense-up like I did, so it went much faster. Then Butch is dipped in the rinsing tub and hooked up next to me in a similar manner to the way I'm hooked up. As soon as the dog is set down he shakes his body spraying me with rinse water, but the wind tunnel soon dries that too. I'm quickly as dry as I've ever been in my life, but the warm air continues blowing on me as Barry's busy doing something else. He's carrying a large sheep dog from the end cage to the washing tub, basically doing everything the same way he'd handled me; the dog and I weigh about the same. Barry sits him in the same larger tub I'd recently been bathed in, then hooks him up with two bungee cords so he can't jump out; he's just as immobile as I'd been. Only the top of his back, his tail, and his head are out of the water as he stands docilely, with an expression of almost embarrassment on his face.

My turn again... the wind tunnel is turned off and a smaller version of it is turned on for Butch. Barry unhooks me, picks me up with one arm under my buttocks and the other across my chest and again without apparent effort, carries me to the same grooming table he'd groomed the poodle on. Same routine of a slip collar around my neck tightly, then one bungee cord stretched under my belly near my dick, and one across the back of my knees. I'm totally immobilized once again. Snapping on the same clippers he used on the poodle,Barry takes hold of my jaw and easily manipulates by head this way and that as he runs the doggie clippers over my head. First across the front above my forehead and the half inch long hairs from there fall past my eyes followed quickly by another bunch of short hairs sheared to the scalp by the clippers.

He bends my head way over to the side and shears the very short hairs from there down to the back of the head. Bending my head to the side and to the left he runs the clippers up one side of the back of my head, then again, and again as I feel the short clippings falling on the back of my neck and shoulder. He goes over all areas on this side of my head one more time, pressing the clipper tightly against my scalp. Running his fingers over half my shorn head he goes back over a number of spots with the clippers, just to be sure. The same procedure for the other side of my head and I'm as docile for him as the sheep dog or poodle had been. Satisfied, the clippers snap off and he brushes the clipped hairs off me using a big soft brush that smell strongly of... what else, dogs.

"Okay, puppy, you've just got a shadow of hair left on your head. I could lather it and take the shadow off with a straight razor but Brett wants it like this for now." He's unhooking me as he's talking, then picks me up the same way as before; I'm as docile for him as I've ever been in my life. He says, "It will upset the dogs if you're standing around while I wash and groom them so I'll put you in a cage until Brett comes for you, it won't be long," and he. opens the door to the cage he just took the big sheep dog from and I crawled inside, my dick peeking out from it's hiding place as I get more comfortable with being under Barry's control. My long scrotum hangs down as I look out through the bars of my cage watching Barry wash the sheep dog. He's calmly and quietly murmuring many of the same things to him that he'd murmured to me.

Lance is two cages down, he picked his head up momentarily when I went inside my cage, but then he went back to sleep. I actually feel like a dog, wish I was one and Barry was my owner.

Much longer than 'just a few minutes' passes as I watch Barry finish the sheep dog's bath by dipping him in the rinsing tank. After hooking him up in front of the drier, the front bell sounds. "That'll probably be your mast..., er, I mean, Brett. He's come for you FIDO, let me check. When Barry's in the reception area he's much different than back here with us dogs. Here he's quiet and calm, out front he's loud. I easily hear him say, "Of course he's ready, honey. He was ready twenty minutes ago... I've got him in a cage. That'll be twenty-five dollars, pay the cashier."

I'm thinking, "Twenty five dollars! I gotta pay for this?" I'm out of my trance now and feeling claustrophobic in this cage.

In the lobby, Barry's saying, "He's got a lot of razor nicks on him. I could shave him and groom him professionally for ya weekly, without razor nicks, but that'll cost forty-five dollars."

I can barely hear Brett ask, "Every week?" and Barry's like, "Yeah, I had a regular customer pass away so I got this time spot open, but it needs to be every week or it's not worth it to me." Brett asks Mike, "What do you think? We'll deduct the money from his paycheck of course. Barry could bath him, groom him and shave him every Monday." Mike’s like, "Awesome idea! And while he's at the groomers, we can go to a movie.”

Brett like, "Sure, Mike,"

then to Barry, "Book him in for Mondays at four-thirty."

He's saying, "He's a doll or I wouldn't accept him as a regular, but with him it's doable."

So, my fate's sealed for this treatment every week, more then this treatment, he'll be shaving my legs and balls, and whatever. The word 'mortified!' doesn't adequately describe my state of mind right now. But, what’s new.

Barry comes in and lifts me out of the cage and then without thinking he starts carrying me outside, and I scream, "My clothes!" As he's putting me down, he laughs and says, "Oh, I forgot. Most of my clients don't wear clothes. Hope you enjoyed your spa treatment. And guess what... you're gonna be a regular!

I'll see ya next week." He's expecting I'll be thrilled about that. Oh, what the hell, he's a nice person so I'm not taking it out on him, it's not his fault. I say, "Yeah, that's really something," and he looks at me funny, like I'm not appropriately enthused, so I add, "You did a wonderful job. Thank you!"

He looks pleased now and my eyes get a little teary because he's gentle and nice to me and nobody else has been either of those things lately. I turn my head away and start over for my clothes, but Barry takes hold of my arm, and says, "Could you let me check something before you get dressed, honey?" I go, "Ah..." and I look at the door leading to Brett, and ask, "Ya think it'll be okay with with Brett?" He waves at the door, and says, "It'll only take a minute or two, he can wait. Let me get you up there on the table a sec, okay?"

Before I can answer, he casually picks me up with a hand under each arm pit, saying, "I wanna see what kind of a razor situation we have here so that I'm ready for you next Monday." He holds me over the table in a way that makes me bend my knees and I just naturally get on all fours. He smacks my ass saying, "Can you get over a little, honey?" I crawl over thinking, "He don't know his own strength. Jesus! That smack on my ass was harder and stings more than a paddle hitting me!" He mumbles "I'll make it quick, sweetie," as he's putting the slip collar over my head again and adjusts the bungee cords, immobilizing me. Force of habit, probably.

It's amazing how incapacitated a few taut bungee cords can make you. Barry's behind me spreading my buttocks and feeling between my legs, "Just want to see how extensive the shaving areas are." His big hands wrap around the front of my thighs, up next to my dick, "Feeling for stubble," he says, and I go, "But I don't shave there". His hand travels down my thigh then back up. He says, "I can feel you haven't been shaving here, but there are fine, almost invisible hairs here that need to be shaved if one's to do the job properly; I'll get them for you, I'm a professional." Then he's spreads his fingers wide and feels along my back and shoulders and then down my sides until fingers on either side of me are traveling down my dick, then back up lifting it as a finger feels along the underside of it. He then goes back to spreading my butt cheeks, saying, "I'll shave around your heiny hole too for the same reason; fine hairs."

A shudder goes through me then as the realization of how little control of my life I have... he telling me what he's going to do, not asking if I want it done. Barry's a very nice person, but it's apparent he's aware of the master/slave relationship that Brett and Mike have me in and that's the reason he's so comfortable taking control of me; that reason, plus he's used to always being in control of his dogs. But, come on, this is abject humiliation of the worse kind, and with Barry I don't even get to enjoy the sexual action I get from the boys when they're abusing me. But, as always, I come back to this:

"What the fuck can I do about it?" The answer to that question, at this time is,

"Nothing!" except make the best of it and cooperate so it goes as easily as it's possible to go under the circumstances.

As I contemplate my humiliating situation, Barry's adjusting the bungee cords, then he gets both hands on my hips and turns me over onto my back. The slip collar tightens around my neck for a second, but he adjusts that, then spreads my legs wide so that each ankle is held in place somehow by the bungee cord arrangement. Next he spreads and tucks my arm under bungee cords and I'm spread eagle on the table feeling totally on display. As he lifts my cock, he says, "I'll be shaving you on your back like this for the most part, and finish the job with you on all fours. In order to insure you don't make sudden movements causing me to nick you with the razor, you'll be secured like this." Everything he says is in a matter of fact manner, knowing neither the dogs nor me will complain or contradict him. He's totally in charge of us. "You'll find it's a pleasant experience. I have had it done to myself by a friend a few years ago, so I speak from personal experience." With a couple of fingers he's feeling around my dick, then down my scrotum to lightly squeeze my balls, then his fingers are under my balls, and finally he pulls my scrotum up, and says, "I see Brett's stretching your scrotum for ya. If you want I can pierce this and insert a nice ring or stud. You think about it, okay. That'll cost eighty-five dollars, but is well worth it." I make a noncommittal grunt because I don't want to hurt his feelings; he's nice, but the last thing I want is a stud in my stretched scrotum. I'm going to be enough of a freak having a foot long scrotum as it is. That's how long it'll be by the time Brett's through with me. After rubbing all around my belly and chest, Barry starts unhooking the bungee cords, saying, "You don't have much noticeable body hair, just the fine ones everybody has, but I like you so I'll be giving you pretty much a full body shave. Once you see how it feels to be shaved you'll want to do it all your life." I say, "Not my head though, right?" Barry lifts me down, and says, "That's up to Brett, honey... not me. If ya ask him nicely, maybe he'll let you keep the fuzzy hair you got on your head now." I feel my scalp and can just detect a fine sandpaper feel... boy, it's short alright. As I get dressed he turns his attention to the sheep dog. I say, "Bye. Barry," as I'm leaving, and he goes,

"Bye, puppy. See ya, next Monday."

[maturemenoftvandfilms]

UPDATE

Here’s the schedule for the next five stories I’ll be posting.

Hope you enjoy the new stuff.

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of FICTION. It’s meant purely for the entertainment of adults.

The Senator from Montana

CHAPTER TWELVE: Back on the Farm

Featuring Sen. Jon Tester

POSTING: 7/28/2023

A Conversation with Cardinal Dolan

CHAPTER TWO: The Confessional

Featuring the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan

POSTING: 8/11/2023

Prince Laurent of Belgium

CHAPTER TWO: Vacation on the Mediterranean Sea

Featuring Prince Laurent of Belgium and Prince Carlo, Duke of Castro

POSTING: 8/25/2023

Huggy Bear

Featuring basketball coach Bob Huggins

POSTING: 9/8/2023