#bc i could go to bed and wake up weak as fuck.

[viperify]

oneshots | ᴛᴏᴍ ʀɪᴅᴅʟᴇ X ꜰ!ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

☾₊⊹ To The Moon n’ Back.

Short Summary: This year you’ll spend another ordinary Valentine’s Day, all by yourself. Or that you think—until you receive a mysterious letter.

Warnings: 18+ only! soft impact play, brief fingering, semi-public sex, unprotected p in v, also this is kinda ooc!Tom bc how do I make this man engage in Valentine’s Day activities.

A/N: Happy Valentine’s Day!!! 💋🩷

wordcount: 2,4k

Tom Riddle does not do love.

So why is it that every time you walk past him, his heart beats just a little bit faster?

He’s done everything to distract himself—drowning himself in books, studying more than what is usual, even for someone called Tom Riddle.

Yet, you never fail to leave his mind. No matter how hard he tries, he can’t seem to get the thought of you—specifically your lips on his—out of his mind.

By sweet Merlin, that’s the worst part of it all.

──

It’s Valentine’s Day.

Safe to say—you aren’t interested in a relationship.

So it shouldn’t bother you that all of your friends are out with their partner. But it does, your chest tightening at the thought of spending another night alone on a day that’s meant to be celebrated with your loved ones. It’s always been like this though, they’ve had their fun, and you—well, you stayed behind.

You decide to head to bed early. Right after dinner, which was awfully boring with none of your friends around, you make your way back to your dorm. Or try to, at least. Because as soon as you turn the corner, someone bumps into you.

Not just anyone—Tom Riddle. Head boy, former prefect, top student in every class, teacher’s favourite, award winner… you could go on like this for hours. There is probably nothing in this world that he hasn’t achieved—except for finding a Valentine’s date, it seems.

“I am sorry,” you mumble as you crouch down to pick up a piece of paper he has dropped. And it’s really not that you wanted to know what was written on it—it must have been the familiar number that caught your eye—the number of your dorm to be exact.

Though slightly taken aback, you hand him the paper—or better—he rips it from your hands. For a moment when his lips part slightly, you think he might want to say something in return—maybe apologize for bumping into you—but nothing ever comes.

So you leave, shooting him a weak smile.

It’s not like you expected an apology from him. He has his close circle of friends, all of whom are from renowned pureblood families. Even if you wanted him to like you, look at you the same way you’ve looked at him for years, it wouldn’t change a thing. Tom Riddle was unreachable. Any girl that has ever been interested in ended up getting rejected, and you wouldn’t be one of them.

Yet, the rich scent of his perfume lingers, the way his eyes flickered to your lips for a brief moment imprinted in your mind. His hands brushing over yours briefly, feeling his warmth, the warmth you’ve been craving to feel on your skin—

You shake your head. You’re interpreting too much into it.

──

Tom curses himself for almost blowing his cover.

After hours of contemplation, hours of sitting in front of a blank piece of parchment, he finally writes something down.

My dear—

He scoffs. Pathetic.

Scrunching up the paper, he discards it on the wooden floor of his dorm.

I hope this letter finds—

Definitely not.

Please meet me at the Astronomy Tower tonight at—

Please? Who is he to beg? You should be the one begging for— fuck.

Twenty crumpled-up pieces of parchment later, Tom’s had enough.

He opts for something shorter.

Astronomy Tower. 9pm. Don’t be late.

Perfect.

──

You are tucked under your duvet, putting the romance novel you had started on the nightstand. It was only 8pm, but with nothing else to do, sleep didn’t seem like the worst option. Soon enough, your eyelids flutter closed, and you drift off to sleep.

Though, it isn’t too long before a sharp knock on the glass of your window wakes you. It’s your owl, delivering a letter. Quite an unusual time for you to receive something, yet curiosity gets the better of you, and you open your window to get it.

No sender.

Reluctantly, you tear the envelope open, and your eyes skim over the words written on the parchment.

“Astronomy Tower. 9pm. Don’t be late.” You whisper, eyebrows drawn together in confusion. You don’t recognize the handwriting as anyone's you know, and as soon as you wipe over the words, the ink smears, vanishing, leaving you with an empty parchment.

At first, you are quite unsure whether to go. There’s no name on the letter, and especially on a day like today, there will be stricter enforcements of the curfew rules. Though, knowing yourself, you would have probably gone anyway. Even on a day like this, the moon and the stars are the only company you crave.

So you change, folding your PJs neatly on your bed, putting on the first skirt you find—though as soon as you step out of your dorm, you regret your decision. Tonight is cooler than usual, a soft breeze brushing past your skin, having you shiver. It’s too late to turn around, though. So you make your way, walking the route you normally take when you sneak out past curfew.

As you ascend the stairs to the tower, a figure leaning against the railing catches your attention. Only when you take a few steps closer do you recognize who it is. The brunette curls are unmistakably Tom’s, and for a moment your breath catches in your throat, halting your movements. Knowing that he is most likely on his patrol, you turn around to return to your dorm, but as you do just that, his voice stops you.

“You came.” He remarks quietly, without turning around.

It is him.

“You wanted to see me?” You ask, crossing your arms over your chest. “Riddle, if this is some kind of—“

“Come closer.”

You walk forwards then, though reluctantly, and lean against the railing next to the brunette. It’s silent between the both of you for a while before he speaks up again.

“They fascinate you, don’t they?” He asks subtly, staring into the distance of the night sky. You follow his gaze, taking in the stars and moon on the otherwise pitch-black horizon. “You watch them each night when you can’t sleep.”

You turn your head then, looking at him briefly. You want to ask how he knows, yet you decide to keep it to yourself. Instead, you answer honestly.

“It’s a rare constant in my life. They help me calm down, especially after a long day.”

He gives you a soft nod in return, and silence returns between the both of you, left with owls howling in the distance. There’s still snow on the ground, and it must be below freezing temperature, because when another cool breeze brushes past you, you shiver, scrunching up into yourself.

“Why am I here, Riddle?”

Tom finally turns towards you then, a spark of something softer shimmering in his otherwise so strict chocolate-brown eyes, and he takes a measured step closer.

“You didn’t have any other plans tonight, did you?” He asks, in a way that’s implying he already knows the answer—because what does he not know—and you shake your head no.

“Then that is why.”

You part your lips to question him but are interrupted by his hand reluctantly reaching out, fingertips ghosting over your cheek, trying, testing, before his hand wanders to your neck. His thumb draws small, soft patterns on your jaw, and you tense slightly at the contact. He stops then momentarily, watching your softened expression, but when you don’t complain, he continues.

His gaze flicks to your lips, the air between the both of you growing thick with tension as he slowly leans in. Your surroundings fade into a blur, and before you know it, his lips are on yours.

Tom Riddle is kissing you.

The kiss isn’t what you’d expect of someone like him—it’s soft, tender, your lips moving in sync as his second hand rests on your lower back, pulling you closer.

Soon enough, he has you pressed against the railing, lips only parting from yours when a soft moan falls over your lips. A smirk tugs at the corner of his lips, then he goes back to kissing you as his fingertips trail up the soft skin of your thighs, stopping at the hem of your skirt.

“Okay?” He murmurs, waiting for a verbal agreement before turning you around, adjusting your position with a firm grip on your waist. He bunches the skirt around your hips, delivering a soft smack to the round curve of your now exposed ass.

A soft whimper falls over your lips, and you slightly lurch forward at the contact, but he is quick to reposition you, pulling you back to him.

It is most likely the choice of your underwear that has him go silent, fingers softly tracing along the lace of your burgundy thong, though he is quick to rid you of the last piece of fabric covering your lower body. Tom makes you step out of it, crouching down to lift your leg. You only faintly notice that he puts it in his pocket, and time to complain is sparse because his hands are back on your exposed skin within a second, cutting off your thoughts.

“You’re gorgeous,” he whispers, drawing a soft mewl from your lips, “even more so than I thought.”

Another gentle smack, and you feel his hand gently massaging your thighs before they wander up further. He doesn’t proceed—he waits, lingering there for just a moment.

“Spread your legs for me, sweetheart.” He instructs, his voice soft, and you obey, parting your thighs to allow him better access. A whimper escapes your lips when Tom fully presses himself against you, making you feel the problem you’ve caused him.

His hand leaves your thigh, traveling up until he reaches your already soaked heat, humming as his fingers swipe through your folds, collecting your arousal. One finger slips inside of you, his thumb rubbing circles on your clit, and you can’t help but buck your hips into his touch.

A second finger enters you, stretching, preparing you for him. You appreciate it—but all you want is to finally feel him.

“Riddle, please— I need you.”

His fingers withdraw then, hand wrapping around your throat instead, tilting your head backwards as you feel his hot breath ghosting over your ear.

“What’s my name?”

“Tom, God— please let me feel you, Tom.” You croak out, whimpering in defeat.

He lets you go then, the sound of him undoing his belt cutting through the night. “Good girl. Sounds so good when you say it.”

He casts a warming charm on you, a pleasant heat spreading through your body, and the next thing you feel is his tip nudging against your soaked entrance, slipping inside of you with a single, slow thrust. He groans when he’s inside of you completely—and it might be the most beautiful sound you’ve ever heard.

He’s told you to stay quiet—though that order is quickly forgotten when he sets a steady rhythm, fingertips pressing hard enough into your skin to leave bruises. He stretches you perfectly, filling you completely with every snap of his hips, knuckles turning white from how hard you are gripping the railing. The sound of your skin colliding with each thrust fills the air, accompanied by your moans and whimpers and occasional low groans from the man behind you.

“Spread your legs a little further for me, love.” Tom breathes, hand slipping between your legs once more as you do. Again, he finds your sensitive bundle of nerves, rubbing the bud in slow, circular motions.

As your moans grow louder, walls clenching around him, he angles his thrusts slightly differently, his tip brushing over your most sensitive spots inside of you.

“Oh— Tom, don’t— don’t stop, fuck—“

His palm lands on your ass once more, but this time you arch your back into his touch, thighs trembling at the electrifying sensations shooting straight to your core.

With one of his hands on your waist, pulling you back into the sharp snaps of his hips, the other wraps around your throat again, pulling you flush against his chest. Like this he is able to reach even deeper, tip brushing against your cervix with every thrust, providing you with the perfect mix of pleasure and pain.

“Fuck— squeezing me so tight. That good?”

You only manage a nod in return, eyelids fluttering close as you near your climax, walls fluttering wildly around his invading length.

“Open your eyes and look at the sky when you come, darling.”

So you do.

With one last high-pitched moan, you tumble over the edge, hot, white pleasure rushing through your veins as your cunt clamps down around him, his hands on your hips as they stabilize you when your knees are about to give in.

Soon after, your mind still hazy with the aftereffects of your own orgasm, he empties himself inside of you with a low groan, hips stuttering as he is buried to the hilt, making sure you take all of him.

Both of you stay like this for a while, catching your breath. Only when the warming effects of the charm he casted on you wear off does he pull out of you slowly, drawing a soft whimper from your lips at the loss. He fixes your skirt for you, takes care of his appearance before his arm wraps around your waist, helping you stand upright.

“I will need that back,” you say, pointing to the lace half hanging out of his pocket.

He tucks it away completely then. “Don’t know what you are talking about.”

You sigh, rolling your eyes, leaning back against the railing.

A slight smirk plays at the corner of his lips but fades as he studies you in the faint glow of the moonlight, his expression turning more serious.

“Did so well for me,” he says after some time, voice soft again, “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

You blink in confusion. Surely he didn’t—

“I wish you could see yourself the way you see the stars and the moon.” He goes on, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. “You are worthy of love.”

You shake your head. “Tom—“

Before you can protest, he presses his lips on yours, cutting off whatever words you were trying to form.

“I want you to teach me,” he exhales then, wrapping his coat around your shoulders, “how to love. Teach me how to love you the way you deserve to be loved.”

this was requested by my lovely @riddleswhcre 🩷 thank you so much for requesting baby!! you already know I am not particularly happy with how this turned out, but I hope it was still somewhat alright. <3

[mimasroom2]

My tennis star! (∩˃o˂∩)♡

Secretly dating jock!ellie

C/w: smut but for like 2 seconds. Mention of weed lol. Uhh that’s it this is pretty laid back. This is my first time using those fake texting things I think I like it? Idk

W/c: ≈ 800

𓆟. ° .• .𓆝 .• ° . 𓆟 . ° .• .��

- She plays tennis bc I said so 🎾

- She’d win a match and she’d post on her instagram story something REAL cheesy like “only reason why we won is because someone special was in the crowd💖” and everyone thinks she’s talking ab a guy but it’s really you >•<

- She’d pull you aside into an empty hallway and lean over you with her arm up (yknow. The classic masc move.) and whisper “You comin’ to the game tonight, baby?”

- It’s so fucking cheesy but you swear she makes your knees weak every time she talks with her sexy ass voice.

- “Too bad I can’t have a massive ass sign that says your name on it all big or something.” You grin widely and she laughs, leaning in to give you a soft kiss.

- You guys go on dates to the mall so she can buy new workout clothes & equipment. Every time you guys see someone you know in a store you split up and pretend to be looking at different things on other ends of the store. Eventually when they leave you two come back together and giggle.

- “Heya stranger.” She grins, showing you some knee high socks she found while she was pretending to look around.

- Only your two best friends know ab you and Ellie, so you’re always having to make up excuses as to why you’re going to the tennis games.

- “They needed help with grilling hot dogs and hamburgers for the game, and you know I always need more service hours!”

- “Man I’m sorry I can’t go to the movies tonight. I already told the tennis coach I’d do face painting for the little kids that come😕”

- You’re studying at your desk when the first message from Ellie absolutely jumpscares you. The girl really needs to learn about context 🙄

- Absolutely all the girls in the crowd and on the opposing team would swoon over her. She lovesssss the attention and always waves at the crowd and blows kisses to them. Sometimes she winks at the girls on the other team to purposefully distract them as they’re serving. You don’t feel jealous though because you know as soon as the game’s over you’re going back to her place to celebrate ;)

- You feel so fucking lucky you’re dating a jock as her toned muscular arm is pumping in and out of you.

- “Fuck,, guess all that racket swinging comes in handy when I’m fucking you, hm?” She smirks, and she was actually right. She could practically finger you forever and never get tired.

- She’s a perfectionist with her playing and in bed. She’d have to make you cum at least twice before she’s satisfied.

- The next morning Ellie has to leave early for practice so she lets you stay in her room to sleep in. She texts you a WHOLE BUNCH, effectively spamming your phone and waking you up:

- She comes up to you one day out of the blue and says “Hey y/n, I’m like so serious can you hide all my stoner shit until this season is over…?” You knew she smoked but she told you she only does it when she’s off in tennis, so you’re surprised when she hands you a shoebox full of all her stuff.

- “Yeah ‘m fine. Coach has been gettin’ on to me. Jus’ more stressed out is all.” Is all she has to say when you ask about it. She runs her hands through her hair, thinking you’re frustrated with her. You’re just glad she trusts you enough to make her keep her promises to herself.

- She’d ask you what your favorite color is and get a special racket in that color for whenever you see her play. She’d say it’s her lucky racket :,)

- You were never super into sports but you loveeeee spending time with Ellie, so she decides to give you some one on one lessons.

- “Yeah, thas’ it, baby.” She’d mutter in your ear from behind you. She’s holding the racket with you and helping you swing your arms the right way.

- You guys didn’t expect to see anyone on the tennis court this early, so when other people come and Ellie recognizes them, she quickly guides you guys behind a tree.

- Your stomach is filled with butterflies as she tucks your loose hair behind your ear and kisses you !!

- You feel like a little kid playing in the woods again because now you and Ellie are sneaking around the park/tennis court trying not to be seen by the other people

- She gets really cocky sometimes and posts soft launches of you on her insta stories

- It would be a picture of you in her lap WAHH! Her tattooed hand is on your thigh with the caption “keeping me occupied”

𓆟. ° .• .𓆝 .• ° . 𓆟 . ° .• .𓆞

[jamminvroomvroom]

landoscar threesome drabble...

(or is that too much for a tuesday evening)

just a taste for now…. watch this space bc i will be writing this long form. i’m weak.

smut under the cut, 18+ minors dni!!

alcohol is… well, it’s a powerful tool.

sober you will die tomorrow when you wake up between the two mclaren drivers but that’s a problem for then.

you quickly lose track of whose hands are whose. all you know is that both of them are touching you, everywhere, and it feels fucking delicious.

lando has been waiting for this, getting his hands on his teammates wide eyed girl, and he’s going to make this last long enough that he can cling on to the memory next time he’s alone in an empty hotel room.

the power kick oscar gets beats out his sprint win in every possible way. watching lando’s pupils blow wider and wider with every piece of clothing ripped off of you makes oscar dizzy.

the aussie would be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about this.

the brit would also be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about this.

and you, well, lord have mercy.

curls tickle your shoulder as lando’s tongue works over your collarbone while oscar’s fingers dip into the band of your underwear.

oscar quickly gets a finger inside of you and you slump forward into lando’s firm body.

lando makes sure you can hold yourself up - “there you go, you can do it, that’s a good fuckin’ girl” - collapsing onto his knees before you

the sight before you is sinful. or, well, it would be if you could open your tightly squeezed shut eyes.

lando’s tongue slides home between your legs, working around oscar’s relentless fingers. you’re on fucking fire. it’s almost painful, the way you teeter on the edge, achingly turned on.

your hands quickly find lando’s curls, holding yourself up while oscar stands firm behind you, unphased. he’s kissing your neck, fucking his fingers into you even faster. he groans, nice and low, every time lando’s tongue runs over his sodden fingers.

when lando latches onto your clit, sucking hard, right when oscar’s spare fingers pinch hard at your nipple, you nearly die, collapse onto the floor. two strong bodies hold you up while you cum, hard.

when the three of you tumble into bed, it’s hard to tell where oscar stops and lando begins.

it’s a long, long, long night.

[tokkiiecloud]

It’s hot outside so get hit by this bus take whv this is (Also don’t mind my writing, I ain’t no writer I have written a few fanfictions here and there soo..yeah)

WHB : it’s summer and it’s hot / Beach dates :

Characters : gn!reader ; Belphegor ; Bael ; Gamigin ; ppyong (Juno p) +angel : Raphael

CW : Sweating ; OOC

Belphegor :

this dude just sleeps through the heat

He’s inside with the air conditioner on

You just came back from a small trip in town with Agares and Vassago, and directly joined Belphegor who was sleeping in his room, you were drenched in sweat because of the FUCKING HOT AIR OUTSIDE and you were too lazy to go shower and change into a pair of fresh and cool clothes(he rubbed off on you)

You collapsed on the bed where Belphegor was sleeping, when he felt something that resembled a wet rat, he had to wake up from the discomfort, when he saw it was you he pushed you off the bed :

“WT- BELPHI?! THIS HURTS!” You yelled at him, he ignored you and went back to sleep, you were forced to take a shower and change when you came back he finally used you as a pillow.

Bael :

This man works through the heat (ac broken)

Collapsed bcs of the heat after waking up he started working again.

You walked inside of Bael’s office, he was still working despite when entering you could feel the unbearable heat, you started sweating profusely how could Bael work in this environment??

He smelt you’re sweats and looked at you giving a weak smile, he was close to collapsing, alerted you quickly went to him and grabbed his face worry in you’re eyes :

“Bael?! Your office is like an oven?!” You said worried, he just looked at you and apologized

“Sorry..the ac is actually broken but I’m used to the heat do not worry about me, go somewhere where the ac is on-“ he couldn’t finish his sentence before you dragged him out of the room, he wasn’t able to fight back because of his brain being turned to mush because of the heat.

After dragging him to a random chamber placing him onto the bed, making him drink some water, changing him into more comfortable clothes and going into the bed to cuddle with him.

He smiled softly before kissing your forehead and letting himself be taken care of by you.(Bael my beloved)

Gamigin :

He’s very worried about you staying hydrated

“Please don’t go outside too much”

Paradise lost, for some reason is not that hot?? But Gamigin still worries a lot about you he heard from Lucifer that human’s can’t withstand too much heat so he’s constantly checking on you, giving you water to keep you hydrated!

Ppyong (Juno p) :

Spends his day at the beach to be able to cool himself in the water

Listens to Avril Lavigne while swimming

He begged MC to go to the beach with him so he could spend some alone time together! Drinking wine together, watching the sunset together, swimming, his perfect idea for a date! Sadly he can’t hang out because the others will tag along…

At least he got a kiss on the forehead for the cute idea! It was worth it :

“Ppyong, I mean Juno, this is a very cute idea! Let’s do this next time!”

He giggles as you kiss his forehead, his smile is super bright almost blinding you more than the sun

Raphael :

Doesn’t give a flying fck at the heat

Has tried to kiss you while watching the sunset and will continue to try when he can

Interestingly, you found Raphael at the beach while hanging out with the devils of Gehenna and when he saw you…He took you away from them so for the rest of the day you spent you’re time with him

It was fun! You had a really good and goofy time with him he was still acting high and mighty but he was softer than usual until the sun started to set, both of you were sitting down on the golden sand :

“The sunset is beautiful..all those golden and pinkish mixed with a hint of blue create such a unique and ethereal look…”

He looks at you, eyes sparkling, he smiles at you as he grabs your chin and forces you to look at him, extremely gently as if he was handling a crystal glass :

“You know what else is beautiful and ethereal?” He looks deep into your eyes, leaning in closer to your face, when suddenly a bunch of demons intervened and brutally ended the sweet moment by starting a fight after the fight Raphael left but not without saying one last thing :

“Our moment was interrupted but we’ll have time to continue it some time later. See you dear” he smirks and flies away.

It’s donneeee!! YAYY! Don’t mind it going from weird /goofy or cringe ?? To sweet, I couldn’t stop myself from writing about them I just had too before the fandom completely dies you know?? So every time I get an idea I’ll write it!! :3

[hoonslutt]

I’ve been having a hoon brainrot for the past 3 days

I JUST CANT FORGET ABOUT childhoodfriend!hoon walking in on you while you’re touching yourself in your childhood room you used to have sleepovers in

Him manhandling you bc you’ve been such a dirty girl for moaning his name like that omg my brain can’t take this

Childhood!bestie Hoon catches you

You are back home from uni on break summer break that is and in your hometown it could not be more hot. When you first come back you’re greeted by everybody your parents, younger sister, and a few of your friends including your childhood best friend sunghoon. And to say that the glow up hit him like a truck it definitely had you feeling weak in your knees when he smiled at you showing his fangs and a little dimple in one of his cheeks. ‘Welcome back babe missed you’ babe? He definitely got more flirty with you, oh man if he continued this you were not going to make it you fear. Not to mention you noticed the muscle that seemed to flex when you put your arms around him. It’s been 2 weeks since you came back, you and Hoon have been hanging out together all during that time and today was just another day or so you thought when you seen him in his garage lifting weights through your window. Of course this wasn’t the first time you’ve seen him work out but today something in you was telling you that it was different this time maybe it was the cut sleeve shirt or the basketball shorts that refused to hide anything he’ll maybe it was the sweat that dripped from his forehead and arms. He just looked so good today and so strong you wondered if his arms would flex while he was fucking you so deep? Your thighs pressing together just from seeing your childhood bestie work out panties becoming so wet.. oh gosh you needed to get a grip but how could you when he was looking so good you just wanted him right here in between his legs giving him the most delicious head? You couldn’t handle it anymore taking a last glance you walked over to your bed taking off your shorts and shirt leaving you in your matching white bra and panty set. Thank goodness your parents were not home today because the ache in your heat was getting stronger you needed to feel good. So you laid on your bed pushing your panties to the side feeling up and down your folds rubbing the slick all over your clit as lube teasing yourself you imagined your best friend on top of you kissing all over your body going down to your heat. ‘Oh my goodness yes’ keeping a good pace going you played with your entrance with your other fingers. Little did you know that same best friend was already waking through your door he finished his workout early due to a certain someone looking out the window practically almost drooling waking to to your room he stopped right in front of your door hearing a voice coming from it ‘Please Hoon need it so bad’ ‘Need you to fuck me faster harder’ you were moaning HIS name, something in him ticked he was getting hard he continued to listen and watch you finger your self. He was fully bricked up now after seeing you grab the teddy bear he gifted you a couple days back and start humping it ‘Oh yes! More hoonie need more.’ You on the other side had no clue he was outside your door until you heard ‘Damn baby if your gonna move like that at least do it in the real thing’ you froze and looked at him you wanted to move but couldn’t ‘Oh don’t stop now that I’m here please by all means continue wanna see you ride that bear cmon’ the fear left your body and you continued to move on the bear something about him watching was making you even more turned on and the bear was not helping so you climbed off of it and crawled to the side of the bed where he was at turning showing him everything wiggling your ass a bit ‘mmm hoonie don’t I look so pretty?’ Landing a smack to your ass and smoothing it the flesh turning a bit red ‘You do look pretty baby if you needed dick you should’ve called me instead you wanted to touch yourself thinking about me? So naughty I guess I’ll just have to teach you a lesson right love?’ Flipping you over and motioning you to get on your knees undoing his belt and pulling out his now fully hard member ‘Now suck slut.’

This was already getting so long so I cut it short sorry! As always feedback is always welcome and appreciated!! Love ya!!💕🫶🏼

[crucifiedfaerie]

Kylo Ren — SFW Alphabet

no warnings, just lots of fluff and lil bit of angst !! however, just bc its SFW, doesn't mean i want minors interacting w this, BEGONE !!! TO THE GLUE TRAP YOU GO !

— AFFECTION (how affectionate are they?)

in the beginning of your relationship, affection was very scarce. kylo wanted so badly to open up to you more, but was too afraid to, so when he would catch himself getting too close or too affectionate he would pull away and become that cold and calculated kylo again who you knew all too well. when he did finally admit his feelings, he couldn't get enough of you, as if he were making up for all of the lost time he spent pushing you away.

"i cant believe i waited so long to do this, what a fool i am."

— BEST FRIEND (what are they like as a bestie?)

the only hc i have for you as best friends would be if you grew up together in jedi training... and you guys would fuck w each other CONSTANTLY. like practically bully each other, it's all in good fun though. luke would refer to the two of you as partners-in-many-crimes because of the several messes you'd make doing stupid shit. one time ben almost burned the hut down because you dared him to light fireworks outside of luke's window while he slept. bad fucking idea.

"you idiot, he's going to kill us, you know?"

— CUDDLES (how do they like to cuddle?)

kylo loves holding you. his favorite is when your head is on his chest because it makes it easy for him to play with your hair. he also loves being the big spoon, wrapping his strong arms around your small frame. in those moments you were a tiny, precious thing that he wanted only to love and keep safe.

— DOMESTIC (thoughts on settling down? how would they be helping out around?)

kylo wanted nothing more than to make you his and his only forever. despite how kylo treats literally everyone else, he is a very doting partner and has a huge soft spot for you and only you. he's better at helping with cooking than he is cleaning. anytime he would try to clean, he'd never do it right or fully and you'd end up telling him to stop and do it yourself lol.

"what do you MEAN i'm not doing it right?!"

— ENDING (how would breakups go?)

its simply not happening. if he broke up with you, he didn't actually mean it and said it out of anger in the heat of the moment. if you broke up with him, he would probably lose his mind. his cold façade would shatter into a million pieces and he'd promise he would change, do better, do whatever it was you needed him to do. you were his and the mere thought of anyone else ever having you filled him with insurmountable rage and sadness.

— FIANCEE (how do they feel about commitment?)

kylo is devoted to you wholeheartedly. being his empress and ruling over the first order by his side would only solidify that.

— GENTLE (how gentle are they?)

when he isn't being a freak, he handles you as if you are made of glass. a pretty, precious thing that could break at any moment. if you fall asleep next to the fireplace, he will pick you up and carry you to bed, making sure the blankets are tucked around the both of you in the way you like, so you don't wake up cold in the morning.

— HUGS (do they like hugs? what are their hugs like?)

kylo loves hugging you, and you love hugging him. bc of his height, you are dwarfed by him and his hugs feel like getting tightly wrapped in a large, warm blanket. usually he just bends down to hug you, but sometimes he picks you up.

— I LOVE YOU (how long does it take for them to say the L word?)

again, kylo is terrified of showing weakness, so in the beginning of your relationship he's very cold towards you. every time he was around you he had to fight the strong urges telling him to be honest with you. after a long while, he did finally say it though. he was so nervous when he first said it, his eyes scanning your face for a reaction and his palms sweating. now he reminds you that he loves you all the time, especially if he's going out on a mission and won't be back for a couple weeks.

"don't look so sad, my star. i love you, you know i always come back to you."

— JEALOUSY (how jealous do they get?)

kylo is as jealous of a man as you can get. the mere thought of someone trying to take you from him fills him with a rage that rivals the fire of a thousand suns. one time he heard a guard having very loud, impure thoughts about his empress so kylo killed him. you have always been much more passive than he is, so you were not happy to see that he had killed someone on your living room floor.

"but my love- his thoughts were so loud! what else was i supposed to do?!"

— KISSES (do they like kissing? what are their kisses like?)

kissing you is kylo's favorite past time. if you both are out and his helmet is on, all he's thinking about is getting home so he can kiss you. sometimes if no one's around, he will lift his mask up just enough so it only exposes the bottom half of his face so he can get a quick kiss or two or eight in. his kisses are warm and never fail to send tingles down your spine, and you always say kylo tastes of cinnamon and smoke. to him, you taste of summer fruit.

— LITTLE ONES (how are they around kids?)

he's indifferent towards other peoples children, thankfully he's less harsh on them than adults, but he isn't pleasant to them either. one time he blew up on a servant boy that was no older than eleven, and you scolded him afterwards. "he's just a child kylo, don't be so hard on him." he has such a soft spot for you and admires the empathy you have for others that he will never have. he promised you he would try to be a little nicer. yours and his children however, he treats as well as he treats you. they are an extension of his beloved, after all. i hc that kylo is a wonderful father, making sure they receive the fatherly love he never got.

— MORNINGS (how do your mornings with them go?)

sometimes on busy days, he's gone by the time you wake up. you always look so beautiful and peaceful when you're sleeping, so he doesn't dare wake you up. instead he kisses your head and whispers that he loves you and that he will return shortly. he knows you can't hear him, but he likes to tell you anyways. on days he doesn't have to leave so early, you stay in bed together. kissing, cuddling, talking, other things. kylo is content doing anything as long as it's with you.

— NIGHTS (how do your nights with them go?)

this is a sfw post, therefore i cannot describe how your nights with kylo would go lmao. please refer to the nsfw abc's. afterwards though, kylo is a doting partner that takes care of you, cleaning you up and tending to every single mark he left on your body that he worships so much.

— OPEN (how open are they? when will they tell you more about themselves?)

the first few months of your relationship is like dating a brick wall, it is not easy getting kylo to open up. once he does though, he makes sure not to hide anything from you anymore. it took a lot of work and patience, but he loves and trusts you wholeheartedly.

— PATIENCE (how patient are they with you?)

kylo has a temper, and he tries so hard, but he does have slip ups sometimes. any time he blows up on you though, he apologizes immediately. you know he loves you because he absolutely hates admitting he was wrong.

— QUIZZES (how much do they remember about you?)

everything. every detail, every like, every dislike, your favorite color, your favorite flower, your blood type, your fears, hopes, and dreams. this man remembers EVERYTHING about you. at least fifty percent of his brain is an archive of facts about you.

— REMEMBER (what is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

the first time you told him you loved him. it was the first time anyone told him they loved him, and you made him feel like he was ben again. he used to be so scared of being that boy he tried so hard to kill, but you held that part of him so tenderly, that he knew he'd be an absolute fool to try to push that away.

— SECURITY (how protective are they of you?)

kylo protects you with his own life and would kill thousands for you, despite your disdain for unnecessary violence. you are the most important thing to him, and he would have to be dead before he let anything happen to you.

— TRY (how much effort do they put into dates/special occasions?)

kylo ren has an ungodly amount of rizz and i stand by that. this man buys you your favorite flowers, he sets up candlelit dinners, he watches the sunset with you, he makes you personalized playlists like every other fuckboy except he doesn't send it to seven other women. whether you're his empress yet or not, he treats you like royalty. @enviedear and i also have a hc that kylo is the type of guy to pick out your nail polish color for you, and then buy a tie to wear that matches.

"you'd look so heavenly in this shade of red, my star."

— UGLY (what is a bad habit of theirs?)

kylo has an awful temper and is prone to outbursts. he tries SO hard to not have a temper with you, but everyone makes mistakes. he always apologizes to you though. i also hc that kylo is a nail biter, idk it just makes sense ?? that man is a caged animal and emotionally damaged, he definitely has anxiety.

— VANITY (how insecure are they? what are they insecure about?)

our poor babygirl is sooo insecure about everything, no matter how much you tell him how beautiful he is. your loving words of affirmation always make him feel a little better though.

— WHOLE (would they feel incomplete without you?)

without you, kylo would return to the broken, shell of a man he was before you. if he somehow lost you, hundreds of innocent lives would be lost due to the rampage he'd go on.

— XTRA (a random headcanon about them)

another hc that liv and i came up with was kylo's and ben's music taste. kylo listens to typical male manipulator music like radiohead, the smiths, and deftones with some angrier shit like slipknot and korn. ben is a different breed of male manipulator that listens to the weeknd and pulls up blasting solo by future. we also hc that both cry alone to lana del rey.

— YUCK (what are some things they dislike?)

anything and everything that isn't you. his least favorite thing though, is when he can hear people's rude or impure thoughts about you. he hasn't told you this, but he's killed at least fifteen people for doing just that.

"personally, i think fifteen isn't enough."

— ZZZZ (what are their sleeping habits like?)

for the first few months of your relationship, he did not sleep around you. you were convinced he didn't sleep... like ever. after he became more vulnerable with you though, he would. you love how peaceful he looks when he sleeps. i also hc that sometimes he gets terrible, vivid nightmares that he wakes up crying from :(

[quantum1mmortality]

Could you write a one shot of Kung Lao having sex for the first time with his partner? It’s okay if you don’t 🫶 just want to let you know I enjoy your Kung Lao works 😎✨

Mixing all three of these together because I fucking can

To answer the question, yes I write for bottom kung lao, yes I write him submissive when the situation calls for it, yes he whimpers, it is what it is.

Tw/cw: readers a virgin, unprotected sex, AFAB reader, kung lao is so sweet I'd cry, he's also experienced it's whatever tho, piv, Kung Lao has incredibly horny thoughts about reader bc readers fucking awesome, bottom Kung Lao, he talks you through it like a good boyfriend, PRAISSSEEEE SO MUCH PRAISSSEEEE

Not proofread

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kung Laos definitely experienced, he'd had one night stands before but he stopped once he got with you. He'd practically devoted his life to you and making you happy.

He's been known to have a high sex drive, this paired with you constantly helping him with training and farming hasn't helped him at all. Your small shorts hiking up your thighs and the way you'd bend down to pull weeds up, making your ass look oh so grabbable makes his mouth run dry.

He'd often times have to excuse himself just so he could fuck his hand to the thought of you. No one has ever made him feel like this, but you have him completely weak to his knees.

Most of the time when you two would go out together, he'd often find himself getting lost in the way your hips would move when you walked. He'd easily get a boner if you ever wore a corset or anything to accentuate your waist.

He'd feel so guilty for his thoughts about you. He knows you're a virgin, you guys have had conversations about how you just weren't ready for that sort of thing yet. He was completely okay with it, he wouldn't do anything to make you upset, but if only you knew what you did to him.

He wanted nothing more than to touch you at every waking moment, wishing that he could tell you how he felt, but he waited. He was patient, he knew you were worth it.

And finally, as if Liu Kang himself heard his prayers and saw his horniness, after 5 months you decided you were ready. Kung Lao was ecstatic but he'd never outright say it.

He wanted your first time to be a night you both wouldn't forget. He took you out to the fanciest restaurant he could find, let you order whatever you wanted and he'd pay for the entire thing. He even wore a suit for the occasion and made you breakfast in bed earlier that morning.

When you got home after an awfully expensive dinner(not that he'd let you see the check, but you could tell), he led you to his bedroom that was decorated with pink and white lotus petals, sourced from his own personal garden; as well as some lit candles.

"I hope you like it, I had Raiden come over and light up all the candles while we were away. I didn't know what specific scent you would like for something like this, so I went safe and got apple pie candles. I hope you like them."

With that, he took your hands in his and gave you a soft smile. He slowly leaned in and gave you a small kiss before leading you to the bed. He gently placed you down and kissed your neck down to your chest, placing both hands on your thighs as he gently rubbed them.

He looks up at you with nothing but pure love and adoration in his eyes, "are you sure you're alright with this? I'll wait for however long it takes for you to be comfortable, I don't mind waiting a little longer."

"It's alright Lao. I'm ready, promise." You give him a smile and he quickly returns it.

His hands went up your thighs more, slowly pulling down your panties as he continued to kiss your chest. He took your panties off and discarded them somewhere in the room, he's gonna be keeping those so don't worry about them.

He moved up more, latching himself to your neck as he placed soft kisses and nips wherever he could. Gently, he placed his fingers into your heat, slowly rubbing into your pussy. You begin to whimper and instinctively close your legs around him. Kung Lao lightly chuckles at this and slowly has to pry them open again, continuing his movements after.

Once you were wet enough, he started with inserting one finger into your tight pussy, curling it as he stretches you out. You begin to groan in both pain and pleasure, he takes his free hand and rubs your inner thigh in an attempt to comfort you. "I know it hurts, I know, just a little longer, okay? I promise it'll be worth it."

Once he could, he inserted a second finger. Being able to scissor them made you warm up to the feeling and the stretch much quicker. Your moans turned into pleasurable ones by the time he could insert a third finger in.

Once you were finally stretched out enough, he began to undress the both of you. Starting with himself to hopefully make you more comfortable, he unclipped your bra, revelling in how beautiful you looked.

"God, you're so beautiful, it feels like a dream waking up next to you everyday, you know that?" He laughs as he gives you a small yet passionate kiss, pulling back so he can take off his boxers. He groaned at the feeling of his cock springing free, quickly taking notice of your anxious face.

"Hey, it'll be okay, alright? We can take it as slow as you want, and we can stop at any time. Just tell me okay?" With that, flips you over so you're on top of him, giving you a toothy smile as he places his hands on your waist. "You go down at your own pace, no rush."

You slowly begin to sink down on his cock, both of you letting out moans. Once it's fully in, you take a bit of time to adjust. You slowly begin to bounce on his cock, digging your nails into his side as you moan out his name. "Just like that, you take me so well, such a beautiful pussy all for me."

He whimpers and cry's out as you begin to clench down on him, gripping your sides tighter. "Lao- feels so good Lao-" "I know baby, you're doing so good for me, just like this."

It takes everything in Kung Lao not to start thrusting up into you, wanting to make you feel even more pleasure. But god did he feel amazing right now. Watching you bounce on his cock, seeing how your pussy sucks him in makes him want to cum on the spot.

"Y/n- plea- ngh... Please let me cum- I need you so bad-" he throws back his head in pleasure as he can feel small tears in the corner of his eyes, threatening to escape.

"Cum in me Lao, it's alright-" being caught up in the pleasure makes you say some pretty dumb shit. Just hearing you say his name in such a provocative way has him cumming so hard he practically screams your name. He lays his head down and breaths heavily, chanting your name like a prayer as he sinks his nails into your skin.

"How did it feel?" He looks up at you with pure happiness in his eyes. "I uhm.. didn't.. y'know.."

He could feel his heart sink. He forgot to make you cum. He immediately flips you over while he's still inside you, making you giggle and moan at the same time, resulting in round after round of him plowing into you over and over, and god did you love it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/n: might have to make a master list JUST for my lao fics LMAO

Ps I'm a sucker for first time fics, I love it when big men are so soft <3

[pupyuj]

Any thoughts on gp Winter?

She kinda gives me switch energy like she'll go from pushing you around and being all mean to whimpering the moment you start sucking her off.

I also feel like it really depends on her mood or how her day has gone, if she's had a really bad/ stressful day and is tired all she'd want is for you to just take care of her and be all soft; but if she's annoyed rather than tired then she'd become a lot more dom, telling you what to do and just generally being rough to get her anger out, pinning you down while complaining about all the assholes at her work while she fucks you, all while you can't even get in a coherent though with hoe fast she's going, but you don't care because you want to help her destress right? I certainly wouldn't mind

(If you don't like this just ignore 👍)

i know i'm planning on writing a dom winter fic but she will forever give awkward virgin loser vibes to me 😭😭 especially g!p winter like come on.. there would not be a single dominant bone in her body, she'll always be weak for you :((

she's one of those girls that's like needy, but doesn't want to say what she wants from you just like that bcs she thinks it's too dirty (liz has competition omg..) 🫣 the type to approach you, head down and cheeks all red, tug at your skirt and hope that you know what she's talking about, especially since she's not at all hiding her boner 😭😭 well of course you know what she wants but you never want to pass up an opportunity to tease the baby 🫣 acting clueless, asking her to tell you what she wants bcs you're not a mind reader, and moving away when she refuses to say a word, so meandjcbfjdkf

"p-please, (y/n)...! i need to fuck you, please..." winter ends up saying out of pure desperation 🥺🥺 she gets soooo embarrassed after realizing what she had just said, putting her face in her hands while you laugh at her 😭

coming off from what you said anon, if winter is stressed she will definitely be a bit more forward about her needs 👀 and she won't take any of your teasing, it'll just piss her off 😭 but of course you do it, bcs minjeong fucks you way better when's angry 🤤 LIKEKFGHFJF imagine getting off work late and seeing minjeong sitting on the couch, arms crossed, eyebrows furrowed, and a pout on her face... asking you why you didn't tell her you'd be late.. she's getting all pissy too bcs she wanted to eat dinner with you, and then gets really heated when you told her you already had dinner with your coworkers and that's why you were late... she would feel so disposable :(( minjeong nearly crying when she tells you how hard work has been for her and how she just needs you but sometimes you could be so blind 💔💔

AND OFC THIS LEADS INTO MAKE-UP SEX COME ON... apologizing and reassuring minjeong that you'll always be there for her, all while riding her cock 😵‍💫😵‍💫 minjeong forgetting whatever she was about just like that,, moaning like crazy when you started going faster, deepening your drops so her entire length was stimulated :((( minjeong definitely hugs you while she comes sjdbfjsfj coming so much that it brings her to tears, she just missed her gf :(( shbdfjdkf minjeong barely getting a hold of herself when you started riding her againnnn :(( SHE WAS TOO CUTE YOU COULDN'T HELP YOURSELF...

"j-just relax, baby... i'll take everything.. ahhn.. from here..." you pushed her down so she was laying on the bed,, making her watch while you fucked yourself into her cock,, minjeong wanted to touch you, to flip your positions and just ruin you but you looked way too pretty on top :(( and trust that this will go on for hours on end bcs the only way to truly make it up to minjeong is letting her breed you full of her cum 🤤 making a mess out of each other from coming so much sjdbfjsc but it was all worth it to see her smile 😩😩

and you're definitely cockwarming her to sleep 👀👀 so don't be surprised when you wake up in the morning feeling your girlfriend gently fuck into you, claiming to give back to you for the night before... 😵‍💫😵‍💫

not me straying far from anon's idea sjdjfidfj...

[002yb]

Your Last ask?????? The konjay feelings hit me hard. Dick is gonna be pissed at me but i kinda really wanna see Kon fucking Jay. Like this half alien half human superpowered love machinr is too much? How can anyone resisr him, hes even more flirty than Dick and ugh, Jason is weak to blue eyes. Which kon is very smug to find out and use to his benefit.

(Dick and Tim looking longingly bc that should be them)

A shiver chases up his spine as Kon bears down on him, a low gasp shuddering helplessly past his lips in the wake of unexpected gentleness. Jason doesn't know what he was expecting when they fell into bed together, but it certainly wasn't this: the tickle of Kon's nose along the cut of Jason's jaw, the soft brush of lips pressed to his neck and the reverent sighs breathed over suck marks - red and blue and aching.

This was supposed to be a pity fuck, a mutual rebound and if nothing else, something to lord over his replacement's head.

Instead, it's this. It's Jason losing his breath over how Kon treats him nice - like Jason is someone special. It's a tight feeling in his chest when he realizes that 'someone' is the brother Kon will never have. It's not being bothered because Jason is used to being used; its not like he isn't doing the same to Kon.

It's witnessing one of the strongest men in the world crumple at the hurt of a broken heart. Missed chances, lost opportunities, and laughable dreams.

'You dodged a bullet,' Jason could say, but he knows from his own unrequited feelings that the consolation means nothing. The heart wants what it wants. Sometimes Jason believes his [heart] simply wants to hurt.

Maybe that's why he's here, ready and willing to be a replacement for the replacement. Maybe it's why he stays despite knowing that nothing is going to happen.

Kon goes through the motions, but Jason isn't a fool. He can feel how Kon's kisses feel like grimaces pressed to Jason's skin, how slow love bites pull away to a reluctant grazing of teeth. Jason wants to tell him to stop because this pity rebound fuck clearly isn't doing anything for either of them, but Kon's gentleness is a novelty that steals Jason's breath and ties his tongue. Despite everything, this is the closest to being loved Jason has been in too long and he selfishly clings to it - taking even scraps.

And Kon persists because his affections have nowhere else to go. He's heartbroken, cheated. He holds fast to Jason with hands that shake, tries to love him like the boy he'll never get to have.

It's a feeling Jason understands well. Where Jason has had two lifetimes to get over his own unrequited feelings though, for Kon it's a first. If only because of that kindred hurt, Jason blinks through the burn in his eyes and stops Kon from going further. Stops Kon from hurting himself in the ways Jason has learned to cope.

He holds Kon's head to Jason's stomach, fingers threaded through his dark hair. The way Kon falls into him, forehead pressed to Jason's naval and arm coming around Jason's waist to pull him close makes his heart ache. It's a kindness Jason has dreamed of and he breathes slow to hide the way it makes his breath hitch.

Maybe it's not in the same way, but Jason is used to being a consolation prize; he's familiar with the sting of being a fallback, a second thought, not enough. The difference here is that unlike Kon, Jason never had an 'almost.' Not like this. Jason has experienced similar enough rejection though and it hurts even still, so he holds Kon tighter and waits with him until Kon can find the nerve and mettle to move on.

[popawritter12]

hello can i request a yandere oguma frim beastars^^

Author's note: I writted this one-shot two times bcs the first time I HATE how I did it soooooooo here we go.

Little lion in Rebellion Yandere! Oguma x Lion! Reader

I already lost the count of the days, the nights and obviouly the endless hours I spend in this room. Like a circus freak, waiting for an end to all the misery imposed by the pain, praying to the deities hidden among the shadows of the nights and the rays of the sun for an end to this miserable story with me, a predator locked inside a golden jail.

Originality, that phrase was talking about an animal locked in a golden jail always was a weak animal; a bird or a rodent or even an insect, but those trapped predators are twice as miserable as any tiny and weak creature could, if it so desired, dream of.

Someone like me, with the right jaw to tear open meat, and claws always sharpened by the nature of my blood finds that even their most pathetic attempts at fighting are useless before the grip of that herbivore, of that man whose blunt fingers and perfectly and coherently organized teeth seem to manipulate my figure as if it were a puppet. For many days, even Louis had more empathy for me than Oguma would ever feel for any sentient being that is not an equal to his biology.

The soft hands that I once felt proud of were now bruised, damaged and scarred without even a bandage on, all being a tiny bit of the cruelty behind that fucking deer, and in this dark, impenetrable room, even by the most specialized forces could find a house always under surveillance since the day Oguma preferred to start a suffering with a vile and sadistic end that not even the worst murderers could think of giving even to their most suffering victim was just a little playdate in comparation of what he did to me.

I had and will have the misfortune of having been born within these bars decorated with gold, accommodated in a claustrophobic and invasive environment for my nature free of chains. Even with the great misfortunes of others, even the poorest enjoy the freedom to touch the grass with their fingers, unlike me, a creature treated like a wild beast from the first day. Oh, if my ancestors saw this situation, they would be rejoicing in their already graceful graves.

The pain in my chest is present again, feeling like a torture from ancient times, just waking up on the same pillow every day of my life.

The lights were still on; apparently their presence had vanished at the sight of me sleeping so peacefully in such a limited space, and even his damn footsteps seem invisible to my bruised and damaged ears.

—Did you sleep well? —His voice resonated in my ears, echoing in the room without any natural light.

I couldn’t answer; his chair seems too comfortable outside the cage, and my entire backside begs for a soft bed to lie down on after so many nights without a good rest.

—I asked you a question. —he hissed, before one of his hands gripped the metal.

I refused to answer, just kneading the uncomfortable, lumpy pillow in a rough attempt to stretch my muscles, like a jaguar cub learning to use its claws.

—Idiot —he whispered. —, aren’t you going to answer me?

My head fell back against the little space left on the red pillow decorated with gold linen. Even the smell of fresh blood coming from his fine clothes seems to try to be a means of temptation for my hungry stomach, already abandoned by dad’s home-cooked food years ago.

—Damn predators —he panted, angrily —, all of your are the same —he took my tail in his hands —, stubborn, insufferable, and proud of all of your good things, proud of your fucking jaws, your teeth, your claws ready to tear skin like butter.

The pull I received was such that even my head jumped off the small velvet mattress. The sharp pain that runs through my backside to my hips is such that even the mere act of moving made it more and more painful.

—But it's not that hard to keep them flush —He pulled again, gripping his fingers into the fur and flesh of my tail—, is it, little lioness?

Small tears escaped from my eyes and ran down my cheeks at his aggressive tugs. The constancy of the pain was inevitably sharp and extremely unbearable.

—Now, answer me properly —He let go of my tail, returning to his initial position.

For the few seconds I remained clinging to myself, my tail twisted over my body, the marks of his fingers remaining impregnated in my fur like wood marked by varnish.

—So?

I couldn’t even whisper a moan as fear invaded me again, just like the first day I was locked in this hole of pain, just like every day of this miserable life.

My face peeked out between the golden bars, my tail tangling in my changed position; sitting on the edge of the cushion, bringing all my weight to the place where I was in the opposite location to his.

—Are you really going to make me go there?—He whined.

His footsteps echoed in the empty room, silencing my constant gasps from the pain lying in my body, small tears welling up on my face.

—Speak —He said —, now.

The sweet caress on the fur that outlines my ear is such that even my own body forgets that mistreatment foreign to my temperamental behavior, like a sedative whose action is immediate in every sense of the word. His bent posture to take that part so delicate for me was almost glorious and pious in the eyes of any family that has caused me so much pain.

—If you don't, you know it will only end worse.

With the purpose of a whim to be fulfilled, I made him release my ear by moving my body, before my eyes looked at him again. His eyes still show that coldness whose emotional emptiness is almost inexhaustible, as if all the pity that any creature can show for others was taken away from him at a young age as a method of punishment.

His hand is still extended, his posture and even the smell are still the same as the moment I remembered the monster in front of me, whose evilness crossed all the limits imposed in a society in constant internal struggle and inexhaustible passive aggressiveness, and one last time, just like every time, I decided to stop being miserable, quiet and lonely, before approaching his thin fingers, with trimmed nails and his fine palm with the fur in a harmoniously contained order, a reflection of his constant personal hygiene.

—On what day, or what week, or what fucking year, will you stop being so miserable? —I forced myself to ask—. And yeah, I know you will not answer me right now, so, allow me to answer you in the way I always longed for, dear herbivore.

With the same speed with which Mom instilled in me, my hands wrapped around his, my nails trimmed to the veins still containing dried blood, my dried blood, and I, in an attempt to return all the treatment received, surrounded his hand with my extended lips, and finally, my teeth closed, but just as the miseries continued to increase their level of gravity, I find myself with his same cold gaze, with his same cynicism hidden behind the eyes of a wealthy father incapable of conceiving a child into the world.

—Ah, I already guessed that you would do that —He whispered—. I'm surprised that you didn't notice why you only ate minced meat.

I immediately pulled his hand out of my mouth, and seeing the hand with only residue of spit on the fur, and in that moment, I fully understood how far he was willing to go.

—But I guess you're still the same as the first time you woke up here.

With that, he stood up, walking away from the same cage again.

—YOU FUCKING BASTARD! —I managed to shout.

But he ignored me, like he always did, and like he always will every time he has the damn chance to do the same damage to me, just like when he brought those heads in front of my cage, letting them rot slowly while only my uncontrolled crying could be heard in the room, giving me pain, giving me the same feeling of filth that always happens in all those moments where only my own pillow accompanies me through the pain and misfortune of being a caged circus lion for a single master and a single spectator of all the tricks I was always forced to perform.

[judasofsuburbia]

9. “You need to wake up because I can’t do this without you.” for steddie muhaha

YOU'RE FUCKING EVIL AND I HOPE THIS BROUGHT YOU AS MUCH PAIN AS IT DID ME!!!

pairing: steve and eddie. word count: 1064. cw: hospitals, drowning, head trauma. hurt/comfort bc alex is evil.

“You’re really fucking stupid, you know that?” Eddie says. 

Steve doesn’t respond.

“You could have been killed,” Eddie says. 

Steve doesn’t respond.

“I mean…I know why you did it but damn it, baby, this is why they have lifeguards,” Eddie says. 

Steve doesn’t respond. 

Eddie sighs and scoots his chair closer to the bed. He takes one of Steve’s hands in his own and tries to be mindful of the IVs punctured into his elbow. It’s cold, lifeless. Nothing about Steve is ever cold. He’s always the one running too warm. Touching an icy Steve Harrington palm feels wrong. 

“I’m sorry,” Eddie whispers. “I shouldn’t be…mad at you. But I need something to be mad at and you’re asleep so…” Eddie gives a weak, wet chuckle. 

“Well, I hope you’re asleep. I guess that’s kind of what comas are. An intense, knock your fucking lights out sleep. Maybe I should be angry at those assholes on the boat.” Eddie rubs his fingers over the bones of Steve’s hand. “You’re safe now, though. There are so many doctors and machines here to help you. They’ll…they’ll help you and I’ll be here when you wake up. I will tell you so many bad jokes and get you hospital Jell-O and maybe I can get Robin to bring some tapes from Family Video.” 

Steve doesn’t respond. 

Logically, Eddie knows he won’t. It upsets him nonetheless. He intertwines their fingers and softly pushes Steve’s down so they’ll curve against Eddie’s knuckles. He lifts the conjoined hands to his mouth and kisses them softly. Then he groans and pathetically chuckles again. 

“Oh gross, I got snot on your hand,” Eddie whispers. He finds some tissues on the bedside table and wipes it off. “Here I was trying to have a moment and I ruined it by being a blubbering little baby.”

Steve doesn’t respond. 

Eddie doesn’t know what he’s waiting for. Maybe that secret little smile Steve has when he’s trying not to laugh at Eddie’s antics. Maybe a roll of his eyes. For this day to start over and none of this to be happening.

But he doesn’t get any of that.

His body is trembling now, subtly shaking Steve’s hand as well. Eddie’s staring at his face, half of it covered in various bandaids, ointments, and a big, thick gauze wrapped around his forehead. His hair trapped underneath. His lips are chapped and the bottom one is split in the corner. There’s no color to his cheeks. His summer golden tan looks dulled here. 

Eddie can hear the machines beep. He knows that means Steve is still alive. That this is the absolute best it’s gonna be for a while. It doesn’t add any comfort. 

“God damn it,” Eddie croaks.

He has to restrain himself from physically shaking Steve awake like he would if they were in his bed right now. Or Steve’s bed. And the alarm clock is droning on and on but it sits on Steve’s nightstand so Eddie can’t snooze it without crawling over him. Steve would groan and try to encase Eddie in his arms while Eddie laughed and fished his arm out to shut the horrid machine off. Eddie would end up laying on Steve’s chest, his head burrowed in Steve’s neck, and laying practically his entire weight on him. Steve says he likes this. Eddie knows he has to be crushing him. But if it means he gets forehead kisses and sleepy boyfriend mumbles then he’s not going to fight it. 

“Baby, you need to wake up because I can’t do this without you,” Eddie cries. “I don’t want a world without you in it. The kids don’t want a world without you in it. Robin, Nancy, Jonathan, Argyle, Joyce, Hopper, god damn it, baby, please.”

Steve doesn’t respond. 

Today was supposed to be a fun day at the beach. The summer of ‘87 has been all sorts of draining because everyone (minus Erica) was working their asses off at their minimum wage jobs and begging for a day off with their friends. So, the older squad rounded up the teenagers in various cars and headed to the beach. Max was finally walking again and practically buzzing to swim in the ocean again. Steve went out with her, swimming beside her as she sat on a surfboard they rented from the shop down the way. They kept wading further and further out but Steve was on the swim team. That man can swim better than anyone. No cause for concern. 

Until Max went to stand on the board. The whole gang was cheering her on and Steve was holding up his arms for her to use as leverage if she needed it. Max’s smile was bright and shining as she got herself up and held her balance. 

Then a fucking speedboat was showing off, doing circles and circles and creating harsh waves that weren’t there before. Steve yelled at Max to sit back down but she assured him over and over that she was fine. She could handle it. Seconds later, she was knocked off the board. Max could walk, sure, but she wasn’t back to swimming. Steve dove for her immediately, wrapped her in his arms and tried to surface. The waves were relentless and the two of them just kept getting swept under.

The gang was swimming out to them, screaming and flaying even as the lifeguards waved a red flag to signal that everyone get out of the water. Steve managed in a brief second to hoist Max up onto the board to which she clung for dear life. The waves caught Steve again and he didn’t resurface for several seconds. By the time the lifeguard on the jetski got to him, he was unconscious and bleeding out the back of his head. Apparently, he hit it on the board in the tumble. Max was conscious, coughing, and throwing up water but Steve was out cold. 

Eddie holds their conjoined hands to his forehead as he bends over in an overwhelming sob. He’s mumbling “Please, please, please, please, please” to a God he’s not sure he believes in. Behind his eyelids, he’s trying to picture happy memories with Steve. Trying to project them onto the universe and plead for them to become reality again. 

In all his hysterics, he doesn’t register the slight pressure on his hand. 

Not yet opened his eyes, not yet conscious, not yet a person, Steve manages to squeeze back. 

Steve responds.

request a prompt here <3

[bellysoupset]

hiii , could you maybe write a fic on vince being the sickie and wendy as caretaker bc he doesn’t get torched enough and he’s so cute when he’s sick

Wendy knew something was wrong when Vince barely answered her as they drove back to her place, his head resting against the passenger window. It was uncharacteristic, so she poked his thigh, keeping her eyes on the road.

"What's on your mind?" She asked, stealing a quick glance. He seemed surprise by the poke, as if he had forgotten she was in the car.

"What?"

"What's on your mind? You seem far away."

Vince shrugged, yawning, "nothing much. I'm sleepy, we had three school tours today..."

She opened s smile, "Oh no, the horror. You're now the favorite person of three different middle schools."

His cheeks heated up, "I mean, yeah," he replied smugly, although it was lacking his usual luster, "but have you dealt with a hoard of curious seven year old with sticky fingers before? One class is already a pain in the ass, imagine three."

Wendy grimaced in sympathy. She wasn't good with children, had never been. It wasn't that she disliked them, more that the little gremlins could smell weakness and knew exactly how to leave her panicked.

Next to her, Vince yawned again, squeezing her hand that was still resting on his thigh.

He all but marched to bed, much to Wendy's confusion. Yes, she knew he was tired, but this was uncharacteristic even for him. Vince wasn't the type to get cranky when he was sleepy, just when he was hungry.

She got ready for bed, then crawled next to him, crossing her hands on top of his naked chest and planting her chin on it, so she was almost draped over him, "hey."

"Hey yourself," he yawned, opening a tired smile. She reached in, pushing a strand of dark hair away from his eyes.

"What's wrong? No bullshit."

"My stomach hurts, you might wanna move," he smiled, "I really don't wanna puke on another bra of yours."

Wendy let out a snort, leaning in to bump her nose on his, "luckily I'm not wearing a bra right now..." she teased, before giggling at his eyebrows shooting up. She pulled back, rolling on the bed so she wasn't resting her full weight on top of him, just a leg intertwined with his, "you didn't mention feeling sick."

"Not sick," Vince moved uncomfortably, "but I don't know, dinner isn't sitting quite right."

"Can I do anything to help?" she glanced at him worriedly, "I have tums and pepto-"

"Nah," he interrupted, shaking his head, "rub my belly?"

Wendy squinted at him, glancing at his stomach. It seemed perfectly normal, it wasn't bloated or anything. Just as pudgy as ever, but not rounding out...

"Are you fucking with me?"

Her boyfriend let out a chuckle, shaking his head, "no, no I'm not.. But you do make it too easy, doll."

"Shut up," her cheeks burned. Wendy expected more teasing, but instead Vince simply let out a sigh, giving up on the matter, a testimony of how icky he must've been feeling.

She shifted on the bed, trailing a hand up his stomach. Despite the fact it wasn't bloated, Wendy immediately cringed in sympathy when the soft pressure of her hand caused his belly to let out a sloshy whine.

"Ow," she cringed, "that can't be feeling good."

"It's not bad," he cleared up, closing his eyes and moving her hand down, near his belly button, "just kinda gross."

Wendy opted for not answering, instead resting her cheek on his chest and continuing to rub his stomach. Vince didn't say anything else or make any other noise, so she wasn't sure how much the belly rub was helping, if helping at all.

She got sucked in by the movement, eyes dropping closed and very soon Wendy felt herself starting to drift in and out, waking up mid belly rub in order to continue, as if he somehow wouldn't catch on the fact.

Above her hair there was a noise and she glanced up, only to smile. Vince had fallen asleep, lips half parted, chest going up and down as he breathed in deeply. She moved up on the bed, snuggling closer to him and closing her eyes.

When she woke up again, Vince wasn't in bed.

"Vin?" She got up, yawning and walking to the bathroom. Wendy was surprised when the door opened and the place was empty and dark. Now she was fully awake.

"Vince?" she stepped out of the bedroom, rubbing at her eye and then frowned as she saw Vince's head over the couch's back, "honey, what are you doing here?"

He looked exhausted, but awake, "Can't sleep," Vince grimaced, "I think one of the gremlins gave me the flu. Do I feel warm to you?"

Wendy raised her eyebrows, then planted a hand on his forehead, "a little bit, yeah. Not that much, though... Let me get the thermometer."

Vince nodded, he looked completely defeated. Wendy rushed back into the room and then came back, this time carrying the entire first aid kit and a blanket.

"Put this under your tongue," she handed him the thermometer, then spread the blanket over his lap and sat down too, "anything else? Cough? Sniffles? Stomachache?"

"Just feel gross," he mumbled, voice muffled by the device in his mouth. Wendy pouted at him, he wasn't making it easy for her.

"I know honey, but I need to know what is this so I can give you the correct medication..." she noticed the lines of pain near his eyes and the fact his dark hair was contrasting terribly against the pale skin, "you don't look so good, Vin."

"Uhm," he nodded, then leaned in and rested his head on her shoulder, sighing deeply. She rubbed his arm, turning her face to press her lips to his forehead. He didn't feel overly warm, no more than what she'd expect from being in bed.

"Yeah, no fever, Vin," Wendy frowned, as the thermometer beeped a minute later and confirmed her suspicion, "I need you to talk with me."

He rubbed a hand over his face, grimacing, "I don't fucking know, Wen. I feel... Shaky, nauseous, my head is throbbing. None of it is major, I just feel crappy."

She winced in sympathy, "come back to bed, babe. I'll make you some tea, hopefully you're just wound up too tight."

He seemed to pounder it for a minute, before nodding and getting up, collecting the blanket. Wendy frowned, wordlessly reaching to steady him on his feet.

She didn't follow him into the bedroom, instead going to the small kitchen area and starting the tea. By the time she made it back, half of her expected Vin to be asleep again. It was, after all, four AM.

"Hey," he smiled at her, tiredly and Wendy's heart squeezed with sympathy. She might be sleepy, but he clearly was dead on his feet but couldn't sleep.

"Here," she handed him the large mug of peppermint tea and crawled on the bed, grabbing the remote for the television. It was obvious neither of them were getting anymore sleep that night, "anything you want to watch?"

"Put on whatever you want, Wen," He shrugged, leaning back and cradling the mug in his hands. As soon as she turned up the episode, Vince took another sip of the tea and put away the mug, turning to cuddle her.

She opened a pleased smile, the man was a huge teddy bear, all warm and soft and if she wasn't sleepy before, she definitely was whenever he held her like that. He nuzzled his face on her shoulder, planting a little kiss on the exposed skin and sighing as he attempted to sleep.

They stayed like that for an entire episode, her fingers running through his hair while her eyes grew heavier and heavier and the sun just started to rise. Until Vince, whom she thought was asleep, let out a groan and pulled away.

"Fuck," he mumbled, voice thick with pain. He grabbed on the headboard, stumbling up and Wendy sat up too.

"Vin? What's wrong?" she noticed his hand planted on his stomach, which was still just as pudgy as before, none of the bloat she usually saw when he was sick. It was all very unusual.

Vince didn't answer her, but stumbled to the bathroom and locked the door behind him, which told her enough. She cringed and got up, leaving the bedroom to give him some privacy and to heat up a hot water bottle.

It was nearly half an hour later when he stumbled out of the bedroom, face covered in a thin layer of sweat, now wearing a large orange sweater that she hated more than anything and had purposefully stolen from his dorm so he'd stop wearing.

"Hey..." she met him halfway and Vince grimaced.

"I feel awful," he groaned, melting as she pulled him into a hug. Now he felt slightly warmer than before, but not by much. She pulled him to sit down by the kitchen island and Vince slumped forward, folding his arms and pressing his cheek on top of them, looking completely worn.

"Did you eat anything with milk in it?" Wendy frowned, rubbing his back up and down. She heard his belly let out a little whine, complaining. He shook his head.

"No..." then gulped down, "Please don't talk about food."

"I'm sorry," she kissed his temple, "I heated up a water bottle for you, Vin, it'll help with the cramps."

He nodded, but didn't move a muscle. Instead all he did was let out another deep sigh and press even further against the counter, as if it was bringing some comfort to grind the hard surface.

"Vin, what do you need?" Wendy asked, hating feeling this useless. She was a doctor, she fixed people! She wanted to help him, "wouldn't lie down hel-"

He interrupted her with a shrug, followed by another groan, "I... I'm so nauseous," he mumbled, letting out a little airy burp. When Vince looked up, she could see his paleness had gone straight into green territory.

"I'm gonna get you a bucket," Wendy squeezed his shoulder, crossing the kitchen to grab a bucket in the laundry. This one was fully decorated with little tulips.

She guided him back to the couch and Vince quickly draped himself over her lap, like those overgrown dogs who didn't realize they were not lap dogs. Wendy chuckled, putting her feet on the coffee table and starting to pet his hair, "we can skip class, but I can't skip work later."

"It's okay, I'll feel-" he gagged, but continued talking, "- better soon."

She froze up, reaching for the bucket, but it wasn't a productive gag and Vince was once more slumped down, breathing through the waves of nausea.

Wendy cupped his forehead, regretting she hadn't thought to get a wet washcloth, even if he didn't have a fever. Yet, she could feel it was edging on feverish heat, just waiting for her to be distracted so it'd go up. Vince's fevers, she was learning, were always high and scary.

They stayed like this for a long while, long enough the sun had been up already when Wendy felt Vince shift and muffled a wet belch against her thigh, wrapping an arm protectively against his stomach.

She touched his forehead again, noticing the heat had steadily grown into fever territory, "Vin-"

He reached out for the bucket, but didn't bother sitting up, instead tipping over the couch to burp inside the bin. In this position she could feel perfectly as his stomach gurgled uneasily, pressed against her thigh.

His whole back arched as a violent heave went through him, harsh and causing him to cough. Vince spat in the bin, panting and letting out a whimper, "I don't feel well..." and then a rush of vomit exploded out of his mouth.

He got most of it in the bucket, but not all, and the minute he managed to breathe and open his eyes, Vince was groaning, sitting up straight, "shit, Wen, I'm so sorry-"

"It's okay honey, don't worry about the rug," Wendy pushed the hair away from his forehead. He was sweating profusely, "now you definitely have a fever."

"Uhm..." Vince couldn't answer her, too busy curling around the bucket and coughing weakly, bringing up yet another stream of vomit.

Wendy couldn't help but wince, it all sounded so extremely painful... She rubbed his thigh, hoping to bring in some small comfort, "get it up baby, the sooner you get rid of whatever's making you so sick, the sooner you'll feel better..."

He pulled back, resting his forehead on the rim of the bucket and panting, swallowing back gags. Wendy waited for him to say anything, but Vince was deadly quiet, clearly battling another round of nausea.

"Honey," she combed her fingers through his hair, "are you done?"

A shake of his head answered her, the bucket slipping a little on his grip so she reached in to hold it steady, "okay, take your time."

Wendy expected Vince to throw up again soon, everything was harsh and violent when it came down to Vin being ill, but instead he just stayed quiet, breathing shallowly through the queasiness.

"I hate children," he mumbled after a long while, startling her. Wendy let out a snort.

"You love children," she rolled her eyes, "you turn into a big mushy marshmallow around them."

"Uhm," he groaned, leaning in to burp over the bucket, spitting the saliva collecting in his mouth, "fuck, my back hurts."

"Here..." Wendy grabbed the abandoned hot water bottle, that now wasn't as warm and pressed it against his lower back, figuring it was the biggest offender with how he had to hunch down over the bucket. Vince let out a small, relieved sigh, before rocketing forward once more as a surprise gag brought up a stream of watery vomit.

She cringed as it melted down in a coughing fit, not just choking, but actual coughing, coming from deep in his chest, "aww, Vin, this isn't just a stomach bug."

"Great..." Vince whined, voice echoing inside the bucket, all scratchy, "fucking great."

[whoahoney]

A Girl Called Honey Pt. 2

Eddie Munson x Trailer Trash!Reader

Part 1

Summary: Eddie begins to see through the cracks in the walls Honey built around herself, little by little

CW: 18+ mature themes & language, mentions of abuse, depictions of poverty, trauma, drug use, Juniors got a gun, slight angst, a little fluff, and Eddie’s pervy thoughts

A/N: this took me forever to finish, this chapter has been so many things before this final form, so Im posting it before I decide I hate it 💀 we’re gonna get into their backstory soon, I promise! Thank you to my pal @boomhauer for inspiring this story, go check out her masterlist bc Disjointed is a MUST READ!

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

“HONEY!” Jun called to the house one evening as he arrived home from work with the kids. He was the first one out of the truck, bolting to the porch and almost running into his sister who burst out of the house, shushing him profusely.

Eddie stuck his head out the door, passing it off as if he were checking on Wayne who smoked a cigarette on the porch couch. The old man held out his pack of cigarettes, wordlessly inviting him to sit next to him.

“I swear ta God—If you wake up the babies, I’m gonna—“

“—They needa wake up, anyway, or they ain’t gonna sleep later! ‘sides, look at what I picked up off the side of the road!”

“Please don’t tell me you found another deer, I don’t wanna do that again.” Honey whined defeatedly.

“S’not a deer!” Aaron called from the back of the pickup, Junior made Honey cover her eyes before joining him. Honey peeked from behind her fingers, glancing over to Eddie’s porch and blushing at his gaze on hers as he smoked. He smiled, sending her a wink that almost had her weak in the knees.

She squeezed her eyes shut. “What is it, Jun, I got dinner on the stove!”

Cal ran around the front of the vehicle with wide eager eyes ready to explain, “Jun worked on a roof in Loch Nora, the fanciest neighborhood here, and the owners had this—“

“What did y’all take?!” She shrilled, eyes popping open as she tried to get off the porch before they could unload the mystery object.

“They were gettin’ rid of it—it had a sign and all, right Jun?” Aaron hollered over the top of the truck as he strained and the ear piercing screech of metal against metal reverberated throughout the lot. The smaller kids clamped their hands over their ears until it stopped.

Cal finally let Honey down the steps so she could see from the side of the yard, her eyes widening as it hit her, her hands flew over her mouth as she began to practically bounce in excitement. “Oh my god!”

“Your very own dryer!” Jun tapped the top lovingly.

“Wha—Jack! Jack are you messin? Does it really work? Don’t fuck with me, I mean it— if this is just another one of those jokes—“ She pleaded as her eyes stayed glued to the seemingly untouched machine.

“—Yeah, yeah, it works and everything! The owner lady said she wanted a different color for her house, can you believe it? I went and got the vent hook up and everything. Now we just gotta… figure out how the hell we’re s’ppossd to get it down...” He put his hands on his head and tried to figure out from his options of Cal or Janie which would be the most useful.

Aaron’s eyes shifted to Eddie the same moment Wayne tapped his shoulder and stood. “C’mon, boy, time to be neighborly.” Eddie followed without hesitation. Honey turned quickly at her siblings' gazes falling on the approaching figures behind her.

“We can lend a hand.” Wayne nodded at Junior, who nodded back respectfully.

Honey watched them with eager eyes raking over the pristine powder coated white. The knobs were intact and the labels were clear as day! No dents, no scratches— it looked like it came right out of a store. To Honey, it might as well have been.

Eddie hopped up in the bed of the pickup with Aaron while Jun and Wayne surveyed the situation from the sides and found the best spots to grab. “Alright, boys,” Jun started, “If y’all will just scoot it till ‘bout midway, then jump down to help us ease it offa there?”

Honey made her way back up to the porch, thankful she didn’t get roped into doing the heavy lifting again. It had been so long since she had a dryer, sometimes not having the washer at her disposal either. Gone were the days of scrubbing at the blood and mud stains on their clothes in the old sink back home. Gone were the days of frozen britches standing up against the wall in the winter time.

She looked into the house, only having to worry about clearing the way to the laundry room.

After lots of cussing and smashed fingers, the men got the dryer in the house, and all hooked up.

Wayne, being more lithe than Jun, settled himself between the two machines and the wall to cut the hole in the drywall for the vent. Eddie watched from the door way, seeing Honey’s giddy eyes watching them as they worked.

Eddie took the opportunity to take in the home, smiling at the ways it resembled his own; an ugly old couch, stained carpet, peeling linoleum in the kitchen, and smoke stains lining the walls. The little fridge was covered in magnets, art work and graded homework displayed for all to see. It all made his heart warm.

The plates in the sink didn’t match, some of which were chipped at the edges. But they were all beautiful with the floral patterns ringing the edges. Eddie turned his attention to the stove, a smoking pot of Mac and cheese sat burning on the burner.

“Uh, Honey?” He asked calmly, turning to the eager girl sitting on the washer as they worked.

“Yeah?” She asked with an easiness in her voice he hadn’t heard yet. And he was about to ruin it.

“Uh, your maca—“

“MY MACARONI!” She cried, jumping off the washer and flying past Eddie to turn off the burner and assess the damage as she attempted to stir the blackened Mac. “Fuck.” She let her head thud against the cabinet in defeat.

“Y’know, it isn’t all that bad.” Eddie tried to say assuringly, peeking into the pot and spotting the hardened shells. “Shit, maybe it is.” He mumbled, a chortle slipping from Honey as she nodded.

“Is it done yet?” Janie hollered from the other room.

“Oh, yeah, it’s done. For sure.” She joked, making Eddie smile, “It’s like a casserole in a way.” She shrugged, straining as she tried to stir the solid blocks of pasta and cheese.

Eddie snorted and took the pot from her, “Allow me.” He walked it outside, Honey following closely behind until he walked down the porch steps and went behind his trailer. She stopped at the corner of her house and cocked her head.

Eddie turned to her when he noticed she was no longer walking with him, “C’mon, I’ll show you.” Her feet moved before she could think about it, walking around the back of his house to see a few mismatched bowls laying around the concrete slab. Eddie flipped the pot over and the giant block plopped onto the ground with a wet thud. They shared a look and wrinkled their noses before they laughed.

Eddie walked back to stand with Honey, the girl turning to leave before he caught her arm. “Wait.” He said quietly. She scrunched her brows at him and looked back to the pile of pasta. In a few moments, one by one, cats crawled out from the tall grass or out from under his trailer, licking at the offering. Honey smiled at the sight, a few kittens milling around the larger cats.

“Aren’t they cute? The most I’ve counted out here at once is 20! People really need to spay and neuter their pets, man. But these guys are pretty cool, I think.”

“I’ve always liked the strays.” She mentioned, leaning against the house and looking to the west, the sun was setting. Tonight it threw magical gradients of orange and pink, half the sky already shrouded in gray blue. The clouds were massive, the colors breaking through the cracks in beaming rays. Honey sighed contently and took it in.

“Me too.” Eddie agreed. “The strays are always the best.”

Eddie looked at her again, glancing to the sunset she admired before looking back to her, his gaze going unnoticed for a few moments much to his delight. This light made her golden. Her eyes were even more spectacular in this moment, like shining, melting ice. Then she looked at him. “What?” She asked.

Eddie shook his head, not bothering to look anywhere else. “Nothing. Just looking at you.” He said.

Honey chuckled and shook her head with pink cheeks. “Alright then.” She stared back at him, noticing how pretty his eyes were in the light too.

“Want me to stop?” He asked. She tried to place the color of his eyes in the sunshine. She used to think his eyes were black, too dark to be brown. But now she knows she was mistaken.

She shook her head, “No.” she said simply.

Eddie’s mouth lifted in a smile. “Good, cause I’m not gonna.” His smile widened when he saw how she rolled her eyes and blushed deeper. He loved how he could make her change colors.

She stared at him a moment longer before it hit her, his eyes reminded her of raw honey right from the pot. She averted her eyes to the ground beneath her bare feet. “C’mon, I gotta fix new supper.” She said, easing back toward the house. Eddie followed her without question.

Before they could make it around the front, they heard Aaron calling for Honey. “Where’d they go?” He muttered.

“Ran off to Mexico.” Honey answered as she turned the corner, making Eddie chuckle as he carried the pot limply at his side.

Aaron chuckled, “Yeah, like you’d ever go back down south.” he said as he went back through the door. Honey rolled her eyes and climbed the steps.

“Next time I burn something, I’ll be sure to feed your cats.” She said without turning around. Eddie smiled as he followed her back inside.

“I think they’d like that a lot.” He said with a smile, placing the pot in the sink and watching her start anew.

“Thank you for your help, Mr. Munson.” Jun said when they were done, offering the old man a glass of ice water and a handshake.

“Anytime, and jus’ call me Wayne.” The older man smiled with his tobacco stained teeth. Honey smiled right back at him, giving him an eager handshake of her own, “Thank you, Mr. Wayne.” She said giddily before running off to start the laundry.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ��──

Another day, Aaron walked over and knocked on the screen door, knowing Eddie and Wayne were inside. “Come in!” The old man hollered.

“Hey there, Aaron.” Wayne said as he tied his work boot laces on the coffee table. “What can I do for you?”

“I was just coming to see if you and Eddie—“

“What about Eddie?” Eddie exited the bathroom, looking at Wayne first before he saw Aaron. “Hey, man.”

“Howdy. Honey wanted me to see if y’all wanted to eat supper at our’s tonight.” Eddie’s heart leapt at the offer.

“Oh, I’m about to head out to work, but Ed’s free.” Wayne clapped the boy on the shoulder. “I’m headin out. Be good.” He said like he always did. The screen door snapped shut behind him.

“You wanna eat?” Aaron asked.

“Is that even a real question?” Eddie answered as he headed towards the door.

When he crossed the threshold, Eddie took it all in; the wood paneling, the long worn couch that looked so tempting to sink into, eyeing the long table in the center of the room, pillows thrown around it where they’d sit to eat their meals. He could smell the cheesy hamburger helper simmering on the stove, his mouth watering. Honey stirred the large pots, then checked the oven for her roasted vegetables and dinner rolls.

He smiled when he saw how wild hairs escaped the bandana and bun atop her head, then shifted his gaze to the way she bent over to open the fridge for the butter dish, his favorite part of her greeting him from under her red shorts. He bit back his smirk at the sight.

Before he walked in here, he was looking forward to the canned ravioli he set out. But now all he could think about is the way Honey had something cooking on every burner of the stove, large portions with spices that he’d only describe as homey tickling his senses.

He looked back at the table, traces of the dark brown wood showed through the worn paint. But the green was still prominent and beautiful.

If they were in a larger house, like the Harringtons, a table like this would’ve been compared to one of those traditional Japanese dinner tables, and would perhaps be presented with a sushi spread across the top complete with saki and matching decor. Something rich people would’ve loved to see and experience.

Here, it was just an old table with the legs cut down, but Eddie hadn’t seen a sight that made his heart feel the way it did right now, his heart’s smile reaching his mouth.

Aaron took two couch cushions and tossed them down on two spaces near the end of the table. “S’not much, but, uh, we try to eat together. Honey said something about it keeping us out of jail or somethin’” he shrugged as he settled himself on the floor, Cal joining them on the other side of Aaron with his own bed pillow acting as his seat.

“She said she read a magazine with a statistic that said having family dinners decreases the risk of kids engaging in sexual activity and drugs, so for the past year she makes us all sit down together and eat.” Cal explained easily. Eddie raised his brows at the thought, thinking of how long ago Wayne started the night shift and then tried to remember if he ever ate with his parents.

“Janie! Would you put out the plates, please?” Honey hollered from the other room.

Janie rolled her eyes from the chair she always seemed to occupy and tossed her book back on the shelf. “I guess.” She said exasperatedly, walking to the counter and grabbing the large stack of mismatched plates.

“It’s not like you do it every day, or anything.” Cal said with an eye roll as he joined her to scoop up the tin of forks and knives and set them out behind her as she went.

Honey’s voice rang out once more, “Cal, could you—“

“I got it.” The boy called back.

Honey finally reappeared from the bedrooms, Frankie walking in front of her, stark naked, with a blanket trailing behind him, Randy on one hip, and a baby on the other. Eddie remembered the baby from the first day, though he couldn’t remember ever seeing or hearing it since.

Terry and Tommy ran out of the hallway behind her, arguing about who was at fault for the broken mobile above the baby’s crib, Honey biting back her thoughts as she worried her lips and set the baby in the play pen.

“Jesus Christ, Honey, get his pants on!” Janie whined at the sight of the feral child. Aaron rolled his eyes and pulled Frankie over to his lap, covering him up with the blanket he brought with him from his sleep, smelling faintly of detergent and… urine maybe?

“Fuck off, Janine.” Honey mumbled from the laundry room, tossing a load of clothes into the new dryer. Eddie and Aaron stifled their laughter, Cal disappearing for a moment before returning with a pair of small briefs, and tossing them at Aaron’s head.

Frankie stood, shamelessly naked and looked at Eddie as he worked on putting his feet in the leg holes. Eddie noticed the marred burn scars trailing down the boy’s shoulder and arm. Eddie averted his eyes to the tabletop, an etched face in the wood staring back at him with a downturned mouth. Frankie, now properly covered, then turned to Aaron. “Will you read me later?” He asked with difficulty in his R and L sounds.

Aaron feigned a groan as he stretched, “Oh? I s’ppose.” He drawled, and ruffling the boy's brown hair that stuck out every which way, resembling Junior’s, now that he thought about it.

Terry and Tommy were shaggy little menaces, their bushy bangs reaching well below their eyes, their smiles wide and silver capped. They were currently turned towards the staticky television, their hands pushing their bangs back to see the screen.

Eddie assumed Junior looked like their dad, the youngest boys resembling him the most, while the older kids favored Honey. But it was obvious they all belonged to the same people.

Aaron and Janie were the only two with deep dark hair, resembling each other the most at first glance.

Cal favored his oldest sister the most, through and through. His eyes were the same shade of gray while Aarons were brighter and bluer like Janie’s.

Honey’s eyes always seemed gray and heavy, though they never lacked depth, containing a story to be told about whoever had stolen the light from behind them. Nevertheless, Eddie always loved the color gray.

It was then her eyes fell on him, and his place at her table. “Hi.” She said in her southern drawl, managing a shy smile in his direction.

Eddie smiled back unabashedly, fighting the urge to stand up to greet her properly. “Hey, Honey.” Is all he managed, too enthralled with her eyes on him to realize how gooey and dreamy he might’ve looked himself.

Cal noticed before Aaron as he settled back down in the seat next to him, nudging his brother with his elbow and nodding to the scene. Aaron glanced at Eddie, who was still smiling dumbly at his sister, too wrapped up in her attention to notice when he turned to share a snicker with Cal.

Janie kneeled in her seat next to Cal, setting various cups of ice onto the table. “S’there tea and lemonade?” She asked her sister, though Honey didn’t notice, still stuck on Eddie as she stepped through to the kitchen.

“Honey!”

“What??” She bumped into the cabinets and finally looked at Janie. “—yeah, in the fridge, Y’know that.” She ducked down into the fridge to pull out the two pitchers and set them on the counter. Cal and Aaron picked up their cups and walked to the pitchers, Eddie following suit.

“I’ve been lookin’ forward to this tea all day.” Junior groaned as he entered the room with a wet head and clean clothes, a towel still slung around his shoulders as he walked past the table and grabbed a cup, joining the crowd gathered by the refreshments.

Aaron and Cal fell into conversation that blended in with the rest of the chatter as Eddie found Honey again, except she was setting the food out on the table and getting the youngest kids back in their seats— or cushions. Frankie and Randy sat in their places across from Janie and Cal, sword fighting with their forks as Honey settled the baby next to her place at the end of the table.

Next to Eddie.

He blushed at the realization, and smiled at her when she glanced at him with her own flushed cheeks.

“Y’all knock it off.” Junior said from the kitchen, Terry and Tommy dropping their forks on their plates with stifled smiles that showed they weren’t afraid of a little trouble. Eddie and Honey chuckled and met eyes again, the moment feeling shorter than it really was.

Cal cleared his throat, twice, before his sister looked up at his and his siblings expectant and waiting faces. Honey crinkled her brow and shook her head, “What?” She whispered, clueless.

Junior takes a seat on a short stool at the other end of the table and sets down Frankie and Randy’s plates, stirring the pasta and meat entree and blowing as if he were the big bad wolf, oblivious to the googly eyes set on his sister.

“Can we… eat?” Aaron asked with raised brows, his eyes flickering between his friend and his sister. Honey’s shock was gone in a second, only flashing across her face briefly before nodding profusely, “Yeah! Yes—eat. There’s enough to go ‘round but don’t get greedy.” She looked at Aaron, piling three dinner rolls on his plate before he passed the basket to Eddie. Honey reached over and snatched one off her brother's plate, leaning over Eddie as she did.

“Oh, c’mon!” Aaron whined, mouth full of roll as he whined. Eddie snickered and snuck a glance at Honey, her eyes shining playfully in a way he hadn’t seen before, her smile parting to lick the top of the roll and then bite into the buttery fluff she'd been dying to eat since she popped them out of the can.

Eddie couldn’t help but notice how long her tongue was. Or how white her teeth were. And the way her lips bunched when she chewed.

How he wanted to see her lips do different things.

Eddie took a generous sip of his tea, not noticing how Honey’s eyes lingered on his bobbing adams apple. He filled his plate as the dishes came around, not having a home cooked meal like this as far as he could remember. Sure, he’d had hamburger helper, but he never had it served with mashed potatoes and gravy, roasted vegetables, and warm oven baked rolls. The sweet tea was ice cold and so sweet he thought he might fall into a sugar coma later.

Honey had made enough food for every belly to be filled. She waited until the scrapes of silverware against the ceramic plates sounded to scoop her servings. Eddie glanced over to see her portions so measly he wrinkled his nose at it.

Junior asked the kids to tell him something good about their day and something they learned about at school. Honey turned to the baby, spooning mashed potato’s into their mouth. Janie launched into a story about the new friend she made at the library, while Eddie scooped up a mouthful of pasta and plopped it onto her plate. Honey just missed it, checking her plate and then looking at Eddie with suspicion before turning her attention back to Janie’s story.

“Her names Erica! She’s in my grade but we don’t have any classes together, well, we have lunch! So maybe I’ll have someone to sit with now!” Janie shined. Honey smiled at that and nodded, ready to say something until she heard it again, another plop.

Her eyes darted to his in shock as he repeated the action, another mouthful onto her plate. “What’d’ya think you’re doin?” She whispered, turning as the baby fussed for another bite. “Bi! Bi!” They urged with an open mouth leaning towards the spoon before successfully wrapping their mouth around it.

“Your plate is pitiful.” He remarked, another mouthful on her plate.

She gaped at him. Eddie scooped a mouthful of potatoes onto his fork and took a bite, meeting her eye again before he rolled his eyes dramatically. “So freaking good—you should try some.” He garbled. Honey giggled at him, Janie giving Honey the side-eye for giggling out of turn as she talked.

“—and we were assigned our books for the semester, but I dunno about it all that much.” She stabbed her roast carrots on her fork.

“What is it?” Cal asked.

“S’called The Hobbit by some guy—“

“Tolkien! That’s my favorite book! You have Mr. Freeman?” He asked, nodding with her when she did, “He was awesome, he made us read it back in middle school, it’s really good. I’ve read it like 7 times since but that’s probably down playing it.” Eddie smiled, looking around the table as he spoke before he looked over at Honey. Her eyes sparkled as she listened to him, taking a bite of the food he insisted she eat more of.

Janie looked more hopeful about the assignment after Eddie’s review of the book, the conversation falling onto Terry and Tommy as they spoke about rock wars at recess, cleaning chalkboards and erasers for their rock wars, and long division.

“I’s just mindin’ my business when Jacob come walkin’ up to us and kicked my tower over.” Terry explained.

“Yeah, and I didn’t like that shit.” Tommy added.

“Thomas!” Honey scolded with red cheeks.

“M sorry, please don’t whoop me!” He whined.

“Boy, I ain’t gonna hit you, jus—eat your dinner.” She clipped, stabbing another carrot onto her fork. The boys turned their faces back to their plates, scooping up mouthfuls of food to clean their plates.

The baby shoved every piece of food into their mouth, a ring of potatoes and cheese on their cheeks and nose. Eddie smiled at the baby’s light eyes. To his surprise, the baby smiled back with milky teeth and a throaty laugh, smearing their messy hands around their belly.

“Look at ‘em.” Janie muttered to Cal and nodded to the baby, “James Harrison, what’re you doin? Gettin all messy for the bath?” She asked in a small voice that made Baby James cackle. The whole table giggled.

Honey used her napkin and wiped James’s mouth the best she could before cleaning his hands. “Janie will you run his bath, please.” Honey asked without asking. Surprisingly, Janie was compliant and scooped the baby up to take to the other room.

Aaron used his last roll to wipe his plate clean before biting chunks out of it. Honey sat with her knees to her chest as she listened to Cal talk about his first weeks as the youngest freshman, meeting a group of nice kids that were in the A.V. Club that invited him to sit at their table for lunch.

“You think I could hang out with them after school sometime?” Cal looked at Jun first before Honey, though he kept his hopeful eyes locked on his sister. They sat for a moment as she thought for a minute before nodding.

“I guess so. They seem alright?” She asked, looking at her plate again. Cal nodded earnestly, “Total nerds, all of ‘em.” He insisted. Honey chuckled and nodded. “Okay, then. You can hang out with the nerds. Just call me to tell me where you are and when it’s time to come pick you up.”

Cal nodded and ate a few more bites of pasta before launching into a new formula he learned in math. Eddie didn’t miss the way Honey’s eyes lit up the way they did. She leaned forward on her fist to listen intently, nodding along when Cals eyes fell on hers as he talked about algebra I and letters mingling with numbers and how it fascinated him.

Honey shook her head in proud disbelief, looking down into her empty cup as Aaron began talking about their time in Mr. Gregory’s shop class.

“A kid nearly took his eye out with a nail gun today! Who was that guy, Ed, Richard somethin?”

“Ritchie—“

“Ritchie! Yeah! That guy don’t know up from down. Nail when clear through the ceiling, it was awesome.” He chuckled as Jun rolled his eyes.

“I said something you learned, dumbass.” Jun chided.

“Duh, I learned nail gun safety!”

She stood to fill her glass, listening as Aaron mentioned the class giggling at his accent in English when he was called to read aloud. “It was embarrassing at first, but this girl—this beautiful, beautiful girl, Pamela DiSantis— turns to me and tells me she thinks it’s cute.” He gushed to Honey, sinking into his chair with pink cheeks.

Eddie chuckled and nudged the boy's arm, “I heard from Carla and Chrissy that she was talking about you at practice too.” He smirked as Aaron clutched his heart and swooned, the table erupting with giggles.

Honey chuckled weakly before picking up her clean plate and taking it to the sink, slipping out the front door without a word.

It took Eddie a moment to notice she wasn’t sitting next to him anymore, let alone not in the house. Aaron had begun picking up all the plates and scraping them off when Eddie joined him, placing his own cleared dishes in the sink and grabbing the last few. Junior walked over to the middle of the table, reaching under and unlatching a clasp before it popped apart into the two pieces Eddie saw them carrying in about a month ago.

Aaron started running hot water into the sink, eying the pots on the stove as Eddie spoke, “Think I’m gonna step out for a smoke, s’that alright?”

Aaron raised his brows and glanced out the open door and back to his friend with a smile. “Sure, man. Go for it! Hold on—“ Aaron fluffed Eddie’s hair and dusted off his shoulders until he swatted his hands away and rolled his eyes to hide his blushing cheeks.

“Okay, okay!” He fussed, weakly slapping Aaron’s hands away.

“Go get her, slick.” Aaron said, flicking soapy water at Eddie’s back as he walked away.

Junior watched the exchange wearily, his jaw clenched as he debated taking a smoke break himself.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Honey hated that she was feeling this way again.

She hated how sensitive she could be.

It was beyond her that physical pain didn’t ache this deeply. Blows to the head didn’t make her this dizzy. It bothered her, that she had no idea what to call this feeling. Or how to make it go away.

She lit her cigarette as soon as she stepped out onto the porch, puffing three quick times and not wincing away when the smoke stung her eyes and made them water up.

She plopped down on the step and ran a hand over her face with a deep sigh, resisting the urge to dig her nails into her palms or thighs the way she had as an angry child.

She settled for biting her nails as she stared at the grass and thought about what pretty girls Carla and Chrissy must be. She wondered how they did their hair, if they wore the skirts she wishes she could afford, if they went to the mall after school to look at clothes and boys. If they were smart.

She wondered how many girls talked to Eddie every day at school. And how many of them he said the same sweet things to. How many of them he shared cigarettes with and called sweetheart.

He only said their names, that they were talking about Aaron. She reminded herself, taking a drag and wiping her eyes as she heard the familiar pop and clank of Junior taking apart the dinner table, and the squeak of Aaron turning on the faucet.

She sighed in relief at the thought of him cleaning up without being asked, hoping he doesn’t throw out the leftovers again, but was too tired to care enough to rush back in to set out the Tupperware.

The tired screen door jolted Honey from her thoughts, “Hey, there.” Eddie said softly as he stepped onto the porch, closing the door behind him. Honey turned in an instant, his footfalls growing nearer until he sat in a chair on the porch to light a cigarette.

“Hi.” She smiled, the ache fading. He pulled the chair next to him closer and patted it. She obliged immediately, which Eddie loved.

She looked him over as she got comfortable, his long legs somehow looked sexier as he sat, his knees slightly bent and spread. He must’ve caught her looking cause the next thing out of his mouth was, “See something you like?”

She was stunned at the question, her mouth trying to form all the defenses she could, but none came to mind.

What's so wrong with a little flirting? She wondered. He is flirting with me right?

She nodded instead and averted her gaze to her hands. Eddie scooted his chair closer to her with a lit cigarette between his lips. He took it away and exhaled. “Oh, I see… tell me about it then.” He nodded and waited for her answer as she puffed a couple times. “Clamming up on me now? Cat got your tongue?” He teased.

Honey glowered with a smile nagging at her lips, “No, I just—I uh, I like… your clothes.” She muttered.

Eddie bit the inside of his cheek to conceal his growing smile. “Thanks, babe—like yours too.” He said more cooly than he felt and winked. He stole a long look at her legs stretched out in front of her, scarred and bruised in some places.

“Y’know, letting me stay for dinner is just about the same as feeding a feral cat? I’m just gonna keep coming back now.” He nudged her shoulder, his dimpled smile coaxing her own out of her.

Honey shook her head and took a drag. “Well, whenever you wanna meal.”

“Don’t tell me that, Honey, I’m a weak and hungry man.” He chuckled at the lift of the corners of her mouth before they fell again. He glanced down to her hands, her cigarette cradled between her little fingers, her once healthy and polished nails now short, chipped and jagged. He knitted his brow.

“You okay, Honey?” He asked quietly.

“Mhm!” She nodded around her cigarette, “I’m good! It’s been a good week. A really good week.” She reminded herself with another nod. A tether tugging in Eddie’s gut told him she was lying, but didn’t have any reason to believe otherwise so he nodded.

“That’s great.” He nodded.

This is so stupid. He whined internally.

“How was school?” She asked.

Eddie groaned and leaned back, “The usual torture, y’know, iambic pentameter, decimals and fractions, the ever stupid and useless Pythagorean theorem.” He rolled his eyes.

Honey tilted her head in confusion, her eyes seemingly vacant though she was panicking behind those beautiful eyes. Eddie’s eyes widened before he leaned forward, “English and math are hard for me. Along with science and history and everything else. I’m barely scraping by, actually.” He felt a pang of guilt in his chest.

She nodded her head as the tension eased. She put out her cigarette and for a moment he worried she would leave again. Instead she turned in her chair to face him better. “Could you tell me?”

“What?” Eddie asked with quiet alarm.

“What’s.. iambic pentameter mean?” She asked quietly.

Eddie could only stare back for a moment before clearing his throat and answering. “Uh, well, it’s uh… S’like…” he took a puff to buffer and blushed when she chuckled. He smiled, comfortable in embarrassment, “—See I told you, I’m not good at school!” He shook his head and continued to struggle for the right words, but met her eye when he heard the sound of her soft laughter. Immediately his thoughts stopped, his heart pinching when her eyes flicked to him behind the cigarette.

He felt the dumb smile tug on his lips as he stared unashamed. She pulled her knees to her chest as her cheeks flushed. “What?” Her smile still lingered as she ducked to hide a little behind her bent knees.

“Oh, uh.. nothin’— just uh—” He shrugged it off casually as he lost all remaining bits of his facade, flaking apart the longer she smiled at him and laughed at his foolishness. Being laughed at never felt so good before.

“—Saw something you like?” She asked daringly just above a whisper. Eddie chuckled and blushed, pressing his lips together to keep from smiling as wide as he wanted to. He failed as he nodded and leaned forward.

“Yes, ma’am.”

She took a long breath in and out to steady herself and bit back her smile. “Tell me more.. about school.”

“Tell me more about you.” He countered. She quirked an eyebrow at him.

“You didn’t answer my question yet!” She shot back, leaning back in her seat and taking a drag. Eddie’s eyes gleamed at her playfulness.

“Iambic pentameter…” he thought with searching eyes, “It’s…like a way to write poetry. Like a rhythm you follow or something.” He shrugged, “Your turn.”

“I… uhm,” she sighed, suddenly rigid. Eddie softened, the playfulness fading away.

“You said you like to be outside?” He offered. Her eyes caught his, questions forming behind glossy crystalline eyes. She nodded, “Yeah, yeah, of course.” She chuckled.

Eddie smiled, “What else do you do outside?” He handed her his cigarette.

She smiled as a thought hit her, “I like to garden, plant flowers an’ all.” She nodded and smoked. Eddie smiled, because of course she would.

“Ooh, are you gonna have flowers in the spring?” He asked with an interested smile. He could already picture her long hair tied up while she spent time weeding and mulching— bare knees on the grass and hands stained with soil clinging to her fingernails.

“I sure hope so!” She smiled in wonder, “Tulips, begonias, marigolds, roses, ugh. And all the colors!” She gushed.

For a moment Honey forgot about the girls and even the worries following her from Oklahoma. Eddie listened intently and asked little questions about planting just to see her eyes widen and make more words come out of her mouth.

But then a white Pontiac pulled up to Eddie’s trailer, the top down and stuffed full of cheerleaders and letterman’s.

Eddie sighed, “Shit.” and stamped out his cigarette. “I have some business to attend to, sweetheart, but will you be here when I get back?” Eddie asked with a small pout and puppy dog eyes. She looked nervously from him to the waiting car, Eddie whined and gave a pathetic “Pwease?” that made her grin until her eyes almost closed. She pushed his shoulder with her hand.

“Yeah, I will. Go on now.” She answered softly with a tensed smile, unable to look at him and looking ahead at the trailer across from their lot instead. Eddie’s eyes softened as he nodded at her, “I’ll be right back.” He stood up and took large strides towards his home with his hands shoved in his pockets.

Honey didn’t miss the way two cheerleaders hopped out of the car, smiles on their faces as they bounced over to Eddie with eager greetings. She glanced to the rest of group in the backseat, the remaining boys looking at her shamelessly and exchanging murmurs.

She knew their kind, too well. She hardened her face and took another heavy drag on Eddie’s cigarette before closing her knees and drawing them to her chest, suddenly aware of how short her shorts were.

Her eyes darted back to Eddie, hearing his easy laughter as he held the door open for the girls walking inside. He didn’t spare her a glance as he followed them, the ache in her chest blooming again.

“Hey, cutie!” The boys whooped and hollered to Honey. She didn’t look their way at first, opting to take a drag instead. “What’s a pretty little thing like you hanging around the likes of the freak?” A blond boy hollered, catching her attention at the mention of Eddie. The guy hopped out of the car, two more of him following as he approached her.

Honey hopped up and turned to walk back inside, “Oh, c’mon, I just wanna talk! How come I haven’t seen you around before?” He asked before she spun around, letting the door snap shut before she grabbed the abandoned shovel from Terry and Tommy’s hole digging.

The boys let out amused chuckles, staying on the grass before the first step to the porch. She clenched her jaw and stared the boy down. “I’m new.” She gritted.

The boy nodded, “You, uh, you goin’ to Hawkins High?” He asked as his eyes raked her over again, his friends snickering behind him.

She shook her head no, looking to Eddie’s door again, willing it to open any second. “You should come hang out with us.” The boy said, the other boys agreeing. “Got some drinks, some snacks, getting some party favors from Munson… gonna go down to the lake to swim later. Do you like to swim?”

He seemed almost genuine, Honey almost answered his question, but before she could answer, the screen door behind her busted open, Aaron charging outside with Jun hot on his heels. “What the fuck are you doing here?” Aaron asked with bile on his tongue.

The boy looked surprised when he saw Aaron behind Honey. “Oh my gosh, Aaron Haller! Why am I not surprised to see you here of all places?” The jocks snickered yet again, the scene being good fun for the likes of them.

“I asked ya a question, Jason.” Aaron took a step forward before Honey blocked the way and Jun placed a firm hand on his shoulder.

“Nope, nope.” Jun muttered quietly, as if to say ‘not yet.’

Jason turned his attention back to Honey, “To answer your question, Aaron, I’m here to pick up from Munson. But you should know all about that don’t you, farm boy?” He asked, mocking his accent.

Honey scrunched her brows and looked to Eddie’s trailer, where the girls were emerging with a fairly large brown paper bag in hand, Eddie behind them, smiling until he followed their line of sight. His eyes were wide when he saw her, clutching her shovel and looking like a wild animal backed into a corner.

“Jason!” The blondest girl shouted from the car, “Quit messing around, we got the stuff.” The two girls looked at Honey once more before exchanging words and smiling to one another, it made Honey’s stomach churn. Jun sighed and turned to the door, disappearing inside.

“That’s enough.” Eddie muttered, shoving his way between Jason and Honey on the stairs, the boys retreated slowly as if they didn’t even want to risk touching him, except Jason.

“Why don’t you let her tell me that?” Jason asked, his eyes back on Honey.

Her mouth opened to respond, but Eddie was faster, a mocking chuckle leaving his smile before he said, “You think she’s holding a shovel for fun? Get outta here, man, you got your stuff, now get lost.” Eddie’s jaw was clenched as he waited, wondering if this was about to turn as bad as he suspected it would.

“Last time I checked this isn’t your property, freak.” He spat.

Just as Eddie was going to speak, the door burst open, hitting the side of the house to reveal Jun looking more tired than anything as he held a broken over shotgun at his waist, casually sliding shells inside, “Yeah? Well, it’s mine,” he racked it, Aaron yanked Cal and Janie backwards against the house at the sound, “—so get the fuck out.”

“—Honey?” Terry rasped through the screen as he rubbed his tired eyes. Janie made a break for the door, scooping up the boy and wordlessly running into the house to lock the door behind her. The sound made Jason almost shiver.

Jason stared at him with wide eyes, fear filling them before they eased as of a realization came to him, making him chuckle half heartedly. “D-Do you know who I am?”

“I don’t care who your daddy is, you little shit.” He raised the gun, “I ain’t afraid of another charge. I suggest you get a move on.” Jun warned one last time. “One…” He started.

Jason stood, the only one still left on the patchy lawn. Jun cocked his brow at him daringly.

“Jason, come ON!” Another girl shrilled.

Jason swallowed hard at the vague threat. “Just trying to be friendly, sir, that’s all.” He raised his hands as he retreated to the car.

“I’ll see you around.” Jason muttered, his eyes not leaving Honey’s until he was in the car, driving away.

No one moved until the car turned onto the main road, then Honey sighed and dropped the shovel with a heavy clunk.

“Fuck, Jun, you didn’t have to pull a gun on em!” Honey scolded at her brothers back, the man knocking in a set rhythm before the locks clicked and the door opened back up to reveal Janie’s tear stained cheeks. “You really wanna be that family here too? You want people to think you’re a criminal??”

“And what, let ‘em get comfortable on the porch? Not everyone that turns up on our step is the welcome wagon, Honey!” Jun hollered as he unloaded the gun, letting the shells clatter to the floor.

“I didn’t say that—I coulda handled it!” She followed him as he went to hang up the gun on the wall.

“Yeah, sure looked like it, were you planning on using that shovel or?”

“If you would’ve given me a chance to—“

“Jason Carver doesn’t take no for an answer.” Eddie piped up by the open door, his arms crossed in front of him as he leaned against the frame. Aaron nodded. Everyone’s eyes were on Eddie.

“He may seem real nice and all, but when he isn’t with his girlfriend,” Eddie stared into Honey’s eyes, “He’s with anyone else.” The words were sour even at the sound. The phrase burned Honey’s chest.

Anyone else.

“Thanks.” She said dryly, her tone cutting through Eddie and making him almost flinch. “Janie, will you put Terry back in bed?”

“Aaron’s gonna read to all us.” Terry said into his sisters shoulder as she walked, the older boy sighing and walking along reluctantly, tossing Eddie a ‘be right back.’

“I’m gonna hit the hay.” Jun said, walking down the hall to his room.

Then it was just Honey, Eddie, and Cal, standing in thick silence. Cal cleared his throat and made an excuse about homework before escaping to his room with the boys.

Honey sighed when she heard the door shut and finally took a peek back up at Eddie. His eyes were already on hers with concern. “Are you okay?” He asked.

She nodded unconvincingly, “Yep. ‘M fine.” She unfolded her arms taking a couple steps back, Eddie spying the slight tremor she had in her hands.

“I don’t believe you.” He whispered, taking a step closer, daring to catch her hand as she turned. Her eyes snapped to his again, her heart pounding in her throat. “Those guys—those guys can get very scary, very fast, you know what I mean?” He asked gently. Honey’s eyes softened as she nodded understandingly.

“I know you’re tough, Honey.” He stepped closer again, still not dropping her hand, “I know you can handle your own. Hell, if I needed someone to fight, you’re the first person I’d think of— don’t tell Aaron I said that.” He joked, smiling a bit when her frown cracked from its place. “But I don’t want, uh, I don’t want Jason Carver—or anyone else— messing with you—guys. So if anyone starts shit with you, you tell me. Okay? You tell me.” He nodded, moving to bring his hand up to her cheek until she flinched away.

Eddie’s mouth parted with a gasp before she yanked her hand back, stepping into the kitchen and wiping her face with her hands as she assessed the dinner mess. She nodded, “Yeah, uh, I will. I’ll let you know, Eddie. Thanks.” She glanced at him as she opened the fridge, putting on a semi-convincing smile before she ducked to grab the lunch meat, bending at the waist.

Eddie watched the fabric stretch over her ass as she did, but the sight didn’t bring him joy the same way it always did. A heavy sigh escaped him before she shut the fridge and opened a cabinet, pulling out stacks of Tupperware and brown paper bags. “Thanks.” He said dejectedly.

He watched her work in silence before walking up behind her, closer than he’d ever been before. He placed his hand on the counter next to hers. She smelled him before she felt him behind her, the heady sweet smoke following him and making the back of her mouth tingle with want. “Honey, are—are we okay?”

Honey looked at his hand first, debating on slipping her fingers through his right there to tell him what was on her mind. About the pretty girls that made her feel bad about herself, about the weird, scary way Jason looked at her. She wanted to tell him a lot of things. She put down the spoon but didn’t turn, their fingers brushing but not overlapping just yet. She sighed as words failed her and settled for “Course we are.” instead.

Eddie’s eyes looked sad when she finally peeked up at him. He shook his head ever so slightly, “I don’t—“ the sound of a bedroom door opening jolted them apart, Eddie stepping back to lean against the sink while Honey returned to her leftovers, boxing the last of it up for Jun’s lunch.

Aaron came out of the hallway with a sigh, “Dr. Seuss never lets me down. S’like magic sometimes, don’t you—” He stopped just short of the kitchen, looking at his sister and then Eddie, “What’s up? We good?”

The pair nodded and confirmed, “Yeah! Great!”

“Absolutely.”

Aaron looked less than convinced before he flopped on the couch, “Alright, weirdos.”

“I’m gonna go.” Eddie said, turning for the door.

“See ya, man.” Aaron said as he looked around for the remote. Honey was setting out all the bread she’d need for the kids sandwiches when she looked back to sneak a peek.

When her eyes landed on the door, she found him waiting for her with one foot in and the other on the porch, his eyes set on her, “Bye, Honey.” He said in the quiet, dreamy way he always did sending a little wave her way. He waited for her to say something back— for that assurance.

She sighed before her face softened, “Bye, Eddie.” She wiggled her fingers the way he did, turning back around before he could spot the blush and smile blooming again on her face no matter how much she bit it back. She shook her head at herself as the warmth faded into that ache again, and slapped some mayonnaise on the white bread.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The next day at lunch, Aaron flopped down in his chair next to Gareth, digging out his sack lunch from his bag as he voiced his loud opinion on the schools ‘no hats’ policy, then tossed another to Eddie at the end of the table.

Eddie looked at the boy like he had two heads, “What’s this?” He opened the top and peered inside.

“Sister sent it for you.” Aaron said through a garbled mouthful of sandwich, bouncing his eyebrows suggestively. Eddie dumped the contents out on the table, a ham and cheese sandwich, a ziploc bag of chips, a small red apple and a Twinkie. He smiled to himself before he noticed the yellow sticky note still stuck inside the bag.

“No fair! She gave you a Twinkie and I got a ding-dong, what the fuck!” Aaron complained, looking at his own lunch. The guys chuckled and made awful ding-dong jokes as Eddie carefully extracted the note from the bag without drawing attention. He took a bite out of the apple and looked to the paper in his lap, only to find a simple smiley face looking back at him.

-

-

-

💖Taglist darlins (please lmk if you wanna be added or taken off!) 💖

@gaysludge @feminist-mina-harker @superbcoffeedrinkersubparwriter @superbreblogger @dylanmunson @miarosso @madmaxoolitchi @bimbobaggins69 @cherrycolas-things @big-ope-vibes @k8loo @loving-and-dreaming @jadequeen88 @josephfakingquinn @v0relino @newshade

[ghostiiess]

[NSB HEADCANONS] - how i think jp would help you with your mental health

pov: title says it all!

warnings: mental health, stressed and anxious days, some swears here and there

type: comfort

member: justin phan

REBLOGS AND LIKES ARE VERY APPRECIATED! :)

Justin would be such a great comfort buddy

Maybe he doesn’t look like that guy in the nsb videos since he’s always playful and stuff like this, but trust me.

he is the definition of the words ‘comfort’ and ‘calm’

Let’s start this hc, shall we?

« hi baby! I’m back home! » he said

He couldn’t find you :/

So he started searching for you

« Baby? Are you home? »

He started panicking a little bit ngl

(Rest of the hc under the cut!)

Your car was in the entrance and your clothes were at the same place as yesterday

And you didn’t say you had plans…

« Babyyy? Are you there? Are you playing hide and seek or something? »

Usually, it’s at this moment where you laugh and stop playing

But not this time apparently

He went to the room you both shared and saw you, laying there on the bed, your back facing him

« oh shit, is she sleeping? Hope i didn’t wake her up… »

He took the blanket close to you and put it on you, smiling that his baby was finally resting (go rest yourself babe)

He was going to kiss you on your forehead, but instead saw tears rolling down on your face

And that’s when he realized that you were, indeed, not sleeping, but crying-

« Baby… are you okay? Why are you crying? »

« Did something happened? »

His heart broke

It broke even more when you pushed him away

« No.. i don’t want to leave you alone! What’s up? Why are you crying, my love? »

He slowly caressed your hair and your cheek, seeing you weren’t answering him

« Baby… why are you like that? What happened when i was gone? »

He would comfort as much as he can

« Pretty girl, what’s up with you…? Who broke my baby’s heart? »

His face is :(

He would listen to you without judging you

He wouldn’t even put pressure on you for you to talk

He would wait until you are ready to do it

« take your time, okay? Talk when you’re ready »

He would hug you, and play with your hair

And cuddle you if that’s something you like

« Breathe in… breathe out.. yeah just like that, you’re doing great »

« Just relax and do breathing exercises, okay? »

He would peck your forehead or cheeks to calm you down

« It’s okay, baby.. i know it’s not always easy »

He would be there all the way in

« Just forget that when things get hard, I’m here to help and listen to you, okay? »

You could talk for 4h straight and he’d stay here with you

« Taking care of ourselves is not always an easy task, baby… if you can’t do it alone because it’s too hard or too complicated, just let me know and we’ll figure things out okay? »

« You are doing great, my love. »

« With or without mental health problems or issues, i still, and always will, love you just the way you are »

« Thank you for trusting me with that »

« you are a blessing in many people’s life and this is a fact you can’t deny. »

« ‘bet?’ Wdym bet?? Hold on, do you want me to say every person you helped and comforted since you’re on this fucking earth?! »

He would be so worried for real, he always want to see you smile :(

He hate to see tears rolling down on your cheeks

Justin know bad days can happen, but everything he looks at you and see you sad, he feel bad

He want your happiness.

« i love you so much. I’m here for you anything you wants and need. »

« Never think that you have to be strong 24/7 just for me. You don’t have to wear a mask for me. It’s okay to be weak sometimes.  I’m weak too sometimes »

« Everything will be okay, just concentrate on my voice okay? »

Idk how to end this hc, bc if it wasn’t for the readers (don’t want to make it too long), I’d continue

Justin has such a good heart like-

Please, do not hide things from him

He only want your happiness

He want to see you smile, he want to hear you laugh, he want to make you realize how important you are to him

Please, do not reject him :(

Taglist! (Open! Send an ask if you’d like me to add you!) @nsb-rkive @kentisbaby @firebenderwolf @hyuneee0

Bold can’t be tagged.

[jennomess]

A bit sick bf (2/5) The audios

Monday morning. I wake up to an empty Meet call, so i text to him the good mornings, ask how's he, and ask him if he left the call early bc he had things to do or he wasn't feeling good :( to wich he texts me two hours later "In bed" and another hour later he sends me an audio. An actual audio.

I couldn't hear it at the moment bc i was with my parents, and i didn't want them to know i went to visit my bf while he was starting to feel sick :v and also didn't want them to hear something that had the potential to turn me on in front of them, so i waited, went to my room to put on my earphones and ahw 😩🫠 he was telling me with a stuffy voice that he was going to the hospital bc he had chills and couldn't walk very well and yes that he left the Meet bc he had chills and felt like dying and he was heading to the hospital bc he doesn't get sick very often (and it's been not long since the last time he was a bit sick).

And i swear, i was amghf after that i just wanted to take care of him, hug him, keep him warm, caress his cheeks and hair and kiss his forhead, and also i was devouring the weakness in his waving voice repeating the audio aaahwhhh

And when he got home he send me ANOTHER audio, telling me weakly as his voice turned raspy that "he was going to sleep a bit and if i could please- please call him at five thirty... *he cleared his voice twice with a sound so fucking cute and gentle* call him at five thirty bc he had a class at six, ty, ily"

I. Was. Dying. I. Have. An audio. Of him. With weak and raspy voice. Clearing his throat. Asking me a favor. And telling me ily. AHMGPHFFFFFFFFFFF

Loop loop loop

By 5:30 i called him as requested and he sounded a lot better, still with little coughs and clearing his throat but a lot better, we talked about the concert he had to play at the next day, he told me that he texted the director and was going to confirm him the next morning if he was ok to play, but surely he was going to, and so we ended the call to keep on our things until the nightly Meet

[nehswritesstuffs]

How Dr. Hart-Steeler Saved the Logue Town Royal Revue

I literally had the idea for this in the shower during summer, so congrats.

9835 words; full disclaimer in that I’ve never watched a single drag competition, mostly because I don’t like reality/competition shows in general (except sports, and I wouldn’t say this is a sport while still acknowledging how Serious Business it can be), so please forgive me if something’s off or I did something weird like used your fave irl queen’s name or whatever bc I don’t even know how to cosmetics correctly let alone be this fabulous; tangibly related to Double Date from Hell (FFN/AO3), but I guess you don’t need to know much other than that Law and Nami are dating the same time as Cora-san and Bell-mère, to hilariously mortifying results; this took me so long to write partially due to Secondhand Mortification and a serious case of the Giggles or y’all would’ve had this back in, like, August lol; shout-out to Gen for suffering through me and this fic all these months, because ooohhhhh they be suffering

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Having never really considered himself weak in the ankles, Law was beginning to rethink his lifelong self-assessment as he slipped his feet into the absolutely terrifying shoes that had been shoved in his direction. With Nami on one side of him and Perona on the other, Law shakily attempted to stand, not enjoying the extra wobble he gained by simply standing still.

“What the fuck is wrong with you people,” he grumbled lowly. His girlfriend, however, scowled.

“You live in heels—I don’t want to hear it.”

“I wear boots, Nami-ya, not whatever torture devices these are.” He looked out over the rows of shoe racks and saw that the difference in height was… concerning. “Fucking hell—these have three extra inches than normal.”

“Well, yeah,” Perona scoffed. “You need to look your best, and they’re already doing wonders for your ass.” She hummed. “Well, what little you’ve got, anyhow.”

“Why are we even here?” Law groused. “Can’t I just order some online?”

“We are not,” Nami said, “because I am not going to have to deal with ordering shoes for your massive man-feet and then them not fitting properly. Turnaround is way too quick for us to need to worry about shipping.”

“I feel like a fool,” he grimaced as he continued to curse the integrity of his legs.

“We did not drive to the only shoe store in Greater Logue Town that carries wides in-stock for you to chicken out,” Perona scolded.

“I’m not chickening out,” he insisted sourly. “I just have way too much coordination to know first-hand why Cora-san practices walking in these things.”

“Well, you’re about to get a lot more familiar with them if we’re going to get you anywhere,” Nami said firmly. “Now go ahead and try to walk to that rack there.”

Two steps and Law went sideways into a shelving unit full of narrow-widths. Nami and Perona stared at one another—they had a lot more work ahead of them than they had feared.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

One month earlier…

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Pulling into the driveway, Law was glad to finally be home. He had been covering in Emergency for the past week, meaning that he was practically living between Logue Town General and Penguin and Shachi’s couch for exactly that same amount of time. Now all he wanted to do was relax, eat something, and fall face-first into his bed and not wake up until Nami came over in the morning. It was honestly all he could do to not head on over to 1000 Sunny Rd and fall asleep in her bed there instead, but knew that there wasn’t an amount of money in the world he’d accept to sleep in that house without her protecting him. He didn’t care what was going on—extremely loud sex could be happening right at that very moment and Law was certain that it wouldn’t even register with him.

…because, yeah, even though it was extremely weird and awkward that Cora-san and Bell-mère-ya were fucking, he wasn’t going to allow that possibility to deter him from sleeping in his own bed.

Instead, however, when Law entered the house, he heard the telltale click of heeled shoes against the kitchen tile. There were only two reasons as to why heels were in the kitchen, and since Nami’s scooter wasn’t parked outside…

“Practicing already?” he mumbled as he shuffled into the kitchen. A glance over at his foster father showed that, yes, the older man was in his highest pair of heels, looking ridiculous in his skinny-jeans and bedazzled mega-pumps.

“Hey, you know how long it takes me to get used to these,” Cora replied. He shakily took a mug of coffee from the counter to the table and sat down, breathing a sigh of relief. “Izou says this time is gonna be big.”

“It’s just the charity drag show,” Law noted. He shrugged off his jacket and began to root around in the fridge, wondering what had appeared in it while he’d been gone. “It’s the same thing every year: you and your friends dress as women and do skits and ticket sales go to whatever organization doesn’t hate you at the moment. What makes this year so special?”

“We’re expanding, for one,” Cora said. Law found some store-bought onigiri hiding in the fridge and put it on the table before grabbing himself coffee as well, his mug ceramic instead of Cora’s silicone. “This year we’re going to have not just Queens, but Kings and Enby Royalty as well. You’d know this if you attended the meetings.”

“I don’t need to attend committee planning meetings to know it sounds like the perfect thirst trap cocktail; Penguin and Shachi will be more conflicted than usual.”

“Belle’s participating.”

“Good for her.”

“So is Izou’s kid sister.”

“Isn’t being trans, but also a drag king, cheating according to some people?”

“She’s the one who demanded there be a non-aligned Royalty category, to alleviate that potential problem while still shaking things up,” Cora shrugged. “If Nami-chan didn’t already have your dick on lockdown, I’d say…” He stopped as Law gave him a deadpan stare. “What? She’s tall, she’s cute, she likes swords, she literally can’t be weirder than us…”

“This conversation is getting worse with each passing word that comes out of your mouth.”

“…andthewinnersoftheRevuearegoingonImpelDragRacenextseason.”

Maybe it was the exhaustion catching up to him, but Law stopped shoveling tuna salad into his onigiri and stared at Cora and the whiplash-inducing topic change. “Come again…?”

“The winners of each category are going to be featured on Impel next season!” Cora repeated, stars in his eyes. “A chance to meet Iva themself…!”

“You know, I can just haul you over to Strawhat-ya’s next weekend if that’s what you want to do.”

“Now that’s cheating,” Cora said decidedly. “I want to meet Ivankov on a professional level, not as ‘your godson considers my son one of his besties against his will’. It’s lame.”

“…and you were going to tell me all about this when…?”

“Eventually.”

“Eventually?”

“Eventually.”

Law took a deep swig from his coffee mug, glad he was long-past the point where caffeine wasn’t going to do jack fucking shit except paradoxically soothe his nerves. “I should plan to go camping that weekend.”

“You wouldn’t!” Law simply stared at him and bit into his onigiri, too tired to banter. “We’d be down four of our most long-term staff!”

“It’s bad enough that every year Penguin and Shachi are in a weird philosophical rut about ‘what even is gender and sexuality’ for three weeks after the show,” Law reasoned. “You might get them for a few hours but I have to deal with the lasting fallout.”

“Fallout that is worth it considering we get a handful of normies who are trained medical staff and willing to beat up troublemakers to defend our honor.”

“Mmhmm—you can defend your own honor just fine,” Law scoffed.

“Not in these shoes I can’t.” Okay, he had a point there. “Please, son… for me…?”

Law sighed, his tank well-past empty. A grown man and he was still trying the pity card from back when he was a teenager freshly rescued from both the system and his brother’s grasp…

…because of course he was going to help. It was on his calendar, wasn’t it? Law took another bite of onigiri and sighed through rice and tuna. Only Cora-san.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was a few days later in the house at 1000 Sunny Rd and Law knew he was in trouble. Although she did greet him with a kiss when he arrived, his girlfriend was pointedly ignoring him as the afternoon went on. It was unusual for Nami to act as such, and he simply let the situation stew as he got roped into her friends’ other antics. Zoro had even pulled him into a sparring match in the backyard, which was even more of a rarity.

“Do you know what I did?” he asked as they were cleaning up. The younger man shrugged.

“It’s hard telling with the witch,” Zoro scoffed. “I get in trouble with her by breathing, so who the fuck knows? All I do know is that she’s been spending more time here than usual, so it’s probably something to do with something not-here.”

“I’m sure we’ve dealt with worse,” Law replied, exhaling heavily. “I don’t know how any of you handle her platonically…”

“By reminding myself that she’s the one who fronts bail,” Zoro reminded him. Law nodded; good point. They threw the equipment into the shed and trudged back to the house, where a plate of onigiri each was waiting for them on the counter. “Ah, shit-cook, how did you know?”

“It’s called not wanting your miasma of body funk hanging around my kitchen any longer than it has to,” Sanji deadpanned. “Now scram, both of you, before I kick your skulls in. You can only come back after you’ve showered.”

“Shower Day isn’t until tomorrow,” Zoro reminded him. Sanji cringed and flipped him his middle finger—clearly he was far from the mood for pleasantries.

“That is nasty, I hope you know,” Law said. “As a medical professional I’ve got to side with him on this one.”

“People aren’t designed to wash that often,” Zoro grumbled. He took his onigiri with him as he retreated to his room, muttering the entire time about Sanji being things such as ‘prissy’ and ‘high-maintenance’. This left Law to his own devices in the unusually-quiet house; most of the regular crowd was either at work or off chasing after Luffy somewhere.

Sighing, Law decided to at least take advantage of the quiet and get some stuff done. He went into the office area with his onigiri and found where he had placed his work bag. Sitting down on the pleather couch (all the better to wipe his excess sweat off later), he opened his laptop and began reviewing patient charts. He had a ridiculous amount of procedures quickly approaching to accommodate his time off to help with the Revue and he wanted to make sure there were no surprises. About an hour had passed when Nami came into the room and staggered in shock at the smell.

“Fuck… you reek like Zoro,” she grimaced.

“We were working out together,” he explained. Law watched as she grabbed her own laptop and hesitated, staring at him. “Like what you see?”

“A bit annoyed at what I see,” she replied. “Your dad has my mom being weirder than usual.”

“It’s no different from cosplay,” he shrugged.

“Usopp cosplays. Bell-mère is stomping around the house acting like she drives an extended-cab-short-bed pickup truck.”

“That’s different from how she normally acts how…?” he asked. Nami folded her arms across her chest and scowled sourly at him. “Hey, I’m not the one who was raised by the woman.”

“True, but it doesn’t change the fact that her practicing her act is more than aggravating.” She frowned as he shrugged at that; it wasn’t his fault that their parents were the way they were. “It’s one thing having some of the goobers around here get into it, but Bell-mère is another.”

“…and you’re going to take it all out on me? I’m insulted, Nami-ya.”

“You don’t look much insulted.” She ran her eyes up and down her boyfriend, trying to calculate how long she could stay cross with him specifically before her libido gave way. “You’re allowed in my room, but only if it’s to go straight to the shower.”

“…and where might I be allowed after that?” he asked, already standing up and reaching for the sanitizing wipes on a nearby table.

“Bed, where we can finish our work,” she wiggled her laptop for emphasis, “and then we’ll talk.”

He shrugged and popped the canister open with his thumb; he’d take it. “I’ll see you up there.” He threw in a wink for good measure, only for her to roll her eyes in exasperation.

“It’s like I’m dating an old man,” she whined playfully before leaving. She knew full-well he’d only try to prove her wrong later for that comment. In fact, Nami would almost place money on it.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Later that night, as Law resisted going to clean up his condom in lieu of being too damn comfortable, he was alerted to the concept of something being wrong as Nami sighed heavily. He hugged her hips a bit tighter and nuzzled her chest, glad at least she hadn’t stopped carding through his hair.

“What’s the matter?” he wondered cautiously.

“Just… still thinking about Bell-mère,” she admitted. “She’s been really happy since she hooked up with Cora-san again.”

“I can almost guarantee that is reciprocated.” He felt the gentle scrape of her nails on his scalp and nearly melted. “You know… this drag thing… it’s pretty harmless…”

“Oh, I know that much,” she chuckled lowly. “It’s just going to be a pain in my ass, like everything about you weirdos.”

“I resent that.” He took a playful nip at her breast and let her roll them both over as she giggled. She then sat on his midsection, partially pinning him. “What? I thought this was a thing because I bring just as much braincells into this house as you do.”

“Doesn’t make you not a weirdo,” she smirked. She gently pressed her knees against his shoulders and hummed as his inked hands found her thighs. “Good thing I like weirdos so much.”

“Can I get that in writing?”

“It’s going to cost you.”

Something told Law that he was going to enjoy paying the price.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It had already been a long day at Logue Town General when Law, Penguin, and Shachi took their lunch break. Bepo had lost the impromptu rock-paper-scissors competition, meaning the charge nurse was stuck back on the floor while the other three were jammed into their usual booth at Don Silver, the restaurant empty aside from a few other sets of scrubs and the occasional delivery courier.

“Cora-san wants me to remind the both of you that the charity show is coming up,” Law said. He was stretched out on his own side of the booth while the goobers sat on their own as they demolished the breadbasket. “He signed us all up again.”

“Should’ve known this was how our life was gonna be,” Penguin muttered through a mouthful of bread. Law raised an eyebrow and he shrugged. “The first time we were allowed over to your dad’s, he was literally practicing his routine.”

“Can you fault him for taking advantage of his semi-androgynous profile?”

“No, but I feel like we’ve worked every single one of these charity shows since we met him.”

“Not to mention the fact that we can’t even meet women at these places because something, something, something, no fraternizing with the customers for our own safety on orders of Cora-san,” Shachi mentioned. “Come on; this is, like, a complete drag. Figuratively. And literally. And several other qualifiers.”

“Besides, we show up with a literal bear; how can we compete with that?”

“That’s your problem, not mine.” Law eyed Gin as he came over with their respective meals—burgers for the techs, a shawarma wrap (no pickles) for the surgeon, and a giant plate full of fries—and put his legs down so the proprietor could slide into the booth next to him.

“So, I hear there’s a ripple in your old man’s charity show,” Gin grinned. It would have been menacing if it weren’t for the fact that Law could probably flip the guy over with one hand.

“Since when have you cared about my dad’s charity show aside from letting us put up a flyer for it?”

“Since it’s apparently a really big deal this year, but also will make Blackleg extremely uncomfortable if I show up.”

“If your place wasn’t so tasty and conveniently-located, I’d say you’re an ass for that comment and several others,” Shachi frowned around his burger. Gin shrugged.

“You know my beef now; like I give a shit.”

“You’re such a sore weirdo,” Penguin added. With his sight line towards the door, his eyebrows shot up and he kicked Law in the shin to get his attention as the other man was picking at the fries. “Look alive: Bepo’s about ready to have a crisis.”

“You people are going to be the death of me,” Law groaned. He heard the sleighbells on the door chime and before long Bepo was standing at the booth, looking indeed as though he was about to break into hysterical sobbing. “You know I have a pager and my cell phone, right?”

“I don’t think this is something that you want to hear over the phone,” Bepo said, wringing his paws. “I just got a call from Marco down in the ER, and… and…”

Shit—that wasn’t good. “…and…?”

“He says your dad’s being less dramatic than usual…?”

Panicking, Law pushed Gin out of the booth and ran out of the restaurant, glad that it was literally in the hospital’s shadow. He hurried past security and into Emergency, where he found one of the most horrifying sights possible:

Cora-san. Laid up in a hospital bed. While Marco instructed some sap doing clinicals on how to properly wrap a freshly-set broken leg in a cast.

Oh hell.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was two days after Cora-san had been released from the hospital and Law suddenly found that his father’s milquetoast cookie-cutter suburban house had suddenly become Drag Central earlier than normal. He didn’t mind his foster father’s friends from the drag circuit—in all honesty, they were some of the nicest people he’d ever known—but at the same time, there was way too much overreacting going on and he did not wake up with enough wherewithal, mana, or general patience that morning to deal with much more than the drama queen he actually lived with.

“There has to be something we can do,” Izou frowned as Law was bringing a tray full of drinks into the living room. It was only Izou, his younger sister Kiku, and Marco at that point; the three of them plus Cora-san were essentially the core of the planning committee and had shooed out the others by that point. “Our regulars are going to expect Rosi Thoughts—if she doesn’t show up, then it could be a disaster.”

“This one imagines there must be some sort of way to do a routine from a wheelchair,” Kiku said. She pondered the concept carefully. “The venue is handicap-accessible, after all…”

“Only for the patrons,” Izou noted. “You haven’t been behind stage yet, but the back wasn’t built with this sort of thing in mind. We’re just going to have to figure something else out.”

“I can do the routine in crutches,” Cora-san offered. He accepted his no-spill tumbler from his son and pouted. “I don’t want to let down any fans!”

“No,” Law said firmly. “Marco-ya showed me your break—it won’t be well enough for a walking cast by then.”

“Patient confidentiality!” Cora-san gasped, pointing at Law in horror.

“You’re my foster father, not my patient. Besides, it would be Marco-ya you’d have to point that finger at… if I wasn’t listed as your emergency contact, that is.”

“He’s got you there, yoi,” Marco chuckled. He was about to continue when the front doorbell cut him off. “Huh… I wonder if that’s Thatch coming back…”

“I got it; I got it…” Law grumbled. He went to the front door and opened it, only to be met by a person in a baby-pink suit, a bowlcut, and a trowel of makeup. “Auditions are closed; they’ll get back to you.”

“Where are they?!” The new person barged their way into the house, pushing past Law and not even caring that he was there. They caught sight of the group sitting around the living room and their face lit up. “Ah! Here must be the belles of the ball—Shenix Fyre, Ganmodokidoki, and…” their eyes landed on Cora-san, “Rosi Thoughts.”

“…and who the fuck are you?” Law asked. Another person came in, this one dressed in orange and white while looking decidedly feminine.

“My name is Inazuma, and this is Bon-chan,” she replied. “We’re here as representatives of Impel Drag Race. We have reason to believe that your production might be in jeopardy?”

“What ever gave you that idea?” Kiku giggled sweetly, trying to throw them off the scent. Bon-chan gestured at Cora-san’s leg with a flourish.

“We’re not here to call the show off, but we are here to inform you that you need to make sure the show goes on with the same amount of contestants,” Bon-chan replied importantly. “We are planning on doing an entire episode revolving around local and independent events like the Logue Town Royal Revue and to have anything less than the nine contestants we were promised is a breach of contract.”

“…but this isn’t someone dropping out because they’d rather go on vacation,” Izou frowned.

“Indeed, yoi,” Marco chimed in. “I work at a hospital—what if I came down with something two days before the show?”

“It doesn’t matter—it’s in the contract,” Inazuma replied. “We’re here as a courtesy to make sure you are aware of the stakes and know that it’s no offense and standard procedure. Iva wants to have a contestant from your revue, so they’re giving you a fighting chance.”

“The show is only a few weeks away,” Cora-san frowned. “We can’t just cook up a replacement that fast! Auditions were months ago! We’d have to contact everyone again!”

“Then you might have to go on an accidental breech of contract and try again next year,” Bon-chan said. “It would be your first infraction, so it’s not like it’s a weighted disqualifier…”

“I’ll do it.” The entire living room stared at Law and all the breath felt as though it left his lungs; fuck, he said it out loud. “I… I’ll take his place. Make it three in the category again.”

“…and you aaarrreee…?”

“Law, kiddo, you don’t have to…”

“I’m his kid—if I take his place in the show, will it still be a breech of contract?”

“No.” Bon-chan pursed their lips and looked Law over. “Ever perform?”

“No, but I’ve been helping out with the show since I was fifteen, and that has to count for something. If I win, then he gets to go on Impel.” He gestured at Cora-san, who was too choked up with tears to say anything. “Let me be a stand-in—it’ll work.”

“A child sacrificing for their parent in order to keep the show going… I love it!” Bon-chan squealed, mood shifting violently. They spun around, nearly knocking over drinks in the process. “We’ll let Iva know right away!”

“We’ll look forward from hearing from you soon,” Inazuma nodded. She deftly dodged Bon-chan as they somehow pirouetted out of the house, leaving the committee more startled than anything. They all turned towards Law, who went deathly pale as his brain caught up with him and the events of the past ten minutes actually sunk in.

Oh… oh no… what did he just do…?!

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Nami parked her scooter outside the well-kept inner-city apartment complex that served as Goober Central; for some reason she was summoned here and not her boyfriend’s dad’s place. Why, she had no idea, but she entertained it for the time being, since it was Bepo who called. She couldn’t say no to Bepo, not really. It was kind of like saying no to Chopper—it just wasn’t done.

Heading into the building and up the stairs, she went to the second-from-topmost floor and over to the door at the end of the corridor, it opening before she even had a chance to knock.

“Good, you came,” Penguin said. He looked out past Nami, attempting to see if she’d been followed. “No one else?”

“You said it was ‘of the utmost importance’ and that Law was ‘in danger’,” she deadpanned. “What sort of nonsense do you have him roped into this time?” Nami entered the apartment to find her boyfriend laying face-down on the living room floor, Bepo and Shachi attempting to coax him out of some sort of rut.

It was a damn good thing the sex was so good or this would be ridiculous.

“Alright, what’s going on that I have to fix?” she asked as she sat down on the couch. Law remained still, though she could feel him cringe at her voice. “I take it has to do with Cora-san, since we’re here and not at his place?”

“More than just Cora-san,” Shachi said gravely. Nami rolled her eyes.

“Well, since it doesn’t involve Bell-mère dropping out of the Revue, I don’t know what it could possibly be about.” She watched as Law shifted his head so that he was looking at her shoes.

“People from Impel came to warn the Revue’s organizers about a potential breech in contract with him switching to being a judge,” he grumbled.

“…and this has you laying on Penguin and Shachi’s un-vaccuumed carpet because…?”

“I volunteered.”

She blinked at that. “You volunteer every year…”

“No: I volunteered without thinking about the consequences.”

Oh.

“He might’ve well as called himself a sacrificial goat the way Cora-san told it over the phone,” Penguin said blithely. “Man’s fucked.”

“…and what does that have to do with me?” Nami asked. She knew, of course, but wanted to hear it from her boyfriend’s mouth.

“I need your help, Nami-ya,” he groaned. He shifted his head so that he could look up at her, all sad and pathetic and absolutely delightful. “I need help.”

She grinned at that and pulled her phone from her purse. “You’re going to need a lot more help than just me.”

“So… you’re not angry…?” Bepo wondered. Nami smirked as she fired off a couple texts.

-----

Shopping trip?

I got a project. You’re gonna love it.

-----

“Angry? I might just get some entertainment value out of this whole debacle yet.” Her phone chirped and Nami shifted her weight from one hip to the other as she snapped a photo of her puddle-boyfriend and sent it off. Less than ten seconds and she got a reply.

-----

Ooooh… finally accepting pointers?

-----

Not the kind you’re thinking. Still have those trial palettes from when you got the idiot those beauty boxes for the hair dye?

-----

Yes but…

…

…pick me up in hald an hour

*half

ykwim

-----

“We’re in luck,” Nami chuckled. “We’re going to be accompanied by an expert.”

Law wasn’t sure whether that made him feel better or worse.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Shopping with Nami and Perona had been an interesting experience, to say the least. Law had no idea who the cavalry was until they rolled up to the weird mansion that was in a densely wooded plot in the middle of what was otherwise zoned for commercial property. Haunted land bought cheap enough to afford the zoning board’s subsequent bribe, so the story went, and it honestly made sense given who lived there. When the distinctively large pink ringlets came bouncing out of the house and down the circular drive, it became apparent that he was going to be in for a time.

“It’s a good thing you got a hold of me,” Perona said importantly as she got into the back seat of Law’s car. “It’s bad enough your dad tapped the rest of Zozo’s weirdo friends to round out his revue, but this? This is a project I’m definitely interested in making happen.”

“Just tell me where we’re going,” Law grumbled.

“That depends on what your persona is going to be,” Nami said. Her boyfriend stared at her, seemingly confused. “What? You mean you don’t have a persona picked out?”

“I was thinking we could just get stuff for me to imitate Cora-san’s act…?”

“Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…” Nami tutted. “Rosi Thoughts might become a legacy character, but only after the original retires, not gets temporarily sidelined as one of the judges. We need a brand-new queen for this scene.”

“Why do you think I’m here?” Perona smirked. She looked smug as a fed cat in the rearview mirror. “We have to come up with something with glamour and pizzazz if you’re going to even have a shot.”

“I’m not glamour or pizzazz—I’m a disturbingly young surgeon who still lives with his foster father and has a bunch of weird friends who are way too cheerful and energetic and loud to be worth it if it weren’t for the crucial facts that A) they actually put up with me, and B) that’s how I met Nami.”

“How about we go with that?” Perona offered, refusing to unpack all that. “The surgeon thing.”

“Marco-ya is also a doctor and his thing is a pineapple-phoenix.”

“…and it’s not like we have a lot of time to develop a distinct act for you,” Nami reasoned. “Maybe if we had two months, but not under two weeks.”

“I draw the line at Halloween-store ‘sexy’ outfits,” he warned. “I don’t care what it costs me; I will leave you both behind.”

“Who do you think we are? Amateurs?” Perona gasped in false indignation. She leaned back into her seat and buckled up. “Just drive, loser. I’ll tell you when we need to make a turn.”

So he did, and Law was taken to all manner of stores in the hunt for supplies. Between his girlfriend and… their… mutual friend’s… sister (…? Their femme style consultant…? Nami’s torture expert…?) he had all sorts of things held to his face and body and even had to try on no less than ten pairs of hellish shoes. By the time they walked into the final store of the afternoon—the scrubs store—he was desperately thankful for the normalcy involved.

“Now this is more something I’m familiar with,” he breathed in relief. He took solace in the rows upon rows of women’s scrub tops that were no different in make and design than the men’s on the other side of the aisle. The only real differences were the patterns and how they were sized. “They probably shouldn’t be the same as what I wear at work, so it—”

“They need to be cute,” Perona insisted as she idly sorted through some patterned tops. “We’re already trying to negate the not-cute things about you, so we’re gonna need to try hard.”

He glared at her, suspicious. “What about me isn’t cute?”

“Those tattoos, that scowl, the fact you look like a scarecrow…”

“Izou-ya has a tattoo sleeve and Cora-san is even scarecrowier than me.”

“…and you’re still not cute!” Perona huffed. She flitted her way over towards some bat-print scrubs while leaving Law to sulk. Nami giggled quietly at the entire thing.

“What…?” he grumbled. “I bet you’re enjoying this.”

“I am, but not in the way you think.”

“I thought you enjoyed torturing me, Nami-ya.”

“What we do in the bedroom has nothing to do with it,” she smirked. His face went red at that—busted. “It’s just nice having a day like this, where I get to go around and dress you up.”

“…but Ghost-ya…”

“You know it has nothing to do with Perona, even if she is giving us a neat perspective.” He rolled his eyes and she playfully nudged him in the side. “What? She can sew and Usopp is too busy with helping both Sanji and Robin…”

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” he admitted quietly. “The guys just… they aren’t really equipped for this. Working the show, yeah, but…” He rubbed a piece of fabric between his fingers as his eyes lost focus. “Not just any girlfriend would call in the cavalry when she learns her boyfriend is taking his father’s place in a drag show.”

“When you put it like that, you’re absolutely correct,” she said. Nami popped up on her toes and kissed the corner of Law’s mouth. “Just be glad I’m not charging you for my time.”

“I know my payment is going to be how I least expect it,” he said. “You just have that way about you.”

“…and you know it,” she grinned. It made him feel a little better, admittedly, and he bent down to press a proper kiss to her lips. He was nearly there when they heard Perona clear her throat; she was holding up a tight-cut scrub top that was hot pink and decorated in black hearts.

Not just no, but fuck no.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was two days before showtime and everything was in a panic. Law was already off work, meaning he had been chasing Cora-san around the house all morning and afternoon as the taller man tried to wander around on his crutches doing things for the Revue. He eventually needed to threaten his foster father with packing everything up to go to Izou’s tiny apartment in Logue Town-proper. Since they all had sworn that they’d never do that again as long as Cora-san still had his house, the man sulked on the couch with his leg propped up all until Marco left carrying the last tote of decorations. Law helped his coworker out to the car and swore to be at the venue the following day to help unpack, retreating back into the house once the vehicle revved up. He couldn’t help but let out a little laugh as he saw Cora-san pouting right where he left him.

“Your face will stick like that if it’s not careful,” he teased as he closed the blinds.

“It won’t.”

“You’re not going to listen to a medical professional?”

“Sometimes they’re wrong.” Law looked at his foster father and sighed, already regretting what he was about to offer.

“I’ll get together some snacks and maybe you can watch me figure out my makeup?”

“I’ll do it, but I’m still angry with you,” Cora-san grumbled. Well, it was progress. Law helped him to his feet and went to the kitchen while his dad attempted to navigate the stairs with crutches. By the time he brought the tray of tea and sandwiches up to his room, it looked like Cora-san was already nursing two extra bumps to his head and elbows. “The turn in the hallway moved.”

“Mmhmm… now you sound like Roronoa-ya,” Law hummed. He balanced the tray on a stack of boxes and handed Cora-san his tea before filling his own Sora, Warrior of the Sea mug. “So what do you think of the palettes Ghost-ya and Nami-ya got?”

“I think I like this one best,” Cora-san said, handing his son one of the makeup palettes that was sitting on the bed. “Brings out your eyes, I think.”

“Thanks.” Law sat down at the vanity mirror and turned on the lights, preparing to put on more cosmetics than he’d ever had on in his life.

“Can I ask why your cute girlfriend isn’t helping you with this?”

“She’s helping Ghost-ya with my outfit—wants the final product to be a surprise,” he admitted. Law dug through the debris that was littering the vanity and found his old foundation, shaking the bottle well before opening it back up. “Shachi showed her pics of me as a teenager already—she knows I’m not helpless.”

“You were really cute then,” Cora-san recalled. “Do you remember why you had me teach you?”

“…to hide my Amber Lead spots.”

“No… it was because you wanted to have the coolest Halloween costume in your new school. Hiding the spots was only a bonus.” He watched the younger man put on concealer and foundation, layering slightly thicker than he normally would. Blush came next and Law glared at his reflection.

“I feel ridiculous,” he seethed.

“For lack of a more… dignified term, we’re essentially a modern variation on clowns,” Cora-san offered. “Feeling ridiculous is baked in—it’s just all about how comfortable you feel while ridiculous is the thing.”

“…but I have never worn makeup like this.”

“No, you haven’t.” The older man chuckled quietly as he watched Law put on eyeshadow up to his eyebrow, scowling at his own efforts. “You know… I’m very proud of you for doing this. I know it’s well out of your comfort zone.”

“You’ve done similar for me, and would do it again.”

“That’s… that’s not the point.” He placed a hand on Law’s shoulder, the younger man stopping to turn and look at him directly. “You barely wanted anything to do with this when we first moved here.”

“I was a young teenager who had just gone through hell; I didn’t want anything to do with anyone.”

“…and now you’re here, doing this, while your cute young girlfriend helps get your costume together. I never thought we’d get anywhere near this.”

“Don’t get too sappy on me or my makeup will run and then I’ll have to start from scratch,” Law warned. There was no venom in his voice, simply experience. “Now, what do you think I should do with my eyelashes? You aren’t going to get out of this easy, Rosi.”

…and oh, ideas were had.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was finally Revue Day.

Despite the fact the show was going to be at seven in the evening, Law pulled up to the back door of the venue just before eleven in the morning, car full of the last bits of costuming, decorations, prepwork, and Cora-san. Penguin and Shachi were already there, very clearly faking a smoke break as they leaned up against the wall of the building.

“Who all is here?” Law asked, rolling down his window. Penguin shrugged.

“Some of Pops’s gang was already here with Marco when we showed up,” he said. “If Izou and Kiku are here they just came in through the front door, Straw Hat’s crew beat us all here…”

“…even the kid; he’s doing homework at the bar,” Shachi interrupted. “Marco’s about ready to kidnap and adopt him.”

“A common sentiment,” Law nodded.

“…yeah, and, at least most of the contestants are here,” Penguin finished. He took his unlit cigarette and handed it to Shachi, who put them back in the pack and pocketed them. “I think all we’re really missing is the two of you, the Drag Sibs, two other contestants, and Bepo, but the buses are running late due to that festival in Shells District.”

“That’s probably what’s keeping Kiku,” Cora-san said, leaning towards Law’s window. “Izou got his motorcycle fixed, so if anything’s keeping him it’s traffic.”

“Try telling that to Pops’s gang,” Shachi droned, rolling his eyes.

“Alright,” Law put the Polar Tang in park and killed the engine, “I’m gonna get Cora-san in while you two start unloading. It’s all the usual stuff from the house, so nothing too weird.”

“Weird today is a bare-faced businessman in a cheap suit,” Penguin quipped. Law pretended to not hear that and popped the trunk before getting out of the car and grabbing Cora-san’s crutches so the older man could attempt to support himself while he got the costuming supplies.

“Boys, Law is bullying me,” Cora-san whined.

“You don’t even know the definition of bullying, you wet cat of a man,” Law sniped. There was no venom in his voice, however, as it technically fell under the auspices of pre-show banter.He heard twin engines and sure enough: Bepo and his moped and Izou and his pristine vintage Shandoran motorcycle came into the alleyway. “About damn time.”

“Sorry I’m late!” Bepo cried. He and Izou parked their rides in the same space, looking nearly comical next to one another. “Had to pick up batteries on the way and the line took forever.”

“You know we have batteries here,” Law replied. “Marco-ya alone should probably switch to a twelve-volt.”

“Yeah, I know, but I still feel weird taking them,” the bear frowned. He adjusted his backpack full of photography equipment before offering a paw to Cora-san as the man wobbled dangerously on the edge of a pothole more a crater of rubble than anything. “How are you feeling today, Cora-san? Have you been keeping your leg elevated at home?”

“As much as I can,” he replied, with Bepo seeing right through the lie. Law stood next to the car as Penguin and Shachi quickly ran some stuff in, with the pair coming out so they could all grab the last of the stuff together.

“If it’s any consolation, Sanji’s set himself up in the kitchen and has been cooking and baking since five so we can all stay fed with his cooking specifically while he’s competing,” Shachi offered. Law raised his eyebrow at that.

“How’d he get in at five?”

“That’s for Straw Hat to explain, not us,” Penguin scoffed. He stuck his foot into the ajar door and swung it open, careful to not disturb the piece of concrete that was serving as a stopper. “It’s best not to think about it, right?”

“Yeah, true.”

Once Law got into the building he knew it was going to be a much more exhausting time than the year prior. He could smell Sanji’s cooking in the air, which was all sorts of heavenly that they were going to need to filter out before the doors opened at six. Marco and Izou’s extended friend circle all seemed boisterous as ever, the Straw Hats and their crew mixing together well. Even the ones who Law had only seen in passing due to the auditions and last-minute materials pickup were having a great time as they helped set up, with both Luffy and Ace latching themselves onto the two non-Kiku Royalty contestants.

“Oh, it’s Torao!” Luffy gasped as he saw him put down a box. He bounded over, a young rose-haired man in-tow. “Torao, this is Koby!”

“I know… he’s been at my house.” He then turned to the newcomer, who seemed quite nervous. “He’s not giving you a hard time, is he?”

“Luffy-san’s really nice… I don’t mind…”

“Yeah! Koby and Yama-bro are our friends now!” Luffy gestured back to Ace and the other non-Kiku Royalty contestant, both of whom were laughing at something Thatch said. “They’re both gonna come over to the house next weekend! Won’t that be fun?”

“It will be if you don’t scare them off first.” Law looked and saw Nami frowning as she went up to them. Luffy took that as his cue to bring Koby over to the snack table, where Sanji was setting up a new round of food. “I swear, if he keeps this up, he’s going to adopt the poor guy into the group against his will.”

“Strawhat-ya wouldn’t do that,” Law chuckled. He leaned down and pecked a kiss to Nami’s lips in greeting. “Please tell me you remembered my costume.”

“I didn’t, mostly because Perona did,” she replied. He raised an eyebrow. “She was the one who decided to do some down-to-the-wire adjustments. All I did was approve them.”

“Then let me drop off Cora-san’s stuff in his dressing room and we’ll do the grand reveal,” he said. She agreed and helped take everything labeled “Rosi Thoughts” to the closet-sized space that its occupant had not yet gotten to, getting distracted by the spread to rival any professional craft services team.

“Alright,” Nami said as they stopped outside the door with Law’s name taped to it (permanent marker on copy paper; very professional), “close your eyes.”

“Nami…”

“Humor us, alright?”

“Fine…” he groaned. He closed his eyes and held out his hands, which she took in both of hers. “Better?”

“Much.” She opened the door and led him in, Perona’s giggles of glee preceding her. “Okay, you ready?”

“Does it matter?”

“Not much, no,” Perona replied. “Go ahead. Open.”

Law opened his eyes and almost gasped when he saw what was sitting on the costuming dummy. It was a sparkling disaster, with the bright yellow scrub set having been taken in to better contour to his body and blue rhinestones outlining where his chest tattoo sat. There were no sleeves and barely anything left of the pant legs, a bright blue feather boa stethoscope, and his eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to the heeled shoes on the vanity counter, which were so thoroughly covered in their own rhinestones that he couldn’t even tell they had been brown.

“Well, yeah,” Perona said. She turned the dummy around to show that there were more rhinestones to mimic his back tattoo, as well as have two hearts styled like the ones on his shoulders sitting on the ass. “I think it’s going to be stunning. You couldn’t be cuter.”

“…but you hate yellow.”

“I hate what yellow does to my complexion,” she scoffed, swatting the words away with a limp wrist. “It looks fine on you.”

“You two are both enjoying this way too much,” he groaned. A glance over at Nami’s beaming expression confirmed his suspicions—he was going to pay for this, and it wasn’t just going to be letting his girlfriend sit on his face. “Where’s my makeup bag?”

“Oh, shit, I left it at Cora-san’s dressing room…”

“…then I’ll get it,” he insisted, glad for an excuse to escape. Law did not move quickly as he walked down the narrow corridor towards Cora-san’s room, wondering how the community theater company’s kitchily-large costumes ever tolerated such a narrow walkway.

He only had the door open for two seconds before he saw that the tiny room was decidedly occupado with Cora-san and Bell-mère, the latter with her shirt off in the process of stripping them both for an activity they really should have locked the door for; crutches had been hastily abandoned and the noises coming out of the injured man were fucking indecent.

Law shut the door as quickly and quietly as he could, face beet red, and decided to see what sort of snacks Sanji had put out. The makeup bag could wait.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Alright, everyone!” Penguin called out as he meandered down the corridor. “Emcees are on in five! Glam it up! Last call!” He stopped in front of Law’s room and knocked softly. “Captain? You alright in there?”

“I am going to die,” Law announced from behind the wooden barrier.

“No he’s not!” Perona’s voice insisted. She popped her head out and scowled at Penguin. “He’s just being difficult.”

“Who’s being difficult?” Shachi asked as he appeared around the corner. Perona opened the door and stepped out in order to present her project.

If it wasn’t for the fact they knew it was Law who was getting roped into things, they almost would not have recognized him. Heels and fishnets, well-hidden padding in the chest and rear, a short-cut wig with face-framing bangs, and expert makeup that covered all his tattoos except his shoulders and contoured his face into something leagues more feminine… he was honestly drop-dead gorgeous.

“I thought you were going with more… erm… traditional makeup for the occasion,” Shachi noted. Law simply seethed.

“That apparently was not part of the plan,” he hissed. Ah, shit, his goatee and sideburns were gone. Nami and Perona, however, were ignoring the exchange.

“I think he’s ready,” Nami said, nodding sagely.

“Yes,” Perona agreed. “She is ready to take her place as the Queen of Queens.”

“You know that’s Strawhat-ya’s auncle,” Law replied. He wobbled slightly as he realized that Bepo had appeared behind Penguin and Shachi, snapping a pic with his DSLR before he even had a chance to react. “I said: minimal pictures!”

“You look great, Captain!” the bear beamed. “You better get to your station! The show’s about to start!”

“Good luck,” Nami smiled sweetly, kissing Law on his left shoulder, right over the exposed tattoo she knew would not smudge. “I’ll be helping Zoro contain Luffy. You know who my votes are behind.”

“Oh, is it me, dearest Nami-swan~?!” Both Nami and Law glanced over to see Sanji nearly pirouette out of his dressing room as he saw them. ‘Never took ballet’ his ass—the surgeon could almost bet his tucked balls on Sanji having had a secret life where he had done all the stereotypical rich kid bullshit like ballet and fencing and had been good at them.

“My cheers belong to my beau,” she teased. He picked up her hand and delicately kissed the back of it, which Law found fairly ridiculous in his garish makeup and skirted chef’s outfit.

“Then I shall promise a dessert for tomorrow evening guaranteed to be a petite mort?”

“Stop trying to seduce my girlfriend, Kitchin Bitchen,” Law growled. Sanji glared at him, which he returned, only for Nami to groan and punch them both in an arm.

“Ladies, you’re both pretty,” she insisted. “Now get going!” She smacked them both on the ass and left, Law taking it more as the sort of smack a sports coach would give, while Sanji threatened to bleed out of his nose.

“I am not performing emergency medical procedures on perverts tonight, so be careful,” Law warned as they joined the other contestants in the staging area just out of view of the audience. He blanched when he realized that a very crucial part of the whole show was missing. “Where’s Cora-san?”

“Usopp took him around the back to get to the judges’ booth,” Bell-mère said. Fuck, she looked like some washed-up trucker whose long-hauler broke down on the outskirts of Greater Logue Town and hoofed it the entire way there instead. “He’ll be seen, don’t worry.”

“Think about it,” Izou said, doing one final check of his hair before taking a microphone from Thatch. “Are we going to let him out of our sight with crutches if there’s a chance he can ruin the coat that took me murdering how many feather boas because he can’t be trusted with needles?”

Unable to refute that logic, Law shrugged and watched as Izou and Marco looked at one another, took a deep breath, and slap-slap-slap-slap-slapped their hands together in a quick secret handshake of brotherhood (or in this case, sisterhood) before they stepped out onto the main of the stage, the spotlights quickly finding them.

“Hello and welcome to the Annual Logue Town Royal Revue! Can I get a ‘yoi’?”

“YOI!” the crowd shouted back.

“Excellent! You all know me, yoi. I’m Shenix Fyre, and this is my sister-in-heels Ganmodokidoki. We’re your mistresses of ceremony for the night, where we’ve got a stunning display for everyone!”

“That’s right!” Izou grinned. “Our most steady crowd will know most years it’s just us and our sister Rosi Thoughts on the stage, cracking jokes and being our silly selves, but tonight we’ve got a special treat for you all!”

“That’s double-right!” Marco shifted so that his feathered wings shimmered in the lights, showing off the glitter and beadwork better than just the internal string lights could afford. “We have a brand-new, high-stakes format with a cast full of fresh meat for us to devour tonight!” The crowd cheered. “Now, is everyone ready for a transcendent time?!”

The crowd clapped and cheered; it was always a corny line, but Law found it somehow worse this year. He had to hand it to them—they really knew how to fire up and engage the crowd.

“Then let’s get started,” Izou said, “and begin introducing the fine and fabulous who are going to make up the teams! Each team gets a member of Enby Royalty, a King, and a Queen, who all have to cooperate in order to complete our grueling tasks!”

“First up in Royalty, we have Rose Marina, yoi!”

Shakily, Koby hobbled out onto the stage, almost tripping on himself; Killer scoffed at the sight.

“Poor lad’s about to piss himself,” he grunted.

“Well, yeah,” Bell-mère replied. “I don’t think he’s been even exposed to this before and now he’s in it.”

“Meeker than a wee lamb, that one.”

“Let’s give it up for Snowy Mum!”

“Now you’re just being mean,” Robin smirked, edging herself over towards the next spot. “Don’t let Luffy hear you say that about his new friend.”

“Tch…” Killer shrugged and tried to drop it.

“…and give a hand to our final member of Royalty, Kozuki Oden!”

“Is it usually this tedious?” Sanji asked. He was bouncing his leg and fidgeting. “I don’t think I’ve ever needed a smoke break more.”

“Give it a moment and you can run out the back for a hit,” Law deadpanned.

“Now to start off the Kings, yoi! Here we have Devil Ray!”

“Life really turned to shit when you stopped being able to smoke inside.”

“Bell-mère-ya, that’s a lie and you know it.”

“Eh; what are you gonna do about it, kid?”

“Time to meet Smartea Pants!”

“Flex my medical degree at you?”

“You’re a cardiothoratic surgeon on the best of days—you couldn’t tell me shit about anything else.”

“…and here he is, the Beast of the East!”

“See you out there, kids,” Bell-mère chuckled before she walked out under the lights of the stage.

“God, I hate this already,” Law groaned.

“There is no God here,” Killer stated. Law opened his mouth to explain it was just an expression and there was no reason to be a dick about it when Marco’s voice cut him off.

“Now, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for, yoi! Here are this years Queens!” He paused to let the crowd applaud—they knew what they were here to see. “First up is Killer Queen!” Killer sauntered onto the stage and ate up the applause and cheers, some of the loudest coming from the man’s personal cheering section.

“If there is a God,” Law sighed, “then he’s making sure those two fuck.” He pointed out the punk with cherry-red hair and a prosthetic arm.

“Mmm… who knows,” Sanji shrugged. “I know I don’t want to.”

“Here’s a special gal who will cure what ails you, Dr. Hart-Steeler!”

“You’re up.” Law felt Sanji’s hands on his back and the younger man push him our towards the stage. The whole crowd clapped as he found himself under hot lights. He smiled awkwardly and quickly searched the crowd, finding not only where the Impel representatives were, but also where Nami-ya was with the rest of the non-participating Straw Hats. Law was so concentrated on his girlfriend, however, that he let the heel of his shoe slip and he rolled his ankle, landing hard on the worn lacquered wood of the stage floor to a round of gasps and one fairly annoying “faffaffaffa”.

Oh, they were off to a great start.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was two days since the Revue and Law was laying on a couch in Luffy’s sus-as-fuck party house at 1000 Sunny Rd, his feet propped up on the far armrest and his head in Nami’s lap as she idly carded through his hair. Her weather data-crunching laptop was balanced on the other armrest as she used it one-handed, not wanting to stop touching her boyfriend’s fluffy hair.

“How are your feet feeling?” she asked. He grunted in response, leaning into her touch.

“Better,” he admitted. “Ankles not nearly as sore either.” His eyes were closed as he simply enjoyed her touch and company. “I do still think I bruised my hipbone.”

“Did you now?” she wondered idly. “I guess this means that it might need some attention later…?”

“Possibly,” he smirked. “You’ll have to check for signs of contusions.”

“Hey, time to play doctor later,” Zoro warned as he walked into the room. He had his reading glasses on as he squinted at a newspaper—the Foosha Free Press—sourly. “It looks like they even did an article about you all the way out here in the fucking sticks.”

“They did not need to do an article about any of us out this way,” Law said, hoping the glare he was giving would help Zoro take a fucking hint.

It didn’t.

“I guess the editor is an old friend of your dad’s or something,” Zoro replied nonchalantly.

“Between your adoptive pain in the ass and mine, who don’t they know?”

“Boys, you’re both stupid, now what does it say?” Nami frowned. Zoro adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat before peering down at the paper, attempting to find where he’d left off. When it took him too long to find his spot, Nami tore the paper from his hands. “Silly me thinking you could read.”

“Witch! Can to!”

“Mmm… sure.” Nami opened up the paper and found the article Zoro had been hunting for almost immediately. “Huh. ‘The Logue Town Royal Revue, always a show that surprises and entertains, mixed things up to the extreme with their all-new drag show in their attempt to woo support from Impel Drag Race. With the goal of raising money for charity, it felt as though this year one got a lot more for their ticket price. Was it a change in budget? The novelty of new contestants? No one can say for certain.’ At least it seems like they really liked you.”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Law whined. Nami grinned wickedly at that, knowing precisely what to do.

“‘The Revue,’” she continued reading, “‘was emceed by the two show founders, with their longtime third helping them with the judging portion. Anyone who knew of Shenix Fyre, Ganmodokidoki, and Rosi Thoughts’s prior acts came in with expectations that were delivered on. They were able to handle a rowdier-than-usual crowd that was there to support the fresh performers.’”

“Oh, get to the good shit already,” Zoro whined. Both he and Nami tried to not snicker as they watch Law curl up and try to hide his face in his girlfriend’s lap—no sale.

“Let’s see… blah, blah, ‘Royalty was a unique model the contestants brought to life’, blah, blah, blah… oh, good, nothing about Bell-mère. I was worried about that. It’s all about the one we didn’t know. Devil Ray…” Her eyebrows raised in amusement as she continued. “‘…but the true crowd pleasers were the Queens, especially Dr. Hart-Steeler, whose klutzy act reminiscent of her mother Rosi Thoughts endeared her to myself and the entire crowd.’ Law! They loved you!”

“…no…” he whimpered.

“Who knew your old man surgeon was sexy enough for that,” Zoro laughed. Nami silently dared him to try harder. “At least you know you can go back if you want to do it again.”

“Maybe if Cora-san had gotten into stunt kites… or maybe historical reenactments…”

“See?” Zoro pointed at Law haughtily. “Old man. He’s so old he doesn’t even have an ass.”

“Be nice; his ass suits my needs.”

“Nami, his ass needs implants it’s so flat.”

“Can you please not talk about my ass?”

“Mmm… too bad,” Nami hummed. She skritched his scalp with her nails and smiled at the photo included with the article: Dr. Hart-Steeler making an unintended dive towards Inazuma’s chest, limbs flailing and expression one of pure panic.

She was going to take what she could get.