#bc if i’m in a chair i’m exhausted and in pain. get the fuck off of me

[ghostwoohoo]

can someone please tell sims pose makers that we have enough wheelchair poses where someone sits in their lap . we have enough of those and it’s time to make something else i’m literally begging for romantic poses other than “able bodied partner sits in wheelchair user’s lap” did u guys know we can kiss people without them sitting on us?? revolutionary concept. do something else now please :)

[uwuwriting]

Breaking in w/ Hawks, Shoto and Dabi

Request: I read another post about ppl breaking in your shared house with the boys not knowing that you are inside and hurting you and I was like well this would be interesting with their kids in the mix. So i'm here to provide you with the following request ppl breaking in and immobilizing you while you're still awake and they try to go into your kids’ room with Shoto, Hawks and maybe Dabi or Aizawa- anonymous 

Oh this is a nice little concept. It's very interesting. I’m happy to deliver. I have been devastated by chapter 290, if anyone hurts Shoto imma start a riot and if Dabi doesn’t kill Endeavor i will. I’m thinking of making a double post today so this one and a kny post but we’ll see. Love ya. 💖💖💖

masterlist

rules

warning: cursing, mentions of blood, crying but fluff in the end. 

Hawks/Keigo Takami

-You were waiting for Keigo to come home after a long day. 

-The twins were a nightmare to put to bed today and you were exhausted. 

-Both of them wanted Keigo to tuck them in for some weird reason and they just wouldn’t accept your cuddles or attempts. 

-So after a tiresome two hours of trying and failing to calm them down you called your husband on facetime and they went to bed. 

- “I’ll be home soon, do you want me to bring you anything?”

- “No, no just you.” 

-So after taking a shower and checking on the kids you relaxed on the couch, turning on the TV while scrolling though tik tok. 

-Not even half an hour later you heard jiggling coming through the door. 

-Assuming it was Keigo you got up and went to greet him but who you met at the entrance of your house was a complete stranger. 

-You and the two bulgars stared at each other for a solid minute before you scrambled to get to the kids’ room and lock yourself in there. 

-But one of them tackled you to the floor before you could reach the pastel colored door and pinned you down, binding your hands with a cloth. 

- “I thought you said he wasn’t here man? What is this?”

-They had tied your legs to a chair, putting a makeshift gag in your mouth so you wouldn’t scream as they bickered back and forth. 

-Your eyes kept darting from the front door to your kids’ room.

-He said he was almost home, he should be here at any moment. 

- “Just stick to the plan, she doesn’t change anything.”

- “Doesn’t change anything? You tackled the n. 2 heros’ partner and you think that nothing is gonna happen?”

-You couldn’t care less about their words as you saw the light of the baby monitor light up.

-Eyes widening, you tried to get out of your  restraints to turn it off but to no avail, the soft babbles of your son could be heard coming from the device sending the whole room into an uncomfortable silence. 

-Before you know it, the one that tackled you pushed his partner towards you. 

- “Keep her in check while I go pay a visit to the other room.” 

-Managing to get the gag out of your mouth, your eyes frantic, you tried to reason with him. 

- “I’ll give you whatever you want just stay away from that door, please.” 

- “The number 2 hero has plenty of money. I bet he would be willing to give a handsome amount for that brat in there. What do you say babycakes? 

- “Dude you’re taking it too far-” 

- “Stay away from them!” 

-You realized your mistake a little too late, the new information making the man's eyes light up.

-Two cries came from the twins’ room due to the commotion and your panic rose. 

-But then you saw it. 

-The single feather hovering over the mans’ head, as red and vibrant as ever. 

-You let out a sigh of relief as a wave of red feathers flooded your living room, cutting you free from your restraints. 

-Without missing a beat you sprinted to the door, stepping inside and locking it. 

-Both of them were awake and teary eyed but at the sight of you they calmed down a bit. 

-Taking them out of their cribs, you sat in the far corner with both of them in your lap waiting for the moment Keigo would knock on your door. 

-One would assume that being part of the hero industry, although you weren’t a full blown hero yourself, mere bulgars wouldn’t really faze you. 

-In reality you hadn’t been afraid for your own life, you couldn’t care less about yourself at that moment, but when you realized that they knew about the twins everything slowly fell apart.  

-After what seemed like an eternity a soft knock came from the locked door. 

- “Y/N, dove, open up.”

-Raising to your feet, you almost ripped the door handle out of position in your rush. 

-Once Keigo came into view you didn’t miss a beat before pressing yourself close to his chest, the twins just happy to see their dad. 

- “There are my favorite Takamis!” he said kissing their heads as his wings enclosed all of you. 

- “Dove they are gone, don’t worry. I’m here. We’re alright.” 

-The news report the next morning said that two men were found on the top of the police department butt naked. 

Todoroki Shoto

-Poor man had merely gone to get take out. 

-He hadn’t been gone for that long. 

-But apparently the villains had been waiting for him to leave the house so they could go in. 

-You were still inside with your daughters; the twins chasing each other in their matching onesies while you sat on the living room couch with your youngest.

-You heard the front door open suddenly and at first you assumed that Shoto had forgotten his wallet again.

-But the footsteps were too heavy and his voice didn’t echo through the entrance hall. 

-He always said something when he came in and his footsteps have become lighter ever since the girls were born. 

-Sensing that something was off you placed your toddler in her crib and motioned towards the twins. 

- “Stay with your sister and no matter what you hear you do NOT come into the hallway. Understood?”

- “But what-”

- “Rei do I make myself clear?” 

-Nodding their heads they took their seats in front of the crib, Ren squeezing her hand through the bars to gently grab her sister's chubby hand. 

-Taking a deep breath you entered the hallway and lo and behold, two strangers were staring back at you. 

- “Can I help you gentlemen?” 

-After a few seconds the one closest to the door flung himself at you while the other one started digging through his pockets. 

-Swiftly dodging the attack, you grabbed his wrist and swang him with incredible force to the wall, letting go of him as you turned your attention to the other one. 

-And then you felt a sharp pain course up your right leg as a heaviness settled on your chest. 

-The room began to spin while the air was knocked out of your lungs.

-You kneeled down, hand over your heart as you tried to use your quirk. 

-Nothing happened though; it was like you didn’t have one at all. 

- “Quirk cancelling bullets, aren’t they neat?” 

-The man stared down at you as ever so slowly your senses came back at you. 

- “I can still beat your ass even without a quirk.”

- “I don’t think you’ll do that.”

-Angry voices could be heard from the other room before the man you had slammed into the wall appeared again, blood dripping from his nose and onto the snow white hair of your daughter.

-Ren looked at you, tears forming in her eyes as a red flash of hair jumped onto the man. 

-Rei was having none of it.

-Taking that opportunity you kicked the one in front of you in the groin before separating the girls from the other, sprinting into the living room, closing the sliding doors behind you. 

-Laying the girls on the couch you grabbed one of the fireplace tools and got into a fighting position. 

-Soon enough the door opened revealing none other than Shoto himself.

- “Are you all alright? Did they hurt you?”

-He looked absolutely disheveled, his hair going in different directions as his gaze frantically scanned all four of you, his eyes lingering at your slightly raised leg. 

-The twins hopped off the couch and tackled his legs. 

-Shoto crouched down hugging them both tightly as they started to sniffle into their dad’s chest. 

- “T-they hurt mama and t-tried to hurt Ren.”

-He shot you a look but you waved him off, deciding to instead check on the baby before joining them on the living room floor. 

- “I won’t let them touch you ever again, even if it's the last thing I do.”

Dabi/Touya Todoroki *I ain't never letting this go*

-In reality the dudes didn’t know you were preggos. 

-You were too early on so you couldn’t tell you were preggo but still. 

-They knew that you had something going with Dabi and that’s why they wanted to fuck with you. 

-They thought that they would gain something from trying * key word trying * to take you.

-They were wrong though because a) they got their asses kicked by you and b) they got fried once Dabi found them. 

-You were chilling at Dabis’ while he was out to get you some mustard and a chocolate bar because cravings, when you heard the door open. 

-Immediately you knew it wasn’t Dabi. 

-You would’ve heard him grumbling under his breath about forgetting to take money with him * bc you have been pushing him to pay for stuff every once in a  while* or he would be shouting at you that your disgusting meal had arrived. 

-Neither of these things happened so something was up. 

-Not bothering to get up because you didn’t give two fucks, you waited for whoever stepped inside the apartment to show themselves. 

-You are a villain hun you ain’t about to stress over some crusty ass dude trespassing into your house because you could obliterate his ass from the face of the earth in negative five seconds. 

-Whispers and a frantic “But what if he comes back?” was all you heard before the ground breaking phrase left their mouth. 

- “Who cares? She’s a woman, how strong can she be anyways?”

-You were livid. 

-It might have been a mix of your hormones along with the fact that that was hella sexist but you were ready to beat some crusty ass. 

-Laying down on the couch and pretending to be asleep you waited for them. 

-And soon enough you felt the three figures standing over you. 

- “See easy as hell.” 

- “And hot as hell, please don’t forget that.” 

-All three of them stared down at you like that pikachu meme for a solid minute before scrambling to activate their quirks. 

- “We don’t wanna hurt a pretty girl like you so please don’t cause a fuss.” 

- “Oh baby you think you can hurt me? Please have you seen who I’m dating?” 

-Slowly standing up you flicked your wrist and one of them dropped to the floor. 

-You made your way to the kitchen pouring yourself a glass of water right when one of them ran into you, pinning you to the counter. 

- “Watch it there bud I’m carrying precious carg-”

- “Shut up you fucking slut! You’ll come with us whether you like it or not.” 

- “The only person who can boss me around is not currently in this room so I suggest you let go.” 

- “Yeah you should probably let her go.” 

-At the sound of his deep voice you knew that they were dead men. 

-The one basically on top of you stared at Dabi in horror as you pushed him off of you. 

-Making your way to your boyfriend you gave him a small peck while he rested a hand over you stomach as a silent ‘are you okay?’.

-Shrugging you took the bag from his hands and went into your bedroom, not caring to see what he was about to do to them. 

-You were hungry anyways. 

- “Now which one of you wants to be roasted first?”

TAG TEAM AY:

@the-arcana-fan-fic​ @angelwritings​  @axerrri​ @reinyrei​ @dnarez​ @bemorefiction​ @ezoyscorner​

[kwonhoshi0]

𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐲𝐚, 𝐛𝐚𝐤𝐮𝐠𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐢’𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐥𝐥 | h.c

navigation | requests : open | 10th feb 2021

pairing : midoriya, bakugou, todoroki x gn!reader [ separate ]

genre : fluffy cloud shit

warnings : being sick/vomit, food, eating, medicine

themes : overworking yourself, concerned friends, exhaustion,

request : hi hello i saw your requests are open as of feb 10. Can I request shouto, Midoria, Katsuki, and Sinshou’s reactions when seeing their s/o or crush come into class a day they are sick so they don’t miss a test and physical examination test? And as soon as their test is over their crush or s/o passes out from exhaustion but passes anyway—they got sick from preparing too hard and worrying about the exams to much? Thank you 💙

note : this got a little long and i got so’s sad and soft over bakugou HELP

[ midoriya ]

> baby boy is IMMEDIATELY researching ways to make you feel better

> you’ve probably been together for a while

> whether you were together or not he would’ve done anything to make you feel better simp

> as soon as you walk in he’s writing down your symptoms and glances at you so he knows you’re okay

> he’s not mad he’s just worried :((

> ‘you shouldn’t have come in today puppy’ crying hes so soft

> he has a whole plan for as soon as your lesson ends

> the plan probably consists of making sure you have a warm shower giving you ice packs and tissues when you need them

> he’s 100% the kind of boyfriend to pat your back and tell you you’re okay holding your hair back (if you have hair) while you’re throwing up your fuckING LUNGS

-> scenario

> you walk into class as usual but with a flushed face and you look a little grey

> you’re wearing a mask so you don’t get others sick but everyone can still see you’re ill

> you sat down as your friends asked you if you’re feeling okay, lying you sat down feeling overwhelmingly tired

> midoriya pats your arm so you look at him and asks what happened since last night you were in his dorm as usual until you went back to your room and you were okay

> ‘i think i woke up with it, i’m not sure but i’m okay’ you smiled holding back a yawn

> you weren’t really sure how you got sick you just stayed up most of the night studying, and the whole week before that

> ‘pup just please be careful i’ll take care of you after okay?’ you nod at your sweet simp boyfriend

> during the test he noticed you holding your head up with your elbow, surprisingly 2 hours went by pretty fast end he kept checking up on you after he finished a page

> as soon as aizawa told the class to put down their pens midoriya looked at you and was surprised to see you laying on your arm/elbow eyes shut

> it wasn’t too shocking for others since denki and sero were asleep too

> but he got worried and immediately jumped up to check on you

> ‘hey, hey y/n wake up pup’ he shook you a little as aizawa watched like ?? ‘midoriya are they okay?’

> ‘i’m not sure, they’re sick but they shouldn’t have passed out like this’ he replies as you stir in your sleep groaning he sighed in relief

> ‘i’ve seen y/n in the common room at around 4am every night studying, i wake up at that time by accident and they’re always there’ todoroki answered simply

> ‘midoriya take y/n back to the dorms so they can get some sleep please’ aizawa answered before collecting everyone’s tests

> not letting you walk he carries you back, ‘baby please don’t overwork yourself like that, i’m sure you did great and you would’ve done great without all that studying, i’m proud of you but your health matters more’

> before you could whisper a mumbled reply all might walked out from the staff room as you were heading back to the dorms

> ‘oh ! young y/n, young midoriya, are they okay?’ he said quickly as he saw you holding you

> ‘oh all might ! they’re sick so i’m taking them back to the dorms’ all might let you go back soon after laughing about young love

> as soon as you got back he didn’t let you get in bed, he turned on a hot shower and told you to shower while he made food and a hot drink for you, you walked into the bathroom taking off your mask

> before you could get in the shower you felt your mouth watering and you knew you were about to be sick, midoriya walked up to put a hoodie on your bed for you when he heard you groaning

> he opened the door to you vomiting in the toilet and quickly ran forward and moved your hair back ‘let it all out baby, it’s okay you’re doing great’ HES SO FUCKING CUTe he’s just rubbing small circles on your back

> soon afterwards you thanked him for being there which he replied with ‘i’ll always be here silly, now go shower’ while flushing a little red bye the pain

> as soon as you got out you changed into his hoodie which he left out for you and some shorts

> he doesn’t care that you’re sick he still wants to cuddle so you snuggle up into the sheets while he feeds you whatever food he made you constantly kissing your forehead since you refused to let him kiss your lips

> ‘wait.. izuku aren’t you meant to be back in class’

> ‘uhhh..’

[ bakugou ]

> angy blasty baby just got angrier

> if you’re ill he’d firstly scold you for not being careful

> as much as he cares about his health he doesn’t care when it come to you

> unlike midoriya when he helps you out with showers and food he does it subtly

> he checks on you a lot and makes you shower and eat, he makes you eat with him and makes you take medicine

> ‘dumbass you’ve gotta take your medicine’ he has an alarm on his phone for everytime you’ve got to take your medicine

> ‘take this’ *throws you bottle of water* he makes you finish at least 3-4 bottles a day because that’s the average

> he doesn’t do research because kinda knows how to handle this stuff

> the only thing he does research on is how to treat someone when they’re ill, as much as he acts like he doesn’t care he does a whole fucking lot

> hes a little less angy seeing you ill, you feel a little useless which he reassures you about

> midoriya is a carer wheres bakugou is a ‘get the fuck up’ kind of guy 😭😭😭 he makes you do things with him so you have something to keep you occupied

> unless you’re feeling and looking too ill to get up

> he brings you homework for when you aren’t in class and even does a couple questions writing notes around if you weren’t in class to see how it’s done bruh he’s so fucking cute:(

> for the days the class doesn’t order take out he’s usually cooking so he makes you help him out you wear a mask ofc, this kinds goes with the so you don’t feel useless thing

-> scenario

> you usually walk to class together but today you texted him telling him not to wait and you’ll be there soon because you thought he’d be less angry in the classroom

> boi u were wrong bless your soul says the atheist

> so you step in with your mask on fearing your life and you think for a second maybe you can just sit in your place and he won’t look

> lMAOO this man always notices you

> ‘what’s with the fuckin mask’ he walked in front of your desk while pinging the string of the mask

> ‘i’m ill’ you mumbled as he raised his eyebrow ‘you’re mumbling dumbass’

> before you could answer again aizawa walks in with the tests so he goes back to his seat with his eyebrow raised at you

> he keeps an eye on you, you don’t notice ofc bc he’s always discreet

> he has noticed you being very tired and a little out of it during the day but he didn’t think too much of it

> he watched you slump back in your chair

> you finished early so you decided to close your eyes for a second and as soon as he looks back your head is in your arms and he watches you as you slowly slump into your arms

> he could see you softly breathing, whenever you cuddled together he’d watch you until he fell asleep, moving your hair out of your face and smiling to himself

> his eyes softened seeing you so peaceful but also he got worried, your mask moved to the side a little as you slept and he could see how red your cheeks are and you look a little green

> he got a little surprised when you woke straight up your own eyes widening and you looked a little scared, you jumped up walking over to aizawa and asked him something which he couldn’t quite hear, he nodded before you ran outside

> bakugou had finished so he went to ask if he could check, ‘yes y/n is feeling sick so they went back to the dorms’

> he grabbed your bag and ran after you, he got a little worried seeing you with your hand over your mouth not knowing if you’re crying or not

> you walked into the dorms he got there a couple seconds later running up to your room

> as soon as he saw you in the bathroom hunched over the toilet he pulled back your hair (if you have hair), he massaged your head as you let everything out ‘dumbass you should’ve fuckin told me, i wouldn’t have let you do that stupid exam’

> as soon as you stopped throwing up you said ‘i know that’s why i didn’t say anything’ he only just saw you without your mask and noticed your exhausted expression

> ‘i know you’ve been studying more but how fucking much, teddybear you would’ve passed whether you studied that much or not for fuck sake’ he groaned as he turned on the shower for you grabbing you a towel throwing it to you

> ‘just to make you feel better i’ll sleep, okay mopey?’ you teased as he closed the bathroom door ‘shut up i’m not fuckin mopey!’ he yelled through the door

> as you showered he looked in your closet for clothes when he noticed some of his shirts and jumpers instead of being angry it made him a little proud seeing how much you liked his clothes

> he grabbed his skull shirt it was a little big on you which he loved

> as soon as you finished showering you changed into the clothes he left you and walked downstairs sitting on the counter and bakugou roamed around the kitchen

> he grabbed some medicine from the cupboard and if you hate the medicine he’d mix it with your tea coffee or hot chocolate, ‘alright the medicine is in this so drink it all’

> he noticed you pouting as he handed you the cup ‘why’re you fuckin looking at me like that’

> ‘you’re cute when you pretend not to care’ he groaned hearing this as you giggled and reached forward from the counter and grabbed his hands pulling him towards you, his arms landed around your waist as yours were around his neck, his head on your shoulder as you hunched down a little and you kissed his head

> ‘tch, fuckin drink it before it gets cold’ you couldn’t see this but he was red as fuck and he loved these moments even if he wouldn’t admit it

> he watched as you stared out the open windows drinking your medicine infused drink

> ‘katsuki?’ he quickly shook his head as he caught himself staring at you ‘what dumbass’

> ‘i love you’ you grinned holding your arms out again still sitting on the counter, he rolled his eyes walking forward pressing his head against your chest as you both sighed happily your legs around his torso your head resting on his head

> ‘i love you too teddybear’ he mumbled into your chest

> the moment was soon ruined by denki walking in yelling about how whipped bakugou is for you

[ todoroki ]

> he has no clue what he’s doing CluELESS BABIE😭😭

> of course he gets sick but he doesn’t know how to handle others being sick so he 100% goes to midoriya and his sister for help

> fuyumi makes him soup and soba to eat with you

> like midoriya he researches a lot about what to do and how to help

> since he’s already quite comfortable with you he gets a little pouty when you refuse to kiss him ‘but y/n i won’t get sick, i’ll make sure i don’t’

> please give this boy forehead kisses at least

> he used his hand to cool you down when you need it

-> scenario

> you walked to class with him as usual and he asked about the mask noticing your scratchy voice

> ‘im a little sick but i need to do this exam’ you replied making him hum back

> ‘have you taken medicine?’ you shook your head ‘y/n theres medicine in the cabinet downstairs, we can go back and get some aizawa sensei will understand’ he took your hand before you shook your head guiding him back to school

> ‘shoto it’s okay, i promise i’ll be okay i’ll get some medicine after the exam baby’ he nodded giving you a small smile

> he made sure to keep an eye on you throughout the exam

> you both finished the exam early, since you studied together a lot he always made you go sleep when he caught you studying late which was a lot more often recently

> he sometimes wakes up randomly at 4-5am same and checks your room to check if you’re safe you don’t really realise until you stay up for a couple nights in a row and he opens your door to you studying

> ‘y/n? what are you doing awake’ he scared you a little, ‘shoto hi i’m studying’ you smiled

> your late night talk usually ends when he whines at you ‘baby it’s late go to sleep’ if you refused he’d grab your books and put them in your bag and tuck you into your bed kissing you softly before going back to sleep himself

> usually those nights would end up in cuddling but the last couple nights you’d both been studying a lot

> anyway you had your head tilted to the side in your hand as your elbow propped you up

> he smiled at your sleepy state until he realised you were genuinely sleeping and since he hadn’t checked on you the last couple nights he got a little worried

> he looked around to see the usual people sleeping as well and you slid down your arm into an even deeper sleep breathing softly moving up a down a little

> ‘aizawa sensai? can i take y/n back to the dorms they’re sick and hasn’t had their medicine’ he explained

> ‘yes todoroki make sure they get sleep as well they look exhausted’

> the boy took both of your test papers handing them to aizawa before he grabbed your bag and picked you up slumping you over his shoulder as everyone cooed at the sight

> he layed you in his bed ‘y/n, love wake up’

> as soon as you woke up he told you to shower and got everything ready for you

> since he didn’t have enough time to go ask fuyumi for help he asked her to send him a recipe and he cooked soup for you making sure to leave a note telling you to come downstairs

> he left the note on top of his shirt and your shorts

> you trudged downstairs and sat down on the island watching him cook, ‘are you feeling better love’ you nodded a little smiling

> he took out some medicine from the cabinet with a little spoon pouring the right amount as the soup cooked behind him

> walking over to you he put the little bottle down moving the spoon to your mouth and grabbed a water bottle to wash the taste out, ‘open up’ you grimaced at the smell scrunching your nose up a little but did as he said

> he moved the spoon into your mouth, you closed your lips around it the taste of the medicine filling your mouth

> you quickly grabbed the water chugging it down as todoroki laughed, before he could say more you slapped your hand over your mouth and ran over to the nearest bin

> his eyes widened as he ran over to you steadying you holding your waist and hair back (agAIN IF YOU HAVE HAIR) he rubbed your stomach up and down ‘it’s okay get it out, you’re doing great’

> as soon as you drank some water you sat back up on the island ‘i think we need different medicine’ todoroki smiled as you nodded at him

> his hands landed on your thighs pulling you closer to him his legs between yours, your legs hung off the counter as he nudged his nose with your own, ‘i’m not kissing you’ you laugh as he pouts at you ‘one, just one i promise that’s it’ you shook your head kissing his cheek

> he pulled away and took some soup with a little spoon blowing on it before bringing it up to your lips and letting you taste it

> your eyes widened as you smiled ‘it tastes exactly like fuyumi’s’ you smile as he beamed at you

> as you ate, todoroki opened the door to the campus postman, he came back in and gave you some flowers and medicine

> you checked the card ‘fuyumi told me you weren’t feeling great, so i thought i’d send some homemade medicine, feel better soon my love - rei’ you showed shoto the card

> his smile got 10x wider reading it

> ‘you make me so happy, even when you feel like a zombie’ he smiled as he fed you the medicine

A/N :

BROOOOOO i got so fucking sad im so so so so so sad goodbye the pain i’m feeling today

jesus CHRIST

tag list : @blazedbakugou @todoroki-shoto-is-life @luluwiie

[theoreticslut]

O’ Captain, My Captain // s.r.

steve rogers x reader

requested: no - # 2/7 for my 2k writing challenge where I used all of the day’s prompts!

summary: A stealth mission gone wrong leads to some injuries and an accidental sharing of feelings. 

word count: 2.8k

warnings: mentions of fighting & injuries, very slight angst if you squint, fluff

A/N: I debated posting this tonight bc I already posted a fic, but you know what? fuck it. I don’t want to wait forever to post this bc I like it. I’m pretty sure this si the first marvel fic I’m posting?? I know I’ve got some that I’ve started before this one, but I don’t think I’ve posted any yet?? Idk. I hope you like this!! Xx

“Would you be quiet?” You huff, shaking your head at the blonde man walking beside you.

For someone who has supposedly done stealth missions before, you’re questioning how he ever managed. You swear that since you step foot in the base, he hasn’t stopped talking. Honestly you’re not sure how you haven’t been found out or caught yet.

“At this point, if we get caught, I’m blaming you.”

“We won’t get caught, y/n. Settle down.” Steve huffs, rolling his eyes in mock annoyance.

As soon as the words leave his lips, you hear a loud clang from somewhere behind you, although it could be in front of you as the hallway you’re currently in is awful echoey. 

Senses heightened, you find yourselves surveying the entirety of the hallway before even considering moving.

“Won’t get caught, huh? Say that again and I’ll try to believe you.” 

“Just stay alert. I’m not going to let you get caught, but that doesn’t mean anything if you don’t make it out of here.”

“Got it. Stay alive.” You quip, not able to keep your sarcasm at bay.

~.~

“Cap!” You shout as one of the bad guys sneak up on his backside.

You had managed to get through the hall, and even all the way to the basement laboratory before the two of you encountered hydra goons. 

It would have been fine, if you had paid attention when they first attacked you. Instead, you twisted your ankle and fell backwards when trying to dodge their advances because you hadn’t paid attention to the layout of the room. This meant that Steve had to help you up before helping himself, leaving him open to attack.

“Got it. Are you good?” He checks, glancing back at you as you get your footing, your ankle already screaming at you.

“Yep. I’ve got it. Let’s take care of them.” You reassure, ignoring the pain in your ankle as you ready yourself for combat.

Dodging an attack from some short, dark-haired hydra agent, you sweep your leg out to trip him, pinning him to the ground with a few simple jabs at certain pressure points.

You catch sight of Steve fighting off a handful of agents himself, but before you can even think of helping out you’re being cornered by two new agents.

It doesn’t take you too long to take them down, but as soon as they're taken care of there’s more advancing. 

You honestly can’t tell how long you’ve been fighting now. It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, but time passes differently when you’re trying to survive.

In all honesty, you’re getting worn out, but you know that the second you let it fully take over your body will be the second you fall. That means that even though your muscles are burning and you’re hardly able to take a deep breath anymore, you keep pushing and fighting.

“Y/n, look out!” Steve shouts, spotting a stray agent getting ready to attack you.

You don’t register his words in time though as you get thrown back by the agent, hitting the wall with more force than you had expected. It’s not until he’s stalking towards you do you realize that he must have been another test subject of theirs - gaining super strength at the cost of his humanity.

You attempt to get up to fight back, but the combination of being tired and hitting the wall has your head spinning. As soon as you’re attempting to push yourself up, you’re stumbling down again and dozing off.

~.~

Coming to, the first thing you make out is the small room you’re in. You’re guessing it’s a hotel of some sort by the setup - a small table with a coffee maker, a single dresser with a TV set on top of it, and one sole full-sized bed. The second thing you notice is just how tired you still feel, along with the ache in your entire body.

You groan as you try to sit up, but as soon as you do you begin feeling lightheaded.

“Oh, you’re up. How are you feeling, y/n?” Steve asks as he comes into sight, carrying a couple bags in his hand.

“Sore...those hydra agents were relentless.” You groan, still attempting to push yourself up to a sitting position which is proving to be more difficult than it should be.

He catches you wince lightly, frowning as he sets the bags down on the table to help you.

“Let me help.” 

You sigh, nodding lightly as he carefully wraps an arm around your waist, giving you his other one to pull on.

“Thank you.” You murmur, resting your head against the wall as you shut your eyelids.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah...yeah. Just a little lightheaded.”

He nods, pursing his lips in a frown, watching you take a few breaths to steady yourself.

“You hit that wall hard, after you had already hurt your ankle. I’m sure you’re going to be sore for a few days at least.” He tries to console. He may be good at pep talks, but he’s never been all that great at comforting people.

“Just get me some ibuprofen and I’ll be fine. When are we heading back?” You question, opening your eyes enough to look at him.

“Not for a day or two at the very least. You need to heal some before I’ll even think about getting us back.”

Before you can even register or question his words he’s continuing.

“You might just have a twisted ankle and some soreness here and there, but I doubt it. You’ve got a broken ankle and a concussion at least, on top of various bruises from fighting.”

“And how are you so sure?”

“I’ve seen broken bones and concussions on the battlefield enough times before to have a pretty good idea that you’ve got the same.” He deadpans, but cracks a smirk nevertheless when you roll your eyes.

“Alright Rogers, whatever you say.” 

“I’m really hoping those bags you were carrying contain food. I know for sure that I could eat.” You blatantly hint, drawing a chuckle from the blonde man.

~.~

You can’t stop the yawn that wants to escape your body. It’s been hours now since you woke up to Steve returning, and you are thoroughly exhausted.

Not that you’ve done anything to warrant such exhaustion - since he returned the two of you ate, he tended to your injuries, you both changed into lounge clothes he had picked up, and then watched some tv and chatted.

It’s certainly been nice, but it feels wrong all at the same time. Sure it’s been lovely having the entire evening to hang out with Steve, but you can’t help but feel like you should be doing something. If you’re not trying to get back to headquarters, then you should at least be trying to gather information on the hydra operations you’re trying to take down.

Instead, the two of you have just been laying around, talking and laughing. You’ve watched some rather boring tv before you found a movie that interested the both of you. You can't lie and say it's been torture, because in all reality, it's been more like heaven. 

You never really had a chance to get to know Steve aside from missions and running the Avengers. You had obviously heard stories from some of the other members, but you didn't really know him. 

You've always found him pretty attractive, but he was older than you - even ignoring the 70 year time period that he had been frozen. That, and he was your superior in a way. You knew that you would never have a chance no matter how much you hoped for one.

That's partly why you never got to know him. Sure, you've been dying to every day since you met the man, but you figured that the best way to keep from continually falling for him was to avoid any unnecessary socializing.

“Are you tired?” Steve asks softly, catching you yawning. 

He can’t help but admit to himself that it’s rather adorable seeing you so sleepy, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“A little bit.” You admit, another yawn escaping your body as tears line your waterline.

“Get some rest then. It’s been a long day, y/n.” 

You nod lazily, carefully adjusting yourself to a more comfortable position. 

You hiss, wincing as you put just a bit too much pressure on your ankle and twisting your torso more than you should have. Immediately Steve is checking you over, trying to figure out what happened.

“What happened? Why are you wincing?” He asks, eyes bouncing all over your figure  - from your pained expression to how you're holding yourself tensely.

“I moved the wrong way.” You hiss, trying to breathe through the pain as tears brim your waterline.

“Where does it hurt?” He asks, features relaxing slightly. He had tried his best to tend to your injuries, but there’s only so much he can do here without the proper education or equipment.

“My ribs and ankle.” You sigh, gently relaxing yourself as you attempt to lay down in the bed more.

He nods, pulling the blankets back to grab ahold of your leg to prevent you from applying pressure to the ankle as you wiggle down into the mattress.

Once you’re settled, he helps you get your leg situated so you’re comfortable but the ankle won’t hurt. Then he pulls the blankets back up over your body, tucking you in with a little smile.

“Good night.” He murmurs, starting to walk away from the bed.

“Wait! Where are you going?” 

“Just to the chair over here.” He chuckles, pointing towards the piece of furniture as he watches you pout slightly.

“You’re not sleeping there, are you?”

“Yeah…?” 

He watches your frown deepen, wondering why you’d care. He didn’t want to spend too much on a room, which is why he just got a single. He had already planned on you taking the bed, not thinking it’d matter to you.

“No. That’s going to be so uncomfortable, Steve. You need a bed too.” You pout, watching him as he watches you, confusion plastered on his face.

“….but there’s only the one bed.”

“So? I don’t mind, and I mean, I-“ you stutter, warmth blossoming in your cheeks as he watches you with furrowed brows. 

“You….what?”

“I don’t want to be alone.” You mumble, watching as it finally clicks in his head that you want to share the bed with him.

He mouths a little ‘oh’ before smiling and making his way back over to the bed. You watch with bated breath as he pulls the sheets back again only to crawl in beside you.

“You okay?” He asks, smiling lightly at you, taking in how beautiful you are as he does so.

“Mhm. Are you?”

“I’m perfect. Now get some sleep, y/n.” He chuckles, pulling the blankets over himself.

You whine but nod nonetheless, situating yourself the tiniest bit before you’re closing your eyes, hyper aware of just how close Steve is next to you. If you were brave, all you needed to do was wiggle back about six inches and you’d be curled up in his side. As much as you’d like to, you figure it’s probably best to keep that little bit of space, opting instead to just try to fall asleep.

~.~

Steve groans lightly as something hits him in his sleep. Rubbing his eyes he looks around, frowning when he doesn’t find anything out of the ordinary.

He finds that he fell asleep to the tv playing, some irrelevant sitcom playing on the screen. Sighing lightly he goes to find the remote, finding that he can’t move.

Looking down, he can’t help the groggy smile that fills his face. Somehow in your sleep you had turned onto your other side from which you fell asleep on, entangling your legs with his while your arm was thrown over his stomach in a hug. He could feel his heart swell as he admired your sleeping form. 

There was no denying that you were attractive. He himself had been attracted to you since you first joined the Avengers. The sole reason he never made any moves was because he could tell you were trying to keep your distance from him. It hurt, but it’s not like it was the end of the world. He figured that you had your reasons for staying away and he wasn’t going to push it.

Now that your body is practically on top of him, though, he can’t help but wonder what the exact reason is for you keeping your distance. He’s tired of it in all honesty. He thought that maybe he could get over his little crush if you were going to stay distant, but his feelings have only grown tenfold.

He can’t walk into any common area of the compound without wondering if you’d be there or if you’d walk in. He’s constantly wondering if you’re thinking the same things of him. He’s always watching you whenever you’re in sight - including during battle, which isn’t the best thing to be doing, but he can’t help it.

“I’m going to take care of you, I promise.” He murmurs, going to press a kiss into your hairline.

“We’re going to get your ankle all fixed up and then I’ll make sure your concussion is getting better. I promised you that you wouldn’t get captured, and I’m promising you now that you’ll heal up just fine.” 

As he talks, he mindlessly plays with the ends of your hair, gently waking you in the process.

“I’ve never broken a promise to you before, and I’m not planning to now. I care for you too much to ever think about hurting you. God it killed me when you passed out. There were still so many hydra agents and I-I just couldn’t let them hurt you. I think I blacked out myself, honestly” he rambles, chuckling lightly, not noticing that your breaths are deeper against his chest.

“I remember watching you pass out and worrying that they’d hurt you while you were out, and then, I don’t know. It’s like I woke up and all the hydra agents were taken care of.”

“All I knew was I had to make sure you were safe. We may not be close, but god do I wish we were. I get that you have your reasons for wanting to keep your distance, but I can’t keep pretending that I don’t have feelings for you. I just wish I could say that to you awake…”

You can feel him sigh, and you can tell he’s frowning without even looking at his face. You can’t help but smile lightly, a small blush covering your cheeks as you bury your head into his chest slightly.

“You’re awake, aren’t you?” He mumbled after a moment.

You nod lightly, gently lifting your head to look at him as he chuckles and shakes his head, his hand rubbing at his temples.

“I have feelings for you too, Steve. That’s why I put distance between us. I-I didn’t think I had a chance….” You admit, looking away from him as you continue your thoughts.

“I thought that having some distance between us would help me stop falling for you.” You chuckle.

“Did it?”

“Not at all.” You laugh, blushing wildly as you look up to him to find a large smile on his face.

“Good.”

With a smile he leans down, capturing your lips with his in a near mind blowing kiss. Years of pining and hidden feelings are finally brought forth, and it’s more than you could have ever dreamed. You swear it felt like fireworks were going off throughout your body - your stomach twisting, your heart racing, and every nerve hyper aware of his touch.

Pulling away you can’t help but giggle, giddy off of his touch. He smiles, tucking some hair behind your ear before pressing kisses all over your face.

“I really like you, y/n.”

“I really like you too, Steve. I’m glad that you were there to make sure I was okay.” You giggle, pressing one last soft kiss to his lips before settling back into bed beside him. 

Making sure that the tv is off, Steve wraps his arm around your waist, pulling you into his body so there’s not an inch of skin without yours upon it. Of course he makes sure you’re comfortable first and that you’re not hurting anywhere. As soon as he’s sure that you’re okay, he presses another kiss to your hairline, whispering sweet words and promises to you as you drift off to sleep once again.

As he feels your breaths become shallower, he can’t help the content smile on his lips. Playing with your hair as you sleep, he drifts off for the night with you.

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

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Steve Rogers - @jackys-stuff-blog @stoopidwithtwohoes @teawiththeweasleys @kaslupin @mollysolo @lilypad-55449 @roonilwazlibswhore

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[smuggsy]

i would love to see #11 for the prompt thing (just want to say i adore ur current ed/oswald/omc series btw im excited for more! <3)

owww, thank you so much <3 it's nice to hear ppl are actually enjoying it bc i've got almost no feedback. another chapter is coming soon (;

but now onto the whump below the cut. #11 “Please, let me help you.” 

Getting used to his impaired vision is no easy task, he'll admit. Now that the doctor's made a thorough job of cleaning the wound and administering antibiotics to prevent infection and prescribed him two different kinds of painkillers and now that the initial shock of it all has passed. Now it downs on Oswald that this is who he's going to be from now on, that watching his step carefully when he goes down the stairs and bumping into walls that are closer than they seem is something he's going to have to get used to. 

As if walking around with a limp and a cane wasn't demeaning enough already. He lets out a grunt as he finally makes it to the kitchen, everything is sunk in darkness and he fails to turn on the lights two times before he finally finds the switch.

He sees the switch. He knows where it is. It's always been there, in that exact same spot, and he's walked into the kitchen in the middle of the night to fix himself some tea countless times before.

Now the switch has moved.

"Urrgh," he grunts one more time as he turns around and collides against the kitchen aisle. He nearly grabs one of the chairs and tosses it across the room, a sudden rush of adrenaline and fury coursing through his sleep-deprived mind.

There's a pang behind his eyepatch as if mocking his helplessness but he calms down soon enough, closing his good eye and taking a deep breath to brace himself against the counter. He manages to put the kettle on without any further incidents, but when he stands on his toes to reach the cabinet —how many times has he told Olga to keep that stupid tea-set at hand?!— he topples over and ends up sending two very nice cups to their deaths.

They crash on the floor with a piercing sound and Oswald startles and grits his teeth at the commotion. 

Deep breaths, deeeeeep breaths.

Choosing to ignore the incident he turns around to switch off the gas with trembling hands and pour the water into the one cup he did manage to obtain. 

Except, of course, his mind is still foggy from restless sleep and drugs so he misjudges the angle entirely and ends up pouring it all over his hand holding the teabag in place instead.

He lets out a yelp and drops the kettle instantly.

"Ow! Shit! Stupid little—!"

The water drips onto the floor unceremoniously as he tumbles over to reach the water tap and put his hand under it.

Ed barges into the place only half a minute later wielding a handgun, with hair sticking out and with his glasses askew. Oswald barely spares him a glance, blood boiling under his skin and dangerously close to the edge already.

"Oswald, what—"

"Nothing!" he blurts out almost immediately. Edward bearing witness to this mess is the last thing he needs right now, "just go away."

But, of course, he's Edward.

"What happened?" his friend asks, pistol forgotten on some nearby shelf and rushing over, words the slightest bit slurred by slumber and Oswald thinks lucky you, being able to get a wink of sleep, and takes another of those deep breaths that are doing a poor job of slowing down his heart rate. 

"What does it look like it happened, Ed?!"

Edward stares at him numbly and then his eyes dart around the place like he's only now taking it all in, seeing the shattered china on the floor and the pool of water by their feet. Immediately he brings both hands to Oswald's under the cold water from the tap and tugs at it.

"Let me see."

Oswald jerks him away.

"No— I'm fine!" he bites out, "go back to sleep."

Despite his ill-mannered humour, Edward doesn't move. Oswald doesn't look at him while he stands next to him in silence, letting the waters cool, clearly giving him a moment to backtrack on his request. And then, ever so softly, Ed's hands return, to his elbow this time. A touch too gentle it almost makes Oswald let out a whine — because he's tired, and aching, and sleepy and nothing turns out for him as of late.

"Please, let me help you."

His words are a caress in Oswald's ear. Barely there. Ed keeps his warm fingers on his arm and slowly brings the hand to his chest for inspection. Oswald lets him, this time. All energy seems to leave him with that puff of breath and he lets Ed guide him to one of those chairs he was contemplating taking all of his frustrations out on just a minute ago.

There's a slight hiss of sympathy.

"Should be alright with a little cream and a bandage," is Edward's assessment. 

Oswald rolls his eyes and fights down a sappy retort much like: yes, I know that, I'm not so incompetent that I need you here to issue an official diagnosis, just leave me to rage in peace. He nods tiredly instead, shoulders slumped and yawn unavoidable.

"I'll be right back," Ed says with a hoarse voice, moving around quickly despite his dishevelled appearance, looking perfectly awake now but sounding nothing like it. 

Oswald doesn't try to stop him. Because he knows it'll be a lost cause and because he's afraid if he starts poking too much at the situation he'll end up embarrassing himself and crying out his frustrations on Ed's shoulder.

Not ideal.

So he keeps silent instead, watching Ed's expert hands apply that cold salve on his knuckles and wrap his aching red-looking skin in a white bandage, giving up on not looking miserable because what's the point.

He is miserable.

"There, all done."

Ed pats him twice on the thigh as if comforting a hurting animal and Oswald can only offer a small scoff in return. He can smell Ed's shampoo from where he's standing so close and he keeps his eyes fixed on that loose crumpled white shirt he wears to sleep, afraid to look up into the gentle eyes he knows he'll find behind those glasses.

Because he might start blurting out stuff that shouldn't be blurt out if he does, as helpless and exhausted as he's beginning to feel.

"Now let's get you that cup of tea."

Ed turns around to make himself busy and Oswald takes the opportunity to scatter away.

"Where—"

"Sofa," he crooks out deadpan. 

That's where Ed finds him ten minutes later, staring at the unlit fireplace as if willing it to come to life on its own. Sitting on his usual spot with the lights off and a glassy look of resignation. 

"Chamomile," Ed says as he offers the steaming cup. Oswald doesn't have the heart to tell him he's changed his mind and would rather down a glass or two of that aged Scotch instead. He takes a sip without muttering out a word. Ed sits down just beside, clearly not taking the hint, "you're uncharacteristically quiet."

Oswald shrugs.

"Just tired," he offers, and then, only to put Ed's mind at ease, gives him a practised look of reassurance and a smile, "I didn't mean to wake you up."

Edward turns the attention back to him, ignoring the clear dismissal implicit in the words.

"Did you go to sleep at all?"

"Yes."

"Is your eye bothering you?"

And then the Oswald from the kitchen returns without a warning and he lashes out.

"Goodnight, Ed."

Edward goes to speak again but stops himself when Oswald sends him a sharp menacing look. He looks nothing short of a kicked puppy as he gets on his feet and turns around to leave.

And then he doesn't leave.

"I could start a fir—"

"Goddamn it, Ed! Just leave me alone!"

And just like that the fourth and last cup of that lovely set ceases to exist, turned into another pile of shattered porcelain on the floor. Because Edward Nygma is a pain in his fucking ass, and he doesn't know how to read an indirect and back down and just disappear. He pokes and pokes and pokes—

—and when Oswald turns to look at him with that murderous glare, he sees no reaction from him. Clearly, this was his intention all along, from the very first moment he walked into that kitchen, to see just how much he could take, to push until he broke, to make him talk about it.

Oswald should have learnt to read Edward Nygma by now. Should’ve seen it coming.

As Ed strides back to him with purpose and swiftly sits back down on the sofa and leans in to wrap him into an embrace, Oswald understands he definitely still hasn't learnt to read Edward Nygma. 

"What are you doing?" he pushes him away half-heartedly with his good hand. Edward doesn't let go, an unmovable brick wall that cannot be swayed.

"I'm hugging you."

"Let go—"

"No."

Oswald blinks. Then lets out a breathless laugh. He can't seem to fathom any other reaction to this — provided this is actually happening. Provided it isn't a secondary effect of being drugged up to his eyeballs for a whole week, now. 

He stops trying to tug Edward away and instead slumps against him, head resting on a slim shoulder and cold and runny nose poking Ed's neck as he keeps giggling at the unprecedented gesture. 

Edward's hug is implacable but awkward. He doesn't move, his broad hands against Oswald's back just pin him in place almost in a possessive fashion. He's clearly unskilled in the ways of physical reassurance.

Oswald realises those nervous giggles he's letting out are actually sobs.

[unbridgeabledistances]

hi y’all<3 here’s a new section of the gallavich as seen from alternate POVs fic, this time featuring lip!!!! (i wanted to wait til after the ✨lickey drama✨ in the new ep before posting, but then i decided against it bc i didn’t want to re-write this lol)

i started to have way too many feelings while writing this so it’s a little lengthy and contemplative, but rest assured it features some domestic fluff/ian and mickey being disgustingly in love- i hope u enjoy<3

--

Lip shuffled into the kitchen of the Gallagher house, opening the fridge door and reaching past the clanging beer bottles to grab a metal soda can on the way back of the shelf, hearing a faint fizz escape as he popped the tab. It was late, the moonlight streaming in across the kitchen through the worn curtains and pooling on the kitchen floor— after Tami had crashed in their bed at the apartment after a long day at work and Freddie was sleeping soundly in his crib, Lip had come by the Gallagher house, without really knowing why. He just needed to clear his head, to get some distance from Tami and all her relentless nagging about moving and apartment hunting and his colossally obvious fuck-up with the bikes— he just needed some space, some less stifling air to breathe outside of their half-packed apartment crammed with boxes lining the walls.

It was funny; no matter how much energy Lip had poured into he and Tami’s first apartment, into painting the walls and agonizing over their kitchen backsplash like it was his first-born son, whenever Lip thought about home, whenever he felt that pit of uneasiness growing in his stomach and he just needed a place where he could lie back on a couch and loosen the knots in his shoulders and breathe in familiar air that would fill him up, instead of the too-clean smell of Tami’s flowery potpourri that she’d placed on the expensive coffee table in their living room— Lip always found his feet leading him across the slabs of sidewalk and past the chain link fences towards the Gallagher house, no matter the time of night. He had only been in the house for a few minutes before he felt the tight-knit something in his chest begin to unfurl— he didn’t even want to start to think about what was lodged there. This had been a crazy fucking couple of months, and he wasn’t going to start getting sappy about selling the house now, not when they were so close. He’d dug a hole too deep this time, and he needed the money. He couldn’t fuck up again— not with Freddie to take care of. No matter what it cost him.

So that’s how Lip ended up sitting at the Gallagher kitchen table at 2 a.m. on a Thursday night, sipping at an overly-sugary pop that was no substitute for what he really wanted to be drinking right now—he could imagine how it would warm the insides of his stomach, how it would cushion whatever weird fucking ache was in his chest right now. But— no. Fuck no. He wasn’t going to do that now. Everything about selling the house, about moving on, was about getting his shit straight— about leaving the bad parts of this sagging roof and these stained floorboards behind him.

Lip slouched in the wooden kitchen chair, scrolling on his phone and finally letting out a breath he didn’t really know he had been holding in all day, when he heard a creaking of footsteps padding at the top of the stairs— too heavy to be Liam or Debbie, too careful and unfumbling to be Frank dragging himself through the house. Lip flickered a glance up from where he was sitting and met Ian’s eyes as he turned the corner of the stairs, his skin looking translucent and overly pale in the moonlight like the ginger motherfucker he was.

Ian nodded his head towards Lip in acknowledgement, like he wasn’t surprised in the slightest that his older brother with a whole ass family and apartment of his own was decidedly squatting in the kitchen of his childhood home, drinking a pathetic-looking can of Dr. Pepper. Ian slid open the fridge door, grabbing a beer and swiftly popping the cap off by knocking the bottle on the side of the counter—and then in an instant it became one of those quiet, familiar nights when it was just Lip and Ian in the kitchen, sometimes letting easy conversations flow between them, but other times, just like this— just sinking into each other’s presence in the silence. Ian’s shadow mingling with the moonlight on the kitchen floor immediately snapped the atmosphere from lonely and self-pitying and stale to something lighter, something familiar—like the worn, buttery leather of a baseball glove that fits just right.

Instantly Lip was brought back to so many nights before this, of he and Ian orbiting each other in the kitchen at night— when they were kids and would creep down the stairs and eat fistfuls of junk food that Fiona had forbidden, or steal warm sips of the open beers Frank had left on the counter. This was where they’d processed Monica’s return, late at night while they passed a cigarette between them and Ian hadn’t tried to hide the tears that were freely rolling down his freckled cheeks, back when they were both just confused kids who clung to each other— this was where they’d processed Frank’s alcoholic meltdowns, too many to count, and all the love and loss and confusion that had passed between these walls, all the collateral damage of living in this fucking neighborhood. And Lip felt a sudden pang in his gut, sharp and present, when he realized that it might be one of the last nights that he and Ian got to spend in the kitchen like this.

Lip immediately shoved the thought down with all his might, a hydraulic press squeezing out any sentimentality. He had to do this— for Freddie, for Tami. He had to man up and move on, even if it meant physically wounding the crumbling walls to ease the pain of the parallel jagged wounds somewhere deep in his chest, or screaming and shouting until veins popped in his neck, so loud that he knew he was radiating his pain outwards like a fucking atomic bomb.

But tonight, Lip had no more fight left to give. He just wanted to let these four walls hold him one last time, without even realizing that was what he had needed until this moment. Ian slid a chair out from the kitchen table and sat beside him, leaning back and dragging out a slow, sleepy breath.

Lip cleared his throat, softly. “Where’s Mick?”

“Passed out upstairs.” Ian scrubbed a hand over his face. “I couldn’t sleep.”

Lip raised his eyebrow, almost involuntarily, and Ian immediately jutted his chin up in a half-nod, an affirmation, as he leaned back even farther and took the first sip of his beer. No, he wasn’t manic and yes, he was fine. After all the years that had passed since Ian was still figuring this shit out, Lip sometimes forgot that checking in on him wasn’t really his job, not anymore.

Lip took another sip from his soda can, a movement to fill the easy silence. “How was your guys’ night?”

Ian shrugged non-committally, his shoulders still slumped back in the chair, his lips puckered around the mouth of the bottle as he stared off into the distance at the peeling kitchen wallpaper. “Eh. It was fine. I dragged Mickey out to try and make more gay friends. Ended up being a mistake.”

Lip held back a laugh, taking a sip from his own drink to mask his smirk. He had ample auditory evidence that Mickey was plenty as gay as Ian, but it was still hard to imagine Mickey leaning into all of this shit— Ian used to wear golden underwear and frequent gay clubs and go to social justice brunches, but none of that really seemed like it was Mickey’s scene.

“Oh yeah? Mickey not the easiest person to befriend?” Lip said it with his eyebrows raised, like the joke was obvious.

Ian looked up at him, like he’d been snapped out of a sleepy train of thought, staring earnestly like Lip’s jab had flown right over his head. “Actually, it was kind of my fault. I was the one who made us leave this dinner party thing we got invited to. They were all talking shit about the Southside, about how they hated their families, and I couldn’t really… connect with them, I guess.”

Lip pondered that, taking a breath and stretching his arms above his head. God, he was sore— he hadn’t even been fucking working, aside from hauling those bikes from place to place to avoid the cops, but all the pent up stress and tension was starting to linger in his bones.

“Yeah, it was the same for me. In college, or whatever. Joaquin was the only person I really talked to, because he got all the shit I was always going through.”

Ian nodded contemplatively—but he was staring off into space again, almost like he was half asleep. Lip took another sip of his soda. He could bring up the house shit again right now—it was all that they’d been talking about for the past few weeks—but for some reason it felt too raw, too intense to bring up right now, like it would cut through this peaceful moment, this island in the vast sea of uncertainty Lip knew he was bringing down on all of their heads. So in this moment, he opted for smoother waters.

“Why’d you guys go looking for new friends, anyways?”

Ian finally broke out of whatever drowsy, pensive trance he’d been in, his lips sloping into a smile. “Mickey kept giving me shit for always doing what you do, after breakfast today. I figured… I don’t know, I just got all pissy and tried to prove him wrong.”

Lip felt the corner of his mouth tick upward at that. “Guess you’re stuck with me.”

Ian grinned, and held out his beer bottle, stretching his arm across the table. Lip tapped it with his soda can with a light “Cheers,” then took the final sip. He crushed the can to a disk on the table, pressing it down firmly with the heel of his palm and watching the sides compress. Ian’s eyes were cast downward at the table, watching his movements.

“How’s stuff with you and Tami going, all the packing and shit?”

Lip turned the flattened can on its side, contemplatively spinning it like a top on the table and fidgeting with it between his fingers.

“Honestly? I’m fucking exhausted.”

He could hear the breathiness as he said it, how deflated his own voice sounded. And Lip knew could make himself say more— he knew if anyone would get it, Ian would.

“It’s just… fuck, man.”

He looked up and Ian was staring directly at him now, his expression unguarded— listening. Listening like he always did in these moments. Lip let out a low chuckle, trying to shield his own vulnerability.

“How’d we get so fucking old? How is this… it, y’know? Finally leaving the fucking nest, or whatever.”

Ian smiled, placing his beer on the table. “I think you already left the nest when you had a baby and moved into an apartment with your girlfriend.”

Lip shrugged, fiddling with the crushed can again between his fingertips. “Yeah. Guess you’re right.”

“And you are the one making us do this, for the record.”

If Ian’s tone wasn’t as playful or as tentative as it was, Lip would have worried that he was upset— but judging by Ian’s still-comfortable slouch and his steady expression, Lip knew he was fine— he was weathering the storm, just like Lip was.

Ian leaned forward.

“Hey. Mickey was giving me shit—but it is true. You’re my best friend, even though you can be a fucking asshole sometimes.” Ian’s lips curved into a crooked smile. “Nothing’s gonna change that.”

Ian’s eyes flickered around the kitchen as he spoke, and Lip heard everything that was unsaid. Even though you’re kicking us out of the house. Even though you’re changing everything. Even though there isn’t a focal point to our lives anymore.

You’re my best friend.

And Lip felt that pang in his gut again, sharp like a dagger.

**

He’d said it before, and he’d had no problem saying it over and over again in Mickey’s absence, up until the months before the wedding— Ian did always go a little bit “loco” when Mickey was around.

Which, fuck him, I guess, for caring about his little brother with an undiagnosed mental illness who was off living in the Milkovich House of Horrors slash meth lab with Mickey fucking Milkovich, the bully with greasy hair who Lip wrote papers for in high school and who now was a literal, actual, godforsaken pimp. Lip had seen a teenage Ian bruised and drunk and curled into himself crying over Mickey too many times to ever think that this shit was a good idea— and years later, when Ian almost threw away everything, almost threw away stability and sanity and his fucking family to follow Mickey Milkovich across the Mexican border, Lip knew he had to say something, even though it was an unspoken rule that he and Ian didn’t really critique each other’s love lives since the Mandy-and-Karen fiascos of years past.

So he’d said it, that day in the kitchen, after Ian had returned on a Greyhound bus and they were still processing the dull pain of Monica’s loss— and Ian had taken the feedback with a closed-lip smile, like his head was somewhere else, as he picked at the corner of the beer bottle label with his thumb.

And then less than a year later Mickey was released anyways, and ended up standing in a tank top and boxers in the middle of the Gallagher living room, when the house was crawling with strangers and Freddie was barely two weeks old— and Lip had taken in a sharp breath, a bundle of hesitant nerves sprouting for whatever the fuck this situation was going to become; but not one that he could really give attention to, with all the other bullshit that was pulling at his focus, like the desperate screeching of his newborn kid and the mascara running down Tami’s face.

Later that night, when he’d had a spare moment to breathe and Tami was finally calmed down and sleeping in their cramped bedroom, he’d run into Ian in the moonlit hallway as he was stumbling his way out of the bathroom, drowsily rubbing his eyes with his hair sticking up. And Lip had stopped him with a whisper, placing a hand to tap Ian’s shoulder as Ian blinked the sleep from his eyes.

“Hey. So uh… I see Mickey’s out.”

He’d seen the defenses immediately raise in Ian’s eyes, like he knew what Lip was going to say next.

“Yeah.” Ian had said it soft, quietly, like he was afraid of someone waking.

You sure that’s a good idea? Lip could feel the words itching on the tip of his tongue, and he was aching to say them again, all these years later— and yes, maybe his head was so wrapped up in his own shit that he didn’t really have the authority to be doling out relationship advice to his little brother right now, but so much of this reminded him of things that had happened in the past, of Mickey Milkovich crashing on Ian’s bedroom floor until he inevitably couldn’t anymore, until the pressure cooker of his presence mingled with Ian’s inevitably exploded— or at least that was how Lip saw it. There were too many wounds, and they were bound to leave scars— Lip was honestly surprised as fuck that the Gallagher house was Mickey’s first stop out of prison, after everything that had gone down between the two of them.

But, for Ian’s sake, Lip tried to reign it in—despite the fact that they’d just been commiserating about “being in love with crazy people” as they crouched on the living room stairs the night before as Ian sipped on a beer, sputtering out a “fuck no” when Lip asked if he was going to marry Mickey (which was an equally as batshit question as if Lip was going to marry Tami). Despite all of this— now that Mickey was back, Lip could see that this was something Ian wanted, that this was something Ian was treading carefully into, one more time. He was definitely stronger now; even Lip could see that.

“He gonna be hanging around here a while?”

Ian had given a gentle, sleepy smile. “Yeah. Think so.”

And Lip had just reached out, and clapped Ian’s sleep-warmed body on the shoulder. “Sounds good, man.”

Ian had walked the remaining length of the hallway, opening the bedroom door— and in the shadows, Lip could see that Mickey was curled on the old, concave mattress of Ian’s single bed that he’d slept on since they were kids— and Ian had lifted the thin blanket and pressed up next to him, the mattress sinking beneath their collective weight, settling in and pressing a kiss to the top of a snoring Mickey’s head without a second thought. Huh.

That was the beginning of Lip starting to realize that maybe, just maybe, this time with Mickey would be different— and it was. As Mickey started to become a daily fixture in the Gallagher house, constantly pinned to Ian’s side, Lip had noticed how something solid had shifted—they weren’t reckless kids anymore, for starters. He hadn’t really seen Mick and Ian physically together since Ian was catapulting off the deep end, in the weeks after Ian had gotten dragged away by the P.I.s and Mickey had gotten locked up for some crazy fucking stunt trying to murder Sammy. Things were too intense then, too technicolor—for some reason, Lip thought Mickey being back meant that they’d return to being that way.

But now here was this guy, placing a gentle hand on Ian’s chest and saying “Woah, wait a minute” to protect Ian from the batshit P.O. that had just barged through the door—and Lip couldn’t help but realize that was something that he would have done to protect Ian, in a universe where Mickey was still behind bars.

After then, Lip just kept seeing it— the ways that Mickey showed up for Ian. Not even in the ways that he used to, like forcing Ian to take his meds back when everything was uncertain and Ian was slipping through their fingers like sand in a sieve; but in a more solid, adult way, in a way that made Ian buzz whenever he was around him, in a way that made Ian happier and lighter. And maybe it was just the sex—part of it had to be the fucking sex, considering how loud they always were— but Lip realized, after a couple of weeks of Mickey’s presence in the house before their whole eventual engagement fiasco, that Mickey was Ian’s friend, in addition to all the other things he was. After all the years of uncertainty, they’d finally grown the fuck up— Mickey was someone who brought out the best in Ian, and it was like Ian had been waiting for this moment, for Mickey by his side, before he could fully and totally bloom.

And it was weird how emotional that made Lip— after seeing Ian as a hollow shell in a jumpsuit pushing garbage cans around a college campus, or pretending to be someone he wasn’t who wore patterned button-up shirts and threw around fucking useless five-dollar words that Lip didn’t understand like “gender identity” and “intersectionality”— Ian had finally made it, beyond being the bruised, scrawny kid getting sexually abused by a creepy 30 year old man in the back room of a mini-mart, or getting high off his ass every night and starving himself to fit into a golden thong, or wearing a baggy janitor suit with dark circles under his eyes and pallid skin. Ian had done that shit on his own, and made himself into something in Mickey’s absence, sure— but so much of him being the full, happy person he was in this moment was because of Mickey, and Lip could see that now.

Ian was himself— he wasn’t a shadow anymore.

And that was why Lip had said he thought he should marry Mickey, in the end— because there was no doubt in his mind that Mickey Milkovich wasn’t going anywhere, not anytime soon.

Lip could still see it now, in the way that Ian was lounging comfortably in the living room, like he had his whole life— but now Mickey was resting just as comfortably beside him. It was a few weeks after that night in the kitchen, and Lip had just pitched the FOR SALE sign in the Gallagher front yard— now everyone was huddled in the living room, for what they now knew was one of their last lingering nights in this space. Liam was sitting next to Lip, pressed into his side, seeking the comfort that Lip knew he needed through all of these massive fucking changes— Franny was playing on the floor and Debbie was sitting beside her, and across the room Ian and Mickey were pressed side-by-side on the fraying loveseat, scrolling through the lease document for their new apartment on the battered laptop. They were murmuring things to each other that Lip couldn’t really make out— but Mickey was pressed against Ian, slouching into him slightly, and Ian’s eyes were light. In his flicker of a glance towards them, Lip noticed that Mickey was playing with Ian’s hand, swiping a finger over his wedding ring, as Ian scrolled through the paperwork and started to read all the contract information out loud— and Lip smiled to himself as he tried to tune out all the sappy bullshit that was going on in that corner of the room.

Ian was going to be just fine.

**

Hour later Lip strode out the door to the front porch, a cigarette he’d bummed off of Ian wrapped in his fist— he didn’t smoke anymore, especially not under the same roof as Tami, but there was something about the gravity of this night, of the flimsy red and white sign rooted in the front yard, that made Lip’s fingertips itch for a cigarette and made his brain buzz with the want of nicotine to dull the sharp edges of everything he was feeling—for smoke to float in front of his face while he sat on the front steps just one more time.  

He perched on the front steps as the sun was just starting to set, the fish-scale shadows of the chain link fence encroaching further and further into the yard as he flicked at his lighter.

He heard a light cough from somewhere in front of him— and saw that Mickey was outside too, blowing smoke out of his mouth and leaning against the fence in the front yard facing the house. Lip nodded at him in acknowledgement, then took the first drag. Fuck, he’d needed this.

“You gonna miss this place?”

 Mickey said it into the open air, like he isn’t really talking to Lip— his eyes were off in the distance, staring at the paint-chipped front façade of the house. Which was fucking bullshit—why would Mickey be staring absentmindedly, almost fucking wistfully, at the Gallagher house?

It’s not like he and Mickey didn’t talk— they definitely did, pragmatically flinging banter across the kitchen to each other at breakfast when coordinating rides for Liam or grocery list items when Debbie was off at work, existing in the same space every morning— and Mickey helped him haul literal tons of iron when he’d helped him steal the bikes, had haggled over his cut. But never like this—never with any weight, never in a way that was this casual, or this familial, about fucking feelings.

Part of that was probably because it was hard as fuck to worm your way into the Gallagher family—as wide open as their door always seemed to be, with people filtering in and out and crashing on hallway floors or the lumpy couch, this house only continued to function because of its nucleus— because of Lip and Ian and Carl and Debbie and Fiona and Liam and yes, even Frank. Everyone else was a passerby, an impermanent blip crossing through the way station; Jimmy-Steve, Sean, Carl’s slew of girls, Mandy and Karen.

Monica.

None of them were Gallaghers— none of them considered this place to be home, or got all the privileges that came with that. The Gallaghers, the real Gallaghers, had seen every one of these people come and go— and something slippery suddenly crept into Lip’s realization that despite all the odds, despite all of his doubts about him��Mickey had chosen to stay close to these four walls just as much as Lip had.

“Mickey’s family.” Ian had said it over a mouthful of bacon at breakfast a few weeks ago, and Lip had immediately shot him down; but maybe there was some truth to what Ian had said, some truth to the oddly unfailing consistency to Mickey’s ten years. Which meant that maybe…

Maybe it was time to make a fucking peace offering, or whatever.

Lip hummed in acknowledgement to Mickey’s question, pulling himself out of his train of thought.

“Hey. Mick.”

Mickey looked up at where Lip was leaning on the porch, his brows furrowing like he was bracing himself for a confrontation. “Yeah?”

“My head’s been too far up my ass the past couple of months to say it, but, uh. I’m glad you’re family, y’know?”

He’d been passively thinking it for months— but he’d never said it to Mickey, never this directly. He hoped Mickey got it, without brushing it off or shooting him down with some snarky fucking comment like he always did. Lip meant it— he was glad, he was grateful, he was ready to let Mickey Milkovich keep being a part of his fucked up familial life. And he hoped that Mickey saw that.

Mickey just rolled his eyes, taking another drag of his cigarette—but he didn’t say anything in reply, not for a moment. And then:

“You’re as sappy as your fucking brother, Phillip.”

[blueunoias]

Nesta is having her period and horrible day and she just want to go home. Then she and Cassian get in fight bc of something stupid (like Cassian has ate nestas chocolate or smth) and then she just starts crying. So like angst, comfort and yeah🤭

Ooooh, thank you for my first ask. I love this prompt! I'll do my best for you. Let me know if you want more modern au or canon!

For context Cassian was away for a day or two, Nesta had a bad day with her trauma. Nessian angst, comfort and fluff. Enjoy!

Cassian was exhausted when he'd gotten home from Windhaven his wings were worn out, his muscles ached in pain and all he wanted was to see his beautiful mate and sleep in her loving arms.

That would have to wait a bit however.

The family was having dinner at the River House, he quickly showered and changed, excited to finally be reunited with his mate, family and friends.

But mostly his mate.

Stepping into the house, he heard the booming laughter from the living room everyone was sat by the fire, this immediately set an alarm off in Cassian's brain.

As his eyes scanned the room, he found Mor relaxing on a lounge chaise, bottle of wine in hand.

Feyre on Rhys lap on a velvet arm chair.

Lucien and Elain were sat on the carpet by the coffee table wrapped in each others arms.

Amren was in her own chair nursing a glass of dark red ruby wine, with Varian at her feet massaging her ankles

Then his eyes caught to Azriel who stood in the far back of the room carerfully watching over Nesta who seemed like was trying to keep herself together.

Her posture was shrunk, her eyes were glazed and hollow, her breaths were small and heavy.

Cassian could see Nesta, his fierce, fearless mate, cowering into herself, drowning without someone to anchor her.

Suddenly noticing his presence, everyone in the room greeted him with cheerful ebullience.

Cassian politely greeted them and immediately made him path to his mate, ignoring Mor asking him to join her on the chaise or Rhys questions on his trip.

He had no intention of doing any of that. He had another mission.

"Hey sweetheart." He kneeled down in front of Nesta, gently putting his hands on her knees, rubbing delicate circles with his thumb.

Nesta slowly looked up and her gaze was suddenly icy and cold it chilled the room.

"She's been like this for a while." Azriel spoke lowly and quietly only for Cassian to hear.

Worry rushed through Cassian, his first primal instinct was immediately to take her home, hold her and comfort her.

Every protective Fae bone in his body wanted to soar out of there her in his arms, but calmly he took her hands pulled her up.

"I'm taking Nesta home." He announced making his way with an unresponsive Nesta to the exit. "I'll see you later."

"But you just got here." Mor pouted.

"Come on Cass. Stay a bit." Rhys asked.

"You both can always stay the night." Feyre offered generously.

"No. We're going home. And no more fires when I'm not here." He growled, the anger betraying him that they lit a fire and didn't account for Nesta's traumatized behavior.

Without another word he took Nesta and flew them back home to the House of Wind.

Once they were in the room, the House immediately procured warm tea and blankets for Nesta.

She walked silently to the bathroom, she had still to talk to him, still to touch him, still to even acknowledge him.

The fear was beginning to eat him up inside.

He followed her to their bathroom, finding Nesta standing like a ghost in the middle of the room.

Cassian stormed his way towards her, turning her body to his, searching her face for answers.

"Nesta, sweetheart. Talk to me, love." He said softly, cupping her face in his hand.

Then she pushed his hand away, twisting something in his gut.

"Nesta, what's wrong?" She still wouldn't meet his gaze.

Silence for a long stretch of a moment, until she finally opened her mouth and he finally heard her sweet voice.

"You took it."

"What?"

"You took it." She shoved him weakly in the chest, not moving him at all, but her voice grew louder and became glacial ice.

"Nesta what the fuck?" He growled, this was not the homecoming he was expecting.

"You took my book Cassian! You took my book." She shoved him again. Her face was rage, fury, mixed in with a hint of sadness?

"What the fuck? Your book?"

"Yes. My book. My book. The one you gifted me. You took it!." She shouted into his face, her breathing turned ragged.

"You're acting crazy over a fucking book?"

"Don't talk to me like that," she growled, barring her teeth. "You took my book."

"Calm the fuck down, alright. What the hell is wrong with you? You have lot's of books why the fuck are freaking out over one book?"

At this Nesta balked, her face turned red to pale, her eyes went hollow, suddenly tears started running down her eyes.

Sobs broke out of his mate, and Cassian was so utterly horrified.

Afraid of hurting her more and taken aback with confusion he stilled in his stop.

"It's not just a book." She cried, more tears danced down her face, agony twisted on her beautiful features, he felt Nesta's hurt through the bond and his own tearing his heart.

"Nes–"

"I need it! I needed the book. And took it. It was the only thing that keeps me grounded when you're not here, and you took it with you and my heart."

"Sweetheart." Cassian whispered, daring to take a step toward the devastating female, her took her head and cradled her to his chest, she continued to sob and he let her get it out.

He could see the tension in her shoulders fade away as she released the pain she'd been holding in all day.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Nesta my love." He apologized into her hair, pressing kisses to her crown. "I'm sorry."

He didn't know how long he and Nesta stood there holding each other, embraced in each other's arms, but finally Nesta's sobs subsided, her breathing calmed.

"Bad day?" He asked softly, leaning away to cup her beautiful face in his calloused hands.

She nodded solemnly against his embrace.

"Bad day. And you weren't here." More tears danced down her pale ivory skin, her blue grey eyes shined in the moonlight.

Even in sadness, Nesta was still the most beautiful creature he's ever set his ancient eyes on.

"And– and then with the fire and all the talking and voiced it was, it just was too much. I didn't– I couldn't handle it without you there."

He gently wiped her tears with his thumbs, leaning in to press kisses under her cheeks.

"I'm sorry sweetheart. I'm so sorry. It won't happen again." He promised, holding her to his chest again, arm wrapped around her waist the other hand brushing out her braided hair.

"You know I'm always here for you. I got your back Nesta.

"I missed you." She confessed quietly, her arms tighter around his waist.

"I know, I know. I missed you too. So much."

"It's hard when you're not here sometimes."

"It's hard for me too." He breathed. "Not being with you. You're my anchor too Nesta."

As much as he loved his fiery sassy Nesta, he loved when Nesta could open her heart to him and be so vulnerable even if it took a little screaming to get there.

"I'm sorry for– well for freaking out. The way I did."

"Don't apologise, Nes." He pulled away just to look down and smile at her. Taking her hand he led her back into the bedroom.

"Thank you for being my anchor." She said, in which he grinned in response, conveying all the words with a simple look.

Always. Nesta. Always.

"Come on sweetheart. Let's get to bed." He said pressing a soft warm kiss to her full lips, rousing a small bashful smile from his female.

Sleep came easy to Cassian, with Nesta calm and soothed wrapped up in his arm, her arms wrapped around his, her pretty head laying on his chest.

"I love you, Cass." His mate whispered into the night.

He pulled even closer to his firm body, pressing a kiss to her temple.

"I love you too, Nes."

In this life and the next.

[cryingoverafictionalcharacter]

Red Hair Dye

Request: hello! if you’re taking prompts could you please do 1 + 10 from the angst list (with a happy ending preferably!) for fred with a slytherin!reader? thank you i love your writing even tho i just found your blog! <3  (@greyspilot​)

1. “I hate that I love you”

10.  “I can’t do this anymore”

Prompt: Fred and Y/N could not be more different. Fred loves to cause trouble, Y/N is more reserved. Fred is loud and extroverted, Y/N likes to keep to themselves. Fred is a Gryffindor, Y/N is a Slytherin.  They’re complete opposites, it would only make sense that they wouldn’t like each other, that is until a certain moment makes them question everything. 

Warnings: ANGST!!! with fluff at the end lol. Injury to reader bc we love a care taking moment, swearing, Fred being a dumbass, reader being a dumbass, Enemies to lovers type beat, gender neutral reader, Umbridge existing, I think that’s it. 

You gritted your teeth as you stared straight ahead, doing everything you could to focus on the words scribbled on the board instead of the endless chattering coming from behind you. Transfiguration was by far your least favorite class, the lessons were boring, the homework was extensive, but above all else, Fred Weasley sat directly behind you, meaning you were now on the receiving end of any jokes or pranks he may try and pull to relieve his own boredom.

You and Fred were, to put it lightly, mortal enemies. It wasn’t always like that though, from first to fourht year you were pretty close, making jokes and having fun together along with George and Ron, but then in fourth year, he had tried to pull a prank on you. He was meant to switch all your Slytherin robes for Gryffindor ones, which would have been annoying but forgivable, but he decided to take an extra step, and dye your hair a sickeningly color of red. Not maroon, not pink, no, he went with a bright, stop sign, ripe tomato red. Some of your house mates had already started making fun of you for your half blood status, but after the incident, many of them had alienated you completely, leaving you with almost no friends the entire semester. 

You decided then and there that you hated Fred Weasleys guts, even when he offered to help you in class, or notice when you were having a bad day and leave you alone, or smile in a way that gave you butterflies.

You continued to focus on the board, ignoring the red head who was currently trying to get your attention.

“Hey, Y/N.... Y/N” Fred whisper yelled, saying your name a bit louder with each attempt. You continued to ignore him, scribbling notes from time to time until you felt something hit the back of your head. 

Fred must have noticed how your body stiffened, because you heard him let out a quiet laugh along with his friends, but still, you continued to look forward. 

You felt another ball of paper hit you in the back of the head, followed by more snickering. You balled your hands into fists, hoping the professor would excuse the class before you lost your patients and gave Fred the well deserved smack you had been itching to give since third year.

“Do you have an answer for us Y/N?” The professor suddenly asked, making you snap out of your haze.

“What?” You asked, clueless of what the Professor had asked, causing a few laughs to pass through the class.

“That’s what I thought you might say, maybe if you were to pay as much attention to this class as you do your own thoughts, your grade wouldn’t be doing so poorly.” The teacher responded, making your face heat up as you slumped down in your seat.

Your mind filled with thoughts all contradicting each other. 

“Class dismissed, please read chapters-” You couldn’t hear the rest of the professors instructions, as soon as you were excused you grabbed your things and left, fumbling to put your things into your bag as you rushed out of the class.

“Y/N, wait up!” Fred called, catching up to you quite quickly. Damn those long legs.

You didn’t answer, picking up your pace to hopefully reach your last class before Fred could catch up to you, but of course, he wasn’t about to suddenly stop pestering you now.

“Y/N, I-” Fred tried to say, grabbing your arm to stop.

You ripped your arm out of his grasp, turning to face him.

“What’s your problem?” You asked bluntly, causing a few heads to turn in your direction, but next class was about to start, and the hallways were already quite empty.

“I- I don’t have a problem” Fred said, struggling to find the words as he was quite surprised by your reaction. Sure he had bugged you in the past, but you had never gotten this mad.

“Well, you obviously fucking do Fred. Ever since fourth year you’ve been doing everything you could to make my life harder. It was funny when it was a little joke here and there, but dying my hair? Making me lose friends? Embarrassing me in class? I don’t know if you know this but it’s not fucking funny Fred! What did I do to make you hate me so much? We used to be friends!” You ranted, watching as Fred’s eyes grew with both shock and fear as your voice continued to get louder.

“I don’t-” Fred tried to interject, but it only made you angrier.

“You don’t what Fred, you don’t what?!” You shouted, only coming down from your anger when you heard someone lightly clear their throat behind you.

Your eyes, which were once locked on Fred’s with anger, filled with dread as you slowly turned to see none other than the pink clad devil herself. 

“I believe you should both be in class, yes?” She asked, the fake politeness in her voice causing a sick feeling to wash over you.

“I’m sorry professor, I was just-” Fred started, but Umbridge lifted her hand to stop him.

“Weasley, please get to your next class. Y/N, follow me” She said, the smile never leaving her face as she turned to walk back to her office, you following behind, looking back to see Fred, a worried expression on his face.

By the time you had reached Umbridge's office, you were practically shaking. You had heard horror stories of people who went into her office to be punished, coming out with bloody words scribbled across their hands.

You sat in the chair across from her desk, looking around the ugly pink room for a moment before a quill and piece of paper were suddenly placed in front of you. 

“You will write, ‘I will not shout during class’ one hundred times” She said, taking a seat across from you, eyeing you like a snake about to strike at a mouse.

“Professor Umbridge, I didn’t-” You started, trying to defend yourself.

“You most certainly did, I could hear you all the way across campus, two hundred times” She said, making you clench your fists.

“What?! I just wanted to-”

“‘I will not shout during class’ two hundred times, and ‘I will not question my professors’ three hundred times” She said, her sickly sweet tone never changing. 

Your heart sank to your stomach, already feeling sick. You decided not to try and fight it anymore, knowing you would only end up more hurt, so, you picked up the quill and began writing, already beginning to feel a slight sting in your left hand.

By the time you had finished writing it was nearly dark. With any other quill the task would have taken no more than thirty minutes, but with the pain in your hand worsening as you continued to dig into your skin, it had taken hours.

You wrote the last sentence, almost throwing the pen down as you took deep breaths, trying not to let the pain get to you in front of her. You grabbed the paper with your injured hand, offering it to Umbridge who took it with a smile, looking over the small blood spot that had landed in the corner.

“You are excused” She said with a flick of her hand, allowing you to slowly stand and walk out of her office, closing the door behind you. 

You walked into the hallway in a daze, your head feeling foggy from the emotional exhaustion you were feeling. You were so distracted that you didn’t notice Fred waiting for you until he was standing directly in front of you, quickly shaking you from your sleep like state.

“What do you want?” You asked, your voice shaking a bit, trying to hide your face by staring at the floor “If you’re here to make fun of me or something...I don’t know what I did to make you hate me but I’m sorry I just can’t- I can’t do this anymore”

You felt a pair of hands gently hold the sides of your face, making you look up to meet Fred’s eyes which were now filled with sadness as he wiped a single tear rolling down your face.

“I don’t hate you. I never hated you”

He pulled you closer to him, enveloping you in a hug and the dam burst, tears freely flowing down your face as you sobbed into his chest. You were crying from the pain in your hand, but also the pain you felt in your heart. You didn’t know why he didn’t like you, why he did all those things to make your life so hard, why despite everything he did you still found yourself looking back to that boy you had been friends with for so long.

You let him lead you back to the Gryffindor common room, setting you down on one of the many couches before he ran off to grab a few things, returning with a first aid kit and some water.

He took a seat next to you, putting out his hand towards you, which you carefully put your injured hand in. He pulled back the sleeve of your robes, exposing the wound which you had yet to fully see yourself. 

“I had to use the quill too, though it wasn’t this many words” He said, breaking the long silence between you.

“Yeah, well I guess she just likes me more than you” you said with a short laugh, making Fred smile a bit as well.

“I don’t think that woman likes anything, not even Filtch” He said, the two of you laughing this time. “This might sting a little” He said, soaking a cotton ball in alcohol but not bringing it to your skin just yet, looking at you for permission.

You nodded, your breath hitching as the cotton came in contact with your hand, a stinging sensation running all the way up your arm. You screwed your eyes shut and grabbed onto the first thing your free hand found, which happened to be Fred’s knee.

“I know, I know I’m sorry” Fred apologized, quickly pulling away the alcohol.

You took a breath and opened your eyes to meet Fred’s, watching as he brought your injured hand closer to his face, lightly blowing on the skin to relive the stinging sensation, never breaking eye contact.

You felt your face heat up at you realized how close you have gotten, your hand still gripping his knee, a bit more tightly than you would have liked, and your hand gently being held by both of his, his face only inches from yours.

“Like what you see Y/N?” Fred asked with a smirk, snapping you out of your thoughts, and quickly reminding you of what got you into this situation in the first place. You pulled your hand out of his, turning away and grabbing a roll of gauze to wrap your hand yourself, not answering his question.

“I was just joking” Fred defended, trying to grab your hand back but you pulled it away.

“Yeah, sorry I didn’t realize that was all a joke to you, my bad for thinking you could actually go two seconds without making fun of me”  You tried wrapping your hand, but the movement stung and you winced, dropping the roll of gauze.

"I'm not making fun of you” Fred defended, picking the gauze off the floor and reaching to wrap it but you pulled back.

“Stop, I can do it myself” You said, grabbing for the roll but he kept it out of your grasp.

“Sure, because you did so well the first time” Fred shot back, making you narrow your eyes at him.

“Stop being a dick!” You shouted, your voices having progressively gotten louder during the argument.

“Then stop being so stubborn and listen to me!” He shouted back “God, you can be so fucking stubborn its unbearable. I hate that I love you sometimes”

His statement shocked you into stillness, trying to process his words as Fred continued his grumbling. He brought your hand closer to him and started wrapping it.

“You love me?” You asked, causing him to stop his movements entirely as he suddenly realized what he said. 

“I mean I- well yeah but I didn’t want you to - I do but” Fred rambled as he tried to find the right words to say, only stopping when you brought your uninjured hand to his face and closed the space between you, pressing your lips to his.

Fred let out a surprised sound, but was quick to respond, moving his hand to the back of your neck as he pulled you closer to him, deepening the kiss.

“Wait, what just happened?” Fred asked as he suddenly pulled away, making you laugh.

“I love you too stupid, even if you dyed my hair red” You responded, making him give you a worried grin.

“About that... I didn’t dye your hair red” He said

“What do you mean?” You asked

“Well, the switching robes part was me, but the hair dye was Lee” He said, causing your lower jaw to practically hit the floor.

“I’ve been blaming you, thinking you were out to sabotage me and ruin my social life for years, and it was Lee?”

“Yeah, he felt really bad about it, but when we went to apologize you were already pretty set on blaming me so I just never said anything”

You felt your face heat up with embarrassment as you realized how childish the situation was. You had been crushing of Fred for years, and the only thing keeping you from getting together was a prank he didn’t even do. 

“I feel so stupid” You said, covering your face with your hands, which Fred gently pulled away, making you look at him.

“Don’t, I was the one who was stupid and tried to get your attention by teasing you instead of just telling you how I felt” Fred said.

“You’re right, that was stupid” You said, laughing as an offended expression crossed Fred's face. “But that, uh... moment earlier. You weren’t making fun of me?”

“No, I wasn’t, that was real” He said sincerely, making you smile before pressing your lips back to his.

His hands moved to your waist as you climbed on top of him, straddling him as you deepened the kiss. Fred began moving his hands up your sides, and had just dipped under your shirt when you pulled away.

“Heeey” Fred complained as you broke away.

“I’ll be right back, I just need to do something before I forget” You said sweetly, pressing a quick peck to his lips before walking away.

Fred watched you, confused but content as you quietly made your way up the stairs of the boys dormitory, not knowing what you were up to until he heard the dormitory door bang open.

“LEE JORDAN, YOU FUCKER!” You yelled, causing Fred to jump up from his spot on the couch and sprint of the stairs, the sound of Lees screams echoing through the common room.

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

A/N: Hey!!! I hope you liked it, I had a little trouble trying to get a good plot but I think it worked out ok. Also I was literally sweating when Fred blew on your hand SO SOFT YET ERROTIC?!?! Anyway, feel free to leave any feedback you may have, thank you for the request!

[firelord-frowny]

lol been a While since ive bitched about Gender Feelings

sometimes i legit feel like ~transness~ wouldn’t be such an emotionally and existentially distressing experience if it weren’t for the fact that society* insists on separating every. fucking. thing. into Girl and Boy. 

Colors. clothing. general fashion/aesthetic. taste in music. favorite animals. hobbies. movie genres. lmao even music instruments omfg. dudes getting made fun of for playing the flute bc it’s Too Girly. girls getting made fun off for playing the trombone because it’s Big And Masculine and surely a wee little dainty lady is better suited for a harp, or perhaps, The Triangle. 

people bend over backwards to cram everything into neat Gender Boxes, and that’s the only reason, I think, why some people feel such a desperate need to add more boxes. more options. instead of having just two categories, add a third! a fourth! a fifth! mix-and-match if you please! 

and honestly, that alone isn’t SO bad, i don’t think, but the thing that really fucks it all up is the fact that Society uses a person’s perceived gender as a way of deciding how to treat that person. We expect that a man should behave This Way toward other men and That Way toward women. we expect women to be Like This with other women, and Like That with men. And because it’s such a deeply rooted expectation, people want so desperately for others to interact with them in a manner that affirms their gender, whether they’re cis or trans or fluid or whatever else. a cis woman is liable to feel uncomfortable if someone interacts with them in a way they feel men are interacted with. a cis man would get weirded out by platonic acquaintances who, perhaps, pull out their chair for them, or open a door and gesture politely for them to go inside. a trans dude might feel utterly gutted if someone describes them as a cutie pie. 

can you imagine if that shit was a non issue? If your gender didn’t influence the way strangers interact with you in an elevator? if your gender didn’t inform what kind of small talk a person initiates with you? If the way people interact with you didn’t serve as a constant reminder that the body you live in is at odds with the way you feel you were meant to be perceived??

i’m not even saying that i think transness would cease to exist under those circumstances. but i think it would definitely be a lot less painful. i think the prospect of having to live your whole life without ever transitioning wouldn’t seem like such a miserable fate. it wouldn’t make you wanna jump off a fucking bridge every time someone incorrectly assumed your gender. the task of coming out to everyone you ever knew wouldn’t feel quite so daunting. 

sometimes i feel like i hate the fact that there’s even a need for so many ~new~ words and concepts to describe people’s gender experience. like, i don’t hate that people create language to describe these things, and I don’t hate the language, but i DO hate the fact that it’s necessary, because it exists, in part at least, to ease the suffering and bring comfort to people who are constantly reminded that there’s no room for them in the two Big Boxes that everyone else fits into. 

if there were no boxes, there’d be no need to fit in anywhere in particular. and if there was no need to fit in anywhere in particular, people could feel free to simply exist and not feel pressure to either pretend to be something they’re not, or go out of their way to prove to the world that they are what they are. 

hate it. its exhausting. 

i dont fuckin care about gender or what words people use to describe me or what words i use to describe myself. i don’t need to be a ~man~ and i don’t need to be Not A Woman and i don’t need to be genderfluid or nonbinary or transmasculin. i literally just wish i was born more or less anatomically male. that’s it. that’s all! literally do not care about my ~pronouns~. literally do not care what assumptions someone might make about me based on neither the gender they think i am, nor the gender i know i am. my gender is about ME and MY comfort in MY body. it’s got shit all with what anyone else sees or thinks when they look at me. i mean yeah, it would be hella nice if someone could glance at me and know what i know about myself. but i don’t need to be devastated by the fact that that’s not the case. the two most important things i am are a writer and a musician and nobody knows that about me at first glance and it doesn’t kill me. so why should i, emotionally, require that people know i’m ~a dude~ at a glance?? 

i did used to feel like it was a crushing blow to be seen as something i’m not. and then it dawned on me that there’s no reason why the I Don’t Care What People Think Of Me attitude, which I’ve always embraced, should inexplicably exclude gender. 

anyway, it makes my soul sad to see all the ways a gender-obsessed society wounds people. 

idk, i don’t even necessarily think it’s automatically a bad or harmful thing for people to make assumptions or behave a certain way toward people on the basis of what gender they think they are (as long as they’re coming from a respectful place, obviously.) I just wish we didn’t have to have such strong emotional attachments to gendered expectations.

[unprofessional-bard]

Chapter 8 - Truth or Dare

Losing My Religion Series Masterlist

Unprofessional Bard's Masterlist

Previous Chapter • Next Chapter

Pairing: Joel Miller x Female!Reader/OC

Warnings: A lot of angst and when i say angst...

Summary: The reader is stuck to the hospital bed, healing considerably slow. Her feelings and emotions are scattered all over the place and things are harder without her lover by her side.

Word Count: 2.575

Author's Note: Hey y'all!! I'm terribly sorry this took so long but I was really busy with moving and everything, I honestly had no angst in me to write this chapter bc I'm just so happy that I moved here, but the past few days were a lil exhausting so I finished this while resting... I didn't wanna update with this short ass chapter but I have to update y'all so I separated the chapter into two, I hope y'all still have interest in Losing My Religion, I love you and thank you all for being patient with me! 🥺🥺

Enjoy!

"Be careful!"

The ice under your feet was inches thick, it didn't seem like it'd break, but you didn't trust that: "It's alright, I got this."

The girl didn't wail or scream for help, she anxiously waited for your approach. You held out your hand for her: "Grab my hand, I'm gonna get you across, it's gonna be okay." The girl hesitated but grabbed your hand anyway: "Don't worry, you're not gonna get in trouble, I'm gonna make sure of that."

"Alright, okay," The girl shook her head and followed you with careful steps. Everything was going fine until you reached halfway, when the ice under her feet cracked, making your ears perk up. You snapped your head back to meet her frightened eyes: "Uh..."

"Felicity!" You shouted across the frozen river, catching her attention. With all your strength, you grabbed the kid's coat by the neck.

"Woah, what are you doing?" She grabbed your arm, alerted by your action as the ice cracked more underneath your feet. You pulled her coat's zipper down a little.

"Watch yourself-" You said, grabbed the back of her coat with your other hand, then launched her across the river to where Felicity was; the ice under your feet crushing altogether a second later, swallowing you whole.

Your body reacted to the cold in a panicked way, naturally, but you remembered your training and swam up immediately, calming yourself down. You gasped loudly as soon as your head was out of the water, Felicity calling for you: "You alright?!"

You were too cold to speak, so as your breathing calmed down you gave her a thumbs up instead. Your cold-shock response was better this time as you hadn't swallowed any water, so you spread your arms and started kicking at the water with your feet as soon as you raised them. You calmly but quickly pushed yourself out of the water and onto the ice.

"(Y/N)?!" You heard her shout over to you a couple of times as you breathed, but each time she did, her voice got closer and closer, although she was still on the ground away from you.

"(Y/N)?"

----

"(Y/N)?" You felt a hand on your shoulder, shaking you gently. "Come on Dolly, wake up..."

It was Ellie. You wanted to open your eyes, tell her or move a limb to let her know that ou were awake, but you just couldn't. What the hell?

After a few more seconds, you managed to sigh loudly through your nose: "I think she's waking up, Katherine."

After what felt like an eternity, you woke up in a different room where Ellie, Maria and Tommy were by your side. There were bandages wrapped all over you: Your head, shoulder, chest area, your knee and the same ankle you fractured months ago. One of your eyelids was lower than the other.

"You look like a mummy," Ellie chuckled softly as you examined yourself. You nodded but didn't speak, your throat hurt terribly.

"Could you give us a minute?" Tommy cleared his throat as you gained better consciousness with each passing second. You watched the girls leave the room and Tommy pull his chair to your side: "How're you feelin'?"

"Like shit," You whispered and sighed. "At least it doesn't hurt too bad- for now, anyway."

"Yeah, Katherine and Daisy are taking care of you just fine..." Tommy put his hand on yours and gave it a light squeeze. "You're gonna be okay, but it's gonna take some time."

"No shit," You smiled bitterly.

"Joel wants to see you," Tommy pursed his lips, pulling his hand away. "He's been worried sick- Ellie says she saw him leavin' the house with bloodshot eyes..."

Your heart broke at his comment and your face scrunched up, feeling terribly nauseous with this new information: "Is he here?"

"He's outside the room," Tommy spoke and got up. "Look, I know I don't get to have a say in this but... He'd never do anything to hurt you- especially on purpose. He loves you."

Your eyes teared up and breath got stuck in your throat as he turned around and left, then you distantly heard something he said to Joel and waited for the long awaited confrontation between you and your lover.

----

Joel immediately got up from the chair he was sitting on right before Tommy came out of your room, looked at his brother intently: "She needs some time, but she'll come around."

Tommy patted Joel on the shoulder after his comment and walked away from him, leaving you two be. He took a deep breath and slowly, almost gently, got in the room, closing the door behind him: "Hey..."

"Hey," You whispered. The lack of emotion and the abundance of red and purple bruises on your face crushed Joel.

"Did Ellie ever tell you how we met?"

Joel was surprised at the question: "No, she didn't."

You chuckled, which at first helped him relax a little, but you coughed afterwards and Joel was back to worrying. He sat down on Tommy's previous spot silently as you leaned back on your pillow and spoke: "There was a student gone missing from the QZ... We tracked her down to this lake but it was frozen and she was standing right in the middle of all that ice. I went over to her but the ice decided to crack then. I got her out but I fell-" Joel's expression broke your heart furthermore. "I had training of course and it wasn't my first time falling into icy water... That's how we met- and began getting along, I guess."

Joel nodded and smiled softly, face riddled with pain, tiredness, fear and relief all at the same time; you turned your head towards him and asked: "Is there anything else I should know, Joel?"

He knew damn well what that meant, even though he'd never seen this side to you. It reminded him of his ex-wife for a brief moment, before speaking: "Yeah... actually there is one more thing, but if I'm honest?"

"Hm?"

"... I don't got the stomach to tell you."

"Why not?" You were genuinely stressed out and confused now. What could be worse than what you two just went through?

"I've realised now that ah-" Joel looked away, a hand brushing past his watch in the process. "I kept it from you for too long... I- I should've told you earlier-"

"Told her what earlier?" The younger Miller suddenly appeared by the doorway, leaning on it. Joel gave Tommy a grave look, the one he gave him when he told his younger brother how he had saved Ellie - it made Tommy immediately understand what was going on, his face going slightly pale.

Joel suddenly got up and as he made his way over to where his brother was, you called out for him with your weak voice: "Joel?!"

He gave you one last look, before looking down and walking past Tommy. Were those tears in his eyes-?

"What the hell is going on, Tommy?" You sighed, exasperated.

Tommy stared at you for a while, not knowing what to say, then slowly closed the door: "It ain't gonna be pretty, (Y/N), but if you ain't too tired, let's talk huh?"

Your muscles tensed at his words, but despite how bad you wanted to rest you were dying with curiosity to know exactly what the hell happened that made the brothers' tails go between their legs. Tommy pulled a chair to your left and sat down. He was also tense, he didn't sit like he usually does - like the Texan he was. He gulped, searched for the right words, then sighed and began: "I thought Joel would've told you this, but it seems not."

"For fuck sake, Tommy," You sighed, then a wheeze and a cough followed. "Just spit it out."

"'Kay, okay... The reason why Joel never really told you what happened on his journey with Ellie after they dropped you off here- it's ugly. Joel's ashamed, I guess he didn't want you to think badly of him-"

"But he told you?"

"Yes." Tommy crossed his arms. "What did he tell you exactly - about their journey I mean?"

"He said the Fireflies stopped looking for a cure - that there were a bunch of immune people and that they ran a couple of tests with Ellie and then let them go... I didn't really believe it. At first I did, I think- I trusted his word and didn't really wanna push it, but then I thought: If there were a bunch of other immune people, surely someone would've made the vaccine over the course of the twenty something years we went through - or at least the last two... but here we are."

Tommy nodded: "The reason for that is because Ellie's the only one."

"I figured that much."

"They were going to make a vaccine too, but when Joel found out it'd cost Ellie's life to make one... He uh-" Tommy took a deep breath, he was struggling to put the words together: "He didn't let them kill her."

You just stared, processing it all. You blinked a couple of times, then spoke: "He didn't let them make a vaccine."

"Remember what I told you- about Sarah?" Tommy's tone came off shaky.

You nodded and he continued: "I guess I was right... He came to care a great deal about Ellie apparently. Probably felt like he was with Sarah again while travelling with her, so..."

You didn't know how to feel - the only two solid thoughts in your mind clashed agaisnt one another in a great battle:

I can't believe he was selfish enough to rob humanity of it's only chance at survival.

Versus,

I understand. I probably would've done the same thing if I were him. Probably.

"Does Ellie know?" You breathed, feeling a little dizzy.

"No."

You gulped and looked down, guilt washing over you like a tidal wave: "Have you... I mean, is the doctor-"

"He's dead," Tommy murmured. "We don't know if there's anyone else out there who could make a vaccine out of her."

You were actually struggling to breathe at this point, looking around in a panicked state: "You need to tell Ellie."

"No, (Y/N)," Tommy spoke in a clear and strict tone. You were about to argue, but he added: "It's not our place to tell her... Joel asked for this, he is gonna be the one to tell her."

You were breathing through your mouth with a grave and distressed look on your face, staring at Tommy: "Please, (Y/N). She can't know."

You knew that was the end of conversation, so you laid down and tried to calm your breathing, closing your eyes and interrupting Tommy when he tried to ask if you needed help: "Just leave, Tommy."

You didn't see it, but he nodded and got up, letting you fall into a long sleep.

----

You had a lot of visitors for five long days, but neither of the Miller Brothers paid you a visit in that period of time. Well, Tommy showed up briefly with Maria from time to time but you weren't upset with him and it took him three days to understand, after reassuring him.

Ellie visited the most: Twice a day - once before patrol (usually in the morning) and once after. When she didn't have any chores, she'd visit you at night as well. You mostly talked about the other kids in town she was friends with, she'd treat you like a journal and vent or rant to you, which you really valued and appreciated ever since you found out about what Joel had done.

One morning she had asked about you and Joel, after a long time of not asking.

"So..." Her arms were crossed while she sat by your bed, her guitar against the desk on the other side of the room. "You and Joel... Have you guys figured things out yet?"

"He hasn't visited me in four days," You groaned, mood going down almost instantly when you remembered how he left you with Tommy five days ago. "I don't want him to... I want to talk to him when my healing processes, but it doesn't."

"How do you mean?" Ellie gave you a quizzical look.

"Katherine said some of the wounds she pointed out would turn some other colour and that a few things I'm feeling around my body would go away by this time, but they haven't. It's been almost a week and I'm not healing."

"You were beaten up pretty badly, (Y/N)," Ellie tried to look for an explanation to relax you. "Katherine did say it'd take some time."

You remained quiet for a moment, looked down, then spoke: "Five more days and you'll see what I'm talking about."

Ellie was confused and didn't know what to say, so you continued: "I've had bruises worse than this," You pointed at your half swollen eye. "Even they healed quicker than this."

There was an awkward silence, the realisation of Joel not visiting you a hard punch in the gut. As much as you weren't ready to confront him with your exhausted state, you still loved him and you wondered about his wellbeing. You felt like a five year old child crossing her arms and pouting while stomping her foot aggressively on the ground when she's denied a lollipop. You wanted to cry like the said child and hammer your fists against Joel's chest without hurting him. You wanted to do so many things, confronting and forgiving your lover being the first and foremost, but you just weren't ready. You weren't ready and you were frustrated and angry - traumatised and stressed and depressed, you wanted at least one of these to ease up a little but most importantly you didn't want to be on pain relievers anymore. You were asleep most of the day and didn't want to talk to anyone at the times where you weren't, except for Ellie really.

You closed your eyes and sighed, tears forcing their way out of your closed eyelids and dropping on the sheets: "Els?"

"I'm here," Ellie replied equally quietly.

"Will you sing me to sleep, darling?" You requested, voice cracking a little as you laid down, eyes still closed.

"Of course mom," She murmured and grabbed her guitar. After settling down in her seat and thinking of what to play for a while, she started strumming her guitar:

"When does it get quiet?

Time was supposed to extinguish the desire

But the embers won't snuff out

Haunted by your smiles

The mask keeps getting heavier

One step forward, two steps back

There's a noose round my neck and the further I get

It's harder and harder to breathe

Can I find a way to cut the rope?

I've been waiting for dawn

But the light is all gone

Don't know if I'm already blind

Can I leave it all behind?"

...

Joel watched and listened through the doorway as Ellie sang to your sleeping form, not being aware of the small confrontation which was going to take place in a few hours. A sad expression was present on his daughter's face, bringing tears to his eyes as he, once again, walked away from the two of the three people he loved the most.

[chaoticminhos]

sorry for caring (part 2)

pairing: lee know x reader

genre: angst, little fluffy at the end

warnings: mention of slight violence

word count: 1.7k

a/n: the wait is over! sorry for caring part two is here :D not proof read bc i violently hate reading my own work

tag list: @songwingi @honeyjxsung @resceluwu @lovelylittlelionx (lmk if you’d like to be added :D)

chan and the rest of the boys kept to their promise, not leaving you alone for the entire rest of the night. even when some of the boys left to get more food, they made sure you always had someone next to you, and chan never left your side.

jeongin and felix had fallen asleep, but when you asked jisung to nudge them awake and take them to their rooms, they only asked if you felt better. upon hearing you didn’t, they refused to leave.

your heart swelled at the way all of them were there for you, but no matter how much you loved them, the pain from the interaction with minho wasn’t going away.

you couldn’t tell exactly when you fell asleep, but all of you woke up at the same time.

the front door opened loudly and minho stepped in, setting his things down and slipping off his shoes before stepping into the living room. he could hear the television still on, so he figured someone was in there.

he didn’t expect to see everyone spread out in the living room, and, although maybe he should have, he didn’t expect to see you wrapped up in chan’s arms, sharing a blanket with him as your sleeping form rested against his.

you still had tear stains painting your face and minho couldn’t tell if your eyes were so puffy from the sleep or if he’d really made you cry that much.

the boys slowly stirred awake at the noise minho made. hyunjin stretched awake calmly before noticing minho standing at the entrance to the room. his expression immediately went from relaxed to angry as he glared at minho.

“shouldn’t you be practicing, hyung? you haven’t been doing enough of that recently.”

maybe hyunjin shouldn’t have started the conversation with a remark like that, everyone knew minho was hot headed, but it was the first thing that came to mind after seeing him after the previous nights events.

minho sent him a tight, unamused smile, but he didn’t respond. he had ended up passing out on the practice room couch not long after you’d left, so he had some sleep to fuel his thinking. he knew better than to bite back.

by now, the rest of the boys and you had woken up due to the commotion.

“get out, minho.”

it was chan who spoke. minho didn’t miss the way his arm tightened around your frame or the way you let him pull you closer to him.

he scoffed, “i live here.”

chan shifted his position so he was sitting up straight, but he bumped your wrist in the process. you hissed at the pain. you really thought it would feel better by the morning.

ignoring minho and turning his full attention to you, chan gently grabbed your wrist and examined it. it was swollen.

he cursed under his breath before standing up, helping you to do the same. he went to lead you past minho, but he was stopped by a hand on the same wrist that he was holding your hand with.

“where are you going?” minho questioned.

chan shook his hand off, taking yours in his grip again.

“taking her to the hospital to get the injury you gave her checked out.”

minho felt his heart sink, when had he injured you? his mind was foggy from being so low on sleep at the time these events unfolded. he remembered saying some things he shouldn’t have, but that wouldn’t warrant a doctors visit.

he turned to the rest of the boys in the living room as he heard the front door click shut behind you and chan. they noticed the confusion across his features and jisung spoke up.

“what, you don’t remember shoving your girlfriend to the ground?”

he frowned, “what?”

“you put hands on her, minho.” hyunjin let out a small, frustrated laugh, “and chan’s going to fucking kill you.”

suddenly the events from the night before flooded his mind. he remembered pushing you away from the computer. he remembered hearing your body hit the ground and the cry of pain you let out. he remembered glancing back to see you clutching your wrist and thinking for a second that he should apologize, but the thought left his mind when you rose and slammed his laptop shut, triggering a string of words he really shouldn’t have said to fall from his mouth.

he didn’t say anything else to the group of boys in the living room before grabbing the bag he’d only set down moments ago and rushing out the door. he cursed as he looked around for you and chan, but it seemed like you’d already managed to flag down a taxi.

he waved for his own taxi, jumping in and spitting off the name of the hospital you went to for all of your usual checkups. he figured chan would bring you to that one, especially since in the years of you and minho dating, he’d never went with you to an appointment at any other building.

the hospital wasn’t far away and it didn’t take long for minho to make his way to the second floor for walk in visits. he scanned the waiting room, but there was no sign of you or chan. either you’d gone to a different clinic or you’d already been taken back. it would stand to reason that if you already got called back chan went with you, you were sort of afraid of being alone during appointments. he let himself fall into one of the chairs, his head falling back.

he’d fucked up, and it frustrated minho that he wasn’t the one in the doctors room with you making you feel safe.

hell, he was the whole reason you were even at the doctors. what about that would make you feel safe around him.

he fell forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands.

despite how exhausted he was, there was no way he would fall asleep. he was too preoccupied worrying about how he’d ruined things with you.

he wouldn’t blame you if you broke up with him. he wouldn’t have blamed you if you’d broken up with him the previous night, he deserved it.

he heard a door open and he raised his head to see you, chan, and a nurse walking back into the waiting room. you had a bandage wrapped around your hand, but no cast. that was good, he thought, it wasn’t broken.

the nurse laughed at something chan said as she handed him a bottle, “now take your girlfriend out for a nice meal, she needs to eat with these pills.”

chan quickly corrected her, stating that you and him were only friends, but her words stuck deep down in minho’s stomach.

chan would never hit you. chan wouldn’t shove you or yell at you for caring about him. he wouldn’t call you the disgusting names minho had called you or call you annoying when all you were doing was being a loving girlfriend.

he made his way to the pair who stopped in front of him.

you spoke in a small voice, “minho? how’d you know we were here?”

he was focused on your hand, “i take you here all the time.”

“what,” chan scoffed, gesturing to your wrapped wrist, “you do this to her a lot?”

his eyes widened, “no, no i never meant to hurt her,” tears were forming in his eyes, “i never meant to hurt you baby, i’m so sorry.”

you have a soft smile, but minho noticed the way you leaned closer to chan.

“it’s okay, it was an accident.”

he reached out to you, placing his hand on your arm, but chan swatted it away before starting to lead you away from him.

“where are you going?” minho asked for the second time that day.

“taking her out to eat.” chan said, matter of factly, “doctors orders.”

he held your good hand to walk away again, but you didn’t budge. he looked at you with a confused look on his face before you responded.

“it’s okay, chan. go home, minho will take me to lunch.”

he looked hesitant and he was about to protest, but he ended up giving a frustrated sigh and roughly passing the bottle of pills to minho and going on his way after making sure you promised to call him if anything happened.

you started for the door and minho followed.

“where do you want to eat?” he asked, his voice still shaky.

you shrugged, “somewhere expensive.”

he let out a little chuckle at that, it was such a you way to get back at someone.

it didn’t take long to walk to the place you had in mind, but it felt like hours with the uncomfortable silence. minho had his head hung low the entire time, eyes focused on your wrist.

he let you choose the seating and sat right across from you. you told the waiter your drinks and as soon as he left, minho was speaking.

“i’m so sorry, i don’t know what got into me and i should never have said that or put my hands on you and i understand if you’re going to break up with me. you deserve someone better for you-“

you cut him off, “minho, i’m not going to break up with you, it’s okay.” you took a deep breath, “it’s not as bad as it looks. the wrap and medicine are for swelling, but nothing is broken or fractured at all. it’s just irritated.”

“okay but i still hurt you, y/n, you don’t deserve-“

“we’ve been together for three years minho, and never, never have you done something like this. i’m not abandoning years of us for one mistake.”

“no,” he was crying again, “it’s not the first time! i get mad so quickly and i say things i don’t mean and i don’t ever mean them, baby, i promise i don’t, i just get angry and-“ he cut himself off as he choked on his words and you reached forward to wipe a tear from his face with your thumb.

“minho, you’re working on it. you’ve been working on it for years, it’s okay. i know you don’t mean it.”

he finally met your eyes, “i love you.”

you smiled, “i love you, too.” you thought for a moment before adding, “but i’m still going to order the most expensive thing on the menu.”

he laughed and he mentally promised himself to never ever do anything to risk losing you ever again.

[faerielleart]

who is here for a really bad and random high school au that is completely self indulgent yo

in which levi loses a bet with erwin and mike and is forced to audition for their school’s production of les misérables, he tries to mess up the audition but somehow he still sucks less than everyone so he ends up getting the part of marius??? and he can’t quit because it will influence negatively on his grades??? idk imagine levi reading the script without knowing shit about the play and reading all the cheesy lines for the first time and him hating every single thing about this situation until the first day of rehearsal where he meets the person who will play cosette, his weird schoolmate hanji who shares some classes with him who is always spending time in the school laboratory to do experiments and shit and oh. Oh.

at first dude wants to Scream because he just can’t bear the thought of acting like a booby who is madly in love (quoting old les mis memes from years ago here) with this wEiRdO who somehow has a pretty fucking amazing voice and wow maybe this weirdo,,,,, isn’t a bad weirdo. how bizzarre

Maybe just maybe as the days go by they start spending time together because hey! Looks like they are polar opposites but at the same time they have SO! MANY! things in common!!! and they eventually use rehearsing as an excuse to spend even more time together! and they bond over the fact that they’re supposed to play characters who are SO distant and different from how they are irl and levi finds out that hanji tried to audition as a joke but got the part bc she can actually S I N G like an angel and has a really solid head voice and range despite being a mezzo and cosette needing a soprano bc her parents forced her to take lessons, while levi despite having a decent singing voice actually had to have the songs lowered a lil bc bby is a baritone in a tenor role and has never had lessons and can’t support all the notes but fear not! Hanji offers to teach him some tips and tricks and whoops now they’re spending even more time together

And maybe just maybe it becomes easier for levi to sing “in my life she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun, and my life seems to stop as if something is over and something has scarcely begun”, maybe it comes natural for levi to stutter his line in “a heart full of love, a heart full of song, i’m doing everything all wrong” because?? he is looking right at hanji’s really pretty brown eyes and he can’t concentrate?? and he hates feeling like this lmaooo like sweaty palms butterflies fast heartbeat,,,,, boi is in love and he doesn’t realize it he just thinks he’s constipated

anyway let’s spice shit up and add erwin to the mix! erwin knows hanji, they’re childhood friends and they actually met through their singing lessons, the dude who was going to play enjolras gets idk chicken pox and the director is frantically looking for a substitute, levi wants to get back at erwin for making him audition in the first place (it’s all in good faith tho it’s a joke and they’re best friends dw he just wants to have a lil revenge) and suggests erwin, not knowing that he and hanji know each other and that he actually has been trained in singing so yeah erwin gets called for a last-minute audition and dude SMASHES it the director’s crying tears of joy they found their authentic tall hot blonde enjolras who looks like he’d be a great commander and people would die for him (;DDDDD) and during rehearsal levi finds erwin and hanji chatting like old friends!! and dude’s like wtf do u know each other??? and hanji says hell yes we studied together since we were children :D and just because i am huge huge erumike trash lemme say that mike got a lil part bc they needed ensemble members and he got to play grantaire so yeah enjoy both e/R and erumike there we go erwin gets to act with his boyfriend!! and they both watch levi and hanji during rehearsal and see how they obviously pine for each other but are far too oblivious for their own good so they decide here and there that they must get those two together bc it’s exHAUSTING to watch them stare lovingly into each other’s eyes and hold hands and kiss and then brush it off saying “it’s just acting we literally have to play a couple”

anyway the day of the show is here ladies and gentlemen levi is nervous af but doesn’t show it, he has to act like a lovesick fool in front of the whole school, the students, the teachers, the parents, EVERYONE and oh my god i hate it here might become his gratuation quote but all he needs is hanji backstage who squeezes his hand and whispers “can’t wait for you to sweep me off my feet shorty” which is extremely cringy but hanji did it on purpose just to see levi get embarassed and he does lmao so yeah the show goes amazingly! levi went flat a few times on the higher parts but it’s totally normal bby’s not trained and he did great everyone praise the birthday boy he deserves it

it’s after the show that things get a lil sad for our boi bc now he doesn’t have to rehearse anymore and is afraid that hanji won’t spend time with him anymore bc the show’s over :(( but fear NOT hanji plans on glueing herself to his side for the rest of the schoolyear and until they graduate and even after that and years later they’ve graduated college they’ve been living together for a while and they go to see the actual show on bway done by professionals and hanji acts weird all evening and OH as they’re going home she stops in the middle of the streets and whips out two lil matching rings,,,,,,, and says the cringiest cheesiest fucking thing in the world that has levi groaning and facepalming,,,,,, hanji says “will u be the marius to my cosette” and yeah levi just sighs and puts the ring on his finger and they smooch under the moonlight aw isn’t that CUTE and they lived happily ever after victor hugo is smiling down at them from the afterlife and patting himself on the back for helping them get together

NOW THERE’S TOO MUCH FLUFF AND I NEED ANGST TO BALANCE IT OUT so imagine this is also a reincarnation au and whenever levi sings “empty chairs at empty tables” he gets a weird feeling in his stomach and he gets really emotional singing “oh my friends my friends forgive me that i live and you are gone, there’s a grief that can’t be spoken, there’s a pain goes on and on” and “oh my friends my friends don’t ask me what your sacrifice was for, empty chairs at empty tables where my friends will sing no more”?? He blames it on the character getting to him too much but then he sees the scene where the students sing drink with me and the lyrics “drink with me to days gone by, can it be you fear to die, will the world remember you when you fall, could it be your death means nothing at all, is your life just one more lie” sound really familiar and resonate with him somehow as if he heard similar words somewhere else already, he sees erwin playing enjolras and being a commander giving orders and singing “let others rise to take our place until the earth is free”, he sees the scene where all the students get shot at the barricade and die one by one and he feels his head pulse and he has the strongest feeling of deja-vu and suddenly everything goes black and he wakes up in the infirmary with a very worried hanji sitting on a chair beside him and he really can’t explain what happened except that he feels like he just woke up from a very long dream and he feels like he fought through a battle and hanji just waves it off as him taking the stanislavski technique a bit too seriously for a high school play but the feeling doesn’t really ever go away and sticks with him even years later whenever he hears les mis being mentioned

[cuddlecave]

is xiphoid

first: you *are* good

next: alright thingrey au

how bout an alternate 'the team finds out the shapeshifter is still alive, whoops!' but in an utterly disastrous way

it's been a while since antarctica! a long while, and gord and benr *meant* to tell the team about them ages ago, when benr became human shaped again, but there just never seemed to be a good time? and really, whats one more day, week, month...

anyway the team is utterly oblivious of benr, but being aware of gord, means that's they've noticed he's not been spending as much time with them! been spending, like, a lot of time at home, actually--or away from town. sometimes even avoiding them! they're worried, bc really, this is not the way to deal with trauma, gord! you don't pull away from your friends, you get help! just bc you can't see a therapist doesn't mean you shouldn't try to process it!

anyway, gords generally cagey about where he is, but on a rare team night where he had come to hang over...they very much on purpose get him drunk. now, drunk gord is still pretty fucking cagey (he loves his boyf and would never endanger him if possible), which is a shame, but tom is able to ask a question casually enough that gord doesn't think about it...and ends up telling them he goes out to the [insert desert area here] sometimes. when pressed on why he goes, he seems to realize he made a mistake, and bolts, cutting the night short.

now, credit to gord, him and benr don't go back to that particular desert area after that. but the team are damn smart, and figure that just bc he's not at that area anymore, doesn't mean he's not in *any* desert area anymore.

takes some trial and error--figuring out when gord seems to be out (he never answers his phone when he's out, his car is not at home), and then checking a desert area (didn't get anything but desert the first few times). but eventually...they find his car.

things paint...a worrying picture. there's camping/chilling gear in the car (chairs and a shitty tent, left from when gord tried camping several years ago and never bothered to remove from his car) but they're not set up and gords not there? the doors arent locked and the keys are in ignition? (gord doesn't want to drop his keys running from benr, he did that once and it sucked. also why he doesn't bring his phone! but he's out like 55 miles from the nearest town, who's gonna steal his car?) there's torn up foliage around, as if something big came through (benr may give gord a head start, but he still likes to be big enough to a) chase well, and b) nom gord after), and most worryingly--a set of human footprints in the sand, clearly running based on stride. and some strange larger footprint *next to them*.

their friend was ambushed by something big, and is going to get got. (this is not entirely untrue. not ambushed, but definitely going to get got, lol.) they set off quickly following the footprints.

meanwhile-gord and benr are having a *great* time! the exercise feels nice for both of them, it's a cloudy day so it's shady, they're gonna order pizza and play playstation after this--its gonna be a wonderful day. it already is!

gord, at this point, is beginning to tire out. benr is getting closer. he pushes himself a bit farther, to stretch out the chase just a touch longer, and makes a sharp turn around a rock formation, causing benr to briefly crash into it, giving him a few more steps. but he's tired, and well, benr has better stamina--and agility. benr bounds over the rock formation and uses it's height to gain just a bit of an extra boost, and tackle-hugs gord. they nearly crash into some sharp shrubs, but they're fine.

gord turns and looks up at benr and grins, and benr leans down to him, and gives him a long kiss. gord hums in contentment and relaxes. he's gonna get to doze, now, before driving. naptime, hell yeah.

benr picks him up to swallow him and he just remains basically limp, exhausted, letting benr manhandle him, gently maneuvering him into his jaws. he's swallowed with little fanfare, and happily settles in his tum, almost immediately starting to doze as benr starts to walk.

then he hears screaming, and benr sharply moves, and suddenly he's wide awake.

-

the team follow the tracks. it's a long walk, even moving at speed--gord must have really been booking it, which means hopefully he's still safe, got away some how. surely nothing would chase him for too long, when he was outrunning it this well. the trail goes on and on and on--its looking less like this thing gave up. and gords footsteps are shorter, he's not managing a hard run anymore. they're coming up on a rock formation--its still several hundred feet away. close enough to see a figure that can only be gord run from behind it, but far, far to far away to do anything about what happens next.

they see him turn sharply, and something big hits the rocks, clearly taken off guard. he makes it a few steps. and the team look on in absolute horror as what can only be the shapeshifter jumps off the top of the rocks, and tackles gord to the ground. they're partially obscured by the desert plants, but it's enough to see, even at this distance, the rippling body parts of the creature, pinning gord down.

the thing leans its head down toward gord, and they can't see what's happening with the plants and distance. and then.

it picks a completely unmoving gord up, and swallows him whole.

oh, god. it snapped his neck. it ate him. it's going to try to finish what it started in antarctica oh fuck does anyone have a flamethrower?!

a seeing it stand and start to leisurely walk in the direction they came from, they're finally broken from they're spell of silence and horror. somebody starts screaming angrily, and bubby has a lighter and big spray, making a makeshift flamethrower--and they run towards it in vengeance.

it notices them and sharply turns, booking it in the opposite direction.

(1/?)

continued under the read more!

(cont) oh fuck, thinks benr. this is not good. Not Good at all. gord frantically asks what's going on?! and goes cold when benr says 'ur friends saw us. and buby has fire.' the good thing is, benr is bigger and faster than humans. the bad thing is that he's been running all morning and now has over 200 pounds of boyf swaying in him, even if he's holding gord as tight as possible so he's not getting thrown everywhere. he's not gonna last long, and there's nowhere to hide. gord is furiously thinking. but he's also exhausted, and panicking. the thoughts in his brain are sticky like drying glue when he tries do something with them, and he can feel benr slowing. it's not by much, but his alien bf getting hurt *at all* is unacceptable, so. he decides to stop thinking and start doing. he tells benr to 'stop and let me out! as fast as you can!' and benr skids to a stop and turns half facing the approaching team, and splits his abdomen open and gord comes tumbling out into the light, getting immediately covered in dust and mud sticking to the saliva covering him. it's kinda gross, but at the moment it's not even registering, bc in those moments buby has nearly caught up. gord stands, pushes benr behind him, who let's himself be pushed purely out of surprise, and holds his hands out. 'its me! I'm fine it's ok it's me, please I can explain, just turn off the fire! it's ok!' but the thing is, as far as they're concerned...'you fucking imposter we saw gord die! get a better lie!' and buby is still running full tilt at them. gord has enough time to think, *aw fuck, this is gonna hurt*, before buby lights his makeshift flamethrower and gord is suddenly extremely hot, in pain, and knocked on his back. he can see the sky for a quick moment, before what can only be benr is standing over him, protecting him from further fire. a few limbs quickly use the dirt to put out the couple embers on his shirt (well, what's left of his shirt...) buby jerks back at the large being leaping in his direction, but it stops as it stands over the gord-imposter. which... is not moving. or writhing like the shapeshifter, or trying to split off from the damaged part. it's just...lying there. shallowly breathing as if in shock. buby gets a bit of a sinking feeling. - I got tired after writing this but basically benr tries to angle around enough to protect gord and also use teal green on him from another mouth. the team quickly figure out something is fucky, and that gord...might not be a Thing?? gord is in zero shape to have a real conversation--burns are serious business, and he basically passes out during teal-green. so why was the creature... protecting gord?? especially if it ate him?!?! there's an uneasy (extremely uneasy) truce, and benr carries gord back to the car, flamethrower pointed at them the whole way. they leave gords car and take them both back to toms place, in the car they drove in. it is supremely awkward. especially when gord wakes up for half a minute, kisses benr, and passes out again. not sure how it would go from there,, .... didn't mean to accidentally write a minific but here we are!! I really like the 'extreme misunderstanding vore' trope, lol.

ohhhh man this is like an angsty version of a regular not-a-game au idea i've thought up before o: thinking about what would happen next... the whole car ride home, benb was hitting gord with more healing (tho he gave the guys ample warning first about what he was doing so they wouldn't think he was attacking or something), and thanks to that, gord's burns are healed up to the point where he doesn't need hospitalization, just some burn cream and good rest to finish it off. (and a hair cut. benb is very sad that he couldn't repair gord's burned hair and beard. when gord's awake again he's just "Dude it'll grow back, don't worry." "i knooowwww but it still sucks. your hair was SO pretty. and you look like a sixteen-year-old without facial hair. kinda weird. babyfaceman." "WOW shut up."). when gord's awake and aware enough again, they all have a sit down and get an explanation from him and benb. benb goes on to basically give a summary of his whole backstory; explain what exactly he his and how he got to earth, and what he was trying to do both at the b'mesa base and that first norwegian base he first thawed out in. when he gets to the part about why he never wanted to hurt the sciteam, that does a pretty good job of warming them up to him. "the thing about that frzn guy is he was a total asshole. HUGE douche canoe. and i was like 'maaaan i don't wanna be this guy, he suuuuucks', but then i noticed that he'd hardly ever interacted with anybody else there. new guy on the base. nobody knew him, or knew what he was like. so i figured i could get away with acting like myself instead of him, and nobody would notice. i've never been able to just be me around other people, only when alone. i didn't really... know how it was gonna turn out. but you guys ended up liking me! you invited me to come hang out on breaks, and play video games, and watch movies, and talk about soda and photography and it was fun and nice and good! you were nice to my dog body, too. giving me a name and everything... you're all great cools. i got attached to you guys. like, super attached. didn't wanna hurt you, ever. 's the reason i never touched the sled dogs, too- i knew tommy would be sad if something happened to the dogs, and i didn't wanna make him sad." (bubs probably acts like he's not touched by that, but he is :B and also, like i've said in a post on my main, bubs feels some sympathy towards benb after hearing about his origins as an unethical science experiment. bubs wasn't grown in a lab in this au, but he was still subjected to some painful "knowledge tubes" experiments due to his contract with b'mesa. so he still knows that feel, bro. unwilling lab rat solidarity.) benb apologizes for everything in antarctica, and bubs apologizes for torching gord, but then the team asks what the fuck? happened in the desert?? and gord explains the "one-sided tag" game they do to help benb burn up energy, and that benb was just carrying gord to let him rest from the run on the way back to the car. ("Carrying you in his stomach, though?" "nah i don't put him where food goes. it's the uhhhh *lip smack* nap organ. custom made for sleeping in. bedry time.") (they also at one point explain "also we're dating" to which gord gets accused of being a monsterfucker ha ha. and then benb's like "ew no i'm ace" and harold goes on about how beautiful interracial young love is.)

[generallynerdy]

Seeing Ghosts Part 2 (Stephen Strange X F!Reader)

Part 1

Summary: It’s over. It’s over. Thanos is a pile of dust and (Y/N) can breathe again. Well. She can breathe in a few hours when Tony gets out of surgery and Stephen-- her Stephen-- is standing in front of her again.

Original Request by @cairo003: Heya! Can I please request a Stephen Strange x reader? This takes part in Endgame? Maybe the reader has gone back in time to find one of the stones and sees Stephen. She forgets where she is and hugs him or something, i dunno lol. Then reader confesses she is also a sorcerer and that he’ll know more later on? I dunno, but something cute please! Part 2 Requested by: TheElementWithin & ZelcronE on AO3

Key: (Y/N) - your name Warnings: cursing, mentions of death, the Snap :/, I’m Very Sorry For Using Canon Plot Please Know I Hate It With My Entire Being, Thanos, this is,,,,so soft, imagine if Stephen Strange actually let himself be soft with someone instead of a wall of sass and stubbornness smh Word Count: 1,078

Note: bRO this took me so long but people have been sending me such nice messages and my whole brain just went !!!! let’s write a thing for them ok so i did this bc i needed some fluff :D

    It was over.

    Years of grief blew away with the rest of Thanos and his army, dust in the wind on a bright, beautiful day. (Y/N) collapsed to her knees when it was done, wheezing with effort and screaming with pain, but so, so light.

    She’d seen him, in passing, with that red cloak flapping behind him and sparks in his hands. But she hadn’t been able to get a good look at his face, to take a moment to breathe and know that he was alive. She kept repeating it to herself like a mantra-- Stephen Strange is alive, Stephen Strange is alive-- but her heart still felt tight with horror, her hands shaking as dust slipped through her fingers. Something inside her would never calm down until she saw him.

    An idea which quickly became a thing of soon.

    Tony was dying and he needed Stephen’s help. (Y/N) understood, god she understood, but it still burned. Logic told her that he was down the hall, standing over Tony’s body with his scrubs and his stupid, stupid music blasting. But her soul screamed with the need to see him, to hold him and know it was true.

    The sight of him in 2012 New York felt ages away.

    And yet she could still feel his hand on her arm. She could feel the scratch of his beard under her fingers.

    Fingers which were tapping violently on the arm of her chair in the waiting room.

    She had no reason to be as uneasy and impatient as one Pepper Potts, who was in the chair beside her, yet still she was just that. Fuck, she felt like crying again.

    They had no name for what they were, for what it meant to them, but here she was, losing her mind over nothing. She gave everything just to save him and now she wanted that; him, safe, and in her arms, preferably.

    A distant door opened. Both (Y/N) and Pepper looked up, but no dice.

    (Y/N) sagged back into her chair while Pepper gave a shaky sigh. The former really couldn’t help herself and reached over to take the latter’s hand, squeezing it comfortingly.

    “He’ll be okay,” (Y/N) told her with a smile. “Stephen’s the best of the best.”

    Pepper nodded, exhaling deeply. “He’ll be okay,” she repeated, almost to herself.

    They were there for another hour before another door opened.

    They looked up instantly and brightened at the sight of Rhodey appearing. He glanced down the hall and smiled, motioning for Pepper. She let out a massive sigh of relief. (Y/N) smiled as she went, but couldn’t help biting her lip, standing as well, though not following the woman.

    She stood, waiting and watching, for a long time.

    When the door finally creaked open again, she felt rooted to the spot.

    He left the room, speaking quietly to Rhodey, who was thanking him repeatedly. He had a smile on his face, that exhausted smile that (Y/N) knew meant he was pleased with the day’s work, but more importantly that he was ready to collapse in his bed for the next week.

    At the sight of him, her lungs took in fresh air for what felt like the first time in 5 years.

    She just stared at him.

    He didn’t even see her until Rhodey did, catching her eye and smiling softly. Thankfully, the man cleared his throat and nodded toward her, which finally got Stephen to look at her.

    His face lit up. (Y/N) couldn’t help but sob, the facade she’d worn the last few hours shattering at the sight of his smile. She hadn’t seen that smile in five years. How had she lived without it? Seeing his face now, it made the last years of hell a mere memory. For a moment, it was like he never left.

    Rhodey left, the hallway empty except for them now.

    She took the first steps, but stopped. For a split second, a split second, she was terrified this was another one of her nightmares. She thought that the moment she reached out to him he would scatter into the breeze, nothing more than a cloud of dust.

    Luckily, he finished what she couldn’t, taking long, desperate strides toward her. He met her with an embrace, dragging her into his arms to the point of almost lifting her off the ground.

    With his arms wrapped around her and his breath on her ear, (Y/N) finally broke.

    He was real. He was real and he was here, in her arms. The version of him she’d last seen wasn’t going to be the last time she ever saw him.

    She broke down sobbing, clutching his shirt like a lifeline as he tucked her closer.

    “(Y/N),” he breathed out.

    Her name was a prayer on his lips. He may not have lived these last five years, but before he was taken, he’d lived through hell 14 million times. He’d watched her die again and again.

    She pulled away to look at him, cradling his head in her shaking hands. “Oh god, Stephen,” she cried. “I saw you-- I saw you from before and it-- I couldn’t--”

    He rested his hands on hers. “It’s okay, I know, Lang told me. I’m here.”

    “You asked me who I am-- who I am to you.” She breathed in sharply. “I told him I didn’t know and I don’t, but I know who you are to me, I know it now--”

    He frowned. “What? (Y/N), what are you--?”

    She clasped the collar of his shirt and dragged him into a messy kiss. His squeak of surprise was something she’d never forget, as was the way he reacted, immediately tucking his fingers under her belt and pulling her closer. (Y/N)’s hands moved to the back of his head, tangling in his hair as he sank deeper into her.

    He was the first to pull away, breathing a little heavier. “Me too,” he whispered hoarsely.

    (Y/N) couldn’t help a little laugh. She kissed him again, gentle and fond. “I love you.”

    The smile that appeared on his face was bright enough to blind someone. He met her with an insistent kiss. “Not as much as I love you, (Y/N).”

    “Don’t leave me again,” she sighed, letting her forehead rest against his. “Promise.”

    He let out a soft exhale, safe and loved here. “I promise.”

River’s Tags: @hahaboop & @mystoragehatesme

Masterlist

[rosy-wooyoung]

Angelic devil | k. hongjoong

word count: 2.7k pairing: demon! hongjoong x fem!reader genre: soulmate au, supernatural au [i tried ok i know it’s not good] warnings: mention of potential assault, might cause to cringe bc it goes too fast, doesn’t make a lot of sense, attempts at being funny??? A/N: when i say assault, it’s more like the reader being followed but her destiny is here to save her. also i love joong :( [damn that gif tho 👀]

You’ve always been known to be the lucky girl in town; you could cross the streets without looking and not get run over, you could go out in freezing winter wearing just a t-shirt, finding money on the ground while walking. You've fallen sick once or twice in your entire life, but it was always just a small cold. Nothing could take you down. You worked at the local convenience store and it was time for you to go home, the next person’s shift wasn’t before 6am. You started gathering your belongings, putting money in the cash register as you grabbed food for your breakfast, turning off the lights before locking the main door. You took a deep breath of the fresh morning air and started walking to your student residence, eager to go to bed. The streets were dead asleep, a roaring motor passing another street here and there. 

As told before, you had always been the fortunate one. You heard stories from your classmates or friends about being followed at night while coming out of work or a nightclub, sometimes narrowly escaping an assault, a fight, or worse. But you were always astonished to hear about those stories because it never happened to you, and your friends were dumbfounded as well to learn that you never had similar sordid experiences. You were one block away from your home, passing by another student residence and noticed that some lights were still on, probably some fellow college students working hard. You sighed and enjoyed the quietness of the streets, almost finding relief in the darkness surrounding you. Your moment of peace got disturbed by rushed footsteps coming from behind you.

“What are you doing all alone in the dark, pretty girl? Looking for some fun?” you freed an ear from your headphones and frowned, turning around. “Are you talking to me?” you asked, eyes squinting at the man towering you. Maybe your luck was coming to an end tonight and started to prepare yourself for the worst. You stopped your music and put your hands in your sweatshirt’s pocket, cracking your thumb between your fingers. You kept staring at the man, waiting for an answer.

All of a sudden, the man’s eyes widened and took a step back, then another, raising his arms in surrender. You tilted your head and lifted an eyebrow, not understanding his sudden change of behaviour. “Okay, okay! I’m sorry, I’m going,” he said in a trembling voice and started running like his life depended on it. You stood there, bewildered, clearing your throat as you started walking again. You looked behind you to see if someone was scaring them, but you were only met with darkness, a meowing cat chasing a rodent. You safely reached your residence, still confused about the stranger’s behaviour but went to sleep without a second thought.

Something similar happened to you the following week, but it was on the bus this time. A man, who was around your dad’s age, kept staring at you and your chest area, your shirt neckline arriving right under your collarbone. Again, you paused your music to confront the man and cracked your thumb again, adopting the same gestures as the last time something like that happened, hoping that it'd work. You stared at him and noticed that his lustful, bothering look progressively switched to a terrorized one, the man flinching at every single of your movements. He swallowed thickly and looked down, hurriedly pressing on the button to open the door before jumping out of the vehicle and running like a mad man in the opposite direction. You chuckled and shook your head, starting your music again as if nothing happened.

You started to think that cracking your thumb would create a sort of shield or spray an "assaulter repellent" around you. Confessing this idea to your friends would make you look insane, so you stayed quiet, still puzzled about your power. The thing is you didn’t have a superpower. Well, you weren't a superhero, but you were one of the rare ones to be provided with a special ability. Cracking your thumb actually woke someone. Someone living in Hell. Before the birth of a person, there was a fight between a weak angel and a weak devil. Two people that didn’t achieve a lot of things in their past life or became criminals. Of course, criminals went to Hell and the others went to Heaven. The winner of the fight has to look after the newborn. But exceptional things sometimes happen.

One of Lucifer’s sons had to fight a beautiful angel, who accidentally died in a car crash. The mother of the future baby one of them had to protect was going into labour, so they had enough time to fight. But there was a problem. When Lucifer’s son saw the woman in front of him for the first time, he felt something in his chest, torturing him every time he thought about killing her. The angel didn’t understand why he was taking so long to fight. She frowned when she saw the devil shed a bloody tear in front of her.

“I can’t kill you,” he harshly muttered as his tear rolled down his neck and stained his shirt, disturbing the woman in front of him. “Why?” she said in a whisper and immediately put a hand on her mouth, noticing that her words made the devil whimper of pain even more. “Because... you are so... precious, so delicate, beautiful, nothing compared to the women in Hell. You’re… different and I can't corrupt you. I can't bring myself to kill you… Do you feel it?” “Feel what?” “This warmth in my chest, what is it? Please tell me what it is. You had emotions in your life, you can help me.” The woman’s eyes widened, and she started thinking, seeing the pregnant woman nearing the hospital. She needed to be quick. “I don’t know! Attraction, love, pity, desire, what could it be?” The devil looked at the woman and the bloody tear stain on his neck toned down at the mention of one of those words. “Repeat those again, slowly. I think it’s working.” The devil said through gritted teeth, clutching his chest. “Attraction… love… pity... desire?” she hesitantly said, spotting another stain shading off at the second word. She froze and took a step back. “Hold on. You love me?” she gasped as his neck came back to its original colour. “Is it what loves feel like?" the devil was worried, seeing the time run, "please tell me how it feels like.” “Hum… Love shouldn’t hurt but sometimes it does, and it will. It knows no limit, it-it doesn’t feel exhausting. It doesn’t need any of the 5 senses, it’s something that you feel in your heart. It’s when you put your lover before you. It's worrying if they are safe, healthy, and okay. I think it's knowing that they are better and more perfect people out there, but you still choose to love the ones you have. It's not a compromise, it's more like a choice.” The woman explained as the devil got closer to her, feeling a foreign feeling invading his senses. “That’s exactly how I feel about you." he heavily breathed, spotting the woman losing her composure. "You just described the thoughts that appear in my devilish brain when I look at you.” “But aren’t we supposed to fight and kill each other?” the woman's voice trembled, taking a step back, but that only made the devil step closer. “I can’t. It’d kill me too, I sense it,” he said before sealing their lips together.

Passion, love, and lust took over their bodies, forgetting their main duty as they were busy doing something else. The devil looked at the angelic face in front of him and pushed pieces of hair out of her face, capturing her lips again as she groaned. From this union was born a supernatural creature, a boy half-devil, half-angelic. He grew up at the same time as the new-born, who he was attributed to, his parents killed since they didn't accomplish their task. You were the new-born this angelic devil was assigned to and he was the reason for your constant luck and fortune. But you didn’t know that this parallel world existed, you just thought it was fate.

One night, you were doing your homework and mindlessly cracked both of your thumbs at the same time as you stretched your arms above your head while reading an article. You immediately stopped mid-air, scared that something bad might happen and you released your thumbs free. You feel your heart stop when you heard someone clear their throat behind you. You froze on your spot in your chair and took a deep breath before slowly spinning your chair around. You turned on your desk light and turned it to illuminate your bed, gasping. A boy sat on your bed, curiously touching the fluffy material of your comforter. He squinted and shielded his eyes from the light, making eye contact with his piercing red eyes.

“Who… who are you?” your voice was doubtful as you didn’t know who this boy was and what was he doing in your dorm. Fortunately, you lived alone, because you couldn’t bring yourself to explain to your roommate that you invited someone over when it was clearly prohibited. “Me?” his voice surprised you, not expecting it to be this low. “I’m Hongjoong, the demon that takes care of you.” “The- demon? What? The fuck is this madness? Isn’t it supposed to be a guardian angel’s job? Am I cursed?” “Wow, wow, easy with the questions,” he replied as you sunk in your chair. “Don’t be afraid of me, I won’t hurt you. If you die I die too, so what’s the point of hurting you?” “You can feel when I’m in pain?” you asked, your mind blown at his words. “Yes I- ow!” he flinched as you purposefully punched your thigh. “what was that for?” “To see if you were lying.” You said and his eyes darkened. “Why would I- Stop! I’m already suffering enough, you’re so clumsy on the daily!” He stated as you pinched your forearm, slightly snickering.

“Oh really? I didn’t realise,” you shrugged, and he smirked, showing off some bruises on his body, pressing some and you winced, touching the same area on your body. “And the fact that I can walk around the streets in the middle of the night without getting attacked, is it also thanks to you?” he nodded, and you smiled, relieved that you weren’t going crazy. “Since my dad was a devil and my mom an angel, I can be both when you need it. Everything depends on the thumb you decide to crack to summon me. If you crack your left thumb, I'm a demon and if you crack your right thumb, obviously, I become an angel.” You attentively listened to the man in front of you instead of doing your homework, which was completely forgotten on the side. “You always mindlessly crack your right thumb when you’re doing a test, that’s why you correct your answers every time.”

“That’s insane that you can control my mind like that.” You passed a hand in your hair and he laughed, looking as harmless as possible. "I don’t control your mind, I just have a watchful eye on you, but you are also a very special human. I can list a lot of things you do without thinking that summon me," he grinned as you sheepishly smiled, red spreading on your cheeks. “My last question,” you said, a bit more hesitantly this time, “are you also the reason why I’m single? It’s getting pretty lonely down here on Earth,” you mumbled the end of your sentence and Hongjoong felt a pang in his chest. 

Why did you have to ask this question?

“Yes,” he admitted, and you sighed, starting to feel a bit mad. “But why?” you mumbled. “I wanna be happy, why do you prevent me from doing so?” “I don't,” he replied, raising his voice, “it’s not my fault if you go to the worst men in town! I protect you by stopping you from dating bad people!” “That’s bullshit!” you suddenly said, your mind going crazy. Nothing made sense and you started to have a headache. You were talking to a supernatural creature, not really sure if he existed or not. How could a demon protect you from people that were meant to be sent where he lived? What was happening? “It’s not nonsense, I'm only telling the truth!” he rambled, crossing his arms on his chest. You turned around and mumbled a small “selfish” before turning around and started reading again. You felt something in your chest area, but you didn’t know what it was.

“Hey, I’m right here and I can hear you,” he sighed, but you ignored him. You were really going crazy. You stared at the window and noticed that he was still here in the reflection, proving you that it wasn’t something you straight coming out of your imagination. “I can hear your thoughts, you’re not going crazy,” “Get out of my mind!” you said as you screamed in your head, Hongjoong flinching at the sudden noise. “Okay, okay, I’m out!” he said as he covered his ears. You stopped and he looked up at you, something changed in his eyes. “There’s also something I didn’t tell you,” he said, and you nodded, preparing yourself to hear something magical or supernatural. “I’m in love with you,” you dropped your pen at his words, eyebrows furrowing, “it was a lie, you were right. I did protect you from bad people in the past, but I prevented you from seeing anyone out of pure selfishness. I wanted you to meet me and fall in love with me, not with someone else.” 

That’s what you felt in your chest, his previous words were a lie. You knew that he was lying. You remained silent and started observing him, taking in his facial features. His almond eyes were beautiful, changing colours according to his emotions. When honesty and love appeared, they were light and brown, almost shining despite the darkness of your room. His skin was honey-like and looked as soft as whipped cream, his high nose bringing a soft feature on his face, making him look extremely pretty. He shyly smiled as you continued to stare at him and you smiled too, his beaming face making you fall harder for him. He looked so angelic when he showed happiness and love, his honest eyes almost sending hearts to you. However, he must be terrifying when he's mad, suddenly remembering the two frightened men that could have easily taken advantage of you if you were defenceless. 

“Is it possible for a human to date someone like you?” you questioned him, startling him as he was focused on trying to hear your thoughts. He cleared his throat and slowly nodded as if he was unsure about his answer. “I don’t know what will happen to me, but I think it’s possible.” “To you? Why would something happen to only you?” “Because I was assigned to you at your birth. I don’t know if they would consider it as a fail, but I might disappear." You nodded and cracked your right thumb, a sudden halo appearing above his head and you crawled on your bed next to him. He looked so angelic that you cooed, slowly tracing with your finger the details of his cheekbone. Your gesture made him shy and you grabbed his hand, swiftly drawing him closer and kissed his cheek. You deeply inhaled as you felt a warmth spreading in your chest.

“I guess it’s possible, right?” you asked, and he nodded, grabbing your middle and made you fall back on your bed. You circled your arms around your neck and deeply stared in his gorgeous eyes, his shining halo reflecting into his brown orbits. “Let’s make it happen, then,” he suggested and you eagerly nodded, earning a smile from the young man. He licked his lips and grabbed your chin, leaving a soft kiss on your lips. The softest you’ve ever felt in your life. It was feathery and filled with love, bringing you nothing but a smile on your face.

“I think I’m falling for you,” you admitted while giggling and Hongjoong’s face stretched with a smile, only to kiss you again. “Good thing, because I think I’m falling too.”

[zigtheeortega]

unrequited [part 3]

✿ pairing: bryce x mc

✿ word count: 6327

✿ warnings: innuendos, mention of drugs

✿ author’s note: well, this took a lot longer to finish than i expected (lmaooo). i kind of lost interest in open heart after seeing how horribly characters were sidelined, including my fav surgeon. i’ve worked on this on and off since april after i posted part 2, so this is like 4 ish months in the making. this series means the absolute world to me because it was the first time i was really confident in my writing. not as confident in the conclusion, but it’s been weighing on me for months, so i felt obligated to finish it! i hope you all enjoy it!

added my tags to the end bc there’s quite a few, so i’m sorry if i tagged you and you didn’t want to be – i’m going off of who asked to be tagged/asked for a part 3 months ago!

[read part 1 and part 2 here]

•─────────✦✿✦────────•

She slumped into the seat in the deserted waiting room, her joints popping as she stretched, her deep sigh echoing off of the tile. She was exhausted.

She could usually push through the worst of her shifts, but fatigue settled into her bones, a lethargy she’d never experienced entrapping her like a net, and she couldn’t fight her way out of it this time.

“Hey, Spence. What’s wrong?”

She glanced at the door, expecting to see his arm pressed against the frame of the door, slouched casually like he hadn’t a care in the world. Instead, Bryce was unusually close to her, standing right next to her chair, like he’d appeared out of nowhere.

“I’m just so… tired. It feels like I’m trying to sprint underwater right now and I don’t know why. I can’t explain it,” she watched him, gauging his reaction, but something was off.

“C’mon, I think I know exactly what you need right now,” his smile was Bryce’s, but the familiar twinkle of mischief and flirtiness in his eye wasn’t there.

He turned wordlessly, walking out of the door and down the hallway, which was a lot longer than she’d remembered.

She shook it off and trailed behind him, heart beating soundly in her chest. Was he bringing her to the on call room? To the supply closet? Maybe to an unattended office?

“So, where are you taking me?” She asked playfully, reaching out to link her finger in his, but she fell short, even though he was right in front of her.

He either didn’t hear her, or ignored her, walking straight ahead at the same pace. “Bryce, did you hear me?”

He didn’t pick up his pace, but she fell behind, trying to keep up, – to no avail. She looked down, thinking maybe – crazily – that she’d stepped into cement, slowing her pace to a crawl, or something else that was explainable.

But she was fine.

She pushed herself harder as she fell farther and farther back, Bryce’s stride never breaking.

She pumped her arms, leaning forward, trying desperately to swim through the thick atmosphere, practically pedaling against the ground to gain some type of momentum.

“Bryce? Bryce! Hello?” She yelled, as his figure got smaller and smaller, the hall literally stretching to accommodate the distance between them.

She watched as the wall space stretched, new door frames popping up, the number of rooms multiplying by the second.

He turned back for the first time as she clawed her way towards him, making no progress. “You gotta try a little harder for me, Spence.”

He smiled, not sinisterly, but just wide enough, lacking just the right amount of his effortless charm, that she got chills.

She jolted awake, the sound of her alarm interrupting her R.E.M. She snatched her phone off the dresser and tapped her screen, met with a brief silence before the distant noise of traffic – engines rumbling, and horns blaring below – filled her room.

She sat up, panting, her back slick with cooled sweat, the thin fabric of her top clinging to her skin. She breathed deeply, calming her quick pulse, until a muffled sound broke her concentration.

Her phone laid face down on her comforter, slivers of light peeking out of the sides. She flipped it, and her eyes widened in horror after reading Bryce’s name at the top of the screen, but even more so after watching the numbers tick higher and higher.

It wasn’t an alarm – he’d called her at 3 a.m.

“Hello?”

“Hey, you okay? You picked up but I didn’t hear anything besides heavy breathing.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. You just woke me up.”

“Right. Sorry.” He was silent long enough that she almost asked if he’d muted her. “I didn’t know who else to call.”

“About what? You’re freaking me out a little bit,” she laughed once, but it came out as a scoff, and she kicked herself internally.

She didn’t want him to think she was mad. If anything, she’d been craving any time she could get with him.

They’d maintained a semblance of normality after the party, speaking to each other in the hallways, hanging out in groups, but they never unpacked their past conversation further.

She knew she’d said some profoundly batshit things while she was drunk, and vaguely remembered professing her feelings to him, but he never brought it up.

When she surprised the group with tickets to a music festival, she had ulterior motives. She wanted to get him as alone as she could in a sea of thousands. She wanted to make things right. But because Bryce was wholly intoxicating, she couldn’t do anything but live in their moment, the tough conversations – though inevitable – a million miles away.

They danced, they kissed, and she was enraptured by him. The way her hand fit into his own, the way his warm palm felt against her lower back, the way the cool tones of the stage lights bounced off of his bronzed skin, the way the smooth bass of his voice sounded as his full lips were nearly pressed against her ear, the way his smile was just crooked enough to be a smoulder and a smirk at the same time, and it was insufferable, but she adored it… Everything about Bryce was everything she’d ever wanted.

And she thought she was close to getting it back. She thought that’d be the end of it. They made up, and they could move forward. She wanted him, and he wanted her, finally.

But nothing came of it. He never avoided her, but he never stayed around long enough for her to bring up the night of the party.

The seed of hope in her chest blossomed, budding slowly every instance they spent enough time together to make it feel like when they were interns, the exhilarating sensation of hooking up freely a nostalgia she craved. She’d worked up enough courage to treat her situation dramatically – like in a movie – showing up at his apartment, wine in hand, ready to have make up sex and lay it all on the table while they were both sober.

The hope bloomed, coming to fruition when she surprised him, only to find that he’d been hiding his personal problems. It explained why he’d been avoiding her, she thought.

Bryce Lahela was a prideful bastard – one who couldn’t admit he needed a lifesaver until he was already sinking. He was in over his head, drowning underneath the pressure of fostering his kid sister, whom he had virtually no relationship with, all the while balancing residency – as well as… whatever was happening between them.

When she planned to spend her whole life making it up to him, she wasn’t bluffing. So when she saw the opportunity to salvage and strengthen the siblings’ relationship with something as simple as cooking pasta, she dove in headfirst, hand outstretched, eagerly pulling him to safety.

“Keiki’s gone,” he sighed, and she could feel his anxiety and overwhelming dread through that one deep breath.

“Gone? What do you mean ‘gone’? Did she go back to Maui?” She asked frantically, throwing her covers back, and began pacing the room.

“For all I know, she could be at the airport or across state lines by now,” he chuckled humorlessly.

“Why didn’t you tell me? We could’ve thrown her a going away party or something. Or at least given her a card,” she huffed, kicking at a dirty shirt she’d left on the ground.

“Well, it was kind of, uh, sudden.”

“That implies that it was out of nowhere. So she just bolted? Unprovoked?”

“I mean, it was a little provoked.” He said under his breath, just above a whisper.

“Bryce… what are you not telling me?” She asked, uneasy. She didn’t know if she wanted to hear his answer.

“We got into a fight –”

“And she ran away.” She finished for him.

“... And she ran away.” He said.

She could sense his shame through the phone, his voice getting weaker with every word. She slipped out from under the covers, and tiptoed to her closet, throwing on the first shirt and pair of pants she touched.

“You can explain why later, but right now we need to go find her. We can meet at the subway stop closest to your place. You can start by retracing her steps. Are there any corner stores she liked? Maybe a skate park? She seems like she’d be into that kind of stuff –”

“Spence.”

“Yeah?” “You don’t have to help me. I know things have been kind of weird lately. Don’t feel obligated to help me. This is my fuck up, not yours.”

“We can talk about ‘us’ later, Bryce. Even if we were on bad terms, you know I’d drop anything to help you and Keiki. I know you don’t have anyone to lean on.”

He took a deep, shuddering breath that she could barely hear over the slight static of the phone. “Thank you.” “You can thank me after we find her.”

––––

As soon as she stepped off the subway, Spencer hit a near sprint, trying to get to their designated meeting spot. The Boston weather was as unforgiving as ever, the chilled wind stinging her cheeks.

She ran towards the hole in the wall pizza joint that Keiki had told her about offhandedly the night they’d cooked together.

As soon as she saw Bryce’s form, she slowed to a jog, nearly breathless, both by the physical exertion and how awful he looked. His features mirrored the one she’d seen in the supply closet, his defeated expression a painful memory she’d worked hard to bury.

She’d never seen him cry before, but from the way his red-rimmed eyes nearly sagged, nose rubbed raw, lips tight, she felt emotionally spared by not being there whilst the tears fell.

“Bryce?”

“Hey, Spencer,” He smiled weakly, sniffling and rubbing his nose on the sleeve of his hoodie.

“Did you go inside and ask the owners if she stopped by?” “Yeah, they said she was here an hour ago. She stopped for a slice but didn’t stay long,” he said, shaking his head as he pulled his phone from his pocket, before tapping on his screen.

“Okay, that’s great news! She couldn’t have gotten far,” she said, before swivelling back towards where she came from. “C’mon, I hope you have your monthly pass. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.”

“Where to next?” He joked, but his heart wasn’t in it.

“First thing’s first, did you check to see if her location was on?”

“She never had it on in the first place. I guess she thought I’d show up and embarrass her or something,” he shrugged, running a hand through his hair.

They stepped onto the dingy subway car, nearly empty except for one other person who was slumped over in their seat, asleep.

“I doubt it. She has a soft spot for you, Bry,” she sat down, readjusting her loose sweatpants before doing so.

“If she did, then she doesn’t anymore. I think I really fucked up this time,” he said, more to himself than her.

He ended it there, so she decided to nudge him a little. “You don’t have to tell me, but it might help if I had some context.”

“No, no, I… want to. I trust you,” he glanced over to her, holding her eye for the first time that night. He inched his hand over to hers, cautiously, debating, she thought, before settling on rubbing his thumb up and down her pinky finger.

The dying bud in her chest bloomed once again, warmth spreading throughout her limbs at his touch, his soft gesture quenching the thirst her heart so desperately pined for. 

She blinked, eyes trained on his mouth, unable to tear her gaze away from his lips. He didn’t seem to notice, or he was good at hiding it.

“I said and did some things I shouldn’t have. Some things that might’ve reminded her of our parents,” he started.

She waited for him to continue, watching his chest shake as he tried to find the words between the deep breaths he took to calm himself.

“She’s taking after me, and I don’t like it. Not me, like Dr. Lahela, one of the best surgeons this world has ever seen –” a hint of a smirk curled the corner of his lip – “but like the rebellious, angry, reckless teen Bryce who just wanted… attention. From anyone.”

“So… why don’t you give her that?”

He blew out a sharp huff of air. “I don’t get her. And I’m trying really hard to. But there’s only so many hours in the day, and I don't think she felt like I was trying hard enough.”

“You got wrapped up in work like your parents did, huh?” She asked softly, placing her other hand on top of his, quietly lacing her fingers through his.

“Yeah,” he said, remorseful. “I just wish I could’ve kept my fucking mouth shut for once –”

“Hey, hey, stop that. You can feel as guilty as you want after we find her, but we have to stay positive right now,” she said, a bit sternly, covering his hand with her own, gripping it tightly.

He watched her face, searching for something. Maybe a crack in her sincerity? Ulterior motives? She wasn’t sure if he trusted people or not, and it perplexed her to think about it – she’d known Bryce for over a year and couldn’t name a single person that she knew he definitively trusted.

“Thanks, Spence. I really mean it,” he said finally, a little more relaxed than he was seconds before.

He checked his phone every couple of seconds, clicking the lock screen to check the time, before locking it again, just to repeat the cycle incessantly.

“Can I be honest about something?” He asked, staring straight ahead, brows furrowed.

“Of course.”

“I… ignored her. Just like they ignored me when I started acting out. I…” He shook his head. “I said I’d never be like them.”

“You aren’t, Bryce,” she affirmed, rubbing his shoulder blade in soft circles. “The fact that you’re out here searching for her says so much about who you are.”

“It doesn’t say enough.”

“What do you mean?” “Running away from home means nothing if I’m not better than them. Thousands of miles of distance and I turned out just like them,” he scoffed. “The fucking cycle repeats itself.”

“Bryce…” she shifted her body, facing him completely, while he stared ahead, not meeting her eye.

“Just because you’re not good with coping with all of this doesn’t mean you’re a bad brother.”

He turned towards her finally, attentive.

“Yeah, you tend to bottle things up until they blow up, but you didn’t ask for this. You’re not her parent – you’re her brother, first and foremost. You can’t put those expectations on yourself because you’re not them. You’re doing the best you can as her brother, not her parent.”

She laced her fingers over his, squeezing the hand she’d been holding. “You can’t fault yourself for making mistakes. This is new territory for you. You’re learning and she is, too.”

The doors opened in front of them, the only indicator that they’d made it to the next stop. They were both so engrossed that they hadn’t noticed.

“We should probably get out here,” she said, standing. She didn’t check to see if he followed suit, missing the way he watched her as he walked behind her.

They clopped up the stairs again, Spencer shivering despite her cozy getup.

“Do you want my headband?” He asked, digging into his pocket. “It’s really warm.”

“Oh, yeah. Thanks,” she took it, pulling the thick band over her hair, snug against her ears, but comfortable.

“No problem,” he said, watching her adjust it, his eyes trained on the way she pursed her lips when she couldn’t get all of her hairs to lay down just right.

“We can split up,” she started, pointing down the main street across from the subway. “I’ll check the restaurants that are open down this way, and you can go the opposite way. I’ll text you when I head back –”

“I don’t want you walking alone, Spence,” he said, shutting her down immediately.

“We’re gonna cover more ground if we split up. I can handle myself. Don’t worry about me,” she shrugged. “I’ll be fine.”

“I can’t handle the idea of you getting hurt while helping me look for my sister. Please,” he pleaded, eyes soft.

“Fine,” she sighed.

They checked a handful of diners, breakfast places, and even a bar, but with no luck. Even when Bryce flashed a photo from Keiki’s Instagram, no one’s eyes lit up in recognition.

He looked more and more defeated with each subway stop, his posture slumping, his lips set in a thin line.

She could feel herself deflating as well, but she couldn’t bear to show him she was quickly losing hope, too. No one was going to support Bryce the way he needed, except for her.

“Let’s stop by that skatepark. If she’s not there, there’s bound to be someone who’s seen her,” Spencer nodded resolutely, absentmindedly grasping Bryce’s hand and tugging him towards the stop.

“It’s no use,” he whispered, and she whipped around at the sound of his voice, his body grounded, like his feet were nailed to the ground.

“What’s no use?”

“This,” he gestured with both hands, tugging his chilled hands from her grip. “She doesn’t want to be in Boston. It’s my fault she hasn’t adjusted. I haven’t exactly been the best welcoming committee.”

She shook her head vigorously. “Bryce, she could care less where you live. She came here for you.”

His brows furrowed, his face contorting, his features scrunching like he was in physical pain. When he covered his face with his hand, without hesitation, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders, pulling him down to rest his face in the crook of her shoulder.

She whispered words of affirmation in his ear as he sobbed into her jacket, and she rubbed small soothing circles, doing her best to comfort him.

He’d never been this vulnerable in front of her. It was hard to decipher how he felt about things going wrong, his killer smile usually a convincing mask.

He pulled away after a while, his tear streaked face glimmering in the light. “Sorry. That was embarrassing,” he laughed shakily, flashing his teeth, just on the cusp of being a signature Bryce smile.

“Oh, shut up. I’ve cried in front of you before –”

“And it was embarrassing,” he teased, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.

A laugh bubbled from her before she could stop it. A body aching, chest heaving, breath stealing guttural laugh that shook her to her core because of how unexpected it was. That type of joy was nearly lost on her. It was so foreign compared to the past couple weeks, and it felt good.

He cackled with her, more so at the involuntary snort that ripped from her nose, less at his not-so-subtle roast. He grasped at his chest with one hand, gasping for air. “God, I’d willingly do appendectomies for a month straight if I could get a video of that snort. I’d snap everybody.”

Her eyes widened, his words triggering a memory.

“Oh my god,” she smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. She quickly opened her phone, navigating to the app she needed. “What? Is it bad?”

“No, I just realized she added me on Snapchat, so her location might be on,” she smiled to herself, opening up the geolocation map, seeing Keiki’s Bitmoji pop up – in the city. “Oh my god, Bryce, she’s still in Boston! Look, it’s her!” She hugged her phone to her chest. “She’s a couple of stops down but not that far away from us.”

He watched her with a confused expression, a little hurt, almost.

“What’s wrong?”

“... She never added me on Snap,” he nearly pouted.

She cackled again, covering her mouth with her hand, shoulders shaking – real laughter. Another fleeting moment of pure joy was the eye of the storm, and she gladly basked in it. 

“I didn’t know you two were so close,” His mouth lifted at the corner, a knowing smile forming.

“Well, I got her phone number and snap in case she wanted me to show her around Boston, y’know, if you were busy,” she said between breaths, still coming down from her fit. “Or if she ever got tired of you,” she teased, the feeling of normality settling between them like there wasn’t a massive elephant in the room.

“How could you ever get tired of this face, though? I’m adorable,” he grinned, flashing her favorite 1000-watt smile that made her stomach flutter. “Nah, but really. Thank you. I don’t really know where I’d be right now without you.”

His eyes softened, the debonair facade parting just long enough for her to see what was undoubtedly her favorite side of him.

He laid his hand on her jaw, the warmth of his palm comforting, a striking contrast to the nipping cold of the night air. Both his touch and the temperature differences elicited a reflexive shiver from her, goosebumps raising on her arms underneath her jacket.

Part of her wanted to admit she’d shuddered solely because of his warm skin, because she didn’t want to inflate his ego – but there was no denying it. A single touch from Bryce was all it took to make her putty in his hands.

His gaze flickered to her lips, and he stretched his thumb to lightly drag the pad of it over her bottom lip, parted in awe. “Spencer…”

The tension thickened, their anticipation making it difficult to breathe. God, there was nothing she wanted more in that moment than to grab his face and taste him again. As much as she wanted to kiss him, it wasn’t right.

“Bryce,” she whispered, eyelids fluttering as she watched his tongue flick out to wet his lips. “You can kiss me after we find her.”

––––

The skatepark was nearly empty, the streetlights casting long shadows from the ramps onto the concrete.

“You’re sure she’s here?” He asked, wispy streams leaving his mouth as he spoke.

“Unless she dropped her phone here, she should be close by,” she nodded towards where a few scraggly teenagers were standing around, pungent smoke in the air.

“Keiki shouldn’t be out here with those dumbasses smoking weed out in the open like that,” he huffed, eyeing them as they walked towards the back, the grassy area coming into focus.

“Relax. I doubt she’s out here to smoke. You say that like you didn’t smoke too,” she raised a brow at him, challenging.

He pursed his lips. “Oh, so it’s like that.”

“What? You can’t go all dad mode and expect me not to play devil’s advocate,” she quipped, shrugging.

Before he could form a retort, Bryce held her arm back, stopping her in her tracks.

On the steps leading down to the grass, sat Keiki, headphones in her ears, tapping her foot as she dug into a bag of chips, crunching loudly.

Bryce looked absolutely helpless, like he had no clue what to do next – so Spencer stepped forward without a second thought, trying her best not to startle her.

When she was in her line of sight, Keiki’s eyes bulged from her head, and she nearly choked on her soda. “Jesus fucking christ, you scared me,” she coughed into the crook of her elbow. “What are you doing here? Did he tell you I left?” “I was worried about you,” Spencer said, evading the last question, trying to play it cool. Keiki hadn’t noticed Bryce at the top of the stairs.

“Yeah, but how’d you find me?” She popped a chip in her mouth.

“If you wanna be harder to find, you gotta try a little harder than that,” she said, plopping down on the concrete stair next to her. “Snap maps.”

“I wasn’t trying to go off the grid or whatever. I just wanted some space. It’s no big deal,” Keiki huffed, scooting away from Spencer.

“Maybe so, but you can’t leave after a fight with no explanation. You’re too young to be out here alone this late.”

“You act like I haven’t been through worse,” she muttered.

“I know you have. But you can’t just walk out like that. Bryce is all you’ve got out here.”

“Oh, so you didn’t come alone,” she rolled her eyes. “He begged you to come, didn’t he? Did he not feel like coming himself? Did he have work or something?”

Spencer winced at Keiki’s tone of voice, simultaneously laced with seething rage and hurt. “No, he’s here. You need to talk it out.”

She set her mouth into a thin line, whipping her head around to gaze up at the top of the stairs, flipping him off.. “Go away.”

She gently grasped her wrist, pulling her hand down. “Please, Keiki. There’s a lot of things he won’t say to you, but I’ve heard them. If he didn’t regret what he said to you, I wouldn’t be helping him,” she pleaded, squeezing her wrist comfortingly.

Keiki glanced away, then back to her eyes, then back to the ground, unable to hold her gaze. “Okay.”

Spencer stood up, motioning for Bryce to come towards her. He met her halfway down the stairs, his gaze soft and admiring. “I… I don’t know how to thank you.”

“Don’t worry about that right now,” she smiled, reaching out to rub a hand against his arm. “Go work things out with your sister.”

He leaned in, surprising her with a soft peck on the corner of her upturned lips. “Thanks.” He winked and took the rest of the stairs two at a time, a spring in his step.

She watched as he bent down to sit next to her hunched form, nearly dwarfing her. Over the next twenty minutes, she focused on their backs, heads bobbing as they discussed and argued. They gradually relaxed, Kekei’s body unfurling from her condensed form, Bryce draping an arm on the step behind her.

And when they arose to walk towards Spencer’s place at the top of the stairs, they were both laughing, flashing the same grin.

God they were so similar – and didn’t even know it.

“I’m gonna wait over there while you two makeout,” Keiki grimaced, frowning as soon as her joke dawned on her. “Thanks.”

“No problem. Glad you’re back,” she called, but she was already throwing up a peace sign, back turned, probably not registering what she’d said.

The second they were alone, the nerves hit, the heat of his body next to hers already stifling. While she debated whether or not to meet his eye, he spoke.

“You wanna cash in on that kiss now?”

She glanced up, breath hitching in her throat when she realized how close his face was to her own. Her half lidded gaze was trained on his bottom lip, caught between his teeth. As soon as a quiet “yes” fell from her lips, he captured them in a searing kiss.

For a few blissful moments, the only sound between them were their soft sighs of contentment. She couldn’t remember if Bryce always kissed like this – so passionate and so enthusiastic, yet so cool, so suave.

Every methodical movement of his jaw was so practiced, so refined, she felt like underneath the flickering streetlight, in Bryce’s strong grip, she was the one he operated on, her chest reopened, her heart exposed. Everything she had to give was laid out on the metaphorical operating table, and as cheesy as it sounded, there was a chance he could save her.

The kiss was a reawakening for her. She knew what she had to do. She’d never been more sure of anything before.

She pulled back, their noses touching, as she whispered four words she knew he wouldn’t expect to hear. Maybe he’d forgotten what he asked her the moment it left his lips, but she was determined to mend what she’d broken.

“Ask me to choose.”

“Huh?” He panted, running a thumb across her jawline.

“Just ask me.”

“What do you choose?” He laughed, clearly confused.

“You. Always,” she breathed, tugging him forward by the collar of his jacket, sealing her promise with a kiss.

––––

On the ride home, Spencer sat cuddled up next to him, their fingers tightly wound – like they were afraid if the other let go, it wouldn’t be real. 

“Did I say anything… big to you while I was drunk?” She asked, breaking the silence.

Bryce chuckled softly, trying not to wake a sleeping Keiki, curled up next to him, somehow lulled to sleep by the loud, aggressive music blaring from her headphones.

“Yeah, you did.”

“Shit, I really thought I’d made that up,” she shook her head, covering her face with her other hand.

“Nah, you definitely dropped a bomb on me that night.”

“Bryce,” she whined. “Can’t you just tell me? I’m already embarrassed enough.”

“Glad I’ve got you hot and bothered,” he grinned, teasing. “Well… you said, and I quote ‘I think I love you’.”

Her cheeks warmed, and she turned, burying her head in the crook of his neck. “Did I really?” “I said it back.”

She looked up from her place against his shoulder, mouth agape as he planted a kiss on her forehead.

“Do you think or do you know?” She whispered, unsure if she wanted the answer.

“After tonight, I’m more sure than I ever have been,” he shook his head. “Probably more sure of this than anything else in my life right now.”

He used his free hand to cup her face, kissing her lips tenderly. She couldn’t remember a time he’d kissed her with that much care.

“So are you gonna say it first, or am I gonna have to?” He murmured against her lips, earning a surprised laugh from her.

“I’ve done a lot of your dirty work tonight,” she joked.

“Not the kind of dirty I’d prefer, but I’ll give you the credit you deserve,” he laughed as she swatted his chest. He pulled back, holding her gaze with no ounce of fear in his deep brown eyes.

“I love you, Spencer,” he said, his voice taking the most candid tone she’d heard from him.

“I love you, too, Bryce. I always have,” she said, feeling her throat constrict, voice cracking. “I should’ve told you sooner how I felt.”

“I think it happened at the right time. I wanted a lot from you when I didn’t even have my own shit together,” he shrugged, still cupping her face in his calloused palm. “I couldn’t even give what I wanted to receive, ya know?”

“Wow… that’s profound,” she said, in all seriousness.

“Oh, you’re making fun of the meathead for being smart now, huh?” He cackled. Keiki didn’t even stir next to him, despite his booming laugh reverberating throughout the empty car.

“No, no, I’m serious. That’s the most self reflection I’ve ever heard from you.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve had a lot of time to think about my mistakes.”

“Me, too. But… we can work through that stuff if you want to talk it out,” she offered, cuddling up to him for warmth again.

“Is therapy your side hustle or something, Spence? Is there something you need to tell me?” He teased, tickling her ribs with his freehand.

She let out an ear piercing shriek, completely caught off guard. “Bryce! Stop it! Please,” she said between laughs, noting the way he smoothly slid his arm around her waist, so that when he stopped, they were closer than before.

“Can you two shut up? I’m trying to sleep,” Keiki grumbled, taking them out of their moment.

“Oh, so you’re exhausted from scaring the shit out of me. By all means, get your beauty sleep,” he said, taking the headband Spencer borrowed from him, slingshotting it directly at Keiki’s forehead.

“That’s it!” Keiki shouted, leaping up on the bench and grabbing Bryce in a headlock, scuffling with him while he most definitely let her win.

Spencer was thankful their car was empty as chaos ensued but she couldn’t help herself from smiling at the fight in front of her – they’d never done typical sibling things like that before. They were robbed of normality from such a young age, and a playful fight was a step in the right direction.

“Uncle, uncle!” Bryce called out convincingly, winking at Spencer. Keiki’s fingers were tangled in his hair, one of his arms trapped in the crook of her elbow. He swatted at her face, trying to get her to let him go.

“We don’t have any uncles,” Keiki said, chomping down on his hand.

“Ow! You little shit – I need these for work –” He hissed.

“Yeah, you didn’t think I was gonna go for the kill? Serves you right for underestimating me,” she huffed, hopping off of him and back into her spot on the bench.

“I won’t do that again,” he smiled softly, reaching over to tousle her hair.

The doors slid open, startling them all.

“I’ll go ahead so you can talk to your girlfriend. Bye, Spence,” Keiki said, waving, strutting out towards the stairs without a second glance.

Her heart swelled at the younger Lahela sibling’s use of the nickname Bryce coined for her.

“So…” She said, as they stepped out into the chill night air for the last time, the first rays of sunlight peeking over the tops of the buildings. “What do we do now?”

“What, after this thrilling conclusion to our months of back and forth?”

“Bryce,” she rolled her eyes, barely holding back a smile. “We barely even talked any of this out. I mean like… where do we go from here?”

“As far as I’m concerned, we’re clean slating it.”

“You don’t wanna talk about that stuff at the party? Or in the supply closet?” She winced. “Maybe when we wanna tackle that, but as of right now, I’m just happy to have you all to myself,” he grinned, snaking his arms around her hips, leaning in to press another kiss on her bottom lip.

“You don’t know how fucking badly I wanna bring you back home right now,” he murmured against her lips.

She groaned, lacing her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. “God, me too.”

“Soon as I spend some time with Keiki and can get some time set aside for us, I’m not letting you out of my sight,” he smirked, eliciting a shudder from her.

“I guess we’re dating now, huh?” She raised her brows, quirking her mouth to the side. “Don’t tell your roommates yet, please. I wanna see how long it takes them to put two and two together,” he said, a mischievous look in his eye.

“As long as you don’t tell yours,” she teased.

“Keiki’s definitely gonna notice we’re a thing if you keep showing up and leaving with wobbly legs,” he said, and raised a brow at her.

“Shit, you’re really flirty today,” she giggled, her face flushing because of both the Boston air and his innuendos.

“I’m making up for lost time, baby,” he grinned, pulling her in for what seemed like the hundredth kiss that night, but it felt just as incredible as their first supply closet makeout.

Although they had to part ways that night, both of them were rejuvenated in a way they hadn’t been in months – since they were noncommittally hooking up, secretly hoping the other made some kind of move to solidify what was between them.

And although it took way too fucking long for her to come around, Spencer was finally giving him what he deserved. Every single part of her. No distractions, no restraints, no excuses.

Every quip, every embrace, every kiss they shared that night nourished the flora of her heart, quenching her desperate thirst for his validation like a gentle summer rain, and she basked in it, head upturned like a silent thank you to the universe for giving her the chance to mend what she’d broken.

The vines that’d once had her heart in a constricting hold made way for the blossoming flowers; they’d both never forget their past mistakes, passion-fueled arguments, or the pain they’d endured at the hands of each other, but amidst those heated moments, amidst the beautiful disaster, their garden of love budded, a harmonious existence.

––––

tags: @beccadavenport ; @senatorraines ; @felix-hauville ; @messofakind ; @violinet ; @hudush ; @altairadtaz ; @agentdumortain ; @drsobemoji ; @levineseth ; @omgjasminesimone ; @lahellacute ; @doctorsurferbro ; @eleanorbloom ; @tarajoyful ; @bobbysmckenzie ; @raleiighcarrera ; @pixeljazzy