#because I hadn’t seen it! I’m glad I’ve now sort of seen enough

[msmk11]

Don’t Care Less

therapist!Remus Lupin x gn!reader

Word count: 1k

CW: really not much; angst ig since reader is crying and upset but mainly just hurt/comfort

Summary: Your therapist, Remus, cares about you more than he should.

A/n: Hey all! Here’s a cutie little Remus fic for you. Idk what inspired me to write this but I can always use a little Remus comfort in my life :) I hope you can too!

No decent person liked to see others in distress, Remus Lupin included. But he could handle it. That’s why he was a therapist. Because he had thick enough skin to handle seeing people in pain, he decided to use it to actually help others. This had been true all of his life- until now. And you were the cause.

You- one of his newest clients and maybe also his prettiest. Scratch that, you were not only his prettiest client, but also the prettiest person he’d ever seen. With your big, soft eyes, enticing lips, and crooked smile, you had consumed all of Remus’ thoughts. His little crush on you, however, had made it very hard for him to do his job. Especially when you were crying.

Remus didn’t just dislike seeing you in distress, he hated it. It took everything in his power to not just swoop you up into his arms, brush your tears away, and kiss you silly until you’d forgotten all your problems. Alas, you were his client and he valued both his job and your trust. So as you sat across from him, tears streaming down your face and head in your hands, he was using all his restraint.

You’d been sobbing for about five minutes straight now, and it hadn’t lessened up.

Remus shifted forward in his seat and handed you the tissue box as a sort of peace offering. You weakly took one and blew your nose, trying to quiet your sobs.

“I’m, s-sorry,” you hiccuped, “once I started crying I just couldn’t stop.”

The brunette smiled warmly at you, “what have I said about apologizing? This is a sorry free zone.”

You gave him a faint, teary smile, and he was pretty sure his heart broke on the spot.

“Sor-“ You caught yourself before apologizing and had the decency to look sheepish.

Remus stood and went to get you a cup of water from the water jug in the corner. You accepted it with shaking hands and greedily gulped it down.

When you finished, you crumpled the cup and looked at him across the table, “I guess I didn’t realize how much I had pent up inside me. When something shitty happens, I guess I just push it down and move on. Because if I let every problem get to me, I’d fall apart. I’d never be able to put myself back together.”

“It’s your coping mechanism,” he said, understanding in his eyes, “which I’m glad you have, but it also can’t be your go to all the time. Holding it in isn’t healthy.”

Your bottom lip quivered a little, “I know. God, I know. It’s just a hard habit to break. When I��ve been doing it all my life, I don’t know any other way.”

Remus let out the smallest of laughs, “trust me, I know what you mean. Even to this day, I’m a chronic represser. It certainly feels easier to just ignore the problem. But it never really solves anything. And then it comes back ten times worse the next time.”

“Well, how do I stop it? How did you stop?”

Remus took a small sip of his tea and then looked at you honestly, “I haven’t fully stopped doing it, but I’ve gotten better. I’ve found people in my life who can hold me accountable. Who call me out when they see me trying to bottle up my feelings. I’ve found someone I can trust to talk to. Can you think of someone?”

You seem deep in thought over his question and the little furrow that formed in your brows made him swoon.

“Well, I, uh,” you paused nervously and Remus nodded at you to continue, “you. I guess. You’re the only person in my life that I feel like I can truly trust.”

“Though I guess I pay for your trust so I’m not sure that counts all that much,” you added with a slightly bitter scoff.

Remus’ heart both warmed at your confession that you trusted him the most, and also ached. You were right, of course. You did just pay him to be here. But how could he tell you that he actually cared so much more? That he cared about you after hours, out of the office, at all times of the day.

“Of course it counts,” he choked out, “sure, you pay me to be here, but I also want to. I’m a therapist because I care about people and about helping them. I care about helping you.”

And then, ever so quietly, he said, “maybe even a little more than I should.”

Your eyes shot up to meet his gaze and you were shocked by its sincerity. You think you might’ve shuddered a little and so you gripped your arms, pretending it was just cold, though you’d never felt warmer.

He stood and slowly moved around the table towards you, “I know it’s unprofessional, but I care about every little thing about you. When you smile I feel happier. When you cry I want to hurt whoever hurt you. Every time you tell me a little tidbit of information about your life, I soak it up, committing it to memory like my life depends on it. And I’ve tried to care less. I really have. But I can’t help it.”

“Please don’t,” you responded quietly. So quietly, he almost missed it.

“Don’t what?” He asked with bated breath.

“Care less.”

Remus was sure his heart stopped.

“Please,” you nearly pleaded, and then Remus was at your side. He drew your hands into his.

“I don’t think I ever can.”

You looked at him with these hopeful, begging eyes and he couldn’t resist you anymore. He pulled you close to him and placed the tenderest of kisses to your forehead. You nearly melted under his touch.

“What about your job?” You murmured into his chest.

He pulled away a little and looked into your eyes seriously, “we’ll find you someone else to see. And they won’t be better than me, but that’ll be okay, cause I’ll still be there. I’ll just be more than the ‘professional help’- as someone who doesn’t just care about you, but cares for you.”

“I, I’d like that very much, Remus.”

And his name sounded so good rolling off your lips for the first time, he had to restrain himself, yet again, from kissing you silly.

[ghcstao3]

It’s just one of those unspoken things of life, John thinks. At least��for those it pertains to.

A sort of… smoker’s pact. Bumming cigarettes and sharing a light. The mutual understanding and the wordless agreement of the familiar transaction. And while the habit isn’t at all preferable—the whole act, John thinks, is sort of wonderful.

It’s how he meets Simon.

John’s move to a new city hasn’t treated him too kindly so far. He’d had to stay in a hotel for two weeks because of an infestation in his flat, his new job screwed up his paperwork so he doesn’t get to start for almost another month yet, and, worst of all: he knows no one here. He has a cat for company, sure, but she can only do so much for conversation.

John doesn’t smoke often, but tonight is one of those times where he thinks he’s earned it.

Except now, as he pulls out his near-empty pack after climbing to the building’s roof, he realizes he has nothing to light the cigarette with. He curses.

Great.

Frustrated, he shoves one between his lips anyway, crumpling the pack in his jacket pocket as the wind blows past. At least the view is decent enough.

“Need a light?” Someone asks.

John nearly jumps out of his skin, thankful he hadn’t been standing anywhere close to the roof’s edge. He hadn’t heard nor seen anyone, and maybe he could attribute that to the dark and the whistling breeze—but turning to face his company, it’s a wonder he didn’t notice.

The man is, well. Large. Even wearing black to blend in with the hour, and even with his posture slightly hunched to perhaps meet John’s height or attempt to preserve warmth, John can tell his shoulders are broad. John can tell he’s stupidly tall if only he straightened his spine just a little.

“If you don’t mind,” John says, the slightest bit breathless.

John watches sort of mesmerized, as a flame burns the tip of his smoke. The man follows up with his own cigarette, then tucks his lighter into his hoodie pocket.

It must be instinctual, the way the man turns his head to the side to exhale once he’s taken a drag.

“I’ve never seen you up here before,” the man remarks.

John shrugs. He takes his own drag, then blows the smoke to his right. “I only recently moved here.”

The man hums. “Well, I’m sure you’ll be glad to know I’m about the only other one who comes up here. Easier to hide your naughty habit.”

John barks out a laugh. “Bit hypocritical, wouldn’t you say?”

The corners of the man’s lips curl upward. “Not sure what you’re talking about.”

John wouldn’t learn Simon’s name for another month and a half after that, but he doesn’t think it would ever matter. Not when they have their unspoken thing.

Maybe this new city wouldn’t be so terrible after all.

[vanoincidence]

Mare (Not Like the Horse) || Van & Ariadne

TIMING: a few weeks ago. LOCATION: frozen yogurt! not the bad one! PARTIES: @ariadnewhitlock & @vanoincidence SUMMARY: ariadne and van go out for frozen yogurt! the ladle has other plans. CONTENT WARNINGS: none!

She hadn’t hung out with Van in forever. Not in as much of a forever as it had been when they hardly talked for years, but a forever nonetheless. So she’d reached out, and she’d ended up just deciding to stop by – except that wasn’t an option because of something that was up with Van’s house and so she’d asked if she wanted to go and get ice cream, and that seemed to work, and so Ariadne was stood outside the ice cream shop, nervously bouncing on the balls of her feet until she spotted Van and gave her friend a wave.

“Hi. Do you want me to pay for the ice cream? I can! I want to – I – it’s nice to see you.” Ariadne offered Van a smile. “How have you been? I – any luck with Cass? I – it’s hard to talk to her.” But she supposed that talking about that wasn’t going to do either of them any sort of good.

“I want to get  like, three flavors, at least.” That was better to talk about, and easier, and it made more sense. Besides, didn’t the two of them deserve to have some sort of good and happy and nice hang out? “I like gummy bears a lot, still. I don’t think there’s a single flavor of ice cream they don’t taste great on.” __

Van was grateful that when Ariadne had reached out about going out for ice cream, it hadn’t been the shop that she and Thea had gone to and ran from. She hadn’t seen any articles about the missing employee or the destroyed bathroom, but maybe it’d been kept under wraps. Van tried not to think about it as she kicked the end of her board, grabbing between the axle as she walked up towards Ariadne. 

“What! No, I can like, totally do that. I’ve got a lot of tip money.” The tip jar had been overflowing, and she wasn’t sure why, but even after splitting with the person on shift with her, there was still a good amount to be had. “I can pay for yours, you can pay for mine. We’ll pay together and it’ll be like we paid for each other, y’know?” She hoped that made sense. It did to her, at least. At Ariadne’s question, Van frowned. “No, I– I haven’t seen or talked to her. I tried to go over to her cave, but I totally chickened out.” She wasn’t sure why. What Cass really needed right now was a friend, not for someone to cowardly recoil. 

Her gaze flickered to the signage on the outside of the shop and Van nodded. “Three flavors is always best, and then we can try whatever else.” She had her lactaid at the ready, and so she followed Ariadne inside. “They get all hard and stuff and they get hard to chew… I think I like mostly cereal toppings, or even the cheesecake bites and stuff best.” She smiled at Ariadne. “I’m glad we’re doing this! It’s been like, forever.” A lot had happened. Her house had blown up, Ariadne had been attacked(?), and Wynne had escaped yet another cult-like existence. Nora was back, and so was Regan. Wicked’s Rest was under the spell of yet another nonsensical wave of issues, but at least she could enjoy ice cream with an old friend. 

__

“Well, okay…” Ariadne hesitated for a moment. She didn’t want to argue with Van, and even though she was pretty positive it wouldn’t turn into a big argument, it was best to just fully not risk it. That was the most logical and most sensible thing. She’d had enough not-so-great times recently that she figured she really could use a real good one. It was really nice to fall back into step with her friend – even if it wasn’t exactly like it used to be, it was still good, and maybe she and Chance could both invite Van over sometime. If Ariadne remembered correctly, Van and her cousin had always gotten along well.

“I just don’t know exactly what to do about all of this.” Which felt like some flavor of failure, but not one that she could quite put a name to. At least not yet. Though maybe there was a certain part of her that didn’t want to put a name to it yet. Which was stomach-twisting in its own sort of way. “I just wanted to offer to pay, that’s all. I’m glad you get tipped well. I don’t get people who don’t tip.” Maybe that was a sort of person Ariadne could give nightmares to. It seemed a bit extreme, but so did not tipping. Like, what was up with that? “But okay, we can pay for each other. But you should totally get like, a bajillon toppings. Don’t skimp at all.” She offered Van her best and brightest smile, though said smile wasn’t quite as bright as usual.

She nodded. “It has been too long. Way, way too long.” And it was a relief that Van wanted this. Ariadne couldn’t think of the last time that the two of them had really and truly hung out, just them. “I guess they do get tough to chew. I think that’s why I like them?” She shrugged. “But cheesecake bites? That’s a genius move, Van.” She pushed the door to the shop open. “You should go first. Uh, best hu— people, first. You know?”

__

“I don’t think we’re supposed to.” Van didn’t like that they didn’t know how to approach the situation with Cass, but how were they supposed to know when their friend was shutting them out? Granted, there were probably good reasons that she was doing it, but it still sucked. Van was trying not to take it personally, because nobody liked it when somebody’s hardships were made about something else. Still, Van hoped that Cass would call her up one day like old times, or just appear in front of her like she typically did, snacks in hand. 

But maybe she and Ariadne wouldn’t talk only about Cass today. Maybe this was really a means of catching up. It was a little refreshing, even if Van did want to focus on a way to break Cass out of whatever trance her dad had her under. Still, it was hard to do on an empty stomach. As soon as she smelled the jammy strawberries sitting in their metal container, it was over for any scheming. 

“People who don’t tip like, totally suck.” That was an easy opinion to fall back on, after all. Ariadne had brought it up first. She looked over at the blonde, tongue in cheek as she explained her reasoning for liking gummy worms. “That makes like, no sense, but I totally support you.” Her own jaw ached at the idea of chewing down cold gummy worms, but at least there’d be more for Ariadne! “Cheesecake bites are like, super good. Cookie dough, too.” She grabbed one of the bright paper cups and stalled next to the assortment of machines displaying their flavors of the month. “Um…. fruity or cake-y.” She looked over at Ariadne for confirmation of what she should get, “I really like the tart flavors, but sometimes I mess up and get the 0 sugar cake batter one and it totally ruins everything because it doesn’t taste good, and then I can’t throw it away because I already got it, you know?” 

__

“Yeah – at least I hope so. I’d like to know what to do, but I guess it’s not always possible.” Ariadne didn’t like that train of thought, but she felt strangely comforted by Van thinking at least similar thoughts. She didn’t want to be selfish, didn’t want to make whatever was going on with Cass all about her, but Cass was her best friend and there was something that felt weird and off and she wanted to fix the problem but she didn’t know exactly how she was supposed to. She’d read so many books about how to be a good friend when she was little, and even a few as a refresher when Cass had somehow ended up being her best friend. But maybe she’d messed up, but also maybe Cass would come running back. She couldn’t leave her door unlocked, on account of almost being murdered and not wanting people like Jade to track her down, but the second Cass wanted anything, she’d be there. No matter what.

She also probably owed it to Van to tell her about the whole… well, dead thing. It was weird to keep it a secret still, even though that was the safest route, and even though Van might not get it, but Cass knew, and Wynne knew, and both of them were friends with Van and so it made sense for Ariadne to just suck it up and tell her.

“They do.” She nodded firmly. “I – yeah. You’re right. It doesn’t make sense.” But Van wasn’t judging her, so it was fine. “Those also sound super good. Oh yeah, ick! But I get it, I don’t like to waste stuff, and it’s like, I’ve already spent the money… but still. I don’t get zero sugar things. It just doesn’t make sense to me.” Ariadne made her way over to the wall of flavors. “The real question is, which one should we start with?”

__

“Zero sugar is good for some people, I guess, but the aftertaste is totally weird.” There had been a lot of times where she thought she got discounted candy only to find out they were only on discount because nobody wanted them and because there was no sugar attached. She wasn’t proud of the person she’d become then, throwing them out, but at least after getting a job at Sly Slice, she could put them in a communal area and somebody would take them. 

“I always put candy on the bottom so like, when I’m upset that it’s gone, there’s another little thing there, you know?” Her dad was the one who taught her the trick. He would take her out after her mom would tell her no sugar, but he’d keep it between them. Usually, she’d run it off at the park while he played online solitaire. 

“Maybe a layer of the cake one, and then…” Van looked over the flavors, “cookies and cream is new, I think. I kind of want to try that one, and then maybe add some crushed strawberries.” She looked towards Ariadne with a smile, “what about you?” This was all so normal, and she was grateful for it. 

__

“Yeah, some people have to have it, and I get that, I don’t want to be rude or anything about that, so… yeah.” At least it didn’t seem like Van was going to judge her, and if she did, then Ariadne figured that she deserved it. Not in a self-deprecating way, but just something more matter of fact.

“That’s genius!” Ariadne grinned. “I’ll try that out. Or like, layer it. Candy, then ice cream, then candy, then ice cream, and so on…” It was like the coolest sort of sandwich (literally and also just like, awesome). She was glad that her parents had always supported her love of sweets, present even before the whole dying thing.

“Those flavors are so good. I think I might do… bubblegum, and cotton candy, and then like,...chocolate vanilla swirl.” It was a lot of very sweet flavors, but that worked well, and it was fun. “I think I’ll get some blueberries too. In addition to the candy and stuff.” 

__

“The layering makes it way more fun, I think. I like to put the mochi in too, but I’m not sure if they have it.” Van craned her neck to get a better look at the dessert bar that was at the end of the line. There weren’t many other people inside, which meant if they wanted to load their toppings and pay for it, then they could do that. 

“Bubblegum and cotton candy…” Van nodded, trying to imagine what the combination would taste like in an ice cream form. She didn’t think she could form the thought in her head. “Chocolate vanilla swirl sounds good, though! You can’t go wrong with that, I guess.” Van scooped some cookie dough into her cup before moving towards the cookies and cream dispenser. “Blueberries are always sort of a hit or miss, I think. Sometimes they taste like water.” 

__

“Yeah, I get that. I’ve put popping boba in mine before – I like boba in bubble tea the most – got one of my professors to try that – but it can be fun on ice cream. Just anything sweet.” She wanted so badly to just say, yeah, ‘cause I need sweet stuff to live now, sort of. But when would the right moment for that be?

“It’s a weird combo, I know – but it’s super sweet which, like I said, is good… is stuff I like.” Ariadne made a small face. She scooped a few sour patch kids into her cup and turned toward the bubblegum dispenser. “You know, between the two of us, we’ve covered quite the variety of flavors. Not coffee though, but that’s too bitter of an ice cream for me. What do you think about it?”

__

“Strawberry popping boba is good. I like when it’s sour, though.” Her boba order, sans frozen yogurt, was way too convoluted to explain to Ariadne here and now. Chance knew it, she thought. It was weird, thinking about the things that Chance knew about her that Ariadne didn’t because of the time that had split them apart. Well– that and a slew of other things. 

Van had no room to judge Ariadne for liking overly sweet things. After all, she dipped her beef jerky sticks into nacho cheese. “Coffee is way too bitter for ice cream, I think. I don’t know.” She scrunched her nose, thinking about the copious amounts of coffee ice cream her grandma would always get, only because she knew Van wouldn’t want any. “Give me a red bull slushie though and I’d be all over it.” She quickly filled the rest of her cup with the other frozen yogurt she wanted before moving to the small array of fixings. She started to shovel some fruity pebbles onto it, pointing with her pinky finger to the raspberries. “Do you like raspberries, too– oh, be careful– hey, um, sir–” Van rose her voice slightly after noticing that the ladle out for them to use had a sharp edge to it. “Can we get another spoon?” 

__

“That makes sense. Sour stuff is good.” She nodded, double confirming. It was something that Chance knew, because he knew a lot more about Van than she did, even though he wasn’t actually from the town. But that didn’t make her feel too bad – Chance was great, and so was Van, and it was good if they were friends.

She even still had a bag of gummy Life Savers in her bag, just in case. “Yes. I think so. But some people like it. I guess.” Like some boring adults. No offense to them, Ariadne apologized in her head. “That sounds cool! Do they make those in like seven-elevens and stuff?? I know they have cherry and Coke and blue raspberry and stuff like that… not such an expert on energy drinks though.” She nodded. “Yeah, I like most any berry. Raspberries are good, and they make a wicked good jam.” Ariadne sighed, looking over at the ladle, though she reached to touch the ladle, except her hand brushed against the sharp edge and then there was glitter and her hand shot back and against her shirt and she turned on her heels. “I – uh. Gonna go get – uh. Bandaid. Outside.”

__

“I actually don’t know… I don’t think so. The health department probably like, makes sure people can’t make those. I bet I could make it if I got my own slushie machine or something.” It sounded like a nightmare, and she wondered if she’d ever have the energy to clean it out considering every time she went to a fast food joint, the ice cream machine always seemed to be broken, but only because they didn’t feel like cleaning it. Van put the idea away for another day. 

“I like rhubarb jam a lot, but I don’t think you can just… eat it like you can berries.” It’d been awhile since she had any, and her mouth tinged with the promise of some later in the year if she could get her hands on it from one of the farmer’s market stalls that offered it. Her mind wandered to the jam, but faltered as she noticed the glitter practically spill from Ariadne’s hand. Van opened her mouth to speak, but Ariadne was darting towards the door. “What? A bandaid? Wait, I have some– why are yours outside?” Van followed after the blonde, digging into her bag for the kuromi bandaids. “They’re purple!” They were outside now, and Van was trying to look around Ariadne to offer the small packet. 

__

“Yeah, that makes sense. I bet you’d make ones even better than the store.” Which she meant, she wasn’t trying to over compliment her friend. Even though she knew that it could easily sound that way.

“Yeah. I think you can have it in pie and stuff, but I don’t know if you can just munch on rhubarb. But I’m not an expert, and I haven’t had that much rhubarb jam, so…” 

Van followed her outside. “I – yeah. Uh, you know, for like, safety reasons?” There was glitter all over her hand. She wasn’t even bleeding that much but in her anxiety and rush to get out of the store she’d smeared it around. “I do like purple. Mixing red and blue slushies to make them purple is the best.” Ariadne looked down at the ground. “It’s – your ice cream is gonna melt.” She wasn’t sure what else to say, because she very clearly hadn’t spilled glitter paint all over herself – Van was right there. “It’s – I’ll be fine.”

__

Maybe if they were girls from any other town on earth, they could talk about rhubarb jam and pie. They could discuss their favorite frozen yogurt toppings and let their belongings spill over a table as they leaned over their bowls, sharing in the delicacies they created. 

But this was Wicked’s Rest, and it offered no kindness. 

“Oh, yeah, that makes sense.” Van’s concern was visible on her features as she twisted around to look at the other girl’s hand. There was no red, and instead, it matched the glitter that she had seen on the ladle. “It’s um, inside. It’s totally fine. Are you…” Van stared at her hand, not quite sure how to formulate the question. “Did you….” Was this some raver thing? Was Ariadne a raver? “Are you fae or something?” She kept her voice low with the question, not knowing if fae actually had glittery blood, but the word glamor being a part of their vernacular had her thinking that maybe it went together. Maybe Stephenie Meyer had met fae, and not vampires. Vampires here didn’t glitter. 

__

“Okay.” She sniffed, because she didn’t want to possibly lose Van, not when they’d only recently finally actually reconnected. 

But their town wasn’t always kind. Their town had killed her. If she’d grown up somewhere else she would still be human. Probably. Ariadne really didn’t know much of anything about how things like this worked, and except for visits to her grandparents and to Chance, she hadn’t been out of the town much at all. “Fae? I – no.” She shook her head. Van knew about fae? That at least might make some of this a little easier. “I’m – I – I’m dead. Uh.” She hit her palms against her face. “Sorry. I mean. I am dead. But not? It’s – some people say it’s called undead. I’m not a vampire though. I’m… well, something called a mare. But I promise I won’t hurt you!!” Once she’d started talking everything threatened to spill out. “I have to give nightmares to, uh, eat, but I can eat normal stuff and sugar’s really good, I think, or maybe I just like that, but I don’t ever give you nightmares. I just give them to people who are mean. But yeah. Someone fed on me, and made me this. It’s – I –” she blew a strand of hair from her face. “I get it if I should just go now.” She couldn’t help but think of Jade had looked at her – how, to some, she really was a monster.

__

Maybe she shouldn’t have brought up fae. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to know about fae, and because she mentioned fae, something could happen. Hadn’t that been what kind of happened to Nora in Ireland? Wasn’t that why Regan had to go back? Van bit the inside of her cheek as she waited for Ariadne to clarify. But the answer was no, and her friend seemed confused. “You’re… dead? I mean, me, too. Like, I feel dead.” Okay, maybe the wrong way to put it. 

She knew dead people. She knew Caleb. She had been attacked by dead things. She had run-ins with them in different capacities. She’d been warned against them, and had befriended them. Was that the kind of dead that Ariadne meant? It was strange, realizing just how much she’d grown from the point in her life where she couldn’t even think of the word magic. Now, she was accepting all different forms of… maybe not magic, but oddities. “You… horses aren’t dead.” Horses could die, but that didn’t make much sense. To be a person who looked like a person and not a horse that bled glitter? Van’s head kind of hurt trying to wrap her mind around it. 

Zombies and vampires made sense– those she could understand, mostly because they were so prevalent in media. Horses were too, she guessed. But then Ariadne went on to continue explaining, and mare wasn’t a female horse, but short for something else. “Oh…” Van nodded as if it made all the sense in the world, as if she knew what the word always meant. “So not like, a horse. Okay. That makes a lot more sense, I think.” Ariadne was clearly flailing over the information she was providing, and maybe a few months ago, Van would’ve let her go. 

Instead, Van stuck out the bandaid with an unsure smile. “I’m sorry– Um. That I called you a horse. You’re not a horse. Unless you wanted to be.” How long had Ariadne been dead for? Was she supposed to ask that? Was she the Bella in this situation? “Do… you like, need this? You’re glittery, right? To hide it? Are you hurt?” 

__

Ariadne did a double take for a moment at Van’s comment. There was no way that her friend was dead and she hadn’t noticed, right? Then Van was asking about horses and once again Ariadne found herself unable to explain just why she had the same name as a horse. Except that in her case, it was a shortened version of what she was (a nightmare).

“It’s short for nightmare. I think. Because that’s what I eat.” She made another face. “I – well, I’ve only been this for a couple years…” 

Van wasn’t leaving and that alone made Ariadne want to burst into tears. She wasn’t sure what she’d done to deserve the magnificent friends that she had. “Chance, uh, knows. I told him a bit ago.” She wasn’t too keen to get into all the details right now, but figured it was important that Van knew that Chance knew. “No, I don’t want to be a horse. I like being… uh, a person.” Not human. Because she wasn’t human any longer. “Yes please. I’d like the bandaid, to hide it, yeah. I – it’s just a small cut, it’s not so bad.” She took the bandaid. “I like My Melody. But I like Kuromi too – that’s who this is, right?” She offered a cautious smile to her friend. “You sure you’re okay?”

__

If Van hadn’t known Ariadne for as long as she did, knowing that she was kindness personified, then maybe she would’ve focused on the whole eating nightmares thing, but Ariadne had clarified that she only did that to mean people. Van couldn’t really understand why eating somebody who was cruel’s nightmares wouldn’t be helping them, but there was still room to learn exactly what Ariadne meant, right? 

“A couple of years.” Van frowned. That meant that Ariadne had died right under her nose. Not that she would’ve been able to do anything, obviously. They only recently reconnected, and even then… “I’m sorry.” She wasn’t sure if that was right, either. Apologizing for somebody’s death that had happened years ago. But she was still standing there, seemingly alive. Now, Van had to wonder if something would try to take her out in a way that spread misinformation of danger. She thought of Jade for a brief moment, but pushed the thought away. She considered giving her a picture of Ariadne and telling her to stay the fuck away, but wouldn’t it be better if Jade had no idea who Ariadne was? 

“Chance knows,” Van echoed, trying to fit the pieces of just what happened to Ariadne together. She didn’t figure she’d get that part of all this right here and now, and for once, she was okay with it. It wasn’t every day that a friend of hers told her they were dead. Then again, it had happened with Caleb. So maybe it was a little more common than she thought. “Yeah, being a person is like… way cooler. Horses kinda still freak me out.” She thought about the horse that Regan had taken her to to cure the whole hay eating thing. Would Ariadne befriend that horse, too? Van handed the bandaid over to Ariadne with a nod. 

“Yeah, kuromi. I– there were My Melody ones, but I used them all like, forever ago.” She liked Kuromi better, and it was why she was trying to save them. “Me? I’m okay! I’m not the one who–” she stopped herself from saying she wasn’t dead, and instead pivoted, “that got cut on that weird ladle thing. That’s like, a total health code violation thing, right?” She scrunched her nose. “I’m taking this like, really well, right?” Ariadne already knew what she was, so it only felt fair. “Like, um, way better than I would have before, I think. I’m not saying give me a gold medal or anything, but it’s growth!” A real, genuine smile pulled at the corners of Van’s lips as she grabbed Ariadne’s hand that’d been cut, inspecting it to make sure the bandaid covered the wound in its entirety. “Um, thank you for telling me. Do you… we can talk more about it later, but I think we should get you your weird bubblegum cotton candy mixture, right?” 

__

“Yeah. A couple of years. So I – I’ll always be like, almost-twenty. In looks. I do age. Just not – yeah.” Ariadne wasn’t sure if she was making even the tiniest bit of sense but she did know that Van was listening and that was enough of a win (more than enough). “You don’t have to be sorry – but thanks.”

She wasn’t sure if she should go into the complicated details about how there were people who tried to murder her. Re-murder. Whatever the term was (she still wasn’t sure). But Ariadne didn’t want to stress Van out any more than she already probably was. If the occasion called for it, or if Van decided to ask, then she’d admit it, but not until then. The two of them were having a nice time and she’d already muddled it talking about her death. She didn’t need to scare Van, tell her about the fact that people out there liked to hunt people who weren’t human just because.

“So I just – I know you’re friends, and I didn’t want you to think you had to keep it a secret from him. He only knows like, recently. Wynne knows too. And – Cass.” She didn’t want to bring up Cass too much right now, what with all the complexities that came hand in hand with all of that, but Cass was Van’s friend too and Ariadne wanted to make sure that Van knew she could be open with other people. “Yeah, horses can be freaky.” Though she would’ve given anything to be able to be near any animal or bug or – not the point, right now.

“That makes sense. Kuromi is more your vibe – which I mean as a compliment, F-Y-I. I figure you’ll take it as that, but I just want to make sure!!” Van had been so understanding, Ariadne really didn’t want to ruin the moment by offending her. “It probably is, yeah. And thank you for taking it so well. It – well, it means everything to me.” She giggled at Van’s next words. “I think you should get a gold medal, if I was judging, I’d give you one, so…” Van grabbed her hand and that made her smile grow. Van wasn’t disgusted by her. Van, who was something exceptional and extraordinary, wasn’t repulsed. “Yeah – we can talk more whenever you want. We should go and get the ice cream, yeah.” She moved toward the door, hand-in-hand with Van. “I’m really glad we’re friends.” 

[the-present-is-a-gift-au]

Chapter 26: In Which Darkrai Asks a Question

Twig sent back a note that she had some loose ends to tie up before she could visit Kip, hoping that the note would buy her some time thanks to how she hadn’t specified a day she’d be coming back to Treasure Town. Ark, confusingly, almost elected to stay home when she ran to the post office to deliver it. She told him she was heading out, and he replied with a distracted hum. Confused, she asked if he wanted to come along, and he seemed to snap awake and rushed after her out the door. He watched everyone and everything with a strange look in his eyes as they made their way through Verdant Village— somewhere between sorrowful longing and bitter anger. Whatever it was in his gaze, it wasn’t the awkward, distant sort of cheerfulness she was used to from him. He wasn’t regarding everything with a wide-eyed awe— it was a narrow sort of scrutiny that didn’t fit on Ark’s face. 

Honestly, he seemed a bit ticked in his distractedness. There were moments he was almost irritable— not enough to truly be called irritable, though, because this was Ark she was talking about. He just seemed a bit… short. Maybe a little snippy in how he responded to her questions about if they had enough food to make it to the next weekday market. Not enough to qualify as rude, but he was colder than usual. 

Weird. She could look past it though. She had her moodier days— he probably was just going through one of his own.

She ignored all of that, but she couldn’t look past him asking her that long-dreaded question as she sorted through the groceries she’d grabbed on the way back from the post office, glad to finally be home. “How long were you planning on keeping this up?”

She set down an oran berry she was examining for bruises, confused. “What the heck are you talking about, man?”

“How long did you intend to lie to me?”

“Dude, I’ve never once lied to…” 

Oh. 

She recognized the chilliness to his tone now, the coldness of his gaze. She recognized the way he postured himself and seemed to take all the light out of the room with his presence. 

It all belonged to Darkrai, of course, and fit so poorly on Ark. 

Suddenly a number of things made sense— the fact that he knew Kip had a cowardly streak, the way he spoke as he asked her about joining Team Venture, even the way that he held himself these past weeks— Darkrai remembered. He remembered, and he was mad. Twig had never once seen him upset. Never ruffled, never perturbed— Darkrai was always calm, always cool, always collected, and never the picture of burning cold rage before her.

She should be terrified. Something in her was definitely cowering at the sight of Darkrai so furious before her, but she managed to hold her ground despite the coward in her begging to run. She was tired. Maybe she was ready to die if it meant she could get some rest.

“Your answer?” He demanded.

She tried to come up with some pacifying response to give him, but could only summon the truth. She was tired. It had been a long time of lying to keep people safe. She had already messed everything up. Why not get some stuff off her chest before she kicked the bucket? “I was going to keep it up as long as it took.”

“You fully intended to keep my past hidden from me, tucked tidily away for all of time?” He loomed over her— or more like he tried to, at least. Twig didn’t back down. 

She gave him a weary glare. “Can you blame me?”

A long, tense silence filled the air. It felt like if she reached out a claw, she could pluck it like a string.

“Are you going to kill me?” She asked.

Conflict flashed across his face. 

“Just get it over with already. I’ve been waiting for this to happen. Might as well get it done after all that waiting.”

“I’m not—”

“Not what?” She spat. “Not the type to get your hands dirty? Too bad. If you leave me alive, I’ll tell Kip and Cresselia— everyone— and we’ll be stuck in the same situation we started in. You’ll face off with us in Dark Crater, I’ll end up cursed or whatever that arm thing you did was, and you’ll end up without your memories again or something. I don’t care. Just get it over with.” Tears pricked at her eyes despite her frustration. “I’m tired. I’m done. I blew the shot I had at keeping everyone safe and getting a friend while I was at it. So kill me.”

Again, that conflict flickered across his features. He scowled and seemed to ready himself to deal that mortal blow… but he vanished instead, melted into the shadows. She could sense he was still in the room, judging by the heavy atmosphere that surrounded him remaining, but he was gone without a visible trace.

Twig got the feeling he didn’t want to talk. Too bad.

“You’ve got the perfect opportunity here, man. It’d be kind of stupid to pass it up when I’m literally telling you to get it over with.”

Silence.

“You’d be doing me a favor, you know,” she murmured.

No answer.

“… How long have you remembered?”

The heaviness in the air crescendoed, and then it lifted. He was gone.

Twig wondered why he left without finishing the job.

[miniscrew-anon]

I'm pretty sure I've written this scene like 3937163526 times but whatever lmao here you go

Shadow strutted into Four’s room as usual, creaking the door ever so slightly so Four knew he was here. Even so, Four still jolted when he noticed him out of the corner of his eye.

“It’s late, Rain,” Shadow remarked as flopped down onto the bed next to Four. Four groaned as he rolled over to make room. It was nearly 3, in fact. Did that mean it was actually early? He wasn’t sure.

“Mm…couldn’t sleep,” Four replied lamely. Clearly a lie.

Shadow scoffed. “You know I can see when you’re online, right? Don’t pretend you even tried.”

Four sighed. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. I dunno, lost track of time or something.” He set down his phone and rolled over to look at Shadow. “You weren’t sleeping either,” he pointed out.

“I was working, man! You were just lying here.”

“Working until 2 in the morning?”

“Fair point,” Shadow admitted. He’d gone down another internet rabbit hole. Something wasn’t right about this place, and Four knew it too. He just needed to figure out what.

“I guess…well, I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately,” Four said.

“Yeah, I knew,” Shadow replied. “You’ve been more distant, taking longer to respond- you’re not taking care of yourself, Four. Have you even been eating enough?” He llifted a strand of hair out of Four’s face. “What’s going on?”

Four didn’t reply for a few moments. “I…I’m not sure,” he decided. “Got caught up in…other things, and well, it’s just been so busy, I just kind of forgot, you know?”

Shadow nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I do know.” He pulled Four close, realizing how thin he felt. “Just take care of yourself, alright?”

Four chuckled. “Yeah, okay.”

“Promise?” Shadow teased.

“Okay, okay, I promise!” Four laughed, chucking a pillow at Shadow.

“How’re the…roommates?”

“Housemates, I guess. They’re fine. I haven’t really been up to the third floor, but I am praying that the guy doesn’t have any more rooms. Nine people in a house is enough.”

“No kidding. Who even are they?” Shadow hadn’t seen much of them, he made a point to keep his presence as quiet as possible.

“Well, other than the homeowner…” (Now that guy was someone to look into. What kind of person just lets 8 other people live in his house? Maybe he had a secret desire for kids or something, but these were grown men. He was hoping it wasn’t some sort of weird fetish.) “There’s the kid. Pretty much just hangs in his room all day.”

“You say kid, how old even is he?”

"Dunno. Young. There's Hyrule, he's the doctor." Shadow figured that was good. The guy seemed trustworthy enough.

"What about the weird one? He a drug dealer or something?"

"Probably not. He's got some weird friend that hangs around here sometimes, but they don't bother anyone else." (If he was a drug dealer, Shadow would probably ask Four to come live with him. The risk of being arrested is not something either of them wanted to take.) "The others are pretty alright. There's Wild, he's a but…

"Mm. Yeah, there's some weird figures here, I've seen that much." Shadow nestled into Four's hair, the blond leaning back against him. "Be careful, Rain, okay?"

"Of course."

They stayed in silence then, Shadow holding Four close to him.

"I'm glad you're here," Four whispered to him a few minutes later.

"Me too."

honestly I'm pretty sure this was gonna go somewhere but I got too tired to insert a plot so this is the soup you get 🍲

--secret third thing anon, too lazy to edit this because tumble hates formatting

I love this so much!!!

Shadow casually tracking everyone Four lives with is just so mwah chefs kiss - I love when he’s that special brand of protective and intrusive that’s all him. And him being sus of Time is just perfect. Because seriously - who just invites eight random guys off the street into his home filled with expensive and fancy stuff?

Secret thank you! You’re always welcome to drop things into my inbox! I love hearing from you ❤️

[kennieswrld]

Break-Up’s (an analysis from a current three time breakup champ)

this was an old draft i felt was good enough to see the light of day, he was an asshole. but so am i.

It always start’s with me thinking, “Thank fucking god that was over” and “Who needs them? I was fine before them, I’ll be fine without them”. But, am I fine without them? No. Was I fine before them? Probably not. 

It’s so weird to wake up without sending a “gm <3″ text to that someone because they’re just... someone again. I know that sounds ‘fake deep’ and ‘woke’ of me to say but the quickness of love is absolutely insane. I can’t believe that only 2 months ago I was head over heels for a person I don’t even feel like I know today. I would’ve taken a bullet for them if needed and now I would certainly be the one to put a bullet in them (not actually! please! this is metaphoric!). 

Sometimes I wish I could’ve just withheld myself the night we met and just wallowed in the self pity I was wading in before you rang my dingy apartment doorbell. I wish I had left more space between our first meeting and second so maybe you would’ve thought I was more mysterious and withdrawn. I wish I wouldn’t have put out on our first night together so you would’ve at least stayed with me for a week longer while waiting for our first consumation. I wish I would’ve seen the warmness leave your eyes when you stopped loving me like I did you. I wish I never went to the mental hospital on our second week of knowing each other and could’ve just stayed with you for those two nights.I wish this would’ve worked. I wish you didn’t tell me, “we are two different people”. It’s all I think about now. I was born “different”. I have never fit in anywhere and I’ve been around the fucking world, it just feels like this is my fault. 

The first two relationships were laughably bad. I made mistakes and so did they obviously as saying I keep in touch with neither of them. But I weirdly expected more from you, which is odd as saying we met and dated and shared “i love you’s” in a timespan of 4 hours. I had never felt that sort of electricity before, and I damn well hadn’t felt those emotions a day in my life. I really believed you when you said you loved me just as I was honest when I said I did you, it’s just hard to wrap my head around the fact that you never did and that’s okay. 

I wish I could make you the bad guy like I did the two boys in my first two relationships, but I can’t. I wish I could be the person you are looking for, but I can’t. I wish I could change my lifestyle to fit yours, but I can’t. I wish I could make you love me back, but I can’t. And I think this is the hardest part of it all. I don’t want to become a stranger to you, but I also don’t want to become anything with you. For a while at least. Why? Because you fucking moron, I still love you. But I need to focus more on me. I was ready to drop my entire life to be with you for the instant dopamine I felt when meeting your alluring dark eyes, and that’s not what a person who is ready to love someone correctly should be doing. I need to stop acting out of emotion so much, but I’m glad for what you gave me for the short time we spent together (even when we were in those weird tensions). You showed me that I was just fucking broken and that’s completely okay and nothing wrong with it. And I thank you for that, but God how I wish you could just be a stranger again. Just so when we meet again one day maybe those feelings will come back tenfold. Even if I bitterly tell people you weren’t shit, you were the shit to me. 

I love you, even if you didn’t love me back.  

[professorsaber]

McFly July 8. Driver’s License

AO3 is down as of this posting, so I’m retroactively putting this on Tumblr as well—my McFly July entry for the 11th is a sequel to this one, so I want anyone reading that one to have context!

Thursday, March 7, 1996 3:40 PM      

Emmett Brown sat on the sign at the Hill Valley DMV.

Clara hadn’t yet learned how to drive an automobile, and her learner’s permit had almost expired when she woke her husband in the middle of the night and told him she needed to get an actual driver’s license now.

In the subsequent few weeks, he had given her a—no pun intended—crash course in how to drive. She had been a harder student than Marty, which was not only unexpected but almost impossible to believe. Her moods since that night had been incredibly erratic, and she had been prone to snapping at him at seemingly random moments—especially when she was behind the wheel.

It was all very strange.

She had taken the actual, DMV-supervised, behind-the-wheel test twice now. The second time she had done everything right—except when she hit the curb while trying to park the car when the test was over. That had been heartbreaking, even for Emmett. His wife, uncharacteristically, had broken into tears.

The first test was worse. The instructor had grabbed the wheel while a car was passing them in the opposite direction, and flunked her for it. Clara said she was certain there was enough room, and she had nearly—again, uncharacteristically—gotten in a fistfight with the instructor. Emmett had certainly been sympathetic, seeing as he not only trusted his wife’s judgment but had seen the instructor fail every single student she had that day. But he’d been able to convince Clara to drop it.

This was Clara’s third test. And, since the state of California apparently thought everything was baseball, a third failure would mean she’d have to start over from scratch.

He hopped off the sign and began pacing. He checked the watches on both wrists.

“What the hell is taking them so long?” he muttered to himself. He glanced at the payphone hanging by the door. They’d had to wait for an instructor long enough that he’d had to call Jennifer to pick up their children from school. She’d taken them back to the ranch with Marty, but she had to be wondering where they were.

He looked up, and saw his Ford Contour pull into the lot. With bated breath, he watched Clara pull the car expertly into a parking space—and stop three feet short.

Oh no, he thought. She’s failed the test!

Then, Clara turned off the car, got out, and raised her hands in triumph.

“Emmett!” she shouted as she ran to him. “I passed! I passed!”

“Thank goodness!” he said as she pulled him into a hug.

After they’d gotten everything sorted with the DMV, and after Emmett had used the payphone to call his children, Clara had insisted that he be the one to drive them home.

“Sorry,” she said, rubbing her eyes. “I’m suddenly so exhausted.”

“I understand,” he said. “I was so sure you’d failed the test. Because you parked so oddly.”

“I didn’t notice,” she said. She looked out the window. “I’ve been terrible these last few weeks.”

“Oh? I haven’t noticed.”

Clara gave him a look. “Emmett, I owe you an apology. And—oh, lord, pull over!”

Emmett slammed on the brakes. They had stopped along a country road. Clara opened the door, took off her seat belt, and threw up on the side of the road.

“’Mfine,” she said, waving away Emmett’s outreached hand. After some dry heaving, she sat back in her seat. “Sorry.”

“I didn’t realize you were sick.”

“Not sick,” she said. She sighed. “You’ll be glad you’re sitting down for this.”

TO BE CONTINUED ON THE 11TH

End notes:

Yes, to be continued.  Some of you may already know what's happening with Clara, and if you do please let me know if I've handled it insensitively.  But I've never actually ended something on a cliffhanger before, so when I realized I could do that here, I had to do it!

Also, Clara's DMV experience was pulled from mine—except for what's happening with her.

[lgcparker]

𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚔𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚞 𝚏𝚞𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚖𝚜 𝟽 : 𝚊𝚕𝚞𝚖𝚗𝚒 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠

He had filmed a show with Type Zero back in China not too long ago, so being filmed was something he had become somewhat desensitized to, but that being said, as he sat in on the stool he had been ushered too, and caught the eye of staff he had not seen in some time, an overwhelming feeling of déjà vu began to swell in the back of his mind. While there were some changes, it had been almost exactly a year ago when he had sat in front of the camera and introduced himself as a hopeful trainee.He hadn’t won that season, though some could argue that he had— he had debuted— and and this point, he was the only one remaining from the two trainees who had joined Type Zero after that season. 

Hands placed firmly on his own knees, Parker bowed his head and addressed the camera and the staff energetically: “Hey everyone! My name is Parker Su and I’m the main vocalist of Type Zero. I’m glad to be back!”

“How have you grown since your last appearance on Future Dreams?” 

“Well, I certainly haven’t grown height-wise,” Parker joked easily, only letting the joke sit for a moment before he actually answered the question. “Honestly, I don’t think I can point out every way I’ve grown. It’s kind of like how you can’t tell if your hair has grown too long until one day you realize you can’t see.” In contrast to his joking manner only moments ago, Parker’s disposition remained calm and considerate as he truly attempted to give a reasonable reply. “I think I’ve grown quite a bit when it comes to dancing— I know that dancing and acting were two things that I was asked to improve on during season five.” There was a quiet moment and he averted his gaze down, hand reaching to touch the back of his own neck before he glanced up a bit slyly. “I hope my acting has gotten a bit better, but I really don’t know.” 

“What have you achieved up until now?”

“Achieved?” The young man brightened considerably, his smile large and broad, with a shadow of that bashfulness from before still lingering. “I mean, I managed to debut, and have my first comeback with Type Zero! Honestly, I think that’s a really amazing achievement; it’s been a dream. Ah— also we just finished debuting in China, and my family was from China at one point before they moved to America. That was also a really proud sort of milestone, I guess.” Parker’s smile never wavered, and in fact, he seemed to have moved somewhat forward off his seat as he spoke, as if his body couldn’t contain his own enthusiasm. “I have and continue to be able to do this awesome stuff because well— “ he paused and gestured forward to the camera lens to address the viewers more directly, “ because the fans watching, and the company. I don’t think I could thank anyone— everyone— enough.” With that he bowed deeply, truly meaning his words.

“What were your motivations in joining?” 

There was a moment when Parker paused, truly paused, his real response on his tongue but there was some of it that seemed wrong and unfair to bring up. He didn’t know if he was allowed to mention Nathan or Dowoon, and their departure, and if he were honest he didn’t want people to think he was using their names for clout. Especially Nathan. Parker wasn’t stupid enough to think there weren’t a subset of the younger man’s fans who would twist his intent, but if Parker were honest, part of why he agreed to participate was to help and keep his group afloat. It seemed like the very least he could do… All things considered. “Isn’t that obvious?” He grinned and extended his arms wide to the room. “I missed you!” Once his laugh subsided, Parker did his best to remain in good spirits for the audience and she tipped his head to one side and spoke through his smile. “Of course I would love the opportunity to have a solo debut, but I really wanted to challenge myself further.” 

“What do you want to achieve during this season?”

“Like I mentioned, I really would love to have a solo debut. Singing is almost like a personality trait for me! Music and expressing emotions through music is everything I wanted. That said, I also realize that while I might not be the youngest contestant, I am definitely the most junior person this season.” The laugher from before has melted once more and what remained was a more genuine, and calm Parker. The same Parker who listened to his vocal coaches and dance teachers corrections without fighting their critiques and suggestions. “Some of the people for this season are really great singers, dancers, and rappers, and I want to be better. Not necessarily better than them, but better than the me doing this interview right now. I have a lot to improve, so I really want to achieve that.” With a nod, Parker takes a small breath through his nose and seems to come back to the playful boy from before. “I also wouldn’t mind bringing back my Miss Independent performance— is Haemi-sunbaenim going to be judging this season?” 

[arkin-oconnell]

Most of Arkins bad behavior had been tied to the fact he was deep in addiction for a long time. He hadn’t really seen a way out of it all and then it went too far. Of course the rough childhood the O’Connell’s had been dealt had caused some major problems as well as the whole scandal of him leaving town the way he did. It all sort of accumulated over the years. That was something he was still trying to process a year later but he was trying to make sure he didn’t rub people the wrong way anymore. He didn’t think anything of the way Addison acted when they were growing up because he understood it all. They were just trying to survive and that left them a little prickly and with walls.

“ let’s assume I’ll even get work still to have a movie in theaters again” that was something Arkin worried about but judging by the messages his agent had been sending him apparently the whole becoming a family man thing was doing wonders for his public image. “ why are we born naked then if it’s such a big deal? “ he joked before letting out a sigh. “ you know now that I’ve said that Ive just jinxed myself into probably having to deal with that with Kai”

“ Yeah cause I’m trying to be realistic but I don’t know. I know this all wasn’t planned but i think it’s maybe the best thing that has ever happened to me in a long time. I don’t feel as lost as I did when i got out of rehab. Like I can channel everything into something good. And someone who isn’t tainted by having had our childhood “ Arkin admitted as he glanced back to his twin. If anyone knew him best it was Addison. “ Never thought any one would want me to be a dad but I’m glad it happened. It’s the one thing in my life I can’t afford to mess up “

“ you know I’m not gonna do that. I really don’t want to push you away at all. I never want to push you or Eden away with anything in my life. “ he just needed that time to settle in a bit. Being a parent was so new to him he needed a bit of a period where things would be calm enough. “ they don’t but you guys aren’t that far down the list. They’re my family now but you’ve been my family since the moment we showed up in this world”

“ he should be awake by now “ Arkin noted as he started to head over to the nursery “ i don’t know m; can you handle me being an adult ?” He joked despite the fact the duo had sort of already had some practice growing up when it came to Eden. @addisonxoconnell

"I know, but it's okay if you are every once and awhile. I'm pretty sure that's just being human." Addison knew she shouldn't believe that being mean was justified. She should've thought differently than the world was mean to us so why should I be nice mentality. Too many times did she want to go back in time to fix what an awful sister she was growing up. Too many times did she regret how she treated her siblings. She was all of sharp edges back then. Even now she could feel them coming back, the softness her adulthood had given her was slowly going away. To be quite frank, she was starting to give less of a fuck on anything and everything. "Well thankfully, I wasn't planning on going to the movies anytime soon. You very well could've put underwear on after your baths, you know. I don't think you had to go running around all naked while mom tried to dry you off."

"I'm not saying Kai is going to fix everything, but I do have a strong feeling he's going to help heal a lot of what happened to us." She could already see it clear as day with Arkin. That might've been putting too much pressure on a baby so soon, but it was quite obvious how much mending he did on her brother. No, she wouldn't go as far to say he was a missing piece, but he certainly did help close a hole left by their father. "I think he's exactly what you needed to know that things would get better. You wouldn't know what you were capable of if you didn't dive head first into it." Probably one of the bigger differences between the two of them. Arkin tackled something head on while Addison always overthought it.

Eventually things would get better even Kai wasn't here. She knew that as much as everyone else in the family. For a time it was already better for her in that she was overcoming their childhood. She was moving past and closing up the sore places on her heart from it. Yet, there was always that what if things were different and how that would play out. Now with Arkin he had that chance. He'd be able to see what it would be like to have a father throughout every moment in life because he was going to be that father. This baby was already loved so much by everyone. All Kai would know was going to be love.

"I don't think you should be worrying on if everyone is happy. You'll put too much stress on yourself. I know you want us all to be okay, but right now you shouldn't even think about it. Okay? You can be mean and push us away when things get to be too overwhelming." Addison didn't want him to pull himself too thin by trying to make sure everyone else was alright when he only needed to be focusing on his own little family. "Kai and Sterling come first right now. You worry about them."

"Now do I get to see the little goober and you in dad mode, or are we waiting for nap time to be over?" @arkin-oconnell

[anthonysstupiddailyblog]

Anthony’s Stupid Daily Blog (420): Thu 11th May 2023

I’m happy to report that I’m down to 13 stone 7lbs, a quarter of the way towards my ideal goal of 12 stone which I hope to hit before I go to Edinburgh (though I may challenge myself to hit the target before my birthday on June 30th). I had thought that the diet wasn’t working because every time I’d weigh myself it would say I hadn’t lost any weight even though I’d eaten hardly any food, exercised a decent amount and drank plenty of water. However as usual I overlooked something namely the fact that the tiles on the floor are uneven and we’re giving me incorrect numbers. I out the scale on the flat surface in the living room and was delighted to get the correct result and reinforce my confidence that the rewards would be waiting if I was good and worked hard. As long time readers of this blog will no doubt know I’ve attempted so many diets over the last ten years or so but always end up making excuses to abandoned them just like your mother did to you dear reader. However I think at long last I’ve been disciplined long enough to start seeing the benefits and am now psychologically as well as physically motivated to see it to it’s conclusion. I haven’t seen Nana since before me and Dad went to America so we arranged to go and see her in her new home tonight. I missed the bus by seconds because of course I did…I hate buses, I wish they were  capable of feeling pain so that I could stab them. Instead I rode my motorbike over and arranged to meet Dad in the car park opposite Nana’s home. I arrived early and popped into a nearby supermarket to get some food and sat for a few minutes in my bike eating sushi. This gave me an idea for a Jackass stunt: Extreme Sushi. Basically all the Jackass crew squeeze together and then a bunch of Hell’s Angela on Harley Davidsons start riding around them in a circle and all of them have sushi platters in the back of their bikes and the jackasses have to risk life and limb in order to get some…and if that’s not funny enough we can just get them to do it naked. Dad told me that the last few times he’s been there Nana has been mostly unresponsive and just stares at the ceiling. To mine and Dad’s surprise as soon as I went in and sat down next to Nana’s bed she said “Alright son?”. Even though I was glad she recognized me she did seem to just zone in and out the whole time we were there and occasionally just threw out  some random words and sentences. It’s really heartbreaking to see how suddenly the dementia has overtaken Jenny. When I went to see her just before Christmas she was still capable of holding a conversation even if she got a bit confused at times. I’m just five short months she’s decayed into a constant state of confusion and talks mainly in gibberish. It’s hard to see Nana in this condition. When I took her to Graceland 10 years ago I’d hoped that it would be the start of a series of crazy adventures that I’d take her on to help her live her best life but sadly it hasn’t panned out that way. I can only hope that she is as comfortable as possible and that whatever time she has left with us is free of pain and trauma. When I got home I booked my trip to see Iggy Pop and mine and Dad’s accommodation for when we go to see Devo. I still need to book our train and since it’s his Father’s Day present I might splash out and book us some first class tickets. My sister paid for his tickets to the LA Lakers game for Father’s Day so I’ve told him that I’ll sort out the tickets, accommodation and travel for this gig. Plus both of us are big Devo fans and for a while it looked like this show would never happen so it feels like it will be a unique treat for him.

[luminnara]

alpha!erasermic x pregnant!reader | ABO fluff

Request:  Hiya! i’m wondering if you can do an alpha! erasermic x pregnant! omega! reader? maybe when both alphas leave their lunch at home and she goes to bring it to them. the reader and both alphas collectively have custody of hitoshi and eri, and the reader is heavily pregnant. preferably a female reader please, and none of class 1-a have met her. this is my first time requesting stuff so i hope i did okay! 😅

You did wonderfully! I love writing cute fluffy stuff like this, and it’s my first time writing any kind of erasermic thing even though I love them so much, so hopefully I did okay! Idk where exactly this sits timeline-wise, don’t worry about it, it’s omegaverse and I can do what I want lol. I took this prompt and sort of RAN with it, too

*also Mirio has his quirk back in this because it’s fun, and the reader has kind of a dodgy past because i wanted to add a little SPICE*

Warnings: a/b/o, pregnancy, the implications of Aizawa’s scarf and all of its uses

You sighed, resting a hand on your swollen belly. “Those two...”

You had only just gotten Eri out of bed, and, upon heading into the kitchen to fix her some breakfast, you saw two lovingly-prepared bento boxes sitting on the counter. Shota and Hizashi must have forgotten them in their hurry to get to UA earlier that morning, and while you knew they could very easily grab something to eat in the cafeteria, you hated the thought of these meals going to waste.

Besides, your inner omega was a bit miffed that they hadn’t taken your home cooked food to work with them. Was Lunch Rush’s food so much better than yours that your alphas would rather eat at school? You refused to believe that, even if his quirk was cooking. There was no way that he could make your alphas a meal that could compare to the kind you always cooked for them, and maybe it was the pregnancy hormones making you extra bristly about it, but you were determined to march right on over to UA and bring them their proper lunches. 

Even if you were heavily, heavily pregnant. They’d probably have something to say about you leaving the house and waddling around Musutafu with only Eri as company, but you were tough enough to fend for yourself. And besides, it was only a quick train ride to the station outside the school, and if you did get yourself into any kind of trouble, the city was chock full of pro heroes and their sidekicks, many of whom you were on a first name basis with. 

“Eri!” you called, grabbing a bag to carry the boxes in. “Are you dressed yet? We’re going to visit UA!”

You could heard a thump, followed by the sound of little feet thudding as she ran to meet you. When she appeared in the doorway, her eyes were wide with excitement, her long hair falling around her shoulders messily. “Yes!”

“Go brush your hair and then we’ll go,” you laughed, ushering her towards the bathroom. 

“Why are we going?” the little girl called. 

“Hizashi and Shota left their lunches,” you explained. “We’re bringing them so that the food doesn’t go to waste.”

“Can we visit Deku and Togata?”

You paused to think. You hadn’t actually met any of Shota and Hizashi’s students before, your alphas always preferring that you stay home and away from the sometimes dangerous school they taught at. Well, you knew Hitoshi, of course, and since he had yet to move into the dorms on campus, he still lived at home with the rest of the family. At least he had remembered to grab his lunch. Would your adopted son be embarrassed to see you appearing at his school? Hitoshi always carried himself in a very collected manner, and the thought of being able to show up and pinch his cheeks and coo at him made you laugh. 

And you knew that everyone in Class 1-A would be over the moon to see Eri. The little girl that had been rescued from Overhaul was popular amongst the young heroes-in-training, from what you’d heard, and if you were going to go all the way to UA, you’d be damned if you didn’t let her see her friends there. 

“Of course we can,” you said with a smile as she came running back in, her hair significantly less tangled. “Ready?”

“Ready!” she beamed up at you.

“Do me a favor and carry this?” you offered her the tote you’d tucked the bento boxes into and she took it from you eagerly, bouncing towards the door. 

You grabbed your purse, made sure your keys were inside, and followed her out, taking her free hand. Together, the two of you made your way to the nearest train station, a few neighbors waving hello as you passed. There were no villains to be seen or head of, and the pros you saw out on patrol all looked happy and relaxed. They all knew who you were, some of the betas and omegas approaching to chat about your pregnancy and ask how things were going. The alphas hung back, calling greetings or offering waves, none of them wanting to get too close to a pregnant, mated omega and risk the wrath of your alphas if their scents happened to cling to you. 

The journey went smoothly, Eri sticking close to your side the entire way. You were both excited to be going to visit UA--Eri, because she would get to see Deku and Mirio, and you because you hadn’t been to the school in years--and as you stepped off the train and the gates finally came into view, you let out a happy laugh. 

“Ready?” you asked Eri, leading her towards the entrance. 

“Mhm!” she nodded eagerly, pulling you forward. “Let’s go! Let’s go let’s go let’s go--”

“Hang on, hang on,” you waddled after her as quickly as you could, fishing around in your purse. When you finally found what you were looking for, you pulled out an ID card, holding it up towards the sensor atop the UA Barrier gate. “You have your card?”

“Yep!” Eri said, grabbing the card hanging from the lanyard around her neck and mimicking you. 

“Special ID accepted,” a robotic voice chimed. “Welcome to UA High, (y/n) and Eri.”

The gate opened and you led Eri through it, the big school looming just past it. The special ID cards you both had were a result of Shota insisting that you be able to get to UA if you ever needed to. With the upgraded security measures, and so many of the students living in the dorms, it wasn’t easy getting onto the campus without either a student or guest card. You probably technically weren’t even supposed to have one, but no one was going to argue with Aizawa and Yamada when it came to ensuring their omega would be able to get to them in case of emergency.

This wasn’t exactly an emergency, but it was still an important mission, so you had absolutely no qualms about using your special ID privileges today. You just hoped nobody else would be mad about it.

 “Hey, is that Eri I see?” a voice called. 

You turned to see a blond haired, blue eyed boy jogging towards you and recognized him as Togata. He was dressed in a PE uniform, and as he stopped in front of you, you could see that he was panting. 

Eri immediately set the bag down and rushed toward him, running into his open arms. “Lemillion!”

Mirio laughed as he scooped her into a hug. “What are you doing here? Aizawa didn’t mention anything about a visit!”

“Aizawa forgot his lunch today,” you said, nodding towards the bag Eri had dropped. “So we thought we’d bring it and visit.”

Mirio straightened up a bit when he realized you were there. You had to be absolutely covered in your alphas’ scents, and even if they never told any of the students about you, there was no way that Mirio hadn’t figured it out by now. Besides...your bond marks were very big and very visible, one on each side of your neck just below your scent glands. There was no way Mirio didn’t know what that all added up to. 

You had never officially met him, but you’d heard plenty about all of UA’s Big Three, and after he and Deku saved Eri from the Shie Hassaikai, you’d heard even more about him. He was selfless, going so far as to sacrifice his own quirk to keep Eri safe and get her away from Overhaul, and for that, you’d always feel a little indebted to him. He’d luckily been able to get it back, but Aizawa had told you that there had been a long period in which nobody was sure it could even be returned to him. 

“Oh, s-sorry!” he bowed to you. “I don’t think we’ve ever been properly introduced! I’m Togata Mirio, I was there at the Shie Hassaikai raid--”

“I’ve heard plenty about you,” you laughed as he straightened up again. “I’m (y/n). I’m the stay at home omega that keeps Shota and Hizashi from starving all the time.”

Mirio’s laugh was probably one of the most raucously happy sounds you had ever heard. “We’re all grateful for that! As for me, personally, I’m really glad Eri has such a great mom now, too. And you’ve got more on the way!”

“Sure do,” you groaned, a hand on your lower back as you tried to lean and stretch it out some. “Due date’s in just a couple weeks. Can’t wait to get ‘em outta here.”

“Well, at least you already know how to do the parenting part!” Mirio was still all smiles as Eri grabbed for his hand and he took it, picking up the tote bag as well. “Come on, it’s my free period so I’ll take you to 1-A’s classroom.”

“Thank you, Togata,” you said, hand on your belly as you followed him into the school. 

“It’s no problem!” he beamed at you over his shoulder as he led the way. “It’s almost lunch, too. Perfect timing!”

“Is it really?” you glanced up at a clock on the wall, and sure enough, it was nearly noon. “Wow. Guess we took longer than I thought. But...ugh, I didn’t bring any food for myself or Eri...”

“That’s no problem! Lunch Rush always has tons of options in the Grand Mess Hall.” at your slight glare, Mirio added, “...But I’m sure even his best cooking is no substitute for a homemade meal!”

“That’s right,” you growled, waddling along down the hall. 

When the three of you reached the 1-A door, Mirio used his permeation quirk to stick his head straight through it rather than knocking, and judging by the resounding scream of surprise that nearly shattered the windows, he had scared Hizashi half to death.

Mirio pulled back and opened the door, revealing a room full of groaning students, all clutching their ears. Hizashi was the only one who seemed unbothered by the sheer volume of the scream he had let out, clutching his chest instead. 

“Why can’t you knock like a normal person, dumbass?” a blond boy snarled. 

“Bakugou! You shouldn’t swear in front of esteemed upperclassmen!” a black-haired boy with glasses said. 

“It’s not just me you’re swearing in front of!” Mirio said, still smiling, like always. With a nod of his head, he tugged Eri into the room.

Everyone lit up, and you even caught Bakugou’s harsh expression softening some at the sight of her. 

“Eri!” a freckly, green haired boy exclaimed, jumping up from his seat. 

“Deku!” the little girl yelled happily, letting go of Mirio’s hand to run towards him.

You watched as he knelt down to greet her, the rest of the class all getting up, or at the very least leaning over in their seats to say hello. All except Hitoshi, who looked up, made eye contact with you, started to roll his eyes, and then sighed. 

Oh, you were so going to embarrass him today. 

Hizashi was still trying to catch his breath, but now, with the students all distracted by Eri, he finally had a chance to notice you. You could see his nostrils flare as he recognized your scent, his head whipping around to spot you standing there in the door.

“BABE!” he rushed toward you, pulling you into a hug. 

“Hi, Hizashi,” you laughed into his shoulder, clinging to his jacket as he rubbed his scent gland over your hair. 

He immediately pulled back, holding you at arm’s length as he looked you over. “What’re you doing here? Everything okay?”

“I’m fine,” you chuckled. When he glanced down at your swollen belly, you added, “we’re fine.”

He let out a relieved breath. “Okay. Okay, good. Had me worried there for a sec.”

“They came to bring you lunch!” Mirio said, holding up the bag he had carried in for you. “I ran into her and Eri outside while I was out for my daily jog.”

“Togata here was very helpful,” you said. “He even carried that bag for us.”

“Gotta help everyone who needs it, whenever I can!” the teenager gave you a thumbs up. 

“Thanks, Mirio.” Hizashi said, putting an arm around your shoulders and pulling you up against his side. “Means a lot to me that my family stays safe.”

“Family?”

You turned to see all of Class 1-A staring at you. 

Hizashi cleared his throat, the sound practically echoing. “Everybody, this is my mate.”

The room suddenly erupted. 

“Who is she?”

“Is she a pro?”

“Can’t believe anybody would put up with him...”

“Bakugou, quiet! Don’t be rude!”

“But, wait...” Deku said, still kneeling with Eri. “I thought Eri’s been living with Mr. Aizawa..?”

The students all glanced to each other before their eyes swiveled to you and Hizashi. 

“Oh, Hizashi,” you teased. “You never told them?”

“I, uh...” a slight pink tinged his cheeks as he blushed.  

Luckily, before he had the chance to stumble over his words any longer, he was saved by the appearance of a very tired, very disgruntled, Eraserhead. 

“What the hell is going on and why the hell are you screaming in my classroom?” he growled from the doorway. 

Hizashi turned the two of you to face him, and you saw the anger immediately drain from Aizawa’s face. 

“...What are you doing here?” he asked, his bloodshot eyes full of concern. “Everything okay?”

“Hi, Papa!” Eri chimed from her spot next to Deku. 

“...Hello, Eri. Why are you also here?”

“You both forgot your lunches,” you said, practically scolding them. “I worked hard on those!”

“So you came all the way here just to bring us lunch? You realize we have an entire cafeteria here, right?”

“Don’t even think about it,” you growled. 

“You shouldn’t be walking across Musutafu without at least Hitoshi with you. It’s too dangerous.”

At the mention of his name, everyone’s heads swiveled to look at Shinso. He sighed, slumping back in his chair and dragging a hand down his face. 

“You know, if you wouldn’t forget the lunches that I so lovingly put all that hard work into, I wouldn’t even have to go all the way across Musutafu to bring them to you.” you said haughtily, nose up in the air as you stared your alpha down. “And besides...you know better than anyone that I can take care of myself, and Eri, no matter how pregnant I am.”

Aizawa sighed. He knew there was no arguing with you when you got in a mood like this, and besides...you were already there. 

And you were right.

Before he could even come up with something to say, the bell rang, signaling that it was time for lunch, and soon, you were walking down the hall between your two alphas, Eri riding on Deku’s shoulders as Class 1-A flooded out along with you. 

You ended up sitting in the mess hall with the students, sandwiched between Hizashi and Shota. Shota didn’t seem entirely pleased with it, mentioning several times that he’d much rather be in the teachers’ lounge where it was quieter, but Eri was far too happy to be with Class 1-A for him to actually tear her away from them. She was across from you, sitting next to Deku and a brown haired girl you learned was named Ochako. Mirio had left to go find his own friends, the other two members of The Big Three, and you could see him just a few tables over, laughing loudly with a blue haired girl with a boy with pointy ears looked like he was trying to will himself out of existence next to them. 

“It’s so exciting that Mr. Aizawa has a whole family!” Ochako said. 

“And with Present Mic, too,” Tsu, the frog girl, said from her spot next to her. 

“How long have you been together?” the pink girl, Mina, asked.

“Don’t ask so many personal questions! We should respect their privacy.” Iida said, in true class rep fashion. 

When Shota only offered a grunt in reply, too focused on his lunch to actually talk with his homeroom class, and with Hizashi already stuffing his face, you took it upon yourself to chat. 

“Oh, I don’t mind the questions!” you said with a good natured laugh. “I met Hizashi and Shota when we all went to school together. Then we lost touch, because I...well, I sort of...chose a different life path than they did.”

“That’s one way to put it,” Hizashi slurped up his soba. 

“Here.” you looked up to see Hitoshi had brought you and Eri each a tray of food, setting them down in front of the two of you. 

“You’re so good to your mother,” you cooed, reaching up to grab his cheek. 

He dodged you expertly, ducking out of the way and going to sit with Bakugou and his friends on Deku’s other side. You narrowed your eyes at him, making sure he knew that he couldn’t run forever, and as Denki watched the exchange, he spoke up. 

“...Wait. You didn’t become a pro hero?” he asked. 

“I took the hero course here at UA.” you explained, grabbing your chopsticks. “I ended up dropping out before graduation. This is actually my first time back since then.”

“So...” Deku seemed nervous. “Were you, uh...”

“A villain?” you asked. 

When he nodded quickly, you laughed and offered a nod of your own. 

“Yeah, I suppose I was. My quirk used to be wild, and hard to control...I got so frustrated when I wasn’t making any progress with it that I decided to just leave school. I was mad at everyone, and I fell in with people who felt the same way. One thing leads to another, and next thing you know, I’m running from the loudest, most obnoxious pro hero in the city.”

Everyone’s eyes turned to Hizashi, who was doing his best not to choke on his lunch. 

“And he never caught me,” you said adoringly, leaning against his shoulder. 

“I never caught you on my own,” he corrected. 

“Made my ears bleed a few times, I think.”

“Yes, and I don’t regret that.” he pressed a cute, fluttery little kiss against the tip of your nose. “You were absolutely going to kill me.”

“Not absolutely!” you protested. 

“I had to rescue him.” Aizawa spoke up, his voice gruff and tired, like always. “Had to cancel your quirk and keep you tied down until the others could get to us.”

You smirked at your first memory of his scarf and what it could do, and as you did so, he realized that he had just admitted to tying you up with it in front of his idiot students.

“And that’s when I fell in looooove,” you grabbed his arm, batting your lashes at him obnoxiously. 

“Not another word.” he growled. 

The students were all staring at you with wide eyes. All except Hitoshi, who was rolling his. 

“I guess you could say I was reformed,” you said, grabbing some noodles. “Then one thing led to another, and...here we are.” You patted your belly. 

“That’s so romantic,” Mina sighed, leaning her chin on her hand. 

“What’s your quirk?” Ochako asked. 

“I could show you!” you said eagerly, moving to stand.

“Absolutely not.” Shota held onto your arm and forced you to sit down again. “You are due in two weeks. No nonsense until after the pups are born.”

It was your turn to roll your eyes now. 

“Fine,” you mumbled with a sigh. “I never get to have fun anymore.”

“But pups are so exciting!” the invisible girl, Hagakure, said. 

“Yeah!” Mina agreed. 

Then, the rest of the girls bombarded you with questions. 

“How many are you having?”

“What day are they coming?!”

“Can we meet them?”

“Mr. Aizawa, please can you bring them in to the dorms??”

“--But Mr. Aizawa, this is the safest place in Japan. There’s no way anything bad would happen to them--”

“--And besides, (y/n) has a super strong quirk, right? She said so!”

“Come on, just let us see the brats when they’re old enough to travel.”

The sound of Bakugou’s voice had everyone staring at the blond boy. 

“...What?” he bristled. “It’s not like I care, I just want the girls to shut up.”

“Uh huh. Sure, Bakugou.” Kirishima snorted. 

“...maybe.” Aizawa relented, eager to shut them all up. 

That was enough for the girls, and they immediately began talking chattering about the cutest baby clothes, the best toys, and then the differences between their own upbringings. You enjoyed listening to them throughout the rest of lunch, and by the time the hour had ended, you were sad to be leaving. 

“Hang on, hang on,” Hizashi said as you took Eri’s hand to leave. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Home,” you furrowed your brow. “Why?”

“We told you,” Shota said, standing with his hands in his pockets. “We don’t want you wandering around the city.”

“And I told you, I’m fine--”

“Just stay here for the rest of the day.”

“...What?”

“We’ll all go home together later.” Hizashi smiled. “You and Eri can hang out in the lounge. I bet Midnight would love to pester you about the bump, too.”

You smiled, walking towards your alphas. “Alright. Alright, yeah. That sounds nice.”

As Class 1-A lingered at the end of the hall, watching for as long as they could get away with, Denki elbowed Hitoshi in the side. 

“Dude, your mom is--”

“Don’t you dare say hot.” Shinso growled. 

“Actually, I was gonna say badass, but that too--”

The purple haired boy glared at him. “Shut up, Denki.”

“What? It’s a compliment!”

[volleychumps]

Defending S/O From Jealous Girls (Kuroo, Kageyama, and Tsukishima )

enjoy!!!!

warning(s):bullying!!!(tw) , boys who bite at anything that touches you<3

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

Kuroo

“Oops! My bad, Y/N- you should really watch where you’re going.” 

You rub your shoulder with a frown as the long-haired girl in front of you feigns innocence, eyes glinting with a venemous edge before you huff, leaning down to pick up your phone. A hand beats you to it, snatching the device in a way that had you flinching before a hand settles warmly atop your head. 

“Kitten, you good?” 

Of course. 

You sigh, seeing that the girl who had an obvious crush on your boyfriend had stepped to the side, lock of hair already twirled around her finger while her lips curled up in a flirtatious smile. Kuroo kept his feral eyes on you with a questioning look in his eyes as you offer a strained grin, taking the phone from him before glancing at the perpetrator. 

“Rika, did you need something?” 

“Kuroo-senpai, can I ask for your help on this upcoming assignment?” 

She blatantly ignores you, but Kuroo kept his gaze focused on your now shattered expression, seeing you hadn’t answered his original question. Distractedly, he merely shrugs at Rika before slipping his hand warmly into yours, tugging you along gently down the hall. 

The pissed-off expression of Rika’s still went unnoticed as you smile gratefully, following him along as Kuroo slips your conjoined hands into his jacket pocket. Feral eyes glance at your tired expression as Kuroo stops in the middle of the now empty hall, causing you to blink out of your thoughts. 

“Tetsurou, we need to get to class-” 

“Whatever you’re thinking about, quit it.” 

You tilt your head as if you don’t know what he’s talking about, plastic smile already tugging at the edge of your lips. 

“Huh-?” 

“Babe.” 

Kuroo’s motions are careful as his large hands rest on either side of your neck, thumbs gently tracing the contour of your cheeks as his sharp eyes seem to pin you in place. His chest sinks when the smile on your face slowly fades, your eyes brimming with unshed heat before he sighs. 

“How long?” 

“What-?” 

“I’m not dumb, sweetheart. So you either give me names and how long they’ve been giving you shit- or I interrogate any female I’ve ever seen you with. Your choice.” 

“...Rika’s really pretty, no?” Your voice cracks, smiling sadly as insecurity brims your tone, Kuroo’s grip on you seeming to weaken at your words. “Maybe they’re right. Maybe I’m just not-” 

“I will take you right here, in the middle of this hall.” 

“Tetsurou-!” You scold, a smirk crossing Kuroo’s lazy features before he tugs you into his chest, tucking your head into the crook of his neck seemingly deep in thought as the raven-haired boy strokes your hair. He mumbles, other hand wrapped around your body protectively as his lips move against the top of your head. 

“If it makes you realize how beautiful you actually are, kitten, I don’t object-” 

“I can’t stand you sometimes.” 

“So...no?” 

Kuroo grins at the feel of your laughter against his neck, lifting your chin upwards to encase your lips with his heatedly as your figners clench at the back of his shirt material-

sharp eyes flitting in the direction of a teary-eyed Rika.

 She runs off from her hiding place when he makes threatening eye contact with her in the midst of kissing you harder, hand on the back of your hair entwining with the strands for effect. One was off the list now, for sure. 

“Names, sweetheart.” He pulls back gently, kissing your slightly swollen eyelid as his thumb strokes your cheek lovingly. 

“I want them by the end of the day.” 

Kageyama

“Oi. Snap out of it.” 

Your dazed expression becomes alert at the feel of Kageyama touching a cold can against your cheek, the blue-eyed boy arching his brow in worry. 

“Sorry, um...” You seem frazzled, looking over your shoulder now and then as Kageyama casts you a second worried glance as he occupies the space next to you on the school bench. He pokes the straw into his milk, casually tossing an arm around you afterward-

certainly not expecting to hear a yelp. 

He flinches, retracting his arm back in a jerking motion. “What?! What’s wrong?” 

“My shoulder...” You clench your teeth. “It’s really sore.” 

“Did you bump it against something?” Kageyama sweat dropped, reaching a hand up to rest on the back of his neck worriedly. The awkward tension in his movements made you laugh, but it came out a little forced. 

“Nope. I’m going to get some relieving patches from the nurse’s office, don’t wait up!” You seemed skittish, the pained look in your eye not going unnoticed by your analytical boyfriend. His calls for you died on the blue-eyed boy’s lips, sighing when you’re so rushed you leave your phone behind. 

He picks it up, about to slip it into his bag to give it to you later, until your phone lights up with a text message-

multiple text messages. 

Kageyama’s blue eyes scan them before he can think. He hadn’t meant to read your messages, but he’s suddenly glad he stumbled upon them. The word bitch was prominently used, attacking you for dating the popular setter. Kageyama could feel heat rush to his head, jaw clenching at what he was reading. 

If yesterday’s lesson didn’t teach you enough, it won’t just be your shoulder next time. 

He lifted himself out of his seat, milk box crushed within his fist. Blue orbs barely scanned the name of the sender, thanking his good memory for remembering such a useless girl. She was in your class, and he briefly remember you awkwardly bringing her up. 

“Tobio, I told you not to wait-” 

“Come on.” 

Your eyes widen when Kageyama tugs on your good arm, the aura around him borderline dangerous. Worriedly, your questions of where he was bringing you failed to drown out the ringing in your boyfriend’s ears. 

“You don’t like holding hands in front of people-” You start, cheeks heating up when you reach the front of your classroom. 

“Y/N. You know you can trust me, right?” He’s still not looking at you, staring stoically at the shut classroom door. 

Subconsciously, you touch your shoulder as guilt brims your orbs. “I didn’t want to make it difficult for you-”

“Well, that’s fine.” You tilt your head as Kageyama slams the door open, glancing back at you with anger swimming in his blue orbs. 

“Because this shouldn’t be difficult.” 

You held back a sigh. Kageyama was the type to deal with these types of things head on, for the raven-haired boy never really cared much about what people thought of him. You embarrassedly trudge behind him as he walks in with ease, stopping in front of a certain someone’s desk that had your breath catching in your throat. Everything begins to make sense when Kageyama slips your phone out of his pocket. 

“You have a crush on me or something?” He bluntly asks, disinterest flitting around his blue eyes as you watch your bully’s jaw slacken, cheeks filling with embarrassment. “Is that why you’ve been harassing my girlfriend?” 

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about, Kageyama-Kun!” 

You shouldn’t have felt as justified as you did as Kageyama lets your phone fall on her desk, the messages staring back up at her as Aika’s eyes brim with unshed tears. 

“Expect an assault charge reported to the school tomorrow. Good job digging your own grave.” Kageyama’s cold voice sent a collective shiver down everyone’s spine before he promptly tugs you out of the classroom. You barely caught a glance at Aika’s trembling form before Kageyama’s leaning you against the now empty hallway. 

Lunchtime was over now, that was for sure. 

“Tobio, you didn’t-” 

“Let me adjust your patch. You didn’t put it on right.” He ignores you, still sorting out his emotions before he’s gently tugging your shirt off your shoulder slightly, peeling the patch off of your skin to reposition it.

“Are you mad?” Your voice was quiet as he solely focused on the task at hand. 

“Yeah.” You flinch, feeling guilty at his blunt tone- 

until his forehead touches your shoulder, his breath fanning against your skin. 

“You know I’ll protect you no matter what, right?” 

Kageyama’s chest finally settled, feeling tears of relief beginning to soak his shoulder as you smiled into his embrace, wrapping your arms around him.

“Yeah.” You breathily laugh, Kageyama’s grip tightening slightly- 

And he dug his face deeper into your shoulder, hiding a small lilt of his lips he didn’t want you to see. 

Tsukishima

“You’re late.” 

“I told you I wouldn’t miss it.” 

You beam in the face of your unamused boyfriend, the blonde sighing heavily as the squeak of sneakers fade out into the background. What mattered was that you came. 

“Any particular reason?” Tsukishima absent-mindedly twirled a strand of your hair around his finger, tilting his head in a bored fashion as you seem to stiffen in place.

“Um, no?” 

“Who knew my girlfriend was such a terrible liar.” Tsukishima pried further, arching a brow as you chew your bottom lip, looking everywhere but him. “Seriously, what’s going through that pretty little head?” 

“You think I’m pretty?” You seem to perk up at that, and Tsukishima flicks your temple as he begins to walk off to warm up. 

“Shut up.” He glances back at you, gaze softer than his usual hard stare. 

“...”

“What?” 

“I didn’t say anything.” 

“Really? I didn’t notice.” 

Tsukishima’s irritation begins to show on his face before you giggle, feeling more relaxed than before as you motion that you’re going to find your seat.  You mouth a good luck to him, pretending not to notice the redness on the tips of the blonde’s ears as he spins on his heel hastily. So cute. 

Your smile fades when a smile that was just a bit too wide waves you to come sit with them. You wondered if you had a choice as your footsteps slow in their movement. 

“Y/N’s here~” 

“Looks like you can see after all. I underestimated you.” 

“Wha- You’re the one with the glasses!” 

Tsukishima smirks at how easy it was to rile Hinata up, hazel eyes flitting over to the stands. He would never admit it, but knowing you were in the bleachers somewhere-

Scratch that. He knew exactly where you were on the bleachers. 

Ice-cold, dripping with water. A water bottle being held upside down in a girl’s grasp, a girl who was vaguely familiar. 

“Tsukishima, we’re about to play-!” 

“Then put someone else in.” The tall blonde’s voice was hardened as he brushed past his team captain, fire on his heels at what he had witnessed. 

The heat in your eyes contrasted greatly with the ice cold water dripping down your back. Yuki giggled brightly with her friend stifling a laugh into her palm, a feigned pout on her lips as everyone in the stands stared at your trembling form. 

“Y/N-chan! You’re so clumsy!” Yuki squealed, bending down to pretend to wipe up some of the water on your lap with her scarf. Her voice drops to a mutter. “And forgetful. Didn’t I tell you not to come to Tsukishima-Kun’s game today?” 

Your eyes widen a fraction, trembling lips beginning to part before a warmth suddenly cascades your cold body. 

“And pray tell, why should she listen to your advice?” 

Tsukishima’s voice sounded kind, but his eyes were anything but, protectively tugging you out of your soaking seat. You feel the rise of his chest, eyes widening when you realize he ran to get here. 

Yuki’s lips trembled before a sweet smile overtakes her features. You could’ve laughed as she begins to sniffle. 

“Kei-Kun! Y/N-chan had a little bit of a spill, and I was just-” 

“Helping her?” He finishes for her, smile growing a little sadistic. He focuses his attention on you, clenching his teeth at the smile you offer him. A trembling one that said I’m okay. 

“Funny. Because I saw the whole thing.”

“I-It’s a misunderstanding-” 

“Oi.” Tsukishima’s fake smile drops, jaw clenched. You tug on his arm, not wanting to cause a scene, but he merely slips it out of your grasp, pushing you behind him. His glasses seem to shine a little as his lips quirk up yet again. 

“Ugly girls shouldn’t lie, it leaves them with nothing worth doting for, you know? Hm?” He pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose, smiling a closed eye smile. “And who gave you permission to call me by my first name? It’s Tsukishima. With an honorific.” 

You wince at the harsh insult that slaps Yuki across the face, flabbergasted expression still evident on your face as he takes you by the shoulders, spinning you around with a now pissed-off expression. 

“Yuri.” He looks back, getting her name wrong on purpose. “Don’t let me catch you helping my girlfriend again, got it?” 

She hiccups over her tears as the guy she likes walks off with you, who was still trying to grasp at what had just happened as he leads you to the hallway. 

“Y-You’re match is on right now-” 

“So?” 

“You’re a regular! You need to be-” 

“Shut up. I know exactly where I need to be right now.” Tsukishima snips, drying off the rest of the water as he kneels in front of you, a cup of hot tea from the vending machine warming your hands. “Don’t tell me what to do.”

“Kei...” 

“I’m sorry.” It comes out rushed and distracted, but Tsukishima’s momentary pause of his movements made you think it was anything but. “They bothered you because of me, right?” 

You nod slightly, biting the inside of your cheek before he flicks your temple, suddenly irritated. 

“What a pain.” 

“Why-?” 

You gasp softly, hands tightening around your paper cup as he brushes his lips across your forehead, hand resting on your neck. 

“Tell me when things happen.” 

“Mm.” 

“Don’t bottle it up inside. It’s annoying.” 

“Mm.” 

“And stop smiling like an idiot.” 

“But you kissed me. You kissed me first.” 

“I’ll leave you here.” 

“No you won’t.” 

Tsukishima groaned, tilting his head back to sigh heavily as his heart pounds in his ears. Quickly, he presses a chaste kiss to your lips that has your eyes as wide as saucers, tugging you out of your seated position while refusing to look back at you. 

“You’re right,” You stare at his flushed neck, following closely behind him back to the tournament. 

His hand tightens in yours ever so slightly-

“I’m never leaving you alone like that again. Understand? Or do I have to spell it out for you?” 

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

General works: @takemetovalhalla  @faesbae  @savemesteeb @dreebbles @yams046   @let-me-have-my-own-name  @deadontheinsidebut @lifeisntjustblackandwhite   @curiouslilbeast  @aprettyfruit   @wisepandaslimeland   @h0ngh0ngh0ng   @lmkjimin   @orangegiraffe7   @dai-tsukki-desu   @kac-chowsballs   @spikertrash   @yamaguwuchi   @lord-suneater-explosion   @holaaaf  @babyybokutoakaashi   @lexysclubhouse   @disneyloving-muggle   @kuuuuroo   @theonep1ece  @that-chick212  @mjoork

[tutorcolin]

leocresswell​:

Leo made mental notes of the way the bloke sounded and how he’d flinched when he’d coughed to add those to his chart after he left. His comment about Leo looking familiar wasn’t surprising. Patients within a certain age bracket usually said that. Leo thought the bloke looked familiar too. But in that distant sort of probably saw each other in the halls of Hogwarts sort of way. “Probably just from the few times you were awake,” he told the patient with a smile. Awake was overstating what he’d been but Leo didn’t want him overly worried about what he’d been like. Leo’s smile brightened a little when the patient asked if he’d been trying to fight Leo and he chuckled softly. “In your defense I have been pointing my wand at you a bit. But no harm done. To me or any of the other staff. And I promise there will be no need for you to duel anyone while you’re here. You don’t even have a roommate to steal your pudding,” he added with what he hoped was a comforting smile. Mostly because they hadn’t been sure how contagious he was. Something Leo kept to himself. Hopefully now that he was more aware of his surroundings he wouldn’t be so quick to try to fight. Not that the bloke had done much but flail and mumble. It was just Leo had felt bad that he’d been scared enough to think he needed to fight back. Leo used his wand to get readings from the magical device monitoring the patient to see what his vitals were. “Vitals are looking much better. As I said healers will be by soon. They’ll ask how you’re feeling. If there’s any pain it’s important to let them know. I can’t give you potions without their approval. But if there’s anything non medical you need, I can try to help with that.”

Okay, so he had seen this bloke a few times. When he’d been awake. In the hospital. Which Colin was having a hard time even remembering happening. Frankly the dreams felt more vivid than anything he could remember happening while he was awake.The few times, the bloke said. Which was a concerning thought. Maybe. Colin wasn’t actually sure how long he’d been here. Or even why he was here. Still, he managed a smile in response to the one he got from the nurse. He appreciated that the bloke didn’t seem to think he was a whacko. Or he did and was just too professional to say so out loud. He let out a chuckle of his own at the bloke’s comment about pudding, which turned into a cough that had him wincing again. “Lucky for me, ‘cause I don’t think I’m in much shape to duel anyone. Plus I don’t think I’d resort to that for a pudding,” he added, since apparently he’d talked a lot about dueling. He was glad, he supposed, to hear his vitals were better, though he wondered what they were better in comparison to. Had they been bad? He did his best to nod at the bloke’s words about the healers, but his neck felt stiff. “Am I…” Colin wasn’t sure exactly what to ask. “How long have I been here? And, uh, what exactly’s wrong with me?” Those felt like fair questions to ask. “I remember I had a cold. And then I’ve been having these dreams…like I was being attacked.” He trailed off, his brows pulling together. He’d really thought he was in danger.  

It had just started as a cold, not nearly enough to miss any classes or tutoring sessions even when the pepper-up potions he got didn’t seem to do the trick. It was just a particularly nasty cold, it seemed. At least that was what Colin thought it was until he apparently passed out in the middle of the university’s campus. He doesn’t remember that happening. Nor does he remember a lot of the next couple of weeks that followed. At some point he woke up and realized he was at St. Mungo’s. He has some fuzzy memories of healers looking at him with concern, snippets of conversations about his high fever and tremors and it was possible he’d been coughing up blood at some point. He also has hazy memories he’s certain aren’t real, of Death Eaters and foreign agents coming into the room and pointing wands at him, challenging him to duels. From those dreams he’d wake up mumbling that he could take them, to give him their best, that he wasn’t intimidated. He had dreams of storybook monsters chasing after him and pummeling his internal organs, and he’d wake up trembling and scared and declaring he was not scared and all and he could take them too. There was another dream, just once, of his mum and dad waving to him from a warm, happy place, telling him they’d see him later, that it wasn’t time yet for him to join them. Colin woke up from that one trembling and sweating and squinting up at an angel with soft brown eyes. Colin couldn’t quite understand what the angel was saying, but his voice was soft and soothing and he drifted off to a dreamless sleep. 

The dreams came back, but when Colin woke up from his next one something felt different. “Just give me my wand, I can take you!” he mumbled as he woke with a start and locked his eyes on a bloke in nurse’s robes. Wait. Nurses robes? “Wha—” Colin frowned and looked around, aware of his surroundings for the first time in a while. The white walls, the stark lights, the odd magic machine he was hooked up to that was beeping next to him. The hospital. He was in the hospital. Right. Along with that realization came the realization that his whole body ached, that he was damp with sweat, and that he felt exhausted. And he wasn’t alone in here either. There was, in fact, a nurse looking at him. Colin coughed weakly, flinching from the way that made his body ache, and then asked, “....You’re not here to duel me, are you?” Maybe no one had been here to duel him at any point. Hm.

[unnerving-presence]

Oh I finally have an idea for a request.

Headcanons of The Oni, Ghostface, Michael and Frank getting brutaly killed by the survivor reader because they were fed up with being the hunted one. To the point were the entity doesn't let the reader in trials anymore

this is by far the coolest idea i’ve ever seen thank you for requesting anon!

i’m gonna guess reader isn’t dating them because i imagine that they would rather talk to them about it then… kill them lol.

i’m don’t know how to write murdering people in a cool way because i don’t murder people so i’m sorry if this isn’t that good 💀

this is quite a long chapter, so be aware

Kazan Yamaoka/The Oni:

The last thing he ever expected a survivor to do to him was kill him. He thought that nobody would dare oppose him, considering his large stature and deadly equipment. Though it seemed he was wrong.

He’s very surprised at first. His careless grip on his sword allowing you to easily knock it out of his grasp and take it for yourself. He makes a mental note to never make a stupid move like that again.

He may have had his kanabo, but he couldn’t grab it fast enough as you quickly slashed and stabbed at his body, slicing tendons and breaking skin. It’s obvious you didn’t know how to properly use a katana, but somehow your blind rage made it hurt all the worse.

It was like when he died all over again. Like the mob surrounding him again. Beating him, stabbing him, calling him names. And it seemed you knew exactly where to make it hurt also. Even reopening wounds. It’s quite pathetic that’s he’s dying like this, he thinks. All because he underestimated a survivor and let them catch him off guard.

After the Entity revives him from the dead, he gets quite angry that he even let a survivor lay a finger on him. He takes the time that he has alone to go thoroughly trash his realm. Crushing statues, ripping the foundations off some of the shrines. He messed it up so badly that he had to go to his granddaughters realm so the Entity could fix his up.

He seeks you out after finding that you’re not even allowed in trials anymore. As much as he wants to, he knows he can’t kill you outside of trials. So he takes you to Rin’s realm with him so he can talk with you about why you did what you did.

He can’t speak much english or really understand it, so he has Rin do the talking for him. After you tell him why, he sort of understands. He was like that at some point in his life. Tired of being targeted and treated like an animal. Just don’t do that shit again and you guys will be on pretty good terms. Hes still kind of angry at you though

Michael Myers/The Shape:

It takes a lot to kill someone like him. He’s not an easy target. He’s been burned, beat, shot, stabbed, bit. He’s been through it all, so when you manage to get your hands on something sharp, Michael didn’t really think much of it. How greatly he underestimated you.

He’s not one to visibly show emotion, but damn can you tell that he is angry. How can a shard of glass do this much to him? Why can’t he move his arms? What are you doing to him?

You stab every place you possibly could. His wrists, his neck, his arms, his stomach. Pretty much everywhere. You even stab his eye. The good one i mean. Until you know he’s dead, you’re not stopping your attacks.

He puts up quite a fight, managing to get his hand around your neck before you can stab it. He can’t really do much though, most of his limbs aren’t even functional at this point from how much you’ve stabbed them.

When he’s sent back to his realm alive and well, he quickly seeks you out. He’s going to make you suffer, no matter what the Entity says. Unfortunately the Entity says he can’t hurt you outside of trials. That’s not really stopping Michael though.

Definitely tries choking you to death the second he sees you but a quick stab in the arm from the Entity makes him rethink his actions. Now he just sort of.. stares at you. He probably doesn’t stop until he’s taken into another trial just to make you uncomfortable. Yeah he’s petty like that.

He can only assume that you’re not allowed in trials since he never even sees you in them anymore. This makes him ever the more angry since he can’t even kill you back. He forever holds a grudge against you. Prepared to be stalked from afar until Michael decides to stop being a petty bitch.

Ghostface/Danny Johnson:

I guess this is what he gets for being cocky all the time huh? He’s pretty confident in himself and thought this ‘game’ was well played on his part. The Entity even granted him the favor of killing a survivor. Until he was the one that was being killed.

He does give you a few punches and tries to get you under him, but a quick slash to his abdomen has him on the ground, holding himself up with one hand and desperately trying to search for his knife with the other. Damn it, you have it don’t you?

It takes more to kill him than you thought, but he’s not as tough as most killers. Finally thrusting the knife in through his neck quickly puts him out of his misery. Knowing he’s dead doesn’t stop you from stabbing him a few more times in his chest though.

Apparently he hadn’t studied you as much as he should’ve. He’s very impressed, he has to admit, but he’s been humiliated. In his eyes he has atleast. Looks like he needs to put you in your place and show you who the real killer is here.

Though finding out soon after that you haven’t been seen in any of the other killers trials, he sort of pissed. He can’t even get payback! He’ll probably whine to the Entity about it though he knows she won’t listen.

He’ll keep his distance for now. He’s sort of embarrassed that you, a puny survivor has killed him, a killer. It doesn’t sit right in his head and he’ll probably get a laugh or two if he tells the other killers so he just keeps it to himself.

Still pissed though. If he ever sees you wandering around he might insult you a bit but it’s all he can really do. I wouldn’t get too close though. He might have the courage to give you a stab in the chest if he’s feeling rebellious.

Frank Morrison/The Legion:

I imagine it goes how his mori would. He would try to swing at you but misses as you quickly duck to avoid the attack. He manages to stab your arm as you shove him back. Unlucky for him, his grip loosened on the knife and was now deep into your arm.

The pain didn’t seem to stop you from yanking the knife out of your arm, and giving him a taste of his own medicine, stabbing him in the shoulder and throwing him to the ground. Before he even has a chance to recover, you’re on top of him dragging the knife through his stomach before ripping his mask off and impaling him straight through his mouth.

He doesn’t have much of a chance to fight back. Your anger far surpassing his, caring about nothing more than making him suffer. In the little time he has to think, he wonders why the Entity is even allowing this. More importantly, why are you so damn strong?

He’s sort of scared of you to be honest, and it takes a lot for him to be scared. That look on your face as you clambered on top of him. You looked like you didn’t have even an inch of humanity left in you. Atleast in the moment you didn’t, not when you were so fed up with dying over and over again. He really felt like he wasn’t coming back after knowing you were going to kill him.

He might tell his friends about it, but nobody else. He trusts them enough to take it seriously and to comfort him. As much as a tough guy he is, he’s really just shocked about the whole thing. He’s never the one that has to die, so he’s never thought much about it, but when you’re in a situation like that, he understands how the survivors feel.

He’s sort of glad you aren’t in trials anymore. He doesn’t want his friends to be hurt, and he definitely doesn’t want himself to be hurt if that’s how you’re going to act near him. Though if you do manage to get near him and talk with him, he will start to understand why you did what you did. He’s not sure if he entirely forgives you, but atleast he knows you won’t hurt him again.

[creativia10]

Looking out for Hunter

Eda pulls Camila and Darius to the side after Belos' defeat to figure out where Hunter should stay. Since they are his unofficial family now.

Warnings: referenced child abuse (that occurred before the story)

Let me know if I missed anything

Word count: 1454

Notes: Inspired by how I've seen different mentions of who is Hunter's family now.

There was a lot going on after the defeat of Belos. The collector had a lot to fix after his games. But Eda pulled Darius and Luz’s mom to the side for something they needed to discuss.

“Hey, I’m sure we’re all tired from everything that has happened with Belos and the collector. Before we all disperse though, There’s something important we need to figure out.”

Luz’s Mom and Darius glanced at each other and then at Eda in confusion. Which made sense considering they didn’t really know each other. Probably wondering what they could possibly have in common that Eda would need to talk with both of them.

“So, one thing that needs to be taken care of before the end of the day, is that a boy needs a place to stay. Seeing as he no longer has an official guardian now that his evil uncle has been defeated.”

Their eyes widen in realization.

“I don’t know where Hunter went after he fled my house, but I’m going to assume it wasn’t back to the castle. Given his reaction to learning the truth about Belos. Somehow I get the feeling it was not the best living arrangement. Now, from what I’ve heard, you two could both be potential guardians, along with myself. So, what were we thinking?”

They thought for a moment.

“Well,” Luz’s mom said, “He is always welcome at my home, of course.”

Darius huffed, “If I’m being honest, I had already assumed he would be staying with me.”

“Oh really?” Eda asked. “Why’s that?”

Darius shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe because I was the closest to a safe adult he had in the castle. I’m fairly certain I’ve known him longer.”

Eda hmmed.

“I did try to offer him a place to stay before when he first said he couldn’t go back to Belos. But he was still freaking out about what he learned in the emperor’s mind at that point. So I don’t really blame him for not understanding the offer at first, even if I was worried.”

“What he learned in the emperor’s mind?” Luz’s mom asked.

“I also know,” Eda continued, not really acknowledging the question,

“That Hunter stayed with Luz’s mom here when they were stuck in the human realm for a while. It’s also pretty easy to tell all those kids are fond of you.”

“You can call me Camila, and I’m glad to hear that. They’re good kids, even if I don’t always understand some of their eccentricities from this world. They remind me of Luz a lot in some ways.”

Eda nodded, not too surprised by that.

“So,” Eda continued, “Given we all may hold some sort of parental role for this kid, should we like share custody or something? And like, who is best for him to stay with? Not saying you’re not a good fit Darius, I just thought we should discuss this since we all want to look out for him.”

Darius hmmed.

“I hadn’t thought about it in an official sense if I’m being honest. More so just being there for him and making sure he has somewhere safe he can go to.”

Eda nodded. “That’s fair enough. The only reason I even brought it up is because I could tell it was a thought we all considered.”

Camila cleared her throat.

“It’s probably best to ask Hunter where he wants to go,” She said.

Eda paused and nodded.

“You’re right. He gets a say in where he goes. It’s the least he deserves after the way the poor kid grew up.”

She looked to the side, “Hey Hunter!”

Hunter froze, having been talking to some of his friends. Then he turned to face her.

“Can you come over here for a sec? We wanna talk about something with you.”

Hunter’s eyes widen.

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad,” Eda said, voice a bit gentler.

Hunter still looked concerned, but he cautiously made his way over to them. Camila and Darius both shoot him encouraging smiles to help reassure him.

“We were just wondering where you would want to stay,” Eda said, “Since your old residence is probably not an option anymore.” She then winced, realizing that may not have been the most sensitive way to put it.

“All three of us are willing to have you stay with us, so it’s up to you where you want to go.”

Hunter pursed his lips and looked between the three of them still seeming nervous.

“Hey,” Eda began, bending down to be more at his level.

“Whatever you chose, none of us are going to be mad at you.” She didn’t actually know that, but she knew they all cared about him, so hopefully it was true.

“Your wants about this are important,” Eda continued.

Hunter didn’t seem entirely sure about that. Which Eda had expected at this point, unfortunately.

“We will also still be there for you no matter what, in any way you need,” Camila added.

Hunter shuffled a bit and bent his head down.

“I uh,” He continued, glancing at each of them often even with his head bowed.

“I want to live in the world I grew up in.”

Camila nodded and also knelt down.

“Oh, that’s alright mijo. That is perfectly understandable. Just know you can always visit as much as you want. You are always welcome.”

Hunter nodded and smiled a little.

“Thank you,” he said a bit quietly.

“Of course. May I hug you?”

Hunter blinked and then nodded slowly.

Camila smiled and then opened her arms. She waited a moment to make sure he was ready before she came forward and wrapped her arms around him

Hunter gasped, seeming just as surprised as the first time he was hugged. He then moved his arms with a slow robotic clumsiness to hug her back. After a moment some tension melted and he leaned into her embrace.

Hunter was probably going to get a lot more hugs now. Good.

Hunter sniffed and wiped his face some when they separated.

“So, who do you want to stay with then?” Eda asked again. Hunter still seemed distraught about answering that, looking between Darius and Eda.

“I-I don’t know.” Hunter fidgeted some.

“I just, I grew up being told and constantly reminded of how Belos saved me and I owed pretty much everything to him. Like it was more of an obligation.”

Sometimes Eda forgot that her rage against that monster Belos could come back. Even when she had curb-stomped him into the ground.

“And now not only one but three of you are offering this and seems like you actually want me there to take care of. Not just to use as a future guard or servant. I don’t want to chance this offer going away at all. And I’m not saying you guys would lie about this or anything. I’m just not used to this care for me as myself. I’m so afraid I’m going to mess this up.”

Camilla cooed at that.

“We’re not going to take away our offers to take care of you,” Eda said.

“And even if we did, for housing, it wouldn’t be because anyone suddenly decided you weren’t worth caring for anymore.”

Darius gave her a look at that.

“Yeah, I could have said that better,” Eda admitted, “but I wanted to make sure he knew that.”

“It’s okay if you don’t know what you want,” Camila said, “I’m sure this can seem like a big decision.”

How was Camila so good at this? That’s what Eda was wondering.

“How about we start with where you’d want to go tonight?” Camila asked. Hunter nodded, relaxing slightly.

“I’m not sure if this is going to make sense, but part of me wants to have as close to normalcy as I can, but without the awful stuff. The Owl house seems cool, and I definitely want to come back sometime, but it’s also wild. Not that there’s anything wrong with that of course! I’m just uh, not used to it? So,” He turned to Darius,

“If you really are offering, I think I’d like to stay with you tonight. You’re the only one I really knew in the castle who eventually treated me better, and not like you had to obey me.”

Darius smiled at him.

“Of course, you can stay with me, Hunter,” He reached over and ruffled Hunter’s hair.

Hunter squawked and half-heartedly pushed at Darius’ hands to get off of his hair. They both ended up laughing though.

It wasn’t a normal unofficial family dynamic by any means. But as long as this great kid got shown the love they all knew he needed, it didn’t really matter.

[ethanbarrowman]

Ethan nodded his agreement about it seeming a little unfair. “Do you have different tutors for different subjects?” Ian had said the tutor he had now which made Ethan wonder how that worked. Though now that he considered it maybe different tutors for different subjects wasn’t it. That would mean Ian was stuck on one subject at a time. Or maybe that was more efficient then trying to be like Hogwarts. Ethan really had no idea. He never would have guessed it would involve homework. “I always disliked the homework at school. Especially once I got to Hogwarts. It was pretty much all essays.” Ethan had always preferred hands on to reading and memorizing so he could pop out paragraphs of what he’d read. It was just easier for him. It would have been cool for Ian if it was ore hands-on then Hogwarts. Or maybe not, not everyone liked that.

So far Ethan’s favorite part of Ian’s room had been the pictures. They’d been cute. Plus it was fun to see Ian younger. Ian was the only person his age he knew that he hadn’t at least seen around Hogwarts if not knew somewhat. Instead those pictures were the only glimpse of what Ian looked like younger. Ethan was pretty sure if Ian had gone to Hogwarts he’d have just ended up fancying him sooner. Maybe not a bad thing they hadn’t known each other sooner. Seeing the robot on Ian’s nightstand was enough to make him forget he was thinking such things. Instead he was remembering when Ian brought the robot in. Hearing where the robot came from was surprise. Ethan had just assumed it had been one of his siblings toys. Instead this robot seemed much more significant. The first toy he’d ever owned, wow. Ethan chuckled when Ian said he didn’t think it be fixable. “Truthfully I wasn’t sure I’d be able to either. I mean you’ve seen the stuff in the shop, that’s what I’m used to fixing up. This was a lot smaller and totally different then the dozens of vacuums I’ve sorted out.” Now that he knew how special the robot seemed to be Ethan placed hit gently back o the table. “Glad I was able to prove you wrong on that one,” he added with smile. Partially because of how special it seemed to be. But also because it had been the first of many weird things Ian had brought in to be fixed. They’d all had their own special challenges and issues. He’d enjoyed it. Ian’s company too. Though that one maybe aa little too much.

Inviting Ethan along to Al’s shouldn’t have felt like such a big deal. Al was always telling them to bring their friends along, especially this year now that the kids couldn’t see their friends at school anymore. Granted there had been a lot of reasons they never took Al up on that offer: the fact that Patty often liked to invite herself along, the fact that they didn’t want to impose on Al’s generosity, not to mention it was only the younger kids who even had that many friends they’d invite in the first place. But Cal had invited Wil along a few times so it only felt fair that Ian could invite Ethan this time. He’d tried to be casual about it, but it had been a relief when Sadie and Seb decided to bring friends along as well. It wasn’t just Ian shaking things up now. Ian was a little surprised Seb brought along Dirk instead of one of his other Gryffindor mates from school, but the pair did seem like they’d become fast friends and it had to be good for Dirk to be around people who didn’t remember him as the kid who went missing from Hogwarts. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too weird for Ethan. As if Ian’s whole family situation wasn’t weird enough. That stuff wasn’t Dirk’s fault though, so Ian was glad he was coming along to hang with some kids his own age. Henry coming too would be even better, the kids could all hang out together and no one would pay attention to him and Ethan.

Except Ian was quite certain Mac would be paying attention, and probably Cal because Mac had probably told Cal about their conversation. Probably waited to do it while Ian was at work so he wouldn’t overhear them. But it would be fine. Ethan had sounded like he was curious about meeting Al and his siblings and Ian didn’t see a reason not to bring him ‘round, at least once he knew Patricia wouldn’t be there. Ian just wished he didn’t feel so nervous about seeing Ethan. Which was stupid. There was nothing to be nervous about. Ethan was great and they were mates and it just so happened that Ethan fancied Ian and Ian fancied Ethan back and had no idea how to proceed with that information except that after talking about it with Mac he was pretty sure he wanted to be more than just friends with Ethan. He just wasn’t sure what that looked like or how to get there. Other than talking to Ethan about it, probably. But that felt like a big conversation to have right before introducing Ethan to his whole family. Maybe they could talk after. 

With that settled, Ian felt a little bit less nervous as he biked to the shop, grinning when he saw Ethan waiting there with his own bike. “Hey,” Ian greeted him with a wave as he stopped his bike. For a second he considered getting off and giving Ethan a hug or something, which was weird because he usually didn’t think about what he was doing when he touched Ethan. Or did anything with Ethan. Everything felt a little off-kilter now. Except there was still that warm happy feeling he felt when he saw Ethan. “You all set?” He said with a smile, waiting for Ethan’s confirmation before he nodded and led the way back to his house. This wasn’t the first time he’d had a friend to the house, since Leo had ended up coming over to get Dirk set up to tutor here. But bringing Ethan over—because Ethan was interested in seeing the house—felt a lot different than Leo coming by with his brother. Still, Patricia had been gone already before Ian left, and they’d just be stopping in on the way to Al’s. This was fine. “Here we are,” he said when they got to the house. “Come on, we can leave our bikes in the broom shed.” He hopped off his bike and walked it around to the backyard, pulling open the broom shed for them and showing Ethan where he could park his bike. “This is the best part of the house, really,” he added as they stepped back out into the backyard.