#been trying to be fine drawing mike with short hair

[scones-sketches]

Quick doodle of my boy michael

[oceans-goddess]

Not Stupid At All

A/N: Sorry I haven't been very active lately, I'm a busy gal at school these days. Hope you like this short fic! I love this boy with my entire heart and I feel absolutely no shame in telling you all that he is my ride or die comfort character<3. Might edit this later because I don't love it, but it'll do for now

Pairing: Eddie Munson x female!reader

Warnings: none I think

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Months into the school year, Eddie was still impressed with himself for managing to befriend you that first day of school, when you'd sat all alone at lunch, poking at the grimy "meal" on your lunch tray. His friends had been trying to tell him about a new store that was opening up in town, but he barely heard them.

"And I heard they'll have... Eddie?" Gareth had said, noting Eddie's distraction. "Hello?..."

But Eddie was too busy watching you dig through your bag and pull out a notebook. He'd wished he could stand over you and see what you were writing, get a glimpse of what you were thinking. He felt a swell of affection when he noted the way you tilted your head as you scribbled, the light hitting your hair in a way that made him swoon.

It took a nudge from Dustin to catch Eddie's attention once more; he let out a yelp of pain and mostly surprise.

"Fuck was that for?" he asked, but Gareth cut in then.

"That was for you not listening."

Eddie rolled his eyes and tried to listen, but after a few minutes, it was clear he was completely unfocused again. Jeff waved a hand in front of his face, asking Eddie what his problem was.

"Nothing, man. I'm fine."

"You've been quiet all of lunch," Gareth pointed out, Mike nodding in agreement next to him. Suddenly, every eye at the table was on him, expecting an answer.

"Jeez, guys, I don't fucking know! I'm fine, just..." without knowing how to finish, Eddie slumped forward, messing with his jacket collar.

"Just what?"

"Guys, maybe lay off? He said he was fine," Dustin tried, but no one else was buying it. After a few more unanswered questions, Eddie caved.

"Alright, alright, I'm just kinda, I don't know... I mean, have you seen that girl before?" He said the last part an octave lower, hoping to be discreet, but it didn't matter; every other boy's head swiveled around to look at you sitting at the next table over.

"Way to be subtle, guys, Jesus," he huffed. Gareth was the first to speak.

"Nah, I've never seen her. Probably new."

Obviously, thought Eddie. You had to be new. Eddie would have noticed you if you'd come to this school last year, no question.

"She's cute," Jeff commented.

"Gorgeous," Eddie spat before he could stop himself. Gareth laughed loud enough to draw your attention, and you looked up from your notes, slightly startled. Surely others nearby had done the same, but Eddie didn't care-- he just didn't want to draw your attention.

"Shut the fuck up!" he whisper shouted, reaching across the table to flick his friend in the forehead. When he looked back in your direction, your focus was back on your work.

"Just go say hi," Dustin suggested, earning a snort from Mike. Eddie rolled his eyes. Jeff clapped Eddie on the back, agreeing with the curly-haired freshman.

"No," he said curtly, hoping to end the conversation there, but with this group, it was never that easy. They encouraged him some more, but he denied them once again.

"No, I'd look totally stupid just going up to her."

"No way man," Mike declared. "Not stupid at all. Just be cool. It'll go great."

"Go get 'em, tiger," Jeff growled playfully, "or I'm calling her over." Eddie raised his eyebrows in surprise, his mouth agape.

"No! No, stop. Alright, I'll go say hi. Just shut the fuck up."

______________________________________________________________

It had been months since then, and you'd been kind enough to befriend Eddie. The two of you spent time together almost every day. Every time you looked at him he got lightheaded, and whenever you hugged him goodbye he could barely manage to stand up straight. When you'd asked in your sweet voice if Eddie could be your regular ride home from school, all he could do was nod. He'd probably say yes to anything you asked of him, now that he thought of it.

"What should we do?" you now asked as you sat in Eddie's van in the school parking lot after a DnD session.

"Uh... we could go for a drive? Listen to some music, pick up some snacks, and just drive around for a bit?"

You smiled at that, nodding slightly. The gesture set off the butterflies in his stomach.

"You can choose the music," Eddie allowed, expecting you to choose Wham! or Cyndi Lauper or another artist that he didn't particularly like but had picked up from the store for you to listen to when he drove you home. Instead, you picked out a Metallica album and handed it to Eddie.

"Are you sure? I feel like these songs are kinda intense for a chill night," he asked, completely astonished at your choice. But you were sure, and you told him you wanted to listen to what he liked tonight.

He hadn't thought you could get any sexier, but here you were.

After stopping at the store, the two of you chatted lightly between bites.

"This is nice," you said suddenly. "I mean, the other guys are fun to hang out with and everything, but I feel more relaxed with you."

Eddie could have passed out then and there. You liked spending time with just him? Before he could respond, you spoke again.

"Sorry, I made that sound kind of weird. I just meant that, ugh, I don't know, I mean, you're just... very sweet." From the corner of his eye, Eddie could see that you had your head ducked down and that you wrung your fingers in your lap. Before saying anything, he desperately needed to park the car. He couldn't focus on the road and what you were saying to him at the same time. His mind was racing-- could you actually be trying to tell him what he'd been hoping to hear since the day he met you?

He found an empty parking lot and put the van in park, but it took him a few moments to figure out what he wanted to say back to you. You quickly scrambled for an apology.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to weird you out--"

"No, no you didn't, Y/N." Eddie said quickly, realizing that he needed to come up with something quick.

"I... I like spending time with you too," he said, then internally cringed, realizing how stupid he sounded.

"You do?" you asked. He was surprised that you couldn't tell already. Every moment that he wasn't at band practice, at work, or in class (and even sometimes then), he was with you.

"Yeah," he whispered, and you smiled, shifting to face him in your seat.

"Can I tell you something?" you asked.

"Anything," Eddie breathed. You hesitated for a moment, a blush rising to your cheeks. The anticipation practically killed him.

"I've kind of had feelings for you for a while now," as you spoke, Eddie's world imploded, the car windows shattered, the music blared, the lights in the parking lot flickered wildly-- "and I was wondering if you would ever consider, you know, going out on a date some time."

Eddie didn't know what to say. The girl of his dreams had just asked him on a date, and he was completely speechless. His world had just been turned on its head, and she expected him to give her an answer without blowing up right where he sat? But the longer he sat there staring at you dumbfounded, the more your expression turned from hopeful to embarrassed, and he had to put a stop to that quickly.

"Yes," he choked out, "of course, I'll go on a date with you." You looked over at him with wide eyes.

"Really?"

"Yes, Y/N. I've had feelings for you since the day I met you." You tried to hide your grin by looking down at your lap, making Eddie smile stupidly at your cuteness.

"Why haven't you said anything?" you asked, unaware of Eddie's gaze. He shrugged, then began to speak.

"I guess I didn't want to mess up a good thing, ya know? I mean, you are undeniably the smartest, sweetest, most beautiful girl I know. And I was lucky enough to be your friend. I didn't want to tell you how I felt and make things weird between us if you didn't feel the same." You giggled and shook your head at his assumption.

"No, honestly, I've had a crush on you since we met too. I remember Gareth laughing at something at lunch the first day of school. When I looked over at your table, I saw you sitting across from him. I remember thinking how cool you looked. Your hair, your clothes--" you stopped yourself then, clapping your hand over your mouth to guard yourself from revealing any more. Eddie leaned into you, his eyes begging you to tell him more.

You squeezed your eyes shut and cringed, but Eddie only laughed and pulled your hand away from your mouth. Now that he knew how you felt, he had to know the rest. He was on top of the world tonight, and he wanted to bask in the glory of being admired by you for as long as he possibly could.

"Ugh, um, okay..." you continued, "you looked really stressed initially, but when you came over to talk to me, you were so confident and, I don't know, it was exciting. You wanted to be my friend. I could barely speak. Kinda stupid, I know."

"No way," Eddie laughed. "Not stupid at all. I felt the same way."

When you looked up at Eddie, he was staring at you with the gentlest expression you'd ever seen on him. He was still holding your hand in his, and you intertwined his fingers with yours. He smiled at this and brought his other hand up to cup your cheek. The pads of his fingers were a bit rough from playing his guitar, but you liked the feeling.

Soon, you were lifting your chin, and he was pressing his lips gently to yours. He brushed your cheek with his thumb as he kissed you, and your heart was beating out of your chest. Eddie's kisses were sweet and slow, the exact opposite of what you'd expect from a guy like him.

When you pulled away, the beautiful boy in front of you was smiling. "So," he began, "where will this date be held?"

[astradis]

hello! can i get a match up? ahhh here's the stuff about me :]]

name: lana / ruth

personality: im an infp, my friends describe me as nice and easy to get along with. im also shy especially with strangers and dont talk most of the time and i like to be alone sometimes. i can be clingy and needy but i dont make it obvious.

zodiac: im a taurus!!

appearance: i dont know how to describe my skin tone but i think its tan. i have long straight black hair and i have pretty big eyes. i like to wear shirts and shorts, just anything comfortable and i wear eyeglasses. my arms and legs are kinda hairy which i dont really like about myself.

uhhh here's an extra: i really love drawing, music, and cats they're all a comfort.

for the age range or something, could it be one of the the boys in the party? (mike, dustin and lucas. im also a minor but i prefer not to specify my age)

i hope its good enough <33

aww you are so cute 😭 thank you so much for your submission! you know who i think would be literally OBSESSED with you?

MIKE WHEELER

you two would be pretty awkward at first- considering mike is… well, mike! but that’s okay, because you two would slowly warm up to each other. it takes him a while to get used to having you around, since femme people have never really been his forte up until you came along.

he finds out you’re a lot more interesting than he originally thought. your like for music gets to him, and he starts to listen to the things you like when he sees you doing it. it’s a little funny- he wouldn’t ask for the music you recommend- he would just try his best to hear whatever you’re listening to, and when he goes shopping for cassettes, he literally just tries his best to replicate the songs he’s looking for. eventually you’d catch on, walking into the store as he does so. you stifle a laugh and he turns, seeing you there with your hand over your face to hide the amusement you got out of the whole situation. he tries his best to explain himself but really, he just wants to hear you laugh a little more.

when you two officially get together, he would be a pretty bad boyfriend. not that he doesn’t love you or something, cuz he does! a lot! it’s just a little hard for him to say how he feels sometimes. he talks in code a lot, and it takes you a while to catch on, but eventually you two come up with enough code for one another that you don’t have to fully explain how you feel, but perfectly demonstrate it through your, what you like to call, ‘milana’ code.

-

“Mike?” You turn to face your boyfriend, who is sitting next to you, fiddling with the walkie-talkie in his hands. “Is everything okay?”

“Huh? Oh, um, yeah,” Mike shrugs, brushing off your concern and continuing to play with the antenna.

“That means it’s not.” You catch him, shuffling closer to him and hoping he opens up. “The party?”

He sighs, putting it in his lap, a sign you were getting closer to the answer. “Apparently, because I hang out with you more than them, I’m not a member anymore.”

“What? That’s insane,” you put a hand on his. “That’s… not nice. Well, hey, listen. Who cares? We don’t need ‘em. I’ve got you, you’ve got me.”

Mike looks you in the eyes and huffs what you assume to be a laugh. “Lana, I hate to say it, but you’re right.”

“Of course I am,” you smile. “Let’s go out to the playground or something, yeah?”

“Um, is it fine if we stay in?” He asked, biting his bottom lip slightly. You nod and place a kiss on his cheek.

“Yes. Yes, it is.”

[thatharringrovehoe]

Steve having to try to explain, with Billy, to The Party that they cannot lock people in the sauna every time they think someone is possessed. (Non possession of Billy au)

Yooo! I love this idea!!!

Steve doesn't even know where to fucking begin. It was one thing to be called during work with no more of an explanation than "it's the upside down, get here now", nearly flinging him into a full out panic attack before he ditched Robin with the rest of their shift to drive well over the speed limit all the way to the Hawkins pool. But this? This was some bullshit. Because the kids for some God forsaken reason had decided to lock his fucking boyfriend in a sauna and cook a demon out of him. A demon that wasn't even there.

The kids were all in a line, shame faced and embarassed. Maybe a little scared, because Steve doesn't think that he's ever made whatever expression he's currently making before. Had never been so rediculously relieved and infuriated at the same time. Doesn't know what to do with it all. Because while the brats had had good intentions, it very well almost landed Billy in the hospital. He could still hear him breathing heavily on the bench behind him, cold towel over his head and bucket between his knees because the kids nearly gave him heat stroke. Has been shaking just a little, trying to breath through the nausea.

Steve takes a deep breath to center himself. Tries to unclench his jaw enough to speak.

"I want a name. "

It must not be what they expect him to say. Their eyes shift back and forth to each other in confusion.

Max speaks first.

"A name?"

Her voice is high and small and fuck it just reminds Steve how young they all are. How incredibly dangerous they little stunt was. How much worse it could have been.

"Who's idea was it to lock Billy in the sauna?"

Steve knows his voice sounds a lot more sharp than he means it to but he can't help it. Has to drive home just how much he's not fucking around.

To Steve's suprise Will is the one to step forward. He squares his shoulders and looks Steve right in the eye.

"it was my idea. I'm-.. I'm sorry. I was just so sure I-.. We were just trying to help. I know what it's like to have that thing inside you and I didn't want anyone else to have to... We just wanted to help."

Mike steps forward looking righteous and a little more confident than he should.

"If he's not posessed they why was he wearing a sweatshirt at the pool? And chewing ice?! It was suspicious as hell."

El pulls him back wearing a stern look. Shakes her head. And Steve is greatful for it. Cuz he knows that Billy and his dad had gotten into it a few nights ago and Billy was still littered with bruises. That his cheek was sore from how hard he bit it when Neil backhanded him. Had been sucking on ice for that exact reason. But he knew Billy didn't want anyone to know.

Jesus Christ. What was Steve supposed to do? The sauna door is ripped off it's hinges. Steve looks over at it, all crumpled and dented. Apperantly as soon as they figured out that Billy was in fact not possessed, they realized that they had been boiling Max's brother alive for almost an hour. El was a little heavy handed with how fast they got him out. He heaves a sigh one can only draw when dealing with willful teenagers. Billy retches into the bucket behind him. For fucks sake.

"Alright dipshitsl I'm only going to say this once. I understand what you were trying to do. You're hearts were in the right place."

They look relieved. It is short lived.

"How-fucking-ever! What you did was still the most reckless and irresponsible bullshit I've ever heard. You should have called someone before you decided to step in. Billy could have been seriously hurt. And even if you were right? What the fuck were you even gunna do? The last time this thing took over a host it gave a thirteen year old enough strength to choke out a full grown adult! An eighteen year old Billy Hargrove with mindflayer powers would have ripped you to fucking pieces!"

He's breathing heavier than Billy by the time he's done. The kids look properly chastised, thankfully, so Steve sends them shuffling on their way to Hopper and Joyce who are waiting outside to give them a ride. Both the adults knew that Steve was going to give them a better dressing down then either of them at the moment. Not that they wouldn't also be giving the kids a piece of their minds later.

With that sorted, Steve turns around and gets down on his knees in front of Billy.

"Hey baby. You okay?"

Billy's head is still hung over the bucket, the towel obscuring any view of his face. He gives a small nod.

"Joyce said you should be fine but you should take a cool shower before we leave. Can you walk?"

Another small nod. Then Billy is pulling off the towel with a groan. Looks up at Steve. And God if Steve didn't love those kids he would kill them. Cuz Billy's face is blotchy and flushed. Drenched in sweat and tears. Steve leans in to kiss his forhead before helping him to the showers.

It's slow going. Billy is dizzy and sweaty and heavy. Leaning mostly on Steve as they finally make it to a shower stall. He figures that Billy probably can't stand for long enough in the cool water on his own so he grits his teeth and helps hold Billy up as the spray hits both of them. Billy shoves his face into Steve's neck and whimpers.

After a few minutes Billy seems to become more aware. Winds his arms around Steve's midsection and squeezes. Both their teeth are chattering so they finish the shower and make their way back to Billy's locker. Steve is gently squeezing the water out of Billy's hair with a towel when he finally speaks.

"What the fuck is a mind flayer?"

Steve freezes. Well fuck.

"Yeah I guess it's time to have that talk with you. I uh. I was kinda hoping we would be off to California before I would have to tell you this. It's... Kind of fucked."

Billy gives an irritated huff.

"Does it have anything to do with that weird dog thing in the Byers fridge?"

Steve isn't even surprised at this point. Just pulls Billy in for a gentle kiss.

"Yeah. Yeah it does."

Billy grunts in acknowledgment. Then.

"Nice uniform by the way pretty boy. If I wasn't so fucked up right now I'd fuck you up against one of these lockers."

Steve can feel the blush bleed from his cheeks to his toes. He hadn't even had time to change.

"Raincheck killer. But you can sleep over at mine tonight. Gotta keep an eye on you after all this."

Early the next morning as he wakes up before the asscrack of dawn to cover one of Robbins opening shifts in exchange for bailing yesterday, he just lays there with Billy sleeping in his arms. Let's the relief flood through him as he holds his boyfriend. So very glad the kids had been wrong. Didn't want to think of the alternative. Breaths in the smell of cigarettes and chlorine. Of sunscreen. Of Billy.

[babytortie]

unexpected

unexpected. ❘ stanley uris x reader.

a/n: this was requested by anon - love ur recent stanley fic! was wondering if you’re cool with doing a smut for him? (aged up of course!) if you’re comfortable, could you make the reader more dominant in bed/stanley being more submissive? perhaps and enemies to lovers, hate sex type. other than that, any plot line is just fine.

* hope this lives up to your expectations! tyty for requesting this one.

summary: in which stanley and reader argue worse than richie runs his trashmouth. after burning some pent-up tension one day, the two take a turn for the better and become more than just enemies.

warnings: s m u t. some fluff at end. <3

contains: enemies to lovers, degrading, hair tugging, harsh kisses w/ slight blood, mild orgasm denial, praises, rough and unprotected sex.

* all characters ( including reader ) of the loser's club are 18+ in this one-shot.

~ 3.4k words.

you twirled a strand of hair between your fingers, a magazine placed on your lap, and beverly's head rested on your shoulder, looking at the pages with you.

it was the summer and the group was all back home on break from college. the loser's wanted to hang out and all eight of you were at bill's house right now. on various couch cushions and seats in the living room. his parents were away for the night and the seven brought clothes to stay at his just in case it got a bit late.

"oh, do you think he's hotter? or him?" bev asked, leaning in closer to point at the page. it was some magazine about the hottest actors of the year, achievement wise. though some hot men that were in it was currently grabbing beverly's, well, and your attention too. you glanced down at the page, slightly comparing both actors and voiced, "definitely him."

the guys overheard this and rolled their eyes. they were taking turns playing on bill’s newest nintendo sixty-four. on the floor below you, sat the four a few feet away, this was because they wanted to be scooted closer to the television. even though it was perfectly fine to put their backs against the couch. typical males.

you worried for their eyesight, especially richie’s, since right now he and bill were battling on some game you didn’t know the name of while being too close to the screen. eddie was on a chair next to the couch and sat by you, wheezing as he watched how close of a tie it was between them. mike and stanley were sitting on the floor with them on either side, cheering on who they wanted to win.

this was while ben sat on the other side of bev and read some book that just came out earlier this week. a quarter of ben’s focus was on his hand. it was resting on beverly’s thigh and drawing small, mindless shapes in content. the two were newly dating after pinning on each other for forever.

"i think we should play would you rather!" mike turned his head and suggested after hearing your conversation with the red head. bill had just died on the game causing richie to jump up and cheer while blowing out the other three's ear drums.

ben closed his book and sat up straighter. he took a glimpse over at beverly to see what her decision was. eddie hesitantly agreed when you and bev nodded. “s-sure!” bill got up and pulled stan with him.

one weekend about four years ago when the denbrough’s were home and bill had the group of losers over, they noticed how you all squished on the seats in the living room. surprising bill with an extra couch a month after this, they were able to successfully squeeze it into the room and push it against the other wall.

the four others started to pile on the other couch a few feet away from the three of you and eddie who still sat on the single chair next to you. beverly pulled her head up and leaned over to whisper in your ear, “be nice to stanley please.”

knowing it wasn’t funny, looking at her anyway with a confused expression, you lied. "stanley who?" she immediately turned her neck back at you, probably receiving some whiplash and raised an eyebrow to challenge you.

"i'm serious y/n." beverly laughed dryly. you sighed and replied a short agreeable response. “alright bev, as long as he doesn’t start it, then i won’t do anything.” after, you zipped your lips and threw an imaginary lock in the direction behind eddie.

she smiled at you in thanks and then you two turned towards the room, noticing everyone was ready. “b-being as it w-was mike’s id-dea, he can g-go first.” bill announced while glancing around the room.

mike nodded and turned to the one who still wore coke-bottle glasses years later. “richie, would you rather never wear underwear again or never wear socks again?”

ben and bill stifled a laugh, already knowing what his response was going to be. eddie rolled his eyes as richie answered, “underwear since i go commando sometimes anyway.”

you put your finger in your mouth, pretending that you were about to throw up and mike shook his head at richie. you turned to your right and left, seeing eddie’s and beverly’s disgusted faces.

”okay, eddie spaghetti.” he paused. the seven of you looked at eds, who had already put his hand over his face in annoyance. you and beverly laughed when the shorter boy muttered, “here we go.” richie smirked and continued. “would you rather, accidently send a nude to your boss or your parents? and by parents i mean your mom and i.”

he rolled his eyes, “absolutely not richie. my mom would never get with you and i would die of embarrassment if it were sonia. she’d probably kidnap and lock me in my old room, never to be seen again. probably boss.”

eddie turned to you after the group cackled of laughter, especially richie at the response he was given. the two of you currently shared a science class together in college and the asthmatic based some of his question off of this. "alright y/n, would u rather hook up with one of football players or with mr. jackson down at the science lab?”

you placed the palm of your hand on your cheek, into a thinking position and replied. "well, i kind of answered that question at last weekend’s party?" beverly jumped up at this and gasped. "no way! with which one?"

"i don’t kiss and tell." you smirked. the others gagged at that. “ah okay, i see. that’s where you went when we couldn’t find you again.” ben commented. stanley had been a bit quiet during the conversation and decided to speak up. adding to this, while looking at you pointedly. "you kind of just did tell and admitted at the fact that you sucked off some guy.”

you weren’t usually the type to get flustered during conversations like this. instead owning it as if you weren’t bothered. this helped you avoid any teasing or any richie’s usual jokes. "at least i'm getting some!" muttering in stanley’s direction.

"i swear if you guys argue for one more minute, i'm going to shoot myself. go y/n. it’s your turn." mike spoke up in between you and stanley, trying to get the game rolling again.

you smiled, feeling a little eager at the next question. you looked at the curly haired sitting across the room from you. the others groaned knowing you were about to pick on him in some kind of way. "uris. for the rest of your sex life, would you rather be the top or bottom?”

he blinked in your direction, probably wanting to smack you for the inappropriate question. “depends, is it with anyone specific?” you looked down sheepishly, then back up. is this a trick question? i mean sometimes you did find stanley a little bit too attractive. “do you want it to be?” deciding to quip back with equal attitude, you asked.

the group looked between the two of you while waiting for a response from uris. the tension was so thick that it could be cut with a knife. letting out a scoff in return, he looked at you in the eyes and glared. speaking in a low tone, you almost didn’t hear him. "uh, i don’t know.”

"what do you mean? you don’t know?" richie snickered.

bill, beverly, ben, and mike started to get the picture together. eddie figured it out just a second before them, when you burst out giggling. before you could stop from helping yourself, you let out a harsh jab. “oh shit, that explains why you’re always so uptight! maybe you should unbutton some of that polo? might help so you aren’t choking on all that innocence."

that only made matters worse, the last pin in place to set him off. stanley angrily spewed some words under his breath. only catching your name, you figured it was most likely something badly about you. quickly getting up from his spot, his curls bounced up and down when he rushed upstairs to one of the bedrooms.

the others watched him disappear from the top step sadly and looked back at you with the look. you had the decency to look a bit guilty, an awkward grimace on your face. "uh, why are you all looking at me like that?"

eddie leaned over to elbow you and gave his puppy dog eyes in pleading. you sighed but started getting up anyway. you laced your hands together in front of your stomach, nerves a bit jittery at being in a room alone with him. "well, to state my case we were all having that kind of discussion! if he wasn't such a prude..." you trailed off.

ben got up, patting your shoulder. "we all know this but stanley is sensitive about these kinds of things. go apologize while we're on break now and we’ll get some drinks going."

you nodded and turned back around, starting towards the stairs and walked up slowly. richie decided this was a good time to be the loud trashmouth that he is and shouted. "it was nice knowing you, y/n!"

shaking your head, you reached the last step and rounded the corner. hearing a slap noise, you assumed tozier was probably getting hit on the back of his head. a moment later a "beep beep" came from mike and you let out a small laugh in relief that they had your back against the loud mouth.

strolling down the hallway, you spotted the second guest bedroom door closed and decided to knock on it. stan heard a faint knock and got up from the bed to open it, seeing y/n he groaned. "oh, it's just you."

you ignored his disappointed comment and bit your lip. looking up and down to observe his new look. he must have just changed. wearing a regular light blue t-shirt and grey sweats. you shook your head and looked up to see his grin, catching you in the act of checking him out.

rolling your eyes in response, like he usually did and walking around him, you closed the bedroom door shut after stepping inside. you grabbed a handful of stanley’s shirt and pushed him against the back of the door. more like he allowed you to do this but you were definitely in control of the situation.

you leaned in towards him and swiped the back of your thumb over his bottom lip to test his reaction. when he didn’t swat your hand away, you went on the tip of your toes and brushed his lips against yours.

stanley gasped into your mouth and deciding to use this as an opportunity, you placed the tip of your tongue on the bottom of his lip. right before you could actually do this, he apparently read your mind and left his mouth open purposely. you wanted to slap him.

nonetheless, he allowed you total access. surprising him on purpose, you shoved your tongue in his mouth. wishfully thinking about how you wanted to somehow choke him with it. he grabbed both sides of your shoulders and scooted you closer, clashing his teeth with yours. not wanting to let up the control he tried to grab, you grasped the back of his neck tightly and felt light-headed. sensing wetness pooling between your thighs from enjoying this too much, you cursed to yourself.

a small moan escaped out from your lips and as if it was his fault, you nipped his bottom lip. you tried to quickly get rid the thought of ever giving into stanley uris. he hissed sharply, tasting slight blood from the nick. uris mumbled. "bitch."

this angered you more. pulling away from his lips, you put on a fake smile. moving in a bit closer to mess with the collar of his shirt, you tugged on it roughly, your face still close with his. "ready to not be a virgin anymore, virgin?" you retorted.

he smirked, "as long as i'm not one anymore, i don't care who it's with. even someone like you." he emphasized in a nasty tone. you pulled the shirt up over his head and uttered out. "shut the hell up." stan hummed happily after his shirt was pulled up to see that you were glaring from his reply. the two of you heard loud steps down the hall by the stairs, so you placed a finger over his mouth.

after a moment later, you heard what you assumed was someone in the bathroom, closing door the shut. letting out a breath not realizing you were holding it, stanley took this as a distraction to slip your finger into his mouth. you gasped, eyes widening, "what the hell!"

pulling your hand back, you spoke and stared in his eyes to let him know just how serious you were. "here's how it's going to go if you want to get laid, uris. we're doing this my way. don't play around anymore and definitely don’t talk too much so i can picture literally anyone other than you."

stanley looked into your eyes, searching for any hints of a lie from your remark. when he saw your eyes looking clearly back into his, he sighed in defeat. not letting it show, he grinned nastily. ”fine by me, y/l/n.”

"now, bird-boy are you sure you can handle this?" you stated more than questioned, an eyebrow quirked up. you held onto the top of his sweats with an eyebrow quirked up. he clenched his jaw, gritting his teeth together so hard he hoped they wouldn't crack. "fuck you y/n."

“no, that’s what i’ll be doing to you.” disagreeing and putting your palm over him. “what do we have here?” you asked out loud, in general all snarky. he let out an annoyed noise when he felt you tease fingertips across his hard length. so, in retaliation, he grabbed your wrist and pushed the palm of your hand harder onto him.

you gasped at how big he was. you tried to cover the surprise, a ‘tsk, tsk’ falling from your lips. not letting go quickly enough stanley noticed this and smirked at you. frowning, you murmured. "ever heard of patience? such a bad boy."

uris let out a small, quiet groan from feeling your hands come off of him. which was something you caught and figured having teased him enough, you put your hands around the waistband of his pants. tugging them off along with his boxers. afterwards you pushed him down onto the bed and before he could do anything, you quickly made work of your shirt. pulling it over your head and unclipping your bra as well.

he put a hand through his curls, smoothing them out from the fall when he fell into the comforter. watching you, he could feel himself hardening painfully. he felt needy and done with the wait. pulling your wrist closer he pleaded. “come on, hurry. please y/n.”

”fine, you’ve waited long enough like a good little boy.” stanley flushed at your approving compliment and tried to hide it, looking down. you saw this when you moved to sit on top of him and smiled. grabbing his chin lightly, you tilted his head back up. while looking into his light brown eyes, you held his wrist and tugged his hand so it laid over on top your breast.

stanley’s breath hitched and you moved inwards toward his neck. your warm breath was touching his skin, feeling cheeks reddening more. uris felt, palmed, and squeezed a little as you sucked small hickeys on his neck. not to dark but enough to be just visible if one were close up.

kissing his cheek and tilting back up, he dropped his hand and you happened to see his cheeks and neck all red. the quick switch of his attitude still shocked you to the core. ”are you sorry for calling me a bad name, baby?” he ignored your comment like a brat and kissed the inside of your wrist. you melted a little in his touch before going back to the task at hand.

you slowly let out of his grasp to unbuckle the belt and unbutton your shorts. you shimmied out of them and wanting to hurry up, you just moved your panties to the side and out of the way. pumping him a few times, you started to align him to your center. before you moved down onto him, you placed your hand on his cheeks in a sweet gesture and silently asked for reassurance. he nodded and you slowly slid down into him, both of you letting out small moans. “feel so good.” you muttered.

stilled for a moment, you let yourself adjust to his length and him to the feel. your hips went back up and you moved in forward, kissing him again. it slowly turned into a sloppy make out when you slammed your hips back down again. his tongue shoved in your mouth when you gasped in pleasure. after you found a rhythm you babbled on and on about how stanley was doing so good for you.

"i need you to put your fingers on my clit and rub." you said softly but still in a demanding tone. directing his hand exactly where you wanted it, you nodded when he looked at you again. his fingers moved quickly, drawing out an orgasm that you felt nearing.

lacing your fingers through his curly hair. stanley let out a loud moan as you tugged the locks. "now for the sake of you being able to cum, i'm going to ask again. are you sorry my baby boy?" he really didn't want to have to see the satisfactory in your face if he apologized. though, after a small moment went by, he realized that you weren't joking.

he let out a small, almost incoherent whine. pleading you with his big hazel eyes, "i-i'm sorry y/n. so sorry, c-can i cum please?" stanley would have never thought he'd be the submissive type but he found himself melting at your praises, quite easily. he liked letting you have some control and for once being able to sit back.

you smirked at him and let go. patting his cheek in almost a mocking way. "awe such a good boy but i think you can wait another minute." his eyes widened and you placed your hands back up onto his chest, steadying your balance before moving your hips back up and down repeatedly and harshly against his. he moaned when you kept going back down on his cock. feeling his pelvis right up against your very sensitive bundle of nerves, you squirmed.

stanley smirked, feeling you tighten around him. knowing you were close was a relief. constantly feeling so good on him made him hard and straining inside of you. tears prickling in the back of his eyes and wanting to cum so badly was difficult. uris felt not wanting to disobey you was more important as he patiently waited. pushing harder on your clit is what caused you to unravel, tightening completely around him. "oh fuck! s-such a good boy. cum with me now."

he came so hard, the hardest ever. which wasn't much to go off on, from the obvious conversation before. feeling euphoria, you rode through your high and his, milking every last drop of cum. you started to feel shaky. before your hips gave out, you placed one last kiss on his slightly darkening hickey.

after you fell on the bed next to him, he pulled you close. you turned your head in his embrace, eyes widening. you knew without a doubt they looked like they were probably about to fall out of the sockets. assuming even bigger eyes then richie's usual ones due to his glasses.

uris pursed his lips, kissing the top of your forehead before he could overthink it. “we need to talk. y/n/n." you tried to open your mouth, but closed it again. stanley used your nickname, he has never used it before. you were in disbelief, frozen, and unable to say a word. he rescued you and spoke up again. "you know i don't hate you, right?"

you swallowed feeling like a brick was falling from your shoulders and nodded. "i don't hate you either stan. this is not what i was expecting though to make up." you giggled causing him to chime in. the awkwardness was finally settled but you paused and asked nervously. "do you think we're worse than eddie and richie?"

he shook his head, not even needing to think on it and responded sweetly. "no, we're okay now and i have a feeling that richie will tease eddie even after we're all dead."

you laughed together once more, agreeing with stan’s opinion which would probably be a proven fact one day. "that's true. poor eddie!" snuggling closer into his back and finally, truly feeling at peace.

© babytortie on tumblr + wattpad.

[ada-mike]

The Truth Always Comes Out - Digimon (Davis/Yolei)

Hey, guys, long time no see. Hope you’re all doing well, all things considered. I decided to dust off this blog and post a little FanFiction for a change! Fancy that. Why FanFiction for a fairly rare pair in a children’s cartoon from twenty years ago? Good question. I was honestly inspired by the work of a truly amazing writer @tanyatakaishi and their incredible story Innocent Games, whose sequel is currently in progress and definitely worth the read whether you’re into Digimon or not (but you should be into Digimon, i mean seriously?) But yeah, drop by and give Innocent Games a read, drop a comment and a kudo too while you’re at it. This short story I’m posting myself is so inspired by Innocent Games, it’s pretty safe to call it a FanFiction of a FanFiction, doesn’t really fit into any canon, and is just something I had rattling around my head that I needed to bang out. Please give it a read and let me know your thoughts! Stay safe, ya’ll.

- Mike

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In hindsight, he really should have known better. Yolei had always possessed an inquisitive streak to put it lightly (whether or not the matter being investigated was her business was rarely a concern) and she was typically about as adept at snooping things out as Davis was poor at hiding them.

And really, on his laptop of all places?

Davis, along with the rest of their friends, had spent his fair share of time around – as well as inside of – computers, but regardless, they were still Yolei's domain through and through, her expertise. And as his father had once told him many years ago, during a family trip to the supermarket where Davis had denied, despite being caught, that he'd tried to shoplift a pack of gum down the front of his shorts: The truth always comes out.

His thoughts were scattered though as they stumbled through the front door and into the blackness of the dorm he shared with Ken. Yolei was strung over his back like a long-legged, lilac-haired knapsack – having mounted him during the elevator ride, laughing, the liquor in her belly turning her playful.

The haze of alcohol still hung heavy in Davis’s mind too, enough so that his legs wobbled dangerously as he carried her through the blackness to where he approximated the futon was.

“Is Ken here?” Her breath was warm in his hair and the heat climbed up his neck to settle in the tips of his ears.

“Nah,” He said. “He’s with his parents this weekend.”

“Perfect.” She purred.

Davis picked up the pace, stumbling over a pair of soccer cleats in the dark. He spun in a circle, pulling a fresh laugh from Yolei, before depositing them both on the sagging futon cushion. Yolei sat pinned behind him, a little squished, but regardless it was the perfect position to plant sloppy kisses on his exposed neck. Davis squirmed, his heart racing.

“It doesn’t smell in here, does it?” He asked.

“Only a little.”

“It’s the trash, I bet. I haven’t taken it out since Monday.” He moved to rise, but she pulled him back into her lap, near growling:

“Leave it.”

“Mmm,” He hummed. “You like the funk, huh? It sets the mood for you?”

“You’re about to ruin the mood if you don’t shut it.”

“Such a way with words, love.”

Love.

That word. It was enough to diffuse squabble that had been sparking.

Davis sunk back into her and she wrapped her arms around him, feeling up and down his chest, then down his gut. He seized one of her hands and brought it to his mouth, kissing her sharp knuckles, the pads of her fingers, her wrist. It was surprisingly tender for him.

And it drove her absolutely wild.

Her free hand had just wrapped around the buckle of his belt, when the door to the bedroom creaked open.

“Davish?”

They both flinched as tiny feet pounded on the floor, leapt, then thudded lightly on the futon by their side. Yolei reached and flicked on the lamp switch by her head.

“DemiVeemon!” Davis was grinning at the sight of his partner, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I thought you’d still be sleeping, buddy.”

“I had a dream that we were on a boat! I wanted to tell you about it!” The in-training Digimon clambered onto Yolei’s knee. “Yolei, your face is so red you look like a tomato!”

“It’s hot.” She explained. And it was, the compounding moments of passion followed by DemiVeemon’s interruption had them both sweating slightly.

“Where’s Poromon?” The Digimon asked, unperturbed. Fresh from his nap, he was ready to play.

“Um- He’s spending the night in the Digital World.” She dug her nails into Davis’s side, causing him to wince in pain, the soft touches suddenly gone. “I kind of thought you’d be there too.”

“Nope!” Chirped DemiVeemon. “But we could all go now!”

“Tomorrow, buddy.” Davis brushed his hands over DemiVeemon’s ears. Even if a trip to the Digital World could be fit into their agenda, the phantom feeling of Yolei's hands on him was fresh and that very likely meant that standing up anytime would be a bad move. “But hey, you know, I think I still have some Udon in the fridge from yesterday. Ya hungry?”

“Yes!”

As DemiVeemon scampered away, Davis sighed and lifted himself out from between Yolei’s legs so he could sit beside her.

“Sorry about that,” He settled his arms on her shoulders, leaning close. “But where were we?”

“Davis, no.” She pushed him back. “I told you that I was taking Poromon to the Digital World so we could be alone tonight. Why didn’t you do the same?”

“I was going to. I just – I dunno, felt bad about dumping him there.” Davis rubbed his nose. The alcohol's buzz was fading from him now, much too fast for his liking. “He’ll be in a food coma in twenty minutes though, I guarantee it. Then we can get back to -”

“Hold on,” Her eyes sharpened into knives behind her glasses “You think I dumped Poromon in the Digital World?”

“No, I-”

“I did not dump him,” She continued, shifting further away on the cushion as she sat up straighter. “He’s helping out in Primary Village. I’ll be there to pick him up again tomorrow.”

“I know!” Davis felt a fresh wave of heat roll up his ears, annoyed that she was picking apart his words tonight of all nights. “I’m not trying to make you feel guilty.”

“I have no reason to feel guilty.” She folded her arms and sank back, eyes settling on the kitchen where DemiVeemon’s ears were casting shadows up the wall from the light of the open refrigerator. “He’s fine, just – dammit, Davis.” A heavy sigh billowed her lips, then: “You and I just got back together, what? Three days ago? And between school and everything, you and I haven’t had time… We needed a night like this.”

It was true. This most recent “break” of theirs had been a rough one and longer than any previous up to now. Almost an entire two months had passed where they barely spoke a single word to each other, only interacting when strictly necessary for Digimon matters, or the occasional late-night message over their D-Terminals.

Davis slumped back too.

“Tonight was a good night.” He said lamely.

She just nodded.

They sat in silence for a minute as DemiVeemon finished rummaging for food. He eventually waddled past them back to Davis’s bedroom, a warm bowl nearly as big as he was balanced on his head. All dreams of boats forgotten for the time being. Whether or not he had heard the beginning of their spat, Davis wasn’t sure. Regardless, he now wished his partner had stayed to break some of the tension that hung heavy in the room.

What he really wanted was another drink.

What he needed to do was apologize.

Instead, he lurched forward, propping himself on one arm as he reached over Yolei. She opened her mouth, ready to rebuke him again, until he reached past her and snatched the clunky laptop that sat on the end table.

It was five pounds heavier and just as many years outdated for anything Yolei would have considered satisfactory, but Davis had got it for a good price in a resale shop and desperately needed a computer for school. He grunted as he settled back in his seat and flipped open the lid, determined to find a way to break the awkward silence.

“Can I – um, play some music?”

He was already scrolling through his rather extensive music library, not waiting for an answer, but Yolei nodded anyways.

“Just no dub-step, please for the love of God.”

He chuckled and something in her chest unwound. He eventually settled on something, and with a double-click the room was filed with smooth guitar and steady drums. They listened, Davis nodding his head in beat and Yolei watching him.

“The speakers on that thing are awful.”

“Yeah.”

The song transitioned, adding more varied guitar and aggressive vocals.

“I haven’t heard this one before.”

“Ken showed it to me.”

“It’s good.”

“Yeah.”

As the song started to fade, Davis reached, without looking, and rubbed a line up and down Yolei’s thigh. She unfolded her arms, but before she could move further towards him, he was lifting the laptop from his lap and moving it into her’s. He stood up.

“Gotta take a piss.” He muttered, trudging towards the bathroom, tripping over the same pair of cleats as he went.

Yolei watched him leave, long nails tapping on the plastic laptop chassis. After the bathroom door closed and she heard him emptying his bladder into the toilet through the thin wall, she sighed and began flicking through his music.

She had gotten a little too defensive earlier and she knew it.

The truth was, she did feel a little guilty for parting ways with her Digimon, even if it was only for a night. Despite the lack of crises in the Digital World needing their intervention, it sometimes felt like she was shirking responsibility by turning more attention to other aspects of her life.  

But she was older. She was busy – they all were.

Breaking up with Davis a few months ago had been a mistake, a rash decision after a stupid fight.

Drawing a good night out by coming home with him and arguing tonight had been a mistake. The wounds from the breakup were still fairly fresh. They couldn’t exactly just pickup where they left off.

Hell, maybe getting back together had been the mistake.

She wasn’t even reading the list of songs anymore as she scrolled. Her ring finger tapped a little too quickly on the arrow keys and the music program locked up from overestimation. Grumbling, she tapped more—even though she knew better—and the window was suddenly minimized, and then she was confronted with the egregious mess of folders on Davis’s desktop.

What immediately caught her eye was the folder labeled ‘Sexy Sexy Sexy’, and with that, any thought of innocently returning Davis’s music library vanished up in smoke.

Eyebrow quirked, she clicked and opened the oddly-named folder without hesitation. Of course she knew that most every guy had that particular folder stashed away. Having it on the desktop was definitely bold though.

What she saw though almost made her guffaw, and she struggled to steel herself.

The folder contained pictures upon pictures of different styles of ramen, most likely purloined from some high-end bistro’s online menu, judging by the nearly indecent high quality and their tiny watermarks in the corner of each. Nearly every photo was accompanied with an adjacent text document, containing what Yolei astutely guessed were Davis’s attempts at parsing out the recipe by looks alone.

This ramen folder was probably more organized and cared for than the one he used for homework, and a quick visit back to the desktop and to a directory simply dubbed ‘hw’ confirmed this.

Yolei glanced at the bathroom door. Things inside had gone silent, but if history and the number of sliders he ate at the bar were reliable indicators, Davis would probably be preoccupied for a few more minutes. She had plenty of time.

Yolei cruised through the rest of his desktop in record time, finding nothing of note outside of a few folders containing game roms, a second folder of his own home-brewed ramen recipes, and much to her surprise: an alarming amount of digitized Shoujo manga, definitely pirated. She filed that away for teasing ammunition later.

Now, to find the really good stuff.

Her practiced fingers danced over the keyboard, running a shell command to search for recently accessed items. Buried in several sub-folders was one entry that caught her eye, a single folder with a timestamp indicating it was opened just an hour or so before he’d picked her up for their date earlier that evening.

The folder was named ‘yolei’.

A swirl of emotions flooded her as she opened the file with her namesake, and she found it was a dumping ground of yet more photographs.

Instead of gratuitous snapshots of food however, they all featured her.

Yolei immediately recognized a series of selfies she’d sent him herself – some as early as when they had first started their on-again/off-again relationship years ago. It had never occurred to her that Davis would be the type to save them anywhere but his phone. It was surprisingly sentimental of him.

An image of Davis lying in his bed, clicking through and lovingly studying a slideshow of her, sprung to mind and she felt a warm swell of affection for him. She had done something similar on occasion, when their respective university work had kept them apart for multiple days on end.

There were other styles of pictures too. As she scrolled further, she found photos they had taken together at her high school graduation ceremony, shots of them at a beach trip, and one from her recent birthday where he’d tried to wrestle her face into the cake. She couldn’t help but laugh quietly.

She came to a stop at one photo in particular, the image’s age betrayed by how grainy it’s quality was.

They couldn’t have been older than thirteen. Davis was round-faced and grinning in the middle, one arm slung over Ken to his left and the other over a mildly miffed Kari. T.K. stood on Kari’s other side (Yolei had forgotten about that silly hat he used to wear) and on the opposite edge stood Yolei herself, all spindly limbs and thick, round glasses—stained brilliant white from the flash of the camera.

Their Digimon partners stood huddled around their feet and Yolei felt a fresh pang when her eyes fell on Hawkmon.

She scrolled further, perhaps more quickly than necessary, but then came to a screeching halt.

“Bastard.” She hissed, an angry blush spreading across her cheeks.

“What?” Davis had somehow exited the bathroom and was halfway back to his seat. Yolei had been so engrossed in her recent discovery she hadn’t even heard him flush.

Without missing a beat, she twirled the laptop around and pointed the screen at him accusatory.

“What the hell is this?”

To his credit, Davis had learned since the gum smuggling attempt in his youth that it was best not to lie when he’d be caught.

“Oh,” His mouth formed a perfect O-shape. Now he was blushing too. “I can explain-”

“You better!” She rattled the laptop at him, the hinge wobbling dangerously. “I told you to delete these, Davis!”

It had been her one demand when they had broken up most recently. He had listed several himself, including the unconditional return of the multiple sweater-shirts she’d swiped from his dorm. She considered this a devastating blow, as they made the perfect sleeping shirts in her opinion. But to be fair, he actually needed them more than she did, his winter wardrobe being sparse as it was.

“I did delete them!” He shot back.

“Oh—that is so obviously not true.” She flipped the laptop back around so she could look at them again. The photos were definitely there, present and accounted for, completely not deleted. Her eyes were flashing as she glared back up at him. “Why did you keep these?!”

“Look, you specifically asked me to delete from my phone,” He explained. “And that’s what I did.”

“Oh, so you thought you could keep these on a technicality, huh?”

“We’re back together now so why does it matter?” He threw his hands in the air. “They’re not even that bad of pictures.”

“They’re disgusting.”

Davis chose not to argue with that. Certainly most of the photos could be construed as less-than appealing.

His laptop currently contained the only copies in existence of seventeen candid photos of Yolei, caught in various stages of sleep, sickness, and general foulness.

It had started as kind of sweet. On one of the nights she had slept over he’d woken first, and had snapped a quick picture of her face as she slept rather serenely, messy hair splayed over his pillow. When he’d showed her the picture later, he’d called her beautiful. She made a show of rolling her eyes, but smiled and blushed all the same.

For the second photo, he’d caught her while she was trying to subtly pick her nose.

It had kind of snowballed from there.

“Why were you even going through my laptop anyways?” He demanded in turn.

“I was looking for music.” Yolei turned her nose up matter-of-factly.

“In my pictures? Yeah, Right.”

“You’re missing the point.” She waved her hand as if his words were a fly buzzing by her ears. “This is a major breach of privacy.”

“Now that, you’re right about.” He stepped forward finally and reached for his laptop, but she pulled it to her chest.

“I mean my privacy, you jackass.”

“I took those, so they’re actually mine.”

“But they’re not pictures of you, are they?” She looked down, scrutinizing one of her in an unseemly, homemade guacamole facemask, filename: ‘she-hulk’. She had seen all these pictures before at one point or another, usually accompanied with some gentle ribbing at her expense, but seeing the collage now felt entirely different. “Davis, how could I ever trust you again? You promised me that you’d get rid of these.”

She was right of course, and that caused the words to sting all the more. Davis was near a hundred percent sober now, but his vision still blurred. Hot tears of shame, and a heaping dose of frustration, pricking his eyes. He fought and managed to keep his voice level, mostly:

“Yeah, well... how am I supposed to just go around like it’s nothing when you could be sniffing through my drawers every time I turn my back?”

She didn’t have an answer for that.

A half minute passed where neither said anything. The music from the laptop was still playing passively, shuffling through Davis’s library automatically and currently playing some upbeat video game OST Yolei didn’t recognize. Eventually he moved and sank down onto the futon with her again, a few inches of space between them, and both their eyes settled on the gallery of photos still on display on the glowing screen in Yolei’s arms.

Davis remembered telling his friends oh so recently that he and Yolei were back together. Tai and Izzy had exchanged a quick glance, a silent exchange of barely-contained, mild exasperation. He imaged them placing bets on how long he and Yolei would last this time and pictured money exchanging hands when he broke the news that they were surely once again parting ways-

“That was the most sick I’d ever been in my entire life.” Yolei muttered suddenly, indicating one of the pictures. “I literally thought I was dying.”

He chuckled despite himself.

“Your nose is so red there.”

“Yeah, the tissues from I-Mart were like sandpaper. They still are.”

“Red looks good on you though.” Their eyes met then, and Davis continued quickly, stammering slightly. “I mean, not many people can pull off crimson flight pants, but- um… you did.. for years.”

Her face had an unreadable quality to it, and it seemed as if she might respond with something, but then she turned away and began scrolling through his computer again. He noticed her eyes weren’t focused though and he didn’t have it in him to try and dissuade her from searching still. There was nothing else to find anyway.

“Why do you even have this folder?” She asked, eyes forward.

He debated with himself for a few seconds, then decided on the truth.

“I like… having photos. You know, of you.” He admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “And when we broke up last time, and you told me to delete all those ugly pics of you, I did.” Yolei’s mouth opened to object, but he continued before she could interject. “I really did. I honestly just forgot that they were on my laptop with everything else too, and when I saw them later, I just… couldn’t get rid of them.” He stared at her profile, tracing with his eyes the lines of her cheek, the bump on her nose. “I really thought this last time was the real deal.”

“Me too.”

“Do you think we should break up again?”

“I don’t know.” Even though they weren’t quite touching, Yolei felt him stiffen by her side. She closed her eyes, and said her next words to the blackness of her eyelids. “I don’t want to.”

He breathed out, the air leaving him as if released from a balloon.

“God, me neither.”

She twisted on her seat, opening her eyes to meet his gaze.

“I’m sorry for looking through your laptop. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“It’s okay.” He responded quickly.

Yolei continued anyways.

“If I’m being honest too, I was looking to see what kind of porn you had saved on here.”

“What?” Davis balked. “Seriously? Why would you think I had… that stuff… on there? I don’t even…” He shook his head, the image of incredulity. “I don’t even watch that.” Yolei watched him steadily, a single brow raised. “What? I don’t!”

“Sure. We’ll talk about that some other time.” She was only half teasing.

The promise of ‘some other time’ bolstered his spirits quickly. He eyed his laptop in her hands, suddenly loathing the pathetic thing and how he’d used it to hide away the secret vestiges of what he had once thought would be all that remained of his and Yolei’s relationship. She had owned up to her transgressions.

What he needed to do was apologize.

Standing, he pulled the laptop from her slack grip before she could argue, and looking her dead in the eyes, gripped each half of the computer and snapped it in half along the hinge. The music died with a pitiful wheeze and splinters of plastic flew everywhere, a few bouncing off Yolei’s glasses to disappear into the fibers of the rug at her feet.

“Davis!”

“I shouldn’t have kept those pictures.” He discarded the broken halves of the computer, speaking passionately. “I want us to start over fresh, okay? I don’t want any dumb secrets or anything like that to cause any problems. I want you to trust me, because I trust you – I really do.” He swallowed hard. “I still love you, Yolei.”

Her eyes shone and laughter bubbled in her throat.

“But you computer-”

“I needed a new one anyways. You can help me pick one out!”

“Yeah, but,” She wiped her eyes clear. “What about all the other pictures? My graduation, the Digimon?”

“I still have those on my phone, no worries.”

“And your homework?”

“My homework?” It took a second for Davis’s brain to catch up. His eyes passed from one broken piece of the laptop to the other, then his hands rose to bury themselves in his hair. “Oh shit, shit. My mid-term paper is saved on there...”

Yolei wanted to laugh, she wanted to cry, but instead she reached out and pulled him to her. She gently unwound his fingers from his hair and twined them with hers. She kissed him and kept pulling until he was climbing onto the battered futon with her, then over her.

In the morning, she would take off the back panel of his broken computer and pull the hard drive. She’d help him recover his homework and maybe, just maybe, a couple of the more agreeable photos that she would allow him to keep.

For now though, he didn’t need any of the digital keepsakes. As far as either of them were concerned, any number of pictures paled in comparison to the real thing.

For now though, she held him close and breathed in his ear.

“I love you too.”

When DemiVeemon bounced back into the living area sometime later, he found the pair asleep and huddled under a blanket together on the futon. The small Digimon took in the mess on the floor, the couple’s mussed hair, their slow and steady breaths, chests rising as one. Of course, he had heard every word of their argument from Davis’s bedroom, but he was used to the ruckus by now and too preoccupied with his noodles to care. Anyways, no doubt there would be many such squabbles in the future for him to witness.

He decided to let them sleep for now and bounded to the kitchen in search of a mid-night snack. He would just have tell Davis about his dream some other time.

[grapesodatozier]

Dreamboat

summary: Richie’s his pining mess self, and it only gets worse when he has sex dreams about Eddie every night for a week. Eddie asks him why he’s been avoiding him all week, love confessions and smut ensues~

tags/warnings: pining-typical angst and guilt in the beginning, but it’s all resolved by the end! also, this is top!eddie/bottom!richie bc i haven’t written that dynamic in forever, gotta balance the scales lol

this didn’t need to be 7k words, but it is lmao enjoy

(also, if you wanna be taken off or added to my taglist, lmk! i have one for reddie fics and one for all of my fics, so please specify which one you’d like to be added to. thanks!)

read on ao3 or below!

notsfw below the cut!

Richie could not believe this was happening a-fucking-gain. This was the fourth time this week that he’d woken up hard after a dream about Eddie. He ran his hands over his face and groaned, his skin burning from his face down his chest. Guilt sank low in his stomach as he shut off his alarm and stared up at the ceiling of his dorm room. 

Guilt, and a sizable helping of heartbreak.

It had felt so real. He could still feel dream-Eddie’s fingertips ghosting over his skin. He could feel his tongue teasing over Richie’s own, so soft and warm and the perfect balance of rough and smooth. He could feel Eddie grinding against him. He could picture so vividly Eddie dropping to his knees, a sweet smirk on his face as he—

No. Fuck, fuck, no. Richie breathed in sharply through his nose and scrunched his eyes shut, willing his aching boner to go down. The emotional come down helped, realizing he would never get to touch Eddie like that, would never get to know what he felt like, how he liked to be touched. He tried to ignore it, he really did, he’d been trying to get over it for years. But how was he supposed to get over someone like Eddie? Richie had never felt his heart flip like it did around Eddie. He’d realized one day in the seventh grade that Eddie’s laugh made him feel different than anyone else’s, warmer. He wanted to know that Eddie was okay all the time, and he selfishly wanted to be the one to make him happy. His heart sang every time Eddie chose to sit next to him. The first time Eddie rested his head on his shoulder Richie thought he was gonna vomit. But, like, in a good way. 

So yeah, being in love with Eddie was par for the course. It was a part of Richie as much as his freckles and knobby elbows. But these dreams… He’d had a few before, scattered here and there across the years, but he’d managed to black them out. One or two flukes was okay, right? He’d had a sex dream or two about Bill before. Hell, he’d had sex dreams about a cashier he saw once at a Burger King. It was fine. The mind was a weird thing.

But four in a week? That was different. It made him feel like a fucking creep; he made his own skin crawl. And they were so vivid. How could he look at Eddie now? How could he let Eddie touch him, not knowing what Richie had dreamt of those hands doing? 

He bit his lip as he thought about it, the most confusing mix of arousal and shame blooming in his chest. He only came back to his senses when he tasted copper on his tongue. He did his best to shove the thoughts aside as he swung his legs over the side of his bed, halfheartedly tossing his comforter back toward the top of his bed before deciding to smooth it down more neatly. He took another deep breath and ran his hand through his hair, trying to collect himself enough to pick out an outfit for the day. He just needed to locate a shirt, boxers, and pants. And socks. God, why did that feel difficult?

Showering didn’t help clear his mind. Cocoa puffs didn’t help. Not even his acting class could help; his teacher just had them lying on yoga mats that smelled like disinfectant and stale rubber doing breathing exercises for the first half of class, which did absolutely nothing to calm him down or take his mind off of the fact that it was Friday, which meant movie night in Bill and Mike’s room. Nights when Richie and Eddie “fought” over who got to sit on the giant Yogibo before settling into it together, nice and dizzyingly close. 

He managed to avoid sitting next to Eddie at lunch just by luck of the draw. But Eddie was still there laughing harder than anyone else at Richie’s jokes and trying to toss things into Richie’s cup without him noticing, and it still made Richie glow, he still pretended to not notice who was throwing things at him, playing along with Eddie’s innocent shrugs and smiles until he “finally” caught him, which in turn made Eddie burst into giggles that were so precious they made Richie want to cry. And then after lunch Eddie came up to Richie and touched him on the arm, making him jump like he’d touched a hot stove. 

“Jesus, you good?” Eddie asked with a confused smile.

“Yeah, must be the static electricity,” Richie said, fumbling over his words, “or the fluorescents.” 

Eddie gave him a look, but he was still smiling. “Okay, that was bad, even for you.” Richie gave a small laugh. He felt like he couldn’t breathe. “Do you wanna go to the Auburn to study? This stupid fucking poetry class is melting my brain, so I think you owe me a scone as compensation for making me sign up for it.”

Richie’s heart ached. There was nothing he wanted more than to fuck around with Eddie at one of the too-small tables at their favorite little coffee shop downtown. But then he was looking at Eddie’s lips and the guilt was rising in him again like bile. Or maybe it was actual bile. Richie clicked his tongue. “Sorry, you know I’d love to treat my little muffin to a scone, but I’ve got a paper to write and you know they turn the wifi off Friday to Sunday.” 

The disappointment on Eddie’s face made Richie’s chest ache. “Okay, well, I’ll see you tonight then.” 

“Wear those panties I like,” he winked, his mouth getting ahead of him as usual. God, Richie wanted to kick himself. And maybe puke. But Eddie left him with a smile and a playful shove, so Richie figured he wasn’t in too much trouble. 

Richie, Stan, and Patty had been tasked with getting the pizza that night, so the three of them showed up to Bill and Mike’s after everyone else. Richie’s heart did flips when he saw Eddie lying sprawled across the giant bean bag, just like he always did when he beat Richie to it. He blushed when Eddie met his eyes and beamed, leaping up and bounding over to him. He nearly choked on his tongue when Eddie draped himself over his arm, having to get up on his tiptoes to rest his chin on Richie’s shoulder. Richie instinctively crouched down a bit to accommodate him. 

“Did you get barbecue chicken?” Eddie asked, batting his eyes.

“I’m offended you would even have to ask,” Richie grinned as he opened the box. The others were scrambling around the boxes, trying to get slices of their choice, but Richie’s long arms gave him an advantage.

“Will you get me a slice?” Eddie asked.

“And let you get to the Yogibo first? I may be pretty but I’m not stupid.” Richie grinned as he lifted his plate far above Eddie’s head and spun around, finally able to breathe once he no longer had to worry about the electric feeling of Eddie leaning against him.

“You’re gonna regret that, Tozier,” Eddie huffed, but he could never hide his smile. 

“Ooh, last names,” Richie grinned as he plopped himself down on the beanbag, fully spread eagle. “I’m scared now.”

Eddie stuck his tongue out at him before ducking under Bill’s arm to get at the pizza he was going for. Richie really tried not to linger on how cute that was. 

However, it was becoming quickly apparent that Richie was not going to be able to avoid those thoughts, as well as his less savory ones. As soon as Eddie got his pizza, he was standing over Richie with one hand on his hip. Richie made sure to look at his face and not his thighs, which his movie night sleep shorts left on full display. Richie didn’t dare let himself look down, because right then he was wondering if he’d be able to see up Eddie’s shorts from this angle. God, he bet he could. “I was sitting there,” Eddie groused. 

Normally Richie would’ve replied with something crude, would’ve grabbed his crotch with an obnoxious wink and said, “I’ve got a seat all warmed up for you right here, baby.” But now his stomach twisted at that, and when Richie managed to stop himself from saying something he struggled to come up with something else. So all he could manage was a halfheartedly sarcastic, “Here?” 

He pointed to what he thought was the beanbag, but Eddie apparently had something else in mind. “Yeah,” he smiled before dropping himself into Richie’s lap with a grace and bounce that left Richie breathless. “Right here.” 

Eddie looked so smug, and he was on Richie’s lap, and Richie could feel the situation getting real bad for him real fast. So, setting the slices of pizza aside so as to not earn himself any disappointed looks or lectures from Bill and Mike about respecting and maintaining the cleanliness of their space, he grabbed Eddie by the waist, doing his best to ignore his own rushing blood and the amused look on Eddie’s face. “Alright, short stack, you ever try asking a guy to move over?” With Eddie lifted, Richie scooted over to one side of the bean bag, then plopped Eddie on the other. Richie couldn’t decipher the look Eddie was giving him, but it somehow was making him even hotter under the collar than Eddie sitting in his lap had. 

Richie thought he was safe when Eddie huffed and grabbed his pizza, but he barely had three seconds to breathe before Eddie was wriggling his way across the bean bag to press himself against Richie. “You’re taking up the whole thing,” he grumbled as he tucked himself against Richie. Richie could not have been closer to the edge of the bean bag, but he didn’t have the breath in his lungs to say that. Every time he breathed he could smell Eddie’s shampoo, clean and fresh and somewhat minty. Richie shovelled his pizza into his mouth so he wouldn’t have to respond. And to give himself something to do with his arms other than wrapping them around Eddie and pulling him closer. 

Richie could not for the life of him focus on the movie. He felt like he was dropping on a rollercoaster, but it had been twenty minutes and the feeling hadn’t stopped. Eddie kept shifting, but never away from him, and Richie was going to lose his mind. Then, Eddie leaned up to whisper something to Richie, and he couldn’t even process what he was saying, just that the feeling of Eddie’s breath warm and soft on his neck was going to make him pop a boner. Eddie’s face was so close to his, and his hand was on Richie’s chest, and Richie couldn’t stop seeing his dreams playing on repeat. 

Eddie’s tongue in his mouth.

Eddie’s hands running down from his chest, to his stomach, lower…

Eddie on his knees, Eddie in Richie’s lap, Eddie on top of him, inside—

“Well!” Richie exclaimed, rolling off the Yogibo with the grace of a newborn calf, popping up to the fond annoyance of his friends, “I do say, nature calls, so pip pip and tally-ho, off I must go to the loo.”

“Seriously?” Eddie groaned.

“Hey, you’re the one who’s always telling me to stay hydrated!” Richie retorted. “You’ve only got yourself to blame for this waterfall.” Really? he thought to himself. Yeah, that’s gonna get him to like you. Nice one, dumbass.

“You know you really don’t have to announce that,” Bev snickered, throwing Mike and Ikes at him until he reached the door.

“Alright, alright, tough crowd. Try not to miss me too much.”

He could hear Stan yelling something about not getting lost on his way back as he closed the door, finding himself alone in the hallway of Bill and Mike’s dorm.

God, fuck, he was so fucked. He had to take himself on a walk up and down the hallway just to calm himself down. Eddie made him so hot, like he was burning up. And he’d thought his feelings were messy before he started having the dreams. Eddie whispering to him like that, touching him like that… He knew when he got back in the room that he couldn’t do it. He felt a guilt heavy in his stomach when he plopped down next to Bill, squeezing himself in obnoxiously, but he knew he couldn’t be next to Eddie just then, not without crawling out of his skin. 

He ignored the weird look Bill gave him, the weird looks everyone gave him. He ignored the way Eddie kept glancing over at him, looking so small sitting on the bean bag by himself. He ignored the aching in his chest when Eddie asked Ben and Bev to walk him home instead of Richie. He told himself this was better as he walked home alone, that yeah, he missed Eddie’s banter, he missed the sleepy way he would bump into Richie, but it was better this way, better to get some distance and let the dreams peter out. Maybe if he didn’t touch Eddie, maybe if he didn’t see him for a few days he’d get his lips out of his mind, maybe he could forget the way Eddie’s skin felt against his own, and then the dreams would stop. Things could go back to normal if he could just stay away for a bit.

But that night only brought another dream, one filled with moans and giggles and Eddie’s hands and tongue all over him, inside of him. Another dream that had his blood rushing to his cock. 

He woke up hard and grinding against his mattress. His mind still lingering in the dream, the sensations still fresh in his mind, warming his skin, Richie rolled over onto his back and desperately shoved his hands down his boxers. He stroked himself tight and fast and came into his fist in under a minute, his toes curling and his breath coming out in gasping moans. It took a minute for his mind to clear. Once it did, his blissful haze shattered pretty abruptly. “Fuck,” he muttered, reaching for the roll of toilet paper on his desk to wipe his hand off with. He tossed the wad at his trash can with way more force than necessary before angrily throwing his sheets and comforter off of himself. He needed a fucking shower. A cold one. 

He didn’t get why the fuck this kept happening. Like, fuck, the dreams were amazing, sure. But Eddie was never gonna touch him like that. He could dream and fantasize all he wanted, but that was all he was ever gonna get.

He dodged Saturday brunch, grabbing a cinnamon roll from the dining hall and eating it in his room alone. He ignored Bill’s text asking if he wanted to talk about the night before. He holed up in his room and threw himself into the essay he had to write, hoping that that would be enough to make him forget. But finding quotes didn’t exactly scratch the same itch, and his mind kept drifting to Eddie, always Eddie, whispering in his ear, touching his chest on the bean bag the night before. There was no song he could blast loud enough to get it out of his mind.

It was around three when Richie heard an insistent knocking at his door. He paused the music and groaned, figuring Bill had come by to talk to him. But when he opened the door, Eddie was standing there with his arms crossed. Richie’s heart stopped. “Hey,” he said, “wasn’t expecting you. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

But Eddie was already pushing past him into his room. Richie closed the door; the pout on Eddie’s face made him figure this was about to be a door closed kind of conversation. Which made him want to vomit, but here they were. Eddie took a breath, paused, then finally blurted out, “Did I do something wrong?”

Richie’s head was spinning. “What?”

“You’ve been weird all week.” Shitshitshitshit. “You didn’t wanna study together, you sat next to Bill last night, you haven’t called me Eds in days—” Eddie cut himself, his voice breaking and eyes falling to the floor. Richie’s heart was beating so hard he was pretty sure he’d be able to see bruises on his chest in a few hours. “So, what, are you mad at me? ‘Cause whatever I did, I’m sorry, but I don’t know what I did, I don’t know why you’re avoiding me like this.”

“Eddie,” Richie started, stepping toward him. He reached his hand out, but let it drop. He was so torn. Eddie looked so small, so sad and confused, all Richie wanted to do was scoop him up into his arms and make everything better. But how could he touch him? How could he make this better? How could he explain what was wrong without scaring Eddie off? “Fuck, Eddie, I don’t know what to tell you.”

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, because Eddie’s eyes started filling with tears. “So, what? You just don’t like me anymore?”

“What? No, fuck no, Eddie, jesus, I love you!” Richie blurted. Every nerve in his body was screaming at him to run out the door, to get the fuck out of there, to not say anything more. But fuck it, he couldn’t see Eddie cry and do nothing. Grossing him out was better than hurting him, right? Eddie didn’t say anything, but he wiped a tear away and stood up a little taller, his eyes wide, urging Richie to go on. Richie took a tentative step closer before deciding against it and leaning against his bed. “Fuck, this is so awkward. Um. So, okay, so I’ve been acting weird.”

“Yeah?” Eddie prompted, turning toward him. He started to move closer, then apparently thought better of it. 

“And I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.” Richie ran his hands over his face, pushing his glasses up then readjusting them. “Fuck,” he said with a humorless laugh. “So um. So you’ve kinda been livin’ rent free in my dreams this week.”

Eddie gave him a confused look. 

God he was gonna have to spell it out, wasn’t he? “Like…” Richie mimed jerking himself off. Eddie raised his eyebrows. “Like, every fucking night this week.”

“Oh.” Eddie’s cheeks were pink.

“Yeah. So, you know. Kinda makes it hard to be around you knowing I’m such a fucking creep.” Richie gave a sheepish smile. 

Eddie gave him a long suffering look.

“Sorry, that was supposed to come out a lot funnier than it sounded—”

“Richie,” Eddie sighed, walking over to him. Richie straightened up, his heart in his throat as Eddie stood right in front of him. “You’re not a creep for having some wet dreams.” He gave him a smile and smacked him playfully on the chest. “I can’t believe that’s the whole reason you’ve been a dick this week.”

“Yeah, but it’s different,” Richie said before he could stop himself, thoughts flooding out on their own. 

“Why? Because we’re friends? I mean, sure, maybe every night for a week is kind of a lot, but I can’t say I’m not flattered.” He smiled then, but it softened, and he took Richie’s hand in his, running his thumb comfortingly over Richie’s skin. “I’m definitely not creeped out.”

You have to tell him, Richie’s mind screamed at him. You have to fucking tell him. If you don’t tell him now you never will. “Not just because we’re friends,” he whispered, his voice shaking. He tried to slip his hand out of Eddie’s, but Eddie just held him tighter as he looked into Richie’s eyes, waiting for more of an explanation. “I’m kinda, like… in love with you.” He waved his free hand in a ta-da motion, hoping to god that he could joke his way into making this less painful for both of them. Eddie’s eyes widened, but he didn’t let go, he didn’t move or say anything, and fuck, what was Richie supposed to with that? Fill the fucking silence was his go-to, so he started rambling, but nothing that came out was funny. “So, it’s like, the dreams are shit I’ve thought of, y’know? And I feel really fucking gross, because like, I’d do it. And I didn’t want you to find that out and think that I was taking advantage of you or whatever by letting you cuddle me and shit, because, fuck, when you were whispering to me last night, and pressing against me, I want that, y’know? You were gonna give me a fucking heart attack, and that’s weird, that’s gross, and I didn’t want you to be mad, or to leave me—” He broke on that and had to bite his lip to keep himself from crying.

“Richie,” Eddie sighed, pulling him down into his arms. Richie collected himself as Eddie held him, slowly bringing his arms around Eddie, trying to process what was happening. 

“You’re not mad?” he asked as he pulled away. Eddie cupped his face, and Richie couldn’t help but lean into his hand.

“Why would I be mad? All you’ve done is love me back.”

Richie’s eyebrows lifted hopefully. “Back?”

“Yes, back,” Eddie grinned. “I love you, too. I’m in love with you, too.”

“Fuck, for real?”

Eddie giggled and leaned up on his toes, bringing his lips to Richie’s. Richie placed his hands lightly on Eddie’s waist, kissing him back softly, making sure this was all happening, that touching him like this was okay. Once he was sure he wasn’t being pranked, he wrapped his arms around Eddie and pulled him closer, kissing him deeply, hungrily. God, he’d needed this for so many years, but he never could’ve prepared himself for how amazing it would feel. Eddie’s lips were so soft, so intentional with every move, and Richie could feel him smiling as he pulled him closer into him. Eddie’s arms were wrapped around his neck, their chests were pressed together, still Richie needed more, needed him closer. He needed to satiate the years and years of pining. 

“God, Eddie, Eds, my love, I love you so much.” He felt breathless and giddy to finally say it.

“I love you, too, Rich,” Eddie beamed, kissing the corner of Richie’s mouth, then his cheek, then his jaw. Richie moaned as Eddie pressed a kiss to the pulse point where Richie’s jaw met his neck and ran his hand over Richie’s chest, just like he had the night before. “So these dreams… what happened in them?” Richie shuddered at how low Eddie’s voice had gotten. “What was I doing in them?”

“Shit, what weren’t you doing?” Richie laughed breathlessly. “Sucking me off on your knees, stroking me and kissing my neck, fingering me, fucking me…”

“Yeah?” Eddie asked, his eyes sparkling. Richie gasped as Eddie’s hand travelled lower, teasing over Richie’s belt. “You want me to fuck you?” 

“Fuck, yes.” Richie’s breath trembled over the words. He had to grab the bed behind him to steady himself when Eddie’s palm pressed against Richie’s cock, which was quickly growing hard under his touch. At the same time, Eddie nuzzled his face against Richie’s neck, kissing the sensitive skin there. RIchie couldn’t help but moan and roll his hips into Eddie’s hand. “Eds, fuck…” he groaned. Eddie kept kissing his neck, his lips wet and warm and soft, and he tightened his grip on Richie a bit, the outline of Richie’s hard cock clear through his jeans by this point. 

“Is this what you want, baby?” Eddie murmured against his skin. Before Richie could gather himself to respond, Eddie was swiftly dropping to his knees. His brown eyes were wide and full of faux innocence, glittering with mischief as he looked up at Richie. “Is this what you dreamt about?”

“Yes, fuck, oh my god,” Richie whined, his voice thin and already so desperate as Eddie rubbed his face against the tent in Richie’s jeans. “Please, please, will you suck me, baby?”

“Wow, you’re so polite when you’re turned on,” Eddie mused. Then, with a wink, “I’ll keep that in mind.” God, Richie was excited to find out what Eddie meant by that, but for now he was fully occupied with watching Eddie undo his belt, then the button on his jeans, then his zipper. Richie got with the program as Eddie tugged his jeans down and stripped his shirt off, tossing it aside as he stepped out of his jeans, leaving him in his boxer briefs. He giggled at the exasperated look on Eddie’s face. “Where the fuck did you find Hello Kitty boxers?”

“What, like it’s hard?” Richie said. “You can find anything on the internet, my love.”

Eddie shook his head, but he was smiling. “I really love you,” he sighed, leaning in and pressing kisses to Richie’s stomach. He took his time trailing his lips down. “God, you’re so hot,” Eddie murmured against his skin, nuzzling into the patch of dark hair just above his waistband. “Every time your fucking shirt rides up I get half hard, can’t believe I’m finally getting my mouth on you.” Richie cursed as Eddie ran his lips over the outline of Richie’s cock. 

“Fuck, Eds, please.” Richie had one hand still supporting himself on his bed, but the other was now in Eddie’s hair. “I need you so fucking bad.” Richie felt his breath being knocked out of his chest when Eddie looked up and met his gaze as he sucked on the head of his cock through the fabric. But this time it was a fun breathlessness, the best kind of breathlessness. Feeling himself leaking, his cock throbbing, Richie let out another, “Eddie baby, please,” genuinely whining.

Eddie gave him a satisfied grin as he finally pulled Richie’s boxers down and let his cock bob up against his stomach. “Fuck, you have such a nice cock,” Eddie marvelled. Richie gasped as Eddie wrapped his fingers around him, stroking him. “Did you touch yourself after your dreams? Did you make yourself come while thinking about me?” Richie couldn’t believe Eddie, his Eddie Kaspbrak was talking to him like this. It made his head spin.

“Yes, oh fuck,” Richie groaned as Eddie lapped at the head of his cock, his tongue all pink and warm and wet. He pressed it flat against the base of Richie’s shaft and licked him all the way to the tip, never breaking eye contact as he did. “God, it feels so much better when you do it.”

“I know, baby,” Eddie purred. Richie let out a strangled moan as Eddie tongued at the sensitive bundle of nerves under the head of Richie’s cock. “Gonna make you feel so good.”

Richie had barely gotten out another, “Please,” when Eddie wrapped his lips around him and bobbed his head forward. Taking him in his mouth. Sucking on the head, making his knees shake. “Eds, fuck, oh my god,” Richie moaned. His eyes fluttered shut as Eddie took him further down his throat, but he didn’t wanna miss this. He’d already messed up Eddie’s hair, and his cheeks were pink and hollowed as he ran his tongue along Richie’s shaft, as he moved his lips over him. Eddie looked him in the eyes as he slid off with a popping sound, clearly happy with himself as he swirled his tongue around the head of Richie’s cock. To Eddie’s credit, the triumphant smirk was well-earned; Richie was already a whimpering mess, his knees trembling. “Eds, want you, please.”

“What do you want, baby?” Eddie asked. His voice was soft as he covered Richie’s cock in kisses that were so sweet in the filthiest way. 

“Wanna touch you,” Richie breathed. “Please, I need to feel you.”

Eddie groaned and pressed one more heated, sloppy kiss to Richie’s hip before standing up and bringing their lips together. Richie leaned into it, happily pliant in Eddie’s hands. He was still chasing the feeling of Eddie’s lips against his own when Eddie pulled back to pull his shirt off over his head.

“Oh fuck,” Richie muttered, staring at Eddie’s chest. Richie’s entire body burned as he drank in Eddie’s skin, the toned muscles underneath. Was he really allowed to look at him like this? Was he really allowed to let his gaze linger as long as he wanted?

His hesitation must have shown on his face. Softly, Eddie said, “Touch me.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Richie joked, but his voice shook, and his movements were slow as he brought his hands to Eddie’s chest, sliding them down to his waist and pulling him in. He saw Eddie grin, then felt it against his lips. Richie melted into it. God, Eddie’s chest felt so nice pressed against his own. He was so warm, his heartbeat right against Richie’s. As much as Richie’s heart was racing, he felt so incredibly safe. And that safety and warmth flooded into heat as Eddie shifted Richie’s hands down, guiding them to his belt. “Fuck,” Richie shuddered, fumbling to undo Eddie’s belt. He couldn’t get his hands to stop shaking.

“I got it,” Eddie giggled, gently pushing Richie’s hands away. Richie watched in awe as Eddie rid himself of his jeans, leaving himself in tented Calvin Klein boxer briefs. 

The fumbling and giggling actually helped Richie relax—enough to laugh as he pressed his lips to Eddie’s neck and palmed him through the black fabric. “You are such a brand whore.”

“Fuck you,” Eddie laughed breathlessly, bucking into Richie’s touch.

“Oh, you better, Mr. Gucci,” Richie winked. Eddie shook his head and brought his lips to Richie’s. He slid one hand down and took a hold of Richie’s wrist, guiding his movements. 

“Don’t worry, baby, we’ll get there.” Richie groaned at the low tone in Eddie’s voice; he had no idea he could sound like that. He dipped his hand past Eddie’s waistband and wrapped his hand around Eddie’s cock, unable to wait any longer. He moaned as soon as he felt him, his cock hard and smooth and warm in his hand. Kissing his neck, he stroked Eddie slowly, running his fingers over him. “Fuck, that feels so good,” Eddie moaned. “Just like that, baby, yes, fuck.” While Eddie pushed his boxers down and stepped out of them, Richie spit into his palm, wrapping it around Eddie’s cock as soon as he was ready, getting it wet. They both groaned at the slick, smooth way Richie’s hand slid over Eddie. Richie’s chest bloomed with warmth as Eddie leaned forward and pressed his forehead against Richie’s shoulder, pressing kisses to Richie’s chest. 

“You are so fucking hot,” Richie said, pressing kisses to Eddie’s hair. Then, feeling emboldened by the way Eddie moaned and rocked his hips into his fist, he continued, “Can’t fucking wait to feel you inside of me.” 

“Fuck, I love you,” Eddie groaned. He pulled Richie into him, kissing him deeply, messily, desperately. Stroking him faster, Richie kissed back, matching his passion. “Oh my god, fuck, Richie, get on the bed.”

“Holy shit, yeah, okay,” Richie breathed, scrambling to do as Eddie said. At first he sat up, unsure where to put himself. But Eddie made it clear what he wanted as he climbed between Richie’s legs and pressed his hand against Richie’s chest, guiding him to lie back. With the way Eddie draped himself over Richie’s body and brought their lips together, running his hands over Richie’s thighs, he really truly could not believe this was his life. He moaned into Eddie’s mouth as their cocks rubbed together. “I love you,” he panted as Eddie kissed down his neck. “I’ve wanted this for so long.”

Eddie looked up at him and gave him a smile, pressing a kiss to his lips, one much softer than his previous ones. “So have I.”. Running his hands appreciatively over Richie’s body, he asked, “You sure about this?”

“Fuck yes,” Richie said, nodding enthusiastically. 

Eddie giggled and kissed him again. “Do you have lube and condoms?” 

“Top drawer of my desk.” As Eddie leaned over to grab them, Richie said, “God, this is actually happening, wow, okay, fuck. I’m clean by the way, like STD-free and everything, and also in the shower earlier—”

“Hey.” Richie shut up as Eddie stroked his hair. “Relax, okay? I’m gonna take care of you. I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do.” Richie nodded, but that wasn’t why he’d been rambling. Luckily, Eddie knew him, and he pressed a slow, deliberate kiss to Richie’s lips and told him, “You’re my best friend, you know that?” Richie let out a small breath as Eddie kissed the corner of his mouth, then his jaw, then his chest. “You are so gorgeous.”

Richie grinned. “So what you’re saying is you only like me because I’m hot?”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “Yes.” He cut off any response by spreading Richie’s legs. 

“Oh, fuck,” Richie moaned, happily going where Eddie guided him. The satisfied smirk on Eddie’s face made Richie glow. 

He watched, enraptured, as Eddie poured the lube onto his fingers and spread it around. He watched Eddie’s eyes track his own movements as he brought his fingers down between Richie’s legs before looking up at him. “You ready?”

“Hell yeah,” Richie said, his grin wobbly from how breathless Eddie already had him. Eddie snickered at that before circling Richie’s entrance and slowly pressing his finger inside of him. Richie gasped, his head falling back to the pillow with a broken moan. He tensed at first, but soon relaxed as he felt Eddie work him open.

“You look so good,” Eddie murmured, almost as if to himself. It made Richie blush. He really wants this, he thought to himself, He really wants me. He settled comfortably into that reassurance as Eddie pressed kisses to Richie’s thighs and hips as he worked him open, thrusting his finger in and out gently. When Richie began rocking his hips with Eddie’s movements, seeking more, Eddie complied and thrust into him faster, soon adding a second finger. Richie moaned at the stretch and spread his legs wider. “Do you like that?” Eddie asked. 

Richie could tell from his voice that he knew the answer. Still, he breathed a blissed out, “Yes,” and groaned as Eddie thrust even deeper inside of him. It felt so amazing, Eddie’s fingers filling him up, sliding in and out of him. Just as he was settling into the rhythm, his mind pleasantly warm and fuzzy, Eddie curled his fingers, sending waves of electric pleasure through Richie. “Oh my fuck—” Richie cried, arching off the bed. He twisted his fingers in the sheets as Eddie’s fingers continued to graze over his prostate, making him buzz, the pleasure so deep and so intense.

And Eddie had the nerve to fucking giggle. “What? Does that feel good?”

“God, yes, yes, oh my god, oh my fucking god, fuck,” Richie answered, his words a string of broken whimpers. As he continued massaging that sweet spot, Eddie leaned forward and licked a stripe up the underside of Richie’s cock, making him practically scream. “Eds! Fuck, fuck, not gonna—shit oh my god, I’m not gonna last if you keep doing that.” 

Eddie looked up at him, feigning innocence. “You want me to stop?” Richie was so conflicted as Eddie licked the tip of his cock in short, light strokes, making his cock throb as he lapped up the precome dripping down the head. It was fucking heaven, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold out if Eddie kept going, and he needed to feel Eddie inside of him. So, reluctantly, he nodded. “Why? What do you want?”

“God, fuck me, please,” Richie whined, shamelessly impatient and petulant. 

“Fuck, that’s hot,” Eddie said. He pressed slow kisses to Richie’s hip as he slowly pulled his fingers out. Richie sat up on his elbows to watch as Eddie rolled the condom onto his cock.

“Now that’s hot,” Richie said as Eddie poured lube onto his cock and stroked it, spreading the lube around. Eddie grinned and leaned down to kiss him. Richie ran his fingers through Eddie’s hair, holding him close a moment, really feeling his lips, the way he kissed him. He melted when Eddie pulled back and nuzzled his nose against Richie’s. He straightened up a bit then and lined his cock up with Richie’s hole. Eddie gently took Richie’s chin in his hands, guiding his gaze up to meet his.

“Are you ready?”

Looking into Eddie’s eyes, warm and brown and more familiar than the back of his own hand, Richie had never been more ready for anything in his life. “Eddie, my love, I’ve been ready for this for years.” His voice was soft as he reached out and stroked Eddie’s arm. “I am so in love with you and so, so, very horny.” 

“Richie,” Eddie sighed, an exasperated but amused grin on his face. “I love you, too.” Any other words Richie might’ve said died on his tongue as he felt the head of Eddie’s cock begin to stretch him open. He held Richie’s hips still with one hand and intertwined his fingers with Richie’s with the other. “Tell me if it’s too much, or if there’s anything you don’t like, okay?” Richie nodded, squeezing Eddie’s hand. He took a deep breath as Eddie moved his hips forward, going slow, letting Richie adjust. He needed a few moments to even out his breathing and get used to the sensation; as amazing as it felt, it was a lot. Soon, however, he was pressing his lips to Eddie’s knuckles and asking him to move. He gasped as Eddie pulled his hips back, but all of the tension flowed out of his body as Eddie pushed back in. It felt so natural, having Eddie inside of him, being connected like this. He could feel every nerve in his body sighing out a finally. “How does it feel?” Eddie asked. His voice was soft as he slowly, shallowly rocked his hips. 

With a lovestruck grin on his face, Richie answered, “Perfect.” 

A look crossed Eddie’s face then, one full of love and overflowing feelings. Richie only had a second to commit it to memory before Eddie leaned down and kissed him, kissed him like he wanted to press all of those feelings into Richie’s lips to make him understand them. Richie had a feeling he would never forget what Eddie looked like in that moment, how it felt when he kissed him like that. 

He whimpered when he felt Eddie tease his tongue over his, somehow gentle and so, so dirty at the same time. Eddie groaned and leaned in further, deepening the kiss and pressing his cock even deeper into Richie. Richie moaned at how good that felt; it was so much, almost too much, but he needed more. He rolled his hips as Eddie kissed him, pressing small moans into Eddie’s mouth every time his cock brushed against Eddie’s toned stomach. Searching for something to hold onto, something to ground him, his hands ran up and down Eddie’s back, gripped at his shoulders. It felt so amazing to have him so close, to be able to linger and really appreciate the feeling of Eddie’s soft, warm skin under his hands. “I’ve wanted to hear you moan like that for me for so long,” Eddie murmured, kissing along Richie’s neck, making him shudder. 

“Feels so good,” Richie breathed, his ability to string a complete sentence together already faltering.

“Yeah?” Eddie said, smirk evident in his voice. Richie moaned and threw his head back as Eddie picked up the pace of his thrusts. Hands sliding down to Richie’s hips, holding him up a bit as he fucked him harder, Eddie told him, “Fuck, you look so good like this. You feel so amazing.” Richie’s skin burned under the praise. He went to cover his face with his arm, not used to being complimented like that, but Eddie caught him by the arm and brought his lips to the inside of Richie’s wrist. He couldn’t believe how good such a simple touch felt. It had him bucking his hips into the air, his cock begging for attention as pleasure bloomed deep inside of him. It had him whimpering for more.

“Harder,” he begged. “Please, please fuck me.” With a hungry look, Eddie leaned over and pinned Richie’s wrist above his head and began fucking Richie hard and deep and fast, just like he’d asked for. Richie’s eyes went wide as he let out a broken, “Yes.” He threw his head back and screwed his eyes shut, really feeling every thrust. Eddie was fucking him so good, filling his room with the sound of skin on skin and Richie’s desperate moans of yesyesyesrightthereohfuckyesyesfuckyes. As he opened his eyes to find Eddie’s hooded and trained on his face, Richie couldn’t help but let out a dreamy, “I love you.”

Eddie groaned and pressed himself against Richie, chest to chest, his face buried in Richie’s neck. “I love you so much.” Richie wrapped his arms and legs around Eddie and held him tight. Eddie rolled his hips, burying his cock so deep inside Richie before pounding into him hard and fast again. With the way Eddie was fucking him, Richie’s cock sliding between them where they pressed against one another, Richie was getting close fast. It was all so much in the best way. He buried his face in Eddie’s shoulder, biting down. His muffled moans were punctuated by every thrust. He raked his nails down Eddie’s back as he felt his pleasure building, coiling within him. He was right on the edge, and he wanted to live in that intensity forever. Sinking further into his desperate haze, he rocked his hips, making his cock throb. 

“Eds,” he panted, throwing his head back, “‘m close, fuck, oh my god, I’m so close.”

Eddie sat up then, and Richie let his legs fall back to the bed, spread open wide. He cried out when Eddie wrapped his hand around Richie’s cock. He arched into Eddie’s touch, his hands gripping the sheets tight. ���Come for me, baby,” Eddie moaned. “Fuck, I’m so close too, wanna watch you come on my cock.”

“Oh, fuck!” Richie cried. “I’m coming, I’m coming, fuck, fuck, yes,” he moaned, his eyes screwed shut and words slurring into moans as he came, his pleasure crashing over him like a wave, engulfing him entirely. All he could feel, all he could think was Eddie. Eddie, inside of him, touching him, making him feel like this. It made it so much better than it had ever felt, knowing it was Eddie holding him, that it was his Eddie looking at him, fucking into him, telling him:

“Rich, baby, I’m coming.” Richie was still catching his breath and coming down when he felt Eddie still his hips, burying his face in his neck, biting down and sucking hard as he groaned and gasped. Richie held him and stroked his hair as he came, barely believing he was making Eddie make those noises, that he made Eddie shake like that. Once he felt Eddie relax against him, pressing light kisses to Richie’s skin, Richie held him tight and buried his face in his hair. 

“Fuck,” he laughed, kissing Eddie wherever he could reach.

“Yeah,” Eddie agreed breathlessly. “That was… wow, that was amazing.” He rearranged himself so his head rested on Richie’s chest and smiled up at him. 

“Tell me about it.” Richie kissed his nose, then delighted in the adorable way Eddie scrunched up his face.

Eddie’s eyes searched Richie’s for a moment before he said softly, “I really love you. A lot.”

Richie melted; for a second he thought he might actually cry. “Eds, you’re the fucking light of my life,” he said, barely able to finish his sentence before he was bringing his lips to Eddie’s. “I love you so much.” He knew in that moment that he would never get tired of feeling Eddie smiling against his lips. 

Eddie pressed a kiss to Richie’s cheek before saying, “I’m gonna pull out, okay?” He giggled when Richie whined.

“Just a little longer?” he pouted. Eddie kissed it right away.

“As long as you want. I could stay like this forever.”

Richie snuggled into him, taking a moment to bask in the glow before saying, his voice smug and full of love, “I knew you’ve always liked it when I call you Eds.”

“Oh, fuck off,” Eddie giggled before attacking Richie with kisses.

taglist: @clouded-eyes-and-salty-tears @eddieeatsass @deadlighturis @constantreaderfool @reddieloserz @jessicaheartsderry @vegetarian-avocado @tinyarmedtrex @sml1104 @thelazyeye @itfandomprompts @montconde @fizzylemones @lexinatorwrites @scribbles-solo @nancythebisexualslutwheeler @cutedubutokki @peachcartoon123

[f-nodragonart]

Vertebrate Wings, PART 3: Flight

Return to main post + TOC >>HERE<<

Flight TOC

  Basic Flight Theory

  Bird vs. Bat vs. Pterosaur

  Aspect Ratio and Wing Loading

  Special Cases: Hoverers

Basic Flight Theory

I will openly admit here and now, I’m not well-versed in physics. I apologize if this section is a bit disorganized, since I’ll be stitching together others’ more comprehensible flight descriptions/explanations.

This first bit is from a kind follower, Rahjital, who sent us this quick explanation of flight theory a while back (sadly the images they added no longer seem to be working, so I tried to find fitting images as substitutes):

The first step to learn how lift works is to debunk the popular explanation of how lift forces are created, called the Equal Transit Time theory. The reasoning is that air flowing around the wing splits into two streams, one of which has to travel over the wing and another which travels below it. Due to the shape of the wing, the upper stream has to move faster to cover the same distance. This difference in velocities generates a difference in pressure and therefore lift.

However, what happens if you fly upside down?

The upper side of your wing points towards the ground, and so does the lift force. I would have said you’d fall like a rock, but the fall would actually be faster since your wings would drag you down. We all know that’s not how flight works, though, so how is lift actually created?

All you need to do is tilt the wings a bit. Seriously, I’m not kidding. No need for a specialized wing shape, as the majority of people seems to believe. (although it helps.) Why? Let me explain:

There are two phenomena causing lift to be created:

1. As air flows around the wing, its direction changes downwards and it leaves the back edge of the wing moving slightly more down. Mister Newton tells us that every action has its reaction, so if the air moves down, our wing has to rise.

2. Due to the tilting, the air flowing on the underside of the wing ends up colliding with it and slowing down, raising the pressure. On the other hand, the air flowing over the wings goes upwards because it has to get over the raised front edge, but as it can’t get back down immediately, it ends up travelling in an arc over the wing. This forms a small ‘pocket’ of low pressure straight above the top surface of the wings. These two fields of pressure then generate additional lift. (this is similar to how the Equal Transit Time theory states lift is generated, but with a very different reason, and not as important as the theory states it to be).

Next time you are traveling in a car, try reaching out of the window with your arm when going reasonably fast. As long as you keep your hand parallel to the ground, not much is going to happen, but once you tilt it even a little, the wind is going to push it up. (or down, depending on which direction you tilted it.) That’s it - your hand is generating enough lift to hit the frame of the car window. Just imagine how much lift does a properly built wing get in a similar situation.

The tilt I am talking about the entire time here is called the angle of attack, often abbreviated just AOA. The greater the angle of attack is, the more lift is generated, but the more drag there is, too. For airplanes, the AOA is negligible from an artist’s perspective, but for winged creatures, this is far more of a concern.

Therefore, the flight theory rule #1 is: Whenever you draw a flying creature, always make its wings slightly inclined. It wouldn’t be able to fly otherwise.

~~end quote~~

Bird vs. Bat vs. Pterosaur

This first bit will be borrowed from Koryos’ article “Bat Flight Versus Bird Flight” (which I highly suggest reading in-full for a deeper explanation). Fair warning though—from the short explanation they give of basic flight/lift, it seems they do believe (at least at the time of writing the article) in the now-defunct Equal Transit Time Theory, though their points on bird vs. bat flight are still valid otherwise:

If you look closely at the above gif, you’ll notice that at several points during flight, the bat actually bends its fingers, which dramatically changes the shape of its wings. Birds do not have joints in their feathers, so they cannot do this.

....

Flexible joints are not all the bat has in its arsenal. Its actual bones are flexible, due to a lack of calcium in its diet. This means that they deform and reform their shape during flight.

Birds minimize air resistance by rotating their primaries during their upstroke, allowing air to slip between the feathers. Bats, with solid membranes, can’t do this- so they have an even finer means of control. There are lines of muscle present within the bat’s wing membrane that can actually change the stiffness and malleability of its skin. You can see them quite clearly under the skin of our entangled bat friend.

This is a big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), by the way.

These muscles allow the bat to make their membranes flexible during their upstroke to decrease resistance, yet stiff during their downstroke in order to provide lift. It also allows them to change the camber (angle) of their wings on a whim!

This slow-mo video really displays just how incredibly flexible bat wings are.

Bat wings are also covered by millions of tiny, hyper-sensitive hairs that allow the bat to sense air currents and adjust accordingly.

So what does all this control do for the bat?

Well, for one thing, it means they’re not limited by symmetry. Bird wings will almost always mirror each other in shape, while bats may form two different wings shapes at the same time, allowing them to perform some crazy aerial acrobatics. Some insect-eating bats will actually grab an insect by wrapping one wing around it midflight (don’t believe me? You can see it in the beginning of this video!) and then get the insect in their mouth all in a split second, while still flying.

Now, in terms of speed, birds can generally outpace bats. But in terms of maneuverability, bats can fly circles around birds.

The fact that bats’ bones, unlike those of birds, aren’t hollow, and that their skin is heavier than feathers might seem like a disadvantage- but it isn’t. Birds have much more mass in the center of their body than they do in their wings; by contrast, bats have more mass distributed through each wing (12-20% per wing). This means that bats can actually push off their own mass to do things like flip, spin, roll, etc. No bird can stop midflight and flip over to land upside-down, but bats can.

Because they have such fine control over their airfoil shape, bats can also generate lift using less energy than birds. Remember when I talked about minimizing surface area during the upstroke and maximizing it during the downstroke? Bats can bend their fingers and ‘crumple’ their wings as they raise them, conserving energy. Think of it like opening and closing an umbrella. While birds can pull their feathers together more tightly, they can’t exactly clench them like fists.

Decreasing energy costs is good in any situation, but particularly for fliers. It takes a lot of energy to fly. In this case, bats can outcompete both birds and insects for energy efficiency- one study found that nectar-feeding bats, though the largest in size, expended the least energy hovering when compared to both moths and hummingbirds.

~~end quote~~

As for pterosaurs, I’ll leave it up to Mike Habib’s article “Feathers vs Membranes”:

The structure and efficiency of pterosaur wings is obviously not known in as much detail as those of birds or bats, for the simple reason that no living representatives of pterosaurs are available for study.  However, soft tissue preservation in pterosaurs does give some critical information about their wing morphology, and the overall shape and structure of the wing can be used (along with first principles from aerodynamics) to estimate efficiency and performance.

…((I’ll just be pasting the basic findings, but please read the full article if you’re interested in specifics))…

Now, for some punchlines...

Based on the structural information above, we might expect the following regarding pterosaurs and birds:

- Pterosaurs would have a base advantage in terms of maneuverability and slow flight competency.

- Pterosaurs would also have had an advantage in terms of soaring capability and efficiency

- Pterosaurs would have been better suited to the evolution of large sizes (though this was affected more by differences in takeoff - see earlier posts about pterosaur launch).

- Birds will perform a bit better as mid-sized, broad-winged morphs (because they can use slotted wing tips and span reduction).

- Birds would have an advantage in steep climb-out after takeoff at small body sizes (because they can work with shorter wings and engage them earlier).  This might pre-dispose them to burst launch morphologies/ecologies.

~~end quote~~

(other articles by Habib about Pterosaur anatomy and flight can be found here and here, for anyone interested)

When Exdraghunt linked us this information about pterosaur wings, it was in relation to a question about pterosaur keels and why they differed from bird keels. Exdraghunt suggested this might be due to pterosaur preference for soaring compared to bird flapping. However, plenty of inland pterosaurs could have been flappers, so I think the shallowness is more likely caused by their muscular setup compared to birds, discussed in more detail in the Basic Anatomy section.

Aspect Ratio and Wing Loading

Now that we have a basic understanding of the different modes of vertebrate flight, we can get to the fun stuff—wing diversity! Believe it or not, my friends, wing shapes and sizes can drastically effect an animal’s flight style.

Aspect ratio is the ratio of length to width in a wing, where high ratio indicates narrow wings, and low ratio indicates wide wings.

Loading is the ratio of body weight to wing size, where low loading = large wings + small weight, and high loading = small wings + large weight.

Measuring these two aspects against each other helps us determine different flight styles.

For a short n’ sweet rundown:

1)      Long, narrow wings (low loading, high ratio)= gliding, low speed

 2)      Long, wide wings (low loading, low ratio)= soaring

 3)      Short, wide wings (high loading, low ratio)= high acceleration (burst speed), maneuverability

 4)      Short, narrow wings (high loading, high ratio)= high speed

Though there are other aspects of wing shape to take into account as well.

(via^)

Pointedness refers to a wing tip’s position on the leading edge; IE- is the longest point of the wing further back behind the leading edge (A, round), or does the longest point lie along the leading edge (B, pointed)?. Rounder wings increase thrust, and lend towards greater maneuverability-- particularly in short/wide wings. Pointed wings reduce drag on the air (which increases speed), particularly in short wings, and can make for smoother flight.

Convexity refers to the acuteness of a wingtip; IE- is the shape of the wingtip curved relatively inwards (C, concave) or outwards (D, convex)? Concave wings are better suited for constant high speed. Convex wings create more lift, so are ideal for slow flying and increase acceleration.

Measuring these two aspects against each other gives us another fun chart of wing types.

(via^)

And let’s not forget that slotted wings—those whose primary remiges have notches which create gaps between these feathers—reduce drag and tend to be found in wide (low ratio) wings.

Put all these aspects and little details together, and you can observe some very unique flight patterns. Most ornithologists tend to organize wings into 4 different types, as shown below.

Though I personally like to use a few more types as organization (list via):

  1) Marine soarers are birds that fly for long periods over the open ocean and have very high aspect-ratio wings and average or low wing loading that reduce the energetic cost of flight. Birds in this category include the albatrosses (Procellariiformes).

  2) Divers/swimmers are birds with medium to high aspect ratios and high wing loading, including murres, loons, grebes, scoters, mergansers, ducks, and swans. These birds fly rapidly, but with limited maneuverability, characteristics useful for birds that often fly long distances (e.g., during migration or to feeding areas) and take-off and land on water where precise maneuverability is not as important.

  3) Aerial hunters are birds with high aspect-ratio wings and low wing loading, a combination permitting rapid flight and excellent maneuverability. Aerial hunters include swallows and martins (Passeriformes), swifts (Apodiformes), nightjars (Caprimulgiformes), Swallow-tailed Kites (Falconiformes), frigatebirds (Fregatidae), terns (Sterninae), some falcons (e.g., hobbies and Eleonora’s Falcon), and tropicbirds (Phaethontidae).

  4) Soarers/coursers include birds with low aspect ratios and low wing loading, characteristics that allow relatively large birds to either soar or fly just above the vegetation in open habitats in search of prey. Birds in the soaring category include hawks and eagles (Falconiformes), vultures, condors, and storks (Ciconiiformes), and cranes (Gruiformes). Coursing birds include some owls (e.g., Barn Owl and Short-eared Owl; Strigiformes) and harriers (Falconiformes).

  5) Short-burst fliers are birds with low aspect ratios and high wing loading that fly infrequently and only for short distances. Birds in this category include those in the orders Galliformes (e.g., turkeys, pheasants, quail, grouse, and megapodes) and Tinamiformes (tinamous).

  6) Hoverers are birds capable of flying in one position without wind and have high aspect ratios and, surprisingly, high wing loading. The high aspect ratio reduces the energetic cost of flight, whereas the high wing loading permits relatively fast, agile flight (Rayner 1998). The only true hoverers are the hummingbirds (Apodiformes).

~~end quote~~

I don’t have an outside source to verify this observation, but I’ve found that a longer “hand” section and shorter arm generally correlate with high-speed flight, while a shorter “hand” and longer arm correlates to low-speed gliding. I can only assume this may be due to a shorter arm section being easier to flap rapidly, but again, this is conjecture.

While much of this information is bird-specific, I was able to scrounge up a graph of bat aspect ratios and loading, so I can only assume these concepts similarly apply to bat flight.

(via^)

There sadly seems to be much less information available on bat wing/flight diversity��

As for pterosaur wing diversity, exdraghunt sent in some great input (as well as that chart of different bat wings featured above~):

There actually is a fair amount of wing diversity among pterosaurs, and it fairly closely parallels that in birds. (Though they do not reach the extreme variety in shapes that birds do, due to the limitations in variety of “arm+wing finger” combos)

One of the most extreme examples is Nyctosaurus gracilis, a long-distance marine soarer, similar to albatrosses. They have very long, thin wings (and also lost their other wing fingers, presumably because they came on land rarely)

Other species of pterosaur, like insect eaters (which need short, broad wings for manuverability) or over-land fliers would’ve had different wing shapes.

Some of this difference was achieved by varying the ratio between “arm” and “wing finger” lengths. You’ll notice that smaller, earlier “Rhamphorhynchoids” (the top half, with the long tails) tended towards  short arms vs long wing fingers. While larger, later Pterodactyloid species developed longer arms in relationships to the wing finger. (Especially in the wrist)

Wing shape silhouettes, by Mark Witton. (Not to scale, obvs.)

~~end quote~~

Special Cases: Hoverers

Hoverers such as hummingbirds are special cases in the world of vertebrate flight, because much of their lifestyle and physiology mimics that of insects-- including their flight.

The basic rules of flight theory discussed above won’t exactly apply to these guys, because air doesn’t travel over their wings in the same way it does in other vertebrate flyers. Take a look at this post and compare the animations between the hummingbird, goose, and bat. What exactly is unique about the hummingbird animation compared to the other two?

A few things-- for one, hummingbirds don’t have nearly as many points of wing articulation during flight. If you look closely, you’ll see there’s no bend at the elbow or wrist for a hummingbird; they move their whole arm in a completely stiff, figure-8 pattern. Such high-speed flapping can’t handle that much articulation.

Why a figure-8? Here’s the thing-- hummingbirds don’t technically have an upstroke they have to account for. Every stroke of their wings is a downstroke because when they pull their wings back, the topside of their wings tilts down and also pushes against the air as a “downstroke”. Thus, there’s never a gap between downstrokes-- they’re always efficiently pushing down against the air.

This is also why, unlike most every other flying vertebrate, their flight is more vertical than horizontal. In order to properly swing their wings in a figure-8 motion, they have to tilt their bodies up.

While hovering flight is cool as hell, it comes with a lot of restrictions; mainly, hoverers are always small. The energetic restrictions required for hovering are so incredibly high that bodies much bigger than a hummingbird wouldn’t be able to consume enough energy to make up for hovering. Plus, hoverers tend to live right on the edge of starvation because what energy they do manage to consume is used up so quickly.

If you do want to integrate hovering into your dragons, consider making it a secondary form of flight that they can only keep up for short bursts, rather than their primary mode of flight. Unless you’re ready to give your dragon a lot of physiological restrictions, which is cool too.

-Mod Spiral

[adulttrio-imagines]

🌡️☁️🛁 for adult trio please?

I’m just gonna combine these 2 asks since they’re pretty similar!

☁️ - Soft headcanons

Hisoka

It’s no secret there he likes his sweets and has a horrible sweet tooth, he may act all coy and standoffish, but he’ll appreciate any type of dessert you make him, no matter how he acts

He loves games, card games, video games, mind games, he can spend hours trying out a new game and getting completely engrossed in it, he absolutely loves games and loves mastering them; he also enjoys adding his own twist to games to make them more interesting

He likes teaching and explaining things to people, and is a surprisingly good teacher. He is patient and gives decent (although questionable) examples, and is always willing to see his students improve (for his own gain). In another life, under different circumstances, he would have been a very good mentor with eccentric methods

Chrollo

He has a soft spot for children. It’s incredibly, incredibly small, but not nonexistent. He may not necessarily know how to act around them or like them per say, but he is undeniably softer in his actions towards them, ever so slightly in his own way

He appreciates their innate curiosity and desire to explore the world around them, something that gets more and more difficult to find the older he gets, he also likes being informed of their opinions and outlooks on life

If you can’t sleep during the quiet hours of the night, he’ll make you a cup of tea and read whatever he’s on aloud to you, as it’s something that helps him whenever he cannot sleep

Will and can talk about his current focus of interest for hours, he gets all excited and hyper focused with plenty of excited hand movements, before he retreats into his mind to sort out his thoughts and ideas, and for just those precious moments, his eyes shine

He would never admit it but his favorite books to read are simple hero adventure novels, something about its simplicity just comforts him

Illumi

During the earliest hours of dawn, before he’s fully conscious and aware of everything happening around him, he doesn’t shy away from your touches and lets you hold him close

He has a green thumb and can spend hours tending to his greenhouse, he says it’s to discover new combinations and increase his poison resistance, but it also relaxes him and fills up the emptiness in the mansion

He had a role in helping Kalluto develop his hatsu, and was the one who introduced his brother to origami. It originally started as dexterity training, where they would compete to see who could fold the most cranes; it was also one of the non-harmful training methods he could think of

Before Mike, there used to be another dog that guarded the mansion, and it was Illumi’s best friend and only friend during his earliest years as an only child

🌡️ - Sick headcanons

Previous post here

Hisoka  

Hisoka gets sick in three stages; the brat phase, the hallucination phase, and the blackout phase

He can get extremely demanding and pushy in the brat phase; he’s not feeling his best, but he’s still functional enough to be taking advantage of the situation and getting you to adhere to his whim and fancy

He likes wrapping himself out like a burrito using his multitude of blankets since he’s not used to feeling cold

If he’s sick enough, he would start hallucinating and seeing things that aren’t there; they’re harmless for the most part but occasionally his past memories would resurface and force him to hide into himself

Finally he blacks out for days at a time, and remains completely delirious until he gets better, not remembering anything that happened the past week

Chrollo

After leaving meteor city, he’s got all his shots like a dog; medical treatment was a privilege not available to him growing up, and is something that he cannot dream to pass off on now

When he does get sick though, he still pretends that everything is find and dandy, and nearly overdoses himself on whatever flu medication he can get his hands on

Will also stuff himself with vitamin C supplements all in an effort to recover faster

He’s a lot more willing to engage in physical contact whenever he’s sick, and may even initiate himself, he likes leaning against people and just falling asleep on them since he’s so exhausted

Most willing of the three to try out new/non-traditional medications, just to see if it’ll work. He’s always curious about everything around him, no matter how ill he gets

Whenever he’s in a feverish state, he’s almost delirious and makes the most rash of decisions, being a total opposite of his current self

Illumi

He has a tried and true method that cures any illness: sleeping

Since he works himself so hard, when he does get sick he blacks out for at least a full weak and barely remembers anything that happens

Somehow still manages to take care of himself, including cleaning himself up, since he is the most self-sufficient out of his siblings

He is very careful at what he consumes, and has a few dishes that he eats only when he’s sick to boost his immunity and speed up the healing process

When he’s awake and can’t sleep, he likes using this rare moment of spare time to catch up on his reading and give into his guilty pleasure of watching trashy horror films

🧨 - Unexpected headcanon

Hisoka

He’s actually a very organized person when it comes for his own things and can be responsible in fulfilling things that benefit him; he remembers deadlines and completes his tasks just fine, it’s usually a matter of whether he can find the motivation to do so

While he doesn’t know what he finds sexually attractive since almost anything can turn him on, he is always entranced by faces and can spend hours staring at them; if he dates you he would more often then not trace the details of your face whenever you’re asleep

He’s a big switch, even when it comes to spooning. He will always insist on being the big spoon, but secretly he enjoys being the little spoon as well

Chrollo

He’s a huge conspiracy theorist and spend hours reading about unexplained situations, while he is mostly skeptical, the idea that world governments play a huge role of fueling such situations isn’t surprising to him

He hides plenty of food and treats in that big jacket of his, coming from meteor city made him well-acquainted with starvation and it’s a feeling he never wants to be reminded of again

As much as Chrollo is a sapiosexual, he is just as likely to be a moronosexual as well. Something about a loud idiot just amuses him to no end and entices him for reasons beyond his understanding

He loves his loud-mouth dummies, their honest, straightforward and direct nature draws out the best in him, and he sees their ability to call him out on his bullshit as a way to improve himself

Illumi

As much as he resembles his mother, he takes after his father more and used to have a good relationship with the man

He actually went through a rebellious teenager phase during his earlier years and became quite a handful for his parents, something they didn’t know how to handle since it was so different from the quiet, obedient son they had before

Puberty combined with external factors from his job made him quite emotionally volatile and his parent’s’ solution to his actions was to send him for more jobs/punishment, which worsen the situation

Of course, it all calmed down after killua was born and he was stripped from his title as heir to the Zoldyck family, in part due to him believing that if he returned to the way things used to be he’ll be able to get his parent’s attention and love again

🛁 - Bathing headcanon

I’ve written for Hisoka and Illumi here, so I’m going to keep theirs short

Hisoka

His favorite thing to do in baths is to see the blood of his victims slide off him and mingle with the clean bath water, it just mesmerizes him

When he does take a shower, he likes it burning hot, enough for him to steam up the whole bathroom and come out lobster red

Chrollo

He’s the type of person who would listen to podcasts in the shower, bonus points if they’re true crime podcasts

He is pretty indifferent towards showers and baths, and does either depending on his mood, sometimes he wants it to be quick and sometimes he just wants to soak in the bath

While he is pretty neutral towards water temperature, he really appreciates a shower head with good pressure and loves blasting himself with it

He can spend a full hour in the shower just by getting lost in his thoughts and just forgetting where he is

Will imagine hypothetical situations and arguments in the shower and think up the best ways to counter them

His hair takes the longest to wash despite its length due to it being naturally oily, the liberal amounts of gel he uses doesn’t help his case either

Growing up, since clean water was so hard to come by, bath time usually also meant washing his clothes, and it’s a habit that he hasn’t necessarily shaken off

Illumi

He brushes his teeth in the shower, it’s just time-efficient

He lets his hair towel dry, and doesn’t like using hair dryers since it makes his scalp itch for days afterwards

[asphodelsandpomegranates]

In Your World (Randall Boggs x Reader)

Tagging @creeperchild​ because I know how much they love Randall. <3. Same AU series as ‘Where Did You Come From?’ and ‘Fear Factor’. 

You landed with a thud onto a hard floor and let out a yell of pain.

“Shit!” you hissed. Your shoulder was throbbing a little from the fall. Sitting up, you rubbed your arm and looked up. In front of you, was the most bizarre image you'd ever seen. You were sitting in a large room like a factory floor of some sort but you were looking into your neighbour's daughter's room. Like some sort of weird portrait.

How was this possible?

Something weird and fluffy fell on your shoulder, making you flinch and recoil. Looking up, you saw a...creature?...and standing over you. He was covered from head to toe in pink fur with two horns growing from his head. He had a long tail that ended with spikes at the end.

He smiled at you. “Hi. Welcome to Monsters Inc.” he said.

You stared at him and then looked round. There were dozens of creatures around you, all shapes and sizes and colours. Some of them were watching you apprehensively whilst others were curious.

Wait...Monsters Inc.? Didn't Randall say he worked there? Um, here?

You wanted to curl in on yourself. Or maybe it was a dream. That's it, it was a dream. You were still in bed with Randall right beside you, both huddled under your thick duvet. Or maybe the floor would swallow you up and—

—that's when you heard it the whispers.

“Is that a human?”

“An adult by the look of it.”

“Do you think we should near it—?”

“Are you crazy? We'll be dead in minutes! Or thoroughly contaminated!”

“Well, Horace touched her and he looks fine.”

“Yeah for now!”

“Maybe adults are different. Kids maybe, but adults—.”

“Don't be an idiot. Sullivan and Wazowski told us humans aren't contagious.”

“Are you all right, miss?”

You looked up at the fluffy monster, you assumed to be Horace. He was still smiling at you.

“Where am I?” you asked.

“Monstropolis. I think you've accidentally entered our world.” His face suddenly changed into one of concern. “You're looking a little peaky. Maybe the shock of ending up somewhere new.” He turned around and looked towards a weird looking creature that that had many eyes.

“Hey, Waxford! Go tell the big bosses. They'll have to know about this.”

Waxford nodded, making all of his eyes bob and scuttled off out of the room. Horace helped you up and guided you over to one of the desks. You sat down, keeping a wary eye between the monsters around you and the door that led back to your world.

Randall, where are you?

“Here ya go, sweets.” said a new voice.

You looked up to find a thin, pink creature with one of eye and snakes for hair. She hovered near you, holding out a mug of what looked to be tea

“Thank you.” you replied, taking the mug of hot tea into your hands.

“Gotta say.” said Horace, standing beside the female monster. “You're the first adult human I've never seen.”

You didn't know how to respond. You weren't too sure how you would. You just sipped on your tea, wincing a little over how sweet it was.

Suddenly, there was a short piercing alarm and the whole factory floor went dark. You watched as inside of your neighbour's child's bedroom disappeared showing the back wall of the room.

You sprang to your feet and hurried to the door. You took hold of the handle, closed the door and opened it.

Nothing. No inside of a bedroom or a closet full of clothes. No way of getting back. Of getting back to Randall.

“Shit!” you snapped, kicking the door grip and immediately regretting it.

“What's going on?” called Horace.

“Power's gone out.” called a voice.

“Damn it.”

“Um, Horace?”

Everyone looked round saw Waxford hurrying back over.

“Sullivan and Wazowski want to see the human in the office.”

“I'll take her.” said the female. “C'mon, sweetie. You'll get to meet the big boys. Gent, leave that door here. And let us know when that light comes back on.”

Looking up at the weird door mechanism where the red light had once been on, you felt your heart break. Randall was bound to notice that you were gone for longer than you'd imagined and would get upset.

Reluctantly, you followed two monsters out of the factory floor as monsters hurried to and fro, trying to fix whatever the situation was.

I'm Celia, by the way.” the female monsters said as you both followed Horace through the halls. “And what's yours?”

“Um, (Y/N).”

“Well, nice to meet you.” smiled Celia. “And don't worry. You're not the only human who had entered our world.”

“Really?” you asked, innocently. You remembered how much Randall had told you about his world and what had happened for him to end up in your world. You didn't want to give yourself away yet. You could not find yourself digging yourself deeper into this rabbit hole.

“Oh, yes. Mind you it was a little different back then. But we've come a long way since then.” 

“In what way?”

“Well, instead of using children's screams for energy, we just use their laughter. My fiancée found that out with his friend when a child came into our world.”

As you walked along the corridors and up the stairs, you saw some of the monsters looking at you and backing away slightly. You guessed some of them were still not used to the fact that humans weren't 'contagious'. You remembered proving Randall wrong when you had dragged him from your balcony to your couch when you first met him.

God, was he okay? Would there be another way of him to get back to you? Or you to him?

You hoped to whoever that the power would come back on and you would get home and back to Randall before it was too late.

                                               ***************

Soon enough, you arrived at the office where Celia was immediately swept up into the arms of a small Cyclops creature with green skin. Behind a desk sat a large furry beast, larger than Horace but this one had blue fur with purple spots.

“Googly bear, um! Mike, Sully, this is (Y/N). From the human world.”

“Hi!” greeted the big blue monster who you guessed to be Sully.

“Hi!”

“Sorry about the power. Fingers thinks it may have been a wire trip of some kind. They'll fix it soon.”

“You.” said the giant eyeball you guessed was Mike. “Look very relaxed for someone who had just seen a bunch of monsters.”

“I've seen bigger and badder believe you me. You'd be surprised.”

“Wow.” Sully breathed.

“Listen, I don't mean to sound rude but how long is this going to take. I need to get back home.”

“I understand, (Y/N). You have someone at home, you care for, don't you?”

You nodded. “I need to get home or he'll worry about me. All I was doing was checking up on my neighbour's apartment, making sure everything was okay for her and her daughter and...I came here. It's all been a misunderstanding and a complete accident.”

“It's all right.” Sully comforted. “It'll be all okay. I know what's it like. We've all been there.”

You gave Sully a sort a reassuring smile.

“Who was your monster?” Mike piped up.

You stared at him, wide eyed. “What?”

“Who was your monster growing up?”

“I...I don't remember. ”you said. Your heart began to slow down from racing so much. You almost thought Mike had figured out somehow about Randall.

Suddenly, there was a flickering of lights and...

“Power's back on.” Horace smiled. “That's good. Quicker than I though.”

“Thank goodness.” you muttered “Well, this was fun. But I need to get home.”

“Right, let's get you down to the Scare Floor.” Sully said, rubbing his paws together. 

“Great.” you said.

Leaving the office, you headed out with Horace beside you and Sully, Mike and Celia behind you.

“Is there any need for the bodyguard sch-tick?”

“We just need to make sure that nothing else goes wrong.” Sully reassured.

You sighed, getting really irritated.

Your thoughts were interrupted as a small monster with large sharp teeth, hurrying over to you.

“Mr. Sullivan! Mr. Sullivan!”

“What is it?”

“We need to call the authorities.” the monsters panted.

“What the heck is going on?”

“It's Randall Boggs. Somehow, he's come back.”

You felt like your stomach had dropped out of you. Like the air had just escaped from your lungs. Your mind just lost itself of all thought and common sense because you blurted out! “Where is he?”

You could feel all eyes on you at this, but you really didn't care.

“Where is he?” you pressed, making the monster quiver.

“By the Scare Floor—.” he started and just as those four words left his mouth, you bolted down the corridors and down the stairs. The others called after you but you couldn't care less about them. You needed to get back to Randall and let him know you were okay.

Jumping the last two steps and dodging the monsters huddling in the hallway, you sprinted down to the Scare Floor.

There!

At the opening, two or three monsters had Randall in some kind of lock and Randall was struggling against them.

“RANDALL!” you screamed as you ran towards him.

The chameleon like monster froze and looked over at you, running.

“(Y/N)!” he sprang out from the hold and slithered over to you. Meeting you in the middle, he scooped you into his arms whilst his others paws softly slipped into your hair.

“Randall, thank fuck.” you gasped. “How did you know I was here?”

“I had a hunch.” he whispered. “Shit, (Y/N), you had me worried.”

“Sorry, baby.” you rumbled. “I didn't think I'd end  up here.”

“Are you all right?” he asked, drawing back a little to look you in the eyes.

“A little shaken. But I'm better for seeing you. Now, we can go home.”

His eyes flickered away from you to what was behind you. “I doubt that for a little while.”

Furrowing your brow in confusion, you looked round to see a whole throng of monsters surrounding you and Randall. Sully and Mike moved to the front, both of them did not look pleased to see their ex-colleague.

You stepped in front of Randall, looking defiantly at them.

“(Y/N), step away from him.” Sully warned. “He's a criminal.”

“No. Not in my world, he isn't.” you spat. “So, we can go. You promised me that.” 

“And you didn't tell us that you were harbouring a criminal.”

“Let us go home, now.”

“Call the authorities, Celia—.”

“No.” barked Sully.” Don't.”

“Sully, what are you—?”

“We did promised to bring you back home to the one you care for. And since Randall is the one you 'care' for. So, go home and live your life happily with him.”  

“I will.” you said, taking hold of Randall's scaly paw. You pulled your lizard boyfriend over to the factory floor where the right door was still waiting, the red light blaring.

Without a glance back to your monsters audience, you re-entered the human world.

                                                      *************

A week later...

You were lying in bed snuggling under the thin blankets when you heard a knock on your door.

“Mmm.” you grunted, stirring a little from your sleep. The knock came again. Becoming more awake, you sat up in bed and noticed Randall standing at your closet door, he was holding something and looking bewildered.

“Randall? What's wrong?”

He turned to look at you. In one of his palms, he held a letter.

“What's going on, hun?”

Randall still didn't reply. He looked terrified. His gaze fell on the letter in his hand. 

“Randall, you're scaring me. What's going on?”

Still Randall didn't reply. Instead, he opened the envelope and took out the letter inside. His large green eyes scanned the letter, the look of terror and changing into one of surprise and then relief.

“Randall?”

The lizard like creature moved over to the bed and settled down in front of you. He handed you the letter.

Taking it, you cast your gaze on the words before you.

                                      Monstropolis Supreme Court

                                 Subject of Letter: A Case of Pardon.

You looked up at Randall who was still in a case of shock.

After reading the letter, you looked back at him, a smile creeping up on your face. 

And you jumped on him! Squealing in happiness!

“Oh, Randall.” you cooed. “I'm so happy for you.”

“Yeah. I can't believe it.” he said, snuggling into you.

“Hey...ya hear that?”

He smiled up at you. “Sure do.”

…

...

“The winds of change.” 

[reddie-fangirl24]

This was difficult cause WOW amazing film choices, I’d love any of the losers in the beginning scene of Cabin in the Woods? Like when they’re getting ready to leave, probably Richie as Marty the stoner and Eddie as Dana who doesn’t realize he’s having a full conversation without pants on, Beverly as Jules who just dyed her hair blonde, Ben as Curt who has to point out the pants, & Mike as Holden the hot new guy in the group?

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR COMMISSION!

I hope you enjoy the story!

This was going to be a great weekend! Eddie couldn’t remember the last time the Losers club hung out. Funny, it was strange how he didn’t remember who Ben was for a moment. Why weren’t they spending much time together ever since high school started? 

Putting that worry aside, Eddie was busy getting dressed, packing all the suitcases that he needed. He was so happy to meet at Ben’s house. If his mother found out where he was really going and who he’d be with then he’d spend the rest of the weekend locked in his room. Nothing new.

Something fell out from between the pages of one of his school textbooks. Shocked, grabbing it, Eddie looked at the drawing he made of his history teacher.  

“What a piece of shit,” a familiar girl’s voice gawked over his shoulder.

“I was in a hurry!” Eddie yelled, slamming the drawing back between the pages. He scrambled for his inhaler on the table and took a puff. His heart was already racing enough. Thank God, it was not Richie. Oh, if anybody found out about his affection for his teacher then they were going to believe he was some kind of psycho.

Beverly giggled. She missed this. It had been a while since she last met up with her best friends. Just like Eddie, she couldn’t make out Bill’s voice over the phone when he called to invite her. And she almost forgot about living in Derry before moving. 

“You know what I mean. Do you hate that teacher? I always draw out the teachers that I don’t like and stick them on the dartboard.”

Eddie groaned, his cheeks growing hot. “Um, no, you see, I drew it-” He paused when he took a look at his friend’s hair. She was no longer his ginger-haired friend. Beverly was his blonde friend! “Holy shit, your hair!”

“Very fabulous, no?” Beverly asked, showing off her short locks like a model.

“I can't believe you did it!” Eddie exclaimed.  

“But it’s nice, right?” Beverly asked, growing nervous. Even she wasn’t sure if she wanted to go through with the change. The other girls at school all had blonde hair. She was always an outsider among them. “Could you please say something because I’m starting to get insecure about it and - “

“Oh God, no, it's awesome,” Eddie relaxed her, touching Beverly’s shoulder. “It looks good, really. I never thought you’d change your hair.”

“It was an impulse,” Beverly shrugged, trying to get off the subject. “I woke up one morning and thought it would be a good idea. Besides, we all need a change now and then, right?”

“Bill will like it,” Eddie remarked. He knew that he had feelings for Beverly in the time when they hung out together. Bill could never stop staring at her when they were together.

Beverly snickered, “That is if he’ll notice. Ben will probably notice it before Bill,” she remarked. And then she pointed to the picture that Eddie was holding. “You should get rid of that.”

Eddie looked at the textbook in his hand. Wait, which did she mean? The drawing inside or the textbook itself. “Huh?” he tried to act dumb.

Shaking her head, and smiling again, Beverly walked over to him and pointed at his chest. “Right, Eddie Kaspbrak, Homewrecker. Please. Do you know who you are going to hook up with this weekend? A boy your age with thick glasses.

Again, Eddie’s cheeks flushed. How did she know these things? “God, that's the last thing... if you treat this like a set-up I'm gonna have no fun at all!”

Beverly set up one of Eddie’s suitcases on the bed. He had two which took up most of the floor in the room. Funnily enough, she only packed one. “I'm not pushing you to do anything. But we're not packing this!” she indicated to the textbook. 

“This means we definitely won't have room for this,” she said as she took out the drawing from Eddie and dropping it to the floor. As Eddie went after it, he heard a ‘tsk’ noise. When he looked back up, Beverly was holding two of his school textbooks. 

“Oh come on, what if I'm bored?” Eddie argued. “And my mom wants me to study!”

“‘Soviet Economic Structures’? ‘The Aftermath of the Cultural.’” She made a gagging face. “No! We have a lake! Kegl We are the Losers on the verge of wild -- Look at my hair, man!”

She did make a fair point. “It’s great...”

Just then Ben burst into the room with a football. Bill was right behind, crashing into the door as he slid into it. He was a clutz, that was for sure. Accompanying them was Stanley who was not happy about their antics. 

“Think fast! And a going Mike Hanlon who is in the outfield, or in this case, the streets!” Ben dramatized as if he were one of those football announcers. 

 “That's a letterman jacket he's wearing and yes, that's a football he's throwing right at the girls.” Bill included in the dramatization as he swiveled around Eddie’s luggage. 

He and Bill practically tore about the room, running around and knocking objects over. Beverly had no idea that they became interested in football. Especially Ben. Was he losing weight?

“Would you guys stop?” Eddie asked of them, almost jumping on his desk when Bill ran by him.

“Please, you are going to break something if you are not careful!” Stanley shouted, keeping a safe distance at the door. 

“Well, faster than that...” Bill commented, Stanley’s words going in one ear and out the other. 

“Ben!” Somebody called from out the window. Eddie glanced out the window to see Mike. It had been a long time since he saw him. Bill threw the football out the window. Jumping into the air, Mike caught it. Lucky for him, a car stopped just in time when he hopped into the street. The driver was not happy with him.

“Sorry. Sorry,” he excused himself, letting the car drive on. That was an unsafe choice for him to make in the first place. He was just so ecstatic to spend the weekend with his friends. So, he went over the curbside and waited for his friends. 

“Are you guys insane?” Stanley asked them, clashing at his hair. He looked like he was going to burst an artery. 

Understanding the circumstances, Ben nodded. “Sorry, Stan.”

Finally, Bill noticed Beverly for the first time. He froze, staring at her. What a terrible time for his mouth to dry up. “Beverly.”

She smiled. “Hi, Bill.”

“Wow, look at your hair!” Ben remarked. He never thought that Beverly would do something like this. Her ginger hair was lovely. But it was so nice to see her again.

“See, I told you that Ben would be the first to notice,” Beverly elbowed Eddie.

“N-No, I d-did notice! I uh...” Oh great, the stutter was back, too. “It’s really great to see you.”

Beverly smiled at her friends, but her heart fell. At that moment she felt how unnecessary the blonde hair was. They always accepted her for who she was. “It’s great to be back. Now let’s get this weekend started!” she ecstatically threw her arms into the air. 

“I never knew you were the type to actually take textbooks home,” Ben innocently joked. He hoped that it wouldn’t insult Beverly. When they did go to school together she was hardly ever in class. She never had the homework and quipped to the teacher that she didn’t take the textbook home with her for assignments. 

Eddie took the textbook back from Beverly. “There’s nothing wrong about taking a textbook on the trip,” Stanley commented. And then he was the one to get a look from everybody. 

“Seriously? Professor Bennett covers this whole book in his lectures. Read the Gurovsky; it's way more interesting and Bennett doesn't know it by heart so he'll think you're insightful.” Bill explained. Beverly glanced his way. Did Bill actually learn some poetic terms while she was away?

“We’d better get going,” Stanley told them, leaving the room. “Where is Richie anyway? He said that he’d be here by now!”

Eddie got all his belongings together. Richie. He was spending the weekend with Richie. They hadn’t done that in a long time. 

Before he left the room, Ben nudged him. “You have no pants.” Gasping, Eddie scrambled to get pants. He was really standing here in his underwear the whole time? Taking a puff from his inhaler, he had to relax. This was going to be a fun weekend.

“Mike! Crazy mad skills of catching!” Bill told Mike once they were outside. They gave each other a high five.

“You laid it in my hands, I did but hold them out,” Mike commented. 

“Hey, Mike! How is it going?” Beverly greeted her friend with a hug. 

“I’m great. It’s nice to see you, Bev. Wow, look at your hair,” he remarked, taking a look at her gorgeous locks. 

“Hey, Mike, how have you been?’ Eddie was next to greet him once he came out of the house. He struggled down the steps with all his luggage. 

“Great. Thank you guys for letting me join. It’s been a while since we all met up,” Mike noted. He was not going to bring up the reason for their avoidance. This weekend was not about revisiting the shadows of the past. It had been a long time since he actually had fun. Being home school had its perks, but he did not enjoy the loneliness. 

“Do you need help with your bags, Eddie?” Stanley asked his friend. He was struggling to lift his heavy bags into the trunk of the RV that Mike was able to talk his grandfather into borrowing. This thing sat in his farmland for years. Luckily, it was working fine.  

“We’re going away for a weekend, right?” Beverly joked. “It’s a weekend, not an evacuation!”

“I have packed everything that I needed in case of any dangerous predicament!” Eddie commented. “Trust me when I say there is nothing in those cases you won't be glad I brought.”

“What could happen?” Ben asked, shrugging his shoulders. 

“Tons of things,” Stanley remarked. “We could run into poison ivy, there could be jellyfish in the water, or - “

“Okay, Stan, we didn’t need an answer. Remember, we’re supposed to be having fun,” Bill reminded him. 

All that was missing was... “Oh my, God,” Eddie commented when he looked across the street to see a car parking. It was half parked up on the sidewalk, annoying to women who were walking by. 

And there was Richie Tozier, his mouth on a huge bong. He looked like he had trouble maneuvering it in the small car that he owned, hitting the horn by accident. Who’s to say that Eddie was surprised. Getting high and joking around was all Richie cared about. 

“Richie!” Beverly called out to her friend. Oh, how she missed him. She ran up and gave him a hug. But that hug only lasted a second. “Shit, you stink!”

“What the fuck is wrong with you, Richie?” Stanley nagged him when he ran up to his car. He looked around as to make sure the police were not around. 

“People in this town drive in a very counterintuitive manner, and that's what I have to say,” Richie giggled, obviously high out of his mind. His glasses were skewered on his head.

“Do you want to spend the weekend in jail?” Ben asked him. “'Cause we'd all like to check out my cousin's country home and not go to jail!” 

“Richie you should know for a fact that this is not okay!” Beverly was next to lecture him.

Richie took out his duffel bag.“Statistical fact: cops will never pull over a man with a huge bong in his car. Why? They fear this, man. They know he sees farther than they and he will bind them with ancient logics.” He paused, taking a longer look at Beverly’s hair. “Have you gone grey?”

His comment resulted in Beverly giving him the finger. Things hadn’t changed at all. 

“You're not bringing that thing in the rambler!” Eddie told him. 

“A giant bong, in Mike’s van?” Richie went and poured the water out. Removing the bowl, Richie sticks it in a little holder inside the tube and telescopes the entire thing down, pulls a lid off the bottom, and pops it on the top, making it look exactly like a can of Fresca. 

“What are you, stoned?” Stanley asked him, shaking his head in disbelief. Arguably, he was happy to be going on this trip. He missed their adventures.

 “As Bolde,” Richie remarked with little care.  They all rolled their eyes. Well, that was Richie Tozier for you. 

“Come on, we’d best hit the road,” Mike told them, waving them inside. “I can take the first lag. Ben, you have the directions, right?”

As they were all getting into the van, Richie elbowed Eddie. “Eds! You fetching minx? Do you have any food?”

“Don’t call me Eds!” Eddie warned sticking a finger in his face.

“Come on, you like it! You know it!”

“No, I don’t! Call me Eds one more time on this trip and I will bury you in your grave!”

This was going to be an exciting weekend alright. 

“Everybody ready?” Mike asked in the front seat. The Losers shouted in glee, throwing their hands up like they were on a roller coaster. “Then let's get this show on the road!”

[saitamaandmanakoblog]

Manako’s PTSD: The Hero Training Test: 1/2

Remember all the fan-made fiction of Saitama and Manako is not in order so good luck with that.

“Hey Saitama do you want to come to Hero Training with me?”

“Nay I’m good, if they give you any trouble call me ok.”

“Ok, bye Saitama, I love you~”

“Love you too Manako.”

Manako hugged Saitama before she went out

Time Skip

Slowly, the Metting Room started to trickle in, and a few attempted to make small talk with the other heroes. She sighed when she realized that the minister is was going to be late.

“Hey, Manako!” Child Emperor grinned. “You’re the one my friend talked about, right? ZombieMan is his username!!”

“Yeah.” Manako smiled softly. “My Username name is FlashLight.” She explained. “He told me to keep a lookout for you. Sorry it took so long. I’m kind of socially awkward.”

“That’s fine, ZombieMan is, too.” Child Emperor grinned. “Is it ok if I ask you some questions, Manako?”

“So, Manako!” The Green hair girl, leaned towards her, cutting off whatever Child Emperor was going to ask. “I have to ask. What’s your Powers?!”

“My… Powers?” Manako blinked. Didn’t they…? Oh. She didn’t tell them. She opened her mouth to affirm that her powers is a literal flashlight when Sweet Mask decided to be an ass and do it for her.

“BL?! Ha! That little Monster’s power is literally a flashlight. She’s basically useless. I have no idea how the fuck she managed to get into A Class.”

“Flashlight?” Child Emperor echoed, confused.

“Gee, thanks a lot.” Manako threw SweetMask a tired glare, startling the blond. “But yeah, I’m basically a Flashlight. I still managed to become a hero same as the rest of you. So doubt me if you want, but just know that underestimating me will not end well for you.” There was a glint in her eye that made the heroes falter.

“I think it’s so cool! A Monster and you still got in?!, you’re incredible!” Child Emperor grinned, taking Manako aback.

“Um… what?” She blinked. She’d been so ready for the teasing and discrimination, already having built the wall around herself in preparation… but… what?

“Yeah!” Dark Shine grinned. Watchdog gave her a thumbs up.

“I think you’re very brave and definitely someone I wouldn’t underestimate on the battlefield. If you could take down those monsters while saving civilians , then you must be a force to be reckoned with.” Metal Bat.

“Though I gotta ask, how did you beat them?!” Child Emperor was literally bouncing in his seat.

Before anyone could say anything else, The Minister strode in, making Manako stiffen. Oh Phew it’s just the Tester guy or TG for short.

( I have no idea what’s the staff’s name is so the random mister guy is going to be the Hero Tester.)

After the TG explain the rules Manako smirked. This was going to be fun.

Flash Forward

Okay, scratch that. This was going to suck. Test Guy had put her up against SweetMask of all people. Manako didn’t know how, but she had a feeling that it was either on purpose, or a ‘unlucky accident’. Either way, her TG looked happy with the matchup. She supposed that Tester Guy simply thought that the two were friends since they went to same zones to help a bunch of random civilians at at that time, but…

Manako was not an idiot. She knew he had weak points and faults just like everyone else. He was just better at hiding them. Can’t look at something ugly—specifically that monster who easily beat up Sweet Mask and the roof started collapsing—and the important sparkles that came out of him? But there is one problem SweetMask has a strong hate towards monsters thereafter was something that could easily pull her into a flashback. (She hated sudden loud noises, but explosions were the worst. She blamed childhood trauma.) She knew this, which is why he tried his best to stay away from SweetMask whenever possible.

That’s why she always stay close to Saitama, she always feels safe around her BFF and Geno since most of the time she just hang in Saitama’s Pouch.

“TG?” Manako asked quietly, making sure none of her heroes would overhear. “I was wondering if I could switch opponents. I know that normally this isn’t allowed, but I have… bad reactions to certain noises, and was going to talk to Mike about working around it at the end of this week.” Manako was trying to be mature about this. She really was.

(Mike is a made up Monster Character in this universe.)

After all, she knew, logically, that this fear of hers is extremely dangerous in the field of heroism. However, that’s what Mike, the counselor, was for. He’d help Manako work through them—even if she didn’t want to talk about anything to the Ant Monster—and then Manako would be cleared to do hero work in those situations.

She was waiting until the end of the week because she knew it could pose the risk of her safety when she go out with one of Saitama’s Hero Work Trip Days, which she does not want Saitama to worry.

TG just smiled down at her. “I understand, Manako, but you cannot always choose what powers your enemies have. Even if it makes you uncomfortable, I ask that you still bear with the exercise. If things start getting out of hand, I’ll stop it.”

He isn’t taking me seriously. Manako sighed. “If that’s your final decision that’s fine by me.” I am in huge trouble!

Okay, so maybe Manako was being a little harsh. But she felt somewhat unfair and considering that the Monster Association. Tried to kill her twice. And yeah, she understood why he’d pared her with SweetMask, and even mostly understand why he thought it’s a good idea, but Monako was still bitter about the whole thing. And considering all that she’d been through, she felt that the minister chose the wrong person to do the test.

When the match started, Manako took a deep steadying breath. “Child Emperor.” The boy looked at her. “SweetMask will come after me. I’ll distract him to keep him in bay. Take this,” she passed him a small canister, “It’s a smokescreen.” He said. “Try to use it on Flashy Flash speed against him.”

“Right!” Child Emperor grinned, taking it from Manako with a smile.

“GO!”

Like a flash, Manako and Child Emperor bolted into the city’s building. As expected, SweetMask met them on the second floor, heading them off.

Manako motioned for Child Emperor to hide as he drew SweetMask attention. “Why do you hate monsters so much SweetMask?, What have I ever done to you?”

“Shut the hell up you Monsters! Why are you in the Hero Association? Are you here to spy on everyone?!”

“That’s what’s got you so mad?” Manako sighed, as she saw Child Emperor sneak up the stairs from the corner of his eye. “SweetMask. This is obviously a huge miss understanding can’t we just talk this out and be friends?.” She watched as the blond flinched.

“Like I’d ever be friends with a Monster reject like you!” He snarled, lunging forward with his all-too-familiar sharp hands.

Manako easily dodged, catching his arm pin it into the wall. It would’ve ended there if SweetMask hadn’t used his other hand to slice her up, but his free legs break through the floor and sending the two crashing to the room below.

SweetMask immediately jumped away and reared around to the offensive.

“So you’ve got some moves. So what!” SweetMask snarled. “You’re still a Monster ! You’ll gonna get killed anyways!”

“SweetMask.” Manako flinched when she hears a huge explosion went off a room above. The smell of the dust that the explosion kicked up and the sound of the ceiling crumbling at the edges of the hole that SweetMask made, but Manako nasty memories rather came right away.

Flash Back

“It’ll be alright, kid.” Aden smiled as she patted Manako’s head. “You’ll make it out of this.”

“B-but i don’t want you to die.” She protested through thick tears. “You can come with me. Saitama is a good friend he can help us.” She flinched at the sound of angry mobs of monsters.

“You know I can’t. Tell Saitama and the others I’m sorry—and stay safe, kiddo. Keep smiling.” She gave Manako a grin before standing up from their hiding place, leaving Manako essentially buried in a safe-hole Aden had dug just for her and the others so they have a chance to escape through the secret tunnels. “See ya in the next life.”

“Goodbye.” Manako smiled as best she could. “Auntie Aden.”

Manako shook his head sharply, barely dodging a blow from SweetMask. He hadn’t had to think about Aden’s death in a long time. The Ant Monsters had run out to draw the Mobs away from Manako’s hiding spot. All she’d managed to find of the ant after was few bloodstained pieces of clothing and some bone,And her minding helmet, That was it.

End of Flashback

“I know you won’t understand this, but there are bigger things for me to worry about than your point of view!.” Manako charged at him, ducking under a angry swings and dodging fierce blows.

Oh sh*t that was close!

The noises and explosion were starting to overwhelm her, and the smell of blood and nitroglycerin filled his nostrils, mixing with the scent of ash and smoke. She found that it made it harder to remember on what she was supposed to do. SweetMask kept using his hands-like glimpses of knifes and swords of the corner of his eyes.

Sometimes, when SweetMask tried to slice her with his hand, she overlapped with the image of the Miners evil boss. His red eyes glinted in malice and amusing glee, and Manako wasn’t sure if that was the hallucination or not.

Don’t kill him. The thought ran through her mind. She had to remember. This was SweetMask , not the Monster Association… not the evil boss… this is SweetMask . She pulled back, restraining herself, fighting against years of instinct screaming at her to do otherwise. She fought at only a small percentage of her power. She couldn’t go all-out. Not against her death coworkers. Not against, a fellow friend . A human child.

The two finally jumped apart to catch their breath as Manako held up his hand (a hand that looked bloody pale and was horribly dry from overuse of the slice hand technique), one finger hooked in the pin on the rope. Yellow eyes glined in bloodlust as they thirsted for his death. “You know what structure of this building is, right? Well, Monster, what’dya think these are for?”

Manako’s eyes widened in startled realization as her vision focused on the present for that moment. “The force of the channels down through the walls to the floor.…”

“STOP! YOUR GONNA KILL HER!” TG’s voice rung out in worry, and Manako heard the familiar voice of Mike in the background. Mikey? What’s he doing here?

“Only if she doesn’t jump!” SweetMask grinned as he pulled the rope pin.

If Manako hadn’t spent a decade time surviveing Saitama training or fighting a unbelievably fast and ludicrously strong Monsters, she’d would’ve actually died.

But luckily for Manako, her reflexes were insane, and she managed to dodge most of the buildings rubbles. But one caught her left leg, burning and piercing the skin. The smell of burned flesh reached her nostrils, mixing with the dust kicked up from Manako’s trap. The scent mixed with blood became unnervingly similar to the scent of a decayed corpse from the Monsters Association, and suddenly Manako was completely gone—she didn’t know where she was.

She was half-sure her mind was playing tricks on herself, but she heard some mobs nearby. She glanced around herself quickly, and slipped into stealth mode, hiding in the best spot she could find. She’d wait out the Anger Monsters—Mike and the others was smart enough to do the same. And if her friends was in trouble, Manako would plan it out. She’d go to help them if that were the case. She made a promise to the gang to keep each other safe, after all. Mike wouldn’t die. She’d make sure of it.

But she also promised Aden that she’d look after herself. So she needed to survive. “You’re doing great, Manako.” Aden’s hand ruffled her head. “You’re doing just fine. Keep your elbow bent a little more, yeah! Like that!”

She violently flung the thought out of her mind—this was no time to think of people long dead.

They will survive. No matter what.

May the Meeting Room

Silver Fang was tired. Not that that was necessarily anything new, per say, but he was apprehensive about Saitama’s friend first Heroics Test. Never once his gut feelings lie, he decided to observe TG’s lesson. It was the man’s first time testing heroes, after all, so he’d likely need a hand reigning in 19 superpowered Heroes.

He entered the observation room with TG and the remaining 15 Heroes as Blast, Atomic Samurai, King, Metal Night ready themselves for their battle. ZombieMan , personally, was against the idea of SweetMask and Manako facing one another (or a battle exercise right off the bat, but he trusted that TG had enough common sense to stop heroes for over doing it).

Something about the way SweetMask had lunged at Saitama’s Sidekick during the test before had rubbed him the wrong way. Though Manako hadn’t seemed phased by the unprompted lunge, ZombieMan could see the way she tensed around SweetMask and the surrounding. He suspected this was a case of trauma or something similar, but with no evidence there was nothing ZombieMan could do about it except do his best to prevent any further altercations.

Warily, he kept his eye on the match before him. He just had a feeling.

“Turn on the audio.” Silver Fang spoke up, startling the TG. He internally smirked—he loved scaring people when he’s on stealth mode.

“Silver Fang. I wasn’t aware that you were observing the Test today?”

“I wanted to make sure you had an extra set of eyes on these 2. They’re a handful.” He explained, and TG nodded.

“Um… how do I turn on the audio?”

ZombieMan sighed before leaning over and pressing the obvious white button with the headphone icon. Honestly, the staff should’ve made him get a teaching degree or at least. teach him in private so he will know what to do.

They listened as Manako handed what she explained was a smoke screen bomb to Child Emperor. Clever idea, but let’s see well her plan works.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t long until Manako met with SweetMask , and the results were as hated as ZombieMan had feared.

“Why do you hate monsters so much SweetMask?, What have I ever done to you?” Manako worriedly asked, causing SweetMask bristle in anger.

“Shut the hell up you Monsters! Why are you in the Hero Association? Are you here to spy on everyone?!”

“That’s what’s got you so mad?”. “SweetMask. This is obviously a huge miss understanding can’t we just talk this out and be friends?.” Obviously there’s a lot of context I’m missing, here.

“Like I’d ever be friends with a Monster reject like you!” ZombieMan’s attention immediately became entirely focused on the fight. He had suspected that SweetMask’s record wasn’t as clean as it initially appeared, but 1SRanks has a lot of advantage to hide from the public eye, also noob crushers was very serious—especially for a Monster hero like Manako and Saitama.

ZombieMan also found himself appreciating the smooth form that Manako had, and his obvious expertise with analyzing. She wielded them with experience beyond his years, and ZombieMan wondered where shee’d learned to fight.

Compared to Manako, SweetMask looked like a raging fashion model with graceful and stylish appearance or manner elegance.—powerful, with strong instincts, but a lot of wasted energy and movement. Manako’s movement wasted none, and actually reminded ZombieMan he needs to improve his fighting style a little more on his Weapon.

He tensed when SweetMask cracked a hole in the floor, freeing himself from Maniko’s grasp.

“So you’ve got some moves. So what!” SweetMask snarled. “You’re still a Monster ! You’ll gonna get killed anyways!”

Zim eyes narrowed. This was a personal statement. He knew right there that both of these 2 heroes would need to talk (SweetMask for his anger and fame blindness, and for Manako is low self-esteem and trauma.)

“SweetMask .” Manako flinched as another crashing sound went off, and ZombieMan took a deep breath. He didn’t like the feeling he was getting.

And for a moment, Manako froze. No… ZombieMan’s eyes narrowed. That’s not right. This is something else… But between the shitty angle of the camera and the dust settling, ZombieMan couldn’t name what it was before the Monster snapped herself out of it.

“I know you won’t understand this, but there are bigger things for me to worry about than your point of view .”

Something’s not right. The dust settled and he could see a lot more clearly. Manako’s eyes… they were somewhat glassy and she didn’t look completely there. It was as if she didn’t completely recognize where she was beyond the fight. That worried ZombieMan. A lot.

And then something changed.

It was subtle, and the shift was one that ZombieMan only barely noticed, but Manako went from a sparring fighting style to a fighting for your life style. He caught Manako altering several moves at the last minute that would’ve been lethal (for SweetMask) if he hadn’t changed course. That was when he’d decided that enough was enough. He moved to stop the match before someone got killed, when SweetMask spoke up.

“You know what structure of this building is, right? Well, Monster, what’dya think these are for?”

“The force of the channels down through the walls to the floor.…”

“STOP! YOUR GONNA KILL HER!” TG

shouted over the intercom.

“SweetMask , if you pull that ro—” ZombieMan started, but SweetMask didn’t hear him.

“Only if she doesn’t jump!” ZombieMan felt anger well up alongside his fear as the pin was pulled and a massive crash and explosion took out the building crumbling down.

“Holly Sh*t?! Is everyone okay?!” TG asked, but ZombieMan hit a button on the panel instead while Sliver Fang worried.

“Stop the exercise! Anyone continuing to fight will be expelled.” Silver Fang promised as TG sent him an affronted look.

“I’m going to go check on Manako and The rest. Call the hospital, there’s sure to be injuries.” TG nodded meekly and went to do as told. “Hero Training has been canceled” glared at the remaining heroes , who nodded and planted their feet where they stood or sat. half of them is terrified and the other half is worried if that was of ZombieMan , then good, he’d done something right. Silver Fang though

His heart pounded in worry. SweetMask was leaning casually against a wall, acting like nothing was wrong. While Child Emperor was sitting down on the floor and Flashy Flash was looking at the crumpled building “You are going to wait for me in the minsters office. We will have a nice long discussion on why that was not okay. And the boss wants to talk to you so don’t attempt to go elsewhere, and you’ll find yourself in huge trouble.” ZombieMan glared, and SweetMask straightened in shock and nodded.

Silver Fang stayed with the 3 heroes while ZombieMan looked for Manako

Fubuki and King came down the stairs, worry evident on their faces. “So are they ok?” Fubuki asked.

“Just go back to the other heroes since this test is called while I locate Manako also can you call Saitama.” He ordered, and King and Fubuki did what he had said.

ZombieMan was good at finding people with his analyzing skills—he had to be to find the crooks and crannies lurking in back alleyways at important missions. But it was harder to find Manako for the life of him, finding Manako is really tricky. And that scared him. It wasn’t until he finally caught sight of a few drops of blood on the floor (likely from cutting herself on rubble) that his eyes focused on a deathly still figure hiding in the rubble.

Wide one eyes stared around his environment, as if tracking unseen enemies. She flinched—twitched, more like—at unheard sounds, and her breathing was almost nonexistent.

ZombieMan realized that Manako was stuck in some kind of flashback. “Bright Light.” No reaction.

“Manako.” He tried again, noticing that his friend twitched a little at the sound of her given name.

“Mikey?” ZombieMan blinked. Who the heck is Mikey? He decided not to question it right now. “Yeah, kid. It’s me.” He carefully made his way over to him. “Can you tell me where you are right now?”

“Cave Mineing. I can hear them nearby… Making a break for it would be too dangerous, though. But as long we stick to the plan we can make it out alive. Did you get hurt?” Manako’s voice was scarcely a whisper, and ZombieMan couldn’t help but feel a little heartbroken to see the hardened and fearful look on her face. Just what had happened to Manako in the past? She looked like a soldier in a warzone.

“I’m okay. Listen to me. You’re at Hero Association You’re safe, it’s okay. Nobody is going to hurt you.” He kept his voice calm and soft, and the monsters blinked a few times in confusion. “There’s no one here but our gang?,But… I can hear them?”

“Hear who?”

“The anger mobs of monsters.” There was a pause. So Manako has enemies who are not only human but also monsters? “Mikey? Are the gang okay? Foapy, MooMoo… And Vend?” Are those Manako’s old friends?

“Yeah. Everyone’s okay, Manako.” He rolled with it, calling him Mikey. The monsters relaxed substantially, so ZombieMan assumed it was the right call. “Saitama is here to pick you up.”

“Saitama? But he’s…” her eye furrowed before her eyes cleared up quickly.

ZombieMan carefully placed a hand on Bright Light’s shoulder, and he found Manako’s hand grasping his arm like a lifeline. “Where am I?” She asked desperately.

“It’s Wednesday.. You just started your first Hero Test of Hero Association .” He answered quietly, and she froze for a moment before she melted into his arms.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to…” ZombieMan ignored the tears that were soaking into his coat as he held Saitama’s Sidekick . He reached up to his radio. “Silver Fang, I’ve found her. She’s hurt, but nothing life-threatening. I’m taking her to the Saitama myself.”

He then turned his attention back to the obviously traumatized monsters. “It’s all right, Bright Light. You have nothing to apologize for.”

“I… I must’ve hurt my coworkers and my teammate I… I’m so sorry…”

[i-eat-bread-and-cry-on-the-floor]

A strange solidarity between Richie and Ben. Idk like Richie calling Ben to complain about how cute and adorable Eddie look today with his shorts and how he just wants to hold hand whit him or Ben telling Richie about how perfect and beautiful is Bev hair and how he thinks she is the coolest person in the world. Bonus: If meanwhile Eddie and Bev are doing the same!

B E T here we go!! I think this is my first request for a fic so i entirely hope it’s not bad :))

Title: Movie Nights & Forest Fires  Pairings: Benverly, Reddie, Platonic!Trashstack 

Ben held a photo booth picture in his hands, staring at the red head smiling at the camera. He could have paid attention to Richie’s stupid ‘silly face.’ He could have looked at Stan, who’d just spotted a piece of dust that looked vaguely like a spider. His eyes, however, kept drawing toward a certain crush of his. 

He walked toward his bed to lay down, holding the picture in front of his face. Ben simply thought that there was no one better than Beverly Marsh. He’d been in love with her since third grade. 

The phone rang in the living room, but Ben wouldn’t care divide his attention. Not for Beverly. He smiled. The unfamiliar gesture lingered on his face for a silent moment. He only stopped smiling to bring the picture to his lips. He smiled wider now, having just “kissed” Bev. Brushing his hair out of his hair, he perked up to hear his mom calling him. 

“Benny! Your friend is on the phone for you!” she called. He didn’t realize that the phone stopped ringing only three rings in. Typically it takes eight. 

“Oh, yep! Coming!” he shuffled to plant his feet on the ground. He jogged to the phone, hanging near the couch. He tried to sound cool, answering the phone with a sly tone. 

“Hey there. Who’s calling?” Ben forgot that this caller could be any of the losers; not just Bev. 

“It’s Richie.” Ben’s friend eagerly answered. “I’ve gotta tell you about my sleepover with Eddie last night.” 

“Oh!” Ben nodded, “Yeah, yeah! Tell me.” he strained the chord to sit on the edge of the couch. He’d always been jealous of Richie, who had a phone in his room. 

“Okay, picture this,” Richie prompted, pacing around his room as far as the phone chord allowed him to, “We’re watching Gremlins cause, classics ya know?” 

Ben nodded, despite the fact that Richie couldn’t see him. Richie continued anyway. 

“And we’re sharing a bowl of popcorn but we kept arguing over who’s gonna hold it so I, a literal genius, propose: ‘Hey why don’t we just balance it between our legs?’ Ben! He agreed!” Richie jumped, “So now we’re literally attached at the hip...” Richie continued telling Ben his story.

Ben listened, grinning. Only he imagined himself and Beverly--Not Richie and Eddie. 

-------

“I wanna cross my legs.” Eddie looked at Richie. Richie picked up the bowl of popcorn with a sigh. Richie then placed the bowl in Eddie’s lap. 

“I’m gonna end up spilling two-thirds of the bowl and then we’ll have wasted food and I’d have to watch you eat shit off the floor.” Eddie gave Richie the bowl again.

“I wouldn’t eat shit off the floor!” Richie rebutted. “I’d eat popcorn off the floor, Eds.” 

“There is literally so much wrong with that sentence.” 

“Well, whatever.” Richie put the popcorn in between them once again. 

The two turned their attention back to the TV screen. Eddie moves a bit closer to Richie, until some freaky jump-scare caught him off guard.

Eddie shrieked, tensing his shoulders to his earlobes. The popcorn fell to the ground in the process. “Shit!” the already-panicked boy cursed. 

“Fuck, I’m not taking responsibility for this.” Eddie pouted, picking up the bowl and some stray pieces of popcorn as Richie blushed.

“No, it’s- You don’t have to clean that, I’ll fix it later.” 

“And just leave this on the floor, what if you get ants?” 

“Eddie,” Richie opened his arms for some elongated hug. He yearned to cuddle with Eddie, but admitting that to himself or to Eddie seemed like too much of a nightmare to deal with. 

Eddie furrowed his eyebrows. He glanced down at the spilled popcorn, then at Richie: smiling in the purest way Eddie had ever seen. He huffed. 

“Fine.” But he couldn’t resist smiling, just a bit. 

------

“And we cuddled for the entire rest of the movie! It was- gah! It was amazing.” Richie gushed after a long ramble. 

“That sounds like so much fun.” Ben said. “I’m really happy for you, man!”

“Thanks, Ben. So, have you worked up the courage to send Bev your second poem, you one-hit-wonder?”

“Not a one-hit-wonder anymore!” Ben smirked. After finding just enough spare change in the cracks of the living room couch, he spent it on another post card at the library. 

-------

Sitting at his usual spot in the library, Ben stared at his blank post card. Tapping a pen against his temple, he conjured up a multitude of feelings. He decided to allude to his first poem, January Embers. He called this one Forest Fires. 

The smallest of flames Can still set my entire  Forest on fire

-Secret admirer 

Clipping his pen, he stood up, returning two books he’d read in the span of a week, and leaving. He held the postcard in his hands, refraining from repeating the words again and again. The more he thought, the more he hated his writing. Determined not to let that happen, he stared at the bridge on the back of the card instead. 

--------

“Well, have you, Lover-boy?” Richie urged.

Ben shook his head, “I- I will, just not now.” 

“When, then?” Richie asked, waiting for a response that he never received. 

Ben sank to the floor against the couch. 

“Do you want me to stick it in her backpack one day?” Richie suggested. 

“No, I need to do it. I’m just...” 

“Just?” 

Ben twirled the wire in on his index finger, trying to think of his answer. He knew his reason. Whenever he’d try to give Bev his poem, his hands got clammy and his face flushed. He’d wipe his forehead, trying to steady himself, ridding his mind of fear or doubt. By the time his heart began to beat in his throat, he shook his head muttering, “No, I’ll do it tomorrow,” under his breath. He’d walk away. 

“Nervous, I guess.” He admitted. 

“I’m coming over." Richie declared. “Get your bike ready too cause we’re going to Bev’s.” “What? Why?”

“You know why.”

Ben nodded, taking a deep breath. “See you in fifteen?” 

“More like ten.” Richie shrugged.

“Ten.” 

-------

Standing at the bottom of the stairs to Bev’s apartment, Richie rubbed Ben’s shoulders. “You got this, big guy!” 

Ben knew any of his other friends would swat Richie’s hands away but Ben appreciated the humorous gesture.

“I do, I’ve got this.” he nodded in agreement. He took one step upstairs, looking back at Richie. After the glimpse of a thumbs up, he ran upstairs as if Bowers was chasing him. He spent no time looking over the railing to see blossoming flowers or the shiny sun rays. He stared at his feet climbing higher and higher until he reached the fourth floor.

“You can do it! Go get your lady!” Richie called at him, making Ben smile. 

Before his brain processed anything, Ben’s feet landed in front of Bev’s door and his finger tapped the doorbell. His eyes widened when the red-head answered the door. Her short locks, now a small flame in the breezy spring weather, setting his forest on fire.

“Ben! Can I help you?” she smiled and leaned against the door. 

“No,” he shook his head. 

“Oh?”

“No, no, no, I meant- I meant- No-” he shook his head. 

“You said no.” Beverly pointed out. 

“Huh?”

“You said ‘no, no, no, i meant- i meant no.’ You said no already. I was just teasing around.” 

“Oh! Yeah, yeah!” Ben nodded, “Right.” he cleared his throat. “Listen, I... wanted to...” he squeezed his eyes shut, extending his hand to give Beverly his 97-cent postcard.

“Oh, for me?” Beverly giggled. At Ben’s “Yeah...” Beverly took the post card. She didn’t read it, making Ben all the more thankful. 

“Okay, well... good day to you; Nice talk.” Ben made finger guns then, hurrying downstairs to Richie.

Richie, who’d been listening from the bottom of the stairs greeted Ben with a huge grin. “That was awesome! I knew you could--”

Ben ran into his arms, hugging him. “I can’t believe- I’m- Oh my- Richie, why did I do that?” he asked. 

Richie squeezed him close. “Hey, hey, you did great yeah? It was adorable! Your poem was awesome and if she doesn’t like you, she’s too stupid to deserve you.” 

Ben took deep breaths, considering his words. “Are you just saying that?”

“No, Ben.” Richie shook his head. “I really mean it.” 

Ben nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat. “Can we go back to my house? You can stay for dinner.” he invited. 

“No can do. Dad’s grilling tonight.” Richie declined, then coming up with an epiphany. “If you don’t want to be alone though, I can ask my mom if you want to sleepover?” 

“Would you?” 

“‘F course!” Richie put his arm around Ben as they walked back to their bikes. 

Ben shuttered a breath, “You’re the best, Rich.” 

The two rode their bikes past Stan’s dad’s temple, prompting Richie to tell Ben about Stan’s bar mitzvah speech. “It was so badass!” 

“Wish I coulda been there.” Ben laughed. 

They rode past the library and the shop where Mike would bring his deliveries. Dropping their bikes in front of Ben’s house, Richie waited outside and Ben unlocked the door. “Mom?” he called.

“Yes, sweetie?” his mother craned her neck from the couch to Ben.

“Richie invited me for dinner tonight. Could I go?” he smiled. “Please.” he added. Ben never forgot a ‘please.’

“Just make sure you’re home by nine. You’ve got your watch?” She peaked at his arm. 

“Yes, ma. Thank you!” he confirmed, grinning ear-to-ear. The kid who’d spent his entire elementary and middle school career alone loved spending evenings with his friends.

“Have fun!” she reminded as Ben jogged back outside, closing the door behind him.

“She said yes.” Ben informed, prompting a happy dance from Richie. 

“That’s not gonna be the only girl saying yes to you.” 

“Oh, shush.” he rolled his eyes, picking up his bike. “Ready to go?” 

Richie gave a thumbs up, swinging his leg onto his own bike. “Let’s ride!” 

-------

One ring. Two rings. Three rings. 

“Hello?”

“Eddie! You would not believe what Ben just gave me!” Beverly squealed. 

“Spill everything!” 

[malumsmermaid]

Snitches and Talkers

Part Two to Kiss and Sell!!

Spy!Michael x OC

Word Count: 8.2k

Warnings: violence, broken bone, language

His eyebrows knitted together, leaning forward and opening the glass separating them from the drivers. “Hey, guys, you just passed the exit for the airport,” the blonde spy questioned, gasping as the passenger side driver turned around to face him.

“Oh we know, Agent M, we know.” he said, punching the spy back before crawling through the small opening, holding the blonde back and glaring at Jay as he restrained the blonde, pulling blindfolds from his pocket.

***********

Michael woke up, head fuzzy as he processed that the world was still dark, but no longer seemed to be moving. He let out a groan, shoulders stiff and sore, processing the cotton stuffed in his mouth and tied behind his head. He stretched his arms, finding those restrained too, as he was about to test his feet a voice fuzzily entered his head from the surrounding room. “It looks like our guests are finally waking up, remove the sacks.”

Michael’s eyes squeezed shut as the bag was removed from his face, the room bright around him. He turned his head to look over at his girlfriend, her hair disheveled from the bag being removed. She looked like she had put up a fight against their captors, the drivers not having the element of surprise to get a jump on her like they had with Michael. 

He took in the room further around him, noticing the two drivers on either side of them, the smaller one who had crawled through the window next to him, the larger one who had been actually driving next to Jay. He gave her his best smile from around the gag in his mouth, they’d clearly learned who was the bigger threat. But he also knew that they were underestimating him, having been able to surprise him in the car so he couldn’t fight back. He didn’t mind though, he was used to it as the tech guy. He still managed to surprise Calum and Ashton from time to time in the gym when they were back at home base. 

Finally he remembered the man who had first spoken as he and Jay woke up, bringing his slowly sharpening gaze over to the center of the room. He squinted as he took in the man’s face, recognizing it from some of the posters on the wall at hq, searching the fog that was his mind for his name. 

“Take out their gags, men, want to hear their thoughts.” He ordered, lazily approaching the couple from his spot at the front of the room.

“But she--” the smaller henchman by Michael started, only to be cut off by a wave of the boss’ hand.

Begrudgingly, both henchmen removed the gags from the two spies’ mouths. “There, that wasn’t so bad, now was it?” He stated, less than ten feet away now. “Agent M, I’ve been waiting so long to meet you, as the man who’s been compiling so much information on me for your bosses. And with the fine Agent J at your side as well. I’m sure that comes as no surprise though, I’ve heard that the two of you are hard to separate when she’s at headquarters.”

Michael’s ears heated, the idea of a mole somewhere within the organization starting a fire in his chest. He slowly began minutely wiggling his hands, trying to tighten the zip tie holding his arms back so he could attempt to snap it so he could free his hands while their captor continued his spiel.

“I wanted to bring you in, obviously Agent M, since you’ve collected so much intel on me, but I needed someone to bring with you to make sure that you actually would do what I ask. So once my informants tipped me off to your relationship with the lovely lady next to you, I knew I had to make a move the second that the two of you were out together.

“You two are a bucket of charm you know? Showed myself on that video camera to force Agent A out, since I’d already met him earlier on in my planning stages, decided he wouldn’t be useful to me in getting you to do what I want and went back to the drawing board. Then I got intel that you were looking into Belaggio and I set myself up with him, and made sure that it would be you paired with Agent J at the gala, see the way you two interact in person.”

Michael continued to work to free himself, attempting now to try and snap the zip tie around his wrist. He focused his anger about their current predicament, minutely shifting his arms to bang his wrists against the chair. He felt the zip tie snap after the fourth attempt, maintaining a neutral expression and keeping his hands locked behind him, waiting for an opening as the man he had only known as Aaron, but looked nothing like the kindly, bald, body guard, continued with his villainous monologue.

“Now, what I need from you, Agent M, is to clear everything about me from your database, most importantly. After that I want you and sweet Agent J’s real names, as well as the names of the rest of your team, and finally, the location of your headquarters, none of my contacts were willing to hand over that final piece of information to me. However, with your beautiful girlfriend here, I’m sure we can manage to get you to give it up for me, hmm M?”

Michael gritted his teeth, jaw aching as he watched ‘Aaron’ step closer to Jay, leaning down in front of her and gently lifting her chin. “I really can’t wait to learn your true name, Agent J, what could it be? Jennifer? Jessica? Jasmine?”

He ran his pointer finger over Jay’s lower lip as he listed names and she leaned forward, taking the finger into her mouth and biting down, hard. The villain gasped as she released his finger, holding it to his chest as he backed away, anger bubbling across his face. “Try that again and you’ll be short a finger.” she spat, sitting back in her chair.

“We tried to warn you boss,” the henchman by Michael squeaked, “she bites.”

“Well, I’m sure I can take care of that,” he stated, dropping his hand from where he’d been staring at the bite mark and approaching Jay again, shoulders squared as he towered over her.

She just stared back at him defiantly, Michael watching to see what he was going to do. His legs tensed as he watched their captor raise his hand, anger finally taking over at the image, the two halves of the plastic ties dropping to the floor as he sprung from the chair. He had caught the henchmen off guard, their boss’ focus completely on Jay, so he froze in surprise as Michael’s legs wrapped around him from behind, his arms going around the larger man’s throat. “Don’t even fucking think about it.” The spy snarled as he squeezed.

Jay grinned up at her boyfriend, standing from the chair, her hands still bound as the two henchmen got over their surprise, moving in. She kicked back the henchman nearest to her, running through the spacious room, arms still behind her back while Michael fought to keep his hold on the spluttering leader. He thrashed beneath the lanky spy, the man Jay had kicked back recovering and coming to his boss’ aid. He prised Michael’s arms from around the man’s throat, Michael loosening his legs’ grip on his waist and dropping to the floor. He sprang to his feet, feeling slightly satisfied as his captor dropped to his own knees, coughing as his lungs tried to bring in air again.

He looked at his new opponent, the larger henchman, and took a step back, guard up as he analyzed the situation. He could hear Jay fighting behind him, trying to pinpoint the sounds as they echoed through the large hall, but also not taking his eyes off the approaching man. He feinted to his left, ducking the punch that came at him before pushing in closer, one, two, three, quick jabs to the larger man’s muscular torso before backing up quickly again. 

He kept up this pattern, doing his best to get closer to his girlfriend each time. Unfortunately, on his final backup he misstepped, shoes slipping on the polished marble floor, and going out from under him, leaving him sprawled on his back. He could see the henchman advancing on him and pushed backward with his elbows and feet, trying to slink away. The man towered over Michael’s body and the spy began kicking upward desperately, but he heard a thud to his right, a muffled cry that sounded like Jay’s voice and his wide-eyed gaze went her direction, freezing as he saw the small henchman crouched over her, holding a cloth to her nose. The small moment of distraction gave his opponent an opening, the large man crouching over Michael and before he knew it there was cloth covering his mouth and nose too. Just before his world faded to black again, Michael heard his captor’s strained voice, yelling at the henchmen, “I told you two not to underestimate him!”

********

“Somethings wrong.” Ashton stated as he looked up from his watch for the upteenth time in the twenty minutes since they’d arrived at the airfield. 

“No shit.” Luke replied, hunched over one of Michael’s laptops, using the live satellite app Michael wrote to track the path their van should’ve been on. “There wasn’t any traffic and there doesn’t seem to be any sign of a crash anywhere on their route between the safehouse and here, they should’ve beat us.”

Ashton nodded, continuing pacing around where Luke was sitting on the tarmac. Calum walked over from where he’d been talking to their drivers, hand running over his shaved head, “Nelson says that the two guys that were driving Mike and Jay were different, told him that our other drivers for this mission had come down with something and that they were covering for them.”

“Shit!” Luke exclaimed, hand smacking against the asphalt.

Ashton grimaced, exchanging a glance with Calum. “Lu, you need to get back to HQ, give them the intel from the mission and then tell them that Cal and I are tracking down Mike and Jay, to send backup.”

The young blonde looked up at Ashton, blue eyes blazing. “I’m not leaving without any of you! I don’t want to sit at HQ not knowing what’s happened!”

Ashton chewed his lip, this was a hard call to make, he knew, but someone had to be the one to split off. “Look, Luke, the longer we sit here the further away they get. I’ll have my tracker on, we don’t know who has Michael and Jay, so we’re going to need someone to get word to the brass to send help while also making sure that they get the information we were in the field for in the first place. You’re the best man for that job. You can come right back out here as soon as you do that. But we need to move now.”

Luke sighed in defeat, handing over the computer to Calum as he got to his feet, watching as Ashton fiddled with the dial of his watch, turning on the tracker. Nelson handed the car keys over to Ashton, nodding to him and Calum before following Luke and the other driver up the steps of the jet, all of the gear already loaded on. 

They both ran over to the car, Calum awkwardly climbing into the passenger seat while still cradling the computer as Ashton punched the ignition. Ashton sped away from the runway, heading for the interstate as Calum typed in the plate for the car their teammates had been in. It may have been a phony plate, but the traffic cameras wouldn’t know the difference and that was all that mattered in the moment. “They’re still on the same interstate, we’ve got ‘em, let’s go.”

Ashton nodded as he punched the gas. 

He sped down the highway, Calum keeping tabs on the SUV they were tracking, eyes staring unblinkingly at the computer screen. The car changed lanes but never got off the highway until….”They didn’t come out of the tunnel,” Calum stated, brows furrowing. 

Ashton cursed, hand striking the top of the steering wheel. “There any high vis vests or hard hats in this car?” 

Calum nodded, scrambling to dig through the center console and the glove box before climbing into the backseat and then into the trunk. He procured the items and slowly clambered back to the passenger seat. He set the hats and vests on the dash, pulling the seat belt back across his body before grabbing the computer again, double checking that the car had in fact disappeared in the tunnel. 

Twenty minutes later Ashton pulled into a gravel parking lot alongside the highway, meant for turning around semis with a clearance higher than the tunnel that hadn’t used the last exit, as well as for maintenance staff. They put on the hard hats and vests before climbing out of the car, flashing badges quickly at the other staff as they continued to stride towards the maintenance path of the tunnel. They weren’t questioned as they continued down the walkway, eyes scanning the wall for any sign of mechanism that would allow the other car to vanish. 

As they walked along Ashton let out a thought he’d been having since entering the tunnel, “I just don’t understand how they’d be able to make a sharp 90 degree turn in here if the entrance is somewhere in the wall.”

Calum hummed before holding a hand out to stop Ashton, pointing at a spot on the road, “Because they don’t, c’mon, let’s figure out how to get that to open.”

Ashton nodded, scanning around before spotting an antenna sticking up on the railing, “Here.” he called, walking over to the piece of metal.

Calum jogged after him, flicking through settings on his watch. “Just gotta find the right frequency to set it off. Then we can see how long it takes to lower and raise and then head back to the car.”

Ashton turned, hazel eyes wide as he stared at Calum. “Why don’t we just hop down there as soon as it opens? We don’t know who has them or what they want, why waste time walking all the way back to the car?”

Calum furrowed his dark eyebrows, taking a moment before responding, “We don’t know where this tunnel comes out, Ash. It could be a thirty mile walk for all we know, in which case it would be faster to go back for the car and drive there than just go ahead and start walking down there as soon as I find the right frequency to set it off.”

Ashton anxiously chewed his lip before agreeing, nodding at Calum. Calum gave him a quick smile before turning back to his watch, dialling it in before they heard a small beep from the antennae. They watched as the section of road angled downwards, revealing a tighter tunnel below the roadway. Fortunately, traffic was nonexistent right now, so there weren’t any cars at risk of unexpectedly driving into the new tunnel. Once it was open it stayed that way for ten seconds before raising back up to hide the other tunnel once more.

The two spies grinned at each other, nodding and beginning to speed walk back to the surface and their car. They shrugged off the vests as they climbed into the dark SUV and tossed them in the backseat with the hardhats, Ashton throwing the car in drive and speeding out of the gravel lot and onto the highway, staying in the right lane as Calum stared intently at the railings, waiting to see the antennae, knowing they’d be on it much quicker than when they were looking for it on foot. As soon as he saw it he hit the button on the side of his watch, setting off the hydraulics that would lower the road to a ramp. Ashton slowed as they started driving downwards, shoulders stiff as they entered the new tunnel. “Now we just gotta hope that us opening that thing didn’t set anything off.” Ashton joked, nervous chuckle passing his lips as he moved one hand from the wheel to toss his curls.

Calum licked his lips, nodding along as his fingers tapped in his lap as Ashton continued to drive, switching the topic to what they were going to do once they made it to where Michael and Jay had been taken, if they would wait for Luke and backup before going in or if they’d head straight inside.

*******

Michael woke again, head pounding even more than the first time. His body ached as he moved to sit up, finding a mattress beneath him. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world, but it was better than the cold floor. He ran his hand over his face, wincing slightly at the slight pressure. He knew he hadn’t escaped the fight earlier without a hit, the adrenaline blocking any pain from the contact, but what he could feel now felt worse than what he anticipated.

He sat on the edge of the bed, taking slow, deep breaths, trying to turn the pain into background noise for a moment. He grunted as he got to his feet, arm around his stomach as he took in his surroundings. There was a large, tri-monitored computer in the corner across from his bed, an open door leading into a bathroom between the two furniture pieces and two of the walls of the small room were glass. One glass wall looked out into the hallway, and the other looked into another room like the one he was in, sans computer.

Michael gasped as he saw his girlfriend curled up on the mattress in the other room. He strode over to the wall, placing his hand on the cool, thick glass. “Jay,” he whispered, green eyes watering as he looked her over from across the room, her body barely stirring, her chest moving up and down slightly as she breathed. “I’m gonna get us out of this.” 

Slowly he forced himself to turn away, deciding to go into the bathroom and check himself out further. He flicked the lightswitch on as he peeled off his shirt, coming to stand in front of the large mirror behind the sink. His eyes scanned the dark bruises on his pale torso, sighing before leaning in closer to look at his face. He hummed as he spotted a bruise hiding beneath his growing beard and another under his eye. He traced over the two spots before taking in his bruised knuckles, carefully flexing his fingers. 

He turned away from the mirror, eyes lighting up when they fell on a duffle bag in the corner. He unzipped it, looking for his toiletries, sighing when he recognized Luke’s pink silk button down as he dug through. He hummed, grabbing the smaller bag, he wasn’t going to complain too much, knowing he could have just as easily not been given any change of clothes. He grabbed Luke’s shampoo and bodywash, setting them in the shower before taking off his jeans and boxers, starting the water as he found Luke’s sweatpants, setting them on the counter before checking the water.

He grinned at the feeling of warm water, quickly stepping under the stream, body relaxing as the water hit his body, soothing his aching muscles. He only stood under the water for a minute, quickly moving to wash himself, wanting to save hot water for when Jay woke up. He got out, drying off slowly, stretching his limbs as he did. He pulled on the sweatpants he’d gotten out, looking at himself in the mirror one last time before stepping out of the bathroom.

He grinned when he saw Jay sitting up on her bed, rushing over to the wall. “Hey there sleepyhead,” he said, the relief clear in his voice.

“You say that like I had a choice in being asleep,” Jay said back, the gentle smile on her lips taking away any possible bite, “what time is it?”

Michael sighed, shaking his head. “No idea. Saved you some hot water if you want to get a shower or anything. Hopefully they gave you the right bag, I’ve got prince charming’s clothes.”

Jay laughed softly, slowly getting to her feet and hobbling over, wincing every other step. Michael frowned immediately, watching as she came to stand right in front of him. She cooed softly as she looked him over, her hand touching his through the glass. Michael shook his head at her, “I’m fine, love, nothing a hot shower can’t fix, you need to get off that foot until you can get looked at. I’ve got a plan forming.”

Jay was about to respond, before she dropped her head, nodding. “I’m gonna go freshen up, be back.”

Michael gave her an encouraging smile, watching as she carefully made her way into the bathroom, turning and going to sit on his bed, pulling his legs to his chest as he began to think. After what he figured was about thirty minutes of staring at the ends of his bangs and trying to pull the well worn sweatpants further down toward his ankles, clearly Luke had had some trying times with his washing machine and these pants, he saw Jay emerge from her cell’s bathroom. 

Her face was a pale green as she hobbled over to the bed, dressed in Michael’s basketball shorts and hoodie. She sat on the bed, head drooping from the effort of crossing the room and Michael frowned, getting to his feet and approaching the wall. He placed his hand on the glass, concern crossing his brow as he spotted the makeshift splint on his girlfriend’s ankle.

She read his expression easily, giving him a pained smile as she said, “I think I broke it. Whole thing is purple.” Michael’s face filled with rage towards their captor, tension filling his shoulders as he tried to collect himself. He took a deep breath, slowly letting the air out of his lungs before saying, “I wish I could come over there and help you, love. Neither of us know how long we’ve been here, but I believe help is on its way, we’ll be out soon. We’re gonna be ok, Jay.”

“Glad to see you two are finally up and about, good morning.”

Michael’s anger surged again at the sound of their captor’s voice, wheeling around and leaping towards the other wall, fist striking against the glass perfectly in line with the other man’s head. He yawned, boredly rolling his eyes as the tempered glass protecting him from the spy shook as a result. 

“It’s cute, how much hope and faith you have in your team, Agent,” he continued as though nothing had happened, Michael’s body shaking as his green eyes stayed trained on patronizing blue. “How’re they supposed to know where we’ve brought you when they don’t even know it’s me that has you? Your only ticket out is helping me, Agent M. I highly suggest that you get started.”

Michael was still shaking, jaw tense as he stared through the glass. “I can get started.” he gritted out, “Problem is, your guys took the car with the clothes, not the equipment, it’s going to take me a while to get through the security system before I can even get to the files you want.”

“Get started then. Or else your sweetheart over there is going to have more than an ankle to worry about.”

Michael was about to snarl a reply when he caught sight of two men outside of Jay’s room, heart dropping to the pit of his stomach and shoulders drooping. “Mi-my love,” Jay caught herself, her brown eyes on the two men outside her cell too, “It’s going to be ok, please…”

Michael closed his eyes, nodding in the direction of the boss, slowly making his way to the computer, reaching under the desk and hitting the power button. Each monitor flashed the loading screen and he heard, “Good choice. I’ll send someone by in a couple hours to make sure you’re still working. Maybe we’ll bring some food too.”

Michael ignored him, just bowing his head and pinching the bridge of his nose as a homescreen appeared in front of him. He heard three sets of receding footsteps and a heavy door slamming.

A minute later, Jay spoke, “you don’t have to do anything, babe, I can take it.” Jay’s voice was weak and Michael licked his lip, swallowing the lump in his throat before spinning in the chair to respond.

“I do, Jay. You’re not getting hurt if I can stop it. Besides, I have a plan, I just need to stall a little. Alek Turner is not getting away with this.”

He turned back to the computer, opening one of the apps he recognized and slowly began his work. He carefully picked through lines and lines of code, someone checking in at some point, but nodding satisfactorily when he saw Michael still typing and disappearing back down the hall again, returning with food and some tylenol for Jay. She scooted off the bed and pushed her body across the smooth floor toward the plate and medicine, trying to keep off her injured leg. She opened the bottle first, smiling at the tamper seal, removing the paper before giving the bottle a cursory sniff before taking out two pills, taking them with her food. As she sat there eating, she heard Michael’s typing pick up. “That doesn’t sound like stalling, love.” She teased.

Michael just hummed in response, blazing through the familiarity of his own lines of code, “Part of my plan, sweets. If people in the lab didn’t know it was me trying to get in before, they will now.”

Jay smiled, nodding to herself from where she was sitting and Michael continued with his work, hitting every possible alarm bell he had put into his own protective layer. He began adding in a new line of code, smirking at the idea he had just gotten to announce himself to the lab, slipping through and finding the lab’s speakers, putting on a Peppa Pig song and punching the volume. While that was playing he kept typing, making up a chat box before bringing down the volume on the song, hitting enter on his message:

M: Whose attention have I got? M here if you couldn’t tell.

S: M! It’s S, where are you?

Michael sighed in relief at the information that it was his mentor on the other side of the screen. The man was beyond loyal to their organization and he knew he could trust whatever he was told.

M: Alek Turner has me and J. She’s hurt. He wants his info erased, our team’s real IDs and the location of HQ.

S: We sent out an X team for you two in the afternoon after L was dbed and he told the brass why the rest of the team weren’t there. A & C were tracking you two and we have a pin on them. It’s about 2am here now.

Michael sighed, nodding at the computer and rubbing his head, the ache from everything that had happened previously making timezone math more difficult than usual, plus he wasn’t sure if he was still in the same one, all he knew was that it was probably dark out and he should be in bed, not staring at a screen. 

M: Cool. Gonna keep stalling and hope for the best. Oh, we have moles, Turner brought that up when he was giving his whole monologue. Can’t wait to find their sorry asses when we come in later.

S: Noted. Best of luck. 

Michael smiled to himself before closing out the chat window, continuing to work through the security code until his previous work was no longer on the screen. He rose from the chair, stretching his limbs. He met Jay’s questioning gaze, giving her a smile and thumbs up before turning towards the bathroom. He picked up his clothes from the floor, finding one of Luke’s shirts and pulling it on over his bruised torso. He splashed some cold water on his face before walking out, rubbing at his eyes.

He did a few more stretches, approaching the wall that separated him from Jay. “Just wondering, love, do you actually have my bag, or are those clothes you stole? Would be nice to know where my glasses and a fresh pair of contacts are, in case.” 

Jay laughed softly before answering, “It’s your bag alright.”

Michael smiled, nodding at her, “Did you refold and put away things after you made your splint?” “Of course you mess.” she teased lightly, but understanding of what he was trying to signal to her showed on her face and he nodded once more before returning to the desk.

*******

Calum and Ashton had made it to the underwater compound, a fact made clear by the glass dome that covered the entire complex. The pair of spies had parked their car in a lot of identical black SUVs, taking an empty space before crawling into the back cargo space. They’d agreed to give Luke and any team he could procure about nine hours before they’d move on their own. Knowing that they wouldn’t get much chance for sleep once they’d broken in, they decided to sleep in shifts, Calum taking the first four hours to rest while Ashton kept watch.

Eight maddeningly quiet hours later the pair were readying themselves to carry out their solo plan, just in case the next hour was just as quiet. Ashton was carefully looping a grappling hook to his belt when they heard a familiar knocking sequence on the bottom of the car. Both men grinned, pausing in silence as they waited for the sound to repeat itself. Once the sequence had been knocked through a second time Calum scooted back, finding the button that opened up the floor beneath them. 

Luke’s blonde head poked up through the opening, smile on his face as he recognized that his two friends that had gone ahead were still in the car, a breath of relief passing his lips. “Ready to go get our friends?” He asked, holding his bare arms out to help Calum and Ashton down into the passage they’d discovered.

Once the three highly experienced team members were in the tunnel with the rest of the extraction team, the trio got changed, pulling on black clothes, masks, and gloves, leaving only their eyes exposed from the clothing. As they all crouched in the cool, damp tunnel, Luke pulled out a tablet, showing the images on the screen to Ashton and Calum. “So, based off of your location we were able to use some satellite images to get a rough schematic of this place. We think that they’d be holding Mike and Jay about here,” Luke explained, scrolling through the different layers and plans he’d written up on the fly. “So the three of us and Simon are going to go and get them, and the other four, are gonna see if they can get visuals on who took them in the first place. If they’re not injured, we’ve got diving equipment to get out, if they are injured though, we’ll take them back here to the car and drive back the way you guys came.”

Calum and Ashton nodded at Luke’s plan, the team splitting to go their separate ways, slowly creeping through the tunnels, hoping they’d find what they were looking for where they expected to. There were spots where the tunnel sloped down, the final slope ended in a T, Luke and Calum went to the left, Ashton and Simon to the right. They kept crawling a little further until they reached what looked like a bathroom vent. Ashton looked through the slats, spotting a familiar bag on the bathroom floor, nodding excitedly to the other spy before carefully removing the vent. Both men carefully lowered down, landing lightly on the toilet lid before hopping to the ground. They slowly made their way to the bathroom door, pausing on the inside of the door, waiting a moment. The sound of Michael’s voice reached their ears, “Did you refold and put away things after you made your splint?”

“Of course, you mess,” came Jay’s teasing response, the volume of her voice softer to them than Michael’s, but it, along with the lack of things scattered around the bathroom, gave Ashton the information he was waiting for, Michael knew they were coming.

He felt a lightness in his chest from his friends’ faith in their team, smile crossing his face as he heard Michael acknowledge someone else, muttering something about code and security measures. Ashton held back Simon, waiting a moment for whoever Michael had spoken to to go away, some sort of guard probably. He peeked out the doorway, spotting Calum doing the same across the way. He nodded at his friend, holding up his hand and counting down from five.

As soon as he put down his last finger, they stepped out into the room, four spies moving quickly and quietly towards the two that had been captured. Michael spun in his chair, having seen two figures moving towards Jay’s bed in the reflection of one of the computer screens. His guard was up as he approached Simon, pulling back a fist. Ashton quickly pulled back his mask and hood, “Hey, hey, it’s us, we’re here for you,” he waved quickly over at Luke and Calum, both of them doing the same as Ashton. 

Michael sighed with relief, letting Ashton wrap him in his arms, “Sorry, just...stressed.”

“It’s ok, we’ve got you, we’re here.” Ashton whispered, rubbing Michael’s shoulders. 

“Jay thinks she broke her ankle,” Michael said as he pulled away, looking to the glass wall that Ashton could now see separated the couple. 

Ashton nodded, quickly pulling a tool from his belt, cutting a hole in the glass. Michael gasped, running through it immediately, leaning down to give Jay a kiss. “Get her out, please, Alek Turner is the one who took us, wants names, we have to try to bring him in. He has people on the inside, need to find out more.”

Ashton, Calum and Luke nodded, understanding. Calum carefully took Jay in his arms, heading for her bathroom. Ashton ran over, grabbing Michael’s bag from his bathroom handing it to Luke before grabbing Michael’s arm, making him move. Michael looked at the computer he’d been working on, pulling against Ashton to go for the computer, “Need to get out of our system before we leave.”

Ashton stared for a moment, Simon already getting the glass into the hallway cut. “Is the only thing on that computer hacking software, nothing we can use against Turner?”

“Yeah, but--” 

Ashton shot at the CPU three times, Michael staring slack jawed as the screens slowly flickered off, “There, they can’t use any of your hard work getting started to figure out how to get in from there.”

Michael nodded slowly, letting Ashton lead him out into the hallway. Ashton pulled his hood and mask back over his head, nodding towards Simon. They took off for the doors, Ashton smacking the guard with the butt of his pistol, knocking him to the ground. They’d run up a few flights of stairs when Michael realized something. He grabbed Ashton’s shoulder as they paused on a landing, “Fletch, he knows you.” 

Ashton’s hazel eyes widened as he processed what Michael was saying, “No fucking way.” he whispered.

Michael just nodded, pausing at the door out of the stairwell. He listened quietly for a moment before pushing out into the hallway, waiting for the other two to follow him. The sound of fighting came from down the hall. Luke had clearly alerted the other team’s leader that they needed to go after Turner now. Michael took off down the hall, Ashton following right behind him. The two dove into the fray, bobbing and weaving through the fighting spies and henchmen, landing hits when necessary. They’d lost track of Simon, but figured he’d be elsewhere helping their teammates. 

Michael caught sight of Turner trying to slip away, his silken pajamas rumpled. He leapt in the larger man’s direction, tackling him to the ground and struggling to gain control. He ended up on top of the other man’s chest, satisfied smile on his pink lips as he recognized the purple bruise around Alek’s throat from their tangle earlier in the day. He gripped the collar of the pajama shirt, lifting Turner just slightly as he leaned in, growling “I’m gonna be so happy to lock you up. This, is for my girlfriend,” he paused, landing a punch to Alek’s nose, “and this, is for all those slimeball snitches you’re going to tell us about, you bastard.” He punctuated the second statement with another punch, this time to Turner’s cheek, before twisting slightly to look at Ashton. “Care to do the honors, Fletch?”

Ashton nodded, stepping forward, cuffs already in hand. He restrained Turner while Michael turned him to his stomach, face squished against the marble floor. “C’mon Fletch,” Alek started, using the sweet, innocent voice he had spoken with as Aaron, “we were friends, take it easy, yeah?”

Ashton snorted, tightening the first cuff, “Fletch was friends with Aaron, if I’d known who I was talking with at the time I’d have knocked you in the head with my trowel first chance I got, no questions asked.”

Michael smiled, though he knew Ashton with any makeshift weapon was dangerous, the image of his friend with his bright red hair standing over the large blonde they were taking in, dressed in overalls and weilding a trowel tickled him just a bit. He was about to make a joke about it when he heard the clicking of a revolver. He turned, locking eyes with Simon, his mask and hood removed as he stood over Michael, Ashton, and Alek. He glanced around, the four other members of the extraction team were all staring, standing in a sea of unconscious and subdued henchmen, shocked that one of their own was pointing a gun at the spy they’d come to rescue.

“I suggest you think about what you’re doing, Si.” Ashton warned lowly, “You’re outnumbered, plus if you even try to think about shooting me or Agent M, you’re going to be risking shooting your boss here, and you don’t want to do that, do you?”

Michael nodded, green eyes meeting brown, “Yeah, just put the gun down, Simon, maybe the brass will consider leniency since you helped me escape, but only if you cooperate now, otherwise...who knows?”

Simon lowered the gun slightly, still not dropping it to the ground. Michael took a heavy breath, glancing towards Ashton. He nodded, shifting on top of Turner. Michael moved quickly, barrelling into Simon before he knew what was happening. The gun went off, bullet grazing Michael’s arm before embedding itself in a wall. Michael yelped, but wrestled the revolver out of Simon’s grasp, pinning him in his arms before looking to another agent. “Kay, help us to bring him in?”

“With pleasure,” they responded, Michael easily handing over the mole to them, watching as Ashton stood with Turner, nodding to the team leader and they all walked out the door. 

Kay put Simon in the car with Alek while Ashton stood under the liftgate, looking over Michael. “M’just bruised and sore Fletch,” Michael stated, aware that there still could be listening ears, even with Alek Turner in their custody. 

Ashton sighed, nodding and letting Michael get to his feet, lowering the trunk as Kay came around the side, “They’re secured, gonna head out with the rest of the team. Meet you guys at the rendezvous point.”

Michael thanked them, giving them a quick hug before he got in the passenger seat next to Ashton. The drive through the narrow tunnel was quiet, Michael listening to the calming playlist that Ashton had on. He smiled as he sat there, car slowly moving upwards. Ashton stopped ten feet back from what appeared to be a dead end, putting the car in park as he fiddled with his watch. Michael stared wide eyed as a ramp lowered down, Ashton punching the gas and driving up it, the car coming into a wider tunnel. Michael’s mouth hung open and Ashton turned to look at him, confused, “Did you not see any of this when they brought you down?”

“No, I got knocked out as soon as I asked why we had passed the airport.”

Ashton nodded slowly, continuing to drive out of the tunnel, heading for the surface. Once they were full out of the tunnel and back on the highway they could see the sunrise over the bay. Michael hummed, taking in the orange and pink reflected in the water, “Haven’t seen one of those in a while.”

Ashton laughed heartily, smiling as he continued the drive to where they were supposed to meet up with Luke, Calum, and the rest of the team. Once they arrived at the airport Michael scrambled out of the car, running for where he could see Luke and Calum waiting at the bottom of the plane stairs. He wrapped both men in his arms, pressing to their chests. “This is a total 180 from you almost punching Simon’s face when we came in.” Calum joked, eyes sparkling until he saw Ashton holding a cuffed Simon.

“Shoulda punched his lights out when I thought you guys were henchmen taking Jay somewhere because I wasn’t working fast enough. Fucking mole.” Michael grunted, noticing the shock both men held. He shook his head as Ashton walked Simon up the stairs, followed by another team member with Turner. “Anyway, how’s my girl?”

Luke nodded, leading Michael onto the plane with everyone else, Michael quickly strode over to where he saw his girlfriend, laying on a couch, her foot propped up on a pile of pillows. He smiled, crouching next to her, holding her hand as another few people walked past, carrying the go bags from the back of the car, Turner’s henchmen having just grabbed two when they brought the spies in that afternoon. Michael hummed, content to just sit on the floor in front of his girlfriend as the plane took off for HQ.

~~~~~

Michael had dozed off at some point during the flight, body content to finally knock out of its own volition, giving him two hours of proper sleep before Calum was shaking him awake on the approach. Once they landed they all filed off the plane, Michael cradling Jay in his arms as he followed everyone to the three cars waiting on the tarmac. Luke, Ashton, and Calum clambered into the third row seats, Michael ducking his head as he buckled his girlfriend into her seat before he ran to the other side of the car. Alek Turner and Simon were put in their own car, being taken straight to HQ for processing while the entire extraction team were taken to their doctors to get checked out.

Michael was cleared quickly, and he walked over to Jay’s room, waiting patiently for her to come back from having x rays taken. The nurse who wheeled her back in simply nodded and left the room, and he rose from his chair, rushing over to give Jay a long kiss, holding her gently. “After everything we’ve been through today, I don’t fucking care what they do to us for this, so long as I still get to have you.”

Jay smiled, running her fingers through his hair. He carefully lifted her from the chair, going to sit on the exam table, holding Jay sideways in his lap. Before the doctor came back in with the x rays, Luke, Ashton, and Calum had all joined them in the small room, finding various spots to sit and wait for the update on their teammate. He sighed when he finally came in, shaking his head slightly before putting up the images on the light board, showing the injury Jay had sustained when the henchman she’d been fighting had caught her mid-kick, twisting her foot before dropping her to the floor. 

Michael grimaced at the memory of the sound of Jay yelling before a thunk, right before they’d both been knocked out for the second time in one day. Jay squeezed his hand gently and he turned his head, giving her a smile as the doctor explained that she was going to have to be in a cast for about a month and a half, confined to desk duty for that time period.

As soon as Jay’s leg was wrapped in a clunky purple cast they were cleared to go. Calum carried Jay’s new crutches while Michael opted to carry her to their meeting with the brass, the team of five standing strong together as they entered the office. They looked up at the five leaders of the organization, their identities concealed even to their own employees. The one standing in the middle spoke first, looking down at the five spies in front of them. “So, first, glad to have you two back safe and sound, agents. Good job thinking to apprehend Turner before escaping to safety, Agent M, who knows how long we would’ve been searching for him again had you not insisted that that was the priority.”

Michael bowed his head at the praise, waiting for the shoe to drop. “However,” spoke up another member, “This is exactly why none of you are supposed to be in a relationship with another team member. What would’ve happened if no one came to get you?”

He cleared his throat quietly, waiting a beat to see if any of the other leaders would chime in or if he was to answer. He licked his lips before nodding, “I was already stalling for time when my team members came in to get me. I had set off alarms in the lab, getting a conversation in with my mentor, Agent S. If I’d been informed that no one was coming at that time I would’ve continued to stall and try to get him more information. Turner would not have gotten anything from me unless I had absolutely nowhere else to turn.

However, Turner was sloppy, he took us when we were expected to be somewhere, left behind people who would do anything to make sure that Jay and I came back safe. Plus, as you can see, we didn’t go down easy either, we were both knocked out twice within a single day. I think the more important question here is how did Turner get access to agents and turn them to his side to give him any information at all, regardless of the fact that they all refused to tell him where this building is. We need to get him to tell us how many informants he had and who they were, all we have right now is Simon and that’s solely because he pulled a gun on us while we were restraining Turner. How much loyalty do the other moles feel for him if Simon was willing to point a gun at people who have trained and worked alongside him for years?”

There were murmurs from the leaders, the five of them talking to each other while the team waited patiently. Finally, the head of their entire organization rose, at the far end, her gaze falling on the couple before turning to the rest of the team as well. “There’s no way that we can stop the two of you right now. We will question Simon and Alek Turner thoroughly to discover who else answered to Turner and bring them all to justice. All five of you are to take leave for the next week before returning to work. Get some rest, you’ve all done well.”

All five team members nodded, quietly exiting the room. Once they were out and had gathered all their things they smiled at each other. “Breakfast? I’m starving, I haven’t eaten since we left the safehouse.” Michael said, grinning.

They all nodded, making their ways to their respective cars once they agreed on a place. Michael got Jay buckled in before accepting the crutches from Calum, laying them in the backseat before getting in himself. “You should wear clothes like Luke’s more often, looks nice, probably be better without the sweats.”

Michael chuckled as he started the car, slowly backing out of his spot before responding. “Probably would be. The pink is definitely starting to grow on me.”

Jay hummed as Michael pulled out onto the street. “Got a whole week at home together, then you get me sitting in the lab with you for like a whole month, that’s gonna be nice.”

“Sure is sweetheart, I can’t wait.” Michael smiled, leaning over to give his girlfriend a kiss at the stoplight, Luke and Ashton hooting on either side of his car. He shook his head, “So long as we get a good amount of time away from them,” he joked, smile on both their faces as they continued their drive to the restaurant, looking forward to their freetime, together.

Tag List: @irwinkitten @calpops @goth5sos @wildflowergrae @empathycth

[darkpoisonouslove]

“The Destiny of Bloom” Thoughts

I decided to watch the Winx specials because I have never done that before and I got curious as to how different they are from the episodes (because they are kinda recaps of the first two seasons from what I gathered.)

- This one is over forty minutes? I thought they would be 20-minute long. Okay, let’s do this!

- Why is everything so pink in that shot of Gardenia? It has never looked pinker, ever.

- Oh, no! They replaced Bloom’s crop top and bell bottoms with her season 3 outfit. Why would you do that? It completely changes the feel of the whole thing.

- I don’t like the fact that Vanessa is not supportive about Bloom’s interest in fairies. I think she said something similar in the original season 1 but it didn’t come off this way. And that whole interaction with Mike and Vanessa also feels different. There is more edge to it and it comes off as if they are a dysfunctional family instead of a loving one that just has some issues to fix. The changes are subtle but they amount to a very different end result and I am not a fan of it.

- And that continues with the bike thing. In the original Bloom expected a scooter but got a bike. In this one it is bike instead of a car which just ups the disappointment and makes for a bigger divide between her and her parents. It has been about two minutes and I already don’t like where this is going. Also, the whole aesthetic is off when Bloom is riding the bike in that outfit.

- What is wrong with Stella’s scepter? It is so much uglier than the original one. They didn’t have to go and change everything! Especially the things that were working.

- Is it me or does Knut look more vicious? Also, I can’t remember if he originally had a hold of Stella’s scepter before Bloom appeared. I sure as hell know that the Dragon Fire never showed up like that before the season finale, though. But that change I can understand. If they’re trying to recap half of season 1 in 40 minutes, they will have to speed it up.

- Stella passing out was kind of out of nowhere here. She looked just fine and then the next second, boom! She just fainted. It would’ve been better to just stick to the original and have her use all her power to chase Knut and the remaining goblins (were they?) away.

- Wow, the Trix really remind of the Ancestral Witches in that scene where you can only see their eyes. I like that!

- What have they done with Stella’s hairdo? Why does she have those extra strands of hair at both sides of her face. It looks weird.

- Mike (and Vanessa)’s disbelief here was stretched out past what was in season 1 and it just doesn’t make sense since Mike saw the magical shield around baby Bloom when he first found her. Unless there’s no time for that and they’ll just leave it out but still. This keeps making Mike and Vanessa less supportive of Bloom than they actually are.

- How is the troll tracking them without a piece of Bloom’s bell bottoms? They should have kept the original outfits!

- Stella being impressed with Bloom’s drawings is the perfect place for me to mention that thought I had the other day. We know Bloom can draw and Stella certainly can as well since she wants to be a fashion designer so I was thinking of how cool it would be if they’d shown them drawing together. It would’ve helped further showcase their friendship and I think it is such a missed opportunity.

- Stella just mixed differently colored crayons to make a shade of pink and I love that. I bet she just messes around with shades and colors all the time.

- I guess Mike will have to believe in magic now that a troll attacked his home.

- Ouch! Stella just got thrown out the window? Why aren’t there any rips in her dress and scratches on her skin? Because she should certainly have those after crashing through a glass and having that rough landing.

- The troll also looks more menacing than it did originally. (I just now realized that the scene with Mitzi was cut from this special. Not that I am complaining. I am doing just fine without Mitzi.)

- XD Riven with his overconfidence in himself. At least they are nailing his character.

- They dropped Sky and Brandon’s identity swap? Wow! I am shocked. Or rather what could be described as pleasantly shocked and hopeful that that means the whole drama with Diaspro will not be in any of these either.

- I don’t understand why Mike refused to have all that damage to their home magically fixed. Forget time and effort, fixing it “the traditional way” looks like it will cost a bit. And I doubt they had “attacks of goblins, a troll and an ogre” on their budget.

- Why is there a barrier that keeps non-magical creatures out of Alfea when magical creatures are surely more dangerous? I know that was in the original as well but it was stupid back then and it is stupid now. It does confirm my headcanon that Kiko is magical, though, since he has no problem going through the barrier.

- Okay, Mike and Vanessa are being supportive now. That’s better.

- What happened? Did Stella call Faragonda or something? How does she know Bloom otherwise? Don’t get me wrong, I am glad there won’t be the whole “pretending Bloom is another girl” thing but this is kinda suspicious and it will keep being so until they explain how Faragonda knows about Bloom.

- Magix world? That means just Magix, right? For a moment there I thought they were trying to say there were only three schools in the whole magical dimension but that doesn’t make sense. Also, “scary old miss Griffin”? Both Saladin and Faragonda look older than Griffin. Why would you say it like that? But at least there wasn’t the whole implication of “the witches might maim you but we ain’t gonna do shit about it” that angered me so much in the original. And, “some of those witches are really mean.” I like that. It means that not all witches are like that.

- Bloom apologized for stepping on Flora’s plant and Flora was like “No, don’t be sorry”? What have you done to Flora?! She would never imply “be less careful with the plants”. And I was just starting to like this despite the aesthetic being off.

- And we keep following into the bad changes. I always loved the fact that Magix had pizza and pizza was a universal thing but here the girls don’t seem to know what pizza is. That is so sad. There should always be pizza everywhere.

- Darcy’s powers look so cool! I think there is a slight difference to how they’re animated but they always look cool! Her voice is kinda grating on my nerves, however.

- Why did the Trix all just refer to themselves in the third person? I know why - to introduce who they are. But it just sounded so cringy. Wasn’t there a better way to do that? Like, maybe them calling out each other’s names instead of their own? It would’ve been pretty easy to figure out who is who considering their powers even if you haven’t watched the show.

- Magic Charmix? Say what now? And I really don’t like the change in the transformation sequences. The original ones looked so much better. These look like they’re borrowing from the Believix sequences, I think (and I never really liked those). Please, bring back Musa’s original transformation sequence with the disco elements! It was so much cooler than this one! At least, Tecna’s isn’t so bad.

- I liked the original way of them deciding the name. You know, when Bloom had a logo made before she suggested it. That was a cool detail. Also, Musa’s short hair is totally giving me whiplash combined with her s3 outfit. These are not supposed to go together, please!

- I hate how they tried to segue right into episode 7 without any of the things in between. It looks like Griselda is targeting them for no reason and I don’t like it. There were some wrong things with how she proceeded in season 1 as well but this is much, much worse. Although, it’s good to see Winx have fun together.

- I prefer Whisperian Crystals to Vacuums, thanks.

- Darcy said Riven has the same level of negative energy as them? Wow. It would’ve been interesting if he’d had magic. He might have been just as powerful as the Trix.

- Well, they took the monster down... and destroyed half the school in the process.

- There is not much to comment on this whole arc, except that it doesn’t make sense when we haven’t seen why their powers were taken. And the vague explanation they tried to give was not working. This time at least they mentioned that it was forbidden to go in Faragonda’s office when she’s not there (because they somehow missed that in 1x07).

- Oh, at least the dreams look different. And they are finally introducing Daphne. I like the aesthetic of this dream. But damn, we already reached the Magical Reality Chamber part? Wait, Bloom’s powers haven’t come in yet? So they’re gonna use the MRC to have them awakening then and that’s how the Trix will learn about the Dragon Fire.

- And Palladium looks like his s2-onwards self. Not to mention that Domino wasn’t supposed to be the simulation, was it? I think in the original it was a place that they didn’t want any of the students to end up during a simulation. But I guess they had to introduce it somehow and this was the most logical way. Plus, it could have something to do with her powers awakening while she is in her own planet. Edit: At first I couldn't tell why the fact that they were calling the Magical Reality Chamber a simulator was bugging me but now I got it. Simulator implies that what is happening is not real but in s1 Palladium warned them to be careful in the MRC because if they get hurt, it will hurt. Aka that's why it's a Magical Reality Chamber. It's real.

- Yeah, the Trix somehow magically deduced that it was Bloom they were looking for and they also knew at what precise moment she would be in the simulation. That... just doesn’t make any sense. (And I hate the voice over that just informs us about the time and place which we can very clearly see.)

- Didn’t she say her magic hadn’t come in yet? Because she is using it now and she doesn’t look like it is happening for the first time.

- Thank god, everyone can see that the Trix are inside! In the original they were there but no one seemed to notice which always bugged me because it was obvious that Bloom wasn’t alone and yet, somehow, that fact seemed to escape everyone who was watching. They have fixed it here!

- “Junior fairy”? That is supposed to be “freshman”. Unless they changed it to junior because the special that deals with season 2 will be the “senior” stuff and then there are no more specials.

- Darcy’s magic looked a lot like Musa’s sound waves there.

- Bloom dived in the lava for Kiko? Wow! I actually feel... bad for her but I also like that she was ready to do that for Kiko. Weren’t the Trix just pushing her to make her use her powers, though?

- Well, she transformed. I think that out of all the transformations they have fucked hers up the most. Her Winx transformation was so amazing and this one isn’t even anywhere close to that. Why was any of that necessary?

- Why did the Trix end up in an auditorium in CT when they started out in their room? They should have gone back there!

- It is really cute that all the other fairies were so happy for Bloom and her newly found winx, though! I liked that!

This had an overall plot that continued throughout the whole episode and it generally managed most of the important elements of the story. There were a couple of things that didn’t make sense thanks to the way more than 10 episodes were compressed in 40 minutes but there weren’t any major mishaps. The ongoing plot made enough sense and carried well enough throughout the whole thing. And it would probably stand even better on its own if not being compared to the original way of doing things in season 1. Considering the time constraints, I’d say this works surprisingly well. I am only uncertain as to what was the idea of these specials but that does not weigh down on the quality of this one. It was pretty good, all in all.

[cocastyle]

The In-Between Chapter 7

Stranger Things x It Crossover

with some Bill Denbrough x reader

Word Count - 7,547

Warning - none

A/N - super long chapter because there is a lot in this one! anyways, I hope you all like it :)

if you would like to be added to the tag list, let me know!

T H E I N - B E T W E E N

Intro The Losers’ Club The Party Prologue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Epilogue

“Well, fuck. This house looks like a shit show just waiting to happen," Lucas muttered as he looked at the old house before them. He glanced at Y/N who was by his side currently snapping twigs in half before lightly nudging her with his elbow. She glanced his way and he pointed at the house. "Please tell me this isn't the place."

"Wish I could, Lucas," Y/N sighed. She then patted the boy's shoulder. "Don't worry. It looks scarier on the inside."

She then began to walk away while Lucas blinked in shock before yelling out, "You do know that doesn't help, right?"

Y/N just looked at him from over her shoulder and gave him a sly smile before walking over to the back of Steve's car where Steve, Wheeler, Stan and Bill were currently unloading the weapons and supplies. "You guys need any help?" Y/N offered.

Bill set the rope he had in his grasp on the ground before looking to Y/N with a small smile. "N-N-No, we're good. There's only a f-f-few more things left and th-th-then we should be good to g-g-go," Bill told her.

Y/N smiled back at him and Wheeler glanced between the two before chuckling softly as he got a small flashback of him and Eleven back when they hadn't admitted their feelings for each other yet.

"Denbrough," Steve called out causing the boy to look away from Y/N and over to the older boy who had his hands on his hips. "You gonna help or you gonna stare at Y/N all day?"

Bill instantly blushed and glanced at Y/N who let out a small laugh, her cheeks dusted a light pink. She gave him a wink before turning around to leave him to finish his job, for once not minding the small protective part of Steve that was coming out.

Y/N glanced around at her friends, smiling to herself at the sight of Lucas and Eleven talking to Beverly and Ben while Max, Will and Dustin talked with Richie. She liked that they were finally trying to get along for once.

The puff of an inhaler had her snapping out of her thoughts and she turned to see Eddie standing off to the side with an inhaler in hand and his focus on the Well House. He looked paler than usual and it didn't take Y/N long to notice the small shake of his hands as he gripped onto his inhaler like his life depended on it.

Y/N frowned and slowly walked over to her friend before placing a hand on his shoulder. Eddie instantly jumped and turned to her with wide eyes, but he relaxed almost as quickly once he realized who it was.

"Oh, hey, Y/N," Eddie greeted, his breathing still a little erratic.

"Hey, Eddie. You okay?" she asked, tilting her head slightly as she gave the boy a confused look.

"Uh. . .not really. I mean. . .I don't know about this, Y/N. My asthma can't take all this stress," Eddie admitted as he let out a breathy chuckle.

Y/N could tell the boy was scared, so she didn't hesitate to reach for his hand and give it a small squeeze. "Hey, you're going to be just fine, okay? You've got me, the rest of the Losers, and the whole Party here to help. It's not like you're going in there alone," she assured him. "Besides, you know I wouldn't let anything happen to you."

Eddie was silent for a moment before nodding. "I know," he whispered as he sent her a small smile. He let his inhaler return to its spot in his fanny pack before giving Y/N's hand a light squeeze. The girl smiled at him before Wheeler announcing that they were done had everyone turning to look at them.

The groups were silent as they stared at the supplies on the ground before them. No one made a move to grab something, so Dustin let out a sigh as he took his hat off and ran his hand through his hair before returning his hat to its rightful spot.

"Only half of us are going in, right?" Dustin asked and Y/N nodded in response. "So how are we going to do this? Draw from a hat?"

"We could always measure our wangs! I'll for sure wi-" Richie began, but the Losers were quick to exclaim, "Beep beep, Richie!"

"Why do I have to look like him?" Wheeler whispered as he lightly shook his head.

"We're going to draw sticks actually," Y/N said as she held out a handful of sticks she had broke when they first arrived. She glanced to Dustin and gestured towards his hat. "May I?" Dustin nodded and quickly took his hat off before handing it to the girl. Y/N smiled in thanks before placing the sticks inside and holding it out. "Okay, everyone grab a stick. The eight shortest sticks are the ones who have to go in."

One by one, the Losers and the Party all grabbed a stick from the hat. It wasn't until everyone had grabbed a stick that they slowly opened their hands, a little over half of the group letting out groans while the others let out sighs of relief.

In the end, Richie, Steve, Wheeler, Eleven, Y/N, Dustin, Bill and Eddie were the ones who got the short sticks.

"I would've won," Y/N heard Richie mutter as he pouted, but she just ignored him and went over to the pile of supplies and weapons with Eleven right on her heels and no complaints coming out of either of their mouths.

Y/N picked up a crowbar, some rope, and a flashlight while Eleven picked up a flashlight and some rope before they turned to the boys.

"Come on, princesses. We don't have all day."

- - -

"I love you, Y/N. I really do, but I'm so happy that I don't have to go in there," Stan muttered from his best friend's side as the two stared ahead at the pulsing goo portal before them.

Y/N grimaced at the colors coming from the portal before saying, "I love you too, Stan the Man, and I really don't blame you either."

"So we doing this or what?" Steve asked as he held his bat up against his shoulder. "The longer we stand here, the more we're just going to psych ourselves out."

"True," Y/N sighed before she began to pull Bill's jacket off. Said boy instantly looked over at her and gave her a confused look. She just smiled softly and said, "I don't want to get it messed up."

Bill smiled at that before taking it from her and setting it on top of a wooden chair that was bent to one side because of a missing leg. "It'll be th-th-there for you w-w-when you get b-b-back," Bill told her, the two smiling warmly at each other before looking to the portal in front of them.

"Okay, let's do this," Y/N muttered shakily. Bill glanced over at the nervous girl before reaching out and grabbing ahold of her hand, their fingers intertwining almost instantly. Y/N looked to Bill who gave her a small smile and a nod. She quickly returned it before the two began to walk towards the portal.

"Be careful!" Beverly called out before nervously biting her lips, worry coursing through her veins.

"Stick together!" Ben reminded them.

"And don't wander off alone!" Lucas added, Max nodding her head in agreement.

The people staying back continued to tell them to be careful and such as Y/N and Bill walked through the portal side by side. The two stumbled into the Upside Down almost instantly and Bill was quick to put his hands out and steady the girl, Y/N gripping onto his arms automatically before the two looked up and locked eyes.

Bill blushed as he stared at the girl and Y/N just sent him a small smile that made his heart start beating faster and his breath hitch in his throat.

"What the fuck? You've been in here for like ten seconds and are already making heart eyes at each other?" Richie asked in disgust as he pushed his way through the portal.

"Shut up, Tozier," Y/N grumbled as her and Bill pulled away from each other.

"Make me, L/N," Richie shot back before mockingly puckering up his lips. Y/N let out a laugh and shoved the boy away while Richie chuckled and Bill frowned.

One by one, Wheeler, Steve, Dustin, and Eleven came through the portal. It took a moment longer for Eddie to come through and he instantly grimaced at the sight of decay all around him before taking out his inhaler.

"I think I'm going to throw up," Eddie muttered. Y/N chuckled and nudged him before giving him a small reassuring smile. Eddie relaxed a little, but he was still pale as he looked at the room around him.

To Y/N's surprise, everyone then looked to her. The girl blinked in response and her eyes flickered over to Steve who gave her a small nod that told her to go ahead. She smiled ever so slightly before nodding her head towards the staircase. "Turn your flashlights on and come this way," she told them.

The group all nodded and turned their flashlights on before following the girl up the stairs and out of the house. Once they were outside, Y/N pulled out her map before opening it up and looking at the divided sections.

"Okay, since we don't know if Mike is still in the same spot Eleven last saw him in, it’s best if we check as many areas as possible. We split the map up into four sections so I say we pair off and then go from there," Y/N explained.

Bill's eyes lit up and he looked at Y/N before opening his mouth to speak, but Eleven beat him to it and exclaimed, "I call Y/N!"

Bill instantly frowned while Eleven linked arms with the girl. Y/N offered Bill a small smile and his frown instantly turned into a smile, not being able to keep a straight face when she smiled at him like that.

"I'll go with Bill," Steve offered, his eyes flickering between Y/N and Bill. Y/N let out a small sigh of relief, something about knowing that the older boy would be by Bill's side calming her almost instantly. As for Bill, he couldn't help but tense, already knowing what was about to happen.

"Okay then. I guess that means it will be me and Eddie and then Richie and Mike?" Dustin suggested. Everyone nodded except for Richie and Wheeler who looked at their friends with their mouths hanging open.

"What? Don't put me with his ugly ass!" Richie complained as he exasperatedly waved his arms around.

"Did he just call me ugly?" Wheeler asked, his face scrunched up in confusion and annoyance. "We have the same face! He does know we have the same face, right?"

The two boys began to bicker before the group's eyes and Y/N rolled her eyes before saying, "Tozier! Wheeler!"

The boys instantly stopped and looked to the girl. "Seriously? We have someone who needs us and you two are busy bickering? Save it for later, okay?" Y/N told them.

Richie and Wheeler frowned but nodded their heads. "Fine. We'll take the section that's on the far left of the map," Richie explained before he began to walk off. He glanced over his shoulder before yelling, "Come on, dipshit!"

Wheeler rolled his eyes and gave Y/N, Eleven, and Dustin an 'are you serious' look, but when none of them made a move to switch with him he pouted and hurried after the boy.

"So I guess they've got the far left section. Eleven and I will take the section with the quarry since she might be able to locate Mike when we get there," Y/N explained. "You guys split up the last two and then we'll meet back in our world, okay?"

The groups nodded and Y/N gave them all a small nod before saying, "Good luck." She then looked to Eleven and the two nodded at each other before beginning to walk off.

Y/N had taken no more than three steps before Bill was suddenly reaching out and grabbing onto her wrist. The girl turned around to see Bill looking at her worriedly. "B-B-Be careful, okay?" he whispered, his eyes flickering over her face as he stared at her in concern.

"I will," she assured him as she gave his hand a small squeeze.

"P-P-Promise?" Bill found himself whispering, almost afraid that he was going to actually lose her.

Y/N stepped up on her tip toes and kissed the boy’s cheek, Bill's face instantly turning red while Y/N smiled at him. "Promise," she whispered. "You be careful too, okay?"

Bill nodded and whispered, "Promise."

Y/N smiled softly at the boy before reluctantly pulling herself away. She glanced at the others boys where Eddie was currently smirking at her and said, "You guys be careful too. I don't know what I would do if any of you got hurt."

"We will. Now go," Steve told her as he smiled and waved her off.

The girl saluted him making the boys chuckle before Y/N ran after Eleven and the two disappeared into their section.

It was time to find Mike.

- - -

Eddie was silent as he walked through the Upside Down. He hugged himself and stared at the things around him in disgust, not wanting anything to touch him in fear that it might give him some disease or something.

Deciding he couldn't stare at everything or it would only freak him out, Eddie let his gaze fall on Dustin who was walking beside him. He hadn't gotten the chance to talk to Dustin since the boy had gotten here, but from what he remembered, Dustin was the reason Y/N's friends had all come here in the first place.

"So how long have you known Y/N?" Dustin asked, drawing Eddie out of his thoughts.

"Uh. . .two years now I guess. I met her at lunch on her first day of school after she moved," Eddie explained. Knowing that he probably had to keep the conversation going Eddie asked, "What about you?"

"Oh," Dustin chuckled a little at the memory before smiling and glancing at Eddie. "We met back in second grade. She was already friends with Lucas, so I knew who she was, but I didn't become friends with her until that year. There was this kid named Troy who liked to bully me because I have cleidocranial dysplasia and Y/N saw him making fun of me one day and called him in asshole before embarrassing him in front of the whole grade at recess. We became best friends after that."

Eddie chuckled and became a little less tense. "That sounds like Y/N alright. She once punched our school bully Henry Bowers in the face after he almost made me have an asthma attack. He threatened to beat the shit out of her for standing up for me, but she merely punched him square in the nose before grabbing my hand and running away. She ended up breaking her hand, but she said it was worth it because Henry had a broken nose and bruised face for the longest time," Eddie laughed.

Dustin let out a small laugh before shaking his head. "She gets herself into a lot of trouble doing things like that, but you got to love her," Dustin sighed, a distant look on his face.

Eddie let his eyes flicker over the boy's face before he frowned a little bit, the sudden realization of how much Dustin and his friends must miss having Y/N around hitting him hard. They had been best friends before she moved. He couldn't even imagine what it would be like if Y/N left them now.

"You know, she talks about you guys a lot and how much she misses you," Eddie said. "She loves you all a hell of a lot."

Dustin smiled softly at that before looking up at the boy. "Same goes for you. She talks so highly of you guys and how thankful she is for getting to be in your group. We used to have conversations before she left about how afraid she was of not fitting in. So the rest of the Party and I can't thank you enough for everything you've done for her," Dustin told him.

Eddie stared at Dustin in surprise before letting a smile break across his face. "We're lucky to have her," Eddie answered truthfully.

A small silence fell among the two again, but this one was more of a comfortable silence than anything. It wasn't until they reached a small forest looking area that one of them spoke up again.

"Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew," Eddie muttered as he stepped over all the decay covered objects around him. It was to the point where the landscape around him was so destroyed and disgusting one couldn't even tell what the objects actually were and the smell was enough to make Eddie gag.

"It could be worse," Dustin pointed out making Eddie look at him confused.

"How could this place be any worse?" Eddie asked in disbelief.

"Well," Dustin began as he walked through the woods like it was nothing, "for starters, I've seen these plants where it will literally shoot out dust and some kind of like gross mist at people. I got that shit in my mouth once and it was disgusting let me tell you."

Eddie looked at the boy in horror, flashbacks of when It had changed into a leper and thrown up on him going through his head. The thought of one of those plant things doing what had happened to Dustin to him made him feel light heated.

"You haven't even seen the Mind Flayer," Dustin told him.

"Mind Flayer?" Eddie asked confused.

"Yeah, it's like the boss of the Upside down. It's gross and can like shoot parts of itself into people. It happened to El once and she had to literally rip the thing out of her leg with her powers. There was so much blood and. . .woah, are you okay?" Dustin asked as he looked to the pale Eddie.

"Y-Y-Yeah, I'm fine," Eddie said as he shakily reached into his fanny pack before taking a hit off his inhaler.

Dustin give the boy a skeptical look. "You sure?" he asked. Eddie nodded and Dustin sent him a small smile. "Good. Let's keep going."

Dustin then began to walk ahead and Eddie stood there for a minute before taking another hit off his inhaler and hurrying after the boy, silently wondering how things were going with the other groups right about now.

- - -

"Why did I have to get stuck with you?" Richie complained for what had to be the hundredth time since the pair had left the others. "You look like you wouldn't be able to tell a difference between a demogorgon and your own mom."

Wheeler glared at the boy, the fact that he was glaring at someone who looked exactly like himself still creeping him out. "You done yet? Cause you've been complaining ever since we left," Wheeler said.

"Your mom complains every time she leaves me, but you don't see me telling her to be quiet," Richie shot back.

Wheeler shook his head and looked away with a scoff. "How did you and Y/N even become friends?" Wheeler muttered, the tone in his voice making Richie freeze and look to the boy in pure hatred.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Richie asked, his teeth gritted together as he instantly became defensive.

Wheeler looked surprised that Richie had heard him, but didn't back down as he stopped walking and turned to look at the boy. "The person she describes versus the person standing before me are two totally different people," Wheeler explained.

Richie furrowed his eyebrows, his anger slightly starting to disappear and instead being replaced by confusion. "What do you mean the person she describes?" he asked.

"I know it's hard to believe, but Y/N actually thinks highly of you, Tozier," Wheeler said. "She won't shut up about the whole lot of you, but I remember some of the things she's said about you. How you probably care the most out of the group even if you won't show it or how you will spend days at the arcade with her just to make her smile. How you are one of the funniest people she has ever met and how you aren't afraid to get serious and help her out if she really needs it."

"Why would she say that about me?" Richie asked, cutting Wheeler off in his explanation because of how confused he was.

"You're one of her best friends, man. You helped her through a tough transition in her life when she had to move to Derry. Your jokes, if that's what you would like to call them, and the little arguments you all have helped get her mind off of all the hard things going on in her life. She was so damn excited for us to meet one day and even went on and on about how she thought you and I could be friends. But since we met I haven't seen the boy she's talked about and we sure as hell aren't even close to being friends."

Richie's face had gone blank, the confusion and anger completely gone. Instead his face seemed to morph into a look of guilt as he looked down at his shoes.

Y/N had really said all those things about him and he had been an asshole since the Party arrived just because he was a little insecure?

Wheeler stared at Richie for a moment before asking with crossed arms, "So what the hell have you done to deserve someone like her in your life?"

An ear ringing silence filled the air at that point and Wheeler stared at Richie expectantly for a moment. It was only when Richie didn't respond that Wheeler rolled his eyes and began to walk off again.

It took a minute before Richie was by his side again and that was when the boy found himself whispering almost sadly, "I don't know."

Wheeler glanced over at the boy, letting his eyes flicker over to the utter lost look on his face as if Richie honestly couldn't figure out why he had been lucky enough to have Y/N as once of his best friends.

There was only silence after that, the only sound being the crunching of leaves beneath their feet.

- - -

Bill gulped as he glanced at Steve who walked in front of him with his bat swinging gently from side to side. He watched as the older boy ran a hand through his hair before looking around. He glanced back at Bill and the boy was quick to look away, not wanting Steve to know that he had been staring at him.

Bill just couldn't comprehend why Steve had wanted to be paired up with him. He knew it couldn't be good by the way Steve had looked at him almost angrily when he had chose him, but Steve hadn't said a word since they left so Bill wasn't entirely sure what was going on.

"What do you want, Denbrough? Or are you going to keep staring at me and pretending like you aren't?" Steve called out, turning his eyes towards the boy for only a second before looking back in front of him.

Bill felt his cheeks warm up from having been caught before he asked, "W-W-Why did you want t-t-to be partners with m-m-me?"

"Cause we need to have a talk," Steve told him with a small shrug before going silent once again. Bill stared at the boy before giving him a look that asked if he was actually going to say anything.

Steve pretended not to notice him before he sighed and said, "Y/N's like my little sister, you know that?" Bill nodded in response and Steve mimicked him by nodding as well before saying, "Good, so you'll understand why I'm about to give you the while protective brother talk."

Bill blinked in surprised before looking at Steve with a shocked face. Protective brother talk? But why? Had Steve heard about the way he had treated Y/N the past day? He thought they had made up, so why was Steve wanting to give him a protective brother talk of it wasn't for that reason?

"Y/N's a great girl, but you already know that, right? She's so kind and caring and anyone would be lucky to have her. She's one of the best people I know and she's still just a kid," Steve said. "What I'm getting at is that Y/N is pretty special, okay? I know you know that just from the way you look at her like she's the only girl that matters. And Denbrough. . .you better not fuck up with her or you can bet that I'll be on your ass in a heartbeat."

"I wouldn't dare hurt her," Bill replied almost instantly, the shock about Steve giving him the protective brother talk because he thought the two were in a relationship still not having hit him yet. When it did, he looked down before whispering, "Plus there's no need to worry. She doesn't feel the same."

Steve blinked in surprise from how dumb Bill was before turning and putting a hand to Bill's chest. "Woah, woah, woah. Aren't you supposed to be somewhat smart or something?" Steve questioned. "You've got to be a complete dumbass to believe the shit that just came out of your mouth."

"You think Y/N doesn't like you?" Steve asked in disbelief. "Denbrough, I haven't seen her even so much as glance in someone's direction with half the love she looks at you with. You're crazy if you think she doesn't care about you."

Bill looked to Steve in surprise before asking, "B-B-But what if I m-m-mess up? W-W-What if she's doesn't l-l-like me after I t-t-tell her how I f-f-feel?"

Steve stared at the boy for a second and was reminded of himself back in high school when he was debating on telling Nancy Wheeler how he felt or back when he had liked Robin Buckley.

He let out a sigh before reaching out and placing a hand on Bill's shoulder. "Listen, Denbrough. You can't have that type of attitude or nothing is ever going to happen," Steve told him. "From what Y/N's told me, you're a pretty great kid. You won't mess it up and even if you did, I'm pretty sure Y/N would find it adorable anyways. All she's going to care about is the fact that the boy she cares about likes her back."

Bill was silent for a minute and Steve could practically see the cogs moving in the young boy's head as he came to terms with the fact that Y/N might actually like him back and that he should probably tell her how he felt as well.

Finally, Bill glanced up at Steve and sent a small smile on his direction. "Th-Th-Thanks, Steve," he whispered.

Steve shrugged as if it were no big deal before beginning to walk away. "Anytime, kiddo. And remember. Break her heart and I-"

"-break my face."

- - -

"I swear this place looks a lot nicer in our world," Y/N muttered as she stared at the Upside Down's version of the quarry in disbelief. Instead of the usual water she was used to seeing, she was met with liquid so black that it couldn't be anything good. And the smell that came with it? Absolutely nothing like the smell of fresh water, a summer breeze, and the trees that came with the actual quarry.

"I believe you," Eleven said as she grimaced at the sight before her. The two girls shuddered before backing away from the cliff, neither wanting to fall in accidentally.

"So where did you see Mike when you talked to him?" Y/N asked as she turned to her friend.

Eleven glanced around before looking down at the black liquid once again. "He was in a cave," she explained. "One down there perhaps?"

Y/N nodded as glanced over at the cliff one last time before looking to the rope she had attached to her belt. An idea instantly sprung into her head and within a matter of minutes she had tied the rope around her waist before giving the other end to Eleven.

"You hold this, okay? I need you to lower me down and then, when I get down there, I'll look for Mike and see if I can find him," Y/N told her.

Eleven nodded and the two girls went to the edge of the cliff before Y/N bent down on the ground and slowly began to crawl over the edge. It took a minute for her to find a groove for her foot, but she eventually did and climbing down from there wasn't too hard.

Y/N continued to climb down until she spotted a small opening a little to the right. She began crawling in that direction before she was finally able to land her feet in the ground. The young girl let out a small sigh of relief before flattening our her shirt and looking up.

The cave itself was dark on the inside so Y/N couldn’t quite see what was inside. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end, and she gently gripped onto the rope in case she would have to tug lightly and have Eleven pull her up quickly.

"Mike?" Y/N called out, her voice just above a whisper in case whatever in the dark was not her friend.

There was a long moment of silence before she heard a small shuffling sound and then a, "Y/N?"

Out from the shadows stepped out a hesitant Mike and Y/N almost cried in relief at the sight of him. "Is that really you?" Mike whispered in disbelief, afraid that it might be Pennywise trying to trick him.

"No, it's me," she assured him, tears falling from her eyes as she smiled at her friend. "If I was It I don't think I would have a rope tied around my waist with one of my friends attached to the other end."

Mike gave her a confused look, but shook it off once he realized the girl standing in front of him was in fact one of his best friends. He didn't even hesitate before rushing forward, his arms wrapping around the girl as he let out a small laugh of relief.

Y/N stumbled back at the sudden force, but hugged Mike back just as tightly, the two both starting to cry at the fact that Mike was finally going to be safe.

"Holy shit," Y/N cried as he hugged the boy. "Don't you fucking do that to us again, you hear? Or next time I'll leave you in the Upside Down for good!"

Mike chuckled and pulled away before glancing out at the black 'water' in front of them. "I don't plan on it," he assured her. "Did you say the Upside Down? Like as in the place you've told us about before?"

"Yeah," Y/N sighed. "I thought we had closed the gate, but I guess we didn't. I don't know how you ended up here, but you must've gone through one of the portals that the demogorgons use."

"Demogorgons? Those alien looking creatures you've talked about? I only saw. . ." Mike trailed off as his face paled. "I only saw It."

"Yeah, I saw It too," Y/N told him. "But I think It is somehow connected to the Upside Down at the moment. Like connected so much to the point where they both seem to be working together."

"So it's like Pennywise meets the movie Aliens?" Mike asked, the girl nodding in response. "Well, that's just great."

Y/N chuckled before hugging the boy once again. "It's okay. We're going to get you out of here and then close the fucking gate, okay?" she said.

"That sounds great," Mike admitted as he let out a small laugh. "But who's we?"

"Well, all the Losers of course, but my friends from Hawkins all came down to help as well," Y/N explained.

"They did?" Mike asked in surprise.

"Yeah, in fact, one of them, her name is Eleven, is up above holding the other end of the rope," Y/N told him right as she felt a light tug on her waist coming from the rope. As if seeming to remember where they were, Y/N suddenly got back on task and said, "We should probably get going. We've been in the Upside Down for a while with no contact with It or the demogorgons, so I'm not quite sure how much longer we are going to have that luck for."

"Don't have to tell me twice," Mike said as the two walked to the edge of the cave. Y/N and Mike latched onto each other before Y/N lightly tugged on the rope. They were being pulled up only seconds later and Y/N was able to catch a glimpse of Eleven using her powers to pull them up before they were put onto the ground.

Eleven's face was suddenly hovering right above Y/N's and she gave the girl a concerned look. "You okay?" Eleven asked, worry on her face.

"I'm okay," Y/N assured her. "Great actually." The girl then sat up before gesturing towards Mike who was pushing himself up onto a sitting position. "This is Mike Hanlon. Mike, this is my friend Eleven Hopper."

Mike nodded over at Eleven in greeting. "Nice to meet you. Thanks for coming to save me," he breathed out.

Eleven just smiled in response, but her smile instantly disappeared as a howling sound filled the air.

"What was that?" Mike asked in a panic, his eyes searching frantically all around them.

"We need to go," Eleven said as she quickly helped Y/N to her feet. Y/N nodded in agreement and went to help Mike up, not noticing Eleven who had turned to see Will standing a little ways away from them with a blank look on his face.

"Will?" Eleven called out confused.

Y/N furrowed her eyebrows and turned, a gasp escaping her lips as she dropped Mike back on the ground and ran over to Eleven. "El, that's not Will," Y/N said as she grabbed her friend and began to pull her away from the creature who looked a lot like her friend.

"What-? But that's literally Will standing right in front of us?" Eleven said confused. "Unless you have a friend that looks like Will?"

"Not a friend," Y/N muttered.

"Not a friend?" 'Will' asked, tilting his head slightly as he smiled wickedly at the girl. "Oh, Y/N. That hurts my feelings."

Y/N pushed Eleven behind her and glared at the boy in front of her. "You're not Will. You're not my friend," she insisted.

The 'Will' took a step forward. "But we've been through so much together, Y/N. How would we not be friends? Would being best friends forever be better? Cause we could make it forever," 'Will' assured her.

"Get Mike," Y/N whispered as she shoved Eleven back towards her friend. Eleven nodded and went to go help the boy up while Y/N continued to stare at 'Will.'

"Sorry, buddy. I've got enough friends as it is," Y/N called out, taking another step back while 'Will' took a step forward.

"I'm sure you could use one more," 'Will' laughed. "We can all float! Wouldn't that be fun? We can all float! We can all float! We can all float!"

The 'Will' began to scream at them causing the three to stumble back slightly in surprise. But the part that really began to freak them out was when 'Will's' mouth opened up and cockroaches began to crawl out by the dozen. The cockroaches quickly covered the boy's entire body while 'Will' continued to yell, "We can all float!"

The howling sound was heard again only this time closer and 'Will' covered in cockroaches stopped screaming so that he could smile at the two. "Want to play a game?" he asked.

Y/N shook her head, but she had barely even started to before figures began to step out of the woods. "Shit, run!" Y/N yelled once she saw the demogorgons and demodogs that were filing in behind 'Will.'

Eleven and Mike didn't have to be told twice and before they could even register what was going on, the three friends were running away and back in the direction of the house, the demogorgons, demodogs, and 'Will' following after them.

They ran for what felt like hours and it wasn't until they were coming up on the edge of the woods that Y/N looked back to see that 'Will' has transformed back into Pennywise, the clown grinning at the girl and waving to her.

Eleven and Mike were ahead of the girl, so they pushed themselves through the last of the woods before catching sight of the Well House as well as Richie, Wheeler, Steve, Bill, Dustin, and Eddie who were all bolting towards the house with demogorgons on their tails.

"Hurry!" Mike yelled as he could hear the sound of the demodogs and demogorgons getting closer. He could even hear the sound of Pennywise laughing behind them which only made him pull Eleven along faster, the two running towards the door and running in behind the others.

The group was quick to run down to the basement and everyone began to shove each other through the portal until they had all fallen through and hit the floor. It was as soon as Eleven came flying through the portal as the last person that they all began to scream, "Close it! Close the gate!"

Everyone's panicked screams was all that could be heard as Eleven held up a hand and began to close the gate. An ear piercing scream escaped her lips as they all watched the gate close before them as if someone was stitching it together piece by piece.

It was when the final piece seemed to stitch tighter, officially sealing off the Upside Down from the real world that the group all felt back in relief, everyone collapsing to the ground.

Eddie was the first to notice Mike was there and he let out a chuckle before saying, "Mikey." Mike grinned back at the boy and the two embraced before the other Losers quickly went over to their friend as well, hugging the boy and jokingly threatening him to never do that shit again.

When Bill had finished hugging Mike, he smiled before turning to look at Y/N. However, he froze when he couldn't find her.

"Y/N?" he called out, the confusion in his voice making everyone freeze before they looked around as well.

Yet Y/N was no where to be seen.

Bill felt his heart start beating faster, a feeling of utter panic washing over him as he realized something was wrong. Something was really wrong.

"W-W-Where's Y/N?" Bill asked, his eyes flickering around the group in a panic before he stopped on Eleven who he knew had been partners with her.

Eleven paled as she looked around the group. "She was. . .she was. . ." Eleven couldn't even finish the sentence as a feeling of guilt and dread washed over her.

"She was right there with us," Mike elaborated, his voice just above a whisper.

"Did no one see if she got through?" Will asked, his eyes wide as he felt himself begin to panic. He knew what it was like to be trapped inside the Upside Down and if Y/N was trapped. . .

A hand slamming onto the portal was enough to answer the group's questions and they all turned to see two hands banging on the other side of the closed portal. "Guys!" Y/N yelled.

"Guys! No! Please!" Y/N cried out as she banged on the portal, panic settling in her bones.

"Y/N!" Bill yelled out as he ran to the sealed portal, his hands banging against the portal too before he began to try and claw at it with his fingers.

"Bill! Bill! Help me, Bill! Please!" Y/N cried, the sound of her sobs being enough to make his heart rate spike as he realized he had to do anything and everything to get the girl out of there.

"Y/N!" he cried out before he looked to Eleven in a panic. "G-G-Get her out of there! G-G-Get her out!" He probably looked like a freak yelling at Eleven like that with a red face and tears filling his eyes, but he didn't care. The girl he was pretty much in love with was trapped on the other side of the portal with It and the whole Upside Down.

Eleven held her hand up and tried her best to open the gate, but nothing seemed to be working. She screamed as she tried her hardest, but blood was spilling from her nose and before she knew it, she was falling backwards and Wheeler had to catch her. Eleven hadn't quiet passed out yet, but she was so weak she couldn't do anything else and the realization made her start crying.

Bill realized what was happening and picked up one of the axes they had been using as a weapon. He began to hack at the portal, but all the axe seemed to do was bounce off of the thing until it got to the point where Bill was hitting the portal so hard that the axe broke.

"They're coming!" Y/N suddenly cried out as she tried to claw her way out of the Upside Down, but it was no use. "They're coming! Guys! Please!" She was full on sobbing by now, her words coming out in hiccups due to how frightened she was.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Steve muttered as he ran forward and used his own weapon to try and get through the portal. The others, all except Eleven, were quick to join in as they all beat at the portal only for there not to even be a dent or scratch to be seen.

"Y/N! H-H-Hang in there! We're g-g-going to get you out!" Bill yelled back. "We're g-g-going to-"

His own yells got cut off when Y/N was suddenly ripped away from the portal, a blood curdling scream filling the air as she suddenly disappeared.

"Y/N!" everyone yelled, but her scream disappeared and she never returned back to the portal.

A silence filled the air after that and it was like each of them could feel the silence in their own body. Everyone was pale, their bodies shaking as they tried to fathom what us just happened.

Bill seemed to be the worst out of them all and he stumbled slightly pass everyone until he stopped by the wooden chair that had his jacket still lying there waiting for the girl. The boy stared at it with tears in his eyes before gently picking up the jacket and holding it close to his body.

A sob left his mouth and everyone's eyes turned to him, their own emotions finally breaking through at the sound of Bill's cries.

Bill fell to his knees, his hands clinging onto the jacket so tight that his knuckles were white. He was sobbing, his whole body shaking with each sob that one could just tell how much this situation hurt him. They could just tell how much Y/N meant to him.

It was in that moment, where Bill cried out for the girl he was desperately in love with and the girl who was best friends with every single person in that room. . .it was that moment that each of them slowly began to break down, Steve being the first one after Bill and going over and hugging the boy as he cried out for the girl who was his little sister. It was in that moment that they fully realized what had just happened.

Y/N L/N was stuck in the Upside Down and something or someone had gotten to her before they could.

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