#but I sure as hell am still gonna learn how to use the thing instead of staring at them like they're to blame for the existence of qr codes

[ineed-to-sleep]

Adding some of the comments from the notes bc. Yeah.

Its okay they could call me on a rotary faster than i could explain to them I’m old enough to know what a rotary phone is

[rosylix]

flower

짙은 어둠 속에 피어난, 한 송이 꽃처럼 𔓘

after practicing with felix, you try to go back to normal. unfortunately, the universe doesn't seem to want that for you.

pairing: bff!felix × gn!reader

wc: 7.3k

content: two pining idiots, inexperienced reader, fluff! (but make it awkward), slight angst, smut?ish, only one bed trope kinda lol, wet dream (like kinda somno? not really but just in case), 'dude' is used gender neutrally. umm yea! college au

a/n: so i got a bit carried away and added way more plot than necessary here. woops. also made it a college au bc why not! kinda made them nerds sorry lol (they were always nerds.)

so this is the first segment of the final part. aka part 3 but there will be a part 4 [dizzy emoji].. for now i hope you enjoy this bit! 𖹭

[also read on ao3]

part 1 | part 2 | part 3

—

A week passes, and contrary to your expectations, the two of you actually do go back to normal. At least, Felix seems to have, so even if your brain still feels a little funny around him you follow suit and pretend nothing happened.

Not that it's been easy. Especially when his neck was still covered in those stupid marks you left. Thankfully, he can cover them up pretty well (you know, considering the state you left him in) but it was still irritating as hell; seeing the shape of one just barely peeking out of his hoodie or the way you’d find your eyes instinctively drawn to his neck whenever you saw him throughout the week.

The marks have faded to the point of being barely visible, but they're permanently seared into your brain, along with the memory of him underneath you. But that’s all it is now, a memory. You make sure of it.

And it's fine. Mostly. It’s easy enough to ignore any lingering awkwardness by focusing on more important things. For instance, midterms are coming up, and Felix is losing his mind.

He’s sprawled out on the floor of his room, papers spread out around him and a pout on his lips. “Ugh, I can’t believe I’m gonna have to study all weekend,” he whines, throwing his pencil down in frustration. He’s been studying for hours and he’s already at the ‘pulling his hair out’ phase.

“Yeah…” you agree with a half sympathetic, half amused smile. He always gets like this around exam time. 

He lets his head fall onto the ground in front of him, narrowly avoiding the various papers, pencils, and textbooks littering the floor. "Why do they have to make these fucking tests so hard? It's not like the stuff we're learning is even relevant to anything. Oh my god. I'm gonna fail,” he says, voice muffled from under the carpet.

“You’re being dramatic,” you laugh as you toss the textbook you’d been reading for your own class aside.

Felix groans and (dramatically) turns over on his back. “I am not being dramatic. I’m suffering!” he exclaims, bringing his hands to cover his face. “I am dying. I’m a dead man and you don’t care. You're gonna have to plan my funeral after this.”

You roll your eyes. “Ohh nooo. You have to study over the weekend. It’s the end of the world.”

He peeks out from under his hands to glare at you. “I'm glad this is so amusing to you. You're supposed to be my best friend but you're doing nothing to help. Wow. I’ll haunt you when I'm dead after this.”

You laugh and roll your eyes again. This time, your eyes seem to catch on how his hoodie is pushed up above his waist a little from when he flopped onto the floor, showing a sliver of skin. 

...Seriously? Focus. Think about literally anything else right now.

Shaking your head, you slide off the bed and make your way to him, sitting down and crossing your legs next to his head. “Sit up and I’ll help you study,” you sigh.

"But I don't wannaaaa,” he whines, but he starts to sit up anyway. “I just wanna relax,” he pouts like a child, looking up at you with his signature puppy eyes. “Help me procrastinate instead?”

You laugh in disbelief. “You've procrastinated enough. Shouldn't you focus?”

(You haven’t been very focused either, but that's besides the point.)

He shakes his head fervently and slumps against you with a groan. “Nooo. Stop being responsible. Let's take a break.”

You huff, choosing to ignore the way your heart beats a little faster when he leans against you. “You’re so annoying,” you say, trying to sound frustrated but you can’t help if it comes out a little fondly. “Alright, fine. We have been at it for a while,” you admit.

He pulls back and grins, all too familiar with your inability to deny him when he’s being a big baby like this. It's too effective. It’s actually a little infuriating how good he is at being cute, and how effective it is on you. You cave. Every time. Though, this time he looks particularly pleased with himself.

“See? Even you couldn’t be the responsible one for that long,” he snickers. “I knew you’d give in.”

You groan and look away, as if that will somehow counteract his point. “You're a bad influence.”

He laughs again, shifting backwards before flopping back down to the floor, but this time he lays his head in your lap, smiling up at you. The close proximity has your heart fluttering in your chest and you swear you can feel yourself overheating a little. Why is he like this?

This is normal. It’s normal. Chill.

He grins up at you, oblivious to your internal crisis, and he makes himself more comfortable in your lap, shifting his body a little. "There. See? Isn't this so much better than studying?"

You swallow. The warm weight of his head in your lap, the way he peers up at you through thick lashes, hair falling around him like a halo, some of it falling into his eyes... It's— it's something.

You clear your throat, gently pushing him off, ignoring his little frown as you do so. You stand up and extend your hand down to him and sigh. “Come on. Let's go procrastinate then.”

“Ugh, why—” he starts to protest but you grab his hand and help pull him up anyway. “What are you doing? I was comfy,” he pouts.

You give him a sly look. “So, you don't wanna make cookies with me?”

You have to resist the urge to laugh at the look on his face. “Wait, really?” He perks up instantly, eyes glowing.

“Yeah, I mean, if you want,” you smile.

He bounces on his feet. “Yes! Can we make the ones with the white chocolate chips? The store finally had them when I checked last time.”

You make a face of mock disgust as he starts pulling you towards the door. “No, we are not making the ones with white chocolate chips. They're atrocious.”

“What?!” he gasps, acting scandalized. “Fuck you. They're good!”

You roll your eyes at him as he pulls you into the kitchen. He’s still holding onto your hand. It should be normal, but since when has anything felt normal these past few days?

“White chocolate chips are fine! I don’t get why you don’t like them,” he continues with a pout, finally letting go of your hand to rummage through the kitchen cabinets.

“They're not even chocolate, Felix,” you point out, watching in amusement as he struggles to reach the top shelf.

“Okay? I'm failing to see your point," he replies, making a little noise of triumph when he finally reaches whatever he’s looking for.

You just shake your head. “Yeah, whatever…” You help him set some things on the counter before sighing. “You're so lucky your dorm has a kitchen. If I had one I swear I'd be baking stuff like every single day.”

“I guess I am lucky.” He laughs, grabbing the mixing bowl from the corner cabinet and placing it on the counter. “Isn't there a shared one for your floor or something?”

“Yeah, but it's…” you shudder.

“Ah. Yeah…” He pauses, pondering something, before raising an eyebrow. “So that's why you come over so much? For the kitchen?”

“Duh.”

"I knew it… You’re only using me for free oven access?” he teases. "I’m wounded.” He drapes his hand over his forehead in a dramatic flourish and slumps against the counter.

“Yep, you caught me,” you laugh. “You and Hannie keep it somewhat clean at least.”

“My own best friend… The betrayal…” he tries to pout but ends up giggling. Then, he seems to think of something and claps his hands excitedly. “You should move in with me!”

Whoa. “W-What?”

“You know how Jisung is always over at Minho's? He's gonna officially move in next year,” Felix explains. “Like, I'm happy for them but Sung's ditching me? What happened to the bro code? But, anyway,” he laughs. “There'll be an empty bedroom. You should totally take it!”

You blink at him, brain short-circuiting for a second. "You— you’re serious?"

"Yeah," he says casually, like he didn’t just propose something so life-altering. "It’ll be like a sleepover every night!” he exclaims, grinning widely.

You can’t help the way your heart thuds a little faster in your chest, a fluttery feeling in your stomach. Living together? With Felix?

The idea is tempting. Like, incredibly so. Your own place is small, the communal kitchen area is… horrific, and your roommate tends to ignore your existence. It's a bit less than ideal.

But… you know there's a big risk of things becoming very awkward very quickly. It sounds like a dream, and at the same time, it’s a recipe for disaster. Spending that much time together could either bring you closer or push you apart. And with your recent… weirdness.. about him… you’re not sure which one is worse.

You must be silent for too long because Felix glances at you and looks a little unsure, like he suddenly regrets saying it. “I mean— you don’t have to, of course! It was just an idea. I’m sure you’re comfortable in your place and all. I didn’t mean to, like, push that on you—”

You cut him off before he can go too far. “No! No, it’s—” you shake your head, trying to choose your words carefully. “I… I'll think about it.”

He looks surprised, like he wasn't expecting that response. He lets out a breath, relief and a tentative excitement evident on his face. 

“Okay,” he says softly, the corners of his mouth twitching a bit like he’s trying to keep himself from breaking into a big smile. “Uh, yeah, of course. No pressure,” he continues. “But, y'know, I'd be way happier to have you than some random new person. You practically live here already anyway. I think it'd be fun.”

Or it could ruin everything. But when Felix smiles at you, a hopeful look in his eyes… you can't bring yourself to shut down the idea completely.

“Yeah. It might be fun,” you say, trying to keep your tone neutral.

He grins, and a wave of excitement suddenly washes back over him. "We can bake all the time, and play games, and watch movies— Oh my god, it would be so fucking awesome.”

You laugh at the sparkle in his eyes. "Yeah, okay," you tap his head with a mixing spoon. “Shut up and grab the sugar. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.”

“Yessir.”

—

You end up splitting the cookie dough and making half with normal chocolate chips and half with the ugly white sugar chips. They turned out better than they had any right to be, considering you and Felix goofed off a bit too much while making them. (Even the white chocolate ones are pretty good). The two of you munch on them as you return to studying. Felix doesn't argue, content having taken a long break and sugar in his system.

You work in comfortable silence, listening to the soft pitter patter of rain until the sun starts to set. With a yawn, you shut your laptop in front of you.

"I think I'm done for today," you say, standing up and stretching.

Felix glances up from his spot on the floor, chin in his hand, surrounded by a mess of books and papers. "Really?"

"Yeah. How about you?"

He sighs, leaning back and stretching. "I still have so much left to go through," he complains, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"That's your own fault for playing games all week instead of studying," you laugh softly.

He pouts at you. "I know, I know." Then he groans and falls backwards on the floor, throwing his arms over his face. "Man, I'm tired. I'm done too."

You giggle at the sight of him splayed out on the floor. “Alright, cool. I should be heading out anyway,” you say, starting to gather your things. Then, as if on cue, a loud rumble of thunder echoes outside.

Oh shit. You both glance at each other, then towards the window, where the rain you thought would have passed by now is quickly developing into a full-on storm. Great. The universe must be out to get you.

Felix gets up from the floor and walks to the window. "Damn, can you even go home in this? It looks pretty bad out there.”

You join him at the window and peer outside. The rain is coming down harder, droplets hitting against the windowpane incessantly. You grimace. Well, it's not that bad, but it still isn't something you'd like to walk through.

Oh well. You sigh. “It's.. it's alright. Could I borrow an umbrella?”

He doesn’t answer right away, continuing to peer out the window. A frown spreads across his face before he speaks. “Of course, but… are you sure? You can stay the night if you want.”

“Uh—”

Well… normally, you wouldn't mind. You've slept over tons of times before. But this time feels different, and suddenly the thought of staying is a bit nerve-wracking. 

"A little rain won't kill me,” you settle on saying. 

Felix glances back at you, eyebrows furrowing in concern. He looks like he's about to say something, but another crash of thunder interrupts him.

He frowns and crosses his arms, leaning against the frame of the window. It's undeniably attractive. “A little rain? I can't let you walk home in this, are you crazy? It's dangerous.”

“But—” you start to protest.

"Nope,” he cuts in. “You’re not risking it. It's getting dark too,” he points out. He looks outside, then back at your face, sighing. His face softens. “...Okay. If you really want to go, at least let me walk you.”

“You don't have to walk me, Felix.”

“Yeah, I kinda do. Who knows what could happen to you? You could get struck by lightning! Or…” He gives you a once over. “You could, like, slip and bleed out in a puddle or something. Or die of hypothermia or some fucking thing. I don't know!” He throws his hands up.

You let out a breathless laugh. You don’t want to argue with him, but staying the night is definitely making you anxious to think about. You don't want to trouble him with walking back and forth in that weather either, but Felix seems stubborn on the matter. What's worse, the look on his face has you worrying he might think you're trying to get away from him or something.

(Which isn't… wrong. But Felix would misunderstand. It's not because you don't like him. It's…)

You exhale, looking outside one more time. With the rain getting worse by the minute, staying the night seems like the only reasonable choice. 

Felix taps his foot impatiently, observing the growing storm. “So?”

“Okay, fine. I'll stay… You're right, it's getting pretty bad out there," you concede.

He opens his mouth but then quickly shuts it again, suddenly looking a bit unsure. He studies your face and you almost want to hide at how intently he's staring. Why, why is he staring like that? Like he can see right through you. Didn't you just say what he wanted? Did he change his mind about letting you stay?

But, the moment passes before you can do anything and he looks away. "Thank god,” he huffs. “I was really fighting off the mental images of your dead body in a ditch.”

You scoff. “I'm not that weak.”

“I know,” he says with a soft smile. Then he smirks, glancing back at you. "You're not weak. Just clumsy.” 

You shove him in response and he laughs, the smirk on his face turning into a grin. The tension from earlier dissolves a bit and you can finally breathe again; the air starts to feel less awkward, comfortable.

“So,” he says, standing up straight. "Since you're staying, want some clothes to change into? I don’t think you wanna sleep in jeans.”

He doesn't wait for an answer, already shuffling through his drawer and handing a plain black t-shirt and sweatpants over to you.

You take them gingerly, trying to ignore how your nerves suddenly spike again. "Thanks," you murmur, clutching the soft fabric in your hands.

Maybe he senses something because he keeps his distance, eyes roaming over your face once more, curiosity and something else in his gaze. 

Then, he clears his throat. “You know the bathroom is all yours if you need,” he says, turning back to his mess of papers on the floor. “I'm gonna try to get a little more studying done. Maybe. I'm really fighting the urge to open League right now.” 

"Felix," you raise your eyebrows at him with a laugh, "If I find you mid ranked match in twenty minutes, I'm pouring water on your computer."

He purses his lips. “You wouldn't.”

“Try me,” you taunt and make your way to the bathroom. You close the door behind you and let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding.

That was good. See? You can banter with him and everything like normal. There's nothing to be weird about. You can be normal about this.

You sigh. Yeah, right. This is so dumb. You’ve stayed over countless times before. You’ve worn his clothes before, shared a bed with him before. It's just Felix.

So why… Why is it so hard to be normal right now?

(You're not so stupid you don't know the answer to that. You're definitely in denial about… something, and you'll gladly stay that way for as long as you can help it. It's easier to not think about it.)

Your head hurts. God. Maybe a shower will clear your mind.

It does. You feel lighter and refreshed when you step out and you quickly change into the clothes Felix gave you; his scent envelopes you as you slip on the shirt and you instantly feel more at ease, comforted. You're good. Everything's cool.

When you step into Felix's bedroom, you find him exactly where you left him, leaning on a pile of pillows on the floor, hunched over a textbook. True to his word, he's trying to study again but he looks like he's seconds away from giving up.

"Hey,” you announce your entrance. “Successfully resisting the clutches of League?” you ask, giggling at the sight of him sprawled on the floor.

“Heyyy,” he drawls, not looking up from his book. “Proud of me? I'm actually studying. Not like I'll ever reach silver no matter how much I fucking—”

His words seem to die in his throat as he finally glances up and sees you standing in the doorway. His eyes widen instantly, scanning up and down your body, lips parted in shock.

"That's, um, um. That's—” he stutters, tongue tied all of a sudden. 

You frown a bit at his reaction, feeling self-conscious. Is your hair too flat? Are the clothes not right? You adjust the falling neckline of the shirt before taking a seat on the floor, trying to ignore the way he's still staring.

You swear you see his Adam’s apple bob as he swallows and he quickly looks away as you sit next to him.

“...What?” you ask, trying not to assume the worst.

“You— uh, the,” he gestures to your outfit vaguely. “It fits, uh— better? Than it used to? Yeah. Looks nice.”

He sounds a bit strangled and now you're definitely convinced you look strange.

“Um, thanks…" you mutter, trying not to show how thrown off his reaction has you feeling. You toy with the hem of the soft material self-consciously. Obviously they don't fit properly, they’re Felix’s clothes after all. You’ve borrowed them before, why is he suddenly being so weird?

Felix fidgets with the corner of his textbook, avoiding eye contact as if the words on the pages are suddenly the most interesting thing he’s ever read.

He clears his throat. “Uh, yeah, anyway. I'm pretty much done. Was just waiting for you.” He closes the book and finally lifts his eyes to meet your gaze and he has a strange, shy smile plastered on his face. You open your mouth to ask if he’s alright, but he starts speaking again, barely giving you a moment to get a word in.

“I— Dude, I'm like— I'm honestly gonna fail this class,” he groans, burying his face in his hands. “Like, I'm actually just not built for academia. I’m gonna drop out and then start working at the… fucking convenience store or something.” He lets out a long sigh. “Or, y'know, I'll start streaming. That seems pretty nice. I could be, like, a huge streamer guy. Tons of people will watch. I'll be famous. You could be my manager.”

You blink, trying to make sense of the sudden topic change. 

“Uh, First of all,” you say, gently knocking his knee with your own, “You're smart as hell. You'll graduate just fine. Second, I highly doubt many people would suddenly start watching some nerd’s League streams.”

He whines and gives you a pouty look. “Why not?? I’m funny, I’d be great,” he protests, sitting up with a huff.

“Yeah, right. I’d be managing a streamer who can’t even get to gold rank. Embarrassing.”

He scoffs, acting offended. “Hey! I didn’t say I'd make League streams. I could be a variety streamer, y’know.”

“Oh yeah? So you can stream how fast you lose at every game?” you say, grinning at his sulky expression. You understand him, the way he teases you all the time. It's fun when you're not on the receiving end. 

He places a hand over his chest, feigning offense. “Wow,” he deadpans. “Can’t believe you're attacking me like this in my time of despair.”

You grin a bit and roll your eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Stop being dramatic, you know I’m right. You need to get better if you want to start your streaming career.”

“Dude. I could get to gold if I wanted to. I just... choose not to. Bronze is a good rank, y’know. It’s like, the vibe.” The pout returns on his face. “Plus, my viewers wouldn’t care about that. They’ll be there for my personality.”

You arch a brow. “Your personality.”

“Yeah, my personality! Shut up. If League doesn't work, I could play like, Call of Duty, or… or like, Animal Crossing! Hey, I can't lose at Animal Crossing now, can I?”

“You might be onto something,” you muse.

“No…” he groans. “It’s never gonna happen. My dreams of becoming a famous streamer have to die because of… stupid calculus and… all these boring things.”

He drops his head on your shoulder, pouting at the thought of having to spend more time studying. You laugh and reach a hand up to pat his head, playing with his hair absentmindedly. 

"It's not that bad. You'll get through this," you say, trying to console him. "But seriously,” you continue, “I can’t believe you play so much League but never got past bronze. What are you even doing?”

He whines and buries his face in the crook of your neck, mumbling something about “bad teammates”.

The contact is familiar and comforting. He gets clingy like this often, especially when he's tired. You can feel his warm breath against your skin, its steady rhythm sending tingles down your spine. His hair is soft under your fingertips. And you are so, so normal. 

“Have you ever considered… that maybe you… are the bad teammate?” you can't help but tease.

“Heyyy,” he whines again, lifting his head to look at you with an offended expression.

You giggle at the sight of his disgruntled face and it seems to only make him sulk more, the pout on his face growing deeper. Cute.

“After all we've been through…” he breathes out. “After I’ve trusted you with my life. I can’t believe I’m hearing this from my own best friend… the absolute backstabbing…”

He's ridiculous. "You might wanna think of some new material, Mr. Variety Streamer,” you laugh. “The theatrics are getting a little old.”

He continues to pout, his gaze fixed on you. He’s so close, face just a few inches away from yours, and your heart jumps at the realization. Or maybe it jumps because of the way he’s looking at you; scrutinizing your face intently, his eyes flitting across your features like he’s trying to commit them to memory. You shift around nervously. Something's off about how he's looking at you. You thought you’d seen a flash of… well, you don’t know what it was. But it makes you feel…

Warm and fluttering in your stomach, but in the worst, most uncomfortable way. You hate the way your body reacts so vividly to literally nothing. You really, really hate it.

Luckily (or unfortunately?), a particularly loud rumble of thunder echoes outside and he jumps.

He instantly leans away, as if he just realized himself how close you were. “Sorry, I— Geez, this weather sucks,” he complains, glancing toward the window. The storm outside is still raging, rain pelting against the window mercilessly.

“Yeah,” you say dumbly, feeling cold now that Felix has pulled away.

You push down the thoughts of how badly you want him to lean on you again, or how you wish he could hold you like he usually does. It’s easier to ignore whatever you’re feeling while he’s busy being all silly and clingy.

This is stupid. It's just so… frustrating, and you have no idea what to make of any of the thoughts that are running through your mind.

There’s a pause as he continues watching the rain outside, eyes following the raindrops dancing down the window panes. You try to study his expression; it’s pensive, almost contemplative, much like the look in his eyes earlier. 

“Are you tired?” he finally asks.

You blink. “Uh.” You realize that you are actually pretty tired. “Yeah, a little.”

The admission makes you yawn and Felix smiles in return, his expression softening. 

He pushes himself off the floor and looks at you for a moment, like he's about to say something — and then he doesn’t. Instead, he offers a hand to help you off the ground.

“Come on,” he says, hand extended. “We should get to sleep before the electricity inevitably goes out.”

You let him pull you up and he lets go of your hand quickly as he motions for you to get on the bed.

“I’ll go and— um,” he stumbles over his words, taking a few steps back. “I'll go shower real quick and then we can, uh… sleep.” 

He disappears before you can say anything and leaves you sitting on the edge of the bed, suddenly feeling more tense and awkward than earlier.

You release a long breath. Okay. Okay, everything's fine. Just the two of you, sleeping in the same bed. No big deal. That’s happened plenty of times before. You try to steady your breathing as you sit there on his bed, surrounded by his pillows, his blankets, his scent.

You run a hand through your hair and scroll through your phone, trying to distract yourself. It’s going to be a long night.

When the door opens ten minutes later, you look up. Felix's hair is damp and he's wearing a loose white t-shirt with sweatpants, the material hanging low on his hips. His skin is a little flushed from the shower. He looks so soft and effortlessly pretty, you kind of want to scream.

“Hey,” he whispers as he shuts the bedroom door behind him, “You good?”

You nod, throat suddenly dry.

He clears his throat and walks towards the bed, standing there quietly. He doesn’t look at you for a long minute and you start to wonder if he’s thinking the same things you are, or if you’re overthinking everything and he’s fine.

“Well, let’s head to sleep then.” He breaks his gaze from the floor and turns to look at you again, a hint of worry on his face. “Uh, you can take the bed tonight, alright? I’ll just sleep on the floor or something.”

“What— Why?” you exclaim.

“I—” he blinks, taken aback, as if he didn't expect you to ask that. “I don't know? If, I mean, if you... like…” he trails off, looking away again. “The floor doesn't look that bad.”

It does. The cold, worn floor does look that bad. You must look worse. You're not an idiot, you can read in between the lines. He's uncomfortable sleeping next to you.

There’s no other reason for him to not want to sleep in the same bed as you. You've shared this bed with him countless times before. If he's not comfortable with you now…

Your mind is racing. Even if your awkwardness is because of your unbidden… lunacy towards him… he explicitly told you he doesn't see you like that. As much as you've been trying to repress everything and act normal like he's been… it hasn't worked. This is decidedly not normal.

There's a tense silence as you try to figure out what to say. The knot in your stomach tightens with every passing second and you try to push down the hurt that’s threatening to surface. You're making him uncomfortable. If you could just be normal about all this— Fuck. It's all your fault. 

"Shut up," you finally manage to mutter, starting to shuffle off the bed. “It's your bed. I'll take the floor."

“What— No, hey, stop—” he protests quickly, stepping forward to grab your arm. “Don’t— I couldn't let you do that. It's not— no.” he sputters.

You meet his eyes in confusion. He still has a grip on you, fingers warm and soft against your skin.

“You’re not sleeping on the floor,” he says firmly, voice a bit lower than usual. “That's stupid. I just thought, maybe…” his grip on your arm tightens the tiniest bit.

“...What?” you ask quietly. 

He shakes his head, releasing your arm with a sigh.

You look at him, really look at him, the way his eyes won't meet yours, shoulders slumped, fingers tapping his thigh nervously. “Just,” you sigh. “You said it's stupid if I sleep there. Same for you. Just come here.”

He looks at you once more, searching your face. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” you nod, hopefully sounding more confident than you feel.

Your heart is pounding. You’re trying your best to ignore the tension in the room and act like everything’s fine. Like spending the night sleeping with your best friend when he clearly doesn’t want you to be close to him anymore isn’t breaking your heart. 

You give him a tight-lipped smile as you finally get under the blankets and lay on your side with your back towards him. 

Felix hesitantly climbs into bed next to you, keeping a fair distance. He doesn’t say anything at first. You think he’s just going to sleep and you’re both going to ignore whatever that was about. Cool, you can do that. You're great at doing that. Then, he huffs. 

"I’m so fucking tired," he mumbles as he shifts beside you and you hum in agreement.

“Yeah, now imagine sleeping on the floor.”

“Yeah,” he murmurs. “Thank you. Um… sorry for being weird.”

You don't know what to say to that. “...You’re always weird,” you manage quietly.

He lets out a low chuckle and you feel some of the tension leave your body. It’s a familiar banter, one you’ve done with him for ages, so you grasp onto it, desperate for any semblance of normalcy.

“I’m sorry, though,” he says seriously. “I’m kind of an idiot, you know.” 

“...Yeah, I know.”

“I— wow,” he laughs softly. “Chat, what did I do to deserve this?”

You mirror his laugh and turn on your back to face him. 

His hair has gotten longer. The messy locks are fanned around his head on the pillow. His eyes are wide underneath his bangs, studying your face with an expression you can’t quite pin down. 

He’s so pretty. You wonder how you ever thought you could act normal after everything that's happened.

“Is the chat in the room with us?” you ask around a smirk, and pray your voice doesn't sound too breathless.

He snorts and you swear you can almost see the pout on his face. Yeah, he’s fine. He’s back to his regular self. You should be, too. 

“Shut up,” he pokes your shoulder weakly. 

Your heart does something stupid in your chest at the contact and you press your face further into the pillow to hide the flush that’s undoubtedly on your face right now. 

A few moments pass in silence and you close your eyes, hoping sleep will come soon and end this mess of a night. You don’t know how much time passes. Felix is silent and you feel yourself drifting off, sleep tugging at your consciousness, when you hear him whispering in the dark.

“Hey,” he says your name quietly. “You awake?”

You hum in response and reluctantly blink your eyes open. His face swims into view and you realize he's closer than before. Now only a few inches separate you from him.

“Sorry… um, I'm cold. Can… can I...?” He hesitates, leaving the question unfinished as his eyes search your face.

His breath ghosts your cheek and you freeze, trying to keep your breathing even as your body stiffens.

“Yeah,” you murmur, trying to sound nonchalant. “Yeah, of course.”

A flash of relief fills his face before he moves even closer to you. He lays next to you, resting his head on your collarbone and draping one arm over your waist carefully. You hold your breath.

“Is this alright?” he mumbles.

You’re not sure if you can speak without sounding like a goddamn idiot, so you just nod in reply.

He buries his head in the crook of your neck and you have to remind yourself that it doesn’t mean anything. It’s just Felix being Felix: the most physically clingy person on Earth. Also your best friend who you definitely do not have untoward feelings for.

That would be really, really bad.

Especially in a situation like this, where Felix’s nose is pressed in your neck, and his arm is around your waist, his leg tangled with yours at some point and his hair is tickling your chin. He’s everywhere. It's entirely overwhelming.

And he's so warm. You didn't even realize you were cold until he pressed against you. Warmth seeps deep into your bones as he sighs and pulls your body further against his. It's cozy and familiar and you try to focus on the comfort of the action instead of the way your heart is hammering in your chest.

It’s quiet for a few moments as he settles against you and you try to relax, waiting for the rise and fall of his chest to even out beside you, signaling he’s fallen asleep.

Instead, he shifts and you feel his lips brush against your neck, his breath fanning over your skin. Oh.

“Hey,” he murmurs in that low, low voice of his that only really comes out when he's sleepy. “Hey, I… um.” 

You can feel the vibrations from his voice against your neck as he speaks. Oh. You’ve definitely thought about this in a much different context before.

He’s silent for a moment as if collecting his thoughts. But he just sighs, pulling his head away slightly. “Nevermind… Um, good night.”

“Night,” you manage weakly.

It’s silent again. The only sounds that fill the room are the incessant beating of raindrops against the windows and Felix's soft breathing by your ear, drowning out the occasional faint rumble of thunder.

—

You wake to the sound of groaning.

Unsticking your eyelids, you attempt to get a look at your surroundings. It’s still dark, but the room slowly comes into focus as you blink slowly, trying to discern what woke you up. 

The first thing you notice is that it's warm. Hot, even. The air is thick and heavy in your lungs and there's a warm weight pressed against you.

It takes a few moments before you become aware of your current predicament — Right, you're at Felix's place, sleeping in his bed. His body is completely pressed against yours, his chest to your back, his head nuzzled in the nook of your neck. You’re practically spooning. There’s a leg thrown over yours and an arm wrapped snugly around your middle, making it virtually impossible to move.

And — it's not that unusual. It's not far off from the position you fell asleep in and Felix's clinginess is really quite endearing, even if your fragile heart can't handle it anymore. No, what's unusual are the sounds coming from him.

He’s making small noises as he fidgets against you, like he's in pain. He's probably having a bad dream. You start to turn over in order to wake him up, but his grip on you tightens and his breath hitches and—

You freeze.

That was definitely not the sound of someone having a nightmare. 

It was more like… like… Quiet, soft, and breathless; little sounds caught in his throat that spill into your ear.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, his body is moving — restless, shifting against you. His hips moving minutely. It takes your sleepy mind a second to put it all together.

Holy… Holy shit. Is he…?

You're suddenly very awake, fogginess replaced by a white hot rush of panic and disbelief.

He’s— Oh no.

Felix is asleep. He's definitely sleeping but— He must be… having some sort of… dream and… What the fuck are you supposed to do? Wake him up? Absolutely not. You literally— You'd rather die than face him like this. Not to mention how mortifying it would be for both of you. You would actually rather choose death.

He twitches slightly, his hips pushing up against your body. A low groan leaves him as he pulls you closer, completely against his body now, the thin material of his clothes doing nothing to hide his—

You squeeze your eyes shut. Oh my god you are going to die right now. You're seriously going to pass away for real this time. This— this is—

“Mmmn…” he moans, low and needy and right by your ear and wow, that’s… wow.

You have to be dreaming… this is just some very fucked up dream, the sane part of you implores. The rest of you is ignited in flames. 

It's not a dream.

Another little sound slips out and he presses even closer to you, his body flush against yours, like he’s trying to get as much contact as possible. His hips move against yours with a subtle roll and you feel shameful sparks of heat pooling in your gut.

This is so bad. This is so, so bad, fuck. Fuck.

He’s grinding against you in tiny movements, little gasps and moans escaping out of his mouth every few seconds and your entire body is burning. His arm is tight around your waist, his whole body pressed flush against your back. You don’t even dare to breathe as he rocks his hips forward ever so slightly, his nose nuzzling your neck as he lets out a soft whine. It takes everything you have to keep your own whimper at bay, suddenly desperate to grind back against him but— Christ. Are you insane?

You’re frozen. You’re not supposed to be here, you’re not supposed to be feeling this, you really should wake him up, this is so wrong, yet you’re still frozen like an idiot. You can't think. Your brain is made of cherry slushy. The heat death of the universe is imminent. 

Your mind is completely blank but your body is overstimulated and you’re just trying your best to figure out how not to die in this situation. Not easy when Felix is moaning into your neck and it sounds so good and he’s shifting and his body is impossibly warm and he’s—

His breath stutters abruptly in the midst of a long moan and he goes completely still around you. All you hear is heavy breathing for a few moments.

Shit, shit, shit. Is he awake? You're caught between relief and something like disappointment but aren't left enough time to dwell on that thought before you hear a shaky whispered, “F-Fuck.”

You hold your breath. 

Your heartbeat is ringing in your ears, body buzzing with tension, but you do your best to stay completely still. The air is so thick. You almost can’t believe what just happened, but the evidence is pressing into your back as Felix lets out another quiet swear.

His grip on you tenses for a moment before releasing you entirely. He untangles himself from you and pulls his body away from yours so suddenly that you nearly think you hallucinated the whole thing. 

His breathing is ragged and you don’t dare move a muscle. You keep your back resolutely facing him, try to relax, and you are asleep. You are asleep. You are asleep. You repeat it like a mantra. 

You don’t know if he believes your act, your eyes pressed shut, as you try to keep your breaths even and slow.

The sheets rustle a bit. You stay motionless, heart pounding in your ears. He’s sitting up now, you can feel the weight shifting beside you. It’s completely silent for a few seconds before he whispers your name in question.

You are asleep. You are asleep. You are asleep. You pray he believes it.

“...Thank god,” he breathes. You hear more rustling, sheets moving, and he's getting up.

Only when you hear the door shut do you allow yourself to breathe, wondering how the hell you made it out of that situation alive. What the fuck. 

Like, what the fuck.

You stare at the wall in shock, eyes wide and heart hammering hard in your chest.

He doesn’t know you were awake. You’re alive. You survived.

You bury your face in the pillow and try to collect yourself, shaking slightly in the aftermath of whatever the hell just happened. The heat of his body is still surrounding you, his presence lingering on your skin and you can’t help the traitorous part of your brain that wishes for him to crawl back into the bed and hold you again. That wishes you were brave enough to do something other than lie there.

You push the thought away with a quiet groan. You can’t think about that. You can’t. You're barely holding onto the last threads of your sanity as it is. 

But you can’t fall back asleep.

Of course you can’t. After what just happened, your brain will probably never be fully operational again. You press your hands to your face and let out a pathetic whine, wondering if it's possible to die of embarrassment. You're sure this is what a heart attack feels like. It's a wonder you're still breathing. 

This is so much worse than last time, when you got too into practicing. At least that was mutually agreed on and Felix made light of it pretty easily. But this? How are you supposed to act normal after this? That wasn't supposed to happen. You weren't supposed to know what it feels like to have his body up against yours, to hear him moaning in your ear. And you pretended to be asleep instead of stopping him. So he doesn't even know… It's so wrong on so many levels.

You sigh. Felix doesn't know you were awake, so he doesn't know you know and maybe, maybe you can get away with pretending it didn't happen. You'll have to play it cool, of course. Or even better, you can forget about this entirely, convince yourself it was all a fever dream.

Maybe.

—

a/n: AHHH. so it really wasnt meant to be a cliffhanger here lol but then i ended up splitting it so... sorry. the next (and final for REALL THIS TIME) part will be out very soon! nothing like the 3 month long wait for this (ty SO MUCH for ur patience) andd yeah! i hope this is at least somewhat living up to expectations so far, tysm for reading!!

[steddieas-shegoes]

Request: wrong number au, Eddie texts Gareth something personal but puts in 1 wrong number & ends up texting Steve. The two of them hit it off & start chatting & then when they meet IRL they are completely head over heels in love & its cute as fuck

MY LOVE MY LOVE MY LOVE!!! LOVE A GOOD WRONG NUMBER AU!!! I can't believe I've never written it before now. I also had to actually include Gareth because I am actually obsessed with him lately, and I just think it's really neat that we can make these characters our own. This was such a fun and cute request! I didn't do the inappropriate route because I thought this was hilarious so sorry about that. I made up for it with something else! - Mickala ❤️

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

GARE BEAR! You won’t believe it but i dropped my phone in a sewer. Lost everything.

He had never been so happy about having his closest friends’ numbers memorized. His phone was somewhere under the streets of Chicago, floating through dirty water and sewage, dying a slow and painful death.

He texted everyone else one at a time, let them know he had a new number and to completely delete the old one because it would never be recovered.

They were used to things like this happening; He lost his phone annually at this point and it was cheaper just to get a new number than transfer everything to a new one.

He went to dial Wayne, the old school part of him insisting on phone calls instead of texts still, when Gareth’s name popped up with a new text.

Not sure who Gare Bear is, but sorry about your phone. That’s shitty.

Eddie let out a loud laugh.

did you mean to make a pun?

Did it make you laugh?

yes

Then yes.

Eddie sat down on a bench, entirely focused on his conversation with this stranger.

Did you find your Gare Bear yet?

Not yet but i think i’m pretty happy talking to you for now

Smooth, Eddie.

Admittedly, he was in a hell of a dry spell.

Going on almost two years, actually.

A little flirting with a stranger never hurt anybody, not when he clearly needed some practice.

Not sure if your Gare Bear would like it very much though

Wait, what?

Eddie stared at his phone, trying to comprehend what that could mean. Why would Gareth not want him talking to a stranger?

I hope you find your partner though!

Oh.

Oh!

Eddie hit the call button in the corner before he could even register what he was doing.

“Hello?”

Oh no, he sounded hot.

“Hi. So, Gareth is very much not my partner. He probably actually wishes I would really forget his number,” Eddie rushed out.

“Um. Okay?”

“He’s been my best friend for ten years and he thinks I’m a mess. Not a partner,” Eddie further clarified.

“Got it. Not a partner.”

“Yes, exactly.”

They stayed silent for a moment before Eddie coughed.

“I’m Eddie, by the way.”

“Steve. Sorry about your phone, seriously that sucks,” he sounded genuinely apologetic, like he personally threw Eddie’s phone in the sewer.

“Oh, no big deal. I lose my phone more often than I go out with someone,” Eddie said.

Why did he say that?

Steve let out a laugh and it was like music.

Eddie couldn’t help the smile taking over his face at his laugh, already knew he wasn’t gonna be able to let this guy go without learning more about him.

“So you’re, what? Celibate?” Steve asked.

“Far from it. Well, maybe not far from it. Temporarily, maybe. It’s been a while,” Eddie admitted.

“How long?” Steve asked, a loud bang coming from his end of the phone. “Sorry, I had to go outside for some privacy.”

Eddie wasn’t going to read into that. He wasn’t.

“Two years give or take. I mean I’m not counting shitty dates that ended before they got worse. So, yeah. Two years.”

“Been a year for me, but. Yeah, I get it. My last relationship didn’t end on the best terms. She decided I was too in love with her I guess,” Steve sighed, voice sounding pained.

She.

Steve was probably straight.

There was no way he’d be lucky enough for Steve to like men.

Or for Steve to like him.

“I can’t really imagine breaking up with someone because they loved me too much. I’m usually the one who falls too hard,” Eddie admitted.

“Yeah, well, same here,” Steve sounded sad, a bit withdrawn.

Eddie wanted to hear him laugh again.

“I doubt either of us have ever fallen as hard as my phone did down a drain,” Eddie said sadly.

Steve let out a loud laugh and Eddie smiled.

“This might sound crazy, but I’m kind of glad your phone decided to live in the sewers,” Steve said when he finally calmed down. “And maybe a little too happy that you typed your friend’s number wrong.”

“Oh really? Why’s that?”

Was this flirting? Was he successfully having a flirtatious conversation with a potentially very hot guy?

“So I can be bold and ask if you maybe wanted to meet up somewhere?” Steve asked hesitantly.

“So you’re in Chicago?” Eddie asked.

“Yeah. You?”

“For the last five years, yeah.”

“You busy tonight?”

Eddie’s heart stopped.

He was really going to meet up with a stranger just because he liked his laugh and hoped he was hot.

He’d done more with less.

“Yeah, actually. I’m getting dinner with this guy I accidentally texted,” Eddie smirked, looking down at his feet.

“Dinner? What a lucky guy. Where are you going?” Steve sounded amused.

“Well, it depends on what he likes. I’ve been craving some pierogies. Ever been to Staropolska?” Eddie asked.

Gareth’s family owned it, and he used to eat there two or three times a week while they were in college, usually working off his bill in the kitchen doing dishes after.

He hadn’t been in a couple months, work keeping him busy and his budget being pretty tight when he moved into a studio apartment by himself.

He had enough to treat himself tonight though.

“The one on Milwaukee? Yeah. One of my favorite places to get devolay,” Steve sounded surprised that he knew it.

“You won’t believe this, but the friend I was trying to text when I got you, his family owns that place.”

“No way! Then we have to. We owe it to the guy who has almost my exact phone number,” Steve responded.

“Meet you there at seven?” Eddie asked, suddenly more nervous.

“Seven sounds good.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

Steve giggled. Eddie fell in love.

“We should probably hang up.”

“Should we?” Eddie asked, not wanting to stop talking to him yet.

“Yes, I have to do my hair. Gotta impress the guy who drops his phone in the sewer and texts strangers about it.”

“He sounds like a loser. Don’t put too much effort in,” Eddie sighed. “But okay. See you at seven.”

“See you then.”

They both stayed on the line for a minute.

“Okay. For real. Bye,” Steve laughed.

“Bye, Stevie.”

He hung up before he could convince himself to talk to him for the rest of the afternoon.

He breathed out a loud sigh, smiling as he realized he had a date.

He dialed Gareth’s real number immediately.

“Gareth, I have a date!”

“What is this number, Eddie?”

“Oh, I dropped my phone in the sewers. Not important. I have a date!”

“Jesus Christ. Okay. Come over then.”

—-----------------------------------

Gareth had been his pre-date hype man since high school, though he wasn’t very good at it.

Mostly he calmed Eddie’s nerves and helped make sure his hair didn’t look like he just woke up, which was often its unfortunate state of being.

“So, you don’t know this guy,” Gareth said from his bed.

“No.”

“And you talked for like two seconds and decided you’re in love with him,” he continued.

“Yes.”

“And you think this is totally normal and sane?”

“I didn’t say that. But we just…I dunno. We clicked. I haven’t been that at ease with someone in a long time. It felt natural,” Eddie fell back on his bed, starfishing so his arm and leg hit Gareth’s legs.

“Dude, I’m not discouraging it. I’m happy for you. I just don’t want you to be disappointed if it isn’t as easy when you meet,” Gareth said softly.

“Yeah, thanks. I think it’ll be okay, though.”

“Alright. Tell babcia I’m coming by tomorrow for lunch.”

Eddie sat up and gave Gareth a quick hug.

“Thanks Gare Bear!”

—-------------------------------------------

He arrived 20 minutes early so he could sneak in the back to say hi to Gareth’s grandmother, who still insisted on getting her hands on the food every day for a couple of hours despite being nearly 80 years old.

“Babcia!”

“Eddie! My kochany! You forget to visit and I forget what you look like!” she rushed over, flour and oil stains all over her apron.

He should have kept some distance so his shirt didn’t get ruined, but he ignored the part of his brain telling him to look perfect for his date so he could get a hug.

“You know I have to watch my money,” he said against her shoulder.

“And you know I feed you for free if you clean up after yourself. No excuse,” she pulled away and looked him over. “You look handsome. Why?”

Eddie put his hands on his hips.

“What? Don’t I always look handsome?”

“Of course, but this is different. Your hair is smooth and you smell like the perfume store,” she smirked. “Is it a girl? Or a boy? Or a someone?”

“It’s a boy. We’ve never met in person, so I wanted to make a good first impression,” he admitted.

“Oh! How lovely! What’s his name?” She was back to kneading dough, but kept her eyes on him.

“Steve. He actually has been here before, loves the devolay?”

Babcia froze.

“Steve? Oh goodness.” She turned to the sink and washed her hands, muttering under her breath about something.

Eddie’s heart sank. Babcia didn’t seem happy about this.

“What’s wrong? You know him?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Is he not a good guy? Has he been mean to you? I’ll call and cancel right now,” he insisted, reaching for his phone in his pocket.

“No, no. Nothing like that. He is a very sweet boy. He got broken up with in this restaurant a few months back. Tore me to pieces. He just sat here for hours crying. I moved him to a corner booth for his privacy and he left me a $100 tip and ever since then when he comes in I make sure to give him as many szarlotka as he wants.” She touched Eddie’s shoulder. “You be good to him. He has a nice heart.”

Eddie’s mind raced.

Why had Steve agreed to come here for a date if this is where he’d been broken up with? Why did he even bother coming back if it held such bad memories?

What if he didn’t see this as a date?

The front door chimed and he heard the employee at the front welcome someone.

“He will be good for you, drogi.”

Eddie nodded before making his way to the front, stopping in his tracks when he saw the most beautiful man he’d ever seen standing at the podium, talking to the employee with a smile.

“That’s him,” Babcia said from behind him. “Go get him.”

She shoved him forward, nearly making him trip, which caught the attention of Steve.

He looked over with a curious smile, and then realization seemed to hit him.

“Steve?” Eddie managed to ask, loud enough to be heard over the few full tables in the restaurant.

“Eddie?” he asked back, hesitantly moving towards him.

“I, um,” Eddie started, then cleared his throat. “I usually sit by the window, if that’s okay?”

“That’s perfect,” Steve nodded.

It was cliche, like the room around them closed into just them existing together, like the stars had aligned exactly right for this moment to happen.

They sat down at the table Eddie usually sat at, staring across the table at each other in slight awe.

Eddie really hoped that Steve was having the same feelings he was.

But one thing was stopping Eddie from being completely enraptured.

“Is this a date?” he asked suddenly.

“What?” Steve seemed surprised by his question. “I mean, yeah. I’d like it to be. I thought it was.”

Eddie nodded once, but remained quiet, thinking.

“Oh God, it wasn’t, was it? You were just being nice. What is it with this restaurant? If I didn’t love the food so much or babcia, I would never step foot here again, I swear-”

Eddie put his hand on Steve’s to calm him down, frown on his face.

“Woah. What?”

“I just. I don’t have the best history with dates here and I guess I didn’t learn the first time something bad happened, and now I’m being too much too fast again in this place and-”

Eddie pulled Steve’s hand up to his face, placing a soft kiss to his knuckles.

“Stevie, calm down. This is a date. I’ll have as many dates here as you want to to get rid of whatever negative stuff you associate with this place. Babcia would hate that I ruined this place for you,” he said quietly.

Steve seemed to relax at his words.

And if you wanna tell me about what happened, you can. If it’ll help,” Eddie offered.

Before Steve could reply, Gareth’s cousin, Ben, came to take their order.

It was a quick order, both knowing exactly what they wanted, and then Steve looked back at him.

“It’s just. My last girlfriend, who I was with for almost three years, dumped me here. It was kind of out of the blue for me, and I had a really hard time that night.”

Eddie felt his heart break.

How could someone do that to Steve? He didn’t need to know him better to know that he didn’t deserve that, especially not if babcia had taken him under her wing so quickly.

“She must be awful to have let you go like that,” Eddie squeezed Steve’s hand in his, resisting the urge to go to his side of the table and hold him.

Steve shrugged and looked down at their hands.

“I mean, I should have known. She was never much for romance or spending time together that didn’t involve work or school. I was looking at engagement rings and she was looking at apartments to get away from me. I was just…really blinded by what I thought was love,” Steve smiled sadly at him.

“It wasn’t?”

“Well, it may have been a type of love. It was more comfort than anything. She was kind of all I had for the first year we were together, and I think I just ignored how unhealthy that was for both of us. And then I met Robin in college, and she was like the opposite of Nancy in every way. A few months before Nancy broke up with me, I told her that Robin’s parents kicked her out when she came out to them and that she needed a place to stay until we graduated. She agreed, then never made any attempt at getting to know her. And I didn’t read into it, Nancy isn’t like, super talkative with people she isn’t already close with, and Robin just kinda stayed to herself when Nancy was home.” Steve took a shaky breath. “But it turns out she didn’t bother getting to know her because she already knew she was gonna break up with me and leave the apartment to me and Robin, so.she just. Didn’t bother. Robin warned me, but I didn’t listen.”

Eddie wanted to cry.

Steve’s voice was full of pain, but not in a way that told him he still loved her, or still hoped they would get back together. More that she broke a part of him that he still hadn’t been able to fix no matter how hard he tried or wanted to.

“Was she jealous?” Eddie asked, trying so hard to understand what could have happened.

“I dunno. I mean, Robin’s a lesbian, and I definitely never had feelings for her anyway. Nancy was always so sure of herself, I can’t imagine she’d be jealous.”

“It sounds like she didn’t appreciate you very much.”

“What do you mean?” Steve didn’t sound mad, just curious.

“Well, she didn’t even make an effort to get to know your best friend, right? And it sounds like she was too busy focusing on her future to even think about what you looked like in it, and instead of trying to plan it with you, she made a future for her. She sounds a bit selfish,” Eddie shrugged.

Instead of being upset, Steve laughed.

God, Eddie loved that laugh.

“Sorry, it’s just that you sound exactly like Robin. You’d probably be two peas in a pod.”

“Tell me about her,” Eddie genuinely wanted to know more about the person who kept Steve going.

Their food arrived in the middle of the story of how Steve and Robin met, but it didn’t stop him from continuing.

Eddie listened with a fond smile, filling in Steve’s gaps of silence as he chewed a bite of food with questions or something related to what he’d been talking about.

It was easy.

It was fun.

Halfway through the meal, Steve’s foot rested against one of his and it felt like electricity shooting through his bones.

Eddie told him about Gareth, and his family who had pretty much adopted him when they both moved here from a small town in Indiana. He talked about his uncle who raised him for most of his life, who visited every Christmas despite being on a really tight budget.

Time passed quickly, but not at all.

They hadn’t realized how long they’d been sitting there until babcia came out without her apron to hand deliver an apple tart.

“You boys enjoy. I’ll see you both soon!” she said as she smacked a kiss on top of each of their heads.

Both of them blushed, but tried to cover it up with a bite of food.

As they finished, Steve looked outside to see how dark it was, how few people were left walking the streets.

“Guess we should head out,” he muttered, sounding like that was the last thing he wanted to do.

“Would you wanna come to my place? We don’t have to do anything except talk, I promise. I just don’t really want this to end yet,” Eddie suggested.

“Really? I haven’t bored you?” Steve asked, just a hint of self-deprecation in his tone.

Eddie shook his head.

“Not at all. I’d really like to get a chance to love you the way you deserve,” Eddie said.

Steve’s eyes widened.

Eddie should back up, should say something less intense.

But if this ruined it, then at least he said what he was thinking.

“You think you could love me?” Steve asked, barely more than a whisper.

“I think I already do a little,” Eddie admitted.

Steve blinked at him for a moment, mouth slightly agape.

“I need to kiss you,” he finally said.

“Now? Here?” Eddie smiled.

“Now. Here.”

“I won’t stop you.”

Steve stood from the table and stood in front of Eddie, placing both hands on his cheeks and leaning down.

Their lips brushed in a barely-there kiss, softer than Eddie expected.

Steve stayed there for a moment, eyes closed, and Eddie couldn’t help the words tumbling from him.

“You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen.”

If someone had said it to him, he would think they were just trying to get him into their bed, but that wasn’t the case here and he hoped Steve knew that.

“People used to call me a charmer, but I don’t think I’m half as good at it as you,” Steve whispered, his breath ghosting against Eddie’s lips.

“Just honest.”

“Take me home,” Steve said, opening his eyes and staring at Eddie, his eyes glowing with something close to love.

—-------------------------------------

They stayed up all night, never doing more than kissing and mapping out patterns on each others’ skin.

They talked about everything, even the painful parts of life, even the parts that they hadn’t shared with anyone else.

It didn’t make any sense that someone who had been a stranger not even 24 hours ago could already mean so much.

When the sun started to shine through the curtains of Eddie’s apartment, Steve sighed and buried his face in Eddie’s neck.

“I have to go to work,” though he burrowed his entire body further into the bed and Eddie’s side.

“You could call in sick,” Eddie suggested, pressing a kiss to the top of Steve’s head.

“Robin would kill me.”

He and Robin worked together as team teachers at an elementary school. When one of them missed, it left the other with 34 kids alone.

Plus, Steve loved his job, worked hard to be a teacher, and hated missing a day if he didn’t need to.

“Maybe you could bring Robin here after work? I can make dinner?” Eddie’s job was pretty easy, marketing for an Indie record label based out of New York remotely really kept him busy for a couple hours a day and the rest of the time was spent writing his own music.

Steve sat up and looked down at him, his hair ruffled from Eddie running his fingers through it for the last eight hours.

“You’d wanna meet Robin?”

“Yeah, if you want me to. She sounds like fun.”

Steve started crying.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to make you cry. Good job, Munson, already ruined something good,” Eddie was reaching for a tissue from his bedside table.

“No, no, I’m sorry. I’m just tired and emotional. And just. It means a lot that you’d wanna meet her,” Steve said between gasps for air as he continued to cry.

“Of course I do. I could even invite Gareth over, too, if you want. He won’t believe that our date went well,” Eddie joked, brushing the tears away from Steve’s cheeks.

“I’d love to meet him,” Steve said, sniffling.

“When can you guys get here?”

“Usually we’re done by four, but sometimes we stay later to finish grading stuff. Maybe we should say six?”

“Got it. Any allergies?”

“Robin is allergic to shellfish. She says she is. I think she just doesn’t like them,” Steve rolled his eyes.

“No shellfish, got it. Any preferences, my love?”

Steve blushed at the term of endearment, looking down before he leaned in to kiss Eddie softly.

“Anything you make will be great.”

“You wanna borrow some clothes for work?” Eddie asked.

“Do you have any business casual stuff?”

Eddie gagged.

“Unfortunately, it’s required for the job sometimes. Far left of the closet should have something,” he nodded towards the small closet by the bathroom.

Eddie watched as Steve walked over and picked out his only pair of khaki pants and a navy button down. Steve looked back at him and winked before he nodded towards the bathroom.

“Could use some help working the shower if you’re willing to,” he smirked.

Eddie jumped up from the bed and ran into the bathroom, ignoring the way Steve was laughing.

“The hot water is tricky sometimes. I should probably get in there too to make sure it stays hot,” Eddie said as he stripped off his pants.

“Definitely. Wouldn’t want me to get cold,” Steve put a hand on his shoulder to slow him down. “Kiss me?”

Eddie leaned in to kiss him slowly, letting his tongue brush along his lips just to get a taste.

“Okay?” Eddie checked in.

“Yeah. You remember what you said last night? About loving me like I deserve?”

Eddie nodded.

“I want you to. And I want to love you back.”

“I think we can arrange that.”

[nqmonarch]

Red Flags in HSR Characters

I have a problem of simping for the most red flagged characters except I can't handle red flags. Like violence makes me nope the fuck out of any relationship, I am so scared of getting hurt in any way, shape, or form. In real life I'm fucking terrified of being manipulated into being dependent on someone because I've experienced that shit and it isn't fun. Hate being insulted, degraded, all of that.

But the red flagged characters are just too cool???

Like Dr. Ratio, sure he's a pompous shit and would probably end up degrading you which I hate but he's so cool?! So I need to find some way to make him into this weird yellow flag without making myself into some super genius because no way is that gonna happen.

So instead put him in like a tutor AU, he's teaching you and when you get something wrong he gives you such a side ways insult. Like it takes a minute to realize it's an insult, it's worded in such a creative peculiar way. The second it registers you begin doing ten times worse on every question. It doesn't take long for him to realize that being told you're shit isn't inspiring to everyone. So he takes a... kinder approach. He's still a hard ass and strict but he's actively trying to do better and you can tell, when he starts a sentence suddenly stops and then brings that sentence in a completely different direction. You both end up learning. You end up learning the material and he ends up learning how to be somewhat better at dealing with people whose ideal day isn't being insulted.

Then there's the aeons. i simp for all of them, like how can you not??? Especially Nanook (using he/him pronouns for Nanook), Yaoshi, IX, and Aha. Now first off IX isn't a red flag IX is a lovely little black hole who I will defend with my life. But the other three??? They're as red as a stop sign.

Like sure, Nanook would probably destroy you the first chance he gets. Maybe Nanook is the destruction because he wants to be destroyed. I, I don't know man. Like he's so beautiful but how the hell do you even write romance with him? That isn't just like destroying the love interest.

Maybe he's had an insatiable urge to destroy everything ever since the dawn of his existence and he can't remember why. He's always been filled with rage, hatred, toward everything that's existed. Then he sees you and it all comes rushing back toward him. Your death, the hole it filled, the only thing that could really be blamed was the universe. It was everyone and everything's fault. So he would destroy it all to protect you.

Still a red flag but man I'm trying my best, no matter what Nanook will always be a red flag. Yaoshi on the other hand... surely there's a way I can make Yaoshi into a yellow flag after all they just want to help.

Yaoshi who would save your entire planet, heal every individual part of the ecosystem and every person, just to see you smile. They would ask nothing in return and instead remain by your side, enjoying the beautiful of the world. Then the mara strikes, people begin to lose their minds and themselves and you're left to beg them for a way to reverse this. But this is the price of life.

Yaoshi assures you that this is natural but they still watch on in horror as you inevitably succumb to the mara as well. Only then do they try to figure out how to fix it.

The further I get the more hopeless I become. Then there's Aha...

They probably found you entertaining at first, a human full of surprises and excitement, someone that could survive any trial. Then you grew on them a bit more and they found himself becoming attached. Aha wasn't supposed to be attached but this of course just makes an opportunity for more entertainment! Now they're actually invested and can experience the nail biting tension of all this drama!

Just another form of entertainment, it'll be a shame when you're gone though.

Then there's all the other beautiful red flags Ruan Mei, Jing Liu, Blade, Luocha, and Aventurine and Sunday seem like red flags as well even though they're not out. Like if bad to date why do I want to date?

Their red flags are a part of them and it's hard to work around it, so sometimes you just gotta embrace it. Life's rough man. In the end it's my fault for liking red flags. I'll just stick to Jing Yuan for now, peak husband material.

[bi-bard]

Family Trip - Rafael Barba Imagine (Law & Order: S.V.U)

Title: Family Trip

Pairing: Rafael Barba X Reader

Word Count: 1,024 words

Warning(s): bad family, bullying, cussing

Summary: (Y/n) just got back from visiting family. However, instead of bringing back funny stories or leftovers from their parents, (Y/n) brings back baggage that no one could see. Baggage that (Y/n) didn't want to acknowledge.

Author's Note: The holidays are rough for a lot of people. If you need a better family for the holidays, then I am happy to be a part of your found family.

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

It wasn't meant to be anything more than an off-handed comment.

I knew that.

That didn't stop my brain from going into fight or flight mode when Rafael made said off-handed comment.

In all honesty, I wasn't sure why Rafael was there. We didn't have anything for him to look at or talk about, but he was standing in the middle of our office.

I had started rambling. I had been reading this new book series. It was new and exciting, so I was talking about it. I knew that sometimes my rambling could be a little intense and hard to follow. I knew that. I should've known that.

"My only problem is that I can't seem to find the last book," I explained, probably talking a mile a minute. "It's pretty popular, but I didn't think that meant that I wasn't going to be able to get my hands on a single copy of the thing. I've checked most of the places around me, but there's one shop- it's between my place and this little coffee shop- that might still have a copy-"

"(Y/n), (Y/n)," Rafael smirked as he held his hand up to mimic telling me to slow down. "Take a breath."

My mouth reacted before my brain could stop it, "Jesus fucking Christ."

I shook my head and looked down for a moment.

"Hey, I was just-"

"You should try letting people enjoy things without being treated like shit," I snapped before he could explain himself.

"Excuse me," Rafael asked. The whole team seemed to freeze.

My jaw clenched. I didn't speak.

"Liv," he turned to her. She had stopped when I snapped at him. "Can we use your office?"

"Be my guest," she nodded.

Rafael looked at me again. I sighed, already regretting my choices as I pushed myself out of my seat and toward the office.

He didn't speak up until he had shut the door to the office, "What the hell?"

"I'm sorry," I ran my hands over my face.

"Do you want to tell me what's going on," he asked.

"I... I just got back from visiting my family," I said. I took a deep breath. I was already yelling at myself for how I had reacted and for talking about this whole thing. "They're... They're just a bit difficult. I get a bit... touchy when I visit them."

Rafael's eyebrows were still furrowed.

"They just make a lot of jokes," I tried to shrug it all off. "Quite a few of them are targeted at me. Whether they're just about shit that I've done or how I look or the things that I like or... whatever. I tend to get a bit defensive."

"I... I didn't mean to-"

"I know," I stopped him, forcing a grin. "I'm just overly sensitive. I know that. Can't learn to take a joke."

I felt the tears in my eyes. I tried to figure out how to subtly blink them away. It must've not worked because Rafael stepped forward, wrapping his arms around me as he tried to shush me before I started sobbing. I wrapped my arms around his torso and closed my eyes.

"I don't mean to be invasive, but this doesn't seem like innocent joking," he muttered to me. "If it's this upsetting... (Y/n), this isn't normal."

"I'm the one that's not normal," I stepped back, rolling my eyes. "I... I just can't get my brain to not take it personally. Either I get defensive and overreact or I shut down and that's still overreacting. I just never learned how to take a joke. It's always been that way."

"(Y/n), no."

I closed my eyes and shook my head.

"Hey-"

"I have a lot of work to get done," I said. "I'm gonna go clean my face up and get back to it. I'll see you later, Barba."

"Wait-"

"See you later," I repeated before walking out of Liv's office.

I ignored everyone's sad looks. I just continued working. Typing and writing. I answered a call or two. It was the rare occasion where S.V.U didn't feel like it was being left to drown and hopefully take down a few terrible people before we sank completely.

Sonny tried to talk to me a few times. Rollins too. Liv had called me into her office, but I pushed her away. Fin seemed to respect that I needed the space.

I had shut down. I figured it out as soon as I got home. Just like I always had. I had fucked it all up. I thought that I could keep myself together when I was away from my family. That those reactions could just fade away with time. But here I was. Still acting like such a child.

I spent the entire night caught in this cycle of punishing myself. Stuck in my thoughts and insecurities until I finally couldn't force myself to stay awake any longer.

I came back the next day to see something sitting on my desk. It was wrapped in some Christmas wrapping paper. It was just after Thanksgiving. It was probably what was in stock.

"It's from Barba."

I looked at Rollins as she spoke. She had caught me staring at the gift. I furrowed my eyebrows at her. At the idea that Barba felt the need to get me a gift.

"I saw him put it on your desk."

I chuckled.

"Will you open it," she asked. "The curiosity has been killing me."

I scoffed before picking up the gift.

I pulled off the wrapping paper to find a book. On top of the book was a folded piece of paper. I put the paper down on my desk before properly reading the cover of the book. I chuckled.

"What is it?"

"It's the last book in that series that I was talking about," I said, holding it up for her to see. "I... I don't know where he found it."

I grabbed the piece of paper that had been placed on the top.

I grinned a bit at the short note.

You deserve so much better.

Maybe he had a point.

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

Navigation Guide

What I Write For

Some Original Characters

[sonicanvas]

Since this is gonna be a personal view of me going through MK1 and I have been giving you the design perspective of Reptile, let's look on my personal take of the lore as my excuse to tell you how much I like him

First things first, I consider myself pretty new in MK, being my introduction to it was MK11. Due to how small the roster was, I didn't know Reptile was present at all. To my personal view at the time, he was just...another lizard monster jobber like Baraka. I admit his design in MKX was badass, but that's pretty much it.

Going into MK, I'm not sure if I'm gonna like it, knowing how they treated my first floodgate character in MK11 being Sindel. As I stated about Reptile, I love Sindel's design. I can see how she was probably inspired by Elvira(idk who that is but she looks exactly like her so lmk) and her MK11 design being a love letter to the Mortal Kombat movies back in 1995. Most MK11 character designs are, in exception to... Liu Kang and Kung Lao, for some reason, and well, the new additions(either brought in from MKX or completely new)

Safe bet they still haven't get a permission from Robin Shou to capitalize on a Liu Kang skin. Will be nice if they have it tho.

So, how did I get here?

Strangely enough, it was because I went down a YouTube rabbit hole and someone sent me the "KK in a wheelchair" meme.

Then I discovered SonicHaXD, then the other guys next to him, TrueUnderDawg and the4thSnake.

I already know the4thSnake from his Tekken videos so it wasn't as big of a jump to try looking at other lore-related stuff he did with MK. The leap of faith, however, was in TrueUnderDawg, since he was mostly sharing gameplay-related videos. I already despised him for using AI-generated image as a thumbnail while a quick edit using official renders wouldn't hurt anyone, or yk...pay an artist?

...and there comes the lore parts and I fell down the Reptile hole.

Watching the lore videos I was like

Learning that he was one of the OGs, next to Sub-Zero and Scorpion, on top of his lizard ability making him...basically a Reversed Druid, was the biggest bombshell dropped on me because how could NRS decide to fumble him

I saw him again in the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie, but then again, he's just...another lizard guy jobber. I love that his story revolved around him, being the last Saurian that only wants to help his people to have a new home after Shang Tsung pretty much fumbled them...like the NRS writers fumbling him on every turn. Even the 3D Era shows no mercy to his lore for him to only show up as a vessel for Onaga.

Then I heard those leaks about Reptile joining in M1K. My heart was racing like hell, thinking they would probably fumble him even worse.

And then...the reveal

And I read the official bio they gave to him, which so far, I am completely in love with the way it took a different twist from the original lore. So instead of him being the last hope of his people, he was betrayed by them for being what he is.

Although I would find the joining a circus part is unnecessary, and the part where Shang Tsung took his family, doesn't have to be a wife and child. I understand they want to draw parallels once Baraka got his own chapter to spare Syzoth, but the "family" can be...his own parents or relatives. Maybe he used to have brothers or sisters, knowing reptilians lay eggs in batches, even off-season and for crocodiles, whether the baby is gonna be male or female is decided according to temperature of environments where the egg was laid.

And to a case of Komodo Dragon, the hatchlings would immediately climb trees because the parents tend to cannibalize their own babies, which works well to Syzoth's narrative of being "the odd one's out" on a constant survival mode from birth, because...even his parents didn't want him, but he didn't know that so he often blame himself for showing his human form one time and wished he never did, while also thinking that living with humans as a Zaterran with the ability to look "human" is a psychological torture on itself, considering his diet consist of bugs or even human flesh to some extent.

We could keep the traveling part because he would stumble on Shang Tsung currently on his travel to look for some ingredients of his drugs and thought that guy could probably "cure" his affliction, and helped him with his researches through any means; either stealing some shit or kill some shit. He didn't care about the consequences for as long as he believed Shang Tsung can help him, to the point of General Shao trusting them with Mileena's treatment...

...until Shang Tsung decided to stab him on the back by using Syzoth's abilities against him—staging murders in favor or General Shao and throws all the blame at him, giving an excuse for General Shao and his men to hold Syzoth's family in hostage, to the point of our main Story Mode.

Syzoth was like "You promised to cure me. We had a deal!"

But Shang Tsung was like, "There was never a cure, Syzoth. You're just born like that. Oh, and I got rid of your family. They never want you anyway."

Syzoth, holding a pent up anger, really wants to take it on Shang Tsung, but he's already gone. No family, no home, and nowhere to go. He was in a conflict, not only with Shang Tsung, but also with himself. He hates that Shang manipulated him, but he also hates to accept that his family never loved him for what he is, only for another person to abuse him again...for what he is and what he can do. He's constantly living in fear of being alienated, so he did everything he knew to gain some sort of validation, or even affection, only to make things worse on his end. His journey was for him to learn not only to accept the multiple facets of himself, but also a healthier relationship with others.

Especially knowing this would align much better with his Tower Ending. Though on my personal Headcanon, he got a job as Royal Emissary to bridge a connection between Outworld and Earthrealm, where Kenshi's "Special Forces" route comes in.

Though a personal story of how I end up shipping Syzoth and Kenshi, is gonna be a separate story to tell

[tora-the-cat]

That's some real shit you just said about Hinata in Boruto!! It'd make so much more sense for her to be very indulgent with her children, and it'd better explain why Boruto acts the way that he does.

Instead of being afraid OF her, the more in-character reason should've been because he hates the idea of DISAPPOINTING her. Like god damn, Hinata and Temari are two entirely different characters with veeeeeeeeeery different temperaments; Shikadai fearing Temari MAKES SENSE. She can be scary as hell and she's got no qualms with using corporal punishment!! WHY WOULD HINATA DO THE SAME AWFUL SHIT SHE GOT PUT THROUGH to her own kids?????? It doesn't make sense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah yeah, I get that narratively, it ties back into Naruto thinking "Moms are scary" and continues the idea that the more things change, the more they stay the same. BUT. Boruto and Himawari should've thought that AFTER Hinata popped a can of whoop ass on someone who threatened her family; NOT by unleashing her wrath on her fucking kids!!!!!!!!!!

And I'm not too sure if you're reading the Boruto manga too or if it's just the anime, but there's a scene in the manga that's HIGHLY out of character as well. When I saw it I was just like, "Wtf????" So unfortunately it's not just an anime specific problem... :(

Right??? Hinata and Naruto are both the kinds of parents that would spoil their kids fucking rotten, cause they just don't know any better. poor auntie Sakura had to teach Boruto table manners because Hinata is scared of being too assertive and Naruto never learned them. Hinata and Naruto would NOT be perfect parents, but they'd be bad parents in a very specific way. They'd be overindulgent. Naruto would treat them like adults WAY too young without realizing it's bad. Hinata would never believe a bad thing a teacher said about her kid if the teacher was not LITERALLY Shino Aburame (this is, in fact, why Shino is Boruto's teacher. I will be taking no further questions). And we almost see this in the show!! Boruto IS arrogant! He IS selfish! He has never been denied a thing in his life! His mommy says he's a miracle!!!

But then. Boruto talks about Hinata. and it's just like....'haha, moms, am I right? moms? all moms are exactly the same? annoying and scary but only COMEDICALLY scary. because they're women' and like. sigh. so close Ikemoto now try again without the sexism. And maybe. Read Naruto?

Yes!! You see, Boruto being afraid of disappointing Hinata makes a lot of sense!!! Honestly, another point on Hinata and Naruto being flawed parents is that Boruto....probably has to do a fair amount of emotional labor at home. Not gonna get into it cause that would be its own post, but Boruto is probably VERY aware of his mom's emotional state and REALLY hesitant to upset her, just cause it sucks when his mom is upset and it always feels at least a little like his fault. #eldestkidproblems or whatever ykyk. Being afraid of disappointing her would just make so much sense given the characters and their dynamics, while still filling the purpose of showing how light Boruto gets off for domestic terrorism lmao

As far as the 'moms are scary' throughline....We've got plenty of scary moms. Naruto thought moms were scary because he grew up a pariah that was probably threatened by MANY moms to not talk to their kids, he's not familiar with 'protective anger' because no one has ever gotten angry on his behalf, and Kishimoto thinks its funny to pretend women pose any threat to his cool male characters #feminism. It just so HAPPENS that if he DID have a living mom she would've been scary as shit, but. in canon it's just not a perspective it really makes sense for Boruto to have picked up because it was cultivated by very specific rearing factors.

Much as I would LOVE for Hinata to have a badass protective moment, I sadly doubt it's gonna happen, given that post shippuden Hinata seems to just....not be a shinobi anymore. which, and I say this with full scincerity, good for her! But like. the fact that she can't even stick to a wall to LITERALLY save her life in The Last is. blood boiling lmao. And! even if she did get a little protective moment, it'd be cool for her kids to realize how cool she is, but even then they wouldn't really be scared of her, you know? Like event trying to give Boruto the benefit of the doubt, there's no angle I can come at this where it makes sense for Boruto to be SCARED of Hinata Uzumaki.

I have watched an entire six episodes of the Boruto anime, and all due respect I have less then zero intention of reading the manga. As you can see, I'm clearly having a great time. SO I have NOT read that scene, but I'm more then happy to take your word for it lmao. thanks for the ask <3

[crusty-chronicles]

hii! after reading ur moon and son halloween special, it got me thinking ab kurapika and yn. if its not too much to ask, could you do a small special where kurapika figures out why yn hates their clan? it could be a drabble, short chapter, hcs, whatever youd like to write, i was js super curious for what kurapikas reaction would be

love ur writing 🩷🩵

I'm gonna start this off with a minor spoiler warning for the end chapters of Moon and Sun. Nothing too big so don't worry.

Okay, we Good? There's only four people who really know about what happened with Y/n and their clan. Gon, Killua, Kite, and Ging. The first three are for obvious reasons. Now the only reason Ging knows is because he's got a part to play in future chapters, which I will not be disclosing at this time. That being said, what Kurapika knows/ learns about is a very watered down version of events. Below is a oneshot of how he finds out and reacts.

The Difference Between You and I

⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️

It was ironic, really, when you looked back on what happened a few days ago. You didn't think you had it in you anymore to dislike someone so much. Especially since he was one of the boys' closest friends.

You wanted your first meeting to be friendly, even if a part of you was still bitter he hadn't bothered to see Gon at the hospital. You'd hoped to get along with him as well as you did with Leorio.

 But opposites attract you suppose.

The two of them couldn't have been any more different from each other. Leorio was a stubborn loudmouth depending on who he interacted with. Acting purely on impulse most of the time. Yet despite that, he had a heart of gold from what you could tell.

Treating Gon and Killua with as much care as you did. Wanting to be a doctor in order to help those who couldn't afford proper medical care. Hell, he was even currently helping you with your ‘condition.’

Kurapika, on the other hand, was quiet and reserved. At least from what the boys had told you. Though you noticed he also seemed distant. Rarely ever picking up his phone and even rarer were the times he'd actually show up in person.

But you wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. 

If the boys loved him, how bad could he really be? 

And if Leorio was dating him, then surely he had some redeeming qualities.

Well turns out fate had a funny way of playing things out. Irony at its best. 

—----------------------

You'd arrived in York New about the same time as the boys. Having come for your ‘usual’ checkup. Something you blamed on that damn cat along with yourself. 

You'd agreed beforehand to meet up right after for lunch. The three of you communicating through a small group chat. Although you were still struggling with the newer technology. Not yet used to actually having a phone. But you digress.

It was during Leorio's final evaluation that you were made aware of the blonde’s presence.

“You getting anything?” He asked.

You shook your head, unable to focus your eyes. Six months and your nen was still shot. What a pain.

“Don't push yourself. Remember, we still have a few treatments to test out. You're not out of luck just yet.”

“I know. I just kinda want the process to be over already, you know? Get things back to normal.” Well, as normal as you could be.

Leorio was about to respond before a ‘ding’ from his phone went off. He gave an apologetic look as he checked what it was. 

Although he knew you didn't mind, he still wanted to be professional. This was his job and he took pride in it. Despite his nonchalant demeanor.

“Woah! Kurapika's in town!”

“Kurapika?” The one who usually ignores all his calls? The one who put revenge before his dying friend? But you thought better than to say that out loud. Instead you settled on-

“He's…blonde, right?”

Leorio looked up at you with a bewildered expression. Out of all the things you could say, it was that. It was almost enough to make him laugh.

“Yes? You know, you've got an odd way of remembering people.”

“But I'm not wrong, am I? You gonna see him after this?” You asked with a teasing smirk.

“Yeah. It's been a while. I think the boys would be happy to see him too.” He gestured to the three kids that sat waiting outside of your room.

Two of which were now excitedly staring at their phones. The third sleeping contently on her brother's shoulder.

“You should meet him too.” Leorio suggested.

And although you appreciated the offer, it didn't feel right for you to tag along. You didn't want things to potentially be awkward. Plus, you weren't the best with new people.

“I don't wanna intrude. I'd rather the four of you catch up. Like old times. Well maybe not the four of you if Alluka has anything to say about it.” Already knowing the small girl went everywhere Killua did. 

“You'd really do that. I know it's been months since you spent time with the boys.”

“Yeah but it's been a year since they even heard from Kurapika. Besides, I'll meet him when I pick the boys up. I'm here for three more days after all. And then~you and Kurapika could spend some time by yourselves.”

His face flushed a bright red at the insinuation. Playfully shoving your head to the side.

“About time you paid me back for all the times I watched the boys for you.”

—-----------------------

The two of you finished up, with Leorio briefly leaving to request his break. The kids wasted no time rushing you once you exited the room.

“Any luck this time?” Gon asked.

“Sadly, no. But there's always next time, right?” You tried to reassure. But he didn't look all that convinced. 

“If it doesn't work out, you know you can always ask Nanika to-” Killua started to offer, but you stopped him before he could finish.

“It's fine if I can't get it back. I'll just have to get used to being a normie. Unless, you've got a problem with normies?” Your tone was teasing as you ruffled the small assassin's hair. 

Your attention was redirected towards a pull on your sleeve.

“I don't mind helping Big Sib,” Alluka assured.

“I mind. I'll be okay so don't worry about it…In other news, I heard one of your friends just got here.” You quickly changed the subject. Not wanting to bring down the mood. You wanted today to be a good day.

And judging by the way both boys beamed up at you, it would be.

“Yeah! Kurapika's gonna be here for a few days! I hope you don't mind if he comes with us today.” Gon explained.

You could never really say no to that kid, even if you had already planned to give the duo space today. You returned his cheerful grin with one of your own.

“Course not. To be honest, I was gonna let the four of you reconnect in peace.”

“Peace? You make it sound like we're embarrassed of you,” Killua mumbled.

“What was that?”

“I said, ‘Four of us? What about my sister?’” he quickly covered. Though he could tell you heard what he said first. But you'd let him off the hook this time.

For now.

“Why don't I take her shopping while you guys catch up?”

“Shopping? You can afford that now?” His tone was playful, but there was a genuine hint of concern somewhere in there.

“Hey!” You scolded, about to come up with a retort before Gon stepped in.

“Yeah! They're working with Kite and his team. It's why they travel so much now.”

At the mention of the former silver haired hunter, Killua's expression soured.

“Sibling stealer.”

At that, you pinched his cheek.

“Har har. You mad at him because we're dating now or because Alluka occasionally calls him dad?”

He covered his ears, face slightly red from embarrassment as he tugged Gon away. Not bothering to wait for Leorio.

“We’re leaving now! Have her back by six!”

—-------------

Safe to say, they were overjoyed to see Kurapika again. Both boys eagerly questioning him about his new Zodiac status, while Leorio reminded them not to overwhelm him with questions.

Kurapika was glad to back, if only for a brief moment. He truly did miss them, but his mission always came first. He'd already made tremendous progress recovering his clan’s eyes. His new Zodiac status aiding in his endeavors.

But through pursuing his goal, he'd evidently missed out on a lot with his friends and partner. 

The boys were 13 going on 14 now. Gon had achieved his own goal and met Ging. Traveling with him up until a month ago.

Killua had managed to finally get away from his family, bringing his little sister with him. The two of them also traveling around. Which begs the question, where was she currently?

Leorio had become a doctor, having just been promoted to a zodiac after the election. Which Kurapika did watch, very much proud of how far he got.

Yes, so much had changed.

He supposed it was bittersweet in a way. The three of them already shooting for a new goal while he was still trying to complete his. 

But he truly was grateful for the time he spent with them today. That he was still considered important to them despite his distance. He made a mental note to try harder once he left.

It wasn't before very long that Leorio had to return to work. His break over too soon for the blonde's liking. 

So with a smooch on his cheek and a ‘ewww!’ from the boys, Leorio was off. Leaving Kurapika with the duo. 

Now while you were aware of Kurapika, he had no idea of your existence until the boys mentioned you in passing.

—-----------------------

A desert of some kind sat in front of them.

“Y/n would for sure love this. Do you think we should take them some?” Killua asked, the question directed towards Gon.

“They’ll be upset if we don't. And you know what that means.” Gon responded.

“They won't carry us for a week. You think we're getting too old for that?” But before their conversation could continue, Kurapika spoke up. Curious about the new name they mentioned.

“Y/n?”

Both boys looked up at him surprised before remembering the two of you had never met.

“Y/n’s the person that’s been taking care of us since Greed Island. They're our big sibling,” Gon proudly announced while Killua nodded along.

You seemed to be very close to them.

“Right now they're with Alluka. They wanted to give the four of us a chance to catch up.” Killua added.

That explained why his sister wasn't here. And if Killua trusted you with her, then you must've been reliable too.

A good person.

“Tell me more about them.”

—-----------------------

Truthfully, all odds pointed at the two of you getting along. You were cut from the same cloth, so to speak. Both coming from strong clans. Both losing them during your childhood.

Your lazy demeanor would have paired nicely with his quiet one. You always were more comfortable around less energetic people. 

His analytical skills were on par with yours. A strong head on both of your shoulders. 

Even if you were still upset with Kurapika, the two boys knew you'd get along with him in time. Sure you'd probably chew him out for not answering his phone, but you'd warm up to him nevertheless.

So what was it exactly that put you at odds with each other?

The catalyst that sparked endless animosity between you?

Well, it just so happened to be the subject of your clan that started it.

It was an accident, truly. Gon didn't mean for it to slip out. He just got so excited telling Kurapika about you that he forgot some details weren't meant to be shared.

“You know, I'm kinda glad Nanika erased their memories. Y/n is a lot happier now that they're clan isn't looking for them anymore. They weren't good people to begin with so don't feel too bad about it.”

Gon had been explaining before slapping a hand over his mouth. Him and Killua looking at each other with wide eyes. Gazes briefly glancing over towards Kurapika for his reaction.

They knew he could be touchy with the subject. Watching him carefully to see if his eyes changed. Instead, they were met with a suspicious stare. Not exactly positive, but not really negative either.

“What do mean their clan isn't looking for them anymore? Did something happen between them?”

Because Kurapika, for the life of him, couldn't fathom a family giving up on one of their own. But the subject wasn't as black and white as he suspected.

“We're not really supposed to say. It's not like they told us not to tell anyone, but it's their privacy. You know?” Gon informed.

Not only was it your business, but it was also something you trusted the two of them with. And he was the last person who should be spilling your secrets.

The two boys once again eyed each other. You wouldn't be mad if they told Kurapika. So long as he didn't bring it up directly to you.

Besides, the chain user would just ask you in person if he didn't get an answer. He was direct by nature. Something you would respect, but not if it concerned your ‘family.’

So what was the worse outcome?

They say nothing and Kurapika asks you directly about it. Or he finds out another way.

The second option: they partially explain the situation. Not getting into too much detail, but enough to satisfy their friend’s curiosity.

“If it's not something you want to discuss, then I won't-” but Killua stopped him from finishing his sentence.

“If we tell you, you have to promise you won't say we told you anything. Got it?” 

It wasn't that they were wary of their friend, god no. They just didn't want the two of you butting heads in the future. 

Kurapika gave a small nod.

“Y/n doesn't get along well with their clan. They haven't since they were a little kid. They just don't feel comfortable or safe around them anymore.” Gon started.

“Why?”

“They sorta had a disagreement with them. And that's putting it very lightly. An argument about how things were being done. And how their practices were wrong. That's all we can really say.” Killua continued.

The rest would have to come directly from you. If you ever got around to trusting Kurapika. Something that sadly wouldn't come to fruition.

“So they're estranged from their clan because of a disagreement?” And for whatever reason, that made Kurapika upset.

Your clan was alive and healthy. They'd been looking for you. And here you were being petty. Avoiding them because of it.

When all his people were slaughtered like nothing. Never even having the chance to say goodbye. 

He wanted to think there was more to it. That there was something big the boys weren't telling him. And there was, but he'd never get to learn about what it was.

How similar your grief was to his with him losing Pairo and you losing Kari.

The rest of the afternoon felt tense. Kurapika tried not to show his discomfort, but both boys could tell anyways. Seems the two of you wouldn't get along after all.

It was only a matter of time before you went to get them. Alluka trailing happily behind you with an ice cream cone as you struggled with her bags. Most of which were toys. 

Both boys quickly grabbed a few from you to lighten the load. Your eyes drifting over to the blonde behind them.

So that was Kurapika.

“Alluka! You can't just make them carry everything. Next time help.” Killua scolded.

Said girl, looked up at her big brother with a pout. 

“I did. Mama/Papa said no.”

Her answer prompted a small glare from him. This time directed at you.

“You have her spoiled.”

“You’re just jealous I don't baby you anymore.” You retorted.

“I think it's because Alluka's a girl.” Gon added as he took another bag from you.

“She's not just a girl. She's a princess!” You lightly pinched her cheeks, causing her to let out a squeal.

You looked up to see their blonde friend standing awkwardly away. Perhaps not wanting to interrupt the four of you. 

“You gonna introduce me to your friend?” 

At the sound of your voice he straightened up. Both boys urging you towards him.

“Y/n, this is Kurapika. Kurapika, Y/n.”

It was a brief introduction. Well, you supposed it was time for you to plaster on a smile and try to befriend him. Hopefully things would go well.

“Hi. So you're the infamous Kurapika? Glad you could make a special guest appearance today. I hope the boys weren't too much.” 

You extended your hand in greeting. Wishing you could focus your eyes on him to get a proper read of what he was feeling. He reciprocated your handshake with less enthusiasm than you were expecting.

To be fair, he probably just found out about you.

“Likewise. It's a pleasure to meet the person who they've been talking my ear off about for the last two hours. Apologies for interrupting your time together.”

He was surprisingly polite. Honestly, you were expecting him to be somewhat rowdy like the rest of their friends. Not that you minded.

You needed another levelheaded friend to talk to. And if you were correct, he was about two years younger than you. 

But then things quickly started going downhill.

“My intel tells me you come from a clan like me? Do I have that right?” He asked, unawares that was not the right thing to say. Despite his intention to strike up a friendly conversation.

“Intel?” Your tone was panicked.

 The mere mention of your past life enough to make you spiral. Something both boys could tell was happening from the way you stiffened.

“Uh Kurapika. Maybe now's not the-” Gon tried, but it was too late.

“I don't belong to any clan. I never did, so don't you ever bring it up again.” Ice.

Your demeanor was cold, an indication that you were mad. Though you tried to calm yourself. Maybe he didn't know not to ask that.

He couldn't have known.

You just didn't want to talk about it with anyone. Especially not a stranger you just met. 

“Damn. I knew we shouldn't have told him.” Killua said, already knowing where this conversation was heading. He quickly covered Alluka's ears.

“I don't understand why you're so upset about it. Could the disagreement you had really be that irksome to you.” The blonde's tone dismissive. 

The thing that inevitably set you off.

Irksome.

Like they didn't just try to kill you half a year ago. Like they didn't murder your sister right in front of you. Like they didn't turn your best friend against you.

“I said drop it. It's none of your business. But you know what should've been, since you're so keen on family.”

“Y/n don't-” Gon tried once more, tugging on your arm to get you attention.

“Checking up on your friends every once in a while. Do you even know about what happened to these two?”

“Guys,” Killua warned.

“Of course I know. You think I'm an idiot not to know about the Chimera Ant situation?” Kurapika's voice increasing in volume to match yours.

“Yeah? You know about Illumi hunting down Killua and his sister while his family watched? About the two of them almost being killed to better their psycho family's power? You know about Gon being hospitalized? About how nothing short of a miracle saved his life? You know about all that?”

Judging by the shocked expression on his face, he didn't know. He glanced over to the two boys to verify. And when they looked down to avoid his eyes, he knew you weren't lying.

He hadn't been a very good friend, had he?

“Didn't think so. So next time you think I owe you anything, think about how you've never given anyone anything. I don't owe you shit. I don't owe you an explanation and I sure as hell don't owe you my time!” 

Was it a petty argument that got way out of hand?

Absolutely.

The truth is, if you could get past your one difference, the two of you would see you have a lot in common. Might've even become good friends.

 But you can never trust someone who takes the people they care about for granted. Who had the opportunity to support their friend on their deathbed instead of chasing after shadows of the past. Who only lets anger and hatred guide their actions.

And Kurapika could never befriend someone who doesn't understand how good they have it. Who still has the opportunity to see their family instead of their corpses. And maybe he's envious of the fact. He'd give anything to spend five minutes with his clan while you can't even bare thinking about them for five seconds.

And while you two disliked each other, you'd just have to learn to tolerate the other for the sake of your friends.

—-------------

MASTERLIST

An: I didn't know if I should add tags to this one because technically it's not apart of our main story. More like an expansion on the lore, if you can even call it that. Now, I love Kurapika, I really do. But I feel like our insert from Moon and Sun would absolutely despise him. On the bright side, I should be able to start uploading a little more frequently now. Might even get back to weekly updates. We'll see~

[elekinetic]

user elekinetic do you have any tips to spare for outlining fics 😭 i feel like I word vomit any of the concept that I have in my head, and dialogue ,and build off that adding paragraphs as I go and I go so slow bc of it. But ive been trying hard lately to write a list of “scenes” and bullet point the story but yeah.

do you know anything that could help me have an idea of where to go start to finish instead of starting at the random spot I’ve come up with first? I waste so much writing time because I haven’t built a backstory for characters and things like that so i don’t always know how they start the story off, only the situation they’re in. Is that something that could help? Making a list for each character or something? Would love to hear your thoughts thank you! <3

hi! first of all i’m so flattered you asked! to be clear, i am a very slow writer too lmao and i’m relatively new to prose writing, and though in very confident in my understanding of what makes a good story (W screenwriting), i am still figuring out my outlining process. but hey! let’s learn together.

sorry in advance for how long this is. i love talking.

so i basically figure everything out in the outline and write after i feel very good about it. if you have a strong foundation, everything gets a hell of a lot easier. t kind of sounds like your process might be similar to mine, so i’m just gonna explain what i'm doing for my current project.

my key document is my “bible.” i split it up into a couple different sections using page breaks (page breaks my best friend ily page breaks):

pitch/word vomit summary

scene ideas

outline

notes

ok so wtf does that mean.

1. pitch/word vomit summary — explain your concept. bc i've got a film/tv background, im starting off with my logline. (e.g. "after robin learns will is gay, they have a heart to heart in an abandoned video store about insecurity and feeling alone. they learn they're not." sometimes i'll follow that up with a note to myself like, "this fic isn't robin finding out, this is what happens after. starts with her already knowing. will pov, focus on his perception of robin changing. subtly reference toward feelings about mike, dont come out (haha) and say it") then, i write as MUCH of the concept down as i can, like i'm explaining it to a friend. (sometimes i copy and paste rants from dms directly into the document). it can be totally out of order, non-sensical, contradictory. just get as many of your ideas down as possible. you want to be able to come back to this and be like, oh i totally forgot about that. vague chapter summaries, personal notes about themes, whatever you want. i have a list of beats that you find in romantic dramas for inspiration and a paragraph abt ways i want to parallel/subvert s3 of st. just. go ham. 2. scene ideas — this is pretty self explanatory. i take some of the stuff i have in the p/s and flesh it out, or put down new ideas. this is where i'm writing out dialogue in bullet points, or what i want them to be Really Saying. (e.g. "mike: [panics bc he feels seen, tries to flip it back on (redacted) and fails] ") this is for when i can see stuff more clearly or i get out of the shower with a whole exchange in my head. gonna be out of order, a little all over the place. 3. outline — so. this is where you start piecing it together. put the bullet points in order. figure out objective of each scene and what needs to happen to accomplish that goal. figure out pacing, what needs to happen when. this step is where im looking at dialogue and thinking "why does mike say that? why does he feel that way? what needs to happen to get him to this point emotionally?" or looking at scenes and thinking "these are two scenes with people arguing back to back. lets make sure they feel different and give the characters different tactics to get what they want (byler argument where mike is avoiding will vs max argument where max is avoiding lucas. i could use this to highlight similarities and differences in the relationships, but having two scenes with the same tactics back to back might feel repetitive. maybe i move the scenes farther apart or change circumstances. maybe mike and will are having a veiled argument while theyre with a group of friends in a public space and max and lucas' argument is outside max's house.) also asking if conflicts are resolved too quickly, if the miscommunications feel too convenient, if characters disappear or are only around as plot devices. write. troubleshoot. repeat. 4. random notes — everything else that doesnt fit. for me this is literally just taylor swift lyrics (writing the fic vaguely off of a Specific Song that SHOULD BE STREAMED MORE WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE anyway) and links to posts i use as character reference to make sure im staying true to the characters. (remembering will said "i was being a total jerk to el, i deserved it," AND "you're ruining everything, and for what!"/"i wasn't moping!")

i want it to be clear im doing all of this at the same time. im jumping around and pulling new ideas and rearranging as stuff changes. i think the thing that's really hard is that i want to be able to sit down, write the outline, and then move on. but for us scatterbrained writers, you're gonna have to re-outline and readjust like. a thousand times. and that's okay. that's good! it feels tedious as hell but the story is so much better for it.

take your time. let yourself be slow. keep finding holes in your story and fill the world in as you fix them.

here are some more questions i ask myself to make the story better:

What are you trying to accomplish over the course of the story? What is it about? (for the will&robin fic, it was something about feeling seen for the first time.) When you get lost in your story or aren't sure why a scene feels stale, come back to this. is the scene furthering that goal?

What is changing internally for each of your main characters? (yes theyre dating by the end but like. what do they learn.)

Are the side characters people or props? (will pov scene of a party-wide picnic where everyone's talking but will is focused on mike's hands.... where is max's head at in the scene? you don't have to have a super long backstory and she doesn't have to be a big part of the plot, but if she's saying something, figure out why she's saying it. if will is having a heart to heart with el, understand why el is responding the way she is. the scene's goal may be to get will through a breakthrough, but el's circumstances will change in the scene too. figure out how this conversation lands with her. oh, and remember the adults are people too!)

Why is this character saying this/why are they responding this way? (this should answer your "where do i start?" question. start in that random spot and figure out A) why they are there and B) why they are reacting the way they do (see last bullet point).

side note: some of the best advice i ever got was "enter the scene late, exit early." skip the prologue. try starting from that random spot. if it feels like something's missing, figure out exactly what that something is, and go from there

Do the stakes feel high enough?

What do i need to set up to make sure this scene/beat is satisfying as possible? (are will and mike going to have a big argument? oh, so we have to show tension before.... BAM you have another scene to write and your outline is fuller)

i could go on a lot longer but. basically.

i edit while i write. i'm someone who needs a very fucking strong outline and a very fucking clear idea of the story before i can start writing it. i'm putting probably 70-80% of the leg work in at the start so i can focus on making the prose (or script, most of the time) the best it can be.

THAT BEING SAID, this is just the way i do it and i have like. a fic and a half published. im taking my sweet time bc im creatively burned out and this is for fun first and foremost. like i said. i am a Very Slow Writer.

i highly, highly recommend hitting up the ask boxes of writers like @/strangeswift, @/wiseatom, @/astrobei, or @/andiwriteordie. no guarantees on responses bc they are busy ppl with busy lives but i really do think theyre some of the best writers out here right now, and im not just saying that bc they're my friends. abby (strangeswift) and i have been each other's sounding board through a lot of projects and she's almost done with one of her first Big Fics, so its worth asking her about that.

i hope this helps! ah!!

[fandomworld9728]

The Life of the Morningstars - Chapter 9:

"Charlie!"

"Hey dad- oh!" She couldn't help the laugh that was squeezed out of her as her father hugged her.

Picking his big girl up while hugging her, Lucifer smiled up at her. She was so grown... "It's so good to see you."

Giggling down at him, she got back on her feet. He sure was stronger than he looked. When was the last time she had seen him use that strength? "It's good to see you too, dad. And welcome to The Hazbin Hotel." A proud smile graced Charlie's face as she showed him the nicely decorated lobby along with her group of friends. She was so grateful for all the work they had put into putting this together.

Before Lucifer could go explore, he was distracted by his precious little kitty coming to greet him. He couldn't resist showing her some love. "Hello Keekee. It's been a while since I last seen you. Oh! Razzle. Dazzle. Look how much you haven't grown. Still fun sized! Are you taking care of my wittle girl? You better be."

This? This was the King of Hell? This small, easily distracted, goofball? Alastor couldn't believe this. He expected much more from the all the rumors he heard about the royals. Suffice it to say, he was not impressed. 

"Wow... this place looks- uh... uh huh..." Lucifer was having a hard time coming up with something nice to say about the hotel. It was worn down and interestingly decorated. But this was Charlie's space, and he didn't want to be rude. Not his style but it wasn't his house, so he wasn't gonna complain. "It's got a lot of character. Oh! What in the unholy hell is that?!"

"Just some of the renovations we had done. Adds a bit of color, don't you think?"

"And you are?"

"Alastor." Appearing behind the king, the radio demon was already amused by his reactions. The expressions he made; how quick he was to turn around when he appeared behind using his shadow. This was going to be fun. "Pleasure to be meeting you, sire, quite a pleasure. It's nice to finally put a face to the name. You are much shorter in real life."

Did this guy just shake his cane then wipe his hand off after? Lucifer made a mental note to ask Charlie about that later. Who was this Alastor guy anyways? Turning to Charlie for answers, he didn't get a chance to ask anything before the sinner continued.

"I am the host of the hotel. You might have heard of me from my radio broadcast." 

God. Everything about this guy screamed overconfident alpha! Honestly, he had heard about the broadcast. Him and Charlie stumbled upon it once when she still lived with him and decided they liked it well enough to have it play as background noise to make the palace feel less empty. But against his better judgement, his instincts had him lashing out. "Nope! I guess that's why Charlie called it the Hazbin Hotel, ah ha-ha."

"Hahaha, it was actually my idea."

"Haha! Well, it's not very clever!"

"Haha! Fuck you."

"Okay!" Stepping in, the princess separated the two before things could escalate. When was the last time she had seen her dad like that? It didn't make- oh no. "Uh... Alastor. Are you wearing any scent patches?"

"Hm? No. Should I be?"

"Charlie, it's okay. Scents don't usually bother me much. If you guys are fine with his scent being out it's not a big deal." Lucifer knew that his own scent could be overpowering, especially since it had soured over the years, so he made sure to wear them to the hotel. Slowly let the people there get used to his scent instead of hitting them all at once with it. He learned his lesson from last time. 

"Oh. O-Okay. If you're sure. Just let me know if any scents bother you and we can see about how to adjust you to them."

"Sounds good, kiddo." This was honestly going better then he thought it would. Aside from that bastard alpha. Though... it was kind of fun being able to spat with someone like that. Because of his second gender and status as King of Hell, most people either coddled him or feared him. It was a nice change of pace. Not to mention how nice he smells- oh fuck. No. Nononono!

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[quodekash]

its been an hour and a half and I am precisely 17 minutes through the episode. this is gonna be a long night

SO-

SO WHY-

SO WHY DIDNT YOU-

WHY THE HELL DID YOU NEVER FREAKING TALK TO YOUR SON ABOUT SOCCER BITCH????

HE'S CLEARLY INTERESTED IN IT TOO

maybe you could've talked to him about it when he was asking you about fifa

you recognised the game, and he said "do you know this game?" and instead of telling him what you know about the game, or how you used to play it, or engaging in some kind of conversation, you say "Ive seen a lot of young people playing it during my campaign" because all you seem to care about is politics and the campaign, and teenagers as a whole generic concept rather than as individuals, and you dont seem to think of your SON as an individual

and I get that parenting is mistakes over and over again and its a learning experience for everyone involved, but I feel like after 18 years maybe you should have a hang on like. holding a positive conversation with your son for over 90 seconds?

WHY THE HELL DID HE NEVER TALK TO HIS SON ABOUT SOCCER, THATS ALL I WANT TO KNOW

SURELY HE SAW SAILOM AND KANG TRAINING VIGOROUSLY FOR KANG TO TRY OUT FOR THE TEAM

HE COULDVE JUST GONE OUT THERE AND SAID "hey I used to play a lot, can I help give some pointers?" AND HE COULDVE PLAYED SOCCER WITH YOUR SON AND HAD A GOOD POSITIVE BONDING EXPERIENCE WITH HIM

BUT NO, INSTEAD HE DECIDES TO PAY TO GET KANG ON THE TEAM

and I get that he had good intentions, he saw that kang wanted to be on the team so he wanted to ensure that kang got what he wanted. but it would've been better to actually show an interest in his sons interests rather than keeping it on the sidelines, to let his son work for a reward rather than just giving it to him without having achieved anything.

sorry I need to shut up about this man but I have so many thoughts and he could be doing so much better but he just isn't

yes

yes

thank you sailom, thank you

yeah, that about sums it up

good job

you got there

finally

but even though its been so long of you neglecting him, it's not too late to try to slowly fix those broken bonds

if you both work together, you can work this out

(ah crap now ive got the song from high school musical 2 stuck in my head)

(what is it with this series and making me think of high school musical)

BRO JUST DID THE SPLITS

THATS IMPRESSIVE

are you okay my guy?

ahhhh

okay

so the root of the issue: terrible communication

juST TALK TO YOUR SON-

how very heartliming of them

noooooo the angst is already here

they had the scene PERFECTLY set up for a tender guynawa moment, and yet they dove right into the angst

guy was injured and in the nurse's office thing

when guy got injured, nawa looked so worried about him

there was a perfect opportunity for nawa to go visit him and tease him lovingly and for them to have a thuakan moment in the sickbay

but no, of course its episode 10 and of course they're following the msp formula where they develop the side couple an insane amount in episode 9 and then come episode 10 and its focused on one of the main character's and their parent

which like is fair, both this plotline and the msp episode 10 plotline are very important but like come on man I just want my side couple content

oh

oh crap that is bad

but he'll be fine

right?

he'll be okay

he's still alive right?

he's just unconscious

the ambos are there, they'll patch him up and he'll be okay

please

kang and kong need to repair their relationship, and it's not too late for that

right?

surely

crap im scared

they didnt kill gim in msp, I have to trust that they wont kill kong

istg if they make both the main characters orphans--

ha fun.

this is so fun.

I am highly amused in this present moment.

how wonderful it would be to see your boyfriend's father potentially dying, and then moments later to see your brother being restrained and taken out of the house, clearly being arrested for that exact crime.

just such a... joyous experience.

HOLY CRAP THE EPISODE STARTED AIRING TWO HOURS AND TEN MINUTES AGO AND IM ONLY JUST NOW ON 2/4, I HAVE A PROBLEM

SEE??? HE'S FINE, ITS FINE, I TOLD YOU IT WOULD BE FINE

ALL OF YOU WERE SO SO WORRIED BUT I WAS COMPLETELY CALM AND COLLECTED

HOY FRICK NOODLES COVERED IN GRAVY AND DOING THE NUTBUSH IM SO RELIEVED

CRAPPP

WHAT THE HELL??

it was an accident right?

or was he trying to keep name out of trouble

FRICK NOW THIS IS MAKING ME THINK OF FREAKING JUSTINE FROM SHAKE AND STIR PRODUCTION OF FRANKENSTEIN THAT I SAW AT QPAC THE OTHER DAY (which, by the way: so freaking good. if anyone happens to be in Brisbane for whatever reason (im not sure why any of you would, I have precisely two aussie bl mutuals, and one of them lives in Melbourne and the other is my irl friend who I watched it with) and you have a spare 50 bucks lying around (anyone under 30 can get a youth ticket for 49 bucks I believe, which is like insanely cheap for such a high quality production), GO SEE IT, THIS IS AN ORDER)

oh I got distracted

anyway AAAAAAA SAIFAH'S GOING TO JAIL FRICK FRICK FRICK FRICK FRICK

...great. wonderful. so good.

I get it, kang's feeling a lot right now, which is fair because his father got shot for goodness sake, and his father might die, and he's already lost his mother, so he needs someone to blame, and saifah confessed to it, so why wouldn't he be angry at saifah?

but the problem comes in with associating saifah with sailom because they're brothers. he has every right to be angry with saifah (although I still believe saifah didn't actually shoot him), but sailom didn't touch that gun.

and now sailom's gonna have to go back to escorting, because if kang has kicked him out then he needs some way to find money, and that's when that scene from the trailers is going to happen

well now I feel like crap

is it time for a playful guynawa scene to lighten the mood? please tell me its time for a playful guynawa scene to lighten the mood

what

hey

hang on

wait a second

you told him to do it, didn't you??

you asked for his help for a few things

is he just acting surprised? why does he have to say that? he doesnt have to say anything at all he could just be like "well this sucks" and not like condemn him or whatever, I still dont think saifah actually did anything wrong

maybe he was manipulated as well?

maybe the guy, his boss, snuck in and he was the one who shot him, and name didnt know that guy was there so in his mind it must've been saifah?

or maybe hes testing ging to see what she actually thinks on the situation

I have literally no clue right now im so confused

GUY

HES IN HOSPTIAL

HE JUST HAD SURGERY

SO

SO

IS NAWA GONNA SHOW UP?

WILL HE HAVE A GIFT BASKET OR SOMETHING?

PLEASE I JUST NEED SOME HAPPINESS

AND I NEED GUYNAWA

PLEASE GUYS

MAYBE ALL THE FRIENDS SHOW UP

AUTO AND MAX AND NAWA

AND THEN AUTO AND MAX EXCHANGE A LOOK AND LEAVE NAWA ALONE WITH HIM

PLS I NEED IT

AWWWWWWWW

GOU4ERHSGPI4ERBNDPGIV

I LOVE ALL OF THESE POEPLE SO MUCH

OH????

YES

YES YE SYE SY EYS EY EY EYSH OM SO EXCITEF OMG

AND THEY WERE THE ENTIRETY OF THE PREVIEW FOR 3/4

ARE WE GONNA GET A WHOLE TEN MINUTES OF JUST GUYNAWA????? PLEASEEEEE

OMG

I WAS KIDDING ABOUT THE GIFT BASKET THING

BUT I WAS RIGHT ABOTU THE GIFT BASKET

THIS IS AMAZING

HES SO IN LOVE WITH HIM, HE WENT TO THE HOSPITAL ALONE TO GIVE A GIFT BASKET TO A GUY HE SUPPOSEDLY HATES BUT WHOM HE HAS HOMOEROTIC TENSION WITH

AAAAAAAAOUGHROJBD

I CANT BELIEVE I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE GIFT BASKET THIS IS FREAKING ADORABLE

BRO WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HERE THIS LATE

and he doesnt have the gift basket anymore

has he already gone to visit guy and he's just come back

and we fully just missed an entire scene

guy only seems surprised that he's here outside of visiting hours

so they've already seen each other??? there was a whole scene of nawa giving guy the basket, and of them being queer as hell, and we didnt get to see it??????

TO THE ROOFTOP?

HONEY THIS IS A DATE

YOU'RE TAKING HIM ON ANOTHER DATE WITHOUT TELLING HIM ITS A DATE

JUST FREAKING MAKE OUT AREADY

also: the rooftop???? thats an inherently patpran thing. and patpran = soundwin. soooo... this is more evidence that guynawa are a different brand of soundwin

EVERYONE'S SO KIND TO HIM IM GONNA CRY

oh, honey...

ITS A DATE

ITS A FRIKIN DATE

THIS IS A FRIKIN DATE

HOLY FRICK

idk, maybe itll be easier to spot if you kiss first

2 hours of them just sitting there in silence?? when they couldve been kissing or holding hands or something?

NOOO I RAN OUT OF IMAGES HANG ON GUYNAWA JUST GIMME A SEC

(ps I forgot to actually post this one, I accidentally saved it as a draft so its coming after the final post I made lmao)

[grimmgrinningghouls]

I'm back from GxK!! heres my thoughts

I sadly had quite a bit spoiled but nothing can compare to seeing the movie in person, it was sooo much cooler in the theatre.

I kinda knew going in there wouldn't be much Goji, but I did really like when he was on screen. and tbh I don't quite get why people are villainizing him so hard for killing Scylla?? Like she was just destroying things for funzies. She was causing unneeded destruction so Godzilla had enough of her shit and took her out. Tiamat I can kinda understand but she also could've just ran away instead of fighting him.

His evolved design grew on me HARD, like I almost prefer it to his original design. The pink was soooo cool and I loved the look of his atomic breath, I even liked him being thinner. I adored the glowing eyes too, like that was so fucking cool. I do kinda wish we saw him using his thagomizer but I liked it nevertheless, for me its not about how much we see Godzilla, its about how he's used and I feel like he was used pretty well in this movie.

And I'd also like to issue a formal apology to Kong and his fans. I wasn't familiar with his game. Godzillas still my boy but I ended up really liking Kong, his story was really heartfelt. You could really empathize and relate to Kong throughout the movie, his story, emotions, and everything about him made me really like him, I also loved his bond with Suko.

this is also the first time I've genuinely liked the human characters in a monsterverse movie, really the first time I've actively wanted more of them. Loved Bernie and Trapper, more then I expected too. I assumed Trapper was just gonna be obnoxious since he was in the trailers but I really liked him. Bernie too, liked him a lot more then in GvK. I also ended up liking Jia a lot more then I expected too, she was a cool character. I liked her bonds and connections to the titans.

I do wish we saw more Mothra, but she was great when she was on screen. Loved seeing her and Godzilla on screen together again, I'd love to learn more about Mothra lore in the MV tbh.

As for villains, Skar king was pretty cool. He kinda got shat on in all the trailers so he caught me off guard seeing how ruthless he was, I wouldn't put him above Ghidorah but he was cool. I also liked Shimo and her big ass forehead, her size caught me off guard too, girlies massive. Visibly bigger then both Godzilla and Kong. I genuinely felt bad for her and seeing her get freed + find a new life as Kongs friend made me smile a bit.

I liked (most of) the fights too! I really liked the hollow earth 0 gravity fight, especially Godzillas part in it. I am for sure someone who prefers when the kaiju feel massive and have a ton of weight behind them, but that fight was so cool, Goji was badass and I loved seeing his evolved form in action.

The only fight I didn't like was the fight with Scylla, a 900,000 ton animal cannot move like that. That was a bit too silly even for me, and don't get me wrong I love a bit of silly monster fighting but meh. The godzilla suplex was funny as hell though, for sure unrealistic but funny so it passes. I liked the comedy a lot in the movie tbh, more then the other movies.

Also rq, I don't get why yall were calling the movie ugly?? Like some scenes kinda but it didn't look bad at all. The cgi was fine with me and I don't see why people called it a ps4 game, some shots were a bit wonky but not enough for me to really give a shit.

Overall? pretty good movie, I feel like the pacing could slow down a bit but I genuinely enjoyed myself a lot and had a total blast watching the movie. There was never a dull moment and I'd give it a solid 8/10.

[waitmyturtles]

Spending a Saturday with your boss, huh? Step By Step, episode 6, thoughts: 

I literally jumped into this show last week, binged it hot and fast to join the protest against fandoms demanding censorship of ZeeNunew commentary (fans. demanding. censorship.) (instead of bothering to understand satire) (okay, sure) (I urge these dear fans to go back to school and learn comparative media comprehension) (read Nietzsche and Voltaire) (god forbid we were to use our brains to enjoy these shows instead of just our hormones) (yeah, I said it) (oh, I’m still mad).

Anyway. I didn’t plan on taking this show on, but I am THOROUGHLY enjoying where it’s going, at least as of this episode. 

I’m a kill-your-darlings kind of person, and I wish the editing of the first five episodes of this show were tighter. I’ve been okay with the long episodes -- but at least for this latest episode, most of the length was spent building out Pat and his life himself, as opposed to the investment of his world and the side stories (no Ae in this latest episode).

In regards to this focus on Pat: I like how honest Pat is. As Jeng comments on Pat needing to control his emotions, there are benefits to being so honest as well, right? Pat’s honesty gets him out of the MLM thing with Kong (what the fuck, lol). Pat’s honesty went straight to Put regarding their past (PUT, THAT PUTZ, LEAVE MY PAT ALONE), to the point that Pat APOLOGIZED for his honesty.

And -- what I REALLY liked about this episode is that JENG NOTICED PAT’S HONESTY, and encouraged it, and is encouraging it.

So this whole storyline about addressing one’s weaknesses, and working on changing them? Behavioral change, m’fers -- literally the hardest thing for us humans to do. 

When I went back to grad school to enter the social services, the behavioral change chart was probably my favorite thing to learn. The five stages of change are: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. Each one is a step that a therapist will work with a client on to determine readiness -- say, you’re quitting smoking, or starting a diet, or starting to exercise. These are the stages that you’d go through to make that change of action possible.

What I like about what Step By Step is doing is demonstrating that this kind of real, deep, in-your-bones change can’t happen just by yourself, and can’t happen in a vacuum. Behavioral change happens in the context of everything else, and everyONE else, going on in one’s life. You have to learn to navigate that, balance it out, live with it -- and I’m seeing, now, what the long episodes meant, to set that up for us, so that we can get a TRULY deep understanding of who Pat is.

And all in the meantime, we’re also seeing Jeng’s story, Jeng slowly letting his guard down, melting a bit for Pat, and learning how to engage with Pat more intimately to, yes, get closer to Pat -- but also for Jeng himself to learn how to be more empathetic. For Jeng to learn how to change himself, as well. 

I loved that Saturday date. They’re so awkward! But I love that awkwardness. (And, I love love love the authenticity of Pat, as he’s NOT awkward with Ae, Chot, Jaab, and his other homies, and I love that the show shows that for us.)

Pat and Jeng are learning about each other, THROUGH their boundaries as boss-employee, and DESPITE those boundaries. Pat’s gonna move slow, we now know, because he got so burned by Putz in the past. And Pat probably doesn’t have a single idea of what to do when your boss is putting the moves on you -- which is okay, and we’ll get to see Pat learn about himself through it, step by step, which is.... the point of the show, ha.

Speaking of the moves, my man, Pat -- as @bengiyo noted in his stray thoughts, I LOVE THAT PAT HAS A FAN CLUB. Hell yeah. THAT’S REAL! Dudes hitting you up, Pat? You’re cute! I love that. 

AND, AND: I LOVE THAT PAT’S NOT RUNNING AWAY FROM IT. HE PRIMPED FOR KONG! He looked DAMN good for Putz. FUCK YEAH, dude! Show up and hit the streets! You’re wanted. 

Um? @shortpplfedup, you’re right. This is an adult show, by adults, and even for adults. This is an adult deal that Pat has on his plate. He’s not a loner, not by any means, and I LOVE that that’s a reality that’s depicted for Pat’s life as a young, out, queer man. Own that shit, dude. 

And I love that we will hopefully see more behavioral change in the next episode -- as Pat seems to get critiqued at work, and needs to figure out how to process it, with Jeng at his side, continuing to help Pat through his changes. 

I remain just the slightest bit suspicious of the continued long lengths of the episodes, but I’m invested in this show. I’m in another rewind situation, as I haven’t seen TharnType or Lovely Writer yet, so this is my first go-around with Tee Bundit. I’ll likely understand more of what I’m watching when I get to those two past shows, eventually. But for now, I’m liking the risks that Tee is taking, and I’m willing to swallow my criticism for sharper editing to see how Jeng and Pat develop. I like this depth, even despite the time it’s taking.

[mika-mania]

My unfiltered first reaction to the album (and reading the lyrics)

Bougez:

Great start

Would normally never listen to sth like this but because it‘s Mika I love it?

I am INTO this, it's so stupid

(The bridge about god telling him to move in heaven lol)

Jane Birkin:

This has grown on me

The chorus is permanently stuck in my head

Sweetie Banana:

I… don't know

But the soft "bye bye"s are killing me

What the hell is this about

The only thing I understand is "I know your address" which is very ominous

("Candy in my bath" I'm sorry WHAT)

("All these words of love remain to be peeled" I am WHEEZING)

Apocalypse Calypso:

I do like this, still don't love it though

30 Secondes:

The sound is a bit too cheesy for me I think

The chorus IS nice ok

This is sth I'd listen to on repeat if I was in the right mood but would never admit

("You're like a bomb" um ok)

(He's talking about heaven and hell again uh-oh)

C'est la Vie:

God I hate this

I'd skip but promised myself I'd listen to the whole thing the way it's intended

Ok I don't HATE it, it just does absolutely nothing for me

Moi, Andy et Paris:

The beginning is so romantic WHAT

Oh this is such a vibe

Absolutely adooore ❤️

Every time he says "Andy" I grow stronger

At the end he sings "I love you but not him" WTF Mika (this was a betrayal by google translate, he is actually saying "I love you but he doesn't" phew)

Je sais que je t'aime:

The whisper part is so cringe I'm sorry

The rest is beautiful

The line "I hope life forgives us even if god has abandoned us" is still the saddest thing on the album for me

Ohhh the strings I loovee

(Every time I think a song is about Andy it turns out to be about his mum. This one is very sad though)

Doucement:

Mhm not sure tbh

I do like the chorus

Not obsessed yet though

(Not sure what or who this is about. Possibly depression and suicide)

Touche Touche:

Finally my fave from the teasers let's go

God this gives me energy, is this gonna replace Touches You as the song I listen to on repeat when I need a mood booster

Omg the sound of loading the gun in the second pre-chorus, this guy is insane

(Pure sensual filth. Like Tomorrow, BBB and Ice Cream combined. I love it)

("Prends ma main pour un slow" a slow what?! :O)

Amour Pirate:

I'm soo curious about these lyrics

Whyy did I learn Italian instead of brushing up on my French

Melody is simple but I'm not hooked (yet)

("Stolen treasure is not catholic" what)

(Aw so sweet, I AM an undiscovered treasure)

(I think he's telling us to take more risks in order to find love and he might not be wrong)

Passager:

Again nice but more about the lyrics I think

I wasn't expecting this many ballads

An unusually soft Mika album (not complaining)

I do wonder how that's gonna translate to a gig though since they are usually so high energy

Did he just say "Je parle francais et anglais"?! I'm dead (I found out later he does not, he says "un anglais")

[anjumstar]

Sand Lines Ch2, Wednesday

Read on AO3

rating: teen

pairing: bakudeku

word count: 11.5k/40.6k

summary: It wasn’t a vacation. It was only convenient that Katsuki’d managed to trick Miruko into thinking it was.

Katsuki doesn’t need a break. Post-war life has been peaceful. Too peaceful. So under the guise of a vacation, Katsuki heads to the American southwest, the only place where he can do the thing he wants to do the most: blow stuff up. Big time. And it’s all going to according to plan for about five minutes, until Deku comes along. They’ve barely seen each other since graduation last year and Katsuki could, should blow him up for getting in his business yet again. Instead, they learn about post-war life in the way they’ve done everything: together.

first chapter - next chapter

master list

Alamogordo, New Mexico

“Hnngh.”

Katsuki grunted as consciousness walked up to him, slow and heavy and unpleasant. It felt like someone was sitting on his arms, two someones. Two power-up villains. Probably D-listers, like everyone else, but they must be somewhat decent to have pinned him.

He’d been pinned.

A gasp escaped Katsuki’s dry throat as his eyes shot open, and his body shot up. And then the pain came crashing down on him. His arms felt like deadweights, fat dumbbells taped to his wrists and dragging them down, straining the muscles as they did. That was enough for him to remember where he was, despite the fact that he couldn’t see anything.

The room had one red light shining from a television, and the red digits of an alarm clock proving that it was just after twelve am, but they did nothing to illuminate the room. And out the windows was pure darkness. 

“Kacchan?”

Izuku’s voice was quiet and crackly—definitely just roused from sleep.

“Shuddup,” Katsuki groaned, trying to remember if they’d brought in his water from the car or if there was water in the room. He was pretty sure they weren’t supposed to drink from the tap.

“I bough’ you a cheeseburguh,” Izuku mumbled, and even without seeing him, Katsuki could tell that his face was at least half pressed into his pillow from how garbled his speech was. He wondered how late Izuku had stayed up after Katsuki passed out.

“Don’t want it,” Katsuki grumbled as he rolled off the bed. He’d never managed to get under the covers, evidently, and they were still tucked military-style underneath him. There probably wasn’t a single wrinkle on the comforter. He remembered that there had been a filtering pitcher next to the coffee maker, and despite its proximity to the toilet, Katsuki was going to make use of it.

Katsuki crackled a couple explosions in his hand to provide enough light to find the pull for the lamp on his bedside table. Even just that action awakened a new aching in his hands, but it wasn’t so different from what he’d felt any time he had to use his quirk a lot. The pain wasn’t all that bad, but they were stiff as hell.

The lamp barely illuminated past his bed, but it did light up the wrapped burger resting on his bedside table, cold and paper stained translucent with grease.

“It’s just McDonald’s, but they have a special chile burger here,” Izuku claimed, sounding a bit more awake. “I had one and thought it was pretty spicy.”

“Fine,” Katsuki said as he shuffled over to the water. A drink and a meal wasn’t a bad idea, since he’d completely missed dinner. But despite his best efforts to rehydrate, all that sweating and the dry, dry air had left him parched.

It felt amazing on his throat. Even with the filter, the water still tasted different from home, but damn, it had rarely been more ambrosial. Katsuki poured a cup for Izuku and placed it on Izuku’s side table. Izuku was sitting half up, looking at Katsuki as he circled back over to the burger. He snatched it, his room key, and then a pair of shoes from his bag.

“Where’re you going?” Izuku asked.

“Gonna let you sleep,” Katsuki answered, toeing on his slides at the door before stepping back out into the desert.

And shit.

It was dark out in a way that it never was in Musutafu. In the city, any door you stepped out of had a wall just a few meters away. Oftentimes, that wall had some kind of illuminated sign, and it almost always had a streetlamp or two just in front of it. 

Well, there were streetlights here, though fewer. There were neon signs, but more spaced out, though perhaps a bit larger. But there was so. Much. Sky.

And it was dark. In Japan, the sky was murky, like miso soup in a black pot. Slightly brown with only a few specks otherwise. Back at UA, there had hardly been a decent square of sky through all the trees.

But here. The sky was as dark as unconsciousness. The stars, plentiful as dreams. And brighter than Katsuki had ever seen.

“Damn,” Katsuki said, perhaps a little irreverently as the greasy paper in his hands crinkled. 

The burger was small, and cold, but now that Katsuki was standing, slightly more awake, he grimaced at the rumbling of his stomach.

It would have been better fresh. And warm. But damn. The tingle on his tongue wasn’t anything to write the curry places home about, but it was sudden and it was decent. And even a wimpy little burger was delicious when you hadn’t eaten since breakfast in the airport.

“Wow, it’s beautiful.”

A door squeaked closed behind him, and Izuku appeared beside Katsuki on the balcony. The wind swept his bed head and brought a chill to Katsuki’s arms. The temperature had sunk with the sun. Now it was pleasant out, if even a little chilly.

No one was out. Every once in a while a car would pass by, but there wasn’t a person to be seen outside but for the two of them. Not so much as a hero patrolling. It seemed this wasn’t much of a walking town.

“Gonna wait till the afternoon to go back to the Missile Range?” Izuku asked.

Katsuki clenched his hands on the railing. They were still creaky, but another day of training wouldn’t damage them. They’d just continue to ache a bit.

“Midday, yeah.”

“Maybe we could go somewhere in the morning? Before it gets too hot?” Izuku suggested.

“Ain’t nowhere to go here.”

“No, there are definitely places to go,” Izuku insisted. “There were lots of places on Google Maps.”

“Places worth going to,” Katsuki corrected. He’d be happy to eat a bite at some of Izuku’s Google Maps pins—a place this boring was bound to have some tasty food. The people didn’t have anything better to do.

“Someplace we can walk,” Izuku added. “Maybe someplace with hiking. There are mountains, right? There’s gotta be hiking.”

That wouldn’t be horrible. It’d be a leg workout before his arm and quirk workout.

“Maybe,” Katsuki said. “Pretty sure this isn’t your vacation, though.”

“I didn’t think it was yours either.” Izuku’s grinning teeth glinted in the starlight.

“Shithead,” Katsuki grumbled, pushing Izuku’s head away as he turned back inside. “Go to sleep.”

*

Alamogordo, New Mexico

The rest of the night had been fitful. Katsuki and his body were both men of routine, and his circadian rhythm didn’t like the time change any more than his bones liked the thick springs poking up against the supposed pillow-top mattress he rested on. He turned over, springs squeaking, only for Izuku’s voice to cut through the morning.

“I figured out how to add us to the register!”

Katsuki’s face was pressed flat into the motel pillow that smelled of the same dust that made up the rest of this dry, dead world. The room had blackout curtains, but the damn things weren’t flat against the wall and Izuku had already turned on a lamp. He had to lift his neck to grumble out: “What?”

“To the roaming hero register,” Izuku chirped, coming over to Katsuki’s bed and sitting on it, presumably to show Katsuki his phone. “Obviously neither of us can teleport, but we’re both really fast, so if anything happens in town, we’ll get the alert, and maybe we’ll get to handle the case. Or, at the very least, we’ll get to meet the local heroes!”

“Great,” Katsuki mumbled, rolling over and knocking Izuku off the bed. 

“Oof—Kacchan!” Izuku groused as he got back on the bed, forcing the phone in Katsuki’s nose. “I signed you up too, you just have to download this app and then you’ll get the notifications.”

“Why do I need the app when you’re stuck to my hip like a barnacle?”

“Well, I guess that works too, but you know…”

Izuku trailed off as he got a notification on his phone. A text reading Miruko: How’s it going?

Katsuki would have thought it was nothing. An annoying text by an annoying person, were it not for how Izuku immediately turned the phone away, the tips of his ears going redder than they already were from sunburn.

“Deku,” Katsuki said. Just that. And Izuku crumbled like a D-list villain.

“I’m so sorry, Kacchan, Miruko didn’t send me here just to catch you in the lie. She wanted me to make sure that you actually did take some time off, and didn’t just work the whole time, so it’s been my mission to make sure that you properly vacation, at least a little bit. I know I shouldn’t have lied, please, Kacchan, I’m sorry.”

Katsuki blinked. Izuku sniffled.

Katsuki laughed.

Here Izuku was, practically on his knees begging forgiveness for something that wasn’t half as bad as what Katsuki had done in the past. Not a fraction. Not close to the worst either of them had done, really. 

“Kacchan?” Izuku asked, looking up at Katsuki with those wide, stupid eyes.

“Honestly, I’m the idiot for not guessing that shit,” Katsuki cackled. “Call my bluff? If Bugs Bunny wanted to do that, she woulda done it herself just to laugh in my face.”

“So…you’re not upset?”

“The White Rabbit should be the one upset,” Katsuki continued. “Aside from maybe my parents, you’ve always been my worst enabler. She’s late, she’s very, very late.”

“Okay, I’m glad you feel that way, because,” guiltily, Izuku held up the car keys, “I’ve stolen these. We’re not going to the Missile Range today.”

Now that was a different matter entirely.

“The fuck?” Katsuki finally got out of bed, leaping up and making a lunge for the keys. Izuku easily sidestepped him. 

“If you managed to get these from me, I’m not even sure you could hold them in your hands, Kacchan,” Izuku said, slipping them into his pocket. He’d already changed out of his pajamas and was wearing an oversized pair of cargo shorts where the deep pockets alone were probably a quarter of his height. “I’m happy to train with you, but just because this is a good opportunity doesn’t mean I’ll help you overuse your quirk.”

“You’re one to talk, hypocrite,” Katsuki snarked, lunging again for the pants. If Izuku thought putting them there meant they were safe, he had another thing coming. “My hands are fine.”

And they were. They were stiff and sore, but they were fine.

“I know it’s hypocritical, and that’s exactly why I’m the person who should be saying it,” Izuku said, sidestepping again. If he really thought Katsuki was a threat, he’d bind him with Blackwhip, but he wasn’t even doing that. Bastard.

“Okay, if you’re the big man in charge, then what’s your brilliant idea?” Katsuki asked.

“I want to take a day trip,” he offered, holding both hands up in the air, like a criminal claiming giving himself up for surrender.

“Where?” Katsuki punched into his suitcase, searching for a tank top to tear over his head.

“Up in the mountains,” Izuku said. “Not hiking, we drive up there. It’s cooler, not so much sun, there are shops and food. It’ll be a break from the desert for a minute.”

Katsuki narrowed his eyes. Not being in the desert for even a moment seemed appealing.

“Fine. But if it sucks, I’m blowing you off the mountain and that will be my training for the day.”

*

Route US-82, Otero County, New Mexico

It was like he’d blinked and been sent to Hokkaido.

Obviously he hadn’t been, because he was still in an oversized SUV with an animal head hood ornament, and damn Izuku was driving in the left seat. But being dropped onto this steep hill of conifer trees after having been in the desert not one moment ago was disorienting in its own way.

They were on a winding road up a mountain, one of the many they could see clearly from anywhere in the Tularosa Basin, but everything that wasn’t a house or a cow farm or the road itself was filled with pine trees. Dark, viridian evergreens that provided the first speck of natural color that wasn’t brown or the damn sky that Katsuki had seen since his arrival on this side of the world.

“It doesn’t feel any better on this side,” Izuku said, white-knuckling it as the road corkscrewed up the mountain

“I don’t care, if you skid off the road here, you’d better be ready to whip out One For All to save us, otherwise I’m gonna kick your ass.”

“I would, Kacchan.” Izuku declared. “But it won’t come to that.”

“I’m serious. I remember learning with you, and of all our bad memories, that one’s definitely up there.”

Since the legal driving age was eighteen, it had been a part of the UA curriculum in their third year. It was an important skill for heroes, especially any who would be sent abroad. And Izuku—and most of their classmates—had been a nightmare at it. Katsuki, of course, had gotten top marks. Well, second behind Glasses, who drove the exact speed limit and nothing else.

“I’m keeping my skills sharp,” Izuku promised, narrowing his eyes with fresh determination, flicking his eyes between his speed gauge, mirrors, and back at the road. It was the same look he got when he was getting ready to spar, or planning a villain takedown, or anytime Katsuki punted a challenge his way. If he wasn’t punting it right back, he was swallowing it down, determined to do his best with it. 

Katsuki looked away, that expression making his fingers tingle more than they already were. 

“You better be, or else I’m taking those keys back.”

Izuku was never the best at something the first time he did it—as a kid that had always surprised Katsuki, who often was the best at something the first time out. But in high school, it became rare that Izuku failed at anything. There was no way he’d ever steer this car off the road, especially with Katsuki in it with him.

“Oh no, there’s a tunnel ahead. Check and make sure there aren’t any turns, Kacchan. I don’t wanna lose signal,” Izuku said as he white-knuckled the steering wheel.

“Turn where?” Katsuki grumbled as he checked the map anyway. The highway was winding, alright, but it wasn’t turning. It was more or less one road all the way up. “No turns.”

After Katsuki steadied the phone back in its holder, he stretched out his fingers, popping the knuckles, hoping to feel some relief in between, but it didn’t come.

It was only a short tunnel. The signal on his phone did dip, but that could have been from the altitude as much as the dinky tunnel. The town they were going to was apparently a good two-and-a-half kilometers above sea level. Katsuki’s ears had already popped once.

“Ooh, it looks like there’s an artisanal shop ahead!” Izuku said, catching sight of a weathered, handmade sign off the side of the road. It had a mascot with a giant apple for a head. “We should turn off!”

“Well, you’re the one who’s basically kidnapped me, so I guess we have to.”

Even as Izuku looked out the windshield, the constant array of pine making his eyes that much greener, Katsuki could see them soften into sadness.

“Not your funniest joke, Kacchan.”

Izuku’s foot must have fallen off the gas pedal, because their speed suddenly began decreasing rapidly up the incline. The car might not have been in neutral, but Katsuki wasn’t convinced it wouldn’t just decide to start going the way gravity intended anyway.

“If you really don’t wanna do any of this, I’ll take you back to the hotel, even back to the Missile Range,” Izuku continued, his voice low. It always fell so deep when he was serious, bright and high as bells when he was excited. “I know I’m supposed to be making you vacation, but I won’t make you do anything. I wouldn’t assume that I could.”

“You can’t,” Katsuki emphasized, putting a hand on Izuku’s knee and pressing it hard, trying to get him to depress the pedal. “Just hit the gas and keep going, and we’ll go to the apple frenzy, okay?”

“Are you sure?”

Katsuki pressed down harder. “Don’t make me say it again.”

Izuku put his foot back on the gas and the car revved underneath them, engine working overtime to get back up to the modest speed they’d been going.

“Okay, Kacchan.”

Katsuki took his hand back and settled back in his seat, arm crossed. He mumbled, “Next time you’re driving, I get explicit veto so that you don’t go and get confused.”

It only took a few more minutes and one hell of a sudden turn off to reach the shop that resembled an oversized cabin more than anything. It was made of wood, like it had been built from the very land it stood on. Perhaps it had been, for all Katsuki knew.

“Ooh, apple cider, pie, fudge!” Izuku exclaimed, reading the signage aloud like Katsuki was blind. “I’ve never had fudge before!”

“Yeah, sugar that sticks to your teeth,” Katsuki said, kicking the car door closed. “Great.”

“C’mon, it’s worth a try!”

They hiked up wooden steps and a wooden wraparound deck to the wooden shop, and when Katsuki stepped in, he was immediately disoriented. The smell was sweet. Auntie Inko’s hot chocolate sweet, first bite of birthday cake sweet. But in a land that wanted for everything but space, the shop was packed tighter than the smallest corner conbini Katsuki had ever seen. There were barrels—yes, barrels—of tchotchkes, collectibles, and novelty items. Somehow the middle of nowhere had sprouted a tourist trap. And worse than a tiny conbini, this place was packed with tourists.

“Deku,” Katsuki hissed, but Izuku was already on the move, following the sweet smell as doggedly as he’d followed Katsuki to this dried-out county.

The food area was the most crowded, so Katsuki walked the other way, looping between the racks of socks illustrated with chiles and aliens, the keychains with all the hundred most popular American names. The closest to Katsuki was Katelyn. He passed them right by, trying not to brush anything off their given racks and shelves with his broad shoulders. He’d never be able to find where to put them back.

There was so much red, white, and blue in the shop that he almost missed it. But there, among the American flag bandanas and American flag sunglasses and American flag beer koozies was a series of hero figurines. Mostly Americans, he assumed, but amongst the assault of capitalistic patriotism was a single All Might. In a cowboy hat. It was a good twenty-five centimeters and well painted. The hair wasn’t overly defined and the iconic smile wasn’t overdrawn or creepy. It was the good stuff.

Hell.

Katsuki looked back at Izuku, who was holding up a number on both hands as he ordered at the front of the food line. The checkout for the tchotchkes was on the other side of the store.

Fucking hell.

Katsuki snatched up the All Might, the feeling of gripping him by his tiny hat-clad head somewhat rewarding as he remembered being thrown into a building by the guy back at UA. And if there was a jar of pickled chiles that he snatched up on the way to the register, well, who could blame him?

“Kacchan, I got the fudge! Ooh, did you get something too?”

“I got my business, and the receipt said that it’s none of yours,” Katsuki said, trying to force down the heat rushing to his ears. He distracted Izuku with a swipe towards his pocket, managing to fit his fist into the gaping cargo shorts opening and snag the car keys. “My turn to drive.”

Izuku must not have seen any use in fighting, because he didn’t even try for keys. Even though Blackwhip would have been easy, even in the crowded shop. Not that Katsuki would have made it easy for him, but still, any fight Izuku wanted to have, he had.

Katsuki questioned his decision as soon as he turned the key in the ignition. Just that little bit of grip and fine motor control set off a twinge in his hand that was definitely ignorable, but not exactly good news either. Before he was even backing out of the parking space, Izuku was opening his paper box of treasures, and soon the car took on the scent of the shop. It followed them just like the sand and the dust and everything else in this town.

When they were pulled back on the main road and the GPS was set back up, the caramel scent grew even stronger as a cube of brown suddenly appeared in front of Katsuki’s mouth.

“Eat, Kacchan!”

Katsuki recoiled, knocking his head against the headrest. “Hey, I’m not eating anything I don’t know!”

“It’s fudge!” Izuku repeated, as though that held hardly any of the relevant info. Ingredients, nutrition info, flavor for Pete’s sake. Though, even out the corners of his eyes, Katsuki could see it was chocolate. “C’mon, Kacchan, it’s vacation. The point is to try new things. You not brave enough to try strange American food?”

Katsuki gripped the wheel until his joints creaked. He was being played. Izuku wasn’t above it, and he’d used it enough on Katsuki for him to have caught on ages ago.

But damn if knowing the trap’s right in front of him was the same as avoiding the trap.

“Good luck using Air Force again when I bite your fingers off with it.”

“A risk I’m willing to take,” Izuku said as he held up the chocolate to Katsuki’s lips.

Izuku was nothing if not devilishly fast, so Katsuki didn't get more than a graze of his teeth against Izuku’s thumb and forefinger as they quickly retracted from his mouth. And then his teeth sunk into the thick, rich, sticky fudge.

“It’s horrible,” Katsuki said immediately. “Like an American movie in a mouthful.”

“Impossible to choke down with how sweet it is?” Izuku asked, popping his own piece in his mouth.

“Exactly.”

“Mm, it’s not very good,” Izuku agreed. “It needs pop rocks or chili flakes to be like the movies you like.”

“Or some TNT,” Katsuki said, doing his best to swallow. Honestly, some cayenne probably would make it better. Some matcha, coffee, charcoal, anything to make it a little less sweet. If Katsuki could get his hands on that kitchen, he could make it fan-fucking-tastic for anyone who had a more complex palate than an American child. “Gimme some water.”

Izuku grabbed Katsuki’s bottle—the cooler was still in the back, full as if they were going to train—and opened it for Katsuki before handing it over. Even just gripping the bottle didn’t feel great, so Katsuki kept the third knuckles of his fingers from wrapping completely around the body. When the sickly sweet taste was mostly washed from his mouth, he thrust the bottle back at Izuku and scraped his tongue against his teeth to clear the last of the flavor away.

“Kacchan, give me your hand.”

“Hah?”

Katsuki turned away from the road to catch Izuku looking at Katsuki firmly, one of his own hands outstretched. Izuku reaching out. He fell straight into the well-worn memory that image provided.

He stared at Izuku long enough that the car’s right tires hit the rumble strips on the side of the road, saving Katsuki from running off into the mountain’s cliff face as he fisted both hands on the wheel. But it didn’t matter, because Izuku reached further anyway, wrapping his index and middle fingers under Katsuki’s wrist.

“Loosen your grip,” Izuku instructed as he began pressing into the tendons, rubbing in a small circle.

“I’ll loosen the grip your neck has on your skull.”

“Kacchan,” Izuku said patiently. “Your hands are overworked. It’s obvious. I’m just trying to massage the tension out of the muscles a bit.”

Slowly, silently, Katsuki slipped his right hand off the wheel, resting on the console between the two of them. Izuku’s went with it, his thumb creeping up and pressing into the heel of Katsuki’s palm like he was inking his thumb print firmly for a crime.

It took more than a little control for Katsuki to keep his groan behind his teeth. It tasted torturously sweet with the hint of fudge still resting on the back of his tongue. The ache that worked under Izuku’s thumb was too strong for such a small muscle. 

As Izuku continued, Katsuki’s hand warmed up in his. No sweat, no threat of ignition of course, just the warmth that built between two bodies out of nothing. The skin-on-skin contact that saved lives in the cold, even with no other heat source. It ran a flush up Katsuki’s neck, steaming out the top of his ears. When he had to pull his hand away for a hairpin turn, Izuku let go, and the warmth went with him.

And the new cold followed Katsuki to the tip of the mountain. When they parked and Katsuki stepped out of the car, he shivered.

“It’s fifteen degrees,” Izuku said, tossing Katsuki a flannel from the back of the car.

Fifteen was nearly half what it had been in the valley, and though that wasn’t especially cold at all, the temperature difference was a shock. The cloud cover overhead was thick and dark, exerting its oppression over the town that had dared build up so close to it.

“What’s there to do here?” Katsuki asked as he eyeballed the wooden buildings forming a row of establishments. It looked like a strip mall that the second little pig might have built just before the big bad wolf blew it down. Or maybe just after.

“Shopping, I guess,” Izuku said, swinging on his own jacket. “There are supposedly a lot of artisans up here.”

Once UA had returned to something resembling normal after the fall of All For One, and the place was no longer locked down or being used as a shelter, Class A had been encouraged to go on outings. To return to teenagedom by going to the movies, out for lunch, to the mall. Unless a really good food place had been on the itinerary, Katsuki had skipped them all, and never once regretted it. 

His apartment had no art in it. He didn’t want any. There wasn’t any room in his suitcase for it, and he damn well wouldn’t be doubling the price of any art piece by having to pay for a second suitcase to lug it to his 1DR apartment.

“Um, those windchimes look nice?”

Katsuki followed Izuku’s gaze and he couldn’t have stopped the scoff from escaping his lips if Izuku had slapped his lips shut with One For All 100%. Trust Izuku to find the most garish thing and match it to his aesthetic. One of the log cabins claiming to be a shop had giant copper windchimes hanging out the front with huge panes of stained glass dressing them like costume jewelry.

“Your taste is as stupid as your inability to keep a damn secret,” Katsuki said. “If you wanna go back to the March Hare and tell her you vacationed the shit outta me, it’ll behoove you not to let me blow my brains out in a crafts shop.”

“Okay, noted,” Izuku said, looking around in a circle. “There’s supposed to be good barbeque here, but it’s too early for lunch…”

He completed a full circle and then began walking a couple steps forward, squinting at the shops labeled The Bear Print and Old Stump Mall. If they’d been dropped in the middle of a paddy field in the Japanese mountains, it would have felt less rural than this place.

“There’s, uh, hiking?” Izuku finally offered.

“Thank God,” Katsuki said, opening the car door again to grab a hat and his water bottle. “Let’s go.”

There were a number of paths offered around the town, and none of them were crawling with people, at least not yet. It didn’t seem as though people necessarily had to get out early to beat the heat in this town. So they chose one equally as pine-filled as the rest, and after only a few meters into the woods, they’d left the neighborhood behind entirely.

The air was crisp up there. Not quite as dry as down in the valley, and Katsuki wasn’t thirsting for water every second. But where it was cold and pleasant, it was also thin. The kind of thin that made your chest as heavy as it made your head light. But the plodding thump of his heart made him feel good, like he was working harder than he was. 

“I can almost imagine I’m back in Japan,” Izuku mused as he touched his hand to a tree. “It’s not so different here.”

“You didn’t have to come out here if you were just gonna get homesick,” Katsuki said.

“I’m not homesick,” Izuku protested. “And besides, I wanted to come.”

“Not just trying to score points with Bunnicula?”

“No,” Izuku replied, quick and sharp as a branch snapping underfoot. “No, I just…haven’t spent time with you in so long. And if I could also play a part in you having a good time while you were here, yeah, I wanted that too.”

There was no memory that stuck out in Katsuki’s mind as the moment that spending time with Izuku had changed from an annoyance to innocuous. Maybe even something to look forward to. Perhaps when a year of your time together is spent preparing for and battling in a war, it simply stops mattering. It cleans the slate.

“But I think I overestimated myself,” Izuku continued, looking at the rocks, at the canopy of needles above them. His eyes nowhere near Katsuki. “I don’t know what to do here. Or at home. What do you do with just…time?”

Katsuki said nothing. Began breathing a little harder out of his mouth as they continued forward, Izuku’s pace increasing with each step.

“I don’t shop. I don’t play video games. I don’t do sports or garden or fish. I’m a hero!” Izuku exclaimed, his voice an ax against the trees.

“And what do you do when you’re a hero and no one needs saving,” Katsuki finished for him.

“I volunteer,” Izuku replied, as though it had been an actual question. “I watch the news, I analyze other heroes. I follow up with the people I’ve saved, and I follow up with the villains too, but…none of that is here.”

They came to a clearing. A cliff’s edge where none of the trees below had grown tall enough to block the view. Yet there were still eyefulls of sky, all that blue from the valley replaced with thick clouds full of the water the mountain stole from the desert below. It was the side of a hill with endless hills beyond, dappled with endless trees on endless land. The desert was nowhere in sight.

“That’s where you’ve disappeared to all year?”

“I haven’t disappeared, have I?” Izuku asked, sparing Katsuki a glance. “Maybe I have. I’ve been trying so hard not to disappear.”

“Yeah, well, you did.”

Maybe Katsuki had disappeared a bit too. Eijirou was always nagging him about being more social, but that had been the case even when they’d all lived together. Besides, if there weren’t more jobs to do, there was always more training. Time in the gym and in sims and working other minutiae like reflexes, cognition, attention, memory. To be number one, he couldn’t let any of that slide.

But what did it even mean to be number one in a world that was safe? 

“I don’t know either,” Katsuki offered, voice falling off the cliff. “It’s like my arm is always wound back for a punch, but there’s nothing to hit.”

Izuku chuckled, the sound magnified in the open air. “Never thought I’d find something Kacchan doesn’t know.”

Nobody teaches you how to take a vacation. How to have time off. Maybe more than not wanting a vacation, Katsuki just didn’t know how to have one.

“Don’t get smug about it,” Katsuki retorted. “Not like you know either.”

“I’m gonna learn,” Izuku said, and suddenly, he was sitting down on the rock, legs dangling over the sheer edge. “Come. Kacchan, sit.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Katsuki said, walking to Izuku’s side but remaining on his feet, arms crossed.

“Does your hand feel a little better?”

Katsuki stretched both hands out, feeling a bit more creaking in his left than his right. He popped a couple light explosions with his right. Any louder and in this country, someone would think he had a gun. The explosions were easy, natural as ever. But they still stung between his knuckles, deep in the bones, even with the massage.

“Right’s my dominant. Might just be handling it better.”

“Kacchan.”

Izuku’s hand was out again. Katsuki didn’t even have to look at him to know.

“It’ll be easier to train tomorrow if you do.”

Reluctantly, Katsuki let his hand slip from his ribs and dangle by his side. He didn’t sit, didn’t even look down at Izuku, but the warmth that came when Izuku took his hand contrasted against the rest of his body and sent a shiver down his back. There was a panicked voice in the back of his head shouting this wasn’t what they did, this wasn’t what they did. But Katsuki stomped it down and focused on the physical sensations. His muscles loosening and coming back home to him.

“You said we were hiking,” Katsuki grumbled as Izuku grasped each finger one by one and pulled it firmly. His ring finger gave a delicious pop at the base joint and felt more open than it had since before the flight.

“We’re doing nothing for a minute,” Izuku said. A glance down showed his brows furrowed in concentration, as though it took most of his focus to remember.

“I didn’t agree to that.”

But he stayed anyway.

[tainted-by-skeletons]

Reader X Sans X Grillby (Part 3)

NSFW Warning

“Why are you two talking about me like I'm not here?” Grillby interrupted.

“Eheh. Sorry.” I apologized.

“You're being weird today Grillbz.” Sans butt in. “What are you trying to do?”

“What do you mean? I'm just having fun tonight.”

“Nah. I don't believe you. Are you trying to get in bed with us?”

Grillby's expression gave everything away. Still, he tried his best to keep his secrets.

“Now why would I do that? I wouldn't risk ruining your friendship. That would be terribly awkward. Wouldn't it?”

I shrugged as Grillby slid us two tall red drinks. I personally didn't think it was weird to have a drunk fling with a friend. If feelings got involved then it would be weird.

“I can't believe you. We're not your toys ya know.”

“Not yet.” I said before I took a sip of the drink.

“Ugggh. You're way too horny.”

“Heheh. I can't help it. I'm a man. Hey, that reminds me. Do you gotta dick?”

Sans spit out his drink and Grillby started literally roaring with laughter. I laughed along with him but I didn't stop the pressure on Sans. I stared at him until he answered me.

“You don't need to know. So I don't need to tell you.”

“So like… it doesn't matter if I grope you because I don't know if you have genitals.”

“That is not how it works!”

“So if I take your clothes off, it's okay if I see you naked. Because I'm under the reasonable assumption you have nothing you need to hide.” Grillby joined in.

“No! You're not stripping me!”

I didn't know how far I could push the subject. Sans wasn't threatening to leave but I didn't think he would threaten to. I was pretty sure he'd just go.

“Yeah. I don't wanna see that anyway. It probably looks weird as hell.” So I tried a different strategy.

“Dude. That wasn't cool.” Sans said.

Just as I planned, my comment infuriated Grillby. He slammed a hand on the table and leaned in towards me.

“What gives you the right to comment on someone else? Are you directing attention away from yourself?”

“What?!”

Sans snickered. That didn't go as planned at all. I was hoping Grillby would start defending Sans’ honor by complimenting him and gushing over him. But instead my four inch was at risk of exposure.

“If you want a dick to be seen I have an idea to accomplish that. Why don't we take a look at your body then? Since you seem so excited to use it tonight.”

“Woah! Hey! T-th-there’s no need for that!”

“Heh. Know what? I think I'll let this slide. Since you seem like you deserve it.” Sans said as he sat back in his chair and took a sip of his drink.

“What?! Hey! What happened to you u not wanting to do that! I-I’m not gonna strip for you guys!”

“You're gonna have to, little boy. Or I might hurt you when I burn off your clothes.” Grillby threatened.

“Aah! Nooo! You monsters are crazy!”

“Heh. Humans. You guys are such pussies. It's just a little fire magic.”

One thing I've learned about monsters is that they get seriously hurt a lot and they don't seem to mind it. Assault and serious injuries aren't really a big deal to them. It's just part of their culture. It keeps them strong.

Grillby put out his hands and made a groping motion as he came around the bar and started moving towards me. Sans was laughing his ass off as I backed away from Grillby. My body started shaking very obviously. It seemed to entertain the two.

“Poor little boy. You really don't want us to see your dick. Do you? Hmhm~ Is it that small?”

Sans attempted to say something but he couldn't get anything out through his laughter.

“Grillby please! You don't have to do this!”

“Ohhhh don't you want me to? I thought you were trying to get in our pants. It's only fair you sacrifice yourself to us first.”

“Noo! Why do you have to say it like that?!”

“Aw come on bud." Sans said. "You're not scared of us. Are you? Come on. What am I gonna do? Throw a bone at you?”

“You're not the one I'm scared of! I'm still one man against two and one of them is made of fi-*gasp!* H-how!?”

Something on my lower back tingled and before I could figure out what it was, my pants were pulled down to my ankles. But nobody was behind me.

“Awww. I was right. Poor thing~” Grillby cooed in a demeaning tone. “You know what? I should stop bullying you. Hmhm~ You're unfortunate enough. You already got what you deserve.”

By that I'm sure he meant I was so obviously small just looking at my underwear there was no need to remove them.

“Heheh. Your face is so red." Sans laughed. "I didn't know humans did that too. Cute.”

“Hey! Don't call me cute!”

“Oh it's much too late for that.” Grillby said as he slid next to me and grabbed my crotch.

“Eeaaa!”

Grillby, a tall man especially compared to me, leaned down next to my face. Still groping me, he whispered in my ear.

“Y/N. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so mean about your size. I'm sure once you're erect you’ll be quite delicious- ah. I mean, impressive.”

“A-aahh~ wha… mmnnn~”

My flacid friend was quickly gearing up to show Grillby it's full size. But that also meant that Sans would see too. I didn't mind that idea before I was put on display in such a humiliating way. I tried hard to mask my expression and noises but I hadn't been touched like that in so long. I didn't want to see how Sans was looking at me, but eventually I couldn't take not knowing. I didn't hear him laughing so maybe he wasn't. But seeing him look disgusted would be even worse. I opened one eye and looked up at Sans sitting on the barstool. When he caught me looking at him… Sans smirked and looked me up and down in a way that made me get even harder. I didn't think he was capable of making such a sexy expression.

What's getting him horny now?! Is he a sadist?! Oh God. This was a huge mistake. A sadist and a monster is a very terrifying mix!