#but I'm happy with a hard back and two volumes in one book

[d-bluevoid]

Finally bought fisrt volume!! Problematic wife is physical now

[backinmyphase]

Not your letter

Synopsis: Gojo Satoru wouldn't call himself a very anxious man. But now as he hears cries every night, he can't help but worry- about his darling wife.

Or: Satoru Gojo doesn't even know how attached he will grow to his wife yet.

Pairing: Gojo x reader, 3300 words

Series masterlist

Contains: arranged marriage, generational trauma, jujutsu clans and higher ups

I'm sooo tired, but I hope you enjoy! I'm really happy you all seem so sincerely to enjoy it. Like always your comments make my day <333

Gojo Satoru liked spending money far too much.

After the last few days, this became clear very quickly. Yes, he was rich. But the way things were going this week, probably not for long.

He probably wouldn't even read every book that was on the bedside table.

Every morning he was awake before you and explored the town the two of you visited. When you were awake he took you out of the little charming hotel and showed you what he discovered.

You wouldn't see any problem in it if he didn't always had his credit card ready, the moment you looked at something.

And the two of you didn't need that many souvenirs either. But at the same time, it was hard for you to tell him not to use his money.

And now, too. As you walked through the small village. You knew what was coming when you passed a small café.

His eyes grew wide behind his sunglasses and a smile stole itself onto his face.

"Would you fancy something sweet?"

Not really. But he smiled in a way that made you feel sorry for taking the wind out of his sails.

So naturally, you left with three bags of sweet pastries.

Your mother would wring your neck. You could hear her lessons. 'You should bake something for your husband instead of letting him buy it!

"Don't you want something?"

Satoru looked at you with a bitten cupcake in his hand and some icing on his cheek. At the same time, he held out a new cupcake to you.

Of course, you didn't just take it because of his smile.

"Thank you." carefully you took a bite, trying to not look messy while you eat.

As you looked over to Satoru, you saw how he swallowed the rest of the cupcake in one go. You couldn't help but smile as you saw him chew way too much at the same time.

"Satoru, you have no manners." It was refreshing.

He gasped. "Am I now not even allowed to eat normally in front of my wife? What has the world come to?" Dramatically he held onto his chest.

His eyes shut and head tilted a bit back, he expressed his 'hurt' so playfully you couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh Satoru, if that's how you eat normally, I'm really concerned for your stomach."

As you saw how shooked he looked at you, you regretted saying anything. But then he grinned at you and leaned a bit forward.

"Did I just see my darling wife laugh?"

"It's not like I never laugh." you muttered as you started to eat again, hiding your embarrassment behind the pink, sprinkled, icing of the cupcake.

"Well, never before in front of me."

"Nonsense." you shook your head, while making sure your face was clean.

"It's true." he took another cupcake. "You should do it more."

The warmth that shot into your face was now a regular visitor. Something had changed. His presence made you jumpy, your heart was suddenly working overtime.

And your head. Oh, your head.

The thoughts that crept into it became more and more jumbled. Every time your looks crossed paths you couldn't help but spiral in a trail of thoughts, that made you feel dizzy.

You were truly sick. But it didn't feel bad.

A scream shattered the relaxed atmosphere. Your stomach turned when you saw a woman with a baby behind Satoru.

The baby was thrashing around, his voice continuing to tear the air and his cheeks red from the water running down.

The baby clutched the woman's hand, crying desperately.

"Are you okay?"

You quickly turned your head away to hide the rising panic. "Yes, I'm just tired."

His look spoke volumes. Always being tired was probably not the best sign.

"Then let's go back." He stood up, the food tucked away carefully.

"It's alright. It's not too bad."

He shook his head. "You look like I'm forcing you to go out everytime. I don't want that."

Defeated, you also stood up slowly and trotted behind him. You really wanted to enjoy your trip away, and get to know Satoru. But the words of the higher-ups were like a pest, constantly reminding you that your duty wasn't getting to know him.

It was having a heir.

"I'm sorry." your voice was hoarse, embarrassingly quiet. "I'm always in the way."

He laughed, while slowing down, to adjust to your speed. "What do you mean?"

"I'm always breaking of our time." you shook your head. "We barely get to do something."

"Oh please." he chuckled. "We have still plenty of time. We are just three days away. And it's not a problem, I still get to know you."

He looked at you again, his sunglasses barely covering his skylike eyes. "And I know." He smiled at you. "That you are not sleeping very well. Or that you are very exhausted. Maybe both."

"Am I right?"

He was. You were sleeping terrible. Even though the reading helped with sleeping in, the nightmares didn't disappear.

The constant thoughts about your 'duties' were kept alive through them. You wished you could just forget all of these things. Satoru seemed like he could.

You just shrugged.

"Just try to sleep when we are back." Slowly, very hesitant, did his hand engulf yours. His hand was warm. So, so warm.

"I have planned something for later. And I want you to be able to enjoy it."

You were wrong. Gojo Satoru didn't like spending money too much. He just enjoyed spoiling you far too much.

~~

"So how do you like your little 'rebellion'?"

The dark surrounding you, engulfed your mother almost whole as she sat there in her chair. Her arms crossed like chains, heavy, ready to arrest you.

"It's not like that-"

"Yeah, yeah." she waved her hand, wiping your words away. "That's what they always say."

Her leg twitched, but her face remained a mask. She sat unimpressed on her throne, looking at you like you stole candy. "How did you imagine all of this?"

She crossed her legs, it's twitching being held down like a child. "What did you think will happen after all of this?"

You looked at her, your mouth thin as a line. Your tongue felt like it was chained down. Heavy, like a boulder.

"Perhaps…" She tilted her head. "Running away together?"

'Stop.' you wanted to say, no scream. 'Stop speaking.'

"Maybe a romance where he takes you in his arms? Just leaving jujutsu society together behind?"

Your body felt light and so so heavy at the same time. Dizziness overtook you mind, making your vision blurry.

"No Clans and no responsibilities. Like Paris and Helen." she laughed loudly, her voice made you shiver.

"That would never happen. You know that. You are no Helen. Helen was a beautiful, desired and foolish woman. She didn't consider her people."

She stood up, while you lost your balance, she was suddenly towering above you, looking down with this well-known expression.

"And Gojo is no Paris. As if he would start a war for you. This boy has no courage. That's just selfish to wish." she shook her head again.

"Stop mother." your throat was burning. "This is pointless. Satoru is not like that. Satoru-"

Her eyes narrowing like a predator ready to pierce her prey. "I'm just reminding you to not do something foolish. And after your recent behavior that seems rather needed."

Your hands were shaking, sweating. Your breath was heavy and your body seemed paralyzed. You felt like a kid again. Crawling to your mother crying.

'I don't want to marry someone I don't know!' you hiccuped, chocking on your own tears a bit. 'I don't want-'

You still felt the burning sting on your cheek. Still felt her unforgiving stare as she looked at you.

'You don't have to want. You have to fulfill your duty. And that's bringing connections to your clan.' she didn't scream. No she was in control of herself what made it so much worse.

"So stop whining."

You only saw darkness. Your body jolted uncontrollably, it felt like being pushed down into the darkness.

Like you were dying.

"Enjoy your time. And use it." She waved and-

Your consciousness came crawling back, while you were being shaken awake. You felt cold, unbearable so. The sweat on you rather sticky.

It was a nightmare.

"Everything is alright."

You felt heavy, eyes fighting to open. But in the end they lost. You were so tired. Every ounce of sleep was a fight with your conscience. It was almost… Unnatural.

Warm arms embraced you, pulling your limp, cold, and heavy feeling body towards their warmth.

"I'm here now."

You knew it was him. It was the only logical explanation. But it felt so surreal. Feeling his strength and reassurance so close.

His grip on you was not forceful. No, it was so soft you couldn't help but start slipping into unconsciousness again.

"I'm sorry."

You didn't know why you apologized. It just felt right.

~~

"How late is it?" you paced through the room, while Satoru layed lazily in the bed, yawning.

"Don't know. It's not that important." as he sat up his silver white, no snow white hair was sticking up in all directions. It was so messy, it was endearing. Which is obviously just a fact-

"I thought you had something planned? Why didn't you wake me up?" you gathered new things to wear, since you obviously had to take a shower.

"You were sleeping so peaceful." he shook his head like it was obvious. "That was the first time I saw you smile in your sleep."

You stop for a second, cheeks feeling like they were on fire. "You watch me sleep?" you joked, while you pretended to look for something in your suitcase.

"No! I-, that's not what I-, I don't…" he stopped and you couldn't help but chuckle at him. It felt so crazy to have him stutter. You looked at him over your shoulder, hoping to have cooled down your face.

As he saw you holding in a laughter, his panicked look fell.

"Oh, ha ha." he raised an eyebrow.

"What did you plan? Can we still do it?" You didn't want to cancel his plans. Not Again. Not because of you.

He scratched his the back of his neck while thinking a bit. "Do you know the time?"

"It's…" you search for the clock in the bath. "8:46 PM? How long was I out??"

He chuckled while murmuring something to himself. You wanted to ask but also didn't.

"Well it is a bit late. Don't know if you even want to-"

A long, loud growl from your stomach interrupted him. Silence set in while he was just looking at you. The warmth in your face returning.

And then he laughed. "Well I guess that answers my question. Can't let my sweet wife starve."

"Sure, Satoru." you muttered as you chuckled a bit too. "Because you are of course not hungry at all after being here the whole day."

He grinned crookedly, while pulling the blanket away and also standing up. "Let's just make ourselves ready and then go."

You nodded and gathered what you found for yourself. Standing up from the ground and gripping the door of the bath, you stopped as he spoke again.

"But if it's too much please say so right away. I don't want you to suffer through anything."

Hands sweating again, you smiled at him. "I will." Then you got ready.

~

Satoru was nervous as fuck.

It still felt so unreal. Having you in his arms, you holding so desperately onto him, but slowly over time relaxing.

You cried. During your sleep.

It wasn't a one time thing. You cried almost every night. It was very silent, almost not audible, but he could hear it.

And see it.

He wanted to help you, but didn't know if he overstepped a silent boundary. A boundary so carefully layed out the last days.

But today was different. You spoke. Saying something like 'Stop mother'.

And you whispered his name.

He didn't know why. Didn't know if you had a nightmare where he was a part of, but he felt like he had to help you. Like you called for him.

He didn't watch you sleep. He listened to you sleep. To your cries.

~

"Where are we going?" you looked around. This was not a street you two had explored before and it was dark enough that you couldn't recognize even if you did know it.

"It's a surprise. Guess you have to wait." he grinned as he went sternly, while still making sure you two were going next to each other.

"You are so unfair sometimes." you shook your head. "Can't believe I married you."

"Oh please." he grinned back at you, playing into your dramatics. "As if you don't love surprises."

"Oh, Satoru." you deadpanned at him. "I hate them."

For two seconds you just stopped and looked at each other. But then you started laughing at his nervous expression.

"I'm joking, sorry. But you should have seen your face!"

He chuckled lightly, while looking around. Then he grinned back at you. "Well I hope you were joking, because here it is!"

You looked around but only saw a fancy restaurant. After looking for any small places you usually had take out, it dawned on you that the restaurant was the place he wanted to go.

"Oh Satoru…" you looked at the old, but very preserved, Restaurant in front of you. The letters on top of it almost shy, not being big and very eye catching, but very elegant. It spelled Sato's Kitchen.

"If you don't like it, we can always go back-"

"It's not like I don't like it!" you interrupted him, before he could make false conclusions. "It's just… This was very expensive, was it not?"

"Why talk about money? Let's just have a nice evening." he smiled and you knew it was expensive. Defeated you sighed.

"Okay. But you have to stop spending so much money-"

"Alright, let's go!"

He just took your hand and pulled you softly behind him.

~

It was very late. So it wasn't so surprising that your reservation was already long gone. But as you stood there behind Saturo while he tried to get a table for you, you felt bad.

It was almost laughable how naiv you were.

Dragging him out at these hours just to be told that they didn't have any tables left and we should come back tomorrow.

"Is there really no way-"

"I'm sorry good sir, but we are out. We can rearrange your reservation for tomorrow."

They were very kind for that. But you still felt bad.

"That wouldn't be so bad, would it Satoru?"

He nodded, obviously a bit frustrated as he gave his information to make the reservation or furthermore rearrange it.

"Yeah, that's alright." he muttered to the waiter. After making sure everything was alright, yoi two left shortly.

It was a bit embarrassing. Showing up almost an hour and half late at such a desired restaurant. Another reason you felt bad.

"I'm so so-"

"Well we can still do it tomorrow." Satoru smiled. Smiled so softly at you that you felt like crying. It made you feel so stupid, so unstable.

"Yeah." you almost chocked at the word.

He started going again, silently trying to get you to walk ahain. Silently walking beside him, you tried to find the light words you just had said so easily. But there were none.

"Well we can still have take out." he walked closer than before. Not too close, just a bit closer. "If that's alright for you?"

You chuckle a bit, trying to relax. "Of course. That sounds lovely."

The night was beautiful. The moon was already high up and you could see countless of stars here. In Tokyo you could only rarely see the stars. It was comforting.

The silence between you wasn't awkward anymore. Maybe you two did start to get to know each other in a way. Even though Satoru was still a mystery to you most of the time.

It just was comfortable as a whole.

Going together to your favorite ramen shop. Eating in silence and slowly walking back.

It must be really late. But Satoru did bring the bag of the sweet pastries. And as you were walking back to your hotel, he did eat from them.

You couldn't help but watch him. It was cute really. How he enjoyed it so much. And a small smile made it's way onto your face.

"Did you Always like sweets this much?"

Satoru looks at you and thinks. A cupcake still in his mouth, he tries chewing faster to give you your answer.

"Well, I think I did." he coughs as his mouth was empty. "When I was a kid I wasn't allowed to eat anything sweet or unhealthy because of those obsessive higher ups. Said it would make my powers weaker, to keep me away from them."

He took another big bite after saying that and smiled at you as he chewed.

"Well," he was grinning like an idiot after he swallowed. "After I started eating sweets I didn't get weaker. In fact quite the opposite!" He laughed.

You admired him, as he took another bite. That he could just call them obsessive and wipe it away. You wished you could not care.

And as he took his last bite, you looked at the remaining cupcakes and wondered. Could you try making them for him? Would he like them?

It was too late to think anymore, after you got home you just got ready for bed and layed down while Satoru was in the bathroom.

But as you wanted to close your eyes, this uneasiness from before seemed like it was back again. You began to feel cold and wrapped yourself tighter in the blanket.

Satoru came out of the bathroom looking at you, like he was fighting with himself.

And in a moment of weakness and exhaustion you let yourself say the words you normally would only think.

"Do you want to sleep in the bed?"

He just looked at you, the darkness around you made it hard to see his expression. Also your vision started to get blurry because of your tiredness.

"If you don't mind.".

You yawned as your eyes fell close. "You helped…" you mumbled and didn't fight your exhaustion anymore.

And as you felt his warm arms around you, again you couldn't help but smile.

~

Satoru didn't want to wake you up, but he also wanted to do his daily routine round to get you and himself breakfast. Tough decision.

Before all of this he would have never gotten up earlier than he had too. But here with you it was different. So so different.

And he didn't want to let you go. But in the end he did get up and got ready to leave for his round.

As he went down the stairs, Hina's Grandma smiled at him like every morning.

"Good morning, Mr. Gojo. On your way again?"

He laughed a bit and nodded. It was part of the routine to talk to her a bit, as she was a lovely person and knew the place well.

"Well a two letters arrived today. Both adressed at Mrs. Gojo. So I thought I could give them to you for later."

She handed him the two envelopes with a smile.

He didn't mean to sneak into your business or anything like that. But he couldn't help but feel uneasy almost angry when he saw the names of the senders.

One was from the higher ups. And one from your mother.

And he felt cold as he wondered why they would only write you.

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[lamentationsofalonelypotato]

Movie Madness

Pairing: Dean Winchester x f!reader, Reader POV

Summary: When Dean drops in unexpectedly, you decide on an activity to get both of your pulses racing. Reader is a med-student in college and works in a library. This is the fourth fic in my Before You Go Universe, but can be read as stand alone (probably?).

Tropes: Fluff, Established Relationships, Age Difference (Reader is early to mid-20's and Dean is probably early to mid-30's)

Word Count: 5.1K

Warnings: Some swearing (once or twice), Mentions of sex (not explicit at all), Implied sex, Sexual Innuendo, SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE ALIEN,  Dean might be a little bit OOC.

Note: This is told from Reader's perspective. Any references to the reader is made using you or your. There is minimal use of y/n. I tried my best to proofread, but nobody's perfect. If you don’t like, don’t read, but if you do like, you’re my favorite!

Internal monologue is in italics and is in first person.

Main Masterlist

Series Masterlist

A/N: This has been sitting in my WIPs folder forever and I really just wanted to write a fluff where Dean had never seen Alien and the reader remedies that. 😊

"Okay, next question: What is the first step in glycolysis, what does it create, and what does it use?" Tim asks, lounging back against one of the dusty bookshelves.

 It was a Friday night, which normally meant you were gone to see Dean at the bunker, but this weekend he was off in Maine, dealing with a pack of werewolves and you had picked up a shift at the library.

Usually you would be disappointed that you couldn't see him, but due to the giant test looming over your head on Monday, you were happy to relax and study with your lab partner, Tim.

Tim stretched out his legs as far as they could go between the two bookshelves, while you read through the call numbers on the weathered spines of the faded books waiting to be replaced back on the dusty shelves in front of you. Tim, true to his word, had come to help you study. He had been happy to hear that you weren't going to see Dean, because he was also having a hard time with the material and he always said that quizzing someone else made him remember the information more anyway so he'd shown up three hours ago and hadn't left.

"Ohh I know this." You groan, resting your head against the bookshelf and bracing your arms on the metal ledge.

"I'm sure you do. Since you were asleep during the lecture on glycolysis."

"Hey. What happened to no judgement between us?" You turn your head to glare at your lab partner. "I didn't judge you when you dated  that finance major who didn't know that the Earl of Sandwich was a person."

"An honest mistake-"

"Or when you couldn't find your glasses for two hours when you were wearing them-"

"It's very easy to do that when you have glasses. And you didn’t tell me that I was wearing them! You have no idea-"

"Or when you-"

"Okay! I give. Make it stop." He groans, kicking out at the back of your calf with his foot, but you dodge him. "Just answer the question."

"Fine."

You stand there for a minute trying to mentally compartmentalize your notes, flipping through them page by page, shuffling through the color-coded diagrams you drew for the glycolysis cycle two days ago, because yes you had fallen asleep during the lecture but you had forced yourself to go through the posted PowerPoints. "Okay. In the first step it's glucose being turned into D-glucose-6-Phosphate and it uses the-um-." You groan. "Oh it uses hexokinase."

"Finally, and yes that's right. What's the next step, what does it use, and what does it create?" Tim asks.

You turn back to the cart of dusty volumes, picking a faded red encyclopedia etched with gold script and note the call number.

You walk around the bookshelf to the other side where the call number should be, brushing your fingertips along the worn spines that line the walls and breathe in the scent of old books. It was enough to calm you down. Something about being surrounded by them always made you feel at home. Your mother was always reading worn paperbacks in her chair by the window with a cup of tea steaming in the early morning light back home, in the library that your father had made her in one of the spare bedrooms at your house. Whenever you found the time to read, it made you think of her, of course finding time to read was difficult.

You hadn't been back to see your parents since last Christmas, called them yes, and you knew deep down at some point you'd have to introduce Dean to them, but you kept putting that off, mostly because you didn't want to tell them what he did. Whenever your mom asked on the phone, you changed the subject, because it hurt you to lie to them. You were so close with both of them that it made everything complicated to keep Dean from them.

"Hello?" Tim says from the other side of the bookshelf. "Did you get lost or something?"

"Huh? Oh no I'm just thinking." You reach up on tip-toe to place the volume on the top shelf where it belongs. "Okay, I’m pretty sure the second step is D-glucose-6-Phosphate to Fructo-"

Someone grabs you from behind, wrapping their strong arms around your waist to pull you back into their chest, while planting their lips directly on the slope of your neck.

You open your mouth to scream, but then you hear Dean's rough voice in your ear.

"Did you miss me sweetheart?" He kisses you again, trailing his lips down your neck into the shadow of your jaw.

"Dean what the hell? You scared the crap out of me." You hiss turning around to hit him with the large volume still clutched in your hands. But despite your anger, you were happy to see him.

There was a little more wear around his eyes and the dark circles that rimmed them were prominent against his skin, the shadow of his beard was more apparent, but his eyes still shone bright green with his smile when he looked at you, making you feel like you were going to melt.

It wasn't a new feeling, and you hoped that it never went away.

"Sorry sweetheart." Dean laughs, dodging another swing of the encyclopedia. "You looked so cute putting the books away I had to."

"You're the worst."

He grabs the front of your sweatshirt and pulls you into him so that his lips are inches from yours, but does not kiss you. "Am I?" Dean breathes, close enough that you can feel the scratch of stubble against your skin and long for him to close the distance between the two of you.

"Yes." Your hands curl in the front of his black shirt beneath his leather jacket.

Dean kisses you earnestly, drawing the next breath from your lungs as you breathe him in, drunk on his smell and taste after only a few seconds. There really was nothing like kissing Dean, the subtle tilt of your head back, the gentle scrape of his beard against your cheeks, the soft sound he makes when he deepens the kiss, and the way he holds you close, almost as if he believes you will fade away in his arms.

"How about now?" He whispers, leaning his forehead against yours.

"You might be raising your rating." You smile, tightening your fingers in his hair. He'd been allowing it to grow a little longer and you loved it.

"Anything else I might be able to do to get it a bit higher, Sweetheart?" Dean smirks.

"Maybe-"

"Alright, I think that I've given you long enough to-" Tim begins to say rounding the corner of the bookshelves, but stops mid-sentence when he spots Dean. His eyes narrow a fraction.

"Hey there Tom!" Dean smiles as he pulls you closer to his chest, but raises his head up to give Tim a winning smile.

"It's Tim." Tim replies with a frown.

Tim had only seen Dean a handful of times and each time he did, you noticed how much he seemed to hate Dean. You couldn't think of a reason why. Dean hadn't done anything worth Tim's hatred. You had tried to act as a mediator in the past, tried to get Tim to get to know Dean before passing judgement, but nothing seemed to work.

In fact you had invited Tim to come with Dean and you to get a drink one night after class, but it had ended with you pretending that you forgot to return a phone call from your mother and you dragging a fuming Dean out of the bar while Tim glared at him.

That night had been awkward for everyone.

The entire time Tim had emphasized how important a college degree was and how important everything the two of you were doing at med school was, while glaring at Dean and almost implying that Dean was wasting your time. And when Dean told him he barely finished high school, Tim had laughed at him. Which made you angry, because you knew that Dean struggled with that, that he struggled thinking that you deserved better because he wasn’t educated the same way.

The next day you had received a phone call from Tim who apologized for what he'd said and stated that he was having a bad day and drank too much, but what he said to Dean still stung.

Dean didn't deserve to be treated like trash, didn't deserve to be put down because he didn't go to college, but you allowed yourself to forgive Tim. He was one of your only friends at school. However, you still didn't understand why he hated Dean so much.

An awkward silence passes between the three of you.

"Well I'm gonna go." Tim says looking from you to Dean. "I've got an early shift tomorrow. But let me know if you want to study again before the test."

"Okay, I'll text you later. Oh and I'll add you to the google doc for the notes I made." You smile at him, while leaning into Dean's embrace subconsciously. It had been two weeks since you'd seen him and you didn't realize how much you missed him until this moment.

"Sure." Tim turns to go back for his backpack on the other side.

"Bye Tom." Dean calls at his retreating back.

You sigh grabbing Dean's chin and bring his face back down to look at you. "You know his name."

"Do I?" Dean scrunches his face up as if trying to remember.

"Dean-"

"I'm just joking with him sweetheart. He's gotta learn to lighten up." Dean rolls his eyes, but then brushes his lips against yours, making your mind go completely blank. "I missed you."

"Is that why you're back early from your 'hunting trip'?" You smile against his lips.

"Maybe. That and it turned out not to be a pack of werewolves, but a very angry bear. Yogi didn't get the memo about eating hikers."

"Guess that makes you Ranger Smith. Please tell me that Sam or Cas had to dress up like Cindy Bear to appease Yogi and that you got pictures." You plead tugging at his hair hoping that Dean is about to make this the best day of your life.

"I love how much you know about Yogi Bear-"

"Oh that's nothing, you should hear me talk about Scooby Doo. My sister and I used to watch it all the time and let me be the first to say, Daphne deserved better."

It was an argument that your sister and you got into more than once, she was team Fred all the way, but you think that Daphne deserved better than a guy who was more focused on himself rather than anyone else. Not to mention he always let her get into trouble and he never seemed to care about her. Meanwhile your sister always said that he was trying to act aloof and sexy.

I miss her so much.

Dean freezes as soon as soon as you say it.

"Dean?" You look up at him worried. "Are you okay? Oh no, please don't tell me that you think that Daphne and Fred should-"

He picks you up and pins you to the bookshelf behind you, but before you can ask him again if he's okay, his lips are against yours.

He tastes like beer, coffee, and something sweet that you can't identify, both intoxicating and invigorating. The smell of his cologne and shampoo floods through your nose followed closely by the smell of leather and gun metal. Dean pulls your thighs up around him to secure you against his waist as he deepens the kiss, his tongue  brushing against yours in a wicked dance that drives all thoughts from your mind.  You moan, tangling your fingers in his hair to force his mouth harder against yours, not wanting him to stop.  It'd been so long since you'd seen him, since you'd had any time with him, since he'd touched you-

"Do you have any idea how much I love you?" Dean whispers against your lips. "Because every time I see you I don't think that I can love you more and then you say something like that."

"That Daphne deserved better?" You smile.

Dean kisses you as soon as you say it, holding you so tight against him it's almost painful, but you don't care, because it reminds you that he's here with you.

"Say it again." He mutters.

"Daphne deserved better."

"Fuck I love you."

"And I love that each time I see you I find out more about your weird kinks." You snort rubbing the back of his head gently in the way you know he likes.

"It's not a kink, it's the truth." Dean sighs while adjusting his grip under your thighs to make sure he doesn't drop you.

"Mhmm. Sure."

"So how much longer do you have to work?" He asks.

You glance at the watch on your wrist behind his head. "About an hour. Longer if you keep distracting me."

"I'm a wonderful distraction Sweetheart. Wouldn't mind distracting you for a little longer." Dean's mouth drifts to your jaw.

"Dean." You sigh. "I love you baby, but can I please finish putting these away?"

"In a minute." He continues to kiss down the column of your throat, sucking a mark just below your jaw. "I missed you."

"I missed you too." You sigh, knotting your hands in his hair and securing him against your neck.

"Have I ever told you that you're the sexiest librarian I've ever seen?" Dean murmurs.

"Given how many you've watched on your laptop I'll take that as a compliment." You snort. "But they're probably wearing less clothes than I am-"

"I can fix that sweetheart."

You roll your eyes at your boyfriend, but you’re not opposed to what he’s suggesting. "How long can you stay?"

"Few days."

"Hmm."

"What do you think we should do with all that time?" Dean looks up with a mischievous glint in his eye that makes a shudder go down your spine.

"I have a few ideas."

"Oh really?"

"Mhm."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Something that will get our pulses racing." You kiss Dean, but before he can deepen it you pull back. "And maybe a few things that'll make me scream." You whisper, your breath upon his lips. "Would you like that Dean?"

"I think I would."

"Good."

"You know when you asked me if I wanted to hear you scream and wanted to get our pulses racing, this wasn't what I had in mind." Dean frowns, shrugging off his leather jacket and placing the extra large cheese pizza down on the end of your bed.

"Really? Huh. Can't imagine what else you were thinking about." You reply with an shrug, shuffling through your collection of DVD's to look for your favorite one.

"You act so innocent Sweetheart, but we both know how much trouble you seem to get us into all the time."

"I don't know what you're talking about." You finally see the familiar cover of your Alien Movie collection. "I can't believe you've never seen Alien before. It truly is one of the best movies in history." You set up the DVD player and grab the remote while Dean changes into his boxers.

You were looking forward to a relaxing night of watching movies and eating copious amounts of snacks and pizza to drown out the worry for the test on Monday. You figured that you had studied enough today with Tim at the library and now you were taking a well deserved break with Dean and your favorite comfort movie, Alien.

As soon as you found out Dean had never seen it, you'd wanted to make him watch it, but there never seemed to be time and tonight was perfect. You had grabbed a pizza on the way back, as well as every type of candy you could think of, beer (Dean's contribution), and popcorn.

"I was never really into Sci-Fi. That's more Sam." Dean sighs, nestling down on your small full sized bed, avoiding the pizza box.

"We both know that's a lie. You like Godzilla vs. Mothra!" You shout, changing out of your jeans and t-shirt, before grabbing the flannel that Dean took off a few seconds ago. It was still warm, but soft against your skin. “Not to mention I’ve heard you make at least seven Star Trek jokes.”

"Godzilla vs. Mothra is not really Sci-fi, that's giant monster destroying a city and it's awesome." Dean replies not taking his eyes off of you as you button up the flannel and ignoring your comment about Star Trek.

"Yes it is awesome and it most definitely is Sci-fi. And Alien is Sci-Fi for people who like Sci-fi and awesome monster movie for people who pretend to hate Sci-Fi like you. It has something for everyone, even cat lovers!" You get on the bed, sitting cross-legged next to him as you reach for the pizza and the bag that holds all your other snacks.

"Cat lovers?"

"There's a cat in this movie, Jonesy. He's adorable." You grab a slice of pizza and try not to moan out loud at the taste. "I love you." You whisper as you take another bite of the cheesy goodness.

"I love you too Sweetheart." Dean says with a heart-warming smile, not understanding that you are in fact talking to the pizza and not to him.

"Um. Well I love you too Dean-" You laugh awkwardly.

He frowns at you. "You were talking to the pizza weren't you?"

"No…"

Dean snorts and grabs a slice for himself. "Go on and start the movie. I doubt that I'll be able to stay awake for it."

"You're gonna love it!" You say leaning into his shoulder as you continue to eat.

"Uh-huh sure. How about we make this interesting?”

“How?” You lean your head back to look up at him.

“Well if I guess who dies one by one correctly, you take off a piece of clothing and if I guess wrong then I take off a piece of clothing.” He purrs tracing the edges of where his flannel hits your thighs.

“Dean you’re only wearing boxers. And I’m only wearing your shirt and underwear."

“Even better. Only have one wrong answer for me, and two correct ones for you.” He smirks wider.

“Are you trying to distract me from my favorite movie with the promise of sex?”

Dean leans in towards your face. “That depends. Is it working?”

You look at him, eyes tracing his handsome features, thinking about how much you missed him. “Nope.” You reply raising your slice of pizza between the two of you and taking a large bite.

Dean rolls his eyes and grabs a beer, snapping the metal top off with his bare hand.

How does he do something so normal and make it be so sexy?

“I promise that you’re gonna love it. And if you don’t, I promise I’ll make it up to you.” You stoke your hand down his muscular chest.

Dean lets out a heavy sigh. “Fine.” He grumbles, before pulling you into his side as the opening music fills your bedroom.

You’d seen Alien maybe a million times. Monster movies were your sister and your favorite and the Alien movie series was the subject of many movie nights you spent with her before she got married. Binge watching all of them while eating probably cancer inducing junk food was a regular occurrence. Not to mention her bachelorette theme was badass female characters and she had proudly dressed up like Ripley. 

You were excited to share this with him, and as much as he protested watching it, you knew that Dean was going to love  it.

"I'm gonna go make popcorn." You say shuffling through the bag of snacks for the box of microwavable popcorn that you were sure was at the bottom.

"What?" Dean perks up.

"I'm going to go make popcorn." You pull yourself from his arms, stretching your arms up to the ceiling before making your way to your bedroom door.

"I'll-um- I'll go with you." Dean clears his throat, rising from the bed to follow.

"What?" You turn to look at him.

You'd been watching for over an hour, long enough for the Xenomorph to be on the loose in the spaceship and long enough for him to see what a badass Ripley was. She was and you wouldn’t apologize for dumping Dean if you ever had a chance with her.

But Dean seemed to be enjoying the movie. He’d yelled for a solid five minutes at the crew who stood by and watched the xenomorph explode out of their friend’s chest and he’d grabbed you by the waist and shook you when the captain got killed in the air vents while screaming “it’s your fault he’s dead” to the characters on the screen.

He was hooked.

"I'm going to help you make the popcorn." He repeats, but he won't quite look at you, his eyes are shifting through your room, tracing over the dark shapes.

"Okay." You were confused as to why he was coming with you, but you shrug and walk out into your living room.

The apartment is quiet and dark. Your roommate, Suze, hadn't been home when you got there and you didn't know when she was coming back or if she would. She'd been spending an inordinate amount of time at her new boyfriend Matt's house, a boyfriend that you actually didn't hate running into and didn't make you feel uncomfortable.

After everything that happened with her ex Cooper, you had wondered if things between Suze and you would go back to normal. There had been a few awkward hello's and goodbye's, but since she started dating Matt about a month ago things seemed to settle down. So much so that she had actually invited you to come with them to get a drink one night and you were allowed to bring Dean, and it wasn't awkward, maybe at first, but not now. It had only taken two years for your roommate to actually like you.

I'll leave her a note to let her know that there's some extra beer in the fridge if she wants it.

You begin to open the box of popcorn to reach the plastic packets inside.

"Did you hear that?" Dean says, turning towards your front door and shielding your body from it like it's going to attack you.

"Hear what?" The plastic popcorn packet rustles as you tear it open before you place it into the microwave.

"That weird noise."

"Dean, I think you're hearing things."

"I am not!" He walks towards the door carefully.

"Yes you are." You stop for a second, watching his tense stature, and suddenly understand why he wanted to come with you into the kitchen. "Wait a minute, are you scared?"

"Huh?" Dean peeks over his shoulder eyes wide.

"You are! You're scared!" You snort. "I can’t believe this."

"I'm not scared." Dean lies, standing up straighter.

"Wow. Big bad Dean Winchester is scared of aliens."

"I am not!" He plants his hands on his hips, but its not enough to convince you.

"How are you scared of that? You see stuff worse than Xenomorphs everyday!" You laugh again, turning back to the microwave to pour the now made popcorn into a stainless steel bowl. 

"I don't see aliens. And I sure as hell don't see something like that!"

"Uh-huh. Sure." You shake your head at him, practically skipping back into your room. "And I thought this day couldn't get any better."

Dean collapses on the bed next to you in a huff. "How are you not afraid of that thing?"

"I’m honestly more disappointed that you haven’t proved their existence.”

“You want something like that to exist?”

“I mean it’s kinda cool-“

"Cool? You think that thing is cool?” Dean's mouth drops open in surprise.

“Yeah?” You shrug and pop a piece of the popcorn in your mouth.

“It’s got acid for blood!”

“So what you’re saying is, if one of those was on the loose you wouldn’t protect me?” You force your smile into an attractive pout, fluttering your eyelashes at Dean.

 He looks you right in the eye, without blinking and states, “Babe you’re on your own.”

 “Wow. It’s okay. I’ll protect you.”

“I don’t need you to protect me, I’m not scared.” Dean huffs as you fasten you arms around his chest and lay your head over his heart.

As the movie continues you keep sneaking glances at Dean, who has begun to subconsciously press you tighter and tighter against his chest with the arm he has wrapped around your back. He hasn't taken his eyes off the screen, the most he'd done is stress eat his way through all of your snacks.

But you loved it. You cuddled further into his chest, smiling against his skin as you did. You loved having these moments with him, hadn't had one with him in almost two weeks. The most the two of you had done was talk on the phone until you fell asleep, but you missed this. You missed your sexy, gentle, kind, passionate, caring, and gorgeous boyfriend.

“Come on. The CAT IS SMARTER THAN ALL OF THEM!” He shouts wincing as another crew member is killed by the creature.

“Yes it is.”  You snort.

"We should get a cat."

"What? Are you even a cat person?" You sit up and look at Dean, who is still watching the movie with wide eyes.

"I could be! It could tell that fucking thing was there! It was warning them and they didn’t listen and now they’re dead! See if we had a cat I’d listen to him." He argues.

"What are you the cat whisperer?"

"If it started acting weird then we’d know one of those things was around!" Dean shouts squeezing you tighter against his bare chest, his eyes still glued to the t.v.

Is it wrong that I like seeing him like this?

You'd never seen him afraid before, but it was giving you a sickening amount of joy for him to be clutching on to you so tightly. That was probably because you missed him so much and it was nice to be in his arms again, even if he was cutting off circulation to the top half of your body.

"Cats always act weird. They're cats. It’s kinda the whole deal."

"Do you like cats?"

"I could. I like dogs. I always wanted a pet when I was younger, but my sister is allergic." You frown at the tv.

When you were a kid you hadn't seen a problem and brought home a random dog while telling your sister loudly to "hold her breath."

Your parents hadn't thought it was as funny as you had.

"How is she doing?" Dean asks turning to look at you as the end credits roll.

He hadn't met any of your family yet and you were planning on asking Dean to come home with you for thanksgiving in a few weeks, but you weren't sure it was a good idea. You loved him and he loved you, but you were afraid that he would freak out about meeting your family. You knew that he wasn't used to something like that, meeting a significant other's family,  and you didn't want to push him to do something uncomfortable.

Then again, the premise of free food will probably entice him. Not to mention my mom is the best cook in the world.

"Good. The baby is due in November and she's hoping that it'll be out by Thanksgiving because she doesn’t want to miss the one holiday that doesn't fat shame you for taking another plate. I just called her the other day, she can’t wait for it to be over."

You also hadn't seen your sister in a little bit, but it was difficult to balance that, especially because she lived so far away and you were trying to balance work, school, and Dean. But you did get a phone call out to her at least once every week. Lately it had been more because she liked to call to complain about being pregnant and because her husband was away on business, she wasn't able to do it to him.

"How’s her husband?"

"He’s good. Just got promoted. I still have no idea what he does. She says she doesn’t either. Every time I asks my brain turns off. Then again she said she’d be okay if he was out there shaking it for dollar bills, as long as he brings money home."

"I think I love your sister."

"She is pretty great. And honestly, it seems like a nice way to pick up some extra cash-"

"No." Dean smiles slips into a frown.

"No what?" You ask him confused.

"You’re not allowed to become a stripper."

"I didn’t say I wanted to. Just that it might be a viable option to getting some cash on the side."

"No.” Dean’s eyes flick from where Ripley is fighting the alien in the escape pod to focus on you.

“You know it’s a free country and if I wanted to be a stripper I could."

"Nope."

"What?"

"Sorry doll. The only one that gets to see this sexy  body is me."

“I think you’re being selfish.”

“Yes unashamedly. I want you all to myself.” Deans smile shifts into a smirk, eyes glinting mischievously. “Though if you wanted to give me a show I wouldn’t be against it.”

“Hmm. I’ll think about it.”

"So what did you think about the movie?"

"I liked it, though I think it's kind of a red flag that this is your comfort movie."

"Says the guy who's entire trunk of his car is a red flag."

"I'm serious. How is this your comfort movie?" Dean gestures at the end credits that continue to scroll to the iconic soundtrack.

"I don't know. I like it. It makes me feel better about my problems watching them all scramble around."

"You're so weird." Dean sighs shaking his head.

"I know. It's great isn't it?" You flash a wide grin and elbow him in the side.

"Keeps me on my toes."

You find the box that contains the entire collection underneath the wrappers of all the snacks and wave it in front of you to taunt him. “So I’ve got the next three on DVD. Unless you’re too scared Winchester.”

“Bring it on!”

"Or," You smile up at him. "We could take a break because you were very brave. And maybe you deserve a reward." You press a kiss along the edge of his jaw, feeling the scratch of his stubble against the soft pillow of your lips. Dean had allowed it to grow out a little more than usual and you loved that.

"And what would we do?" Dean asks you innocently, but his green eyes gleam with mischief, tracing down to where his shirt rests over your thighs.

"Something that would get our pulses racing-"

Dean tackles you back against your bed, his lips inches apart from yours. “I’d like that sweetheart.”

“Thought so.”

Thank you so much for reading! If you'd like to be added to my taglist for the Before You Go Series please let me know! 😊

Taglist:

@sunnyhummingbee @roseblue373 @brightlilith @snowayumi @ladysparkles78

@kittydeany77 @daisy-the-quake @mrsjenniferwinchester

[rarityroo]

Dating Mirio Togata Hcs

(Mirio Togata x Gn!reader)

I made this while working on requests, I really love Mirio and was very happy to write him! This fic includes meeting Mirio, a confession, and a little bit of Eri appreciation at the end. I might make a part two with You, Mirio and Eri. Hopefully you like this too, to those who sent in requests they’re being down now and will be posted soon! Much love! 🫶🏻

– You became friends with Mirio sometime in middle school. You became his friend after defending his closest friend, Tamaki, from bullies during passing time. You had no clue why they were bullying him but you knew you had to stop them, that's what heroes do after all.

– Your whole young life you've wanted to be a hero, you wanted to be the absolute best anyone could be. You wanted to be a symbol of hope just like All-Might!

– Once you fended off Tamaki's bullies, he shakily thanked you and offered to walk you to your next class. You agreed, happy to have a new friend.

– As the two of you walked down the halls, a loud cheery voice boomed down the hallway, Tamaki jumped and you turned to see who it was, not knowing how much your life would change.

"Tamaki! Hey! C'mon Tamaki wait up!" A voice shouted through the halls, Tamaki looked startled at the volume of the voice but not at the voice itself, huh must know him, you thought as a look of recognition flashed over Tamaki's eyes. Once the owner's voice came into view it was like your world stopped, like this specific moment everything halted for a second. You suddenly became nervous and flustered, Tamaki noticed your sudden mood change and seemed confused, "H-Hi M-Mir-rio" Tamaki choked out, and despite him being so comfortable with Mirio he still struggled. "Hey! Who's this?," Mirio motions to you, you look over to Tamaki who looks nervous to be put on the spot so you take charge despite your own anxiety. "Hi!, I'm [Reader]!" You say politely, Mirio smiles at you, "I’m Mirio!" He states happily, "Where are you two headed too?" Mirio asks, "Oh, Tamaki and I are walking to my next class, you can come too if you want." You offer, "Sure sounds fun!" Mirio says.

– After that day you, Tamaki, and Mirio would hang out daily until you got to high school. You all got into UA, a lifelong dream of yours. Sure you were all still friends but with the workload and varying schedules, finding time to hang out as a group was hard.

– So you and Mirio could usually hang out one-on-one although it was very rare. And with every hangout, you noticed how much you liked Mirio.

– Anytime he held the door open for you, pulled out your chair, trained with you, and studied with you, you could feel your little crush deepen into something much more. So you invited him out for a 'study date', planning to confess.

You walked into the Cafe, books in hand, you walked from the door to a small rounded table in the back of the Cafe. You sat your books down and went up to order. After ordering, you sat with your drink waiting, anxiety flushing through you as you saw Mirio walk through the Cafe his eyes scanning the area, his eyes glimmering with happiness when he saw you.

Mirio being himself launched into enthusiastic conversation, his company alone was enough to ease the tension coiling inside you. You found yourself drawn into his infectious energy, your fears of what's to come melting away in his company. The café seemed brighter, warmer somehow, with him with you. Time seemed to slip away as you chatted and laughed, lost in each other's company. And then, as the conversation lulled, a moment of quiet settled between you. Mirio's gaze softened as he looked at you, a gentle smile started at the corners of his lips.

"Hey, can I tell you something?" Mirio's voice was soft, almost hesitant as if he was afraid of being too abrupt, years of knowing you would never dull his anxiety of being around you.

You nodded, "Of course," you whispered, hardly daring to breathe as you waited for his words. Mirio took a deep breath, his gaze leading to the table. "I... I really like you," he admitted, his voice filled with sincerity. What!?? You were so shocked, could he actually have feelings for you, just like you secretly had for him? The thought sent a rush of excitement coursing through you, mixed with a sense of disbelief.

"I've liked you for a while now, and I just couldn't keep it to myself anymore."

Your heart skipped a beat at his confession, a flood of warmth going through you at his words. You took a moment to gather your courage, then reached out to gently touch his hand. "Mirio, I..I like you too"

Mirio's eyes widened in surprise, his smile growing wider with each passing moment. "Really?" he asked, his voice filled with excitement.

You nodded, a shy smile spreading across your face. "Yes, really," you confirmed, feeling a weight lifting off your shoulders as you finally confessed your feelings.

– Mirio is a fantastic boyfriend. Flowers, cute notes in your lunch whenever he has the time, and will often have a study date with you. He was so loving and supportive of you and anything you did or wanted to do. From hobbies to new styles, je was always your biggest fan.

– He was always so kind and gentle, so it was no surprise to you when he introduced you to a small timid girl, named Eri. The young girl, despite being shy and quiet took a great liking to you.

You sat at the dinner table at home quietly reading, your head popped up when you heard your front door opening, followed by Mirios voice paired with a smaller younger voice. Huh?

"Hey! babe! I'm home, there's someone I want you to meet!" Mirio everso sweetly called, you walk from the dining room to the living room shocked to see a small girl hiding behind Mirio, Mirio light nudged her, “Go on” Mirio encouraged smiling down at her, “Hi” she looked at the ground, “I’m Eri”, You smiled gently all questions you had put on halt when you heard her sweet little voice, “Hi Eri! I’m [Reader]”, Eri looked up at you and smiled the sweetest smile, something told you this was the start of something truly lovely.

[ticklygiggles]

Lovelynim's tickletober Day 2: Accident

Ichikawa Giichi x Kikuchihara Jin

A/N: Day two! Big thanks to lovely @ppystkposts for requesting these two 😍 I'm so happy this manga got an anime because it's SO GOOD! I hope you enjoy it, cutie MWAH 💕

So far, in the story of my life...

"This time I really messed up!" Jin groaned in despair, looking at the mess on the floor.

This is what he got for taking things without permission. You shouldn't assume that your partner's things belong to you... especially when you know that there are things that don't really belong to them. Like that exquisite limited edition manga he just ruined!

Jin thought it would be a good idea, a very innocent good idea, to borrow the second volume of the bl manga that Giichi had lent him last night. He sat comfortably on the floor with his back leaning on Giichi's bed, the manga in one hand and a can of soda that Rei had given him in the other. Who would have thought that he would fall asleep for who knows how long and that when he woke up he would find that not only had the manga fallen from his hand, but also the soda can and the liquid had fallen on the book, completely damaging it.

Jin didn't even try to dry it, the soda had literally fallen on the manga like a fountain, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't fix it with absolutely anything.

Giichi was going to kill him. Worse yet, he was going to break up with him! He could hear him already: 'Didn't I tell you clearly that these mangas belong to my little sister?! Couldn't you just wait for me to arrive?!'

"Oh no. Oh no. Oh no- eek!"

"Hi. I'm ba-"

"I am so sorry!" Jin yelled lifting the still dripping book up for Giichi to look at it. "I am so so so sorry! I swear it was an accident! I was dr-drinking some soda and then I fell asleep and- and it was all Rei's fault because he gave it to me! Agh, of course it wasn't his fault, I just-"

"Please tell me that's not a limited edition one."

"... I'm so sorry."

Jin flinched when he heard Giichi sighing heavily, looking up at him he saw him throwing his backpack to the side and rubbing his temples as he closed the door behind him.

"I'm so sorry! I'll- I'll get a new one! No matter what I'll definitely get it!"

"Do you even know what 'limited edition' means?"

Jin flinched. Of course he knew... it meant it was limited as in you can't get it anywhere else. He groaned, finally letting the dirty manga fall on the floor.

"I- I promise I'll get it! Punish me, Ichikawa Giichi, but please don't break up with me!" Jin clasped his hands together in prayer, his eyes nearly filled with tears. "Please!"

Giichi sighed again and he nodded. "Fine." Jin flinched when Giichi suddenly fell on his knees in front of him. "Just know that I'll punish you until I think it's enough."

Something fluttered in Jin's chest, his cheeks flushing. No! Why was he getting excited over a punishment?! He nodded, gulping and closing his eyes.

"You also need to clean up this mess."

"I-I will, I prom- ahahaha!" Ridiculous, bubbly giggles erupted from his lips when Giichi suddenly grabbed his sides and squeezed them, tickling him. Jin squirmed, widening his eyes for one second before he shut them tightly again. "W-Wahahahait! Not thihihis!"

He tried to hold his laughter, gritting his teeth and whining, but it was impossible. He has always been terribly ticklish and he hated the day Giichi had found about it during one of their intimate times. He had simply brushed his spine a bit too lightly, and Jin was a giggly mess in seconds.

He should've known Giichi would choose this punishment.

"Quiet down. You're being too loud."

"It tihihihickles! H-How cahahan Ihihi- ahahah! N-No, nohohot thehehere!" Jin was almost sure he heard Giichi chuckling, but with his loud, high-pitched laughter, he couldn't really tell.

Giichi's fingers moved up and down Jin's torso at maddening speed, preventing Jin from getting too used to one spot before jumping to the other. Jin fell back onto the floor and Giichi easily straddled him, finding that horribly ticklish spot on the back of Jin's ribs, very close to his spine. Jin squealed overwhelmingly loudly as he threw his head back and arched his body up, trying to escape Giichi's fingers, but he couldn't, and it was entirely his fault for ruining something that wasn't even his.

He deserved this... but he was still too ticklish and couldn't help but squirm and laugh uncontrollably, blushing up to his ears and feeling tears of laughter running down the sides of his face.

"You're already crying? I'm barely starting, you know?"

Ah, he would definitely never take anything without permission ever again.

BONUS SCENE

"You know...," Giichi said after he finished wrecking Jin. The poor third year was gasping and twitching after enduring the tickling of his life. "That really wasn't the limited edition one. It just has a different cover, that's all."

Jin blinked a couple of times before he lifted his face to look at Giichi, oh that little shit was smirking down at him. "You-! Then why did you- AHAHAHA! Nohoho! N-No, plehehease!"

"Because you shouldn't even grab my stuff without my permission. Serves you right."

Serves him right, indeed.

[spockandawe]

I'm so close to catching up with my books! Here we have the triumph of time, again, as a vellucent binding, again. And this may not look super different to you from my last iteration of this project! The differences were VERY process-driven and hard to photograph, but I pinky swear that there are incremental but noticeable improvements, and i would never mix up editions irl.

First up, refresher, vellucent binding is when there's a protective layer of vellum floating over your cover illustration, protecting it. Or. If you're cheap. Paper vellum. My first time around, I realized as soon as I got the vellum paper wet that oh shit, this REALLY has a grain, and it is the opposite of what my books want. It's the first time I've ever been punished for ignoring grain, though, so I can't complain. I pressed on anyways, because what is even the point of fucking around if you aren't bold enough to find out? As a result, my vellum on the first set has noticeable wrinkles, despite only the turn-ins being glued down, and it all floats more than i wish. You have to smooth it with your fingers to really SEE the detail in the images.

So, naturally, my second time, I got bigger vellum paper, covered the whole thing in paste, plopped my covers onto there, and planned to smooth the wrinkles out. Yeahhhh, that... it was fairly forgiving in the one volume with a primarily white background, and was a goddamn nightmare on the three illustrations.

Lesson one: paper vellum is like a sandworm that wants to curl up and die at the first touch of moisture. Lesson two: it wants to hurt you. PUNISH you. Lesson three: no seriously it is so much more difficult and unforgiving than any other material I've sampled yet. The wallet cost of actual vellum may be outweighed by the emotional cost of this shit.

Naturally, I am bewitched and determined to science it into submission.

For the record: v1 (turn-ins glued, wrong grain) in the bottom left, v2 (paste everywhere, abandoned on the curb without text blocks to warp and writhe as they please) in the top center, and v3 (turn-ins glued, correct grain, more effort to pull tension on the vellum) in the bottom right. I'm not done experimenting by any means, but i need to stop for a minute until i nail the process, to save my poor toner cartridges

But the books themselves! Even though i still see ways to polish my own process, i am DELIGHTED with them. The pull of the paper vellum still wants to introduce slack and wrinkles to the cover as it dries, but there's much less! The moment you get adhesive on paper vellum you commit to a fight to the death, but I'm getting better at handling and anticipating it!

There's a level of polish in the assembly of this set that was lacking in my first and second attempts at the covers. Even if it isn't perfect yet, I'm learning so much, and have new ideas for how to troubleshoot. The idea of making this bookbinding style more accessible and affordable fills me with so much delight, I can't even articulate it. I'm still very much an amateur myself, there are lots of professional best practices I can only speak to in the abstract. Pinning down something this niche and luxurious would make me so happy. Future science will be done on single-volume sets, probably after I'm done moving, but it's at the top of my to do list!! And when it's perfected, I'm for SURE coming back to this series, it's one of my all-time faves, I want to give it the fanciest treatment my hands can devise.

[dameronology]

stop, you're losing me (s.h)

taylor swift released a new song so here's a fic based on it. this doesn't have a happy ending btw it's just pure angst lol

warnings: language, angst, arguing

it's kinda short but i'm getting back into the swing of writing. love you all and thank you for bearing with me through the last few months.

jazz xx

If you stared at the wall for long enough, you could still see the shadows of what once. The rigid outlines of you and him, dancing around what had been an empty room this time two years ago; the contours of your bodies as you spent hours putting together furniture, desperate to make the space yours after years of uncertainty. Nailing pictures to the wall - you and him last year in Italy, the pair of you at a friend's wedding in the fall, school photos and yearbook pictures. Then, if you blinked hard enough, squeezed your eyes shut and peeled them back open, you'd see the room for what it was now. Empty; photo frames you'd foolishly brought, never used and collecting dust; a crease in the sofa where he used to sit, cold because he was never fucking home anymore. The shadows that used to be happy were tense now, backs arched and arms flailed, faces flexed from smiles to frowns and then pure rage.

It was just you. No Steve. No laughter, no tears, no anger. Emotions replaced by apathy and the man didn't have a clue. Maybe he was just fucking oblivious but every futile attempt, every conversation you'd tried to have on the matter, had been in vain. Maybe it had worked for a few weeks; a few weeks where Steve would come home early from work, bring you flowers and get you a booking at that one restaurant with some vaguely sentimental meaning to your relationship. Then it would go back to normal - late nights, forced conversations, and finally, the stand still. The moment where you'd realised your relationship was stagnant and whilst everyone was getting married or pregnant or buying a house, you were going no where. At least not with Steve.

He was home late as usual, just after 9PM. He came through the day, car keys and briefcase thrown to the side, top button immediately undone and tie coming loose. Steve barely looked at you as he moved across the living room, straight to the fridge for whatever leftovers he could fine. It wasn't until he turned around, mouth full of pizza and a can of Coke in the other hand, that he finally gave you a smile.

"Good day?" he asked.

You raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, not bad."

"Good," he gave you another smile, breezing past you and to the bedroom. Door slammed, minor shuffling, and then he re-appeared, now in an old t-shirt and sweatpants.

Sometimes, you wondered if he sensed it too. The coldness in your touches, in your voice. The way there was always a massive gap between you in bed at night. If he had noticed, Steve sure did a good job of ignoring it. He always had, in a way. Even after everything - the Upside Down, the monsters, the darkness - he hadn't wanted to talk about it. Maybe he was clinging on to the familiar. Even when everything had changed, your relationship stayed the same. If only he'd known that was the entire problem.

You'd had faith for a little while, but then you'd lost it.

"Nancy called, by the way," Steve continued on, waltzing around the room - heating on, TV volume up, mail thrown onto the coffee table. "The baby's doing well. She's six months along now."

He passed by you, hand ghosting across the back of your shoulders. That was it. That was your physical contact for the day, unless he was feeling sweet enough to accidentally kick you in the night or brush past you in the bathroom when he washing up before bed.

"Steve?"

Your voice was low; enough to alert him. Steve stopped, turning to face you.

"Yeah?"

"I'm moving out."

His shoulders dropped for a moment - and then he laughed. He fucking laughed. "Yeah, good one. Your jokes are getting worse."

"I'm not joking," you said. "Our lease is up next month. I'm moving."

"Where?" his eyes followed you as you got up and walked to the kitchen. He was on your heels like a lost puppy, immediately by your side. "And when were you gonna talk to me about this? Do you mean...like, a place together? Or a place apart? Because I thought we liked this apartment. We do don't we, because of the sky lights, and the fancy fuckin' sinks in the bathrooms-"

"- the place isn't the problem, Steve!" you cut him off. "It's you."

"How?" he asked. "I thought we were good?"

"Look at us!" you snapped. "Of course we're not good! You're a stranger to me, Steve. I never see you, and when you do you're just...you're not there."

"I'm sorry," he murmured. "I've just been busy with work, okay? I'll try harder."

"You always say that," you shook your head. "Why do I have to keep asking you to try? You should want to try. You should want to act like you love me. Am I asking too much by asking you to fucking love me, Steve?"

"Do you honestly think I don't love you?" Steve said. He looked defeated now; drooped shoulders, sad eyes, bottom lip folded like he was about to cry. "You're everything to me. You have been since we were sixteen years old, and you're seriously asking if I don't love you?"

"If I'm everything to you then why don't you act like it?" you quietly asked. "Why all this...brushing past me? Acting like we're just room mates?"

"I...I don't know," he murmured. "The way I felt about you hasn't changed-"

"- I've asked you so many times Steve - if something is up, if we need to talk about stuff, if I've done something," you cut him off again. "And you see me every day sat here, waiting for you to come home, trying to make conversation and you just...you do nothing. You ignore me. You ignore all my futile fucking attempts to make an effort and quite honestly I am done."

The anger had taken over now, taken hold on your brain and tinted the edges of the vision. It was red. Not pink, how it used to be when you were happy, or blue when you were sad, but still had each other. It was just red; scarlet for the realisation that you were stood opposite each other now and not beside one another. You weren't a team anymore.

"So...you're dumping me?" Steve sniffed. "Is that what you're saying?"

"Yeah," you nodded.

"Do you really want to lose me over this?' he asked.

You shrugged. "You've lost me already, Steve."

[jacqcrisis]

I just remembered the core memory of when I was in high school and Twilight was in its heyday which pissed me VERY MUCH OFF as someone who read it when the first book came out on a rec from a friend who was so offbase with that because fuck me I hated that book at 14 and even more so when it got popular two years later-

ANYWAYS, Twilight is big and popular, and I'm in Barnes and Noble glaring at the stand with all the Twilight-like books cause I do love vampires but there's nothing for queer little ole me. 'Interview With the Vampire is my life' teen Jacq was suffering so bad. So I pop over the manga section, looking for possible shonen-ai/yaoi (which was rarely labeled as such so it was like looking for a needle in a haystack) when I stumble upon this:

Oh, I say to myself. Interesting. I flip it over to the back and read:

"Charlie, a cyborg/vampire who does the Vatican's dirty work-"

SOLD. I read no more. I don't need to read anymore, as nothing could prepare me for what I found inside.

I'm shaking as I go to the front and buy it immediately, so excited to read something that sounds so truly up my alley. I go home and consume some of the horniest, kinkiest vampire non-sex I had yet seen in my brief time on this earth between the aforementioned Charlie and the guy on the cover who is a fuck boy and the best boy mixed in with a pretty good story and romance. This series consumed me for the rest of my high school life as I was constantly on the lookout for new volumes. Even to this day, this is genuinely my favorite manga series, and it has a very cute happy ending and, as a shock to no one, informs a lot of my stupid writing trope habits.

This is a recommendation to go read Vassalord if you like vampires, cyborgs, horny blasphemy, pining, getting stabbed sexily, and one dude trying really hard not to fuck the other dude who's trying really hard to get the dude to fuck him while they fight crime and other vampires. It's great.

[electricea]

Get to know me better!

Alias / Name: Jassi - some people call me Jas or Jazz, I remember early on a friend just started me calling 'Jassi' as a nickname and it stuck.

Birthday: November 22nd.

Zodiac Sign: My birthday is a weird day for Zodiac signs - some sources will swear I'm a Scorpio, others will say I'm a Sagittarius - I guess personality-wise I'd align closer to Scorpio but it's tough to say.

Height: Haven't been measured since like high school gym class lol but I'd say 5'0.

Hobbies: Writing, reading, role-playing games, puzzles, model kits.

Favourite Colour: I've always liked blue especially light blue - sky blue. I also really like any colour that's like a cyan or turquoise or aquamarine.

Favourite Book: Currently, Blue Lock - I've been obsessed with it since last Christmas and seeing the movie has only kind of intensified that lmao.

Last Song: Stormy by Nissiy x SKY-HI.

Last Movie / Show: I had the dumbass idea last night to start a movie at like 1am so I had to pause it and sleep but I got halfway through The King of Comedy, as for last show I think it would be Delicious in Dungeon since I was streaming it with a friend.

Recent Read: Haven't read anything terribly recently but there's a lot of great manga volumes coming out this month.

Inspiration: I kind of take inspiration from all around me as opposed to one person or a thing - it's hard to explain, but I just feel like my head is always bouncing around with plot ideas or things Ryuji would like. Inspiration has always just come naturally to me.

Story Behind Your URL: When I rebooted my blog a few years ago and decided to come back to Tumblr after a year long hiatus I was agonizing over a new URL - picking a new URL as well as working on a theme are probably two of my least favourite parts of Tumblr and a friend threw out the suggestion - it's a play on the words 'electricity' and was clever, in my opinion, so I give them full credit.

Fun Fact: Uh, I like turtles? (Both the animal and the chocolate - lol sorry I'm really bad of thinking of fun facts on the fly.)

Tagged by: @scarlxtleaves (Thank you - was cool getting to read yours and get to know you a bit as well!)

Tagging: Honestly I'd be happy to get to know any one of you better so feel free to steal this from me and give your answers!

[yourghastlycloseness]

wikipedia articles sometimes have the best pull quotes

this one’s on lolo ferrari

She had 22 enlargements, which is a Guinness World Record.[9] The Guinness Book of Records (2003) indicates each of her breasts weighed 2.8 kilograms (6.2 lb) and contained three litres of saline.

She wore a specially engineered brassiere. Her brassiere measurements have been given by various sources as 58F,[10] 54G,[11] although these measurements appear false, as breasts of similar size have a bra size of around 36T or 36MMM. The breast implants themselves were reputed to be designed by an engineer who was involved with the design of the Boeing 747.[5]

In interviews, she said about her surgeries, "All this stuff has been because I can't stand life. But it hasn't changed anything" and "I was frightened and I was ashamed; I wanted to change my face, my body, to transform myself. I wanted to die, really."

and these from a guardian article

"For my mouth," she said in 1996, "we removed my Cupid's bow, tucked the mucous membranes up to my nose, and filled my lips with collagen. There's no particularly odd feeling or anything, but I have to put lipsalve on all the time. I adore being operated on. I feel wonderful in clinics. I love the feeling of a general anaesthetic - falling into this black hole and knowing I'm being altered as I sleep."

The breasts went first to 41in, then to 46in. They were desensitised and the skin was stretched nearly to bursting point. Ferrari lived in constant fear, as she mimed her songs and took off her clothes in club after club around Europe, that some madman would jump up on the stage and try to puncture them.

Beyond 46in, it became increasingly hard to find a plastic surgeon willing to take on the job. A couple of years ago, Vigne described the operation that made her a monstrous 54G. "I calculated the volume, the diameter, I drew up the plans and I took them to a guy I know who designs fuselage moulds for the aeronautics industry," he said.

"The designer made the moulds, and I gave them to a prosthetics maker who produced the empty silicone implants. It took a long, long time to find a surgeon willing to perform the operation. He removed the old implants and replaced them with the new. Each one was filled with two litres of serum. A bit later we increased it to three."

Ferrari insisted she was happy with the changes that were made to her body. "Having a big bust comforts me," she told yet another French interviewer. "It makes me more sure of myself. I'm like a transvestite - I've created a femininity that's completely artificial. But I'd like to have even bigger breasts. I can't because there are medical problems - you can't stretch the skin any more."

It frightened her, she said, to think of herself as skin, bone and blood. She wore a ring on every finger and dozens of bracelets and bangles; she painted her long fingernails pink. Her skin was the one thing she couldn't change, so she covered it with jewellery and makeup. If she didn't, she would have anxiety attacks, feeling, she said, that she was suddenly back with her old face.

[nonsubstantial]

FEBRUARY 2024 ART FASCINATION DIARY

If you missed my post last month, then I'll briefly explain that I thought it would be fun to write a short diary post each month, about the art that I've been obsessed with. Then, I can easily look back and remember what was making me happy all throughout 2024. If you are reading this, then I hope you will enjoy hearing about these things, or checking them out too!!!

MEMOIR / AUDIOBOOK: The Anthropocene Reviewed is John Green's memoir, framed as a collection of reviews of seemingly random aspects of 'the current geologic age'. I want to note that I had never finished any other John Green book, so I was going into this one as more of a hater than a fan. However, I was unexpectedly moved by it and now consider it one of the greatest books I've ever experienced. I also want to note that listening to the audiobook, narrated by John Green himself, really added a lot to the experience (including two additional chapters). Despite the subject matter being intensely personal, the genius of this memoir is that, by framing it as a collection of reviews, John Green is able to place greater emphasis on things outside of himself. Rather than just narrating his singular experiences, he creates a memoir to celebrate and sympathize with all life on planet Earth. It is informative and humbling— fascinating and earnest. I want to highly recommend this book (or audiobook) to everyone, because I feel like it will genuinely enrich your soul. There are chapters that will probably make you cry, but in a way that is healing and constructive. I give The Anthropocene Reviewed... 5 stars.

REALITY / GAME SHOW: RuPaul's Drag Race season 16 started in January of 2024, and has remained as my favorite thing on television for these past two months. It's another example of something that I had no interest in, until I was forced to watch it, and then it became one of my favorite things ever. Obviously, take all reality television with a grain of salt, but if you can do that then it's extremely inspiring to see the immense amount of talent that every contestant brings to the runway. I'm not really into fashion, but even I can appreciate the blend of comedy, creativity, and practiced technique that's on display here. These performers really do tell stories with their drag, and I look at the artform much differently than I did before I started watching. It has made every Saturday something to look forward to, and if you've never checked it out before, then I've got to recommend it.

MUSIC: my favorite album of February was 「Wall Of Eyes」 This is actually a new album, by a band called The Smile, that was released in the final week of January, and I only heard about it because Vinny Vinesauce featured it on one of his streams. If you've heard of Radiohead, then you'll at least recognize the singer, Thom Yorke (although the three person band also features Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, and drummer Tom Skinner). Despite The Smile seeming (at first) like just a side project of a couple Radiohead members, let me honestly admit that I have never connected with any Radiohead album as much as I've connected with this. I truly think every song on this album is incredible, and I listened to it front to back almost every day this February. Its genre is hard to describe, and maybe that's where some of the magic lies. It's light and acoustic, soft and jazzy... beautiful, but also a little tense and attention grabbing at times. As usual, I'd recommend just listening if you're curious about it at all, with my favorite song linked HERE!

MANGA: I was able to read a few more volumes of Dungeon Meshi this month, and I feel like it might soon claim the title of the single best manga I've ever read. Honestly, it's got it all. The themes, the artwork, the characters, the pacing, the paneling, the story's structure... I'm not exaggerating when I say that any way I look at this manga to critique it, I find excellence. In everything, there is deliberate ingenuity and soul. I will reveal that there is less focus on cooking, and more focus on worldbuilding as the story goes on, but I'm not even disappointed by that because everything it dishes out is still so good. I'm serious about this, especially if you're watching the show, try to find some copies of this manga or read it online. It's absolutely worth it.

[magicalyaku]

Hey there! I'm back from writing paradise. I admit I might have gotten a little obsessed but that was just because writing is so easy and fun while everything else is always hard. u3u But I basically finished my novel so I have no excuses anymore not to get back into real life. Here's what I read in May! Pretty good month! uAu

Keeper of the Lost Cities 3: Everblaze (Shannon Messenger): The first one in the series I read instead of listening. Was a good choice because I think I missed quite a bit of the first volumes. 8D Also, it's so long. I don't think, me being me, that I would have made it though the audiobook. Don't get me wrong, I like the story. I have a tremendous respect at how it is written, keeping all the plotpoints together, presenting the puzzle pieces little by little, managing the huge cast of people. When I complain next time about a Middle Grade book being too simple and too shallow than this is the kind of book I'm comparing it to. My one problem in this volume was, how the tension never lets down. It's so wound tight all the time, everything is always on the edge of collapsing, including Sophie. It was a little exhausting for me. So I was very glad, there were at least some answers near the end.

The Scottish Boy (Alex de Campi): I went to Scotland at the beginning of May to visit my friend, so what better book to read than this. And what a book. It's the kind of story, where so much happens in the relationship of the protagonists that right after it ends you want to go back to the beginning and read all their first interactions all over again. Hng. It's great. Also Alys, my queen. When she first appeared I was so afraid she'd turn out evil. Because court intrigues and stuff. The ending of this book is all my heart desires. I don't actually like war stories, you know. But after In Memoriam and now this, they sure make good love stories. The drama of for once not knowing where it all goes? Who lives and who doesn't? Damn. I really enjoyed reading this book. The illustrations by Trungles are also verrry nice. uAub

Captive Prince (C.S. Pacat): This was a reread and I read the other two volumes in June, so my thoughts on the series will go there. :)

Wraith, Entity & Presence (Oracle of Senders 3,4 + 3.5) (Mere Joyce): It's so hard to tell my feelings for this series. There's a lot of death and murder, there's choking and burning and failed exorcism and so much danger of death and still it was just so pleasant to read, so charming and nice and laid-back. It's so weird. 8D I liked the cast of characters and the adventure and Cal's and Meander's relationship (the complete lack of gay panic and homophobic surroundings), the classical music references (even though I never looked up a single one). I wish there was a sequel with Cal and Meander as adults. I mean, I realise, it would be difficult to do in a classic novel format because the ghost cases just aren't big enough to last a whole book, but imagine it like a half-hour show oder manga series with a ghost of the week for half the chapter and their happy slice of life for the rest. Hah. Good series.

The Hanged Man & The Hourglass Throne (The Tarot Sequence 2+3) (K.D. Edwards): I didn't think about it while reading but in retrospective this series fits into what I categorise as "wild". There's so much shit happening here. Big and bold. At the end of volume 1 I was still undecided of I like it enough to buy it on paper. These doubts were washed away with the sequels. It's an investment in the beginning, getting into the world and all, but I found it totally worth it. That one big drama at the end of vol3? Yes, totally got me. Like right from the textbook. Make me care, rip me apart. Damn.

The Buried and the Bound (Rochelle Hassan): If someone asked me in a survey about what I want to read and then actually went and made it into a book, this might be the result. This contains only things I like: two suffering (gay) boys, one tough girl (not involved in any romance), which is the best constellation of characters, really. Some magic, some adventure, some drama, different storythreads that weave nicely together in the end. I enjoyed reading it a whole lot and am looking forward to the sequels!

Ander & Santi were here (Jonny Garza Villa): Now this one was difficult. I think it's a good book, I wanted to like it, but. Hear me out. For me, this is split in three parts. The first one is about the illegal immigrants. See, for as long as I remember my dad worked in a … what's it called in English … an housing complex for refugees? Not a camp, but like a dorm. And while illegals and refugees are still a step apart, they're at least somehow adjacent. I lived basically next to them half my life and never cared. When in 2015 there was a huge wave of refugees coming to my country and everyone was freaking out, I just thought "Great, that means my dad will keep his job" (because the dorm was always on the verge of closing down and it would probably been tough for my dad as one of very few black people in a kind of racist small town to find a new job.) So anyway, I thought it was a good thing to finally read an actual story about people in these situations, to learn how to care. So that part was good and insightful. The second part was about the art. I draw manga only, but I do consider myself an artist and I was around when manga became big in my country and the art schools hated it and made us suffer. I have thoughts on art. And I really enjoyed reading about Ander's art and process and thoughts. My favourite part of the book! And then there's part 3, the love story. And I think, because I connected more strongly to the other parts than usual I felt the disconnect here much more than usual! The romance in here is very intense and very physical and my aroace brain didn't compute at all. Complete detachment. Which was kind of a problem, because the romance is a huge part of the book. I really wanted to like it but it didn't work. I did like Ander as a character, though, and their family and friends. And the cover is still so damn pretty!

That's it!

[wordsafterhours]

Songs About You - Chapter 13

Author's Note: Y'all!!!! Finally. It's been what, two months? Eek, I'm so sorry. I had a family loss and then I just couldn't write to save my life. So, long overdue, here's an update and I hope it was worth the wait. Honestly, it was meant to be double the length, but I figured I would split it into two chapters.

Word Count: 4.6k

Masterlist

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

Aelin’s favorite time of year was just about here but there wasn’t an excited ounce in her body. No Yulemas cheer to be found. The decorations for the entire house still sat boxed up, forgotten and dusty in the basement. Several times she’d opened the doors to retrieve them but had found some excuse to not venture down the stairs. Today, was no exception. 

She was sprawled out on the floor in her library, a worn book in her hands, enjoying the warmth of the fire as it danced across her skin. Nothing productive had occurred since Aelin had gotten up but sometimes days spent doing nothing were exactly what one should do. Since Present Tense had been doing well, she had been able to take on an employee: Evangeline.  

Lysandra had met Evangeline through a youth outreach program a few years prior and the pair had formed an amazing bond in the interim, with Lysandra mentoring the young girl. Newly aged out of the system, Evangeline was having to learn to do life on her own, relatively speaking because Lys never strayed far from her side. 

Evangeline was a quick study, surprising Aelin with her knowledge of both fiction and non-fiction volumes. She hadn’t anticipated leaving her alone at the store, but it had become clear that she would call Aelin with any questions or problems. One week later, she was abandoning her baby, choosing to lay on the floor doing nothing. 

The excess free time had proved to be a detriment. Rowan’s steely presence had made her feel better and for days after their sleepover, she had been able to ignore the melancholy. Communication had been few and far between since then. While she wanted to ask him the reasoning, it felt like she couldn’t. They were friends, but not enough to where he owed her explanations or dedicated time for catching up. 

Yet, it’s the only thing she wanted: a meaningful place in his life.  

“This is stupid,” she chastised herself, flopping onto her back and staring at the ceiling. The pattern of seeking outside happiness was hard to break. ‘It hadn’t always been like this’ was quickly proving to be the tag line of her life. Seeking distraction, Aelin plucked her discarded phone from the floor and mindlessly scrolled through her socials. 

It all was a stark reminder of what she didn’t have: a successful relationship, a child, family… She supposed the last one was a quasi-lie. Her cousin and uncle were very much alive but after Arobynn’s deceit had come to life, so had Gavriel and Aedion’s involvement in the Vaults. It was unforgiveable. 

Mercifully, the familiar vibration of an incoming phone call saved her from sinking further into self-pity.

“Hello?” she answered quickly, not bothering to check the caller ID beforehand. 

“Aelinnnnn!” 

“Dorian! It’s so wonderful to hear your voice.”

“Well, you’d hear it more often if you ever bothered to check in,” he replied jokingly but not enough that she didn’t detect a small note of hurt.

“You’re right, I’ve been a shit friend lately.”

“The absolute worst,” Dorian confirmed with dramatic flair.

“To be fair, you didn’t call either.”

“I know, which is why I’m following up this phone call with an invitation to see my handsome, smiling face in person.”

“WHAT?” she yelped, jumping to her feet. “You’re here in Orynth?” 

“Specifically, 20 King’s Road.”

Mere seconds ticked by, just enough for his statement to sink in, before she was pushing through the library door, dodging the dog lying on her bedroom floor, and sprinting down the stairs. Aelin was in Dorian’s arms the moment she opened the door, clinging to him as though he were life itself. 

Not ready for her launch, the man stumbled backwards a few steps, but managed to stabilize them both as he held her close. “Hi, Ae,” he mumbled into her hair.

“It’s been too long, Dor.” 

She slipped from his grasp, taking a step back to take him all in. Dorian had this enduring boyish charm to him, and his laughter was infectious. Sometimes, she envied the way he seemed to have nothing weighing him down, like he hadn’t a single care in the world. He was passionate and loyal and always seemed to show up when he was needed. His black hair had grown longer in the year apart, touching his collar and following over his ears. Bright eyed as ever. 

“Are you done?” he jested, rolling his eyes. 

“I was just making sure I was still the most beautiful one in this friendship.” 

A pinched look appeared on Dorian’s face, and she knew he was internally trying to talk himself down from participating in this redundant argument. Both vain, both beautiful, and always trying to outdo the other. “I’m not doing this with you, not today. This is a pass because of what’s been going on in your life. Not that you bothered to tell me. I had to listen to my best friend go on and on about it. Let me tell you, after an hour, I was ready to be fed to a pack of ghost leopards.” 

The blonde did her best not to laugh, but a small chuckle escaped.

“Go ahead, laugh at my misery. There is nothing I could ever do or have done to deserve listening to that man whine drunkenly for the better part of an entire evening. It was pathetic really.” 

“Thank you for your service,” Aelin grinned, placing a reassuring hand on Dorian’s shoulder. 

“Don’t mention it… or actually, I know how you can repay me,” the raven-haired man announced, a devilish smirk tipping up his lips.

‘This, this is not good,’ Aelin thought to herself. Dorian was a level unto himself, and her current state would not allow her to keep up with whatever hairbrained idea he seemed to be concocting.  

Muscle taut, she braced herself for what his next words would be.

“You can come to Moonie’s with me.”

“Huh?” 

“Close your jaw and nod your pretty little head in agreement.” 

“How do you even know about Moonie’s?”

The rustic bar was not Dorian’s scene. He haunted places like Manon’s bar, The Thirteen; places with a certain ambiance and ability to have VIP section and service. He was very much a creature of luxury subsequent to his wealthy upbringing. 

“Why must everything be so difficult?” he whined, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I started my morning at your store, except to my surprise, you weren’t there, and a young, dark-headed girl was. Naturally, I introduced myself in attempt to discern your whereabouts when Lys came in and interrupted the conversation per usual. Anyways, long story short, I traded a ‘yes’ to the bar to catch up, for your location.” 

“Well, you’re in for a treat.” 

“Gods, where is this establishment? The Staghorns themselves?” her male counterpart griped from the passenger seat. 

“Oh hush. It’s not even been half an hour.”

“I’m going to murder Lysandra. Moonie’s is really code for ‘the woods’, isn’t it?” 

Aelin slid her gaze sideways, pinning Dorian with an annoyed look. A small fragment of her felt sympathy but another part relished in how distressed he looked, half his face pressed into the window and his bottom lip stuck out, pouting. As soon as they got to the bar, this would be Lysandra’s problem. There were beers and Fenrys awaiting her. 

Soon, she was parking her vehicle in the lot, pleased to have found up front parking. It was going to be a good night if the plethora of parked cars was any indication. The driver-side door wasn’t even shut before her turquoise eyes saw the back of Dorian disappearing into the bar. “No, that’s fine. Don’t wait for me,” Aelin muttered to the cold night air. 

The loud cacophony of Moonie’s patrons reached her ears before she’d even set both feet on the worn porch. Whatever she had been expecting, it was not this. There wasn’t an empty table to be found, with many groups of people standing amongst themselves, drinking and talking. The carved-out area of the dance floor was equally occupied, twirling bodies artfully avoiding one another as they moved about. Despite the somber mood that had gripped her most of the day, even in the presence of her giddy friend, Aelin found her pink lips pulling up into the ghost of a smile. 

Fenrys’ blond head was a glowing beacon up towards the bar, summoning her like a moth to flame. As she neared, an unladylike snort left her as she noted Dorian and him locked in conversation. The odds of those two finding one another should have been higher—for her sake, at the very least. 

“There she is, the only woman I’ll ever get on my knees for,” crooned Fenrys, hand out in expectation. 

Aelin’s cheeks burned, the drunkenly declared compliment making her feel as though the entire bar had heard him. Still, she took his hand, and he pulled her close, body flush against his. Dorian, grinning like a fiend, said nothing as he took sip from his glass.

“I see you move quick,” she observed.

“It’s not my fault you’re slow.”

“Dor, you practically ran inside. There was a dust shaped outline of you by the passenger side door.”

“I did not run in here like some degenerate alcoholic,” he asserted with a pinched look. 

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.” 

“Gods themselves, remind me why we’re friends again?” 

“Because she’s perfect,” chimed in Fenrys, briefly squeezing her tighter. 

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Aelin admitted. 

“One of these days, you’re going to see yourself the way everyone else does,” the raven-haired man quietly acknowledged, dimming the playful tone of the conversation. 

Feeling awkward, she shuffled through her brain for a redirection tact. “I want you guys to tell me something—” Both their gazes on her, interest piqued as they waited for her to continue. “How is that you two singled one another out in the bar with this many people in it?” 

A coy look passed between the two. “Oh Aelin, didn’t anyone every tell you, like calls to like?” 

Raising her hand in protest, she was quickly shushed by Fenrys as he insisted that they go sit down. Still trapped by his arm around her shoulders, there was no choice but to follow. Before the night was over, the actual reason would come to light. 

Two long tables were shoved together to accommodate the gathering of friends tonight. Half a bench was open at one of them and Aelin sat, smothered between Dorian and Fenrys. At the opposite end, a familiar head of silver caught her eye. Subtly, she looked over; instant regret filled her veins as she caught him placing a kiss to Lyria’s lips. 

Unconsciously, her body must have stiffened, because suddenly Dorian was leaning into her, his lips brushing against the shell of her right ear. “You okay?” 

Not trusting her voice, she worried her lip, giving the best nod she could muster. His blue eyes appraised her heavily before flicking away. Steeling herself, Aelin joined in the conversation, doing her best to catch up with everyone and ignore Rowan and Lyria without seeming like she was. 

Every now and again, the boys would lean in, and ask her if she was doing okay. Or make small jokes and off-colored comments. Perhaps, because of their closeness, they could feel the unyielding tension in her body or sense that she wasn’t really engaged, interjecting at bare minimum… whatever it was, she was grateful for their check-ins. It also helped distract her from the feeling of eyes boring into the side of her head. 

“Fen, move, I have to pee,” she whispered, tapping his thigh.

“And here I thought you were trying to cop a feel.”

“If that ever happens, you’ll know,” Aelin declared. 

“You promise?” he waggled his eyes brows, laughing harder as her gaze narrowed. 

Flustered at being so easily ruffled, Aelin hurried down the dimly lit corridor to the bathrooms. Why they were so far out of the way, she’d never understand, but at least it was quieter here and free from intense stares. Worn frames with black and white photos lined the hallway. Until now, Aelin hadn’t really noticed their presence, whether it was from alcohol or general unawareness, she couldn’t say.

Smiling, familiar faces stared back at her. It was “The Cadre”, Rowan and his friends, in various ages and settings. Rowan wasn’t in the younger ones, but you would have never guessed from how well he fit into the ones he was a part of. His accent was a dead giveaway that he came from across the sea but in their conversations, exactly where had not come to light.

Wistfully, her fingers traced along the frames, chasing the feelings depicted within. Their happiness was palpable, seemingly leaking from the edges, highlighting emotions not privy to her for some time. 

“That was last summer,” a rough, lilted voice spoke from behind her, sending her heart skittering into rapid staccato. Hand to chest, Aelin refused to turn around, instead electing to remain looking the photo. All five were covered in mud, looking at one another and laughing—so carefree and present. It truly was a magnificent candid shot. 

Teeth, sharp, sunk into her plush bottom lip, reminding her to maintain composure as she felt him move closer, nearly flush against her back. It would take nothing to close the distance, something she wanted more than anything, but would not grant him the satisfaction. 

His warm breath fanned against her as he spoke once more. “We were helping one of my neighbors clean up their property. Too many felled trees and debris result in increased fire hazard. And last year, it had been dry, no rain and was windy the entire blasted month of June. I was afraid that if a fire happened, they would lose their house. So, the guys, they helped clean it up. The last day, it rained… Actually, it was a godsdamned torrential down pour. This was taken after it quit. To say we had fun would be an understatement.” 

Aelin could feel the joy of that day like it was her own. Rowan, he was a natural born storyteller. It didn’t matter with what he had to say was two sentences or twenty, she always found herself on the proverbial edge of her seat, waiting for what he’d say next. It seemed as though he was done when the silence lapsed from seconds into minutes. 

She could feel the large breath he loosed, the distance between them still so minute that he could have been touching her. “Nothing to say?”

Frustration clung heavy to those three little words. 

“No.” Succinct. No room for argument. 

“You and I both know that’s a lie. I can see how flushed your skin is. You posture is bone-breaking rigid. You’re tapping your fingers against your thigh.” It was the arrogance of his observation that burst the dam. 

“You don’t deserve my words, Rowan. Only my friends deserve my words.”

He snorted, widening the space between them, her body cried at the loss of his warmth. “That must be why you were practically in Fenrys’ and Adarlanian prince’s laps all night, whispering in their ears. I wasn’t aware that was appropriate behavior amongst friends.” 

First. How dare he. Aelin was seething at what the silver-haired man had just implied. Secondly, how did he know Dorian was the son of Adarlan’s governor? Had she been that checked out in the conversation? Thirdly, he was all over Lyria since she had sat down at the table. 

“Oh, go fuck yourself.” 

“Excuse me?” 

“Go. Fuck. Yourself. You literally slept in my bed, witnessed me at my worst, and then disappeared for weeks. I’ve reached out, you’ve not answered or give one- or two-word replies. What happened to ‘you can count on me’?”  

The telltale burning of tears had Aelin digging her nails into her palms, a poor attempt at redirecting her frustration and hurt. 

“I have a life, Aelin! I’ve been busy. I have a girlfriend. I can’t just be around 24/7 to hold your hand,” he barked angrily, throwing his hands up. 

Girlfriend. 

Girlfriend. That word echoed against the walls of newly formed cavern in her chest. She was going to be sick. 

“Well, excuse me for having taken you at your word. I am sorry to have wasted your time and you won’t have to worry about ‘holding’ my hand anymore.”

An unknown emotion flitted across his face as she used her hands to quote him. Not giving him the chance of rebuttal, she hit her shoulder hard into his as she passed. Fleeing into the bathroom, with barely enough time to lock the door, her knees buckled. 

She pressed the heel of her hands hard into her eyes, almost to the point of pain, quelling the tears. If her lids had to be taped shut in order for no tears to come, that’s what would happen. Despite wanting to give up, wanting to give in to the debilitating sadness and exhaustion, she could not go there again. There would be no one left on the other side.

Rising to her feet, Aelin walked to the sink, and splashed cool water on her face. Two swipes of a paper towel and her runny mascara looked immaculate again. Pale skin was marred pink, eyes a little swollen, but hopefully no one at the table would look too closely. 

Her heart lifted a little when she returned to the table to see neither Rowan nor Lyria in sight. At least she wouldn’t have to sit there, acting normal, after having her heart pulverized by his callous words. Both Dorian and Fenrys jumped to their feet when she came to stand behind them. 

“Aeeeeeee, you were gone for so long, I thought you left me,” slurred Dorian, throwing a heavy arm around her. 

“He acts like he didn’t want that,” Fenrys chimed in, pointedly looking at his new friend.

Dorian pinked up and looked away. “What did I miss?”

“An extremely interesting round of truth or dare.” 

“Well, fill me in,” she pleaded. A distraction was welcome, needed. 

“Oh no, no, no my dashing blonde friend. You snooze, you lose,” cooed Dorian, leaning his head against her.

“I’m sorry I have a bladder.” 

“Learn to hold it like the rest of us.”

“You know what, you can sit here with everyone else. Fenrys and I are going to dance.” She slipped out from his grasp, instead trading it for the golden male’s. Dorian made to follow them, but Manon grabbed his hand before he could get to far. Aelin smirked, mouthing thanks to her friend. She wasn’t sure what he was whining in protest, but from the overly devious look on the other woman’s face, Aelin was feeling quite satisfied and not the least bit sorry. 

The song playing throughout the bar didn’t fit the ambience of the establishment, but she supposed that it was one of the things that made Moonie’s so charming.  It was never what she expected. 

Rhythmic beats pulsed through the air and Aelin moved her body against Fen’s without a care in the world. Her back was flush to his chest, but not indecent enough that anyone could yell “get a room” at them. The male’s hands, came to rest on her hips, holding her close the best he could while also maintaining a decent hold of his drink.

Still, unfairly aware of her surroundings, her deft fingers relieved him of his drink. She downed it in an instant, grimacing only slightly as the unpleasant burn of whiskey gripped her throat. 

“Some of us were drinking that!” Fenrys remarked against the shell of her ear.

“It was very good, thank you.”

“Would you like another?”

She nodded, holding up two fingers to convey a double. 

Spinning, hands up in the air, Aelin laughed, not caring if she looked ridiculous. The alcohol was providing enough of a light-headed feeling that she no longer was noting every detail, cataloguing the people around, cycling through Rowan’s cruel conversation behind it all. 

By the next song, Fenrys was making his way back to her, drinks in hand and Dorian, looking a little worse for wear, trailing behind him. “Hi babes!” she joyfully (drunkenly) declared, throwing her weight into Dorian as she wrapped her arms around him. 

“I see you’ve been having fun.” 

She tucked her head in embarrassment, a sheepish laugh escaping her. 

“It’s about time you laughed. You don’t do it enough and it’s beautiful,” her other friend said from behind. A full glass of whatever whiskey concoction he had gotten her, appeared in her peripheral. She grabbed it, pushing away from Dorian, and quickly disappearing half the glass before anyone could caution her against it. 

It burned less, numbed more, and it was exactly the feeling Aelin was desperately chasing. The blurred state that only came with participating in reckless behaviors. As the glass touched her lips again, the weight of heavy stares caused her to pause. The two sets of eyes were so starkly different, a night and day contrast, yet both conveyed the same thing: 

You should slow down. 

“What?” she asked innocently, hoping no lecture or words of caution would result from it. 

The two shared a glance but neither spoke up, instead choosing to wash down their words with libations. 

The drink was gone, and they’d been idle too long. “Let’s dance!” she yelled, spinning away with childish abandonment. The group huddled together, moving to some electronic pop number. Fists in the air, they jumped up and down, careful not to knock into anyone else. 

Aelin felt weightless. Carefree. Untraumatized. Too long it had been since she had felt so unburdened from her life. This feeling was addictive and she wished that this moment could be bottled up, to be sipped on later when the heaviness of it all, was drowning her so relentlessly. 

They danced and danced and danced. Sometimes, she was sandwiched between the two boys, other times, they danced alone, or took turns spinning one another when a two-step song came on. Her legs would be akin to a new-born deer tomorrow, unlikely to hold her up. Perhaps, Fleetfoot would entertain herself… unlikely but with the high she was riding tonight, a small glimmer of hope nagged her thoughts. 

“Guys,” she said loudly over the music, “I think I’m going to go sit down for a second. Elide needs to come dance with us. I’m going to have to pry her off Lorcan.” 

“Goodluck,” Fenrys muttered whilst giving her a dramatic salute. 

Her legs felt like jello as she did her best to remain upright through her stumble off the dance floor. The lightheaded feeling created by copious amounts of alcohol was still present but not as severe as it had been. Her two dance partners where largely to blame for her current elated mood. 

Spying their table, her eyes roved over familiar heads, but disappointingly, Lorcan was present without Elide. Two others were also still surprisingly absent. Despite their earlier altercation, her heart still withered a little in her chest knowing he had truly left with Lyria. 

“Where’s ‘Lide?” Aelin asked of no one in particular. 

Vaughn pointed over his shoulder, “Taking someone for all their money in pool.” Loudly she snorted. Elide was a pool shark and was never suspected of it until halfway through a game. It was a good bit of entertainment on many occasions. 

The petite creature in question was leaning against a pool table, stick pressed against her face, animatedly talking to somebody sitting down. Two seconds away from barreling in unannounced, Aelin stopped dead in her tracks, as though an invisible wall had been dropped in front of her. 

“—the only remaining family she has was charged in connection with Arobynn and the Vaults. They later dropped the charges in exchange for information, but she never forgave them.” 

“Why not?” 

“You didn’t know her before. She was this bright flame, drawing everyone to her. Even when we were kids, you couldn’t help but notice her. A godsdamned force of nature with a penchant for sweets. She drove Rhoe and Evalin crazy… I think it’s why they just had one kid, ya know? And then, when Gavriel and Aedion moved to the city, she gained a sibling, and never looked back. The thing about her, is she loves with her whole heart—all or nothing. So when she gets let down, she really feels it.”

Aelin didn’t dare move, frozen in equal parts disbelief, anger, and uncertainty. How could her best friend be talking about her life like none of it was painful, private? Or hers to safeguard or disclose? Her cousin and uncle’s names still salt in raw wound. 

“After her parents, she recovered by leaning on the remaining men in her life that she considered family. But when Arobynn was found to be the reason they were dead and that her cousin and uncle had been involved in the underground operation he largely headed, it broke something in her. The fire dimmed. I think most days, it’s nothing more than a hot coal, barely glowing.”

A few beats of uncomfortable silence passed before the petite, dark-haired woman added, “Somedays, I think she’d be okay with laying down and never getting up again.” 

“I think you’re right.” It was the absolute pity in his lilting voice that spurred her into action.

Clapping down the triangular ball setter, Aelin took momentary satisfaction in Elide’s surprise and subsequent dropping on the pool stick. 

“I don’t know what hurts worse, that my best friend is talking about my life like it’s Friday night dinner conversation or that you’re listening like you don’t shit on my feelings every two godsdamned seconds!” 

Both looked shamefaced, standing next to one another, refusing to meet her gaze. 

“One of you has a right to my life because you’ve been here to see it. You knew my parents, my cousin, my uncle. You had a front row seat to me falling apart, wiped my tears when it became too much. You know better. Or you should. There’s stuff that you know that not even my ex-boyfriend of six years knew.”

Elide went to open her mouth, dark eyes finally rising to meet Aelin’s furious and hurt gaze. She nodded, holding up a palm before looking at Rowan, narrowing her gaze.

“And you! Are my feelings some sort of game to you? One minute you’re promising to be around, to be someone I can count on, and the next, you’re squashing me under your boot. You can’t have it both ways, Rowan. You either fucking care or you don’t. I don’t need your pity when it’s convenient.” Aelin had done her best not to cry, but the minute her voice cracked on his name, the tears slowly rolled down flushed cheeks. 

If someone had dropped a pen, it would have echoed. The bar’s merriment and debauchery had simply vanished in the wake of this unfolding debacle.

“Ae—” Rowan started in as he took a step towards her. 

“I think you’ve done enough, Ro,” Fenrys said from somewhere behind her. Soon, his warm hug enveloped her from behind. She sagged in relief. The silver-haired man took another two steps before he stopped, heeding whatever look her blond counterpart had given him. 

“You okay?” he whispered into her hair. 

Too tired to answer, she meekly nodded no. 

“I’ll take you home, Kid.” 

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

Tag List:

@theresyourfireandblood @backtobl4ck @leiawritesstories @morganofthewildfire @rowaelinismyotp @jorjy-jo @theresyourfireandblood @numbers-colors-fashion @swankii-art-teacher @whispers-in-the-darkest-heart  @stardelia @astra-ad-mare

Let me know if you want to be added on the tag list!

[age-of-moonknight]

I have a question about detective flint...do you know more moon knight comics where he appears? Other than mk 2014 book...I am so weirdly obsessed with him? Or just more curious about his character...ig, he reminds me of Jim Gordon (from batman)

Also happy new year🥳

And a happy new year to you as well because !!! heck yeah, Detective Flint! He's an og from way back in Moench's run on Moon Knight volume 1! (And I'm a little obsessed with him and his very Jim Gordon-esque role too....may we someday actually learn his first name RIP). My research didn't really turn up anything more interesting than what you would normally find on the average "list of appearances" for him, but I'll list them all and then do a further break down after the cut to help delineate where he actually affects the plot versus where he just provides a little exposition, if that's something anyone's interested in. Happy reading!

Moon Knight (Vol. 1/1980), #12, #15, #17, #24-25, #33-34, #36-37

[Bonus] Daredevil (Vol. 1/1964), #218

Moon Knight (Vol. 2/1985), #3

Moon Knight (Vol. 3.1998), #3-4

Moon Knight (Vol. 4/1999), #1, #3

Moon Knight (Vol. 5/2006), #8, #13, #17, #20

Moon Knight (Vol. 7/2014), #1, #3, #6, #8, #12, #14

Moon Knight (Vol. 9/2021), #8, #22, #24

Moon Knight: Black, White & Blood (Vol. 1/2023), #3

Moon Knight (Vol. 1/1980), #12: Detective Flint's introduction (and where we learn he likes cream, sugar, and a cigarette with his coffee)

Moon Knight (Vol. 1/1980), #15: Moon Knight and Detective Flint's professional relationship gets a bit of a rocky start when Flint accuses MK of attempted assassination

Moon Knight (Vol. 1/1980), #17, #24: Some one page appearances to provide exposition I mean consultations (although the incident with the bag of potato chips in #24 is definitely worth the price of admission imo, another instance of “comics are why my sense of humor is broken”)

Moon Knight (Vol. 1/1980), ##25: Flint gets stuck between a rock and a hard place in the whole deal with Black Spectre's corrupt machinations

Moon Knight (Vol. 1/1980), #33: Appears in a couple panels to crack wise about the futility of trying to stop Moon Knight when he's put his mind to something

Moon Knight (Vol. 1/1980), #34, #36: Provides some exposition and makes some collars

Moon Knight (Vol. 1/1980), #37: Detective Flint may or may not have been the only thing keeping Marc from dropping an anti-Semitic arsonist out of a window (...I'll keep my opinions to myself)

Daredevil (Vol. 1/1964), #218: This one's a fun little cameo (at least to me, since I hadn't seen it before), where he pops up with Scarfe too

Moon Knight (Vol. 2/1985), #3: Fittingly, they bring Lt. Flint back for a Morpheus case, since those two characters were introduced in the same issue

Moon Knight (Vol. 3/1998), #3-4: Does his thing of providing a couple pages worth of exposition

Moon Knight (Vol. 4/1999), #1, #3: Flint provides as much info as he can, but he's just about as confused as everyone else in this volume (and for good reason, it's wild hahaha)

Moon Knight (Vol. 5/2006), #8: Catches MK up to speed on the new Midnight Man (in the very, very gloomy and fatalistic manner that is characteristic of the Huston run)

Moon Knight (Vol. 5/2006), #13, #17: Flint catches all the cases from when MK was running around carving crescents into criminals' foreheads and isn't particularly happy about it (understandably so, what a run)

Moon Knight (Vol. 5/2006), #20: We follow Flint on the opening investigation into the issue’s “monster of the week” (also includes one of my favorite “dropping in to chat with the series’ cop buddy” panels)

[Anon indicated that they’ve already read Moon Knight (Vol. 7/2014), but if anyone else wants me to break down Flint’s appearances in those issues, please just let me know! :D]

Moon Knight (Vol. 9/2021), #8: Flint does his usual exposition thing for Hunter’s Moon while MK is “indisposed”

Moon Knight (Vol. 9/2021), #22: Flint and Tigra share a page swapping info (both on the new Midnight Man and o MK’s delightful peculiarities)

Moon Knight (Vol. 9/2021), #24: On the scene during the most recent Morpheus incident

Moon Knight: Black, White & Blood (Vol. 1/2022), #3: Shows up at the end of the first story, “Wrong Turn,” to make some arrests and comment on Jake’s thoroughness in wrecking his taxi

Oh! Also, this isn't from a Moon Knight comic, but apparently Warren Ellis included a Detective Flint in the Earth-555 comic, Newuniversal: Shockfront (Vol. 1/2008), issues #1-2. Flint doesn't exactly play a huge role (and I read those individual comics with absolutely no context so I was a little ????), but I had never expected there to be any non-616 versions of Flint out there, so this was cool to find for me at least. Just a fun bit of trivia hahaha

[jewelledfoxes]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

Thanks @medusasfinalgirl for tagging me!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 16 atm! (1 anonymous) Which is wild to me. English was my least favourite subject in school.

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 198,609 which, again, absolutely wild.

3. What fandoms do you write for? At the minute, just stranger things. But my early fics were Game of Thrones and Bridgerton.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? I'm just going off ST fics so:

(Anything You) Want - friends to lovers mutual pining Nice (Just Ain't My Type) - silly celebrity rivals au (I Don't Have To Tell You But) You're The Only One - AYW college sequel This Be The Verse - on a theme of parenthood Stay - AYW Eddie POV

I only consider 2 of these to actually be amongst my "best" fics tho.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Yes! I definitely try my best to respond to everything as quickly as possible. I feel very honoured that there are people out there who take time out of their day to let me know they enjoyed. Makes my day every single time!!

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Oooh okay, Haunt Me, Then! (kinktober spectrophilia fic) for now, but it's very possible that She's Got A Boyfriend Anyway (classic cheating-on-Jason fic) might beat it when I get round to finishing it.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? I don't know if any of my fics have particularly strong happy endings, but off the top of my head it's got to be This Be The Verse.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Defo not on hellcheer ones! Everyone's so nice here!!! <3 My very first fic got SO MUCH hate on it but that's because I wrote it when I was 17 and it WAS terrible.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Really never thought I would, but more of my fics have smut in them than not these days lol. Idk, something about hellcheer just really made me go ...these two should be going at it.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? I don't, and I'd be very surprised if I ever do tbh.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Nope!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope again!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? I haven't, and I'm not really sure I can ever imagine myself co-writing.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship? I mean, I've not written 13 fics for any ship other than hellcheer so that's something. In terms of longevity, Katniss/Peeta and Finnick/Annie still have the same effect on me as they did when I first read the book at like 13 years old.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? What a stressful question! I doubt I'll finish off Hard to Forgive (Hard to Forget) because it would be one of those proper multi-chapters (40k words ish by my estimates) and I just don't think I could do it.

16. What are your writing strengths? Hmm I'm not sure. I used to be quite good at setting a scene but I think I'm losing that a little. If I'm honest, recently I've been really proud of the sheer volume of what I've been writing and my willingness to venture out of my comfort zone.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? God, where to start. Weak dialogue, my repetitive writing style, difficulty writing endings, complete inability to do anything concisely. But I genuinely feel like I'm slowly improving bit by bit!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I did French and Spanish in school, French to a slightly higher level than Spanish, so I'd feel comfortable including either of those at a school level (like them trying out saying things like "at the weekend I like to go to the park" and "I have two brothers and no sisters" in a class) but wouldn't want to risk anything more complex!

19. First fandom you wrote for? The Hunger Games. I never posted it anywhere, but I still have my old drafts for fics that I look back on every now and again just to see how far I've come!

20. Favorite fic you've written? So hard to choose! This Be The Verse because it felt so immensely personal to write or Cherry (sapphic hellcheer) because it was a long time coming. Both are eclipsed by a soon-to-be-uploaded kinktober foot fic that I will reveal is called Heart and Sole (and yes it's as dumb and silly as the title implies)!

Okay that was fun! I'm not 100% sure on who I follow writes but I'm p sure @gingertumericlemon, @bibiche007 and @achilleanenjolras all do, so would love to hear your responses if you fancy it!

[bagheerita]

I saw this music ask game (originally from @benedictervention-deactivated20) and since I don't usually get the asks I want, I decided to just answer all of them. Muahahaha.

MUSIC ASKS these are actually pretty fucking hard but why not.

1:A song you like with a color in the title Blue on Black by Kenny Wayne Shepherd

2:A song you like with a number in the title 3AM by Matchbox Twenty

3:A song that reminds you of summertime Staring at the Sun by U2

4:A song that reminds you of someone you would rather forget about The Deeper Well by Emmylou Harris

5:A song that needs to be played LOUD Move Along by the All-American Rejects

6:A song that makes you want to dance Sway by Dean Martin

7:A song to drive to Sweet Child o' Mine by Guns n' Roses, which fits like 3 or 4 of these answers because it needs to be played at full volume while driving down the road with the windows down in the summertime in your shitty old car with no AC

8:A song about drugs or alcohol Hotel California by The Eagles I mean I guess? that's not really a topic I'm searching out and they do mention both drugs and alcohol

9:A song that makes you happy whatever my latest favorite song is which right now is Wild by Lucy Spraggan

10:A song that makes you sad Blank Space by Taylor Swift because they play it every fucking day on the radio at work and it's almost a good song, like it's so close to actually being a good song, but it's just not quite there. it's a tragedy

11:A song that you never get tired of Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men

12:A song from your preteen years Cold-Hearted by Paula Abdul

13:One of your favorite 80’s songs Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi

14:A song that you would love played at your wedding NA, but I also want to be hilarious and say something like Norupo by Heilung

15:A song that is a cover by another artist All Along the Wachtower by Jimi Hendrix

16:One of your favorite classical songs Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata

17:A song that would sing a duet with on karaoke NA, though since I 1)hate the idea of singing in public, 2)love the sound of the song but dislike the artists so that dichotomy would fit the situation, and 3)know it's in my range, would probably go with Picture by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow

18:A song from the year that you were born Spirit in the Sky by Norm Greenbaum (see you didn't say it came out the year I was born. this song existed in the year I was born so it counts)

19:A song that makes you think about life don't all the good ones?? I'll say Fukai Mori by Do As Infinity because I love it and it puts me in an introspective mood

20:A song that has many meanings to you Broadway by The Goo Goo Dolls

21:A favorite song with a person’s name in the title Deirdra Dances by Emmaus Way okay so I like that song but I somehow forgot completely about two songs that I love: Eurydice by Sleepthief and Daniel in the Den by Bastille, how is it possible I couldn't remember either of them

22:A song that moves you forward One Foot by Walk the Moon

23:A song that you think everybody should listen to Grá by Wardruna

24:A song by a band you wish were still together I don't really pay attention to bands so I don't know which ones that I like are no longer together, and if they broke up I honestly wouldn't want to force them back together you don't get good music that way

25:A song by an artist no longer living George Bizet's "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" from Carmen

26:A song that makes you want to fall in love NA. Though I'll throw out The Book of Love by The Magnetic Fields because it's a song I like that is about love.

27:A song that breaks your heart (in a good way) Forgiven by Skillet

28:A song by an artist with a voice that you love there are a lot of artists I love the voices of, like mostly everyone that I've already mentioned, but I'm secretly trying to use different artists for every question so I'll say Under Heaven's Skies by Collective Soul

29:A song that you remember from your childhood The Look by Roxette. 9-year-old me adored this song while not understanding what it was actually about.

30:A song that reminds you of yourself This is actually a hard one and I don't know that there is any song I know that really reminds me of myself. I'd probably say Music Non Stop by Kent, just because I quote the chorus in my tumblr description