#but oh man that disappointment hit like a snowball to the face

[tj-crochets]

Woooo I forgot I'd agreed to cover for a coworker being off this afternoon so I cannot take this afternoon off myself! The poll winning plushie pattern (which at this point is looking like either werewolf in a flannel shirt or burger turtle) might be a bit delayed

[ink-on-the-brink]

Obsessed Engie x GN Reader ~ Dark Nights Come With A Cost [PT 12]

Chapter Selection

Darkness had fallen on the winter roads, streetlights starting to pop on as the air temperature dropped further. The only thing keeping you warm was your thick coat and moving body, your pocketed hands a reminder that you had forgotten your gloves before you left. However this mild annoyance faded into the background as you took a deep breath in, relishing in the calm silence of the night. You wished you could see it more, though the thought of ever doing so alone felt like a death sentence in itself.

"So, how's your studies goin'?" Dell's voice finally spoke as he ended the silence.

"They are uh...well they're going. You've certainly helped if that's what you're asking," you responded naturally before taking a second to untuck your hands to blow warm air into them.

"Well that's good ta hear. Ya said you were graduatin' this year right?" He asked, his eyes turning over to you. In the distance you heard a small flutter before spotting a bird flying just a little bit past its bedtime.

"Yeah. What about you?" You asked, his face slightly scrunching at the question.

"Me? Well I ain't too sure. Was hopin' ta maybe get a few more studies in before quittin' college altogether. There's a lot ta learn y'know? Though I don't think I'd be doin' it full time. Probably just do it online or somethin'," he responded genuinely, so he was surprised to hear a small snicker from you.

"Right. Because nine PhD's isn't enough," you teased in a lighthearted but slightly mocking tone, quickly catching his attention. Upon seeing the small smirk on your face and a light roll of your eyes he found his own smile growing, seeing that you were now in a better mood than before.

"Well now a man can't know too much can he?" He retorted, only to earn a tsk from you.

"He most certainly can mister Conager. I've seen it with my own two eyes," you responded just before turning to him, a light chuckle falling from him as you did so.

"That's Dell ta you sweetheart," he quickly replied, his brain mildly short-circuiting at having let the nickname slip out. Though the poorly hidden look of minored shock on your face made it almost worth it. It was short-lived as you quickly turned back to looking in front of you. However he was surprised to hear a quiet laugh from you afterward.

"Yeah? And what are you gonna do about it mister Conager?" You emphasized the name this time, taunting him with it. A wide smile broke on his face as you did so, his eyes lighting up at the fact that you felt comfortable enough to be this playful with him. Even with this sudden joy he was also very aware that he couldn't let you get away with this. And, glancing towards the snow that laid on either side of the sidewalk, he knew just what he had to do. He swiftly dipped down, grabbing a handful of it before he stopped walking. You didn't notice for a few seconds, taking those extra needed steps away before you realized he wasn't there and, in almost a panic, you turned around.

Only to be met with a snowball to the chest.

The world paused for a moment, your mind trying to register what just happened. That was before you looked over to Dell, a wide grin plastered on his face and a second snowball in his hand.

"Oh. So we're playing dirty now huh?" You quipped.

"Well s'only fair. Considerin' I asked nicely the first time," with his grin only growing he wound up the second throw. Seeing it coming this time you ducked behind a nearby fence, the packed snow disintegrating on contact.

"Oh, what a gentleman!" You mockingly yelled before picking up a ball of your own, appearing for just a split second from the fence before throwing your newly made weapon. Disappointment was all you felt when it hit the ground.

"Gonna have ta try harder than that!" He retorted, sending another set of white flurries your way, eventually compromising your position. So you went further down the street taking shelter behind trash bins and lampposts as he continued advancing, though not without a few hits of your own. You could never have contained your joy upon having actually hit him, especially as he turned with a feigned look of shock. You found yourself laughing, genuinely full-on laughing, for the first time in years. You had never been in a snowball fight before, yet now you wished you would have grown up doing so.

As this one-on-one middle of the night snowball fight between the two of you continued he began to inch closer and closer, gaining more ground than you could keep between before, eventually, he stood only a little more than an arms length away, snowball in hand as you found yourself without one.

"Seems like you've met the end'a the line," he teased, his small step forward sending you a step back, your hands slightly raised, a pretend mark of surrender.

"Awww come on we can talk about th-" before you could finish your sentence you took another small yet unwise step backward, your balance immidiately lost on a thick sheet of ice that covered a decent chunk of the continuing sidewalk. With widened eyes Dell dropped his snowball, both hands reaching out to catch you, only to lose his own balance. It wasn't even a full second before you both met the earth while just barely managing to keep your head high enough to not hit it on the ice that you both almost comically slid down before coming to a complete stop a few feet down the sidewalk.

Silence enveloped the world for a moment, the shock running through your system before you slowly opened tightly shut eyes, revealing how he had landed on top of you. He went into an immediate panic.

"You alright?!" He asked as he pushed up just enough to not have his full body weight laying on you, leaving inches between his face and yours. You took a few seconds before you allowed a deep breath to fill your lungs, the world coming back to you. Besides having the wind knocked out of you and a bruise that future you would have to deal with, you felt relatively fine. Nothing felt broken at least.

"Yeah, just lost my breath," you finally spoke, his panic dissipating with the response.

"You okay?" You asked with slight breathlessness. He took a second to make sure but besides bruises he was also perfectly fine.

"Yeah. I think so," he answered. There were another few seconds of silence as you further caught your breath before speaking again.

"It uh...might help if you get off," you pointed out, knocking him back to reality as a look of embarrassment took hold. He quickly rolled off to which you finally sat up. You winced, another shock of panic rolling through his system at the sound. Though when nothing came from it he calmed again.

It was then that both of you turned to look at each other, smiles creeping onto your faces before being followed by at first small but soon howling laughter. The both of you shared the same moment of pure joy as if nothing in the world could be funnier than this. Surrounded by cold snow in the isolation of the night, both of you couldn't have felt happier in each other's company.

When the laughter died down and the quiet crept in, peacefulness fell. The stillness was no longer able to produce discomfort around each other. You both locked eyes, your smiles smaller now.

Staring at Dell you felt your worries disappear. Not a single thought of the past crept into your mind while around him, just the joy of the moments he always seemed to bring. And it was then you felt your heartbeat a little faster in your chest, though you quickly explained it away as a slowing of your adrenaline.

You were taken away from this peace when you lost Dell's eyes as he turned to stand. Upon making it to his feet he turned back to you, outstretching a hand.

"Best get back to movin'. Gettin' a lil' too cold out here for my taste," he suggested, his smile still visible. You took his hand to which he pulled you up almost effortlessly.

"Woah!" you exclaimed, surprised at the sudden speed that you were pulled to your feet. His smile fell back to poorly hidden worry.

"You okay?" He asked again, his eyes looking over you for any injury you might not have spotted the first time.

"Yeah no I'm- I'm fine. You're just stronger than you look," you pointed out, your eyes turned to your hands as you brushed off bits of snow and dirt, unaware of the wide grin that showed on his face at the compliment.

"Well movin' metal boxes might do that to ya" he pointed out, to which you nodded in agreement as the two of you continued on with your walk. Though there wasn't much of it left.

Less than ten minutes later the two of you finally arrived back to your apartment and as you did your reality was slowly coming back to you. A few steps away from the complex you turned to Dell with a question.

"It really is getting cold out here. You should uh, come warm up a bit. Wouldn't want you to freeze on the walk back," you offered, your eyes not looking at him even though you had tilted your head his way. Turning to you he almost immediately caught your apprehensive eyes, your wavering smile and tense posture. It was enough for him to know what you were really getting at.

"Sure. Though chances are I probably will anyway," he spoke in a flippant tone, trying to keep the mood light. Something he knew he succeeded in when you couldn't force away the small smile that tugged at your lips.

"Yeah well we can at least make sure you make it to your car as a slushy rather than an ice cube," you responded, another small chuckle falling from him.

Walking into the complex the soft ding of the elevator swiftly caught your attention, your eyes falling into a group of people filing out of it. Not recognizing any of them you continued walking, only noting their matching black clothing and baseball caps. Dell gave a passing hello to the group who didn't so much as turn to him. You were more focused on getting into the elevator though, Dell not far behind. Once he made it in you clicked the button, not noticing how his eyes narrowed towards those you had passed.

"Up we go," you whispered to yourself as the doors slowly closed, both of you soon ascending up the floors. It was quiet again and, though you weren't sure why, something didn't quite feel right. You looked over to Dell, his expression not too different than before, though you noted that he stood a little taller. You gave a smile that he returned but it did little to comfort the sudden unease that you felt. Even as the two of you left the elevator and began your short walk down the hall, silence remained.

Suddenly though you were stopped, Dell ceasing your movements as he laid a hand in front of you. To help come to a sudden stop your hands grabbed his arm, slowing the inertia of your body. Unable to move further confusion crept onto your face before you looked over to him, a suddenly serious stare consuming his features.

"Dell-?"

"Your door's open," he pointed out. Your eyes immediately turned back to the door, utter terror falling on your features when you noticed it was held slightly ajar. Your hands tightened onto his jacket as your stomach dropped. You both didn't make any other move for a long while, instead staring at the door, waiting for anything to leave. When nothing happened Dell then went to take a quiet step forward. Your sudden vice grip pulled him back.

"What are you doing???" You whisper yelled in an obvious panic. He turned back to you, now seeing the fear held in your eyes which only led to his furthering need to keep you safe.

"I'm gonna go see if someone's in there," he stated quietly, though your tightened grip didn't loosen in the slightest

"Are you insane?!? Dell what if- what if there is someone in there!? What the fuck then huh?!" Your voice held deep worry, your eyes now begging him to listen. And in those pleading eyes he found guilt bubble within him as he knew he wouldn't be able to listen. If he learned one thing growing up it was how to deal with scenarios like this and right now he either had to one, call the police (which wouldn't happen in any world what so ever) two, call someone from his family (which he truly did not want to do and would likely seem strange to you) or three, go see what it is. The third seemed like the most reasonable option. After all, it wasn't as if he was defenseless.

"M'just gonna look alright? Ya might'a just left it open on accident. I'll be right back," he tried to calm you with an explanation as he gently pulled away once again. This time your grip only gave slight resistance before you finally let go, instead watching him walk closer to your door from a few feet down the hall.

Making it to the door he situated himself to the side of it, slowly pushing it open and remaining ready to bolt at a moment's notice. The door creaked slightly, the sound almost ear-piercing in the silence. Looking in through the small opening he had made, his eyes widened at what he saw.

Flipped furniture, holes in the wall, shattered glass from sources he couldn't quite identify, flipped chairs and torn apart tables, it was all in a huge mess around your apartment. Curiosity and dread drove him to open the door further, soon finding that everything within sight was trashed, as if whoever did this aimed to leave nothing behind.

"Mary above," he muttered, catching your attention.

"What?" You asked, his head turning to you as his hand moved to his lips, his pointer finger held to silently shush you. You went silent again and so his head turned back over to the door, pushing it open the last bit out of the way and taking slow, hesitant steps in. His hand found its way to his hip as he readied himself for anything that might happen. He continued to slowly walk, staying near places he could quickly duck behind as he scanned for any sort of movement. He continued like this further into the apartment, his senses on high alert. His breathing slowed and his eyes sharpened into icy daggers as he didn't let a single crevice of place go unchecked. What felt like hours to you passed in minutes as he realized there truly was no one here. Even with that comfort his posture didn't change, nor did he let his guard down in the slightest, but he was at least sure that no one was here at the moment.

Unable to take waiting any longer, you slowly poked your head around the corner into your apartment, your jaw dropping and your stomach churning at the sight in front of you.

"What the fuck," you whispered to yourself, both fear and devastation fighting for the expression that fell on your face. Dell looked back, his eyes softening slightly as he saw you look around the room, taking in the damage that had been done. He gave a sympathetic stare. He couldn't begin to imagine what was going through your mind right now. He moved the hand on his hip to make his grip look a little more natural in hopes that you wouldn't notice or draw attention to it as he took a few steps toward you.

"Don't seem like no one's here, though I ain't sure if anyone's comin'," he spoke, the loud echo of his voice in the deathly silent room almost unbearable to his ears. You slowly began to step in, your head turning to look at what had once been your home, now lying in pieces around you. Your eyes welled with tears, the pure sense of loss and weeks of piled-on stress breaking you down further. You didn't look at him, in fact he felt almost as if you had forgotten he was even there as your eyes passed him.

As you moved you began to slowly wander into the kitchen, the heaps of glass under your feet recognized as every breakable item that had laid in your cabinets. Though among the wreck you found that your eyes drifted to the place your photo had been, only to find that it wasn't there. Instead it sat among the shattered glass, its frame ripped apart, its see-through covering lost among the piles of similar material, and the photo barely visible under certain piles of it. You slowly crouched down, carefully pushing the pile away before pulling the photo out only to notice it had been singed. The faces were burnt out, a black color covering most of what was left.

You felt the wet streaks of tears begin to fall down, the overwhelming situation taking you over. You felt almost unable to think, to even fully understand what was going on. All you could register was the destruction of it all.

After a little while Dell followed you into the kitchen, his senses still on full alert. This didn't feel safe. Even in the silence and with no current discernable threats he didn't feel at any sort of ease here. And with that feeling bubbling its way up his body, he knew one thing rather clearly.

You couldn't stay here.

"It's uh..." He started, your face staring at the photo for a second more before turning to him.

He almost couldn't talk once you faced him, the radiating pain of your expression almost silencing him.

You looked so tired. Not the type of tired you get from an all-nighter or a busy social event, no. It was a look of pure exhaustion he couldn't begin to describe. The type you would expect to see when an immovable object finally loses against the unstoppable force.

Yet somehow he was able to eventually find his words, his deep concern and general paranoia winning against his immediate thoughts of falling with you.

"It ain't safe here..." He spoke up, his body standing only a step into the kitchen. You looked back to the photo, its state irreparable and irreplaceable. You eventually sat it back on the ground, knowing that keeping it would be useless. Silently you stood, your arms held against you in a self-soothing hug as your eyes stared at the floor.

"What am I supposed to do Dell? What...what do I do?" You asked, resignation found in a now hollow tone. You were at a loss, completely and utterly defeated. You had given everything you could, there was nothing left in you to fight anymore. There was no spite or anger or even thoughts of self-preservation. You had nothing. No knowledge of when or even why the world had decided you were deserving of this, no power to fight back against it. You were a leaf of pain set to sea in a hurricane. It was inevitable you would be torn apart, your soul splayed in broken pieces the world would forever ignore. How futile fighting had seemed now, how fruitless.

It would have been less painful to have let the storm take you...

Dell didn't move, didn't speak, didn't act. Your voice had explained even when your words didn't. He could only stare as you lost yourself, asking him to solve what you had failed to. He didn't know what to say, what to feel. There was a swirl of so many meanings in your words. To choose one was to choose wrong and to remain idle was to let you fall apart in front of him- but there was no answer! No solution, no problem he could solve. There was nothing he could say, no righteous way to act.

There were only pieces.

"Y/n..." He started, hoping that any words would come to him, that his tongue knew something he didn't. He instead found that it fell dead in his mouth, vowels of answers nowhere to be found. He stepped closer, the glass on the ground further breaking at his feet. You finally looked back to him, streaks of hollow agony flowing down your face. And it was then, with nothing else he could think to do, that he slowly pulled you closer, his arms wrapping around you, hoping that he could bring any sort of comfort. That somehow his arms could pull against the waves of stormy sea and find your lost pieces.

You froze a moment, your body tense under his touch. Slowly, almost apprehensively, you returned it. Your arms wrapped around him, your hands soon balling up the fabric of his clothes as you fell into him. You didn't crumble in his arms as you had done before. Not a sob left your lips as you held him. There was nothing left to crumble, nothing more to break. You could only hold on to him in hopes that he somehow held a piece of you with him.

However you didn't find yourself in his arms. Instead your focus fell onto the light smell of oil and pine that surrounded you, the texture of the worn jacket that wrapped him, the natural warmth his body freely gave to you. There was no judgment in his eyes nor annoyance in his hold. He didn't dismiss you, he didn't ask you to pull yourself together, to push your emotions back into the dark void you usually kept sealed. No, he held you. His arms didn't hang loosely or ask for anything from you. He held you. And even as the shattered glass began to resemble your lost will, he held you. He- He felt...

Safe

"S'alright...you're gonna be okay," he mumbled just as he began to rub circles on your back. You squeezed him a little tighter, trying to remind yourself that he was real. That in your desperation you hadn't just imagined such kindness. Afterward you took a deep breath, calming down from the strange state of mind you had been in only seconds ago. His words ingrained in your head, your body relaxing as you took his word for truth, his arms for comfort, his presence for safety.

"Thank you," you whispered back, a response that caused him to relax as well, knowing now that he had somehow helped, if only a little bit. After that realization he slowly pulled away, each other's hands hesitating to let go, but doing so in the end. A few tears had streaked down your face once he did, though you quickly wiped them away, taking another deep breath to further calm yourself. Silence lingered for an extra second, Dells eyes a mixture of unease and worry

"My-..." He started again, his thoughts not fully collected and his apprehension for the idea he was about to propose slowing him down a moment. But with a quick glance at the surrounding area and flashing images of your shattered state, he didn't feel like there was another option.

"My family's got a house 'bout fifteen minutes out from here. We got a couple'a spare rooms. You can stay there for the night if ya need to," he finally offered, an incredibly serious expression on his face. Your eyes once again averted from his as you thought on it, hesitance found in the moment of silence you prolonged.

Then again, it wasn't like you had anywhere else to go.

"Yeah um...If you- If you think they would be okay with it," you accepted, your answer greatly relieving to hear, though the relief didn't outshine the doubt that was beginning to grow in his chest, especially with the words you had chosen to respond with.

"Course...we should get goin' then. S'gettin' a little late and we gotta walk back to get my truck" Dell pointed out to which you nodded along.

The two of you left the destroyed apartment, standing closer to each other than you had previously. Dell looked over to you, only one thought repeating through his head as he did so.

'Ain't no one allowed ta treat you like this'

Next Chapter

[the-diabolist]

How WOULD the cast of btd/btd2 react to being hit by a surprise snowball?

Hahahaha!! I'm not shocked to receive this lol

Already displeased that he's got to be out in the cold in the first place, and he's just minding his own business - buried beneath eight thousand layers, a scarf, a hat, and two pairs of mittens - when you dare wallop him with a snowball.

He freezes, as if transformed into a statue, before slowly turning to look at you with a frigid glare.

Don't throw another one if you want to live xD

Delighted, actually! Laughs nice and loud.

Chases you around the yard, throwing snowballs of his own - only he throws them way too hard, so it becomes more like a game of dodgeball for you.

Doesn't stop, even after you ask him to, until you're nearly in tears.

Aww, he was just playing around! Where's your sense of humor?

He's patronizing as he dries your wet face with his scarf.

Oh you want to play, huh?

Immediate evil grin.

Gives you one chance to surrender before he declares war - leading you to throw another, of course.

You regret it immediately as he becomes a veritable machine gun, loading up every single tentacle with snowballs and flinging them at you.

By the time you give up, you look like a snowman.

Bold of you to assume he's not the one starting it.

Laughs like a maniac while he chases you around, pelting you.

Terrible defense, gets hit almost every time, despite being agile enough to dodge if he wanted to.

Resorts to tackling you into the powder and trying to bury you in a snow coffin.

Eventually gets chilly and wants to go inside for hot cocoa and couch snuggles.

You have startled the man.

He gasps and fumbles his keys, losing them in a snowbank.

Gives you the saddest puppy eyes, like you've betrayed him.

He waits until you've apologized profusely and started digging for the keys before he hits you back, and then pretends it wasn't him.

Huh? You didn't see that bird that dropped that snowball on you? Weird.

Please tell him you're not one of those people who play snowball fight. Are you a child?

He sighs with such disappointment that you're almost ashamed of yourself... but then you hit him with another one, and it's on.

Uses his wings for cover - cheater - and sets up an entire point system so you can keep track of who's winning. Evolves into something complicated and overly-competitive.

You're both soaked by the time you go back inside.

Is that the hardest you can throw? C'mon, try again, surely you can do better!

Ends up coaching you on your overhand, and then your aim.

Once you show enough improvement that he considers you a worthy opponent, the game begins, and he starts throwing the biggest snowballs you've ever seen in your life. It's like getting hit with an avalanche.

He laughs himself into tears the first time he knocks you off your feet.

Gets mad; yells at you and calls you names, insulting your snowballing abilities.

Sulks until you turn away, at which point he decides to get revenge.

Throws too hard and aims for your face - will also take every opportunity to pour snow down your collar. Brrr.

The good news is, he's easy to defeat if you try, and he cries when he's frustrated :p

Doesn't react to the first one at all. Or the second one. Finally turns toward you after the third one xD

Finds it amusing, and might lob a couple return salvos your way, but won't get into a full fight.

He will, however, lure you in close, kiss your forehead, and then shove you into a snowbank.

Guffaws at the little yelp you make.

Uses her stern tone to tell you in no uncertain terms that you'd better not do that again.

At your dejected expression, though, she softens.

Fine, she can carve out 3 minutes to play snowballs with you, she supposes.

By minute 5 she's practically giggling, looping her scarf around you, and pulling you close for a chilly smooch.

Jack

Not amused... at first.

If you provoke him enough, he'll start fighting back, and eventually he'll actually have a little fun; you might even get a laugh out of him if you're lucky.

He definitely plays to win, but if you surrender he'll show mercy.

By which I mean: chase you inside and throw you into bed, or maybe the shower. Takes warming you up very seriously ;)

[edgelordfucker]

Yo what if Belos used reader as a surrogate for Hunter? Not just like, figuratively, but literally as the embryo's still in stasis and he's gotta implant it.

THIS WOULD BE THE BIGGEST MISTAKE THIS MAN HAS EVER MADE.

There’s no way in h e l l that the Reader (or at least my version of the Reader) would carry this child to term and not consider Hunter her baby. I’m assuming that Belos’ (Belos’s? I’ve been playing it fast and loose with the apostrophes) ultimate plan is to use Hunter (who I think is at least a partial clone of Belos’ yet unnamed brother, who I like to call Mattias) to somehow complete the Day of Unity.

And if the Reader was Hunter’s mother?

There is not a snowball's chance in hell of that happening.

Hunter would have had a very different life if the Reader gave birth to him. He would’ve been loved unconditionally, nurtured, and Belos would not get away with the abuse he does in canon. Furthermore, in my head, Belos’ primary motivation is fear, but I think he would slowly find himself giving into a new fear once he’d made a connection with the Reader: the fear of losing her. And as such, once you’ve decided that if he puts this baby in you, and you carry them for 9 months and you go through labor to deliver them, that baby is yours and you will bring hell down upon anyone who tries to harm them.

Well, Belos realizes that the whole Grimwalker plan is a bust, and he needs to account for another person in his spell for immortality, or whatever he’s done to keep himself alive for the last 300 years.

(there’s a small drabble that’s barely a complete thought but i have to post because otherwise It Will Overtake Me.)

“I was thinking... Hunter,” he says to you across the breakfast table, chin in hand as he watches you with a soft look on his face. Your eyebrows go straight up, and you start nodding with your mug to your lips.

“Hm!” You hum, around a mouthful of coffee.

“You don’t like it,” he says, a little disappointed. You swallow quickly.

“I don’t dislike it!” You say, ceramic hitting wood with dull noise as you place your drink on the table. “I just- it’s just-” You cough, and get a sip of water to clear your throat. “It’s just not in my top ten. What about Alexander? Johannes-” He makes a face. “Okay, maybe not Johannes.” You draw your coffee to you, wrapping your fingers around the belly of the cup to warm your fingers, contemplative. Your expression goes a little wistful. “You remember my friend, Mattias?”

His stomach seizes, and he swallows his bite of eggs a little thickly. “Yes? I don’t know if I like Mattias, either, my love.” You laugh brightly.

“Oh, god, no- He would freak the fuck out, if I came back with, not just a baby and a husband, but a baby named after him.” You can’t keep the giggles out of your voice. “Oh my god, I can see his face- he’d be like-” you rearrange your expression into not-so-thinly veiled disgust. “Oh! A baby with my name! Thanks...” You laugh again, and it fills the room, and he can’t help but grin. “No, no.” You sigh, smile fading into something a little distant, as you look out of the kitchen window.

Thoughtlessly, he mirrors you, taking his own cup between his hands as he listens to you speak.

“Mattias had a baby brother who died when Tie was in his twenties.” Belos feels the hair on the back of his neck stand up. “He always speaks really fondly of him, and I know he has some regrets about their childhood- from what I know, their dad was a piece of work, and they came to the U.S. specifically to escape him, but y’know, they were raised really religious, and their dad sort of pitted them against each other, so I think it was very much a ‘you’re my best friend and my worst enemy’ scenario.

“I know Tie has some... regrets,” you say, glancing at him with a shrug, as if to say, ‘Let’s leave it at that’, “about the way he treated him up until his death... Anyways, Tie doesn’t talk about him often, but when he does he’s always talking about how smart he was, how brave he was, and how much he loved him, and wishes he were still around.” You sigh, taking a sip of coffee. “His name was Phillip-”

Belos clenches his hand so hard that the bones in his hands creak-

His mug shatters, sending black coffee all over the table.

[taetaespeaches]

���You don’t know how to change a tire either, and it’s not my fault it’s a blizzard.”

jungkook x reader (oc) genre: fluff word count: 1.4K

a/n: Hi lovelies! Idk if this is my best written fic (it isn’t) but the idea is cute and I like it lol. The title quote pretty much tells you what the plot is. It starts with a grumpy Jungkook which in turn makes Holly/reader grumpy, but like, they’re cute, they can’t stay grumpy. I hope you all enjoy and thanks for reading! :))

PEERING out of the corner of your eye at your boyfriend who was seated in the driver seat, your mind raced with how to address the current situation. He was hunched over as he stared out the windshield as the snow building up on the car and road.

Turning to face him, Jungkook slowly dragged his gaze to meet yours, the disappointment and growing anger written in his features. “It’s flat, isn’t it?” You asked, both of you already knowing the answer.

“Pretty sure,” he gave you a single nod, you returning the action with a few nods of your own.

“Do you know how to change a tire?” You asked, pretty sure of that answer as well.

“No, I do not,” he confirmed your suspicion. Looking away from you, he checked the mirrors, again seeing no headlights approaching you both.

“Oh,” you said simply, the man’s eyes snapping back toward you.

“What?” He questioned accusatorily, your eyes widening as you shook your head.

“Nothing, Jungkook, I just responded,” you told him, Jungkook holding his expression of aggravation.

“You had a tone,” he informed you, you nearly scoffing but having the self-control to hold it back.

“Well of course I had a tone, we’re stuck on the side of a back road with a flat tire and the snow is coming down like crazy,” you pointed out. You watched as Jungkook’s eyebrows raised in frustration.

“You don’t know how to change a tire either, and it’s not my fault it’s a blizzard,” he defended, you sighing in response.

“I didn’t say it was your fault, I didn’t blame you for anything,” you tried to assure him, knowing that the disappointment of how your spontaneous date night was turning out was the source of his frustration, not you.

However, when he scoffed at you, your understanding of his anger was taking a back seat to your own anger. Before you could tell him off, or at least give him a warning to change his behavior, his hand was on the door handle and he was pushing it open.

“Jungkook,” you called out, leaning forward to try to grab his hand.

He stepped out of the car and mumbled, “I’m checking the tire,” before slamming the door shut, the force of it making you jump in start.

Keeping a close eye on him as he knelt down next to the back driver side tire, you impatiently awaited his return to the cab.

Jungkook was supposed to be taking you out for what he called, a “late-night snow date,” away from the city. You were going to spend most of the time in the car, with the heater on, but the plan was to just get away and enjoy the wintery weather together. The unsuspected blizzard was the start of the disappointment, the flat tire raising the bar to an all-time high.

Fed up with waiting for his return, you stepped out of the car, Jungkook immediately standing up at the sound of the car door closing, shooting you a glare from overtop the roof of the vehicle. “Get back inside, what are you doing?”

“What are you doing?” You countered. “The tire is obviously flat, neither of us know how to change it, we need to call someone,” you bluntly told him. “Stop being so broody about it.”

“I’m not being broody,” he said defensively, pulling a face of guilty disagreement that made him look like a boy being accused of breaking his mom’s vase, of which he definitely did break. “Who even uses that word?” He questioned.

“I do,” you told him seriously, offended by his criticism of your word choice. “What? Do you prefer sullen? Glum? Bratty? Whiny?”

“Would you just get back in the fucking car?” He asked, his annoyance showing in his tone. Instead of responding, you chose to instead glare at him, the man huffing as he stared back at you.

Soon enough, his face was pulled into a stern glower, his eyes set into a glare of his own that you were sure was just as fierce as your own. Neither of you broke eye contact as you both stared at each other from across the car. “Holly,” he suddenly scolded you.

“Jungkook,” you countered in a bratty tone, and you swore you saw the tiniest of quirks on his mouth as you fought back your own.

“Just get back in the-” he started, but you didn’t allow him to finish the command as you scooped up a bit of the wet snow and quickly threw it at him, the snowball hitting him in the shoulder. His eyes darted to the spot he was struck, the snow stuck to his coat serving as evidence that what he thought just happened did indeed occur.

As you pulled a face of instant regret, he scoffed before shaking his head in disbelief. “You better start running,” he told you, sticking his tongue to the inside of his cheek. The action always made him look slightly intimidating and very fucking hot and you found yourself taking the brief moment of building contention to appreciate his features.

“I’m not scared of you,” you retorted brattily, the man smirking as he nodded slowly.

And within a second he was bolting from his spot and rounding the back end of the car, a scream leaving your lips as you turned and started in the opposite direction, attempting to escape the man who was surely on your heels.

“I’m sorry-I’m sorry-I’m sorry,” you squealed out just as a pair of arms wrapped around your waist from behind, the man lifting you from the ground before throwing you both into the plush snow that had filled the previously grassy area.

Protecting you from the fall, he ensured his body was underneath yours, but as soon as he made impact with the ground and you fell atop his chest, he rolled you over so your back was against the snow. In an instant he was scooping snow up, pulling your beanie off and smooshing the cold substance to the top of your head.

Your laughter and screaming melted into each other until all that remained was the sound of your wheezing laughter, Jungkook’s cheerful face and adorable smile beaming down at you as boyish giggles flooded your ears.

In an attempt to defend yourself, you grabbed at some snow and pushed it against his chin, the man pulling his head back as a yell left his mouth, your giggles only increasing. Both of you were weak from laughter as Jungkook fell on top of you, your arms easily wrapping around his body as he nuzzled his face against your neck. His giggles tickled your skin as you turned toward him so you could press your cold lips against his even colder cheek.

“We’re so dumb,” you chuckled against the side of his face, Jungkook’s giggles continuing as he lifted his face to look down at you.

“I know,” he agreed, his eyes flickering from your own gaze to your lips as both of your laughter slowly faded out. Without another moment of hesitation, he lowered his mouth to yours, you greedily kissing him back, your lips working perfectly together.

The kiss lasted longer than it should have considering the present conflict of a flat tire and a worsening blizzard, but neither of you seemed to care about anything else in that moment. How could anything else take precedence over Jungkook’s lips?

Finally, after several minutes passed by, Jungkook pulled away and rested his forehead against yours. “I should call my manager,” he chuckled. “He’ll know what to do.”

With a sigh, you nodded. “Bless that man,” you giggled, Jungkook smiling at you.

“Come on,” he huffed as he lifted himself off the ground before holding a hand out to you. “Let’s get your ass back in the car,” he told you with feigned annoyance. “You brat.”

“Fine,” you agreed, allowing him to help you up. “But only because I’m cold, not because you told me to,” you informed him, Jungkook scoffing before laughing.

Wrapping an arm around your shoulders, he leaned in to leave a kiss to your temple. “I know, baby,” he whispered.

The date hadn’t gone as planned at all, but you were in the snow, away from the city, and you were together. And that’s all that ever mattered.

[killing-all-joy]

Sometimes Having Terrible Aim Is Worth It

Pairing: Analogince Word count: 4,492 Logan uses he/they pronouns cw: swearing, snowball fights, mentions of murder, implied bad parents, i might have made lore for this at 1am while bored whoops

Overall, Roman and Logan were happy with their neighborhood. The location was convenient for both of their works (the theatre and the high school) and the environment was very lax. It was a low-crime, middle-class neighborhood with people who seemed very nice.

Roman, the sociable one, had made friends with many of the people on their block, only leaving a couple of houses alone. He had told Logan that all the people he had talked with were amiable people worthy of their friendship. So, Logan had accompanied his boyfriend during conversations with their neighbors on occasion, despite being an introvert with a general disappointment in the human race.

It wasn’t with ease that Roman was able to leave the house on their right alone. He had been warned not to bother the man who lived there as soon as he had moved in and started to make friends with his new neighbors. A blonde woman who Roman guessed to be about twenty years older than him had knocked on the door the evening after the two had moved in and given them the gist of the neighborhood. Her name was Janet, and she had told them about which houses had kids (as well as which kids were the best or quietest), how many people lived at each house, what each resident was like, and finally, about the man who lived next door.

Apparently, he was introverted and creepy, didn’t have friends, had the scariest Halloween decorations, worked at an age-old psychiatric hospital, and was rude and disagreeable. Janet had sufficiently discouraged Roman and Logan from interacting with him, but even if she hadn’t, the reports from their other neighbors would have done the job.

One kid said she had knocked on his door on Halloween, and he had opened the door and snarled at her with a realistic vampire outfit on, laughing evilly as she ran away. One mother said she had gone to his house to ask for a cup of sugar, and he had given her a cup of salt instead. Three kids all said they had seen him near the haunted house on Fridays. There was a rumor going around that he had killed the previous owners of the house Roman and Logan now resided in because their cat had made a small scratch on his car (Logan and Roman were less inclined to believe that last rumor; it was evidence-less, unlike the others).

But, other than the next-door neighbor they were both terrified of, Roman and Logan liked their living situation very much.

It was January, right in the middle of winter. The weather refused to let their area forget this fact; the week had started out with a snowstorm and after one day of pause, it had snowed every day for the next four days. It was now Friday, the fourth consecutive day of having snow, and the neighborhood kids had calmed about the state of the weather. Earlier in the week, Roman and Logan would often look out their window to find kids playing in the snow. Now, the excitement had dialed down and the kids were exhausted. The couple figured that sometime in the middle of the next week, the kids would be back to causing snowy chaos, but there was still almost a week until that hypothesis would be put to the test. At the current time, the block was quiet.

Roman appeared next to Logan, who was reading. He perched himself on the armrest of Logan's armchair and put an arm around his boyfriend.

"Hey, Logan?" Roman asked, taking a lock of Logan's hair and twirling it between his fingers.

"What is it you want, darling?" Logan replied, not looking up from his book.

Roman frowned. "I never said I wanted something."

"You called me Logan," he explained like it were obvious, "so, you want something."

Roman rolled his eyes, wishing his boyfriend wasn't so observant. "I want to have a snowball fight outside."

Logan raised an eyebrow, keeping his eyes on the novel in his hands. "I assume that you want me to join?"

Roman nodded. "Who else would I fight?"

"I also imagine you will annoy me about this subject until I acquiesce, or the snow melts?"

Roman nodded again.

"What's in it for me?"

Roman furrowed his eyebrows in thought. "Well...maybe, after the fight, we can curl up next to each other on the couch in our blankets, hot chocolate in hand, and we can watch Doctor Who or whatever while we snuggle."

Logan bit his lip.

"You know you want to."

Logan rolled their eyes. "I most certainly do not."

Roman grinned at him cheekily. "Bullshit," he said sweetly, "now come with me."

He took the book from Logan's hands and set it on the table. He grabbed a receipt from nearby and put it on the open pages, before slamming the novel shut and pulling his boyfriend to his feet.

Logan made a noise of surprise as he was dragged to the door by his boyfriend.

"Roman, wait!" Logan exclaimed, putting a hand on Roman's arm. "Let me get my gloves and hat on first."

Logan, who was already in a blue patterned sweater and dark purple scarf, dashed to his and Roman's room. He opened his closet and picked out his navy blue beanie and red gloves. He put them on quickly, not wanting to have to deal with Roman's manhandling once again.

He raced back to Roman who was waiting for him at the door impatiently. When he saw Logan, his expression brightened to one of adoration.

"Oh my gosh, mi querido, you look adorable!"

Logan huffed. "I am not adorable."

Roman laughed. "Yes, you are."

Logan knew that arguing was hopeless.

They took the accusation to heart for a moment. "What if the neighbors see our fight and it ruins my reputation and they never take me seriously again?"

"One, they will be too far away from us to recognize you. Two, they won't care. Three, I'm going to be annoying you for the next two months about a snowball fight so if you refuse, they'll judge you for choosing someone as loud and annoying as myself as your boyfriend."

Logan nodded. "Fair enough."

The two exited their house. Logan put his arms around his torso and shivered, the sudden change in temperature shocking his body, but Roman ran ahead. He immediately crouched down to the ground and formed a snowball, aiming directly for Logan’s stomach, and missing by a couple of feet. Logan gave him a disappointed look.

Roman huffed and returned to building a snowball. Logan shivered again, watching the small flecks of white flutter down from the clouds above and land on their suburban neighborhood. Logan was removed from their thoughts when a snowball collided with his stomach.

He stumbled back half a step, but steadied his stance and glared at his boyfriend. Another snowball was thrown his way, but Logan dodged and watched it disperse against the door.

“You might want to join me in the yard, Specs, if you don’t want me to break a window.”

Logan followed his suggestion, running to the front yard and immediately forming a snowball. They threw it at their unsuspecting boyfriend who was in the process of making another snowball. It hit him square in the chest, making him fall backwards.

“Oh, you’re in for it, mi luz.”

Logan rolled his eyes. “You’ve hit me twice, I’ve hit you once. I’m hardly the-”

A snowball to the lungs effectively shut them up.

---

Roman and Logan were hiding behind their respective walls of snow. Throughout the fight, they had been creating their own walls to hide behind to avoid getting hit. The fight would continue until either surrender or unconsciousness occurred, and both knew the former would be the hardest to achieve.

Since the two were both overachievers and never half-assed anything, their respective snow walls were two and a half feet high, roughly four inches in thickness, and approximately two feet wide. Roman had drawn an ‘R’ into his for dramatic effect, and Logan had hit the ‘R’ purposely with a snowball twice.

Neither knew how much time had passed, nor could they sense just how cold they were. All they could think about was demolishing their beloved in a violent war of snow, where only one could be crowned victor.

They were so unfocused that they didn’t notice a door opening and closing. Their eyes were so zeroed in on each other that Logan couldn’t see anything but his weapon and his target.

Logan knew the second the snowball left his hands that he would not land the shot. They were off by at least a couple of feet. They paid it no mind, however, and focused on evading Roman’s next attack.

The snowball landed with an audible smack.

That was unusual; dodged snowballs normally landed soundlessly on the ground.

What was also unusual was the yelp accompanying the sound.

Two shocked heads turned and watched as an unfamiliar man was thrown off his balance from Logan’s ruthlessly packed snowball. He didn’t fall to the ground, no, he was too scary and intimidating for that kind of humiliation to ever befall him. But, he was inconvenienced just enough so that Roman and Logan were terrified for their lives.

Logan hadn’t hit any old neighbor that lived on their block. He had hit the man who lived to their right.

The man who was evil, scary, probably a serial killer; the person that even the adults were scared of. He overdid Halloween, had no friends, and worked at a psychiatric hospital. He could probably kill them if he wanted to. According to the rumors, he had killed for lesser motives.

His eyes locked with both of the men at once, and Logan and Roman had never been more scared in their time together. He was terrifying.

With a black shirt, black jeans, black and purple hair, and a black hoodie, the man next door with tattoos creeping up his neck and black eyeshadow under his eyes looked very much the part the rest of the street had cast him as.

Logan and Roman were truly and undeniably fucked.

When the neighbor stopped glaring at them and walked to his car, Logan and Roman simultaneously craned their necks back to face each other, a terrified look in both of their eyes. Suddenly, all their competitive fire was extinguished and they looked at the snow on the ground with fear and regret instead of devious fun.

Their neighbor got something from his car and returned inside, casting sideways glances at Roman and Logan as he passed them. He slammed his door shut, causing both men to flinch.

From day one, the couple had been warned by kindergarteners and middle-aged women alike that they were unfortunate to be neighbors with the man next door. It was today that this was proven. All they could do was wait for their demise.

Roman threw a snowball at Logan’s face in anger at his actions and bad aim. For the first time in this fight, he wished he had been hit by that snowball.

There was a four minute period where the two were internally debating their options of either going back inside or apologizing to their fearsome neighbor. Occasionally, they would make eye contact with each other, but no words were actually spoken. Roman, the extrovert, considered knocking on his door to make a quick and hasty apology while Logan, the introvert, thought about writing an apology letter and sliding it under his door.

Neither of their ideas needed to be put to action, however, since the neighbor exited his house once again.

The two resisted the overwhelming urge to cower in fear. They had never seen him before, and now they had seen him twice in less than ten minutes? Clearly, they had ticked him off.

In an effort to not make it look as though they were staring, Logan and Roman stuck their gazes on each other. Each could tell that their partner was resisting their instincts telling them to run as far away as they could as fast as possible. But they couldn’t be rude—not when that man lived right next to them and could approach their house at any time. The serial killer rumors suddenly seemed more plausible.

What greeted them (or rather, Logan) instead, was a snowball to the back.

Logan, who was tenser than a taut rope, stumbled from the harsh impact. When he was able to regain his stance, his head whipped around to look at his attacker.

The neighbor had on, of all things, a smile.

He had discarded his hoodie for a fluffy black sweater with purple bats on it. He was now in a black beanie and had on midnight blue gloves. While his winter attire was surprising considering he already had a hoodie and didn’t seem to leave his house much, the mischievous smile was the most perplexing of all new things about their neighbor. Neither Logan nor Roman could make sense of it, except that it let them see the infamously creepy stranger in a new light.

Logan huffed out a bemused laugh, staring at the neighbor (who looked to be similar in age to them) like he was a gripping plot twist in a novel that unexpectedly ended happily. He shook his head a bit, but crouched down and formed another snowball. He made sure not to throw it as hard as the first one he had thrown at the stranger.

The man dodged it with ease, running closer to the snow-covered couple’s house. He swiped some snow off the porch rail and quickly packed it before throwing it at Roman, who was too busy being bewildered to do anything to dodge. He gasped in offense and coughed when the snowball collided with his sternum, and directed a playful glare at his attacker. He threw a snowball at him in return.

The neighbor easily dodged that one, but wasn’t able to dodge the snowball Logan had thrown his way. His attention switched over to the bespectacled assailant, looking at them just in time to see him throw another snowball at his boyfriend.

“How the hell did you make a snowball that quickly, cariño?”

“I have a snow wall, Ro. What do you think I put behind it? Action figures?” Logan retorted sarcastically.

Roman rolled his eyes and formed another snowball, sending it through the air and smack into Logan’s wall. “Every man for himself!”

The neighbor laughed at that, and the snowball fight continued.

---

As it turned out, Logan and Roman were at a disadvantage from already being out in the snow before their neighbor joined in. He was able to make them both surrender eventually, but not before Roman had aimed a snowball at a precise place on the back of his neck where the snow fell down the back of his shirt.

Logan was the wiser out of the couple and had surrendered first (not without a fight, though). He figured he deserved it; he had been the one to disturb the stranger, after all. This made him able to watch as both Roman and the stranger started to shiver more and more as the fight had continued.

When Roman finally did surrender, Logan laughed in his face and then put an arm around him. Logan took one hand in his and was able to tell his fingers were numb.

“You just never know when to quit, do you?” they sighed fondly.

“I did eventually!” protested Roman indignantly.

The stranger chuckled from beside him. “Would’ve been easier for your poor body if you’d surrendered when you knew you were gonna lose.”

It was the first time they’d heard him speak; snowball fights weren’t exactly the best place to start a conversation. His voice was low, about as deep as expected from a scary man in all black. However, it didn’t hold any fearful qualities or scratchiness like the kids had described. The couple thought it sounded like coffee on a cool winter’s morning (which didn’t make sense since coffee wasn’t a sound, but it was all that they could use to describe it, nonetheless).

“And when would that have been?”

“The second I joined in.”

Logan hid a laugh behind their hand. Roman glared at him for encouraging their neighbor.

“No idiot surrenders the second another person joins,” Roman muttered.

“Exactly,” the man said with a wink. Logan was able to spot him curling his arms around himself, probably from being cold.

Roman gasped loudly when he finally realized what the stranger was saying. “How dare you!”

He stumbled out of Logan’s arms and collected more snow off the porch railing, making it into a large, messy ball and chucking it at the stranger.

It hit his face. Not hard in any shape or form; no harm would be done, but it was still a bunch of cold water shoved in his face and falling into the front of his sweater.

The stranger furiously batted at the snow on his face.

“Serves you right,” Roman mumbled.

Logan rolled his eyes. “Sorry, that must’ve been freezing.”

The man nodded.

“Come on in,” Logan invited, opening the door. “We can make you some hot chocolate.”

Roman rushed inside, running to the storage closet that had extra blankets.

“A-are you s-su-re?” the stranger said, syllables separate and repetitive from his shivering. The snow in his face caused his teeth to chatter.

“Of course,” Logan said, “it’s our—well, mostly my fault, that you got cold anyway. I’m Logan. He/they pronouns.”

Virgil chuckled. “L-log-an, h-uh? Was st-st-starting to thi-nk y-you were j-just gi-v-ven a b-bunch of p-pet names at b-birth.”

Logan blushed furiously, but laughed. Roman referred to him with Spanish terms of endearment more than he did his legal name.

“At this point, I might as well have been. I tend to respond to any unfamiliar word that vaguely sounds like Spanish now.”

They ushered the freezing stranger inside. Roman had returned from the storage closet with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and another under his arm. Logan took the blanket that wasn’t shrouding his shivering boyfriend and wrapped it around the stranger’s shoulders, who tugged it tighter around himself eagerly.

Logan went to the kitchen, putting three mugs of milk into the microwave and setting it for two minutes. They then returned to Roman and their neighbor who were shivering in silence.

“Thanks for joining us,” Roman said, “that was fun.”

“It was,” he agreed, shivering starting to calm down. “T-thank you for letting me p-participate.” Not fully, however.

“Of course,” said Logan, putting an arm on Roman’s shoulders. “I totally meant that snowball as an invitation. Fully intentional.”

The other two laughed, knowing that was a lie. The microwave beeped, and Logan left them to take the mugs from the microwave. He put the hot cocoa powder in and stirred the mugs, before picking them up.

He entered the living room to see that Roman had sat on the left of the couch and the stranger in the middle. Logan put their mugs in front of them and put down a mug for themself. He sat down next to the stranger.

“Might I ask your name, oh Master of the Snowball?” Roman asked.

The stranger snorted. “That’s much better than my name. My name’s Virgil. He/him.”

Logan smiled to himself. “Not at all, that’s a very nice name.”

Virgil choked on the hot chocolate he was sipping. “Thank you,” he said quietly.

“Fits your aesthetic,” Roman remarked.

Virgil opened his mouth, looking offended. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

It was obviously a joke, but Logan and Roman knew they had to tell Virgil of the rumors and his reputation. Especially now that they saw him as a good guy.

“Halloween,” Roman started to list, “everyday-is-spooky-season aesthetic, seems like the type of guy to work at a haunted house.”

Virgil scoffed. “Those places are stupid; not scary at all. If you want to go to a haunted house, make your house the haunted house.”

Well, now they had the Virgil-goes-to-a-haunted-house-weekly theory debunked.

“You do have ghosts on your sweater,” Logan supplied, taking a sip of the hot chocolate.

“They’re cute ghosts, though,” Roman said as soon as Virgil opened his mouth to argue. He pointed at one on his sweater. “See? Look at the lil’ faces.”

“My sister got it for me for Christmas.”

“If I knew your sister, that would probably explain the cute faces.”

“Oh, believe me, it would.”

Logan chuckled as he watched the two exchange conversation. He took another sip of his hot chocolate.

“So, um, I heard moving trucks outside your house about a month ago. Was that y’all? You new here?” asked Virgil.

“Affirmative,” Logan confirmed.

“Yeah, it’s our very first house together!” Roman said happily.

Virgil smiled. “That’s sickeningly adorable.”

“I am sickeningly adorable,” Roman said like it was a badge of honor.

“I agree,” Logan said.

A comfortable silence befell the group.

Virgil fidgeted, looking at Roman nervously. “Bit awkward question this far into the conversation, but I never caught your name-”

“Roman~” sang the man in question. He would have held the note out for an impressively long time if he didn’t take a sip of hot cocoa.

“Cool,” said Virgil awkwardly. “And I suppose, Roman and Logan, oh wow y’all’s names rhyme that is so romantic, anyway-”

Roman gasped, covering his mouth. His eyes lit up. “They do!”

“Are you just noticing this, Roman?” asked Logan.

“Of course!” Roman exclaimed in reply. “If I knew our names rhymed, I would have already written many a rhyming poem about our love.”

“That’s very nice, Love.”

“Don’t be snippy, mi cielo, you know you’d love it,” Roman huffed. “Virgil, don’t you think he’d love it?”

Virgil just rolled his eyes fondly, not wanting to get caught up in the middle of a lover’s spat.

“Don’t bring Virgil into this, Roman. You should put the subject aside, considering he was in the middle of saying something before you interrupted.”

“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask. Did our neighbors happen to...um...tell you what they thought of me? Ruin first impressions? It would explain your terrified expressions when we first saw each other.”

Roman and Logan looked at each other worriedly.

“...Maybe?” Roman asked quietly.

“There’s a small possibility...” Logan whispered.

“Y’all, I’m not mad if it happened, I just wanna know.”

Logan sighed. “Yes, yes they did.”

“What’d they say?”

“Multiple people said different things,” Logan began. “Janet talked to us first. She’s the blonde, short-haired, blue-eyed-”

“-Used to be a soccer mom, baby blue house?” Virgil asked. Logan nodded. “Met her when I first moved in, and once after that.”

“Her, yes. She told us, quite frankly, to not come near you.”

Virgil started to close in on himself. “Like how?”

“Said you were creepy, rude, introverted, no friends, freaky-as-all-hell Halloween decorations, apparently knew where you worked,” Roman told him, then noticed Virgil’s shrinking and stopped with the accusations. “I doubt almost all of that now, since you’re obviously not creepy and definitely have friends with that personality, but she may have been accurate with Halloween decor.”

“She was,” Virgil confirmed. “Go big or go home.”

“I believe you are normally home during Halloween, are you not?” asked Logan, confused.

Roman laughed. “Of course, mi amor.”

“Where do I work, in Janet terms?” asked Virgil, a smile tugging at his lips.

“Some old psychiatric hospital out of town.”

Virgil doubled over in laughter. He put his mug on the coffee table so it wouldn’t spill and held his head in his hands.

When he regained himself, still giggling, he replied.

“That’s inaccurate,” Virgil said plainly. “I don’t have a degree for that. See, there’s an old abandoned psychiatric hospital two miles away from the airport that is on the same road as the airport. It’s out of use, so that’s a stupid assumption to make. I guess I could maybe see why she made it though; I work at the airport.”

“Oh?” asked Logan, intrigued.

“Yeah, I’m an air traffic controller,” said Virgil with a shrug. “It ain’t that interesting. I recently got fully certified, though, which is cool. It pays well, I’m good at paying constant attention to things that could potentially end badly, and the high-stress comes from having to give my unwavering and full attention, which is something I can do well.”

“Less stressful than home and college, I guess, huh?” Roman guessed.

“Exactly, it's a spa compared to my parents,” Virgil said with a laugh. “But yeah, that’s hysterical. I definitely do not work at a psychiatric hospital.”

“I suppose what the kids said is untrue if what the adults said is false,” Logan mused.

“Oh dear lord, what did they say,” Virgil groaned.

“One girl told us about the rumor that you killed the people who used to live here,” Roman said, and Virgil immediately laughed. “Her mother said she asked for a cup of sugar and you gave her a cup of salt instead.”

“I hadn’t slept in five days and realized my mistake two hours later,” Virgil explained immediately. “I remember that one.”

Logan snorted. “One boy said you go to the haunted house on Fridays, which is obviously untrue.”

“Yeah. One, they’re stupid, two, that one’s only open in October and November, three, that one ain’t even scary. It has a good and free parking lot, though, and I volunteer at an at-risk youth center every Friday a couple blocks down that has really shitty parking.”

Roman shook his head. “Wow, we really got you wrong.”

“You were misled,” Virgil corrected. “It’s not your fault.”

“You know what, you’re right!” Roman agreed. “We were robbed.”

Virgil raised an eyebrow. “Of what?”

“Of friendship,” Logan said, taking a sip from his drink. “Roman would have been banging on your door two days after moving, wanting to get to know you. But, after a momentous amount of ‘rude’ and ‘disagreeable’—” Virgil frowned, “—he was persuaded not to. Our loss, especially considering you are neither of those two adjectives.”

Virgil smiled. “Thank you.”

Logan looked into Virgil’s chestnut brown eyes, and was able to spot the specks of gray in them. They gave Virgil a warm smile. “For what? It is our pleasure to be given the chance to know you.”

Roman groaned. “I try 24/7 to be dramatic and you do it without trying.”

Virgil, blushing, giggled. “You’re both good at it.”

Roman beamed at him. “I’m thrilled you think so, Nico di Angel-o.”

“Nico’s surname can be interpreted to mean ‘of the angels’ already, Roman, I don’t think you need to emphas-”

“Shhhh, Specs, let me shower our guest with compliments.”

Virgil’s face was on fire. “Do y’all have any movies?”

~

Taglist: @somehow-i-got-an-account @justanotherhumanstuff @fander-fic-recs @neo-neo-neo

~

I wrote most of that when I went into a blur for three hours and looked at the time after I finished the draft to see that I had wasted all the time I had to do homework. It was worth it. I don’t know why but I’m really attached to this AU? If you want to see more of it please tell me. I hope you liked it!

[all-the-names-are-taken-aaaaa]

Gabriel not targeting Marinette for Good Reason AU

Gabriel was seething with anger as he replayed the video. "You mean to tell me Adrian never said anything because he was afraid I would pull him out of class?"

Nathalie sat down looking more tired then anyone had ever seen her. "It appears Miss Rossi also blackmailed him using your name. Since she had your favor she believed she could separate him from his friends with just a few words or at least had him believe that."

Gabriel tried to keep his breathing calm. "How much damage are we aware of?" Maybe he could at salvage a friendly work relationship with her.

Nathalie looked ready to tear out her hair in frustration. "Enough to make her leave Paris."

"WHAT" Gabriel slammed his hands down. How could that insolent little brat! Something had to be done soon.

"She is friends with Adrian still. Him finding out she was leaving is what caused the break down. Her and Chloe are leaving in two weeks. He doesn't know exactly were they are going though. And as far as specifics other than that video it would be easier to look at this folder." Nathalie hands him a folder full of things Adrian and Marinette had gathered as proof not that anyone seemed to listen.

"Contact Miss Rossi's mother. I do not care if you have to go to her work. She will be thinkfull we are warning her about the possible lawsuits. I'll personally fire her. And offer my lawyer to Miss Dupain-Cheng." Gabriel knows there is little chance of recovering from this without his company taking some sort of hit. Hell it could possibly go under if people decided it was his fault the girl was full of herself. He had warned Miss Rossi to be nice to her no matter were they interacted.

"Yes sir" Nathalie stood. Based off what Adrian said Lila had made sure it was near impossible to contact her mother. The easiest was would be to go to were she supposedly worked and hope Lila had told the truth about that.

"I am looking for Miss Rossi. It's an urgent. It's about her doughter" the girl sitting on the counter looked up wide eyed.

"Oh god" she muttered rushing out of the room. She returned quickly with a woman looking sickly pale.

"Is my doughter okay? Was it an akuma?" The woman- Miss Rossi asks franticly.

"Mama your daughter is physically fine but she has gotten herself and possibly you in a lot of trouble. Please take a look at these. There is a few videos as well." Nathalie explained letting the woman veiw the folder. The horror on Miss Rossi's face was clear.

"Are you from the school? One of the Celebrities?" Miss Rossi asks. Still looking through the folder.

"Miss? I am Nathalie Sancoeur. I am the assistant for Gabriel Agrest. You should have my number from when you signed the papers for Lila to model." Nathalie began to panic as she saw Miss Rossi's reaction.

"I never signed papers for that. She told me she and the rest of her class modeled on a field trip to the Agrest house..." Miss Rossi looked paler if that was even possible.

"No. She has been working for the Agrest brand for almost a year. There was never a field trip and even of there was we would have to have everyone's parents sign work permissions since they are minors. I'll have someone retrieve the papers so you may look at them" Nathalie explains pulling out her phone and sending a text.

"May I ask a few questions? What is this about travels?" Miss Rossi's horror turned to anger and disappointed slowly as things snowballed from there.

"Nathalie is everything okay? I am almost at the school." Gabriel had calmed. Still angry but calm ish.

"It appears Lila forged her mother's signature on all the paperwork for us. And lied about school. A lot. We will meet you at the school." Nathalie says.

"Yes please do" Gabriel had to take a moment to calm himself. This was not going to end well.

Gabriel stands in the court yard. Classes that had been let out a few minutes early stop and stare. As classes let out more people loitered. Interested why the famous man who was rarely seen was in their court yard.

"Dude your dad is here" Nino whispers to Adrian. Nino pats him on the back as they leave room. Marinette close behind them. The rest stay to hear Lila's latest story. Marinette and Nino wait with the rest of the kids in the courtyard.

"Father?" Adrian asks once he is closer.

"We are waiting on Miss Rossi and Miss Dupain-Cheng." Gabriel states. As Adrian moves to stand beside him. Marinette with Nino moves closer to the inner edge of the crowd but no closer. Gabriel spots her but says nothing

Lila leads her class too the courtyard. She gets excited upon seeing Gabriel believing she could play up her fame. She walks over "Mr. Agrest" she says politely "Do we have a photo shoot?" pointing to Adrian.

"No Lila. You will never have a photo shoot again. You will be lucky if you allowed to be near my son ever again" Gabriel says guiding Adrian behind him. Everyone becomes quiet with the exception of Alya who attempts to storm up there to defend her bestie but is stopped by Nino. Instead she livestreams believing her best friend's celebrity contacts will defend her.

"Lila Rossi you had a responsibility as one of my lead models. You knew the rules and chose to ignore them. Now I find out you forged you mothers signature. You could and probably will face many many definition lawsuits. Not to mention you threatened my son. You blackmailed my son. Your behavior towards my son is sexual hurassment. Do you understand that? Do you realize you took away a huge opportunity for yourself and the company by attacking her? And to post it. We found out because you posted it. Did you think we would not investigate? Did you not think we would contact your mother? Did you think your mother would cover for you? Did you think there would be no consiquences? Did you think you could lie your way out of this?" Gabriel fumed. Lila pales as she sees her mother enter the court yard. Thousands of people tuned in to the live stream. Miss Bustier and the principal come out ready to try and calm the situation only to be stoped by an angry woman.

"Why did you not contact me? You are responsible for Lila while she is here. How did she miss this much school without a single person contacting me. Falsely getting A student explained? A condition that makes her lie? Why didn't you fact check everything? How incompetent are you? How many students did she threaten? How much of this sort of thing is allowed at this school?" Miss Rossi goes off. "No! You contact that poor girl's parents so you can explain to them too. While you are doing that I'm calling Bridgette Chang(known member of the school board)."

"Anyone who has been threatened by Lila Rossi please come forward"Gabrial says. About ten students come forward. "We will be taking this too your office contact all of their parents" he says looking at Damocles.

Some of the students had to leave for after school activities but the parents were contacted.

During the meeting Lila became so enraged that she tried to attack Marinette for revealing her lies. Gabriel grabs her by the back of her shirt and pulls enough for her to fall back into her chair. "Miss Dupain-Cheng. I would like to offer my apologies I had no clue of Miss Rossi's behavior. May I offer you my lawyers?"

"Oh that won't be necessary. The Wayne lawyers are particularly suited to handle her and the tabloid writer" A young man states as he enters the room. "Damian!" Marinette yells running up too hug him "Angel" he says quietly hugging back.

"Is there anything I could do? I do not wish for conflict with your rising business?" Gabriel states. If possible more color drains from Lila's face at the realization Gabriel was serous about being as nice as possible to Marinette. "We are going on tour with Jagged and getting personal tutors. Could Adrian come with us? It would be a great learning experience and it would improve his social skills and your brands audience." Marinette asks.

Gabriel nods "I am sure we can arrange something." The entire room is shocked by today's events.

An investigation is launched on the school. The principal and Miss Bustier are fired. Alya has to give up the Ladyblog and do community service. Lila has to pay a lot of fines, do community service and is transferred to a school for troubled teens. Everything is on her permanent records tho. Those that cheared Lila on as Alya had her rip apart the sketchbook were grounded and forced by their parents to pay for the destroyed designs.

Luka, Kagami, Adrian, Chloe, Marinette, and Damian spent the next year traveling with Jagged. Paris sets up an alert system to contact the hero's. Each hero has a bracelet that buzzes if there is an akuma. Luka performing with him. Luka also has kaalki. Kagami teaching fencing in random schools close to were they were staying and improving her social skills. Adrian and Chloe model Marinette's designs as well as Agrest designs. Adrian practices social skills and takes acting classes with Chloe. Marinette expands the MDC brand. Damian proposes on stage after Jagged convinces Marinette to sing. That video went viral.

Hawkmoth winds up in a fight were Chat yells "why are you doing this" about a month into the tour. Once it is explained that it's for his wife. Marinette/ladybug reviels there is a way to heal her without killing someone else with a wish thanks to guardian powers. So Emilie Agrest stars in a movie with her son and Chloe two years later.

[giveemhales]

Moodboards for Sterek AUs: 20/?

For @averysterekwinter day 3 (Theme: snow/ice)

Snow Day

(Plus here’s a fluffy ficlet, the rest under the cut because it got a bit long)

The first thing Stiles noticed when he woke up was that outside was white.

It was snowing, and not the drizzle of snowflakes that would melt upon hitting ground that was more usual for the area. No, there was a thick layer of white over everything in sight.

The second thing he noticed was the thing that woke him up: a text on his phone. He didn’t want to call it hypervigilance, because that implied a whole host of other issues he didn’t want to address, but even just the vibration of his phone from a single text was enough to rouse him.

It was an inconvenient habit (it was winter break and he wanted to sleep in, dammit), but he was grateful he had been roused when he read the text.

The text was from Derek and simply said Come to pack house ASAP.

Rest of fic under the cut!

He considered calling or texting to ask what was wrong, but he had gotten enough texts like that to know he wouldn’t get a response. If he wanted any answers, he would have to go to the pack house.

Stiles and Derek had been dating for around a year now, but they rarely texted. Well, Derek rarely texted. Stiles texted and Derek sometimes reluctantly replied. He wasn’t a big fan of technology. Kind of annoying considering Stiles was usually away at his campus, but Derek’s almost weekly visits more than made up for it.

So seeing this text immediately concerned Stiles. Pair that with the unusual snow, and he assumed the worst.

His mind whirred with different possibilities. Did a witch cast a spell? Was Jack Frost making a visit? Was some new dark Druid coming to fuck with nature?

He knew he was being a bit irrational, but he had learned to assume the worst when it came to Beacon Hills, and he could count on one hand the number of times he’d seen actual snow at home in his lifetime. His past experiences didn’t allow him the luxury of excitement about novelties.

Overall, the combination of the unusual weather and the text from Derek calling for an emergency meeting had Stiles on edge and falling out of his bed in his haste to head out.

He didn’t have a good snow jacket so he just put on as many layers as was comfortable and a coat. He grabbed some gloves, and mourned for his converse which would surely not do well in the snow.

Stiles rushed out to his car, noting his dad had already left for the station. He was grateful to note the roads had already been cleared, as he wasn’t sure if his jeep could handle snow and ice.

He parked when he reached the edge of the preserve. They had cleared a dirt road so that they would be able to drive to the pack house, but it wasn’t an official street so the city had no reason to clear it of snow. 

Stiles understood why it wasn’t cleared of snow, but he was still annoyed. Fortunately, the snow wasn’t slushy, so at least his feet weren’t soaked. Still, his converse and jeans did little to protect him from the cold, and he walked as quickly as he could, while also watching out for any possible ice patches. 

By the time the pack house was in sight, Stiles was shivering, and ready to yell at Derek for making him come all this way when phones were a thing. 

Derek was standing in front of the pack house, and Stiles had no qualms about yelling and walking at the same time.

“Hey, jerk, there better be a good reason you called me out here, like dead bodies good reason. I am just a human without all the werewolf heat mojo, and I’m on break, so there are not a whole lot of reasons I should be anywhere except in bed sleeping right now.”

Stiles couldn’t really make out Derek’s face, but he knew it wasn’t as remorseful as it should have been.

Stiles sighed loudly and continued marching toward the house, looking down again to make sure he didn’t step in anything which would make him even more uncomfortable.

It was as soon as he looked down that he felt it, the cold becoming even colder, ice running through his veins.

He was under attack!

He looked up with a gasp, eyes searching for the assailant, for what cruel monster had thrown a snowball right at him. 

He was surprised to see that all of the pack had appeared in front of the house (damn werewolf speed), all wearing smirks of varying deviousness. 

Derek had his arm still raised, and Stiles knew he was the perpetrator (he wasn’t even wearing gloves but already had another snowball in his other hand, he clearly had an unfair advantage). 

In fact, everyone had a snowball prepared, and they were all staring right at Stiles with an evil gleam.

“Whoa! Who decided everyone would team up against me? This seems totally unfair.”

“It’s not everyone against you,” Scott said.

“It’s every man for himself,” Isaac finished for him, and threw a snowball right at Derek’s face.

And then it was chaos.

Stiles made as many snowballs as he could while the werewolves were distracted amongst themselves, thanking god he had thought to put on gloves. 

When Stiles was pretty sure he had a good amount of ammo stockpiled, he called to Scott. “Scotty, it’s snow time!”

Ever since they were young, when they had any sort of battle, whether it be nerf guns or water balloons, “It’s show time,” was their codeword to create an alliance. They would join forces and blindside their opposite.

(Stiles may or may not have been waiting his whole life to get to use that snow time pun).

Stiles began constructing a kick ass fortress as Scott ran over and began throwing Stiles’ snowballs at a pace only werewolves were capable of. 

When he popped up to check how Scott was doing, he was blindsided by three rapid succession snowballs right to the face. 

All from his boyfriend.

“Rude! And totally unwarranted!” Stiles shouted.

Derek glared at him. “It was revenge for that awful pun.”

Stiles gaped. “Oh you have snow idea what you’ve just started.”

He ducked before Derek had even thrown the next snowball.

The battle lasted close to another hour (Stiles cursed werewolf endurance), hundreds of snowballs and a handful of puns thrown.

It was at the time that his gloves were soaked through and he thought his fingers might fall off if he made one more snowball that he decided to call it quits.

He turned to look at Scott who was hiding with him behind the fortress and gave one nod. They stood up in unison, shouting their surrender with their hands up.

They were immediately pelted with a flurry of balls.

Stiles’ arms fell to his side. “Really? When we were surrendering? Do you snow snow bounds?”

The rest of the pack stared at him with blank stares.

“Fine, whatever, clearly nobody appreciates me nor understands my genius. Sorry my puns are too advanced for you all.” Stiles shook his head in disappointment and began to head to the house.

And promptly fell on his ass.

The rest of the pack burst into laughter (including Scott, the traitor, who was quick to abandon him), and Stiles glared at the sky from where he lay, cursing the world for this injustice.

Derek walked over, a smirk clear on his face while he looked down at Stiles. “You good?”

Stiles grumbled. “Yes. I meant to do that.”

Derek looked even more amused. “Oh really? And why is that?” Derek asked even as he offered a hand to help Stiles up.

“So I could do this!” Stiles shouted as he pulled down Derek with all his might with the offered hand. He knew Derek must not have been expecting it, because he actually managed to pull him down with an exclamation.

His victory was short lived, as he realized the consequences of his actions. He groaned. “God, you’re so heavy.”

“And you’re so dumb.” Derek got up on his elbows so he was slightly above Stiles. 

Stiles stared dreamily up at his boyfriend, deciding to ignore the insult. “Hey, did it hurt?”

Derek raised an eyebrow. “You mean when you pulled me down? Not really, I had a squishy human to cushion my fall.”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “No, when you fell from heaven,” Stiles smiled widely, “Because you’re a snow angel.” He rolled them so he was above Derek.

Derek sighed heavily but remained limp as Stiles grabbed his arms, sliding them up and down through the snow in the classic snow angel motion.

Stiles rolled away from Derek when he got as close to an angel as he could and made his own, laughing the whole time. 

Derek sat up from where he had been manhandled. “Why do I put up with you?”

“It’s because you glove me!” Stiles shouted, removing one of his gloves (which at this point had become so soaked from snow that it was just making him more cold) and tossing it at Derek.

“Don’t take off your gloves, you dumbass!” Derek said, looking scandalized. Stiles couldn’t really blame him for his concern. Stiles was a human, and therefore susceptible to pesky things like hypothermia, but Derek should have thought of that before he started a snowball battle. 

Derek stood up and lifted Stiles up, hauling him over his shoulder.

Stiles didn’t really mind, since it got him out of the snow and gave him a great view of Derek’s ass.

“Just admit you’re s-mitten!” He took off his other glove and slapped Derek’s ass with it.

~~~

An hour later, Stiles was wearing multiple layers of Derek’s (dry) clothes, wrapped in a blanket, cuddling against his furnace boyfriend, surrounded by the pack.

“Well, I don’t know about you guys, but even if some people were needlessly cruel to me today, I had an ice time.”

The pack groaned, except Scott, who added, “Icy what you did there!”

Stiles leaned over to high five Scott.

“I will kick out the next person to make a pun,” Derek interjected.

Stiles rolled his eyes, even as he cuddled back into Derek’s side. “Ugh, whatever you say, Frosty.”

Derek glared down at Stiles, looking prepared to retaliate.

Stiles put his hands up in mock surrender. “That wasn’t a pun, that was a reference.”

“Well it wasn’t a very good one, since Frosty was a holly jolly soul.”

Stiles beamed. “Oh my god, my boyfriend knows his Christmas classics. I think I’m in love.”

“We know,” the rest of the pack responded in unison, but Stiles was too busy staring up at his boyfriend in adoration to care.

~~~ 

Later that night, when they laid together in bed, Stiles looked up at Derek, and his fondness shined bright. “I love you.”

Derek looked back at him, equally fond, and smirked and said, “I know.”

Stiles wasn’t sure if he wanted to hit him for ruining the moment, or kiss him senseless for quoting Star Wars. He did neither, because he couldn’t let this opportunity pass.

“You mean, you snow?”

The ensuing slap on the back of his head was well worth it.

[willow-tree-writes]

❀Snow Solitude❀

Steve Harrington x Reader

Summary: Snow days aren’t a rare thing in Hawkins, Indiana, but that doesn’t mean they’re put to waste. For a group of dipshits, they know how to spend it.

Request: N/A

Author’s Note: I’m so sorry about going MIA! I got sick after I published part 2 of Bet, and lost any and all motivation to write. But it’s slowly coming back! I’m hoping to post a couple blurbs for Christmas/wintertime, and (fingers crossed) Bet part 3 soon.

Word Count: 1.2k

Warnings: Cursing

!I don’t own this gif!

The block of ice was colder than normal snow. It was ice that would make this igloo into a fort. Make this snow day into a snow war.

Steve wasn’t one to spend his snow days doing anything. He didn’t need to shovel - his parents paid people to do that. He didn’t play in the snow - he was a teenager for Christ’s sake. At least, he didn’t ‘play’ in it until the Party decided he was their honorary babysitter.

“Look, dipshits, I’m not getting in there.” Steve planted his feet in the four inches of snow with crossed arms. 

Dustin mimicked Steve in a playful way while Mike did it a little more seriously. “You didn’t help make it, so you have to get into it.

Steve rolled his eyes. “Who’s the boss here? Oh right, it’s me.”

Lucas groaned and stooped down to grab some snow. “Why is this such a big deal?” He packed the snow together to form a sturdy snowball.

“Because Steve doesn’t pull his weight around here.” Mike looked from the teenagers to his friend.

With an eye roll, Steve said, “I’m the one who drives you all around and makes sure you don’t kill each other, dipshit.”

“Well, we know how to do that ourselves.” Mike retorted.

“Oh do you?”

“Yeah, we do.”

“Do you really?” Steve egged on.

This went back and forth between the children for a couple minutes until the sound of snow crunching drew the attention of the sane five. 

You had taken a walk to enjoy the snow day when you stumbled upon the party and Steve. You started to approach them, thinking you’d join in on their fun. You didn’t think you’d join in on an argument.

“What’s going on here?” You ask, looking between them all.

Dustin shook his head as he looked away from Steve and Mike. 

Max looked over at you. “Idiots being idiots.”

You nodded with a ‘seems legit’ face. You weren’t going to question it. “What’s the idiots being idiots about?” You were surprised said idiots still hadn’t noticed your arrival.

El pointed at the igloo. “Snow.” They were arguing about snow.

A laugh escaped your lips as you shook your head. Only these boys would do that. “Hey, babies!” You call out to them and they look towards you. “Wanna stop the fighting and actually have some snow fun?”

You wanted to have fun. You didn’t want to, and you were sure the Party didn’t want to, stand around and listen to this bickering. 

“Y/N, when the hell did you get here?” Mike asked, crossing his arms. Steve hit him in the arm for ‘aggression’ in his voice.

You smiled sweetly at them. “I believe it was towards the start of this little quarrel.” You gesture between the two of them. “Which was long enough to know that whatever it was about is stupid.” Who argues about snow?

“It’s all Steve’s fault.” Mike weakly defends himself.

That earned a sigh from you and a smack in the back of the head from Steve.

“All he has to do is go in the fucking igloo!”

You scold the boy a little. “Bite your tongue.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’ll bite my tongue if Steve grows balls.” He muttered.

You sigh a little. “How about I go in? Will that satisfy your weird needs?”

“If Y/N goes in, then I’ll go in.” Steve piped up a little too fast. 

Mike threw his hands up exasperatedly. “Fine! Just go in!”

You laughed and rolled your eyes. You didn’t understand why this was such a big deal. It was an igloo. An igloo.

You pushed past the two, lightly hitting your shoulder against Steve. When you got to the entrance of the snow fortress, you ducked down and carefully crawled in. Sure, you were decked out in a winter jacket, a beanie, a scarf, and gloves, but that didn’t mean you didn’t shiver your ass off when you fully got inside.

Steve was close behind you, which wasn’t shocking as this was a small, enclosed space.

You plopped your butt down by the back of the igloo, careful not to lean back. You wouldn’t want to ruin the Party’s hard work.

Steve sat down a little off to the side and looked around. As if there was much to really look at.

“They did a nice job.” You said after a moment of silence. 

It was painfully obvious that once Steve was away from the Party, they went into a full blown snowball fight. The yelling and laughing wasn’t hard to discern.

Steve nodded. “At least they know how to do one thing.”

“I’m sure they know how to do other things,” you reply with a smile. 

He chuckled and shook his head. “You’d be surprised…” He trailed off as his eyes landed on something that seemed to be stuck on the ceiling of the igloo. 

You couldn’t tell what the look on his face was, so you took a look for yourself.

A plant seemed to be stuck smack dab in the middle of the ceiling. The leaves were undeniably familiar, and the red berries attached made it even more definable - mistletoe.

You both were at a loss for words. It was right above you. 

“Those little dipshits…” Steve muttered under his breath.

“How’d they…” You started to mutter at the same time. You didn’t finish the thought, unsure if it was, “how’d they get it up there,” or “how’d they know we were going to be under here.”

He cleared his throat a little. “We… We don’t have to do that.” You looked at him, trying to read his face. “Those dipshits won’t have to know.”

You didn’t know if you should feel rejoiced he wasn’t going to make you kiss him, or disappointed. You didn’t know until you spoke without much thought.

“But… what if I want to?”

He looked to be in shock for a second, but he tried to recover quickly and smoothly. So that he could, without much else said, move in closer to you and place his lips on yours.

He had been King Steve in high school, and that charm slowly had worn off him. But there were moments where he did things like this; and it was unclear if he was still that teenager from high school or the boy slowly becoming a man. Or maybe both.

You tried to hide your surprise as you kissed him back a second after he went in for it. You didn’t think he’d actually go for it. You’d thought he’d awkwardly laugh it off or something. But you’re glad he went for it.

Steve was less dressed for the cold than you, so his icy lips felt like they were walking through a fire while against your warm ones. While your hands sunk deeper into the snow below you, his found your cheek. In contrast, his touch burned with passion against the surface of your reddening face.

Just as he was the one to go in for the kiss, he was also the one to pull away.

You tried not to lean into him, but you wanted more. A longer kiss. Anything. Everything.

As you fluttered your eyes open, you were greeted by a smile gracing the lips that you wanted so bad to pull back to you. But the smile was a contagious one, allowing you to calm down your urge for him.

“I gotta give it to them - those dipshits know a thing or two once in a while.”

You let out a laugh and throw your head back a little, looking up at the mistletoe.

You had to thank them all later today.

---- ----

Tag List -  @cheshirecat107 ♛ @killj0y2019 ♛ @Ashleyleblancx ♛

[hehron]

Snowball

Somehow I was in a very intense writing mode and managed to whip up another one shot for @fightfortherightsofhouseelves hinny Christmas fest!! This is a little hinny au where there was no war, and everyone’s alive. I really love the idea of Harry having friends as a child. So just assume that the marauders all had kids that were his age :) Oh, also, I love the trope of Hermione being Harry’s sister!

Summary: The little sneak from next doors who used to pummel him with snowballs unfortunately grew into a rather attractive minx Harry couldn’t quite get over.

FF.net   AO3

“Incoming!”

“Everyone! To the fort!”

“The fort's fallen!”

“Last chance, losers! Give in!”

“Never! Harry, there's the snow shield!”

“I've got it!” Harry exclaimed, running towards the hedges that separated his and Ron's house. He had picked up the plastic shield, and was brushing the snow off of it when-

“Hey!” He turned around, glaring at his sister. “That's against the rules!”

“I haven't done anything,” Hermione shouted back.

“Yes, you did! You hit me with a snowball!”

“Did not!”

“Did- ow!” He spun around as another snowball hit him in the face. Narrowing his eyes, he peered over the fence, from where someone let out a small giggle.

“Who's there?” He asked, shuffling forward on his knees towards the hole they'd made on the fence last summer. He squeezed through the shrubs tickling at his neck to come face to face with mischievous brown eyes.

“Hello,” She smiled toothily, before hitting his face with yet another snowball.

“Stop that,” He complained, spitting out some of the snow he'd caught in his mouth.

“Why? You're having a snowball fight, aren't you?” She asked, bunching up snow from the pile she'd made.

“We were but-”

“No buts!” She said, throwing it at him again.

“What are you doing? We're losing!” Ori came up beside him, only to be hit by another one of her snowballs. “Hey!”

“You suck at this,” She grinned at them.

“Who is she?!” Ori asked, ducking as she threw another one.

“What are you- Ginny?” Ron said, poking his face in.

“Merry Christmas, brother dearest!” She sang, pelting him with half a dozen snowballs.

“That's it,” Harry said, wiggling out, and throwing one back at her. Unfortunately, she was prepared and took cover behind her snow hill.

“Why are you wasting our time? Just admit defeat or fight!” Hermione stomped over, Teddy and Neville, right behind her.

“It's not our fault! She was the one who started it!” Ori protested, pointing at Ginny's head peeking from behind her hill.

“Who-”

“She's my sister,” Ron said impatiently. “Ginny, I told you to leave us alone!”

“But I want to play!”

“You're a girl! This is a boys-only game,” He said.

“No, it's not! She's playing!” Ginny accused.

“Hermione's not a girl-”

“I am!” Hermione said angrily. “And I say we let her play,” She glared at Ron, much to Ginny's delight.

“That's not fair! You'll have four players then,” Harry protested.

“I'm going inside. I didn't want to play in the first place,” Neville moaned, wiping his nose on his sleeve.

“Come on, we can hide behind my snow hill,” Ginny said to Teddy and Hermione.

“It's still unfair,” Harry whined, as they tried to find a place to hide.

“Why didn't you let her play with us? We could have won,” Ori grumbled to Ron.

“I didn't know she was so good at it!”

“What are you doing here? This is enemy lines,” Ori asked as Teddy joined them.

“They kicked me out! Said they wanted a girls vs boys game!”

“It's four against two,” Ron said hopefully. “We can win this.”

“I don't think so,” Harry said, just as the girls rolled over their snow hill into a gigantic ball and sent it towards them. Before they could even register what was happening, the ball hit them, half burying them in the snow.

“We win!” Ginny and Hermione chanted, walking around them as they loudly protested and tried to free themselves, failing miserably. It was a good Christmas.

20 years later

“Yeah, yeah, it was a great Christmas,” Harry called exasperatedly as he made his way out into the back. As much as he loved both Hermione and Ron, he thought he'd explode if they regaled their proposal one more time.

“The lovebirds are here then?”

Harry turned his head to see Ginny sitting on a box by the friends, a bottle of butterbeer in hand.

“They arrived two hours ago,” Harry said with a slight shudder.

“Merlin! The proposal took two minutes! How on earth do they stretch it out for two hours,” Ginny asked horrified.

Harry snorted. It honestly wouldn't have been so bad, if Ron hadn't forced the plan down his throat a dozen times before proposing.

“They're coming to yours next,” Harry said.

“I was never here. You never saw me, ” She said, looking him dead in the eyes.

He laughed, feeling the familiar burst of excitement like he did every time he saw her. Honestly, it had been too long.

“Been a while, hasn't it?” Ginny smiled slightly, as though reading his thoughts.

“Last World Cup, after your game,” He said, a little too quickly.

“Almost four years,” She nodded, a faraway look in her eyes.

“Heard you're up for this year's team as well,” He commented.

“Yeah,” She said, pursing her lips in a way that was very unlike her. I 

“Big step down from last time's reaction,” He raised his brows, remembering her jubilation.

“I'm thinking of quitting,” She said abruptly.

“Oh,” He didn't know what to say to that. For some reason, he thought she'd play till she was old and wrinkly.

“What are you smiling about?” She asked with narrowed eyes.

“Nothing, never thought you'd want to quit.”

Her lips quirked. “Thought you'd have to pry away the broomstick from my dead, cold hands?” She asked, thinking of all the times she'd used that phrase when her mother protested her choice of a career.

“Something along those lines,” He said, amused.

“I would have thrown a fit if someone told me four years ago that I'd be considering leaving Quidditch,” Ginny commented.

“Why are you leaving, then? Is everything alright?” He asked gently.

“Yes,” She sighed, taking a swig of her butterbeer. “It's just… It's just not fun anymore. I miss home. I'm missing out on so many things. I couldn't even make it to Vic's birthday two years in a row, and I haven't come home for Christmas in what-”

“Three years,” Harry supplied. “I get it. You don't have to justify anything. I was only curious.”

She smiled. “I know. But I'll only quit after the World Cup. Got to set some more records, haven't I?”

“I thought being Witch Weekly's sexiest athlete was the highest honour,” He teased.

“I'm afraid you've been lied to,” Ginny said with mock sympathy.

“Witch weekly? Lie? Never in a million years. Next, you'll be telling me you and Angelina aren't in a scandalous relationship, hoping to conquer the Quidditch world?”

“I'm afraid Angie chose George over me. Don't know why she'd pick his sneaky ass over innocent old me,” She sighed dramatically.

“You? Innocent? You're sneakier than George,” Harry narrowed his eyes at her.

“Oh?” She asked innocently, before pelting his face with snow she'd hidden in her fist, just like she'd done the first time they'd met.

“At least, you don't have a giant mountain to hide behind, this time,” Harry retorted, aiming a snowball at her.

“Who said that?” She laughed before hiding behind a snow hill Vic or Dom had probably made.

“You never play fair!” He accused.

“You sound like all those losers of the opposite team, who just can't admit defeat,” She stuck her tongue out at him as another snowball hit him. “That's how you throw, learn it from a pro,” She bragged.

“That's funny 'cause there's something we aurors do when the other guy is playing dirty,” Harry said.

“What's that?”

“We tackle them to the ground,” He said, spinning her around by the waist.

“Harry! You use magic to catch them!” She shrieked, through her laughter.

“Not in muggle areas!” He corrected, before losing his balance and falling over Vic's hill, Ginny squished between him and the snow.

“Looks like you lost your snow hill,” He murmured, heart beating wildly at how close they were.

“Don't you aurors have to pay for the property damage?” Ginny demanded.

“Ah, you caught me,” He said with mock disappointment. “Go on, name your price, then.”

“You got snow all over my mouth, and now I'm freezing. I think you ought to kiss it better,” She said seriously.

“Oh yeah?” He grinned.

“Yes.”

“Well, if I must,” Ginny's snort of amusement was lost in her throat as he closed the distance between them.

“All better?” He mumbled against her lips.

“Mm,” She smiled.

“You hit me in the face with snow twenty years ago, I think you owe me something too.”

“Well, then,” She said, kissing him again.

“With interest since you're paying me back so late,” She laughed into his mouth, both of them feeling inexplicably happy.

“I'm so glad we're doing this. I have no idea how I'd have managed not to do that if we're going to be organising a wedding,” Ginny said as they pulled back.

“I know I wouldn't have been able to hold back. Besides, isn't it tradition for the Best Man and Maid Of Honour to bet together?” He winked.

She let out a laugh, giving him a short kiss, just as they heard voices from inside.

“It's time for proposal listening again, I guess,” Harry sighed.

“I put some of Fred and George's canary cream in Ron's pudding,” Ginny smirked, and Harry thought that handling what was sure to be an exasperating wedding would turn out to be the most fun in the world if she was there by his side.

[goldenretriever-nicknelson]

New year, Old feels ~ P.P

A/N: It’s officially New Year over here so Happy 2021! I hope it’s amazing for all of you! This was originally meant to be another fic but I repurposed it and here it is, a little new years eve fluff for you all. I wasn’t going to post this but I ended up liking it. 

WC: 2.5k

Warnings: mentions of drinking

Peter watched the snowflakes flitter past his window as the sun hit its peak in the sky. He stretched out his seat and ran his fingers through his curls as he thought about the one person that had been occupying his brain. 

One of his best friends from high school and the girl he had a crush on since freshman year had recently come back for Winter break. It had been a whole year of lost contact since you had moved away for college. Peter had promised he would keep in contact but between Spidey duties and college work piling up he had let you slip from his mind. It didn’t help that he’d also seen you had a new boyfriend and Peter felt the same jealousy he had always felt about you creeping back up. Feelings he would rather have forgotten. 

The last time you had talked exactly one year ago today at the annual New Year’s Eve party you had gotten into a fight because of said jealousy which ended with you storming out before midnight. Peter had planned to finally confess his feelings and kiss you that night but plans change and so do people.

He kept going back to your contact page on his phone or your social media, sometimes he’d even type out a message but he would delete it before he could press send. Nothing seemed right anymore, he was scared that if he tried to say something to you it would be the wrong thing and end up pushing you away even more. 

It got hard, especially over Christmas. All he wanted was to text you or call you and all he thought about was if you were having a good day or not. He wanted to hear that excitement in your voice and how he could always tell if you were smiling even through the phone. The present he had wrapped for you still lay under his bed, catching his eye every so often and breaking his heart even more.

May, Ned and MJ had tried to cheer him up and get him into the festive spirit but the truth was that without you, it wasn’t the same and Peter was sure it never would be. So he was pretty miserable for most of the festive season, he had gotten up the courage to message you merry christmas but he was yet still to get a reply. 

Just as he was looking at the read message on his phone, something hit his window pulling Peter from his spiralling thoughts. Whatever it was disappeared quickly but still made Peter look out his window to see Ned attempting to throw snowballs at his window. 

He gave a small chuckle and threw on his coat and gloves before heading to meet his best friend. 

“You know you can just text me right?” 

“Yeah but this is way more fun.” Ned laughed and threw a snowball directly at Peter who managed to dodge it perfectly much to Ned’s dismay. “That’s cheating.” 

Peter just shrugged and smirked as he made a snowball and aimed at Ned who wasn’t so quick to dodge and ended up with a face full of snow. Peter let out a laugh and ran away as the snowball fight got into full swing.

Ned got in a few good shots but it was Peter who was in the lead. He was just about to deliver the final devastating blow when someone else intercepted it. The snowball hit May right on the cheek. 

“Oh my god, May! I’m so sorry.” The tip of Peter’s ears went pink as his aunt glared over at him before letting out a laugh. 

“It’s fine honey.” May smiled at him, happy to see her nephew finally having fun and smiling. She invited Ned in for some leftover pie and he followed her inside with Peter behind. 

Peter went back up to his room and showed Ned the new spider-man tech he was working on. Keeping focused on Spider-man stuff and being on patrol had served as a good distraction to what was happening inside of his brain. He had hoped after a year, he’d forget about you but all the festivities just reinforced the feelings of longing and missing. 

He was just rambling about the new gadget he was working on when his phone popped up with a notification. His eyes immediately drifted to his phone but after seeing it was only a candy crush notification, they dropped with disappointment. 

“Dude.” Ned gave him a look and Peter knew what he was about to say. “Just tell her.” 

Peter shook his head, feigning ignorance of knowing what Ned was saying and shrugged. “Tell who what?” 

“Tell Y/n you love her. It’s so obvious and she’s only back in town for a few weeks.” Ned sighed and smiled as Peter’s cheeks went bright red. He tried to deny it but he knew it was no use. 

“I-I can’t.” Peter put his head in his hands and sighed deeply. “I can’t ruin things more than I already have.” 

Ned looked at Peter sadly, he’d never quite seen Peter like this. Sure he’d seen Peter broken after a few fights and battles but he’d always gotten back up, this time it just seemed like he didn’t want to. 

“You know what I think you need?” 

Peter looked up at him expectantly and raised his brow. 

“Social interaction.” 

Peter gave Ned a somewhat disgusted and confused look, shaking his head before realising what he was talking about. 

“Nope, definitely not.” 

Despite his words and his adamant attitude not to go, Peter found himself putting on his best shirt and jacket for a party. He’d already had to talk to more people than he usually did and he really wasn’t in the mood for a party especially not a New Year’s Eve one. 

He remembered this time last year as he watched all the couples around him and how he had wanted what they had so badly with someone. He just never realised that the person he wanted to be with was right under his nose the whole time. 

And now he’d screwed everything up for good. He’d be amazed if you ever spoke to him again after the way he’d acted but if there was one thing about Peter, it was that he always held onto hope. 

He walked into the party with Ned, taking a deep breath as he looked around the room. People were already well into the party spirit with drinks and those cheesy glasses and hats that read “2021”. Peter felt someone clap their hand on his shoulder and turned around to see Flash, already tipsy by the smell of his breath. 

“Penis! I didn’t expect you here. I thought you’d still be crying over Y/n and her new boyfriend.” He made some kissy noises before handing Peter a pair of party glasses and stumbling away. Peter’s face burned red with jealousy and anger. 

So that’s why you’d been so distant. Peter wondered for a second if it was the same college guy you’d been seeing and immediately started trying to scan the room for the face he’d seen in the picture. His heart was racing and his whole body felt like bursting with the amount of emotion he was trying to hide. 

Ned tried to distract him, getting him a drink and including him in some drinking games but Peter’s mind stayed distracted. He assumed you’d be here but maybe you had known he’d be coming and wanted to avoid him or maybe you were too busy with your new boyfriend to think about parties. 

Every thought about you only made Peter grow more upset until finally the alcohol started to numb his feelings and thoughts just enough for him to relax more. Peter started to actually enjoy the party and even won a few drinking games. 

He was just about to get another drink when finally he spotted you across the room, sat in the same spot that you both had been last year. Peter’s memories of that night rushed back; the way you looked so pretty even in the dim light of the party and the sadness in your eyes before you stormed out. Most of all he remembered how you’d cheered him up from that miserable night of being single and the laughter you had shared. He wanted all of that again, he wanted you again. 

The first thing Peter noticed was how miserable you seemed. You were staring into your cup as you swirled your straw around in the liquid, deep in thought so it seemed so much so that you didn’t hear or see him approaching. 

Peter fidgeted with his shirt as he took a deep breath before sitting next to you. You looked at him in surprise before quickly going back to stirring your drink absentmindedly. Both of your minds were whirring at twice their speed trying to figure out what to say and how to act to the person who had been your best friend but for the past year had only felt like a stranger. 

“N-nice party.” Peter mumbled, cringing the moment he spoke. You bit back a giggle and nodded slowly before looking at him. He met your gaze and both your cheeks burned red before you both let out a laugh at the awkwardness. 

“I’m sorry, i was trying to think of something to say and-” Peter laughed and blushed as you smiled at him. 

“Definitely a 10 out of 10 for effort.” You giggled and sipped on your drink, looking back out at the party. The laughter died quickly between you and the awkward tension creeped back in. 

Peter followed your gaze and watched as couples danced around the room. He had hoped last year that when new year’s rolled around again he wouldn’t be single. He had thought that college would help him forget you but if anything it only made him miss you more because every time something happened whether it be good or bad, you were the only one he wanted to tell just like you had always been. 

The truth was that he missed you so much it physically hurt him. Sure it had eased for a while and he knew it was his fault but that didn’t stop the pain from the moment he saw you whether through a screen or sitting next to him right now. 

He had seen all the happy memories you’d been having at college and he wished that he could have been a part of them with you or at least had you tell him all about them but it felt like you were just two strangers now. 

“So how’s college been?” You asked idly, a tension in your voice that Peter couldn’t quite place. 

“G-good. Stressful but good.” He nodded and felt the blush start to spread on his cheeks again. You hummed and nodded, fidgeting with the hem of your dress. “How about you?” 

You looked downwards as Peter turned to you, gripping your drink tighter in your hand. “Um it’s been okay.” It might have been a while since Peter had last seen you but he knew you well enough to know when you were lying. 

“Y/n-?” 

“It sucks okay?” You turned to him sharply and Peter saw the water build up in your eyes, threatening to spill. “I hate it. I missed my home, my friends and I missed…. ” You trailed off your sentence, your cheeks turning red under the dim lights of the room. Peter didn’t have to ask but he hoped he knew what you meant. 

He carefully placed his hand over yours and gave a gentle squeeze. “I missed you too.” 

You looked up in surprise and let a tear fall down your cheek which Peter quickly wiped away. Your heart was racing and you could feel your face burning red the more you looked at Peter’s soft expression.

A million questions were whirring in your mind but you chose the one that had been on your mind for a year. “Why didn’t you keep in touch?” 

Peter sighed and looked down at the floor, he’d been dreading that question the most. “I-I saw your instagram. You had this new life, new boyfriend and well I thought that you didn’t need me anymore.” Peter covered up his sniffle with a cough and sipped on his drink. 

“Peter.” You squeezed his hand and rubbed your thumb over his knuckles until Peter finally looked up at you. “I will always need you.” 

Peter’s heart thumped loudly as his whole body lifted with hope. You didn’t hate him. He knew this was his only chance to tell you the thing Ned had been pushing him to tell you all year. The thing he knew he needed to say and it was the alcohol in his system that gave him the courage to do it.

You gave him a soft smile, practically being able to watch the cogs turn in his head which meant he was thinking something through. The words were bubbling in your chest, threatening to spill like word vomit but you bit your tongue. You wanted to tell Peter the real reason you had been miserable and why you were so thankful to see him here again but you were scared. 

“Y/n.” Peter sat up straight and took both of your hands in his, squeezing gently. “I have to tell you something.” 

You looked at him with a smile, covering up how nervous you felt because if it was what you wanted to say too then this really was it. 

The countdown started in the background but all you could see was Peter. The way he had tried to tame his curls with gel, the fancy shirt he always wore to parties and the nervous smile that played on his lips. For Peter all he could see was you and even with his heightened senses the background noise faded. 

“3…2…1... ” 

Peter took a deep breath but before he could speak, you felt the liquid courage in your system and took the first move. You crashed your lips onto his and kissed him. 

“HAPPY NEW YEAR!” 

Peter hummed in surprise and his body panicked for a moment before he realised what was happening and cupped your face in his hands as he started to kiss you back. The words that he meant to say died on his tongue but he knew that everything you both felt was being said in that moment as your lips moved in sync with each other’s. 

It was perfect, it was blissful, it was pure heaven. Just like Peter had always imagined. When it finally ended due to much needed air and the interruption of a party popper covering the both of you, you both broke into laughter as you held each other close. 

“I love you Y/n, I always have.” Peter’s warm breath ghosted over your lips as he rested his forehead against yours, a wide smile on his face. 

You smiled back and ran your fingers through his curls, breaking them out of the gel. “I love you too Peter, always.” You giggled before kissing him again and again, finally feeling on top of the world. 

This whole year had been a disaster but having you in his arms was all Peter needed and now there was a whole new year waiting to start over again, for good this time. 

Permanent - @eeyore101247​ @geminiparkers​ @darlingspidey​ @ameelia @calltothemisha​ @parkerpeter24 @rebekkah4766​ @peaches-parker @tom-hlover @parker-hollandx @call-me-baby-gir1​ @cosmicvibecheck @outshineallthestars @theliterarymess @dummiesshort

Peter Parker - @teen--marvel @musicalkeys @spideyspeaches @kickingn-ames @shakespeareanqueer

[al3x1ss]

Bring them to your home for the holidays {HCs}

Includes: Oikawa, Akaashi, Noya, Terushima, Kiyoko

THIS IS WRITTEN WITH A FEMALE READER! ALSO, ALL CHARACTERS ARE AGED UP!

Author’s note: In my family, thanksgiving means the Christmas stuff is put up after breakfast, so I got this idea ab the holidays and I got v happy. Enjoy!

Warnings: None, fluffy holidays for y’all!

Oikawa

okay mans HATES the cold confirmed

like snow comes he’ll probably hiss

(HISSING AT SNOW ME HONESTLY LMAO)

(Not me seeing a few feet of snow with my sisters and going “wow look at all that cocaine”)

ANYWAY

so y’all met when both of you happened to be in Brazil and he thought you were cute

long story short you had a few dinner dates, even hung out with Hinata!!

you guys hit it off very well :)

so you guys have been together for about 2 years and you’re like ya know what

“Come to my house for the holidays :)”

not only is this man a simp but he loves the warmth so ofc he says yes!!

so while you’ve lived here all your life, only really moving out of Tampa to Miami, you did have to take this tourist him to a basic spot

but you did want to take him to some of your favorite places

after him seeing your family again, you took him to one of your favorite carnivals!

then classic gotta go to the beach I mean

why not go to the ocean!!

issue with December weather in Florida is it changes every second so today was a bit C H I L L E D

(You did have to force him to eat something other than rice tho)

Picky eater kawa confirmed

what better way to spend December 25th than Disney

I mean

Mans whole went “wow 😍” when you told him

Kiyoko

BEST WOMAN I LOVE WOMEN

ahem

you were an exchange student during her whole high school career, turning into best friends and deciding to go to college together

college came along, and with the help of a few friends, parties, and a little too much twister, you realized

you were actually lesbian.

which you know what, we support!

it’s not like you’ve never liked a boy, it just happened to be that women were more your type

oh yeah another thing

Kiyoko is the prettiest thing in your eyes.

OH ANOTHER ANOTHER THING

HAVE I MENTIONED YOU REALIZED THAT YOU’VE ACTUALLY LIKED HER SINCE YOUR 1ST YEAR IN COLLEGE

NO?

OKAY.

so what you DONT know is that Kiyoko has realized she actually feels the same

during your third year in college, she had broken up with her boyfriend of a year, Tanaka, but never told you why

Huh

i wONdEr whY

But, after living in Japan for 7 years, Christmas time is rolling around once again

And you are going home for the holidays!

usually you would go home during summer break, but this time you really wanted to spend Christmas since your older brother had your niece!

and since Kiyo didn’t have any plans you were like

“hey, do you want to come home with me?”

home girl choked on her water 😳

“H-home?”

“Yeah! I’m going back to New Orleans for the holidays.”

cue brain calming down and like sLIGHT disappointment

but

it’s you

and she loves you.

HANGING OUT WITH YOU SORRY

so you guys did presents and stuff

your niece LOVES Kiyoko btw

your dad was like “👀”

I SEE YOU YOU SEE ME MAn

been knew you were 💅AND HE SUPPORTS

so around 4 you’re like let’s go do something!!

and she says okay!!

so one movie Kiyoko really loved was “Princess and the Frog”

Funny enough there’s actually a bakery you’ve gone too growing up

so you get New Orleans’ best beignets!

Ahh, fun times

next, you’ll always hear some type of caroling anywhere you are in the city

which means?

SMALL PARTIES

DANCING

FUN TIMES

you see random groups of people smiling around 7pm, the sun already down

and you’re thinking to yourself

Hey

I want to ask her to dance.

and you do :)

YALL BUST D O W N LIKE YES MAAMS

continuing

Finally at around 10pm you take her to this one street where each place has a bunch of Christmas wonderlands lit up

hile it doesn’t really snow in New Orleans, people used fake snow!!

gotta get that spirit somehow 😗

when I say Kiyoko is a goddess I mean it

the lights bouncing off her face while she’s smiling?

*chefs kiss*

Terushima

ah yes the city that everyone thinks is a state

IM SORRY J

BUT IM NOT EHDJFJHH

So

Chicago!! ✨

Terushima HAS visited Illinois before

However, surprisingly has never been to Chicago

So you were like

I’m born here!! 🥰

Come come!!🥺

And he said

Si si!! 🤪

so y’all flew out on the 20th

while your parents don’t live here, some old friends do

and why not have them meet your amazing boyfriend!

literally all of them were shocked I mean

(Y/N) likes a boy with a tongue piercing?

wack

the amount of BONKERS

but yes you love him very much

and he loves you!!

honestly your friends already fell in love with you two being in love it’s canon

afterwards you guys went too ZooLights

HE HAD THE AUDACITY TO THROW A SNOWBALL AT YOU

“YUJI MY PANTS ARE WET”

“IM SORRY PRINCESS IT WAS JUST A GOOD TIMING-“

you threw one at his face

Not y’all fighting like little kids-

n e wayz

best way to end the 24th?

ice skating-

nope.

It’s actually buying late presents because you two actually forgot to get some people presents and Christmas is literally in like 4 hours!!

YOU COULDNT CATCH YUJI IF YOU TRIED😳

MANS WAS ZOOMIN THROUGH EVERY STORE

GRANDMA? GOT IT

UNCLE? SURE

NEPHEW? YOU DONT EVEN GOT A NEPHEW

It was mega fun tho

surprisingly y’all didn’t get kicked out

you almost did when Terushima thought it would be a good idea to ride a skateboard into the electronics section at target 🤡

but we will ignore that for tonight ❤️

Akaashi

A NOTE:

this one will be the longest one with the most detail for certain reasons! also, for akaashi’s you do have a given birthday because Dec 30th is actually my birthday and I wanted to sprinkle in some of that ❤️

alright

best for last :)

So you got to be in an exchange program during college

and that’s when you met akaashi since you guys were in the same classes!

he also showed you around and was very sweet

so you offered to get him coffee

and after a while he confessed by giving you a copy of a book you both really loved

but

you semester was ending

which means home for the holidays

luckily, you guys would only have one more semester away from eachother before you guys graduated

but you did want to spend the holidays together

so you offered for him to come to New York with you

boy got excited so fast my heart-

wOOSH FOR THIS MAN

But like Christmas in New York with your loving boyfriend of 4 years?

Sign me up

So you know that during winter it’s a hit or miss with snow

is it still freezing cold?

Yes.

But can we guarantee 3 feet of snow every December?

No.

But we can guarantee it in like March JEJHRTJ

so

one thing you told him immediately was that you guys will be watching the ball drop from the roof

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want to get mugged, shoved, or vomit on my shoes, Keiji.”

Yes ma’am indeed

so you guys had a pretty (quiet?) Christmas

your family?

LOUD AS CAN BE

but

Regarding to going places

You guys chilled all day in pajamas

Like the most y’all did was go to dunkin for hot chocolate

but the days leading to New Years?

GOTTA GO GO GO

Classic tree photo yes ma’am

nut crackers AND THOSE GIANT CHRISTMAS LIGHTS AND ORNAMENTS ACROSS FROM JIMMY FALLONS STUDIO?

Y’ALL KNOW THE STREET I FORGET THE STREET LMAO

bro side note their kabobs in that one corner

best thing I’ve ever had I stg

I haven’t been to the city since last Christmas wow now I miss it

OKAY NVM SORRY

you wanted to show Keiji so many things

but

You were used to walking like 10 blocks in any shoes as fast as you can

Akaashi was not 😂

So y’all had to take breaks sometimes

get him warmed and fed ya know

give the man smoochies 🥺

id be giving him smoochies 24/7 if I could

so you better for me 😠

His favorite place was the big Macy’s no lie

the perfumes and cologne section on the 2nd floor looked SO WELL PUT TOGETHER

okay nvm scratch that

FAO Schwartz was his favorite place

he loved the trains

you bought him a train as a late present SHH NO ONE SAY NOTHIN

So the 29th you decided to take him to where you were born

Brooklyn!

it was super fun showing him where you lived before you went to college

and before your siblings moved to different parts of the city

It was lovely

But the final thing you wanted to do was December 30th

your birthday :)

and one thing you absolutely love to do is ice skating

now usually you go ice skating at the public rink like a few minutes away from Rockefeller rink

not only was it cheaper, but there was a Panera like 2 blocks away so quick food!

but

you also wanted to give Keiji the experience

so you sucked it up and paid

you guys went at around 8 and had a blast

one of the best birthdays with him honestly

but, you realized people were starting to exit the rink at around 10

“Doesn’t the rink close at midnight?”

“Huh, weird.”

but Keiji kind of starts looking around while you realize you two are the only ones on the ice

So you’re like

I guess we have to get off 😔

But this sly fox

Pulls you to the center of the rink

Now, you were never one for the cliché act

Especially since so many proposals have happened on this rink that you’ve seen

But when you saw Keiji get to one knee

It didn’t even matter that this happened to so many other people

It was happening to you.

And it’s ESPECIALLY CLICHE

THAT IT WAS ON YOUR BIRTHDAY

however

I guess you can just suck it up, cuz at least you have a ring on your finger :)

- Lex 🖤🤍

End note: Let me know if you guys would like a part 2! Also if you have any ideas for a certain character or place, put it in asks!

[sidecarghost]

15x18+ Spn Coda Happy Destiel Ending Fic

Dean was in a hospital bed. His eyes stared blankly at the ceiling. There were no doctors, but Sam brought him here to take advantage of the medical equipment. He found his brother like a corpse with his eyes open sitting with his back against the wall of the bunker’s dungeon.

Chuck stopped by now and then to make sure Sam and Jack still looked miserable. They had not disappointed Chuck yet.

Jack could visit Dean’s dreams, and he brought Sam too in an attempt to awaken Dean. But Dean was blind to their presence. No matter how loud they screamed, Dean couldn’t hear them. And Dean couldn’t feel them, no matter how violently they hit him.

From what Sam could tell Dean was dreaming they were working with Michael to take Chuck down. And that Jack had some kind of power vacuum ability. Michael and Lucifer were throwing fireballs at eachother like a couple kids having a snowball fight. Lucifer somehow snapped Death out of existence, and now they had a pet dog running around the Bunker.

“It’s not supernatural, Sam,” Jack said. “I can’t fix him.”

“I know,” Sam held his brother’s hand and watched the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest. “That Heaven he is stuck in is so depressing though Jack. Jeez I can’t believe our dad is there with him. John definitely didn’t deserve to go to Heaven after the shit he pulled. Then Dean was talking like he was an actor from the AU where our lives were a tv show on that bridge. It’s just so bizarre I wish we could ease his mind.”

“Me too, but what can we do?” Jack asks.

“Something must have happened to Cas,” Sam says, “Dean keeps starting the same dream over and over telling the dream us that Cas saved him. By summoning the Empty somehow.”

“Cas had made a deal with the Empty. Maybe that let him summon the Empty here,” Jack said. Sam raised an eyebrow in question, so Jack explained the terms of the deal to Sam. The deal was a contract to save Jack’s soul, and the Empty would wait until Cas was happy and then strike him down and drag him away.

“So maybe the Empty has something to do with Dean going catatonic,” Sam says.

Sam and Jack watch the still body of Dean in the hospital bed.

They were the last three souls on an empty planet.

~~

Jack started performing the ritual he had seen Nick do to summon Lucifer from the Empty.

As the spell finished, Cas and Billie, emerged through a portal from the Empty.

Sam was surprised to see Billie and after glancing towards Jack it looked like he was too.

“Jack!” Cas hugged Jack and then Sam. “Hello Sam, where’s Dean?”

“He’s gone into a coma Cas,” Sam tells Cas. “We found him sitting against the bunker’s dungeon wall, and he hasn’t been responsive since then.”

“We have business Castiel,” Billie tells the angel.

“Billie, the CE, and I have decided Chuck needs to be stopped, and we have put aside our differences for the time being,” Cas says. “Jack can you help Billie with whatever she needs. Sam, show me where Dean is.”

Jack and Billie find Chuck and use a powerful spell that Billie learned from the CE to free Amara so she becomes the dominant form and Chuck is left trapped inside her mind for safe keeping. Amara snaps her fingers and the Rapture is undone. The world is full of noise once more as people and animals once again appear as though they had never left.

Amara tells Billie and Jack that she needs to leave and work to get Heaven fixed. Now that she understands light and darkness she is confident she can restore what her brother left broken. And she has ideas that may help the CE in the Empty too.

Billie thanks Jack for his help and leaves to restore order to her library and her reapers.

~~

Meanwhile, Sam took Cas to the hospital room. Dean was still staring at the ceiling. Cas walked up and cupped Dean’s face in his hand.

“Hello Dean,” Cas says softly staring down into the blank eyes of the man he loves.

Dean remained motionless. And a moment later Cas appeared in Dean’s dream.

Cas looked around and saw he was at a gas station. Dean was carrying a dog towards the Impala.

“Who would think finding a dog would be a miracle?” Cas overhears Dean tell the canine.

“Dean!” Cas yells.

Dean looks up, but he doesn’t see Cas. He looks right through Cas to something across the street. Cas turns and sees Chuck standing there laughing like a lunatic. The dog disappears in a puff of smoke.

Cas can’t get Dean’s attention. He runs up to Dean, but Dean can’t see him. He yells at Dean, but Dean can’t hear him. He punches Dean, but Dean can’t feel him.

Cas attempts to burn down the church where Michael is hiding but no one reacts to the raging inferno. They keep talking about some plan to defeat Chuck.

“Stop Dean!” Cas yells “Its not Chuck. Michael would be dead Chuck isn’t going to be fooled by some human house of worship.”

Dean is in the bunker, and Cas follows him through his dream never leaving his side. Dean hears the phone ring and answers “Cas!”

Cas wonders if he’s about to meet his dream self. He wonders if dream Cas is going to be taller. Cas watched Dean sprint up the stairs to meet him at the bunker door. And he sees Lucifer?

Well at least Lucifer is an enemy they have confidently beaten before. Cas ignores dream Lucifer and starts looking through the lore while dream Michael and dream Lucifer engage in some embarrassing snowball fight. Cas tries to tune it out while he searching desperately for something in the library that could help Dean’s condition.

Suddenly they are all at the side of a lake. Chuck killed Michael. And now he was beating the snot out of Sam and Dean. Cas tried to put his body as a shield between Chuck and the Winchester’s but no one was affected by his presence. Cas screamed in bitterness and frustration, but no one paid attention to him. Jack walked over and knocked Chuck down. Cas was relieved that Dean wasn’t getting hit anymore.

They got into the Impala and drove to some town. Jack made people appear and then Jack disappeared. Sam and Dean drove to the bunker. Dean drank himself to sleep and Cas watched over him.

The brothers started working a case and Cas watched in horror as a vampire in a mask pushed Dean into a spike.

Cas couldn’t watch Dean die not even in a dream. Cas grabbed his angel blade and slit his own throat. Cas was cutting his grace out. He hoped that if Dean had angel grace he’d snap out of it. Cas began to feel light headed from the quick drop in power.

Cas knelt down on the barn floor. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up and saw Dean smiling at him. The dream vampires and dream Sam all had disappeared. Cas and Dean were alone in the dark barn. Dean looked unhurt to Cas.

“Cas, why are you hurt?” Dean asked.

“You are in a coma Dean. I couldn’t wake you, and I thought angels don’t sleep. So I wanted to give you my grace,” Cas said.

Dean knelt down beside Cas, and put Cas’s hand to his own neck. “Heal yourself Cas!” Dean said with worry furrowed on his brow.

“I can’t Dean. I gave it all. I’m human now.” Cas smiled. Cas knew his situation was dire and now he’d bleed out. But he got to see his Dean again, and he couldn’t help from smiling. “I thought I lost you. Dean, does this barn remind you of the night we met?”

“Forget about the memories Cas. I want the real you. I’ve been stuck in this dream over and over. And I knew if I could just find you I’d snap out of it. You can’t leave buddy. We just found each other again. I thought you were gone forever. Because you never told me goodbye before,” Dean whispers to Cas. Dean puts his own hand over Cas’s throat and to his surprise his hand glows and Cas’s throat is healed.

“Cas, what the fuck?” Dean asks Cas.

“Uhh, you have my grace so now you have angelic powers.” Cas tells Dean.

“I don’t want them, Cas. Can I give them back? How do I fix this?” Dean asks. Dean stands up and offers Cas his hand to help him up.

“There is nothing to fix, Dean. I don’t need those powers anymore. I’d like to live a human life.” Cas looks at Dean.

“Cas, I think losing you. It broke something inside me. Everytime I lose you it gets harder for me to recover. When you pulled me out of Hell, I was torturing souls and I enjoyed it. Ever since then I’ve been barely keeping it together. I close my eyes and see myself ripping limbs off of humans with a smile on my face. Cas, you are the only one that knows that and still loves me. You have seen me at my worst and love me for me.” Dean tells Cas.

“Who you were then, that’s not who you are now. That doesn’t define you,” Cas says. “You—” Dean leans in to kiss Cas on the lips. Then Dean pulls back and looks at Cas. Cas appears totally astonished, and Dean smiles at Cas because he’s beautiful and amazing.

“I love you, Cas. I never believed in angels or a greater power before we met. I only believed in the things I could see. But then I met you Cas. You gave up Heaven, and everything you had ever known because you believed in doing the right thing. You believed in us. You fought for us.�� Dean said, “You are more than an angel to me. You are my Cas.” Dean wraps his arms around Cas. “Cas, can we get out of here?”

“Yes Dean, you just need to wake up,” Cas says.

~~

Cas blinks and is back in the hospital with Dean and Sam. The hospital also has nurses and technicians walking along the hallways.

“Hey Cas! It looks like the Rapture got reversed.” Sam looks at Cas. “Um... any luck with Dean?”

“Yes Sam, actually Dean was the one that pulled me out of the dream,” Cas said.

“Oh wow really?” Sam walked over to the side of Dean’s bed and leaned over to see if there was any change in Dean. Dean’s eyes were still open and looking on the ceiling. Then Sam felt an arm grab his shoulder and shake him, and Sam found himself flinching involuntarily.

“Got you!” Dean laughed.

“Go to hell,” Sam rolled his eyes and then leaned in to hug his brother.

Dean hopped out of bed, and asked Sam if he could borrow his knife. Sam nods and hands his brother his blade. Then Sam announces he has a text from Eileen, and he’ll be back in a bit.

“Where’s Jack?” Dean asks.

“Here I am,” Jack appears in the room. An orderly screams. “Oh don’t worry I’m a magician, and that was part of my magic act,” Jack tells the frightened orderly.

Dean grabs a specimen cup out of a drawer and slices his neck. The grace drips into the specimen cup. After it’s filled Dean replaces the lid on the jar.

“Dean, I meant it before I don’t want my grace back,” Cas says.

Jack reaches out to heal Dean’s neck. “Here Jack can you keep this in a pocket dimension for safe keeping?” Dean hands Jack the jar.

Jack nods his head and disappears. Another orderly screams but the first orderly explains it’s part of a magic act.

“I’m glad you still don’t want your grace,” Dean walks over to Cas and reaches out to hold his hands. “I’m ready to try new things. The stress of hunting has been wearing me down. I’m running on adrenaline and I am barely coping anymore. I’m too tired to feel anything but anger most of the time. I want to find some peace, and I’d like to grow old with you Cas.”

“And I’d like to grow old with you, Dean Winchester.” Cas says.

They share a kiss and then another. “Dean if we’re still in your coma, I don’t want to wake up,” Cas says.

“No Cas, we’re not dreaming. This is real. We’re real,” Dean tells Cas while punctuating the answer with kisses under his jawline. “And now that we have each other, nothing can drag us apart.”

[leechonspeeddial]

Midnight Shift: Carry On, Citizen Fang

Summary: Something wicked this way comes. If only Resentment could figure out if it was the same thing that stunk up the Burger King. Chapters: 2/? Read on ao3

Straight Kevin had been very understanding about my family emergency – He was super duper cool with manning the restaurant all by his lonesome. Sadly, he wasn't understanding enough to let me get away with not telling Gay Kevin about it – which wasn't very super duper cool of him, now was it?

He didn't even have the decency to offer to call for me, the fucking coward.

"Are you certain it's an emergency?"

I rolled my eyes and skipped over the muddy snow pile blocking the sidewalk. I felt a sense of kinship with the season. Besides the cold and death, Winter went all out when it came to inconveniencing the population.

"Trust me, Kev. If I wanted to blow off work, I'd do it on location. I'm not exactly in a rush to get home, ya know?"

The line went quiet for exactly five seconds and I could picture him doing that breathing exercise he did whenever he was fed up with my shit. I took the opportunity to loudly slurp my mello yello.

Delicious.

"I don't know, you could be ditching to hang out with friends or something. Teens do that. I did that." I almost laughed, as if.

"I spend all of my free time at work and everyone my age thinks I'm pregnant with an incest baby. Bold of you to assume I even have friends."

"You would get friends if you felt like it would inconvenience me. And it would really inconvenience me right now"

"Ugh. Don't be so dramatic. I don't do things just to be a general nuisance," I heard a snort that didn't come from Gay Kevin. "Wait, did you put me on speaker?!"

"What's the word, Res" Not Kevin chimed in before being shushed by Gay Kevin.

"Relax, we're loading the rental. I don't exactly have a free hand."

"So? This only needed to be like two seconds. Take a five or something."

"I'm going to level with you, our new napkin guy gives me real sketch vibes. Any second where we're not loading, it's an additional second we have to spend here. I simply refuse to die in a dilapidated warehouse, Resentment. I refuse."

I crossed the street to take the park shortcut home. A couple of high schoolers were vaping by the swings; they stared at me and I ignored them.

"I think you'd survive. You exude final girl energy"

"Have you ever watched a horror movie? I'd literally die first"

"I watched Practical Magic once" I smirked when Not Kevin groaned.

My satisfaction didn't last long, because no more than a second later, a snowball hit the back of my head. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I couldn't gloat to Edward about having the moral high ground if I murdered every minor annoyance that crossed my path.

It just sucked having to ignore my vampire senses because I had to play human. What was the point of knowing something was coming if you were unable to stop it because you had to keep up appearances? In my opinion, humans should just have to deal with the knowledge of the supernatural. They were big kids, we didn't need to coddle them anymore.

It was 2022, for God's sake.

I turned back scowling and flipped off the fuckers. I recognized High-Pony in the group and decided to give her the soggiest, saddest, AND smallest fries next time she dared enter my work.

Maybe even sprinkle some burnt ones for extra flavor.

"I know what you're doing and I'm begging you to stop. I'm the one who has to deal with him for the next two hours"

"Don't be rude. Not Kevin is a gift," I glared at the group and slowly walked away backwards. At least until they were out of my sight. The Cullens were insane for going back to high school as often as they did.

"Ha. It's nice to be appreciated"

"Truly. Short of a museum, where else are you going to find something so old?"

"Boo. Get new jokes, the material is stale," I rolled my eyes as I shook the snow from my hair. I was rapidly approaching home and I wasn't quite prepared to go in.

For one, how was I supposed to keep my new mystery to myself if that's what Alice saw? It wasn't fair. To think I had only been worried about Big Brother and his thought police...

Reflecting on it though, if Alice saw my mystery man, then wouldn't that mean he was either a vampire or a human? Ergo, something neither mysterious nor interesting.

Disappointing.

"Whatever, gramps"

"Ok, ok. Let's get back on topic –"

"You gotta start trying harder, Chucky. You're far from the only teen girl that calls me ancient on the regular."

"Why are you regularly taking to teenage girls, creep?"

"Guys –"

"That's not what–! I foster kids!"

"Yeah, sure, pervert"

"I'm NOT –"

"OK RESENTMENT, DEAL WITH YOUR FAMILY. HANGING UP NOW"

I stopped walking and stared at my phone. Despite the length of the call, there had been no new messages from my family. I was unsure if that was a good sign.

I took a sip from my drink and was disappointed to find I only had ice left. I wondered if that was thematically significant, or maybe even foreshadowing.

Sigh.

I picked up my pace and tried to empty my mind before arriving home. "No thoughts, head empty" was a good mantra when you lived with a mind reader.

The rest of the walk was fairly uneventful, save for some guy who got attacked by a flock of ducks for getting way too close without enough food. Beware, all amateur wildlife photographers, lest the same fate falls upon you, I guess.

Poor guy even lost his coat. I was happy to assume it was the first casualty under the duck assault.

I slowed down when I finally arrived across the street from my home.  The newest Cullen mansion stood foreboding before me. A concrete monument full of sharp lines and odd angles; despite all of Esme's soft touches, brutalism simply exuded hostility and soullessness. Try as she might, there was a limit to how much you could dress up a giant grey concrete block to make it look approachable – and if we were being honest, it wasn't working.

How's that for a metaphor?

Well. There was no use delaying the inevitable.

I entered the house.

[Scene Break]

Being a half-vampire meant that I always felt at a misstep with everyone around me. To me, humanity was more of a scientific field of study that I took interest in and less of a dearly held-on memento of a bygone era or something that I simply had.

From the vampire side of things, while I was clearly an abomination, my existence didn't require me to be a parasitic blood freak. That put me in a different head space from the rest of my family. For one, I didn't need to agonize over my monstrous nature; secondly, I wasn't a slave to my bloodlust if I kept myself full of human food; and thirdly, there just wasn't much precedent for me to measure up to.

For all we knew, everything I did was the best I could have done.

That was all to say, I always felt like there was something I was missing when interacting with anyone. My point of view was fundamentally a different one, and though some things I could make sense of theoretically, it wasn't the same as first-hand experience.

Standing in the living room, surrounded by my family as they continued to say nothing, I couldn't help but think that perhaps this time the context I was missing had nothing to do with my hybrid status.

Edward paced while looking constipated but everyone else stood motionless and rigidly like the statues they were. Not even Emmett tried to lighten the mood, and that's how you knew it was serious.

"So who's going to who's funeral? Please don't say any of my coworkers, I've grown quite attached to them"

"Renesmee," Edward warned. I ignore him like he ignored my preferred name.

"Is it you pops? Wanna crack open another high school girl and drink her up like grape soda?"

"For once in your life could you stop acting like a brat?" Edward snapped and I flinched.

"Takes one to know one. Maybe if you didn't raise one you wouldn't have to deal with one, dad"

"Enough!" We both turned to look at Carlisle and I could see how unsettled he was. My stomach churned.

"Maybe my vision was wrong. Maybe it wasn't him," Alice sounded desperate, almost like the time the truck transporting her latest Givenchy haul got into a freak accident and the customer service lady told her they couldn't replace her order until after whatever microtrend that had been happening at the time ended.

"No, Alice. I saw your vision. It was. No doubt about it, that face is burned in my memory"

"It just doesn't make any sense, Edward!"

"I know what I saw," he replied forcefully.

Carlisle rubbed at his eyes, and for the briefest of seconds, you could have mistaken him for human.

"What's going on? You guys are scaring me," nothing felt right and all I wanted to do was to get back to the Burger King. At least the Kevins kept me in the loop when potentially life-threatening stuff happened.

"James is back," Bella whispered and I looked at her. Out of all of the Cullens, she looked the least worried. While everyone else's expressions visibly darkened at hearing the name, Bella said the name like she would say any name that wasn't Edward's.

"Who the fuck is James?"

"He was a vampire," Jasper growled.

"So what's the big deal? I don't know if you have noticed, but all of you are vampires"

"Emphasis on the was, Nessie. We ripped apart the bastard a good 16 years ago," Emmet explained. I raised my eyebrow.

"You sure about that? Last I heard, once you killed the undead, they were dead for good. No such thing as an undead undead."

"Oh, damn sure. We tore into him like frenzied piranhas at lunchtime and then lit him like a firework on the Fourth of July," Rosalie lightly hit his arm.

"You don't have to be so graphic about it"

"So it's obviously not him," Edward made a noise filled with frustration.

"Renesmee, I know what I saw. It was him, I would bet my life on it"

"Would you bet Bella's?" was what I almost said but Edward's glare made me reconsider. Just this once.

"Dead people just don't walk around all over the place," I said instead.

"We do," Emmett chimed in.

"We're different!"

"So why not him?"

"Edward is right," Classic Carl Carlisle move. His Golden Child could never be wrong. "I might have heard of something like this happening before."

There was a brief moment of silence before everyone exploded.

"WHAT?!"

Carlisle sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You have to understand, I couldn't verify it at the time."

When he said nothing, Esme made a "well, go on" motion.

"It happened about a decade ago. I only came upon this information because of Eleazar – he had approached me about it because he thought I was involved," Carlisle walked towards a window and stared into the distance like the dramatic bitch he was.

Edward slapped the back of my head.

"He told me heard of rumors of a vampire that had died 50 years ago and who walked the Earth again. You all know about my passion for Theology and my desire to find out what waits for us on the other side, so I promised to look into it. It took a while, but eventually, I heard back from someone"

"Your trip to Carencro," Esme gasped. "You said it was a conference!"

"When was this, I don't remember this?" Carl was holding back no punches in his dramatic reveal.

"It was our semester abroad," that's what Edward like to call the half a year experiment we spent in France. He wanted to see if Bella, him, and I could be a family unit all on our own.

It failed pretty miserably, would never happen again.

"I didn't want to burden you, love. Not unless I knew for sure."

Rosalie rolled her eyes. "So what happened?"

Carlisle turned back to us and shrugged.

"I met my informant and they told me to go to this one cafe and ask for Roy. I went there and the manager told me no one with that name worked there"

"So you got pranked," Emmet said.

"I looked around town for a couple of days, and since nothing else came up after my trip to Lousiana, I felt comfortable labeling the whole thing a hoax."

Rosalie scoffed. "And you think that's what's happening here?"

"I think it could be a possibility. This is our only lead"

I thought over what Carlisle just said. Could there really be an afterlife vampires could come back from? And if that was the case, then what happened to Roy? Was Roy even the vampire Elezear heard about?

But most importantly, why now?

"Hey, Alice. Besides James, what else did you see?"

Everyone went quiet and I looked back at them confused.

"I saw us without you"

"I mean, you don't really see me in your visions," I chuckled nervously.

"When I don't see you, it's like I'm looking around something. What I saw...it felt like I would never have to deal with that interference again."

"...Oh"

That didn't sound good.

[ruthoakenshield]

Henry’s Blind Date (part 2)

Ok so this was supposed to be a one shot tale, but I got so many people asking for a part two, that here it is! Hope you enjoy!!!

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You and Henry and Kal spent the following day and a half at the airport. Henry found things to keep you both entertained… including a snowball fight. The two of you had taken Kal outside to do his thing. It wasn’t terribly cold, warm enough to keep the snow wet so you could pack it into a snowball and it wouldn’t fall apart.

Henry was busy keeping an eye on Kal and you were standing off to the side. Your hands grazed a half wall you were near and you felt a thick layer of the wet snow. Grinning, you quietly made about six of the snowballs and gently placed them in your front pocket of your winter coat. You listened to see where Henry was, and could hear him breathing off to your left and slightly ahead of you. Grinning, you aim to where you think he is, then lob the snowball at that spot.

You hear it make impact and him huff with surprise. “What the…” you hear him say surprised and hear him brushing off his clothes. You take out two more snowballs and toss one at him and one at where you thought Kal was. You hear the one land with a “fwoomp” in the snow, but you hear the one you threw at Henry hit, cuz he laughs, then brushes it off. You sense him moving, hearing his footsteps crunching in the snow, and the next thing you know, you’re hit with two snowballs. You giggle and toss another one where you heard him a moment ago. ‘Fwoomp’ you hear it land in the snow.

Listening, you hear his breathing off to your left. Grabbing your last two snowballs, you toss one at the sound. “Flomp” you hear it hit him and he lets out a cry. “Hey, now, that’s not nice, going for the face!” he exclaims with a laugh. You giggle and aim lower and toss your last one. “Flomp” you hear it hit him and he grunts. “Okay, you’re dangerous with those, Little Miss!” he exclaims and quickly moves to grab you, wrapping his massive body around you, pinning your arms down.

You’re laughing and giggling, and can feel his warm breath smelling of rosemary on the side of your face. He gives you a peck on the cheek and it’s wet from the snow hitting him in the face.

Laughing, you squirm trying to get out of his grasp. He chuckles. “And just where do you think you’re going?” he teases. "To get more snowballs.” You tease.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Henry says with a laugh. “That last one got me near the jewels. No more snowballs for you, Little Miss!” he chortles and picks you up, tossing you over his shoulder. Your arm and shoulder resting on his backpack. You let out a squeak and giggle. “Henry! Put me down!!!” you demand, trying not to laugh as he reminds you of your Great Grandfather carrying your Great Grandmother around. “Not till we get inside. Don’t need you reloading along the way! Come on Kal! Let’s get you brushed off so we can get inside and out of the snow!” he tells the dog. “Wuff!” Kal replies.

You lay there, hanging over his massive shoulder. His huge arm securely wrapped around your short legs. His hand resting firmly on your thigh, just above the knee. His steps are strong and yet, graceful. He’s not a stomper, like some men you’ve encountered. He seems to be able to move with a lithe grace. You feel his pace slow and he lowers you back to the ground. “We’re under the canopy now, near the doors. Stay here for a minute. I need to get the snow of Kal so he isn’t dripping water everywhere.” Henry tells you with his velvety baritone voice that could melt your panties in seconds if he said the right thing. “Okay.” You reply.

“How much snow is there on the ground now?” you ask him. He looks around. “Well, they’ve been shoveling, so it’s hard to say. It looked like there was about 15 cm on the wall that you were standing by when we had the snowball fight.” He replies as he brushes the snow from Kal’s fur. You frown. “Um, Henry, I have no idea about metric measurements. I’m from the US, remember?” you remind him.

He chuckles, “Sorry. I forget about stuff like that sometimes. It’s about six inches.” He tells you. You nod. “Okay.” You reply.

You hear Henry stand and move closer to you. Kal’s nails tap against the concrete and you feel him rub against your leg. You reach down and give him a scratching on his damp neck. Henry takes your hand and the two of you head inside after he brushes the snow off of you and himself.

He takes you to a coffee shop and asks if you’d like something hot to drink. “Coffee, cocoa, tea?” he asks. You hum. “Oooh, all of them sound good. I think some Peppermint or honey-lemon tea would be good for now unless they have a peach tea.” You reply. He inquires and they tell you they have a peach vanilla tea that is new and ask if you’d like to try it. You shrug. “Sure, a small one please.” You reply.

Henry gets some coffee and the two of you head to a corner of a sitting area to sit and visit. Henry asks you what kind of things you enjoy doing for fun. You think for a moment and tell him, “Well I enjoy going to movies, and performances like plays and band or orchestra concerts.” You reply. Henry frowns. “I’m sorry if I seem ignorant, but how do movies and plays work for you when you can’t see what is going on, and can only hear it?’ he inquires.

You explain that there is technology available that all theaters have now that you can put in one of your ears and it describes what is going on in the scenes when there isn’t dialogue being spoken. ‘It’s almost like an audio book, in the way it’s done. A voice is describing things, pauses when there’s dialogue, and then continues with the descriptions of the scene.” You explain.

“Oh! That’s cool! I didn’t know that existed!” he replies. You chuckle. “I didn’t either, until someone mentioned it to me when my friends dragged me to go see a movie a while back. It was rather confusing for me though. The plot was one of those that bounced between the present and the past, and I had a hard time following it.” you explain. “It wouldn’t have been so bad, but they didn’t mention when the scene flipped to a flashback or a memory. I always struggled with those kinds of films unless they put a date or a little tag on the bottom of the screen stating when it was occurring… like, “One year ago…. or Fifteen months ago…” you know what I mean?” you reply.

“Yeah, I think I do. Some films I’ve seen do that and yeah, it helps to clarify the timeline of the movie much better.” Henry replies.

“I was listening to The Witcher on Netflix and had the same problem. I’m not familiar with the stories nor the videogames, as my family didn’t have them available to us growing up. My gal friends were gushing about the actor who plays the Witcher, and asked if I wanted to listen to it while they watched season 1 again.” You explain. “I struggled to follow the show’s timeline, because apparently it kept bouncing between the three characters and didn’t clearly explain that they were not happening during the same amount of time. I think the Witcher’s timeline was much longer than the little girl’s and the lady witch’s was quite a long amount of time as well.” You tell him.

Henry frowns when he hears your assessment of the show. “My friends tried to explain it to me, but they kept talking over each other while it was playing, and I just got confused. I did my best to try to figure out what was going on, but they wouldn't let me use my visually impaired aid so I could hear the descriptions, so I’m still a bit confused about it. Perhaps I’ll listen to it again, on my own, with the aid and maybe I’ll be able to figure it out.” You sigh.

“Hmmm.” Henry grumbles. You giggle. “You sound like that Witcher when you do that.” You tell him. Henry grins and leans over to you, and in his Geralt voice he says, “Well, that would be because I played him on the show.” And then he kisses your cheek. He chuckles at the astonished look on your face. “Wait… What?!?” you reply looking around for him, trying to sense where he is. His soft chuckle stops your head, and you focus on the sound. “Remember, I told you I was in the film industry?” He says quietly.

Your eyes open wide, even though you can’t see any better doing so. “But you didn’t say you were an actor! I thought you were one of the guys behind the scenes, like a… what are they called? Gaffer? Or a stunt guy!” you reply wishing you could see him so you could give him a smack up side the head. You couldn’t remember the name of the actor though, who played the Witcher. You wish you’d have listened better when your gal friends were talking now!

Henry is amused watching all the different expressions flit across your face. He sits there, playing with your fingers and is amused by how tiny they are compared to his. He lifts your hand up and presses his heel of his hand against yours, lining his fingers up with yours. He chuckles as your finger tips just barely reach his second knuckles on his fingers. He can literally curl all his fingers down over the tops of yours.

“What are you doing with my hand?” he hears you ask, suddenly distracted by him playing with your fingers. “Just being amused at how small your hands are compared to mine.” He replies with a grin you can hear.” You chuckle. “Well you do seem to be a very large man compared to me.” You reply.

You hear him chuckle and clear his throat. “That I am, dear Tyyne.” He coos, “And I’m all yours to enjoy.” He purrs in your ear, leaning over and placing a kiss to your neck. You shiver at the sensation.

“So if you’re an actor, what else have you been in? I feel incredibly dumb now. I should’ve been able to make the connection earlier.” You say and hang your head, feeling disappointed in yourself.

Henry frowns. “It’s okay, Tyyne. Don’t feel bad about not recognizing me. I’d imagine it is hard to recognize most people, like you said yesterday, unless they have a very unique voice or gait or something like that.” He tells you, cupping your face with his huge hand.

You nod. “I’ve been in a few things. ‘Man of Steel, The Tudors, Batman vs Superman, Night Hunter, Mission Impossible: Fallout, Sand Castle, and a host of smaller roles in tv shows and films.” He tells you.

Your eyes widen realizing you’ve heard several of them, “Wait! Are you the guy who played Superman?” you ask, starting to put the pieces together. Henry just smiles amusedly. “Yes, Sweetheart, your dating Superman.” Henry whispers in your ear. “And Charles Brandon, and Capt. Syverson, and August Walker. All of which I have played.” He purrs.

You giggle, feeling honored that he chose to ask you to date him despite your lack of vision. “So why would a big name actor like you want to date someone like me? Henry, I just don’t get it. You could have anyone in the world, why choose a blind nobody?” you ask.

Henry grins. “Because she bumped into me, let me help her, was nice to me and got to know me without the looks, fame and career getting in the way,distracting her.” He informs you with a hint of a grin in his tone that you picked up. You blush. “Well, to be fair, I had no way to know you were a famous actor unless you told me. So, I was at a bit of a disadvantage, but it’s okay. Aren’t you worried, though, about how the film industry will handle you dating a blind woman?” you inquire.

Henry shrugs. “Not really. It’s my life. I enjoy your company, I enjoy your wit and mind and your ‘I don’t take crap from no one’ attitude. You don’t let your lack of eyesight dictate your life. You want to do something, you find a way to do it…like you traveling to England with no plans other than to just experience it to the fullest of your abilities and take it one moment at a time.” He says affectionately. “You are far braver than I am, my dear Tyyne.” He tells you quietly as his fingers curl around the back of your neck and into your hair. He gently pulls you over to him and he gives you a hug. “I admire you greatly, Love.” He purrs into your ear.

You blush again and enjoy his embrace. The two of you sit there and talk with Kal laying at your feet. After a while, Henry looks around. “How about we walk some more?” he inquires. You nod and stand, then stretch. You had changed into a different outfit this morning and wore a pair of black jeans and a grey t-shirt with a green zip up, light weight sweater. Your green jewelry sparkled in the overhead lighting and caught Henry’s attention. It looked like an old set of jewelry. “I like your jewelry you have on today.” He says.

You frown for a moment, forgetting what you have on. “Can you describe it? I’ve completely forgotten which set got packed with this outfit.” You say blushing. Henry chuckles and lifts the round pendant from off your chest thinking about how to describe the jewelry to you.

“Well. The stud earrings you have here,” he says and touches your second hole earrings in your ears, “are a green stone with swirls and flecks of blue, teal, turquoise, and gold. They are round and are encased in a gold setting that resembles a crown. These dangly earrings have green emerald looking stones at the top, then the same green, blue, teal, turquoise and gold flecked stone under each emerald, except they are a teardrop shape. The metal work is all gold. Your necklace is a gold chain that looks old and has the same flecked stone in it as your earrings. It looks like the studs in shape, design and color except it is about two inches in diameter. Your ring here,” he says, holding up your right hand and caressing your middle finger, “has the same stone, only it’s an oval in shape and has an old gold filagree band and setting, The bracelet cuff you’re wearing is also old looking and is ornate gold wirework with small green emeralds scattered across either side of a large oval shaped speckled stone like the rest of your jewelry contains.” He tells you.

You giggle. “It looks old because it is. They were my Great Grandmother’s. Grandpa bought them for her piece by piece as gifts during their 70+ years of marriage. The stud earrings and necklace were the first two pieces Great Grandpa bought her, then the ring, then the dangly earrings and then the bracelet. The speckled stones are called green fire opals, and the plain green stones are real emeralds.” You tell Henry. “They are my most treasured possessions and the only thing left of my Great Grandparents that I have, besides her name.” you say as you caress the necklace once Henry set it back onto your chest.

Henry smiles warmly. “They look stunning on you, Sweetheart.” He tells you and gives you a gentle kiss on the lips. Your eyes open wide for a moment, then close and you feel his soft lips against yours, nibbling on your lips. His tongue gently caressing your lips, begging entrance to your maw.

You part your lips and give him entrance, the two of you explore each others’s mouths. Nibbling and licking each other’s lips, tangling tongues dancing between the two gulfs. You can taste Henry’s coffee on his tongue as he drags it across your tongue and upper lip and you grin as you suck on it, catching it in between your lips, earning a soft moan from him. He shifts closer to you, pulling you in for more.

He enjoys the taste of your peach tea on your tongue and tries to capture it whenever you let him. Two of you kiss like this for a few minutes until you both come up for air. “Wow.” You say quietly and blush beet red. “Like that did you?” Henry says with a chuckle. You giggle and nod. He chuckles and caresses your face. “Come on, let’s walk some more.” He says softly, pulling you to start walking with him. You grin and nod, feeling around for your messenger bag and cup. Henry catches the cup before you knock it over, steadying it for you. “Thanks.” You say, blushing again.

Henry chuckles and says, “Can’t have you wasting that delicious tea.” He purrs into your ear. I like how it tastes on your lovely little tongue.” He adds, making you whimper quietly as you feel a tingling in your belly at his words. He chuckles, knowing the effect he is having on you. He takes your free hand, wraps it around his massive arm, wraps Kal’s leash around his wrist, and then picks up his coffee and the three of you head out to walk the Airport once again.

Henry describes some of the stores you both pass and grins when he sees a video arcade. “You said you never had video games growing up?” he asks. You sigh, “No. We grew up not being able to afford luxuries like that. I wasn’t any good at them anyway when I tried to play them at the arcade with friends. I never could get past level one of Pac Man or Mario when I’d try to play it at my friends’ houses. The only video game I was reasonably good at was Tetris.” You say. “I just let my friends play and I’d have fun watching them play.” You replied.

You can hear the different noises from the arcade games as you pass. You pause, sensing he would like to go and play some games. You steer him over to the arcade and he gets a big grin that you can’t see. “If you want to play some of the games, Henry, that’s fine. I’ll have fun listening.” You tell him. “You sure?” he asks. You nod. “Tell me what games they have.” You tell him.

The three of you walk through the arcade and he tells you which games they have. You grin hearing that they have a skeeball game and a basketball game. For some reason you seem to be good at these despite your blindness. You can’t explain why. Perhaps because you played them so much when you were a teen with your friends at the local skating establishment and arcade.

You ask Henry if the games require tokens or if they use quarters. He looks and says it’s a card swipe system. He tells you to wait here and he’ll go get a card loaded. He hands you Kal’s leash and goes to the desk. The clerk fills a card with $20 on it at Henry’s request, then Henry returns. He swipes the card and you hear the balls rolling down for play. He hands you the card, thinking you’re going to stand and listen as he plays.

Henry looks at you in disbelief when he sees you bend down and feel for the card swipe, then sees you slide the card through and hears the balls drop. Kal lets out a soft “Wuff” wondering what is going on. You take Kal and move him, so he is between Henry and yourself. “Sit!” you tell him. He plops his butt down. “Stay!” you tell him and hang onto the leash with your left hand. You lean down and feel for the slot for the balls.

“You ready, Henry?” you ask. He grins. “Yup.” He says. You feel for the width of the schute and move so you’re positioned like you used to stand to play this game when you could see. You ask Henry, “Is the set up for this one where the holes are all lined up vertically down the center and there’s one to the left and one to the right at the top” you ask. Henry looks surprised and says, “Yup.” You grin. “Game on!” and you bowl your first pitch down the schute.

Henry’s jaw drops when you get it into the 40 hole. He pitches his and gets it in the 10 hole. He growls and you chuckle. You pick up another ball and bowl it with a hook and you listen for it. It sounds like it just barely missed the 100 hole on the left. Henry chuckles. “That was a close one. You just barely missed it.” he says. Nodding you listen for his turn. He bowls it and you hear it clunk around and he growls. “I take it you missed?” you asked.

“I got it in the 30 one, but was aiming for the 50.” He grumbles. You chuckle and continue to take turns until you both run out of balls to bowl with. “How are you so good at this game when you can’t see where the targets are at?” Henry asks once you’re done and you collect the tickets the game spits out. Giggling as you fold them into a wad and shove them in your pocket, you say, “It was one of the games at the arcade that I got good at and played frequently since it wasn’t a video game.” You explain. “I can pretty much tell by the sound the balls make bouncing around if I got close to the one I wanted. Though, to be fair, I can’t really aim, so I’m not as good at it now as I was when I could see and actually aim for what I wanted. Now I just kind of guess and make a blind shot.” You giggle at your pun.

Henry chuckles and says, “Okay, hot shot, let’s see what else they have here.” He leads you along, telling you what games you both are walking past. You stop at the basketball one and grin. You feel around for the card swiper and Henry shakes his Head, amused you’re attempting to play this one too. His jaw drops though when the balls drop and you take a couple shots, getting used to the feel of the balls in regards to how inflated they are and how they bounce around. You take a few more shots, listening to each one and hear as they either hit the rim and bounce off, or hit the rim and swish down past the net. By the end of the game you were consistently making the shots.

“How?” Henry says, surprised. You smirk as you collect more tickets, “I listened to the way the balls bounce when they hit something. They sound different when they hit the backboard, versus when they hit the rim, versus when they go in and pass through the netting.” You explain. Once I got a feeling for the inflation of the balls and where I was in relation to the basket, it was easier. I just hate the ones that move forward and backwards though. I can’t figure them out.” You tell him.

It amazes him that you can tell so much by just listening. “It’s like you’re a bat using echolocation.” He teases. You grin, “Sorry Supes, I’m a Batgirl.” You tease back putting your hands on your hips. He groans and slaps his forehead, you just laugh. “Though, I’ve always preferred Superman.” You add. “Christopher Reeve and then Dean Cain… um 80’s heartthrobs! And now I get to date this hunk of dynamite!” you tease as you caress his arm. “Come on, Supes. Show me what you want to play now.” you tell him. He chuckles and the two of you continue to wander through the arcade with Kal. You hear the music for Tetris and start to hum along to it, making Henry chuckle. “Damn it, now I’m gonna have that song stuck in my head for the rest of the day!” you tease him. “Hmmm, well, we’ll just have to find something else to get stuck in your head then.” He says with a smirk.

You giggle and your mind goes in the gutter. You hear the Star Wars theme and your head whips around trying to locate it. “What are you doing?” he asks. “I hear the Star Wars theme, but can’t figure out where it’s coming from, there’s too many other songs playing. He chuckles. “OOOohhh! They have the Legend of Zelda!” Henry exclaims and you walk with him over to it. “I remember watching the guys play this game on their nintendos!” you say. “Do you want to play it?” you ask. Henry nods, then remembers you can’t see him nodding. “Yes, do you still have the token card?” he asks. Pulling it from your pocket, you hand it to him to swipe and you can hear the game start.

You grin as you hear him hitting the buttons and yanking on the levers as he plays. You chuckle as he grunts and mumbles, getting into the game. He plays it for quite a while before his character dies and he groans. “Awww maannnn! SOOOO Close!” he says, making you grin and chuckle. “Anything else you want to play?” you ask as you hear him collecting the tickets he won. He takes your arm and wraps it around his, “Let’s look and see what else they have.” He says.

You feel his arm tighten as he gets excited when he sees the Mortal Kombat game. You chuckle and stand by the game listening to the music and the characters and Henry feverishly hitting the buttons and yanking on the joystick on the game. His grunts and growls and moans and cheers making you smile. This game too, he plays for a good long while as he seems to be pretty good at it. You try not to laugh too hard as you hear, “Knock Out!” and Henry cheers. “So did you beat it?” you ask. “Yup!” he says proudly. You grin and give him a kiss. “Good job.” You tell him as he collects more tickets in a long string. He laughs and folds them all up.  “How about we get some food?” you suggest. Henry looks at the time and is surprised to see it’s almost supper time.

“Let’s get the tickets counted and see if they have anything neat for prizes before we head out.” He says. You chuckle. “Okay, but I doubt they’ll have anything good.” He leads you over to a machine that counts the tickets. You hand him your two wads and he pops the end of the first one in, then puts the second set in, then his two sets. Once it’s all finished counting them, he prints out the ticket telling him he has 530 tickets. “Sweet!” he exclaims and leads you over to the prize counter. “You tell him to describe what he sees. He does so and you giggle.

They have stuffed animals and one of them is an owl and another is a lion. He only has enough for one, when you tell him that lions and owls are two of your favourite wild animals.” He decides to get you the lion one and gives the man the ticket. Henry picks out a few more kids toys to give to his nephews using the remaining tickets up. He chuckles and you hear him unzipping the backpack and putting them into it.”

“Okay, now we can go get some supper!” he says, hooking his hand in yours, and Taking Kal’s leash back. The two of you head out and you hang onto the stuffed lion while you walk. “Thanks for the lion and the fun at the arcade, Henry. That was a fun way to spend an afternoon.” You tell him.

Henry grins. “I didn’t think you’d want to go in there, to be honest. I guess I thought you’d get bored just listening to me play the different games. I didn’t realize you’d want to play the games too.” He says sheepishly. You chuckle. I wasn’t going to play any, but skeeball and the basket ball games are some of my favourite non-video arcade games, and I spent a lot of time and money playing them in my teenage years as well as skating in circles. When my feet would get sore from skating, I’d go play the games for a while. You explain.

Henry frowns, “Skating in circles?” he asks. You chuckle. “Haven’t you ever been to a roller-skating rink, Henry?” you ask. He shakes his head, “Nope.” He replies. You explain it’s a big enclosed building with a wood floor in the shape of a big oval. You rent rollerskates or rollerblades and there’s a DJ who plays different music depending on the skating session. Throughout the session, they will pause and play different games like the limbo on rollerskates, and a dice game or will have everyone stop and do the dance for the macarena or the birdie dance song.

Henry looks at you totally confused. “birdie dance song?” he asks. You laugh. Here, see if anyone starts to do it if I play it on my phone loud enough… “Hey Siri. Open spotify and play ‘The Birdie Song”. The music starts to play and you crank it up. The music echoes into the open airport hall making a few people chuckle.

Tell me if anyone starts to dance then describe it to me. Henry starts to giggle. “There’s an old couple who are doing some actions. Making their hands open and close like a bird’s beak three times, then they move their arms like they’re a bird’s wing three times, and then they’re wiggling their hips three times, then clapping three times, then doing a kind of square dance type of move, then back to the hand motions. And now there’s a bunch of people laughing and joining them.” He tells you.

 You giggle and tell him that’s “the birdy dance” now picture a whole bunch of people on roller skates, skating in the same direction on a big, oval wood floor while the song is playing doing those movements. That’s what the skating rink would do.

Henry busts up laughing and says, “I don’t think I could do that!” You laugh, “If you can do all these choreographed fight scenes and movements for the Witcher, you can do ‘the birdy dance’ Henry.” You tell him giggling. “We can see if there are any rinks like that in London when we get there, then I’ll teach it to you. And don’t worry, everyone feels silly doing it, that is what makes it so fun! Everyone being silly at the same time!” You tell him giggling with glee. “I can’t believe you’ve never been rollers kating!” you exclaim and he just chuckles.

The two of you and Kal continue walking and Henry asks you what else you enjoy doing. You think for a few moments. “I like to dance, though I’m not the greatest at it. I can’t sit still when I hear a good song. I’ve always wanted to learn how to ballroom dance and do the dances from my grandparent’s generation. I love the music from the 1920’s- 1960’s especially swing, but I suppose that will be one of the bucket list items I probably won’t be able to fulfill now. It kinda requires sight to learn the steps.

I like going for walks, and when I could see, I’d go for bike rides. I really miss that. It was such great exercise. I enjoyed going for motorcycle rides with my friends, and going sledding in the winter, swimming in the summer, spending time on the lake. I love water, though I’ve never seen the ocean or been in it, we had a lot of lakes where I grew up. I enjoyed listening to the waves at the lake lapping against the shoreline. It was such a soothing sound.

I used to exercise more, but stopped when I had the accident. I was too afraid to do weight lifting and such since I couldn’t see to operate the equipment and struggle with where my body is in relation to other body parts. I.E. Toothbrush to mouth in the morning.” You explain with a chuckle. You hear Henry chuckle too.

“Now I go to the park and listen to the birds, or go to concerts and plays and listen and picture in my head my own little movie of what is happening. I don’t do much with the TV, mainly cuz I can’t operate it and just have it for when my sighted friends come over and use it.” you giggle.

I read a lot, and yeah, I’m pretty boring.” You tell Henry. “You’re not boring, Tyyne. You just haven’t found all the fun things you can do yet.” He tells you with a grin. “Maybe you’ll find some new things in London with me and my friends that you’ll enjoy doing.” He tells you as you head into the food court area. “Now…What shall we have for supper?” he asks.

You take a deep breath and try to discern the different smells. “How about a burger and fries? Oooh, I wish they had a Shawarma place here!” you tell Henry. He chuckles and nods. “Burger joint it is.” He says and leads you over to the burger place. You ask them for a braille menu and the cashier frowns. “Um. Hang on a minute, let me see if we have one.” he says and goes to ask the manager.

You frown. “Ugh, the downside of being me, most restaurants don’t have them when the Americans With Disabilities Act requires restaurants to provide it’s blind customers with a menu they can read, there is a major loophole; it seems that if the restaurant has its menu available online, where a blind patron can access it electronically, they don't need to provide a braille version in the establishment." You explain. “The problem is, that I can’t see even stuff online, so unless it’s able to be accessed where either a computer or a person can read it to me, I don’t know what is available to order and what ingredients are used to make the food. Thus I rarely go out to eat unless my friends are with me to assist.” You explain to Henry.

Henry frowns, hearing that. “I’m sorry you have to deal with that, Tyyne.” He says. “I guess people who can see don’t think of things like that.” He says. You nod. “The worst part is when the business’ employees get snippy with me and try to rush me.” You reply. You tilt your head back to where you hear the cashier returning. “I’m sorry, Miss, we haven’t got one. We have burgers, chicken, salads, and soups. Is there something in particular you were wanting?” he asks. You sigh and frown. “What kinds of burgers do you have and what is on them?” you ask.

He tells you and you sigh. I guess I’ll have the bacon cheeseburger. Can they make sure the bacon is extra crispy. I hate chewy bacon.” You ask. “Sure, we can do that for you. Did you want that with fries and a drink?” he asks. “Yes, please. What do you have to drink here?” you ask. He tells you they have CocaCola products. You tell him you’d like a coke. “Okay, anything for you Mr. Cavill?” the young man asks. Henry smiles, “I’ll have the double cheeseburger with bacon and fries and a coke as well. Can we also get an order of the mozzarella sticks?” he asks. “Did you want the six or the twelve piece one?” the young man asks. “The twelve piece, please.” Henry replies. “Okay. That’ll be $21.30.” the young man says.

“Mind if I pay?” Henry asks you. You chuckle. “Be my guest, Henry.” You tell him, a little annoyed that the man didn’t inform you there were other sides you could order. Once you get your food and go to sit down, Henry sees you frowning. “What’s the matter, Tyyne?” he asks.

“If you wouldn’t have ordered the Mossarrella sticks, I wouldn’t have known there were other sides that could be ordered. The cashier didn’t ask if I wanted any other sides.” You say with a disappointed sigh. “I wish it was federal law that all restaurants had to have a basic menu in braille and educated their employees better on informing or offering blind people more assistance in ordering.

It’s just another example of how the blind are forgotten about in our culture. No one thinks of how they are going to order food at restaurants when they can’t see a menu. If they have no one with them to read the menu to them, they rely on the server or in this case the cashier to inform them what their options are. If no one tells the blind person there are other options for food, they won’t know and will assume that what they are told is all that is available.” You explain.

“If more people tried to go about their average day from morning till night with their eyes closed or covered and experienced what it is like to be blind, just for one day in the real world, I think things would change in a holy hurry for those of us who are truly blind.” You say.

Henry reaches across the table and takes your hand. “Thanks for telling me this, Tyyne. I’ll do my best to help you with that when I’m around, if you’re okay with it.” he tells you. “Thanks, Henry.” You say. “Now, do you want to share my cheese sticks?” he asks. You grin and nod. He takes one and puts it in your hand, then asks if you want marinara sauce. You think then nod. He guides your hand to the container and you dip the cheese stick in it.

You giggle. “Please tell me if I’m going to miss my mouth. I don’t want marinara all over my shirt.” You tell him. You hear him chuckle. The two of you laugh and giggle as he tries to guide you verbally to get the cheese stick to your mouth without making a mess. You manage to get it without getting marinara all over your face. “Here, lean forward, you got a little something at the corner of your mouth, Sweetie.” he tells you. You lean forward and he gives you a kiss and licks off a little marinara at the corner of your mouth, making you giggle. “Smooth, Cavill.” You tease him. He just grins and chuckles.

“Henry, is there ketchup and mustard on my burger already or do I need to put some on it?” you ask. He hums and picks up the bun off the burger. “Nope, there’s some on there, but you said you don’t like onions, right?” he asks. You nod. “Mind if I pick off the onions for you?” he asks. You smile. “Go ahead. I forgot to ask if they put them on their burgers. My bad.” You say. “I usually remember to ask when ordering burgers.” You say.

Henry finds a crispy French fry from his basket and scoops off the onion rings from your burger. “There, no more onions.” He says and plops them onto his burger.

The two of you eat in companionable silence until Kal starts to whine wanting his food. “Oh, yeah, sorry Kal. Here.” Henry says and you hear a zipper being opened and the ‘pop’ of Kal’s bowl being opened. You hear Henry grab a bag of kibble and pour it into the bowl then you hear Kal crunching the nuggets as he eats.

Once the three of you are done, you and Henry walk back to the gate and ask for a couple of cots and are told they are all being used. You groan and Henry frowns. He asks if there are any blankets and pillows left. The person shakes their head. You hear Henry growl. “It’s alright, Henry. I’ll manage.” You tell him. He sighs and the two of you head off to a corner and find an open spot on the floor. “Hang on a minute.” He says Taking his long overcoat and empties out the pockets into his backpack. Then he folds it up and lays it down on the floor. “Here. Lie down on this so you have a little padding at least.” He says. He calls Kal over and tells him to lie down. Kal does and Henry tells you that you can use Kal for a pillow. That he does it all the time. “Kal’s used to it by now.” he says.

You lie down on your side and take your coat and drape it over you, putting your bag in front of you. Henry lays down beside you and puts his back pack next to your bag and lays down with his head on his arm. “Get some sleep Tyyne.” He tells you and you close your eyes, letting sleep claim you.

Henry watches as you fall asleep. He feels bad that someone took the two cots he had gotten for you. He didn’t think about the fact that people would just see them being unused and claim them for themselves. He sighs frustrated. Henry rolls onto his back and leans against Kal’s rear and looks out the window, watching the snow fall and swirl all around, thinking about all he learned about you and about what life is like for a blind person. He realizes what a loss of independence it causes and how much the blind have to rely on others to survive in today’s world.

Now he realizes why everyone was freaking out about him wearing the gold contacts all the time and how dumb it was of him to not give his eyes a chance to breathe when he had to wear those contacts. It really was taking a HUGE risk that could’ve jeopardized his entire career and his future as a person in general. Life really does suck for blind people. He decides he wants to do more to help the blind but isn’t sure what he can do to help. He falls asleep thinking about what he could possibly do to make a positive impact or change for them.

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[perditaalottachocolate-blog]

Deck the Halls with Boughs of Silly

Summary: Take three ghosts and a teenage girl, who happen to be in one band. Have them organize a Christmas party, with decorations, gifts exchange, dancing, caroling, and friends. What you get is the best Christmas EVER, Phantoms-style. A @jatpdaily Secret Santa 2020 gift for @bisexualrhee

Also on AO3.

Merry Christmas Emilia!!! I hope these holidays are going to bring you lots of joy, and the next year is going to be much, much, muuuuch better than this one! Stand tall! Anyho-ho-ho, here’s your story! I hope you like it!

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At first they planned a small celebration purely for Luke. It’d been his family tradition and since he obviously couldn’t celebrate with his mother and father, the band decided to orchestrate a little Christmas party to take Luke’s mind off of things like another anniversary of him running out on his parents, or being - you know - a musician spirit. 

But it sort of snowballed from there and as usual things were never simple for long when Sunset Curve was around.

***

Julie went absolutely nuts with Christmas lights, turning the studio’s ceiling into a miniscule version of the Milky Way. Ray happened to wander inside as she was installing a wee galaxy under the roof, balancing carelessly on a tall ladder. 

After the mandatory lecture on safety Ray smiled slyly and asked if Julie intended to communicate with any missing colleagues from the Upside Down. 

Julie flashed him a panicked look before laughing stiffly. “What?” she asked.

“The Upside Down? Demogorgon? Joyce communicating through lights with Will?” Ray explained. “Come on, we’ve watched Stranger Things like two weeks ago!”

“Ah, Stranger Things,” his daughter chuckled nervously. 

“Stranger indeed,” someone murmured at the bottom of the ladder, for her ears only.

“So… that’s a lot of Christmas lights, huh?” Ray decided to change the subject.

“Yeah, for ambience, you know,” Julie busied herself with the cords. 

“And totally not for a-ny-thing supernatural,” a second voice from the other side of the ladder assured mockingly. Julie had to purse her lips to keep herself from laughing.

“Good. That’s good,’ Ray swung his arms, taking a few long strides towards the door. “Well, then, have an ambient evening!” He disappeared outside.

“Thanks, Dad!” Julie yelled after him, trying to be louder than Reggie, who uttered a cordial “Thanks, Ray!” upon the man’s departure.

“Reggie, Luke!” Julie chided. “You were supposed to hold that ladder, not chat with Dad!”

***

Reggie, to Luke’s disappointment, called dibs on dressing up as Santa Claus. Julie couldn’t imagine a better suited candidate than the happy-go-lucky bassist. Although - she chuckled to herself - it would be funny to see a possibly sleeveless Santa.

The self appointed Father Christmas poofed out and was back a few seconds later sporting a shiny red leather jacket and a matching cowboy hat with a white fluffy fringe around the broad rim. A false beard hung loosely around his jaw. Red cowboy boots completed the look. Now Julie was sure, a sleeveless Santa could never compare.

“You like?” Reggie asked as he swaggered proudly around the studio, showing off his outfit. 

Julie cleared her throat. “Cooooool,” she breathed, fighting off the silly grin that threatened to betray her real opinion. Miraculously, she kept a straight face, even though all she wanted to do was to collapse in a fit of giggles. 

“Your take on Santa is truly astounding.” Alex announced with poorly veiled sarcasm. “Also I’m starting to regret some of my earlier decisions,” he added under his breath.

Luke looked like he was torn between mocking Reggie and sulking, but he ultimately decided to move to the next point on their agenda. “Gifts! Gifts! Gifts!” he chanted.

“Darn right!” Reggie rubbed his hands. “Now that your Santa is here, it’s time for presents!”

He opened the huge sack filled with packages of various sizes. “Me first!” he announced, pulling out a set of envelopes. There was one for each of the band’s members. “Don’t mean to brag, but these are real pearls,” he winked.

“You got us real pe-… okay…” Alex ripped the envelope and pulled out a page with sheet music. He inspected the score, humming quietly. “Hey, it’s a country song!”

“Mine too!” Julie piped in from over her sheet.

“No way!” Luke showed his own page. He burst into laughter.

“This is going to get awkward pretty soon,” Alex sing-sang.

And as if he was a fortune teller, right on cue came Reggie’s squeal of delight. 

He’d just fished out a package with his name on it and pulled out a… page of sheet music. He skipped over the notes and lyrics. “OH-MY-GOSH!” he cried. “You wrote me a country song, Julie!”

“Julie?!” came a surprised shout from both Alex and Luke. “But-”

“Oh, here’s another one for me,” Santa dived into the bag only to pull out another envelope and… yes, another page tightly covered with notes and lyrics, definitely less reader-friendly than the first one. “Oh, Luuuuuke!” Reggie awed. 

“Luke?” Now Alex turned to the lead guitarist, eyes as large as saucers. 

“I wrote him a little bit of something, country style,” Luke smiled benevolently, “I had to reciprocate for his gift of the horse song, you know.”

“‘Bike Shack Polka’ sounds AWE-some!” Reggie pressed the page to his chest. “You guys are just... “ he wiped a tear, that might have been only a little bit imaginary, from his eye.

“Is there- “ Alex squeaked, then cleared his throat, “is there maybe another envelope?” he asked.

Reggie shot him a surprised look, but obediently rummaged in the sack and indeed found another envelope. He opened it and-

“You have got to be kidding me!” he shrieked. 

Alex grinned with satisfaction. “Not bad for the first time, even if I say so myself.”

“Not bad? Not bad?” Reggie was still staring at the page. “Alex, this has ‘our first country single’ material written all over it!” 

“Country single?” Now Julie and Luke looked up from their own pages. 

“Best Christmas E V E R!” Reggie announced, proudly presenting the three country songs he received. “With the ones I wrote for you we are close to having enough numbers for an entire album!” he squealed with joy.

The rest of the band looked at each other in quiet stupefaction.

“What have we done?” Alex mouthed.

“You’d better start learning how to fiddle really fast, Julie,” Luke whispered, raising a brow.

Handing out the rest of the gifts went relatively smoothly. Julie awed at the gorgeous notebook with a dahlia patterned cover. 

“For all our greatest hits,” Luke murmured into her ear. He already finished attaching the new strap to his six-string. It had a cute motif of little glittery ghosts that Julie had painstakingly applied, rhinestone after rhinestone. 

The gifts from Alex were - as one might suspect - thoughtful and endearing. For Julie he selected a pink hoodie, a smaller version of his own. He must have noticed her envious looks, but now the only thing he saw in her face was joy, as she sank inside the soft garment. Luke got a tank top with “MY name is LUKE'' printed in big letters, with a small font addition of “Really. Definitely NOT Trevor nor Bobby'' underneath.

Finally the drummer unwrapped the last gift: a baseball cap, one of those he wore so often, with a set of reindeer antlers at the sides. He immediately put it on and raced to Reggie.

“Let’s go, Santa!” he crouched allowing for the bassist to jump onto his back, piggyback style. Then he cantered around the studio, to Julie’s impromptu “Run Rudolph Run'' a cappella performance. 

They’d probably switch to gallop really soon if it wasn’t for Luke’s frantic gestures. “Reggie!” he shouted, meaningfully raising his brows.

“What? Oh, put me down!” Santa demanded. “I forgot there’s one more gift!” He disappeared outside following Luke’s lead.

The boys opened the door a little wider and carried a huge box inside. It took them both to lift it, although it didn’t seem heavy for them. It was the size that was giving them trouble. They put it in front of Alex and patted their backs.

“Go on,” they encouraged. “Open it.”

Alex untied the wide ribbon that held the box together and its sides fell down.

“Oh- Wow,” Alex’s voice broke and he blinked a few times. He reached out, as if grabbing something.

“What?” Julie pushed to the front. “It’s… empty?” She looked questioningly to the drummer, then to Luke and Reggie. “You gave him an empty box?”

The boys knitted their brows in confusion. Luke was faster to understand. “She can’t see him,” he noted.

“See who?” The girl was at a loss. “There’s no one there.”

“Oh, right!” Reggie slapped his forehead in sudden realization. “Hang on, I got this!”

He poofed out again, appearing a few seconds later with Julie’s dream box in his hands. She zeroed in on him, the scolding of the year on the tip of her tongue, but Reggie just waved a hand.

“Calm down, Jules, it’s only for the glitter,” he pulled out a bag of shiny particles. “Now look!” he instructed. He spilled a bit of the substance onto his palm and then blew it in the direction of the box. 

Julie watched obediently, as the glitter cloud traveled through the air until it reached the box. And then she saw him. There was another boy standing on the cardboard, squeezing Alex’s hand. When he noticed she finally saw him he bowed.

“Julie, meet William,” Luke introduced the newcomer. 

“Call me Willie,” the boy smiled a glittery smile. “Nice to finally meet the famous Julie. I’ve heard a lot about you!”

“You’re Willie!” Julie replied with a smile of her own. “And likewise.”

***

“I’m finally here!” Flynn called from the door. “Are you alo- oh, who’s the glitter boy? And where’s the rest of the guys?”

“One thing at a time, gurl,” Julie laughed. “This is Willie. He’s a friend of Alex’s.”

Flynn gave a little wave. “And the boys?” She looked around as if she could ever see them without music. 

“They’re here alright, just- Alex, wait, what are you doing with that?”

Poof! Now there was a second glittery silhouette next to Willie. And once Flynn focused on the shape, she could also hear the voice. 

“Hi, Flynn! Long time no see,” Alex quipped.

Poof! Now a third glitter-boy became visible, waving enthusiastically at the girls. 

“This is awesome,” Reggie said. “Best Christmas ever!”

“So now we’re only missing Luke,” Alex pointed to something that to Flynn looked like empty air. “But apparently he’s above covering himself with glitter,” he added sourly.

“Wait, I have an idea!” Julie announced. She untangled a string of Christmas lights from one of the shelves and proceeded to decorate the empty space, wrapping the cord around it until it formed a vague shape of a man. 

The rest of the group nodded appreciatively, though brilliant as they were, the lights didn’t solve all of the problems - the shape still had no visible face, hence no voice.

Julie tapped her lip thoughtfully. “At this point it’s either glitter, beauty powder or we start playing, which is gonna be exhausting.”

Flynn thought she heard the slightest sigh from Luke’s light form. Julie nodded and went for her purse. She produced a round box of pressed powder and handed it to Luke. He applied it gingerly and finally Flynn could see his face. Kind of. At least now she had an idea where his face was and what was his current expression. The final result - of a powdered face floating over a spiral of Christmas lights - was rather weird, if not disturbing.

“Happy now?” Alex asked. He looked as if he was having the time of his life. 

“Happy,” Luke grunted. He didn’t sound particularly happy. “Can we do something else now?” 

“Awww, had I known a Christmas tree was an option, I wouldn’t want to be Santa,” Reggie jested. 

***

The party was in full swing and once they started singing and dancing, the boys became easily visible to Flynn. No aids were required at this point, but Luke refused to take off the lights. He stuck a star to his beanie, completing the Christmas tree look. It didn’t stop him from showing off his dancing skills. Julie suspected it was to top Nick’s performance at the dance rehearsal, which was a rather silly thing to do. Yet she smiled to herself at the thought of Luke feeling he needed to compete for her attention.

“Luke, you make such a nice snake,” Flynn commented after a particularly showy worm move . She nudged Julie in the ribs, “He’s definitely a Slytheryn, right?”

All the ‘musical spirits’ gave her a blank stare.

“A sly-what?” Reggie was the first to talk.

“Awww,” Flynn continued, clearly not having read the room, “you and Alex are definitely Hufflepuff material.”

Alex frowned and turned to Julie. “Is she ghost shaming us? We don’t huffle and puff, we’re well-mannered ghosts.” 

He didn’t get his reply as both of the girls, and Willie as well, collapsed in a fit of laughter. 

***

When they finally got tired of dancing and prancing, they decided to give a few old classics a new spin.

“On the twelve day of Christmas my true love gave to meeee,” Reggie belted out, pointing to Alex.

“Twelve drummers drumming,” Alex carried on, pointing to Julie.

“Eleven dahlias blooming,” Julie nodded to Luke.

“Ten terrific gigs,” Luke rasped, nudging Flynn to go on.

“Nine whole brain cells,” Flynn tried to pat Willie on the shoulder. Her hand went through glitter, but he got the message.

“Eight wheels a-skateboard,” he sang in a surprisingly warm tenor. He turned to Reggie closing the circle.

“Seven country a-songs,” the bassist wiggled his eyebrows at Luke, changing the order

“Six best friends forever,” the guitarist sang without missing a beat.

“Five dirty candies,” Alex twirled gracefully, eliciting a bout of laughter.

“Four cute ghosts,” Flynn wrinkled her nose.

“Three deadly hotdogs,” Willie chuckled.

“Two awesome girlfriends,” Julie squeezed her friend’s hand. 

“And a Luuuuke as a Christmasy treeeeeeee!” The said Luke bellowed, in an opera worthy baritone.

They all sank to the ground and laughed, laughed, laughed until their tummies hurt and tears appeared in their eyes.

Alex moved closer to Willie, his back against the couch. He looked around to his company. His friends. His family. Their family.

That’s what it was. Loud. Mismatched. Messy. Hardened by life and death. A little bit silly, a little bit damaged. Supernatural at places, magical to the core. It was theirs and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Many thanks to @goblin-alchemist for betareading and her advice!!!