#but when I got to high school there was this immense hatred for it

[kettledemon]

Oh Shakespeare, high school could never make me hate you

[seonghwaddict]

EYES DON’T LIE — iii. a worthy competitor.

synopsis. you've always resented jeong yunho, and you were positive that the end of high school would've marked the end of your rivalry and hatred. yet now you find yourself in the same crappy hotel as him. assigned to be right next to each other much like the good old times.

pairing. jeong yunho x fem! reader. genre. mini-series, fluff, slice of life, mature, academic rivals to lovers, non-idol au. chapter warnings. swearing.

word count. 2.1k. rating. pg-13

chapter ii. chapter iii. chapter iv.

yunho’s life post high school was blissful, to say the least.

he went to his dream university and just like you graduated as the top student of that year. not long after that he landed a job at a relatively large tech company and after promotion upon promotion, he became the multi-billion-won company’s CTO. He lived lavishly; a shining example of what he was able to achieve thanks to his determination and unwavering passion.

at least until all of that came crashing down.

because the CEO just had to get involved in activities that became the downfall of the company. unbeknownst to him, the CEO had been part of an underground piracy organisation and sold the private information of millions of users to malicious parties. when the news got to the police, well… it was chaos. law enforcement swarmed the headquarters to detain the CEO as well as anyone that was identified on the list of people involved. a mess that he had no part of.

in hindsight, yunho should be carrying more than the company card and a suitcase when traveling for business trips, during which all this news got out. but how was he supposed to know he’d go from a highly respected worker to jobless in a matter of 24 hours?

and so he found himself in a shitty hotel, paying with the few bills he could find after rummaging around in his bag. the company card declined when he tried booking a different hotel—the fancy one the company had paid for forced him to leave after they found out he was affiliated with that company. for obvious reasons, he had been confused until he checked his phone for the first time that day and found hundreds of notifications flooding the lock screen that depicted picture of him and his best friend.

speaking of his best friend.

as soon as got into his his temporary bedroom—aka the hotel room that smelled so odd he opened the window as wide as he could and stuck his head out to avoid the stench—he called the man he’s known since they were toddlers, ranting about the situation. unsurprisingly, he found the situation immensely funny.

“so you’re poor now?”

“no, mingi, i just don’t have my personal card. i’ll go withdraw money tomorrow morning.” yunho propped his camera up on the small desk opposite the bed, leaning back in the creaking wooden chair as he rubbed at his temples, dreading the oncoming headache he was starting to feel. “but i’m jobless, for now.”

mingi pursed his lips, nose scrunching as he looked at his phone screen, watching how distressed yunho looked. “how can i help you, then?”

a shrug was the first response he got. “just-” the rotating chair squeaked as yunho leaned a bit further to stare up at the ceiling for a moment before reverting his gaze back to his phone. “just talk to me about something else, distract me for now.”

“okay then,” the fake blond’s face brightened and a wide grin spread across his face as he sat up and leaned closer. “so, you know my boss hongjoong, right?”

and so the next ten minutes were filled with him gossiping about how his boss seemed to have the hots for a cute reporter. yunho listened, grateful to get his mind off his current predicament, but barely registered any words being said. he occasionally replied with agreeing hums or other reactions suitable for the context, but he couldn’t help but feel the tell tale signs of his body wanting to rest. mingi seemed to catch on as he paused his story and squinted at his phone screen, catching the way his best friend’s eyes drooped with fatigue.

“hello? earth to yunho?”

he stirred awake, snorting in a breath before yawning. he checked the time on his very expensive watch briefly before his eyes flickered back up to mingi.

“you look tired, man,” worry was written all over his face, sure he could already see dark circles forming under yunho’s eyes. “get some rest.”

“yeah… yeah, that’s a good idea.” yunho spoke through his yawn, hand covering his open mouth.

they said their goodbyes and ended the call. yunho sat in silence for a moment. he turned the chair, inspecting the bed. it was sad, small and pretty empty. wishing he was back home on his soft king sized bed, he poked the mattress, frowning at the firmness before pulling back and looking at the pillows. well, pillow. singular. while the mattress felt to stiff, the pillow the opposite. he got up to check the little closet for another pillow that he could stack on top to add some firmness, but to no avail.

after a moment of hesitation, he decided to ask the guy at the lobby if he could possibly have an extra pillow. before head for the door, he stopped in the bathroom, checking his teeth and brushing his hand through his dark hair, a little overgrown and resembling a mullet. he fixed the tie of his suit that he had yet to take off and left the bathroom, his hand wrapping around the door handle of the room and pulling it open.

as he stepped out, his temporary neighbour seemed to have just arrived. turning to greet the stranger, he stopped in his tracks just as she had.

what a perfect end to his day. the cherry on top, really.

truthfully, he hadn’t given you much thought after your high school graduation. (he actually did. a friend of his went to the same university as you and he’d occasionally ask him if he knew how you were doing). but seeing you now, he realised you hadn’t changed much. of course, you seemed to have a grown a tiny bit and you looked more mature, but those eyes—those soft eyes, so pretty, red and puffy through your tears—were undeniably yours. he recognised you before he recognised the state you were in, a sobbing mess. in all the years he had known you, he doesn’t recall ever seeing you cry. seeing you like this, with flushed and tear stained cheeks, made his head spin for a moment.

before he could open his mouth to say anything, you were gone. he watched the door of your room fall shut, followed by a thud from inside the room. what it may have been—a kick to the wall, a punch, an item thrown across the room—he wouldn’t have been able to tell as he stared at the door dumbly. he wasn’t sure how long he stood there, but what else was he supposed to do when he ran into you of all people in this obscure hotel and somehow ended up next to each other?

watching you disappear through that door reminded him too much of the last time he saw you.

though it had been a warm summer, it rained on the last day of school. having checked the weather, he brought an umbrella with him. but as he watched you stand front of the entrance of the school, alone and looking out into the rain without a jacket, let alone an umbrella, with a conflicted frown and nothing to protect you from the rain but the roof, he found himself caring about you. before he realised it, he stood in front of you, holding out his black umbrella and consequently getting a little wet.

you couldn’t help but stare at him, your gaze switching between his unusually sincere face and hand extending the red handle of the umbrella. you shook your head, insisting that you won’t take it, but he cut you off.

“come on, it’s just an umbrella, i have no problem walking home in the rain.”

“no, please, yunho, it’s your umbrella, i’ll figure something out. you’ll get sick.”

after some more back and forth, he offered a compromise. you could walk home together.

and that’s exactly what the two of you did. you walked side by side, squeezed together under the umbrella, droplets of rain occasionally hitting your right shoulder or his left shoulder. despite the weather, it was oddly peaceful. a steady conversation flowed between the two of you, free of any teasing or insults. you weren’t quite sure why he was being so nice, but you supposed it was the last you’d see each other before heading separate ways.

unfortunately, the two of you thought at the time, you lived in the same apartment building. while you lived on the third floor, he was up on the fifth. he decided it only made sense to walk you to your place first. unlike your walk outside, the short journey from the elevator to your front door was dead silent. even when you got to the front door, neither of you spoke for a moment until he cleared his throat, his voice almost… emotional?

“i guess this is it, huh?”

“yeah… i guess… have fun finding a better, funnier, smarter rival in college.”

“nah, i don’t think i’ll even bother.”

“hm? really? i thought you’re all about that competition.”

“yeah, but you’re the only person worth competing with.”

he’d never forget the way your eyes widened comically as you looked at him after that, a blush so faint it was easy to miss in this horrible lighting. maybe all the people saying you’d make a good couple were on to something. still, he knew you’d never see each other again, there was no point in trying anything. his cell phone rang, interrupting the tense silence. it was his mother, telling him to hurry and get home.

“i… uh, i have to go… but i’ll see you around, someday?”

you smiled, a smile so genuine his stomach did a cartwheel.

“i’ll see you around, someday.”

you stared at each other for a moment, stood across from each other in the hallway. he wasn’t sure what to do. should he hug you? should he just turn and leave? you seemed just as conflicted. after a long minute, you both extended your hands for a handshake at the same time. a small laugh was shared as your hands intertwined in a slow handshake, holding onto each other a few moments too long. his thumb rubbed over the back of your hand gently. he gave it a small squeeze before letting go and bowing his head, winking playfully.

“good luck out there, y/n.”

“likewise, yunho.”

and with the you disappeared through the front door, much like you had moments ago. though at that time you didn’t look so heartbroken. eventually he got himself to put one foot in front of the other and head to the lobby for his original mission.

he thanked the lobby man quietly as he was handed two more pillows, his mind still occupied with you. you’d think that whatever he felt for you on that last day would’ve dissipated by now, but that was quite the opposite. despite it having been so many years, seeing you again felt like a punch to his throat.

on his way back to his room, he thought about knocking on your door for a split second. in the end, he concluded you probably wouldn’t want to talk to him. he wasn’t sure what he would’ve said anyway. hey, it’s really nice seeing you again, by the way did i mention that i’ve realised i had a massive crush on you that time we said goodbye and those feelings haven’t gone away?

no, absolutely fucking not.

he nearly slapped himself at the hypothetical monologue, dragging himself to his hotel room. a soft thump resounded as he tossed the pillows on his bed before undressing and getting under the thin covers. the time it took for him to fall asleep was unclear as he stared up at the ceiling. whoever rented the room above him seemed to want to make a joke in the ground, thundering stomps making the ceiling and his open window shake.

had he not stepped out at that time to get pillow and bumped into you, he would’ve probably been cursing and swearing to himself to get out of this place first thing in the morning. but, considering who his current neighbour was, he couldn’t help but think…

would one or two more days really be so bad?

[ lilo's notes . . . ] hii sorry it took so long to update this, i hope this makes up for it 💔💔 we finally get a little gimped into yunho’s feelings!! yippee!! i’m sorry he comes off as a little stuck up near the beginning, but please understand he went from a luxurious suite to a hotel on the brink of falling apart; i think most people would be a little disappointed 🙏🙏 he’s not a bad guy i promise

[ networks . . . ] @cromernet @wonderlandnet

[ taglist | series + permanent . . . ] @yuyusuyu @diorwoo @loveyluv7 @ad0rechuu @h-nji @nakiiko @lelaleleb @moon-gyus @baribaaari @bvidzsoo @kunikku @kyeos4ng @sankatchu @mlink64 @yeosangsbbg @seonghwasbbgirl @likexaxdaydream @dreamingofyeo

[stayingstromboli]

ACADEMIC RIVALS- MATTHEW STURNIOLO X FEM READER

TW: KISSING, SWEARING

SUMMARY: Matt and you have always competed against each other, whether it be sport, grades or friends. However will your secret romantic feelings for each other change your relationship or just make you hate each other more?

A/N- Matt and you are 17 and are in high school (I think- I’m British and our school system is different so sorry if I got the wrong school year). Also this is my first time writing seriously so I hope it’s good.

"Matt let me past."

Me and Matt had never really got along. By really I mean at all. Since middle school he strived to make every waking day a misery for me, going out of his way to annoy me. And in return I made sure do the same to him. Tests, assignments, even in terms of popularity. Everything we did we were endlessly competing to try and one up the other, constantly at each other's throats trying to drag the other down. When did this all start? Nobody could remember anymore. It's just how it's always been. And nobody cared to be the one tobe the first to put and end to these antics and 'lose'.

"Matt move the fuck away, go haunt someone else", I spat at the boy, who stood blocking my path, leaning on the lockers in front of me.

My annoyance was very apparent as I eyed him in disgust, his bright blue eyes meeting my stoney grey eyes. The bell had rung, signaling us to go to our next lesson, the sudden flood of students trapping me, pushing me into my locker, making it impossible for me to get around him.

"Make me", Matt sneers, clearly enjoying himself immensely as he saw the frustration growing on my face.

"Oh I fucking will"

I barge past Matt, shoving him out of my way. Or trying to. He grabbed me by the shoulders and yanked me back, leaning forward as he did so. His grip was firm leaving no room for me to wriggle away. There were inches between us, forcing me to breathe in the musk of his cologne,  strong and spicy, comforting almost. It took every fibre of my being to keep my breathing steady: Matt cannot know that I find him even remotely attractive. I'd never live it down! I prayed with all of my might that it wasn't obvious from my face or body language that I was flustered, desperately hoping that my face was not a bright shade of beetroot.

Matt stood like that for a good few minutes, studying my face with great intent, absorbing my every detail of my facial expression, which didn't exactly help my paranoia, especially when I saw his lips upturn slightly, clearly finding something amusing. My initial attempt at matching his stare with cold, icy one was a complete failure, his beautiful deep blue eyes drowning out any hatred or disdain behind my glare, so in defeat I fixed my eyes firmly on the floor to hide any fondness towards the boy in front of me. Or rather, I tried to. The success rate, however, was questionable. Each breath he took was hot on my neck, the thought of his smirk, his lips, too appetising, inviting me back in.

Fuck this man. How am I supposed to hate him when every attribute that made him so detestable made him so attractive at the same time. Like one of those villains in films that you're supposed to hate but everyone ends up fangirling over instead. The control. The charisma. The charm. Everything drawing you in. There he is towering over me, pinning me to the lockers physically restraining me and here I am losing all composure. He knows what he's doing and he's enjoying watching it happen, and so I have to focus even harder to not give him that satisfaction of winning.

Finally snapping my attention back to the bigger problem at large, I took my chance while he was preoccupied. My foot smashed down onto his, causing Matt to yelp, in what must've been shock rather than pain- we both know that I certainly don't have enough strength to actually hurt him, just enough to cause a minor inconvenience. I quickly turned on my heels and stalked away down the now isolated corridor, which in itself was quite a worrying sign. I made my escape while I still could, but out of my peripheral I could see Matt, trailing after me like a disease.

I pretty much ran to English, anxiety churning away in my stomach as I wondered how late I even was.

"Theres no point going."

Matt's voice startled me, pulling me back from the mess of worries circling my head.

"Excuse me?"

"English class. Theres no point going. He'll only give you detention. Come with me instead."

"Matthew, why the fuck should I trust you? You're the one who got me into this mess in the first place", I reply sharply, not even turning to acknowledge him as I continued at my fast pace.

"What can you not bear missing one lesson? You're either too scared to miss even one small worthless little lesson or you've truly let your hatred towards me and cloud your better judgment. If we show up we'll just get detention, in which you'll have even more with me. Unless of course that was the pla-"

"Don't flatter yourself. Fine, I'll come with you, but only to avoid the embarrassment of everyone turning to look as we enter."

A disgusting smug smile of self satisfaction was plastered across his face as I followed him back down the hallway, making Matt look extremely punchable. Once we finally made it out of school and into the parking lot I followed him to his car, where he gestured for me to get in.

We were physically too close for me to even try and avoid my romantic feelings for him, not even half a meter between us in the front seats of the car. The smell of his cologne was stronger than ever, his hair fluffy and within arms reach, tempting me. The silver chain around his neck made him look even hotter, dangling over his pale blue hoodie which matched his eyes perfectly. My heart was thumping in my chest as my eyes trailed over the boy next to me, almost skipping a beat when I catch the rosy tint spreading across his cheeks while we looked at each other. I could've sworn I saw him glance at my mouth as he licked his lips. Matt? The same Matt that purposefully trips me up or insult me at every given opportunity or get in my way whenever possible. Surely not. They must've just been dry or something. I know him, he wouldn’t.. He couldn’t… And yet this side of the Matt in front of me was completely foreign to me.

He reached out to plug in the aux cable, his hand brushing past mine as he did, causing a sudden a jolt of electricity between us as our skin touched. My eyes immediately shoot up to meet his gaze at this sudden touch, and I feel myself feel hotter under his steady eye. I sat there goggling at his natural beauty, ensuring to remember the look of golden summer sun streaking across his face, shadows forming under his jawline and cheek bones contouring his face perfectly.

His hands meet his way to my cheeks, cupping them, and I melt further and further into him. He inched closer, his breath gently fanning my face. He was so close I could see every mark, scar and freckle on his face. Before I know it, Matt’s lips are smashed against mine, hard and urgent yet soft at the same time. The kiss is hungry, our lips passionately fighting against each other, desperate to feel more of the other’s touch. His tongue explored my mouth, the taste of him mixing with the taste of my cherry chapstick. His hands trail from my cheeks to wrap my waist, fitting perfectly, as if he was made to be with me.

We continued for a while, together a hot mess as we lent across the gear stick, tired from the strain but too desperate to feel each other’s touch to bear to stop. That was, until we were suddenly interrupted by a loud knock on the window and the shocked faces of Chris and Nick.

“Do you guys come up for air? God”

Disgust was written all over Nick’s face, his voice dripping in sarcasm, whereas Chris had a bemused smile playing at his lips. The shock of the noise made us separate immediately, jumping back, almost giving me a heart attack.

Matt just gives them the finger as I shrink back in my seat, nuzzling my head in the crook of his shoulder in embarrassment hoping to disappear. One things for sure: neither of his brothers are going to let us forget this. Ever.

[murmiss]

Headcanons about Yandere Simulator!COD.

Simon "Ghost" Riley

Warning: mention of suicide, mention of alcohol, drugs, mental problems, possibly traumatic moments, etc. My personal vision of the character. OOC?

I think he's perfect for the role of Yandere.

His childhood was disgustingly shitty, and you can't blame him for that.

Born into a dysfunctional family, Simon was doomed to a hard life from childhood. His father was a drunk, a bloody alcoholic who prided himself on being able to drink for weeks and stay on his feet. A dirty man, with filthy and sadistic tendencies taken out on those closest to him. A freak who broke everyone he knew, trampling on his own son, turning the poor child into an unwilling broken doll.

Simon remembered those lonely nights in the old shed next to the house, cluttered with trash and rusty tools, like it was yesterday. The cold wind blew through the cracks between the boards, leaving goosebumps on Simon's skin and forcing him to pull his legs tighter together, curling up in a ball to keep warm. A night in the old barn was Mr. Riley's favorite punishment, a man crashing home after another rave binge to find out his son had gotten an F in school? Late for first period? Or maybe spent his pocket money on some silly comic book? - no matter what, Simon will fly instantly to the Locked Shed. No matter what happened, Simon was always drawn to his older brother, who, unfortunately, wasn't as good as his younger brother would have liked. Tommy was a jerk, that bad boy in high school who publicly cursed the teacher, broke the toilet faucet, and did stupid things. But the dumbest thing in Tommy's life was drugs - this jerk decided to prove once again to everyone that he was cool, not realizing that very soon this addiction would consume him, like everyone else who once got addicted. And Simon hovered between two fires, like a child dreaming of a normal family, like a son who had never seen his father smile and never heard praise. And the mother? Mrs. Riley-a dandelion of God, withering rapidly in her husband's dirty hands. She was a beautiful woman, the only person in that family who cared about Simon, and he loved her immensely, and still does. Mrs. Riley died when Simon was 14. It was a cold Sunday morning when a loud gunshot rang out, waking Simon from his sleep. Feeling an animal fear, he rushed to the sound, recognizing a sight that forever shattered his poor mind. On September 6, Mrs. Riley shot herself in the temple.Haunted by her husband's nightmares and torture, she couldn't take any more of this abusive behavior, couldn't watch her firstborn wither under drugs, couldn't see Simon hurt.But her act didn't make it better, hell, that kind of thing never makes anything better. After that day, Simon withdrew more than ever. Hitting his father was nothing, hunger was nothing, being forced to kiss a poisonous snake was a challenge.

Simon grew up, and with it grew his hatred and repressed aggression towards his father.One day in a club Simon watched his father attack a poor girl. She simply refused to spend the night with him and the drunkard, not confused, began to beat her as if he were a wrestler in the ring Simon could not do anything, just as he could not save his mother, stop his father's beatings or convince Tommy that drugs are evil. And he didn't understand why his father wasn't in jail. They'd find the girl, but when they did, no one would really care what happened. The freak always gets away with it.

After the death of his mother, Simon was forced to work part-time at the local machine shop. Old man Carson was happy to help the neighbor boy, so he took him into his shop as an assistant without any questions or demands. Yes, and Simon was a handy and understanding guy.

Simon started out washing cars, and after working like that for half a year, he was promoted to Carson's apprentice: the old man explained and taught the boy mechanics, letting him stay up late reading books about cars.

The old man was able to replace Simon's father, teaching the teenager simple things necessary for basic survival. For example, Simon, at 16, learned how to fix some appliances and how to use tools. But Mrs. Carson had already taught Simon cooking, laundry, and household chores, and he, as a bright boy, grasped everything on the fly. Simon noticed Mr. and Mrs. Carson had a son, which they never had, for unfortunately Paula Carson was barren.

Simon lived as a two-family household, mostly spending his days at his mentor's house, but when his father began to rage and throw himself at the neighbor's door, Simon would return, falling asleep again in his little room.

The work in the workshop brought quite a good income and Simon, having entered the desired college, was even able to rent a small apartment on the outskirts of the city, and finally moved out of his home, so as not to see this den, and not to put, in Simon's opinion, the family of his mentor in danger.

The old man Carson told him fatherly: "Simon, you'll be happy when you find love. Simon thought so, but he couldn't imagine what that love looked like. He couldn't believe it would happen someday, not just pass him by like it always did.

But one day that day has come. First day of college, Simon is walking toward the auditorium when a stranger suddenly sweeps him off his feet like a small tornado. It was just a moment when he looked into your eyes-- He felt like he was going to drown in them. The way your eyelashes fluttered as you stood there, rubbing your forehead after the blow and babbling something, was in his head. From that day on, he couldn't imagine his life if you weren't there for him.

"Finally, I'll be happy."

But is this how it's going to be? Simon can't contain his anger at seeing you talking sweetly to some cocky kid in the back of the class. And the voice in Simon's head whispered sweetly: "eliminate."

[13eyond13]

This is from a while back buy I'm super curious, why do you hate Fahrenheit 451?

Hahaha. Oh Fahrenheit 451.

So I just read it for the first time this year. All I knew about it beforehand was that it was a highly praised classic, often taught to people in high school, and that it was a dystopian novel that involved bookburning. I thought that because of these things it was going to be like a 1984 book about how censoring literature for containing controversial material, regardless of the context/meaning/purpose of the story, is a dangerous thing to do. Something that is probably good to think about and continue to teach kids!

Instead what I got was some half-baked dystopian world that is very much just Ray Bradbury whining hysterically for several hundred pages about how TV is rotting everybody's brains. ESPECIALLY the brains of women/housewives, it seems. Society is burning books in the novel mostly just because they can't be assed to read anything anymore now that TV is here, so they make it highly punishable by law to read at all? And somehow erase all record of people ever reading for pleasure in less than a couple of generations (there are old people in the world who still like reading, so it must have been fairly recent - but I don't know, the worldbuilding really doesn't make a lot of sense and left much to be desired for me).

The scene that really cemented my hatred for this book is the one in which the protagonist (who very randomly has an epiphany that reading is actually GOOD because of an underage manic pixie dream girl neighbour who flirts with him) barges in on his wife trying to have a nice time watching TV with her housewife friends and rudely shuts the TV off and forces them to have awkward small talk with him instead. At some point one of the housewives mentions having C-sections when she gave birth because she was scared of being in immense pain (which somehow is supposed to help prove to the readers what godless lazy morons people have become since the invention of TV? As if C-sections aren't often medically necessary and also a painful major surgery). The protagonist then yells at his wife and all her friends, calling them monsters, then starts forcefully reading pretentious poetry to them. The whole time my jaw was on the floor and I was not on his side at all, like. OMG! Shut the hell up and let the ladies enjoy watching a show together and to have a C-section when they give birth if they want to, hahaha. It was like the cringiest r/iamverysmart thing I'd ever read...

THEN to top it all off there was an afterword by Ray Bradbury where he essentially blames minorities, POC, and women for being the enemies of "good aesthetics," which is apparently the main "censorship" he's concerned about in books:

I enjoyed the prose in the book and some of the more creepy off-the-wall parts of it, like The Mechanical Hound (a robot dog with 8 legs that runs around and euthanizes whatever its programmed to smell). But overall I thought it read like the temper tantrum of a conservative asshole man-child who doesn't bother recognizing his own privilege and who looks down his nose snobbishly at anyone who doesn't share his hobby of reading or his exact taste in literature. The argument the book was making didn't ring very true to me, and the dystopian future it presented didn't make a lot of sense to me, so the fact that this is STILL considered one of the best books of all time really annoyed me and threw me for a loop. 😅

[gilithan]

i never actually articulated on here where my love for emmerdale/aaron dingle came from, so i though i’d express my thoughts below (heavy discussion of mental health ahead)

So in 2011-2012 I was struggling to come out. This was when I graduated high school and started uni. I came out to strangers first, new uni friends. The first time I said it I felt an immense shift, a weight lifted.

But I still struggled, majorly, with my mental health, thoughts of suicide. I felt unlovable, hopeless, worthless. This were deep-seated, and not solely from my struggles in the closet.

I sought catharsis, as I always do, in media. However, gay media - specifically, good gay media - was few and far between, especially back then. Shockingly, Kurt from glee didn’t quite cut it. As someone who wasn’t and still isn’t into the more club/hook-up side of things the more risque shows didn’t help either.

So I turn to Soaps. Not really realistic, but based in realism. Overdramatic, but drama was needed to draw out the emotions.

Aaron Livesy (now Dingle) was one of the first I found. He was moody, rude, violent, and so, so self-destructive. His highs gave me hope, his lows gave me catharsis. His relationships with his family (when they were good) showed me how even imperfect relationships are important, if they are genuine.

Through Aaron’s journey, I followed and got through my hardest times. I must have watched his initial run, on a loop, five six times. Then the impossible happened: he returned.

And boy did he return. My initial hatred of Robert aside, Danny, Ryan, and most of the supporting characters, had the best writing and acting I’ve ever seen on the soap. That really solidified Aaron as not just a weird guilty pleasure that I needed once, but something that I say without a doubt will stay with me forever.

Things happened, Ryan left, writing deteriorated, Danny left. I resigned myself to the slow wait. I am in a much better place, not perfect but so much better. And now Aaron has returned again! Writing is still not quite up to what it was (and a certain someone still hasn’t returned) but… yeah. That’s my journey with Aaron.

[vexfulfolly]

i’m the guy who drew your boy Leo for artfight, and (for no particular reason) i was wondering. uhm. Enoch siblings reveal? also, what’s his relationship to Leo and Mick? are they friends? how do they behave with each other? not to bombard you with questions, it would just help me out a little. answer whatever you feel like, or don’t answer at all, it just changes how many drawings you get this time around. good morning! or afternoon..! or evening? well, whether morning, noon, or night, have a lovely day!

Crying shaking omg I am so excited to answer this!!

Enoch & Co.

E’s got three younger siblings: Willow, Vida, and Clem(entine).

Willow is the same age as Enoch and could NOT be more different! She’s essentially a social media influencer/ YouTuber, minor actress, and has been a model for a few years. Her abilities came in pretty late, and due to her more “public” status, the gov has had issues trying to corner her or bring her in. Enoch is constantly scrubbing her social media and technology to keep her safe from being tracked, and in return she pays for their apartment (and desperately tries to get him to interact with humans). She will nag, unplug the wifi, pour water on him, anything and everything to get him out in public and seeing the sky. E values her input and leans on her in a personal/ emotional/ leadership capacity. She’s his #2 and has been by his side the longest!

Vida is the middle child and a finicky little shithead. He’s 21, a sophomore in college, and has discovered that drinking is an activity to do, and that he’s literally being hunted by the gov so he can do whatever he wants. He’s got sticky fingers, puppy-dog eyes, and an edge of unaddressed hysteria that makes him a loose cannon. He won’t eat Enoch’s “homemade meals”, complains about the cleanliness of the apartment, and puts out his cigarettes on the doorway. He’s kind of a mess! But like, graceful with it, you know? He usually hangs out with Enoch during the day, or brings home guys and gals (to the detriment of E’s blood pressure). He’s the newest of the bunch, and still getting acquainted to everyone—occasional screaming arguments still happen, but they’re growing fewer.

Clementine is the youngest, at 18. She’s a runaway, who struggles immensely with her powers. After accidentally using them in front of her family she ran, accidentally crossing Willow and E’s path in a grocery store. Her ability is like putting someone in a trance—when it is activated, those close to her relive their most painful and frightening memories and cannot stop. She is finishing her final year of high school, and is the only one not actively being hunted by the gov (she’s just a missing person’s case, lol). She’s very nervous, and Enoch is like a mentor. No one will never replace her actual family, but the unyielding support, lack of expectations, and the personalities that surround her are helping her come out of her shell. She is baby <3

(Click for better quality)

E’s Crew + Leo & Mick

Leo is (essentially) Enoch’s information broker for Chicago’s nightlife. E has some minor blackmail on Leo (aka: that he ISNT actually an ability user), and so Leo lets him know where he should or shouldn’t be. Enoch also tells him if the feds are closing in on any of their locations/ holdings.

Leo takes great delight in making Enoch meet him at fancy and very public locations, forcing the man to be as uncomfortable as possible. Neither of them particularly want to be there, but it’s that weird veneer of political politeness and fake nicities. Smiling with hatred in their eyes and trying to crush each other’s hands during a handshake.

Mick & Vida are best bros, so the older siblings HAVE to get along. Vida isn’t in Leo and Mick’s gang… but he’s definitely Around™️ and participating™️ in some of the violence. He’s a good post-battle nurse (and definitely DEFINITELY doesn’t have a crush on Mick, why would you say that?)

I hope this answers all your questions!!! But feel free to ask more if I missed anything!!

[heartidylla]

lover — i forgot that you existed

javier peña x f!reader

summary : after getting hated on by rumors spreading around the office, javier confronts you for the first time.

caution : language

speaking color coding

“” — javier

“” — you

“” — other

you took a deep breath before you stepped into the office for the first time in which seemed to be days, even though you were just sitting at your eloquent desk yesterday. a rumor — which stated at you had been involved with another coworker spread around like wildfire.

as the head of an entire squad, this news was impactful in questioning if you're suitable for such a privileged position.

the shade everyone had been throwing at you had gotten so extreme that they'd go out of their way to put you down, taking away all of the built up sunshine you were storing within you to barely make it past each day.

the worst part is that you couldn't get away from such immense hatred you had been attracting. this alone caused an increasingly amount of resentment for yourself, even a falsely accused rumor had impacted your mental state to such extreme lows.

you don't know the reason behind not standing up for yourself to your coworkers, perhaps it was due to the fact the entire situation had completely gone downhill to an overly critical state. you felt tongue-tied, even when you were going to argue on your behalf against such horrible people.

what irked you more was the fact javier peña, a man who has countless intimate relationships with coworkers, never got criticized for such 'outrageous behavior', but if it was you — or more so a woman, everything was blown out of proportion. that alone lived rent free within the realm of your mind.

however, everything changed that day. as you stepped into the office, a new confidence had taken over your movements. after months of consistent torment, you had finally been pushed over your limits which contained your nasty comments and inner thoughts.

walking through the crowed halls it was magical how they seemed entirely empty to you. it was so much easier to ignore everyone that surround you than to put up and try and defend yourself.

you have always desired to people on people's good sides, happy to help everyone who needed it. you made it your goal to treat others how you'd wanna be treated, and you stuck to that, apart from the darkness that came with your job.  

your worst fear, since youth, has always been people hating on you or talking behind your back. it always cause a tightness in your chest whenever you thought someone didn't like you, and you'd always seek their approval in everything. the idea that someone who don't add anything to your life, nor knew who you truly were, despising you made you physically nauseous to think about.

however, in this instance, you didn't feel like you were passing away. you felt at ease as you finally accepted that not everyone is going to like you, and people are going to talk their shit and you're going to have no control over how people view you. honestly, being alone made everything so much more peaceful and quiet. even if they didn't like you, they still had to respect how great of an agent and leader you were and follow your orders without hesitation.

you sat down at your desk with the biggest grin on your face that you had in weeks as you instantly put on your noise cancellation headphones and dived into the depths of files you had racked up over the course of your mental health spiral.

you could feel the eyes on you, but you couldn't give less of a fuck about it. you didn't hate your coworkers, nor did you love them as you once had: it was just simply indifference.

as you watched your reputation which you had strongly built from the ground up tumble in front of you, you got out some popcorn and watched it burn.

it almost seemed as if all your work friends were laughing at you as you had tripped and collided with the ground in the schoolyard during high school. 

worst part is, you were always there for each and everyone one of them. when they needed help, you'd stick around for extra hours and assist them with what they needed. hell, you'd fight the entire town if one of them were getting picked on. you'd be supporting them in their front row, even when nobody else would. 

lost in your work, you were pulled out of it by a tap on your shoulder. you looked up with an empty expression as you met the mist of darkness that consisted in javier peña's eyes. the light which reflected off of them shined like stars in the deepest hinted skies. his lips curved into a smile as his pointed finger signaled to his ear, motioning for you to take off your headphones. which you did...at an awkward pace, unsure as to why he was trying to talk to you now.

"yes, mr. peña?" your voice came off lightly and questioning as to what he was doing so far from home. his department and yours are the same job, but a considerable amount of distance for someone to make such a casual trip here.

"oh, i wanted to check in on how you were doing." he stated, putting his muscular forearms on his desk as his mended muscles began to reveal themselves. your eyes drift onto them for a slight second, before turning your gaze back onto him, raising an eyebrow at question since you didn't fully grasp the meaning behind it.  "you're not bothered by the talking anymore?" he clarified.

"oh!" you nodded before leaning back into your chair, "no, they sent me a clear message, and taught me some hard lessons." your words made javier frown. he realized the double standard more than you knew, and was disgusted as to why they were critiquing you so severely for something that's clearly a lie. "honestly, by this point i forget what they were..." javier looked back towards your amused expression, "it's all just a blur." beginning to slightly chuckle at your own stupidity of a joke, and was delighted as javier joined in as well.

"well, i'm glad that you finally forgot that they existed." he says as the laughing fit had eventually died down. you send him a simple smile, not expecting him to carefully, slide his hand into yours and lift it up to his mouth. he held you with such genuine affection that it bewildered you since you always saw him as a playboy who was unable to hold such compassion for someone within his eyes. "hopefully you hadn't forgotten about me?" he places a soft kiss onto the back of your hand, sending goosebumps to rise on your arm due to the electric warmth that flowed throughout your body immediately after the contact.

"i think you'd make that impossible to do." you lightly chuckled, retracting your hand from his grasp; unable to withstand anymore flirtatious behavior coming from javier in general. you'd only just had a sip of it, and it was already too much for your own heart to handle. he does have such immense power over people's feelings, and you figured he'd surely use it as a way to break you down.

he sent his signature smug smirk at you as your sights drifted back onto your work, not paying him another thought. he'd always liked that about you, how you knew what he was up to and when to space him out once he had gotten too close to you. "maybe so, cariño." he watched as your body tensed at such an intimate nickname, but you didn't say anything furthermore to him. "hopefully i'll see you around, maybe i'll start making more trips here." he noted as he looked around your bigger office, noticing how much care you put into the place you work. you had a space all to yourself due to your position, and decorated it to seem more homely.

"do whatever you want mr. peña, but i have a lot of work i have to do — and i'm sure you do too." you offered him once last look at your face, before it was forever glued to the shrinking pile of papers.

"yes ma'am, then i'll definitely be seeing you around more." he reassured you before walking out of your office to leave you to it. sadly, he didn't get to witness the helpless and bashful smile that was plastered on your face the moment you heard the door shut.

"idiotic peña." you softly whisper to yourself, putting your blood-rushed cheeks into the coldness your palms had to offer, praying that they'd chill down your face.

next javier peña song chapter

[modernpygmalion]

I've been thinking about it too, about when I last felt comfortable actually being me. It was middle school, which was also around the time i started to notice i was different. I was very selective with who got to see different sides of me, i was really introverted and def preferred to sit back and watch things unfold rather than jump in myself

I remember realizing that it made me come across as standoffish and inapproachable, so i had switched it up. I was really comfortable mostly journaling, and did pretty much the same things i do now. I studied, i drew, and i wrote. And i wrote a lot too, would fill up entire notebooks. I felt lonely for sure, so i relied on the internet to give me community, which is the same as now.

Its just i didn't, until high school, feel this immense self hatred on who i was, and what my personality got me. When i started dressing up and doing make up people were nicer, and even now if i look disheveled if im overly polite people tend to turn the other way and be kind in turn. I do this to offset my appearance making them rude, by being pleasant to talk to.

And online I used to fake something similar, because i wanted to come across as pleasant. In the back of my mind, ive always felt like any friendship i'll form is temporary, so i prefer to be overly nice, especially in the beginning, bc once i start being my true self, its usually when i either can't hold back anymore bc im annoyed, or bc i was explicitly asked.

But ig since im chillin rn, i don't feel that pressure. I think thats the main thing, im tryna sprinkle who i actually am in every conversation instead of offering extremely diluted versions of me, and adjusting it as i perceive feedback.

I dont think my actual personality is being an asshole or anything, but truth be told i've been forcing myself to care more about everything than i actually do.

So im kinda glad as my social circle shrinks im able to reconnect with who i once was and be more of my authentic self. Im grateful for the folks i chat with regularly who are accepting of this, and who don't ask more from me

[primofate]

Genshin x fem!reader [Volleyball Team AU - Inspired by Haikyuu!] Manager reader gets hit on/harassed

Note: IM BACK FROM VACATION I recommend you read “How it’s like to be their manager” first before this one. Gives it a lot more perspective :)

Scenario: During an away game at another school, you catch the eye of a senior there. Little did he know that you’re the Genshin team’s manager and how much trouble he just caused for himself. 

Warnings: SEXUAL HARRASSMENT but still SFW, swearing, profanities, fighting. platonic relationships.

Characters: Zhongli, Diluc, Kaeya, Albedo, Tartaglia, Kazuha, Xiao, Tohma, reader as the team manager

Other works in the Volleyball Team AU Series: Click Here

Lost.

It was like one of your traits. Getting lost easily. You sigh and look left and right to see if anyone was in the hallways to help you get back to the gym, or at least give you directions.

“Those guys...are gunna be worried if I don’t get back soon,” you sweatdrop a little and laugh nervously, picturing your childish team just losing it when you come back late. “I better hurry,” you mutter to yourself, pace quickening the slightest bit, just as a door to one of the classrooms slide open with a thud, revealing a spiky haired guy who stares and blinks at you. You take that opportunity to ask the guy where the gym is. 

Back at the gym where the team is doing warmups and practice receives, Tartaglia starts getting antsy and annoying. “Where’s Y/N-chan~~?” He sways back and forth. Zhongli sighs at his middle blocker, “She’ll be back soon, she just went to look for a vending machine,” They still had an hour to go before the practice match, so Zhongli wasn’t that worried. 

“Hmmm? It’s--HIT--been a while--HIT--since--HIT--she’s been back --HIT--though--HIT,” Kaeya states. Sentence cut off in pieces as he tries to keep the volleyball up in the air, his tied up blue hair starting to stick to his neck because of the sweat. Still, the team keeps practicing, up until 10 minutes later when even their captain starts to get antsy. 

“...Captain, don’t hide it, just admit you’re worried for her too,” Tohma states with a harmless laugh. Zhongli muses and finally sighs, “I have to stay here. Someone else go and look for her,” and immediately seven hands are in the air.

Tartaglia waves his hand “Me, me!”

Kaeya raises his hand “I’ll go!”

Diluc does too “I can do it...”

Albedo follows “I remember the layout of the school,”

Kazuha volunteers “I’ve got good instincts,”

Xiao gingerly picks his hand up “I’ll bring her back fast,”

and finally Tohma’s hand is high in the air, “I’ll find her!”

Of course everyone wanted to go... Zhongli decides he doesn’t want to deal with it and tells his team to go with rock paper scissors. Watching them battle it out really made him wonder how the hell he kept this team together. 

“YES!” Tartaglia pumps his fist in the air as he, Kazuha, Xiao and Tohma win the simple round of rock, paper, scissors. Kaeya, Diluc and Albedo are silently sulking, but continue their practice. “We’ll be back soon!!” Tohma waves at them as they exit the gym, starting their search on the ground floor classrooms.

Back where you were, you’d been following the guy for at least 2 minutes now. He said he’d lead you to the gym...but...it seemed as if there was less and less people to wherever he was taking you. It was the ground floor, at the end of the hallway where lockers lined both side of the walls. Suddenly the guy’s hand is wrapped around your wrist and he pulls you towards him. You instantly resist, pulling your wrist back and keeping away from him. “I-I just want to go back to the gym, my team is waiting for me,” 

You steel your gaze at the guy. If he thought you were just going to stand there and take his blatant disrespect for your personal space, he was wrong. But his next move leaves you feeling disgusted, your skirt hikes up and he grins. “Stop!” you screech and twist your wrist away.

Tartaglia halts in his tracks at your familiar voice. His head turns just as his other three companions does. 

The scene unfolding before him makes. him. see. red. 

Hell, he doesn’t even see anything except the image of him punching that grin off of that guy’s face. His vision zones in on the bastard’s features, he strides over, in less than 5 seconds reaching towards the guy’s collar and slamming him on the nearest locker. “The hell do you think you’re doing?!” You’ve never seen him so angry before, but the realization of what happened has you cowering away, feeling like some dirty thing that was played around with. 

“Tartaglia, ease up!” Tohma runs to try and restrain Tartaglia’s arms. He shoots a look at Xiao who immediately turns around to get the rest of the team, particularly his captain. Kazuha strides over to you, watching as you faced away and looked at the ground, ashamed. 

Kazuha was never one to resort to violence, nor was he particularly a resentful guy. But he feels it. He feels the hatred rush through his veins, but he focuses on you instead. “You’re alright, Y/N,” he places a hand on top of your head and smooths your hair down just as the others arrive. 

Tohma is barely holding on to Tartaglia, his strength matches his fury, but Diluc finally arrives and together with Tohma, successfully pulls Tartaglia away from the guy. 

“Calm down,” the red haired spiker insists, to which Tartaglia only shouts, eyes engulfed in fury and piercing the offender with his gaze. 

“This fucker touched Y/N!” 

Zhongli, Kaeya and Diluc freeze at the news. Their heads slowly turn towards the attacker. 

And now all set of 8 eyes on him are menacing, cold and unforgiving.

How dare he.

But Diluc holds his ground, restraining Tartaglia. 

Zhongli’s head turns towards your frame, seemingly meek and tiny and tears pooling around your eyes. 

Xiao hurries next to you as he arrives, the displeasure on his face was immense, specially when he starts wiping off the tears cascading down your cheeks. He grits his teeth “Don’t waste your tears on someone like him,” he knew well that you must have felt ashamed, and that your tears were not something you could control, but it was the best thing he could say. 

It was Kaeya, unrestrained and gurgling with hot anger that lifts his fist up.

But it was not his fist that connects with the offender’s jaw.

It was not his hands that pulled the offender up by his collar once again.

And it was not him who states “Do not come near her again. Don’t even look at her,” 

The whole team freezes. 

It was their captain.

The captain that was always calm and collected. Who always tried to stop fights and apologize for the inconveniences that his team caused. There’s a shiver that runs up the member’s spines at the feral look on their captain’s face. 

And then he drops the guy on the ground once again. The offender panicking and crouching backwards and away from them. “We should report it to someone,” Albedo, sensible and smart as ever, suggests. “...but throwing a few more punches in doesn’t seem so bad...” he adds and narrows his eyes at the guy.

“No, don’t. Let’s not waste our energies,” you firmly say and wipe the remaining tears away from your eyes. Kaeya moves over to your side and slides his jacket off of him and places it around your shoulders. “Okay, princess, whatever you want, we’ll just drop him off at the principal’s office and make a report,” when it really counted Kaeya’s flirtatious nicknames for you were quite reassuring. You smiled up at him a little.

Zhongli passes another glance at you, his fist is still tight next to him but he hoists the guy up and has Tartaglia come with him, since he was the one who saw everything. 

The rest of the team turns to you, with Tohma taking your hand and leading you back to the gym. “You’re okay, Y/N, we’re here,” and sure enough they keep close enough to you to fend off anyone else. Like wolves protecting their pack. You knew the chances of that happening again was slim, but seeing them so concerned and circled around you like a shield was really what you needed right now. 

“...Thank you,” you whisper to them as you arrive at the unfamiliar gym. They all turn back to you with a smile. 

“We’ll beat them to the ground at this game, Y/N, you’ll see,”

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[queerasaurus-rexx]

So like, imagine that a new exchanged student came to Devildom for the program but, that student was mc's tormentor and nemesis back before they (mc) came to devildom. Whenever they are in the same room together, their (mc's) tormentor would always start a random fight and then their tormentor brought out "At least my entire family didn't die in a war!" which causes mc to leave the class and lock themselves up in their room? Sorry if this is too long and you don't have to do this! I'm new to your blog and I already like ur writing! Please, keep up the good work!

i really like this prompt, thanks for sending it in!

content warning: discussion of possible religious or ethnic persecution, bullying

also, i decided to give mc's bully the name sam because it's gender-neutral and sam is referred to as gn. sorry if your name is sam.

side note, but i'm sorry this took so long! sometimes my writing takes forever and sometimes it takes a day, there is no in between.

background

mc had been dealing with it since the fifth grade. since their family had fled the persecution in their home country. but getting out of a war zone is difficult at best.

and when they arrived in their new country, mc was the only one alive. raised by people who weren't their blood was rough for mc, especially when their classmate's discovered the people mc lived with hadn't even adopted mc legally. no matter the financial reasons behind it, their classmates saw it as a loud sign that mc wasn't even good enough to be adopted.

and kids can be cruel.

but their classmate, a kid named 'sam' had always taken it too far.

sam was well and truly mc's nemesis. none of their classmates ever sunk as low as sam. none of their classmates would dare say the things sam said.

"at least my family's still alive!" "at least my family didn't get their asses blown up!" "at least my family loves me!"

the litany of hatred damaged mc's self-esteem immensely. and it was why they rejoiced when they graduated high school, secure in the knowledge that they'd probably never have to deal with sam and that level of hatred ever again.

the two years of peace and acceptance mc found in the devildom cannot be overstated.

so imagine how terrifying it was to hear the words

"well, well, well. if it isn't god's least favourite orphan."

LUCIFER

at first, lucifer doesn't understand why mc cowers in sam's presence. he doesn't understand why the human who bravely wrangled his brothers in line would be afraid of another human.

it doesn't take him long to parse out that these two have history though. he starts noticing some red flags when mc refuses to talk about that history. one thing that cannot be understated is how well sam behaves when the demon brothers or the dateables are around mc. they never said shit to mc while they have protection.

but once mc is beyond their reach, the torment begins again. the name-calling, the pushing, shoving and overall dehumanizing amps up in full force. lucifer gets suspicious when mc starts developing bruises they won't explain and their demeanour shifts entirely. lucifer's not stupid.

he is rather unpleasantly surprised when he heard sam say

"at least my entire family didn't die in a war!" to a visibly distressed mc. lucifer's not good at comforting people, so he instead confronts sam, making it clear in no unspoken terms that their time in the devildom will go a lot more smoothly if they never say such things to mc ever again.

MAMMON

one of few instances where mammon's jealousy and protectiveness ended up being a net positive, mammon got bad vibes from sam immediately. sam very quickly finds mammon to be a huge pain in the ass, especially if mammon and the mc are romantic. lots of people think mammon is aloof or inattentive, but mammon tends to pay more attention to the mc's body language than almost all his brothers (only levi surpasses him here, and that's only because levi has social anxiety) so he also picks up on mc's discomfort around their childhood bully.

he does take a bit to put it together that mc isn't just experiencing some garden variety anxiety over the situation though. he starts realizing how bad it is when he sees the way sam looks at mc when he's not looking - their face a mix of vitriol and malignant glee - and it makes mammon want to spontaneously combust. the whole thing feels wrong but no one will tell him what exactly mc and sam's beef is.

until the day he overhears

"at least my entire family didn't die in a war!"

it makes mammon's blood boil. who does sam think they are, talking to mc like that? oh, this won't stand. it's after mammon changes into his demon form he remembers that ruining the exchange program will mean he loses mc.

fortunately, mammon's not a complete idiot.

so his solution was instead to just make sure sam had a bad time. not in a noticeable way, just, every so often sam's accounts would be emptied of grimm just when they need it most, their cards get declined when there's a lineup behind them and occasionally, their cards would be straight up cancelled. do not fuck with mammon's friends.

LEVIATHAN

jealous baby got protective vibes immediately. constantly called sam a normie (and not affectionately like he does with mc) and did his best to monopolize mc's time. it ended up serving them both fairly well, since sam couldn't get mc away from levi long enough to really bother them and with levi giving them a piece of their own medicine.

but levi can't be everywhere with mc all the time. so the day he's leaving the house of lamentation and hears

"at least my entire family didn't die in a war!" in the front yard, followed by mc running past him in tears was the kind of scenario that, under other circumstances, would have seen the offender become very familiar with lotan rather quickly. so instead, levi crosses the line with the fury of a general whose just witnessed high level insubordination and very threateningly informs sam that he himself has been in a war, and lost a family member because of that. and if sam wants to go around poking at people's trauma, they're welcome to do so to every person who fought in the war between the the devildom and the celestial realm - but even diavolo wouldn't save them at that point.

ASMODEUS

so, a personal little headcanon of mine is that asmo can sense any form of lust, even bloodlust. and asmo got a lot of bloodlust radiating off sam towards mc when he met them. now of course, asmo is asmo and he likes a show more than he likes half his siblings most of the time.

so in the interest of entertainment, he allowed sam some unrestricted access to mc to see what would happen.

that lasted about a week, until sam shouted "at least my entire family didn't die in a war!" at mc and asmo, despite claiming to be unbothered by his past is still fucking traumatized by the war went of the deep end and mc had to use their pact to keep him from tearing sam limb from limb.

BEELZEBUB

i've said it before, i'll say it again. i don't think anyone in their right mind would fuck with mc knowing how close they are to beel. unfortunately for them, these are my headcanons and thus sam is an idiot. beel really did try to be friendly with sam. he's got a good heart, and wants the exchange program to succeed, if only because that means mc will get to stay in the devildom.

but he's not a dumbass. he can tell there's some tension between mc and sam, and he tries to help the pair mend fences at first. if mc and beel are romantic, however, he will quickly relent when he noticed their discomfort and keep them close to prevent any further issues.

he's looking for you after fangol practice when he hears

"at least my entire family didn't die in a war!" and sees you running out of a classroom sobbing.

normally, outside of food related emergencies, beel is slow to anger. but when it comes to mc, the avatar of gluttony is protective as hell and was even nearly willing to fight his own twin for hurting them. so imagine his reaction when some random fuckwad needles right at mc's trauma in such a nasty way.

solomon had to be called to administer a memory charm and diavolo decided that it was better if sam was sent back to the human world. no one blames mc.

BELPHEGOR

lazy boy says no touch his emotional support human. he's not as emotionally intelligent as a few of his brothers, but even he can see mc is very uncomfortable around sam.

just means more opportunities to nap with him, though. this is a lie. he's eyeing sam like a hawk from the minute he notices mc's reaction towards them. he clings to mc a little more than usual, but he says it's just to make them feel better.

still. his sleepiness means he can't be with mc all the time and sam just so happens to take one of these instances to bother mc. unfortunately, yelling at the top of their lungs,

"at least my entire family didn't die in a war!" is the exact kind of bullshit that wakes belphie up. the avatar of sloth would sit up straight from his sleeping position and stare daggers at sam, slowly rising to his feet.

"would you care to repeat that for me?" belphie asks, and mc recognizes the same malice in his eyes that was there the night he killed them. mc is very torn, because sam's been making their life hell since they were a child, but they know letting belphie kill them will get them in trouble. in the end, mc ends up summoning lucifer to stop belphie from doing anything drastic.

sam ends up being memory charmed and sent back to the human world, and belphie has to swear on lilith's grave that he won't go after them.

SATAN

this man didn't like sam from the moment he saw them. satan took the initiative, however, and subtly explained to sam that if they did anything to even slightly inconvenience mc, he was going to make sure they returned to the human world in a body bag.

but we've already established sam is an idiot, so.

even with satan being more up mc's ass than a fart, sam manages to get in a few jabs here and there when the avatar of wrath is just out of ear shot or so engrossed in a book the entire universe could cease to be and he wouldn't notice. still, he sees how down mc seems to be getting and he's no moron. he puts two and two together and decides to maybe remind sam of his little promise when they first came to the devildom. as he's heading off to find sam, he hears

"at least my entire family didn't die in a war!" and mc comes running out crying.

mc didn't notice that satan was tossing their childhood bully around like a ragdol until sam called out to them for help.

not gonna lie, mc got a bit of satisfaction out of that.

[serenityseventeen]

Woozi (이지훈):

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

“I hate you?”

synopsis: Jihoon is quite madly in love with you but disguises it as hate. To you, he's your worst enemy.

parts: 1 - “I hate you?” | 2 - “I hate you even more?”

genre: romance, angst(?), enemies to lovers trope

warnings: profanity

characters: woozi x reader, ft. 1996 liners

word count: 1.57k

a/n: I'm not feeling very motivated... Maybe it's because I'm feeling a bit stressed with things and school... I plan to watch SVT's Chuseok VLive and the stream tomorrow... + I didn't get to say this but their new photo book is gorgeous!!! + I'll try to write and finish the second part tomorrow! This was just a bit of a background ^^

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

Dead gorgeous.

Jihoon couldn't keep his eyes off you. As he watched you walk down the aisle in that beautiful red dress, his heartbeat was racing. His eyes were sparkling as his gaze followed your every movement.

You looked around for your group of friends at the end of the school year party, your hands lifting your dress so that you wouldn't trip over your own clothes. You felt a bit shy in the long, silky red dress but found comfort when you saw some of your guy friends talking in the corner by the table of drinks.

Among those friends was your worst enemy.

Lee Jihoon.

Well, to you, he was your worst enemy.

Jihoon watched as you approached the table in your stunning red gown. You went up to him with a closed face, your dazzling smile when you entered completely gone.

“What are you looking at?” You asked Jihoon.

Jihoon was stunned by your immense beauty and baffled by your question. The honesty in him could never come out. So, once again, he said, “An ugly woman. God, what made you think this dress looked good on you?”

“Well, I have to say that your suit makes you look like a grandpa so you're one to talk.”

Jihoon rolled his eyes and turned away, with a cup of juice in his hands. “I wouldn't say bright red was a good choice of color, if it was wine color then I would have better opinions on your dress.”

You stayed quiet as you walked to stand next to him, muttering back, “I guess you just like to blend in, you know that you're nothing special, huh?”

Jihoon snickered and set down the empty cup of juice after swallowing it all down in one gulp. “If you think you stand out right now, it's not in a good way, be a bit more humble.”

In reality, all those insults were to hide Jihoon's heart and the amount of nervousness he felt when he was around you. The words had come out of his mouth habitually instead of the truth. He never knew that he could be so rude to someone and in return, have them be just as mean back.

That was the best way to describe your relationship with Jihoon. Hatred, hatred, hatred. Constant bickering. You two never got along and were polar opposites. Salty or sweet, high or low, left or right, black or white, the answers would always differ.

You both don't quite remember how it began but after around a year of being in the same friend circle despite having growing hatred for each other, you became more convinced that the moment you two met, you both already hated each other.

“I heard about a challenge,” One of your mutual friends, Kwon Soonyoung said, with a glass of apple juice in his hands. “Are you guys up for it? It requires just one month of our summer.”

You immediately turned your head to Soonyoung, who was your friend and Jihoon's best friend. A challenge always perked your ears.

You smiled and said, “Okay, say it, I want to hear what it's about first.”

“Don't tell me that out of all people, you, the dumbest and clumsiest person in the universe, wants to accept the challenge?” Jihoon looked at you and you rolled your eyes.

“The challenge is...” Soonyoung ignored Jihoon's comment and quickly proceeded, knowing that you two would just end up bickering again; he had seen that scenario too many times. “A one month camping trip! We will stay in a cabin and the maximum number of people is 12. Once we start the challenge, we cannot leave the campsite, that means we have to bring a lot of food and use it wisely. If we run out of food, we can search for food in the forest nearby. If we leave to buy food, we immediately fail the challenge.”

“Is there a reward?” One of your other friends, Jun, asked, munching on some creamy donuts from a different table.

“Well...” Soonyoung chuckled dryly. “It's for fun! If you guys don't think that you can handle it, you don't have to come. Jihoon and I can go alone.”

“Since when did I say I was going?” Jihoon questioned, turning to Soonyoung who was smiling confidently with one arm around Jihoon's shoulders.

You chuckled. “Don't tell me you're afraid of being left alone in a cabin surrounded by forest for a month?”

Jihoon knew that your remark probably meant that you wanted to go. He didn't want you going to the camping challenge trip that Soonyoung prepared because, though you loved activities like that and were useful in outdoor aspects, he knew that you would constantly get hurt. You didn't know how to take care of yourself. You were tough like a rock, no matter how much you're thrown, you never break. That's why he knew that his words would never break you.

Jihoon was worried but he couldn't break his character all of a sudden and express worry for you, who had become precious to him. No matter how much he hated the continuous conflict, he couldn't stop it. It was the only thing that gave him confidence to talk with you, who he had fallen for so hopelessly.

Even if he now had no chance to be with you, as long as he could protect you somehow, he was happy with that.

“Who says I'm afraid?” Jihoon finally replied, gazing at you, who was still dressed beautifully in that bright red gown. Your hair was also done beautifully to match. This sight of you was like a glimpse of heaven.

Jihoon quickly shook off his romantic thoughts of you and continued with a straight face, “I can handle that little ‘challenge’ without any problems unlike you, who is always dropping knives.”

You snorted and looked around at your friends, who were growing tired of the continuous argument you two had. “I'm in for the challenge, Soonyoung. Call me up when you have the schedule ready, I'm ready to go with you and handle this challenge with no problems.”

You were confident that you were going to be okay. You were quite interested in things like challenges, and if it took place in nature, you were definitely in.

Jihoon crossed his arm. “Are you sure about that? I think you'll break a leg before you even arrive at the campsite.”

“Why don't you two just go somewhere else and get married already? I can't stand your arguments anymore,” Another friend, Jeon Wonwoo, said with a playful smile. “Anyway, count me in, Soonyoung.”

You gave a disgusted look and Jihoon turned away.

Your friends always liked to joke like that. You found it to be annoying because it was so obvious that you and Jihoon hated each other to the core for being opposites.

Jihoon always had to turn away whenever someone brought up the joke of marrying you. He had to act like he didn't like it and that was the only way to hide his uncontrollable blush.

-

At the meeting point, everyone was running late but you and Jihoon.

Out of everyone, it had to be him.

The meeting point was at a bus stop that you guys would board to the campsite. The bus stop was in a pretty isolated and rural place; there weren't many houses nearby, mainly fields of grass and farms.

“You packed quite a bit,” You commented, upon seeing Jihoon's red suitcase that was resting by his side. You adjusted the strap of your backpack. “You must really want to survive for a month.”

“You're a dumbass thinking that you'd survive off the 3 pairs of clothes and snacks you have in that backpack,” Jihoon replied, turning his head to you. He was almost distracted by the way that your hair was flying with the wind and the sun making your skin glow. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt and black sweatpants, with a black cap. “Plus, I enjoyed the silence we were sharing for once, why must you always disrupt the peace by being a nuisance?”

You rolled your eyes and your eyes locked for a second, making Jihoon's heart pound.

“Wow, I'm a nuisance,” You chuckled as the words came out of your mouth. You turned your body to Jihoon and took a few steps forward with your arms behind your back. Jihoon's heart was beating so fast. Your smirk that followed made his heartbeat race nervously and he blinked, flustered. “What are you going to say next? You've already called me an annoyance, a pain in the arse, are you going to call me a b-”

“Hey guys!” It was Jun's voice. He was skipping over happily with a bright smile on his face.

You stopped talking and straightened your position as Jun approached. Inside, you were slightly embarrassed and hoped that Jun didn't think you two were doing anything weird. However, it made you feel nice to have the last word.

On the other hand, Jihoon felt like he just got out of torture.

If you got one inch closer, he would've lost complete control over himself and everything he hid for a year would spill.

At this point, he didn't even deny it, he was just refusing to say that he liked you so much that you drove him crazy every night.

Now, he was determined to change that.

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

© serenityseventeen

time finished: 9/18/21 - 5:48 pm

[ficnation]

Chapter 2: Not Alone Anymore

Series: Way Down We Go // Season 1

Word count: 4,1k+

Pairing: Rick Grimes x Female! Reader; Shane Walsh x Reader

Warnings: usual twd themes (e.g. descriptive gore, death, use of weapons, violence, cursing)

A/n: Finally, after months of not writing anything at all, I finished this chapter. Sorry for any mistakes I've made. Lots of love, and please let me know in the comments what you think <3

*my own aesthetic* // *twd universe doesn’t belong to me, but the original characters do*

𝐅𝐔𝐋𝐋 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓

𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐖𝐄 𝐆𝐎 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓

𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 || 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑

You were sitting on the bed beside a closed window of the small trailer that immensely reminded you of your fucked up childhood. The cigarette between your fingers did nothing to cease your anxiety and the guilt bubbling in your stomach. You exhaled deeply, letting the smoke swirl out of your system and create a foggy cloud above your head. A hand slid down the window made of thick plastic that was supposed to imitate glass, and you didn’t even flinch at the annoying squeak and hungry groans of the undead.

“Oh fuck you, Angela, you’ve always been a cunt. No wonder you’re haunting me even after your death.” You scoffed at the older woman, turning around and sitting on your knees to look her dead in the foggy eyes. One side of her face was pressed flatly to the window, and you couldn’t help but flinch when her exposed teeth scraped over the plastic surface.

She didn’t look like the woman you once knew. Her skin had a greyish color and was slowly starting to rot. The pearly white teeth she once sported were now yellow, and some of them fell out while she was trying to bite a hole through the plastic window of the trailer. The only thing that stayed the same was the silver necklace clinging to her neck. It was a gift from Ally, her drug-addicted son that you dated for a few months in high school. 

He was a nice boy, kind and funny but everyone knew that your relationship wouldn’t last long. You had fun and lived life like there was no tomorrow, but there was a significant difference between you. Ally didn’t have any plans for the future; he lived every day like it was his last, and he never planned on leaving the corrupted trailer park.

You were complete opposites in this aspect; you wanted to be someone. You didn’t want to stay there, work a shitty job that barely paid you anything, and raise five kids by yourself because your trashy husband was too high to function like a normal human being.

There weren’t any hard feelings left behind when you parted ways. At least not between you and Ally. His mother was a different story; she was ready for the wedding and looking after her grandkids that you were supposed to push out of your uterus while her son smoked a joint in the hospital’s waiting room. She sent you dirty looks when you passed her on the street and often threw mean comments to accompany her hatred-filled glares, and there was nothing you could do about it. You even punched her in the face once when her remarks got too personal. After that incident, she called the cops on you, but luckily Ally convinced his mother to withdraw her accusations.

“Karma is a funny gal,” you whispered under your breath before turning away from the window, throwing your cigarette on the floor, and stomping it out with your combat boot.

You got up from the squeaky mattress and shouldered the rifle you found behind the fridge in the tiny kitchen. You didn’t know why it was still there. Were your brothers in such a rush that they couldn’t even take it with them? Did those flesh-craving creatures surround them and force them to run?

A loud bang sounded outside, making you tense up, but before you could freeze in one place, your instincts kicked in, and you gripped the rifle in your hands, aiming it on the locked door of the small trailer. For all you knew, it could be a stray biter that bumped into a dumpster or a living and breathing person. You couldn’t decide which option was supposed to reassure you. 

The undead were easy to deal with; you just had to remember to aim for the brain. It’s already been two days since you were left standing in the alley behind the bank, all alone and vulnerable; after that moment, you had learned to deal with those monsters. It was terrifying at first when you didn’t have any weapons besides the pocket knife in your boot. You had to avoid running into places where the biters grew into larger groups. There was no way you could’ve taken them down by yourself with your pathetic little knife.

You strained your ears to hear if any sounds followed the loud bang, and for a second, there was just silence and faint shuffling when Angela started dragging herself away from the trailer and towards the noise. You listened to her growls before a thought popped into your head. The necklace, you couldn’t let her leave with it. 

“I’m definitely gonna regret this,” you mumbled to yourself before banging your fist on the door of the trailer.

The shuffling stopped for a moment before Angela’s very much alive corpse threw itself at the door, chipped nails pawing at the plastic surface and loud growls emitting from her mouth.

You hesitated, taking a deep breath and popping the lock. The door instantly slammed open, and you stood face to face with what was left of Angela.

“I’m sorry,” you huffed out before a shot rang through the air.

But it wasn’t your rifle nor your bullet that lodged itself into the creature’s head. You felt like your heart was going to explode any second. The corpse, now lifeless, fell to the dirty floor of the trailer. Your brain played the scene in slow-motion, trying to comprehend what has happened right in front of your eyes. 

“Damn, Baby, it took ya a while to get ‘ere.” 

Your head shot up at the familiar voice, your orbs locking with the pale blue color of his irises.

“Merle!”

Before he could react, you threw yourself at him, arms enveloping him in a tight embrace. Your older brother tangled his hand in your messy hair with a relieved laugh, holding your head close to his chest, the other hand clutching your jacket securely. He couldn’t believe his eyes. How long has it been since the last time he saw you? It must have been at least four years, but he had to admit his memory was quite hazy.

You pulled away rather quickly, taking his face in between your palms and searching for any bruises marking his skin, an old habit that you could never get rid of, not even after your father’s demise. 

“Ya don’t hafta do tha’ no more,” he said, eyes concerned but a cheeky grin on his face. He took your hands in his larger ones and patted them before moving away. “The geeks gonna catch up soon. We should leave while we still have time.”

“Where’s Daryl?” You looked behind Merle, trying to spot if your younger brother was hiding anywhere, too mad at you to even say hi.

“Stayed behind. Now c’mon, sis, we hafta get the hell outta ‘ere.” Without further explanation, he pushed you towards the door.

“Wait!” you protested, remembering why you invited Angela’s walking corpse into the trailer in the first place. 

You stepped towards the body lying on the rubber flooring and crouched down next to it. Angela’s face was facing the floor, saving you from seeing her lifeless eyes that lost their shine the moment she turned into this monster. Your hands delicately brushed her grey hair away from the nape of her neck, careful not to touch her skin. Just being in such close proximity to her corpse made your head spin. She smelled dead, very dead. 

“Whatcha doin’ kid?” Merle bent over you, hands placed on his knees to keep some stability and not fall over the dead body. That’d be tragic, but seeing how many lines of cocaine he had snorted a few hours ago, it was also very possible. “Damn, doesn’t she smell jus’ like daisies,” he mocked, an uncontrollable hoarse giggle escaping his lungs.

You couldn’t help but shake your head and snicker at his words. He hadn’t changed a bit since the last time you talked, which was also the time he called you asking for bail money. You didn’t even show up to pick him up, choosing instead to send your lawyer over to get him out of jail. You had to admit it wasn’t one of your brightest ideas, and he ended up making her very uncomfortable. Especially by calling her a “pencil skirt slut”. You had to pay her extra for the trouble.

“If you really think that daisies smell like a rottin’ dead body, then I’m afraid it’s too late to save you.” 

“Nice to see ya haven’t lost yer wit.”

Your head was going to start hurting if you kept shaking it every time Merle decided to open his mouth, so you chose to focus on the task at hand and unclasp Angela’s necklace.

“Shake a leg, will ya?” Your older brother straightened up, popping his back with a satisfied groan before he moved towards the kitchen, probably remembering where he stashed some of his drugs.

You finally managed to get the jewelry off the dead woman and took a moment to admire it despite the tiny chunks of flesh that got tangled up in it. It was very delicate, with a small tear pedant that sparkled when it caught the light streaming through the open door. You had to admit that Ally knew his way around gifts. 

“Merle, I’m done!” you yelled loud enough for him to hear you from one of the rooms. “Let’s get out of here!” 

You hoped he didn’t bail, even if you did deserve it. But your brothers weren’t like you, right? They wouldn’t just leave their kin behind like you did, so you had nothing to fear.

“I’m comin’!” Merle responded just as loud, making your worries disappear.

Damn, he didn’t care that you left them back in the day, even if you cut all contact with them. He was salty about it sometimes when he drank too much, but other than that, he did understand you. It was shocking even for Daryl, who held a lot of hatred towards you after you left, unlike his older brother. He was mad that you didn’t take him with you, even though you proposed it at least ten times, furious that you didn’t keep calling him even though he rejected every call. He knew it was mostly his fault that you stopped trying, but it didn’t prevent him from feeling hurt. 

Merle swaggered back into the room, and your frown immediately turned into a bright grin. “Ya done plunderin’ corpses now?”

“Yeah,” you replied shortly, nodding and getting back on your feet. You dusted yourself off before tucking the necklace into the pocket of your dirty jeans.

You were so casual about the whole situation; it was like the apocalypse didn’t even touch you in the slightest. It bothered Merle immensely; he couldn’t help but wonder where the little girl afraid of stepping foot in the graveyard was? You were different, and it was weird that he hadn’t noticed it at first.

“C’mon then. Don’t forget yer rifle. Daryl left it for ya ‘ere.” His words made you smile a little. You were pleasantly surprised by your younger brother’s gesture.

“How did you know I’ll come back here?”

“Jus’ a feelin’.” He winked at you before swaggering away and out of the trailer without looking back at it for even a mere second.

You trailed behind him, grabbing your bag and shouldering your rifle yet again. Leaving that trailer behind was cathartic; it made you feel free, and at that moment, you decided that it was the best feeling in the world.

The two of you broke into one of the abandoned cars sitting on the outskirts of the trailer park, and you hotwired it, saving Merle the trouble and embarrassment. You had no idea where he was taking you. You thought that he and Daryl decided to stay at one of the trailers further away from the park’s center. It seemed safer than the one you lived in most of your childhood. 

To your surprise, Merle jumped into the driver’s seat and drove you out of the trailer park, and headed southeast towards Yonah Preserve Trail, but before you could reach it, he stopped the car. You rolled down the window on your side and stuck your head outside in curiosity. 

The lake stretched for long miles, disappearing beyond the horizon where your eyes couldn’t reach. The glorious greenery of the forest surrounded it, reflecting in the sheet of clear water. Everything there seemed so peaceful, almost as if it dodged the vice-like grasp of the apocalypse. In fact, on the drive there, you counted only six geeks, no more, no less.

“You set up camp near Turner Reservoir? That’s pretty damn smart.” You nodded your head in respect, grasping the strap of the rifle that laid across your lap.

“Ya can already guess whose idea it was.” Merle chuckled under his nose, getting out of the car and slamming the door behind himself ungracefully. You followed in his footsteps taking your few belongings with you and jumping out of the vehicle.

You walked into the woods, trekking for ten minutes before an army green tent emerged from between the trees. You halted in your steps, feet heavy as if glued to the litter. Merle turned in your direction, confused when he noticed that you stopped in one place.

“Wha’s wrong, Baby?” he asked, furrowing his greying eyebrows. He looked at your face for a few minutes before a realization hit him. “For fuck’s sake, don’ chicken out on me.”

“He won’t like that I’m back,” you protested stubbornly, ready to turn around, leave and not look back. 

Goddammit, you really were a coward, fleeing away from the consequences of your little run away to Atlanta like it was your biggest sin. You shouldn’t be afraid of the confrontation with Daryl because there was no way to change the past now. You’d just have to deal with the pain his words were going to cause; you knew you could survive it. 

“Yer damn right!”

Your head whipped around in the new voice’s direction. Speak of the devil, and he’s sure to appear, you thought when Daryl’s figure emerged from the trees. He looked different, grown-up, and much more grumpy. It’s been more than ten years since you last saw each other. Daryl wouldn’t have recognized you at all if he didn’t overhear your conversation with Merle. He didn’t even want to hear about you when Merle came back from his “visits” to Atlanta.

“Daryl,” you mumbled out his name in disbelief. You wanted to hug him so badly, but you knew that he wouldn’t let you. His grudge towards you ran deep, and physical contact wouldn’t make it any better; it would just anger him more. “You look different.”

Daryl only scowled at you before side-stepping you and walking away towards the camp. You grabbed his wrist quickly, head spinning to find something to say while your younger brother whipped around, forcing his hand out of your grip and almost growling at you. 

“Daryl, you have to understand me. I couldn’t just stay there my whole fucking life!” you argued, hands tangling in your messy hair and almost ripping it out. You were angry beyond words, at him, at his stupid coldness towards your person, and at the whole world for letting him act like that. Couldn’t a cone fall from a nearby tree and slap that stupid scowl off his face? Was it too much to ask for?

“Naw, yer done explainin’.” His voice was sharp, and his blue eyes almost froze you on the spot. He didn’t want to hear a single word out of your mouth. 

Merle leaned on one of the nearby trees, observing the brewing storm between his younger siblings, uninterested. It was funny to him how stubborn both of you were acting, unwilling to try talking it out. He thought the argument was pointless, especially considering that the dead just started walking, and you were acting like little kids about something that happened more than ten years ago. He immediately decided that the best option was to let you both fight it out and intervene only if it was absolutely necessary.

“That’s funny ‘cause I don’t remember even gettin’ a chance to explain.” You met his gaze, voice unwavering despite your whole body trembling from the overwhelming emotions.

“Yer the one tha’ left!” Daryl yelled out in retaliation, clenching his hands into fists before he stepped towards you to show you he wasn’t intimidated by you at all. He wanted to make you feel like a helpless child, but you weren’t going down, not even in his dreams.

“You’re acting so high and mighty now, huh? You were supposed to go with me but you chickened out and decided to follow Merle around like a lost puppy instead.” 

“I didn’t leave my kin like ya did,” he raised his voice at you, even more, making you wince when his hand shot up in the air to gesticulate wildly. For a moment, you had to remind yourself that your father was long dead, and Daryl, though hot-headed, was nothing like him; otherwise, you would already be cowering.

“’m too sober for this,” Mere grumbled out, making Daryl and your heads whip around simultaneously to send him a “get lost” look. So he strolled away towards the makeshift camp, rolling his eyes, probably already planning to get high and drown out all the noise you were making. It was a miracle that the undead hadn’t heard you.

“Yeah? How ‘bout Merle? Did you already forget how he left us behind to go serve in the army?” you tried to reason with him, and just when he wavered, and you thought you won this round, he opened his mouth to talk.

“Tha’ was different.”

“Because he came back? Is that it?” You started laughing like a maniac, making Daryl shiver unconsciously. Something sinister flashed in your eyes, but it was gone before he could recognize it. It made him nervous, but he was too stubborn to back off. 

When your laughter stopped, you threw your arms in the air in resignation with yet another scowl. “Here I am. I came back, are you happy now?” The words barely left your mouth, and you were already walking away, swearing under your breath. 

“Yeah, walk away why dontcha? Tha’s the only thang yer good at,” he mumbled out, following close behind just to spite you.

You spent the rest of the day trying to avoid Daryl at all costs, but he kept getting on your nerves and shoving your shoulder when passing by. Merle was amused by the whole situation and often received glares from both of you for bursting into laughter.

He inhaled the nicotine before puffing out a cloud of thick smoke into the brisk night air, chuckling under his nose when he saw Daryl stare at the back of your head in absolute silence. He reminded him of an angry kid outraged that his mom didn’t want to buy him ice cream. 

“Whatcha laughin’ at, dickhead?” you asked, plopping onto the dirt next to him with a huff. 

The night summer breeze washed over your bare shoulders all the way down to the tips of your fingers, making shivers run down your spine, and annoying goosebumps break out all over your skin. You outstretched your arms towards the bonfire to warm them up a little bit. Merle shrugged, handing you the cigarette with another chuckle.

“Nothin’, Baby.”

You furrowed your eyebrows and accepted the smoke. “I have a name you know,” you tried to sound mad, but the tiny smile on your face exposed your fondness for the silly nickname.

“Yeah? Like what?” His lips curved into a teasing grin before a string of atrocious names that seemed ridiculous when pinned to your face and personality left his lips. You snorted twice by the time he finished reciting them. Merle stopped for a second to take the cigarette from between your fingers before speaking up again, “Better tell yer old brother what the hell were ya up to in Atlanta.”

“If we’re bein’ completely honest, not much. Same old shit, just a change of scenery.” Your vague response didn’t seem to discourage Merle from digging deeper into your history in the big city.

“Naw, that,” he started, pointing his finger at you in a manner that warned you that he knew everything you tried to hide from him, “I don’ believe. I know mah little sistah like the back of mah hand.” Merle threw his arm around your shoulders, pulling you closer with a deep chuckle. "Have the same damn blood runnin' thru our veins." You threw his arm off with an exasperated huff.

You hesitated, looking around to ensure that Daryl was nowhere to be found before you tried to decide if telling Merle about your “career” would be a good idea. He was your older brother, the same one that used to listen to your teenage ramblings about dating and then give you poor advice that you usually ignored altogether. You trusted him once, so why was it so difficult to do now?

“Seriously, Merle?” you asked when he poked you in the arm with his finger to rush you into answering. You couldn’t help but quirk an eyebrow at his childish behavior. You caught his finger in a tight grip and twisted, making your older brother wince and mutter a quick apology.

“When did ya get so strong?” 

You left his hand alone with a sigh. “I wish I could ask you when did you get so annoyin’, but I guess you’ve always been like that.”

“Oh, I missed this!” Merle threw his arm around your shoulder yet again. “It’s gonna be just like good ole days; just me, you, and Darylina. Campin’ in the woods and huntin’.” 

“‘s not gonna be like “good ole days.” Wake up, Merle,” Daryl’s voice came from behind your backs. “She ain’t a part of this family no more.”

You haven’t seen this coming, neither did Merle guessing by the frown on his face. You rolled your eyes in exasperation, but inside, you felt like your heart just cracked in half. It was a low blow, and it hit you right where it hurt the most.

“She ain’t family, and she’s never gonna be. I regret even leavin’ that rifle behind.” Every word coming out of his mouth made your brave facade crumble piece after piece. Who were you kidding? Not even a true masochist would be able to stand this kind of emotional torture. 

“Maybe I’m not,” you muttered, chin quivering in your attempts to drown the sobs that fought their way out of your lungs. Why did it have to hurt so much? Merle was ready to charge at Daryl for making his little sister so sad. He got up with a grunt and took a step towards the archer, flicking away the remnants of his cigarette. “Merle, it’s not worth it. Please, stop.” You caught his hand in your and tugged him back. You knew it wasn’t wise for the two of them to start fighting.

“‘m gettin’ tired of this crap, little brother,” he growled out, shaking away from your grip. “Corpses started walkin’ ‘round, and ya think ya have the right to decide who’s a part of the family and who ain’t?” 

“Why are ya defendin’ her?! Can’t ya get it through yer thick skull tha’ she didn’t want to have anythin’ to do with us after she left?” Daryl spat on the ground as if talking about you left a bitter taste in his mouth.

You’ve never felt as worthless and helpless in your life as in that moment. Your little brother hated your guts; your own flesh and blood didn’t want to have anything to do with you. You didn’t even dare to wonder what he’d think about you if you told him what you have exactly been up to in Atlanta and what awful shit you did to survive.

Merle and Daryl screamed at each other, getting angrier and angrier with every sentence, but you couldn’t even decipher their words. You just wanted to blurt everything out and be done with it. If they told you to leave, you’d do that and make sure never to step a foot near their camp again. Like an idiot, you listened to your panicked heart and not to your head.

“I killed seven people!” your shriek made both men freeze. Maybe you were a masochist, after all.

@thatcucumberwhore @yttricuz @twdeadlysins @donttelltheelf-x @jessica-mikaelson18 @spidergirla5 @depressedfrog2 @kpopandharry @daryldixonstorm @clemscult @lonewolf471 @yes-sir-hotchner @btsiguess-kpop @notquitecannon @the-daily-multi-fandom-post @xhannahbananax03 @sourwolf-sterek32 @wonderful-writer @apolloloki97 @kamieshep @huffledor-able541 @phoenixblack89 @yolobloggers @sexyseabass​ @sweetpotatospock @whiskeypowder @witch-of-letters @capsiclesdoll​ @kingtwhiddleston​ @incorrectcapsicle

If your name is crossed out it means I can’t tag you for some unknown reason.

[i-like-sparkly-things]

Halstead!Sister fanfic 🍭

Tik tok

Summary : Jay is called to lily's school because she got in trouble. And ends up at med . (but not too serious you know? .)

Warnings : Teenage stupidity at its finest. and 💉s. And a litte sibling floof.

Word count : more than 69.

Note : Immense apologies for my idiotic grammatical language blunders. Also, I'm really new to writing stuff. Proceed at your own risk. I'm warning you. DO NOT PROCEED.

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

It was midday and  team was knee high in paper work. They hadn't caught a case yet, so they were stuck at the district. Jay's phone gets a notification and it catches his attention.

Jay : God..... sarge is it okay if i take of for a few hours? I'll finish this at home.

Hank : Sure. Is something wrong?

Jay : *sighs and starts reading the text *~~ Mr . Halstead, you are requested to pick up Lily Halstead from the school premises and meet the head. ~~ i gotta get there.

Hank: Go. It's family.

Adam : Maybe she punched another boy like last time.

Kevin : Hey, in her defense, the kid called her a bitch.

Jay: i swear if this is that again, I'm gonna kill her.* Stands up taking his jacket.*

-----------at school-----------

As jay parks his truck, he sees a dad pinching his soaking wet son, who is draped in a towel, by the ear, leading him to a car.

He enters the school hall to be greeted by a disappointing sight. His sister, lily, was soaking wet from top to bottom, shivering. Then lily's eyes looked up from her shoes.

Lily : Ugh. Where's Will? I told him to call Will. *She said, her voice quaking.*

Jay : why? *he asked in a stern voice.* Cuz you know he won't shout at you, but i will?

Jay answered his own question making lily press her lips close. But it was the truth. Will was much calmer than jay. He never shouted at her unless he absolutely needed to, but even then, he would calm himself down and return to being disappointed. But it was different with jay. ALOT more different.

Head : Good that you're here Mr Halstead.

Jay : it's fine you can call me jay.What did she do?

Head : Well, it's come to my attention that she started a challenge. Lily and a group of her friends, snuck out of school grounds during break and went to the river for a - for a what exactly lily? -

Lily: a tik tok *sighs*

Jay : Seriously, Lily?? *She just looked at the floor, making patterns from the water droplets.*

Head : As she put her and her friends in harms way, she is suspended for a week but no charges have been taken yet. But this behavior will not be tolerated.

Jay : Thank you , sir. Trust me. She will not repeat this. *Glaring at lily*

Lily : yeah, sorry. Won't happen again. *She said half heartedly. In all honesty, she just wanted to have som fun. And well, she DID. But the fun didn't last. Right now she was freezing and could barely feel her fingertips. She was only wearing a tshirt and three fourths covering just after her knees. *

They walked silently to Jay's truck. He let her sit in the passenger seat first and grabbed a spare jacket from the trunk. He got into the drivers seat and tossed the jacket to lily and turned on the heat. She immediately put it on and felt a little better. Jay turned on the engine.

Jay : I knew you were stupid, but not that stupid. Seriously lily, WHAT THE HELL???

lily : I thought it -would make- a good tik tok. She breaths heavily as she tightens the jacket around her.

Jay: jumping into a RIVER? it's mid October lily. In what world does that make sense to you?? you're grounded for 2 weeks.

Lily : WHAT... no jay.... it's not like I killed someone or anything!!?!!

Jay : great. three weeks it is.

Lily : Ugh. *she sniffles and rubs her hand against her runny nose. Lily noticed that Jay missed a turn towards home.

Lily : Jay, Homes that way.where are we going??

Jay:  Hospital. You're getting sick. Hopefully Will's still there.

Lily : what ? no........ no jay . I'm fine. I promise. You know i hate getting poked!!

Jay : it's not up for discussion lily! You should've thought of that before you snuck out of  school and jumped into a RIVER!!!

* This shuts lily up for the rest of the ride. In any other situation jay would agree with her, but not this time. Not when her hands were shaking and her teeth gittering.

---Chicago med, in the ED------

Will : oh my god lily, what happened?

* Will asked as Jay and lily walked into the ED. Jay had a strong grip on lily's shoulder*

Jay : Guess who decided to start a challenge and jump into a river?

* Will let out a laugh *

Will : you're kidding right?

* lily lightened up and was glad to see Will take it in a better manner than the other brother. *

Lily: whaaat?...... It was for a tik tok.

She chuckled and went to hug will. His warmth felt so good.

Will : God, you're freezing. * he said in amusement as he hugged her tightly and kissed her forehead. He saw jay glaring at him.*

Jay : Will.

Will : What? At least it's not alcohol or drugs Jay.* He turned to Maggie* Maggie let's Get a room. Blankets, warm saline, possible hypothermia.

Maggie: you got it. you always keep your brothers on their toes, huh?

Lily: have to some way.*She said, throwing a smirk at Maggie *

Will: Come on.* In a one armed but still tight hug he Lead her into a room. Lily could hear jay signing behind her. She knew that jay thought will was being too lenient with her. *

Will : Won't hurt a bit, I promise.

*Lily still looked away as the IV was put in. *

Will : told you so. *he knew that his siblings shared a deep hatred for needles *

Lily : yeah...... you know, Jay told I was grounded for three weeks..........

* she tried to get Will to change his mind while he was still in a good mood. He raised his eyebrows at jay. *

Jay : and it stays that way. she SNUCK OUT OF SCHOOL WILL!?!

Will : yeah..... but 2 weeks should do it, you know? *he smirks at Lily*

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

Wonderful. You didn't take my warning.

If bored out of your mind : Masterlist here

[nbrook29]

Kiss or Slap

Sander doesn’t remember when exactly their group made the riverside near the Scheldt their new hangout spot, but he couldn’t be more grateful for it as a cold breeze washes over his overheated body, providing a momentary relief against the scorching heat falling from the sky. It’s probably why the park is fuller than it usually is on Thursday afternoons, packed with people spread on their picnic blankets, searching for a bit of shadow under the big trees and desperately craving a bit of wind. 

It’s so hot he doesn’t even feel like sketching, preferring to just lie on the grass without moving a single muscle, and dying in peace. Even the enticing smell of cinnamon rolls that Noor brought with her isn’t enough for him to reach out and take one from the basket, the action requiring too much movement on his part.

“Guys, come on, we have to start or we’ll never get it done! Sander, get your lazy ass up.” He grunts when he feels Leon’s merciless fingers jabbing him in the ribs.

“Can’t we wait until it gets a little less hot?”

“No, cause that’s not happening in the nearest future and we need new content,” Nathan butts in, followed by Noor, which makes Sander officially outvoted. So he heaves a deep sigh, puts his shirt back on and ruffles his hair to make himself more presentable, rolling his eyes at Noor’s appreciative whistling.

“Someone’s gonna snatch himself a bunch of kisses today with that smoldering look,” she teases, pretending to give him a once over.

“Is that your way of telling me you want one for yourself, sweetheart?” He’s immensely proud of himself when her entire face scrunches up in disgust.

“Eww, no, feels like incest at this point.” Which is kinda true given the fact they’ve known each other since kindergarten and became best friends making sand castles. He fires an obnoxious wink at her, fully anticipating a shove which comes as expected within seconds, with Noor calling him a creep in between laughter.

“Who should we start with? Senne? Wanna go first?” Sander watches as Leon takes out his camera equipment and checks the settings as the rest collects their things.

“I guess, yeah. And then Nathan after me?”

“I’m not doing it, man, you know Britt, she’s gonna flip out.”

“Be a good reason to break up with her,” Sander mutters under his breath, not really feeling apologetic when Nathan shoots him a glare. It would be a long time coming, and honestly, Sander can’t wait for that moment to come. Just being in her presence gives him chills, she’s that much of a horrible person. A few years ago, he read something about alternate universes and sometimes when he looks at her he can’t help but think there’s a history there with the two of them, in a past life or something. At least it would explain that weird energy between them.

If it’s true, he feels very sorry for that Sander. 

He roots for him to run far away from said devil’s spawn.

“I can go next, I don’t have the ball and chain,” Noor says innocently, but she’s smirking over Nathan’s shoulder at Sander who pretends to high five her in their shared hatred for Britt.

“Yeah, us lonely birds will sacrifice ourselves and take the hit for the wellbeing of our channel,” Sander laments playfully, making Senne snort.

“Dude, you’re on your own by your own choice.”

“And pickiness. Don’t forget pickiness,” Noor adds smugly.

Sander huffs in protest. “I’m not picky! I just...” He cuts off because he’s not about to just explain it all now.

“Just what?”

“Specific about what I want.”

Brown curls, brown eyes, shortish, lean, pierced ear, cute giggle, elegant hands and a smile brighter than the sun. 

To be exact.

“Yeah. That’s picky.”

“Whatever,” he replies grumpily, and decides to ignore Noor’s knowing look. Sometimes he feels like she has a sixth sense and can read him like a book. Or she’s just less oblivious than the boys in their friend group. That’s a totally possible option too.

Thankfully, she doesn’t push him further (she’s awesome like that), though Sander has a feeling she’s gonna grill him later when they’re alone. For now, she checks her lipstick in her phone as they all briefly plan the video.

Not like there’s that much to plan; a few days ago, they decided to shoot a kiss or slap challenge for their YouTube channel because it had been wildly requested by their viewers.

Sander still doesn’t quite know how he became a part of a YouTube channel in the first place, always considering himself to be a bit more, well, sophisticated than that? But Leon was into it from the beginning and made them all participate in exchange for free beer, until one day one of their videos blew up.

If you can call getting 100k views on one video blowing up. 

Anyway, they got semi-popular amongst Flemish teens and even managed to snatch a sponsorship with Mentos (however small the offer was) that paid actual money. And he had just managed to move out of his family house so any money coming his way he welcomed with no questions asked. 

So they’ve kept shooting silly challenges slash anything else that’s a trend at a given time and have been able to cover their art supply needs with what little they earned. And, though Sander refused to admit it in the beginning, it’s actually kinda fun. It’s definitely better than his part time job at Pull&Bear where he has to deal with obnoxious customers on an almost daily basis.

They record a short introduction near the river, quickly going over the rules and explaining that the three of them will be competing in who gets more kisses versus slaps. 

“Hey, you know what, this is actually unfair cause you both can kiss anybody,” Senne points out all of a sudden, receiving four pairs of unimpressed glances.

“No one’s stopping you from getting kisses from boys too, dude,” Sander is quick to shut him up, shit-eating grin on his face as he gives him his first (light) slap to the cheek. 

They follow Senne around the park with a camera as he turns on his charm and smiles sweetly at the girls he chooses for the challenge, doing surprisingly well on the first few attempts. But when they venture deeper into the park and he tries his luck with college girls, he gets 5 slaps in the row to the rest of the group’s utter delight. In the end, his results are a blow to his pride and even Sander feels sorry for him, giving him a pat on the back while trying to hold his laughter in at Senne’s grumpy face.

Noor does much better, naturally, as her upbeat personality and a wide smile have always made boys and girls turn their heads. She gets a kiss after kiss, blush after blush, and two phone numbers in the process. Senne argues again that it’s unfair because no one’s gonna slap a girl anyway, but Leon just calls him a sore loser while Noor shamelessly flirts in French with another girl right in front of the camera.

Sander’s very proud.

Taking a quick sip of water, he gives Leon a thumbs up and starts his round, coming over to three blond girls chilling near the skateboarding ramps, trying very hard not to come off as creepy and clarifying the kiss part being only a cheek kiss. The girls erupt in giggles, but they all grant him a light kiss. One of them tries to flirt with him after, but he shoots her down before she can get too into it.

“Such a heartbreaker, you,” Noor coos at Sander’s pained face when they all walk away.

“That’s you, and you actually enjoy it,” he quips back, sticking his tongue at her.

“I do not, shut up!”

Fifteen minutes and fourteen kisses later he’s officially in the lead, sealing his victory with a kiss number fifteen he receives from a cute redhead. He’s gloating in Senne’s bemused face about nobody choosing to slap him when he stops in his tracks.

It’s the proof of his hopeless infatuation that he’d recognize that laugh everywhere.

He looks around for its source, but he comes up short. Then, his eyes focus on the skatepark area and his heart starts beating faster.

Because it feels like a sign. Like the universe is giving him a chance to finally do something. Make a move.

“Hey, can we shoot one more try?” He asks the guys, trying to sound casual while glancing furtively in the direction of brown curls.

“You’ve already won, but I guess?”

Nobody questions him about his reasons, they just follow him to the ramp.

And he’s so fucking nervous. 

It’s incredible, really, how he generally has no problems talking to people he’s interested in, conversation flowing without him even trying, gaining easy smiles and appreciative looks wherever he goes, some natural confidence to him. 

But that boy. That boy is something else.

He makes him question everything he says, makes his palms sweat and makes his deep hidden shyness come onto the surface.

Sander saw him for the first time during Open Day at the Academie in may, strolling casually through the hallway with his friend, completely oblivious to the turmoil he was causing to Sander’s heart.

That was the day Sander saw an angel. 

Fate placed him on his path again sooner than he could’ve hoped, the boy participating in a 2 week film course at his school only several days after he saw him for the first time. And he tried so hard to convince himself to talk to him over that time, but he only managed a few smiles while passing him by in the hallway. 

That and that one stupid joke he said to him while they were waiting in line at the cafeteria that makes him cringe in despair just thinking about it. Seriously, it’s like his entire cool evaporates when he’s near him.

But, the boy laughed at it. So maybe it wasn’t as horrible as Sander is making it to be. Or he was just being nice. 

Robbe. 

Robbe, who he’s been crushing on ever since that fateful day in may.

Robbe, who was at the same party he was last weekend.

Robbe, who he talked to at that party and managed to calm his nerves enough to be charming and funny.

Robbe, who giggled, blushed and bit his lip at Sander’s dumb jokes that evening.

Robbe, who slipped through his fingers because Sander blacked out soon after.

He almost never drinks, but that one night he did, celebrating the beginning of summer break, and not realizing his usual abstinence meant he was now officially a lightweight. What an awful timing.

Robbe doesn’t notice him right away, having his back turned to him while talking animatedly to his friends. Taking a deep breath and plastering a smile to his face to hide his nervousness, he approaches them.

“Hey guys, got a second?”

He notices the recognition in Robbe’s face right away, and Sander shoots him a quiet “hi” when his eyes meet his, an unsure smile blooming on his face.

“Hey, what’s up?” One of the boys nods at the camera.

“I’m Sander, and we’re shooting a video for our YouTube channel, the kiss or slap challenge,” he quickly explains, the boys’ faces lighting up.

“Hey, we have a channel too! I’m Moyo, this is Jens, Aaron, and Robbe.” Moyo reaches out to bump his fist with him and damn, Sander has to find that channel if Robbe is a part of it.

Jens levels him with a look. “So, you want us to kiss you or slap you?” 

“Pretty much, yeah?” Sander chuckles because he’s aware it’s ridiculous, but he’s a man on a mission here, give him a break.

“I think Robbe should represent all of us, don’t you think so?” Moyo proposes, tongue in his cheek as he checks with the rest of his friends. Sander catches the death glare Robbe sends the boy before looking back at him and crossing his arms, looking a bit out of place. And, fuck, the last thing Sander wants is to make him uncomfortable.

So he asks softly, “you’re in?” and waits for agonizing five seconds as Robbe watches him, eyes narrowed, before his features smooth out and he smiles at him.

“Sure, why not.”

Relieved, Sander lets out a chuckle and tries to keep his cool. “Okay then - kiss or slap?”

Robbe squints against the sun and makes him wait another few seconds before he answers, but Sander’s not worried because there’s a soft smile on his face and obviously his angel wouldn’t-

“Slap.”

Wait, what.

He can hear his friends bursting in laughter at this unexpected turn of events while Sander can only stare in shock because how could he miscalculate the situation this much?

Gulping, confused and heartbroken, he asks, “you’re sure?”, to which Robbe nods with a poorly hidden glee.

“But you have to close your eyes cause I can’t hit you while you're looking at me.”

Heaving a deep sigh and trying to save a face despite the humiliation flooding his body, he nods and closes his eyes, steeling himself for it.

But it never comes.

Suddenly, he feels a hand cupping his cheek and he flinches a little, but then soft lips touch his in a kiss so gentle he blinks his eyes open, not knowing what’s happening.

“That was payback for you promising to call me and not keeping your word,” Robbe whispers against his lips before leaning away, something sad and wistful passing through his face. Sander is left completely dumbfounded, ignoring the hollering from the two groups as his eyes fleet all over Robbe’s face.

It’s difficult for him to collect his thoughts because holy fuck, Robbe has just kissed him and he’s internally freaking out. He finally manages to get his bearings when the remnants of a smile slip off Robbe’s lips.

“I-, Robbe, you have no idea how much I wanted to call you, but I don’t have your number.”

“I gave it to you. At the party?” He doesn’t look like he believes a word Sander is saying.

“Um, I kinda blacked out and don’t remember much after like one-ish?”

“You saved it though, I saw you typing it in,” Robbe argues again, but this time he doesn’t look so sure. “Wait, what’s your number?”

Sander watches him entering digit after digit before hitting call. He fully expects a plain number to appear on his screen, eyes widening when he sees what pops up instead.

zk bambieys 🥺🦌👁️💘🧡💖💞 calling

“Fuck, you did give me your number.” He’s not fast enough to hide his screen from Robbe, but he can't even feel embarrassment once he notices the frown disappeared from his face.

“Bambi eyes?” There's a teasing note in his voice, but his pink cheeks sell him out.

Sander scratches his head. "I was very drunk, you can't hold it against me. Also, your eyes are really beautiful," he clarifies, winking when Robbe laughs at his shameless flirting. "Hey, I tried to find you on instagram, but nothing came up. I was really hoping we're gonna bump into each other again. Sorry for being a dumbass and not realizing I had your number this entire time?”

“It’s okay.” Robbe shoves his hand into the pockets of his jeans, swaying on his heels. Sander decides to put them both out of their misery and take the initiative.

“So if I asked you out, would you say yes?”

It looks like Robbe’s about to nod, but then he bites his lip, an almost cheeky smile directed at him. “I guess you have to call me to find out.” And then he gets on his skateboard and casually skates away to the nearest ramp, pulling a surprised laugh out of Sander.

If he was intrigued before, now he’s totally smitten with this wonder of a boy, because damn. 

Their friends finally seem to regain their voices and speak over each other at what just happened, but Sander doesn’t pay them any attention, just takes out his phone again and pressing the call button. 

Watching as Robbe comes to a full stop at the top of the ramp, he cocks his head with a grin and waits until he picks up.

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s Sander.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Robbe laughs into the speaker.

“Will you go out with me?”

He meets his eyes across the skatepark as Robbe makes him wait again.

Then, with a smile so radiant it overshadows the sun, the boy finally gives him his answer.

“Yes.”

[fanmoose12]

Nifa Strikes Back

Levi hates St. Valentine’s Day with burning passion. The only thing that makes this holiday somewhat bearable to him is a little tradition he shares with his best friend Hange. But after hearing the news that Hange is going to skip the years-long ritual to go on a date with someone else, Levi is faced with conflicting and severely confusing feelings. 

thanks @innocent-ghost-demon for the idea! (i’m sorry it took me so long to actually write it lmao)

In Levi's personal opinion, St. Valentine's Day was the worst holiday of them all. It was meaningless and explorative and it served no other purpose than to fill the pockets of flowers and chocolate sellers. Levi hated it with burning passion, getting groceries in the weeks leading to the forsaken holiday was the cruelest torture, as he was immensely annoyed by big pink hearts and cute figurines with naked babies on display. It was almost impossible for him not to gag.

The only thing that quelled his hatred towards this day was a small tradition he shared with his best friend Hange. It had started years ago, when they were still in college. Hange's boyfriend had dumped her - she was heartbroken and upset, while Levi was furious and ready to go, find that bastard and beat the shit out of him for making Hange cry. Naturally, as college students, they knew only one way to deal with that kind of complicated feelings - get absolutely wasted at the local bar. Next morning they woke up with the worst hangovers of their lives and vowed to never repeat the same mistake.

But next year, Hange was rejected by a girl she wanted to ask on a date, and, like a good friend he was, Levi once again offered his shoulder for Hange to cry on. And once again they've found themselves clinging to each other as they shakily stumbled towards their dorm.

They got drunk that year again. And that's what they've been doing every year after that.

It was the only thing that got Levi through the awful holiday. Because of that, he was actually looking forward to it.

***

"Hey, four-eyes," Levi looked over the wall that separated their cubicles, throwing a small piece of paper to get Hange's attention. "Is your place as messy as usual? Or have you cleaned it for the occasion?"

"Huh?" Hange raised her eyes from a screen, pushing the glasses up her nose. "What do you mean?"

Another paper was thrown at Hange. This one landed on her lap.

"The shitty holiday, Hange. It's this weekend. So are we going to your place of mine?"

"Oh," Hange raised her hand, rubbing her neck. "About that..."

Levi frowned, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. Did he hear a twinge of hesitation in Hange's voice? That was unusual. What could it mean?

"I can't go this year."

His frown turned into a scowl. "Why the fuck not?"

"I have a date."

Levi blinked. Hange's words... surprised him. And more than that, his own reaction surprised him. He felt displeased, but not just that. He was angry, he was disappointed. He was sad?

"You're going on a date?" he asked, cursing the weakness that colored his voice. What was going on with him?

"Yeah, sorry," Hange gave him an apologetic smile. "With all this work, I forgot to tell you about it."

"That's fine," he answered, even though it wasn't fine. Hange was going on a date, and Levi wasn't fine with it. Why wasn't he? Hange was his best friend, he was supposed to feel happy for her, right? Did it mean that he was a bad friend?

No, Levi decided. He wasn't a bad friend, he was a good one. He was worried about Hange, he had seen her get hurt by someone else, and he simply didn't wish to repeat the experience.

"Who is your date?"

Was it someone from the office, he wondered. If it was their co-worker, that'd be good, Levi could keep an eye on them then. But what if they start dating? Would Hange stop spending her lunch-breaks with him? Would she go and bother someone else if she's bored? Would she pay less attention to him?

Levi shot that train of thought as quickly as it appeared. He didn’t like thinking about it. It made him feel weird. It made him upset.

"It's Nifa's cousin, she set us up. I don't know the guy yet," Hange shrugged. "But if he's at least half as cute as Nifa, then it's worth a shot, eh?"

She looked at him then, tilting her head and smiling. It was Levi's cue to congratulate her and wish her luck. Or express his pity towards the guy. Instead there was an unpleasant, ugly feeling inside him. Hange broke their years-long tradition. To go on a date. With someone else.

And it pissed him off.

"Levi?" Hange reached out to him, grasping the sleeve of his jacket with her fingers. "Are you alright? You look a bit weird. Are you upset that we won't be hanging out this year? I'm sorry about that, I'll make it up to you."

"You don't have to," he grunted, shaking Hange's hand off. He turned around, feeling the acute need to leave. The concern on Hange’s face was annoying him. "Have fun on your date and don't worry about me. I wasn't looking forward to our get-together anyway."

*** It took Levi two days to admit his own weakness.

He promised to himself to ignore Hange. To forget about her stupid date and stupid feelings it had provoked in him.

But then he saw Nifa alone in the hallway and he just had to ask.

He approached the girl, stopping just behind her shoulder. "Your cousin," his rough, low voice made Nifa jump. She didn't hear him walk up to her. "Is he a good man?"

Despite a scare Levi just gave her, Nifa's lips lifted into a smug smirk. She looked at Levi, observing him closely. His face was as blank as always, but his shoulders were uncharacteristically tight and his eyes showed even more annoyance than usual.

Her plan was working.

"Cousin Greg?" Nifa twirled a lock of hair around her finger. "He's great! I think Hange would get along with him!"

Cousin Greg wasn't that great actually. In fact, he was quite boring and very annoying. But Nifa wanted to help her superiors admit their feelings for each other and Greg owed her a favor after that time when she had covered for him during the grannies' birthday. Hange didn't have to like him. In fact, if she starts liking him, it'd destroy all of Nifa's plans.

Hange didn't have to like Greg. And Levi didn't have to like the fact that Hange was going on a date with him.

Evidently, the most important part of her plan already proved to be a success.

"He won't hurt four-eyes, right?" Levi asked, a shadow of worry passing through his eyes.

"He won't," Nifa promised with a serious face. Inside, however, she could barely contain herself. Levi was so concerned! It was so cute! Nifa needed to share these news with someone, and quick.

"Alright," Levi pressed his lips together and nodded. "Thanks." He added before walking away, his head bowed and shoulders slumped.

As she watched him go, Nifa's heart constricted painfully. Levi looked so miserable, just like a kicked puppy. She actually felt bad for him.

It was for his own good, she had to remind herself. She was doing him a favor. Levi, no, Hange too - both of them - will later thank her for this. She was doing a right thing.

Nifa repeated these words a couple of times and then rushed over to the break room, where she knew she would most surely find Moblit. Her best friend would be thrilled to hear about her success. 

*** He wasn't brooding, he told himself as he threw another disgustingly sweet candy in his mouth.

He wasn't sulking, Levi thought, as he put the glass of wine to his lips. It was awful. He had been drinking this brand of wine for years, but he never noticed how mawkish it was. Hange’s taste in wine was as horrible as her taste in romantic partners.

He didn't care about Hange and her stupid date, Levi tried to convince himself, paying only half of his attention to the movie.

On his TV screen Harry ran away from Sally after their first night together, and Levi scoffed at his stupidity. It was obvious they're in love with each other, why couldn’t they just admit it? They were both idiots and this movie was stupid, Levi decided. Why Hange liked it so much was beyond him.

***

Harry and Sally started arguing at the wedding, when Levi's phone started ringing. He made no move to get up and pick it. It couldn't be Hange calling, because she was on a date. And if that was Erwin, informing him of some emergency at work, he could kindly go and fuck himself. It was Levi's day-off and he was allowed to be as miserable as he wanted in the coziness of his apartment.

After a few seconds his phone fell silent, but before Levi could sigh with relief and continue watching the movie, he heard a few pings that announced that he had received a couple of messages. Erwin wasn't one for texting, and that got Levi wondering who was trying to get into contact with him.

Was it Petra, inviting him to a bar with others from their office?

Or, maybe, that was Yeager or any of his friends, wishing him a happy holiday?

Either way, Levi decided to ignore the messages too. If it was Petra, she'd understand his desire to be left alone. And if the messages were from any of their interns, then Levi most certainly didn't want to deal with that. It was bad enough they'd given him chocolate at work. It made him feel like he was a high school teacher, not a partner of the law firm.

He shouldn’t support this kind of behavior, Levi decided and returned his attention to the movie. 

*** Levi was halfway through a bottle of wine and Harry was ready to confess to Sally.

Fucking finally, he thought, pouring himself more wine. What kind of idiots waste twelve years denying the feelings they have for each other? Just when Harry was going to say those three little words, someone knocked on Levi's front door. With glass of wine still lifted to his lips, Levi paused the movie and stared at the door, wondering who could be fearless enough to visit him at ten pm.

As he continued to sit and ponder on it, the initially soft knocks turned into vicious bangs.

Cursing at the impatient idiot, Levi put the glass down and got to his feet, marching to the door with a glare on his face.

He threw the door open and— froze, blinking in surprise.

Hange stood on a threshold, holding a bottle of wine in her hands and wearing a wide grin on her lips.

"Will you be my Valentine?"

Levi bit his cheek to keep himself from blurting out 'yes'.

"What happened to your other one?" he asked instead, putting on a mask of cold indifference.

"Ah," she ruffled her hair. "He was actually boring as hell. Not even half as cute as Nifa," she shrugged. "I guess she's the sole owner of all adorable genes in their family."

Levi scoffed, plucking his lips. He would not give Hange the satisfaction of laughing at her lame joke. "Your date turned out to be a moron, so what? You've decided to come and bother me?"

"Yeah? Would you let me in or not?"

Levi knew he could put up a fight. He could tell Hange how annoying and inconsiderate she was. But he also knew that it would result in absolutely nothing. Hange would still get what she wants. He would still let her get what she wants. Because in all the years of their friendship he hadn't learned how to say no to her.

So with an irritated tsk and a shake of his head, Levi took a step back, allowing Hange to come inside.

"Did you bring something, except wine?" he asked while Hange was busy taking off her shoes.

"Yes!" Hange passed him her handbag.

Levi opened, finding chocolate inside. Lots of chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate.

"Four-eyes. Did you rob the candy shop?" he inquired dryly.

"No!" Hange snickered. "These are gifts."

Levi had received chocolate too. His collection wasn't quite as vast as Hange's, though.

"Are all of these from brats?"

"Some are from my team. Where's your chocolate, by the way? If I received so many, I can't even imagine how much you got."

"It seems like this year you're more popular than me," Levi pointed at only a couple of box of chocolates on his coffee table.

Hange's face fell after his words. She even opened her mouth, probably with the intent to apologize or, god forbid, comfort him. Levi scowled, silently telling Hange the misplaced pity to herself. He didn't really care about such trivial matters.

And he was more than happy to find out how well-loved Hange was. She deserved nothing less than that after all.

"Don't just stand there," he snapped, when Hange continued to stare at him without saying anything or even moving.

Hange lifted the corners of her lips and hurried after Levi to the living room.

"Oh!" as soon as she saw what was on the TV screen, she clasped her hands in delight. "When Harry Meets Sally! I love this movie!"

I know, Levi almost said.

"And it's one of my favorite scenes!" Hange continued to gash. She plopped down on Levi's sofa with a wide grin.

However, as she took a closer look on a coffee table, her excitement diminished considerably.

"Two glasses?" she mumbled, frowning in confusion. "Are you waiting for someone?"

"No, it's just..."

A habit, Levi realized. He put two glasses simply out of habit. He was so used to drinking with Hange that he had taken two glasses without even thinking.

"It's nothing," he finished awkwardly. "Let's watch the movie."

Hange stared him for a second, her eyes wary. But then she snapped out of it and a smile returned to her lips. She waited until Levi took his place on a sofa and then put her head on his thigh.

"Must you always do it?" Levi complained without making a single move to change their position. "I'm not a piece of furniture, you know."

"Just put on a movie, Levi," Hange mumbled, too used to his constant bitching to have any kind of reaction to it.

"So bossy," he huffed, but took the remote in his hands and resumed the movie.

On a screen, Harry was confessing to Sally.

"It's kinda bizarre, don't you think?" Hange asked. "They knew each other for so long and yet they've realized their true feelings only years after."

"It's a movie, Hange."

"So you think it's unrealistic?" she lifted her head to stare at him. "That two people can be close friends for years and continue to be blind, refusing to see how much they need each other?"

"I think you have to be unbelievably dense to not realize that you're in love with your best friend."

Hange giggled, and the quiet sound was like music to Levi's ears. "Yeah, maybe, you're right. They're really dense."

"Idiots," Levi agreed, laying a hand on her shoulder and pulling her closer.