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spooky-holtz · 7 months ago

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Sicilian Scheming

Melissa Schemmenti x reader

Genre: pure fluff

Word Count: 3.4k

Prompt: "I seen you were looking for ideas for fics and was wondering if you’d write one where Mellisa’s Nona comes to visit her at Abbot during summer planning where she meets teacher Reader and essentially forces them to go on a date together even though they don’t get along well but they end up really hitting it off then a time skip to their wedding where Nona’s bragging about getting them together?"

I've diverted from the prompt a little but the core of it still stands. Strap in.

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Make no mistake, you absolutely love teaching the third grade but by the time summer comes around, you’re glad to see them go. Summer vacation gives you a chance to relax and enjoy your time away from the stuffy brick building that is Abbott Elementary, spending weeks at a time curled up on the window ledge of your apartment basking in the sun with a good novel and often a crisp glass of wine.

You rarely get chance to see your co-workers save for the coffee dates you have with Janine, often meeting the smaller woman around the corner from her home to sit and chat in the large glass windows as the rest of the world passes by. You spend hours at a time chatting about anything and everything your rather uneventful lives have thrown at you, fingers curled around a sweating glass of flavored iced tea. These breaks are always among the highlights of your year, giving you a chance to wind down and refresh ready for the next group of kids that you will take under your wing.

By the time the summer break winds down though, you’re eager to get back to school and see your dysfunctional work family. There’s nothing you love more than the first day after weeks apart, hearing all about Barbra’s annual cruise with Gerald, or Jacob’s latest mission to get himself “down with the kids” - it usually involves some god awful Tik Tok trend that he should NOT be doing, but you don’t have the heart to stop his rather spirited approach to engaging with his students.

You love these conversations but there is somebody else that you find yourself searching for the second you step foot through the green doors of Abbott; Mellisa Schemmenti. The older woman has become an infatuation for you, her rigid exterior always melting when you interact. She knows exactly how you take your coffee, always leaves a seat open for you during meetings, and takes every opportunity to compliment your appearance - whether it's a new pair of earrings, or a slightly different shade of hair dye, Melissa will always notice.

She makes you feel special in the smallest ways, always leaving you with the hope that she might actually like you back. It feels juvenile and you can’t help but imagine yourself as one of the kids you teach every day, sending heart eyes across the room at each other at any given chance, just waiting for her cheeks to flush and that small, suppressed smile to appear on her glossed lips.

Your crush is no secret, but you would never tell anyone - well, except Janine who had managed to guess exactly why you get so nervous around the older woman after a few glasses of wine at the last faculty holiday party. You didn’t have to say anything; your longing looks toward the redhead on the other side of the teachers’ lounge as you nursed a plastic cup full of cheap alcohol was enough to prompt your friend to ask. You could never lie to Janine’s puppy dog eyes, especially not with a buzz courtesy of the liquor store across the street.

You can’t help but let your thoughts drift toward thick Philly accents as you sit in the gym on the first day of school, squashed between Jacob and Janine and caught directly in the middle of their conversation about whatever new Netflix documentary series dropped last week. You’re really trying to listen, but your thoughts are consumed by bright red curls and glittery lip gloss, not true crime documentaries.

You find yourself scanning the room as the pair babble on and you notice that the seating arrangement is half empty as you wait for the rest of the faculty to arrive and for Ava to take the stage for yet another development week speech that will go down in infamy at Abbott. She’s already poked her head from behind the curtain on the stage twice, clearly impatient to make her grand entrance to a group of less than willing participants.

You begin to hear the telltale sound of heeled boots clicking against the linoleum floor and you feel yourself freezing into place just as Melissa waltzes into the hall, Barbara in tow. You don’t know if you’re impressed or terrified at her ability to constantly wear those shoes and the thought makes you realize that you’ve never actually seen Melissa at her normal height.

Just as you suck in a deep breath, her eyes scan the room and instantly land where you sit, sandwiched between two of your rather enthusiastic co-workers. As her green eyes meet yours you see them shrink at the smile she sends your way, her pearly white teeth cutting through the shiny pink lip gloss she’s always wearing. You send a similar smile back, overjoyed at the fact she merely noticed you. God help your heart rate when she decides to talk to you for the first time in two months.

Your attention is pulled away by Barbara, who waves enthusiastically from behind Melissa, making her way toward the empty seats directly in front of you. Your eyes dart back to Melissa as she follows the billowing of the older woman’s cardigan, heels still impossibly loud against the floor.

The dark button down she’s sporting is tight against her torso, the sleeves rolled up to reveal her deceptively toned forearms. You have to remind yourself to look away for a split second, the thought of getting caught ogling her by one of your co-workers forcing you to tear your eyes away. You look toward Janine who has trailed off her conversation with Jacob, the pair watching you and Melissa like a tennis match. You feel your shoulders slump at Jacob’s knowing look, the excitement practically making him vibrate.

“You’re kidding, you know too?” You sigh.

“Uh yeah, you don’t exactly hide the heart eyes,” he scoffs. He must see the deer-in-headlights expression on your face because he continues, “I wouldn’t worry, she was definitely just throwing them right back at you.”

You have no time to reply as the subject of the conversation reaches the row of seats in front of you, sitting in the hard plastic chair and turning her torso to see you, hand resting on the back of her seat. Her smile is wide again as she looks to you. The panic brews in your throat and your palms instantly become sweaty at the prospect of Melissa feeling the intensity of your feelings.

“Hey hun, it’s been a while,” she says, her eyes still crinkled from the smile she wears. Her focus is entirely on you, ignoring the duo that sits on either of your sides.

“Yeah, it has,” you manage to stammer out, “How’ve you been? You look good.”

You inwardly cringe at your words but you’re not lying. She’s obviously had her hair dyed ready for the new school year and it’s even brighter than usual, making her even easier for you to pick out of a crowd. She looks so full of life and at ease, the break clearly having done her well. Her smile grows impossibly wider at your compliment, putting you instantly at ease.

“It was great,” she replies. “Spent a lotta time at the beach with my family, so I’m not as pasty as you may have remembered.”

She throws a wink your way with the last statement, causing a pink blush to cover your cheeks within seconds. What you wouldn’t give to actually see Melissa at the beach, totally relaxed on a sun lounger with a drink in hand. The image turns your cheeks an even deeper shade of red and Mel clearly catches on, her smirk letting you know that she knows exactly where your thoughts have gone.

Before you even have chance to reply, Ava makes her grand entrance from behind the curtain to a chorus of groans that echos throughout the room.

You can feel Janine’s elbow nudging into your side, your friend having had a front row seat to your entire interaction with the redhead. The action earns her a swift kick to the ankle under her seat, accompanied by a hissed “don’t you dare”.

The meeting is over almost as quickly as it begins, Ava rushing back to her office to catch the latest episode of Real Housewives - she didn’t explicitly say it but you all know that’s the only reason she would be running back down the hall. You won’t complain though because it means you can get started with your work to prepare your classroom for the year ahead. You stand from your seat alongside Jacob and Janine and have all intentions of getting back to work when Melissa turns around again. Her emerald eyes stop you in your tracks, mid-stretch, your arms flexed above your head.

“I never got the chance to tell you earlier, but I really like your dress,” she says, completely catching you off guard. Your hands fall, hanging limply by your side and brushing against the floral fabric of your clothing. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t wear it specifically to catch her eye this morning. The soft smile she wears on her face makes your heart melt, the look on her face only reserved for you. “It's real pretty.”

You both stand there for a few seconds, blushing like lovesick teenagers and staring into each other's eyes when a throat clearing brings you back to reality. Janine claps her hands together, flustered by the interaction.

“Okay, I’m gonna get back to my classroom and, uh, get started on cleaning. Have a good day guys!” She calls as she walks away with Jacob in tow, enthusiastic as ever as he throws a thumbs up your way. You know that within five minutes of leaving the school gym she’ll be in your classroom waiting for the rundown on what the hell just happened between you and Melissa, as if she didn’t see it all happen from inches away. At this rate, you wouldn’t be surprised if Jacob shows up with a bag of popcorn to join in with the gossip session.

“Oh shit, yeah, I need to clean before Nonna shows up,” Melissa mumbles, “I don’t wanna even think about the earful I’ll get if my classroom is a mess.” She doesn’t even stop to think before she turns on her heel and practically runs out of the gym and down the hall toward her classroom. You don’t have time to process her words before her best friend speaks.

“Well, I guess that just leaves us,” Barbara says from her place next to where the redhead stood. She wears a gentle smile on her face that will always help you feel at ease. She reaches her arm out to you, linking your arm within hers as she turns to walk. “Come on honey, I’ll walk you to your room and tell you all about the cruise I had with my Gerald.”

After a rather lengthy conversation about ‘Sea Barbara’ and her less-than-christian antics, you’re back at your door for the first time in months and can’t help but feel like you’re home. Nobody particularly likes their job but that couldn’t be further from the truth for you. Already, you’ve planned out the next year and can’t wait to welcome your little Eagles back into the classroom.

It’s a full hour later by the time you actually hear another person’s voice - Janine chose to keep her distance but will no doubt grill you about Melissa at some point today. It’s just a matter of when.

You hear the signature clicking of her heels before you can see her, her footsteps considerably slower than usual. You can hear her talking as she walks, though you can’t make you exactly what she’s saying. The footsteps grow louder and slower before you hear a knock against your doorframe, the door propped open by a thick stack of textbooks that you’ve wedged in front of it in a desperate attempt to get some airflow in the stuffy room.

The sound makes you whip your head from where you stand on your stepladder, stapler and crepe paper in hand as you put together a display for the kids. You know exactly who will be standing there, already smiling as you turn and meet her eyes.

“Hey Hun,” she says, “I’ve got someone here who wanted to really meet you.”

For the first time you notice the presence beside her. You don’t need to take any guesses that this is Melissa’s infamous Nonna, the older woman clearly having stamped her grandchildren with her genes - she looks exactly how you imagine Melissa would in her old age, her hair silver and leaning gently on a cane.

“Melissa Ann Caterina Schemmenti!” she exclaims, making you jump and stand up straighter, terrified at the prospect of already being on her bad side. You climb down from the ladder as she stares at you, smoothing your hands down the front of your dress in an effort to get rid of any creases that may have formed during the morning. “You said she was pretty, but not this pretty!”

You feel your shoulders relax as you laugh at the older woman, taken aback, Melissa by the side of her groaning loudly with a “Nonna, really?” You move toward the pair holding your hand out to shake the wrinkled one of the grey-haired lady before you. Her fingers are adorned by the same kind of jewelry that Melissa wears, her Sicilian heritage extremely clear from the large signet rings that she wears across her hands.

“And there’s no mistaking that you must be Nonna,” you grin, introducing yourself. “I’ve heard a lot about you. You’re like a living legend around here.” She closes her hand around yours, the other still gripping her cane.

“Pretty and complimentary?” She remarks, turning to look at her granddaughter whose face has managed to turn the same colour as her hair. “Well, you kept a lot quiet about this one.”

You can’t help but look at Melissa at this statement, catching her eye and smiling even wider, Nonna’s remarks already making your grin impossibly wide. Her brow relaxes itself slightly, the hard lines around her eyes softening when she sees the pure joy on your face at finally getting to meet the woman you’ve heard so much about over the last few years.

“I’m not sure if I want to hear exactly what you know about me,” you joke to her, catching Melissa’s eye yet again. The poor woman looks unbelievably flustered but it's a welcome change in your dynamic. She usually gets to revel in the fact that you turn into a puddle in her presence, but now you can only hope to add to the quickly darkening hue of her cheeks.

“Trust me, you do. This one doesn’t shut up about you,” she says, smiling slightly and cocking her head toward Melissa who is actively wishing that a sinkhole would open up beneath her feet. She lets go of your hand and moves further into the classroom, leaning ever so slightly on her stick but still moving with all the confidence of your favourite Schemmenti woman - at least you know where Melissa gets it from now.

Your eyes dart to Melissa, the older woman already looking back at you with a silent apology in her eyes her teeth worrying her bottom lip. You reach out and rub the top of her arm over her shirt in a small act of comfort, letting her know that this entire situation is doing nothing but working in her favour.

“Ya know, it’s nice seeing something other than my Melissa’s classroom or the reception desk at this school for once,” Nonna says, almost speaking to herself. She looks around the room almost in awe, taking in the displays in various degrees of completion around the room.

You follow her further in, Melissa hot on your tail behind you. She’s so close that you feel her almost walk straight into your back as you stop closer to the older woman, her once intimidating heels stuttering slightly on the wooden floor.

“So, tell me,” Nonna begins, turning in place to face you, “What brought a girl like you to Philly? I know you’re not a local.” Her eyes twinkle as she asks, and you have a sneaking suspicion that she already knows the answer to her question from the tales her granddaughter has seemingly told her about you.

“I just wanted a change,” you answer honestly. “I only thought I’d be here a couple years, but it’s been five and I can’t see myself leaving any time soon.”

At your statement you hear Melissa sigh by your side. As your head turns to meet her gaze you see just how much it softened at your words. She knows just how much you love your job and the dedication you’re willing to put into making sure these kids make it. Year after year she’s been the one to help you draft lesson plans and mark countless piles of work over a mug of coffee in the teachers’ lounge, helping you when you feel slightly out of your depth in more ways than she could imagine.

It’s only when she’s this close to your face that you can see the glittering of her lip gloss as she smiles slightly, her lips pulled together in a look that conveys so much softness.

“Do you like Italian food?” Nonna asks, breaking the tense silence that has fallen between you. You feel the redhead beside you jump, both of you completely forgetting that her grandmother is just meters away from your little moment. You can’t answer quick enough, crying out for her approval and hoping that you can focus back from the incredible green eyes that are currently burning into the side of your head.

“Oh yeah, I absolutely love an Italian,” you stutter out, “Can’t get enough.”

You inwardly cringe at your words as you hear Melissa snicker by your side, Nonna’s eyes twinkling with amusement again. You hear a quiet “Bedda Matri” from Melissa through the giggles that shake her body.

“I bet ya do,” Nonna says, her grin revealing her impossibly pearly white teeth. You can feel yourself getting warmer and you’re not sure if it’s from the stuffiness of your classroom and its broken windows or from the pure embarrassment radiating through your system. “You know, I taught Melissa everything she knows about Italian food. Maybe if you’re nice she’ll cook for you sometime.”

Nonna’s eyebrows are raised as you turn to meet Melissa’s eyes, the older woman shrugging in your direction. It's nice to know you aren’t the only person completely lost in this conversation.

“Oh, I know!” Nonna exclaims, making the pair of you jump yet again, “Melissa, how about you cook this nice girl the family baked ziti tonight? Say, 7 o’clock?”

“Uh sure, if you don’t have anything on?” Melissa says, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion once again.

“No no, I’m totally free,” you stammer, your cheeks matching the deep red of your co-worker's hair. “I’ve got your address too.”

“Wonderful!” Nonna almost shouts, her shrill voice echoing off the semi-bare walls of your classroom. “You’re going to love it, trust me.” She says, throwing a wink your way.

You don’t particularly want to admit that the smaller woman is, but you do love it. So much so that two years later you’re twirling around a dance floor in a lacy white dress, Melissa in a matching getup and shiny new diamond rings on your left hands. As Billy Joel croons the chorus of ‘Just the Way You Are’ from the speakers set up around the room, you hear a familiar voice chirp up from a table just out of reach of the dance floor.

“You know, they would never have gotten together if I hadn’t practically knocked their heads together,” Nonna says, her voice carrying over the song as she explains her matchmaking services to Melissa’s Uncle Tony. You feel Melissa grin where her cheek rests against yours, your expression matching hers as you hear the older woman carry on. “I’m telling you now Anthony, this wedding wouldn’t even be happening if it wasn’t for me.”

You feel Melissa begin to giggle where she stands, her hands resting against the lace at the small of your back, thumbs rubbing gently against the surface as you sway together. You hear Nonna carry on, adamant that the life you’ve built wouldn’t be possible if not for her, and as much as you don’t want to give her satisfaction, you both know she’s right.

#wlw #self insert #reader fanfic #reader fic #lisa ann walter #abbott elementary #writing #fluff #abbott elementary fanfic #melissa schemmenti #melissa schemmenti x reader #melissa schemmenti x you #melissa schemmenti fic #melissa schemmenti fanfic #lisa ann walter x reader #lisa ann walter fic #melissa schemmenti x y/n

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pinksturniolo · 8 months ago

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Biggest Fan: Part One

Chris Sturniolo x Fem Reader

Summary: The one in which a fan gets rear ended in a car accident by none other than Christopher Sturniolo during her stay in Los Angeles.

A/N: This is my first series I will be publishing on here! There will most likely be 3 or 4 parts. I hope you like it and I’m really excited to share with you all. :)

Content Warnings: smutty smut, oral receiving/giving, penetration, slight degradation, fingering, teasing, overstimulation, swearing, brief mentions of blood, head injuries, mentions of a car accident

side note: there is no smut in this part, but it will be coming soon I promise! ;) It's pretty long because this is part of a series so I like to develop the plot and use a lot of dialogue, but I will be doing shorter stories, like one shots in the future as well! enjoy <3

word count: 3,076 😮‍💨

I was inspired by this song:

𐮙ღ✰☾✿ღ𐮙

Summer 2023

Your toes sink into the sand, the warmth of the sun beaming down on your skin, as you take a cold sip of the cheap wine cooler you bought before you came to the beach. You and two of your closest friends from college decided on a whim to take a road trip from your hometown to Los Angeles, California. You all had the next week off for summer break and getting drunk and sunburnt on the West Coast sounded like a pretty great idea. You watched dozens of people walk along the coastline, several enjoying the water and others playing in the sand, some groups playing volleyball. You can’t remember the last time you went to the beach or even on a vacation. The last two years, you have been completely immersed in your studies, barely having time to relax, let alone have any time to yourself.

Los Angeles was the perfect getaway. Tonight, you had all agreed to splurge and go out to eat at a restaurant in Hollywood, just to get the full experience. Maybe even spot a celebrity or two. Your mind briefly thought of the idea of running into the Sturniolo Triplets, who you were obsessed with recently (which your friends were painfully aware of). But of course, that was delusional and the odds of seeing them were one in a million.

After a couple hours of enjoying the sun and sand, you headed back to your hotel to get ready for dinner. You chose to wear a pair of cute mom jeans, a tube top and cardigan, and a nice pair of sneakers. You didn’t want to dress up too much as you already felt tired from the beach and planned on crashing out in your bed right after dinner. You all went to eat at a gorgeous Italian restaurant, thoroughly enjoying the night, laughing and talking over good food and wine.

Once you got back to the hotel, you told your friends goodnight and went to your separate room, immediately hopping in the shower and changing into a comfortable pair of flannel pajama shorts and an old band t-shirt. You had talked about going out to a club or bar but you felt exhausted. This was your first day of vacation and already you had been stressing about your classes. Your friends forced you to leave your computer at home so that you weren’t tempted to do some extra credit for your school work. Sometimes you found it hard to just relax and take a break. You were trying to learn to simply live in the moment and stop thinking so hard about what to do next. Still, your mind raced as you lay in bed, attempting to sleep. Rain pelted the window of your room as it started to storm outside. You loved when it rained, the calming sound of thunder and raindrops on the roof usually coaxed you to sleep quickly. But tonight, you couldn’t stop tossing and turning. You were wide awake. You had the sudden urge to get up and do something – anything – to entertain you that hopefully would tire you out enough to finally go to sleep.

You got out of bed and slipped on your converse, not bothering to change your pajamas. You had decided to just go to the drive through and get an ice cream. A midnight snack would be just the thing you needed.

These were the events that had led up to you now in your car halfway down the street from the Wendy’s you stopped at, vanilla frosty in your hand, the other hand on the steering wheel as you stopped at a red light. The radio played softly as you ate your ice cream, streetlights illuminating the dark streets. There were only a few people on the road being that it was nearly one in the morning. The palm trees swayed slightly with the breeze, rain still coming down although not as hard as before. This is nice, you thought. This is my vacation. There is no time for stress. Once I get back to my room, I’ll get some rest. Tomorrow, me and the girls will go out sightseeing. Maybe even go to the–

Your thoughts were interrupted by a loud bang behind you as you felt your body jolt forward harshly, you frosty dropping out of your hand, vanilla soft serve spilling all over your lap and steering wheel. Your air bag went off, a piece snapping painfully against your forehead. It happened so quickly you barely had time to register it. After a good thirty seconds, you realized you had just been rear ended. Great. You thought. This is the last thing I needed. You looked out of your rear-view mirror to see a Kia attached to your bumper. The culprit, from what you could see through the tinted window, looked to be a boy around your age with long brown hair. You sighed in frustration, leaning your head back against the headrest. You hated confrontation, especially in situations like these. Not to mention you’d have to file this with insurance and that was another headache in itself. Reluctantly, you opened your door, stepping out into the wet street.

Fuck. You didn’t have an umbrella with you. Talk about the fucking cherry on top. Luckily the rain had significantly got lighter than earlier, and it wasn’t thunder and lightning anymore. You closed the door, walking towards the other car but stopped dead in your tracks once you recognized the person that had crashed into you.

There was absolutely no way. Had you actually fallen asleep in your hotel room and were currently dreaming? Because there was just no way that you were standing in the middle of the street, rain currently soaking through your pajamas which were also sticky with ice cream, staring at Christopher Sturniolo who had rear ended your car. Who also happened to be in a yelling match with Matt and Nick at the current moment. You had to be dreaming.

Your feet were frozen to the ground as you stood there, physically unable to move. How does one even go about approaching them? Oh, hey funny to see you guys here. I know you just crashed into my car but don’t worry about it. I’ll just be on my way back to the comfort of my bed so I can completely avoid this insane situation and also avoid making a complete idiot of myself….

“Chris, are you fucking serious?!”

“This is the last time I ever let you drive, you’re obviously incapable.”

“Will both of you shut the fuck up! I can’t find my phone; I think it went under the seat.”

“Oh, you can’t be serious. He just hit another car and the kid is worried about his phone.”

“I’d be more worried about the insurance and how much we’re gonna have to pay for this!!”

“Oh my God! I said shut the fu-“

They didn’t seem to even notice you, too caught up in their bickering as you had slowly walked closer, your voice quiet and timid.

“Uh, hey… Don’t worry about insurance or anything. If you don’t wanna claim it, I’m cool with that.”

You interrupted, trying to hide your visibly shaking hands and crossing your arms.

All three boys halted their conversation, turning to look at you with wide eyes as if they almost forgot there was another human being inside the car they had just hit.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry. Excuse my brother, he actually has half a brain and apparently the inability to drive.” Nick said, an apologetic look on his face and then turning to glare at Chris.

Chris glared back at him, finally finding his phone from underneath the seat. He made eye contact with you, his glare turning into a sheepish look. He ran a hand through his hair, his mouth opening to speak to you, but Matt stepped in front, approaching you.

“You don’t have to worry. I’m actually the one who owns this car and I have great insurance so I promise it will all be taken care of.” He says, with a nice smile. You smile back politely, still holding onto your arms and trying not to freak out at the fact you’re actually conversing with these people right now.

“Are you sure? I mean, the damage isn’t that bad. I wont mind just forgetting this happened and calling it a night.” You laugh nervously, glancing at the busted bumper on your car. In all honesty, it actually wasn’t too bad. You would need a new bumper for sure, which might put a dent in your wallet but at the current moment you wanted nothing but to get the fuck out of there.

“No way! It wouldn’t feel right if we just walked away from this. Matt will get all the details and take care of it.” Nick chimed in, an identical smile to Matt’s on his face that made you feel just a little more comfortable.

Meanwhile Chris leaned up against the car, unusually quiet and with a look of stress over his features, stealing glances at you every now and them. He definitely felt guilty for causing the accident and he knew he would never hear the end of it from his brothers. He stared at his shoes and tucked his hands in the pocket of his hoodie, waiting while you exchanged information with Matt.

You typed your insurance information into Matt’s phone handing it back, while he handed you yours. You suddenly felt a twinge of pain on your forehead and winced, reaching up to touch it. It was then that you noticed there was about a 2-inch gash from the airbag snapping in your face. It didn’t feel too deep, but it hurt. Matt and Nick both noticed and Nick instinctively reached out to grab your arm. “Are you okay? It looks like its bleeding.” He said in concern. Chris then snapped his head up, his attention fully on you now. He walked over to Nick and Matt, a look of pure terror on his face as he stared at the cut on your head.

“Oh, I’m fine. I’ve had worse, I promise. I just need to get back to my hotel and clean it up.” You say reassuringly. But they were not buying it.

“Are you sure? Maybe we should call an ambulance? I really don’t want anything bad to happen.” Chris says.

“An ambulance? Don’t be dramatic, Chris. Maybe she just needs to sit down for a while.” Matt responds quickly. He looks at you like you’re an injured puppy, concern filling his eyes.

“Yeah, I agree. Let’s have her sit in the car for a bit. It’s not helping that we’re also standing in the rain like idiots.” Nick quips, guiding you to the back seat of their car.

You laugh nervously again, taking a seat. They crowd around you, looking at you like you might fall dead to the ground.

“Look, I really appreciate that you guys are being so helpful. But I’m not gonna lie, I’m freezing right now, my clothes are wet, and I just wanna get back to my hotel and go to sleep. Also, no offense, but I know you guys from your YouTube videos and this is a very awkward situation for me.” The words spill out in a rush, and you cover your face with your hands in embarrassment.

“Oh! I’m such an idiot. Here, take my hoodie. I have an extra one in the back.” Chris says, seeming to completely ignore the fact that you admitted you knew who they were and reaches around you to grab his dry hoodie from the back seat. He hands it to you, and you hesitantly take it, your eyebrows raised in confusion at his nonchalant response. “So you can at least warm up a little.” He smiles, trying to make you feel more comfortable. You do nothing but grip onto the soft hoodie and look over at Matt and Nick who also seem to not care a thing about what you just said. Matt says, “I’ll go look at your car if you don’t mind and make sure its safe for you to drive and then once you warm up, you’ll be free to go!”

He makes his way towards your car and Nick climbs in on the other side of the back seat next to you. “Sorry again for everything. I’m pretty sure this wasn’t how you expected your night to go.” He says. You then find yourself genuinely laughing for the first time tonight and start to pull the hoodie on, grateful to feel something warm over your wet clothes. “Yeah, definitely not what I expected.” Chris climbs into the passenger seat, turning back to look at you. “This is where I normally sit.” He states with a cheeky grin and you giggle, feeling a slight blush creep onto your face. He really was just as attractive in person, if not more, you realize as your nerves slightly settle down. “But I guess you already knew that.” He adds, his grin turning into a smirk. “Yeah and it’s gonna stay that way, you idiot.” Nick interrupts, making you erupt into more giggles as Chris’ smirk turns into a glare. “Shut up.” He mumbles, turning back around in his seat as Matt walks back towards their car, opening the driver door and getting in. He has a serious look on his face now, turning to look at you in the back seat.

“So… there’s an issue. It looks like Chris’ dumbass rear ended you so hard that your rear tire is flat. And I really doubt any tow truck is going to come at this time of night. Even if it does, it will take a while. And I wouldn’t feel safe letting you go alone. It looks like the best option is to drop you off myself at your hotel and have them tow your car in the morning. We can push it to the side of the road so there’s no issues.” Matt says, your heart sinking and you lay your head in your hands in frustration before he even finishes his sentence. Nick frowns and sighs, putting another reassuring hand on your shoulder. “I’m sorry. We’ll pay for all of it, I swear.” He says. You look at him with a smile and turn to Matt, ready to just agree with him so you can be done with this night already before Chris interrupts you. “Why don’t we just take her to the house? It’s literally 5 minutes from here and we don’t know how serious her head injury is.” He suggests.

Chris knows this is a crazy suggestion. First of all, you’re a fan, and you just met not even 30 minutes ago. You could be a psycho killer for all he knows. But Chris likes to believe that he has a strong intuition, especially when it comes to people and he just knows you’re not the type. To be quite honest, he hasn’t been able to take his eyes off you since he first saw you. Even with the rain completely drenching you and what looked like to be some sort of frozen dessert staining the front of your shirt and shorts, he thought you were beautiful. He already felt horrible for fucking up your car and causing you bodily harm. The least he could do was take you to his house and attend to your wounds. Only to make sure you didn’t drop dead on some random hotel carpet. Right?

Everyone looks at him like he has three heads. His brothers exchange concerning glances, awkward silence filling the car. Since when did he just invite random strangers into his house?

“Uhh.. Are you sure? I mean, how do you feel about that..?” Matt asks, looking at you with hesitation. You didn’t respond just yet, still adjusting to the fact Chris Sturniolo is voluntarily inviting you to their home.

“I don’t know…. I think I agree with Chris. I don’t wanna be responsible if you go back to your hotel alone and end up with a concussion or something. No offense.” Nick adds, shrugging his shoulders.

You scoff, extremely surprised at the fact that they’ve taken it this far. “No no no, look. You three have been really nice to me over this whole thing, but its just a little cut. I promise I’ll be fine. My hotel isn’t that far either. I don’t want to intrude and-“

Chris suddenly reaches out and lightly touches your forehead, blood still trickling out and starting to run down the side of your head. You wince in pain and recoil from his touch, your head starting to throb. “See? It’s not just a little cut, is it? You’re actively bleeding, and it obviously hurts. I know you’re just being modest, but I promise I just – we just- want to make sure you’re okay.” He says, his eyes trailing down your face, admiring it briefly, his fingertips ghosting over your jaw before he pulls his hand back. You remain frozen in your seat, butterflies swarming in your lower abdomen from the light touch he left on your face. “Unless you really do feel uncomfortable, then I understand. We can take you to the hotel. But like Nick said, we just don’t want anything bad to happen.” He added softly, turning back around, raking a hand through his hair. Nick and Matt exchange looks again, noticing the obvious tension.

You take in a deep breath and pull Chris’ hoodie tighter around you. “Fine. I guess I see your point. You can take me to your house but once I get this stupid cut on my head cleaned up, I’ll call my friend to come pick me up.” You finally say, buckling your seat belt. You can’t help but notice a small, smug smirk on Chris’ face through the passenger side mirror.

Once they pushed your car to the side of the road, Matt takes off with you in the backseat, your head leaned against the window.

I must be dreaming right? I’m definitely in my bed right now and this is not happening. You think to yourself, the intoxicating smell of Dior Sauvage cologne filling your nose, as you press the sleeve of Chris’ hoodie to the throbbing wound on your head.

#christopher sturniolo #chris sturniolo #sturniolo x reader #sturniolo fanfic #sturniolo smut #chris sturniolo smut #chris sturniolo fanfic #Spotify

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 10 months ago

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IOTA Reviews: Conformation and Re-Creation (The Final Day)

Well, here we are. The final two episodes of Season 5. It's been a long and complicated journey, so let me get you up to speed on what exactly happened this season, episode by episode.

Evolution: Ladybug and Cat Noir chase Monarch through time, and it's not nearly as cool as it sounds.

Multiplication: Adrien likes Marinette now because the plot says so.

Destruction: Cat Noir accidentally Cataclysms Monarch, and it somehow leads to the most guilt he feels using his Cataclysm on anyone.

Jubilation: Ever want to have the image of Ladybug and Cat Noir being teen parents burned into your brain? No? Too bad!

Illusion: Nino establishes himself as a leader so terrible, Zapp Brannigan would call him an idiot.

Determination: Marinette likes Cat Noir now because the plot says so.

Passion: Nathalie shows she'd rather silently judge Gabriel for his actions over actually doing anything to stop him.

Reunion: Marinette talks with the spirit of Joan of Arc, and it's not nearly as cool as it sounds.

Elation: Someone tries to murder Marinette over ice cream for the third time in four seasons.

Transmission: Yeah, I totally believe you're replacing Marinette and Adrien with two new main characters in the middle of your fifth season.

Deflagration: Because of Tikki and Plagg's terrible decisions, Monarch comes the closest he's ever come to winning.

Perfection: Kagami becomes a giant cloud Akuma, symbolizing her also becoming a total airhead for the rest of the season.

Migration: The writers realize they have no idea what to do with Luka, so they kick him out of the show entirely.

Derision: “How many things do you want to retcon to make this story work?” “Yes.”

Intuition: Gabriel continues to prove how pathetic of a villain he is, even when he has unlimited chances.

Protection: Even after being tricked three times by her, Kagami still thinks Lila is a trustworthy person.

Adoration: “We have Lumity at home”.

Emotion: The episode where Felix essentially commits genocide is somehow also the one where the writers want the audience to start viewing him in a sympathetic light.

Pretension: Felix likes Kagami because the plot says so, and vice versa.

Revelation: Lila only gets as far as she does thanks to Marinette becoming as dumb as the rest of the class.

Confrontation: Our heroes expose the villain's evil plans by spying on them through a bathroom peephole.

Collusion: Remember kids, violent revolutions against politicians are never the answer.

Revolution: Remember kids, violent revolutions against politicians are always the answer.

Representation: To the surprise of literally no one, Felix is revealed to be a Sentimonster, yet the writers still won't tell us that Adrien and Kagami are the same.

Now that you're all caught up, let's get into the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Conformation and Re-Creation

After a brief news report showing everyone enjoying the first day of Summer vacation, Gabriel and Tomoe finally decide to launch “Perfect Alliance”. What does this plan entail? For starters, Gabriel transforms into Monarch, detransforms to akumatize himself into Nightormentor again, gives himself the powers of the Mouse, Rooster and Horse Miraculous in order to clone himself and fly around the globe to spread his nightmare dust. Because just akumatizing Sandboy again and giving him the Mouse Miraculous' Multitude was just too complex of a plan.

Marinette is the first to be affected by the dust, we get a dream where she dresses up as a knight to save Adrien from a cheap recolor of Fang in his dragon form.

This is a weird episode of Super Why.

Marinette defeats the dragon, who reverts back to Gabriel, who is accidentally killed by the fight, causing Adrien to cry since Adrien was watching the whole thing. Marinette wakes up, thankful that it was all just a bad dream sequence. She decides she needs to find out just where Gabriel sent Adrien to make sure he's safe, something that won't make sense as I'll explain later on. As she tries to leave, she keeps experiencing sudden headaches, as do her parents and Alya.

Meanwhile, Adrien is still left reeling from the effects of the nightmare dust from last episode, to the point where he has a panic attack, demanding to be let out. Gabriel, seemingly aware of this, decides to give Adrien the “antidote”, an Alliance ring with an app called “Perfect Alliance”. So once again, despite claiming to do this for his son, Gabriel willingly chose to make his life worse as part of his evil plans. Remember this, it'll be important later on.

Plagg suggests Adrien transform into Cat Noir, but Adrien reminds him that there are cameras everywhere, so he can't risk it. Plagg disables the cameras, but Adrien still says no. Whether he was aware that the robot who was sent to give him the Alliance ring with the new app had a hidden camera is irrevelant, because Adrien gives a different reason why he can't transform.

Adrien: I'm not in my right mind. I'm too angry; at myself for falling short of Marinette's love, at my father for sending me here in London, at this stupid app and these rings that use my image... it makes me sick! This nightmare is giving me the horrible feeling that, if I transform, I'll get akumatized and destroy everything with my Cataclysm. Marinette, Ladybug...

Plagg: Surely Ladybug can help you.

Adrien: If I ask her for help, I'd have to give her information that would jeopardize my secret identity... and I can't.

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Okay, let me make one thing clear. The reason that Adrien can't risk exposing his identity thanks to all the cameras is a good one, and the fact that he doesn't want to risk exposing his identity to Ladybug in particular is a good sign of character development, but the problem I have is the fact that the writers decided to bench Adrien in the first place.

Yes, you heard that right. In arguably the most boneheaded decision in the show's history since... well, a lot of things this season, Adrien, despite being the son of the main villain, isn't going to get involved in the final battle at all.

There are multiple reasons why Adrien staying put in this room is a terrible idea, and most of them involve the fact that almost none of the in-universe explanations for this hold up.

Adrien is being heavily monitored by cameras? We just saw Plagg was able to disable them with ease.

Adrien can't ask Ladybug for help without jeopardizing his secret identity? The fact that he's at risk of being akumatized as is, with or without the Cat Miraculous, will still blow his cover due to Monarch's mind reading abilities (which we saw when Monarch almost learned Luka's secret in “Migration”), so he really has nothing to lose here.

Adrien isn't in the right state of mind thanks to the nightmare dust? Literally every other character who takes part in the final battle is able to either find a way to fight off the nightmares or keeps going while still under the influence of the nightmare dust.

Adrien's ultimate plan to take off his Miraculous and let Plagg choose a new temporary holder? We saw this exact same scenario play out earlier this season in “The Kwamis' Choice”, and things went horribly, horribly wrong.

Do you see why this makes no sense? Even though the show loves to boast about how valuable of an asset Cat Noir is, the writers are bending over backwards to justify keeping Adrien as far away from the final battle as possible, because they know damn well that they'd have to address how terrible his father really is with the reveal.

And the best part? This is basically the last we'll see of Adrien in this episode. Do you want to know how many lines he gets in the next episode, AKA, the final episode of the season? Three. AND THEY'RE ALL AFTER THE FINAL BATTLE.

But we're not done talking about this stupid idea yet, because unlike the other episodes, I have something else to rant about: The writers' commentary. In November of 2023, around four months after the finale premiered, the writers of this show recorded their own audio commentary, and while I don't have the exact translation (if anyone reading this has a translation of this, I would really appreciate the effort), I have seen one post summarizing the things they said, and all I can say is DEAR. LORD. This is not just shooting yourself in the foot. This is shooting yourself in the foot multiple times with Judas Bullets.

Like, it's amazing. We've always speculated just what goes through the writers' heads that makes them come up with some of the strangest ideas to take the story, and now, we have a first-hand account of why these episodes turned out the way they did. For this one moment, they gave about three explanations as to why Adrien was benched for the finale.

Let's start with the first one, Cat Blanc. I know what you're thinking, wasn't Cat Blanc an Akuma from an alternate timeline that our Adrien shouldn't know about? Not according to Melenie Duval. While Adrien's fear of being akumatized is reasonable, Duval claims that he could become Cat Blanc... which makes no sense as A) Adrien's nightmare was of an entirely different Akuma, and B) The aforementioned nightmare dust never informed Adrien of the alternate timeline where Cat Blanc destroyed the world, it just provided him with a nightmare about a similar scenario.

And in case you weren't questioning this woman's judgment, Duval has done on the record to state that her favorite episode of the entire show is “Derision”.

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Our next reasoning is especially stupid, as the rest of the writing team reveal that they had planned to keep Adrien out of the final battle as far back as 2014, nine years before the finished product premiered. Why would they do that? Because they wanted Ladybug to unify with the Cat Miraculous, of course! Sure, you could have just saved this unification for a special or something like that so you don't bench one of your main characters, or you could have at least had Adrien willingly give his Miraculous to Ladybug to unify with in person, but nope. This is seriously one of their defenses— I mean, explanations, for why Adrien isn't allowed to be in the final battle, because they thought it would be more important to give Marinette her 10th new form in three seasons than letting Adrien get some form of closure with his father.

And here's the final reason they gave in the commentary. Remember that dream sequence of Marinette dressed as a knight that was also sort of foreshadowed in “Gabriel Agreste”? Turns out, the writers wanted to, and stop me if you've heard this before, play with the tropes and symbolism of fairy tales. Wow, I've never seen any kind of pop culture do that before... except for Into the Woods, The Princess Bride, Hook, Shrek, Princess Tutu, Ella Enchanted, Hoodwinked!, Enchanted, Tangled, Once Upon a Time, Frozen, RWBY, Ever After High, Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarves, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, and Nimona. But other than those, that's so original!

Even though the writers are acting like they're breaking new ground, do you want to know what they mean by this? They're just doing another damsel in distress situation but this time, Adrien, the boy, is the one who needs to be saved by Marinette, who is, GASP, a girl?! WOW! That totally changes everything!

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Okay, yes, the damsel in distress trope has usually been seen as a misogynistic one due to the fact that the people who needed to be saved are usually women, but like I mentioned way back in my “Gabriel Agreste” review, just swapping the genders isn't enough to breathe new life into a trope as old as this one. It's arguably worse because Adrien isn't just someone who needs to be saved. He's a superhero, and like I mentioned, there were plenty of options to get him out of his room in London.

And I'm guessing that some of you are thinking, “But IOTA! You just want Adrien to save the day by himself because he's a guy!” Just remember that I had this exact same problem last season where the roles were reversed. Remember how I hated the way Marinette's arc about dealing with the stress of being Guardian was hijacked by Adrien complaining about Ladybug not trusting him? This time, we have an arc about Adrien trying to break free from his father's influence that's been hijacked by Marinette needing to save Adrien by herself, robbing him of any agency he had to the plot entirely. This issue isn't about gender. It's never been about gender. I would have the exact same problem if Adrien was the one who confronted Monarch by himself while Marinette was trapped in her room.

This leads to the biggest problem I have with this plot development: It ultimately goes against the core theme of teamwork the show keeps trying to convey. Remember how last season, Marinette needed to learn to let other people trust her? Now, she's going to beat up Monarch all by herself without any help. Remember how last season, Adrien needed to prove he didn't deserve to be left in the dark about everything? Now, he's going to stay all the way in London while his partner gets in the fight of her life. It's detrimental to both of them as characters, and makes everything that happened to them in Season 4 completely pointless.

Okay, now that I've spent five pages ranting about this insane decision, let's get back on track, shall we? As the Perfect Alliance app helps Adrien and Kagami calm down, Marinette sneaks into the Agreste mansion as Ladybug. Meanwhile, Nathalie has her own nightmare about Gabriel winning, AKA, the very thing she could have stopped a long time ago by ratting her evil boss out to Ladybug and Cat Noir.

We then learn just what the Perfect Alliance app really does. Basically, thanks to the technobabble, it helps alleviate the stress from their nightmares. Or, to put it in Layman's terms, Gabriel and Tomoe plan to get the entire population of Earth addicted to cyber crack. We see this affect several of Marinette's classmates, but because Mylene has a sudden disdain for technology that “Was made without respect for the Earth's resources”, she's the only one who sees the problem here. I'd ask why this wasn't established earlier this season, but it doesn't matter, since Mylene gives in anyway,

Because it's a day that ends with a “Y”, Gabriel goes to talk to Emilie's body yet again, and it seems like even the writers realized how tired this got, as Nathalie finally decided to ambush him with a crossbow.

Miss Sancoeur, I served with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I knew Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy the Vamprie Slayer was a friend of mine. Miss Sancoeur, you're no Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Yes, it only took five seasons worth of evil plans for Nathalie to realize just how demented her boss really is.

Nathalie: I can't let you do that... if you make the wish to bring her back, someone will have to go in her place. Emilie would never have agreed to this!

Gabriel: Do you think I'd be monstrous enough to sacrifice a human being?

Uh... yes? That is literally what equivalent exchange means. You really don't know how the wish works after researching it?

Shockingly, the frail woman armed with nothing but a crossbow isn't able to stop someone with superpowers. There isn't even a fight. Monarch just knocks the crossbow out of her hands and she faints. Maybe you should have actually come up with some sort of plan before confronting Gabriel by yourself, dumbass.

Back to Ladybug, she searches through Gabriel's stuff and finally learns he's Monarch... even though she should already know thanks to Felix and Kagami's play last episode. She even looks pretty shocked to see Monarch detransform.

Back to the commentary, the writers justify this with their absurd “Every episode can be watched on its own” rule. Because simply having Marinette say she already knows was out of the equation, I guess. Seriously, earlier in the episode, Tikki (who, along with Plagg, wasn't affected by the nightmare dust for some reason) had doubts that Marinette should break into the Agreste mansion, and it came across like neither of them knew the truth, and this was a reckless decision that wasn't motivated by Gabriel being Monarch at all. Once again, the writers fail to understand the idea of using “Previously On...” segments to help new viewers catch up on what's happening. It's even more confusing when you remember that Tikki knows Adrien is Cat Noir, so his father being Monarch coupled with his sudden absence should be setting off all kinds of red flags in her book.

Ladybug tries to text Cat Noir about who Monarch really is, but chooses not to send it after Gabriel pushes a few of her buttons. Rather than jumping Gabriel while she still has the element of surprise, she only chooses to grill Nathalie for questions once Gabriel is out of the room. And of course, only when she's on death's door does Nathalie tell Ladybug to stop Monarch, but not before telling her to transform back.

We see Gabriel and Tomoe put their plan into action. They create a fake scene of Ladybug and Cat Noir kidnapping Adrien and Kagami in order to rile up the public (who aren't in the best state of mind thanks to the nightmares) in order to for them to use the Alliance rings to transform them into the “Miraculized”. In other words, it's basically “Heroes' Day” all over again. Seriously, think about it. Just like “Heroes' Day”, it looks like Adrien is being harmed by Ladybug in an attempt to push the population to the brink of despair so Gabriel can create an army in the process. Yeah, the public doesn't know the two are the same, but the audience does. Granted, this is a minor nitpick compared to the rest of my problems with this episode, but I hope you can see what I'm getting at here.

Case in point, the reason Nathalie told Ladybug to detransform was because Gabriel has found a way to track her and Cat Noir through their “quantum signatures”. With Cat Noir, it was thanks to the dust from Gabriel's Cataclysm wound, and with Ladybug, it was thanks to the Magical Charm she gave Gabriel earlier in “Gabriel Agreste”... which he shouldn't have since it was destroyed in “Dearest Family”.

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Seriously, this is the season finale. How the hell are the writers still struggling to remember important events like this?

Now's as good a time as any to talk about the Miraculized's design. Yeah, they're pretty lame. They all look like they're wearing fencing gear, and don't look intimidating in the slightest. They also now have the ability to use every Miraculous power at once, which breaks the previously established rules about the Alliance rings in that only one ring can handle each Miraculous power. You could at least argue that the robots used in “Confrontation” had more advanced technology that made them capable of using multiple powers, but nothing has changed about the Alliance rings to justify this. And remember, this is something every Miraculized in the world can use, yet the system hasn't been completely fried, and as we'll later see Monarch can still freely use the other Kwamis' power even when they're being shared with the Miraculized across the world. In fact, how can the Miraculized even transform like this? Monarch doesn't akumatize anyone to spread this transformation. Gabriel just tells to say “Alliance, Miraculize Me!”, and now they can transform. Was this always a function of the Alliance rings? Is there a tiny Akuma hidden in each ring? How the hell does any this work?

Ladybug fights off some of the Miraculized who used Voyage to find her, and remembers Nathalie's advice to detransform. So just like in “Passion”, even though she's still wearing her Miraculous, the system specifically designed to track her down isn't able to find her unless she's still transformed. Marinette runs away to a safe place before running into Plagg, who tells her Cat Noir is out of commission. With no other options, Marinette decides to unify with the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous, turning into Bug Noire, revealing her identity to Monarch in the process, and ending the episode.

Bug Noire's design is admittedly pretty nice. I like the balance of red, black, and green, though the hair is a little too long for my taste. Granted, I still don't get why this is the reason why Adrien can't be here to fight Monarch alongside his partner. I'm just saying, was it really worth it, writers?

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... NATHALIE

Yep, right before the finish line, Nathalie gets her second award this season. After spending several episodes doing nothing but letting herself rot away, Nathalie only chose to finally do something about Gabriel once he was literally about to enact his final plan, thought she could stop him with nothing but a crossbow, and only begged Ladybug for help when it looked like she was about to die and had nothing left to lose.

“Re-Creation”, the final episode of the season, starts off with Lila watching some broadcasts of people succumbing to their paranoia (and she does it while smirking because the writers still don't think we understand she's evil) and transforming into Miraculized while she puts on a new disguise that makes her look like an evil Edna Mode.

How come Lila isn't even affected by the nightmare dust like the rest of the human population? As always, never explained!

Back in the Agreste mansion, Bug Noire and Monarch are duking it out, and we get some pretty creative uses of Lucky Charm, like when she summons a piano to crash down on Monarch. Meanwhile, after Marinette's friends manage to get the Alliance ring off a Miraculized Ivan, we get to see how the rest of the world is dealing with the Miraculized. In Shanghai, the Renlings help Fei through her nightmares, Su-Han has recruited Jagged Stone, Luka, Penny and Fang to the Order of the Guardians instead of actually getting backup like he said he would in “Multiplication”, Present Bunnix finally decides to do something and uses Burrow to sent the Guardians to Paris, while the United Heroez fight off the Miraculized and learn the true nature of the Alliance rings. Just remember, it was too much for the writers to let Adrien get involved in the final battle, yet all these side characters get to do something in the finale for some reason.

Meanwhile, as if things couldn't get any worse, Nino decides the Resistance needs to get involved after reassuring Mr. Damocles that they never give up. Believe me, not much would change if you guys just threw in the towel, especially now that the United Heroez are here, and have Eagle, a member whose powers work as an instant cure for everyone's nightmares. Hey, while we're on the subject, does anyone know where the United Heroez were this entire season? I can excuse Fei as she's just one teenager in Shanghai, but the Americans have a small army of heroes, including the president, yet they just let two violent coups in France happen last week.

As Bug Noire and Monarch keep fighting, Bug Noire comes up with the brilliant idea to Cataclysm the Butterfly Miraculous, only being foiled by Monarch already having Resistance active. Okay, is a side effect of using the Cat Miraculous this season a taste for blood? Why the hell are the heroes so okay with trying to use Cataclysm on their enemies now? Bug Noire then decides to use her Cataclysm for something far more reasonable, breaking the ground beneath her and Monarch. Because I guess Bug Noire is really gunning for Biggest Idiot this episode.

Back with the Resistance, they meet up with the Guardians, United Heroez, and Ladydragon, who have actually been getting shit done. Wow, it's just like that scene from that one movie where all the characters we've come to know over the years rally together for the final battle! What was it called again? Oh yeah, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over.

While the other heroes are overwhelmed by the Miraculized, we cut back to Bug Noire and Monarch yet again, now inside the area where Emilie's body is. The two keep fighting as Monarch tells Bug Noire why he's doing all this, all while Lila breaks into the mansion.

Monarch: I want my wife, Adrien's mother, to come back to us! Once our family is reunited, Kagami and Adrien will become the eternal icons of this world! And we will be here to witness their absolute triumph!

Bug Noire: “Your wife”? “Come back”? “Kagami and Adrien, eternal icons”? How many lives are you going to ruin in the name of your crazy dreams?!

Monarch: As many as it takes! In order to bring Emilie back, someone else will have to disappear! In order to heal the wound that Cat Noir inflicted on me, someone else will have to be wounded!

Bug Noire: Someone else? But who?

Monarch: Anyone! No one matters except us! How about you, Marinette? Wouldn't you give your life for your sweet Adrien's happiness?

Bug Noire: Do you really think that's what he'd want? To discover that his father has turned into a supervillain, willing to make innocent people pay the price of his madness?

Monarch: Adrien would do the same thing!

Bug Noire: Never! Unlike you, Adrien has made his peace with it. He's not living in the past! He has a whole life ahead of him!

Bug Noire: You'd know this if you ever took an interest in him. But in reality, Adrien means NOTHING to you anymore! You've locked him in your house! Locked him in your Alliance rings!

Bug Noire: Locked him into a life that allows you to hide behind him in order to justify YOUR madness!

Monarch: All I want is for him to be happy!

Remember all of this, because it's going to be important soon.

Bug Noire uses her Lucky Charm, and gets a tube of glue. She uses some of it on this random boomerang she found (I'm assuming it's the remains of Nathalie's crossbow), sticks it to her yo-yo, and then throws it at Emilie's coffin. Monarch reflexively grabs the sticky boomerang, and loses all of the rings on his right hand just as Bug Noire uses Cataclysm on the elevator to get to this area of the mansion, with the intent on CRUSHING EMILIE WITH IT. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen! Monarch saves his wife, but because he's distracted, he can't stop Bug Noire from throwing her staff at the Butterfly Miraculous, knocking it off and reverting Monarch back to Gabriel. Bug Noire ties up Gabriel's feet, and when Gabriel tries to sucker punch her with Venom, Bug Noire grabs the hand, threatening to Cataclysm the remaining Alliance rings and the two rings she should damn well know contain Adrien's Amok. Either she's bluffing, or we accidentally got the Paris Special universe's version of these events.

Bug Noire tries to reason with Gabriel, who then breaks down crying, showing how deep down, he just really cares about his family. And even though just six episodes ago, Marinette said that it was very easy for idealistic people to be taken advantage of by others, she buys into Gabriel's last-minute sob story, and wouldn't you know it, he stabs her in the back. Congratulations, Marinette. You just doomed the universe. Even when the Dino Charge Rangers accidentally got everyone on their planet killed, they were at least able to fix it themselves.

It's time to go back to the commentary, where we can learn the writers' true intent for this scene. They honestly believe that both Marinette and Gabriel care for Adrien in their own ways, and the whole reason that Marinette chose to trust Gabriel was to teach the lesson that it's important to talk out your feelings with others... a lesson that fails because 1) Marinette had already beaten Gabriel through violence, 2) Marinette trusting Gabriel backfired horribly, and 3) Gabriel won because he took advantage of Marinette's trust! You can't teach a lesson about trust when for all intents and purposes, Marinette once again lost BECAUSE SHE CHOSE TO TRUST SOMEONE!

Even though he had to unify with Tikki and Plagg to try making the wish in “Deflagration” (I really shouldn't have used the “Great Continuity!” clip earlier), we get yet another retcon this season: Tikki and Plagg have to reveal their true forms. Yeah, I know Tikki's true form was briefly seen in “Dearest Family”, but that doesn't change the fact that Monarch didn't do this when he had the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous in “Deflagration”.

Tikki and Plagg's true forms just look okay. I like the otherworldly theme, but they don't really stand out much. They honestly look more like forms Ladybug and Cat Noir would have than anything else.

It's here that we get the culmination of five seasons' worth of lore. After a brief glimpse of it in “Ephemeral”, Tikki and Plagg, the Kwamis of Creation and Destruction will merge their energies to form their true true form, the Kwami of Reality itself, able to grand any wish asked. This majestic, otherworldly being's name? Gimmi. Just... Gimmi. The commentary claims they're named after an ABBA song, and I wish I was making this up.

Like with Tikki and Plagg's true forms, Gimmi has an okay design. They're just a little too pink for something meant to be a fusion of the red Tikki and the black Plagg.

As Marinette begs Gabriel not to go through with this, Gabriel doesn't think twice about it, and instead, gives Marinette the rings containing Adrien's Amok, along with a request, fully aware that his time is almost up.

Gabriel: Marinette, make sure that Adrien never knows about the villain that I was, but instead, that he remembers the times I tried to be a good father.

Alright, we've finally gotten to the most controversial part of the episode: Gabriel's “redemption”, and I put that term extremely loosely.

Put aside the fact that almost a third of this season was spent telling the audience that a certain character who shall not be named is beyond saving despite working alongside him multiple times for the past two seasons, Gabriel's last-minute redemption falls flat because he doesn't even seem to feel remorse for what he's done. Not once does he actually say he's sorry for what he's done, just how Emilie's death affected him. That's understandable, but he doesn't even seem to acknowledge the weight of his actions or how many lives have been endangered. Remember earlier, when Monarch said he was perfectly okay with sacrificing someone else if it means his family can be happy? Yeah, that never comes back, especially now that him making the wish is portrayed as a good thing when every time it's been discussed ever since it was first explained in “Robostus” just how dangerous actually using it is.

In fact, let's discuss the fact that Gabriel is getting to make the wish in the first place. The whole idea of this basically contradicts Gabriel supposedly realizing he's gone too far. Rather than just having Gabriel give up his quest and let Emilie rest in peace, we're supposed to be happy that Gabriel double-crossed Marinette even when the music is making it seem like it's a bad thing... WHICH IT IS! Once again, for a show that loves to go on and on about how powerful love is, it really loves to show people getting screwed over whenever they decide to show compassion to their enemies. Imagine if in Return of the Jedi, when Luke chose to not give into the Dark Side by sparing Vader, Vader took the chance to kick him in the crotch while he was distracted. That's basically what happened here.

Next, notice how Gabriel specifically asks Marinette to make sure Adrien never learns the truth about who he was, and “Remembers the times he tried to be a good father”. After everything he's done, Gabriel isn't even willing to let Adrien learn about what he's done, because he wants him to focus exclusively on the times he TRIED to be a good father. This isn't the matter of Gabriel missing Adrien's fencing tournament because he had an important business meeting. Gabriel was a literal supervillain who preyed on innocent people in order to obtain absolute power, and he wasn't even a good father to his only kid. He was neglectful, controlling, and in the last few months of his life, spent more time trying to ruin his relationship with his girlfriend for no reason other than because he thought his associate's kid was a better match for him. He was a terrible father, and Gabriel even seems to be aware of this, but rather than find a way to repent for everything he's done, Gabriel is basically going to take the coward's way out by forcing Marinette to sugarcoat his life instead of admitting he was, at the very least, a flawed parent, all so Adrien will feel bad when he finally drops dead.

And yeah, let's talk about how Gabriel assumes that Adrien shouldn't be allowed to know the truth... WHEN THAT'S NOT HIS DECISION TO MAKE. Adrien should be the one to judge whether he believes Gabriel was a good father or not. Of course Gabriel would assume he was a good father despite the numerous red flags, but Adrien is another story. By keeping the truth hidden from Adrien, you're depriving him of a potentially important moment in his life where he finally learns to break free from his father's influence. Instead, even though he's a fucking superhero, we're just supposed to accept the fact that Adrien is just a poor, fragile, sensitive baby boy who can't handle hearing any bad news or else I guess he'll explode. It says a lot when, of all movies, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier did a better job handling an idea like this, by saying that pain is a natural part of life.

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But let's talk about the biggest problem with this turn of events: The fact that it essentially vindicates everything Gabriel has done, with or without the mask, as well as essentially convey a pro-child abuse message. In case you weren't around before I posted this review, I asked my followers who have been victims of child abuse or poor parenting to share their experiences so I could get an idea of how similar they were to what Adrien has had to go through. And a lot of them were pretty similar.

During almost all of what I read from these people, their parents or guardians shared one thing in common: An inability to admit being wrong. All of them tended to either blame their kids for whatever happened to them, or find ways to justify their poor treatment. As far as they're concerned, it's the kid's fault that they're being treated so poorly. And while I'm sure a handful of people isn't enough to survey the entire population of abuse victims on this planet, the fact that some of these people, as in actual victims of child abuse, were able to see similarities with their own upbringings and the way the main villain treats his son and don't buy the show deciding to act like all of that was perfectly okay says a lot about how much this finale dropped the ball when it came to the lesson it wanted to teach.

Yes, from what I've read from my followers and other things online, some abusive parents do believe that what they're doing to their children is out of a warped view of love, but that isn't enough to validate their actions completely, and it obviously doesn't validate Gabriel's actions during the last five seasons. During the entire run of the show, Gabriel has denied his son a normal life, treats him like an object, and despite claiming that he really loves him deep down, he almost never shows it. It seemed like the show was either going to have Gabriel realize the error of his ways due to how fruitless they ended up being, but having him get the upper hand on Marinette at the very last second ultimately makes it so all of his effort, every evil plan, every civilian endangered, was all worth it. And that's why Gabriel's final moments supposedly acting like he's repented for his actions don't work, and why it turned what was initially just a boring finale into one that was beyond infuriating.

And I'm assuming that you're thinking to yourself, what exactly is the wish Gabriel was so desperate to make that he tricked Marinette at the last second?

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We never really learn what kind of wish Gabriel makes using Gimmi, even in the epilogue. I'm also going to talk about this in a later post, but of course Astruc, being Astruc had to give his usual sarcastic remarks to anyone who had the slightest question about what the hell just happened.

I love how someone will ask something like “Do you mind clearing up a few questions I have about the season finale?”, and Astruc will hear what they said as if they just asked, “Is Mylene secretly the reincarnation of the Anti-Christ?”.

So Gabriel makes his wish, somehow reunites with Emilie's soul as he ascends to Heaven... until the angels realize they made a horrible mistake, and send Gabriel to his custom-made Tenth Circle of Hell. Reality itself is rewritten and all of the characters we've come to know over the past five seasons are effectively dead. If that isn't supposed to be a happy ending, I don't know what is.

According to the transcript, it's been a month after the wish is made, we see how Paris has changed since then. Not only has Miss Bustier given birth to her baby, she's also been elected as Mayor of Paris, already passing her first law, the “Eco Rule”.

Miss Bustier: It consists of very simple principles: don't take more from the Earth than what it can give us, distribute its riches equitably and don't pollute more than it can recycle.

Remember when Mylene said that you can't solve climate change with a single law? I guess the writers forgot to recycle that moral too, because despite the vague as hell guidelines, Paris has already adapted to function without plastic wrappers or cars. Just remember, it's only been one month since the wish was made. Even Star Trek needed at least 130 years and a nuclear war before its utopian society could be established. And that's not even getting into the new school she's helped create.

Miss Bustier: In this new school, there will be no classes or struggling to get good grades. Children of all ages will be able to intermix and freely access all kinds of activities.

The fuck you mean “no grades”?! How the hell will that even work?! We're supposed to see this as her being an impressive politician, but it comes across like some grade schooler's “If I were president” essay. And remember, ONE. MONTH.

How else has the Eco Rule been implemented? All of the Alliance rings have been melted down and reforged into a statue honoring... the great hero, Gabriel Agreste.

Yep. This is the ultimate fate of the main villain after five seasons of terrorizing the city of Paris: He gets a fucking statue in his honor. Are we sure this is a victory for the good guys? And no, just surviving the villain's master plan doesn't count as a win.

Even better, according to Adrien, he somehow helped defeat Monarch... even though Gabriel is Monarch, so is Monarch a different person in this world? What about Monarch's previous identities, Hawkmoth and Shadowmoth? Did they still exist in this world? They had to, considering that Chloe and Andre are still nowhere to be seen since the revolution, implying that either she's different in this world, or she also betrayed Ladybug for the same reasons. Nathalie is also back in full health, so did she ever use the Peacock? Was the Peacock ever damaged? We see Felix has it in this new world, but Emilie is still dead, so did she die of different causes in this timeline? Speaking of time, what happened to Bunnix? Did she survive too? Is she aware of the changes to the world like she was in “Cat Blanc”?

To summarize, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?

Adrien is hesitant to wear the ring because he's not sure if he can ever be even half the man his amazing father was. Marinette tells Adrien to be himself while handing the ring to him. So... was this an order? If so, was it intentional? Does Marinette even know what she's doing, or because she's a product of Gabriel's wish, she has to do this without a hitch? In fact, when he made the wish, why didn't Gabriel make Adrien, Felix, and Kagami humans instead of forcing them to rely on rings containing their souls that can easily break?

This scene is a great way to summarize Adrienette this season: The writers trying to write a heartwarming scene while hoping the audience doesn't think too hard about all the uncomfortable things it implies.

After reforging the Miraculous she got back from Monarch, Marinette decides to hand them off. Because fuck it, let's break the temp hero rule while we're at it! Chloe who? Ladybug, Cat Noir, Rena Rouge, Carapace, Viperion, Pegasus, Ryuko, Vesperia, Polymouse, Pigella, Purple Tigress, Miss Hound, Rooster Bold, Caprikid, Minotaurox, Bunnix, and even Argos (despite being the reason the heroes lost their Miraculous in the first place) assemble, ready for whatever challenge the world throws at them. Also, there's no reveal between Ladybug and Cat Noir this season because the writers still want to drag this plotline out, even when there's no excuse as to why they can't now that Monarch is gone.

We then learn who got the Butterfly Miraculous: Lila, who plans to get revenge on Marinette. Yep, the girl who has never even touched a Miraculous in five seasons is going to be Hawkmoth's successor. Not Tomoe (who I should mention never answered for being Gabriel's accomplice), not Audrey, not even Chloe. It's Lila. How the hell did she even get it anyway? Did Gabriel intentionally recreate the world to have Lila get the Butterfly Miraculous, or did Lila somehow retain her memories through close proximity to the wish and--

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Fuck it, season's over anyway. Thank God...

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS...MARINETTE

While I can't say for certain what she did with Adrien is her fault thanks to Gabriel making the wish, I can say a good chunk of the things Marinette did leading up to Gabriel winning are on her. She recklessly used her Cataclysm multiple times in her fight with Monarch, tried to crush Emilie's comatose body with debris, once again chose to gloat about how she was going to take Gabriel's Miraculous instead of just doing it the first chance she got, seemingly forgot Adrien was a Sentimonster, and somehow managed to lose even when she had Gabriel at her mercy.

So, yeah... this finale was terrible, if it wasn't obvious from this review.

It was just a complete trainwreck from start to finish. A good chunk of the first part was spent either ignoring the events of the last episode, or coming up with excuses as to why Adrien shouldn't get involved. And that's not even getting into Nathalie's “redemption”, which only really happened once she had nothing to lose, seeing how she was even closer to dying than Gabriel was. In fact, now that I think about it, why was more emphasis given to Nathalie's declining health over Gabriel? You know, the guy who's enacting his final plan because he's supposedly hours from death, yet effortlessly manages to clone himself, fly around the world as an Akuma, and keep up with Bug Noire when he struggled to enact a plan that required him to leave the lair without traveling around the world during “Intuition”? Given how we now know that the writers wanted the final battle to involve Bug Noire, I'm starting to think they also prioritized her opponent being in top shape while ignoring the Cataclysm wound affecting him.

The second half was mostly boring thanks to just how low the stakes felt. We know where Adrien is, and since Bug Noire was fighting Monarch, there was no danger of them taking her Miraculous, so for the most part, the Miraculized fighting the other heroes just felt like padding. Nobody even seemed to look for Ladybug or Cat Noir, not even the heroes. Of course, then we got to Gabriel's wish. I've gone over this before, but it bears repeating. Gabriel's “redemption” just doesn't work due to how little effort is spent actually making the audience feel bad for him other than saying “His wife is dead, and he's sad, so that justifies everything”. It doesn't help that we kind of had four episodes explaining why some people can't change, and it wasn't used when talking about Gabriel, but rather, Chloe and Lila. Because these writers really have their priorities straight.

The ending of the season itself practically falls apart with how many plotholes and unfortunate implications it has. And before you say that stuff like Adrien once again being left in the dark can be resolved next season, here's the thing: This was planned to be the series finale with how everything feels wrapped up. There's a sense of finality that shows all the main characters getting their happy ending, and we're just supposed to not question the new utopia Paris is now, much less the fact that even after eight years, Ladybug and Cat Noir still don't know who the other is. Even putting that aside, the show has always done a poor job of following up on plotpoints established in earlier seasons, as the lunchroom scene from “Illusion” shows.

Here's a summary of all the lessons the finale teaches: We shouldn't hold terrorists accountable for their actions if they just say they love their family, abuse victims should be constantly coddled and shouldn't be allowed to know the truth about their viewers, it's okay to keep crucial information from your significant other, genocide is okay as long as the person who commits it says it's for a good cause, love for others can easily be taken advantage of, so never trust anyone, genocide is the only way to create an eco-friendly world, environmental protection laws can be passed within a month and nobody (not even car manufacturers) will complain, teenage girls are worse than abusive parents who double as supervillains, and even if it was planned for almost a decade, don't let your main heroine be the one to save the day, but rather, the villain.

If anyone reading this is planning on becoming a writer and is worried that people won't like their work, just remember that there are people who get paid to work on this show.

But yeah, this is how the season ends, not with a bang, but with a nosedive. I was mostly pissed off with how Seasons 3 and 4 ended, but here? I'm just disappointed. This was the finale that we waited eight years for. The epic final battle against Monarch, and rather than the ultimate fight to the finish, the writers came with several excuses to not involve one of the two main characters in the final battle, the other main character fails to actually save the day, and the villain is rewarded for all of actions because he chose to turn himself into a messiah. I tuned into this season to at least see how the story would end out of curiosity, but it didn't even deliver an ending that made all the pointless filler, poor writing, and bad characterization worth it. I started this finale off bored, and I ended up furious for how lackluster this ending felt. It says a lot when this finale has been compared to Star vs. the Forces of Evil in terms of just screwing everything up.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE SEASON IS... MARINETTE

Marinette may not have been able to beat Gabriel in terms of stopping his plan, but she did manage to outdo him in terms of stupidity. Because she got the award four times this season (Evolution, Revelation, Confrontation, Re-Creation), she takes home the title of Biggest Idiot.

And for those who are curious or didn't keep up with my reviews, Gabriel gets second place with three Biggest Idiot Awards (Intuition, Protection, Revolution), we have a five-way tie for third place with Luka (Determination, Migration), Mayor Andre (Adoration, Action), Chloe (Deflagration, Collusion), Felix (Emotion, Representation), and Nathalie (Passion, Conformation), who all got the award twice, and a ten-way tie for fourth place with Alya (Multiplication), Xuppu (Destruction), Mr. Damocles (Jubiliation), Nino (Illusion), Joan of Arc (Reunion), Ice Cream Man Andre (Elation), Kagami (Perfection), Kim (Derision), and Tomoe (Pretension) each getting the award once.

And with that, we're done with Season 5. It's been a long road, but all I can say is...

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At least, until the analysis and ranking posts.

217 notes · View notes

gayfromusa · 3 months ago

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Climbing Partners

[ Art from ksk199999 on DeviantArt, story by me ]

Brandon and Jordan (both 21) had been climbing buddies for about three years. Jordan always wanted a higher, tougher climb, and Brandon was always went along. Brandon loved the time he spent with his buddy, but wasn’t always enthusiastic about traveling so frequently to the mountains each summer. While he enjoyed the challenge, sometimes he just wanted to relax in the sun for a week instead of busting his ass climbing as a vacation.

On one sunny summer day at Brandon’s apartment pool during their breaks from college, Jordan asked Brandon about going for another climb.

“Hey man, how do you feel about going for a climb this weekend?”

“That sounds like a great time, but why don’t we just chill by the pool this weekend? I’d love to just hang with you. We can totally go on a climb next weekend though.” Brandon responded.

While his request was very reasonable, Jordan still couldn’t let go of the idea of reaching a new death-defying height and seeing the incredible views. Jordan made his point known to Brandon, “Dude, there’s always more time to relax, we won’t always be able to climb. C’mon, let’s do it dude.”

Just before Brandon could say something, he got a spam on his phone reading, “Buy now! The brand new Size Gun uses atomic energy technology to transform the size of those around you, to any height within the range! Only $50! Get it before the price goes up!” He showed Jordan before he tried to delete it.

“Dude, look at this bullshit!” Brandon laughed.

Jordan smiled, “Imagine if that was real dude, we could both have the weekend we want.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you could relax all day by the pool, and I could be shrunk to make you the size of a mountain. Honestly the view of your apartment complex would be spectacular from a new perspective.”

Brandon started thinking. It was Tuesday, he just got a bonus from last week’s paycheck, and Jordan was absolutely right. He honestly was excited at even the possibility of a real man being the size of a toy in his hand. “You know, what if this thing is legit? There has to be some sort of legal thing preventing them from selling this, so why not try and get my hands on it before they get caught? And honestly it’s so cheap for what it’s offering.”

“There’s no way though, right?”

“I don’t know man, but even if there’s a small chance, I’d bet something for it. Let’s see if this is real.” Right then, Brandon clicked the link and ordered the product. He put priority shipping on it. “It’ll be here Friday. If this thing doesn’t work, then we‘ll spend Saturday climbing and Sunday relaxing, deal?”

“Dude, I’m so in. This could be sick.”

——————

Friday came and a package arrived. Brandon spent the night figuring it out and texted for Jordan to come over the next morning for a surprise.

On Saturday, Jordan knocked on the door of the apartment, and Brandon opened. “Is it real dude?!” Jordan asked with excitement.

“Well come inside and see!”

Jordan walked in and closed the door. Brandon led him to the living room where on the table sat a sci-fi-looking gun of sorts. “How does it even work??”

“Well I tried reading the instructions to find out, but they were in Chinese. Found a YouTube video where they basically said they can’t release how it works due to it being such a new technology. Anyways, it only works on biological matter. It’s not able to make anyone taller than their normal height, unless someone else is shrunk, then the height can be transferred to whoever. The limit on shrinking is currently an inch tall. It’s also supposed to make the person a bit more durable than you expect since it makes them more dense, but the guy said to still be extremely careful if ever handling a shrunken person.”

“One inch seems a bit tiny for climbing you, maybe we could do two inches instead?”

“Yeah sure, but don’t be shocked if you get there later.”

Jordan laughed off that last comment, “Dude I am so excited. I’ve kept on thinking about everything ever since earlier this week. Can we test it out?”

“Yeah man! It connects to my phone, then I have to make a profile for you. I made one for myself already. I’ll input your height and scan you with the gun. I hope you’re chill with it man, you have to be naked for the scan.”

Jordan nodded his head.

“Alright go ahead and strip.”

Jordan blushed slightly while he awkwardly got naked. He heard Brandon say it only shrank biological matter, so he’d be naked when he shrinks anyways. He really did want a climbing challenge, and only brought up this idea as a joke. Now that he is about to actually be able to do this, he started thinking about Brandon’s body. Brandon stood at a good 6’0”, and Jordan at a below average 5’8”. Brandon had impressive muscles, and occasionally Jordan wished he could feel them, but always wanted to respect Brandon and never asked.

But now Jordan was going to feel Brandon’s muscles up close, for maybe even a few hours. Even more pressed in his mind was Brandon’s specific features he might get to climb on. His feet, his pecs, his biceps, and maybe even other parts of his body. Thinking about all this gave Jordan a boner that he didn’t even notice, and he was already in just his underwear.

“You excited for today lil’ buddy?” Brandon smirked.

“I-“ Jordan blushed a bright red.

“Hey dude it’s alright, to be perfectly honest, I haven’t gotten the thought of you as a living toy out of my head”

“Oh, uh.. then let’s do this.” Jordan nervously took off his underwear.

Jordan, fully nude, stood before Brandon. Brandon pointed the gun and a fast burst of light emitted from it. Brandon set it down, while Jordan clothed himself.

“Why are you getting dressed? Your clothes won’t shrink.” Asked Brandon

“I wanna feel them get bigger on me.” Jordan said.

Brandon chuckled a bit, “Fair enough I guess.”

Brandon looked at the app on his phone. Jordan filled his profile for the app. He input his height, weight, sex, his feet size, then left blank the desired height spot for Brandon to fill out.

“I wanna start by just making you just slightly shorter, just to see if it works, how does 5’0” sound to you?”

“I mean 8 inches seems like a lot, but yeah let’s do it!”

Brandon once again pointed the gun, he pressed the trigger and the light flashed. No sounds or anything.

“Did it work?” Asked Jordan.

“I think so.. it’s not supposed to be instant, but shouldn’t take too- oh there ya go.” Brandon noticed Jordan’s eyes shrink down a bit.

Jordan felt a sensation through his body. His previously snug shirt and shorts now a bit loose. “Holy fuck dude it worked!!” Jordan reacted.

“Damn dude, my shorty got even smaller.” Brandon jokingly smiled.

“Dude I wasn’t short before. 5’8” isn’t short.”

“Maybe, but an angry 5’0” sure is cute.” Brandon began to laugh a little bit started messing with his friend’s hair.

Jordan’s face got a bit red again, then he pushed Brandon’s hand off his head.

Brandon didn’t say anything, just smirked and started inputting stuff into the app again.

“Hey! What are you doing now?”

Brandon pointed the gun and fired the silent blast again. “Made you small enough so you can’t fight back.” Brandon smiled.

Before Jordan could do something, he felt the sensation and this time got a bit dizzy. He fell back a bit, then his shorts fell down his legs and he tripped on them “What the- how big am I now?” Sitting with his butt on the ground, Jordan looked up and saw a staggering figure. His friend seemed more than twice the size of a normal human. He began to cower a bit as Brandon’s hands reached down.

Brandon laughed at Jordan’s choice of words as he crouched down and helped the little guy up. “You’re 2 feet small now.” Brandon laughed once Jordan was on his feet, seeing the huge oversized shirt on his friend was hilarious. He snapped a picture then removed the shirt from Jordan. “There you are again! All your glory. Still excited I see.” Brandon poked Jordan’s dick, Jordan tried to fight Brandon’s hand again but ended up pushing himself back more than doing anything to stop Brandon.

“I- I’m so sorry Brandon,” Jordan tried his best to cover the hard-on, “This is all so new to me, and seeing you so huge is kinda turning me on. We can stop if you want to, I don’t wanna do anything you’re not okay with.”

“Well I saw your hard dick earlier too bud, I kinda figured this was turning you on. Now that you’re tiny I can say that this is also really hot to me. I’m not gonna stop, no matter what you’re going down to two inches.” Brandon said with a hint of seriousness that hadn’t been there before.

Jordan was shocked. Brandon was speaking with such authority over him. He felt like a child, any sense of control was lost in that tone. A fear set in, he was at the mercy of this man. There was nothing he could do to stop his friend if he wanted to. Thankfully he didn’t want to.

Brandon shot the gun at Jordan one final time, then Jordan passed out.

——————

After what seemed like hours, Jordan woke up. He was outside, laying on a cloth surface of some sort. It was hot outside, around 80 degrees Fahrenheit, so still pretty bearable.

Jordan sat up and looked around. He was on a humungous beach towel that was flat on the ground. He looked up and saw Brandon laying back on a pool chair in just his swimsuit. He was sound asleep with his hands behind his head, feet on the ground touching the opposite end of the towel.

Jordan grew excited, it was time to climb his friend. The moment he’d been waiting for. He began to run to Brandon’s right foot, realizing the distance, he slowed to a better pace.

Jordan had never in his life imagined a foot this massive. Size 13 was big, but it had never seemed this big. Still, once Jordan reached the foot he realized he could at least climb onto the foot with relative ease. The smell was prominent, but Jordan didn’t think it smelled bad by any means.

He paused though, and decided to explore the foot a bit before venturing upwards. Starting with the pinky toe, Jordan compared his own body to it, roughy half his size. He was amazed at the size. Moving to each bigger toe, Jordan found the sizes so hot. Reaching the big toe, he laid down next to it for a moment. It was bigger than he was. He stood up and bent over onto the toe and spread his arms, feeling the massive toenail. He then went to the side of the foot, and positioned himself under Brandon’s arch, nuzzling into the soft skin a bit, and noticed that Brandon was a bit sweaty already, just from laying in the heat. Jordan didn’t want to leave, but he decided to keep going before the sweat got too much worse.

Jordan got up and walked back to the pinky toe to climb onto the foot, and crawled his way towards the leg hair. The hairs didn’t contain a lot of traction, so Jordan had to sort of wrap one around his hand and pull himself up little by little. Getting past the knee, Brandon’s thigh was much easier due to the less harsh angle. It was still tough, but not as difficult.

He then reached the next challenge of his journey, Brandon’s swim shorts. They were made of a waterproof material without a lot of traction for the tiny man to grab onto, so Jordan decided to crawl under the shorts. What was one more detour? The man was seemingly sound asleep, and seemed pretty comfortable with Jordan’s hard-on earlier, so why not stop by and see Brandon’s beast for a moment?

Jordan slipped under the shorts and made his way towards it in the darkness. Before that, there was a sort of net/mesh barrier he needed to get through. Managing to push it up and squeeze underneath, he was safe from falling because of the barrier. The overwhelming musky scent of Brandon’s cock began to hit, it put Jordan into a horny state of mind. Climbing over just a bit more, he bumped into the semi-hard anaconda. Pausing for a moment to reflect on what he was doing, he continued. Jordan began to nuzzle up against it, and attempted to reach his arms around, but was far too small to reach around the girth. Still he tried to squeeze. It began to grow a bit harder from the sensation he was giving it, that’s when Jordan backed off and decided to keep going.

Climbing upwards a bit more another issue arose, the elastic band around the swim shorts were skin tight to Brandon’s waste. He went in arms and head first and tried to army crawl under the obstacle. It took a few minutes but eventually he crawled up the other side, revealing a glorious landscape Jordan rarely got to see; Brandon’s beautifully toned and tanned abs.

He paused to catch his breath, and at the same time turned around. Jordan saw the whole apartment complex’s pool space. Given it was a nice weekend day in the middle of summer, there was actually quite a few people. Some families, a lifeguard, and even some pretty big guys, all enjoying the pool and the sun. Thankfully Brandon picked a spot away from most people which wasn’t by the edge of the pool. He was the only person in this corner. Seeing all the ginormous people going about their day, not realizing a tiny person was climbing the man tanning in the corner, was intriguing.

Jordan wondered to himself if Brandon was going to grow him back after this. The way Brandon seemed so eager to have power over him made him wonder if he should climb down now and try and find someone who would certainly help him get back. Then Jordan realized, these people might not see him, they could crush him and just think he was a bug. But even if he found someone who wanted to help, Jordan couldn’t grow back without the mass stored in Brandon’s machine, and without Brandon’s app. Brandon had all the power, even if Jordan was in someone else’s hands.

He turned back to the giant he was climbing and accepted his fate, feeling someone content. Brandon would certainly grow him back, he beat himself up mentally for considering that Brandon didn’t have his best interest in mind. After all, Jordan asked for this. Besides, Brandon’s abs were hot. Jordan climbed up a bit onto his friend’s belly and laid there for a moment. Spreading himself and feeling the muscles. He then got up and kept going.

Knowing his end goal was the top of Brandon’s head, Jordan realized he could never climb straight up Brandon’s neck, he’d have to climb onto his biceps and forearm to reach Brandon’s head. But now Jordan felt he needed to hurry, if Brandon woke up, Jordan would certainly fall flat onto the concrete below.

But Jordan couldn’t help himself when he reached Brandon’s pecs, again he laid down for a moment then spread himself out between them. His mind going back and forth, Jordan got up and kept going. Finally being able to stand when reaching the collar bone, Jordan moved pretty quickly towards the bicep. He laid against the muscle for a moment, feeling it with his arms spread yet again, and then his footing slipped.

Jordan fell what felt like almost ten feet, but was actually just down to Brandon’s rank armpits. Definitely no deodorant used today, not that Jordan was complaining. He had caught himself using the armpit hairs. And used the same strategy from before, and began to wrap his hands around the hairs to secure himself and climb up. He made his way up and this time didn’t fondle with Brandon’s ginormous arms this time, and instead kept climbing.

Using the last bit of his strength, Jordan finally reached the end. And laid on top of Brandon’s head in relief. Immediately, Brandon’s massive hand made a move to scoop Jordan. The hand enclosed around him and Jordan could barely move. He struggled for a bit but gave up upon realizing Brandon was up and walking, likely back to the apartment.

——————

Brandon opened his hand and placed Jordan on the desk in his room. Jordan collected his composure to the best of his ability and stood up and watched Brandon.

Brandon walked around the room a bit, picked up an old pair of socks off the floor and placed them in the laundry. He then took off his swimsuit, this time turned around revealing his muscles butt to Jordan. He threw the swimsuit into the laundry then turned and went to stand at the end of the desk. Jordan while on the desk was eye level with the head of Brandon’s dangling cock. His dick now appeared much more massive when it was freed from its mesh cage.

Jordan stared at the dick in front of his face for a moment, then began to lean his head back to look up at Brandon. Brandon was looking down at him with a pondering look in his eyes.

“Just so you know, I was awake the whole time.” Brandon stated.

“So you almost let me fall off your bicep??” Jordan seemed shocked. Why wouldn’t Brandon save his friend?

Brandon replied, “You caught yourself, I almost flinched, but I’ve seen your reflexes before and knew you could handle it. But regardless, do you remember the other parts of the journey?”

“The uh- oh, um..”

“It seems you rather enjoyed my feet, my abs, my pecs, my biceps, and not to mention my eight inch cock. I’m glad you took a fascination to me.”

“Wait, why are we in your room? Are you going to grow me back?”

“Not today. We said the weekend, remember? I want to play with you since you got to play with me.”

“Brandon, I-“ Jordan was shocked. He was reminded of his powerlessness from Brandon’s tone of voice. He had never seen this side of Brandon before today, and felt completely helpless to do anything besides comply. His dick got hard again.

“Jordan you are enjoying this more than I am, let me have some fun, okay?” Brandon left the room for a moment and returned with the gun, “To be honest, I wish I could make you smaller than an inch, but it’ll have to do.” The light flashed and Jordan felt himself dwindle down even tinier.

Brandon picked up Jordan with a hand that now felt twice the size. Brandon sat down on the carpet of the room and opened his hand and smiled.

“You are so cute, I’m so glad we did this.” Brandon said with a bit of a smile.

Jordan felt uneasy and turned on at the same time. He didn’t want to be like this tiny all weekend, but that thought started to fade when Brandon set him down. He tried to figure out where for a moment, but then realized he was laying between Brandon’s feet that were placed together. Brandon winked at Jordan then closed his feet softly.

Jordan could opened his mouth a bit and could taste the sweat from the gargantuan feet. Brandon slowly rubbed his feet back and forth a little bit, which caused such a pleasurable sensation for Jordan that he began to moan. Brandon heard the moans and stopped, picking out Jordan from his feet and bringing him over to his armpit.

“You know, I probably could have saved you now that I think about it, my armpit is pretty soft and could have protected you pretty well. Hope you enjoy bud.” Brandon said with a smirk.

Jordan was placed in Brandon’s pit once again, this time when Jordan grabbed the hair from the pit, Brandon closed his arm shut. The smell was ten times more potent, and the feeling of being enclosed under such a monstrous bicep was magnificent. The heat, sweat, and pressure only added to the experience. He had never felt more comfort, safety, vulnerability, and helplessness all at once. It was wonderful.

Jordan expected this to only last a minute or so, but instead it went on for ten or fifteen as Brandon walked around with Jordan before he could finally breathe normally again. He was plucked out of the pit, now smelling like it from the sweat, and held in front of Brandon again.

“I hope you enjoyed, I think I felt you ejaculate almost as soon as I closed my arm, but you’re still hard. Guess you wanna keep going.”

Brandon then brought his hand with Jordan in it down to the his dick. Without hesitation, Brandon grabbed his cock with the hand he was holding Jordan in, and began to masturbate. The cock was fully erect already, and Brandon slowly moved his hand up and down with Jordan being used as a sex toy.

Brandon then stopped for a moment to set Jordan down onto the desk once more, before continuing to masturbate at an increased speed and harder grip. Jordan sat watching the event transpire, only realizing a second before the climax what was about to happen as Brandon came all over Jordan’s helpless body, knocking him down. Brandon moaned as he released the cum.

He grabbed Jordan and brought him up to his mouth where he licked off the cum from Jordan’s back, then his front. The mouth and tongue were so huge to Jordan, and he could hardly process what was happened as he was receiving a sensory overload. When the second lick happened, Jordan came again.

Jordan was set on the desk once more as Brandon sat down in his chair and looked at Jordan. Brandon was smiling and had a look of glee in his eyes, “That was amazing, thank you for coming up with the idea for this weekend. I’m so glad I have you.”

#shrinking #macrophilia #feet #armpits

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therealdisneyfan2319 · 1 year ago

Text

Summer | Wanda Maximoff

A Stripper MILF Wanda Cinematic Universe Story

Summary: Summer in Westview is quite the adventure :)

Pairing: Wanda Maximoff x Male Reader

Warnings: Mild language, innuendo

Word Count: 2.7K

Masterlist

The week you took vacation from work was the hottest week on record for the small suburban town of Westview, New Jersey. There were a million things on your to do list, but the sweltering heat and stifling humidity sapped all of your energy. The shed needed to be painted, the driveway needed resealing, and you promised Wanda that you’d finally go through the boxes of “stuff” that were sitting in the basement. Yet all you wanted to do was sit on the back porch with a beer, work on your tan, and stare out over the sparkling ripples of water in the pool that you didn’t have…until today.

It was meant to be a surprise for Billy and Tommy, but you and Wanda both had to admit that you were excited, too. Talk of a pool started as a joke. The idea of actually going through with it seemed absurd at first: the yard wasn’t all too big, taking care of a pool was a lot of work, it wasn’t exactly cheap to have it installed in the first place…your shared list of excuses stretched on and on. Yet the more the two of you joked about it, the more you found yourselves falling in love with the idea of your own personal oasis.

Keeping the pool a secret wasn’t as hard as you thought it would be. Although Billy and Tommy often made passing remarks about wanting a pool as the temperature rose, Wanda kept them in check with a smart remark about money not growing on trees or an eye roll. More often than not they dropped the subject. But it was frequently followed by a subtle smirk or knowing glance in your direction: the boys had no idea what was coming.

On this hot and hazy Thursday morning, after Billy and Tommy were picked up by the school bus on their way to summer day camp, the local pool installation company pulled into the driveway. Since you were getting an above ground pool, it would be finished before the boys got home from camp.

“So who’s gonna get in the water first?” you asked Wanda as you sat in your Adirondack chairs on the back porch. “Billy or Tommy?”

“Tommy. Definitely. I’m not even sure he’ll change out of his clothes before he jumps in,” Wanda chuckled. She swirled her straw around the glass of freshly squeezed iced tea, the ice cubes clanking around the glass as she looked out at the two workers setting up the walls of the pool.

“And you’re sure we can’t get in as soon as they’re done filling it up? That we have to wait for the boys to get home?”

“Y/N-”

“Only kidding, my love,” you retorted. Truthfully you weren’t kidding. The donut floaty wasn’t for them…

******

“Still can’t believe we actually did this,” you thought aloud, skimming your hand across the surface of the water. The sun bounced its crisp surface as the blue liner sparkled brightly underneath the ripples. You smiled as your fingers broke the surface.

“The boys are going to love it,” Wanda replied as she splashed the water around.

“Yeah, sure, they’ll love it, but think of all the fun we’ll have with it.”

“Oh?”

“Two words: skinny dipping.”

“Y/N!” Wanda blushed bright red at your devilish thought, but you knew that she was just as excited about the prospect of a late night nude swim as you were. You ducked out of the way when she splashed water in your direction. “We have neighbors!”

“And-?”

“I don’t think Agnes would appreciate seeing either of us naked.”

“We don’t know that,” you answered with a knowing grin.

“Keep it up and you’ll be the one going in the pool with your clothes on,” she warned. Suddenly Wanda reached for her pocket, her soft marimba text tone echoing softly against the soft hum of the pool pump. “Shit,” she muttered.

“What?”

“Kate called out, they’re one girl short for the 3-11 shift,” Wanda sighed.

“Do you want to go in?” you asked.

“Not really, but it looks like I’ll have to.” Wanda placed her phone in her back pocket, rubbing her temples as she stared into the pool.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. I can watch the boys tonight. It’ll be some good bonding time for us.”

“No, I know you can watch them, I just wanted to be home for this tonight.”

“I mean I don’t know about them but I think I can find a way to make it up to you later,” you teased with a wink. Wanda merely shook her head and smiled as she headed back inside.

“Sex isn’t always the answer to everything, Y/N,” she replied over her shoulder.

“Who said I was talking about sex?!”

******

“STOP RIGHT THERE!” You extended both arms in front of you as Billy and Tommy jumped off the school bus and ran up the front porch.

“He did it!” Tommy yelled, pointing an accusing finger at his twin.

“What did I do?” Billy exclaimed. “Whatever it is, he did it!” The accusation sent the two into a back and forth of hearsay until you managed to intervene before push came to shove.

“Woah! Take it easy, dudes. No one’s in trouble. Your mom got called into work so it’s just us tonight. Which is cool. We were just gonna grill up some burgers for dinner later, but there is a surprise for you in the backyard.”

“Dirt bikes?!” Tommy asked giddily.

“A trampoline?!” Billy asked, his eyes wide with excitement.

“Why don’t you go out back and check it out for yourself?” You grinned at them as you lowered your arms, allowing them to push each other out of the way as they trampled up the steps of the front porch. “Don’t kill each other before you get there!”

Before long shouts and cries of awe and excitement echoed from the backyard. There was no doubt that they were overjoyed at the sight of the brand new pool. It didn’t take that much longer for them to rid themselves of their backpacks and t-shirts and scramble into the crisp, cool water. You laughed to yourself, extremely grateful that you yourself didn’t have to wait any longer to indulge. Throwing on your swim trunks, which you pre-set in the downstairs bathroom, you practically dove in on top of the boys.

The three of you spent the next few hours splashing about in the cool water. Billy was the first one to find your donut floaty, much to your chagrin. You instantly felt you had to reclaim your rightful place on said floaty so naturally you flipped him off and climbed inside. That started an intense game of king of the hill. Tommy convinced Billy to team up against you. They attempted to sneak around you and swim up from underneath the floaty in an effort to flip you over. They failed. Multiple times. Eventually you ended up dunking both of them, flipping them off the floaty after they thought they had you beat.

Once you were thoroughly waterlogged, you grabbed your towel to dry off. The boys begged to stay in just a little bit longer. You relented only on the condition that nobody mention it to Wanda. That was the mantra of the evening: don’t tell Wanda. Don’t tell Wanda you flipped both boys underwater, don’t tell Wanda you let them stay in the pool for as long as they did, and definitely don’t tell Wanda how you accidentally set Agnes’ tree on fire.

******

“Y/N, are you sure you were a Boy Scout?” Tommy asked as you failed to spark the bonfire for the dozenth time.

“I don’t think he was a real Boy Scout ‘cause we’d definitely have a huge fire by now,” Billy whispered rather loudly to Tommy.

“Either one of you think you could do a better job?” You twisted around, lighter alternating between their reluctant faces. The stunned silence gave you their answer. “That’s what I thought,” you responded as you turned back to the firepit. Standing there, hands on your hips, you harrumphed at the pitiful pile of sticks in front of you. Normally it was no trouble starting a fire. You’d done it plenty of times before. Something just wasn’t working.

“Now what?” Billy asked, his head cocked at an angle as he watched you staring at the pit.

Sighing, you rubbed your temples as you weighed your options. There was no way you were going to let the night end without some sort of pyrotechnic display. That and you really wanted a s’more. So there was only one real option left: a little bit of help.

“Hey Tommy, can you go grab the can of gas from the garage? And Billy, can you go grab the newspaper from the counter?”

“Seriously? Mom’s gonna kill you,” Billy told you.

“And that’s why we’re not going to tell her about this, okay?” Billy, always his mother’s son, rolled his eyes before heading to the kitchen. Tommy, on the other hand, sprinted toward the garage. Once the boys returned, you doused the kindling with the accelerant and wadded up the newspaper, stuffing it in every nook and cranny. “Alright, now stand back. I don’t want you two too close in case this thing goes poof.” Grabbing the box of matches, you struck three against the side of the box and tossed them onto the pile.

The resulting explosion was impressive to say the least. The shockwave from the ignition caused you to stumble backwards as a fireball shot high into the sky. Billy and Tommy both cheered as the fire came into existence, but they weren’t the only ones yelling.

“MY TREE’S ON FIRE!” Agnes yelled out the window. “YOU SET MY TREE ON FIRE! WHY IS MY TREE ON FIRE?!”

“Shit!” you muttered as you raced for the hose. You apologized profusely as you sprayed the water over Agnes’ tree and the fire itself, extinguishing everything until it was a smoldering mess. The boys muttered to themselves the entire time, watching wide eyed as you scrambled to put out the fire and Agnes leaned out her bedroom window in her nightgown to yell at you about trying to kill her.

“Does this fall under the ‘don’t tell mom’ category?” Billy asked not-so-innocently.

“Breathe a word of this to your mother and I drain the pool.”

******

Wanda returned from her shift around 11:30. The boys were already asleep and you were on the couch with another beer trying to figure out how to keep Wanda from learning about your near-disaster with the bonfire. It felt like the future of your relationship rested on how well Billy and Tommy could keep their mouths shut.

“Hey,” Wanda called softly as you heard her bag thud to the floor. “How’d it go with the boys?”

“Oh you know,” you replied. “They kept trying to drown each other in the pool and then when I got in they tried to drown me.”

“And everyone tells me boys are easier than girls,” Wanda sighed. “Or at least that’s what Agnes tells me. She tells me a lot of things, you know.”

“Oh?” Shit. She knew. “Like what?”

“Like how you practically blew up the neighborhood a few hours ago.” Wanda stood in front of you, her arms crossed as she glared down at you.

“Okay she’s exaggerating. It wasn’t the whole neighborhood, it was just the backyard.” That wasn’t making things any better. Wanda continued glaring at you. You couldn’t tell whether she was going to murder you in your sleep or do it right there.

“It’s a good thing I love you, mister, or you’d be sleeping on the couch for a month,” she scolded as she shook her head. You gulped as a wave of relief flooded over your body. “Now how’s the water?”

“What?”

“The water. In the pool. How is it?”

“Uhh fine, good. Refreshing? Wanda-”

“Come on,” she said, extending her hand. “Let’s go for a swim.”

“Now?! Wanda, it’s almost midnight!”

“And?” she replied as she pulled her t-shirt off.

“You brought your swimsuit to work?” you asked, casually pointing at her burnt orange bikini top. “You brought a bikini to work?” You were practically drooling as Wanda undid the buttons on her jean shorts, sliding them down her legs and kicking them in your direction. All she did was smirk. “Goddamn, woman.”

“Go get yours on and meet me outside.” She turned on her heel and walked toward the backyard, her bikini bottoms leaving nothing to the imagination.

You raced upstairs for your swim trunks, the other pair you knew Wanda would love. There was no way you’d wear these ones around the boys for obvious reasons, but around your lover? Without a second thought. The bright red, three inch, leave nothing to the imagination shorts were packed deep in the depths of your underwear drawer. You pulled them out, quickly exchanging your gym shorts for the trunks before dashing back downstairs.

Wanda was already in the pool by the time you got outside. In the pale moonlight, your girlfriend was ethereal. The light reflected off her pale skin, dancing on the soft ripples of water. She was sitting in your donut floaty. Her head rested on the plastic frosting and her eyes were closed in a state of relaxation. Her feet kicked lazily in the cool water, beads of water rolling down her legs as she let the stress of her unexpected shift melt off her. She looked absolutely at peace.

Yeah, we’re gonna fix that, you thought as you walked over to the pool. Taking great care, you climbed the ladder as quietly as you could and entered the water with the utmost stillness you could muster. You shivered as the water creeped up your legs and over your waist as you crouched down. The pool wasn’t too big so you didn’t have far to swim. As soon as you were underneath Wanda, you pushed against the bottom of the pool and upward, completely tossing her off the floaty and into the water.

Wanda screeched as she felt herself fly off the floaty and into the water. She kicked and sputtered as she came up for air. You, on the other hand, were doubled over in laughter.

“What the HELL, Y/N?!” Wanda shouted as you continued laughing.

“Sorry, sorry,” you apologized between laughs. Wanda looked absolutely furious as she cocked her head at you, pushing a wet strand of hair out of her face.

“Fine. If that’s how you want it.” With that, Wanda began wading over toward you with a devilish look in her eyes.

“Wanda, what are-?” Before you could finish your thought, your girlfriend wrapped you in her strong arms and practically body slammed you underwater. The waves crashed over you again and again before settling. “Not fair!” you sputtered, coughing up the water you were currently choking on.

“You started it!” Wanda reminded you.

“You’re insufferable.”

“And your dick looks huge in those trunks,” she smirked, glancing down at the shorts that had practically molded themselves to your body.

“Didn’t think I needed the trunks for that statement to be true, Wands,” you replied cheekily.

“Oh you don’t. I’m just admiring the presentation, that’s all.” Wanda waded toward you as she continued to eye your bulge. “And you’ve even got it wrapped up in a nice bow. How thoughtful.”

“Here? Right now?” Your heart caught in your throat as she slipped her fingers inside the waistband of your shorts.

“Weren’t you the one who suggested we go skinny dipping earlier?”

“Come on babe, I was just joking.”

“I know,” Wanda chuckled as she tugged your waistband toward her. “I’m just teasing. But I think you could stand to loosen up a little.”

“I…you’re not wrong there.” You shook your head as you laughed at her.

“The boys asleep?” she asked, glancing up toward their room. You nodded, noticing the lack of light coming from the room. “Basement?”

“Works for me,” you shrugged. You yelped as Wanda snapped your waistband back against you.

“Come on, tiger. I don’t wanna wait much longer.”

#wanda maximoff #scarlet witch #wanda maximoff fic #scarlet witch fic #wanda maximoff x male reader #wanda x male reader #wanda x reader #wanda maximoff x y/n #scarlet witch x male reader #scarlet witch x reader #scarlet witch x y/n #self reader insert #male reader #male reader insert #marvel #mcu #marvel fanfiction #therealdisneyfan2319

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lemonmaid · 7 months ago

Text

Bake Sale

Due to Girl Scout season, (and me buying boxes) I just got an idea, so here yall go! (03. 16. 2023)

'So... hot'

(Name) could only think about how HOT Ramshackle was right now. Thanks to that useless crow of a man, Ramshackle was the only dorm without an AC unit or any type of fan. It's the middle of summer vacation and there is no airflow through the dorm.

"(Name) pleassseee do something about this heat, I think Grim is about to die".

"Wow, I bet you regret skipping Crewl's classes now" chuckled Deuce.

"We are both in summer school, shut up Deuce".

All the mirrors going into the dorms were locked up tight for the summer, leaving all the students who needed to catch up stay in Ramshackle, which was not alot of students.

"Listen guys, if I had the money I would totally buy a unit but I have no money or a job right now".

"UGH" Ace yelled, "why can we just go to the beach or sneak into Savanaclaw's pool!". Ace marched towards the windows and began opening all the ones in the living room.

"Because what teacher will gives us a pass to go relax when you three are supposed to being doing your homework and classwork you missed!". (Name) was getting overwhelmed, they knew they should've taken Leona's or Malleus's offer on staying with either of them during summer break.

"(Nammmmmmeeeeee)" Grim cried, "please do something about this heat", Grim fell to the floor.

"Fine, let me figure something out".

"Yay!!" The three cried.

(Name) walked out the campus kitchen, carrying two buckets of ice with them back to Ramshackle.

'Shit'

The ice was already melting.

'How the hell are we going to live in a magical world and not have any ice magic or spells?'.

As they made their way inside the Dorm they started opening windows, turning on the fans to on the highest settings, on cheap fan on its back with the bucket of ice holding its weight.

'Finally'. (Name) took in the cold breeze that filled the room. Grim came running down the hall putting his fatass in front of the semi broken fan. "Ahhhhhhh finally! Took you way to long henchman".

(Name) rolled their eyes, "Now that's done, I think I'm going to get a sweet treat." The word 'treat' summoned all three braincells.

"What are you gettin".

"Can I have soommme?".

"Can I help?".

'Jesus Christ' (Name) sighed, "I was feeling nostalgic and wanted to bake...."

Ace and Grimm groaned, throwing themselves back onto the "cold" ground.

Deuce looked confused, "I'm sorry perfect, why are you going to bake when it's-"

"Fucking thousands degrees out-" Ace interrupted.

Deuce glared.

"You guys don't have to help with anything, I was kinda of planning on doing this for myself...". (Name) walked away towards the kitchen.

"Nonono, I'll help you perfect!!" Deuce ran after (Name).

(Name) opened the cupboard, 'thin mints orrrrrrrrrr, hmm, wait samoas?'.

(Name) looked over at Deuce, "Deuce, one or two?".

"Um one?"

"Thin mints it is".

♡

Aced let out a moan.

"Damn buddy that's like your 10th one...".

Ace had tears in his eyes,"it's.. so... good".

(Name) gave the three a look; hunched over the counter, all groaning in happiness.

"Are these from your world perfect?".

(Name) nodded, "Yeah, there's actually-".

"Don't care make more!".

"Hench man please!"

(Name) looked at Ace and Grimm in shocked, "you know a simple please would do... also Grimm can you even have chocolate?".

Ace rolled his eyes, "the little shit ate rocks for the past year-". His comment made Duece hit him on the back of the head.

"Anyways, Perfect, do you think we can take some to lunch tomorrow?".

"Sure, I'll probably be baking all tomorrow... nothing else to do".

☆

"Oi oi crabby~ whatcha got there?".

Instinctively Ace put the brown lunch bag towards his chest, "none of your-"

"HEYYY!!". Grimm screeched

"Sh sh baby seal, let me just borrow your bag."

Grimm beated his paws on Floyd's stomach, "No! You can't have that! (Name) made those specially for me!!" He whined.

"Oh~ Shrimy made these?". Floyd popped a cookie in his mouth.

The world stopped for a minute, Floyd giving the three a lead stare. "Uh, you good bro?". Ace went to put his hand on Floyd's shoulder only to be bitten by said eel.

"FUCK HE BIT MY SHIT".

Floyd stole the bag of cookies and made a dash for the door.

"MY TREATS!!" Grimm wailed.

♤

(Name) hummed as they baked their third round of cookies, the last batch being Samoas now they were working on peanut butter. 'I guess always baking with Trey was worth the lessons-'

Que their front door being broken in with two distressed students.

"PERFECT HELP I NEED STERILIZATION STAT-"

"HENCHMAN! I NEED NEW COOKIES! THAT DISGUSTING EEL STOLE MY COOKIES!".

'There goes my peaceful afternoon'.

(Name) grabbed the first aid kit to help Ace, letting the two whine and nag about their day.

Grim plopped himself on (Name)'s lap, "So.... can you give us more cookies?".

"Sure, just don't let anyone take them this time."

♡

The next day at lunch was... eventful...

"ILL TAKE A BAG FOR $10!".

"NO! $50!".

"MAKE IT $90!".

It was like watching a pack of hyenas swarm a prey, three pairs of eyes watched from a distance.

"So... it's just cookies?". Azul observed the growing hysteria with a careful eye.

Jade snickered, "I think it's more than cookies sir~"

Azul grabbed a cookie from Floyd's bag, observing before taking a nibble.

Jade laughed, "so? What's the verdict-".

"Schedule a meeting with the perfect."

☆

"FLOYD PUT ME DOWN!!". (Name) was hunched over Floyd's shoulder.

Azul took a deep breath, "Floyd put the perfect down-".

CRASH

Azul felt a migraine forming, rubbing his temples. "So... perfect". Azul forced a smile.

"I'm not making a dea-".

"Listen! What about a business partnership? With your cookies-".

"No."

"There will be money, 50/50".

"I already-"

"And! I'll ask threaten the headmaster to give your.... Ramshackle upgrades".

♧

'It's so much hotter than the inside of Ramshackle'. (Name) was miserable, sitting at a stand in Port Town trying to sell cookies, THEIR cookies. Luckily, that ocean breeze was... somewhat frequent.

"Hggnnngg Henchman I'm bored.... let's dip".

(Name) rolled their eyes, "You got us into this mess...".

"Ha! How was I supposed to know Azul was also in summer school!". Grim threw himself under the table.

"How's business perfect?~".

"Shrimpy~!".

(Name) gave Jade a glare, "I'm miserable - it's too hot for this shit."

Floyd blew a raspberry, "Well! We have something to cheer you up-"

"A gun?"

Grim came up from the table, "AH! It's me!".

(Name) looked at the two confused, "a cardboard cut out of Grim?".

The cutout was... interesting, depicting Grim in a hat and... boots.

'Is there a puss and-'

Jade smiled softly, "Azul said it could help drive in business having a mascot~".

4/13/2024 I kinda gave up towards the end... this has been sitting in drafts for a year.... I cant figure out how to end this but Perfect gets a pool in Ramshackle in my head so :)

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twst crack

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chrollo-lucilfers-chains · 1 year ago

Text

Chrollo Lucilfer x gn!reader

Tanning shenanigans

Warnings: none

Notes: I'm on vacay, what did you expect :)

He'd never expected this. In all his time since he'd been a boy, a teenager and then the leader of the phantom troupe, he'd never expected to feel this at peace.

He isn't even sure if he deserves feeling peaceful right now but your soothing weight in his arms is keeping the bad thoughts at bay.

He's slowly walking around the pool, carrying you bridal style so you can relax halfway in the water and tan a little.

On your face are the cheap (but very cute) two-dollar strawberry sunglasses he got you from a street vendor yesterday, when the two of you had gone exploring the little mediterranean town you were in.

How he has arrived here, he's still not completely sure.

He'd been relaxing at your place one evening and then you'd said something about 'summer vacation'. He hadn't had anything to do so he'd agreed out of curiosity and now he's carrying your swimwear-clad form through a turquoise pool while you nap halfway in the water.

Tanning is serious business, you'd told him, so he changes directions and shifts your position every so often, making sure every inch of your skin gets the same amount of sun.

He's sure if he thinks about it too much, he'll start to feel guilty again at not working for the spider every second. But he reasons that if he moves, he might disrupt your tanning session slash nap and that just won't do.

Chrollo leans down to kiss your nose and you smile. Then you squawk because by bending down he'd dropped you a little lower and now your upper body and neck are plunged into the water.

"Chrollo!" you gasp out his name, as the cold water meets your warm skin. He gets an idea.

Maybe he'd hung out with a certain clown too much...

With an apologetic kiss to your forehead and a mischievous chuckle he pulls you closer again, giving you the short illusion of safety. You smile and close your eyes again.

He almost feels bad for you as he lifts you up and waits for you to dry off before dropping his arms entirely.

With a yelp and a splash you drop into the pool.

Immediately after, he ducks down and retrieves your wet form out of the water.

"You!" You exclaim accusatory, as he bursts into laughter at your indignant expression.

Through his laughter, he dodges your own revenge attempts of trying to duck his head into the water as well. But you just can't get your hunk of a man to fall over.

He cheerfully retrieves your sunglasses from the floor of the pool for you, while you sit at the edge, pouting at your lack of success.

He swims over to you and pulls you back in, not letting you drop this time. Apologies are placed onto your skin in the form of hushed whispers and kisses to your ear, neck and all over your face.

You chuckle at him and let him have his little victory.

Later, while you're sitting on his lap in the shallow end, you jokingly make him promise not to do it again. He won't. He'd never break your trust in his promises like that, even when you're half joking.

He still thinks your expression was very cute though, as he leans against the pool edge, cuddling you with a content expression.

#hunter x hunter #chrollo lucilfer #mine #chrollo #my writing #gender neutral reader #gn reader #chrollo x reader #hunter x hunter x reader #chrollo lucifer x reader #writing #kuroro lucilfer

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bestiesenpai · 2 years ago

Text

Youtuber Itadori

Gardener Itadori is the cutest thing ever and I tried to make him as cute as possible here lol. Femme reader 9.6k words

Hands in the soil, dirt beneath his nails and a bountiful harvest in his little wicker basket - that’s what Itadori’s life had become, and he wasn’t mad about it. After inheriting a home and land in the countryside from his grandfather, Itadori scoffed at the idea of living in the slow countryside, but burdened with morality, he went and discovered that it was actually the best thing for him.

Quickly getting to work, he collected rain water, installed solar panels, had a massively flourishing garden that he rotated with seasonal plants all year round and cultivated a nice relationship with the local farmers. Everyone traded their wares, holding markets in the town center that people from all over would come and visit.

Itadori haphazardly stumbled into making YouTube videos one day when he decided to post a video of the apples he’d just picked to show his friends. It wasn’t a long video, ten minutes max, but for some reason the algorithm had decided to bless him and put his video in front of a million people.

The comments made him smile, they were all so supportive of his hard work. A few made him blush, calling him impossibly cute among a few other embarrassing things. And that was how his channel was born. Ordering a few cheap supplies off Amazon, Itadori filmed whatever he thought was interesting: his spring harvest, deadheading flowers, the farmers market and the handmade soap he got one day.

He had imagined his life to be filled with the busy atmosphere of the city, but the relaxed pace of the countryside brought his mind at ease. All he needed to do here was make enough to pay for utilities and keep himself fed. Sure he missed his friends, but they were always a phone call or a train ride away and he had managed to make more friends during his time here.

Walking the rows of his garden, Itadori filmed the plants along the way, narrating what he was planning to do with the upcoming summer season and what fruits and vegetables he was excited to grow. Quickly posting the video to TikTok, he tucked his phone away and forgot about it; becoming entranced with small insects and birds that visited often got him distracted.

“Yuji!” Someone shouted, drawing Itadori’s focus away from the caterpillar he was feeding a berry to. Dusting off his pants, Itadori came to a stand and looked around to find the voice.

“Hey!” He waved back upon landing eyes on Daichi, the retired farmer standing at the edge of his field. Bounding towards him, Itadori could see the gray streaks of hair permeating the otherwise dark strands on the man's head. “What’s up, gramps?”

“There’s someone I want you to meet.” Flicking his chin, Daichi began to walk towards his home and Itadori followed dutifully. It wasn’t a far walk, hardly five minutes and they were at the front door.

“(Y/N)! C’mere!” Daichi beckoned and the sound of rushed footsteps gave way to a side door opening in the hallway and a flustered individual staring back.

“I told you I’m in a meeting!” You hissed, eyes flicking to Itadori but not paying him any mind. “Give me a minute, please?” Not waiting for a response, you hurriedly closed the door and went back to work.

“Who’s that?” Following Daichi to the living room, Itadori accepted the lemonade that was offered to him by Daichi’s wife.

“That’s the grandkid.” Daichi huffed, taking a sip from his own glass. “She’s here for the summer to spend some time with us.”

“Hmm.” Nodding along, Itadori’s eyes wandered to the hallway, where if he strained he could hear your voice.

“There ya are!” Throwing up a hand, Daichi grunted. “I thought you said you were on vacation, what’s with the work?”

“Not yet. I told you I have some things to finish up for the end of the week and then I’m free.” Rolling your eyes, you entered the fray. Itadori tried not to giggle at the button up you’d thrown on over an old shirt for your meeting. You quickly took it off, laying it over the back of the couch before sitting down next to your grandfather.

“Whatever.” Waving off your attitude, Daichi gestured to Itadori. “We have a guest, say hi.”

“Hey, I’m (Y/N).” Giving him a brief wave, you settled into the cushions.

“I’m Itadori, I live in the house next door.”

“Got it from his grandpa! You remember old man Wasuke, right?”

“Kinda…” Wasuke hadn’t lived in the area for long, and what you remembered of him was that he gave you money for some candy at a festival once.

“Wasuke wasn’t much of a farmer but Yuji here? Why, he’s got a great green thumb!” Laughing to himself, Daichi pushed up off the couch. “Stay here and chat, I’m going to see what grandma is making for lunch.”

As Daichi shuffled away, Itadori took the opportunity to observe you a bit more. You were typing furiously on your phone, mumbling that you’d be done in just a few seconds. He couldn’t deny he thought you were cute, hoping that this coming summer you would have a chance to hang out - just the two of you.

“What kind of things do you grow?” Finally tossing your phone away, you looked up at Itadori, seemingly not noticing that he’d already been staring at you.

“I-I grow a lot of things!” Clearing his throat, he tried to hide his surprised blush with his cup. “Right now I’m transitioning to summer crops and I really hope to grow some amazing strawberries this year and make some jam.”

“That sounds cool, you’ll have to let me come by and see the garden.”

“(Y/N) can’t even grow a houseplant!” Daichi shouted from the kitchen, causing you to jump up in defense.

“Grandpa be quiet!” Now it was your turn to blush, heat crawling over your entire body. You could hardly look at Itadori when you sat down, slapping your hands over your face as Daichi laughed. “God, he’s so embarrassing.” While what he said was true, why did he have to say it in front of the cute boy you’d be seeing the whole summer?

“It’s okay!” Itadori chuckled a little, enamored by your bashfulness. “I think you can grow something if you really put your mind to it.”

“Thanks.” Collapsing onto the couch, you stared at the ceiling. “But honestly, I’d probably need divine intervention to keep a plant alive longer than three weeks.”

“I’ll make sure whatever you plant stays alive the whole summer.” Whatever Itadori had to do, he was ready.

“Promise?” Turning to look at him, you stuck your hand out, pinky outstretched to him.

“Promise.” Quickly locking his pinky with yours, Itadori shook your hand. He’d have to remember to grab your number before he left, now that he had an excuse to start talking to you.

Talking a bit more, it wasn’t long till lunch was ready and Itadori was sitting at the dining table with a sandwich in front of him. He’d eaten in the house before, but it was different now that you were here.

“Did’ya know Yuji makes videos about plants?” Daichi asked, looking at you curiously. “Puts ‘em on YouTube and stuff.”

“Really? What’s the name of your channel, I’ll check it out!”

“(Y/N) works for a big PR agency in the city, maybe she can help promote you.” Daichi said with a proud smile on his face.

“Grandpa, I work with musicians.”

“You never know, maybe Yuji is into music!”

“Not really.” Itadori laughed, shaking his head. “I go to karaoke sometimes but that’s about it.”

Chatting away into the day, eventually you had to return to your laptop and finish out a few more things for the workday. Itadori had scored not only your number, but you were now mutuals on a bunch of social media sites. When you balked at his TikTok and YouTube following, it made Itadori’s chest swell a bit.

He didn’t see you for a few days after, with you being busy on your laptop and him being busy in the garden, there was no time to meet. But you did text him occasionally, sending pictures of plants you were hoping to grow and if there was something funny to show on Twitter.

When Saturday came, you sent Itadori a text in the morning asking if you could come over to see the garden. He instantly replied, dropping everything he was doing and running around the house to prepare for your visit.

Making a lunch, drinks, cleaning dishes that were already clean and making sure the greenhouse out back was spotless - he’d done everything a million times over and it still didn’t feel like he was ready enough when you rang the doorbell.

“C-coming!” Nearly tripping over an area rug, Itadori ran to the door. Opening it in a hurry, you gasped at the sudden motion and Itadori gasped upon seeing you. In a pale yellow sundress and a wicker hat no doubt made by your grandma, you were exactly what Itadori imagined the cutest gardener ever to look like.

“Hi!” You smiled, waving a hand at him. The faint smell of sunscreen drifted towards him and Itadori stepped aside to let you in.

“Hi.” He replied dumbly, closing the door after you. He suddenly felt self conscious of the decor of his home; it wasn’t modern in any sense, all of the furniture belonging to his grandpa before he passed.

“I remember this!” Stopping in the hallway, you pointed at a painting of a field of tulips.

“You do?” Itadori had passed by the artwork many times and didn’t think it had any special meaning.

“Yeah! Our grandpas painted together when I was young, I remember finger painting some of the tulips on here.” The tips of your fingers brushed the canvas as the memory came back to you of sitting on Daichi’s lap and insisting on helping.

“That’s really cute.” Itadori cooed, wishing he could have been there as well. Shuffling towards the backdoor, Itadori beckoned you to follow. “I have something to show you.”

Following him diligently, your jaw dropped at the garden before you. There were rows of large spring crops ready to be harvested, several flower bushes being visited by bees, and a few garden beds filled with rich dark soil and seedlings taking root. You couldn’t help but stop and smell some of the flowers as you walked through the garden, smiling at the ladybugs and caterpillars that called the leaves home.

“This is amazing.” Coming upon a large archway in the path, it was fully enclosed in climbing roses, some beginning to flower and show delicate pink blossoms.

“These are cecile brunner roses.” Coming up to one, Itadori plucked a flower and held out the stem for you, which you happily took. “At first I didn’t think it would ever grow, but luckily it took to the soil.” There were countless days spent doing research on the best soil, watering techniques and fertilizer to get the roses to not only grow and climb around the archway but to also survive the winter.

“Grandpa wasn’t kidding when he said you’re a great gardener.” Coming to the edge of the garden, you saw an empty little plot of dirt waiting patiently to be used. “How cute.” Crouching down, you giggled at the sign made with popsicle sticks and cardboard that read ‘(Y/N)’s garden’.

“Made it this morning.” Rubbing the back of his neck bashfully, Itadori motioned to the greenhouse off to the side of the garden. “I have a bunch of seeds in the greenhouse ready for you to choose from. A bunch of flowers and stuff.” Was it wrong to assume you would like to grow flowers? He didn’t want to stereotype you or make you feel bad-

“I’d love to grow some flowers!” Cutting off his inner monologue, you started toward the little structure. “I can give them to my grandma!” Itadori watched you walk away for a few paces before following you, his long stride catching up with you in no time.

Inside the greenhouse, with its frosted windows and higher humidity, it felt like the two of you were in a completely separate world. Itadori had set up the building shortly after moving in, assembling and filling it with gardening supplies and saplings in record time. He’d laid out all the summer seeds he had for you on his work table, unsure of what you’d like.

“I definitely want to grow these.” Holding up a packet of sunflower seeds, you handed them to Itadori, who settled close to your side. “Definitely a watermelon too!” As you picked seeds, Itadori followed along, making a mental checklist of what soil and fertilizer would be needed.

“Hey (Y/N)...” Walking back to your little plot, Itadori wasn’t sure how to pose the question he had.

“What’s up?”

“Do you mind if I set up the camera and film this for a video?” It felt so awkward asking you this - no one was ever in his videos so he never had to worry about asking permission. “It’s not for anything weird, I promise! I just think it’d be nice to make a series for new gardeners. Y’know, give tips and stuff?”

“That’d be perfectly fine!” Your immediate response instantly eased Itadori’s nerves. “Have to capitalize on every chance to make content.”

“I’ll be right back!” He didn’t want to keep you waiting, breaking out into a sprint to grab his camera gear. Setting up his trusty dirt covered tripod, he made sure the scene wasn’t too washed out from the glaring sun before hitting record and running back in front of the camera.

“Hi, welcome back to my garden!” Itadori started the video; he didn’t do proper intro’s or fancy editing for his videos, he preferred to keep it simple. “This is-” Stopping himself short, he turned to you. “Wait, sorry I didn’t even ask if you wanted to be in the video.”

“I don’t mind! I’m already here anyway.” Giggling a little, you waved to the camera. “Hi, I’m (Y/N), someone that can’t garden to save her life.”

“Yeah, this is (Y/N).” Laughing at your introduction, Itadori loosened up as he spoke. Talking about the promise he had made and the seeds you chose to plant, he went through the packets with the camera and zoomed in on the empty soil.

“I’m going to list on screen the fertilizers I recommend for this kind of soil; it’s all kinds you can buy for cheap!”

“You’re really easy going in front of the camera.” You said after he turned it off. You’d interjected with funny quips here and there as you and Itadori planted, but for the most part you were quiet, letting him do his thing and rattle off a million and one gardening tips.

“You think so? That’s good to hear!” Your compliment meant a lot to him; he never had an audience before, and his friends never commented on it when they watched his videos. A light blush adorned his cheeks as he shot some b-roll footage, chuckling as you waved at the camera after being caught in a sweeping view.

“Do you edit all your videos yourself?” You asked, walking slowly side by side back to the house.

“I do.” It wasn’t the best by any means, but Itadori was proud of the skills he’d managed to scrape together during his time producing content. He thought about hiring an editor, or at least someone else to just look at his work, but he didn’t like the feeling that it gave him; like he was giving up on a part of his channel, delegating it to someone else when he should be taking responsibility and doing it himself.

“If you want, I can…possibly help? I do some video editing for my agency.” The words were hesitant to come out of your mouth and you didn’t look at Itadori as you said them. You knew it was risky, and you were prepared to hear a rejection come from him.

“I…” His previous sentiment flashed before him. “Sure, you can give it a try.” Saying it with a slight smile, on the inside Itadori was freaking out. He had no idea he would say that, shocking himself to the core. But looking at your tentative smile, the ease in your shoulders as you walked into his home, he found he didn’t regret it.

Sitting you at the dining table, Itadori brought out lunch. He had made a large salad with the vegetables he’d grown, putting in fish that he had bought at the market. He was proud to boast that he made the dressing himself as well as the lemonade in your cup.

“You’re amazing, Itadori.” The awe in your eyes bolstered Itadori, making his chest puff out with pride. He could see the stars in your eyes and wished he could take a picture to capture the moment forever. Choosing not to answer, he stuffed his mouth instead, watching with interest as you took your first bite. “Itadori, it’s amazing you’re not married already.”

“W-what?!”

“Especially living in this town.” Your statement made him blush fiercely, his entire body engulfing into a red flush. It was true some of the townsfolk had wondered about possibly setting him up, but Itadori felt too awkward to accept any dates.

“S-so, what kind of videos have you edited?” Desperate to change the subject before he embarrassed himself, Itadori glanced at his camera sitting on the table.

“Mainly short videos for bands, like if they film behind the scenes content or make a vlog.” Pulling out your phone, you brought up a recent video you edited. “We flew overseas for a brand campaign with an artist recently!” Leaning forward, Itadori watched the man on screen talk about his first time being in the city and working with the brand in question. The video was smooth, interjected with funny pictures or short meme videos, stickers and glowing pencil drawings adorning the man whenever he did something cute.

“He’s…” Itadori struggled to find a word to describe him. With a serious, almost sullen face and jet black hair, Itadori saw why he would be the face of a brand.

“Megumi’s a bit of a grouch.” You chuckled, pausing at one part of the video where he was eating ice cream. “He insisted on getting ice cream just because I said I wanted some, and ended up getting it all over his clothes!” And sure enough when you hit play, Megumi stumbled on a bump in the sidewalk and his cone went right into the middle of his shirt; a GTA death screen fading overtop him as he realized what happened.

“What kind of music does he make?” Itadori was impressed with your editing skills, but there was something weighing on his mind.

“Here, let me show you!” Eager to promote him, you pulled up Megumi’s most recent music video. Itadori nearly groaned at hearing the smooth tenor voice coming out, wanting to smack a hand over his face. There was no way he could compete with a guy like this.

“He sounds great.” Itadori wasn’t listening to the words at all - he was too busy picturing Megumi buying you ice cream, probably taking you to dinner once filming was over and getting you some fancy bottle of wine Itadori had no idea how to pronounce. “Is he your boyfriend too?” As he asked, his head slumped forward and pressed against the table. He couldn’t bear to hear a yes come from you.

“W-what?” Now it was your turn to be embarrassed. “N-no! He’s my- he’s the agency's client!” You didn’t even allow yourself to entertain that idea, not wanting to get caught up in silly daydreams and possibly losing your job for falling for someone.

“Good.” Whispering to himself, Itadori sat up and ran a hand through his hair. “Finish eating, I’m going to grab my laptop and upload the footage.” Quickly leaving the table, as soon as Itadori was out of earshot he leaned against the wall and let out a sharp exhale. Thank god.

Returning quickly, Itadori took a seat next to you instead of across, opening up his laptop and importing the footage as fast as he could. Just sitting next to you like this made him nervous, sliding over the laptop and trying not to breathe too loudly as your knees brushed together.

“Itadori, your computer’s a dinosaur.” Giggling at the piece of tech before you and nudging his shoulder, you took a glance over the screen.

“Shut up.” He nudged you back and laughed as well. His friends also teased him about it, but Itadori figured that as long as it still turned on, it was good enough for him. He wanted to spend his time in the garden, not worrying behind a screen.

“Itadori, do you think-” just as you were speaking, your phone interrupted with a blaring ringtone. “Shit sorry.” Scrambling to grab it, Itadori saw the name flash on screen: Megumi.

“Hello?” It was a video call, something you were ill-prepared for. Fixing your hair and clothes, you were met with the desperate face of Megumi’s agent.

“(Y/N)! (Y/N)!” The man was close to tears, or at least that’s what it looked like to Itadori. “I need your help!”

“What is it, Jin?” Glancing at Itadori, you mouthed the word sorry and sent him a brief pout.

“I know you said you were on vacation for a while and that you would respond to emails once a week and to not bother you too much, but-”

“Gimme the phone.” Yanking it from his grasp, Megumi positioned himself into view with a scowl. “Where are you?”

Itadori’s mouth flashed a quick frown. Why was this man talking to you like this?

“You know where I am.” You replied in kind, playfully scowling back at Megumi. It was quiet for a moment, just the two of you staring at each other, before it was Megumi that broke the silence.

“Whatever. What’s my schedule for the week?”

“Ask your agent!” Rolling your eyes dramatically, you slumped in your chair. “He’s literally right next to you!”

“I don’t want to hear it from him.” Megumi copied your eye roll, earning a begrudging laugh from you. “Wait. Who’s that?”

“Who’s who?” You immediately jerked away from Itadori upon noticing his face was starting to peek into view.

“Are you with another guy?”

“Megumi, you can’t ask that!” Jin cried, tugging on his arm.

“It’s no one!” Another giggle came out from you, coated in nervousness. You didn’t expect Megumi to care who you were with.

“(Y/N), who-”

“He’s my boyfriend, bye!” Blurting out the line, you hung up the phone and slammed it on the table. Your entire body burned from humiliation and your phone was now getting a flurry of text messages.

“He…has your personal number?” Itadori asked slowly.

“Yeah.” Lifting up your phone, you groaned at all the messages from Megumi and now his agent as well. “Boss thought it’d be best for him to have it when we started working together. Ya know, ‘just in case’.” You’d never been more desperate for a proper work life balance than now. Sitting up, you took a look at the messages.

Megumi: (Y/N)! Call me

Megumi: answer the phone!!

Megumi: do you really have a boyfriend?!

Jin: (Y/N) I’M SO SORRY

Jin: just email me the schedule for this week

Jin: I promise to keep Megumi out of the way while you’re gone

Jin: JUST PLEASE DO THIS FOR ME

“Wow, they’re desperate.” Itadori didn’t mean to read your messages but it was difficult not to when you made no effort to hide them.

“Jin is always like this, I swear he was born a nervous wreck.” Pushing yourself away from the table, you wanted to curse at the moment that was lost between you and Itadori. It was normal for Jin to act this way, but Megumi was usually so nonchalant that you had trouble reading him at times.

“Let me get back home and put out the fire.” You had a dramatic slump to your shoulders that made Itadori laugh. “Do you mind sending me the files? I really want to edit the video.”

“No problem!” Giving you a thumbs up, Itadori led you to the door.

“Oh, and sorry about calling you my boyfriend.” You stuttered to a stop right as the door opened, taking a tiny step across the threshold and looking over your shoulder. “I hope it didn’t make you uncomfortable.”

“No, no worries.” Itadori waved it off. “I…I didn’t mind it all, actually.” Taking a quick glance at you, Itadori rubbed the back of his neck. Both of you stood still, worrying your lips and unsure of what to say next. “There’s a market in the next town over a few days from now, d’ya want to come with me?”

“I’d love that.” Your flushed smile and shy giggle made Itadori laugh himself.

“Great. I’ll text you the details.”

“Great.” The both of you gave each other once overs before finally separating and Itadori watched you walk away until he could no longer see you.

In the coming days, you had been unexpectedly swamped with work; apparently, you were the only one able to work with Megumi’s attitude and coax him into actually listening to Jin. You came over to Itadoris briefly, just to check on the plants and give him some bread your grandma made.

The day of the market, Itadori drove to you in his mini truck, the back filled with wooden crates of produce he intended to trade for some meat. Climbing in, the two of you set off down the road with a picnic basket in your lap; you and your grandma had woken up early just to make lunch for today.

“I’m so excited!” Bouncing in your seat, your eyes darted at every passing thing. You used to go to the neighboring towns a lot when you were younger but as you’d grown older you got too busy to do more than visit your grandparents.

Itadori smiled big at your enthusiasm and hoped the market would live up to all your expectations. You chattered about how it used to be when you came, before you got swept up in university and getting a job in the city. Listening happily, Itadori flicked the radio on.

“Oh my gosh, this is Megumi’s song!” Snapping to attention, you immediately turned the volume up, clapping giddily as his voice filled the car. “This is amazing! I have to let him know!” Quickly shooting off a message to him, you turned to Itadori. “What do you think of his song?”

“His song?” Resting his head in his hand, Itadori listened intently for a few moments. Megumi wasn’t a bad singer by any stretch, yet Itadori struggled to find something to say that wasn’t negative. “It’s good.”

“Just good?” You teased, leaning forward as the car slowed down at a red light. Itadori glanced at you from the corner of his eye, his cheeks getting a bit warm.

“If I say it’s amazing will you stop looking at me like that?”

“Ha!” Falling back into your seat, you laughed and sent off another message to Megumi. “I’ll let him know you love it.”

“Y-you’re telling him right now?”

“Of course! He worked really hard on this song!” He had spent many sleepless nights in the recording booth, only coming out to use the bathroom and to give you and Jin loathsome stares.

You came to the town in twenty minutes, nearly swaying Itadori to stop at a random field so you could take pictures of some grazing cows. Parking right at the edge of the market, Itadori first had to deliver his produce. He insisted on you staying in the car, not wanting you to lift anything heavy and hurt yourself.

“Alright, all done.” A few minutes later and you two began your walk down the market, shoulder to shoulder and looking curiously at every table.

“Smell this!” Picking up a bar of soap, you held it out and watched Itadori take a sniff.

“Oh, a sample!” A kind elderly man gave you and Itadori a slice of cheese.

By the time you were halfway down the market, Itadori was carrying a bag of things you stated you absolutely needed. You’d even bought him a few things, like a candle and homemade cookies.

“I love it here.” Sipping on an iced drink, you and Itadori wandered over to the nearby park, setting up your picnic and laying out on the grass. “I can’t wait for the summer festival, it’ll be even more fun!” You’d gone to the festival nearly every year, only missing out on recent years due to work.

“Yeah, it’ll be great.” Itadori was already forming a mental plan on how to ask you out at the festival, possibly right before the fireworks went off.

The two of you spread out on the blanket you’d laid down, people watching as you ate. The sun was warm against your skin, there was the light background noise of people in the distance, and once your stomach was full you decided to lay down.

“That cloud looks like a rabbit.” You pointed up at the sky. Itadori had laid down with you, not even trying to hide his yawn.

“Mmm, I don’t see it.”

“Your eyes aren’t even open.” Poking him, you got him to open one eye.

“Okay, maybe I see it.” Both of you laughed quietly, and while you tried to pick out more shapes from the clouds, Itadori fell asleep - with you unwittingly following suit soon after. It wasn’t a deep sleep by any means, you could still faintly hear people around you, but it felt good to relax for a bit.

A heavy weight across your midsection roused you in your slumber, drawing you closer to the body laying next to you. Looking out the corner of your eye, you saw Itadori still fast asleep, his head pushed against yours as his arm tightened around you.

“He’s so cute.” You whispered softly, fumbling to grab your phone and snap a couple pictures of him and the two of you together. You had to bite back the childish squeal that bubbled in your chest; the two of you looked cute together and if you were bolder you would show them to Itadori when he awoke.

Letting him sleep, you carefully sat up and began to put things away and back into the basket. At least half an hour had passed since you both laid down and there was no shortage of people still at the market.

Looking down at Itadori, you were unable to resist any longer and you ran a hand through his hair. It wasn’t exceptionally soft or silky, if anything it was a bit rough and in need of conditioner, no doubt from him being outside all the time but you liked the feeling between your fingers and you repeated the motion.

“Feels nice…” Itadori mumbled sleepily, pushing himself into your leg and groaning in appreciation at your fingers in his hair.

“Have a nice nap?” You chuckled, ruffling his hair a bit to stir him awake.

“How- how long was I asleep?” Interrupted by a yawn, Itadori forced himself to open his eyes and look into the sky.

“I’m not sure, I was asleep too.” Grinning at each other, Itadori yawned again and sat up on his elbow.

“We should head out soon, I need to load up the truck and get the meat home.” He made no move to get up any further, instead rubbing a hand over his face and shaking his head. Itadori looked at something in the distance, his mind trying to catch up with what was happening in the world.

“C’mon.” Helping him come to a stand, you folded up the blanket and tugged on his sleeve. “Let’s go.”

“Okay.” Comically dragging his feet, Itadori let you drag him back to the market. As you got back into the crowd of people, he slipped your hand from his sleeve and laced your fingers together. “Let’s stay close.”

The words came out smoothly and from your vantage point he looked perfectly calm moving through the crowd, but on the inside Itadori was freaking out. It was taking everything in him not to shake from holding your hand and if he dared look over his shoulder at you, he knew an embarrassing noise would escape him.

“Pretty flowers.” You said casually, looking at a table full of floral bouquets. Itadori took one glance at the table and turned, walking straight toward it.

“Which one do you want?” He asked, fishing out money from his wallet.

“Oh no, it’s okay, you don’t have to-”

“How about this one?” Itadori picked up a large bouquet of baby's-breath and tulips, a lovely pink shade that nearly matched his hair.

“These are gorgeous.” Taking the flowers from him, you took a whiff as Itadori paid for them.

“Such a loving boyfriend you have.” The shopkeeper cooed, handing Itadori his change.

“Thank you.” A blush overtook your cheeks and a smile spread across your face; you didn’t have the heart to correct them nor did you want to in the first place. Walking back to Itadori’s truck hand in hand, you sat in the car as he loaded a few coolers of meat into the back.

Hugging the bouquet to your chest, the two of you drove in relative quiet, listening to the soft noise of the radio as the day winded down.

“I had a great time today.” You spoke up as Itadori made it to the front of your home.

“I did too.” Putting the truck in park, he quickly hopped out and ran to your side to open your door. Taking hold of the hand he offered, you moved slowly, not wanting the time together to end. Standing in the doorway, Itadori stared straight at you, inching closer every few seconds.

“Welcome back you two!” Your grandpa’s voice shocked both of you, forcing Itadori to take a large step back from you.

“H-hey grandpa!” You waved, hoping he didn’t see you and Itadori just staring at each other. Closing the car door, you tipped your head at Itadori. “I’ll see you soon? I should be done editing your video by tomorrow.”

“Soon.” With a nod and a wave to your grandpa, Itadori got back into his truck and drove off, this time allowing his hands to shake as violently as they wanted to. When night fell and both of you were in bed, Itadori could hardly sleep, reliving the day over and over in his head. As he tossed for the hundredth time, his phone lit up with a text.

(Y/N): I got a vase for the flowers!

Attached to your text was a picture of the vase sitting on your bedside table. Another picture came in shortly after, of you holding the bouquet in your backyard, bathed in the golden glow of the setting sun.

(Y/N): grandma really wanted to take this picture, she said she’s going to print it out and frame it

Itadori immediately saved it to his phone, having to stop himself from making it his wallpaper.

Itadori: you look beautiful

Gripping his phone tightly, Itadori stared at the screen. He didn’t care if his statement was too bold, he needed to let you know.

(Y/N): thanks

The word was sent between a flurry of heart emojis and Itadori just knew you were blushing like he was. Neither of you said anything further, opting instead to grip your pillows and try to force sleep to come.

As the days and weeks went on, you and Itadori spent more time together. He loved how you edited his video, asking if you’d like to do a few more for him and possibly show him how to do it as well for when you left. You filmed several more videos together, capturing the growth of your seedlings into blossoming buds with fledgling leaves. You also went over the video comments together, thinking of how best to reply to them.

Neither of you said anything about the comments shipping you, saying how cute you looked together and wondering when you would start dating if you weren’t already. A few people had asked if you also made videos or were on other social media platforms, but you declined to answer those, not wanting it to possibly affect your work negatively.

“(Y/N), call up Yuji and tell him to come over, I want to have a barbecue.” Your grandpa announced just after 4pm. He and your grandma had been going back and forth about what to do for dinner and he finally decided.

“Why do I have to do it?” You questioned, grabbing your phone nonetheless.

“Oh, and tell him to bring some beers-”

“Don’t you dare, you know the doctor told you not to drink on that new medication!”

“Dear, he said one or two was fine!” And back to bickering they were. Laughing under your breath, you slipped out into the back, looking at the wide open grassland before you as you waited for Itadori to text back.

“(Y/N)!” You didn’t have to wait long, Itadori called your name as he rounded the corner.

“That was quick!” Standing to greet him, you gave him a curious look. You’d only sent the message ten minutes ago and he was already here with a platter of vegetables and meat.

“I got excited, I haven’t had a barbecue in so long!” In dirt stained overalls and no shoes, you could see he had been working in the garden.

“Well I’ll let grandpa know you’re here.”

“Yuji!” As if on cue, the man came out of the house. “Such a good kid.” Taking the platter from him, your grandfather turned over his shoulder. “Dear, is the barbecue still in the shed?”

“I’ll get it.” Itadori immediately walked over to the building in question, pulling out the barbecue and a bag of charcoal. “Where d’ya want it, gramps?”

“Over here.” As the two of them got to work setting up the grill, you went back inside to grab drinks. In no time, all of you were outside, listening to music from an old stereo and waiting for the grill to heat up.

“So (Y/N), how’s that boy in the city?” Taking a sip of water, Daichi stared at the grill. “He done calling you all the time?”

“Megumi’s just stressed, this is the first time I’ve gone on a vacation like this since we met.” Itadori frowned at the topic of conversation; he couldn’t help but see Megumi as competition in winning you over.

“Oh Yuji, you’re so cute!” Cooing at the young man, your grandma glanced at you. “I think someone is jealous.” Giggling behind her hand, the elderly woman patted you on the shoulder as you slapped a hand over your face.

“Jeez Yachi, you could try to be more subtle!” Leaning back dramatically, Daichi groaned.

“I can’t help it!” She continued to tease, reveling in yours and Itadori’s embarrassed faces.

“I’m going to get more water before I die of humiliation.” Jumping up, you all but ran into the kitchen to escape. Going straight into the bathroom, you splashed cold water on your face to quell your scalding cheeks.

Once your body had cooled down, you exited the bathroom, surprised to see Itadori standing at the kitchen counter chopping vegetables. You could see the muscles in his arms flexing as he chopped, his already short sleeves rolled up to expose his shoulders.

“Did grandma put you to work?” Making your presence known, you tore your eyes away from his arms and over to the window where the two of them were standing over the grill.

“Yeah.” Itadori chuckled, focused on chopping. Leaning against the counter, you looked over to him, wanting to say something about your grandma’s comment. “I am jealous.” He spoke before you could, not tearing his eyes away from his task.

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Glancing at you, he licked his lips nervously before continuing. “Jealous that he’s known you longer, he’s gone on a vacation with you and probably a bunch of other things I don’t even want to think about.” Setting the knife down, Itadori placed his hand over yours. “But I’ll beat him, I’ll make sure of it.”

“Beat him in what?” Your breath was hardly coming out and your heart was beating so loudly in your ears you were surprised any sound was able to be heard.

“In the race for you.” A shaky exhale left Itadori, his eyes making contact with yours briefly before dropping to your lips. “I’m going to win your heart before Megumi knows what hit him.” Giving your hand a brief squeeze, Itadori stepped away and grabbed the cutting board he’d been working on. “Alright, all done!” He yelled as he walked outside, leaving you alone to think about what just happened.

You wanted to deny it, push away the idea that Megumi might like you in that way, but there was no getting around it. You’d seen the signs yourself no matter how hard you pushed them away and if these past weeks were any indication, he was desperate not to lose you to Itadori.

The rest of the evening went by in a blur, your interaction with Itadori playing over and over in your head. A few other neighbors had joined the fray, helping to disperse the conversations and take attention away from you. You didn’t shy away from Itadori, sitting next to him when it came time to eat and walking him out when it got too dark to stay out any longer.

“Thanks for coming.” You two were now standing on the sidewalk, neither of you making a move to leave the other.

“I had a good time.” Rocking on his feet, Itadori reached out and hooked his fingers on yours. “I’ll see you soon?” He gave you a hopeful look from under his lashes, one that turned to happiness at your nod.

“Yeah, I need to check on my plants!”

“Plants, of course.” Chuckling, Itadori raised your hand to his lips, giving your knuckles a kiss and a squeeze before letting go. “See you.”

“Bye.” Biting your lip to hold back a childish giggle, you waited for Itadori to get a bit farther away before making yourself turn to go back inside. Itadori’s confession followed you to sleep, making butterflies erupt in your stomach everytime you thought about his lips on your hand.

With the summer festival coming up sooner than either of you had anticipated, the time you and Itadori spent together wasn’t as much as either of you had hoped. Being a strapping young man, he was put to work grabbing supplies and setting up booths. What time you did spend together was always short, just a quick exchange before Itadori was called to do other things or he was simply too exhausted to stay awake any longer.

But it was all worth it in the end, when you woke up and saw that the festival was beginning to start. People from other towns had come and set up, making the festival stretch widely across the town center.

“Itadori!” Painfully excited and jumping for joy, you knocked loudly on his front door. You knew he wasn’t at the festival already because you had made a promise to go together.

There were a few thumps from the other side of the door and a hushed ‘ow!’ before the door was yanked open.

“W-what time is it?” Itadori yawned, shielding his face from the sun. You couldn’t formulate an answer though, too busy ogling his shirtless physique. It was like seeing him for the first time all over again, your eyes drinking in every detail of his muscles.

“Eleven?” Your voice was terribly quiet and Itadori didn’t even hear it, opting to turn around and look at the clock on the wall.

“Damn, pretty late. Come in.” Dragging his feet through the hall, Itadori came to a halt at a coffee machine in the kitchen. “Want one?”

“I’m good.” Leaning against the dining table, you now stared at the muscles in his back, idly wondering what it’d be like to touch them.

“I see you staring.” Itadori teased, looking at you from the corner of his eye as he poured a cup of coffee.

“Shut up.” Whipping your head away, a blush cropped up on the back of your neck.

“I’ll get dressed and then we can go.” Quickly downing the drink, he did a light jog out of the kitchen. Five minutes later and Itadori reappeared, a light tank top adorning him. Escorting you out of the house, Itadori held up his camera.

“You’re filming a vlog?” You asked excitedly. He had never really filmed a video like this before and you were excited to see him broadening his content.

“Yes, I’m filming a vlog.” He was already holding up the camera, arm extended to capture both of you in the frame. “It’s the summer festival everyone! And me and (Y/N) are going!”

“It’s going to be great! There’s so much to do there!” You chimed in, pumping your first into the air.

“What should we do first? Maybe get some cotton candy?”

“Yes!” Scurrying ahead, you let Itadori continue to talk to the camera, excitement driving you forward. Briefly looking over your shoulder, you saw him film you running off and waving. Stopping once you reached the edge of the festival, you bounced on your toes waiting for him to meet up with you.

“Someone’s excited.” He teased, casually slinging an arm over your shoulder as you began your walk through the festival. You welcomed the motion, moving closer to him and letting your head rest on his shoulder for a moment.

Walking through the festival, Itadori had a hard time multitasking between vlogging and talking to you. He’d never filmed in such a public place before and it was making him nervous; not all the townsfolk knew he filmed videos.

“Hey Itadori!” A man sitting at a strawberry tanghulu stand waved the two of you down, gesturing to the fruit sitting on the table. “Look, these are with the strawberries you grew!”

“Wow!” Itadori had an impressed look on his face as he filmed it for the camera.

“Here, take some! They’re technically yours after all!” The man eagerly handed you a skewer of the fruit, giving you two a wave as you walked away.

“Don’t keep me waiting, try it.” Itadori nudged you; he wanted to see what you thought of his food. Biting down on the brittle sugar, you hummed and licked your lips.

“Only the best from the Itadori farm!” You exclaimed, waving the skewer at the camera. “I know all of you are jealous!”

“Gimme some.” Opening his mouth, Itadori waited for you to feed him. Taking a bite himself, he gave a thumbs up. “Amazing.”

Walking around the festival, the both of you stopped to talk to the other townspeople, some running stands and others just perusing themselves. There was a lot to see and do, from eating all the festival food you could get your hands on to watching live performances of local musicians.

“I should ask Megumi if he’d be interested in playing a festival, I want to go to more.” You said offhandedly, always eager to help broaden the exposure of your agencies clients.

“I should become a musician so I can have you think about me all the time.” Itadori teased, pinching your cheek.

“I think about you plenty!” Giggling and swatting at his hand, you captured it in yours, holding it tightly against your chest. Itadori laughed as well, untangling your hands to properly thread your fingers together.

“Good, ‘cause I think about you a lot.” Resting his head against yours, Itadori turned his attention to the music playing, turning the camera so it could capture it as well.

As the sun began to set, there was an excited murmur of the fireworks show to come. Itadori had helped put it together, driving cases of fireworks from one town to the other and helping plan out the order of everything on his ancient laptop.

“How cute!” Walking around a bit before it started, you stumbled upon a game stall where the prizes were large plushies. A large pink bunny had caught your eye, its ears much longer than its body.

“You like it?” Handing the camera to you, Itadori fished out a few dollars. “I’ll win it, no problem.”

“Alright, I’m counting on you!” Angling the camera, you made sure the whole stall was in frame before he started. Itadori was painfully focused, he hardly made a sound as he threw darts to pop the balloons a few feet away. Every throw landed, making you more anxious by the minute.

“It’s all yours.” The person manning the stall pulled down the rabbit and handed it to Itadori.

“Here you go.” Walking off, Itadori switched the camera for the rabbit.

“Thank you!” Feeling a rush of adrenaline, you bounced on your toes and swooped in, giving Itadori a kiss on the cheek. Clutching the plush close to your chest, you laughed at his shocked expression and how his eyes got wider upon realizing he caught it on camera.

“N-no problem.” He could hardly speak, surprised that you would even want to kiss him. Fighting the urge to grab you and kiss you back, Itadori tugged at your hand instead, focusing on walking straight and not passing out from how hot his face was.

Finding a spot to watch the fireworks, Itadori hugged you to his chest, resting his camera on his shoulder as the sky lit up. The babble of amazed children was drowned out every few moments by a loud boom and the crowd was bathed in a wonderful swatch of bright colors.

While the fireworks were going off, Itadori did mental gymnastics trying to figure out how he was going to ask you to be his girlfriend. With the festival coming to an end, it also signaled the beginning of the end of summer, meaning you’d be going back to work in the city in no time. He worried so much about it all that the firework show came and went without him noticing.

“I had so much fun!” As the two of you walked out of the town center, your hands had naturally come together and swung back and forth.

“Me too.” Itadori turned the camera off now, it was too dark to really see anything on film. Passing by street lights, he dreaded every step closer to your homes. “(Y/N).” He stopped abruptly. “Let’s go on a walk.”

“Okay.” Sending him a curious look, you followed him down a side street away from home. Walking in silence, you could tell something was eating at Itadori because every few steps he would falter and look at you, only to snap his head away just as quickly. “Is something wrong?” Now it was your turn to stop under a streetlight, tugging him to stop as well.

“No.” Itadori said, refusing to look at you. “Well, yes…” Taking a glance at you made a groan come out of him and he threw his head back in frustration. “Nothing’s wrong, I just…just…” It was silent between you two: you looking at Itadori with worry and him staring at the sky trying to muster the courage to do something.

“Did I do anything wrong?”

“No!” Your question immediately brought Itadori back to earth, his wide stare throwing you off. “No, nothing!”

“Then what’s up? You’ve been acting weird since we left.”

“I-” Getting fed up with himself, Itadori let out a short and annoyed shout. “I just don’t want this night to end with me doing nothing!”

“Nothing?”

“Yes! I want to- I want to kiss you! I want to ask you out, I want you to be my girlfriend! But how can I ask any of that when I keep chickening out?” He hadn’t meant to shout, but Itadori was getting angry at himself. Squeezing your hand tighter, he leaned forward and rested his forehead on your shoulder. “I don’t want you going back to the city without at least knowing how much I like you.”

Itadori refused to lift his head after his final words, not wanting to see your expression lest it be something he didn’t want to see. Sure, he had stated that he intended to win your heart but this was different, he was actually coming out and saying how much he wanted to be with you.

“Itadori.” Nudging his head up, you got him to look at you, his cheeks a horribly deep shade of pink. Looking at you made it worse, but he leaned into the hand you placed on his cheek. “I thought you’d never ask.” Your words made a tremendous weight lift off his shoulders and Itadori nearly collapsed.

“Thank god.” He sighed happily, cupping your cheeks as well and laughing like a fool. “I don’t think I could stand to be rejected.” Pushing his forehead against yours, he closed his eyes and sighed again. “Can I kiss you?”

“Yes.” The word barely left you before he was already putting his lips on yours. Itadori was smiling in the kiss, pushing his teeth into yours without meaning to. He kissed you a few times, managing to close his mouth properly a few times before finally parting.

“Alright, let’s get you home. I don’t want gramps to get the wrong idea about me.” Kissing you again, Itadori put his arm around your shoulder and began walking. The trip back was too short for either of your liking and you made it to your front door all too soon.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?” You asked hopefully.

“Of course.” Itadori punctuated his statement with a kiss. Sharing a long hug, you eventually separated and went inside. Taking a glance into the lounge room, you balked at seeing both your grandparents scrambling to fix the curtains. “Were you spying on us?”

“I- well- it was your grandma's idea.”

“No it wasn’t! You know grandpa is nosy!”

You couldn’t find it in you to be embarrassed at being caught by your grandparents. You just laughed it off and offered to give them the details which they happily listened to, giving you love advice every now and again.

With the end of the festival truly came the end of your summer holiday. Itadori and you harvested your crops, proudly showing the camera the bundle of flowers and produce you were able to grow. He edited the vlog of the festival himself as well, keeping in all the cheesy and romantic moments you two shared and titling it ‘finally getting a girlfriend’. There were hundreds of fan edits by the end of the week and Itadori clipped several moments to relive on his TikTok.

Once the day came to leave, you said goodbye to your grandparents, promising to come back soon. Itadori drove you to the train station, his hand laced with yours as he drove. He was pensive, not saying much as he drove; he had to constantly stop himself from turning the car around and driving you right back to town.

“You won’t forget about me right?” He asked as he helped grab your bags.

“How could I?” You knew for a fact that he and your grandparents would be blowing up your phone constantly asking for you to visit.

“Megumi better not give you any trouble.” Itadori would be ready to drive to the city at the drop of a hat just to put the melancholy man in his place. You laughed at that statement, rolling your eyes and taking your suitcase from him.

“Please, Megumi’s harmless.” Fixing your bags and checking the time, you missed Itadori’s brief look of discontent. You said that, but Itadori had a feeling Megumi wouldn’t back off just because you suddenly had a new boyfriend.

“Text me when you get on the train.” Placing his hands on your shoulders, Itadori squared your body to him.

“I will.”

“Promise?”

“Promise!” Throwing your arms around him, you squeezed him tightly and pecked him on the lips. “I’ll even send a picture of my seat.” Kissing him one last time, you pulled apart and took a step back. “Bye!” You went to walk away but Itadori grabbed onto your hand, preventing you from going any further.

“I’m going to miss you!” He whined, letting you tug back and forth.

“You big baby!” You would miss him too and you nearly let him pull you back, but you stayed strong and eventually broke free from his hold. “Go pick out the fall crops already!”

“Fine!” Itadori made no move to leave, instead watching you walk away and into the station. He waited until you texted him that you were on the train and even then still waited until he heard the whistle blow and saw the train begin its departure.

(Y/N): miss you already

(Y/N): I’ll be back before you know it

(Itadori): I’ll be waiting

#jujustu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen scenarios #jujutsu kaisen au #jujutsu kaisen imagines #jujutsu kaisen fluff #itadori yuji #itadori x reader #yuji itadori x reader

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mightyflamethrower · 2 months ago

Text

Somehow the United States ended up this summer with no engaged president and an absent vice president who avoids the missing president and is frantically repudiating everything she co-owned the last three years.

The world was already confused over how President Joe Biden was apparently declared by unnamed Democratic insiders and donors unfit and unable to continue as their presidential candidate—as if he were a dethroned Third-World usurper.

It further wondered how those who staged his removal had no problem allowing him, in his debilitated state, to continue as America’s commander-in-chief until January 20, 2025. They demonstrated their priorities that focus on retaining power, not the welfare of the nation or the will of over 14 million Biden primary voters.

Vice President Kamala Harris, until Biden’s forced abdication, was judged by these same backroom fixers as too incompetent to ever be commander-in-chief and thus for three years a good reason why Biden apparently was not forced out earlier.

Now nominal Vice President Harris is on the campaign trail nonstop, while Biden has taken the most vacation time off and worked the shortest workweek in presidential memory.

The world again wonders who is in charge, what they believe, who is a friend, and who is an enemy. Harris is busy trying to get elected on three premises: disowning her prior co-ownership of what was mostly a disastrous Biden term and certainly no recommendation for reelection; reinventing her affluent radical past and present as moderate and working-class; and keeping absolutely silent about any detailed agenda or policy plan for governance as president.

Our rivals and opponents abroad cannot decide which is better for their own anti-American agendas—a derelict and absent Biden-Harris or dealing with a cognitively challenged Biden and a linguistically loopy Harris?

So, again, who or what now governs America?

Is it Biden again at the beach or closing up shop at noon for his nap and early bedtime?

Or is it Vice President Harris, far from the White House, out campaigning and confused over who she really is or wants to be, what, if anything, she plans on doing if elected president, and how to avoid any unscripted moment?

Or are our real rulers the stealth cabal of Democratic grandees and billionaire donors who arranged the Biden presidency by forcing out his 2020 primary rivals, staged the conspiratorial silence about his real disabilities for well over three years, ambushed him, and forced him off the Democratic ticket, and are now frantically reinventing Kamala Harris as capable and centrist when just a few months ago they had written her off as incompetent and a hopeless wannabe California radical?

As a result, a confused but also encouraged world of enemies watches the listless United States and wonders whether to try something stupid.

In this widening vacuum, lots of foreign opportunists, outright enemies, and nihilists are seizing the day—on the assurance that Biden is not a lame duck, but a lame, lame duck, and Harris is a near functionary in search of an identity and an idea.

The Houthis, a ragtag cabal of terrorists who hijacked Yemen after shaking off a few prior Biden “precision” retaliatory strikes, now “own” the Red Sea. They just hit a Greek-flagged oil tanker that is now adrift and polluting the Red Sea. It serves as their warning for commercial ships to keep clear of their mare nostrum.

The Houthis expect neither a Western nor an American response to ensure safe transit in and out of the southern Mediterranean by the world’s commercial fleet. Apparently, they believe that they are so backward, and their drones are so cheap and simple that the top-heavy U.S. cannot afford to hit their ad hoc launches with sophisticated, multimillion-dollar, and often misapplied weapons. And they are probably right.

Indeed, under Biden-Harris, the world has now lost free and safe transit in the Red Sea, the Black Sea, the South China Sea, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Eastern Mediterranean. Will the Caribbean or mid-Atlantic be next? The military is short thousands of troops, the merchant marines idling ships.

Our NATO enemy/“ally” Turkey—when it is not threatening to send missiles against fellow NATO member Greece, bragging about once again ethnic cleansing Armenians, leveling more warnings to Cyprus, bombing the Kurds, colluding with the Russians and Chinese, trying to veto Finnish and Swedish NATO membership, or claiming US nuclear weapons based in Turkey are virtually its own—apparently has created such an anti-American climate that its pro-Erdogan street thugs feel they can beat up visiting American sailors, docking at Izmir to help aid the Turkish navy.

Not a peep follows from the White House. If it had, President Recep Erdogan would have leveled one of his accustomed unhinged responses.

Hamas just murdered more of its Israeli hostages, among them an American citizen.

Now non-candidate Biden is apparently still more worried about 250,000 Muslim voters in Michigan (who profess more solidarity with Hamas than lament the murder of a fellow citizen) than US interests in the Middle East. He customarily and matter-of-factly issued one of his empty editorials before returning to form by performance art blasting Israel.

In Biden’s world, our closest and only democratic ally in the Middle East is at fault because it will not, this election year, give constant concessions to the murderous Hamas clique. Biden-Harris forget that Hamas started the current war by butchering 1,200 Israelis at a time of peace, scrambled back to its subterranean labyrinth with over 250 hostages, hid their terrorist killers under schools, hospitals, and mosques, murdered any who were about to be rescued by Israeli forces, and promised to kill more if rescue attempts continue.

The Biden-Harris messaging seems simple: pro-Western, civilized, and consensually governed nations are rational and so listen to the U.S. and therefore should be leveraged and often punished for rationality; anti-American, medieval, and theocratic terrorist cabals do not and therefore should be appeased and exempted from criticism or retaliation given their lawlessness.

Normally, when asked about foreign threats to harm Americans or their interests, Biden gives one of his accustomed blowhard, one-word threats, “Don’t!” That empty and tired banality is now interpreted abroad as zero consequences will follow when you harm America. As a general rule, an animated Biden is far more likely to threaten to beat up or go after Trump than Hamas or Iran.

Harris has been mum—other than her usual on the one hand/on the other hand vacuity. Her vice presidential candidate running mate, the usually frenetic and loquacious Tim Walz, when asked directly about the murder of an American hostage, similarly goes mum—and simply waved off the question and turned away. Walz seems as terrified as Harris of any unrehearsed utterance, as if he knows only his silence masks his foolery.

Brazil, as was warned by many, is heading toward full-scale Latin American communism of the Venezuela/Nicaragua/Cuba sort. It is now waging a censorship war against Elon Musk with the tacit approval of the Biden-Harris consortium—for the crime of turning the former useful Twitter leftwing and censored megaphone into a global free speech pavilion.

Ukraine has now been inside Mother Russia for weeks, which is strategically understandable but geo-strategically dangerous against a nuclear hyperpower run by a ruthless dictator. Biden has no clue what the U.S. is doing other than supplying enough arms to Ukraine not to lose but more than enough to trigger a wider theater war. Ask Biden and Harris what the U.S. strategy is on Ukraine, and one will mumble incomprehensibly, the other, if unguarded, plunge into a circular word salad about the “art of diplomacy” or “democratic fragility.”

Iran is more afraid of an Israeli response than U.S. threats.

Or is it worse than that? Does the theocracy now rely on Biden-Harris to restrain any Israeli retaliation for the tens of thousands of rockets launched by Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran against the Jewish state.?

All Biden-Harris had to do was continue the Trump protocol of warning Iran to stay out of the conflict. Instead, it de facto greenlighted the Iranian supply chain to Hamas and Hezbollah and turned all of them loose to murder.

In truth, US foreign policy toward Iran is the resumption of the Obama-era embrace of the supposed underdog Shiite/Persian counterweight to Gulf moderates and democratic Israel. Biden-Harris cares not a whit whether Iran goes nuclear and might even in their warped Ben-Rhodes/Barack Obama-era imbecility tacitly support such nuclearization to “rein in” the Jewish state.

Mexico’s outgoing “president,” Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has now unabashedly also gone full communist. As he preps the way for his even harder-left successor, Obrador is seeking to destroy what is left of Mexico’s democracy.

AMLO, remember, bragged of the tens of millions of illegal aliens that Mexico drove out and into the U.S.—especially given the $60 billion in remittances they send to prop up an otherwise failed narco-state. In retirement, he will brag that he was the first Mexican president to destroy the U.S. border.

He even urged all Mexican-American expatriates to vote anti-Republican. For the next few months, he will cooperate with the US to slow down the influx northward in order to allow Harris-Biden to claim they are for pre-November 5 election-cycle “border security.” And thereby help Harris get elected and welcome in another 10 million illegal aliens.

In his delusions, AMLO—who proved one of the truly dangerous anti-Americans on the world stage—thinks he is winning phase two of the 19th-century Mexican War. In fact, all he is proving is that millions of Mexicans want out of his country and only romanticize it when they are safely and permanently distant from its numerous failed paradigms.

In sum, there really is no President Biden or Vice President Harris. The former is non compos mentis and failing ever more rapidly. The latter has no clue who she is or what she should do. The cabal that engineered their respective exits and entrances cares more about retaining power than using it for American interests.

So, we are in perilous times.

All of our enemies and even former neutrals are coming out of the woodwork. They are convinced that the next two months offer one-time advantages—unless Harris is elected and thus can extend their opportunities for four more years of what Americans see as a chaotic decline, but the world abroad views as a rare and ripe opportunity.

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rainysaturdayafternoon · 6 months ago

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does anyone have ideas for hobbies that are fairly cheap and don’t require purchase of new supplies ?

or cool nondigital art techniques to try ?

i am bored and hate feeling useless over summer vacation :/

#leah’s lost thoughts #please ?

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protect-daniel-james · 5 months ago

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I have been writing! There is so much inspiration out there, and my life has been - surprisingly? - going so well lately! I just want to finish some fics before I go on holiday (Netherlands and Belgium) in two weeks.

So, what's in store? Please note that the names are not the real names, they are the names of the files I write the fics in (yes, I am no longer writing directly in drafts of AO3, it was a bit too brave and backfired a couple of times)

Daddy A in the army - this one is taking forever because it is....tough. I got the Zinky Boys book from my local library, and I will probably have to go through that for some more inspiration

His uncle was more pragmatic. “God helps those who help themselves," he said when Roman Arkadyevich brought up the topic of young men returning from their two-year service with wives, kids, apartments, and a bumaga entitling them to vacation in Bulgaria. With that in mind, Roman Arkadyevich bought the three lucky packets of cigarettes; ready to meet Lady Luck halfway. Naturally, his packets of cigarettes were confiscated on the first day.

Pippo's wedding - this should be a short lemon-y smut because we all know the Inzaghis and we know what they are.

It’s not even ten in the morning and Simone is on his second glass of wine - it’s not a big deal, everyone around the house has already had something, right after their morning coffees, toasting to the groom’s health and happiness, but Simone stayed sober throughout the season, pedantic and precise as ever, wanting to always keep his mind clear throughout the season. Now even the small amount of alcohol, combined with the heavy humid air before the rain that was forecasted for the day, made his head swim.

Numa numa iei - because what's not to love about random EURO pairing

“Nikoushek.” Now he’s mocking him. Nikoushek is a specific memory that not everyone knew about. “Nikoushku,” he corrects him, burying his fingers in the dark roots of his hair. He wishes Adrian kept it longer, all over his head, and didn’t shave the area around his ears and nape. “You use the vocative case when addressing someone.” “Vocative case, what is that. Nikoushku,” Adrian repeats, and his eyes shine brighter than before. “I can’t even speak Romanian properly,” he jokes, before laying his head down on his captain’s bare chest. He can’t resist, and places a quick peck on the skin. He likes the contrast between the bare, hairless chest and the arms covered in tattoos of significant memories from Nicolae’s eventful life. The arms are for the world to see, to learn Nico’s birth date, see the image of his grandmother, admire the colors of the flag, read the names of his children, and get to know the sources of his motivation, Biblical, fictional, inspirational – but the chest is only for him to see.

Juicy - finally putting on "paper" the food kink Ange/Poch fic that celebrates juiciness in all forms, good food, loving good food, loving yourself, and all the good summer Greek-Aussie-and-Argentine stereotypes together.

Juicy. He couldn’t think of a better word. There was so much under his skin - so much to touch and knead and hold onto and rub - and the excess of everything about Ange, his body, his hair, his deep voice, the smile that usually played in the corner of his lip, it all filled Mauricio’s head with a soothing sense that everything will be alright.

Lentemente - it is called this because of the Django Reinhardt song Lentemente mademoiselle, no idea *why* though. It's the Unai x Andoni bookstore!librarian!AU, it's fun and sweet and soft and pointless

“I’m sorry – I noticed you have been standing here with this specific book – “ He quickly glanced at the book’s cover, just to quench his private and nosy curiosity over the book that seemed to have captured the customer’s full attention. It looked like one of those cheap paperbacks dedicated to sensationalistic retelling of history, politics, or anything else – but the cover was nicely done in a clean, aesthetically pleasing way, showing a traditional house façade. Que disent les maisons basques? He had to smile; it didn’t seem like the most thrilling read. “ – and there is a line outside,” he finished his sentence, trying not to seem too judgemental of the book of choice. He made some calculations in his head already – he’d never seen anyone even just remotely interested in buying this book, and he certainly never sold a single copy of it. It was one of those volumes that was always there during the physical inventory and yet Andoni wanted to keep it – if nothing else, it had a nice cover and looked professionally made, which wasn’t the case for some of the faster-selling ones. It was a French-language book, which added a sense of internationalism – and it concerned a local theme, the traditional inscriptions on the lintels of rural houses. It was exactly the kind of book he liked to keep in the shop, even if it wasn’t selling well – it added a sense of rootedness to the place.

#myfics

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annaholak · 1 year ago

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Inktober, Tiffany Aching, Barbie, and a General Life Update

The Plan: Read the Tiffany Aching books during the summer, re-make her, and use her as the main character for my next Inktober.

The Reality: while I was finishing Cupid Cafe my landlord decided to sell the apartment I've been renting for over a decade. It was an extremely shitty one (no heating, broken air-conditioning units, dark, moldy, etc), but it was dirty cheap, and the best I could afford.

It was sold in mid-June, and the new owner (surprising no one) wanted to raise the rent. I don't know how the rental market is wherever you live, but here (in Athens, Greece) it's a right nightmare (Airbnb has a lot to answer for...). I couldn't find anything in the same price bracket that wasn't basically a tiny basement-turned-into-a-studio. I was panicking. Heavily.

In the end a (really good) friend came to my rescue. She convinced her mom (who had moved to her vacation home during the pandemic) to rent me the city apartment she was rarely using anymore. With the same money I was paying for the previous one. A fucking life saver let me tell you.

It's a much bigger, and generally much nicer, one than the previous shithole I was living in. I finally have enough space for an actual studio. It's also in a much nicer neighbourhood. One I normally would not be able to afford. Lots of green spaces, and very pet friendly (I don't have a pet at the moment, but I'm greatly enjoying meeting all the happy puppers on their walks, whenever I'm out and about).

I moved in in mid-July. I'm still working on it, as I've been going through a lot of the things I had in storage, deciding what to keep, donate, or throw away, and that takes time. The studio is still a mess, but here is a sneak peek of my current working space (the walls were supposed to be lilac, but I'm not complaining - Peppa-the-pig pink it is):

Anyway, back to Inktober. As you can imagine I had hardly the time to read anything during the summer, so the Tiffany Aching idea will have to wait. I also felt extremely uninspired by this year's Inktober prompts. I dug around a bit and found a prompt list I actually like. It's the Mystical Witchtober one, hosted by agingerly aianaiya isabee Madie Meri Marigona Suli Aria and Talita on Instagram. Here's the prompt list (by isabee):

As I was going through the things I've had in storage I found some of my childhood Barbie magazines and sticker albums. So I'm thinking of riding the nostalgia wave, and turning my Witchtober into a slightly Barbie-esque, and a bit late 1980's/early 1990's themed, witch-vampire romance.

I will be working on it at a rather leisurely pace, since I'm still busy working on my new space, and also recovering from a recurring freak throat infection I've had since mid-August (was it strep? was it mono? Who knows? Not my doctors). I've been through two rounds of antibiotics and I'm still not completely well, so please be patient with me.

I think that's all for now. Stick around for a very soft and pink Witchtober. And worry not, I have a lot of Wyrd Sisters things planned once this one is over.

P.S.

Oh yeah, I've also somehow managed in the middle of all the chaos to acquire a new boyfriend. Which hasn't happened in a while. So that's nice.

P.P.S. (bonus for still reading this essay of an update)

I made last year's Wyrd Sisters Abroad Inktober into a zine for the Comicdom Con in May. In true ADHD fashion it was written at five a.m. the morning it had to be at the printer's, after the third all nighter in a row. So typos were inevitable. But the fact that this was the only typo that made it through to the printed version, had me giggling uncontrollably once I discovered it (a couple of months later, it took me a while). Enjoy:

#funny magrat bonus at the end #I think sir terry was having a laugh #oh the irony that is my life #long post #long time no see #personal #new studio #wyrd sisters #inktober #witchtober #barbie

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perfectpaperbluebirds · 1 year ago

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Sicktember #19

Prompt: Curled Up With a Pet

Fandom/OCs: Priest ‘verse OCs (Luc and Flora)

Words: 2530

Sicknario inspo: 'Have you taken anything for that fever?' from this post and caught in the rain scenario from this post.

Author’s comments/background: Ah my sweet babies, in the honeymoon of their relationship. This is tooth rotting fluff, giving a new meaning to the idea of sickly sweet, but it’s definitely sickfic and easily one of my favorite things I wrote this year. Another prompt that just needed some characters to bring it to life, though, which made writing this easy. Enjoy the continued progression of Luc and Flora’s relationship. I set myself up perfectly for some romantic sickbed sex as the next chapter. We’ll see if I have the b*lls to write that, though.

~~~***~~~

The last week in June was always when Father Luc took his summer vacation. He had rented an isolated cabin by a lake in a different state this year, ensuring the lowest possible chance of meeting someone he knew, which enabled Flora to join him along with Charlotte, his golden retriever. The pair had been scheming and anticipating the trip for months. Days of uninterrupted time together, not having to hide or cover their whereabouts, was something they had only dreamed of. Now they would actually experience it.

The first few days of the trip were blissful. They spent hours basking in one another's company, talking about everything and nothing, elated not to be watching the clock or looking over their shoulder constantly. They ate every meal together, swam at all hours of the day, cuddled on the couch, stayed in bed for hours, explored and memorized every line and curve and expression and breath… perfection was the only word they could find to describe those first days.

Around midweek, though, Flora was going a little stir crazy. It was decided that she would run to the nearest town for a grocery run and some window shopping. Luc despised shopping of any variety, so he opted to stay back and go for a hike with Charlotte on the nearby paths. It would be their first time apart in days, and Flora felt a little strange leaving them in the rearview mirror. She felt almost exposed without the warmth of his solid presence only a touch away. She decided she wasn't going to linger long in town, not wanting to waste a single moment of the blessed week.

Luc, too, missed Flora the moment her car disappeared, but he had been looking forward to hiking since they'd gotten here. Flora was not an outdoors girl, though he knew she would've toughed it out just to please him, so he seized the opportunity to go while she was otherwise occupied.

In his eagerness to get a few miles under his boots, he didn't look at the weather before starting off, which proved to be a huge oversight. The first half of the hike was perfect. He set a challenging pace, but didn't push himself and eased up when he needed to, though he refrained from taking any long rests. Charlotte trotted along with him merrily, enjoying her investigations along the path but never straying far from his side.

The hour he'd set for his midway point arrived, and since he was feeling great, he decided to go just a bit further. The moment he made this decision, so it seemed, the rain clouds rolled in with frightening speed. Within minutes the first fat drops were falling. Luc groaned and turned around immediately, knowing it was probably too late. Sure enough, within fifteen minutes rain was falling steadily, surprisingly cold for the month of June. He had a cheap plastic rain poncho in his pack and he threw this on, knowing it would do little good in this, heavy, soaking rain. He tried to keep up the same pace, and even sped up where he could, but the path was steep and slippery in many places and he was forced to slow down for the sake of safety, so in the end he lost time. He avoided any injury, but he still slipped and fell more than once, and soon he was muddy on top of everything else. Any enjoyment he'd gotten from the first half of the walk was quashed by the cold, wet second half, and he was beyond relieved when the cabin appeared over the rise. Charlotte started running when she saw it, desperate to get somewhere dry, and he wasn't far behind.

Even though they returned almost forty-five minutes later than he intended, shockingly Flora hadn't returned either. He realized she was likely trying to wait out the rain, since driving in inclement weather made her anxious as it was, and this was unfamiliar territory to boot. Relieved not to have worried her, he toweled off himself and the dog, threw his filthy clothes in the wash, and hopped into a hot shower.

He felt worlds better when he emerged, except that the damp chill seemed to have settled in his bones. Donning a sweatshirt and sweatpants, he planted himself on the couch to await the return of his beloved.

About an hour after the rain had slowed to a drizzle, Luc heard the truck in the driveway. She had texted him when she was leaving town that she was on her way and that she'd picked up frozen pizzas for dinner, so he had the oven preheated and the pans ready. He waited just inside the door for her, and the moment she entered they collapsed into each other as if their absence had been months instead of hours, a hug so tight that neither knew where one of them ended and the other began. He breathed in the sweet scent of her, relishing the tickle of her hair against his neck.

"I don't know how I'll get used to not being able to touch you in public again," she murmured in his ear, echoing his thoughts exactly.

"We won't deal with that until we have to," he murmured back.

They continued with similar sweet nothings while they moved as one into the kitchen and got the pizzas into the oven, unable to keep eyes and hands away from one another.

"How was town?" he asked after a while, in the midst of making sweet iced tea to go with the pizza.

"Adorable. It's cliche, but the best word to describe it is quaint. They have little shops for everything. The grocery store was very overpriced, but they did have a lot of good stuff. I definitely splurged a little. How was your hike?"

He made a face. "Wet. Well, breathtaking at first. The trails are wonderful. But we got caught in the rain and got drenched before we could get home."

"I wondered why Charlie was looking all bedraggled. And why you chose to shower without me," she said, nudging her hip teasingly against his. "I'm sorry to hear that. I know you were really looking forward to that."

He shrugged. "Maybe I'll get another chance before we leave. But next time I'll actually check the weather first."

The rest of the night passed similarly. The rain never stopped with only the intensity varying from hour to hour. After their first day out of the house in days, the pair was tired and spent a languid evening watching movies on the couch. Flora sat in Luc's lap, her head on his chest, with a blanket covering them both. Luc was thankful for all the extra warmth keeping him from shivering, since he still couldn't get warm. They both dozed off and on, but during one interlude between movies, Flora made Luc promise to take her out to lunch the next day and go with her to a bookstore cafe she'd seen for dessert. Because Luc's only objective for the whole week was to make Flora the happiest woman alive, of course he said yes.

~~~

In the wee hours of the next morning, Luc woke out of nowhere. Usually a hard sleeper, at first he was confused as to why he was awake, until he realized the pillow was unpleasantly wet under his face because apparently his nose was running. He gingerly lifted his head to find one nostril was completely clogged while the other was already tickling furiously, as if a dozen sneezes wanted to get out suddenly. He crept out of bed, careful not to disturb Flora. Charlotte raised her head to look at him from her bed on the floor, then laid back down with a huff of annoyance.

He tiptoed around the foot of the bed, scrubbing at his nose until it squelched which only served to make him want to sneeze more, and over to the ensuite bathroom. Once the bathroom door was shut behind him, he blew his nose several times, then finally gave in to stifle a smattering of fittish sneezes into a towel. Another round of nose blowing, which triggered a little coughing fit, and at last he felt better. Opening the bathroom door, he was startled to see Flora half sitting up, blinking at him in confusion.

"Are you okay?" she mumbled, fuzzy with sleep. "Heard you coughing."

He frowned. "I didn't mean to wake you. I'm fine. Just a tickle."

"Heard you sneezing too. Are you coming down with something?"

He shrugged. "Maybe a little chill. All the rain yesterday and such. Nothing to worry about."

Flora nodded, already coasting back to sleep. She was out before he had gotten under the covers. Before he could settle, he again had to scrub at his nose and was annoyed to find that it was already feeling drippy. He laid down with a huff reminiscent of Charlotte's and closed his eyes. He too was asleep again in moments.

~~~

The couple slept in the next morning, as had been their habit this week. By late morning, though, Flora, more of a morning person than Luc, was flitting around like a butterfly getting ready while the priest hadn't yet managed to get out of bed.

"Why are you getting all dressed up?" he mumbled, still half asleep.

"Because you promised to take me to lunch, silly! It's already brunch time as it is."

He ran a hand across his face, suppressing a groan. "Right, right. Okay, then I need to start getting ready too." He tried to keep his tone positive, but going into town was the last thing he wanted to do. Anything beyond moving from the bed to the couch was the last thing he wanted to do. But he could never disappoint Flora, not during their magical getaway. He was sluggish getting ready. His nose and throat still bothered him, his eyes felt puffy, and now he had the makings of a headache too. Yet he didn’t complain, smiled at Flora whenever he was near, and tried to act as if nothing was wrong.

He couldn’t hide anything from perceptive Flora, though. He hadn’t made much headway in getting ready, and had only just made it out of the shower when she stopped him with a gentle touch on his arm. “Are you okay, Luc? You look pretty out of it.”

He sighed, choosing truth over a white lie. “I think that hike yesterday really took it out of me. I’m exhausted. Got the sniffles. Just really don’t feel great. But hey, I can still take you out to lunch, don’t worry. I want to make you happy and make the most of our time here."

Flora gave him a sympathetic smile. “Don’t do that to yourself. I can see in your eyes that you really don’t want to go out. You stay here and rest and hold down the fort. I’ll run up there and grab a book or two and some lunch and coffee to go for us. You don’t need to make yourself miserable for my sake.”

He chuckled softly. “I would never be miserable if I was with you. But if you’re sure, then I’ll take you up on that offer. I know you’re getting bored just hanging around here. And all I want to do is go back to sleep for a while. I promise I’ll be better company when you get back.”

“Especially if I bring you some caffeine,” she laughed. “Okay, it’s a deal. I’ll see you in a few hours, then. Enjoy your rest.”

“I’ll miss you the whole time,” he said softly. He hated that he would have to watch her drive away again, but knew he wouldn’t feel any better if he were with her in this case. It was for the best for him to stay here, so he could get himself into shape to enjoy her when she got back.

~~~

Flora was back by late afternoon with a bag full of books, and a bag full of takeout, plus a carrier of drinks. Luc wasn’t in the living room, and she had a strong sense of deja vu, recalling the official beginning of their romance when she nursed him though a horrible chest cold. She set the food in the kitchen and the books in the living room, then poked her head into the bedroom, smiling at the sight that greeted her.

Luc was wearing the same clothes he had been when she left, and it looked like he had turned around and laid down as soon as she was gone. He was on top of the bedspread, but covered in the blanket she always traveled with, snoring deeply and curled up in a “C” shape around Charlotte, who was also snoozing. Unlike the first time she had nursed him, though, she wasn’t about to let him sleep all day, not when they only had a few precious days left alone together. Plus, she was hungry, and she assumed he would be too.

She perched on the side of the bed and ran her hand up and down the length of his leg. When he didn’t stir, she tried gently shaking his arm. He shifted and mumbled, immediately scrubbing his nose, which she noted was an angry shade of red, into his shoulder with a snuffle. She went to brush the riot of dark curls away from his forehead, but frowned when her palm made contact with his skin. She shook his shoulder again, softly calling his name. His eyes flickered open and lit up upon seeing her. They shared a tiny smile.

“Hey, sleepyhead… Have you taken anything for that fever?” she asked softly, trying not to let worry color her tone too much.

“Fever?” he mumbled. “What fever?” Luc slowly sat up, rubbing a palm into one eye and sniffling, only to be wracked by a harsh shiver a moment later that made him hiss in discomfort.

“Oh no, are you cold?” Flora asked, though the answer seemed obvious, scooting closer to him and lifting her arm invitingly.

“Freezing,” he said, and she thought she heard his teeth start to chatter as he pulled her blanket closer around himself, then sagged against her with a sleepy yawn, his heated skin making the hair on her arms prickle. She simply sat and held him for a bit, weighing their options.

“Looks like I might be making another run into town,” Flora murmured. “I’m not sure how much medicine I brought. I think I just have Tylenol and Ibuprofen.”

“Don’t go again,” Luc mumbled, still half asleep against her. “I’ll be fine. I just want you here with me.”

Flora laughed softly. “If you insist. Your wish is my command.”

“All I wish is that we go watch more movies with coffee and dinner.”

“Call me Jeanne, then, because I think I can make that happen. As long as you promise you’ll take some medicine and not get any worse.”

“Your wish is my command,” Luc echoed sleepily, his dimple flickering in a smile.

#sicktember 2023 #skt 2023 #priest 'verse ocs #prompt 19

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