#ed and em actually caring about their sister

[unclewaynemunson]

"What. The. Fuck."

Over years of living in a trailer park, Eddie has seen his fair share of weird shit. But this right here? This surpasses everything.

Wayne is sitting on the couch in the living room, with an actual baby in his lap and a completely deadpan expression on his face like this is something that happens every day.

"Hey, Ed. Meet Sasha Munson."

"Sasha Munson?" Eddie repeats, hoping that saying the name out loud will make this whole thing less surreal. It doesn't, so he automatically switches right into disbelieving panic mode instead. "Sasha Munson?! What the fuck? She isn't mine, I promise, it's literally impossible, someone must've - Wait, hold on - Is she yours? Aren't you like fifty years too old to knock someone up? What the fuck did you do? Who's the mother? What were you thinking, man, we can't take care of a -"

"Eddie, sit down."

"No, I'm not sitting down, this is ridiculous, what the fucking fuck, we can't -"

"She ain't mine and she ain't yours."

"What the-" It takes a few seconds before Wayne's words sink in. Then, Eddie freezes mid-sentence, giving his brain a second or two to catch up to what Wayne just said.

"Wait, what?" he asks.

He gives the sleeping baby a distrustful look. It's small - too small to be a human, if you asks Eddie. It scares him a little bit.

"Then whose is she?"

"I told ya to sit down, Ed."

And Wayne's voice is so strict and serious that Eddie can only obey.

"Your dad was here earlier."

Those few words are enough to tell Eddie exactly what happened. He immediately feels sick to his stomach. He wants to cover his ears, or walk out of the trailer and never come back. But instead, he keeps sitting, frozen in his chair, and listens to what Wayne tells him.

"Sasha is his daughter. He had this girlfriend, Melody, 'bout a year ago. She's much younger than him, is all I know 'bout her. I think they were kinda serious at the time. But Clyde went and messed it up, of course. Cheated on her. She dumped him. Then showed up again a few weeks later all sobered up and told him she was pregnant. Far as I know, things went okay for a while after that. But she caved right after she gave birth. It took a toll on her, Clyde said. So she needed the drugs again. He left her; he didn't see a way to help her and he was worried 'bout Sasha's safety. So he took Sasha with him and brought her to me. Said he couldn't take care of a baby and that was that."

It is a story eerily similar to what Wayne told Eddie about his own early years, whenever he'd ask him questions about his parents.

Eddie looks at the tiny human in Wayne's arms. Her eyes are closed and her mouth is just slightly agape. She's wrapped in a blanket that has a soft shade of pink, with tiny elephants printed across it.

"He never learns, does he?" Eddie remarks with a sigh.

"He doesn't," Wayne affirms in a soft voice, shaking his head. "But you know what, if these are the consequences of his actions..." He first looks up at Eddie, then down at the baby in his lap again. "I can't even be too mad at him for it."

"Jesus Christ, what a mess."

"Don't think too badly of him, Ed," Wayne says. "He wanted to help them. Both of 'em. But he didn't know how. He did what he thought was gonna be best for Sasha. Just like he did with you. He ain't evil. Just a coward who makes bad decisions."

Eddie swallows thickly.

"We'll make it work," Wayne says with certainty in his voice. "It'll be tight, but we'll survive. We did it before, we can do it again."

Eddie nods.

"You wanna hold her?"

He shifts uneasily. She seems so fragile. He doesn't know a single thing about babies; he is his father's son, after all, not Wayne's, no matter how much he wishes he were.

"C'mon, Ed, she's your sister."

It's only now that Eddie notices how well it fits, Wayne with a baby in his arms. Like he was made to be a father. Like Sasha belongs there. There aren't any pictures of Eddie as a baby, as far as he knows, but he imagines it must've looked somewhat like this scene: the exact same couch, a different blanket, and a younger version of Wayne. One with less wrinkles and more hair; less worn-out by the sorrows Eddie has given him over the years. It's simple for Wayne, in a way it isn't for Eddie's father, and in a way that Eddie fears it won't be for him. To hold her gently and let her sleep to the rhythm of his heartbeat. To sit with her quietly and do nothing else. To give love and patience without expecting anything in return.

Eddie rises from his chair and sits down next to Wayne on the couch. He utters a shaky breath, trying not to show his nerves, and wipes his sweaty hands over his jeans before holding out his arms.

“Just like that,” says Wayne softly while he places Sasha in Eddie's arms.

She's warm and has that specific newborn baby scent clinging around her. She's heavier than Eddie expected. She stirs a little bit and makes a tiny sound, but then she continues her peaceful sleep. He studies her: her closed eyes, her tiny nose, the way her head rolls around helplessly if he doesn't support her steadily enough; the hand that's hanging out of the blanket, with minuscule but fully developed fingers that grab around nothing. He listens to the steady sound of her breathing and imagines the tiny lungs inside her body working on pure instinct to keep her alive. His sister.

He looks up and finds Wayne staring at the two of them with tears in his eyes. He only catches Eddie's gaze for a fraction of a second, then he looks away, to the window on his right side.

“You're wrong, you know,” Eddie says.

Wayne turns his head back to him.

“Bout what?”

“She isn't his. Neither am I.” He looks up from the girl in his hands to meet Wayne's eyes. “We're both yours. He didn't do jackshit for us, just dropped us here with you and ran away. You're the one who raised me, Uncle Wayne, and that makes me yours way more than his. And Sasha? We're both gonna be here for her, every step of the way. We're gonna change her diapers and feed her milk - I don't really know anything else about babies, but we're gonna do all of that, together. We're gonna see her grow up and become a person. She's ours.”

Wayne produces a noise that sounds somewhat like a choked-off sob. He puts an arm around Eddie and drags him closer towards him. He doesn't say anything, but Eddie didn't expect him to. He understands.

[guess-my-next-obsession]

In the Cold, Cold Night, Chapter Two:

pairing: cowboy/frontier!joel miller x oc (Dorothea) / unrequited tommy miller

rating: E (18+ only, western stuff, innocence kink if you squint? more just period-realistic virginity vibes from dorothea, buckle riding (i had to), secret relationship, talks of religion/sinning)

wc: 3.5k

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What started out as an exciting morning—the thought of heading over to Joel’s house giving Dorothea a pep in her step—quickly dwindled into something more busy than she hoped.

After having to spend the morning tending to Robert and Paul’s hangover at the request of her father, the two young men going out of their way to take advantage of her obedience by demanding a special breakfast, she was sent out into the yard to supervise her youngest brothers, Bo, Ed, and James, as they cleaned and refilled every single trough they had as a punishment for skipping church the sunday prior. Dorothea didn’t have to do much but sit, the momentary break giving her a chance to catch up on her latest knitting project—a blanket for a childhood friend's newborn.

The last nail in the coffin was her mother’s request to join her at the church for her prayer group meeting—though, it was less of a request and more of an obligation given how devout her mother was.

She sat in that tiny, sweltering hot church with a hand fan batting air at her face, her eyes shut as the women around her seemingly prayed for every single person in town, her mind lost in sinful thought about what occurred in Joel’s kitchen the night before. It wasn’t until the pretty, young, school teacher took her turn praying that she actually listened, the sound of Joel’s name slipping from her lips piquing her interest.

“Dear lord,” she started, her voice honey sweet. “I wanna pray for a young man and his daughter, Joel and Sarah, that just moved into town. I pray that you give him the means to lead her in your path, lord. Pray you protect ‘em. Amen.”

Though any good Christian woman would’ve said an “amen” before moving on to whatever the next person was praying about, Dorothea was occupied with jealousy, her stomach turning sour at the thought of some pretty, red-haired young woman caring so much for Joel that she talked to God about him.

Did they know each other well? Did Joel lay the same moves on this pretty school teacher that he did on her? Why did it matter?

Her mind ran miles in the time it took for the meeting to end, each of the women filing out of the church-house and into the dry heat.

“Alright, let’s go on home and get supper started,” Jessa said, looping her arm with her daughter’s. “Know it ain’t good to gossip, but…ya hear that teacher lady? Prayin’ like a saint.”

“Yep,” Dorothea nodded.

“Ain’t that that boy y’like? Joel?” she asked.

“Never said I liked’m,” she said.

“Right,” Jessa smirked. “Regardless, I’ll see what gossip I can get outta the ladies at church. See if maybe his boots’ve found a home under her bed.”

“Mama,” she scolded in a gasp, shaking her head as they continued down the road.

“Alright, I’ll quit,” she said, patting her daughter's hand. “Must be cute. Got all these pretty ladies fawnin’ over him.”

“Mama, you said you’d quit,” Dorothea recalled with a flat tone.

“Alright, I’m done for good,” she promised with a smirk. “For now.”

It was late in the afternoon by the time they got home and started out on dinner, just some cornbread, mashed potatoes, and chicken.

While Robert and Paul were back off to the saloon, the younger boys stayed home—James and Ed playing out back with Sarah who’d come by sometime while Dorothea and Jessa were gone, and Bo who stayed to help his mother and sister with supper.

“Who’s ‘at out front?” John Mackey walked into the kitchen where Bo, Dorothea, and Jessa were sitting at the table peeling and chopping up potatoes.

“Who?” Jessa asked, her brows lacing as she leaned over to look out of the dusty window, the silhouette of a grown man dressed in blue jeans and a white shirt catching her eye. “Oh, that must be Sarah’s daddy.”

“Is it?” Dorothea sprung up from her chair and walked over to the window, practically pressing her nose to the glass to get a good look at him in all his sweaty glory.

“Bo, go on out back and call Sarah in,” Jessa ordered.

“Dot, go on and invite ‘em in for a cup ‘a water. Swelterin’ out there,” John added, taking his seat at the table.

“Yes sir,” she nodded, biting her lip as she practically ran out of the house, the screen door whacking the wooden frame behind her as she jogged down the steps of the porch. “You here for Sarah?”

“One ‘a the reasons,” he smiled, meeting her halfway between the fence and the porch. He stopped just short of touching her, his eyes meeting hers before traveling down her frame. “Lookin’ awfully pretty today.”

“Must’a known you were comin’ by,” she smirked. “Sorry I couldn’t sneak out today.”

“S’alright, got caught up with workin’ anyways,” he shrugged, squinting at the sun behind her.

“I could…sneak out later,” she shrugged, lifting her hand to ghost over his chest before deciding against it. “After dark.”

“Sounds risky,” he smiled, reaching forward to loop his pointer finger with hers. “Don’t want your daddy showin’ up on my doorstep with a shotgun.”

“He won’t know,” she assured. “Sleeps like a rock after supper.”

“I’d have to come get ya,” he said. “Ain’t safe to be walkin’ around after dark by yourself.”

“You gonna take me ridin’ on that pretty horse you got?” she purred.

“I could,” he nodded, his eyes falling to her lips, the pink hue calling his name. He shook his head at her affect on him and took a necessary step back. “Am I blushin’?”

“Just a little,” she chuckled before remembering why she came outside in the first place. “My, uh, my daddy wanted me to invite you in for some water.”

“That’s awfully kind of him,” he replied, looking over her shoulder at his daughter as she stepped through the front door. “I’ll have to take him up another time, got supper goin’ back home.”

“But tonight?” she asked, trying not to look too hopeful.

“I’ll be here waitin’ if y’want me to,” he assured.

“I want you to,” she affirmed, clasping her hand with his and squeezing it before letting it go, Sarah’s boots crunching on the dirt behind her pulling her away from him.

“Hi, daddy,” she smiled, hugging her father’s hip. “Time for supper?”

“Yep,” he nodded, turning his eyes back to Dorothea. “I’ll see ya, ma’am.”

She smiled smittenly at him as he tipped his hat at her before turning to walk Sarah to his horse that was tied up on the fence post. She admired the pull of his shirt across his back as he hoisted the little girl up onto the saddle before climbing up himself and trotting off down the road.

“Where you off to?” Tommy asked from the sofa as Joel tried to sneak out of the house around midnight.

“What’re you doin’ up?” Joel asked, shifting his weight to one hip as he stayed standing right by the front door. “Drunk?”

“Not tonight,” he said, somewhat forlorn. “Just thinkin���…’bout that Dorothea.”

“What about her?” Joel asked, hoping that he wasn’t giving anything away with his soft scowl.

“I like her,” he said. “She’s quick, pretty, soft. Kinda woman ya settle down with.”

“Mm,” Joel grunted, nodding his head.

“Just thinkin’ ‘bout whether m’ready to settle down,” Tommy continued.

“You’re young,” Joel said, shrugging his shoulders. “Be young.”

“You’re always naggin’ at me to settle down, now y’want me to be young?” Tommy chuckled. “No pleasin’ you.”

“I just ain’t sure you’re ready t’give it all up yet,” he reasoned. “No need to go breakin’ any hearts until ya know for certain.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Tommy nodded, a soft, tired smile on his face. “Where y’goin’?”

Joel turned sheepish.

“Is Joel Miller goin’ to see a woman?” Tommy teased. “Bordello?”

Joel only grunted, considering it less than a lie.

“Well, good on you,” Tommy nodded. “Need me t'stay up?”

“Just watch Sarah,” he said, walking back to the front door. “No drinkin’.”

“No drinkin’,” Tommy agreed, gesturing at the door. “Now go on. Lord knows y’need it.”

Joel offered up a smile and nodded before grabbing his hat off the hook and heading outside. The moon was high in the sky, the stars shimmering like diamonds above him as he walked to the small stable and walked his horse, Callus, out, saddling it up before climbing on and trotting off down the long, lonely road with his pistol on his hip for safe keeping.

When he pulled up to Dorothea’s house, he spotted a shadow sitting on the front porch with a lantern. Pulling the reins, he got Callus to stop and waited as the shadow stood up and ran down the dirt path to the gate.

“Took ya long enough,” Dorothea said, handing him her lantern as she climbed onto Callus behind him, her arms wrapping around his middle as he hung the light from the saddlebag.

“My apologies, ma’am,” he said, turning his head to glance back at her with a smile. “Y’ready for an adventure?”

“Y’takin’ me somewhere special?” she asked, giving him a squeeze.

“Yep,” he nodded and turned his eyes forward, clicking to get Callus to turn around and trot off in the direction he came from.

“Where we goin’?”

“S’a surprise,” he said, moving one hand from the reins to rest over hers on his stomach.

“What if I don’t like surprises,” she smiled, resting her cheek on his shoulder blade.

“Well, guess ya ain’t gonna like it, then,” he drawled, lacing her fingers with his. “What’d you get up to today?”

Dorothea sighed and shook her head. “Too much.”

“We got time,” he smiled.

“Just a lot of housework,” she shrugged. “Takin’ care ‘a my drunk brothers.”

“Your daddy don’t care what they do?”

“Don’t seem like it,” she said. “Bet I’ll have t’nurse ‘em back to health tomorrow, too.”

“What’d ya do after that?”

“Went with my mama to the church.”

“Didn’t know you were the holy type,” he teased.

“I ain’t,” she replied, splaying her hand across his lower stomach. “But my mama is, and I love her, so…off to prayer I go.”

“What’d ya pray about?”

“You’re awfully chatty tonight,” she teased.

“Would’ya like me to shut up?”

“No,” she hummed, closing her eyes as the warm breeze brushed her face. “Not yet, at least.”

“Alright,” he chuckled. “You gonna answer, then?”

“I didn’t pray,” she said. “My mind was…other places.”

“Like where?”

“Like back in your kitchen.”

“Not sure God would approve of those thoughts,” he said, turning to glance down at her hand inching dangerously close to his lap.

“You know that school teacher?” she asked, lifting her head up to stare at the back of his neck. “The young one?”

“I met her a few times,” he said. “She teaches Sarah.”

“Well…you’re in her prayers,” she mumbled, still sickened with jealousy.

“Ain’t that nice ‘a her,” he smiled, picking up on the dryness in her tone. “She ain’t in mine.”

“You pray?” Dorothea quirked an eyebrow at the back of his head.

“Not much,” he said. “‘N only ‘bout the things that matter.”

“Well then, you must matter t'her,” she said. “Any reason?”

“If you’re tryin’ to ask somethin’, darlin’, I ain’t pickin’ up on it.”

“Mmhm,” she rolled her eyes and smiled at his playful ignorance. “Wouldn’t blame ya. She’s a pretty woman.”

“I’ve seen prettier,” he said.

“Like who?”

Joel chuckled and shook his head.

“Now who’s playin’ dumb,” he smiled. “Y’know you’re the prettiest damn thing within a thousand miles of here. Maybe more."

"Maybe?" she repeated. "Why's it a maybe?

"Ain't seen that much ‘a the world yet.”

“Guess I’ll take it, then,” she grinned, nuzzling back into the warmth of his back. “You're pretty, too. In a…rough kinda way.”

“Well, ain’t you sweet,” he chided, squeezing her hand.

“Meant it,” she said.

“Guess I’ll take it,” he echoed.

Joel and Dorothea rode out for an hour, the town fading behind them as they wandered through the Texan plains and desert. Callus seemed to know exactly where they were heading off to, Joel's hands hardly doing any steering as the horse trotted down a ditch and then back up. Dorothea watched as a sparse line of trees came into view, their once-green leaves yellow dying under the blazing sun.

Soon, the sight of a riverbank just past the trees caught Dorothea’s eyes as Joel got Callus to stop. He felt her hop down off the horse before he climbed off himself, watching her as she started off towards the trees. Her feet were quick as she wandered through the tall, dry grass to the glimmer of water just a few yards away, her head turning back to grin at Joel.

“This your surprise for me?” she asked, kicking her boots off once she reached the soft, wet, and darker dirt by the water, her dress scrunched in her hands to lift the hem as she leaned a foot out to kick the water, testing the temperature.

“You like it?” Joel asked, grunting softly as he sat down on the cool ground, his knees hugged close to his chest by his strong arms.

Dorothea turned around and smiled brightly, nodding her head as she walked over to sit beside him. “S’real nice.” A comfortable silence fell over them for a few beats, Dorothea’s eyes swept up in this small oasis just outside her town limits, it’s sparse but flourishing trees, the shimmer of the water, the starlight overhead. “Y’know…I don’t think I’ve been this far from home in—actually, I’ve never been this far from home.”

“How’s it feel?” he asked, brushing his shoulder against hers, his eyes fixed on her profile as she gazed up at the stars.

“Feels nice,” she whispered back, her demeanor turned gentle as awe took hold of her. “I haven’t looked up at the stars ‘n a long time. Silly. They’re right there, every night, all ya gotta do is look up, but…I never do.”

“Y’should,” he said, reluctantly turning his eyes away from her and up at the stars twinkling overhead in the pitch black sky.

“D’you?” she asked, turning to look at him, watching him nod thoughtfully.

“Most nights,” he replied. “Sometimes I get worn out ‘fore they come out, but if I’m up…I like t’go out ‘n watch ‘em. Puts everythin’ into perspective.”

“D’ya know anythin’ about ‘em?” she asked, drawing his eyes to hers.

“Like what?” he chuckled.

“Like…their names…n’things like that.”

“No,” his amusement faded into a sweet smile, his head shaking softly. “Don’t know any names or nothin’.”

She frowned slightly and nodded, turning to look back up at them for a minute before lifting her finger to point one out.

“That one,” she said, drawing Joel’s attention, his eyes following the line of her arm to the tip of her finger. “That pink lookin’ one…she’s Betty.”

“S’that right?” he chuckled, his heart swelling with endearment.

“Yeah—Betty,” she nodded.

Joel took his time to scan the sky for a star of his own, his finger lifting to point at a bright blue speck.

“He can be Butch,” Joel said, giving her a smile.

“Betty and Butch,” she agreed, turning to meet his eyes, their mouths just a few inches apart.

Joel’s eyes wandered first, studying the soft plushness of the lips he’d tasted the night prior.

“Y’gonna kiss me again?” she whispered, a smug smile on her face.

“Just admirin’,” he said, flickering his eyes back to hers. “‘Less you want me to.”

Dorothea bit her lip as she stayed smiling at him, not willing to break contact first. Instead, she kept her eyes glued to his as she sat up and hiked up the skirt of her dress, Joel instinctively dropping his knees to guide her as she tossed her leg over his lap to straddle it. His hands rested on her waist, his eyes locked on hers as his lips parted in awe at the sight of her moonlit form on top of him.

“I want you t’do more than kiss me,” she said, draping her arms around his shoulders and rocking experimentally against his belt buckle. Joel let out a soft groan as his eyes fell to his lap, his hands bunching up the hem of her dress until he could see her work against him, bare and wet.

“Jesus,” he swore, his eyes shooting up to meet hers as she let out a soft moan, her head tipping back. “Feel good?”

“Feels—like heaven,” she moaned, lifting her head up to look at him through scrunched brows and lidded eyes, her hips continuing their shaky rock back and forth. Joel’s hands dropped her dress to fit on either side of her face, pulling her down to meet his lips, her moans flowing straight into his open mouth as he swiped his tongue over hers.

“Just like ‘at,” he whispered. “Keep goin’.”

“Feels so good,” she whined, her thighs trembling. “Feels like…I don’t know.”

“Just keep goin’,” he cooed. “S’gonna feel good.”

Dorothea’s head fell into the crook of his neck as she inched closer to a euphoria she had no idea even existed, her moans joining the crickets chirping in the background.

“Joel—“

“C’mon, darlin’,” he rasped softly in her ear, his hands gripping the globes of her ass through the cotton of her dress, guiding her hips against the cool metal buckle as they grew unsteady. “C’mon.”

“Oh,” she drew in a sharp gasp and held it as she seized up with her climax, the warmth and pleasure shooting through every nerve in her body causing her to cling to Joel for grounding. “Jesus—felt so good.”

Joel smiled, kissing her temple until she lifted her head up to look at him with a lazy, sated grin.

“That was fun,” she said. “S’it always like that?”

“Should be,” he smiled, his chest practically puffing with pride as he lifted a hand up to her cheek, his thumb tracing the curve of her smile. “So damn beautiful.”

Dorothea leaned in, brushing the tip of her nose against his before pecking him softly.

“Makin’ me crazy,” Joel added in a mumble against her lips. “All I think about.”

“S’that true?” she asked, pulling back just enough to look him in the eye.

“Yes, ma’am,” he smiled, nodding at her.

“Glad I ain’t the only one, then,” she grinned, kissing his cheek. “What can I do t’make you feel that good?”

Joel sighed, the strain against his jeans aching, but there wasn’t time for him tonight.

“Need t’get ya back home,” he said.

Dorothea frowned and nodded, dropping her eyes to his lap.

“I wanna, though,” she said. “Another time. Wanna learn how t’make you feel good.”

Joel’s cock twitched at her request.

“Promise,” she said. “Next time we get a chance…promise you’ll teach me.”

“I promise,” he nodded, his voice a breathy rasp. “God, you’re makin’ me crazy, darlin’. Let’s go ‘fore I get us into trouble.”

“Can’t have that,” she chuckled, standing up and offering him her hand as if he needed it. Joel took it anyways, just barely letting her pull to help him off the ground, his hands dusting the back of his jeans off.

“Your carriage awaits n’ all that,” Joel said, nudging his chin towards the horse.

“That make you my knight in shinin’ armor?” she teased as she walked over to her boots, slipping them back on her dirty feet before stomping through the grass back to Callus.

“Guess so,” he smiled to himself as he followed her. “Long as you're the princess.”

“Hm,” she turned to face him as she reached Callus, waiting for his help in climbing on. “Never saw myself as much of a princess.”

“Never saw myself as much of a knight ‘n shinin’ armor,” he countered. “Yet here I am, helpin’ you onto the horse even though I know y’know how t’do it your damned self.”

“Maybe I am a princess, then,” she said, earning a chuckle.

“Maybe I’m a knight.”

Joel lingered longer than he probably should’ve, Dorothea’s lips causing him to lose track of time as they stood in front of her farm, her hands tangled in his hair, his gripping onto the fabric covering her waist.

“Need’a go inside,” he mumbled against her jaw as his lips trailed down to her pulse.

“Then let me go,” she said, smiling up at the sky as Joel only held her tighter.

“Can’t,” he rasped close to her ear. “Taste too good.”

“Joel,” she moaned, guiding his lips back to hers. “I wanna taste you, too.”

“Mm,” he groaned into their kiss, his hand smoothing down her back to cup her ass. “Tomorrow.”

“Got bible study t’morrow night,” she said, watching him as he pulled back to look at her through lust-darkened eyes, his lips bowed and parted.

“After,” he said, smiling sinfully. “Give ya somethin’ to repent for.”

“You gonna take me straight t’hell, ain’t ya?” she smirked, wiping the shine off the plump of his bottom lip. “Alright. T’morrow.”

“Go on inside ‘fore your daddy comes out with a pistol,” he smiled, patting her hip as she started to head past the fence. “Have a goodnight, Dot.”

Dorothea smiled at the nickname, turning around to walk backwards, her hand lifting to her lips to blow him a kiss. “Y’too, Joel.”

Neither one of them got much of any sleep that night, and yet neither cared. They’d never sleep again if it meant sharing their nights together, under the dark veil of the night sky, the stars dancing above them, their bodies and minds intertwined.

[spookyquinnbie]

Best Friends Birthday

Eddie Munson x Reader / EM One Shot

Summary: You and Eddie have been friends for years, its your birthday and he has a special surprise for you.

Words: 2646

warnings: fluff, swearing,

Notes: I've had this in my head for a while but never had the time to write it so I hope you enjoy<3

You and Eddie have been friends since middle school. You never grew up in Hawkins, you moved from Ohio when you were about 10 years old. Eddie was your first friend, the first person to talk to you. Since then, you have been inseparable, always by each other's side, hanging out each other's homes, being there for each other through breakups and what not. You both grew up together, your parents were good friends with Wayne, always inviting him and Eddie to vacations and family BBQ’s. You’d been through a lot together over the years.  

Wayne loved you like a daughter he never had, he would always call you ‘trouble’ and scruff your hair up when you saw him, he adored you. You were always at their trailer growing up, you preferred it there, it felt more like home than your actual home. You never felt like you belonged at home, always being told ‘act more like your older sister’. You didn’t want to, you wanted to be your own person.  

It was senior year for both of you at Hawkins High, Eddie was sure he was going to graduate this year. You were basically his tutor since he wasn’t all that bright, but you didn’t care. Over the past year things have been a little different between you and Eddie. He was now the schools drug dealer and labelled as the freak, which gained a lot more attention than normal. More girls wanted him, more boys wanted to pick on him. You were always there for him. Through his outbursts at his trailer over Jason Carver calling him stupid names to him playing sad love songs on the guitar when his 3-week relationship broke off after a girl asked him out for a joke. You though, you never had eyes for anybody but Eddie. You never told him, never told anybody in fact. You didn’t want to ruin years of friendship, you didn’t think Eddie would like you anyway, you didn’t think you were his type. Sure, you were always a metalhead, liked DnD, liked horror movies but you thought girls like Chrissy Cunningham were more his type, as you’ve seen him drool over her several times in the last 2 weeks. You just admired Eddie from a far, writing notes in your diary about how much you want to kiss him and be his forever. Eddie always flirted with you, always called you his ‘sweetheart’ or ‘princess’, they always made you melt. The way he would kiss your forehead when saying goodbye, or knowing you were anxious when your legs would constantly be bouncing, he would rest his hand on your leg and give you a warm smile to let you know you're okay.  

It was the day before your birthday, Eddie had been more excited for it than you for weeks now. He’s invited you over to spend the night with him. This was normal, you used to spend nights together most weekends. He wanted to see you on your actual birthday, but your parents said your family from out of town was coming to see you so the day before it had to be. You had no idea what Eddie had planned for you; you had told him so many times not to get you anything, but he promised id love it.  

You just walked into school, your mousy brown hair flowing in the wind along with your black skater dress. You walked up to your locker and opened it, placing your bag in and getting your books for the day. You glance down the hall to see Eddie walking into school, this was early for him. He had a skip in his step, and he had something in his hand you couldn’t quite make out.  

“Mornin, birthday girl” Eddie smiled, leaning against the locker holding a rose out in front of him. “Flower for you, sweetheart” His smile was so wide. You couldn’t help but blush and melt at his large brown eyes gleaming at you.  

“Thanks, Eds!” You said taking the rose from him and wrapping your arms around his shoulders, pulling him into a warm hug. He kissed your forehead as you pulled away.  

“You're still coming over after school, right?” He asked, his eyes wide and desperate for my answer.  

“Yes, how many times have you asked me this week” I roll my eyes and look at him, closing my locker and leaning against it next to him.  

“I just-” Eddie takes his hands in yours. “i want your birthday to be perfect, you’re my best friend, I have the perfect presents for you” He squeezes your hand gently, swaying them lightly as he gets over enthusiastic about the presents he’s got you.  

“Eddie! Presents?! You did have to I told you!” you nudge him and pout. He smirks and holds his hands up in defence.  

“I know, I know but I’ve been working extra hours at the record store and saved up my money” Eddie says placing one hand in his pocket and shrugging. You couldn’t be angry at him, he did this all for you. You smile at him, your eyes sparkling in the sunlight beaming through the windows. The first bell rang and you both went sperate ways for your first classes of the day. You hoped today went fast, the anticipation of what Eddie had planned was killing you.  

It was the end of the school day, finally. You were stood outside in the parking lot next to Eddies truck waiting for him. You heard his loud voice from across the lot, you gaze over and see him with Dustin and Jeff, walking over to his truck. Eddies eyes meet yours and he smiles and gives you a little wave. 

“Happy Birthday” Dustin and Jeff say in unison.  

“Thanks guys” I smile at them both. Eddie lights up 2 cigarettes and hands you one. You nod to him and take a drag and exhale. You didn’t have any time to chat to Dustin or Jeff before Eddie was rushing the conversation and practically pushing you into his truck. The car ride seemed to go on forever, you were nervous what Eddie had planned for you. Eddie hardly spoke the whole ride to the trailer; his demeanour had changed from this morning, he seemed stiff and nervous. You kept looking over at him as you smoked your cigarette in the passenger side of his truck.  

We finally arrived at the trailer park; Eddie parked the truck up. He practically jumped out of the truck and ran around to my side before you could even take your seatbelt off.  

“M’lady” He bowed while opening the door and holding his arm out. I jumped out of the truck and curtsied to Eddie. “Thank you, kind sir” You giggled. You started walking to the trailer and Eddie grabbed your waist and halted you.  

“N-No, wait a sec! Close your eyes” He looked at you making sure you closed your eyes, You put your hands on your waist and close your eyed.  

“Keep em closed till I say so yeah?” You felt him walk away from you, you could hear voices but couldn’t quite make them out, your stomach fluttered as your nerves grew. You heard the trailer door open and close once more and then felt Eddies hands on your shoulders. 

“Follow my lead, okay?”  

“Eddie what's going on?” You follow his lead, holding his arms tight.  

“We are nearly there okay sweetheart” We took a few steps more and place your hand on the trailer door. Eddie guides you through into the living room and stops you. You hear a lighter flick and Eddie walks away from you. 

“okay! Open your eyes!” You open your eyes and your heart stops. Eddie and Wayne are standing there holding a birthday cake, with a few lit candles. They both start to sing happy Birthday to you, moving closer to you. You don’t know what to do, you take one step closer to them and smile under the hand you have over your mouth. You cannot believe Eddie had done this for you. Your heart feels full watching Eddie and Wayne singing to you.  

They both stop singing and Wayne holds out the cake to you.  

“Blow out the candles then” Wayne says beaming from ear to ear. You look at him and the down at the cake. You blow out your candles and they both cheer.  

“Happy brithday, trouble” Wayne put the cake down on the coffee table and pulls you into a hug, scruffing up your hair.  

“Thanks uncle wayne” He wasn’t really your uncle, but you always called him that. You hugged him tight and then turned to Eddie, who was on the verge of tears. 

“Come here ya big goof. Thank you Eds” You grab eddies hand and pull him into a hug, he wraps his arms around you. You nuzzle your face into his chest, as he kissed your forehead.  

You all stand around in the trailer eating some cake, Wayne wanted to share some cake before he left for work. Wayne had even got you a gift. It was a hat that youd always admired that was off the wall of the trailer, he took it down and gave it to you. It meant a lot to you that he did that, he always had collected those hats.  

Wayne left for work and as soon as the trailer door closed, Eddie grabbed your hand. 

“okay, now for presents” Eddie gleamed, pulling you into his bedroom. He walked infront of you and knelt down on the floor infront of 3 presents. You walk in the room and gasp. 

“Eddie! Oh my god” You skipped to him and knelt down next to him. “For me? Are you serious” Eddie nodded and moved closer to you.  

“You have to open them in a certain order though, princess” He smirked at you, grabbing a, badly, wrapped present. Eddie wasn’t the best at anything DIY like wrapping or cooking but the thought is what counts and he puts a lot of thought into anything he does. He hands you a medium sized present, its soft.  

“First one” You say, placing it infront of you, ripping the paper. Your cheeks flush red as you see the first present. Eddie had taken one of your favourite denim jackets and sewed on some patches for you. You can tell hes done it himself because of how bad the stiching was, but you didn’t care. You looked over at eddie and your eyes creased with how much you were smiling. He had stitched on a few band patches and a few others, but its just what you wanted, you never thought he’d actually do it. 

“Eddie! Ive been looking for this jacket for weeks! I knew you took it” I smirk at him, holding the jacket up and studdying it.  

“I love it, thank you Eddie” You put the jacket down and wrap your arms around eddie, kissing his cheek.  

“You love it? I worked pretty hard on it for you, I knew you wanted a handmade patched jacket” He rubs the back of his neck and blushes. You nod at him and grin. He picks up the next present and you already knew what this is, by the size and feel of the present.  

“No fucking way..” You say as you rip the paper apart once again. He’d got you 2 records, the ones you’ve been going on and on about for weeks. 

“Eddie! Oh my- oh my god! Thank you, thank you!” You bop up and down on your knees, you were so grateful. You glance over at eddie and hes been starring at you this whole time. His big doe-eyes watching you gush over the presents, you can tell his heart was happy.  

“They are the ones you wanted right?”  

“Yes Eddie, yes they are oh thank you so so much!” You couldn’t contain your excitement, but you noticed a change in eddie, he began to fidget and he now had a blank stare on his face. You look over at him and he shakes himself out of it. 

“O-Okay next one, this is your f-final present from me, okay s-sweetheart" He grabbed the last present and stood to his feet, he was stuttering on his words and his cheeks were flushed. He held out his hand and helped you up. The present he was holding was a small but delicate gift, neatly wrapped with a bow on top. You glance at the present and then back at eddie. 

“Before I open this, I just want to say thank you eddie, for all of this, I mean, this is so perfect” A warm smile glides over your lips, your eyes meet eddies and he takes a deep breath.  

“Y-your welcome doll, now” He holds out the present and hands it to you, his hands were shaking slightly. You raise your eyebrows at him and take it. You start to unwrap the present, a lot slower than the others, this one feels precious. It’s a little brown box. You look up at eddie as he takes your arm. 

“N-now before you open it, I just want to let you know” Eddie takes a deep breath. “You mean a lot to me Y/N, you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me, a-and I care about you a lot" He stops to take a breath. Tears are forming at the corner of your eyes, is this the moment you’ve been waiting for? 

“Shit.. This is really hard uh.. I really..fuck” He starts to get flustered. I take my free hand to his cheek and stoke lightly. 

“Eddie.. Its okay, take your time”  

“I want you to be mine, Y/N” He looks deeply at you while opening the little box for you. Your eyes glance down at the box, your heart stops, time stops. Inside the box is a dainty little silver ring with one single tiny stone in it. You stare at it, tears falling down your cheeks. Eddie’s kuckles brush under your chin and lift slightly so your eyes meet his. 

“I-it’s a promise ring, I got it you because, I love you. I've loved for since the first day I met you, I just didn’t have the guts to say it, Sweetheart” He chuckled.  

“E-Eddie.. I-I love it” you glance back down at the ring and then back at Eddie. He wipes away the tears on your cheek and smiles down at you.  

“I promise to keep you safe and love you forever” Eddie now has tears in his eyes. You giggle at a tear falling down his cheek and you wipe it away.  

“Will you be mine, Y/N” Eddie asks. You take the ring out of the box and place it on your middle finger, it fits perfectly. You nod and gush, throwing your arms around eddie. He picks you up and you look down at him. 

“Yes! A thousand times yes!” You throw your head back in excitement as Eddie spins you around. He sets you back down, his arms still around your waist. You are both looking deeply into each others eyes, your faces moving closer together. You close the distance and crash your lips on his, moving your hand from his back to the base of his neck, intwinging your fingers with his long curly locks. The kiss is passionate and firey, feels like bolts of electric flying from your lips, your heart fluttering making you feel like your walking on air. You break the kiss and place your hand on his chest, looking at the ring intently. He looks down and chuckles, his hair falling in his face and yours.  

“Im glad you like it Princess” Eddie holds you close and kisses your forehead.  

“I love you Eddie, Its always been you” 

[jay-zzz87]

Lumity and B!Lumity fluff

Warning, there is implied smut. Not actual, just implied through jokes. Also it's only with Betas cuz they're 18. Anyways I lowkey kind miss doing writing prompts.

Luz: Amityyyyyyy

Luz is standing outside Amity's balcony with a bouquet of flowers for her awesome girlfriend.

Luz: I'm ready for our daaaate!

Suddenly the door swung open and a taller figure came out. It was Amelia, Amity's oldest sister.

Luz: Oh, hi Amelia

Amelia: Hello Luz

While Amelia is definitely intimidating given that she's taller, older, and has an attitude, she still has a sweet spot for Luz given her circumstances and how happy she makes Amity.

Luz: I'm here to take Amity out on a date

Amelia: She's inside getting ready

Luz: Ok, I'll wait

There's silence for a brief moment until Luz starts up again.

Luz: How are Ed and Em?

Amelia rolls her eyes.

Amelia: As annoying as ever.

Luz lets out a nervous laugh: Hehe....siblings

Then, she looks at the flowers she got Amity.

Amelia sighs: How's your sister?

Luz looks up: Lucia?

Amelia, sarcastically: What, you got another sister I don't know about?

Luz: N-No, I-I um....she's good. She's just at home....doing stuff

Amelia: Doing what?

Amelia wants to know but is hoping that she doesn't sound too interested.

Luz: I don't know. Watching oracle or something?

Amelia: Hmm....ok

There's a moment of silence again until Amity comes out of the room to the balcony.

Amity: Hey batata

Luz can't help but stare at how beautiful her girlfriend looks.

Luz: Whoa

Amity blushes: You like it? Amelia helped me pick it out

Luz: You look amazing amor

Luz quickly goes up to Amity and gives her a hug. When they seperate, Amity notices the bouquet in Luz's hand.

Amity: Ooo, are those for me?

Luz sheepishly laughs: Yeah, I picked them out myself.

Amity: They're beautiful love

Suddenly, Amelia clears her thoat loudly to imply she's still around.

Amity gets annoyed and tolls her eyes.

Amity : Really? You don't have to be here

Amelia, sly: I don't have to cover for you. I can always tell mom about your batata

Amity growls but Luz holds her hand to calm her down.

Luz: C'mon amor. Let's just get on with our date.

Amity: Yeah, ok

Luz summons Owlbert and they both get on and fly away. Amelia scoffs as she's a little irritated that her little sister would talk to her that way. Especially since she's covering her and could easily get her into trouble with their mother if she wanted to. Although there is a part of her that's is proud of her for sticking up for herself. She won't deny that it is definitely something Amity needs to work on. In the meantime while they're gone, she's gonna have a bit of fun. She summons her staff and flies to the owl house.

Lucia is on the couch sleeping her ass off. The previous night left her drained from having to complete a bounty just so she can get Luz enough money to atleast afford a nice restaurant to take Amity. Lucia usually doesn't care about Luz and Amity's relationship, but she does care about Luz. That was enough to help out Luz to get some snails. After that, she immediately went to bed and knocked out.

Amelia arrived to the house and was immediately greeted by the bird tube.

Hooty: Hello!

Amelia: Titan! Don't scare me like that!

Hooty retreat back to the door

Hooty: But that's my job! Anyways, Lucia is inside and sleeping! Thou shall not- ow!

Amelia kicked the door open to force herself in, then shut it. She can here Hooty on the other side complaining.

Amelia: Titan he's annoying

Lucia is suddenly awake with a line of saliva on her cheek.

Amelia: Hey

Lucia looks around and lets her eyes adjust before landing them on Amelia.

Lucia: Oh hey. What brings you here?

She does a quick stretch.

Amelia: I got bored

Lucia: Oh, sucks

Lucia lays back down. Amelia grabs one of the pillows and hits her with it.

Lucia: Hey!

Amelia: Asshole

Lucia sits up: Profanity

Amelia: Shut up. You spit shit all the time. And it's not like your sister is here.

Lucia: Ok ok. Chill girl

Lucia rubs her face.

Lucia: What do you want?

Amelia: I just wanna do something

Lucia: ....well it better not be me cuz I'm tired as fuck

Amelia hits her again

Amelia: I DIDN'T MEAN THAT STUPID!

Lucia couldn't help but laugh.

Amelia: You're such a child

Lucia: If I'm a child, then you're a pedo-

Amelia hits her again, this time repeatedly.

Lucia grabs the pillow and pulls it away.

Luz: Ya, I'll stop Ames

Amelia rolls her eyes: Whatever

Lucia grabs her waist and pulls her close.

Lucia: Don't whatever me baby

Amelia and Lucia have been dating for a while. They definitely dated after Amity and Luz got together but had relations before then. Eventually they fell for eachother and Lucia took out Amelia for a date. Amelia made it clear if they dated it had to be kept a secret. She's afraid of her mom and ex knowing. She knows that Lucia's life would be on the line if they ever found out. Lucia claims that she's not afraid and could take them on, but Amelia wants to be safe. She can't stand the thought of losing someone that actually cares for her for who she is and not her popularity.

Amelia pushes Lucia away.

Amelia: Not here stupid

Lucia lets go and giggles. She loves seeing Amelia get nervous and mad. It's really cute to her. Almost reminds her of a mad cat.

Lucia: Ok. You wanna go somewhere else?

Amelia: Yeah. Did you have something in mind?

Lucia: Not really. Like I said, I'm tired.

Amelia: We can go to your room and.....I don't know, cuddle.

Lucia: ....yeah sure. Lets go

They get up and go to the upstairs room. Lucia gets the sleeping bag comfy for them. Amelia is aware of the situation Lucia and Luz are in. There are times where she wishes she could just give them a bed since it's not much to her, but Lucia is stubborn and always wants to earn everything. She managed to get one for Luz so at least she doesn't have to suffer due to Lucia's ideals. Lucia lays on the bag and Amelia lays on top of her. Lucia holds her and kisses her head. Amelia has her head on Lucia's chest. She likes hearing Lucia's heart beat. It's very calming to her for some reason.

Lucia: Did you wanna do something later?

Amelia: Maybe, if you're ok with it.

Lucia: Yeah baby, I don't mind. I just wanna rest a bit first

Amelia looks up at her

Amelia: Ok babe

Lucia pecks her lips and rubs her waist. Amelia couldn't be happier that she's with Lucia. She wants them to be public just so they can at least hold hands all the time, but she can't risk anything. She needs Lucia and Luz to be safe, no matter what.

One day

[froot-batty]

With the holidays coming up soon, it has me curious: how do the rogues celebrate the holidays? Whether it's Christmas, Hanukkah, or just in general

Oooh this is a fun one !!

Due to the nature of being a rogue, a lot of them can't throw real big celebrations, either because they don't have a lot of people to celebrate with or because it'd draw too much attention. But that doesn't stop them from having their fun !!

While Jervis likes the holidays purely for the aesthetics, Jon and Ed are both reluctant to celebrate Christmas (negative religious upbringings). Jerv basically has to force them to get together, yet despite their griping Jon and Ed always make gifts for the other two. It's not the biggest Christmas celebration, but it works for them

Jon's only good memories associated with Christmas is the food his grandmother made. While she was usually terrible, something about the holidays did bring out a sliver of kindness in her. He continues the tradition and always cooks good meals around Christmastime for Ed and Jervis. Jervis can actually cook, so she's allowed to help, but Ed will just start stealing things if he's let in

Oz, greedy little man he is, always decorates the Iceberg Lounge around the holidays. He himself however has no real strong feelings about any kinds of personal celebrations - but he will accept any gifts anyone wants to give him. Free things are always welcome!

All in all, Oz prefers New Years, as that's when people come to the Lounge to count down and get wasted on champagne. It's another reminder that he's survived another year, too

Daichi is a pox upon everyone who dares to have ears during the holidays. She's like this world's version of Mariah Carey. A warning bell to the festive nightmare of carols to come

For the most part though he's not up to much mischief. He'll be out caroling or attending any nice parties he can slip himself into. But he will be all that you hear on your radio until February

(Only one rogue is in this one, but I don't care, I wanna talk about 'em >:])

Bruce and Selina don't celebrate heavily (Bruce after his parent's death, Selina because she only celebrates because of Bruce), but during Hanukkah she stays in the manor and they'll light the menorah together each night. It's the one time in the year Bruce lets himself eat terribly, and Selina takes ADVANTAGE of that. She has gotten so good at making fried food

When they become things, sometimes Red or Spoils will stop by to hang out with the two of them. It's like living with three sisters with how much Bruce gets bullied

Harley has her Christmas adoration despite being Jewish, just like in canon. She can't help it! The trees are just so pretty when they're all lit up!

However, Harley has one tradition. Every year, during Hanukkah, she has to put up a framed portrait of......him......

[yeehawbvby]

Dropping in out of nowhere here to ask YOU! yes you dear blogger, about your ocs. Please tell me about em :3

OH BOY I have so many uhhh. I'll just give a quick rundown + lore posts for the OCs who have one, since you didn’t ask anything specific :D May or may not put this in my pinned as a general OC masterlist too while I'm at it

Pokemon -> Max - Lore post + Visual reference - 25-30 years old, lives in Galar. She works as a gym trainer, first at the Dark gym and then in Circhester's Ice gym. She prefers Ghost types above all else but she's pretty well-rounded! She’s sweet and timid but also a little gremlin and I love her dearly

TLoZ -> Ethie - Lore post - Something about soulmates through time or whatever with Link (platonic or romantic, depending on the timeline). Descendent of Malon, although I might change her canon so that she just was Malon lol. She's also Beedle's sister! Most of the lore I've established is of BotW/TotK times, where she's a traveling blacksmith with a home-base in Hateno.

Spiderverse -> Apple Spider - Lore post + Visual Reference - A little shit who accidentally ruined her canon and destroyed her earth. Now she lives permanently in Nueva York/in the Spider Society building. She's a master in the art of being annoying but lovable, and takes on kinda the wine aunt/bestie cousin role for a bunch of the younger Spiders.

Sun Haven -> Autumn - Visual reference - Half-moth amari (amari are anthros, basically), and half-elf! She's gentle and kind. Loves just hanging out with her animals and helping people around each city, rather than actually doing much farming. Winds up making permanent residence in Nel'Vari, a hidden elven village west of Sun Haven.

Sun Haven -> Marlowe

- An aquatic amari of the shark variety! Kind of a piece of shit unless you’re important to them. They’re messy and loud and blunt but they’d literally do anything for those they care about (in the end, though, the person they care for most is themself). Moved to Sun Haven to be closer to water and become a monster hunter and adventurer. They were previously a tattoo artist in The Big City

Baldur's Gate 3 -> Lilith - Visual reference - A resistance Durge! Was besties with Orin and on the verge of marriage with Gortash before being lobotomized and tadpoled. Now she just wants to right her wrongs, or whatever -- she's absolutely horrified by her Urge.

Baldur's Gate 3 -> Aether - Another Durge! Same past as Lilith, except during the events of the game, she begins sorta morally grey and evolves into a frickin monster. She's one of those "I'll hurt everyone except the people I love types," and genuinely wanted to rule Baldur's Gate alongside Gortash. After The Brain(tm) offed him though she kinda just went apeshit and embraced Bhaal.

Pikmin 4 -> Ed - Visual reference - I don't have much lore for her lol.. she mostly does night expeditions because she prefers to be nocturnal and likes hanging out with the glow pikmin. She's super sweet but bad at expressing her feelings, so nobody really knows it unless they give her a chance to open up! Her affection can come off as aggression but she just doesn’t really know how to portray herself

FFXV -> Mari Vitrum

- “One of the guys,” but not in an annoying pick-me kind of way and more so the constantly-being-a-little-shit kind of way. She was a close friend of Gladio’s from childhood, which is how she met Noctis and eventually became part of his crew. She’s not a fan of Ignis (except for his cooking) so they kinda just tolerate each other lol, she and Noct bicker like siblings, and she’s besties with Gladio and Prompto. She prefers to fight with daggers, taking more of an assassin approach and fights SUPER recklessly. Will easily have to use several phoenix downs during tougher battles, partially bc she gets dagger-happy and partially because if anyone’s gonna die, she’d rather it be her than her friends.

Stardew Valley -> Elise

- Partial visual, since I haven’t drawn her fully yet

- A lot like Sebastian in that she’s spent most of her life staying indoors nerding out, looks almost sickly pale, and wears black hoodies a lot. She only moved to Pelican Town to escape Joja and Zuzu’s high rent, really. She’s more focused on having a ton of animals (mostly to hang out with) and only keeps a few small patches of crops. Has her nose pierced and 3 ear piercings on her right side, but only 1 ear piercing on her left, in short because she got lazy. She has a vampire bite tattoo on the left side of her neck and constantly gets roasted for it (she goes along with it like a champ), as well as a sloppy self-made stick and poke tattoo over some self harm scars that says “I lived, bitch.” Still unsure of where I’m gonna plop that down on her

Fields of Mistria -> Kimi and December

-> a link to their intro post <-

[secrets-of-everwich]

05-1 Interesting Coincidence

[Click]

[Electronic hum underlies the recording]

{Callie}

Hello, this is Callie Hewitt recording on the 11th October 2021! I’ve been looking for more interesting disappearances, and I’ve found one that may work!

Bartholemew Greene, Cassia Greene (neé Florence), and their children, around a year after the disappearance of the Florences, were the second major disappearances. They were set to inherit Everwich Manor from the Florences, and had only just moved in, when they also disappeared. This was what sparked the rumours that Everwich Manor was haunted, and it was left empty for years, but that’s a story for another time.

Cassia was Henry’s younger sister, and as their parents had died of old age a decade before, the Manor went to her husband. Technically it should have gone to her, but this was the Georgian era and so [sarcastically] obviously the women couldn’t inherit property! That would be absolutely stupid! [normally] Ugh, that’s one part I hate about the Georgian era. Anyway. You’re probably thinking right now ‘But Callie, what about Charles? The body was never found?’. Charles had been missing for a month when the other Florences died, and nobody really seemed to care about either the Florences, or just Charles specifically to look for him, so the house went to the Greenes. Obviously nowadays it doesn’t matter, since there’s no chance Charles is alive, so…

Anyway, the story. Cassia and her children, Ed-

[A knock on the door]

Yes?

[Door opens, sounds of someone walking in]

{Voice} Hi, uh, Asher gave a… Statement, I guess? For your little investigation podcast, I mean. I think I have something you’d be interested in?

{Callie} Oh, Rin! Yes, come in, sit down, actually I’ve been meaning to ask you about something too. Related to the podcast.

{Rin}

Right. Ok then.

{Callie} But, go on?

{Rin}

So, I was just with my grandfather, and he gave me this journal. It has some information on Everwich. Em won’t answer her texts, and X is about to go to work. Ash said he’d get bored, but you’d want to know.

{Callie} Oh my gosh, you came to the right place, yes! It’s your grandfather I was meaning to ask you about, he was involved in an almost disappearance ages ago, so I wanted to hear his statement firsthand, but if you have this, that can also work!

{Rin}

I see what Ash meant that you were obsessed with this. God this is embarrassing. Here

[Pages rustling]

{Callie}

Wait- ‘Jill and Harvey have been acting oddly today.’ … ‘I know why now’ Rin, this is it! This is the missing piece!

[Rustling]

{Rin} Stop hugging me. I barely know you.

{Callie} Sorry…

[More rustling]

{Rin}

… Right. Well. There was… Something else. I did read the journal before coming here, and…

[A pause]

Something’s wrong with Em. Oh, sorry, Emilia. I think it’s related to what’s written in there.

{Callie} Go on?

{Rin}

Well, it started about a week ago. First of October. Em missed school. Before you ask, no that’s not normal, yes that’s why I was worried. She never misses school, not even if she’s sick, she’s too worried about missing up. Believe me, we’ve had to force her to stay home before. So, when she just… Didn’t turn up, I thought that was weird. She’s my best friend, it’s the sort of thing you’d notice, right?

[A pause]

{Callie} Keep going, I swear I won’t judge if that’s what you’re worried about.

{Rin} God, you’re desperate for any little bits of information, aren’t you?

[Sigh]

Well, we called her. I mean, I called her. Ash and X weren’t worried �� it was a Chemistry test that day. Asher was more worried about his score. He’s awful at sciences, so Em normally tutors him a bit to get their confidence up, but cause she wasn’t there, Xavier ended up doing it. This was during form time. She said she was ill. Nothing seemed wrong with her, but… I had a bad feeling. I just brushed it off as stress, cause it just so happened that day, both Jamie and Tyler- It doesn’t matter. I tried to talk to Aiden about Em- Oh wait, do you know Aiden?

{Callie} No? Wait- Is he that guy in Xavier’s rugby team?

{Rin}

Yeah, Em’s twin brother. So I tried to talk to him about her, but he said he didn’t know, and didn’t care, he had a big match.

{Callie}

Yeah, Xavier was at that match.

{Rin}

God, I can’t believe I’m talking to you about this, this is so stupid. Em was probably just sick, and finally learnt that we’d force her to go back home.

{Callie} Was there more or was it just that?

[A pause]

{Rin}

Yeah. We went to your haunted house, as you know, you were literally there-

{Callie} Good to get it on tape, though!

{Rin}

Hm. So, we went there, you showed us around. Em seemed pale. And yeah, she’s white, but like. Paler than normal. Her hair too, but I just kinda assumed it was a trick of the light. But over the next week, she kept avoiding us, and we kept finding her in the girl’s bathroom working on some experiment. I say we, I don’t mean X and Ash too, I meant other girls. It was weird. She normally goes to the chemistry labs to do her fun little experiments.

{Callie}

What was she doing?

{Rin}

I don’t know, she had a test tube full of something and was trying to drop some solution of something into it. With no regard for lab safety- You know she used to be my lab partner in year 10, she’d always bug me about how bad my lab safety was. ‘No Rin, you have to put on a lab coat’, ‘Rin, stop, you should put on goggles!’, ‘Rin why are you coming in here with food. It’s for me? Put it outside!’.

[A pause]

Ok, that’s a bit mean. She did appreciate the brownie I got her. But anyway, her severe lack of it in the past week was funny. And not in a ‘ha-ha’ kind of way. So. Yeah. She’s been acting strange. And freaking Asher and Xavier won’t listen when I say something’s wrong, they’re just pinning it down to GCSEs.

[A pause]

I guess I did need to get that out. Thanks for listening.

{Callie}

Wow. So, you think it relates to-

[Pages rustling]

This?

{Rin}

That’s why I had it bookmarked.

[A pause]

Oh yeah, I tried to put my arm around Em, and she ducked out. That’s another reason I think so.

[A pause, muttering between the two]

{Callie}

I think Emilia’s in trouble. It’s definitely that. I think this is the piece I’ve been missing, and it makes sense with what I already know! What with the paler skin, odd actions, something’s definitely up. Maybe Emilia is next to disappear! It’s what happened before C-

[Overlapping]

{Rin}

I don’t care if I sound crazy, you’ve convinced me. I’m gonna go tell X and Ash, I don’t care if they’re busy. I care about Em too much to lose her.

[Footsteps, voice getting quieter]

Thanks so much, Callie, you’ve helped.

{Callie}

Wait, let me take a photo of the-

[Door slam]

-Book.

[Sigh]

Well, that was an interesting coincidence. Um. I now have a lot more information about the Secrets of Everwich. Thank you for listening! I need to go now to update my theories wall.

[Click]

[Radio static for a moment]

[Click]

{Voice}

[Recording glitches, and cuts in and out]

Drat- No, do- Go- Stop- Don’t hur- -nyone!

[Click]

[existennialmemes]

Thinking about how when we first meet Ed and Em, they kinda seemed like petty bullies.

Like, sure Amity was already established as kind of a bitch at this point, but trying to humiliate their younger sister just because they got caught for cutting class still seemed unnecessarily mean.

But like, we hadn't met Odalia yet. "Tattling" on them to her is a whole different story.

It's not like they were gonna get a slap on the wrist. She probably locks them in like, a psychic nightmare world as "time out" or something equally horrific.

And Odalia was absolutely trying to raise Amity to be her "mini me." Ed and Em were basically watching their little sister get dragged down this path of demeaning cruelty.

And while their solution (humiliating her) wouldn't've actually worked, it was actually kinda coming from a good place.

They didn't want her to be less up tight about stuff just to bring her down a level or make their own lives easier.

They didn't want to watch her turn into Odalia.

And sure, they were probably being a little petty with the diary thing, out of resentment from whatever aforementioned Psychic mind prison I can only assume Odalia puts her kids in when they get in trouble.

That's why, once they realized Amity had a crush on Luz, they immediately latched onto that. Because they knew that was another way to help alter the course Odalia was trying to keep her on. And they absolutely realized that they were about to take it too far with the diary thing.

Honestly I think the twins probably harbor some kind of guilt for not standing up for her and Willow. Because that was the first example we get to see of Odalia asserting her will over Amity.

We know the guilt haunted Amity. But like, the twins would've been like, maybe 10-12 when that happened?

And they watched their little sister completely break her best friend's heart, and then turn around and become her school bully.

And idk but that must have really messed with them too. Knowing what their mom is like, and we can only imagine what trauma they had already endured.

Seeing Amity go from a sweet, goofy kid with a deep, meaningful friendship. To a shallow, mean spirited bully who only cares about status must've really felt like they were losing her.

The diary thing would've been like, what 6ish years later? And it feels like it was a last resort, because they could see how she was becoming Odalia, and they thought something Big could knock her off that path.

[jadeisbetterrrr]

amity confront odalia

(they arrive in demon realm and bump into a familiar face.)

MASSIVE TRIGGER WARNING, MENTIONS OF EATING DISORDER.

"Amity is that you?, oh, are you alright, you're looking rather....you know."

"Mother? how did you know we were here? and why are you here?"

"I work for the Collector now, I could take you back and reform you to Little Miss Perfect again!"

O dalila tried to caress the shocked daughters faced, but Amity pushed her hand away.

"No, mom, you are not actually doing this right now." "You leave me and the family and now your back and you're expecting for it to all be okay?"

Everyone else looked at them, shocked, confused, but Camila was asking Luz who that lady was and why Amity looked so startled. She didn't know about how Odalia had treated her daughters girlfriend.

"Well, Amity that's not any way to talk to your mother, is it?."

"I don't have a mom. You're not my mom. You never were."

"Excuse me? I brought you into this world and now you're disrespecting me like this?!"

Odalia then had slapped Amity across the face. Amity didn't look fazed, she looked like this feeling was rather familiar.

"Im not lying, you never treated me like your daughter, You werent the one who took me to school in the morning and told me "I love you" or things like that."

"Oh is that what this is about?. you're mad Mommy never told you I love you?"

"YES, THAT IS WHAT THIS IS ABOUT, I WALKED INTO SCHOOL AND SAW ALL THE OTHER MOMS WITH THEIR KIDS AND THOUGHT" "why don't i have that mom? why do they get to have that mom?"

"Amity you're being rather dramatic."

Everyone else had just been standing there, shocked, not one of them would DARE step in. Amity needed to get this out.

"maybe i am but i dont CARE anymore, you treated me like crap and you know that."

"I did what was GOOD for you, you'll thank me one day."

"doing what was good for me was putting your business over everything and sending me to bed with no access to the real world and no food or water because i made something under 90?" Yeah thanks mom for the ed."

"Oh stop, you probably haven't even been diagnosed." Its all in your head"

"YES I HAVE. YOU WOULD KNOW THAT IF YOU PAYED ATTENTION TO ME."

"Oh really, with who?"

"The twins. you know what's embarrassing? having your sister be the only mother figure you have? I called Em MOM twice last year, thats embarrasing . Now if you would move along that would be really great.

"Fine, dont come running along for help."

"I never have."

Amity and the crew then dashed past her and Amity stayed quiet for a while, Willow and Luz tried to get her to open up but she wouldn't budge, she would need time.

"Ams you sure you okay? Luz asked.

"Yeah im fine, felt a bit good to let it out."

"Does your cheek hurt?"

"a bit but its fine."

"Ams, you're not fine, you can talk to me."

"I just, it's been hard having to deal with the ed and seeing my mom again, i felt powerless i didnt know she was going to be there. i feel so embarrassed having you guys see me and my mom go at it. "

"It wasn't your fault, we didn't know she was going to be there"

"i know, thank you by the way."

"You're welcome, it's my sworn duty as your girlfriend"

"okay dork" Amity said blushing a bit.

They then continued to walk.

a/n: your welcome guys, amity got all her angst out, i reared up making this 😪. I love you guys sm 🫶🏽

jayda wayda 🤭‼️

[julianobungus]

Ed, Em, Amity, and Luz all in a relationship together

Thoughts? Hc's possibly?

Oh, absolutely! I think it's a very cute idea, and I can see the chemistry that would be in play. Amity loves Luz, Luz loves Amity and finds Em and Ed attractive, and I bet top dollar that the Blight siblings don't have the healthiest view on romantic-familial relationships (i.e., a fair degree of overlap between the two). It would definitely work!

As for headcanons, let's see:

(PROSHIP - SLIGHT NSFW TOWARDS THE END. THEMES OF INCEST THROUGHOUT - NOTHING IS CONDONED IRL))

The Blights just fawn over Luz and can't believe how lucky they are. Not only that they're dating her, but that they're ALL dating her. Lucky Lucky.

Emira likes to spoil Luz with expensive surprise gifts (a trick she picked up from her mom regarding courtship). Luz is flattered but has to tell her to reel it back in a few times, since she doesn't have much use for jewellery and ornaments (Luz isn't much of a fashion girl).

The twins certainly stop playing pranks on Luz, and Willow and Gus by proxy. They're still incredibly flirtatious and sly with her, and it's just so easy to get Little Miss Noceda flustered~!

Amity and the twins were a little competitive with each other for Luz's affections at first, but Luz sorted them out and told them to cut that shit out.

Ed and Em have been in love for longer than Luz and Amity were, so they care for each other deeply - they've definitely learned to share that love too!

At first, Amity was only in love with/attracted to Luz and was weirded out by the prospect of 'being with' her own siblings. But again, that shared love between the twins is contagious... and soon enough Amity's cuddled in between them.

Big cuddle piles during movie nights, with lots of snacks and jokes shared between them.

Going on dates disguised as 'hanging out with friends'.

And regardless of whether or not this next bit makes sense:

Luz introducing the Blights to the Human Realm and all its concepts: restaurants, video games, TV. It's all so weird and wonderful. Amity helps too, considering she's had more experience with it (of the three). Edric and Emira are weary at first, but they soon come to love it.

Nothing beats the B.I. though.

All of them share a big, warm bed sometimes (the twins' bed is actually big enough for it), so a lot of interlocking limbs and a few hands holding the other.

Odalia is fucking *mortified* that her children are dating a human, let alone each other.

All of the Blights' palismans snuggling up to Luz's unhatched one.

Amity confides and talks to her brother and sister more, and they overall have a healthier relationship than before (which is ironic, considering... y'know).

Camila is still quite conflicted - and definitely wasn't happy about it at first - but the longer she's known the Blights, the more she trusts them and had come to accept it. Her daughter's also truly happy, after all, and she doesn't want to ruin that.

Makeout sessions between anyone two or three of them.

"Hey, you started without me?!"

Luz and Edric had a pregnancy scare one time, but it was just a fluke.

[lilmcttens]

✨✨

Send ✨ for my muse to talk about (one of) their sibling(s).

"Oh joy. I received two of these so I have to talk about "Dumb" and "Dumber" just in case you can't tell that's sarcasm."

"Nah. You know what? They're alright. No joke they are weirdos, but they are my weirdos in a way. I give them a hard time but they can and will be annoying. They're a sweet annoying that only family can accomplish anyway."

"Listen. I'm the youngest if I didn't assert my little dominance somehow they would destroy me. Survival of the fittest or what-ever."

"Kay. I'll start with Em first because she's the oldest of us all. So she's kinda got seniority. Get it? She's old. First of all, I know she loves me because she's Always calling me her "baby sister." (nevermind the fact it's a two-year difference sis!) She's a pretty light-hearted easy-going big sister. She's also surprisingly more responsible than most people think. I mean like sometimes Ed and I go overboard being dramatic and wild."

"I've never forgotten she and Ed are a team. Duh! Because they're twins Titan! However, we can make a deadly pair too. I like coming to Emira for let's say. "Girl advice" It's not like Ed can't help with that, but I mean. He's our brother. Emira's good at fashion, she's learning healing which the both of us tried to get into she was just better at it than I am. She's healed me a time or four."

"She isn't super serious if she doesn't have to be and if you wanna sit on her bed or the couch you literally have to wrestle her for it. I think she has a crush on some of the students at our school she might tell me some time till then I'll have to guess with Luz."

"Okay. Ed's turn. He's well he's a very caring and gentle and unfortunately without having Dad as his backup. Ed finds himself getting pushed around and picked on a lot by the girls. Just like the animals in a women's monarchy in the world. Ed likes to goof off and cause problems on purpose as much as the next guy, but he's also smart. His magic is wild and unpredictable like Eda loves it to be."

"Actually, I think he really looks up to her now she has become like a mentor to him too. My older brother can do Illusions, Beast Keeping, and Potions magic! I thought I was the overachiever Edric does all that as a hobby on the side! My mind is blown. I didn't believe it! That's also, my fault I was too caught up in my own studies and future to notice his interests on the side."

"Now Edric is the one most in the doghouse for messing up my hair! He does all the typical things you expect a big brother to do. You name it; he does it to me. He sits on me, he picks me up and swings me, he fights me for a place to sit. It doesn't take him long at all to barge into my room and bother me for no reason at all. He'll tickle me, wrestle me, grab my stuff and hold it above my head. He's also the brother who read me lots of stories as a kid and even Illusioned the pictures with his magic."

"Edric is one of the good witches. I think he's got a good heart. He tries to bet me snails who will pop more zits him or Em and I just laugh every time I think about my problems. Haha. He's good. So good at making me laugh. That's all my siblings want. They wanna see me smile.

"In the end. You don't get to choose your blood-related family so if I have to be stuck with any other witches for the rest of my life I would be so bored. Of all the twin siblings I could have ended up with I'm glad it's Emira and Edric."

[vero-icon]

I love making fun of EM's because of that (because this is my petty revenge for all those "TheY aRe CoUsInS comments"), but being totally fair, this discourse is all Isayama's fault.

Isayama was painfully inconsistent in what he wanted to do with this pair.

I have two theories:

1. Mikasa's relationship with Eren was supposed to be platoni, but due to some pressure (fans, editor, publishing company idk), he made them, very clumsily, romantic.

If I was an EM shipper, I would be soooo disappointed with the handling of my beloved pair. It's better to have some canon crumbs feeding your delulu, than chapter 139 as canon confirmation af a ship.

2. Mikasa's relationship with Eren was supposed to be romantic, but Isayama can't write romance even if his life depended on it. Everything that was done with them, was too unconvincing and confusing for me to interpret it as reciprocated romantic love.

- Mikasa's adoption into Jäger family. People argue that it wasn't unofficial adoption, they lived only for a year as a family, Eren never saw her as a sister.

But at the same time we have official Guidebook:

Mikasa loved Eren as a brother

Interviews Eren saw Mikasa as mother's presence: source

Chapter 121 Grisha calling Mikasa his daugther

Lost girls Mikasa's mom pointing out, EM look like siblings

From readers perspective: if they started as "family" and then in the course of the story their feelings changed to romantic - SHOW IT TO ME! Show me as their feelings grow. Show me the turning point. Show me that both of them are on the same page.

(My favorite shonen example for this: Ed and Winry from FMA. Started as childhood friends, lived almost as siblings during childhood, but as the story progresses, it is shown how their feelings for each other are changing, how they become aware of the changes, how they are embracing them)

- Mikasa cared for Eren from the beginning, but I don't like to think it was romantic love.

It makes a much more interesting story for Mikasa to build a relationship based on friendship and familial support, than make her fall in love with a boy, the main protagonist (trite and boring) Friendship is not less than romantic love and children can build pretty strong platonic bonds. Why not acknowledge that? Mikasa says "family, family" so many times in the story. Am I supposed to dismiss it?

- Eren does not show any appreciation or admiration towards Mikasa, like he does towards Armin, Reiner, Annie, Historia. Her caring nature makes him overwhelmed. Her physical ability makes him jealous. Her support makes him angry, because it reminds him of his own shortcomings. Her goals and dreams do not inspire him. How is it basis for love? What actually does he love about her?

- Smiling Titan scene. Mikasa's confession was as close to romantic confession as it could be. It did look like, she wanted to kiss Eren. And THIS would be a fantastic starting point for their relationship to grow into romance. But what did happen after that? NOTHING. Did Eren acknowledge what happened and what was said? No.

- Chapter 108 Eren confesses to ALL of his friends, that they are important to him and he wants them to live long lives.

Mikasa and Eren share a glance, quite cute, but you know what? Nothing substantial came out of it.

- Chapter 123 Eren: "What am I to you?" Mikasa: "Family"

If Mikasa was in love in Eren, what was that? Denial? Is she not aware of her own feelings after all this years? Or maybe, it's simply the truth? Eren is family to her.

If Eren really wanted, he could have continue this conversation that evening, night or morning after. Drunk confession, hehehe.

Eren is ready to kill all life outside Paradis, he cuts off his own leg and gouges out his own eye, but can't talk honestly about his feelings to the one person he should be talking about it. He talks to Zeke about it. He talks to Louise about it (He told her to throw Mikasa’s scarf away, chapter 126). He talks to Armin about it.

But never to Mikasa.

It's like... she does not deserve his honesty? His fears and regrets? To show her, what's really on his mind? - fear that her loyalty is manufactured by some supernatural bond (Zeke) - fear that he will die soon and Mikasa will cling to the memory of him, not living her life fully, as she deserves (Louise) - regret that he will die and he will be forgotten without experiencing a life with his love (Armin)

WTF is this relationship and charater development? Mikasa was ready to share Erens burdens from the moment they met. And Eren was oblivious to all that or he didn't care. He grew up, his feeling changed, but he remained a dumbass and didn't treat her fairly.

- Cabin dream To this day it's unclear for me, if this is a vision, Eren shared with Mikasa or is this Mikasa's dream, alternative timeline or whatever.

Eren should not be able to alter Mikasa's memories, because it was stated earlier - Ackermans are immune to the power ot the Founding Titan. So how could this be Erens doing?

In Lost Girls Mikasa created an alternate reality in her mind, where Eren is still alive. So... it could be only her cabin dream.

And this is Isayamas idea of a romantic pairing, my dears.

.

.

Sorry for my english, this is basically me, but I try.

Hey, RM fam! So, I was on Twitter, and I saw this:

I think that this would set off some die-hard Er*m*k*s. Hahaha.

[jammatown919]

Hanahaki

Not connected to other one-shots Pre-relationship TW: Blood and (kind of) vomit

Content: Amity thought she could handle it when she found herself in love, but then she began coughing up flowers.

It hadn't been a big deal at first. Being in love with her newfound best friend sucked, sure, but Amity was certain she'd be over it eventually. After a few weeks, she began to have frequent coughing fits, often spitting up blood toward the end, but even then she told herself she was just coming down with something. She'd always known she was at higher risk for Hanahaki; every Blight generation had seen at least one case, with Amity's own older brother being one of them, but she still couldn't bring herself to accept the fact that she'd developed it over Luz.

When she coughed up the first flower, a tiny blue forget-me-not, she could no longer sit in denial. Amity Blight had developed Hanahaki, and now she had to do something about it. Her first instinct was to tell her parents, but she immediately pushed that option off the table. Her parents had forced Edric into surgery for his Hanahaki, which had admittedly cured the disease, but at the cost of the love that had caused it. Stubborn and silly as it sounded, Amity would sooner die than willingly give up something that made her feel so alive. Of course, she would still prefer to avoid death, so that left only one option. She had a few weeks, maybe more, maybe less, to tell Luz and hope that her feelings were returned. Until then, she had to hide all symptoms from her family to avoid suspicion.

That worked really well for about three days. Amity had been doing a pretty decent job of pretending to have a cold to excuse her coughing, as well as disposing of the flowers and bloody tissues in a quick and discrete manner, but there wasn't really a way to hide coughing up an entire cluster of forget-me-nots, stem and all, at the breakfast table.

"That cold's not letting up," Emira remarked the moment Amity began to cough. "Maybe you should stay home today."

Amity tried to respond, but she could hardly get a breath in before the awful hacking stole the air from her lungs again. She felt something rising in her throat and slapped her hand over her mouth to catch the flower.

"Mittens?" Edric asked after about thirty consecutive seconds of coughing and wheezing. His voice rose an octave as blood began to seep through Amity's fingers. "Em, get a towel!"

Emira glanced between them, confused for a moment, but as soon as she spotted the blood, she sprinted into the kitchen. Amity pushed her chair away from the table to spare her plate from the dripping, thanking her lucky stars that her parents rarely ever ate a meal other than dinner with their children. Not even thirty seconds later, Emira returned with a towel and passed it to Amity, who moved her hand away and pressed it to her mouth. By the time she was finished, Amity was left with two panicked siblings, a very bloody towel, and a long stem with several small blue flowers on the end.

"When did this start?" Edric demanded after allowing Amity to breathe for a minute.

"The flowers started three days ago," Amity rasped, her throat hoarse from all the coughing. "I've been coughing for about a week, though."

"You've had Hanahaki for a week and you didn't say anything?!" Emira exclaimed.

"Keep your voice down!" Amity hissed. She didn't think her parents were home, but she could honestly never be sure, and she didn't want to take the risk.

"Amity, this is a huge deal," Edric pressed, though he had the decency to remain quiet. "We need to get you to a doctor."

"No!" Amity shook her head furiously, wrapping the stem up in the towel so she wouldn't have to look at it any longer. "I'm not getting that surgery."

"That surgery saved Ed's life." Emira pointed out, taking the towel from Amity.

"I don't need it, I'm going to deal with it myself."

"If you got Hanahaki, whoever this person is almost definitely doesn't like you back. Believe me." Edric's voice grew soft and his ears sank sadly. Amity knew he was remembering the person he'd been forced to give up in exchange for his life. He'd never revealed the person's identity, only that they had a boyfriend and he had no chance, but it had always been apparent that he had genuinely loved this person.

"I don't care," Amity stood up and snatched the towel back from Emira so she'd have an excuse to leave the dining room. "I like her and I'm not ready to give that up."

She marched into the kitchen, internally groaning as she siblings followed her. Of course they were going to persist.

"Who even is this girl?" Emira inquired.

"That's none of your business." Amity grumbled. She stared at the towel for a moment, decided it was too bloody to be saved, and tossed it into the garbage.

"It is if we're going to help you confess."

"What?" Amity and Edric asked at the same time.

"If you like this girl so much, we can give you one day to get your act together and confess." Emira explained. Amity rolled her eyes; she had her act together. "If she likes you back, great, no more Hanahaki, and if she doesn't, we tell Mom and Dad about this and you get scheduled for surgery."

That actually sounded like a decent plan. If Luz didn't like her back, Amity would just be hurting herself by keeping her feelings anyway. There was, however, one very important factor that Emira had failed to consider. Amity was a wuss.

"Does it have to be today?" She asked meekly.

"Mittens, your life is in danger," Edric sighed in exasperation. "Now is not the time to be a coward. I tried to wait and I could have died."

"I'm not being a coward!" Amity protested. "I'm just nervous."

"Well, man up, 'cause you're doing this today or you're not doing it at all." Emira said firmly with a hard pat to Amity's back. "Now tell us who it is."

"It's Luz..." Amity mumbled. Her siblings exchanged and unsurprised glance. "I'm going to get my bag."

Amity darted out of the kitchen and up the stairs, quickly closing the door once she was inside her room. As she swept her homework off her desk and stowed it away in her schoolbag, she grumbled to herself about her siblings. They didn't need to step in. She had it totally under control, she just needed to be able to confess at her own pace. But a small part of her knew that this was probably necessary; she'd been planning to confess, sure, but she always got nervous and bailed. If left to her own devices, would she ever confess?

With a heavy sigh, Amity slung her bag over her shoulders and trudged back downstairs to meet her siblings at the front door. Surprisingly, they didn't say anything else about her Hanahaki for the entirety of their walk to Hexside. In fact, the walk was pretty much silent, although Amity did catch them staring at her more than once.

"Do you know where she'd be right now?" Edric broke the silence as the three of them stepped onto campus.

"I can't just go up to her and say it!" Amity exclaimed. That would be far too casual. Who just walked up to their best friend and said 'I like you' like it was nothing? She didn't need some huge presentation, but she wanted it to be bigger than that.

"You really can." Emira rolled her eyes.

"No, that would be weird." Amity shook her head. "We have third period together. I can tell her then."

"That would hardly be any different, but fine." Emira decided. "Ed and I are going to check up on you after that class and make sure you didn't chicken out."

"I'm not going to chicken out!" Amity thumped her sister's arm indignantly. "By the end of third period, she'll know. You'll see!" And with that, she hurried away before her siblings could make any more remarks about her (lack of) bravery. She'd show them she wasn't a coward.

Throughout the morning, it became increasingly more apparent that Amity was, in fact, a coward. She had no plan and was absolutely dreading third period. Should she tell Luz immediately or wait until class was over? Should she write a note or say it out loud? A part of her genuinely considered waiting until lunch and getting Willow to confess for her.

By the time third period rolled around, Amity was a mess. She could hardly even bring herself to look at Luz, much less speak to her. For once, she was actually grateful for the coughing, because she could use not feeling well as an excuse to stay quiet until she could figure out what she was going to do. She never did figure it out, though, and when Luz stood up to leave at the end of class, Amity panicked and grabbed her arm.

"You okay?" Luz's brow furrowed in confusion as Amity searched for something to say.

"I-" She cut herself off with a few coughs a wheeze, which only served to worry Luz further. "I need you to meet me on the bleachers at break. There's something important that I want to tell you."

"Alright," Luz said as Amity released her arm. "But are you sure you're okay? That cough sounds really bad."

"I'm fine, I promise." Amity lied, gathering her things as quickly as she could. With a short goodbye to Luz, Amity hurried out of the classroom, heading for her next class. This was fine. There was only one more class until break.

"Mittens, over here!" Amity groaned as her sister's voice reached her. She stopped and turned around to find both of her siblings heading her way.

"Did you tell her?" Edric asked quietly once they were close enough.

"I asked her to meet me at break," Amity replied, stifling a cough. "I'll tell her then."

"Quit stalling!" Emira hissed. "You've only got one day to do this."

"Wait, Em, lay off for a second." Edric suddenly ushered Emira back, his eyes filled with concern. "Mittens, you're bleeding again."

Amity wiped at her mouth, surprised to find the back of her hand smeared with blood. She suddenly became aware of a slow drip from between her lips. She licked her lips to clean them and sucked in anxious breath, only to choke on it a second later. When it became clear that the coughing fit wasn't going to subside, Emira put her arm around Amity's shoulders and began steering her down the hallway, producing a piece of crumpled notebook paper from her cowl for Amity to cough into.

Amity sputtered all the way to the girl's bathroom, where Emira gently took the notebook paper from her and replaced it with a wad of paper towels. Amity gagged hard as a cluster came up, followed quite quickly by another. Her eyes teared up and she leaned against Emira, trying to spit up the stem that she could feel in her throat. When she finally managed to get it out, she stayed were she was, gasping for breath and shaking while her sister supported her with one arm and used the other to take the paper towels and toss them into the trash a few feet away.

"Do you think that was all for now?" Emira asked quietly. Amity noticed a pain in her eyes, and even in her wretched state, she recognized how hard it must be to watch a sibling go through something so terrible for the second time.

"Yeah." Amity whimpered. She knew there was probably still blood on her lips, but she couldn't say she particularly cared at the moment. A small part of her urged her to hurry to class, but the rest of her would've been content to curl up and fall asleep right there on the bathroom floor. Emira seemed to realize this and led Amity over to the wall so they could sink to the floor together, her ears twitching downward sympathetically.

"Let's stay here a little while." She suggested, and Amity nodded wordlessly into her shoulder. Normally, Amity would've fretted over skipping class, but she figured this was probably justified.

The two of them sat there in silence for a long while. At some point, Amity must have nodded off on Emira's shoulder, because after what felt like ten minutes, she was startled by the sound of the bell.

"I have to go meet Luz." She said as she jumped to her feet. Emira's arms darted out, as if she was afraid Amity was going to fall, but she quickly retracted them.

"Do you want me to go with you?"

"No, I'll be okay." Amity bit back a retort about not needing her sister spying her. She knew Emira was trying to look out for her, but she didn't think she'd be able to get the words out if someone was watching her.

They walked out of the bathroom together, but Amity soon split off to head out the nearest side door. She was vaguely aware of Emira watching her go, though she did her best to ignore it. The fresh air outside actually managed to ease the burning in Amity's lungs as she made her way toward the Grudgby field. Maybe this was going to be okay after all. As long as her lungs behaved themselves, she could use this time to formulate some kind of plan as to what she would say.

"Hey, Amity!" Or not. Amity sighed and turned around to find Luz hurrying toward her, smiling brightly. "So, what was it you wanted to tell me?"

"Okay, so..." Amity took a moment to collect her thoughts. Just say it. Say it fast and hope for the best. Don't cough. "Um, alright, I'm... shoot, sorry, I'm nervous."

"It's okay, take your time." Luz said kindly. "I'm not going anywhere."

Amity smiled and felt her chest swell with affection. It was going to be fine. Even if Luz didn't like her back, there was no way a girl this sweet was going to hate her over some crush. For the first time in a while, Amity really thought she was going to be fine. And then she spat up blood onto Luz's shoes.

"I'm so sorry!" She said immediately, but before she could say anything else, she fell into a terrible coughing fit.

"Oh my God, are you okay?!" Luz nearly shrieked. "Amity, that's blood!"

"I'm okay!" Amity gasped between coughs. Blood sprayed from her lips with each hack, and soon she was doubled over, retching into the grass.

"Clearly you aren't!" Luz exclaimed, her eyes wide with terror. "I'm taking you to the Healing Professor."

"She can't-!" Amity suddenly vomited a stem with two clusters, a shower of stray petals falling with it. She collapsed on the ground, trembling and unable to stop gagging.

"How do we make it stop?!" Luz pleaded as she kneeled down beside Amity, helpless to do anything but rub comforting circles on her back. "Tell me what you need."

Amity waited a few minutes for her coughing fit to ease. When she could breathe again, she slowly sat up and met Luz's teary gaze.

"Does that, by any chance, happen in the Human Realm?" She asked weakly. Luz shook her head. "It's called Hanahaki Disease. It's caused by unrequited love. Flowers will grow in our lungs until they're surgically removed or they suffocate us, unless we can get the person to return our feelings." Her face burned with embarrassment as she spoke, silently willing Luz to understand.

"When are you getting your surgery?" Luz asked innocently, and Amity almost wished for another coughing fit so she wouldn't have to answer.

"I'm not getting surgery." Amity admitted, refusing to look at Luz any longer. She could feel her ears drooping so far that they were practically brushing against her neck. "The surgery kills the feelings that caused the disease in the first place. I'm not ready to give you up."

"Wait, me?" Luz asked incredulously. Amity stiffened for a moment, horrified, and buried her face in her hands. "So, if I tell you that I like you back, this will stop?"

"It's not that easy." Amity mumbled. "It has to be genuine."

Luz grabbed Amity's wristed and gently pulled them away from her face. Heat rose to Amity's face as Luz leaned in close, her expression soft. Amity barely registered the feeling of Luz's lips pressed against hers until they'd already been kissing for a few seconds. She pulled away, startled, and stared at Luz.

"Luz, it won't go away just because you kissed me. I told you, it has to be genuine." She appreciated that Luz would try that for her, but she really wished she hadn't. If anything, the kiss would probably increase her longing and make the Hanahaki worse.

"I wouldn't have kissed you if I didn't mean it." Luz said softly, releasing Amity's wrists so she could hold her hands. "I do genuinely like you. I would've said something sooner, but I spent so long just trying to be your friend that I didn't want to mess it up. If I'd known this was going to happen, I would have told you so much sooner."

Amity's chest began to lighten and her ears tentatively perked up. A part of her still thought Luz might be lying for her sake, but the rest of her desperately wanted to believe it. Luz wouldn't lie to her, right?

"You promise you mean it?" She asked, maybe a little too forcefully.

"I promise." Luz said firmly. "Can I kiss you again?"

"I probably taste like blood." Amity chuckled self-consciously.

"You do," Luz confirmed. "But I don't mind."

"I think I'd rather get cleaned up before class starts." Amity replied sheepishly, pulling Luz with her as she stood up. She could feel dried blood on her lips and chin, making it a little uncomfortable to talk.

"Can I come with you?" Luz asked. "I want to make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Of course, but I don't think it will." Amity smiled at Luz, her face flushed harder than before as she felt their fingers intertwine. She thought it was sweet that Luz cared so much about making sure she was alright, but she was pretty sure she would be. She could almost feel the flowers crumbling away inside her lungs. "I think I'm finally okay."

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

Hunter and the blight siblings all get adopted by like every adult figure in their lives bc their original guardians suck and the blight siblings refuse to refer to any of the adult figures by familial terms. They already have a mom and she sucks. They also already have a dad and hes trying now but he also sucked so the new adults that ACTUALLY care about them are too good to deserve getting those titles shoved on them. At most ed and em tentatively call luz their sister after the lumity wedding. And amity starts referring to camilla and eda as mom and raine as par.

Hunter, though? This boy didnt even know what a parent is until he was like 12. Nobodys going around calling themselves his uncle so hes fine with it and he starts collecting parents from every direction. Camilla? Mom. Raine? Par. Darius? Dad. Eda? Eberwolf? Steve, even though hes barely 10 years older? Theyre all his parents. Lilith? She may be luz's cool aunt now but she was hunters mom in the coven first. Hooty? He might be kings weird uncle but hes hunters dad. Somehow. Gwen and dell clawthorne? Hunter has no need for grandparents. He makes them his parents even though their daughters are also both his parents. Willow and gus's dads? HIS dads now. Amitys dad? Actually you know what amity can keep that one. Kikimora? He declares her his weird murder mom hes not allowed to go near and she is the only one who does not accept this title.

This kid has more parents than frisk undertale. This kid has more parents than steven universe. This kid will not stop until the boiling isles titan himself legally adopts him as his son. Fuck you.

[roadhogsbigbelly]

i'm going to be completely honest with you but the i kind of completely disagree with absolutely everything you said like for one, i think labels like "kids media" and "adult media" are like incredibly unhelpful terms that only really make sense in terms of literally discourse because age ratings are generally based on reading level, but in terms of like movies/tv shows/video games age ratings aren't based on maturity or reading comprehension but rather on very subjective ideas of what "kids are allowed to see without being traumatized" like how PG used to mean "this guy face melts off and explodes" and now it means "there's minor cuss words and adult innuendo so you don't feel embarrassed for watching inside out as an adult"

like one of my favorite childhood films is "Mary and Max" a claymation film about a little Australian girl who becomes pen pals with an autistic middle aged new yorker, and i'm pretty sure the only reason our mom let me watch it was become it was animated and on netflix but in contained alot of subject matters that one would consider "inappropriate for children" like attempted suicide or sexual themes, but as a kid it never occurred to me that the film wasn't FOR me, because plenty of the books i read at school talked about suicide and sex and out of curiosity i looked up the age rating for the film to see the intended demographic and from what i can tell it's still "not rated" probably because it was made for film festivals and than sent to netflix.

but like. i think in general one of my issues is that i don't consider the classic books we read in school to be "books for adults" like to me Catcher in the rye or Of Mice or Men or The Great Gatsby aren't books for adults, they're books for everyone? for general audiences? like pixar films or miyazaki movies, because i read those books when i was a child, and if they WERE for adults i wouldn't be allowed to read em, in the same way that like most "children's songs" are just like sea shanties that are in the public domain, which is noone REALLY CARES that they "have dark themes"

like i don't disagree that "that enjoying literature or movies that have more complex, and mature themes makes you a richer person" what i disagree with is that, that's something you only get from reading books "for adults" and WON"T get from reading books "for kids", because i think those are mostly akin-ed to genre's at some point, like they're generally helpful for finding stuff you already like, but it's not gonna be like an objective marker of quality.

like i think the reason i think people get pissed when adults say their favorite book is "percy jackson" instead of "jane eyre" isn't actually because percy jackson is a book for middle schoolers, it's because well. it's very recent? like they're plenty of booktok books that are very clearly made FOR adults that it would be embarrassing to say are "your favorite book" because they clearly more for enjoyment that intellectual enlightenment.

like part of the reason it's so hard for like. video games to be taken seriously as an artform compared to movies or tv or literature, is because as an art form it's still extremely so their isn't any movie that's old enough to be considered a "classic" like yeah there's like. ocarina of time, or goldeneye 64 or shadow of the colossus, but video games are still generally seen as entertainment first than anything else.

like i feel like i would understand this discourse more if it was less "people who consume media for kid's need to watch media for adults" and more "people need to watch more foreign media" or "people need to watch more media made from before the last 40 years" because i do think people would find more enriching stories if they didn't just watch mainstream american films from very recently. but like alot of really good classic films and foreign films ARE kid's movies, like what's even considered a "kid's movie" is again EXTREMELY subjective. my sister is dead set on her belief that "total drama island" is a show for adults, in the same way my grandma is convinced "spongbob squarepants" is a show for adults, because total drama island is a canadian show that has different stands for what's appropriate for kids.

but like the larger point is that if you do open yourself up to trying more media outside of your comfort zone, you're not going to stop consuming kids media and start consuming adult media, you're going to just. like. start watching more movies. and more books.

i know i've said this before, but i truly can not believe y'all when you say that you're not shaming people for their interests and that you just want people to have a more varied media diet, when you stuff like "people won't even LIE about their favorite book anymore" cause like. is it actually better if people lie and say their favorite book is a classic book they are told is good but have no interest rather than like. animorphs

[atlasaur]

Little goldric brainrot/prompts :D (part 1 maybe???)

- Hunter being in a bad mood and Edric trying to make jokes to make him feel better before realising it’s not helping and instantly changing his demeanour and pulling Hunter in for a hug.

- Ed constantly likes to remind Hunter of how cute he is, turning every single one of his insecurities into a positive and telling him it’s cute.

- Hunter is new to romance, the whole concept being very foreign to him, but Ed gladly guides the way and makes sure to move their relationship at a pace that Hunter was comfortable with, constantly checking to make sure something he did wasn’t stepping out of boundaries.

- Ed hates wearing his glasses, but the second Hunter tells him they look cute, he starts wearing them more often.

- Hunter isn’t one for public display of affection and Ed loves it. He’s patient with Hunter as much as he can be, but he does occasionally steal a quick kiss on the cheek, or hold his hand while they’re walking together.

- When Hunter starts attending Hexside, Emira notices that Ed’s stopped skipping class as much and has started staying after school sometimes and going to flyer derby meets. She questions him why, and he just tells her he’s started caring a little more about school. Em isn’t buying it.

- Edric likes to try day by day to corrupt his boyfriend a little more, get him to break the rules sometimes. One of things that Hunter actually did find exhilarating was sneaking out in the middle of the night to go see Ed, spending late nights with him and trying to be quiet so they didn’t get caught by Ed’s parents and/or sisters.

- Hunter starts complaining that he rarely gets enough alone time with Edric, so Luz takes it upon herself to set up a little date for them just outside the owl house, where the two of them could be alone. Though Hunter knows there’s a chance Luz might occasionally be peeking through the window, he still finds it sweet and utilises it.

- Edric loves pet names. He constantly finds himself calling Hunter either “babe,” “honey,” “sweetheart,” or “Goldie,” and it never fails to get Hunter flustered. (Goldie is his personal favorite, probably Hunter’s least favorite because of its association with having been the Golden Guard, but he’s willing to let Edric call him that to change the negative connotation a bit)

I’ll probably do a part two cause I have an intense hyperfix and I need to spill my brainrot somewhere