#equal parts murder and puppy eyes

[wraithsoutlaws]

what the fucjjcn why is he so CUTE :ratscream:

[chaosandmarigolds]

Blob blop - here’s some more Mafia!reader and Simon :p pt 3

“No!!” You laugh, walking beside the daunting man as you stroll aimlessly through the dimly lit and very well decorated corridors of the museum, “Oh come on! What was I supposed to do? watch and be like: oh that’s sucks.”

Simon gave you a look, it you thought he did, judging by the way his eyes squinted at you, “Well…I don’ think runnin into a busy street is th’ proper reaction to a kitten almos’ gettin hit.”

A moment passed and you stared at him, “So you’re just a heartless monster then.”

He seemed taken back and he stopped walking, turning to face you fully, hands shoved into the jean pocket, “prefer to not think tha’.”

You scrunch up your nose and shake your head, “Nope. That’s a horrible answer. It’s goes cute kitties, cute puppies, cute turtles, cute baby bunnies, ducks, birds, and then people.” When he laughed to that you gave an equal smile, or, again, what you assumed to be a smile.

For the most part you walked through the museum in silence, and every so often you would end up rambling on about some price of art and how it related to some aspect of your story. And he listened, nodding and putting in his own two cents every so often.

“An…Ivon…he just…” Simon faltered off as he looked over his shoulder as you both were now sitting in the lobby of the museum, since you wanted to figure out the certain painting was located, “he jus….follows ya?”

You hum and look at Ivon, waving and then going back to your little map, “Mmhm. Like I said I think he took out like a huge loan from my dad and couldn’t pay it back.” You stay quiet and then look up at him, “That sounds awful. But…uh…my father, he’s a bit of a loan shark.”

“Loan shark?”

-

“Get him out of my sight-“ Before he had the chance to finish his phrase a loud ring of a gun echoed through the office and he groans, “Outside!! just redid the carpet.”

The man, who very often was just called Cary, winced and then looked at the new hire, and then back to his boss. A good looking man for his sixties, peppered hair and a suit that was worth more than his name, so he then took a step forward. Mindlessly going to pour a glass of whiskey, as he normally would after a poor sap crossed his employer.

“I swear these new boys have no respect for the business, gangsters, drug lords- they’re all too stupid to see the business behind it.” Dominic grumbled into the glass as he was handed it, “It’s not all guns, you don’t have to be trigger happy son. You want to shoot you become a solider.”

By that point the twenty year old was already shaking in his boots and he does his best to keep his gaze directed low.

Dominic shakes his head and then shoos the poor boy out, maybe a few more days of training- as good workers were hard to come by and he wasn’t about to murder a good man in the making. The body laying on the ground spoke otherwise but he doesn’t care much about that man, a rotten person: thinking they could backtrack and tell someone of his trade.

After a few moments he lets out a sigh and turns his chair to not look at the body, “Send Ivon in.”

Cary faltered, “He is not yet here, sir.”

A pause, “Really? Where are they? It’s not Friday and bug didn’t put anything in the calendar.”

“A new friend sir, from the flower shop, a Simon Riley. We already pulled a background check, aside from a few juvenile charges and a foster care- he seems to be good, clean.”

Dominic held out his hand and looked as the small folder was placed into it, looking over the picture of the man clipped to the front of it and he gives a nod, “Strong build. Looks depressed.”

“He was prescribed Prozac and trazadone, he has not refilled either within four years.”

He laughs, “Alright. Tell Bug to invite him to dinner.”

(Annnn that’s all! Comments and feedback actually mean the world to me! Toodles!!)

[mayasaura]

One of my biggest hopes for Alecto is that Harrow has a minute of going full Carrie revenge insane upon finding out what they did to Gideon’s body. Like. Throughout Canaan House and especially in the AUs, we get the sense of Harrow having a deep desire to protect Gideon’s body even if it is in her own solitary goth nun way. She wants Gideon to put more consideration into the danger of avulsion before agreeing. She tells her afterward not to price her life so cheaply. She makes Cam and Pal check on her multiple times. She leaves her bread in a drawer. She’s fully on board to throw Camilla towards possible death in the interest of keeping Gideon safe. And then when she finally sees her in the coffee AU her description is just so soft and loving even when she’s about to pass out because she saw her arms, and continues that way until the end of the book. When Ianthe thinks it’s Harrow in Nona she’s surprised she isn’t violently storming the compound to recover Gideon’s body. Anyway she should find out how BOE and Jod treated her body and go on a tiny insane revenge spree. As a treat.

You are SO fucking right. Deep down inside Harrow is that one gif of the girl holding puppies and crying because she can't protect them, only the puppies are a butch lesbian determined to throw herself into a meat grinder.

I think Harrow might be a little grateful for the unbreakable bones and indestructable skin part of Jod's deal re: Gideon—she may have done that herself in Canaan House, if she'd known how—but the rest of it? The gaping wounds, the leaving her dead? Kill Bill sirens. She has been trying so hard to protect and preserve Gideon, to give Gideon a life, and when Gideon's own father has the chance to restore her he just slaps her together with crazy glue and calls it fine? That is not fine.

If she ever finds out how Gideon's corpse was being treated while her murderer lay in state on a bed of flowers... Man, I would not want to be in the room where that happened.

It would be so cathartic to see her tear into John over his part of it. Gideon already went apeshit on him for how he treated Harrow, so it's only fair Harrow gets to have her go. It's equality!! If We Suffer could somehow be there to be held accountable, too, so much the better.

And after that, what I really really want to see is Harrow turning the soft and loving vibe from the Baristar AU on the real Gideon, and channeling that protective fury toward protecting or restoring Gideon. I know it's probably not going to be exactly how it happens, what with everything else going on, but that sleeping beauty fakeout has me hungry to see Harrow try to ride in and rescue her prince.

In abscence of her body, Harrow's soul dreamed of Gideon's eyes; and in abscence of her soul, Harrow's body dreamed of Gideon's hands. If we don't get to see some pay off when she has those hands to hold again, I'm gonna have to chew my own fucking leg off.

[definesanity]

Thrill, Risk, Heartless.

The body was still warm. And Sonetto was on the trail of the killer.

The detective had been assigned to the "Clock Killings" when she had first joined the team, at the young age of 16. Back then, despite her knowledge in the field, she had no real-life experience.

Eight years. Eight. Goddamn. Years.

When she first assigned to the case, it was when the first two murders had taken place. And where she first saw the murderer, before vanishing.

She knew that girl. Had known who it was for a long time now.

And Vertin was finally in her grasp.

Over the fence, and straight into an alleyway.

Shots were fired by the ginger, but the white-haired woman was fast to dodge them. Not once was a bullet fired back. Is Vertin unarmed?

A turn... and a dead end.

Sonetto loaded her pistol, aiming it at the serial killer. "Turn around!"

Vertin gave a chuckle. "My," she said, turning around to finally show her face. "The lil' puppy has caught quite a large bone, hasn't she?"

A trail of blood came from the left side of her head, and her hands were coveted in blood. A knife was held in her right, and she wore a coat with a casual t-shirt and pants.

"Oh, don't worry about the wound, by the way," Vertin said, gesturing to the blood. "That guy just got a lucky shot on me. You didn't hit me."

"Want that to change?" Sonetto challenged, holding the gun directly at Vertin's heart. The killer gave a giggle.

"Puppy, you couldn't harm if you wanted. Come on, we're old friends, aren't we?" a smug smile was on Vertin's face as, her hands still up, walked forwards towards the detective.

Sonetto kept a steady aim. "One more step..."

Vertin gave a grin. "Oo, lil' puppy got--" a step forwards, "--claws?"

BANG.

Sonetto watched as Vertin fell over backwards, the knife falling from her hand.

A feeling lurched at her heart, one that she quickly pushed back down, much like how the body fell.

She sighed, turning away.

"Good aim, Sonetto," the hairs on the back of the ginger's neck went straight up. "You always did have the better eye-hand coordination out of us."

Sonetto turned back around, seeing how Vertin rose back up, taking the bullet out of her chest to examine it, letting out a tiny grunt during it which made Sonetto's heart skip a beat.

The moonlight shone directly on Vertin, showing how the light reflected off of the bloodied bullet, held in an equally bloody hand between her index finger and thumb.

A greyish-silver eye looked at the bullet almost fondly, as she then turned to Sonetto with that same expression.

"You know, this isn't the first time I've been 'killed'," she commented, "...But, it is the first time I came back the quickest..."

"Maybe you have something to do with it, hm? But..."

Her foot moved, and suddenly, the knife was in the air, and then back in her hand.

"For now, little puppy? Let's part ways, hm?"

And Sonetto watched as Vertin stabbed something under her coat, releasing smoke...

And then, she was gone.

And Sonetto felt like she was Niagara Falls with how wet she was.

[iamthecomet]

Mushy May Day 6

Picnic (Ft. Murder Ghoulettes) Pairing: Cirrus/Cumulus Rating: M for Murder Featuring: The girls deserve a picnic every once in a while. Murder ghoulettes. Blood. Kissing. Ghoulettes in love. Word Count: 700+ Read it under the cut, or on AO3.

The sister is pretty. A petite thing, with curves that would usually make Cirrus’ mouth go dry. She drags her fingers through her golden hair and smiles at Cumulus like she’s the moon. She’s Cumulus’ type. Naive. Trusting. Excitable.

Cirrus stands back, watches. She likes to watch. Likes to see the way Cumulus leans in, smiles wide and bright. How she bounces on her toes as they talk. The girl mirrors her enthusiasm, face breaking out into a wide grin as Cumulus reaches out to touch her.

“We’re going for a picnic,” Cumulus purrs at her. Big eyes trained on the sister, smile widening. “We’d love if you joined us.”

The picnic basket in Cirrus’ hand is empty. The girl doesn’t need to do know that.

It’s a short walk. Far enough into the orchard that they can’t see the Abbey anymore. Far enough that if the girl gets a chance to scream no one will hear her. She won’t get the chance though. Cumulus never lets them see it coming. Cirrus can’t decide if Cumulus does it out of mercy—or if she just likes the way their faces drop in surprise.

She’d bet on the latter.

It’s easy. It’s always easy. The girl tags along like a puppy, her hand pressed into Cumulus’. Giggling at the attention, grinning back at Cirrus like she’s in for the best night of her life—like she has never been happier.

Cirrus would maybe feel bad about it if she wasn’t so hungry.   She coos, reaching out to stroke her fingers along the delicate line of the girl’s jaw. Feeling the flutter of her pulse beneath her fingers. The girl blushes, deep pink flushing over freckled cheeks. She smells like honeysuckle.

Cirrus’ mouth is already watering. The kill is quick. It always is. The buildup is the long part. The soft way Cumulus and Cirrus touch her, the way they look at her as they lay the blanket down. The way Cumulus curls around her and points up to the apple blossoms on the tree. Presses fleeting kisses into her golden hair, nuzzles her nose against that fluttering pulse.

Then there’s blood. Arterial spray. And the girl is dropping limp into Cumulus’ arms. When Cumulus pulls away her lips are carmine.

Cirrus can’t help but kiss her. Can’t help but sweep her tongue over Cumulus’ plush lower lip and taste the last moments of that Sibling’s happiness against her flesh.

The rest is methodic, an easy rhythm they fall into without speaking. When they’ve had their fill they lay under the early spring sun, warm and satiated.

Cirrus could stay here forever. She would if she didn’t have a job, duties. If Papa wouldn’t come looking for them after a while. This, she’s sure, is the closest a hell beast can get to heaven. Cumulus’ body is pressed tight to hers, soft and pliant under her fingers. Their tails curled together, heads resting against each other as they lay on the blanket and look up at the cloudless sky. She raises Cumulus’ fingers to her lips and kisses the blood from them. Cumulus turns her head and laughs softly into Cirrus’ dark hair.

“I love these days with you,” Cumulus sighs.

“We could have more of them,” Cirrus offers even though she knows it isn’t true. Only so many disappearances can be swept under the rug. It will be a month or more before they can do this again. Before Cirrus can kiss the blood splattered over Cumulus’ neck. Before she can feel like this, sun warm and full, and at ease. Cumulus purrs against her, pulling her closer. Cirrus’ toes graze over blood slick grass as she shifts. “Next time, you can pick,” Cumulus promises. Cirrus shakes her head. She presses a kiss between Cumulus’ horns.

“You have better taste,” Cirrus lies. In reality, Cirrus thinks they have equally good taste. Different. Cumulus likes them innocent, happy, drugged on their own happy hormones before she kills them. Cirrus likes the opposite, a little fear, a little anger, the taste of their adrenaline bursting over her tongue. But really, she’d rather watch Cumulus do the killing. Loves to watch her work, the way she touches, the way she smiles. How her body moves when she’s getting ready. Loves to watch the blood drip down Cumulus’ chin, and smear across her cheeks.

Cirrus doesn’t need to pick, doesn’t need to chase, doesn’t need their fear as long as she can watch Cumulus work.

She’s never seen anything so beautiful.

Cumulus scoffs, knows the truth, but doesn’t try to push against it, doesn’t try to argue or insist. Cirrus can feel her grin against her neck, feels the slight prick of her fangs as she drags her teeth under Cirrus’ jaw. “You spoil me.”

Cirrus nods. “Always.”

[bhaalergate]

Cain hangs off of Gortash's every word when they first meet, without truly meaning to. At the start of his journey, he was painfully awkward. He was more like a feral creature pretending poorly at domesticity with no clear understanding of what it means to be docile. All he had was his name and his Oath. Over the course of his journey, Cain gradually forged bonds with his companions and they even accepted him despite the bloodlust they learned was living in his veins. He became more of an actual person.

Then he meets Gortash, and Cain doesn't remember him, but the way he engages him with such genuine warmth and familiarity makes him feel utterly seen and accepted. Wanted not in spite of the murder in his heart, but with it. (Something unknown stirs inside of him. Like the Urge, but not, though equally fervent. He wants to lace his fingers through Gortash's and squeeze until their hands fuse or bones break. He wants to crack open his ribs and crawl inside his guts and live there.)

Gortash sees his wolf returned and giving him puppy eyes and he can't help but wonder how sharp his teeth still are. (A wild part of him wants to pry open his jaws to find out.)

[galvanizedfriend]

What do u think about the fans mainly fans of the originals who say that klaroline was just a hookup and that caroline never liked klaus/ klaus never loved her. I see this sentiment alot on reddit and its so frustrating.

I think people are allowed to have their own opinions and interpretations of the show. Personally I have no hard feelings towards fans who aren't into Klaroline. I have my own opinions, which are obviously very biased, so I think it's fair that people will have their own biased opinions favoring different characters/ships that are more convenient to them. That's really the thing with media in general, different people can look at the exact same thing and have completely different views, and I'm totally ok with that.

Having said that, MY opinion is that Klaroline denialists (lol) have to pointedly ignore/turn a blind eye to a lot of things in order to completely disregard it. 😂 There's a hell of a lot of evidence, even in the final season of The Originals. I like to pretend that s5 never happened too, but it's mostly because it's an awful piece of television writing of which the KC parts and that one episode that is completely focused on Elijah are the only parts that can be salvaged. 🥲

I think that kind of thing tends to come from a new wave of fans who have started their TVDverse journey through The Originals rather than TVD, although ship wars have been around since the dawn of time. If you have only ever seen TO, then I guess Klaroline really doesn't make any sense. Even the crossover episodes that feature KC, the KC bits are kept mostly in the TVD portion. She seems to come out of nowhere in S5. Both are equally canon, one isn't truer than the other, and you need both to get a bigger picture, but some people would rather stick to just one of them. And when you've seen TO first and gotten attached to a certain ship and then go back to watch TVD, you're obviously going to have a biased view over that because what you find there is obviously not going to suit your heart's desire. It happens the other way around too.

The way I see it, it's really hard to simply deny KC when you watch TVD tho. 😂 It takes a LOT of determination lol Klaus was a total puppy for Caroline, in ways he never was for anyone else, and even in the crossover episodes, he still acts the exact same way. And come on 'he's your first love, I intend to be your last, however long it takes?' 😂 If that's not a love declaration 🤷‍

As for Caroline not liking him, it's very complex. When we get down to 5x11 in TVD, and then to S5 of TO, it becomes obvious that he's always messed with her head and she had complicated feelings for him she never wanted to tap into. Which is perfectly understandable. Klaus was a villain in TVD. He killed Elena, he ruined Tyler's life, he ruined Stefan's life, tortured him, murdered Tyler in cold blood right in front of everyone to force them to find the way to make him a hybrid, caused all sorts of havoc all over her home town. Klaus was THE BAD GUY. That's a problem I have with TO that I think gets worse for people who only see that show or who see that show first and then go back to watch TVD: they seem to think Klaus is not that bad. He's just a bad boy with a bad attitude. They fall for that cheap conversation they try to sell with Cami's character, the ~~explainer, that he's just misunderstood and all he really needed was someone to be on his side. No! Klaus is AWFUL. He's killed thousands of people! He's a villain! And that's what makes him such a great character! He never needed redemption. It's way easier for people to find him redeemable when he's done nothing to personally attack them/destroy their lives, which is obviously not Caroline's case. She's seen the very worst of Klaus. He's threatened everyone she knows, including her. And Caroline is someone who, aside from having a very strong however biased moral code, is also INCREDIBLY loyal, so of course it's going to be way harder for her to forgive Klaus and forget about the terrible things he's done to just see that she's an exception for him.

What becomes clear throughout S4 of TVD (for me, at least) is that she was struggling with how she felt and in a lot of denial. A lot of the things she says to him ('people who do terrible things are just terrible people') are really things she's saying to herself. She gets mad at the fact she's obviously ~~drawn to the darkness, and so she lashes out (because, you know, she has a personality 🤷‍). 5x11 makes that very clear as well. She doesn't want Klaus around because he clouds her judgement and it makes her mad that she's probably afraid she's not gonna be able to resist him for much longer and that's only going to complicate her life further. Everyone around her makes her feel guilty for not hating Klaus, so of course she's going to feel reluctant. But when they they do meet again in S5 of TO they're both at a point of their lives where she's ok admitting that she always wanted him to prove to her that he could do better, and that she always knew he wasn't her villain, even if he never hesitated to hurt anyone else around her, she knew she was safe with him (hence why she drove to Nola after him with her kids). She doesn't want him to die, tries to stop him by telling Elijah, and the fact she goes to New Orleans to have a last day with him, having saved that message for years and across different iPhones, probably, tells us that she had, deep down, had hopes that some day, down the line, they'd find each other again. But then they do, and it's too late (and that's really the only part of that season that is written with a certain degree of poetry tbh).

All that to say, Klaus and Caroline were complicated and clashed a lot and that's part of what made it so compelling to me. There were genuine reasons why they shouldn't be together, they were virtually on opposing sides almost the whole time, and I love that about the ship. It forced Klaus to grow a conscience. He wasn't sorry for the things he did, he wasn't trying to become a better person, there was no one petting him on the back and saying 'poor you, misundertood boy'. He was confronted with the consequences of his actions, which is, for me, the best (or worst) thing that could happen to someone like Klaus, unlike with Cami, for instance, who was just there to excuse his bad behavior.

But like I said, my opinions are completely colored by the fact that I 100% support that ship. And the same way I look down on other ships because I can't stand them, I get that other people are going to look down on my otp as well and have wildly different opinions. It's a fandom, we're never going to agree on everything, and I'm totally cool with that. There's room for everyone. Unless they come directly to my doorstep to talk shit about it, it honestly doesn't bother me. I'm all for ship and let ship.

ANYWAY 😂 Sorry for the long ted talk nonnie, I RAMBLE a lot 🥲

[heartlurch]

if u had to define it, what is it that u try most to bring out or represent in what u make, both aesthetically and narratively? I get a lot of the feeling if weird childhood feelings intersecting with like, adult feelings we don't quite understand yet- a kind of innocent puppy love that leads to a very sado-masochistic but equally innocent frame of mind. the idea that you want someone to be completely part of you, in every sense, in the most innocent- but not necessarily nice- way possible. like, when you're little, anything makes sense because nothing makes sense. (and also something something the inherent closeness of siblings...)

A real thinker. Hmm, how do I word this...

Aesthetically, I've always been drawn to 'cute' things. Little anime mascots, pretty creatures with bright eyes and long flowing hair. I'm inspired by things like Hamtaro, early Pokemon/Neopets design sense, a couple aspects of Digimon... My Little Pony! All things that have been dear to me since I was a lil kid. :3

I was also an edgy kid, though, so the kind of narratives I was inclined towards making were full of, er, murder, kidnapping, rape, slavery, cannibalism, torture... debauchery. Le weird age gap relationships, le interspecies, le forbidden love. (Funnily enough, I was late to the game with incest, it didn't really 'click' until I was about 17...) But yes, sado-maso, that was the core fixation. I wanted to see raw emotions! Misery! Scary situations! Dire romances!! And, I wanted all of these things to be inflicted to the pokemon, the my little ponies. I wanted to see those designs, that I was so attracted to, be put through this. Being honest, I don't think it was about contrasting something from my 'childhood' with something 'adult'... Well ah, real animals experience violence, death, rape, subjugation... *taps chin* I'm not sure if it feels like an 'adult' concept, because it's not as if it's exclusive to adults... Anything can experience intense circumstance, right? At that point, it's a matter of wanting to apply a sense of 'reality' to these creatures... Beyond that, it's also as simple as mashing up my favorite things together in a big pile. At that point, it's just incidental I wasn't like, idk, into detective dramas and putting the pokemon in that. (Not to nitpick too much... I'm just reflecting on my perspective. I'll circle back to this.)

Anyhoo... His little pea was thinking of such things at age like, 8, or something. Though I think I was closer to 11-13 when I was trying to actually write and draw these thoughts. None of this is so unique really; you can find tons of dA galleries from kids who want to see pikachu be fucked up and evil. As a result, I didn't feel like I was weird for what was doing, tbh. If anything, discovering fanfic dot net and dA made me feel validated — lots of people want to see this stuff! It was euphoric for a moment. Ah, so lots of people think like me... Cool!

I was mostly self-conscious at my own feeble skills. I'd have in my mind all these complex, winding narratives... Envisioning demon rituals where a kid needs to crush a live mouse between his teeth, swallow it whole, to complete it — but I couldn't remotely illustrate my thoughts. I'd barely be able to make some chicken scratch scribble of the design, and it'd be some feeble chibi lol. I felt a dissonance between my art and my desires. And it felt incompetent of me...

(You wouldn't know this girlie is a despondent sex slave, would you-??)

How do I improve drawing things that are pretty, cute, and appealing to me... but also, how do I create atmosphere? How do I convey all they are going through? This is where it's difficult, because there's not much to teach you how to... draw your cutesy little critter, writhing in agony. Expressive faces and posing are such a hill to conquer. And then beyond that, I have to realize there's other art that inspires me... I really love moeblob anime girls! Frilly shoujo styles! Expressive toons and furries... The simplicity of something like Adventure Time. What do I take away from these things? How do I integrate them-? I was honestly so clueless about it for years. Kind of at a loss of how to convey everything.

By now, I realize I want things to be mm... fluid, fantastical, a bit boneless... But not TOO boneless, it needs to be! Grounded! It needs volume, weight, I don't want things to get too loose, too flat, too 'shapes'. There's a lot of beauty to organic form... Grit to the living body. I want to imbue my favorite designs with that! A mascot is often designed with no intention to see it twist, flex, roll around, writhe... I want to look at a design like pichu and give it muscle and organs. It has a skeletal structure! It breathes! It exists. With all the dreamy, unreal smoothness of a real mouse. :3

Beyond that, I had much to hone about what I value in narratives. Getting it down to a science... What do I really want? At first, I think I over-emphasized wanting 'bad things' to happen. Harm happened, but too much for the sake of it. There was not enough meaning behind it. What imbues it with meaning...? I've found that the answer is: characters being obsessively, madly in love. A love that consumes everything, a love that drives you to act in a way you can't understand. This is where you get into the 'want to be completely intertwined, want all of you, no matter what '. That mentality. The kidnapping should happen because of love! The cannibalism should happen because of love! The rape should happen because of love! Love, love, love. It's always out of love! Love is the only thing that matters.

As for your bit about "adult feelings we don't quite understand yet", I do ponder this sort of thing quite a lot. I feel like... a lot of your experience as a child is that people underestimate what you are capable of. It's kind of frustrating! You see how children are depicted in things... and it makes you feel microaggressed, almost, haha. I'm not so gormless... I have an inner world, I have desires. One can develop an arrogance about this even... I think kids are pretty arrogant, often. Since they know they're being underestimated?

But... you... don't know everything yet! You can be in over your head. That's the tricky thing; there's a lot you haven't experienced before and cannot put to words yet. There are feelings that you have, that you chase, but you don't even know why. Sometimes it's fully unconscious... or sometimes, you're half-aware of it, but you struggle to confront it. Maybe you'll let yourself 'get away' with what you're doing, by not looking at it head on... Ah, and then, I think about all the memories I have of being pointlessly scared or confused about something that was so simple in reality. There are so many anecdotes people share from childhood that I really dwell on. An innocuous post like this really sums up how you can have a very inexplicable but real fear, that gets overturned by something very arbitrary. DON'T YOU HAVE A 100 MEMORIES LIKE THIS...?? It's the comical aspect of it all.

I really like the respective 'flavors' of specific ages as well. So it's fun to get into the head of a 15 yo, a 13 yo, a 12 yo, a 9yo, a 6yo... And the intersection of different personalities and ages! What about a distinctly 'slow' or immature kid, paired with someone younger yet more mature? Or perfectly on their level? Or... [goes on and on...] How do they encourage one another, who instigates what, what do they incidentally stumble into? I love accidents. I love not planning to do something... not intending to do anything more than an innocuous game. Or a mish-mash of, one of you is more clueless, the other knows they're doing something underhanded... Indeed, it's not always nice. It's often selfish. Love makes you selfish, love makes you impulsive and reckless. But it also makes you covet, find things precious. You end up feeling protective, as much as you feel destructive. How contradictory it all is!! Hehe. As you can probably tell, by now, I could spend all day thinking about this stuff...

Now that I have my ultimate best friend forever and ever, my wifey, it's all I want to think about. :3 I feel like being with her specifically, is what helped me fully understand the appeal of sibling characters. I've kind of dabbled in it before but, it's really being with Avvy that makes me crave the fantasy of wanting to be born together, grow up together... Never be apart. We're inseparable and spend every second with one another, so it's very natural to translate our dynamic into something like the Yugi twins. How warm and cozy! Let's play forever!

Bit of a tangent, but it's all relevant, I promise.

So hm... going over my art journey and all... As an adult, I've reached a point where I can reflect on everything I've been drawn to, and why, and I can understand what I want to make of it all. I felt more aimless before, and helpless about how to make everything harmonize. It all kind of felt like a big soup of disparate things I was trying to mash together, with mixed results. Now I feel more exact. And I can reflect on my own experiences and memories and use that to connect and explore characters. I like this... it's like my entire life becomes a reference point, something to pull from. A moment, a feeling, a tactile experience... It can be plucked and made into art. Which is lovely. At this point, it makes me a little excited when I experience stressful things, because it can be something I use later. Physical illness is fodder for a sickly character. When I'm bedridden and my wife is bringing me water, it's like some weird kinnie euphoria lol. My twin is here for meeee... kaff kaff

I keep trying to think of how to succinctly summarize this all... Maybe I can't. The last thing I want to say is I put a lot of reverence in my personal art, now. And I'm pretty severe about this, I don't want to draw something out of any other reason than adoration. It needs to matter to me. I have to love it. A lot of my old art is embarrassing, but as long as I was trying my best, it's not so bad. The stuff I truly hate was when I faffed off and drew some meaningless meme, just cuz my friends were doing it. And drawing things purposefully ugly. Making fun of my interests, out of shame, or something... I resent this. I won't ever do this again! If I draw Tsukasa... I need to make sure I'm conveying how I love him and how he is beautiful! At most, if I'm drawing something silly, it still needs to be cute. Appealing. A silly little comic. It's no fun of me, I know, but I hate meme-y art as a result. Useless to me. It's easy to be irreverent. Try praying to something next time you draw, if you want a challenge... *insane person voice*

Something something... oh, the reason I feel 'weird' and 'crazy' nowadays, is because I think a lot of people outgrow the edgelord, drawing pikachu crying blood phase. Or, it developed into something more... *squints* 'respectable'...? But I feel as though my raw desires haven't changed. If anything, I'm leaning into it allharder into it than I ever did when I was young.

I hope any of this was interesting. 🙇‍♀️

[cantuscorvi]

The flat is dark and quiet when Raum comes home—suspiciously dark and quiet.

The silence stretches as he makes his way to the living room, but the automatic lights in the hallway reveal some black and gold party balloons set up in the corner, a hint of an impending doom.

When Raum makes it to the kitchen and turns the ceiling light on, he finds Anton standing in full view, surrounded by birthday decorations. There are more balloons, more black and gold that match the theme. Anton is wearing a golden birthday hat and holding a bottle of champagne that he pops, making resigned eye contact that reads: My apologies, I was made to do this.

"Surprise!" Nezumi springs from behind the counter, also sporting a golden birthday hat. He's wearing the brightest smile and holding a pug puppy with a golden bow around its neck. "Happy birthday, Daddy!" he chirps and trots towards Raum, singing a quick:

"Happy birthday to youuu~ Happy birthday to youuu~ Happy birthday, Daddyyy~ Happy birthday to youuu~"

Nezumi lifts the puppy to Raum's face. The puppy wiggles and tries to lick Raum's nose. "I couldn't resist when I saw him. Look at his wee wittle face. He has your eyebrows! Look! Look!" He brings the pug closer, and as it gets more excited, it manages to reach its tongue to Raum's cheek. Then it pees itself.

"Awww, I think he likes you," Nezumi laughs and wraps the pup in its blanket—a fuzzy blue with yellow letters that spell the pup's name. "His name is Corvin, and he's the cutest baby; just look at that adorable scowl. Hihi. Reminds me of someone." He flashes Raum a pointed glance. "But no matter. If you don't want him, Anton will take him."

Judging by Anton's expression, he was informed of none of this. He pours two glasses of champagne and sets them on the kitchen counter, looking like he wishes he could be anywhere but here.

"So. How was your day? Let me. Let me." Nezumi sets the pug down and ushers Raum to the table. "I have a cake ready, and then we'll drink and sing karaoke! Anton promised to sign a duet with me!"

Again, Anton pauses opening the fridge, halfway pulling out a massive red velvet cake, and gives Nezumi a frightened we-didn't-agree-on-this stare.

Nezumi ignores him. His attention is solely on Raum. He will try to put a birthday hat on Raum's head next—this one reads Birthday Boy!

@nezumivc103221

There was a note of tension in Raum when he came home to silent darkness. This kind of unpredictability was Nezumi’s specialty. Whether it was for good or bad, well, there was an equal chance for both, he had learned. That was only a bridge that Raum could cross whenever he came upon it.

Still — he knew something wasn’t quite right the moment he came to the main room. The large windows projected the distant light of the city inside, and Raum could barely make out a silhouette in the darkness. He was quickly contemplating the best way to murder an intruder in his kitchen — until he moved toward the light switch, and he noticed the balloons in the corner.

He paused, puzzled for a moment, before something clicked. And then he shook his head and turned on the light.

Raum met Anton’s eyes silently, questioning, and the man’s face told him almost everything he needed to know. Raum frowned at him, before Nezumi excitedly popped up from behind the counter, beaming, and singing and… holding a dog?

Suddenly everything and nothing made sense. His expression slackened, lips parted with a sheer amount of bewilderment at everything taking place. He should have known by now that sometimes there wasn’t really a point in asking why, and yet he couldn’t help it in a situation such as this. Raum hasn’t given a shit about his own birthday in years, actively avoided acknowledging it even, so why—

“Why is there a dog in the kitchen?”

Nezumi brought the dog closer and Raum’s nose wrinkled at the smell of its breath. The closer Nezumi shoved it at him, the further he leaned back, until he took a full step — just in time to avoid being unceremoniously peed on. Wonderful.

There was a breakneck pace to those preparations that barely allowed him to react, and it grated on him enough to come to a full stop before Nezumi could even drag him to the table. He dug his heels into the floor as Nezumi tugged at him, stuck like a stone, refusing to move.

“Stop— stop that.” Raum wrapped his hands around Nezumi’s wrists to do just that, firm and tenuously calm, prying his hands away before the god-awful paper hat could touch his head. He gave Nezumi a a look of reproach, holding him at bay while he glanced around the wide space of the apartment. The clumsy, questionably well-intentioned disarray of it all made him feel repelled — like a cat that had its fur rubbed the wrong way.

There were two options to potentially salvage this night.

He could ignore all of this. Anton’s pained face. The too-sweet cake. The bug-eyed, wheezing puppy that pissed on his floor. Nezumi’s uncannily cheerful mood. He could retreat to his room and shut the door, or perhaps return the way he came and back to the car. He could choose simply to not engage. Or...

The ringleader in him could see this unbridled circus, and unfathomably, try and turn it around. Yes, everything may have been wrong, but this was his house, and it was his stupid birthday, and he could damn well make it right. But that was only worth the effort if he wanted to enjoy it. Perhaps he did. Perhaps he didn’t.

Another year had passed. Was there anything to celebrate in the first place?

In the end, it was hard to tell.

Anton was getting out little plates for the cake. In other circumstances Raum would almost laugh — whatever Nezumi had done to rope him into this plan, he seemed thoroughly whipped, to take those borderline humiliating commands. And yet, Raum found his suffering almost clownish, and deciding enough is enough, snapped his fingers to get the sullen man’s attention.

“Эй,” Raum practically barked, gesturing to the dog snuffling about the expensive carpet that he really didn’t want any pet hairs embedded within. “Вынести его наружу.”

Anton’s shoulders slackened with the relief of having a different order to fulfil. He scooped the little thing up in his arms and took him out to the terrace. Understanding the implicit instruction embedded in Raum’s clipped tone, he closed the door and remained outside with the dog.

Raum turned his attention back to Nezumi. He took a long look at Nezumi’s face, then sighed through his nose, finally letting go of his wrists. He grabbed one of the champagne flutes from the counter and quickly downed it. Ultimately, it had little effect on his mood.

“This is not how I like to do things.” His eyes narrowed, and in his voice was distaste, borderline contempt. “—Though, I’m sure you know that.” He gestured around at the balloons and the cake, then drank Nezumi’s glass as well. “All of this is more for you than for me though, isn’t it.”

He twirled the stem of the empty glass in one hand, and for a moment he still contemplated leaving. Truly there wasn’t much here at all that he liked this evening — in fact, it seemed as if everything was done to try and infuriate him, and that knowledge was entirely what left him oddly calm about the situation.

Raum looked at the little puddle on the floor. He set down the champagne flute. Made a decision.

“Clean that up,” he said flatly, pulling off his tie and tossing it on the table. He stepped around and carefully over the puddle, heading back towards the corridor. He grabbed his car keys off the shelf in the hallway, and didn’t look back. “I’m going out. Enjoy your birthday party.”

[fraink5-writes]

In the Names of Freedom - Chapter 1

Due to personal reasons, I took a hiatus two years ago, but NO LONGER! I am BACK, and with a new fic!

It’s another Genshin fic, this time inspired by the great manga Love of Kill (殺し愛), featuring Xiao and Venti!

Huge thank you to my editor @leio13​ for all the awesome feedback she provides!

Summary: After confirming the death of his latest target, Xiao's secret mission is interrupted by an eccentric stranger in green, who claims to be Xiao's protector! But the reality is much more convoluted... What destiny could possibly link Xiao with Venti—an assassin of hitmen?

This chapter can also be found on Ao3 here. Without further ado, please enjoy!

The jade tip of the spear glided cleanly through the center of the man's chest. After just a few moments of staggering and sputtering blood, the body crumpled to the floor. It would take a few minutes for brain death, but that wasn't Xiao's concern. Wasting no time, he walked over to the body and began his inspection, running his gloved fingers through every crevice. …Nothing. This was to be expected, of course. When Xiao died no one would find anything on his body either. Then he yanked out his spear and let the blood pour from the wound.

“Woooooowww~ Good job!” A light voice sang out. Xiao was certain he cleared the area of any bystanders. He shot up and whipped his spear in the direction of the voice. “So that's how the masters do it!” 

At the end of his weapon was a short… whimsical-looking fellow. His flowered hat and twin braids painted the image of a fairy-tale character, certainly not a witness to a murder. But whatever misfortune or accident led him to this scene was not important. He couldn't leave alive.

Xiao thrusts the spear at his skull, but the man just ducked under, not a second too soon.

“Can you hear me out?“

Xiao stabbed. Again. Again. Again. But each time, his target managed to elude his spear in an energetic dance.

“Please?” He shot Xiao the biggest puppy eyes imaginable, and while appeals to emotion didn't mean anything to Xiao, the man seemed equally unaffected by the many attempts on his life.

Xiao sighed. “You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into.” 

“Of course I do,” he chuckled. “Who in these parts hasn't heard the tragedy of the Yaksha?” After posing dramatically, he smiled, holding out his hand. “I'm Venti.”

Venti…? A strange name that should've meant nothing to Xiao, yet it stayed his hand—if only for a second. Then he lunged at “Venti” again.

“What's your name?” Venti playfully glided around the dim alley.

Xiao's only answer was another stab. 

“You won't tell me?” Venti's pout was quickly replaced by a smile. “Nevertheless, I'm still glad we had this chance to meet, o woeful Yaksha.” And with that, he slipped out into the dark, droning Liyue streets and disappeared.

***

Early the next morning, Xiao trudged through the already busy commercial district with a persistent twinge of irritation. He let that guy escape yesterday without a single clue about his identity. All he had was a name: Venti. That had to be a fake name, otherwise he wouldn't have given it up so easily. In any case, the name hadn't produced any results in Xiao's research. Although the stranger’s continued existence concerned Xiao, he felt deeply in his gut that he shouldn't let anyone else know about their encounter—at least not until Xiao could gather more information. As a result, the report in Xiao's hand contained no mention of the thorn in his side named Venti.

At the end of Liyue Harbor's Feiyun Slope, across from the entertainment district (Chihu Rock), sat an unassuming apartment building with an equally plain storefront on the first floor. Above the door, an old-fashioned sign read “Adepti Agency.” Due to its location, the small garden out front was a prime spot for teenage loitering, none of whom even spared the agency a second glance. Even at nine in the morning, there were already two teens hovering around one of the stone benches. 

“Have you heard about Teyvat's most prolific killers? They supposedly live right here in Liyue Harbor.”

“Ehhh? No?? What?!”

“Eheh, don't worry; they only kill bad people. They're known as the Yaksha and the Mole.”

“Ohh… I've heard about the Yaksha before—they're the hitman, right?”

“Yeah, they're called the Yaksha because they only kill the scum of the scum in Liyue's shadows. And they have a 100% hit rate.”

“Ooh, scary…”

“But guess what? Rumor has it they have a background in crime! They're first job was wiping out their own organization…!”

“Wow…”

“Yeah, but, the Mole is even worse—they're a hitman of hitmen!”

“Damn.”

“They deal in information. They help other assassins kill their targets in exchange for info. Supposedly, if the target offers up the better intel, they get spared, and the Mole kills the assassin. But no matter what, they always kill both eventually.”

“But if you're going to get killed no matter what, why would anyone make a deal with them?”

“Well, you see, they apparently have a voice so hypnotic that no one can resist them!”

“What would happen if they met?”

“Well, obviously the Mole would kill the Yaksha.”

“Yeah, but the Yaksha never misses a target.”

“True… hmm… what if they killed each other… at the same time!”

“Or what if they teamed up together?”

“Now that would be scary…”

Tuning out the embellished drivel of the teenagers, Xiao approached the uninviting entrance. There was only a single piece of paper hanging on the door that read “SORRY! No walk-in appointments.” Xiao opened the door and slipped inside. 

Upon entering, he was greeted by the reception desk. The young woman at the desk was sleeping, her head of blue hair nestled in her arms. Xiao wordlessly placed an envelope on her desk.

“…Ah! Uh… g-good morning, Xiao!” The secretary's head shot up in a daze.

“You don't have to work all night, you know, Ganyu.”

“Oh, yes… I know, but… intel can come through at any time, and Morax is counting on me to process them. Um, is this your report from your last job? That was fast!” Ganyu filed the envelope away. “Are you heading out again?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay…” She flipped through the papers on her desk and handed a packet to Xiao. “Here's your next job. Knowing you, you shouldn't have any problem with it.”

“Thanks.” Xiao turned back to the door.

“Xiao!” Ganyu called out to him once more as he was halfway through the exit. “I'll tell Morax that you stopped by! Good luck!”

And with a nod, Xiao left.

***

Although Xiao wasn't worried about his target (a corrupt aristocrat), that didn't mean he had plenty of free time. He headed over to the Heyu Tea House, where his target liked to lounge about, squandering his unlawful gains. As it was still early, the aristocrat had not yet shown up; the place was empty, save for Xiao himself and the storyteller who took it upon himself to begin a story:

“There once was a massive monsters' den. The monsters were exceptionally cruel, kidnapping children from their homes! But they did not eat them—no! They forced them to labor like slaves as their masters sat round their fire pits, inhaling the fumes. Our story today is the tale of three of these children on a fateful night…” 

By this point, Xiao's laptop had started up, and he began his research, tuning out the fantastical story behind him. Since he was in a public place, his resources were limited, but nevertheless, he would scour the surface web for any information on “Venti.” But “Venti” was nothing more than dust in the wind, a fleeting encounter swept away into the unknown. 

“Though the children had slain the King of the Beasts, could they escape the den alive? Please come back tomorrow to find out what happened to our three brave heroes.” Just as the storyteller wrapped up his first story, Xiao's target, Gentry Maocai, arrived at the Tea House as if on cue. He sauntered over to the boss for idle chatter, leaving his servant to prepare his table. With his master's back turned, the servant flippantly arranged the dishes, placing Maocai's teacup front and center. After a bit of dawdling, he approached Maocai to coax him to his seat. 

That was Xiao's chance. He slipped past the gentleman's unattended seat, dumped the contents of a small packet into his tea and then excused himself to the bathroom. Inside the packet was a ground powder created from the leaves of a tiny flower (gelsemine). It was a rare tea leaf, well suited for the end of a corrupt businessman's life. 

Xiao returned to his proper table, lingering to make sure Gentry Maocai savored his final cup. At around 11:45, a lively voice suddenly popped up behind Xiao's head, snapping him out of his covert gaze. “Oh, is that my name? I’m flattered!” Xiao slammed his laptop closed. The annoying presence skipped around to the other side of the table. “You know, if you wanted to find me, you could've just asked for my number~!” He waved his cellphone. “Then you can reach me whenever!” 

“No thanks…” Xiao grumbled automatically. “What are you doing here?”

“May I join you?” Venti pulled out the nearest chair without hesitation. “I told the host you were expecting me~.”

“Unfortunately, I was just about to leave.” Xiao rose slowly, trying to cover his irritation. 

“Need to leave before the clock strikes twelve? Well, I guess the poor child couldn't be caught at the nobleman's… ball.” An artificial smile quickly covered Venti's smug eyes. “Well, that's okay! I've already heard all these stories anyway.” After leaving the storyteller an enormous tip, Venti cheerily exited the tea house after Xiao.

Although, personally, Xiao wanted to shake off his company, he could not stray far from his mission until he had confirmed completion. Moreover, this was a rare chance to gather intel on the elusive Venti. If Xiao lost him now, Venti would vanish into the untraceable shadows. For those reasons, Xiao reluctantly let Venti skip behind him up to a higher balcony. 

Equally convenient and confusing, the many buildings of Feiyun Commerce Slope were connected by a network of stairs, balconies, and bridges which extended to the skies. From a business perspective, the arrangement was perfect for spying. From his higher perch, Xiao could easily watch the chaos that was unfolding at Heyu Tea House. The cacophony of moving furniture, the indistinct shouts, and the distant approach of sirens were enough to inform Xiao that Gentry Maocai was quickly expiring. By now, he was probably convulsing and having difficulty breathing. 

Then the restaurant fell silent. 

Venti, who had been quietly humming next to Xiao, suddenly snaked his left arm around Xiao's waist. 

“Don't.” Xiao breathed. 

“Aww, Honey…” Venti cooed. “Don't be so cold…” Venti let go of Xiao, his hand slowly creeping up to Xiao's cheek. With his right hand, he brushed back some of Xiao's hair and cupped his ear. “We're being watched.”

Xiao briefly scanned his surroundings, and sure enough, behind Venti, there was a woman in all black trying not to turn her eyes in discomfort. 

Closing his eyes, Xiao inhaled sharply. “Sorry. I didn't mean to be cold.” Xiao wrapped his arms around Venti. “But once I start thinking about all the things I want to do to you…” He whispered loudly, his fingers crawling down Venti's back. “Well…” Lower. “I don't think I'd be able to control myself—”Lower—“Even in public.”

Venti jumped ever so slightly, his face as red as a chili. He wasn't the only one blushing—the nosy woman was struggling to hide her rosy cheeks—but he was the first to regain his composure. “Oh my~!” With a coy giggle, he grabbed Xiao's arm, locking their fingers, and led him hastily to street level. 

“Never do that again,” Xiao hissed. 

“Uh-huh.” Venti's eyes were locked with the sidewalk.

An ambulance had finally arrived at the scene, but it was too late.

As Xiao and Venti wormed through the busy crowd, Venti's jumbled footsteps calmed into his usual dancing step. Perhaps his hand was a little too snug in Xiao's…

“I know I didn't leave the greatest first impression, but I'm grateful that we could have this second date.”

“This isn't a date.”

“Hm.” Venti shrugged. “You go by Xiao, right?”

Xiao's feet froze. When did Venti learn his name? What else has he learned?

“Relax. I just think it's a nice name.” For a brief second, Venti readjusted his hand, and just like that, Xiao's phone had been snatched. “So, this is your number…” He rapidly typed in a message (“This is Xiao!”) and sent it off to an unfamiliar number. 

Xiao yanked his phone back. “I'm going to block you.” But underneath his chastisement, he had even greater concerns. Not only did Venti have unknown access to information, but he also was exceptionally quick. Even ignoring whatever strength he might possess, he was a dangerous threat. Xiao had to figure him out before he could get whatever he wanted from Xiao.

When they arrived at a quiet park, Venti finally freed Xiao from his grip. “We're not being tailed anymore,” he exclaimed, stretching his arms. 

“By that group, at least.”

Venti blinked. He turned his head left and right; there was confusion written all over it.

“What business do you have with me?”

“Huh? Business? Oh.” Laughing, Venti deflected Xiao's accusations, “It's nothing like that at all. Just think of me as your guardian angel~!”

“Such a thing like that doesn't exist.”

“Sure it does!” Sensing Xiao's growing bloodlust, Venti skipped back a few paces. “Well, I'm glad I could meet you a second time, but I do have other places to be~! See you soon!”

Xiao would have preferred to settle everything right then, but Venti had once again vanished into the bustling streets. Xiao could pursue him no longer. Clinging to the smallest hope, Xiao blocked the unknown number on his phone screen, but he knew that wouldn't be the end of it.

[crazyk-imagine]

Chapter IV: WayneWayne plus Lame Lame equals Barf Barf

Characters: Sulane Celeste (OC), Jasner Verbane, Carlos Garcia, Hortense “Logan” Mitchell, Kendall Knight, James Diamond, Kelly Wainwright, Gustavo Rocque, Katie Knight, Jennifer “Mama” Knight, Camille Roberts, the Jennifer’s, Griffin, Wally Dooley aka WayneWayne, Tony (Sound booth guy)

Warnings: Bad boys, slight angst (for Sulane), making bets, mentions of death, emotional times, using candy as a weapon, rekindling friendships, Mama Knight losing her mind with the “ax murderer” thing

Word Count: 8,865

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The boys knock on Sulane’s door, they see her light is on through the crack underneath the door, but she doesn’t answer. They’re all confused, wondering what happened. The boys felt they were making progress with her, maybe enough to the point where it wouldn’t be too rude if they asked what happened and why she’s so bitter towards them. 

The four exit the elevator and find the one person their age (who’d most likely be more willing to talk) and knows more about the “new” Sulane. 

“Hey!” Kendall calls out to Jasner, who then ignores him because none of the boys ever acknowledge him or ask for his help. “You with the weird name. Jason something?” 

He stops and pops a raspberry into his mouth. He takes his time responding and reaches for another, tossing it up in the air before catching it while the boys wait for him to answer them anxiously. “It’s Jasner,” the teen corrects them. 

“Yeah, exactly.” Carlos pops out from behind the blond. “Do you- do you know what’s going on with?” He points upstairs and the raspberry lover instantly knows what Carlos is talking about. 

“Oh,” he scratches the back of his neck. This is not what he was expecting. “I don’t know if I should tell you.” “

Why?” asks James. 

“Is it-” Logan leans in closer towards the actor, “is it bad?” 

Jasner shakes his head. “She- you know, it’s- it’s complicated actually.” 

“Or will it be… until you explain it to us?” Carlos does his puppy dog eye routine. 

Jasner shakes his head, “I really shouldn’t.” He sighs after looking at all four of their faces. “Fine, fine. This- this is right around the time when her mom died.” 

Their eyebrows shoot up, eyes wide. None of them can find the right words to respond. 

“Should we… do something?” Logan asks. 

The raspberry lover shakes his head, “she won’t like that you guys know, and she really doesn’t like when people try to help her especially when it comes to this. Kelly was lucky to become her foster/ adopted mom. It’s always a little fuzzy on that part for me.” 

“Okay,” Kendall nods. 

“Okay?” Jasner repeats, munching on another raspberry. 

“Yeah, okay. We got this. Nothing’s gonna happen.” 

“I feel like I shouldn’t have told you.” 

The boys shrug. 

��Probably not but what can you do now,” says James. 

“I can hide.” 

“Where? Everyone knows where you hide?” asks Logan. 

The teen with the strange name pouts. “I’ll come up with something. Oh, I’ve gotta go. I forgot to do the first draft for the history paper and its due in less than four hours. Later guys.” He twists the lid on his fruit container and jogs toward the elevator. 

The smile falls from Carlos’ face when he realizes what the actor’s doing. “We had a history paper?” 

“Did we?” asks Kendall. 

“Yes!” Logan tells the three, voice high and strained. “I’ve been telling you about it since we got it. Why do you think I’ve been standing like a statue for at least five minutes every day?” 

“I thought you were trying to get over you’re peeing in public thing,” the corndog lover informs him. 

The brainiac scoffs, “I don’t have par- paruresi.” 

The three-stay quiet, Kendall feels like the word means exactly as Carlos said but he doesn’t want to say it out loud in case he’s wrong. 

Carlos was never good with big words (or what he thinks are big words) and now he wants corndogs. 

James doesn’t care all that much about learning right now and he’s thinking about how he can help make Sulane feel better now that they know the truth. 

Logan sighs and turns around, mumbling to himself, “I gotta get new friends.” 

“Where are you going?” asks Carlos, once he stops thinking about food and realizes that they’re leaving the lobby. 

The boys walk out towards the pool area to try and relax for a minute before they have to head to the recording studio. 

“Idea?” Logan announces, sitting up with his index finger up at the sky, although he’s unsure if he has actually had a plan. 

“What is it?” asks James. 

“I- you know we could- no, that’s illegal. Or we could- nope even worse.” 

“Do you have anything that could possibly become a plan?” Kendall chimes in, wanting the brainiac to stop mumbling unhelpful things. 

“Uh- you know what, no.” He shakes his head with his lips tugged to the side. “I don’t.” 

“Great, we’re screwed,” James whines. 

The boys flop back against the pool chairs, waiting till it’s time to sing.

 S01 EP04

Sulane sits on the couch, working on her essay that’s due in a week. Her mind not entirely focused on her job, but Gustavo should consider himself lucky that she’s even here. 

Kendall finishes the song, and she looks up to see Carlos fall as her boss chucks his headphones off and tosses them off to the side. 

‘Oh, no. Please don’t scream. Please don’t scream.’ 

The loud man walks into the studio, standing in front of the boys. 

“Gustavo, this song is great,” Kendall starts. 

“Um, of course it’s great. I wrote it.” 

She scoffs. 

He points to the blonde, standing beside Kelly (who’s closest to the leader of the band), “you stay out of this! You’re lucky I acknowledged your assistance.” The producer refocuses on the boys. “But the band isn’t great. What’s missing is the secret rock and roll ingredient.” 

She closes her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose, “no.” 

“Hair mouse,” James starts. 

“Chocolate mousse,” Carlos adds, excitement evident in his tone. 

“Spandex? Please don’t say spandex,” Logan begs. He looks over at Sulane who squints her eyes with furrows brows, clearly confused and weirded out by his answer. 

“Please tell me it’s not a-” 

Gustavo turns, wrapping his arm around Logan. “The bad boy.” 

“And my worst fears have come to life.” 

Kelly nudges Sulane with her elbow. 

“The ill-tempered rebel with a flair for synchronized dance. One of you has to be it. I say it’s Kendall.” 

The teen throws her head back and cackles. “Oh my god,” she wipes away a fake tear. “This is great.”

~ Ah, ah, oh ooh ~

“I’d prefer if Sullie did it,” the leader tells him. 

“We all would prefer if it was her. She’s better at listening than you dogs but,” he raises a finger. “This is a boy hand.” 

“I could play guitar… wait- why am I defending this dumb idea. I don’t want to be in the band.” 

“Please,” Kendall begs. 

“No.” 

“She has her own contract, and I don’t want Griffin to come in and mess it up. We’re finally making good progress,” Gustavo explains to the four. 

“Okay fine… why do we need a bad boy?” 

The loud man screams, and Kelly turns on her tablet, showing the teens the picture of Griffin along with the voicemail. 

“He’s driving me crazy! But he’s also right, because the bad boy is a rock and roll tradition.” 

“More like lame and stupid.” 

“Quiet!” The producer shouts at her. 

“Maybe I don’t want to-” 

-

Kelly pulls her off to the side before anything could get worse. 

Gustavo would crumble against her. 

“I know today is hard for you especially with the boys coming back into your life but that does not mean you can disrespect Gustavo or take your frustrations out on any of them. You have two choices, the first one means you have to be civil and nice to those around you.” 

“Or?” 

“I lied, you only have the one option and if you don’t try to be nice, I will send you to your room.” 

She huffs, “fine. I’ll be,” her lips curl in disgust. “Civil.” 

“Thank you.” 

-

The two step back towards the group. 

“Follow!” 

She keeps quiet when her foster mom gives her a stern look. 

“Notice the back turned to the rest of the band.” The producer points to said member of a former boy band he worked with, “bad boy.” 

The group walks to the other side of the hallway. 

“Notice the back turned, the dark clothing, and the scowl. Bad boy.” 

“But there can only be one bad boy per group, as learned from the bad boy’s experiment of the ’95.” 

“So glad I wasn’t here for that.” 

The boys shush her. 

“Didn’t sell a single CD.” 

Sulane snickers behind her hand. 

“But we’re best friends. We never turn our backs on each other,” Kendall points out. 

She scoffs through her nose with an eye roll. 

“Not gonna happen,” says Carlos. 

“No way,” Logan adds. 

“Uh-uh,” escapes James. 

“Then let me let you in on another rock and roll secret. The bad boy is also the most popular member of the band, makes the most money, and dates the most models,” the producer explains. 

She raises her hand, “that’s not always true. There are times when the underdog manages to win over the hearts of teenage girls.” 

James and Carlos shush her before the two plus Logan fight to stand in front of the others. 

“I can be bad,” says the pretty boy. 

“I’m so bad,” Logan argues. 

The helmet lover brings his arms up, showing off his muscles, “look at my back.” The other two follow his actions. “Look at my back.”

She rolls her eyes and walks down the hallway, not wanting to be around anyone right now. 

-

The door to their apartment swings open with Logan being the first to walk through, whooping along the way. 

Mama Knight looks to the two blondes for answers. “Gustavo says one of us has to be a bad boy,” Kendall explains to his mom. 

“But you’re all nice boys.” 

Sulane snickers, “I love when I come over.” 

Kendall’s mom freaks out and grabs the boy by his shirt, “oh, I am so glad you’re here. There’s an axe maniac on the loose!” 

They look over towards Katie’s sign that says, “no there’s not!” 

“Oh, well, we’ll be extra careful then, mom. We promise.” 

James walks over, wrapping an arm around Sulane’s shoulders. 

“You better remove that arm and shove that fake bad boy attitude teen feet away from me, Diamond.” 

The boy nods, removing his arm before running over towards the other fakes who then start demanding for things. 

“I’m leaving.” She closes the door gently, not wanting to disrespect the mom who’s done nothing wrong. She heads back to her apartment, needing to be alone for a bit, maybe eat some licorice. 

-

Gustavo holds auditions for James, Logan, and Carlos to see which one of the three will be the bad boy. 

Kendall takes a seat beside Sulane, who has her headphones on as she works on finishing her essay. 

After James fails, he sits on the other side of the chair. 

She pulls her headphones off to hear Kendall saying, “you mean be fake. I can’t. Besides I’m terrible at faking.” 

“No, Kelly is terrible at faking,” Gustavo argues. “I can always tell when she lies to me or Sulane.” 

The woman chuckles, “I have never… lied… to either of you.” 

“See?” 

“Gustavo, we just don’t want anything fake about our band.”

The teen girls lower lip tilts to the side, knowing this is not going to end well for any of them. 

“Your band? Your band? This is my band. Are you telling me that you’re gonna ignore me and Griffin and the record company and not be our bad boy?” 

“Yeah, pretty much.” Gustavo points to him. 

“Bad boy!” Kendall and the others groan, although the blonds is more of an annoyed groan and the others is an upset version. 

“Get Griffin over here,” the producer tells Kelly. 

-

“Why isn’t his back turned to the rest of them?” Griffin asks. 

“Because he won’t do as I say!” Gustavo shouts until he scoots closer to his boss and says, “which makes him the bad boy.” 

Kendall shrugs, holding his arms up, “and I don’t turn my back on my friends.” 

Griffin walks closer to him, “that’s good. I respect that. But I said I wanted bad.” 

The other three hear that and go crazy, pretending they can be the bad boy. 

It all ends when Carlos falls after breaking a wooden board with his helmet protected head. 

The boss ignores this and continues. “A bad boy is someone parents would never let their daughters date,” he turns to his assistants. “And I would let my daughter date any one of these boys, which is bad.” 

Sulane snorts, covering her mouth to hide her snickering knowing that Mercedes would eat these boys alive and hopes that it never happens because- she shudders realizing why this is bad… she cares. So, much for being in a good mood. 

“Do something about this, or I will. Wait. I already did. Say hello to WayneWayne.” 

A guy with a hat, sunglasses, and a sad pathetic soul patch comes in, pushing the producer off to the side. 

After he finishes his rap, Griffin turns to Gustavo. “Give him the contract.” 

The assistant closest to him, slams the contract into Gustavo’s stomach. “Isn’t he bad?” 

“Bad,” Kelly “agrees” but Sulane understands what definition of bad she means, the teen feels the same way. 

“But great,” the older woman adds, correcting herself, ignoring the odd glances she continues to get from her boss. “I mean, really, really bad, but, like, in a good way.” 

Sulane rolls her eyes. ‘She’s gone off the deep end.’ 

Gustavo gestures for her to stop. 

“Wow,” she breathes out. 

“WayneWayne, blow it up.” 

“Later later, Griff-Griff.” The two fist bump before the man in charge leaves. 

The supposed bad boy turns around, checking out the boys. 

James nods, “yo, WayneWayne, I’m-” His arm is slapped down, he turns to Kendall and his expression tells the blond how much in pain he’s in. 

“Wasting your time. Look, I ain’t here to make friends, okay? I’m here to take Big Time Rush to the next level. The WayneWayne express is leaving the station. So you fools steps on… or step off. WayneWayne out-out.” He spins around, running directly into Sulane, who’s trying to find a loophole in the contract until she’s interrupted. 

She grimaces, “ew, get off.” She shoves him away from her. 

WayneWayne lifts his sunglasses off his nose, clearly checking her out. “And who is this?” 

Everyone tries to pull the “want to be bad boy” away from her before something bad happens. 

Gustavo stops the boys, hoping that the teen can help them out and get rid of the problem before it gets worse. 

She narrows her eyes at him, trying to figure out where she’s seen him before. She can’t but she won’t stop looking until she does. She covers her nose, “how much cologne did you use? The whole can. You smell like a dumpster mixed with Jasner’s seventh month old oranges that he wouldn’t throw out until I forced him to.” 

“You think you’re funny-funny.” 

“Oh no, bud. I’m a hoot but right now, I’m gonna go barf barf. You guys have fun.” 

“Wait- what?” James stands in front of her. “You’re not going to stay here and help us?” 

She walks out. 

WayneWayne scoffs and pushes past Kelly and Gustavo, walking in the opposite direction. 

“We don’t like him,” the boys say. 

She pops her head by the door, making sure he’s gone. “I second that.” 

“I thought you left,” says her boss. 

“I could not stay in here any longer with his terrible… everything.” 

Gustavo snatches the contract back from her and slams it closed, “You like him.” He lifts his hand to prevent any arguments. “Yes, you do. You all do.” 

Carlos pops up. 

Logan looks at him with a concerned expression. 

“He’s the bad boy. And he’s staying at the Palm Woods. So be good boys and you,” he points to Sulane. “Don’t get smart with him.” 

“He needs to be challenged.” She avoids his hard stare and sighs, “fine but if he-” 

“Ah.” 

“But if he-” 

“AH!” 

“FINE!” She crosses her arms and waits for him to finish. 

“And make friend-friends with WayneWayne but keep her away from him.” 

The boy wearing the helmet asks, “who’s WayneWayne?” 

The others stare at him with a confused expression. 

“A very bad smelling person.” 

“Shut it!” 

“He smells bad Gustavo!” 

-

“Hey, girl-girl.” 

“That is not my name.” Sulane turns to WayneWayne. 

“You sit-sit on this,” he points to one of the pool chairs. “And I lift-lift you.” 

She furrows her brows, not understanding how that can be physically possible for him. “You think you can-” She bites her tongue remembering Gustavo’s words. Her left eye starts twitching, “maybe some… other time.” 

He nods and searches for someone else. 

She bumps into Camille. “Oh, sorry- Camille.” 

“Why is your left eye twitching?” 

“I can’t be mean to someone and I’m dying.” 

“Is there anything I can do to help?” 

“Help me find an outlet?” 

“I have an idea.” The girls scream and smack Jasner. 

He whines, “ow! Ow! Ow!” 

They stop once they realize who it is. 

“Why would you do that?” the brunette asks. 

“I thought you two knew I was here.” 

“If we knew you were here, don’t you think we would have said something.” 

“Oh, yeah.” He shakes his head, “anyway, I overheard, and I may have an idea.” 

The blonde raises a brow, “what is it?” 

He pulls out the big bag of skittles from behind his back. 

“Where did those come from?” Camille takes the bag from him, snacking on a few pieces of the candy. 

The three walk out to hear the Jennifer’s rooting for WayneWayne. 

“Okay, can someone tell me how it’s possible for his chicken arms to lift three girls?” 

Jasner shakes his head when Camille glances over at him. 

“We have to hide behind someone or something.” 

“What are we gonna do, throw skittles at him?” Sulane jokes. 

The teen boy says nothing. 

“Oh my- you what, that’s actually not a bad idea.” 

“Oh, look. We can hide behind the boys,” Camille offers. 

“Or the bush over there,” Jasner adds. 

“Take cover behind the people,” the blonde says, picking up the pace. 

They settle in behind the band. 

“What are you guys doing?” asks Kendall. 

“Oh, you know just… enjoying the sun,” Camille weakly tells him. 

Sulane grabs a handful of skittles before snatching the bag from the brunette to pass over to Jasner. 

Sulane scoots in between James and Carlos. 

Janser settles between Carlos and Logan. 

Leaving Camille to scoot in between Logan and Kendall. 

The three tosses over as many as they could with James and Carlos helping out. 

“Does anyone else think that should be physically impossible for him to be able to bench that much?” 

“Definitely,” Logan agrees with the blonde teen. 

“Are you ever gonna stop bringing that up?” the raspberry lover questions her. 

“Nope.” 

“First, he joins our band without our permission,” James complains. 

“It technically wasn’t anyone’s choice since your leader didn’t want to take the initiative and make it easier for you guys.” 

James shushes her. “Now he steals out girls- who have no interest in us- but it’s still not fair.” 

WayneWayne glances over at the seven, the three with the candy duck. 

“Is he still looking?” 

“No, you’re fine now,” Kendall tells Camille. 

The three slowly push themselves off the ground, warily staring at the other side of the pool. 

“And that’s why we’re gonna get rid of him.” 

The pretty boy moves his head closer to the “bad boy” of their band. “Kendall, get rid of him.” 

“Why me?” 

“Because he scares us,” James gestures to the three of them. “And Sulane isn’t supposed to get on his bad side.” 

Kendall gets off the pool chair, “we are a band. And we’re gonna do this together, because we are not afraid of some loudmouth-” 

Sulane and the other two shake their heads, trying to get him to stop talking. Kendall ignores them. 

“- Backwards hatted, droopy pants wearing- he’s right behind me, isn’t he?” 

“You want trouble-trouble, Ken-dork? Bring it, bring it.” 

“Personally, I want someone worthy enough to be my enemy to have proper grammar and not sound like a three-year-old.” 

The others scoot in front of her, blocking her from WayneWayne’s view as they stand up from the chairs. 

Kendall sighs. “Yeah, we’ve decided that there’s only room for four members in Big Time Rush.” 

“Great-great.” 

“No,” she whispers, tripping over the chairs to get closer to the band. “You guys just screwed yourself.” 

“Why?” Logan turns to her with a confused expression. 

“You, Griff-Griff. The guys agree with me.” 

Kendall and Carlos turn to one another with furrowed brows. 

“Five in the band is too many.” 

“Sounds fresh WayneWayne. I’ll stop by the studio tomorrow to see which one goes. Griff-Griff out.” 

James has his hands in his hair and lets out a startled scream. 

“You see, my contract states that I’m guaranteed to front a band, and I picked this band.” 

That’s all she needed to hear. 

-

Sulane pulls out her phone and runs into a cabana. “Griffin.” 

“Scary teenage girl?” 

“How do you feel about gambling?” 

“I don’t like to lose.” 

“Then you’ll love this because if you do this my way, you won’t lose... too much.” 

“I don’t think this is a part of an assistant’s daily duties.” 

“Oh, it’s not but if you want to make money, possibly even more than you are now. You’ll listen.” 

“Fine.” 

She steps out, an evil smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. ‘Bye-bye, WayneWayne.’ 

-

“You two are free to go now, we’ve done all we could here.” 

“Why do I feel like you already have a plan set in motion?” 

“Because I do, Camille. I do.” 

“Well, if you need me, you know where to find me. Oh, shoot. I’ll be back soon, I just realized I’m going to be late for an audition if I don’t leave now.” 

They wave her off. 

“I don’t want to do my homework so I’m just gonna hang out with you.” 

“Fine,” she shrugs. “Where’d they go?” 

He points over towards the bush. 

“Ah.” 

-

“- sipping out of a coconut look tough.” 

They hear the last part of Logan’s comment. 

“No, he doesn’t.” 

“Focus,” Carlos smacks the back of his head. “One us is gonna get kicked out of the band.” 

“My money’s on Logan,” James whispers. 

“Mean.” 

“Nobody’s breaking us up. We’re a team. We’re not afraid of WayneWayne or anybody else.” 

“That’s a lie,” Logan points out. 

“Okay, but Sullie is on our side.” He turns towards the teen with a raised brow, “right?” 

“Sure.” 

Camille pops up in front of them. “Hey, guys.” 

The boys scream. 

“I love the outfit.” 

“Thank you.” She offers what Sulane assumes to be a smile. It’s hard to tell with her wearing a mask. “Oh, relax, I didn’t get the part. Maybe throwing the casting director in a flying headlock was a bad idea.” 

“I told you not to do that.” 

“I know, I know but I wanted to impress them.” 

“Maybe you’ll get it next time?” Jasner adds, giving the brunette a bit of hope. 

“They also didn’t like the fact that I smelled like skittles.” 

Jasner pouts, “that’s just rude.” 

“Maybe someone’s allergic to the yellow or red dye?” Sulane offers. 

“Oh, now that would make sense.” 

“I know it would.” 

“Ignore her,” James says. 

“Camille, we’re in an urgent save-our-band mission right now.” Kendall points to the other side of the pool. 

She turns, “oh, is that why we were throwing skittles at him.” 

“He’s also a major jerk who smells terrible,” the teen girl stresses the word, wanting to get her point across. “Does he look familiar to you?” 

“Yeah.” She turns back to face the six, “hey, when did Wally Dooley move to the Palm Woods?” 

The blonde gasps, “yes! That’s who it is! Thank you.” 

The band raise a brow at her. 

“You okay?” asks Jasner. 

Logan leans forward, “Wally Who-ley?” 

“Wally Dooley?” She turns back around, wanting to make sure that she’s got the right person. “Yeah, he must be up for a bad boy role, especially if he’s gotten on Sullie’s bad side. We worked together on the magic middle school. Yeah, he played towel boy.” 

“Oh, that was the guy you were talking about?” Camille nods. 

The boys shout, “what?” 

“Wait! Wait! Before we go and do some research, I have a serious question. Is his soul patch real or not?” 

Everyone gives her a look that says, “are you serious?” 

She shrugs, “what? I need to know so I can figure out if I’ll be able to rip it off or not.” 

“Oh, now that sounds more like you,” Jasner tells her. 

“Thank you.” She pats his shoulder, “see you get me.” 

-

Sulane cringes at the clip. “Ew. They couldn’t have given him a worse line.” 

“We’re not focusing on that,” Jasner points out. 

“You might not be but I am.” 

“So, WayneWayne didn’t grow up on the mean streets of Detroit,” says Logan. 

“Even his back story sucks.” 

“Shh!” 

“He grew up in a mansion in Dallas,” Camille tells him. 

“I wish I had a mansion.” 

“Shhhh!” James and Jasner shush her. 

“His dad invented toast on a rope,” the brunette girl adds. 

“That was not a good invention. It never made sense to me,” Sulane voices her thoughts. 

“No, it wasn’t but it made them rich.” 

“And he’s gonna kick one of us out of the band?” Kendall starts to get upset. 

“Technically, it’d be Griffin or Gustavo. Maybe me if it’s Griffin who needs to fire someone.” 

“Don’t stop me when I’m on a roll, Sullie. Well, we’re gonna kick him out of the band, cause’ we don’t need no fakey-fakey, poser-poser-” 

Logan points behind him while Carlos silently freaks out and James eyes widen. 

The three behind the boys do a cut off gesture before Carlos and James start doing it. 

Jasner shakes his head at a fast pace. 

Camille sucks in a deep breath, knowing this won’t end well and no one knows if the terrifying and rough blonde teen can save them. 

“He’s behind me again, isn’t he?” Kendall turns around, scoffing upon the sight of the fake bad-boy. 

Camille steps forward, waving, “hey, Wally.” 

He smiles, “hey Camille.” 

Jasner steps forward, pulling the girl with him. “I knew you looked familiar, and you deserved a better line.” 

He tries to hide his smile, “thanks… her words?” 

The boy nods. 

“No hard feelings?” He puts his hand out in front of her. 

She narrows her eyes at him, “you gonna keep acting like a jerk towards me?” 

James and Jasner pout, realizing the latter’s mistake, pulling her back. 

A nervous smile breaks out on WayneWayne’s face, “I can see why people are scared of you. What if we, I don’t know, run lines before Griffin comes to the studio?” 

She shoves the two off her and steps forwards, shaking his hand. “Deal.” 

“Cool. Oh, and news flash: this town is full of phonies, and nobody cares. Contract.” 

Sulane’s right eyebrow pop up at the sight of the loophole. ‘Perfect.’ 

“Hey, what do you guys think of the name WayneWayne Rush?” 

“Dude, once Gustavo finds out that you’re a phoney-phoney,” Carlos starts. 

Sulane steps to the side. 

“You are out-out,” James finishes. 

“You guys, Gustavo is a joke, okay?” 

She crosses her arms, glaring at him before stepping to the side once more. 

“Griffin has the power, and he’ll get rid of whoever I say, and I say,” WayneWayne puts his sunglasses back on. 

“It’s you,” he gets in Kendall’s face. 

-

Sulane takes this as her opportunity. She walks over towards the one dude who holds the contract. 

He helps her and she makes the switch. 

“Thank you. Gosh, I’m so clumsy sometimes.” 

He nods and smiles, “it’s okay. As long as you’re not hurt.” 

“I’m not. Again, thank you.” She turns around and stares at the item. “Thank you, indeed.” 

Thunder cracking can be heard in the lobby. 

She turns around to find Jasner messing with someone’s stuff. She sighs and walks over, grabbing him and pulling her with him. 

“Where are we going?” 

After about twenty minutes, she found a solution. 

“We are going to do some reading because I,” she pushes the elevator button. “Am amazing and I need to be comfortable for this.” 

-

“Jasner!” She pushes herself off the floor. 

“Yeah?” 

She gasps, placing a hand over her heart. “Oh my god. How long have you been there?” 

“Five minutes.” 

“Did you eat my licorice?” 

“No.” 

“Ten for however many you ate.” 

He reaches into his pocket and slams the money on the coffee table. “Deal. Call Gustavo?” 

“Call Gustavo! I got a plan.” 

-

“Gustavo, we can come up with a plan,” Kendall tells the producer. 

The air vent pops open, and the duo hop down. 

“Boys.” 

“Ooo. They are really good at plans… especially when they have help,” Kelly points out. 

“And help has arrived.” 

“No plans! I don’t want you hockey heads pulling any one of your schemes or shenanigans that are gonna get me in trouble with Griffin and the record company.” Gustavo reaches for the lyric sheets which are then snatched away from him by Sulane. 

She gestures for Jasner to turn around so she can use his back as a clipboard. 

“Gustavo, are you sure this is the song you want them to sing?” 

“What’s wrong with it?” He steps closer to her, reading what’s she’s written. “We don’t have enough time for a new one. This is what we’re working with. James,” he hands one sheet to the pretty boy. “Logan.” Music sheets are shoved into the brainiac’s chest. “Kendall.” Same with him. “Carlos. Study them. Learn them. Got it?” 

The boys take a glance at the sheets and glance back at the two. “Got it.” 

“Good, now let’s get to work.” 

“Since when are you so happy to do anything for the studio?” Kelly asks her daughter. 

“I want to see WayneWayne fail.” 

“That sounds right.” 

The others walk to the studio, wanting to get a little practice in before everyone shows up.

 -

“Kendall,” Sulane whispers. “Psst!” 

“What are we doing?” 

“We are getting you bad boy ready, but we can’t do it here.” 

The three stand in Gustavo’s office. 

She looks over at Jasner, “I need tight pants, don’t give me that look, Knight. It’s necessary. Leather jacket, black of course. Hmm.” 

“Black t-shirt?” 

“And white, we need options before we can decide. Black shoes. You know what? Let’s stick with black. It’s our safest and most bad boy option.” 

“Got it.” The raspberry lover exits the room and leaves the two in an awkward silence. 

She grabs the small makeup bag she grabbed from Camille before coming to the studio. 

Kendall fights with himself on whether or not he should ask her. “Can I ask you something?” 

“I’m gonna lie and say no since I know you’re gonna ask anyway.” 

“What happened?” 

“What happened with what?” 

“Us? I mean we were friends before you moved away and then we get here and you’re acting like- like-” 

“Like what Kendall?” 

“Like a jerk? We did anything.” 

She scoffs, “yeah, right.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“What I mean is that you jerks never wrote any letters when you said you would! And it really hurt because I thought we were better friends for that!” 

“We wrote you letters! You were the one who was a jerk and never wrote back or “found” the time to talk to us when we called.” 

She furrows her brows. “What?” 

“Yeah, you never wrote us back and we wrote you like a lot of letters, every week. We even got on a first name basis with the people at the post office because we had to send the letters in a box.” 

“Wait- wait- wait- shut up. You sent letters, every week?” 

He nods, “every week.” 

“Same day?” 

“Every Tuesday.” 

“Kendall, I never got any letters.” 

“What are you saying?” 

“We all wrote each other but I never got anything. I never knew you guys called and I was always home.” 

“You- are you serious?” 

“No, I’m messing with you because I’m that mean. Yes, I’m being serious. I never got any letters or phone calls but why would I- oh my god.” 

“What?” 

“My-” 

“I’m back and I have bad boy everything.” 

Neither of the two try to talk about it again. 

“What’s the plan?” Jasner asks as Sulane helps Kendall with his makeup. 

“Destroy Gustavo’s office.” 

“Seriously?” the leader closes his eyes letting her do it. 

“It’ll look terrible but an easy fix. I’ve thought about how I would do it. I’ll also need some lemonade.” 

“Moving on.” Jasner hands the bottom half of his outfit to the “new bad boy”. 

“We’ve gotta make the room look really bad. Take a sledgehammer with you. We’ll need to pull some wires and break some shelves-” 

“Where does the lemonade come into play?” Kendall sits down tying his shoes. 

“You need to pee in a drawer.” 

“But I won’t… right?” 

“Lemonade. Break one of his albums.” 

“His platinum album?” 

“The one on the left is fake. It'll look and sound real but I promise you it’s not.” 

“Got it.” Kendall tugs at the collar of his jacket. “I think I’m ready.” 

She checks him over, making sure he looks like a bad boy. She fixes the few strands of hair that are out of place. “You look the part but are you ready to play the part?” 

“It won’t be forever. I got this.” 

“We can get a head start and ruin this part of the office before you smash everything.” She nods, “looks good, let’s go.” 

Jasner grabs the hangers and makeup bag before opening the door. 

The leader grabs her wrist and pulls her back. “Are we okay?” 

“You mean after finding out that my mom hated you all so much that she ruined our friendships and let me believe you were all total jerks. Yeah, we’re good.” 

“I’m sorry.” 

“No, I’m sorry, Kendall. You know- none- none of you asked for me to act like that and even though I helped you guys, I was still rude which I will work on. It’s just- it’s gonna take some time and-” 

“I get it… and I’m sure the guys will too once we explain to them what happened.” 

She sighs, “do we have to though?” 

He wraps his arm around her shoulders, “yep.” 

-

“What are we waiting for?” asks Griffin, staring at the boys (minus Kendall). “I’m antsy… and concerned. The scary teenage girl isn’t here.” 

Kelly bends down, to inform Griffin of the current situation. “We’re missing Kendall.” 

“So, you got rid of Kendall.” He hits the speaker button. “My money was on Logan.” 

-

Sulane glances over her shoulder, “seriously? Come on.” 

The two run around the corner. “These pants are really tight. Can’t I wear something loose?” 

“No, fashion is quickly changing and bad boys now wear tight pants. Be happy it’s not cutting off circulation. Last time someone wore skintight skinny jeans, the fire department has to cut them off.” 

“Kelly?” 

“No.” Jasner raises his hand. “It was me and I said I was sorry.” 

“I told you not to try on my clothes.” 

“Okay, that’s fair.” 

“We’re here. Jas, come here.” She hands him the speaker. “Press play when we start walking in.” 

“You’re coming in with me? Isn’t it bad boy?” 

“I gotta show off my support for my… friend.” 

The two share small smiles. 

“Once in a lifetime opportunity?” 

She nods, holding up her fist. “Exactly.” 

Kendall fist bumps her before they do the same for Jasner. 

-

The brainiac removes his headphones, setting them on his neck. “Why does everybody keep saying that?” 

“Let’s hear my new bad boy band.” 

Jasner walks behind the two, holding a speaker that has aggressive rock music playing. 

“Yeah, let’s hear it.” Kendall and Sulane high five. 

“Do the pose,” she whispers. 

“Oh no,” Kelly whimpers. 

WayneWayne drops his headphones, walking with a limp towards his enemy. 

“Oooo,” Carlos practically bounces where he stands. “It’s a bad boy off.” 

“A bad boy off?” Griffin repeats. “That sounds interesting. Doesn’t that sound interesting?” 

“You know, one thing I know about bad boys is,” Kendall grabs a microphone stand and walks over towards the wall of records away from everyone. “They like breaking stuff.” He breaks a record. 

Gustavo stands up and screams. 

WayneWayne removes his sunglasses, shocked at the sight. 

“He’s right. Bad boys do like breaking stuff.” 

Gustavo runs into the room, “what was that? You smashed one of my platinum records?” 

“Oh yeah?” WayneWayne starts, getting in Kendall’s face. “Well,” he grabs the stand and smashes three records. 

Kendall and Sulane bump elbows, not wanting anyone to catch onto the plan. 

Kelly jumps on the producer’s back and the sound booth guy, Tony, stands in front of him. 

“Ooh, round one of the bad boy off goes to WayneWayne. Someone ring a bell.” 

“I wouldn’t say that,” Sulane disagrees. 

Next round is a mic off which Kendall wins. 

-

Terrible, terrible sounds come from Gustavo’s office. 

Jasner drops his favorite unowned cat, Coco into the room from the air vents. 

“That does not sound good,” Griffin says to the producer who then whines. 

“He locked it,” Kelly sighs when Gustavo tries to open it. 

He opens the door only to find absolute chaos and a serious amount of damage. 

Kendall walks into the doorway, tossing the sledgehammer over his shoulder. 

Gustavo runs out, whimpering, “he destroyed my office, my music awards, and he used my drawer as a bathroom.” 

The leader sends a glance her way. 

She smirks, giving him a two-finger salute. 

“Bad boys go where they want.” 

“That’s a new one,” Griffin tells Logan. “Original. And very, very bad.” 

WayneWayne starts freaking out and walks between everyone. “I’m the bad boy. Me!” 

“Dude, he went in his desk,” says Carlos. 

“I’ll show you. And I’ll show you. And I’ll show all of you. I’ll- I’ll-” He kicks Griffin in a place no person should be kicked. 

“You’re a bigger idiot than I thought you were,” Sulane tells him. 

Griffin’s guards grab him. 

“You’re right, WayneWayne. Big Time Rush should be only four.” 

“You can’t fire me. You know why? ‘Cause I have…” He pulls out the fake contract from his pants pocket. “A contract. You have to put me in the band. It says it right here.” He opens it to find, “You suck” on page one. “You should have kept a better eye on the contract” on pages two through five. And “Buh-bye LameLame” on the last page. 

“Actually,” Sulane intervenes, holding the actual contract. “I’m sure you already know this Griff-Griff but, he has to be put in a band.” 

“A band.” 

“Exactly. You got my email, perfect.” 

“Yes, which means he goes in a band. Just not this one. They already have a bad boy and a scary teenage girl.”

“Later, lamelame.” 

Kendall lets out a sigh of relief. 

“Good job.” She holds her hand up for a high five. 

The leader pulls her in for a hug. 

“But I don’t want to wear these clothes all the time, and I won’t turn my back on my friends.” 

“Fine,” the man in charge agrees. “And, you can still date my daughter or Sulane.” 

The teen shoves him off her. “What?” 

“But I want you nowhere near my desk. Griff-Griff out.” 

They fist bump. “Oh, and one more thing.” The man in charge holds his hand out for a handshake. 

Sulane accepts and returns the gesture. 

This time though Griffin does walk away. 

Wally keeps whining as everyone waves him off. 

She checks to see what she was gifted. ‘Sweet.’ 

“What’d you get?” Kendall moves closer, curious to what she got. 

She smirks, “my winnings. Never gamble against me, let this be a lesson to everyone.” 

James opens his mouth to say something but is interrupted when the producer chimes in. 

“You,” Gustavo shouts. “Nice work,” he removes his glasses. “You two, Sulane and Jason.” 

“Jasner,” the raspberry lover corrects him. 

“Julian.” 

“Jasner.” 

“Juniper.” 

“Jasner!” 

“Jas- n- ner.” 

Everyone does a weird handshake, yes, even Jasner. 

“What?” Kelly stares at everyone with a confused expression. “But he- he smashed and you- he went in-” 

“I teamed up with the hockey heads and other ‘cause she does have good plans.” 

The boys nod, they can’t argue with him. 

“I was here the whole time. When did you plan this?” 

The boys pull out the sheet music they were given earlier which says, “let’s get rid of WayneWayne.” 

“Hey, I could’ve helped. I’m part of this team, too, you know?” 

“Yes, you are,” her boss says. “But you’re still a horrible faker liar actress.” 

No one disagrees. 

“You’re not good. I’m sorry, Kels,” Sulane tells her. 

She starts fake crying which makes everyone cringe. “Yeah, you’re right.” 

-

“Hey mom,” says Kendall. “I’m a bad boy.” 

The group of six enter the apartment. 

“What’s the maintence guy doing on the floor?” James asks as they all walk by, not really doing much about it. 

“Maintence guy?” Mama Knight repeats. 

“Yep. I like to call him Budda Bob,” Sulane tells her. 

“Oh. Oops. Who’s your friend?” 

“Jasner. Hi, lovely to meet you.” 

“Let’s check out WayneWayne’s new band,” Kendall smiles, turning on the TV. 

“Oh, please don’t,” Sulane mutters, knowing where he went. 

“He is really bad,” James comments. 

They change the channel and land on the news. 

“I knew that girl was weird.” 

“You met her?” Katie and Sulane ask Jasner. 

“Yeah, she told me about Coco... the cat we used for extra flair.” 

“That’s Molly. I told you she was weird.” 

“Yeah, you got that right.” 

“Hey, double B,” the teen girl greets him. 

“Hey, kids.” 

“Mom? Is that your rental car?” 

“Yep.” 

“I hope you got insurance.” 

“So do I,” Mama Knight says.

After about an hour, she decides to head back to her place with Jasner following her. 

“Can’t you stay for dinner?” Carlos stares at her with puppy dog eyes. 

“I really want to, but I can’t.” 

The boys pout. 

“We’re holding you to it though,” Kendall shouts as she closes the door. 

“Yeah, yeah.” 

-

She unlocks her apartment and takes a second before she walks in. “How are you feeling?” 

“Tired and worried that I smell like that nasty cologne.” 

“That’s what I mean, and you know it.” 

“What do you want me to say Jasner?” 

He sighs. 

“I just- I’m tired. I really am. Right now, all I want to do is… make some music to help me but I can’t.” 

“Who says you can’t?” 

“No one but,” she takes a deep breath and sits down on the chair closest to the table with her licorice. “I just found out something and I don’t know how I should feel about it.” 

“What happened?” 

“I found out that my mom was the reason I had no friends for a first year after we moved in. She kept the letters; didn’t even mail them you know. Oh, and the icing on the sucky cake is the fact that she took every call from the guys and- and- I thought that they didn’t care. I actually started to doubt our friendship because of her. I,” she huffs. “I’m gonna go shower. You can do whatever. Leave, stay, I don’t care.” 

Jasner waits until she finishes, not wanting to leave her alone for too long as she’s getting closer and closer to breaking down. 

He leaves and runs back to his apartment. 

-

She sits on her bed and stares down at the floor, part of her guitar case handle sticking out reminding her of her hesitation earlier. She bumps it with her foot and pushes herself off the bed, getting dressed. She braids her hair, not in the mood to dry it or have it become a frizzy mess. 

She grabs her guitar, headphones, and backpack before exiting her apartment. She needs to let out some steam and the studio is the best place to do that. 

-

Jasner groans before he runs back to the boys, knowing he can’t do this alone. 

He frantically knocks on the door before pulling back to see if anything works. He sighs and starts knocking again. “Hey guys? I’m not gonna go away until someone answers the door.” 

The door swings open. “Hey kid.” 

Katie gives him an unimpressed look. “Do you know the kind of day I’ve had?” 

“I saw the news, I know. But this is kind of an emergency and I need the guys help.” 

“Fine. Kendall!” She walks back inside. 

“What?” 

“There’s someone here for you!” 

“Who is it?” 

“I don’t know. Go find out yourself.” 

“Would you two stop screaming?” Mama Knight stands in the doorway. “Oh, Sulane’s friend, right?” 

“Yep, Jasner. Can I borrow the guys for a bit?” 

“As long as their back before it gets too late.” 

“You got it… and let’s say that maybe- uh- something happens, and they have to stay a little longer, anyway I can convince you of letting us have a sleepover.” 

“I don’t know.” 

“What if- what if we spend the night here? I promise you this is going to be nice for Sullie.” 

“Why- oh. Oh my gosh, is that today?” 

“You know?” 

“The newsletter for our old neighborhood mentioned that Janine got into an accident, but I didn’t realize it was so soon. Okay, once you find her, bring her back. It’s a movie sleepover and I won’t hear it, alright?” 

He nods, “you got it.” 

-

Sulane sits behind the drums, starting of slowly with her foot stomping on the foot on that base pedal. She loses herself in the banging not realizing that there were other people in the studio. She chucks the drumsticks onto the ground before cradling her head in her hands. 

“Uh- hey?” 

She screams, falling off the stool and groans at the loss of her breath. 

“We’re sorry,” the five apologize as they help lift her up. 

She shoves them off her, quickly wiping her cheek. “What are you all doing here?” 

“We know.” 

“I’m gonna kill you.” 

“Woah.” “Woah!” “Woah.” The band pulls her back, not letting her get closer to the guy with the weird name. 

“You’re not gonna kill him,” James tells her, his hands gently squeezing her arms, keeping her in place. 

“And why not?” Her head snaps up to his, lips pursed. 

“He told us so we could help you because we’re your friends. Even if you hate us.” 

Her bottom lip wobbles. “I don’t hate you guys.” 

Logan and Carlos share a look. 

“She- can I just tell them?” asks Kendall. “I’ll buy you another thing of licorice as a down payment for protection from you?” 

She nods, using the sleeve of her jacket to wipe her cheeks as she sniffles. 

“We just found out something and it’s kind of big. Turns out, she was writing letters they just never got mailed.” 

Logan shakes his head, “wait-” 

“What?” James and Carlos practically shout. 

“You know how her mom never liked us.” 

The three nod. 

“Yeah, well, turns out we didn’t realize how much.” 

“I just- I wish I knew where those letters were because she never had the time to throw them out, you know. I mean did she- did she hide them or something?” 

“If she did, would you even know where to look?” Jasner chimes in. 

She rolls her eyes, “no.” 

“Since we’re already here…” the five turn towards Carlos. “Should we-” 

“Definitely not,” Sulane shakes her head. “We’re not even supposed to be in here.” 

“That’s the thing about having a bad boy,” Kendall runs into the recording studio, moving a few buttons and knows until it starts recording before he runs back out. “He does whatever he wants, when he wants.” 

She takes a step back, “I- I couldn’t. I mean, we shouldn’t, right?” She sees that she’s out numbered. “Oh, come on. You know, we don’t even have a song to sing so ha-h,” her voice cracks at the last word. 

“We could sing one of ours.” 

“Or one of yours,” Jasner suggests, liking where Kendall was going. 

“You write songs?!” They shout. 

“No!” She grits her teeth, “Jas.” 

“We have to,” Logan starts. 

“Just this once,” James whines. 

“You deserve it after saving the day,” Carlos tells her in a sing song tone. 

“You wrote a really good one a few months after you came to the Palm woods,” Jasner says. 

“Sure, but it’s also really sad and I don’t think we need that right now.” 

“What if it helps you through some of your emotions?” James asks, with his bottom lip sticking out. 

“I’m not good with emotions.” 

“Then sing the song and let it out,” Logan tells her. 

“No.” 

“Come on.” 

“No- ugh,” she stomps her foot. “I hate you all but I’m not singing that one.” 

They try to protest. “I’m gonna do something else. You guys can join or not, whatever but I can’t just stand here and sing, I’ve gotta do something, okay?” 

“Fine.” 

“I’ll be in the booth,” Jasner runs into the booth, getting everything set up the way he needs it to be, he knows exactly where she’s going. 

“Someone care to do drums?” 

“I’ll do it,” Carlos snatches the drumsticks before anyone else could say a thing. 

“You guys can figure it out, I’ll be on the guitar.” She takes a deep breath as she clicks open the case, gently lifting the guitar out of its case. A shuddering exhale slips past her lips as she holds the instrument in her hand. 

She slams the case shut, not noticing the items that fell out. “I don’t know if any of you can handle this but, try to keep up, yeah?” 

“We can-” Kendall flinches at the sound of the track playing. “We got this.” 

“No, you don’t.” 

“Shut up, Jas. No one asked you.” 

The four look over at Logan as he follows along with the intro of the song. 

He shrugs at their glances, “what?” 

Sulane joins in, followed by Carlos, James, then Kendall. 

ALL ABOARD ON THE CRAZY TRAIN!

The two without instruments or a mic walk towards the open space of the room. Kendall interlocks his hands, Logan steps off and does a backflip. 

Sulane and Carlos are the loudest until Jasner’s voice comes over the mic again, “do it again!” 

They shake their heads and start practicing their dance moves that they have to know before the month is over. 

The song comes to an end, and everyone is freaking out. 

“That was awesome!” Carlos jumps around the group. 

“Who knew our little cheerleader could sing like that?” 

She scoffs and shoves Kendall away from her, “please never call me that again.” 

“You used to like it when we were kids,” James points out. 

“When you guys did hockey- you know what, I’m not even gonna fight with you guys anymore. Let’s just pack it up and go.” 

“One more song?” Carlos pleads to her, his hands joined together as he sticks his bottom lip out. 

“No.” 

“One more?” The other three join in. 

She stares at the teen and sighs. “Fine.” 

They do a quick celebratory dance. “You’ve made me weak.” 

“You’re only saying that because we know your weak spots,” James jokes as he fixes the microphone, needing it to be higher so he isn’t as hunched over. 

Logan runs inside, telling Jasner to play one of their songs, one he knows the blonde will know since she, most likely, helped Gustavo with it. 

She groans at the sound of the track playing. “Why?” 

“The city is ours,” Kendall shrugs. 

“That wasn’t even a good pun.” 

The boys start singing with Kendall and Carlos sharing a mic while Logan and James share another. They don’t stop trying to get her to join in. 

She looks down and starts playing her guitar, distracting her until she can’t no longer. She belts out the lyrics when it’s James and Kendall’s part. 

My, my look how we roll, was it only a month ago 

Everybody said we were dreaming 

This feels right, everyone can feel it. 

She removes the strap of her guitar off her shoulder, setting it on the guitar stand before being ambushed into a jumping group hug. 

“That was really good,” Jasner tells them over the mic. “Oh, sh- we gotta go. It’s almost midnight.” 

The boys start cleaning up. 

Sulane grabs her guitar and opens the case, a few envelopes are popping of out of the pocket with a few stragglers in the bottom of the case. She furrows her brows and picks one up to find her name on it. ‘I’ve had them the whole time.’ 

“Are you ready?” James asks her. 

She shoves everything inside and closes it. “Let’s go.”

Previously: Chapter III // Continue: Chapter V

[thesilverlady]

genuinely i respect George as an author. Despite the long waiting and multiple cash grabs he has put his readers through, I still think his story is beautifully crafted with all the darkness, complexity and hope.

With that being said I cannot understand his fixation with the show's version of Viserys. The actor, Paddy, gives objectively a good performance but story wise and in regards of the characterization of Viserys I the show did him so dirty.

As a brother he's dismissive; daemon is like a kicked puppy begging for his attention and whew he doesn't get it he throws a tantrum. When his younger brother fights a war, keeps parts of his kingdom safe, comes back and willing gives up his "crow" - which was a symbol of power on its own, he's still not moved.

He's an equally terrible husband. His first wife is visibly tired of all the pregnancies and miscarriages but Viserys doesn't seem to give much regard to that issue. Even when she asks him for this pregnancy to be the last he's hesitant. And her request "pushes" him to become accomplish to his own wife murder who without knowing anything is forced down and ripped open like an animal. His apparent "regret" doesn't make his actions any less callous.

His cruelty doesn't end with Aemma btw. Oh no, we have Alicent. Who in the show is the same age as his daughter, has never shown interest in him but when she tries to offer him some sympathy and comfort he immediately grabs the chance to pursue her as the next candidate for a wife. And of course he chooses her over Laena Velaryon who is a literal child during those times because he couldn't wait for his child bride. His marriage to Alicent is completely void; he doesn't love her nor she him and there's a lot of marital rape between the two.

(Un)lucky for Rhaenyra, his shitty behavior doesn't stop at his wives and brother. his equally a shitty father.

there's this terrible belief that somehow Viserys is "favoring" Rhaenyra and I'd really like to fucking know how. He was always seen yelling at her, berating her when she was young, pushing for marriage she clearly didn't want, and while he didn't force into this he still left little room. In addition, the only moments of "tendercy" for older Rhaenyra is when he calls her "my only child" and is high on meds (reminder an ep ago he called his wife his prev wife's name) and when he moves his ass to defend her claim - which is after a long begging from her part mind you. That part couldn't even be avoided because it was essential to the plot, the plot couldn't happen without it. Viserys didn't suddenly remember his love for his eldest daughter. Thew writers simply recalled this is a scene that must be seen to move the story.

We have 0 scenes of him interacting with his other children (aside him yelling at Aegon during Aemond's eye loss). But I do believe he was probably shitty to them as he was to Rhaenyra.

The only children that get some sympathy is his grandchildren. And that's when he sees them training with his own sons. Why? I have no clue. It makes no sense for the character so far but again people use him being a proud grandpa as him being a good father despite how the evident proves otherwise.

I'll try to keep this short because I've already written an analysis about the complexity of book Viserys and I only need to find the guts to publish it but in the book his relationship with his brother is more complex. He has caused great harm to Hsu brother but at the same time he has also repeatedly chosen him above anyone else (including his daughter) and has forgiven him for things other men wouldn't have.

His relationship with Aemma and Alicent is unknown, but grrm doesn't shy away from writing or even hunting abuse so I don't have any reason to believe their marriage was unpleasant - in the early years at least. Most importantly he's not a rapist or take advantage of his daughters friends.

Speaking of which, his relationship with Rhaenyra is equally complicated as is with Daemon's. He adores her but that doesn't stop him from constantly emotionally hurting her and politically sabotaging her. He prioritizes his peace and tries to be neutral but ultimately fails.

As for the rest of the children, Viserys does take interest. I can't recall for Aegon but for Aemond he does show interest and care over his son not having his own dragon. And he was often with Helaena and her children, having good time together.

book Viserys is a man of many layers. He has the gold, the bad and the ugly. Both as a king, a father and a brother. It leaves me completely dumbfounded that he'd rather throw all this in the garbage just because he happened to like a single actor's performance

I just found out that the American hired Neil Gaiman to cut some of the scenes from princess Mononoke's movie and it pissed Miyazaki off that his team sent them a SAMURAI sword with "No Cuts" notes with it LMAO.

And our beloved author George R.R Martin wants to rip his book and re-write his Viserys because of "an emotional scene" of the half corpse walking that he thinks this character is better than Viserys in the book?

[eddieexcellence]

SOUR CANDY

part ii: the princess and the dunce

E. munson x fem!reader

Synopsis: back in Hawkins for spring break, the reader is back from college. She gets sucked into the madness again for the fourth time with her best friend and younger friends. Plus an unexpected and unwelcome face.

Type: fixit fic, angst/comfort, enemies to lovers trope

Warnings: cursing, pining, the kids being little shits, girl gang vs. steve, lots of sarcasm, probably not proofread v well

Authors note: hi, this chapter is a filler with harrington storytelling, little interaction between reader and Eddie, and some back story. If you’d like to be on the tag list please reply and I hope you like it! 🥲

The group gave you a more detailed rundown, what they brainstormed so far, and quite honestly you almost felt useless with everything they told you. Nancy and Robin had an appointment with the director of Pennhurst Asylum, and their fake portfolios were already made to play the part. The kids had already stole Ms. Kelley’s office keys and broke into the school for student files to get more information on the victims. You had to give Steve a not so gentle whop on the back of the head for that one and an angry, “you’ve turned my kids into little felons, Harrington!”

“You act like they were any better under your watch, Y/l/n!”

“Oh shut up!”

And they tried to breeze through the Eddie bits, but you had already bounced back from your prior shock and anxiety. Your usual sarcasm and witty remarks whenever Eddie was mentioned or in the picture equally as fierce as if you weren’t deep down a nervous wreck.

“Boy if he wasn’t wanted for murder and Hawkins wasn’t in danger this would be his absolute wet dream.” You nonchalantly threw in in the middle of the recap.

“God Y/n gross!” Dustin groaned. “Leave the man alone, he's not even in the room!”

You shrugged, “even better.” The young adults rolled their eyes besides Robin. She was amused by all your antics.

“Hm, you still need her help now?” Steve retorted to the younger curly head boy.

The lanky blond raised her hand, “I need her for her emotional support if this is what she has to bring to the table.” This caused Nancy to look down, biting her lip trying to remain stoic. Robin never got to really hang out with you before you went to college and she was highly disappointed Steve never made it happen sooner and when you did it seemed only when your lives were in peril.

“No, Robin, no!” Steve protested. “She’s supposed to be the big brain with her big girl pants on. I didn’t realize her common sense went out the window in college.” He then clicked his tongue directing his puppy dog glare to Nancy. “Oh wait I did!”

You and the other older girls looked amongst each other, feeling like scolded children. You all covered your mouths and bit your knuckles trying to remain serious, before you all busted out into giggles.

“My common sense isn’t out the window,” you clarified, calming down. “I’m still the big brain with the big girl pants on. Also I 100% believe Eddie didn’t commit the murders, but unlike this close minded town that believe what the little birdies tell them, I have a genuine dislike for him for genuine reasons.”

“You would like him if you gave it another chance!” Lucas piped up, Dustin agreed nodding.

Steve shook his head, “no no no no, Sinclair you sure did it!” He was pacing the floor like crazy with his hands on his hips.

You could only offer a bitter smile at their naivety. You never offered any insight about the ringleader when the boys called you at college telling you about the Hellfire Club they joined because you didn’t want to burst their bubble. Even if he treated you, the preppy kids, and the jocks like dirt, he still had a heart of gold towards the outcasts or ‘his sheep’. You had even considered yourself one of his sheeps long ago.

“I did give it a chance, so you can ask Munson next time you see him, get his hot take on the topic.”

You finally had enough of the grill session of your personal history with the dark curly haired man that still seemed to plague your life even after you graduated. You wanted to stop talking about him all in general for the rest of the night. “So he’s just laying low at the boathouse while you figure the nitty gritty out?” You hummed curiously.

“Pretty much,” Dustin said. You nodded, getting up, walking over to Mike’s dusty bookshelf. You grabbed a stack of the D&D guidelines and the boys old campaign books heading to the stairs. “Wait where are you going?” He asked.

“Quite honestly, at the moment it seems everything is sorted. There’s no play where my piece comes into the plan for now. I’m home two days earlier than expected, and if my mom sees my car in the Wheeler Driveway she’ll have an actual aneurysm if I didn’t stop home first. So how about I get settled, take some of these D&D books home and do my own research. I still have my walkie so call me when you need me, yeah?”

“You’re not going to help me watch the kids while those two play break in?” Steve said incredulously.

You raised an eyebrow at him. “Oh I thought you were babysitter of the year?” You ruffled his hair endearingly.

He swatted your hands away, “stop I already know your grubby fingers are covered in sour candy powder. It's the equivalent to an old man chain smoking cigarettes all day for you.” You teasingly wiggled your fingers towards him giggling.

“Steve she is right though,” Nancy spoke up. “She can help us later, right now we have the plans in order.”

You gave him a knowing look, “See there are other young ladies here with a big brain and big girl pants on. I’ll check in when I get home and let me know when to come back!” You left the residence before any more protests came from anyone.

Your house was empty when you arrived, which was perfect because you didn’t want to be smothered by your parents at the moment. With Eddie on the loose, they probably would try to keep you locked in the house for the break. You couldn’t have that happen so you had to plan now. You ran up the stairs leaving your luggage by the front door going straight to your room. You pulled a box from the bottom of your closet underneath hidden by other boxes so if your mom tried to snoop she couldn’t find it.

Walkie talkie-check, old copies from all the research you’ve done over the years-check, a small array of weapons like a handgun you nicked from your dad’s office and hunting knives-check, a flask of some unknown alcohol to calm the nerves-double check.

You clicked the walkie talkie on, making sure it was signaled into the channel you all agreed on.

“Does anyone copy?” You asked.

“Yes Y/n, we copy.” Steve huffed and annoyed you left him on a goose chase with the kids. Max threatened to bring lawyers into this if he didn’t do as she said. So here he was driving them all around.

“Well, well, well,” another voice cut in through the speaker. Your throat ran dry, and your skin felt like pins and needles, and you could feel your chest get warm, and a blush crept up your neck. It’s been almost a year since you heard it. “Princess of Hawkins not the voice I’d thought I’d hear over the walkie but not the most unpleasant thing to happen to me the past few days.” Eddie’s voice was hoarse and husky as if he just woke up but still oozed a venomous bite.

You gulped, feeling the hair on your arms stick up so much for not talking about him for the rest of the night.

“The dunce of Hawkins? Oh golly, congrats! I didn’t have high standards for you, but here you are setting the bar lower than I ever anticipated: Hawkins most wanted.” Your tone faux sweet like honey.

You heard the walkie click and unclick a couple times as he went to respond, oh you got him good. You just had a feeling.

“If I knew you were coming home I would’ve robbed a bank too just to impress you, sweetheart.” You could hear the slight falter crack in his voice, but you knew a sarcastic toothy grin smile was on his face by the end. His dimples imprinted in your mind. You knew that smile too well.

“Mm, I’m not the one you need to impress, but a penny for your thoughts Munson?” You cooed fakely.

“Pray tell, Y/l/n?” He sneered.

“When we get this fucking mess over with and you’re cleared, you’ll have to impress the hoarde of sheep listening to the news mumbo jumbo.”

“Good to know,” was all he said. You smirked to yourself satisfied leaving the conversation at that as you went to retrieve your things.

In Steve’s BMW, they all heard the exchange between the two. He rolled his eyes, he could cut the tension between you two with the knife. It was almost comical that everything he was worried about was coming true.

“What’s with the fifth degree between them besides him breaking her heart?” Lucas asked.

“It’s not my place to tell-“ Steve started to say, but Max cut them off.

“Dodo brains, you really can’t tell or pick up on any of the hints? She is obviously still in love with him! Even after he broke her heart!” She acted like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“That might be a little far fetched and exaggerated, Max.” Steve made a face. Love, that was too strong of a word to describe how he at least knew how his best friend felt back then. Maybe a crush, then he would say she finally wised up and realized how much of bozo Munson was.

“Then what is it Steve?” Max pried.

“Yeah I would like to know more about the Princess and the Dunce.” Lucas added, quoting the two.

“Sounds like it’s a canned script for a John Hughes movie.” Dustin egged Steve on.

“I-I don’t know,” he laughed nervously, gripping his steering wheel harder.

The kids could see he was hesitating, so close to telling everything.

“If you don’t spill the beans, I’ll get the lawyer involved.” Max glared at him through the rear view mirror.

“Max what the hell!” Dustin looked at her, she just innocently shrugged. She had no problem blackmailing Harrington if it’s one of her final days. He knew he would forgive her later.

He took a deep breath sighing, “fine but if any of this is known to Y/n, you did not hear it from me!” The kids cheered. “Y/n saw what you all see in him. Whatever that may be.” He mumbled the last part under his breath.

“If you could believe it, they used to be pretty close in middle school. Even convinced the brat to ditch me and get her to play Dungeon and Dragons with him.”

“Y/n played?! That’s sick!” Dustin exclaimed excitedly.

Steve smiled thoughtfully, “yeah I would say so.” Even though he didn’t mean sick the way Dustin meant it. “Anyway, as you guys know she was always a sweet and kind girl. Most people called her a goody two shoes, but Y/n had some tricks up her sleeves.”

Lucas cleared his throat, “what kinda tricks? Magic?” Dustin snorted at that.

“She loved comics as much as you guys do, and had a sweet spot for metal music. That’s what the princess and the dunce bonded about. She hated every class but Art. She was wicked good at it too.”

“Wow Y/n sounded so cool, how is she even friends yet alone best friends with you?” Max asked in awe.

“Ha ha ha, we’ve been best friends since diapers if that helps you comprehend.” Steve started to get annoyed with the mocking and comments. “If she and I met in high school pre eddie we wouldn’t have been friends. Now post eddie is a different story.” Lucas went to interject, but was stopped. “I’m getting to the point, Sinclair.”

“Y/n and I got to high school, Eddie was a junior. Girl didn’t care about reputations. Boy she got ragged on for talking to him and hanging around him. That’s when I think she really started to like him too. He didn’t have that uneven buzz cut anymore, embraced his quirks more, he had that whole Motley Crue look going on, really grew into himself. Let’s face it though my hair is still better, I wasn’t graced with Harrington as my last name for nothing.” He fixed his hair subconsciously.

“Yeah we know too much about you, more about Y/n.” Max interrupted.

“Rude,” he rolled his eyes. “So it was the end of the school year and we had the End of School dance coming up. Y/n was excited and talked about potentially asking Eddie to it. Mind you this is when we started to hang out with some older kids in our classes. They teased her a lot about it. That even if he was ‘freak’, and to have been so lucky to have been asked by a sweet goody two shoes like her; she was a pipsqueak freshman asking a junior out to a dumb dance that only freshmen really went to anyway. It was gym class and she finally had the courage to ask him. She was nervous, the upperclassmen were teasing her, but she didn’t care. She approached him and asked, he just looked wary. He stared at the group of us not too far away from her and him. He seemed to connect his own dots, accusing us of putting her up to it by asking him. He insisted it was a prank or initiation the upperclassmen made her do to get into the crew. The upperclassmen were laughing hysterically about the ordeal in general, but the fact she got rejected because he genuinely didn’t believe her that she wanted to go to a dance with him.”

“That’s awful,” Max shook her head. She felt bad for both you and Eddie. She admired you, she watched you stick up to Billy for her. She never had anyone do that outside her family, not even Billy’s girlfriends treated her so kindly like you did. She thought you deserved nothing but good things in this already messed up world. That went for Eddie as well watching him accept her three friends into Hellfire with open arms he even tried to get her, but she politely told him she doesn’t play.

“Yeah and the thing with Y/n is, she bottles most of her feelings besides happiness and anger in. She doesn’t get upset, she gets even. The summer before sophomore year was the worst because she just changed. Stopped being as free spirited and careless in the ways that made her great, and became careless and reckless in other ways. She started hanging around the douchebags I hung around more often, even tried to join the cheerleading squad.”

“I remember that! She was the worst cheerleader!” Lucas chuckled.

“When the other would go right and she would go left!” Dustin hollered. Max flicked both of them in the ears.

“What happened to her and Eddie though?” She asked impatiently.

“What you just heard a few moments ago, Eddie became the match or lighter to Y/n’s Molotov cocktail. Did you think there was something else Mayfield?”

Max shook her head, “that’s not fair.”

Steve just shot her a tight lipped smile, “that’s what happens though. Life doesn’t treat you fairly as we all know by now.”

“Do you think they would ever make up?” Dustin asked.

“$10 bucks if they do.” Lucas quipped, sticking his hand out.

“$15 if Eddie makes the first move!” Max shook his hand.

“Whoa whoa whoa, you do realize these are the two most stubborn human beings you’ll ever meet?”

“I’m going to put $10 on Y/n, she mildly scares me.” Dustin spit on his hand and held it out. The three others scoffed in disgust.

The younger teenagers looked at Steve expectedly. “No, you three aren’t roping me into a bet about my best friend and her love life!”

“If she’s your best friend, she’s so stubborn, and you know her so well this should be the easiest bet of your life Harrington.” Dustin grinned.

“Oh god I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he stuck his hand out. “Use your other han- oh gross c’mon Henderson! I have to put this hand back on my steering wheel!”

taglist: @sunfairyy @eddiemunson4ever @babygirlwilly

[doomh3ad]

adding to the lester making a perfect gf series <3 little one shot in this universe.

you don't necessarily have to read the others but it adds background! you can find the other parts here and here , this takes place somewhere in between them! <3

quick summary : lester spared you, on the condition that he'd make you into a sinclair after his brothers murdered your friends.

this is DARK, and i mean that, but i'm super proud of how i wrote this one!

picket fence. [dark fic. nsfw mentions.]

You're settling into Ambrose quite nicely.

After your abrupt start, the murder - no. The...disposal of your friends, that's what Lester calls it. Not that he calls them your friends. They dragged you down, really. They weren't good enough for you.

Lester is good enough. Ambrose is good enough. He's drilled that into your head. You belong here. You were always going to end up here, this is your destiny, sweetheart, how could you refuse?

It wasn't perfect, your attitude readjustments were numerous but effective. He made you give a repeat performance of the first time you'd met on occasion, kneeling down as he shows you your place. That never failed to make you more...grateful...for your life here.

Lester wasn't a violent man, not by nature. He'd never raised a hand to you and never would. He would simply give you that look, that half-smile of irritation, that said "I don't want to do this, but I will."

You were a lot better-behaved when you saw that smile.

Lester had explained to you what he expected from you, what standards you were going to meet as a Sinclair.

Every day, you'd greet him with a smile on your face and a kiss on his cheek when he returned from his work. You did the housework together, divided it up evenly. During the day, you were free to roam around town or stay at the house as you wished. He never failed to praise you for occupying his dog when he was unable to. You'd take her for walks (Lester insisted you both get proper exercise), feed her (Lester imposed a regular eating routine for all residents of the house, human or canine), play with her (Lester asked what your hobbies and interests were and provided materials as necessary).

At nights, however, your time was always spent with him. You'd go for a drive, or sit and watch the stars, while Lester watched you. He said you were much more interesting to look at.

Your life in Ambrose is much like a fairytale. Lester once asks you what you imagined your life would be like when you were younger.

You couldn't give him an answer. You can't imagine anything other than this.

As he asked, you get Lester up every day with kisses or something more fun, crawling under the sheets to give him a good wake-up call. He gives you a sleepy "Good morning, baby." without fail, reaching his hand down to pet your hair.

You say "Good morning, Lester". Always. You can't remember a time where you didn't. He'll go make breakfast as you lay out both of your clothes for the day. You thank him in that sweet voice he likes, you set the table and make light conversation while eating.

When it's time for him to leave, you'll pout using the puppy dog eyes he's fond of, clinging to him and whining "Can't you stay a little longer, Lester? Just this once?"

And he'll smile, a unique smile, the smile that means he thinks you're adorable. That smile, too, can be a warming. Don't push it too far.

He'll never hurt you, because he doesn't need to. You're his good, obedient sweetheart. You do what he asks with a smile and thank him for the honour of being allowed to be with him as his equal.

You befriend Bo and Vincent, you help around town, you're a real asset. They all exchange satisfied nods behind your back. Yes, bringing you into Ambrose a good decision. For them, and for you.

It's a picket fence dream. You have the perfect life. Really, what else would you be doing?

[polyghostfacehours]

Imagining scenario w a reader that's just obsessed w stu.. and are very easily manipulated by him. They happily do whatever billy says only because stu wants them to.

Love this scenario babe! This has hints of polyamory, but it's definitely still you and Stu mainly.

TW: NSFW. Manipulation. Abusive Relationship Dynamics. Murder. Dubious Consent.

---

Stu w/ an Easily Manipulated, Obsessed Reader:

So, Stu notices you fawning over him. He's an observant kinda guy. But it's Billy that starts seeing how whipped you are for Stu.

Stu doesn't believe Billy at first, thinks he's overestimating how much you like Stu. So Billy puts it to the test.

He gets Stu to ask you to do more and more morally questionable things. Shoplifting, spreading rumors, getting a fake gun license, etc etc. And you do all of these without question.

Stu is equal parts floored and estatic. Someone is loyal to him like that? He never thought he'd be on the receiving end of such obsessive devotion and it puts him on Cloud 9.

Billy is also pretty damn happy. Now he has another person he can rope into his murder plots.

Stu's "tests" get more and more extreme, until the day comes where they want to see how you handle blood. Up to this point, you'd been doing anything Stu asks of you.

In order to get you into their plots, the have to implicate you too. So you choose the target to kill. But they don't mention that you're going to be killing the guy. Just teaching him a lesson.

You're reluctant, but when Stu gives you those puppy eyes and Billy whispers about all the terrible things that guy has done to other people, you fold.

Billy lies, obviously, about how bad this guy is. Makes shit up so that you feel justified in going ham.

You get angry, really fucked up as you cut the guy a little too deep. And then deeper. All of the shit you "know" he's done has you pissed. And Billy and Stu encourage you as they hold him down.

When it's said and done, you're in. And Stu tells you he loves you.

And this isn't true (yet, or maybe ever), but Billy told him to say it to solidify your loyalty.

And you couldn't be happier. Your relationship with Stu begins and the fact you are now a murderer buzzes in the back of your mind, but is easily ignorable when his arms are wrapped around you.

Stu, of course, takes full advantage of this. The sex is wild, and he convinces you to try everything he's into. If you don't want to, he gets pouty, and you can't help but do as he asks.

And Billy Billy Billy. Of course, he also takes advantage of this. Tells Stu to ask you to have sex with him too. You're shocked at first, but eventually Stu wears you down and you start being passed between the two. Billy's happy, because now he has a plaything too.

Sometimes, threesomes happen and you get a first taste on how deep their relationship goes.

Depending on how well you vibe with them, real feelings could develop, especially on Stu's part.

If this happens, the manipulation eases up a little, but this mainly is bc you're already so readily submissive to Stu anyway due to your obsessive nature.

If Stu does fall for you, and you reeeally don't want to be Billy's play thing anymore, Stu would stand up for you. And Billy, who really doesn't see you as much more than a toy, will eventually just agree bc whatever lol. He'll find a new one.

If Billy develops feelings for you though, watch out lol. He won't give you up that easily.

The whole relationship is generally toxic. There's a clear chain of command going from Billy -> Stu -> You and it gives you the least amount of power.

Billy and Stu are best friends, and Stu will most likely be in Billy's court more often then yours unless he really, genuinely falls for you over the years. So for your sake, lets hope he does.

Don't break up with Stu. Not that you want to, considering you're so obsessed with him, but in any case: don't. You will die. Not only bc Stu has a track record of killing his exes but also bc Billy wouldn't let his partner in crime leave him due to the fear of you going to the police.

The relationship does have plenty of good times though. You and Stu are very happy with your arrangement, and if you're also into Billy you get him as side dick as well lol.

But just remember, that despite all the fun times, there's always going to be a certain layer of inequality that blankets your relationship.

[dreamties]

Take A Step Out Of Your Head - Polyam!Ghostface Hurt/Comfort

A/n- I listened to a lot of dandelion hands while I wrote this, so if it emotionally wrecks you than um...you know why?

Also, big thank you to @venisonghost for beta reading this and @rakunko who was vv supportive and encouraging while I worked on it !! <3

Word Count: 2,256

You’re in the kitchen, occasionally stirring the big pot of macaroni on the stove. Stu comes up behind you, wrapping his long arms and lean frame around you. He nips at your neck, leaving tiny kisses as you giggle and try to escape him. "Not now, babe."

You can hear Stu whining in return. "C'mon, dinner can wait a bit. Haven't seen you all day," he murmurs against your neck.

You hum in return, trying again to push him off. "Dinner will be done in a minute, you think you can wait that long?"

You look at him, and he's giving you the biggest puppy-eyed look you've ever seen. "Fine. We can cuddle up on the couch later, drag Billy into it too- maybe watch some Elm Street?"

Stu excitedly nods, going back to peppering you with kisses and sucking at your neck.

"Fuck off, Stu," you giggle as he finally let's go.

"Aw, you're no fun, Y/n,” he says, dramatically sticking his tongue at you. He slips away to open the fridge, grabbing a beer, and silently offering one for you. You shake your head, giving the macaroni two gentle stirs.

He takes a few sips then sets it down next to the stove. You look up towards him curiously and he gives you a mischievous smirk. He takes you by surprise, gently dragging a finger along your jawline, directing your face up towards his. It had been much longer than you’d care to admit that you’d had a good, proper kiss like this. Between work and classes and the boys’ murder gig. You melt into him, cherishing how nice it feels this close to each other. His lips are soft and warm against your own, and you can taste his beer as he deepens the kiss. 

Your sweet moment with Stu stops mid-way, interrupted by the front door slamming open then shut. Billy tosses his mask to the kitchen counter, landing with an angry slap- blood splattering against the tiled surface. You spot him trying to slip his Ghostface garments over his head, struggling as he makes his way to the bedroom.

"Should someone check on him?" Stu mumbles, feeling nervous.

You sigh, "I've got it, babe. Just keep an eye on the macaroni, it should only be a few minutes longer- and don't burn it like last time, okay?"

He chuckles, "I won't, I won't."

You roll your eyes, feeling unsure and worried about the decision to leave Stu in charge of dinner- but eventually settling on the feeling that it was for the best. Billy needed you.

Usually Billy did the caring- not to say that the rest of the relationship didn’t- but Stu and yourself were far more expressive of your own feelings than he would ever be- he would ever let himself be. He wasn’t much of a talker like Stu- but had an equally calming aura when he needed to be there for his loves. Aside from the physical comfort he’d provide, his attempts for comfort were subtle (unless it involved maiming a new victim…). 

When it came to the few times Billy found himself struck with harsh emotions that he never quite learned how to deal with- it was tricky for Y/n and Stu to help him. It was different every time. Finding the right balance between treating him as normal and stepping into new territory- and depending on what set him off, it could always be easier said than done. 

The bedroom door is left ajar, and you carefully move it further open- wincing as it makes a painful creak. Billy doesn’t seem to mind much- or hear it- as you find him sitting stock still on the bed, hunched into himself. His ghostface robes clutched in his grasp, dried blood packed into his nails and caking his hand- in parts they still shine as if freshly drained from his victim, 

You let out a sigh, eyeing him carefully. His knife is placed hazardously on a towel next to him- if he moved the wrong way it could knick his skin. You move across the room, and tentatively entering Billy’s space you grab the knife- the handle is sticky and wet. You set it on the ground, not caring about whether it stained the carpet or not. You could deal with it later- all that mattered was making sure he was okay, that he was safe. 

"Here," you motion towards the pile of clothes in Billy's hands. His eyes appear glossy as he clings onto them harder. You sit down next to him, putting a cautious hand on his back and the other smoothes down his hair. "Is this alright?"

He shrugs.

You sigh, "Can I take these? I'll put them in the laundry room, I'll wash them after dinner."

His grip on them loosens, and you get up, plucking them from his grasp. You press a gentle kiss to his forehead, scurrying off to do as you had promised. You clean your hands off, before grabbing Billy some fresh clothes from the dryer that had yet to be put away yet.

When you come back, he's dutifully wiping the blood off his knife. You smile at him, leaning against the doorframe, "I'm gonna go check on Stu and dinner, you need anything?"

Billy stares up at you, smiling- it's something devilish but sincere. "Come here."

You raise an eyebrow at him, but do as told. Billy sets his knife down on the floor, slowly slipping his arms around your waist and pulling you down into his lap. He gives a contented sigh, nuzzling his head into the crook of your neck.  

“You two just can’t keep your hands off me, can you?”

You can hear him murmuring something, but it’s muffled by him being pressed so close to you. 

Usually when Billy was sad or overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do, he’d push those close to him away. There was a comfort in being alone- feeling like you deserved it, that this was how things were meant to be. It was rare that Billy accepted your care without a fight- so graciously, so calm. You begin to gently rub your fingertips in soothing patterns against his hands.

Every once in a while subtly asking him if it was alright, and receiving nothing more than a few mumbled words and grunts.

Stu shows up a while later, poking his head in the doorway. “It’s done.”

You glance at him, “You drain the water out before you put the packet in?”

He looks away.

Your face falls in mock anger, voice stern as you call to him-“Stu?”

He lets out a big laugh, grinning at you, “Yes, I did.”

You roll your eyes, presenting him with an exasperated look but gentle smile. “Why don’t you bring it in here, not sure if he’ll let go of me yet.”

“Totally!”

He comes back a moment later, setting the bowls of warm macaroni on the nightstand. You give a smile of appreciation towards him, and he takes that as his invitation to join the two of you. He lays down long ways on the bed, close enough to pull his arms around the cuddled mess of his lovers. He rests his head nudged against Billy’s backside. A bit of an awkward position? Maybe, but then again- that was Stu for you.

After a moment of allowing the quiet to overtake the room, you can’t help but laugh at the way the three of you had situated yourselves. You twist in Billy’s grasp, and he hesitantly moves his head upright. “Hey, Billy,” you whisper, “Mind letting go of me for a minute?”

The only response you get is him nudging you back to your position, and hiding his face in your neck again. He holds on tighter. 

“C’mon, we’re gonna cuddle up with Stu. You’re gonna be more comfortable, babe.”

His grip tightens uncomfortably. 

“Billy.” Your voice seems to startle him, and he lets go. His arms fall limply against his side.  You sigh, gently removing yourself from him- his head seems to almost hang in shame as you part. 

Stu moves himself up, so he’s sitting behind Billy.  

Your voice comes out soft, as you try to assure him that “It’s okay.” You offer your hand out to guide Billy to a more comfortable spot on the bed. The three of you find yourselves laying down with Billy situated safely in the middle. Stu’s behind him, arms wrapped around his torso, hands tucked gently around his waist. You’re in front of him, giving him a gentle smile and very softly petting you hand against his head. He yearns to lean into your touch, but he doesn’t deserve it. He doesn’t deserve this.

Billy feels small and angry, trying to shy away from Stu’s hold by slowly curling into himself. He’s got his back hunched and his legs awkwardly pulled up towards himself. He’s tired and he hates the two of you seeing him like this- but he knows it will be worse if you and Stu leave. He lets out an awful whine, clutching your shirt in his grasp. He ducks his head, so he’s staring down at your shirt twisting in his bloodied hands. He shouldn’t be doing this, he shouldn’t be doing this. 

You spare a glance towards him, his sudden noise worrying you. You catch the sight of his eyes glossing over again, and him trying to blink away any possible tears. You want so badly to pull him into a hug and tell him it’s okay to cry, to let it out. But you can imagine his reaction to it vividly, him pulling away, an angry look on his face. And letting out some terrible, defensive noise. Him pushing you away for the rest of the night- and perhaps it would spill into the following days. It was safe to say that Billy wasn’t good with most comfort, and definitely not his emotions. You’re still surprised he’s let the two of you coddle him like this for so long.

So you don’t hug him. And you don’t tell him it’s okay. You lean in closer, pressing your forehead close to his. You start your fingers through his hair, you try to be gentle with it, but your fingers keep getting caught in little snarls and dried blood. You move your head to press a small kiss to his forehead, then move back and continue trying to sooth him. 

“I love you, Billy,” you whisper. 

Stu makes a muffled agreement and then, in an attempted whisper, he says almost too loud, “Me too!” He chuckles out an apology, and nuzzles his head into the back of Billy’s neck. Billy doesn’t say anything, but he likes the warmth radiating off of his boyfriend. It feels...safe.

It’s a while before Billy does anything again. His voice is much smaller than usual when he speaks- and it sounds like he’s holding something back. Trying not to let out teary, loud sobs. 

“I don’t want you to go,” he mutters, pulling your shirt tighter in his fists.

“We’re not going anywhere, love.”

Billy holds his eyes tight, finally letting go of your clothes and hiding his face in his hands. So...so ashamed of you seeing him like this. Hearing him try to hold back his crying- it was pathetic. Billy was not supposed to be like this. Not around you, not ever. 

He lets out a pained whine, and a few tears slip out. “I almost lost you and Stu.”

You try not to frown at him, sighing, “Why are you saying that?” And then you’re reminded of his bad mood as soon as he had returned home. “Did something happen when you were out?”

“I handled it,” he grumbles out.

“Handled what?”

“Just- it!” He nearly growls, barking it out harsher than intended to. “Fuck, fuck…” he grumbles to himself. He presses his hands closer and closer, till he has his palms pushed to his eyes and it hurts. He tries so hard not to think about a life on his own. One where their little secret came to light, and he and Stu- and worst of all, you, who hadn’t done anything- would have to suffer the consequences of their wrongdoings. 

“Billy,” your voice cuts through his thoughts. You have one of your hands placed on his own, gently beckoning for him to remove them from his face. It takes a few minutes, but eventually he brings his hands down. He blinks a few times, and then rests his eyes shut again. He lets out a shaky breath. “Whatever happened- you're safe now.”

“Yeah, you’ve got us,” Stu says, giving Billy a gentle squeeze. 

“Yeah,” you smile. “And we’re not going to let anything happen to you, or any of us. We’ve got each other now. Forever and always. Okay, Billy?”

Billy’s not sure what to say. A simple yes would suffice, but he can feel the tears finally begin to trickle down his face- and he doesn’t trust himself to speak. He buries his head in your chest, and pulls you close to him, wrapping his arms around you. Finally allowing himself to relax, and let Stu snuggle closer into him.

The three of you fall asleep that night, safely tucked away in each other's arms. Bowls of macaroni long forgotten, and more serious conversations left to be had. But for now- you had each other, and Billy was okay with that.