#except now i’ve eaten too many of them and i don’t want to eat them anymore

[brittle-doughie]

My last two asks were eaten by the dreaded askbox kraken so here goes attempt 3 at one of these:

I had the thought of Y/N Cookie being a keeper of the Ivory Pagoda and one of Mystic Flour's most trusted guards, and potentially her lover, who she gave the task of protecting her cocoon at all costs when she sealed herself away.

They stood strong against most who sought to break the cocoon, but when they eventually fell in battle and the cocoon was breached for the first time, Mystic Flour did not take it kindly and effortlessly annihilated those who struck down Y/N Cookie, taking their crumbled body into the cocoon with her when she resealed herself, to safeguard what was left.

Volition’s End (Mystic Flour Cookie)

She entered the cocoon as a savior. She’ll leave it as anything but…

You hummed to yourself as you swept the temple floor, the specks of dust floating away with each brush to the floor. It was just one of many tasks given you as guard captain of the temple, as permitted by the will of Mystic Flour Cookie.

You gazed up at her statue in awe and respect to the great hero, no matter how many times you’ve seen it in your days at the Grand Temple. It only showed the amount of admiration you’ve had for her.

The other guards teased you that it was definitely more then just admiration for Mystic Flour Cookie. You wanted to say they were wrong, it was just the amount of respect you held for her, but were they really wrong in the end?

Admiration….

Admiration that blossomed into….

“Ah, already up and at it again, eh captain?”

Cloud Haetae Cookie, the faithful guide for Mystic Flour Cookie. You’ve known them for as long as you resided here at the temple. They might have been here long before you showed up, but they’re still as adorable and cheerful as ever!

“Yeah, I wanted to make sure the temple is nice and clean for when Mystic Flour Cookie finally emerges from the cocoon and graces us as the Leavened One.”

“You’ve been saying that every day, you know. Always talking about how our master will really come out of the cocoon this time! Oooh, like an obsession!”

“I am not obsessed, I simply expressed excitement and hope that we’ll finally see her again..don’t read too much into it…”

“Do you really expect me to believe that, captain~? I’ve seen the way you and our master see each other before she entered the cocoon! It’s so obvious, almost everyone knows about you two!”

“Quiet….”

“Hehehe, you know I’m right! Now give me some rubs!”

“Seriously?”

“Hey, it’s not my fault your rubs are so good!”

“…..”

“…..” (They’re giving you the puppy dog eyes)

“Alright alright, stop whining, you.”

Cloud Haetae Cookie transforms into their Haetae form, giggling and laughing as you rub their head and stomach. It never fails to give you a small smile, seeing Cloud Haetae Cookie so happy…

It makes the wait for Mystic Flour Cookie bearable…

———————————————————————

“What is that in your hands, Y/N Cookie?”

“Oh, it’s just a white bun. Cloud Haetae gave me one while I was patrolling the temple. They gave me another for you if you were hungry too.”

“I am not hungry right now, Y/N…”

“But food is always enjoyed best when you’re having it with others..”

“That is true, but one’s wish cannot be granted if I am eating.”

“Mystic Flour Cookie….”

She turns to you. You were giving her that look with a pout, she hated it when you did that, she never was able to resist it as the smallest smile forms on her face.

“Very well, I may make an exception for you. Pass me mine…”

You gave it to her without haste, she takes a moment to observe the white bun before having a bite. The taste was delectable on her taste buds as she turned to you, enjoying your white bun, she hums with that hint of a smile again.

The white bun was great. Having her most trusted guard eat alongside her? Even better…

———————————————————————

“Hey! Why’d you stop? Give me more!”

“O-oh! Sorry.”

Cloud Haetae Cookie relaxed once more after you resumed your head rubbing, reeling from your memory with Mystic Flour Cookie…

You just had to wait a little longer, or a while longer, or whatever it took. Just as long as you got to see Mystic Flour Cookie again…

To spend time together like you two used to do…

*SLAM!*

The sound of the temple doors slamming open and shut rapidly startled you two, causing Cloud Haetae to jump from your lap.

“Gah! What’s going on?!”

“It’s one of my guards!”

A temple guard hastily stumbled towards you, gripping her shoulder in clear pain.

“Captain, it’s the crowd outside. They’re getting more restless the more they wait for the temple doors to be opened. They’ve resorted to violent means to breach our line!”

“Those cookies…can’t they wait anymore?! You go take care of yourself, I’ll be out there shortly.”

“Yes, captain!”

The guard hurried away as Cloud Haetae Cookie grew nervous, yet frustrated too.

“This is only been getting worse the past few days, now they’re resorting to hurting others to satiate their selfishness…”

“It’s terrible, which is why I’m going out there to quell them and hopefully calm down the problem. The cocoon must be protected at all costs! Cloud Haetae Cookie, if they ever get in, do not hesitate to hide. I’d hate to see you hurt…”

“But what if things don’t get better? What if they….try to crumble you? The fires of hatred in their eyes from the last visit was already bad enough…!”

“Anything is better than Mystic Flour Cookie getting hurt under my watch!”

You marched outside with your weapons ready, Cloud Haetae Cookie’s nerves not being helped at all.

“Mystic Flour Cookie, my master, please help us…”

———————————————————————

“Y/N, you don’t need to blame yourself…”

“But I went against what I sworn to do, I attacked instead of defended…”

“That cookie’s greed had gotten the better of them, they were not of sound mind anymore…”

“I should’ve reacted better, I should’ve kept my emotions in check, please forgive me…”

“Y/N Cookie.”

The slight raise in her volume along with your name in full made you stop and stand at attention, worries at their peak.

Until Mystic Flour Cookie reached to caress your cheek.

“You did what you’ve sworn to do, protect the temple and me from any danger…”

“Even if..it’s one of the temple goers?”

“Yes. There was no other option, it was either you or them…”

Mystic Flour’s face formed a small smile.

“I am willing to look past this one offense, but you will have to make up for it~”

Now your worries were just reduced to red blush staining your face.

“T-Thank you, Mystic Flour Cookie. I won’t hold back from any threat, without having to harm others!”

“Mm. Come here, it’s okay…”

She brings you into a hug, something that shocks you for a moment, as you slowly reciprocate. Your emotions bubble as your grip subconsciously gets tighter around her.

“Thank you….”

———————————————————————

“GET BACK!”

The situation escalated beyond what you had imagined. They broke past your defensive line and had breached the temple doors, yet you still had weapon ready.

Your fellow guards laid defeated before you, only you remained….

The crowd of angry cookies were less than willing to settle down…

“Where is she?! Is she out of that cocoon yet?!”

“Why can’t she help us?! My house is close to collapse!”

“My garden isn’t going to make it at this rate!”

“I want my wish granted, it’s been too long!”

“Treasure! I heard there was treasure she’s hiding from us too!”

You grew more furious at the crowd with that accusation now spreading around, but you remained steadfast.

“There are no treasures! She isn’t keeping anything from you! Please, not now! Not when she’s on the last step to being the Leavened One!”

The crowd couldn’t care, eyes full of malice and anger as they approached with their own weapons.

“So much for a great hero! She needs one cookie to protect her!”

“Now we KNOW you’re holding out on us with treasure!”

“Hand us the treasure!”

A cookie with a bow shoots and it strikes your leg, making you yell out in pain as you kneel, strawberry jam oozed out.

Cloud Haetae Cookie, hiding under the stairs, gasped in horror at the sight.

You didn’t falter, you simply stood your ground!

“If you think I’ll let you reach Mystic Flour Cookie while I’m still breathing, THINK AGAIN!”

You deflected and blocked as much of their attacks as you could, keeping them at bay…

But you could only do so for so long, for every slip up, they landed cuts and shots all over your body.

A slash to your knee, an arrow to your shoulder, a stab to your stomach…

You never once raised your weapon to hurt them…

“*sniffle*….Y/N Cookie….*sob*….”

Cloud Haetae tried to hold back their tears as they’re forced to watch you slowly whittle away from fatigue and the crowd’s attacks…

Someone else was watching….within the cocoon…

She begged them to stop internally….

You fall to your knees…

Stop this…!

You looked up at the cookie behind you, nothing but hatred in their eyes….yet you showed no fear, only defiance with a scowl…

Please stop this!

You see the cookie’s blade rising up….

You refused to show fear…

PLEASE STOOOOOP!

The blade comes down….

“I love you, Mystic Flour Cookie….”

———————————————————————

You and Mystic Flour Cookie sit at one of the highest points in the temple, watching the sunset.

“It’s nice up here, don’t you think?”

“Yes, it’s a pleasant view…”

“It makes you forget about all your troubles when you look at something like this…”

“Do you have troubles in your life, Y/N?”

“Yes, but I knew what I was getting into when I joined. It would’ve been all worth it if it meant I get to see you everyday.”

Mystic Flour Cookie giggles a little, a smile on her face.

“Then, we should do this more often…”

“I’d be more than happy to…”

“As do I….”

You two continued to watch the sunset, leaning against each other, hands clutched together….

———————————————————————

“Stop, I don’t think they’ll be getting up anytime soon…”

The group moved on from the now battered remains of..what used to be Y/N Cookie…the group talked amongst themselves.

“Now, for what we came here for, the treasure that she’s keeping from us in that cocoon…”

“Needed a cookie to protect her, I thought she was supposed to be a savior to us…”

“Maybe…she wasn’t as godlike as we thought…”

“She tricked us. And now she’s hiding away in that cocoon of hers! Fake! FAKE IMMORTAL!”

With one slash of a sword, the cocoon was cut open, where Mystic Flour Cookie was situated before them, unmoving and with a shadow over her eyes…

“You! We’ve waited long enough for you to come out of there! Where are the treasures you’re hiding!”

“Or at least you’ll be able to grant our wishes now!”

“I’ve got so much to ask for, where do I start?”

“Me first!”

“Back off!”

“I wish for the power to be a great spellcaster!”

Without saying a word, Mystic Flour Cookie waved her hand and the cookie who asked felt a surge within their body!

“Woah! This is….huh?”

Before the cookie knew it, their head had poofed into flour along with the rest of their body, the rest of the group gasped in horror as they too started turning pale…the atmosphere suddenly shifted to pure red…

“What’s happening to us!?”

“I don’t feel so good…”

“It’s her! She’s did this to us!”

“HELP ME!”

The cookies that tried to draw their weapons suddenly saw that their arms and hands had stopped working as they fell apart and dispersed to flour, causing more chaos to ensure as they screamed in horror.

Some tried to run to the temple doors in a panic, a few making there only to see that the temple doors were closed and locked as they struggled to open them, fading to nothing before they could realize that their efforts would be useless…

Some tried to beg and plead for their lives, swearing that they’ll never do this again….

For the first time ever since the cocoon was cut , Mystic Flour Cookie vocalized…

Not to speak…

But to laugh….

“Hehe….”

“Hehehehehe….”

“AHAHAHAHAHA!”

When it was all over, there’d be no one left remaining with the exception of Mystic Flour Cookie, Cloud Haetae Cookie, and Y/N Cookie….

Mystic Flour Cookie stopped laughing…as she gazed down to the body of her now ruined lover….

She gently picked them up in their arms as she retreated into her cocoon, Cloud Haetae crawling out of the stairs as she gazed up at their master.

“Master…I’m sorry, they…”

“No, I should’ve seen how futile it was to try and ignore the growing greed that can instill into cookies. It wasn’t your fault, it wasn’t…their fault.”

Cloud Haetae couldn’t stand to see the crumbled apart body of the captain and friend..

“I will return to the cocoon, they will be joining me. This world…is too cruel for them to be in…”

“Yes, master….”

The cocoon closed up, with Mystic Flour Cookie clutching Y/N Cookie close….

Just them and her…

And when the cocoon opens up once more…

She’ll make the cookies see…

She’ll make the world see how much pain and anguish can be let go by returning to nothing….

“I love you too, Y/N Cookie….”

I locked in so hard, lol

[bots-and-cons]

Could i request Hcs of bumblebee and soundwave with reader being a ghost? The reader keeps it a secret cuz they dont want to scare the other humans and not confuse the bots out too much... but as time passes they notice the reader rarely eats or sleeps and sometimes if they look REALLY close they see them floating ever-so-slightly from the floor? Their cover gets blown when a vehicon shoots directly at them but the bullet goes right through them.. buddy out of fear fades out but comes back later to the base. How would the bots react?

A/N: I totally forgot I had this request, because I’ve apparently just been scrolling past this while looking for something I want to write lol. I also realized after writing the Soundwave part that I didn’t really followed the plot you laid out, but at least I did it for Bee, mostly, sorry…

~Soundwave~

•Honestly, you don’t even remember when you died, and the how is even hazier

•You don’t really care though, you’re a ghost now, it’s not really any use crying after your previous life

•So after wandering the earth for who knows how long, you came upon the decepticons and decided to sneak onto their ship

•What’s the worst that could happen? You were already dead

•Also giant robots? Hell yeah, that sounds like fun

•So yeah, you kinda become the ghost of the Nemesis, as if it isn’t haunted enough already…

•You’ve got the ability to become just barely visible and your presence makes cameras act kinda funky

•You also have the ability to pass through things, and you float just a bit off the floor/ground

•Soundwave of course starts noticing all these weird glitches with the cameras around the Nemesis and starts tracking what the reason might be

•He starts noticing this human shape appearing around the Nemesis, and he decides to get to the bottom of what’s going on

•You’ve observed these big ass robots for about a week now, and you’ve noticed that you managed to accidentally scare them so many times, at least some of them, well mostly the red one

•Soundwave finally catches you, well sort of

•He makes it known that he knows you’re there and asks you to make yourself visible

•You’re not scared of Soundwave, he can’t really do anything to you, so you’re sure he just wants to kick you off the spaceship

•You’re kinda disappointed, because you wanted to see more and you weren’t totally done with your exploration of the ship

•Soundwave observes you for a moment and concludes that you’re not a threat and just some sort of specter that’s gotten very lost

•You’re of course surprised that he just sort of leaves, so you follow him and start asking him questions (some might say you start haunting him)

•Soundwave of course isn’t particularly excited about this, but he can’t really do anything to get rid of you, because he can’t touch you

•He later realizes he can actually touch you, but it takes some effort on your part to become solid 

•You’ve actually not shown yourself to anyone else on the Nemesis, except Knockout, whose name you learned from Soundwave, but that was an accident, and now he thinks there’s a human ghost haunting the Nemesis

•He’s not wrong

~Bumblebee~

•Bee first ran into you on a lonely stretch of road that was a part of his patrol, he also noticed there was a recent car wreck on that same road, and candles and flowers left at the accident site

•He kept running into you though, again and again, and eventually you saw him transform when some vehicons attacked him on that same stretch of road

•So of course he took you to the base, and you became a part of the team, just like the trouble trio would later on

•You were the first “human” to really join the team

•Bee doesn’t really pay attention to little things such as if you’ve eaten or slept, because he thinks you just do those things when he’s not around or during the times you disappear

•He does start noticing little things, like you seem to be sort of idling, moving up and down just a tiny, tiny bit when you stand still

•He doesn’t notice you’re actually floating until much later, but he thinks he’s just imagining it

•When you eventually end up in the middle of a fight after you went to look for the trouble trio and try to keep them safe, you end up at the wrong end of a blaster

•This of course doesn’t really matter, because the blaster shot just passes through you and hits the rock behind you

•Bee has already tackled the vehicon, and he was sure you’d gotten hurt

•But you’re just standing there, oddly transparent and the edges of your body seem sort of wavy and oddly moving

•Bee is confused, but you’re annoyed and upset, because you feel like he might be scared of you now

•You and Bee go back to the base with the rest of the team, and you talk with Bee, explaining the situation to him

•When you first came to the base, you didn’t actually know you were dead, your state only became apparent to you a few days later, when you realized you hadn’t eaten or slept, and you had a bit of a freak-out

•You decided to hide it, because you didn’t want to freak out the autobots or have to leave, because you couldn’t go home, you were dead

•Bee understood, and he felt bad that he hadn’t noticed, but the two of you actually came up with a lot of fun stuff with your ghost abilities

[blu3-j]

Jewelry & Puppy Eyes

Jewelry Wearing! Reader x Wally

Tw: none

(Alright, side note, I’m making it so Barnaby occasionally calls you teacup in any fanfics he’s in now. Yes, they are a breed of dog. So tiny. So adorable. Just like you!)

Oooh, Wally likes you~! And during one of your walks with your best friend, you drop a ring! Wally reaches down for it and attempts to hand it to you—but what’s this? Julie and Sally notice?! Oh, my! What hijinks are going to occur next?

It was another sunny, peaceful day. Originally, you had planned to stay at home all day and work on your latest hobby. However, soon after Eddie popped by early in the morning with your mail in hand, Wally appeared knocking at your door with a picnic basket in hand. He was such an early bird on some days, and today seemed to be one of them.

“Good morning, Y/N!” Wally chirped in his monotone voice. You were embarrassed, to say the least, that Wally was seeing you in such a state. You weren’t much of a morning person, only having woken up about 10 minutes ago to answer Eddie’s knock. Your hair was tangled, clothes disheveled, and the ghost line of drool that had dribbled down your chin while you were asleep had yet to be wiped off yet. Wally observed your appearance for a moment, looking up and down, before he continued. “Oh, did I come too early?” Blush dusted your cheeks, and you chuckled, mumbling a sheepish “yeah.” He held the basket in front of him. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Y/N. I got a bit too excited to see you.” His robotic laughter filled the morning. “I wanted to give you this.” He handed you the basket excitedly. Upon peeking inside, there were a few flowers, and a small painting of a flower field. “I saw that flower field, and the flowers reminded me of you!” His posture straightened a little as his smile widened. “Oh, I wanted to ask you if you’ll accompany me later on a walk. Would you like to?”

A small rush of energy flowed through you, and you eagerly nodded. You had to guess you’ll find time later to work on your hobbies. At least you didn’t have to worry about bills in this new world. Or taxes. Or worry about paying for groceries at the store with anything except gossip, stories, crafts, and jokes. Money was no issue, it wasn’t even really a concept in this neighborhood.

The little yellow puppet rolled on his feet as he stared up at you. You watched as his pupils grew a small moment. It was something that happened often, especially when he was around you. The two of you had grown close over the time you’ve been here, and although it took a while, you eventually began to get used to his little quirks. Eating with his eyes, his pupils able to grow and shrink, his staring, and even his strange ability to completely shroud his face in darkness except for his eyes no matter what lighting he was in. You barely even took notice of how monotone his voice and laughter are anymore. They were all normal to you by now. Some of it was even considered a bit endearing, in a strange way. You still remember what Barnaby had taught you what some of it meant.

“Barnaby?” The large dog looked down to you before pulling his pipe out of his mouth.

“What’s up, teacup?”

“I’ve noticed Wally’s eyes sometimes grow. What does that mean?”

His mouth curled up a smidge. “Well, that could mean many things,” he started. “It could mean that he’s eaten something, it could mean that he’s happy, or sometimes it could mean that whoever he’s looking at with ‘em is someone he really adores.” His belly rumbled with soft laughter as he looked to you in the corner of his eye. “Maybe my little buddy has someone he really likes.” He shrugged, looking away and putting his pipe back to his mouth and puffing. “Or maybe he just really likes food. I don’t blame the little guy.” He hummed, putting a paw to his chin. “A hot dog sounds really good right now. What do ya say, teacup? Wanna go get a hot dog? My treat!”

“Great!” Wally responded. You two took a minute to find a time, eventually settling on a few hours from now to let you wake up and get ready. He walked off blowing you an air kiss goodbye, and you found yourself blowing one back. Air kisses were something he had begun doing weeks ago, and he used it for many things. Excitement, adoration, hellos, goodbyes, and everything in between. After a few days, you decided to begin doing it back, knowing he was just excited to know something new and didn’t mean anything more to it. Even after he found out through some of the others that it was only reserved for special people and situations, he still kept doing it to you, and you to him. It was like your secret handshake.

The door clicked closed and you decided to take the time to get ready to face the day. Breakfast was quickly made, a shower was taken, and a colorful outfit was put on. A few of the others had all gotten together soon after you arrived to make you some colorful and unique clothing pieces as a “Welcome home” gift. Finally, you reached over to a shelf in your closet with your jewelry. Some rainbow clip-on earrings, your friendship bracelets Sally, Julie, Frank, and Eddie made you, and a ring. Frank was the most hesitant to give you his friendship bracelet he made for you, saying it was Julie’s idea, but you could tell through his eyes he loved seeing you wear it as much as the others did with theirs.

Right on time, a knock rapped through the door. Walking down the stairs, you saw through the window in your living room it was Wally. He glanced through the window and made eye contact with you as you walked down and waved. With a smile, you opened the door to him.

“Hello, again!” He piped. Then he held out his hand for you to take. You greeted him back and took his hand, leaving the house and closing the door after you. Wally liked holding people’s hands, but held his best friends’ hands the most.

The walk was calming and filled with joyous energy. The birds chirped song off in the distant woods, the other neighbors cheerfully went about their daily activities, occasionally greeting the two of you as they passed by, and the sky was clear and blue as day. Even the barely noticeable music—which was something extremely unexpected but normal here—was laid back and casual. The two of you occasionally struck conversation as you walked, with mainly you doing most of the talking while Wally gladly stared and listened.

Then you felt something slip from your finger. Oh no! Your ring! Wally was quick to notice, and let go of your hand to crouch down. He gingerly picked it up and held it up to you. You couldn’t help but smile and reach out for it when—

GASP!

Julie and Sally’s gasps were made obvious to you. Glancing over, the two girls had dropped all of the stage props they had been carrying and were staring with wide eyes at the scene in front of them. Oh, no. Julie held her face with her hands and Sally held closed fists towards the front of her face while their smiles grew and eyes began to sparkle. The quiet squeals from the two was what finally caught Wally’s attention. He looked to them, then back at you, to them, and finally settled on you. A small wrinkle appeared on his forehead, and he held up the ring to you once more.

“Oh my gosh! Wally are you proposing to Y/N?!” Sally exclaimed.

“Y/N, are you going to say yes?!” Julie continued.

“Are you two going to get married??!!” The two finished in unison.

You stammered back a step as your face flashed hot. “W-what?! No!” You looked down to Wally in desperation. But he only stared back at you. “I’m not going to marry you!” A chuckle escaped your lips as you continued, holding a hand to your face in exasperation. “We haven’t even gone on a single date, and I require a romantic relationship to last at least a few years before I even consider saying yes to that question! Wally’s not going to be my husband, you two.” You put your hands to your hips and glanced at the pair before noticing something in the corner of your eye. Wally’s pupils grew.

You spoke before you could even think of an answer. “Wally,” you deadpanned. “I’m not going to marry you.” His pupils continued to grow a tiny smidge and he widened his eyes so they shined in the sunlight, a small additional blush forming on his cheeks. Finally, he tilted his head cutely to the side. His puppy dog face. The same exact one Barnaby had taught him a while back—and a face you could almost never say no to. You tried everything you could. You tried to look away, you tried to ignore him, you even tried to wait it out until he gave up. But in the end, you couldn’t resist those adorable eyes.

You sighed. “Alright,” you slowly began. You thought for a moment to carefully decide your next words. “I’ll call you my husband on one of two conditions. One, you take me on a date. If it goes well, and we become a couple, wait a few years, and then you can ask and I may say yes. Two, we stay as friends, and I’ll call you my platonic husband.” His pupils grew even more, and he finally stood from his previous crouching position.

The girls watched in anticipation.

Romantic Option:

He stood up and gently grabbed your hand, putting the ring in your palm. But he didn’t let go of your hand.

“Okay!” He chirped. “Y/N…” For the first time, he looked away while he was talking to you. Only for a moment, though. “Will…” He hesitated. “Will you allow me to accompany you on a date?”

You sharply inhaled, and your face felt as if it was on fire. It most probably looked like you had been sunburned by now, you figured. Suddenly, it all made sense. The air kisses, the hand holding, the pupil growing, even the occasional gifts. Some he did with only you, or he did the most only when you were around. Even Barnaby hinted at it! Does that mean the others knew, too? Or was it just speculation? How did you never notice? How did you never put all the puzzle pieces together?

Wally continued to stare with anticipation, and tilted his head. You ignored the girls to the side as you stared back into his eyes.

He’s fun to be around, he’s patient, kind, compassionate, and while he may not always have thoughts behind those eyes of his, he’s always doing his best to understand and learn. And if you said no, then he most likely wouldn’t mind, and he wouldn’t push you on the matter any further.

What’s the harm in saying yes?

Time skip forward a few years, and there the two of you were. Happy and in love. You eventually moved in with Wally, and Home welcomed you with open doors. The two of you had done many things together. Painting, going on lovely picnic dates or dinner dates with romantic candles, hiking into the woods to look for a new wonder, slow-danced to love songs late into the evening, and cuddled close during movies and plays. It almost felt like a dream. Sure, the two of you had arguments like any other couple, and it wasn’t always rainbows and clear skies for the two of you, but you were happy, caring for each other, and still in love by the end.

The hill was steep, but it was no match to the two of you. You had walked up worse. Right at the top, Wally laid down a blanket and you set the basket to the side. The two of you talked away as you laid on the ground and gazed up at the clouds for hours. Finally, you noticed the orange and pink streaks in the sky. The day was already ending. As you looked back to Wally, he was no longer in the spot next to you. You got up and looked around, deciding to look behind the tree the two of you had set up your picnic next to. But he wasn’t there.

Then you turned around.

And there he was; on one knee, holding a small colorful box in his hands. You could see the streaks in the sky in his eyes. Your vision began to blur. Things were quiet. Nothing needed to be said. No fancy words, no extra loving gestures, just you and him on this quiet peaceful evening. Just like the first date he took you on. With the same look he gave you on the first day you met. The day he first asked you on a date.

“Will you?”

A hiccup escaped your breath. “Yes.”

Platonic Option:

He stood up and gently grabbed your hand, putting the ring in your palm. But he didn’t let go of your hand.

“That sounds nice.” His eyes closed halfway back to their normal half-lidded state. “Platonic husband. What is that?” His free hand reached for his chin.

“Uh, well,” you stammered out. “It’s basically where we’re still friends, but we have a special title for each other now. Kind of like a nickname. But it’s important that platonic is mentioned in the name. At least, until everyone knows what we mean by it. Platonic means that we’re friends, and nothing more.”

Wally hummed and nodded. “Can I be your platonic husband?”

“Sure, Wally.” A fond smile rested on your face.

Then you remembered the girls. Or more like they finally spoke up from being so silent. “Oh, oh! We should put together a platonic marriage!” Julie exclaimed. Before you could get another word in, Sally agreed and the two of them were dragging you and Wally off to plan the silly ceremony.

In the end, it was as dramatic and fancy as it could possibly get. Sally of course was the wedding officiant, with Julie being the flower girl. Barnaby was the best man, and Julie was also the maid of honor. It was nothing more than platonic, and everyone knew it, but it didn’t mean that it wasn’t yours and Wally’s special day. The setup looked as if it was out of a fairytale, and your outfits fit the setting. The ceremony went by quick, and you two even got to do typical wedding ceremony activities. You two ran down the aisle as everyone threw petals and confetti, you tossed a bouquet Julie had made just for you, you got to cut the first slice of cake, and you had an eventful after-party that lasted until sundown; filled with games, dancing, comedy acts, and more. You all ended it off with a sleepover at Julie’s house.

Photos of the event were kept dear to each of the neighbors, but especially for you and Wally. A photo of the two of you hung on a wall framed in both your homes. Truly, a day to never forget.

[talesfrommedinastation]

Redneck Doug watches 'The Bad Batch: A Different Approach'

Believe it or not, this episode started the first real argument between Doug and I!

Hope y'all enjoy it.

CW: Language and Doug is surprisingly critical of fat folks, despite the fact that he's from one of the least healthy states in the USA, has a massive beer gut, and can put away a whole rack of ribs and multiple barbeque fixin's in one sitting. I've seen it in person, folks. We were snipping at each other over fatphobia, glass houses, and the merits of The Treasure State after this.

I might have sacrificed my invitation to his St Patrick's Day party as a result. Oh well.

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

Episode 4: “Adventures in Space Montana” 

(image from @ladyzirkonia)

And we’re starting off with Little Orphan Blondie behind the wheel of a stolen vehicle because the girl is every inch her hillbilly brothers family.

Why is the plane on fire? Does this end like Alive? I thought ships couldn’t burn in space, I mean, I studied engineering, worked in oil, girl I remember Event Horizon.

Whelp, they crashed in a cold-ass field with some pointy mountains behind them. Clearly Montana. Maybe there’s a national park nearby and they can go hiking.

Aw, no, Mutant Jimmers is stuck behind Daddy Warcrimes’s seat! Let the ol girl out before she pees all over the spare tire!

Did they bring their guns? Hope they did. This is Montana, the Texas of the north, except you can’t find the bodies anywhere. If I was gonna go and murder someone, I’d pick Montana after Alaska.  

(Pictured: Omega and Crosshair are somewhere in this picture)

A sketchy cold-ass town where everyone’s gambling, there’s too much military trash wandering around and you see your breath even inside the bar? Yup, definitely Montana. 

(“Montana is not like that! I’ve been there multiple times! I almost went to grad school at UM and the kayaking, skiing, hiking, and breweries are amazing!” - Me, defending a state I have never lived in

“Yeah, but have you been to Butte? Thought I was gonna go get eaten by the locals there.” - Doug

::proceed to bicker and fight via texts about the many merits and demerits of the Big Sky State::)

Aw yeah, Daddy Warcrimes and Little Orphan Blondie got new clothes. Smart man, covering his face, Daddy Warcrimes. He totally looks like me when I gotta rake the lawn in November. I like that sweater, think they’ll sell them at Disneyland? 

And they’re back to gambling. See! I told you this was Montana! They even have a gun rack!

Look at Little Orphan Blondie taking down fools with some cards! I bet Ryan-from-Accounting is smiling watching from Heaven or wherever he’s fighting the Space Balrog to come back as Space Gandalf. 

Oh who is this fat fuck. Lord a mercy, is he the one fat imperial we have ever seen? Man I tell you what I bet he’s too hefty to ride in an AT-AT and that’s why they sent him to Space Montana, thinking the hiking and eating venison and berries will slim that brother up.

Maybe Vader will force him to run while carrying Palpatine like we did to other recruits in the Navy. 

Nope, he’s gambling with a little girl in a bar, because the Empire just can’t follow rules now can it. That don’t make any sense. I’m with you, Daddy Warcrimes, giving that sour puss to everyone. I would too. 

And now Officer Fat Fuck is gone done taking money from a child who beat him fair and square. Yup, he works for the government, all right. I bet he manages the Empire’s DMV.

Creepy little street boy wants some cash to tell them where they took Mutant Jimmers. I don’t blame the boy, it looks like no one wants to buy his shitty watermelon and he ain’t got a face.

Why in the hell are there so many animals in crates and shit here? They starting a zoo or something? Is it all to feed Officer Fat Fuck? I need info on this. 

Shit yeah, fire them guns, Daddy Warcrimes! It’s your time to shine, big boy!

Oh yeah they freed Mutant Jimmers! And everybody else. Oh man, is that a kraken? Whelp, its dinner tonight is Officer Fat Fuck. Good on ya, kraken, you may be named after the world’s worst hockey team but ain’t bad all the time now. 

(pictured: they keep losing games but hey they at least eat imperial officers?)

Gotta fry some dumb Imperial while you’re leaving, of course. Why they wearing them goggles when they got helmets on? Shit, real dumb. Don’t like the Inspector Gadget trench coats either, those can get caught real quick in a door and that’s how you get shot and all. 

Ah yeah, they saved their cash, grabbed a ship, and they’re off to the moon! There they go! 

DADDY RAMBO LITTLE ORPHAN BLONDIE JULIO AND DADDY WARCRIMES ALL BACK TOGETHER! OH MY LORD MEAT MUFFIN I AIN’T EXPECTING THIS THIS EARLY! WOW! 

(image from @dreamswithghosts)

And Mutant Jimmers is with them too. It’s a good day on the moon! 

Tagging Doug's fans of course: @skellymom @cdblake1565 @megmca @sued134 @eyecandyeoz @amalthiaph @yeehawgeek @eelfuneral @thecoffeelorian @lightwise @archivistofnerddom @askyourfox @heavenseed76 @totallyunidentified

[sabraeal]

to all the ghosts still standing in this room, Chapter 3

[Read on AO3]

For all that His Former Majesty pretends to eschew the trappings of power or whatever, he sure doesn’t have any compunctions about bossing her around. Lili’s barely stretched a finger toward that purse of his, but he herds her right over to a low wall, insisting she sit before he lets her get a word in edgewise. Barely lets her get a glimpse of all that fluffy ricey goodness too before he sets out a bit of cloth between them, like this was one of those little tea parties Father would strong-arm her into, as if turning ‘good neighbors into good allies’ could make those girls more interesting.

“Street food’s meant to be eaten standing up.” It’s not that she’s pouting over this whole business. It’s just that spoiled little kings sometimes need a reminder of how things work. Like how people don’t go to market just to sit around and kick rocks. “Since you’re, you know, supposed to be walking.”

Soowon’s not a man of many expressions —not ones he aims at her, at least— but to call the one he settles on her skeptical would be generous. Accusatory, more like, as if something about this stupid sit-down snack situation was her fault. “It puts me more at ease to keep you where you can be seen.”

Her face scrunches up, a persimmon left too long in his sun. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

This is where he’s supposed to say, ‘Nothing.’ Where his stupid pale spider hands should wave between them, as if that might help him climb out of this hole. Where he squints into his fakest smile, playing the role of harmless prince down to the dregs.

But instead, he says, “Because when you are left to your own devices, you always find trouble.”

“That’s not true!” At least, it doesn’t feel like it should be. Not until he cocks his head, just how he had on that street in Senshi, both of them soaked to the bone. Both of them alone, no Ayura, no Tetora, no Judoh. And her on her knees, grateful and fearful both, saved by—

Her teeth grit hard enough to ache. “Trouble finds me, thank you very much.”

His shoulder lifts, more consolation than concession. “As you say.”

She could strangle him. Put her hands right around that elegant neck of his and just squeeze. She’d be half tempted to try right now— witnesses and all— except…

Except he finally pulls out that pouch, dumping all the cakes onto the cloth between them. One bounces off an uneven bit of wall, doomed to tumble to the dirt until Lili snatches it midair. “You stand could be a little more delicate about it!”

One brow hikes beneath the sweep of his hair. “Didn’t you just tell me you’d rather be walking?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I want them to roll around in the dirt.” She blows across the cake’s spongy surface, hoping to banish whatever invisible bits of grit had settled there. “It’s about the experience. Lady Lili can sit down and call for fancy little cakes whenever she wants” —not that she made a habit of it, recently— “but walk around some foreign market? Not without a half dozen guards to protect me from peasant elbows, and another one to hold the purse strings.”

With careful precision, she sets the cake back on the cloth. And with equal delicacy —and ignoring Soowon’s slack jaw— she picks up another, twirling it between her fingers. Lili can’t fathom why he bothers to look so shocked; it’s not like she dropped it. It’s not her duty to eat it.

“These are pretty fancy.” There’s little dried jujube flowers steamed into the surface, with rock tripe slivers as stems and leaves of halved seeds. “I think I’ve seen them at parties before.”

“During the summer, typically,” he agrees, lifting a cake between his fingers. It’s pink, not white like hers, with a different spray of flowers across the top. “There’s something about the rice wine that makes them keep better in the heat.”

Lili’s never heard anyone speak with such authority about rice cakes, let alone a man with so little business in the kitchens. Hell, she wasn’t even convinced he liked food, considering the way he picked at most of his meals, pulling crackled skin from perfectly crisped chicken and plucking the melty fat off his pork. He didn’t so much eat rice as push it around in his bowl, making it look like he’d had more than a mouthful.

Does His Majesty have a sweet tooth? she’d love to tease, or maybe, I didn’t figure you for a dessert guy, but instead she blurts out, “I can't believe they sell these right out on the street like this. It must cost a fortune.”

His head snaps up, both his brows jumped up to his hairline, and— and, sure, Lady Lili’s never been in the practice of thinking about cost, or even wondering how her meals made it to her table, but Water Tribe Advisor Lili has to. “The rice wine,” she stumbles out, “it’s only made when the pear trees blossom. So—”

“It’s the same stuff farmers drink.” There’s a lilt to his voice, a hitch at the corner of his mouth. Oh, of course, it’s amusing that An Joon-gi’s precious daughter is so sheltered. He couldn’t scrounge up a thimbleful of good humor the past week she’s been trapped with him in that stuffy little box, but she mistakes cloudy wine for luxury and it’s a laugh riot. Insufferable. “The real expense is in the time it takes to make them.”

Lili glances down, long enough to find not two colors of cakes but three, the yellow so subtle it only stands out next to the white. Three colors, three doughs. And every single one is painstakingly decorated, not just with jujube flowers, but with fireworks made of slivered nuts, or small waves made of dried seaweed; half-snack, half-art. “You’d think they’d serve them more often in the palace. Those people just love to make fussy food.”

“Xing is more temperate than Kouka.” He lifts a shoulder, as if tutoring generals’ daughters were an everyday occurrence. “There are some things that grow more easily here, and for longer. A summer delicacy for us might be their standard fare— after all, few of our usual treats would keep well in the heat.”

“Oh.” That sort of thing never crossed her mind— climate and locations and the logistics of what might grow between them. A general’s daughter hardly needed to know where her tea snacks came from, only whether it would please her or the guests that had been foisted upon her. But the Empress’s Water Tribe Advisor— that’s the way she should think. Supply line should dance behind her eyelids when she closes her eyes, the local price ready to drop from her lips at a moment’s notice, but instead she just squints down at the jujube flower and wonders, “Do you think Kouka made them first, or did we adopt them from Xing?”

Soowon hums, considering. “Hard to say. I don’t suppose any of its ingredients are particular to either place. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that we came up with the idea independently— forestalling food spoilage is a constant concern, after all— but with a shared border…”

A border that ran right at the end of the Wind Tribe’s territory. Fuuga was known for their mountainous highlands, their capital hidden between a copse of intimidating peaks, its people dressing in their distinctive layers to keep the winds and cold at bay. But it was their lowlands that abutted Xing, the fertile shores of its river forming what her Father had always called Kouka’s breadbasket. But as they had rattled along the trade road, escorted by an improbable amount of Hak’s cousins for a man who claimed to be orphaned, Lili could not pick out where Kouka ended and Xing began, the farmlands all running together, crops and houses indistinguishable from one another, no matter which side of the border they had traveled on.

“Maybe…” She tests the word on her tongue, weighing it the way old women did melons in the market, trying to divine whether the flesh inside was ripe or gone to seed. “…There’s never been much difference between us.”

Soowon blinks down at her. “Perhaps.”

Heat simmers right beneath the skin of her cheeks, threatening to let the world know the way pride flushes through her, and she can’t stand it, not with him sitting there, just staring, like she’s never said a smart thing in her life—

She shoves the cake in her mouth. Not a delicate bite, the way Lady Lili should, but the whole thing, her cheeks ballooning out to balance the crumb between them.

“Oh,” she mutters around it, disappointed. “Ours taste better, though.”

Soowon smothers a grimace between his own bites. “The flavor is quite…delicate.”

“I think you mean ‘not there.’” She reaches for another one anyway, nibbling at an edge. “You like these?”

“The texture is…pleasing.” At her withering glance, he admits, “I had hoped the flavor would be more pronounced, yes. But they are…inoffensive.”

That’s one way to put it. Bland would be another. “You shouldn’t have distracted me, I was going to get us those pastry fish, the ones with red beans in them. Now that would have been a snack.”

“I distracted you?” His mouth tugs toward a frown. “I believe you were the one who tried to get into a physical altercation in the middle of the market.”

“Me? It was that guy who kept trying to pick a fight. I was just—!”

His palm stifles her protest; a single hand that pressed against her mouth, trapping it between words. Not that she has any; surprise scatters her wits, shattering her thoughts like a teapot knocked from a shelf.

“You’re being too loud,” he informs her, as if she’s the one that’s the problem here. “It’s drawing attention.”

Oh, she could just— just lick him. No— bite him. Let him see just who can keep their head then.

He removes his hand before she can even try. Just lets it drop right back into his lap, like he had never moved in the first place, that annoyingly neutral smile pulling his mouth too thin.

“You’re not going to be able to do that to your wife, you know,” she warns him, shoving another cake in her mouth. Eugh, pink doesn’t have much of a flavor either. “She’d take your hand off if you even try.”

His brows rise. “Ah, so my cousin did send you to make me Xing’s consort.”

“I-I didn’t say it had to be Kouren.” Though Yona had insinuated it would be preferable, right before Hak snorted, sure, dodging a headman's axe seems like a great hobby for him to pick up, gods know he needs one. “Just…that’s what any woman worth her salt would do.”

Soowon’s mouth twitches, nearly a smirk. “If it could be ‘any woman,’ I doubt I would have been sent with a babysitter to make it happen.”

“I’m not your babysitter,” she snorts, hopping onto her feet. “Judoh is your babysitter. I’m your wingman, because you have all the appeal of a block of tofu.”

His wide eyes track her as she stands, jaw falling just slack enough for his lips to part. “I…” His mouth closes, curving into something sly. “I suppose you would be the expert of such things.”

“I am,” she huffs. “I have amazing taste. You look better just being seen with me.”

“How lucky,” he drawls, not looking at her, but just over her—

“Lady Lili.”

A broad hand clamps around her shoulder, rooting her to the street. A trembling glance up catches on a scarred cheek, rucked up in a scowl. “We’ve found you.” Judoh’s brow furrows, taking in Soowon’s perch on the wall. “Both of you, it seems.”

“Oh my.” Soowon squints into a smile, only deepening his bodyguard’s glower. “It looks like our playdate is over.”

*

It comes as no surprise that Judoh declines to dress them down right in the middle of the marketplace. Perhaps if they were in any less public a place, or any less important personages than the empress’s own advisors-- certainly, if Soowon were a child still, the man would hardly hesitate to let loose bellows that would shake the market stalls down to their struts. But as it was, he was too much the professional to cause a scene... at least where there might be witnesses.

Which means that all his ire is saved for the moment he has them firmly ensconced at the inn. With his dark hood pushed back to his shoulders, it’s simple to see the familiar vein throbbing at his temple, to take in the almost nostalgic twitch of his jaw as the doors slide shut behind Lili’s attendant.

Three years as Kouka’s king might have inured him to most attempts at intimidation, but when the Sky Tribe general glares, it’s reflex that drops him to his knees.

“What,” he bites out, “exactly were the two of you thinking?”

Only it’s not his cousin who trembles next to him now-- nor Hak, using his hair to hide his grin— but An Lili. Joon-gi’s half-wild daughter, who may know how to bow, but refuses to be broken. Who hasn’t been on the other side of one of Judoh’s lectures enough to know to keep her mouth shut.

“What happened?” she mutters, words muffling beneath her sleeves. “I thought you were going to distract him?”

It’s not until her attendant sighs, “I tried,” that Soowon realizes the question wasn’t for him. “He just wasn’t very…distractible.”

Ah, well, that gives quite a different context for the flush to the man’s face, and to why his gaze is both hunter and hunted.

“A member of the royal family and the water tribe advisor running around a foreign market without a single guard.” If a man could breathe steam, Judoh would, pacing across the breadth of their room. “I expected better from the both of you. What if something happened to one of you? Both of you! In one of our vassal states! And I’d have to tell the empress and her…”

Consort. Even now the general can’t bring himself to say it. Bad enough when Hak merely usurped his place as Yona’s bodyguard, but now that the upstart has become an authority he has to answer to— well, a less prideful man might have seen that was his uncle’s plan to begin with.

“We were incognito,” Lili informs him, unaware of how she is only prolonging their punishment. “No one noticed us.”

“Don’t,” he mutters, too late. Judoh’s flush deepens to a painful red, scars standing out in stark relief.

“That,” the general growls, “is half the problem, Lili-sama. Your title is as much protection as your honor guard. A scoundrel might think twice about picking the pockets of the Empress’s Advisor, but some silly young girl in the market…well, she could be easily led astray! Brought to some back alley where…where…”

Judoh has faced dragons on the battlefield, seen sights that would turn most men mad, but one glance down in An Lili’s guileless eyes, and he falters.

“It is useless to convince the general that anonymity conveys safety, Lady Lili.” Soowon lifts his head, ignoring the betrayed glare she spears him with. “Where we might instead focus our arguments is on the fact that we were almost certainly being followed from the moment we stepped into the city.”

“What?” Now it’s Judoh who suffers the honed point of her ire. “You had people watching us the whole time?”

“My lady, that is beside the point,” he snaps, desperately grappling to keep the ground beneath him. “Just because I had men in position this time, does not mean there will not be a time where the two of you slip out when no preparations have been made—”

“You two?” Lili shrills, hands hooking at her waist. “I did not sneak out with— with him! I did it all by myself, and he copied me—”

“Is this really what you want to fight over?” Soowon sighs, fingers pinching at the bridge of his nose.  At least Yona had the sense to let them all get in equal trouble. “Who thought to break the rules first?”

She swings around to him, well on her way to a pout. “He needs to know we don’t come as a unit.”

“I don’t think anyone is confused on that point.”

“You don’t—”

It’s a miracle that he hears it— the quiet shush of wood sliding along its track, just over his shoulder. The pommel of his dagger finds his hand before he finishes his turn, one foot braced against the floor and poised to pull, but it’s Judoh who moves faster, little more than a blur of black linen and a flash of steel as he flies across the floor.

The man at the door is cloaked and masked, no more than a strip of skin and dark eyes uncovered, but they widen as Judoh meets him with blade bared. The general is by no means his quickest sword, but even Soowon would have been hard pressed to answer that attack, so it can only be preternatural reflex that allows this man to manage it, stumbling back a step.

One that would not have saved him, had Judoh been allowed to press his advantage. But another figure reaches through the gap, gripping Judoh’s wrist hard enough to send his sword clattering to the tatami. It’s with a speed that Soowon feels rather that sees that the general is driven to his knees, arm wrenched behind his back as the intruder forces him prone, one knee braced on the floor and the other on his back. Lili’s attendant is already on her feet, a wicked knife glistening as she flings herself with purpose toward the other man at the door—

“Baram, please.” The figure that steps into the room is dressed dark like the others, tall enough to be a man— but it is a woman’s voice that comes from beneath its hood. A mature one; confident even in this room full of naked steel. Familiar, barely. “That is hardly the sort of treatment we should show our honored guests.”

His stomach drops before her hood, but it does not reach bottom until Judoh gasps, “Your Majesty.”

Kouren, Queen of Xing, First of Her Name, strides across the room until she stands before him, taking in the sight of him on his knees. The way his father must have, when her beloved guardsman knelt before him on the battlefield.

“Lord Soowon.” The smile she shines down on him is warm, welcoming, the kind one royal might give another. A pity none of it reaches her eyes. “We do not need ceremony between us, do we?”

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

Carpe Diem - Chapter 5

Pairing: Sketchbook (Kaisa/Johanna)

Summary: Carpe diem: one of the five latim mottos of the arcadist, or neoclassical movement. Literally translates to "seize the day"

Picking up where Locus Amoenus left off, this fic follows the lives of Kaisa and Johanna for a couple weeks as their feelings grow and develop. At some point there will be a couple of weeks of hiatus, but for now this fic will be updated weekly

Notes:  Trigger warning for mentions of child abuse. If you want to skip it, stop when Kaisa begins speaking about Frida’s adoption, and come back after the “***” sign I put there

Btw, this is when the hiatus starts! I'll be out for two or three weeks and then come back. But I suppose that since this week and the last one I posted two chapters, I'm actually on track lol. It's fitting, too. This may not be the numeric half of the fic, but it's the moral half of the fic. if you know what i mean

Credits for the quotes I used are on the ao3 notes

Read it on ao3 or read the first installment on this verse or read the second installment on this verse  

They raced each other down the stairs and to the dining room like kids, finding when they got there a Frida that looked unamused, and a Tildy that looked very much so. Both of them had sat side by side at the table, and the other two seats were directly in front of them, leaving the girls no choice but to sit shoulder to shoulder. Or shoulder to arm, in their case.

The meal was a creamy mushroom risotto, and conversation flowed easily between them while they ate. It was a bit stunted and awkward at first, but when Johanna told Frida she’d been a Sparrow Scout herself in her childhood, and had often been the one in her level to win the most badges each year, the four of them didn’t run out of conversation topics any time soon.

Once dessert had been eaten, a banoffee pie that Tildy had baked the day before and stored in the fridge for that occasion, Frida excused herself to go read. After being sure that Johanna really was done with her food, Kaisa took the chance to invite her out into their backyard.

She’d seen some splashes of colour from across the glass panel that covered a good chunk of the dining room’s wall while they were eating, but nothing could have prepared her for a closer look at it. If there was any doubt in her mind that Tildy was some sort of sage fairytale sorceress, it vanished the second she stepped into her garden.

Colours both vibrant and soft filled her sight no matter which direction she looked at. There was no grass anywhere to be seen, the ground being covered by native weeds, which were protected from their feet by the stone path traced between the flowerbeds, much like the one in the front yard. Even as a self declared flower enthusiast, there were flowers there that Johanna had never even heard of, and some that she recognized from her time as a scout as being extremely rare and hard to take care of. Still, even though it was a clearly cared for space, it didn’t look controlled, or limited in any way. Fallen leaves and flowers were left to enrich the soil, stems grew in whichever direction they pleased, and weeds were only taken care of when they posed direct threat to other plants.

It was jaw-dropping. And it was also autumn. Johanna could barely picture how this place must look during springtime.

She desperately hoped she’d still be around in Kaisa’s life to witness it.

“We don’t have many plants in bloom at the moment.” The girl said, as if she’d read Johanna’s thoughts. “But it’s still a sight, isn’t it?”

Even though she was aware that her face was being watched for a reaction, Johanna needed some seconds to herself before she could gather any coherent thoughts.

“Are you kidding me? This is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life.” Except for you, she added to herself, wishing Kaisa really could read her mind and either confirm her suspicion or tell her to back off.

Instead of helping her in any way, her friend only smiled with self-satisfaction. “I’m glad you think so. You know, I’ve been wanting to show you this for a good while now. I remember the first thought I had when I followed you into the humanities’ garden was ‘oh, this has nothing on Tildy’s flowers’.”

“You weren’t wrong.” Johanna breathed, only now noticing how many bugs there were around. Butterflies fluttered all around them, and some bees flew lazily between the flowers that were in bloom. A caterpillar munched on a brown leaf, and a trail of orderly ants crossed the stone tile just in front of her feet. It was all too easy to imagine Kaisa’s childhood self following those animals with a magnifying glass and a book in her little hands. “I don’t even have words.”

Kaisa bounced on her heels, pleased with Johanna’s reaction. “There’s a bench at the centre. Would you like to go there, or are you cold?”

“Cold? I would gladly freeze to stay here longer. Lead the way, by all means.”

She did, and each step they took allowed Johanna to get a different angle of the fall scene around them. When a dragonfly got bold enough to land on her jacket, Johanna felt certain that she’d accidentally slipped and fallen into some sort of dreamy magical land.

The dragonfly flew away when she sat down beside Kaisa on the wooden bench that was at the intersection of stone tile paths that came from different directions, all leading to a different section of the garden. As it did so, it gave Johanna the perfect opportunity to marvel at the way that light caught on its wings, until it flew out of sight and her attention was turned back to the plants.

“Does Tildy tend to all of this herself?” She’d called the woman ‘Matilda’ earlier, during lunch, and gotten an amused laugh and a request to just call her by her nickname in return. Even if she wasn’t there to listen to her say her full name, Johanna felt too honoured by being allowed the small intimacy not to use it. Kaisa shrugged.

“Mostly. Sometimes Frida and I help when there’s something more strenuous to be done, but it’s mainly her; she’s very agile for her age, you know. Plus, it keeps her active. She takes care of us, which I imagine takes a lot of her time and serenity, but since she’s retired, she likes to keep a couple of hobbies to keep her mind sharp. She still trades a lot of correspondence with younger researchers in her area, though.”

Every week new letters (yes, letters, because the people in Tildy’s field knew she preferred them to emails) arrived at their home from people who were looking into the history of their surrounding countries, discussing new archeological findings, new texts that had just been dug up, new theories that were being created. Every time, Tildy had a piece of advice and a thoughtful opinion to give. It made Kaisa grateful that this woman had adopted her so she could simply walk into whatever room she was in and ask her questions whenever she felt like it. Going to the post office sounded like too much of a hassle. Also she wasn’t exactly sure how stamps worked, honestly, only that Frida was currently obsessed with collecting them.

“That’s nice. She’s a fantastical person. And so is your sister. I really loved meeting them. It’s nice to see where you came from.”

Looking down at where her hands were resting against her lap, Kaisa smiled. She couldn’t help it. Her family was amazing, and she knew it was a green flag any time someone could see it too. She’d had enough people looking at their unusual configuration the wrong way to know it wasn’t always the case.

“Thank you. I’m glad to hear it, I know they had a blast meeting you too.”

Maybe they had enjoyed it more than they should have, in fact, but if Kaisa was feeling particularly merciful once Johanna had headed back home she might even let it slip.

“If I may ask…” Johanna began tentatively, but Kaisa already knew the answer. She could ask anything she wanted, and Kaisa would bend the world if she needed to in order to deliver. “Is there any story behind your adoptions?”

Letting out a huff of air through her nostrils, Kaisa ran her hands over her cardigan. “I was very young when Tildy brought me, so I don’t really remember it. I don’t think my age justifies it, but I don’t even have any memories from before. Frida, though, that was a whole situation.”

Johanna turned on her side to face her better, giving her a look that gently said ‘I’m listening, if you want me to’.

“Her biological parents were awful.” There was no beating around the bush. Many times she had been asked if she had felt any jealousy when Frida was brought over, but the truth was, as soon as Tildy had told her her story, Kaisa had felt ready to hunt down those people herself. “They made her take part in all sorts of competitions that would get them money if she won. Spelling bees, pageants, the newspaper’s competition for ‘tidiest child’ title. That sort of thing. And goodness, she was only four. They…” 

Kaisa took a deep breath to hold onto her anger, clenching her fists.

“They hurt her when she didn’t win. Fucking monsters, I swear.”

Beside her, she heard Johanna’s breath catch in her throat. 

“The police eventually found out, thank the heavens. She was placed in foster care, and there Tildy found her and brought her home. Luckily this ends as a happy story. She does all that she can to help Frida with the marks that those first years left in her, and even though she still struggles with a lot of what she was forced to learn, at least now she knows she’s unconditionally loved and has all the tools to heal.”

It was a story that boiled Kaisa’s blood whenever she thought of it. She couldn’t imagine ever being able to cause any harm to any child at all, let alone to the sister she loved with her whole heart. Secretly, though, it also made her feel a freezing fear deep in her guts. Something told her that she herself was too similar to Frida for it to be a coincidence, and it was probably the same reason that had made her brain block any memories from before Tildy.

“I am so sorry to hear this, Kaisa.” Johanna sounded genuinely heartbroken. “That’s… God, that’s awful. I wouldn’t ever have imagined that.  I’m so glad she’s here now.”

Trying to cut through the heavy mood of her own creation, Kaisa gave her as much of a smile as she could manage. “Yeah, me too. Things have a way of working out in the end, I suppose.”

She nodded, and turned her attention back to the plants. The sun hadn’t left its peak long ago, and its rays warmed their skins enough that it was very comfortable to just stay there, and do nothing. A couple of moments later, though, Kaisa spoke again.

***

“You know, it just occurred to me that I don’t know much about your family either. Just that you moved here when young and that Edmund is somehow your cousin. I’m sorry, is there a reason for that, or did it just not occur to me to ask?”

However much she’d been hoping the conversation didn’t turn to that, Johanna laughed at the way she had phrased it. It was okay, though, she told herself. She could open herself to Kaisa. How were they supposed to go anywhere at all if they weren’t willing to be vulnerable with each other?

“There is a reason for that. It’s not a pretty story. But I feel like you’ve earned it at this point.”

Kaisa was about to rush to assure that she didn’t need to share anything she didn’t feel like, that sharing her family secrets didn’t entitle her to hers in exchange, but Johanna lifted a hand to ask her to hold it in. She wanted Kaisa to know about these pieces of her, she realised. She hadn’t earned them with a story, but with her care and friendship over the last weeks.

“My parents live in Trolberg.” She began, noticing that Kaisa had settled into her best ‘paying attention’ position. “But right on the other edge of town, which was a relief, because it meant that as soon as I got into college I had the excuse that their place was too far away, and was allowed to move in with Ed, since the place had just been vacated. You can imagine it wasn’t a tranquil family life. I’ll preface this by saying I don’t think my parents have any malice in them, I just think they have a lot of baggage and didn’t realise the extent to which they were letting it out on me.”

“The point is, they were very strict. If my grades weren’t the best, they were meaningless. If I didn’t win the competitions they signed me up for, I was lazy. If I complained about anything, or acted like a child does, I was ungrateful and not putting in the effort, and God forbit I told them that sometimes I just couldn’t focus and it wasn’t something I could control. They expected perfection from me, and made sure that I always wanted to deliver. It wasn’t anywhere near abuse, thank goodness, but there sure was a lot of gaslighting and restricting involved. I felt like a terrible daughter, and honestly a terrible person when I couldn’t do what they wanted. I even felt guilty when I was allowed to begin medicating, because they made me feel like I shouldn’t need to, even though they never told me so this directly. Eventually, they didn’t even have to encourage me anymore. I had internalised all of that so bad that I believed I wanted those things for myself. I was even convinced that my dream was to study law at some fancy university abroad, can you believe it?”

Swallowing past a lump in her throat, Kaisa nodded. She could believe it a little too well, in fact.

“Anyway, that began to change when I realised I was bi, and I finally had to face something about me that wasn’t what my parents wanted, but wasn’t something that I could change through effort or keep in check with medication either. And I was shocked to realise that I didn’t want to change it. I couldn’t see why I should, and the mentality I had inherited from them began to make less and less sense. The school I went to had a therapist, and I decided to go talk to her. She helped me realise that I could find joy in the way I am, that I didn’t want to move so far away from where I grew up for my education, that I didn’t want to be perfect all the time. It took a lot of time to come to terms with this. I think I may have spent the best part of my High School years dealing with some intense internal turmoil, but once I realised what actually made me happy, I grabbed it and have been doing my best to not let go. 

“I’m not out to my parents, so the hardest thing was probably telling them I had applied for the major I actually wanted, in the university I was actually interested in. They were so disappointed. But seeing this disappointment and not swaying for their sake was definitely one of my highest moments. That was when I knew I really was healing effectively, even if my instinct would have been to budge and spend my life being miserable because of it.”

“Someone up there must have been looking out for me, because Ed just happened to have that opening just in time for me to move in. He has always been my favourite family member.”

Johanna shrugged, looking at her open palms on top of her jeans.

“I know it’s not like Frida’s story, I am very lucky in comparison, but I just wanted to tell you all of this. Maybe you’ll think it’s silly, but I feel like you deserve to know what’s going on inside my mind even if I try not to show it, and it felt right to let you know that I see you. I know family pressure is not your case, but I know what the price of perfection is, and I really hope you don’t feel like you have to pay it all the time.”

It took all of Johanna’s self control not to gasp when she looked back at Kaisa. She was crying, and not a little, but she hadn’t made <em>a sound</em> while Johanna spoke. Crystal tears streamed down her face, her eyes red and her lip wobbling. It was the silent crying that Johanna usually associated more with shock than sadness, though she supposed there had been no way for her to expect all that she had been told.

Just as Johanna had had no way to expect the hug that she jumped on her with.

“Fuck, Anna, I’m so sorry.” Kaisa breathed into her shoulder before Johanna even had time to process this new development and wrap her own arms around her. Truth was, Kaisa didn’t even know what she was sorry for. If it was all that her friend had been through, while she herself got to grow up with a mother that didn’t ask anything of her but her happiness. If it was for thinking she’d been laidback when they first met, when in fact it probably took all of her effort to even look that way. If it was for earlier, for failing to interpret the shadow cast over her when she saw the frames on her wall. If it was for being the personification of all that had hurt her. It didn’t matter, at this point, all that mattered was that she managed to offer some comfort to her friend, as powerless as she was.

To her relief, Johanna laughed, making soothing circles on Kaisa’s back, which was completely unfair. She should be the one giving solace here, not the other way around.

“It’s okay.” She said calmly. Kaisa only hugged her tighter. “It’s in the past now. As much as it can be, anyway. I still go to therapy and it helps a lot, I feel like I’m on the right path. Living with my cousin is a blessing in this sense, really. It feels like an eternal buddhist retreat, except the monk is an ecology nerd.”

“I’m glad.” She sniffed, still not looking up. Aside from not wanting to let Johanna go, she was sure her face must be looking like a mess that moment. “You deserve to be happy.”

“So do you.” Answered Johanna, now sounding like she was holding back tears of her own. “Please think about what I said. I know I haven’t known you for long, but it feels like you don’t give yourself enough credit. Which is awful, because you’re one of the most amazing people I know. Please don’t allow yourself to think that you need to spend your life like this. It doesn’t lead anywhere good, I promise.”

Kaisa breathed deep, feeling the tips of Johanna’s curls tickle her nose. She made a resolution, then, that before Johanna left she’d take a picture with her and her family, and hang it on that damned prize wall. No accomplishment had ever felt bigger than getting those three fantastic people to care about her, and she could use a reminder of that. Maybe, when she woke up each day and looked at it, she could make the decision time and time again to do right by them. Maybe that was a step that she could take.

They allowed themselves to hug for a while longer, until they broke apart, Kaisa’s arms being tenderly clasped by Johanna’s hands as they simply looked at each other. Looking at her like this, all deep eyes and knowing smile, Johanna looked like a muse that made all the classic paintings pale in comparison. Kaisa’s heart picked up pace just by looking at her, and suddenly she understood all the fuss the Romantics made about valuing the emotions and the senses over rationality. No rational thought could be as precious as the person in front of her and the way she felt when they were near.

Then, Kaisa’s heart worked even quicker, but for a different reason. It was never a good sign to understand the Romantics. She felt the blood drain from her face.

Love is fire that burns without being seen.

Fuck.

You may blame Aphrodite, soft as she is she has almost killed me with love.

Fuck.

I would not wish any companion in the world but you.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

While she had spent weeks brushing off the signs, the truth now hit Kaisa with its full, undeniable force.

She was in love.

[stinkrascal]

i keep doing this thing where i’ll only eat one specific food for a month straight then i make the shocked pikachu face whenever i’ve exhausted eating that single meal and wanting to eat something different finally and it is ruining my life

[italeean]

Tickle the boredom away

You can find the summary here

A/N: Hi everyone, come state? 💚🤍❤️ (how are you?) I sincerely hope you’re fine ^_^ As you already know if you read my previous posts, I finally finished high school and I’ve been catching up with my friends and family these week (so please forgive me for the inactivity) 😅 Anyway, this fic is a request that I enjoyed writing very much, and I sincerely hope you’ll like reading it as well!! As always, suggestions and support are always appreciated. I wish you all a great week!!

DISCLAIMER: This is a tickle fic, if it's not to your taste I don't suggest you read it

‘AW MAN, I’M SOOO BORED!!’ a loud whine, followed by many annoyed groans, resonated throughout the Chasm’s Bed, where six people and a flying lavender melon were stuck. Shinobu, Yelan, Yanfei, Paimon, Xiao and Aether subtly glared at Itto, who had been complaining for hours because they were currently stuck and they had nothing to do except resting up a bit. ‘I knew I should’ve brought my Onikabuto with me... that way we would’ve been able to watch a Onikabuto fight at least..!’ ‘Boss, if you had brought your Onikabuto, it would’ve been alone, so there wouldn’t have been a fight anyway’ Shinobu corrected the leader of the Arataki Gang.

‘Man you’re right... it would’ve been so sad’ the oni let out a sigh. It wasn’t his fault if that place was so boring, though!! Even eating roasted lavender melons sounded boring because the six of them had already eaten plenty and chatted by the fire. Now Xiao and the Traveller was resting, the girls were speculating about how to get out of there and Paimon... well, actually Paimon was still eating.

After a little while, Yelan called everyone’s attention ‘Guys, listen. Yanfei, Shinobu and I are going to check the whole place again to find a passage or a way to escape. You can stay here and rest a bit more, and look after the Yaksha, too. His wounds are healing, but he hasn’t completely recovered yet’ Paimon followed them immediately, saying she was tired of someone’s whines and complaints.

‘Well compadre, now it’s only the two of us and the little guy over there’ Itto’s comment was followed by Xiao’s irritated growl, as if he’d heard him. However, he was still asleep and Aether made sure that his friend didn’t wake him up.

At least for 30 minutes.

‘Hey man, look! Doesn’t it seem like he’s healed? Let’s ask him how he feels’ the taller guy made his way towards the sleeping boy. The blonde glanced at Xiao; the wounds were did look better, but that didn’t mean the Yaksha didn’t need more rest. Maybe waking him up wasn’t exactly the best idea, even though Ittp’s intentions were good. ‘Heyo, little guy... can you hear meee? Are you awake?’ the shorter guy opened his eyes and glared at the noise source in front of him, not even trying to hide his annoyance. ‘What do you want?’ he asked with a snarky tone, also because he’d been woken up

The Traveller wasn’t too worried about the situation, they were just having a conversation after all. He just needed to make sure Itto didn’t say anything inappropriate or irritating for the Yaksha and that Xiao's patience didn’t abandon him, given how short-tempered he is. Easy enough, right?

Absolutely, completely, 100% WRONG. Not even 10 minutes later, the adeptus looked like he was going to fight someone. And that someone was a certain oni. ‘Who the hell are you calling short?!’ he asked fuming. ‘Man, no offense seriously, but what are you? 4′7 or something, right? You can’t deny you’re short hehe’ ‘I’m 5′3 and my height is perfectly average. Actually I could beat you up before you manage to say Onikabito... or whatever insect you like’ Itto’s attempts to have a friendly talk with the yellow-eyed guy weren’t exactly going as Aether expected... or hoped.

Then, he suddenly had an idea to fix the situation without Shinobu having to look for a new boss for the Arataki Gang. ‘Yeah, I bet Xiao and I could win a fight against you in less the two minutes even though we’re not as tall as you’ he looked at the shorter guy, silently asking him to play along ‘I just gotta do this!’ he started squeezing the oni’s sides, making him burst into a fit of giggles, while the dark-haired guy watched the scene with a confused expression. ‘Mahan whahahat arehe yohou dohohoihing?’ although he was laughing, the red-eyed guy had an expression just as confused as Xiao’s. What did he do to deserve that?

‘I’m tickling you of course’ Aether replied with a cheerful smile, which in that context meant nothing but trouble, while digging between the ribs ‘You were so bored earlier... if you laugh for a while you won’t be bored anymore, right Xiao?’ he glanced at his friend asking him to come and help. The Yaksha rolled his eyes at the playful antics, but he also saw an opportunity to stop that constant whining, so he approached the duo, crouched down and squeezed Itto’s kneecaps and scribbled behind the area, making the oni fall down, laughing harder than before. ‘Guhuhuhuys Ihi’m seherihihiohous hehehere!! Juhuhust yohou wahahait uhuntihihil I- WAAHH nohOHot THEheherehE’ 

The blonde had taken advantage of his friend falling down to pin his left arm down and go to town all over his defenseless armpit, a spot that never failed to make the leader of the Arataki Gang squeak like a little kid. Xiao, on the other hand, wasted no time in straddling him and squeezing his hips and sides, but he needed to be extra careful to not be bucked off by Itto, who was laughing and squirming like crazy.

To make it all much worse for the poor oni, Aether was being a ball of sunshine, teasing him and laughing along with him, while Xiao was completely silent, only focused on wrecking him, which was flustering in its own way, and the white-haired guy couldn’t tell which method was making him blush the most. Better yet, which method would’ve made him blush the most, if he wasn’t the mighty leader of the Arataki Gang. ‘WhahAHAt dIHIhid Ihihihi ehehevehEHEHen doHOHoho? Ihihihi dohon’t DEHEheheseherve ThiHIHIs’ the overly dramatic comment only earned him some harder squeezes and quicker scribbles and soft scratches, which made him want to crawl out of his own skin.

‘CohohompAHAHAdrehe... hahavehe mEHEhercy ohohon meHEHE ahahat leAHAhast yohOHou- WAITWAITWAIT NOHOHOHO’ the red-eyed guy was trying to talk his way out of that situation when the Yaksha had the wonderful awful idea to skitter his ten fingers all over his tummy, his ultimate death spot that always made him howl and reduced him to a puddle of giggles.

‘Ooohh looks like someone’s boredom is gonna fade away really soon’ oh no. Itto could barely handle a set of hands on his stomach, let alone two!! However, Aether didn’t seem to care too much about it because he quickly pinned his hands down with his knees and wiggled his fingers just above the dreaded spot to build some anticipation; then, when Itto closed his eyes for a second, he descended with his hands to help his friend and the leader of the Arataki Gang found himself being tickled by twenty fingers on his worst spot.

‘THIHIHIS NAHAHAHAHAHAT FAHAHAHAHAIR COHOHOHOME OHOHOHON’ the oni let out his boisterous laughter, which brought an amused smile on the Traveller and Xiao’s faces (although the latter would never admit it). Maybe it was a bit unfair though, the blonde was tracing his abs softly but quickly, making sure to leave no spot untouched, and the shorter guy was rapidly poking his lower tummy with one hand and wiggled a finger inside his bellybutton and teased the surrounding area with the other. Itto tried so hard to kick or move his hands, but he was pinned, so he laid there and let his friend tickle him until his laughter went silent, which was sign that he’d reached his limit.

Obviously it wasn’t the first time he had a tickle fight with Aether, given his playful attitude, so the blonde knew his boundaries and stopped as soon as he noticed the silent laughter and made Xiao do the same. Itto took some deep breaths and rubbed his torso to get rid of the ghost tickles, then after he recovered, surprisingly quickly, he sat up and said ‘Whew..! That one was a real match’ while smiling widely. ‘So, did you have fun?’ the Traveller asked while smiling cheerfully as well. ‘Ummm... I still feel a bit bored actually’ the taller guy replied. 

His friend immediately got the hint and pounced on him again, ready for the second round.

‘Gotcha!’ Itto exclaimed while he caught a very much surprised Aether with one hand and scooped up Xiao with the other, bringing them both on his lap. ‘Let’s see how you like this’ he started squeezing the Yaksha’s side with the hand that was holding him and blew countless raspberries on the blonde’s tummy, right over the bellybutton. Giggles began to pour out from both guys, who were having fun, despite being still stuck (although one of them would never admit that).

Things got a turn when Aether managed to counterattack, which made him get the upper hand, but he started getting both Itto and Xiao, who was tickling both of them with one hand, too. Itto was defending himself, too, and he had the advantage of knowing Aether’s death spot and soon after, thanks to the blonde, he found out Xiao’s. Before they knew it, they got into a huge tickle fight that ended with a tie, since there was too much confusion to determine a winner.

When the girls got back, worried because of the strange noises and howls that were echoing throughout the whole place, they found the trio sound asleep. The oni was sitting up with his back against the wall, Aether’s head was laying on Itto’s lap and Xiao was resting his own head on the taller guy’s shoulder. All three of them had a soft smile on their faces, especially Itto, who finally wasn’t bored anymore.

And he was going to think twice before complaining again... maybe.

[five-rivers]

Three Twilights

Can be considered a loose sequel to Deep Sea Diver (same vibes).

Warnings: Soft body horror, Danny totally ignoring objectively horrifying things

.

.

.

“I was thinking,” started Maddie over breakfast, “we could start observations of that island that came into view last week, the blue one.”

Danny shook his head. “You’ll have to use the Speeder, then,” he said. “I’ve got an errand to run.”

There was a pause as both of Danny’s parents looked at him, confused. He didn’t blame them. Danny rarely went out as a human anymore, and certainly not for anything like errands. Looking like he was still fourteen after all this time made doing anything even remotely official difficult.

But this wasn’t a human errand. “Yeah,” said Danny. “In the Ghost Zone. I’ve got to go to Three Twilights.”

“Where?” asked Jack.

“It’s, um, a city,” said Danny. “Well, three cities, I suppose, depending on how you want to group them. One Realm. On the shores of the Celestial Sea. I’m sure I’ve put it in your files.” Probably a direct copy from his files from before he came clean to them, but still. He stirred his cereal counterclockwise, letting his ice powers chill the milk.

“Yes,” said Maddie, “but there are a lot of places in there. I’m not sure we’ve had a chance to properly look at them all, much less memorize them.”

“Okay, yeah,” said Danny. “I guess that makes sense.”

“What kind of errand are you running, Danno?”

“I’m picking something up for a friend. A book,” he clarified. “They lent it to someone there, but they need it back.”

“A book,” said Maddie. “For the Library of Tongues?”

“No, they’ve got a contract service for overdue loans.”

“Contract service?” asked Jack.

“Yeah. Moonlighting bounty hunters mostly.”

“For a library?”

“I don’t know what to tell you,” said Danny, shrugging. “They’re really serious about their work.”

“If it isn’t for them, who is it for?” asked Maddie. “The princess? Wulf?” Wulf had actually been over a few times, and his parents had… Well, saying they got along would be an overstatement, they didn’t really have anything in common beyond ripping portals in the fabric of the universe, but everyone had been civil. “The boy at the school?”

“No,” said Danny. “Wulf would just get it himself.”

“Who, then?” pressed Maddie.

Danny put a spoonful of cereal in his mouth, delaying. Maddie hadn’t eaten anything since Danny had mentioned the errand. The errand was, in fact, for Clockwork. Danny was always more than happy to do anything for Clockwork. The older ghost had saved him too many times for him to be otherwise. But Jack and Maddie were wary of Clockwork. Danny didn’t get it, but talking about it hadn’t been productive so far.

He didn’t want to lie to his parents. Not ever again.

“It’s for Clockwork,” he said.

Ah, yes, there were those suspicious looks. The ones Danny could have interpreted even without being able to almost literally taste emotions.

“I see,” said Maddie.

“Anyway,” said Danny, quickly, “if I haven’t shown you Three Twilights yet, it’s really cool. I don’t want to take the full rig, but maybe the little ectocam would be okay? The one that I can clip on.”

“Why not the normal camera with an ectofilter?” asked Jack. “That has more features, and it’s easier for us to get data from.”

“Three Twilights. It’s dark there,” said Danny. “It might work in Civila, but not so much in Naŭtika and Astronomia, and I sort of want to go down to the beach and see if I can find any star pearls, and that’s really dark, so if you want to see anything properly, it’ll have to be the sonar setup, which I’m not doing, the noises that thing makes are offensive, or the ectocam.”

“And the Fenton Phones?” asked Maddie.

“Sure,” said Danny. “But I always bring those.”

“Yes,” said Maddie, after a moment. “You do.”

“Great. It’s settled, then.”

.

Most of the journey to Three Twilights could be made by air. Or, rather, what passed for air in the Infinite Realms. But when the rocky edge of an island came into view, Danny touched down. Further in was a blue wood, and Danny walked under its inviting branches.

The atmosphere started sunny, summery. The leaves and needles of the trees were the color of a clear blue sky. But as he got deeper, the leaves were touched with sunset colors: golds, reds, oranges, purples, and pinks. They fell to the ground, crunching beneath Danny’s feet. The sunset grew longer, deeper. The leaves on the trees grew sparser, revealing patches of sky.

By the time only bare branches framed the sky, it was a dusky, dim, purple. A few lonely stars twinkled in the sky.

He passed out of the forest. The city of Civila rose above him. Windows glowed in the near dark like eyes.

Danny had changed, too. His aura had dimmed. The whites of his suit were now dark gray, and patterns swirled on its surface like camouflage, like wind-twisted clouds, like nebulae.

Shadows bled around the corners of the city buildings like ink in water. Will-o-the-wisps bobbed, casting pools of illumination in lieu of streetlamps. Ghosts walked up and down the streets, or floated only a few meters up.

The buildings glittered. Everything was dark, vibrant, colors. A sharp, sweet scent filled the air, something dark and rich beneath it.

The canals in the center of the street were filled with flashing fish. Or perhaps serpents. Or perhaps worms. Between how fast they moved and the dimness of the light, it was difficult to tell.

Danny could feel his irises contracting, shrinking down to needle-thin rings. His teeth were sharp. He matched the other ghosts around him. This was how the Civila liked it, how things were in this part of Three Twilights.

Everything in order. Everything peaceful. Everything civil.

Danny walked through the market square, and bought some charcoal-colored cherry pastries from a vendor who looked like someone’s nightmare demon with a chip of ghost ice.

Much to his parents’ protests. They didn’t care for him eating ghost food.

There were seven bridges to Naŭtika, which was built half underwater and half on boats that floated both on the water and in the air. As the dark waters of the inlet lapped at his feet, Danny felt the changes ripple across his skin. To a human, he would look pure black, except for the faintest glimmer of rim lighting and the stars of his eyes. He and the other ghosts moved silently, cutting through the waters like shadows.

To Danny’s ghostly senses, the place was alive with emotion and force, energy loud and crackling against his senses.

“We’re solely on the ectocam, now,” said Maddie. “You were right about that.”

“Mhm,” said Danny, half distracted by a whispered sea-shanty backed by a choir of not-voices and not-sound that wove together with the mastery of a hundred years of practice.

He glided up a rope net, and began to navigate the ropes to the taller ships. The very tallest, the ones that scraped the ever-darkening sky and blotted out uneven sections of stars, moored the glass-like ships that floated above. He’d need to reach them, to get to Astronomia.

“What’s that?” asked Maddie, breaking his concentration on his path.

“What’s what?” asked Danny, whisper soft, drawing some looks. He turned, slowly, on the spot, planks barely creaking under his steps. A gentle wind ruffled his hair.

“There,” said Maddie. “By the ghost that’s registering red.”

It had taken Danny a long time to learn what color on the ectocam’s artificial sensor signified what, but he had, if only to reduce the guessing when they played this game.

“Star pearls,” said Danny, eyeing the ropes of stone that glimmered brighter than his eyes currently did. They were one of the only reliable forms of light, out on the Celestial Sea, although they were valued for other things, too.

“They’re putting out a massive amount of energy,” said Maddie.

“You mentioned them before,” said Jack. “You wanted to look for some?”

“On the shore,” said Danny. “Out past Astronomia.” He wanted to find his own, rather than buy them.

Partially because they were expensive. He didn’t really want to think about how much unmelting ice he’d have to conjure up to equal one of them. They were usually bartered in exchange for… more significant things.

The ghost by the pearls beckoned him closer, clearly hoping to make a sale. Danny shook his head, broadcasting regret and admiration for his wares. Speech might be faster but, under these circumstances, it would not be polite.

When Danny left, the social rules of Three Twilights would only leave the faintest impression on his mind. But, for now, they were a heavy, but not uncomfortable weight. One he could shrug off if necessary, but which was currently useful.

“What are they?” asked Maddie, as Danny turned away.

“They happen when big enough things fall into stars,” said Danny. “They’re all the memories of what they used to be… and the imagination of what they could become, when the star dies. Well, that’s what they’re supposed to be. I don’t think anyone really knows for sure.”

“And you can just… find these? Lying around?”

“Not… not really,” said Danny, slowly drifting towards a crow’s nest. “It’s like that one national park. That one where you can collect diamonds? You never really find anything good, but you can look.”

“I see,” said Maddie. “So, you don’t expect to find one?”

“Yes and no,” said Danny. “If I don’t expect to find one, I probably won’t. Unless the sea is feeling ironic, which it usually is, apparently. I mean, it’s an ocean and the stars. And prophecy is, like, ninety percent irony, but mostly for an outside observer. Which honestly makes sense, I think. An observer, not an Observant. Those are different things.”

The kind of silence on the other side of the line was the one that emerged when Danny used too much ghost logic.

“Anyway,” he continued as he scaled the crow’s nest and started traversing the glass ropes and chains to the all-but-invisible glass ships, “no, I don’t really expect to.”

The path to Astronomia was a staircase carved from moonstone harvested in October, when the moon was full and orange-red. It burned Danny’s eyes to look at and feet to walk upon. Like many ghosts who fixated on things like astronomy, he adapted quickly and thoroughly to the spiritual dark.

This darkest twilight was built of delicate bubbles, whorls, and arches of glass, any of which could cradle a ghost, all of which could be phased through with impunity. There were no true roads here, but certain places were easier to travel through. Addresses were carved in the glass in glimmering, holographic sigils made from glass-caught starlight that humans would never be able to read, but Danny could understand with a glance. It was not silent in Astronomia, the high wind sung through the glass like the immense instrument it was, playing ethereal and eternal music that mirrored heaven.

As always, Danny was enraptured. Perhaps the stars here were not true stars, only their memory and imagination (or simulacra made from stripped ghost cores, he remembered with a shudder), but he felt so close here.

“Danny? Are you still with us?”

Danny started to reply, but realized he had forgotten, once again, that he had no mouth here.

A phantabulist played a story for a group of not-quite-children, characters made of carefully constructed light chasing each other about with vigour. Danny stopped for a while to watch the story, a parable about spiders and fish. They were common here, storytellers who plied their craft this way. The stories could be pressed into glass prisms and orbs that served as books and viewed even in other environs of the Ghost Zone.

He moved on, passing through a glass bubble full of ghosts that snatched at and stroked him as he passed by, leaving stars and dark clouds to swirl across his skin. His suit had long since smoothed over and sunk in. His skin was a thin surface, a membrane holding in liquid night. He was like smoke, like vapour, thin and easily overlooked.

The places he passed were homes, places of business, warehouses, and hotels, organized without any apparent reason. A phantabularium glowed like a struck match, snatches of story visible inside its walls. He walked by.

Eventually, he reached the palace at the city center.

The ghost who lived there was old. Older, perhaps, than Pandora. She filled the vessels of her palace in placid pools connected by crystalized threads and looping tubes. Seven round-bottom flasks, radiating outward, like the spheres of heaven. The music here was almost deafening.

This was Urania, Muse of Astronomy. Astronomia was her city, and subordinate to her will before all else.

Danny resisted the urge to kneel. He was not here as a supplicant, and they both knew it.

The lowest pool bubbled, and slowly a glass prism, a dodecahedron, floated to the top. Danny took it with careful hands and left Urania’s direct presence as quickly as possible.

Being near her was always difficult. She was the Muse of Astronomy, and she felt he did not indulge his second Obsession as much as was proper.

Indeed, she thought it should be his first.

(The starlight inside him pulsed. He was never sure how much influence Urania could exert on him when he visited Three Twilights, never sure how much the relationship between his passions shifted when he was here. He loved it here too much to stay away forever.)

Astronomia did not end all at once. Instead, as one walked farther from the palace, the delicate, clear glass was replaced by black sand. When Danny had feet again, and could feel the grains beneath them, he knew he was no longer in Astronomia, but on the Shores of Night. The Isles of the Moon were faintly visible in the distance, sea-spray framing them in silvery halos.

He felt human here. His breath moved in his lungs, and his skin rose in goosebumps, the sleeves of his t-shirt fluttering in the wind. The sea and the sky were the same, and twice as beautiful for it.

“Sorry for going silent on you there,” said Danny. “I keep forgetting I don’t have a mouth there.”

“How do you forget that?” asked Jack.

“I don’t know.” Danny shrugged, even though he knew Jack couldn’t see him. “Do you think the ectocam might be able to spot buried star pearls?”

[missmonsters2]

today I feel awful... idk my insecurities are taking over me and I just want to curl into a ball and cry. maybe it's my hormones maybe the fact that I weighted myself and found out I gained weight (I can't fit into my jeans 😭) and the fact that I saw my sister in a tight skin dress looking perfect while I'm in my pj's just destroyed my confidence. I need something angsty to read to make me forget about my sad, miserable lffe right now. would you be down in writing sth angsty with nat maybe? you don't have to though. it's fine either way. I really appreciate all of your work and I keep reading on repeat whenever I'm feeling down. makes me cheer up. thank you, van ❤️

It's like we're the same person because I also went to visit my sister recently and my sister has gotten her life together and is living her best hot girl bod while I...let's not go there.

I just want you to know that you're hot as fuck and a body is just a body that we can change with time and effort. We're lit rally in this together. This time next year, we will be rocking the body that makes up happy and we'll be healthy!!! 💘💘

But I will still give you nat angst...but with a happy ending bc I said you deserve a HEA!!

⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⋆⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷

The Withers of Springtime Bloom

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x Fem!Reader

Summary: Spring is a time of blooming and when things come back to life. You can't help but notice things that may be causing your relationship with Natasha to wither.

Warnings: self-esteem issues, insecurities about body, relationship with working out and food, seasonal depression. angst with HEA.

Count: 2.1k~

⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⋆⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷

You're not sure when things changed.

Things change so slowly after all.

Without you noticing, things change and change and change until one day, you do notice.

You notice that Natasha has become quieter, somber.

You notice the lack of date nights and affectionate touches.

You notice that you've let yourself go a little.

You're standing in front of the mirror, staring at your body with a frown. You've gained weight since dating Natasha, but relationship weight gain was normal, wasn't it?

But you remember how Natasha was just as fit as she was before she met you. Sure, she was a superhero, and you were a regular civilian; there was no reason for you to train long hours as Natasha did.

Still...

You turn to the side and peer at yourself in the mirror again.

You can't help but wonder...were you becoming less attractive to her?

⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⋆⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷

It had been the beginning of fall when you met Natasha. You loved the season of change and when things turned into warm colors before withering away for winter to come.

Natasha had come like a blessing, and in the winter, she was just warm as the colors of fall. Instead of withering away, she bloomed and invested that warmth in your relationship with her.

Despite always being an early riser to work out, weekends were the days she stayed in bed with you just a little longer. There had been so many breakfasts, lunch, and dinner dates. You found yourself moving things around or neglecting to work around her busy schedule.

Perhaps that was when things began to change. Eating out so often and forgoing working out to spend time with Natasha was what led to this.

Spring has arrived, and things are coming back to life. Yet somehow, your relationship with Natasha was withering away.

"Hey," you greet her as you come home, shopping bags in hand. You bought some more clothes when things felt like they didn't fit comfortably anymore. The experience had been upsetting for you, and you didn't end up buying too much, telling yourself you didn't want to spend too much when you were going to lose the weight.

Natasha was working in her office, peering down over reports, and barely acknowledged you other than with a hum.

"Long day?" You ask her as you put your things away and walk over to her.

"Yeah," Natasha sighed. "Trying to get these reports done since Maria needs them tomorrow."

That had been Natasha's excuse for spending long hours in her office every night for the last two weeks.

You place your hand on Natasha's shoulder with a reassuring squeeze, but she leans to the side as if to readjust herself, but still away from your touch.

The sting immediately comes, but you try to push it down, so it doesn't hurt as bad.

"Right," you say hoarsely, but Natasha stares on at the reports. "I'm just going to get ready for bed. It's been a long day and all. Let me know if you need anything."

Natasha gives you a nod as you leave the room. You feel awkward as you lie in the bed you share with her. You wonder if you're taking up too much space.

There's a pang of something as you try to curl yourself to be smaller and only distantly realizing you've skipped dinner before you fall asleep.

⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷⋆⊶⊷⊶⊷⊶⊷

You fall back onto the mat, chest heaving and your lungs burning.

It's been a while since you've worked out, and now you're definitely paying for it with how unfit you are.

The gym is moderately empty with the hour it is. You hate going to a public gym because it always feels like someone is staring, but it's better for strangers to stare than working out at the Compound for people you know to stare at you.

The rational part of you knows that you should just talk to Natasha, but the emotional side of you whispers that you won't like what Natasha has to say, that she might even end it before you've had a chance to change yourself.

When weeks pass, and you weigh yourself again, you almost start crying because you've only lost a couple of pounds.

It's normal, you know it is. You're losing weight at a normal rate, but it's not enough. You know fast weight loss wouldn't make sense for your body but you also feel you don't have half a year to go back to your normal weight.

You sit on the bathroom floor for hours, debating what to do when you hear a quiet knock.

"Sweetheart, are you in there?" Natasha's muffled voice comes through.

You wipe at your eyes furiously as you stand up.

"Y-Yeah," you answer back. "I'm just in the tub soaking."

There's a moment of silence through the door before Natasha answers back, "Alright. Enjoy yourself. Did you want me to order anything specific for dinner?"

"No, it's okay," you tell her. "You order anything you want. I already ate on my way home." You think about the chicken salad you've been eating for the past two weeks and almost sigh.

Natasha answered that she just came back to see if you've eaten, but she actually had to head back to the Compound. You were Natasha shuffling around before leaving through the front door, and you let out the breath you were holding.

You actually take a long, hot shower before putting on sweats and a big hoodie.

The truth was, you were hungry. The chicken salad was okay on the way home, but it had been a couple of hours since.

You knew starving yourself wasn't the answer, so you went into the kitchen to see if you could find something healthy to hold you over until you could go to bed.

But you can't find anything in the fridge except for Natasha's leftovers from whatever she ordered the day before. You can't find anything except frozen pizzas and microwavable foods.

You check the calories on the back and let out a frustrated sigh. Checking your watch, you realize it's too late in the evening to go grocery shopping because, by the time you get there, stores will have closed.

You slump down on the floor, leaning against the cabinets as you let out a pathetic whimper while your eyes became hot with tears.

You miss Natasha. You want Natasha holding you and telling you it would be okay. But you couldn't have that until you were back to what you were when you met her.

The front door suddenly opens.

"Have you seen my—sweetheart?" Natasha started to call before she noticed you sitting on the floor. "What's wrong?"

You use your sleeve to wipe at your eyes as you sit up straight.

"Nothing," you sniffle before you start to stand. "I just stubbed my toe against the edge of the kitchen island. What were you looking for? USB? You left it next to the bedside."

Natasha stares at your back, hair still wet as she takes in your attire.

"It's a little hot to be wearing a hoodie and sweats, isn't it?" Natasha asks softly. "Doesn't seem like you turned on the aircon in here."

You keep walking, but Natasha starts to follow you.

"'m cold," you say quietly so she can't hear the tremble in your voice.

"Are you feeling sick?" Natasha asks with concern as you sit down on the couch, turning on the TV. You pull the blanket over you as if to make your point.

"No," you tell her because you don't want her to worry. "Just cold after a bath."

Natasha sets her things down before she takes a seat next to you. Even in the low lighting, she can see your eyes rimmed red and dampness of them.

You're refusing to look at her as you have your knees drawn up to your chest and stare stubbornly at the TV screen.

Then she hears it.

Your stomach grumbles.

"Are you hungry, sweetheart?" Natasha asks softly again. "We can just order food and stay in tonight."

Your cheeks grow hot. "Don't you have to be at the Compound?"

You don't mean to snap at her, but you can't help but feel embarrassed.

Natasha remains quiet for a moment, quickly thinking over the last few weeks before she feels guilt trickle in.

She doesn't remember the last time she ate with you—doesn't remember the last time she saw you eat.

"Sweetheart," she calls you gently again, and you bristle at the tone. "Is there something wrong?"

The fragile dam you've built to keep the weeks of compiling emotions at bay breaks, and you're hurtling down the stream over the waterfall.

"Are you not in love with me anymore?" You choke out as you begin to cry.

You can't even register to feel horrified at your breakdown because you just need to know.

"I know...I know my body has changed since we first met and I've gained weight but I really am trying to lose it. I just—I feel like you're avoiding me. At first, I thought things at work have been really stressful for you, and I wanted to give you space but you're gone all the time. You're gone even when you're here."

Natasha can barely understand anything you've said after hearing you say the first part. Her breath hitches painfully in the back of her throat, and she legitimately feels appalled at herself.

She starts to say something, but you keep going.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to make this about me because if you're going through something then I want to support and be there for you. But I can't help but feel like you're grossed out by me. I mean—I feel grossed out when I look at myself. I feel like I'm taking up so much space—"

Natasha cuts you off abruptly, pulling off the blanket as she pulls at you until you're in her lap.

"Nat—"

"You're not gross and this is not about the weight you have or have not gained. You hear me?" Natasha says forcefully as she holds you close to her, hand over your thigh to keep you against her.

"God, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry if I've been making you feel like you're not attractive me," Natasha's eyes well up as your tears wet her shoulder. "You're literally still the most gorgeous person I've ever met and you're always going to be that to me."

Natasha's hand at your waist dips underneath your hoodie, her fingers trailing up your back as she sighs at your warmth. "I should've told you, but the springtime is just really hard for me. It's odd because it's a time for things to come back to life but some of the worst things have happened to me during the spring and things blooming makes me think about things that aren't coming back. I think it's also just a little bit of seasonal depression too. I'm just the rare percentage that gets it in the spring."

The explanation makes your body sag with relief because while you feel so horrible that there is a reason Natasha doesn't like spring, she's not falling out of love with you.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize that I was hurting you," Natasha apologizes again. "I didn't mean to be so distant but I didn't want to bring your mood down as well, which is why I've been working so much to keep busy."

"It's okay," you muttered as your turn your head, forehead pressed against her neck. "I'm sorry spring is depressing for you."

Natasha merely hushes you as she kisses the side of your head.

You begin to feel awkward, thinking about how you must be heavy on her and try to move, but Natasha doesn't let you.

"Sweetheart, I don't know how to convince you that you're perfect to me," Natasha says so seriously as she forces you to look at her. "If you want to lose weight because that is what you want, then I support you. But I need you to understand that I love you no matter what. I don't care either way because you're so fucking lovely to me always. Do you understand?"

Timidly, you reply, "Okay. Thank you."

Natasha presses her lips against yours in a long kiss before she pulls back.

"Now, I'm going to ask again. Are you hungry? We can order in and watch that new show on Netflix I heard was pretty good from Wanda."

You feel lighter. You think you might still want to work out because that would make you happy, but you don't feel the rush like you did just a couple of hours ago.

"Yeah," you say shyly. "But maybe something not so heavy?"

Natasha nods as she presses another kiss into your cheek as she helps you settle onto the couch right beside her to grab her phone.

"Anything to make you bloom."

[demonslayedher]

How Does Eating Humans Work?

Hello, Gotou here. We’re shamelessly borrowing from the format of a KnY Fanbook #2 comic to launch an investigation into demon metabolism and development by crossing the Sanzu River again to interview demons in the underworld. While we’ll be using canon materials as a base, the analysis and conjecture herein is personal, so we ask for your understanding. Also, please note that consuming any food in the underworld will make you unable to return, and we cannot promise your safety even though the interview subjects are dead, so please come along at your own risk.

Some of the questions we’d like to answer are, why do demons need to eat humans? How much do they need to eat to survive? Are there factors that influence how eating humans makes them stronger? If they don’t want to kill humans, what are their other options? We’ve rounded up some special guests below the cut (hidden for length and grossness), everyone from the lowly Temple Demon to the lovely Tamayo, to see what their actions in canon might tell us.

First, a review of what canon tells us, mostly as summarized in Fanbook #2: 1. With one exception named Yushirou, all demons were created by Kibutsuji Muzan, for his own purposes. They all have some amount of his blood, and can be divided into four classes depending on how powerful they are. From top to bottom, the Upper Moons, the Lower Moons, demons with special abilities, and other demons without any special characteristics. 2. Demons may be stronger depending on how much of Kibutsuji Muzan’s blood they have. Most beings’ cannot handle a large amount of his blood, and it will rupture the cells and that being will die, but there are demons who adapt well to it. 3. Typically, sunlight is the only way to kill a demon, by either bathing them in sunlight or cutting of their head with a Nichirin blade. However, there are powerful demons for whom chopping off their head does not work, and if it’s strong enough, demons can also be killed by wisteria poison.

4. Demons eat human blood and flesh. The more they eat, the stronger they become, and the faster their regenerative abilities become. Some humans have “Marechi,” a rare blood type, which is especially nutritious to demons, and eating one Marechi is the equivalent of eating several humans.

That’s an interesting thing we’d like to come back to, especially since we’re looking for quantitative information about how demons gain nutrition (though I have my doubts we'll get enough for statistical analysis). As an interesting note, Fanbook #2 also tells us that if demons try to consume the same edibles humans do, they’ll vomit it back up.

I’m told that Miss Tamayo drinks tea, though. That’ll be an interesting question for later. In my notes, it seems she’s also explained to Tanjirou back in Chapter 15 that demons will normally go berserk if they go a long time without consuming any blood or flesh. Berserk is one thing, but I wonder if they can starve to death? We’ll see if these canon clues will lead us to anything. We’ll begin now in an interview format. Hopefully this will go smoothly, but I’ve got a feeling it won’t. First up, we’ve the Temple Demon.

Temple: Who were you calling ‘lowly’ just now? Up there, above the cut?

Gotou: That was in a literal sense, not having Blood Techniques means you’re in the bottom common tier of demons.

Temple: Argh. Fine. What do you want to know?

Gotou: In Chapter 2, you were spotted with three human victims. However, it seems you left their bodies mostly intact and only ate small parts instead of consuming one full human at a time. Could you comment on this?

Temple: I’d have gotten to more later if that whelp with the strong legs didn’t interrupt me! Who’s got time to eat entire humans anyway? I went for the easy stuff first.

Gotou: I see. It appears you might had focused on key organs, like the heart and the liver. Would you say these are especially nutritionally dense?

Temple: I guess. If I’m going to eat humans, I’m going to start with what’s worth bothering to digest. Blood’s easier on the stomach, so that’s what I was busy with on the lady there.

Gotou: Then it takes effort to digest? Hmm. Let’s come back to this later. How many humans would you say you consumed, including these three?

Temple: Not a lot… I tried to get a variety so I could get stronger faster, but…

Gotou: I’ll put down a guess as ten or less. Let’s move on to someone who has a sharper memory for numbers. One of our longer-lived guests at Mt. Fujikasane for 47 years, the Hand Demon. While most of the demons on the mountain had only eaten two or three humans, you’ve eaten a whole 50 of the children who headed into the Final Selection, didn’t you?

Hand: Yes, that’s right. It was hard at first since I wasn’t very strong, and the demons usually all went crazy there eating each other, just like that one brat who got away in Chapter 7 said. If you could manage to kill any of the kids, you had the other demons to fight off to even get a piece to yourself. That was enough to get me by, and stronger, little by little. Your body learns to make your meals last, and make the most of what you can get. I usually only had a bite of one child a year, can you imagine how horrible that was? Most demons who survive usually figure out some way to develop and survive better, and once my cells found something that worked for me, I kept doing it. I got really good at snatching away prey from other demons, and soon enough I was a bigger threat than any of them. None of them could, you might say, lay a hand on me.

Gotou: That’s an interesting point about self-development. A demon named Nezuko was spent two years doing that in her sleep.

Hand: She must have had a big meal before that!

Gotou: Well, anyway. It seems that in near starving conditions, your metabolism made the most of what you had, leading to the most efficient use of whatever food was available to you.

Hand: That’s right, I got really good at it. Wasn’t always pretty, but I made it work. I got to a point where I could go two years without eating and still keep my wits about me while the other demons were going mad. But I chose to eat. I liked to keep my appetite for specific children.

Gotou: That smile is not reassuring. Some humans taste better than others, I guess?

Hand: That’s for sure. This one kid tasted awful, like rust and man sweat! I still don’t have that disgusting taste out of my mouth! But he was one of my more satisfying meals, so I ate more of him.

Gotou: Then why would you… nevermind, I don’t like that smile, no further questions. While I had hoped to keep these interviews focused on quantities of humans consumed, it does seem personal taste is worth asking about. I had tried to invite a Swamp Demon from Chapter 11, but it kept arguing with itself and it felt like I’d be wasting my time. The one definite thing I learned was that this demon is picky, with a distinct preference for 16-year-old girls. Based on the number of trinkets he kept, it seems he had consumed at least seventeen of them, including several in one town. Sheesh, that’s sort of a rough mission to send a first-timer on. I’ve got a more cooperative guest here to discuss her tastes, a Snake Demon who, according to Chapter 188, has a special taste for baby flesh.

Snake: Thank you for having me here. It’s good to be appreciated again.

Gotou: Did you only eat babies?

Snake: Goodness, no. Babies are delicious, but they aren’t very nutritious. And their skulls certainly aren’t that big, the ones I lounged around with were from the people whom I killed and stole from. But you know the nice thing about baby skulls? They’re still soft. They take a long time to digest, but I can swallow them whole.

Gotou: Like… like a snake, then. Sorry, I’m a little ill hearing that. Let’s back up, were all those skulls the remains of adults you ate, then?

Snake: Meh, I ate some of them of better-looking ones, but most of them I only killed. I could usually kill a lot more at a time than I could bother eating, my killing record was fifty women all at once.

Gotou: And you didn’t find that wasteful?

Snake: Wasteful? Not at all. I wasn’t exactly in dire straits, I lived a more luxurious life than most demons do. That meant I could afford to wait for a truly delicious meal, like how you humans might leave something in a slow-cooker to enjoy the perfect combination of doneness and tenderness, plated in the most appetizing of ways.

Gotou: I guess demons and humans are similar in that regard.

Snake: I’m so glad you can relate! Then you understand the frustration of a meal you’ve be preparing for years opening up the slow-cooker and running away right when they were just about done.

Gotou: I have never had that experience.

Snake: I’ll get you, my pretty. And your little snake, too.

Gotou: I think we might have gotten a little off-topic here. It does seem digesting humans comes with some difficulty. I’d like to invite the Drum Demon in next. Your name is Kyougai, I hear?

Kyougai: !!

Gotou: Kyogai, right?

Kyougai: You’ve heard of me! You know my name!

Gotou: I happened to, yes.

Kyougai: What have you heard???

Gotou: That you were kicked out of the Lower Moons for being unable to consume enough humans.

Kyougai: Oh. ……..yeah, that’s me.

Gotou: I thought demons go berserk if they go a long time without consuming humans. Wouldn’t that make an inability to consume them problematic?

Kyougai: It wasn’t that I couldn’t eat them! Like I said in Chapter 24, I had to in order to sustain myself, just like any other demon. But, at some point, I couldn’t eat as much as I used to. That happens to humans too, doesn’t it? When you just can’t stomach anymore?

Gotou: You mean like when you’ve overeaten? In a human’s case that feeling may go away within a few hours.

Kyougai: Sort of like that, but you know, humans reach a time when nothing is appetizing or the thought of eating makes them feel sick, right? Isn’t that the human condition?

Gotou: …uh… maybe if they have a medical condition? Or anxiety? Do demons get anxiety? Or eating disorders?

Kyougai: I… I don’t know. I just wasn’t good enough.

Gotou: I think it’s plenty good if you stopped eating humans. Though to have developed Blood Techniques and been a Lower Moon in the first place, you must had eaten a great number of them.

Kyougai: You think I’m great?

Gotou: What?

Kyougai: No, sorry, I was getting ahead of myself. It’s true, I used to be able to eat as many as the other Lower Moons always consumed. Our stomachs were stronger, you might say. Demons got strong by eating humans, and then the more you did that the better you usually got at it, so the strong ones would eat more and more and keep getting stronger and stronger. At least, that’s how it usually worked. I’ve seen other demons below me reached that point too, where they feel the drive to eat, but then they have trouble digesting it for a long time, so they don’t wind up eating that many people.

Gotou: Then it would make sense to eat the most nutritionally dense parts first.

Kyougai: Or a Marechi.

Gotou: Yes, or a Marechi.

Kyougai: It was a great idea, wasn’t it?

Gotou: I cannot condone any consumption of humans as a good idea.

Kyougai: I knew it. I’m nothing. Go ahead, stomp all over everything I ever tried to accomplish.

Gotou: I think I’m going to move on to my next interviewee now. It looks like we’ve got… oh, would you look at this? Lower Moon One. Enmu, I believe.

Enmu: You can believe whatever you want. I’m happy to help.

Gotou: I don’t need any help, thanks. I’m curious, since you were one of the stronger demons out there, it seems you had a stronger capacity for consuming humans.

Enmu: I did, I was always careful and paced myself so the Demon Slayers wouldn’t notice me. I took my time. I liked to enjoy e-e-e-a-c-h one.

Gotou: Then you had tastes too? Like babies, or 16-year-old girls?

Enmu: I could season any human to my liking. They’re all very easy to prepare.

Gotou: I’m still trying to get quantitative data. Can you tell me at least a rough estimate of how many humans you consumed?

Enmu: I told this more precisely to that boy with the earrings back in Chapter 59, and I can tell you this too. At my best, I could had eaten over two-hundred people at once if I took my time.

Gotou: OH MY GAW----sorry, I dropped my pen. Two hundred, at once?

Enmu: Yes. If I had just. Had. A little. More. Time.

Gotou: Clearly there is a huge difference between what common demons are capable of and what the Twelve Moons are capable of.

Daki: Psh, those were all any random common people. That’s nothing to brag about.

Gotou: Excuse me, and you are?

Daki: Daki, Upper Moon Six. You want something really impressive, you talk to the Upper Moons.

Gotou: I’m sorry, I don’t see you on my list.

Daki: What! Your list is stupid. Look me in the eyes, I’m Upper Moon Six!

Gotou: Very well, then. What can you tell me about your diet, Miss Upper Moon Six?

Daki: That’s more like it. It’s true that digestion takes a while, and takes some effort. Even though we Upper Moons may have eaten hundreds of people in our lifetimes, it’s not as if we gorge ourselves. The clever ones among us save prey for later to eat when we feel ready for it.

Gotou: Food storage? How do you keep them fresh?

Daki: You leave them still alive, numbskull. Nobody wants to eat something cold, that’s gross.

Gotou: I see, so that’s why demons prefer to go after new kills instead of saving what they’ve already managed to kill. That also might explain why the demons on Mt. Fujikasane wouldn’t had eaten many humans, if they found long dead ones in edible.

Daki: You want to know the real secret to eating humans? You can eat what you find tastes good, sure. But to get stronger, you eat strong people. Like your Corp members, the ones besides chumps like you? Using all that Breath makes their muscles really lean and potent, it’s like they come offering themselves as protein bars for us.

Gotou: You make them sound like a fad diet…

Daki: The real secret is eating Pillars. Besides Marechi, they’re the strongest meals out there. Guess how many I’ve eaten?

Gotou: I don’t have the data to make an educated guess.

Daki: Then get educated! Look back at Chapter 88! I’ve eaten seven Pillars, and my brother has eaten fifteen!

Gotou: Your brother? Who is he, then, Upper Moon Five?

Daki: What? Ew. Gross. Gross! No way, ew!

Gotou: Hmm… eating Pillars, huh? Well, I can think of one Pillar who was…

Douma: Me too!

Gotou: Speak of the devil.

Douma: Actually, we Upper Moons can! And he's not Satan, that's not how this works. But I guess Muzan-sama’s curse doesn’t effect us now. Ask me anything you want!

Gotou: That Chapter 143 reference was such a rude entrance. I understand that Pillars are particularly nutritious—

Douma: Oh, please don’t misunderstand! I don’t even eat all the Pillars I’ve encountered. There was the one Flower Pillar who got away from me, but some of the boy pillars I just leave around. What’s really the key to consistent nutritional intake is women! It’s really unhealthy for a demon not to get enough women in their diet, that’s why even if you’re only looking for Marechi or Pillars, your metabolism is going to get thrown out of whack with sudden big meals. You grow a stronger metabolism with consistency, I believe!

Gotou: If I could stop you there, I had an image from Chapter 142 I preferred to focus on for this case study. I see you keep a wide collection of skulls, from victims whom I assume you ate.

Douma: Yes, they all stayed together inside me for eternity, but the room looked lonely without décor.

Gotou: It seems other demons usually go for nutritionally dense organs like hearts or livers, or easy to digest parts of the body, perhaps just blood sometimes. Eating the entire victim, bones and all, doesn’t seem to be the norm.

Douma: Bones are organs too, you know! That’s where blood is made, at its freshest. They do take more practice in learning to digest, and I had to find a way around not having to chew them, but the bone marrow is very, very good for you, so I make sure to consume it frequently. It may take more time and it causes some of my followers to panic more while they wait, though, that’s a bit of a downside. Oh, and I guess bones can make good storage for some sneaky poison. Even fingernails and hair follicles, who’d have thought?

Gotou: I don’t think hair would have much nutritional value in the first place. In all my years, I can never recall seeing a victim with their hair eaten.

Douma: Tsk, tsk! Clearly you haven’t done much metabolism research in advance. I was really impressed by how well Shinobu-chan understood how my digestion would work. Eating hair can do amazing things! Isn’t that right, Genya-kun?

Genya: ?????????

Gotou: Genya-kun!?

Genya: What am I doing here?

Gotou: I don’t think you’re supposed to be here. Isn’t there, you know, another side? The other direction?

Genya: What are you doing here? Did you die?

Gotou: I’m here doing research on demon metabolism and how they get stronger by consuming flesh.

Douma: What can you tell us about what up with having your friend feed you hair you found on the floor in Chapters 170-171, Genya-kun?

Genya: I’m not a demon!! Why the hell are you asking me?

Douma: ‘Hell’! Haha, good one!

Gotou: How do you even know about that? You were dead almost a full volume before that. And Genya’s different, he’s not a case study in how demons consuming humans works!

Douma: Are you certain?

Gotou: I hear the term get thrown around a lot that he’s ‘half-demon’, but—

Genya: I’m not a demon!!!

Gotou: --how would that even work? That would imply that one of his parents had to be a demon, and that—

Genya: What did you say about my mother!?!

Gotou: What? Nothing—

Genya: You say that to my face! You just trying saying something about my mother to my face! My mother never actually ate any flesh, you got that? She doesn’t deserve any of this!

Gotou: Genya, calm down, what—

Douma: I see we’re learning nothing about hair at all. Maybe Kokushibou-dono would provide better commentary on that?

Genya: Mom? Mo-o-o-o-m? Are you down here somewhere?

Gotou: And there he goes… wait, did you say Kokushibou? Upper Moon One? Oh no—he—he didn’t want me bothering him, he did not agree to another interview—

Douma: He-e-e-e-e-y, Kokushibou-dono! How did that work with Genya-kun eating your hair? Hair can be nutritious, right?

Kokushibou: You would gain… nothing… from consuming human hair… it’s not… flesh… you wasted your energy digesting it…

Douma: Aww, cutting it off them would had been sad, though.

Kokushibou: Demon hair… like demon weapons… is made… from our unique cells. It’s not dead… like human locks. Because that boy ate my live cells… it affected him…

Gotou: Yes, because he had a very, very unique metabolism, analyzed separately in this post. To be perfectly clear, Genya is completely human with cells that could temporarily transform, and he never consumed human flesh.

Kokushibou: He… vexes me…

Gotou: Um… while I’ve got you here, you’re one of the longest lived demons, clocking in at over three, maybe four centuries. Do you have any estimate of how many humans you’ve consumed?

Kokushibou: ……I see in… Chapter 100… that you are 23 years old?

Gotou: That is correct.

Kokushibou: Do you bother… remembering how many meals… you’ve had in a mere 23 years?

Gotou: I’m very sorry to have bothered you.

Douma: Kokushibou-dono’s ancient compared to the rest of us! But if I tried, I could probably recall. Let’s see. One, two, three, four…

Gotou: Is that? Your finger in your brain? Oh—ohhh—that is disgusting---I really don’t need to know numbers that badly, please stop. Is there maybe just some average you can give me for the Upper Moons instead? Like how many you’d eat in a month?

Douma: I wish I could, but a certain someone was an annoying outlier and didn’t like to eat so many humans. He made me worry all the time about his health.

Gotou: Really? Who might that be?

Douma: Hello-o-o-o-o-? Akaza-dono? Yoohoo! He spends all his time with his wife now and never answers when I call, it makes me so sad. Akaza-dono did eat humans, plenty of strong ones, but any time he wasn’t under orders from Muzan he liked to spend his time training instead of eating. Fanbook #1 says he did that way more than eating!

Gotou: Training? What sort of training?

Douma: Similar things to what your Corp members did, I imagine. Doing squats, throwing punches, things like that.

Gotou: Then demon muscles had similar function to human muscles, and could be strengthened through hard work? That’s surprising.

Douma: I know, right? I’ll let you in on a secret, I don’t think it was the physically repetition that did anything. I think it was his willpower getting honed and shaping his muscles.

Douma: I had to focus when I acquired new skills too, like breaking down poisons. A lot of sad, lowly demons, like that Hand Demon fellow? They focus as hard as they can in their desperation, or focus on some strong emotion or attachment or whatever, and they grow and develop because of it. Sometimes all their weak bodies can manage is an ugly mutation, but that’s proof enough of how much focus they had.

Gotou: That sheds a lot of light on Nezuko, actually.

Douma: Shed “light” on Nezuko-chan, hahaha! Sunlight! You humans are all so witty!

Gotou: Speaking of willpower, I’ve got one more interview I need to get to down here. Of all the demons I have records of, only Nezuko went her whole time as a demon without consuming any human flesh, although she did go through moments of berserk cravings for it. It’s possible that other demons were killed before they could consume anything, but typically they will consume flesh as soon as possible, which is why its common for their family and close relations to be among the first ones killed. Tomioka-san even mentioned in Chapter 1 that these close relations are especially nutritious.

Gotou: A demon about as old as Kokushibou, if not older, is a special case of her own. She was one of the only demons we know of to have escaped Kibutsuji’s curse and acted in dependently of him, including having created a demon of her own after two hundred years of trying. Most notably to our purposes, she trained herself to subsist on small amounts of blood, after having survived on corpses and wild animals for a time, according to the extensive Taisho Secrets at the end of Volume 21.

Tamayo: I explained this in more detail to Tanjirou-san in Chapter 15, but I went on to purchase blood from poor people, and extracted it in ways that wouldn’t be harmful to them. The one demon I created, Yushirou, could subsist on even less. I gained enough self-control that I could treat injured humans without feeling tempted into a berserk state.

Gotou: I was just talking to Douma about willpower making demons capable of accomplishing new physical developments. Was that how you were able to gain this state? I heard you even enjoy a cup of tea now and then.

Tamayo: Yes, I’ve taken a liking to it. I’d offer you some if not for this, you know, being hell. It’s nothing like the hell I went through when first resisting consuming humans, though. My demon body refused to take anything but fresh human flesh at first, but in the hardest moments, I always remembered a kind demon hunter who said he believed in me and my desire to defeat Kibutsuji Muzan. I believe Nezuko may have summoned her strength to resist the call of her demon cells in a similar way; she knew she had her brother there to rely on. Once she mastered something as remarkable as resisting the need for human flesh, it gave her the freedom to prioritize other developments.

Gotou: You spent centuries researching demon cells, especially how demons may break down and metabolize poisons.

Tamayo: I had not studied the metabolism of poisons until working with Shinobu-san. The medicine we concocted for Kibutsuji was only possible thanks to her work, and I couldn’t had worked with many of those wisteria-based substances on my own. I feel I was only there to fill in the gaps of her brilliant understanding.

Gotou: You’re very humble. I would pass along my thanks and compliments to Shinobu-sama too, but I’m pretty sure she’s not down here. On that note, did Genya-kun go back home?

Tamayo: He did after a nice reunion with his mother just now, it was very sweet. Shizu-san and I get along well, after all, we both carry similar guilt.

Gotou: Wait, was his mother a demon? That means Wind-sama’s mother was too? Wait?? What??

Tamayo: The worst hell I went through, or that any demon has gone through, is to realize what you’ve eaten after the hunger-driven madness clears. Being similar to your own cells, they’re easy on a volatile new anatomy to break down and digest. That’s why many demons may have driven themselves to forget everything all over again, or to twist their personalities to justify the horror, saying that because they ate the hearts of their loved ones and because demon flesh can live forever, then they never truly killed them. The truth always remained untwisted for me, and to this day, it torments me more than anything in this underworld can try.

Gotou: …

Tamayo: You should wake up now, Gotou. You’ve been through a lot; the nightmares must be taxing on your health. Please remember to eat well.

[sunflowerim]

You drew stars around my scars but now I'm bleeding

Wolfstar au. Word Count: 1565.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. That was all Remus could think as he stood motionless in front of Sirius’ bedroom door at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Remus still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that Sirius was no more. He’d died right in front of his eyes, slipping through the veil with a faint smile on his face. Every part of Remus had wanted to go after Sirius and yank him back to life even though he knew that wasn’t possible, so all he could do was stop Harry from jumping in after Sirius disappeared through the veil. He’d already lost a part of himself, he couldn’t lose the kid too.

Remus couldn’t bear the thought of entering the room after what had happened. Except Dumbledore required him to leave immediately for a mission and all his belongings were inside.

He laughed bitterly at the cruel joke life had played on him. Sharing a room with Sirius even after school was over - that’s all he’d wanted since he was fourteen. And when it finally did happen, his Sirius was taken away from him.

After what seemed like an hour, Remus squared his shoulders and turned the door knob. He needed to get this over with fast. He gingerly made his way into the room and bit back a sob. Sirius was alive and in this room mere twelve hours ago. David Bowie’s “Heroes” vinyl was still placed on the record player. There was a half-eaten apple pie on his desk; he was probably eating that before he got notified about Harry.

Remus needed to be quick. He couldn’t stay much longer in this room. There were too many ghosts of memories that had already started to haunt him. He quickly shuffled through the wardrobe to pack a few sets of clothes, taking care to not touch any of Sirius’ and grabbed some important newspaper cuttings and files from the table. He was about to make his way outside when he noticed a cardigan on the bed. His cardigan - the one Sirius liked and wore more than Remus did - the one he was wearing the last time the two of them were in the room together. Remus’ legs felt like lead. A part of him wanted to bolt and never look back but he couldn’t bring himself to take a single step towards the door. So he did what he could. He dropped his bag on the floor and walked towards the bed. Sitting on the bed sent shivers down his spine. His mind was a mess of flashbacks of all the times they’d slept soundly in each other’s arms, of the times Sirius took care of him after a full moon, of the times Remus lulled Sirius back to sleep after some horrifying nightmare, of the times they’d stayed up till dawn talking about life after war.

“I don’t think I want to be an Auror after the war is over,” Sirius hummed quietly, lying next to Remus, his head on Remus’ chest and the latter caressing Sirius’ hair.

“Why not?” Remus asked softly.

“I think I’ve seen enough violence to last a lifetime. After the war is over I’d like to retire to a quiet life with you.”

“Me?” Remus smiled.

“And Harry and– What? Don’t smile like that. I know what you’re thinking Moony. Of course you’ll be there. We’ve spent too much time apart because of our juvenile mistakes. I don’t want us to be apart anymore.” Sirius pouted. “That is, if you want to stay with me too. No pressure though,” he added quickly.

Remus huffed out a laugh, “Sure. I’d like that.”

He’d been in love with that boy for two decades now. He might have been young when he started, but he’d always been sure. There was nothing he wanted more than to be with Sirius. It did surprise him that Sirius had trouble believing that, but time does things to people. If Sirius needed assurance, he’d give him that. After all Sirius had reassured him when he needed it the most.

“Do you think Harry will want to live with us?” Sirius asked in a softer tone as if he dreaded the answer.

“Pads, c'mon. Have you seen that kid? He’s practically dying to live with you. You think he’d go back to the Dursley’s if it wasn’t for Dumbledore? He doesn’t even care that staying here would break the blood protection.”

“Dumbledore. I can really hate him sometimes. I would have brought Harry here against Dumbledore’s wishes because I know we can protect him, but I just don’t want to take any chances. It’s Harry. I couldn’t protect James and-”

“I know,” Remus replied. “It’s okay, we are doing everything we can, Harry is safe at school or his aunt’s house, he comes here occasionally, this is enough for now.”

“I hope the war will be over soon. All this stress is making my hairline go back.”

That successfully cracked up Remus.

“Merlin you cannot be serious for more than five minutes.”

“You know how I am,” Sirius said tickling Remus mercilessly, until he was breathless and Sirius was lying on top of Remus.

“I’m sleepy, good night Moony,” Sirius dropped a kiss on Remus’ forehead and just plopped down on Remus to sleep.

“Aaah go over to your side,” Remus groaned all the while trying to suppress another laughter.

“I’m lying on my pillow, you shouldn’t be objecting,” Sirius replied wriggling down further until his head rested on Remus’ chest again.

“Pads,” Remus tried again.

Sirius only moved his head enough to place a kiss on the scar on Remus’ collarbone and went back to using Remus for a pillow. Sirius did that sometimes, randomly kissing his scars or tracing his fingers over them as if it were art and Remus had slowly learnt not to hate his scars much.

Remus stopped trying to move Sirius and just enveloped him in his arms. If he could pause time, he’d choose this moment. Sirius snuggled in his arms, the moonlight streaming through the windows and bathing Sirius in a milky glow. There was no other sound in the room except for their breaths. He kissed the top of Sirius’ head and eased into the bed.

The hot tears streaming down his face jolted him back to reality. Remus pressed the cardigan on his face as sobs racked his whole body. The cardigan smelled like Sirius and Remus wanted to drown in that feeling. The absence of Sirius physically hurt, like a hole had been ripped in his chest and he was bleeding to death. He was miserable. He couldn’t do it without Sirius. He’d taken a lot of time to accept that Sirius might not come back. It had taken him everything to go on with his life and then Sirius had come back. Remus never stopped loving Sirius, he never could but this time they’d finally sorted things out, this time they finally had each other and Remus didn’t know how he’d ever recover a blow this huge. He probably wouldn’t.

He thought back to the time Sirius had come back almost a year and a half ago. Things had been so awkward. There were so many questions, so many complaints but Remus didn’t have it in him to ask Sirius anything. And then the full moon happened. It was the easiest full moon he’d had in twelve years. Sirius had simply slipped back into his life like he’d always been there.

Remus’ eyes moved around the room against his wishes. The posters of Sirius’ favourite bands and a Gryffindor banner hung on the wall. A low rack was filled with vinyls which Remus had arranged in a colour coordinated manner. The wall above the study table had pictures stuck to it - one of him, Sirius, James and Lily on the last day of school, another of Sirius on a broom, clad in Gryffindor quidditch robes, another of the two of them with baby Harry and one recent one of Remus that Sirius had managed to click when he wasn’t looking. Despite wanting to get away, Remus found himself walking towards them. He was finding it difficult to breathe. His throat constricted as more sobs escaped him, this time louder.

He noticed a sparkly object on the table and picked it up and his heart broke that much more. It was Harry’s gift for his fifteen birthday that the two of them had gotten together. A pocket watch in the shape of a golden snitch. Sirius had been so excited when he found it. “HARRY IS GOING TO LOVE IT MOONS. I’M ONE HUNDRED PERCENT SURE” he’d screamed on his way home. Remus hurriedly put down the gift as if holding it was burning into his skin and bones.

Remus knew that if he stayed in that room for a minute longer, he wouldn’t be able to leave. He wanted to hold on to everything that was left of Sirius but he couldn’t. A lot of lives needed saving. He couldn’t let Sirius’ death be in vain. He picked up his bag and after taking one last look at the room, left through the door, only to come back and put Harry’s gift in his bag too. He’d have to give it to the kid alone. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

A/N : Another song fic from yours truly. Here's my "Cardigan" themed wolfstar headcanon.

My Other Works

[baecvlt]

Stalker Nagito Komaeda x Milf!Reader

this was requested via my twitter:

“Hey! i’ve seen your works and I’m in love. Can I request smut where a stalker Nagito Komaeda becomes obsessed with a milf reader who moves into the neighborhood who’s like a dom in bed and ya know just large bust and taller than him. Thank youuu🤍”

a/n: ofc. but I have my own idea of a dom which i’ll use involving certain things (heed warnings)

warnings: he is so obviously a virgin in this, degradation, slight masochism, asphyxiation, spit, also Nagito calls the reader mommy (side note: nagito is in his early 20s in this, he lives alone. age of reader isn’t specified BUT I say she’s in her late 20s/early 30s)

• • •

It was a bright day...which Nagito despised. It was summer. He hated the sun, hated the mosquitoes, and the unnecessary humidity. It was days like these he wishes he was back at his university dorm. The A/C, the tall tree covering his window and blocking the sun...it was perfect. Hell, he didn’t even hate classes. Yet, he couldn’t live in the dorms forever. When it came time to buy a home, he stupidly did so in fall, moved in during the winter.

Well, no shit the home seemed perfect then. It wasn’t fucking summer. His A/C decided to break, his windows has a great view of the sun, and most of his friends were out of town (all except Hajime, but Hajime is fucking boring and a bummer). Nagito sat on his couch, watching reruns of old tv shows. He took a sip from his nearby glass (cold water), suddenly hearing sounds of what appeared to be a loading van. He looked outside his window.

A moving van?

Right, that one old man who lived there passed away. Freak accident, by the way. Oh well, may he rest in peace. Meanwhile, Nagito was being himself and trying to see who it was. Pretty much, the dude was being nosy. He saw another car pull up. That must’ve been the family’s car. Out jumped 3 kids, what appeared to be 2 girls and 1 boy. An adult stepped out. Nagito decided he’d get a better look at the situation. He put on his shirt, black jeans, and his green hood.

He was “going for a walk”.

Without being noticed, he made his way to the other side of the street. It was a woman, she was taking boxes out of the truck. The minute Nagito saw her it was if he was stricken by Cupid’s arrow. She was tall and beautiful. Her skin complimented her hair and her legs, he couldn’t take his eyes off them. Her breasts...he needed to stop—

“Hi!”

She was in front of him, a warm and inviting smile on her face. “H-Hi,” he muttered. She didn’t hear him well, so it helped that he waved. “I’m new in the neighborhood. We just moved in,” she added, putting the box down. She stuck her hand out, going for a handshake. He shook her hand, her warm hand against his cold ones. Why are his hands always cold? “I see,” he responded, getting his shit together,“I’m Nagito Komaeda. I live across the street”. She introduced herself and complimented his house.

“What a lovely home. I hope the neighborhood is just as lovely”

“It should be. It’s pretty quiet. There’s not many families here. Say, can I help you pack?”

“You’re too sweet! I’d really appreciate it”

He helped take all the boxes in her home, helping load a couch too, and help with other large objects. They finished in 9 hours, taking a majority of the day. “Thanks for helping out, Nagito”. She made a lemonade, handing him a glass.

“Don’t mention it! Also, thank you”

One of the kids ran in the living room where they sat on the couch. He gasped when he saw Nagito. “Mommy! That man looks dead!!!”. Nagito smiled, but his mom was not amused. “Michael! Apologize..”. The kid kept smiling and said,“Sorry!”. He ran to another room. “I’m so sorry,” she muttered. Nagito shook his head.

“Hey, I’m rather malnourished”

“Ha. On an unrelated topic, are you hungry? I could make us something”

“Oh, I shouldn’t linger any longer. I wouldn’t want to disturb your husband”

She laughed. “I know you mean no harm, but I’m not married,” she added. “Oh,” Nagito muttered,“I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean it in any way”. She shook her head and reassured him it was fine. “Sit, Nagito,” she pulled out a chair,“I’m not letting you refuse having dinner with us. Especially since you were such help”. She rubbed his back before heading back into the kitchen to begin cooking.

She made him a bowl of pasta, adding chicken on the side. Nagito was quite happy. He hadn’t eaten a good meal in so long. Her kids didn’t eat at the table, but on the counter. Meanwhile, she ate with Nagito. Just as Nagito thought he couldn’t grow fonder of her, he did just that. All she did was let him talk about himself.

“Jesus, I’m sorry about your parents? How are you keeping yourself afloat with university and expenses?”

“Academic scholarships”

“Wow, you’re such a smart boy”

The way she phrased it made him flustered. “Thank you for the meal, ma’am,” he muttered,“I haven’t eaten like this in who knows how long”. She smiled tenderly, picking up his empty plate. “Seconds?”. He shook his head.

“No, thank you. I’m already so full”

“I’m glad. You know, there’s always a meal for you in store if you can do me a favor”

“What’s that?”

“My oldest daughter has her final test this week. You think you can help her study? I’ll make you a nice, warm meal every time you come over”

Nagito thought about it. He would also have time around her. Plus, she wasn’t a bad cook. “Of course, I look forward to it,” he told her. “Lovely”. He got up and excused himself to go home. “It was nice having you over, Nagito,” she said softly. He could tell she was getting sleepy. When people are tired, Nagito has noticed that their tone is rather sheepish. She walked him to the door, ruffling his hair playfully and he blushed. “Goodnight, neighbor”.

“Goodnight, you”

Before he left, she stopped him and handed him a paper: (xxx) xxx-xxxx ♡

“Call me when you get home so I have your number saved. Then, I can call you when my daughter, Vanessa, needs help. Take care, okay?”

He nodded.

She closed the door, his thoughts racing on his way home. He picked up some things about her, things she didn’t even tell him. He went home and opened a notebook, writing all of it down. He called her and she answered, her voice as sweet as when he left (only sleepier). “Hello?”. His breath was heavy without realizing it as he spoke. “H-Hey, you told me to call you,” he breathed,“It’s Nagito...Komaeda”

“Oh, hey, angel! I’m not interrupting anything am I?”

“What? No, it’s all good— why’d you think so?”

“You sound like you need to catch your breath, but anyway, thanks for calling me. I’ve saved your number now”

“Oh, great! Well, if that’s all, I’ll let you go to bed now”

“It was. Goodnight, Nagito”

“G-Goodnight”

He hung up, flustered more than ever as he continued to jot down his thoughts on paper. The next day, he woke up at 6am to wait in his car. He knew what he was doing was wrong, but he couldn’t help it. At around 7:41am, his front neighbor and kids headed for their car. Nagito, who had taken a light nap in the driver’s seat, was awoken by the car starting. He waited for the car to drive away just slightly past his house to start his own car, slowly tailing behind her.

He dropped her kids off at the nearby elementary. She got off, kissed them on their forehead (all minus the eldest, who walked swiftly through the gates). Seeing how she cared for them made Nagito feel bad, but all he did was brush that feeling off. Next, he followed her through her daily. As he did, his notes from last night echoed through his mind, adding new detail.

“She works at an office not everyday She doesn’t have allergies but is sensitive to dust Red seems to be her favorite color but always in a darker shade Her daughter is around 10 years old She isn’t vegan but enjoys almond milk Maybe has an issues with abandonment but I can’t assume that either She buys many apples but not the same amount of bananas at the store so maybe she only eats the bananas—”

Just more to add to his notebook.

He got home before she did, writing down what he had learned. His phone rang about an hour later of him getting home. He picked it up,“Hello?”. “Nagito, hi!”. It was her. He started having a mini-panic attack, because why would she be calling him? “H-Hey, how are you?”

“I’m doing alright. I was wondering if you could come over and tutor Vanessa”

Oh, thank god.

“Yes, of course. I’ll be down there right now”

“Great. See you then!”

He was relieved, heading to her home happily. He knocked on the door. When she opened it, she did so with the same warm smile as yesterday. “Thank you for coming over,” she said,“She’s in her room”. Nagito nodded, freezing when she grabbed his hand and took him to the room. Her touch was so soft, noted. They got to the room, where a girl was reading a book on a desk. “Nessa?”. The girl turned around.

“Nagito is going to be here for a few hours to help you out with homework and studying. He’s really smart, so pay attention and be respectful”

“Okay, mom”

She nodded, squeezing Nagito’s shoulder before leaving. Nagito approached the girl, she took her things out. Before he could speak, she stopped him. “Please don’t call me ‘Nessa’,” she whispered,“It’s bad enough my mom does, but not you, Please”.

“Don’t worry. I wasn’t planning on referring to you at all”

“Bastard”

“Nessa”

“I guess I walked right into that one”

Nagito laughed, grabbing a chair and sitting next to her. Her work wasn’t what he expected. Is this what they’re teaching kids now? He could’ve sworn he hadn’t seen this type of stuff until he hit middle school. It wasn’t anything he couldn’t do, but damn. All in all, tutoring went well. Vanessa actually learned something today. “Good job!,” he said. “Thank you,” she smiled and hugged him,“I felt so stupid”.

“Hey, its okay not to understand things”

Her mom walked in. “Dinner’s ready”. Vanessa got up and went to the kitchen. “How’d it go?,” she asked Nagito. “Went well, she gets the math now,” he answered. She smiled, thanking him for his help and asking him to join them for dinner. He’d be foolish not to, so he accepted the invite.

Fish tacos were served tonight with rice and beans, another lemonade made. It was different than anything Nagito had ever had, but that doesn’t equate to bad. He actually enjoyed the meal. The kids sat at the main table today, much more respectful than yesterday. “Michael how was school?”. He put a thumbs up, getting back to eating. “And Adrianna?”. She looked up from her meal and shrugged. “What’s wrong?”.

“I’m tired, but class was okay”

“Oh, okay. When you’re done, just take a quick shower and get to bed”

“Thanks”

Nagito thought it was endearing. Seeing how understanding and loving she was, it was refreshing. The kids all eventually left, Nagito finishing his meal. “Did you like it?”. He looked at her, nodding. “Great! Seconds?”.

“Full again. I don’t usually eat, but your food is always so good”

“Oh, you’re just saying things...”

“No, really! Thank you”

He said his goodbyes to the family, walking back home. It was as if he was falling for this woman more and more everyday. He went to sleep, this time dreaming of her. He never dreams, but this time he dreamt she was on her knees for him. Then, nothing else. It was as if his dream teased him.

The next morning, he woke up to some knocking on the door. He looked at the time. 8:23am. He put on a pair of jeans and his shirt, walking to his door. He opened it and there she stood, wearing a black dress and red heels. He assumed she had work and needed a favor before going. “Good morning,” he said.

“Were you following me yesterday?”

Shit.

“I, uh...,” he didn’t know what to answer. He was indeed following her yesterday. He also liked her, so if he straight up said that he was to following her, it’d ruin things. His face was glowing a shade of pink to a slight red as he thought of the right answer. He was still stumbling over his words. “I think it’s kinda cute,” she added. The fuck? “Huh?”. She pushed him inside the house, closing and locking the door behind him. “When a boy follows someone around, it’s because he wants something,” she added, but her tone was so sultry,“Well, Nagito—”. She pushed him onto the couch, leaning in front of him with her hands on his chest.

“—What do you want?”

None of what was happening felt real. Nagito couldn’t find the words to express what exactly he wanted. This was the first time he’d ever been in a situation like this, it wasn’t a bad one either. He began to panic when she straddled him. “Could it be that you wanted me?,” she asked. He frantically nodded and she laughed as she locked her lips with his. He gasped against her lips, kissing back. She slowly trailed her kisses down to his neck, cupping his jaw while grinding on his lap. Nagito moaned, his shaky hands grabbing her ass. She grabbed his hands and put them away from her. “It’s cute that you’re getting this carried away”.

“I’m sorry”

“No time to apologize. Get on your knees for mommy”

Nagito was about to lose his mind when she said that, but he obeyed. Her presence was domineering as he stood on his knees against his carpeted floor. She spread her legs, noticing Nagito desperately trying to get a look. Her red heel stopped him, stepping on his head lightly. “Am I teasing you?,” she asked,“It’s okay to be honest”.

“Y-You are, but its okay. I want to be teased by you”

“You’re adorable,” she took her heel off his head,“Let’s go to your room”.

He practically ran to his bed. He sat and waited patiently. She entered the room, heading to his bed. She began to take off his shirt, admiring his frame. She then unbuckled his belt and unzipped his jeans. He kicked them off and sat down. She sat next to him. “Give me your hands”. She held them, frowning slightly. “Boo, they’re so cold,” she teased,“I’ll warm them up for you”. Carefully, she grabbed his left hand, putting his middle and ring finger in her mouth. She licked to his fingertips, leaving him tense and speechless. She stopped and smiled at him.

“This is your first time, isn’t it?”

He nodded shyly. “Don’t be shy,” she said,“I’m going to guide you, but I’m also going to have my fun”. He gulped, nodded. She stood up and removed her dress. She wore a lacy black bra and panties. She brought his hands to her breasts, allowing him to fondle them. They were huge in his hands. “You like them, baby?”. “Y-Yes,” he muttered,“Can you, uh, take....the bra off?”. He was ashamed when asking, he felt desperate. She smiled and nodded, unhooking it and allowing the bra to fall to the ground. He gasped at the sight of her tits, grabbing them. She straddled him.

“Do you know what to do with them?”

He nodded, rubbing one and sucking the other. She moaned sweetly, grinding on his lap. He popped his mouth off them. That was when she took the opportunity to knock him onto the bed. She began to make out with him, shoving his tongue down her throat. They lay sideways. Her hand was on his neck, slightly choking him. He couldn’t resist but try to grind on her lap. She laughed. “Look at you,” she mocked,“Humping my leg like a desperate little puppy”. She didn’t let him speak, sitting up and pushing him back down. “I’m going to give you what you want,” she whispered in his ear,“Take your cock out”.

He was nervous as he did, hands shaky. She blushed a bit at his size. “It’s so big,” she said, straddling him,“I’m going to have my way with it”. “Please, do what you want to me,” he begged,“Abuse me, please”. She didn’t speak, sinking down on it. Nagito gasped, she was extremely wet. She began to bring her hips up and land straight down on it, repeatedly. She put her hands around his throat, now being rougher. Nagito gasped for air, grabbing her hands.

That was a mistake.

“Hands down,” she ordered, striking him across the face. “Sorr-”. He was slapped once again. “Only speak when you’re spoken to”. He nodded as his stomach began to cave in. His cock twitched each time she slapped him, making her moan. She leaned forward, capturing his earlobe between her teeth. He winced, his hands tangling in the sheets. He felt as though his entire body was blushing.

“You’re so sensitive there”

She teased him, kissing the skin and nibbling. His hips involuntarily snapped upward, making her whine. “You’re so desperate, baby,” she laughed,“it’s so cute”. He could feel her warmth running along his cock. He bit into his hand, trying to stop himself from cumming inside her. It worked, but she didn’t like him doing that. She grabbed his hands and kissed them.

“Don’t hurt yourself, put them right here”

She placed them on her boobs. He watched them bounce up and down, grabbing them gently. His rather large hands seemed small on her tits. He was extremely flushed. He took them off her and placed them on her hips. “Open your mouth”. He lay back more and did as he was told. She leaned forward, grabbing his jaw again as she spit into it and kissed him. He moaned when she did, his urges getting the best to him and thrusting upward. He hit her cervix every time, causing her to produce the sweetest and sluttiest of moans. Her walls tightened around him and now he was whining. “Are you gonna cum, honeybun?,” she asked.

“Y-Yes..”

“Where do you wanna cum?”

“I wanna cum...everywhere. I want it. I want it so bad. I wanna cum inside and on your tits, on your ass, y-your face..mouth. Please let me cum, mommy”

She motivated him, riding him harder. “Come on, Nagito,” she whispered,“Cum for mommy. Cum all the way inside her”. He lost his mind after that, groaning as he shot his load(s) inside her. He was still inside her as he tried catching his breath. She rubbed his chest, shushing him. “Good boy, you did so well,” she cooed,“Such a good boy.” He was covering his face, embarrassed and still hard. “I wasn’t too rough, was I?,” she asked. He shook his head, thinking,“Not rough enough”. He whined when she got off, revealing he was still erect. She noticed.

“You wanna go again, baby? Kids don’t leave school till 2:30. We have time for an extra fuck”

“C-Can I?”

“Yes, dummy”

She let Nagito choose how to fuck her. He wanted missionary, mostly because he craved intimacy and she did not disappoint. She kissed and praised him, telling him he was good. She held onto him the whole time and cuddled him afterwards. Nagito felt so special, he felt loved. “I can come over when I don’t have work,” she said,“Would you like that?”.

“I’d love that actually”

“You make me happy, Nagito. I could stay here and cuddle all day”

“I feel so lucky”

He yawned, looking at the clock. “Its 10,” he told her. She nuzzled his chest, humming. “Mmmm, let’s take a small nap,” she whispered,“Okay?”. “Okay”. He kissed the top of her head and held her to him, slowly joining her in slumber.

[alliedbiscuit]

msr fic / s7 post-closure but pre-all things / wc: 3398

Scully takes Maggie out for a birthday dinner, and you'll never guess who they run into.

************

“So, how are feeling about dessert?” the waiter asks hopefully.

Maggie Scully scoffs. “Oh, no. I couldn’t eat another bite. Maybe just a cup of coffee? Decaf, please.”

“Mom, are you sure? You should get dessert,” Dana Scully prods, stopping herself short before she could let it slip, “It’s your birthday!” The last gift her mother would appreciate is a gaggle of underpaid waiters singing some public-domain-compliant version of a birthday song while the whole restaurant turns its attention toward her. Like mother, like daughter.

Well, the daughter made an exception and found that kind of thing charming exactly once. But at least she got a nice keychain out of it. All her mother would get was humiliation and a chocolate lava cake.

As soon as the waiter leaves to fetch their after dinner coffees, Maggie reveals her true intentions.

“I was thinking we could go to that ice cream parlor down the street. If I’m going to indulge, I think I want a hot fudge sundae. Or maybe we could split a banana split?”

“Or you could get a hot fudge sundae and I could get a banana split, and we could split both,” Scully suggests.

“See, that’s why you work for the FBI.”

“Dessert Conflict Resolution was part of my training at Quantico.”

Both Scullys giggle.

“Does Fox have the same specialty? Or is that what you bring to the team?”

“Mulder’s dessert strategy is just to eat everything and then swim a mile and run five the next day. No, he’s a Takeout Menu Marksman, though. He knows where to order from and what to order so it travels the best and doesn’t get cold and congealed by the time it arrives. Might sound like a trivial skill, but it’s a lifesaver on movie night.”

Maggie continues smiling but cocks her head slightly. Dana realizes why almost instantly.

“You have movie night?”

“It’s not a set thing or anything. We just…if we’re not busy with a case.”

“You just watch movies? As coworkers?”

“As friends.”

“Just friends?”

Dana lets out a long sigh as she stares her mother down. Her mother, maintaining that gentle yet challenging grin. Dana considers her response carefully. She could offer a simple yes because that is the fact of the matter. They are just friends. She could criticize the wording choice. “Just” friends? Why does it have to be “just” friends? As if friendship isn’t somehow enough or isn’t valuable?

She could realize it’s her mother’s birthday and she’s the only other Scully woman left to confide in about matters of the heart, and although she doesn’t want to bring up the New Year’s kiss because she still doesn’t really know what it meant, maybe they both need this little gift of honesty, filled with tempered excitement and promise.

“For now,” Dana Scully finally admits.

Maggie’s grin grows as Scully just shakes her head and manages to keep her slight eye roll from reaching embarrassed teenager level. The waiter does bail her out a bit by choosing that moment to deliver their coffees.

“How is Fox doing? After his mother…” Maggie trails off, but her daughter knows not to expect any more specifics.

“Better? I mean, as well as can be expected. The thing is, right after that, he found out some more about his sister. About what happened to her. It was just so much all at once. I was really worried…”

Maggie reaches across the table to lay a hand on hers.

“But, it was almost like he was ready for it. He finally had some answers. Like it brought him some peace.”

“That’s wonderful.”

“Yeah. He needed that.”

“We all do.”

*************

Maggie is the one to spot him first as they’re heading for the door.

“Is that- is that Fox?” she asks her daughter.

“What? No, he wouldn't…” Dana trails off as she looks straight ahead to where her mother was indicating and confirms that it is indeed Fox Mulder, standing with his hands in his pockets and his eyes trained to the floor as he appears to be waiting near the vestibule for the restrooms.

“Mulder?” Scully questions as she approaches, her voice giving away her confusion and growing concern.

His head darts up in surprise, but a beaming smile of recognition quickly overtakes his face.

“Hey, Scully! Mrs. Scully, it’s so nice to see you!”

“You too, Fox,” Maggie kindly replies, although a quick glance to her daughter confirms her suspicion that Dana is still very confused by his presence.

“Did you…did you need something?” She suddenly feels silly for presuming that he must have come there with urgent news or a case or something, but why else would Fox Mulder be at Petrino’s on a Saturday night? Did his informants trade in clandestine meetings in parking garages for family-style Italian?

“Hmm?” Mulder asks.

“You didn’t come here to find me? I told you I was bringing my mom here for her birthday, didn’t I?” He didn’t look like he had rushed to the restaurant from the office or his apartment as she had originally assumed. He had clearly shaved and combed his hair nicely. He wore an olive green sweater with dark blue jeans and a black wool pea coat rather than his leather jacket. He had definitely made an effort.

“You did, but I thought you were going out tomorrow night on her actual birthday. Happy birthday, by the way, Mrs. Scully.”

“Thank you, Fox. I’m going to have lunch with some ladies from church after mass tomorrow, so I asked Dana if we could do Saturday night instead.”

“Ah. What a weird coincidence then. I can’t believe we didn’t see you at all during dinner.”

We.

Oh God.

Mulder was on a date.

Mulder was on a date in this restaurant on the night he thought Scully wasn’t going to be there. Mulder was on a date right after Scully had confessed to her mother (and herself) that their “just friends” status was in the process of changing. Mulder was on a date right after he’d been through so much pain but seemed to come out lighter and more open and he wanted to share it with someone…who wasn’t Dana Scully.

“So, you’ve already eaten then?” Maggie asks since her daughter appears unable to form a coherent statement at the moment.

“Yeah, we just finished. I’m just waiting for her…” he seems to trail off just to motion towards the restroom rather than say anything indelicate, but then he notices Maggie’s poorly masked look of concern toward Dana, and then he notices Dana’s completely unmasked look of shock.

And then he gets it.

“Oh, no! It’s not…I want you to meet her,” Mulder insists as he grabs a hold of both of Scully’s elbows and then glances anxiously toward the restroom door.

Dana Scully looks like she might be ill.

Thankfully Mulder only stammers a moment longer until the restroom door opens and he finds reprieve when a tall, thin woman appearing to be in her mid-60s walks through the door.

“Aunt Helen,” Mulder calls.

Somehow Scully’s eyes manage to get even wider as some of the color returns to her face.

“Aunt Helen, there are a few people I’d really like you to meet. This is my partner, Dana Scully, and this is her mother, Margaret Scully.”

Aunt Helen smiles widely in recognition, first shaking Maggie’s hand and then Dana’s. “It is such a pleasure to meet you both. I’ve heard such wonderful things.”

She lingers with her hand holding Dana’s while she says this, and the younger Scully is left blushing. She hazards a look at Mulder, but he doesn’t look embarrassed by this revelation. He holds her gaze with nothing but pride.

“This is my aunt, Helen Briggs. She’s my mom’s sister. She’s visiting for the weekend from Charlotte.”

They all kind of marvel over the fact that they were in the same restaurant and what a coincidence and oh, we were seated near the back bar, that must be why we didn’t see you and Scully is just starting to feel her pulse return to normal as Aunt Helen laments not having a chance to talk with the Scullys.

“Well, Dana and I skipped dessert so we could go to The Big Dipper for some ice cream. Would you two like to join us?”

“Oh, that would be lovely. As long as we’re not intruding,” says Aunt Helen.

“Not at all,” Scully assures her. “There is one catch, though.”

“It’s not real ice cream. It’s that Tofutti nonsense, isn’t it?” Mulder groans.

“It better not be,” Maggie insists. “I don’t know how she eats that stuff.”

Scully ignores her mother and her partner’s bad mouthing of her frozen treats as she returns her attention to Aunt Helen.

“I’m afraid if you want to come along, you will have to reveal a few good Young Mulder stories. And by ‘a few,’ I mean as many as you’ve got. And by ‘good,’ I mean the more embarrassing the better.”

“I’ll start thinking now,” Aunt Helen laughs.

“I knew I should’ve picked a different restaurant,” Mulder says regretfully.

***********

They’ve just sat down to a small, round table for four with their ice cream when Mulder stands up to get them all more napkins, and Aunt Helen retrieves a small, rectangular piece of paper from her purse that she then deftly slides to Dana.

“Oh my god!” Scully exclaims with joy.

Staring back at her from the paper is a very young Fox Mulder. She guesses he must be around 8 or 9 in the school photo. His long, sandy brown hair falls just above his eyebrows. He doesn’t have his distinctive nose yet, but his bottom lip is already a little pouty. The real give away is the eyes. He’s grinning for the camera, but his eyes still have that soulfulness, that slight sadness.

She’s surprised. She knows she shouldn’t be. His eyes didn’t suddenly change when Samantha was taken. His eyes were probably always like that.

But she had always assumed that the great tragedy had flipped a switch for Young Fox Mulder. That before that single event, he had certainly been a perfectly happy child. Funny and athletic, popular for sure. But the humor developed as a defense mechanism later in life. And the sports were a great physical release as well as an excuse to be out of the house as much as possible. She didn’t actually know what he was like before, but now that she thought about it, home life was probably never all that great if it eventually led to a father sacrificing one child and leaving the other to always live with the guilt and loss.

It was very possible that Fox Mulder had always been a little boy with a lot on his mind.

In contrast, present day, adult Fox Mulder looks like he doesn’t have a care in the world as he returns with extra napkins, ready to tuck into his chocolate peanut butter ice cream in a waffle cone – that is until he realizes what his friend and partner Dana Scully is looking at.

“Oh come on. I was gone for thirty seconds, and you have the visual aids out.”

Scully continues to beam as Maggie finally gets a glimpse of the photo in her hand.

“Oh, Fox!”

“Okay,” Mulder said exasperatedly. “Does this meet your embarrassment quota?” he asks, looking pointedly at Scully.

“Not even close! This isn’t embarrassing. It’s adorable!”

Mulder rolls his eyes but can’t hide his bashful grin at her comment.

“It’s only fair, Fox. I know you’ve seen family photos of Dana at my house,” Mrs. Scully says, sounding like a mother well practiced in settling disputes between children.

“Just a couple. I do like that high school graduation picture, though. I still don’t know how you kept your cap on with all that hair.”

“That was the style back then. Everybody teased their hair and used a ton of hairspray.”

“I thought it might be a religious thing at Catholic school. The higher the hair, the closer to God,” Mulder teases.

Maggie and Aunt Helen chuckle, though the latter gives him a good-natured swat on the arm in admonishment.

“See, this is what I need, though. I need something from the teen years. That’s peak embarrassment fodder,” Scully says.

“If you ask our colleagues, I think my peak embarrassment fodder would come from about 1991 to present,” Mulder points out.

Aunt Helen just looks slightly regretful. “I’m afraid I don’t have many stories from those years, Dana.”

Mulder makes eye contact with Aunt Helen. “You didn’t miss much,” he insists. She looks like she wants to debate him, but he just places a hand on hers reassuringly, and they seem to make a silent agreement to not argue the point any further.

Mulder had never really mentioned any other family before. She knew his grandparents had all passed before she met him, but she had assumed, just like with everything else, that any other extended family connections had disappeared along with Samantha. That no one would know how to comfort and console The Mulders in a situation like that, with no explanation.

His aunts and uncles must have had questions, probably even had their own theories. Did his mother’s side suspect his father’s involvement, or did his father’s side blame his mother somehow? Did any of them blame…no, she couldn’t go down that route. Besides, did anyone ever suspect horrific things like that before the days of cable news and supermarket tabloids?

The point is, it was a tense situation, so Scully assumed they had all done what wealthy white people in places like Martha’s Vineyard and Boston and Raleigh did with any uncomfortable subject – they avoided it completely.

And that meant avoiding the little boy with a lot on his mind as he became a teenager with even more on his mind.

Scully had accompanied Mulder to a small burial service for his mother in Raleigh a few months ago. It was just the service. No gathering or dinner after, or at least not one that Mulder told her about. The attendees at the service were all pretty spread out, not much mingling. Again, it was another sudden loss shrouded in mystery. They all avoided particulars as much as they could.

Scully didn’t remember seeing Aunt Helen that day, but maybe she was there and just couldn’t bring herself to say anything. Maybe she wasn’t there because she couldn’t bring herself to go and then regretted it. Dana Scully didn’t know, and it didn’t actually matter. The point is that she’s here now. And that’s exactly what Mulder’s look of reassurance and acceptance seems to say.

It seems to help her perk up because she offers playfully, “Oh, what about that summer on Quonochontaug? I think you were 9 or so, and you were collecting leaves for one of your Indian Guide badges.”

“Oh god!”

“I’m hooked already. Not to jump ahead, but please tell me there’s poison ivy involved,” Scully says gleefully.

Aunt Helen’s bark of laughter and Mulder’s exaggerated eye roll are all the confirmation she needs.

“It was heavily involved! But that’s not the worst part. While he was working on his Leaf Collecting badge, he also earned credit towards his Wildlife badge when he came across a skunk in the woods.”

“No!” Scully shouts.

“Ivyed and skunked at the same time,” Mulder admits.

“Oh you poor thing,” Maggie adds sympathetically, but with barely contained laughter.

“He had to jump right from a tomato juice bath for the skunk smell…”

“Which didn’t work!”

“…into an oatmeal bath for the itching.”

“Which worked better, but I still smelled like a Grateful Dead concert.”

Both Scullys are full on giggling at this point.

“Do you remember what Grandpa Ralph said when he walked in and saw you and mom dunking me in a tub of oatmeal?” Mulder asks.

Aunt Helen pitches her voice deeper and amps up her Southern twang, “Why don’t cha dip him in some egg and flour next? We toss him in the frying pan, we got supper! We’re havin’ Fried Fox tonight!”

Now they’re all in hysterics. Even the man who usually hates his given name can’t help but laugh along, especially when it makes his lovely company so happy.

*****************

Scully enters the basement office Monday morning to find Mulder already there, flipping through an open drawer in the filing cabinet.

“Good morning,” she says cheerfully.

He looks up and smiles. “Good morning. Long time no see.”

“How was the rest of your weekend? Did you guys do any sightseeing or anything?”

“No, we just had a late breakfast yesterday before I took her to the airport, but it was good to catch up some more. She told me to thank you again for letting us tag along for ice cream. It was really nice.”

“It was,” Scully agrees.

Mulder appears to be considering something for a moment before he crosses over to the desk and picks up a small envelope.

“She also told me to give this to you,” he says almost bashfully, extending the envelope in Scully’s direction. “She told me I couldn’t look inside, and I didn’t. But I think I know what’s in there, and if I’m right, you don’t have to keep it. You can just leave it here on the desk.”

Well, now she’s intrigued. Scully opens the envelope to find a small handwritten note at the top.

“I thought you might like these. I have plenty more too, if you’d ever like to see them or want any more stories. Please don’t be a stranger.”

Scully lifts up the note to see the remaining contents inside and finds a small stack of photographs, a mixture of more school photos along with a few wallet-sized family portraits and a couple candids taken on the beaches of the Vineyard or Rhode Island, she can’t tell. But she sees the same set of eyes in all of them.

She looks back to read the rest of the note.

“I’m so glad I got to meet you, Dana. Take care!”

Below Aunt Helen’s elegant signature, she has also written her home address and phone number. Scully will have to call and thank her.

“She tried to give some to me,” Mulder explains, “but I didn’t really want…and like I said, you don’t have to…”

“No, I’d like to keep them,” Dana insists.

Mulder lets her statement hang in the air for a moment, but he can’t help but diffuse it.

“You just want more blackmail material.”

“Something like that,” Scully says teasingly, but there’s no bite behind it.

“I knew I should’ve picked a different restaurant.”

She chuckles lightly as she shuffles the photos into a neat stack to place back in the envelope, thinking that this is the point where they get back to work. Mulder stays standing in front of her and appears to be considering something again. Does he have another envelope that he’s afraid to give her?

“You know it was pure luck that we ended up at Petrino’s the same night as you. I actually gave Aunt Helen a few options and let her choose. I was pushing more for that Thai place in Arlington, just off Old Dominion. The one that’s been there forever,” Mulder explains.

“Oh, the one with the secret menu? I’ve still never been there. Can’t say I’m surprised that Aunt Helen wasn’t up for Thai food, though.”

“Yeah. Fair point,” Mulder nods for a moment too long before continuing. “Would you like to go there sometime? Like this Saturday? With me?”

Scully slowly looks up from the envelope to see Mulder’s face because in all matters, other than the divine, Dana Scully needs to see to believe. And the slightly nervous yet gentle grin that she finds allows her to believe it to be true – Fox Mulder has just asked her out on a real date.

“I would like that,” Scully says gently.

“Good. You wanna say 7:30? Or we can always figure out time later,” Mulder states, aiming for practicality to keep him from grinning like a complete idiot. He ends up grinning like a moderate idiot, but he’s okay with that.

“Sounds good.”

Yep, Scully will definitely have to call Aunt Helen and thank her.

[magnetic-rose]

Why Spones is a top-tier ship

AKA “the inherent homoeroticism of annoying the shit out of your co-worker.”

Spock and McCoy have a complicated relationship. A lot of their bickering and ideological differences lead fans to believe that they hate each other, but that’s an over-simplification of the truth. The reality is that Spock and McCoy are extremely close friends who care about each other deeply. Though sometimes their bickering turns serious during stressful situations, for the most time they seem to enjoy the banter. A common mischaracterization of their relationship seems to put McCoy as the bully and Spock as the victim. In truth, there are many times where Spock will say something specifically to get a rise out of McCoy. They fight. That’s how they show affection, not disdain. In fact, one could argue that some of their bantering have a flirtatious tone to it.

Kirk: Mister Spock, regaining eyesight would be an emotional experience for most. You, I assume, felt nothing.

Spock: On the contrary Captain. I had a very strong reaction. My first sight was the face of Doctor McCoy bending over me.

McCoy: ‘Tis a pity brief blindness didn’t increase your appreciation for beauty, Spock. (Operation -- Annihilate!)

Spock is a half-Vulcan, half-Human who has mostly chosen to follow his Vulcan heritage. As such, he is a being of almost pure logic. The truth about Vulcans are that they are secretly beings who feel things very deeply and intensely, and they feel the need to keep a tight lid on their emotions as to not succumb to them. McCoy, on the other hand, is a regular human. He’s a deeply emotional man who cares about others. One could argue that McCoy is almost too empathetic, as he lets his emotions rule him. Spock and McCoy are polar opposites; the brain and the heart, the logic and the emotion, the super-ego and the id.

Despite these differences, the two men are similar in a lot of ways. They’re both men of science, men of peace, and they both care very deeply for their Captain. They’re both self-sacrificing morons, to the chagrin of the other. Spock will prioritize McCoy’s life even when both of them know it’s not the logical choice to do so. Likewise, McCoy will take a hit for Spock even when they both know the Vulcan is stronger and better equipped to deal with pain than the doctor.

Spock: (In the middle of a blizzard) In this severe cold, we cannot survive much longer.

McCoy: Leave me here, Spock.

Spock: We go together or not at all.

McCoy: Don’t be a fool. My hands and face are frostbitten. I can’t feel my feet. Alone, you have a chance. Now do what I say. Go try to find Jim.

Spock: We go together! (All of Yesterdays)

In the episode, “The Empath,” Kirk, Spock and McCoy have to choose someone to be offered as sacrifice to be tortured by a group of aliens. Kirk obviously volunteers, but gets put to sleep by McCoy with a tranquilizer. Spock then states that he’ll offer himself up, as he has the higher chance of surviving the torture. McCoy then proceeds to sedate Spock as well, and sacrifices himself to be tortured by the aliens.

Spock: While the captain is asleep, I am in command. When the Vians return, I shall go with them.

McCoy: You mean, if I hadn't given him that shot

Spock: Precisely. The choice would have been the captain's. Now it is mine.

(McCoy turns away. Spock sits to carry on working. Gem puts her hand on Spock's shoulder, and smiles. McCoy comes up behind him and gives him an injection.)

Spock: Your action is highly unethical. My decision stands. (Spock falls asleep next to Kirk.)

McCoy: Not this time, Spock.

Underneath all the fighting and disagreements, there is a deep caring between Spock and McCoy that manifests itself into protectiveness towards each other. In “All of Yesterdays,” Spock is constantly showing concern for McCoy after he almost died of hypothermia. In aftermath of McCoy’s torture in “The Empath,” Spock is seen hovering over his body and caressing his face, worry written into his features. On the other hand, while McCoy constantly makes fun of Spock for his lack of emotions, he’s also highly aware of the Vulcan’s mental state and protective of it when others threaten to shatter his resilience.

McCoy: He's a Vulcan. You can't force emotion out of him.

Philana: You must be joking, Doctor.

McCoy: You'll destroy him.

Parmen: We can't let him die laughing, can we?

McCoy: (Watching as Spock starts to cry) I beg you! (Plato’s Stepchildren)

The episode “Amok Time” also demonstrates McCoy’s perceptiveness of Spock and Spock’s true feelings of friendship towards McCoy. McCoy is in fact the first person to notice that something is wrong with Spock:

McCoy: Oh, captain. Got a minute? It's Spock. Have you noticed anything strange about him?

Kirk: No, nothing in particular. Why ?

McCoy: Well, it's nothing I can pinpoint without an examination, but he's become increasingly restive. If he were not a Vulcan, I'd almost say nervous. And for another thing, he's avoiding food. I checked and he hasn't eaten at all in three days.

Kirk: That just sounds like Mister Spock in one of his contemplative phases.

Kirk doesn’t notice anything wrong with Spock, and initially dismisses McCoy’s concern, but McCoy immediately picked up on Spock’s mental turmoil. Despite his cantankerousness, McCoy not only cares about Spock but goes out of his way to look out for his mental state. Part of it might be because he’s his doctor, but how many doctors go so far as to monitor someone’s eating habits because they notice that person’s suddenly being fidgety? On Spock’s end, when it comes time for him to beam down to Vulcan to complete his marriage ceremony, he specifically asks for McCoy to be there:

Spock: By tradition, the male is accompanied by his closest friends.

Kirk: Thank you, Mister Spock.

Spock: I also request McCoy accompany me.

McCoy: I shall be honoured, sir.

One episode I find extremely fascinating in terms of McCoy/Spock moments is “Mirror, Mirror.” In this famous episode, half of the Enterprise crew get transported into an alternate universe dubbed The Mirror Verse, in which evil versions of the characters exist and terrorize space as a fearsome military force. McCoy is part of the team that gets transported in the Mirror Verse, while Spock stays in their regular universe. Mirror Spock immediately realizes that half of the crew, including Kirk and McCoy, are acting strangely. When he corners Kirk to question him, he does so by threatening McCoy: “I shall not waste time with you. You’re too inflexible, too disciplined, once you’ve made up your mind. But Doctor McCoy has a plenitude of human weaknesses, sentimental, soft. You may not tell me what I want to know, but he will.” This Spock seems to have a intimate knowledge of McCoy’s mind.  When the party decides to attack Mirror Spock, he fights all of them except for Uhura and McCoy, who he simply pushes out of harm’s way.

When Mirror Spock gets hurt as the crew is trying to escape back to their own universe, McCoy is suddenly unable to leave his side. Kirk allows him to stay to nurse Spock back to health, and McCoy risks almost staying in the Mirror Verse forever for him. When Mirror Spock awakes, he backs McCoy into a wall and initiates a forced mind meld onto the doctor. The next scene has Mirror Spock holding a disoriented McCoy up and bringing him back to his crew; he now understands what is happening and he wants his regular crew back, and thus he allows Kirk and company to make the switch back to their own universe.

Other Star Trek properties have gone more in depth on how a forced mind meld can be extremely traumatizing on the person receiving it. Star Trek: Enterprise has an entire story arc dedicated to the Vulcan T’Pol trying to heal from a forced mind meld. Unfortunately, because the nature of TOS episodes were episodic, we never got the chance to explore the emotional fallout of McCoy’s forced mind meld and how that might have affected his relationship with Spock. The franchise also never went in depth on Mirror McCoy outside of what Mirror Spock speaks of him, since Mirror McCoy died of xenopolycythemia in 2269.

Closing the list of evidence of Spock and McCoy’s affections towards each other are the Star Trek movies “The Wrath of Khan” and “The Search for Spock.” Towards the end of Wrath of Khan, Spock sacrifices himself to save The Enterprise in one of the franchises most heart-wrenching scenes. Moments before his sacrifice, he knocks McCoy unconscious, touches his face and whispers “remember.” What happened in this scene was that Spock, knowing he was about to die, transferred his Katra to McCoy. The katra being the Vulcan equivalent of a soul. This speaks to the amount of trust that Spock has in McCoy. For someone who keeps most of his emotions under a tight lid, it’s a huge gesture to entrust another with the essence of their entire being. The next movie, The Search for Spock, is a journey as the Enterprise crew fight to return to Vulcan so they can reunite Spock with his body. When they finally arrive, the Vulcans warn McCoy that the process is extremely dangerous and could even result in his death. McCoy calmly replies that he “chooses the danger.” He cannot fathom living his life without Spock.

McCoy: (Speaking to Spock) I'm going to tell you something that I... I never thought I'd hear myself say...But it seems I've missed you. I don't know if I could stand to lose you again.

So in conclusion, Spock and McCoy have a rich and complex relationship that is much more than simply just “they dislike each other because they bicker a lot.” Their bickering is more akin to that of an old married couple. There are plenty of examples not even included in this post of how deeply they care for each other. Despite their ideological differences, they balance each other out quite nicely. McCoy is finely attuned to Spock’s emotions, arguably better than anyone else on the ship. Spock in turn is protective and gentle with McCoy. Once you stop looking at their interactions solely on the surface level, you’ll be able to see the tenderness and years of love and friendship between them. This is why I think Spock/McCoy is one of the most underrated and misunderstood relationships of TOS. Don’t let the constant arguing fool you into believing these two dummies don’t adore each other.

Shout-out to Tempest for their extremely lengthy ship manifesto on Spones called “Spiced Peaches,” which goes even more in depth on why Spones is a great couple. Using their manifesto as a reference was key to remembering Spock/McCoy moments. Also shout-out to the site chakoteya for having full transcripts of TOS episodes, so I could easily find quotes for this. If you’ve come this far, thanks for reading!

[kaaytea]

hey! i hope youre doing great! if it isnt a problem, could you do atsumu, oikawa, sakusa and kuroo with a s/o who overthinks alot and notices that theyre hanging out with someone else alot recently and is scared that they're going to leave but they reassure reader that they won't leave? it'd be nice if it was fluffy :(((

Hi cutie! I'm doing well and I hope you are too! I apologize if Sakusa isn't very..Sakusa-y?? I'm still figuring him out a bit 😅 I tried my best to make it fluffy enough, I hope what I wrote will suffice

The Dangers of Overthinking

⤷Includes: Oikawa, Kuroo, Atsumu, Sakusa

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

Oikawa

It's no secret that Oikawa is a pretty popular guy

And usually this doesn't bother you much, no matter how busy Oikawa was he always had little ways to reassure you he wasn't ignoring you

Gradually you started to notice him spending less time checking in on you throughout the day, the most you'd get is a pat on the head, a quick kiss, or a short text before Oiks slipped away with the rest of his team

You did your best to ignore the little voice in your head expressing that he was avoiding you. Oikawa was committed to his sport and that was fine, this behavior was normal

But the one thing you couldn't shake was whenever he went off with the team there was a person you didn't recognize in the group

You'd met his team HUNDREDS of times and by this point you knew everyone by name, number, and position from the hours you've sat with Tooru and watched game recordings. It was the middle of the season so they couldn't have suddenly got a new player

So who was this person? And why was your boyfriend always gravitating towards them?

Overthinking was dangerous for you, the longer you dwelled the further you fell into the dark doubts tucked into the back of your mind

This continued on for weeks until one day you just stayed in bed wrapped in blankets with only your thoughts

Setters are trained to notice small things, little details that could reveal a weakness in defense, anything that would help them decide who to set too

Oikawa was beautifully gifted in that aspect of a setter, it didn't take long to notice how distanced you'd become

Originally he thought it was a personal matter so he let you have your space, except unlike the other times you didn't bounce back. Infact, you were getting further from him the longer it went on

Oikawa quietly opened the door to your bedroom, letting his volleyball bag slip off his shoulder and placing it by the door

He sat down carefully on the side of your bed before he playful poked your side

"(y/n)-chaaan~"

You didn't respond and only pulled the sheets tighter around you causing a pout to form on his face

He gently pulled the sheets away from your head and pressed his hand to your forehead

"You don't have a fever so you're definitely not sick.....wanna tell me what's wrong?"

"You're not gonna leave me, right?"

Your voice was so quiet he just barely heard what you said

The hand on your forehead slipped down to your cheek, his thumb brushed softy across your cheek bone

"Why would I leave you?"

"You keep hanging around that person"

"Ah, be a little more specific sweetie"

"The blonde one! The blonde that's been hanging off you when you're with the team!"

You finally open up to him and what's he do? LAuGh! He's laughing at you!

Tears started to burn in your eyes as you quickly went to pull the covers over your head and flip onto your side facing away from him, only Oiks was a step ahead and pulled you into a sitting position facing him

"W-wait wait, Let me explain! (Y/n)-chan, that's our new manager. They've been helping me plan out drills for the team."

"Oh"

Well now you felt a bit silly

After a few seconds of silence you sighed and hid your face in Oikawa's shoulder. His arms wrapped around you body and he leaned back against your headboard

He spent the rest of the night holding you, whispering promises of never leaving you and how you're more important to him than anything else

Kuroo

Kuroo's friendly personality seemed to just attract people

I mean it was definitely something that hooked you so it was understandable why people tend to flock to him

It's just frustrating when he seems to have plans with people all the time, you barely see him these days

You didn't want to bring this to his attention in fear of being seen as clingy or controlling; Tetsu was your partner and had his own life, he wasn't a pet you could whistle for whenever you felt lonely

But you couldn't help but feel a bit....rejected

You were only about 5 minutes into lunch break and so far all you've done is lay your head on your desk and watched the rain fall outside

The gloomy day enhanced your depressed mood, your mind caught in the whirlpool of overthinking

Suddenly a little package was placed in front of you, followed by the sound of a chair being pulled up to your desk

You lifted your head from the desk only to find the very person that's been stuck in your mind sitting infront of you

"I got you melon bread from that bakery you like down the street, I would have given it to you earlier but you weren't here when I got to campus this morning."

"I missed my train..."

Kuroo snorted at your response and muttered something about you being cute before pulling out his lunch and beginning to eat

You opened the melon bread package, it looked delicious but your appetite seemed to have vanished

Kuroo watched you tear off a piece of the bread before placing the piece back on the wrappings with a sigh

Something was definitely wrong, you never turned down pastries from that bakery

"Not hungry?"

"Not really..."

"Did something else happen this morning? You're looking a bit...dejected"

You could never lie to Kuroo, and at this point you were so fed up with feeling alone that you didn't care about looking clingy, so you told him

He listened carefully to what you said and when you finished your rant he reached over the desk to hold your hands in his

"I'm sorry I made you feel like that. It won't happen again, I promise.....You've gotta tell me these things though, ok? I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."

You could tell he meant every word he said, if there was one thing you knew about Kuroo it was that he prided himself on staying true to his promises

You felt a weight off your shoulders the second he pressed a kiss to your hand

You even got your appetite back and devoured the melon bread he got you!

Atsumu

You'd of never expected Atsumu to spend time with someone outside of the volleyball team

Especially one of his fan girls of all people

All this interaction between the two started abruptly during lunch break. The girl had bounced up and pulled him away from your little group before anyone could get a word in, everyone just stared as the blonde was dragged down the hall

You were use to the fan girls, 'Tsumu never gave them the time of day so it was never a problem, but this just felt...off

Why was he suddenly paying attention to one of them? Was he bored of you? We're you just not enough to satisfy his ego?

You were torn from your thoughts by a gentle call of your name

You turned your attention from the clipboard in your lap to the direction of the voice meeting Kita's soft but steady eyes

"You seem less energetic than normal, have you eaten anything today?"

"Oh I'm fine Kita-senpai, you don't have to-"

You were cut off by him handing you a banana and a rant about how even their manager has to be in peak condition

You couldn't refuse Kita so you took the food with a smile and powered through the rest of practice

You left immediately after you finished cleaning the gym, ignoring the calls from Atsumu to wait up for him

You tried to walk fast so he wouldn't be able to catch up but the universe seemed to be against you as he easily jogged up to you minutes after you left

"Wassup with ya today? Kita-san said you were actin' weird."

"I'm surprised you noticed he said anything, your attention seems to be on other people."

Atsumu stepped infront of you, blocking you from walking further down the road

"Wass that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know Miya, why don't you ask your little fan girl"

You stepped around him attempting to run the rest of the way home but his hand grabbed your arm, spinning you back around to face him

Atsumu's hands held you in place to keep you from running away

"That's what this is about? That annoyin' scrub who won't leave me alone?"

"Annoying scrub?"

Atsumu went on explaining how he was partnered with her for a project in Japanese history and how even after they finished the project she wouldn't leave him alone (no matter how many times he told her to go away)

After he explained you felt a little better but you still felt insecurities scratching at your mind

You reached out for his hand and started walking again, keeping your eyes on the ground as you walked

"You didn't think I was cheatin' on ya.....right?"

"....."

".....I'd never leave ya for someone like that, yer the only one I've got my eyes on. Plus, yer the only person I've found that can tolerate me."

You laughed slightly at that, he wasn't completely wrong. Atsumu was a rather complex person but you found something enjoyable in that complexity

He let go of your hand and pulled you into his side, keeping his arm wrapped around your waist as you walked

Sakusa

Ok so maybe you were a bit jealous

Not much, but just a bit

You should have expected Sakusa would have admirers as the ace of Itachiyama (not to mention he was a very handsome guy)

But it still catches you off guard with how outwardly flirty your fellow manager was

Like they even know you're in a relationship with Kiyoomi and yet they continue to throw themselves at him

Being jealous over that was honestly very silly on your part because Sakusa has expressed their flirting makes him uncomfortable

So really there wasn't anything to worry about

Well...

That is until one day you overheard them telling Sakusa they enjoyed going out last night and that they should do it again

Which he responded with a "maybe"

If you were paying attention you would have noticed the flat tone to his voice and how his body language exuded 'Im very uncomfortable please go away'

But you being you, the second the manager opened their mouth your mind shut down and your blood went cold

They went out together last night?

You avoided everyone for the rest of practice, offering instead to clean practice jerseys and water bottles

Those were jobs usually done by two people but you needed to get away from everyone and you were hoping the jobs would take up the rest of practice

By the time you were nearly done with cleaning the water bottles, Sakusa had joined you at the outside fountain, mask pulled up on his face, his bag on one shoulder and yours on the other

"Do you want help?"

"You don't have to Omi.....it's my job anyways"

Despite your dismissal of his offer, he placed both your bags down and helped you clean the rest of the bottles, even going as far as carrying them back into the gym for you

You followed him over to the equipment room, you unlocked the door and took the box from his arms and put it on It's shelf

"You ready to go?"

"Almost, I have to throw the jerseys into the dryer. You can go on ahead without me."

"I'll wait, I want to avoid Komori. I don't feel like being dragged out with his friends again."

Dragged out with his friends? So it wasn't a secret date, Sakusa was forced to go by his cousin

Sakusa made his way by you to the gym's laundry room, Swifty tossing the practice jerseys into the dryer and then returning to your side

"You can stop worrying now, I know you overheard our conversation earlier. I would have much rather spent the night with you than them....they're too pushy for my liking."

He picked up your bags again and offered you his arm (something he much preferred over holding hands)

though he was usually a stoic person, you could just see the warmth his eyes held as he looked at you

You linked your arm with his, soaking up the heat from his body and the calm atmosphere that surrounded him