#god i wish people bat an eye on my post to see what it's about before liking it

[nickelstudy]

HAHA I'm back at my dorm

11/5/2023

This sounds like a diary lmao bUT yes I'm back at my dorm. To be honest, being at my home makes me study better because the routine is more fixed than here. Nonetheless, I'll keep trying.

Anyway, the update... I have skimmed through the kanjis and oh boy. I just don't see the point of studying them for some. They are mainly for names so they're not worth spending time learning it too much.

That's it! I'm on the 6-7th set right now. Hope I can be on track hehe

[demigod-shenanigans]

Triremes over Europe

Summary: “But isn’t it weird that it took me so long to realize this?” Jason asked, his expression still terribly vulnerable. “Shouldn’t this be something I just… know?”

“Sometimes it’s not,” Piper said, trying to keep the trembling out of her voice. Something in her chest was resonating, threatening to spill out, and she wasn’t quite ready to face it. “You know how the Mist works? How it will make people see what they’re expecting to see? It can be like that, too.”

It had been so easy to lean into it and ignore all evidence to the contrary. Piper McLean was in love with Jason Grace. There wasn’t a giant trireme flying over Europe.

Or: After the events in Split, Jason breaks up with Piper. Piper’s world shifts, but not in the way she expected.

Word count: ~ 4.5k

Rating: Teen and Up

Posting some more of this little fic universe! This time featuring Piper and Jason having a very amicable breakup. Piper and Jason are both queer and confused (there’s some level of comphet and internalized homophobia going on here for anyone who doesn’t feel like dealing with that right now), main focus is on the two of them being friends.

Piper has a crush on Reyna and doesn’t realize it and Jason has some perfectly normal platonic feelings towards Leo, thank you for asking. Please note that the tagged ships are pining only for this fic and this is a friendship fic first and a ship fic second.

Quick story note before we begin: for this universe I’m ignoring the whole Calypso situation (Percy can go yell at the gods to get her off the island when they’re done), so if you’re wondering why Leo is on the Argo during the Notus part, here’s your explanation!

———

Piper was about to get ready for bed when someone knocked on the door to her cabin.

She rubbed her eyes, confused, wondering if maybe she’d started drifting off and imagined the noise since it made no sense.

It was after midnight, way past the time when anyone except whoever was on watch was supposed to be walking around the ship. If it had been some sort of emergency, she couldn’t imagine her friends knocking instead of yelling about whatever was trying to kill them for the whole corridor to hear. And there hadn’t been a ton to report since they’d gotten stuck with Notus, anyway. Most likely, the main danger to Leo and Frank right now was that they’d bicker each other to death.

Hedge had already done his rounds, and he didn’t knock, exactly. He just yelled about how they all better be sleeping and banged his baseball bat against the door so loudly that if you really had been asleep before, you wouldn’t be after.

This only left Hazel, Nico or Jason, except Hazel had headed to bed early because she had a headache, Piper and Nico weren’t exactly friends, and Jason… he just wasn’t the type to break the rules, for any reason, no matter how much Piper wished he was.

The person knocked again, making it pretty clear that she hadn’t, in fact imagined it the first time, so Piper got up to open the door.

She was baffled when the door opened to a really sheepish, obviously anxious Jason.

“I didn’t wake you, did I?” he asked apologetically, looking at a point past her head.

“This might shock you, but I don’t usually sleep in jeans,” Piper joked. She raised an eyebrow. “Are you bending the rules to spend time with me? Who are you and what have you done to my boyfriend?”

Jason didn’t smile. He looked exhausted. The only benefit of the Notus situation should have been that Jason got some rest, since they weren’t constantly dealing with venti trying to crash the ship. Apparently he hadn’t been getting very much sleep regardless.

 “Piper, listen, I… can I talk to you? It’s kind of important.” 

She knew the instant the words were out of his mouth that this was it. They were done.

She’d been dreading this breakup for a while. Part of her had always known it was coming—that their relationship came with an expiration date. It was hard to put into words why. She just had. The way he’d been acting since his last mission had only made her more sure of it.

“Come in.” Piper forced a smile, trying to swallow the acid in her throat. She stepped aside to let Jason through, shutting the door behind him. “If you’re going to break up with me, I’d rather not have an audience.”

Jason didn’t argue. He wouldn’t even meet her eyes, dashing any hopes she might have had that she was misreading the situation again.

She sat back down on her bed, and a moment later Jason sank down next to her with obvious reluctance, far enough away that they weren’t touching. Great. Like this situation needed to get any more awkward.

“Listen, Pipes, I’m really sorry.” Jason was looking down at his hands, fidgeting uncomfortably. “It’s not that you’re- You didn’t do anything wrong. You’ve been great, actually. We’re just- I’m just not-” he broke off with a sigh, pressing his hands to his face. “Gods, I’m a disaster. I can’t even get the words out.”

“Here, I’ll help,” Piper huffed, crossing her arms. “It’s Reyna, isn’t it?”

She felt… she wasn’t sure what she was feeling, actually. 

Not surprised, exactly. She’d need both hands to count all the times she’d thought Jason would break up with her in the last few weeks. She wasn’t even sure she could blame him, really. Reyna was gorgeous. She didn’t need charmspeak to control a crowd—her general air of authority was more than enough. She was an awe-inspiring force of nature. If Piper could gather all that from the short time they’d spent together and a few flashes in her dagger, she couldn’t begin to imagine what years with her would be like. Of course Jason was in love with her. It seemed utterly impossible for anyone not to be.

So what was it that Piper was feeling? Jealousy, maybe? Anger? Neither of those felt like the right way to describe it.

There was a pressure in her chest that she couldn’t explain. All she knew was that it hurt. That it had been hurting ever since she’d started thinking about Jason and Reyna together, hands linked as they walked through the streets of New Rome.

It hadn’t been an issue when he’d first told her—when Reyna had been a vague idea of a person that had meant something to Jason in a different life. But that had been before she’d actually met Reyna.

Everything felt different since.

“It’s not Reyna,” Jason choked out. He looked more upset than she’d ever seen him, despite the fact that he was the one who’d decided to break up with her. “It’s never been about Reyna.”

Piper’s heart did something weird and awful, then. It unclenched slightly. Some of the tension went out of her shoulders, like it fundamentally wasn’t as bad if it was anyone else. 

“Then who is it?” she asked, because she was supposed to want to know. Because she wanted to go on ignoring the confusing ball of emotion in her chest that told her maybe it didn’t matter.

She wanted to shove those feelings back in the box and never look at them again.

“It’s not about anyone. It’s just me.” Jason looked like he might cry. Piper wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him cry before. 

He’d never been good at letting his walls down around her.

Despite the hurt and confusion, Piper reached out to put a hand on his shoulder. It felt like the natural thing to do. He’d been her friend before he’d ever been her boyfriend. “Hey, Sparky. Look at me.”

“Something happened. In Split,” Jason admitted after a long moment of silence. He did lift his head, then, but he still wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“Yeah, that much is obvious from how weird you and Nico have been acting.”

Neither of them had talked about what had happened or how they’d gotten the scepter. 

For the first few days after, Piper had barely seen Nico. He hadn’t even shown up for meals. He’d always been withdrawn, but not like that. And Jason… he’d been acting different around her. Pulling away when Piper tried to hold his hand, sincerely apologetic and terribly awkward at the same time. She’d hoped he was just stressed. The threat of the end of the world would do that to most people.

Apparently not.

Jason also seemed to have a newfound soft spot for Nico. He’d gone from jumpy every time Nico moved like he kept forgetting he was there to being protective of him whenever the subject came up, like he’d suddenly decided Nico was his younger brother and any bad word about him was a personal offense.

Piper wasn’t sure what Jason had done to change Nico’s mind, but whatever the case, as of two days ago he was back to eating with the rest of them.

“Tell me what happened.”

Jason shook his head. “I can’t. I’m sorry. It’s not my place to talk about it.”

“So tell me what you can talk about,” she said, not forcefully. She didn’t want him to tell her because she’d accidentally used her charmspeak. She wanted him to tell her because they’d been dating for months at this point and she deserved to understand what was going on, even if she didn’t like it. “Because if you’re going to break up with me, I’d at least like to know why.” 

“I’m sorry.” He did cry, then, his eyes pressed shut like that might make the pain go away. “I'm just really confused right now. I know my timing is awful. But it wouldn’t be fair to just keep dating you when I…” Jason clenched his hands into her blanket, apparently trying to steady his breathing. He didn’t quite manage. Then he looked directly at her, his expression more vulnerable than she’d ever seen it. “When I’m not even sure I’m into girls. I. Uhm. I think I might be gay?”

Piper couldn’t stand the fear in his eyes. Before she fully registered what she was doing, she’d looped her arms around Jason’s midsection and pulled him to her chest. “It’s okay. You’re okay. Breathe.”

Jason made a surprised noise, but he obeyed, steadying himself against her as his breaths evened out against her shoulder. She wasn’t sure she’d ever held him like this before. It felt intimate, maybe more than any of their kisses had.

“You’re not mad?” he asked when they broke apart, looking at her like he was still expecting her to change her mind and start yelling at him.

“Why would I be mad?”

“Because I just broke up with you?” He sounded more confused than anything now. “Because I wasted a bunch of your time?”

Piper blinked, momentarily baffled by her own reaction. Jason was right. Maybe she should feel mad—not at his sexuality, obviously, and probably not even at him, but definitely at the situation. At the very least, she should probably feel bummed out, especially considering how long they’d been dating.

Somehow, she wasn’t feeling either of those things. She had, for a brief moment at the beginning, but not for the reasons she was supposed to be feeling that way. By now, any upset she’d felt had vanished completely. The confusing knot of emotions in her heart had unspooled into a treacherous feeling of relief.

For weeks, she’d assumed Jason breaking up with her would be the worst thing that could happen. Now that it was done, it felt like someone had removed a weight from her chest. Like she could breathe freely for the first time in months.

“I’m not going to be mad at you for something you only just realized about yourself,” she said, squeezing his shoulder gently. 

“But isn’t it weird that it took me so long to realize this?” Jason asked, his expression still terribly vulnerable. “Shouldn’t this be something I just… know?”

“Sometimes it’s not,” Piper said, trying to keep the trembling out of her voice. Something in her chest was resonating, threatening to spill out, and she wasn’t quite ready to face it. She thought back to the conversation she’d had with Hazel a few nights ago. “You know how the Mist works? How it will make people see what they’re expecting to see? It can be like that, too.”

It had been so easy to lean into it and ignore all evidence to the contrary. Piper McLean was in love with Jason Grace. There wasn’t a giant trireme flying over Europe.

She thought about how she’d told Jason she loved him when she assumed they were going to die, only to feel the same treacherous relief she did now when she’d realized he hadn’t heard it. She’d rationalized it by saying it would have been too soon. 

It was starting to click that that hadn’t been the reason for her relief at all.

Piper had an actor for a dad. Maybe it made sense that she was just a little bit too good at pretending.

Jason looked at her, surprised, and then he smiled, tiny and fragile and like he could see right through her. 

He hugged her again, and Piper felt like her chest might cave in—like all the things she’d refused to let herself feel might come tumbling out for everyone to see.

It terrified her. But something about this—about the fact that she wasn’t terrified and confused alone—made it easier to breathe.

“I’m glad we’re friends,” Jason said softly. “I like you so much. I think you’re awesome. I just… I don’t think I ever saw what I was supposed to when I looked at you.”

Piper’s head hurt, the way it sometimes did when she knew she was going to start crying. This was why it had been so perfectly easy to pretend with Jason. Why it might have been even without the fake memories and her mom telling her they were meant to be.

Jason was nice and brave and conventionally attractive. He was her friend, and Piper cared about him. Why wouldn’t she want them to be more? He was like a cardboard cutout of the love interest in every high school romcom she’d ever watched.

He was everything she was supposed to want in a boyfriend. She was supposed to fall asleep thinking about him. She was supposed to want to be alone with him. Instead, every time they were, she wished Leo was there to bridge the awkward silences. When she closed her eyes, she thought of Annabeth and their game of domestic breakfast theft. She thought of Reyna’s determined expression reflected in her knife. 

But Annabeth was her friend, and Piper was worried. Of course she was thinking about her. 

And Reyna… Reyna wasn’t anything to Piper. She was just a girl Jason had never dated, a girl he’d repeatedly stated he didn’t see as anything more than a friend. She wasn’t a threat to the relationship that Piper had convinced herself she wanted. There was no reason for the amount of space Reyna had taken up in Piper’s head.

She’d taken up residence regardless, and whenever Piper let her thoughts wander, her fingers wound up tangled in long brown hair.

Gods, fuck.

“Well, turns out we’re both kind of a mess,” she choked out, rubbing at her eyes, and yep, she was definitely crying now. It was as close to the truth as she allowed herself to get.

Jason swayed a little as he held her, like they were the strangest pair of dancers in history. It was weirdly soothing.

“And we’re both going to be okay,” he said, like it was the most certain thing in the world.

Piper held on tightly and let herself sink into that feeling. She wasn’t in love with Jason, but gods, she did love him. Curled up against his chest, that was one of the few things she felt certain about.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked quietly, after she managed to get a bit more of a handle on her emotions again.

They’d never been great at the talking part. They made a decent questing team, sure, but the moments before and after, when it was just the two of them… Piper never knew what to do with those. Jason didn’t seem to have much of a clue, either. 

Needless to say, she was a little surprised when Jason nodded.

“It’s confusing. It’s been confusing since Hera took my memories. They still don’t really feel like mine. They’re more like a movie I watched a few times—I know the plot and remember all the important bullet points, but that’s it. I’m not attached to them in the way I’m supposed to be.” Jason sighed. “I don’t remember ever seriously thinking of dating anyone, but maybe I had crushes. Some of the emotional parts didn’t carry over great. Maybe I was getting there, and then Hera decided it was inconvenient for what she had in mind, and now I’m confused all over again.”

Piper cringed. Having to do this once was bad enough. She couldn’t imagine what it’d feel like to have to go through it twice.

“I’m sorry.”

Jason was back to wringing his hands.

“I’d never even kissed anyone before you, which is probably part of why I didn’t figure things out sooner. I have no idea how it’s supposed to feel. Just that whatever I am feeling probably isn’t… that.”

This seemed like something Piper was supposed to know. She was the daughter of the goddess of love, for crying out loud. 

The truth was, she didn’t. Not really. 

Jason was the only person she’d ever kissed, in whatever moments she felt warranted a kiss. That in itself maybe should have told her something a lot sooner—how she’d thought of kissing him not as something she wanted to be doing, but as a task to be checked off a list. 

It was incredible what the Mist could hide if you didn’t think it was there. If you weren’t ready to see it. How well your brain could pull wool over your eyes when it came to things you weren’t willing to process.

It was one thing to risk being all over the tabloids with a stupid stunt she'd pulled to get her dad's attention. If people judged her for that, she could brush it off because they didn't truly know her.

Because that behavior was a choice she made, and one she could stop making at any time. But she already had enough people who judged her based on her heritage. If she could at least take this part of herself and package it up until it was unrecognizable so she never had to deal with what anyone else thought of it, wasn't that worth it, even if it made her miserable?

But you couldn't will the Mist back once you'd seen through it. And here, with Jason, who got her even if she still couldn't get the words out, Piper didn't think she wanted to.

She wanted to hold that piece of herself to her chest and just be, damn it. The world might end in a few weeks. And if they couldn't stop it, she'd so much rather live these last few weeks as herself. And if they did manage, well… she would cross that bridge if Gaia didn’t blow it up first.

Piper let that decision settle, with all the mixed emotions that came with it. It felt mostly good.

Then she gave herself a moment to really consider what Jason had said about kissing, thinking back to the campers who’d come to her for advice. In retrospect, that felt terribly ironic. Who was she to give romantic advice to anyone when she’d made herself so blind to her own feelings?

“I think there’s supposed to be sparks,” she finally said. “Not that I’ve got any more experience in that department than you do.”

“What, like I should fry them?” Jason raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t sound safe.”

“Not literal sparks.” Piper paused, thinking about the gems that appeared whenever Hazel got nervous, or the way Leo would sometimes catch fire when he was stressed or excited. Maybe Jason’s thought wasn’t completely absurd. “Actually, there might be literal sparks, with your powers. But for most people, it’s more metaphorical. A warmth in your chest whenever you think about kissing them. Your heart flutters, and you want to keep doing it, today and tomorrow and maybe forever. Everything just feels right. It fits. Like you’re two sides of the same coin.” She laughed. “Oh Gods, I sound like a cheesy Valentine’s Day card.”

Jason snorted. “A bit. But thanks for trying. I think I might just be hopeless when it comes to this stuff.”

“You’ll figure it out. At least one of us has to,” Piper said, elbowing him gently. “It’ll probably get easier once we’re done constantly worrying about how the world might end in a month.”

“Yeah. Or maybe I’ll just be dead.” Jason bit his lip. “I hate this stupid prophecy. I don’t want to die. But I could never let it be Leo.”

There was something so determined in his expression that it scared her—like Jason had already decided how this was going to go, and the Fates should just try to lay a finger on Leo instead. Piper understood the sentiment—Leo was her best friend, and the thought of something happening to him just about killed her. But Jason was her friend, too, and she wasn’t any more okay with losing him than she was with losing Leo. 

“Even if I’m right about the prophecy, we’ll find another way,” Piper said, trying to sound reassuring. They had to. It didn’t seem fair that a bunch of sixteen year olds would have to make that kind of choice. “Besides, you know how Leo is. Tell him he can’t do a thing and he’ll take it as a personal challenge. One time, back in Wilderness School, one of the other kids told him he couldn’t possibly eat fifteen Jell-O cups. Made himself sick for two days, but he ate twenty just to spite that person.”

There were few scenes from that time Piper remembered clearly, thanks to Hera’s Mist memories. Why this was one of them, she had no idea.

The corners of Jason’s mouth ticked up. “Yeah, when Leo sets his mind to something, he’ll do it, laws of the universe be damned. The Fates won’t know what hit them.”

Jason’s voice was soft and fond. He had an expression like he’d follow Leo to the moon if he asked—over a stupid story about Jell-O cups, of all things.

“You like him a lot, don’t you?”

“I mean, obviously.” Jason smiled softly. “Leo’s kind of the greatest person I’ve ever met.”

“Aw, you sap.” Piper elbowed him again. “Please don’t tell him that, though. I’m not sure he needs his ego even more inflated,” she joked.

Jason rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “It… might be a little too late for that.” 

Piper raised one eyebrow. “What did you do?”

“I maybe told him that he was important, and that people with special gifts like his show up when they’re needed the most. Half a year ago, in the sewer.”

“Oh my gods.” Piper couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. “That’s really sweet, don’t get me wrong, but I cannot believe I fell asleep early one time and you immediately started hitting on my best friend.”

“That’s not- I wasn’t-” Jason’s face turned crimson. “I didn’t say anything I didn’t mean.”

“I wasn’t saying you didn’t mean it.” She didn’t push him, no matter how much she wanted to point out that this was the most romantic thing she’d heard him say since they met. It would have been too much, too soon, even if they hadn’t had the prophecy hanging over their heads. “I am, however, saying that you are the corniest person I know. If I was boring enough to be genuine, I’d say Leo probably really appreciated it, though. He’s not the best at admitting when he’s having a hard time, and you saying sappy stuff like that is sometimes more helpful than me joking with him.”

“Good.” Jason’s shoulders slumped in something that looked like relief, and he gave her a tentative smile. “I’m glad. I’m sure he appreciates you joking with him just as much, though.”

And somehow, after all the breakup talk and the half-spoken truths about themselves and each other, this was almost easy. 

Piper believed Jason when he said that it wasn’t about anyone in particular. That he was just confused and this didn’t feel the way it was supposed to.

She was also pretty sure she now knew something he didn’t.

~~~~~

It was the middle of the night by the time Jason left her cabin, and Piper was glad no one was around to witness it. Frank probably would have had a stroke. Coach Hedge would have promptly beaten them both up with his baseball bat before either of them got the chance to explain that they’d actually just needed some alone time to break up in peace.

Piper was still kind of shocked about how well things had gone. Despite the circumstances, it had been her and Jason’s first non-awkward solo conversation in what felt like forever. Go figure that breaking up would somehow make things less weird between them.

They hadn’t exactly decided what to tell the others, or when they would. Piper had joked that they could just wait for someone to awkwardly point out that they weren’t kissing anymore. With them all constantly trying not to die, their friend group really had more important things to worry about than the non-existent relationship drama between Piper and Jason. 

Sure, it would probably take them a moment to figure out how to properly go back to being friends after they’d dated for months, but amicable as their breakup had been, they’d manage.

Piper really should have tried to sleep now, considering the fact that she was supposed to be on watch in the morning and it wouldn’t be great if she slept through that.

Instead, she sat at the edge of her bed and got out Katoptris. It hadn’t shown her any new visions since Rome. She’d been hoping to get confirmation Annabeth and Percy were alive, at first, but it vehemently refused. The only thing it bothered to show her now was a still. Every time she looked at the blade, the same stupid image of Reyna on her pegasus stared back, like the blade had gotten stuck on it somehow. Like someone had pressed pause on this exact frame and then decided to lose the remote.

Reyna looked exhausted. Her hair had come loose from her neat braid and was completely disheveled, but there was a grim determination in her eyes like she could handle anything. When Piper looked at her, she really, truly believed that.

She wanted to reach out and brush the stray strands of hair back behind Reyna’s ears. Maybe redo her braid, despite the fact that she wasn’t great at braiding and Reyna probably wouldn’t want her to even if she had been.

This was the part where usually, Piper’s brain would kick in and start trying to rationalize things away. Girls were objectively pretty. Piper admired Reyna. She needed to know the competition. She wanted to be friends with her. There were perfectly heterosexual reasons for why she wondered what her palms felt like and why she really needed to figure out how well Reyna’s jaw fit into her hands.

But it was three in the morning, and there wasn’t a Jason-shaped weight pressing down on her chest, and for the first time, Piper let the thoughts linger.

————

Some notes:

-My favorite interpretation of Jason and Piper’s relationship will always be one of them breaking up with the other because they figured out they’re queer and the other promptly going “oh thank the gods I thought it was just me”

-Split actually went down a lot like it did in the book, it didn’t change in any massive way, except afterwards Jason just kind of looked at Nico confused because “is that not a perfectly normal reaction to have to Percy Jackson” and Nico just kind of stared at him for ages. Jason is still sorting out a lot of stuff (it turns out getting your memories and entire sense of self ripped away from you will mess with you in some pretty severe ways. Who’d have thought). He does not have his feelings for Leo figured out even slightly. But he’ll get there. Once I feel more confident writing Nico I’d really like to do a little prequel fic about him and Jason bonding, but we’ll see how it goes.

-Piper trying to be heterosexual for all of HoO while describing Reyna in the most romantic terms imaginable and tenderly pressing her forehead to Annabeth’s is highly comedic to me. Piper doesn’t even know Reyna and I swear she’s on her mind more than she is on Jason’s, lol

-The way Piper’s visions dagger works in the series has no actual consistency and therefore if I want to use the plot convenience dagger for queer purposes I can and I will.

@poppitron360

[rudystopit]

iv. Governed By The Flesh│M.O'Hara

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Summary: You start your day with a sore back from helping Father Parker and meet Father O'Hara, who apologizes for his absence the previous night. While working together, he shows kindness but later becomes agitated when you mention past conversations. His guilt and inner conflict lead to a violent outburst, leaving him deeply troubled and remorseful.

Pairing: Priest!Vampire!Miguel O'Hara/Nun!reader

Warnings: masturbation, slight gore again.... sorry.

word count: 4,596

a/n: I must have displeased the vampire gods while writing this... I had two bats actively flying around me when I formatting this chapter for tumblr. godspeed y'all and i'm sorry vampire gods

masterlist

{cross posted on AO3}

ℜ𝔬𝔪𝔞𝔫𝔰 8:6 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔡 𝔤𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔯𝔫𝔢𝔡 𝔟𝔶 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔣𝔩𝔢𝔰𝔥 𝔦𝔰 𝔡𝔢𝔞𝔱𝔥, 𝔟𝔲𝔱 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔪𝔦𝔫𝔡 𝔤𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔯𝔫𝔢𝔡 𝔟𝔶 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔖𝔭𝔦𝔯𝔦𝔱 𝔦𝔰 𝔩𝔦𝔣𝔢 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔭𝔢𝔞𝔠𝔢

You wake up with the sun. The sunny sky brings a warm breeze into your room. Your back screamed as you sat up. You begin to regret helping Father Parker as you rub your back to ease the pain. You closed your eyes and wished you could go back to bed.

"It's too early," you said and stood up. You walked over to your window. You saw Father O'Hara walking back to the abbey. You leaned out the window. "Good morning, Father O'Hara. Blessed morning, isn't it?" you said trying to mask the grogginess you feel. 

He looked up at your window. "Good Morning, Sister. It seems like it," he smiles. He walks a little closer to the abbey. He looks up again. "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair," he yelled. You chuckled and looked down at him.

"I would, but I don't think it's long enough," you yelled down to him.

"That's a shame," he looked at his feet, "I'd like to talk to you. Can we meet before breakfast?"

"Yeah, I'll meet you by the bay window before the dining hall. Is that alright, Father?" you yelled.

"Yes, I'll meet you there," he waved and disappeared into the abbey.

You quickly got dressed and headed to the dining hall. You tried to mask your excitement while walking to the window. Sister Lyla sees you and runs up to you. She links her arm through yours, and you exchange pleasantries. "I have a meeting before I go to breakfast. I'll find you in there," you smiled, and she turned to see who you were looking at. She turns back to you and winks before heading into the hall.

"Morning, Father O'Hara," she said.

"Who is that?" he asks, joining you at the window. You told him how you and Sister Lyla became friends. You look at him and see how he looks like he went rolling around in the woods. You picked a leaf out of his hair. He just stares at you. "I'm sorry," he says.

"Please, don't take offense to how she sounded. It's just her teasing me."

"No, for last night," he said. "I'm sorry I wasn't there. I know your work is more important than just helping me. And I ruined your day by not being there." he takes your hands in his.

"That's alright. Father Parker asked me to help him with his office," you stared at the tangle of hands. You looked up at him, and his eyes looked at you in horror.

"Father Parker?" he asked.

"Yes?" you asked, pulling your hands away from him.

"What did he say?" his voice became low. His eyes burn into yours.

"He told me stories about you two when you were in high school," you shyly say. He stands up and mumbles to himself. He walks around in circles. "I'm sorry. I didn't know it was crossing a line. Father Parker was excited to tell me about all of it. I didn't think it was a problem," you said. You stood to go into the dining hall, but his hand came to grab your arm.

"I'm not mad at you. I'm annoyed that that loudmouth decided to tell people about my past," he smiles. “Well, I just wanted you to apologize about last night. You’re dismissed, I’ll see you later,” you bow and walk into the dining hall.

You grab some fruits and walk over to Sister Lyla. She's talking with some other sisters. You quietly sat by her, and the other sisters stopped talking. You picked at your food and tried to make yourself smaller as everyone stared at you.

"Sister, do you remember the animal attacks of the last couple of years?" she asked, shoving some food into her mouth. "I overheard Abbess talking to some of the Elder Fathers about what the 'plan' is."

"Yes, I guess it is that time of year again. What is their plan?" you ask.

"If sisters have to go into town, they have to be in a buddy system," she takes a sip of her water. "... which isn't a great plan since most animal attacks happen at night, and due to curfew, the only people going out at night are the fathers. Are they going to walk in a buddy system?"

That's right. That man last night. Father O'Hara was out last night. You continued digging into your memory to see if he was alright this morning. He did look dirty this morning, but he didn't look to be bleeding. You stared at the bowl of fruit. Your fork is just moving around a strawberry.

"What do you know?" Lyla asked.

"I saw Father O'Hara leave last night. He came back this morning covered in dirt," you said.

"Oh, was he hurt? Oh, yeah, how was your first day with him?"

"He didn't look hurt this morning. He wasn't in his office last night. I ended up with Father Parker. Abbess is probably going to talk to Father O'Hara about that," Put your fork down. Lyla looks at you. She is searching for answers in your eyes. She narrows her eyes.

"What was the meeting about?" she stabs her food before looking back up at you.

"He apologized," you smiled. She looks around at some of the sisters leaving. 

"OK, I want to get the comfortable pew before everyone else takes it," she taps your shoulder and goes to put her plate in the bin. You followed her. She linked her arm with you, and you two walked to the chapel. "Can we be normal for a second?"

"What?" you look at her confused.

"Like, can I talk to you like an actual person? Drop the formalities and talk about boys and drama. I miss that part of my life before my vows," she looked at you with such sadness. "I've been depressed since joining. All the people I talk to shut me down and are so condescending," she adds.

"You know what, I also miss talking normally. I had a conversation with Father Parker, and I was actually having fun. It felt like catching up with an old friend," you leaned into her. "Yes, you can talk to me normally. I'd really enjoy it," she squeezes your arm and quietly 'thank you' as Abbess Drew stands up.

Morning prayers went by so quickly now that you had someone who you know will be there for you. After prayers, you walked with Lyla to her duties and sat there and listened to her talk about everything and anything. Your cheeks hurt from smiling the whole time.

⋆༺♱༻⋆⋆༺♱༻⋆⋆༺♱༻⋆⋆༺♱༻⋆⋆༺♱༻⋆⋆༺♱༻⋆⋆༺♱༻⋆⋆༺♱༻⋆⋆༺♱༻

There was a knock at Abbess Drew's door.

"Come in," her voice boomed. Her door creaked open. His big frame peeked in. "Come in, Father O'Hara," she says as she stands up. He slides in and stands in front of her desk. She bows and signals him to sit.

"Why do I feel like I got called to the Principal's office," he tries to joke.

"Because I'm annoyed," her voice was dead serious, which sent chills down his shine. "The Sister's job is to do their duties for Our Lord. And when one of the Fathers' has disappeared and the sister cannot do the duty they are called to do, you are interfering with their relationship with God," she looks down at him. "Do you understand Father O'Hara?"

"Yes, Abbess Drew. I apologized to her this morning. I plan on having her work today. Thank you," his gaze is solely on his hands. He waits for her to say something. All he hears is her sitting with a huff. He looks up, and she's rubbing her temples.

"She's a wonderful woman. She's devoted to her faith. Don't mess it up." She says, "I can see her in this office one day. Please, Miguel, don't," she waves him off.

He gets up to leave but stops. "I can see that she's a wonderful woman. I will do my best to keep her on the path of God," he bows and leaves the office.

He takes a breath and looks up to find Father Parker in front of him. "You suck," he says. They walk together. "What did you tell her?"

"Some stories," Father Parker laughs. "I know you're a private man, but the church mouse is a sweet kid. Also, why do you look like shit?" Father Parker points to his clothes

"I went out and tripped in the woods," he answers. "Everyone tells me that she's sweet," he points back at the Abbess's office. "Got chewed out for leaving. Which I didn't till later. I was asleep at the desk," he looks out the window. Church mouse? he thought to himself. fitting, I guess. 

"You were asleep?" Father Parker yelled. "I slammed on your door. How did you not hear me?" he starts laughing. "Miguel, you say you were sleeping, but it honestly sounds like you were in a coma," he slaps his friend in the back.

"I have to shower. I will see you later," he bows to him and leaves.

⋆༺♱༻⋆⋆༺♱༻⋆⋆༺♱༻⋆⋆༺♱༻⋆⋆༺♱༻⋆⋆༺♱༻⋆⋆༺♱༻⋆⋆༺♱༻⋆⋆༺♱༻⋆

Lunch came quicker than you had thought. You ended up missing your private prayers and a shower. You spend your morning with Lyla as she does her duties in the chapel, which is a lot more sitting than actual cleaning. You guys talked about your lives before the church and the things you two miss. You two ate lunch, and she walked you to the door that led to the fathers' offices.

"I bid you a fair goodbye, my love, for I, Lyla, will miss you deeply," she bows, and the two of you laugh. "But for real, Have a good night. I'll see you at breakfast."

"Have a good evening, Lyla," you say as you slip into the office hall. You walk down the hallway and round the corner to his office. You look at the oak door and knock. You hear shuffling, and the door swings open to Father O'Hara looking down at you. "Good afternoon, Father O'Hara," he moves out of the way for you to walk in.

You walked to the middle of the room and looked around. You looked for a broken painting. The carpet seems vacuumed, so you figured he probably cleaned it up. He shuts the door and walks around to his desk. He motions for you to sit. He hands a pile of paper to you.

"You'll be sorting this into piles of topics and then organized into dates," he says and turns back to his pile of papers.

You looked around at the objects around his office—no pictures of family, no pictures of him and Father Parker, no personal things. There's a crucifix on the wall beside him. There are tons of different books behind him. You looked at him. His eyebrows are heavy on his face. His eyes darted from one end of the page to the other. They are narrow as he reads a specific line. He sniffles every few seconds. His hair is damp. There's barely any expression on his face. His eyes flick up to yours.

"What?" he asks.

"Oh, nothing, Father," you drop your head to look at the paper in front of you. The side of his mouth twitches to a smile.

You read through the papers. Most are about different rights and rituals of the church around Easter. Some were about the history of how Easter came to be. A lot of the papers were from the Renaissance period.

You were almost done with your pile when Father O'Hara stretched and groaned. You look up from your papers. You set them on the desk and rolled your shoulders. It doesn't help that the pain from helping Father Parker still ached. You scrunch your face in pain when you straight out your back. He looks at you with curiosity.

"Pain in your back?" he asks.

"Yeah, I'm still sore from helping Father Parker with his office last night," you said, picking the papers back up.

"Here," he stands, and your eyes follow his movements till he disappears behind you. His hand comes to your shoulders. You tense up at his hand's sudden touch. He begins rolling his thumbs, shading your shoulder blades. You relax and lean into his pressure. You close your eyes and enjoy the moment of release. You hum as the tension in your back ceases. He smiles down at you as you ease into his hands. His thumbs roll over a tender spot in your back. You finch away and yelp. His face goes hot. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"No, you're good. It's your super tense right there," you say.

He retreats to his seat. He picks up some papers and looks up at you. "I'm quite hungry. Would you mind grabbing us some dinner?" he asks. You nod and go to leave.

Once the door closes, he sighs. He leans back in his chair. A tent has grown in his pants. He rubs his temples and looks up at the ceiling.

"I wish she didn't have this effect on me," he groans into his hands. He adjusts his pants and his breath hitches. He swears under his breath. He grinds the palm of his hand into his pants. He grits his teeth. He continues the motion at a steady pace. He closes his eyes. His breathing quickens as his pace slow increases. His palm slides over his tip, and his mouth falls open. He undoes his belt. His fingers were on the button of his pants. He imagines you. You in between his legs—looking up at him with those bright eyes. He quickly pops the button and zipper. His hand drives into his briefs. He wraps his fingers around his girth. His mouth opens slightly as he pants, waiting. He begins moving his hand down his length. His other hand grips onto the table.

He imagines his fist as your mouth as he quickens his strokes. He slides his hand on his desk, then quickly clenches it into a fist, thinking about what you felt like under his hands. His eyes squeeze shut, holding onto the thought of you under his desk. He mumbles your name as he inches closer to completion. His strokes become uneven, and his nails pushed into his palm, causing blood to be drawn. His jaw clenched with enough pressure that would crush bones. The last couple of strokes, and he was done. He put his head on the desk and became embarrassed at what he did.

He mumbled about how he shouldn't have done that to the thought of you. Innocent you. The little sister with the heart of gold. The quiet sister. The church mouse.

His breathing slowed, and he sat up to clean himself off. He looked at his desk and a painting of Jesus looked back at him. He glared at the book and slammed the cover closed. A soft knock at the door pulled him to reality. He stuffed himself back in and said it was OK to come in. You handed him a plate of dinner's leftovers.

"Thank you, church mouse," he set the plate next to him and continued to work on the papers around him. 

You looked at him and scrunched your nose. Church mouse? You knew the other sisters had called you that, but you had no idea the fathers referred to you as such. You glared at him while you ate. Does everyone think of you as that? A church mouse.

He glances up and sees you glaring at him and chewing angrily.

"Everything alright?" he asks.

"You called me church mouse," you mumbled.

"I did? Oh, my mistake," He goes back to reading the papers and taking notes.

You look down at your plate. You push around the food. You let his passive tone repeat over and over in your head. You tried to eat some food but instead you just stabbed the food and you couldn’t hide your emotions. You scolded at your dinner, thinking about his comment. 

"Do you see me as a church mouse," you asked hastily. "I know the sisters call me that to be mean," you say.

"I think it's an endearing name," He says without looking up from his notes.

“Oh,” you bring your fork to your mouth. 

You silently ate your food while Father O'Hara continued his work. You watch his brown eyes scan the pages, looking for the exact line he wants. You glance over at his plate. Never touched and left to get cold. You watch how his fingers slide in between the pages. You watch how he flexes and then relaxes. He puts the pages down and picks up the pen lying next to his food. He clears his throat. You flick your eyes to his. Instead of seeing his eyes gazing at the sheets of paper on the desk, you're met with his eyes staring back at you. You sallow harshly and look down at your plate. Hoping his gaze would soon turn to something other than the top of your head.

"Why do you think they call you that?" He leans back into his seat. 

"One of the sisters told me, they thought it was about how I grew up in the church," You refused to look at him. Instead, you look over one of the books on his desk. 

"Have you heard the expression, 'quiet as a church mouse'?" He looks down at you. 

"I think I heard it once," You flip through the pages. You look at the illustrations of what the old pagans did on the spring equinox. Your face becomes warm. 

"Sure, The Sisters might mean it in a mean way but I think they call you that because you're quiet and they don't understand why you don't join them," he smiles. You look up at him. His expression is soft and genuine. His hands are folded on his lap. "I think with you befriending Sister Lyla, your name might chance to just mouse," he jokes. 

You ignore his comment and go back to flipping through the book. He watches you for a few minutes. He notices small mannerisms like how you twitch your nose when you read something you don't understand or how you hold your book with such gentleness as if it will fall apart if handled too harshly. 

He starts to think about how he would hold you. He wants to protect you from whatever happens, even if it means himself. He watched you read about how the church turned pagan rituals into Catholic rights. He noticed how your eyes got wide when there were illustrations of the roles. He knew exactly what part you were reading. He saw the wheels of your mind turning, reading about how the ancient pagans chose a man and woman to act as the god and goddess and how they would "plant the seed" for spring equinox. He saw the look of realization that the eggs around Easter time were a symbol for a different type of egg. A grin crept onto his face. He thought about how he would have wished you were his partner for those rituals. Heat spread to his thighs as more impure thoughts came into his mind. He looked around for anything to distract him. His list of items he wanted for the display. 

"I need your ideas," He quickly says, shaking you from your reading. 

"About?" 

"The displays," He stands and moves towards the window. The sun cast a pink ray onto his face. "I was thinking of the bishop's Easter robes, Palm, and a monstrance. what do you think?" he turned back to you. 

"Why those?" You questioned. He gave you a surprised look. "Well, people are going to the display to learn. I know why but you have to explain in a way to someone who doesn't have years of studies on catholic practices." 

"I knew you were smart," He chuckles. A chill runs down your spine. that dream. You thought. "These robes are worn by the Bishops during the Easter traditions. The Purple robes are worn for Lent, the week leading up the Easter except for when they wear Rosé on the fourth day of Lent, The red is worn on the seven Sundays after easter for Pentecost Sunday, as well as Palm Sunday and Good Friday, and the white robe is worn on Easter Sunday." 

"That's just the days they wear certain colors. Why do they wear those colors on those days?" You asked. 

"The purple signifies the mysteries we are celebrating as a church and during Lent we are reflecting on issues of repentance and passion for Jesus Christ. The White symbolizes rejoicing and purity of the soul.  Rose vestments are worn to represent the joyful reward that comes from offering sacrifice with patience. The red is to signify the presence of the Holy Spirit in our community and our unity in Christ." He quickly retorts back at you. 

"Ok, now combine them." You smile, and you see his face put the pieces together.

"I understand now," He looks out the window. 

"I guess working in labs made it hard for you to not think analytically," you laugh. 

"Did Father Parker tell you I worked in labs?" he turns to you. 

"No, but he mentioned you were good at biology. I just assumed that's what you did before joining," You look at the floor as you explained. You hear his footsteps come closer. His finger lifts your chin. 

"I didn't work in labs," he looks down at you. His voice is ice. His eyes filled with hatred. 

"I understand. My apologies, Father O'Hara." he releases your chin and turns to his desk. 

"Please write a couple of letters to these bishops," He picks up a piece of paper off his desk. "Ask them if we could borrow the items that are next to their name," he says coldly and sits back in his seat. You began your task. His quick change in personality frightens you and you wish to never see that again. You tucked the thought back into your mind, hoping you would never make him upset again. 

He watched you write out the letters. Your hand shook slightly and he heard quiet sniffles. He dropped his shoulders in realization. He had scared you. He looked down at the desk. Sighing in disappointment, you turned back to his work. 

The two of you worked in silence for a few hours. He would glance up at you to see if you were alright. Each time he hoped you'd be looking at him as well. He wanted to apologize for his actions but couldn't find a way to make it natural. He turned to the window to see the sun had left. He cleared his throat and suggested it was late and that you should go to bed. 

You turned towards him, not wanting to make direct eye contact. He searched for any signs that you had cried. He found none. "I can escort you to your room," he says in a quiet tone. You simply nodded. He opened the door for you. He came out and locked his office. He followed behind you to the office door. You opened it and held it for him. You try to quietly shut it. You looked out the window and watched the night creatures wander about on the abbey's lawn. His shoes were the loudest thing in the hallways. You didn't dare try to look at him. Instead, you try to read the signs in the hall. Mostly about different events being held.  He walked with you silently down the halls. They felt longer than usual. The silence was too loud and the air was filled with intense emotions. You see the door to the Sisters' rooms. He stops you before you can open the door. "I'm sorry for my actions," he simply said when you headed to your bedroom door. 

"It's fine, Father O'Hara," you said as you opened the door. You stood in the doorway, quickly making eye contact and then closing the door. 

Father O'Hara stood by your door. He felt awful about what he did. He looked at the ground and walked away, letting his feet lead him to wherever. He thought about how you looked the last couple of hours. How you didn't want to look at him. Is this how you would treat me if you found out?  he asked himself. He kept walking. He didn't know where to go. All he knew was he didn't want to be in the abbey. 

The halls stretched on, the beige paint only adding to how much he didn't want to be there. He glances at the event boards and reads a couple of familiar names. He saw that Father Parker was hosting an AA meeting next week. He weakly chuckled at the thought. He turned towards the stairway. It always felt colder than the rest of the old building. He dragged his hand down the railing as he tried to not throw himself down the stairs. The old stones jugged out and he tried to count all the different colors he saw. He counted 4, brown, darker brown, gray, and black. He continued his path to the abbey's lobby. Small donations were lying on a bench, tied in bags. He pushed open the door to the outside. 

He walked out to the sidewalks outside of the looming building. He listened to the trees move as the wind picked up. He looked at the trash stuck in the rain drains. He hated himself for making you feel scared. He puts his hands in his pockets as he tries to not be consumed by the guilt. He watched his feet as he walked and thought about how he wanted to make it up to you. He wondered if you were going to be distant with him because of tonight. He smelt the familiar lilac. He stopped and looked at the small flowers of the bundle. He picked one of the bulbs. He continued to walk, staring at the flower in his hand. He smiled at the purple petals. He walks past the shops and sees a glance of his reflection. He stops to look at it, dropping the flower. He hates the man he sees, even more than most days. He stares into his sunken eyes and furrows his brows. Anger at himself causes his chest to rise faster until he's had enough and punches the glass. 

"Woah there Bud," a voice cuts off his rage. Father O'Hara turns to his eyes narrow. "No need to take your frustration out of the window of some poor shop," the obviously drunk man laughs to himself. "Actually, I think I know the family who owns this place. I should give 'em a call. tell 'em there's a man trying to rob them." He's had enough. He walks up to the man and grabs his head. He throws him to the ground and starts tearing. All of his anger turned to rage. Anger about this guy, about the church, about him, and mostly anger about God. He stopped to catch his breath. Covered in blood he looks down at the man. Guilt settled back in. He sits back on his feet and looks at what he did to this man and to you. His stomach groaned. He sighed and drank some of the blood before returning to the sleeping abbey. 

[dagnab]

(ey hotpocket anon here)

may've infospiraled leading up to what i wanted to ask so feel free to ignore/only read the question. enjoyed your reponse on Viktor/the writing regardless!

but yeah big agree on the issue starting in season 1 and the larger foreign threat cop out almost being inevitable when the villains can't be allowed to be right/systems allowed to change.

like even as someone who only knows league through the osmosis grapevine, even i knew riot has a track record of centrist writing. so not sure what i was expecting lol, guess i hoped they'd have a little more tact/not be so brazen (cough black jinxer seeing an enforcer be nice to an old lady ONE time and goes to bat/dies for Piltover in an enforcer uniform)??? /head in my hands

like i love a good tragedy but season 2...wasn't that. heck it wasn't even bittersweet imo, just kinda depressing, masquerading as aspirational/realistic.

like of course this is where stuff goes when the writers believe systems are inherently good and fault lies with individuals. soon as Piltover was about to """grant""" Zaun independence and that gets ruined by an ~undesirable~ knew we were cooked. machine herald Viktor would've required a more grounded/nuanced approach they couldn't just ramp/scale with minimal effort. which isn't to excuse where the writing falters badly but can't say i'm shocked.

if they "had" to go the purple route, wish they'd at least leaned into the hextech as technical process all the way through. interfacing with power unfathomably large/complex is interesting but boiling down to big power always bad is kinda boring, esp for a narrative that believes power int the right hands is fine. it would've been more interesting for it to function like a system/character to be understood rather than a godly power (that can only really be wielded by the chosen/doom everyone for wanting a better world).

anyway unfortunately now i'm desperate to read some rewrites cause these characters are too interesting to leave ending like that. but god i do not wanna wade through the racism/ableism.

like Sky and Isha getting dusted/used by the narrative like that was just foul??? in 2024?? give me Jayce and Heimerdinger actually apologizing for their complicity, doing more to right it than just dying (what can i say as a Silco fan—i wanna see characters live/FIGHT for the cause). did Viktor, a highly visible disabled character have to becoming specifically a eugenicist to have a villain arc all while his autonomy over his own actions is in question? that seems...particularly insensitive at this moment in history. did Vi have to become a cop and be down to gas her people that quick after years of daily beatings? and the fact that everything Viktor ever did was for nothing, that the best possible outcome he could hope for across EVERY UNIVERSE/TIMELINE is to not die alone/die while comforting someone who still doesn't fully understand him (yes i'm a Jayce speech hater, as gorgeous/touching as the visuals are). and uh maybe a dictator facing consequences that don't involve disability as "punishment"?

which is all to say,—QUESTION—in an ideal world, what story beats would you've like to see for Viktor/the show?

i'm chomping at the bit to read read/imagine rewrites that do better by the characters/themes.

Hotpocket anon ily and I owe you an apology this ask has been fermenting in my inbox for like a week now because I've been stewing on complaints and ideas so hard.

It's gotten to the point where my post was getting way too long sooo uhhhhhh I just started writing a full machine herald rewrite fic. I'll link it when tha first chapter is out 😌

[celestiall0tus]

I love how each of your miraculous pairs and the set of five all have their own wish granting abilities! But it has me curious: what are the wishes of the pairs we haven't seen yet and the wishes we haven't heard about yet?

Had to grab the master list of kwamis for my AUs for this as we'll be adding this to the pinned post.

So, while each has their own effect, you'll find that the emotion ones are extremely similar given the nature of what they are affecting. But, let's get into this:

Ladybug and Black Cat - Fairly straightforward. Anything can be made that is destroyed. However, whatever is to be created, something of equal value must be destroyed. I.e. you want to create life, you'll need to take a life.

Bee and Spider - With the power of Devotion, a holder can make themself or another worshipped like a god, but Betrayal cuts their ties to anyone, preventing them from giving their loyalties to anyone else.

Mouse and Pig - With Perception, a holder can create new alternate realities that are as real as the existing one, but Ignorance forever blinds to the one that they actually live in.

Fox and Lynx - Amongst the most dangerous and paradoxical of Miraculous. With Deception and Honesty, they can alter universal truths and falsehoods. What's false becomes true, and what's true becomes false. And, in their own way, are capable of granting the wish that Gimmi could in show.

Dog and Rooster - Together, Love can create true, everlasting bonds that'll never fade, but Animosity will prevent them from loving anyone or anything else, manifesting terrible contempt within them.

Bat and Tiger - Valor can strip a person of all their fear, but Fear inflicts another with that fear, stealing away their courage forever.

Ant and Goat - TBA

Monkey and Raven - Joy can strip a person of all their sadness, but Sorrow inflicts another with that sadness, stealing away their joy forever.

Horse and Rabbit - With the assistance of Freedom, Connection is able to communicate with the world (should they desire) and will not be restricted by any types of barriers. (one of the few without a steep cost)

Wolf and Owl -Due to the limitations of the human mind, this has the greatest of prices. Knowledge and Intuition are able to open their mind's eye to the fullest and gaze into realms inaccessible. All knowledge is allowed, all possibilities foreseen, allowing them to see even the fabric of the universe. However, for every second they are in this mode, ten humans lose their minds. This continues every second until they leave this mode.

Bull and Koala - the bull can give the holder or another literal boundless energy, never getting tired or running out of energy. But in turn, the koala makes someone else will lose their energy and fall into a coma like state. (Suggested by anonymous)

Robin and Dove - Combined, a pair of holders can access the tapestries woven by the threads of fate. This allows them to rewrite events for any people. However, messing with someone's life events will drastically change the person and the people involved in their life.

Dolphin and Seal - Combined, the holders can alter, adjust, and erase the memories of any person, creature, and event. Once changed, the memories changed or erased will never be remembered again, lost to the waters of oblivion.

Cow and Swan - The only power to create something akin to sentimonsters. When the kwamis come together, they are able to create a living golem. The golem can be any material, but it all depends on the material on hand. If the golem is made of anything except flesh, the body will never grow or weather, sustained by the magic that created. However, it can sustain damage enough to destroy the vessel and release the soul. If made with flesh, they will be human made through magic.

Cicada and Chameleon - Quite literally, reality is in the hands of a pair of holders. They can remold reality to whatever they want and no one would remember except them. So, basically the Gimmi wish from canon, but extra safety steps.

Shark and Bear - TBA

Finally, the set of five:

Snake, Turtle, Dragon, Peacock, and Butterfly - With the power of all five, Health, Protection, Nature, Beauty, and Transformation, they are able to create a paradise, literal Heaven on Earth, a Garden of Eden. However, for every part they make into a paradise, other parts of the planet and sterilized and turned into wastelands, unable to sustain life.

[localplaguenurse]

Idk why but I’m suddenly remember the part where wifey thought Morax died. Anyways I’m cursing the fact that the gods saw it fit that I think in pictures because my god. The desperation, the way Wifey would hesitate for a split second to fully process that their supposed dead husband is right there standing. Wifey would basically crash into his arms and hold him tight, fisting their arms into his clothes as their put their ear on chest and as the steady beat of his heart reassured them that he’s here and not dead. Then, the dam breaks and a horrible sound erupted from Wifey as they cling to him desperately as if he would disappear if they’re were to let go and as sobs wracked through Wifey, Morax swears he will never be the cause of their despair again.

Tldr: why is it that your fics like to wack me over the head with a baseball bat when I least expect it. I wrote all this with tears in my eyes and I’m getting the post crying headache

Oh that’s so sweet and not actually how I saw that scene :3 in a good way? Bad way? I like yours but I’m gonna make everyone’s day worse!

Something that only kind of came up a couple of times and I wish I expanded on a little more is sometimes wifey’s anxiety can present itself as anger. This is because I based it off of my anxiety, at least at the time because I was dealing with some shit. A lot of built up frustration and stress. You only really see it when they yell at Wei Jin for packing their things and when Morax crash landed and they snapped at Xiao and Li Lei. I wish it came up a little more for both character building and because like, hey, this is how anxiety works sometimes.

So picture this. You’re wifey. You hear your husband is dead, which causes you to have the worst panic attack of your life, to the point you pass out, and all you can think about is how the rest of your family will react and how one of the few people from your past is now gone. You’re not even thinking about how him dying means that you might die as well.

You go home, and on the journey there you’re wondering how long until your children hear, how long you have left before you’re gone, and how you’re going to cope with being in your home without you husband there.

And then he’s standing there, making tea, like the horrific news of his passing is not spreading through Liyue like wildfire. He looks up at you, and he sees you’re an absolute mess (how could you not be?). He calls your name out, softly.

You realize it’s really him. It’s Morax, your husband, alive and well.

And you start to scream at him.

It’s the first time you have ever truly raised your voice at him. You’ve had disagreements and squabbles in the past - even happily married, no one can go 2000 years without a little conflict - but this is completely different. You’ve never been this furious with anyone, much less your own husband. You don’t even know what is making you angrier. Is it because he scared you into thinking he was dead? Is it because he didn’t tell you? Is it because of how you found out? Is it because you don’t know if your children and grandchildren know what’s happening? It doesn’t matter because it all bubbles to the surface and you cannot stop yourself from asking him what the fuck were you thinking?!

And then you’re out of steam. Tears are running down your face but you don’t know when or why you started crying. Your throat and head hurt from the screaming, and your whole body just feels awful. Morax stares at you, speechless, horrified. You don’t know if he’s horrified by your reaction, or because he’s the reason you’re like this.

You sink to your knees and just... sob. It’s all you have the energy to do. You feel like shit because of your panic attack earlier, and you feel like shit for yelling.

Morax at some point snaps out of his stupor to step forward. He sits down next to you, and it kills him when you initially flinch away from him. He’s murmuring, telling you that he’s sorry, he didn’t mean to scare you, it’s a complicated situation, and you have every right to be as mad at him as you are, but please, my darling, deep breaths.

He holds you close for the rest of the evening, and the house is dead quiet. You cling to him in your sleep, and he stays up all night running his fingers through your hair. He’ll never forgive himself, and there’s a part of him that hopes you don’t forgive him either. He had already brought you to anguished tears when you two had first gotten married, and he made a promise, a contract, to never let anything hurt you and to give you a happy life.

He feels like he failed you. 2000 years of married bliss, nullified in an instant. It doesn’t matter to him if you forgive him. He’ll still hear your grief clear as day for however long he has left.

[thefreakandthehair]

hi hello, here to ask about F for the fanfic ask game ✨💕

F: Share a snippet from one of your favourite dialogue scenes you've written and explain why you're proud of it.

hey hi hello del!! this was tough and I got another ask with this question too so I’ll post with a different scene there but the first one that came to mind was this flashback scene from chapter four of over the hills and far away! it’s a little long so it’s under the cut but god, this scene was so cathartic and layered to write. 🥰 dialogue is always my beloathed— of all aspects of writing, it’s what I struggle with the most but I’m so happy with how this scene came out!

fanfic writer ask game!

Smoke from the joint Steve and Eddie pass between them curls and twists like tentacles, gently circling up towards the stars above them as they nestle together on the grass at the edge of Steve’s backyard.

“Isn’t it wild?” Eddie muses, wistful.

Steve turns his head to take in the man laying on his back next to him and notes the way the starlight gleams off of his smile. It makes sense, Steve thinks. Eddie glows so intensely. It’s as though the moon fucking lives just beneath his skin.

“What’s wild?” He asks. Eddie passes the little white joint to Steve, who easily takes it between his lips and settles in to listen to more of Eddie’s mind. Eddie is always like this when they smoke together– questioning and open and interesting.

“It’s so… big. The sky, I mean. It’s just huge. It’s the biggest thing we know about and we’re just so small in it.” Eddie takes a moment to ponder, watching the stars flicker in and out as they move about the sky.

Steve holds his gaze as he watches Eddie continue. “I don’t know what I believe anymore, Steve, not after the Upside Down. I always thought that, I don’t know, something happens to us when we die but when those bats were chowing down on my stomach, I just didn’t know anymore and that freaks me out, right? But the sky? The stars? Those live forever. Even after they explode or whatever, they still exist. They become new stars.”

Eddie turns to meet Steve’s eyes and reaches over to pat Steve’s cheek, holding the touch until his hand burns. As he takes the joint back with his other hand, delicately pulling it from between Steve’s lips, he smiles and whispers. “Wish we could be stars, my love.”

My love hits Steve square in the chest and he thinks Eddie might see the physical force of it. For the first time since striking up this relationship with Eddie, Steve is afraid– afraid of being hurt, of being rejected, of being bullshit. He recognizes, watching Eddie’s eyes dance like the flickering stars above them, that he’s falling in love. That he might already be there.

It’s terrifying to think that in this very moment, he’s falling into something that he may never crawl out of. Not that he wants to, no. Steve wants to live in this feeling forever, curl up in it like a blanket on a cold winter’s day. But he’s seen this film before and nothing lasts forever. He isn’t someone people hold onto for keeps, after all.

When the ending comes, it will gut him.

[cherryblossomsandhydrangeas]

Sk8 Rewatch Ep9

God I hope either the OVA or Season 2 gives us more Cherry and Joe backstory cause fuck do they deserve it.

Cherry, honestly, you have extended your hand to Adam far too many times. Honestly, what has he done for you other than take? You try and give your friendship, you try and give a helping hand, you try and give love, and you try and offer a chance to be better, but he won’t take it. It’s not your job to fix him, and at this point it’s hurting you more than you realize.

I wish Sk8 was longer cause we deserved more serious beefs for Joe, Cherry, Miya, and Shadow. Really amp them up to show why their the top skaters of the place.

I’m gonna start walking around S with a shirt that says “Reki Defense Squad” and a bat.

Reki: “Hey, LANGA!” (Now everyone at S knows ya’ll are gay.) [Who am I kidding? S is just a gay club with skateboarding.]

So, fun fact, steel beams can weigh over 1,000lbs even if it’s a small beam. Since it was being held up by a crane we can assume that the beam that Joe kicked was at least 4,000lbs. Muscle-bound God of Skateboarding indeed.

Ooof, Cherry knew Joe lost even before the race finished.

Adam: I can hear them now, the ringing of wedding bells! You’re about to hear my foot going up your ass.

Joe taking over for Oliver again. At this point, Nanako’s gonna be paying child support.

Oh, Reki, baby. 😢😢😢

Not gonna lie, when I first watched Sk8, I actually put a little hope into Adam, watching him lose his voice after he pulled Cherry’s card. His little “Oh” had me thinking he actually had a soul for a hot second.

The one outcome Joe didn’t want coming true. God can you imagine, even if he won against Langa, he’d still have had to watch Adam and Cherry’s beef?!

Cherry: I’ve been waiting for this day. Adam: I didn’t want to compete against you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.

I do actually like that Joe can flirt with people he only probably expects a passionate one-night stand, or something of a short relationship from. But, when it’s someone he truly loves, he loses his voice and becomes flustered.

Adam: Hey, how long is this little skit of yours going to go on? It’s about time to start. Me: Aww, is someone jealous he gave up his only two friends and that they still find happiness in each other? Sounds like a you problem.

Joe: Be careful. He’s not the old Adam. Cherry: I don’t need you to tell me that. Oof the double meaning in that.

If you think Cherry not only dodging the Love Hug, but also skating a corner with his eyes closed isn’t cool only because Carla told him the angle, we can’t be friends and I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.

Ya’ll ever noticed Cherry talks to himself a lot?

I have so many words I have to say about Adam v. Cherry. Like. Sooooo many.

I wonder if these are his classmates or just random dudes he found. Like 3/4 are actually kinda cute, even though the two on the right look like total snobs.

Now, I’m 100% gonna make a separate post about Adam & Cherry, but for now, aren’t the red tiles on the ground sorta posed likes wings?

You can physically see Joe’s last shred of hope for Adam shriveling up and dying. Joe can tolerate a lot of shit, but he 100% has a line and it’s name is Sakurayakishi Kaoru.

I need those fucking contacts.

Reki, no, come back and take this pin right this second. 🥺

No, Tadashi, Adam being like this is not your fault. You’ve just been groomed to believe that any wrongdoing he does is on your shoulders.

Adam: You’re so naive, Cherry. Me: Damn, it’s almost as if he cares about you.

I like the way that Sk8 shows that Cherry’s current feelings for Adam aren’t romantic. When he gets hit, the image that shatters isn’t the one of the two of them looking into each other’s eyes or when Adam calls them special. It’s the one of him with Adam and Joe. The one of them laughing and being happy, something that he wishes that they all could have again.

I’m so gonna make a post on Adam’s boring comment. Like, how can I not? He’s so full of shit it’s actually insane. Like, I’m sorry you’re not letting yourself have fun.

On another note, I’m also gonna make a post on why I think Kaoru can’t go into the zone. And it’s not because of the way he skates either.

So am I supposed to believe the hospital didn’t call the cops when Kaoru escaped?

Love how it’s implied Joe drank that entire bottle of wine. Like, can you imagine how worried he was, head injuries are no joke.

Joe, sweetie, you need to tell him.

[maxlequeer]

Watched it all in one night. I'm laughing at myself. I saw the trailer, wasn't interested, saw the first episode and thought, I think this isn't for me. Returned to the series after seeing this tumblr post and... Holy shit.

1. I really really love weird town vibes - not the everyone in town wants to kill/sacrifice you vibe but the ancient gods and creatures living side by side ordinary people or under the seas type of vibe. Again if you've read the Whyborne & Griffin series, you'll know what I mean. "Horrible murder town."

2. Just overall interesting characters. They're dead. You'd think that makes the stakes low because they don't have to worry about dying during a case, but you'd be wrong. Edwin is afraid of going back to Hell (he escaped it on his own! - first time anyway). Charles doesn't want to move on and leave his best friend behind. Edwin is a "stuffy" Edwardian ghost. Charles is a one-earring, bat-wielding 80s ghost.

Crystal is a powerful medium fighting against a douchebag abusive demon ex-boyfriend. Niko is a legit fujoshi lmao and she's probably the kindest, most sincere character there. Jenny the landlord slash butcher shop owner is so so hot and cool. The Night Nurse is hilarious.

3. Themes

Dealing with your past. Histories of abuse. Learning to let new people in and finding a new purpose for yourself. "You never know when the good you do may come back around."

What Edwin went through in life and death is actually pretty sad and traumatic. Charles' life and the events leading to his death was really tragic. There was so much injustice with these boys' lives that it makes sense their detectives.

I know Edwin said something else to the Cat King and that was his confession about why he's doing what he's doing but I also believe him during that outburst at Crystal when he said that their deaths didn't matter. No one back then cared enough about them to investigate their deaths and bring their killers to justice, so now they're going to make sure that the souls who need their help will be able to move on and be at peace.

4. I did not expect Edwin, the stuffy Edwardian lad, to be the It Girl everyone wants for some reason or other. I'm down for it honestly. Everyone's trying to get him but he only has eyes for one person lmao.

5. I love the friendships and found family in this show.

6. This show is actually creepy. I mean it's horror yeah but with the major characters being teens, I thought they'd tone down the gore but not exactly. I mean sure there's comedy here but it's like in the Fear Street trilogy, you see blood and people getting slashed or stabbed or whatever. And the ghosts are not ectoplasmic. They're humans with blood pouring out of their wounds. Also, that Misery Wraith was so freaky to look at.

At this point in my life, I'm watching shows with older characters, but if this thing had come out when I was younger, I probably would have gotten obsessed. But I do love this show honestly. I wish it will have a season 2. I won't be surprised if it won't because I honestly do not expect anything from Netflix. But it's such a good damn show, and it would be a shame not to see these characters again.

DEAD BOY DETECTIVES S1 + TUMBLR REACTIONS

[epaily]

long post talking about being depressed read at your own detriment

god ok i dick around and joke as much as the next person but holy FUCK i cant stand being mentally ill. i know you see all the time how it weighs you down without even knowing but i brush it off all the time and now im sitting here and its hitting me that this is point blank ruining my life. i think im being watched everywhere i go no matter what i do to the point where being out in an open space or talking to the wrong person gives me a panic/anxiety attack, i have a 24/7 non stop constant stream of self deprecation that talks me out of doing anything, and the things i do do i dont try on even if i need to because whats the point right. im so passively suicidal that i cant go 10 minutes without thinking that im worthless and that i should die, every day i wake up and im miserable from the moment i get out of bed to the moment i get in. i hate myself so viscerally that i cant even fathom a positive thing about myself. im so stupid and full of shit-for-brains i cant ever focus on something and i forgetthe most menial and basic things. i have to copy off of everyone because im so incapable of doing things alone and i cant even do things alone if i wanted to because i have aforementioned debillitating anxiety and the anxiety and everything else makes me WEIRD so i have no friends! and im weird because im suicidal and offputting! god its all a big fucking feedback loop how am i ever supposed to get out of this. it gets worse every day. it all stacks up. the only exit i can fathom, the only exit i HAVE been able to fathom for years is just stopping dead and offing myself and see there i go again. it would be so easy. i have no friends and my parents are terrible people and my cat is dead so whats the fucking point. nothing will get better. nothing HAS gotten better. i cant go to therapy or else i'll be institutionalized and i'll never see the sun again. i cant stomach human people and i dont know if what is in front of me is real half the time. im lonely my parents are awful i have no where else to go. i have no one to bitch at except this stupid little tumblr blog i have no support. if i hadnt sworn off cutting i would be doing so every single night. i am tired. i am so unbelievably fucking tired. why cant i be normal. why am i the only one in my vicinity who doesnt have their shit together. i wish i was normal. if i could take out even just one thing i might be able to get it together. i dont even really pretend im fine anymore. i can say that i am suicidal and no one bats an eye. i have to get a car and a real liscence for my career job and then the chance of me killing myself goes way tf up because then i can just drive my car into a building whenever i want. and god a fuckin. career job!! im a hack!!! i am 10 days away from finishing uni and everyone else is better then me. i dont know shit. i dont know the most basic prinicples no matter how much i study. im too soft. i hsve no skill. im never gonna make it. and maybe it wouldnt be so bad if i was good at or passionate about anything else but nah im so fucking spent im not GOOD AT or INTERESTED in ANYTHING because i JUST WANT TO BE DEAD. every single day of my life i wish i had tried harder to kill myself when i was 14. i should stop typing this out.

[zzokks]

dealer discount // eddie munson x reader

summary: when steve runs out of weed, he has the bright idea to send you off to buy it, with the promise of smoking it together after. maybe you can both even get a discount?

notes: fem!reader, mentions of weed but its pretty mild, reader is friends with steve (there is not enough bestfriend steve fics out there), pre season 4, i love goofy eddie so much

the formatting might be weird because this is posted from my phone.

The sound of dry leaves split through the silence underneath your tapping foot. You shifted slightly on the wooden bench you were sitting on and looked around. The woods behind Hawkins High were overcast and orange, with autumn leaves littered all over the ground. However there was no sight of any people. You had been waiting for over ten minutes, and if it weren't for the promise Steve had made you would have left. You desperately wished you'd brought your watch to check the time. You were starting to get hungry.

A rustle in the woods sounded and you flinched, looking around behind you. Squinting, you waved it off as a squirrel when a loud thud sounded behind you.

"Shit!" You jumped and spun back around to see Eddie Munson with his hands placed on the picnic table you were sitting at. He looked a bit panicked at your reaction before his expression returned to normal.

"Sorry sweetheart," he smirked, sitting down opposite you. You frowned at him as he leaned forward

"Look at you, buying weed from little ol' me," his mouth spread into a shit-eating grin and you scowled even further. Maybe you wouldn't be able to get that weed for Steve, especially if Eddie kept annoying you. "You're lucky I even came out here. I'm not in the habit of selling to youngins like you."

You rolled your eyes. "And Im not in the habit of wasting my time Munson. I've been waiting for like, years."

Eddie blinked, as though he didn't exactly know how to respond. Then, he dropped off his seat onto the ground.

"Wha—"

"How ungentlemanly of me!"

You raised your eyebrow as Eddie scooted over to you, walking on his knees as he went. His hands were clasped together as he looked up at you.

"To keep a lady of such high stature waiting for so long. Please Miss Hawkins High! Shall you ever forgive me?"

You grimaced, but you couldnt help letting a chuckle escape your lips. "Oh god. You're such a nerd."

Eddie scooted onto the bench beside you and you backed up to give him space. "And don't call me that. Its such a stupid name."

Eddie grinned and leaned on the table, batting his eyelashes at you. His eyes were like pools of hot chocolate and you were drinking all of his attention. "How about Queen Y/N then huh? Or Lady Hawkins—"

"Just Y/N. I have a name."

"Okay, Y/N," Eddie teased, "I'm actually surprised you're here. Obviously, you hang around with Harrington, but I'd expect you'd just get the stuff from him."

"Oh I do normally. But he cant make it today."

"How fortunate," Eddie grinned, leaning forward. "It seems he's blessed me with your gracious presence."

You scrunched you nose as Eddie popped open his black lunchbox. You always thought it was rather brave of him to carry it around so carelessly.

"Hey, you know… this isnt the first time we've talked," Eddie mumbled, looking away from his lunchbox.

"No?"

"You remember Gareth? English project? Eighth grade?"

You looked down as you tried to remember what he was talking about. When it popped into your head, your face lit up.

"Oh! Right, he was the kid with the band."

"Yup. You used to call me Buzz."

You laughed and Eddie smiled. "Oh my god, I totally forgot you had a buzzcut."

"Took me a while to get it like this," Eddie fluffed up his hair. "But it was worth it."

"Yeah definitely," you smiled, "it looks nice."

Eddies smile grew as he leaned on his hand. His hair shook as he moved, catching the light of the bleak sky. He paused for a bit, and then brought his lunchbox towards him.

"Well, well, well, you are a real charmer, you know that?" Eddie passed you a plastic bag and tilted his head a little. "Flattery works very well with me, so I'll do $15 for half a pound. I mean you're robbing me blind here."

You tilted your head so it aligned with his. You smirked and hummed. "Why? Is it really flattery or am I just so alluring?"

Eddie chuckled and mumbled into his hand. "Well, lets just say its both."

You straightened up and laughed. "Ding ding ding! We have our winner folks. If I had anything on me, you'd probably get it all free."

"Why? Your ego as big as Harrington's hair?"

You laughed again and handed the money over to Eddie. He pocketed it gratefully as you stood up.

"Thanks for the green Munson."

He grinned and gave a small salute. "Pleasure doing business with you Y/LN."

As you walked off back towards the highschool, you smiled and yelled back to him.

"You're lucky flattery works on me too. You've got yourself a returning customer."

Steve's eyes lit up when you shook the bag in front of his eyes as you prepared to head home from school.

"You got the discount, yeah?"

You nodded and he pumped his fist. Laughing, you leaned back in your seat as Steve pulled out of the parking lot so you could go somewhere more secluded. As soon as he put his car back in park, You brought the weed back out.

"I knew you'd be able to butter up Munson," Steve chuckled, rolling up his joint.

You shrugged. "He's really easy to talk to I guess. He's actually nice."

Steve raised an eyebrow at you and laughed loudly. "Are you already high?"

You rolled your eyes and snatched the joint from Steves hands.

taglist: @snapefiction

[atlabeth]

i owe you one - john b routledge

summary: when john b ends up backed into a corner with all the odds against him, you're the last person he expects to come to his rescue. it turns out a favor is worth a lot more than he thought.

a/n: hahah. so. it has been forever since i posted any writing (2 months i am SO sorry) but i got this idea while i was on a walk and it just happened, so here we are. i wrote this in a fervor over three nights and as usual, no proofreading. also i changed canon a bit so that the final scene happens in the thornton's house instead of kelce's just for convenience. okay thats all enjoy ily<3

wc: 4.6k

warning(s): underage drinking, topper's an asshole and he gets kind of physical w/ the reader (grabbing her arm and pushing her around repeatedly), canon stuff from the end of s1

“God— fuck.”

You glared at the keg in disgust, more beer soaked into your tank top than in your cup. You don’t know how you got the good fortune of ending up as the one who had to handle the brand new keg, but you had no clue how to tap it. You felt like a complete idiot at your first party in the Outer Banks, and even though no one was looking at you your cheeks still burned with embarrassment.

“Woah, hey— need a hand?”

You turned your head to see who your savior was, and it turned out to be a knight in shining island shirt. With tousled brown hair and eyes like honey, you had to actively hide your instinctual reaction with the hopes that the blood would stop rushing to your cheeks at marathon pace. Thankfully he seemed more focused on the keg than you, and he made attaching the pump look a lot easier than you did.

He looked back up at you, holding a hand out for your cup. “Want me to, uh—”

You nodded and passed it to him, and after one cup of foam that he dumped out you had a room temperature cup of beer that you didn’t even like the taste of. When in Rome though, you supposed.

“Thanks,” you laughed after taking a sip, “I definitely owe you one.”

He smiled and ran a hand through his hair, guiding you away from the keg as a new wave of partygoers flooded in. “No problem. I take it you’re not from around here?”

“What gave it away?” you asked dryly. “But no, I’m not. I’m from Florence — staying here for the summer with my cousin.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Italy?”

“God, I wish,” you chuckled. “South Carolina, unfortunately. My mom’s from here, though. She thinks it’s good for me to visit my aunt and my cousin so I can get ‘different experiences’ or some shit.” You shook your head. “I have a feeling I’m gonna be stuck here every summer ‘till college.”

The boy laughed, eyes twinkling, and he held out his hand. “I’m John B. Happy to host your first party in the OBX.”

You shook his hand with a smile. “Y/N. Happy to be here.”

John B had just opened his mouth to say something else when you felt a hand on your shoulder — when you turned your head, you saw it was the reason for your summer trip.

“Why are you over here talking to this pogue?” Topper asked, obvious disdain in his voice as he glared at John B.

“It’s called making friends, Top,” you muttered. “And what the hell is a pogue?”

John B’s entire resolve changed, his lips tightening into a frown as he gave you an odd look. “Your cousin is Topper Thornton?”

“Yeah, and she’s one of us,” he remarked. “So you and your little friends stay away from her unless you wanna get into something, okay?”

Topper turned you around and started steering you away, only letting go of your shoulder when you batted his hand away. “I know you’re new here,” he muttered, “but you’re part of my family, and we have standards. One of which is not talking to people like him.”

You looked over your shoulder and saw that John B was gone, and a small part of your heart sank. At his words, you scoffed and stopped in your tracks, and Topper only complied after an annoyed sigh. “What are you even talking about, Topper? ‘People like him’? What is this, the 1930s?”

He rolled his eyes. “Okay, here’s a rundown on Kildare because apparently you need it. We have money, they don’t. We’re kooks, they’re pogues, and we hate each other. Oil and water — it doesn’t mix. Got it?”

You stared at him, incredulous. “No. Even less so.”

Topper groaned and ran a hand through his hair. “Look, it’s all about status in this place. And as long as you’re a Thornton down here, you have to act like one. So you can either stop being a bitch and hang out with my friends, or you can go home.”

You just scoffed. “I think I’ve had enough of this party anyway.”

He huffed a laugh. “Fine. But you’re walking.”

“Great.” You dumped the rest of your beer in the sand — the alcohol wasn’t even worth all the work you put into trying to get it — and gave Topper a sarcastic smile as you started walking off. “Thanks for the warm welcome, cuz.”

You brushed some of the sand off your skirt as you stepped back onto the pavement, pulling out your phone with a sigh to try and figure out how long it would take to walk from here to Topper’s house. You had to hold back a groan when Google Maps popped up with a total of an hour. The smart thing to do would be to call your aunt, but you doubted she was even at home. You had too much pride for it anyway.

You looked up at the sun that was already starting to set and sighed. It was going to be a long night.

-

Thirty minutes into your pitiful trek home and you were wondering if your spite was worth it. If you knew this was the task you’d be undertaking at the end of the night, you would’ve picked sneakers over Birks, and maybe some shorts over a tennis skirt. Because this sucked.

You instinctively glanced over your shoulder as a car came down the road, but you gripped your phone tighter in your hand as it slowed to a stop a couple feet away from you. An uncomfortable outfit didn’t matter that much if you were about to be murdered, you thought unhelpfully.

But as the door popped open and a familiar face emerged, the weight was lifted off your shoulders.

“John B,” you said, thankful albeit a bit confused. “Is leaving your own party early your style?”

He chuckled and shook his head. “Just a concerned citizen. Is leaving parties early then walking home alone at night your style?”

You grimaced. “Touché.”

“What are you doing out here anyway?” he asked, leaning against the side of his van. “I tried looking for you after Topper pulled you away, but I couldn’t find you. Are you not a party person or something?”

“I couldn’t deal with Topper,” you admitted, though you felt a rush of heat to your cheeks that you tried to hide knowing that he looked for you. “He told me this whole thing about kooks and pogues, and— and I just couldn’t deal with it. Is that really what things are like here?”

John B shrugged, a tad uncomfortable. “Yeah, basically. On one side of the islands you got the lowest lows, and on the other half you’ve got the highest highs. The mortgage I can barely afford to pay is probably what your cousin spends every week just doing random shit.”

“Wow.”

His lips quirked up in a momentary smile. “Yeah.”

The silence lasted for a few moments before John B hit the side of his car and opened the door back up, giving you a look. “Want a ride home?”

“Seriously?”

He chuckled and nodded, gesturing to the other side with his head. “I don’t think walking home alone at this time of night is your best idea.”

You smiled and walked around to the other side of the van, sliding the door shut after you hopped in. You were immediately hit with a repulsive smell, your nose scrunching up almost on instinct. “Ugh — is that weed?”

John B laughed a bit as he started the car back up, bearing a sheepish smile as he pulled back onto the road. “Sorry. JJ lit up on the way to the party; I guess trying to air it out didn’t really work.”

You rolled your eyes in mock disdain and opened the window. “Boys.”

You felt his gaze on you for a moment as you smoothed out your skirt, but when you looked back up at him his eyes were on the road. “So,” he started, “what’s it like having Topper Thornton as a cousin?”

You shrugged. “I can’t really tell you because I don’t really know him. This is the first time I’ve actually spent extensive time with him — he and his parents came down when my brother graduated from Clemson and I think I’ve been around him in a couple wedding parties and funerals, but other than that… it doesn’t even feel like we’re cousins. It doesn’t help that my dad kinda hates his mom.”

“Sheesh.” He came to a stop at a sign and glanced at you. “Right or left?”

“Left.”

He nodded and made the turn, taking the chance to look back at you. “Y’know, it honestly sounds like you’re dodging a bullet. Topper seriously sucks.”

“I can already tell,” you chuckled. “I honestly don’t know how I’m gonna survive the rest of the summer with him. I— I just don’t feel like a part of their family at all, you know? It’s so disconnected from how mine is that sometimes I forget our moms are sisters. I already had to go to that stupid Midsummers thing just for appearances, and— get this— my aunt made me go with this random rich kid and take pictures with him just so she could look better. I don’t even remember his name.”

“That’s where I recognized you from!” John B piped up, and when you gave him a strange look he laughed a bit. “You were in that pink dress with the flowers, right?”

You nodded, impressed and surprised. “Yeah. I didn’t even know you were there. I hated that thing.”

He shrugged. “I thought you looked great. Pink is definitely your color.”

You felt your cheeks flush and glanced away, biting back a sheepish smile. “Thanks.”

“It’s easy to compliment someone like you.”

You’d never been so relieved to be pulling up to your house, saved by the metaphorical bell from trying to respond to the smoothest flirting you’ve ever been subjected to.

“Thank you so much for the ride,” you said, starting to unbuckle your seatbelt. “It would’ve been a miserable walk the rest of the way here. Looks like I owe you again.”

“Anytime,” he said, and then he shrugged. “You don’t owe me anything. Your company’s enough.”

You laughed, the heat rushing to your cheeks once more as you opened the door. You were just about to step about when John B spoke up again.

“Hey.” You looked over at him and he smiled, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “What d’you say you come over to the beach tomorrow and I can teach you some surfing moves? Give you a real taste of what the Outer Banks is like outside of the bubble wrap. Y’know, before you end up going full kook.”

You stared at him, blank faced. “You guys use a lot of slang that I don’t understand.”

John B laughed. “We can add that to the itinerary then. OBX lingo.”

You thought about it for a moment before you gave him a smile of your own and nodded. “That sounds perfect, actually. Uh— tomorrow at noon?”

His grin only widened. “Try 6:30. The waves are best at sunrise.”

You cocked an eyebrow. “That early? Y’know, you’re not doing a very good job selling your friendship.”

John B just shrugged coyly. “Consider it a worthy investment.”

You bit back your smile as you pulled out your phone and offered it to him. “I think adding your number into the pile will make it a much better one.”

His eyes twinkled as he took it. “Sounds like a deal to me.”

-

You did end up going surfing with John B that next morning, and it was the best time you’d had in the Outer Banks since your arrival. Even though you ended up with a myriad of bruises from falling off your board so many times and your eyes stung from all the salt water they had to deal with, you didn’t regret a single second of it. You spent the entire day with him, even going so far as to introduce you to some of his friends — Pope, Kiara, and JJ. Though the three of them were understandably cautious of your relation to Topper, John B’s word seemed enough for them after a couple hours of goofing off at his house.

Unfortunately though, your moments with John B after that day were numbered far fewer than you wanted them to be, mostly because of your aunt coercing you into occupying every second of every day with something productive. Whether it was the occasional SAT prep class she forced you to go to with Topper to ensure his accountability (you decided it was the literal definition of torture after the first session), a party you had to attend just for the sake of looking good as a family (they honestly made you miss your SAT booklet), or trips to the mainland to justify a shopping spree by bringing you along (you now had more clothes in this closet than your one back home), Dr. Cynthia Thornton was intent on making your summer vacation something that wasn’t much like a vacation at all.

It didn’t help that you were apparently part of some kind of kook family — you still didn’t really understand why the dynamics on the islands were this insane — which meant that you always had to be looking good and, by some unsaid law, couldn’t interact with any of the actually decent people you’d met since your arrival. John B and the friends he’d introduced you to fit that bill, but any free moment that you got ended up being spent with them. Their group of pogues was by far the best thing to come out of this ridiculous system.

Tonight was one of your first nights off in what felt like forever thanks to a university meeting running long and keeping your aunt on the mainland, and though you would much rather be down on the beach trying out the new surfing moves John B had taught you or trying to pluck out some semblance of a song on Kiara’s uke, you were practically on house arrest after the most insane thing you had ever heard caught flame around the island.

John B — the same John B that cried when he saw cat videos, the same John B that you caught singing ABBA songs in the bathroom that night you stayed over at his house — was being accused of murdering the fucking sheriff.

Murder. John B.

It wasn’t right. It couldn’t have been right. He had no reason to shoot Sheriff Peterkin, but by word of Ward Cameron, who had apparently seen it first hand, and Deputy Shoupe, who watched her die in front of him, it was true.

It couldn’t be true. You refused to believe it. But Topper sure did, and it was like all his fantasies were coming true in one night — the guy he hated was about to go down for one of the worst things a person could do, and somehow Topper was sure he would be the one to put the final nail in the coffin.

You’d been texting John B nonstop trying to figure out if he was okay or not, even his friends to try and figure out what the hell was going on, but no one was answering. You felt completely useless — what good were the feelings you had for this idiot if you couldn’t help him in any kind of way?

Out of stress, you’d resorted to doing summer AP work with your music blaring into your earbuds at top volume. For some reason, it was helping. John B killing the sheriff didn’t make sense, but value theorems and asymptotes did.

You were jarred out of your calculus work by the sound of rapid knocking — banging, more accurately — against your door, and you only got the chance to take out an earbud before Topper burst into the door, face flushed and a wild look in his eyes.

“What the hell are you so busy with that you didn’t hear me call your name ten times?”

You frowned, pausing your music so you could glare at him. “What are you talking about?”

“There is a murderer in our house, and I have him on lock.”

“What?”

“John B is locked in the laundry room right now,” he said, gesturing with his hands with every word, “okay? So I need you to get downstairs and guard the fucking door so I can go get the police.”

You were still trying to process what he was saying. “Topper, what— what the fuck do you mean that John B is locked in our house right now?”

He heaved an exasperated sigh and ran a shaky hand through his hair. “I mean that he tried to break into our house on his— his fucking escape route or whatever, and we have him now, so you need to stop doing your fucking homework and follow me!”

Still in shock, you pulled your headphones out and followed him down the stairs, stopping in front of the laundry room door with a chair wedged under the doorknob. Topper gestured at the door with his head, obviously wanting you to find out on your own.

“...John B?” you asked tentatively, still not really believing that it was him.

But sure enough, it was. “Y/N? Y/N, oh my god, is that you? You have to let me out of here—”

He sounded so manic and desperate that you had to take a step back, your eyes wide. Topper just hit the door with his fist and laughed. “No can do, Routledge. I’m calling the cops — it’s all over for you, man.”

Topper pulled out his phone, leaning against the door as he dialed the local department. “Hi, this is Topper Thornton, I currently have John B Routledge in custody right now. Yeah, near the 100 block of Church Street— you’re already in the area? Yeah, I will. Thank you so much.”

He shoved his phone in his back pocket and started down the hallway backwards, pointing his finger at you as he spoke. “Don’t fuckin’ move, okay? I’ll be back with the police in five minutes—”

“I’m not deaf, Topper.”

He just rolled his eyes and walked out the front door, and you only felt yourself starting breathing again when it shut behind him. You waited a few seconds just to be sure, and then you inched up to the door again.

“John B?” you said softly, still anxious of Topper somehow overhearing. “It’s just us.”

“Hey.” His voice was so strained and weary that it made your heart ache. “I gotta say, this isn’t really how I imagined our first night together at your house.”

You couldn’t even find it in you to laugh at his — frankly terrible — joke, instead resting your head against the door with a sigh. “What the hell is going on, John B? It’s not true, right?”

“No.” You heard him swallow, and you could almost imagine him running his hand through his hair. “No— Rafe shot her, and Ward’s framing me for it. It—” he sighed as well, “it just spiraled out of control, Y/N. I didn’t want any of this to happen, but now I’m stuck with the whole island against me and I— I have no idea what to do.”

You looked at the front door and it didn’t burst open in a flood of cops, so you took that to mean you had some time. As quietly as you could, you pulled the chair away from under the doorknob then pulled it open, a smile immediately finding its place on your lips at the sight of John B’s face.

He stared at you dumbfounded, as if he expected you to slam the door on his face. But you just stepped back.

“You can start by getting a headstart on the police,” you whispered, your eyes darting back and forth between him and the front door, knowing that any second Topper would come back. “The back door’s on the right; it’ll get you out.”

John B seemed to snap out of it then, nodding repeatedly as he started off. You shut the door as quietly as you opened it and were about to put the chair back under before he spoke up.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked. “Topper will kill you. Every kook will kill you. The police will—”

“Only if they find out.” You shrugged, slipping the chair under the doorknob then turned to give him a slight smile. “Besides, I owe you one. Right?”

John B managed a slight chuckle and nodded, the warmth of his gaze permeating your skin. “Hell of a thing to pay back.”

“Just focus on getting the fuck out of Kildare,” you said. “That’ll be your payment.”

He nodded again and started to move, but he paused this time. John B stared at you for a moment before something changed in his eyes. He crossed the distance in a few short steps and pulled you into a searing kiss, his calloused palms gripping your arms in an impossibly soft way.

Your body knew what to do before your mind did, an intense fervor coming out for a kiss you didn’t know you needed so badly. When John B pulled away your breathing was slightly labored, and even though he was in the middle of a fight for his life, his eyes were still gentle as ever.

He touched his forehead to yours, his voice coming out as nothing more than a whisper. “Thank you.”

You let out a shaky breath as you closed your eyes, focusing on the warmth of his body against yours before it was too late. “You better find a way out of this.”

“I’ll try my best.”

And when you opened your eyes, he was gone.

You wrapped your arms around yourself as you all but collapsed against the closed door in relief, thankful that he at least had a chance (and even more thankful for the kiss). You tried to clear the fog in your mind, and you seemed to perk up just in time as the front door burst open, Deputy Shoupe storming into your house with Topper on his heels.

“Where is he?” he demanded, already taking his gun out of his holster. Your entire body stiffened at the sight of the firearm, and you were even more thankful that you got John B out when you did.

“Right there, behind that door,” Topper said, pointing at you. You stepped away from the door and were met with a glare. “Is he still there? Did you stay here the whole time?”

You rolled your eyes with a nod. “I didn’t move. Unless he can suddenly teleport, he’s still in there.”

Shoupe looked back at Topper then gestured at you with his head. “Get her out of here.”

“No,” you admonished. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Ma’am—”

“I’m not going anywhere,” you repeated, and he just sighed.

“Mr. Thornton?”

Topper grabbed your arm and pulled you a couple feet back, and though you slapped his hand away he didn’t budge. “Can you just stop being difficult for once?” he fumed.

You opened your mouth to retort but the words stuck in your throat as Shoupe started talking.

“Alright John B, this is the end of the road!” He took the chair out from under the doorknob and took the safety off his gun. “Put your hands on your head. I’m comin’ in there.”

You didn’t even feel the pain of Topper’s grip on your arm as you held your breath. You knew he was gone with a solid lead on the police, but you hadn’t really thought about what you were going to do when they found the empty room.

And find an empty room he did. After Shoupe pushed the door open, you heard him curse very loudly.

“Did you find him?” one of the officers asked, and after an agonizing fifteen seconds of what you assumed was searching, Shoupe walked out with a stone-faced glare aimed at you. “Room’s empty.”

Topper’s grip tightened on your arm as he pulled you to face him, that same wild look in his eyes as before. “Did you fucking let him out?” he glowered.

“No!” you scoffed, trying your best not to let anything slip as you finally managed to pull your arm away from him. “What, you think I would help the guy who murdered the sheriff get away?”

“Yeah,” Topper said, “I do. You’ve always had a soft spot for pogues, especially him. You don’t even think he did it.”

Deputy Shoupe turned to you, and you bit down on your tongue to keep your mask up. “Miss Thornton, assisting a criminal escape is a serious offense that could warrant jail time. Did you help John Routledge escape this room?”

“Are you kidding me?” you asked incredulously. “There— there’s a window in there, and there’s a vent, both places he could’ve gotten out of. He’s already gotten across the entire island without anyone finding him, what makes you think he wouldn’t be able to get out of here too?”

“There’s no sign of forced exit,” Shoupe said. “The window’s closed, the vent hasn’t been touched; even the door’s in perfect condition. The kid didn’t do this alone.”

You glanced at Topper, his blue eyes drilling into you with a steely glint, then you looked back to the deputy. You were in over your head, but your only choice was to go even further. So you raised your chin and mustered as even a voice as you could. “I’m not giving you anymore shit without a lawyer.”

You started walking off when Topper grabbed your arm once more, his fingers a vice around your bicep. You scowled and tried to pull away, but he just glared at you. “What the fuck did you do?” he hissed, voice dangerously low.

“I didn’t do anything,” you said through gritted teeth. “Now get the hell off of me.”

You tugged your arm away and stormed off, only pausing at the foot of the steps as Deputy Shoupe said your name again.

“Miss Thornton, I’m afraid we have to bring you in—”

You whirled around, summoning your best ‘rich, spoiled brat’ impression in a Hail Mary attempt to buy yourself time. “If you lay a finger on me without actual proof, my father will sue you so hard that your life will be ruined and you will never get a job again. Understand?”

You took an obscene amount of pride in the step he took back and the silent nod he gave you, and you tried to hold back your satisfaction as you took the steps two at a time up to your room. If the police were going to be corrupt, you might as well use it to your advantage.

You slammed your door shut and locked it behind you, collapsing into your desk chair with an exhausted sigh. You didn’t anticipate getting caught up in something like this when your mom proposed this summer trip.

Your eyes drifted up to the wall and you pulled down a polaroid you had hanging up, a candid that Kie had taken of you and John B the first night you hung with all of the pogues. It used to make you flush every time you saw it, the way John B was looking at you when you weren’t paying attention. All you could think of now was that he’d better find a way to get out of this.

He couldn’t just kiss you like that and then die on you.

.

(Two days later, after John B and Sarah Cameron had been ruled dead by the authorities, you got a text from an unknown number:

I think I seriously owe you one.)

-

perm tags: @dv0412 @siriuslyslyslytherin @maruchan77 @simonsbluee @kwyloz

obx tags: @milkiane @lilgoddesshines

[aestheticsuwu]

I like You , And You , And Both Of You Like Me ?

High school Au

Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw x Carole Bradshaw x Ron ‘Slider’ Kerner

Kernshaw ??? OT3 (what is their ship name!?!) 🔼

And Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky x Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell

(Slider hates Maverick but affectionately )

@bearsinpotatosacks @pollyna (it’s me @littleroosteruwu , this is my main account where I post all my moodboards. )

WARNING : Bad Writing !

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♥️🔺♥️~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

High/3

“Ice . . . C-can one be in love with two people at the same time? “

The question was wrecking his brain for a good while now . Ron has had an epiphany , but it just left him more confused than ever. He thought now was the best time to share his frustration of the situation with his friend, that he trusted who was in some degree more mature and serious than Ron.

Slider didn’t think playing with his lunch would solve his problem but for the first time he wasn’t hungry . If his ma could see him now, he would get an earful.

When Ron realized that Tom hadn’t uttered a single word , he glanced at the blonde and realized he was being to preoccupied to acknowledge his despair .

“Ice? TOM!” Ron had to kick Tom shin to get his attention since busting his eardrum didn’t work. Only then he managed to get his attention even if it came with a glare. That didn’t even scare him .

“What?” Ice hissed , rubbing his shin .

“Can you stop eye-fucking the pipsqueak for 5 seconds to help a brother out.”

“Eye fucking ? He wishes .” Tom scoffs but goes back to the stupid staring contest with a shark-like grin and in response Mitchell, who tilted his head coyly and batting his dumb eyelashes. Ron didn’t know how Ice repress the urge to not vomit .

It might be affecting him differently , Ice might be lying about how much hate he has towards the short stack .

“When I asked for a friend , I didn’t ask to be put through this torture .” Slider complain, looking up at the ceiling to speak to God, Slider shook his head goes back to eating his lunch making accidental eye contact with Carole who was grinning , and her boyfriend ,Nick ,who gave him a cheeky small wave then went back to talking to Mitchell. Even if Pete was not paying attention.

Slider doesn’t blush nor fumbles dropping his spork . He’s just a clutz at times and the heat on his face is the cause of the weather and not being caught talking to himself like a lunatic by a pretty girl and dorky-cute guy.

He glue his eye strictly to his tray until lunch was over. Doesn’t even try to take Toms attention away from Pete . Rons mind swirls back to his question , Can someone be in love with two people?

The bell rang , the sudden sound makes him jump , He and Ice pack up their stuff and throw away their trash . Ice is ahead few feet ahead, As he struggles with his zipper to close his bag ,only managing to get it more stuck and getting his skin pinched , he runs into Ice back who suddenly is stopped by Maverick (Ron wonders if one day his eyes might get stuck with how hard he rolls his eyes by the presence of Mitchell but now is not the time to fuzz about him because Nick and Carole were on Mavericks left and right side.

He just gagged, He sounded like a girl right now.

Showing off their pretty smiles , Slider could smell Carole’s glossy strawberry scented lips and Nick watermelon chapstick from here.Don’t ask how he knows , The pair told him after being caught staring at a particular area ; Their lips .

And that one time in the boy locker room , Goose chapstick fell without him noticing . Slider kept it , not like a pervert way , but just out of curiosity . He also has Carole’s floral scarf that she told him to hold on to and never asked for it back.

Again not in a perverted way . He swears on his ma . He carries the chapstick in his pocket and scarf wrapped around his wrist . Just in case they ever need it . And not because he feels closer to them .

“We are having a party for Maverick’s birthday and we want to extend the invitation personally .” Goose voice cracked halfway , what can you do it’s puberty , but spoke with the same glee from the beginning .

“I’d imagine you wouldn’t want us to go anywhere near your party .” If Ice was not a master of blank expression , he’d have confusion written all over his face. Slider is guessing since he is confused as well. They were far from enemies . They actually got along well with Nick and Carole , Ice had soft spot for Carole , at one point Slider thought he had feelings for the girl, it didn’t sit well with him. Because she was in a relationship already !

The problem is and always will be Pete Mitchell . He makes his friend act all …. Not like himself to put it the least .

“I don’t” Maverick mumbles like the little shit he is . Carole elbows Maverick not so discretely, Slider grins at her direction “Ow!” Maverick yelps dramatically .

“I would love for you and Slider to be at Goose house ,that he graciously offered to host with the graciousness of his heart ,and Carole ,beautiful ,Carole who planned the whole thing to be the best party . “ Maverick read the written speech off of his palm . Carole whispers into Mav’s ear ‘You were suppose to memorize it’.

Goose looked second away from face palming , “You want to RSVP right now. Just to get it out of the way.”

“We are going to be late for class “ Ice makes a move to leave but Nick kept talking making him pause. Like those salesman that is trying to convince you to buy a car, except Goose isn’t fat or ugly —- He meant he’s not a salesman !

“Let’s make this quick then , will we expecting you the grand extravaganza celebration of the day that the one and only Pete Mitchell was born .” Goose did wild motions in enthusiasm with his skinny arms .

“Yeah ….No .” Ice said dryly , looking to the side like the idea of going to the party seemed a bore . Slider actually thought he was going to say yes , since the guy can’t go a minute without being near Maverick .

Mavericks shoulders drop and his grin tugged down into a frown looking like a spoiled little girl that just heard no to her demanding wishes. For a second, Tom looks like he regretted saying no when he casted his eyes back at the group. Maverick is quick to hide his expression and scoff bitterly“Good , I won’t have to be worried about your presence ruining my day.”

Carole shared a panic look with Goose . Maverick and Ice had a mini stare off and then went their separate ways when the second bell rang. He made a move to follow his now annoyed friend when a hand pulled at the strap of his backpack .

Turning around Goose pulls him closer by the front of his shirt , surprising him how easily he let himself be moved. Slider palms began to sweat , He discreetly wiped his hands dry.

Slider wasn’t usually like this . He is a confident suave dude that can charm his way with any girl but suddenly he is anywhere near these two and he becomes a stuttering mess , chokes on his tongue and stutter his words .

“Those two idiots .” Carole words were full of warmth and no trace of malice , shaking her head her blonde curls move gracefully .

“If we have any luck , those two will get it on in the party. Fingers crossed for somewhere with a locked door.” Goose jokes making himself laugh.

Carole crosses her fingers on both hands.

“If they don’t , we just dangle a piece of yarn and Maverick will follow and lock his ass in said room.”

“Hey ! What about Iceman.” Goose smacked Slider shoulder, Goose will not let his friend be talked that way.

“That Tomcat will follow the little rat .” Slider rolled his eyes and laughs, Ice and Mavericks game of Cat and Mouse was getting pretty old , if it takes three to get those two to finally realize they feel anything but hate , then so be it.

Carole snorts and Goose is doing a terrible job trying to hide his laughter.

Slider might sound dumb ass fuck but he felt like he was handed a trophy for making them laugh.

“How about we ditch class .” Carole blue eyes gleam with mischief . Her and Maverick were a pair of rebelliousness.

“We already did missed half of the class already .” Goose added trying to help Carole to coax him into agreeing . Which was a surprise since Nick usually was rule follower between the three.

“What do you say , Ronnie . You want to treat us to ice-cream .” Carole and Goose lean against each other and smile broadly . Kind of like what Maverick was doing, the tilt and batting lashes , only difference , it made him swoon and have butterflies like a girl.

“Yes!” Ron cringes internally at how fast and loud he responded. How much is he going to embarras himself today .Carole and Goose looked pretty happy with his reaction or maybe that’s his brain playing tricks on him .

“I want 3 scoops big guy .” Nick raises 3 fingers and wraps his arm around Sliders bulging bicep, Carole does the same to his left side, “Me too and sprinkles .”

Both arms adorned with Carole and Goose , Slider felt like he just won the lottery. He was smiling ear to ear like a lunatic but it’s not everyday he is graced to have Carole and Goose latched on to him.

Is it a date? No it couldn’t be. Or could it ? No way , Goose and Carole had eyes only for each other . Then why is Goose free hand on his chest and Carole is now holding his wrist , her small fingers almost touching his ?. Man, he just reading into things, he’s confused with his mix feelings because he can’t really be crushing on the couple .

Can he really be in love with both of them at the same time ?

He really has to go back on that question with Tom or he might be in deep trouble . But for now , he is buying his babygirl’s ice-cream , 3 scoops with sprinkles to be precise.

[rafescoke]

hiiiii!!

Can I please request a rafe x reader based on that song need to know by doja cat.

Basically the reader heard rumors about the rafe’s and he’s past with his ex. Basically all saying how he was a 10/10 on bed. The reader is furious but sad and quickly confronts the rafe. You can choose the ending. Smut or fluff ending!!

Also pls post the rafe x reader, jj fic with the 19 chapters plsssss!!!! I beg you!

Need To Know ; Rafe Cameron

masterlist

#Part 1

Pairing: Rafe Cameron x reader

Summary: The reader confronts Rafe about his past

Warnings: Straight smut, hella angst, substance, swearing, Rafe being a total dick

A/N: this one shot’s too long but i hope you will love it. i poured all my love into this however this isn’t my best work and im sorry!! 

p.s, i’m always open for requests <3

“Hey! thanks for coming,” Topper smiled, hugging Rafe’s side before kissing (Y/N)’s cheeks. He ushered them both to the middle of the ongoing party, to the centre where all of Rafe��s friends were hanging out. 

(Y/N) is never a fan of parties, especially the ones that she will have to tug on Rafe’s collars for them to finally enjoy the night alone. However, she passed up the chance of watching netflix with her partner tonight to go to Topper’s birthday party, since, it was, well, Topper’s celebration. 

If it had not been for Topper, she wouldn’t even bat an eye to this party, especially when she knows the amount of girls silently crushing on her boyfriend of 6 months now. Rafe’s incredibly handsome, with his hair messily parted and his blue eyes shining everytime they’re exposed to the glowing sunlight of Obx. . .  (Y/N) couldn’t justify why he would even choose her. 

“What are you thinking?” Rafe playfully groaned, pulling his girlfriend’s waist near him. His fingers played with the hem of her dress, giggling when she hissed, swatting his hands away. “Seriously. You’ve been quiet since we got out of the car.”

“I just don’t like the attention’s you’re getting tonight,” she sighed, rolling her eyes when Rafe poked her, an amused expression plastered on his face. “I shouldn’t have told you that. Now you’re this proud prick.”

Rafe laughed, throwing his head back, his hands still around her waist. She waited for him to regain his posture before kissing his cheeks. 

“Go and find Topper. I know you want to kiss him.”

“Not as much as I want to kiss you,” Rafe replied, laughing again when (Y/N) stuck her tongue out at him before walking away to go and get some drinks for herself. In truth, Rafe doesn’t understand why she would feel so inferior towards other girls; she’s simply the most beautiful girl he’ve ever laid his eyes on. No one can ever compare to (Y/N), and that’s for sure.

(Y/N) muttered a thanks when someone handed her a beer, standing on her toes to search for her friends. When she couldn’t see any of them, she began making her way towards Rafe and Topper. She decided that instead of waiting alone in the resting area of the club while everybody else is socialising, she would rather listen to whatever Rafe and his friends were conversing, knowing that somehow she’ll find something interesting in the discussion.

That was when she bumped into a figure, causing the person to drop the drink they were holding onto her front dress. (Y/N) groaned, not liking how she was already ruining the branded new dress she bought with Rafe. The smell of strong alcohol wafted into her nostrils, causing her to scrunch her nose.

“Watch where you’re going,” the person said, and  (Y/N) rolled her eyes before finally leaving the scene, not wanting to stir any unnecessary drama. She knows it will always end up dirty and Rafe will have to calm her down in the car. 

(Y/N) pushed her way through the swarm of sweaty bodies as the dress reeked with alcohol clung onto her body, and she momentarily regretted her choice of wearing a skin tight short sequin dress to a club where dropping drinks on someone is just something that is bound to happen.

She sighed when she finally reached the bathroom, quickly washing her stains with the cheap toilet paper. It left some white bits on her dress when she finally removed them, and she groaned again before washing the fabric under the running water. Her day was going totally bad, and she dreamed of the night she could’ve spent with Rafe if only Topper wasn’t born on yesterday’s date 19 years ago. 

“That’s what I’m saying!” a loud voice shrieked, followed by group of shrill laughs. “God, I really wish I’m still with him.”

(Y/N) raised her brows at the familiar voice, but thought none of it. Topper wouldn’t invite Rafe’s ex, he knows what she did to him. There was no way she was allowed to be in the private part of the club, unless someone had brought her as their plus one. 

(Y/N) shook her head at the thought, trying to focus on the stains that seemed to be making everything hard for her.

“He has this habit of running his fingers through his hair when he’s receiving head,” the voice continued, and  (Y/N) stopped in her tracks.

That’s exactly Rafe. Whoever the voice was, she was talking about Rafe. Rafe has this habit of running his long fingers through his hair while he’s whimpering, and it always drives (Y/N) crazy. 

She thought nothing of it, thinking about the possibility of another guy doing the same thing. It’s a common thing anyways; she wasn’t going to pull the crazy jealous girlfriend card that night.

She turned to pull another tissue paper, her ears still intently listening to the group of friends who seemed to not mind receiving any attention from their bold topic. 

“Now he’s with that (Y/L/N) girl. I honestly don’t get why he would be with her. Oh and-” the voice squealed, “Do you know that Rafe called me when they were talking?” 

What?

“What?” her friends asked in disbelief, and  (Y/N) didn’t move a muscle. She pressed her back against the tiled walls, listening close. Her heartbeat beat faster, and she could feel her head getting lighter.

“Yes! It was like, the first month they started getting close? He told me he couldn’t get over me and that he tried everything including finding me in her.”

(Y/N) felt the walls closing in, and quickly got to her feet to splash some water onto her face. She felt like dying right then and right there, but she knew she had to at least hear more to, now identified, Rafe’s ex girlfriend.

“He drove to my house and we just talked, you know. . . and then he told me something, and I refused. He got mad, I guess, and we fought like always, and he left me to be with that girl until today. Kinda sucks to be her, you know? Like the second choice kind of thing?” she continued, an amused tone lacing in her voice.

At that point,  (Y/N) had heard enough. She walked towards the exit as fast as her heels could take her, not stopping to stay goodbye to her now approaching friends. She could feel her hot tears crashing down, but she didn’t feel like crying in the club and having random strangers coming up to her to soothe her down.

When the night breeze hit her square on the face as she finaly exited the suffocating club, she let out the hardest cry ever as she tried to find any available taxis through her tears. There were none, seeing that it was only 9 p.m. and people had just starting to arrive, so she decided to walk to nowhere until she finds any yellow vehicle.

“Hey, (Y/N)!” a voice called out from behind her, and she turned when a hand pulled her shoulder. “What the fuck? Are you okay? Where’s Rafe?”

“Kelce, I’m not feeling good. I just want to go home, okay? Please, oh my god. I can’t do this right now,” she cried, covering her eyes with her palm. Kelce pulled her into a side hug, allowing her tears on his new t-shirt. When she finally soothed down, he tried to find an answer in her face again.

“What happened?”

“I can’t tell you now, I just-” she took a deep breath, “I just can’t. Can you um, call a Uber for me, please? My phone’s with Rafe.”

“What? Why would your phone-” he sighed, taking out his own phone. “Borrow my phone. It’s safer this way. Call a Uber, get home, and don’t do anything stupid. Okay?”

(Y/N) nodded, kissing Kelce’s cheeks before ordering a Uber, waiting by the sidewalk impatiently. She was scared Rafe would come out to look for her, and she didn’t feel like talking to him. 

She felt like shooting him in his ribs until he’s begging for her to stop. 

When she got home, her fingers trembling and her dress now ruined, she stripped out of her clothes and got under her covers. Her mother tried asking her about why she had come home earlier than expected with a running mascara and a smudged lipstick, but decided to let it pass when she didn’t answer, knowing that something has indeed happened. 

She felt like screaming. She had trusted him so much, and he was even the first guy to take her virginity. Now she felt disgusted, thinking about how she had allowed herself to the sweet words he had given her before.

She couldn’t ignore the memory of the night she first experienced sex with him, and the whole sweet care he had provided after.

It was Friday the 13th, and Rafe decided it will be a good night to watch some type of a horror movie.  (Y/N) agreed, being a fan of horror, but until one point, she was bored with the super-slow plot and boring characters. 

She played with Rafe’s fingers, intertwining them with hers, before she got an idea midway of the female character’s scream that echoed throughout her bedroom. 

“Rafe,” she said, and Rafe hummed in response. His eyes were fixated to the screen, not paying any attention to her. She whined, “Rafe. . .”

“Yeah?” He finally looked down to her, and laughed when he saw the face she gave him. “What the hell is wrong with you? The best part’s coming up. Watch it, the guy’s going to- fuck.”

(Y/N) had slipped her hand into his basketball shorts, teasing the outline of his v-line. Rafe’s breath shuddered, and he grabbed her hands before things escalate.

“What the fuck are you doing?” He grunted.

“I just wanna try something,” she replied innocently, and Rafe swore he felt like his heart stopping right then and right there. She was that sweet girl, and he has never saw this side of her.

“Can I?” she asked, and with a tiny nod, she continued her movements as Rafe’s eyes stayed glued on the television screen, though his mind was already on cloud nine. 

She was so good, and Rafe couldn’t explain the feeling inside of him when he watched her palmed him, her mouth slightly open and her hair falling down to her shoulders. Rafe felt like attacking every inch of her, wanting to give anything that she desired. 

“Stop,” he said, closing his eyes. “Fuck, you’re gonna make me cum from just your hands.”

“I want you to,” she said, and Rafe cursed. He liked, scratch that, he loved and is obsessed with the way she did anything to him, with her innocent eyes and her teasing smile. He felt like fucking her numb every single time she purposely brushed her hands against his buldge in the restaurant or bumping her bottoms against him when playing golf.

And when she would deny her actions, god, he felt like giving his all to her until she couldn’t walk.

“Rafe,” she said again, with that gint in her eyes. She leaned onto him, and he shievered when he felt her lips brushing with his earlobes. 

“I want you to fuck me.”

Rafe groaned, not wanting to look her in the eyes, afraid that he would do things he will regret the next morning. He felt her fingers around his chin, forcing him to look at her. 

“Please.”

“You told me you wanted to wait,” he said softly.

“I’m done waiting,” she had said, and that was enough for Rafe to crash his lips against her soft ones, pushing her lightly to her queen sized bed. He felt her hands playing with the hem of his shorts, and being an impatience fuck like his dad, he guided her hands to his already hard penis, craving for her touch.

“Fuck,” he groaned, closing his eyes to the euphoric feeling starting to form in the pit of his stomach. His fingers fumbled with her shorts, trying to untie the waistband, and grunted when he couldn’t gues the knot.

(Y/N) giggled, untying the ribbon, sliding her shorts to the edge of her bed as Rafe waited with his eyes staring at her hands eagerly, like a prey waiting to attack. 

Once her shorts were off, Rafe didn’t waste anymore time to place kisses from her stomach down to the sides of her aching core.  (Y/N) couldn’t take it anymore, after so many nights of trying to picture this exact moment in her head whilst fingering herself, pretending like it has been Rafe’s fingers instead of herself, she wanted to feel him around her so bad. 

“Please, Rafe,” she begged, looking at him with the innocent eyes again. She moaned when he inserted his fingers in her, pleasuring her the way pornstars would from the many porn videos his cousin had taught him to watch since he was 10 before.

“Oh my god,” she screamed, not able to comprehend the strange feeling in her stomach. She tried to close her legs, only for Rafe to gripped them apart tightly, his eyebrows furrowing.

“Do that again and I’ll leave you hanging.”

It was the way he had said that that left  (Y/N) all red, pushing herself against him to reach her end. She felt a sudden feeling approaching, and gripped Rafe’s wrist to tell him. 

Rafe laughed when she had came around his dingers, feeling her juice soaking up his fingers and her bedsheet.  (Y/N) sighed, still heaving from her high, making a mental note in her head to love this other side of Rafe Cameron.

“Suck,” he said, placing his two soaked fingers in front of her face and watched her as she sucked on them like a little girl who’s licking off a lollipop that her mother had bought for her. He felt like cumming just from the sight of her face.

“I want you inside me,” she had said again, and Rafe groaned to look away, not wanting to be a regret she had made the next morning. He looked at her again when she sat on his lap, looking at him with puppy dog eyes.

“Please?” she whispered, and before he knew it, she licked his ear to the the side of his lip before placing a soft peck on his lips.

Rafe has never removed his basketball shorts as fast as he did that night, not even when he had felt an animal crawling in his pants in the pet shop when he was 8 that resulted Sarah into having a laughing fit when they found out that a hamster had gotten into his pants.

He positioned himself in front of her slit, waiting for any new demands for him to stop now that she had changed her mind. But there was nothing, only  (Y/N) demanding for him, and without wasting any more time, he slowly slided into her, strecthing her hole.

He grunted when she felt her closing in, knowing that if she kept doing that, he’ll finish straight away.  (Y/N) screamed as he fucked her with a quick pace, causing him to quickly pull her head close to him to whisper into her ear.

“Shut up, princess. Don’t want mummy and daddy to wake up, do we?”

(Y/N) shook her head, wanting to reach her end soon. She moaned against her mattress, smelling Rafe’s scent from it, and liking the way he would whimper when he hit her g-spot.

“I’m so close, baby, fuck-” he cursed, his pace getting sloppier. His fingers with his cold rings intertwined with hers as he slammed into her for good measure, and pulling out to aim on her face as she tried to regain her breath.

(Y/N)  felt a shot of hot load landing on her face as she finally looked up to him, his sweaty chest heaving from the ungodly practice they just did. Rafe groaned, feeling himself getting hard again from the sight of her with his load all over her, and quickly turned away to grab a clean towel to clean her up.

That night, with a soft lullaby playing from  (Y/N)’s record player that Rafe had bought for her in Italy, he ran his fingers through her hair as she snuggled close, watching the moonlight brightened the ocean.

Rafe sighed, now wrapping his arms around her, forcing himself to not touch her breast in any way. “I’m sorry if it wasn’t what you had pictured in your mind.”

“Are you kidding?” she turned to face him, “God, Rafe. That’s exactly how I wanted it with you.”

Rafe chuckled and placed a soft kiss on her forehead, “God. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Riing! Riing!

(Y/N) wiped her tears with her fingers before pressing on the green button, bringing the phone to her ears when she saw Topper’s name. She decided that he deserved an explanation after she had ran off from his birthday party.

“Tops?”

“Hey, baby, you didn’t pick up my call. I have to use Topper’s phone but, um-”  (Y/N) heard the crowd sang happy birthday, “But um, are you okay? Kelce told me you were crying and I-”

“I’m fine. You should sing happy birthday to Topper.”

“I’ll be there in a bit,” he said to a voice in the background, and tried to talk to her again. “What is it, baby? The line’s kinda shitty here. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“Okay. I know you’re not. Can you please tell me what happened?”

“It’s nothing, Rafe. Go and enjoy yourself.”

“God,  (Y/N), don’t pull this shit on me,” he sighed, and she waited until the background noise lessen. “Okay, I’m at the smoking area. Can you please tell me what happened?”

“You used me.”

“I’m - what?” he asked, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“I heard her talking about how you drove to see her and you told her that you tried finding her in me,” she finaly confessed, her voice breaking. A tear slowly rolled down her red cheeks and she quickly wiped them away.

“Baby, it’s not how it sounds like.”

“Then what is it?” she yelled, clutching onto Kelce’s phone like it was her life support. “Fuck, Rafe, I gave you my everything.”

“Baby, I swear, it’s just-”  

(Y/N) waited for him to finish his sentence, and sucked in a breath when she heard the voice that had caused her this misery.

“Rafe! What are you doing here?”

“Fuck,  (Y/N), I’ll come by to your house, okay? Please, don’t do anything stupid, I’m coming back home-”

(Y/N) pressed the end call, letting go of the breath she was holding before finally throwing her head back against the pillow. 

#Part 2

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[weebsinstash]

Your recent posts inspired me to reread The Remarried Empress and Good God is Rashta the fucking worst. Not to mention Sovieshu constantly insisting Navier should suck it uup, accept Rashta and be besties with her, tells her she can have a lover and then gets jealous even though he knocked up another woman, AND tells Navier she is a cold hearted woman all the time. Oh and also the way he just expects her to love the baby he is having with the mistress??? They are both horrible, but Rashta is definetly the queen of dogshit manhwa side bitches.

Honestly even though I very strongly dislike Rashta and her manipulative antics, I can entirely 500% see EXACTLY where she's coming from if you look at it from a factual perspective.

She was literally a slave. A legal slave. People watched her be a fucking slave and didn't care because it wasn't against the law. Not touching on how traumatizing it would be to have literally everyone around you not care about the worst thing that has ever happend to you, which is constantly happening to you, but then she was further retraumatized by Alan, who made her feel safe and secure, then proceeded to impregnate her and pull all that safety and security right out from underneath her and leave her vulnerable and alone. My god she had to give birth alone in a dirty barn on her knees and she thought her baby died, her baby that no matter what was happening to her, she genuinely loved, genuinely wanted

I hate to say it but there are a decent amount of times Rashta was genuinely trying to be friendly in the very beginning, but she was ultimately being way too fucking dense and eager to please and fit in to her new life to realize Navier could not reciprocate all these friendly feelings. Rashta cried when Navier rejected her because she wanted her approval, and being rejected as a sort of friend and, in her mind, being looked down upon, kind of made her trauma resurface again in the sense of "oh no I'm finally safe with Sovieshu but his wife might kick me out". Like, Sovieshu was the first instance of security she had had in a very long time and she was TERRIFIED of going back to her old life. Like my god can you even imagine how it felt for her to be at the party Sovieshu was hosting, she's in his house, she feels safe, she is with her lover, she's nice and clean and dressed up pretty and she is trying to become a noble in the eyes of the people around her so that she can be safe and respected, and out of nowhere her literal slave master appears right in front of her and says to everyone in the room "well golly gee look everyone if it ain't my slave Rashta!"

Honestly, Sovieshu, by contrast, is worse to me. Not saying Rashta is completely innocent but like he took in a clearly traumatized woman who was in an extremely emotional vulnerable scenario as an enslaved woman who was desperate to not live in constant agony and he immediately started a romantic relationship because... he misses how his wife used to be? He's chasing his fucking glory days from when a young woman would bat her eyes at him and tease him? Sorry is being an Emperor and leading an entire kingdom a real bummer for you, dude? Gee, i wish there was someone you could try and open a dislogue with who would understand your scenario, someone who also has a lot of responsibilities like gee I dunno YOUR FUCKING WIFE???

Sovieshu had absolutely no pretense or pre-established behavior to start painting Navier as a villain amd accusing her of bullying Rashta besides "oh no you aren't a sweet innocent obedient little damsel who does whatever i say anymore therefore you are clearly a jealous cold-hearted bitch and you are doing this to spite me" WHEN SHE JUST TAKES HER JOB SERIOUSLY? and he's fucking dumb enough to think that he shouldn't loop Navier in on his plan to try and legitimize Rashta's child, which ultimately stems from his belief that Navier is infertile and he needs/wants children? "Oh yeah I'll just blindside her with a fucking divorce after we've been married since childhood after I started accusing her of being a nasty bitch and having an affair, she'll definitely take me back, 100% she will still love me because I will apologize :)"

He tried to fuck his cake and eat it too and eventually he will be left with jack shit nothing and meanwhile Navier will living it up with her new hot mage hubby and her romantic tension with that hot respectful love potion making Duke whose name escapes me

[leviiattacks]

teacher!levi and teacher!reader headcanons please 🥺

author note :: i expected for this to be better but idk,,, um, you know maybe it’s just me who wishes i executed it better but i wrote this at 3am that’s my excuse. ANYWAY I HOPE U ENJOY ANON :-))) i know it’s not headcanons but here!! also my ask box is always open to feel free to drop by !! 

word count :: 5.4k (after i had to severely cut the word count down because my tumblr wouldn’t let me post the longer version with more detail,,,,)

honestly you’ve never fit in well with the math teachers in particular but you’re still amicable with most

however, there’s one unbearable member of the group that happens to want to play jump rope with your patience constantly

and that person just so happens to be mr ackerman

every single staff meeting the both of you sit furthest away from each other whilst silently exchanging bitter glares

maybe it’s his stony disposition or his unrealistically harsh grading system that makes him seem so off putting to you.

or perhaps it’s your soft and gentle approach to teaching that drives him up a wall

but to make matters simple, the two of you have never got along. nearly everything he says you disagree with and nearly everything you say he has to rebuke.

every outlandish suggestion of his at meetings is met with firm disapproval from you and every time you bring up wanting to provide the children with more time for extracurricular activities he sneers in annoyance

today he’s proposing a plan to set exams as soon as possible

???

you wonder if he’s even thinking with his head attached to his neck because it’ll be impossible for the children to handle all of the content in the form of an exam paper so soon

the workload he’s been pushing onto his math class has become far too ridiculous for your liking and you want to put an end to the man’s reign of terror

it just so happens your classes are scheduled in the blocks next to each other meaning he always sees your students an hour before you do

it’s got to the point where your pupils trudge into english class completely EXHAUSTED

the other day a boy fainted because of lack of sleep and now mr ackerman has the audacity to put forward the exam dates???

“we need to instill these children with discipline. taking them by surprise will give them a much needed reality check.”

you groan at his speech and raise a hand

“may i interject?”

professor ackerman’s tongue pokes at the inside of his cheek the irritation is painted on his face but he nods although he seems reluctant

“these children do not need standardized exams to-”

“would you like for me to completely scrap exams from the curriculum?” without even allowing for you to present your argument he has to cut you off with a mocking grin

“levi, i think-”

“that's mr ackerman to you.”

his blunt correction has you rolling your eyes because YES!! you understand the two of you aren’t exactly the best of friends but he doesn’t even want to be on a first name basis with a colleague of two years??

his pettiness has your blood boiling in searing displeasure

“you have to stop going so hard on these children.”

he’s shuffling through some paperwork not even batting an eye in your direction.

“personally, we aren’t hard enough but of course the english teacher has trouble understanding that.”

the jab he makes at your job only causes the anger inside of you to bubble up again

why does teaching english have ANYTHING to do with this???

“you teach math yet you can’t calculate the reasoning behind your subpar love life. do not insult english.”

personal insults are your favourite to throw at him because he always gets so riled up

and actually for once you have the answer to a math question.

the reason why his love life is so uneventful has to be because of this :

his personality + his obnoxious humour + his looks = a good looking but undatable man

his jaw clenches and the grip he has on the stack of papers in his hands strengthens

ok,, that is kinda hot but that is not relevant at all

you’re able to make out miss ral one of the other math teachers make a move to speak and god you fight the urge to punch her every day because she’s always gushing about mr ackerman

seeing as you don’t want to punch her or anyone for that matter you turn to give her a “if you speak right now i swear to god i will lose my shit” look

she gets the memo incredibly quickly because her mouth closes shut immediately

mr ackerman takes a sip out of the cup of black tea next to him. “i would appreciate if you just sat back and let me do what’s best.”

“children fainting in my lesson is not what’s best.” your rebuttal catches him off guard and he seems more than a little surprised

“wait- fainted??”

you eyes flick over to mr zacharias, you had told him to pass the message on but the way he’s sheepishly looking at the floor avoiding your eyes clearly tells you all you have to know

“looks like someone forgot to pass the message onto you but the other day falco fainted in english.”

“is he- is he okay?? did he say why?”

eyebrows raising you’re quite surprised to see any sort of reaction from him let alone concern

“he stayed up all night completing your homework.”

lips pressing together into a fine line it almost looks as if he’s guilty

“i’ll talk to him about it later.” his voice is back to its usually plain tone and any trace of his previous worry has been masked.

an awkward silence follows. he coughs choosing to not continue the discussion about exams.

principal smith takes the hint and moves on to discuss planned school trips

HOORAH victory!!!

yet another day where you’ve saved your students

“who is fallacy and why are they pathetic?” a few snorts and giggles are heard around the class and you force yourself to laugh at falco's miserable attempt at a joke

you’ve noticed falco’s been cracking more jokes around his new seat mate gabi.

she’s small but feisty always willing to debate and she’s really a joy to teach although she can get a little bit aggressive with the others at times

honestly it’s quite obvious that falco has a fat crush on her. well, actually it’s been obvious from the moment she step foot into your class

and... you couldn’t just ignore the way falco looked at her could you?? and there was an empty space next to him too sooooo, what harm would there be in placing the two together?

it seems as if your attempt at getting the both of them to talk has worked. gabi and falco compete desperately for the top position in the class and are two of the best students you’ve had in a while

also after the day falco fainted in class gabi has been noticeably nicer. things like asking if he’s drank water or how much he’s slept

you have a small inkling that she may like him back

and the budding romance is adorable to you because you too once had childhood crushes

it feels rather nostalgic to see the two interact

but today you notice the two aren’t in

in fact, you notice half of the class isn’t?

“where are the others?” your question sends a jolt through one of your present students but he stays silent choosing to pretend to clean his glasses as a distraction

crossing your arms over your chest you walk over towards his desk

“udo, you can tell me what it is.”

“professor ackerman said not to tell.” udo looks petrified and you’re just kinda wondering what in the hell is going on

lucky for you his resolve is thin and he quickly cracks under pressure

“okay. you can’t say i told.”

nodding in agreement he looks around making sure no one else hears what exactly it is he’s about to disclose

“he’s kept some people back to talk to them about something top secret. i don’t know what but he asked for the students who like you.”

at that you feel a little bitter because if he asked for the student who liked you why on earth is half the class still here??

but oh well, you guess you can’t please them all

“oh no, no, no. you’ve got it wrong. we all wanted to stay but he didn’t let us.”

udo looks genuine so you let it slide

either way it doesn’t really matter as long as the majority prefer you over that sick and twisted math teacher you’re alright

“he does know he’s cut into my class time right?”

“falco told him that and he whispered something about how you’re bothersome.”

you???? bothersome???

WHEN HE’S THE ONE BOTHERING EVERYONE?/!:£:!/)

you don’t even look back as you walk out frankly furious at what’s happened

english is important

ACTUALLY!!!

ENGLISH > MATH

you will stand by that till the day you die

your knuckle meets with the wooden surface of your sworn enemy’s classroom door and almost automatically you’re able to hear the shuffle of chairs and padding of numerous footsteps approach

the door swings open and you step aside to allow your missing students to pass through

they look nervous but one look at your reassuring smile lets them ease up and relax

“well.” a voice behind you snaps “look who paid me a visit.”

“we’re talking about this later.”

you try your best to sound serious but you don’t know if you pull it off as well as he does because he just ends up giving you a disappointed sort of look

“y/n. stick to being the good cop it suits you better.”

“we are not on first name basis. you said it yourself.” is your narrowed comeback

finally turning to face him you’re surprised when your eyes travel to the triangle of space behind him and you’re able to get a peek of what looks to be a list of books on his whiteboard

pride and prejudice

wuthering heights

jane eyre

ville-

before you’re able to read the rest he moves in front of your line of vision

he’s got quite the selection but,, when did he of all the people on this planet start showing any interest in literature?

“the books on the board what’s that about?”

your inquiry flies over his head and he shuts the door behind him completely

his face doesn’t move and if it does it only shows the slightest hint of confusion

“what books are you talking about?” he replies and don’t know why your knees feel a little weak when he looks you straight in the eyes

snap.

out.

of.

it.

“i saw books on the board.”

“you saw wrong.” he barks back and he’s getting agitated now

maybe you did imagine it...

and you have to get back to teach your class so okay fair enough you’ll let it go because you do know you have a habit of daydreaming randomly

however that doesn’t stop you from giving him another skeptical look before you leave because there is NO WAY you imagined it, but it is you and it really could be a possibility

the click clack of your heels against the floor sound out as you remove yourself from the conversation

you assume he’s returned to his classroom

that’s why it catches you by surprise when you hear a hesitant voice behind you

“there were no books on the board.”

you don’t know why he has to tell you that again because it only makes himself look all the more suspicious

“but if they were a list of book recommendations then what would you recommend i read?”

the question is peculiar coming from him

are you in an alternate universe?

is this a dream?

are you talking to a clone?

a robot?

because this can NOT be the same man you’ve been working with for two years

maybe he’s having a change of heart?

but that sounds unlikely

maybe he’s planning to read the book and somehow with that big brain of his formulate a calculation to score it a measly two out of ten

yeah. that sounds more likely.

nevertheless, you still want to give him a recommendation, maybe he’ll find out he’s into books this way

“you should totally check out pride and prejudice :-)”

for once you’re smiling at him and he doesn’t know what to do because the change is sudden but he doesn’t say a word after that

instead he retreats into his classroom

god.

now you’re sure he’s just asked to form a stupid calculation or whatever the hell it is math teachers do.

“he likes you.” hange has a shit eating grin on their face and you can’t help but narrow your eyes and sigh in exasperation

no he does not like you but you don’t try to correct hange because you know they’re firm in their stupid belief

“would you ever date him?” hange fiddles with the last of their potato salad absentmindedly waiting on your reply

the question literally has you choking on your lunch

“i would rather fight for survival in the wilderness. thank you for asking.”

“oh come on... he’s got a thing for you. you read romance novels all the time you should be able to tell he does.”

“yeah and that thing he has for me is wanting to shove my head onto a pitchfork. you’ve got the wrong end of the stick.” shoving a piece of pasta into your mouth you sigh dreamily at the taste. it serves as a momentary distraction

you get one lunch break and you are not!!!! in the mood to talk about him whilst you’re on that break

he’s attractive

and you have to admit he looks handsome in his crisp white button up and pristine black suit AND his cologne is really...

okay, you are digressing from the point

none of what you just said means anything!!!

at surface level he seems like a catch but it’s what’s on the inside that matters and he said he finds english stupid

that’s more than enough of a reason to dislike the guy?

he thinks stuff like the pythagorean theorem and y = mx+c are entertaining

y = mx+c ??? over literature???

you read books to teach and you read books for your own enjoyment

it would be a complete travesty if you had a crush on a book hater

and levi ackerman most certainly can be classed as a book hater.

a pessimistic book hater if the specifics are needed

“OH! SORRY Y/N GOTTA BLAST MOB’S OVER THERE!!!!!”

you don’t even get the chance to say goodbye because hange makes an eager run towards moblit

hange and moblit are inseparable, both are the shared heads of the science department and since he’s been off on sick leave recently you understand why hange’s rushed off to greet him

you wish you had a teacher friend like that but the sad truth is you’re pretty much a lone wolf. the other english teachers are wrinkly old pickles and talk about antiques or quiz shows :-(

“this seat free?”

no way.

it’s not him

it can't be

what does he even want??

“um, well yeah it is free b-.”

“good.” he takes the seat without you even inviting him and now you’re stuck in an awkward situation you didn’t even expect to be in today

you're about to burst into tears because is it too much to ask for a peaceful lunch period???

mr ackerman clears his throat and places a book in the center of the table. “pride and prejudice although not my cup of tea was... mildly enjoyable.”

wait...

is this him...

admitting defeat!??

HELLLOOOOO

you are over the moon right now because you know he really had to have enjoyed it a lot and is simply choosing to withhold that information for his own reputation

“i’m happy to hear you took a liking to it.” you’re munching away at your pasta a little more upbeat now

“okay but the start of the book assuming all single men want a wife? no, all i want is a good night’s rest for once. also mrs bennet needs to calm down, elizabeth can marry who the hell she wa-”

“someone’s a little passionate aren’t they?” you giggle into your glass of water and you catch mr ackerman frowning

“i liked it okay.”

“i thought you said it was only mildly enjoyable just now?” grinning and looking at him through your lashes his cheeks become red

you guess he’s angry or something but that’s the usual with him

“yeah, whatever. i just wanted to play fair and apologise.”

“apologise?” oh wow, now your interest has really peaked because never in the past two years has he apologised to ANYONE

not even principal smith for the one time he flipped out and nearly cursed at a mouthy student at parent's evening

grimacing a little before he does it he finally speaks again.

“english is important. i’m sorry.”

your lips tug up into a bright smile

well???

this is a great interaction??

an apology coming out of levi ackerman of all people

“apology accepted! i’m glad to know you liked the book but now that we’re a tad bit friendlier with each other i wanted to ask for a favour.” your eyes gleam and he swears he can see specks of shining stars in them

“...okay, it depends.”

he’s warming up to you so he considers it

“please don’t cut into my lesson time levi.” his name slips out of your mouth but it’s so natural you don’t even care to correct yourself

“i’m sorry about that too y/n.” your name now ventures out of his mouth too as it tests the waters

wordlessly the two of you agree to first name basis

BUT more important matters are at hand such as how he’s issued you yet another apology?

this is satire surely

because why is he so willing all of a sudden...?

well, that's the power of pride and prejudice, wow you’re really thanking the heavens for blessing this world with jane austen’s existence

jane austen. a woman capable of remarkable things, she's even managed to make an unmoving book hater somehow become a lover

poking at your tuna pasta you and levi are now quiet.

“soooooo, any opinions on mr wickham?” you ask the question hoping to initiate a longer conversation than before

and luckily for you your attempt works

SUCCESS!!

levi pinches the bridge of his nose and the creases on his forehead show he clearly isn't particularly fond of wickham

“don’t get me started he’s so indescribably annoying?”

ok, ok, ok

you don’t even know how it happens but you and levi really hit it off

weeks have passed and you and him have even become lunch buddies

it was so shocking to moblit at first that he dropped his lunch on the floor when he saw you and levi enthusiastically exchanging words

then again, two mr wickham haters are bound to get along

you’re seriously wondering how the two of you ever survived as mortal enemies

yeah, you still disagree a lot but you’re getting there!!

sometimes he helps you out when your computer stops running and in exchange you’re willing to offer him book recommendations

he swears he doesn't want any recommendations from you but you know he enjoys it

yesterday he got microsoft excel out and showed you how useful it really was and you went :O because you never really understood the need for it at all

you’re a little bit of a granny when it comes to tech...

and just today at lunch you recommended he checks some plays out but his nose wrinkled at the mention of shakespeare so the both of you went through a long list of dramas and eventually you were able to interest him in j.b. priestely's an inspector calls

another victory for you!!

anyway, right now the two of you are sitting inside of the staff room seeing as it's that time of the month again.

time for the monthly staff meeting

it's the first one you've had since you and levi became friends and you're worried the both of you will be back at it butting heads

wait, are you friends?

well, you wouldn't mind if that were the case but to be honest you would like to be a little bit more than friends mayb-

no!!! no!!! no!!! stupid thought!!! you retract that statement immediately

no you do not want to be more than friends with levi ackerman, yes he's lovely to a degree but you are not going to elaborate on why it's a terrible idea to fancy him

okay wait, let's elaborate for the sake of elaborating

he's surprisingly charming and wittier than you thought he would be. the fun conversations are making your days now and to be honest it is nice to have someone to spend lunch with (hange usually skips out on lunch all together to tinker in the science labs and set up experiments)

wait... weren't you suppose to explain why you don't want to get with him?

you're an idiot and you don't notice how dumb you really are until everyone just kinda gawks at the both of you because it's so odd seeing you in the same room let alone within a three feet radius of each other.

fuck, you completely forgot you and levi sat at opposite ends of the room

principal smith enters and even he looks visibly shocked at the change in seats but he doesn't mention it and you're grateful he doesn't because you didn't purposefully sit here it just happened on accident

erwin turns in your direction and smiles

"would you like to start off with your proposition for extracurriculars?"

nodding your head you begin passionately.

"well, i'd like to say i don't think we offer the children enough. we have spare funding so why not open another club? cooking perhaps? i understand many of you may not understand the importance of teaching them how to cook but-"

"do you have an obsession for setting these children up for failure?" tensing up you notice it's levi who's spoke and he doesn't sound remotely happy

blinking once and then twice he realizes his tone isn't the best and he mutters an apology "sorry, go ahead i'll add in when you're done."

whispers travel through the room straight away

"did he just say sorry?"

"actually why are those two sitting together?"

"do you think they're you know...?"

miss ral who's sat a little further away is the next person to disagree with you

"i understand the intention but would it not be better to let them have extra math lessons?"

"oh, so you can get a pay rise?" the comeback you make is aggressive and dripping in displeasure

she sits up face burning up

"no- no- absolutely not i take pleasure in teaching all of my classes." flustered and trying to hide her nerves she takes a sip out of her water bottle

you want to pour all of the water out onto that ginger hair of hers

the reason why her interjection is getting on your nerves is due to the fact you overheard her and another one of the math teachers plan to bring this specific point up

and you are well aware that her reasoning behind it has nothing to do with the children

she couldn't care less about them

"do not make me repeat what you and mr bozado were chit chatting about earlier today."

the threat is enough to silence her and just when you think you've handled the situation levi has to give his input

"let's ignore petra's motivations and talk about how teaching these kids how to cook means nothing if they have no tradable skills to offer in the real world." levi's not looking at you. he's either too annoyed or too preoccupied with his thought process

at that moment you feel naive, you thought maybe he would try to understand your opinion seeing as he's been spending so much time with you as of recent but that looks to not be the case

murmurs of agreement fill the room at his statement and you feel pathetic

it's practically the entire room against you now

genuinely how is it these people can manage to be such spoiled sports about everything?

"recently, i asked all of my classes to write an essay about school stress. maybe you won't understand my views because you haven't read their pieces but they need a fucking break." the expletive flies out of your mouth without warning and you flush in embarrassment

that

was

not

professional.

"oh god, i'm sorry i got worked up i shouldn't hav-" fumbling over all of your words you feel even more mortified

the principal raises his hand signalling you stop and you clamp your mouth shut. you're in huge trouble that's for sure

but,,, in spite of the clear difference in opinion between you and the other teachers, soft and well spoken principal smith says the unthinkable

"i have the final say and i believe you are coming from a good place after reading your student's work. how would you feel about running the new cooking club?"

scanning his face for a second you can tell his question is legitimate and the wave of relief that washes over you has never felt better than ever

sighing contently you agree and as the topic of conversation shifts to something else entirely you sense your heart rate picking up

you feel like you're back to square one with levi.

it's yet another day where you’ve saved your students and you should be feeling overjoyed but if anything you feel a little deflated

you wish he would have come around and understood but you can't teach and old dog new tricks

again, the feeling of disappointment wears you down

two weeks have passed since then and your favourite time of year has come. it’s spring term meaning MACBETH

the english curriculum includes plays and it just so happens that today is your first lesson covering shakespeare

and you LOVE shakespeare

something about all the intricate foreshadowing always has you excited

but some children are missing

and it’s way too many to blame on sickness

so you wait for a few minutes but it's consistently radio silent

the last time this happened the culprit had been levi and he promised to never cut into your lesson time

but you could count on him to break his promise after the fiasco that was the monthly meeting

is he back to hating you and hating literature?

well, that's his loss if that's the case!! and no!! you will not upset yourself over the loss of the budding friendship

sighing you get to your feet making a beeline to the door but gabi and falco rush to stop you

awkward chuckles activated they wave their hands to get your attention “OH NO, they’ll only be five minutes!!” their sentence comes out as one big blur of words but you manage to understand them

now you’re doubtful because you know falco and gabi would usually ignore you and allow you to walk out

giving them a knowing glance the pair look between each other

their eyes are clearly communicating and asking if it’s alright to tell you

“i promise i won’t be mad.” you sigh

perhaps if you reassure them they’ll be more likely to spill the beans

“it’s not that you... i don't know. you might be upset.” gabi isn't one to care much for other's feelings so you're slightly anxious even though you shouldn't be

but you’re a tough nut to crack. so, absolutely not. you are not going to upset yourself over whatever it is

“i won’t be hurt. i’ve suffered through reading some of the most emotional classics to ever exist.” hitting your chest with your fist you wince a little because you hit yourself a little too hard

falco’s seems to be too shy to come out with it so gabi takes the lead as she normally does

“some students were talking badly about you so mr ackerman kept them behind to have a talk.”

oh.

yeah, actually you are a teeny weeny bit disheartened because you think you’re nice to all of your pupils but it’s nothing too bad, not everyone will like you

“if that’s all i’ll go get them. thank you for letting me know.” giving them two thumbs up you leave the class immediately

levi is probably scolding them to hell and back

not because he cares for you but because he hates disrespect in general

as you’re nearing the open door of his classroom you hear something you never thought would emerge from levi’s room

“final question. why does mr darcy say he doesn’t want to dance with elizabeth at first?” oh yeah, that’s levi’s voice for sure

an english question?

is he quizzing them on pride and prejudice?

you wait hoping your students don't fail you and are able to provide the correct answer.

“ummm... she’s not pretty enough!!”

levi hums “you answered all five questions right. do you all know why?”

you can’t see the children’s faces but they have to be confused if there’s no immediate response

he grunts in agitation “because your english teacher works hard to teach you every single day. have some respect because that teacher of yours is one in a million.”

taking your bottom lip in between your teeth you fight the urge to smile

“do you know how at every single staff meeting there’s only ever one teacher fighting for you all and what you want. i can assure you that teacher isn’t me, but i believe you can all guess who i'm talking about.”

your heart does a back flip in your chest and you feel jittery but in that really fuzzy good way

like that super duper fuzzy and hazy good way

he’s really very sweet for saying all of this and you're now smiling like an idiot

one pupil takes a chance to make amends “we’re sorry mr ackerman.”

but before levi can give them a response you clap your hands together and walk in unannounced 

“apology accepted, now if you want to all be forgiven forever please return to class and answer the questions on the board!” directing them to the door with your hands you make sure they're conscious fo the fact you aren't mad at them

still, never have you seen them so eager to run off to analyze macbeth. you guess levi's deathly stare is the cause for it

holding back a laugh you clear your throat after the last student leaves

“thank you levi :-)”

it’s quiet for a second and you think to ask him about what has been gnawing at your mind

“you didn’t have to do that. you disagreed with me before so... why did you?”

“i say this at every meeting and you never listen but children need to be disciplined.” his unchangeable tone is unwelcoming

again it’s awkwardly silent and you sorta regret even coming over to see what was going on because now you and levi are just having an uncomfortable staring contest

then he scratches the back of his neck and heaves a heavy breath

“it may also be because i really fucking like you, but i look like an idiot saying that when we’ve been at each other's necks for two years.”

oh.

the sudden and brutally honest confession has the wind knocked out of you, you’re stunned

and then you get hit by it too. the realization hits you like rain hits umbrellas on stormy days. you like him too.

you like him for his witty sense of humour, his pure honesty and his hatred for mr wickham only serves as a bonus

yes, you have your differences. many of them. but you like him

he’s no longer a book hater and so by default you can fancy him. he goes against none of your guidelines essentially

you like him, he likes you back?’//’.;

[SCREAMS]

“well, what do you say? will you be this mr darcy's elizabeth bennet?” hearing the cheesy pickup line from him of all people has the butterflies in your stomach exploding in delight 

“you sound weird, where's the grumpy math teacher from before?" now you and him are simply shamelessly flirting but HEY!! you have no complaints at all

he scoffs at your sarcastic question

"do you want the equation for a two dimensional heart on a graph beca-"

"can i just kiss you?"

wOWIE are you being bold today y/n???

thankfully you don't have to wait for his answer. levi’s right hand pulls your face in and he slams his lips against yours. he gives your waist a squeeze and you hold him tighter by the neck in response. he has a way of somehow making it all feel gentle and relaxed in the same breath

and... you know what? maybe you should have recommended pride and prejudice to him earlier

but oh well.

what matters the most right now is that you're kissing your mr darcy!!

and he’s kissing his elizabeth bennet

:-)