#he made out with some random dude in a class field trip and laughed at me for being upset | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

yuta-nakamots · 4 years ago

Text

we go up - l.mk

Pairing - Mark x Reader

Genre - Fluff, College!AU

Warnings - one single mention of sex but no descriptions of it

Summary - Growing up was a part of life. Though you were scared of all that the future holds, you looked forward to going through it all with Mark right by your side.

Word Count - 4.2k

A/N - this was supposed to be released 4 days ago ahaha I passed all my classes so that’s really what matters. anyways, here’s this fic to celebrate Milly’s 3 years on Tumblr and 5 years for me and my blog

Written for the Moodboard Collab hosted by @bumblebeenct. Also part of the Neowinter Festival hosted by @czennienet.

Song: We Go Up. Color Set: #1.

Never would you have thought that you’d be on the path to living in the real world so soon. Summers were for relaxing and having fun but you’ll never regret jumping at the opportunity to travel the world with Mark Lee instead.

Mark’s parents were executives for a travelling company that offered a variety of trips all over the world. You knew it was part of their job to visit those countries and survey the different options available and put together plans based on them but with Mark having just graduated from college and you going into your final year, it was soon to be a job shared by both of you as well.

It hasn’t been long since you first began dating him, in fact, it hadn’t been long since you first met him on your first day on campus. Both of you were moving in on the same day and crossed paths as you were lugging your two loaded suitcases in through the main entrance of the dormitory. Your family hadn’t come with you, putting their faith in you to make it to your school on your own, so you could only guess how pitiful you must’ve looked to others.

“Hey those look pretty heavy, I can help you with that if you’d like,” you looked up to find the owner of the voice and were met by a handsome boy with a smile you’d never forget, “my name is Mark, by the way.”

“Uh, y/n, nice to meet you and yeah, actually, if you could take this one it would help me so much.” You told him as you pulled up the smaller of the two suitcases.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to take the larger one? I can handle it.” He looked at you with eyes full of interest, his pupils almost resembling boba thanks to the odd lighting in the hall.

You shook your head before turning to head to the elevator, “I only just met you, I wouldn’t make you do this. Besides, it’s not even that much heavier than the other one.”

“Alright, whatever you say. What floor are you on though? I can help you move in if you don’t have anyone else.” He offered kindly.

“I’m on the third floor,” you informed him, “but don’t you have somewhere to be? You couldn’t have just been sitting around in the lobby.”

You say his expression morph into one of panic before quickly relaxing, “oh, I was just on my way to the university center to pick up my keys and get my mail. Gosh, you made me think I was late to something important.” The laugh he let out was so full and loud, it felt as if it were reaching out to you.

“Are you sure you don’t have anything else you should be doing?” You question as you pressed the button for the elevator. “I’d hate to be the reason why you missed a meeting or something.”

Mark pulled out his phone as both of you waited for the elevator. “No, I’m pretty sure I don’t have anything else planned for today. I just had to move in earlier and that’s it, I don’t have any solid plans.” The doors opened and let out a few other people, who you guessed were also students, before you and Mark stepped in.

“I just met you though,” you pointed out, “how do I know that you’re not some weirdo that’s gonna try steal my stuff?”

He raised an eyebrow at you. “Really? I mean, not like in a bad way ‘really’ but I can promise you that I’m not trying to do anything bad.”

You hummed in mock sarcasm, “mmhmm, that’s what they all say.”

“If you don’t believe me I’ll give you my number if you want or like my room number, even-”

“Mark I was just joking dude.” You laughed, amused by how gullible the boy was.

“Oh…” he breathed, relief settling over him as the doors opened up to the third floor, “but can I still get your number though?”

“Beat me to my room and I’ll think about it.” You took off running in a random direction, unsure which way you were even supposed to go in.

Mark followed close behind, “wait but I don’t even know which room number to look for!”

“Maybe that’s the point!” You shout back.

continue as always, wild and free

Though he did not make it to your room before you, you still gave him your phone number to thank him for helping you with your luggage. Mark was kind enough to stay and help you unpack your things and get your room set up. He even accompanied you to get dinner from the cafeteria since it was already getting late by the time the two of you finished unloading everything.

Over the next few days before classes, you hung out with Mark and any other freshmen that you happened to run into. You found out that Mark was a business major and planned to minor in tourism industry management. As for you, your major was biology with a focus in ecology.

Mark seemed to love sharing about himself as seen from the way he eagerly told you about the company his parents worked for and how he was interested in someday becoming a part of it which was why he chose his intended path of study. You had come in the college with the intent of wanting to make a difference in the world and help tackle one of the biggest global issues, which is climate change, leading you to your chosen track.

Mark was a great listener and seemed genuinely interested in everything you had to say. If he thought anything was lame or dumb, he hid it very well because he seemed to be picking up all the information you put down. You had come in knowing that most people in large corporations didn’t think much about the environment. Either Mark was faking it to keep his new friendship with you or he genuinely held the same beliefs as you. You chose to believe it was the latter.

All throughout your first year in college together you and Mark stuck together, always preferring each others company, even within the large group of friends you managed to accumulate with him. Luckily he was only one floor above you so he wasn’t far away at all. If you ever needed anything, he really was ‘one call away’ and would come running even if it was just to catch a bug in your room.

Freshmen year came and went, both you and Mark went back home for summer vacation and came back to campus as sophomores. You both kept in touch and regularly updated each other on things like Mark’s trip to Britain with his parents. That was the first real glimpse you had into his dreams and goals for his future. Meanwhile you just ranted to him about all the terrible customers that came in at your part-time job, though he didn’t seem to mind at all and always offered you his company.

Sophomore year was when he asked you to be his girlfriend. After the two of you had eaten dinner together as usual and were walking back to the dorms, that was when he had finally made a move. “So, uh, I know this may be kind of sudden but I actually really like you.” He told you.

You looked up at him as you continued walking next to him. “And in what way, exactly?”

“In a ‘I like you as more than just a friend’ kind of way.” He replied, looking down at the leaf-covered sidewalk.

“Well lucky for you, I might just like you in the same way.” Mark’s head shot up and his eyes met yours.

He blinked rapidly and his gaze never left yours, as if searching for the truth. “Wait, like really?”

“Yes, really.” You pulled him closer to you so he wouldn’t walk right into the tree that was coming up.

“Does that mean you’ll be my girlfriend?” He asked after mumbling a quick ‘thank you’.

You stopped walking and turned to face him. “If you ask properly then I don’t see why not.”

“Oh, uh,” his eyes flitted left to right before finally settling on yours, “will you be my girlfriend?”

“No.” You tried to hold your laughter in the way his eyes widened but you just couldn’t. “Of course I’ll be your girlfriend you stupid! I didn’t say all of that for nothing, oh my gosh you really are so gullible.”

Mark’s mouth opened slightly before he closed it again and then burst out going “don’t do that to me for crying out loud! You don’t even know how I was actually about to cry if you said no just now.”

You grabbed his hand and quickly interlaced your fingers with his. “There, I’m sorry. Do you feel better now? Do you want me to kiss you to make you feel better?”

“Uh, yes? To both?” He spoke, still shaken from earlier.

You raised his hand to your lips, kissing that back of his hand with a smile. “Thank you for choosing me.”

i’m gonna try flying a little further

Things continued on in this way in your relationship, always keeping things lighthearted and never too serious. Thankfully both of you had past dating experience and weren’t completely clueless on how to act toward each other. One thing led to the next and you had your first kiss with him the day he was leaving to go home for winter break. “I love you, stay safe, don’t die.” You called out to him as he got into his uber.

“Got it babes, love you too.” He sent you a kiss before shutting the door which you happily caught and held to your heart.

It was during that break that the two of you told your parents about each other and things went surprisingly smooth of both ends. Mark had even informed you that his parents were interested in meeting you after he told them about your field of study. “Yeah they were so intrigued by it! They’ve been looking into more sustainable and eco-friendly options for a while now so I think this must’ve struck a chord with them.” He chattered excitedly over the phone.

“Dude, don’t make me even more nervous about meeting them-”

“Hold up, did you just call me dude?” He questioned.

“It’s not like you don’t call me dude as well.” You commented.

Mark let out a laugh on his end. “Alright, fair enough. But not to alarm you or anything, but they said that I could bring you along for one of our trips during summer if you’re down.”

“Oh my gosh, seriously?” You exclaimed.

“Yes, seriously,” he confirmed, amused at your enthusiasm, “should I tell them that you’re interested?”

“Mark is that even a question? Of course I’m interested.” Your excitement was almost bubbling over from the way everything seemed to be working in favor of you and Mark.

The next summer, you did indeed tag along with Mark and his parents to who were more than happy to meet you and share information on their company while visiting Nevada. Mark wasn’t lying when he said that you interests ‘struck a chord’ with them. Sometimes it seemed like you were more like their child than he was with how much his parents talked with you about possible green options to inquire for. It was thanks to them that you decided to minor in tourism industry management like Mark, even though it would set you behind one year in graduation.

Going into your junior year, you were able to put together a small scrapbook of sorts with all the pictures from the trip to Nevada and gave it to Mark to celebrate your one year anniversary. “Wait, when did you even take that picture of me though?” He asked while looking at the picture of him spread out on a hotel bed like a starfish.

“You smacked me with your arm so I woke up and it was like, seven in the morning so I decided to just fool around and take pictures of you,” you explained with a smile on your face, “if you look in that bottom corner, you can see my foot because I had to stand over you but not too closely so my legs were like a triangle over you.”

Mark shook his head as he laughed at your antics before gently closing the book. “I love you, you know that right?” He placed a kiss on your cheek and sat back to adore you with his eyes practically sparkling.

“How could I not? I’d be worried that you may not know that I love you.” You told him playfully, setting the scrapbook aside and straddling his lap.

“Baby, that’s the last thing you need to worry about.” His voice fell into its lower ranges as he began kissing you in a way he never has before. It was on that night, the night of your first anniversary that the two of you made love for the first time in your shared campus apartment.

make me beautiful in the memories

When you brought Mark home for the holidays, your family was more than thrilled to meet him and you thanked whatever supreme being existed out there for blessing you with him. He got along well with your parents and even became a favorite of all the younger kids, especially when he joined them in making a snowman out in front of your house.

“Look y/n! Marky helped us start building a snowman!” Your younger sister exclaimed before running off once again to join some of your cousins.

You watched as Mark helped them roll the largest ball of snow around the yard until it was at least a third of his height. “Come join us y/n!” He called out. “You can get the rocks and sticks to make his arms and face.”

One of your younger cousins came by to join you as you sifted through the snow to find nice rocks to use. “When are you and Marky getting married?” He asked.

“Married? We’ve only been together for a year.” You told the little boy.

“Oh, hmm, well it’s never too early to start thinking.” He decided before finding a cute little stick that he deemed fit to function as a nose for the snowman.

You joined Mark in rolling the second ball of snow while the kids made the last one. “So what was that I heard about getting married?” He questioned.

Suddenly your cheeks felt warm and your eyes darted away from him and back to the mound of snow in front of you. “Uh, nothing, one of the kids just was asking if we plan on getting married.”

“He’s right, you know,” Mark spoke quietly, “it’s never too early to start thinking about it.”

“I mean, we’re still so young though.” You told him.

“That doens’t mean I don’t see myself having a future with you.” Mark commented as he picked up the ball of compacted snow.

“Gosh, you’re so chessy. What next? Names for our kids?” You joke as you watch him place the ball on top of the largest one at his knees.

He winked at you once the snowman had his torso complete. “Already on it.”

Spring semester was spent planning for Mark’s graduation in the following year and getting the classes for your minor arranged. His parents invited you to go with them to Hawai’i which you politely declined, as you did not know much about the people and culture and did not have time to accurately research before going thanks to all the summer classes you were taking to ensure that you’d graduate on time.

You and Mark decided to live off campus for his last year in college and though it was inconvenient to have to cook your own meals and walk a little bit further to get to school, it was all worth it when you got to make the memories you did with him.

“So you just crack the egg and drop it in the pan?” He hesitated, the said egg hovering over the edge of the frying pan.

You rolled your eyes at him, “Mark, how many times do I have to tell you? You just crack it and let it fall into the pan. It’s not that hard.”

He mocked your expression after you said ‘it’s not that hard’ as he cracked the egg into the pan, yelping at the way the oil splashed up at him. You left to freshen up a bit, having been woken up by the ruckus Mark had made in the kitchen only to come back five minutes later to another bout of him yelling for help. “What now?”

“I, uhh, I think I burned the egg.” His face was tinged with shame as you came over to the stove, sliding the egg in question onto a plate before lifting its side to see that it was indeed burnt.

“I don’t know how you manage to burn an egg after I leave you for such a short amount of time.” You tell him as you pull another one out from the refrigerator. “Here, try again. You’re lucky it’s the weekend.”

“You’re not gonna let me stop until I’ve successfully cooked an egg, huh?” You shook your head to answer his question, causing Mark to let out a sigh before going to add a little more oil to the pan.

look time fly, we fly, changes come with time

Days like that were normal for the two of you, though more often than not, you chose to order food since Mark was clearly not very trustworthy in the kitchen and you weren’t all that better yourself.

Living with Mark was not always happy and fun, though. Sometimes the two of you fought and sometimes it was over the smallest things like how he didn’t put his clothes into his hamper after changing out of them or how you’d leave your belongings strewn about the apartment.

Being with him taught you that a relationship is a two-way thing. Everyone has their flaws and if you truly love someone, you’ll learn to work with them to get solve problems that arise or get around them.

Getting to live with Mark and see him everyday was certainly a lot more convenient, especially when both of you were swamped with finals and had little to no time to go out on an actual date. Falling asleep in each others arms and waking up to the sight of the other was enough for those times. In those mornings where you woke up before Mark and didn’t want to get out of bed just yet, you took the time to be thankful for the path of life you were on and how thankful you were to have met the boy in front of you.

It was moments like those that made it all worth it.

When Mark graduated in the following spring, you sat in the crowd alongside his parents, watching him and your past classmates walk across the stage and receive their diplomas.

“Ah, he looks just the same as when he graduated from high school.” His mother commented. She even pulled up his old pictures and showed them to you, making you laugh at how cute he was back then. You could hear his voice in your head, whining about how he’s not cute but you paid it no mind.

The rush of emotion you felt when the name ‘Mark Lee’ was called and he stepped out in his cap and gown was truly something else. You stood up and cheered alongside the rest of his friends who were seated around you, the bunch of you only getting louder when his head jerked in your direction and he smiled and waved to you all.

the reason why i can be fearless is because you’re looking at me with your two eyes

“That’s going to be you next year, you know.” Mark’s father stated nodding over to where Mark was playfully chest-bumping his fellow graduates. “Okay, well not like that, but you know what I mean.”

You let out a laugh as you watched Mark stumble and nearly fall. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

“Do you have any plans for summer, dear?” His mother inquired.

“I have a few classes from June through July but I believe I do not have anything for the latter half of June until school starts again in August.” You informed her.

“Would you like to come along with us to Paris then? We missed you greatly last year and felt you would have enjoyed the experience more than Mark did.” She explained as she pulled up more pictures of Mark though this time it was him in a botanically garden getting scared from all the bugs. “I’ll send this one to you.”

You thanked her with a smile on your face and graciously accepted her offer to travel with them to Paris. Mark was over the moon when he heard that you’d be going with them, especially since this was going to be the first time he’d be allowed to lead the meetings and events.

It felt like school hadn’t even finished from the way you went right back to work for your summer courses and Mark got to putting together his first few projects for the company. He was intent on showing the executives that he was a fully capable individual and was not trying to simple ride off of his parents achievements. You were proud of him for that.

By the time you all got to Paris, it felt like a much needed breath of fresh air from the constant hustle of school and work. One of the first places Mark took you to was one of the local night markets near the hotel you were staying at. You pulled out your light blue polaroid camera which Mark had gotten awfully used to within these past few years and took multiple pictures of him eating street food and walking around under the stringed lights.

i need you right here

“Oh, that fountain looks kinda cool.” He exclaimed, walking out of frame.

“Mark you can’t just do that when I’m about to take your pict-”

“Yeah yeah, you can take pictures here instead. It looks prettier.” You both paused to admire the sculpting of the stone and the way the water and the coins at the bottom of the fountain glittered under the night lights. Mark sat down at the edge of the fountain after a bit. “Here, you can take them now.”

You took a few before handing of the camera to him so he could take a few of you. “Have you ever thought that this is where we’d be after all this time?” He asked after giving the camera back to you and joining you next to the fountain. “Like, back when we were freshmen, we didn’t know where we’d be within the next few years and here we are, together, three years later.”

“I think you’re jet-lagged, babe, but yeah I see what you mean.” You agreed, falling into the rhythm of the way the water spilled over from the top tier into the lower ones and out from there into the base at the bottom. “We went from clueless freshmen to young adults breaking out into the real world.”

You watched as Mark dug around in his pocket, pulling out a single coin and enclosing it in a fist. “I wish for things to stay the same- no, for us to- wait, no, I wish for us to remain happy together while facing all the challenges that our lives have to offer us.” With that, he tossed the coin into the fountain and you both followed it as it sunk to the floor.

He pulled another coin out and offered it to you. “I wish…” you began, trailing off as you thought of what more you could possibly say, “I wish for us to stay together for as long as time allows and that we will get to watch each other grow and fulfill whatever plans that life has for us.”

As your coin hit the bottom, Mark pulled you in for a hug. “I really do love you, you know.”

“Yeah I know.” You hugged him back, enjoying the feeling of his arms around you.

“Look at me, babe.” He whispered, causing you to glance up at him. Whatever you were about to say was cut off by Mark’s lips against yours.

It felt like nothing else mattered at that moment. Nothing except your lips against his, his arms around you, your hearts and souls connecting as one.

we go up

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theglowyscorpio · 4 years ago

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all set | eren x reader

a/n: this is a story in the making, currently available at AO3 and Wattpad. If you like it, please don't hesitate to give me some kudos, leave a comment or maybe follow me on my social media! <3 Any feedback is highly appreciated since I'm just getting started!

pairing: eren yeager x female reader

tags: mature content, alternate universe (modern setting), college/university, recreational drug use, implied sexual content, M/F, F/F, the author is not religious lmao

word count: 4.3k

current chapters: 2/?

playlist: this one was made with a particular playlist in mind. they are really great songs that help to convey this chapter, so I hope you have a time to check them out! :)

a. slomosa - kevin b. upsahl - drugs c. rosenfeld - like u d. kaiba - overdose e. lil kapow - tinman f. bodega - how did this happen!?

***

all set

I lost count of how many parties I went to this week. There was one at Shina, another at... Sasha's. Wait, was it? Or Ymir's? Honestly, both their houses look fairly similar and we always see the same faces over and over again, regardless of where we are getting wasted. Definitely two at my house. The timeline is blurry at this point. If my liver could talk, it would spit out "Screw you, Eren." and I wouldn't be able to disagree.

Classes will start next week so everyone is acting like we're going to stop doing all this for the rest of the semester. That never happens.

I barely enter Reiner's house and the music is already piercing my head. My ears will soon tell me to go screw myself too. The bass was loud. But it was good.

— Hey, finally — Reiner says, giving a hard slap in my back. I can't even get mad at him because he probably didn't mean for it to hurt. Fucking strong bastard.

— Sorry. Lost track of time.

— You know where the things are — he leaves me behind and disappears through the noisy music.

It's hot inside. August has been particularly cruel this year. I'm using a black t-shirt, which is luckily pretty thin, and my black Adidas pants that are somewhat breathable. My hair is in a bun. I will probably be sweating soon, though. Reiner's AC won't do miracles with this amount of people since it is specially packed today. I guess I might see some new faces tonight, huh.

This fact already makes things more interesting.

I walk through the room and then arrive in the kitchen. Connie and Sasha are there.

— Eren!! — I barely open my mouth to talk and Sasha is already giving me whatever weird drink they made. Their drinks sometimes are... unusual, for the lack of a better word. Most of the time they are simply pure shit. They call it scout's fuel, always the same name regardless of what's inside. Maybe that's why my liver hates me so much.

— Thanks — I'm already used to the goddamn gasoline taste — I guess you both want to get us wasted tonight.

— It's our personal mission, so enjoy the fuel — Connie says laughing, raising his plastic cup. I love this duo – who doesn't? – and I can't help but laugh with them, even though it tastes so bad — Everyone is already here, come on — I follow them and find all the familiar faces I've seen all week: Bertholdt, Historia, Ymir, Mikasa, Annie, Armin, Jean, everyone.

The girls look hot, even though I'm used to them. Either way, I avoid hooking up with my friends since the last time didn't work so well. It's better to avoid Mikasa today.

We all sit together while drinking. I light a joint I had already prepared at home and say — Am I crazy or is Reiner's party bigger than usual? —, releasing the smoke a few seconds after. This one is the best grass we could get around our area, I've saved it primarily for today and now I see that might have been a great decision on my part. I'm glancing through the room and looking for some girls, might share this shit with one - or a few - of them later.

— Thank god, I was tired of seeing your ugly faces every fucking time — Jean says. The girls look at him and he rushes to add — I mean, the boys, of course. It's always nice looking at all of you, ladies.

It's not enough to avoid Annie's kick anyway — We can say the same of you, horse face.

Reiner arrives at the perfect time and explains — Since the new semester starts Monday, news about today traveled fast and we got a lot more company than usual.

— Do you know all of them, Reiner? — Historia asks — I've talked to a bunch of them tonight and there are people from all over the campus and from all years as well — Historia always looks pretty, her blonde hair shining even in the low light of the party. Guys make a line to talk to her at all parties so there's no surprise that she's already familiarized with the whole scenario. I wonder what Ymir thinks of it. Probably followed her during this little field trip.

— Hell, no — he grabs the joint of my hand and sucks deeply — I know some of them and some are Bertholdt's friends but there are some random people.

— I bet Reiner knows a lot of the girls — I take my joint back from his fingers — I assume they aren't Bertholdt's friends, though — and grin.

— Hey, I don't see you with any new company either, dude — Bertholdt tries to grab my weed as well, but I avoid his advances. He instead grabs my cup and drinks all of it, leaving me empty. He makes a funny face at the taste. Suit yourself, man, I think to myself, laughing on the inside.

— Yeah, but I'll work on it in a sec — I tease him knowing that he can't handle much of Sasha and Connie's fuel. He always knocks out before everyone. I hope he realizes he needs to stay awake to try anything with Annie. Someday. He simply never gets there.

Hange arrives almost falling over Ymir and spilling her drink on the floor in the process — I think we should all make a toast and make this last party a wild ride!!! — her yelling stabbing us louder than the music.

— Bitch, you are this fucking drunk already? — Ymir says to her, holding Hange's weight on her back — What the hell did the gasoline duo do to you?

— Okay okay, enough with the questions, let me fill your cups because this is the night! — Sasha says, just pouring all that mystery liquid that soon will go straight to our heads — Also, Reiner, where's the food?

We raise our plastic cups and Connie yells — To the new semester! — and we drink, feeling the immediate burn on our throats. It's hard being a scout.

— I need to get laid today — Jean says as he lays his back on the couch — Gonna arrive for the classes pretty motivated next week — he then rests his left arm at the back pillow, behind Mikasa's head.

— You should start roaming, then — her cold delivery puts Jean's subtle attempt at flirting six feet under the ground, as usual. It was pretty damn quick, but I could notice Mikasa glancing at me and then looking the other way. Yeah, I think I need to start roaming soon, too.

— That sounds great, then let's do that!!! — Hange grabs Jean by the arm and they disappear amongst the crowd.

— When all this fun ends, I'll be the one who will probably have to take him home after he gets slapped by some girls — Armin and Jean live with me so we normally go back together. Armin is the responsible one between us, which is not exactly hard considering how Jean and I are — Gonna at least drink some beer before that happens.

— I'll go with you, this drink sucks — Annie says, finishing the drink anyway and following him. We always drink the last drop of it, we never learn.

The girls went dancing, the music was exceptionally good today. A lot of bands I already liked plus some I have never heard before. I need to remember to ask Reiner for this playlist later. Connie was already surrounded by a different group, everyone likes to talk to him. He is popular. The rest dispersed as well and I could hear Hange's screams far away. This is going to be a night for her, indeed.

I start walking around, meeting a lot of people from my classes and others from the campus in general. I talk to all of them and drink a lot in the process, which feeds my need for nicotine every time. I grab my pack of cigarettes and while smoking, I see Levi.

— I must be dreaming — I say, letting the smoke leave my lips with a smile. It reaches him and looks at me with a deadly expression. He is smoking as well, but he only admits one specific brand of cigarettes and hates all the others. Levi usually doesn't show up at these "brat" parties, as he likes to say, since he's a few years older than us. I normally see him at Shina's, which is a popular club slash bar near our university. He's the owner so we all met him there, after going so many times. Shina has the best parties and the best drinks of all the clubs near us. And it couldn't be any other way, since Levi is a perfectionist. There's also a small stage there, where indie bands perform from time to time. My band does some gigs there sometimes.

— Hey — he replies, as cold as ever. He's Mikasa's cousin, so they have the same expressions and hard-to-approach vibe — Already high, I see.

— Always. In fact, today I hope to be higher than usual. What miracle brings you here?

— Some people from the staff decided to come here today so there are fewer brats to piss me off — he drinks what's probably a high priced whiskey and continues — and there's a new girl at the club so we have been showing her the area for a few weeks now.

— There's a lot of new girls here today — although I know Levi doesn't give a crap.

— So? — yeah, he doesn't.

Levi is a pretty successful business owner and even I have to admit that he's hot – is not only common knowledge but a mutual agreement between everyone –, so girls are always trying to get him, but he doesn't screw most of them. He doesn't fuck brats, period. He says he doesn't have the patience. That makes the girls even more desperate. He has the highest standards of every guy I know. When he was still in university – the same we all go –, he screwed not only the hottest girls but also the professors - which went after him and not the other way around. At least that's what I've heard. I think Levi never had to actively look for any girl, to be honest.

I can only laugh at his reply. That's just so him.

— If you want more stuff than what's already in your system, Floch is over there.

— I want, actually. I was going to look for him — I see Floch's red hair among some folks. Floch is usually as busy as Connie but with less than half of the charisma.

He finishes his cigarette, blowing its last white smoke into the air, and we both hear a loud HELL YEAH!! coming from all the other way across the room — Tsk, is that Hange?

— Pfft, it was before, I think it's Sasha now — he doesn't laugh at my reply. He never does. I think hell would freeze while heaven catches on fire.

I think about the music again. It's so good today, what the hell — Hey Levi, don't you think this playlist is too high quality for a Reiner party? I don't get it, his music taste is always pure trash.

— That's from our new girl — he drinks the last drops of his whiskey and starts to leave — You might find her around here — he then suddenly stops and looks at me — Don't get your hopes up, though.

I am not able to ask what he meant by that because he leaves too quickly. Time to look for Floch.

— Hey, Flo-

— Here.

— You didn't even let me finish.

— I know what you want. You are not in the mood for cocaine so you want MD instead, blah-blah-blah-blah. Is that kind of night — he pauses for mere seconds — Am I wrong, Eren?

— Nope, right as usual — Floch is the main person you go to when you need drugs. I mean, good drugs. He looks like your standard rich boy – which he is, by the way – that can do no wrong, but you can get the best stuff from him. I've always found this funny. The weed I have today was his work. He knows my taste well.

Reiner's frat house is huge, so there's plenty of room to walk. I'm approached by a bunch of girls on the way but for some reason, none of them piques my interest. I am pretty set on going after something new today and I have no problem getting laid. It happened every single day this week and it truly happens anytime I want. Which, okay, boosts my ego a little bit. Maybe a lot. I might even have hurt some girls in the process. I was never slapped though, unlike Jean. So that's a win in my book.

I see a few of my friends again, mainly Historia and Reiner, and they are talking to a girl I've never seen before.

She has long black hair and short messy bangs, the kind that goes a little above the eyebrows. I didn't know black hair was my thing until now. Her face has the perfect features, at least for me. She's wearing a sleeveless white top that is so tight that hugs her figure perfectly and makes her breasts look amazing. That type of top that shows the girl's side boob, and I'm a total sucker for those. It is also short so you can see a bit of her waist. And I don't even have to see her ass because I already know it is probably too damn good. Her light blue ripped jeans are cool as well and she has black sneakers. I like her style. She has a bunch of tattoos - a lot on her right arm, one on her left hand, and probably some that I couldn't see because they were behind her clothes. I intended to, though.

Fuck, she's hot.

Historia looks mesmerized talking to her, which is a very privileged view from where I stand because, as I've already said before, she is also beautiful. But she isn't exactly hot. This girl is. Way too much. Oh, and Reiner is there too. Whatever.

I can see a lot of guys want to approach her but none of them do. I went for it. Wasn't this night supposed to be wild?

— Hey, Eren! Guess what, Y/N is the new DJ at Shina! I was telling her how we go there all the time.

— Hi, Eren, nice to meet you — she says, with that kind of smile that people who know they are hot make. I do that too.

— Hey, Y/N — I say. And as I told you seconds before, I'm good with that type of smile as well so that's what she gets — Levi told me he came with the staff and a new girl, so I suppose that's you.

— Yeah, I'll start there next week.

— I talked to him about the party's playlist because I knew it couldn't be Reiner's.

— Yeah, it's Y/N's. She prepared it for the party when I invited the guys from Shina yesterday. We were in the same high school. — Reiner says that looking at me with a face that shows "See that, dickhead? I've known her for some years now".

— It's pretty good! I can't wait for the next party at Shina's to see your set! — Historia was always an angel.

REINER, WHERE'S THE REST OF THE ICE, MAN??, someone screamed far away.

— Shit. Catch up with you later, Y/N.

Too bad, huh, Reiner? He gives me a look that I can't quite figure out what it is, but I know for sure it wasn't a look of support. In the fucking slightest.

— I think Ymir is calling me as well, sorry!! — It was painfully obvious that Ymir wanted to make out with Historia for some time now. They never did. I think only Historia hasn't realized yet that Ymir is thirsty for her for god knows how long.

After Historia left, there was only me and her — So, by any chance, do you go to the same university as us? You look our age but Levi said you are new here — I tried asking this without looking at her body, but looking at her face was even worse. Her eyes were piercing me in the best way possible.

— I'm not exactly new, I'm from the same uni as you guys, but I took a gap year — she takes a sip of her drink — You probably never met me but I'm in the same year as you all are now.

Since Reiner knew her from high school, he also knew she was at the same university all along and never told any of the guys. Smart fucker.

— So that makes you a year older than me — I smirk at her.

— I guess it does — she smirks back as she lights up a cigarette and blows the smoke at me.

Ok, looking good so far.

I'm pretty high at this point, the MD and the music are making me horny, so I don't even bother to pretend that I'm not looking at her body. I'm looking at everything.

— You took something, didn't you?

— Do you want some? I can show you later where to get the best stuff. Anything you are in the mood for.

— I'm all set — she shows me her tongue and I see the acid. The view makes my own tongue feel lonely, maybe I should use it to steal that from her mouth. I hope she's horny as well.

We talk a lot about music since it's something that we both enjoy. She's passionate about it, I can tell. She asks about my band with true interest. Doesn't sound like small talk. She touches her hair and it makes me want to stuff my face in it. She has the smile that makes you want more. Her voice has the same effect.

The loud music allows us to talk near each other's ears. I hope she moans as loud as her playlist. The girls usually love my hair for some reason, either if it's in a messy bun as it is right now or if it's loose. They all love my green eyes too. She can see all that with somewhat detail since we are so close, even though it is a little dark here. If I take you to a room you can see me better, I almost blurb it out. I can see her too and that kills me.

She looks receptive to me but normally at this point I would be already hooking up with the girl. This time it isn't happening. I never have to work so much. I think I understand why the other guys didn't approach her before. She's a little intimidating to talk to, and that comes naturally to her – it doesn't seem to be on purpose. I flirt with her the way I normally do but she is hard to get, she hits every ball I throw. I remember what Levi said before. Oh, right.

But I'm vibing way too much at this point, I think if I touch any part of her I'll get hard immediately.

— This gap year you've mentioned... Did you go anywhere specific?

— I know it will sound cliché, but I went to Europe.

— Where in Europe?

— Everywhere — she says — I went down — the corner of her lips forming a smile — And up. Everywhere. — and I can swear she sounds flirtatious as hell. I want to bite her lip.

— That sounds... Awesome. — I think she wants to bite me too, or at least I hope she does — Was there any particular reason to leave? If that's not too much to ask.

— Hm, I was kinda... — she stops to think for a few seconds as she holds her hair up and makes a ponytail, looking at the ground, the cigarette glued to her now closed lips. Her neck became exposed, it looks soft as hell and I can't wait to bruise it. She releases the smoke, that flows into the room, and looks deep into my eyes, as deep as I want to be inside her right now — ...stressed.

I reach my limit at this point.

— I can help you with the stress if you want.

— Really? — she's looking at me with the same teasing look and I'm doing the same, so we both know that's not a question I have to answer. Her tongue quickly passes through her top lip, her mouth forming a little wet smile — I don't think I need any help though.

I threw the ball and she hit a home run. My team was out.

I was not expecting that.

We hear some of the guys from Shina calling for her — Oh, they are calling me — Y/N looks at me again and says — See you around, Eren — giving me the same fucking grin I wanted to bite before.

She walks away and I see that her ass is, as I suspected from the very beginning, too damn good.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

After this, some time has passed. I look at the clock. Yeah, maybe a lot. I couldn't tell before because I'm drunk and drugged. I see most of my friends, all fucking wasted. Armin is holding up pretty well, Bertholdt's is knocked down for God knows how long, Mikasa probably smoked way too much weed (who am I to judge?) and looks dead on the couch. I don't see Ymir, Historia nor Reiner - there are too many people in this house to keep count. Sasha's eating something in the kitchen, I can't see what it is, but certainly, she got hungrier than normal after smoking some pot Connie gave her. Connie always holds his drinks well, he's still talking to a lot of people. I pass in front of one of the bathrooms and Hange is there, getting everything out of her system. Oh, and Ymir. There she is, holding Hange's hair, looking as pissed as ever. Levi probably went home hours ago. Jean is making out with some chick, he's going to score tonight. To be fair, he always does, but never with Mikasa.

I saw a lot of pretty girls today and I went for none of them. They tried and I shut them down, even the ones I normally fuck. There's someone I want to taste tonight and she's nowhere to be found. The guys from Shina are missing too, so I know I won't see her today anymore. Damn.

I'm not pissed at her but I'm pissed at the situation.

— Armin, I think I'm going to take off, are you coming?

— Yeah, I'm already pretty tired — he gets up — Jean's probably going to stay here.

— Yep. Probably. — Am I pissed that Jean's getting laid? Even though I could have as well? With someone else, at least? My mood feels off.

— I'm going with you too, I've lost count of how many assholes I had to shut down today. I think I even punched a few — I don't have to look to know that's Annie speaking — You were right, Eren, is it especially crowded today. In the shittiest way possible.

— Then let's go.

— Wait, I need to get my bag first, I left it in Reiner's room.

— I can get that for you, wait up.

— It's a black one. Small.

I sign a thumbs up for her and climb the stairs. I am hundred percent sure I'm going to see someone fucking there but that's the usual. I'm pretty sure I've already seen some people screwing in the corner of the living room minutes before. No one cares.

I open the door and see Y/N in her underwear, putting her white top back on. She does indeed have other tattoos.

— Hey there! — she says smiling, as she also puts her jeans back up, making little jumps so they pass through her ass. Her hair is not in a ponytail anymore.

I say hi in a confusing way.

— I came here to get my friend's bag — I look around for milliseconds like I don't know where the hell I am until I see Reiner lying - clearly naked - under his sheets. Can't be anyone else, with that bleached hair and huge biceps.

What? Ahn?

Hey... Wait a second.

Historia? Clearly naked as well? What. The. Hell. I guess she's not exactly the angel I thought she was?

They are sort of awake, sort of sleeping, kinda like on a different planet. You know, the type of thing that happens after a really strong fuck? That sort. They look exhausted. They look destroyed. And not in a bad way. AT ALL.

— Oh, I saw a bag before. Here you go — she gives me Annie's bag. She's all dressed now. She notices my confusion, I'm too high to act any other way — I've told you I don't need any help — her eyes piercing mine for the hundredth time tonight. Her smile hurts now. Ouch.

She grabs her sneakers and walks towards me and the door:

— I'm all set.

She leaves the room as I hold Annie's bag.

Yeah. I was not expecting that.

***

Thanks for reading (if there's even anyone here lmao). Chapter 2 will be uploaded later but it can be read now at AO3 or Wattpad.

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hanniiesuckle17 · 5 years ago

Text

Anything But Normal

A/n: this was such cute Idea I hope I did it justice. It’s been a while since I’ve written a comedy piece. There are probably spelling errors I’ll go back and fix them later. also I love Jon Favreau as Happy so I had to put him in. (i swear he is one of my favorite actors) btw this is not edited (i’ll come back and do that eventually)

Requested by: @tokiokiedokie

Warnings: Cussing,(come on it's me guys), partial nudity.

Member: Han Jisung

Summary: When Y/n’s best friend goes through a drastic change he starts keeping secrets. Secrets that include him being New York’s one and only friendly neighborhood spiderman. Shit hits the fan when his new secret life is exposed and she gets dragged into it.

Genre: Spiderman!au, romance, comedy, friends to lovers!au, little bit of angst

There are only three things that truly matter in life. Good friends, good pizza, and a good story. So far I had two of those at the moment. Sadly I was lacking a good story. Our school newspaper had been quite dry despite my efforts to discover new and intriguing stories.

“Stop sulking and eat.” My best friend said, shoving a piece of cheese pizza in my face. Jisung laughed when I bit the end before returning to look at my laptop. We were at our usual pizza place seated next to the window with the big bright red neon sign lighting up our faces. The sun set over the New York skyline making the moment almost perfect. If only I was writing an exciting article. Instead, I was putting together a riveting look into the school’s menu changes.

“You know I invited you because I thought you were going to be good company.”

“Please. You invited me because Felix was busy with a stupid Lego project and no one else will eat pizza with you.”

“Whatever.”

Jisung and I weren’t the most popular people in our senior class. To be frank, Jisung was my only friend. So going out and eating pizza every other day at ten o’clock at night was often the highlight of my week. Having had enough of the lack of attention Jisung slammed my laptop closed and removed it from the already small table. “Hey! I didn’t save!”

“That’s what Google Docs is for.”

He was right. I needed to stop working. I had been slaving over that stupid and boring article all week. He didn’t have to be such an ass though. “You are such a teenager.” I scoffed, watching him shovel yet another slice of pizza down his throat. “Oh, and you are such an adult!” The mocking tone of his voice threatened a laugh.

“I swear you are God’s punishment for enjoying sex. Everyone’s libido just disappears when you are around.”

“Hey don’t ruin our date. I was considering sleeping with you tonight.”

He laughed when I threatened to smack him. It had been like this for as long as I could remember. Just me and Jisung. My parents had been friends with his before they passed away in a car accident. Now Jisung lived with his Aunt May and his Uncle Ben a few blocks away from me.

I remember after the crash I would wake to a tap on my window to see an eight year old Jisung on my fire escape. Not wanting to bother his Aunt with his nightmares, Jisung had run all the way to my apartment and climbed the fire escape to my room on the sixth floor. I would open the window and let him sleep in my bed. My eight year old brain used to think maybe my bed was like force field keeping away the bad dreams about his parents.

“Hey, what are you doing tomorrow?” Jisung asked bringing me out of my thoughts.

“Mr. Finoli asked me to take pictures of the science field trip so I’m going with you guys. Why?” A look of realization crossed Jisung’s face making him freeze. “Did you forget to ask May to sign your permission slip?”

“I forgot to ask May to sign my-...you can be a real ass sometimes, you know that?”

Laughing I pulled a ten out of my wallet and left it on the table. “Come on, you’ve gotta get your slip signed, dummy.” “I can pay, it’s no problem.” He said watching me pack up my stuff. “Nah, you can get the next one.” Bellies full of pizza, we left Tony’s Pizzeria and headed in the direction of Jisung’s apartment, his arm draped over my shoulder and talking my ear off about some random experiment they had done in Physics that day.

The next day I woke up bright and early to meet the class at the New York Museum of Science. Camera bag on my shoulder and camera around my neck I stood outside the museum with about ten other students and two teachers. My tired eyes brightened when I saw Jisung step out from the subway, May right behind him.

I laughed as he wiped a kiss from his cheek before waving goodbye to her. His dyed blonde hair was messy and blew slightly in the wind. Jisung waved when he saw me and jogged over. His hoodie lazily hung off his shoulder and his shirt and jeans were somewhat wrinkled. “Don’t you look nice?” I couldn’t help but chuckle at his appearance.

“Shut up.”

He laughed throwing an arm around my shoulder, leading me closer to the group. Soon the tour began and I busied myself with taking photos of the group for the paper and yearbook. Jisung followed the group, only half-listening to the teacher as he looked at other random exhibits.

At around one in the afternoon, the group moved outside to have lunch on the steps. I sat off to the side with Jisung, his legs spread out across the stairs and his elbow rested on the step above us. It was refreshing to be next to him talking about absolutely nothing. Even if he stole my food.

Eventually, we were all called back to resume the tour. I angled a shot of two students looking at a bug exhibit, but just as I took the picture Jisung jumped in the frame throwing up a peace sign and crossing his eyes. “Hey! Stop hitting me!” He yelled as I smacked his shoulder over and over again. “Look I’m just innocently observing the exhibit. Leave me alone crazy woman!”

Sighing, I pushed him away and resumed taking photos. As the group was moving onto the next room I noticed Jisung was missing. It wasn’t unlike him to wander off into a room he wasn’t supposed to just to look at probably like some DNA model or some other weird science shit. I could never get over the fact Jisung was super into science when he gave zero fucks about his other classes.

“Jisung?”

“Ji?”

“Ji, we are moving on,” I said looking for him. My eyes landed on a semi-open door marked ‘Lab’. He wouldn’t. He did. Just as I started to walk towards the door, he exited with a goofy smile on his face. “Y/n! Dude, they have all these cool spiders and test tubes in there it was so cool! One of them bit me!” Like an excited three-year-old, he showed me his wrist where he indeed had a red spider bite.

“Ooooooh! Take a picture!”

He shoved my camera into my hands and held up his arm pointing to the spider bite making the dopiest smile. Knowing he wouldn’t shut up until I complied, I took the picture.

“Let’s catch up with the group,” I said taking his hand and dragging him back to the class. When we reached the group a teacher looked over at us his brows furrowing. “Excuse me, Miss L/n, is your friend okay?” He pointed to Jisung, a concerned expression on his face.

“Jisung? There are certainly things wrong with him but he’s oka-”

My words stopped when I turned to look at my best friend next to me. “Ji- Oh my god! Ji are you okay?” His face had obviously paled and he looked dizzy. A thin layer of sweat lay on his forehead.

“Hell yeah. I’m doing fine, baby.” His voice sounded drowsy.

“Miss L/n he is not alright. Does he have anyone who can come get him.” The teacher said pulling out his phone. I shook my head. May worked in the day and his Uncle Ben was on a business trip. “No, they are working.”

He sighed and turned to me. Jisung was clearly getting worse by the second and was wobbling a little. “What about you? Can you take him home?” Jisung laughed and wrapped his arms around me loosely. “Fuck yeah, I’d her take me home.”

“I have a test in my last period.”

“I’ll write you a pass and send it to your teacher. Take him home please.”

Nodding he typed something on his phone and returned to the group who had started to move once again. “Okay Ji, let’s get you back to May’s.” Slowly we started moving to the exit. Before we made it to the doors, Jisung practically turned green. He pushed away from me and burst towards the nearest restroom.

“Jisung!”

Ignoring the looks and yells I followed Jisung into the restroom and looked for the stall he was in. “Hey, lady get out of here!” A man standing at the urinal screamed.

“Oh please. Get over yourself.”

“Ji?”

Following the coughing and gagging sounds, I pushed the final stall door open. Jisung sat on the floor his mop of blonde hair hanging over the toilet. I crouched next to him and rubbed his back gently. “Oh god, I hate puking.”

“Jisung everyone hates puking.”

“Yeah well.....your face likes puking.”

“Nice comeback.”

Feeling too terrible to respond, he just threw up the contents of his stomach again. When he seemed able to stand the two of us made our way outside and down the subway. Jisung leaned most of his weight on me as I slid my metro pass through the scanner. How I managed to get him through the turnstile and onto the metro I have no clue. Thankfully there was once last seat free for Jisung to sit down in.

“Y/n, I don’t feel good.”

“I know,” I said softly as he rested his head against my stomach. The train turned sharply making me hold onto the strap, not wanting to fall into Jisung. Soft whines and groans came from him every now and then. This was the worst I had ever seen Jisung.

I listened to the stations being called out as I ran my fingers through his hair, hoping that would calm him down a little. We were only four stops away but more people were getting on the train. Jisung looked up at me a sick expression on his face. It changed when he looked at the passengers boarding the car.

“Here, Ma’am. You can take my seat.”

“Thank you so much, young man.” An older woman said taking his seat as he got up. “Jisung, you feel terrible. Are you okay to stand?” He shrugged latching onto the strap next to mine, his face paling again. “I’ll be fine, it’s only four stops.”

Jisung’s eyes started to droop as the train started up again. His body began to act heavier than it was so he resorted to leaning on me and nestling his head between my neck and shoulder. I did my best to make sure he didn’t fall over.

“You two are very cute together.” The old lady said with a smile.

“Oh- we aren’t--”

“You better hold onto a good man like that, sweetie. Handsome and kind. Those are hard to come by.”

Before I could respond we turned again, and I had to keep Jisung from falling in this poor nice old lady’s lap. I felt his skin burning against mine. Could this train not go any faster. Soon enough our stop came. I said bye to the old woman and helped Jisung get off the train and up the subway stairs.

“Come on, Ji. We are almost there and we both know I cannot carry your ass.”

Eventually, I made it up the stairs of his apartment building to the fourth floor and managed to drag him to his door. “Jisung, where’s your key?” Trying not to hurt his head I propped him up on the door frame. He laughed when I started searching through his pockets.

“Y/n if you wanted to cop a feel just ask. That tickles.”

“Jisung where are your fucking keys?”

“Back pocket.” He said drowsily. I sighed and reached behind him. My hands searched through his jean pockets for the cold metal keys. “Having fun back there, because I’m sure enjoying it.”

I suppressed the urge to punch him in the stomach out of fear he would vomit all over me. Finally finding his keys, I unlocked the door and threw my stuff inside, before lugging him in as well. Jisung leaned on the couch while I put my stuff on the table.

“Y/n it’s burning up in here.”

“Jisung, you just have a temperature.”

“It burns like fucking hell! It’s too hot!”

Before I could stop him Jisung was shedding layers like a snake. He tossed his shirt somewhere in the small living room. He was sweating like crazy, his blonde hair sticking to his forehead. “Ji, come on let’s get you in the shower.” I started running a cold shower for him before rushing back to the living room to call May. It would only be a couple hours until she got home, but I should still let her know what’s going on.

While Jisung was in the shower, I grabbed some medicine from the cabinet. I had absolutely no fucking idea how to treat a spider bite. Antibiotics? Hearing the shower turn off I knocked before entering. Jisung had a towel wrapped around his waist and was leaning his head against the wall. “Y/n...”

“I’m right here, Jisung.” Cautiously I led him to his room and watched him collapse onto his double bed. Rummaging through his drawers I found some mostly clean sweatpants. “Ji, do you even do laundry?”

“Y/n, I feel a little too fucking sick to do chores now.”

“I know. I know.” He slipped on the sweatpants and let me dry his hair. I wrapped his arms, covering the bite so it wouldn’t get more infected then it already probably was. Jisung’s temperature flipped like crazy. One minute he was burning up and the next he was freezing.

A sigh of relief left my chest when I heard May call out in the apartment. “Y/n thank you so much for taking care of him.” She gave me a short hug before running to go get more meds. She would know better than I would, being an ER nurse. “Ji, do you want me to stay? I can call my parents and tell them I’m staying the night.” He slowly shook his head.

“No, it’s okay.”

“I can stay really-”

“Y/n, I’ll be fine. You can go home.”

He gave me a half-assed smile and squeezed my hand. There was no arguing with Jisung sick or not so I gathered my things and left. May promised to keep me updated and I told her I would have my phone next to me.

The walk back to my apartment seemed longer than usual. I couldn’t stop thinking about Jisung. When I got home, my parents greeted me before telling me they would be working tonight. My dad was a cop and my mom worked at a hospital downtown. It was rare they were even home, to begin with. Exhausted from taking care of Jisung, I rolled onto my bed and fell asleep.

This boy really texted me at five the morning telling me to meet him at his locker three hours later. If he wasn’t still sick I would for sure have throttled him. Except for the fact that Jisung didn’t look sick. Not at all. He looked perfectly healthy as he walked down the hall towards me. In fact, he looked...really....good. It pissed me off.

“Aren’t you supposed to be sick?”

“Yeah, I got better.”

Jisung opened his locker like it was any other day and got his books. “What did you want to talk about?” He sighed and looked over at me. There was something different about him. Did his jaw always look like that? No. No jaw looks like that.

“So this morning I woke up and like I felt completely fine. In fact, I felt the best I have in years. And this weird thing happened to me on the subway-”

Jisung’s words were interrupted by the sound of his locker closing, only the entire row of metal lockers rattled as his shut. “The fuck? Did we have an earthquake or something?” I asked looking around. “What? No. New York isn’t on a fault line.” Shrugging it off I turned back to Jisung.

“You were saying?” He seemed distracted now, looking at his closed locker. “Ummm.... I wanted to thank you for yesterday.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him. “Ji, you don’t need to thank me. I’ll always take care of you if you need me.” As I pulled away his hands stayed on my waist, which wasn’t totally out of the norm. Jisung was always a really touchy and flirty person. It drove me crazy sometimes, knowing that it was just his personality and not him acting on something else.

“So this weird thing happened on my way to school this morning. My hand-” Again Jisung was interrupted. This time by the bell ringing for homeroom. “Hey Jisung, I’ve gotta go, but you can tell me at lunch right?” He nodded, his expression becoming more uneasy. As I turned his grip on my waist stopped me.

“Ji, I know you wanna tell me now but I have to go!” I said with a laugh. A nervous breathy laugh escaped his lips as he tried to pull away from me. “Well, you know how hard it is for me to keep my hands off of you.” Arching an eyebrow I chose to ignore his weird behavior and walked off to my homeroom.

When the lunch bell finally rang I took my food outside to where Ji and I normally ate. However, he was nowhere in sight. As if he could read my thoughts, my phone notified me of a text from Jisung.

Lix asked me to help him with some Chem work. Sry I can’t eat with you :(

I sent him a quick reply saying it was okay. It wasn’t the first time I had eaten alone and it surely wouldn’t be the last. To no surprise, Chaeyoung and one of her friends walked by. “Have you seen that kid? What’s his name? Jihyun?” She said in her shrill voice. It was hard not to hear her conversation even from twenty feet away.

“No, I think his name is Jisung. Han Jisung. He is in my physics class. Kind of a dweeb if you ask me.”

“Well, that dweeb filled out. He was probably just a late bloomer, but like all of a sudden, he got really hot. Have you seen his arms and his chest? Oh my god! A girl could die.”

The girls laughed and continued to objectify my best friend. They were right. Jisung had seemed to have had a huge glow up overnight. His lanky form did seem more toned and his arms were much more muscular than I remembered.

“Can you believe he still hangs out with that new junkie girl? Like, please. He could get any girl he wants now. Why stay friends with that waste of space?”

“That bitch is so full of herself. Literally, no one even likes her.” Chaeyoung said laughing. Having heard enough, I got up and decided to go to my next class early. It didn’t necessarily bother me what she had said. Chaeyoung always liked to mess with me.

All my classes seemed slower than usual and Jisung was answering my texts. At this point in the day, we would probably be having a meme war or a stupid conversation ignoring our teachers, but my phone was silent. Not a single notification.

By the end of the day, I was feeling totally depressed. English was my last class and thank god I had it with Jisung. No doubt he would be late though. He rarely ever showed up on time to class. But, as I walked through the classroom door I did a double-take seeing my best friend in his usual seat right beside mine.

He gave me an innocent smile. This was strange. Jisung was never early. He looked...normal. I mean other than the physical overnight puberty storm. He slouched in his chair his long legs spilling into the aisle, not that he cared, and he twirled a pen between his long slender fingers.

“Yo, wassup, cutie?” He said as I sat down. “You seem to be the talk of the school.” He shrugged and shuffled through some physics work he had on his desk. “You jealous?” That stupid smirk appeared on his mouth. “No. Just confused.”

“Okay, class. Settle down. We are going to be returning to our analysis of Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility.”

I busied myself with taking thorough notes knowing Jisung would just fall asleep again or just play a random game on his phone. The teacher droned on making a seemingly not boring book a complete snooze fest. The lecture continued without end threatening to send me to sleep as well. Out of habit, I looked over at Jisung, except he was not asleep. Jisung was wide awake and he appeared to be listening intently.

As if he sensed I was looking at him he turned and smiled at me before returning his attention to the front of the classroom. This was too weird. Where was my Jisung? Maybe he was still sick. That could explain the weird behavior, right?

The harsh sound of the release bell brought me out of my thoughts. Jisung was already packing up his stuff. “Hey, you wanna stop by Tony’s on the way home? You can buy me a slice!” I said latching onto his arm. The girls were right. Jisung had filled out. Feeling myself starting to blush, I let go and looked back up at my best friend.

“I can’t. I’ve gotta run some errands fro May and then Uncle Ben asked me to pick up dinner and some other stuff.”

“I can come with you?”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll text you later!”

Without another word, Jisung raced out of the classroom. I knew Jisung pretty well and it was clear he didn’t want me around today. Alone-again- I rode the subway back to my apartment to be greeted by an empty living room. My mom had left a note on the counter leaving me money for dinner and saying Jisung was welcome to come over. “Yeah, well he’s too busy,” I said to no one in particular.

It got dark pretty quick. All my homework was finished. I even managed to submit the stupid article on lunch menus. Eventually, I had nothing to do but stare at my ceiling. The news was getting pretty boring. After the whole Avenger’s fiasco, things had quieted down, and no interesting stories were in sight. By 11:30 I had given up hope Jisung was going to text let alone call so I did the next best thing.

“Hi, May! Is Jisung busy?”

“Hi, sweetie! Jisung got home about an hour ago. He said he was out with Felix. Should I tell him to call you?”

“No, no. It’s fine. You don’t have to tell him. I’ll talk to him later.”

“Okay, honey. Goodnight!”

Han Jisung you filthy little liar. If he didn’t want to hang out with me he should have just said so. Deciding I had finally had enough of this awful day I curled up under my covers and fell asleep.

Months had now passed and Jisung had started acting normal again. Well as normal as Jisung could be anyway. Our near daily trips to Tony’s had decreased to only twice a week and Jisung always seemed to be busy after school, though he made sure to text me back for fear of facing my wrath.

“What do you think of this Spiderman guy?” I asked typing away on my laptop. Jisung lounged across my bed, the Saturday afternoon light casting a warm glow over his face. He looked up from his place beside me. “Uhh...I don’t know. What do you think of him?”

“He seems a little childish and amateur, but he is a great story. Vigilante helping out downtown New York? That’s gold.”

“Childish? What do you mean childish? He’s professional as fuck. I heard he stopped a bank robbery the other day.”

“Yeah, and they found the criminals hanging from a lampost by their underwear.”

Jisung laughed and ran a hand through his blonde hair before looking up at the ceiling. “You’ve been talking about Spiderman a lot lately. What do you have a crush on him?” I scoffed, fingers flying across my keyboard. “Please. I don’t date children. Besides, I just think he is a great story.”

“You wanna order takeout?” Jisung asked reaching over me to get my phone. My dad was on duty and my mom was on call so Jisung had come over to keep me company. I did my best to pretend I didn’t notice how amazing he smelled as he leaned over me. “You know you should really stop eating junk food. You are what you eat.” I said distracting myself from how close he was.

“Well then if we are what we eat, I guess I would be fast, cheap, and easy.”

Jisung winked at me, making my eyes roll. Jisung had grown at home in his new body and somehow he got even cockier than he was before. He groaned at my lack of response and instead let his head rest in my lap, giving him a good view of my screen. “Play with my hair, bitch.”

“Excuse me, dick. I’m working.” He laughed and unlocked my phone. I often wondered why he liked just sitting with me. I think I remembered him telling me once that he liked the sound of me typing. He said it had sort of a rhythm that only belonged to me. How he could pick up on that I had no clue. Like he had superhearing.

“I ordered sushi. Don’t worry, I’ll pay.” Jisung said, adjusting his body slightly so he wasn’t at an awkward angle. I smiled continuing to write about our masked arachnid hero. “Please tell me you got boba too.” I sighed suddenly craving the sweet drink.

“Of course, baby. I’ve got you.”

There was a moment of silence. Any minute now Jisung was going to break it. The boy couldn’t go three minutes without talking. “Do you think Spiderman is hot?” Jisung blurted out.

“Jisung...do we need to have a talk?”

“What- no! Oh, what- no! I mean like do you think he’s hot?”

“The guy wears a mask; how am I supposed to know?”

He shrugged and played on my phone. “I don’t know. What do you think he looks like?” With Jisung’s mind, he wasn’t going to drop this until he got an answer. Saving my work, I closed my laptop and moved it onto the side table. “He’s probably like thirteen. I’m mean he is skinny enough to be a pre-teen.”

“No, like his face.”

“You are weirdly obsessed with this you know.”

“Answer the question already. I’m getting bored.”

I thought for a minute, my hand unconsciously moving to run through his blonde locks. What would spiderman look like? “He is probably just some random white dude. Dark hair, blue eyes maybe?”

He nodded, seemingly satisfied with my answer. The topic changed after that. Jisung told me about spending time with his Uncle earlier that day and we talked about his weird physics experiments. Soon enough, the food came and Jisung paid for it like he said he would. We spent the next several hours sitting in my bed eating sushi, drinking boba, and watching a drama Jisung insisted I ‘needed to see or my brain would explode out of my ears from being lame’.

After several episodes, my room was obscenely dark and my parents had yet to come home. My back rested against Jisung’s chest letting me feel the vibration of his laughs. “Hey, it’s late. You should probably head home.” He smiled when I made no attempt at moving or letting him up. “Do you want me to stay?” “Yes please.” He chuckled and pulled out his phone, calling his uncle and letting him know.

Soon I began to grow tired, my head slumping back onto his shoulder. He poked my side, trying to wake me up. “Hey, go change for bed.” Sleepily, I nodded and shuffled out of bed to sift through my closet for a nightshirt. Jisung moved around getting comfortable while I changed.

As I walked back over to the bed Jisung shut my laptop and placed it on my nightstand. When I climbed back into my bed he pulled me on top of him, wrapping his arms around my waist. It had been quite a while since Jisung had stayed over. It felt so nice just to be next to him, feeling the warmth radiating off his bare chest. The sound of his heartbeat lulled me to sleep.

Jisung’s ringtone blared in my small room quickly waking me up. “Ji-” I said shoving my head under the covers. “I got it. Go back to sleep.” A quick glance at my clock told me it was two am. Who the hell was calling Jisung at two am? Jisung reached over me and grabbed his phone off the stand. He tried not to move a lot because my head still lay on his arm. “Hello?”

“Happy? What’s wrong?”

“Jisung tell the Disney dwarf to hang up. I wanna go back to sleep.” I whined, drowsily. Snuggling back into his chest, I reluctantly listened to him sleepily talk on the phone, Jisung not being fully awake himself. “Where am I? I’m at Y/n’s.....Yes....Yes, you can add the location to the list.” I felt Jisung run a hand through his fluffy hair and sigh.

“Mr. Stark said what? Yeah, yeah I have it in my bag....What now?....She’s gonna kill me....I can be there in ten.” Jisung hung up and started to get out of bed. “Woah, where the hell are you going? I need my personal space heater.” Jisung let out a tired laugh as he slipped his baggy shirt back on and rummaged through his bag looking for something.

“I’m really sorry, but I have to go.”

“Jisung who the fuck is calling you at two am? What is so important that you have to leave?” I asked still not really awake and comprehensive. “Uhhh....my....internship.”

“Your what?”

“My internship.”

“Your what?”

“My internship.”

“Yeah-Ji- you keep saying ‘your internship’ like my half-asleep half murderous mind will understand what your saying.”

“I got an internship with Stark Industries. They have uh... a problem....with some of the...code that I wrote....last week.”

Jisung started slipping his socks back on as I stared at him in confusion. “When did you get an internship with freaking Tony Stark -You work with Ironman?!” He laughed and started searching for his shoes.

“Y/n, go back to sleep. I’ll see you on Monday.” Then he left. I was alone once again in my room. A random siren went off in the distance and I just sat in bed. Suddenly, the police scanner on my dresser crackled to life. My dad had given it to me for my birthday a few years ago.

We have a 647g Disorderly Conduct at 284 Hickom Av.

647g? Why bother calling that in at this time of night? That was just loitering. Sighing, I got up and walked over to turn the radio off. Another voice coming through stopped me.

Disregard suspect has left the premise with another group of guys. Headed south down Hickom.

South down Hickom street? What had my dad said earlier this week? Something about several high arms deals going down near there. If I could catch one in the act this would be a great story! Throwing on some pants and slipping on my sneakers, I grabbed my camera and put on my jacket. “Finally a great story!”

Hickom Avenue was maybe about ten minutes away. The streets were pretty dark at two am, but it didn’t really bother me. My curiosity overpowered any fear I should have. My eyes scanned the area looking for any sign of the guys the scanner mentioned. Just as I was about to cross in front of an alley I saw them. Quickly I doubled back and pressed against the wall.

“If I’m paying 4k for some lightsaber shit, I’d better get a demonstration, man.”

Carefully I peeked around the corner. Seven men stood in the hallway. Three were next to this heavy-duty van with blacked-out windows. This was definitely an arms deal if I had ever seen one. Which....to be fair...I hadn’t. But it was pretty clear.

A guy with muscles bigger than my head pulled out a large weapon with green glowing lights. Quickly I pulled out my camera and started snapping pictures. They proceeded to fire this huge light cannon around the alley. Holy shit. This thing was powerful.

“Okay, you got a deal. I’ll take four-”

Let’s dance the night away,

Yeaaaahh

One, Two, Three! Let’s go!

“Fuck,” I whispered ripping my phone out of my pocket and struggling to turn it off. “Turn off, come on.” Finally, I silenced the phone and turned to see if they had heard. Instead my eyes met a broad chest only a couple inches away.

Okay....think, think, think. Too busy panicking. Can’t think. Uhhhhhh......fuck. I followed my first instinct and threw a punch at the guy’s nose. His head did not recoil like it was supposed to. He just simply cracked his neck and glared down at me.

Okay.....instincts bad.

Before I knew it I was struggling against the man’s grip as he dragged me into the alley. “We’ve got a visitor.” He said throwing me onto the ground in front of all the other men. They sneered and inched closer clearly quite upset I had interrupted their little party.

“Make that two. Hey, how are you guys doing?”

All heads turned to the roof of the liquor store we were next to. My eyes widened. There was Spiderman. Complete with the red and blue suit and cocky childish attitude. “Who the fuck are you?” The buff guy, who now had his foot digging into my stomach, said.

“Bro....Come on. I’m Spiderman. You know. I shoot webs and kick ass.”

“Isn’t he that guy from YouTube that did the flip on that building?”

“OH MY GOD, THAT WAS ONE TIME!”

The man scoffed and pressed further onto my stomach, making me wince slightly. “Scram, Arachne Boy.” The men around me laughed at I assumed the leader’s joke. The hero sighed and shook his head.

“See now I have to beat you up. You can’t just make fun of my name. That shit hurts, bro.”

“What the fu-” Before he could finish his sentence a web shot and grabbed onto his face and flung him into the side of the building. Soon a fight broke out. Trying to remove myself from the situation I crawled away as Spiderman fought all the men.

“Ah!”

A strong hand grabbed the back of my neck and hoisted me off the ground. “You aren’t getting away that easy, little girl.” The man sneered. A huge welt was on the side of his face from Spiderman’s attack. My airway’s started to close as he squeezed tighter. My hands tried to pull his fingers away and slapping at any place I could reach. Meanwhile, the last thing I would hear before I died would be Spiderman yelling something about Naruto running a dude into the next Millenium.

As the edges of my vision started to fade, I heard another voice come closer. “Get your fucking mutant hands off her!” It screamed. I was dropped to the ground. Air filled my lungs as I took huge gasps. Looking up I saw Spiderman taking on the huge monstrosity of a man with nothing but his own two hands.

“I was told never to play with guns. But I think today might be the exception.”

A web shot out of his fingertips and pulled the weird contraption into his hands. A bright light emitted and fired at the man, blasting him into the building wall. Within seconds Spiderman had wrapped up the villain in a little cocoon of sticky webs, keeping him secure. A quick look around told me he had already done the same to the others.

The boy in the red suit danced around like a weirdo, while I sat on the ground. “Go Spidey! Go Spidey! Hell yeah! I made all of you my bitches!” I coughed still trying to get air back into my lungs. The white eyes on his mask widened. It must be some pretty advanced tech in that suit.

“Holy shit- Are you okay, Y/n...........I mean...wait-...random citizen I don’t know who means nothing to me personally. Are you okay?”

His voice weirdly got lower halfway through his sentence. Dazed, I looked back up at him. He offered me a hand up and gratefully I took it. “Thanks for helping back there,” I said, voice coming out a bit sore. He shrugged and puffed out his chest.

“Yeah, I did kick some serious ass didn’t I?”

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed my camera and started to walk away. “Wait! Where are you going?” He swung from a lamppost and landed in front of me the suit’s eyes widening and shrinking again. His suit must have facial readers or something.

“I’m going home. I’ve got my story; I’m done.”

“Hey it’s not safe. Let me take you home. What would your friends say if you weren’t at school tomorrow?”

Spiderman continued to follow me as if he were a lost puppy. I laughed when he almost tripped over a trashcan. “Okay, one- how do you know I’m a student? And two- I don’t really have any friends. People don’t like me at school.” He stopped in his tracks.

“What do you mean- Are you getting bullied at school?” His words stopped me. He sounded genuinely concerned. By now we were halfway to my apartment. I simply stared at him as the old streetlights flickered and struggled to light up the sidewalks we were on.

“A couple people bother me, but I just ignore them. Look I’m gonna go home. Thanks for back there. You were a real hero.”

He looked between me and my hand as I stuck it out for him to shake. Slowly he took it, his grip firm, but cautious. “You know, usually heroes get a thank you kiss for rescuing such a gorgeous girl.” I scoffed and pulled my hand away.

“Sorry, Spidey. I’m not interested in cocky little shits who run around wearing masks.”

“Yeah well, you’d be surprised. What is your type? Bet, I’m still it.”

My eyes lit up thinking about him. “I guess I’m more of the boy next door type. They say you always fall for your best friend right?”

He blinked as if he was processing my words. What I thinking? A horny fourteen-year-old boy wouldn’t understand. “Night, Spidey. Thanks for the save.” Not letting him say another word, I headed back to my apartment. My apartment was still empty when I returned. My parents wouldn’t be back until after I left for school in a few hours. Reluctantly I went back to my bed, missing the space where Jisung lay only a few hours earlier. It was harder to fall asleep without him next to me.

My legs carried me as quickly as they could. I ignored the crazy looks from people on the street as I raced to May’s apartment. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I burst through the building’s main entrance. Knowing the elevator would take too long and it was probably broken again, I took the stairs up to the fourth floor.

The door was unlocked when I ran into the apartment. “May? May!” I called, looking for her in the living room. Hearing small cries I turned to find her exiting the kitchen. With open arms, I let her hug me and cry into my shoulder.

We sat in the kitchen in silence. Occasionally one of our cries would slip, but the emptiness would return. He wasn’t answering any of my calls. I was beginning to worry. May said they were together. Where was he? It had been hours since May had called me. The sound of the door opening made us both stand from our seats.

Jisung walked in with heavy shoulders and blood on his forehead and smeared across his shirt. He had dried tears staining his cheeks. I had seen the footage of the shooting on the news with May, but the sight of Jisung standing before us made my heart break.

I held myself back as May went to her nephew. They needed each other. I could wait. Whispers between the two were shared, most likely about her husband. She had already gotten a call, but hearing it from Jisung seemed important to her. After a moment she excused herself, saying something about wanting to go to bed.

The two of us stood in silence. I had no idea how to comfort him. How could you comfort someone who just watched their uncle die? Jisung started to slowly move towards his room. Wordlessly, I followed.

After I closed his door, I turned to find him staring at the walls small cries coming from his form. There were pictures of him and his uncle all over his room. Jisung sighed when I wrapped my arms around him from behind. He turned around so he could hold me to his chest. Hot tears fell against my neck as he cried.

It felt like hours before he calmed down. Gently I led him over to the bed and sat him down. All he could do was stare at his hands as I grabbed a clean shirt from his closet and a wet cloth from the bathroom. There was no fight from him as I lifted the bloodied shirt from his body and put it in the hamper.

Carefully, I lifted his chin and gently started cleaning the blood away from his face. I tried not to wipe away the tears that slowly ran down his cheeks. He looked broken-and tired like he hadn’t slept even before today’s events. My heart shattered when he finally looked me in the eye.

“I’m not ready for this.” He whispered, more tears falling.

Wrapping my arms around him, I let the clean shirt fall to the floor. “I know...” I tried to keep tears from falling from my own eyes. I concentrated on running my fingers through his hair and how tightly he held onto my waist. “You’re never going to be ready for it.” He cried even harder, making me want to scream for him.

Slowly, I laid back onto his bed, holding him on top of my chest. “No one is ever ready for what you are going through,” I whispered. His body shook from crying and he buried his nose into my neck, holding onto me as if I were the only tether keeping him from floating away. “But, you are so strong. We aren’t faced with challenges we can’t overcome.” His breathing started to steady as my hand traced patterns on this bare skin of his back. “Sometimes I wish I was normal,” He whispered.

“Ji, you are anything but normal. And that’s okay. But for now...you can just be here. I’ll be with you. When you’re ready you can do whatever you need to. But...just stay here for now.”

He nodded and held onto me even tighter. I listened to his breath, gently rubbing his back and playing with his hair. When I knew he was asleep, I let myself do the same. Tomorrow would be another day. I would most likely have to leave and let Jisung and May grieve, but for now, I could be with him. Hopefully, that was enough.

Early the next morning, I woke up to an empty bed. Jisung’s covers were loosely wrapped around me and his window was cracked open, letting a strip of sunlight in. Slowly, I sat up and rubbed my head. It was quite unusual for him to be up this early. Well, it was quite unusual for me to be up this early, but it was like my body had a sensor for when he was gone. I pulled my phone from the table and started to text him.

The sound of the window opening caused my attention to turn. I froze as I saw Jisung climbing through the window. “What the fuck!” He froze when he saw me. My eyes widened, taking the sight in. Jisung was standing before me wearing a familiar red and blue suit, a mask in his hand.

“Y/n, I can explain...”

Was Jisung Spiderman? Was my best friend Spiderman? Holy shit! “Okay explain!” He simply stared at me, eyes wide. His hand came to scratch the back of his neck. His eyes avoided mine as my arms crossed my chest.

“Jisung, might I suggest explanation protocol #38 for Miss L/n?”

“Oh my God! Friday, shut up! You aren’t helping.”

I watched as Jisung said to the AI apparently in his suit before he tossed the mask onto his desk. “You have an explanation protocol for me?” The look on his face showed that he knew he was in trouble.

“See the thing is...I’m not Spiderman-...” He stopped when I glared at him. “Okay, I am Spiderman. This is my internship with Mr.Stark.” Without hesitation, I got up from his bed and started slapping his arm.

“This doesn’t even hurt, does it? You have superstrength. Oh my god, I’m going to fucking murder you.” An aggravated sigh left my chest. “So this whole entire time you have been swinging around the city saving people and doing flips on buildings and I was none the wiser?” I said turning back to him.

“That was one time! But...yes.” He stood awkwardly in his own room. “Look, I’m sure you have a lot of questions.” He gulped when my stern gaze turned back on him. “So, anything you ask I’ll answer.”

“Who else knows?”

“Mr. Stark, Happy- the guy who is my supervisor-, and Felix.”

“FELIX?”

He flinched as my voice raised. Taking a breath, I calmly sat back down on his bed. He watched as I crossed my legs and turned off the sound on my phone. No way was I gonna let my parents interrupt this conversation. “How did you become like...this...” I asked pointing to his clearly toned physique.

“At first I thought it was just like another puberty thing. But, like puberty doesn't make me shoot webs out of my hands. I think it was that spider from the lab.”

“So do-...are all your...bodily fluids...like...webs? Like do you shoot webs out of everywhere or-”

“You wanna find out?” Jisung said with a smirk, coming closer. I did not hesitate to slap him.

“You couldn’t think of a better name though? Spiderman, really? You couldn’t come up with something more aggressive?”

“Well, I mean...like - spiders are cool, okay!”

I could tell he was uncomfortable. Usually, Jisung always stood up straight and had some sort of a smile or smirk on his face, but he was truly nervous. He watched me expectantly, waiting to answer whatever questions I asked next.

“So when you said you were away on a company retreat for the weekend. That was actually you who was fighting Captain America and all that shit in Prauge?”

“Yes.”

“When you left that night, did you go to the arms deal?”

“Yes.”

“So, it was you who saved me.”

“Your welcome.”

“Don’t push it.”

Nervously, he let out a laugh. No matter how many questions I asked...he was still my best friend. I was proud of him. He was doing so much good. Don’t get me wrong I was still very pissed at him for not telling me. “You owe me pizza at Tony’s for the rest of the fucking year.” A sigh of relief left his chest and he wrapped me in a hug.

“That’s fine by me. I’m honestly surprised you didn’t ask about the whole crush thing.” I pulled away to see that fucking smirk on his mouth. “I think it’s cute you’re in love with me.” He tugged me closer to his body, gripping my waist.

“Who says I’m in love with you?”

“Me.”

“You’re an asshole- you say a lot of stupid shit.”

“I’m an asshole, not a liar. There’s a difference.”

My breath caught in my throat when I saw his eyes glance down to my lips. I could practically feel my heartbeat pulsing through my entire body. It was true and he knew it. I was in love with him. “Well....what are you going do about it? Prick...” I said in a shaky breath. He let out a soft laugh, his eyes lighting up.

“Kiss you....bitch.”

My heart went crazy as he pressed his lips to mine. Closing my eyes, I melted into his touch. This was definitely the craziest two days of my entire life. I never would have imagined I would have to comfort my best friend, find out he was a superhero running around New York, and then have him kiss me in his bedroom.

Jisung smiled as I kissed him back, draping my arms around his neck and threading my fingers through his blonde hair. Never in my wildest dreams had I thought kissing Jisung would be like this. Without his mouth leaving mine he pushed me up against the wall of his bedroom. He sighed when my teeth caught his bottom lip.

“Fuck...do you know how long I’ve thought about this?” He asked before returning to my lips.

“Kissing me?”

“To be honest I’ve been thinking about more than that since I was thirteen.”

Ignoring my scoff, Jisung continued to attack my lips like he had found water for the first time after walking in a desert. His hands slid under my legs, making me shriek when he picked me up. In one swift motion, he turned around and threw me onto his bed, before hovering over me. “I love you,” He whispered, before placing a soft kiss on my lips. Slowly, he moved down to my neck, my hands running through his soft hair. Impatiently, I pulled him back to my lips.

Our little makeout session was interrupted by the sound of Jisung’s phone ringing. He sighed and dropped his head onto my shoulder. “I have to get that,” He sighed and pushed himself off the bed, walking over to pick up his phone. My eyes couldn’t help but rake over him. Now, I could freely ogle how gorgeous his body was. I bit my lip, looking at the lines of his broad shoulders go down to his slim waist.

“Happy, now is not a good time.”

“Yes....among other things...” A blush flooded his cheeks as he looked back at me still laying on his bed.

“Can’t Mr. Stark send someone else?”

“I’m not just going to up and leave.”

Getting bored, I got up and wrapped my arms around him. He tried to look over at me, but I just buried my face in his chest. Patiently, I waited for him to finished the call with Happy. Finally, he threw the phone onto his bed and kissed me again. “Do you have to go?” I asked against his lips. He pulled away another smirk filling his face.

“You want to go to Berlin for a week?”

“What?”

“Mr. Stark needs me in Berlin. Something about S.H.I.E.L.D and an Avenger thing. But, there is no way May will let me go. Especially after yesterday.”

“Why am I going?”

“Happy said I could take you with me, you know to convince May to let me go.”

I laughed and kissed him again. “Sure. I’ll go to Berlin with you.” He laughed and spun me around the room. “However, you are gonna be the one to tell my dad that we are going alone with no chaperone to a country where the drinking age is sixteen.”

“Fuck.”

“Good luck, Ji.”

Requests are open, just send an ask my lovelies!

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spencerspecifics · 4 years ago

Text

Okay i got this idea while talking to @criminalmindsvibez earlier and I just h a d to write it out

Imagine: the team taking one of those “teamwork building” days during the fall and Hotch has no clue what the team could do together to build their teamwork morale because they’ve literally had to save each other from murderers in a time sensitive manner so like??? Wtf are they supposed to do? Solve a jigsaw puzzle? So Garcia gets the task of figuring out what to do and she decides pumpkin patch/corn maze because fuck it. It’s fall.

-they get to the pumpkin patch, immediately Rossi is like “I don’t need to buy a pumpkin. It’ll end up rotting on my doorstep”

- Garcia points out that doesn’t help the team morale so he better quiet down

-he shuts up, they get inside the farm area and the entire team is just sorta standing around cuz when is the last time any of them went to a patch??? They aren’t sure of where to start. There’s stands that sell apple cider and hot coco and kettle corn and there’s some hinky dinky country music playing in the background. It’s nice but they have no clue where to start

-Garcia decides to take over, because fuck it, she got put in charge of this, and Hotchner looks like a fish out of water. Put him in a beauracratic setting and the man knows how to operate, but this? He looks so lost, it’s almost funny. Garcia’ll command this group of idiot life savers.

- she decides the team should start in the corn maze, that sorta helps the team morale. They gotta find a way to get out, after all. Spencer doesn’t want to go in until he sees a map of it, though, so he can check where they are. So they have to awkwardly go to an employee and ask where the map of the corn maze is located

-Derek finds it in a pamphlet that the employee handed to him, he gave it over to Spencer, who gladly accepts it and stares at it for what feels like two seconds before being like “ok let’s go”

-even though finding that damn map took like ten minutes because the pumpkin patch has so many customers so employees are all over the place. So everyone is like “goddamnit dude” at spencer before moving ahead into the maze

- Derek and Garcia take the lead, Spencer in the middle, then J.J. and Emily towards the back, with Hotch and Rossi in the very back.

-Hotch doesn’t wanna have to take charge of how to get through the maze unless absolutely necessary

-J.J. and Emily just end up having some very much needed girl talk while Garcia and Derek bicker about which way to go

- “Get a babysitter so we can have a girls night” “I’ll do that when you call that hot british dude that you met at the bar last week back” “I don’t need him. I have Sergio.” “Cats don’t replace real relationships with people, emily.”

-meanwhile Derek and Garcia aren’t sure which way to go. “Let’s take a left.” “No, we just went that way. We should take a right.” “That just keeps us in the middle, doll ” “isn’t that what we want?!”

-Meanwhile, the entire time, Spencer has been thinking of the turns and loops and steps they’ve taken and calculated exactly where within the maze they are based on the map

-Eventually Spencer takes charge, after Derek made them take two dead end turns, “Guys- no, we’re towards the edge of the maze. The quickest way to the end is through the center, so we need to go back and take two rights, then a left.”

-Hotch and Rossi are just walking through in silence for the most part, taking in the scenery around them. The crisp autumn air, it’s nice. They do break their silence for conversations. They speak about Jack’s upcoming soccer game, and how tiring it can be to work with children.

- “I’ve never been more grateful that my three ex wives and I never ended up with kids- god, it’s enough going to see Jack’s stuff and help coach the team.” “You have no obligation to show up if you don’t want to, Dave. If it’s too much I understand.” “Aaron, I would rather get arrested for a murder I didn’t commit and convicted before leaving Jack’s games.”

-Garcia ends up falling back with the girls, where the conversation shifts to Prentiss talking about how much the corn maze reminds her of the children of the corn movie

-“ew! Why did you have to say that! All their parents end up dead! That’s so sad!” “Garcia, it’s the corn that reminds me of the movie” “Well duh- we’re in a cornfield! But don’t think about that movie. Think about something nicer.”

-Prentiss is drawing a blank on nice fall themed things, so J.J. pipes up with “what about that Charlie Brown movie?” Garcia points out that doesn’t take place in a corn field

-“well. Only corn field movie that’s coming to mind is children of the corn.” So emily continues to talk a bit about it to J.J., all while making Garcia want to run away because “Ew no it’s such a sad movie! Let’s talk about something nicer!”

-Meanwhile Derek and Spencer are solely up front, Spencer is using that big dumptruck of a brain of his to know exactly which turns to take. Derek’s just walking alongside him, trying to weasel from flirting into conversation casually

-“how about after this I get you some cider, pretty boy?” “Do you know cider on average has to ferment for fifteen days?” Spencer isn’t really listening, if that isn’t already obvious. He heard what Derek said, but he’s just thinking of every next twist and turn they have to take to get out. So he isn’t very conversative

-meanwhile the girls have changed conversation topics to what kind of pumpkins J.J. should get Henry (this conversation change was obviously brought on by Garcia) “you should get him a cute tiny one! That would be so adorable” emily on the other hand is saying to get one bigger than him “wouldn’t it be funny to have a pumpkin taller than henry?”

-J.J. doesn’t know which size pumpkin she’ll get for Henry. But she lets emily and Garcia sway her opinion in both directions, because a comically large pumpkin would be funny. But one as small as Henry would be adorable

-meanwhile the old men duo in the back are still just enjoying their walk. Hotch had mentioned how Jack would’ve loved to come to the patch, before silence fell over them again. Rossi asked a few moments later if Hotch knows if jack’s school would be taking a field trip to the patch, “I’m not sure. I’m assuming they will.” Rossi doesn’t say anything more, but he secretly plans on double checking that, emailing the school, and explaining that he and Hotch would like to be volunteers on the trip. He’d like to see that happen.

-Derek hasn’t fully given up on his flirting game with Spencer. But he’s holding off for now, as Spencer is way too focused on the maze layout. So much so that he started mapping out in his mind where the best spot to place a body would be as an unsub. “If someone was to drop a body in here- the ideal location would be the upper left sides second dead end. Geographically, it’s the farthest point from landmarks and least traveled area within the maze.”

-Garcia hears that and butts in, “No murder talk! No dead body talk- there is no dead body! Today is supposed to be a good day! Shut off your brain for one day, Spencer”

-Spencer doesn’t say anything more about the best spot within the maze to dump a body, though Derek is sure Spencer is bored and thinking out a billion separate scenarios within the maze. Mazes were good for hiding and concealing things, after all

-Garcia accidentally mishears Spencer’s directions of “turn left” and she walks directly into the wall of corn that the maze is made out of

-the team all stops for a second to help her untangle herself out of that before promptly laughing at her

-ok Derek and emily laugh the most, emily tells her to steal an ear of corn “It’s not like they’d miss it. It could be compensation for running into it”. J.J. and Spencer sorta stand there chuckling a lil bit, Hotch and Rossi are more like “as long as you’re all good we should continue on” but they had little smiles on their faces too

-They finally get out! The employees at the exit are like “good job, that was very fast!” And everyone on the team is like “thanks we tried” meanwhile Spencer is standing there thinking “no y’all didn’t I did it cuz I memorized the maze smh”

-the team stays as a unit after that. It wasn’t on purpose, but they all had the same thing in mind, the pumpkin patch

-they walk over there, it’s not too far, immediately Spencer makes his way over to the large containers of pre-picked pumpkins, gourds, thise tiny as hell pumpkins, those white pumpkins, and those red pumpkins. He’s one second away from grabbing a pumpkin at random from the container so he can grab a pumpkin and go, when Derek is like “Hey man what are you doing? You’re not picking from the patch”

-Spencer then has to awkwardly explain how the only times he ever went to the pumpkin patch was in elementary school before he skipped ahead grade wise and the kids in his class made fun of him that day really bad. Like they called him names and left him “trapped” in the corn field (tho he had seen a map and was able to figure his way out easily that time.) and so whenever he has to buy a pumpkin he just gets them from the grocery store because he gets anxious at the thought of coming to a pumpkin patch

-immediately the entire team is like “wtf man you should’ve told us!!! Do you want to leave??? We should leave” and Garcia is immediately like “Spencer I am so sorry oh my god I didn’t know” and he has to sorta awkwardly be like “No it’s ok. I wanted to come. I want to try and get a better memory than last time.”

-Derek pats him on the back for that, “You’ll get much better memories this time, I promise. But let’s get a pumpkin from the actual patch instead of from these containers”

- Derek makes it his soul mission to make sure spencer now has an amazing time in the pumpkin patch. So he stays with him the entire time as they walk around, inspecting pumpkins for just the right one

-meanwhile the girls are looking at the biggest pumpkins possible. Namely Prentiss, she wants to get a big one. “Can you even out that out front of your apartment door?” “I don’t know but I’ll make sure it stays until it rots”

-Hotchner is busy looking for a pumpkin he could bring home for jack to carve, though he does guess that jack would be making his way to the pumpkin patch with his class too. It couldn’t hurt to have a third pumpkin to carve.

-Rossi doesn’t want a pumpkin, he’s already decided that they’re messy and smelly and he doesn’t even like pumpkin seeds or pumpkin pie enough to warrant the mess of cutting and getting the pumpkin guts out. So he just stands and watches

-Garcia notices that immediately and is so not happy with that “you’re serious about not getting a pumpkin?” “I told ya” “ughhh Rossi- you could get a tiny one!” “I don’t wanna carve and deal with a mess” “you don’t have to carve a tiny one!”

-“what’re you thinking pretty boy?” Derek asked Spencer, who had been staring down the same pumpkin for like two minutes, which was definitely unusual. Spencer doesn’t answer, leaning down and picking the pumpkin up instead. “Does it have any abrasions on it?” He asked Derek, as he turns it over in his hands to inspect it. “Not that I can see, no”

-Spencer decides on this pumpkin, and they find some wheelbarrows provided by the farm to put his pumpkin in, they give Hotch the duty of rolling the wheelbarrow around as they meander away from the rest of the group

-Spencer then is like “oh shit. Wait Derek. Your pumpkin. We need to find you one.” Derek just laughs a little bit and is like “I’ll find one lol but you gotta come with me” so Spencer agrees as they go to find one for Derek

-Garcia ends up nearby the tiny pumpkins, deciding to buy at least three to litter her front doorstep with

-she is so distracted she doesn’t even realize rossi making his way over. “You’re right. Those ones are way too small to carve.” He says, she just agrees, “Yes, so you should get some!! C’mon. Get that festive spirit.”

-Hotch shows up pushing the wheelbarrow from behind, listening to the tail end of rossi and Garcia’s bickering match. “You should get some, Dave. It would look nice.”

-That makes rossi cave. He mumbles out a “fine. The things I do for you all, I swear” before picking two up and putting them in the wheelbarrow, next to Spencer’s pumpkin.

-Garcia is b e a m I n g she is very happy with the fact she got this fall grinch into getting a pumpkin. So much so that she ends up getting a fourth tiny one, because damnit they’re too adorable.

-Hotchner still hasn’t found a pumpkin for him and for jack so he’s standing in the patch, still surveying like a lost old man. Garcia and Rossi end up helping him.

-Meanwhile J.J. and emily are looking through the medium sized pumpkins to find something for will and Henry. “I’m thinking a medium sized one, because then it’s sort of a mix of what you and Garcia said.” J.J. explained to Prentiss, who nodded along in agreement.

-the team is all pretty quiet at this point as they try to find their own pumpkins. Derek finds his, a large one that’s very vertically elongated. He takes it back to the wheelbarrow, with Spencer trailing along behind him.

-Hotch finds two round, smaller sized pumpkins. And he decides that those are his, they look great and would be easy enough to carve, so he grabs them up, getting them back into the wheelbarrow

-J.J. finds a medium sized pumpkin for Henry, and two smaller ones for her and will. Meanwhile Prentiss is like “Hey Jayge that Charlie Brown movie is applicable now since we’re in a pumpkin patch” Garcia hears that and is like “y e s good fall vibes yes”

-they finish up in the patch, everyone putting their pumpkins into the wheelbarrow as they head towards the checkout

-Derek pays for Spencer’s pumpkin, saying it’s not a problem

-Spencer literally can’t stop blushing at that even tho it’s the most mundane thing e v e r and it’s adorable

-the team gets their pumpkins sorted and paid, before taking the wheelbarrow back towards the stands that sell cider and hot coco and kettle corn.

-the girls go off to get hot chocolate, Dave and Rossi go to get some bags of kettle corn, and Derek and Spencer go get cider

-“If you make hot coco with anything but milk, it’s evil” “emily what about lactose intolerant people who use water?” “They’re on thin ice.”

-Spencer thanks Derek like five times in a row for helping him get a pumpkin and buying it “you didn’t have to-“ “you better stop talking before I buy you a cider too, pretty boy”

-Derek does buy him a cider in the end, which isn’t any surprise

-Dave and Hotch argue over which type of kettle corn is the best. “It’s caramel, Aaron. Why on earth would cheddar kettle corn be good?” “It’s savory as opposed to sweet, it’s better” “That doesn’t matter if it tastes bad!”

-Garcia ends up coaxing the hot coco barista lady into adding a shit ton of extra chocolate sauce and stuff to her drink

-so much so that it’s literally too sweet for her but she dug her grave she will fuckin lie in it like a winner

-J.J. and emily immediately make fun of her, “I can see the regret in your eyes!”

-the team finishes up buying their drinks, pushing the wheelbarrow out to the parking lot.

-“See, not so bad for a team morale building day after all!” Garcia says happily, she’s glad her idea was a success

-it was. The team is happy, they got hot sweet drinks and bags of delicious food, not to mention a shit ton of pumpkins they shove into the trunk of the SUV

-Spencer’s happy he made new memories at the pumpkin patch, Derek was just happy to help build those for him.

-Garcia’s happy her day went so well, emily is glad she got a pumpkin to carve, J.J.’s happy she got good pumpkins for will and Henry, Hotch is happy that he’s not stuck in a stuffy office building in an uncomfortable suit talking about another murder investigation, and Rossi is happy to be with his found family on a day out

-it was a good day at the pumpkin patch :)

39 notes · View notes

parkertech · 4 years ago

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Can you do a Peter x reader, where y/n is blind her whole life and comes into school, meeting Parker and such? And so she had good senses and when she becomes friends with Parker and gang, Parker often leaves, making an excuse which means he gotta be Spider-Man and so like, she knows he’s lying and eventually confronts him? Maybe also he’s secretly working by himself or w/ Tony to create glasses for her to see and it’s gets emotionally sweet and omggg please and thank you. You don’t have to!

Peter thought his day would be it’s regular schedule. Boring teachers, boring lectures, maybe squeeze in an annoying group project. His day was normally boring, until the period before lunch.

“Class, today we have a new student!” The teacher announced enthusiastically. Peter’s head shot up from resting on the desk, and his eyes immediately landed on you. One look was all it took for him to lose his breath. He found himself looking up and down, and heard his heart beating in his ears. You were absolutely gorgeous to him.

Since he was suddenly so observant, he found you tilting slightly away from all the students. The teacher cleared her throat before turning you so you were face to face with all the desks. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, but nonetheless didn’t say anything.

“I expect all of you to be respectful and treat her like you would what to be treated. Would you like to tell the class something about yourself?” The teacher asked you. You cleared throat, suddenly being put on the spot even more than before.

“Um...hi. My name’s Y/N...and...I’m blind?” You didn’t really know what else to say. The teacher cleared her throat at your bluntness, while Peter’s face lit up in realization. No one wonder you weren’t facing the class perfectly. You were blind.

For some reason, Peter found that absolutely adorable. Call him weird, he didn’t really care. What he did care about was your impression of him.

The teacher guided you to the back of the class, and to a seat right next to Peter. He felt his heartbeat speed up more and pushed his hands together. When the teacher finished helping you, he tried to ignore his reactions and focus on the board.

“Why’s your heart beating so fast?” You whispered to him. He jumped up slightly and turned to you, is eyebrows furrowed.

“W-What...?” He stuttered.

“I can hear your heartbeat. Why is it beating so fast?” Peter was getting more and more confused by the second, but also intrigued.

“Um, n-no it’s not. How can you even hear my heartbeat?” Be whispered back.

“Even though I’m blind, my other senses are raised to like, 100. You gonna answer my question?” You had heightened senses like him. Except you probably born that way, and not bitten by a radioactive spider in a laboratory on a field trip.

“Just nervous for...a possible project presentation.” Peter blurted. It’s the first thing that came to mind, and he didn’t properly think about how stupid the excuse sounded.

“Ah, okay. Well calm down dude, it’s not a jail sentence.” You patted his shoulder twice, which made him suck in a breath. All of sudden his shoulder where you touched it was on fire, and his hands were getting sweaty. He didn’t know how you made him feel like this, but he wasn’t exactly complianing either.

“You know, you can sit with me and my friends at lunch...” he trailed off. You tapped your foot a few times, before turning to him and smiling. He didn’t expect you to look him dead in the eyes, and it made him swallow a lump in his throat.

“I’d like that. Thanks....?”

“Peter! Parker Peter— I-I mean Peter Parker, that’s me. Yeah.” He blurted awkwardly. It made you giggle a bit, and he chuckled embarrassed. Even your laugh was cute. God, why was everything about you cute?

“Okay then, Parker Peter, I’m sitting with you today.” He nodded awkwardly with a tight lipped smile before sighing in relief. A few minutes later, the bell rung, and Peter practically jumped out of his seat, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. He ran out the door, and waited on the side for you to come out.

When you reached the doorway, you looked let and right, trying to sense Peter. You felt someone’s hand brush yours, and you flinched. He immediately retracted his hand and put it in his pocket.

“S-sorry, I didn’t mean to-” You relaxed when you heard the thick Queens accent speak, and sighed in relief.

“It’s fine, I’ve just never felt your hand before, so I thought you were a stranger.” Peter let out an ‘oh’, before chuckling in relief. “Why are you trying to hold my hand again?”

“U-Uh, well, I thought since you’re blind and everything, to make sure you don’t bump into anyone, I-I could hold your hand...” He mumbled shyly. You smiled a little before holding out your hand.

“Yeah, okay.” His eyes lit up, and he slowly intertwined your fingers together. Peter started walking, and you followed a step behind him.

You didn’t really have a problem running into people, but the second Peter’s hand touched yours, you didn’t want him to move. His hand felt warm, and comforting. It gave you a slight tingle in the bottom of your stomach, and it made your senses go haywire.

Peter announced that you were in the cafeteria, but you could tell by how loud the chatter got. He directed you to the table where Betty, Ned, and MJ were sitting, and sat down next to you.

“Peter finally has a girlfriend?!” Betty exclaimed. She noticed your hands, and came to conclusions.

“W-What?! No, no no no, this isn’t my girlfriend...” Sadly, he thought to himself. “She’s new. Everyone, Y/N.”

“And who are these ‘everyone’ people, Peter?”

“Oh, yeah. Ned’s my bestfriend, theres MJ, short for Michelle, and then Betty, who you heard earlier.” Betty held her hand out, but got confused when you didn’t shake it back. Her hand was in your peripheral view, but she didn’t know your big trait. “Oh, uh Betty...she’s blind.”

“Oh shit. I’m so sorry-” Betty started apologizing.

“No worries, I don’t even know what’s happening.” MJ smirked a little.

“I already like her.” You smiled at her, using your hearing to pinpoint her location. From that day on, you and got along with all of Peter’s friends. After all the questions (Ned had way more than anyone else), you spent everyday with all of them. That was until Peter always said he had to leave for some Stark Internship. His heart always beat super fast when he said that, which you learned is a key factor in lying. It always made you confused, until one specific walk home.

Some random burglar pulled you into an alleyway, and asked you for your money. He rummaged through your backpack, and instead of finding money, he found a special card you had, that mentioned you were blind. You always had it just in case, but never really used it. The burglar was going to use this to his benefit, until he heard a thwip and was pinned to the wall by webbing. You knew this was that superhero Peter talked about non-stop, Spider-Man.

“Ma’am, are you alright?” His voice sounded way too familiar, and you felt his hand touch yours, and that warm feeling you got with Peter came back. Thanks to your heightened senses, you could immediately tell this was him. But you wanted more proof.

“Y-yeah, I think so...” You made sure to face away from him, because if this wasn’t Peter, he wouldn’t know. Spider-Man gently grabbed you by the shoulders and turned you to face him.

“Right, you’re blind, do you mind if I swing you home?” Spider-Man asked you politely.

Yep, that’s definitely Peter.

“How did you know I was blind?” You ask him. Peter’s suit eyes were almost completely wide, realizing he slipped up.

“U-Uh, your c-card...” he looked down at the piece of paper on the floor that was now covered in sewer water, and used that as his excuse.

But he wasn’t reminded about your heightened senses. He was too nervous to. His heat beat was going fucking haywire, giving you your answer and confirming your suspicions.

“Oh, that makes sense.” You played it off cooly. “Yeah, you can take home.” Peter didn’t trust his own voice to slip up again, so he guided you into his side, and swung you to your house after asking for your address. Like he didn’t already know.

The next day, you practically sprinted into school. You had proof and wanted to confrot Peter about his alter ego. For some weird reason. You could easily keep it to yourself, but you felt that if you told him you knew, you could help him.

Being so infatuated with Peter, you learned that his footsteps had a slight lag to them. So when you heard said footsteps next to you, you practically sprinted to your right. You smashed against the locker next to Peter, making him jump.

“Shit, Y/N! Are you okay?!” Yes, that hurt. But you shoved it down.

“Yeah, can you take us to a nearby storage closet? I gotta tell you something.” Peter looked around, and found one a few lockers down.

“Yeah, come on.” He grabbed your hand gently, and navigated you through the halls of students. Once you were both in the closet, he locked the door and you turned to him.

“I know you’re Spider-Man.” You blurted. Peter’s eyes went wide, and he froze in place.

“W-What? I am not Spider-Man, who’s Spider-Man?” Peter wanted to play dumb, but not that dumb. He grimaced in embarrassment, and you folded your arms with confidence.

“Peter, when you lie, your heartbeat speeds up. It is right now. It sped up when you told me how you knew I was blind. Also, you have the same voice.” Peter was going to lie again, but he realized there was no way out. He groaned and hesitated before speaking again.

“Okay...fine. Yes, I’m Spider-Man, but you can’t tell anyone.” You scoffed and shook your head.

“Please, that’s too low. I would never.” Your mind went back to all the times he said he had to leave, and your head clicked again. “Wait, is being Spider-Man your supposed Stark Internship?”

“Yeah...Mr.Stark made my suit, so...” You modded with an ‘ah’ before standing there awkwardly. “Speaking of Mr. Stark...I kind of asked him to do something...for you...”

“For me?” You asked. You were immediately confused, and heard what sounded like a glasses case being opened and shut.

“Yeah...I asked him to make you glasses...so that you could see. Your medical records said that you’re blind because your vision is blurred. So the glasses are meant to make your cataract focus and make a clear picture.” He held out your hand, and you felt a cool metal being placed in your hands. “We’ve been working on it for months...and I didn’t know when to give them to you...”

Peter did this for you? All of this? Your heart swelled at how selfless he was being, and it made your stomach get filled with butterflies. You knew you had a crush on Peter, but him doing this might have made you fall harder.

“Can you put them on me...?” You asked softly. If this was truly going to work, your life was going to change forever. Peter unfolded the glasses and held it by the hinges, gently sliding the temples over your ears.

Instead of your vision being cloudy, everything was clearer than day. Based on how your mouth dropped and your eyes watered, Peter could tell his invention worked. He smiled at your shocked reaction, biting his lip.

“Well...?”

“Y-you’re really cute...” You blurted. It was the first thing that came to mind the second your eyes met his brown ones. Peter’s cheeks immediately turned red and he cleared his throat.

“T-Thanks...y-you’re cute too...” Your lips slowly curved into a small smile, before your hands cupped both of Peter’s cheeks. You started into his eyes in disbelief, and Peter didn’t know what to do but stare back. In a flash, he saw your face move close, and felt your soft lips on his. He raised his eyebrows in surprise, and looked at you with wide eyes.

Holy shit, you’re kissing him!

He eventually got a grip, and closed his eyes, kissing you back. He felt you smile into the kiss, which made him reciprocate it. Much to his dismay, you pulled away. He was going to complain, until you rested your forehead against his, your smile still on your face.

“Thank you...” you whispered softly.

“You’re welcome...” he whispered back. You looked down to grab his hand when you heard the bell ring. Peter took the hint, and wrapped his fingers with yours, unlocking the closet door, and walking with you to the hallway. Both of you had a stupid smile on your faces, but none of you cared.

You would’ve still had a crush Peter if you didn’t know what he looked like forever, and Peter knew that now. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t do anything for you.

At least now you could see the faces of your friends when you told them the news.

#peter parker #peter parker imagines #peter parker x reader #spider-man #spider-man far from home #spider-man homecoming #spider man far from home imagine #spider man homecoming imagine #peter parker x you

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a-marlene-s · 5 years ago

Text

Maribat Secret Santa 2019

@lividdreams9, here is your gift!!!

No tag list this time around.

Adrien, Marinette, Nino and Kim were doing their best to avoid the rest of their classmates as avoided them like the plague. They were heading towards Wayne Enterprises as part of their field trip in Gotham. Adrien may have pulled some strings to see his secret boyfriend which he has yet to tell his friends and Marinette did the rest to get the trip approved.

Why did she get it approved despite the fact how much Lila went on and on how she might not be able to go and attempt the class to go along with her plans? Easy. Marinette wants to see who this mystery boyfriend is… and well… She may or may not have been talking to said mysterious boyfriend’s best friend.

It’s a mystery for her, Nino and Kim. Luckily for them, Adrien knows them well and know they are not some random creeps. Otherwise, that would be horrible.

“Come on, dude. At tell us their names.” Nino nudged Adrien with his elbow.

“What fun would that be?” Adrien gave him a Cheshire smile.

“Stop that, stop acting like an alley cat.” Nino snorted at his friend’s smile.

“Marinette~ Nino said something mean~” Adrien pouted, leaning over towards Marinette who only pushed him away from her with an obvious eye roll. “Me-ouch.”

“Maybe if you will tell us who we are seeing in a couple of hours, we won’t be so pushy.” Marinette chided him.

“I thought you were being pushy because you like-like Damian. Jon’s best friend?” Kim asked.

“…I knew it!” Adrien fist pumped before taking out his phone. Marinette’s eyes widen, mouth agape with complete and utter horror. She lunged over at Adrien, but the blonde was too quick for his own good. Adrien ran ahead of them, all the while typing away on his phone. “I’m telling Jon!”

“Get back here, Adrien!!!” Marinette ran after Adrien who ran through their classmates, avoiding when one or two of them tried to trip her. “ADRIEN!!!!”

-.-

Jon looked away from his phone, looking towards the main entrance of the lobby area of Wayne Enterprises. He swore he heard something… Eh, whoever yelled didn’t sound like they were in distress. If anything, they sounded annoyed.

“Something wrong?” Damian asked, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

“Hm… I thought I heard something…”

“Knowing you… It could be anything. Or a cry for help.” Damian rolled his eyes before pulling out his phone to check for any notifications. He got one that made him wonder of the persons’ sanity. “Adrien’s class is supposed to be here in Gotham, right?”

“Yes, of course! We planned this for months.” Jon replied, wondering exactly is going through his friends’ mind. “After this, they are going Metropolis!”

“Apparently, the class should be here any minute now and Marinette is chas-”

“Jon! Damian! Help me!!!!”

Jon and Damian turned around to see Adrien running through the front doors, phone still in hand. Jon visibly brightened at the sight of his boyfriend. “Adrien!”

Adrien hesitate to climb Jon to make sure a certain someone doesn’t get a hold of him. “Save me! Marinette wants my blood!”

“Is this the same girl that will never hurt a fly?” Damian questioned.

“This is the same girl that knocked out her ex-best friend after she slapped her ex-boyfriend for supposedly cheating on her.” Adrien grimace at the memory of that event. That was the day that none of them no longer cared how far Alya had fallen due to Lila’s lies. She made her bed, might as well be buried with it.

“Oh, feisty. Good. She’s going to need that spunk to deal with Damian.” Jon jested, causing his friend to glare at him. “What? We both know you are starting to li-”

“ADRIEN AGRESTE!!!”

“Crap.”

Marinette ran towards her friend, with a fire in her eyes. She didn’t care she’s surrounded by strangers; Adrien Agreste is going down. “Adrien! You better not tell Damian anything!”

“Tell him what?” Adrien had managed to climb on top of Jon’s shoulders, out of arm shot from Marinette. “That you like him?”

“Yes! That! Now get down so th-”

“Look at that, Damian! She likes you too!”

-.-

“Jon and Damian are fighting over who’s going to date me~ I’ve told them that they shouldn’t fight over me! They are best of friends.” Lila could only shake her head at how two boys are supposedly fighting for her love. The sheep keep lapping up her lies. Is there a risk for her lies catching up to her due to them being in Gotham? Possibly, but the chance they ever get to meet either boys during the trip is extremely highly unlikely. “I hope we don’t see them; I do not want drama to ruin our trip… we already have enough drama as it is.”

By drama, she means is the fact Marinette had supposedly turned Kim, Adrien and Nino against Lila. Thus, in turn, turning them against the entire class. Then the fact how Lila kept trying to cancel the trip for one reason or another, but in the end, decided to go… for whatever reason too.

“Oh right… drama!” Nino laughed dryly before running after his friends.

“What he said!” Kim exclaimed before following his friends into the very tall and intimidating building.

Bustier could only shake her head, at least she had given everyone their badges before they left the hotel. Hopefully with the badges, they four that ran ahead won’t get in trouble.

Walking through the front doors, they saw a very, very, very odd scene. Odd enough scene to have Lila scream that is followed by the rest of her followers at the sight of Adrien kissing Jon Kent. Then there’s Damian Wayne who is holding onto a passed-out Marinette while he, Nino and Kim call out for her to wake up.

#maribat secret santa #damianette #jonadrien

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writingbygab · 5 years ago

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in my psychological relationships class i’m currently in we had to write about an important scene from a tv show or movie that was a turning point in a relationship. i decided to write about the west virginia scene from law and order svu between rollins and carisi. here is the (very) rough draft of that paper:

Tonight I am here to discuss and analyze the implications of the time Detective Amanda Rollins and then Detective now ADA Dominic Carisi road tripped to West Virginia. There are many theories and character choices that are made throughout this episode that can be translated into many different takes and ideas.

Let’s start with a prologue. Characterization is my favorite entity in storytelling and that is why I love SVU so much. With their characterization, the writers show don’t tell. The storylines and character choices made in SVU aren’t simply the storyline, instead, there is a whole world and storyline around them that they happen to be a part of. This is why I love SVU, these recurring characters who we love aren’t front and center making the way they are presented interwoven into the story. We see how they react to situations, how they choose to phrase and approach victims and cases, and why they are passionate about their field of work. Very rarely do their personal lives come into play, the writers make sure to keep them at a distance, leaving lots up to interpretation, which is why the show and characters never get old.

Let’s take it back to West Virginia. The writers deserve a lot of credit for this episode as much as it does hurt. So this road trip starts because in a rare circumstance the perpetrator of this particular crime is not located in New York, instead, she is from a small town in WV. We start out with Olivia asking the squad who’s about to take a road trip. It’s a no brainer that Amanda will go, the south is her stomping ground. Then of course Carisi takes the second spot, due to the fact that he complies with his boss and his personality is a go-getting one.

These two close friends take off towards unfamiliar territory. We don’t see them drive to the town, but mapping it out, it takes them at least seven hours in a car alone together. They arrive at the perpetrators house and scope it out. After she immediately admits to the crime Carisi and Rollins go to a bar in the area with a local cop. NOW THIS SCENE is so important. This is presumably the first time these two are away from their homes in a whole new environment together. Speaking from personal experience, being on a road trip in a town I’ve never been in is sort of like an out of body experience. Everything is unfamiliar, you are flung out of a routine, and the world almost doesn’t feel real. These two are in that situation and are now adding alcohol on top of it. However, the one familiar thing they have at the moment is each other.

A super interesting moment occurs between the two of them. Rollins gets to talking about her past and how she grew up in a town just like this. I liked that part a lot because it shows the juxtaposition of her and Carisi’s, a boy who has only lived in the New York area, lives so far. The interesting part though is when she admits to Carisi that one time when she went back home she slept with her local bartender back in Georgia. Instead of Carisi being uncomfortable with this statement, he laughs with her. THIS is such a great indicator that Carisi is not hung up on her past. He doesn’t care if she slept with the majority of Georgia republicans, she doesn’t care that she has a child with some random guy, he just cares about her.

Suddenly one thing leads to another and they get into a bar fight with this one dude. I cannot commend the writers/directors enough for this scene, and the way it immediately goes from Carisi and Rollins punching some people out to laughing while getting out of a taxi at their motel. This is a great representation of the chaos of the night.

Now we get to the part that HURTS. As Carisi and Rollins are walking up to the motel, Carisi talks about how much fun they have had this night and Rollins agrees. Carisi then continues on talking about how nice it can be to “not always have to act like a cop.” This must have also been a nod for the writers, it being nice to not write them as serious cops for once. They reach Amanda’s door to her room and kind of lean onto it for a bit. Carisi, drunk off of alcohol and the road trip starts to thank Rollins for being such a good partner. Not just tonight, but always. She jokingly thanks him too. Suddenly things start to get a bit more tense and serious. Their faces get very close and the audience is screaming for them to just lean in and kiss at this point.

Pulling from personal experience here, if I have feelings for someone the more time I spend with them and more I see them those feelings intensify. At this point it has been obvious Carisi cares about Rollins as more than a friend. Now they have just spent seven hours in a car together and the whole day and night together. With the alcohol in his system, he is able to let his feelings rise to the surface. Rollins however, hesitates.

Here’s the thing about Amanda Rollins, it is clear she has no idea how to approach actual good feelings. A couple of seasons later she’ll admit she has a bad tendency to go after bad guys due to her upbringing. Back to this episode though, she pulls away. Which, big picture wise, is the smart thing to do. In this situation, for once, I think she was actually the smart one. They aren’t, and shouldn’t be, just a drunken hookup. He cares about her, and even if she doesn’t fully accept it, she cares about him too much. So she calls it a night. THIS IS NOT, I REPEAT NOT REJECTING HIM. READ IT AGAIN. Sure, she didn’t kiss him, but she didn’t outright say, I don’t like you and don’t want to kiss you. Honestly, it’s clear she definitely considered kissing him. But instead she says “I’m beat.” Indicating that not doing that now is in her and his best interest. Rollins deserves more credit this episode.

So then we transition into morning. Carisi is on the phone with Olivia telling her that they are going to bring the girl up to New York with them. (Also, if you didn’t catch this, he has two coffees and muffins in his hand, so OUCH) As he hangs up he looks toward Rollins’s room and sees the bartender from last night walk out. He’s hurt. There’s no denying that, it’s clear on his face.

Once again, Rollins doesn’t know how to handle her feelings. If anything I think this proves that she loves Carisi as much as he loves her. I picture this happened because she was so confused about what happened with Carisi and wanted a distraction from it. She doesn’t like real feelings, she’s not good at it. What we know she’s good at is quick and meaningless and she has to prove that to herself. So she calls up Mr. Bartender.

I hate the indication here that Carisi was “mad she didn’t sleep with him.” If you think that is why he was upset you don’t know his character at all. Let’s go back to when they were in the bar the night before laughing about her sleeping with her local bartender back in Georgia. He can laugh at her past. However this was much more real and present. Carisi isn’t mad or even upset in this situation. He was just hurt. What he saw proved to him that the girl he loves, doesn’t love him (or doesn’t recognize how much she loves him) as fully as he does.

Carisi wears his heart on his sleeve. Amanda doesn’t. This juxtaposition between these characters, how they go forward, and what this means for them in the future, is why West Virginia happened. It was an amazingly written, though hurtful, episode with amazing characterization and plot.

#law and order svu #amanda rollins #dominic carisi #rollisi

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lovelyirony · 5 years ago

Note

Ironwidow fake dating and cousin Sharon matchmaking

Nat and Tony have been friends since seventh grade, when Tony made fun of her drawing and in retaliation, Nat stuck a pencil in his thigh.

He grinned at her after sneakily getting a tissue from the front desk.

“You’re pretty good, Nat.”

“My name is Natasha.”

“Not to me, it’s not.”

So it becomes Nat and Tony. Tony and Nat. They do everything together, from attend the eighth grade pool parties and hate all of them to the freshman orientation in high school where they make fun of the senior leaders and sneak into the admissions office to make sure they have at least one class together. (And then change the schedule when they don’t.)

Tony has been in love with Natasha Romanoff since the first eighth grade pool party, when she showed up in a full wet suit because she didn’t like the way that their classmate Ivan liked her.

But, he hasn’t done anything about it. Why is that, everyone asks? Just ask her out!

Well, Tony has a special talent that is medically known as “anxiety,” but he also has common sense.

Natasha Romanoff is beautiful. She has gorgeous red hair, eyes that know everything about you before you even think they do, a wicked sense of humor, and a sense of self that is beyond anything Tony’s ever encountered.

Tony stays up until three a.m., doesn’t give a shit about his appearance so he is frequently rushing to school with the worst bed hair imaginable, and also wears possibly the most out-of-style clothing ever.

Like right now. A pair of jeans that’s too short and he cuffed only on one leg, a shirt that’s advertising some college Howard made him visit, and he’s pretty sure that the plaid he layered it with has a coffee stain down the back.

He’s proven right when Sharon wrinkles her nose.

“Dude, you seriously haven’t done laundry since two weeks ago, have you?”

“Do I smell bad? Do I?”

She leans in.

“No, just like old coffee. So regular. We’ll see when Nat comes. Or you could confess your love to have her not roast your choice of apparel.”

Tony scowls, adjusting his backpack.

“Do you have another topic, or are you just that boring?”

“I could also tell you about World War One,” Sharon adds. “I just read about it in one of those stupid textbooks I have to carry around. Did you know that the French are actually the worst at war?”

“Yes, everyone knows that. I think they know that too.”

Nat’s already at her locker. She looks gorgeous with her jean jacket, the new patches sewn on.

“Looking cute,” Sharon says appreciatively. “Do you think you’re gonna get dress-coded for the ‘fuck men’ patch?”

“Not if they want me to write an article on how the club fund got cut but the football team got another new field within four years,” Nat says.

“Still a good article,” Tony says. “If you could still get into a college without a reputation ruined. You know how much schools care about sports.”

“More than education at times!” Sharon cheers.

Nat snorts, bringing Tony into a hug.

“Nice to see you, dude. Ready for history?”

“Not in the slightest. We’re probably talking about government procedure again while our teacher waxes poetic about the justice system. I think I might try to change the FDA’s home screen again.”

“You know, they might catch on after the fourth time of you inserting random YouTube videos to different links.”

“It’s the Federal Department of Agriculture, I highly doubt they care,” Tony says, rolling his eyes. “Besides, I’ve already proven that I’m probably better with technology than the government itself.”

This was true; Tony had hacked into the official website of the White House with shitty hotel Wi-Fi and half his sanity. (It was flu season, he’d had way too much Ny-Quil.)

School passes by with little incident, all things considered. A classic Monday, with the only real excitement being an announcement of no school the following Monday for a staff meeting.

It isn’t until Tony gets home to find both of his parents home and in the same room, waiting for him, that he starts to panic.

“Is this an intervention?” Tony asks. “Did I do something bad?”

“Not yet,” Howard says. “Although I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Dear,” Maria reprimands. “No, there’s an event that we want you to attend.”

“Want or need?” Tony asks. “I was supposed to hang out with my friend Bruce to work on his genetics lab.”

“I’m sure the lab can wait,” Howard scoffs. “You’re in high school, for god’s sake.”

“Bruce is doing lab work for Culver,” Tony says. “He got early acceptance, so he’s doing a weird deal so he gets college credit and a year off early.”

“Impressive, dear,” mom says, smiling. “But this event is something that you can’t miss.”

It’s a goddamn family reunion. Maria’s side, but still. At least Peggy and Sharon would come.

Family reunions on the Carter/Carbonell side are…interesting. A lot of loud people, aunts that couldn’t stop cooking, and at least one uncle that would say something marginally horrible and cause a rift for at least six hours where everything was tense.

Sharon had to take this advantage carefully.

So she got her own email into the family chain of them–a mistake by all accounts, but one that should be committed sooner rather than later–and tells the family that Tony is bringing his girlfriend, Natasha.

They both love each other, she knows that much. Tony looks at Nat like he could give her anything in the world, and Nat looks at him with so much vulnerability that she always says she doesn’t have.

They’ve liked each other for a while now. Sharon wishes that it wasn’t at her family reunion that she was doing this, but it was either that or a dance for high school, and that’s far too much work.

Tony, understandably, is stressed.

“Does she even know she’s going?!” Tony yells. “Holy shit Sharon, she’s going to meet like eighty of us!”

“Yeah,” Sharon says. “She just doesn’t know that she’s supposed to be your girlfriend.”

“Sharon.”

“Yes?”

“Run.”

Sharon squeals as she skids out of the room, Tony chasing after her. He’s not really going to do anything about it, but he still has to text Nat.

i am. so sorry

lmao it’s fine. sharon just said i’m going to the reunion. why?

funny story…

fuck what’d she do

she emailed everyone that i was bringing you as a girlfriend. and i’m not really going to spend the whole weekend correcting it.

gotcha. operation: fake dating commence!

thank you nat. seriously love you

Nat reads the message, but doesn’t respond. Of course Sharon would pull something like this. She knew that Nat liked her cousin, probably since they were kids.

And now she had to pretend to be his girlfriend, something she actually wanted very much to do.

She gets a text from Sharon.

Please don’t wear your jean jacket with all the patches. It’s very cool, but you will start a fight in my family and win. But then you aren’t allowed to come back :(

Natasha sends her back the middle finger, but then promises not to bring it.

This brings up the subject; what do you wear to a family reunion?

Tony’s fidgeting in the car as he goes to pick up Nat. His mother was very surprised.

“You got your father’s distinct habit of not shutting your mouth,” she says with a chuckle. “But I do suppose the gazes say it all. Every Carbonell man looks like he’s in love before he says it, so–”

“Mama, not now!” Tony hisses. Natasha’s making her way to the car, backpack slung around her shoulder and an elegant handbag in the crook of her arm.

“Hey Ms. Carbonell,” Natasha says. “How are you?”

“Doing good, better now that I get to have you with us,” she teases. “Anthony over here never told me that he was going to have you on as a special guest.” Natasha sends a raised eyebrow over to Tony.

“Oh?”

“I forgot,” Tony lied smoothly. “You know how I get in the labs. Just completely forget everything I’m supposed to remember.”

The conversation is easy after that: just a few little anecdotes that Nat and Tony have gone over last night over the phone. They had confessed that they liked each other a year ago, had kept it extremely low-key since both didn’t want to fuss with it, and that was that.

“How come Sharon knew but I didn’t?” Mom pouts.

“She’s an imp,” Tony answers. “An imp who doesn’t know how to keep business to herself.”

Their family fills up a small inn out of the way, and Tony sighs as he sees three of his aunts already conspiring at the bar.

“Be prepared for a barrage of questions.”

“Roger that.”

Natasha is whisked away by the ladies with a few compliments to the cute flats she’s wearing and her favorite type of perfume. Tony gets led over to Sharon, who is playing darts with Trip and their kind-of-but-not-really-cousin, Ricardo.

“What have I missed out on?” Trip asks, grinning. “Heard some girl was crazy enough to come and date you. She’s a looker, Tony.”

“Thanks,” Tony says. “But yes, crazy enough to date me. Sharon knows how crazy it is, I practically get the same gene from her.”

Sharon rolls her eyes, landing another bullseye. Ricardo curses.

“How do you always manage to do this?”

“Practice for this exact moment,” Sharon says with a grin. “Go get me a drink. One of the good ones.”

“You seriously get him to do your bidding every single time,” Tony says with a laugh. Trip excuses him to see Uncle Erik, leaving Sharon and Tony alone.

“So. You liking your new status of boyfriend?”

“You seriously need to stop meddling,” Tony scowls. “Just because I like her doesn’t mean she should be in on this.”

“She doesn’t mind,” Sharon scoffs. “Besides, I think Aunt Angie is going to tell her about the cardboard incident.”

“Oh my god–”

Natasha saunters over, grinning devilishly.

“So. Naked and a cardboard box for modesty? Why am I not surprised at the innovation, Tony?”

“Dammit,” Tony swears. “I’m going to learn something embarrassing about you. I’ll ask Clint.”

“Like he’ll tell.”

The reunion goes about as well as expected. Uncle Daniel finally spills the beans and says that his son who couldn’t make it was going to bring his girlfriend that no one likes, but they canceled at the last minute.

“They’re horrible,” Tony says. “I’m serious. They’re the kind of people that take advantage of old people.”

“Gross.”

They gravitate closer to each other. While Natasha doesn’t have a problem with this, it’s bittersweet. Every time Tony casually puts his arm around her and tells another story about how they snuck into the office to match schedules and his family coos and says it’s so cute, and Sharon smiles at them.

It stings, to be this close and yet knowing that it isn’t at all real.

Tony lies awake at night. Becuase this is nice. All of his family loves Nat, so does he, and it seems…possible almost. To have her this close, smiling at him like she has.

So it’s not a good idea, but he goes to her room at three a.m. She’s still awake.

“Why are you still awake?”

“Watching funny videos. Why are you awake?”

“That’s why I’m here. Follow me.”

They go into the courtyard. It feels…nice outside. Tony’s wringing his hands.

“What’s got you so nervous?” Natasha asks. “And why at three in the morning?”

“I think this is literally the only way I could do it,” Tony says. “Only time my family shuts up.”

“Go for it then,” Natasha says. “You have until four, when your baby cousin wakes up. Lorenzo?”

“Got it,” Tony says, smiling. “Um, well, I–”

“What?”

“Oh fuck,” Tony curses. “Listen, I’m just going to say it. I’m just going to say it.”

“You’ve said that twice.”

“Iloveyou.”

“What?”

“I…I love you,” Tony says, sighing. “I’ve loved you I think since eighth grade, and I’m now telling you because I don’t think I can just go on with life without telling you. I also realize that you’re stuck at the family reunion until this is over, so now I realize I’ve put stress on you and I’m sorry, I can fake my death if you really want me to, so–”

Natasha envelops him in a hug. She kisses his cheek, looking at him in the dim light of the lanterns.

“You absolute fool. I love you too.”

It’s the first of many “I love you’s.”

Sharon takes credit for the relationship, and Tony and Nat let her. She’s also the maid of honor and meets her future wife, Maria.

Tony and Natasha don’t go to the same college, but compete against each other in the trivia clubs that both schools have, and so they spend other time together. Natasha shows him her favorite tea shop downtown, and Tony shows her all of the hideaway spots he uses for studies.

(And to hide her away from Rhodey, who will tell her anything and everything that’s embarrassing about Tony.)

Right after college, Tony and Nat move into an apartment.

About a year later, Natasha holds out a gold ring for him to put on, asks if they really have to get married in a fancy church, and watches as Tony tears up and hugs her.

“I told you!” Sharon crows when they reveal the rings. “I told you that you would get married!”

“Okay loser,” Natasha says. “Then you’re the maid-of-honor. Congrats on throwing my bachelorette party.”

“I’m making us go paint-balling.”

Tony rolls his eyes, but looks at his now-fiancee.

Things will be good. Aren’t they always?

#holy FUCK this is long and it's not showing me my read more link #oh well!#lovelyirony writes #long post #this is long as fuck #ironwidow #sharon carter #iron man #black widow #natasha romanoff #tony stark #i love them okay #so much #i did this instead of read about the protestant reformation but all you need to know about that is martin luther hated the church #and everyone else hated martin luther #so that was fun #fake dating au #i love how i search up teh characters name to find this nad i can't #that's so sexy ;)

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thewanderingdelusion · 5 years ago

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Fictober Day 13

Prompt #13: I never knew it could be this way

Title: Hording Instincts

Rating: G

Warnings: N/A

—

He was touching her again. His hand on her shoulder while they both laughed at some joke he told. I didn’t hear what he said. I could hardly focus on anything outside of that hand resting on her shoulder. My notebook was rapidly becoming crushed in my steel grip, but I didn’t care. My partner prattled on about the various art pieces around us, but I didn’t hear a word she said.

The whole point of this field trip to the art museum was to find a piece of art that spoke to us and write about it. We were partnered so that we could bring different viewpoints to the same piece. I was actually reasonably excited about this assignment. I had decent eye for art and had intended to scope out the museum for something to catch that eye. Instead, my eyes were utterly glued to Nathan and Lydia and the fact that he still had his hand on her.

Their laughter had ended, and they were admiring a painting now, but that hand was still resting on Lydia’s shoulder. The museum, the crowd, the assignment, all of that faded into background noise. My brain was utterly unable to tear itself away from the fact that only the cardigan Lydia wore separated Nathan’s hand and her skin.

Heat rose in my throat and cold fear stabbed at my heart. I suddenly realized how far along I was. My skin was breaking out in hives and there were faint wafts of smoke in the air around me. Panicked, I slapped my hands over my mouth and bolted down the hallway. I dove into the first women’s bathroom I could find. Mercifully, it was empty.

I slammed on the faucet and splashed handful after handful of water onto my face. The shockingly cold water hissed on my skin, evaporating into steam from the heat I was giving off. Slowly, my body began to cool under the water I finally looked at myself in the mirror.

I was a fright. My eyes were hellish red, faintly glowing in the florescent light. My face was breaking out in hives, a predecessor to scales growing over skin. A few had already sprung up around my eyes. Pulling back my lips reveled my teeth had grown long and sharp, resembling wicked white needles in my mouth. Two tufts of hair stuck up on my head like tiny blond trees, trying to grow into horns.

“Control.” I said to myself, wincing at how deep and guttural my voice had become. “Control.” Remember to breathe. I am not an animal. I will not let my beast rule me.

Slowly, the changes begin to reverse themselves. Hard scales give way for soft skin, teeth shrink and flatten, and eyes return to their normal brown color. Finally, I’m completely human once again. My head collapses onto my arms in a mix of relief and exhaustion. Even partially transforming like that takes so much out of me.

What had I been thinking, losing my temper like that? So, Nathan had been touching Lydia’s shoulder. So what? He was friendly like that with the entire class and a touch on the shoulder is hardly inappropriate or counts as flirting. And even if he was flirting, I had no right to get upset at him. He probably had no idea Lydia and I were even dating, considering what a low profile we kept. I knew for a fact that Nathan would have backed off if he knew.

I raised my head and blew out a sigh, smoking trailing out from my lips. I never knew it could be this way. I thought I had a handle on my bestial nature, but I hadn’t expected being in a relationship to affect my instincts so much. All Nathan had done was touch my girlfriend and I had been ten seconds away from ripping his arm off! I was used to anger at getting pushed around, frustration with having to sit all day in class, but I wasn’t used to being so…territorial.

Feeling like I had composed myself, I decided I had to stop hiding in the bathroom and go find my class. I gave a sad look at my mangled notebook before tossing it in the trash. My claws had rendered it beyond any hope of use. I would just have to borrow paper from someone else. Giving myself one last look over in the mirror to ensure I looked normal, I left the bathroom and promptly ran straight into Lydia.

“Helena! There you are! I was so worried. Chloe said you just ran off looking like you were about to vomit so I thought I should go looking for you. Are you okay?” Her nervous concern washed away whatever lingering anger I had, replacing it with a rush of affection.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just had an…episode.” I said, trying to sound casual.

Lydia’s eyes widened. “Oh! Ohhhhh.” Her eyes glanced around the corridor, but we were alone. Regardless, she stood up on her toes in an attempt to whisper in my ear. “Did someone do something? Was some trying to talk you up again?”

I contemplated taking the suggestion she gave me and make up some story about some jerk hitting on me, but lying to Lydia made my stomach tie up in knots.

“It was Nathan.” I said, realizing a second too late that I could have worded that better.

“Nathan? He was flirting with you?” Lydia looked murderous. “That skeevy little…”

I waved my hand. “No, no. Nathan didn’t do anything to me. It…it was what he was doing to you.”

Lydia blinked. “To me?”

I looked away, not wanting to meet her eyes. “He was...touching you and making you laugh.” It sounded supremely pathetic when I voiced it out loud.

She seemed to consider. “Was he touching me? I guess he was, but I didn’t think anything of it. I was laughing because he was telling me about how his brother tripped carrying food recently and got it everywhere.” Her eyes suddenly lit up. “Wait a minute. Were you jealous?”

“No!” I denied immediately, but I could feel my face heat up in an intense blush.

Lydia practically squealed. “Oh my god! You were! You were totally jealous of Nathan!”

My embarrassment gave way to anger. “So, what if I was? Excuse me if I don’t like seeing my girlfriend being touched by some random dude.” She grabbed my hand, cutting off my tirade. She raised my hand to her face and placed it on her cheek, a beatific smile on her lips.

“Helena, it’s okay. Listen to me, alright? I’m with you. I want to be with you. Some little touches between me and someone else isn’t going to change that. We’re better than that. Our relationship is better than that.”

I felt like my heart was going to explode in my chest trying to contain my feelings for Lydia. A dopey smile broke out on my face. “You’re so wonderful. I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”

She giggled. “Who knows? Besides,” She tilted her head to plant a kiss on my palm. “I think I kinda like it when you get territorial.”

My lovestruck smile shifted into a smirk. Lydia suddenly became nervous, recognizing the expression on my face. She began to back away. “Anyway! We should probably catch up with the rest of the class now.”

I advanced on her, slow and steady. “We will, don’t worry.”

She was starting to fret. “After all, we still have to select a piece for our project.”

“The art isn’t going anywhere.” I said, still moving closer.

Her back hit the wall and I quickly planted both my arms on the wall beside her, pinning her in. I used my height to loom over her. Her faced was flushed and her breathing was starting to become ragged. Still, she tried to put up a protest. “Helenaaaaa. We’re going to get in trouble!”

“Part of the fun.” I said, twirling my fingers into her hair. “Besides, I thought you liked me being territorial? This is just me staking my claim.”

I leaned in close to her, my next words ghosting over her trembling lips. “I’m a dragon, after all. And we’re very protective of our treasure.”

#Fictober19 #Fictober #my writing #writing #I'm so behind and playing catch up god

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dansphlevels · 7 years ago

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The Odyssey

Day 11 of 12 Days of Prompts

TW: bullying, homophobic slurs, language, drinking

Summary: High school au where Phil is bullied for being gay and Dan thinks he should have just stayed in the closet. But it just so happens Phil has a big family and can't get any studying done, and Dan’s house is the perfect place to study.

Length: 12k

Themes: highschool au, enemies to friends to lovers, bullying, boxer!dan, studious!phan, Homophobia, family/sibling drama

"Stupid baby," Phil muttered under his breath. "Why can't they just move back again? I finished studying at one last night, and she didn't stop screaming until at least three."

"Stop whining," Greyson suggested, speed walking over to the fridge. "Naomi can stay as long as she wants, she's family. OJ?" "Toss it." He did, and Phil caught it easily, his clumsiness forgotten when it came to food. "Family's overrated." "Feel lucky. I tried for kids with Myrel for six years with no luck. Marrying your mother was the best thing I ever did. Five kids, just like that, and I didn't have to do anything!" Phil grunted into his cereal. "Six, if you include the rodent." "She's not a rodent, she's a baby. She's going to cry, you'd better get used to it." "Who's going to cry?" Asked Tucker, hurrying into the kitchen and grabbing the cereal from the counter. "Amanda?" "The rat," Phil explained. "Amanda cries a lot too. I think her baby makes her sad." "She's just tired," Greyson explained. "Hey, didn't you need a permission slip signed? Something for school?" "Rocket museum field trip. I already turned it in." Greyson leaned against the counter. "Really? Who signed it?" "Mum did." "That means he did," Phil explained to his bowl of cereal. He stared into it like it was trying to communicate with him, tell him the answers to his Calculus test or his problem with the baby. "He's getting good at faking signatures. You should see him do mine." "Snitch. Greyson, would you like some eggs sir?" "Yes please. But you're still grounded." Tucker came up behind Phil and gave him a light smack on the back of the head. "I need formula," Amanda declared, stepping into the already crowded kitchen. "Janie's crying again." They all strained their ears to hear. Sure enough, the baby's wail sounded through the house from the upstairs, loud enough to hear but not loud enough to be bothersome. None of them had noticed yet; it had become a familiar background noise. Greyson frowned in worry. "I thought you were still breastfeeding?" "If I breastfed her every time she was hungry I wouldn't have time to do anything else. She's a hungry little baby. Lots of growing to do." "She's fat," Phil corrected. "Your mum." "She's your mum too." "Is mum up yet?" Sandy asked, coming into the kitchen and grabbing a bowl from the cupboard. Her old purple bathrobe that was two sizes too big dragged on the floor, her tangled brown hair falling in messy waves down her back. She sidestepped Tucker with ease, sliding in between the crowd of people trying to navigate the too small kitchen all at once. A few of them shook their head. Phil continued to stare into his cereal bowl, not even eating anymore. "She's sleeping," Greyson explained. "She had the graveyard shift." "She did animal surgery at a graveyard?" Sandy asked, eyes wide. "It's an expression. It means the late shift." "And it wasn't animal surgery," Greyson explained patiently. "The clinic your mom works at has someone on site 24 hours a day, in case anyone's pet gets sick and needs help right away." Phil's phone beeped, and he got up quickly, grabbing his backpack that was slung over the other chair. "Have fun at school!" Greyson called out. "Have fun selling used cars," Phil called back unenthusiastically. He walked right out the door without looking back, letting it slam shut behind him. "He's a great kid," Greyson muttered. "Works hard. We shouldn't be too hard on him." "School makes him boring," Tucker half agreed. "I like him better in the summer." -------- He wasn't wrong. Phil rode the bus in silence, putting his backpack on the seat next to him so no one would sit with him. Headphones in, he pulled out his homework and started to review for his A-levels physics class. Getting to school, he went throughout the day in silence. He talked to a few friends along the way, but all in all it was uneventful. He took a test and got another test back. B+. He'd have to do corrections. When he got home, he went up to his room and started studying. He only had an hour until Tucker got back, and then the house would get progressively noisier and noisier until ten that night when it would simmer down, and he'd be able to study in silence again. Tucker had the top bunk, so he didn't mind Phil keeping his lamp on for most of the night, as long as the overhead light was turned off. However, sometimes his snoring distracted Phil. After half an hour of reviewing, the rat started crying again and Phil was ready to stab someone. He changed out of his school uniform and into grass-stained jeans and a t-shirt and started going around the neighborhood, going through his checklist. Mrs.Henderson needed the hedges outside her house pruned every Thursday, and it was also the day he mowed the Howell's lawn. An hour and a whole lot of sweat later- it was far too hot for November- Phil was knocking on the Howell's door. It swung open after a full minute, revealing not Mr.Howell, but his son, Dan. "Hey Phil." "Hey Dan. Is your dad here, I finished-" The boy turned around, calling into the house, "Dad! Phil's here!" They waited a few beats. Dan turned back to him. "How much do we owe you?" "25 pounds." "Jesus, you're ripping us off." "Better your dad pays me to mow the lawn than make you." Dan shrugged. "Probably." His dad came running down the stairs, panting a little. "Phil! Good to see you!" He was a mess, almond brown hair sticking up almost at random. He stepped forwards and almost stepped on his son's foot if Dan hadn't stepped back.

He scanned the front yard quickly then the boy in front of him. "How much is it again?" "30 quid," Dan answered for Phil. They both watched as his father emptied out his pockets, turning each one inside out hurriedly before finding the one with his wallet in it. "Ah ha! Here we go!" He pulled out a fat stack of cash, pulled off a few bills, and handed them over. "There you go. Payment for the week. Have any more leaves fallen?" "No. That tree's been bare since the beginning of October." He nodded quickly, stuffing his wallet into a different pocket than he'd pulled it out from. "That's great. And the lawn looks great, thanks for doing such a great job. I have to keep working now, but um, have a nice Thanksgiving!" He turned and hurried back up the stairs, skipping a few steps. Dan and Phil watched him go. "It's two more weeks until Thanksgiving," Phil observed. "I'll see him at least two more times until then." Dan snorted, still looking at the stairs where his father had sprinted up. "Yeah, he's a clutter-brain. Everyone tells me he's a genius, but... well, I have my doubts." He looked back at Phil. "He works in his office upstairs. All day. Sometimes doesn't even come down for meals." Phil nodded, not really relating but at least understanding. "He's loud at night?"

"Nah." He looked up, not really looking at anything in particular. "He hardly makes any noise in there. Sometimes I hear a crash, but that's just his clumsiness. He knocks down stuff every once in a while, but besides that, our house is usually dead." "Must be nice. My house is always too loud to study in. You taking any A levels?"

"Yeah, I'm in a few of your classes. Calc, and Lit. And forensic science, but that's not A levels." Phil nodded, his cheeks a little warmer. "Sorry. I don't really talk much in class." "I don't either. But I still look up every once in a while." He sighed. "I'm just procrastinating by talking to you. Have to write an essay. I'd rather throw myself into oncoming traffic." "While I'll let you get to it then." "Which one, studying or throwing myself into oncoming traffic?" He shrugged. "Either or. But if you do decide to end it all, let me know so I can have your room. I'd be able to get stuff done so much quicker if I had some quiet." Dan smiled. "Okay. I'll give you a heads up, put your name in my will maybe?" "Definitely. See you around, Howell." "See ya Lester." As Phil walked home, he counted the money Mr.Howell had given him. Thirty pounds. Phil had been working for the Howells for at least a year now, and every single time he got paid he was asked how much it cost. Mr.Howell was clearly a cluster-head, and that was a nice term for it. --- Phil knew he'd made a mistake the second the words came out his mouth. The teacher was out for the period in general health and nutrition class, and no sub had shown up, so they got their desks all in a circle and decided to play a game of never have I ever. Phil didn't have any friends in this class, and he hadn't really talked to anyone in it recently, besides Dan, but that one time a week ago on his porch had hardly counted. Apparently, Dan and him had four classes together total. Phil had looked up in each class long enough to check. The game was going fine for a few minutes. Phil, who never went out or did anything especially stupid, had most of his fingers up still. And then it got to the next person. A girl, who smiled and proudly declared "Never have I ever kissed a girl." Laughing, some people making noises and their friends put fingers down until someone noticed Phil didn't put any down. "Phil, did you put a finger down?" He could feel his heart jump a little. "No." All eyes were on him. "You've never kissed a girl?" "I'm gay." The reaction was immediate. Wide-eyes-open-mouths-chairs-scooted-back-worst-case-scenario "I didn't know there were any fags at our school!" A few football players looked mortified. "We had gym together! Were you checking us out?" "What? No!" "Oh my God, he's kissed a dude!" "That's disgusting!" "I can't believe-" "I'm sorry I'm late, class," the nutrition teacher stated, hurrying in through the front door of the classroom, coat and bag in hand. "My car had a problem and had to be towed, and my phone ran out of battery so I couldn't call anyone. Please arrange your desks back in their proper order, and we'll get started." Everyone hurried to do as she said, doing their best not to touch Phil. They acted as if he had the plague, like his gay was contagious. After a few minutes, they were all in their seats. Phil looked around and realized that there was a ring of empty desks around his seat. --- Word traveled like wildfire. After that class, he was afraid no one in the hallway would want to touch him. But to his surprise, only a few people seemed to know what had happened. He practically ran to his next class. He sat down and put his head in his arms, mouthing the words it's going to be alright, it's going to blow over, no one will care, no one will care... And no one in that class did care. Or so it seemed. Phil did his best not to look up. He ate lunch in that class. Hopefully, already everyone in that God forsaken class had forgotten. But by the time it was passing period again, it seemed like everyone knew. During lunch, everyone had been able to go on their phones and talk to their friends, and people stared at him in the hallway like he'd grown a tail. "Gay." "Homo." "Lester, yeah, the boy with the black hair and the pasty skin-" Phil put his headphones in at that point, drowning them out in music. He'd fucked up. --- Dan answered the door that afternoon. As soon as he saw Phil, he scowled. "Dad! He's back!" Phil leant up against the doorway, his breath shaky. Dan's expression made him want to curl in a ball on the floor. "Do you hate me too?" "I'd be stupid not to." "Because I'm a fag," Phil clarified. Dan looked back, making sure his father hadn't appeared yet. "Because you can't keep your big mouth shut. Didn't you know that it'd ruin everything?" Everything? "Everything?" "I'm here!" Dan's dad appeared on the stairs, running down so fast it was a miracle he didn't trip. "How much?" "25," Phil said quickly, daring Dan to correct him. He didn't need his help. "25," Dan's dad agreed, quickly pulling out the bills. "Such a great thing you're doing, I'm sure everyone in the neighborhood appreciates it. I've always hated mowing the lawn." "I've never minded it," said Phil, trying for an upbeat tone. "Good exercise." "You kids need lots of exercise," the man agreed. "Daniel here does boxing. Great full body workout, keeps you healthy. Sorry, I've got to-" "-get back to work," Dan agreed, glaring daggers his way. His dad didn't notice, just turned and left, back up to his office. Phil turned to Dan. "I didn't know you boxed." "I didn't know you were a fag," he sneered, turning and slamming the door in Phil's face. He blinked. "Um, okay. Well... I guess I'll see you later too then." --- "Anything interesting happen at school?" Phil's mum asked. They went around, all of Phil's younger siblings sharing. Tucker got an A on his blah blah blah, Sandy got asked out by blah blah blah, and Phil's youngest sister, Anna, got made fun of for wearing her hair in a side braid when all the other kids wore theirs in a french braid. "Kids can be cruel," Greyson advised, his paternal wisdom straight from a parenting book. "You can't let them get to you. The only people who are bullied are people who let themselves get bullied. You have to stand up for yourself..." Blah blah blah. Blah blah. Blah. Phil was amazing at toning his family out at the dinner table. Now if only he could tone them out as efficiently when studying... "And Philip? How was your day?" His mum asked brightly. "Fine." "Anything interesting happen?" "No." "How'd you do on that Lit exam?" Greyson offered with a smile. "Fine." --- It was ten at night. Amanda was on her phone in the next room, the paper thin walls barely muffling her voice. On the top bunk, Tucker snored obnoxiously. Phil closed his eyes and tried to think about Moby Dick. He had to study. He could not fail A-levels Literacy. He was smart enough for this. Would he have any friends when he went to school tomorrow? ------- Cereal. Backpack. Bus. School. Yes, he still had friends. Yes, they accepted that he was gay. No, they didn't want to talk in the hallway. Yes, they were still his friends. You're right, you should have kept it to yourself, they said. You just royally screwed yourself over. Class. Class class. Bus. Home. Study. Change. A note was stuck in the back pocket of his navy, school-issued trousers. Faggot. He threw it away, then thought better of it and tore it up, then threw it away. By then Tucker was home, and soon Sandy and Anna were too. The house got louder and louder, and Phil's focus became less and less. Finally, he gave up, tossing his folders and notebooks into his backpack, and heading out the door. --- The bagel shop also sold coffee. However, it tasted horrible. Phil bought a small cup. He chose a corner table and dropped his backpack, digging through it to find his materials, and sat down, immediately starting to write. He had to write a five-page report on the first half of Moby Dick, and he wrote without thinking. Phil felt the presence next to him before he saw it. "Moby Dick? Interesting. You liking it?" Phil looked up. "Hardly. What are you doing here Dan?" He waved his bagel, making a duh expression. "I'm actually just leaving now. Enjoy the Dick book. But knowing you, I'm sure you will." He bit down on his bagel, reached out and knocking Phil's half empty coffee over, spilling all over the paper and his lap. "Oops." He left, and Phil was left staring at the mess. Only half aware, he pushed his backpack and the book aside before the coffee could stain them. The pages he'd written so far were already ruined. He looked over them, trying to read what was written. It didn't matter. Nothing he'd written had any sort of meaning or rhythm, and he'd used the same example at least three times. He balled the papers up and threw them away. --- People pinched him in the hallway. He didn't know who it was but knew from the snickers it was the same people. He didn't react. "Ooh, I think he likes it," a voice giggled. "Maybe he wants you to do it again." "I bet he'd like it more if there weren't so many people here," another voice remarked quietly. "He'd be on his knees before you could snap your fingers, so desperate to get-" Phil stuffed the headphones in his ears, turning his music on quickly. The louder the better. He tried to walk faster, ignore the looks. He really tried. --- "Phil, anything new and excited happen at school today?" "No." "You've been giving the same answer all week! Surely something must have happened." "No, nothing has. I presented that Health and Nutrition thing." "Oh! That's nice, how'd it go?" "Fine," he lied. "Can I be excused? I'm meeting with a friend." He was exused, and as quickly as possible got his backpack and got over to the bagel shop. A cup of coffee in hand, he made his way to a table more out of the way than the first one, plugging in his music. Peace and quiet, he thought, because music doesn't count as noise. My closest friend. --- He couldn't afford to go to the bagel place every day. He was saving his money for uni, and mowing lawns didn't make that much. The next Thursday, when he went to the Howell's house to collect his money for that week, Mr.Howell answered the door for once. "How much?" "25 pounds. Is Dan at boxing?" "Hmm? No, he's upstairs studying." It took longer than normal for Mr.Howell to find and count the money. Phil shifted uncomfortably on the porch. "Dan's pretty lucky. I have to study at the Bagel shop by Main, my families so loud." "Oh, you could always study here," Dan's dad said easily, counting out the pound notes. "Downstairs on the dining room table. Plenty of room, my wife works until nine most nights, and Dan studies upstairs, so there's plenty of room." Phil blinked. "Are you serious?" "Of course! You seem like a nice boy, I trust you. And you wouldn't be bothering either of us. Come over tomorrow with your study stuff, and you can just go at it. You seem like a nice boy." On one hand, Dan hated his guts. On the other... "Okay. Yeah, thanks Mr.Howell, I really appreciate it." --- It took three days for Dan to notice him. Phil let himself in after the first day, when Mr.Howell said it was easier for everyone. Then he studied at the dining room table, the house so quiet he questioned whether anyone was home at all. He came back the next day, and the same happened. And the next day was shaping up to be the same, when Dan came downstairs to get a snack and stopped in his tracks. "What are you doing in my house?" "Reconsidering my life choices," Phil answered immediately. "I should've taken easier classes. School is whooping my ass." Dan walked over, surveying the mess of school supplied splayed across the table. "I bet you like that though." Phil attempted a smile. It didn't work. "Just because I'm gay doesn't mean I'm kinky." "You didn't deny it," Dan noted. Before Phil could defend himself, he was talking again, saying "But actually, what are you doing in my house?" Phil rubbed his temples painfually. "Your dad said I could. I needed a quiet place to study." "And you can't study at your house because...?" Phil looked at him like he was an idiot. "Because I need a quiet place to study," he repeated, slower, as if to help Dan process it. "I have four siblings, not to mention the rodent." "The rodent?" "My sister had a baby. She never shuts up." "The sister or the baby?" "Both." Phil tilted his head to the side, considering. "Mostly the baby though." "Cool," Dan deadpanned. "I'm going upstairs." "Have fun." He didn't respond. ---- Across Phil's locker, the word 'Twink' was spray painted, bright green. He tried to wipe it off with a wet paper towel, but it did nothing. ---- Beep. "The number you are calling is not available. Please leave a message, after the tone." Beep. "Hey Peej, it's Phil, I was just wondering if you wanted to go the new movie theater sometime, check it out. I don't care what we see, um, you can choose. So... yeah. Call me back." Beep. Beep. "The number you are calling is not available. Please leave a message, after the tone." Beep. Beep. "Hey Mark, it's Phil! Do you wanna hang out sometime? It feels like it's been forever. So, uh, yeah, call me back!" Beep. Beep. "The number you are calling is not available. Please leave a message, after the tone." Beep. Beep. "It's Phil, I heard you and Julie broke up? Just wondering if you wanted to rant or talk about it or whatever. We could grab lunch or something. Um... yeah. Call me back." Beep. Beep. "The number you are calling has been disconnected and is no longer available." Beep. Beep. ---- "I'm going to die," Tucker was saying, laying on his bed with his head hanging off the end. "I'm actually going to die." "It's only report cards," Phil reassured. "You're smart. You'll be fine." "I did horrible in Science this quarter. I didn't even turn in my notebook, I forgot. Mum's going to kill me!" He rolled over, staring at his older brother miserably. "I wish I was like you and actually liked school." "I don't like school." "That's all you ever do though. You go to school, then you get home and study. How could you not like school?" Phil shrugged. "Guess I don't really like the people there. We don't really see eye to eye." ---- "Dunk! Dunk! Dunk! Dunk!" "Better close your eyes, bum-chum!" Phil's head was dunked under, water pouring onto his face as they flushed the toilet. He sputtered for breath, the chanting and cheering being literally drowned out by water. They let him go and he threw himself forwards on the disgusting bathroom tile, coughing and spitting, desperate for air. "Funny. I always thought that you'd swallow." More laughter. Phil wanted to cry, or die, or kill them or all three. The bell rang, and everyone dispersed, leaving him in a wet pile of tears and toilet water. --- Dan was staring at him. Phil had done his best to dry off, but he could only do so much. He refused to let the bullies make him miss class though, especially Calculus. He already hardly understood the class, he couldn't afford to miss a full day of instructions. Phil tried to ignore the other boy's gaze on him, instead listening to the teacher. "...I'm sorry, but I don't let anyone take home the textbooks. We have a class set of 30, and that's all the district will provide for us for the next 20 years, basically. However, if you'd like you can stay after school..." Dan was still staring at him. What happened? He mouthed from across the class. I'm gay Phil mouthed back. He didn't know if Dan understood or not, but the boy's eyes widened, and Phil could tell that he'd made sense on at least some level. After school that day, Phil was studying where he always did when Dan sat next to him. "Finish Moby Dick yet?" "Last night. It was amazing, a fine piece of literature, blah blah blah." Dan nodded. "I hated it. I still have twelve pages left to go." "The last bit isn't so bad. It's better with the end in sight." Dan nodded thoughtfully. "Makes sense. On a scale of one to ten, how gay exactly are you?" Phil almost got whiplash from how fast Dan had turned the conversation around. "Um... I don't know. I'm not that gay." "You're lying," Dan observed. "I'm not going to hit you or anything. Or make you go swimming like your friends from earlier did." "They weren't my friends." "I didn't think so. Now come on, scale of one to ten, one being straight and ten being so gay that you-" "Ten." Phil cut him off, not sure if he wanted to hear the rest. Dan's eyes widened. "Seriously? So you'd-" "I'm very gay," Phil agreed. "So gay that I've never kissed a girl and never want to. So gay that I can't even imagine dating a girl, or marrying one, ever." Dan leaned forward, interested. "So you'd like, suck dick?" Phil winced. "In theory." "And you would like, take it up the ass, and-" "God Dan, please shut up. Maybe. I don't know, are you offering?" Dan's eyes got wide. "It's... it's a figure of speech," Phil explained, backing up. "Not a real question. Now, can I get back to studying, or-" "Yeah, yeah!" Dan stood up so quickly he almost knocked the chair over. "Yeah, I was just curious. You can go back to studying, you're just like... the only gay person I know." "There's more of us," Phil said, trying to hide the annoyance in his voice. "Other gay people at our school, in fact. There have to be, the stats don't lie." "Not that any of us would know it. After everything happening with you, you'd have to be stupid to come out at our school." Phil scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah. I guess you're right." "Yeah!" Dan took a step back, then shuffled forwards, bumping against the chair unceremoniously. "I'm going to go... study!" "Okay," Phil responded with slight amusement. "Have fun." "I- I will!" He turned around and almost ran straight into a wall. He quickly sidestepped, then was up the stairs, turning into what was assumably his room. Phil shook his head, smiling only a little bit. --- "The game's coming out in the New Year, but I want to preorder it now. Then I can get it as soon as possible. It has these super amazing graphics, honestly, I want to a design class or a graphic art class or something like that so I can learn how to do that sort of animation, because have you seen it? It's so cool! It's too expensive, but I'll get it anyways, I have some money saved up..." Phil trailed off, looking around. "Why are you all looking at me like that?" Greyson was the first to clear his throat. "Um, it's just you've been so quiet lately. Is there anything new, or anything? You've been spending a lot of time away from home. New friends?" Phil shrugged. "Not really. Just... the game I guess." His shoulders slumped forwards slightly. "Tell us more about it!" His mum prompted quickly. It was the first time in a long time that she'd seen her son so vibrant, and she wasn't about to let him go back to sulking so fast. Phil perked up. "Yeah, it's got these controllers..." --- "No you spoon, it all goes back to the limit definition of the derivative. You have to define the variables, see, here..." Dan underlined a few numbers, gesturing with his pencil. "And then.... multiply here...." He was completely entranced in the work, marking and drawing lines connecting the dots, getting wrapped up in the math of it. Phil didn't really remember how they got in this position, with Dan sitting at the table with him, showing him how to do the homework. Phil had had no idea, and he still didn't fully understand it, but it was becoming easier. "Like this," Phil muttered, taking out another pencil and adding onto the equation Dan was writing. "You square it."

Dan stared at it for a long moment, blinking. "Um, no. You don't square anything. If you wanted, you could root it... actually, you probably wouldn't want to do that. Here, look." --- It made more sense for them to work on their homework together. Phil didn't remember when it was decided, but one day Dan started bringing his work downstairs and working at the table with Phil, going over problems together and complaining back and forth. Dan was good at calc. Phil was better at Lit. Neither of them liked forensics. And both of them thought that generally, government class was stupid and signing up was a mistake. They were talking one day when one of their phones went off in the pile of papers and notebooks scattered across the desk. "Get it," Dan suggested, nodding to the pile. "Well it's not my phone." "That's not my ringtone. You probably just usually have it on mute." "Who would be calling me?" Dan shrugged. "Well answer it!" Phil jumped up, digging through the pile and flipping over his near-empty backpack, grabbing the phone and answering at the last second. "Mushi Mushi?" There was some crackling at the end of the line. Phil caught his breath. "Hello?" Silence. Then, after a beat, a low deep voice growled "you have seven days to live." "Dan, it's for you." Phil handed the phone over to the very confused Dan. "Hullo." He paused, listening to the voice. Phil could barely hear it. "Seven days..." it whispered guterally. "Thank God," Dan mumbled in reply. "But can we speed up the process a bit? I have a test before that. Could you just kill me now?" The voice seemed to consider this. "Not now. Tonight." Dan clicked flirtily. "I'll light some candles. See you at 7." He closed the phone, hanging up with a grin. "Friend of yours?" Phil shook his head, smiling lightly. "Nah, little brother. He got his own phone last week and has been prank calling people ever since. I'm actually kind surprised it's taken him this long to try it with me." Dan laughed. "Amazing. I always wanted to have a little brother." "I don't know. Tucker's all right, but I'd prefer to have my own room. Then I wouldn't have to come over and invade your space every day." "You're not invading my space." The air seemed to crackle with electricity, or maybe something a little more dangerous. Then it disappeared. "Have you seen my room yet?" "No. Wanna give me the grand tour?" --- Phil had never had his own room. Dan practically had his own floor. "There's Dad's office, which he spends about 23 out of 24 hours in, so it doesn't really count. But they technically sleep in their room downstairs, so I have loads of space." Dan's room was at least twice the size of Phil's, and it looked even bigger with a double bed instead of the bunk beds that took up most of Phil's space. The bed had hidden storage under it for Dan's clothes, and next to it sat a nightstand crowded with figurines from animes, little mementos, and a few condoms. "Nice," Phil said dryly, staring at the latter, which was out in plain sight. "Um, ignore that!" Dan opened the drawer and swept the condoms and a bottle into it, closing it quickly. "No one ever comes in here, so it's not like I need to hide them." "No one ever comes in here," Phil repeated, picking up an empty wrapper from the floor. "Yeah, I believe you." Dan snatched the wrapper out of his hand, stuffing it in the drawer with the others. "Shut up." His cheeks had turned a bright pink. "Why do you have two desks?" Upon further inspection of the room, Phil realized there were two desks inside of one, one in each corner opposite the bed. Only one had a chair by it, and that was the only one with papers on it. The other had a stack of discarded clothing on it, like it had been downgraded to a laundry hamper. Dan looked where he was staring. "Oh, that's dad's old one. He gave it to me, like I'd have use for two." Phil shrugged, glancing around. Nothing else was of much interest to him, unless he was willing to ask Dan more about the condom wrappers, which he wasn't. "Wanna get a snack? I'm hungry." ---- The coffee tasted much better at the Bagel shop when he was sat at a table for two. It turned out, Dan was actually quite funny, though most of his jokes were horrible and caused Phil to snort so hard he almost directly inhaled his coffee. Other new information learned: the bagels at the bagel shop taste about as bad as the coffee. Dan got one, and it was so stale he could tap it against the table and make a noise like horses galloping on pavement. Dan ate it anyways. The whole building was so warm. Phil felt like he was wearing a woolen jumper. How long had it been since he'd felt so warm? Too long. Dan smiled wide and laughed loud. And Phil did too. His cheek muscles ached from so much exercise after so much disuse. --- Phil was just setting his stuff down on the Howell's dining room table when Dan called him upstairs. When Phil got to the top of the steps and peeked in his room, Dan was sitting in his rolling chair, the end of a pencil between his teeth. "Do you want to bring a chair up here? I don't get the Lit assignment." --- There were few things that felt better than leaving school for holiday break. Actually, two, to be exact: leaving school for Summer Vacation and leaving school for good. Dan whooped, tilting his face up to the starry sky and leaning back, stumbling only slightly. The brown paper bag he clutched in one hand sloshed around with his movement, the drink inside it still half full. Phil's drink was half full too. It was strange- earlier that school year, he would've called it half empty. But lately, a lot of things were looking half full. "I'm gonna to be an astronaut when I grow up," Dan slurred, stalking forwards, eyes trained on the stars. "'m gonna see the stars up close, and personal. Get all up in their space." He squinted, daring the stars to disagree. "Is that what you're studying at uni-" "Don't say that word!" Dan commanded quickly, cutting him off. "Evil. I'm in a good mood, satyr, don't ruin it with your talk of the future." Dan's insults had been getting more and more interesting ever since they did the unit on The Odyssey in A-levels Lit. Dan had done an essay on the various ways mythology was ingrained in the culture of the time, and needless to say, he'd gotten a bit into it. Phil took a big swig from his bottle, letting the liquor pour down his throat like molten lava, stinging and burning his tongue. They walked in curved lines, words slurred but brains still mostly aware. The empty space in their bottles wasn't enough to get someone drunk, but luckily for them, it wasn't all they'd been drinking that night. "I hate parties," Dan mumbled. Most of his filters had been strewn on the floor, sloshed around and discarded like bad mouthwash. "Too many stupid people." "It was your idea to go," Phil reminded him. "Stupid," he repeated. "I don't even like dancing." Phil raised the bottle to his lips and gulped, doing his best to wash the memory away. Dan had danced with a girl, some stupid brunette who was significantly smaller than him. They'd danced, and then made out, before Dan pulled away and spat on the floor. No one cared. It was too late and the air smelled too much like vomit and beer for anyone to care. Phil wished he didn't care. "You like her?" Dan didn't need to ask who he was talking about. "Not really. Just someone to dance with, someone to kiss." He sipped from his bottle, stopping to giggle lightly. "Not that you'd know anything about that." "In my defense, I can't kiss people. Nobody around who'd want to." "Oblivious potato you are." He cackled up to the sky, eyes gazing around as if waiting for Zeus to appear and pluck him from the ground. "'My name is nobody'," he quoted, smiling vaguely. Phil shook his head, trying not to think about The Odyssey any more. Dan was referring to the passage where the brave Odysseus was face to face with the monstrous cyclops, Polyphemus. When asked his name, Odysseus replies 'My name is nobody'. Later, he stabs the cyclops in his one eye and escapes with his men, and Polyphemus chases him blindly out to the shore screaming bloody murder. When the other cyclopes on the island hear him and ask what's wrong, he screams 'Nobody stabbed me! Nobody stabbed me!' and Odysseus is able to escape. He stared at the boy next to him, face illuminated solely by the thin scrap of moon that was visible. Phil wondered if he was thinking about the Odyssey too. "She was a horrible kisser," Dan mumbled. "Tasted like cigarettes." He turned and looked at Phil sincerely, voice scratching out, "Don't smoke. I don't want any campfire kisses." Then he stumbled forwards, continuing to walk, quoting: "'Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than a man.'" Phil giggled. "You should probably head home now. Sleep it off." Dan nodded tiredly. His shoulders were weighed down visibly, as if he still carried his backpack jammed full of expectations and textbooks. "'There is a time for many words,'" hiccup "'...and there is also a time for sleep.'" --- Phil awoke with a pounding headache and a light blush across his cheeks. --- "Your friends can't come over on Christmas," their mum insisted. "Christmas day is for family only." "Sweetie, let's not be unreasonable. They just want to have fun! What about Christmas Eve?" Greyson suggested, ever the mediator. Sandy stared at them from across the dinner table, her puppy dog face on maximum level. She frowned, thinking it over. "Fine. But Sandy, only bring one or two friends over, we hardly have enough room for everyone in the house as it is. Phil, could you go to the store sometime this week and get hot coco and eggnog?" "And whipped cream!" Sandy added excitedly. "Probably need two cans," Greyson agreed. Phil nodded, making a mental note. "And, um, if Sandy is having friends over, do you think I could invite someone too?" --- Phil sat on the carpeted floor, leaning against the maroon couch. His hands were wrapped around the warm mug of eggnog, and he sipped it slowly, trying to savor it. He was only allowed one glass, as Greyson insisted that it was important not to start drinking too young. Needless to say, Phil wasn't about to tell him about his and Dan's activities the week prior. Dan sat closely nestled next to Phil, also with a single mug of eggnog and an overly festive jumper. The main difference was, Dan's was black with a reindeer on it, while Phil's was covered in reds, greens and whites. When Dan first saw it he claimed Phil looked like an 'obnoxious candy cane', to which Phil replied with something that wasn't supposed to be sexual, but of course Dan ended up taking it that way. Dan was very warm, and their arms pressed against each other, though Phil reminded himself that it was because there was so little space. Sandy and Anna had friends over, meaning that there were currently around a dozen people in the sitting area and kitchen, which were made even smaller by the almost invasive presence of the plastic Christmas tree. "We should get a real one this year!" Phil had suggested upon seeing Greyson carrying the box down from the attic. "No can do," he'd replied easily. "Real Christmas trees are a potential fire hazard. Do you know how many people get electrocuted watering Christmas trees naked, a year?" No, Phil had not know, and no, he did not enjoy that mental image. Dan was quieter than normal, sipping his eggnog and observing the goings on of the family and extras. Finally, Phil spoke up. "I'm glad you could come. Are your parents celebrating with friends?" Dan shook his head. "Mum might be. But Dad's spending the night in his office. Hopefully he'll get up and go to bed before it's time to open presents." Dan's father was an extremely intelligent man, with a spattering of fancy degrees and an extremely prestigious job. But Dan talked about him like he was a deadbeat. "It's weird being here," Dan admitted. "I've never had siblings." "I've never not had siblings. I used to hate it, middle child syndrome and all that. Now... I don't mind it as much." "I bet not. Especially since you don't have to study at home anymore." Across the room, Phil's younger sisters and their friends laughed loudly, talking in quiet, fast voices among themselves. In the background, the song 'Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree' played, and Amanda and Tucker danced to it on the small stretch of floor in between the kitchen and living room. Amanda looked happier than normal, probably since Janie finally managed to go to sleep and hadn't woken up since the party started. Tucker smiled too, though he looked a little embarressed to be seen dancing with his big sister. "Come on," Phil urged, feeling a sudden impulse. "Let's dance." He got up and pulled Dan to his feet, ignoring his complaints. "But I have two left feet!" "I have four!" Phil retaliated, yanking Dan over to the tile floor and grabbing his other hand, spinning him. "How is that even possible?" Dan complained, spinning and catching himself on Phil's hand. "Now I know why you're failing Calculus. You can't count!" They swayed, doing something that almost resembled dancing. "Everyone dancing merrily, in a new old-fashioned way,” The music played. More people moved over, starting to dance along. Phil tried not to cringe as he saw his mum being tugged over to the floor, Greyson pulling her over to dance. "I'm not failing Calc," Phil defended, intertwining his hands with Dan's more comfortably. "I have a B minus!" "Potato po-tat-o." Dan spun him, and Phil only stumbled slightly. "You're right, you have no coordination." "What's that quote?" Phil recalled. "'The gods don't give out all gifts at once..."' "'Not build and brains and flowing speech to all. One man may fail to impress us with his looks but a god can crown his words with beauty, charm, and men look on with delight when he speaks out.'" Dan looked like he was somewhere else, reciting the quote easily. "'Never faltering, filled with winning self-control, he shines forth at assembly grounds and people gaze at him like a god when he… when he walks through the streets. Another man may look like a deathless one on high but there's not a bit of grace to crown his words. Just like you, my fine, handsome friend.'" "Wow." ‘Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree’ ended. Dan didn't seem to notice that there was no more music. He seemed to be staring at Phil's lips, his own lips parted slightly. "Wow," Phil repeated again. "I'm genuinely impressed. I can't remember quotes for the life of me." "They spoke to me," Dan replied with a shrug, trying to start swaying again to the beat of the new song playing, Let It Snow. The weather outside is frightful. But the fire is so delightful. And since there's no place to go. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. --- Christmas day was exciting, but not like it usually was. They each got a few small presents from their Mum and Greyson, and Amanda, Phil, and Tucker each had a present for each family member. Sandy and Anna couldn't be bothered to buy presents, but they were young enough that it was excusable. After all the presents had been opened, the adults went into the kitchen and started preparing lunch, and Phil and Tucker wrestled around a bit. Phil may be 18, but he would never be an adult to his parents, just as Amanda had a job and a kid, but she still sat at the kids' table at family gatherings. Tucker was small for someone his age, still in early high school, but he was a decent wrestler. Phil had the size advantage, but it was a pretty even match. "I wanna do karate," Tucker said later, after they were done. "Or boxing. Or wrestling, I guess. Something like that." A memory tugged at the back of Phil's mind. "Dan does boxing, I think." "You think?" "His dad mentioned it once," Phil explained. "I don't know if he still does, actually. He never talks about it." "That's a weird thing not to talk about," Tucker observed. "If I did boxing, I'd probably never shut up about it." --- "It's never come up in conversation, I guess," Dan explained, kicking off his snow boots. It was still Christmas Day, just a little later, and Dan had walked over to Phil's house to collect him. 'My house is quiet and I'm bored,' he'd explained, shivering in the cold. 'Come over?' Phil had taken his first opportunity to ask about Dan's boxing, and sure enough, he boxed. "I go to practice three times a week, compete most Sundays, and train most nights before bed." "And you've never thought to mention it?" He shrugged. "It's not something I talk about. It's... weird, you know? I have like... a personality, that everyone knows, you know? And boxing just doesn't fit into it." The two boys walked upstairs to Dan's room automatically. Phil sat on his bed. "Why not? Boxing is cool." "And obviously I'm so cool," Dan muttered sarcastically. "I have like, negative two friends." "You have me." "Yes, there is that. But as you are the only openly gay student in our school, that doesn't score me much points." He winced. "Sorry." Phil tried not to be offended. "Well, you're not wrong." "If you wanted, you could use my locker at school," Dan offered quickly, desperately. "I don't use it. And then, you wouldn't have to see... you know..." He was referring of course, to Phil's locker, which still had the word 'twink' spray painted across it. Phil had tried to scrub it away, but nothing worked. He'd reported it to the office, but to his knowledge, they hadn't even bothered to try to get rid of it. Phil exhaled shakily. He hadn't thought about the bullies ever since the break started. He shook his head, changing the topic of conversation back to boxing. "You said you trained? Where?" --- Phil had never realized that Dan's mom never parked her car in their garage. He also never realized that Dan's dad didn't even have a car. "He's too much of a social recluse to have a car," Dan explained, leaning against the wall of the garage. Instead of being a space for parking cars, it had been converted into a gym of sorts, with a tattered old punching bag in the middle of the room. Pushed against the walls were boxes, some filing cabinets, and a new looking bench press covered in clothes and gloves. "I don't use that," Dan explained, seeing Phil's eyes train on the press. "It's too boring." Phil walked around the punching bag, observing where the material was faded or torn. A few spots were patched up with duct tape, and a few spots looked like it was about time they be patched up. Phil noticed something out of the corner of his eye and walked over to where an open cardboard box sat again the wall. Dan realized what he was doing too late, and by the time he shouted "Wait!" Phil was already leaning down. "Trophies?" "I'm not any good," Dan promised. "Most of them are just participation!" Phil pulled one of the medium-sized ones out. It was covered in a layer of dust, which he brushed aside. "Second place?" "It was a small event!" Phil looked up, and for the first time noticed how panicked Dan looked. "Could you please put it back? Hey, I got the new Zelda game, do you want to try it out?" Phil wanted to ask more about boxing. Obviously Dan was being modest; the box was stuffed full of trophies, and there were other boxes in the room. Did they contain the same things? But when he saw Dan's expression, he knew there was no way he could push him any further. For whatever reason, Dan was ashamed of boxing, or something like that. Phil wanted to know why. But now was not the time to ask. "Yeah, cool. Show me the game?" ---- Phil didn't not welcome school back with open arms. Something had happened over the break. What, he didn't know, but everyone was glaring at him which such malice he wondered if he'd killed someone without realizing. He pulled his headphones out, allowing himself to hear the chatter. His next class was on the other side of the school, and after he'd been walking a few minutes, he'd heard a shred of conversation that made him keep listening. "....grounded. Chuck was caught sleeping with him-" "With Lester?" "Yeah! I mean, who else would he sleep with? It was a dude, and his dad got so pissed he beat him." "Dude. How'd the fucking fag get Chuck to sleep with him in the first place?" "I dunno, but now he won't be able to play in the game on Friday. We really need a win if we want to make it to regionals..." Phil put his headphones back in his ears. Apparently, there were at least two other gays going to his school: Chuck, and another boy who'd been caught sucking him off. ----- "What happened?" "Got in a fight." "With who?" "This guy at school." Correction: these guys at school. "We had a difference in opinion." ---- Dan prepared him an ice pack. "I heard the news. About, you know, you and Chuck." "I didn't do anything with Chuck. I don't even know him that well." "I know you didn't." Dan zipped up the bag of ice, handing it over with a towel. "Hold this over your eye, it should help the swelling." "Doctor Daniel," Phil teased, taking the ice thankfully. His eye was beginning to swell shut, and his chest ached. At least he could hide bruised ribs. It wasn't so easy with the eye. "You caught me at a bad time," Dan admitted. "I was going to practice now." "Sorry. You want me to go, or... can I watch?" Dan almost considered it. Phil could see the gears turning, but the awkward smile made his answer clear. "Sorry, I think you'd better go. I think it'll be a rougher workout today, I've got some... stuff to get out." "Stuff to get out," Phil repeated. "Yeah, I can go. See you tomorrow?" "Yeah, sure. And stop getting in fights, bruising doesn't suit you." "That, we can agree on." ---- The rumors kept swirling. Chuck was not gay, it seemed, he'd just been put in an awkward situation and took advantage of it. "A mouth is a mouth," he laughed with his friends. "Trust me, I didn't want the fag to touch me but he wanted it so bad, you should've seen him. So wrecked." When his friends asked more about it, he replied quickly "No, I didn't like it! If he was a girl it would have been so hot though. He was so sweaty his hair got really curly- yeah, like that. Don't worry though, he'll pay for it. Trust me on that." ---- Dan was so sweaty his hair got even curlier than normal. "Woah," Phil said as soon as he saw him. "Boxing practice?" "Yeah. I'm getting ready for a big meet, have to be prepared." He took the strap of one of the gloves in his teeth, ripping it off easily. Phil tried not to stare too much. "Anyone else give you crap today?" "Anyone not give me crap? It's fine, school's over. I don't have to see any of them again until tomorrow." He willed his voice not to crack, his hand not to shake. His head hurt from being slammed against the lockers. Dan nodded, not making eye contact as he took the other glove off. "How's Calc going? I wish that he just let us take the book home, it'd be so much easier." "It would." Phil didn't really know what else to say. "I'm going to... erm, I'm going to do my homework in my room again. Come with?" Phil's head throbbed. "Yeah. Sure." ---- Phil didn't know when he snapped. But if I had to say a moment in the altogether miserable week, it'd probably be when he was laying on the floor of the boys' bathroom, sopping wet from the swirly. After they'd dunked him in the toilet, they'd used him as a mop, swinging him around by his legs and splashing water on the ground for the back of his favorite hoodie to clean up. Then they left him, far more interested in getting out of the school than they were in beating up the fag. Phil laid there, not bothering to get up. His favorite hoodie was filthy, with dirt and toilet water and he didn't even want to know what else. And he was all alone on the bathroom floor, his bus having already left. And something snapped. Phil stood. He tore off his jacket and stuffed it in the trash can, hefted his backpack, and only made one stop before marching out of the school and walking all the way home. --- Phil went home and changed out of his stupid school uniform into comfortable work clothes and went around, doing his yard work for the day. Then he went home, got his backpack, and marched to Dan's house, going straight up to Dan's room without knocking. Dan wasn't wearing pants. "Phil! I didn't-" "I stole something." Dan blinked. "Um, what?" Phil opened his backpack on Dan's bed, dumping half of it out and pulling out a Calculus textbook. "I was angry- I'm still kinda angry- and I'm failing the class." He paused. "And I'm not giving it back." Dan blinked. It took him a little too long to process. "I'm not wearing pants." He repeated. "You mentioned that already. I just stole a textbook." "Yeah, you said that too." They both were frozen. Phil cleared his throat. "You can put on pants now. If you want." "If I want," Dan repeated. "I mean, I don't care." "No, you'd probably actually prefer I don't put my pants on." Phil scowled, messing with his backpack. "Don't put words in my mouth." They were quiet for a few more moments. "I'm going to put pants on." "Okay." ---- Studying was a lot easier with the calc textbook. ---- "We could just sit on the floor," Phil suggested, eying the small couch wearily. "Nah, this is better. Come on, hop up." Dan sat down, bowl of popcorn in hand, and patted the small space next to him. Phil sat, the couch so small there was no way for them to sit without touching. "It's a good movie," Dan said, "so don't you dare fall asleep." "I promise I won't," Phil laughed, snuggling up to his friend, albeit still cautiously. Dan started the movie and leaned against Phil, his head on his shoulder. ---- Phil fell asleep during the movie. But it was okay. Because so did Dan. ---- "Oh, hello boys." Phil had been half awake for a few minutes, not wanting to move. He was too warm, too tired, and besides, Dan was still asleep. "Hi Mr.Howell. We watched a movie last night, and fell asleep." Dan snored, snuggling closer to Phil. "I promise it's not as bad as it looks-" Phil started, but Mr.Howell cut him off quickly. "Oh no, don't worry about it. I know about you two, Dan has boys over all the time. He didn't tell me specifically, but I notice things." Phil blinked, still only half awake. "He has boys over all the time? What do you mean?" "Well, not since you've been dating I'm sure. We've never talked about it, but I know he's homosexual, or bisexual, or whatever the kids call it these days. I'm not as oblivious as all that." Phil blinked again. Apparently, Dan's dad wasn't that oblivious, but Phil certainly was. ---- Dan woke up a few minutes later. "Crap, I fell asleep," he said as if that weren't already obvious. "Wait... don't tell it's morning already?" "We both fell asleep," Phil admitted. He observed Dan as he stretched, pulling himself up. The words you're gay? got clogged in his throat, refusing to come out. Just like Dan. Funny how that works. ————

They were in Dan’s bed. It was late, and they were both just a little drunk on exhaustion and booze. Not drunk enough for their thoughts to be incoherent or their voices to slur, just drunk enough for Dan to quote "The Odyssey" every other minute. "You know you’re my best friend, right?" Dan said quietly. He was staring at Phil, his eyes slightly lowered. Phil sighed contentedly, his eyes trained on his 'best friend's lips. "Yeah, I know. You’re my best friend too." Phil shuffled slightly, wondering if it’d be too gay to cuddle up closer to Dan. Then again, it sounded like Dan was also gay, at least partially. Maybe it’d be okay. He was stuck. He was stuck, right in between wanting to kiss Dan and not wanting to lose him, because he knew that out of the two options, he could likely only choose one. And he couldn’t loose Dan. Shoveling the sidewalks as quickly as he could just so he could be paid by the neighbors and get to Dan's house as fast as possible, just to study. Going to the bagel shop for a special treat and eating the almost indigestible bagels and coffee, because it was convenient and it was quiet and he’d go anywhere with Dan, really. He like being around him a bit too much, and eventually it’d probably screw him over, but for now, it was worth it. They liked going drinking Friday nights. Always some party, and if there wasn't, there was always booze for sale. They didn’t drink every week, but they did when they could. When Dan was tipsy he often lost track of personal space, and he’d bump into Phil or stand so close that Phil would wonder if he was going to kiss him. But then he’d pull away, saying something about why the government had set them up for failure, or ramble on about textual themes. He loved quoting the Odyssey. They walked through an empty field to get home most times, and it was just out of the way enough that they could see the stars, and Dan would say something about how "It is the wine that leads me on, the wild wine, that sets the wisest man to sing, at the top of his lungs, laugh like a fool – it drives the man to dancing... it even tempts him to blurt out stories better never told." And Phil just listens and smiles and wonders if Dan somehow managed to memorize the entire Odyssey, or if perhaps, he recites it in the shower. He loved Dan. That much was clear. He loved him like a best friend. He loved him a little more than that maybe, loved him like he was angry, loved him in spite and loved him in secret. And it seemed as though Dan loved him as a best friend too. And there was that love, that love that Phil had no idea what to do with, so they could drown it out with booze and homework and chit chat and stale bagels and complaining about their families/classes/experiences/lives, but you can never truly drown love, love can swim. Phil wonders if there’s a quote about that somewhere in The Odyssey. The entire story is about a man, Odysseus, trying to get back home to his wife Penelope. The journey is painful and long, but when he comes home, it was almost as if he’d never left. Phil supposed that the love between Odysseus and Penelope was buoyant too.

———— "Because of you, Chuck wasn’t there for the game. Because of you, we lost." Phil backed up, the three boys stalking towards him until he was flush against the lockers, banging against them with a little clanging noise from the cheap metal. He knew where this was going. Chuck stood to the side, cracking his knuckles. In front of him, Trevor was the one leading the assault, his dirty brown hair falling in front of his eyes. Caleb stood to the other side of him, dumping his backpack on the ground as if he didn’t want it holding him back. "It wasn’t me," Phil insisted again like maybe this time they’d listen. They didn’t, just continued pressing forwards until Phil had pressed himself so closely against the locker he could feel its hinges digging into his back. Phil’s gaze fluttered from one boy to the next, looking for any signs of hesitation, some sort of human emotion. He found nothing. He swallowed. "I have standards. I wouldn’t get anywhere near his dick." The first punch came before he’d finished his sentence, a sharp pain across his face that made him slam back against the lockers. The rest came in rapid succession, his ribs, his face, his stomach. He doubled over, gripping his stomach and desperately trying to protect his head as fingers dug into his head and shoved him to ground. "This is for being a fag!" Phil’s breathe was torn from his throat, forcefully expelled by a harsh kick to the lungs. "And this is for costing us regionals!" Chuck's voice, and a swift kick to the head. Phil wondered if he knew that it wasn’t him who he slept with, and was caught by his father. Phil wondered if he cared. Phil tasted blood. His body twitched away from every blow until he was curled up in the fetal position on the dirty school floor, and as he was being attacked on every side all he could think about was how stupid it was for him not to book it out of school as soon as he’d had the chance. A filthy shoe made contact with his face, and he tasted blood. Phil covered his head with his hands, just wishing them to go away. "What the fuck are you doing? Hey, get off of him!" The kicking stopped temporarily, but Phil didn’t dare try to get up. There was a scuffle, and then a body was slammed against the locker. Phil looked around quickly then scrambled to his feet, his assailants more busy with someone else. A new person had appeared, his body shoved up against the locker as he yelled back and forth at the bullies. A balding teacher left his classroom, coffee mug in hand. He watched the fight for a moment, then retreated back into his room, locking the door behind him. Phil was frozen in shock as Trevor was kicked backward, stumbling a meter then falling on his ass. The person was still shoving the other two away but somehow managed to rear his arm back and punch Caleb so hard he crumpled against the lockers. Dan grabbed Chuck by his greasy blonde hair and yanked his head down, making contact with his knee. Phil flinched, taking a step back so he was leant against the wall, still catching his breath but in too much shock to move. Dan spun Chuck around and slammed him into the lockers with so much force Phil’s back ached in sympathy. Dan was bleeding, a long scratch right under his eye from a nail or something. He had a split lip. But he didn’t look any weaker from it, hardly even seemed fazed. He held Chuck against the locker, holding an elbow directly under his chin, but then adjusted his hands so he was holding Chuck still by his neck. Dan panted and wiped some of the blood on his face away. Chuck's hand came up to cup his own bleeding nose, but Dan slapped it away, pulling Chuck back and slamming his head against the locker easily. "I hear you’ve been spreading rumors," Dan muttered. His voice was deep and gravelly, but he stared at Chuck easily, not intimidated in the least. "People seem to think that Phil was the one you were caught with." To his side, Travis started getting up, but before he could Dan kicked him in the stomach so hard he fell back down. "Shh, listen." Dan brought his attention back to Chuck, who wouldn’t look at him. "Who was it?" "It was you," he admitted. "You were the fag. You think you’re so special Howell, thought you could keep it a secret-" Dan slammed him against the locker again, and Chuck shut up, his hands flying up to Dan’s hands still wrapped around his neck, trying to get him to loosen his grip. Dan licked his lips. "Listen up, all three of you. Stop screwing with my boyfriend. Or they’ll be hell to pay." He let go of Chuck, shoving him down onto his knees as he stepped back. "Feels familiar, doesn’t it? You on your knees. All we need now is a broken lock on your door and your raging father, isn’t that right?" He took another step back, glancing over his shoulder and grabbing Phil’s collar, pulling him into a kiss. It was sloppy and tasted like blood, and Phil could still hardly catch his breath, and nothing was processing, because was Dan really kissing him? Dan pulled away, but still held onto his collar. They stayed there a moment, eyes interlocked, when the next impact came. Dan was thrust against the wall, stumbling to get up. Travis stood over him. "Cocksucker," he snarled, raising his foot to stomp Dans lights out. But Dan was too fast, grabbing his leg and yanking him down. They wrestled on the floor for a moment until Dan came up on top, muttering something about Travis being 'surrounded by cocksuckers' before landing another punch. They started brawling for real, hitting and punching and clawing and before Phil knew it, he and Chuck were locking eyes and running over to pull them apart before they could kill each other. Finally, a few teachers ran down the hallways, shouting something about stopping, and all five boys had just enough time to stand, regard each other harshly, and glance down one last time. "Fuck you," Phil spat, before balling his fist and punching Chuck square in the jaw before turning and sprinting away, Dan right on his heels. He hit the door with so much force that it actually hurt, but everything hurt at this point and Phil was bleeding and so was Dan and they had to get away before anyone spotted them. They sprinted around the side of school, panting turned into exhausted laughter as they turned the corner and collapsed against the brick wall. It was that type of pained laughter that physically hurt, because Phil’s ribs were definitely bruised and maybe worse, and his hands were stained with blood, and he was definitely imagining things because Dan was there too, the area right under his right eye splotchy and red. "I can’t believe-" Phil started, but they didn’t have all day for him to say everything he didn’t believe had happened, but somehow, through the pain in his knuckles in the ache of every breath, he knew it was real, it was very real. "You kissed me," he said finally, looking up at Dan with a look of respect. "You actually kissed me." "After all that just happened, that’s what you’re thinking about?" Dan’s entire face was contorted by the smile, and he looked like such a wreck but Phil couldn’t care because there was no way he looked any better. "Sorry about that, by the way," Dan added, wiping some of the blood on his lips away. "I thought it’d be dramatic. Scare them off. Didn’t work that great." "Yeah, no shit." Phil tugged on Dan's collar, pulling him close but stopping him before they actually collided. "Thanks. I appreciate it." He eyed Dan, the cut on his cheek, the split lip. "You look like a mess." "You do too," Dan agreed. "I want to kiss you again." Phil yanked him into another kiss, tasting of blood and exertion and sweat and a little bit like hot chocolate. "I’m not going to be able to stop," he admitted, halfway through the kiss. "Its fine," Dan mumbled against his lips, not even bothering to pull apart. "I won't either." They kissed for what could have been hours before Phil mumbled "My hand hurts," and they finally pulled away. ————- "You’re doing so good!" Phil handed Dan his water bottle as he took his mouth guard out, wiping his sweat away from his forehead. "Only a few more matches." Dan’s eyes had this far away look to them. He never had so much pride in anything but his competitions. It was one of the reasons why Phil insisted on coming every week. Dan drank from the water bottle as someone jogged over, patting him on the back roughly. "Hey champ, nice match! Who’s this?" Dan’s eyes sparkled as he looked at Phil. His lip had heeled, and the cut under his eye had faded, but he looked the same as he did the day they first kissed. Sweaty, with his hair plastered back away from his forehead, but so proud and happy Phil couldn’t help but smile. "This is Phil. My boyfriend." Phil’s heart literally fluttered in his chest. "Oh yeah? Phil, do you box too? Bet I could find you a decent instructor, huh?" He nudged Dan’s side playfully. Dan laughed. "Nah, Phil doesn’t box. The last time he punched someone, he broke his thumb. It’s a pretty good story though." Dan’s friend's eyes widened with interest. He looked to Phil. "Oh yeah? Tell me." "I don’t know, it’s a little crude. I doubt you can handle it," Phil teased. "Oh come on, try me!" "Well..." Phil tugged his bottom lip in between his teeth, looking at Dan as he tried to decide how mean he wanted to be. "It all started when Dan got sucked off by the most popular boy in school..."

12 Days Of Prompts Masterlist / Fic Masterlist / Request A Fic

#the odyssey #odyssey #odysseus #homer #enemies to friends to lovers #high school #highschool #highschool!AU #family\#siblings #dans dad #dan and phil #dansPHlevels #fanfic #fanfiction #phanfic #phanfiction #phan

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marvelousbirthdays · 7 years ago

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Happy Birthday, mcgregorswench!

September 25 - ShieldShock for @mcgregorswench

As fluffy and sweet as you can make it. Where both are clueless as to the other's connections with the Avengers, like Steve doesn't know that Darcy works with Jane and is best buds with Thor (and also happens to be Tony's sister or daughter), and Darcy doesn't realize her Steve Rogers is actually THE Steve Rogers aka Captain America.

AN: Set between The Avengers and CA:TWS. Not compliant to any canon whatsoever. Big thanks to CatrinaSL for cheerleading, some fantastic ideas when I hit a block, and betaing for me.

Written by @ibelieveinturtles

When he looked back on everything, Steve found it completely amazing—miraculous, even—that he and Darcy had known each other for so long, without knowing who the other really was.

Two days after the battle in New York, he signed a confidential contract with S.H.I.E.L.D., including clauses covering secrecy, confidentiality, and anonymity. In other words, don't tell anyone anything, up to and including, who you really are.

When they offered him a new identity, however, he turned it down.

“I've lost everything else already—you can't have that,” he told Fury, in no uncertain terms.

Fury offered a compromise: “You can keep everything except your year of birth. The council wants everyone's identities kept secret—well, as much as we can—but if anyone does get curious or recognise you, tell ‘em you're a distant cousin. Families throw up look alikes all the time. I’m the spitting image of my great granddaddy on my mother’s side, so ‘Captain America’s third cousin twice removed’ shouldn’t be a hard sell, even for you.”

Deal done, Steven Grant Rogers, born 4th July 1988, headed off to Culver University, where he enrolled in summer classes, studying Modern History, and a unit of independent learning, custom-designed to ease him into the new century before he took up his new position at S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Washington DC headquarters.

He met Darcy on the first day. Overwhelmed by the crowds of people, the noise, and already wondering if he'd made a mistake, he ran straight into her.

They collided with the force of a thousand supernovas… Well, the bump was hard enough to knock her off balance, and Steve barely managed to catch her before she hit the ground.

“Woah, I got ya,” Steve said, as he carefully set her back on her feet.

“Thanks for the save, dude,” the young woman said a little breathlessly. “Sorry about that. Serves me right for texting and walking, I guess.” She waved her phone at him, and he couldn’t help noticing the stylised drawing of Thor on the case. It matched the t-shirt she was wearing, and the messenger bag slung across her body.

“No, it was entirely my fault,” Steve protested. “I wasn't paying attention. I'm the one who should be sorry.”

“First time here?” she asked.

“Um, yeah. It's a little overwhelming,” he looked around at the crowded, noisy courtyard. “I've never actually done anything like this before.”

“You’ll get used to it in no time,” she assured him, adding a welcoming smile. “Welcome to Culver! I'm Darcy,” she said, holding her hand out.

“Steve,” he said, taking her hand. “I hope you're right. I have no idea what I'm doing.”

She studied him for a moment. “Gimme one second.” She did something with her phone, and then looked up again. “Look, I don’t have to be anywhere for a couple of hours, and I know from experience how overwhelming it can be. How about I give you some tips about getting around over coffee?”

Steve ran a hand through his hair. “I don't want to inconvenience you,” he hedged.

“Hey, no sweat, dude. I'm in desperate need of coffee anyway, so you'd be doing me a favour.”

Steve smiled, deciding right there and then that there was no way he was going to turn her down. “Well, in that case, I could definitely use the help.”

Ten minutes later they were seated in a small cafe with food and coffee, and she was giving him a brief history of the college.

“And then a few years ago, The Hulk showed up and wrecked half the school. Thank God, I wasn't here for that! Apparently it was a super clusterfuck.”

“The Hulk was here?” Steve made the appropriate noises of shock and surprise, even though Bruce had told him all about the incident when suggesting Culver as something to do for a few months.

Darcy nodded, shoving some fries into her mouth. “There’s a rumour that he used to teach here. I mean, I don’t know if it’s true or not, but the STEM departments have kind of adopted him as their unofficial mascot.” She leaned closer to him, as if about to impart a secret. “Personally, I think he’s pretty awesome, especially after what happened in New York—I mean, he saved Iron Man's life! A raging, mindless monster wouldn't have done that.“

“No… no, you’re right about that,” Steve said, and then angled for a change of subject. “So, what are you studying?”

“Well, I’ve already got a degree in Political Science, and now I’m working on my Masters in International Relations. You know, diplomacy, public relations, negotiation, that sort of thing.”

“Wow, that’s impressive. What will you be able to do with that?”

“A lot of different things! I’ve already got a couple of options, but I’m gonna stick with my current boss for now; she’s my best friend, and we’ve been through a lot together. I don’t really need to make a decision yet, so I won’t.” She punctuated the remark by snapping her teeth on the last fry, and grinning at him. “So, I’m actually thinking that this might be easiest if I give you a guided tour. What do you think?”

After all this time, Steve still thought that accepting her offer of a guided tour was the best decision he’d ever made.

~*~

As luck would have it, Darcy’s boss was currently based in Washington DC, and they soon settled into a completely random, not-routine of seeing each other whenever they were both in the city. Between his "job” in International Search and Rescue, and her frequent field trips with the Boss Lady, it was impossible to keep to a set schedule.

On one sad, Steveless day, Darcy arrived home from a long day of Jane-herding and was staring into her fridge debating between cooking or ordering pizza, when Steve texted her. He was home— pizza it was!

She could feel the goofy grin paste itself across her face as she hit send on her reply. Steve had only been away for a week, but she'd been surprised by how much she missed him.

The pizza arrived first, but she'd barely set the boxes down before her intercom chimed again. She buzzed Steve in, and finished setting the table.

There was a knock on the door.

“Hi,” Steve said, kissing her on the cheek and presenting her with flowers he bought on his way over.

“Oh, they're beautiful. Thank you.” She stepped aside to let him in, then led him to the kitchen.

“How was your trip?” she asked as she hunted through her cupboards for something vase-like.

“Well, it was a slow week,” he said, remembering how they'd spent four days tracking a giant space slug in the Amazon jungle. “But we got the job done. What about you? How was yours?”

“Same old, same old,” Darcy replied, giving up on her quest to find a vase. She turned back to Steve. “Boss Lady had a breakthrough, and is determined to give the entire scientific community the proverbial finger.” (She carefully didn't mention that the breakthrough was actually to another dimension. They'd been lucky to get it closed before it caused any problems.)

“Well, I can't wait to see that,” Steve said.

“It'll be a good memory, I guarantee it,” she agreed. She tilted her head to one side as an idea popped into her head. “Do you have any objections to these flowers living in a jug?”

“Not at all.”

“Good. We'll go vase shopping tomorrow.”

She dumped the flowers in an ugly old plastic jug, filled it with water, and set it on the counter.

“Perfect,” Steve said, taking her in his arms and planting a firm kiss on her mouth.

They spent the whole of the following afternoon scouring the city for the perfect vase. As it turned out, there were three perfect vases in the city of Washington DC, so Steve bought her two more bouquets. After helping her arrange them throughout her apartment, it hit him that he'd rather be here than anywhere else. The only time he stayed at his own apartment was when Darcy was away on a field trip with the woman he still only knew as Boss Lady. More than half of his wardrobe had taken up residence in her cupboards, and other random belongings are scattered throughout.

It got him thinking.

~*~

The first time he asked Darcy to marry him, they'd been officially dating for about a year. It didn’t seem like it had been that long, but he'd fallen head over heels, and wanted to tell her everything.

They were coiled together in a post-orgasmic haze, and it just kind of… slipped out. She laughed. Actually laughed. “Fantastic sex, a good marriage does not make,” she said. “I love you, but I'm not ready to get married just yet.”

She didn't say yes, but it wasn't an outright no, either.

He managed to wait a couple of months before asking again, but once again it was a spur of the moment thing. Boss Lady had decided to go to London for a few months, and he was petrified that she’d forget him, or not come back, or that they’d drift apart, or… he’s not sure about that last ‘or’.

She sighed, but it was a loving sigh, not a ‘what the hell’ sigh. “Steeeve. Honey.” She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, and stared into his eyes. “You know I love you, right? But marriage isn’t a spur of the moment thing. Now, kiss me—I’m not going to see you for the next three months, and I need something to get me through!”

He kissed her thoroughly, and once again took heart from the fact that she didn’t actually say no.

He didn’t hear about the Dark Elves until well after the fact—blackout missions didn’t happen very often, but this one had lasted a month, and he felt every second of it by the time they got back. He’d left his civilian, Darcy-only phone in his locker, but Fury had insisted on an immediate debrief before they even had a chance to shower, so the first he heard of it was from a fragment of conversation that drifted out of a break room as he walked along the corridor towards the changerooms.

He headed straight for his locker and his Darcy phone.

The first message was ‘Shit, I’ve lost the Boss Lady,’ followed by, ‘Why won’t anyone answer their goddam phone today?’ and ‘IT’S OKAY I’M ALIVE!!’ and finally ending with, ‘Boss Lady’s boyfriend is back!! Staying in London for now, but will be back in DC soon. Call me when you can.’

He hadn’t even known that Boss Lady had a boyfriend.

He called straight away.

“I just got back,” he said. “What in seven hells happened?”

“Steve! I was starting to worry about you!”

“Sorry, we lost all our communication in a storm.” It wasn’t the whole truth, but it was close enough, he decided.

“Well, to make a long story super short, evil elves invaded London, and Thor saved us all,” Darcy said.

“What? Evil elves? Thor? You mean, like the Avengers Thor? I didn’t think anyone had seen him since New York!” Steve was flabbergasted. No one had said anything to him about Thor returning.

“They hadn’t, but he just showed up out of nowhere! Look it up on YouTube; there’s so many videos, even the jack-booted thugs couldn’t keep up. They gave up trying to take them down about three days after it happened.”

“Can I come and see you?” Steve asked. “My boss owes me a few days—”

“YES!” Darcy shouted down the phone. “But I’ll book us a hotel, okay? Trust me, you do not want to stay with us now that The Boyfriend is back.”

“Okay, I’m gonna go home, pack a bag, and jump on the first plane I can,” he said. “I’ll let you know all the details, and I’ll see you soon. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Darcy replied. “I miss you so much. Oh god, I’m so excited now, Steve! Hurry up!”

“Okay, okay. I’m hurrying. I’ll call you from the airport.”

He wrangled a whole week’s worth of leave out of Fury (on the condition that he touched base with Thor while he was there) and proposed for the third time at the top of the London Eye. Darcy said he was affected by the view, but once again didn’t say yes, but didn’t say no either. In fact, she didn’t even say “not yet."

~*~

Darcy glanced at the clock and checked her appearance in the mirror one last time. Steve’s boss had called him earlier in the day, and asked him to check in with a client while he was in London. Even though he was on vacation, and they had a dinner reservation, he’d agreed to run the errand. He’d rung her half an hour ago to say that the meeting had gone much longer than he’d expected, and that he would meet her there.

She grabbed her purse and phone, opened the door, and standing there with a hand raised, ready to knock, was her father.

“Oh,” she gasped. “Jesus, Tony. You almost scared me half to death. What are you doing here? And how did you find me?”

“I’m here for a thing, so I thought I'd drop by,” Tony replied with a self satisfied grin. “Foster told me where you were.”

“Why were you talking to Jane?” she asked, suspicion hijacking her brain and refusing to let go. “Are you trying to convince her to sign with SI again?”

“I came to see Thor,” Tony said, “and then Capsicle showed up too—I wasn't expecting that. We had an extra long lunch, it was nice. But to answer your question, of course I am; how else am I going to get you to come home?”

“Even if she does agree to work with you, I’m not living in the Tower, Tony. I like my independence.”

“So you keep saying. Anyway, I didn’t actually come here to debate your residence in the Tower. Would you like to have dinner with me? I'll invite Cap as well.”

“You can't do that. Anyway, I have a date,” Darcy blurted out.

“Ah, I see. Everyone's turning me down tonight. Even Spangles turned me down! What could he have to do that's better than spending time with me?”

Darcy rolled her eyes. “I can think of a few things.”

“You wound me!” Tiny gasped in mock offense. “So your date tonight. Still the same guy? The one from DC?”

“Yes,” she replied, stepping out the door and pulling it closed behind her.

"When do I get to meet him?” Tony asked, following her to the elevator.

Darcy pushed the button, then turned and gave him a stern look. “Tony—Dad—I love you, but you're still you. And you're Iron Man. Remember those new security protocols Fury put in place last year? I literally need to marry the guy before I can introduce him to my own father, but how can I marry someone when I'm hiding such a big thing from them?”

Tony kissed Darcy in the middle of her forehead.

“The whole world already knows I'm Iron Man,” he shrugged. “That rule should not apply to me. If your guy can't handle that, you're better off without him.”

Darcy smiled. “And then you can introduce me to Captain America, right?”

Tony grinned. “My Steve is way better than your Steve,” he declared.

“Oh my god, Tony! You know you shouldn't even be telling me his name!” Darcy protested as the elevator arrived. “Just because I'm already associated with you and Thor, DOES NOT mean I automatically get to know any other Avengers!”

“I can change that!” Tony said, following her onto the lift. “The Avengers could use someone like you. I get you on the payroll, and everything would be perfect.”

Darcy frowned. There was a reason she’d chosen International Relations for her Masters, even if she hadn’t really acknowledged it at the time. “I’ll think about it,” she said at last. “But I still need to finish my thesis, and since the convergence Jane’s gotten enthused again. She’s got a lot to study over here.”

Tony nodded. “I understand. Also—and I shouldn’t be telling you this by the way—S.H.I.E.L.D. is going to be asking Thor to help them out occasionally. They’ll probably lean on him and Foster to come back to the States sooner, rather than later.”

“Hah!” Darcy snapped. “When they didn’t even answer my phone calls when Jane went missing, and then didn’t show up until after everything was all over? Not if I have anything to do with it, Tony. No. Fucking. Way. I'd rather she work for you!”

Tony threw his arm around her shoulder and hugged her tightly. “That’s my girl.”

They exited the elevator, and made their way outside.

“How are you getting to your date?” Tony asked, handing his valet slip to the attendant. “Can I give you a ride?”

“Well, I was gonna take a cab, but yeah, I'd like that.”

The ride to the restaurant wasn't a long one, and halfway there Darcy gathered her courage.

“I'm thinking that when I get back to DC I might ask Steve to move in with me ,” she said.

“Again: when do I get to meet him?”

“Tony! He keeps asking me to marry him. Three times in six months... and I want to say yes, but I'm scared about what might happen when he finds out about you, and Jane, and Thor. I thought, maybe living together first would be a good way to see if we'll really work or not.”

“That sounds reasonable to me,” Tony said. “But you have to tell him about me first, and I want to be behind the door as exhibit A when it happens.”

Darcy laughed as her father pulled into the curb half a block down from her destination. “You're incorrigible.”

“It's one of my better talents,” Tony quipped. “Come and see me when you get home. I'll be waiting!”

~*~

Darcy, Boss Lady, and The Boyfriend returned to DC on Christmas Eve. Steve was already at her apartment, having let himself in with the key she'd given him before he left London. He tidied and dusted, then went out and found what was possibly the last decent Christmas tree in the city.

By the time she arrived home, the tree was decorated, dinner was in the oven, and Steve was watching the cheesiest Christmas movie he could find.

“Oh my God, could you get any more perfect?” Darcy asked once she'd recovered from his welcome home kiss.

“I didn't actually cook,” he admitted. “It's from a restaurant a friend recommended.”

“I don't care—it smells amazing.”

They ate in front of the movie, then Steve insisted Darcy shower while he cleaned up.

“You know, I could get used to this,” Darcy said later, curled around him as they lay in bed. “Coming home to dinner, and a homey apartment… and you.” She lifted her head to look at him. “I think you should move in with me.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. You practically live here already, why not make it official?”

Steve could think of plenty of reasons why he should say no; the main ones being S.H.I.E.L.D. and not being able to tell her who he really was.

“You don't have to decide straight away,” she continued, “I know it's a big decision. Just... think about it?”

“Okay. I can do that.”

Steve tried to put off thinking about his dilemma and just enjoy the time he had with Darcy. He succeeded, mostly, allowing himself to make endless pros vs. cons lists only after she fell asleep at night. Three days later, when he got called out on a mission, it was harder to push out of his mind. In Darcy’s presence he could forget anything unpleasant; in an abandoned bunker stuffed with undecipherable technology, it wasn’t so easy. As he watched Tony take apart a piece of modified electronics, Steve decided to take the opportunity to talk to someone who wasn't S.H.I.E.L.D.

“Can I ask you something?”

“What's up, Cap?” Tony asked, elbow-deep in computer components.

“My girlfriend asked me to move in with her.”

Tony paused and looked at him. “You have a girlfriend?”

“You don’t have to sound so surprised.”

“And she asked you to move in with her?”

“That’s what I said.”

“Does she know who you are?”

Steve sighed. “That's the problem—she doesn't. I want to tell her, but I can't.”

Tony nodded. “Fury’s security protocols. Do you love her?”

“More than I ever dreamed,” Steve admitted. “I'd marry her tomorrow if she'd just say yes.”

“Have you asked her?” Tony asked.

“Three times now,” Steve said with a self deprecating smile. “She just says she's not ready for marriage, and changes the subject.”

Tony put his tools down and straightened up, turning to look at Steve. “Three times? Has she actually said no?”

Steve shook his head, a little unnerved by the fact that Tony was ignoring his work to have a personal conversation. “No, just ‘not yet’.”

Tony stared, blinked, then stared some more.

“Tony? Is something wrong?”

“Out of curiosity... have you met her parents yet? Her father?”

“No, but... I thought people didn’t care so much about that sort of thing nowadays.”

Tony shook his head. “Never mind; nothing to worry about. I think you should do it. Move in with your girl, show her you're serious, and maybe you'll get that yes so you can come clean.”

“I would, but I wonder… What if she doesn't want Captain America in her life?”

“If she really loves you, she'll come around.” Tony turned back to his work. “She'll probably be really mad at first, but that's always a risk in any relationship. There's always something that’s gonna make someone mad. You just have to get through it.”

“Voice of experience?” Steve asked.

Tony nodded. “Take the chance, Cap. Take the chance.”

~*~

(When Tony got home, the first thing he did was ask Jarvis for the security footage from his daughter's apartment block during Christmas. When his suspicions were confirmed, he laughed for a solid five minutes.)

~*~

Steve’s S.H.I.E.L.D. apartment was exactly that: an apartment belonging to S.H.I.E.L.D. It came fully furnished, and he had never been one to collect much, so there was very little in it that belonged to him. It took him half a morning to pack up his stuff, and he was all moved in with Darcy by New Year’s.

As he sat on Darcy’s couch, arm around his girl, watching fireworks, and waiting for 2014 to start, he realised that he hadn't felt this happy—this comfortable, so at home—since he'd woken up almost two years ago. A neuron fired in his brain, and he knew: this was what he'd wanted his whole life.

As the clock ticked down, he closed his eyes and made a wish. For a good year. For Darcy to say yes to his next proposal (which he was determined to do properly this time: ring, knee, the lot). For Darcy to be okay with him being the Real Steve Rogers (and Captain America).

As the last seconds counted down, Darcy turned to him and smiled.

“Happy New Year, Steve,” she said, eyes shining as she leaned up to kiss him.

~*~

Steve's last proposal was planned properly.

Ring, dinner, flowers, speech. Everything done right.

Whenever they can, they rendezvous at the subway station after work and then walk home together through the park. Some days they talk a lot; some days they don't. On this particular day, they were both lost in their own thoughts, when Darcy stopped suddenly.

“Darce?”

“I'm ready for you to meet my father,” she said.

“Um, okay?”

“And… I want to marry you,” she continued. “If you still want to marry me, that is.”

He stared at her for a moment, gobsmacked at what she'd just said to him, and then he started laughing. He couldn't help it.

“Okay, I'm not sure if you laughing at me is a good sign?” Darcy looked equal parts worried and amused. “I never laughed at you!”

“I'm sorry.” He gathered her up in his arms, and hugged her tightly. “It's just, I finally planned out a proper proposal, and you blurt it out while we're walking through the park.”

“You planned a proposal?” She blinked at him.

He pulled the box out of his pocket. “There's flowers and dinner at home, but I've had this in my pocket for a few weeks now.” He opened the box.

“That's a really nice ring,” was all she said.

“It is,” he agreed. “And I think it would look nicer on your finger.”

She looked down at the ring again, and he held his breath. “Yes. You're right. It would look nicer on my finger.”

“Does that mean you're going to wear it?”

“I do have a few things I should probably tell you first; I don't know if you're going to like them." she said.

“Me too, but you wanna give me an answer first? Please?”

“Hang on, didn't I just propose to you?”

“Yes, you did, and yes I will. Whatever secrets you have, I will deal with them,” Steve said solemnly.

“In that case, yes, Steve. I will most definitely marry you, and ditto on the secrets. Now gimme that ring!”

He put the ring on her finger, and she flung her arms around him, kissing him breathless.

“Let's go home.”

#ShieldShock #fuckyeahdarcylewis

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jasonmcgathey · 5 years ago

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DiMarco’s

Concerned the draft reserves in our keg might not hold through morning, we start marching, up Bethel and across a deserted bank parking lot to the nearby neighborhood watering hole, DiMarco’s. A divided, four lane concourse of revving engines and weekend mad revelers, strip mall facades on both sides lit up indexing, variously, every known shade of the rainbow, this stretch of Bethel still sizzles with a heat only unexplored turf can sustain. Not only this stretch but the wealth of Upper Arlington beyond where, having conquered campus in our peculiar slipshod way, which is to say incompletely, but the best we’re ever likely to, may very well stand my next great project. Cataloging this terrain, or any fraction of the buffer separating their world and ours, or another series of blocks entirely. We cavort in myriad clusters like zoo animals gone AWOL, and I’m suddenly reminded of those January nights scouting out High Street for the very first time. The feeling that anything can happen and you’re on the edge of some tremendous discovery, a sensation you can never explain, nor one you’re ever capable of replicating on command.

DiMarco’s is a simple dive bar with a pair of real dartboards along the back wall, one pool table near the front picture window and not much else. Booths around the rim, and wobbly mismatched tables in the middle, square and shoved together in blocks of two or three. Jukebox topheavy with 1980s hair metal the clientele has never stopped listening to, one large screen television between the pool table and the entrance. This place might not have much of that elusive element, class, but enough that nobody’s cracking someone else over the head with a pool cue. Everyone here’s a friend, including the squat blonde middle aged barmaid Jan, quick to smile, her slightly pudgy right hand man Zerby, wiry black curls distributed sparsely across his prematurely balding pate, large black eyeglasses lending him the appearance of an owl. They are always here, I’m told. A schedule as religious as the price slashes they apply each trip to the bar, just because we know Doug and the Yanik sisters.

DiMarco’s has at no point ever been my favorite bar in town, but I sure have spent a ton of time here, nonetheless. Enough friends who lived up this way did consider it their top spot, to where the rest of us wound up here constantly by default. There’s so many random memories swirling around my head about this place, as is often the case, that it’s difficult to determine what episodes or details to share.

I know I’ve spent at least two Halloweens here, in part, of which that photo up top documents one. This would be the year that a really sharp looking brunette flashed her tits at the entire room, and Miles – though dressed like a doctor – raised both of his arms like a football referee and announced, “that’s a field goal!” This makes the highlight reel, to be sure, and is also a great example of the classic Miles comment, memorable despite or because of not making 100% perfect sense…even though you basically know what he means anyway. Otherwise, on this particular outing, I’m going with the self-explanatory bathrobe and pipe look, while Lisa, though she’s removed it by this point, had earlier adopted some sort of slutty kitten mask.

As far as other memories are concerned…Roy, Doug Fogle and I once caught a ride here in a pizza delivery girl’s pickup, in an absolute downpour. A bunch of us had been at Polo’s and virtually everyone else in our crew already left on foot for DiMarco’s. By virtue of hanging around just a smidgen two long, the three of us are caught up in this rain, though we don’t know it until stepping out the front door.

“Hey,” Roy says, spotting a pizza joint next door, “let’s wait in there until this lets up.”

We walk over and begin rattling the locked glass door. The lights are still on, there are two girls working behind the counter, and an Asian couple is milling around in the lobby. So what gives? Finally, the Asian lady strides over and unlocks the door, to the visible consternation of both employees.

“We’re closed,” one of the girls calls out as our motley trio staggers in. Apparently, the two ladies were making up one last order for this couple, and that was to be the end of their night.

“Here,” the other, nicer girl offers, a modest looking brown haired chick, “we’ve got two whole pizzas left over – you guys can have them.”

We thank her in an appropriately profuse fashion, and Roy hands a pie each to Fogle and me. Then he lays three dollar bills on the counter before we leave just as abruptly as we came, and in no better shape. The rain hasn’t abated any yet here the three of us are standing beneath the same awning, except encumbered now with the additional weight of two pizzas.

The nice girl bursts through the glass door, jogging to a nearby truck, expertly toting a piping hot pizza bag in one hand which bears the well known company logo. One last delivery, it seems, before her night is through, before she can wash her hands of fools like us – that is, until her next shift in hell comes calling.

“Hey, can you give us a ride up to DiMarco’s?” Roy shouts across the parking lot, long after she’s passed us. She’s standing beside her truck now, fishing for keys, and offers no immediate reaction to the question, or whether she’s even heard it.

“I’m not supposed to,” she shouts back to us, “but okay. Come on!”

Sprinting over to join this chick before she changes her mind, Roy jumps into the shotgun seat while Fogle and I are left sitting like a pair of rain drenched idiots in the bed. She tears out of the parking lot and only then do I realize we’re still holding the pizzas, also, too moronic to keep them inside the truck with Roy. Still, weighing the pros and cons of this arrangement stacks up well for us, better than walking, and the cardboard boxes somehow fare better in the rain than we do.

Two minutes later, we arrive at DiMarco’s. Roy and Fogle sprint inside, while I stop to have a few kind words with our driver. Inviting her to either come in for a drink or else swing by Doug’s apartment later, though she laughs off each suggestion before driving away. I have no choice but to join the others, now, and meet them inside.

II.

I happen to remember the night Damon first met the Yanik sisters, too, for whatever reason, even though nothing about it is all that remarkable. I think this is because we’d been in town for almost a year, and Alan and I both had already enjoyed some scattered bedroom adventures with Lisa, not to mention partied with these people an unholy amount for months on end. Yet here our third roommate had somehow not even made their acquaintance, not only the sisters but this entire crew.

Then again, our lives are often more compartmentalized than we think. Coworkers we’ve worked beside for years upon years, though they’ve never met our families, to give one example. Or, like how this particular gang never really ventured down to campus or Grandview much, just as my campus and Grandview friends were almost never up here.

Bored on some random winter weeknight, I decide to call them up, having not seen these folks for a number of weeks myself. Since Doug moved away and I left Kroger, that outrageous era had ended and I hadn’t been on this northwest end of town much. Learning now that a bunch of them are heading to DiMarco’s, Damon and I decide to ride up there ourselves.

Their younger brother Tommy now occupies Doug’s old couch, and Dane, who’s gotten into one bad situation after another over the course of a few weeks, has wound up getting fired from his most recent job, at a department store, for not showing up and dicking around when he did make it in. Then he busts out the windshield of Maria’s car during a nasty fight, and Mike Nelson drops him to the ground with a haymaker and he’s kicked out of their pad as well, exiled from the charmed circle of friends.

I introduce Damon to everyone – seated at one table in the dimly lit other half of DiMarco’s, the half away from the bar, is the cool but somewhat spacey Charlie, a part-time drummer, his stringy black musician’s hair now almost as long as Damon’s; the ever talkative and impossibly busty redhead, Jen McBride; Lisa with her admittedly comparable breasts, dark blonde locks currently worn straight and halfway down her back; and her sister Maria, a brunette, whom we are fortunate to catch in a really vocal mood this time around. The two of us squeeze in beside them and brace ourselves for this conversation.

Junior, Tommy, and their preppy jock friend Cooper, who I remember from one other party back in the spring, are playing pool nearby, while the girls relate to us the latest adventures and trending gossip concerning everyone else. Meanwhile, Damon sits looking bored and sipping on a beer, or else trying to strike up a conversation with Lisa and Jen, even though they didn’t know what to make of this longhair character in horn rims.

Although, it is possible he’s having a better time than it appears. “I knew I’d be in trouble meeting these fat girls with pretty faces,” he whispers to me at one point, after downing a couple brews. Even if Lisa’s ruining the good cheer by bitching incessantly about her roommates. Finally, the clock reaches two thirty and house lights are coming on, as we pay the ever present bartending duo and head for the doors.

“Jesus Christ, Dude!” Damon exclaims with a sigh as we steps outside, “they seem like nice girls and all, but man, that one was getting on my nerves.”

“She’s usually not that bad,” I explain, which is true.

“And what about that other one, the redhead, what was her name, Lisa?”

“No, Lisa was the blonde,” I correct.

“Well, whatever, she was the one sitting on the outside, right? I couldn’t believe she was bitching about everyone not cleaning their rooms! Maaaaaaan, I’d tell that bitch to fuck off!“

“Well, they’re usually not that bad,” I tell him, “especially after you get a couple beers in them. They throw good parties though, and they do have some nice looking friends.”

III.

They used to keep decks of cards behind the bar here and DiMarco’s, and possibly still do, as we’ve played many a game of euchre here. There was a long running tradition, and may still be, of pool tournaments played blatantly for cash in this bar, and nobody batted an eyelash. Then again, I don’t remember ever seeing law enforcement around these parts, and the help situation was always remarkably consistent, with Jan and Zerby here just about every night. So you weren’t going to catch any heat from them, either.

That TouchTunes jukebox at the very least had an REO Speedwagon album on it. This I know because Lisa, who I constantly berated for her somewhat horrible tastes in music, was particularly fond of that one, would play it here often. At some point along the line, though sleeping together off and on for about a decade, we did try actually dating for approximately an eight month stretch there in the middle. One night she was at this juke and that infernal Speedwagon disc was blasting Time For Me To Fly, while Lisa and Jen F stood there still picking out further tunes, and Jen told her, speaking of me, “Lisa, this song is for you. It’s time for you to fly.”

Despite this period (or maybe because of it, as the more Lisa would yell at me, the more inclined I was to laugh in her face), I always was and continue to be thought of as somewhat of a zany, hopeless goofball with this crew. It’s funny how you get off on a certain foot with various scenes, be it socially, or with work, or with family, and nothing much can ever really change this. You begin to realize it’s a combination of elements contributing to this phenomenon: a little bit of people only seeing what they expect to see, a little bit maybe of you falling into your familiar role with each circle, but then also, I half suspect sometimes, it almost seems like life is throwing events in everyone’s lap to bolster these impressions. Even one night here in DiMarco’s where Lisa’s been screaming again and Tommy’s threatening me with, “don’t do anything stupid!” won’t change the dynamic, is pretty much forgotten about five minutes later.

“She doesn’t listen to anything, dude,” I tell him.

“It’s my fuckin sister – you think I don’t know that?” he retorts.

Perhaps riding around with pizzas in the rain isn’t the best idea, if you’re trying to dispel some image. Even so, in the late 90s I was dating this perfectly fine looking brunette named Stacy, however briefly. I’m pretty sure that the first time I ever came out with her around this group, we were at DiMarco’s. At any rate, it was one of the few occasions I was ever with her, around this bunch. We’ve been here a while and she says something about wanting to dip over to Polo’s. So the two of us say goodbye to everyone, climb in my car and drive over there. Stacy and I sit at the bar and order one beer…and then she completely disappears. She saw somebody she knew across the bar and was going over to say a quick hello, and this was the last I saw of her that night.

I was more than a little embarrassed at the time about my pathetic glasses, thus would never wear them. So my eyesight wasn’t the greatest to begin with. Nonetheless, I did sit there for quite a while, nursing my beer, and even made a cursory lap or two of the place. May have possibly ordered a second brew, even. In this pre-cell-phone era, this basically represented the extent of your options. Therefore, despite not exactly rushing into this decision, I eventually shrugged it off, hopped back in my car…and returned to DiMarco’s alone.

“Where’s Stacy?” everyone asks, baffled by this turn of events.

“I have no idea,” I tell them.

Of course the entire mob – which, now that I think about it, was fanned around one of those larger central tables, itself a rarity, instead of spread like normal all over the bar – is howling, clapping their hands together, pretty much on the verge of spewing beer out through their noses. I was unwittingly playing the same old part as always. I guess it’s somewhat amazing that Stacy and I actually went out some more after this. But I never quite lived this one down. Nor did I ever bring her to DiMarco’s again.

IV.

Though pretty much everyone else has moved on, we do still swing by here from time to time, of course. It was here one night that it became obvious Damon was really hitting it off with this Maryland chick, who worked with Tommy, and the two of them soon turned into a serious couple. At some point, a window was installed connecting DiMarco’s with the Ange’s Pizza next door, and there became even less of a need to leave your barstool than before. Fluke reunions across the years have almost always meant a pit stop in this place is required, if it involves any of this old gang. Like for instance, the last I’ve seen of such disparate characters as Miles or Jen McBride, these occasions have transpired right here. I seem to remember hearing something about Jan and Zerby buying the place, even, though I’ll have to research that – but either way, I like to think that the two of them are still behind the bar, every night, just like always.

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#bars #city life #Upper Arlington #Ange's Pizza #DiMarco's #Polo's

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