#he's better now he's my sweet angel and a big helper i love him so much my bff

[cowardlycowboys]

if u ever get baby fever working at a daycare really curbs that!

[troubatrain]

high for this - n. patrick

a/n: self indulgent marijuana fueled nolan smut?? from me?? never!! i started this the last time it snowed but i finally got a chance to actually finish it so i hope  you guys like it! tagging @tkafuckit​ & @hookingminor​ because truly nothing gets done around here without them lbr

warnings: smut, marijuana

This had to be the worst blizzard to have hit Philadelphia in decades. At least that’s what the weatherman said while his toupee was dangerously close to falling off, an internal bet Nolan had with himself about how long it would be until it flew away in the wind and snow that was shutting down the city. Not only was he snowed in, he was snowed in with Joel and his girlfriend April who’d been pretending like Nolan wasn’t on the other side of the couch for the last hour. Nolan huffs, getting up from his spot on the couch in search of you.

Nolan didn’t like to admit it, but he had a soft spot for you he couldn’t quite explain. Maybe it was because you were just as much a weird third wheel to Joel’s relationship as he was. Or it could have been the way he started using hanging out with Joel and April as an excuse to do exactly what he’s doing right now. He walked down the hallway, two doors from the bathroom was your bedroom. He could hear the soft sounds of whatever record you were spinning on the other side, and he took a deep breath before he poked his head and smiled. You were nestled in your bed under a mountain of blankets and a movie on your laptop, “We’re stuck here I think.”

You laugh, an angelic sound bouncing off the walls of your room while Nolan hoped you wouldn’t catch his blush from across the room. You opened your blanket pile, tapping on the other side of your bed for Nolan to come join you. It wasn’t like it was out of the ordinary that Nolan would escape Joel and April to hide out with you, but he was doing it way more often than he used to, “Joel and April are making out aren’t they?”

“April’s five minutes from losing her shirt,” Nolan points his finger up, the sound of April’s giggle from the living room, “I don’t need to see that.”

You’d been in this position plenty of times, Nolan curled up in your bed while Parks and Rec played quietly in the background. Nolan would start off on one side of your bed, and before you knew it you were cuddled into his side while neither of you spoke a word. It was a comfortable silence, never asking for anything more or anything less, “You know, we’re snowed in and there’s nothing else to do…”

“Do you want me to roll a joint?” Nolan chuckles, pushing a piece of his hair from his face.

“You’re just so much better than me at it,” You admit, which wasn’t a total lie. Nolan was the best joint roller you’d ever come across, but Nolan was also the hottest joint roller you knew. It was such a weird thing to be attracted to, the way the paper would roll between his fingers and all you seemed to be able to focus on was how big his hands were, “Please?”

Nolan wasn’t going to say no, mostly because if you were both high he didn’t need an excuse to hold you because you always seemed to snuggle right up to him after. Besides, Nolan definitely wasn’t going to say no when you were pouting with the best puppy dog eyes you could muster up, “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

“You’re lucky I didn’t leave you to watch Joel and April fuck,” You tease, pushing Nolan in the chest lightly. You heard him call you cute, but you couldn’t read into it. Nolan was single and in the time since you’d met it was clear he wasn’t fucking around with anyone else. Joel told you it was because Nolan was a little introverted and if he liked he wasn’t going to announce to the world. You didn’t think much of it until you met Kevin who was over the moon to meet the girl Nolan was always talking about. All of your friends seemed to think whatever you had with Nolan was on the fast track to being together, but Nolan never seemed to mention it to you. You open your end table, leaning across Nolan and grabbing your grinder and some bud, dropping it in his hands.

Nolan gets to work, long slim fingers dropping the weed onto the paper gently while you hopped off the bed and pulled out a record. Nolan looks up at you for a minute, a Temple hoodie hanging off your frame covering the shorts you had underneath it. His eyes wandered down your legs, god he wanted you, but he couldn’t even begin to figure out how to tell you. He should let you know that you were pretty much his dream girl, standing across the room flipping a Hozier album in your hands while you picked what you should listen to. It’s about the vibes Nolan, you remarked that to him the first time you ever smoked together, and now Nolan had a playlist just for songs he knew you loved most.

“You’re indecisive,” Nolan hums, watching you put the same record back on it’s shelf and licking the edge of the paper, “Just pick one, anything you pick will be cooler than I would have chosen anyways.”

You turn around sticking your tongue out at him and grabbing a Mt. Joy vinyl to put on, “Did you get that for me?”

“I got it for me,” You defend, holding in the truth that Nolan’s music taste seemed to be weaving itself with your own, “But I knew you liked them, and you never seem to leave me alone.”

“Don’t think you want me too,” Nolan mumbles, grabbing a lighter from your nightstand, sparking up the end of the joint and handing it over to you.

“Wow I get the first hit, what a gentleman,” You joke, sitting cross legged on your bed and watching the smoke fill your room. Nolan loved watching you smoke, the way it would just fall from lips and your voice would get a little raspier. He loved the way your eyes seemed to get hazier and your smile just a bit wider than it usually was, “Excellent work Patty.”

“Glad I could be of service,” Nolan chuckles, your head falling into his lap without a second thought. You both laid like that the entire time you were smoking, sharing the joint while Nolan’s fingers weaving through your hair absentmindedly, “I saw it by the way.”

“Saw what?” You ask, furrowing your eyebrows in confusion at whatever he was on about.

“Your little helper,” Nolan muses, a tight lipped smile on his face because he could literally see your hazy mind trying to figure out what he was talking about. Nolan didn’t know why he needed to say anything about the very teeny vibrator in your bedside table next to your grinder, “Use it often?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” You brush him off, it was Nolan and Nolan teased you all the time.

“You know I do,” Nolan hums, his gaze on you while you were practically squirming in his lap, “The same way that you know I like you but you never do anything about it.”

“Shouldn’t you be making the first move?” You poke open one eye to look up at Nolan. His hands moved quickly, grabbing your thighs and pulling you up to straddle his waist.

“Thought we were more progressive than that babe,” Nolan huffs, his voice deeper than it usually was. His hands were running up your legs, rough calloused fingers against your skin.

“I want to hear you say it,” You challenge, boldly running a hand through Nolan’s hair. Nolan’s heart was stammering in his chest, but when a silly smile danced across your lips he couldn’t help but laugh, “Let’s hear it Patty.”

“I want you, here, now, and every time after this,” Nolan says, his voice sure, steady and clear. His lips ghosed over yours for a moment, “C’mere.”

Nolan wasn’t a man of many words, but he was going to show just how he felt. His hands cascaded down your body, stopping on your ass and giving it a tap while his lips pressed against yours. It was electric, and you wondered why you bothered to kiss anyone besides Nolan, “Nols-”

“Yeah?” Nolan pulls away, cheeks rosy and his breath ripped out his body from just one kiss. You bit your lip, looking at him in the eyes before you spoke again.

“Fuck me,” You whimper, grinding your hips against Nolan’s, pulling a groan from his lips. Nolan’s hand gripped your chin, crashing his lips against yours. His other hand snuck under your shirt, the rough calloused fingers that only lived in your fantasies rubbing against your soft skin. He flipped you over, holding himself up by his elbows while he pressed kisses down your neck.

“I’ve thought about this so many fucking times,” Nolan mumbles, his lips pressed against your skin. You could feel his teeth graze behind your ear, pulling a moan out of you.

“Maybe you should’ve done something about it sooner,” You smirk, grabbing his cheeks and pulling him back in for a kiss, “Could’ve saved me a few lonely nights.”

“Consider those over,” Nolan promises, giving you a sweet kiss before his hands grabbed the bottom of your hoodie to pull it off. Nolan’s lips move down your body, love bites and kisses pressed against your skin while he makes his way down to where you need him most. His fingers slipped under your sweats, looking up at you for the go ahead he needed, you nod eating up the feeling of Nolan’s hands on your bare skin, “So pretty baby.”

Nolan’s finger traced lightly over your thighs, his breath hot against your pussy while you ached for more, “Don’t tease me or I’ll get my little friend out to do the job for me.”

Nolan chuckles at your whine, a finger sliding up your folds, “That’s for another time babe.”

Nolan’s words had your eyes rolling to the back of your head, oh it’s definitely big. His tongue swirled your clit gently, trying to figure out exactly what was going to get you off. You let out a moan, one that definitely carried through the hallway loud enough for Joel and April to hear from the living room. Nolan smirks to himself, wrapping his lips around your clit and sliding one of his ridiculously long fingers inside you. Your hand gripped his hair, tugging on it gently while you bit your lip to stop yourself from being too loud, “Fuck Nolan, faster.”

Nolan nods, a second finger sliding inside of you and curling against your g spot. You grinded down on Nolan’s face, his free hand gripping your thigh to keep you in place. You were a moaning mess above him, not caring one bit about anyone hearing you because Nolan’s mouth was magic. It really is always the quiet ones. You were close, Nolan’s fingers sliding out of just when he started to feel your pussy clench around him. You whine, grabbing the back of Nolan’s head to keep his mouth against your pussy but it was no use when Nolan was that big, “Sorry did you want to cum?”

Nolan’s finger was teasing your entrance, watching the way your pussy was clenching in anticipation, you let out a breathy laugh, “Please make cum Nols, I need it.”

All it took after that was Nolan’s tongue around your clit and his fingers curled back inside you for you to cum. Nolan’s name fell from your lips, a sound that Nolan had dreamed of but never thought he’d actually get to hear. Nolan’s eyes looked over at your night stand, grabbing the extra joint he rolled and placing it between his lips. He tossed off his shirt, grabbing a lighter and sparking the end before he blew smoke in your mouth and pressed his lips against yours. You moan at sensation, gripping Nolan’s shoulder to pull him closer. You had him now, and you’d be damned if you were going to let him go. 

Nolan kicks off his sweats, taking a few puffs from the joint and groaning when you palmed him through his boxers. He grabs your hand, dropping the joint into yours and pulling off his boxers to let his cock spring free. Your suspicions were correct- it was big, you let out a giggle, Nolan’s eyebrows furrowing at you, “What?”

“I had this bet with myself about how big your dick was,” You admit, taking your own pull from the joint and watching the smoke fill the room, “Not disappointed.”

Nolan laughs, pressing a kiss to your lips and lining his cock up to you. He looks at you, “You’re my fucking dream girl.”

Nolan didn’t spare you a second to react to his words before he slid inside you. He groaned at the feeling, his head pressed against your neck. Nolan’s hips snapped against you, your nails scratching down his back while he railed you into oblivion. You were seeing stars, moans and whimpers falling from your lips and not a single thought in your mind except the fact that Nolan was making you feel so damn good, “Cum for me again, c’mon.”

Nolan’s deep voice was rumbling against your neck, his dick twitched inside of you in need of a release. You clenched around him, your legs shaking from pleasure. Nolan pulled out of you, spilling onto your stomach with a loud fuck. Nolan collapsed on top of you, the both of you trying to catch your breath. He rolls over, pulling you close his chest, “I meant what I said, I wasn’t just trying to get laid.”

“I know,” You hum, snuggling closer to his chest, “Think April and Joel heard us?”

The last thing you heard before you finally let the exhaustion take over your body was a we did in unison from April and Joel down the hall. 

[boldlyvoid]

Amoreena | Chapter Six

Chapter Six

main summary: Heaven is a real place and it's located exactly 14.6 miles away from the FBI, Quantico Headquarters. Off behind a small park, under a fantastical willow tree surrounded by wildflowers, in every colour young minds can imagine.

Don't forget, heaven also comes with angels.

Chapter Warnings: slight smut** angst, spencer's overthinking and anxiety, passing out, plot twist, very understanding reader, happy ending, smut implied but not graphic

word count: 6.2K

from the beginning <3

Derek and Savannah planned to come over on Sunday morning to introduce Hank and Amoreena, his namesake and his honorary daughter meeting felt very important to him.

Y/N and he spent the morning cleaning up the house, making sure all the books were away and the coffee was on so when they pulled in at 11 for brunch they’d be ready.

Amoreena was beyond excited at the idea of a 16th cousin, not knowing about Henry or Michael yet either, bringing her total to 18 cousins.

Spencer learned something new about them and the farm every single day he was there. Which he expected, it had been 8 days and he was all but moved in. They joked just that morning about them moving too fast, shrugging it off and living their lives anyway.

Derek and Savannah were one of the sweetest couples Spencer knew. They had a love he admired, it also blossomed fast and stayed strong through everything Derek went through.

Derek was always going to be his rock, someone he loved deeply and cherished more than he could ever explain to anyone. More than a brother, a long-lost lover, a confidant, his best friend in the whole world. If he could live through everything he’s been through and still be happy, so could Spencer.

Amoreena is out the door and meeting them before Y/N and Spencer are even aware they pulled in. “Hey little lady, I’m your uncle Derek,” he can hear Derek’s sweet voice that he only uses with kids.

They walked out onto the porch to see Amoreena shaking both their hands before asking if Savannah needed help carrying her purse. Ever the little helper, she intended on making the best introduction to her new family members.

“Spence, this place is amazing!” Savannah gushed as she pulled him into a hug, and then Y/N, “It’s lovely to meet you.”

“You too! You’re all so pretty, holy cow,” she swoons, “what does the FBI put in the water over there?”

“Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s running off over here too,” Spencer compliments Y/N right back.

Derek gives Y/N the biggest hug he’s ever seen, “you are my new bestie, anyone who loves Reid as much as me is a keeper.”

“I like this one, Savannah you have good taste,” Y/N teases, holding Derek in her embrace.

“We got the best guys the bureau had to offer and stole them away,” she laughed, wrapping an arm around Spencer as they turned to see Hank.

“Well, someone had to put them to good use,” Y/N had an arm wrapped around Derek too, slipping into Spencer’s life effortlessly.

Hank was almost 5, it blew Spencer’s mind to think that Derek had been a father for 5 years now. He was the sweetest little guy, holding Amoreena’s hand as the two of them walked up the stairs.

They had sandwiches and muffins in the garden, everything was homemade and grown on the farm. It was a life Spencer was excited to get used to, they even made their own cheese and wine in the summer for the farmers market.

Every time he learned a new detail about this place it got more perfect.

Hank loved the goats, he crawled right in with Amoreena and sat down in the mud. Petting the babies and letting all the mamma goats nibble at his hat as they got close. He giggled and screamed, petting all of them nicely as Amoreena told him all their names.

Derek was very quick to pick out a cowboy hat and pretend he was southern, trying out his fake accent and making Savannah laugh as they explored the farm, skipping through the fields and kissing in the grass. They were just as in love as Spencer and Y/N, they all got along like couples who have been friends since college.

Like this had been their life all along, nothing about it felt new. It just felt right.

Everything about her fit into his life like she was handcrafted for it, picked and polished before set in a box and hidden away from the world. She was a collector's item and he was a collector, keeping her close and never letting her go. He knew her worth, but the feeling she produced in his heart was better than anything in the world.

Before they know it, it’s almost 3 and Hank is about to fall asleep in the grass as Amoreena reads him a story. Derek and Savanah are laying back on a blanket half-listening as they watch the clouds. Spencer and Y/N doing the same.

It’s wonderful, he makes eye contact with Derek while running his fingers through Y/N’s hair. He just smiles at Spencer, prouder he can even express.

“I think it’s about time we head out,” Derek cuts into the peacefulness of their day.

“We’ll be back, and often,” Savannah laughs, “I’m going to hide here from the hospital, you don’t have service right?”

“Not if you turn it off and leave it in the car,” Y/N laughed too, pulling Savannah into a hug and walking with her towards the house. Best friends in the making, it was going to be trouble for him and Derek, exciting, but frightful at the same time.

Savannah excuses herself to the bathroom before they leave, Spencer offers to help Derek carry his tired little toddler to the car so they can talk. He was excited to hear Derek's thoughts about the day, proud of the life he could introduce them to.

“Can I ask you a serious question?” Derek finally cut into their quiet walk to the car with a very serious tone.

“Sure,” Spencer nodded vigorously, a little nervous.

“Do you remember when we lost that bet in 2008?” Derek started, “JJ and Emily were saying it wasn’t fair, that we were hogging all the sexiness and smarts and we should just donate sperm to help the population?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you actually do it?” Derek watches Spencer’s mind wandering as he recalls everything.

He has donated sperm twice in his life, keeping it between him and Derek the first time, telling no one about it the second time. The first was when JJ got pregnant with Henry, teasing him that he should make more geniuses in the world. Emily was even considering having a baby on her own back then before everything with Doyle went down.

The second time was after Maeve died in 2013 when he realized that he might not ever get to actually be a dad.

Donating again purely in the hopes that in 18 years someone would find him in search of a connection with their birth father. It seemed like the only way he’d be able to be a father one day, and that was right around the time Amoreena would have been conceived if she’s 7 now.

Spencer looks at him with wide eyes, “you think she’s mine?”

“Without a doubt,” he whispers, stopping to put Hank in his car seat and give Spencer some time to panic.

“She’s not mine,” Spencer keeps shaking his head, so hard that Derek is worried it might fall off as he panics, “she can’t be, that would be insane. No way, no I’m not even going to pretend she is. Nope.”

Derek places his hand on Spencer’s shoulder to calm him, “do you know who her father is?”

“No,” he whispers as he closes his eyes, pushing his hair out of his eyes. “She tells people that Amoreena is her fiancé Stephens, no one really questions that she had her 2 years after he died, but Y/N doesn’t even know who her father is.”

“That’s a serious conversation you need to have with her, regardless, she deserves to know you’ve possibly got other geniuses walking around out there.”

Spencer felt his anxiety dump adrenaline into his blood, making him sweat and panic as he turned around in circles a few times. He looked physically drained, not know what the fuck to do moving forward.

“I can’t go talk to her right now while Amoreena is there,” Spencer panicked as Derek finally closed the door, Hank was all situated and ready to go.

“I can bring you home?” Derek offered, “go get your things and tell her that you have to go.”

“Okay,” he whispered, trying to calm down enough to face her.

Walking back up to her house felt like it took forever, even passing savannah as he all but ran, stepping inside the house to see Amoreena reading on the couch while Y/N was in the kitchen, whistling happily, waiting for him to come back.

Amoreena looked up at him with a smile, “are you okay?”

“Oh yeah, I’m fine,” he lied with a fake smile. “I actually have to go, Derek needs help with something at his place and I’ll be back later for dinner, okay?”

“Awe,” Y/N’s voice travelled from the kitchen to where he was, she walked into the room with an apron on and a towel in her hands. “I was hoping you’d help me make a pie.”

“I’m sorry, hun, I’ll be back soon,” he assured her, “I love you guys.”

“Love you, Dad,” Amoreena smiled, before returning to her book.

Every time she called him dad it made his heart stop, but that one made his breathing stop too, he struggled to swallow as he turned his attention to Y/N approaching him.

Y/N gave him a big hug and then he was gone, running down the driveway and hopping in Derek's car as fast as he could. Still overthinking everything, his mind memorizing every look on Amoreena’s face and trying to see if there was any proof in her being his.

There was a lot. He didn’t want to get his hopes up, he didn’t want to think about that at all. She was his regardless, no DNA test would change how he loved her. He was more afraid of Y/N’s reaction to finding out.

Savannah didn’t ask what was going on, leaving him and Derek to be as weird and cryptic as they always were together. Looking out the window quietly as Spencer had a panic attack in the back seat.

He convinced Derek to drop him off at the clinic where he donated the sperm both times. Still absolutely pissed off with himself that one of the biggest decisions of his life was the one he forgot about, wanting to know if he could find out anything about his potential offspring.

“Sir, I’m so sorry,” the nice receptionist tried her best to stay calm as Spencer rushed through his dilemma.

“Only a child can learn who their father was when they turn 18, if they choose to contact you it’s up to them. You agreed to that when you donated.”

“You can’t even tell me how many kids I have out there?” He tried to reason with her, “I’m in the FBI surely you can make an exception for me it’s not like I'm going to stalk the kids, I just want to know if one’s going to contact me one day,” he tried everything to get her to open up.

“What’s your name?”

“Spencer Reid.”

She stood and walked into the back, opening a cabinet full of records and pulling one out. She opened it, running a finger along with the document as she read it over.

“You have four offspring so far, none of the other samples used have produced a child, the women were all IVF as well so it wasn’t your swimmer's fault; if you wanted to donate again,” she read him all the facts and somehow it just made him panic more.

Y/N’s voice echoing in his mind, “after I did IVF.” She said those words. He heard them. She didn’t know the father. His name wasn't on the sample. It was anonymous. Everything caught up to him at that moment.

“Thank you,” he whispered, white as a ghost as he tried to turn away, dropping to the floor and passing out instead.

When he woke up, he was somehow back in Derek’s car on the way back to his apartment. Hank and Savannah nowhere to be seen, the radio on low as Derek paid attention to the road. It was quiet, he didn’t even know Spencer was awake again until he sighed.

He didn’t say anything to Derek, instead, taking out his phone and texting Y/N.

Spencer: Hey, something serious came up. I won't be able to come back till after bedtime and then I need to tell you something important that might make you very mad at me.

Y/N: you’re going to make me go grey being this ominous

Spencer: I’m sorry, but it’s going to be a lot to explain.

Y/N: should I get wine or something harder ready to listen?

Spencer: Honestly, I’m not even sure yet.

Y/N: cant wait… love you?

Spencer: I love you too, don’t forget that!

Y/N: as long as you don’t either ♥︎

—

He pulled up to Y/N’s house at 9:30, knowing that Amoreena would be well asleep by then. Unbothered by any crying or yelling that could arise from the news he had to share with her mother.

He was terrified to tell her but he needed to. Relationships only work with communication and he knew that, respecting her and loving her enough to do anything in his power to keep her in his life.

He walked inside to see the lights all off, heading around the back of the house to see her in the garden with a drink, surrounded by little lights twinkling as she listened to her favourite Taylor Swift album, he wasn’t shocked in the slightest to find her like that.

“Hey,” he announced himself to her so she wouldn’t be startled.

Her smile warms his heart and clears the butterflies from his stomach for a quick moment, “hey cutie, did you want me to warm up some dinner for you?”

“No thank you,” he shook his head softly, standing by the gate and not wanting to get too close. “I need to tell you something and you might get really mad at me.”

“Alright,” she sat up straighter, hands on her knees as she played with the material of her jeans.

“I donated sperm as a joke in 2008, but then again in January of 2013 when my girlfriend died because I thought it would be the only way to maybe have a kid find me one day when they turned 18. I never thought I’d get to have a family after Maeve died,” the words fell out of his mouth and onto the patio.

“Oh my god,” was all she said, eyes wide and mouth open, she was completely still.

“I went to the clinic and they won't tell me who my kids are, apparently there are four of them so I have no idea if it’s Amoreena or not and I’m just so sorry for not telling you. I honestly forgot, and I don’t normally forget. After everything that’s happened to me, I just forgot, I’m sure it looks like I found you on purpose or something but I assure you that I didn’t,” he wasn’t sure why he was just dumping all these thoughts on her when he hadn’t even thought them through, but they wouldn’t stop.

“There’s only one way to find out,” she shrugged then, smiling at his confused face. “We have more and see if they look like her.”

“You’re kidding?”

“No,” she shook her head, “I’d never joke about making another Amoreena, that would be amazing.”

“You’re not mad?” He blinked at her a few times, wondering if he heard her wrong, twice.

“Why would I be mad at the fact that you might be her real father and the reason she’s the smartest person on earth? She’s literal walking sunshine, am I supposed to be mad you could give her fully biological siblings? I wanted your babies even if she wasn’t yours,” Y/N paused, eyebrows raised as she made her point.

“If I’m supposed to be mad about you completing our family then I’m furious,” she laughed as she stood up, walking over to wrap her arms around him.

“Even if you’re not her father, you’re always going to be her dad,” she whispered as she reached him.

He looked down into her eyes, the most beautiful and caring woman in the world, cuddled into his chest in the middle of paradise. He couldn’t help but laugh, it was insane how easy it was to love her.

“I love you,” he reminded her.

She pulled him down into a kiss, holding her hand on his cheek lightly as he pressed his lips to hers. She rested her forehead on his as they parted, “I love you more.”

“Doubt it,” he teased her with a smile, pulling her in closer and lifting her up into his arms.

“Where are we going?” She giggled.

“Where would you like to go, Princess? This is your kingdom after all.”

The biggest, most suspicious grin appeared on her face then, “put me down,” she instructed and he followed. Setting her down and feeling her grab his hand instead.

She led him inside the house and up the stairs, placing her finger over her lip to let him know to be quiet. She pulled him inside her bedroom for the first time and he was absolutely mesmerized.

It was like a jungle of books in there, pictures of her and Amoreena all over the walls and the cutest mushroom bedsheets in the world. It was like he walked into her mind, it was calming and beautiful and just what he imagined.

Peaceful.

“We’re not staying in here,” she whispered towards him, pulling him into the closet.

She pulls out 2 black garment bags and places them on the bed before looking through her jewellery box. She brings back a small velvet box and places it in his hands.

“Would you want to do something insane with me?”

“Always,” he can’t help but smile.

“My grandma always wanted Stephen to propose to me with that ring, but he used his own mothers instead,” she whispered. “I don’t want to have an official thing, I already planned one wedding and never got to have it.”

“Okay?” He tried his best to follow along, analyzing her facial expressions to see just how nervous she was, as well as the underlying sadness of time missed. Just like she had mentioned that first night he stayed here.

“I had my grandma’s dress tailored to wear at my wedding, I’ve never put the final version on,” she unzips the one bag, revealing a silk white dress with an incredibly long train.

“My grandpa's suit is in the other one, I think you will fit into it,” she reaches out a hand to pull him closer to the bed and look at it with her. “I just want to put them on and tell you I love you in the field and just call you my husband. I don’t give a single shit that it’s been a week, why should I wait a year to call you that when I can start now?”

He doesn’t know what to say, he’s speechless for too long and he knows that it’s making her anxious but he can’t speak. His eyes turn glossy and his hands shake as he holds the small box in his hands, opening it to find a beautiful ruby on a gold band, surrounded by small diamonds, alongside her grandfather's gold band.

He gets down on one knee then and she pulls him right back up to his feet, shaking her head. “It can’t be like last time, I don’t want to repeat a single part of it. I can’t lose you too.”

“You never will,” he’s finally able to speak. “I’m not going anywhere, believe me, you are the most important person in my life. I would drop everything and hide here forever to keep safe, if you wanted me to, I’m too in love with you to go anywhere.”

She smiles at him with wide eyes and the glimmer of hope returning. She picks up her dress and heads to the bathroom door, “put the suit on and meet me downstairs?”

“Yes Ma’am,” he winks at her before taking the suit down the hall to his room.

He notices the wedding photo on the night table again, taking the suit out of the bag to see nothing really changed since the last time it was worn. Her grandfather was tall and skinny like him when they got married, so he fits into the 1950’s suit almost perfectly.

He straightened everything out in the mirror, making sure he tucked the ring box back into his pocket before quietly tiptoeing back down the creaky wooden steps.

Y/N wasn’t done yet, he could hear her walking around in her room softly as she paced from her dresser to the bathroom over and over, most likely trying to find something in her jewellery box and looking in the mirror more than once. She didn’t sound nervous, her feet weren’t hesitant, she sounded like a woman on a mission, that was a good thing.

He was the nervous one, scared out of his mind with the fear he wouldn’t do this right. That she had dreams, plans and expectations he needed to live up to and what if he couldn’t? He put his face in his hands and tried his best to push all the fears away but they kept swirling. Making his brain hurt, he didn’t want to fuck anything up with her. She was already so understanding and wonderful, she’d given so much to him already he can’t fuck this up—

And then she’s walking down the stairs. Like sunshine; parting the grey skies as the thunder clouds dissipate and the rain washes down the streets, he’s fine again.

“You look beautiful,” he whispers.

Her smile was priceless, “thanks, cutie, I’m so glad it fits you!”

He followed her towards the kitchen where she picked up the phone, dialled a number and waited, “hey mom.”

“Spencer and I are going on a late-night walk, outback, yeah, Amoreena is asleep, can you just keep an eye on the house? I’m going to let Rufus in to keep guard anyway,” Y/N explained over the phone, agreeing and humming to whatever her mother said in response. “love you too, thanks."

She let the dog in like she said she would, handing the overly friendly golden retriever a treat before finally pulling Spencer outside and towards the barn.

They were both in running shoes, it was incredibly adorable for the occasion and he wouldn’t have it any other way. Her hand was so soft as she tugged him along behind her, her dress and hair blowing in the wind as they walked.

She grabbed an old kerosene lantern from the barn, lighting it quickly and holding it by the handle, “you ready?”

“I am,” he smiled softly, still anxious in his core, more so now because he was overly excited to be spending the rest of his life with her.

They continued to walk down past the barn, through the cow pasture and finally entering a clearing. It was full of lilacs and ragweed, yellows and purples blowing ever so gently back and forth under the moonlight.

“This is where my grandparents would read to me, and where they renewed their vows when I was 14, and this is where I got the call that I was pregnant with Amoreena. It’s a very special place to me,” her voice was barely a whisper.

Spencer took the lantern from her and placed it in the grass, it illuminated the both of them just enough that they could see each other's faces and know exactly how much they loved each other without even having to say any words.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Spencer’s words were careful, he didn’t want her to think he didn’t either.

She nodded softly, “I loved Stephen very much, I don’t think I’ll ever stop, but I loved him enough to know he’d want me to be happy, he’d really like you and don’t tell him this but I think I love you more than I ever loved him,” she made light of a very heavy subject.

Smiling at him like he was the world, he fully believed her. “I thought Maeve as it for me too before she died, I was so, so wrong. Every day I discover a new level of love for you I didn’t think possible the day before, I never want to stop searching for how deep my love for you goes.”

“To new adventures,” she whispered.

“And happy endings,” he replied, remembering the conversation they had about the Disney characters they loved the most just yesterday morning.

He removed the box from his pocket, opening it and taking her ring out of the fabric. The tiny diamonds around the ruby sparked in the light, shining little rainbows over their faces as they smiled at each other once again, cheeks aching from all the happiness.

“What finger do you want to wear it on? Seeing as we’re doing this our way,” he compromised for her very easily.

“The middle one on my left hand, you?” She asked as she took his ring out as well.

“The ring finger,” he whispered. “I want you to be close to my heart forever.”

“Okay,” she whispered back, pushing the ring onto his finger first before placing her hand in his, waiting for his hands to stop shaking so he could put it on her.

He pushed it right back towards the knuckle, holding her hand in his after and just staring at the ring. He just married the woman of his dreams.

“Holy shit,” he whispered to himself, making her laugh.

“What?”

A tear trickled down his cheek as he tried to smile at her, his jaw wobbling as he tried to stay calm but he couldn’t, he let himself cry softly as she cupped his face with her free hand.

“I love you too, Spencer,” is all she said, pressing her lips to his, finally.

He held her there in his embrace, lips touching as they breathed each other in. The smell of the field and the flowers that were once so strong in his nose, now he only smells her perfume, he almost forgets where he is as they kiss. The world could have stopped and he wouldn’t have ever known, too caught up on loving her.

He doesn’t pull away when the kiss breaks, instead, resting their foreheads together as they breathed.

“I’m going to love you until the day I die.”

She brushes their noses together softly as if to agree, “give me at least 40 years with you, and then I’ll meet you in heaven?”

“We’re already here,” he whispers, “you and Amoreena are my angels.”

They kissed again, just as soft and perfect as before. She smiled at the end, pulling back and taking her cellphone out of the dress pocket that he didn’t even know was there.

She set it on the fence post that separated the cows from the field, making sure it was steady and setting a timer. She rushed to Spencer and pulled him back into the same kiss, letting the phone take a burst of photos for them to remember later on.

“Pick a song,” he whispered into the moment, seeing her face scrunch as she became confused. “We need a first dance, I know your grandparents had to have danced out here at least once if she loved music as much as you say she did.”

“I love you,” is all she can say as she beams a smile at him. Skipping over to her phone and doing just as he asked.

“I need a piece of Amoreena in this moment,” she explained her song choice, making him think it would be the Elton John song, but it wasn’t.

A beautiful piano balled played before he heard the all too familiar voice of Taylor Swift, the girl's favourite. “Seven, because that’s how many years it took for us to find you.”

He takes her hand again, twirling her around before pulling her body into his. The both of them holding on tight as they swayed to the song, it fit every single aspect of his love for her to a T. Like it was Taylor made for them.

“Sweet tea in the summer Cross your heart, won't tell no other And though I can't recall your face I still got love for you Your braids make a pattern Love you to the Moon and to Saturn Passed down like folk songs The love lasts so long,”

It was so unbelievable. She had mentioned the love she felt for Stephen, he mentioned his love for Maeve, both of their faces hard to bring to memory as they fell in love with each other. A new feeling, a happier love, a long-lasting one that wasn’t nearly as flimsy. Powerful and strong like the earth's gravitational pull, he was never leaving her.

She’s singing the words ever so softly beside his ear, her voice is softer than Taylor’s and his favourite thing he’s heard all night, but he’d never tell her that.

They kiss randomly throughout their dance, listening to more songs as they swayed in the evening breeze. The cows coming to the fence to see what was happening, they twirled and dipped and jumped with each other, it was perfect.

She pulls him in for another kiss and she is all giggles, high from the dopamine and serotonin rush they were both on. Like someone injected sugar right into his veins, he was unbelievably sweet on her.

“We’re you serious?” Spencer whispered against her lips before she can pull back any further and disrupt the courage he felt.

“About what? I’ve said a lot tonight,” she teased him gently.

“About having more kids?” His voice is low and his eyes can’t meet hers as he prays she was being honest.

She nods softly, “never been more certain, actually, I would have 10 more of your kids if they’re all as perfect as our Amoreena.”

Our.

He tilts his head to the side and presses his lips together in a tight smile, he lost all control of his tears a while back, feeling them slip down his cheeks as he took everything in. She had given him everything and then some.

“How are you this perfect? It’s been 8 days since I laid eyes on you and you’ve managed to make every single dream come true, while simultaneously creating new dreams I never imagined I’d be allowed to have. You’re the best thing that has ever happened in the world Y/N, I’m so incredibly in love with you I could scream right now,” he is more passionate than he plans to be, she stares at him with more lust than happiness this time.

“Prove it and make love to me, you said you’d rather fuck me at home. Well,” she kept teasing him opening her arms and twirling around as she showed off the farm. “This is your home now, husband.”

“Where should we go?” He felt adventurous, willing to take her against the fence if the cows wouldn’t eat her hair, the thought alone making him giggle to himself.

“What?” She can't help but giggle right back.

“I thought about fucking you against the fence for a hot second and then the intrusive thoughts kicked in and I thought about the cows eating your hair,” he admitted with a fierce laugh.

“I love you so much,” she shook her head and sighed, the same way she did at the museum when Amoreena made her laugh.

That was all the proof he needed. Never would he question how she felt, if she loved him half as much as she loved Amoreena then he was blessed by far. This was over the top.

He picked up the lantern then, handing it to her as well as her phone before picking her up bridal style and attempting to carry her back to the house. He made it to the barn before she begged him to put her down, wanting to skip the rest of the way with him.

Giddy as all hell, the two of them snuck back into her house. Rufus, the best guard dog in the world, was passed out on the couch and didn’t even move as they walked in. Locking the doors and windows for the night before tiptoeing up the stairs again.

Luckily, Amoreena’s room was on the opposite side of the house from Spencers. Y/N pulled him down the hall and inside the room, lightly closing the door before leaning back against it and sighing.

“Are you sure? I never asked you what you wanted,” Y/N whispered.

Spencer just shook his head and slipped out of his suit jacket. “All I want is to have a big happy family with you, where ever that takes us, I’m up for the adventure.”

Y/N was the one who teared up this time, looking away from Spencer and at her grandparent's wedding photo on the side table. She walked past Spencer, brushing her hand against his arm as she did so, picking up the photo and kissing it softly.

She turned it face down and turned back to Spencer, “help me with the zipper?”

He nodded, silently stepping forward and brushing her hair off her back, freeing her from the dress. He pressed his lips gently to her sun-kissed shoulders, surprised by the array of freckles, kissing the pattern they made on her skin as she let the dress slip to the floor.

He wrapped his arms around her, hugging her from behind as he continued to kiss her neck and shoulder. She hummed into the feeling, tilting her head to the side so he had more room to explore, her hands cover Spencers as she felt up his arms, still in his embrace.

She had the softest skin on earth, he could spend the next 14 hours kissing every square inch of her. It was all perfect and he wanted her to know it, “get on the bed,” he whispered in her ear as he pulled away.

He picked her dress up off the floor and put it on a hanger from the shirt he had on. She watched with soft eyes as he hung it on the back of the bathroom door, keeping it safe and taken care of while they became a married couple.

He slipped out of the tie and started unbuttoning his shirt, she laid back against the covers, pulling her grandma's quilt off and folding it at the end of the bed. She laid back and waited as he slipped his pants to the ground and finally joined her once again.

She met him halfway for a kiss, holding his face as he knelt between her spread legs, she leaned back and took him with her. He hovered then, barely touching her as she leaned forward to keep kissing him, eventually wrapping her arms around his back and pulling him down.

Skin to skin for the first time ever.

It’s slow and explorative, they take their time as they enjoy every single inch of each other's bodies. She’s soft and perfect, she fits in the palm of his hand like he’s always been holding her. Moulded for her and her alone.

He’s never made love before. Sure, he’s had sex but never in his life has it felt like this… no, this was perfect. It was everything he’s ever dreamed of and then some. Her kisses felt like dreams coming true, her touch so light it was like sunshine on a hot day, just dancing over him.

It was perfect.

He brushed her hair behind her ear, still inside her, as he took a moment to just look at her. Her eyes were hypnotic, he was so dawn into her it was like she controlled him. He kissed her gently on the forehead, “I love you,” he reminded her, for the millionth time that hour.

She pulled him in closer, breathing against his neck gently as they continued. Her nails on his back were amazing, he felt the sharp pain of her grip which only excited him more, fastening his pace, both his hips and where his thumb was pleasuring her between their bodies.

She looked like she was floating, relaxed as she laid against the sheets, blissed-out while she took it all in, panting airy nonsense as she got closer and closer.

She was quiet, they both were. It was silent as possible while they made love for the first time ever. She was everything in the world to him and then some, he couldn’t believe she was real as they both finished and managed to somehow get closer to each other.

Another level of love was just unlocked in his heart, he was never going to stop loving her. That would be the only impossible known to man.

tag list: @shemarmooresfedora @spencers-dria @spookyspence @reidsfish @manuosorioh @mochionly @samuel-de-champagne-problems @jswessie187

[cinnaminsvga]

intermission • vi | moonlight

→ summary: When the love letter you wrote and submitted as an assignment is leaked to the entirety of your university, it becomes a race against time to dispel rumours and convince the seven suspected muses of the poem that they aren’t the subject before anyone realises that you are the author. Easy, right? Well… maybe not as easy as you think.

→ pairing: bts x reader (feat. jungkook) → genre: college!au, crack, fluff, angst → warnings: none!! it's just jungkook being a cutie!! → words: 3.7K → a/n: this intermission chapter was actually written by @jincherie!! i'm posting it on her behalf since she's currently on hiatus. she had this chapter mostly finished a few months ago and we were waiting to post it until we were both more active (lol) but yeah... things change i guess... anyway see you guys next year (i wanna say /j but really... is it really /j...)

— • masterlist | prev | intermission vi | next • —

Jungkook's strength has never been making friends.

In his mother’s words, a “pleasant and sweet boy” though he might be, that didn’t help much when it came to meeting someone new and the storm of butterflies in his stomach would grow so strong that it froze his limbs and caught his tongue. He’s not too good at first impressions.

A “pleasant and sweet, but terribly shy boy” is actually more along the lines of how Jungkook’s mother describes him, now that he thinks about it. That’s probably a little more accurate.

The sprawling complex he lives in is full of kids, and Jungkook knows each and every one of them. He might be challenged in the social area, but his mother is anything but. She says he takes more after his father, and since his father is usually relaxing inside and reading or drawing when Jungkook sees him at home, he figures that makes enough sense.

Every time someone new moves into the complex, Jungkook’s mother goes to greet them. Of course, he is graciously asked (read: forced) to come along too, just in case they have any kids around his age. This is how he normally meets the other kids on the block. It’s fine, he can’t complain. He has to admit it’s nice meeting all the new and different people that come through. His family is probably one of the ones that have stayed in the complex this long.

When the house next door is emptied of the family he knew, it’s a while before the next one comes in. By the time Jungkook peeks out his window one morning, woken by the telltale sound of a truck beeping as it reverses, and finally sees some movement in the house next to his own, his mother isn’t home. She’d moved into the hospital just a few days earlier, looking ready to pop with the little brother he’d heard so much about in her belly. He’s excited to meet his little brother, and now as he stands on his tippy-toes to get a good look from the window, he finds himself a little excited to meet the new neighbours, too.

It only has a little bit to do with the great, big, fluffy dog they have. Just a little.

It takes a few days for them to move in fully. Jungkook watches from his window every now and then, seeing all sorts of different cars come through. This family has lots of helpers, he notices. By the time they seem to really settle in, Jungkook doesn’t see much of them. Actually, to his disappointment, he doesn’t see anyone around at all. He still hears the dog, glimpses it every so often, but realised that they probably walk it in the mornings before he wakes up.

His mother is home before long, his baby brother cradled in her arms. The first thing she asks as she steps through the door is, “Have the new neighbours moved in? Have you met them yet, Kookie?”

This is perhaps the first time all week he hasn’t cared about the neighbours-- he’s transfixed with his brother. It stays that way for a few days, until the allure wears off when the tiny baby won’t stop crying at night. Perhaps his little brother is something best loved from afar for now, Jungkook surmises.

Back to the window he goes – except this time, there’s actually something to see.

There’s a child! A combination of nerves and excitement bubbles within him as he sees a kid in the backyard playing with the dog, throwing a Frisbee for the massive puppy to leap up and catch in its mouth. The kid looks a little…. feral. Like the baby from that one funny caveman movie he watched with his parents. They’re rolling around with the puppy, uncaring of the way grass and dirt get on their clothes and tangle their hair-- they laugh the whole time. It takes a second for the sound to reach him, but when it does it makes his heart do something funny in his chest.

Ah, the neighbour's kid is a girl.

It’s you.

Jungkook has always been a little more shy around girls, but has never known why. To meet you, he’s going to need his mother there for backup. This is probably the first time he’s outright wanted to go meet one of the neighbours. It’s a little embarrassing, so he elects not to think about it too much.

He thought he would have to pester his mother more to get up and go greet them, but it seems she’s a little sick of being in the house so much because she jumps up the second he mentions it. His baby brother is graciously asleep when they make the trip one morning to the house next door, nestled in his mothers arms looking like an angel wrapped up in fluffy clouds. Jungkook wonders if you’ll like his brother as much as he does. If you don’t, then he doesn’t know how good of a friend you’re going to be.

The doorbell is different, it’s the first thing he notices about the house. Your family must have changed it when you moved in. It’s a bubbly, fun tune now, and he doesn’t even realise the smile it brings to his face. His grip on his mother’s hand tightens, but he misses the fond look she casts over him.

When the door opens, Jungkook thinks his nerves just might eat him alive. He’s so stiff he’s worried he might turn to stone and disintegrate into dust on the spot.

It’s you who answered the door.

You don’t look as wild and unkempt as you did that day he saw you from the window. Actually, your hair is in two cute little buns on top of your head and there isn’t a spot of dirt or grime on your overalls.

The way your eyes light up when you see him and his mother, as well as the baby held to her chest, is enough to make him forget to breathe for a moment. When he remembers, he feels like running his head into the pole of the awning.

“Hey, sweetie,” his mother greets, that big smile on her face that normally wins everyone over. “We’re from the house next door! We wanted to come say hello and meet you. Are one of your parents home too?”

“Hello!” Your response is instant, and the smile you return is so big Jungkook can easily see the gap where you’re missing a tooth. It seems like you’re beating him, he hasn’t lost that one yet. “Yeah, my mama’s home-- you should come in! She said she wanted to meet you guys! Oh, also, we have a puppy! She’s big, and actually maybe she’s too old to be a puppy but… she’s cute. I want you to see her!”

You’re rambling, but you don’t seem to realise. Jungkook couldn’t get a word in edgewise if he wanted to, but he finds himself more than happy to simply listen as he and his mother follow you into the house.

Your mother isn’t as wild as you, but he notices the same little sparkle in her eyes that you have in yours. He wonders if he and his mother have their own matching sparkle. That would be cool.

Right away, his mother hits it off with yours – two socialites of a feather, it seems. You fawn over his baby brother for a few minutes while they talk (he knew right then that you were a good one), before grabbing him by the sleeve and insisting on showing him around. You get a full tour in, and miraculously Jungkook finds it in himself to ask a few questions as you go.

“S-so, you like it? Here?” Every time he opens his mouth the words don’t come out how he wants them, but he can’t do anything now. At least he only stuttered once.

“Yes! It’s so much better than my old house! There’s so many more kids here, and they’re all so nice too!” You’re more than happy to blabber on, a hand thoughtlessly carding through the long, fluffy fur on your dog’s back. Jungkook’s own hand is doing the same (the fur is just as soft and fluffy as he imagined). “There’s more room for Poopie to play, too.”

Jungkook still isn’t quite used to the name of your pet, but something more important in what you said is taking hold of his attention. “Wait, you, uh… you’ve met some of the other kids?”

“Yep,” you say, gaze off in the distance as you try to summon them all from your memory. “Not all of them, but some! Um, I think one of them is named…. Chanyeol…? He lives down the street. Then there’s-- …”

A queasy feeling fills his stomach. He thinks it might be disappointment. For some reason, he thought he was going to come in here and be the first kid you met, that he was going to tell you all about the complex, maybe show you down the street. If you turned out to be a real good egg, then he had even planned to show you his secret place. But now that he thinks about it, it’s a bit silly to think that none of the other families would have come to greet you by now. You’ve been here for more than a week, after all.

He had a good time when visiting you, but for some reason after that day, he finds himself hanging back a bit. He wants to go out and play with you and the other kids, but when he sees you getting along with them so well he’s reminded of that queasy feeling from that day and he stays inside. Which, oddly enough, makes him feel even worse. He feels like no matter what he does, he’s losing progress with you. Maybe you won’t even want to play with him at all, you might think he’s boring after having so much fun with the other kids.

“You gonna go out and play, Kookie?” his mother catches him staring out the living room window one afternoon. She’s bouncing his brother on her hip, the demon baby sated for the time being. “There’s still plenty of time before dark.”

“No, I’m okay,” he answers, hating himself a little bit for it. Why was it so hard to say that yes, he wanted to play, but also that he didn’t. He thinks his mother would be able to help, but he has no idea how to tell her his woes. “I think I might draw a little.”

“Okay, sweets.” She comes over and ruffles his hair. “But if you do decide to go out and play, just let me know so I know where you are, okay?”

He nods, and she leans to kiss his hair before wandering back into the depths of the house. Maybe he will do some drawing, he ponders. It might distract him from the sight of you getting along so well with all the other kids.

Jungkook’s strength has never lain in being outgoing. This proves itself over the months when his attempts to grow closer and befriend you turn out unsuccessful, without fail.

You’ve made a good space for yourself amongst the kids of the block. You’re nice, caring and understanding, and never mean – sure you pushed Chanyeol off the seesaw once, but that was because he was being mean to Suzie. He didn’t do it again afterwards, and peace was maintained in the playground in the park at the end of the complex. Your friendship is sought-after, and with the beginning of the school year looming so close he’s running out of time to establish a friendship between the two of you.

When he spends an afternoon riding his bike at the end of the street, looping around and through the park, it’s definitely not just because you’re sitting there with some of the other girls on the block. When he summons all the knowledge stored in his brain from watching those bike tournaments and attempts to do a little trick, it’s definitely not because he thinks you might be watching. If you happen to see and think he’s cool, then it is what it is. It’s not like he’s actually trying to impress you or anything.

It goes okay, for the most part. His legs are a little tired though. He probably shouldn't attempt the trick he’s thinking of next, but he swears he sees you glance his way and he feels a surge of confidence flow through him. He attempts it.

He botches it.

The bike clatters to the ground and he rolls a bit, but his knees take the brunt of his meeting with the concrete path.

Lucky he wasn’t trying to impress you, because that was pretty humiliating. Lucky you probably didn’t see, either. His knees burn and he feels tears prick at his eyes, probably not just from the pain. He feels so embarrassed, so dumb. He’s touched his bike five times since he got it for his birthday last year, why did he think he would be able to do awesome tricks on it? Dumb, so dumb. He flees the scene before anyone can notice what happened, and completely forgets his bike.

He’s made it all the way home before he even realises it, his vision blurred from the tears that just won’t stop falling and his knees still singing in pain each time he bends them. He almost goes inside, craving a hug from his mother and her gentle hands on his wounds, but then he realises she would ask what happened, and he doesn’t think he’ll be able to tell her. It’s too embarrassing. He’s so embarrassed.

So he bypasses the front door, going around the side and slipping through the gate. There’s a tree that lines the side of the house where his window is, and it’s so tall it reaches well above the roof. Without pause, he climbs it, hands finding familiar grooves. He halts, hissing at the sudden sting – it would seem he’s scraped up his palms, too. His eyes burn with the added humiliation and he darts up the tree, making quick work of the climb until he reaches his special spot.

The roof of his house is mostly slanted, but there’s a flat bit at the very top on one side of the house. This is where he likes to go. No one ever looks for him here, plus the view is always very pretty. He doesn’t appreciate the sunset right now, though. He feels like he doesn’t deserve it.

The whole way home, Jungkook held in his cries. He didn’t want anyone to hear and tell his mother. But now, in the embrace of his little ‘safe haven’, he lets them out. He buries his head in his arms and sobs, the pain of moving his palms only making it worse.

He doesn’t know how his little body can handle so much embarrassment, let alone so many tears, but for the moment he doesn’t think about it and surrenders himself to his woes.

He must be up there for a while before his crying ceases. By the time he lifts his head, the last of his tears drying against his cheeks, the sun is just beginning to disappear beyond the horizon. It’s pretty, how it casts light around the shadowy silhouette of the city buildings in the distance. He kind of wants to show it to you. That thought is quickly shut down. He’s going to ask his mother if they can move cities so he doesn’t have to face you again.

Alas, the world just doesn’t seem to be working in his favour today. He hears the rustling of the tree before he sees it. By the time he looks over to investigate, you’re already clambering onto the roof, an oversized fanny pack bursting at the seams with whatever you’ve shoved inside slung over your shoulder.

“Hey!” You greet with a smile, apparently oblivious to the dumbstruck look on his face. “Man, it took forever to find you! If I didn’t see you from the window in my room, I never would have known where you went!”

That was the idea, he laments. He hadn’t wanted to be found.

“Anyway,” you say, plopping down a foot away from him, safely away from the edge of the roof. You swing the fanny pack around so the zip is at your front, and rip it open. Immediately, a tsunami of bandages and band-aids flow forth, fluttering to the tile before you. They’re all sorts of different sizes, but one thing is common across them all – they all have pikachu’s face plastered on them in one way or another. “These are my special band-aids! My mama uses them when I hurt myself, and they always make it heal really quick! I didn’t know how big your owie is, so I brought them all.”

Jungkook is still stunned into silence as you sort through them, organising the chaos at least a little. One of your buns has come loose, he notes. One pigtail, one bun. You look a little more like that wild child he first saw from his window. The knees of your overalls are smeared with dirt, too. He wonders if it got like that while you were looking for him. It makes him feel a little warm inside.

And a little warm outside – his cheeks are starting to burn. He doesn’t remember scratching them too, but maybe he did…?

“Let’s see…” you’re practically just holding a conversation with yourself at this point. He surrenders his leg without protest as you grab it to inspect his knee. “Yep. That’s a big ‘un.”

His whole face has lit on fire. Even his ears feel hot. Is that normal? Probably not. He’d have to ask his mother to take him to the doctor. Maybe he’s dying.

He notices how close you are suddenly, realises this is the first time you’ve been fully alone together (without Poopie), and suddenly he can’t think. Like, at all. He may as well not have a tongue because he can’t remember how to use it anyway.

Somewhere amongst the bandages you’d shoved some tissues. You pull them out now, gently clearing the dirt away from the wounds on his knees. You’re talking as you do it, but his brain is full of static. Your hands are even tinier than his. Is that normal? Wait, no-- they’re the same size. What is he doing…?

Is he going to get in trouble for being alone with a girl…? His mother hasn’t told him about the birds and bees like she said she would yet-- is that what this is? Will he turn into a bird if he gets any warmer? Jungkook doesn’t want to be a bird.

You are placing large plasters over his knees when he finally tunes in to what you’re saying. “… -that last trick was pretty cool, too. It would have been even cooler if you didn’t fall.”

Jungkook squeaks, “You saw that?”

You nod, apparently unaware of his utter humiliation. “Yeah! You’re pretty good on a bike. Can you teach me sometime? I want to show my dad.”

He makes a noise that sounds enough like an affirmation that you accept it, a big grin on your face. For a few more minutes, you finish patching him up.

“There! All done!”

Pikachu stares back up at him from his knees, looking a little wonky because of their shape. The band-aids are a bit wrinkled, but you look so proud of yourself he forces himself to ignore it. He looks up, the words of thanks he took so much courage to summon dying on the tip of his tongue as he sees you.

The setting sun changes the colour of your eyes a bit – it’s pretty, he finds himself thinking. Immediately afterwards, he blushes. Even more embarrassingly, he finds himself unable to help but observe that the sun suits you, actually. Bright, persistent, a little bit sparkly. In the sun’s last reaching rays of afternoon light, you look a bit like you’re glowing.

Of course, Jungkook is used to his silence, but it seems you’re only just noticing it. You seem to misunderstand it’s cause. “Oh, do they hurt?”

Your words tear him from his reverie, and the startled look on his face doesn’t exactly help his case. “Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t realise they were that bad-- oh! I almost forgot the next step! My mum always does this whenever I hurt myself.”

Then, without a second spared for him to prepare himself, you lean over and plant a kiss on each of his bandaged knees.

Jungkook thinks he might explode. The entire neighbourhood is going to see him take off and zip through the sky like a rocket. His earlier thoughts of moving cities and changing his name come back full force.

“There, they hurt less now, right?” But you’re still grinning, still bright as ever with shining eyes hoping for a certain response. Despite himself he takes a moment to assess the level of pain he’s feeling – oddly enough, it does feel a bit better.

There’s no way he can manage to say that, though.

Instead he nods, wide-eyed. You let loose a sigh of relief, muttering about how you didn’t know what you’d do if that didn’t work. He swears he catches the slightest warmth in your cheeks, but doesn’t know whether it’s a trick of the sun.

“Thanks,” he finally manages, his voice just shy of a whisper. You hear him anyway and flash that gap-tooth smile his way.

“Of course! This is what friends are for!”

You think of him as a friend? Jungkook can’t help the dumb smile that rises to his face. He likes that. Friends. As the two of you stay on the roof until moonlight begins to filter through the tree and your parents are calling your name, he thinks he’d like for things to stay that way.

He’d like to be friends with you. Always.

[floral-and-fine]

Heaven Bent part 4

Daryl Dixon x female reader

Part 1    Part 2    Part 3

A/n: Hope y'all enjoy this next part :) Thank you, everyone, who has left comments or shown support, really helps keep me motivated to write!  Other than a few specific scenes, I’m not quite sure where this fic is going or for how long. Thank you @ewokiee​ for helping me when I was stuck, seems to have happened a lot.

Summary: The reader finds Sophia lost in the woods, too bad neither of them have any sense of direction. 

You were laying out on the grass, in front of the prison, enjoying the feeling of the sun on your skin. Turning your head, you could see a couple of walkers banging on the fence, but there wasn’t any urgency. Closing your eyes and sighing, you continued soaking in the warmth of the sun’s rays.

After months of traveling and living on the road, it seemed like finding a new home, a new safe haven was a dream of a dream.

Seeing so many houses and towns abandoned made the world seem like a shell of itself. It was almost like living in an episode of the Twilight Zone.

Every day you would come across something that reminded you of how things used to be, such as while rummaging for supplies in an empty home, you’d end up finding a forgotten family photo album or family portrait, and deep down you longed for that safer, easier life.

Then there were the walkers, a never-ending threat, a fear that everyone had to live with, and that worry whenever entering a new building if you turned a corner or opened a door that it could be your last.

Who would’ve believed that you’d find such comfort and peace behind a fence or behind bars?

“Hey,” a voice said as their body plopped down beside you.

“Hi buttercup,” you smiled, keeping your eyes shut.

Sophia stretched her arms above her head, looking around. “You know what this place needs,” she mused. “Flowers.”

You nodded your head, “Ah yes, big yellow sunflowers would be nice.”

“Those are pretty,” she commented.

“And useful,” you added. You could feel her giving you a skeptical look, you smiled wider. “We can roast and eat the seeds, and there are some medical uses too.”

“Are there other flowers that are helpful?”

“There are,” You said sitting up. “And lots of other plants that can be helpful too. I’ll keep an eye out for seeds next time I’m on a run. Would you like to be my helper?”

“Yes! We’ll start our own flower garden!” She said eagerly.

“Yep, I think that’s exactly what this place needs,” you murmured to yourself. You stood up and started scanning the area, trying to decide where the garden should go. “We should probably ask Rick first.”

There was a nice spot over by the east side of the prison, plenty of sunshine in the mornings and in the evening it would be nicely shaded. Water was scarce, but if you could figure out a way to collect rainwater that would help.

You turned around and looked back at Sophia, “Race you to the prison.” With that you took off running, laughing as Sophia called you a cheater.

Still giggling, you found Rick and some of the others inside the prison.

“Hey Rick,” you greeted, rocking on the balls of your feet with your hands clasped behind your back.

“Need something?” He asked, turning his attention to you.

“I was thinking of starting a small garden, over around there,” you explained, vaguely gesturing with your head. “Wanted to make sure it was alright with you first.”

“We’re going to plant flowers,” Sophia butted in.

Rick smiled and shrugged, “Don’t see why not.”

Sophia squealed beside you and you laughed, “Still have to find seeds and whatnot,” you told her. “But we can start tomorrow morning by getting the soil ready.”

…

You wiped the sweat from your brow and leaned against your shovel. The garden was starting to come along, you hadn’t found many things to plant yet, but it was better than nothing.

“So, what did you do before all this?” Glenn asked, walking over and admiring the work you had done so far.

You shrugged, “a little of this and a little of that.”

“Oh come on, that’s worse than Daryl’s answer!” Glenn complained. “Anytime anyone has asked, he always replies with its none of your goddamn business.”

You smiled, you could easily picture Daryl scowling at the question. “Well that’s probably because it is God’s business,” you joked.

Glenn laughed lightly, “still can’t believe he lets you get away with all that angel talk. It’s probably because the two of you are sleeping together.”

Your fell face at the comment, but just as you were about to question him, Hershel approached.

He was getting quick on those crutches. He smiled at the beginnings of your little project. “It’s looking good so far,” he chuckled.

You rubbed the back of your head, “I guess so. Nothing compared to your farm of course.”

…

Daryl was doing maintenance on his bow when Sophia quietly shuffled into the room.

“Mr. Dixon,” she started, standing by the door. Even after everything, Sophia was still shy around most everyone with the exception of her mother, you, and Carl.

“What is it?” He asked, focused on what he was doing.

“We’re going to be starting a flower garden, y/n and I,” she explained, smiling brightly.

Daryl nodded, still working.

She fidgeted with her necklace for a moment, moving the pendant side to side.

“Y/n was hoping to plant some sunflowers, and I was just thinking if you come across any kind of seeds you could bring them back with you, y’know? We’re hoping to plant all sorts of flowers.” She rattled off.

Daryl sighed, looking over at Sophia, who was looking at him hopefully, “Alright, if I see any I’ll bring them back.”

“Thank you!” She shrieked, giving him a quick hug.

He clenched his jaw for a moment, mulling things over, “what flowers did you say she wanted?”

“Sunflowers!” Sophia shouted as she skipped out of the room.

…

Daryl pulled up to the gates, he had left for a solo supply run just as the sun was rising. He had scoured a few abandoned homes, killed a couple of walkers, nothing too eventful or worthwhile.

You sat your tools aside, and dusted yourself off, heading over and meeting Daryl by the gate.

“Did you have any luck?” You asked.

“Not really,” he said, getting off of his motorcycle. Opening his pack he pulled out a shoebox that had probably seen better days.

“Shoes?” You questioned, lifting your brow.

He shook his head and thrust the dirty worn box into your hands. “Here,” he muttered before heading inside.

Curious, you opened the lid, finding that it was filled with seed packets inside. You bit your lip and sat on the ground. Carefully, you started going through the packets, setting aside the most useful ones.

You were bubbling with excitement over the find, if you could manage to gather enough water and get some extra help, you could have a pretty nice crop going besides just a little flower garden.

You paused, noticing underneath the top layer of packets, was a sunflower, the stem had been cut by a serrated knife leaving it rough and jagged, it was also missing a few petals, but still, it was a beautiful sight.

Looking back at the prison, you wondered if there was something you could do for Daryl in return. Most people wouldn’t have bothered even looking in this box, figuring it was probably just junk. Plus, you couldn’t even put into words how you felt over the flower.

You clutched the flower tightly, you had been meaning to do something for him for months now, even before this new surprise. You narrowed your eyes, what the hell would he even like?

...

“Guess who finally picked the lock to the warden’s office,” you sang, joining Daryl on the watchtower.

Daryl looked up at you, blinking in surprise over the dried blood on your shirt, “what the hell happened to you?”

You looked down at the stain, “Oh yeah, that, there was a walker inside, but I took care of it.”

Daryl shook his head, “you’re gonna get yourself killed doing stupid shit like that.”

“Sorry,” you sighed, feeling bad for making him worry. “But look at what I found.” You held up the fancy bottle of scotch and smiled. “Thought we could share it.”

Daryl rolled his eyes but scooted over for you to sit next to him.

You opened the bottle and took the first drink before handing it to him. Closing your eyes, you listened to the crickets and Daryl breathing. It was a cool and peaceful night, perfect for relaxing and loosening up a bit.

“Thank you for the seeds and the flower,” you said, breaking the silence.

He didn’t reply, simply taking another swig from the bottle, and staring out into the distance.

He wasn’t quite sure what motivated him to do it. The box of seeds was one thing, but searching for a Goddamn sunflower just so he could bring you one was another.

Daryl could practically hear Merle in his head taunting him, telling him he’d gone soft for some bitch. His hands balled into fists involuntarily, the thought of a Merle referring to you as a bitch pissed him off.

‘What’s a matter with you boy?’ Imaginary Merle asked. ‘Never thought l’d see my kid brother wrapped around some woman’s finger.’

Daryl leaned back, clenching his jaw, all this was unfamiliar territory, all these things he felt, the way he thought about you. Maybe he was going soft… scowling he drank more, hoping to put an end to the voice going on and on in the back of his mind.

You took the bottle from him, taking a big drink and sighing as a wave of nostalgia washed over you, “I remember getting my heart broken on a night like this, damn bastard.”

Daryl peeked over at you. You rarely cursed and you rarely seemed anything other than sweet and happy. But the bitterness and hurt in your voice were evident.

You examined the bottle in your hands, a quarter of it already gone. “I was dumb, so fucking dumb. I left home without a second thought and followed the man I loved across the country. I don’t know what I expected… marriage and babies, I guess, but instead what I ended up with was an immature manipulative dick.”

“I packed up what little I had, and left that small crappy apartment in the middle of the night... I couldn’t go back home, so I hitched a ride going as far as the driver would take me,” you wrapped your arms around yourself. “Since then my entire life could fit in one suitcase.”

Tossing your head back you took another big gulp, and wiped your mouth with the back of your hand.

You could easily recall that night you left, standing on the street corner feeling like a lost soul in the dark. No one to turn to, nowhere to go, it was scary but there was also a certain freedom to it. You were on your own, nothing tying you down or holding you up.

“You been on your own since then?” Daryl asked.

“Mostly,” you shrugged. “I’ve been fortunate though, met some decent people on my travels… and some interesting ones.”

You passed the bottle back to him,“I heard from the others about what happened with your brother,” you started. “Sounds like you and him have been through a lot together.”

He nodded, “Merle’s tougher than nails, none of these walkers would ever get the jump on him. He’s out there somewhere.”

“The two of you have that in common then,” You smiled. “From what I’ve gathered, it sounded like the two of you were inseparable, always having each other’s backs and whatnot.”

Daryl frowned. “Not all the time,” he corrected you.

Merle had been the first one to leave, having left Daryl behind without a second thought. This time around, Daryl didn’t have a choice, at least not in the same way.

“But I guess we’re even now,” he murmured.

“It must’ve been hard not going after him,” you commented. “But I know we’re all grateful that you stuck around. We need you.”

Daryl sighed, he didn’t regret his choice, he was needed here. But he still felt like he’d owed it to Merle to find him. They were family, blood, Merle was all he had in this world.

Taking another sip, your eyes wandered over to the beginnings of your garden.

“Y’know the best thing about my childhood home were the sunflowers that grew outside of my window,” You laughed dryly wiping a few stray tears. “Guess I’m just hoping this could be home for all of us.”

Daryl nodded, “If we’re smart, and if we’re careful, it can be.”

Resting your head on your hand, you admired Daryl, he was a handsome man, there was no doubt about that, but it was his arms and hands that stood out to you the most. There were many mornings you wished you could wake up in those arms.

You glanced at his face, your angel seemed to have a lot on his mind. You had hoped when you found the bottle of scotch it would’ve helped him relax a little.

But by now, you had enough to drink that you were feeling that buzz of confidence.

“Angel,” you whispered leaning forward, your eyes closed, and your hand reaching out to cup his face.

Immediately, Daryl placed his hands on your shoulders, stopping you from getting any closer.

There was a part of him that wanted this to happen, to pull you close and run his fingers through your hair, but there was also fear. He had never really been one for relationships, he didn’t have much experience with romance either. Not to mention, it seemed wrong to want to kiss a drunk woman.

You opened your eyes slowly, looking at Daryl full of confusion. Immediately backing away when you saw his face.

“Sorry, sorry,” you stood up, keeping your eyes downcast, unable to look at him. Your face felt like it was on fire.  “I-I should go,” you mumbled, stumbling as you took a few steps forward.

“Wait,” Daryl spoke up, grabbing your arm. “You’ll break your damn neck trying to climb down drunk.”

You kept your head down but nodded trying desperately to hold back tears. You were feeling absolutely overwhelmed by your emotions, and your inebriated state making it harder to control them.

“I’ll climb down first,” he explained, that way if you lost your footing and slipped and he could try to catch you.

Once you made it to the ground, you were still so flustered that you quickly wished him a good night before brushing past him and heading towards the prison.

Daryl watched as you briskly walked away, eventually climbing back up to the watchtower once you were inside. He grabbed the bottle of scotch taking one more drink before replacing the lid. He hoped he hadn’t just fucked things up.

Tag list: @twdeadfanfic​  @xaestheticalien​  @x-roscpctals-x   @amaroho​  @theonlyone-meeeee​  @mysterious-398​   @marss-anonymous​   @thecaptainsgingersnap​

[thebonerpit]

~*~ Santa’s Little Helper Pt.2 ~*~

(Part 1 here) And here’s the smut! Also posted this in full on my Ao3 here. Thank you everyone for your notes/reblogs/comments, it totally inspired me to continue this. Tagging: @rileyrosebelluniverse @tony-is-my-daddy @annoyingcatto @baly0110 @areluctantsblog @consciencecoward

Saturday arrived before Tony knew it, but it still somehow took too long to get there. Ever since Peter texted him he had been buzzing with excitement over their date. It was ridiculous. He was forty-fucking-six years old and he felt like a teenager before prom. Fitting, he supposed, since he was going on a date with an actual teenager. He shoved that little moral dilemma to the back of his mind and concentrated on getting ready. He didn’t want to look too formal because he knew Peter probably didn’t have much of a budget for dress clothes and he didn’t want to make him feel uncomfortable, so he settled on a simple black suit jacket, worn open over a white dress shirt unbuttoned at the collar, and black trousers. Peter didn’t have to know the entire outfit probably cost more than a year of his tuition.

It made more sense to meet at the bar rather than Tony go out of his way to pick Peter up (even though he did make it perfectly clear he would). Peter’s only stipulation was that they didn’t go anywhere Christmas themed which Tony was perfectly happy to comply with. He chose a secluded little lounge at the top of a ritzy hotel that most people didn’t even realize was there, which made it nice and quiet most of the time. He saw Peter waiting downstairs outside and smiled as he approached.

“Pretty sure they would have let you wait inside, you know,” he said, noting how Peter was shivering slightly in his thin jacket.

“Oh! H-hey, Mr. Stark, I just—”

“Hi sweetheart,” Tony interrupted, leaning in to press a kiss against his cheek which made Peter shiver even more, “call me Tony, alright? Not that the whole ‘Mr. Stark’ thing isn’t a turn-on.”

Peter blushed and laughed softly. “Ok… Tony.”

“Let’s go upstairs.”

The lounge was small, decorated with dim lights, flickering candles, and a number of plush couches. There was one in front of a roaring fireplace that Tony made sure would be empty for them. A handful of people were relaxing with drinks in their hands, all engrossed in their own private conversations, and they didn’t even look up when Peter and Tony entered. Peter immediately wandered over to the window where there was a spectacular view of the city, and Tony watched with an amused little smile on his face as Peter quickly took a picture before coming to join Tony on their couch.

“Oh wow,” Peter whispered as he sank into the fluffy cushions, “this is so nice.”

“Mmhmm, you bet. Drink?”

“Um… I’m… I’m only 19…”

Right.

“Don’t worry about that, I’m here a lot. They’ll be flexible.”

He motioned for the waiter and ordered an old-fashioned for himself. Peter looked at the drink menu, brow furrowed, and eventually decided on something called a sugar cookie martini. It looked hideously sweet, the rim decorated with green and red sprinkles, and somehow suited him perfectly. The waiter nodded and retreated to the bar without a mention of Peter’s age.

“See?”

“Thank you,” he said, glancing up at him through his lashes like he did when they first met. It was devastating and Tony was sure Peter had no idea what he was doing with that look which made it even sexier. They made casual, pleasant conversation for a while as they sipped their drinks until Peter darted his eyes over to Tony and swallowed thickly.

“I, um, have a confession to make.”

“Alright… but if you tell me you’re a real elf I’m taking that drink away.”

Peter giggled and shook his head, his cheeks pink from the alcohol.

“No! That’s… no. It’s just that, um… I sort of… I knew who you were. Who you are. When I saw you last week.”

Tony raised his eyebrows. He knew he was pretty well-known in the tech industry for his robotics work but he wasn’t arrogant enough to think everyone knew his name… yet.

“It’s my roommates fault. His name is Harley. He like, worships you, basically.”

“Oh, so you’re saying I took the wrong college student out on a date then. What’s his number?”

Peter looked horrified until he realized Tony was joking and smacked him lightly on the arm, which made Tony laugh.

“He’s taking mechanical engineering and never shuts up about the robots you built. So, yeah…”

“Does he know you’re currently on a date with me?”

“Absolutely not! He would probably be here right now, talking your ear off about something called a DUM-E, I don’t know.”

Tony laughed again. “Well, I appreciate the honesty. But that means you’ve got an advantage. You know all about me and all I know about you is how good your ass looks in tights.”

Peter groaned and hid his face in his hands but Tony gently pried them away by his wrists.

“Nuh-uh, none of that, sweetheart. Tell me about yourself.”

So Peter did. And by the end of it Tony was pretty sure he was in love. Peter was sweet, and intelligent, and incredibly kind-hearted. He was an orphan, his family ripped apart by gun violence, and instead of letting it ruin him he volunteered at hospitals and group therapy communities for people who have been through the same thing.

“So you aren’t an elf, then… you’re an angel.”

Peter blushed furiously and busied himself with polishing off the last of his drink.

“Not at all. I just… I just like to help people, that’s all. I’ve done bad things, too, y’know.”

“Oh yeah? Like what, accidentally stepped on an ant once back in the fifth grade?”

“Mmmmm nope,” he said, flopping back against the cushions. He was starting to look a little hazy-eyed and yeah, that was enough alcohol for this one. “I didn’t wear those tights like you asked me to.”

Tony laughed and settled back into the cushions as well, leaning in close so their shoulders were touching.

“Not exactly a criminal offense, Pete.”

“I wore something else, though,” he said softly, biting his lip as he looked over at him. Christ, his dick twitched just from that one glance. Tony was done for.

“Are you going to share with the class?” Tony whispered.

Peter looked around quickly to make sure no one was in their general vicinity before shifting down a bit further and tugging at the hem of his pants. Tony watched, eyes wide, and his mouth went dry as Peter revealed the edge of what looked to be some lacy green panties.

“Fuck,” he rasped, desperate to reach over and touch that sliver of skin, warmed to a golden brown by the light of the fire.

“Is that… something you like? I didn’t know—”

“Pete, if we were alone I’d already have those trousers on the floor,” he said, leaning over and instead of touching his hip cupping Peter’s cheek, letting him stare into those big brown eyes up close.

“Then let’s go somewhere we can be alone,” Peter said. He looked surprised by his own boldness but held Tony’s gaze as he licked his lips.

“Yeah. Good plan. Big fan of that idea. Check, please?”

The Uber ride back to Tony’s wasn’t far but it took every ounce of his willpower not to lean over and have Peter right there in the back of the car. Screw his perfect 5-star rating, some things were more important. But they managed to get there, all the way up the elevator, and into his apartment before he grabbed Peter by his slim hips and pressed him up against the wall.

“Tell me if I’m going too fast,” he said.

“If you stop I might actually die,” Peter responded, his voice high and breathy as he wrapped one leg around Tony’s waist to pull him closer.

Tony kissed him like he needed his mouth to breathe, like Peter was keeping all the oxygen in the room behind those perfect pink lips. Peter moaned as Tony pressed his tongue inside and god, he tasted like rum and sugar and Tony was sure he was getting drunk off it. He felt slim fingers scrabbling at his buttons and managed to pull himself away long enough to stop him, which earned a particularly cute pout from Peter.

“Bedroom. This way.”

By the time they managed to get there they had left a trail of clothing on the floor behind them, Tony completely naked, although he waited until he was seated on the edge of his bed with Peter in front of him to unveil the pièce de résistance. He leaned in to kiss at Peter’s taut stomach as he unbuttoned his trousers and pulled them down to reveal the panties, now stained from where Peter was leaking against the front of them. His cock looked delectable encased in green lace, and even better was the view from behind. His ass was more perfect up close, framed by a heart-shaped cut-out in the back and topped with a red silk bow.

“A Christmas present I don’t even need to unwrap to get to… what a treat.”

Peter looked back over his shoulder.

“Please,” he whispered.

“Please what?”

“God, please, anything, I’d let you do anything,” he begged, wiggling his hips.

“Ok, fuck, I changed my mind again. You aren’t an angel, you’re an actual demon, sent here to tempt me to do very, very naughty things,” Tony growled, leaning in to bite at one plump cheek. Peter yelped but pressed back against him, and Tony left two more bites on his ass before flipping them around so Peter was bent over the bed and Tony was on his knees behind him.

“Give me your hands, baby,” Tony said, and Peter immediately obeyed which wow, ok, Tony would definitely be exploring that later. Tony put one hand on each cheek and leaned in to kiss the base of his spine. “Hold yourself open for me.”

Peter made a whimpering noise into the sheets but did as he was told, exposing his perfect little pink hole. There was a brief moment when Tony thought about teasing him, but he would have only been teasing himself. All he wanted was to taste that incredible ass, so he did. The first touch of his tongue made Peter jolt and whimper again as he spread his legs even wider. Tony buried his face in between his cheeks, licking and sucking and rubbing his goatee against Peter’s sensitive skin.

“Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck Tony pleeeeeease,” Peter begged. He was rubbing himself against the mattress, obviously desperate for some friction on his cock, so Tony reached underneath him with one hand to press his palm against his bulge. Peter groaned, now unsure whether to push against Tony’s hand or back against his mouth.

“You like that, baby, hm? You like it when I eat you out like this?”

“Yes, oh my god, Tony please don’t stop!”

Who was Tony to deny such a sweet request? He dove back in, spearing his tongue as deep as it could go, licking him out until Peter was literally dripping with his saliva. It was running down the insides of his thighs, making his pale skin shiny in the dim light of Tony’s bedroom.

“Wanna come like this, sweetheart?”

Peter managed to prop himself up and look over at Tony. He was an absolute mess already, lips bitten red and hair mussed up from where he had pushed his head into the sheets.

“Want you inside me.”

“That can definitely be arranged.”

Tony stood up (and hoped to god Peter didn’t hear his knees popping) and rummaged through his nightstand for lube and a condom.

“Can we… I’m clean, and on PrEP.”

Tony looked down at Peter who had crawled up into the centre of his bed and was laid out there like a little prince.

“Me too. Are you sure?”

Peter nodded, rubbing at his cock through the panties.

“Want to feel you. God, your dick is huge,” he groaned, and Tony smirked as he crawled over on top of him.

“Should’ve pegged you for a size queen,” he teased. Peter just giggled softly and wrapped his legs around him to pull Tony down for a filthy kiss. “Leave these on?”

Tony fingered the edge of the panties and Peter nodded as he reached over to grab the lube. He started slicking up his own fingers but Tony stopped him with a shake of his head.

“Let me do that.”

“Fuck, ok… please hurry,” Peter said, shifting underneath him so he could throw one leg over Tony’s shoulder which was an incredibly pleasing development.

“Flexible… yoga?”

“Mmhmm, and I dance in my spare time,” Peter said, shivering a little as he felt Tony’s fingers rub against his hole.

“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you,” Tony rumbled out as he pressed two slick fingers inside. Peter’s mouth dropped open in a high-pitched moan and he arched into Tony’s touch, immediately pushing down to get him even deeper. “Oh fuck baby, look at you, taking it so well…”

“Feels so good,” Peter whimpered, jolting up against Tony’s sturdy frame as he started working his fingers in and out, slow at first but then in a steady, unrelenting rhythm. Tony was hard as rock, rubbing himself against Peter’s leg as he tried his best to concentrate on opening him up. He was just about to add another finger when he felt Peter shoving at him so he slowed, confused.

“What—”

“On your back. Quickly. Want to ride you.”

“Yeah?” Tony asked, already complying with a pleased smirk on his face. “Is that what you like?”

Peter nodded as he climbed into Tony’s lap, pausing to adjust himself in his panties. The head of his cock was peeking out of the top and Tony couldn’t resist rubbing one thumb over his leaking slit.

“Ahhhh! Tony st-stop, so close,” Peter whined, reaching back to blindly grab for Tony’s cock.

“So desperate, sweetheart,” Tony cooed, taking pity on him and lining himself up. Peter flushed, suddenly self-conscious at how uninhibited he was acting, but Tony was having none of that. He held Peter’s chin in one hand as he rubbed the head of his cock against his fluttering hole. “Look at me. Want to see that beautiful face when you ride me.”

Peter gasped as Tony breached him. He was so fucking tight and Tony really should have insisted on working him open a bit more but Peter moaned in pleasure as he sank down on Tony’s thick cock, his own twitching and leaking in the confines of those gorgeous panties. Tony could feel Peter squeezing around him and he squeezed back with his hands wrapped around his narrow hips.

“Does that—fuck, d-does that feel good?” Peter asked, breathless, his fingers scrabbling at Tony’s broad chest.

“So good, Pete, so fucking good. Wanna see you come on my cock, baby, just like this ok? Just take what you need.”

Peter bit his own lip so hard Tony thought it might actually bleed as he started grinding his hips back and forth. The angle must have been hitting his prostate perfectly because he was soaking his panties, shuddering and gasping as each spurt of pre-come leaked out.

“Gorgeous,” Tony growled, spurring him on.

“Hahhhh, ah, oh my god, so full, so big,” Peter babbled, his head thrown back, brown curls bouncing as he moved even faster, thighs shaking from the effort. Tony reached up and tweaked his pink nipples, rubbing his hands everywhere he could reach. “More, more, more, touch me, please, oh fuck, Mr. Stark, please!”

Oh, this little minx…

Tony planted his feet on the mattress and started snapping his hips up, jostling Peter in his lap and making him practically scream. Thank god for soundproofing.

“You gonna come, baby? Gonna come for me?”

“Y-yes, yes, so close, don’t stop!”

Not even a world-ending catastrophic event could make Tony stop at this point. He was relentless, pounding up into Peter until he went rigid above him, nails digging crescent moons into Tony’s thighs, as he came with the most beautiful gasping moan Tony had ever heard. Sticky fluid covered both of their stomachs and Peter collapsed on top of him, squishing the mess between their bodies in what should have been an unpleasant sensation but now just felt filthy in the best possible way. Peter was shaking, and Tony rubbed a hand up and down his back to soothe him.

“You did so good baby,” he whispered. Peter whimpered in response and squeezed around him again.

“Don’t stop,” he begged, wiggling his hips and burying his face in Tony’s neck, mouthing wet kisses wherever he could reach. “Want you to come inside me. Fill me up.”

Tony groaned and his dick twitched, something deep and primal inside him sparking at the idea of marking Peter as his in that way.

“Are you sure, baby? You aren’t too sensitive?”

“I… I like it,” he whispered, now moving on to nipping at Tony’s skin. “Feels amazing. Like… being used, just for your pleasure.”

“Fucking christ, Pete, you’re going to give an old man a heart attack talking like that,” Tony gasped out, to which Peter just giggled and kissed Tony’s jaw.

“Pleeeease, Mr. Stark,” he begged. Tony could feel the smile on Peter’s face against his skin and he couldn’t resist any longer. He grabbed two handfuls of Peter’s perfect ass and held him in place as he fucked up into him, hard, lost in the intense sensation of heat and slick. All he could hear was Peter panting into his ear and the sound of flesh slapping against flesh, and it didn’t take long before he was reaching his own climax.

“Ready, baby? Gonna fill you up, just like you wanted” he growled. Peter whined and clung on to him so hard he was going to have bruises as Tony groaned deeply, coming in hot spurts inside Peter’s wrecked hole. He nearly whited out from the overwhelming feeling of it all. Tony hadn’t come that hard in years and he was actually breathless for a moment, gasping for air over Peter’s shoulder as his dick twitched inside him.

“Oh my god, I can feel it,” Peter whispered, reaching back to press his fingers where he was still stretched around Tony. All Tony could do was huff out a weak laugh and cling weakly to Peter’s hips.

“I never thought I’d say this,” Tony managed to say in between heaving breaths, “but fuck am I glad I listened to my ex and took my kid to a mall Santa.”

Peter groaned and slapped at Tony’s chest pathetically, but Tony could tell he was laughing.

“What, you don’t agree?”

“I do but, um, I just thought of something potentially… problematic.”

“What, me having to explain to everyone that I’m fucking a 19-year-old?”

“No. You having to explain to Morgan that her dad is fucking one of Santa’s elves.”

[nad-zeta]

Match up 😉

I am the bubbly cuddly kind of girl in the group who has a really good sense of humor and try to show sass tho filled with adorableness (YEA IM ADORABLE WAT WILL U DO BOUT IT)-w- your partner in crime. riding horse? FULL SPEEDDD pulling pranks? Ayee lemme in fam. sing a song?? MAMAAAAA OHOHOHHoHoH~~~~ everyones perverted straightforward darling, got a problem u cant solve? no sweetened words babe I will throw the facts o yo face I AM KAWAII thats wat everyone says tho #youdontgettojudgeme my teachers says I will be successful in life due to my out of the box thinking, leadership skills and academic performance YOAAAIIIIIII MO DAO ZU SHI BUNNNIIIIIESSSSSSSSSSSS(give me nobu not kenshin plz) HUUUUUGGGGSSSSS CUDDLESSSSSSS ANIME BOYS?? *SHHHHRRRIIIEEEEEKKKKK SO PERVERT EVEN SATAN BE BLESSING ME(welp mah parents are concerned) so single even my lips are virgin turns to glance at boys ass grabs my besties boobs quotes vines(LoOK At ThiS GrAPh~~~~~~~) overconfident, narcissistic , intelligent[?] (at least I’m a top student) but also insecured the student who reads for a week before exam and mange to get 90% marks thehehe LETS DO THE FORK IN THE GARBAGE DISPOSAL DINGDINGDINGDINH emails my English teacher ‘u’ instead of you still remain her prized student

Hi there, love! Thank you so much for the request 😃<3 I hope you are safe and well! ^0^ I hope you enjoy it, dear ^_^.  Your match just came to me, as if it were written in this very title hehe. ❤❤🔥

So obviously match you with…………… Nobunaga lol

OOOOh girl, when you first arrived in Azuchi, you entered with a bang. You walked straight into that audience hall with your head held high, ready to fight. You now stood in the center of the hall, staring Nobunaga down. The two of you were basically fighting for dominance with your glares. Nobunaga was the first to crack under the intense staring contest, giving you the smuggest grin. He proclaimed you to be their new lucky princess. You thought for a moment, shrug, and said: “Nah, I’m good, but thanx.” Everyone in the room had to do a double-take. Nobunaga’s ruby eyes gleamed in amusement. “then tell me what it is you want as a reward for saving me.” You thought for a few minutes and then responded: “Nah, no thanks needed, you seem like a chilled dude.” Nobunaga just smiles, you certainly were an outspoken, entertaining woman. He then named you as castle chatelaine. You were super happy with that, so you just beamed up at him. You went to take a seat next to Masamune, who was waving you over to him.

Once war council was over; it was only you, Nobunaga, and Masamune left in the room. You were by no means a shy gal, so you chatted freely with them like old friends. They were so surprised and amused at all your perverted jokes and couldn’t help but howl in laughter. You were truly a hilarious woman. The three of you made jokes until Mamayoshi came to remind Nobunaga and Masamune of their duties for the day; they left to do their duties, leaving you all alone now with Hideyoshi. This boi thought from the moment he saw you, that you were going to be trouble. 

However, you pleasantly surprised at him. You worked incredibly hard, and you performed your duties diligently, often exceeding all expectations of you.

Nobunaga wasted no time in spending every possible moment with you. You were such a strange woman, and he couldn’t help but feel incredibly attracted to you. It didn’t even bother him that you had now dubbed him as Nobie. Much to Hideyoshi’s disapproval. But Nobunaga loved how outspoken you were, and low key kinda liked the nickname. He loved that you were always up for any and all adventures, and often the two of you would sneak out the castle and go horse riding. You loved to ride fast and feel the wind in your hair. He really enjoyed these little horse-riding trips with you as it was always filled with laughter and jokes. He loved the fact that you laughed at all his jokes and would always have a comeback leaving the devil king howling in laughter. The two of you would always race back to the castle, to see who the better horse rider was, you always seemed to lose much to your frustration. 

You and Nobunaga truly became super good friends really fast. He would often refer to you as his partner in crime. This was due to the fact that most nights, the two of you would be huddled around a makeshift drawing of the castle planning your candy heist. The two of you would plan everything to perfection, and then after executing a perfect heist, go back to Nobunaga’s room to chomp down on your precious candy loot.

Hehe and you truly fell in love with Nobunaga. You loved how even though he was the ruler and leader of a big clan, he just had this playful fun boyish energy about him. You two goofball are also known for pulling pranks on everyone in the castle in your free time. These pranks will range from putting whoopie cushions on Hideyoshi’s chair and then making a bunch of fart jokes, to messing with the silver kitsune. Although in saying that, you only pranked the silver kitsune once and never again cause that boi is the pranking master and will get you back x2 as bad. Like one time, the two of you just replaced his shampoo with honey, a harmless prank. But boy oh boy, did this kitsune get you back. This boy placed blue dye in all the bathrooms water supply, so when you and Nobunaga went to bath that night, both your bodies were turned blue from the waist down. You honestly thought that it was Nobu’s doing so you marched your way up to his room and slammed his door open only to run into him, storming his way to your room to blame you for the same crime. That is when Mitsuhide appeared and warned both of you against pranking him again.

Even though Nobunaga really loved you, he greatly underestimated your intelligence, which is a mistake he only made one. One day while the two of you were goofing off together, you spotted the latest war map and asked him about it. He explained the war strategies and plans for the upcoming battle in great detail. You looked over the board and map, something seemed off to you. The two of you continued on your day chatting and laughing, while something tugged at the back of your mind. That night you thought about the battle plans and strategies and realized they were slightly off and that they had too little men spread across the plain to successfully win the battle. You went up to Nobunaga to explain this when he basically just rejected your whole explanation. You legit told the facts to him straight, the two of you continued to bicker until you left the room in frustration slamming the door behind you.

You hadn’t spoken to Nobunaga in 2 days, and both of you were now off to war. You helped out around the camp, cooking and patching up injured soldiers. You and Nobunaga low key were avoiding each other, and EVERYONE noticed. It was the night before the final battle, and things weren’t looking too good for the Oda forces, you made your way to Nobunaga’s tent to give him the facts once again, and again he just ignored you. The next day shit was hitting the fan big time. Sweet angel Mitsunari arrived back in the camp being super injured, and that’s when you decided it was now or never. If Nobunaga continued the stupid ass battle strategy, he was gonna get himself killed, and it was no fun being mad at a dead man. You led Mitsunari into the medical tent and handed off your duties as the head doctor to one of the helpers. You then mounted Mitsunari’s horse and rounded up his troops. The lot was honestly running around like headless chickens without leadership. 

You rode out onto the field, remembering the battle plan you wanted to implement to strengthen the Oda’s defenses, they were weakest at the point that Nobunaga took control of. You rode like the speed of light, praying that you weren’t too late. You sent a silent thanks to Sasuke as you still had his smoke bombs, he had gifted you the first night. You rode to support Nobunaga and threw down the smoke bombs, giving you the perfect cover to command your troops to file a flurry of arrows at the enemies and thus giving everyone enough time to retreat and regroup. You saw Nobunaga fighting on foot, and you rode you him, tugging him to get onto your horse.

The two of you rode back to camp. You led him to your tent and patched him up as quick as you could, while patching you up he asked about your strategy, this time listening open-mindedly. After being patched up, he left your tent and was off to the battlefield was more. That night the Oda arrived back victorious, thanks to your and Mitsunari’s improvised battle plan. Nobunaga led you to his tent and apologized for underestimating you and thanked you for your bravery and leadership. After what he had seen, he was determined to make you his queen. He cradled your head in his hands and kissed you for the first time.

The two of you, goofballs make the cutest couple. You had discovered that the devil king is a secret cuddle lover. He loves to hug and cuddle you at all times, whether you are in public or private this boi wants you in his arms. He will devote his life to keeping you happy and will shower you with love and cuddles from sunset to sunrise. He loves laying his head in your lap while you sing to him at night. It’s one of those rare moments that he feels truly at peace and can let his guard down. Well, that is until you start tickling him, then you better be in for a long night cause this boi will get revenge for this playful declaration of war. (^_-)

All and all, this softi boi love you so much from your crazy good sense of humor to your sweet soft cuddles. You are truly the yin to his yang. And the only woman worthy enough in the whole world to rule the world by his side

 Other potential matches……………..Masamune 

I hope you liked it, dear!🔥❤ 

[scoutception]

Ranking the next 5 animes I’ve recently watched

After many distractions on my part, including playing through Steins;Gate, something that has quickly become something I adore like few others, I’ve continued my descent into the world of anime with 5 more series. The stuff I watched was a lot shorter on average than last time, and my attempts to be “objective” and my personal biases align much more closely compared to last time. With that, I’ll begin. 5. Soni-Ani: Super Sonico the Animation

Number of episodes: 12. Language options: subs only. Streaming availability: Crunchyroll. When it comes to visual novels, nitro+ is one of the biggest developers out there, alongside Key. Whereas Key is mainly out to make you really, really sad, nitro+ prefers a different approach. To my understanding, at best, their works are really, really dark, and at worst, they’re going straight for your nightmares, with stuff like Song of Saya and Sweet Pool. So clearly, the best mascot for them is the pink haired, constantly headphoned, and downright adorable Super Sonico. Even if it’s not outright official, it’s pretty jarring. Anyway, with that little rant out of the way, here’s the only thing on this list I actually wouldn’t recommend. Produced by White Fox back in 2014, this anime apparently got slammed pretty hard, and honestly, I have no idea why I even ended up watching this one. Perhaps this’ll be a reminder to be less impulsive in my choices in the future. Soni-Ani focuses on, who else, Super Sonico herself, an energetic and kind, yet clumsy college student who should reasonably be dead from stress and exhaustion. Along with college, she’s an idol, gravure model, helper at her grandmother’s restaurant and guitarist and main singer in the band First Astronomical Velocity with her friends Suzu Fujimi, the witty and manipulative bassist and official leader of the band, and Fuuri Watanuki, the mysterious drummer single mindedly obsessed with food. The series just explores some of the odd, extremely fanservice filled days of her life. It’s ok idea on paper, but in practice it’s just not really anything special or even entertaining for the most part. While I can usually ignore fanservice, it’s downright distractingly prevalent in the earlier episodes, to the point of several episode premises pretty much only catering themselves to it. Even without that, there’s just not much to be found; aside from Suzu and Sonico’s manager, the honestly hilarious Kitamura, who constantly wears a hannya mask and is willing to attack people for attempting to take advantage of Sonico, the characters aren’t anything memorable or entertaining on their own, leaving a lot of episodes feeling dry. They do improve in the second half, featuring episodes like a fairly charming murder mystery spoof, and an episode focusing on Sonico’s cats, of all things, but they’re still not something going out of your way to watch. The voice acting and animation, while at least ok, don’t stick out much either. Overall, again, this is the one thing I’d say to just avoid. There’s tons of other slice of life animes out there that are way better. If nothing else, though, I’m kinda glad I stuck to it just for the surprise cameo by Kurisu Makise’s outfit, considering I was already playing Steins;Gate.

4. Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun

Number of episodes: 12. Language options: dub (video release only, apparently) and subs available. Streaming availability: Crunchyroll, Hulu, Netflix. Moving onto stuff I’d actually recommend, here’s a nice little anime adaptation of a gag manga by Izumi Tsubaki, produced by Dogakobo. Chiyo Sakura, a high school student who stands at an impressive 4′9″, confesses her love to the tall and mysterious Umetaro Nozaki, and gets his autograph, of all things, for her troubles. Trying again, Nozaki instead takes her to his apartment... to assist him with his manga. As it turns out, Nozaki is a popular romance manga author, whose interests in life start an end at manga, rendering him utterly oblivious to Chiyo’s feelings. Thusly, Chiyo officially becomes his assistant in order to grow closer to her crush, meeting his other associates along the way. The main thing that must be said is that this is not a serious anime in the slightest, and it’s all just big parody of romance manga more than anything, especially with the characters, like Mikoshiba, who acts like a playboy, but in reality is cripplingly shy, and Kashima, the “prince” of the school who is both actually a girl and an airhead who’s frequently on the nerves of the drama club’s president, Hori. A lot of the humor thrives on miscommunication, and it’s exaggerated enough that it works well. Every character is an idiot, in their own ways, but endearingly so, and each of them stands out, from Chiyo, who mostly plays the straight man but has her moments of over imagination, or the hilariously abrasive Seo. The plots are the right kind of dumb too, like Nozaki and Mikoshiba becoming obsessed over a helper NPC in a dating sim, or Hori gaining an intense hatred for people standing on boxes due to Nozaki’s attempts to fix perspective problems. The jokes can get a bit predictable after a while, especially with Nozaki, but overall it’s a pretty funny time. The voice acting is good, and the animation is charming. Overall, this is definitely a fun watch. If you want a good laugh, or just something that doesn’t take itself too seriously, this is definitely something to check out. 3. Angel Beats!

Number of episodes: 13 (+ some OVAs not on streaming services). Language options: dub and subs available. Streaming availability: Netflix, Crunchyroll, Funimation. As it turned out, visual novels, or at least visual novel developers, became a theme in the things I watched this time around. As mentioned before, Key is one of the biggest VN developers out there, who specialize in making you really sad. From Kanon, to Clannad, to Planetarian, to Little Busters, Key’s made a lot of great stuff, and had some great anime adaptations made, particularly for Kanon and Clannad. Thus, Jun Maeda, co-founder of Key, conceived Angel Beats to originate as an anime, produced by P.A. Works in 2010. Angel Beats focuses on Otonashi, a teenager who wakes up in a strange high school with amnesia, only able to remember his last name. He soon meets a girl named Yuri Nakamura, who informs him that they’re dead, and stuck in a sort of afterlife, seemingly ruled over by a mysterious girl they only know as Angel. In this purgatory, they’re unable to die, as Otonashi finds out first hand at Angel’s hands, and the school is populated by fabricated teachers and students, but the real people stuck there are at risk of being “obliterated” if they act like normal students, ceasing to exist. Unwilling to accept this, Yuri leads class SSS in opposition of Angel and the assumed God that created this world for the cruel fates that everyone stuck in the afterlife met, Otonashi seemingly included. With seemingly no other path to take, Otonashi joins forces with the SSS. The main strength of Angel Beats is its cast of characters. From the pretty mean yet charming Yuri, to the reliable, yet often abused Hinata, to the crazy and energetic Yui, to even some of the side characters, like Shiina, the ninja girl with a crippling weakness for wind up dog toys, or TK, who speaks in gloriously mangled English and dances constantly. The premise as well is honestly fascinating to me, and makes for some very interesting episodes. It’s got some pretty entertaining action scenes, along with some really funny moments, mostly by playing the “nobody can actually die” tidbit for all its worth, with the second episode devoting a good amount of time to slowly killing off the main group in horrible, yet blase fashions. It delivers emotionally too, with the second half in particular having a good deal of touching episodes, especially episode 10. Unfortunately, there’s one giant problem with this anime that brings it down quite a bit: it’s only 13 episodes long. While I’m not a fan of 12 or 13 episode seasons, I can’t say that’s a problem by itself. What is a problem is that they were planning to have double that amount of episodes, causing the storyline to feel very rushed, and leaving nearly every character in the cast that isn’t part of the main group very underdeveloped. While there’s an entire expanded universe of stuff, good luck tracking it all down, and while Key themselves were making a 6 part visual novel of Angel Beats to expand upon it all, something that’s very promising, only the first volume has been released so far, back in 2015, with no word since, very likely because of Jun Maeda’s health issues. Overall, Angel Beats genuinely is a good watch, but it’s kinda depressing, just because of how much potential was cut short thanks to whatever genius decided to cut the episode amount in half. Unless the VN project really gets going again, it’ll probably just remain a bunch of what could have beens. 2. Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Number of episodes: 12. Language options: dub and subs available. Streaming availability: Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll, Funimation. Continuing the theme I unintentionally set up, here’s this famous little thing, from the mind of Gen Urobuchi, who, among other things, has worked on several nitro+ visual novels, mostly notably Song of Saya, wrote the apparently horribly depressing Fate/Zero, and was a scriptwriter for Kamen Rider Gaim, which, to my understanding, is one of the darkest Kamen Rider shows out there. Will all this in mind, there’s no real hiding that this isn’t going to be anywhere near as innocent as it tries to appear. Even if you didn’t know that, its reputation probably far exceeds it by now. Madoka Kaname is an average middle school student whose life is thrown into chaos when a mysterious girl named Homura Akemi transfers into her class, whom Madoka later finds attacking a strange creature called Kyubey. After rescuing it, Madoka and her best friend Sayaka are attacked by a strange creature known as a witch, only to be rescued by Mami Tomoe, a “magical girl” given power by Kyubey. Kyubey sees much potential in Madoka, and offers to grant her any wish of her choosing, in exchange for her becoming a magical girl as well and helping fight the witches. Homura, however, is completely determined to keep that from happening. Thus starts a chain of event in the lives of Madoka and Sayaka that, suffice it to say, don’t go very well. Without getting too specific, what starts as a mostly typical, if slightly odd, magical girl show quickly goes to very dark and twisted places, comparative to Neon Genesis Evangelion, though not quite as in depthly depressing with it. Everyone takes a beating in some way, and even with just 12 episodes, it can get a bit much for some people, even when it doesn’t end quite as awfully as you might expect. Still, it’s actually very well done. The characters are complex and flawed, but ultimately sympathetic, the overall plot is fascinating, and it ends in a very fitting way. It’s emotional, and has surprisingly good action. The dub voice work is solid, and the animation by Studio Shaft is as well, especially helped by the abstract designs of the witches themselves. While I’m not quite as passionate about it all as some are, it’s definitely earned its reputation. It’s a great watch, and definitely a big recommendation. 1. Steins;Gate

Number of episodes: 24 (+ 1 OVA). Language options: dub and subs available. Streaming availability: Funimation, Hulu, Crunchyroll. Finishing off my unintentional theme with an actual adaptation of a visual novel, there was no way I wasn’t checking this one out with how utterly passionate the VN made me. This is at least partially a bias placement, but this anime is a very, very good adaptation, and a great way to experience the story without the VN, and a great watch even having gone through it. Rintaro Okabe is a college student on break living in his “laboratory” in Akihabara. A self proclaimed mad scientist, he whittles his days away hanging out with his friends Mayuri Shiina and Itaru Hashida, inventing useless gadgets in a supposed fight against an evil organization. One day, Rintaro and Mayuri go to attend a press conference by Doctor Nakabachi in Radi-Kan, who claims to have invented a time machine, only for it to end horribly for all involved when Rintaro discovers Kurisu Makise, a young neuroscientist who had recently had her thesis published in a major science magazine, murdered by an unknown assailant. Sending an email to Itaru about the incident, Rintaro suddenly finds the world to have changed. According to everyone else, the press conference had been canceled due to a mysterious satellite that crashed into Radi-Kan, and Rintaro later runs into Kurisu, alive and well. Investigating, Rintaro finds that, by complete accident, his modified microwave has become a device capable of sending emails to the past- and that SERN, a French research organization, has been conducting time travel experiments of their own. In his attempts to understand the capabilities of what he’s invented, and his curiosity as to why his memories appear to be out of sync with everyone else’s, Rintaro rushes into a series of experiments that change his life, and those of friends old and new. This is something I could rant about all day, but putting it as succinctly as I can, I’ve never been as fascinated by time travel as Steins;Gate has made me. As fantastic as it, it’s also shown to be unpredictable, limited, and downright unsettling, especially when nobody knows just how time even works. It’s a story about the concept of time travel as much as a story about using it. The story definitely starts a bit slowly, but it’s well worth pushing past. As an adaptation, it doesn’t even need to sacrifice much, with the most that’s lost being some details in a few later arcs that aren’t worth much in the long run anyway. Beyond that, the main strength of the story is the cast of characters. Rintaro, with his rather severe case of chuunibyou, is a unique protagonist to begin with, but the events of the story turn him into an honestly fascinating and downright tragic character, and easily one of my favorite protagonists in a long time. The rest of the cast is just as good, with Kurisu being a great mix of intelligence, ravenous curiosity, and flusterability, with her and Rintaro’s interactions always being entertaining. As well, there’s the always kind, yet ditzy Mayuri, the outgoing, but odd Suzuha Amane, the endearingly gentle Luka Urushibara, and the energetic and wily Faris, just for some examples. The cast is downright loveable and very easy to get attached to. While I prefer the Japanese voice cast overall, the dub isn’t to be overlooked, with Trina Nishimura as Kurisu, Tyson Rinehart as Itaru, Cherami Leigh as Suzuha, Lindsay Seidel as Luka, and especially J. Michael Tatum as Rintaro giving great performances. Visually, White Fox did a great job giving it a distinct look. While the VN had a gorgeous and unique artstyle, it’s not really something that can be translated into animation. Instead, they used a whole lot of washed out colors and saturated lights that, combined with the sparse use of flashy effects and even music, gives a very subtle atmosphere to it all. Even beyond the style, it looks very good on its own, and it’s especially nice not having Rintaro look like a ghoul half the time, like he does in the VN.

Overall, this is very much something worth checking out. I’m beating a dead horse here since Steins;Gate is already wildly popular, but it’s that way for a very good reason. There’s also an extra OVA episode, along with a sequel movie, though both are only available via Funimation. They aren’t quite the best, but they make for entertaining watches worth checking out. And with that, that’s the end to my rambling. With the exception of, again, Super Sonico, everything here is very much worth a watch. I’m sure, once I emerge from the hell of Steins;Gate spinoffs, I’ll get to watching even more stuff. Till then, though. -Scout

[spookyspaghetti-hcs]

Wedding fic- Made by Lil, helper!

Today was the day, Brian was gonna marry the man of his dreams, Timothy Wright.

He was looking at himself, the mirror showing him from head-to-toe, He was wearing a white three piece suit, black shoes and a black bowtie, His hair was smoothed back and he smelled heavily of cologne, Jessica, Amy, Jane and Nina were there with him, They all had on similar white dresses that hugged their curves perfectly, black lacy sashes and white rose designs in the hips, Jane was an exception with a white rose on her shoulder seeing as she was the maid of honor, Her and Brian were quite close, She was one of his best friends and practically called the role before Brian even offered it to her.

“You look amazing, Brian.” Jane said reassuringly, Noticing him fidgeting with his bowtie and gloves, He seemed to calm down slightly, letting out a deep breath “Yeah, I know” he replied, flashing a charming smirk her way “I’m just- nervous, really nervous.” This time, Nina was the one to speak “Don’t worry, everything will be completely fine, don’t overthink it.” She clasped a hand on his shoulder “You’re just getting wedding jitters, happens all the time. You’ve just gotta stay positive!” Brian exhaled once more, straightening out his suit “Yeah- Yeah, you’re totally right, There’s nothing to worry about. Hopefully.”

As for Tim, He, Jay, Toby, Jeff and Alex were still getting ready, Tim had on a black suit, black shirt and a white tie. Jay, Toby and Jeff were all groomsmen and surprisingly enough; Alex was the best man, The two of them began to become quite good friends after they set what happened aside although they do still fight and get on each others nerves, All of them had on black tuxes with quite obnoxious red rose pins.

"It’s gonna be fine, It’s gonna be fine.” Tim kept repeating to himself, pacing around as he tried to calm his nerves, he was failing miserably and sweating bullets, Alex noticed quite quickly “Chill out, It’ll all be good, man.” he said, brushing his own hair back, “I know that!” Tim quickly snapped back “I just- I can’t help it.”

He remembers the day he proposed to Brian, The weather was lovely, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining down on them as they sat on the grass, Brian was pre-occupied with a half-finished daisy chain and Tim was re-hearsing everything he planned to say in his head. “So- Um, Brian?” He started awkwardly, he was fidgeting with his sleeves and his eyes darted everywhere “What’s up, Buddy?” He took in a deep breath, turned to face Brian and propped himself on one knee

"Brian, I’m quite sure I’ve loved you since the day we met and everyday since then you’ve made me a happier, better man. I always feel close to you and I love knowing I have a future with you. I’ll always be with you, Through the good and the bad and the ugly, I want to grow old with you, I love you so much-” He reached into his back pocket, pulling out a little black box and opening it to reveal a gorgeous diamond ring “Will you marry me?”

He remembers seeing how happy Brian was as he flung himself into his arms, Crying “Yes” over and over again-

“Yo, Tim, Are you in there, bud?” Jeff’s raspy voice snapped him back into reality as he waved a hand in his face “Right, He’s back on planet Earth, guys”

“I know you’re nervous man, I’ve been there.” Alex said, shooting a glance towards Jay who was currently trying to tie his own tie, it wasn’t going very well “But if you overthink, you’ll fuck up. So like, Don’t do that.” Tim shook his head, As bad as Alex was at giving advice, He was strangely encouraging. “Yeah, Okay, It’s all gonna be fine. Try not to burn anything down this time though, Alex.” Jay snorted in the background, Earning himself a glare from his husband.

-

Soon, the wedding was in full swing, Sally and BEN walked as the flower girl and the ring bearer, Both were grinning like mad, After them came the pairs; Jessica and Jay Nina and Jeff Amy and Alex And lastly, Jane and Toby. They all took their places on both sides of the Alter, Tim was already there, waiting anxiously for Brian to walk down the aisle, He couldn’t wait to see him after a day of not running into him at all, Suddenly the music started and the guests rose from their seats. Brian walked down the aisle with his red ad white rose bouquet next to The Slenderman, He had offered to walk him down seeing as he didnt have any family to do it, That nearly brought Brian to tears.

Tim could only gape in amazement at how stunning his groom looked, He looked like an angel Tim swore he could’ve fainted when Brian finally reached him, He gently took his hands, Looking him in the eyes with utmost love and adoration and Brian did the same, The priest started but they really couldn’t hear him as everything around them faded out, Tim could not take his eyes off of Brian ‘You look- beautiful.“ he mouthed in awe and Brian flashed one of his infamous grins his way, Melting Tim’s heart on the spot, The priest cleared his throat ’'Ahem, I said- You may now say your vows.”

Tim flushed red, embarrassed but went first “Words can not say how glad I am to have met you, You are my best friend and soulmate. You’re sweet, smart, brave, beautiful and that list just goes on, But we’d be here for years if I tried to finish it. You’ve put up with me through everything and I canot imagine my life without you. Brian, I love you more than anything.” By the time he finished, Brian had tears in his eyes and could barely start his sentence “Aw, Tim. The day I met you, Life has been a constant adventure, Filled with so much joy and complete craziness but I regret nothing, not even the bad times, you were always my ray of hope and you’ve made me feel so strong even when everyone said I was weak, I love you with all my heart, Timothy. I can’t imagine my life without ever knowing you.” Tim had a big, goofy smile on his face by the time Brian had finished and, believe it or not, tears began to fall from his eyes and he reached over to entertwine their fingers, squeezing the others hand. “And now, the rings”

BEN brought the rings up to them and they both put one on each others fingers, sharing a tender smile. “Do you, Timothy Wright, take Brian Thomas to be your lawfully wedded Husband? To have and to hold, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?” “Duh.” Tim answered, earning some laughs from the crowd, The priest repeated the question to Brian, Who in turn replied “Of course, I do.” “Well then, By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and husband. You may now kiss the groom.” “Oh, you don’t have to tell me twice.” Tim smirked, Sweeping Brian into a passionate kiss, The crowd erupted in cheers, whistles and congratulations to the very happy newly weds.

Mod Kenshi note: And we have our first request filled by a helper! You can find out more about Lil, including her main & her creepypasta blog on spooky unrelated, so go check her out! Anyways, any of y'all remember this prompt from, what August? For our 100 follower fic give away?

[forestwater87]

A big box o’Gwenvid AU ideas: A is for "Aww” and “Angst” and “AAAH”

This post is fucking rad as balls, and I started thinking of fun AU ideas . . . until I remembered that I already have approximately 2 billion WIPs already and don’t necessarily know if any of these have legs as actual fics. But it was fun to think about, so here we are! This is the first of . . . presumably 26 of these? Who knows, but this post we have:

Accidental Marriage AU

In which Campbell convinces incredibly wealthy investors known for their focus on “family values” that the Camp is a sweet family business run by a husband-and-wife team of counselors. The problem, of course, is that it isn’t sweet and its head counselors aren’t married. Campbell only has enough booze to fix one of those situations. 

He’ll figure the rest out in the morning. He thinks better with a hangover, anyway.

(Yes I think this one would be awesome in Campbell’s POV. You cannot change my mind on this.)

Actor AU

Okay, real talk this would just be @whiskyarts​‘s gameshow AU. Because I kinda love the idea of Jerk!David who just pretends to be a sweetheart for the cameras. Except I would cover it with my filthy Gwenvid hands and make it shippy in that antagonistic-hatemance-eventually-turns-into-something-resembling-feelings. There would be lots of angst and snark and sparkly clothes and I would love it and probably no one else would.

Alien AU

An Interplanetary Anthropologist, Gwen, manages to land a position on the Campbell after years of education and networking and plain old hard work. She is an employee of the most impressive warship in the galaxy -- sure, it’s gone to seed a little bit in the last few decades, but it still has its shine if you look at it sideways and squint a little -- and more importantly, it’s work experience! Paid work experience . . . as a janitor.

When the Campbell picks up a POW that the ship’s commander plans to (illegally) sell to the highest bidder, Gwen decides to treat it as an opportunity to build a real-life case study on one of the universe’s rarer life forms while it’s within arm’s reach. But the more she learns about the strange, sunny alien who was his platoon’s only survivor, the more uncomfortable she is with letting him disappear into her captain’s nefarious dealings and -- 

Oh fuck, this is The Shape of Water, isn’t it? I mean, I’ve never seen The Shape of Water but I’m pretty sure that’s what this is. Fuck. Goddamn it. Fuck.

Amnesia AU

David takes a rogue bus to the . . . well, everything -- something that’s more or less routine by now -- and hits his head hard enough to knock him out for almost a full day. When he wakes up, he’s the same cheerful David the camp is used to . . . except for three strange new things:

He doesn’t know where he is or what he’s doing -- doesn’t, in fact, remember anything after some vague memories of childhood.

He’s completely terrified of the forest, and especially of Spooky Island.

He has no idea who Cameron Campbell is, but he’s quite positive he hates him.

Android AU

Actually @ciphernetics​ and I put this idea together a little while ago! Basically Camp Campbell has a state-of-the-art off-brand helper android named David, who is a perfect camp counselor, childcare provider, and comes equipped with the finest Forest Survival software Cameron Campbell could find for free online in half an hour.

Gwen, the new (requisite human) hire, hasn’t ever really interacted with androids, and doesn’t especially want to now. David is used to the distrust, even outright hostility -- very few of the campers seem to like him, and he knows that his presence can be unsettling to humans, and look, it isn’t a D:BH AU okay? It just looks like one, and acts like one. And is one.

Angel/Demon AU

Um the perfect Angel/Demon AU literally already exists, but they only wrote one chapter back in 2017 and never updated, and that makes me absurdly sad. Regardless, David being very bad at being a demon and Gwen being very bad at being an angel is the ideal setup for this kind of AU, in my humble opinion. 

However, David being an angel trying to reform his fallen ABFEL (angel buddy for eternal life!), who probably became a demon over something stupid and probably horny, also sounds extremely cute. They’re still friends, even though that is against literally all of the rules, and they secretly meet and hang out. David is convinced he can bring her around, and Gwen insists that she hates having him hanging off her nonexistent wings all the time. 

Honestly, probably neither of those things are true. Gwen wasn’t cut out for heaven -- and probably, neither is David.

Apocalypse AU

Cameron Campbell was probably doing something dangerously stupid in the hopes it could make him money. That, or the Quartermaster was doing something dangerous for reasons only he could ever understand. Hell, maybe that’s what that weird Daniel guy’s cult was trying to do. Whoever was doing what, they ripped a hole in their dimension at the bottom of Lake Lilac, and all sorts of awful things start creeping through.

There were signs, of course -- that weird fish-monster certainly didn’t come in through customs -- but an inopportune explosion, or wayward firework, or the rumblings of Sleepy Peak Peak, or something ripped a hole in the fabric of reality big enough for Lovecraftian monsters to start crawling through. There’s no stopping it. Really, there’s no chance of even fighting it. 

The second the rift opens, the story becomes one of just trying to stay out from under the Elder Gods’ feet.

Arranged Marriage AU

I think the easiest way to make this one work is by making either David or Gwen Campbell’s actual biological child -- maybe an heir, albeit to a highly illegal fortune and a mountain of credit card debt. But Campbell gets in trouble, the kind of trouble where he’s gambled everything and the only collateral he has left is a kid he got saddled with because their mother had better lawyers. A kid he’s been more than happy to put to work for the last 20-something years, who happens to have caught the eye of a ludicrously wealthy magnate -- not for her own sake (though Campbell would’ve been open to that too) -- but for her child, one she loves more than anything and keeps carefully shut away until the Right Person comes along.

His kid isn’t necessarily the right person, but for the first time in his life Cameron Campbell has a genuine treasure on his hands.

And, like all the fake treasures he’s passed off over the years, he just has to find a way to shine them up and make him a fortune.

Artist AU

Gwen is a starving artist living in a rat-infested hovel in the city, scraping by on a series of uninspired landscapes she paints on postcards and the goodwill of friends, family, and significant others. One day, a bright young man bounces up to her “studio” (it’s a cardboard box outside the park) and tells her excitedly that he’s been looking for her for weeks; he thinks her postcards are the most beautiful things he’s ever seen, and he would like to know if she’d be interested in moving down to a cabin by the lake. He runs a summer camp, he explains, and he knows they’d all be honored if she would teach them art lessons -- and of course paint in her spare time! The views are indescribable, and he’s sure she’ll have no shortage of inspiration.

She weighs the cost of what little artistic dignity she has remaining against room, board, and a steady paycheck for three months, and takes the job immediately.

Art Student AU

Put them in an art college -- maybe condense the ages so that the campers are like, younger students? -- and have Gwen as the Serious Art Student who cares a lot about theory and form and doing things right, and she’s constantly irritated by her classmate David, who sits at the same table as her and has declared them art buddies, and is convinced that the point of art is just to have fun and do your best! Maybe force them to do a group project together and really see them clash.

(Alternatively, there is the infinitely more shameless route of one being an art student and the other being a newd model for figure drawing. I am obviously much too classy to ever insinuate such a thing, but if someone was really looking for a way to write smuht . . . it’s sitting right there. On a table. nekkid. I HAVE TO CHANGE THE SPELLING TO MAKE THIS GO IN THE TAGS ARE YOU KIDDING ME)

Athlete AU

There are 4 major ways this one can go, I feel like:

Basically HSM: Gwen is a small part in her school’s musical (techie, maybe, or the orchestra) and lanky jock David -- which is the most hilarious phrase ever but he’s probably a runner or tennis player, something light on muscles and heavy on speed and springiness -- who’s well-mannered and cheerful but not the brightest, is put into the show as an extra-credit way to bump up his GPA so he can keep sporting his sports, and it turns out he’s both very good at and super enthusiastic about it.

A little like HSM, but as grown-ups: Gwen is the head of the drama/art department, which has just faced heavy cuts to support the superstar sports program, and she furiously storms over to the head coach’s office to let him know exactly what she thinks about him and his stupid meathead jocks. Of course, when the man who opens the door is a sweetheart beanpole with big eyes who already knows her name, she finds it hard to keep up her righteous indignation. And when it turns out that he was completely ignorant of the hit her department took from the budget cuts (or maybe not ignorant, just terminally oblivious) and is almost as upset as she is to hear about it, she’s forced to reconsider everything she’d assumed about Coach Greenwood; maybe he’s not the enemy after all, but someone with whom she can formulate a new battle plan.

Reporter/Famous Athlete AU: Either Gwen is a professional sportsball person and David is the shy, bumbling photographer eager to prove himself, or she’s the plucky, intrepid reporter and David is a good-natured professional athlete who she’s determined to interview.

Teammates AU: Professional or amateur sports team, and they’re just trying to scrape their way out of the bottom of the league without killing each other. 

Author AU

There are a lot of potential interpretations of this AU, but my personal favorite is Gwen as a novelist with two distinctly differing careers: as G. E. Santos, the high-concept writer whose books are critical darlings in the maybe 3 publications that care about such things but whose sales can’t quite crack the triple digits; and as Annabelle Elizabeth, whose steamy erotica regularly tops the bestseller lists and is reviled by all of G. E.’s colleagues as “populist genre trash.” 

The only person alive who knows about her Jekyll-and-Hyde author personas (besides her older sister Audree, who plays the part of charismatic and sensual Annabelle flawlessly) is her editor, David. He’s an odd choice, as her colleagues in both fields have pointed out -- reading her romance novels with his pen in one hand and the other covering his eyes, peeking through his fingers to write tremulous notes in the margins; stumbling through her ponderous literary works with a dictionary in his lap and his tongue between his teeth, poring through them like he’s learning a new language -- but he’s the only person Gwen will allow to touch her writing. 

Maybe it’s because he always seems like her biggest fan. Maybe it’s because she’s known him since they were at a summer camp together years ago. Maybe it’s because he believes in her in a way no one else does -- in a way she absolutely doesn’t believe in herself.

David is, for reasons she’s not entirely sure how to explain even to herself, the only person she trusts.

Avian (Bird People) AU

Centuries ago, it was said, avians were a rarity, an aberrant mutation to be locked up and intently studied but never trusted. Some people thought they were antichrists, a sign of the end times, when all normal humans would be destroyed and only the strange bird-people would remain.

In a way, maybe they were. Because when the earth’s crust ripped open and flooded the planet with magma and boiling water miles deep, avians were the only ones who could take to the sky.

Not all of them, certainly. In fact, most were locked up in detention centers and laboratories when the Swamp formed, and were unable to escape in time. Considering the people who could get to high enough elevations to escape the deluge, there were decades afterwards where the decimated human population outnumbered the avian one. Those were periods of tension, outright war and tentative alliances -- even romances, the kinds of great love stories that dragged both avian and human populations a few generations along when one or both of them should’ve died out.

That was over two hundred years ago, however. Now the Swamp is a murky expanse of scalding water and the boiled remains of civilization transformed into unrecognizable muck, with islands of “land” cobbled out of what remains. This is where the avians live, now. And humans don’t live anywhere, not anymore.

At least . . . that was what they thought.

[draculalive]

Mina Harker's Journal.

Later. -- He has come and gone. Oh, what a strange meeting, and how it all makes my head whirl round! I feel like one in a dream. Can it be all possible, or even a part of it? If I had not read Jonathan's journal first, I should never have accepted even a possibility. Poor, poor, dear Jonathan! How he must have suffered. Please the good God, all this may not upset him again. I shall try to save him from it; but it may be even a consolation and a help to him -- terrible though it be and awful in its consequences -- to know for certain that his eyes and ears and brain did not deceive him, and that it is all true. It may be that it is the doubt which haunts him; that when the doubt is removed, no matter which -- waking or dreaming -- may prove the truth, he will be more satisfied and better able to bear the shock. Dr. Van Helsing must be a good man as well as a clever one if he is Arthur's friend and Dr. Seward's, and if they brought him all the way from Holland to look after Lucy. I feel from having seen him that he is good and kind and of a noble nature. When he comes to-morrow I shall ask him about Jonathan; and then, please God, all this sorrow and anxiety may lead to a good end. I used to think I would like to practise interviewing; Jonathan's friend on "The Exeter News" told him that memory was everything in such work -- that you must be able to put down exactly almost every word spoken, even if you had to refine some of it afterwards. Here was a rare interview; I shall try to record it verbatim.

It was half-past two o’clock when the knock came. I took my courage à deux mains and waited. In a few minutes Mary opened the door, and announced "Dr. Van Helsing."

I rose and bowed, and he came towards me; a man of medium weight, strongly built, with his shoulders set back over a broad, deep chest and a neck well balanced on the trunk as the head is on the neck. The poise of the head strikes one at once as indicative of thought and power; the head is noble, well-sized, broad, and large behind the ears. The face, clean-shaven, shows a hard, square chin, a large, resolute, mobile mouth, a good-sized nose, rather straight, but with quick, sensitive nostrils, that seem to broaden as the big, bushy brows come down and the mouth tightens. The forehead is broad and fine, rising at first almost straight and then sloping back above two bumps or ridges wide apart; such a forehead that the reddish hair cannot possibly tumble over it, but falls naturally back and to the sides. Big, dark blue eyes are set widely apart, and are quick and tender or stern with the man's moods. He said to me:---

"Mrs. Harker, is it not?" I bowed assent.

"That was Miss Mina Murray?" Again I assented.

"It is Mina Murray that I came to see that was friend of that poor dear child Lucy Westenra. Madam Mina, it is on account of the dead I come."

"Sir," I said, "you could have no better claim on me than that you were a friend and helper of Lucy Westenra." And I held out my hand. He took it and said tenderly:---

"Oh, Madam Mina, I knew that the friend of that poor lily girl must be good, but I had yet to learn -- -- " He finished his speech with a courtly bow. I asked him what it was that he wanted to see me about, so he at once began:---

"I have read your letters to Miss Lucy. Forgive me, but I had to begin to inquire somewhere, and there was none to ask. I know that you were with her at Whitby. She sometimes kept a diary -- you need not look surprised, Madam Mina; it was begun after you had left, and was in imitation of you -- and in that diary she traces by inference certain things to a sleep-walking in which she puts down that you saved her. In great perplexity then I come to you, and ask you out of your so much kindness to tell me all of it that you can remember."

"I can tell you, I think, Dr. Van Helsing, all about it."

"Ah, then you have good memory for facts, for details? It is not always so with young ladies."

"No, doctor, but I wrote it all down at the time. I can show it to you if you like."

"Oh, Madam Mina, I will be grateful; you will do me much favour." I could not resist the temptation of mystifying him a bit -- I suppose it is some of the taste of the original apple that remains still in our mouths -- so I handed him the shorthand diary. He took it with a grateful bow, and said:---

"May I read it?"

"If you wish," I answered as demurely as I could. He opened it, and for an instant his face fell. Then he stood up and bowed.

"Oh, you so clever woman!" he said. "I knew long that Mr. Jonathan was a man of much thankfulness; but see, his wife have all the good things. And will you not so much honour me and so help me as to read it for me? Alas! I know not the shorthand." By this time my little joke was over, and I was almost ashamed; so I took the typewritten copy from my workbasket and handed it to him.

"Forgive me," I said: "I could not help it; but I had been thinking that it was of dear Lucy that you wished to ask, and so that you might not have time to wait -- not on my account, but because I know your time must be precious -- I have written it out on the typewriter for you."

He took it and his eyes glistened. "You are so good," he said. "And may I read it now? I may want to ask you some things when I have read."

"By all means," I said, "read it over whilst I order lunch; and then you can ask me questions whilst we eat." He bowed and settled himself in a chair with his back to the light, and became absorbed in the papers, whilst I went to see after lunch chiefly in order that he might not be disturbed. When I came back, I found him walking hurriedly up and down the room, his face all ablaze with excitement. He rushed up to me and took me by both hands.

"Oh, Madam Mina," he said, "how can I say what I owe to you? This paper is as sunshine. It opens the gate to me. I am daze, I am dazzle, with so much light, and yet clouds roll in behind the light every time. But that you do not, cannot, comprehend. Oh, but I am grateful to you, you so clever woman. Madam" -- he said this very solemnly -- "if ever Abraham Van Helsing can do anything for you or yours, I trust you will let me know. It will be pleasure and delight if I may serve you as a friend; as a friend, but all I have ever learned, all I can ever do, shall be for you and those you love. There are darknesses in life, and there are lights; you are one of the lights. You will have happy life and good life, and your husband will be blessed in you."

"But, doctor, you praise me too much, and -- and you do not know me."

"Not know you -- I, who am old, and who have studied all my life men and women; I, who have made my specialty the brain and all that belongs to him and all that follow from him! And I have read your diary that you have so goodly written for me, and which breathes out truth in every line. I, who have read your so sweet letter to poor Lucy of your marriage and your trust, not know you! Oh, Madam Mina, good women tell all their lives, and by day and by hour and by minute, such things that angels can read; and we men who wish to know have in us something of angels' eyes. Your husband is noble nature, and you are noble too, for you trust, and trust cannot be where there is mean nature. And your husband -- tell me of him. Is he quite well? Is all that fever gone, and is he strong and hearty?" I saw here an opening to ask him about Jonathan, so I said:---

"He was almost recovered, but he has been greatly upset by Mr. Hawkins's death." He interrupted:---

"Oh, yes, I know, I know. I have read your last two letters." I went on:---

"I suppose this upset him, for when we were in town on Thursday last he had a sort of shock."

"A shock, and after brain fever so soon! That was not good. What kind of a shock was it?"

"He thought he saw some one who recalled something terrible, something which led to his brain fever." And here the whole thing seemed to overwhelm me in a rush. The pity for Jonathan, the horror which he experienced, the whole fearful mystery of his diary, and the fear that has been brooding over me ever since, all came in a tumult. I suppose I was hysterical, for I threw myself on my knees and held up my hands to him, and implored him to make my husband well again. He took my hands and raised me up, and made me sit on the sofa, and sat by me; he held my hand in his, and said to me with, oh, such infinite sweetness:---

"My life is a barren and lonely one, and so full of work that I have not had much time for friendships; but since I have been summoned to here by my friend John Seward I have known so many good people and seen such nobility that I feel more than ever -- and it has grown with my advancing years -- the loneliness of my life. Believe, me, then, that I come here full of respect for you, and you have given me hope -- hope, not in what I am seeking of, but that there are good women still left to make life happy -- good women, whose lives and whose truths may make good lesson for the children that are to be. I am glad, glad, that I may here be of some use to you; for if your husband suffer, he suffer within the range of my study and experience. I promise you that I will gladly do all for him that I can -- all to make his life strong and manly, and your life a happy one. Now you must eat. You are overwrought and perhaps over-anxious. Husband Jonathan would not like to see you so pale; and what he like not where he love, is not to his good. Therefore for his sake you must eat and smile. You have told me all about Lucy, and so now we shall not speak of it, lest it distress. I shall stay in Exeter to-night, for I want to think much over what you have told me, and when I have thought I will ask you questions, if I may. And then, too, you will tell me of husband Jonathan's trouble so far as you can, but not yet. You must eat now; afterwards you shall tell me all."

After lunch, when we went back to the drawing-room, he said to me:---

"And now tell me all about him." When it came to speaking to this great learned man, I began to fear that he would think me a weak fool, and Jonathan a madman -- that journal is all so strange -- and I hesitated to go on. But he was so sweet and kind, and he had promised to help, and I trusted him, so I said:---

"Dr. Van Helsing, what I have to tell you is so queer that you must not laugh at me or at my husband. I have been since yesterday in a sort of fever of doubt; you must be kind to me, and not think me foolish that I have even half believed some very strange things." He reassured me by his manner as well as his words when he said:---

"Oh, my dear, if you only know how strange is the matter regarding which I am here, it is you who would laugh. I have learned not to think little of any one's belief, no matter how strange it be. I have tried to keep an open mind; and it is not the ordinary things of life that could close it, but the strange things, the extraordinary things, the things that make one doubt if they be mad or sane."

"Thank you, thank you, a thousand times! You have taken a weight off my mind. If you will let me, I shall give you a paper to read. It is long, but I have typewritten it out. It will tell you my trouble and Jonathan's. It is the copy of his journal when abroad, and all that happened. I dare not say anything of it; you will read for yourself and judge. And then when I see you, perhaps, you will be very kind and tell me what you think."

"I promise," he said as I gave him the papers; "I shall in the morning, so soon as I can, come to see you and your husband, if I may."

"Jonathan will be here at half-past eleven, and you must come to lunch with us and see him then; you could catch the quick 3:34 train, which will leave you at Paddington before eight." He was surprised at my knowledge of the trains off-hand, but he does not know that I have made up all the trains to and from Exeter, so that I may help Jonathan in case he is in a hurry.

So he took the papers with him and went away, and I sit here thinking -- thinking I don't know what.

[ritacaroline]

In The Light      Jimmy Page       Fan Fiction        Part 29

Part 29   All Set Up

It was two days before Christmas, 1977.  The house had been decorated nicely for Christmas by the housekeepers. There were a lot of poinsettia plants in various rooms, a big Christmas tree in the main open room, garland around the fireplace. Little Christmas details and decorations in most of the rooms, just to give that merry holiday feeling. Mrs. Kelly set it up, she was a Christmas nut as she called herself. Jill felt really at home in Jimmy’s house. He treated her so royally, and so specially. So it was really he, that made it feel comfy for her.

Jimmy didn’t drive but he still had several cars in his garage.  Jill did drive and Jim told her that she was more than welcome to use whatever car she wanted. The one issue was the fact that traffic ran on the opposite side of the road than the way it’s done in the U.S.  Even if learned, reflexes can still come into play in a stressful situation and accidents could occur. Especially if something challenged you suddenly. So Jim asked her if she wanted to go out with the car, to please bring Roland with her, at least for the first couple weeks. That way she could get used to driving the opposite side of the road.

It was about 11 a.m. and Jim had just finished making quite a few calls regarding schedules, meetings, tour dates and band practices coming up within the next few weeks. His broken two fingers were doing much better and his doctor here in England told him he could start using and exercising them starting next week.

“Jill,” he said, “I want to tell you about my plans with the band for the next week or so. First of all, I need to meet them after dinner tonight. I do have to talk about business with Peter and the band, but I wonder if you would come too. We’ll probably get some drinks and snacks at a pub. Clare will be there and Linda and Maureen. They’re all wanting to see you. Will you ?”

“Sure, I would love to see them. I’ll be glad to go. But, I’m gonna need to get to some stores today, I need to buy some things. And yeah, probably pick up some clothes too. You’re right, I don’t really have enough things here.” said Jill.

“Great, that’s a good idea. I want you to get what you need. I won’t be able to go, though, not that you wanted me to go. But I have more business to tend to. So, why don’t you go with Roland, angel ? He’ll drive at first, and you drive as soon as you feel ready. He’ll help you and you can practice with him the first couple weeks, alright ?”

“Yeah, that sounds good. I definitely know I’m not ready to drive on the opposite side yet.” she said.

“Okay, sweetheart, let’s talk about money, alright ?” he said.

 "Okay,“ she said.

“I know you won’t want to accept it, but I’m going to have to persuade you. I’m going to give you a VISA card which has funds on it for your use. I know you have your own money, but I pulled you away from your work to come live with me. So you’re not earning any new money now.  And that’s not your fault, it’s due to me. So I want to cover anything you want to buy or need here, ok babe. Just say yes. It’s nothing for me.” he said. “Just take the card.”

“Uhm, …hmmm, that’s a tough one, Jim. You’re right. That’s something I’m not sure I can accept. Money is an awkward subject. I don’t like accepting it. But maybe I will. I don’t know.” she answered.

“I understand, I guessed you would say something like that. So, in that case, just carry the card with you and use it if you want to or need to. Or don’t use it if you don’t want to. I can’t force you. But I need you to know that it’s my pleasure to do anything I can do to take care of you….in bed. (he laughed softly,)  No, baby, I’m just joking. I mean both in bed and in any regular life situation, anytime. So just carry it with you and feel free to use it. You changed around your entire life to come with me here. The least I can do is take care of you, so yeah, let me. That’s right, don’t think of it as money, think of it as me taking care of you.” said Jim. He put the card into her bag and zipped it closed. Then, he put his hands on either side of her head and pulled her to his mouth and began kissing her with small little kisses all around her face and forehead.

She was in awe of how much trouble he had been going through to make things worry free for her. He was amazingly thoughtful too. Thinking of things like this in advance. She was realizing how much he cared for her. Nobody had ever treated her this beautifully before, ever.

He brought her to the garage and showed her the cars. He had 4 very beautiful cars in there, all were very cool and new looking. Even if Jimmy didn’t drive them, they were all well maintained. Jimmy said, “Pick out the one you like and Roland will get it ready and drive this first time for you. ”

“Oh my gosh. I can’t believe you would just let me drive away in one of these gorgeous cars. I feel really spoiled.” she said.

“I would trust you with anything, Jill. You’re an extremely responsible person, and I’m not worried about the car. That’s why we have insurance. All I care about, is you staying safe and unharmed. You’re the only thing here that matters to me. So please be extra careful. I need you. And all in one piece, please. I would be levelled if anything wrong happened to you, my precious girl.”

She chose the white Corvette, beautiful.

“I will be so careful. Roland will help me.” she said.  Jimmy leaned to her and hugged her with caring. He kissed her about 5 times, a few on the lips and the rest all around her face. Soon, Roland came down, they got into the vette and Jimmy waved as they left.

They arrived at the shops and Jill told Roland she wanted to buy clothes and also a Christmas gift for Jimmy. Roland was a person you could trust to keep your secrets.  He was a warm, quiet man with whom you could discuss any subject and receive non judgemental advice. He was also very huggable and cozy.  Roland was an excellent companion, not just for her, but for anyone. He was more like a nice Dad, but open and cool. And he already really liked Jill. He noticed that she was sweet, nice, funny, smart and obviously really cared for Jimmy. That made an impression on Roland.

He had observed how things had carried on in the past, between Jim and many other young women he’d had there. Whether the women were there to visit or to stay. But, he could always tell that either way, they were always there to somehow take advantage of Jimmy in some way or his assets. Or, that Jimmy was more interested in them for sex, but not much in them personally. Roland had definitely seen the difference between this situation with Jill and those other flings or romances. Something was different here and much for the better.

Jill bought some dresses, skirts and other nice clothes she would need for various types of occasions. Roland was an excellent helper and assistant to her. She also got a coat and some shoes and boots and really nice underwear too. She normally didn’t need that kind of stuff. However, she knew, if she was going to be walking around England with Jimmy Page, there was no way she was going to be dressed shabbily. Also, she knew they’d be travelling together on tour, or at least trying it out. How could she not have the clothes she needed available to her.

She loved the idea of getting a Christmas gift for Jimmy. But what ? She wanted to get him something personal, but again, what ?  She talked about it with Roland. They discussed it awhile.  She knew in the end, it would need to be her own idea if it was going to actually be a heartfelt gift.

By the end of the shopping day, she had what she wanted for him. For the ride home, Jill didn’t yet feel ready to drive opposite, so Roland was glad to do that. It was the more wise way to go, since the holiday traffic was very thick and drivers were off their gourd this time of year.

Late afternoon, they returned home and Jimmy was waiting at the front door for them.  Roland carried in the purchases up to a side room of Jim’s bedroom, which Jimmy had given to Jill.  She was using it as a room to store some of her things, get dressed in, a place for her vanity and place to do hair and makeup, and for privacy if she wanted it. As Jill walked toward the front door, Jim walked out the door to meet her. When she came close enough, he brought her into his arms and hugged her warmly and rocked her from side to side. He put his warm lips against her mouth and sensuously kissed her as though they hadn’t seen each other in three months.  She loved his beautiful affection and just relished in his hold. “Wow, I’m gonna need to exit for awhile everyday, if I’m going to get a reception like this !”

He just smiled and whispered next to her ear, “My angel, I missed you. And the thought of you coming home to me, it was a sweet anticipation. Seeing your beautiful face just now was a thrill.  You’re so delicate and sweet.  You’re a sight. ”

“Sweetheart, I can’t believe how glad you are to see me ! I’ve only been gone half the day !” she remarked, while running her hands through his thick gorgeous locks.

“Doesn’t matter if it’s five minutes or five days. I’m still going to be thinking of you and missing you.” he said.

Next Part 30 :  https://ritacaroline.tumblr.com/post/174796691361/in-the-light-jimmy-page-fan-fiction

Chapter Index :

https://ritacaroline.tumblr.com/Fan%20Fiction

[malecsecretsanta]

Merry Christmas, @nerdyfangirl57!

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to you sweetheart, from your Secret Santa!  So excited to see what you think of your gift and I really hope that, at the very least, it makes you smile over the holidays!  Love & Hugs! XXXXXX

Read on AO3

*****

Santa's Little Helper    

Turning the collars up on his purple military coat, Magnus was glad of the full-length barrier it would provide against the crisp night air outside, only wishing he’d brought his gloves too as he prepared to leave the warmth of the cinema foyer with his two small companions. Squatting down to tie Madzie’s scarf and adjust Max’s bobble hat, Magnus couldn’t resist dropping a kiss on their dimpled cheeks as he asked if they’d enjoyed the film.

Madzie nodded vigorously. ‘I want to eat marmalade sandwiches like just Paddington. Can we, Magnus? Please?’’

Max tugged on his arm in agreement, his eagerness pitching his young voice even higher than usual. ‘Yes! Yes! Me too, Papa!’

With a token huff, he nodded, ‘OK!’ Four surprisingly strong arms wrapped themselves around his legs in gratitude and Magnus hugged them back before grabbing their hands with a cheery, ‘Let’s go!’

Stepping out with a collective gasp into the early evening chill, the happy trio entertained themselves with festive songs as they made their way to the nearby Christmas fair, arms swinging in time to each tune. They were going to visit Madzie’s adopted mum, Catarina, who was manning the fundraising stall for the hospital where she worked, before heading home to the loft for an evening of cartoons and chaos.

Deciding to soothe their vocal chords with some hot chocolate as they went, Magnus stopped at the coffee shop on the corner, grabbing an extra one for his hard working friend before steering the children towards the busy plaza where throngs of busy shoppers were congregating in the hope of finding the perfect gifts. Magnus couldn’t help but feel the stirrings of excitement at the festive scene before him as they paused for a moment to appreciate it.

The lamp-lit square had been transformed into something akin to a Christmas card picture with only the snow missing from it. At the far end, a bandstand housed members of the local music college whose brass instruments were playing hymns and carols, as well as some crowd-pleasers for the hardy souls huddled together on the temporary seats that were dotted around, with vocal harmonies provided by schoolchildren who were being led by an enthusiastic teacher. On the remaining three sides of the large cobbled space stood rows of wooden cabins, each assigned to a local charitable cause, their gabled roofs adorned with holly and poinsettia, multicoloured lights framing the stable-door shutters thrown open in welcome so that potential buyers could see the wide variety of wares on offer. The scent of pine permeated the joyful atmosphere and mixed with the delicious smells of sweet and savoury treats, beckoning them to follow their noses to where all things cinnamon and spice were waiting. Taking pride of place at the centre of all this was a popular Santa’s Grotto that made the children squeal with delight as they bounced on their toes, begging to join the queue.

‘Papa, pleeeeeeeease!’ Max implored, big blue eyes the size of saucers melting Magnus’ heart like they always did, while Madzie’s impossibly wide smile had the same effect on his knees. How could any Papa or godfather resist?

‘Fine,’ he caved, as their combined shrieks split the air, ‘but first we have to deliver this fortifying brew to your poor mother before her joints seize up from being exposed to this wintry weather for the last few hours.’ Their disappointment was quickly replaced by grudging nods as they continued in haste.

With an excitable yelp, Madzie pointed to the middle stall directly opposite the band, and conveniently facing the grotto would you believe, sporting the hospital’s banner and began tugging him closer by his coat.

‘Patience, Sweetpea,’ he cautioned affectionately, knowing it would fall on deaf ears, instead concentrating on ensuring the hot beverage reached its intended recipient in one piece. Approaching the cozy looking shelter, well stocked with all manner of knitted goods, from Christmas stockings and scarves to tree decorations and cushion covers, Magnus chuckled to himself at how Cat’s hobby had certainly been put to good use. ‘For you, my dearest Catarina,’ he greeted her gallantly, receiving a blissful look of thanks before stepping back, allowing the youngsters to say hello and give her a detailed recount of the film they’d just seen.

Drinking his own chocolate as he swept a cursory gaze over the stalls on either side, Magnus paused mid-sip as his eyes landed on the incredibly hot vendor to the right of Cat, who was sitting down, engrossed in a heavy-duty cookery book, giving him the opportunity to take him all in. His grin was feral as he swallowed.

Wrapped up against the cool breeze in a black high-collared peacoat and fingerless gloves, his head was covered by a green and red striped hat any elf would be proud, the bell at its end actually jingling when he turned the pages and the words ‘Santa’s Little Helper’ emblazoned in red flashing lights across it. Oh, I do hope that’s not literal, Magnus thought, as he bit down on a giggle. Glancing briefly at his companions to check they were still oblivious to his diverted attention, he proceeded with his appraisal. The stranger’s eye colour couldn’t be determined beneath the long thick lashes that fanned his adorably rosy cheeks but he couldn’t wait to find out. They would be amazing, Magnus just knew it. The short, no-doubt-silky strands of black hair that could be seen poking out from under the funny headgear framed his features perfectly and his hands…. oh, those hands with the long, lean, capable fingers could probably consign him to a pleasurable death or deliver him unto heaven, he wouldn’t mind which. Could he get any better? Magnus wondered.

Then Santa’s Little Helper looked up.

And WOW! He’d been so right.

Luminous hazel eyes were unblinking as they slowly subjected Magnus to an equally intense eye-balling. Unconsciously squaring his shoulders, he returned the stare, confident he was worth looking at. A lopsided smile that fairly robbed him of breath was his reward.

Then Santa’s Little Helper spoke.

‘Can I tempt you with anything?’ came the deep sultry voice, leaving Magnus with an overwhelming urge to vault over the display of cookies and doughnuts and let his body answer in the affirmative.

But he didn’t, of course. Instead, he blurted, ‘That rather depends on what ‘anything’ is…’

Shit. Smooth, Bane. Real smooth.

With a rueful roll of his eyes, Magnus held up his hand in apology as he stepped nearer to make sure the children didn’t overhear. And maybe to get a closer look.

Trying, and failing, to ignore the blush that further coloured ‘Pretty Boy’s’ kissable cheeks, Magnus grinned, ‘Please excuse me, that was rude.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ said the beautiful lips that had somehow pulled his focus, ‘You didn’t say no, right?’ And he winked!

Magnus couldn’t conceal his surprise. Well, well. This was clearly no angel he was talking to. Glossy lips puckered of their own accord. ‘I wouldn’t dream of saying no to you….?’

‘Alec,’ The Mouth replied, his toothy grin no less devastating than his lips.

‘I’m Magnus,’ he declared, extending a bejewelled hand which Alec took readily, and for much longer than was strictly necessary but he wasn’t complaining. Quite the contrary. He never wanted to let go. How odd.

Lost in a bubble (or should that be bauble?) of mutual admiration, they didn’t notice the impatient five year old who was desperate for their attention at first, only ‘coming to’ when Max stamped on Magnus’ foot, hard.

‘Ow!’ Reluctantly breaking contact, the only real pain Magnus felt was out of concern for the damage done to his Italian leather boots. ‘What was that for, blueberry?’ he demanded without a trace of heat, as he leant down to lift his unrepentant son onto his hip.

‘We want to know when we’re going home, Papa,’ Max asked, small palms playfully squishing his father’s cheeks, which only added to the embarrassment of having been caught in a ‘moment’ with a complete stranger. He gently lowered the hands.

‘Soon, Max. I was just wondering what we could be tempted to buy from Santa’s....’ Both Bane men turned in unison as Alec stood up off the stool, his hat nearly touching the roof. ‘...Not-So-Little Helper,’ Magnus finished breathily.

He did NOT gulp when Alec chuckled.

‘Maybe you could help Papa decide, Max?’ The Mouth wondered, eyes darting quickly to Magnus, as if aware how hearing him saying those names had triggered an almost primal reaction in his gut, which was ludicrous, but nonetheless true.

Max nodded solemnly, his restless hands, now fiddling with the epaulettes on Magnus’ coat, the only indication that he was a little nervous.

Alec folded his arms and leaned down on the counter to make himself appear less intimidating. ‘I made all these goodies to sell for my son’s school,’ there was that eye dart again, ‘and I kinda need your advice on what looks good enough to eat.’

Hell, Magnus thought as he wet his suddenly dry lips, this man wasn’t just less-than-angelic, he was the devil incarnate, teasing him like this. He let his heavy lidded eyes communicate his thoughts to Satan.

‘OK!’ his son agreed, eyes roving over the mouth-watering display of cakes and confectionaries that were decorated in sprinkles and icing of every description. It was lucky for him that he couldn’t see the way Papa’s eyes were devouring the man in front of him.

Or how Magnus was being mentally undressed by said man.

‘What goes with marmalade sandwiches?’ his innocent boy asked, chewing on his chubby lip in much the same way his father was, though for very different reasons.

Understanding dawned in those glorious hazel eyes. ‘Ah, someone’s seen Paddington, right?’ Max beamed his beautiful smile. ‘My boy, Rafe, isn’t much older than you and he loved that film too. We both did.’

‘It was funny!’ Max giggled, at ease now he’d found a fellow friend of his favourite bear.

‘It sure was,’ Alec agreed, as he tapped a finger to his chin in contemplation while pretending to think what choice would be the best to compliment the unusual sandwich. ‘How about the Gingerbread Man?’

‘Too crunchy.’

‘The Christmas Tree cupcakes?’

‘Too sweet.’

Alec glanced up through his lashes at Magnus, mirroring his amused grin. ‘Is your Papa as fussy as you, Max?’

Papa forgot to breathe, dreading what his son would say.

‘No, he just loves pretty things.’ Magnus exhaled. ‘Like you.’ Too soon.

Frozen in mortification, Magnus wished for the cobbles beneath his feet to swallow him whole…...but not before a last quick look at the handsome man who was….wait, was he laughing?

The colour of cranberry he may be, but the guy was definitely laughing, gaze averted as he bagged the silver stars made out of marzipan that Max had apparently finally settled on. Quickly depositing his mischievous kid on terra firma, Magnus handed over the money, struggling, and ultimately failing, to keep a straight face..

‘Is that true?’ Alec queried, amusement still evident in the smile he flashed his way.

Magnus composed himself long enough to return his gaze. ‘Yes, on both counts,’  he confirmed, for some reason unwilling to waste time with being coy.

Alec paused in the act of handing over Magnus’ change, his wide bashful smile crinkling those magnificent eyes, as Magnus gestured for him to keep the money.

Three separate coughs as subtle as sledgehammers broke the spell. A guilty glance toward the far too observant audience on his left, prompted Magnus to begin taking his leave. Well that, and the shit-eating grin on Cat’s face that told him he was in for a roasting later!

‘It was lovely to meet you, Alexander,’ he began, voice unusually raspy for some reason. ‘I wish you all the best with your fundraising efforts for Rafe’ school.’ He took a step back. ‘I’m sure he’s very proud of you.’

Although Alec gave a dubious shake of his head, his gratitude for the compliment shone through his smile, which Magnus couldn’t help but return.

Resolutely turning to take the hands of Max and Madzie, he gave Cat a pointed look that warned her not to say a word and with a saccharine sweet, ‘See you later, my dear,’ Magnus exited the festive square, not at all grappling with the idea of flinging himself at Alec’s feet, demanding he ask him out.

Walking briskly in the direction of the taxi rank, Magnus was busy trying to commit Alec’s gorgeous face to memory when Madzie reminded him that they’d forgotten to visit Santa’s Grotto. A quick look at his non-existent watch disguised an impish grin as he spun around, pulse skipping.

‘You know what, my darlings?’ he fairly sang, barely resisting the urge to break into a run as they began retracing their steps back to the Fair, ‘Christmas is but once a year and we ALL deserve the chance to get what we wish for! Am I right?’

The delighted squeals, he took for agreement.

[btswishes]

Cross over.

BTS AU

Part1 /...

A/N: I really love writing fantasy stories, so I hope you like this one and sorry for any mistakes I made.

Word count:  4,856

Warnings: Flirting, mention of blood and death, cussing.

 Our lives as simple as they may be are focused in one world ,which we can’t leave until we die. Meaning that the other places are hidden behind a veil of mystery and secrets.Witches, dragons, beasts and all kinds of other creatures exist, but we don’t see them. From this arises the question: Do angels and demons exist too? Well some say yes others no, but would one be able to say that they don’t ,if the mirror tells them something else?

 Waking up to the faint sound of screams, you opened your eyes and saw your room like you have for a long time now.Your world was different from that of the humans above. You didn’t care much as this was your home and birthplace, but today was special. You got dressed fast and ran downstairs to your father. Your house was as big as a castle, if not bigger. The long table was filled with food and your father and two brothers were having their breakfast.

“Morning father, morning brother Hisa and older brother Lawin .”you bowed slightly and sat down to eat as well

“You look happy today.”said the second oldest brother and you smiled at him as your cheeks were too full to do anything else

 You had two loving older brothers.The first born was Lawin-his hair black as a moonless night, straight as a waterfall leading to a never ending abyss and very long.The upper part of his hair was tied up behind his head, the two dark and smooth horns that were piercing out of his forehead ,were keeping his hair back and out of his crimson eyes. He was very wise and didn’t talk much, but that didn’t mean he didn’t express his love for you. 

 He was always close by when you were doing stupid stuff, which was great when you needed help. Once when you were still a baby, you manged to crawl out of the castle walls and onto the street ,where others of your kind could see you. A tortured soul saw you and used the moment to his advantage.These were humans who have committed grave sins and were send to hell.He picked you up and held a sharp object, he had found somewhere, near your little neck. 

 Most of the other demons around weren’t worried much ,as you weren’t their child, but that man did something unforgiving.He got worried when every creature in sight gasped. The shadow he saw forming in front of him had hair flowing in the air. He turned around slowly, trembling.

“Lord Lawin!”the demons lowered their heads to him, his eyes calm with a fire burning in them

“Stay back!”said the soul petrified 

 Suddenly a woman pointed out “The child!” before your brother could even look, the sound of a small drop hitting the hot ground echoed, sizzling away into the rocks. The sweet smell of blood danced in the air around. 

* crack* * crack*

 The ground under Lawin’s legs started breaking slowly.Even as a child you felt pain, eyes started to water and your little baby hands reached out for your brother. The last straw was this which he saw. Chains hotter than lava grabbed onto the tortured soul, burning anything they held. His screams were agonizing even for hell. Your brother leaned and carefully pulled you away from the man, placing you into his arms and covering you a bit with his clothes.His hand gently touched the wound and it disappeared, he wiped away the tears. People started whispering,asking who this child was.The chains cooled down a bit ,giving the human a chance to hear out the demon’s words.

“Who do you think you are?”his voice deep and melodious, able to hypnotize anyone and strike fear at the same time “Who gave you permission to lay your skin onto the daughter of the Fallen One?”the demons around gasped, as they realized who the little creature that was playfully pulling the hair of the scariest demon in hell was.

“That is lady Y/N!”they started repeating in shock

“More importantly you spilled my little sister’s blood onto these sinful streets.” his eyes started glowing ,preparing to turn this soul into nothingness in the most painful way. This was going to turn into a bloody public execution.

“Ga!” the echo of skin hitting skin made people pull their attention to you.Your small hand plopped onto your bother’s cheek and a smile onto your lips. He moved your hand gently and turned his back on the crowed of demons

“I shall not let my sister witness such gore.”his head moved slightly back to take a glimpse of the human “I shall come for you personally, soul.”a pair of strong and graceful wings appeared from under his cloak and took him back to the castle.

 Lawin wasn’t one to express his feelings often, but he did in his own way. Your second oldest brother Hisa was different.His hair was shorter and pulled back. A long scar onto his nose reaching both his cheeks was the most obvious part of him. It was said to be because he defeated a very high level beast when he was just a child. His eyes were light red and very playful. His horns were coming out from the sides of his forehead. Hisa loved to smile and because of that everyone could see his how sharp his teeth were. When you were little and your first pointy teeth were coming out, he used to brush them for you. 

 It was a bit of a tricky and bloody job, but he didn’t mind having deep bite marks on his hand. He showed them off to everyone, telling them how much his baby sister has grown up. He wore them as a medal of honer. Time passed by fast and you got bigger in front of their eyes. Today was a special day because the demons that were of age were send to cross over into the human world. The same day as angels did. Your job was to find a human and make sure no other angel gets him, after that trick him into committing sins and being send to hell.Very simple, no? If you do that, then you would be officially a demon. 

 The portal was opened and you were holding your bags in hand, saying goodbye to everyone.

“So this is it.”you said smiling 

“My little baby sister!”Hisa picked you up and started hugging you “It was like yesterday you were still biting me and you are all grown up now.”

“Brother!”you tried to push his face away “Let me down.”

“Hisa.”your father’s word was a law, so he did as he was asked to

  You hugged him, then your crazy older brother and said goodbye to the maids who were just super fun to talk to. The last person in line was Lawin with his serious face.

“I am leaving now brother.”you said. His eyes moved from you to the portal behind your body and then looked to the side. He took a deep breath and stepped closer pulling you into a hug, which shocked everyone.You were completely covered by his long clothes.

“I want you to stay safe and be careful of human males.Find a nice female host and everything will be ok.”he pulled back to look at you, his hands still on your shoulders “If you get attached to them, then you can turn them into a servant or helper when they reach hell.” very strange advice coming from Lawin, but you still accepted it.

“It’s time for you to go now.”said your father and you picked up your luggage, walking over to the portal 

“I am off now.”you waved your hand.Your body disappeared into the blue color and so your test began.As the light of the end flashed before you you had a bad feeling. 

“Oh dear!”you gasped as you noticed that the portal was very high up in the sky, good thing you learned how to fly from your dad, the best if you could say so “Is this the first test?” a small ruby stone appeared in front of you answering your question “A ruby for flying?”you were amazed “Wow, most of the others are really bad at this.”you giggled and flew down where you were supposed to meet your host family. They were really nice people and they had a son called Jimin. He was cool and stuff, surprisingly for a human world demon.

 They showed you to your new room and left you to get comfortable. In just a split second the place looked like your home. There was a small box filled with pictures which you left on the desk with your diary and family photos.Once you were done, you sat on the chair and leaned onto the wooden desk. When your eyes fell onto your brothers, you giggled.

“Brother Lawin never smiles even in pictures.”

* knock knock*

 You jumped to open the door.

“Mom said to tell you it’s time for dinner.” Jimin said “Wow.”he stepped inside your room “This looks awesome, way better then the decor my mom had.”

“Thank you.I just wanted to make it look like my old room back home.”

“I always thought it would look more...scary.”he looked at you “You know with all the tortured souls and stuff in hell.” he commented 

“This is my taste. I have a friend that decorated her room like a dungeon. That is how she liked it to look” 

“I see.”he turned around showing you to the dining room “I feel like we will get along just fine.” 

“Really?That is great.”you smiled 

 His parents asked you a lot of things about Hell, if there was something new, how things generally were.They were really nice, for demons. Before bed Jimin explained to you all the things you needed to know about the school in the human world and that it will be the best place to find what you needed.

“How about you?”you asked him

“Me?”

“Yeah. Do you have someone already?”

“Oh, that is what you meant.”he leaned back a bit “I do. You already know that I was born in Hell, but live as you see in the human world, so technically I had my eye on this one girl.” you sat up all excited 

“Did you get her?!”your eyes were sparkling 

“An angel went before me.” you got gloomy for a second “But she chose me instead.”

“Wow! You are really good at this!”you clapped your hands and he ran his hand through his blonde hair 

“I know.”standing up Jimin walked out of your room “Go to sleep, tomorrow will be a really long day.”

“K.Goodnight.” even when you turned off the lights, you were still thinking about your family back home. There was nothing you could do now and plus that you were waiting for this moment since you could remember. Pushing away the excitement you were able to fall asleep, only to be woken up shortly by a clock.Your school bag was ready in seconds. You had breakfast with your host mother when Jimin rushed into the room stuffing his cheeks with as much food as he could and grabbing your arm, pulling you out of the house.

“Goodbye kids, have fun.”your host mother waved and you smiled back

“What are you doing?”you asked him as he was pulling you

“We are going to be late!”he said while chewing “By the way you are really light, you know that?” his head moved to see you and he almost screamed “What are you dong! Get down NOW!”

“It is easier when I fly and second of all no one can see me.Relax.”you grabbed his shoulders and pulled him off the ground “I advise you to hold onto me tight.”in seconds you found yourselves in front of the school.

“Ok, you go that way.”he pointed “My classroom is this way.”

“Wait!”you stopped him and jumped over to fix his hair “You have flight hair.”

“Flight hair?”he asked

“Come on Jimin.”you placed your hands onto your hips “Don’t tell me don’t know what it means.”he shook his head “When you fly, because of the wind it gets really messy.”

“I haven’t experienced this before.”

“Do you wear a hat when you fly?” the way he looked at you made your eyes widen.You placed your hands onto your open mouth “You can’t fly!?”

“Shhhh!”he placed his finger in front of his lips and you asked why, curious of the reason

“Oh look what we have here.”a bunch of boys walked over “Hey wingless.”they laughed out

“I have wings.”said Jimin to them

“But you can’t fly can you?”laughed out the obvious leader 

“Who are you to make fun of him?”you stepped in front of Jimin

“Hey cutie, you don’t know what we are talking about, so why don’t you stand back?”he tried to push you away, but you were standing firmly

“Who are you?”you asked a little pissed off

“My name is Amad, nice to you meet you honey.”he grinned leaning towards you “I won’t repeat myself.Stand back or you will get hurt.”you didn’t and walked over to him, one of his other idiots threw something that cut your cheek a bit

“Didn’t you hear what the boss said!”

“Look what happened.”said Amad “You got your pretty face damaged.” your head moved up to look at them. Your tongue licked the blood dripping and a sizzling sound echoed ,as the cut vanished in seconds 

“Wow.”you clapped your hands “You are very brave for a low class demon.If I can even call you that.”

“Who are you!?”asked the same idiot 

“That is non of your business. The only thing I can tell you is that you are the only one who has survived this long after doing something like this.”you pulled Jimin away from the group of thugs with last words of advice “You better watch your backs from now on.”

 Jimin showed you to your classroom and told you what to do.

“If you need any help you know where to find me.”

“Jimin.”you grabbed his sleeve “I know you are stronger than you make yourself look. Why don’t you say something back?”

“I promised I wouldn’t.” he left with only those words and you walked inside the new space 

 The teacher introduced you to the class and in just a matter of seconds a few females jumped up in front of a few boys and one or two girls in the class.

“Everyone sit down!”said the teacher “What is with those looks?”

 You chuckled “It’s ok.”they looked at you confused “I am not going to take them. I want to get one on my own.” the females relaxed and sat back down, poor things who knows how hard they had to fight to get those humans.During lunch a few of them came by to say hello, knowing that you weren’t after their hosts.

“Hey, nice to meet you my name is Edna.”she shook your hand, a girl with short brown hair and brown eyes 

“I am Sena.”a red haired female said “And this is Gina.”

“Hey, I am new too.”they looked cool, not like you expected 

“My name is Y/N, it’s really nice to meet you all.”

“Sorry about earlier.”said Sena 

“Yeah, we are just overprotective with our hosts.”agreed Gina

“This tests can become a real battle.” nodded Edna “I heard that this year Beelzebub ‘s daughter will be attending.”the other two gasped “I hope she doesn’t take one of ours. I bet she is supper scary.” 

“She must be super pretty too.”suggested Sena

“Talking about pretty.”they looked at you “You are gorgeous!”

“Thank you.”you blushed “But all of you are as well.”

“Awww stop it.”Gina grabbed her cheeks

“No, but really. You are demon royalty beautiful.You can compete with them. ”Sena couldn’t get here eyes off of you

“It’s lunch!”they grabbed you by the arms and pulled you out of the classroom 

“Where are we going to?”you asked looking at them

“Everyone gathers up during lunch break, silly.”said playfully Sena

“It is the greatest time to find yourself a host. That is your second task in the test after all.”explained Edna.You found a good table and started looking around for potential females and males you might like.

“Oh!”pointed Gina “How about Jason?He is cute and doesn’t have a being with him.”

“He has a guardian angel already.”you pointed 

“Really?”she squinted her eyes “So what?You can take him if you wanted to.Your demon beauty is too strong even for us and we are the same as you and female.”

“No Edna, I want to find him by my own standards.”

“What about her?Anna?”

“No.”

“The girl with black hair over there?”

“No.”

 After a couple of nos, you got up to get something to eat, while your new friends were searching as best as they could for someone suitable for you. You grabbed something and made your way back.There were a few people blocking the way, so you waited. You looked over to your table and Sena waved her hand towards you, unwillingly your eyes moved farther back from them to a boy with blue hair walking in.Your smile disappeared and your face relaxed. The girls moved their heads back and noticed who was coming in.

“Y/N ,NO!”Edna jumped and ran to you with everyone else behind .They grabbed your shoulders and shook you “You shouldn’t.”they said

 The loud screams made the boy in question look over. His hand dropped to the ground his drink as he saw in front of himself, something so beautiful that no poem could ever describe to the fullest.You ran your hand through your hair to fix it from all the shaking, which send the boy into a daze.

“Why shouldn’t I?”you asked 

“His name is Min Yoongi. We don’t know if he is a demon or human, or if he someone’s host. His energy is that confusing.”Edna was very hyper as she explained this to you “It’s good if you stay back before something happens.”

 They pulled you back to the classroom, yet the curiosity of playful demons was too strong to listen to advice. If they did then there wouldn’t be called demons and would have been able to stay angels, not to mention your blood line. As a strong creature you were able to sense his presence and found his classroom fast. During breaks you passed by a few times, letting him catch glimpses of you as much as he could.

 Demons were beautiful creatures, that is how they lure humans to a sinful path towards hell. You were the most purest of all demons in the underworld and in the human world as well. If you wanted something, you would have it, one way or the other. The dominant side of your existence showed itself a bit. You could have him any time you wanted, but that wouldn’t be much fun. You wanted him to willingly throw himself into the sinful abyss.It would be so much sweeter to just let him come on his own, beg to be with you. This was exciting. With in the first few days you started noticing him more often, which meant your charm was working. 

 It was too soon, but you wanted to test out how in control you were so far. As he was in class, you felt his annoyance with the subject and the hate towards the teacher.So, why not use these emotions to your advantage. 

“Miss?”you lifted your hand “May I go to the bathroom?”

“Yes of course, but don’t take too long.”you nodded, but on your way out Edna grabbed your shirt 

“I don’t know what you are thinking of doing, but I have a bad feeling.” she whispered

“It’s ok. I am just going to have a bit of fun.”you grinned and left the room, making your way towards his class. As your wings appeared you entered without being noticed and flew to his side. Looking around his desk you saw a rubber eraser and got an idea. 

    Throw the eraser at him....

 Yoongi’s head looked around but he didn’t see anyone around him, yet didn’t question the voice at all.

  Come on...

    You hate this class don’t you?

       Throw it...

 There wasn’t a sign of him moving, so you got pissed and turned around to leave.

* smack * 

“MIN YOONGI!”the teacher yelled out “To the principal’s office!NOW!”he stood up and smirked 

“On my way.” everyone in the room started talking how cool he was and you were surprised.Silently you followed him where he was going and heard their conversation. It wasn’t his first time to the principal’s office and by the sound of things he has done way worse things. A real bad boy, you thought to yourself.

 He was acting cool on his way back to the classroom, where his teacher wasn’t too happy right now.

  Good...

 The moment his head moved to the side you whispered it.The boy stopped moving, flying off to your class you were content with the experiment. Happiness was written all over your face the whole day and you were smiling widely on your way out of the school building. Jimin was waiting for you in the darkness, when a hand grabbed you and pushed you against the building. 

“Ah!”you gasped, feeling the cold wall behind your back

“Who are you?!” you were hit with a sudden question out of no where

“Shouldn't I ask that first?”you leaned closer to the man in front of you, hidden by the night’s darkness

“You don’t seem to understand who is in control here.”he pushed you back harder towards the wall to remind you

“Oh really?Well then won’t my master show his face.” your head was flush against the wall, but you looked at him with the eyes of a hungry devil and licked your lips.Your sudden reaction made his grip loosen a bit, which showed you that he was going into your trap slowly.

“I think you know who I am.”

“I do.But that isn’t what you came here for, is it?”

“I saw you today.”

“I did too.”you said

“Not that.”his grip tightened again “In front of the principal’s office there is a mirror.”

“So what?”you smirked and it sunk in your mind “A m-mirror...?” 

“I am not sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me, so I came to check it out for myself.” his hand gripped your skirt, he might have wanted to see if you had a tail

“Didn’t your mom ever tell you not to disrespect girls?” 

“There is nothing you can do about it anyways.”

“Aren’t you full of yourself.”you grabbed his shirt and switched places, now his back was against the wall “Min Yoongi.”

“You are stronger than I thought.” 

“Why are you smiling?!” you frowned in front of him “You think you can escape me?I don’t know if you know this, but I am the one in control, I have been since you first say me.Sorry to break it to you.”you leaned closer to him

“Is that so?” his leg pushed your legs apart and you lost your balance falling onto his chest, one of his hands grabbed both yours and the other your waist, his leg not moving “I know how to tame bad girls.” your chest was beating fast, you were getting angry because no one so far has had so much control over you.Your heart was yelling yes, but you mind wanted to be dominant so much.

“That is good, but...”your head was looking down when you grabbed his face and pulled him to a soul sucking kiss, when you pulled away he was almost shaking. Your eyes were red and glowing in the darkness, horns coming out your head and teeth sharp. “...can you tame the devil?” he was silent, maybe from the shock “What is wrong human?”you leaned closer brushing your lips gently over his as you spoke “Scared?”

“I would have been.”his hands pulled your hips closer to his “If I wasn’t this attracted to you.I wonder why?”

“You know what they say, the devil was handsome, so humans would jump into hell on their own accord.”your eyes were locked onto his

“And how did they do that?” he asked 

“Why do you ask?”

“I might want to commit some sins, if you know what I mean.”he grinned 

“Aren’t you too cocky for your situation Min Yoongi?”

“Are you denying me hell, because I heard it’s really...” he lifted your legs and wrapped your thighs around his waist “...hot there.”

“I can tell you if you want to.Do you have a demon you have a certain interest in?”you asked obviously knowing the answer to the question

“I do have this little devil in mind.She makes me do things I shouldn’t.”

“But you like it.” 

“Who said I don’t?” that smirk on his lips was driving you crazy 

“Fine.” you stuck your tongue out, on it glowed a crest “Where should I mark you?Neck? Body?”you were playing around with him, when Yoongi grabbed your face

“Here.”he pulled you into a kiss. His tongue asking for entrance which you gave.There was a sudden flash in the sky for a second.When you pulled back he licked his lips and you saw the mark. 

“Interesting choice.”you said and tried to pull away, but his hands didn’t let go of you

“Where do you think you are going honey?”he asked in a deep voice

“Home.”you leaned onto his shoulders and flew up in the sky

 Yoongi sighed with a smile on his face and leaned back normally on the wall. “I am grateful for the parting gift.” 

“What gift?”he pointed up and you noticed that you were flying over him in a skirt. Your hands covered you and you screamed out a bit “Perv!”

“Oh come on. You are going to call me that after what you did?Very brave of you Y/N.”

“That is the first time you said my name so far.”you relaxed a bit

“I will be using it a lot in the future, little miss devil.” 

 Your phone rang and you picked up only to hear Jimin asking you where you were and stuff like that. You told him you were on your way and hung up, placing it back in your pocket.

“What is it sugar? Daddy came to pick you up?”

“You are lucky it’s not him.”

 You flew away and he chuckled behind you a bit. Jimin was waiting in front of the gate.

“Hey.”you grabbed him by the shoulders and picked his body off the ground “Sorry for making you wait so long.”

“I was worried.”he said

“Jimin, we are demons.”

“Yeah you are right.”he looked up and gasped “Look!”

“What is this?”there was a black book floating in front of you, it was very strange

“Y/N!”Jimin said “Did you find a host!”

“Is this the book of souls?!” Jimin nodded “ I am so excited for this!!!” your hands were gripping the book tight “Jimin?” you asked and realized something “Wait. If I am holding the book, then....JIMIN!”

“AAAaaaaaaaa!”

“Shiiiiitttttt!” you cussed and flew down to search for him, but when you reached the street there was no sign of him “He can’t be....can he?”

“I am over here.”you heard a pissed voice 

“Jimin!”you turned around and gasped “You are flying!”

“I know, but it was your fault in the first place!”

“True, but you are flying!!!”

“I am thankful and very angry at the same time. Give me a minute to get used to this.”he was trying to balance, a normal thing for newbies 

“It’s ok.”you said crossing your legs in the air like you were sitting on a chair 

“Let me see the book.”he reached out and you gave it to him “The host you found is very fascinating.”Jimin was moving the object in his hand around looking at every detail on it “Dark and torn in places, looks kinda creepy yet cool.These golden chains and ornaments in places are interesting too.” he gave it back to “Who is your host?”

“Min Yoongi.”

“MIN WHO!?” he was so shocked he lost balance and almost fell onto the street 

“You know him?”

“Of fucking course I do! He is from my circle of friends!”

“Oh, I didn’t know that.”you were calm when he obviously wasn’t 

“Wait....Yoongi isn’t a demon?”Jimin gasped “That is so strange.What am i going to tell the others.” 

“Why does every think that?It is so obvious he is a human.”you sighed 

“To notice that you must be a high lever devil. By the way, now when we talk about power, you have a tail.”he looked down at it

“Yes, everyone in my family had on in a certain point in their life.”it was normal to you, those who didn’t have one were strange in your eyes

“You must be really strong.” he made a few circles in the air “I think I got used to flying.Lets go home so I can show you how to use the book.”

“I can use it?”you looked at him with wide eyes

“Lets go.”he sighed and grabbed your hand

[newstfionline]

Remembering Mr. Rogers, a true-life ‘helper’ when the world still needs one

Anthony Breznican, Entertainment Weekly, May 23, 2017

I was putting my 4-year-old son to bed on Monday night, and scrolling through the news in the dark, finding only more darkness beyond.

The horror and heartbreak of the bombing in Manchester, England were unfolding. Amid the fear and uncertainty, I saw countless instances of selflessness and unity--people welcoming strangers into their homes, taxi drivers helping families get away from the scene, family reaching out to find loved ones who haven’t answered their phones (often finding them scared but safe).

Threaded throughout these messages, I saw one meme being shared and reshared. It was something Fred Rogers once said, advice for parents trying to find a way to talk about violence and tragedy with young children.

The photo of him is accompanied by these words. “My mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers--so many caring people in this world.”

Some wonder if he really said this. Often quotes online that seem too perfect to be true are exactly that. But no, Mr. Rogers really said it. He said it often.

Then I scrolled a little further and found this tweet.

On this day in 1967, a show featuring a kindly man in a cardigan & blue sneakers debuted on public television-#MisterRogersNeighborhood.

The date’s a little off. (He recorded the first episode of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood on Sept. 27, 1967, and it aired nationally in February 1968.)

But that notion of 50 years hit me hard. And it stirred up a memory of him from long ago.

Fred Rogers was from Pittsburgh, my hometown, and I’m a member of just one generation that grew up loving this man, who taught us to be kind above all and see ourselves as special and good, no matter what the world tried to tell us to the contrary.

When I got older, I learned firsthand that Fred Rogers was the real thing. That gentle soul? It was no act.

Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood ran until 2001, but I lost touch with it as I got older. That’s how it goes. But in college, one day, I rediscovered it, just when I needed it.

I was having a hard time then. The future seemed hopeless. I was struggling, lonely, dealing with a lot of broken pieces within myself, and not adjusting well. I was a student at the University of Pittsburgh but felt rudderless.

I wanted to be a writer but received nothing but discouragement from home. Nevertheless, I devoted everything I had to the school paper, The Pitt News, hoping that would propel me into some kind of worthwhile career and future. It seemed just as likely that I’d fall on my face and end up nowhere.

On top of that, I was grappling with a loss that I couldn’t talk about, partly because I had no one I could talk to. One span of time in winter of 1997 was especially bad. I was angry, alone, unhappy. But walking out of the dorm one morning, I heard familiar music in the hallway: “Won’t you be my neighbor…”

The TV was playing in an empty common room, tuned to WQED (which was Mr. Rogers’ home station.) And there he was--the sweatered one, feeding his fish, checking in with that little trolley that rolled through the wall into the Neighborhood of Make Believe, and asking me what I do with the mad that I feel. (I had lots to spare. Still do.)

It feels silly to say--it felt silly then--but I stood mesmerized. His show felt like a cool hand on a hot head. I never sat down, but I watched the whole thing. Afterward, I left feeling … better.

Several days later, I got in the elevator at the paper to ride down to the lobby of the William Pitt Union. The doors opened, and who is standing there but Mr. Rogers. For real.

I thought I was hallucinating for a moment. But there he stood, a slim, old man in a big coat and scarf, eyes twinkling behind his glasses, a small case clasped between his hands in front of him.

I stepped aboard the elevator, staring, and he nodded at me. I nodded back. I think.

Chances are, he could sense a geek-out coming. But I kept it together.

Almost.

We rode down in silence, and when the doors opened, he let me go out first. I stepped out but quickly turned back around. “Mr. Rogers… I don’t mean to bother you. But I just wanted to say thanks.”

He smiled patiently. I imagine this sort of thing happened to him about every 10 feet. Then he said: “Did you grow up as one of my television neighbors?” I felt like crying. Yeah. I did. I was his neighbor.

He opened his arms, lifting his satchel in the air, and beckoning me in. “It’s good to see you again neighbor.”

I got to hug Mr. Rogers, y’all!

I pulled it together. Then we were walking out and making small talk. I mentioned being a big fan of Johnny Costa, who was the piano player on the show. When you get older, you learn to appreciate things like the unparalleled jazz that this old children’s TV show featured.

Costa had died just about a year before, so we talked about him as we walked, and how Mr. Rogers marveled at the speed of his improvisations--and worked hard to get him to slow it down for little ears to appreciate.

Then he opened the student union door and said goodbye. That’s when I blurted in a kind of rambling gush that I’d stumbled on the show again recently, at a time when I truly needed it. He listened there in the doorway, the bitter Pittsburgh winter wind flowing around him into the warm lobby bustling with students.

When I ran out of words, I just said, “So … thanks for that. Again.”

Mr. Rogers nodded. He looked down, and let the door close again. He undid his scarf and motioned to the window, where he sat down on the ledge.

This is what set Mr. Rogers apart. No one else would’ve done this. No one.

He said, “Do you want to tell me what was upsetting you so?”

So I sat. And I told him the truth. I told him my grandfather had just died. He was one of the few good things I had. I felt adrift. Brokenhearted. On top of everything else. This was just too much. I guess Pap had been my version of a “helper” in hard times, and I was still looking for him, even though I knew he was gone.

I like to think I didn’t go on and on, but pretty soon Mr. Rogers was telling me about his grandfather--and a small boat the old man bought for him when he was a young man.

Mr. Rogers asked how long ago my Pap had died. It had been several months, but the wound was still raw. His grandfather was obviously gone decades. Now that 21 years have passed, I know that pain of losing someone so special shifts to the background, but never really goes away.

Mr. Rogers also still missed his grandfather, still wished he was here when he needed him. He also wished he still had the boat. “You’ll never stop missing the people you love,” Mr. Rogers told me.

His grandfather had given Mr. Rogers the rowboat as a reward for something. I forget what. Grades, or graduation. Something important. Something he’d worked hard to accomplish.

He didn’t have either now, his grandfather or the boat, but he had that work ethic, that knowledge and perseverance the old man encouraged with his gift. “Those things never go away,” Mr. Rogers said. I’m sure my eyes looked like stewed tomatoes.

At the end, I just said thank you again--for about the 13th time. And I apologized if I made him late for wherever he was headed. Mr. Rogers just smiled, and said in his slow, gentle voice: “Sometimes you’re right where you need to be.”

Mr. Rogers was there for me then. But really, he’s here for you now, for anyone who needs him.

I never saw him again. But that “helper” quote? That’s authentic. That’s who he was. Mr. Rogers was for real. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about the man he was. Some of it was surprising.

I never realized when I was little that when Mr. Rogers sat with his feet in the cool water of a pool and invited the singing cop, Officer Clemmons, to join him that that was a daring statement about equality. It seemed like no big deal to me. I suppose now that was the point.

A white man and a black man, chilling out on a hot day with their feet in the water--so simple, such a little thing, but brave in its sweetness.

Mr. Rogers saw people. He saw through and around the things that confuse or distract others. He saw these people. He saw me, a struggling young man who needed some kind words.

And somehow, in a way that defies belief, he made you believe he saw you, too--even if you never met. His television neighbor.

About six years after I crossed paths with him in Pittsburgh, I was living in Los Angeles, working as a reporter at the Associated Press. I was married, I had found that dream job. Things were better.

One morning, in February 2003, I logged in to read the news and saw that Fred Rogers had died. He was only 74.

I sat at my computer with tears in my eyes. But I wasn’t crying over the death of a celebrity.

I was mourning the loss of my neighbor.

Our neighbor.

[lolbtsaus]

First Day of School (Jimin)

And now it is time for one half of the Busan line, one half of Vmin, an absolute angel who is crushing the comeback as he always does like the last dance bit in Not Today when they do the stomping bit always gets me it never fails, if they ever release a dance practice for it, I would scream, Park Jimin aka chim chim

All of the father related posts are here

For everyone that hasn’t read the original father!Jimin post, he has one daughter but there is another version where he also has a son (who is younger) so for this one, I’ll be using the second version

To avoid repetition and so this post doesn’t get too long, I will be lumping some of the things together since they’d be pretty similar anyways, like dropping them off at school, spending mornings together etc. 

His bbys are s o fucking cute, if you’ve ever seen a bby picture or even just a fetus picture of Jimin, you know what I’m talking about when I say those ch eeKS

They look s o so so so much like Jimin, they have that same eye smile, the same cheeks that are so incredibly kissable it’s a wonder that Jimin isn’t forever kissing them, they’re so smol and they have tiny giggles and soft voices and are basically two mini Jimins walking around the house, following the bigger Jimin around

They’re so attached to him they follow him around everywhere, they’re his lil ducklings, they look up to him so much and wanna be just like him when they grow up, even though Jimin tells them both that they can do whatever they want

They’re really really excited about school until Jimin tells them he can’t come with them, that he can only drop them off and pick them up and they’re not on board with that part

“Well can’t you just come anyways”

They’ve never had to spend that long away from Jimin, he’s done a few concerts and rehearsals but if he knows he’s gonna be away from them for a while, he brings them with him bc they’re super well behaved and will just chill out and draw or color while he practices and they prefer it too bc they just wanna be in the same room as him, they don’t like being separated

They’re so stubborn about him coming with them to class and he’s a lil sad that he really genuinely can’t come bc he doesn’t wanna leave them behind just as much as they don’t wanna be left, they’re all infamous for always being together like if you need to find them, just look for Jimin and vice versa

But after they learn that the cousins (the boys’ children) will be there, they feel a bit better about it and Jimin promises that they’ll have fun and that it’ll only be a few hours, like a long concert 

Mornings with the Parks are really sweet and there are s o many kisses, especially cheek kisses

They always wake him up by climbing all over him and kisses his face a lot and he’s a pretty light sleeper when it comes to them bc paternal side kicks in and gets him to wake up the moment he hears their bedroom door open (they prefer to share a bedroom despite chim and you offering up the guest bedroom a million times)

Jimin seems like a morning person, either that or he gets his energy really quickly so the bbys don’t have to whine at him for too long before he’s up and bouncing around with them but he always has to have his cuddles first

You wake up every single morning to see your two tiny bbys snuggled up to your biggest bby and they’re all just chatting about their dreams or what they want for breakfast or what they’ll do that day

They gotta be carried downstairs bc they don’t wanna let go of Jimin ever and he’s not complaining at all, he loves them so so much and is happy to carry them around every moment of the day, regardless of how big they get

They could be in their 30s and he’s still gonna offer to carry them downstairs bc they are his b b y s his munchkins his tiny tots they could have their own bbys and he’d still be calling them prince and princess

They are such helpers with everything ever but especially cooking, they love it so much bc Jimin feeds them chocolate chips along the way or he gives them a lollipop or a piece of gum, just something to keep them amused until he can give them his full attention again

But they’re in charge of taste testing everything and also blowing on Jimin’s tea to cool it down, which ends up with them drinking half the cup to test how cooled down it is, they also sometimes get to pour things into cups, some juice maybe some milk, never anything hot bc Jimin doesn’t even them touch the teacup and they can only drink it once Jimin knows it’s cooled down enough to not burn their tongues (they don’t know that part but Jimin just lets them think they’re the ones that cooled it down and that you so didn’t go downstairs when they were busy and make the tea ahead of time) 

They also eat breakfast on Jimin’s lap bc he’s the dad that feeds them both a bite off of his plate despite them having their own food, they just like to share a lot, they feed him bites off their plates too

On the first day, they’re both super excited but they’re also staying super close to Jimin like he has to put them down when he’s cooking on the stove bc he doesn’t like them near hot objects, so they both just stand next to his leg and hold his free hand and wait until he can pick them back up

He gives them extra long hugs when he wakes up and he cooks their favorite breakfast and they’re all happy but you can still tell everyone’s a lil :( about having to be apart for the day

Bby girl’s first outfit is something laid back and comfy but also super cute so it’s a white dress with a few flowers on the bottom and then some gray tights and then some white flats that have a floral pattern and her coat is also gray and a bracelet you and Jimin gave her that morning (a first day present) that has a heart on it with her name in the middle

She has Jimin braid her bangs back so they don’t get in her face and she wears a headband with a flower on it bc theme of the day is floral 

Bby boy’s first outfit is also laid back but cute, he wears some bby black jeans and then a Cookie Monster shirt with a flannel shirt over it and some bby sneakers then his coat is black and he also has a bracelet with a heart and his name that was also given to him on his first day by you two

He gets a tiny black snapback bc he always sees Jimin wearing them and it also keeps his bangs out of his eyes

Bby girl has a Barney backpack and a Spongebob lunchbox, bby boy has a Curious George lunchbox and a Cat in the Hat backpack bc their faves they pick them themselves

Jimin has to hold back some tears on the way there bc the school’s getting closer which means he’s gotta say goodbye for a few hours and it’s the first time he’s left them with someone he wasn’t either best friends with or related to

On date nights, he gets the boys or his parents or his brother to watch the bbys but that’s way different than dropping them off at school and not being able to just come back and pick them up in an hour or two and he can’t call to check up on them every hour but he knows they’re excited for it so he does his best to be happy for them

He’s so beyond proud that they’re growing up of course but his bbys they don’t need to grow up so much so quickly, they can go back to being newborns he’s totally fine with that

He gives them another really long hug and kisses their heads and just rubs their backs and tries to convince himself to let go before they’re late

The tears are gathering up and they wipe them off of his cheeks with their bby fingers and give him some kisses to cheer him up bc that always works

He’s gotta smile at that bc they’re just so sweet and he fixes their shirts and helps them out of their coats now that they’re inside and he just turns into :D bc they look so cute in their lil outfits they picked out all by themselves

“Look the cousins are right there, go play with them and give them a hug, I’ll be here to pick you up later”

They give him another kiss and then they run off to see the cousins and start their first day in school

Side note, Jimin is totally the dad that hovers over the window for a few minutes after the class has started just to make sure his bbys are doing okay

“Jimin, it’s been ten minutes, they’re fine, let’s go”

“WaiT he’s making a face oh god he’s gonna cry...or sneeze, it was just a sneeze false alarm”

“Oh my god”