#i also know when he cuddles
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humornotfound Ā· 8 months ago
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also important to me, comparing zoro to a cat, especially a tiger. it's just so cute and accurate and I love it dearly. naps in the sun? hundred percent. very picky about who he let's touch him? obviously. ferociously protects his own? duh. there's probably a bunch more comparisons but I can't think of them rn, but all I know is zoro is so tiger coded it pains me.
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ruporas Ā· 7 months ago
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need to exist in your warmth (id in alt)
#vashwood#vash the stampede#nicholas d wolfwood#trigun#trigun maximum#blood tw#ruporas art#love u when i get to cuddle u and love u when i get to feel ur blood soak into my hands#being this close to one another means the eternal suffering of trying to separate love and mission. love for one and love for humanity#i like to think of pre-vol8 vash as someone who struggles with his feelings for ww bc as equal and as trusted he is -#vash knows his responsibilities and he knows/expects ww wouldn't let him stray from it either. for that he can't take to any romantic incli#and i think itd make him view ww in a stricter non-personal way... If that makes ANY sense.#for ww - take someone who youv gotten close to and ended up liking more than you expected#someone who has a belief and follows it stubbornly - someone who'll get into more fights and trouble more than youv had your entire life#ww thinks of him as a monster but he knows theres a limit he himself can take - i feel like hes considered what might be the limit for vash#for Safety measures. just in case. yknow. whenever he himself might have to load the bullet < him hyping himself up as if he could do it#my point being that the thought of vash being dead crosses his mind more than he'd like. i think its a simultaneous dread drop in his stoma#for failure of the mission - but also an Ok? They can be killed? and also a disastrous gunning of his own heart. considering how much they#both live in their own heads some days are Just the worst ever for them in each others company. but also they lov each other :[ sooo much
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lazylittledragon Ā· 7 months ago
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ok i swear i'm not going to talk about my breakup forever but the thing that just keeps bothering me:
i know that not getting what you need in a relationship is a COMPLETELY valid reason to end it but also. i feel like having a very vulnerable moment where i opened up about my struggles with intimacy and being relieved that i didn't have to keep doing things i wasn't comfortable with, then being dumped a YEAR later because of my lack of intimacy. is something i should be allowed to be very hurt by???
#ramble#sorry i'm currently in a phase of 'of course this happened' and 'oh i deserve this because i didn't give him what he wanted'#like he knew i was grey ace since the start. and he let it go on for SO long after i said i might be vaguely aro as well#if that's a dealbreaker for you bc of your love language then FINE but NIP IT IN THE BUD#he said he put it off because he didn't want to hurt my feelings but it only hurt me MORE#like you're an adult. grow the fuck up and communicate like one#holding your negative feelings in hoping somebody notices you're hiding them is what TEENAGERS do#and also i told him VERBATIM: i didn't think anyone would ever love me because i'm not comfortable with xyz. and he just confirmed that#idk i still feel like i'm being selfish because how could i expect someone to be in a relationship with me when i can't give them anything#also tmi but it's not like we did NOTHING. we still held hands/cuddled/were close. he just didn't have his tongue down my throat anymore#so obviously i'm assuming by 'missing affection' he just meant sex and as an ace person that just fucking sucks#also oh my god i HATED how much he would imply we were going to have sex. i would have to keep SAYING 'i don't like doing this'#he always spoke like it was inevitably going to happen and it didn't click how GROSS i felt about it until recently#also ALSO not to go there but i never told him WHY i struggle with it (it's sensory issues)#and like. what if something had happened to me that made it hard for me and i just wasn't ready to tell him. and then he did this#again sorry to overshare this is still just a lot for me and i have no idea if i'm being unreasonable#if you're ace and in a relationship please let me know bc i'm starting to think it'll end this way every single time
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tubbytarchia Ā· 11 months ago
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For the ranchers a bit more shleep i just really like charakters comfy and nice:Dc /nf
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Eepies. Jimmy woke up to really sore wings but its okay because Tango
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yuwuta Ā· 8 days ago
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prince satoru who gets drunk at every ball, gala, and formal gathering because he knows it means you, his knight in waiting, will have to drag him away and spend time trying to sober him up. he really doesnā€™t care much for liquor (and when it takes merely a half chalice of wine to get him tipsy, he hardly considers what heā€™s doing a problem), but he does care for you, and he cares a lot about having your attention and your hands on him as you try to get him to settle down and feed him bread and water. itā€™s a much better way to spend the evening if you ask him
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bruciemilf Ā· 2 years ago
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Bruce's love language is handing you his kids. Yes, even the 6'5 anti hero with anger issues. Lift with your back
Bruce: Isn't he precious
Martinez, struggling to hold this human tank: y..yeah ....
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protect-namine Ā· 11 days ago
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yingdu episode 5 spoilers
ohhh my god this is everything I want from cheng xiaoshi. yes. perfect. sorry, but I'm a cheng xiaoshi whump liker and link click always brings out the best of them in episode 5 of each season.
there's just something cathartic about how when cheng xiaoshi becomes an emotional mess, it's also when he's most disconnected with the people he knows (physically, as he's diving in a photo and his only link to his home timeframe is a disembodied lu guang in his head) but it's also when he's most connected with strangers (when their own personal trauma lines up with his). to me, it's a showcase of empathy and a strange manifestation of his own agency. something about how the disconnect gives him the space to blow up, and the connection heightens it and grants him permission, almost, to express his anger more freely for his own sake and for another person's behalf.
like. listen, okay, I'm gonna ramble now because cheng xiaoshi is my favorite character in this entire show, but listen. sometimes some fans will conflate adjectives to his character that are usually associated with his character archetype, but they aren't necessarily true about him as a character. and I don't mean it in a, "he's not like that because he grows out of those traits" kind of way. I mean it in a, "he was never like that" kind of way.
one of those adjectives, for me, is when people call him immature. he isn't! to me! imo! he's got big emotions, yes, but I personally don't think the presence of big emotions indicates anything about maturity. because you know what? as long as his primary trauma (feelings of abandonment) isn't touched, he is very good at handling interpersonal conflicts, and that's what's interesting to me.
qiao ling hides relevant information from him? he removes himself from the situation to give himself space and sort out his feelings. he tells her he's fine and that he'll be back.
post-earthquake arc? I'll just copy paste what I already said in a previous ask:
what initially got me was when I was first watching S1, I thought the earthquake arc would have devastating effects on [shiguang's] relationship. listen, I didnā€™t know what I was getting into with link click, but I thought that was expected. itā€™s ripe for drama! but how do they handle the fight? they put their side business on hold but they still keep being roommates. they still do their day job. they still talk. theyā€™re still upset but they give each other space but not to the point where they canā€™t stand existing in each otherā€™s spaces. thatā€™s when I realized that oh, they really trust each other. they have a very solid foundation for their relationship that not even the earthquake arc can break. theyā€™re pretty level-headed about this, actually, all things considered? all the doomed yaoi stuff came later, but thatā€™s just the cherry on top. itā€™s the way they handled conflict and disappointment in S1 that got me.
okay, protect-namine, why go through that whole tangent? BECAUSE! circling back to yingdu episode 5, we finally, finally get to see cheng xiaoshi let out some of his anger. and it's precisely because his primary trauma point was on the table. he can forgive a friend lying, and he can forgive being told not to change the past. because at the end of the day, qiao ling and lu guang stayed. they never left him.
but he cannot handle abandonment. he cannot understand why people leave. he cannot understand why he's been clinging on to false hope this entire time. and more importantly, he cannot understand how someone can be such a hypocrite about it. "a man who'd rather be kind to strangers than face his own son" like fuck man. cheng weimin you fucked up so bad.
it's the disconnect/connect thing again too. thematically, it makes sense. when does cheng xiaoshi blow up? when he's alone, far away from the people that ground him. alone, the feeling he hates the most. he's not even in his own body. he blows up when he's inhabiting a stranger's. he doesn't even get to be angry as cheng xiaoshi.
how fucked up is that. man. I love him so much.
also I'm going crazyyyy over the family themes going on in link click. much to say about the show itself across all seasons (the twins, qiao ling and cheng xiaoshi, even the liu siblings), but for this episode... god. okay this is slight speculation territory now and I'll try to keep this very short, because this is only tangential to the post. but. imagine xia fei getting the good parent figure in cheng weimin that cheng xiaoshi never had. and he doesn't know!! he's bitter inside about his dad and he's having hotpot with xia fei and he doesn't know he was in that school!! fuck that's so good. that's so juicy.
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okay, sorry, I have a lot of feelings about cheng xiaoshi. he's my link click blorbo of all time, and I love when he experiences The Horrorsā„¢ because it's also when other sides of him gets to shine.
on a brighter note:
VEIN AND CHENG XIAOSHI MEETING AGAIN!!! their greeting was so cute. also omg does xia fei know? that his boss is maybe possibly a cannibal? actually, wait, I don't think I'd be surprised if he does know.
ah and finally. finally:
I've been having many thoughts on how yingdu approaches "friendships" and their transactional nature (mostly with regards to liu xiao) but I mostly thought they're headcanon stuff. but now. I'm so so happy that episode 5 is bringing out more of the quid pro quo theme. liu xiao with the gift giving. wang qing's "friends" (bullies) demanding her to cheat on the exam for them. and now, vein and cheng xiaoshi having a friendly greeting but also exchanging favors. so good. so good. it goes along with how there's so much handshakes and handholding this season (not just with lu guang and cheng xiaoshi, but with cheng xiaoshi and the the antagonist trio too, who have all met him by "helping" him in some way). something something trust and favors. probably something that deserves its own post though, but I wanted to point this out because I am soooo here for that. it's goes hand in hand (ha!) with the whole fraud/lies vs innocence/honesty theme this season, and deals/contracts being an equalizer to the two. very good. very tasty.
edit: ooh they also point to this in the YE6 trailer too. nice, nice. if you knew someone's true colors, would you still be their friend?
man, I love episode 5. it just hits all the stuff I personally wanted to see. the only flaw is that we still haven't seen the older version of wang qing, but yeah I kinda expected that they'll hide her until episode 6. they're giving her the liu xiao treatment from season 2. sigh. really wish she'd keep showing up in S3, we need more female characters in this show šŸ™
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hijinxinprogress Ā· 6 months ago
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Coffee addict Never sleeps Tim drake āŒĀ 
Solving cases in his sleep off 87 energy drinks Tim DrakeĀ āœ…
The coffee addict never sleeps perpetually tired Tim Drake thing is a widely accepted headcanon however that was elementary school tim but after he stayed up for a week straight subsisting entirely on coffee to decipher the bat weekly patrol schedule and how it aligns with rogue attacks/Arkham breakouts, he crashed then when he woke up it was fucking wednesday so he missed his chance to commemorate his discovery with pictures of Robin and he decided that shit would never happen again and made himself an ā€˜efficientā€™ sleep schedule so he could run around doing fuck shit, add to his robin shrine, and stay on honor roll bc he was even more pissed to see the gotham gazette had pictures of Robin with an on site interview credited to Vicki Vale (listen bowl cut tim had a one sided beef with vicki vale that included tim judging who gets better pics of the bats but she isnā€™t even aware that sheā€™s competing with a whole ass child šŸ˜­ heā€™s sitting at the table with a mug of orange juice and looks at the newspaper snorts and goes ļæ½ļæ½fucking amateur I could do betterā€™)Ā 
Regularly unsupervised tiny businessman in training Tim ā€˜Ten hours of uninterrupted sleep?? Thatā€™s so inefficient not to mention fucking stupidā€™ Drake is so pissed he missed getting shots of Robin dropkicking a rogue from 6 six stories up (for absolutely no reason dick just thinks itā€™s fun) that he just takes at least 3 hour naps every eight hours šŸ˜­ he refuses to spend almost half a day sleeping ā€˜for no reason when he could be doing something productiveā€™Ā 
And he still does this as a bat but itā€™s just easier to tell if he didnā€™t take his nap bc he has less than zero impulse control and heā€™s just fucking done with everything like the gcpd is terrified bc timā€™s saying shit like ā€˜This guys a fucking moron, I couldā€™ve done this in half the time without killing anyone fucking loser doesnā€™t he know if you keep them alive you can prolong the torture?ā€™ and ā€˜youā€™re like all hysterical and for what šŸ¤Ø ā€˜you blew up 83% of Bristol waahā€™ stfu and fucking rebuild it?? Itā€™s only rich mfs that live there, itā€™s just a matter of them opening their fucking walletsā€™ once a new recruit made the mistake of asking if robin had adult supervision regularly and Tim responded with ā€˜well if youā€™re gonna snitch to cps like a little bitch then yeahā€™Ā and that cop did snitch so tim fucking doxxed him
Yj has just accepted that sometimes they will find tim in an air vent, on the roof, in one of their closets, or something just fucking knocked out then an alarm will go off and heā€™ll just get up like nothing happened but for the first couple of months they were probably concerned bc ā€˜Iā€™ve never seen you sleep?? wtf are you on manā€™ and Timā€™s confused bc ā€˜I slept next to you this morning wdym??ā€™ and thatā€™s how yj discovers tim sleeps with his eyes open
But one of the worst things about Timā€™s ā€˜time efficient sleep scheduleā€™ nonsense is that it fucking works heā€™s one of the most well rested and coherent bats even after back to back Arkham breakouts however the absolute worst thing about his sleep schedule is the likelihood of going into the cave and seeing tim staring in a daze but wide eyed yet somehow never blinking at the batcomputer with 57 tabs open on top of being unresponsive and thinking he has a fucking concussion or heā€™s been replaced but heā€™s just doing case work while muttering nonsense in his fucking sleep for some reason
#Tim drake being unhinged even in his sleep and taking sleepwalking to the next level by doing reports/solving cases in his sleep#A bat hearing incoherent mumbling but no oneā€™s nearby: šŸ˜ heā€™s in the walls šŸ˜Ø heā€™s in the goddamn walls#No one knows how or why heā€™s in that particular spot in the wall bc thereā€™s isnā€™t a secret entrance/crawl space there#Tim also has a wall of energy drinks Bruce regularly tries to lecture him aboot#And Timā€™s like ā€˜your eldest son has snorted sugar MULTIPLE timesā€™#then he gestures at Jason ā€˜and that one looks like if he didnā€™t have drug related childhood trauma heā€™d try to snort protein powderā€™#bruce: tim we have to talk about your behavior#Tim: like three of your kids have basked in the blood of their enemies šŸ¤Ø I am NOT your biggest issue rn#Dick Grayson being the main reason thereā€™s an ā€˜acceptable levels of forceā€™ slide with 600+ slides & most are examples of what not to do#Stephanie šŸ¤šŸ¾ Damian: being reason Bruce is adding more slides to a PowerPoint from 2 decades ago#Tim drakes idea of straight forward is how everyone else imagines jumping through hoops and fucking struggling to avoid pissing off the fae#Like wdym simple?? This plan has 97 parts and heā€™s like no thatā€™s just the first page of plan 1 if itā€™s sunny#Rogues: I canā€™t catch him off guard wtf do none of these mfs sleep??#Tim ā€˜never let em know your next moveā€™ Drake whoā€™s been sleep for the past 45 minutes: šŸ”µāž–šŸ”µ#Yj has cuddle piles in the air vents#Everyone with enhanced senses is losing bc ā€˜there are children in the wallsā€™#Coffee addict babs calls tim weak when he tells her he cut coffee bc it was fucking with him before continuing to chug hot coffee#Oracle: this is the worst Tuesday ever šŸ˜” I need more coffee before I deal with an Arkham breakout#Nightwing: but itā€™s sunday??#Spoiler: Maybe itā€™s time we switch to decaf love also just out of curiosity when was the last time you slept??#Oracle: you want the fucking location or not?#Dick: I take it back mb#Spoiler: a thousand apologies to our gracious overlord#Oracle: thatā€™s what I thought#Bruce: youā€™re benched oracle#Oracle: take that bench and shove it up your ass batman#Steph 100% calls everyone mushy pet names and has since Bruce lectured her about professionalism when she was dating tim#Imagine getting your ass kicked by a sleepingwalking middle schooler#Or worse: imagine having to explain to your insurance company that a sleepwalking child blew up your home#tim drake is a menace
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ririsasy Ā· 10 months ago
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Varadha touching his nose ring while looking at Deva, remembering the time when Deva himself that put it there for him with his own blood in his hand, remembering the fact that it was Deva who protected and kept his "little honor" intact.
#salaar#varadeva#prithviraj sukumaran#varadha rajamannar#devaratha raisaar#what deva didn't know was the fact that putting a nose ring on a mannar yourself in front of many people as their witness#was considered as wedding ritual#that's why Varadha was holding his breath because there's also blood in deva's hand to seal the oath#lol in Varadha's heart he considered himself a married man#but Deva didn't know that#no one told him#this is obviously made up custom I think in my head lmao#funny scenario in my head is that Varadha was staring so intensely at Deva wondering if he should stop him or not#contemplating in his head if he wanted to be married at such a young age#but in the other hand he didn't want to embarrass Deva in front of many people because he was determined to put the nose ring himself#every mannar knows that Deva was Varadha's husband as well#the only one who's left in the dark was Deva perhaps if he told his mother about the detail his mother might tell him#he clearly told the event after his mother asked him how did he got the electric scars#but of course between Deva and Varadha both never mentioned the part where Deva put the ring on#that's why the first thing that he did when he met deva was to run into his embrace#he was like I didn't have to feel like a widower anymore my husband is here after 25 years alive and healthy#then he also didn't hesitate to sleep on Deva's lap#he is his husband after all#who's going to tell Deva that he's a married man#thinking about older Varadha trying his best to give a hint for Deva to consummate their marriage#they have waited long enough#25 years he has been waiting for him and he only has a little patience left especially if his Deva has grown into such a fine strong man#Deva of course never shy away from Varadhaā€™s touch#but he also never do it more than that only a cuddle and a kiss on his neck one time and never more was he not into varadha the same way#just imagine the misunderstanding the chaos the pining and just how confused they both feel like bad communication at its finest
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coolnonsenseworld Ā· 2 years ago
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I wanted to say that outside of semantics and divisions - I am simply happy to find communities that welcome with kindness - that welcome you by a good heart and not the ability to conform. I am happy for the opportunity to be surrounded by people who care. It's a funny world we live in - making the same mistakes over and over, multiplying the same suffering by billions. I don't think I hope for an utopia anymore, I don't think such a thing exists - but you can't call me hopeless either. And that's what matters.
As a side note - this piece is set in DanceAU, which might be better known to Patrons so far, but still it was the best and most fitting option for this occasion..... also there are 12 DanceAU pieces incoming, because I might be making another calendar so. get familiar with these mutts
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rubenesque-as-fuck Ā· 12 days ago
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Running into a dating dilemma issue I have not encountered in quite some time. Starting talking to two different people on an app at around the same time, went on a date with one of them last Saturday. It went surprisingly well, even fooled around a little for the first time in a long while. We have a second date at an arcade planned for this Sunday.
Other person was a little slower on the draw (not as timely with responses) and has offered to meet up this Friday. They seem nice enough, but now I'm kind of focused on the first person- but obviously that connection is also still in the exploratory stages and there are no guarantees that anything else will happen with them. I'm not great at dividing my attention when I'm interested in someone but I also don't want to count any chickens before they hatch (the chickens in this case being a meaningful or at least ongoing sexual relationship šŸ£)
So the dilemma is: do I still go on the date with person #2? The way I see it I have three options- agree to the date and see where it goes, decline the date, or put it off until next week and see how I feel after the second date with the guy that I already met. I feel like I should make a choice soon but I truly don't know which one šŸ˜¬
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eebie Ā· 3 months ago
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Grinds my teeth to dustā€¦. i wish touch didnt have so many Implications. im just trying to survive out here
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#after all this i need a cuddle and a movie But who do i ask withoit them thinking im coming on to them#i need to paint a giant doomsday-guy-on-the-street-corner style sign to wear around my neck that says I AM AROMANTIC ASEXUAL#born to hug and kiss all my friends forced to stand around hands in my pockets#im scared to death of people misinterpreting my behavior or feeling uncomfortable#od be so much more relaxed like at a core of my being level if this was a nonissue#dude im desperate i might just ask the guy i almost fell asleep on tje otjet night#the ice is broken and he already knows my deal#(fantasizing about snuggling with people i like) im so fucked up ā€¦.#itā€™s also made way worse by tje fact that I apparently come off as very flirtatious#im playful and i love people Sorry ā€¦..#im like All or Nothing . oh my god lol#i had a friend who called me her ā€˜koalaā€™ because i was constantly clinging to her#we were 7 so it was socially acceptable#99% of the time we were together i was wrapped around her legs or torso. i miss you so much sybil#the start of the end was when i innocently restrd my chin on my friendā€™s shoulder to watch what he was doing#and the next day someone asked me why i did that#i was like huhā€¦? heā€™s my friend?#why wouldnā€™t i?#then i felt all weird about it And ive felt weird about it sincd#unrelated but my best friend is autistic she has misophonia and hates touch But im the misopjonia exception(real thing) AND#iā€™m one of the only people she hugs. straight up my biggest flex ever
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musubiki Ā· 11 months ago
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Lime (thinking about his perfect score in AWS evaluations): you canā€™t seduce me tho
Mochi: ā€¦ ok then ^pulls the elastic of her thigh high up and lets it snap back^
Later
Coco: why is Lime shoving his head in a bucket of water
THIS IS SO FUCKING ON BRAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I DIDNT EVEN THINK ABOUT MOCHI PLAYING THE THIGH CARD!!!!!! YOURE SO RIGHT!!!!!!!!!
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undertale-fic-librarby Ā· 7 months ago
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Melatonin
A FluffyNight drabble to celebrate reaching 50 followers on this account. It's pretty short & not beta read, but I think it's alright for being written in one sitting. Happy reading!
Beep! Beep! Beep! The sound of Ccino's alarm forced him awake, pulling him out of the pleasant dreams he had been having. Even now, Ccino could feel them slipping from his skull, leaving him wondering what exactly he had been dreaming about.
The continued beeping of his alarm pulled him from his thoughts & Ccino groaned, pushing his face into his pillow. Blindly reaching for it, Ccino attempted to turn it off without looking, knocking his hand against the other things on the nightstand before finally managing to push the button to silence it.
Blissful quiet filled the room as Ccino felt Nightmare shift next to him. Arms wrapped around him & pulled him close, holding Ccino close to Nightmare. Ccino smiled sleepily, turning on his side so he faced towards the other. He hummed quietly as he observed Nightmare looking back at him with a lidded socket, an annoyed expression on his face.
"Sorry, did I wake you?" Whispering so as to not ruin the atmosphere, Ccino questioned worriedly. Nightmare shook his head & moved slowly, readjusting them both until they were situated comfortably against each other.
Ccino smiled wider & closed his sockets, holding the other in his arms. Together in each other's arms, they both quietly drifted back to sleep.
Bonus scene!
A shrill beeping jolted them both back awake, causing Ccino to jump in Nightmare's arms. Grumbling to himself, he slowly sat up & reached over to the alarm, shutting it off.
Sitting up properly, Ccino stretched his arms above his head & groaned as he heard his joints pop, rubbing the bottom of his sockets with one hand. Picking up his phone & turning it on, his sockets widened in shock as he let out a loud, "Shoot!"
Scrambling & throwing the blanket off of himself, Ccino barely noticed as Nightmare sat up in alarm. "Is everything alright?" Ccino stammered out a reply, mild panic in his voice as he began changing out of his pajamas.
"Everything's fine! We just overslept a bit!" Relaxing slightly, Nightmare observed as Ccino got ready for the day, rushing around quickly so he wouldn't be later than he already was. If he concentrated, he could swear that he heard the meows of hungry cats impatiently calling for their breakfast.
Hastily walking over to Nightmare, having gotten dressed quickly, Ccino leaned over & placed a chaste kiss against his lovers cheek, smiling. "Love you, see you later!" With that he exited the room, leaving Nightmare sitting alone on the bed with only a warm imprint of where Ccino laid as company.
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aaxzlyte Ā· 2 months ago
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i'm not sure i'll ever finish the wip i have where Near has a white cat named Jetfire
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softquietsteadylove Ā· 1 month ago
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Ohhh Gil, after being rescued by Thena 2 days ago, has nightmares wich she learns when she decided to stay for one night because it was storming outside. She has trouble waking him up but then she comforts him and learns about the story behind his claustrophobia.
For the wildfire one please
"No! No, help! Please, someone--anyone!"
Thena jolted awake. She was used to doing so when she was out in the wild, but she was at Gil's. It was storming outside in a decidedly angry way. She had radioed it into the towers and made her way to the cabin so as not to roast her ass with lightning (again).
"No! No!!"
Gil was in his bed, absolutely thrashing. The sheets look like they had taken on the fight with him and lost. He was covered in sweat. And he really sounded truly scared for his life.
He sounded like he had when he got locked in the cellar.
"Please!"
Thena threw herself off the recliner in front of the fire and rushed over to him. His pleas for help really did sound visceral and terrified. She all but slid on her knees to the bedside. "Gil!"
"I can't-!" he was full on screaming, and that was when he wasn't gasping for breath or panting from trying to scream with no air in his lungs. He was clawing at the t-shirt sticking to his skin.
"Gil, wake up!" she barked, shaking him by the chest. Those muscles were heavy, but she knew that from when he had latched onto her, hugging for dear life. She shook harder, digging her nails into his chest. "Gil!"
"Please, please, someone help!" he gasped. He was hyperventilating in his sleep now.
This wasn't good. He would cut off his own air at this rate. Thena shook him more roughly, pressing down on his heart. "Gil, come on! Wake up, just breathe! It's me!"
He flinched as she pressed harder. It wasn't gentle, but she was going to wake him from his nightmare no matter the cost. She winced, "sorry, big fella."
Gil shot up in bed as her palm connected with his cheek. He took deep, gasping breaths, his hand over where she had tried to claw her way through to his heart. "Wh-Wh-Wha-"
"Hey, it's me, just breathe," she whispered, putting her hands on his cheeks and forcing him to look her in the eye. The sky was quite light from the furious storm happening outside, not to mention the occasional lightning bringing a glow to the room every few minutes.
Her thumb traced over his cheek. She did feel bad for having to slap him like that.
"Th-Thena?" Gil gasped, gulping in between breaths. His throat was dry and rough from all his screaming. "What's-?"
She sighed heavily. He really scared her with that episode. She patted his cheek again before reaching for his canteen. "It's okay, just take a second, right?"
He nodded, accepting it from her and gulping the water down greedily. He tipped it up to get the last of it.
"Hey," she frowned, pulling it away from him to prevent him from waterboarding himself. "Not so fast or you'll hurl it up again."
He let her take it from him at least, slumping against the headboard. "Sorry, I must have scared the shit of you."
He sure did. But she settled back as well, sitting on one foot with the other dangling off his bed. "What was that?"
He scratched at his neck uncomfortably. "Never had a nightmare before?"
But she didn't take his little joke lying down, nor did she think he would expect her to. "Gil."
Just his name from her lips made him get the sad puppy eyes on again. The big guy had absolutely no ability to hide his feelings at all. He sagged. "I'm sorry I woke you up like this."
"Gil," she prompted him again, even moving closer. The bed really was a mess. "I've never seen you like that before."
He nodded, accepting that this conversation was happening, no matter what. "I don't get them as often as I used to. It happened probably ten years ago, now."
She furrowed her brows; he knew what scars she had from work--everyone did. But she had no idea he had anything that had sparked his intense claustrophobia.
"I was on search and rescue, and cave duty, as luck would have it," he started slowly, still trying to smile through it and deliver the story lightly. His hands were picking at his blanket pulled over his lap again. "We got everyone out, but when I was checking to make sure we got to the back of it, there was a tremor. The front of it caved in. I wasn't crushed, but it was worse--it took them a week to dig me out."
A week trapped in a cave could drive the best of them insane, no matter what training they had. Thena shivered at the thought.
"They tried to communicate with me. I was able to make small fires if I really needed the warmth. But the dark, the dripping of the water in there, not knowing when - or if - I would get out of there..."
Thena bit her lip, trying to think of what to say. Gil cleared his throat, digging the heels of his palms into his eyes again. Just the story was enough to have him in tears again. And she could see why.
"I was always kind of nervous about enclosed spaces, but since then," he shook his head, "I just can't. That, uh, that's actually why I moved here to the cabin."
That was why he didn't live at the station? She had always assumed it was simply a byproduct of his strength and ability to do both search and rescue and active duty fire fighting.
"I couldn't live at the station anymore," he admitted quietly. "There are so few windows, the rooms are so small and dark-"
"I know," she interjected, rushing to keep him from going on about something that so clearly pained him. She even reached over and put her hand over his in her haste. "It's okay, Gil."
He laughed faintly, sniffling up the last of his tears. "Real cool, huh?--a firefighter who can't be indoors for too long?"
She shook her head. It wasn't nearly the embarrassment he thought it was. The fact that he had come back to it after an event like that was exemplary. Something like that would have most of their own applying for retirement, if not an extended leave of absence. "I was a firefighter who couldn't go into fire."
Gil's jaw bobbed in his hurry to denounce the shit she was talking about herself.
But she smiled, tucking her stray leg up on the bed as well. "The rumours were half true--I did have a hard loss after a search and rescue gone wrong. I lost a family--even the kids."
"Thena-"
She pressed on; if she didn't get it out now, she never would. "I was separated from everyone, trying to read the wind in the middle of a dry lightning storm. I read it wrong and...this whole family just got...swallowed up--right in front of me. I tried to go in and get them but it happened too fast. They were already gone."
She shivered again. It was no wonder she had failed her psych eval after that--she would still fail it today, she was quite sure.
"We've all had losses," he assured her, also touching her hand in solidarity. "They're all hard. No one could blame you for needing time after that."
She shook her head, swiping her tears away before they could fall. If anything, Gil was stronger than her not just for going back to work in a way she couldn't, but for allowing himself the weakness to cry over it. "I tried, but...I chose perimeter duty. I let the rumors run wild because it was easier than explaining the truth--that I didn't know if I could ever go into a live one every again."
Gil reached and, to her horror, she wondered if he would wipe away some tears that had escaped her. But he caught the last of the trail of one, and then pushed her bangs away from falling over her forehead. She made a face. He chuckled, "you're tougher than you think you are."
"I am tough," she countered.
"You are," he agreed, smiling more like himself. "And you're even tougher than that, because you could have walked away completely."
She eyed him. She had never told anyone the complete story of her exile--not even her boys knew the whole story. No one needed to know, as far as she was concerned. "You didn't."
He shrugged, "I did, in a way. But you also stayed--because you had to, right? Because thinking of leaving the fight all together just isn't right to you, is it? Because you wanted to do what you could, even if it was doing daily routes and telling campers to put out fires. Because that still helps."
That sounded like some touchy-feely-bullshit if she ever heard it. But it didn't feel as condescending as it did from her old Chief, or as pitying as it did from her second hand when she had left the unit to him. Because Gil was so genuine with everything he did and said.
"So, we both have our shit," he shrugged. How did this become him cheering her up? "So what?"
She laughed faintly. He had heard her scream herself out of a horrific nightmare or two in their time together. He had never asked, and she had always been thankful for it. Now, she had returned the favour, so that was that.
"We're both tougher than that, right?"
She tilted her head. She had to admit, she didn't mind Gil knowing the truth of her story. He wasn't the type to whisper, and he had been nothing but sweet to her since they met, even when she was just a white wolf passing through his backyard silently. "Right."
Lightning lit the sides of their faces again, drawing their eyes to the window. Before the thunder followed, she frowned. He rubbed his cheek, "you don't pull punches, huh?"
The thunder rattled the window, but she didn't jump from the sound of it. She smiled, "shaking you wasn't doing the trick."
"Thank you."
She blinked, her eyebrows raising in surprise. "For slapping you?"
"For waking me up, no matter what," he clarified with another pat on her shoulder. "I appreciate it. And, y'know, if you want me to return the favour, I will."
She wasn't sure about that. But she nodded, accepting the kindness for what it was. She patted the hand of his on her shoulder. "Can we go back to sleep now?"
"Sure," he sighed heavily, going back to watching the storm. "If you think you can."
He had a point. They were exhausted, but they were also wide awake after all the excitement, and the heart-to-heart. She sighed. "We should try, at least."
"Yeah, guess you're right."
She looked at the big guy again, catching the sad, lonely puppy eye routine. He looked so pitiful sitting in his own bed. She rolled her eyes, so he would know she was being reluctant about it. "We can sit up for a bit--just a little!"
"If you're okay with it." He couldn't have sounded more excited about it.
She glared at him as she crawled over to the inside of the bed, slipping into the spot where she had spent plenty of time (without him also in the bed). "We are not making a habit of this."
"'Course not," he volunteered, just happy to have a little company. He even shimmied closer to the edge of the bed, to allow her more space to be comfortable.
Thena settled down and closed her eyes. Unfortunately, the bed really was quite comfortable, and it was terribly hard to resist letting its plush warmth lull her into sleep again. "Big softie."
"Yeah, that's me," he lamented with a big grin on his face. He also settled in again, propped up with his pillow and keeping his ankles crossed. He looked up at the ceiling. "Thanks, Thena."
"Hm," she tried to make it sound disgruntled (so he wouldn't think they were going to get all cuddly like this again). Her feet just barely brushed his sweatpants as she bent her knees.
"I'm glad you were here."
She was too. She knew those nightmares, that feeling of drowning in your own mind. She wouldn't wish it on anyone, and she had certainly experienced enough of them in the cold, quiet of camping alone.
Gil settled in and closed his eyes, lying on his back and with his upper half propped up in not that comfortable a way. He even had his arms crossed for personal space reasons. But he looked deeply happy.
Thena closed her eyes, resolving not to peek at him anymore. She frowned, listening to the sheets swishing, "my feet are cold."
That was the only reason she was pressing them up against his at the base of the bed, letting him know that she was right there.
"Sure."
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