#i could have made this even longer defending a bunch of stuff i like about the reboot

[eddiemunsonw]

Paint me red.

PART 4

part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4

Steve Harrington x Fem!Reader

Summary: You're one of Vickie's best friends. Her girlfriend, Robin, is in need of a distraction for her best friend, Steve Harrington, who you vaguely remember from school. Which is where you come in.

CW / Disclaimer: A bunch of cute stuff, just a nice feel good fic about our dear boy Steve.

Author’s note: It was time to write about Steve Harrington, so here it is. Four parts, can find them both on here and on my ao3: eddiemunsons. Enjoy!

Words: (of current chapter) 2783 / (complete fic) 13059

Steve’s POV

Steve had himself draped nearly flat over the counter, arms folded under his head as he watched Robin dart from left to right in front of him while she talked. He watched with mild amusement as she gestured wildly along with her words. In all fairness, he wasn’t exactly following what the point of her story was anymore as she had redirected the course of it about six times now, but he loved hearing her talk.

“… so. You’re coming to the fair with me.”

He frowned.

“Huh?”

Robin rolled her eyes affectionately and ruffled his hair, which immediately caused him to straighten his back to fix it.

“Have you even been listening?” she asked. Steve nodded, then shrugged, then shook his head.

“I… tried?” He provided a crooked smile.

“Vickie and Y/N are working at the fair. I’m gonna give Vickie a visit so you should come. They work at a food stall so… can have a nice chat and stuff.”

Steve thought back on the last time he had seen you and suppressed the smile that threatened to grow on his lips. He remembered how fun it had been during the paintball game, how you had painted a flower on his cheek and how he hadn’t wanted you to get out of his car in favor of talking to you for a little while longer.

“Won’t that be weird?” Steve questioned, considering that maybe you wouldn’t want to see him. It wasn’t like you had given him the idea that you were interested at all. Normally, girls would fawn over him before he even had to woo them. Except with Robin, but Robin was gay. Even Nancy had given obvious signs that she was interested. What if…

“Are you sure she’s into guys?”

“Uh, yeah? I think she’s definitely into guys. Why does that matter? Are you into her?”

Steve avoided her smug expression. Robin was having none of it and moved her head into his vision, cocking an eyebrow at him.

“She’s nice,” Steve mumbled.

“Nice.”

“Yeah! She’s nice. Can’t people be nice?”

“Just nice?”

Steve sighed and rubbed his face with his hand. Robin always did stuff like that. Asked questions in a way that made him want to defend his answers.

“She’s nice and… funny.”

Robin raised her brow.

“Fine, she’s also hot. Her eyes are really pretty. Nice hair too and… well, everything,” Steve admitted with a sigh. Robin could read him like a book, as usual. He just hoped he was only obvious to her. His crushes on people blossomed way too quickly. People could simply portray some basic human decency and he’d feel a subtle notion of butterflies. Not actual butterflies, but his brain could easily trick him into believing they were.

Robin’s subtle smile spread into a grin.

“I thought so. You like her. So. Fair? Yes? Can I tell Vickie we’ll be there?”

“Sure, yeah. Do that.”

Robin smirked and grabbed her pack of gum from the counter.

“Perfect. Want one?”

“Yes, thanks.”

The fair was bustling with people all around, visitors a mix of children to elderly, though teens and young adults were mostly prevalent. While Steve took in the various stalls and attractions they had, Robin was trying to make a beeline towards the stall you and Vickie were at. It was when Steve glanced up at a giant pink teddy bear, his footsteps faltering, that Robin sighed and hooked her arm through his.

“Don’t get any ideas, she might be one of the many girls that don’t like pink.”

“I was just looking,” Steve argued, turning his head to look at it one more time. “It’s just… massive, isn’t it? I never understood why anyone would want a big plushie like that.”

“To hug it, sit against it, I don’t know. I don’t like them either.”

“Don’t they have their partners for that?” Steve questioned out loud, to which Robin shrugged.

“Maybe it’s for when they miss them? Anyway, maybe plushies hug better than some people.” A beat and then: “Vickie gives the best hugs.”

Steve smiled softly at her and let her lead him towards the food stall. It was easy to spot Vickie in the distance, though he didn’t see you yet. Perhaps you were taking a break or something. Once they arrived at Vickie’s stall they were met with a bright smile and she quickly walked around it to hug them both.

“Hi guys!” She immediately eyed Steve apologetically. “Sorry, Y/N isn’t here.”

“Oh,” Steve said, unable to hide his disappointment all that well. “That’s— she’s not sick or anything, is she?”

“Oh, no! She’s just not here,” Vickie said, pointing to the ground. “She had to cover for someone at the haunted house.” Steve followed her gaze towards a creepy looking attraction where several people stormed out of every now and then. Fun.

“Oh okay, cool. I’ll see if I can spot her later, maybe.”

“You should go in! It’s really fun. And scary of course,” she said with a giggle. “I’ll be here when you get back,” she told Robin then with a bored roll of her eyes. “I’ll be here alllll night.”

Robin squeezed her hand sympathetically and smiled.

“Will you have time to walk around with me later? I saw a giant bear plushie that I want to win for you.”

Steve gaped at her and she shrugged as a smile tugged on her lips.

“So that’s why you were so damned to drag me away, huh? You wanted it all for yourself,” Steve concluded with narrowed eyes.

“She likes pink,” Robin said, as if that was enough of an explanation. Vickie beamed at her and nodded excitedly.

“Yeah! I’ll get off at ten so we will have two hours or so. Just promise me you won’t waste all your savings, please. Let’s agree on an amount.”

“Who says I’m not a professional at balloon popping?” Robin countered with a playful smile. Vickie batted her eyelashes at her and wrapped her arms around her neck before giving her a quick kiss on her cheek.

“Alright. Show me your best!”

After that, Steve and Robin headed to the ticket booth of the haunted house and he was surprised not to see you there either. For some reason that had seemed to be the most logical place to spot you next. It bugged him a little that disappointment swirled in his stomach. When did his desire to see you become so strong all of a sudden?

“Maybe she’s inside?” Robin offered, noticing his confused expression.

“To do what?”

“I don’t know, scare people?”

Steve shrugged and joined Robin in the row to the haunted house. Many screams were heard from both inside and at the exit and if he was honest, he was already dreading it. He wasn’t scared that easily, he liked to think (it was a lie), but haunted houses just gave him the type of fright that was hard to ignore, especially if someone ran after him unexpectedly. There was no way he was backing out though, he just hoped he’d see you somehow. Maybe they did some storytelling inside? He doubted you were a scare actor since they usually went all out for that with make up and costumes and what not. According to Vickie you had been called upon pretty last minute.

It was extremely dark inside and he fought the urge to grab Robin’s hand immediately. She’d never let him hear the end of it. Cautiously, they walked forward, the first room being filled with eerie sounds and cobwebs hanging low from the wall. They even added a giant spider on one, which creeped him out already. This was going to be hell. His eyes flickered over to the jail bars next to him as they entered the next room and he noticed actors were standing behind it, occasionally snaking a hand through the bars. Robin however hadn’t noticed, and when one of them lightly grazed her arm, she bolted with a scream.

“Oh, great,” Steve mumbled dryly, earning a giggle from an actor breaking character for a second. He hoped Robin was alright, as he didn’t find her in the next room, or the next. His eyes were so focused on finding the entrance to the following room that he hadn’t noticed he wasn’t alone. Out of nowhere, an actor jumped in front of him, arms wide open as if to grab him.

“AHH!”

As he jumped backwards he saw that they were smaller than him and wearing a mask and, he vaguely noticed through his own screaming, were calling him by his name.

“Steve! Steve, it’s me!”

Y/N’s pov

Steve relaxed cautiously as you put your hands on his shoulders after lifting the mask up to rest on top of your head.

“Steve.” A soft giggle escaped you. “It’s me, Y/N.” You gave his shoulders a quick squeeze and pulled him aside in case the next group would show up.

“Jesus Christ, Y/N,” Steve sighed exasperatedly as his hands searched for a way to hold onto you. He settled for a brief brush of his hands against your shoulders before he dropped his arms again. “Ever thought of saying hi instead? I think I lost three years of my life just now.”

You couldn’t help but giggle some more and squeezed his shoulders lightly. Your hands traveled down his arms until it felt right to remove them and you shrugged.

“It is a haunted house after all. Wait, then I guess it was Robin who I saw running past just now then, huh? I was still processing that but then I saw you and I was certain it was you, so…”

“It’s me. Steve “The Deceased” Harrington. I might as well stay here forever now, become a corpse,” Steve said with a heavy hand gesture.

“You’re so dramatic, Steve.” You smiled. “Go on, before the others come. I don’t wanna keep you.” You urged him towards the next room but he shook his head.

“Wait— Uh… Do you also get off at ten? Like Vickie?”

“Yes…?” you asked, feeling there was more to that question.

“Do you want to hang out with me after? Vickie and Robin are going to and I don’t really want to be a third wheel and uhm… Well no it’s not just that, I also had fun with you last time, so. Yeah. Just a question. If you like.”

He ran his hand through his hair and scratched the back of his neck all in one motion and sighed, unsure what to do next. You smiled at him.

“I’d love to. We can meet at the food stall? I’ll for sure be hungry and I’ve promised myself some churros.”

Steve nodded.

“Alright, meet you there.” He glanced towards the next room. “I don’t trust this place after what you did to me just now.”

“You’ll be fine. Just be prepared for when the guy with the chainsaw comes running after you and don’t break a leg, please. ‘S gonna be hard to walk around the fair with me otherwise.”

“A guy with a— Okay, I’ll do my best,” Steve groaned. “Nice seeing you again, despite these circumstances,” he added with a soft smile. You nodded in agreement.

“Nice seeing you too, Steve “The Deceased” Harrington.”

Ten couldn’t come around soon enough. Luckily time passed faster in a haunted house than it did at a food stall, as the energy of people in an attraction was vastly different. You managed to scare quite a few people, though you didn’t jump in front of anyone like you had with Steve. That had been personal, for the sake of it. Other than that one time you spent your time walking through the room slowly, dragging a fake ax behind you on the ground. That was scary enough for most people. Being in a haunted house usually made them skittish for the mere fact that they were in it.

Aside from time passing by fast, you wished you had spent it at the food stall instead. It would have meant you didn’t smell like a stuffy mask and your hair would still be perfectly in place and Steve would probably— Hold on. You stopped your train of thought quickly. Since when were you focusing on appearance when it came to Steve? You shook your head, quickly shrugging it off. Nonsense, you just wanted to be presentable in general. That was all. A relieved sigh left your mouth which coincidentally startled a person who had just wandered into the room. Oops.

You left a little past ten as you waited for someone to replace you since you had only agreed to take over until that time. After handing the guy your mask and long, oversized coat you had been wearing to hide your clothes, you quickly made your exit towards the staff bathrooms to freshen up a little. Wearing a red t-shirt to match the food stall had all been fun until you didn’t spend most of the night there, as well as the red lipstick you had decided to wear. Your light blue washed jeans and black boots finished the look and to your relief you still looked presentable enough after a quick touch up. 

You were only half surprised to just see Steve standing there and you couldn’t blame Robin and Vickie for wanting to get as much time together as they could. Seeing Steve all by himself did make you feel a little guilty though, considering it was already twenty minutes past the agreed time. Once you got closer, you realized he was wearing a paper cone with churros and your heart swelled a little. Vickie had already cleaned up the food stall, so getting them yourself would have been out of the question. He seemed to be lost in thought still when you halted next to him and decided to give him the lightest poke on his bicep.

“Don’t wanna scare you a second time,” you told him softly. Steve turned around, still a little startled, and you watched his face break out in a smile.

“Hey you,” he greeted you.

“Hi,” you quipped with a grin. He gave himself a moment to drink you in before he held out the churros.

“Here, for you. Told Vickie you wanted some.”

“You’re a hero, oh my god, thank you!” you groaned at the sight as you accepted it from his hand, fingers sliding past yours. “You want one too?”

Steve shook his head, his smile soft.

“I’m good, I had some just now. I uh… got you a drink too,” he said as he held it in view. “You wanna go for a walk around?”

You smiled at how considerate he was and nodded with your mouth full of your first churro bite. He took it as a yes and smirked as he nodded over to the right.

“Alright. Let’s go.”

There was a comfortable silence between you while you devoured your churros and gratefully accepted the drink he had gotten you on Vickie’s suggestion. You spotted her and Robin at the balloon popping stand and tugged Steve along by his arm when he wanted to make his way over.

“This is their date, let’s give them some privacy,” you told him softly as Steve willingly let himself be pulled along. As you passed a ring toss booth, your eyes flicked towards a cute plushie. It was a weird, purple little mushroom supposedly standing on a rock. Steve followed your gaze and lowered himself a little to catch the right one into view, his hands resting on his hips.

“Hmm… the dog?” he tried, pointing at an adorable dalmatian dog plushie.

“Nope, the purple mushroom.”

A giggle left his mouth, surprising himself it seemed as he clasped a hand over his mouth and he pulled his hands up defensively as you quirked a brow at him.

“No it’s— adorable! Really. Just didn’t expect it.”

“No? Well lucky me, I love being a little unpredictable.” You shrugged and Steve chuckled, pulling gently on your wrist as you set another step away from the booth.

“Oh you are, believe me,” Steve mumbled with a soft sigh. “Come on, let’s get you your weird little mushroom.”

“You’re gonna win it for me, huh?” you asked, eyeing him provocatively as if you didn’t believe he could.

“No,” he told you, lowering himself to your height. “We are going to win it.”

After a couple tries, you fought a smile at every failed attempt. Not because it was funny to see him fail, but because the soft little grunts he made were simply adorable. He tried not to show it, but he definitely started to get worse the moment he realized it wasn’t as easy as anticipated.

“Now I see why you said we were going to win it,” you teased, a grin almost permanent on your face now.

“Oh, shut up,” he mumbled, nudging you with his elbow. “If you’re so good, show me how it’s done then? Come on.”

“Oh I couldn’t possibly be as good as you. We stand no chance if we waste our tries on little ol’ me.” Acting like a damsel in distress had never been this funny to you. Steve rolled his eyes affectionately and put his hand on the small of your back to move you in front of him.

“Here, hold this. Swing it towards the red ones, they are worth the most.”

“He says as if I haven’t been paying attention,” you remarked dryly. “You didn’t think I was just staring at you, were you?”

“Wouldn’t mind if you were.”

It left his lips so naturally that your grip on the ring faltered for a second. You could feel him smiling. Oh, he was loving this.

“Well, too bad, Steve. I was too focused on watching you try.”

Steve whistled softly and pretended to clasp his heart, though you couldn’t really see it as your back was still facing his front. You definitely didn’t miss the sound of him slapping his own chest, though.

“You try it then,” he challenged.

“Hmm, not gonna show me how it works? That’s surprising.”

“All you have to do is ask.”

A chuckle left your lips. He was getting bolder and you found that you liked it. Kept his distance, yet hovered closely behind you. Gave you lingering looks but didn’t push for anything after them. It was a playful game.

“Oh, no need, I’m good. I just figured since you’re breathing down my neck a little, that you were gonna pull a move or something.”

Games aside though, you slightly cursed yourself at your need to bite back, wondering how long it would take before you crossed a line with him. It wasn’t as if you knew him that well. To your surprise, he laughed.

“I didn’t think you were the type that enjoys cliché moves like that.”

“So what type do you think I am?”

“Someone determined to win her own weird mushroom plushies, probably.”

You laughed at that and finally gave the ring a flick of your wrist, landing around a green stick which was thirty points.

“You make it sound so…” Unsure how to finish the sentence, you simply threw another ring, and another, not bothering to really try. After three more throws you had seventy points in total, which wasn’t a lot.

“You’re not even trying,” he remarked dryly as he nudged your shoulder gently.

“So rude,” you retorted, a playful smile on your lips as you turned around. “I guess you should show me how it’s done then,” you quipped with a shrug of your shoulder. Steve leaned closer, his front and your back nearly squeezing out the warmth that was gathering between you both as he picked up the remaining rings you had. Where you expected him to do the whole touchy feely thing, he did the opposite. Instead, he stood next to you and nudged your hip with his own to make room.

“Alright then,” he smirked and, oh. The bastard had the audacity to wink. Apparently your little back and forth had caused a surge in confidence within him though, because he managed to hit the five remaining rings all in either fifty or forty. With your points counted together you were just a few tens short, but with some convincing words from Steve you got it anyway. The man in the booth handed it to you and you squeezed it with delight before holding it up to Steve, nearly pushing it into his face.

“Look at it! Isn’t it cute?!”

Steve laughed and nodded at you, pushing the plushie down with his hand a bit to meet your eyes. 

“Almost as cute as you are right now.”

Well damn. He did it again. A faint blush tainted your cheeks and you quickly lowered the plushie to hold it against your side. Steve cocked his head, amused at your reaction and tapped the back of your hand with his finger.

“Where to next?”

Since the ring throwing had basically been for you and your plushie, you decided that it was Steve’s time to pick. Without missing a beat he decided on the ferris wheel. Curiosity built up in your belly, wondering whether the ferris wheel held any other implications than admiring the view, which wouldn’t be too impressive at this time of night. The lights were nice, sure, but other than that you couldn’t really see far and wide like you would during the day. Though, that would be less romantic, you supposed. Not that you were hoping for it to be romantic, although…

Your eyes found Steve’s face again, as they had quite a bit tonight. You had promised yourself not to let yourself be tempted by him so easily. But what could you do? He was funny, kind, charming, a flirt in a fun way, handsome as hell and just… really sweet. Making sure you had your churros had been really thoughtful and it was nice how he wanted to win the plushie for you without being all alpha male about it.

“Something on my face?” Steve interrupted your thoughts. You blinked rapidly, turning your head away as you shrugged, trying to remain casual.

“Just your freckles. I don’t know if you ever noticed, but you have quite a few.”

Steve sighed and when he answered that he did in fact know, he actually sounded a bit self conscious, which was the last thing you wanted to achieve with that statement.

“I like them. They’re really pretty,” you stated.

Now it was Steve’s turn to look at you, eyebrows lifted in surprise, as if no one had ever told him how pretty his freckles were. As if. There was no way all those girls looked at that man and didn’t compliment him on it, right? From the looks of it, your words had an effect on him as he positively started blushing a deep crimson and mumbled something incoherently that mostly seemed to resemble ‘thanks’. Damn. Add cute to that list.

“Here we are,” you announced as if the giant ferris wheel in front of you wasn’t enough of a confirmation. “Ready to get high?”

Steve smirked. “Eddie would love that joke.” He frowned to himself, awkwardly gestured towards the sky and sighed. “The uh, high thing. He’s a friend.”

“I remember him,” you told him with a nod. “Wouldn’t have imagined you two together as friends though, somehow.”

“We both happened to hang out with this kid and— I’m making it weirder,” Steve sighed. “Dustin. Henderson? He lives near you.”

“Oh! Yeah I know him. He’s alright. Seems like an old man in a kid’s body sometimes, so I’m not surprised he keeps up with you two.”

“Uh… thanks?” Steve responded unsurely, though he seemed to understand exactly what you meant.

“Did you find it funny though?”

“What?”

“The high joke.”

“Oh! Yeah. I did.”

“Oof… no need to lie, Steve, that hurts…”

“I’m n— Y/N. You're making a fool of me again, huh?”

Just as you wanted to respond, the guy at the ticket booth interrupted you.

“Hey, lovebirds, are you gonna go in or not? We’re about to start the last round.”

“Jeez… already?” you mumbled to yourself. “Yeah, Frank. Two tickets please.”

“Oh just go in already,” Frank grumbled, but answered your smile as you gave him a grateful nod. Steve let you get in first and watched how you clutched the plushie between your thighs.

“Can’t risk losing it,” you explained. Steve nodded in understanding and settled next to you, making the cart wobble a bit as he did so. As soon as the cart started to move to the next spot, you felt how Steve put his arm behind your back, his hand wrapping around a part of the frame.

It was the first time the usual comfortable silence between the two of you actually felt a little awkward, especially when you felt his thigh press against yours. Steve seemed to be focused on the view although you could feel how he was drumming against the frame with his fingers since his arm flexed against your upper back. When you reached the top, Steve finally broke the silence.

“Can you point out where your home is?”

Startled by his sudden question, you looked around for things you recognized and narrowed your eyes.

“Hmm… I’m not good at this. Somewhere in that direction though, you said as you stretched out your arm to point.

“Almost,” Steve mumbled, lifting his own arm to circle his hand around your wrist and adjust it. “Right there.”

You smiled softly and turned your head to respond, but quickly found that his face was so close that it felt safer to just talk towards the darkness of the night.

“You could be pointing at the other side of town and I’d still believe you,” you mumbled. Steve chuckles softly and your current position made it easy to feel the vibration of his laugh, causing your cheeks to heat up again.

“Now that’s a little worrying, trusting me blindly.”

“I trust you won’t take advantage of that. And anyway, it’s not like I won’t know my way back after that.”

“I wouldn’t dare.” The atmosphere finally felt a little relaxed again. Your chest didn’t feel as tight anymore and words came more easily to you. At least until Steve let go of the frame and wrapped it around your shoulder instead.

“You need a ride home?”

“Yeah, that would be lovely, thank you,” you answered without thinking twice about whether you and Vickie would be going home together. All you could think about right now was his hand, that was currently grazing your arm gently with his blunt fingertips, giving the subtlest scratch.

“Okay.”

He felt so close. So goddamn close. You could feel his breath on your neck, the press on your thigh heavier and you closed your eyes for a moment, facing forward still.

“Would be a little cliché if we kissed now, huh?” he murmured softly, daring to use his hand to pull you against him a little.

“So cliché,” you agreed, your brain working hard to grasp at every word to give it some meaning.

“And you don’t like clichés.” It was a statement, not a question.

“No. Doesn’t matter though,” you responded weakly, unable to come up with a better retort.

“Because?”

“Who says I’ll let you kiss me?”

Idiot. Idiot, idiot, idiot. You were close to psychically groaning when yet again, he managed to surprise you with a soft laugh. How you had managed to not fuck this up yet with your responses was a miracle to you.

“Who says I was gonna make the first move?”

“Too cliché?” you asked.

“Maybe. Or maybe I’m just nervous. Come on.”

Without you realizing, you had arrived at the bottom again and it was time to get out. He held out his hand to help you out of the wobbly cart and didn’t let go once you were back on the grass, a few feet away from the ferris wheel exit. For a moment, you just stood there and watched as several booths turned off their lights until Steve squeezed your hand gently.

“To the car?” he suggested, his glance at you a slightly nervous one. He had been serious about feeling nervous, then. You nodded and gave him a soft smile and returned a squeeze to his hand. All the way to his car, your hands never let go and you even managed some casual conversation, such as Steve mentioning the pink bear he had spotted with Robin earlier that evening.

“Oh, Vickie would love that,” you said. “I hope they managed to get it.”

“Hope so too,” Steve agreed. “Still happy you went for your weird mushroom?”

“Absolutely. It’s the best combination of weird and cute. Plus, I like purple.”

“That’s good, I’m glad.”

Steve opened the passenger’s side for you first before joining you in the car behind the wheel. He drove off slowly as many people left the fair on foot and didn’t exactly pay attention to whether they were about to be hit by a car or not. You already missed his hand holding yours. Apart from listening to the tape Steve had put on, not much happened during the ride. You talked a bit about other funny encounters in the haunted house and he shook his head, remembering his own fright.

“Can’t believe you jumped in front of me.”

“Can’t believe I actually scared you.”

“That’s what jumpscares are supposed to do, isn’t it? You literally jumped and scared me,” he pointed out. You giggled, again reliving the moment and he groaned.

“You’re enjoying this so much.”

“Come on. It was funny.”

“If you’re evil maybe.”

“I’m evil now?”

“A little.”

“Hm. So what would make me a whole lot evil?”

Steve mulled it over for a moment, stopping the car in front of your home in the meantime. Eventually, he shrugged.

“I don’t know, man. I’ll let you know when you do, how about that?”

You chuckled.

“Alright.”

Glancing at your front porch, you sighed softly. Yet another night had come to its end and this time, you really didn’t feel like leaving the car. Steve leaned forward a little to block your view.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked curiously.

“Time.”

“Time?”

“Yup, time. Goes by too fast,” you sighed and he smiled and nodded to show he agreed with you.

“Sure does.” He rested his head against the headrest sideways so he could look at you, his index finger tapping the back of your hand gently like he had done earlier this evening.

“You looked really pretty tonight. Red suits you well.”

Oh how grateful you were for the dim light surrounding you, because you were definitely, definitely blushing now.

“Oh— thanks.”

A professional at taking in compliments, you were definitely not. Steve smiled and you watched how his eyes lowered to your lips for a moment as he wet his own with his tongue. You swallowed. You felt his hand trail upwards from yours all the way up to your shoulder, only to then cup your cheek gently.

“Would be cliché, huh,” he murmured softly.

“So cliché,” you agreed once more.

A smile crept onto his lips and he leaned back, leaving you a little confused. Yet, you didn’t dare say anything, not even when he drove off again and parked around the corner.

“Better,” he concluded. “Doubt you’ve ever had a guy nearly kiss you only to then drive his car around the corner to actually do it, and even explain the whole ordeal to you,” he added, fighting a grin that broke through regardless. You giggled and shook your head, gently biting down on your bottom lip.

“Never. Now kiss me,” you sighed impatiently, unbuckling your seatbelt as you did. Steve didn’t waste a second to cup your face again and smirked when he felt you undo his seatbelt as well.

“Thought you’d never ask. Or… demand, more like.”

“Steve.”

Another giggle, this time it was him.

“Okay, okay.”

His lips found yours easily, pressing closer the moment the first touch was initiated. Lips parted and tongues slipped past, earning you both a kiss you had longed for longer than either of you was willing to admit. A kiss that just felt right. A kiss where thoughts didn’t matter, overthinking didn’t exist and the feeling only grew stronger as you went on. The soft sounds escaping your lips were reciprocated by some of his as you both worked hard to be as close as possible with the nuisance of being in a car. He hummed pleasantly as your hand tugged gently on his hair as you combed through it, kissing you a bit more demanding. His hand rested on your waist now, thumb stroking your shirt gently wherever it could reach. When you finally parted, your dazed state soon turned into laughter when you realized your lipstick had traveled all across both your faces.

“Red suits you too,” you told him sweetly. Steve smiled and couldn’t resist another peck on your lips, which inadvertently resulted into another make out session. Maybe, just maybe, you liked Steve Harrington quite a bit after all. Lucky for you, he liked you too.

- FIN

Masterlist

[philsdrivinglicence]

Killing the white supremacist inside you. Easy mode. From one whitey to another.

Disclaimer: I am not an academic or an expert. Just a white person who's life was changed for the radically better during the BLM protests of 2020 who wants to share what worked for them.

Below is a non-comprehensive list of first steps you can take to begin the hard work of unpicking the layers upon layers of white supremacist bullshit baked into you from birth by the culture we live in (even if you grew up progressive or in a big city you are not exempt from this).

I made this list because POC in the phandom have been doing a lot of heavy lifting the past few days. I figured the least I could do is share what worked for me to understand what racism is and how its more subtle forms can manifest.

I hope we can all use the below as a starting point to help make the phandom a less racist and more welcoming place.

(btw I do think we are generally more self ware than many fandoms but as we are a mostly white space we have to keep ourselves accountable as white supremacy is an insidious bastard that will catch you unawares if you let it.)

So. Without further ado.

- read this article

- Read "Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race" by Reni Eddo Lodge (how you choose to source this book I will not judge but consider supporting a local book store)

- Stop being so afraid of being called racist. - Hopefully, if you are engaging in good faith then you already accept that racism is baked into our society. Racist is not a dogwhistle for "evil person". It is a descriptor of very specific behavior that we can all fall into if we don't keep ourselves sharp. So part 2 of this step is -

- Look back on your life and identify a time when you have participated in racism. My go to example is my 14 year old "never met a black person in real life" self, yelling along to N****s in Paris (uncensored, duh) at a house party with a bunch of other white 14 year olds. If you're getting really introspective you'll probably have multiple of these such moments. Sit with them, feel the cringe, think about what you might say to that version of yourself now, how you might have acted differently had you been aware the behavior was problematic. And then forgive yourself. Self flagellation does nothing good, the thing to do now is learn and progress. But you can't know what to change/avoid if you don't have examples to work off of. (This one is lowkey hard mode but worth doing early on so you can see your own progress over time. Also, if the examples you are thinking of were directly harmful you may also want to consider making amends in some way).

- Look at your playlists/album collection. If you don't see many/any POC musicians make a conscious effort to change that. Seek out interviews with your favourite artists and see which black artists have influenced them. Add them to your rotation.

- Do this with youtubers, authors, actors, screenwriters etc, etc. In all forms or art and entertainment, look at what you consume and if you find it overerall skewing white, make an effort to fill it with colour.

(Kill the voice inside you that says "I just prefer - blank-", or "the stuff they make just isn't for me, I prefer stuff I can relate to". This is the white supremacy talking, POC are not a monolith, look harder, you will find artists you connect with)

- Every time a POC points something out to you that seems off to them (I often refer to this as "this doesn't pass the sniff test") before jumping in to defend your fave/point of view/TV show etc. really sit with what they have said and try to consider why what they are pointing out, while not a big deal to you, could be a big deal to them.

Like I said up top, this is a non comprehensive list and is only intended as a starting point.

I usually wouldn't post something like this as I prefer to stay out of discourse but the conversation going on this past few days has really disappointed me. So many people are being dismissive toward POC fans and completely missing the points they are trying to make. So here's my two cents. Hope it's helpful.

[beehiveofblorbos]

Re: the post talking about Percy being blamed for a lot of things not his fault and your additions to it: I think I can actually even defend the Hylla and Reyna thing, if you’re alright with me sharing my thoughts about it like this!

So I understand that Circe’s island was the sisters’ safe place after the ordeal with their father, but unfortunately in the PJO verse I just don’t think it was a good one. Circe is very shady at best, and what she planned on doing to Percy was really screwed when you think about it in depth, especially when you consider that Percy and Annabeth (both just kids) had just survived a shipwreck and though they’d lost Tyson. And the fact she said and did so much spiteful stuff despite not even knowing him! Like I’m sorry but no.

(Ik there are other characterizations of Circe and I actually like her in certain other adaptations, but I would get incredibly derailed talking about that here so I’ll just be talking PJO canon exclusively 😅)

Contrary to what might be popular belief, she was definitely preying on the girls too. She was only nice to Annabeth when she thought to make her a servant. Once Annabeth was no longer on board with her schemes she was quick to turn on her and planned on turning her into a rodent too. And later on in Mark of Athena, I remember Chrysaor mentions having made a deal with her to deliver the girls from the Argo II because she needed more servants. Doesn’t make it sound like they’d be there willingly.

So Hylla and Reyna are angry with Percy and Annabeth for??? Escaping??? Screw Percy for not wanting to be a guinea pig? Screw Annabeth for not wanting to be Circe’s servant???

To your point that maybe more caution could have been used: like you also said, it was a rush situation, they had to escape from Circe and if I’m remembering right Annabeth actually couldn’t tell which of the hamsters was Percy which is why she had to throw all the pills so that he could get to them. They just didn’t have time for her to carefully pick him out from the bunch and feed the vitamins only to him.

Anyway this is just my two cents! I hope this analysis is alright! Actually though this whole scene in Sea of Monsters always made me very uncomfortable to the point where if/when they adapt it for Season 2 of the PJO show I think I’ll actually skip it altogether 😬

hi anon! yes that’s totally fine, I’d love to hear ur thoughts on Hylla and Reyna!

yes! I think I originally came away from SoM thinking that the girls on Circe’s island were bewitched since that’s what happened to Annabeth, but Reyna and Hylla display a startling level of clarity about their situation that does make them somewhat at fault for the continued suffering of any innocent heroes Circe had trapped

I mean I do like Circe even in PJO canon she’s not a good character but she’s cool, she’s got her part of the sea that she runs by her rules, I can respect that

Wow I totally forgot about all of that that she did to Annabeth… Ty for reminder yeah she def needed to go down

Ahh yeah your point makes sense. Essentially, even if Reyna + Hylla not somewhat complicit it’s at the very least not totally unexpected that victims of your morally bankrupt seaside resort would kill it with fire. Which resolves whatever moral dilemma remains w Annabeth loosing all the rodents; she was in a time pressured situation that they caused

yes, this was a very cool read, thank you for bringing back up all of those specific details and contextualizing everything!! so much goes on in PJO 🫠 I hope for your sake they cut as much as possible. always a chance it’ll turn out diff anyway since the show is on a different track than the books

[heartc0ffin]

Okay, honestly, I may not be familiar with your current active f/os, but I’ve researched them now! And for this ask game, let’s go with Bo Sinclair (maybe because he’s the most attractive out of the bunch, or maybe because the lifestyle he leads is more unconventional so it could be interesting…)

So, questions 8, 9 and 12, if you won’t mind~

– villain-in-love

Thank you for the ask!! 🖤 I had fun answering these questions you picked out, they felt pretty fitting for Bo :]

8. Ideal vacation spot with your f/o? What would you do there?

While I don't see Bo wanting to leave Ambrose because he's got too much responsibility there... (gotta take care of his brothers and hide all those dead bodies wax sculptures), I think my s/i would probably talk about the places she'd love to go with him in hopes of persuading him (it doesn't work, lol). But he'd entertain the idea with her. They'd probably differ on opinions of where to go, though...

I think my s/i would like to go somewhere with good food, art and gothic architecture. So I guess... Somewhere in Italy or Romania? Or maybe somewhere where she can do lots of shopping for cutesy stuff, like Japan. Weather isn't really a huge deal either way for her, it's more about sight-seeing.

Bo honestly wouldn't care so much... But I think he'd choose a place that's a bit on the colder side because he's so used to living in a place that's hot and humid as shit and he's basically a greasy ball of sweat 24/7. Get this man somewhere to cool down, please. Also probably somewhere a bit isolated where it could just be him and my s/i.

9. Has your f/o killed for you, or would they? Have you killed for them, or would you?

Bo definitely has at least once. I think there's probably been an instance where one of his victims mistook my s/i as a threat/in on the whole wax sculpture thing (they're not), and they would have attacked her. So in that case, Bo would have been protecting them in self-defense. And honestly, it's not a big deal for him, he's obviously very used to death. I think he'd just be more annoyed that his plans didn't go more smoothly.

As for my s/i... She hasn't killed, yet. But who knows, maybe one day they might end up protecting Bo as well? I think she'd say she's very against the idea of killing anyone, but if she grew attached to Bo enough over time, and it was under the right circumstances, she'd be capable of doing it. But she'd be a baby about it, lol. If I had to go into detail, I can imagine it being an emergency scenario where Bo can't defend himself for whatever reason, and he'd be instructing her on how to do it while she panics gjidgid.

12. What was your f/os first thought about you?

To be blunt, his first thoughts weren't at all romantic and he thought they'd just be another victim that he could probably charm with his charisma like all the rest. He thought my s/i was an easy target because she's physically not all that strong. But not an idiot or too naïve.

I think over time, he found her more interesting, and might have made excuses with himself to keep her around longer. Bo is a stubborn man, and I don't even think there was a point of time in his head where he was like 'I actually don't want to kill her, I like her too much,' it was a gradual change over time of how he viewed her. I think he just kept putting it off until a day turned into a week, weeks turned to months, then a year... Until my s/i just kind of became another regular resident of Ambrose and was close to him and his brothers.

[slutnali]

From my understanding the people on twitter were more upset with her response to biblegirl, who tweeted something along the lines of “the sooner we accept that most adults do cocaine the better” (not the exact wording, she deleted it now cause the response was overwhelmingly negative, but the sentiment was normalizing cocaine use bc it’s prevelant) and Denali responded “tea”. To me that’s a lot more 🤔what do u mean by that🤔 than anything she said on the podcast.

This is long so I'm adding a read more out of curtesy and also because we are talking about drugs [not very descriptive but still]

I remember seeing that earlier while I was out but don't remember it word for word, wish I did tho

But from what I remember, I thought there was some truth to it. Many people do it, it's not just rampant in the lgbt+ community but everywhere else. Does it make it okay? Absolutely not but from what I took from it is that there's just so much shaming for it and I think harm reduction should be discussed. That's not to say that you should glorify it and I don't think they are, however its such a delicate & complicated topic that people are quick to jump at each others throats defending their stance, etc.. With Nali replying 'teaaa' I think also it has to do with the fandom's reaction to it as well.. like, it always gets weird?

I remember when s13 had been announced and people did their digging and found out about her mugshot etc.. the fandoms reaction gave me an ick because people were very much 'omg how scandalous teeheee 🤭" gossiping and theorizing it... and then again when she'd made a joke about her mugshot on the GITMS segment and then people were actually thirsting over it on twt.. like it was weird imo.. and yeah, she was open about it and to some extent you could argue "she made it our business" but I think this'll probably be the last time she does share about it and I don't think she owes us any more stuff about it if she doesn't want to. That's just me though.

Could the tweet have been worded better? Yeah, but again, the tweet from Biblegirl was deleted and I can't really go in depth. But tbh I don't want to go further into depth or back and forth after this ask and another i have, because this blog is mainly for reading [and occasionally writing] drag race fic and thirsting over my faves.

There def is a discussion to be had when it comes to people who have used it and people entirely against it, and there's many points to be shared on both sides. I've seen some of it while I was scrolling twt a while ago bc I follow a bunch of dr girls [obvs] and local queens.

As for Denali, if you no longer want to support her that's fine and your right. If you need/want to separate yourself from that, do it and if you're a follower or mutual of mine that wants to unfollow me there's no hard feelings. If you do wanna keep following me you can black list 'denali foxx' and 'denali' so you wont see posts with her tag. I cant speak for everyone else who may not tag but I can for my blog because I always use them and tag accordingly.

Drug use and talk happens and it's not a cancelable offense, in my opinion at least. There are many many queens who openly talk about substance use but I rarely even see anyone bring it up: Willow and a bunch of s14 girls doing shrooms, Camden talking about how blackout she was while touring last year and not knowing how she got safe to her hotel room, Sasha C mimes sniffing coke or smoking on stage, all the open stoners, etc.. when it comes to this and other topics people are very pick and choose when it comes to their faves so idk..

but again, this is all my opinion and ramble and its okay if we have a difference.

[nightcall99]

Dreams from 15.7.24

Dream 1: I had some kind of pet animal that had been roaming around in our house and I went to put it back in it's cage. All the cages where in a dark room on top of a table. When I put the animal back, I saw that most of the cages were empty but in one of them there was a huge rabbit. Maybe it only seemed huge because the cage was too small, the rabbit was basically the same size as the cage. It didn't even have any room to turn around. I had forgotten about it and felt really bad. How long had it been since I had let it outside? It was night out, almost pitch black. I was carrying the cage outside when I lost balance of it. The cage door opened and the rabbit took advantage of the momentum and flung itself out of its confines. It seemed to be making a run for it. It's hops were uncharacteristically huge, making one right over the wooden fence which is higher than my head. Panic overtook me, I thought it was surely gone for good but it turns out it was only using the fence as a launch pad to make a dive right for me. The rabbit was really mad at me and wanted revenge. It happened really fast and I woke up from the shock of the impact, which felt so real. I felt it was gonna chew my head of or something due to the neglect I had inflicted upon it.

Dream 2: I was in a house hanging out with an old co-worker from 10 years ago, CS. I felt that he was a romantic option for me and that I could have had him if I wanted. I flirted with him and let him hang around me. One day he got home from work and had a bag of ice-creams from the supermarket. He took one of them out to eat and the others I took off him and stored in the fridge. It was strange, I don't know why we lived together and even though we flirted with each other, neither made any moves on the other. My mum was there too. I felt that we were at the old family house which was on top of a corner convenience shop. The layout was similar but everything looked different. When I went downstairs into the shop floor, the feeling was just 'dead'. It was so small and hidden away, to the point where we never had any customers because no one could even see our shop front from the road. One time when it was dark, it felt like a customer was going to come in. But now it was just our home and no longer a shop and I wanted to lock the door because it felt like a home invasion. Turns out it was just CS coming home.

Dream 3: I was in a car following another car of people who were moving party stuff to their second house/holiday house. They stopped and opened their boot and there was a bunch of stuff stacked in there including a trash can. My mum, who was in the car with me, said something like, It's closed and they can't go through that way (like the place wasn't open yet). But those other people, who were a group of teenagers actually, were unpacking their boot anyway, not that they could have heard us say that. We were just watching, I don't know why we were following them. It felt like maybe my mum and I were cleaners, who had to 'follow up' on whatever those people were doing.

Dream 4: AL was making fun of me. We were sitting and eating lunch in a big room, like a dining hall, where other people were too. She placed a coffee cup right in front of a song verse she'd written on the wall, to bring attention to it. It was about me and and how she knew that I liked EA because of this one time where I defended him regarding something and she was able to tell from my demeanor and how I acted. But that guy is gay and I don't see him like that. I felt embarrassed only because she was made a public display of it. She kept looking for a reaction but I ignored her. Her energy was so snarky and sarcastic and I didn't enjoy it at all.

Dream 5: The teacher had lead the class to a different building in the school which was a ways off from the rest of the school. The feeling was this was a makeshift hang out place which was supposed to be an upgrade from the prior one. It looked like a library. This one had less books in comparison to the 'old' one, but it was bigger and nicer. It felt a bit eerie though and cut off energetically from the rest of the school. It was vaguely cave-like. The teacher said, Time to hang out in here for a bit. And the bunch of us students did just that.

Other random scenes: AL changed her hair colour from red to black. I hadn't noticed it until she said so and when I had a closer look, it was true, it did change. However it was not black, more like a dark grey.

I was looking at something, maybe on my phone, and the background changed to pink when I didn't even do anything.

"What do you need?" "Nothing."

A co-worker was dealing with something and they realised there was no script and that an 'I owe you'/advance supply would need to be done for that person. But that wasn't the case, I found a script in the patient's file.

[darnellbebop]

Absolutely disgusted with this Zionist girl I used to talk to still posting pro-Israel stuff. Literally how is she still defending this and playing the fucking victim?

I talked to her way back in October when I had no idea what was going on and thought she was like a decent human being so a lot of my early info on the Palestine genocide was coming from her. So it was obviously painting Israel as the victims. Thankfully I have enough informed friends and people I follow on social media to come across the actual facts.

It’s just insane to me because she’ll always point back to the October 6th incident to play victim and act like everything else that’s happened since then is somehow a lesser crime. Israel is literally committing war crimes and genocide. How can you support it and argue “They shouldn’t have started a war. That’s just the price you pay”. It’s not a war. I did say back when I talked to her that civilians shouldn’t be targeted in this type of situation and she “agreed” with me then but I’m sure it was in a “Israel civilians shouldn’t be targeted” way.

The only reason I haven’t unfollowed/blocked her is because I need to see her acknowledge that she is an absolute piece of shit for this one day. I’m just especially disgusted at her now. How are you playing victim still? Our tax dollars are fucking funding this shit. The only thing she can justifiable claim to be a victim of in all of this is antisemitism but she’s weaponizing it half the time to justify the actions of Israel.

A different Jewish girl I follow on Twitter and TikTok (@Hawkworld on Twitter, @Hawkw0rld on TikTok) who is literally an angel has been able to address the antisemitism that’s coming out of this while also showing tremendous support and concern for Palestine. As any decent human being would. She’s very on top of spreading awareness and played a big role in pointing out what was going on for me when I was confused early on. She’s talked about a lot of it at length. She is so intelligent and kind and the world needs more people like her and less people like that dumbass who’s always playing the victim.

This rant is kind of all over the place but I just remembered one more thing about that Zionist girl. When one of her favorite drag queens posted Free Palestine, she had a breakdown. It was pretty pathetic. Made a bunch of posts about how she no longer “felt safe” attending their events and acted like the drag queen actually said something bad. Then she was like “I’m gonna sell all of my merch of this drag queen and donate the funds to Israel like a good Zionist” and she bought the domain name for like “FuckDragQueensName.com” and it’s such a stupid idea. Like, who would buy her from her that way? I feel like using Trump would be an easy comparison for this. If someone decided they hate Trump after previously supporting him and wanted to sell all their MAGA shit so they could donate it to like Planned Parenthood or something and started selling it on “FuckDonaldTrump.com” who would be buying it? People that support Trump would be turned off by the site name and even if they investigate, they’ll probably read the part that says the money is gonna go to Planned Parenthood and realize they should probably not buy it. She’s dumb and I hope she realizes she’s a piece of shit soon cuz she should’ve months ago.

[the-firebird69]

Apparently apparently my father is throwing the game because he is an AI addict and he was given something that's well beyond his means I'm going to write it up and send it in and ask people to focus on him I'm going to try and back out of these battles with people and just defend what we have no longer supporting you Trump and mine are not going to and my kids you're lunatic what you doing is insanity and your exhibiting it you look like a f****** weak f** he's making funny all the time oh that's not going to be enough of you to run it and we'll just counter your program if the max aren't there as we have been. I need to hear that too they say they do it globally and pretty soon they won't have to do it in the Eastern hemisphere about 90% of the computers of his are gone. And we did hear that from you this morning and he didn't hear it now this is information it's important. He said it also means that it's Tommy f breaching your matrix it's not you fooling people and he is Octavio and you're not what kind of sick of you saying you are and I know who it is cuz I'm Spider-Man and I actually face you stupid dick and you're a lizard man and you shouldn't be able to do that you idiot you don't have the science at all not even makeshift you're not holding cage you prisoner so I despise you because you are a traitor and you're a loser and you should be brought up in charges and we shouldn't be taking the brunt of what you're doing wrong because you're committing suicide and my friend next door said so and said I used to protect him against you before you had this company program because you're a nutcase that's why what are you doing in westeros insanity you had to do a roof and you refuse to get the right shingles, and you're using him to take over all these companies you said I find out then what you're doing does not make it easier it made it a lot harder and it made it useless and a waste of time whereas we could have gone and said we're stupid and taking it over you just went ahead and spewed all over him that you needed to go and now it's ridiculous Jesus Christ you're an idiot Ricky schroder that too you're acting is non-existent just running around telling people the truth I've got to get away from you who the f*** tells the truth here no one he doesn't tell people stuff not until you can buy with your huge puffed-out chest Mr Crowley yeah that's you too you couldn't even speak English you're so stupid man are you a dumb person. Your crimes are huge there's so many of them I saw was released a little and I picked it up because it's against us and everybody's really pissed off he's been doing to them too I'm going to get you you piece of s*** and I'm going to Mac and I'm going to request that he filed charges and against you against our kind

Dan alicia

We see what it is they try and help him and trying to be good and then doing it he comes by and messes it up says he's jealous he's just doing it cuz he's an a****** that guy's an a****** too a friend here and is Rudy tons of stuff the guys are massive fruit cake for Tommy f and he won't stop doing it and you see him in the future in a bunch of programs sitting there helping Tommy f and I didn't tell you something it's one thing to help him but what time you have does is just wipes them out and he comes back it's disgusting how is he cloning so damn fast. He says there's only a few ways to do it any suspects maybe he has Dave hooked up and is having huge or something and is draining him. And that was spice would do it but we don't find anything like that. What we find is machines that pumps themselves into people and we hooked up a bunch of it and we did it and you can clone real fast but he seems to be able to clone a lot faster with the same equipment we have his formula too it's not that great but it works you're not that fast now by the time we get there they have destroyed some stuff and just see what they destroyed and spice and usually that's the answer but we want to know where he's getting it.

Mac and no Dave's blood doesn't do it we checked it and it slows everything down for some reason not really sure why it's cleaned up too it's bizarre you guys have a bizarre systems like aliens you can't use the alien xenomorph blood either you just end up dead

[taptrial2]

only once i go back to the og animaniacs show do i realize how empty the reboot feels in terms of cast + how effective the meta jokes are. the og animaniacs is a LOT more inconsistent because some entire episodes are rendered completely unwatchable from absolutely garbage segments and i don't want to defend that, but man. the sound of music parody episode (the sound of warners) is an example of what the reboot cant do - EARNEST fourth wall breaks and crossovers

even the beginning where plotz, hello nurse, scratchy, and ralph are all standing in the same room, i can really feel how much more alive the show feels. like, the warners actually have an impact on several different people in different places at the studio. in the new show it feels like theyre in the void, especially because the new ceo is made to be scary to them now and completely overpowers their scenes. it really makes the warners lose their feeling of being in control, if that makes sense? like, in the og it feels like they are In Charge of the whole show, theyre larger than life and they feel that way by being contrasted with very exhausted and mildly stupid human characters who can't match their energy or wit. and that's purposeful

i feel like the reboot has lost the "warners always win" thing. also the "they were made in the 20s" lore seems to be left in the dust which is really annoying - ive seen someone else say this, but it's good so i'll steal it: the OG show is about cartoons from the 20s bringing slapstick sensibilities to a modern era. the reboot is about 90s cartoons saying theyre from the 90s and waiting for you to laugh

like, they dont USE the massive potential they have for actually good meta jokes because they're too busy focusing on surface level observational comedy which is super fucking weird.

i think the new characters/skits dont work because they arent in the same world as the rest of the show, and the characters lack strong personalities and strong dynamics. in the og, before most of the side characters were even properly introduced in skits, they were introduced in the monkey song in one big montage. the warners ran through other characters' segments, the others cameo'd in their segments, they had a relationship with tiny toons, the world just felt alive. in this one, the lot just feels barren and the warners are forced to bounce off of each other instead of other characters, which is FUN and different and thats FINE but i wish yakko wasn't promoted to parent. i wish all three of them were being annoying and outsmarting everyone else while scratchy begs them to just leave santa alone or something

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 325: Deku VS the Outside of U.A. ~Conclusion~

Previously on BnHA: Ochako was all “dear bloodthirsty mob, this kid you see standing before you has fought harder than anyone and put his life on the line to protect you all, so please chill the fuck out, jesus christ. like, putting aside that he’s humanity’s best hope and so it’s very much in your best interests to let him rest and recover someplace safe so that he can keep fighting for us, are y’all seriously going to turn away an injured and exhausted child in front of his sobbing mother?? seriously?? come on now.” I’m paraphrasing here but that’s basically how it went down. Anyway so then the mob was all, “...” and Deku collapsed to his knees in tears, and Gigantic Fox Lady and Kouta ran over to give him a hug but then the chapter ended.

Today on BnHA: Horikoshi is all “FINE, YOU CAN HUG HIM”, which, was that so hard?? The U.A. Clown Mob is all “come to think of it, we’ve kind of been taking the heroes for granted this entire time, maybe we should be less passive in the future. anyway so Deku if it’s not too much to ask, can you please save everyone and fix everything.” Deku is all “I sure can, and by the way I forgive you for swarming around all menacingly two minutes ago and trying to deny me basic shelter and stuff.” Ectoplasm is all, “hey Todogang get a load of this. [walks in a circle].” Hawks is all, “that’s literally the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.” Rat Principal is all, “anyway so that’s what your students did today, hope you’re enjoying your new *~*ROBOT LEG*~*, Aizawa.” Aizawa is all “[lots of exposition about Kurogiri and for some reason, Toga, while being all brooding and sexy].” All Might is all “[standing here right outside of U.A. doing absolutely nothing and being foreboding AF]” and that immediately sucked away all of the warm fuzzy feelings from the hugs, goddammit.

each new week has become a waiting game of “when will Deku finally get to take a bath so people will actually be willing to go near him and give him the hugs he deserves.” the stakes have never been so compelling. I’ve almost forgotten about AFO entirely

lmaoooooo

me: for the love of god will someone please give Deku a hug before I die of old age

Mineta: YOU GOT IT!! --

Iida: [SWIFTLY CUTS HIM OFF] NOT YOU

fucking losing it at Mineta’s crying face. he really wanted to hug him. I legit feel bad but this is also the funniest thing I have seen all week, omg

somehow Kouta, who last week was only a hand’s breadth away from touching Deku’s head, is now twenty miles away from him in this new chapter

can I make a Loki reference here. is this recap a good place to insert a joke about someone using a TVA time-rewinding device to fuck with my poor boy Kouta over here. well anyway there it is

AND NOW HE’S BACK ALL OF A SUDDEN OMG

(ETA: since when is he “niichan” omg?? can’t handle this cuteness.)

BUT THEY’RE STILL NOT HUGGING HIM FFFFKFFFFF. WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO. WHO DO I HAVE TO BRIBE AND/OR BLACKMAIL

OH NO KOUTA IS CRYING THAT’S IT I’M DONE FOR

“when I heard that lady I knew that I had to go, but then stop again within inches of actually touching you because you smell like week-old rotten onions.” listen Kouta, I’m not saying I don’t get it, but you all can’t keep doing this to me. it’s the way you guys keep teasing it. like, if you’re gonna hug him, hug him. don’t just stand there with your arms held rigidly out in front of you like a molded action figure

OH MY GOSH BUT HE SAID THE THING

KOUTA SWOOPING IN AT THE LAST MINUTE TO TAKE ALL THE CREDIT FOR FIXING DEKU LIKE THAT ONE KID IN THE GROUP PROJECT WHO DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BUT STILL TAGS HIS NAME ONTO THE REPORT ANYWAY, WHAT A KNAVE

GASP

(  ´͈ ᗨ `͈ )

SHE PICKED HIM UP LIKE A LITTLE BABY OMG?? she just leaned right over and lifted this child like he was a small animal. like a lil baby futon that she was about to hang up to dry. oh my god

-- HEY WHAT

(: well that’s extremely fucked up. though sadly not too surprising given what we just saw these past couple chapters

incidentally, I hope that anyone who was legitimately defending the civilians’ perspective earlier takes note here of how quickly that line of thinking -- “we’re just trying to keep our families safe” and all that-- can lead to straight up bigotry. if you’re willing to deny a child shelter and protection simply because he’s not YOUR child, and because you’ve decided based on Internet rumors (no real-world parallels there, I’m sure) that he might present a threat, it’s really not that much further of a leap to discriminating against entire groups of people simply because you perceive those groups as being dangerous. I’m sure the people who turned Gigantic Fox Lady away also told themselves afterwards that they did it to protect their families. “better safe than sorry.” “she’ll be fine, someone will take her in, but as for us, we can’t afford to take that risk.” people can come up with all kinds of justifications for treating other people as less than human, and the really scary thing about it is how fucking easy it is

one last quick side note, which is that Horikoshi does a great job here of showing how scapegoating works, given that AFO is the one who’s really to blame and who presents the actual threat, and yet Deku is the one who ultimately winds up being the target of the mob’s fear and outrage despite him being as much of a victim as they are. gotta love that irony, which unfortunately plays out far too often in the real world as well.

anyway I’ll get off my soapbox now, sorry about that. let us continue

YES, FINALLY OH MY GOD!!!!

AND THAT’S THE STORY OF HOW GIGANTIC FOX LADY BECAME THE GREATEST HERO. PACK IT ALL UP, WE’RE DONE HERE KIDS

holy shit. the real MVP right there. thanks for getting it done champ

jesus christ I have had it up to here with these people

literally the bar is set so low at this point that I’ll go ahead and take it. helping him because it offers them a tactical advantage is at least one step up from not helping him at all

“WHY NOT SHIKETSU” MOTHERFUCKER I SWEAR TO GOD

-- thank you!!

okay this one guy with the antennae hair is having himself a character development speedrun here

-- okay, but this part?? fucking this part, right here??

can we repeat that again?? the part where this guy acknowledges that the problems of hero society were caused not just by said heroes, but also by said society?? the part where he acknowledges that they treated the heroes like celebrities who were putting on a show for them?? the part where he acknowledges that when push came to shove, the vast majority of those heroes, when faced with a situation that offered no reward, were nonetheless willing to put their lives on the line to protect the very same people who then turned around and blamed them rather than thanking them?? are the civilians of BnHA even allowed to have actual deep thoughts about this stuff. holy shit

bro!!

ANTENNAE HAIR GUY SHOVING KOUTA AND GIGANTIC FOX LADY OUT OF THE WAY TO SLAP HIS NAME ONTO THE END CREDITS AS EXECUTIVE PRODUCER. CONGRATULATIONS SON YOU FIGURED OUT THE CORE PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION AT THE VERY HEART OF THE MANGA. WAY TO GO BUD

meanwhile, on today’s episode of “one more chapter to go till the big volume cliffhanger, how else can I drag things out let’s see”

it’s a panel. of people’s feet. just a bunch of normal feet. with sneakers and shit

this All Might shirt guy is getting more screentime in this arc than 90% of the class 1-A kids

I guess I’m supposed to feel sorry for this dude now that he’s all “if we let you stay here do you promise to somehow magically fix every single problem that we are now currently facing?” those are some ridiculously exacting standards my dude. come on now

KACCHAN SIGHTING

thank fuck I’m not the only one who’s thoroughly unimpressed by absolutely all of this lol. I feel better now. meanwhile Iida and Kouda and Kiri are ready to run over there and hug them all. you guys are way too forgiving. damn you and your pure hearts

anyway so Deku’s like “yeah, definitely”

(ETA: almost forgot to comment on the “I’m no longer alone” part – he basically corrects the guy and says “sorry, but you’ll need to direct that question towards all of us, not just me, because moving forward we’re a team.” good stuff.)

you know what though, all joking aside... fuck yeah. because perfect victory, right. the strongest guys don’t settle for anything less. so I guess Deku has pretty exacting standards himself

also can you all just take a look at this fucking kid who’s got so much light in his eyes now that I’m gonna need eclipse goggles. hot damn. “you’re welcome” says All Might Shirt Guy as he is frantically interviewed by several local news networks asking him how he daringly managed to save Deku all by himself. “well I guess I’ve just never been the kind of guy who can sit back and let a bunch of rabble-rousers blame a little kid for all of humanity’s problems. someone had to step in and take action, you know?”

oH MY GOD THE SCENE IS FINALLY ENDING

don’t let the door hit you on your way out All Might Shirt Guy

but meanwhile, sudden Tododrama action??

oh shit

there are honestly so many ways in which Ochako’s very moving speech could have wildly backfired that I genuinely have no clue where this is headed lol. how exciting!!

so now Horikoshi is once again stalling for time with random filler panels, but this one is 10x better than the shoes lol omg

(1) was Ectoplasm’s jacket always this oversized. (2) did you guys know that if you go back to chapter 319 you can see that Horikoshi gave us a sneak peak at Enji’s Sad Detective disguise and I in fact made a joke about it in the 319 recap not realizing it was actually the stone cold truth. (3) did Shouto deliberately speed up out of impatience because Hawks was walking so fucking slow and he couldn’t take it any longer. (4) and what, I ask you, is up with these dramatic speedlines. so many mysteries here. what a masterpiece

everyone is acting all shocked about something ahh what’s going on

wait what

what the heck. did they just loop around behind everyone. what was the point of that lol. “anyway, so this is what they look like from the back” well okay, thanks for that Ectoplasm

(ETA: so it seems like they were actually hanging out someplace else away from the crowd this whole time, I guess? here I thought they had more faith in Enji’s disguise. I guess Shouto and Hawks don’t particularly want to attract this crowd’s attention themselves right now either, though.)

I am so fucking confused lmao

speaking of All Might WHERE THE FUCK IS HE lol. but yes, good, OFA brings everyone together, and Hawks is very deeply moved about this out of the blue all of a sudden. you know how it is

aw heck yeah now this is another filler panel I can get behind

Mineta really wants that hug, good lord. I genuinely love this actually. Mineta if you could just stay little and cute and keep crying about how much you love your classmates in a non-gross way for the rest of the series I would be so appreciative. you’re doing great

IIDA IS HOLDING DEKU’S HAND THIS IS NOT A DRILL. ONE TIME WASN’T ENOUGH FOR MY MAN HE’S ADDICTED NOW

what did I tell you. Kiri wants to get all of the mob’s autographs now. Kiri you’re a peach

Shouji having a conversation with another mutant type is a very nice touch! we really need to get to his backstory soon. I feel like that casual remark from GFL earlier was kind of hinting at more to come

is this the first time we’ve ever seen the Yaoyorictionary in action?? never forget that Viz tried to call it the “Yaoyorozu Reference Book” because they hate fun

last but not least, KAMIBAKU IS BACK ON THE MENU, FUCK YEAH. Kaminari trying to spice things up and introduce a little bit of controversy by smacking Kacchan on the back of the head for god knows what. I will be deeply disappointed after this if I can’t find at least one person unironically declaring that KamiBaku is now toxic and abusive

lfkdlWLWK TODODRAMA??

oh my god. Shouto’s face. Enji’s face. the back to “oyaji” again. the blunt, not-taking-no-for-an-answer, “I don’t know how much louder the universe can scream at you that doing things alone is not it, so hopefully you got the point” directness of it. fffdlkslj I’m so ready for this Horikoshi please don’t fuck it up my expectations are so high

HOLY FUCK

I SCROLLED DOWN AND HE WAS ALL “( ❛‿❛)” AND I JUST WASN’T FUCKING EXPECTING THAT OKAY. JESUS CHRIST. GIVE ME A SEC

lol okay moment over and now Enji’s pulling his hat down all dramatically like a world-weary Cowboy

OH MY GOD WERE YOU FACETIMING??

AHHHHHHHHH

(ETA: not to put Iida down or anything, but it’s kind of strange that Aizawa is all “the class rep sure did great” when Ochako is the one that was giving that whole big speech for like twenty minutes just now lol.)

(ETA 2: “thank god Iida stepped in just in the nick of time to keep Mineta from hugging Deku.” sorry Mineta I really do like you lately but it’s still low-hanging fruit lol.)

HE LOOKS SO SAD??! HE LOOKS LIKE HEARTBREAK ITSELF??! I AM BESOUGHT WITH THE URGE TO REACH INTO MY SCREEN AND PULL HIM INTO THE SAFETY OF MY ARMS??? MY GOD, AND I THOUGHT DEKU NEEDED HUGS

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH okay I was gonna just hold down the letter H for a full minute and count it out loud but within about ten seconds I realized I needed to chill lol

-- but then again NO, I DON’T NEED TO CHILL, I HAVE ZERO CHILL, ACTUALLY, BECAUSE IT’S AIZAWA WITH A ROBOT LEG AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

COMPLETE WITH ROBOT TOES FOR THAT EXTRA TOUCH OF AUTHENTICITY!! I LIKE HOW HORIKOSHI PUT ALL THIS EXTRA “!!!” EMPHASIS AROUND IT IN CASE WE COULD SOMEHOW POSSIBLY FAIL TO TAKE NOTICE. “REMEMBER, EVERYONE?” SAYS HORIKOSHI HELPFULLY. “REMEMBER THAT TIME AIZAWA CHOPPED OFF HIS OWN LEG?” oh wow now that you mention it we somehow forgot all about that. like who do you take us for

OH NO NOT THE SAD BOYFRIEND ANGST THAT I WAS SECRETLY LOOKING FORWARD TO WITH GLEE

well at least he’s not M.I.A. or back with the villains again like I thought he might be. still, that’s gotta be brutal to know your friend is in there somewhere, but to not be able to reach him again no matter how hard you try. that’s the kind of angst that pays off in final battles just when you most expect it. such is my hope, at any rate

what’s this now??

trying to decide if this is Horikoshi’s way of saying don’t worry about that, or his way of saying definitely worry about that lol

anyway so Aizawa is out here being all irresponsibly handsome once again. when is someone going to do something about him

here for Sexy Robot Leg Eyepatch Aizawa clenching his fists and making speeches about revenge. pretty sure we’re all here for that

WELL, WELL, WELL

IT’S ABOUT FUCKING TIME

I’M VERY GLAD YOU’RE ALIVE AND SEEMINGLY WELL, THOUGH!

BUT WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK THOUGH, ALL MIGHT

ffff. bracing myself for that cliffhanger next week. you’d better not touch one hair on this man’s head Horikoshi. I’m watching you 

[archived-kin]

you go to a devildom zoo and a penguin attempts to seduce you (the brothers are not happy)

note from kin: this was meant to be out way sooner but covid-19 and a whole lot of catch-up coursework said no to that idea >:(

anyway formatting on mobile is actual ass so let me know if this ends up unreadable!

enjoy, darlings!

fandom: obey me!

character(s): gn!reader, lucifer, mammon, leviathan, satan, asmodeus, beelzebub, belphegor, diavolo (mentioned briefly)

pairing(s): demon brothers/reader, penguin/reader (one-sided), a bat also very briefly tries to seduce you

warning(s): reader really loves deadly creatures which i know isn't really a warning but just as a heads up for those who can't relate i guess??? also this is ended up WAY longer than i intended lmao

genre: fluff (but also crack)

oh the pure joy you felt when you found out that there are zoos in the devildom

zoos full of sphinxes, chimeras, hydras, krakens, manticores, basilisks and griffins, but zoos nonetheless

in fact, you’d argue that the fact that the zoos here are full of potentially lethal legendary beasts is even COOLER

so, naturally, you begged lucifer to let you go to one

his response?

“absolutely not, you could be killed.”

well now that’s just unfair

there are so many things down here in the devildom that could kill you! the heat, the food, the dragons just wandering around in the skies, your fellow students at rad, belphie, not sleeping enough, the stupidly narrow staircases, lucifer himself! in fact, you’d argue that lucifer has already come close to killing you more times than any of those creatures at the zoo

unfortunately that was entirely was the wrong thing to say because now lucifer’s gone all broody on you

you just KNOW he’s gonna spend all of next week either drowning himself in work or sulking in the music room if you don’t cheer him up quickly

so you guess it’s time to pull out the puppy eyes and hope that they work

spoiler alert: they do. you also end up being stuck in lucifer’s arms for about five hours afterwards as he cuddles out all of his negative thoughts, but that’s not a bad thing, so you’re not complaining

the next day, however, you are BACK on your bullshit

and you are back with a vengeance!

you are getting a trip to that zoo whether lucifer likes it or not and you will not rest until you succeed

your first idea is to go to diavolo for help because.... he’s diavolo and lucifer would listen to that demon before anyone, including himself

unfortunately that doesn’t work because diavolo is out on a business trip to the human world with barbatos

(which means your butler buddy, who could probably have helped you make your case, is also out of the picture)

you suppose that you could try getting simeon in on the scheme but you’re pretty sure he’d end up making it worse with his insatiable penchant for teasing lucifer

your final solution?

cry

and it worked a treat too!

lucifer is just a sucker for his human and he doesn’t like seeing them sad okay :((

he finally agrees to let you go to the big zoo just north of RAD since it’s directly under diavolo’s jurisdiction, but he also makes you promise that you’ll take at least one brother with you

(he’s hoping you’ll choose him)

but then you uno reverse card him!

jokes on you, lucifer, your human wants a family day out!!

lucifer would be lying if his heart didn’t swell slightly when you proclaimed you wanted all the brothers to come with you so that you could all spend the day together having fun

although you may have just made a mistake because now lucifer is going to do everything in his power to make sure the day goes perfectly, and if that means smiting the rude demon in line in front of you, then what about it?

(luckily you stop him from the killing someone before you’re even inside, but it was a close call)

the moment the eight of you step into the zoo satan whisks you off to look at the devildom equivalent of big cats

which means the sphinxes and manticores first, then the giant fire-breathing tigers

he’s planning to have a nice heart-to-heart conversation with you while the two of you stroll along the exhibit, but then you both get distracted by how cool the animals are

so the two of you just end up dragging each other back and forth to look at one creature after another

not the romantic scene satan initially had in mind, but he’d be lying if he said this wasn’t also absolutely perfect

holding your hand while you talk enthusiastically about how majestically that manticore leapt thirty feet into the air with your entire face lighting up like the most beautiful lantern in the world? stunning. outstanding. he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

meanwhile, back at the entrance, levi is sulking, mammon is fuming, beel is already stuffing himself with overpriced food stall delicacies, belphie has crawled under a bench to nap while he waits for you to come back, asmo is taking pictures with the extra long-legged flamingo billboard, and lucifer is so preoccupied with trying to figure out just how the hell the walking system here works that he hasn’t even noticed that you and satan have just disappeared into the void

in the end the remaining brothers split off into pairs, all agreeing that whoever is the first to find you and satan will get to have some one-on-one time with you next

and, drumroll please, that lucky pair turns out to be... beel and belphie!

(really they have an unfair advantage though since beel can smell out anyone he knows from a mile away)

meanwhile satan has just spent just about all of the grimm he brought with him on a hideously overpriced plush version of the manticore you were so fascinated with

but the smile on your face when he gives it to you?? the LIGHT that exudes from you when you declare that the plush’s name is now greenie because it has green eyes just like his?? worth it. absolutely worth it.

but uh oh, the moment is soon to be gone, because guess who’s here?

beel and belphie can’t let satan have all your attention! beel is a little more forgiving, but belphie is going to make sure he’s the first to get a kiss today, anti-lucifer club alliance be damned!

he’s not going to admit that of course. instead, he’s going to very subtly hip-bump satan out of the way so that he can hold your hand instead (beel can have the other hand, but if he tries to pull you away, he’s getting what-for.)

normally satan would be pretty miffed by this, but hey, he’s in a good mood right now and he doesn’t want to spoil the day by getting pissy, so he lets the twins get away with it. younger sibling privilege, am I right?

belphie wants to take you to his particular favourite exhibit here, the giant carnivorous cattle with horns the size of chair legs

beel, on the other hand, suggests that maybe you don’t want to see a gargantuan mammal tear apart a giant piece of meat that may or may not have been sourced from a human graveyard (the giant carnivorous cattle are picky, okay? at least they’re not murdering people for the meat)

you, however, are absolutely fearless

besides, what harm can a giant carnivorous cattle with horns the side of chair legs do to you when it’s being kept behind six inches of hellfire trench, with three of the devildom’s most powerful demons close by to swoop in to your rescue?

beel begrudgingly agrees to go see the giant carnivorous cattle, but makes you promise to stay slightly behind him so that he can jump to defend you should they get out of hand

your big strong demon standing in front of you, protecting you as you get to look at a super cool and also deadly creature? you are absolutely on board with this.

(satan is slightly concerned by your willingness to go near creatures that could tear you to pieces in a second, but if he gets to see you smile like that again then... well, what can he say, he’s a simp)

so off you go!

the giant carnivorous cattle are AWESOME. you get to watch a trio of them eat what appears to be an entire car in, like, two seconds, tops, and they don’t even look bothered by the metal disappearing down their massive gullets.

(you ask belphie in an undertone why the cattle are eating cars if they’re carnivorous. his response is that even giant carnivorous cattle need their minerals, so the zookeepers feed them a bunch of the metal stuff you get in human scrapyards.)

(sounds like an RSPCA violation to you...)

you’re practically tumbling over the fence as you lean forward to get a proper look at them and their adorable tiny wings, so belphie ends up having to pull you back

just as he does it, however, he has a very bright idea

so instead of gently tugging you back as he’d originally planned, he practically yanks you into him, conveniently slipping your hand out of beel’s in the process

listen, it’s not that belphie resents letting beel hold hands with you at the same time as him. a demon’s just gotta get his hugs sometimes, alright?

of course you’re a little miffed about being so violently yoinked, so you’re about to turn around and give belphie a piece of your mind, but then he pulls you close to him and nuzzles his nose into your hair

how are you supposed to scold him for that???

he seems so content and he’s even doing that adorable little purring thing demons do when they’re happy that he never does in public

you can’t just pull out of his arms! it’s probably illegal!!!!!

belphie gets a pass for being cute this time. only this time. no more.

(as an aside, this sort of thing happens at least once a day because belphie’s a whiny little baby who can’t go twelve hours without your love)

anyway now beel looks a little downtrodden which you are not having

your solution? wait until belphie lets go of you on his own and then you can give beel a hug of his own.

unfortunately belphie doesn’t seem interested in separating from you

luckily you don’t end up having to deal with that, because then satan steps in

partially because he feels bad for beel and also partially because okay that’s enough touching now, know your boundaries

which means it’s BEEL’S TURN TO SHINE

does this demon want you to die? because that is what’s going to happen if he keeps being so friggin sweet

first of all he buys you a bunch of treats from the nearby food stalls with his own money and offers every single one to you

is he on drugs? is that what’s happening here? what happened to the avatar of gluttony who ate first and asked questions later???

of course you aren’t going to be so cruel as to take every single one of the treats he’s offering when you can physically hear his stomach rumble as he holds them out to you

instead, you take a handful or so and tell him to eat the rest himself because he deserves it

beel almost tears up he’s so happy he loves you so much in that moment

some may say he’s being dramatic but beel says that every moment with you is a treasure and he has every right to be emotional

belphie is a teensy bit pissed that satan simp-policed him when he’s just as whipped but it’s beel so... he’ll stay down

satan, meanwhile, starts snapping pictures of you at every opportunity, most of them candids, to save to the album he has dedicated especially to you, and also to send to the brothers’ group chat to brag

asmo responds to each one with even more heart emojis than the last, levi always has some kind of jealous comment to make, lucifer stays silent (satan knows he’s saving the photos to his own gallery to gaze affectionately at later though), and mammon just keeps sending angry stickers and then quickly adding that they’re not aimed at you but at satan for having the audacity

anyway, the four of you end up leaving the giant carnivorous cow exhibit after spending a few minutes just sitting together on one of the giant benches while you and beel (mostly beel) eat the giant pile of food he purchased

(beel’s not evil so he offers satan and belphie some obviously, but he makes it clear that you’re getting first pick)

beel’s about to ask where you want to head next when

here comes trouble

and make it double

asmo and levi are IN the building (zoo)

levi, having gotten so antsy waiting for you to show up, disregards all subtlety and basically throws himself right at you, scoops you up, and takes off

leaving behind your poor manticore plush, a stunned satan, beel, belphie, and asmo, who immediately starts running after the two of you, shouting ‘hey, that isn’t fair!’

satan, belphie and beel are left to exchange disbelieving looks and attempt to follow

(don't worry about greenie, satan picks him up and vows to keep him safe until he meets up with you again)

meanwhile you are being quite literally swept off your feet

“levi. levi stop i can walk. levi i’m coming to aquarium with you. you don’t need to pull me. levi i’m getting a little dizzy over here. levi please”

luckily you are saved from your impending doom (because, realistically, there is no way mr hasn’t-exercised-in-several-millennia can carry someone halfway across the biggest zoo in all three realms without tripping) by asmo

now, asmo does not like exercise. it makes him all hot and sweaty (and not in the sexy way) and it’s just... not it. however, because it’s you, he will make an exception just this once.

so he grits his teeth, pins back his long-ass fringe with a cute butterfly clip, and runs for it

normally jealous-mode levi will not stop for anything, but a running asmo in the right situation is even more terrifying than a quiet angry lucifer, and a quiet angry lucifer normally means multiple people are getting burnt alive

so what does levi do? naturally, he stops in his tracks, lets out a scream of such a high frequency that he disturbs a flock of deathseye hawks nesting in a tree nearby, and almost drops you on your head

asmo immediately stops running, takes a moment to dab off any sweat on his forehead with his dainty little pink handkerchief, and lets his hair back down

because he is not exercising for a second longer than he has to

anyway, now that you’re not being torpedo’d halfway across the world, you can finally take a second to breathe and actually ask levi what he wants

he goes pink and stares shame-facedly at the ground and refuses to say a word, especially with avatar of lust ‘i like teasing my brothers to the point where it might be sexual harassment’ asmodeus Right There behind you

but you want your purple boy to be honest!! which means it is puppy dog eyes time again

finally, staring determinedly off to the side, levi mumbles, “you promised we’d go see the fish...”

oh your poor heart

you’re inclined to start pressing kisses all over his face, but you just know he will immediately blow up on the spot if you do in such a public area, so you settle on giving him a subtle hug and reassuring him that yes, you will go see the fish with him

now, asmo’s a hoe for attention, we all know that, but even he has his moments

so, making you promise to go see the birds of arcadia with him later, he departs with a wave and a very sneaky kiss planted on your cheek to let you and levi have your time together

thanks asmo

so off you and levi go!

the aquarium FUCKS

sorry that was too strong

the aquarium is GORGEOUS

it’s got this beautiful deep blue-green ambient lighting, and there are enormous tanks for the giant sharks that essentially make up the walls and ceiling

and there are SO MANY FISH!

rainbow fish, neon pink fish, fish with tiny markings that make them look like they have moustaches, fish with scales that change colour every five seconds, glow-in-the-dark fish, fish the size of a small car

literally any kind of fish you can imagine? they HAVE THEM

you’re almost too distracted to notice levi tugging aggressively on your sleeve

when you do, though, he quickly ushers you over into the tunnel exhibit, where the dolphins live

devildom dolphins look pretty similar to regular human dolphins, except they live in what’s essentially hydrochloric acid and are pitch black in colour with bright purple eyes

you’re pretty confused as to why levi wanted to drag you in here so quickly - you’d have thought he’d go for the goldfish, or the venomous water serpents, or even the special hydra exhibit they’ve got for a limited time

but then levi pulls you over to the very edge, taps his fingers lightly on the glass, and... starts clicking and chirruping?

you’re about to very concernedly ask if he’s feeling alright when something amazing happens

the giant male with scars all over it who, according to one of the signs along the tunnel, spends most of his time skulking as far away from the glass as possible and will eat any demon who comes too close, swims over to him

then, wearing the gentlest little smile, levi turns to you and tells you to say hello to captain

you almost yell out of sheer excitement, but you manage to collect yourself

instead, what comes out is an aggressively whispered:

"hello!! hi, captain!! it's lovely to meet you!! i love you!!!!"

and captain loves you too!!!!!

he swims right up to you and butts his nose against the glass

well you can't not immediately press your face against the glass as well so it looks like you're bumping noses with him can you???

so you do exactly that

all the while going "hello!! hello!! you're such a pretty boy!! what a handsome boy!!"

levi almost cries because you are just too perfect

you love captain? and captain loves you too? he seriously has to hold himself back from dropping to one knee and proposing right then and there

after taking a moment to get his heart to calm down, he translates what you're saying to captain, who immediately starts clicking back

and guess what??? captain says you're the prettiest!!!!!!!!! you’re the handsomest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

now you're going to cry

you and levi spend ages in that tunnel together, just talking to captain and holding hands and exchanging little kisses now and then

levi is so in his element here in the aquarium that he isn't even as nervous and stuttery with his affection as usual

it's almost jarring, but are you complaining? absolutely not

when and levi emerge from the aquarium, both a little giddy and still enthusiastically talking about all the other creatures you said hi to after captain (who you are most definitely coming back to visit sometime), asmo is waiting outside so impatiently that he's getting a lot of irritated looks for his aggressive foot-tapping

levi wants to go see the reptiles now, but then asmo plays the 'i let you get away with having alone time, now let me have mine, bitch’ card

and to be honest levi's pretty sure that even self-proclaimed romance expert asmo can't top the mini-aquarium date you've just had with him, sooooo...

buying you a little keychain replica of captain just to get a final one over his brother, he bids you goodbye and goes off to the reptile house on his own, pulling on his headphones on his way so that he won't accidentally end up talking to some stranger again

it is now asmo's time to shine!!!

and so off the two of you head off to the birds of arcadia exhibit

however, it seems that asmo doesn’t have much interest in the birds themselves apart from for taking pictures with them for his devilgram

the birds are beautiful indeed, but guess what else is also beautiful? here is a short and concise list:

1. holding asmo’s hand

2. giving asmo kisses

3. receiving kisses from asmo

4. giving asmo hugs

5. receiving hugs from asmo

6. cuddling with asmo

7. sleeping with asmo (in the literal sense)

8. sleeping with asmo (in the not so litera—)

this has been a short and concise list of things that are very beautiful and you should absolutely do right this second (not ghost-written by asmodeus, avatar of lust, not at all)

anyway, it’s kind of hard to concentrate on that adorable neon striped pecker sitting close by to you when asmo is draping himself all over you like a damn scarf

it’s cute! it’s cute. but.... the birds...... you want to see the birds.........

in the end the two of you settle on a compromise: asmo will let you have some time to just look at the pretty birds as long as you keep holding his hand, and then the two of you will go and get matching face paint together

asmo’s kinda pouty about it at first, but he quickly changes his mind when he sees how enamoured you are by the birds

you really are too cute!! he just wants to scoop you up and cover you with kisses, but he’s already promised to leave that for when you aren’t in the middle of a busy public space

(he definitely isn’t the slightest bit jealous of them because he wants to be the only beautiful thing that you look at like that. he knows he’s prettier than those birds.)

(but, like... he’s still gonna puff up his chest a bit when he catches one edging just a bit too close to you. he may be the avatar of lust, but he does have his moments of jealousy as well… even if they’re at blooming birds.)

finally, when you’ve decided that you’ve had your fill of gorgeous birds, asmo immediately pulls you off to the face-painting booth

all the designs the demons managing it have come up with are pretty beautiful, so he’s not bothered about which one to get as long as you two are matching

which means you get to choose!!!!

at first he thinks you’ll ask for the super popular one that imitates the feather pattern of the most popular bird of arcadia, the lesser spotted spectra

but then you turn to look at him, think for a moment, turn back to the demon doing the painting, and ask if they do custom designs

asmo can only watch on, confused, as you and the demon whisper conspiratorially back and forth for five minutes

then the demon has started painting, and the cheeky little grin on your face is making him a little worried that you’ve deliberately asked for a really stupid design just to mess with him

but then, as the strokes and colours all come together, he realises something that might make him a little teary eyed. just a little bit.

the design you’ve asked for just so happens to be the gorgeous, swirling pattern of the avatar of lust’s pact mark

and it’s not just that, either. he takes a closer look and realises that the little flowers added around the edges are his favourite kind of rose as well

and THEN the demon doing the painting turns to him and tells him with a smirk that, by your suggestion, the paint he’s using has been enchanted so that it goes rainbow when you kiss the person who’s wearing it

oh, he really should have had more faith in you! this is even better than anything he could come up with!!!

(he takes about a million photos of you while he’s waiting for his own turn and sends at least a quarter of them to the group chat)

asmo is practically vibrating with excitement as he sits there getting his own face painted

and if you think he doesn’t drag you off to some secluded corner for a good half an hour just pressing little kisses all over your face and giggling when he pulls away and your face paint has gone all the colours of the rainbow, you are severely wrong

of course, he wants kisses as well. this is a give-and-take system and he wants just as much as he gives!!!

unfortunately, there is one disadvantage to spending so much time just canoodling

the others haven’t heard from you or asmo in a good hour and they are beginning to PANIC

mammon in particular is practically shooting off the walls and just constantly spamming you with ‘WHERE ARE YOU’ and ‘COME BACK’ messages

asmo doesn’t want you to go but he’s also kind of running off a high right now so he decides it’s okay and sends you off you find mammon with a cheery wave (and a love struck sigh once you’re out of earshot)

you find mammon just walking in circles in the communal area outside the cannibalistic not-zebras exhibit

he almost bursts into tears when you come up to him and tap him on the shoulder because it feels like he hasn’t seen you for what feels like hours and hours and he just,,, he missed you okay

after five minutes of him just furiously rubbing his eyes and refusing to admit why, he gathers himself and asks you what you want to go see

you have to think for a good long while because, while you’ve been to plenty of zoos in the human world and know by now the sorts of animals most of them have, devildom creature species are unpredictable

you could jokingly say ‘hyper-aware empathetic goose’ and they’d probably have one

but then you have a look around you and see the big map

and what is the first thing you see on that map?

‘vampiric venomous bats’

oh fuck yeah

mammon is a little concerned because the vvbs are known to randomly swoop down and attack the people who walk into their exhibit

he knows you can protect yourself!! but when you’re being swarmed by a horde of more than fifty giant bat creatures with enormous teeth full of venom that can kill you in seconds, there’s really not much you can do

and there is no expressing the amount of absolute misery that would descend on him if he let you get hurt

so instead, you make a compromise and decide to go to scheduled talk on the vvbs in ten minutes instead

normally mammon finds these zoo talks boring as all hell, but heck, if he gets to hold your hand for a whole forty five minutes without having to make an excuse to do so, he’s down

so off you go to the talk!

you’re having the absolute time of your life as the keeper shows you one of the more lethargic bats and describes exactly how it paralyses its prey with high frequency screeches and then kills it with a single bite to the neck

mammon, on the other hand, is honestly kind of spooked

that bat may be half-asleep, but it’s got the eyes of a murderer

so what if he shuffles a little closer to you every time the bat moves?? it’s not like he’s scared of it or anything! no way!

(please hold him or he may cry)

but then... DISASTER strikes

the keeper looks out across her bright-eyed audience, listening attentively to her explanation of how the vvb detects prey through the slightest vibrations in the air... and asks if there are any volunteers who want to hold it

everyone goes quiet. they’re all looking at the floor and avoiding eye contact like students who don’t want to be picked to answer a question in class. they may be demons, but even they know danger when they see it.

except...

mammon is just commenting to himself in amusement about how quiet everyone’s gotten when he looks to the side and practically feels his heart freeze

your hand has flown straight up into the air, and before he can pull it down, the keeper has called on you

mammon may be just as terrified of that bat as everyone else, but he isn’t going to let you go near that thing without him to protect you

the keeper looks a little befuddled as to why one of the most powerful demons in the devildom is following you up to the front like a very attached duckling, but luckily she goes along with it

first she gives you a super thick dragonhide glove to wear, just in case the bat gets violent

then she attaches the little lead around one of the bat’s feet to the end of the glove, so that even if it tries to attack an uncovered spot on your body, it’ll just get pulled back

(meanwhile, mammon, standing just behind you, is just barely holding back from bursting into demon form and wrapping himself around you to protect you)

and so, as you watch in anticipation and mammon in terror, the keeper slowly moves the bat from her arm to yours

at first it just kind of sits there and blinks and... doesn’t really do much

the keeper, however, seems very happy about this

“it means she already trusts you!!!”

and she tells you to try a simple little trick

“just flick your wrist up and she should swing down to hang from your hand!”

mammon is very pointedly whispering to you that that’s enough, you’ve held the bat, come on let’s get out of here

but you are determined to continue putting your life in danger, it seems, because you do exactly what the keeper says

and it works!!!

piki, which you have learned is the name of this particular bat, lets out a quiet squeak and drops to hang from one of the enormous fingers of your glove

you immediately go ‘wooAAAAAAAAAH’

mammon almost bites his tongue in half because of how on edge he is, but it turns out that he doesn’t need to be

because the bat turns to you, blinks once, and suddenly puffs up around the neck

you panic a little at first, but the keeper seems incredibly excited

“she’s displaying!!!!!!! she likes you!!!!!!!!!!! she sees you as a potential mate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

okay mammon is not having any of that

he is not about to be upstaged by a goddamn bat

and so the instant the bat and glove is removed from you, he grabs you by the hand and charges right out of that room, shouting something about it being urgent

leaving poor piki the vampiric venomous bat squeaking sadly because her new crush is gone

sad :(

now mammon is buying you a giant plush to make up for dragging you away like that

happy! :)

and you KNOW this means a great deal because mammon does not part with his money very easily. in fact, most of the time, one would have to physically threaten him into buying something for them

and the fact that mammon bought you a ridiculously expensive enormous plush that probably dug a pretty big hole in his savings without you even asking??? your heart basically melts on the spot

now you definitely can’t get angry at him for pulling you away so suddenly

so instead the two of you go to see the giant narwhals

you’re fascinated, but mammon is too distracted to even look at the narwhals

he just keeps staring at you looking so happy hugging the giant plush he bought for you so close to yourself with this giant dopey grin on his face

(s i m p)

he’s shaken out of his infatuated daze when he hears a camera shutter directly behind him

at first he whips around ready to fight because he’s expecting levi or asmo, but then he looks up slightly and comes face to face with none other than his beloved older brother

lucifer doesn’t even try to hide the tiny grin on his face as he very slowly raises his phone and takes a photo of mammon’s half shocked and half irritated face

mammon is so dumbfounded by how much kinder lucifer looks when he smiles like that. he doesn’t even recover in time to tell you who’s just showed up - you end up noticing by yourself

you should have given lucifer a bit of warning because the moment you turn around and and greet him with such a bright and happy smile on his face he is DECEASED

all you and mammon see is his cheeks going pink but let me tell you this man is screeching like a trapped possum on the inside

lucifer may act like he’s a Big Important Unfeeling Demon but everyone else knows that this man would quite literally bring you the moon if you asked (he probably wouldn’t be able to pull down the entire moon, but damn him if he isn’t going to try)

he has to stay silent for a moment because he knows that if he speaks his voice is going to crack and mammon absolutely would NOT let him forget that for the rest of his long life

once he’s managed to get his puddle of a heart back to a state where he can speak without sounding like the physical embodiment of being smitten, he’s quick to offer to take you to the nearby penguin exhibit

he’s paid attention to the messages he’s been receiving periodically from the other brothers throughout the day about the things you’ve been getting up to with them, and he has seen a pattern in the sort of creatures you like the best

that pattern is: the more deadly, the better, with bonus points if it still looks cute

and lucifer has been to this zoo enough times to know most of the best exhibits pretty well (especially since diavolo’s taste in deadly creatures is very similar to yours, so he knows that any of the demon prince’s favourites will probably end up pretty high in your list as well)

therefore he knows that the devildom’s penguins are about two and a half meters tall, with millions of retractable fangs in their beaks and venom sacs in their necks that they can spray so violently and quickly that they’ve become known as ‘venom machine guns’

and you are ALL ABOUT THAT

you’re so excited by the concept of these penguins that you don’t think twice before tucking your arm into lucifer’s outstretched one and following him off to the exhibit

leaving mammon pouting furiously behind the two of you

now, while the avatar of greed doesn’t dare to directly interfere with his older brother, he most certainly dares to inconvenience him

what does that mean? it means that mammon is immediately whipping out his DDD and shooting a quick message to the group chat specifically made without lucifer to let everyone know what’s going down

and, within ten minutes, every single one of the other brothers are heading right for the penguin exhibit as well

lucifer is in the middle of listening to you excitedly talk about piki the bat when he feels something hit him in the back

he turns to see, with great dismay, that the six other brothers have started following behind the two of you, and have begun taking turns throwing things at him. satan doesn’t stop even when he realises that he’s been spotted.

lucifer feels a vein pop in his cheek when satan manages to nail him right in the middle of the forehead with a screwed-up ball of paper

unfortunately for lucifer (and fortunately for the other six brothers), you quickly take notice of the group following behind you

the avatar of pride can only watch in dismay as you call out for the others to come join you to see the penguins

well, obviously, the others are coming now that you’re inviting them over!!

asmo immediately jumps to give you a little kiss on the nose just so he can see your face light up in all the colours of the rainbow again

(which earns several surprised noises from the other brothers since, while they knew from the pictures from asmo that the two of you had gotten your faces painted, they didn’t know the paint did that)

belphie subtly shuffles up behind you to give you a little prize figurine he spent way too long trying to win on one of the zoo’s mini claw-machine games, while beel attempts to find a stealthy way of sneaking the bag of treats he’s carefully sourced for you into your pockets, but ends up giving up on that and just hands you the bag instead

levi is still on a bit of a high from the mini aquarium date, so his face immediately goes fifty shades of red when he sees you, but instead of running off like he usually does when he’s flustered, he just offers you the WIDEST smile

satan is a little disheartened when he realises just how much bigger the plushie mammon got for you is than greenie... but who cares!! greenie is small and cute!! he most definitely isn’t puffing up slightly like an indignant owl when he sees you hug that plushie to yourself like it’s the softest thing in the world!! no sir!!!!!!

mammon is being kinda whiny about lucifer barging in and ruining your one and one time together, but then satan reminds him that they’ve all just interrupted lucifer’s one on one time with you before it could even really begin, and also points out (a little saltily) that, judging by the giant plushie in your arms, he’s already spent more than enough time with you

(luckily mammon isn’t exactly perceptive so he doesn’t pick up on it or else satan would be in for one hell of a teasing)

you, meanwhile, don’t miss the way that lucifer not so subtly presses himself closer to you as the eight of you are walking to see the penguins

so close that your arms are physically touching

it’s not like lucifer to be this clingy (well, clingy by his standards, anyway), but you aren’t going to bring it up considering that he would probably immediately move away out of ~pride~ if you did

unfortunately the other brothers don’t need you to point out lucifer’s behaviour to immediately start attempting to sabotage him

by the time you all get to the penguin exhibit, you’re surrounded completely by all seven of them, and they appear to be executing a genuine attempt to crush you if the pressure on all sides is anything to go off of

looking on the bright side of things, though, the penguins are SO CUTE

sure, they’re about nine feet tall with beaks full of millions of tiny serrated teeth and very toxic-looking feet-claws. but they’re ADORABLE

you love them so much!!!!!! but now the brothers are being big MEANIES and aren’t letting you get close to the fence

“those penguins can shoot venom up to twenty feet, we’re not taking any chances” so WHAT you just want to see the goddamn penguins!!!!!!!! you’ve survived countless near-death experiences down here, you can manage a bit of venom!

eventually your very pointed complaining finally gets most of them to relent (asmo is still against it, but majority vote says you get to get closer to the penguins, so HA) and you are allowed to go right up to barrier that separates the attraction from the spectators

you’re absolutely delighted, but the brothers quickly realise that their concerns about this whole thing were not unfounded

because that fucking penguin over there is totally giving you the googly eyes

levi is the first to notice - as the general of hell’s navy, he has a natural connection to all animals of the seas, even the ones that are only semi aquatic

satan notices soon after him - he’s been to plenty of ‘taming dangerous creatures’ club meetings, and he knows how to recognise attraction in animals

you yourself are pretty clueless until you suddenly notice that one of the flock is now sliding beak-first on its belly towards you

levi silently hopes you’ll be scared into leaving, but instead you just lean right up to the barrier (lucifer hurriedly grabs you by the arm before you fall over it) and whisper-shriek “hi baby!!!!!!!!!!!”

oh the brothers did not like that at all

but the penguin seems absolutely THRILLED

you’re pretty sure you see its eyes light up. like physically light up, not in the metaphorical sense - its eyes glow

(do devildom penguins understand human/demon speech?? you could swear from the penguin’s reaction to your greeting that they do, but when you ask satan about it later, he just scowls and shakes his head, proclaiming that devildom penguins have ‘a brain smaller than a tangerine and the motor function of a slightly bent paper clip’)

(damn satan you didn’t have to do the penguins like that)

anyway, this penguin, now thoroughly convinced that you are its destiny, hops to its feet, nods its head several times, then proceeds to start making the weirdest noise at you

you don’t even know how to describe it. it’s like a laser beam has been combined with a motorbike combined with a vacuum cleaner combined with levi when his favourite idol group releases a new song combined with that godawful screeching violin satan has been playing on repeat for two weeks just to annoy lucifer combined with, i don’t know, a turbo-charged printer or something. and then the whole thing’s been shoved through a dubstep filter.

it’s such a rattling sound that asmo, mammon, levi and belphie clap their hands to their ears, beel frowns so hard his entire face squishes inwards, satan recoils so far backwards that he’s about two feet further away from you than he was at first, and even lucifer actually physically flinches

(short break for a personal headcanon of mine but hear me out here: this man probably listens to nothing but full professional orchestra classical all day. he absolutely has that thing where his ears are sensitive to poorly played notes or just harsh grating sounds in general. you know, like how lan wangji and lan xichen in mdzs are physically repulsed by the sound of bad music? yeah that)

you wince slightly, but the pain in your eardrums is overpowered by your thrill about the fact that this penguin is actually talking to you

you smile wide and reply, leaning right up to the banister, “hello!! hi!! it's nice to meet you too!!”

if the penguin was happy before then it’s absolutely over the MOON now

it makes the weird honking sound again, nodding its head furiously at you, all the while shuffling closer and closer to the barrier

you are positively delighted by this development, but each of the demon brothers seem to be taking the penguin’s approach as a personal threat both to them and to you

beel’s expression is steadily scrunching up more and more in displeasure as each second passes, asmo’s glare could probably boil the penguin alive, and you’re pretty sure you just heard levi hiss at it

you turn around to try to tell them off for getting jealous over a penguin out of all things, but they are just not listening to reason

the penguin meanwhile is desperately trying to get your attention back by nodding even more frantically and honking so loudly that lucifer actually reels back a little

you try to turn back to it but then belphie decides that he’s going to shove his way right between you and the barrier and block the penguin’s line of sight

the penguin immediately sets up an extremely loud complaint, but belphie refuses to give it any rope at all

at this point the other brothers begin catching onto what he’s doing

mostly because of his weird twin telepathy thing, beel is the first to join belphie’s quest, with his giant frame being substantially more effective as a barrier, while asmo and satan work together to not-so-subtly start ushering the entire group backwards and away from the penguin

you’re attempting to protest, but lucifer is practically shouting over you about how interesting and fun you’ll find the giant giraffe exhibit, which just so happens to be on the other side of the zoo

the penguin is positively screeching at this point, but a moment later is suddenly goes silent. for a moment you’re afraid that one of the brothers have lost their nerve and actually killed it, but then you manage to spot it sliding away again around beel’s massive shoulder

turns out that, though his brothers don’t seem to care about his status and power placement at all, the avatar of greed’s glare is enough to silence even the most passionate of penguins

while the brothers exchange triumphant looks as they lead you away from the penguin exhibit, though, you’re more than a little upset by this whole ordeal.

the disrespect? abundant. the lack of sympathy? rampant. the audacity? sheer.

you make your displeasure very clear by scrunching up your face, crossing your arms, and refusing to respond to any of the brothers when they try to ask you something

goddammit, it was supposed to be a good thing that they saved you from the so obviously dangerous penguin, but now you’ve got them feeling bad

in the end, though, you still can’t stay mad at your boys for long

they all apologise (well, all of them except lucifer, whose pride will forever be his downfall, and belphie, who genuinely doesn’t think he’s done anything particularly wrong), and you can’t bring yourself to keep dampening the mood

so, with a short scolding that’s really little more than a light slap to the wrist to remind the boys that you don’t need to be protected from everything like some sort of delicate glass case despite how much they might think that’s the case, you’re back to your previous happy self

thank fuck

the rest of the day goes smoothly! the eight of you do indeed go to see the giant giraffes, which you actually get to feed, and beel somehow manages to knock down an entire row of rigged carnival targets to get you a pretty wooden carving of a super cool dragon

(you’re still not entirely sure how that happened but it was probably the sheer willpower)

you convince all of the brothers to take about three hundred photos with you in the cheesy green screen safari booths (it was mostly levi, lucifer and belphie who needed convincing, since beel and satan weren’t too fussed about it either way, and mammon and asmo were downright thrilled to do so)

lucifer buys the whole group matching keychains, despite the fact that they were pretty basic wood-and-plastic affairs but still cost a good fifty grimm each

(you’ve noticed that he seems to like doing that, considering the harrison porter keychain you’ve still got from that trip up to the human world back during the whole body swap fiasco)

he gets himself a fire-breathing peacock, mammon gets a gold-hoarding crow, levi gets a sea serpent, satan gets a good old regular cat, asmo gets a lesser spotted spectra, beel gets a manticore (since they’re known to eat more than three times their body mass on good days), belphie gets a giant carnivorous cow, and he begrudgingly lets you pick out the giant penguin design - as an apology for his actions earlier.

(you don’t fail to notice the slightly irritated looks levi and satan in turn both send the keychain as you tuck it safely into your pocket)

all in all

a lovely day out

10/10 would do again

[malfoysstilinski]

flower crowns | draco malfoy

draco malfoy x fem!reader

summary: it’s the first sunny day of the year and you want to spend it outside with draco. he wants to make you a flower crown.

a/n: shout out to everybody else in the uk rn that’s had to deal with this shitty weather since september and is now in a third lockdown :))) these are the vibes we all need rn i think

It felt as though it hadn’t been sunny in years. You were used to the bleak weather that Britain provided nearly all year round, but it didn’t stop you from jumping out of your bed as soon as you saw nothing but sunshine peeking through the high windows of your dorm room.

“It’s sunny!” You gasped, “Oh, Merlin— Hannah, please tell me it’s as warm as it looks outside!”

Hannah Abbott glanced up from her book where she’d risen early. “I think so. It’s been getting warmer all week.”

You squealed, your roommates exchanging glances with each other as you rushed into the bathroom to get ready for your Saturday off from classes. You did have homework that needed to be done, but it could wait. You were not wasting the first nice day cooped up in the castle.

After showering and changing into one of your favourite summer dresses, you bounded back into the dormitory room and found your friends all slowly starting to get ready for the day.

“Anyone fancy going down to the Black Lake?” Susan Bones asked, “I heard a bunch of the Gryffindors are going down if the weather turned out nice today and Ernie mentioned joining them.”

A chorus of excited replies came from everybody else, but you smiled politely.

“I’ll have to ask Draco what he wants to do. He doesn’t really get along much with some of the Gryffindors,” you said, applying some makeup and then slipping on your shoes.

Hannah huffed. “Fine. I don’t know what you see in him, Y/N. You’re way too soft for someone like Draco Malfoy.”

Raising your eyebrows, you smiled. “There are many sides to Draco you’ve never met. I can assure you that there are billions of reasons why I’m with him.”

None of the girls said anything as you bid them a farewell before pulling open the door to your dorm. Wandering through the bright common room, which seemed to thrive with the sunshine pouring through it, you waved and greeted some of your peers, the smell of sunscreen filling your nose and making you excited.

You bounded through the corridors of the castle, saying ‘hi’ to Ron, Harry, and Hermione as you passed them. They seemed slightly taken aback by the bounce in your step, Hermione hitting Ron before he could make some sort of sarcastic comment.

You made it down into the dungeons, finding the bare wall you’d come used to staring at. Whilst a huge majority of the school would never be able to catch a glimpse of the Slytherin common room, as the girlfriend of Draco Malfoy, you’d been given the password and was updated of the change fortnightly.

Whispering the new one, you were thrilled when it opened to reveal the green and silver room. It was much darker and drearier than the Hufflepuff common room, perfect for when you were in a cozy mood, but today wasn’t one of those days.

“Hey, Y/N,” Blaise greeted you as he looked up from the leather couch. “Draco’s in the dorm room.”

“Thanks, Blaise!” You replied, waving to Pansy and Theo as you walked by them, making your way to the fifth year boys’ dorm.

You knocked once before you entered, finding it empty. You frowned as the door closed softly behind you, but your ears pricked upon hearing the steady rushing of water coming from the attached bathroom.

You settled down onto Draco’s bed, eager for him to hurry up in the shower so you didn’t have to waste anymore time inside. Who knew how long the good weather was going to last for? British spring was unpredictable— tomorrow it could go back to jumper weather and stay like that for weeks, with nothing to do but watch the rain drip drip drip.

Water dripped from Draco’s broad shoulders as he finally left the bathroom, a white towel wrapped around his torso. He looked gorgeous— in platinum hair soaked and pale skin slightly flushed from the temperature of the water. His face lit up when he saw you on his bed.

“Let me guess,” Draco hummed, “You want to spend the day outside?”

“Please?” You sent him the same very pout that always allowed you to get your way with him.

Outsiders often believed that Draco was as cold as ice and as hard as steel, that, even for you, he would never be soft. However, it seemed like only you, him, and his friends knew the truth-- all you had to do was breathe and Draco was putty in your hands. You could probably ask him to jump off of the Astronomy Tower and he’d just ask if you wanted him to do a run-up or not. 

He tried to keep up his tough exterior around you at first, but with every laugh that escaped your lips, every excited gasp you gave when you learned something new, Draco felt his walls crumbling and he had to admit that he was hopelessly in love with you. Soft Draco was your favourite Draco, and it was the one he had reserved for you and you only. 

When people teased you, whether it be for your naive nature or because they were taking your kindness for granted, Draco was always the first to defend you. He’d ended up in countless detentions for hexing multiple other students who even looked at you wrong. You were his sunshine and he swore to preserve you and keep you safe from any harm. Even if he was your opposite.

“Fine,” he sighed as if it was a chore, but the corner of his lips twitched up at the idea of spending the entire day whilst you were out in your favourite weather.

“Hurry up and get dressed then,” you said, bending down to reach into his trunk and chucking him some clothes.

Draco caught them, sending you a look. “You sure? We could just stay here all day, I could just wear this...”

He watched you blush and shake your head. “Another time. Right now, it’s sunny-- so we have to go outside.”

Draco didn’t bother delaying you anymore. He knew you’d been hoping for good weather for a long time now. It felt like you hadn’t seen sunshine since the very start of September, and now it was early April. The cold, dark evenings always got you down a little unless you were wrapped up warm in the arms of Draco.

Within a few minutes, he’d dried off and chucked on the clothes that you’d thrown at him, slipping his shoes whilst you practically bounced up and down on your heels by the door. As soon as he was done, you grasped his hand and tugged him away. 

“Can we pick somewhere with a bit of shade?” Draco asked once you’d made it out onto the fields, finding multiple other students who had the same idea as you two. “I don’t want to burn.”

A group of first year Gryffindors ran by, nearly knocking Draco over. He let go of your hand and went tug out his wand, his nose scrunched up in disgust, when you grabbed his wrist.

“Draco!” You scolded him, “You don’t need to hex the eleven-year-olds for nearly knocking you over.”

He huffed, rolling his eyes. “They should watch where they’re going. I would have only done a tripping hex, anyway.”

Shaking your head at your boyfriend, you felt his slender fingers intertwine with yours once again and he led the way this time. It felt surreal to be outside without having to stuff your hands in your pockets or complaining about rain water seeping through the small hole in the sole of your school shoes.

“Here.” Draco stopped beneath a tree and settled down, his back against the trunk. 

“I’m going to sit in the sun,” you said, moving a few feet away so you were no longer under the shade.

Draco knew you wanted to make the most of it on your skin. He saw it glow on your shoulders, light up your hair and relax your mind as you lay down on the grass, nose pointing towards the sky. He smiled, simply watching you from the shade. 

He grabbed the book he’d managed to pick up before you’d forced him out of his dorm room, burying his face in it for a few moments as you sighed happily, sunbathing nearby. He’d glance up every now and then and become distracted by your beauty, his brain having to force his eyes back down to the pages in front of him. 

Eventually, he gave up, settling the novel beside his legs and moving over. He found you lying on your stomach, plucking daisies out of the grass and arranging them into a pile next to you. 

“What are you doing?” Draco asked, lying beside you, facing the sky. 

“You’ll burn,” you protested, “You wanted to be underneath the shade, Draco--”

“I don’t care,” he murmured, “Just let me be next to you for a bit, yeah?”

You smiled softly, shaking your head a little as you blushed. Draco turned his head to continue watching what you were doing. He saw that once you had a pile of maybe twenty or so daisies, you began to pick them up one by one before piercing a hole through the long stems with your thumbnail. 

He watched with furrowed brows, studying the way your hands delicately began to thread each daisy through another, tying a knot on the end so they couldn’t slip back through. He realised you were making a daisy chain, and quite a large one at that. Eventually, you closed it off and tied it back around to the first daisy. 

“What is it?” He stared at the circle of plants.

“A daisy crown,” you chirped, moving across and straddling him, his hands moving to your hips as you placed it on top of his head. “For my Prince of Slytherin.”

Draco grinned, reaching up to adjust it on his head. “How does it look?”

You beamed as you peered down at him. “You look like a dashingly handsome young prince.”

You leaned down and kissed his nose, watching his own cheeks blush a little. He managed to sit up, your body moving back a little so you were sat in his lap with your legs around his waist, one hand on you to adjust you and the other to keep his daisy chain on his head. 

You decided your words were nothing but the truth. He looked adorable with the white and yellow daisies in his platinum hair, which was fluffy from the shower he’d just had. He looked like the epitome of soft, his silver eyes melting as he stared at you in a mixture of complete adoration and love. 

His hands circled your waist and he managed to pull you even closer. Your sunscreen filled his nose, as well as the shampoo you wore, the sun beating down on the two of you as he moved to meet your lips in the middle. He hummed against you, enjoying the taste of your lip balm and the way you felt against him. 

One hand reached to stroke your cheek, the slightly calloused pad of his thumb brushing at your jaw. His lips worked against yours softly in an attempt to pour every inch of love and appreciation into you, his touch feeling like fire on your warming skin. You wished you could stay like this forever; just you, Draco, and the sun in the sky.

“If I’m the prince, I want to crown you my princess,” Draco murmured against your lips when he pulled away. 

“Do you know how to make a crown?” You asked.

“I can try,” Draco offered, “I watched you.”

Smiling, you climbed off of his lap and watched as he turned to look at the grass. He plucked a few more from the ground until he estimated that he had enough. Draco’s face scrunched up for a second. The boy was clearly deep in thought. 

“You pierce the stems next,” you whispered in his ear.

“I know, I know,” he played it off, grabbing one.

He inspected it for a few moments before trying to stab a hole through it with his thumbnail like you did. He groaned when it ripped all the way through, leaving him with half a stem. Draco tried again three more times before throwing his latest destroyed daisy to the grass in a fit. 

“I can’t make the holes!” Draco complained. 

“I’ll pierce them for you,” you suggested gently, “You pass them to me, and I’ll make the holes. Then you can tie them up as you go along.”

Draco didn’t reply but handed you your first daisy, watching intently as you made a hole with your nail and passed it to him. He grabbed another daisy and handed it to you and you did the same thing, and then he looped it through. 

“Good, now you need to tie it up,” you reminded him. 

Tongue poking out slightly, Draco did as you had said, creating a knot in the stem of the daisy. He grinned when it worked, his pearly whites on display as he practically threw it in your face.

“Look!” 

“Good-- you have one chain. Here’s your next daisy,” you beamed, passing him another with a hole in it.

Draco took longer than you had, his eyes focused and his nose scrunched in concentration as he created you your very own daisy crown to match his. When he was done, he sighed in relief but, overall, looked quite pleased with himself.

“Here you are, my love,” he murmured, placing it on top of your head. 

His fingers adjusted it and moved some of your hair out of the way so it sat perfectly. Draco moved backwards a little and smiled at the sight.

“How do I look?” You teased.

“Like the most gorgeous girl I have ever laid eyes on,” Draco promised breathlessly, kissing you hard on the lips again. 

You kissed him back. Maybe your roommates would never understand because they never saw this side of him, but this was one of the million reasons you loved Draco Malfoy.

[barzzal]

between halls and thin walls → part two

summary: friends who fool around almost never work. almost.

↳ pairing: mathew barzal x you

↳ warnings: swearing, sex toys, masturbation, sexual/suggestive themes, and yenno, mathew :(

↳ genre: angst, smut, roommates au, best friend’s best friend, friends with benefits, 18+ minors dni*

↳ length: series; part one, part two (5.9k), part three, part four, part five, part six

↳ masterlist: the barn

↳ track: listened to a lot of beyoncé for this one !!

note: part two’s here!! and i know it’s late for an update but i just wanna thank everyone for commenting on the first part 🥺 really glad that you guys liked it. reading your tags are everything to me it means a lot! happy reading <3 (gif used: mine)

You come out of your bedroom dressed and ready for work. Your handbag was slung over the depth of your forearm as you headed for the kitchen and the other, scrolling past emails on your phone, admittedly bracing yourself for the mess you know will eventually greet you.

To your surprise, what you see instead were Mat Barzal’s guns rippling through the jet black sweater he had worn last night. A memory that sent your mind to less than eight hours ago, before eventually landing on what happened shortly when the two of you had woken up.

“Thank god you haven’t burnt the house down.” you kid, placing your handbag atop the island.

Mat spares you a quick glance, rolling his eyes whilst he lets you watch him whisk some eggs for breakfast.

“Like it?” he cocks, pertaining to how your eyes were pinned hard on his biceps that he was, for the most part, effortlessly sporting. It’s true, though. He didn’t need to flex because it was just there.

“Coffee or Juice?” he asks, as the kind friend and roommate that he is. 

Anthony, as surprising as it was, takes incredibly long showers. If people hadn’t known him well, they’d easily think he’s abusing himself there. But you’ve got to admit that not having him around felt nice for you didn’t have to feel so seen with Mathew.

‘Course, there’s nothing more, like a fix-in on the side, to your set up. You just appreciate the feeling of not having to lie to Beau about all the ugly concealed underneath all the innocent gazes you and Mathew exchange.

“Coffee.” you answer shortly, realizing that you forgot the material you need for today’s meeting.

“Where are you going?” Mat asks when he catches you receding out into the hallway. You didn’t bother looking back, “Forgot something!”

He gets back to whisking the eggs when a chime comes off his phone. He takes it from the counter, placed just before the plates he left to dry last night, absent-mindedly putting the bowl he was holding onto the island, toppling over the green juice he has prepared for himself. 

“Shit.” he curses as soon as he sees it for it was already spilling all over the place, making the mess you’ve been secretly anticipating the moment Mathew said he’d make breakfast.

Panicking at how you’d see he’s successfully screwed such a no-brainer task, Mat grabs the first thing he sees on the marbled surface and uses it to clean the mess he’d made.

“Huh.” he muses to himself, realizing that the silk fabric didn’t do much in helping him clean up. He tosses it over the sink carelessly and grabs a few napkin rolls from one of the cupboards. 

So much for making an effort to feed Anthony Beauvillier. 

“Now, that was fast.” you say with a smirk once you’ve entered the kitchen, startling Mathew as he continued cleaning up after his mess. 

“Ha-ha. Very funny.” he sarcastically laughs, discarding the paper towels onto the sink along with the used ones. 

Thankfully, your stuff was at the other side of the island so it was very much safe from all the chaos happening at the other end of the marbled surface. However, your laugh dies down the second you realize that your handkerchief was no longer where you’ve last put it.

“Hey,” you call on Mathew, “What’s up?”

“Have you seen my handkerchief? I know I left it somewhere.” you anxiously ask, eyeing every corner of the room hoping to see Nana’s handkerchief, the one she gave to you on your 18th birthday.

“What does it look like?” Mat asks, now holding a pan in his hand as he prepares breakfast.

You proceeded to describe your grandma’s handkerchief in the most specific and perhaps excruciating detail Mathew has ever heard someone talk about something as mind-numbing as a handkerchief.

Despite that, Mat lights up the moment it hits him, not realizing the bigger mess he’s about to walk into. He rejoices at how he knew exactly what you were looking for, “Oh! You mean this?” 

With clueless eyes, you watch Mat go over the sink after he wipes his hands dry, fishing out an all too familiar fabric from the sink. Once your eyes land onto the cream colored silk handkerchief, with details carefully sewn by hand, drenching in what seems to be Mat’s morning drink, your heart falls to the pit of your stomach. 

“What did you do??” The sudden rise in your voice startles an unsuspecting Mathew. You eagerly went over to his side and hastily snatched the smooth fabric off his hands, “It’s ruined!”

“What? I didn’t know it was yours!” Mat’s eyes are wild with confusion. Puzzled at how you were so fixated on the useless fabric. It didn’t help him anyway. There’s nothing much left to do but to throw it. It’s garbage. 

“You ruined it!” you lash out, letting Mat get eaten up by the sudden anger bubbling inside your guts but he was rather quick in defending himself, “I didn’t know it was yours since I grabbed the first thing I could find. Why are you getting upset over a shit-ass handkerchief?” 

Your mouth falls and you shake your head, finding his defensiveness quite appalling. “You’re an ass.”

“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was yours.” he explains, “Come on, it’s just a stupid handkerchief I’ll just buy you a new one.” he tries to laugh the tension off, sporting his signature grin.

Mat take shots of the stunned expression on your face, “Stupid?” you repeat what he said, your eyes already starting to sting with tears. Clearly, you were far too overwhelmed to even acknowledge Mathew’s half-assed apology.

“You’re a fucking asshole.” your words bite and that’s when things took a turn for the worse. 

“I said I was fucking sorry! What the hell do you want from me? Shit a fucking hanky?” he rans a hand through his hair, “Do you realize how childish you’re being right now?”

Outraged, and perhaps disappointed by how he was too high up his horse, your voice takes up a higher tone, entering what seems to be an early screaming match between you and Mathew.

“Could you just–” you breathe, “for one second– stop being so goddamn stupid and get over yourself!?” were words that welcomed Anthony the moment he stepped into the kitchen, towel wrapped around his waist, a grin on his face visible as he poured himself a glass of water, inviting himself in the screaming match you and Mathew have exclusively put forth for him.

“Stupid is not when you’ve already apologized a hundred times! Stupid is being such a crybaby and a bitch about it!” Mathew retorts, gaining his better end of the argument.

“What a beautiful morning, isn’t it?” Anthony chimes in, a hand resting on his chin, adoring his two best friends upon getting used to the best worst duo he’s ever known in his life. 

“Shut up, Beau.” you say, throwing him a glare.

“Well, beautiful is definitely not in Y/N’s dictionary.” Mathew chides with a smirk, enough to earn himself a scoff from you. 

“You know what? I don’t have the time for this bullshit.” you cuss, finally retreating, your already heavy heart taking a better hold on your thoughts, blocking your ability to even come up with a clever remark to come back at Mathew.

You throw the delicate, yet already ruined piece of fabric towards his way as hard as you could before marching out of the kitchen and head off for work.

“Fucking unbelievable.” Mathew curses under his breath once he catches the silk linen, shaking his head as he turns his attention back to the morning task at hand. 

You were fucking unbelievable.

Once the boys were left alone, Tito raises a brow, briefly looking back after your footsteps, “What happened here, anyway?” he asks, having realized what must’ve caused such a heated argument so early in the morning. 

“I used this handkerchief to wipe the whole thing off and she just went ape shit! I mean–” Anthony cuts Mathew the moment he recognizes the thin cloth he was holding.

“Woah, woah. Wait a minute, you used this?” he muses, stressing on the possibility of what might have been Mathew’s biggest mistake of the day, his eyes darting between him and the fabric.

With furrowed brows, admittedly weirded by how Anthony reacted almost the same way you did a while ago. “It’s just a handkerchief, man. I can go buy her a bunch if that’s what she wants.” he says defensively.

Anthony shakes his head wildly, his irises now dilated as he examined the stain already sitting on the material. “No no. Oh god no.” He says, snatching Mathew’s phone from the counter to google quick remedies that might remove the said stain from the already ruined cloth. 

“What do you mean no? You guys spend way too much time together, you’re beginning to be as weird as her.” He scoffs, sipping on a glass of water. 

“No, you dumbass. This was her grandma’s!” Anthony says, eyes fixated on the delicate handkerchief. Remembering how you’d told him how long it has been in your family that having Nana give it to you after all the years you’ve spent admiring it from afar meant so much to you than anything anyone could have possibly given you.

“So?” Mat casually replies, closing his arms to his chest before adding, “Is she dead or something? Didn’t you guys visit her for the Holidays?” 

“What?? Why would you even say that?– You’re such a jerk.” Tito shakes his head, appalled by how Mathew easily shrugged the matter off when he knew full well how sentimental he himself could be.

“Well, how am I supposed to know?? If that thing’s so important I wouldn’t leave it on top of some random shit lying around!” He counters, defending himself for reaching for the nearest cloth he could find when he did whatever he does best when he’s in the kitchen.

Tito clicks his tongue and looks at Mathew exasperatedly, “Tell me, where did you find this exactly?”, to which Mathew only answered with a quiet voice, “It may or may not have been placed on top of her purse…” he avoids Tito’s gaze, finally catching on how he was the one in the wrong. 

“See? Jerk. Now, go figure out how you’ll take the stain off.” Anthony demands, his voice embraced by a definitive tone. One that made Mathew know he wouldn’t be able to persuade him into letting this go. 

Tito takes one good look at Mat’s catastrophic attempt to feed the house, striding his way out of the kitchen, “And make sure you apologize!” he adds, footsteps receding into the hallway, leaving Mathew scratching the back of his head out of guilt and frustration.

You have spent the following days either avoiding Mathew or ignoring his existence completely. Anthony talked to you the night that incident happened and assured you that he would do his best to have it fixed. You didn’t want to bother him nor take time off his already busy schedule, but you were just so bummed to even say a word.

That night, you spent the entire evening in your room, facetiming your mother, saying how much you’re missing home. You can’t bring yourself to tell her about the handkerchief. For some people, and that people being Mathew, it might’ve been just some silly thing but Tito knew how much that small piece of cloth meant to you. 

Mathew, on the one hand, was for sure guilty to his bones. He didn’t see you that night nor the nights that followed. He didn’t think much of it but when he found himself searching for that same handkerchief in the hopes of replacing it only to find out that it was nowhere to be found in the market, was when he did realize that ruining the one thing that held you closer to home was the last push your non-existent relationship with him had to have for you to finally lose any ounce of amour nor civility you once had for him. 

Anthony wasn’t a stranger for said changes either. He began waking up to a still apartment enveloped by a wall you profusely built between you and Mathew. You even unknowingly shut Tito out in the process as well. It was like you were grieving. Like, it was a whole different kind of heartbreak he knew he can’t get you out of that easily. 

You tried making it up for your best friend of course. Knowing that you haven’t been yourself since that day. You thought about the possibility of having taken the whole thing too seriously that you might’ve overreacted a bit. Nonetheless, no matter how much you try to push it in the back of your head, Mathew’s mere presence began irking you in ways it never did back when you used to enjoy the bickering you exchange with him, especially in bed.

“Thanks for dinner, belle.” Anthony politely says, earning a smile from you so effortlessly upon hearing the pet name he uses for you. Something Mat only shrugged off, trying to piece out the same gratitude, “Thanks, y/n.” he genuinely adds. But as expected, he had nothing.

You pick up all the empty plates, including Mathew’s, who was sitting in front of you while Anthony sat at the end of the table. Tito hurriedly wipes his mouth with a napkin and takes the plate from you, “Let me help you with that.” he says with the same kind eyes that has never failed to win you over. 

“Yeah. Okay, sure.” you shortly answer, leading the way towards the kitchen, leaving one Mathew Barzal feeling small and alone at the dining table. 

𖥸

If there was one thing you’d gladly acknowledge after all the years of watching people kiss Mathew’s ass was that he was is really good. He’s fast and he can do unimaginable damage on the ice. There’s no denying that he deserves to be the face of the New York Islanders. But we know you don’t care about any of that. The only thing you care about was how unbelievably good he is at everything he does that not even you or your pink rubber toy could suffice. 

He was just that damn good. 

As your eyes shut whilst you mount your pleasures on your own, biting your lips to choke in your own moans, Mathew handling you was what circled your mind since you started defiling yourself in the bathroom. You let your arousal be washed away by the warm water trickling down your skin, envisioning Mat’s rough hands grazing your body, touching your core like his hands were meant to do nothing else but that. 

It was wrong and pathetic, but you couldn’t think about anything else. You and Mathew have been avoiding each other for days. The dynamic went so much worse than when you weren’t sleeping together and you know that Tito was bound to notice it soon. Thankfully, the boys were on another roadie for a week so you had quite some time to think things through about your current sitch with Mathew. You didn’t like any of it because it felt like you gave a fuck (which obviously, you didn’t). You just feel obligated to sort things out with the biggest ass that ever lived because you didn’t want to involve Tito into the mess you’ve wrongfully made yourself. 

You hop off the shower feeling unsatisfied. You haven’t gotten laid since the last time you were with Mat. Which is sad, not just for you but also for her. You’d think considering the boys aren’t around you’d bring someone home, maybe even one or two. But just thinking about going on bars alone so you could find a potential bone-mate is already far too tedious and you weren’t in the right state to do so. You had so much going on at work, anyway. And you can always use a wand to scratch an itch. Neither would satisfy you more than how someone-who-will-not-be-named could, but you might as well be pathetic without having to hook up with some random dude whose name you’ll eventually forget in the morning. 

You opted to wear an old pull-over you borrowed (took) from Tito years and years ago and partnered it with some leggings so you’d be comfortable enough for the rest of the night. You have nothing else to do and you are already fed up with your workload that watching a crappy movie off of Netflix doesn’t sound like a bad idea. 

With a giant bowl of popcorn and two bottles of beer in your hands, you march your way into the living room, ready to spend the night binge watching romantic comedies, crying and laughing in between. Or maybe just fall asleep on the couch while your comfort TV series is on. 

The boys won three games out of the four that they had during the trip and you only saw the ones they won so you were thankful that you didn’t have to sit at home alone watching their faces fall after that OT lost against the Flyers. Anthony phoned you that night and you can just feel the relief in his voice that you didn’t have the time to see it. They weren’t playing like they should. Thankfully, they were able to bounce back. 

Your eyes were beginning to grow tired halfway into the movie when you hear the front door open, followed by luggages dragged into the house tirelessly. 

“Y/N?” Anthony calls out.

You hit the movie on pause and hurriedly make your way towards the hallway. “You’re home already?”

They were already taking their coats off when you met them halfway, Tito was putting his away while Mat had just taken off his toque and was running his hands through his hair, unconsciously meeting your eyes upon hearing your voice. 

You quickly break it off when you give Tito a quick embrace and plant a small kiss on his cheeks, “I texted you.” he says, eyebrows quirked, surprised that you didn’t know. 

In an effort to avert any more of his questions you immediately point towards the movie you had on, “Haven’t checked my messages, sorry.” 

“So, you guys ate dinner?” you ask, passing Mat a quick look. One that came as a surprise because he wasn’t even hoping to hear a word from you given the way you two left things a little too on the edge, screwing with the whole thing even more. 

Mat avoids your irises and faintly nods. 

“Big win tonight huh? Told you, you can do it.” you say with a beaming smile, nudging Tito with your hips as you get back to watching your film. “You gotta do what you gotta do, babe.” he winks, lugging his stuff around towards his bedroom. 

“Barz, don’t stay up, Trotz needs us first thing in the morning.” he looks back, reminding Mat who was already standing in front of his door, “Yeah. Sure.” he replies shortly with a tired voice. 

You and Anthony bid your own goodnights whilst Mat mutters a quiet “Night.” when you nodded his way, clearly not enjoying any of the first awkward encounters he’s yet to have with you. Seven days is quite a reasonable time for your anger to dissipate, a short yet seemingly long period of time that’s just enough to kill off whatever guilt Mat had initially felt before you parted ways.

𖥸

“Alright, I’m off.” Tito casually declares, putting on his watch. “There’s food in the fridge, and tell Mat to go easy on my beers.” he gives you a knowing look as he bends down to give you a kiss on the cheek. 

Tito had been seeing some mystery girl for quite some time now. He hasn’t told you anything spicy in particular but by the looks of it, you could already tell that she has him towed. 

“Good luck, loverboy.” you say, swatting his hand away and pushing him out to the door. The two of you cringe at what you said, sharing one last laugh before you watch him disappear out into the hallway.

The apartment was cramped the whole day because Anthony and Mat had the day off. Tito had plans for the night, obviously. As per you, you had plans lounging in the living room, switching through channels in the hopes of stumbling on a show that isn’t half as bad than the rest. 

Thankfully, a Sandra Bullock film was on HBO.

The Proposal, to be exact.

You decide to dive in the film with a cold bottle of beer on your hand. There was no way you’d be washing down the effects of a naked Ryan Reynolds with a glass of water. You haven’t gone mad. 

The film was already at the part where Sandra was proposing to Ryan when you hear Mathew’s door open. You haven’t talked since the night they came back home other than the small nods you exchange upon passing by each other. All of which are mind-numbing and impossible to swallow. The awkwardness has not dissipated completely unlike what you presumed. You were just grateful Tito was always around that you didn’t need to be alone together. 

Alarmed by another impending awkward encounter, you clear your throat and turn up the volume a little to remain focused on the film, investing your sole attention to it even if you have seen the movie countless times. 

Mathew, in his sweats and a gray shirt on, carefully makes his way out the hallway and into the common area after snatching a glass of water from the kitchen. You see him move further into the room but you make sure that he knows you weren’t paying attention. You take that he must’ve been thirsty and needed a drink but you don’t see him move further in the corner of your eye like he was making his way back in his room. It almost seemed like he was actually waiting for you to look his way.

Hesitantly, you follow your gut feel and see him standing a few feet away from you. “Yes?” you ask when you catch him staring. 

Mat blinks a few times, “Hi.” he takes a deep breath, trying to shake off the awkwardness circling the two of you.

When the only thing he gets from you is a tight lipped smile, he shakes his head and proceeds to walk where you were seated. 

“Mind if I join you?” he asks, his voice deep and clear enough to send your mind elsewhere. 

Regardless, you contain yourself and return a polite smile, “No. Not at all.”

“So, what are we watching?” he sits once you gestured onto the other end of the couch. 

“The Proposal.” you answer before throwing a question yourself, “Aren’t you supposed to be resting now?” you shake your head, absentmindedly chuckling. Not intending to make him feel that you’ve forgotten about what he’d done weeks ago. 

“I couldn’t sleep.” he props his back and lets himself sink in the cloud couch, his legs spread wide eating up most of the space left for the two of you to share. “Oh. I only like him when he’s Deadpool” he points out, cringing at how you were watching another one of your romantic comedy films.

You roll your eyes, admiring how he’s trying to break the tension between the two of you despite his unsolicited sentiments, “I like it when we were on not-speaking terms.” 

Mat mocks you for a while but decides to watch the movie so you let him be and get back to the film, letting a giggle slip every now and then. Something you thought Mat wouldn’t notice.

Watching the remainder of the film went with ease. ‘Course, Mat would steal a few glances here and there (ones he thought had gone unnoticed), but overall the quietude between the two of you was bearable. Almost like it was just two buddies hanging out. 

Although, not long after, your eyes were torn away from the huge flat screen when Mat spoke, “By the way,” he looks at you and calls your attention. 

Puzzled, you watch him take something from his pocket, “Here.” 

Once you see what he has in his hands your heart froze. Mat carefully hands you the cloth with an apologetic smile; his eyes soft with a hint of hope as he watches your reaction. 

“What– How?” you ask in bewilderment, failing to comprehend how he was able to fix the handkerchief. It looked the same as before. All of its details were in place, it was good as new. You were holding Nana’s handkerchief. 

Mathew didn’t bother to dance around and just offered you a quiet chuckle, evidently enjoying the wide smile painted on your lips. “Don’t worry about it. I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.” he apologizes, shielding you from all the strings he had to pull just to get that cloth fixed up.

You hold the smooth and delicate piece in your hands as you look at Mat, letting your feelings get a better hold of you, “Thank you.” you say, unknowingly reaching out, your arms wrapped around his neck as you give him a quick peck on the cheek. 

Mathew’s hand instinctively finds your back to support you, startling himself in the process. Nonetheless, the thought was easily shrugged off by how close your faces were, your smiles fading once you meet each other’s gaze. You feel the same rush you felt the night you and Mat got involved for the first time. Your hand was placed rather endearingly on his cheek, your faces, just like all the other times, unreasonably close to each other. Mat then clears his throat and only looks you in the eye. 

Afraid that the innocent hug would lead to something more, perhaps another mistake to be jotted down on the board, you breathe a laugh and break away, “Uh, thanks again. It really means a lot.” 

Mat must’ve sensed that you were being cautious so he puts his guards up and returns a chuckle, “So… we good?” he asks, reaching out a hand your way. 

Your fingers slide into his, gliding its way perfectly, your hands fitted well with his despite the obvious difference in proportion. His grip tightens in the most comfortable way possible. 

A smile breaks off his lips once he hears you answer, “We’re good.”

“I should probably get some sleep.” Mat tells you the moment you pull your hand away.

“Are you gonna be okay here?” he adds.

You looked at him, not wanting him to be obligated to keep you company, “Oh, yeah. I’m a big girl.” you say, making Mathew grin, shaking his head.

“Alright. I’ll be in my room if you need anything.”

Not picking up on whatever sloppy insinuation Mat has thrown out carelessly into thin air, he hears a simple “Mkay.” 

Thus far, letting him know that his subtle invitation was far from being RSVP’d.

𖥸

“You’ll be in your room?” Mat scoffs, staring at the ceiling while he lays on his bed, “The fuck was that, Mat?” he scolds himself for always coming up with the worst things to say. 

Mathew would be lying if he’d say he hasn’t thought about you (or doing you) for the past week of not being around home. But he definitely wouldn’t deny that the roadie kind of made things easier for him because then he didn’t have to stomach seeing you walk around the flat looking like the hot piece of ass that you were in his eyes. 

Mat knows he needs to pull his shit together. He wasn’t some 13 year-old boy raging with hormones. He needs to control himself around you and he could only do that once he learns how to push this whole thing between the two of you behind him. 

What happened with you and Mathew shouldn’t have happened at all. It was just a moment of weakness, and he hated that he’d let his dick (and apparently, him being one) ruin the relationship he once had with you. 

Before that night, seeing you do yoga and work out on the terrace was just seeing you drenched in sweat, and in your work out clothes looking icky and constipated. Something he’ll later on tease you about and he’ll end up catching the water bottle you throw in his face. But now, after all that fucking, seeing you sweaty and all worked out in the same yoga pants is just like walking into a porn commercial. Like the ones they show before the actual porn. In fact, he doesn’t even have to watch any of it. Tents and Boners were pretty much sponsored by you from then on. It’s sick, and he knows it. 

However, the tension he feels with you is palpable that he’s even certain that you feel it too. But how can he be wrong? He sees how your eyes blink a few times when he’s fresh out the shower, he sees you follow his trance when you thought he wasn’t paying attention, and you never fail to slide him shadowed hints with every touch you “accidentally” pass at him. The kind that’s short enough to remain innocent but not so much as to keep him at bay. Mat hated everything about it. He hated that he wanted you– and he hated that he thinks he might be right about you wanting him too.

All that self-loathing aside, did he regret it? 

That was one of the things he feels bad about. Because as much as he wants to lie and push it aside, he didn’t regret any of it. He didn’t like you that way and just thought about you sexually but he just wishes that you could push past this and just be friends. He was still sexually attracted to you, yes. But he knows he’d eventually get over it and be back on his game. That is if he can ever find someone who’d be as good as how you were the last three times you’ve let him be with you because it would really help him a lot if he could stop picturing your mouth getting stretched by his cock every time he hops into the shower.

Mat was pulled from his thoughts when he heard a knock on his door. The shy banging sound made his heart beat rapidly in an instant, knowing full well that the two of you were alone in the house and that Tito was, in no way, going to be home for another hour or two.

A faint knock follows the first one before he gets to the door. 

“Hi.” you greet him, a moment unfolding like it was déjà-vu.

“Hi.” 

“Did I wake you?” you sheepishly ask, your hands balled into fists before eventually settling down to hug your own build, unsure of where to put your hands exactly.

Mat quickly shakes his head, “No. I couldn’t sleep myself.”

You offer him a smile, acknowledging how he’s been nothing but good to you ever since they got home. Of course you wanted to get your hands on him being that you were completely dry and horny ever since you’ve ignored him completely, but you haven’t gone mad and you weren’t a complete neanderthal. You can keep your hands to yourself and act like a decent human being. 

“I’m sorry for making things weird between us.” you say, your eyes heavy with guilt. “But I’m only apologizing for being so unreasonable for the last couple of weeks.” you reiterated.

To which he only answers with, “You shouldn’t be. You have every right to be unreasonable– and I know that I’ve been a giant prick that day. It’s what I deserve.” he bites his lower lip, scratching his brow as he continues, “That’s why if there’s someone who owes someone an apology, it should be me. What I did was pretty crappy, so… I’m sorry.”

Like all the other times, Mathew towers over you wearing the same confidence he does when you’re around. Your bodies were reasonably apart from each other but close enough to mean something else if someone had walked by. Mathew was still in his room while you were out in the hallway, separated by the thin line made by the door frame. 

You feel Mat’s steady breathing and everything went still. He looks down at you, pretty eyes drowning yours. His messed up bed hair ridiculously makes up for how dressed down he was. No, actually, he looks fine even when he is. And all of that sight instantly makes your throat dry as you feel something curl in your belly, enough to make your hands sweaty as the thought of tasting his lips again cruised your mind entirely.

Mathew was no stranger to the said feeling either. He watched you punish him more at how plump and inviting your lips were. Or how your hand brushed on your clothes as you remain uncomposed under his gaze. 

Mat was becoming accustomed to how the two of you meet. Same time, same place, only this time, a different hallway. He steps further and crosses the line that divides the two of you, making you take a deep breath as his scent floors every nerve in your body. Waking what has been awake ever since that moment you shared back in the living room even more. 

“Yeah, okay.” you gather yourself, “I– I should probably head back.” 

Just by how his shoulders dropped, you knew you had said the wrong thing. And you hated that you did. Mat clears his voice and swallows, breaking off his gaze, “You probably should.” 

“Good night, Mat.” you smile, trying to regain yourself. 

“Good night.” he replies as he watches you turn your back before finally closing the door behind him. 

Frustrated for he was already starting to feel things more than just being “sorry”, Mat leans against the door and runs a hand through his hair. He takes a deep breath and tries to get you out of his head. 

He was about to walk away from the door and sleep off his frustration when he hears your faint footsteps on the other side of the door. He rests his head back on the wooden surface and sighs, “You’re still out there, aren’t you?”

There was a total silence for a moment, devoid of the knowledge of how you had your fist, ready to knock yet again, suspended in mid-air. 

Mathew hears you deny sheepishly, “No.” 

You hear him let out a small laugh, knowing that he was trying to contain himself. 

The door sprung open again, and for a second you thought how what you’re about to walk into will start another mess for you and Mathew. But how could you possibly think about it that way when you have nothing else but this man standing at the other end? 

A friend that took no seconds to waste as he finally lets his thirst and perhaps foolishness, get the better hold of him once he cages your heated face in his hands, crashing into your lips as fast as he’d taken you to his end of that thin gray line that has once irkingly parted him from you. A gray line you’re both willing to cross if that meant sharing another night in between halls and thin walls.

[chaozsilhouette]

Moonlit Musings

The night is such a perfect time to face one’s darkest truths. Shrouded in the moon’s light what can one do but admit to their flaws. It can be a time of rejuvenation and rebirth, only if you let it.

§~~~~§~~~~§~~~~§

It was a quiet night.

The full moon hung high in the heavens accompanied by millions of stars. Not a cloud to be seen, an ideal night for passions to run wild. Normally people would be taking out their telescopes or arranging romantic picnics.

Sadly, nights like these only filled Sun Wukong with dread. It was a night like this when he was finally able to return after the Journey. That was the night he learned he had lost a precious treasure.

When he returned, he expected to be greeted by his subjects until Macaque showed himself. He expected to be strangled as the pale furred monkie admonished him for his recklessness. He expected to watch as fury transformed into tearful joy as they embraced one another for the first time in over five hundred years.

But that wasn’t what happened.

The moment he set foot back onto Flower Fruit Mountain, he sensed something was very wrong. Like his previous return trips, his subjects greeted him with loud celebrations. The new mothers showed off their infants. The young ones wasted no time climbing all over him, taking in the scent of their king.

The immortal elders, however, looked concerned.

That was when he realized Macaque’s scent on the mountain was far too faint. Even the magical signature of his clones no longer felt fresh.

Macaque was nowhere to be found. The monkeys reported Macaque had returned a few years after he stopped by the mountain earlier in the Journey but not as his usual self. He didn’t respond to any of their questions. He didn’t even take time to check in on the infants. He didn’t say a word.

He just entered the mansion, but no one saw him leave.

Entering the mansion, Wukong dashed to their room desperate for answers. Opening the doors, he saw the room was horribly empty, sure all of his belonging were exactly as he remembered them, but all of Macaque’s stuff was gone. Macaque’s closet was empty and all his books had vanished. Despite his desperate hopes, there wasn’t any signs of a struggle or hidden messages to be found.

Macaque left of his own free will, but why?

He couldn’t bring himself to sleep in the bed they shared so many nights together. Every time he dared, he awoke expect to be greeted with the comforting warmth of familiar presence, instead he opened his eyes to a cold emptiness.

The lack of answers broke his heart, but he didn’t have time to start tearing the landscape apart trying to find him. Now that he was back for good, he had so many responsibilities to catch up on. He was determined to be a good king for his subjects and that meant ughthinking things through. Plus, he wanted to spend as much time with his master and brothers as possible.

Then there was the concerning fact all his previous allies had severed their alliance with him.

Apparently after all the fuss with the Demon Bull King, word had spread that Wukong broke their alliance by disrespecting protocol and attacking the royal family. Plus, his new position as a defender of humanity annoyed more than a few respectable demons. Combined with the sheer number of powerful demons he killed on the Journey cemented the idea that having an alliance with him would only end poorly.

He was banned from court meetings and the other kings in the surrounding areas wanted nothing to do with him. The chaotic nature of his past had finally caught up to him and in the worst possible way.

He was still recognized as the Monkey King of the Sun Court but was effectively blacklisted. No one wanted to mess with him, but they also didn’t want to interact with him. Not good for his mental health to say the least.

Simians are naturally social creatures. Wukong was used to constantly being around other people and learning new things. His time imprisoned was not kind. His first year of freedom had him constantly climbing over his brothers and master just to reassure himself that this was real.

And now that he couldn’t reconnect with old faces unless it was through a battle to the death…It forced him to delve into old memories. Memories that while sweet only made the emptiness more pronounced.

§~~~~§~~~~§~~~~§

Sun Wukong smiled as he watched Macaque’s reaction.

The six-eared monkie was furiously pinching the bridge between his eyebrows after he shattered a boulder with a careless headbutt as though it would make his life mercifully easier. “You’ll have to explain it to me again. What did you mean by ‘no longer under Yama’s jurisdiction’?”

“Exactly what I said. I was napping. Having some time to myself, when out of nowhere some idiots tried to take my soul to the afterlife.” Wukong explained as though having entities of death rip out your soul to drag it to the underworld was no big deal.

“Bet you weren’t happy.” Macaque couldn’t help but smirk at the flippant tone. He just made it so difficult to stay mad.

“Not in the slightest. I barged my way to the top brass, bunch of cowards called the Ten Kings (totally undeserved titles by the way) and demanded what the fuck was going on.” He was still ticked off even if the payoff was sweet. Seriously! Did immortality mean nothing to these cowards? They couldn’t even play it off as him dying in battle. He was in the peak of his youth! “Can you believe they tried to play it off as a misunderstanding? Should have smacked the loudmouth when I was there.”

“So, through a series of ridiculous events, you erased your name from the records of the dead.” Macaque could easily piece together the rest from there. No matter how ridiculous the odds. He learned never to bet against his friend when a problem could be handled with brute strength or intimidation. If it didn’t look like such an answer was possible, clearly, they hadn’t experienced the force of a determined Wukong. Something about facing a ticked off monkie of practically infinite strength and invulnerability left harden conquerors pissing themselves.

It was hilarious.

“Not just mine. In my infinite wisdom, I erased the names of several of the monkey inhabitants of esteemed Flower Fruit Mountain, including yours.” Wukong playfully booped Macaque’s nose.

Turning away to hide a light blush, Macaque scoffed to cover his embarrassing response. “Typical. I can’t leave you alone for five minutes without you doing something insane.”

“I know. I’m just that awesome.”

“So what? Are we now double immortal?” That was the question wasn’t it. Due to their master’s instructions, they were immortal and ageless, so what exactly would this give them? He didn’t feel any different. He couldn’t sense any new powers or changes in his instincts.

His counterpart, however, had other things on his mind. “Who cares. All I know is that those idiots have no control over our souls anymore.” And with that the King took his rightful place across Macaque’s lap as the other returned to his scrolls.

Wukong instead took the time to examine his friend, who finally gained enough confidence to fully drop his glamour and embrace his true appearance.

He still couldn’t believe Macaque actually had six ears. The weird part was how natural they looked, almost as if seeing him with only two was bizarre. The coolest part was how each pair softly glowed a different color. Blue. Purple. Red. Sometimes Wukong would just stare at them, imagining that he could see glittering stars emanating from that glow.

Suddenly those magnificent ears twitched. Macaque didn’t bother looking up from the bamboo scroll. “A trespasser...multiple, boar and vulture demon. Another hunting party”.

“Again. Ugh. Don’t these idiots ever give up!” Don’t get him wrong, Wukong loved a good fight. What better way to prove how superior you are to others than to steal what’s most precious to them? But even he was starting to grow bored with the sheer number of hunters that thought kidnapping his subjects was a quick cash grab.

After the fifth army he returned in pieces to the surrounding upstart lords, you’d think they’d take a hint.

Thankfully he wasn’t the only powerhouse on the mountain. “I haven’t tasted blood in a while. Why don’t I defend the kingdom while your highness enjoys a show?” Macaque set aside his reading material, eyes glittering with bloodlust.

Wukong returned the smirk with one of his own. “I’m always up for a good thrashing. One request: make it glorious.”

“Don’t I always.” Macaque joked as he retrieved his spear from his own shadow.

Wukong summoned his cloud and claimed a good vantage point. Once again, he marveled at his friend’s hearing. Judging by the distance it would have been at least three hours before he would have detected their presence.

Kicking back, he transformed some hair into a fruit platter and waited for the screams.

§~~~~§~~~~§~~~~§

To this day, Wukong knew Macaque was alive. Thanks to his efforts combined with the intense training, the monkie was double immortal. Besides, that monkkie was way too stubborn to die. He would survive purely on spite if he had to.

Macaque left, but why?

While he may have effectively isolated himself, that didn’t mean he didn’t hear about the other courts. A few centuries ago, he heard rumors about the formation of a new court by someone under the title of the Macaque King. Supposedly they were a powerful monkie who knew way more than he had the right to. For a brief moment, Wukong dared to hope it was his old friend, but it didn’t last. The few recounts he caught described him with black fur. Besides, he knew how much Macaque hated the title of King. Even when Wukong offered him the position as co-ruler of his kingdom, the pale monkie adamantly refused.

Still, he was curious.

For a few weeks he could have sworn he detected a familiar scent hiding underneath Mk’s. And he wasn’t the only one who noticed. A few of the immortal monkeys questioned him on the mango infused scent and what his plans were. It was almost too much to take in.

To think he returned to teach his student instead of showing his face. It hurt just to think about it. He chose to ignore the beckoning scent until it became impossible to ignore MK’s leap in progress. Then it just vanished like it hadn’t been testing his patience. Like it hadn’t brought him to the brink of shaking the kid upside down until he confessed where his old friend was hiding. The kid probably grew wise, or someone told him to change his bathing habits, and by the next training session it was all but gone.

Dragging his hand down his face, Wukong tried to reevaluate his thoughts.

Getting mad at the kid wasn’t going to solve anything. He knew he hadn’t been the most attentive master. Hell, the whole hammer exercise at its core was a desperate attempt to remove a painful reminder of better times. His master would be disappointed in how he was running away from his problems, but would encourage him to take the steps to be better. Zhu Bajie would be a sarcastic little shit, trying to get him riled up so the monkie would prove him wrong. Sha Wujing would sit him down and wouldn’t let him leave until they talked everything through.

He had to make things right with the kid. He deserved a better master. And this New Years he was gonna get one.

He spoke, praying the winds would carry his voice to his Warrior.

“Macaque. I know it’s been a while, but…I-I want to talk. I know you’re out there, somewhere I can’t reach. I miss sparring with you. I miss lazy days napping in the shade by your side. I miss defending the mountain as we held contests to see who could take out the most trespassers before their common sense kicked in. I miss you. Please come home.”

§~~~~§~~~~§~~~~§

The moon was high in the sky. Stars danced in the heavens as the faintest hints of vibrations pulsed through the concrete from the late-night dance clubs. MK lay awake, his mind struggling to make sense of it all.

Ever since Macaque disappeared in order to remain undetected, he kept thinking about his relationship with the Monkey King. Sure, he was being trained and he was definitely making progress. The monkie was still on his case for supposedly cheating on him with another mentor. Nothing MK said or did could make the monkie think otherwise. Thankfully, he was no longer shooting him suspicious glares, but the underlying tension remained.

The sad truth is they just weren’t that close.

He would have expected to learn more about the Monkey King on a personal and emotional level, but he just couldn’t get past that wall. Their training sessions felt more like just the Monkey King arranged just to get it over with. There was no passion at all.

Okay, perhaps that last bit was an exaggeration.

When you peered past the arrogance and pride, you found one socially awkward monkie. It was similar to Red Son the more he thought about it, both seemed to find it difficult to talk to or relate to others in a friendly setting. Sure, Monkey King projected a friendly demeanor and called him “bud”, but if he didn’t know any better he could have sworn the monkie was afraid to take that final step.

The last few sessions had taken a bit of a turn in a positive direction as Sandy would say. Maybe Monkey King decided it was time to make a change? Maybe this was all a trick so MK would lower his guard and reveal Macaque’s identity? Maybe he was just tired and should have conked out an hour ago?

Maybe.

Reality was so different from the legends. When Tang first introduced him to the Monkey stories, he was hooked. He loved listening to the tales of the infamous trickster that flipped off every major religious figure with unbridled confidence. Meeting the Great Sage in the flesh was like a dream come true until he was exposed to the King’s less pleasant tendencies.

Mk couldn’t help but wonder just how much confidence the Monkey King had in his training skills. Did he ever train someone before? Could MK talk to someone about this without appearing even more ungrateful than he already looked? Why didn’t he stop Red Son from unsealing his father when he was there? Why didn’t he simply seal the entire family when they were reunited? Why did the five times immortal sage decide that now he needed to train a disciple? Was Monkey King not telling him something important?

He had so many questions and not even the foggiest idea of where to start looking. Or perhaps he did?

The truth was he missed Macaque. The dark-furred monkie may have only taught him for a month, but the progress he made and the level of care he was exposed to made him feel as though he had finally unlocked the ability to fly.

He missed the regular grooming. He missed learning about the demon community. He missed learning new ways to mess with Red Son through appropriate court manners.

Watching the fire user freeze up at the term “honorable prince of the Iron Bull Court” just made him laugh, when his hair combusted it really matched his face. Now that he thought about it, were those horns starting to peek out of his forehead? And maybe the slightest hint of a tufted tail swiping the bottom of his coat? Seeing the demon frantically compose himself was a treat he didn’t know he needed. He still had the video saved as one of his favorites, didn’t hurt that Mei caught it at the perfect angle.

Oh yeah, he missed that.

With any luck, New Years would be the start of something better.

§~~~~§~~~~§~~~~§

On an island that remained surrounded by unquenchable storms, a single black-furred monkie sat cross-legged in a secluded part attached to the palace. All around him fruit trees and bushes bore a hefty bounty releasing an intoxicating scent of life.

Ears twitched.

Macaque opened his eyes, aroused from his meditation. It was odd. He had the faintest sensation that someone had been talking about him. Now that wasn’t exactly unusual, he made plenty of allies and enemies across the centuries. What was odd was that the voice sounded like someone he once cherished.

But that couldn’t be right.

The deceptive silence of his personal orchard gave him no answers. Not that he really expected it to.

For some reason he refused to identify, Macaque turned to the single peach tree in the grove. A tribute from his past and a reminder of his mistakes. But it was also a valuable resource once he learned the truth about the peach’s properties. He used its powers to protect many happy relationships, if only it could have helped him so long ago.

No matter.

He still had many projects to work on, including one successor just rife with insecurities. He honestly felt bad ducking out as he did. If things were different, he would have offered him a new life. His Stars were always happy to welcome a new member into their budding community.

As a bonus, his presence would have interrupted their constant attempts to set him up with new dates. He adored their efforts but being paired with partners who only wanted power or he would view only as friends was not something he enjoyed. Although watching them mentally destroy those they didn’t find suitable for him was quite entertaining.

Either way, New Years was coming up fast and he still needed to approve a few changes. His Stars were determined to make sure this event topped last years in every way possible, but they had to make sure they didn’t set the orchard on fire again. Or worse, they could launch the fireworks into the storm barrier. He wasn’t sure why or how, but the tornadoes and clouds turned different colors as explosions rang throughout the night.

It was beautiful but lost its charm after the third day.

[all-about-seggs]

Sultry Blues-

Rating: ❌18+, Explicit❌

Pairing : Gojo Satoru x Insecure! Fem Reader

Word count: 2.5 k

Warnings: Trigger warning for insecurities (not specified), Body Worshipping, a bit of food play, cunnilingus, Semi-public sex.

The faint sounds of ringing bells from the shrine was still in the air as you made your way to the inner structure of the prestigious Jujutsu academy. The path to the meeting room was straight and lined with stone carvings which gave the entire place an ancient look. You had a lunchtime date with your boyfriend, who would, hopefully be on time so you could be on your way.

This place always made you uneasy, not because of the dangerous connotations it brought in everyone’s lives but it was the people who freaked you out the most. To you, each one of the teachers as well as the students looked like some characters straight from a book, elegant, strong and perfectly capable of doing things normal people like you could only read about. Not having enough confidence on yourself physically or mentally worsened every time it dawned on you that you were dating the most perfect being of them all.

Perplexing wouldn’t even began to describe your state of mind when Satoru first took interest in you, sure looks or status didn’t meant anything to him but even in terms of personality you never thought the two of you would get along, so much so that you would become such an irreplaceable part of each other. But you knew his feelings for you did nothing to stop the ache in your heart when you saw him getting ganged up on by a bunch of women. Women attractive than you, smarter than you and definitely stronger than you.

This was exactly the place where all those kind of women lived making you feel even more of an outsider in his world. Not wanting to cause Satoru any worries you tried to psyche yourself up by picking up your pace only to be met with a hard shoulder to your cheek.

“I’m sorry! I wasn’t looking”, you looked up at the stranger, she was tall, her sturdy figure seemed like she was also a sorcerer but her ID pass was tucked on the breast pocket of her coat along with her youthful face indicated she was a student, you squinted to see that her name was Lisa and as you were about to apologise when you saw her sneer at you.

“ Ugh… outsiders. Don’t you know how to walk properly? Or did you not learn that in your no name school?”, her condescending tone took you aback.

You knew you didn’t exactly belong here but she wasn’t cutting you any slack for being a civilian either. You wanted to ask her why was she being so rude but your queries were cut off as by the girl.

“ No need to explain yourself I already know who you are, I’ve seen you following Gojo- San like a lost puppy a lot of times, seriously it’s like you don’t even have a presence without him.”, with a pause you finally thought her pointless berating would come to a stop but she went on.

“ He has a reputation to uphold here so don’t go around embarrassing him with your airheaded and average looking face”, now with THAT she crossed the line but as much as you wanted to give her a comeback all you anger turned into self loathing in a matter of seconds and you stood there dumbly not being able to defend yourself from the onslaught of verbal attacks that even you partially agreed with.

Not even bothering to look at her when she passed you thought about her mean words that were half untrue. You knew dating a popular guy would include more that just a little bit harmless envy of girls. At this point you’d be lucky if you didn’t get attacked by one of your boyfriend’s fangirl. But, It wasn’t about Satoru anymore, you thought. It was about how you were letting the jealousy of his superficial admirers who didn’t even knew only knew his name and face. Before you could delve more into your darkening thoughts you heard a cheery voice call out to you.

Bag at hand, which probably contained some sort of dessert you saw Satoru gleefully making his way towards you. It took you a few seconds to plaster a believable smile to your face so you could greet him normally.

“ Wow I can’t believe IM the one who had to wait around this time”, placing a tiny kiss on your nose he pulled you in for a hug, his warmth seeping into you put your mind at ease and help you distract yourself from the horrible encounter before.

“ The meeting was pointless and even the snacks turned out to be lame”, whining a little he waved the bag in front of you. A convenient store vanilla sponge cake with a packet of strawberry sauce was right in front of you and honestly if it were you, you’d probably eat it without question but knowing his love for quality sweets it was understandable why he’d complain.

“ Well actually, with the right toppings and modifications even convenient store packed cakes can taste top class!”, thinking about all the ways you’ve experimented watching diy food videos you started thinking up of ways to serve it to him.

“I see, that’s a good idea and I think it’ll give us some headstart for our date wouldn’t it?”, saying that he gestured you towards one of the buildings that lead to the back exit.

Walking hand in hand Satoru came to a stop which seemed like a closed off gate that was not in use anymore.

“ Why are we here? I thought the back exit was the other way around?”, confusion painted over you face you turned to face your mischievous partner.

“ you said you’d help me eat them, and I think it’s a pretty good place, don’t you?”, stepping closer he urged you to take a look around. The area didn’t have any benches, buildings or even people around and the only sound you could hear was the birds and the small artificial streams of river that flowed a few steps away from the closed off exit.

If Satoru was insinuating something you started to get the hang of it and you soon felt you face get hotter. The afternoon sun did nothing to help you cool down as you struggled to make sense of the situation. His hands were all over your body, caressing, pinching and feeling you up.

“ What’s wrong? Not up for it in semi public style?”, his breathy voice got lost in the crook of you neck where he inhaled your scent, “ you know nobody’s gonna come” with a slight push, he pinned you againt the vine-covered gate, “Except for you”.

“what the- WAIT! It’s still so bright out here not to mention we’re in PUBLIC Satoru!”, wide eyed you try to grab at his hand that was halfway done unbuttoning the top of your blouse.

“Do you want me to blindfold you?”, throwing these words nonchalantly he started licking every bit of exposed skin he could find from your ears to chest.

His mouth made contact with your covered breasts and without bothering to remove the piece of clothing he latched his mouth onto your hardened nipple to give it a gentle bite. Holding back your own moans you placed you hands on his broad shoulders, a feeble attempt at stopping him.

“How would THAT resolve anything?!” already half naked, your retorts seemed like pathetic excuses even to your own ears. It wasn’t until you heard a sharp rip that you realised your underwear was no longer on your body anymore. With a horrified look you saw your unusable underwear in Satoru’s hand.

“ I don’t think you’ll be needing these anymore my sweetness because I want to see ALL of you”, dangling the fabric from his long fingers he made a show of tucking it in his pocket. Hiking your skirt up with one hand he caressed the soft flesh with his thumbs.

“I knew you had no sense of danger but this could even get us arrested”, your reasoning seemed to fell on deaf ears as your boyfriend, already half way down on the ground, pulled his blindfold down with ease. Looking at up at you with his ethereal turquoise eyes that lied beneath strips of heavy white eyelashes, this part of his face was something you couldn’t see all the time.

“You’re beautiful……”, the genuine nature of his words felt unreal when compared to his everyday frivolous self, “at least I’ve always thought so”.

All the voices in the place except for his, got drowned out by the throbbing of your heart in your chest when he kneeled right in front of your crotch. The warm smile on his lips contradicted with his tantalizing actions but he enjoyed it precisely because of that.

“Open your legs a bit more y/n, I need more space to eat”, with his haughty smirk back he exposed more of your pussy with his fingers and dribbled the strawberry sauce over it until it started trickling down to the ground underneath it.

“This looks like a good dessert, waaay better than the one I was offered before”, making one last smartass comment he threw the now empty packet away and your sugar coated pussy was soon met with Satoru’s soft, warm tongue as he buries his face in it. His tongue worked it’s way beneath the layer of your pussy hair and down to the soft flabby skin underneath. Your natural slick combined with the dressing sauce tasted even sweeter in his mouth, the pleasant hums falling uncontrollably from his mouth made you wetter.

All the blemishes, scars and your self imposed flaws started melting into something more complete and unbreakable in its nature when you felt Satoru touching you, feeling you and tasting you from the inside and out.

His warm hands firmly gripped your thighs to lap at the soft peak in between. All the sensations his tongue was providing you made your vision turn black and your body heated up to the point of burning. The broad daylight and your exposed form added to the fear of being found out but your trust in your boyfriend outweighed everything so you let him have his way.

“ Hmmm, yeah y/n…”, the exaggeratingly loud slurping of his mouth came to a stop as he looked up at you, his pink lips glistening even more when he spoke, “Even this cheap stuff tastes better when I eat it directly from you”.

You were a panting mess, already having lost the ability to make coherent words you kept you eyes on Satoru as rose to his feet.

“ Let’s move on to the next part shall we?”, after smoothening out your skirt of you he held out his hand and your need for release took over all rhyme and reason so you put one of your shaking hand in his. The next few moments were confusing as a white light enveloped both of your forms and by the time your vision returned you found yourself in an unknown room.

The place itself was nothing out of the ordinary, some books, a cupboard and a vanity. The single bed near the curtained window was properly made. It was clearly not Satoru’s room but the neatness of the place also suggested that it wasn’t an unused room either.

“ Hey we’re are we?”, you question the white haired male when he casually made his way to switch on the lights.

“Don’t worry we’re still in the academy premises, you wanted to finish this right? And I didn’t wanted to go another second with hearing your pretty voice, so you can scream now,” his voice dangerously low, he held your arms in both of his hands and guided you to the single bed in the corner.

“ and I didn’t meant that as a request”, flat on your back you had no time for further questioning as your exposed cunt got filled to the brim in a single thrust. The stretch made you cry out and remembering Satoru’s previous warning you didn’t bother covering your mouth. The light in the room was enough for him to see all of you, even if he had all of you memorized at the back of since the first time.

Your twisted face that you’d consider ugly was nothing if not arousing to him from the kneeling position of his at the edge of the bed, endearing even at how the side of your eyes well up everytime he fucked you so hard, the creaking of the bed acted as a proof of his brutal pace that threatened to break the furniture.

Each powerful thrust of his made your entire body lurch from its position, your juices flowed endlessly down your thighs, on Satoru’s cock and down to the sheets. Your voice ricocheted off the walls and gave life to the entire building.

Having your orgasm cut off before, the anticipation that had build up made your upcoming release feel even ore intense. Your walls started clenching around his shaft, already feeling waves of ecstasy you waited for it to reach its peak.

“ Y/n...Come for me”, in between his grunts he placed on of his hand on the side of your head, lowering himself till your noses touched. Breaths intermingling, you came with a loud cry of his name. Euphoria spreaded through both of your bodies making a gush of liquid come out of your pussy when Satoru pulled out, both of your mess soiled the sheet.

Few minutes of silence passed by as a fully clothed Satoru sat beside you, stroking your head until you calmed down.

“ Hey y/n?”, abruptly his cheeky tone filled the room and you looked up at him questioningly,

“ Wanna take a pic? ya'know, as a momento”, the odd question made you come to an obvious conclusion, which now seemed obvious considering your boyfriend’s not so secret rebellious nature and with how much of a brat he can be it was nothing short of hilarious.

“ It’s Lisa’s room isn’t it?”, barely controlling your laughter you tried to pry an answer out of him, the soothing motion of his hands never coming to a stop he took out his phone with another.

“ Yeah, it is, I’d say it’s an excellent way of showing her our ‘bond’ dontcha think?”, his cringey answer made you burst into laughter. The first real smile he’d seen on your face since you got here was something Satoru wanted to be a constant thing, always there when he wanted to see it just like a still photograph.

Bending his face down his lips softly met your forehead and before you could open your eyes back up you heard the click of the camera go off.

“ Heh, so how is it?”, propping yourself up on your elbows you tried to peak at the screen but it was pulled out of sight just as quickly.

“ It’s perfect”, with a warm smile that reached all the way to his eyes Satoru put his phone down before peering into your eyes, “and it’s mine”.

[arabellamonkey]

the new old

stevetony, 2′5k words, established relationship and competitiveness over videogames; for my “mario kart” square on @stb-bingo round two

also on ao3

Steve hadn’t heard anything about Mario Kart until one morning, while Tony and he had breakfast, Clint irrupted in the penthouse with the biggest smile Steve had seen him display in a long time and a rectangular-shaped box in his hands.

“Look what I found, Tony!” Clint screamed, showing Tony the box as if it were the saint grail or something of the sort. Steve was ready for Tony to mock Clint for being so excited over a simple box but, instead, his boyfriend’s eyes opened wide and he asked in an incredulous whisper, “Is that what I think it is?”

“It is!” Clint exclaimed. “I found it between all the stuff people had donated to the charity event for the hospital and look, I’m sorry for stealing it, but those kids would never appreciate it like we do, okay?”

“You’ve stolen from the donations for the hospital,” Steve deadpanned with an arched eyebrow. “And now you’re trying to justify yourself? Is that what’s happening?”

“Oh, don’t get your pants in a bunch, Cap,” Tony said before Clint could continue defending himself as if stealing from sick kids could be okay in any reality. “I’m sure Clint has donated lots of stuff in compensation, haven’t you, Clint?”

Hadn’t he been too busy trying to keep his stern look from faltering, he would have laughed at the way Clint opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before being able to come up with something to answer to that. “I mean, I haven’t done it yet, but I’ll do that for sure… After we’ve tried this relic out!”

“See? No harm done,” Tony told Steve, leaving a kiss on his cheek before turning to look at Clint and making grabby hands in the box’s direction. “Give me that, Barton.”

Barton forfeited his discovery and Tony started analyzing the box and its content with the utmost care, as if he were an archeologist and the box between his hands his most recent discovery.

“Okay, yeah, it seems like it’s the original,” he declared, sounding surprised.

“I thought so!” Clint exclaimed, looking at the box. “Do you think there’s any chance of playing it? I haven’t tried my hand at one of these in a long time, man.”

“Sure,” Tony said. “I’ll figure out a way to do that. We’re going to play this even if I have to build to original Super Nintendos from scratch.”

Super Nintendos. Well, Steve thought with a dissimulate wry smile, there goes another strange word.

“Great!” Clint screamed as a big smile spread through his face. “That’s what I had been hoping to hear.”

Without stopping his analysis of the box and its content —it seemed like a small chip? Steve couldn’t be sure from where he was sitting—, Tony started to move towards the workshop with Clint trailing after him.

“Um, aren’t you going to finish your breakfast?” Steve asked, eying Tony’s almost full pancakes plate. He had barely eaten half of one.

“Don’t worry, I’ll eat something later!” Tony said as the elevator’s doors closed behind them.

Steve blinked, confused about what had just happened and why Tony and Clint had gotten so excited over what seemed like a  simple piece of plastic to him.

He sighed, looking down at his own breakfast.

It was something that, despite this being his fourth year living in the 21st century, kept happening quite frequently: just when he thought he had finally managed to achieve a decent knowledge of the 21st century and its intricacies —just when he found himself getting most of the references people threw around like it was nothing—, something completely new popped up and there he was once again, suddenly feeling lost without nothing to hold on to, just as he had been the first time he had realized he was no longer home.

Usually, Tony made a great job making sure Steve was keeping up. He explained stuff carefully to him, making sure to introduce him to pop culture and basic knowledge gently, using references Steve could understand to introduce him to all these concepts that seemed so new.

Still, sometimes not even Tony realized how Steve got lost with what seemed to be the most basic stuff. And it was something he couldn’t blame him for, as much as it frustrated him.

So that morning Steve had breakfast alone and told himself that he would end up finding out about it at some point. There was no point in getting impatient.

***

Clint and Tony spent the whole morning in Tony’s workshop despite it theoretically being their free day. While Steve usually made a point of keeping Tony far from his workshop on Sundays, he didn’t think that would have been justified given that, when he had peeked through the workshop’s door, they had seemed to be having fun. Besides, as far as he knew, that little box wasn’t related to their job. So he just resigned to not seeing his boyfriend that morning and spent it sketching on the sofa, relaxed.

At some point in the morning, when Steve was already in the kitchen, cooking their meal for that day, both Tony and Clint emerged from the elevator with big smiles in place and big boxes in their arms.

“Um, what’s that?” Steve asked, pointing at the boxes with the wooden spoon he had been working with.

“Oh, this?” Tony asked as they approached the TV. “This, dear Steve, is a trip to the past.”

“Um.” Steve blinked, unsure of what past Tony was referring to. Even after four years, he still found himself baffled when people referred to what Steve had viewed for a long time as the future as their past.

It made sense and, at the same time, it didn’t.

He supposed that was what was happening there.

“Tony said you wouldn’t mind if we installed the console in your TV?” Clint said, changing his weight from his toes to his soles as if he were a kid asking their mother for permission to eat one more cookie. “He says you two never use it, anyway.”

“Yeah, that’s true, but…”

“Great!” Clint exclaimed, making a beelike towards the TV and sitting beside it with his box.

Tony just gave him a big smile and followed Clint. While chatting quickly about concepts that escaped Steve’s understanding completely, they started getting lots of cables and stuff out from their boxes and connecting them to the TV. With a sigh, Steve continued cooking while he tried to understand even a single word of what they were saying.

He understood some things, like “cars” and “circuits”. But for every single one he understood, there were a dozen he didn’t –who was Mario Bross? And Bowser? And why the hell were they talking about a princess as the best option to drive a car?—, which frustrated him a bit.

“Meal’s ready!” he ended up announcing with a voice way louder than he had intended, but at least it achieved what he wanted: both Tony and Clint got up and walked towards the kitchen.

They did so while they kept chatting animatedly about their seemingly strong opinions on whatever the box contained; they kept talking about memories Steve couldn’t quite grasp and they did so with a clear nostalgia that made Steve sad for not being part of it.

So, after being silent while they talked about it during the first course, he ended up sighing heavily and asking, “um, what is all this?”

They both turned to look at him wide-eyed, and Steve felt a bit bad for the way the excitement in Tony’s eyes meld into pity, but he had been a bit tired of not understanding a thing in the conversation, so he told himself he had nothing to feel guilty about for asking. Tony himself had told him so many times in the past years when he had found out about Steve’s habit of taking notes while no one watched on whatever he didn’t understand and look it up after on the internet, in private.

You can ask, you know? Tony had told him with a small, soft smile months before Steve had gathered the courage to finally ask him out. Seriously, if you don’t understand anything, just ask. Any answer anyone gives you will be way better than what you find on the internet since they’ll know why you don’t get the reference in the first place. Trust me.

So Steve had started asking directly for everything he didn’t understand, and it had worked wonders.

“Oh, shit, Steve, sorry,” Tony said, clearly feeling guilty. Both him and Clint shared a look. “We didn’t realize…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Steve said, smiling softly. “I didn’t want to interrupt you when you seemed so engrossed in whatever you’re doing, but now I’m curious. That’s what I’m asking.”

Tony’s gaze softened at Steve’s obvious embarrassment. “Have you ever heard about Mario Kart?”

“Um,” Steve looked between Clint and Tony, confuse. “I don’t think I have, no. Is that what all this is about?”

“Basically,” Clint said. “Tony and I loved this videogame a long time ago. I mean, it still exists for Switches and more modern Nintendos and stuff, but we played the original shit, then one released for the Super Nintendo back in the 90s, you know? With the original consoles and the original commands.”

“I have no idea how come a game as old as this ended up between the donations to the charity event,” Tony said, voice full of wonder. “But either way, they weren’t going to be able to enjoy it.”

“I take it the console needed to play it isn’t sold anymore?” Steve asked.

“Basically,” Tony said. 

“So you’ve… what? Built it from scratch?” Steve asked, making a motion towards the disaster of cables and machines that were awaiting Clint and Tony’s return. 

“Something like that,” Tony said. “I pulled up the schematics from the web and yeah, that’s what we’re trying to do. Initially, I was just going to help him get ahold of a Super Nintendo to play, but then we started talking about how good we were back then and…”

“You’re going to play against each other,” Steve deduced, smiling when finally all the pieces joined and made sense. “That’s why you’ve been so hyped up the whole morning, is it? You two want to check who knows how to play better?”

Clint and Tony flashed big, shiny smiles in his direction. The kind that reminded Steve of little kids, the competitive kind.

“You say that like it’s bad, Cap,” Clint said, laughing as he kept eating.

“It’s not bad,” Steve said. “But when you two dare each other it gets pretty heated pretty fast, you have to admit it.”

They just shrugged, not afraid in the slightest of admitting it.

Steve shook his head, suspecting how the afternoon would go.

***

A couple of hours later, he was sitting on the one-place sofa they had while he watched how, sitting on the bigger sofa, Clint and Tony shoved each other on the shoulder with some big, bulky machines between their hands. Tony had said they were imitations of the original Nintendo, but he had rerouted them so the image was shown on their TV. According to them, it was like making a trip to the past.

For Steve, it was as if he were watching two kids challenging each other.

And he was loving it.

So far, things were very tight between them. Tony had won ten rounds, while Clint had won nine and seemed to be about to win the twentieth they had played so far. Steve wondered how could it be their eyes didn’t hurt from having them fixed on the screen for so long.

It looked like they weren’t even blinking.

A couple of minutes later, when Tony was still complaining of a supposed glitch that had allowed Clint to win that round, Clint groaned and said, “I’m going to the bath. After that, if you want, we’ll play the last one.”

Both Tony and Steve watched Clint run in the bath’s direction.

“Are you having fun?” Steve asked the obvious after Clint had disappeared from their sight.

“Yeah,” Tony said, smiling softly at the static image displayed on the TV. “It had been a long time since I had played this game.”

“Well, I’m glad,” Steve said, sincerely. That relaxed look was good on Tony.

Tony looked at him with a smile, and then, after a bit, he said, “Hey, do you want to play one round?”

“Oh,” Steve said, caught by surprise. He looked at the TV and at the thing between Tony’s eyes, unsure. “I don’t know if I’ll get it.”

“Oh, trust me: you will. It’s easy, really. Come, come,” Tony said, palming the space next to him on the sofa. Unsure, Steve rose from his place, left his sketchbook back in his seat and walked until he sat next to Tony, who smiled at him. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Steve muttered, caught by surprise when Tony gave him a brief kiss. He blinked, his smile now dopey. “So, how does this work?”

“Oh, yeah, look,” Tony said, attracting Steve’s attention towards his console. “It’s easy: you have four buttons, and each one does one thing…”

Before he knew it, Steve was engrossed in Tony’s explanation, just as it happened every single time Tony explained anything to him. Only, sometimes he wasn’t able to follow him. This time, surprisingly, he did follow him just fine.

After finishing his explanation, Tony had him try a few rounds and, by the time they finished their third try, Steve’s hold over the console was a lot more confident than the first time Tony had handed it to him.

“Okay,” he said, squinting at the screen. “Let’s try one for real.”

Tony laughed at Steve’s serious, concentrated tone, but he didn’t complain and restarted the game. At first, he was commenting on the stuff that popped up on the screen, as if he didn’t think he needed to give the game his whole concentration the same way he had done when it had been Clint driving the other car, but as time passed and the last lap approached, Tony’s comments grew sparser and his eyes squinted more and more, his body completely bent forward by the time they crossed the finish line side by side.

Tony’s eyes opened wider than ever before when the screen showed the results.

Slowly, he turned to look at Steve, who was smiling, happy, at the TV screen.

“Didn’t you say you hadn’t played ever before?!” Tony asked, voice high-pitched.

Steve just bit his lip, shrugging. “I have good reflexes, I guess.”

Tony’s expression fell into a serious one and, decisively, he turned to look at the screen. “One more!”

Steve nodded, containing a small smile. “Sure.”

They didn’t realize it was midnight until JARVIS’ voice reminded them they had spent too much time without eating anything. Clint, who had been watching them from the one-place sofa, laughed at them.

“And you call me competitive?” he mocked them, laughing while Steve and Tony shared an embarrassed look.