#i get so overwhelmed when people say nice stuff about my writing

[gendervapor14]

i left a comment i've been meaning to leave for weeks!!

huh? did i reply to any of my comments?

.....

no.

but i left a comment. progress has been made.

[leconcombrerit]

This thing had been rotting in my files for a year (minus three weeks but that's basically a year). It was a redraw of one of my first ever pieces for this fandom, and I still find it quite okay if a little stiff in places, so I thought I might as well share it since I don't draw that much anymore.

And then I had second thoughts, which obviously led to me posting it anyway, as you can see, but I realized I've almost made it a point not to draw anything related to Sasi anymore. As in at all. I can't, and I don't want to, and even sharing old art feels a bit 'meh'. It's too directly linked to my long going art block.

What I mean by that is that if I took all the followers I have out there and asked them what they know me or initially followed me for, you might have a fair amount of Lis 2 and the occasional Desert Bluffs afficionados, but you'd get an overwhelming majority of Sanders Sides. Sanders Sides fashion posts even. I was by no means famous for it or anything, but at my small artist scale, it was the biggest success I had.

And it makes it much harder to go back to it at all now. One, because I don't give a damn about the show anymore. Two, because I haven't been properly obsessing over anything in a while (there was a series early this year but given the actual emotional distress I get thinking about it I'm ruling it out). I haven't had real engagement from my own brain, nor real engagement from a broad audience -which makes sense, I'm not posting for anything that will reach a broad audience. But it takes its toll regardless.

Even when I finally finished writing a long fic, I couldn't help but feel 'all this for what ? Ten people or so and two hundreds have dropped it ?'. Which is a bad way to think about stuff you write for your own enjoyment but, you know, the brain gets happy with external validation even if you pretend really hard you don't care.

And so it feels tempting to go back to the golden goose just the time to get the creative juice pumping back, and I try, and I always end up frustrated and angry and feeling even less like making art that before. I'm not having fun with Sasi. Like an old friend you have nothing to say to and yet you have so much to say otherwise, so you get a bit frustrated, you know ? Not sure I'm making much sense, but that's how it feels. I want to have something like that again, but it won't be with Sanders Sides, and I somehow just want if off my radar.

It was left hanging, then lost its spark, and then I stopped caring altogether and I most likely won't even watch the finale when it does come out. I'm over it. I wish I wasn't though, because it does feel like the artistic spark won't come back all on its own this time, and the buzzing community made it so much easier to bounce back and do shit when your brain got wired all wrong.

It sounds like I'm just bawling after love and likes and stuff, and I guess that's part of it, in a way ? Like I'm in no place to do things for myself, and seeing the one thing I used to use to get back in the flow giving me a bored sense of dread doesn't feel too great.

Yet this drawing is still good ! I find it good ! I don't remember everything, but I can tell from the looks of it that I spent a while on it ! It's nice ! I should celebrate that. So I'm sharing it. I think it will be the last piece of Sasi I ever share, though. I'm not watching the finale when it comes out. I don't care about it. I'll just keep doodling my OCs and characters from cool books every once in a while. I'll write little things.

I just really, really need to stop trying to go back to it when it's clearly not working and not even for good reasons. It was a fun ride though ! So yeah. Basically. A whole ass rant for a one year old piece of art. I'm in my bi-annual depresso mood, nothing too surprising there.

[lonleywriters-blog]

Gotham characters x metalhead reader?

(James, Barbara , Lee, Bruce, Oswald, Edward and Jerome?)

Gotham x metalhead reader

Kinda shit because it's late but I'm trying to write while I have motivation

Honestly he probably steals some of your stuff because it's cool.

He's rich so any band you like, he's looking for tickets.

Tries to understand the actual history behind the style and culture.

He will let you practice pain on him, maybe even let you do it before he leaves as Batman.

Alfred secretly gets down to the music

Bruce actually likes it, but never lets you play it in the morning

Spoils you with merch and accessories like every week

She tries to be supportive but she does not like the music

She will let you listen to it when she's not around or if it's not as loud

She will set up small concerts of local metal bands at her club for you

She buys you anything you want including tickets, clothes, makeup, ECT.

The one time you caught her enjoying metal was listening to an underground female band

You both met at a concert, at the bar actually

She loved your outfit and bought you a drink

She was surprised to actually get along with you, and want to spend more than a night together

Let's you practice make up on her, even asks you for some tips

Definitely steals accessories, especially your belts

She thinks chains look great on top of a black dress

Just don't play anything too early, she will get mad if you wake her up to metal

Hasn't a clue about any band that's not in the radio

He might know a few 'divorced dad' type songs

He doesn't judge, he'll just silently be supportive

Y'all look cool side by side though, since he's always in a suit

He will go to concerts but he's not popular there, given he's like a famous Gotham cop

"name three songs" type guy

She definitely knows some songs and mainstream bands

She loves the style but can't dedicate herself to learning about everything

Not to say she doesn't try, she does

She just doesn't have the best attention span for this kinda stuff

Shes always complimenting you, like religiously

If you guys go somewhere you'll feel her fix your hair or accessories

"sorry babes, loose strands."

His gothic look next to your metalhead look

Y'all are the most fashionable couple around

He honestly listens to more classical music but he'd enjoy a few of your songs

He doesn't love going to concerts, too many people, and way too much sweat and noise

Both of you suffer in all black in the heat together

"Can we go find shade, my love?"

Oswald does love when he gets to watch you get ready

Watching you do face paint is so alluring to him

Please let him buy you things, please he loves spoiling you

He grew up in the circus, he's always loved more dramatic looks

Loved your style, especially if you had face paint or heavy makeup on

Definitely comes on strong and hard, won't leave you alone for a second

He will come to any all concerts with you, probably sneaking in and/or stealing tickets

He loves stealing you accessories while he's out, his way of showing affection

Don't let him talk to anyone at a concert, he will be loud and wrong

He loves learning about all your favorite bands and songs and all their meanings

He doesn't know much about the fashion but he knows about the history

He likes to help you get ready, it's nice to watch your routine

Compliments all the time

He does have sensitive ears so he may not always let you play music

Please let him give you headphones

Don't take him to a concert, he will get lost and overwhelmed

[illusioncanthurtme--art]

Lil general update about me:

I've been so so happy and grateful for the people who like the gravity falls stuff I've been posting. Being totally honest, and I'm not exaggerating at all, thinking about gravity falls and playing it in the background while I work has been my lifeline this past week. And it's almost overwhelming, because I'm so excited about everything, and I have so many drawing ideas, but I don't have the time to actually follow through with them. It makes me a little sad, and it's a silly thing to get anxiety over. I mean, it would be really nice to make all these drawings when the fandom is booming and a lot of people are going to see them, right?? I wanna strike when the irons hot. It's fun. But I can't really do that right now. Instead, I have all these feelings and emotions and ideas, and in my head, I'm like, you need to CREATE to get all this out of you!! But I can't. It honestly makes me a little melancholy. I feel like this:

Commissions aside, one of my cats is having health problems and I've been frantically calling around to find someone who can help her asap. I'm feeling very hopeful about things now, as I write this, because I got an earlier surgery scheduled for her, AND I actually saw her eat tonight. Which is crazy. And on top of that, I'm leaving town this weekend for a convention I'll be tabling at. So it doesn't leave much time for drawing the fun gravity falls stuff that exists in my brain :(

I feel its necessary to say this, because I've received a LOT of asks, WAY more than I'm used to, and everyone is really kind and receptive to the stuff I've shared so far!! And I don't want them to think that I'm actively ignoring them. I'm not. I'm just going through a lot atm, and my everyday todo list has been very long lately. I want to give those asks proper answers!! And weirdly, I compensate for my lack of time to do this stuff by like, thinking about answering the asks, and what I'll say. it's silly. I wanna make stuff to share with you guys, but I can't dish out the five hundred page webcomic that I'd like to make. At least not right now. I hope this GF resurgence lasts a while, because I'd really like to make a whole lot of stuff.

Maybe I'll respond to a couple real quick before bed.

[salty-croissants]

I’m literally in love with your stuff. Can you maybe to Bullfrog and Rayman with an autistic reader?

Thank you for the request ! 

I’m so happy you’ve been enjoying my writings , it really means a lot ❤️

I gotta say I was a bit worried about not doing this one right … I did put a few things that I personally find relatable as someone who is autistic myself , thought it would be nice to include is all , I hope this works ! 

Details : use of gender neutral reader ; 

established relationships ; 

no warnings needed 

Bullfrog 💚 

So , this frog man ? He loves you unconditionally , and he just really wants you to know that he will always accept you and your unique traits , even when you feel insecure about them …

< I … I don’t know , Bullfrog … sometimes I just feel like all I’m doing is being a burden to y - > 

< Non . Don’t even finish that . 

You’re the most wonderful person I have ever met , y/n , and there isn’t a single day in which I’m not thankful for having you in my life . > 

< Really … ? > 

< Oui , mon amour . I long for nothing more than being with you . > 

< *sniff* > 

< Oh - Are you alright ? I’m so sorry , I didn’t mean to make you cry - > 

< Heh … it’s okay … I’m just really happy . 

I love you so much ~ >

  Bullfrog loves listening to you enthusiastically going on and on about something you’re passionate about , especially when he’s not having a good day : 

just hearing the sound of your voice is so , so very comforting to him … if he could he would sit beside you for days , his attention reserved for you and you alone . 

< … and what’s even more awesome is that there is actually a really subtle easter egg hidden in the background which changes the entire narrative for that charact - 

… wait , how long have I been … ? >

< That is very interesting my dear ! 

Please keep going , j'adore le son de ta voix ~ >

< Aww - > 

Your adorable expressions when he showers you with compliments …

Bullfrog can’t even begin to describe how happy they make him ://)

If being around people gets too overwhelming , Bullfrog is quick to pick up on that and he’ll immediately get you someplace more quiet , willing to do whatever it takes to make sure you’re comfortable and safe … 

< Is this really okay ? I’m so sorry , it’s just … it was so crowded and loud in there , and I … >

< Mon cher , there is no reason for you to be sorry … let’s just stay here for now , then if you wish to try and go back in we can do that , or we can always go back home : I assure you , you’ve already done more than enough tonight … I am very proud of you , and you should be too . > 

And if one day something starts making you very , very anxious ? 

Well , no matter what the reason is and no matter how small it might be Bullfrog is going to stay close to you to help you out in whatever way he can .

< I’m so sorry for making you put up with me like this … you already have so much to take care of , and this … is just dumb . > 

< y/n , ce n'est pas te supporter , you know that .

I want to be there for you , the same way you’re always there for me …

I promise you , we can find a way out of this , you don’t have to deal with it on your own . > 

< Thank you so much , Bullfrog … you’re amazing ~ > 

< Ce serait toi , my dear … I’m truly blessed to have you by my side ~ > 

Rayman 🧡

Saying that you mean a lot to this man would be an understatement …

You mean absolutely everything to him , so you better believe that Rayman will always be careful about all the things that could potentially make you uncomfortable , remembering them all very accurately .

< Here sweetie , hold my hand for a moment … > 

< Oh - okay , but why ? > 

< We’re gonna need to pass through that crowd over there , it should be quick but I don’t want you to get overwhelmed by having many people and loud noises all around , so let’s just stay close until we get through … > 

< Thanks Ray … just … don’t let go , please . > 

< I would never . > 

All the effort Rayman puts into making you feel as comfortable as possible no matter where the two of you are … it never fails to warm your heart . 

If anyone even remotely says something mean spirited about you … 

Ohh boy , he’s not going to let it slide .

< Uh , excuse me ? WHAT was that about my partner ? > 

< Ray , honey , it’s okay … > 

Yeah , Rayman is definitely very protective of you , and he will defend you with no hesitation if anyone dares to try and make you feel inadequate in any way . 

Rayman loves listening to you talk about whatever topics come to your mind while he’s working …

It actually helps him focus quite a lot , and he really never gets bored of seeing how happy you look when info dumping about something you’re passionate about .

You’re just so pretty ! He can’t get over it …

If you tend to lose focus to the point of forgetting to take care of yourself , Rayman has got you covered : he makes sure to remind you to eat and drink water often , even leaving little notes in places where he knows you’ll find them …

“Important : remember to eat today ! <3”

“If you’re reading this … get a glass of water !” 

His devotion to you is nothing less than adorable … but then again , you’re the person he cares about most , the one that showed him kindness without asking for anything in return , so now ? 

Rayman deems it only fair to repay that kindness in his own way . 

[the-milk-monarch]

hello hello! I really like your writing! can I request a Mal x autistic reader but all good if not. Have a nice day/night!

☣︎ omg yes I wanted to write sth similar but I felt like it'd be too self-serving lmao I hope you don't mind I added Mike in there as well

[𝙰𝚄𝚃𝙸𝚂𝚃𝙸𝙲 𝚂/𝙾]

Summary: Mal pretends to be Mike but Reader picks up on it. After the reveal, Reader has to spent a cold night out with Mal as a challenge + dating headcanons.

☢︎ | Total Drama | 6k words | gender-neutral reader ♡ | Mal | Mike ⚠ | Mal being an ass, reader having a meltdown

[𝙼𝚒𝚔𝚎]

Ever since you joined the Total Drama show, you knew you had to get an ally if you were to win.

Your social skills weren't the best, but you had your good problem solving skills to make up for that. At least you hoped so.

You were a little anxious while interacting with other contestants, hoping they wouldn't notice your a bit different approach to conversations.

But there was one boy who didn't seem to mind your awkwardness. On the contrary, he was a bit awkward as well, which filled you with adoration.

Mike was always so kind and respectful you never felt anxious around him, even with your quirky way of speaking.

Or the fact that you avoided eye contact while you spoke.

And when you cringed at yourself whenever you tripped on the flat ground, he didn't think of you any less, he was just worried whether you hurt yourself or not.

You could say you caught a small crush on Mike because of how comfortable you felt with him, but you knew he was interested in Zoey.

Although you were unsure about some small gestures received from him. "Was he just nice or is it his interest?" played in your head, although your mind told you to assume the worst and not hype yourself up.

That didn't stop you from simping from afar though.

What you loved the most about Mike was his willingness to listen to you ramble about your special interest.

You were really worried about being annoying around other people, knowing you might get a bit too excited the stuff you like and it'd be "inappropriate".

But Mike seemed to be into it, asking follow up questions and overall being engaged with you talking.

Your trust towards Mike was put to a test once you got a bit too overwhelmed in the middle of a challenge.

This particular day you seemed to have extra clumsy coordination which pissed you off a little, as it was important for you to win this time, given how strict the criteria for losing were this time.

"God, I have enough-" You desperately and a bit irritated announced while trying to tie a knot.

The challenge Chris McLean decided to do today was a scout obstacle course. Each person had to partner up with someone and do some scout activities, which included tying knots into various shapes shown on the picture.

The rope fell out of your hands for the 5th time while you were almost done with it and it made you forcibly exhale in irritation.

Mike had just finished his part of the activity and he noticed you had some troubles.

"Um, what is it?" He asked carefully, looking at your closed off body language.

"My hands don't listen to me and I can't tie these damn knots-" You tried not to make a scene, hating how much a simple, stupid task made you upset.

Your breathing got slightly heavier as you tried to suppress your rising emotions. You knew you had the right to express it, but not now. Not in front of Mike.

You took a step back from the ropes laying on the ground helplessly and given up, wanting to get some space from the irritating item.

Mike had noticed your change of attitude and immediately sensed you were losing it a bit.

"Hey, it's fine- I'll do your part." He suggested quickly, hoping to give some reassurance. "I-it's just ropes, right? We can still win!"

You felt a bit silly but you had no power to complete the task. You meekly nodded.

You stood there, just looking at his hard work until he finished.

"Okay, let's go!" Mike announced as he was done with your both parts.

At the end of the day, you and Mike managed to avoid elimination and after the challenge ended, you had some alone time to yourself.

Once you had a chance to be alone for a second, you quickly escaped the large crowd of people, wanting to get some space after such tiring situation.

You were chilling on a bench until you noticed a familiar face appearing on your radar.

Mike had managed to find you.

You quickly changed your way of cross legged sitting on a bench due to fear of being perceived as weird, even though you knew Mike probably wouldn't bat an eye on that.

You politely smiled as he approached you.

"Hey, there you are-" Mike reciprocated your smile a bit nervously.

"I hope I'm not disturbing you, but I noticed you kind of- disappeared from the rest earlier, did something happen? Are you alright?" He asked with worry on his face which made you soften your expression. Did he really care about your wellbeing so much he came after you?

"No, no, you're not disturbing-" You said, halfly honest. You wanted some time alone for yourself, but you couldn't say you didn't appreciate him coming here.

He came up to the bench you were sitting on and sat beside you, keeping a respectful distance.

You didn't even notice when you started slightly bouncing your leg as you spoke.

To a keen eye (or even not so) it was clear that even though your face was calm, you had some bottled stress inside.

Mike was mindful enough to notice it, so he proceeded carefully.

"So- you're fine, just wanted to- chill out alone for a second?" Mike gently asked, looking at your face, even though your eyes avoided his.

"Yeah. You know, people overwhelm me a bit sometimes-" You admitted a bit bluntly.

"Oh, yeah, it's fine, I get what you mean-" He assured you with a smile. But then his smile faltered a little in worry.

"Wait, since you wanted to be alone, aren't I a bother?" He asked again, ready to stop bugging you in case it wasn't welcomed.

You softly smiled at his politeness.

"No, I said you're not a bother. I don't mind you being here, and- I like that you came here, actually." You admitted with a bit awkward and coy smile. You weren't used to speaking your mind freely like that, in case something came out wrong, but you concluded your response was acceptable.

Mike grinned bashfully as he remembered your previous words.

"Right, right, sorry heh." He scratched his neck as he showed a toothy grin.

"So..." He started after a few seconds.

"Tell me if I'm crossing any boundaries here, but I felt like there was some shift from you since that, um, knot situation." He carefully said. "...Are you- mad at me? Did I do something?"

You cringed internally at yourself.

"Oh, eh- no-" You quickly chimed in. "No, I'm sorry if I came off that way-"

"I just got a bit overwhelmed because I'm so clumsy- But I'm alright now." You assured him with a half smile while your leg continued to bounce. Until you noticed the movement and promptly stopped.

Mike had noticed all of your quirks but never commented on them.

"Hey, it's alright- I didn't mind helping you." He gave you a warm and a calm smile.

You waited a bit before thinking about saying something.

"I- I dunno if you know what a 'meltdown' is...?" You carefully started. You never explicitly stated you're autistic, nor you wanted people to treat you like a child whenever they found out, but you trusted Mike wouldn't do that.

Mike blinked once before tilting his head slightly.

"A meltdown... Uh..." He looked at the ground, trying to think about it.

You explained before he could say anything else, saving him from an awkward silence.

"It's an autism thing, I just kinda shut off for a moment there. I know it's not really useful in a competition." You bluntly admitted, waiting for his reaction.

Mike then seemed to get the idea "Oh, right! Yeah, yeah I know what is it." He nodded to emphasize.

"You- You don't have to worry about that! I know how it is to get overwhelmed sometimes-" He chuckled nervously.

"Just so you know, it doesn't change anything." He showed yet another reassuring smile which made the corners of your lips move up as well. "I'll help you whenever you need it!"

"...Thanks." You hoped the shine in your bashful eyes didn't expose your feelings too much.

["𝙼𝚒𝚔𝚎"]

After several days on the island, you noticed something changed. Mike seemed off to you.

Others didn't seem to notice, but your eyes caught some discrepancies in the way Mike acted.

His whole demeanor changed in an uncanny way.

You were used to being very chatty around him due to his always reciprocative stance, but recently Mike started to seem annoyed.

Worries flared up immediately once you noticed he might get bored of your ramblings, so you decided to ask him about it.

"Hey, uh, Mike? Can I ask you a question?" You tried to casually introduce the topic.

"Hm? Yeah, sure. Go on." He answered with fake investment in his voice, smiling.

"Am I talking too much? You can tell me to stop if you got bored or something-" You awkwardly informed him, hoping you weren't a bother after all, waiting for the confirmation.

He stopped for a moment, showing an unsure but cheery smile.

"Oh, no, no- Of course I love listening to you- But I'm just a bit tired today, so maybe you could tone it down a little today?" He tried to be as gentle as ever while shutting you up.

He wasn't very disrespectful but it kind of hurt you. Even though you knew he had the full right to politely ask you to stop, you thought he enjoyed the discussions with you.

You tried once again a few times, but all you were met with was subtly seeping annoyance from his responses.

"Oh my, that's interesting- But tell me, do you have anything else to talk about?" He asked while smiling and pretending to be invested.

"Uh- yeah. If you want I can-"

"Cool. Then talk about something else." He abruptly cut you off.

So with time you slowly shut up with the ramblings, which Mike seemed to be happy about.

You couldn't believe he just changed like that, as if it wasn't him. But you also felt like you had any right to force him into listening to you.

The changes in his behavior didn't stop at that, as you also noticed some remarks coming his way, which you had trouble deciding whether it was sarcasm or not.

He also seemed to get a bit more demanding, not being as keen to help you with things now.

You didn't take Mike's kindness for granted of course, but you knew something changed.

You had a bad feeling.

Your logical thinking made you come up with theories on what happened.

You knew about Mike's D.I.D. and wondered if it was maybe someone else. But you also knew Mike's alters well enough to know it wasn't any of the ones you were acquainted with.

Only thing that stopped you from outright asking him about it was your common decency. It would be rude to just assume.

So you decided to test something.

You once again started your favorite topic, one that Mike had a lot of questions and discussion about while he still acted like himself.

"Hey, Mike, I recently thought about that one tv show we talked about recently and I forgot to tell you some trivia. Wanna listen to the facts about [character] or [character2]?" You asked with halfly casual tone, wanting to check his reaction. You mentioned Mike's favorite action movie, so you believed he would reply with some enthusiast about it.

"Wow- um- Yeah, [character2] sounds good." He responded with pretended interest but you caught some annoyance from him, "per usual".

"...I thought you didn't like [character2]?" You asked a tricky question. The character in question was his favorite one. At least Mike's favorite. You purposefully asked an untrue question.

"Eh- I mean- Hate-listening is a thing, right?" He tried to get out of the hole he fell in due to not listening previously to you. His attempts at trying to be casual were obvious to you now.

You stopped for a moment to look him briefly in the eyes.

"Actually, you mentioned [character2] being your favorite." You tilted your head and raised your brow a bit accusatory.

He looked to the side, as if caught in a lie, but still tried to save face.

"Well tastes change, don't they?" He crossed his arms in a bit of annoyance because of you poking holes in his story.

"That's really rude of you." He furrowed his brows in slight irritation as his patience was running out.

That was it, you knew Mike wouldnt' just tell you that! Or, at least you hoped you were right about it.

You took a leap of faith as you also crossed your arms in a defensive state, staring at him.

"You're not Mike are you?" You asked bluntly.

He got a bit surprised at your boldness.

"What?" He chuckled a bit patronizingly, as if you said something stupid. "Of course I'm Mike. Why do you say that?"

"Well- I didn't wanna assume, but looking at your behavior recently I noticed you got a lot less enthusiastic about spending time with me. So obviously something's up." You concluded, still sticking to your belief. You hoped you weren't wrong.

"God you have to overthink everything, do you?" His tone changed to a slightly deeper one.

You noticed him gracefully swish his hair in a way which made his bangs cover his eye.

"Are you usually this annoying? How did Mike even managed to deal with you?" He expressed his thoughts freely now while you were under his judging eye.

Your eyes widened a little - you were right, it wasn't Mike.

"Wow, okay- Who are you then?" You asked now without any restriction.

"I'm Mal." He responded with arrogance.

"And if you tell anyone I'm not that nerdy freak, you're done." He added with an undertone of threat.

"Hey, what's with that hostility?" You tilted your head and asked a bit bluntly but still remaining polite.

"I am simply direct. I don't have the time or patience to deal with any of your foolish questions." Mal's cold and serious persona was quite intimidating, but you managed to stay calm.

"Okay- I'm direct too, but I don't have to threat you while at it." You pointed out calmly.

"I'm not threatening you. I'm simply telling you what will happen if you reveal my true self to anyone else." Mal's words echoed a threat without any hesitation.

You sighed, sensing some mixed messages from him. "Alright- Uh, so- Why don't you want me to tell others you're not Mike?"

"It's not your business." Mal's face displayed no change in expression, still remaining as firm and strict as ever.

You waited a bit before shrugging. "...Fair enough."

Mal stared at you, showing no reaction whatsoever. "Anything else?"

"Uh- Since you're obviously not Mike, why don't we start again?" You tried to make something out of this unusual situation.

Mal raised his brow skeptically, trying to sense your intentions with that question.

"And what do you mean by that?" Mal's demeanor stayed unchanged, keeping a sharp and indifferent look on his face.

"Like- I know nothing about you, but- I'm opened to still hold an alliance, you know?" You shrugged, hoping he'll agree.

"I'm not looking for any kind of alliance with you." Mal's words sounded harsh and blunt. He never cared for any relationships, especially with people he doesn't even know.

"Okay, harsh." You bluntly put it, a bit awkward he wasn't keen on it. "But- uh, why not?"

"Because there will never be any mutual benefits here." Mal's statement was short and concise, showing no further interest in their current conversation.

"Uh- How so?" You continued.

"You have nothing worthwhile to offer me. No one else has anything worthwhile to offer me either. It's why I'm alone." Mal's words sounded as cold and harsh as ever, as if you weren't even there.

"…Isn't it a bit lonely?" You didn't wanna push the matter further, but without Mike or anyone else in an alliance, you felt lonely yourself. That's why you tried to save the situation you had before.

Mal stayed silent for a bit. "Lonely? Yes. Do I care? No." Mal's face showed no visible change of expression, staying as cold as ever.

"It doesn't matter to me if I'm alone. I can survive on my own, I don't need any friends. I never have and never will."

Your face showed a bit of concern as well as mixed emotions.

It was hard to get to him, but you still had some hopes.

"Well- I'm not saying you need them, but- since I already know you're not Mike, why can't we be at least on a positive terms?" You tried your best to seem an appealing friend.

Mal stayed silent for a bit, considering your words. He remained indifferent and unamused, but your words at least reached his ears.

"You don't even know me, yet you want to be on positive terms with me… Are you that desperate?" He looked at you patronizingly amused.

"I'm trying to be nice here." You bluntly said, a bit discouraged by his unwillingness to cooperate.

"Nice, you say? Do you even know what 'nice' means? To my knowledge, 'nice' is something you do to manipulate people and get their trust. I'm not interested in those kinds of games." Mal's words were cold and sharp, as if challenging you to answer him.

You stood there a bit dumbfounded at his definition of "nice". "No- And I'm sorry you had this experience if that's what you think it means. But I hold no malice towards you, really."

"Well you're either lying, or you're just a fool. I haven't decided yet." Mal didn't make an effort to hold back his words, just letting them slip with his usual bluntness.

You rolled your eyes slightly, but you were determined to change his mind. "Look, I know you have no reason to trust me, like me, or even believe me, but- let's say it makes us even then? We get to be in an alliance, and I don't tell your secret?" You didn't like blackmail, but you had to save yourself somehow.

"…Let's say your offer interests me… What would be your goal of this alliance?" Mal's demeanor changed slightly, becoming noticeably more analytical and entertaining the possibility at least slightly.

"Well- First off, a buddy is always nice to have on the competition, second reason- I like Mike. And you're a part of Mike So- I also wanna be friends with you. And- I hope that's reasonable?" You put it in a honest way.

Mal chuckled out loud before looking at you entertained and looking as if he was about to burst your bubble. "But I'm no Mike. If you think I'm gonna act like him then you're mistaken."

"No, I don't." You quickly disregarded his words. "That's why I suggested a fresh start."

You waited a bit before elaborating more. "Yes, I know that probably sounds stupid, but I'll be blunt. I just wanna make a friend and stay in the game. And I suck at social interactions." You knew how desperate you probably were to him, given his indifferent approach to you, but you had no other idea what to do.

Mal was clearly entertained by your responses. He couldn't help but chuckle at their naivety and the sheer persistence of being his 'friend' or something similar. "…You're one odd individual. I must say."

Mal stood silently for a moment, pondering the possibilities for an alliance between you two. He sighed before responding. "…Very well" Mal's face looked serious now, having a proposition in store.

"Should you fail to respect my boundaries, or try to manipulate me in any way… you're dead meat." Mal's tone of voice changed a bit too, now sounding as if he weren't joking anymore.

"And I also want you to not interfere with any of my plans. Understood? I can tolerate working with you for the time being, but only for the sake of mutual benefits." Mal's words were harsh and intimidating, but there seemed to be a slight tinge of… skepticism.

That was a good thing, you thought, because at least he was considering your request.

You nodded.

[Mal at the confessional]

"I can't decide whether they're planning something I didn't give them credit for, or are they that stupid to think I'm really gonna be in a real alliance with them." Mal chuckled to the camera. "Probably the latter." He added with a smug smirk. "That naive pawn… it's too easy to manipulate them. All that talk about "friendship…" nonsense." He obnoxiously mocked your words with a hand gesture as his look held entertainment. "As if that mattered to me… or anyone." Mal thought to himself out loud. "No one ever mattered to me, and they never will. People are merely tools in my eyes, and I will use them to get what I want..." His expression seemed to stay serious and pondering for a moment before the video cut off.

[𝙼𝚊𝚕]

You had very mixed feelings about the situation.

You were very well aware Mal probably didn't respect you and only agreed to it for his benefit, you weren't stupid.

But you also had some hopes he would come around with time.

Your relationship proceeding further was very rocky, as Mal didn't really treat you with kindness, which you kind of expected, but weren't happy about.

Still, he didn't try to vote you off, and for the time being it worked.

You were a bit lost about what to do, but the days on the island didn't let you have a break to think about things, and the challenges proceeded as usual.

Today's challenge was a camp-out one. People in the team had to partner up with someone and then spend a night outside, in the forest.

"Easy enough", you thought, but you noticed some eye-roll from Mal.

Obviously you and Mal ended up being partners, due to the "mutual" alliance you had.

Once the teams had chose their respective campsites and you were alone, Mal swooshed his hair so it fell on his eye once again without a comment, seemingly more comfortable with this hairstyle instead of Mike's usual standing hair.

"So- How about this place?" You pointed out to a simple area that didn't have a lot of pinecones on the ground, offering a softer ground to set a tent on.

"Whatever, can be." He briefly acknowledged your words without any further interest.

You were a bit tired of his apathetic demeanor but you let it slide.

You placed your backpack on the ground, preparing to take out the necessary equipment.

Mal sat on some available tree root, expecting you to do all the work.

It took you some time but you were determined to set out the tent properly, even under Mal's judging eye.

To no avail. Without an instruction, it wasn't your strong suit to just "wing it".

Mal raised his brow unamusedly while crossing his arms.

"God that's pathetic." He commented without any hesitance.

"Okay then, you do it." You crossed your arms as well, now looking at him.

You heard a "tch-" from him. "Really? You're that helpless?" He smirked.

"It would appear so." You just bluntly admitted, gaining some surprise from Mal, which quickly disappeared after a moment.

"Weak." He murmured to himself, making sure you also heard him. He walked up to the tent, setting it up without much resistance.

You plopped down on the tree trunk Mal was previously sitting on, watching him work.

After he was done you didn't want to be useless, so you got up with an idea of gathering some wood. What's a camp without a camp-fire, eh?

Mal saw you leave but didn't comment anything, choosing to go sit in the tent he just set up.

You were really trying to be nice and respectful to Mal, but he was slowly draining your willingness to do it.

As you were collecting random twigs from the ground you were thinking about him though.

No one was mean without a reason, and given Mike's situation, he probably went through lots of stuff to get to his current behavior, which made you feel sympathetic towards him.

You came back to your little campout, noticing Mal lazily sitting inside the tent, holding a knife in his one hand that was carving the wood he held in the other. You wondered where did he get it from?

"I brought wood." You announced, letting the twigs fall onto the floor.

"Congrats, you made yourself useful." He commented briefly, but mostly ignoring you.

It was a start at least.

Soon enough the air became colder, forcing you to make a fire.

You gathered some rocks and formed them along with several pieces of wood, trying to set the fire with 2 rocks, as you had to do with Mike on scout-type challenge, until Mal took out a match with unamused expression and started the fire.

You blinked as you saw the fire appear, then looked at Mal. "How did you get a match?"

"I stole it." He replied carelessly without a hint of shame.

"...Okay, that works." You only managed to say.

You both got near the source of warmth in a careful distance away from each other, you sitting on the tree trunk nearby, him sitting in the tent.

The challenge was going pretty smoothly, until it began to pour.

The rain quickly took out your fire, making Mal groan in irritation.

As you felt the droplets of water on your clothes, you quickly went into the tent where Mal was taking most of the space, but he reluctantly moved to the corner once he saw you coming.

You stayed silent as you observed the aggressive change of the weather, with Mal not making a peep either, only keeping his outward display of annoyance towards the rain visible.

It was getting dark and cold, with the weather having no plans of going back to the sunny afternoon it previously was.

Mal backed out into the tent, sitting quietly and looking outside with an upset expression on his face.

There was a long, awkward silence that got to you internally, but you didn't want to risk annoying Mal with bringing up "annoying" topics to talk about, as you had no other ideas.

You came to the show with quite a thick jacket with a hood on, so the cold didn't bother you that much, but you observed Mal pressing his bent knees to his stomach in attempt to keep warm.

There was no sign of struggle from his side though, as he made a good job of sitting still, acting like it wasn't bothering him, with the exception of subtle trembles of his body once in a while.

It was obvious he felt cold with only a short-sleeved shirt to keep him warm.

"Are you cold?" You asked hesitantly, even though you knew the answer.

He shot you a death glare. "I'm fine."

You waited a second, looking at him briefly and thinking about your options. You decided to press further.

"You have short sleeves though." You pointed out, looking at his face getting agitated.

"So fucking what? My fault this moron can't dress properly?" He barked at you with hostility, as if you were pointing out his misfortune.

"No." You responded a bit taken aback by his tone, but you remained calm.

"But- We can share." You made your intentions clear as you took off the jacket, handing it to him.

He looked at you with skeptic and confused eyes as if you had some hidden intentions behind that move, but he accepted the gift without any comment.

You noticed his grumpy expression soften slightly but still keeping that distrustful glare, avoiding your eye as he put the jacket around his back.

You judged his reaction as a positive one though.

After a moment you scooted closer to him, touching his side with yours, to which he raised his eyebrow at your "audacity".

"What are you doing?" He muttered, looking at your movements with mixed feelings.

"You're not the only one cold here. I'm also freezing." You explained a bit lightheartedly, hoping to ease the thick tension between you two.

Mal only briefly looked at you and let out a "hmph" noise as an acknowledgement as he looked away from you, yet he didn't move away, letting you stay in this position.

You sighed contently for the first time in a few days now.

You watched the rain fall in silence, but at least it wasn't as overwhelming now.

Finally the exhaustion caught up to you both as a product of several hours of walking and doing stuff.

Mal let out the first yawn and so you asked him whether he wants to go to sleep.

He shrugged, still keeping his indifferent behavior but accepted. "Sure, whatever."

You both moved to the far away corners of the tent and layed down, feeling the fabric of the tent soften the hard ground halfly. Chris didn't pack you any sleeping bags, that would be too easy.

All you had was your jacket as a make-shift blanket.

You noticed Mal laying on his side, in a way that wouldn't make him face you.

You offered him a part of the jacket but his ego didn't let him accept this time.

"I'm fine. I don't need it." He harshly turned down your offer.

You sighed. "Fine."

Mal remained stubborn, even though the cold was biting his ass, he managed to fall asleep.

You however couldn't, due to the uncomfortable place of sleeping.

You laid on your back for a few seconds, staring at the ceiling of the tent, before deciding to take a look at Mal.

His breathing let you notice he was asleep, although his shaky body was visibly cold.

You didn't have the heart to let him freeze, so you very carefully moved near him, putting a part of the jacket on him to cover him up.

You pressed your back very slightly against him, craving some additional warmth from his body that would benefit you boths

Fortunately he didn't wake up.

You managed to fall asleep after some time as well.

Mal woke up after several hours, thoroughly confused about the state of his being, as he expected to wake up cold, but he was quite- cozy.

His expression changed as soon as he noticed you very close to him.

He cringed at your proximity, with your front facing him in a blissful state of sleep, hair over your eyes as if in rom-com movie.

He was about to forcefully shake you off him, but he decided against it for some reason.

Perhaps it was his self-preservation finally speaking, instead of ego getting in his way of survival. Your position was both comfy and warm, after all.

He only turned to lay on his back, letting out a heavy sigh, furrowing his eyebrows slightly as it was now his turn to look above without any particular reason, just to think over the situation.

As soon as you started to wake up, he immediately backed off, putting the whole jacket on you.

"Finally you're awake." He said as if it was a big bother.

You softly rubbed your eyes, yawn escaping your lips as you done so.

"When did you wake up?" You asked with a bit of haze still.

"Doesn't matter." He sharply shut down your question, although his tone was just slightly different than his usual bitterness.

After you both past the challenge timer of staying and ready to leave the place, you noticed Mal taking down the tent, without you having to ask him for it. Huh.

[Mal at the confessional]

Mal stared at the camera with crossed arms for a longer moment, having an ambiguous expression on his face. After some time he finally decided to open his mouth. "God, they're so helpless. They can't even set up a damn tent." His scornful tone made it obvious he was making fun of you. "How would they even make it so far without me?" He once again made it clear to the recording device that he was needed for your victory. Yet another few seconds passed by before his thought was said out loud, this time his face turning less arrogant and more figuring out what he's gonna say. "...They're so naive." He reiterated once more, as if to reassure himself what to think. "But- Maybe with my help I'll be able to use them to my advantage." He finally found the correct direction of his further words. "I'll make sure no one gets between me and Y/N getting a chance at winning the money." "Of course, just for me to forcefully take the victory away from them, later." He said confidently, but he felt the need for a clarification on that last part. He lingered in the confessional for a moment more, before getting to his final words, looking straight at the camera. "And if anyone plans to interfere with that, they're gonna go down."

[BONUS - DATING HEADCANONS]

Of course if you and Mal become a thing, he'll be more keen about tolerating your quirks and listening to you ramble about your hyperfixations.

He won't be as invested in them, but he'll treat you in a way he'd treat a cat enjoying it's favorite toy - "You do your thing sweetie. It's stupid but adorable to look at."

Once he gets used to your true thoughts and trust you, he'd also think your honesty is refreshing.

He thinks neurotypicals play too many complicated emotional games.

He can also play them as a form of manipulation, but if it comes to trusting each other he appreciates you always being blunt when it comes to what you think.

It's obvious Mal most probably has ASPD and Narcissistic Personality Disorder, so he's not a stranger to people not liking his attitude and way of thinking.

He might be a bit too harsh on you at first, not used to having someone caring about him (or vice versa) but with time he'll learn to not go as hard on you.

Like with your 'special needs', not tolerating some textures and foods, your obsession about only on topic at a time, or stimming, which might be distracting to him.

He might panic a bit inside once you have a meltdown first time around him though, not knowing how to act around you in that state, as only thing he knows it's hostility, so don't expect him to be much help.

He might listen to your requests how should he act later on, though.

He will also be more straightforward around you when he notices your "denseness".

"Do you- want my jacket again?" You asked, looking at Mal. "No, let me freeze to death." He remarked sarcastically, expecting you to pass him the jacket again, but you just blinked, unsure if he wanted it or not after your previous similar encounter with him being reluctant to accept it. He looked at you a second more, now elaborating a bit annoyed. "Yes, I want it."

Even more so after Mal became less insecure about showing his interest in you.

"Aren't you cold?" He asked, looking at you expectantly with a hint of tease in his voice, obviously wanting you to come closer to him so you'd need him as a source of warmth. "Kinda-" You responded casually, yet still did nothing. Mal waited a moment before finally sighing and pulling you closer to him in a smooth manner, making you a bit surprised. "That means come here." He reiterated slightly more greedy about your presence. That amount of possessiveness made you a bit stunned, but in a kind of positive way. He wasn't negative towards you anymore, after all. "Do I really have to spell out everything for you?" He asked halfly serious. "Well- apparently." You admitted a bit embarrassed at your lack of clue. He rolled his eyes, pulling you closer. "Okay then. You're mine now."

[morgana-larkin]

i absolutely love your writing style, its so amazing. and i was wondering if you could do Chessy x reader where reader has autism and works for Elizabeth and gets overwhelmed at an event and Chessy comforts her, could just be fluff or could escalate, its up ro you!

Hi!! I’m happy you love my writing style! ❤️. Here is the fic for your prompt, I loved the prompt and I was wanting a Chessy prompt as I wasn’t getting any. Not edited in the slightest and I hope you like it!

On another note: I have like 4 Melissa fics started and I might finish them all by Monday and just post them all at the same time.

Assistance Needed

Warnings: autistic reader, lot of fluff

Words: 2.27k

“Alright Elizabeth, everything is set for tomorrow’s wedding, just a couple of last minute preparations that will need to be done tomorrow.” You tell Elizabeth outside in the backyard where the wedding will take place.

“Perfect thank you y/n.” Elizabeth tells you before someone takes her attention and she leaves you standing there. You take one last look at the list just to make sure when you hear someone walking up to you.

“Hey hon.” You look up and Chessy there and smile.

“Hey Chess.” You tell her.

“All ready for the wedding?”

“Yep, just tomorrow’s last minute stuff and then it’s all good.” You tell her and she smiles.

“Wow, Elizabeth is lucky to have an assistant like you.” She says and you blush a bit.

“Thank you, but I just make sure things get done.” You tell her.

“You’re so modest, give yourself some credit. You made sure the wedding came together.” She explains to you. “Anyway, are you hungry? I made some lunch and got some extra if you want it.” She offers and you smile at her.

“I would love too.” You say and she smiles before leading you into the house.

You started working for Elizabeth as her assistant about 5 months ago but it was mostly at her shop helping her with things to get the dresses ready for the summer. Ever since Elizabeth and Annie moved in with the Parker’s, the combined their businesses. They held weddings at the vineyard while also serving whatever wine the bride and groom want, and Elizabeth designs, fits, and makes their dress. Lately you’ve been working at the house, getting things ready for the weddings. You met Chessy about 2 months ago when you came to the house for the first time. She instantly took an interest in you and it seems she also likes to be looking after you. She always makes sure she makes extra for lunch when you’re over, when you start to get stressed with the work then she makes you laugh, when you get frustrated with something then she helps work it out with you.

You can’t deny that it feels nice that she looks out for you, and you also can’t deny that you have feelings for her. You try not to feel special that she helps you with things, she’s a nanny, it’s what she does. During lunch she can see that you’re nervous about something.

“Hon, are you okay? You’re quiet, usually you’re talking about something you like.” She tells you and you look up at her and sigh.

“It’s about tomorrow.” You tell her and she quirks an eyebrow at you.

“The wedding?” She asks and you nod. “What’s making you nervous about the wedding?” She asks as she gives you a plate of food.

“Thank you.” You say as you begin eating. “It’s a really big wedding. Like the others were like 50-250 people on the guest list. That’s a normal amount. But tomorrow there’s gonna be 650 people, I don’t do well with a lot of people.” You tell her.

“I think you’ll kill it tomorrow. But if you want then I can be there with you for support.” She offers and you look at her.

“Really? You’d do that for me?” You ask and she nods with a smile.

“Of course.”

“Ok, well if you’re being serious then I would love for you to be there.” You say to her.

“Alright, I’ll be there.” She promises to you and you smile as you continue eating.

The next day you’re slipping on your black dress. It’s still a couple hours until the wedding, enough time to get the last minute preparations done. You stayed at the Parker house last night to make it easier, you usually do when the next day is a wedding or you stayed working late. You bounce downstairs and you go outside to get everything done.

You didn’t notice Chessy watching you from a window for most of the time. You actually never notice her just watching you work. She loves seeing you in your element. She’s watching you with a fond smile on her face.

“Just tell her already.” Nick says with a bit of annoyance. Chessy whips her head around as she didn’t know he was there or even heard him.

“Tell who what?” She asks, although she has an idea of who and what he means.

“Tell y/n you like her. We all see it and we’re wondering when you’re going to tell her.” He says.

“It might be best if I don’t. After all she works for Elizabeth, if it doesn’t work or she rejects me then we’ll still run into each other.”

“Chessy, you’re thinking too much into it. You can’t think about it not working out when you haven’t even started dating. And also she won’t reject you, she feels the same way about you.” He says like it’s obvious and Chessy is looking at him like a deer in headlights.

“She what?” Chessy asks, wanting to know if she heard him right. Nick looks at her in disbelief.

“She likes you too Chessy. Do you really not see it?”

“I thought it was one-sided.” Chessy says and looks at you through the window again. “I offered to be with her at the wedding today, as support due to the amount of people who will be here.”

“Well you have a perfect opportunity then, weddings bring out the romance in people.” He says with a wink and then leaves.

An hour later, Chessy is making lunch when the twins come running in.

“Hey, no running in the house.” Chessy tells them and they immediately stop.

“Sorry Chess, we just smelled food and got excited.” Hallie says and Annie nods in agreement.

“Well lunch is almost ready.” She says and they sit down at the island. Chessy is still thinking about what Nick says when she realises there’s two people there who sees everything and can confirm or deny. “Hey girls, I have a question for you.” She tells them and they both look at her. “You know y/n right?” She starts and they both nod. “Well do you know if, if she might have feelings…for someone?”

“You mean if she has feelings for you?” Annie says and Chessy blushes. Wow, Nick wasn’t kidding when he says everyone knows.

“Yes, do you know if she has feelings for me?” She rephrases.

“Well obviously, she doesn’t exactly hide it.” Hallie says and Chessy lets out a breath she was holding.

“Both of you don’t hide it.” Annie adds.

“Ok, eat your lunch.” Chessy says as she hands them both bowls of chilli.

“Are you going to bring Y/n in to eat too?” Annie says.

“You know since you always seem to have extra when she’s here.” Hallie adds and Chessy’s cheeks become red.

“If she has time then yes.” Chessy stutters out and then Elizabeth comes walking in with you, talking about something.

“Ok so the last thing is for the bride to finish getting ready?” Elizabeth asks you and you check over the list.

“Yep, everything else is done.” You say and Elizabeth takes a deep breath.

“Thank goodness. Oh Chessy you made lunch, do you have enough for y/n to eat some before the wedding?” Elizabeth asks Chessy and both the twins look at Chessy with a smirk.

“Uh ya, there’s more than enough.” Chessy answers and gets a bowl ready for you. “Are you eating too, Elizabeth?”

“In a bit. Just have to do something quickly first.” Elizabeth says and then leaves. The twins finish and leave quickly before you sit down at the island. Chessy makes a bowl for you and gets another one for her. She places one in front of you and sits down beside you.

“Thank you, Chessy.” You tell her with a smile.

“Not a problem, hon.” She says with a matching smile. “You look beautiful btw.”

“Thank you. We have to dress nice and in black.” You tell her.

“I think you always look beautiful.” She blurts out before her brain processes it. You look at her and she notices a small blush on your cheeks.

“Th-thank you. I um- I also think the same about you.” You tell her and she blushes and smiles at you.

“Thanks hon.” You both finish your lunch while chatting with each other until you have to go back to work as guests are arriving.

Chessy got changed while you and other staff started welcoming and entertaining the guests. When she comes out, she can tell right away that you’re starting to get tense from the amount of people you have to welcome and tell them where to go, as well as letting the staff know what to do. Chessy comes to your side and puts an arm around your shoulders and she sees you visibly relax after realising who it is.

“Half the guests are here already and it’s like none of the staff know what to do.” You complain to her and she giggles.

“Well you’re doing amazing, hon. I’m here to support you if you need it.” She says and you smile at her.

“Thanks Chessy.” You say and lean into her.

Half an hour later, Chessy had to go help the twins with something and has to leave you alone for a few minutes. You greeted more guests and had to assist some of the staff on what to do and you were informed that you’re down a few staff members.

“What should we do?”

“There’s not enough of us for everything now.”

“Nothing will get done in time.”

The other staff members are all looking for guidance from you and it’s all becoming too much. You’re looking around for Elizabeth and all you see is too many people and a bunch of staff that are depending on you. You start breathing heavier and feel like you’re trapped.

“I’ll be right back.” You tell them and make a beeline for the house.

Chessy was coming back and was looking for you, she sees you emerge from a group of staff and almost sprint to the house. She follows after you and sees you pacing around the living room in the house.

“Hon, everything alright?” She asks as she sees you stressed. You look up at her and shake your head. She walks over to you and she puts her arms around you in a hug. You immediately hug her back and take a deep breath. “It’s alright, you’re gonna be alright.” She tells you as she strokes your head. You really want to answer her verbally or tell her thank you but you seem to have lost the ability to speak at the moment.

Chessy leads you to one of the couches and you end up cuddling on her on the couch. You take a strand of her hair between your fingers and start twirling it with your fingers. Chessy watches you do it and lets you as it seems to relax you, to be honest she’d let you play with her hair no matter what.

You take a few more deep breaths and are able to speak softly to her. “Thank you.” You say and she rubs your back.

“I’ll always be here to support you and help you through whatever you need.” She tells you genuinely. At that moment you can’t help but lean into her and kiss her. She’s shocked at first but then relaxes into the kiss and kisses you back. You both pull back after a few seconds and you look at her surprised.

“You kissed me back?” You ask confused and she nods. “Why?”

“Because I like you.” She states like it’s obvious and she goes to kiss you again but you stop her by putting a hand on her chest.

“There’s something you should know, I’m- I’m autistic.” You say and she looks at you confused.

“Ok…? And?”

“Well I wanted to let you know in case it changes how you might feel about me.” You tell her and she strokes your cheek.

“Oh hon, it doesn’t change how I feel about you in the slightest.” She says genuinely and you lean into her touch.

“OH MY GOD! I have to go find Elizabeth and tell her about the staff situation.” You say suddenly and bolt out of the house.

Chessy chuckles at your actions and proceeds to follow you out of the house. When she catches up with you, you’re talking to Elizabeth and she goes to handle the situation.

“You know, I think we were in the middle of something.” She says as she reaches you and you turn to look at her with a smile.

“Sorry, we’re experiencing a staff shortage.” You say and she places an arm around your waist. You lean into her body and she kisses the top of your head. You turn to look at her and you move some strands of hair out of her face. “I do like you as well, in case it wasn’t obvious with the kiss.” You tell her and she giggles.

“You’re cute, it was pretty obvious after that but I don’t mind hearing you say it.” She says and you both kiss.

Across the yard the twins and Nick see you both kiss. He proceeds to hand both of them $5 as they guessed she was going to confess to you tonight. “I’m not betting with you guys again.” He says as they both pocket their $5 with a smile.

Taglist: @esposadejoyhuerta

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Let me know if you want to be added!

[luverz-exe]

Hey, I was wondering if maybe you could do yandere headcanons for The Riddler from arkahm city? I rarley see anything about the arkahm games. However, If not it's fine, have a nice day or night!

Yandere Arkham City! Riddler Headcanons

...Uh, hi. I'm back. sorry for the prolonged hiatus, I've just been...dealing with a lot at the moment. I'm glad to be back. I'm not gonna be making a full blown post for it, so imma just say my piece here. Don't worry Anon, I'm gonna get to your request soon- just wanna talk a little bit. Requests will be off for awhile, how long, I'm not sure. Going to finish the requests I can, I won't force myself to do them all- because if I can't write it, then I realize I'm not obligated to. A reason that I quit was because I was so overwhelmed with stuff. But that was any of your faults! I am absolutely astounded that I have so much support! Just that sometimes I need to realize that I can't do everything there is out there, because I'm still an amateur writer, there's a lot I can't do and even more that I have yet to get good at. Sorry for rambling, here's your request Anon!!

Slightly suggestive near the end, oopsie doopsie guys. Oh yeah, and he says some really mean words, guys- an absolute shocker 🤯

Here's the thing when it comes to Edward. He's an asshole- a smug, insensitive asshole. Of course, we all know this by now. But this snarky self-absorbed piece of shit is slowly starting to decay, inside out. His mental state fluctuates, and it really is straining on your "relationship". He believes in more practicality, you're here to be his assistant, and he's here to protect your primitive brain (though, less than your peers, just enough for him to take you under his wing and truly try and help you flourish) from combusting. He can make you smarter, you know. You have so much potential, enough to be second best...Just watch, and learn. It's not like you'll have a choice.

Yeah...The first few weeks-months will be tenuous- it's likely you didn't join this relationship of your own volition. And even if you somehow did, it's not going to be any better. He's making you go no contact with the outside world. While you call it a fucked up form of house arrest, he prefers to call it a more civilized form of rehabilitation. Sorry, not sorry- those idiotic, moronic, brain-dead louts would taint you again. No wonder you're so much dumber than him, all your life you've been surrounded by bad influences (so was he, but he's a prodigy, and you're just smarter than average- it's different). You have to stay away from them because any smarts he's been giving you might be sucked up by those braindead leeches!

Good news though- free range of his living space (if you can even call it that)! While he's still keeping his appearance semi-clean, his space hasn't, as he's slowly beginning his descent into the Arkham Knight version. But hey, how about you be a good helper and pick some stuff up- keep you occupied short-term. Because, you try and talk to him, it's going to be a lot longer- and you might want to take notes because he is going to test your knowledge on it later.

"Why are you bothering me? ..Cleaning? No, no, you stop that. If you're going to keep your mind occupied, then I recommend you grab the 11mm crowfoot wrench and get over here." When you didn't move, be it you didn't know where he stored those or a genuine lack of knowledge about wrenches, he peered up from his work. "..What, can't even do that?" He signed, furrowing his brow, but prevented himself from badmouthing further. It wasn't their fault for having an idiot society teach them about these things. "..Just- grab the flashlight, over there on the counter, I'll get it myself- and you better pay attention. This mistake will not be made more than once, I assure you of it."

Pity is a common occurrence, but his sympathy isn't. Oh, your poor pitiful shrunken brain, rotting away from all the bad people in your life. But you should've taken one quick look at him, realized he was your intellectual superior and asked for him to bring your brain to a normal size and to ditch everyone else in your life. That's your fault.

Now, it isn't all bad! Look on the bright side, learning is now your full time job- with him as your teacher (in a non-sexual way, because god-damnit if you think you can get out of learning about the proper ways to build one of his puzzles by giving him a handjob (you can, and probably should to avoid what would be considered a 5 hour lecture over the course of the day)). He enjoys teaching you all that he knows, and he expects you to share that enthusiasm, especially when he talks about batman. When he starts talking about the flying rat that plagues his life, you better listen. You're going to be his assistant someday with all of this 'killing Batman' thing, so you better hop on that train early.

While he does call you an idiot, he's just self-projecting his hatred of Batman (and himself) onto you. No, it's not your fault- it's 100% his own and he won't apologize or acknowledge it in a meaningful way. It slowly dissipates the more your 'nasty' attitude does, but even then it never fully disappears. Depends on the day. He'll never get better, though, not fully. And once you see how bad he becomes in Arkham Knight, you'll realize this isn't as low as he can go.

"You idiot! Can't you do something right? When I talk, you listen! Why do I even keep you around?! You're an absolute buffoon, you know that?...Of course you don't, you see? If you were with me sooner, you wouldn't be like this. We'll get you to the intelligence level you should be, don't you worry, but clearly we're going to need to change tactics if I'm going to get it through that thick skull of yours."

[marciaillust]

How long does it take for you to finish drawing?

I'm an artist (beginner) and i unconsciously set unrealistic goals for myself and need a reminder of how long it takes to complete a drawing, Thanks.

Hi! In the context you presented it in, that is a really interesting question, so I'll try to approach it thoroughly. I hope I won't make you roll your eyes too much.

Where to start, where to start... I guess the first thing I should say is that there is a difference between time I spend preforming the action of <drawing>, and the time I spent <working> on a particular piece. The first would be counted in hours, the second one - days. I'm a big believer in slowing things down, and giving things time - going through options, gathering research and references, taking breaks every 1h of sitting and drawing - and seeing things through until I achieve the goal I set at the beginning of the process.

The goals are usually different each time: "quick design", "character exploration", "analysis of an artist's linework and experimenting with the knowledge gained", "creating an aesthetically pleasing image", and so on and so forth. Of course I don't write these down like it's a school assignment, but knowing in the back of my head what I'm actually doing helps me manage my expectations. I also enjoy being conscious of why I create - when I was younger regardless of what I was doing I had the thought "AND IT MUST LOOK GOOD AND PRESENTABLE! BECAUSE PEOPLE WILL LOOK!" ...and I think that obsession is the cancer of creative process.

Since the goals for each picture are different, the time I'll spent on achieving each one will be different as well, because the "satisfactory results" lay in different places. For example, the Marcile sketchpage was created in one afternoon, and took approximately 3 hours. The goal was to play around with a brush that has no opacity forcing my lines to be more decisive. I did that and so it is "finished". There's nothing else I want from it.

On the other hand, the cover of Asterism took about 10 days to create, the goal of which was to make "an aesthetically pleasing cover picture taking colour inspiration from the works of (specific list of artists)". I took my time designing it so that it looks aesthetically pleasing, made sure the anatomy is "correct" (a nebulous statement when it comes to stylised humans), took my time masking, and picking colours, and shading. I wanted it to "look good" to my own eyes so if something was not working I would go back, change it, alter it, move it around... that's the wonderful thing about personal art, you can take as long as you like making something satisfactory.

The funny thing is, with what the Asterism cover actually is (a cellshaded image), it could have been done probably in 4 days by the me 4 years ago. But that person was willing to sit 8-10 hours a day to draw with no breaks, she had little social life, and treated herself as a little circus seal performing tricks so that people clap around her, and the clapping was soooo nice because it meant that people remembered her and she mattered. And it worked for her! For long 10 years! Until her arm gave out, and the reality of never being able to draw again became more tangible than ever, and it's been following her like a fog ever since for the past 4 years. The me today works about 4 hours a day and every hour I take about a 30 minute break. I also don't post half the stuff I draw. There is also another aspect that dictates the speed of creating and that is familiarity with the subject matter. The less you know something, the fast you'll draw it! But as you get to know the intricacies of the process, and see all the building blocks, it will start taking *longer* because you will start accounting for every block. But then you'll eventually get familiar with the blocks and so the time spent on a picture will go down again! The cool yet overwhelming thing about art is that, there are always hundreds of building blocks. Form, composition, ambient occlusion, saturation, hue, light balance, line form...... and those are just the *some* of the generalised *categories*. And each category will have it's own subsection of building blocks! And then those blocks will interact with each other to create completely new area of expertise! This is crazy! Marcille sketch page took me only 3 hours to create because I am already quite familiar with linework - I have drawn 3-4 comicbooks worth of linework. This also means I am familiar with believable anatomy, more or less, which got utilised in the Asterism cover - the main bulk of linework got created during a 3h livestream. So.... what's the answer.... "It's all relative" is so unsatisfactory and probably not what you looked for. But you can draw something in 3 days and kill your body over it. Or you can become an expert in a field and dish the same picture out effortlessly in 8 hours. You can also split that 8h block over multiple days bringing you back up to 3 days. You could even add a whole day of visual research which might make your picture only marginally better. And even if we calculate it in terms of raw working time, pen-to-paper, like a self-inflicted capitalist tumor, that time can fluctuate still due to personal visual library and knowledge base. If I asked Tom Fox how long it takes for him to create his sketch pages his answer would probably be downward of 30 minutes. Yet I need whole 3 hours to create something *less* anatomically correct than him. And so here we are at the end of this perhaps unnecessary essay. And all we learned is this: it depends. Dry, not nuanced tl;dr, my personal timings: single sketch - 30mins; single linework pic 1-2h; Cellshaded illust - 16h; Rendered illust: 20-25h.

[kkyaka]

Chapter 1: In Limbo

Limbo: Any in-between place, state or condition of neglect or oblivion which results in an unresolved status, delay, or deadlock

Summary: Meeting Aomine after seven years in the store and finding out he has a kid was definitely not what you were expecting when you were out shopping. But the last thing you expected was becoming a babysitter turned nanny looking after his kid. Word Count: 11, 483 Warnings: awkward encounters, lots of angst in this chapter, reader thinks aomine cheated on her aomine doesn't have a great relationship with his son, aomine is still way into you, reader plays beach volleyball, reader is a part time babysitter, painful trips down memory lane, reader chews aomine the fuck out, if there's anything else I missed please lmk lol A/N: Hope you enjoy this! I had a bunch of fun writing it, and reblogs are greatly appreciated!

MASTERLIST

You check off the last snack that you have on your grocery list, seeing that the next thing on the list is a couple of aisles down. You're about to move but you jump when you feel something tap at your back. You look over your shoulder, having to look down to see a kid standing behind you. He doesn't look happy, and it looks like he's on the verge of tears.

"Are you okay?" you ask, fully turning around and crouching down.

"I can't find my dad," he says quietly, and you carefully put your hand on his shoulder.

"Okay, okay. Don't worry. I'll help you," you reassure, and he takes a deep breath. "I'm pretty sure he's looking for you, so why don't we wait here to see if he comes down this aisle?" He nods and you look back and forth at either end of the aisle to see if you see a man that looks like he's looking for someone. "What's your name?" you ask, looking back at the kid.

"Taj."

"Nice to meet you, Taj," you say, introducing yourself after you respond. Since it's so early in the morning, there aren't a lot of people in the store, so you're hoping that'll make resolving this situation a lot easier. "How old are you?"

"Seven," he says, looking over the stuff that you have in your cart.

"Do you remember where you last saw your dad?" He shakes his head after he shrugs causing you to sigh a little. "Do you remember if it smelled like anything?" you try, hoping that he knows something that might help. He shakes his head again, and you don't try to ask him another question because you don't want to overwhelm him.

"It was cold," he says after the both of you are silent for a bit.

"Okay! That's good!" you respond. "What was he doing before you lost him?"

"He was on the phone, and I wanted some juice, but he wasn't listening to me. So, I wanted to try and find it myself." His lips wobble a little, and you're quick to console him.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. Let's see if he's still over there, alright?" He sniffs, nodding shortly after. "You wanna push the basket?" you try, and you smile when one pulls at the corner of his mouth. You move letting him put his hands on the handle before you put yours on the outside of his. You walk carefully to make sure that you don't step on his feet.

You guide him towards the frozen aisles even though you're pretty sure you're doing most of the pushing. You have him look down the aisles to see if he sees his father, but to your dismay, he doesn't see him. "How about we go get that juice you wanted?" you ask, rubbing over his head to get his attention. "Then we can go to the front and get some more help."

He's silent again as he nods, and you hope that it keeps him from freaking out just a little bit longer until you can find his dad. You go down the juice aisle, letting him pick out which one he wants. He instantly knows which one to get, and you let him hold onto it as you head toward the register.

You go through the self-checkout, buying him the juice before you walk over to where all the carts are kept at the front of the store. You're glad that you barely started shopping, so there isn't a lot in your cart; just the snacks you picked up right before Taj approached you.

"Hey, bud, it's gonna be okay," you tell him, crouching down again when it looks like he might cry. "I promise we'll find your dad." You look up, looking for a worker to alert about the situation.

"Taj, oh thank God!" you hear, and his face lights up in recognition as he runs out of your reach. You quickly stand, turning around to see Taj being held by his dad as he hugs him tightly.

"Thank--" You freeze when you finally see who Taj's father is, and he does the same, his words getting caught in his throat at the sight of you. He says your name in what sounds like disbelief, and you give him an awkward smile.

"Aomine," you respond, not knowing what to say. He's still holding Taj, and it's like he doesn't know what to say either, the air starting to feel stifling as it takes an uncomfortable turn.

"Um, thanks for staying with him," he eventually says, and you shake your head as you wave him off.

"It was no problem. I'm just glad you're reunited." You try to swiftly end the conversation so that you can get back to shopping and get out of here. You're about to leave when Aomine suddenly looks down at his son's hands.

"Where'd you get this from?" he asks, softly taking the juice from him, too wound up in the fact that he found him to see what he was holding.

"She bought it for me!" Taj answers cheerfully, and Aomine looks at you right as you start to move away.

You huff a little. "He said he wanted some juice, so I just got a little bottle," you try, wondering if he'll be mad at you for doing so.

"Let me pay you back," he says, which surprises you, and your eyes widen when he sticks his hand in his pocket.

"No, no! It's okay, it's just juice," you chuckle, trying to ease the tension out of your shoulders, and you put your hands on the basket, hopefully signaling the end of this conversation. "I'm just glad to he's with you," you repeat and before you can take a step, Taj is wiggling out of Aomine's arms and making his way toward you.

"Thank you for the juice! And for staying with me!" he beams, and you smile down at him as you rub over his head, hugging him back when he hugs you.

"Of course, Taj. Just tell your dad where you're going next time, okay?" He nods quickly, and you laugh softly before you try to make your escape again, but it seems like fate doesn't want that just yet.

"So, how have you been?" Or rather, it's him that doesn't want that just yet. You turn around to see that Aomine's standing closer to you than before, Taj standing next to him.

"Pretty good I would say," you say, almost sounding like you're forcing it out until you compose yourself. "Just taking it day by day. How about you? I bet you're having the time of your life," you continue, talking about the fact that he's very popular in the professional basketball setting.

"You could say that," he says with a half-laugh, and it now dawns on you that he has a kid. And he's seven. The last time you saw Aomine was a little over seven years ago, and that was when you finally called it quits. You don't want to jump to conclusions, but you can't help but think if he was seeing someone else while you were together.

The thought leaves a sour taste in your mouth, and you decide to get out of this conversation. "I really have to go, I've got to meet with some friends," you say, not even fumbling over your words as you lie. "It was good to see you," you slowly finish because it actually wasn't, but you're pretty sure that's what you're supposed to say. Right?

Taj tells you goodbye, giving you a wave that you return with a smile before you walk off with your cart, not daring to look back. You could just walk out and forget shopping altogether, but there's nothing in your house, so you needed this shopping trip. You move as fast as you can, hoping that you don't have to run into him anymore.

You ended up getting a lot more groceries than you thought, but you're in and out of the store without running into Aomine again. You make it to your car and start moving the bags into your car. You have big reusable bags that you put multiple groceries in, but that means that they're more on the heavier side.

You hear your name being called, and you turn around to see Taj running toward you with Aomine right behind him. Your heart sinks a bit at the sight of Aomine, sighing internally but putting on a smile when Taj gets to you. He holds his hand up, and you see that he has a flower in his hand. You gasp softly, taking it as you have a hard time fighting your smile.

"What's this for?" you laugh, lowering yourself to his level, and he steps closer to give you a hug.

"I wanted to thank you for staying with me and helping me find my dad," he tells you when he pulls away.

"Thank you, Taj. You didn't have to do that," you say before holding the flower up to your nose to smell it. "But this happens to be my favorite." You rub his head again, standing up fully, and Aomine's moving toward you.

"Let me help you with your bags," he offers, and you don't get a chance to deny it because he's moving before you can speak. He moves them quickly without any trouble, but then Taj wants to help also, which slows Aomine down a bit. You just stand there, wondering how your morning got sidetracked so quickly.

When they're done filling your car, Taj wants to run the cart back to the cart corral, and Aomine lets him since it's in his eyesight. He warns him to watch out for cars, and you both smile as you watch him carefully push it over there. You keep your attention on Taj in hopes that his dad won't start another awkward conversation.

"I don't know how I can thank you." You sigh again, pointedly turning your head.

"Don't worry about it. But maybe just keep an eye on him next time?" you try with a soft chuckle.

"I was on the phone, and I just got caught up."

"You don't have to explain anything to me. I mean, it's not like we really know each other," you add, kicking at imaginary rocks on the ground when you look down at your feet, so you miss the way Aomine's body sags at your words.

Taj comes running back, and Aomine hides his face with a smile as he gives his son a high-five. "Well, I really should get going. Thanks for helping me out," you say, looking down at Taj. Aomine seems to get the hint this time because he nods before beginning to step away from your car when you walk to the door.

"It was really good seeing you," he admits, but all you can respond with is a nod and a tight smile. You give one last wave to Taj before getting in the car, and you can see the two of them turn around and walk to their car in your rearview mirror. Aomine straps Taj in the backseat, and you can see him look at your car one last time before he gets in his. You grab the steering wheel before letting your head fall on top of it, releasing a loud groan that you couldn't before.

You start the car and make a point to not think about the last hour of your life as you drive home. You rationalize the whole thing by coming to the conclusion that you'll never see him again. At least in person, and speaking of that, how did you not know he had a kid? You hadn't been following Aomine's NBA journey because you didn't want to look at anything that reminded you of him after you graduated high school.

You feel like you might've heard about a kid if you think about it, but for some reason, you just never put it together that he belonged to Aomine. But now that you've seen him, there's no mistaking that he's Aomine's kid. He's basically a photocopy of him, even down to the same color hair. You're sitting at a red light when you realize that you're now thinking about someone that you said you weren't going to think about.

But you know you won't be able to get over it until you analyze every new piece of information you found out today. Taj is seven? The question just makes you go back to those bad thoughts. He's definitely not your kid, and you don't know his birthday so you can't match it up to when you and Aomine broke up.

A car honking snaps you out of your thoughts, and you drive through the light, already thinking of ways to get your mind off of this. The rest of your drive home goes by in a blur once you fully immerse in the music you have playing in your car. You get to your apartment, sighing as you mentally prepare yourself to carry all of your groceries to your door.

Even though you're on the verge of sweating and desperately want to sit down, you put your frozen and refrigerated groceries up before you sit down on the couch. You sit in silence for a while as you wait for your heartbeat to settle down, letting your head fall back so that you can look at the ceiling.

You let your hand fall over your eyes, laughing a little as you think about everything that happened this morning. And then you shake your head when you realize that you don't look your best today, but then you cut yourself some slack because it's early in the morning on a weekday. There was no reason for you to go all out for a grocery trip.

But seeing Aomine of all people? Do you really want to take that trip down memory lane? Something that you've been trying to get over ever since it happened? You quickly decide that you don't want to; it's too early in the morning for you to get your mood ruined.

You get up once you're not close to sweating and your heart has calmed down. You start to put away the rest of your groceries, and you're grabbing the last of the stuff when a receipt floats to the floor. You frown because you swore the cashier gave it to you, and you put it in your back pocket. You put your chips away, closing the cabinet before picking up the receipt.

You see that there's only one item that's been bought, and you look further down to see a phone number. You scoff when you recognize the number, rolling your eyes when they read the message of wondering if you'd like to catch up. You ball up the paper before throwing it away. You're not going through that again, and there is no reason for you to be in contact with Aomine anymore.

It's been about a month since that run-in with Aomine, and you hate how you're constantly on edge whenever you go to the store. Whenever you get to the car when you're done, your shoulders hurt when you relax from how tense you've been. For the first two weeks, it was like you were waiting to just run into him again. Then after that, you sort of snapped yourself out of it. The chances of you seeing Aomine again were very slim, so after a while, you finally started to relax. You had absolutely no reason to be anxious.

The weather is starting to cool down a bit thank goodness, so you're allowed to do a bit more with the kids you're babysitting. You've been babysitting for a few years now, trying to find something to make ends meet when you're not working. You weren't always working seasonally, but it paid a little more and you got more freedom, so you took the opportunity.

You've grown your clientele over the years due to babysitting for friends, and then they would tell their friends, and so on. The kids you're babysitting now you've been watching since they were babies. Their mom is one of your best friends, and you always help her out when she and her husband's jobs have them staying somewhere out of the city.  

You're at the park with them today since it's a lot cooler than it has been since September is right around the corner. You're sitting on one of the benches, reading a book that you've been meaning to finish while you keep an eye and ear on the kids. You look up when you finish the chapter to make sure you can still see them before you look down to start the next one.

"Hi, y/n!" You frown as you raise your head because the voice doesn't sound like your kids but it does sound familiar.

"Taj?" you question with an eyebrow raised. "What are you doing here?"

"My dad brought me," he answers, and you look up in time to see Aomine walking up to you. So much for your chances of seeing him again being slim to none.

"Funny seeing you here," he jests, and you give him a tight-lipped smile.

"Yeah," you mumble.

"Are your kids playing here, too?" Taj asks, and your smile is genuine as you shake your head.

"No, they're my friend's kids. I'm babysitting," you explain. "You wanna meet them? They're around your age." Taj doesn't really give you an answer, looking a little on the hesitant side, but you don't get a chance to continue because the kids come up to you.

"Do you have any snacks, Auntie?" Kayla asks, and you know her brother is going to ask the same thing.

"Yeah, but I want you to guys to meet someone first," you start. "This is Taj, and he's around you guys' age."

"I'm Tyson," your nephew says. "How old are you?"

"Seven," he answers quietly.

"So am I! I'm Kayla!" she shouts. "And I like your hair!" she compliments, and you laugh a bit. "You can play with us if you want."

"Okay," Taj whispers, nodding his head. You hand them some snacks after getting them some hand sanitizer. You offer some to Taj as well, and they snack a little before they go back to the playground. Aomine's still standing when they leave, and the air suddenly turns awkward like it did at the store.

"You mind?" he asks, gesturing toward the bench. You shake your head as you scooch over a bit, and Aomine sighs as he takes a seat next to you. "So, you're babysitting now?"

"Yeah, kinda," you say, nodding your head a little. "I work a seasonal job remotely, so I babysit for a little extra money."

"How long you been doing that for?"

"A while," you chuckle. "I started right before senior year of college, but the amount of kids that I babysit now has really grown since then." He nods after you're done, and you don't know what to ask him because you already know what he's been up to. But then that one thing that's been bugging you in the back of your mind comes up.

"You know," you begin, "Taj is seven."

"Right," Aomine responds slowly.

"And we...broke up a little over seven years ago." You look away at the kids playing, and you hear Aomine sigh.

"Yeah?" he voices, and you know he's probably wondering where you're going with this.

You take a deep breath before you get the courage to look at him, and you jump internally when you see that he's staring right at you. "Did you--" You don't even know if you can get it out. "Did you cheat on me?"

If someone saw the look on his face, they probably would've thought you insulted him to the highest degree. "Of course not. I would never." He sounds offended, a little hurt, and you hate to say that you're relieved he sounds that way. "I swear I didn't cheat on you, but it's complicated with Taj's mom."

You nod in lieu of speaking, still getting over how eased you feel knowing that he didn't cheat on you. It's been bothering you since you found out about Taj, and it would've just put more salt in the wound if he said yes.

"Are you seeing anyone?" he asks after the both of you are silent for a while.

"Nah," you huff, shaking your head. "Been kinda on the busy side lately." You're not looking at him as you answer, but you hear him hum, and you can see him stuff his hands in his jacket pockets. "Are you seeing anyone?" You don't really care, but you feel like you have to or you should ask.

"No." He answers the same way you do with a huff and a shake of his head. "Haven't seen anyone in years." You nod quietly, hiding your surprise as best as you can. That's honestly a shock to you, but he could just be referring to dating and not how many people he's slept with.

Silence falls between you again, and you relax against the back of the bench, feeling your shoulders hurting from how tense you are. How are you supposed to sit here and act like everything is fine when he broke your heart seven years ago? You want to say that you're over it, but fuck, did it hurt. You don't know if you can sit here and act like what happened between the two of you didn't happen.

"You, uh," he starts, picking at some loose lint on his pants, "you never texted."

"I don't have your number," you lie, kicking at the ground a little.

"You didn't see it on the receipt?"

"I don't think I did," you claim, slowly shaking your head. When you look at him, he has this look on his face, but you don't keep eye contact for too long for fear that he'll see right through you.

"Well, we should probably exchange numbers," he continues, "you know, for the kids."

You look at said kids. Is he seriously using them to get your number?

"Sure," you sigh, figuring that if you do give him your number, it doesn't mean that he'll be texting you all of the time. You take your phone out of your pocket, unlocking it before handing it to him. "You didn't text yourself?" you ask when he gives you back your phone.

He shakes his head. "No, I still have your number saved."

"After all this time?" you joke, but you're mostly laughing to hide your disbelief.

"Of course." You look forward instead of looking at him, turning your attention to the kids playing. You hate how a part of you finds it endearing that he still has your number saved. The other part of you however is confused as to why he still would. Towards the end of your relationship, he didn't make it known that he cared about you that much. You briefly wonder if he even had your name still saved by the time you called it off.

You internally shake your head. It doesn't matter anymore, that was all in the past. You can maintain a civil relationship with him even though you don't really want to. What you want to do is scream at him and ask him why he spent so much time chasing you back then just to break your heart in two. It took your friends to convince you that everything that went down back then wasn't your fault.

You felt like it was though because you didn't want to mess with him in the first place, but you did it anyway. You met in your last year of high school when he transferred, and you knew the basketball coach, so he asked you to show him around to make sure he doesn't get lost. He already had everybody's attention because he was the new kid, but you didn't want to give him any more attention. There was no reason to.

But the fact that you didn't really care about him seemed to only make him more interested in you. You had a couple of classes together, so he used that to mess with you every chance he had. Along with that, you were the manager for the girls' basketball team, which meant you were seeing him even more. Whenever there was an away game, you were stuck on the bus with both teams, and Aomine always found a seat near you.

The coaches were strict about boys and girls not sharing seats, but he didn't let that stop him. He was always looking for you whenever he was playing, and he'd always do it whenever he scored, knowing that you'd be looking. You always told him how much he annoyed you, but it never seemed like he cared. If you were on the bus after an away game, you would always sit in the back, trying to get some of your homework done.

Aomine would be sitting in the seat across from you, watching you until you finally said something. He would use these bus rides back to be a little bit bolder in his advances. A lot of people would go home with their parents after the games, but you and Aomine, most of the time, weren't in that category.

After one game, you finally gave in, letting him kiss you on the way home. You knew how attractive he was, and you'd be crazy not to be into him, but you held out for so long.

But you still wouldn't let your guard down. It took him weeks after that, and multiple sneaky kisses to convince you that he was really into you. Even after the season was over, he was promising to take you out, showing you how serious he was. You didn't tell anyone when you finally made your relationship official, but people basically already knew. Since it was your last year in high school, you both, of course, had the college talk.

Neither of you wanted the other to sacrifice their future for the other, so you ended up going to different schools, but they were close to each other. At first, it was great; you and Aomine were talking all of the time and seeing each other during your breaks. But then he started to get more distant. You knew that he was busy with practice since he was being scouted for the NBA, but he would go days without contacting you.

When you finally got around to seeing him in person, he wasn't the same Aomine that you knew. He was paying more attention to his friends, practically leaving you out of everything. You couldn't handle it anymore, and when you finally blew up, he looked at you with the most bored look on his face. It was then you realized that you wasted almost a year of your life with him.

When you walked out, he tried to call for you, but you ignored him. You went home, not even bothering with crying because you had done that on the way home. He tried to call you and text, but you ignored every single one until they stopped. You never saw him again and you didn't want to. You briefly heard his name filtering through sports news, but that was it. You finally healed and moved on from him, having a couple of partners since then, but it never really led toward anything.

The one thing you didn't like was that it felt like something was missing with them, but you could never figure it out. The last thing you expected to happen was to run into him and reunite him with his kid. Life sure has a way of throwing the most random things at you when you least expect it.

"So, you come here often?" Aomine's voice snaps you out of your daydream, and you look at him with an amused yet confused smile.

"To the park?" you question.

"Uh, yeah," he starts, taking one of his hands out of his pockets. "Like, with the kids I mean. How often are you here?" he finishes, waving his hand before he rubs at the back of his neck.

"It depends on where their parents are," you answer. "If their parents are out of town and the weather's nice, then they usually like to spend their time here." You watch him nod at your answer. "But they'll be home for a while, so I probably won't be here as much," you add. It's definitely not a lie, but you hope that by you telling him this, he'll tone it down a bit. You have no desire to try and build a whatever with him again. That ship has sailed.

You know what he's doing, and it's like it's high school all over again. He's got another thing coming if he thinks that you'll just let him back in again. It's gonna take a lot more than coincidental meet-ups.

"I saw you on TV one time," he starts after the silence becomes some awkward, you nearly can't stand it. "You're amazing at volleyball."

"Thanks," you say softly, curling your lips into your mouth to try and hide your smile. "My friend needed a sand partner in college, and I've been playing ever since."

"So, you have any tournaments coming up?" he asks, and you can't help but look at him, wondering what in the hell is going through his head.

"Not for a while. Once it gets warmer, they'll start back up, so that means I gotta start training now," you laugh softly, mentally preparing yourself for the tough workout you're going to have to start soon. "I usually workout anyway, but I'm gonna have to do a little more if I wanna be in good shape."

He nods, and you take his silence as the end of the conversation. You look back the kids playing, checking the time on your phone. They just got here, so there's no way you're going to be out of this situation any time soon. "You taking anymore clients?" The question makes you freeze for a split second as your heart drops a bit. He can't be asking you what you think he's asking.

"You need a babysitter?" you tease even though no part of you finds this funny.

"Well, Taj seems to really like you, and the season's about to start, so I won't have much time to watch him," he says.

Your mind is racing with thoughts as you think about whether or not to consider. The money would be nice, but seeing Aomine for who knows how long isn't something that you want to do. But Taj seems like a really sweet kid, so you hope in the end, it'll all be worth it, and Aomine will be out of your hair before you even realize it.

"When do you want me to start?"

His eyes cut towards you. "Seriously?" You just give him a look, and he clears his throat. "As soon as possible for you? I've got about a month left before everything is gonna get hectic, so--" He trails off and you nod.

"I can send you all the details and let you know when I'm available."

"Cool," he replies quietly. "Thanks."

"Sure." You internally release a heavy sigh. It feels like time has slowed down immensely. Thankfully, he doesn't try to make anymore conversation, and since you have nothing else to do, you start to get everything ready. You've had to start getting pretty thorough with the paperwork, so you go ahead and try to get a jump on it.

The kids play until they get tired, and you're more than ready to get out of here. The kids had fun playing, and you tell Taj that he can always hang out with them again, and you let Aomine know that you'll be sending him the information within the next week. You follow your niece and nephew to the car, silent as you think about how you ended in this situation. Past you would be screaming right now.

You decide to push it away, focusing all your energy on your plans for the rest of the day. You'll save the sulking for later.

~

"Are you fucking with me right now?"

"You think I would joke about something like this?" you sigh, putting your elbows on your knees before putting your face in your hands. When you dropped off the kids, your friend could tell something was wrong, and it didn't take her long for her to get it out of you.

You're currently on the couch, telling her the events that happened today. You didn't tell her about running into him at the store, figuring that seeing Aomine was just a one-time thing, but his presence at the park today told you that wasn't going to be the case.

"And now you're gonna be babysitting his kid?" she asks, and you rub your fingers over your eyes, a smiling forming on your face against your will. You feel like you have to laugh hearing it out loud. "He didn't cheat on you, did he?"

She was one of the people that was your support system after you broke up with Aomine. It broke you to the point where you almost didn't go to class. She was the reason why you were able to pick to be yourself back up again. To say you fully recovered wouldn't really be the truth, but it was enough to where you could go long periods of time without thinking about him.

You're quick to shake your head. "No, he said he didn't. He actually looked distraught that I even asked him that."

She sighs as she lays back against the couch, and you copy her, letting your body fully relax as your hands make their way over your eyes. "Well, this is not what was on my bingo card for you this year."

"You're telling me!" you exclaim softly. "God, what did I even do for this to happen?" you ask out loud to yourself. "His kid is cute though. Looks just like him," you continue. "And hopefully, when all of this starts, I'll be seeing Aomine for as little as possible."

"So, you're actually going through with it?" she questions.

"Why not?" you shrug. "I kinda don't have anything to lose, and I'm making money."

"Well, if you need to me to beat him, I'll be there in an instant." You both laugh, and she pulls you into a hug.

"Thank you," you whisper into her hair. You didn't realize how much you needed to talk to her. Ever since Aomine came back into your life, you've been so tense, only realizing it when you hugged her.

"Of course."

You're currently driving to Aomine's house, blasting the music from the speakers to try and drown out the unpleasant thoughts. You can't believe a month has already passed so fast, and babysitting is the last thing you're worried about. You can't help but admire the mansions you pass as you start to get closer to his house, and you already knew that he was obviously loaded, but it doesn't really hit you until you're pulling into the driveway.

Aomine's already opening the door when you walk up the driveway as you lock your car, and you give him a friendly, closed-lipped smile as he steps to the side to let you in. You look around as you hear him close the door, and you take a deep breath. You turn around to face him, and you hate how your heart still skips a beat when you look at him. You will the younger part of yourself to stay at bay and remain professional.

"So, welcome to my home," he says awkwardly, putting his hands in his pockets, and you can't help but chuckle, hoping that it'll diffuse the stifling tension. "Lemme show you around," he says quickly after, and you follow him as he takes you through the house. "Obviously, this is the living room and the kitchen," he points out with a soft wave of his hand. "Feel free to help yourself whenever you're here by the way," he adds before continuing the tour.

He takes you down a hallway, and he shows you the laundry room before opening another door. "I know you said you work remotely, so if you're here while you're working, you can use this space for an office," he offers.

"Thanks," you say quietly, taking a look around the room. He takes you down another hallway, and you don't fight the excitement you feel when you see how big the gym he has is.

"You can use whatever, I'm not gonna be using this as much once everything starts," he tells you. "I know you said you needed to start training, so have at it." You're relieved to say the least. You never really like going to the gym, and the one at your apartment pales in comparison with his.

He shows you the backyard, which looks exactly like you thought it would with a big patio, pool, and everything. He takes you upstairs next, gesturing to one of the closed doors, telling you it's his room. There are a couple more bedrooms and guest bathrooms, and he shows you an open space next which you assume he uses for entertaining along with a playroom for Taj, seeing some toys scattered about.

Once that's done, you stop when he stops at a door, knocking on it before softly pushing it open. "Guess who's here," he says, and Taj looks up from his drawings, and you smile when his face lights up. He's quick to get up and run over to you, and you hug him tightly when he gets to you.

"What are you doing here?" he asks, barely pulling away from you.

"I'm gonna be your babysitter since basketball season is about to start," you tell him.

"Really?" You laugh as you nod.

"I'm gonna talk to your dad some more, and then we can do whatever you want." He nods before he goes back to drawing, and you smile as you watch him before you and Aomine make your way out of the room.

"Thanks again for doing this," he says as you walk down the hallway and back into the open space. "I owe you a ton."

"Don't worry about it. It is my job after all." He doesn't say anything immediately after you speak, and you try to think of anything to quickly fill the silence. "Well, thanks for showing me around. I'm gonna go back with Taj," you say, hoping that your words don't sound forced.

"Alright," he responds lightly. "I'm gonna be in the house, so if you need anything just let me know." You give him a nod before you turn around, and you try your best not to walk away too fast, making your way back to Taj's room.

He looks up when you walk in, and you sit down next to him on the floor. "Whatcha drawing?" you ask softly.

"A dragon," he answers quietly.

"Are they your favorite?" He nods, and you don't bother to ask him any more questions, deciding just to sit there and watch. He's pretty good, being able to tell what he's drawing without even asking him; you only did so to try and make conversation. You look around his room, seeing that there isn't anything on the walls, and the only things in the room are the furniture and some toys here and there.

"Can you draw?" he asks you suddenly, and you look at him to see that he's done drawing.

"Not really," you answer honestly. "But I can try." You grab a piece of paper and some crayons. "You want me to draw anything?"

"Can you draw a castle?"

"That seems easy enough." He moves closer to you once you start to draw, his attention solely focused on your paper, and a smile appears on your face at his actions. Your castle looks pretty decent, and you add bricks for a little more detail. Taj wants you to add in some more landscape, so you do, and he finishes it off by drawing another dragon.

"This looks amazing!" you praise. "You wanna hang it up?" you ask, and he nods quickly in response. You both stand, leaving the room to try and find some tape. He follows you down the stairs, and you make your way to the office to see if there's any tape in there. You cheer softly when you find some, and you tear the pieces off.

"You wanna hang this up in your room?" He nods and both of you make your way back upstairs, and you put the tape on the drawing before you hand it to him. He stands in the middle of the room, spinning around slowly trying to figure out where he wants to put it.

You watch him move over to his bed, and he stands on top of it so he can put it on the wall over his bed. You pick up a crayon off the floor, and walk over to him as he smooths down the paper. "Let's write our names, hm?" You hand it to him so he can write his first, and you take it from him, writing yours along with today's date. "Looks good, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," he says happily before he turns around to give you a hug.

"You wanna do something else or do you wanna keep drawing?" you ask.

"Drawing," he answers, getting off the bed, and you found yourself back on the floor next to him. You opt to watch him, only drawing something when he asks you, and soon enough, his once plain walls are covered in his drawings.

"You wanna ask anything about me?" you try once it seems like he's done enough drawing.

"Can I?"

"Sure! Ask me anything you want."

You smile when you see the wheels turning in his head as he thinks of what to ask, and you wait patiently for this question. "How old are you?"

You laugh softly, knowing that was coming. "I'm twenty-five."

"Is babysitting your job?"

"One of them, yes," you answer with a nod. "I work another job remotely but not for the whole year. I also play volleyball."

"Really? Is it fun?" he asks, clearly engaged in the conversation.

"Yeah, I have lots of fun! I love volleyball. You wanna see me play?" He nods quickly, you pull your phone out of your pocket before scrolling through your gallery to find a video from one of your tournaments. You find, turning your phone to the side and moving it towards him. He moves closer to you, and you point at the screen once the video starts. "That's me on the right."

He watches the whole thing, completely engaged. "Woah! You're so cool!"

"Why, thank you," you laugh, easily accepting the compliment. "You wanna try it out?" He nods quickly, and you both stand up again, this time on the way to your car. Aomine's in the living room watching TV, and he's looking at his phone when he hears you both coming down the stairs.

"How long have you been playing?" Taj asks you as you walk through the house.

"Since middle school." Aomine smiles as he watches you interact, completely ignoring him, but he doesn't mind it at all. He wonders in his head where you're going, and he watches the both of you disappear out the front door. Only a couple of minutes pass by before the both of you are coming back through the door, but this time Taj has a volleyball in his hands.

Aomine figures you both are going to play in the backyard, and he can't help but thin about how Taj interacts with you completely different than he interacts with him. He didn't even know he could talk that much, and this seems like the happiest he's ever seen him. It makes a sour taste form in Aomine's mouth, so he tries his best to brush it off and focus on the TV. Sadly, he isn't able to do it for long.

You've been babysitting Taj for about a month now, and you're glad that you haven't been seeing Aomine as much. The only time you do is when he comes back from practice or from games. You stay in the house until he comes home, and then you take your leave. You do it rather quickly so that he doesn't try to start up any conversations with you. Most of the nights you're lucky since he seems too tired to talk, but other nights, you have to try and dodge the small talk.

You don't really have anything you want to talk about with Aomine, and you know that it's just going to end up being awkward, so you'd rather just avoid it. Right now, you're sitting on the couch in the living room with the TV on, but you're mostly paying attention to your phone. Since it's Friday night, you let Taj stay up for a little bit longer since he doesn't have to get up early tomorrow.

Your body tenses for a split second when you hear the keys in the front door, but you quickly compose yourself before Aomine opens the door. He smiles tiredly when he sees you, and you give him a tight-lipped smile as you stand. You start to pack your stuff up, making sure you have everything when Aomine walks up to you.

"Hey, I just wanted to thank you for watching for Taj. I don't know how I can ever repay you." You chuckle a bit as you shake your head, shoving your hands in the back pockets of your jeans.

"Whaddya want, Aomine?" you sigh.

"What?"

"You always start with something like that when you're gonna ask me for something." He huffs a bit, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck.

"Okay, okay," he sighs. "I've got a tournament coming up, but it's out of the state. I'll be gone for about a week."

"So, you want to be go from babysitter to nanny?" you say, and you smile a bit when he starts to panic.

"You don't have to. I can try and find someone to watch him--"

"Aomine, chill. I'm just fucking with you," you laugh, and he relaxes as he smiles.

"Are you sure?"

You nod quickly. "Yes. I love watching Taj, and I can do my work remotely, so it all works out."

He sighs in relief. "Thank you so much. I owe you big time."

"Don't worry about it. I hope you guys do well."

"Thanks," he responds, and you can tell it's about to get awkward. "Is Taj already asleep?"

"I'm not sure. I let him stay up a little longer tonight since he doesn't have school tomorrow," you answer, and at that, you head towards his room with Aomine in tow. You softly knock on the door, stepping inside to see Taj asleep on the floor. You pout softly as you carefully walk over to him, and you try to pick him up without waking him.

He stirs as soon as you get him into your arms, and you stop moving, smiling when he looks at you. "Let's get you changed, okay?" you tell him quietly, and he nods sleepily, rubbing his eyes. He puts on his pajamas quickly before crawling into bed, and you tuck him before sitting next to him.

"Thanks for letting me stay up," he whispers.

"Of course, Taj."

"Are you leaving?"

"Yeah, I am," you say with a nod. "Sleep tight, okay? I'll see you soon." He nods, sitting up to give you a hug. You pull the blanket back up when he lays down, giving him a kiss on the forehead before you stand up and walk towards the door.

"Goodnight, Taj," Aomine says from the doorway, but he's already fallen back asleep. You turn the light off, slowly closing the door before you walk back downstairs. You grab your stuff, heading out of the door, and as per usual, Aomine walks you to your car.

"I'll, uh, see you later?"

"Yeah," you mumble. "Goodnight, Aomine," you say as you get into your car.

"Goodnight," he responds softly, standing in the driveway until you drive away and he can't see you anymore.

~

Aomine's tournament is in a couple of days, but he actually has to leave during the weekend since the games start on that Monday. Aomine gave you a key to his house once you started watching Taj, so you let yourself in, seeing Taj sitting on the couch. He smiles in surprise, jumping and running over to give you a hug before you can barely close the door.

"What are you doing here?" he asks excitedly.

"Your dad's got a tournament out of the state, so I'm gonna stay here with you. That sound good?"

"Yeah!" he exclaims as he quickly nods his head. "That means we can play volleyball!"

You laugh. "Yes, it does!" Aomine comes down the stairs with a duffel bag on his shoulder and a suitcase which he rolls it up by the door.

"Thank you again for doing this. I really appreciate it."

"You're welcome, Aomine."

Aomine takes his phone out of his pocket to check the time. "Okay, I gotta catch my flight. I'll see you later. See ya, Taj," he finishes, giving him a fist bump before he heads out of the door, locking it behind him.

"So, what do you wanna do first?" you say, turning to Taj. "Have you already eaten?"

"Yeah, I had cereal not too long ago," he answers. He says he wants to watch TV for now since cartoons are still playing, and you sit with him on the couch while you start to do some work. It's not much, but you want to get out of the way so that it's not over your head for the rest of the week.

Taj asks you about what you're doing soon after you start, and you spend most of your time explaining what you're doing as you do your work. The cartoons are soon forgotten as he keeps his focus on what you're doing. He helps you out on some of the work when he asks, and you're relieved when you're finally done, seeing that it didn't even take nearly as long as you thought it would.

You shut down your laptop, putting all of your work back in your bag, and you ask Taj if there's anything that he wants to do. He wants to play volleyball, so you go grab it out of the car before you walk with him out into the backyard. You always expect to be outside for a long time with kids, but it seems like Taj never wants to stop.

You were passing with him for a while until you got a bit tired, so you decided to sit down. He wanted to learn even more, so you spend the rest of the time teaching him the basics and the techniques of everything. You stay sitting down, tossing him the ball as you encourage him whenever he messes up.

You check your phone to see that it's already lunch time, and that's enough to convince Taj to quit for a while so you both can eat. You look in the fridge to see that there isn't a lot of food for you to cook, so you ask Taj if there's anything specific that he wants.

"Can we have pasta?" he asks as you close the fridge.

"Do you want any sauce?"

"The red kind, what's it called?"

"Marinara," you laugh as you answer. "We'll have to go to store for that if you're up for it?" He nods, running to his room to get his shoes. Aomine left his car seat, so you grab it, hooking it up in the car. Taj is quiet on the way to the store, and you periodically look at him in your rearview mirror, seeing that he's looking out the window.

He holds your hand when you get out of the car, and you let him push the basket around, keeping your hand on it so that he doesn't hit anything. Since you're going to be at the house for the week, you buy enough food to last the both of you. You let Taj pick out any snacks that he wants and any food that he wants to eat this week. When you head to the check out, he's happy to pack everything in the reusable bags that you brought, and you help him pack them while the person scans the items.

After you pay, you have to help Taj push the basket since it's heavier with all of the stuff you bought. You hand him the lighter things as you transfer all of the groceries to the car, and you let him put the cart back into the corral. You make the drive back to the house, and Taj helps you bring the groceries in before helping you put them all away.

He wants to help you make lunch, so you grab his step stool from the bathroom, setting in the kitchen. You let him put the pasta in the water once it boils, watching carefully to make sure he doesn't burn himself. There isn't much too do with pasta, but he seems excited nonetheless to be making it. You drain the pasta once it's done, and he makes his own plate, taking it to the table.

You pour him some juice before you take that and the sauce over to him. You make sure he doesn't pour too much sauce over his pasta before he hands it to you, and he talks your ear off as you both eat. You smile as you listen to him, only prompting him with questions whenever it seems like he's done talking about something.

When you're done eating, you decide to wash the dishes now so that they don't stack up, and Taj helps you with that as well. You try to tell him that he could go play or do something else, but he says that he wants to stay and help you. You find your way back to the couch after you're done with the dishes, and you can tell that he's getting a bit tired. He moves onto your lap as you turn on some volleyball, and he's asking you questions about it until you don't hear him say anything.

You look down to see that he's sleep, and you smile softly as you turn your attention back to the TV, making sure that he's comfortable. You feel your eyelids getting heavy, and you relax further against the couch, watching the TV until you finally fall asleep.

~

You've never had a week go by so fast. Aomine is supposed to be back in a couple of days, and you start to realize that you'll miss spending your days with Taj. Usually, you just pick him up from school and watch him for the night while Aomine is at practice. Or if he's training in the mornings, you take him to school, and watch him until Aomine gets back. You honestly don't know how Taj'll react when Aomine gets back, but you don't worry about that right now.

A bed is calling your name, and after putting Taj in bed, staying with him until he finally went to sleep, you went to the bathroom to hop in the shower, doing your night routine before getting in the bed. Once you get comfortable, it doesn't take you long to fall asleep, rolling over one last time before you finally do.

You suddenly hear something, and you think you're dreaming until you feel something shaking you. You gasp softly as your eyes open, seeing Taj standing in front of you. You sigh heavily as you sit up, blinking the sleep out of your eyes as you look at the clock, seeing that you've been sleep for a few hours.

"Taj? What's wrong?" you whisper, scooting closer to the edge of the bed, and you can see that it looks like he's been crying, the only light in the room the moonlight coming in from the window. "What happened?"

"I had a bad dream," he mumbles. "Can I stay with you?" You nod silently, moving over and pulling the blankets back so that he can slide into the bed next to you. You lay back down, and he immediately attaches himself to you and you rub over his head. You don't ask about it since it doesn't seem like he wants to talk about it, and you can hear him sniffle every now and then.

Aomine periodically checked in on you, making sure everything was going okay and once again thanking you for watching Taj on such short notice. Since they didn't do so well at the tournament, they were able to come back a little earlier than expected, but they had to take a late flight because of that, and he never got around to telling you that he was on his way back home.

When he walks into the house, as he expected, it's quiet. He sighs heavily as he takes his shoes off, slowly making his way up the stairs as he sets his bags in his room. He walks down the hallway to check on Taj, and he frowns when he sees that his door is open. He opens it a little more to see that it's empty, and he looks around, wondering where he could be. He's walking down the hallway again when he hears voices, and he stops in front of one of the guest rooms, seeing you and Taj laying down.

He's about to step inside to announce that he's home, but when his ears tune into the conversation, he doesn't move.

"You and my dad used to date?" Taj asks and you nod. "Why aren't you together now?" he follows.

"Because I liked your dad more than he liked me," you tell him honestly, but you leave it at that.

Aomine chews at his lip as your answer wafts through his ears. He knows you didn't say what you wanted to say.

Taj looks down at his hands as he messes with his fingers. "Sometimes I feel like my dad thinks about basketball more than me." And it takes everything in Aomine for him not to reveal himself right then and there.

"Taj," you start, "what makes you say that?"

He shrugs. "Well, I didn't spend much time with him growing up, and then suddenly I was. But it didn't feel like he really liked me being here."

"Taj, I can tell you right now that that is not true," you quickly reassure. "Your dad loves you," you state. "He just has a really weird way of showing it."

He shifts his eyes to you. "How do you know?"

"Well, I know that he hasn't been staying at practice late as much as he usually does," you answer. "I think he's doing that so he can spend more time with you." It doesn't look like it convinces Taj, and Aomine didn't think he could ever feel so shitty. "Taj, I think you should talk to your dad about how you feel," you offer when he doesn't respond. "You might not think he'll listen, but I'm confident that he will."

"Do you think it'll change anything?"

"You won't know if you don't try, but I think it will," you insist. "Is there anything you really want to ask him?"

Taj thinks about it for a bit. "If he's gonna at least be home for my birthday," he says. "I know that he can't help it if he has to play, but sometimes he doesn't even come home."

God, you wish there was something you could say to make Taj even the least bit happy. You pull him into a hug, and after a while, he wraps his arms around you. "I can be there with you to talk to him if that'll help. I'll even make sure he's there and doesn't bail out."

"Okay," he whispers into your shirt.

Aomine never says anything, slowly and quietly stepping away from the door as he makes his way to the bar in the open space down the hall.

Taj has fallen asleep again, and you slowly peel away from him, careful not to wake him, before you tiptoe out of the room with the intention of using the bathroom. You walk out into the hallway, the conversation you just had playing through your head. You see a light on down the hall when you walk out, and you frown as you carefully walk towards it. You peek around the corner to see Aomine sitting at the bar. His back is towards you, but it doesn't look like he's drinking anything, but his head is in his hands.

You sigh in relief since it's not a stranger, and you walk over to him. "When did you get back?" you ask, but he doesn't respond. "Aomine?" you whisper, stepping closer to him.

"Are you okay?" you try when he stays silent.

He turns to you suddenly which makes you jump back a bit, and the look in his eyes is something you've never seen. Not in Aomine's eyes. "You're not gonna tell me anything, are you?" he whispers, his voice cracking a little, and you can finally notice that his eyes are red. You could only tell when you got closer because the only light is coming from the lights under the bar.

"What are you talking about?" you ask, worry starting to bury itself in your chest.

"I heard your conversation with Taj earlier." Your chest rises with a silent gasp before you audibly let the breath out, your eyes falling shut in a long blink.

"Aomine--"

"I'm a piece of shit, aren't I?" You don't say anything and he scoffs bitterly, a weak laugh coming from him after. "I shouldn't be a fucking father. I shouldn't have the responsibility of a child." You're silent, truly at a loss for words. "Hell, the only reason why you're here now is because I fucking lost him in the damn store!" he laughs, looking back down at the bar, and you play with your fingers as your nerves start to react to your uneasiness. "And you can't even deny it."

"Aomine, it's not like everyone knows how to be a parent right out of the gate--"

"Don't make excuses for me," he interjects, his voice rising. "I had more than enough time to get my shit together, but even though Taj has been here for years, I just didn't wanna believe it. He doesn't deserve that." He looks at you again. "What have I done to him?" he asks you, the question quiet in the air.

"What do you mean?"

"He has to have habits or something because of my shitty parenting," he answers. "If you could even call it that." You don't want to respond because you know your answer will just make him spiral even more. But Aomine can tell by the look on your face that you have answers ready on your tongue. "Tell me," he quietly demands.

"Listen--"

"Don't try to go soft on me. Tell me." You sigh, running your hand down your face before you take a couple of steps closer to him.

"Look, I'm not a professional, but from what I've seen from other experiences in the past," you start, "he, uh, seems very independent for his age. He seems to be way more willing to do things like helping wash the dishes, getting the groceries, stuff like that...instead of going to play or something," you say. "I'm not saying that's unusual, but it seems like he'd rather do anything with me than anything by himself."

"What else?" he presses quickly, his eyes back on the wood, tapping his finger against it.

"When it comes to physical touch, he seems okay with hugging. But if it goes on longer than that, then he shies away from it." You look down at the floor, taking another heavy sigh before you continue. "Which could be because he's always been rejected by someone whom he wanted to be held by." You glance at Aomine without lifting your head, and he pulls his lips down as he nods.

"Keep going."

"This--"

"I need to hear it."

You can feel your heart start to sink, but you continue anyway. "Ever since I've been coming here, he's broken out of his shell." You start on a positive note, but Aomine knows it's about to take a horrible turn. "But if I stopped coming or if he has no promise that I'm coming back, it will definitely affect him...a ton."

Daiki laughs softly, rubbing his eyes as he continues. "I'm surprised he hasn't run away yet." You make the mistake of showing a reaction to his words, and he prying you to elaborate.

"The day at the store, he could've been trying to," you admit. "It's just a hunch, but that was the only time since I've met Taj that I've seen him on the verge of tears. I'm guessing he was standing in an aisle for who knows how long to see if you would notice." You don't know why you're still talking. "And when you didn't, he found me."

He huffs. "But he knows that he's a kid and that he probably won't get very far. He's also very aware of the dangers if he does run away."

"Poor kid," he muses. "He's got two parents that don't give a fuck about him."

"Aomine, that's not true--"

"He'd probably be better off with a different family," he counters suddenly, and you can feel your uneasiness morphing into irritating anger the more he cuts you off.

"Putting him in the system would only be worse for him," you state.

"Would it?" he questions with a heavy shrug, holding your gaze.

"Yes, he--"

"It would probably be better if I was somewhere far away from him--"

You're fuming. You step into his space before grabbing his face in your hand, turning his head to yours hard. "Shut. The. Fuck. Up." His eyebrows raise just a bit. "What do you want me to say, Aomine?! Yeah, you are a piece of shit father, you already know that!" you yell, making sure to keep your voice down since Taj is sleeping. "You're making fucking excuses! You need to grow the fuck up! Taj needs you now more than anything, and you're trying to send him off! Instead of being sorry, you need to be a damn father!"

Your voice still echoes in the quiet room even though it's just above a whisper. "You can fucking change, Aomine, but you're refusing to!" you scream. "You're right! Taj does deserve better than this! And stop putting yourself down so fucking much! That thinking is only going to transfer over in your parenting." Your fingers are starting to hurt from how hard your grip is on his face, but you're pissed. "You give a fuck about him, Aomine. My being here is proof of that. But you need to give a fuck about making the changes to being a better parent."

You let go of his face, but he doesn't move. "You need to get it together," you breathe. "Because this?" you say, pointing at him and moving your finger up and down. "Is pathetic." You turn around, not even giving him a second glance as you start toward the exit of the room. "When you find the Aomine I know, come find me."

You storm out of the room, and Aomine listens to your footsteps get quieter and quieter until he hears a door open and close. Your words are ringing loudly in his ears, and he softly runs his fingers over his face where yours were. His mind isn't even running, the only thing on replay are those words. He loses track of how much time he spent sitting on that bar stool, and he doesn't even get a full night's sleep.

The conversation keeps him up almost all night.

[tokyo-terror]

YOO IM IN LOVE WITH UR HCS THEY TASTE LIKE CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES AND FRUIT TEA :3

Request here 🙏🙏🙏

Could you possibly.. *leans on Bugatti with graves wrap on it + an inflatable eagle and American flag flying from the bonnet* write some hcs for 141 + König with a gn s/o that has had a really bad day and just needs some comfort? So eg, just being pampered and having their hair washed, being told they’ve done well, that people are proud of them and love them, etc?

Ive been having a really shitty past few months with my depression and anxiety and it’s really overwhelmed me so I’m kinda projecting.. 🧍🏼🧍🏼

If you can’t do it, that’s ok!!! No pressure <33

But if you can, may your skin be clear and may your crops flourish 🙏🙏🙏 (with america rizz) (im british)

i hate brits but ill make an exception for u 🫶 /lh i hope ur day gets a littol bit better for u pookie :< ik how hard it gets fr <3 we r in this together :)

cw: depression (not delved into !!)

simon "ghost" riley:

☆ this guy getss it !!! he doesn't open up much about his feelings directly but let's all be fr and agree he's not the most mentally stable

☆ your self care day is hiss self care day, thrives on cuddling and using you as weighted blanket while he rubs your back

☆ has himself a tea while you both cuddle, and trust me it's good tea. the night might turn into a cuddle and see how many teas simon can make before you run out

☆ before you fall asleep fully he kisses the crown of your head and says that he's proud of how far you've come

john "soap" mactavish:

☆ tries to be more lowkey w how he comforts you because he doesn't want to come off as overbearing

☆ has mastered the perfect balance of praise and touch, he holds your hand while you tell him about your day and he makes comments trying to sympathize w you

☆ lets you scritch his mohawk while he tells you how much he loves you and how glad he is that you're around and here with him

☆ lays his head on your chest when you both go to sleep so he can listen to your heartbeat and tap your arms to the beat of it, has both of you asleep within 5 minutes

john price:

☆ kinda awkward with comforting but he tries his best, he's always a little bit confused about how somebody like you could be so upset about anything

☆ he knows that it's not his place to fully understand though, so he sticks to doing what he does best: being an old ass man

☆ showers with you and washes your hair while you vent (or not) about how you've been feeling, he stays mostly silently except for humming to let you know he's listening

☆ towel dries your hair and changes the bedsheets to clean ones so you can be fully clean because he's a firm believer in being a little more tidy can greatly improve somebody's feelings

kyle "gaz" garrick:

☆ king of pampering in general, he's waiting on you hand and foot constantly. honestly he probably knows it's going to be a bad day before you even start your day

☆ he's always making you food to eat throughout the day, little snacks that aren't too big but are just enough to keep you energized and full

☆ ditches his military soaps for your nice ones when you take a shower, secretly (not rlly) loves when you laugh at him building bubble beards on himself and doing price impressions

☆ making you laugh is his goal in life tbh he's constantly cracking jokes while you both cuddle, some of them are so bad it's funny

könig:

☆ another guy that genuinely understands everything you're talking abt, his anxiety also makes him have awfulll days and due to being the military around lots of people he's learned coping mechanisms

☆ takes hot showers with you a lot in general, but even more when you're having one of those days. he's already washing your hair and face as soon as you get in

☆ lets you braid his hair while he talks idly about how missions are and how he adores you, though he says that in german. you've picked up on him saying cheesy stuff in german though so it's fine :)

☆ lets you sprawl out on him like a starfish when you both finally go to sleep, around 2am because of how many shows he wanted to watch with you

[chaifootsteps]

I can't speak for you or anyone else but for me an average of 32 posts a day isn't really that much?

especially when you consider a lot of it is just answering asks other people send where they might have posted more words than you.

plus like, averages are just averages: some days will be higher when there's new eps or news or odd takes from fans or creators. other days won't be. for instance, the playbill thing just passed its one year anniversary so there's been more posts about that lately. that doesn't happen every day though, obvs, so there's ups and downs

that said, just wanted to say if you ever did want to step away and stop opening the ask box for a while then please go for it! the critical community has been a nice place to vent together but your wellbeing is more important, especially if the asks get overwhelming. and I honestly can't imagine how you deal with the most toxic fans using your criticism of Viv as a free pass to accuse you of awful things like abusing your animals or possessing CP for the crime of *checks notes* having old laptops lying around, then spreading it around like it's a game of telephone

honestly seems odd that when people ask you if being in the critical community makes you happy they're never referring to the cost of having stans lie on you all the time to the point they're casually accusing you of committing crimes. just this vague idea that all critics are full time haters with no life of their own

Exactly! It's not all that many asks and it's an average. When the inbox is getting too full or I want to not think about any of it, I close it. Some days, especially when I'm focusing on work or personal projects, I'm barely on here at all. But sitting around answering asks (about Viv or whatever) while doing other stuff on the side, I sincerely enjoy that.

Being accused of molesting my dog or writing infant porn, not so much.

[acquired-stardust]

Acquired-Stardust's First Anniversary!

It's the one year anniversary of Acquired-Stardust! A huge thank you to everyone who's supported us so far. Read on for some more detailed thoughts from both Ash and Larsa looking back on our first year.

Wow, so it's been a year already huh? And what a roller coaster of a year it's been, with so many more highs than lows. Larsa and I originally started Acquired-Stardust to help motivate us to experience some of the overwhelming amount of media on our backlog and to hopefully help share some enjoyment of things new to us that was deserving of it alongside stuff we already knew and loved. Two specific goals were to avoid dwelling on negativity with a focus instead on what's worth our and your time, and to avoid trying to quantify fun or quality with traditional scored reviews of things. In that pursuit I utilized some of my enjoyment of virtual photography (which started in part due to being a Tumblr user as far back as 2011), finally getting around to writing more in a public capacity and we even learned how to make gifs specifically for this blog. All that in and of itself has been really rewarding to do, but the reception that you all have given our posts has been overwhelming and far exceeded our wildest dreams.

Low points come with a silver lining. Dealing with our content (so far almost entirely visual works) being reposted without any credit or permission by large Twitter accounts has been frustrating, and necessitated the creation of a Twitter account of our own (which you can find here) to try and hopefully get out in front of stuff like that and bring more stuff that people might want to see to more eyes. The account has struggled mightily with visibility, but it's been a great reinforcement of our original choice of platform in Tumblr. Tumblr's community has an integrity and emotional depth not seen elsewhere, and the platform itself allows people to connect with the sorts of things they want to see much more organically without the heavy-handed forcing of algorithms incentivizing people ripping each other off. Tumblr users are the kind of people I want to make things for, and Tumblr is the platform I want to make things for. Sharing our journey through media worth experiencing with you has been and will continue to be an honor and a pleasure.

We have plenty more ideas for stuff to post. For one we'd like to cover anime much more frequently, though it's a crowded space with lots of very talented and dedicated people covering it. We'd also like to write more often about games and anime both, and have plenty of subjects in mind including various things of a wider focus than just singular pieces of media. We'd like to create a pinned post that has a directory of sorts with links to an about section alongside things like filters for popular posts and writing. We've also been thinking of occasionally reblogging some of our older posts to bring them to newer followers who might've missed them the first time around. Hopefully you all will continue to enjoy the stuff we make even half as much as we've enjoyed bringing it to you all.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making this first year so special for us, and here's to many more. Treat yourselves to something nice today in our honor so you can share in our joy as well.

-- Ash I cannot believe that it has already been a year since Ash and I decided to start this blog together as a team. I suppose the saying must be true that time files when you are having fun because my time spent on this blog has a been a great experience. We started this blog expecting that our posts may never be seen by anybody and that was okay as long as the cool things we were passionate about had a chance to be seen by anybody at all even just one extra time. However, quickly our posts started to get some eyes on it and our fellow Tumblr users actually enjoyed the stuff we posted so far. My gaming background has been many RPGs, fighting games, strategy games, third person shooters, and then that extended further to other hobbies like trading card games such as "Yu-Gi-Oh!". Oh and I shouldn't forget to mention an unhealthy amount of monster taming games. It's cool to see on this community that so many of you love these things too. Likewise we have enjoyed when you all would share your feelings with us in replies or reblogs about the subject matter. Seeing what the subjects of our posts mean to you means the world to us. Personally I had never been involved on Tumblr much until this blog maybe due to my severe shyness. The platform to me always felt like something that passed me by back in the day like a ship in the night and perhaps people weren't active on it anymore. I was completely wrong in that assumption the community here is not only active everybody is almost unanimously incredibly thoughtful and nice. Sometimes the world can feel like a pretty awful place especially when you are disabled while living an alternate lifestyle. I think we all deserve some light to brighten things up in life. Thank you all for the support over the past year, it means a lot to us and we will keep working hard to keep bringing more to the blog. My goal is to keep spreading positivity and writing about more subjects to share with you. Please look forward to the future and let's all be kind. -- Larsa

[ghoulfuckersincorporated]

Ghouls and sex pollen: thoughts? Feelings? I’ve seen in some fics the concept of excessive rads gets a Ghoul going, but I’d love your expert opinion ;)

My feelings are as follows: sex pollen is one of my favorite tropes for sci-fi and I go a little nuts thinking about it, frankly. It's often heavily tinged with flavors of BDSM/primal play/self-denial/dubcon/etc., and I enjoy stuff in that vein. I'm also a real dupe for what is basically forced escalation of sexual tension between characters that don't wanna admit how badly they'd like to fuck one another, and the trope lends itself really nicely to exactly that.

I've seen similar fics to the ones you mentioned, and I've also seen fics that take a more traditional approach and have a more literal sex pollen/inhalable pheromone vehicle. Both work great for the canon and setting, in my opinion. Thanks to the likes of Vault-Tec, we have biological experiments gone horrifically awry in the vein of Vault 22 (a crop research vault whose researchers all fell victim to what is basically a "zombie ant"-style parasitic fungus that eventually coats your entire body) to lend credence to the possible existence of something like that. The fungus that took over Vault 22 also originally came as donated samples from the X-22 research lab/botanical garden at Big MT. If you don't know anything about the horny, intellectually overstimulated little freaks featured in Old World Blues, well...let's just say that something like a "sex pollen" being created by someone there, purposefully or through acts of unbelievable incompetence, isn't outside the realm of possibility.

However, literal sex pollen is a more broadly-applicable trope, and it's for that reason that I also really like the excessive rads/radstorm idea. Trust me, I know that in the incredibly niche terms of "Fallout ghoul fucker fanfiction tropes", the idea that high radiation situations are basically the same thing, but for ghouls, is as overdone as 70's pornos with plots about fucking pizza delivery guys or whatever. But, like...I will firmly argue that it's that popular for multiple reasons. Those reasons are that it's fun to read, fun to write, and a pretty canon-appropriate way to provide that sort of instantaneous, almost insurmountable sexual tension that I was talking about before.

As I sort of touched on the other day in my little drabble about sex with glowing ones, I think radiation is not only something that rapidly heals ghouls, but something that actively re-energizes them when they're exposed to higher amounts of it. Maybe it even makes them a little stronger, a little faster. A lot hornier.

To me, though, it's less like the overwhelming, visceral, "I need to fuck something now or I'm seriously gonna fall over dead" sort of horny that you often see in sex pollen fiction. In my mind, it's almost more of an ecstasy-style euphoria that makes you feel so good and alive that all you wanna do is sink yourself into the person next to you. Lots of energy, shared good feelings with others who can feel what you're feeling. It lends itself heavily to things getting physical, and quickly.

And not just because the increased rads in the atmosphere would recharge them, either. I imagine things like radstorms, or spending time in a particularly irradiated location, provide a fairly significant analgesic effect to ghouls who suffer from chronic pain in some form, of which I imagine there are a great many. More who do than don't, I'd be willing to bet. Ghoulification is hell on the body, and that's before you factor in how many of these people have stuck around to put wear and tear on their bodies far past the typical human life span. There's a reason characters like Raul complain about their joints all the time! Pain is exhausting, and even those with high sex drives can find themselves hampered if they're always hurting and tired. Take away the hurt, provide some energy, and don't be shocked at what happens!

I will say, though, that I would certainly leave room for the possibility that some ghouls would have more of a "take me into a high-rad area or a storm and I'm gonna have to carry you out, because you won't be able to walk once I'm finished with you" sort of reaction to these situations. Factors like a lack of overall daily pain, higher than average sex drive, a particularly sadistic or aggressive nature, or already present intoxication would increase the odds. In cases like that, extra precaution would need to be taken so that they didn't accidentally do you serious harm; increased inhibition means loss of control, and the average ghoul is already strong enough to hurt you if they want to without extra radiation fueling them.

Plus, you know, there's the matter of how the increased rads will impact you without your partner even being factored in. I hope you're stocked up to your eyeballs in Radaway!

[jimmywooosstuff]

Some silly HC go the Bad Kids(Most of these aren’t my original ideas/some may be cannon)

Fig and gorgug have matching braids and bracelets

fig is lactose intolerant

Riz let’s Kristen and Fabian paint his claws

Fabian gave Riz his new haircut

Adaine fighting style looks alike to some pirate and eleven sword fighting due to fabian training adaine in the basics

Fabian has double copies of all the year books for riz to write in (sorta true since that ep in s3)

They have all kissed eachother at some point like with kristen kissing all of them

When riz gets overwhelmed Gorgug lets him bite/scratch him (sorta true since that one ep in s3)

Since fig only went barbarian classes I feel like porter would see gorgug and fig having great teamwork while doing the dimension door move. Porter would warn the other kids just in case because “The Cig figs are a deadly duo”

Fabian just buys things that remind him of the bad kids. Like german shepherd plush bought a metal flower key chain bought. Sometimes he just buys really expensive stuff for his friends. I feel like he bought Riz a really nice and expensive gun but he didn’t give it since riz wouldn’t trade his dads gun for anything

Gorgug and Kristen have late night talks about dying again. Once about their exes but that’s ok

Fig whenever she goes to anything with anyone she turns very protective. i feel this would happen on tour with gorgug

Gorgug always no matter what will step at least one inch in front of fig just to protect her since shes always in front since freshman year (sorta true in s1 Emily would shout i’m in front and Zac would say gorgugs in front)

Kristen in freshman year made helioc friendship bracelets for the bad kids. After the black pit fight she made new bracelets specific for each bad kid but had a little moon to match with each other. She also started the trend of friendship yarn bracelets. Fig,Riz and Adaine like making bead bracelets. Fabian thinks yarn bracelets look better so he specializes in that. Gorgug just makes full on bracelets like from metal and stuff he also has a ton of bracelets on his axe handle.

That’s it i just wanted to tell people of my head cannons for these idiots lol

[nickeverdeen]

Heeyy sweetie <3

I saw you were doing matchups, and i thought that was so fking nice and wanted to try too. I wanted to try with Arcane and Umbrella Academy.

My name's Meli, and I'm pansexual without any preference. I'm an introvert, and most of the time quiet unless I really trust someone. I had some trust issues, so, it does take me a lot to trust someone. I'm creative (or at least that I a been told), the mother like friend, and an overthinker. Most of the times I wear headphones because I have social anxiety and tend to get overwhelmed with loud noises very easily. I am very sarcastic and have a dark sense of humour and I curse a lot in Spanish (that's my first language,) and English. I'm also a people pleaser, and I just put everyone above me not matter what. I'm an observer and a very empathetic person. Most of the times, i match the other person's emotions without noticing, or if I not e they aren't feeling okay, I do try to make them feel better with subtle things (or at least I try to)

I love to write and read. I have many hobbies, like playing guitar, drawing, painting, sewing and cooking, among other stuffs. I mostly read thriller but I end up reading about everything tbh. I LOVE true crime, and that's why I ended up watching everytime I end up in YouTube.

I hate conflict (mostly angry yelling) loud noises (I said that before, but well), and people who just don't care about other people's emotions.

Feel free to not do this and take your time <3 I'm so sorry if any of this doesn't make sense, my English kinda sucks tbh.

PS: I’m absolutely loving the petname for me

——————————

Your Arcane match is…

Viktor

Viktor would appreciate your quiet nature and find comfort in your presence

You’d both enjoy sitting in comfortable silence while working on your respective projects

He’d be fascinated by your creativity, often asking for your input on his inventions or sharing ideas with you, knowing that your perspective would add depth to his work

Viktor would understand your trust issues and never rush you

He’d be patient, allowing you to open up at your own pace, and when you finally do, he’d cherish that trust deeply

He’d find your dark sense of humor refreshing, often joining in with his own dry wit

Your shared sarcasm would create an unspoken bond between you two

Viktor would be very mindful of your social anxiety and sensitivity to loud noises, ensuring that your environment is as calm and quiet as possible when you’re together

Your ability to empathize with others would resonate with Viktor, who often carries the weight of the world on his shoulders

He’d find solace in your understanding and support

As an observer, you’d notice the subtle ways Viktor cares for others, even when he doesn’t say much

You both would enjoy late-night discussions about science, philosophy, and the intricacies of the human mind, often losing track of time in your conversations

Viktor would appreciate the subtle ways you try to make him feel better, like bringing him a cup of tea when he’s stressed or offering a gentle touch when words aren’t enough

Your love for reading and writing would match well with Viktor’s intellectual nature

Viktor isn’t one for grand displays of affection, but he’d show his care for you in small, meaningful ways—like fixing your headphones when they break or leaving you notes in your native language

Viktor would be intrigued by your love for true crime, occasionally joining you in watching documentaries or discussing interesting cases

Viktor would gently encourage you to prioritize your own needs, reminding you that it’s okay to put yourself first sometimes, even if it’s hard for you to do so

He’d be a steady, supportive presence in your life, always there to listen or offer advice when you’re feeling overwhelmed or anxious

Viktor would surprise you with small, handmade gifts that show how much he values your creativity and the unique bond you share

Your The Umbrella Academy match is…

Five Hargreeves

Five would absolutely love your sarcasm and dark humor

The two of you would engage in quick-witted banter that would leave everyone else around you struggling to keep up

Despite his tough exterior, Five would be incredibly protective of you, especially when he realizes how much you put others above yourself

He’d be the first to step in if someone tries to take advantage of your people-pleasing nature

Five would be drawn to your intelligence and creativity, often seeking your opinion on complex matters

Five understands what it’s like to have trust issues, and he’d be patient with you, giving you the time and space you need to feel comfortable around him

Five would appreciate your quiet nature, often just sitting in silence with you, finding peace in the moments where neither of you feels the need to fill the space with words

Your shared dark humor would lead to inside jokes that only the two of you understand, often leaving others puzzled or slightly alarmed by your conversations

Though Five doesn’t always show it, he’s deeply empathetic

He’d notice when you’re matching his emotions and would appreciate your efforts to make him feel better, even if he doesn’t always say it outright

Five would respect your need for personal space and quiet, never pushing you to engage more than you’re comfortable with

He’d also ensure that your time together is never too overwhelming

Five would be intrigued by your love for true crime and thrillers, often joining you in binge-watching documentaries or discussing the psychology behind criminal behavior

Five isn’t big on traditional romance, but he’d show his affection in subtle ways, like making sure you have your favorite snack or fixing something in your house without asking

You both would bond over your love for books, often exchanging recommendations and discussing your favorite plots or character developments

When you’re feeling down, Five would use his sarcasm to lift your spirits, knowing exactly how to make you smile with a well-timed, snarky comment

Five would deeply respect your ability to observe and understand others, recognizing how valuable that skill is, especially in tense situations

Five would be there for you during moments of social anxiety, quietly offering his presence as a grounding force, never making you feel pressured to interact more than you want to

The two of you would have dark comedy nights where you watch the most twisted movies and shows, laughing at the absurdity while enjoying each other’s company

———————

Tag List: @callsignwidow