#i got this from pinterest but most images from pinterest are stolen
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#موجة الرجعية🪩#الألعاب الرجعية👾#i got this from pinterest but most images from pinterest are stolen#so take this source with a heaping pile of salt
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PSA for the kinnporsche/ jjk/ genshin fandom
@shadowyprinceperfection has been stealing arts from twitter/weibo/ig/pinterest and posting them here.
Came across this post a few days ago and it immediately pinged me off bc I'd seen this art on twt back in 2022. A little digging got me the original artist
https://x.com/owenduil/status/1548254986898849802
similarly, for the stolen jjk art, this is the original artist
.
I'll put the screenshots of other arts they most likely stole as well under the cut, and I'm pretty sure a bit of reverse image searching will reveal the og artists.
Tagging a bunch of you (and especially artists in the fandom) to beware. Block/report, if you see your arts stolen
@nuwildcat @discluded @nattaphum @dr-lemurr @sunshinesanctuary @mortimerlatrice @luckydragon10 @imharmlessipromise @thatgothsamurai @kittysawat @apoluvre @mariemarion @zelenchai
I suspect they simply edited / traced over with an airbrush in a couple of these, but mostly they just straight up erased the watermark of the original artist and put their own "signature"
#jujutsu kaisen#Kinnporsche#satosugu#Jjk#genshin impact#gojo satoru#geto suguru#PSA#Artists on tumblr
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Since I was bombarded with anon statements about me using AI again, I'll say it here on last time: I see and understand where artist come from, I get the frustration over "artists" claiming AI work as their own, selling those pics and getting quite some fame for it.
But accusing me of stealing because I let an AI software turn me and readers into jjk or demon slayer style pictures is a little insane, don't you think? Especially advicing me to just use pictures on Pinterest or out of the manga. I don't want to hurt or trigger someone, but isn't that exactly what stealing is out of your context as well? Isn't using screenshots of jjk anime or manga "stealing" as well? And don't get me started on using random pics on Pinterest where you simply can't find out who's the original artist anymore. The argument that AI gets feeded countless pics on the internet and consumes artists hard work in the process sounds absolutely depressing and I'd be pissed as well.
But when I thought about it more...When putting your stuff on the internet, you deliver it to basically the whole earth. Damn, even my fics were found on some Russian site translated and without stating I was the one writing it. I get the frustration, I get the hate! But at the same time I feel like you aren't im charge for what happens on the internet anymore. As soon as you publish your stuff on literally ANY site (since all of them are collecting your data like Thanos anyway), it will get feeded into that system. Who knows how many of my countless essays already landed in there and are a part of someone's work? Who knows how many phrases of my fics I would be able to find when searching with ChatGPT? This isn't talking your concerns down or explaining myself, but rather showing that it's literally ANY artist out there getting affected by AI. You could just search for a fic with Gojo and boom, ChatGPT delivers way faster than me.
But why are you still here, then? Because NOTHING compares to original art!
Like I said over and over, I'd love to collab with artists. But much to my understanding, a lot of them work for MONEY and since my content is FREE, I'm simply not able to pay for the sheer presentation. Also, when looking at my blog, you'll see that I'm using like 70% of anime screenshots by now.
Let me take this opportunity to ask: are you even familar with how generating pictures with the help of AI even works? To make it short, the ML algorithms get "trained" with a huge ammount of training data (we are talking about like 1 billion pics here, depending on the AI). Yes, that data is sourced from the internet. Yes, that data will most likely include the content of artists on the internet without consent (which isn't fair). BUT that art doesn't find direct use in the later generated pics. It rather helps training the algorithms in order to "learn" aspects and characteristics of the imagine in correlation to the picture you want to translate into a certrain art style (like in my chase) or based on the described properties that the image should have (e.g. Bing AI). To translate that: You don't type in "blonde girl with blue eyes" and the AI just shows you a stolen picture online that fits into that description but generates its own version of it based on the pictures it got trained with before. Of course, it surely depends on the AI you're using and it is your responsibility as a consumer to think about ethical correctness here. But same goes for the people simply hating on me over the fact that I'm using AI and accusing me of stealing while this is definetely not the chase.
I won't change my blog because of you, I will continue putting a pic here and there into a fic because not only I find it cute from time to time, but the people who request are thankful more than once because I'm able to make "their" fic feel a little more personal. I get this is controversial and that some people won't feel comfortable on this blog because of it, which is sad but life. I can't even count how many times I've got rude messages because the jjk screenshots I've took myself out of the anime are someone else's artwork, because the manga panels are also artwork and I'm stealing them for my own content. I feel like I'm always in the wrong here, so I'll continue what I'm doing and what makes me happy.
Also, let me get this straight: I'm a writer who uses AI generated pics from time to time in order to spice up a cover and you're able to see that in the very first entry on my blog. It's really not that deep over here.
Every coward anon rambling in my inbox regarding this topic will be blocked and deleted.
Have a nice day everyone
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New Year's Kiss?
Pre-relationship AceSoap fluff Word count : 1k (whoops)
CW : two loser gay people pining but also in denial about it, really stupid, Gaz is here too but barely, the (b)romance is real
Image stolen from pinterest
The team is currently stuck in on base, getting called back on New Year’s eve of all times. Suppose they can’t all be dismissed, Soap would grumble as he plopped himself down on the sofa, the cushions sinking and the wood creaking softly beneath him. Ace snorted at the comment as he connected the streaming service to the television, having suggested watching a movie to pass the time. It would be the most uneventful holiday the team had the misfortune of experiencing. Each hour passed by agonizingly slowly, nothing particularly happening as the rest of the base got the luxury of staying home for the countdown.
Gaz sighs, draping himself on the leather seat next to the couch. “What a pain..” He was still a little bitter that his leave extension request was denied, seeing that he was only wasting his time on base.
"Too bad your bird's back home. I can be your New Year's kiss." Soap waggles his eyebrows at Gaz, to which Gaz throws a pillow at him.
"Can it, Soap."
"Oh, relax.. it's just a suggestion." Soap laughs, putting the pillow aside.
Gaz and Ace were looking through the movie options, countering what they already watched and if it was worth a rewatch. Soap joined in soon, suggesting some timely classics to watch and commenting when the actors on the cover poster were attractive. Ace excused himself for a moment, allowing Gaz to take the remote and to argue with Soap on what movie they were going to watch.
Eventually the two finally picked a horror movie that they’ve never heard of, turning off the lights and settling back down on the couch. The lights were then shut, leaving the television to illuminate the room as the movie title flashes across the screen. Ace returns just in time, dropping himself on the couch on Soap’s right. Soap does a double take at the shorter man, taking in his attire.
“Is that my hoodie?”
“Nah, bruv.” Ace answers, sporting a hoodie a size too big to be his.
“Yeah, you bawbag, it is.” Soap leans closer to Ace, pinching the fabric between his fingers to read the text printed over the left breast. It read in bold Helvetica ‘SERGEANT JOHN M.’, a detail that Soap laughs at.
“You left it in my room last night, s’mine now.” Ace argues back as a matter-of-factly, raising his brows at Soap. The two locked eyes, as if Ace was challenging Soap to do something about it. Gaz also cocks an eyebrow as he side eyed the two, watching from the sidelines.
“Movie’s starting, guys.” Gaz says, trying his best to keep his patience, and frankly, his sanity as the two finally behaved themselves. Soap drapes his arms along the backrest of the couch, letting Ace use his forearm as a headrest. Gaz sighs internally, hoping to use the movie as a source of distraction from the other two’s totally bromantical antics.
“Damn.. who picked this..” A question Ace asked to which Gaz and Soap pointed to each other.
The movie proved to be quite the distraction. To put it lightly, it was pure shit, in Ace’s words. The sentiment seems to be shared with the two sergeants as the movie goes on. Now, the group were watching the shitty movie, with the added commentary of just how shitty the movie was.
A particularly poor attempt at a jumpscare played, a character dying as a result, earning a scoff from Ace. He turns to make a witty comment to Soap. His words however never seemed to leave his lips as Ace was faced with a strange sight.
Soap was laughing at the movie. Even in the dim light, the glimmer in his blue eyes seemed to shine brightly. His face cast in soft shadows, colours swirling along with the movements on the screen. The corner of Soap’s eyes were crinkled as his lips were curled upwards, the sound of Soap’s laughter bubbling from his chest sounding sweet as ever. On his face was genuine amusement
Ace tears his eyes away from the sight, bringing his attention back towards the television. He focuses on the poorly shot scenes, trying to clear his head. By all means, Soap is a very attractive man but it wouldn’t be the first time he caught himself appreciating Soap’s pretty eyes a little too much.
“Fuck, look at that angle. S’fucking ugly, how’d the director approve this?” Ace comments loudly, barking a laugh. “Imagine spending money to go to acting school at the cameraman does you so fuckin’ dirty!”
Soap glanced at Ace as he made his obnoxious comment. He sees the way that Ace’s lips were tugging into a smirk. His eyebrows were raised, and the crows feet around his eyes seemed even more pronounced as Ace laughed madly and talked shit. It wasn’t that Ace never talked, but hearing his voice outside of work, even while being vulgar, was always music to Soap’s ears.
“Like can you believe this?! I’m gonna piss myself laughing, I swea-” Ace suddenly whips his head to face Soap.
Suddenly their eyes were locked on each other. Ace looks at Soap, tilting his head up to accommodate for the height difference. Soap looks at Ace, suddenly all too aware of how close they were to each other.
“Hey.. uh, what’s the time now?” Ace lamely asks.
Soap glanced at his wristwatch and looked back at Ace, pursing his lips and humming.
“Midnight.”
Ace hums as well. He nods, feeling heat on his face for some reason. Soap could feel his ears turning pink. Hopefully it’s not too obvious in the dark. They were so close, looking at each other and-
“Are we about to kiss right now?” Soap breaks the silence.
The abrupt line hits Ace like a truck.
Ace roars with laughter and Soap starts to cackle uncontrollably. They pull away from each other, throwing playful hits at each other. Ace snorts as he laughs, causing another laughing fit. Soap falls to his side, laughing so hard he wheezes. Eventually, they calm down from hooting and hollering, now giggling at each other. They take a deep breath each, gazing into each other’s eyes as they try to catch their breath, sighing softly.
“What? No New Year’s kiss, you two?” Gaz broke the silence, both to tease the two and to remind them of his presence, in case they forgot. He didn’t need to look to even see the pink on Soap’s ears and the wide eyed stare from Ace.
“Can it, Gaz..” Soap tosses a pillow his way and misses completely.
"Just a suggestion, mate."
#not tagging Gaz he's barely even here#get these two fruits a room!!!#mailman rants#cod#cod oc#call of duty#call of duty oc#AceSoap#oc: LT Ace#soap#soap cod#john soap mactavish#soap mactavish#cod soap#johnny soap mactavish#soap call of duty#cod original character#cod fanfic#fanfiction#cod fanfiction#call of duty fanfic#cod mw2#fluff#cod fluff
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It's honestly really sad to see authors using ai art. regarding the ai art generator thingies a lot of the art from there is stolen from other artists also work really hard to create their art just like authors so it's really sad when seeing some use ai art as official art for the characters. it wasn't an author but i have seen someone on tumblr mentioned that they got death threats for using ai art to create their ocs and i do not agree with this type of thing nor should it should never go that far, there are always better way to resolve issues without resorting to this kind of behaviour. i love the fact that you always speak about ai art stealing art from artists because artists do not deserve this. they put their souls and time into creating such good art. i can't always afford art commissions but whenever I can I do try to commission artists even if it's once in two years. there are also free picrews and artbreeder that can be used as well as doll makers,maybe even Pinterest boards or tentative faceclaims that you can use as a reference. ❤️❤️
Your art is stunning btw!
Thank you for your wonderful words. It really is sad to see authors using it. I like to hope readers who use them for their OCs do it because they don’t know or understand how it hurts human artists. It’s weird, trying to be patient and explain it (often repeatedly) while simultaneously feeling the pain of seeing AI work flourishing. That pain doubled when people you know irl who are playing with it, sharing, and it gets very defeating. A lot of times, people just don’t know or just don’t understand.
It’s never okay to send death threats. Under any circumstances. I’m sorry for anyone who has gotten them. Personally, I don’t go out of my way to yell at people individually, unless I know them very well. Authors, I quietly unfollow. It breaks my heart as some of them I really loved. I don’t announce the departure. I don’t stomp my feet. Though it really is tempting to want to cry at them for making me have to leave them. Honestly, unfollowing is always the best way to approach most issues in the IF community. Avoid being the hateful anon, even by accident. Just doot doot doot on to the next IF.
You are right though. There are so many free sites that aren’t loaded with art theft. It’s a start. Something to work off of until you can find an artist that you like and can afford. I’ve had other anons ask about art breeder, and it is popular for a reason. But I’ve had multiple commissions come in using picrews as references. Which is the way to go! Using free sites like that and saving up for that piece you really want. There is something to be said working with a person to come up with an image. I love listening to people talk about their characters and adding details to the piece that weren’t asked for, but bring the character to life in surprising ways. Which you can’t really get with AI. You lose that connection. The human element.
Sorry, I sort of went off on a massive soap box speech. Thank you again, Anon. I am glad you like my work. I hope you continue to support human artists, if not monetarily, then with words or support, sharing, and lending your voice to speak out against AI.♥️
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I can usually find ways to go around it
Reddit is kinda okay, just dumb asking you everytime but seems to only ask for an accoubt when it's content marked as nsfw (which is understandable but WHY IS THE COPYPASTA SUBREDDIT AS A WHOLE MARKED LIKED THAT SOB)
pinterest i think i find ways to copy the images i want getting rid of the filter (or usually i copy it from the browser result, and i try to not take it from pinterest but find the original poster anyway since most content on pinterest is stolen, and i recommend to do the same)
And most news articles that ask for an account can often just be dealt with by inspecting and removing the thing LOL (btw i think those that ask you either to enable full ads and tracking of your data or pay a subscription are illegal by european data privacy laws, if their sites have servers in europe that is)
The only one that truly sucked was tumblr, which, like, why would you lock me under making an account or connecting to see the rest of a post, it indeed never made me create an account 😭what did was actually my friends telling me it was cool, it just sucked when i got sent things and made me so disinterested in the website at first. I don't know when companies will get that forcing the consummer's hand is NEVER a good thing and even if people abide to it, they are never happy about it, but i won't start on this or else i'll never stop LOL
companies underestimate how much locking their content behind needing an account will just make me go do something else. oh your website wants me to make an account to view this content? oh your website doesn't show media to logged-out users? okay. i didn't actually want to see it that bad. yeah. bye ✌️
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If you think you have never stolen artwork, read this post.
So, art theft. If you've been a follower of mine, you've heard my barely-coherent rants about this before, but I thought it might be more productive to make a more coherent post on the subject.
If you're wondering about the title of the post here, it's because I feel like a lot of people aren't really grasping what exactly art theft is, and a LOT of people, even well-meaning ones, do it without even realizing it.
"But wait," you say. "I would never STEAL from an artist!! I never claim it as my own!" And that's all fine and good, but you're missing something here.
To start things off, what IS art theft? (It's not what deviantART said it was several years back, I'll tell you that much. *cough*)
We all know what art is, so let's talk about theft. Dictionary.com defines "theft" as "the act of stealing; the wrongful taking and carrying away of the personal goods or property of another; larceny." Okay, makes sense, but what about that other word there, stealing? Dictionary.com defines "steal" as "to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, especially secretly or by force."
From those definitions, we can go on to define art theft as, specifically, "taking art without permission or right." In the context of art, that typically involves reposting it (not reblogging--reblogging is different) or using it for other things.
And there, my friends, is the issue.
If something is taken or used without permission, it is stolen. Permission is the important thing here--if an artist says "oh yeah, you can go ahead and use this!" then it's not stolen. You have their permission. But if you DON'T have that, then it IS stolen. It IS theft.
"But I'm not claiming it as my own!" you say. But you don't have to claim it as your own--the act of taking it in and of itself is an act of theft.
"But I said 'credit to the artist!'" The "credit" thing is a whole other conversation, but here's the short of it: The entire point of credit is to direct people to the source of something. If you are not directly linking to where you got the art from, you are not giving credit. "Credit to the artist" is not actually credit of any kind whatsoever. (Also, Google and Pinterest are not sources.)
"But I DID link back to the artist!" Okay, now this is where it may get confusing, because you may think you're covered because you actually did give credit. Here's the problem: if you reposted it or used it without permission, regardless of whether you gave credit or not, it's still stealing.
I'm bolding this because it's a point that a lot of people get tripped up on. Let me explain it this way: If you went into your neighbor's house and took something of theirs without their permission, but you told people "oh yeah, I got this from [neighbor]'s house!" that that would still, of course, be stealing, and it's no different for art.
Another thing is that even when you credit, people don't always check the source. Very recently I found a case where someone had reposted a piece of artwork of mine to Pinterest that was deliberately made to look like it came from the source material (it wasn't meant to confuse anyone, though--the description of my original post made it very clear that it was fanart). The person who reposted had linked back to my original post. The problem? The comments had people asking if this was official, where it happened in the source material, etc. Despite the fact that the source was right there, no one thought to look at it.
Even if you link back to the source, if you did it without the artist's permission, it's still stealing, and still causes problems for us artists.
"But I just posted it to my Pinterest--" DO NOT DO THIS. DO NOT POST AN ARTIST'S WORK TO PINTEREST IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THEIR EXPLICIT PERMISSION TO DO SO.
"But this artist friend of mine says they're okay if I post their work to my Pinterest so long as I link back to them!" Good for your friend! But the fact that your friend is okay with it doesn't mean that all artists are okay with it. For me, personally, I am very not okay with my work being posted to Pinterest, and say as much on my art blog description and posts (which people tend to ignore).
The problem with Pinterest--and reposting art in general--is that we artists don't know when it happens unless we're told, or unless we find it ourselves. It causes us to lose control of our art. And because of this, our art can spiral further out of our control, because when our works get posted to Pinterest or other similar websites, people who have no grasp whatsoever on how art works will just take it as "free art" and then use it for whatever they want.
That's how a piece I spent 20+ hours on was used as a poster for a paid event, without my permission, and without any payment or credit to me.
If an artist has said nothing about Pinterest (or other similar image sharing sites), your default should be to assume that they don't want their artwork posted there.
"Well I didn't repost someone's art, but I did use it for my avatar/RPing icon/video/fic cover/photo edit--" That's still stealing. If you're using it without their permission for any reason, that is stealing. Not to mention, the artist may not be cool with what you're using their art for anyway. (Looking at you, people who use platonic art in your shipping videos.)
“I MEANT to ask them for permission, but I forgot!” This can ONLY happen if you used the artwork BEFORE you asked for permission. You can resolve this by asking for permission BEFORE you use it, rather than assuming the answer will be “yes” and using it before asking.
"But it took me a really long time to make that icon/video/cover/edit!!" How long do you think it took the original artist to draw their piece? It doesn't matter how much work you put into modifying someone else's art--if you're doing it without their permission, you're still stealing.
"But I couldn't find the original artist! I tried to find them, I really did, but I couldn't. Is it okay to use their art then?" No, because you still don't have permission, and by reposting it anyway, you’re continuing to make the artwork spiral out of their control.
"What if I found the artist, but they speak a different language from mine? I can't ask them for permission, so is it okay if I repost their art anyway?" NO!! DO NOT DO THIS!! If there is a language barrier, use Google translate or find someone to translate for you and get a hold of the artist that way to ask them for their permission. The language barrier is NEVER an excuse to steal artwork. There are plenty of non-English-speaking artists who have taken ALL OF THEIR ARTWORK OFFLINE because the art theft was completely out of control. (And this isn't just exclusive to English-speakers stealing art from people who don't speak their language. It happens artists who don't speak English stealing art from English-speakers, too, but as this post is written in English it doesn't do much good for me to rant about this here.) If you can’t ask their permission, do not use it!!
"But what about reblogging?! Isn't that the same as reposting?? Should we not reblog art at all then?" No, reblogging (or retweeting) is not the same as reposting. If you reblog art, you keep all the information that we attached to the art, including our blog name and the description attached to the art. Reblogging/retweeting actually helps us artists A LOT, so as long as you're reblogging from the original artist (and not someone who's reposting their art), by all means, reblog our art!
"What if I just want to share someone else's artwork on Discord or show it to a friend?" This one's a bit different and is not actually as problematic. If you want to share our work on Discord or whatever, just link directly to where we posted it. Please don't post the art itself, unless you're doing it alongside a link because Discord won't show a preview or something.
"What about a forum or a site like Reddit?" This one's a bit different, since due to the way Reddit functions, if you LINK to the art, you have to go directly to the artist's original page to view it. (At least, that’s what it’s like the last time I was active there.) In a way it's roughly the same as with Discord--be sure you're linking directly to the actual post rather than just uploading the art on its own--but I would also ask the artist if they're okay with it, because they may be a member of the subreddit or forum and want to post it themselves, or they might not want their work shared to specific communities. (Some communities have a function where a bot will repost the artwork to Imgur, and some artists don't want that done with their art.)
"What if I'm saving it to my computer/phone to look at later, or making it into my desktop/phone wallpaper?" IMO this is fine, since your computer/phone files aren't public, and neither is your wallpaper. It's only a problem when you post it to public places without our permission.
"What if it's art I commissioned?" Well... like... in that case, it's art you paid for, so unless the artist you commissioned laid out very specific terms for you, you should be good to use that art. Like, at most, the artist may ask you to credit them somewhere in your blog description if they drew your icon or something, or credit them in a fic description if you commissioned a fic illustration from them, or something to that effect. It's really something you should have already worked out with the artist beforehand, but for the most part you should probably be fine to use art you paid for however you like.
"What about art I requested?" This is a bit different from commissioned work. Just because the art was drawn at your request doesn't mean it's explicitly yours (unless it's like, a drawing of your original character or something). Some artists take requests more as suggestions, so the art they draw in response to a suggestion or request is still theirs. Treat this as you would any other artwork and ask the artist for permission first before you do anything with the artwork you requested from them.
“What about NFTs?” ... Okay this one I can’t really go over too much because I barely understand it in the first place, but NFTs are BAD for artists and are a form of art theft. Do not turn people’s art into NFTs. This is a crappy thing to do. (If you want more information on this one, you’ll have to look it up yourself. It’s a form of cryptocurrency and it’s confusing.)
“If you don’t want your art stolen you shouldn’t post it in the first place.” This is fascinating logic. Try applying it to something else and see how it holds up. “If you don’t want your merchandise stolen, you shouldn’t open a booth.” “If you don’t want to get poisoned you shouldn’t eat food.” “If you don’t want to get punched in the face, don’t walk outside.” Yes. Flawless logic. Truly.
"Why do you care so much, anyway?! I'm sharing your art because I like it! That's a compliment! Shouldn't you be happy?" Well, we're certainly glad you like our art, but the problem is... as I've said before, reposting our art causes us to lose our control over it. When we lose control of our art, that damages our livelihood. As I said before, other people have made money off of my artwork. As well, some artists lose jobs because when their potential employers check out their portfolio, they may find artwork that's been reposted everywhere online, so they cannot hire the artist because they believe they may have stolen the artwork in their own portfolio.
Your reposting an image you thought was cute to Facebook or Pinterest could cost an artist their job. Think about that.
So, tl;dr, keep this in mind: you need the artist's permission to repost or use their artwork. If you do not have it, it is stealing, even if you credit the artist.
I know this post is really harsh in places, but this is such an important thing for all artists, and there's so many misconceptions about art theft online. And I feel like one of the biggest problems is that when some people see posts on art theft, they ignore them, because they think they've never done it or would never do it, so that's why I worded this post the way I did. I'm not trying to hurt anyone--I just want people to understand what art theft is, how it affects us artists, and how you can avoid it. Thank you for reading.
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😫😫😫😫😫They all stole from Pinterest, a den of thieves…😫😫😫😫😫
Pinterest is a treasure trove of unauthorized reposts by thieves, and most of what's stored there, even the screenshots, have been stolen. You might be able to trace it back with just a Google image search, but I can't imagine someone like you doing a Google search.
This guy in particular is a big bad guy.
He stopped stealing from me before I got suspended from Twitter, but I'm sure that's because I blocked his account.
You should absolutely stop borrowing from Pinterest in the future.
𐔌 . ⋮ REALM’S DELIGHT .ᐟ ֹ ₊ ꒱
Mk1 x Targ!reader
A/N:
Dear gentle readers,
I pray thee forgive my long silence, for a month hath passed since I last shared my humble words. Life’s cares did hinder my pen, though my thoughts oft turned to thee. Now, by God’s grace, I return with renewed spirit and fresh ink. I humbly ask thy pardon and hope the stories to come shall be worthy of thy patience.
Thine in earnest,
Author
@kchavez666 💋
Chapter 3 — a typical day?
Time had passed so quickly; a month had already gone by. While others showed significant improvement, you progressed at your own pace, which you didn’t mind as long as you kept improving. You demonstrated great potential in archery.
Apart from the intensive training and the constant challenges you endured, the Wu Shi Academy brought a certain tranquility to your mind. The recurring dream that had haunted you throughout your life was replaced with a forgotten memory. While the memory brought a sense of nostalgia and sadness, it was much preferable to the nightmarish dream of your mad father's death.
Viserys called out to you, “Sister,” capturing your attention. You were no more than five at the time, while he was already a young man, around the age of fifteen years old and strong in both mind and body. You recalled him as being built and skilled in swordsmanship, with a fondness for storytelling. He was particularly captivated by the tales of the conquerors and their dragons, he also shared with you bitterly that these creatures had vanished more than a century ago. The dream depicted your room in Dragonstone, wooden toys that mimicked horses and dragons scattered across the floor. "Aegon the Conqueror brought fire and blood to Westeros," Viserys began, gesturing towards the brown leather-bound book adorned with the three-headed dragon sigil. "but afterward he gave them peace, prosperity, and justice. It was not Aegon alone who united the Seven Kingdoms. He had the support of his sisters, Visenya and Rhaenys." He continued turning the pages of the book as he spoke of the conquerors and their conquests. Then, Viserys turned to you “Sister, in hard times like these, you and I bear the hope for the future.”
The dream ended there.
It was the dead of the night when you woke up. You wiped away the tears on your damp cheeks with the sleeves of your nightgown, thinking about your brother. Time had erased his face and voice from your memory, but somehow, seeing his face and hearing his voice again made you miss him terribly, and you couldn’t help but wonder – Was he alive? Where was he? You were also taken aback to realize that you remembered this distant memory so vividly.
“Viserys…” you murmured, as if testing his name on your lips. When was the last time you called out to him? You recalled his promise to bring you home once the nightmare has ended. But when was that?
And for the first time in forever, you wanted to call out to your brother, embrace him, and feel the safety of his arms again. You couldn’t help but to shed more tears.
Knowing that sleep was far from you for the time being, you decided that a cup of tea might help soothe your nerves and mind. Quietly, you made your way through the temple house to the shared kitchen, hoping to find some solace in the warm, comforting brew of fresh tea.
The kitchen was softly illuminated by a single candle, and in the quiet space, Kenshi Takahashi sat alone at the table, lost in his thoughts. His face was etched with a deep frown. You couldn't help but tease him gently to not startle him, "If you continue frowning like that, you'll end up with permanent wrinkles." Kenshi looked up at you, surprised, and raised an eyebrow. "Why aren't you asleep?" he asked, his usual patience and temper uncharacteristically strained.
"I couldn't sleep," you explained, "and I thought a cup of tea might help calm my mind. Would you like to join me?" Kenshi's frown softened, and he nodded, his initial crankiness fading. "Sure, I guess I could," he responded with less irritation than before. You smiled as you walked over to the stove, preparing the tea.
The process of making tea was quiet. Surprisingly, the silence wasn't uncomfortable, but it was slightly awkward. Kenshi discreetly watched you from behind as you swiftly prepared fresh tea for both yourself and him. He pondered silently to himself, wondering when was the last time he had experienced such kind companionship and comfort from another person.
You carefully placed the porcelain cups and teapot on a tray and carried it to the table, gracefully serving tea to Kenshi before taking your seat across from him. He mumbled a soft "thank you" as you sat down.
"How is it?" you asked curiously, watching for his reaction as he took a sip. Kenshi raised both eyebrows briefly before looking up at you. "It's good," he replied, his gaze returning on the cup. You couldn’t help but feel a sense of triumph, mentally giving yourself a pat on the back for making a good cup of tea.
A moment of silence passed between the two of you as you sipped your tea together. Wanting to break the quiet and ensure you weren't overstepping any boundaries, you asked gently, "Is it alright if I ask why you aren't asleep?" Kenshi looked at you for a brief moment before replying, "I had a dream that I was still in the yakuza." The grimace on his face betrayed the pain that the dream had caused him.
You send him an apologetic look, “Don’t worry, I know that too well.” You pause, “Not being in the yakuza! I meant the dream part,” You fumbled, fixing your wording quickly and think your words carefully to not put the man before you in further bad mood. “Dreams can be cruel.” you acknowledged, your own experience with nightmares reflected in your understanding expression.
A hint of amusement flickered across Kenshi's face at your slip-up before it was replaced with neutral look. "I'm guessing you had a bad dream too?" he inquired. You nodded in affirmation, responding, "It wasn't bad, just... sad. It was better than the usual dream I have, I guess." He simply hummed in acknowledgment, not prodding further on the matter.
The silence settled between the two of you once more. You observed his reaction, noticing how he idly swirled the tea in his cup with a distant look in his eyes. Out of the blue, he confessed dryly, "I hate the gods for making me as they did."
You paused, surprised by his unexpected words, and replied sincerely, "I do not. You are an honorable man with a good heart." A soft smile graced your lips as you added, "And that's a rare thing." Kenshi looked up at you and offered a small smile. It was not noticeable but you could tell it was there.
And what you said was true. Kenshi Takahashi was an honorable man. He was poised, sharp tongued yet respectful. You hoped he had taken your words sincerely.
That night, you both found solace in each other’s presence, even though no more words were exchanged.
—
You didn’t regret staying up so late with Kenshi; it had brought the two of you closer than you expected. However, you dreaded the consequences of getting so little sleep. You looked like you’d fought a raccoon in your sleep, with your hair slightly disheveled from not having the energy to properly braid it. Kenshi, on the other hand, didn’t seem nearly as fatigued. He still looked composed and proper. When he saw you, he chuckled at your appearance and offered to make you an omelette for breakfast. You gratefully accepted, though both of you received raised eyebrows from the other three.
The day progressed like any other at the Wu Shi Academy—rigorous training and your archery lessons. But today was ‘sparring day’, and your opponent was none other than the so-called “best” Hollywood star, Johnny Cage. To your frustration, his flashy, unorthodox fighting style was new to you. He even utilized his sunglasses into the fight—impressive, considering they didn’t break.
To your further dismay, you ended up pinned beneath him. Johnny smirked, enjoying the moment. “Giving up already?” he teased. You huffed in response, an idea sparking in your mind. A playful smile touched your lips as you looked up at him. “Not yet,” you said in a teasing tone.
“Are you sure about that?” Johnny taunted, clearly relishing your determination. He noticed your subtle attempt to distract him, his smirk widening. He was enjoying the way you tried to match his confidence, but unfortunately for him, it worked. He was too focused on how matched his ‘freak’, and his grip loosened just enough. Seeing your chance, you swiftly flipped him over, reversing the position.
“Yield?” you asked with a grin, pulling a hairpin from your bun and letting your silver hair cascade down as you pointed the pin at his neck.
To his surprise, you had him pinned. He chuckled, a mixture of defeat and admiration on his face. “You sneaky little… I yield,” he said, meeting your gaze from beneath you. You helped him to his feet, and the two of you bowed to each other in mutual respect.
Johnny could have won if he hadn’t fallen for your trick, and though he felt a little embarrassed, he accepted his defeat.
“Marvelous victory!” Raiden exclaimed your name, clapping his hands along with Kung Lao and Kenshi. Kung Lao gave you a thumbs up, and Kenshi smirked at Johnny’s defeat, clearly enjoying it more than you enjoyed your victory. You smiled and gave them a playful curtsy.
“Kenshi, how about you and me?” Kung Lao gestured toward the training ground. Kenshi nodded, and the two headed off to spar where you and Johnny had just been.
“You vixen,” Johnny muttered beside you, folding his arms. Raiden, standing on your other side, smiled and suppressed a laugh. “I’d say she won fair and square, Johnny. You let your guard down,” Raiden said, placing a supportive hand on your shoulder.
You turned to Johnny, mimicking his pose. “How am I a vixen?” you teased, barely managing to keep a straight face.
Johnny laughed sarcastically. “You know exactly what you did.” His focus shifted to the next sparring match, while Raiden looked confused at Johnny’s remark. Clearly, no one else had noticed your little tactic.
—
You didn’t mind the peaceful domesticity of the moment, standing next to Kung Lao and Raiden in the kitchen. Kung Lao kneaded dough for baozi while Raiden prepared the fillings, and you focused on making side dishes using Madam Bo’s recipes. The three of you chatted and laughed together, enjoying the simple routine. Living together meant sharing responsibilities, taking turns cooking and doing chores. Tonight, you three were on kitchen duty, while Johnny and Kenshi handled the laundry. Johnny had been complaining about how tight his hands felt from using so much soap.
“Hey,” Kung Lao called your name, grabbing your attention. “You never told us your little secret. Maybe now’s the right time?” He dusted off the excess flour from his hands.
“Yeah, but it’s fine if you’re not ready yet,” Raiden added, pausing in his work to give you a reassuring look. Kung Lao rested his arm on Raiden’s shoulder, and the two of them watched you expectantly.
You had been putting off this conversation for a month now with, “I’ll explain when the time is right.” By now, they knew about realms, magic, and creatures, so your story wouldn’t sound too far-fetched. Maybe it *was* the right time. After all, you trusted them with your whole heart.
You opened your mouth to speak, but the words didn’t come at first. Sensing your hesitation, the two men continued their work, giving you time to gather your thoughts.
“I’m… Stormborn of House Targaryen,” you finally said, revealing your full name to them for the first time.
Kung Lao set the dough aside to let it rest and sat down across from you. “Stormborn? House Targaryen?” he asked, his brow furrowed in confusion. You smiled and nodded.
“I’m from a continent called Westeros, a place here on Earth,” you explained. Raiden, looking puzzled, asked, “I’ve never heard of a continent called Westeros.”
“It’s hidden, barricaded by some kind of magic,” you said. “I’m not sure what exactly, but it separates Westeros from the rest of the world.”
“Why?” Kung Lao asked, resting his head on his arms.
“I don’t know… I was very young when I left Westeros, so my knowledge is limited.” You shrugged.
“Why did you leave?” Raiden asked, his voice soft but curious.
“Because it was dangerous.” A hint of sadness crept into your voice as you looked down at the side dish you were preparing. A small silence followed before you continued. “My father… he wasn’t a good man. He was paranoid and erratic, and because of his behavior, many turned against him.”
You remembered how guarded Dragonstone had been, how there were always guards and food testers watching over you and your brother, Viserys. Once, on your birthday, your father had ordered all your gifts burned, convinced they were cursed or poisoned. Gosh, how much had you forgotten?
“Was he an influential man?” Kung Lao asked bluntly.
“He was the King of the Seven Kingdoms,” you replied, looking up at him. “So, yes, he was influential.”
Both men froze. “You’re a princess?” they exclaimed in unison.
You cleared your throat and nodded. Kung Lao gaped at you, while Raiden bowed with a respectful, “Your Grace.”
You panicked at his formality. “Wait, no! Don’t! I’m no longer a princess. I’m just an ordinary woman now. Please, you’re my closest friends—keep treating me the same as before,” you pleaded, gently pushing Raiden back up.
Kung Lao still looked stunned. “Wait, wait, wait! So we’ve been friends with royalty from a secret land, and you never thought to tell us?”
“I didn’t want to keep secrets from you,” you explained, “but I was strongly advised not to share my background. It could have put me—and all of you—in danger. I didn’t want that.”
Raiden nodded, understanding your reasoning, though both he and Kung Lao still had questions. They shared a glance, silently agreeing to take turns asking what they could.
“Did people there have the same hair and eye color as you?” Kung Lao jumped in, still processing.
You chuckled. “No, only my family and those with Valyrian blood had these traits.”
“Do you have siblings?” Raiden asked next.
A small smile crossed your face as you nodded. “Two brothers—Rhaegar and Viserys. Though, I don’t know what became of them…” A pang of sadness tugged at your heart.
In truth, you barely knew Rhaegar compared to Viserys. You had only met him twice, as his duties as heir to the Iron Throne kept him in King’s Landing. Viserys often boasted about him, and you remembered one thing clearly now—Rhaegar had a beautiful singing voice. Nonetheless, you still loved him.
Sensing your sadness, Kung Lao and Raiden decided to steer the conversation away from your family. The questions turned into silent awe as you continued explaining your background. As you recounted what you could, you began to recall forgotten memories, fragments of your past that time had nearly erased. Though it did make sense for you to forget. After all, you were no more than five. Of course, you didn’t tell everything as it would be too much at the moment.
Maybe, you did remember and knew more than you thought.
By the time dinner was served, you felt a weight lift from your shoulders, as though finally sharing your story had brought you some peace.
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💜 💀Someone reposted my work on Pinterest, and I am NOT happy. 💀💜
So it has been brought to my attention by a dear fellow artist that someone uploaded my Lucifer piece on their Pinterest. I wrote it on EVERY bio of EVERY social media I have : DO. NOT. REPOST. MY. ARTWORK. Anywhere. PERIOD.
The person who uploaded the artwork told me they got that image from a different source than my social media (not an excuse, btw, and again, my watermark says ‘do not repost”) but funny enough, they do not remember where. (°◡°♡) And it was in good quality meaning someone either took it for Tumblr, or Twitter in the first place.
SO.
I already explained it in great length why it is extremely damaging to repost someone else’s artwork when I reblogged this very important post from @otonymous.
But I guess it wasn’t enough. So here are a few lines and doodles, in attempt to explain why it is damaging for content creators to get our work stolen (and I very much insist on this word) and then reposted without our consent and knowledge, especially when some of us are relying on it as a direct or indirect source of income.
Shady argument #1 : “it’s free to use”
This argument is often used and actually comes from a conversation I had with a (former) follower of mine on Instagram that reposted (and unfortunately, still repost) artwork found on Google and Pinterest (this is another case, and it wasn’t my own work, but sadly enough, it proves my point).
I won’t enter too much into details regarding copyright infringement laws (since every part of the globe has a different way to protect content creators: in the US you have the DMCA, in France and most european countries we have basically le “droit d’auteur” or “author’s rights”) but basically finding a content on the internet DOES NOT give you permission to reuse / repost this content elsewhere. NEVER HAD. Usually if you find artwork on Google Image or Pinterest that’s because other people stole them from social media / websites and put them on another platform.
Shady argument #2 : “the watermark”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA no. It doesn’t work like that. (plus what type of monster would remover a watermark, uh ?)
This amazing tweet from GraphicFighter explains in very simple and educational words why reposting never benefits the artist (they even gives statistics), and why it is overall very bad for illustrators, watermark or not.
Not only because watermarks can be hard to read (especially if an alphabet / symbol system you don’t know), but also because almost no one bothers to click on our social media links when they exists – that’s basic web user behaviour.
So do you really thing they’ll have a look at the watermark and bother looking for the artist ? Nah.
Shady argument #3 : “hey artist, it’s your fault”
This one also comes from a conversation I had with someone who kept reposting artworks, and I quote their words :
the fact that the photos are freely available on Google means that they are open for use. If this is not the case, then the artists themselves have to limit it in some way, so this is the problem with them.
Needless to say, I nearly choked when I read this last sentence. It is 2020, aren’t we past always blaming the victims ?
In this day and age, Internet is the most efficient way for us to gain visibility and have a chance to get hired for jobs, so of course we post on the net. That doesn’t justify ANYONE reposting our content.
As of today, I have seen ONCE (and only ONCE) an artist put a Pinterest pin creator on their website (a tool that helps you create a pin from whatever content from their website). That is their PERSONAL CHOICE, and one that enables them to have control and redirect directly to their website once someone see their work on Pinterest. I can with confidence say that this is an exception that proves the rules and that shouldn’t justify reposting other’s artists content without at least their consent.
So again, we artists, in the vast majority, DO NOT choose to have our content put OUTSIDE of our social media. We cannot track it to see if it wasn’t linked to something shady, we cannot make sure people see our websites, we basically DO NOT HAVE CONTROL OF OUR CONTENT ANYMORE. If you found it on the net, it is probably because some other people TOOK IT, and put them “in the open” on the internet without a care in the world so no, it is NOT and will never be an artist’s fault.
YOU REALLY WANT TO REPOST ?
Don’t just assume every content creator is ok with reposts because a few content creators allow it with credit (and they do as they please, I am not here to judge them for that).
If you really, really wish to ASK if you can repost someone’s artwork and want to contact the artist but don’t know how, you can google their name (if the watermark hasn’t been cropped), make the effort to look for them on social media, or even use Reverse image Search on Google Image.
If we, content creators, spend hours and hours on a piece that you enjoy, the very least you can do is spend a few minutes to look for our name.
And if you don’t manage to find the source of a specific content despite your efforts ? Do. NOT. Repost it. Anyway. Is it frustrating for you ? Yes, it might. But not as frustrating and devastating as it will be for the person from who you steal their work and often, their livelihoods from.
💜 WHAT REALLY HELPS 💜
Reblog, retweet (without comments), reshare in your Instagram stories : show your favorite creators your love THE RIGHT WAY - a way for them to keep creating content and getting rewarded / paid for it.
Thank you.
#psa#repost culture#please do not repost#reposting#long post#I usually am super chill but this time I AM UPSET#I don't know if you can tell
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Behind Closed Doors
Requested: 👍
Summary/Request: Can I request a fic where Auston is in love with the reader but so is Freddie and the reader has feelings for Fred so they date in secret as to not hurt Auston but he finds out when he catches them together or something 😅 *edit* would it be possible to make the reader really shy and quiet and possibly a little bit innocent and Fred thinks Auston only likes her because he wants to corrupt her or something like that
Warning: fluff, angst
Author’s Note: So, I decided to do this in kind of a “timeline” set up. So we start with them all meeting each other and then see how Auston fell for the reader and how Freddie and the reader started a relationship and how/why they decided to keep it a secret which made the fic REALLY long. About three quarters of the way through, I thought about splitting it up but didn’t so... it’s just really long. ALSO! I’m pretty sure credit for this GIF goes to @moto-leafs but I originally found it on Google Image Search and that link took me to Pinterest so I could be wrong. If I am, please correct me! But I mean, look at that GIF -- so much anger, I had to use it. Lastly, I just want to point out that I know nothing about the Raptors or basketball in general and, to be honest, I have no interest in learning anything about it. I apologize if the players I referred to are not good players or that they’re not actually currently on the team (I looked up the Roster and just randomly picked names.) Lastly, to anon, I already had most of the fic written when you sent in your ask so I’m not sure if I was able to completely fulfill it. Still, I hope you enjoy it! Stay Golden, loves! <3
masterlist
the other masterlist
xx
Auston’s P.O.V
The Raptors game was disappointing. It started out great but late in the third quarter, they gave up their lead and ended up losing by 20.
“Well...” Freddie sighed, “what do you wanna do?”
“Ugh,” you groaned, “I don’t know , I j--” Your attention was stolen by the scent of coconut passing you by and you tried to find who it belonged to, your eyes landing on a group of girls giggling near the exit. “Follow them” you said under your breath
“Huh?” Freddie replied, drawing your attention back to him
“Sorry,” you said before quickly making your way to the group of girls that held your attention, “follow them.” You repeated to Freddie as your feet began to move
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he laughed, “we can’t just go following a group of girls. That’s a little creepy, don’t you think?”
“Then let’s go talk to them...” you sighed, “that’s all I meant. They just smell so damn good...”
“What?” Fred scoffed
“Just.. follow me.” You came up behind the girls, listening to them laugh with each other, and leaned down to greet them. “Hi,” you said happily, standing up straight when they turned to you, “I’m Auston. This is Freddie.”
“Hi,” one of them said, “I’m Lily”
“Shirley,” another introduced herself before laughing, “my parents were big fans of Shirley Temple”
“Gabby” another said with a smile
“Tracy” the next one greeted and you were soon met with the eyes of the last girl of the group. Catching the scent from earlier and waiting for her to speak
“Hi,” she smiled shyly, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear, “I’m (Y/N), it’s nice to meet you both...”
“We’re sorry for just.. kind of stalking you guys,” Freddie chuckled, “we just wanted to say hi. And see if you wanted to join us for some drinks?” The girls looked back and forth between each other before Lily agreed for all of them
“We’ll grab our own ride and follow you there?” she said
“Or we could all just walk over” you suggested
“Well...” Gabby chimed in, “what bar are you taking us to?”
“There’s a place called the Loose Moose. I’ve heard it’s a good vibe”
“It’s a short walk” Tracy said
“And it’s not too cold out” (Y/N) added with a shrug
“I like it. It’s like we’ll have bodyguards” Shirley joked
“Alright then! I guess that’s settled” Lily laughed, gesturing for everybody to head out the exit.
“So what’s the plan here?” Freddie asked in a whispered tone as the two of you followed behind the group of girls, staying close so you didn’t lose them
“Don’t really have a plan,” you replied, “just thought we’d hang out...”
“That’s it?” he scoffed, “you’ve got no thoughts?”
“What did you have in mind?” you chided
“Nothing,” he chuckled, holding his hands up in defence, “I just thought that you’d have something in mind. You know... since you were the one who wanted us to ‘follow them’”
“Like I said, I just thought we’d hang out. Have some drinks, laugh a little. No ulterior motives” you confessed. You both listened to see if you could hear either of the girls talking about you, trying not to be too obvious, but when (Y/N) turned her head to look at you, you both jerked your heads away; watching her smile before whispering something to her friend.
“So...” she started, “why us?”
“What do you mean?” you asked with a smirk, catching Freddie watching you as she spoke, leading you to train your eyes forward
“Oh come on!” she scoffed dramatically, “don’t think that we don’t know who you are. We’re not dumb enough not to realize that you’re Auston Matthews and Frederik Andersen of the Toronto Maple Leafs” she smiled as she gestured enthusiastically, keeping relatively close to the two of you, your arms rubbing against each other every so often. “But why did you pick us? Why did you come over and ask us to get drinks with you guys?”
“Fair enough,” Freddie smiled, grabbing her attention before you could, “we couldn’t help it. We saw you all from across the room and we got a little... entranced.”
“Entranced?” she giggled, turning her body ever so toward Freddie, “really, that’s what you’re going with?”
“Yeah, I think it is” Freddie smirked. You watched as the two locked eyes, leaving you to direct them through the crowd, never feeling like more of a third wheel in your life.
xx
It was strange, to you, that two professional athletes would want to take you and your girls out for a drink but then you thought to yourself: five of us, two of them, they’re probably just playing the odds. So, when Lily agreed to go to the bar, you couldn’t exactly think of a reason to say no.
“They’re cute!” Shirley whispered to you as you walked arm in arm down the sidewalk
“Are you planning on making a move?” you smirked
“Maybe,” she replied, “are you?”
“I don’t think so” you smiled. You weren’t really the flirt of the group, you usually left that up to Lily and Tracy, and you were almost positive they were the reason Auston and Freddie approached the group anyway. That didn’t mean you couldn’t be a wing woman for them or get some answers for yourself. You looked back and caught the two laughing between themselves before jerking their heads away as if not to be caught by you, “hey, I’ll be right back okay?”
“Mhm...” Shirley hummed teasingly and you dropped your arm from hers and fell back to where the boys stood
“So...” you said as you tucked yourself between the two of them, “why us?”
“What do you mean?” Auston replied with a smirk
“Oh come on” you scoffed, switching your gaze between the two of them as you continued. “Don’t think we don’t know who you are. We’re not dumb enough not to realize that you’re Auston Matthews and Frederik Andersen of the Toronto Maple Leafs,” you smiled as you confessed something you knew they already knew, feeling Auston’s arm graze against yours every once in a while as the three of you continued walked pretty closely together. “But why did you pick us? Why did you come over and ask us to get drinks with you guys?”
“Fair enough,” Freddie smiled and you couldn’t help but be drawn to him, “we couldn’t help it. We saw you all from across the room and we got a little... entranced.”
“Entranced?” you giggled, turning your body to his, “really? That’s what you’re going with?”
“Yeah,” he smirked, “I think it is.” You tried not to stare at him, even when you heard your friends laugh or when you felt Auston’s hand on your back to direct you away from oncoming traffic on the sidewalk, but you couldn’t help it; he had you hooked.
xx
Freddie’s P.O.V
The entirety of the night was spent trading shots and expressing how deeply disappointed you all were in the Raptors
“I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY GAVE UP THEIR LEAD SO EARLY!” Gabby exclaimed
“I can’t believe Davis missed that shot!” Shirley added
“Lowry was off tonight,” Auston sighed, “ruined the entire game”
“Now hold on,” (Y/N) interjected, “you can’t blame it all on Lowry.”
“I can’t?” he asked, raising one eyebrow and you shook your head before smiling
“It’s a team sport,” (Y/N) continued, “Watanabe and Siakam should’ve helped out their man.” You finished your beer before asking the group if they wanted another drink and everyone seemed to be empty
“Here,” Freddie called out as you walked away, “let me help you.” You placed your hand on the small of her back to let her know that you were there. As you waited for the bartender to take your long list of drink orders, you decided this was your chance to get to know her a little better, “so.. what do you do?”
“For work?” she asked, “I’m a social media content curator...” she rolled her eyes at her title
“I take it that’s not what you want to do?” you smiled and she shook her head
“No...” she sighed, “I went to school for interior design but, because I’m a millennial, everyone thought I knew what I was doing online. Spoiler alert: I have to use Google for everything I do in my job because I have no idea what’s going on” she laughed. “But I have so much student debt and the job pays well...”
“What do you want to do?” you asked
“Like what’s my dream job?” she replied and it was your turn to nod for her to continue, “I-- someday, I want to have my own company. I want to be able to design spaces for luxury hotels and million dollar homes while also breathing life into non-profit organizations like homeless shelters and food banks...” she got so excited explaining her dream that you could only watch in awe as her eyes sparkle as she shared her ideas. “I’m sorry...” she blushed, “am I talking too much? I’m talking too much, I’m sorry”
“No no no!” you exclaimed, stopping only for a second to finally order the drinks for the group. “Don’t be sorry,” you continued, “I like hearing you talk. I like hearing you get all excited, it’s exciting for me” she chuckled at your confession before walking ahead of you back to the group, sitting down across from her friends and you grabbed the open seat next to her.
“Thank you” she smiled, pushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear so you could still see her face. The night continued with more alcohol, more talking and a little bit of dancing and you kept getting closer and closer to (Y/N) but when you got too tired to keep dancing, Auston stepped in. You watched as they laughed together, swaying to the music before (Y/N) let her head fall back onto Auston’s chest, stopping when the music changed; Auston making his way toward you quickly as (Y/N) stayed back with her friends
“You should back out there,” he smiled, wiping off the sweat from his brow, “everyone’s having a lot of fun” he said as he looked back at the girls. There was a look on his face that you could tell meant he was falling for her, “god she’s somethin’ huh?”
“Who?” you questioned dumbly, hoping that he’d say someone else
“(Y/N),” he scoffed, taking a sip of water, “I mean look at her!” he exclaimed, gesturing to the girl you’d begun falling for. “That smile, that hair, the way she moves her hips. I mean, I could swear she was testing me out there” you had to stop yourself from getting offended on behalf of (Y/N), but the way Auston was talking was starting to infuriate you
“I didn’t think she was your type...” you mumbled
“She’s not, not really,” he smirked, “but I’m allowed to have a little fun. Plus, she looks so innocent... I like that”
“So, you just want to corrupt her?” you scoffed
“Corrupt her? No way!” he said, “I just wanna see how innocent she really is”
“So, you’re just gonna fuck and chuck? Really? You’re gonna be that guy?” your anger had gotten the best of you and you just snapped
“Whoa,” he replied with a chuckle, holding his hands by his shoulders in defence, “there’s nothing going on with you two right?” You looked back at where (Y/N) was on the dance floor, bopping with her friends and laughing with the people around her, before looking back at your friend and teammate. What were you supposed to say? No, I’m not into her. I don’t find the way she laughs hypnotizing. I don’t find her passion exciting. I don’t think she’s sweet. Or funny. Or smart. I’m not into her. Of course not. But of course, that would be a lie, “Freddie? Hello?..”
“Sorry...” you said, shaking your head, “have you asked her out?”
“No,” he admitted, “but the way you’re acting, I guess I just thought I’d make sure nothing was going on before I did...”
“No, nothing’s happening” you strained a smile, looking at (Y/N) before continuing, “ask her out. See what she says. See if she’s as innocent as she seems...” he smiled at you and patted you on the shoulder as he finished the water in front of him, shifting in his seat as the girls came back to the table.
“HEY!” they all exclaimed, the alcohol clearly taking effect; (Y/N) sat beside you and you tried to not get too close; leaving space for Auston to make his move. The look on her face proved that she wasn’t happy with the way you were suddenly treating her; only to be confirmed when she followed you to the bathroom
“WHAT THE HELL?!” she yelled, pushing into the bathroom and locking it behind you
“What are you doing?!” you yelled back quietly
“Why are you all of a sudden ignoring me? You’ve spent the entire night getting close to me and getting to know me and now you just decide, meh, no, I’m over it? Did you finally decide I was too boring for you? Oh, sweet little (Y/N), she’s too nice for what I’m looking for...”
“That’s not what’s going on...” you tried
“No?” she questioned, getting closer to you as she spoke, “then what is going on? Tell me, I wanna know”
“Auston,” you sighed, “he wants to... ask you out”
“So...” she huffed, “he can ask but I won’t say yes”
“Why not?” you asked
“Because, I want you to ask me out, dummy,” she laughed, “I wouldn’t have followed you in here like a lunatic if I wasn’t interested in you!” You held your breath for a second as you took in what she said, closing the space between you quickly and pushing her against the wall, letting your lips move in sync with hers. Your heavy breathing filled up the space as you were forced to pull away from each other due to the sounds of drunken bar-goers banging on the door
“He can’t know about this...” you said, adjusting your shirt and fixing your hair, “Auston” you clarified.
“I know,” she replied, wiping away her smudged lipstick from your lips before looking in the mirror to adjust herself, “don’t worry. It’ll be our little secret.”
xx
1 Year Later
When you and Freddie started dating, you agreed to keep it a secret because it was so new that neither of you wanted to screw it up but, truly, it was a wonder that you and Freddie had never been caught, by anyone, much less by Auston with the way you two were constantly touching each other in the smallest of ways or flitting off to be alone together.
“Maybe he’ll be okay with it?” you asked between kisses, continuing the conversation you’d had with Fred about Auston earlier, “it’s been a year...”
“He won’t be okay with it,” Freddie chuckled, moving his lips to your neck to leave trails of kisses over your skin, “he talks about you every time he sees you, every time you leave the room” you groaned in reply, distracted by the feeling of his tongue against your skin.
“Why do you want to tell him so badly?” he asked, pulling away suddenly, his hands lightly on your hips, and scrunched his eyebrows together
“I hate sneaking around...” you admitted, “I love you, Fred, but I hate lying. We’ve all become so close and the more time that goes by, the more he’ll feel like we betrayed him”
“Is that what you think?” he asked and you nodded, pouting in response, “no matter when we tell him, he’ll think we betrayed him. Because I told him I wasn’t interested and then I lied; he asked you out, you declined, he still decided he’d try to get you to fall for him”
“So what do we do?” you sighed
“We keep doing what we’re doing,” he smiled, wrapping his arms around your waist, pulling you close to his chest, “don’t get caught.”
“What happens when we finally do get caught?” you questioned, cocking your eyebrow
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it...”
“Freddie...”
“What do you want me to say?” he threw his head back, dropping his hands from your waist to run them through his hair, “that, in order to throw Auston off, you should go on a date with him?”
“What?” you scoffed, “you really think that would work?” you leaned in and whispered, seriously considering the option
“I wasn’t serious!” he exclaimed, raising your arms in annoyance
“I don’t want to use him,” you said, hopping down from the counter where you were, “but maybe if we go on a date and he realizes that we’re not.. compatible, then he’ll drop it and we’ll be able to be together. Honestly. Without hiding.”
“(Y/N), baby,” he smiled, “you don’t need to worry about using him. Or being compatible. He’ll find a way to make you compatible so he can use you”
“He’s not going to use me...” you scoffed
“Yes he is” he scoffed back
“I don’t think so” you teased
“Baby, you forget. I know him. He talks to me. He told me what he wanted from you the night we all met,” you confessed, “Plus, he’s charming... He’ll find a way to get exactly what he wants without you realizing he’s doing it”
“You’re charming,” you smiled, grabbing his waist and pulling him close to you so you could wrap your arms around his neck, “way more charming than him”
“You don’t know that. You haven’t been with him one-on-one...”
“Then maybe I should,” you teased slightly, curling his hair with your fingers, “you know, just to prove you wrong?”
“Fine” he said sternly, pulling away from you. “Let him ask you out. Let him do exactly what he wants with you. Just so he can say he had you ‘cause that’s all he wants.”
“Freddie,” you chuckled, “It’s not like I’m not going to sleep with him.”
“You better not” you placed your hand on his cheek so he would look at you, smiling when you saw his sad puppy dog eyes
“I love you” you whispered before he leaned down and kissed your lips
“I love you, too.”
xx
Auston’s P.O.V
You had been asking out (Y/N) for months. You couldn’t understand why she would be hanging around so much if she wasn’t interested but you persisted and she actually agreed
“Really?” you said quietly and she nodded in response, scrunching her eyebrows together with a sympathetic smile, “I mean, great! I’ll pick you up... Friday at 8″
“Perfect, see you then” she smiled before hugging you goodbye and turning on her heels. You spent the rest of the week trying to prepare for the perfect date but you weren’t even sure what that looked like
“Just take her somewhere nice,” Freddie suggested as the two of you sat in your living room, playing NHL20, “I wouldn’t put too much pressure on it”
“I don’t think you understand Fred,” you laughed, “I have been trying to get this girl to go out with me for an entire year. I’ve never worked this hard just to hook up with someone before”
“Why are you working so hard? It’s not like you’re hoping anything comes of it right? You just want to hook up with her because of the way she danced with you one night a year ago...” he pried
“No,” you replied, “but I’ve never been with someone like her”
“Someone like her?” he repeated and you furrowed your brow
“A nice girl. A sweet girl. An innocent girl..”
“You're really hung up on her being innocent aren’t you?” he asked
“Wh-- do you know something I don’t?” you laughed, “just tell me where I should take her”
“I don’t know...” he sighed, dropping his face in his hands, “just go somewhere casual... somewhere you can wear jeans and a t-shirt”
“You seem annoyed.. why are you annoyed?”
“I’m not annoyed.. I just have a bit of a headache. Look, just take her somewhere low-key. You’re not trying to impress her so you don’t need to work this hard. That’s it” he replied, standing up and walking out as the screen lit up to tell you that you won and you celebrated loudly, unbothered by Freddie’s departure. When Friday finally came along, you took (Y/N) to an outdoor patio for some drinks since the weather was getting a little bit nicer before eventually heading over to Tilt to play some games. The two of you were having some friendly competition and laughing with each other
“I can’t believe it’s so late!” she exclaimed, noticing the time on the clock on the wall, “we’ve been playing games for almost four hours!”
“No no, hold on,” you smirked, “you’ve been playing games. I’ve been dominating at every turn!”
“Oh yeah sure, hot shot,” she smiled, smacking your arm playfully. “Seriously, I think we should probably get going...” she whispered and you thought that this was your chance but she flipped it on you, “I promised my Mom I’d meet up with her -- she’s going through something at work...”
“I’m sorry to hear that” you said, rubbing her arm softly before catching her eyes dancing across your face. It felt like a moment that begged for a kiss but when she turned her head away, you had to let it go, “I’ll drive you home.”
“Thanks” she smiled before walking ahead of you toward the exit of the arcade. The ride home was silent aside from (Y/N)’s phone going off every five minutes or so
“Everything okay?” you finally asked, not wanting to intrude
“Yeah, sorry...” she sighed, “it’s just my mom. Trying to figure out when we’re going to see each other”
“I can take you to her place, if that’s easier?” you said
“No,” she replied, placing her hand on your knee briefly before pulling it away, as if she caught herself flirting and had to stop herself, “no that’s okay. I told her we’d meet at mine so she could get out of her house, but thank you.” When you pulled up in front of her apartment building, (Y/N) smiled over at you, “thank you, again, I had fun tonight...”
“Let me walk you in” you insisted and she agreed. You walked her to her door and stood there silently. Maybe this was just a ruse, you thought to yourself, maybe she wanted you to follow her inside. You leaned in and she hesitated, taking a breath before her eyes opened wide and danced between yours, before she took a tiny step forward. There was something in the way she looked at you that made your mind go completely blank and your body take over, connecting your lips with hers and leading her against the wall by her door. You let your hands wander from her neck to her waist as the kiss began to heat up and you could feel her breathing increase, leaving her chest heaving when you moved to kiss her neck
“Auston...” she breathed, pressing her hands into your shoulders, “Auston...”
“Should we go inside?” you smiled to yourself before continuing to kiss behind her ear
“I think we should stop...” she confessed
“Come on..” you replied, “your mom isn’t really coming over is she?”
“I just can’t... don’t think we should do this” she said, stumbling over her own excuse
“You don’t have to act so innocent” you smiled, leaning back down to kiss her neck
“What?” she said, pushing you away from her so she could look at you, “I’m not trying to act innocent. I just think we should stop. We had fun tonight, it was a good date but it doesn’t need to end with sex...”
“If it was good, why wouldn’t you want it to continue?”
“I--”
“Why would you lie?” you interrupted, starting to get angry
“Please don’t get angry...” she whispered, almost pouting at you, “I just didn’t want to give you the wrong idea when I said it was late. That’s all...” You huffed at her reasoning before shrugging and turning to walk back to your car, looking back at her as she took a deep breath and walked into her apartment.
xx
You were surprised at how much fun you were having. You expected Auston to take you to just invite you to his apartment so you could Netflix and Chill so he could make the move that Freddie was so convinced he was going to make, but when he took you to an arcade you were pleasantly surprised. The night was going really well, so when you noticed that it had gotten so late you realized you had to find a way to end the date but the only thing that came to your mind was to lie and say that your mom needed you. Auston seemed to be accepting of it and drove you home but Freddie kept texting you on the ride home and it started to raise flags to Auston
“Everything okay?” he asked
“Yeah, sorry...” you sighed, “it’s just my... mom. Trying to figure out when we’re going to see each other” you lied, replying to Freddie’s frantic texts asking what was happening
“I can take you to her place, if that’s easier?” he asked
“No,” you said quickly, placing your hand on his knee involuntarily before pulling it away to not give the wrong impression, “no that’s okay. I told her we’d meet at mine so she could get out of her house, but thank you.” He finally pulled up in front of your apartment building and thanked him, “I had fun tonight...”
“Let me walk you in” he offered and you agreed, thinking it was sweet, but unsure of what to say as the two of you walked to your door. He seemed to be fine with the silence, so you kind of just followed his lead before finally getting to your door, smiling at him awkwardly as you both continued to stand in silence. You noticed him lean in and you took a quiet breath, hesitating before you noticed how much closer he had gotten to you; becoming almost a deer in headlights as your eyes flitted between his. You unwittingly took a tiny step forward and his hands moved to your neck before his lips crashed into yours as his body directed you against the wall. His hands snaked down to your waist and your breath began to build in your chest as you felt the kiss begin to heat up. You found yourself thinking about Freddie, knowing that he knew where you were and who you were with and what he believed Auston’s intentions to be; but you couldn’t help but fall into his slow kiss, dragging your hands up his arms until they rested on his shoulders. This wasn’t supposed to happen, you thought to yourself, the date was supposed to end like this, he was just supposed to walk you to your door and go...
“Auston...” you said through heaving breaths, “Auston...”
“Should we go inside?” you could hear him smiling before he continued to kiss your neck and you shook your head pathetically
“I think we should stop” you said, still breathing heavily and pushing your hands into his shoulders
“Come on,” he smirked again, looking at you quickly, “your mom isn’t really coming over is she?”
“I just can’t...“ you stumbled, “don’t think we should do this”
“You don’t have to act so innocent” he whispered as he leaned back to lay kisses on your neck
“What?” you said angrily, pushing him away from you so you could finally see his face, “I’m not trying to act innocent. I just think we should stop. We had fun tonight, it was a good date but it doesn’t need to end with sex...”
“If it was good, why wouldn’t you want it to continue?” he questioned
“I--”
“Why would you lie?” he interrupted and you could tell he was starting to get angry
“Please don’t get angry...” you pleaded quietly “I just didn’t want to give you the wrong idea when I said it was late. That’s all...” He huffed at you before turning on his heel and walking away from you; you composed yourself to unlock your door and head inside.
“WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!” Freddie yelled as soon as you walked in the door
“Freddie?” you said, “what are you doing here?”
“I heard the two of you out there... kissing...” he admitted, “I knew he’d make his move”
“I don’t need this right now, please, just don’t” you sighed
“What’s wrong?” he replied, more sympathetic now as he followed you to the couch, kneeling in front of you to comfort you
“This was a mistake,” you admitted, “if we had just been honest with him, I wouldn’t have had to lie to him about all this. And he wouldn’t have made a move on me...”
“Baby,” he whispered, “this is my fault, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have agreed to letting you go out with him...”
“He was so mad, Fred. Like I could feel him seething” you sighed
“He’ll be fine,” Freddie said, “I’ll talk to him tomorrow, tell him the truth” you frowned at him, unsure if that was the right move, but you wrapped your arms around his neck as his wrapped around your waist. “I love you” he whispered in your ear before pushing the hair away from your face and kissing your eyelids gently, earning little giggles from you before you pecked his lips. It wasn’t long before he was drawing you close to him, your chest tight against his as he kissed your lips passionately
“I love you” you smiled when he pulled away from the kiss to remove his shirt, picking you up after he connected his lips back to yours, letting his tongue part your lips as your fingers played with his hair. He held you against the wall to remove your shirt, smiling at you biting your lip, leaning in to kiss you when the door flew open
“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?” Auston yelled
“Auston” Freddie yelled in surprise, putting you down gently and you frantically tried to cover your bra-clad body
“What are you doing here?” you asked, trying to hide yourself behind Freddie
“Is this why you wouldn’t invite me in? You already had someone inside?” he snarled, “I can’t believe I was so gullible, you’re really not innocent at all!”
“HEY!” Freddie yelled, stepping closer to his teammate but managing to keep you covered, “that’s enough! You never saw her as a person, only as a conquest. Stop being a dick.” You could feel Freddie’s muscles tensing in his arm as you held onto him, preparing for what Auston would say next
“Me? I’m the dick?” he scoffed in return, “she’s the one who’s going through us like candy wrappers!”
“STOP IT!” your boyfriend continued to yell
“I get it, Fred,” Auston smirked, “I mean I finally get it. You wanted to have something before me, that’s why you kept telling me not to try to sleep with her. You wanted her first. I get it.”
“Watch it” Freddie growled
“But now that you’ve had her, I think it’s time you drop the act. Let me have a turn...”
“ENOUGH!” you finally shouted, stepping out from behind Freddie, “you two are ridiculous. Auston, I’m sorry that I upset you but Freddie and I have been dating for almost a year now. I thought--”
“We thought” Freddie corrected, forcing you to look back at him
“We thought if I agreed to go on a date with you, you’d drop it and then we’d be able to come clean with you. But I didn’t expect you to kiss me...”
“You kissed me back!” he replied angrily
“I did,” you admitted, “I got caught up in the moment and I shouldn’t have but it doesn’t change anything. You don’t get to have a turn with me, I’m not a toy and you should be ashamed of yourself for thinking that way” you waited for either of them to speak, but they remained silent. “I think you should both go. You can fight it out if you want, just not here.”
“I’m sorry, (Y/N)” Freddie whispered and you squeezed his outstretched hand in reassurance
“Just tell me one thing,” Auston sighed, looking between the two of you, “is this real? I mean, are you sticking around or are you gonna wait until someone else comes along?” You looked at Freddie once, a smile creeping across your face
“I love him,” you confessed, still looking at the tall, ginger man behind you, “it’s real for me”
“It’s real for me, too,” he replied with his eyes locked on yours until he finally looked at Auston, “I love her. We love each other. You weren’t supposed to find out this way but we didn’t know how to tell you...”
“You’re sure?” Auston asked, “that you both feel the same way about each other?” you both nodded before Freddie wrapped his arms around your waist from behind you and kissed your temple. “Alright,” he sighed, dropping his head, “then I guess I’ll.. leave you to it” he forced a smile and walked out the door, leaving you feeling like you had to chase after him
“Auston, wait,” you called, “I really am sorry about all this”
“I know” he said
“You really were trying to play me though weren’t you?”
“At first, yeah,” he laughed, “but somewhere along the way, I realized you were too sweet to be played. Maybe it was the outfit you picked or the makeup you wore or the way you looked at me... or the lie you told...” he smirked when he remembered what you told him. “I don’t know what did it but I lost my nerve”
“You didn’t lose your nerve when you decided to kiss me” you teased
“Sure I did,” he scoffed, “because when I was kissing you it became about feeling you close to me and not... trying to get in your pants” you smiled at his words, feeling a tinge of heat rush through your body to your cheeks as if you were embarrassed
“For what it’s worth,” you finally said, “if you take a girl you actually like, not one you’re just trying to mess around with, on a date like tonight -- she’d be lucky to have you” he smiled tightly, his lips pressed together as if he didn’t really believe it, and continued making his way down the hallway. You hoped this wouldn’t cause problems between Fred and Auston but you were just happy the secret was finally out.
#Frederik Andersen#Freddie Andersen#Auston Matthews#NHL#Hockey#TML#Frederik Andersen Imagine#Frederik Andersen fic#Freddie Andersen imagine#Freddie Andersen fic#masterlist#the other masterlist#Auston Matthews fic#<-- only because I'm not sure#i mean it's definitely more Freddie than Matthews#but whatever#it's a request#Frederik Andersen request#Freddie Andersen request#Auston Matthews request
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Forever and Ever, Ch. 5: Everything’s Coming Up Roses
Tom Holland X Osterfield!Reader, Wedding Series
After months apart, you and Tom are reunited, but, with fans and paparazzi hot on your trail, it’s hard to enjoy private time together, like looking for wedding flowers and buying condoms.
Warnings: swearing, sexual themes (condom buying)
Word Count: 3400
Series Masterlist
Masterlist Tom Holland Masterlist
“Can you find the time to let your lover hold you
He needs somebody to hold to
His love is strong and so true
His arrows aiming for you
And he's the one that you were born to love
Love like this may come once
Baby it's fate
Like a soul mate he's your penguin”
Penguin, Christina Perri
A/N: this is rushed and unedited bc i’m going out of town sooo yeah enjoy
~~~
Tom wasn’t sure what he was expecting when he pulled up to the airport at 5 in the morning, but he definitely wasn’t expecting a small group of paparazzi and fans waiting at the exit of the baggage claim. No matter how they knew he was there, he was caught in a frustrated embarrassment.
With a small sigh, he stepped out of his car in his flannel green penguin printed pajama pants and his pink hoodie (he thoroughly regretted thinking “I can just wear my pajamas, no one will see me” earlier this morning when he was rushing out of the apartment). Doing his best to ignore the cameras that were most definitely on him, his face lit up when he saw you grabbing your luggage off the conveyor belt in baggage claim. Harrison stood beside you, having already grabbed his bags.
“Someone looks cozy.” You teased as Tom came up to the two of you.
“I think this is the best look I’ve had all year.” He joked, wrapping his arms around you. He barely got out “I missed you” before his lips were on yours.
“You know there’s paps here, right?” Harrison said, doing his best to not look at the cameras. You waved off your brother, continuing to savor Tom’s lips for another moment before stepping back, satisfied with the tender kiss. Your hand slipped into his, and he grabbed your luggage.
“I can carry it.” You insisted, and he shook his head.
“Nope. I’ve got it.” He stated.
Harrison rolled his eyes playfully at the two of you and held onto his own luggage. The three of you made your way out of the airport and to the car.
“Can’t wait for the press to have a field day with those pictures.” Tom grumbled as he loaded up your luggage into the car. He got into the driver’s seat and you sat beside him in the passenger’s seat while Harrison tried his best to catch up on sleep in the back.
“I love these pajamas though.” You smiled, cheekily running a finger on his thigh over one of the penguins.
Tom’s hand found yours, intertwining your fingers, while he drove away from the airport. “You only say that because you bought me these.”
“And you bought me them too, so we can match. I even brought them, so we can be wearing green penguins together.” You said, making a chuckle escape his lips. Tom placed a chaste kiss to the back of your hand, the smile never really leaving his face.
“How was the flight?” He asked.
“Would’ve been better if someone wasn’t snoring the whole time.”
“Fuck off,” Harrison grumbled from the backseat, “Better than you on Pinterest the entire flight.”
“I was only on Pinterest because you wouldn’t let me sleep.” You stated, turning around to look at him, just to see that his eyes were closed with his head leaned up against the headrest.
When you all got back to Tom’s rented apartment, Harrison made his way into the guest room, fully planning on sleeping for a majority of the day, while you changed into your own penguin pajama pants and one of Tom’s hoodies. As you came out of the bathroom, you saw Tom already curled up under the bedsheets.. Smiling at your sleepy fiance, you carefully slid into the bed as the clock struck 6. Tom let out a soft sigh, shifting to wrap his arms around you immediately.
“I love you so much.” He murmured, pressing a kiss to your temple.
“I love you, too.” You whispered as you cuddled in closer to him, letting your penguin covered legs intertwine with his.
You woke up a few hours later with sunlight streaming in through his open blinds. You contemplated getting up to fix them, but with Tom’s arm draped over you as he continued to sleep, you decided against it. Grabbing your phone from the nightstand, you shifted a little so that you were out of the sole spot of sun in the room. Tom turned around next to you, his face falling right beside your shoulder, close enough that you could feel his warm, steady breaths fanning the hoodie.
Quietly, you snuck a quick picture of him, smiling at how his hair flopped onto his forehead and his mouth hung open just enough for a few snores to slip past. Without giving it a second thought, you posted the photo to your Instagram, teasingly captioning it: ‘send help, i think he’s drooling’. You held back a laugh, thinking of his reaction when he’d wake up to see the image, but it wasn’t something he hadn’t done to you.
In fact, that was how he confirmed your relationship after you’d first gotten together.
“What if we went public?” You said casually one night, wrapped up in Tom’s arms in bed as you two watched a movie on his laptop.
“I thought you wanted to wait.” Tom replied, surprise clear in his tone as he stopped the movie.
“Well, I did, but there’s already rumors, and we’re both happy and comfortable, right?” As soon as you said the words, you felt a small glimmer of doubt starting to creep in. What if Tom thought you two weren’t ready for that step? It was his career after all.
“Of course I’m happy with you. But I know the media and the fans can be a lot. If we go public, there’s no real going back from that.”
“Tom,” You grabbed his hand and squeezed it reassuringly, “It’s okay. I can handle it.”
After a few happy kisses of excitement, you two spent the rest of the night trying to decide what pictures would be okay. You both wanted it to be subtle, and, even though you’d only been dating for three months, it was oddly difficult to choose what image you wanted to signify “hey world, we’re dating”. It was late when you two finally settled on the perfect picture and decided tomorrow would be the day, the day that you both post about your relationship.
Tom woke up first that next morning, and a smile played on his lips as he saw you snuggled up to him, still wearing his t-shirt from last night. He was face up on his back, and your cheek was pressed right over his shirtless chest, directly above his heart. With an arm draped over his waist, you subconsciously clung to him. He slowly reached for his phone, doing his best to not move and wake you. Phone in hand, he smirked proudly to himself as he took a picture of you.
He tensed, hearing the camera click loudly. You shuffled on his chest. Still half-asleep, you mumbled, “Did you just take a picture of me?”
“Maybe.” Tom chuckled lightly, leaning down to kiss the top of your head. You didn’t seem to be truly bothered, drifting off to sleep again. Tom looked down at you and then at the picture, and he felt his heart swell with happiness.
He loved you, he just hadn’t told you that yet. And he couldn’t be more excited to share you with the world. Throwing away all picture conversations from the night before, he pulled up Instagram to post his new favorite picture of you. Keeping it simple, all he put as the caption was a single heart emoji, thinking that the picture would explain enough. Even with your face partially obscured, he knew the fans would know who you are; after all, you weren’t wrong last night when you said that fans already speculated that you two were together (though maybe publicly hanging out with you with no one else around was a bit of a give away).
The second after he hit post, he exited the app, locking his phone for now. He didn’t need the stress of seeing people’s reactions, not when you were there in his arms right now. He found himself subconsciously starting to caress your back, loosely running his fingers through your hair, as a way to calm himself down. His soft touches slowly woke you up.
Wordlessly, you reached a hand behind your back, taking Tom’s hand in yours. Murmuring, you asked, “Why are you nervous?”
Tom couldn’t open his mouth to respond before his phone began to ring, the ringtone telling the two of you that it was his manager. He grimaced at the sound, and you sat up to look at him, the blankets pooling around you. You eyed him suspiciously, “You took a picture and posted it, didn’t you?”
“If I say yes, will you hate me?” Tom asked, a sheepish smile on his face. You quickly grabbed your phone, pulling up Instagram. The post of you was blowing up your own account, an influx of followers suddenly coming in as well as pictures of you. When you saw Tom’s post, you softened, smiling at the picture of you taken only moments earlier. If anyone else had taken a picture of you and posted it without your consent, you would’ve been upset, but this was Tom, who you loved.
“I’ll get you back for this.” You teased, putting your phone aside to lean in and kiss him.
“Oh, will you now?” He mumbled against your lips.
Later that night, you posted a picture as well. It was simple, no caption necessary, just your legs in his lap, holding onto his arm as you leaned into him. And posting stolen pictures of each other sleeping became a regular occurrence, whether it be you sleeping on the plane beside Tom or Tom sleeping on set, cuddling you on a couch.
You felt Tom’s arms tighten around you momentarily before he blinked awake. He turned to face you, a sleepy smile on his face. Mumbling sweetly, he said, “You’re my favorite thing to wake up to.”
“You’re mine, too.” You reached a hand behind his neck, loosely playing with his curls as you pulled him in for a kiss. He smiled into the kiss, his lips tenderly moving over yours. It was soft, yet passionately full of love, the both of you savoring being together again.
The kiss slowly grew heated with you tugging lightly on his curls and him dipping his tongue between your lips. When you felt Tom’s hands wander to your waistline, thumbing the top of your pajama bottoms, you reluctantly pulled away. Tom opened his eyes, furrowing his eyebrows at you in confusion, “Is something wrong?”
“I switched my pills.” You said with a small sigh. When his confusion remained, you explained further, “My birth control pills. They won’t be fully effective for a couple more weeks.”
“Well, that’s shit planning.” Tom joked, before giving you a quick, reassuring kiss. “I can ask Harrison-”
“No.” You shook your head immediately. “You can’t seriously go ask him for a condom.”
“You’re right.” He let out a sigh, throwing his head back in frustration. “Guess we’re buying condoms today.”
“Don’t forget we’ve got the florist to see, too.” You laughed.
“Condoms and flowers. Perfect shopping list.”
A few short hours later, you and Tom walked into the nearby store, hand in hand, looking for the one thing neither of you had purchased in ages.
“We should get flavored ones.” You joked.
“But you won’t taste them.” Tom replied, pulling the hat down further on his face as you two stepped into the condom aisle, which thankfully was empty. While Tom had no problem with wearing condoms as protection or with buying them, the last thing he needed was for someone to recognize him. As you both came to a stop in front of the condom selection, your eyes went wide. “Where are the normal ones? And why are they all in Spanish?”
“Well, we are in Spain.” You leaned into his side, squeezing his hand reassuringly. Tom felt like his eyes were straining, stress bubbling up inside him as he stared at the boxes. He cursed himself for not knowing more than basic Spanish, and he definitely didn’t want to go through the embarrassment of asking for help.
“I say we get this one.” Tom grabbed the first box off the shelf.
“Pequeño? You know that means small, right?” You bit back a laugh as he huffed, putting it back on the shelf. You heard shuffling from behind you, and you felt him tense a little. Another couple, around your age, was now not too far from you, also looking at the condoms. Tom tried to pay no mind to them, grabbing another random box.
“That brand’s not very good.” The guy down the aisle said, his nose twisted up in disgust. “They’re uncomfortable.”
“Oh, um, thank you.” Tom replied, clearing his throat awkwardly before putting the box back.
“You should get those.” The man pointed out, laughing a little. You and Tom looked at the box in question, and you couldn’t stop yourself from bursting out in laughter. Though Tom was doing his best despite the painful awkwardness of it all, he completely choked up at the red and blue box. It was safe to say, up until that moment, neither you nor Tom knew that Spider-Man themed condoms were a thing. “It’s actually a really good brand.”
“So, we’re getting these.” You said, through your laughter, grabbing the box with the iconic Queens superhero on it.
“Wow, never thought I’d be on a condom box.” Tom looked at the box in disbelief, before looking at the couple. “I take it you’re fans then?”
“Yes.” They both nodded.
“Congratulations on your engagement, by the way.” The girl stated with a smile.
“Thank you.” You replied happily.
“Could we ask for a picture or-” The guy began to ask, and Tom nodded.
“Just not in the condom aisle.” He laughed.
After a few pictures with the two fans, you both bought the condoms and managed to leave the store without getting recognized again. Following a quick stop back at the apartment (to drop off the condoms… among other things), you and Tom arrived at a local flower shop. Tom held onto your hand as you walked up and down the aisles, admiring the sights, smells, and feels of the various flowers. For how often Tom sent you flowers, he never really thought to look past the classic rose.
“What about hydrangeas?” You asked him, coming to a stop in front of a display of pink, purple, and white hydrangeas, all their petals beautifully bunched together.
“They look nice.” Tom hummed in agreement. “I like the pink better.”
“Me too.” You took out your phone to add the flower to your list, wanting to make sure you remembered which flowers in particular you two liked.
“Gardenias. Isn’t this the candle you have?” He asked, leaning down to smell one of the petite white flowers.
“Yes, it’s the candle you bought me.” You replied with a little laugh.
“I’ve got good taste.” He smiled proudly. You continued your walk amongst the flowers, adding carnations and baby’s breath to your list.
When the two of you made your way over to the roses, you noticed another customer, a teenage girl, had her phone out, and she did her best to not make it obvious that she was filming the two of you. You couldn’t get a word out to Tom before he checked his phone and spoke up, “Harry and Harrison want to go out for drinks tonight.”
“Sounds like we’ll all be hungover tomorrow morning.” You laughed, leaning into him as he eyed the roses. You pressed a kiss to his cheek, whispering quietly in his ear, “We’ve been spotted again.”
“At least we’re looking at flowers, not condoms.” He chuckled softly. “Let’s just decide on some roses and then we can go back to the apartment, alright?”
“Sounds like a plan.” You replied. As you checked the tags on the roses, Tom did his best to look distracted. It was obvious why you two were in a floral shop, one that centered around wedding flowers, but he still didn’t want a wave of fans and paps to disrupt his time with you. Getting spotted three times in one day was incredibly unusual for him.
The fan never stepped forward to talk to either of you, and you both just played it off as if you weren’t being filmed while browsing flowers. By the time you two left the shop, there was a small crowd of paparazzi. Tom held onto your hand tightly, leading you through the crowd of flashing cameras.
“When’s the wedding?” “Who’s invited to the wedding?” Every question the paps threw at you two were wedding-themed, and it wasn’t until you two were in the safety of Tom’s car that you let out a shaky breath, one that you hadn’t even realized you were holding.
“That was fun.” Tom said, annoyance clear in his tone as he started up the car. You kept your hand in his, knowing he needed the physical affirmation of comfort. Once he had driven far enough away that the photographs had stopped, he pressed a kiss to the back of your hand.
“We’ll be extra sneaky at the pub.” You joked, making him playfully roll his eyes.
Later that night, when the four of you were out, you and Tom were beyond thankful for the lack of fans and paps in view. The freedom of not having a camera (well, besides Harry’s) on you two was quite possibly the best feeling in the world. It was just the four of you having a good time, nothing getting out that neither of you wanted out. Unfortunately, Harry wouldn’t let you two forget the pictures that were circulating all over the Internet today- you two standing in front of condoms, searching for which pack to buy.
“You know you two wouldn’t have gotten recognized if Tom wasn’t there.” Harry joked, but all of you knew the truth in that statement, even Tom.
“He’s the reason I need them.” You teased, and Tom laughed.
“Three times. Three bloody times today.” Tom sighed, taking a long drink of his beer. “We can’t even go to the store without someone seeing us.”
“Still can’t believe that fan outed us.” You added with a lighthearted laugh. “First they take a picture of us in front of condoms and then they ask for a picture.”
“While it might be great for you to talk about your sibling’s sex life, I don’t want to talk about my sister’s.” Harrison told Harry, an unamused look on his face. You rolled your eyes at him before snuggling even closer to Tom in the booth.
“What? They’ve been boning since that New Year’s party a few years ago, and they’re getting married now. Get over it.” Harry chuckled, and all eyes fell on him. You and Tom exchanged a quick glance, silently questioning how Harry knew about that, while Harrison just looked at him dumbfounded.
“How did you know about that?” Tom questioned, not really catching that Harrison was lost at the current conversation.
“You and Y/N went to your room at midnight and I saw her leave the next morning. I may have been sloshed and then severely hungover, but I know a hookup when I see one.” Harry explained before taking a sip of his beer. It was then that he looked over at Harrison, who was glancing between you and Tom, as you two both sported the same sheepish smiles.
“You hooked up with my sister?” Harrison accused Tom, his tone caught somewhere between disgusted by and angry with his best friend.
“Yes?” Tom answered truthfully, but it came out as more of a question. You slapped his arm lightly.
“You weren’t supposed to tell him.” You muttered, though both Harrison and Harry could hear you clearly.
“He knows now.” He replied, as if Harrison wasn’t there to speak for himself.
It was silent for a moment as Harrison processed the new information and Harry decided to just bite his tongue, not realizing that he had pieced together confidential information years ago. You took a long drink of your beer before sighing a little, “Well, we’re getting married anyway, so clearly it worked out.”
“Let’s just never talk about this again.” Harrison offered, getting up to grab you all another round.
“Agreed.” You and Tom replied synchronously.
Tom had thought the worst part of his day was wearing cringey pajamas to the airport, but nope, it was buying Spider-Man condoms and Harrison learning about New Year’s Eve. Both conversations, he’d gladly never bring up ever again.
~~~
Tag List: @viagracex @theamazingtomholland @Hellomoveonby @heyitsshrez @harrisonosterfieldhazmyheart @joyleenl @t-o-m-hollands @lonikje @sleepybesson @sunkisseddreamer @hollandsamor @in-a-lot-of-fandoms-tbh @gorrillaglue23 @petersoftboyparker @musicalkeys @duskholland @biebsmylife95 @dummiesshort @perspectiveparker @miraclesoflove
Tom Holland Tag List: @quaksonhehe @tomkindholland
Series Tag List: @thefallenbibliophilequote @wassup-peoples @thevelvetseries @greatpizzascissorstaco @tomhollandsotherpinkytoe @asonofpeter @fallinfortom @millennial-teenybopper @rebekkah4766
#tom holland#tom holland imagine#tom holland x reader#tom holland x you#tom holland x y/n#tom holland fanfic
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Happiest Place on Earth
Modern!Reggie Peters x Gender-Neutral!Reader, Luke Patterson x Alex Mercer
Based off of: #95 from my bucket list, Spend the whole day at Magic Kingdom
A/N: This was requested by @i-should-be-writing-my-own-fic ! This is mostly going to be based off of research and memory. I’ve been to Magic Kingdom before, but only when I was 7 so I barely remember anything. In school a couple years ago I used to plan out which hotel I was going to stay in and which rides I wanted to go on lol. It’s such a shame that the pandemic had to hit. Also I’m basing this off of Disney World in Florida because I’m more familiar with that one. This is super long and not great, but hope you like it!
Summary: Y/n, Alex, Luke, and Reggie spend the day at Disney’s Magic Kingdom. Y/n and Reggie stay together while Luke and Alex pair up. Both groups try to hide their relationships from the other, until everything magically unfolds.
Masterlist
For reference, if you’ve never been to Disney World and have no idea what the rides are, I’m including links to pictures I used to write this.
For “Peter Pan’s Flight”: Youtube video, Google Images link
For “Be Our Guest”: Disney World website, Pinterest image
For “Pirates of the Caribbean”: Youtube video
For “Splash Mountain”: TikTok from Pinterest, Youtube video
The warm sun rose on the concrete. Thousands of people lined up outside the gates to purchase their tickets for the giant themepark. Them and the boys waited anxiously. They were just about to get to buy their tickets but there was a giant family of 7 in front of them. It felt like years before they called the next people. It felt like centuries before they were allowed to enter the paradise. The four of them split up into pairs; Alex and Luke, and Y/n and Reggie. They wanted to go their separate ways and go on all the rides possible and occasionally meet up to get food and relax.
The first stop for y/n and Reggie was to Cinderella’s castle for pictures. Reggie dragged them by the hand to get as close to the castle, pushing past a lot of people in the process. In their bag was a polaroid camera. It probably wasn’t the best idea to bring something like that to a theme park where it could easily be misplaced or stolen, but memories, right? Y/n took pictures of Reggie first. He did some poses both facing away from the castle and facing the castle. Next was y/n’s turn. Now, y/n was smart. They bought some Disney related things way before the trip. They bought Mickey Mouse earrings and ears for their outfit. Y/n did the same as Reggie and took pictures facing away and towards the castle.
Next stop was to It’s a Small World in Fantasyland. Y/n and Reggie sat in the boat together and swayed to the music as they started moving in the ride. The animatronics were cool but really creepy at the same time. “What if one of those just exploded like in a sci-fi movie,” y/n laughed. Most times y/n was capable of correctly anticipating what would come next in a ride. They could tell that this was just a chill ride, but it’s always fun to imagine the unlikely.
“If that happens, you should just snatch one of them up, and then we just have to run,” Reggie smiled as they laughed. Y/n and Reggie were always the ones in the group who thought that way. Obviously, they wouldn’t actually do that, but that doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t be cool if they did.
Next they went to Peter Pan’s flight. Peter Pan had always been one of Reggie’s favorite characters because of his youth. Obviously before getting in line y/n had to take a picture of Reggie. God, he was gorgeous.
The wait was longer than what they had expected but it was worth it. The scenery was a beautiful sight. When they finally got to the end of the line, they gingerly entered their cart. The ride was chill like the one they had been on before. Reggie kissed y/n on the cheek before laying his head on y/n’s shoulder as they travelled through Neverland. All the animatronics looked so life-like and accurate to the movie. It would be crazy not to take just a few pictures.
The pair got off the ride and went on to the next one, then the next one, until they got hungry. Reggie texted Luke and Alex to find a place to meet up. They decided on the Be Our Guest restaurant. Once they all arrived, they felt underdressed. The restaurant looked exactly how you’d expect it to if you were living in the castle. The walls and tiles were yellow and blue, and the ceiling was painted with a renaissance-like picture.
“You guys seriously couldn’t have picked a more low-key place to eat?” Luke grumbled. This kind of thing had never been his style. He “hated” talking about the Disney princesses, he said they were too “feminine” for him.
“We came for the vibe, not the reality, loser,” Alex said. Reggie and y/n shook their heads. Sitting down for a little bit was quite refreshing. All 4 of them ate all the food they ordered, and it was a lot. But hey, they need their energy!
They sat in a little silence as they waited for their bill to arrive. They were all ready to go on more rides, but also ready for a nap. It’s too bad they were only spending the day there. A kick to the foot knocked y/n out of their daydream. “Ow,” they shouted.
“Oh sorry,” Alex said. “Me and Luke are going to be right back.” Y/n and Reggie looked at each other and laughed.
“Reggie, get your friends,” y/n laughed. Alex and Luke had been like this for a while now, and it was a little weird.
“I think they just went to take pictures,” Reggie shrugged. Y/n laughed.
“Yeah, of each other’s lips,” y/n said. Alex and Luke being a couple was always a theory that y/n and Reggie would talk about. After all, most times movie nights are with a group of people, not just with one person. Well it’s not like y/n and Reggie could speak on that either. They didn’t want Alex and Reggie to know about their relationship because they just wanted to keep it to themselves.
Then the couple pair came back. Alex looked completely normal while Luke’s shirt was super wrinkled.... like as if someone was grabbing at it.
“So where did you two go,” y/n asked with a smirk. Bothering Alex when he’s flustered was always a funny sight. He would never be able to say a single thing without chuckling or running his fingers through his hair.
“We uh-” Luke had to pause to think. “We went to go find a map.” Then he pulled one out of his back pocket, which he totally had way before. Le-let’s go on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride,” He stuttered.
“Thought you don’t like that stuff,” Reggie smiled.
“Well now I do,” Luke said as he grabbed his stuff.
The walk to Adventureland was long, but funny. Reggie couldn’t stop talking about that one time he dressed up as Jack Sparrow for y/n’s costume party last year. The same costume party where y/n and Reggie expressed their feelings for each other. The same costume party where they purposely hid in the closet so that nobody would know that they were officially together. The same costume party that nobody knew the full story about. “Guys, it literally was like 7 minutes in heaven,” Reggie beamed. “I felt like I could’ve gotten married right there.”
“Hey Reggie, do you remember how we agreed to not talk about that party,” y/n lied. They never had an actual agreement. Y/n just thought that neither of them would get close to exposing the truth.
“No, y/n,” Alex put his hand up. “I want to hear this one.” Y/n gave Reggie the look, hoping he’d understand and stop talking. He didn’t.
“Are you and this person still together,” Luke asked. Stop egging him on!!
“Obviously,” Reggie smirked as he put his arm around them.
“WHAT!” Alex and Luke yelled at the same time.
“I knew it, I knew it!” Alex cheered.
“Can you guys shut up?” Y/n grumbled.
“Yeah, are you guys going to get on the ride,” the operator asked. Woops.
“My bad, y/n,” Reggie whispered.
“It’s fine,” y/n said.
“It’s not fine,” Luke yelled. “This is huge, why didn’t you tell us?”
“You know what, Luke,” y/n turned around to face him. “In this ride there are probably real skeletons being used as props. If you don’t leave me alone I will donate yours to this ride when you die.” Luke sat back in his seat and fell silent. Saying things like that always worked with the guys.
When they got to the battle part, Reggie reached to hold y/n’s hand in his. Y/n squeezed his. They weren’t mad at him, they already knew Reggie was an airhead. This would have happened one way or another.
The four of them decided to go on Splash Mountain next. Y/n did this on purpose. They knew none of the boys knew that they’d get splashed on the ride. Perfect payback.
“Luke and Alex, I think you guys should sit in the front for this one,” y/n smiled.
“Why,” Alex asked.
“What, you don’t want to be the first ones to see everything,” y/n said sarcastically. The two boys shrugged in response.
They got into the raft with Luke and Alex sitting in the front and Reggie and y/n sitting right behind them. “So why are they sitting in the front,” Reggie whispered to them.
“It’s so that they’ll get splashed the most,” y/n laughed. And they did. On the first drop, they were moving their soaking wet hair out of the way of their eyes and screaming profanities. It didn’t help that there were little kids on the raft with parents yelling back at them to stop cursing. Y/n and Reggie sat back and laughed as their friends got soaked.
Luke and Alex were mad when they got off the ride and saw that y/n and Reggie were completely dry. “Y/n you did this on purpose,” Alex shouted.
“Yeah, I did,” y/n laughed. “So when were you guys going to tell us that you were dating?”
Alex and Luke’s jaws looked like they were going to hit the floor. “How did you know?” Alex asked
“You guys literally left us to go make out,” Reggie pointed out.
“Riiiiight,” Luke blushed.
“Yeah, so Reggie and I are going to go do ‘official couple’ things like go find Mickey and Minnie,” y/n smiled. “Let’s go, Reg.”
Taglist:
@flashoe @carnationcreation @camihoran00 @joyjoyner @prongsy-parker
Add yourself to my taglist!
#reggie jatp x reader#reggie imagine#reggie x reader#reggie nolastname#reggie peters x reader#luke patterson x alex#luke x alex#luke patterson x alex mercer#reggie julie and the phantoms#reggie peters#luke patterson#alex nolastname#alex jatp#alex mercer#gender neutral insert#julie and the phantoms#disney world#purple-phantoms
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A Christmas Debt
Characters: Loki x Reader
Category: Chaptered Story
Genre: Romance/ Friendship/ Love
Synopsis: The reader renders a great service to Loki unknowingly. Not used to being in anyone's debt, our favourite God of Mischief offers a strange favour in return. Will the reader trust him enough to take up the offer?
Previous Chapters: Chapter One
P. C. Pinterest
A/N: Thor's story, as recounted by Loki in this chapter, is an actual tale recorded in the Norse Mythology.
Also,
There's kind of a gift hidden within the chapter. Click the coloured text below to find out!
______________________Loki_____________________
Chapter Two
'He did what?’
You try to shush Natasha the best you can. She is incredulous at the news. ‘Y/N, this is Loki. He has a million wiles. I don’t want you falling victim to any one of them.’
‘I know,' you sigh. ‘But it is such a tempting offer.’
Nat rolls her eyes. She has never fully trusted Loki, not even after all the missions they have served together. Loki had been vital to some of the crucial operations the Avengers have been to, and most of them have given him their grudging trust. Not her. But that’s how she is.
You take another sip of coffee. It’s almost midnight and most of the others are lounging around, stuffed with cookies and fudges and in most cases some amount of Tony's prized liquor collection. Loki is not there. Probably in his room.
Just as you're taking another sip, savouring the aroma of the richly baked beans, Wanda saunters up to the counter. She is new to all this but looks like she’s enjoying every bit of it. Wanda is closer to you in age than Pepper and Natasha. She is more like a best friend to you than a sister, unlike Nat and Pepper.
She pours herself a cup of coffee and casually throws a hand around your waist, leaning against the counter and taking in the scene before her.
‘I saw Loki go after you,' she frowns. ‘What was that about?’
At your nod, Nat tells her everything.
Her eyes widen at the mention of the offer. ‘Did he really say that?!’
You nod wearily.
Wanda puts down her cup with a decisive thump and turns to you. ‘Well, I, for one, am totally in for it!’
'Really?!’ you can see Nat rolling her eyes again.
‘Of course,' continues Wanda. ‘What’s the harm? You don’t have to worry about your siblings ribbing you at dinner anymore! Isn’t that a huge plus?’
'B-but what if they ask for details? How we met and all?’
‘Then you make up some shit. Tell them you two met on a mission, or something. It’s not like you’ve to lie to them forever. It’s just one day!’
You heave a sigh, torn between taking up and declining the offer. But the prospect of being made the butt of jokes at the dinner table holds less appeal than blatant lying on your part. In the end, Wanda wins. You give a tiny nod of acquiescence.
‘I don’t like the idea,' Nat grumbles.
Wanda huffs, rolling her eyes. ‘She’s going to be fine. Now c’mon and show me what you’re going to wear tomorrow. We need to work on that first.’
You let her drag you off to your room, all the while thinking how best to approach Loki without appearing pathetic and pitiable. It’s just for one evening, you convince yourself. After all what do you have to lose?
***
You should not have listened to Wanda. You should not have let your depressed, lonely heart dictate your decisions. With so many things happening last night, you have hardly had a moment to think if you’d be alright with this entire charade. But now, cooped up in the cab and speeding towards a possible disaster, you feel a familiar dread creeping up your limbs and settling in your stomach. All of a sudden, being the object of pity and mild ridicule seems much more bearable. You give an involuntary shiver.
‘Are you alright?’ Loki casts a concerned glance your way.
'Mmhmmm,' you choke out, hugging your arms and giving them a rub.
Loki arches an eyebrow. ‘Pardon me, Ms Y/SN, but you most definitely do not sound alright.’’
'I'm fine.’
You relapse into silence. The cab has left the city and is speeding down a suburban road now.
Your morose thoughts are suddenly interrupted by a chuckle. You turn to find Loki laughing quietly to himself. Somehow the sight of him being so relaxed and graceful irritates you.
‘Do you find this funny?’
‘No. You just suddenly reminded me of my brother,' he says, passing a hand over his face to wipe away the remnants of his grin. ‘I had that feeling of���what do you Midgardians call it—something that seems to have happened before?’
‘Deja vu?’’
'Yes. It was the only time I had seen him nervous. More nervous than a bride on her wedding day. How fitting since he was actually in a wedding dress.’
What!
He chuckles some more, as an image of his hulking brother in a short wedding dress flashes across your eyes. Despite yourself, you snort, feeling the prick of curiosity.
'Why was he dressed as a—’
‘As a bride?’ He finishes for you. ‘It’s a hilarious story.'
‘It begins with my oaf of a brother having his precious Mjollnir stolen from him. Under mysterious circumstances.’ He winks and folds his hands behind his head.
'This happened when we were barely adults but considered ourselves grown up enough to venture out in search of adventures. One day, Thor woke up and found his hammer gone. Thor being Thor, immediately suspected me. Not that I’m saying I stole it. There was not enough evidence and so he discarded the idea eventually. But his hammer was truly gone and he was feeling helpless without it. Fearing the Allfather's wrath, he came to me for a hasty and discreet solution. I used all in my power to locate the hammer. At last we received news that the king of the ogres had stolen it and was demanding Freyja's hand in marriage as ransom.’’
'Who's Freyja?’
‘She is one like us. A goddess. She was considered the most beautiful among the Aesir for her golden hair and her deportment.’ His eyes take a faraway look, perhaps remembering his childhood friend.
'Anyway. So the ogre king was demanding something absolutely impossible for us to grant, yet the stakes were too high. What do we do? We decided to take the advice of the Gatekeeper of the Realm, wise Heimdall. He thought long and hard and decided that someone should dress up as the bride and go and retrieve the hammer. But none were brave enough to volunteer. So it finally fell on Thor to be the bride. ‘But my beard, and my figure!’ he exclaimed incredulously. Nobody heard him, poor thing. They decked him up in the finest bridal clothes and jewellery and wove flowers into his hair and put a veil over his disgruntled face—beard and all. You would not have found a more reluctant bride in the nine realms, nor a more muscular one. I was to dress as his handmaid, but that was not difficult. I could easily shapeshift into a young maid.’
By now, you are wheezing, clutching at the driver’s seat to keep yourself from toppling over. Loki cocks his head, observing you with eyes dancing with mirth, a smirk playing on his lips. He is definitely enjoying telling the story as much as you are enjoying listening to it.
'What happened next?’
'The ogres were foolish enough to believe us. They led us to the wedding banquet where Thor polished off most of the food without any help. His exuberant eating did raise suspicion and quite a few eyebrows but I managed to quell them before it got out of hand.’
'When their king announced that it was time for the wedding, they brought in Mjollnir and placed it in Thor’s lap. And the rest is history. I can assure you, none of the ogres lived long enough to tell the tale.’
Both of you dissolve into hearty chuckles. Loki heaves a sigh and instantly turns serious, ‘Please don’t tell Thor I told you this story. He’ll have my head in a platter if he finds out.’ There is a twinkle in his eyes but his face has gone back to that expressionless mask that all are used to seeing.
'You have my word,’ you reply, suddenly remembering with whom you’ve been acting chummy.
The scene outside is rapidly changing. Clusters of suburban houses and complexes have given way to long stretches of greenery. Which means you’ll be arriving any moment.
With a jolt, you realise that you had completely forgotten about your anxiety and apprehension. You feel more relaxed now, more yourself. Because of Loki. He was looking out for you. He knew you were nervous and wanted to put you at ease.
For the first time, you look at Loki in a different light. He is very much the roguish, evil, beguiling demigod that once almost destroyed an entire city, but somewhere underneath all the barbs and untruths lies a heart that still cares.
'I'm not sure this is a good idea,' you finally voice your anxiety. ‘What if they find out that this is all a lie, a pretence?’
Loki lazily crosses his legs and regards you with a piercing gaze. ‘Ms Y/Sn, perhaps you’re forgetting whom you are with. I have lied our way out of far more life-threatening situations numerous times. Thor lives because of my lies. This is nothing.’
‘What if they ask how we met and our answers do not match! I’ve watched too any sitcoms to know where that’ll lead.’
‘Then tell them the truth.’
‘Of course not! How am I supposed to tell my family that I met my apparent boyfriend after he was captured and imprisoned for masterminding the destruction of a whole city! They would rather watch me die single.’
‘Fine,’ he concedes. ‘Tell them we met during an operation.’
You fiddle with the hem of your dress, not fully convinced. Wanda had insisted on your dressing elegantly, and you had ended up borrowing one of Pepper’s gowns. If anything, it only makes you more nervous. You feel like you’re dressed in borrowed feathers.
‘Don’t fret, alskling,’ he says after some time. ‘The main trick of telling a lie is confidence. People are more likely to believe a bald-faced lie over a stammering truth.’
The cab finally rolls to a stop. Heart in your throat, you look at the familiar house, the neat lawn in front now decked with Christmas decorations, the old whitewashed fence and the ancient sycamore with the tire swing still hanging. Nothing much has changed around here.
‘Allow me,' the soft, crisp words bring you back to the present. You turn to find Loki coming round to your side to hold the door open. His face has taken a softer expression, the perfect look of a man in love and happily so. Slipping in and out of façades comes to him as easily as breathing. No wonder they call him the God of Lies.
He holds out his hand, his lips drawn into a smile. ‘Come, Ms Y/Sn. Let us show them.’
Well, here goes nothing, you take a deep breath, and step out of the cab.
To be continued...
Chapter Three available now
Tags: @lucywrites02 @lilyofthesword @country-cowgirl-101 @benji-booxx @loki-hiddlestoner3024 @outlawangel2020 @thefallenbibliophilequote @idontknowstudios @just-the-hiddles @myraiswack @noturningbacknow @natandersonnla @twhiddlestonsstuff
#loki#loki marvel#loki odinson#loki stuff#mcu loki#loki fluff#loki fandom#loki (marvel)#loki fanfic#loki x reader#marvel#loki romance#romance#loki in love#love#romancing loki#fluff#thor movies#thor#god of mischief#god of lies#god of trickery
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Hi! In response to your recent anon answer about art theft, I'm trying to find and give credit to all art I use as profile pics and such. What would you recommend doing if the place I got the image from also didn't credit the original artist? Should I just change the image completely or would it be enough to say I can't find the artist? I thought it would be good to get an artist's view, as I myself am an uncreative lump who has never had to worry about this (also sorry this ask is so long)
It’s never enough to say that you can’t find the artist. It’s lazy, rude, and pretty much theft too. It’s not an excuse that the source you got it from doesn’t tell you the original artist.
What you can do if you find a piece of art that is posted uncredited, is you can look at the drawing, most artists sign their art, somewhere in there there might be a signature or a watermark with the artist’s name/website.
Some assholes crop these out though when they repost and honestly it’s sick but if that has happened, google’s reverse image search is a thing that will be very helpful. Just download the picture, find google’s image search, upload the image there, and see what results you get. It might take a littlebit of wading through endless pinterest results (i don’t think a single artist posts their own stuff on pinterest, it’s all stolen) until you find the original artist.
NEVER SPREAD SOMEONE ELSE’S WORK WITHOUT CREDIT
If you do, that makes you part of the problem.
Also if you see people posting cool art without credit? Confront them about it. Tell them what they’re doing is wrong. Most people who repost don’t understand that what they are doing is wrong.
Educate not only yourself, but those around you.
Thank you for asking, people who want to learn restore my faith in humanity a lil bit.
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and enjoy the fic , please im a slut for feedback <3
tw: alcohol cosumption, people being dicks , all platonic like bros do
Notes: English isn’t my first language; this one-shot is based on this tumblr post
Blood, guts & glory can splash on your eyes and hide the reality of living the mercenary lifestyle of Teufort.
Actually, it’s pretty damn monotonous. It’s like an office job, except you actually get to let your frustrations out in a much more healthy way than binge drinking at weekends. Sure it gets messy and quite life threatening, but Medic is always in the run to make sure your bones do in fact stay in their skeleton. It does have a fair share of paperwork, but nowadays what job doesn’t have paperwork...
This particular holiday season, by some grace of unknown ancient god, the Administrator decided that there should be an extended ceasefire, to boost morale and make sure people don’t start demand raises (they already are paid like millionaires, but Spy would like a raise for psychological damages). Some gossips around the town claim that the Administrator got wooed by a certain Australian business & power man for a very romantic date of hunting and grilling Yetis on the barbie, but it also happened that the gossipers were found buried in shallow graves the next day, so we will never know.
Now before you ask, Christmas is the one of the guaranteed holidays the company actually provides, and quite frankly most of them barely get out of the base during the holidays.
Some exceptions are of course Heavy who will go by rafting to his mom and sisters even for 10 minutes, maybe Engie that in all fairness is pretty close to Bee Cave so he just gets in his semi and hauls his ass a pretty chill 5 hour drive. Maybe Pyro who may or may not go to some Christmas Raves with their loops in cause rave girlies have some of the best plush game you’ll ever see. Demo prefers to get wasted and call his mom for their beloved sloshed phone call. Sniper makes sure he is very shaved, sober and pumped up before doing a zoom call with his Ma and Pa ( I refuse to accept they died, I can’t see him sad.) Soldier quite frankly is a fire hazard and he is banned from most bars and their Christmas party hour special event, he mostly chills at the Medbay with Medic who is all giggly on Gluhwein. Scout is a big boy and can handle being alone but mostly stays up all night doom scrolling pinterest ( secret Tom Jones stan account) and Spy beside being a major asshole, actually volunteers as Santa ( he can have a mean southern twang if he really wants to).
All was going great until Scout suggested they threw a New Years Eve party, after all they are all stuck in Snowycoast and somehow the power isn’t down yet.
I mean, they usually just chill around just do a small group chant and go the fuck to sleep, but they never actually celebrated it. Pyro are already out by 9 pm, because dancing and vibing without enhancing substances is a workout worse than a triathlon preparation and in the first years Heavy suffered really bad jet lag.
For the others New Years Eve stopped being a rager once they hit 30 and unrelenting alcohol consumption and bar crawling. All is peaches and cream, until you wake up in the middle of the dessert so unholy high on peyote without your undies or car keys, or so Sniper claims (his parents will never let it down, the sight of their adult professional unaliver son on stolen tidy whiteys is an image carved like fiery red metal on a fresh chuck of meat).
But they can wing it; what’s more challenging? Bank heists or making mid Hawaiian punch? 8/9 mercs say the second.
A game plan was easy to be made, they are military men at heart (mainly soldier) and order is second nature to them (they did it to mainly shut up soldier). Heavy and Medic were responsible for the cooking, chicken tendies and mac’nd cheese is great but a hardy Russian stew or some extra spicy german wurst makes the game start rolling better. Spy decided he will be the decorator and Demo the florist…yes he is the barman, much creativity here. Scout and Pyro are just dicking around and pretty much everyone else pretty much acted like a goth tween being forced to go to their family gathering while wearing a bright pink Santa beanie. Except Soldier who is already ranting and raving victorious plans on how this specifically party will be worthy of the president while munching on chalk. Engie is the one tidying up the conference room and making sure the generators are ready for Showtime if the snow cuts them off from civilization.
After some bickering, especially because the wine & whiskey Demo has in his hand-made bar aren’t the cream of the crop, I know shocker, the food is fresh, ready and warm and the punch is fully loaded and ready to be ladled to thirsty sad men & nonbinary DDR destroyers.
By some stroke of luck Spy is feeling extra pezzazy and has sat his royal ass on the piano and softly plays totally classy, elegant music (he is playing wonderwall, he is the fuckboy after all). This night is really looking up. Being the macho manly men they are, Heavy and Soldier decided to play some poker, with beans of course as chips, because it’s silly to take friendly games as a competition. The spirits got a bit heavy (pun needed here) soon though. Soldier might have the IQ of a feral cat, but he has one hell of a poker face, Heavy is a close second on that ,but he becomes livid fast after gulping down some liters worth of punch. Sooner or later you could hear loud swears in more European languages than expected, while Solly is grinning like a madman with a bed worth of cash in his side. Before even 10 pm our favorite soviet heavy weapons specialist was quintessentially skinned. He is so closed on betting his clothes and earthly possessions but Soldier will laugh at him until the day the sky turns into glue and plop down on unsuspecting souls.
Sniper joined for bit with them, but he is a sore loser when it comes to poker so he took his beans (his cash was gone faster than a deadbeat pressing the get out of state pedal while going out for some milk,) and left the room mumbling swearwords so foul, Engie started blushing. You could find him later, all saltier than a canned tuna in saltwater clutching his trusty RGB keyboard and mouse while blasting the most annoying Christmas songs known in humanities history. He got banned and kicked so many times he had to use a different account, but this is proper New Years Eve to him, finally being the public nuisance he creams to be. Scout at some point came in to pester him; after all there are extremely second hand quality movies on the TV and vomit inducing cheesy segments to watch sober.
Until he got a glimpse of a jar with a certain kid’s toy inside and the scooter-man decided he doesn’t need to fill his mind with whatever filth Sniper is doing. So he did set up camp in the rec room and softly bawled his eyes while clearly soul-empty news broadcaster showed off kitties setting up parties and babies doing barrel rolls.
At some point Pyro entered the room and coaxed scout off the normie entertainment industry for some good old DDR. Although Scout is and will always be a top tier gymnast and marathon runner, Pyro is the one who knows how to dance the Rasputin as hypnotic as the animations. All was going grand until 10.30pm when a very soft but audible ‘pop’ sound broke the instrumental music trance and Pyro saw painful white stars. Medic was called and he openly cackled while he zooped them up with the Medic Gun. With Pyro still sore, they just sat down, munched on some stew and second grade questionably made Gluhwein. Medic being the sentimental gilf of the base actually enjoyed the bland TV program , whilst Scout trying to nurse his crystal fragile ego he made guy noises when something particularly cringe happened.
Solly was left to his own devices enough that he had a panic attack and as the one man army he is, he made a stable hideout in the corner of the rec room while muttering how Santa is a code word , Christmas is a ritualistic when souls and ghosts come to life and are out on the prowl , how he failed as a soldier and his dad was right for calling him his biggest mistake. Thankfully, Engie heard the commotion and successfully sweettalked his way into Sollys secret military bunker ( three chairs on each side and a desk on top with pillows for sound proofing, and even more successfully comforted Solly enough to stop eating chalk and drink some water.
Demo (you bet he was wasted, you are wrong) actually had some quiet time skyping his mom and actually enjoyed hearing about how his cousins had like a bunch of kids, or how the very little ones completed their fist life achievements ( speaking, walking, detonate enough stuff to be in the terrorist registry). He even cried when mom sent his new nieces baby pictures, she looked so cute! All wrapped up like a garlic sauce kebob fresh out of the kebob mans magic hands.
Spy who we all thought he was still moonlighting as pianist, actually drank some and some more punch and got absolutely bogged. He started having zoomies , running all animalistic up and down the base until the gods of alcohol had enough. Soon he was found vomiting inside a potted plan and was promptly locked up and tied up tight on the rails in the disabled bathroom , Scout wanted to take pictures but he actually fell pretty bad for Spy and even brought him some water and took off his balaclava (with his eyes shut, boy scouts honor). He wanted to ask Engie where the baby monitor was, ( yes they bought a baby monitor for the bread monster baby), but the countdown started and hhe completely forgot about.
Everyone who was not completely cazooted , joined Pyro & Medic while they started the countdown. Heavy was sulking but happily lifted them all up when the clock hit midnight, even throwing the scout high enough to smack his head on the ceiling. At the end of all, no matter red or blue, support or defense, they all share the same joy of living the Gravel War life surrounded with men & man-things that make their life a rainbow’s worth of color and happiness.
Even Medic got moved by the comradery and actually went off to help Spy before he vomited a kidneys worth of humanities worst and best invention.
Happy New Year simps
#tf2 fandom#tf2 imagines#tf2 shiposting#tf2 team#team as family#new years eve#cyoa fic#dad spy#scout actually cares about spy#tf2 all#tf2 sniper#is a gamer you cant change my mind#tf2 demo#best person in this fic#i have never actually danced on ddr#ddr in this fic is imaginary#idk how to tag lol
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Sorry to ruin the fun but you really shouldn't be reposting all that art. Most artist don't appreciate it and although I can see why you'd like to share it you should do it privately (like via dms) if all you're sharing is the image. If you want to share art publicly please do it via a link so your audience will be led back to the original artist's page. For example this art of a bunny Zhongli that was shared earlier. Here I found it in less than a minute by using search Google for this image. This isn't meant to make you feel bad but as an artist this struck a nerve. I hope this doesn't make you feel too down but I really wanted you to know. I'm sure you didn't do this out of malice. On another note though it'd be better if you didn't accept Pinterest as a source of where the art came from as more often than not the art there is stolen which is why art is taken down so frequently there.
I didn’t see this because it got pushed down by 3 other asks. I just thought it might’ve been added on top of a precious ask.
I’m really sorry if I offended anyone! I took the post down and I’ll go take down another submission I had too, it was a Xiao picture. I’ll be more careful next time, thank you for telling me this.
It was a submission by another person, but I should’ve known. I’m sorry once again!
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