#i have way too much work to do to pull off tuition

[interpolationz]

stickers update

the 16 gravity falls designs are complete except the stanford one who has only half his lineart due to my fear of drawing that many fingers

also the printer seems to also zoom everything in just like five percent which is just enough that it completely ruins the borders needed for the stickers- however- barring disaster upon testing the cutting machine looks like it should work brilliantly

[leaderwonim]

𝐇𝐈𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇𝐘 — fourteen: because you tolerated me

𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠. lee heeseung x fem!reader, park sunghoon x fem!reader

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲. Y/N always knew that her high school was dominated by wealth and privilege. Upon having a one night stand with popular athlete Lee Heeseung, she uncovers that Heeseung's friend group controls not only social dynamics but also school policies and local affairs, revealing a hidden world of power and manipulation behind their so called perfectly polished exteriors

author’s note: wrote this at 11pm and just finished at 12:25am 😭 my roommate told me to head to bed but i haaaaad to update for you guys so!!! enjoy the lore, hopefully it’s not too confusing ??

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Hanni isn’t so sure what to do. On one hand, she thinks she hates your guts, but on the other, she knows that she really doesn’t.

In fact, Pham Hanni had lived across from you at the ripe age of three, your moms having shared the same apartment complex. Hanni hated everything about that place, it was poorly managed, and quite frankly, cheap.

“Nini!” Little you yelled, your chubby baby hands reaching out for the girl in front of you. “Nini!”

You never knew her actual name because you were so young, referring to her only as Nini.

Hanni loved playing with you, she would beg her mom to bring over some spoiled bread they had in the pantry to pretend to play tea party and eat.

By the time Hanni turned six, her father took custody of her. Her father worked under a man named Park Hyunwook, and that was where she met Park Seojun.

He was a fairly skinny boy, but he made himself look charming nonetheless. Seojun took Hanni under his wing whenever her dad was busy in his father’s company, and soon enough, the two of them became best friends.

They became close to the point where that he made sure his father secured a spot in Decelis for Hanni.

“I’ll quit football if you don’t do it,” he threatened, which earned him a painful slam into the door by his own father.

It worked, though.

Hanni met Jungwon in her sophomore year of high school. He was a cute, rather calm composed boy who reminded her so much of a cat. She swore she fell inlove in an instant.

They talked for quite a while, and eventually, Jungwon did ask Hanni to be his girlfriend.

He stumbled upon Seojun and her hugging after class, and even though Hanni swore to her heart that it was platonic, the younger boy wasn’t having any of it.

So she spilled it out. She told him why they were hugging—of course she did—she loved Jungwon, how could she let her relationship just go down the drain like that?

“My dad’s threatening to pull me out of Decelis if I don’t tell my mom to stop contacting him.” She explained, and Jungwon didn’t understand what Seojun had to do with it.

Turns out, Seojun’s father was the one paying the tuition. If she was pulled out of Decelis, she would never see any of her friends ever again.

“Well, I don’t care if you’re rich or not Han, I love you.”

Despite Yang Jungwon promising his love to her, all Seojun could think about was how scandalous it could be if word ever got out that his father was paying for Hanni’s spot when millions of scholarship kids were still waiting.

So he killed him. Pushed him off a cliff. Seojun wasn’t a monster—maybe he was an awful person—but that didn’t mean he hated Jungwon. He just couldn’t risk it. His reputation was far way more important than some guy his friend was dating.

Besides, Hanni was a pretty girl. She’d find loads of boyfriends by the time Jungwon was gone.

“Are you listening to me? Hello?”

Heeseung waves a hand in front of your face, a playful smile comes to his face when he sees you snap out of your daze.

“Sorry,” you say. “I was just…”

He looked over at your direction, sighing when he sees Sunghoon and Hanni all close to each other. “Looking at the newly inlove couple? Yeah, I know.”

“Inlove is a reach.”

Heeseung shrugs. “I just want class to end so I can take you out for dinner.”

You practically choke at his confident tone. “We made up literally a few days ago.”

“So? I mean it when I say you’re important to me, Y/N.”

Any girl in your spot would’ve dropped dead at Lee Heeseung practically melting in a puddle in your presence.

“You should smile more,” Sunghoon says from the table across yours, his hands coming under Hanni’s chin to smush her two cheeks together.

She slaps his arm away, annoyed. “You’re lucky Seojun didn’t kill you.”

Sunghoon grows tense at that, his eyebrows furrowed. “What did you say to me?”

“Nothing.”

Danielle grows uncomfortable in her seat, her eyes dashing around the room. “How’s home life Hanni?”

Hanni shrugs, stabbing her fork into the mushy mashed potatoes the school had served. “Nothing better than before.”

She wanted to cry so badly in her seat. But if anyone had caught onto the tears that were forming at the edge of her eyes, she would lose the reputation she so desperately worked hard to maintain.

“Excuse me.” She hurriedly rushed off. Sunghoon stands up after her, but Danielle places a hand in front of him.

“Just let her be Hoon.”

And who was Sunghoon to argue with Danielle?

She practically grows limp as she reaches the end of the empty corridor, far away from the cafeteria. Her mascara is probably smudged like crazy, and she doesn’t even want to think about how insane she might look to a passerby.

“Are you okay?” You don’t register the crying girl as Hanni at first. You had just bid goodbye to Heeseung and dropped him off at his business management class, so you were in a rush to get to your class before your teacher gave you detention.

“Just leave me alone.”

Your eyes widened. “Hanni?”

Hanni never felt more embarrassed in her entire life. She didn’t even know why she was crying so hard.

Sunghoon, despite always being around her, was never truly there for her.

Sure, he was there when she broke down in tears complaining about her dad, but he only used that as collateral against her when Seojun had threatened him after he too found out about how Seojun’s dad had been paying for Hanni’s tuition.

Hanni had opened up to him more than she knows she should’ve. She told him how much she hated her dad, how everytime she went home from Decelis, she couldn’t wait to go back because she couldn’t stand an day in that house, let alone an hour.

And what did Sunghoon do with that information? He used it against her.

Sunghoon wasn’t like Yang Jungwon. Seojun couldn’t just kill him off, he was an important asset to the Park Administration for the local politics, the same ones that Seojun’s father was running for.

Killing Sunghoon was too much of a big risk for everybody involved.

Sunghoon knew he had that power over Seojun. He knew Park Seojun couldn’t cry to his daddy about him and he knew that he could destroy Hanni’s whole life with a snap of his fingers.

But he didn’t. It wasn’t fun that way. Plus, like Seojun said, Hanni was a pretty girl. Much prettier than other girls at Decelis. Sunghoon actually liked her.

Heeseung just had to get in his way. The boy knew Hanni first, but Sunghoon managed to squeeze his way to the top within months of joining the friend group. He knew Lee Heeseung had too much of a weak stomach to keep secrets like this. Lee Heeseung was a coward, and would always be in Sunghoon’s eyes.

“Drop him.”

“What?”

“Are you deaf? I said drop him.”

Hanni didn’t want drop Heeseung. She just wanted to feel loved. Heeseung made her feel loved. Sure, she didn’t like him enough to actually pursue him—but she loved the attention and adoration he had for her despite seeing through all her faults. Lee Heeseung cared for her, she just didn’t have the energy to care for him back.

So she let herself reject Heeseung’s confession on the night of Seojun’s gala, she let Sunghoon humiliate him in front of their whole friend group, she agreed to become Sunghoon’s girlfriend.

Why? Because Pham Hanni’s reputation was too big for her to let a man destroy it.

“You can tell me what’s wrong, you know, I won’t judge.”

“God, I hate you.” She whispers, hands harshly rubbing away the tears.

“Why Hanni? What did I ever do to you?”

“Because you tolerated me.” She cries even more. “Because you never once called me out on my behavior, because despite me being a total bitch, you were always nice to me.”

You had no idea what to say, so you didn’t say anything. You just rubbed Hanni’s back, wondering why the hell you were actually feeling bad for the girl who made your life a living hell for weeks.

[dog-bimbo]

minors and ageless blogs do not interact ! fem!reader ☆ shiu is an absolute prick in this one just the way i like it :')

sugar daddy!shiu kong makes it clear on the get go that the relationship is purely transactional. he covers your tuition and whatever expenses that you need. in return, you gotta sit still and look pretty during his client meetings. and there were a lot of those meetings going on in his life... he doesn't want a companion to share his woes with, he needs a sweet little thing who'd make him look better in front of the clients. having a doll like you just makes it so much easier to deal with those guys. he really isn't like your traditional daddy that you see in movies. he doesn't mindlessly shower you with gifts and money and take you out on dates just to see you smile, he makes you earn each and every bit of the financial support he's been providing you with. it might seem a bit crude, but again, it's a transactional relationship after all.

you're his arm candy, all young and pretty in the outfits he chooses for you—none of them reach the knees. he likes it casual during the daytime—he doesn't care much for the tops low cut, turtle neck, buttoned collars, whatevers fines as long as it's paired with the tiniest of skirts. he likes ass and tits but most importantly, he likes thighs. sunny afternoons at lavish private properties or client offices don't go by easily by just discussing brokering services and pretending to care about the client's problems. you're either by his side or on his lap and he cannot go on without kneading the soft flesh of your thighs. one thing about him is that he makes the most out of the space he sits in. he's charming, even with that shit eating grin or a muted smirk that he flashes at you whenever you pluck the cigarette from his lips for him to exhale the smoke or ash it for him since he's too comfortable leaned back.

during the night however, the tiny little dresses he makes you wear seem like they're barely there. dainty jewellery, freshly manicured nails, his favourite shades of lipstick on your extremely kissable lips... he rubs his thumb on your bottom lip, tilting your chin up and looking down at you with his piercing gaze like he's evaluating you—"you've gotten the hang of it by now, i don't expect anything less from you. you'll be good for the clients n' extra good f'me, hm?" he lets go of your chin after you answer and gets out of the car, circling around it to open the passengers door for you.

it's like he's making you put on a show for the clients by the way he instructs you to charm them with your demeanour. his clients are total pervs too since he's not letting you leave much for imagination with your clothes. this is a business and sex sells—everyone knows it. "it's a big bad world honey, i don't have to tell y'bout how it works, yeah?" he murmurs if the clients are just oogling at you. but if it gets to you a bit too much, and trust me, he catches onto things faster than most people, he has his ways of dealing with it.

after the meetings is when you truly get to the good bit. he covers your semester fees on time even without you having to remind him along with the additional college charges. he's cunning but he's trustworthy and diligent. but for that extra cash to splurge, you gotta let him blow his steam off. he latches his lips onto your neck and gradually your tits after freeing them like he's starved, like he's been waiting for it. "the bastard chewed my damn ears off, can't stand 'em..." he grunts as he sucks on your nipples, his other hand groping your tits with a grip borderlining on a harsh one. "but you..." he bites on one with his teeth and tugs on the other with his index and thumb, "you're a fucking doll, so good f'me..." and by the time you're done with fogging up the tinted windows of his car, your poor cunt is left oozing out a bit of his cum as it trickles down your inner thighs.

he pulls out a thick wad of cash, fanning through it. "open up, sweetheart," he murmurs, thumbing through a few crisp bills. you bite down, the stack hard against your teeth. it's humiliating to the core but business is business, and you’ve got to earn your keep.

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Learn the Hard Way 1

Warnings: non/dubcon, power dynamic, age gap, and other dark elements. My username actually says you never asked for any of this.

My warnings are not exhaustive but be aware this is a dark fic and may include potentially triggering topics. Please use your common sense when consuming content. I am not responsible for your decisions.

Characters: Lloyd Hansen, Nick Fowler (Professor AU)

Summary: you return to campus is less than glorious.

Part of the Bad Professors AU

Note: Please leave some feedback and reblog <3 As always, I love to chat with you all. 

“It’s a nice place,” you say as you keep a grip on your duffel bag. 

You took a big chance trusting in the online posting. Furnished and a decent price. Your innate cynicism told you it couldn’t be true and yet your dire financial straits convinced you to take the risk. Even if it turned out to be a mattress in a dingy basement, you would make it work. 

Yet, your pessimism makes the reality even more of a relief. The apartment is just like it was listed in the virtual walk through. And it’s all yours at such a good rate. 

“Got everything you need,” the man explains as he pulls out a tube of lip balm. “And if it doesn’t, you have my number.” 

“Sure, uh, I don’t think I should,” you shrug. 

You peek over at him again. He seems every measure the slimy landlord, mustache included. Designer polo, loafers without socks, tight pants, thought his jacket does give a slightly refined touch to the whole aesthetic. 

“Rules. No parties. You can have some girlfriends over for a little pillow fight now and again but I don’t want a rager. This shit’s too nice for that,” he warns. 

“Right,” you agree, ignoring his strange comment. “I don’t think I’ll be throwing any parties.” 

“Good,” he tuts. “Well, I got shit to do. Class in an hour.” 

He checks his watch and you give him a curious look, “you’re a student too?” 

“Fuck off,” he chirps as he tweaks a brow. “Professor.” 

“Professor. Wait, so isn’t this like a shit, what’s it called, ah, conflict of interest?” 

“What are you? A law student?” He snaps. 

“Photography, actually.” 

“Oh, so you like to throw your money away. That’s good to hear,” he chortles. You frown at the insult. “And now it’s not a goddamn conflict. It’s off campus and you just happen to be a poor student. It’s fucking fine or do you wanna go find something else? Half your monthly to break the lease.” 

“Shit, no, I mean, no. No, it’s cool. I was just... as long as it doesn’t affect me, that’s fine. It’s smart. I mean, if I had money, I’d do some investing too.”  

His eyes dart towards you sharply, “whatever, stop wasting my time.” 

“Sorry, uh, well, thanks, Lloyd.” 

He winces and tilts his head, “I think I prefer professor.” 

“But you’re not mine--” 

“Look, I don’t like you uppity girls gettin’ fun with me. You think I don’t got tail wiggling at me for a higher GPA every goddamn day.” He clucks and straightens his coat, spinning on his heel, “tell your boys not to flush their rubbers.” 

He struts through the door and it snaps shut behind him. You look down at the keys in your hand and cringe. It’s not exactly the best start but you won’t bother him again. This place is perfect. 

You bring your bag into the living room and drop it on the couch. A couch! A chair, dining table, a separate bedroom, and a nice kitchen... you even have a stacked laundry set-up. Shit, feels like you’re robbing the guy. It’s almost too good to be true. 

You pace around for a while before you start to unpack. You didn’t bring much. You’re a person of very little means. You worked two catering jobs in the summer just to get tuition and the whole housing spike on campus had you worried it was all for not. 

Hey, it all turned out. You’ll never trust fate, but fuck dammit, it can be kind when it wants to. 

You head out shortly after, restless, and find the bus stop. Tuition includes a bus pass but you need to go to the Student Support Center to get your card reactivated for the term. You spend the change and weave your way around campus. 

The wait for the simple swipe of your card and a few keys tapped, is far too long. But now you have your transit pass and your meal plan. You’ll hit the cafeteria and hope that they have hiked the cost of a tuna sandwich with the rent. 

The prices may not have gone up but you’re not sure the quality is what it was. You examine the thin prepackaged sandwiches. You’re suddenly not as hungry. You can get a noodle plate and split it between today and tomorrow. A coffee is always cheap too. 

You get your container of pad thai and stop to peruse the self-serve karafes of coffee. Irish Cream, blech. You opt for the caramel sundae flavour. You get maybe two drops and it bottoms out. What the hell? 

“Piss,” you mutter. 

Whatever, you’ll just have some medium roast. You move over to press your cup to the lever and hit someone else’s hand. You recoil, “fuck, shit, sorry.” 

The man grunts and fills his cup. He’s older. Likely a professor judging by the blazer. He watches the slow drip and you do too. You just want a coffee. You wait and as he finishes, you step up to claim your cup. The karafe runs out at the half line of the cup. 

“What the shit?” You huff. “I swear to fuck--” 

“Eloquent,” he remarks as he takes a lid from the stack. 

“Huh?” You look over at him. “Oh, you can hear me? I thought that was my inside voice.” 

He narrows his eyes and shakes his head. He snaps the lid on his cup and takes it. You get no response but the roiling judgment rising off of his rigid posture. 

You top off your cup with the dark roast. Maybe you should let the staff know the coffee is almost out. You go to join the line for the cashier and find yourself facing the back of the man’s blazer. 

He pays and you move up to tap your student card. You thank the cashier and head off, the smell of the noodles stoking your hunger. Mmm, you can’t wait to dig-- 

You collide with something and your coffee bursts and pours over your hand. You look up to find the splatter of mixed brews across dark blue fabric. You squeak as the liquid scalds your hand. 

“Fuck, I’m so fucking sorry, dude,” you say as the same man snarls and turns stiffly on his heel. 

He looks down at you with his icy eyes. You tremble as they’re harsh enough to cool the heat of the spill dripping from your hand. You give a sheepish smile. 

“Hi again,” you murmur. 

He shakes his head and reaches to feel the back of his jacket. He takes a deep breath, a tick in his jaw. “I can clean this, can you clean up that gutter you call a mouth?” 

He doesn’t wait for your answer. You suppose it’s rhetorical and well-earned. You did just dump coffee down his back. 

[turquoizxe]

𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐘𝐨𝐮

Hobart “Hobie” Brown x Spider!Fem!Reader

Author’s Note: I just want to sincerely apologize for the delay in this post, as I have been traveling out of my hometown the past few days. However, my favorite punk is still my current brain rot lmao. The second installation is already in progress, and hopefully as I have planned, it will be out by the date I posted below( after the conclusion of the first chapter). Thank you all for for love you showed on the series announcement! As I have stated in my earlier post, I haven’t written a fan fiction in over two years, dealing with school and other things in life. Please express your thoughts throughout the series and comment! I was a little nervous because I’ve never written anyone from the UK, especially with such a thick accent. Please, share your thoughts. Thank you for your understanding, and you may begin reading.

With Love,

— Turquoizxe.

Installation (1/5) : ‘Dodgy’ 

Rating ― Mature (17+)

➝ Hobie has been distancing himself quite a bit lately. You feel froggy enough to follow him and enter the world, to what is known to be the Spiderverse. He seems to enjoy your brave gesture, but he quickly realizes why you weren’t invited to join the club.

𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩 ―fluff, heavily plot based, meeting existing ATSV Characters…

𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 ― ATSV SPOILERS! Minor use of language and swearing, romantic tension, minor acts of violence, Hobie’s teasing, Miguel being himself, Beef w/ Jessica Drew…

𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩 ― 3.6k

Dodgy;  can be a synonym for dangerous, bad or untrustworthy

As much as you kept to yourself, it was hard to imagine that you would make any friends outside of your suite mates. Your eyes were always harassing a piece of literature, involved in extracurricular activities, and keeping track of random facts no one would need in their everyday lives. Nothing short of the perfect student.

"[Name], this is the fifth time you’ve been in my office in two weeks-”

“Okay, four if you don’t count the rant about my psychology professor.”

You were always an academic achiever, graduating with honors and holding the title of salutatorian in your class. Being accepted into your dream school, earning enough scholarships to cover most of your tuition.

Yet, here you were, looking for ways to save your grades with finals around the corner. Had it been a year ago, you wouldn’t have to worry. That was until you were bit by a radioactive spider the one time you decided to skip studying and attend the most underwhelming frat party that your suite was raving about.

“You’re on the verge of losing your scholarships. $25,000 a year on the line, and you tell me all the time about how hard to your parents are working to cover the rest of your tuition.”

And you knew you couldn’t afford to stay if you didn’t work your ass off to pull through. You didn’t think being spider-woman could be so stressful. Patrols have gotten more hectic, and the late nights have been affecting your attention span in class, and even less energy to do your work. It felt so easy in the beginning, and everything was good until it wasn’t.

You felt a sting on your cheek, your tears sliding past your injury from patrol, and you felt yourself become small as you placed your face in your hands, wondering how something you’ve worked so hard for is a letter grade away from being lost.

Your counselor heaves a heavy sigh, sliding tissues across their desk to you. In just a few weeks you went from acquaintances to friends.

“Look, you’re a great kid, we didn’t have this issue your freshmen year. I know it only gets tougher from here, but you can’t fight this on your own. It’s never too late to accept help.” They started typing on their computer, ringing up your transcript and current grades for the semester. A sudden swish of wind flows through the office, following the trills of birds off in the distance your counselor scoffs at the noise and walks over to close the window. They return back to their seat, muttering intelligible, the only word you could pick up, ‘spiderwoman’.

“What about spiderwoman?”

“Oh! I just kinda thought how weird it was for another spiderman to show up when we already have a hero. Funny, I didn’t know there could be multip-”

“There’s a spider-man?”

You stammered. You felt a heat in your body, another superhero here that you weren’t even sure about.

“As much as you know about everything, I thought you would hear about the spotting of a spider-man in the city. They seem to stick close to campus.”

“Any proof?”

“No. Just words, but if there’s one spider-person, why not two?”

You could feel your blood course through your veins from the new information. It was just you, unless your old mentor, Peter, came to visit. You were knocked out of your thoughts when your name was called.

“As of now, you have a 2.0,″ your counselor stated. “Your classes seem more work oriented, and out of your five classes, you only have two finals.”

You slowly looked up from your lap.

“I’ve read the syllabus, taken notes of what to study for and what to work on. It’s just-”, you stammer, not able to give them the honest truth.

“See? You already took the steps to better yourself, don’t stress, and pace yourself, you have a month left kid.”

You let out a small chuckle. More than 20 missing assignments shouldn’t be too bad to juggle, right?

You were lying to yourself, you were going to suffer, but for a positive outcome, you didn’t mind. You got yourself together, sniffling softly as you packed your things.

“I don’t wanna kick you out, but I do have to meet with the Dean-”

“You mean your lov-”

You were cut short by a small stuffed animal flying towards you, your reflexes doing you justice before the soft material made contact with your face, slamming the door, gaining a small audience as eyes turned to you.

“Sorry everyone.”

Now, for the real fun to begin, you can at least spend some time with a special someone before your academic weapon tendencies are in full force.

The night you met him, it felt like one of those nightmares that would be impossible to wake from. To you, it was a dream.

His aura, and appearance on that stage. You were enamored with his attitude. His thick accent, strumming his guitar as his eyes bored into yours. This was one of the few times you didn’t mind that you skipped class for.

After the concert, you went to refill your water bottle before your walk back to your apartment in the damning heat. You saw him, drenched in sweat, guitar on his back, hunched over, and visibly upset that the water fountain was not doing it’s job. He looks in your direction, his expression making you anxious. Yet, you were still willing to help. You essentially escorted him to your dorm, where the water system was in a decent condition. He had pretty strong opinions about the education system and society in general, though you did appreciate his intellect.

“It’s a load of tosh for ya’ to pay so much for a piece of rubbish.” 

The ways he seemed so sure of himself more often than not made you intrigued, and he was more than happy to indulge you, being nearly distracted from the fact that Satan decided to sit his bare ass cheeks on the Earth that day. He gave you his number, and from then on, he would come see you whenever you both had the time, which was rough, considering the current mess that was your life. He was the only person you felt cared enough to step you out of your comfort zone. 

The night walks on campus, your medusa piercing that he compliments all the time.

“It accentuates your features. Peng ting you are, yeah?”

Your eyebrows furrowed, a deep chuckle erupting from his throat

“Means you’re hot.”

He gets it. He gets you. And sometimes, you thought that maybe what you were feeling would never go away when you’re with him. Your hangouts were more often casual, leading to more intimate moments, mentioning him to your family, and him teaching you how to play his guitar. You began to feel it linger, when you knew you both didn’t want to say goodnight.

The immediate thought of it also breaks you.

You’ve felt that he’s been dodging you and your attempts to reach out as of late. It’s been weeks since you’ve last seen Hobie, and this time, he initiates to meet. It’s late in the night, and he’s late. You couldn’t remember the last time you were this mad at him, or if you ever got upset with him at all. You didn’t like how he started to drift away with no explanation, and instead of anger, you were filled with worry, wondering if the time you were spending together was beginning to put a strain on him. You paced around your living room, muttering words and contemplating sending an annoyingly long paragraph of a text that would make it seem like you were dumping him.

“S’mitten for me, are you love?”

You looked up at your window, the tall brit leaning on the emergency stairs, making himself at home as you pulled away.

“In your dreams, Brown.”

He walks up to you, his lanky frame hovering over you so expectantly. You looked down at your feet, almost embarrassed of your newfound feelings, and you feel even more giddy when he stands close to you. He knew that you liked him, but teasing you was his second favorite pastime besides hanging out with you. You walked away to your kitchen, grabbing an energy drink for the both of you. Silence did not exist when you were together, and the awkwardness of it all was not helping. He bit his lip, his teeth caught in his piercing. He knew he was in trouble.

“I know you’re upset.”

“Hobs, you were supposed to be here 2 hours ago, I understand being busy but I thought you were seriously hurt or something”, you exclaimed, turning away from him. Showing up late was a recurring issue with him, and you’ve had just about enough.

“Oh don’t get cheeky now. You’ve been neglectin’ your studies. A bit daft if you ask me.”

You’re eye twitched at his use of his slang, sometimes you didn’t always need him to explain to know that what he was saying had negative connotations.

“That’s none of your concern, it’s you I’m worried about.”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” he smirks. There wouldn’t be a point in arguing with him about this, handing him his drink, turning on your television, starting the episode of your favorite series where you had both left off.

You sat farther away from him than usual, occasionally glancing in his direction, and unfortunately, he was staring right back at you, even more intense.

“I don’t bite, unless ya’ ask,” he teases, softly patting a seat closer to him, and you oblige. It wasn’t like you weren’t happy to see him, and he chuckles at your annoyed compliance. It was becoming an awkward staring contest, and you quickly lost track of the media playing on your screen. You open your mouth, just out of curiosity.

“So, how’s life treating you?”

“Fighting fascists, new piercings, performin’, ” he looks over to you, taking another sip of his drink, awaiting for a life update on your part. You bit your lip, anxiety getting the best of you. Despite the closer proximity, you still felt to far away from him. He sighs, using his leg to move your body to face him. You quiver, tears threatening to spill from your face once again, but you still looked up.

He looked at you, seeming nonchalant, but you still felt the worry in his aura.

“I know you want me to squash it, but it’s obvious s’omething bigger is bothering you,” he softly speaks, his thumb circling into your knee. “You act as if you’re scared of somethin’— of someone.”

Hobie scoots closer to you, using guiding your chin to make you look at him directly for the first time tonight.

“Talk t’me.”

You shake away from him, that feeling in the pit of your stomach only becoming more intense.

“I can’t tell you everything, Hobs.”

“But you can tell me anythin’, yeah?”

You look up, his face was close to you now, not realizing that you were nothing leaning into each other the more you spoke. His hand, slowly sliding to your hips, slowly stroking your stretch marks that your shirt wasn’t covering. You looked into his eyes, a small smile showing.

“There she is,” he exaggerates, giving you a soft squeeze, and you let out a giggle. The moment was yet again, cut short by that annoying ass beep from his wristwatch, that has interrupted your meaningful conversations countless times. Hobie curses from under his breath, backing away from you, the light illuminating his flawless features. And just like that, the moment has passed. His eyes look up to you, disproval in your expression, and you knew what was coming next, so you did it for him.

“Just go.”

Hobie let out a deep sigh before apologizing for what felt like the thousandth time, knowing he would do this the next time you make an attempt to make time for each other.

But this time, you were going to figure out why.

—

As soon as he had left, your senses went off. And this was the last time you were going to ignore them.

You had quickly went off into your room after he left, frantically throwing around your belongings to find your suit before Hobie got too far from you. You had followed him, all the way to an one of the abandoned buildings on campus that was currently under renovation. You stood behind a slab of concrete, peeking from the side, watching as he walked through a portal as if it were just another day.

But you saw, and now you knew. Your suspicions proved you right once again.

You flicked your wrist, webbing into the portal before it closed in on you.

And now, there you were, caught by Hobie after catching your ankle so you wouldn’t plunge to certain death after following him through his portal, seeking nothing but a dark abyss before you, seeming bottomless.

You turned towards him, a smirk plastered across his face.

“I fuckin’ knew it.”

You webbed free from his grip, finding ground. You looked at his appearance, and now you knew why he wore such familiar colors. Your suit hugged your body, adorned in your favorite colors, riddled with black accents. Hobie looked you up and down, whistling in admiration, while you took in your surroundings. HQ did not look like this at all when you first arrived.

“Place look familiar?”

You had brushed yourself off, taking in the countless people that had suits similar to yours. The unique design of the interior, and many, many, familiar faces.

“The Spiderverse.”

“Hey I call it the same thing!”

You turned in the direction of the speaker, a young boy standing in front of you. He had a black suit, red accents riddled across, two other spider men following behind you, staring at you in admiration.

“I’m Miles!”

You were still floored by all that had occurred in just a few moments. Slowly, you raised your hand, waving to the kid, smiling at him.

“Hi Miles, I’m [Name].”

“Oh, Hobie! Did we get a new recruit?”

A spider woman in a white suit walked up behind him, her pink hair flowing, and eyes that could manipulate a way to your heart.

“I’m Gwen, and this one here Is Pavitr!” Both greet themselves which such joy to see you. You almost felt as if you were back home, introducing yourself to who seemed to be Hobie’s colleagues. You expected him to be upset with you for following him, or keeping your identity as spiderwoman a secret, or vice versa. Yet, he’s seeing you in a new light, a personality that didn’t exist in your world. You would only ever smile like this if it was truly something or someone you cared about. You both would know that.

“Alright kids, follow me!”

The voice felt all too familiar, the oozing confidence in her demands making you cringe instantly, and you turn to see no other than Jessica Drew herself. You stared blankly, a sigh of irritation, your bubbly personality disappearing almost instantly.

“Jessica..”

She started at you, her face turning into a small scowl before turning back around, motioning the group of teens to follow her, but not before throwing a day pass in your direction. It was hard for them to pay attention when they were too focused on your sudden change of demeanor. Hobie walked beside you, brushing against your hand to catch your attention.

“What’s the tea with you two, ey?”

Your side eye is critical when you look towards him, signaling that you didn’t want to talk about it. He grunts before shrugging it off, still walking close to you. You watched Miles as he introduced himself to everyone, completely enamored with his surroundings. All that you could conclude from this, is that he was new. But while he was looking at everyone else, they were all looking at you. You heard the mutters and whispers amongst them as the HQ went into a deafening silence. You could feel Hobie’s gaze on you, sliding his arm around your waist for comfort.

“Piss off. Go back to what you were doin’.”

Quickly, they did what they were told, but you could still hear the voices of some conversing about you. And Hobie could hear it too.

“I didn’t think they’d let her come back.”

“Maybe they caught her sneaking in, they did say she never gave her watch back.”

He looks to your side, still silent as he watches your body tense up from their words. Maybe he wasn’t the only one acting dodgy.

You look ahead, looking at the lair that belongs to the man you used to call your boss. You felt Hobie release his grip from you to catch up with Miles, watching closely as he walked around him, fidgeting with materials and grabbing small objects. The young teen seemed stressed about something, making you just as anxious. You heard him expressing his frustrations about not having a watch, Hobie suggesting to Miles that he make his own.

You had forgotten how big this room was, and you wished it was longer by the time you got to the main event. He descended from his pad, multiple screens could be seen, one of which you could see showed your last conversation with Hobie at your apartment. Miles and Gwen walked up to him, Miles eager to introduce himself, holding a small box of food. Hobie held you back, watching you stare at the sight before you in amazement.

The moment quickly dissipated once you saw the Miguel everyone knew, his violence showing its face rather quickly, throwing an item in Miles direction. With quick reaction, your web caught onto the object, throwing it to a forgotten corner, showing yourself to him. He chuckled, his expression gleamed with frustrations and anger.

“I knew you would be here.”

“Your favorite disappointment could never miss out on a good time.”

Glaring at one another, everyone could feel the tension, so thick it was possible to cut it with a knife. Hobie watched from afar, reading for whatever should come next. That is until you felt the joyous cries of a child, turning to see a grown man in a pink robe. Instantly, you felt a wave of tears washing over you, Peter calling your name as soon as you ran into his arms.

“I missed you kid.”

Miles shared the excitement, walking up to Peter, also capturing him in an embrace. Miles looked at you in awe once more, wondering how you knew him.

“He was my mentor.”

“That’s crazy, me too!”

You heard Miguel groan, echoing throughout the room, Peter ignoring him, and telling you and Miles to do the same. You once again here the coos of a child, looking in the direction, a baby crawling across the wall. You excitedly exclaim with Miles, “You had a baby!”

Peter laughs sheepishly, yelling for his daughter, telling her to make sure she kept her day pass on, clearly in her own world.

Once again, the atmosphere changed dramatically, Miguel stepping down from his pad, Miles following, both engaging in a rather lengthy conversation about canon events. That’s when you started to shake, Gwen and Hobie looking at you with worry. Still, you held your ground, listening to Miguel explain the Spiderverse to Miles, the timelines, and the unfortunate events that occurs to just about every Spider-person. You saw the young teen grow anxious, beginning to mention his dad, and how he becomes captain in just a few days. Miles grows impatient and restless, and arguing that he shouldn’t sit here and let his father die. Miles looked to his colleagues, searching for confirmation. They all looked away, proving the timeline to be correct. Miguel turns toward you, motioning Miles to look in your direction.

“Your friend here believed the same thing.”

You felt everyone’s eyes on you, feeling as small as Miguel once made you feel. You looked at Miles, ready to hang onto every word you as you began to open your mouth to speak, but you looked away.

“Go on, tell him, [Name].”

You sucked up your sniffles, having to relive that memory constantly felt dehumanizing.

“I….I had a friend, who believed the same thing you did. She wanted to be able to save her parents, to be able to do both, and live the perfect life.”

You felt your chest tighten, yet urged yourself to continue.

“I ended up getting her killed, and destroyed her Universe.”

You heard Miles let out a gasp, you looked to Hobie, his eyes wide, and you couldn’t decipher his emotion. Miles turned back to Miguel, demanding that he be returned home. He refused, locking him in. They had all began to walk away, apologizing that it had to end like this. Well, not on your watch, but it seems that Hobie beat you to it.

A flash of light, knocking everything and everyone on their ass, you chuckled at the gesture. Miles was still in shock, quickly recovering, running off into the headquarters. Miguel runs after the kid, everyone following behind. You felt a arm wrap around your waist, a portal opening. Before pulling you both through, Hobie declaring his standing with the league.

“And for the record, I quit.”

—

You were back in the comfort of your own home, dressed in your lounge clothes, while your suit in the washer. Hobie had flew you home, as there was no reason to hide it anymore. Now, it was an uncomfortable silence, the two of you haven’t spoke since you left the headquarters. Hobie was getting ready to head out, his back turned to you, but not until you made yourself clear.

“We can’t come back from this.”

You looked up, his eyes staring back at you as he turned to you. The moon illuminated his smile, responding casually.

“Maybe that’s a good thing.”

And then he was gone, and you didn’t know when he would be back.

Or if he ever would be.

Installation (2/5) : ‘Piss Off’ — Released!

‘Just For You’ Masterlist for previous/future installations

-

ᴛᴀɢꜱ!

@darkphantommagazine

@von-studios

@vickyzangels​

@roseluxxx​

@cupcakekiss

[gabessquishytum]

Chef Hob is the new cook for the boarding school that Orpheus attends (Robyn attends as well with the steep tuition discount Hob gets as staff,,,,,,,one of the reasons Hob took the job). Orpheus has never tasted food the way that Mr. Hob makes it before. Everything tastes so good and interesting (the cooks at home are sooooo boring).

So when he goes home for breaks he keeps asking his dad and the cooks at home to make things taste like Mr. Hob does! Since neither Dream nor his team of live-in cooks know how to translate young teenager descriptions into food flavors, they and Orpheus are at a loss.

Dream decides to be somewhat proactive -- there is only so long he can stare at Orpheus's sad, woeful, face - next time he goes to pick Orpheus up, he asks him to introduce him to this amazing chef, Mr. Hob.

👨🏼‍🍳❤️👨🏼‍🍳🩷👨🏼‍🍳

It's the beginning of break and Hob is in the kitchen, with Robyn, working in menus for the meals for the small number of kids who stay on campus during the break (Hob hates how some of these rich parents treat their kids, leaving them alone over a holiday period at a mostly empty school. It's horrible.) Hob tries to make the foods especially fun for the left behind kids,,,,even planning some meals where the kids can cook with him. There's a reason all the kids think Mr. Hob is cool.

Any way, Hob and Robyn are in the school kitchen together (Hob is forever grateful that his boy still likes to hang with his old man.) when the most beautiful man walks into the kitchen. He's being pulled along by a kid Hob recognizes, Orpheus.

Orpheus shyly introduces his father to Hob (who happens to be staring at Hob as much as Hob is staring at him). Dream didn’t think school "lunch ladies" were allowed to be as attractive as Mr. Hob.

Alsksjdhsbav such a great au concept!!! I love it!!!!

Hob ends up showing Orpheus's dad around the kitchen, plus showing him the menus he's been planning out. Dream is suddenly acting like food is the most interesting thing in the world to him - Orpheus is very confused, because his dad would totally live off pizza rolls if he didn't have cooks making his meals. But he shrugs it off and goes to join Robyn making brownies. Orpheus enjoys baking - when he's not busy with his music, he does his best to attend the fun baking club that Mr Hob runs for the students at weekends.

Meanwhile, Hob is rambling on about the nutritious foods he likes to make for the kids, how he's really passionate about fostering a healthy relationship with food while they're young... Dream is hanging off his every word as Hob talks about the different dietary restrictions he caters for, how he got really into vegan food because of the kids, how he'd like to do more in the community but he doesn't have time to do much except occasionally run a charity bakesale. Dream thinks he is the most beautiful and interesting man in the entire world.

Eventually Hob gives Dream a copy of his recipe folder to take home, and he must see the way Dream looks a little bit helpless, because he laughs and offers to give a quick 'cooking 101' demonstration. Dream does not mention that they have chefs at home who could handle the recipes. He's too busy watching Hob dismantle an onion. Dream has never wanted to be a vegetable so much in his entire life.

Orpheus glances over, and even with his limited worldly experience, he can see that his dad is totally whipped for Mr Hob. Orpheus thinks that this is a good thing. For a start, maybe his dad will start eating better. And even better, if they start dating, Mr Hob will come over to their house and Orpheus will get to eat his cooking! He needs to encourage this relationship as much as possible. (And hey. It would be cool to see Robyn more, too. He makes GREAT brownies.)

[chrisevansonly]

Block Out the Noise

pairing: harry styles x female reader

summary: sometimes you just need to listen to your song and love on your boyfriend to make the negative thoughts go away

warnings: mention of past abuse, talks of depression and suicidal thoughts, potentially triggering(?!) very soft and caring harry&lt;3

a/n: i wanted to write something about matilda because it’s a song that I hold so close to my heart. from growing up in an abusive home and needing to take care of my brother from age 6 and up, when i heard matilda i knew it would be a song i’d cherish forever. this is a fic i hold close to my heart because i was that scared and small little girl who didn’t understand why i got anger taken out on me and why i had bruises when other kids didn’t. you’re not alone, you’ve got me in your corner and your stronger than you know, i hope my inner child knows that too<3

No one asks to be born into a world of chaos and fear, especially not when you’re a child. Wondering why your parents fought, the screaming matches, the subtle bruises you somehow ended up with because you ‘stood in the way.’ As a child you never knew what went wrong or what you did to be treated this way but you still tried your hardest regardless of the war zone you once called home.

you were riding your bike to the sound of its no big deal, and you’re trying to lift off the ground on those old two wheels..

You taught yourself to read, to cook, to take care of yourself and your siblings. Going as far as to teach yourself to ride a bike and even drive, you raised yourself in a world where you wished you hadn’t needed to do that. When you got to high school the insults from your father got worse, the insecurity creeped in and you struggled with self worth and self harm.

nothing about the way that you were treated ever seemed especially alarming til now..

Then came college where you worked three jobs to pay your tuition and fought tooth and nail to get the best grades and work your absolute hardest to get your degree which you did all on your own. Mental illness and recovery was never linear and you battled some of your darkest days throughout college and even towards graduation when you met Harry.

so you tie up your hair and you smile like it’s no big deal

Harry was your world, he was the calm through the storm, the light that helped guide you through the tough times, he truly was your best friend. You’d been together now going on 5 years with no plans of ever separating from one another. He always told you that you provided just as much safety and comfort to him as he could to you.

you can let it go, you can throw a party full of everyone you know and not invite your family, cause they never showed you love, you don't have to be sorry for leaving and growing up

-

Now you were 26 and worked at your dream job, your life was filled with so much love and so much joy sometimes you found yourself needing to take a step back and just breathe, reminding yourself your life was real. Of course you had your rough days, and after the meeting and scolding you’d gotten today, all you wanted was to get home and see Harry.

matilda, you talk of the pain like it's all alright, but I know that you feel like a piece of you's dead inside

When Harry had started working on the album, he’d told you he was writing one very special song he couldn’t wait to share with you. So on the day that he sat you down and let you listen to Matilda, by the second line you were looking over at him with tears in your eyes, bottom lip wobbling ever so slightly and he was quick to pull you into his chest.

You showed me a power that is strong enough to bring sun to the darkest days

When you arrived home you dropped your work things by the front closet, kicking your heels off and dropping your shoulders in exhaustion. Harry wasn’t home yet so you allowed yourself a few minutes to get some water, your headphones and settle on the couch with a fluffy blanket.

it’s none of my business but it’s just been on my mind

On natural instinct almost, you allowed the soft melody of matilda to play through your headphones, eyes closing as you sunk into the cushions. It wasn’t as if you were trying to cower from the overwhelming feelings you had in this moment, but more or less trying to let them flow and escape from your mind

you can let it go, you can throw a party full of everyone you know and not invite your family, cause they never showed you love, you don't have to be sorry for leaving and growing up

You hadn’t even noticed the tears steadily falling down your cheeks, your breathing picking up slightly as you pulled the blanket up further, attempting to wrap yourself in more warmth. It wasn’t until you felt gentle fingertips dancing across your face that you opened your eyes, Harry looking at you in concern. Pausing the song you pulled your headphones off and sent him a soft smile

“Hey m’love…”

“Hi”

Lifting the blanket up you let him cuddle in next to you, the instant comfort you felt just from being wrapped up in his arms was enough to blow the stress and pain from the day away

“You okay y/n?”

Nodding you leaned further into him

“Just had a really bad day…got yelled at and it just made me think of old stuff and I don’t know…f-felt a bit sad”

Harry placed a soft kiss against your temple

“I’m sorry today was so tough, I know it was probably hard to remember what it was like growing up too..can’t blame you for feeling upset”

His hands ran up and down your arm softly, the constant touch helping to keep you grounded and in the present moment.

“You know what I think?”

Looking up at him you furrowed your brows

“What?”

Placing a kiss on your lips he smiled

“I think you are the most beautiful soul, inside and out. Despite everything you’re still here, fighting and working hard day in and day out. You don’t ever have to feel sorry or feel bad about doing everything you’ve done on your own, and allowing yourself to love and experience love despite it all”

“H…”

He was quick to swipe a tear from your cheek before continuing

“I love you so much, you’re my now and my future. Seeing you grow and flourish into the woman you are today has been a privilege to witness and support you through. I admire you so much m’baby, you’ve never let anyone dim your light and m’so lucky to get to love you”

Anything you would have said to him in this moment was caught in your throat, so wrapping your arms around him and holding him tight was enough for him in the moment. Harry was the moon and the stars to you, he was your whole universe and he’d been helping you heal since you’d been together. You’d done the hardest work on this journey, he had just been there to support and love you through it so he says.

“I love you so much H, thank you for letting me start a new family”

“I’ll always be your family, you’re safe with me my darling, always”

Matilda was a song that would forever have its hold on you, and it was even more special knowing Harry had wrote it thinking of you, including you in his album and one of his projects he really loved. The love he’d shown you and continues to show you had only helped you come out of your shell and finally feel as if you’d found your place and purpose in this world.

Harry was your home, just as you were his.

a/n if you or someone you know is struggling with abuse please reach out to someone you know, whether it be a friend, family member or adult you trust. I’d only wished i’d done so earlier, i’m here to help and support you guys in anyway I can. You are loved, you are cherished and you are worth it.

[shortnotsweet]

all bets are off [1/3]

Lucemond High School AU drabble [part 2], She’s All That (1999)

“Am I a bet? Am I a bet, am I a fucking bet?”

“Yes.” It comes out quietly, which makes it all the worse. Luke would have expected Aemond to sneer and look down his long nose at him like the Hightower side of the family had for most of their lives. Luke wishes he would. It would have made it easier. Aemond’s face reflects no relish, or even satisfaction. Instead, it is pale and unreadable. Fitting, perhaps; as it turns out, Luke had read him wrong this entire time.

“Would you have told me before it was over? Before you humiliated me in public?”

The silence speaks for itself.

“Alright,” he scoffs, “that’s it, then.” The bitterness in his voice has an unfamiliar edge, and it sounds mean even to Luke, but it’s right. That’s how he feels. “You played your little game, you had your fun. I get it. It’s over.”

“No.”

“No?”

“It’s not over.”

“It is if I say it is. I don’t want anything from you, and you—you can shut up about debts, or what I owe you. We don’t have to know each other after this.” It’s true; they don’t have any classes together. They run in the same circles but that’s nothing some convenient maneuvering and strategic avoidance can’t fix. Their sides of the family voluntarily meet up for a miserable dinner once every three months and holidays. Luke can make it work.

Aemond’s remaining eye widens and his mouth thins. His face is readable now, at least; he’s livid. In a second, he lunges forward and grabs ahold of Luke’s wrist, trying to drag him back towards himself, to reel him in like he had all those months ago. Luke digs his heels into the ground instinctively, bracing away from the pressure. Luke used to like how big Aemond’s hands were in comparison to his own—the encompassing warmth, the difference in size—but now his grip tightens and locks like a handcuff, squeezing Luke’s wrist to the point of crushing. It hurts. He’s hurting him. Aemond is older and bigger than Luke, he always has been, and now he presses in like a storm cloud blocking out a clear sky.

“Luke, it wasn’t—it started like that, alright? It was like that in the beginning, but not now. It’s different now, I’m not—just look at me!” There’s something frantic in his words, the way he hovers over Luke like his shadow alone will cage him in. This isn’t the first time Aemond has struck the flight instinct in him, or the urge to fight, but it resonates through Luke’s core nonetheless. There is too much of him near. “I would’t have told you because there’s nothing to tell, not anymore.” Luke cranes his neck to peer over Aemond’s shoulder, searching out the best escape route. “It’s not over. You don’t mean that. We just…this is a rough patch, that’s all. It doesn’t matter how it started, it matters what it is. It’s good now, isn’t it? I’m good for you, I can be whatever you need, I’ll keep you happy. You like me, right? I know you do. I know you like me. Just get in the car, and we’ll talk about this later. Not now. Not like this. Look at me, don’t—don’t be like this. Luke.”

“I’m going home.”

“No. It’s late. You’re going back with me.”

“Let go.”

“Not until you listen.”

“Get off of me,” he snarls, launching himself backwards and ripping out of Aemond’s grasp. “Don’t touch me.” Aemond rears back at this rejection.

“Who else is going to do it? Lonely little Luke, eating lunch alone. Stupid, useless, weak. Can’t play sports, can’t speak in Debate Club, Mommy pays his tuition. He almost wets his pants when someone pulls the fire alarm. Who else is going to touch you, other than me?” Aemond’s mouth curls into a grin; he’s done it before, all sly and cruel. It looks ugly. He never changed, did he? How did Luke never see it before? “You didn’t fuck, didn’t drink at house parties, didn’t go to the beach past bedtime—hell, you probably never rode in a car without buckling the seatbelt. You were so eager for it, and I took you so easily. No one else could do that. No one else can touch you now, not like I can.”

It would have been true five months ago. Poor, common-looking Luke, who blended in with the walls, kept his head down, and startled at car alarms. That Luke was surrounded by gems, by brothers and uncles and friends who excelled at something, who carved names out for themselves. The Luke from five months ago would have balked at this, would have shrunk into himself and cowed to the truth. That Luke thought no one watched him, but he would’ve known if he just looked up. The Luke from now knows what the truth is, for the first time, and it’s nothing that comes out of Aemond’s mouth. Luke knows himself better than he ever has, and knows Aemond like he never wanted to before.

“I don’t think that’ll be any trouble, Uncle. Don’t worry about me,” Luke snorts out without thinking. “If I need someone to give me a ride, it won’t have to be you.” It doesn’t. It won’t. “I can buckle my own seatbelt; better yet, someone else can buckle it for me.” The uncle in question stills.

“Say that again.” He blinks, a curious expression settling over his features. “Say that again.”

“I said, it doesn’t have to be you. Other people will touch me. You’re not the only one around here with a working dick and something to prove. You lost an eye, not an ear. I should’t have to repeat myse—” before he can even finish the sentence, Aemond grabs him again, fingers curling over his shoulders like talons. Luke’s breath stops in his throat. Aemond’s face is so close they could kiss. Instead of leaning into it like he might have a few hours ago, Luke cringes backwards. Never again. The wounded expression on Aemond’s face gives him some satisfaction, but then his mouth morphs into a snarl and Luke would bet anything—his mother’s money, his own life, or whatever Aemond must’ve taken when he made that bet in the first place—that both of his eyes are glowing right now. The prosthetic below the patch shines like a jewel in its socket anyway, but the working eyeball in his head works furiously, searching across Luke’s face for something.

“What did you say, you little shit?” Aemond seethes. “Is there someone else? You have someone else, you were thinking about someone else?” he hisses into Luke’s face and furiously shakes him like a child would a broken toy. “Who is it?” he demands, sounding desperate now. “When? Is it Stark? Aegon? Greyjoy, that waterlogged rat? Daeron? Did one of them touch you—did you let them? Did they kiss you? Tell me, you fucking bastard.” Luke tells him the truth.

“That’s not your business anymore.”

“Not my business? Not—hah, not my business?” He’s so angry he’s spitting. “Of course it’s my business. It always has been. You’ve always—always, there’s never been a time when—you little idiot. Don’t you get it? You’re mi—”

Luke slaps him.

[butch-corvid]

Thinking about being the amenity at a very high end women’s country club, their filthy pet dyke they can sate all their deviant urges on before going back to their homophobic husbands. Serving them drinks in nothing but an apron and maybe a leather collar, licking their heels clean whenever they command it and working the leather until it shines, getting ordered around with finger snaps and whistles like I’m just a dumb little bitch that’s not deserving of full verbal orders. staying edged for them so I’m always eager to service them, to bend over for their straps. Every time I try to say no to one of their requests another woman can shove her fingers inside me and show everyone how wet my fuckhole is as proof that I must like it.

Holding my leash and making me crawl to service them orally while they talk about politics, about their latest campaign fundraiser, about how they’ll be attending a charity dinner to raise funds for the campaigns of bigoted politicians. Pulling me off their cunts and making me agree with everything they say while I’m too much of a pathetic slut to articulate an argument. laughing at how stupid I am, working against my own self interest, while i barely react to their taunts, too focused on getting my tongue as far into the pussy in front of me to feel ashamed.

Staying tied up and gagged with nipple clamps and a vibrator on me, so that the more I squirm and thrash, the more it hurts. being their centerpiece as they do something else, so that they can mess with the settings on the vibrator, teasing me with the lowest setting or making me scream out when they send it all the way up. maybe it’s at a fancy dinner or something, and the waitstaff is just completely ignoring me, trying to beg for mercy through the gag. Once my pussy is all edged and sensitive and dripping, they can see how much they can fit inside me, working me open with the cocks I usually wear to service them and laughing as I cum over and over

Having me fuck a girl in front of them for entertainment while they degrade us for being stupid lesbian whores that’d do anything to get off for their betters. bonus points if she’s a trans girl so all the women can coo about how it’s just “so tragic” that all of these trans women are invading lesbian spaces while getting off to the sight of me breeding the girl until we’re too fucked out to even move after and she’s dripping with my cum. Maybe they’ll have her fuck them so I can eat her cum out of their pussies afterwards, desperately wishing I could be bred too

Pouring me expensive liquor until I’m nothing but an easy, pliant, half passed out puddle in their arms. dressing me up in expensive clothes just to rip them off me. giving me expensive things just to show they can, just to see me glare at them with hatred and jealousy. in exchange for sexual favors, of course. maybe they make bets with me. the longer I can cockwarm a woman’s strap all the way down without pulling off, the more money they’ll give me. but if I pull off before a certain time (i don’t know it, of course), they’ll get to record me as porn for them to get off to later. maybe seeing how many spanks I can take. if I can make it to 100 without crying, they’ll tip me extra. If I cry, they’ll tie me down and let some of the club staff take out all their frustrations on my helpless body.

Dressing me up in girl clothes and making fun of me for not passing as a girl, then tying me down and taking turns riding my cock until my mascara runs from overstimulation and my makeup is ruined. saying I look so much better like this, so that I’m just enough of a boy to be allowed to fuck them but enough of a dyke to be humiliated for it.

And, of course, I keep coming back. I say it’s for the money (college tuition, rent in this economy, gifts for my girlfriends), but really I just enjoy being a degenerate bootlicking dyke for women who repulse me

[lunagojo]

Various Anime Boys: Being Told "I love you" For the First Time (Part 4!)

Full disclaimer about this part, this is a partial revision of the first part, I decided to go more in depth with the first few guys I did :) I will continue to revise the rest of the boys I did in the first part <3 Please enjoy!

Featured: Satoru Gojo, Dabi / Touya Todoroki, Giyuu Tomioka

Warnings: Dabi being a bit rude

~ Part 1 ~ ~ Part 2 ~ ~ Part 3 ~ ~ Part 5 ~

Satoru Gojo

(love of my life <3)

“Y/NNNNNNNNN. Let’s go do sooommmeeethinnnnngggg. This is boooooring.” Satoru whined, reclining on your couch.

“You’re the one who decided to come over when you knew damn well I’m working on my thesis, Satoru.” You replied, brows furrowed in concentration as you typed away at your desk. The deadline for your paper was fast approaching and you were stressed, to say the least. That much Satoru could tell.

He stretched himself out, long limbs dangling off the sides of the plush sofa. “Why d’you need to do this stuff anyway? All it does is stress you out n’ keep you away from me.”

You had been friends with Satoru for years now, having met him back when you worked at a cake shop. You had commented on how his spending there would finance your whole university tuition, and it had gone from there.

He was handsome, of course. But also funny, endearing, and so unbearably annoying. But he did have a heart of gold, you had to admit, and a very blunt manner of speaking to say the least. He didn’t mince words when it came to people he didn’t like, and that was something that you admired. He spent so much money on you, too; you couldn’t understand why. Satoru insisted that he was merely giving you what you deserved, but some of the gifts had been of the more sentimental and intimate variety, like the custom made locket necklace he had made for you, when you had mentioned your grandmother had one just like it.

Suffice it to say, you had feelings for him, strong ones. But a small part of you had doubts, which would creep up just when you had mustered the strength to tell him. Satoru Gojo was a beautiful, strapping young man, perfect in nearly every way. How could he ever see you as anything more than a friend?

You snorted. “If I don’t get this in I’ll fail and I’ll have to repeat the whole year, and that’ll set me back. I need to make something of myself, Toru.”

He rolled off the couch and strolled over to your desk, placing his hands on your shoulders. “What if you took a break though? Just for tonight? C’mon, I miss you.”

You looked over your shoulder to see glimmering big blue eyes peering at you, a soft pout on Satoru’s lips. “You’re such a child,” You sighed, but relented for now. After all, he was here and he was doing nothing but distracting you. And a break did sound nice. “Fine. What do you wanna do?” You asked, resting back in your desk chair.

“Something fun.”

“Like…?”

“Iunno, let’s go out! Let’s see what’s playing at the theatre or if they got my favourite cake back in stock at the shop!” He pulled you out of your chair, grinning.

“Oh, of course.” You rolled your eyes, but you did enjoy seeing him smile. He was annoying as hell, but you had to admit…it was kinda cute. You stood, going to grab your keys. “Or, we could go stock up on snacks, find some dumb movies, come back here and stay up til 4 AM.” You suggested with a smile. Satoru’s smile widened and he grasped your hand eagerly.

“Yes! You’re a genius, Y/N! Let’s go!” He started to pull you toward the door.

“Hah, I love you, Satoru, you dork.”

He froze in place, looking back at you with huge eyes. “Wha?”

You blinked. “What?”

“You said you love me.”

“I did?” You looked confused.

“Yeah, you did.” He turned and smooshed your cheeks in his palms. “Do you mean it? You’re not just pulling my leg, are you? ‘Cause that would be beyond cruel, Y/N. I have a heart too, y’know!”

You chewed on your lip, heat rising in your face. You did love him. He was an idiot, but you didn’t want him to be anyone else’s idiot. Slowly you nodded, placing a hand over one of his.

His blue eyes softened and he leaned in, resting his forehead against yours. “Tell me again.” He murmured.

“I love you, Satoru Gojo.” You replied in a whisper, your eyes half-lidded but still locked on his.

Without second thought his lips met yours and he kissed you tenderly, his fingers tucking through your hair. You swore you could hear his heart thudding in his chest. When he pulled away, hesitantly, he smiled and grabbed your hand again.

“Dunno if we’re gonna be watching all too much of the movies,” He said with a wiggle of his brows. “But we can still try, I’m a good multitasker.” He looked back at you, his grin widening. “And, in case it wasn’t obvious, Y/N, I love you, too. I always have.”

Dabi / Touya Todoroki

(I love him sm, he deserved so much better... :( )

You were busy doing your university homework when you heard a tap on your window. Yep, it was 3 AM, about that time. Without hesitation you got up and went to the window, sliding it open.

Hazy blue eyes met yours as booted feet landed on the floor. “Thought you were gonna leave me out here to fuckin’ freeze.” Dabi said, grumbling as he maneuvered his way in.

“I came here as soon as I heard you,” You argued back. Never a thank you from Dabi, even though he had been crashing at your place for the past six months. You both had met almost a year ago, when the League of Villains had crossed your path on your way home from work one night. Their leader, some guy with a hand on his face, wanted to kill you in case you were gonna narc on them, but for some reason, a couple of the others in the group had stopped him. Dabi wouldn't stop staring at you that night.

Since then he'd show up at your place every night around 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. He claimed it was because the cops and heroes would never suspect him to be hiding out in a random civilian's home, but you were somewhat suspicious of the validity of that. After all, he'd said it'd only be for a couple weeks and here you were six months later.

“Is your hot water back on again?” He asked casually, kicking off his boots. “I fuckin’ smell.”

“What kind of trouble did you get up to tonight?” You asked, wrinkling your nose. “You smell like a lawnmower.”

Dabi snorted. “None of your damn business, brat.” His words were harsh but his tone was almost tired. “Is it on again or not?”

You nodded, “Yeah, it's on. Washed the clothes you left the other night, too.”

Once again, not a thank you in sight as he went off to your bathroom, shutting the door behind him. You sighed. What were you doing? Why were you going to all this trouble for someone like him? You could just as easily lock your window and cut him off, but you didn't want to. A part of you felt that he needed someone to help him, be there for him. You could tell it was hard for him to show any sort of emotion other than gruff and bothered…and you could sense he had more pain and heartbreak than most people realized.

You went back to work on your homework, quietly writing away in your notebook. You tried to ignore the sound of the bathroom door opening and Dabi walking down the hallway.

Warm breath fanned across the back of your neck suddenly and you shivered in response.

“Why do you bother with this crap?” Dabi asked, leaning over your shoulder. He smelled like your body wash. You tried to hide the telltale blush growing on your face.

“Counter question. Why are you here, Dabi? It's been six months.”

“You know why, dumbass.”

You turned in your seat. “You're here every night now, you use my shower, sleep on my couch, eat my food, and I don't get any sort of appreciation or even a thank you. I'm harboring a fucking criminal in my apartment and you don't seem to be bothered.”

Dabi raised an eyebrow. “Yknow I could ask the same of you. Why do you keep letting me in, then? Washing my clothes, too, getting me those snacks I told you I like…why do you fuckin seem to care so much?!”

“Because I'm in love with you!” You blurted suddenly, hands balled into fists.

Dabi stood there, stunned. He rubbed the back of his neck. “You really are nuts, then.”

You breathed out a laugh, tears stinging your eyes. Turning back to your work, you tried to focus on your writing again. “Just leave me alone, Dabi.”

“Nah, don't think I will.” A hand slid along your shoulder. “Put that shit away and look at me, for God's sake.”

With a heavy sigh, you did as he said, only to be met with rough lips on yours. A sound of surprise escaped your throat but you melted into the kiss, fingers finding Dabi's damp black hair.

“There's a million places I could hide out,” he said against your mouth. “But I keep coming back here. Something pulls me back every time. I've never felt what love is, brat, but when I think of what it must feel like, I think of you.”

Giyuu Tomioka

(T_T i just wanna hug him and give him the love he deserves)

You had never seen Giyuu smile in the time you had known him. You two were close friends, but time spent with the Water Hashira was quiet and tranquil. You knew it was just the way he was, and didn’t mind it, but you had begun to wonder if he ever smiled at all. In the time that you had known each other, you had formed a deep bond and understanding of one another. It took you a long time to realize that you had feelings for him, but you could never tell him. It would ruin everything you both already had.

You two were returning from a mission one night, battered and exhausted from the fight you had just endured, and were intent on finding some place to sleep for the night. Ubuyashiki’s mansion and the Butterfly Manor were too far away, so it seemed like the only option for you both was to find an inn to rest in for the night, and then you could return properly the next morning.

You both finally found a place to stay for the night, but the owner of the inn charged you two an exorbitant amount of yen to stay. Giyuu huffed and, irritated, paid the man, before leading the way to your room silently. He had been dead silent the whole time you had traveled back, and this time, you were worried. Normally he would ask if you were okay or if you needed anything, but this time he was quiet.

“…Are you serious?” Giyuu asked, to nobody in particular, when he opened the sliding door. Only one futon.

You looked over his shoulder at the room and sighed. You had been looking forward to just going to bed after the hell you two had been through.

Giyuu sighed and ran a callused hand over his face, his blue eyes narrowed.

You glanced at him. “…Giyuu…You take the futon, I can just…figure something else out.”

“No.”

You raised an eyebrow at him, “What?”

“I’m not letting you sleep on the floor after what we just went through. We’ll just have to…sleep together, I suppose.” He looked away quickly, a small blush on his face.

“Sleep together?”

“Not…not like that,” He replied quickly, his face turning from pink to full-blown red. “Just…just sleeping. Beside each other.”

“If you’re okay with that, Giyuu, then I am.” You offered him a small smile, momentarily placing a hand on his arm as you entered the room. He was incredibly tense.

You both bathed first, one at a time, then returned to the room. Giyuu had gone first, and when you came back, he was perched on the futon, his haori and Demon Slayer Corps uniform folded neatly on the floor with his nichirin sword laid atop. He still had his underclothes on, but his torso was bare. You paused, studying his bare back and the various scars that adorned his pale skin. Your heart hurt when you suddenly realized how much Giyuu must have been through. Was that why he was so quiet, and distanced himself from everyone else?

“You’re letting all the cold in,” Giyuu said suddenly, startling you.

“Oh. Right. Sorry…” You quickly shut the sliding door behind you, setting your own clothing down on the floor before crawling under the thick comforter and settling on the futon. It felt heavenly to finally rest your weary, sore muscles.

Giyuu watched you for a moment before following your lead, settling in beside you. His blue eyes scanned your face.

“…What?” You asked, “Did I miss a spot of dirt on my face or something?”

“No,” Giyuu replied, a small tinge of pink rising in his face.

“Giyuu…”

“I’m…going to sleep. Goodnight, Y/N.” He said quietly, starting to roll onto his other side, so he would be facing away from you. You caught him by the arm, however, stopping him.

“…Have you been doing okay, lately? You’re way quieter than usual…I’m getting a bit worried about you.” You told him, your eyes meeting his again.

The Water Hashira sighed, “…I’ve been thinking.”

“About?”

“You.”

“Me?” You looked surprised. “Why?”

“…Because you terrify me.” He replied, and if you hadn’t seen the look on his face you would have thought he was joking.

“…Why?”

“It…doesn’t matter. Let’s just go to sleep, okay.” He sighed, closing his eyes.

Something came over you then. You didn’t know what it was, but you acted without really thinking it through first. Your hands cupped his face and you gently kissed him. It only lasted for a moment, but when you pulled away, Giyuu was looking at you with wide, stunned eyes.

His mouth moved, trying to form words, but nothing came out. “Wha…”He finally gasped out. “Why’d you…”

“…Because I love you, Giyuu. And I didn’t want to say anything because I was worried that it would ruin everything, and I’m sorry if it has, I just couldn’t—” You were cut off by another kiss, one instigated by him this time.

You gazed at him in surprise.

“You terrify me,” Giyuu said, holding your face in his hands. “Because I feel things for you that have been foreign to me for so long. I was…too afraid to say anything.” His lips pulled into a small but genuine smile. The first smile you had ever seen from him.

“I love you, too, Y/N.”

[leftoverenvy]

Tastes Like Sugar (ch. 29)

Summary: India Mae, or Indi, is a music major, struggling to pay bills, tuition, work, and make good grades.  Emily Prentiss is a BAU profiler, as well as a DC socialite thanks to her huge family fortune.  The two enter into a mutually beneficial arrangement: Emily will pay for Indi's school if Indi accompanies Emily to her social functions for a few months, posing as her girlfriend.  As weeks go by, the lines between their arrangement and their true feelings start to blur.  But money can't buy love, right?

Pairing: India Mae Banks x Emily Prentiss; OC x Emily Prentiss

Warnings: smut; sugar baby relationships; age gap (16 years - but all over 18)

Word Count: 2.8 k

Read on Wattpad | Ao3 | Previous Chapters

Taglist: @ssa-sapphic 🧸; @5raysofsunshine 🌮; @reidselle 🦭; @swiftfiles 🐝💚; @gaelic-symphony 🎻 ; @sadgirlml 🌻💌; @hotchs-bitch 🦆 ; @multiverse-mxdness ; @madelineleong ; @scorpsik 🎨 ; @heidss

A/n: Wow, I am so so sorry that it's been so long since an update.  I've finally found my joy in writing again.  If you're still following this story, I cannot tell you how much your patience and loyalty means to me.  Enjoy <3

Chapter 29 - Wayward

My summer with Emily was like a dream. She had only been gone on two cases, spending more regular hours in the office. We didn't comment on her unusually light case load for fear it would jinx it. I loved the time we were able to spend together with a more normal schedule. I enjoyed twisting myself around her while we watched movies on the couch. I relished the way she made me feel as she watched me play the piano. I yearned for the way she touched me every night.

Even though she had been gone for a case in Alaska for the last week, I still counted it a blessing to have had so many weeks uninterrupted by calls away. "Hi angel!" I startled, jumping halfway off the couch.

Once I had caught my breath, I smiled widely and responded, "Emily!" She flopped down next to me on the couch, pulling me in for a proper kiss. "Missed you," I mumbled between kisses. Once our frenzy had slowed down, I whispered against her neck, "I have something for you."

"That's funny, me too!" She whipped out a keychain with a photo of the Northern Lights in it.

I chuckled, sitting up to grab it and examine it more closely. "This is actually very pretty, Em. I thought these were supposed to be cheesy."

"I thought the Alaskan landscape deserved better. It was gorgeous up there; I wish you could have seen it."

"Thank you, babe. I love it." She kissed my cheek, tugging me closer.

"Now," she started, "What's this about a present for me?" I smiled bashfully, suddenly nervous to play the song I had finished for her. "I thought I was supposed to bring you presents."

"I didn't say it was a present. It's not a big deal. Just a lil something."

"Mmhm," she hummed skeptically, her eyes narrowing. "Show me." Something in Emily's glittering eyes told me she was excited by the prospect of receiving a gift. When was the last time someone had gotten her something that she really wanted?

I reluctantly left her arms and stood up. Butterflies swarmed my stomach, nerves overtaking me. This was a bad idea. I should have recorded her song and let her listen to it on her own. I felt like the biggest idiot on the planet – she was going to hate this.

"I've uh," I nervously sat down at the bench, "Been composing this summer." I had worked all summer on this composition when Emily was out of the house.

"I know, baby. You've done some really great pieces."

"Yeah, well." I swallowed thickly. I tried to think of what to say next.  I thought you deserved one to show you how much I love you.  Instead, I whispered, "This one's called 'Emily's Song.'" Before she could say anything, I started playing.

As soon as I pressed down on the keys, my hands knew what to do. I didn't need to think about it, muscle memory controlled my fingers. I felt myself start to tear up playing, knowing just how much love I had woven into this song. I wished I was brave enough to tell her. Embarrassed by how emotional I was, I begged my eyes to suck the tears back in, certain Emily would be appreciative but not emotional. 

As I started the last part of the song, I knew that I would never love anyone like I loved Emily Prentiss. But the thought terrified me. I was only twenty-two – what did I know about love? And how could she feel even a fraction of what I felt for her?

When the final notes of the song rang through the air, I couldn't bring myself to look at Emily, far too embarrassed. I heard her sniff and then push herself off the couch. Another beat passed and I felt her arms wrap around my shoulder. "That was perfect, Indi. Thank you." She pressed a kiss to my temple, her lips lingering longer than usual. "I mean it, angel. No one's ever written a song for me before. It was absolutely beautiful."

Her lips trailed down the side of my face, lingering at the corner of my mouth and until I turned my head to kiss her back. She deepened the kiss and trailed her hands down my body to show me how much she liked the song.

- - -

Emily and I fell back into our morning routine as if we hadn't broken it during the summer. I made us breakfast as she packed her go bag for work. We ate in silence, as she read on her iPad. Breaking the quiet, she asked, "Are you ready for your first day back?"

"I guess," I responded morosely. "I liked our summer together. I liked being able to focus on music and you. No math or English essays to worry about." Emily chuckled at that, moving her dishes to the sink. 

"At least you have a good first recital piece ready."

Puzzled, I asked, "Which one?"

"My song," she said, beaming with pride.

I narrowed my eyes with uncertainty. "You really think it's good enough for recital?"

"Yes I do," she affirmed. And her voice was so confident, it left no room for objection. "This will be your best semester yet!" she said positively. 

"But how can I be expected to do homework when you're home if your case load keeps up like this?"

"Are you pushing for me to go away on a case?" she asked with a smirk.

"Absolutely not!" I protested. "I'm just saying, it will be hard to concentrate knowing you're home."

"We'll manage, angel." She kissed me on the forehead and moved to holster her gun to her hip. My heart skipped a beat staring at her; she made everything look sexy. "I'm off to work now. I'll text you if I'm called away." She leaned down to kiss me briefly. "I want to hear all about how your first day goes! I'll call you if I'm away, or I'll see you tonight."

"Bye, Em." When the door to the garage closed softly behind her, I sighed. I wanted to get to campus early so I could get a good seat in class. I quickly did our dishes, grabbed my backpack, and hurried out the door.

But life had a funny way of balancing itself out. I had had the best summer of my life and was already disappointed to have to go back to classes, just to receive the worst welcome back to school present: my car broke down. I called Emily in tears, worried that I was going to start the semester off on the wrong foot with my first professor.

I dialed Emily's number with shaky hands, feeling the passing cars shake mine as they zoomed past me on the highway. I wasn't sure how Emily understood me through my hiccups and tears when I told her I was stuck on the shoulder of the highway.

"Shhh. Calm down, baby. It's going to be okay, I'll make all the arrangements. As soon as we're off the phone, I'll call a tow company to come get it and take it to the shop." I breathed a heavy sigh of relief, tears abating, thankful, as always, for Emily.

She continued, "In the meantime, baby, just drive the Lexus – the keys are by the door." I felt my heart rate elevate at the thought. "Or, if you'd prefer, you can Uber over to Quantico and pick up the Jag."  Pick up the Jag.  She said it so casually, as if driving one of her very expensive cars did not cause me extreme anxiety.

"No I do not want to "pick up the Jag!" Emily, what if I crash your car?!" I felt my face go hot at the thought, palms starting to sweat in anxiety. "You love all of these cars and they're so expensive and I'm not on your insurance!" I rushed out.

"Breathe Indi! It's just a car. And you don't have one right now. Please, take whatever car you want. Or Uber everywhere – I'll put more money in your account for it. Is that what you'd prefer?"

"No!" I nearly shouted. I took another deep breath, trying to keep in perspective that this wasn't Emily's fault and she was just trying to help. "I-" I exhaled into the phone. "I'm sorry," I deflated, "It wasn't fair to blow up at you like that. I appreciate you letting me drive the Lexus." 

Sensing the storm was over, Emily said, "I'm only sorry I can't see you drive it." I could almost hear the smirk in her voice. "I'm certain you'd look damn sexy in that car."

I chuckled and swiped at the remaining tears, embarrassed I had cried so much in front of Emily. "We'll see if you still say that when I ding your Lexus," I half joked.

"Like I said," her tone more serious, "It's just a car, angel." I paused, unsure what else to say. Her voice was calming though – she calmed me. "Look, I've gotta run. I promise I'll send a tow truck, but Uber home and grab the Lexus so you aren't late for class, okay?"

"Okay," I said softly, tears welling back up in my eyes.

"I'll call you later with an update."

"Bye…" And the line went dead.

- - -

Throughout my first class, my thoughts fixated on my car and how I was going to pay for everything. Even though Emily had been paying for most everything the last few months, I wasn't sure I'd be able to afford whatever the mechanic's bill was going to be. 

As my thoughts contemplated every little thing that could go wrong with my car, I missed everything my professor said. I was immensely thankful the first day was always spent going over the syllabus. I'd just have to make sure to read that thoroughly later tonight.

Over the lunch hour, Emily called. "Car's toast and probably not worth fixing."  So much for easing into it, I thought. I sighed deeply. Of course life would throw this at me. Things with Emily were just too good for everything else to be going right. 

"Okay…" I sighed. I mentally calculated how long I could go without a car while I built my savings up again. I also braced myself for having a conversation with Emily later about asking to go back to work; that battle wouldn't be won easily. But how else was I supposed to take on a car payment?

"I'll see you tonight, okay baby? I'm going to make sure to come home early."

- - -

Later that evening, once classes had finished, I arrived home. I was excited by the prospect of Emily coming home early, and I eagerly awaited the garage door opening to see if her car was in the garage. Once the door had raised fully, I counted three cars in the garage…except, whose car is that?  In my spot, where my car should have been, was parked a shiny, new Audi. Panic swelled inside of me. I didn't want to rush to conclusions, but Emily didn't drive Audis. In fact, I had told her it was my dream car. But surely she wouldn't have irrationally bought me a car without thinking about it first.

Not seeing the Jag parked in her spot, I quickly dialed her number as I walked through the door. "Do you like it?!" she asked excitedly.

"So I'm not crazy?" I spit out, trying to control my rising temper. "You did buy me a car?"

"Yes! Do you like it?" she repeated.

"Emily…" I said in warning. 

"Don't make this a big deal, India. I swear to god, don't. This isn't a big deal."

Her flippant tone fanned the flames of my anger. "It's a car, Emily. An expensive one at that." Suddenly, Emily's cavalier attitude on spending rubbed me the wrong way. I had never cared what anyone did with their money; it was theirs to do with as they pleased. But to hear firsthand how dismissive she was about such a purchase enraged me. Especially because she was wasting her money on me.

How could she not understand this? She threw money around like it was nothing. It made me feel like shit, like I was worthless. How could I ever repay someone who gave me everything? How could I ever be enough for her? I had nothing. I was nothing.

She sighed into the phone. "Can we talk about this when I get home?"

Clipped, I responded, "Great." And I hung up. Immediately, I knew I shouldn't have done that. No matter how badly she angered me, she didn't deserve to be disrespected.

I paced the living room waiting for Emily, counting out each step until I lost track. I tried to match my breathing to each tick of the clock on the wall. For forty-three minutes, I tried to calm down, anxious about our impending argument.

But no amount of mental preparation would have helped, because as soon as Emily walked through the door, we started fighting about the car.

"I don't see what the big deal is, Indi. It's a car for fuck's sake." I winced at her cursing during an argument.

"But that's exactly it, Emily! You can't understand why this is a big deal for me."

"Do you not like the car? Is that what it is? We can exchange it for any kind that you want," she offered.

"It's too much! And it wasn't part of the deal!" I shouted at her.

Shock flooded her face and she froze. Softly, almost hurt, she asked, "Do you seriously still consider this just an arrangement?" She spit the last word out as if it left a sour taste in her mouth. "You can stand there and really tell me that you still just see me as an ATM?"

"I NEVER saw you as an ATM, Emily. Of course this is more than being your sugar baby." It still didn't sit right. Rocks settled in my stomach. How could I ever get her to understand? 

"Then what? You think just because I love you that should mean my support should just stop" - she snapped her fingers - "like that?"

Our argument entirely forgotten, "You love me?" I whispered, aching at the thought of her taking it back, but sick at the thought of her really meaning it. I wouldn't allow myself to believe she meant it.

"I-" She blew out a puff of air. "Yeah." Time stopped. My breathing, my thoughts – they all stopped. "I love you, Indi. I am so in love with you."

And for a split second, I almost accepted the car. But accepting this huge gift almost felt like I would be solidifying our original arrangement. I couldn't sort it out anymore. I was overwhelmed by it all. By how much I needed Emily. By how this had turned into something so different than the life I had pictured for myself. I didn't know who I was anymore; I had lost myself in a game of make believe.

Emily couldn't want me forever like I wanted her. Too soon she would realize that I could give her nothing in return. Only then, it would be too late for me. I would be too far gone, too far entrenched in the India Emily wanted me to be, the real Indi never to be seen again.

My eyes went huge at the thought. Who had I let Emily turn me into? Who had I become during this arrangement? And how had I lost myself so quickly? Suddenly, I couldn't breathe. This mansion felt like a collapsing, cardboard box. Emily's affection, once a warm, safe blanket around me, now felt like a noose.

Shaking my head, I turned and ran upstairs. When I came back down, bag packed, Emily hadn't moved an inch. 

I needed distance from this life – from Emily – so I could find Indi again. But who was I without Emily? It had only been six months, and already I had no idea what life would be without her. I had pretended to be what I thought Emily wanted for so long that I forgot who I was. It didn't matter, though. Because if anything was certain it was that I could never be enough for Emily. She deserved so much more than the little I could give her.

I drove quickly back into the city, to Penelope, to my real life. I knocked on the door to what used to be my home praying Penelope was there to greet me. When she opened the door, tears flooded down my face. As I walked through the door, Pen's arms around me, I couldn't help but feel unsettled. I didn't feel at home here anymore. If I didn't fit into my old life, or into Emily's, where did I belong?

Continue to next chapter

[pinkskytwst]

SCHOOL UNITY: NRC vs. RSA - Part I

Octavinelle - Octatrio/Prefect Poly

-------

“Azul, hypothetical question.” The Prefect said in leu of a greeting when they entered the octomer’s office after their classes had finished for the day.

Their voice was casual but there was an undertone that had the Housewarden looking up from the notes he had been working on. He watched them place their bag on the coffee table absently and drop onto the sofa and turn a smile on him that had the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.

“Say I, I don’t know, want to murder someone in cold blood with my bare hands.” Azul’s eyebrows rose. “How would I go about doing that without getting caught or at least be able to get away with it legally?”

There was a beat of silence.

“Hypothetically.”

A huff of a laugh escaped Azul’s lips and he stood to join them on the sofa, opening his arms and gladly allowing them to bury into his chest and squeeze their anger out with an embrace.

“And would this hypothetical body I would be helping you bury happen to be a certain useless Headmage?” he asked, tugging off his gloves and then running his fingers through the Prefect’s hair as their much weaker human arms tightened as hard as they could, and they let out a muffled little scream into his shoulder.

Azul let them express their frustrations patiently, his stronger body not bothered in the slightest by their attempts to imagine themself squeezing Crowley until his spine broke in two. He just kept petting their hair until the Prefect let out a sigh and slumped against him with a grumble.

“You know the joint festival things that are going to be happening with RSA? Well apparently it’s been decided that they are going to be coming here first and then the second part of the festival will be held at RSA.” They said, shifting to cuddle properly and kick their shoes off to pull their feet up.

Azul nodded as he reached down to tug their tie loose to allow them to relax better. He and Jade felt comfortable in these sorts of clothes just as much as any other human kind, but the Prefect and Floyd felt stifled when they had to wear it too long. Their jacket joined the discarded tie a moment later before they snuggled back against him once more.

“I am aware, my pearl.” He said, they had been planning on booths and ways to drain the RSA students of their madols, after all.

“Well guess who Crowley has decided should be the representative for Night Raven College.” They said with an exhausted sigh, making Azul jolt at the news.

“What!?” he gaped, looking down at his lover and then up towards the door as Jade stepped in with a tray of drinks.

“Indeed.” The eelmer said, calm as ever but Azul could easily read the annoyance in the line of his shoulders. “It seems that the Headmage has placed our dear Prefect in the official position of Student Body Representative-“ “Without even asking!” “-and therefore given the responsibility of hosting the Housewardens of RSA during the festival and all that entails.”

Azul’s glasses slipped as he looked between his taller lover and the annoyed, pouting one in his arms who was sipping at their tea in a desperate attempt to regain some stability.

“But…this is…you haven’t even been here a YEAR!” he stammered, and oh how the Prefect loved him for not focusing on the fact that they were magicless as most would have.

“He said it’s great training since it’s apparently a position I’ll be keeping because it’s easier for him to give me the job than to try and mediate to the other Housewardens as who deserves it instead.” They explained dryly.

Which…yes, Azul could see how that would be a touchy situation considering more than one Housewarden was a royal and the others had nearly as much political influence. The school was funded by donations and while Azul knew it was far better off than the mage tried to make it seem – there was no tuition to go to NRC after all - he was probably worried about offending someone and cutting off part of the madol flow.

Choosing the Prefect, however, would be a decent alternative with the excuse that their unique situation and position as magicless could be played off as being a ‘mascot’ of sorts without offending families too much. Some might not be happy about it, but it wouldn’t cause the insulted rage that would come from some of the royals otherwise.

Azul heaved a sigh, already realizing that even though it was absolutely ridiculous that their Prefect was being thrown into this…it wasn’t a situation that Crowley was going to back down from. Not when he seemed to have a strange, selective blindness when it came to the care and support of his ‘favorite student’. He had a weekly tea time with them, checking on their studies and even asking about their enjoyment there in NRC, doting on them and even calling them his ‘child’ more than once. Then he would send them off to Ramshackle that he had to be threatened to fix up enough for hot water and central heating.

And somehow, despite how annoyed the Prefect got with the fae (crow?), they still felt a sort of unwilling fondness for him the way they did Professor Crewel as if the two were a set of mismatched parents. Professor Crewel was the responsible parent, of course, and the one that had done the threatening to ensure that Ramshackle was livable.

Crowley was the forgetful father who kept all of their child’s kindergarten drawings and their picture in his wallet but left them alone for weeks at the age of seven because they could ‘take care of the house while he was gone!’.

Azul wished Crewel would file for a divorce and sole custody.

“So, what are the responsibilities that come with this position and what can we do to help, my pearl?” he asked, looking down on their human.

“What? No!” the Prefect said instantly, almost slamming their teacup down on the tray to reach up to cup his cheeks, then smooshed them with a determined pout. “You three are already going to be neck deep in taking care of Octavinelle, the booths, and the Lounge for the festival! I’m not going to let you work yourself to death to help me!”

Jade chuckled fondly as he took a seat beside them, watching bemused as their human threw their leg over Azul’s lap to position themselves there facing him and still squishing and tugging at his cheeks.

Azul couldn’t help but chuckle and reached up to take their hands and pull them away from his abused face.

“Dearest, you can’t expect us to let you be forced to handle such a monumental responsibility on your own?” he reminded them gently.

They crossed their arms over their chest stubbornly.

“Grim said he would help me since we’re a two-in-one.” They said, though the looks that the two sent them said all they needed to about that sentiment.

“Oh, come on, Grim’s gotten a lot better.” They pointed out, but the small smile they were trying to force back betrayed them.

They gave in with a sigh and shrugged. “I know it’s going to be a lot and I am really frustrated at the bird, but I’ll handle it. I don’t want to put even more responsibilities on your shoulders when you guys have so much to do as it is.” They said seriously, their expression falling a bit. “You already do so much for me, and I don’t want to be a burden-ow!”

“Haaaaah, what was that Koebi-chan?” Floyd demanded, pinching, and pulling on the Prefect’s cheeks as he had suddenly appeared looming over the human from behind.

Jade chuckled into his hand as his twin had used the stealth skills that most forgot he possessed to sneak up on their human after slipping into the office silently just in time to hear their words.

The attack wasn’t to the point of bruising, but Floyd wasn’t gentle either as he continued to tug annoyed as the Prefect whined and tried escaping his grasp. Their head fell back against Floyd’s chest, and it was only Azul holding onto their hips that kept them from tumbling off his lap all together.

“Floyd!!! Staahp!” they complained.

“Why? Koebi-chan is saying stupid things again and if their face is going to say stupid things then their face needs to be punished.” He replied mercilessly, tugging on their cheeks once more and eliciting a whine from the Prefect.

Azul found the sight entertaining but he found himself just as irritated as Floyd by what they had said.

Their lover wasn’t a martyr and knew how to stand up for themself, but they were too forgiving and kind for their own good. They also had an unfortunate habit of seeing themself as a burden when in need of even the smallest things or comfort. It was a learned response, and he could tell it was something that was from earlier than coming to their world. He doubted the Headmage helped with how he would bring up his ‘kindness’ and ‘generosity’ at random times or whenever ‘gifting’ something to the Prefect that they inherently deserved and required.

It was something the three merfolk had unanimously agreed they would be stopping.

“Ah-lright!, ah-lright!” they gave in. “Mah stupid fah-ce was being stupid.”

“Damn right.” Floyd said, still not releasing them. “And what was stupid?”

“Ah’m not a burden!” they yelped, sighing in relief when Floyd let go suddenly and dropped himself down between Azul and Jade, shimmying in place and forcing room for himself.

He dragged a pouting Prefect into his lap and proceeded to wrap himself around them while they rubbed at their cheeks, sulking.

“Koebi-chan should know that symbiotes are not burdens.” He said in a huff and burying his face into their hair firmly.

A small, saddened smile pulled on Azul’s lips as he lightly ran his hand over one of the Prefect’s legs that were still stretched across his lap. He knew that feeling. He knew what it was like to see himself as not good enough. Not worth enough. It was something he still struggled with sometimes, but the twins had thrown themselves into proving him wrong and not letting him fall into that mental trap anymore. The Prefect had certainly made their stance clear on the subject while he was recovering from his Overblot.

The fact that their precious little human could, even in passing, feel the same way made him taste acid on his tongue and the warring desire to both eviscerate whoever had caused those beliefs to be born in their mind in the first place and the need to wrap them up in all his ten limbs and hide them away so that no one could ever make them feel like that again.

“Floyd is right, my dear.” He said softly but firmly. “You are never a burden to us. I hope that you don’t believe we would ever think of you as one.”

There was still a small pout on their lips from the aching they were trying to massage away, but he saw their expression soften a little.

“I know you don’t.” they admitted in a small voice before snuggling down more into Floyd’s embrace. “Today’s just been a lot. I’m serious though. I would like to try and handle this on my own, at least at first.”

Azul wanted to argue, was about to try and convince them to let the three of them – or even someone he semi-trusted like Riddle or Vil – to assist them, but the look Jade sent him stopped him. The other tweel leaned in around his brother and added an arm to the ones at their waist and nuzzled into where their neck and shoulder met. He placed a kiss there before smiling and giving a small hum.

“Perhaps a deal could be a solution to this disagreement.” He suggested. “Our strong, competent, and capable Ramshackle Prefect-“ they snorted softly at his obvious attempt to butter them up. “-will do their best to take care of the responsibilities that come with the position of Student Representative, and we will only step in should we see a need.”

“Oh no, the wording of that is way too easy for you guys to slip around.” They rolled their eyes. “How about you agree to let me handle this and I’ll agree to let you help if it starts affecting my health - physical health.”

Azul almost wanted to pout at their catch. They were getting far more meticulous about word choice since being with them. He was normally proud, but it was quite vexing during times like this when it was turned on them.

“Very well, my pearl.” He finally gave in, leaning over to place a kiss on their forehead and leaning his weight against Floyd’s shoulder. “But you shall promise us not to hide if it IS too much, yes?”

“I promise.” They smiled softly, shifting to return the kiss and settle down happily in their tangle of limbs.

Azul was always at his most relaxed like this.

“Hey henchman!”

Azul sighed as the office door was thrown open and the Prefect chuckled fondly, giving him another quick kiss in apology for their partner’s lack of manners or situational awareness.

“I finished the tuna so how long are you gonna be busy cuddling before we go home?” Grim asked, ducking under Floyd’s propped up legs and reaching up to climb his way into his partner’s lap, completely ignoring what he might be interrupting.

The merfolk shifted to give him room and the Prefect helped pull him into their arms better despite the exasperation from their lovers.

“We can head back now. We’ve got to get some paperwork filled out and Crowley said he would have it sent to the dorm.” They said, nuzzling his head absently. “Did you at least thank Floyd for making you food?”

“Oh, yeah, thanks fishsticks, it was good.”

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. Catfish is getting kind of bratty. I should-“ but the Prefect cut him off with a quick kiss of his own and began to detangle themselves from the pile.

“Thank you for everything, I really needed it.” They smiled fondly once they were on their feet and looking down at the three with Grim in their arms. “I promise I’ll be alright and I’ll make sure to keep you guys updated.”

Floyd pouted, making grabby hands at them and earning a laugh from the human before they leaned over again and gave each of them a final kiss.

“You are always welcome, angelfish.” Jade smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind their ear.

“Of course. We are here whenever you need us.” Azul agreed, standing to adjust his suit back into place properly.

He took one of their hands and place a kiss to the back gently.

“I’m going to walk Koebi-chan back to the dorm.” Floyd said with a large grin, swiping up the Prefect’s bag and clothing items before rushing them out the door.

“You had better be back in time for your shift Floyd!” Azul called after them quickly. “Floyd! I know you heard me! You’re on cooking duty tonight! Floyd!”

The only answer was the sound of cackles disappearing towards the lounge exit and the Prefect trying to convince him to give them a chance to put their shoes back on first.

Azul heaved a sigh, rubbing at his forehead and mentally preparing to adjust the shift roster in the likely event that Floyd mysteriously didn’t return until after closing.

It earned him a chuckle from Jade as the eelmer started gathering up the now cold drinks.  

“Don’t fret, Azul, he will return.” The lack of assurance that it would be in time to work was all the confirmation the octomer needed and he huffed when Jade leaned down to tilt his chin up into a slow kiss. “I will handle the kitchen tonight while you make plans.” He assured him calmly.

“Yes, yes, thank you Jade.” Azul answered, wishing he had been able to keep them all in his arms a bit longer.

He turned back to his desk and began his homework again to get it out of the way. They had given their word to the Prefect but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to be prepared in they DID need their help.

He didn't like leaving things up to chance.

“I’ll admit,” Jade said a few minutes later when he returned with fresh tea and setting the cup in Azul’s reach. “-you handled that quite a bit better than I expected.”

Azul raised an eyebrow at the taller male.

“I’d hardly force our help on them if it would truly upset them.”

“Oh, no, I mean about the Student Representative position.” He smiled, his expression telling the octomer instantly that there was something he was missing that Jade was very aware of and enjoying.

“While I don’t agree with the Headmage thrusting that much responsibility on a student not even complete with their first year – let alone from another world – I have faith that they will do an admirable job.”

“I absolutely agree, of course.” He continued to smile, the corners stretching even farther. “They will make for the best welcome party for the RSA students that we have to offer.”

Azul’s brow furrowed at the wording.

“I’m sure the RSA Housewardens will be absolutely charmed. Prince Rielle is always happy to make new human friends, after all.”

“FUCK!”

------------------------------------------------

Hi guys, this is the next part of School Unity but it was getting kind of long (they all kind of went on a tangent :/ ) so I'm posting the first part now and I'll do the second later.

I really love the way Writingerror does the Octatrio, especially Floyd, and 'Yuu and the Power of Magic' was the first twst fanfic I ever read (like, the highest standards from the very beginning!) so a lot of my internal characterization of Floyd comes from that. I also love the 'symbiote' idea and think that Floyd really would use a lot of those types of phrases to describe what the four of them have even if it's not shown as romantic in YatPoM.

Definitely go read their stuff! it's amazing! And I hope you like this and I can't wait to show the Prefect meeting RSA (especially Rielle)!

<3

Yuu and the Power of Magic by: Writingerror

[pleasantlycrazyworld]

The reader is in college and is clearly struggling. The Munsons can't just watch that happen.

The Munsons are a huge support system for you. Eddie has been your best friend for nearly your entire lives, the two of you were best friends and always helped each other out none stop. When Eddie was trying to graduate but kept failing the one class over and over again you were there to make sure he never gave up. And now he's repaying the favor.

You made your way to college right after high school. Wayne was over the moon at the news and to help you afford tuition he allowed you to live with them at the trailer so you didn't have to pay for any housing. You were going through the motions of life lately but it's been getting harder and the days have become longer. The boys took notice of this immediately.

It started with you missing meals, then it started with you forgetting to drink anything that wasn't coffee, and they started to notice that your self-care Sundays had stopped completely. However, the final straw was when Wayne saw you weren't taking medications and vitamins you take every day no matter what. "We need to step in" he declared one night when it was just the two Munson men in the trailer. "We need a plan." Eddie said while nodding in agreement. And a plan is what they came up with that night.

Lately, the boys have been extra...loving? That might be the word for it. Every day before you leave for class Wayne makes sure you take the lunch and breakfast he had prepared for you prior to you waking up. Even on his days off he woke up early to make you food, he knew you would eat.

Eddie lately has been staying up and making flashcards from the notes you've taken in almost every subject you have. He acted as if he didn't know what you were talking about but when it's nearly three am and you wake up to go to the bathroom you see the light that comes from his tiny bedside lamp on.

The final straw was when Wayne got rid of the coffee machine and filled your cup with water before you left for your tests. You hadn't noticed this change until you went to take a drink of what you expected to be the coffee you so desperately needed but instead were met with ice-cold water. That's it! I need to talk to them tonight.

When you came home after your classes, you were happy to see that both boys were already home. You walked up to the trailer angrily but as you step in the anger melted away. Inside you were greeted with a banner that said in big bold letters We are so proud of you! Tears immediately start to come to the surface as you see those goofy grins grace their face. "What is all of this?!" You ask in complete shock.

"This is all for you!" Eddie exclaims full of excitement, "We can tell things have been getting hard for you, and god kid, neither of us can handle watching you just struggle" Wayne says calmly. You look around and take a better look at everything they set up for you. Tears start to fall down your cheeks as you see everything, there is your favorite food on the stove, some sweets on the counter, and on the table there is a row of self-care supplies you ran out of weeks ago.

Seeing you eyeing the supplies, Wayne speaks up, "That was Ed's idea actually. I suggested making you a good meal but he reminded me that you haven't been properly taking care of yourself for weeks so I hope we got the right face masks and such." You rush over to Wayne and pull him into a tight hug, "This...this is too much for me. I'll never forget about this." You say crying into his chest. Eddie walks over and rubs your back trying to comfort you, "This is not too much, this is what you deserve. You've been working your ass off and it shows, we are SO proud of you but we need you to take care of yourself and if you can't do it well we can. We are always here for you."

You pull away from Wayne's chest and hug Eddie whispering a soft thank you to him. Eddie mutters how it is no problem at all and holds you close. The two of you hold onto one another for what feels like a lifetime until Wayne comments "The food is gonna get cold you two! Let's eat and rest tonight."

And that's what you did, ever since you met the Munsons you have never felt so loved, so cared about, so protected and you know that they will always be here to support you.

He is your cheerleader^^^

Taglist: @zestychili @ghosttownwherenoonegoes @b-ritney @tiannasfanfic @eiightysixbaby

[red-the-dragon-writes]

Fishing Habits

Summary:

“I know what you’re doing,” Dan said without preamble. “Huh?” Jay said. “Oh, right. I know you work for the school, but I didn’t think you’d be that much of a hardass.” “What?” Dan said. Jay paused, looking Dan over for a moment. “Actually, what are you talking about? I don’t think we’re on the same page.” “With the fish,” Dan clarified. Jay raised the odd ridges of flesh over his eyes that functioned as eyebrows. “I’m mer, you asshole. I can talk to them. They told me what fucked-up shit you’ve been pulling. What’s your problem?” “Sometimes I get hungry,” Jay said. “Can I see your notes now?”

Dan is an ordinary merman-pretending-to-be-a-human. Jay is... something else entirely. He seems like a really pleasant guy, except for how freaked out all the fish are. And Dan's college has just opened a new aquarium...

On Ao3 here.

There was an understanding, which had been in place as long as Dan could remember, that meant that one must not reveal the existence of The Supernatural to human society, and if one did the people they made the reveal to needed to be dealt with in some way—sworn to secrecy, brought into the fold of the Oceanic, or even, at absolutely worst, killed. Dan didn’t want to deal with it. There was a lot of paperwork involved in fucking up the order of things, and it was a huge hassle, and also there was a lot of risk involved. It wasn’t like Dan had any real need to reveal he’d grown up under the Pacific rather than in it, anyway. And his parents were living off the coast of Oregon now anyway, so he didn’t even have to do that much lying about it. It was easy and he kept it well under wraps.

He did five years of field work before they told him they were going to require him to come back to the university and teach at a handful of classes before he’d be allowed back out into the field or he’d lose his position, which also meant losing most of his source of funding and the grant he was working with. They offered to let him teach it remotely, of course—the department chair apologizing profusely the entire time—but Dan was doing altogether too much of the work from six hundred feet below the surface of the Atlantic and that just wouldn’t work out. No way to maintain The Secret. Instead he resigned himself to another few years living on land and away from the fishes, rented an apartment, and returned to Spokane to teach two sessions of classes about saltwater ecology in the Pacific to incoming students and one class on field work to older biology majors. Oh well. At least he could visit home on the weekends.

Since his own research was put on pause and the college did promise to pay for his tuition, Dan opted to take a handful of classes, too. What else was he going to do? He was still in touch with the rest of the field crew, and when they finally started writing, sure, he’d refocus onto that, but at the moment he wasn’t going to be of any help. And in one of the classes was a gray man.

You weren’t allowed to do that, but he was doing it. Dan was perfectly certain that there were laws against being out in the open with visibly-discolored flesh across all the major out-of-sight jurisdictions, and he was also pretty sure the Sideways Court was still offering free glamours for anyone who desperately needed into human society and also could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they couldn’t just change their colors themselves, though Dan had also heard that the paperwork to prove either was a nightmare and the Sideways Court sounded just kind of awful to boot.  The Oceanic North-Pacific Authority was a lot better in a lot of ways. God knew applying for his visa was a nightmare of bureaucracy. But the point was: the gray man was openly flouting the rules. And worse than just being gray alone, he also had horns. His fingernails were blue, his teeth were sharp and needle-shaped, and his eyes had no pupils, just scleras and black centers that looked like hollow glass marbles. He had ripples crisscrossing his skin like vines growing just beneath the surface, and though Dan couldn’t be sure, he thought his body was a weird consistency, too, that he bent further than Dan expected when he bumped into things or wore a heavy bag over his shoulders. There was no way his appearance was legal. Dan felt for him, because it had to be difficult doing all that, but it wasn’t allowed. He’d probably get in trouble for just being around it, if someone came and found out and reported the guy and Dan hadn’t said anything.

Still. Dan had to respect it. And it was interesting to see how fast the other students got used to Jay and his gray skin and his horns and his eerie pupil-less eyes. Honestly, Dan was kind of disappointed in himself. His initial anxiety was unfair, wasn’t it? It was the laws that were unfair. Human society clearly wasn’t the problem it was cracked up to be.

Eventually Dan worked up the courage to tell Jay that he was mer. He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting. Jay had just nodded, shrugged, and said, “Cool.” That was it. And, honestly, as far as Dan was concerned, that was plenty. He didn’t need to be friends with a twenty-something nonconformist—or however old Jay was; he hadn’t asked, really—and just because they were both in the same class didn’t mean anything, really. They knew each other’s names, and Jay occasionally asked Dan for notes. That was plenty.

-

Dan wasn’t much of a partier and he wasn’t much of a night owl, and he didn’t’ spend a lot of time out of the house. What he did was usually at a river somewhere. Spokane was gorgeous and full of lively fish, and by virtue of his heritage Dan could chat. Fish didn’t usually have a lot to talk about, but something had them in a tizzy when Dan finally made it out to his favorite spot, and they were particularly anxious to tip him off.

At first, he couldn’t make heads or tails of why it mattered to him that someone had developed new lures (aside from how his job was kind of to keep an eye on what people were doing with his rivers and all). But it came together eventually. Jay had something weird about him. He’d started coming to the water just like Dan had—here and elsewhere—and chatting, just like Dan had. And Dan had lured them into a sense of security. They should’ve been secure, talking! Even when Dan was hungry he didn’t eat the fish he talked to! But to talk to Jay was dangerous. Fish that talked to Jay too long vanished. And he had strange lures, luminescent sweet blue worms that made fish dizzy and sick if they bit them off and which moved even when torn apart until they were eaten. The fish insisted, almost en masse, that this strange gray man who chatted up their waters was bad news, and on the whole they badly wanted Dan to find him and make him cut it out.

Dan didn’t even know what to make of it at first. He asked question after question, trying to understand what they meant first and then after to try to ensure they weren’t actually talking about his classmate. The fish were convinced he was unfathomably ancient, even though he was taking first-year classes. But it became too clear that they were the same person after not long at all. A handful even had his name to relay, and even though they pronounced it a little differently, there was no question that he was the same person with the same name. Brazen.

The fish generally knew what predation was and it—well, it bothered them, sure, but it was an understood way of life, and they knew Dan himself ate fish and was part of human society where fishing was done. They’d never come to ask him to put an end to regular fishing before. The first and last time any of them had banded together like this, it was six fish, and they wanted him to handle a chemical mess that he’d been almost completely useless about. The fact that he had nearly forty fish across a whole host of species asking him to put a stop to Jay’s hunting meant that something about that guy was very, very off.

At least, when it came to the fish.

Still, Dan didn’t want to jump to conclusions. Maybe he was just a weirdo. But he had access to most of the college labs, and there were fishtanks in several buildings, and so—nervously and feeling like he certainly looked a bit out of his mind—he went around, talking to the fish there. He didn’t like what he found. All the fish knew Jay. There was no doubt he could and did talk to them, often at odd hours when the fish said that they were typically bored, which meant he was on campus late at night and early in the morning sneaking in to talk with them. Several tanks were apparently head-over-heels charmed. Others, these fewer and further between and, Dan noted after a short while poking around, more likely to have deaths in the fish population waved off than more carefully-managed tanks, told Dan nervously that Jay wasn’t what he seemed. That he had been charming and pleasant and had these magnificent worm lures that they’d never seen before, and then without warning he’d coaxed one of them into his hands and ate them, just like that.

These were domestic fishes, indoor fish. Pets, practically. It was alien to them that a person would do that, and it scared them. But it didn’t seem Jay would willingly strike too many times in the same place, rotating tanks out at random. And what for? Sometimes, they said, he’d come back, and chat like nothing had happened even though they all saw him kill one of their number without a thought. There was something wrong with him. Dan, if Dan knew him, should be cautious.

These fish didn’t seem to understand that there was a world of difference between eating a human (or a mer, really) and eating a goldfish, but Dan promised to take the warning under advisement anyway.  

-

Upon the day that Dan decided to confront Jay about his weird, creepy fish-eating behavior, several interesting things happened.

The first was simple. A colleague from the Environmental Sciences branch had invited him to downtown Spokane for no clear reason just before when Dan typically took his lunch. Alicia had been a close friend when Dan was doing his dissertation and she was currently working on her own postdoc research a little ways outside Spokane, just far enough from where Dan lived that they only got together so often. She told him that it was a surprise, and ot to look anything up about the location, so he obligingly didn’t.

It turned out to be an aquarium. More than that, it was an aquarium owned and run jointly by the college and a handful of others, and while it was still in the final stages before opening, Dan—by virtue of his employment with the school and his own degree focus in fish care and fish wellness—was welcome back whenever, provided he told them what he was doing and didn’t meddle unexpectedly. They wanted him to give his thoughts on a couple of tanks. And the tanks were fascinating. For some reason, whoever had done the design of the building had had a vision and they’d executed it; the tanks looked like classrooms-turned-reefs, replicas of desks and tables cast in plaster and then given coral to grow over them, furnished with lighting that looked like fluorescent strip lights in classrooms and even sometimes sporting false windows out to the street. And all the while, inside, sharks and huge groupers and small brightly-colored reef fish and schooling fish and others besides serenely went about their business. It was inspired, it really was. His parents would’ve gotten such a kick out of it.

Alicia had shown him around, and then they’d gotten food.  It was a very nice afternoon, all things told.

The second was less pleasant. Just as he and Alicia were going their separate ways, Dan got an email from the school about a missing student, a request for more information if anyone had any. They had last been seen about a week before, and their car had just turned up abandoned at Lake Wenatchee, a state park a little ways outside Spokane. Dan hadn’t seen that happen before. Unfortunate, but not anyone he knew. He filed it away mentally and had pretty much stopped thinking about it by the time he got back to his apartment.

The third, and most objectively inconsequential, was that his first afternoon class had been canceled. His professor had come down with the flu.  

And, finally, though they didn’t have class together today, Jay had called Dan and asked to meet with him. Evidently Jay had missed a lecture, or maybe several, and wanted to see Dan’s notes. The timing was just right.

“I know what you’re doing,” Dan said without preamble.

“Huh?” Jay said.  “Oh, right. I know you work for the school, but I didn’t think you’d be that much of a hardass.”

“What?” Dan said.

Jay paused, looking Dan over for a moment. “Actually, what are you talking about? I don’t think we’re on the same page.”

“With the fish,” Dan clarified. Jay raised the odd ridges of flesh over his eyes that functioned as eyebrows. “I’m mer, you asshole. I can talk to them. They told me what fucked-up shit you’ve been pulling. What’s your problem?”

“Sometimes I get hungry,” Jay said. “Can I see your notes now?”

“Sometimes you get hungry?” Dan echoed. It took him a moment to remember how to form sentences properly. “Go to the—fucking—there are vending machines all over campus, there’s a cafeteria, you’re an underclassmen, don’t you have a meal plan—you get hungry? Hungry?”

Jay looked at Dan as though he were completely unimpressed and completely unmoved. “Okay. Can I see your notes now?”

Dan took a deep breath. “Jay, I’m here on behalf of the fish to ask you to cut the shit.”

“Huh,” Jay said. “Are you, like, going to let me see your notes, or was this just, you know, pretext to yell at me?”

Dan sighed, pulling his knapsack around to see if he could find his notebook. “No. As much as I think the way that you’ve started going after these fish is creepy as all fuck, I don’t really want your grades to suffer. Stop eating the fish.”

Jay shrugged. “I guess I can go out of campus and—”

“No,” Dan said, cutting him off. “Not the campus fish, all the local fish. I first heard about this from the fish in the Spokane. Everyone at Riverside Park is sick of your shit. It’s creepy, Jay. What’s the point of getting all buddy-buddy with fish you’re planning on eating?”

Jay’s eyes narrowed. “What, should I kill without a thought, then? What if I catch a fish with obligations?”

“That’s not why you’re doing it.”

“You’re right,” Jay said. “It’s not. But it is a consideration, among many. I don’t think it’s as bad as you think. And, no, I won’t be stopping any time soon.”

Dan shook his head and threw the notebook at the table. “Give it back to me when we have class again. And after that, I don’t want to hear from you.”

“What’s the big problem?” Jay said, suddenly sounding much more concerned. “Acanthis, they’re just fish.”

“They’re not just fish to me,” Dan snapped. “I’m mer, you asshole. It’s not the same. And—the way you do it is creepy. I don’t like it. Just because I know fish aren’t people to you doesn’t mean they don’t matter to me.”

“Oh,” Jay said. “The issue is that I eat fish?”

“I eat fish!” Dan said. “Are you being—are you being willfully stupid now? The problem is that you’re making friends with the fish you eat!”

“Ah,” Jay said. “Yeah, no, sorry, there’s nothing you can do about that. It’s been good knowing you, Acanthis. Thanks for the notes.”

“Fuck yourself,” Dan said, rather charitably, as far as he was concerned, and stormed back out of the library.

-

Jay did not stop preying on the fish. He did stop asking Dan for notes. He did also return Dan’s notebook, in about the same condition as he’d taken it, but there was an odd blue stain on one page.

 And life continued as it normally did. The class continued. Dan got familiar with the professor, a lovely older woman called Dr. Bernadotte Maragou, who was very sweet and worked in the Health Sciences department but was still nonetheless teaching an ecology course because the school was lacking a professor to teach it and she had the necessary bioinformatics background. Unfortunately, Jay did, too. He was—to everyone else, at least—charming, or at least something like it. To hear Bernie speak, he was sweet and helpful and wouldn’t hurt a fly.  But if she could hear the fish, she’d think he was the devil. All everyone else’s adoration served to do was make Dan like him even less.

Still, the end of the semester approached apace, and Dan kept his focus on himself and his friends as much as he was able. Most of the fish that Dan was familiar with knew better than to trust Jay by now, and he heard that Jay was venturing further and causing trouble in different places instead, but he left it alone. Realistically, what was he going to do? It was the only reasonable thing. He stopped by the aquarium on occasion, which was a delight in and of itself, and he got his work done, and he kept in touch with his colleagues in the Atlantic and they kept him posted on what they were seeing with the shark populations they were monitoring. There were some instances of bad news—the missing student never showed up, and another one or two, Dan wasn’t sure, joined them in vanishing off the face of the earth, but it was a city and these things happened and it didn’t happen to anyone Dan knew. At the end of the day, all was as well as it could really be.

Until it wasn’t.  

One week before the end of classes, Bernadotte announced to the class as a whole that the university was going to launch the aquarium publicly, explaining briefly what it was and much more rapidly turning to something worse: that, as a pre-opening event, the Environmental Sciences college was hosting an event and anyone enrolled in an CoES class was welcome, for free and everything. Dan watched Jay perk up, visibly interested. Absolutely not.

It was one thing to be eating goldfish from the tank and wild fish out of the river. It was something else entirely to start eating out of an aquarium. Dan couldn’t help but feel protective over a project he’d helped with, too, even if it hadn’t been that much help. He knew a lot of those fish. He was absolutely not letting this rule-flaunting, skeevy asshole fuck it all up.

He accosted Jay outside class. “You are not going to that aquarium.”

“The one with the art installations?” Jay said. “Yes I am. Do you want something, Acanthis?”

“Would you quit calling me by my last name? Stay out of those fucking fish tanks.”

“No,” Jay said. “I have another class to be at, Acanthis, would you get out of my face?”

“The second anything goes wrong at that aquarium, I’m pointing the finger at you,” Dan said. “Don’t even fucking think about it. I’ll know if even a single fish is fucking hurt. If you even speak to them.”

“Acanthis. I have places to be,” Jay said. “Move, or I’m pushing you.”

“This is the only warning I’m fucking giving you,” Dan growled. “Take it. Stay out of the fucking aquarium.”

Jay scoffed and shouldered past Dan. Dan made no effort not to be pushed out of the way, but called after Jay, “I mean it!”

Jay shook his head, like he was rolling his eyes where Dan couldn’t see them, and kept walking.  So the aquarium was screwed, basically.

-

Dan knew he was being a little unreasonable. He wasn’t going to let that stop him, though.

Asking around turned up that Jay likely didn’t have a car, so Dan figured that he was going to try to catch a ride with someone else to the aquarium. It was hardly walking distance, from campus to the center of downtown Spokane. Trying to stop Jay from getting a carpool was going to be hard, but not impossible, of course. He’d figure something out. If he could even figure out who was bringing Jay…

…which turned out to be easier than Dan had expected. Two days after the announcement in class, Bernie had announced that she’d gotten some students who were struggling to make it to the aquarium location, and she would be organizing carpools. That just meant that Dan needed to see who got Jay’s name and somehow convince them not to bring Jay. These were students. He could probably bribe them, or ply them with cookies and alcohol, or something. Wouldn’t be too hard.

It wasn’t to be. Bernie ended up with three kids on overflow, and Jay was one of them. Bernie was a really lovely lady, and sweet as they came. And there was absolutely no way Dan was going to be able to tell her what the issue was without having to answer difficult questions about himself, and besides, she’d probably insist that he was being too hard on Jay and there was a good reason to eat goldfish after telling them you thought they were the best individual fish on the planet or something. So just telling Jay’s transportation to leave him behind unexpectedly was out of the plan.

Eventually, in a fit of desperation, Dan asked Bernie if he could catch a ride with her along with the other three students. She said that he could, and that it’d be a little cramped but there would still be room for everyone.

The night before the event, Dan started asking around again, trying to find Jay to warn him off a second time. This time he didn’t succeed. Everyone knew who he was, of course, but no one could quite find him. One girl even asked Dan if he thought Jay was ”next”—baffling Dan, and when he asked what she meant, she started carrying on about mysterious disappearances and serial killers like she thought they were living in a movie of some sort. No one else Dan spoke to was any more helpful. Jay had to be off-campus somewhere, or maybe he’d vanished into thin air. Dan wasn’t optimistic enough to trust in the latter, but he crossed his fingers anyway. That would be one disappearance Dan wouldn’t mind, that was for sure.

The inexorable march of time went on, as it always did. Tomorrow rolled around. Dan woke up on the morning of the aquarium event and knew that this was it. He was out of time. He just had to find some way to make it happen.

This time, he succeeded in waylaying Jay. It was by chance, even—he caught sight of Jay’s stupid gray horns just barely peeking out over the sea of faces at the front doors to the library and zeroed in on Jay as fast as he could. He grabbed Jay by the arm and couldn’t suppress a second of distaste at the texture of Jay’s flesh—strangely squishy and stiff all at once, like a very full water balloon instead of flesh with bones in it—and then Jay whirled around. “Acanthis?”

Dan opted not to call him on the name thing this time. “This is the last time I’m going to say it. Stay away from the aquarium.”

“Didn’t you say last time was going to be the only warning?” Jay said.

“I am so serious,” Dan said. “You do not want to test me on this. Stay away from the aquarium! Do I make myself clear?”

“Uh-huh. Enjoy the rest of your day, Acanthis.” Jay started to pull away from Dan, and Dan grabbed his arm tighter. His odd glassy eyes narrowed. “You’re going to want to let go of me right now.”

“Tell me you’ll stay away from the aquarium.”

Jay wrenched his arm away from Dan’s grip, much harder than Dan expected. His knuckles ached at the sudden force; he could swear he heard one of his joints crack. “I told you to let go of me, didn’t I? I don’t know how to say this politely, Acanthis—stop telling me to stay away from the aquarium. I’m allowed to be curious about it just like everyone else is. Just because you have a problem with me doesn’t make it my concern. I’m tolerating this, because you work here and I’m probably leaving after another semester. But if you push me, I’m going to start pushing back. Do I make myself clear?”

“I don’t have a problem with you, I have a problem with you eating—” Dan realized abruptly that they were in public and lowered his voice. “Eating the fucking fish! I think that should be fucking understandable.”

“No, you also have a problem with me,” Jay said flatly. “You are not the only one, and I do not care very much. But you will never be able to dictate what I do and don’t do. You had better get that through your head right the fuck now.”

Dan, disbelieving, shook his head. “I can’t fucking believe you.”

“Great,” Jay said, shoving past Dan. He hit Dan in the chest with his shoulder, clearly intentionally. “See you at the aquarium, Acanthis.”

“No you fucking won’t!” Dan called after him, but he vanished seamlessly into the crowd before he was even done speaking.

Fucker.

-

Finally, out of ideas, Dan called up a local friend who did some contract work with the Sideways Court and asked them to temporarily hex Bernie’s car. He felt bad about it, but it wouldn’t be any real harm done, and it’d just keep the car from starting for a while. It would stop the other two students from getting to the aquarium either, but Dan was willing to call that an acceptable loss. He turned up at the parking lot next to the cafeteria at the appointed meeting-time even though he knew it wasn’t going to get him anywhere; it seemed only fair to miss it, and besides, that let him keep an eye on Jay.

Jay gave Dan a very dubious look when he arrived. “You’d better not be waiting here for me, Acanthis.”

“Nope,” Dan said. “Carpooling.”

Jay gave him a long, hard look, and then shrugged and pulled out his phone. “I assume you’ll be dogging my steps all night?”

“You’d best believe it.”

“I don’t mean to insult you, Acanthis,” Jay said, “but this strikes me as a phenomenally stupid plan.”

“I keep telling you, my name is Dan,” Dam said. “And my plan is fine.”

“I’m sure it is,” Jay said, not looking up from his phone. “Look, for all anyone knows, you’re the concern here. Everyone at the library saw you getting handsy and aggressive with me. You have fuck-all in the way of evidence. And I’m—”

A car pulled up along the cement, and Jay cut off, picking his head up. “Ah, there’s Doctor Maragou,” he said, in exactly the same casual tone.

That was weird, and eerie. “Hey, Bernie,” Dan called, trying to keep any sort of distrust out of his tone of voice. “How’s your day been?”

“Oh, hi, Dan,” Bernie said. “Hi Jay! It’s great to see you both. Have you seen Sophia and Luke?”

“Not yet, but there’s still plenty of time,” Jay said, smiling warmly. “Dan, I know you’re closest with Doctor Maragou. Do you want to sit up front?”

“Generous of you,” Dan said, “yeah. Bernie, should we get in now?”

“Yeah, why not?” Bernie asked. “I think I see Sophia coming over now, anyway. It shouldn’t be too long.”

True enough, Sophia was cresting the small hill between the walking path and the parking lot. As Dan watched, Luke, the fourth student, walked over as well. So that was the whole crowd.

Dan didn’t need to jostle around, not in the front seat, but in the back Sophia, Luke, and Jay had to work out seating arrangements; Jay had volunteered to sit in the middle, but there was a little bit of difficulty with the seatbelts, and it took a few minutes of shuffling about before Luke finally announced to Bernie that they  could start driving. Bernie nodded, smiling, and made to pull out of the parking lot. And then her car made a terrible backfiring noise.

“What the hell was that?” Luke blurted. “I mean, um, sorry Professor.”

“What the hell was that?” Bernie muttered, stepping on the gas again. Nothing happened.

“That’s… weird,” Sophia said. “Professor M., has that ever happened before?”

“Nope,” Bernie said. “I’ve never had any car do that before.”

“I can take a look at it,” Sophia said, already opening the door. “I’m good with cars.”

“Hang on a minute,” Bernie said, turning her key in the ignition. Nothing happened. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“Yup,” Sophia said.

“How sure?” said Bernie, pressing on the gas again.

“Very sure,” Sophia said. “I like cars. Pressing on the gas isn’t going to do anything good if it‘s not igniting, so maybe stop doing that.”

Bernie stopped pressing on the gas very quickly. “Okay. You can look under the hood, if you want. Let me come out and look at it with you.”

The two of them stood outside the car looking at the hood for a good ten or eleven minutes. Jay made dubious eye contact with Dan through the rearview mirror. Dan pretended not to notice.

“Um,” Luke, the other classmate, said awkwardly after about two minutes of sustained silence. “So, uh, you’re Professor Acanthis, right?”

“You can call me Dan,” Dan said.

“Yeah, but you teach the fieldwork for nonmajors class, right?”

“Yeah,” Dan said. “Why?”

“Is it particularly hard?” Luke asked. “I mean, work-intensive. I’m setting up my schedule for next semester.”

Dan paused, trying to think about that. “I just started teaching it this semester. I think it’s pretty light, but you’re better off asking one of my students.”

“He means it’s very easy,” Jay said tonelessly. “Acanthis, tell him your late work policy.”

“It’s Dan,” Dan said. “As long as it’s in before the end of the semester, I don’t take points off late work.”

“They meet once a week, there’s a lab report due but you can work on it in the class, and it’s for nonmajors,” Jay added. “Very easy class. If you want an easy A you should take it.”

“Huh,” Luke said. “Thanks… Jaaaaaames?”

“Jay,” Jay said, but now that Dan was listening he pronounced it a little oddly, sort of more like ‘Joy’ than ‘Jay’. “Luke, right?”

“Yeah,” Luke said. “Are you planning on taking it next semester? I thought you and Professor Acanthis had… um.”

“Drama?” Jay asked, and laughed under his breath. “No, it’s nothing serious, but I’m on the pre-med track. Have to take macrobio field instead. I’m only in class with Doc Maragou because it qualified as an elective.”

“What’s the deal, actually?” Luke said. “Like, if you don’t mind me asking, because I heard you guys were really, uh… but you seem chill now.”

“Like I said,” Jay said, “it’s nothing serious. Me and Acanthis have a couple disagreements over… I don’t know, I don’t want to get into it. And a friend of a friend was talking shit about me that he believed, but I think we’re over that. Mostly it’s personality clash.”

“It’s not personality clash,” Dan said. “He’s fucked over a few friends of mine and won’t stop doing it.”

Jay raised his eyebrows at Luke, who smiled rather tightly back. “It is really not that serious. He doesn’t like that I don’t do what he tells me. I get it. I don’t like to be told what to do. It’s a personality clash. We’re working it out. This time next year, I imagine you won’t even hear that me and Acanthis were arguing.”

“Huh,” Luke said. “Right.”

Dan willed himself not to argue, even though that was blatantly untrue. He didn’t need to hash the whole thing out in front of a human audience. Fortunately, about that point Bernie came back around. “We can’t figure the problem out,” she said through the driver’s-side door, “so you three might as well come out. I’m not sure what we’re going to do here.”

“Damn,” Luke said.

“It’s a bit of a walk,” Jay said, “and it’ll get us there a little late, but we could take the Six over to Riverside.”

Dan turned to look at him, uncomprehending. He could see the other three do the same.

“The bus,” Jay said. “Don’t any of you go anywhere?”

“I only take the campus shuttle,” Luke said. “Sorry.”

“Huh,” Jay said. “Anyway, if that’s the plan, we should probably get moving. If we miss the bus we’re going to be waiting for a good hour for the next one.”

“I think the event ends at eight,” Bernie said.

“And it’s, what, six now?” Jay said. “So we’ll basically miss it. I don’t particularly want to do that,” he said, making eye contact with Dan with a weird little sedate smile on his face, “so unless anyone has objections, let’s get moving.”

“How far of a walk is it?” Bernie asked.

Jay shrugged. “Maybe a few miles? It’s at the transit center. Do you know where I mean?”

“Oh!” Bernie said. “Okay, I think I can do that.”

“Fan-ta-stic,” Jay said. “Luke, Sophia, you two on board?”

“Yeah, sure,” Sophia said.

“You didn’t ask Dan,” Luke said.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Jay said. “He’s going to follow me no matter what I ask him.”

“Oo-kay,” Luke said. “Yeah, I’ll come.”

Jay smiled, waving a hand and starting to walk rather briskly. “Alright. We have half an hour. Let’s move.”

Dan had never walked between the campus and the transit center like this before. This part of Spokane—of Washington, really—was gorgeous. Jay kept them hurrying along the side of the road, but Dan and Sophia kept slowing down to look at the trees or the rock faces or the rivers and falling behind. Dan wished he could say it was intentional, but it really was just that beautiful. And because they kept stopping at the same things, he and Sophia had started talking, aimlessly commenting on the trees and the water.

Then the road they were walking along turned into a bridge, high over a wide waterfall. All of them stopped, even Jay.

“This reminds me of where I grew up,” Sophia said to Dan. “I was walking distance from Wairere as a kid.”

Jay turned as though that had caught his attention. “Wairere Falls?”

“You’ve been there?” Sophia asked, looking a bit surprised. “Yeah.”

“They were more impressive than this, I think,” Jay said. “I don’t know, the last time I was in New Zealand was nearly thirty years ago.”

“Aotearoa,” Sophia said.

“Couldn’t have been,” Luke said, at about the same time. “How old are you?”

Jay laughed. “You think someone with a face as plastic as mine looks my age? I appreciate the vote of confidence. I’m pushing forty.”

Was that his cover? That he’d just undergone a bunch of surgeries?

“Oh, wow,” Bernie said. “What did you do before you decided to go into medicine?”

Jay glanced sidelong at Dan. “Professional fishing. Do you still need a moment to ogle?”

“Not hassling us to get moving again already?” Dan asked.

“We’ve got a little time,” Jay said.

“You were on us the whole way here,” Sophia said, still staring at the falls.

“Yeah, because I knew you were all going to stare here. It’s a nice waterfall. Take your time. I’ll tell you when we really have to get a move on.”

Dan turned that one over in his head for a moment. Was Jay expecting him to have delayed more intensely? Was that what that actually was? Or was this actually a moment of… what, generosity in disguise? Jay was such a strange person.

It was a nice waterfall, though, and the water below it looked deep and clear. Dan walked to the part of the railing Jay was leaning on, trying to look subtle, and leaned over. “Between the two of us, we’re the only ones who can breathe under water.”

“I can’t, actually,” Jay said. “I don’t breathe at all.”

Dan stopped, looking at him properly. Jay shrugged. “No lungs. Don’t breathe.”

“But you can  live under water, right?” Dan did his best to clarify.

“Yeah, that I can,” Jay said. “What about it?”

“Have you ever gone over a waterfall like that? If you’re here, and you were in New Zealand around waterfalls.”

Now it was Jay’s turn to look at Dan oddly. “I have, actually. Not often, but I have. Are you about to ask me for advice?”

“I just… wonder, I guess,” Dan said. “Does this one look like it’d be good to jump off of?”

Jay was quiet for a moment, studying the water. “Well, depends what you mean by good. You’ll probably get spun really hard. Impacting the water will probably hurt, but you don’t want to dive or anything here, or you’ll risk hitting the bottom, I think, it doesn’t look that deep to me.”

“You could’ve just said no,” Dan said.

“Those are the only problems. If you don’t like being disoriented, that’s on you,” Jay said. “The water is clean and clear and there’s no rocky outcroppings to hit yourself into. It’s pretty damn good, as far as these things go.”

“Sounds kind of unpleasant.”

“It’s  one of those things,” Jay said, turning toward the other three. “If you liked it, you’d probably already know that by now, and if you don’t, you’ve never thought about it. I’m not sure what kind of thrill-seeking mer adolescents get up to, though.”

“Me either, really. I lived most of my life on land after I turned twelve.”

“Huh,” Jay said. “That’s why you’re like this.”

“Like what?” Dan started, but Jay was already walking toward the other three. “Jay!”

“We’re going to get moving again, guys,” Jay said, waving. Bernie, Luke and Sophia reluctantly fell into step behind Jay again. Dan, for his part, hurried up to stand next to him so he could ask what the fuck Jay was talking about.

“What do you mean, that’s why I’m ‘like that?’”

“Do you want them hearing? I thought your being here meant you had to be super hush-hush.”

“Honestly, I’ve been wondering this whole time. Why don’t you?”

Jay gave him a disbelieving look. “Obviously I’m supposed to.”

“Well—you’re not, and no one’s tried to arrest you yet.”

“You’d be surprised at how low-profile I can be. Plastic surgery,” he said, tapping the ridges of flesh around his eyes, “tattoos, nail polish, and sometimes I can pass the horns off as a headband. Sometimes, if I’m really worried,” he glanced back at the other three, “they’re not looking. Watch this.”

Dan turned toward him, not sure what he was about to do, and was completely unprepared for his horns to just—sink back into the top of his forehead seemingly of their own volition. “What—?”

“It’s uncomfortable, though,” Jay said, replacing them with a gesture that looked more like spitting something out than horns protruding through his face. They were now streaked with some sort of bluish, viscous fluid, like dish soap. Jay ran his hands over them, and then rubbed his hands together, and when he went back to talking neither the horns nor his hands were wet.

“Neat trick,” Dan said, totally astonished.

“Handy, yeah,” Jay said. “Look, not that I’m not appreciating the conversation not suddenly being you yelling in my face and all, but can I ask what prompted the change of heart?”

“No hearts have been changed. I don’t want you to eat my fish,” Dan said. “But I can’t see a way to stop you getting to the aquarium, so I guess I’ll just have to tag around all night like you said I was going to. Might as well make it a little fun, right?”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Jay said slowly, not looking as though he understood at all.

-

The bus was miserable, but the aquarium was fantastic, so it balanced out. Dan did tail Jay the whole time, though Jay obligingly let Dan pick over the remnants of the sushi bar before they went around to the exhibits instead of trying to lose Dan so he could go start snatching schooling fish or something. Dan asked him if he wanted anything, concerned as he was for the live fish in the exhibits; Jay demurred. Something about a food allergy, or something; Dan wasn’t sure exactly what he meant but he sure made it sound like there wasn’t anything at the table that wouldn’t somehow make him sick.

Jay was fascinated by the first-floor exhibits that looked like classrooms. Eventually they made it to the second floor, after Jay had done a long loop around the expansive ground level and spent a lot of time in the touch-tank mumbling to a nervous epaulette shark until he could coax it up toward him. Dan didn’t like it then, but it hadn’t been sinister after all, and he was trying to relax. But just after they made it to the second floor, Jay slipped off into the shadows, and Dan just barely caught up to him before Jay—with Dan’s keys—slipped behind the Employees Only door and beckoned for Dan to follow.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing,” Dan hissed, as soon as he was inside. “They’ll kick you out if you’re back here.”

“Not if I’m with you,” Jay said, which wasn’t true.

“Yes, they will. And they’ll revoke my clearance.”

“Come on. I want to talk to the nursery sharks.”

“Absofuckinglutely not,” Dan said. “I’ll tell on both of us.”

“What the fuck is the big idea?” Jay said. “Look, you can hear both sides of the conversation. And they’re nursery sharks, and I’m not even hungry. I’m curious about living in those drowned fake rooms. Do you know which tank we should be looking for?”

“We’re not doing this,” Dan said.

“Alright, I’ll find out without you,” Jay shrugged, and started walking. Dan reached out to grab Jay’s arm, and—

Well. Dan didn’t actually know what happened, only that his hand closed on solid-ish flesh, and then it was suddenly not solid under his hand at all, and Jay had sort of just pulled away around his fingers. Weird.

“You can come with me or you can stay there, but you’re not grabbing me in private,” Jay said. “I’m not interested in being yanked around, I don’t give a damn how worried you are about the fish. I’m not even going to put my face near the water.”

With deep misgivings, Dan hurried up and followed behind Jay. “It’s, um, door seven. The exhibit you want.”

“Thank you,” Jay said, sounding legitimately a little bit surprised. “Appreciate it.”

“Don’t expect a repeat,” Dan said. “And I will be warning them about you later.”

Jay hummed, pushing through the door slowly. Beyond, they could hear the pump and the water splashing.

Jay bent down by the side of the tank, reaching out with one hand. “This is going to look strange.”

“Everything you do looks strange,” Dan started, but he was right—it did look real fucking strange. The palm of his hand… uncoiled? Rippled and widened? And from the inside came slightly luminescent blue tendrils, about a half-inch wide each and visibly very soft, and slick with some sort of fluid with the consistency of honey, or maybe laundry detergent. He stuck these into the water without a worry, and then said, not too loudly, “Hey. Up here.”

Abruptly Dan remembered the lures. “You have those inside you? You feed them to the fish!”

“Sometimes they’re hungry,” Jay said.

“What are they, worms?” Dan asked. “Some sort of… fungus?”

Jay looked up from the water to squint at him. “Are you trying to fuck with me? Like, is that a joke?”

“What?”

Jay reached over with his normal hand and grabbed one tendril firmly, and then pulled. Hard, actually, hard enough that Dan thought it looked like it had to hurt, and then with a quiet squelching sound a small octagonal segment of his gray skin pulled free from the side of his hand and so did the tendril, still moving freely. “It’s me. I feel like that should be obvious, if the fish were reporting on me to you. That one bass got a good mouthful of my leg a few months ago.”

“What are those?” someone else said, and Jay and Dan both jumped and turned to see that there was a small nursery shark staring up at the both of them. Dan wasn’t terribly familiar with her, but he thought her name started with an s sound, or maybe an m. “Can I eat them?”

“Sure,” Jay said.

“They make fish sick,” Dan said quickly. “Better not.”

“They make fish sick?” Jay repeated. “They shouldn’t. Just drowsy, maybe.”

“Dizzy and sick, is what they told me.”

Jay looked down at his own hand curiously. “So, I’m Jay.” He said it oddly again. Maybe Dan was mispronouncing it. “My friend here is Dan.”

“Danistei,” Dan said, because he gave his real name to the fishes, thank you, and then registered that Jay had said his actual name.

“What’s your name?” Jay continued, as though nothing had happened.

“Svisa,” said the nursery shark.

“Nice to meet you, Svisa,” Dan started.

“We’re delighted you’ll speak to us,” Jay continued, coming very close to cutting Dan off. “I have a couple questions about the environment.”

“Oh, like he’s always asking,” Svisa said.

“Probably,” Jay said. “Do you know what your environment is a replica of?”

“It’s a replica?” Svisa said.

“It’s a replica of a human classroom,” Jay said, rapid-fire. “Thank you, Svisa. What do you think of the lighting on the side of the wall?”

“Oh, he really is always asking that one. It’s fine.”

“You come here from anywhere interesting?”

“Not really,” Svisa said.

“Captive-bred,” Dan cut in. “Svisa, are you bored?”

“A little bit,” Svisa said. “Nothing left in here to catch, and I know all the hiding places. When it’s light out, I can watch the other tank, but they’re dimming everything now.”

“They’re dimming everything,” Jay repeated. “Okay, Dan, up, let’s get out of here before we get caught.”

“Caught,” Svisa repeated.

“We’re not technically supposed to be back here right now,” Dan explained hastily, getting up. “Thank you so much for chatting, Svsia. Jay, was that what you wanted to know?”

“One last question,” Jay said. “How dark are the hiding places?”

“Dark enough,” Svisa said, delicately closing her jaws on a big chunk of Jay’s exposed tendrils. They sheared off cleanly, and started to leak thinner, less viscous blue fluid into the water; Jay rapidly curled them back up without even a hiss. “You’re leaving, I’ll see you some other time.”

“Me, maybe,” Dan muttered. “Jay, if she gets sick, I’m holding you to account for it.”

“She should be fine. It’s like weed,” Jay said. “Bye, Svisa, thanks for talking. Might see you again, might not. I’m curious about the way it feels down there. Dan, hitting the road?”

Dan sighed and followed behind Jay, and the two of them stepped out of the tank room and then into the Employees Only hall and then back into the rest of the museum. It was dim. “What time is it?”

“You have a phone, don’t you?” Jay said, but he was pulling his own out as he said it. “Eight ten.”

“They closed up fast,” Dan noted, a little surprised. “I wasn’t expecting them to kick everyone out and turn the lights off ten minutes after the event ended.”

Jay shrugged. “Maybe they’re just efficient. Let’s make sure they didn’t lock us in.”

They hadn’t, so the two of them walked out the doors and tried not to look suspicious. Or at least Dan tried; Jay looked casual as anything, sauntering out confidently.

“Stop looking over your shoulder,” Jay murmured out of the corner of his mouth, and Dan straightened up. “No, that’s worse, you look even more like you’re sneaking into the pantry to steal cookies or something. Do you just not do this sort of thing?”

“No, I don’t,” Dan said.

Jay paused. “Why were you messing with me so much, then? Starting out strong for your first few bits of mischief?”

“I,” Dan said, trying to wrap his head around that. “It was about the fish. It has always been about the fish.”

“But you had to know I wasn’t going to go after the fish in a new aquarium,” Jay said, sounding almost stupefied. “Right?”

What? “What? No.”

“If I’m going to an aquarium, there’s going to be close monitoring, people around,” Jay said. “And it’s not like they’re filling, anyway. Obviously I’d just go pick someone off in an alley beforehand, if it was that big a deal.”

“I told you, I don’t like you eating the wild fish either,” Dan said. “But I guess—”

“Fish?” Jay repeated. “No, I mean—” And then he stopped, and turned to gesture Dan toward an alley. “Come take a detour with me.”

“What do you mean, not fish?” Dan said, following easily.

Jay looked Dan up and down, still walking. The alley was longer than Dan expected. “I know you said something, at some point, about the ‘patterns,’” and here he made air-quotes with his fingers, “of the way that I ate the fish being ‘creepy.’”

“Yeah, because they are,” Dan said. “I mean, I might’ve been judging you wrong, but it still seems real fucking creepy to me. I don’t really get—”

Jay raised a hand and cut Dan off. “And I read into that, I think. I thought you meant the patterns I ate everything with were creepy.”

“I mean,” Dan started. “I don’t know.”

Jay smiled oddly, waving for Dan to walk a little faster. “And I thought to myself that that was fair, because you were right. And I didn’t know how much you’d told anyone, or how much trouble I’d be in if you had.”

“Jay. What are you getting at.”

“Fish are very unsatisfying, you know.” Jay sighed. “They don’t have much to talk about. Their secrets are inconsequential and not very interesting. And, now, I have a problem, the kind you’re not likely to have heard of. “

“Where are you leading me?”

“You’ll see,” Jay said. The alleyway had gotten so dark that it was difficult to make out anything except for the points of light reflecting off his eyes from the distant billboards on the street. “I need a secret—given freely—before I can eat my fill. Makes it had to order off the dinner menu. Told myself, hey, hospice care, that’s got to be the gig for me. But it doesn’t leave me a lot of time to hunt. So I’ve been scavenging the fishtanks. But do you know what one of the first things you told me was?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Dan stopped walking.

“This explains why threatening you didn’t seem to do anything,” Jay said. “Did you even know I was threatening you?”

“When the hell were you threatening me?”

“That’s what I mean,” Jay said. “I’m full, now, I’m not eating anything. Or anyone. But you know what I’m getting at, don’t you?”

Dan shook his head. “You eat fish, and you’re implying you’ll eat me.”

“About the gist of it, yeah,” Jay said. “Keep walking, we’re going to get to the bus stop a few blocks early. I didn’t want to take you through here if you already knew I was likely to maybe eat you. Didn’t need that kind of thing getting me in trouble, you understand. You cannot do anything about me, but if you decided to start running and screaming it would’ve made my life inconvenient.”

“Are you,” Dan said, trying to find the polite term for it. “Are you a… person with a vamparasitic affliction?”

“Am I a what?” Jay said. “Vamparasitic affliction? Can you not say vampire now?”

“I think it’s offensive,” Dan said.

“If I were a vampire I wouldn’t be offended,” Jay said. “But no. I’m an obligate carnivore under a curse, but it’s a different one. You’ve seen me walk in the sunlight.”

“Can you eat garlic?”

“I can’t eat any plants.”

Dan could start to see the lights at the end of the walkway now. “Why do you eat people, if you can just eat fish?”

Jay looked at Dan for a moment, and despite the low light Dan thought he could see Jay’s needle-sharp teeth glinting in a very sharp smile. “Why does anyone prefer to eat anything? Just tastes better.”

[annab-nana]

Gentle wipe of your spilled tears after heavy arguments, a simple gesture that shows you how sorry they are for making you shed sad tears instead of happy ones. with Jonathan when the reader and him are both upset about getting fired from the Hawkins Post and he blames her like he did with Nancy in the show

ahh you got it bestie

warnings: not proofread, mentions of schizophrenia, inequality in the workplace, one use of y/n, use of pet names (sweetheart), basically nancy and jonathan's fight in season three but tweaked a bit, it's a little long for a blurb

❀ masterlist ❀

you had already felt immensely shitty like you did every day you left work, but today was different. in your attempts to make the men at your job realize you were more than a servant who could only get coffee and lunches, you made the only guy in your life that you loved upset.

you knew you shouldn’t have pursued the story any further after tom had asked you not to, but with the way all those men taunted you constantly, you wanted nothing more than to prove them wrong. no, you needed to prove them wrong.

even after you and jonathan got fired, you still couldn't drop it.

"it's bullshit. so, according to tom, driscoll's just a schizophrenic? and that rat is just a rat?" you couldn't believe it all. every ounce of anger you'd felt the whole time working at the hawkins post was flowing out. "and it's all, what? some big coincidence? you know what i think? i think tom was on drugs."

"what?" jonathan inquired incredulously from the driver's seat, keeping his eyes focused on the road ahead. he seemed shocked, but tom's odd behavior to you was quite evident.

"did you see him? he was sweating like crazy and his palms were clammy. he looked awful."

the way jonathan shook his head and scoffed at you didn't make you feel any better. in fact, it made that pit of fury in your stomach burn more.

"is this funny to you?" you asked him. you'd never been so serious about something in your life other than surviving and protecting your friends each time the upside down tried to enter your realm.

"no. no, it's just kind of incredible," he persisted on, not sparing you a glance as he drove.

"incredible?"

"yeah, incredible how you just continue to convince yourself."

your brows pulled together when you looked at him and you couldn't help the sting of tears that kissed your eyes. yet another man was tossing your thoughts to the side, not taking them into consideration or believing them for a second. you just never thought jonathan would be the one to do that. he had always had your back, even with your crazier ideas.

he continued before you could respond, not that you would've. you were too stunned at what he was saying. "i told you over and over to drop this story, that it was a bad idea, but you refused and now, i'm screwed."

your heart dropped at how he placed the blame on you. "it was just a summer job and i'm sure you will find another one, jon. it's not like your life is over."

"i don't know if you realized this or not, but i don't live in some grand house. my dad doesn't earn six figures. hell, he isn't even around." you shifted your focus to the window when you figured he wasn't about to stop with his rant any time soon. "mortgage, college tuition. you know, they're real things, y/n. things that you don't care about only because you don't have to."

everything was your fault, at least in his eyes. "i didn't realize i lived in a bubble."

"well, you do!" he exclaimed like he was happy to get this off his chest. you couldn't help it your dad made a good bit of money, but like his, yours wasn't around much. his wasn't because he was an asshole, but yours had to be gone to make as much money as he did. but, at least jonathan had a mom. he had someone there for him when he came home.

you didn't have that luxury. jonathan was that person for you. he was the one you wanted to come home to and tell everything to. he was the one you trusted. he was the one you felt safe with. he was your person, but maybe he needed a break. maybe you were too much for him.

you tuned back into his words when you felt the first tear fall down your cheek. "you want everything handed to you on a silver platter. i mean, we were interns! what did you expect, that you would make star reporter in a month? crack the big case?"

"you sound just like them. you realize that, right? just like bruce and those assholes-"

he cut you off, making you turn back to face him. "yeah, yeah, those assholes gave us jobs."

"is that was that was? that was humiliating." another tear fell when you stressed your last word. you turned back toward the window, desperate to make sure he didn't see how much he was getting to you.

he let out a sigh. "yeah, the real world sucks." two more tears fell. "deal with it like the rest of us."

you hated the thought of having to deal with it, of letting those men belittle you every chance they got for a laugh. you hated being a joke to them, of them making you feel like you were incompetent. jonathan didn't even see the majority of it since he was cooped up in the darkroom. you knew that he would hate it if the roles were reversed. he wouldn't endure it. he may have put up with it longer than you had, but he wouldn't be able to deal with it all the time.

if the roles were reversed, he would've been doing more than just fetching coffee and lunch. he wouldn't be demeaned every single day from the moment he got there to the moment he left. he wouldn't feel so shitty that he cried multiple times a week about how much he hated being there.

if he were to do what you did, the guys would've listened to him at least. they probably would've given him pointers on how to pursue the case and taken him under their wing. and if he were to get in trouble for it like you had, he wouldn't have been fired over it. it would've been some slap on the wrist and everyone would go on about their days like nothing happened.

it would've been so different if it was him.

you did not want to break down, not until you were safe in your home which wasn't too far away at this point. you sucked in a deep breath to steady yourself before muttering, "you don't know what it's like."

"neither do you."

"well, then i guess we just don't understand each other anymore." you don't know why you said it. you could've just left it where it was, but his agreement is what finally tore your heart in two.

"yeah, i guess not."

it was silent for the next few minutes until jonathan pulled into your driveway. you didn't dare look over at him because you knew the dam would break and you were fighting for your life for it to remain intact until you got inside.

without a word, you walked quickly from the car to your door, fumbling with the key—it was hard to see through your tear-blurred vision—and unlocking the door. dropping your purse on the ground by your feet, you took a few steps to the bottom of the stairs and sat down, letting your head fall in your hands and your tears flow.

you didn't know how long you had been there, but it had to have been a while for your dad to be home already. but when you looked up, you realized that it wasn't your dad's hand on your shoulder. it was jonathan's.

that only made you cry harder.

"i'm sorry i got you fired," you spoke with a sob. you just felt so bad. the guys are the hawkins post made you feel bad, getting jonathan fired made you feel bad, jonathan's words made you feel bad.

jonathan's hand came up to wipe your tears away while he shook his head. "i'm sorry. i shouldn't have said any of that. i was wrong."

"no, you weren't," you disagreed. "i was. you are nothing like those guys. you are so much better than them. i was just angry."

"no, the way i was acting was like them. you weren't wrong. i was. completely, utterly, mortifyingly wrong," he stated honestly, letting out a light chuckle ti lighten the mood a touch while his thumb pushed away the fresh batch of tears you'd produced. "and i hate that i made you this upset."

"it's okay."

jonathan smiled at you and spoke softly, "stop staying stuff to make me feel better, sweetheart." he brought his hands down from your face to hold your hands in his. "do you want me to stay with you or would you rather be left alone right now? whichever you chose, i'll be okay, but-"

"stay," you cut him off. you would never not want jonathan around. "stay with me, please."

a wide grin crept onto his lips and he found himself nodding his head. "okay, i'm here."

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[katnissdoesnotfollowback]

Hope the end of your school year went well! From the new alphabet prompt, what about Going on a road trip and being so regular about it.

Hey, love. It was tough, and I crashed in more ways than one afterwards, but I'm doing better now. Thanks for the prompt! Have some in between high school and college Everlark shenanigans on me.

~~

When the beat up blue car pulls around the corner, I rise and grab my bag that’s been serving as a bench.

I’m actually surprised he’s this early. It must not have taken long to pick up the rest of our group. But I wanted to be out here and not risk anyone having to ring our bell and realize it doesn’t work. Or risk them stepping on the third step, which is basically splinters pretending to be a step. Or see the wreck of our living room after my mom worked double shifts for a week to get the last bit of tuition I couldn’t cover with scholarships, while I worked double shifts to save up for this trip.

I’ve been both dreading and anticipating it, and watching my ride slowly drive down the street, as though the driver is unfamiliar with the neighborhood, I catch myself biting my thumb nail and quickly wipe it on my jeans. 

The car stops smoothly, no squealing of brakes, and I blink as I notice that it’s only the driver in the car. Guess he picked me up first.

“Hey,” Peeta Mellark says as he gets out of the car his brothers have all shared for the past eight years as they worked their way successively through high school. He greets me like we’re old friends instead of virtual strangers who sometimes got paired in our math classes.

“Guess I get shotgun,” I say as I stagger towards the trunk with my bag.

“Perks of being first pick up,” he says and takes my bag from me. He places it gently in the trunk, like it weighs nothing, right next to his. “So Madge is next, then Seamus.”

I try not to gag at the reminder. Madge is fine. I like Madge, but Seamus is a jackass and a half. At least Peeta is picking him up last, so I don’t have to spend as much time in the car with that dickhead.

“Great,” I say and open the car door before sliding in. The interior smells fresh. Clean. The floorboards are spotless, as is the upholstery. I’m actually shocked at how clean the car is, given that the car has a reputation as a Shaggin’ Wagon, along with his older brothers’ reputations as total horn dogs.

I blush as I consider how that reputation has extended to Peeta since he started driving the car last year with both his older brothers finally off at college. The whispers from girls about how it’s always a good time driving with Peeta.

I squirm in the seat and hope he shampooed the upholstery too. The last thing I want to think about is what’s gone down in this seat. I glance behind me as Peeta pulls away from the curb and decide the bench back seat isn’t a better option.

“So, Katniss,” he says and I scoff at the clear attempt at either small talk or a pick up.

“Brakes don’t squeal anymore,” I say and Peeta shifts gears, then runs a hand through his hair.

“Uh yeah. Neither of my brothers were really good about the routine maintenance on the car. I’ve been fixing things here and there, changed out the belts and filters, flushed a few of the fluids and gave her fresh ones, new wiper blades, that sort of thing. But the tires and brakes were expensive so that was a more recent thing.”

“Oh. Extra shifts at the bakery since graduation covered it?” 

“Yeah, barely,” he says and taps his fingers on the wheel before he shifts to third and starts the winding road up to Madge’s home.

“How about you? Been working extra summer shifts too?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Oh. Well it’s just usually you bring your sister into the bakery during summer. Haven’t seen you guys yet. That’s all. Figured you must be busy.”

“Gotta make gas and grocery money somehow,” I mutter.

Peeta doesn’t answer though, because we’ve reached Madge’s house. She too is waiting outside, with two suitcases standing side by side, gleaming in the sun. Her father waits with her. I fiddle with the vents and climate control as Peeta gets out of the car. Notice a cooler and a snack bag on the floorboard in the back as I halfway listen to Peeta talk to Mr. Undersee and load Madge’s bags.

Madge slides in and rolls down her window. “Bye Daddy!”

“Call me when you get to Aunt Maysilee’s tonight.”

“I know I know,” Madge cuts him off. “And when we hit the road in the morning. And anytime we stop for more than thirty minutes, and when we get to Panem U tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be with Katniss and Peeta the whole time, Daddy. He’s a super safe driver and you know she’ll take care of us.”

Mr. Undersee talks to Peeta for a few more minutes, and it’s clear that he’s asking Peeta about the maintenance on the car, the planned route we’ll be taking.

I take the chance to turn around and hiss at Madge. “You didn’t tell me he’d be picking me up first.”

“I didn’t?” she asks a little too innocently.

“Whatever,” I say and turn back around to find a decent radio station. I’m a little miffed that Madge didn’t warn me. She knows I don’t have a smartphone and couldn’t be on the group thread Peeta started for our road trip. I’ve had to talk to the group and Peeta through Madge to get ready for this trip.

“Figured you’d enjoy a few minutes alone with him,” Madge says right in my ear, making me gasp. “I mean, you do like him, don’t you?”

“Everybody likes him,” I say and give up on the radio. 

“Yeah, but you really like him,” Madge hints. I’m grateful when Peeta opens his door. Final farewells are said and Peeta gets back in, Madge sits back and buckles her belt.

“Alright, Seamus and then we’re on our way,” Peeta says. Madge groans and then leans forward towards Peeta.

“Do we have to?” I’m a little surprised. Madge is usually so quiet and nice, but Peeta actually laughs.

“Unfortunately, yes. Our mothers are in the same book club and I’ll never hear the end of it I don’t. He’s signed up for the same orientation slot as us.”

“More good news,” Madge says and flips back in her seat.

We’re friends, Madge and I, at least the kind of friends who sit together at lunch and assemblies and in any shared classes. We stick together in P.E. And when we found out we’d be going to Panem U together, we signed up as roommates for the dorm, and for the same early June orientation. But I’ve never seen her as chatty as she is for the ten minutes it takes to drive through the ritzy part of town to Seamus Henderson’s house. She and Peeta seem to know each other. At least they seem to know each other better than I realized…

If possible, Seamus’s place is even bigger than Madge’s. More ostentatious too. If the Undersee house is classy, this place screams Too Much Money.

Peeta tells us he’ll be right back and leaves the car running while he walks up to the door to ring the bell.

“Why’d you think I like him?” I ask and Madge snorts.

“Because you get all blushy and flustered around him.”

“I do not,” I protest.

“Well, blushy and flustered for you. And anytime I relayed a question he had about time or plans or even what kind of snacks you might like to have, you answered with ‘Whatever is easiest for Peeta,’” she says and I scowl at her.

“Well he is doing us a huge favor by driving us,” I say. “Gas money is expensive.”

“Hm so you just wanna make it easy on him and conveniently, you’re riding shotgun, where you’ll be the most likely conversation partner and be responsible for his comfort the whole drive,” Madge says and grins at me, then something outside the window catches her eye. “Ugh. Jerk incoming.”

I turn around and sit fairly still as Peeta and Seamus load Seamus’s bags in the trunk, plotting Madge’s demise for manipulating me into this situation. 

I almost stop plotting when Seamus drops in the car and asks if Peeta packed any beer as he rummages in the cooler.

“Uh no. Sorry,” Peeta says. I catch Madge rolling her eyes and scooting closer to the window.

“Sup, Undersee. Lookin’ good today.”

“Hi Seamus,” she says.

For a few seconds, I feel bad for Madge in the backseat and grateful that I’m sitting next to Peeta instead. But then Peeta shifts his car into reverse to back down out of Seamus’s driveway and his knuckles brush up against my knee.

I jerk my knee away from his touch.

“Sorry,” he says and turns to look behind him as he backs up and I stare at the side view mirror on my side, watching us roll down the hill towards the street.

“Here,” Peeta says as we’re stopped at a red light. He pulls his phone from a small cubby and holds his thumb on it to wake it, then hands it to me. “Why don’t you pick some music for us?”

“Um,” I stare at the tidy pattern of icons on top of a background of a stunning sunset over the mountains. And I blank. Some of them appear to be folders, labeled by category. Art. Food. School Stuff. Sports. Random Sh**. Music.

I smile slightly at the Random S** and tap on the one for music. And stare at five different apps. “Which one?” I ask helplessly.

“Here,” Madge says, leaning over and pointing to the one called Pandora. I open it but have no idea what I’m looking at.

“You look a little lost there Everdeen. Never seen an iPhone before?”

“Shoot. I forgot,” Peeta says and extends his hand to me. I burn with humiliation as Seamus laughs. The reminder that I have a cheap flip phone still and I’m lucky Mom managed that much for us.

“It’s fine,” Madge says and reaches around me to tap a few things. Music starts playing on the car speakers. One of my favorite bands, actually, and I tuck Peeta’s phone back in its cubby. “I’ll show you on mine when we stop,” Madge says and I nod, biting my lip and scrambling for something I can do.

“You hungry, Peeta?” Madge speaks up and I grab hold of it, turning in my seat to check through the bag I saw there earlier as soon as Peeta says he could eat.

“Wow,” I say after a cursory glance at the food packed in it. “You’ve got a feast in here. What are you in the mood for?”

“Uh, some of the licorice,” he says.

“Good choice,” I say as I grab the package. I turn around, but not before I catch Seamus’s look of disgust.

“Ugh. You eat that garbage, Mellark?”

“It’s way better than the cheap, waxy cherry stuff some people seem to like,” I say as I tear open the package. I peel off a few of the gleaming black, swizzled sticks. And when I look up to hand them to Peeta, he’s smiling at me. Sort of. Just his lips curled up and an odd look in eyes. “Here.”

“Thanks,” he says and takes them from me. Eyes back on the road, he quietly says. “You can have some, too. If you like them. I’ve got two packages in there.”

“Oh. Thanks,” I say and pull one out for myself. Seamus goes back to his game, and Madge is reading a book. Every few minutes, Peeta will shift his hand over towards me and I’ll set a few sticks of licorice in his palm as he asks me a question. Simple stuff, like my major, what classes I’m hoping to register for during our orientation, if I’ve got a dorm room or am living off campus.

At one point, Seaums snores Madge giggles. I turn around and cover my mouth as I snort in laughter when I see she’s decorated him with Pixie Sticks. Shoved them up his nose, in his collar like spikes, even poking out of his hair.

“I’m sorry, is this wrong?” she asks and Peeta chuckles softly. 

“Just make sure you get a picture,” he tells her and Madge hands me her phone. This I actually do know how to do, having spent a fair enough amount of time around Madge. I snap a picture of her and Seamus, then one of just him before handing the phone back to her.

Peeta’s grinning at me, and I relax back into my seat. Maybe this road trip won’t be so bad.