#i just vibed by myself and did t care if people thought I was weird or a freak

[ghwosty]

sometimes i miss how i engaged with my interests before i started being more online, there was a purity and authenticity to it

[34saveme34]

blasts you with my laser of productivity

EPISODE 1 !!!!!!!!!

Getting Along?

Heh, when I write it like that I doubt it :3

some warnings: 3 drops the f bomb but it's cool, he's gay, also he curses a lot but you haaaaave to forgive him

what like. 5k words, I don't remember. lotta exposition, sorry in advance but I prommy I got some good scenes

SMG4 was freshly graduated from highschool. With an interest in creative writing, he decided to further his education in college. He heard some things about it but deep in his heart hoped that they really didn’t mean it when they said it would be more partying than studying. Sure, he wasn’t exactly the most diligent student, he cared more about his youtube channel he had been building for a while but parties kind of… freaked him out. What’s fun about being in a cramped place with other people, getting sweaty from just standing, the loudness of music and ESPECIALLY the smell of alcohol. So, he just hoped it wouldn’t be that way.

He only found a college kind of far away though that he also found good enough, that meant he had to stay in a dormitory.

He had never lived in one so he was just hoping he’d get cool roommates.

The day came, he had to move in, he brought a lot of stuff. He hoped his roommate wouldn’t mind, as he found out this dorm had 2 people per room. Which lowered the risk of him getting someone annoying. He was glad about that.

He took his time packing out, especially with his pc. His most prized possession. Not only was it super expensive, he had good memories with it. And it was also the hub for his super cool program, the Puzzle Wizard.

But this was no ordinary program no… It came from his special USB! 

Because, let’s not pretend he was just some normal guy (have you read the fanfic title?). He had cool powers and he would obviously use them. And his favourite was definitely this silly program that talked to him like a living being. If it wasn’t a computer program, he would call it his friend.

He set everything up and he was already looking for inspiration to work on stuff further for his youtube channel when his new roommate stepped in. While he himself was an average T-shirt + pants guy, this guy was… More. With his overalls that ended in shorts, painted nails, possibly using some make up yet with a beard. He envied that a little bit, he was never able to grow facial hair. He wasn’t sure he liked the vibes of the guy though. And as fate would have it, the look 4 gave this guy only made him say something that just made him dislike him more.

“What, never saw a flesh and blood fag in real life or something?” the guy said. 4 flinched at his words. He barely got here and immediately started out like this? 

“Umm… you can’t say that on youtube” it slipped out of his mouth and he felt himself choke on his breath as he coughed as he just realised how god damn stupid he sounded. The guy looked at him weird.

“Christ” the guy sighed “Name’s Trey by the way”

“Uhuh… I’m SMG4…”

“Like, legally?”

“Uhuh…”

“Do your parents hate you or something?”

“I chose it myself” 4 looked at him kind of annoyed before he put on headphones.

“Ah, well” he didn’t seem bothered as he instead just went to pack out. He brought his laptop and posters. A few were some alternative bands and one was the pop singer, Peach, also called Princess. And did she really deserve that name with the looks she pulled off. Trey put together quite the composition with Peach in the middle of it. He also pulled out his laptop and put away other important stuff like clothes and whatever else. 4 didn’t pay much attention to it after all. He was busy, trying to decide if the memes he was watching were funny enough or not to get referenced in his videos.

The rest of the day went quiet. Guess their interaction was so awful they just both decided it wasn’t worth it to talk. Or maybe 4 just found memes more amusing than his roommate. And maybe his new roommate thought he was a weirdo. Greatest first impressions.

4 was horrified the next day when he realised that there would be a freshman’s greeter type of thing. 

While his new roommate participated in it pretty well, going for the challenges himself and not doing awful at them, even gaining new friends along the way, 4 decided to avoid them. As much as he could at least. Although after having a bit of an anxiety attack they let him not do it. He just really hated stuff like this and social events always made him feel like this. He would avoid birthday parties like the plague even when he was small.

He went back to his room and decided to open his phone to check the news. To his dismay, a creature resembling a meme was roaming the city he so happened to reside in. It was almost like they were following him around. He was no stranger to these kinds of guys as he had to fight them before, with the power of his USB. 

He set off, especially considering he knew he wouldn’t be missed anyways. Usually, he would be making sure people didn’t see him setting off, especially considering how much different he looks when he uses the power of the USB. First time he transformed, which was in highschool, he felt like a caterpillar that turned into a butterfly. And to this day, it still felt the same way.

Trey himself had his phone with himself and saw the news as well. He so happened to have one of those USBs himself. He realised he had to go out now himself. Though, the 2 didn’t know that about each other. Who knows how long they’ll take…

He excused himself, especially since the events kind of calmed down at this point.

He went back to his room. Seeing 4 wasn’t in anymore made him a bit more comfortable as he transformed into his cooler attire with the power of his own USB. It honestly kind of resembled his usual style just better, with the sleek double shorts and the cute top with the long sleeves that were a bit wider by the ends, with the knee length boots to match it, all of it purple and a colour close to black. He was honestly proud of how he managed his outfit, but he was especially proud of the ponytail he sported with it. Made him feel really cool, especially if he aimed right with his cool gun he also had. Like, what could possibly be hotter than a pretty guy aiming flawlessly with a cool gun?

He left, he knew the city pretty well and based on the picture alone he quickly found the creature loose. Although, it looked bigger than what he thought it would be, which worried him. Would he be able to handle it alone? Well, he had to try!

He snuck around, trying to find a good place to aim from. Especially if he missed, he should have a good way to hide. He waited for the right time to aim but before he could even try, another figure appeared with a blue flash, slashing at the enemy with quite the elegant glide and then stopping at the top of a building beside it. As the dust cleared from such a fast and swift movement, he saw the guy. With the cute skirt, the determined face with sparkling eyes, the long gloves, the boots too- wow, what an outfit. Especially with the mainly light blue and white colour scheme the guy had going on. It was pretty cute. He shook his head as he went back to what he wanted to do, shooting at the creature wreaking havoc. The magical energy bullet from his gun fired hit the monster square in the forehead. It toppled over. The sword wielding guy looked up at him. He looked back. They were clearly looking at each other. Trey decided to try his luck, jumping down beside him.

“Nice shot” the sword wielder said, with a smile on his face. Honestly, his vibes were impeccable, not only did he dress cute, he had a good energy to him too, like you could work better beside him.

“Nice slash” he replied similarly.

The guy chuckled.

“We’re not done yet, this guy is more resilient… the uh… I don’t know if you name these guys but they’re the meme Pingas I’m pretty sure”

“Huh… I never noticed they were memes”

They stood there for a bit.

“So… You only fought alone before?” the guy asked a bit awkwardly.

“Yep, first time I saw someone as cool as me around” he smiled. The compliment was received with light surprise and a smile. He looked like he never received compliments… With that kind of fit too?? That’s criminal.

“Heh… Well, any ideas for how to beat this guy? It usually takes too long on my own”

“If you open its mouth I can throw a grenade in there”

The sword wielder looked surprised again, more surprised than before.

“You don’t mess around, huh?”

“It’s not worth it”

“Fair, alright, I’m in but make sure to aim right”

“I’m all about aiming, don’t worry”

The guy nodded then went off. He quickly had the creature down. 3 prepared his gun in the meantime. A grenade made with his energy  was one of a kind and took a bit to be created but then he had to be quick. He learned in his younger days that these things blowing up in his face were anything but great. Especially the ringing in his ears….

And almost like perfect calculation and beautiful teamwork, he aimed and it went right where it needed to and purified the creature in one strike, something rare for either of the 2. Now it could run off, tiny and harmless.

As they both admired the work they did, they realised they didn’t have to do anything else now.

“So we’re already done huh?” Trey spoke up first.

“Mhmm… seems so”

“Well, hope to see you around, you’re cool”

“Heh well, you too” 

And so they both went on their own ways

Trey got back to 4 already on his pc. They didn’t say a thing to each other.

Another awkward day that passed. At least something exciting happened that day with this new guy. Oh… he never asked what his name was. Well, now he was hoping for another monster so he could actually ask.

He laid down, tired. As his eyes wandered, he ended up staring at whatever 4 was doing. He seemed to be using quite the expressive program as it jumped around on his screen. With a TV for a head too, it looked kind of silly too. 

“What kinda program is that?” he said that out loud. He didn’t mean to but whatever.

He didn’t expect an answer though.

“It gets me addons”

“Addons?” 

“Yep. For games. Do you not know what games are?”

Trey scoffed.

“What are you, Saint Peter with the way you’re gatekeeping?”

He sighed.

“Sure. But yeah, it gets me addons I need for my production”

“Do you mean your youtube channel?” 

“Ah, you noticed I have one?”

“You barely looked at anything else so far, it’s hard not to notice. It’s like… wow, he isn’t hanging on youtube anymore, is he sick”

4 glared at him.

“It’s my life work”

“That’s sad”

“I’m now leaving this conversation”

“What??” Trey was flabbergasted. He didn’t get a reply. Maybe he was a bit too rude..? Well, what was done was done, he couldn’t take his words back. Not like he cared.

The freshman thing continued the next day too, with different challenges too. 4 seemed to inexplicably disappear before it started again. Trey couldn’t decide if he was glad. He was debating if he should try and actually get along with this guy or ask to switch with someone else.

Well, regardless, he went and had fun. The day went by fast, he almost forgot about his confusing roommate. 

Just as he was about to go back to his room, he heard loud roaring outside. He sighed and bolted in the bathrooms then left through the open window there. It was a bit hard squeezing through but that wouldn’t stop him.

As he left he saw the same guy with the pretty fit. He actually had his arrow out, which was blue, trying to control the corrupted meme. He had one too, but purple. If he had to explain it, it’s like a lasso made with life energy of the holder using it. He didn’t understand why it was an arrow too and now seeing this guy had a pretty similar one if it meant anything more. He shook his head, he had to focus and not get lost in the sword wielder’s skillful fighting and the implications of his existence.

He jumped up beside him.

“What is it this time?”

“It’s that uh… the T-rex meme from jeez… long ago. I don’t know why an unfunny ancient meme would show up like this”

“Unfunny…? I kinda liked it actually”

He sighed.

“We can discuss meme culture later, can you help?”

“Uhuh, yeah” Trey replied delayed, a tiny bit awkward, he was not the type to get distracted like this. If only this guy wasn’t so pretty-

He summoned his arrow as well, tying down the meme in another place, making it unable to move.

“Alright, now we need a plan”

“Oh you’ve got one too, cool” sword wielder guy pointed at the arrow “It actually gives me an idea” 

He hopped next to Trey, still keeping a good grip on his arrow as he shared his idea quietly, as to not alert the meme of it. Trey nodded, as they still both held onto the meme.

“You know, I just remembered this philosophical dilemma I read about the other day…”  4 said, as if casually talking and this wasn’t part of their plan.

“Yeah?” 

“It’s about that ship? With the replacing parts thing.”

“Ah, yeah, it’s kinda dumb as fuck”

“I know right!”

The meme was rather alert, listening to their conversation.

“It’s like, who cares, there’s better things to worry about in life than if some dude’s ship is still the same thing… or whatever the heck they meant by it”

“Really, genuinely, it’s so nonsensical. Only dumb fucks think about it too hard”

“And what was the guy’s name? Something with like… T”

“T more like Totally worthless hah, especially for getting himself such a shitty ship!”

The meme, with its love for philosophy, couldn’t take the slander anymore and started wailing. Trey didn’t waste time, basically purple fire blowtorching the meme through its open mouth. It was distracting enough for 4 to let go of it with his own arrow and slashing down on it with his sword with all the strength he could put into it. The meme was defeated.

“Easy as hell!” Trey boasted.

“Teamwork sure makes this stuff faster”

“Say… what’s your name?”

“I can’t tell you that I think” 

“Man… am I supposed to call you pretty sword guy for all eternity then?”

4 reddened at the compliment.

“You don’t need to, besides I’m not pretty”

Trey looked at 4 like he was the biggest dumbass in the whole world.

“Dumbass” and he called him one too.

“Ah??” the tone surprised 4.

“I mean, you’re just wrong. Might resort to calling you Blue then, at least it’s cute enough for you”

4 thought for a moment.

“Okay but… what do I call YOU then? Careless flirt?” 

Trey chuckled.

“I’ll take that as a compliment. But we could match, just call me Purple”

“Purple, ay? If that’s what you want”

“Then we’re settled”

And so they went on their ways, somehow avoiding each other on their way back to their rooms. 

And this would continue, with them getting along as heroes but not as roommates, even after the year started. Unfortunately, they attended the same course so they went to just about all the same classes as luck would have it. Trey for this reason would often go later just so he didn’t need to pass by him, it wasn’t something he wanted to deal with after all, it was enough to take his energy as he was in their room. Just silently clicking away, with a look of determination, it was admirable in a really ugly way. Like, there was dedication but only for watching memes and editing videos he didn’t get personally. This guy was anything but charming. Sitting by himself in class, eating and chilling out by himself in breaks. Just in general, doing things alone. 

All the while, he’d fight with this cool sword wielder guy who, unbeknownst to him was the same damn guy. And each time it was as good as the first, their plans always working out. He was actually really starting to like this guy. He almost started looking forward to monsters appearing so they could fight together again. What he found weird is that these guys actually started showing up more frequently now, which meant he had to excuse himself more and more and make up excuses. His friends would ask if he was fine a lot. And he would assure them that he was just totally sneaking off because class was too boring and they’d just laugh it off. He would also discuss his roommate with them, talking about how awful it was to be with him. He was actually considering asking for a different roommate.

He would hold off for a while though, only 4 weeks had passed so far. He didn’t believe Mr Watch Memes And Edit Video would change his mind and suddenly talk to him but he was willing to maybe give it a few more days. Only a few more days.

And just as faith would have it, a fateful day, a Saturday, would change their lives as it had been at this point.

Trey woke up, feeling a bit unusual but nothing too weird. His bed also felt weirdly different but he decided to pay it no mind. He got up to go to the bathroom, which felt shorter than usual. As he approached the mirror, it hit him like a bullet. It wasn’t HIM looking back from the mirror. It wasn’t his bored face with his usual messy hair, it was his shitty roommate with his shorter hair and blue eyes that probably never looked at anyone with warmth in them.

He panicked as he went out, indeed seeing himself in his own bed. He wasn’t the type to panic but man, did something settle in him then. Maybe it was his roommate being prone to feeling panicked. What a loser.

He was trying to think, what could make this possible. He sat down on his roommate’s bed. Thinking stuff through rationally, even if his roommate's anxiety ridden head was making it hard.

Why would they swap bodies in the first place? Did they do something they weren’t supposed to? No way, they barely interact. Is… Is that what was bad? But how was this even possible in the first place? No way some kind of energy beyond them thought that he had to get along specifically with this one annoying guy. And it could’ve been more merciful. Didn’t need to immediately make it feel like a punishment. He sat around for a while, not really knowing what to do. He didn’t really know what to do with his hands so he played with the necklace 4 had. It had a white USB as the pendant. 

He took a closer look at it, seeing that it’s seemingly functional. He took his laptop from his own bed, turned it on and decided that today he just won’t give a shit about possibly giving himself a virus. This was just all too interesting to him. He wanted to know more.

It loaded up. A folder came up but it had a ton of files, which were encrypted. Each one he tried to click made a window pop up to give a password.

“Damn it…” he spoke under his breath, feeling a little weird about not hearing his own voice. 

“Need help?” a voice spoke from his laptop.

“What the??” he recoiled a little, only to see his roommate’s silly little helper pop out.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did I scare you? I didn’t mean to! What are you struggling with?”

“Uhh…” Trey wasn’t sure how to go about this.

“I see you were trying to open encrypted files! Did you forget the passwords? Although thus far I didn’t take you as one to be forgetting PASSWORDS of all things, SMG4….. and you did tell me to protect them…. AND protect them I will”

Trey sighed.

“I don’t even know how to begin explaining”

“I’m afraid I do not understand”

“Like I do, damn!”

The TV stared at him.

“You’re not 4, are you?”

“Yes but no- I- I think we switched bodies?”

“HUH that’s…. quite the predicament…. with who again?”

“I’m his roommate”

“Oh, yeah, right, the annoying one!”

“How nice of you to say that”

“I would prefer if this wasn’t the case though… how about we wake up 4 to figure out something?”

“Are you not even surprised at the bodyswap?”

“A little bit! But a lot of strange things happen to my dear favourite user so what can I really do, hehe!”

“What… strange things?”

“Oh, you know, just all sorts of things with… memes and stuff. Getting weird injuries… That one time in highschool when his pendrive refused to work for him due to cosmic powers messing with it and he fixed it by… oh, what was it again?”

Trey felt like something wasn’t adding up.

“You’re not telling me something”

“Eh?”

“I’m right, aren’t I? What’s your name again… Puzzle Wizard”

“I’m a computer program! I can’t lie!”

“Uhuh, and you’re also not talking to me intelligently with a voice that text to speech couldn’t simply do, yes?”

“4 just made me really awesome like that! But you wouldn’t know because you wouldn’t even give him a chance!”

“He didn’t give me one either so why should I? What I get what I give, it’s that easy”

“Simple-minded! When he would leave me for whatever reason I didn’t just change my mind about him! Even though I missed him dearly each time…”

“Oooookay… let’s just wake him up!”

But just as he said that, 4 did indeed wake. He sat up, looking around, his eyes landing on himself. Which wasn’t him. He shook his head but it wouldn’t go away.

“What the…” 4 spoke but immediately stopped. That wasn’t his own voice.

“Yes, we swapped, like… fuck I guess this Saturday wasn’t meant to be good”

“Ugh… What..?” 

Trey got up and walked up to his own bed towered over his swapped roommate.

“Exactly what I said. We swapped for some reason. I’m still trying to figure out why but your weirdo program is being cagey about something”

“Don’t abuse Puzz!” 

“I’m not abused one bit! Just annoyed… and puzzled, heh… get it? hahh,,”

4 got up, looking at his digital companion on Trey’s laptop.

“Alright, good… What were you doing with my pendrive anyways?”

“Oh just… felt familiar in a way… I…” he trailed off, staring at his own pendrive. 

4 followed his eyes. 

“You… carry a pendrive on your neck too? Like a pendant?” he grabbed it.

“Yeah” Trey looked out of it.

“Wh… What for..?”

But he didn’t answer.

Instead he left and locked the bathroom on himself.

4 was left there, realising it alone.

“So… he’s been the… ph-… Purple…Well, ah- that sure is a lot to take in…”

He sat down, looking at Puzzles on Trey’s laptop.

“Well, what can you do? I guess it was… one way to have that dropped on you… Not that I knew I’m just- trying my best to comfort you”

“I appreciate it” 4 smiled at them “Still, this is quite peculiar” 

“Maybe the cosmic forces thought you needed to get along?”

“What is it with these cosmic forces and trying to ruin my life?”

“I mean… last time you learned valuable things too… maybe this time won’t be any different, as much as it pains me to say”

“I just… don’t know how the least nice roommate I could have and the coolest fighter by my side I could have are the same… and he said I was cute! Many times! I even… kind of started believing him but this… Oh I bet he doesn’t feel that way anymore”

“Well, I do think you’re still cute”

4 only sighed. He was feeling so many things. Disappointment, a sort of fear, like he was about to get accused of something bad, especially if it meant a lot for him, just general bitterness. 

Puzzles looked sad over how his words didn’t even really seem to be received. If only it were to be only the 2 of them…

“Hey, I wonder…” Puzzles started again, awkwardly, trying to bring his favourite user’s spirits up “I wonder what could be on your roommate’s pendrive? Since you- had me and all”

“I’m not exactly one to invade another person’s privacy buuuuuut….”

“Buuut?” Puzzles looked at him with big innocent eyes. He wanted to look at those files BADLY. 

“I’ll consider it as payback” 4 said then plugged the other pendrive in 3’s laptop since it was turned on anyways. 

As it opened they both noticed nothing was encrypted, besides a file type he was already familiar with. He messed with that kinda thing before and through quite the blunder, he found out it was the energy source of the pendrive. Interestingly, it was named a CTMGC file. He didn’t find anything about it, why would he anyways? It was… one of a kind… and overheated his pc once when he tried to open it. 

Anyways, other than that, it seemed to be songs sorted into folders by the albums they belonged in. There was a special folder just for Peach/Princess albums. Looking at Trey’s wall, which was full of posters, with Peach/Princess in the  middle, it was no wonder. It was easy to tell how much he loved the singer. If only 4 cared about this.

“Ugh… really, nothing?” he looked further while complaining.

But then…

An OGG file…

It was named.

A shitty mistake.

Finding it odd, 4 got his headphones out, giving it a listen. The song was maybe… a bit rough around the edges. Amatour work. The song had drums, maybe one or 2 guitarists and one bass guitar player based on what 4 could hear though he wasn’t the best at this kind of stuff. And then the singing kicked in. It was like… oh. Ooooooh, now the name made sense. That was this asshole singing. But he probably sounded the nicest out of everything. Standing out in some way, yet drowned out by awfully mixed instruments. It was kind of a shame. 4 was starting to like it. Even if the guy behind the voice still wasn’t to his liking. He wondered how they could even end up in the same dorm. 2 people so different. Probably never truly meant to meet. 

Meanwhile, Trey wasn’t coping well, staring at his reflection, trying to figure out how Blue and this loser could be the same. When Blue was cute, good to work with, can be communicated with unlike 4. How could they ever be the same? He liked one and couldn’t look at the other. As he looked in the mirror more, he got lost a bit. Just staring. And staring. As if bitter loneliness was hidden in his eyes. He wasn’t sure if this loneliness belonged to him or 4. What did it matter anyways, besides the fact that it captured him, as if the world stopped existing, even if he felt like he pulled a whole world of stress on himself with this. He didn’t want to kind of like this guy. 

He didn’t like him.

He didn’t like him.

He would never like him.

There was no way to.

Yet a sort of energy ran through him, as if it was beyond him. A connection he didn’t want or asked for. As if tied down in a way he never asked for. He found it scary. He wished this was a nightmare but reality wouldn’t be so merciful on him. He grabbed the sink as if it was at fault for his condition.

He sat down on the cold ground. Maybe he did think 4 was kind of cute either way. Not the first time he thought someone was cute yet  he despised them. And at this rate it probably wouldn’t be the last with the kind of people he finds cute… Eh, he’ll just… take off stress elsewhere when all this is over. Maybe move rooms so he’d have to think less about it. Avoid 4 in fights. They didn’t truly need each other for this anyways. He worked on his own, purifying memes by himself for so long anyways, he could always go back to it. 

After so much anguish he left the bathroom, noticing 4 was listening to something on his laptop.

As he took a closer look, he realised what it was. He immediately closed it on 4, without a word or a reason spoken.

“So, you’re a singer or something?”

“Were. Now shut up, I’m not gonna talk about it” 

4 froze at the cold answer. What could have happened that made him despise the song so much?

“I mean, yeah it’s not the best but…”

But he wouldn’t get an answer.

4 looked out the window.

“Trey..” 4 said “We should probably only move from each other when we figure out how to… turn back…”

Trey sighed.

“Sadly, I agree.”

They shared silence, it wasn’t uncomfortable, just tense and full of pain in such a specific way. Emotion was one hell of a torture method when it wanted to be.

It was gonna be one hell of a weekend, that was for sure.

[lucysweatslove]

12.2.23 // Oreo’s First Teeth Cleaning and other thoughts

Oreo has his first teeth cleaning on Friday. He’s five, and this is the first year it was recommended by his vet (we asked about it a few years ago, set up an appointment, was told his teeth were so clean and healthy the risk of anesthesia was not worth the cleaning). I was a nervous Nelly all day. My husband called me at 1, just when class was starting, because they had called him. Oreo is apparently really sensitive to anesthesia, which is weird to me because he’s been under twice before (neuter and anal gland removal) and did okay- but I wonder if anesthesia is dosed by weight class? He was ~19 lbs during his neuter and gland removal and is now ~23 lbs.

He struggled when he got home. I was in class and couldn’t leave, so I didn’t get to see the worst of it, but apparently his back legs didn’t work super well, and he just wanted to be swaddled and held like an infant. Husband said he held him and rocked/walked with him for an hour and then held him on the couch until I got home.

He was very clearly hungry and wanted to eat, but since he was intubated and had his teeth scraped at, chewing was hard- and I was worried that dry kibble would scratch up his throat. So I made rice and chicken- which obviously he loved. The problem? The chicken breasts were frozen and HUMONGOUS and took over an hour to cook. After 40 min at 375 my husband took over, and when I saw the chicken my husband deemed “well cooked” it still looked pink to me… we bickered, and ofc nobody could win that argument because we no longer have a meat thermometer (ours was left outside and rusted).

This morning husband informed me that Oreo ate all of his kibble but needed coaxing- I had wanted to keep him in C&R today to support his throat and because he had diarrhea last night and this morning, but apparently husband decided noooo he wanted the chicken for himself… he actually made himself chicken fried rice for dinner. And poor Oreo could smell the chicken and rice and seemed really excited by the smell… so I made the executive decision to give him C&R again.

Well…. Everybody in the family has had multiple bouts of diarrhea since then. 🙃🙃🙃 Ive had it the easiest. I didn’t eat any of the chicken but realized that I failed to wash my hands after feeding Oreo before I ate something myself. It was all a little early for the time frame for the typical chicken bacteria (salmonella, campy, c perfringens) but it’s the only thing we all had contact with… Thankfully both boys are snoring now, but yeah, not a pleasant day. And now I’m having intermittent stabby spleen pain 🙃🙃

On top of all that my skin is flaring again. My legs have some folliculitis that is… quite bad to the point where if it wasn’t focal in the hair follicles I’d be worried for some kind of insect bites. I’m annoyed by all of the recurrent infections.

Anyway, all of that aside, I’m doing okay all things considered. I’ve been playing Disney Dreamlight Valley (fun) and really not studying the way I should be for school… it’s just hard to motivate. I’ve done some reviewing and don’t suspect I’ll fail but definitely checked out for winter break. I’m also torn atm with body stuff. I feel better having put words to the body and gender disconnect, but when it comes to day to day, it’s hard to DO anything about it other than just internally vibe. Idk, maybe I’d feel better if I was more “out,” but I fear others’ reactions might not be neutral to positive. I’m sure most people wouldn’t care at all if they even noticed a pronoun shift, but it’s the not KNOWING how people will react- the ambiguity… like, assuming they’ll all react positively or neutrally is just as egregious in my mind as assuming anybody would react negatively or use it to other me furthers. Especially professionally. I’m like 99% positive nobody in my class would give it a second thought if they even noticed. But I expect negativity as much as I expect positivity from them, and in the greater professional world there is a lot of negativity. Especially about identities like mine- the ones that are borderline, where I’ve somehow simultaneously been othered by both groups of people with normative and groups with divergent experiences.

Tbh I really don’t know what would help me feel more like me and not eat home in my own body. Old ED brain keeps whispering, oh, people will accept you more if you were thin- and then you can express yourself however you want and look okay enough instead of like a Michelin man. Of course I know that if I fed into that, I still probably would never be happy or content.

I’m doing a good job not falling back into disordered eating patterns, but I can’t take full credit for that because tbh I kinda want to, but it always involved more work and time for me (exercise purging, meal planning and prepping, etc). I don’t have the time or executive functioning to make normal easy meals or go to the gym a regular human amount- I def don’t have 3+ hours to go do split sessions at the gym and 3+ hours to craft the “perfect” meal that I can enjoy but not too much and has protein so I can spare muscle and not totally screw myself over…

And that brings up a lot of other feels too, because Like one part of my feels guilty for thinking about heavy restriction and exercise purging at all. But another part feels entirely invalidated because I’m fat now and unable to “willpower” my way into thinness again (like “if I were ever really sick I’d be able to fall back into this without any problems and be totally fine until I got thin again” which has so many layers to dissect…). And another part is just curious, is it possible to become thin and not hate my appearance without falling into ED world? And aaaannoootthhherr part is curious what others would notice- if anything at all- if I did slip back into ED brain considering how it took YEARS to get anybody to see it was a problem the first time around.

Also can we talk about the time patterns? Because I always get worse in the winter, which screams of SAD, but actually I see two other factors for winter pattern. One, memories (SA, friend’s suicide). Two, I hate how my body looks in winter clothes (Michelin man effect every time I try to wear a sweater lol). There is always the underlying belief that people will like me more if I’m thinner/I’ll be better able to make friends/etc. But during the winter, it’s compounded with memories of the assault, remembering how alone I was, the loss of the one person who was nice… and then all wrapped up in a bow of feeling like I absolutely cannot in any way express myself because winter clothes never feel like me.

But… yeah, all of that aside I’m actually doing okay. I’m holding up. Still eating. I think in my head as long as I’m still eating salad kits with the full fat dressing I’m fine 😅 I’ve had periods of time where I’m like “oh but I could cut so many calories if I swap to Walden farms” and then I’m like “yeah and lose out on 95% of the joy of a salad… “ I’m eating vegetables now when historically they’ve been a punishment, I’ll take the win.

[1d1195]

EXACTLY WHAT I THINK TOO! Which is why I full on thought you had a brother lol And it's sweet that your sister helps you out! What is your style though or like aesthetic that you tend to gravitate towards?

My dad wants to look more into the native tribes around the area he was born because apparently his grandmother spoke a fluently a native language?! Crazy lol And honestly bestie I support you unleashing extended family DRAMA! It's for the ✨plot✨. Oddly enough I've mentioned to my mom she should do one but she fears it will cause drama on her side and dare I say i would like to see that unfold lol

I LOVE a good deal so whenever I have time/energy I am in there! I forgot that you were like a full on young adult when they were popular which makes more sense because although it was definitely a CHOICE on my end I was a child lol. BUT I understand why you were hesitant and that's okay!

I GET IT SO MUCH ABOUT BEING EMOTIONAL!! And it hard to have so much love to give yet the people who you want to show it too don't accept it or it's just not expressed in a way that feels like its for you. That post right there is such a good example, I loved reading it! And I think overall the act of being SEEN is so fulfilling and craving that is valid! Expressing love or anything remotely "soft" depending on your environment can be draining and sometimes feels embarrassing since your the only one. But it seems you have so much to give because that's natural to you and that's not weird at all. It's hard to be the first one to do things that may seem "weird" but it's YOU, you can't keep suppressing the love that you have, it may feel/sound selfish but trying for yourself is enough! easier said than done you deserve that nourishment that you give to other too!

AND SAM YOU LITTERALLY SAID WHAT MY THERAPIST HAS SAID TO ME HAHA But really though i feel so much and so the instances where I have gotten hurt for sure have closed myself off but I do appreciate you saying those things💗

I had such a BUSY weekend that the book was not on my mind at all lol BUT I DID GO TO A CONCERT AND IT WAS GREAT! I needed that honestly and so worth the lack of sleep lol Which explains why my reply is so late so sorry for the wait! But I hope yours was good at least!

Now... THE BALCONY EXTRA 😭 Tell my why I had a feeling she was going to be pregnant😭 and the way HARRY FIGURED IT OUT 😭 ugh it was so cute seeing how he was trying to not freak out haha and I love the comedy aspect that you add to your stories like that pee joke was hilarious i giggled lol That was such a cute little extra it made my heart feel so warm! Great as always!! Also side note, that divider was so cute!!

Ily so much Sam! Hope the week is treating you well!-💜

LOL style. I think it's called "millennial-retro classic" ☠ I don't think I have style. I am a skinny jeans, cardigan, side-parted hair (granted my hair is frizzy/wavy/curly so I look like a serial killer with a middle part), ballet flats kinda girl. But I'm also a teacher so I feel like I dress like one most of the time. This looks like how I dress:

I'm pretty reserved when it comes to clothing but I almost don't care? It's just pretty much I buy what I want to buy. I'm a leggings/jeans and t-shirt combo on my days off hehehe. What's your style like?

I don't want to pry into your family life too much but it sounds like you could snag a GREAT deal on your FAFSA if your fam is such a high % Native 👀 Also on the family thread, I love the vibe. I'll let you know if the drama is ever unfolded in my life. I just like the vindication of being right. It's petty and mean of me but the family I love but don't like is often two-faced and I think they could all be knocked down a peg.

I went to an extremely judgmental high school (I know every high school is like that) but I grew up in a pretty affluent/vacation/trendy area and it felt like I was less for not having real Uggs or a NorthFace jacket. Then I went to college and everyone was like "just get it at Target" and I was like "WHERE?!" Eye-opening. The real stuff they don't tell you about college hahaha

I never expect anyone to take my advice but I know since we're so similar it's nice to hear from other people what you want to hear (even if you don't use the advice) it's kind of like confirmation? So of course, do what you have to do and live your life how you see fit. I just don't want you to have any regrets 💕

A CONCERT how nice! Who was the concert for? It sounds like a nice pick me up! My weekend was once more exhausting. My school district has their spring break next week. ALSO I was in the partial eclipse path yesterday and it was SO cool and just what the little astronomer in me needed 💕

THANK YOU SO MUCH. (Tbh I think I'm hilarious--I'm my own target audience) but of course it's so nice to hear that you think my humor fits in well enough to my stories! I really didn't know what to do with them so I thought making her pregnant might be a vibe hahaha I'm glad you enjoyed as always!!

Glad you had a good weekend and hope you're having a good week too!

xoxo

[abyssalspamton]

I GOT TO SEE THE FNAF MOVIE ON THE DAY IT RELEASED IN AUS AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH im so happy i did. I kinda need to talk about. EVERYTHING that happened. As this is what i just do now when i get all hyperfixated on stuff. but maybe a lil review for people that don't want spoilers (if anyone actually sees this), any spoilers will be under the cut. you have been warned. (i also go off about thinking about theories i apologise)

NO SPOILERS So I liked it. I think it was a good, FUN movie. i say fun because. IT WAS VERY MUCH FUN. It didn't take itself deadly seriously, and while part o f me was interested how it would go if it did, i'm also EXTREMELY happy it didn't as i feel that would've made it's. bad moments bad in a less. than funny way. I wish Matthew Lillard was in it a lil more and I don't think it's like. perfect. i had a few gripes with some of the scenes (which i'll get into under the cut) BUT.

overall? loved it. 10/10 100% recommend you watch it. Also people y'all should never trust the critic reviews for movies like these because they don't CARE about the plot. they don't KNOW fnaf, nor are in t he fanbase. ofc a fucking 40 year old that knows nothing about fnaf isn't gonna like it. I SURE HOPE NOT!! CAUSE THEY ARE BORING OLD MEN!!

ONTO THE SPOILERS.

firstly, getting this out the way because i had a fucking STROKE when i saw matpat. WHAT A FUCKING LIAR. WHAT A LITTLE SHIT(lovingly)!!! HE GOT ME WITH HIS CROC TEARS! i thought he was so deadass when he was all teary eyed saying he wished he was in the movie. i was so upset! i was gonna have a fucking go at scott! I'm so happy he's in the movie it was. such a cute little scene. though how dare he were a nametag that says ness.

secondly vanessa being afton's daughter wasn't that surprising. When i realised that michael wasn't willy's son (like bio or anything) my first thought was "oh well he has to have some type of child" because. scott does that, like in his books. things get changed up sometimes but most things stay the same. aka him having at least one child, just means he didn't get two deadones as well. So when vanessa showed up (i forgot she was in it lmao) i was like. OH YEAH THAT'D. WORK I GUESS. and just assumed immediately thats what they were doing.

ESPECIALLY WHEN SHE WAS GETTING ALL PISSY AT MIKE? like that was a lil obvious she was trying to hide that her father committed the murders cause she didn't want any backlash.

I cannot judge children for their acting because they are children. But i will say one of the children (cough eric) was looking at the camera before. you can see his eyes focusing on the guy behind it. NOT A BIG DEAL I WAS JUST OBSERVING AND FOUND THAT DISTRACTING. also abby's actor was cute i just think a few scenes are a lil iffy with her (she is a child im not blaming her).

vanessa's and mike's romance. what a. thing huh. kinda crazy considering in an alternate reality (the canon universe) mike is william's son and Vanessa isn't. feels kinda weird. but laso like if me MYSELF was vanessa and saw mike? that pathetic man? that absolute sopping WET cat of a man? yeah. fair. i'd be down bad.

listen. i stand by that the whole. abby befriending the fazgang was. 'bad' in the sense of. bro that's so cringe but i am LAUGHING keep on GOING. but also because. hey. consider this. those anamatronics are children. and stuck like that. THEY ARE STUCK AT THAT MENTAL AGE. I THINK IT'D BE SO FAIR THEY'D BE EXCITED TO BEFRIEND A NORMAL FUCKING KID THAT'S NOT DEAD!! this is why im happy the movie didn't go super serious because.

while YEAH it would've been emotional to see this played more seriously, them upset they're dead and still befriending abby, it's just the fact that it probably would've. not landed well, or at least completely, so it would've still had a 'bad' vibe to it. just THIS way we can all laugh at it. I had my head in my hands a few times because i was just "oh gOD" looking @ you. pillow fort. bonnie fucking laying his ass down.

i also understand why scott didn't do the fnaf games lore, or book lore, because he can have more fun with it this way, and also work with blumhouse to make original ideas instead of just. copy pasting from the games/books and hoping they do it well enough it lands.

Lore wise im interested if william has more bio children and how many other children he's killed. what animatronic eric is, if they're going by the logic that everyone bro kills turns into one (imagine he's bb). my friend charlotte said he might be the puppet but. that role i would expect from Henry's daughter. if henry still exists? please tell me henry still exists-

I'm also interested how they're gonna make mike keep on coming back/being involved? we can't go back to fnaf 2 since that was a prequel, i mean i quess you could but also that just doesn't feel correct to do in a movie. so im expecting scott is going to have to (SURPRISE SURPRISE) completely clear up what games go where. so rn it's fnaf 1, we know fnaf 2 was before since bb is there so we're not gonna get a fast one pulled on us on that end. fnaf 3 might be next? but i could also like. see scott skipping that one. BUT i could also see him not skipping it because he wants to 'redeem' it and show that. yeah he fucked up the game but he can make up with it via movie.

oh something obvious to say. vanessa is more than likely a robot. im not gonna get into a fight with the whole robot people are stupid when it's fucking in the books JFHEDSKNJA SO. IM JUST NOT. but like. considering she's afton's daughter i would not be surprised if she actually died when she was younger and got turned into a robot. it's just how it is.

can't wait for fnaf 2 probably coming out in fucking 2031 and fnaf 3 the final coming out in 2045 <3 i might not make it to those movies HFNKEJSD jokes aside im. happy with the movie, excited to see more, especially the lore for it, and though i think fnaf's lore is a garbage fire it's also fun to look at when you take a step back and just. decide to enjoy it with 0 thinking skills for a second.

also thanks to anyone who read this <3

[gamerkats]

The Night Before Boxing Day 12 of Those Lords are Leaping

Word Count: 2,600+

“The Vorpal Blade, the White Rabbit,” Andy grumbled from the bathroom floor of the small airport, “did anyone read anything other than Lewis Carroll?”

“I can’t account for this Vorpal Blade you’re all terrorized by, but I can explain the White Rabbit,” Chad rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, and closed his dark brown eyes. He’d always known he couldn’t keep Alice’s secret forever. However, these three weren’t who he envisioned revealing it to.

“Please,” Chase almost pleaded, his handsome features resembling a desperate puppy, “tell me what happened to Alice. I’ve known Sarah all my life. Girl next door and all that. But Alice and Joyce took care of me when I was little; after my mother passed away. Then, when my dad died—”

“Jesus,” Andy sighed and closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the tiled wall, “can your backstory get any sadder?” His face was throbbing now, and he couldn’t tell the heat from bleeding versus the bruising anymore. Tyler might have the upper hand at the moment, but it wouldn’t be the case for long. Andy didn’t come here alone, after all.

“Unfortunately, this is a pretty normal backstory,” Chase narrowed his gaze at Andy, “There are many people who lose one or both of their caregivers. I’m not saying I had it rough. The opposite, in fact, because I was fortunate enough to have a support system through Sarah’s mothers. I was seventeen when my father drank himself to join my mom. It was Joyce and Alice who helped me stay out of the system and be on my own. They also kicked my ass into going to college, and even gave me work so I could support myself. When Alice died I…” His voice trailed off in a staggered memory as he turned away from them. A fist tightening at his side as he clenched his teeth to ground himself. Crying wasn’t something he wanted to do right now, especially not in front of these three.

“She was obviously far kinder to you than me,” Chad gave a soft chuckle; the sound causing Tyler to grin.

“But that’s just it,” Chase nearly yelled, his eyes a rage of questions, “why do you know this? Did you help her fake her own death?”

“Yes.”

This only fueled the burning emotions in Chase. “What?! Why?! How?! Why did she go to you and not me?! I could have helped her! I know all kinds of places she could have gone! Why you? You only care about yourself! She knows I would have done anything for her!! Sarah, Allison, Joyce, Alice; they’re all I have! I would die to keep them safe!”

“Then why did you run away to Canada?”

Chad’s question hung like an ugly portrait. No matter how much anyone wanted to avert their gaze, it was fixed on each truthful imperfection. Tyler and Andy both held the same face of, Oh snap!, but neither said a word. They simply shifted their sight between one man and the other.

Chad wasn’t wrong. Chase knew that. He had run away. But the reason was his own business, not Chad’s. Perhaps he had been a coward, hiding behind the guise of trying to do good works in the world. Perhaps he wanted to see if he could have actually stood on his own for once, instead of always leaning on Sarah to be the strong one. To be his rock and support. Either way, his absence was felt, and Chad had been used to fill the void. A fact both of them knew quite well, as it continually left a bitter aftertaste at the thought.

“I…” Chase started to say, his angular shoulders drooping in such a way that he looked like a model for Sad Times Magazine. Even Chad felt a little bad at making this pretty man almost cry.

“Look,” Chad sighed heavily, rolling his eyes as if to change the vibe channel, “whatever you’re thinking, let it go. We have a lot of other problems right now. Alice isn’t who you think she is. She’s not a small business jam maker. She’s a member of the 1-D3RL4ND Cards.”

“Oh shit, really?” Tyler’s expression was pure stunned as Andy gave a surprised laugh saying, “It’s always the people you least expect.”

“Wonderland?” Chase replied raising his brow, “That’s a weird name for a cartel.”

“It’s pronounced the same as Wonderland, but it’s spelled in Leet,” Chad corrected, easing in his stance as he spoke. “1-D3RL4ND is a place, not a cartel. A highly secure digital space that’s always moving. The servers are physically moved around in the world, and IP addresses are bounced like pinball machines when working. And you can’t just logon to a computer and enter a password. The digital space is always moving. In order to go, you need to know where the Tarts are hidden. And before you ask, Tarts are what they call phones, iPads, and computers that have been placed in the real world to be used for a limited time before they spoil.”

“1-D3RL4ND is the bane of all law enforcement,” Tyler sounded almost reverent as he added onto Chad’s explanation. “It’s impossible for anyone to find, unless you contact a Knave of Hearts who will steal a Tart for you. But, once you’ve found your way into the gardens, you can literally buy anything with anything. Money and crypto isn’t accepted; 1-D3RL4ND exists exclusively on trading goods and services for goods and services.”

“Not a good way to earn money,” Chase muttered louder than he intended as Andy chuckled from below.

“These are people who already have money,” he sneered, “but they need things that money can’t buy, or at least, buy easily and untraced.”

“But,” Chase brought his gaze from Andy back to Chad, “why would Alice be involved in that? She didn’t have much money.”

“She’s far more well off than you think,” Chad answered, “and as for the why, you’d have to ask her. 1-D3RL4ND is run by a secret group known as the Cards, with each member ranked by the Card they carry. Alice is the White Rabbit, the only Card member who brings in new people to 1-D3RL4ND. She knows everything about everything. In normal circles, she’d be called a shadow broker of secrets. It’s why she’s the only one trusted with granting access to 1-D3RL4ND. She might not be the highest-ranking Card, but she’s the most feared.”

“That makes sense,” Tyler nodded in thought, rubbing his jaw absentmindedly, “she holds everyone’s secrets, and in essence, is holding ‘all the Cards’. No wonder she went underground and hid here in Christianville.”

“Exactly,” Chad looked to him; Tyler’s handsome features still making him a bit bashful. “Joyce and Alice thought they could balance their dark lives with being moms. And they did, for awhile. But something happened. I’m not sure what, and I don’t really care. But when Allison and Sarah started getting older, Joyce and Alice made the decision to get out of the business. They quit 1-D3RL4ND, and went into hiding here in Christianville. But somehow, their identities were discovered and Alice had no choice, but to go back to her life as the White Rabbit. It’s the only way she can protect her family right now.” Turning to Chase, who stared at him as wide-eyed as ever, he added, “Alice didn’t go to you because she thought you couldn’t help. She came to me, because I had resources you didn’t.”

“Money?” Chase asked bitterly as Chad shook his head revealing, “Not just money. I’m a Card.”

This was a surprise to all, including Tyler who stated, “You. A Card. That’s uncharacteristic for someone so…”

“Handsome?” Chad smirked as Tyler’s tone flatly replied, “Altruistic.”

“Not everyone who is a Card member is a rich supervillain,” Chad laughed, “some of us are actually using 1-D3RL4ND to do good.”

“Of course, you are,” Tyler groaned, running a hand through his perfect haircut. “Makes sense now why all the off-the-books oil and pesticides are snapped up in seconds. A bunch of do-gooders forcing the rest of us to do good.”

“Ah,” Chad’s eyes gave a look of, I might have known, as he asked, “Eight of Spades?”

“Please,” he seemed almost hurt by the low assumption, “I’m obviously a Queen.”

“I would marry no less,” Chad’s admiration was audible, as Tyler held a pride now in his countenance.

“Wait,” Andy piped up with a slight pop and shake of his joints, “did you say marry?”

“Got a problem with that?” Chad tightened his grip upon the plastic gun in such a way that Andy was reminded he had it.

Raising his hand in a shaky defense he pleaded, “Whoa, wait, no, not at all! I might be a villain, but I’m not a homophobic piece of shit. Those are the people you should be pistol whipping. Not honest, hardworking dirt bags like me.”

“You’re engaged? Weren’t you asking Sarah to marry you this morning?” The bewilderment on Chase’s face found every syllable in that sentence.

“That was hours ago, man,” Chad sighed as Chase made a sound of, “Wha—”

“Geeze, Chase,” Tyler chimed in, “you need to learn to move on in your life. It’s not good for your health.” Before Chase could defend himself, Tyler squared his stance toward Chad adding, “Speaking of health, I think you should take the soft doctor and go wait all of this out in the Security Office. It’s either next to the janitorial closet or it doubles as the janitorial closet; it’s not entirely clear based on signage. I’ll take Andy and meet Brandon and get this all sorted in a few hours.”

“I’m going to gloss over the fact that you just told me to stay behind and wait for you, like I’m now the poorly written female lead receiving a misogynistic dismissal,” Chad dusted a few specks of nothing off of Tyler’s tailored suit jacket, “and instead I’ll say, what’s Plan B?”

“Chad,” Tyler started but was cutoff by the words, “Before you start saying this isn’t my fight, or some other trash, let me remind you, we’re engaged. Remember? Equal partners. That means equal buckets of shit. Quit acting like you’re the only one with ghosts trying to stab you. The only difference between you and me right now, is that when I exorcise mine, they stay gone.”

“Well, maybe we should use your priest then,” Tyler huffed, absolutely not liking the idea of Chad possibly being subject to the Vorpal Blade.

“Consider me ordained to take out the trash, then,” the smug look made Tyler even more uncertain.

“You don’t understand,” he instinctively rubbed the scar upon his shoulder, hidden beneath his high thread counts. Even now, it still ached like the wound from a high fantasy weapon. “If this world had actual super powers, the Vorpal Blade would be a boogeyman. They’re stronger than you think. Faster. Smarter even. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill city park vigilante in a costume.”

“They’re human,” Chad shrugged, “and that makes them fallible. Trust me, spend years at sea and you’ll know the difference between fighting something human, and fighting something supernatural. Maybe before they were a boogeyman, but you didn’t have what you have now to face them with.”

“You?” Tyler quirked a teasing brow, but Chad simply nodded with, “Goddamn right me. I’m not saying that they’re going to be easy. But together, this motherfucker has seen their last Christmas. Also, Chase isn’t staying in the Security Office either.”

“What? Why?” Both Tyler and Chase asked in unison, with equal amounts of confusion.

“Because,” Chad kept himself from laughing at them, “based on the limited information I’ve been given, it sounds like this Vorpal Blade uses some kind of drugs to get things done. No one can best that many people and string them up in a barn on their own. So, I’m guessing something aerosolized or ingested. Chase is a doctor. We’re going to need him to help with that kind of thing.”

“You’re not wrong,” Tyler nodded, much to Chase’s exasperation, “I don’t have any proof of exactly what, but the way the Vorpal Blade is able to take down certain targets, I think drugs or poison is a big assist.”

“Damn it,” Chase hung his head, rubbing his eyes, “fine. Yes. Besides, taking out serial killers probably comes with injuries. But what about Sarah?”

“Like I said,” Chad replied, “I think she’s probably involved. But you don’t have to worry about her or Allison. Their mothers raised them to be carbon copies of themselves. They’ll be okay.”

“Oh,” Tyler slapped a fist in his open palm in realization, “Sarah’s sister’s mother, is actually Sarah’s other mother. Very cool. That sounds like a nice almost-family you had.”

“Thank you. And you were thinking it was some kind of side piece, trashy backwoods broken family when I said that, huh?” Chad smirked as Tyler sheepishly looked away, rubbing the back of his neck replying, “Yeah, well, it is Christianville, Virginia, after all.”

“Which is apparently overrun by secrets upon secrets,” Chase sounded quite overwhelmed by all of this, “maybe the whole state is just one big cover, and there aren’t any real toxic Christians around.”

“I’ve been here for exactly one day, and I can tell you, this is like ground zero for toxic bible radiation,” Andy drew all attention to him once more, “But, there’s one thing I still don’t get. Who is Joyce if there’s only one White Rabbit?”

“Why does that matter?” Chad asked, as Andy shrugged saying, “I dunno. Just something that will keep me up at night if you don’t tell me.”

“Someone who chased Alice for a really long time,” Chad replied, leaving it at that as Andy gave a face saying, “Fair enough.”

“So, should we assume that the Vorpal Blade is already here?” Chad asked Tyler who shook his head with, “No. If they were, we’d know it by now. They like to play with their prey. Andy, how many of your men are waiting for us outside?”

“Three.”

“So, five,” Tyler countered as Andy’s face lit up in angered surprise.

“What?!”, he exclaimed, “Now how in the fuck did you know that?”

“You always undercut your numbers by at least two,” he was almost bored by the question as Chad mumbled an impressed, “You certainly know your people.”

“I have to,” Tyler crossed his arms upon his chest, “it’s the only way to survive when you’re a rich supervillain who can’t trade fast enough for oil. Okay then, five armed goons. Knowing Jacobs, at least one of them will be highly skilled in hand-to-hand fighting. Does anyone have any kind of badass combat skills we could use?”

“I do,” a new voice joined them now, drawing all eyes to the entrance of the bathroom. There stood the gorgeous, broad, rippling chiseled, muscled physique of a man dressed in boot-cut dark wash jeans, combat boots, and an 80’s hair band t-shirt already splattered in fresh blood. His dark blond hair, that normally dusted his shoulders, was tied back in a sexy mess of a man-bun; a bit heavy with light sweat or melted snow, with a few stray pieces of bangs for perfect facial framing. Golden hazel eyes, square jawed, clean shaven; literally everything Chad feared after hearing his deep, sultry voice on the phone. “And for the record,” the man went on, “there were two hand-to-hand fighters. Each with a hunter’s knife.”

“Who’s this guy now?” Chase asked looking between everyone. Chad appeared the most displeased he’d ever seen to date, while Tyler introduced, “Everybody, meet my romantic rival, Brandon Remington.”

Night Before Boxing Day Continued

For scrolling brevity, we'll be splitting up in 8 chapter increments on Tumblr.

Read Chapters 1 - 8 on Tumblr here.

Also available to read on GamerKAts AO3

The Night Before Boxing Day No, Nope, No way, 9

Words: 2300+

The farmhouse had been abandoned for at least a year. Some things were dilapidated from neglect, or disuse, but most was simply dusty. The furnishings and decorations were old, but that only showed the state of finances for the previous occupants. Having lasted this long from their original purchase dates, age didn’t denote care. Not that the current group shared the previous family’s sentiment; sweating glasses of liquor without coasters, cigars being put out anywhere it pleased them. This was a stage, nothing more, and one they planned to burn to the ground when this was done.

Mr. Jacobs had purchased the farm, in cash, above asking price, from the elderly couple about the same time the house began collecting dust. The property was quite sizable, and held a few different structures; a barn, a horse stable, a ranch-hand house, a mother-in-law annex, and a sizeable quonset greenhouse. The rest was either woods or fields.

It was isolated. Quiet. Perfect.

The original idea had been to turn this property into a money laundering venture for Tyler. After all, this was Amber’s home territory, so that kept the place from looking suspicious. And it would be easy to move deals of cash back and forth through the guise of raising champion horses.

However, when the Vorpal Blade returned, everything changed.

For eight years, the Vorpal Blade had been the shared nightmare of everyone in the criminal underground. From cartels, to mafia, to street gangs, all the way up into white collars. When they closed their wicked eyes at night, the Vorpal Blade was there. Whining hooks on clinking chains. The constant drip, drip, drip of blood like a broken faucet. Hearing the words snicker snack whispered behind them before everything turned red and black.

To the Vorpal Blade, they were the Jabberwock. The monsters who preyed upon the innocent. And it wasn’t far from the truth; as crime is a fire, and innocent people are the logs of which it feeds upon. The only way to not get burned, is to become a flame yourself. And the Vorpal Blade snicker snacked the hottest of all of them.

A vigilante of the worst kind. One that didn’t turn them into the cops, or bring down their enterprises. A vigilante that stalked whomever, whenever, and for as long as it pleased them before the kill. No rhyme or reason to it. No warning.

When you were the chosen Jabberwock, your time came to a whimpering, abrupt end on a cold, steel hook, as you hung upside down; watching your blood paint a bouquet of white roses red.

But Tyler had brought an end to that. Making it his personal mission to hunt down the Vorpal Blade, and make the world safer for villains once more. It was part of why the criminal underworld revered Tyler as a saint. He was their savior, and his seat of power became untouchable and coveted.

Yet, it seemed Tyler’s own blade wasn’t sharp enough. For the Vorpal Blade was back. And vengeance seemed to mean more than their original patterns.

The Vorpal Blade killed innocent people. Innocent farmers. That wasn’t normal. And that kind of unhinged, unpredictability, meant that if Mr. Jacobs didn’t work fast, and careful, there was no telling how big of a rose garden would be painted this time.

And that meant enlisting the help of someone he never, in a million years, would have ever contacted on his own. Someone he feared almost as much as the Vorpal Blade.

The Wraith.

Which is how he ended up in this place. The money laundering horse farm, currently only laundering confidence into cowardice. Standing downstairs while he, and the others, listened to a loud bang of a door, then more banging, raised feminine voices, and the eventual return of a groaning, muttering son of a European crime family.

“Mr. Evanhart,” Mr. Jacobs smiled his glinting grin, “my, what a number Miss Allison did on your face.”

“That’s not Alli’s work,” Sarah piped up, tying her long, full sunshine hair in a twisting bun. “Your man wouldn’t be returning at all if Alli had been involved.”

“So, the cat does have claws then,” Mr. Jacobs mused to himself. “We’ll need to be more careful when approaching her next. You didn’t harm Amber, did you?”

“Of course not,” Mr. Evanhart grumbled, wondering if he might need something cold on his throbbing cheek, “you think I want the Wraith on my ass too? Bad enough I’m jumping every time I hear anything that fucking remotely sounds like chains. I don’t need to be on two serial killer lists.”

“Ah, a common mistake. The Vorpal Blade, is a serial killer,” Mr. Jacobs corrected, “the Wraith, however, is a contract killer.”

“What’s the diff?” Mr. Evanhart gave a cool warning stare in the rotund man’s direction. Mr. Jacobs might have been calling the shots, but he was no Tyler. He was replaceable. Unlike himself, who was actual criminal royalty. So, his patience only went so deep and far in that regard.

“Most serial killers can’t help themselves; it’s a need, a drug. Killing is like breathing. They tend to get sloppy, as their talents are unsophisticated. And for most of them, they’re driven by attention,” Sarah replied, much to the shock of the surrounding people.

She was the last one they thought would have a say in this. In fact, none of them even knew why Mr. Jacobs had involved her. Just a seemingly bland, blonde, easy to ignore, fuckable romance lead; with the hobbies and aspirations of a blowup doll. The kind slapped in wherever the writers wanted people to phase the woman out, and imagine themselves in her place. But this cardboard cutout spank bank—who was written to be worthy of a gorgeous doctor, who did, indeed, model underwear to put himself through med school—seemed to have an actual brain. And dare they even think, possibly more to her character as a whole.

“It’s why Tyler was able to track the Vorpal Blade down,” Sarah went on, “because serial killers leave clues and breadcrumbs. It’s a game. They want to be caught. Whereas, contract killers, the good ones, are the complete opposite. They’re professionals. They’re paid. It’s not a game, it’s a job. And if you get caught at your job, then you don’t work anymore. Simple as that.”

Everyone was quiet as they watched Sarah. She was something else entirely from what they previously thought. And it echoed in each word she said, as if her true self was a well so deep, it swallowed all romantic, lead female light. “Anyone can kill,” she stated plainly, seeing that no one else was going to speak, “if you kill more than one person, poof, you’re a serial killer. But that doesn’t make you a professional.” Turning to Mr. Jacobs, she asked, “Is that what the Wraith told you to do? Turn my little sister into a serial killer by murdering Amber and Mae?”

“No,” he shook his head slow to emphasize his answer, “this is just a good opportunity and we shouldn’t waste it. We’re luring the Vorpal Blade here with all of the biggest targets he could possibly want. Having Amber and Mae killed by Tyler’s gun would just be an added benefit.”

“How so?” She kept her arms at her sides, and eased back on her heels.

He shrugged, so cavalierly about her sister’s mental and emotional future, that she wanted to punch his eye straight through the back of his skull. “Getting Tyler out of the way would be a benefit to all of us. I sent Andy, and a few others, to round him up at the airport and drive him aimlessly around all night. That way, he doesn’t have any sort of alibi for his actions. The Wraith deals with the Vorpal Blade, Allison kills Amber and Mae, Tyler goes to prison, Allison has a reason to keep her mouth shut, and we all go back to business as usual.”

“Why not just kill Tyler?”

“Because,” he raised a brow, “Tyler is more valuable alive. It’s why trigger-happy Andy gets only a plastic toy gun. I’m not risking Tyler getting killed in case your employer can’t do the job. Nor am I going to risk open crime warfare for any Brutus who gets pissed we moved against Caesar.”

There it was. The reason. And it brought with it a heap of respect she could feel on her shoulders. Sarah worked for the Wraith. And although, none of them could figure out how a token female like her could end up with one of the world’s greatest assassins, they didn’t dismiss it. This puffed coat princess, was also a dragon in her own right.

“What a perfect little package that is,” Sarah said sarcastically before narrowing her gaze, “except that that’s not happening. You were told to bring all of the crime family heads you could here. To this farm. All under the guise of setting Tyler up; hence why you were told to abduct Amber and Mae. This is supposed to look like you’re all about to group stab Tyler; to look like you’re about to move out from under his thumb. A perfect set up that this new Vorpal Blade won’t be able to miss. Their shortsighted justice addiction won’t let them.” Pausing for a breath, steadying her resolve, she added, “This, in no way, was supposed to be a real setup of Tyler, nor is any harm to come to Amber, Mae, or my sister. If you’re not going to abide by the rules, then I’m calling my employer and telling them this whole thing is off. If my little sister is figuratively going on the hook, then literally, so are all of you.”

“Well,” his voice held a mocking chuckle, “for a half sister, you seem to be wholly invested.”

“My family is my business,” she snapped with the chord he struck, “just as you should be focusing on yours. If you want to take down Tyler, do it on your own time. Going rogue like this is only going to blow this entire thing. And the Wraith doesn’t take kindly to rogues. One word from me, and they’ll join the Vorpal Blade. Hell, probably even beat him to the punch by killing every last one of you.”

“Which is why after the Wraith deals with the Vorpal Blade, we’ll be dealing with the Wraith,” his confidence shook his cheeks as snickers and chuckles wafted around her.

“What?”

“God, you really are a dumb blonde, aren’t you?” Mr. Jacobs gave a waddled laugh. “Did you honestly think that any of these people would come just because your employer said so? Because I said so? They’re here because we’re cleaning house. Tyler Walker, Chadrick Winters, the Vorpal Blade, the Wraith, are all going down tonight. None of us will have to look in our shadows again. Merry fucking Christmas to us.”

She was the one to laugh now; a hearty bag of mockery that stole all the grins around her, leaving only scowls. “You’re all serious. Oh, that’s rich. That’s fucking hilarious. You take down the Wraith? You’re all a bunch of lazy cake toppers with frosting between your legs. You couldn’t punch a single person if they weren’t tied helplessly to a chair.”

Wham.

The balled fist of Mr. Jacobs connected with her cheek. It wasn’t that fast, and she’d turned her head with the blow to avoid most of the damage, but still, what little she caught hurt. Nothing broken or cracked, just warming now, showing that he’d shut her up. “What was that about punching?” He asked glaring; the icing was now a bitter lemon in her eyes.

“Do you honestly think that was a good idea?” Her voice dropped as low as her hazel gaze upon the floor, as if he’d shaken her bravado right from her skull.

“Oh, indeed I do,” he grinned, “in fact, it’s part of my plan. See, I need your boss focused. Single minded focus. Tunnel vision. So, Allison might be the unexpected future murderer, but you, my dear, were never going to leave here alive.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” She asked as her mind began to race over this turn of events.

Mr. Jacobs moved from their position more into the living area. There was a low table full of expensive liquor and glasses. Opening an insolated steel box, he removed two perfectly square ice cubes with prongs, and placed them in a designer cut glass. “Sarah,” he spoke over her shoulder while she slowly straightened her stance, “the Vorpal Blade has changed tactics. He’s killing innocent people now. Innocent people like you.”

“You’re not serious,” she snapped, “my employer—”

“Your employer,” he raised his voice over hers, smothering her into silence, “isn’t going to see anything but their little pet, hanging from chains over a bouquet of beautiful, white roses.”

Pouring the alcohol into his glass, as the ice clinked back and forth, he took a savoring sip before looking to her once more. Their eyes locked; hers a now frantic hazel, his a pale, piercing blue. The moment sat heavy between them before he motioned with his hand to the large, brown box that Sarah had delivered. The one he’d asked her to pick up at the small town post office. The one he’d imported from the same area the Vorpal Blade had been discovered by Tyler to use. “Tell me, since you obviously didn’t look inside the package I had you bring, what did you think you were delivering?”

And just like that, without even lifting the lid, she knew. It was her own roses she’d be painting red.

[therowan]

WHY BUCK AND EDDIES’ STORY MATTERS

So I felt the need to post in pride month about and why I resonate with the characters of Buck and Eddie so much. I’m what you’d call a late bloomer when it comes to relationships being something of an introvert, having serious self image/body dimorphism so bad that I had to stop modeling in my twenties because I was making myself ill with self loathing and depression at not meeting the standards of others around me. I had a lot of opportunities to ‘hook’ up with both men and women but never really synched with the whole surfacey vibe of the people around me. Never a hit it or quit it type. During my sojourn into modeling I made a friend who was in retail sales and she was my perfect Yang she was outgoing loud dynamic and fun. We ended up being friends for years until her finance cheated on her and she needed a place to live and I became her safe haven. Long story short our friendship bloomed in love and the love evolved into desire and the rest of what I always thought everyone was looking so hard for…a friend that you love mind body and soul. We married saved up bought a house and within a few months were the proud parents of a beautiful daughter. I finished college changed my career into psychology and she opened a boutique. Then 18 months after our daughter was born she was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma and after three years of surgeries/chemo/treatments she died. Leaving me a widower at the age of 29 with a three year old daughter. After my wife died I fell into the role I had. Father, homeowner provider. I didn’t date or even think about finding anyone else. Simply worked and took care of my house and my child. As part of my work I took part in counseling and discovered a great therapist who helped me navigate my grief and pervasive depression. He challenged me to strike out and try something that frightened me to shake me up a bit. So I chose weight lifting/MMA classes. I suddenly was out in the world and discovered myself a bit more as I gained more confidence I began making new friends.

And here’s where the Eddie/Buck thing comes into play. I made a friend with a guy a bit younger than me. We’d hang, he’d help me with fixing up house or yard when able. He was great with my daughter like a member of my family. Our hangouts were consistent usually when he wasn’t on a date with some random girl he’d be over my house cooking dinner with us, playing video games having drinks playing music etc. it all changed one night we were invited to a mutual friends wedding and had to travel a distance to get there. We figured a hotel room would be the safest bet since it was so far away and knew both of us would be drinking. After a long and fun night we stumbled back to hotel showered collapsed on bed and we both lay there in the silence. When suddenly my friend sat up and said “I can’t lay here without saying this.” He edged over to the side of his bed and put his head I. His hands. Concerned I got up and went over to sit next to him worried that maybe something had happened either to his family or with his health so I told him. “ you can always talk to me…you can tell me anything.” And he did…he told me that he’d been in love with me for years, but didn’t want to be “gay” he said he just could t find a woman he felt the same way towards and it was eating him up inside. He began crying and apologizing for ruining our friendship and begged me not to stop being his friend. I embraced him and holding him in my arms and wiping away his tears it hit me how much I was in love with this blubbering mess of insecurities. We didn’t do anything that night but fell asleep in each other’s arms. In the morning with clearer heads we walked down the shoreline and slowly talked it out. Two straight men in their thirties who had been best friends realized on that weird May morning that they both loved each other. We started slow. Kisses holding until finally about a week later it just evolved and we both came to the realization that “yeah…not straight” since then I’ve realized and processed that I’m demisexual I need emotional love he’s realized that he’s more on the bisexual spectrum. The reason that Buck/Eddie resonate with me is that I lived that. I never expected to find my soul mate in my best friend. But it was something we had been making all along. Thanks for listening and being here along with me.

[atlafan]

Open Door Policy - One Shot

a/n: so, I love a good professor!harry fic, but I don’t always love when he gets involved with a student, so y/n is his TA. He’s 26, and she’s 23, so not too weird, right? Anyways, this took me a few days to write, and I didn’t mean for it to be this long, but here we are. This is a slow burn fam, like...buckle up. Reblogs are always very kind and helpful! Not proofread. 

Warnings: angst, fluff, and smut! 

Words: 21.5K 

It was Y/N’s second year in grad school. She knew how to handle her workload on top of still making time for fun. She was still able to go out to the bar, and party with her friends. However, she was serious about her research. She had a “big girl” apartment that she shared with two friends, each having their own room. Grad school was expensive, and even though she had a decent job working at the local café, it wasn’t enough to cover her bills. Luckily, she got a grant to be TA this semester, which was perfect because she was interested in teaching at a collegiate level at some point. Her excitement dwindled slightly when she got the email about what professor she’d be paired up with.

“Who is it?” Nessa asks, plopping down on the couch with her.

“Dr. Styles.” Y/N groans.

“Tell me, why is that a problem?” Charlotte asks, coming over with a bowl of popcorn so they could start their movie night. “He’s so fucking hot.”

“Exactly! How am I supposed to concentrate?! I had him my senior year for an elective and it was awful. I was flustered all the time. He’s such a nice guy too, I missed a class where we had a test and he let me make it up, no questions asked.”

“Great, so he’s a good professor to learn from.” Nessa says. “Oh, maybe you’ll get a closer look at some of his tattoos.”

“There’s nothing to be nervous about, Y/N, he’s only a few years older than us, you know?” Charlotte shrugs. “Maybe you’ll fall in love.” She teases her.

“Mhm, yeah, because I’m sure a guy who has his PhD in Computer Science is just dying to go out with a girl who’s only a TA so she can afford her last year of school.”

“What class are you even helping him with? You’re not specializing in CS.” Nessa says.

“Apparently it’s for the section of Web Expressions he teaches, that was the class I took with him. It was really easy, you just learn the basics of HTML and then build your own website.”

“Did you just say that was easy?” Nessa scoffs.

“My older sister ended up helping me a lot because she had a myspace back in the day, I guess you needed HTML for that.” Y/N shrugs. “It’ll be a good experience for me.”

“Okay, but you’re just specializing in Curriculum and Instruction, so-“

“Yeah, that involves Instructional Design, so I know about this stuff. I’m just not looking forward to doing it with him.” She sighs.

“Could be worse.” Charlotte smirks. “You could have gotten with some old fart who would let you flounder.”

“Very true.” She closes her laptop and sets it on the coffee table. “Alright, let’s get this HSM party started.”

//

A week later Y/N received an email from Dr. Styles to meet with her so they could discuss the class and make sure they were on the same page about the syllabus. She was a nervous wreck. Y/N used to avoid his office like the plague, too afraid to be alone with him. It’s not that Dr. Styles was a creep or ever put off any inappropriate vibes, he just had this sort of intimidating stare to him. Even when he’d laugh, seeing him soften was intimidating. The sound of his deep, raspy voice was almost a little too soothing, and she was obsessed with his sense of style. His nails were always painted different colors, and he had the cutest pair of round glasses that would sit on the tip of his nose.

Even though it was August, and still very hot out, Y/N wanted to make a good, professional impression. So, she decides on a pair of white slacks that have a tie in the front, a white tank top tucked in, and a navy blue three-quarter sleeve blazer. It was too humid to leave her hair down, so she puts it up in a cute, messy bun. She puts on a little makeup, grabs her laptop bag, and out the door she goes. She puts her sunglasses on immediately, almost getting blinded by the blazing sun.

She had never been in an academic building at this point in the summer. There were a few faculty puttering around, getting their offices situated for the semester. She smiles at a few of them as she takes her sunglasses off. She heads up to the third story where Dr. Styles’ office was. There was no a/c in this building, but luckily the room they’d be teaching in would have it due to all the computers.

His door was open, and she nearly walked right by him. She back peddles and already feels weak kneed. He had his glasses on, pushed closer to his face than usual, a small fan on his desk blowing the hair that wasn’t in the little sprout on the top of his head back, and he was wearing a white t-shirt.

“Um, Dr. Styles?” She nervously taps on the outside of the doorframe. He looks up from his computer and smiles.

“Miss Y/L/N?”

“Yes.” She smiles back at him.

“Come on in, have a seat.”

It was the accent, that fucking British accent that she remembered was the most distracting part about him. He had this drawl to his voice that was irresistible.

“Do you want me to, um…” She points to the door.

“No, no, too bloody hot to have that thing closed. The little window I get barely opens so I only have this fan to really keep me cool.” He frowns slightly at her appearance. “Why’d you get so dressed up? You must be sweltering.”  

“I’m okay!” She blushes, and takes the seat in front of his desk. “I just…you know, wanted to look nice.” His eyebrows raise slightly. “I mean, like, not nice, but professional.”

“Well, don’t feel like you need to be dressed up like this all the time. I want you to be comfortable. You don’t see me all dressed up.” He smirks.

“You’re a tenure-track faculty, you can do whatever you want.”

“Not true.” He leans forward and rests his chin on his palm. “I can’t call a student an absolute moron when they ask me a stupid question.”

“I thought there were no stupid questions.” She smiles.

“God, there’s tons.” He scoffs and sits up straighter. “But we have to encourage students to speak up when they’re confused, so.” He shrugs. “Anyways, let’s look at the course, yeah?”

“Okay.” She takes her laptop out and sets it on his desk, scooting closer.

“I added you to the moodle page, so you should have full access to everything. You’ll be grading a bit, so I wanted to make sure you knew how to get in there.”

Once Y/N logs in, and clicks into the course, she smirks.

“What?”

“Looks at the exact same.”

“What do you mean?”

“I actually, uh, took this class with you a couple of years ago.” She furrows her brows at the page. “You know, you should really update this, it’s lazy to use the same design year after year.” She sort of says it without thinking and then feels embarrassed when she looks back up to meet his intimidating gaze.

“Interesting, usually I’m good with names…yours doesn’t ring a bell at all.” He looks at his own computer and crosses his arms. “And it’s not that I’m lazy, I don’t have a lot of control over the physical design. The assignments are much different, those I keep fresh.” He turns to look at her again. “I also teach eighteen credits worth of courses, I don’t exactly have time to sit and revamp all of them.”

“Well, maybe I could do that. I’ve taken a lot of Instructional Design courses.” She says brightly. “Studies show that students do better when their course pages are more inviting.”

“Alright, since you’re the expert, I’ll let you take the lead on that. Can we get back to the material itself? I have to make sure you know what you’re doing.” He squints at her. “You really took this class?”

“Yes.”

“And I was your professor?”

“Yes, Dr. Styles.”

He plucks his fingers over his lips.

“I feel bad for not remembering you.”

“It’s okay, I sort of kept to myself. You late me retake a test that I missed once, though.”

“Oh!” He snaps his fingers. “You missed class because you had a bad stomach bug.”

“Yeah.” She blushes.

“Poor thing, those are the worst when you don’t have mum around to help take care of you.”

“It’s alright, I recovered.”

“Clearly.” He smiles.

They spend the next hour or so going over the course and the materials. He tells her what he’ll need from her specifically. He’ll do most of the teaching, and she’ll bebop around helping students with questions. Oh, and grading, she’ll be helping with a lot of grading. He notices her wipe some sweat from her brow, and he frowns.

“Do you want a water? I have some in the fridge.”

“That would be great, thank you.”

He wheels over to his mini fridge and tosses her a water bottle. As she takes a sip, she notices him still looking at her.

“You can take that off, you know?”

“What?”

“Your blazer.”

“No, I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I’m, uh, only wearing a tank top underneath and I wouldn’t feel comfortable being so…exposed.”

“Oh!” He blushes. “I’m sorry, I hope my comment didn’t-“

“It’s fine.”

“I just hope you know I wasn’t trying to-“

“I didn’t.” She clears her throat. “So, I have full reigns to redesign some things?”

“Sure.” He shrugs. “Just as long as I can still navigate it.”

“Isn’t your PhD in Computer Science? You should be fine.” She closes her laptop and sticks it in her bag.

“Right…” He pulls his calendar up on his computer. “What’s your class schedule like?”

“With this one, I only have one other class that’s in person, the rest are online.”

“Perfect, then it should be easy to build in some office hours for you. We’ll have to share mine, I hope that’s alright. Not every TA gets their own office, but there’s plenty of room in here for two. This office actually used to have to people in it, I’m having a small desk brought in for you.”

“Oh, um, thanks. I also work a lot at the café down town, but it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“You work at Bento’s?”

“Yeah.”

“I go there all the time, how have I not seen you?”

“I work in the back as a baker.”

“Oh cool, I actually worked in a bakery when I was younger.”

“I know.” She rolls her eyes. “You used to mention it all the time in class.”

“I did?”

“Yes.” She chuckles. “You made it sound like so much fun it’s actually what made me apply to Bento’s in the first place.”

“Ah, well, glad I could help.”

They decide on the office hours that will work best, and then he dismisses her. Just as she’s about to leave, he says her name.

“Yeah?”

“When it’s just us feel free to call me Harry. You and I don’t need to be so formal, alright?”

“Okay.” She smiles. “See you next week.”

The second she gets outside the building, she rips her blazer off. She gets back to her apartment as quickly as possible, changes into a bathing suit, and gets in the pool outside. Charlotte and Nessa were already out there, sitting on chairs in the shade. Y/N gets out and towels off, sitting down with them.

“Needed to cool off after your time with Dr. Styles, huh?” Charlotte winks at her.

“Shut up.” Y/N nudges her friend. “It was so fucking hot in his office. I know it’ll cool down eventually, and I was also way overdressed. He only had a t-shirt and jeans on.”

“Did he remember you?” Nessa asks.

“Not at first, but of course he remembered the reason I missed class was because I had a stomach bug, how embarrassing.”

“Why is that embarrassing?” Charlotte asks.

“I don’t want him to think about me being all…icky.”

“Do you seriously still have a crush on him?” Nessa asks.

“It’s not a crush, he’s just insanely attractive. He looked so cute being all casual today.” She whines. “It doesn’t matter, he’s twenty-six and probably has a girlfriend or something, how could he not?”

“I don’t know, I wouldn’t wanna date a guy smarter than me. He probably man-splains all the time.” Charlotte says. “I bet he’s good for a quick fuck, and that’s about it.”

“I guess Y/N will find out.” Nessa giggles.

“You two are the worst.” She groans.

//

“Hey, Y/N!”

Y/N was in the back at Bento’s getting some bread proofed and ready for the morning crew. One of her coworkers was calling for her.

“Yeah?”

“There’s some guy out front asking for you?”

“What?” She wipes her hands on her apron and walks out front. She freezes when she sees Harry. She had a hairnet on, her face was laced with sweat, and she smelled like bread, which you would think would smell good, but it doesn’t. It had been a couple of days since their meeting.

“Sorry, had to see it for myself.” He smirks.

“See what, Dr. Styles?” She walks around the counter to speak with him.

“Harry.” He corrects her. “See you in action, of course.” He takes a sip from his drink. “I see you’ve already made some changes to the course.”

“Yeah, uh, it was pretty easy.”

“Well, it looks fantastic. I was going to email you, but I was stopping in here and I thought I’d see if you were working so I could just tell you in person.”

“Oh.” She blushes. “Thank you, that means a lot.”

“Well, I’ll let you get back to it. Don’t wanna get you in trouble.” He waves as he leaves, and she stands there stunned.

“Who the fuck was that?” Her coworker asks.

“Um, I’m his TA this semester. He wanted to tell me I did a good job on something.”

“Oh, shit.”

“What?”

“He’s gonna fuck you.”

“Stop!” She swats her hand at them. “Go take drink orders, I’m going back to the proofer.”

Harry was just being nice, and maybe he was looking for a good laugh. She shakes the thought from her head, he didn’t want to fuck her. He was way more professional than that.

//

On her first day as a TA, she decided on a pair of jean capris, and a light blouse. She left her hair down since it wasn’t humid. She felt more like herself, which was good. She goes to her now shared office with Harry first, just to drop her things off.

“Good morning.” She says shyly as she comes in. The small desk he had brought in for her was there, and there was a small plant waiting for her on it.

“Morning, Y/N, are you excited?”

“More so nervous, but yeah. What’s this?” She points to the plant.

“Got you a little something for your desk. It’s really easy to take care of, should only need water once a week.”

“Oh, thank you.” She tucks some hair behind her ear and sits down.

“Since it’s syllabus week, today will be really easy. We’ll go over a few things and then I’ll probably let them go early.”

“Alright.”

“I’ll give you a couple of minutes to introduce yourself too.”

“Okay.”

“Do you have a water bottle with you or anything?”

“Yeah, right here.” She takes it out of her bag.

“Great, a little trick I learned when I first started teaching is that sometimes you can end up answering a question you ask the students because you’re so nervous when no one answers right away. So, if you take a moment to take a sip of your water it gives them more time to speak up.”

“Thanks, that’s a really good tip.”

“You’ll do great.” He looks down at his watch. “Come on, we should head to the classroom, make sure all the computers are working.”

Y/N nods and follows him out. Her eyes drift down to how his butt looks in his khakis. He had a simple green t-shirt tucked into them. He was effortlessly handsome. The cool of the a/c in the computer lab helps snap her out of ogling. After they check the rows of computers, only one wasn’t working, so Y/N takes a DO NOT USE sign onto it.

“Brilliant.” He says to her.

Students start trickling in, and choosing their seats. The class was mostly boys, and only a couple of girls. Unfortunately, that was typical for courses like this, even if it was just a gen ed that literally anyone could take.

“Morning everyone, I’m Dr. Styles, and I’d prefer you call me that. I worked a long time to be called that, so please don’t call me by my first name. You can call me professor, though, if you feel comfortable.” He smiles at the class. “We’re very lucky this semester, I have a TA that will be able to help you with assignments.” He gestures to Y/N.”

“Hi, yeah, my name’s Y/N, you can feel free to just call me that. Um, I’m in my second year of grad school. I’m studying curriculum and instructional design. I’m excited to be with you all this semester.”

Y/N takes a seat to the side of the room while Harry pulls up the course and the syllabus on the projector.

“Now, who here is a CS major?�� Most of the class raises their hand. “Right, try branching out for your gen eds, your eyes will bleed if you don’t.” He jokes. “What about those of you who aren’t CS, just shout it out.”

“Communication.”

“Undecided.”

“IT.”

“Psychology.”

“Wonderful, glad we’ll have a little bit of variety. Y/N redesigned this class, so I’m hoping you’ll appreciate what she’s done to make things easier for you.”

Y/N takes attendance, and then sits back down so Harry can go over the syllabus and explain some of the more intricate assignments. He also explains his door is always open for anyone that needs extra help. He wanted to make a good impression since he knew some of the students would end up in some of his higher level courses.

“Please take some time to go over some of the basic codes and short cuts we’ll be using quite a bit. For our next class we’re going to work on a site together, alright?” There’s a hum of agreement throughout the class. “Great, and just so you know, Y/N will be doing the majority of the grading, so it’s not my good side you’ll want to be on, it’s hers.” He grins. “Alright, you’re all dismissed, enjoy the nice weather.”

Everyone files out, and Y/N takes a deep breath. She walks with Harry down to his office and she plops down in her seat.

“Seems like it’ll be a good group.” He opens one of his drawers. “Here, forgot to give you a key. You can come here whenever you want, feel free to do your homework if there’s nothing to be graded.”

“Thanks.” She takes it from him and puts it on her key ring. “It’ll be nice to have a quiet space, actually. One of my roommates is getting her master’s in theater education, and my other roommate is getting her master’s in music education, so it gets kind loud from time to time.”

“Then definitely come here anytime you like.” He smiles and sits in his chair.

“When does your next class start?”

“I’ve got about an hour or so before I need to go back to the computer lab for my computing fundamentals class. I teach two sections of that back to back. Then that’s it for today.”

“Does it get annoying to teach the same class back to back?”

“Not really.” He shrugs. “I’m used to it by now anyways.”

“Dr. Styles?” A female student taps on the outside of the door. “How was your su…oh, you’re in here with someone.” She frowns.

“I sure am, Melanie.” Harry seems to look a little nervous. “I’ll be rather busy today, but we can catch up soon, alright?”

“Oh, okay.” She glares at Y/N before leaving. Harry sighs heavily once she’s gone.

“That’s one of my frequent flyers.” He rolls his eyes. “Her and a couple other girls try to come by and chat…” He runs a hand through his hair. “I’m actually kind of glad you’ll be around, I’ve seen her fly out of here so fast.”

“Does she…have a crush on you or something?”

“I’m afraid so.” Harry sighs. “It’s partly why I keep my door open when I meet with students. I used to keep it closed to have some privacy, cause sometimes there’s personal things students want to talk about, but she came in last year…I don’t know, I just keep my door open now.”

“That sucks.” She turns to her laptop to start getting some work done. “Such is the life of the hot, young professor, unfortunately.” Once again, Y/N said something without really thinking about it. She really needs to work on a filter. When she turns around to look at him to apologize, he was looking at her, face flushed. “I’m sorry, I just meant-“

“I have some emails to catch up on, so I’m gonna put by earbuds in and just focus on that.”

Y/N nods and turns back to her computer. She sighs heavily. The last thing she wanted to do was make the poor guy feel more tense than he already did. It must be painfully awkward to have students throwing themselves at you all the time, and what’s worse is that he feels so uncomfortable that he feels like he can’t even close his door. Y/N wanted to know what exactly Melanie did. It couldn’t have been so bad because she was still coming by to see him. Maybe Harry just picked up on a vibe, and got ahead of the problem before it got worse.

Forty or so minutes later, Harry tells Y/N he’s off to class, but she can feel free to stay if she wanted. She smiles and continues working on a paper she already had assigned for one of her courses. It was really nice to just have a space to work.

“Dr…oh…is this not Dr. Styles’ office anymore.” The girl standing in the doorway frowns.

“Oh! No, it is. He’s teaching right now. I’m his TA, Y/N, so we’re sharing. Can I help you with anything?”

“No, um, I was just coming to say hi, but I’ll catch him later.”

“What’s your name? I can tell him you stopped by, then he can email you or something.”

“It’s Bridget, and he doesn’t need to email me. I was just coming to say hi and chat about summer.” She sighs. “Sorry to bother you.”

Before Y/N can say it wasn’t a bother, the girl is gone. Harry really seemed to have a fan club so far. Y/N had professors she loved, but it was the first day of classes, she never went around trying to catch up with them. She decides to close the door a bit, maybe if people came by they would just assume he wasn’t there.

Y/N’s eyes start to feel droopy. It hits her that she’s been up since four this morning, having pulled an early shift at Bento’s. She decides to cross her arms on her desk, and rest her head on them. Her music was playing softly in the background, and her eyes eventually flutter closed.

Harry comes back from his second section of Computer Fundamentals and is confused when he sees his door only open a crack. He opens it the rest of the way and stops short when he sees Y/N resting peacefully. He wonders how long she’s been asleep for. He didn’t want her to be too groggy. He also knew some students from his previous classes may stop by for some clarification, so as he much he didn’t want to, he had to wake her up.

“Y/N?” He says softly, tapping her on the shoulder.

“Mm?” She grunts.

“Gotta wake up, love.”

Her eyes snap open. She sits up and watches him as he sits at his desk, pulling some papers out of his bag. She knew it was a pet name often used where he was from, but holy mother of God did it sound good hearing him call her that.

“Sorry, I…oh wow, I slept for way too long.”

“You didn’t seem so tired this morning, are you feeling alright?”

“Oh yeah, I’m fine. I worked an early shift at the bakery this morning, so it must just be catching up with me.” She stretches her arms out. “I think I’m gonna head out now. Oh, some student named Bridget came by earlier, but you were in class.”

“Alright.” He sighs. “Thanks, see you Wednesday.”

“See you Wednesday.” She smiles, gathers her things, and heads out.

//

At the end of the first week of classes, Harry was exhausted. It was always like this by the time that first Friday hit. The faculty meeting was the most draining part of it. He didn’t subject Y/N to it since she wasn’t helping with a major course. He had whined about it in front of her, though, so when he got back to his office he found a cupcake from Bento’s waiting for him.

It took a couple of weeks, but Y/N was able to relax around Harry. He noticed this right away. She was way less nervous, and he felt happy knowing he wasn’t making her feel intimidated. He was also happy for the help. She was able to field a lot of questions for the students, and her grading things was already saving him a ton of time.

The semester was off to a great start. Y/N would often bring Harry extra pastries from Bento’s, and he would praise her for how good they tasted.

“If those whole Instructional Design thing doesn’t work out, you should just open up your own bakery.” Is what he would often say after stuffing his face. It would make her giggle and blush. She enjoyed pleasing him.

They were having a peaceful Tuesday afternoon, holding office hours. Mostly working on their own, but occasionally chatting. Well, it was peaceful, until someone walked through the door.

“Harry.” An angry woman holding a small shih tzu and a large bag says. “I can’t take care of him Max anymore. I’m moving and my new place can’t have pets.”

“Kelly, let’s go out into the hall, yeah?”

She looks over at Y/N, who was stunned. Harry was standing up and walking around his desk to lead the woman out, but she won’t budge.

“Make whoever this is leave, you have an office for a reason.”

“I don’t have an office for personal matters, come on.” He takes the dog, Max, from her and cuddles him to his chest. Harry gets a lick to his chin. “Aw, you miss Daddy, Maxy?”

The woman rolls her eyes, and lets Harry lead her into the hallway. Y/N hears some muffled discussion, the woman raising her voice more than him.

“You could have looked for a place that allowed pets. This is so typical of you. You fought me on keeping him, and the second it got difficult you wanna just dump him with me.”

“I’m never home, Harry! It’s not fair to him.”

“And you think I’m home more?”

“More than me.” She scoffs. “You don’t have a choice, I leave at the end of the week.”

“You don’t even look like you’re going to miss him.”

“I thought I wanted him, but every time I looked at him I just thought of you, and now I can’t stand him. I’m moving to have a fresh start. Whatever happens to him is up to you now.” She drops the large bag full of Max’s things at his feet and walks away.

Harry sighs and kisses the top of Max’s head. He leans down to grab the bag and walks back into his office.

“I’m so sorry you had to see that.”

“It’s okay.” She extends her hands out. “Can I hold him? He’s so cute.” She pouts.

“Um, sure.” Harry hands Max over to Y/N.

“Oh my goodness.” She gets a lick on her cheek. “How old is he?”

“A little over a year.” Harry mumbles as he goes through the bag. “I have no idea how I’m going to make this work. I can’t bring him with me every day, it’s not allowed. Once in a while is fine, but it’s not like he’s a therapy dog.”

“I can help! My apartment is pet friendly for small dogs. I could just meet you here and you can drop him off to me.”

“I couldn’t ask you to do that. You have so much going on between this, your own school work, and Bento’s.”

“I really wouldn’t mind, I know you end up staying here late a lot of the time, I could take him for walks and stuff, tire him out so you can just have a snuggle with him when you get home.” She holds him up to her face. Lucky dog, she thinks to herself.

“You’re my TA, Y/N, not my dog sitter.” He sighs. “I’m sure I could find another student that needs some extra cash-“

“Wouldn’t need to pay me.” She smiles. “Please, he’s so cute, I really wanna help. It won’t stress me out, I promise.”

“We’ll see, it would only be on my busy days.” He takes Max back from her, and pulls his dog bed from the bag. “Go on, get comfy.” He sets him down and pats the top of his head. He takes out his water bowl and pours some into it for him.

“Feel free to not answer, but who was she?”

“My ex…” Harry sighs and runs a hand through his hair. He sits down and watches Max lap up at his water bowl. “She insisted on a small dog because they’re easier to take care of.” He rolls his eyes. “But I missed him a lot, so I’m not complaining. We were together a couple of years, lived together for a bit, thought it would be smart to get a dog like a lot of people do when they’re getting more serious. But we started fighting a lot, we both got busier, neither of us wanted to compromise, and so it goes. She took him with her. We both got new places and have barely spoken.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, we weren’t right for each other, and he sort of made us realize that.” Max yips at Harry. “That’s right, buddy.” Harry chuckles. “We called it quits roughly six months ago, it’s all good now. I thought I’d miss her, but I missed him more.”

“I get that, I dated this guy for a bit in undergrad, but I definitely didn’t see it lasting.” She rolls her eyes.

“Guys at that age are really immature, anyways. You’ve got plenty of time to meet someone.” He turns back to his computer and gets back into his emails. He looks over his calendar and groans. “Alright, I’ll definitely need your help with him.” He turns back to her. “I give a lecture on Thursday evenings, so no one would be home with him literally day.”

“No problem at all, I can bring him home with me and I can just drop him off to you.” She smiles. “My roommates love dogs too, they’ll be excited.”

“I’ll need your phone number, just to get updates and stuff, it’ll be easier than email.”

“Sure!” She hands him her phone immediately. “Feels silly to not have exchanged numbers sooner.”

“Was sort of trying to keep a level of professionalism between us, but I suppose you’re gonna be helping me with my pup you’ll be more than just a colleague.” He puts his number in and texts himself. “You’re sure this won’t be too much for you?”

“Not at all.”

“At least let me pay you.”

“No way.”

“Y/N.” He sighs. “I’m gonna pay you, just deal with it, alright?” There was that intimidating side of him again. Y/N just swallows and nods. “Good.”

//

Nessa and Charlotte loved when Y/N would bring Max home with her. They teased her a bit at first because it was like her and Harry now owned this dog together, but she explained she was just helping him out.

“At least now you know for sure he’s single, and that he’s not afraid of commitment.” Nessa winks.

“Oh stop.” Y/N nudges her.

“He has your number now, does he ever text you about anything other than Max?”

“Not really, although he’ll send a funny gif as a response sometimes. He’s got a good sense of humor. You should see him in class.” Y/N’s phone buzzes and sees a text from Harry. “Speak of the Devil.”

Harry: I’m running late tonight, I’m so sorry. Would it be too much to ask to have you just get him settled at my place? There’s a spare key in the plant by the door.

Y/N’s eyes grow wide.

“Oh my god, he wants me to bring Max to his house tonight.”

“It’s happening!” Charlotte squeals. “Have you eaten much pineapple lately?”

“Would you shut up?! He doesn’t want to fuck me. He’s way too professional.”

Y/N: of course!

Harry: you’re a lifesaver. I’ve got some frozen pizza, feel free to make yourself at home until I get in. I won’t have you waiting too long.

“Oh wow, I’m gonna be there until he gets in…” She looks at her friends. “Maybe I’ll go shave my legs, you know, just in case.”

//

Y/N finds the key quickly, and walks into Harry’s home. He didn’t live too far from campus. He had a nice town home. Max scamps inside and immediately goes over to his toys in the living room. Y/N takes her shoes off and leaves them in the mudroom. Harry kept his home clean, and it made Y/N smile. There were some papers on his kitchen table that had grade marks on them. She wondered if he had a home office or not.

She goes into his freezer to find the pizza, and preheats the over. Once the pizza is baking, she plops onto the couch, pulling Max into her lap and turning the TV on. He has Netflix, so she click into that. She pouts when she sees he watches a lot of Rom Coms, it was too cute. She puts on The Office and has a slice of pizza. She didn’t need to work until tomorrow afternoon, so she didn’t mind that it was getting to be a little later on a Thursday, and it wasn’t like she went to raging parties anymore either.

Eventually, she dozed off. She couldn’t help it. Harry had a really comfortable couch, and plush blanket to curl up in, and Max was just as cozy to sleep with. Harry had texted Y/N, but she didn’t answer because she was asleep. The lecture he had ran late, and then he had to meet with some students to help them. Not to mention it was raining heavily, and he needed to drive a little slower than usual. So he didn’t pull into his driveway until 10PM. He sighs, feeling terrible that Y/N was still there.

He quietly enters his home, but it didn’t matter because Max hears him, wakes up, and starts barking. This startles Y/N awake.

“Shh, Max, it’s just Daddy.” He scoops him up and walks into the living room. Y/N was rubbing her eyes, trying to wake up. “I’m so sorry, I-“

“It’s okay.” She yawns. “I wrapped up the pizza and put it in the fridge for you.”

“Oh, um, thank you. Think I’m about to pass out though.”

“Don’t be silly.” She gets up and stretches. “You need to eat something.”

She brushes by him to go into his kitchen and take the pizza out. She puts a paper-towel over it and pops it in the microwave.

“I really am sorry you’re here so late.”

“It’s okay.” She leans against the counter. “What’s the lecture for, anyways?”

“It’s actually a graduate level CS systems course. I couldn’t turn the money down when they offered it to me. I figured since it’s only once a week it would be terrible, and it’s not, it’s just exhausting.”

The microwave beeps, and Y/N take the plate out for him, removing the paper towel.

“See, now it’s not all dried out.” She smiles.

“Neat trick, I’ll have to remember that.” The rain taps violently on the window in the kitchen.

“Yikes, I didn’t even know it was supposed to rain tonight. It wasn’t like this when I drove over.” She bites her bottom lip and looks outside.

Harry finishes his pizza and puts the plate in the sink. He sets Max down and he runs upstairs to his dog bed in Harry’s room.

“Listen, uh, if you want I can set up the pull out for you. Or I could sleep on it and you could take my bed…if you don’t feel safe driving home.”

“Oh, I couldn’t take your bed.” She turns to him. “But I may take your couch. I was sleeping on it fine as is, no need to set it up.”

“Well, let me at least get you a proper pillow and something to change into, yeah?”

“Okay.”

“Right, um, well you know where the bathroom down here is, feel free to use whatever to wash up. I’ll run up to grab what you need, be down in a sec.”

Harry changes into his own pj’s, and finds some spare pants and a t-shirt for Y/N. He’s even able to find a spare toothbrush. He hustles back down and see’s Y/N bending over to charge her phone using the plug behind the tide table next to the couch. Harry clears his throat to get her attention.

“Here, you can wear this, and he’s a toothbrush.”

“Thanks for letting crash here, I get nervous driving at night when it’s like that outside.”

“It’s the least I could do, you gave up your Thursday night to…” He looks at the TV screen and his cheeks grow hot. Y/N looks over at the TV as well and wonders why The Office might embarrass him.

“Is it okay that I used your Netflix?”

“Yeah, I…god, it’s just, you’ve seen what I watch.” He rubs the back of his neck.

“I didn’t snoop or anything, promise.” She smiles and takes the clothes and toothbrush from him.

He opens up the coffee table to take out a pillow and another blanket.

“Well, I’ll be right upstairs if you need anything…um, goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Harry.”

She wanted to ask if he wanted to watch a little TV with her, but he looked so tired. She lays on the couch after getting changed. His bed clothes swam on her, and she loved it. They smelled just like him and it made her smile. She texts in the group chat so the girls know what’s up. They tell her just to go crawl into his bed, and she rolls her eyes. She falls back asleep after another couple of episodes of The Office.

The next morning, her eyes flutter open when the light from the sliding door in the living room hit her. She hears Harry shuffling around upstairs.

“Gotta be quiet, Max. Y/N is sleeping.” She hears him whisper and it makes her smile. She decides to pretend to be asleep as to not rile the dog up.

She hears the door open and close, and that’s when she knows Harry’s gone to take Max for a walk. She gets up and folds the blankets, and puts the pillow on top. She figures he’ll want to wash it. She goes into the bathroom to do her business, but doesn’t change just yet, she didn’t want to leave the comfort of his clothes. She does, however, put her bra on. She didn’t want to bounce around and make him uncomfortable.

Harry comes back in with a beanie on, cover the beautiful curls Y/N adored so much. He was wearing grey joggers, and a black t-shirt. Max runs right over to Y/N.

“Morning.” Harry says.

“Morning.” She pats Max’s head.

“Sleep alright?”

“Mhm, thank you.”

“I’m gonna make some breakfast, you hungry?”

“Sure, I could eat.” She smiles.

He smiles back and opens up the fridge. Y/N grabs the dog food and gets Max’s bowl filled. She sees Harry starting up the coffee pot, and then going back to the fridge for eggs.

“Eggs and toast alright?”

“Sounds great.”

Harry gets a pan heated up and cracks four eggs into it.

“You working at Bento’s today?”

“Yeah, not until this afternoon though, no worries.”

“Oh good, I would have felt bad if I was keeping you.”

“You’re not.” She sits up on the counter and watches him cook the eggs. He moves to the toaster and puts for pieces of bread in. “This is a nice place.”

“Thanks, sort of found it in a scramble, but it gets the job done. Would have liked more than one bedroom, but oh well.” Harry flips all of the eggs over so they’ll be sunny side down. “Want cheese?”

“Yes, please.” She hops off the counter to grab a couple of mugs for the coffee.

“I have to apologize, I don’t have any cream for that.”

“Sugar?”

He slides the sugar bowl down to her and she smiles. Once everything is done they sit down at the kitchen table.

“Mm, this is delicious, thank you.”

“S’just a fried egg.” He chuckles. “But I’m glad you like it.”

“Do you have to go to campus today?”

“Not technically, but I will just to get some work done. I’ll bring Max with me. He likes the little dog bed I’ve put under my desk.”

“He’s really such a love bug. Snuggled with me last night and everything. My roommates love him too.”

“You’ve been such a big help in so many ways. Don’t know what I’ll do without you next semester.”

“I’m applying for more TA positions, maybe they’ll stick me with you again.”

“Wouldn’t you want more experience with a different class?”

“It doesn’t really matter.” She shrugs. “It would be cool to work with you over winter break to redesign your other courses.”

“Man, if I didn’t have to do that myself…hm, maybe I could put a good word in. That is, if you don’t mind being stuck with me again.”

“Stuck with you? Hello, this is going way better than I thought. I was sort of nervous to be your TA at first.”

“You were?” He frowns.

“You’re a little intimidating.”

“I don’t mean to be.”

“I know, it’s just the way you come off sometimes. You’re hilarious when you want to be.”

“Thanks.” He smirks and continues to eat. He looks at her and furrows his brows. “Feel free to keep those.”

“What?”

“The clothes I let you borrow, feel free to just keep ‘em if you want. I don’t much wear those pants anymore, and I have a dozen t-shirts.”

“Oh, um, thank you. Might take you up on that, I’m pretty cozy.”

She helps clean up the dishes and then gathers her things. He walks her out to her car.

“Thanks again for watching him.”

“Of course, I’ll see you Monday morning.”

“See you, have a good weekend, love.”

Her heart skips a beat as he turns and walks back inside. She takes a deep breath as she gets into her car. It was cloudy on the drive home, but at least it wasn’t raining. The second she gets through the door Nessa and Charlotte grill her for details, and they were highly disappointed that the only thing they shared was breakfast.

“It was really domestic, though, it was nice.” Y/N explains. “He was so cute while he made me breakfast. He’s so kind. He even let me keep his clothes, and he wants me to be his TA again next semester. He literally said he wouldn’t know what to do without me.”

“Yeah, because you’ve volunteered to do everything for him except suck his dick.” Charlotte scoffs. “You said he’s been broken up for a little over six months right? Do you think he’s gotten his dick wet since then?”

“Charlotte!” Y/N giggles. “He’s a grown man, he can do what he wants. I bet he has, he easily could have had a rebound, although, he seems really respectful, so who knows if he’s even into hooking up.”

“Right, like when you told us he always keeps his office door open.”

“I feel bad, I’m there when some of those girls come to chat with him, and you can tell they just make him uncomfortable.” She shakes her head. “I think he and I are, like, friends now. I like what we have going, I’m not going to rock the boat. It could really complicate things.”

“So, would you say now that you’ve gotten to know him better your crush is less…apparent?” Nessa asks.

“God no! We mesh really well, we think a lot of the same things are funny…” She wines slightly. “It’s truly unfair.” She sighs. “Right person, wrong time.”

//

It was hard to stay awake during your shift at the bakery, but you made it through. You were thankful you only needed to be there until about dinner time. You had to be back in Saturday morning for open, but that didn’t stop you and your friends from going out to the bar for a couple of drinks.

It gave the three of you time to catch up and complain about coursework. Nessa was directing a production at the university, and she still had students who weren’t off-book, and Charlotte had to deal with pretentious music bros who really liked to man-splain the music industry to her. Y/N felt lucky that the majority of her classes were online.

“Okay, I have to ask, are there any students in class you think have crushes on each other?” Nessa asks her, sipping from her straw.

“Oh, for sure. There are these two boys, they don’t sit next to each other, but you can tell they’re friends. One of them always looks behind to the other so they can make a face. It’s too cute.”

They were at a more adult bar tonight. It’s not that they didn’t like the college bars they were so used to going to, but if they went there then that meant getting shitfaced and staying on the dancefloor until close. It also made things awkward when running into students. So the three of them felt safe here, they could really relax.

“Oh my fucking god.” Charlotte says. “Dr. Styles just walked in, and fuck, he’s here with a couple of really hot guys.”

“What?!” Y/N was buzzed, and she didn’t want Harry to see her like this. She wanted his image of her to remain sweet and professional. She peers over her shoulder to look at him, and her eyes widen.

He wasn’t wearing his glasses, he had a floral patterned shirt on that had the first few buttons undone, and a pair of black jeans to match. They weren’t skinny jeans or anything, but they sure as fuck were working for him. Both of his friends were a little shorter, but both equally as handsome. The three walk right by the bar and grab a booth.

“This is bad.” Y/N groans. “He looks so fucking good.”

“Who knew he was so tatted up?!” Nessa says. “I thought it was just his arms, but did you see his collar bones? We love a man who has going attire.”

The bar was starting to get more crowded, and louder as it got later. Music was blaring from the speakers, but all Y/N could think about was Harry. She wondered if he would venture to her area of the bar to order his drinks. One of his friends went up first, on Nessa’s left.

“Hey, Niall, what can I get for you?” The bartender asks him.

“Bradly, so good to see yeh, I’ll take a pint of Guinness, Lou’s gonna have a pale ale, and Harry’ll have a Corona with lime.”

“You got it.”

Niall drums his fingers on the bar. Nessa was sweating. She had a boyfriend, so she would never do anything, but fuck, that Irish accent tore right through her. Niall looks over at the three girls who had all fallen silent after he approached. He makes eye contact with Y/N, and they share a smile.

“Opening a tab tonight?”

“Yeah, one of those nights for sure. Poor Harry’s had a run in with his ex, basically dropped their dog in his lap and left. It’s been a couple of weeks since it happened, but it’s been eatin’ the lad up.”

Bradly nods and takes Niall’s credit card to keep on the back of the bar. He hands him the three beers, and Niall thanks him. The girls try not to watch as he sits down.

“Holy shit, I thought I was going to crap my pants.” Nessa breathes. “I love Andy, don’t get me wrong, but holy fuck.” She shakes her head. “I may need to have him pick me up from here tonight.” She giggles.

“Now I almost wish there was dancing here. Wouldn’t mind showing that guy how well I can pop my ass.” Charlotte laughs.

“He smiled at me, did you see it? Of course Harry surrounds himself with other beautiful people.” She pouts.

Niall slides Harry and Louis their beers and they all clink their glasses.

“I’m so glad we could all get out to do this. Sorry we didn’t rescue you the second Kelly showed up.” Louis says.

“It’s alright, I appreciate you guys coming tonight.”

“Is Max okay for a bit on his own?” Niall asks.

“Yeah, I put the gates up for him so he can’t mess much up. I wouldn’t have texted my TA to see if she could watch him again, but…”

“But you’ll most likely be fucking someone tonight.” Niall grins. “Surprised you didn’t just fuck her, she stayed at your place and everything.”

“Actually, you asshole,” Harry chuckles and takes a swig of his beer. “I was going to say that I would have felt bad taking up another one of her evenings. I don’t know if I’m in the mood to take anyone home tonight.”

“Too bad, girls love little dogs like Max.” Louis shrugs.

“There’s three really hot girls sitting by the bar.” Niall loves over at the three girls. “One for each of us if we play our cards right.”

Harry’s back was turned away from the bar, so he couldn’t see who Niall was talking about.

“They could be college students.” Louis says.

“Not at this place. The undergrads don’t come here.” Harry says. “Mostly grad students or other faculty that live close by, locals too.”

“We could order their next round of drinks, and then invite them to come sit with us. Booth has plenty of room.” Niall suggest.

Harry and Louis turn around slightly to get a look at the girls Niall was talking about. Harry nearly chokes on his Corona, and turns back around.

“Jesus, are you alright?” Louis asks, patting his back.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine. We can’t get those girls drinks.”

“Why not?”

“The one on the right is my TA, Y/N, and her two roommates. I know one of them has a boyfriend…uh…the one on the very left. The middle one is single, but even still, I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

“Mate, you’re TA is that good looking, and you didn’t even try to fuck her when she stayed at your place?” Niall asks.

“No, I didn’t try to fuck her. I’m doing this thing where I don’t fuck people I have a position of power over.” He rolls his eyes. “That’s a no go.”

“But if she wasn’t your TA, and just a regular grad student…?” Louis raises an eyebrow at Harry. He runs a hand through his hair as thinks it over.

“I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it. I mean, she’s obviously cute, but…I could never do something like that.”

“It’s not like she’s going to be your TA next semester, you could-“ Harry cuts Niall off.

“Actually, she might be. I have a meeting with the curriculum committee to discuss what I’ll need help with for next semester, and we both want to work with each other again. Crossing that line would complicate things, not to mention it’s highly unprofessional.”

“It’s not like she’s a student sitting in one of your classes, then I’d agree with you. You’re colleagues, technically. Nothing in the rule book saying you can’t fuck a colleague.” Niall says.

“He’s got a point, Har.” Louis says.

“Even if I agreed with the both of you, I’d still be taking advantage. I think she has a little crush on me, she’s made a couple flirty comments here and there…”

“Not to mention she jumped at the chance to help watch your dog.” Louis says.

“It’s not happening.”

“Well, you may not want to fuck a pretty girl tonight, but I do, and if the middle one is single, perhaps I’ll still order them all drinks, and just talk with her. Or, if you’re saying Y/N’s a no go for you, maybe I’ll chat her up. We smiled at each other, maybe she thinks I’m cute.” Niall grins.

“Don’t you dare.” He glares at him, finishing his beer. “I don’t care if you talk to, fuck what’s her name…Charlotte! I don’t care if you talk to Charlotte, but don’t try anything with Y/N.” He looks at Louis. “You either.”

“Not that I would, but basically you’re saying if you can’t fuck her no one else can?” Louis asks.

“I just wouldn’t feel comfortable with it.”

“Alright.” Niall shrugs. “We ready for the next round, then?” They both nod at him, and Niall brings the empties up to the bar. The girls fall silent when he approaches again. “Hi there, is there a reason you all keep doing that?”

The girls all turn to look at him. They were sweating.

“Doing what?” Charlotte asks nervously.

“Well, and maybe it’s just a coincidence, but you keep getting quiet when I come over.”

“It’s just…um…” Nessa starts. “You’re here with someone our friend knows.” She points to Y/N. “In a professional setting, and we’re just surprised to see him out, that’s all.”

“Oh, am I? Who is it?”

“Dr. Styles.” Y/N speaks up. Niall smiles as his eyes raise.

“Dr. Styles, how formal.” He looks over at Bradly who gives him the new drinks. “Bradly, do me a favor, put these ladies’ next round on my tab, will you?”

“You don’t have to do that.” Y/N says.

“Whether you know my friend or not, I’d be a real jerk to not buy three beautiful girls a drink, wouldn’t I?” He winks at Charlotte as he walks away with his new drinks.

“He winked at me, oh my god.” She squeals. “Y/N, you wouldn’t care if I tried to fuck one of Harry’s friends, right? It’s been a minute for me.” She pouts.

“No, why would I care?” She laughs. Bradly gives the girls their new drinks. “That was really nice of him.” She twists her straw and looks over at the booth. She can see Niall and the other guy laughing, while Harry just shakes his head.

“What the fuck did you say to them?” Harry asks as he takes a sip of beer.

“Would you relax? They simply mentioned that they knew you, and I bought their next round, that was it.”

“Great, so she knows I’m here.” He groans. “Move.” He says to Louis.

“Why?”

“Because now I have to go talk to her.”

“Oh, you do?” Louis smirks.

“Yes, do you know how fucking rude it would be not even say hello?”

“I don’t see her coming over here.” Niall says.

“She’s obviously nervous!” Harry takes a large gulp of his drink. “Move, Lou.”

Louis gets up so Harry can get out of the booth.

“Oh my god, Y/N, Harry’s coming over here.” Nessa says.

“Shut up,  no he’s not, oh my god, he is, holy shit. I’m…inebriated.”

The girls laugh at her as Harry comes to sit on the open stool next to Y/N. He gets comfortable before he looks at her and smiles. She slowly turns herself to look at him.

“Hi.” He says.

“Hi.”

“Did my friend bother you?”

“Not at all…he was very nice.”

Harry nods and sips from his drink.

“I didn’t know you came here…” He says.

“Could say the same to you.” She looks him up and down. “Barely recognized you when you walked in. That’s a nice shirt.”

“Thanks.” He blushes and wants to kick himself for being so exposed to her.

“You haven’t met my friends yet. Charlotte, Nessa, this is Dr…uh, this is Harry.” The girls both say hello.

“Hi, I’ve heard a lot about you both. You’re Charlotte right?”

“Yeah.”

“My friend thinks you’re cute.” He nods over to Niall. Maybe Harry wouldn’t have been so bold, but he knew they were only a few years apart in age, so it wasn’t totally weird, and he had a couple drinks in him, so there’s that.

“Really?!”

“Mhm.”

“Should I go talk to him?”

“Definitely, I think he’d really like that.”

“Good enough for me.” She hops off the stool. “Ness, come talk to his other friend with me it’s not awkward.”

“Wing-man to the rescue, I’m on it.”

“You guys!” Y/N calls after them, but they’re already sitting down. She looks back at Harry and squints at him.

“What?”

“Did you do that on purpose?”

“Do what?”

“Get them to leave so we could be alone…”

“What?! No!” Harry finishes his drink, and Bradly gets him a new one right away. “Why would I want to be alone with you?” He sees the obvious offense on her face, and shakes his head. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way. We’re alone together all the time, aren’t we? I just meant, in this setting.” He gestures to the bar around him. “I’ve been a bit mopey since Kelly showed up, so my friends just wanted to take me out and show me a good time.” He looks over at Niall who already has his arm around Charlotte. “Although, I think they’re bound to have a better night than me.” He sighs.

“You haven’t let on a mopey exterior, you could have told me.”

“It’s really none of your business how I’m feeling, Y/N.”

“You’re being awfully cold to someone who spent the night at your house just watch your dog.”

“You spent the night because it was raining too heavily.”

“And then you made me breakfast.”

“As an extra thank you.”

“You’re annoying.” She takes a sip of her drink and faces forward. “Now I don’t even have my friends to complain about you because you’ve sent them off to your friends.” She rolls her eyes.

“M’not annoying. I’m a fucking delight, just ask Max.”

“Where is he anyways?”

“Home.” Harry shrugs. “He can last a few hours without me. I almost texted you, but I would have felt bad asking again. I know you worked today, I honestly didn’t expect to see you out.”

“It was a long week for everyone. I’m not staying much longer, I have to be at Bento’s at four in the morning.”

“It’s…” Harry looks down at his watch. “Almost midnight, Cinderella.” He smirks at her and she can’t help but laugh. It was a stupid and cheesy joke, but she liked it. “I didn’t mean to be cold…I just didn’t want you to think I was coming over here to pull a move or something.”

“I’m going to remind you again, you sent my friends away.” She smiles and takes a sip of her drink.

“I did.” He nods. “But I’ll remind you, my friend Niall thinks Charlotte is cute. He thought you were cute too, by the way.”

“He did?!” She looks over at them and then back to Harry. “But you sent her off with him?”

“Yup.” He takes a swig of his beer.

“Why?!”

“Could be a little awkward to have my best friend canoodle with my TA.”

“Right, because it would be so easy to get into my bed.” She scoffs.

“I didn’t say that.”

“You implied it. And I’m not one to kiss and tell, so unless he wanted to dish, you wouldn’t have even heard anything from me about it.”

“Doesn’t matter, I wouldn’t have liked it. I don’t know Charlotte so I don’t really care what they do.”

“You don’t get to decide who I can and can’t sleep with just because you’re too chicken to make a move.” Before he can say anything she’s hopping off her stool and heading out of the bar.

She’s just about to order an uber when he grabs her wrist. It was chilly outside, and she could clearly see both of their breaths.

“What did you just say to me?”

“You heard me.” She yanks her wrist free. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going home to sleep for three hours so I can get up to bake some fucking bread.” She orders her uber, and Nessa comes rushing out.

“Char’s staying inside with, um, Niall? I saw you leave so I thought I’d come…with…you…” She sees Harry who was practically fuming. “Um, I can wait inside, or-“

“It’s fine, the uber will be here in a minute.” She smiles at her friend and then glares at Harry. “At least one of us is going to have a good time tonight.” She seethes.

“I had fun.” Nessa says, and then realizes what Y/N meant. “Oh.”

“Why are you still here? Go inside and find some random to fuck.”

“Don’t talk to me like that, Y/N.”

“Sorry, I’m off the clock. I can speak to you however the fuck I want.” She steps closer to him. “I don’t know where you get off being so sweet and kind one moment, and then turning into a major prick the second you feel threatened, but I don’t need this.”

The uber pulls up, and without another word Y/N and Nessa get inside, leaving Harry outside in the cold.

//

Y/N woke up at 3:30AM and groaned, cursing at herself for going out. She only had to work until 9AM and then should could sleep the day away if she wanted. She was still so mad at Harry she could scream. He hadn’t even tried to text her to apologize.

She sighs and makes her way to the kitchen once she’s dressed. She stops short when she sees a half-naked Niall standing in her kitchen, filling two glasses of water.

“Um…hi.” She says to him as she grabs her daily vitamins out of the cabinet.

“Hey.” He smiles. He looks her up and down. “Are you going to work?”

“I am.” She pops the gummy vitamins into her mouth.

“Could you do me a favor?” He steps a little closer to her. “Take it easy on Harry, alright?” Y/N scoffs at him. “I know, he was an asshole last night, but he just want to do anything that could put his job in danger, that’s all.”

“How would I do that? I’m not his student, I’m his colleague.”

“He just feels weird about it, and he’s still figuring out his feelings. I think he likes you, to be quite honest. You’ve…perked him up, well not tonight, but anytime he mentions you he smiles.”

“He…talks about me?”

“Oh sure, all the time actually.” He takes a sip of water. “I better go bring this to her. Just…consider taking it easy on him, he knows he fucked up.”

Y/N nods as Niall makes his way back to Charlotte’s room. She drags herself out to her car and heads to Bento’s. Once she’s inside, she puts some music on and fires up the ovens. She loved baking, it helped clear her head for a little while. She would prep the bacon, get fresh muffins and cookies going, and she would even make croissants. By the time the rest of the morning crew shows up, she’s just about halfway done with everything. She trays up everything to be rolled out for the people working out front. By the time 9AM rolled around she was exhausted, but had mostly forgotten how aggravated she was. She snags a coffee and a muffin on her way out, and stops short when she sees Harry sitting outside with Max.

“Oh, thank god.” He says, standing up. Max sniffs at her feet and she bends down to pet the top of his head. “They said you got off at nine, I hope it’s not weird that I’m here.”

“How long have you been waiting out here?”

“Well, I came by at 6:30 when they opened, but you were really busy, so I just came back twenty minutes ago. Can we talk?”

“Not right now. I’m covered in flour and sweat, and I’d like to take a shower and then take a nap. I got two hours of sleep last night. It was my own doing, but still.”

“When then?”

“I’ll text you.” She shrugs. “Niall spent the night, I bumped into him this morning. He said you fucked up?”

“I did.” He rubs the back of his neck. “Do what you need to do, and then, uh, come bay later, yeah? We can have a late lunch or something, and I can explain myself. Would you like that?”

“Depends, what’s on the menu?”

“S’cold out, do you like grilled cheese and tomato soup?”

“Love it.” She smiles. “I’ll let you know when I wake up.”

“Alright, thanks.”

Y/N takes a nice long shower when she gets home, her roommates still peacefully sleeping. She wondered if Niall was still there or if he slipped out a couple hours after her. She didn’t care that much, she was too tired to care. Once her hair is dry, she slips a t-shirt on and crawls into bed.

“Y/N! I’ve let you sleep long enough, please wake up!” Charlotte was absolutely giddy, and dying to fill Y/N in. It was around 2PM, she definitely caught up on sleep.

“Gimme five minutes!” Y/N yells back. She was groggy and didn’t want to be cranky.

Y/N comes out to the couch and lays down. Nessa was out with Andy, but she had heard about everything earlier. Charlotte brings Y/N a cup of tea and smiles at her.

“Thank you.” She takes a careful sip. “Alright, go ahead.”

“Best sex I’ve ever fucking had!” She squeals. “He had me all over the bed, it was wild. I’m surprised we didn’t wake you.”

“I passed out the second I got home.” She chuckles. “Best you ever had, huh? What exactly did he do?”

“What didn’t he do?! Fingers, tongue, and dick, it was incredible. I rode him, then he got on top, and then he did me from behind, bent me over the bed, I got on top again. His stamina was incredible. I made him some breakfast this morning and then he left.”

“Did he give you his number?”

“He did.” She beams. “He said he wasn’t looking for anything serious at the moment, but I was free to text him anytime I wanted him like that again.” She bites her bottom lip and sinks further into the couch. “I totally don’t mind at all. It would be nice to start up a new little fling. It won’t be weird for you, will it?”

“Not at all, it’s not like you’re…oh my god.” She pinches the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger.

“What?”

“I totally get where he was coming from now.” She groans.

“What do you mean?”

“He said he told me that, uh, his other friend thought I was cute, and I told him I was mad because he sent the two of you away, and that he couldn’t tell me who I could and couldn’t fuck, but I would have been so mad if you slept with Harry.”

“I wouldn’t have, though. I know how much you like…” She gasps. “Do you think he likes you too?!”

“I don’t know, maybe!” Y/N takes her phone out to text Harry that she’s up and that she’ll be over within the hour. “I’m going to his place for a late lunch, he wants to apologize, but I owe him one just the same. I flipped out for no reason.”

“Well, at least you’re realizing it. Very adult of you.”

“Oh, shut up.” She nudges her and gets up to change.

//

Y/N gets to Harry’s around 3PM. She paired a green cardigan and a black tank top with a pair of jeans. She gets out of the car and rings his bell. She giggles when she hears Max barking from behind the door.

“Shh, it’s just Y/N.” Harry coos to Max as he opens his door. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

“Um, come in.” He moves aside and lets her in. “Here, think he misses you.” Y/N takes Max from Harry and snuggles him close.

“It’s only been a couple days.” She pouts at the dog.

“Come, sit, the food’s ready.”

Y/N sets Max down and sits down at the table. Harry already had the grilled cheese and soup out on the table.

“This looks good, thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Harry…I know you wanted to apologize, but I realized today that you weren’t totally in the wrong.”

“Yes I was.” He sighs and blows on his soup before slurping some from his spoon. “Maybe it wasn’t what I said, but it was how I said it. I overstepped. You’re a grown woman, I had no right to tell my friend he couldn’t hit it on you.”

“Well, it all worked out because Charlotte seems to have a new fuck buddy on her hands.” She chuckles and takes a bite of her sandwich. “Look, I appreciate you saying all that, but when I was talking to her earlier, I realized I would have done the same thing. I would have told my friends not to flirt with you or try to pick you up, and I would have been pissed if one of them slept with you.”

“You would have?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“You know why.” She grumbles. “I…I mean…”

“We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place here, Y/N.” He sighs and sits back in his chair.

“We are?”

“Yes. I did a lot of thinking last night, did some talking with my friends. I had to really think about why I got so upset. The thing is, you’re my TA, and you’re going to be my TA next semester as well, most likely. I have a meeting about it Monday. Selfishly, I don’t want anyone else to have you.”

“In more ways than one, obviously.” She smirks.

“Don’t be cute.” He gives her a playful smile. “I think I’d miss you too much, to be honest. I like sharing my office with you. Your help with Max has been great, you’re, like, part of my life now.”

“Is there some rule that says that we can’t…like…go out?”

“I don’t know…I think it would look unprofessional on my part. I know you’re not one of my students, so it’s not as bad as that, but I still have a position of power over you, and if someone found out something was going, it could look really bad. I wouldn’t want something to taint your reputation either.”

“Well, I’ve been over here twice now, and no one’s said a thing.”

“You haven’t been on campus since Thursday. Someone could easily say something to us Monday.”

“A lot of people know I help with Max.”

“Some people may know you used to be a student of mine as well. They could assume something’s been going on for years.”

“Not true, wouldn’t people know about Kelly?” Harry grimaces at the name. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright.”

“So…I feel like we’re just going around in circles here, Harry. Like, what are we doing?”

“Well, if I vouch for you to be my TA again next semester, would you? The course would be for Creativity and the Visual World, and I think you could really shine there, talk about IDS. Also, I don’t know what your plans are after you graduate, or where you’ll want to go, but I’ve caught wind that one of the instructional designers on campus is going to retire at the end of the school year.”

“Wow, so you’re like really trying to keep me around.” She smirks.

“It’s not like that.” He chuckles. “I just mean, it could be a good first gig for you. You’re very good at all that, thought you might be interested to know there’s going to be an opening. You know the campus well, it would be a smooth transition for you.”

“That would be ideal, I do want to work in higher ed when I’m done.”

“I could help you with your cover letter, I’m really good at writing those. I’ve helped plenty of students.”

“I’ll definitely look into it.” She finishes what she can of the food, and sits back as well.

“I really am sorry about last night, I felt awful.”

“It’s okay, I really get it.” She sighs. “So…I still don’t know what we’re doing. Are we just choosing not to date anyone else and also not each other? Why should I wait until I graduate to be with someone?”

“M’not asking you to do that. I don’t really know what I’m asking you to do. I just don’t want to be a cliché. The young professor getting with someone that works for him. I’m attracted to you, I can admit that, but I don’t want to get fired, nor do I want your name getting dragged through the mud.”

“So, essentially, while I’m your TA we can’t do anything.”

“Correct.”

“And you’d rather suffer and have me be your TA again next semester just to have me around you, even though it would mean we still couldn’t do anything.”

“Yes.”

“Alright, after the holidays I’ll be staying at my apartment for winter break. We pay for a full year, and I like having the time alone. I also still work at Bento’s.” She stands up and puts her things in the sink.

“What are you saying exactly?”

“I’m saying, over winter break we’re in limbo. I won’t be your TA, and I’ll be all alone in my three bedroom apartment. Perhaps there’ll be a night I’m feeling especially lonely and you’ll have the marvelous idea of visiting me with Max, and whatever happens will happen.”

“And then what? Act like it didn’t when the spring semester starts?”

“I guess we’d cross that bridge when we come to it. All I know is that for six weeks, you will in no way have a position of power over me. By the way, I’m twenty-three years old, it’s like you said, I’m a grown woman. You’re not taking advantage of me. I know how it would look to others, so I can respect where you’re coming from. However, I’d like to try things out before I tell someone I’m going to wait for them.”

With that, Y/N gives Max one last squeeze, and out the door she goes. She was proud of herself. Harry liked her, and he wanted to be with her. It was a dream come true. She also didn’t mind sort of waiting for him, it would just make things all the more hot when they’d finally be able to come together.

//

The rest of the semester went by…okay. There was a lot of tension, a lot of it. Harry was just thankful it was getting colder which meant that Y/N was bundling up more. She did, however, look insanely cute in her many layers and scarves. They were busy grading, not having much time for chat chit. She started going over his place more, though. They would have little grading parties where they could just spread out and get things done. His place was also another quiet haven for her to escape to.

Charlotte hooked with Niall almost every weekend, it was pretty cute. They were having fun, and Y/N was happy for her friend. Even though sometimes Y/N wished Harry would just fuck her on his kitchen table on top of all the graded papers and tests, and maybe sometimes he fantasized about the same thing, but it had to stay professional. She didn’t want him regretting anything. Sometimes he would come into Bento’s when she was working, she even snuck him in early one morning to show him how she made the croissants he liked so much. They were essentially dating, but without all the physical stuff.

At least Y/N could catch some relief later at night in her bed. She didn’t think of Harry at first. Her routine mostly consisted of headphones, pornhub, and a few orgasms. But there was one particular night her and Harry were sitting in front of his fireplace, and he just looked so sexy, and she wanted him to take her on his living room floor, she didn’t even care if her tailbone would be bruised the next day. She still hadn’t even seen his fucking bedroom, it was the one part of the house she wasn’t allowed in. So she start fantasizing about his bed, and then one thing led to another and she ended up moaning out his name in a shallow breath. It had caught her by surprise, and she was almost embarrassed about it.

Harry would have been lying if he said he wasn’t doing the same thing. It mostly happened early in the morning when he’d take his shower. It just sort of happened. He woke up one morning, rolled over and wished she was there next to him. He had seen her fall asleep so many times, and he thought she was incredibly cute. He liked having Max in the bed, but he wanted Y/N. So when he got into the shower he just couldn’t stop thinking about her. He didn’t feel embarrassed, he didn’t feel guilty, he mostly felt annoyed because he just wanted the real thing.

It was confirmed that Y/N would be his TA again in the spring, and they were both exited. He liked having her in his office, and he thought they worked together really well. It was worth it, it was all going to be worth it.

Harry went home to London for the holidays, and Y/N went home to her parents’ house. It was a tough goodbye. They hugged, and maybe they kissed each other on the cheek, but neither wanted to let go. Y/N loved seeing her family, but ten days was plenty. She liked having her apartment to herself. Nessa and Charlotte wouldn’t be back for a few weeks. That meant Y/N could watch whatever she wanted on TV, she didn’t have to worry about being quiet on the early mornings she had to work, and she could take a long shower.

A big snow storm was coming, which was starting to make Y/N nervous. Stores were closing in preparation, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to weather it alone.

Y/N: are you back from London? Can’t remember when you said you’d be home…

Harry: hey! I was just going to message you, I got back yesterday, was just sleeping off the jetlag. What’s up?

Y/N: this impending storm is freaking me out…

Harry: do you wanna get snowed in at my place? Just stalked up at the grocery store…

Y/N: are you sure? I don’t wanna be a burden :(

Harry: you wouldn’t be! You know I want to see you, so does Max :)

Y/N: okay! I’ll pack a bag and head over, see you soon!

Harry had been cute while he was away, sending Y/N a few selfies of him and Max. She had been to his house so many times, this wouldn’t be weird at all to spend a couple of snowy days together. She gets all her things packed, and makes her way to Harry’s. It was just starting to flurry when she parked in his driveway. He comes outside to help her with her things.

“And this time, you’ll let me set up the pullout for you. No need to sleep on a couch for two days.”

“Okay.”

She was hoping he’d give in and let her sleep in his bed with him. Actually, she was hoping he’d pick her up, swing her around, and kiss her. He sets her things down and waits for her to take her coat off, then he hugs hers.

“Had a good holiday?” He asks as he lets her go.

“Yeah, it was good. You?”

“It was great, love getting to see my family.” Max comes trotting in and greets Y/N.

“There’s my little man.” She scoops him up and gives him kisses.

“I was just going to make some tea, would you like some?”

“Please.” She plops down with Max on the couch.

“Do you have to work at Bento’s during all this? I can drive you if you want.”

“No, they closed in preparation of the storm.”

“Oh, good!”

Y/N turns the TV on, and scrolls through Netflix for something simple to watch. Harry comes over with two mugs of tea and he sits down next to her.

“Find anything good? Feel like it’s all Christmas movies right now.”

“Nothing yet…” She squints at the TV. “How about…oh! Have you watched Love, Victor yet? It’s been on my list for ages.”

“Is it based off of Love, Simon?”

“Yeah! This kid Victor is new in town, and ends up going to the same school Simon did.”

“Sure, we could watch that.”

“Shit, it’s on Hulu, you have that right?”

“Mhm, gimme the remote, I’ll switch it over.” She hands it to him and sips on her tea while he queues it up.

“Mm, this is tasty, what is it?”

“It’s black tea with honey, love.” He looks at her wants to laugh. “I don’t usually add anything, but I thought you’d like the honey.”

“It’s perfect, thank you.”

The show starts just as the sun was setting outside. Y/N pulls the blanket Harry keeps on the back of the couch over her legs, and Max moves to Harry’s lap.

“Let me know if I’m being a blanket hog.”

“S’alright, he keeps me pretty warm.”

“Don’t be annoying.” She huffs and spreads the blanket out equally over them. “See, nice and cozy.”

“I’m not being annoying, I’m being…respectful.”

“Golly gee, thanks, mister.” She pouts at him and he rolls his eyes.

“Now who’s being annoying?”

A couple of episodes in, and Harry’s stomach starts rumbling.

“Are you hungry? I can pop a pizza in the oven, or make some pasta?”

“Pizza would be perfect, thank you.”

“Pause it, I just need a minute to get it in the oven.”

Y/N nods and scrolls through her phone while she waits for him to come back. This was nice. It was like they were hanging out as friends, which was okay, but she was hoping he’d make a move for fuck’s sake.

“Alright, should be about fifteen minutes.” He smiles and gets back under the blanket. Y/N presses and play and they get back into it.

After the pizza, they nearly almost binge the entire show. Harry was starting to doze off, so they decide to call it a night. He looks outside in the kitchen window.

“I am not looking forward to digging out our cars. Times like this I wish I had a garage.” He sighs.

“You say that like you’ll be doing it alone. I’ve got all my snow gear, I can help.”

“Right, like I’d let you break your back out there.” He scoffs, and puts his hand on her shoulder. “Let me make up the pullout for you.”

Y/N watches as Harry moves the coffee table, and hoists the pullout into place. The sheets were already on it, so he just lays the blankets and pillows out.

“Well, I’ll be upstairs with Max if you need anything. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, thanks again for letting me stay. I think I would have been scared all alone.”

“No worries, I’m glad you’re here. I, uh, missed you over the holidays.” He clears his throat and heads upstairs.

Y/N does her nightly routine and puts on a tank top and pajama pants for bed. She gets onto the pullout and tries to listen to some music to fall asleep, but the wind was whipping so harshly outside, it was making her uneasy. She hated storms more than anything. Would Harry mind if she crawled into bed with him? She could even sleep on the floor. She just didn’t want to be down here alone. She sighs and slowly gets out of the bed. She makes her way upstairs.

Harry’s bedroom was the entire upstairs, it was sort of like a loft. He had a king sized bed, a decent looking bedroom set, and an en suite. Y/N thought it was really nice, well, what she could make out of it since it was so dark.

“Harry?” She whispers. His head was in his pillow, sleeping on his tummy.

“Mm?” He grunts, clearly out of it.

“I’m a little scared downstairs, would it be alright if I slept on the floor up here?”

“Get in.” He mumbles.

“Really, are you sure? Because I-“

He flips some of the covers back, eyes still closed. Y/N takes a deep breath and gets into the bed. Max was half asleep, but he moves away from Harry to make room for her, plopping down near his feet. Y/N climbs in and faces away from him. This was such a large bed for one guy, and it made her wonder who was the last person to share it with him. She wanted to keep a respectful distance from him, but before she could start counting sheep, his arm was wrapped around her waist, pulling her close to him. Her breath hitched, but she could hear his steady breathing, he was definitely asleep. He must just sleep better when he’s holding onto something, she thinks.

//

Harry’s eyes flutter open around 5AM. He was used to getting up that early to take Max out, but for some reason he felt like he got some of the most restful sleep he’s gotten in a long time. He feels warm and cozy, and even though he knows he needs to get up and brave the cold so his dog could relieve himself, he found himself nuzzling in to whatever he was holding onto.

That’s when it hits him that he wasn’t dreaming last night, and Y/N genuinely came up into his room because she was feeling uneasy being all alone downstairs. She was still fully clothed, but he wasn’t he was only in his boxers. His leg was between hers, and she was pressed up against him. He wondered if she slept well like this. Just because he slept better holding onto something didn’t mean that she would.

He makes subtle movements, not wanting to wake her. He nearly winced leaving the warmth of the bed, but he got through it. Max pops his head up and Harry puts his finger up to his lips to signal that he needed to be quiet. Harry snatches his sweatpants and a pair of socks, and grabs Max to take him downstairs. He throws his coat and boots on, gets the leash on Max, and out the door he goes. He shoves his beanie down over his ears as he feels the wind whip around. There were snow drifts everywhere and it was still coming down. He uses the flashlight on his phone so Max could see what he was doing.

“Come on, buddy, I know it’s cold, but Daddy doesn’t wanna be out here long.” He wanted to get back to Y/N.

Once Max does his business, Harry gets him so food and fresh water. He strips himself of his jacket and socks, but leaves his sweatpants on. He was shirtless, but he was too groggy from the morning to care. Once Max is all set, Harry carries him upstairs so his collar doesn’t jingle around. He plops him on the bed, and he goes right over to Y/N to curl up with her. Harry uses the bathroom quick, brushing his teeth and all that, and then slowly slides back into bed. Y/N hadn’t moved, still laying on her side facing away from him, so he just wraps himself back around her. Well, he thought she hadn’t moved. The second she heard the door close downstairs, she sprinted down to “her” bathroom to wash up and brush her own teeth. She wasn’t sure if morning snuggles would ensue, but she wanted to be fresh if they did.

A sigh leaves Harry’s lips as he settles back in, pressing nice and close to her and keeping his arm around her waist. She gives it a few minutes, and then she adjust against him. She could tell he was wearing sweatpants now, and not just his boxers. She was subtle about it, not fully pressing her ass against him, just a simple adjustment, so he didn’t think anything of it. After another couple of moments, she presses back into him, and he involuntarily presses forward towards her. He was definitely starting to get hard. He grips her waist a little tighter as he continues to press into her.

“Mm, Harry?” She rolls onto her back to look up at him.

“Hi.” He moves his hand away from her lower stomach to move some hair away from her face. “How’d you end up here, hm?” He asks softly.

“Storms really scare me, and the wind was loud.” She starts smiling. “Feel much better now.” His hand slides down to cup her jaw. “I asked first and you told me to get in.”

“I did, didn’t I…”

“Pulled me right up close to you, it was nice.” She sighs.

“Can’t remember the last time I slept so well, to be honest.”

He lets go of her and flops onto his back, groaning. She rolls onto her side and props herself up with her elbow, resting her cheek on her palm.

“You make things so difficult for yourself. I’m not your TA right now.”

“But you will be again.”

“Because you wanted me to be.”

He looks at her and pouts.

“We’ll see each other more this way.”

“But…wouldn’t it be nice to go out on dates and touch and-“

“You’ve seen how busy I am, I rarely have time to see my friends as it is. I’d feel guilty for not being able to do those things with you.”

“You have me to yourself for the next four weeks, Harry, and the girls won’t be back until a week before school starts.”

“We’d have to stop when the semester starts back up, and wait again. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that.”

“We could be discrete.”

“I’d have to be a little cold towards you.”

“You’re no stranger to that.” She scoffs.

“Y/N.” Harry’s hand finds her hip. “This is serious.”

“I’m about to graduate, from grad school, Harry. It’s not like I’m some eighteen year old girl sitting in one of your classes. I’m twenty-three, and you’re twenty-six, it’s really not that weird.”

“I’ll be twenty-seven next month.” He mutters.

“Great, then we can go out and celebrate when the time comes. Is there something in a handbook saying we can’t…do this?”

“It’s extremely frowned upon, I can assure you.” He groans again before speaking. “This is so frustrating, it’s not like you’re my first TA either, fuck, even I was a TA. Shit like this never happened. I’ve never been…attracted to someone I’ve worked with before.”

“You’re probably the only professor I’ve been into before.”

“See, right there, you had a thing for me when you were in my class only a couple of years ago, and-“

“And nothing happened then. You barely remembered me when I first came to your office. I was a flustered senior, that was it. Now…well, I know you now. I’m way less nervous around, I feel like I can really talk to you.”

“I feel the same way.” He sighs. “Fucking, Christ.” He yanks her down to her chest, and she yelps. His fingers scratch at her scalp and she nearly whimpers at how nice it feels to lay on his chest, having him play with her hair. “We can lay here a little longer, and then I need to go to move some of the snow.”

“I’m helping.” She puts a leg over his. “And you’re still a little…riled up, don’t you want to-“

“No.”

“But I could-“

“Y/N.” She looks up at him. “Just lay here with me.”

They both doze back off for a bit until Max starts barking. He must need to pee. Harry gets up and tells Y/N she can shower if she wants to.

“I’ll wait, I’ll get sweaty shoveling.”

“It’s my house, you don’t need to help.” He throws on a long sleeve shirt and thick socks. He looks at her crossing her arms over her chest. “Here.” He tosses her one of his sweaters. “Come on, Max.”

They all head downstairs. His sweater smelled just like him. She hoped she could keep this too just like with the pj’s he had given her a couple of months ago. He takes Max out quick, and then sets him back inside so he can get to shoveling. Y/N decides she could make him breakfast since he wouldn’t let her help outside.

She goes through his fridge and cupboards to find some different things. She wanted to make something that would take some time so it would be warm for him when he got inside.

“Muffins!” She says to herself as she rifles through his baking supplies.

She whips up a mixture of blueberry muffins and get them popped in the oven. She has the glorious idea to slice them in half and butt them up on his griddle when they’re done, just to give it a little crunch. Next, she cracks some eggs into the pan, and makes them sunny side down because she remembers him making them that way. She even finds some bacon to throw on the griddle.

When he comes inside, his nostrils are hit with everything she’s made. Everything was on plates on the kitchen table, and she was washing everything in the sink. He strips down to his boxers, having been drenched with sweat after digging out their cars. The snow was still falling, but it was good to get ahead of things before it all froze.

“Harry, I made…” She freezes when she looks at him. Seeing his full body in the light was much different than in the hazy darkness of his bedroom.

“I didn’t know I had blueberry muffins.” He says as he looks down at the plates.

“You, um, you didn’t, I made them.”

“From scratch?”

“Well, yeah.”

He picks up the muffin bottom and takes a bite. His eyes close for a second as he gets a good taste. It was buttery and a bit crisp from being on the griddle. It was perfection. He turns to her after he swallows.

“You’re…a literal angel.” He steps closer to her, and he notices her eyes drift down and back up. “I’ll go put some clothes, and then-“

She puts a hand on his chest. Her eyes plead with his. Just kiss me, she silently says to him.  His hands fly up to her jaw, and he pulls her in, lips crashing together, finally. She melts into him immediately. His tongue slides along her bottom lip, and she opens up for him. She can taste the blueberry muffin on him, and it makes her suck on his tongue. He groans against her, and his hands slide down to her ass to get a good squeeze. She wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him even closer.

“Harry.” She breathes against his lips.

He gets a good grip on her and lifts her up to sit her on the counter. He quickly draws the shades for the window above the sink so anyone out shoveling wouldn’t be able to see anything. He tugs at the sweater of his he was wearing and lifts it off her. Her legs open wide for him to stand between. His lips attach to the crook of her neck, sucking, licking, biting. Her hips buck towards his as she tugs at his hair. One of his hands lifts her shirt slightly, and she thinks he’s going to feel her breasts up, but instead his fingers find the band of her pajama pants. He stops to look at her.

“Can I?”

“Yes.”

His hand dips below, and it’s almost like he’s searching for something else.

“Are you not wearing any knickers?”

“No.” She blinks at him. “I don’t usually wear underwear to bed.”

“Jesus Christ.”

She opens her legs a little wider for him, and he groans when his fingers touch around her folds, and he feels her wetness sticking to him already. His other arm wraps around behind her to hold her close to him. He plays around with her, fingers rubbing all around until his middle finger slides in. She gasps, not having expected so much so soon, but she wasn’t complaining. She clutches at his shoulders when she feels another finger slip inside. He twists them around, just getting a feel for things, and he curls them up, knowing this was what she really wanted.

“Oh! Oh my god.” Her head rolls back. He was make that come here motion right on that sweet spot of her front wall. His lips find her neck again as he continues. His thumb starting to rub on her clit. “Oh fuck, Harry, oh my god.” She didn’t realize how whiney she could sound, but he loved. She was a mess for him.

“Been thinking about this for so long.” He says into her ear.

“Me too.” She was panting now. “It feels so good.”

“Yeah? Like having my fingers buried inside you?”

Her mouth falls open. He was into dirty talk and it made her clench around him.

“Yes, oh my fucking god, yes.” She bites down on his collar bone to try to muffle any louder noises, but he was knuckle deep, fucking her with his fingers, it was no use. “Harry, I’m so close, oh fuck!”

His hand around her waist reaches up to tug at the back of her head. He wanted to watch her go through the motions. He wanted to see just how good he was making her feel. Her eyes rolls into the back of her head as she continues to beck forward. Her release was long, and so very good. She cried out, maybe a little louder than she should have, but he wasn’t telling her to keep it down. Did he want his neighbors to hear? Did he want them to know how good he could fuck someone?

He slows down his motions inside of her, helping her through the aftershocks, and then he slowly retracts his fingers. He sucks them into his mouth and then steps away from her. She was breathless. He kisses her cheeks and then helps her hop down from the counter.

“You made such a nice breakfast, let’s not let it go to waste.”

“Harry…” She watches him sit down.

“What?”

“Don’t you want to-“

“I’m all sweaty, I’d like to take a shower before going further if that’s alright with you.”

“Okay.”

She sits down with him and eats her food that she was now ravenous for.

“You really made this from scratch?”

“Yeah, I’m glad you like it.”

“It’s delicious.”

They finish eating and decide to clean up later. She follows him upstairs to his shower. He helps her out of her clothes and lets her get in first. She throws her hair up into a bun so it doesn’t get soaked. He rids himself of his boxers and gets in behind her. She moves aside so he can wash up. She presses her front to his back, and her hands roam along his long torso.

“You made me feel so good, I think it’s your turn.”

She kisses on his back while she starts to stroke his hardening length. It felt so big in her hand. Harry’s head falls to his chest, and he presses a palm to the tile wall to keep himself grounded. She runs her thumb over his tip and he groans. He grabs her hand and turns around. He backs her up to the opposite wall, cradling the back of her head as he basically slams her against it. His lips are on hers in seconds. Everything felt hot and wet, and just otherworldly. Y/N couldn’t enough. In the back of her head she kept thinking that she couldn’t believe this was happening. It wasn’t often that she got what she wanted.

“Please, fuck me.” She says against his lips.

“I don’t have any condoms.” He kisses down her neck and kneads her breasts.

“I’m on the pill.”

“S’not what I’m worried about.” He pulls his head back to look at her. “Are you clean?”

“I am, actually. I was tested last time I went to the doctor. Are you?”

“I am.” He smiles. “So…you really wanna feel all of me? Just like that?”

“Yes.” She whines. “Please.”

He kisses her and bites on her bottom lip, sucking on it as he pleases. He lifts one of legs up over his hip, and uses his other hand to line himself up. She was still plenty wet, so he’s able to push inside.

“Fuck, Y/N.” He grunts, trying to push further inside her. “So tight.”

“I…Christ, I think you’re just really big.” She gasps once he’s all the way inside.

His head drops to watch himself slowly thrust in and out of her. He bites his bottom lip at the sight. He looks back up at her, watching her features.

“Are you comfortable?”

“Could you maybe just hold my leg up?”

Harry nods and hooks his arm under leg, driving in deeper. Her head rolls back against the tile. Once he knew she was okay, he didn’t let up. He was fucking her hard and fast, only slowing up so he could hear her whimper and beg for more. Her nails were clawing at his back, and it was just egging him on. He uses his other hand to rub at her clit. She was starting to breathe heavier, moan after moan leaving her lips. He could tell she was close.

“Gonna come again for me?”

“Yes, fuck, I’m almost there, Harry!”

He sucks the tender skin of her neck between his teeth, and that’s what pushes her over the edge. Her senses totally overwhelmed. He gasps when he feels how deeply her nails dig into him from going through the motions of her orgasm. He pulls out of her quickly and comes on her stomach. He’s out of breath, pressing kisses to her cheek and neck.

“No going back now.” He says as he caresses her cheek.

“Nope.” She smiles.

He pecks her lips and turns back around to stand in the water again. Her eyes grow wide and he winces once the water cascades over him.

“Harry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize I was hurting you.”

“It didn’t hurt while it was happening, is it bleeding?” He looks over his shoulder trying to see for himself.

“Um…I broke the skin, but it’s not bloody.” She blushes. “Yikes, that’s embarrassing.”

“No it’s not.” He chuckles and moves so she can rinse her stomach off in the water. She turns it off and they both step out to towel off. “I wasn’t hurting you was I?”

“No, oh my god, it felt so good. Feels like I’m still throbbing.”

He wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her close. She rests her hands on his chest.

“Do you like ice skating?”

“What?” She laughs. “Yeah, I love it, why?”

“Because once this storm is over, m’taking you on a proper date.” He kisses her forehead and lets her go. “Would you like that?”

“I’d love it.”

Harry was so peculiar, Y/N thought. One second he’s saying they can’t be together and the next he wants to take her out on a date. What she didn’t know was that he had never felt quite so good while having sex. It wasn’t because she felt incredibly tight around him, it had more to do with the trust and natural connect. He felt happy, a feeling he thought would never return.

//

To Y/N’s surprise, Harry was a really good ice skater. The two of them were like a real couple. He would visit her at work, they’d go out to the bar with his friends, and they’d have sleep overs at each other’s places. He quite liked her apartment. Not to mention, he couldn’t keep his hands off her. If they were going for a brisk walk, his hand was in hers. If they were sitting through a move, his arm was around her shoulders, and of course they were having a lot of sex. Even when she had her period, he fucked her.

“Got my red wings years ago, promise it doesn’t gross me out.” He had told her.

And god, when he ate her out. Sometimes they wouldn’t even have full on sex. Sometimes they’d be on the couch, and he’d ask if she would ride her face, and then they would just sixty-nine. Sometimes she would just blow him because she liked the way his come tasted. Harry drank a fuck ton of pineapple juice, even before they started hooking up, he always had a small can of it in his office. He just liked the taste. They were just intimate in all sorts of ways, totally comfortable.

It was when Nessa and Charlotte returned that Harry’s bubbled had to burst. School would be starting in a week, and he needed to make sure his shit was together. He had been to the office a few times, working to make sure his courses were together. He and Y/N were professional and went over the class she would be the TA for.

“This is gonna have to be what it’s like when school starts again, don’t forget.” He would say. It killed her, but she would never do anything to put his job at risk, even if she didn’t think their situation was all that serious. She had to respect his wishes.

“I’d feel more comfortable if you slept over at my place since their home.”

“Harry, they know what’s been going on…Niall and Charlotte still talk, and they-“

“I don’t care, I’d rather you be here…and only on the weekends.”

“What?”

“Saturday nights can be our night. On the weekends, you’re not my TA.”

“What will I be then?”

“My girl.”

They had put the boyfriend/girlfriend label chat on the back burner, but that was all she needed to hear to know that she was really his, and he certainly didn’t want someone else trying to steal her away. He had gotten her a necklace, it was simple, but very much her style. A way of showing her how much she truly meant to him.

“Anytime during the week you’re feeling like I don’t want you because I can’t show my affection, this will be your reminder of how much I care.”

She thought it was incredibly sweet, and it was nice to have the reassurance. When classes started, it was definitely difficult. The one thing getting her through this first week was his birthday party on Saturday. Just a small thing with friends at the bar, but still. They wouldn’t have to hide there, or so she thought. Some other professors were invited to the party, which meant Harry couldn’t touch Y/N. He frowned immediately. He wasn’t in charge of the guest list. He pulls Y/N to the side before they walk into the main area.

“I’m so sorry, I promise when we get back to my place later I’m gonna love on you all night.”

“Harry, it’s okay. It’s your birthday, I’m the one that’ll be doing the loving. Go on, enjoy.”

He gives her a discrete peck on the cheek, and then walks into the main room to say hello to everyone. Y/N invited Charlotte and Nessa, so she had other people to talk to. Niall’s arm was hooked around Charlotte’s waist the entire night. Y/N and Nessa teased her every chance they got.

“I’ve been told to check in on you. Orders from the birthday boy.” Louis says to Y/N.

“Thanks.” She chuckles. “It’s okay. Next year things will be totally different.”

“Really see things lasting then, don’t you.” It wasn’t a question.

“I think so, yeah. If the person who he said actually retires, I’m hoping to be able to work at the university to start out.”

“That would be great. He raves about you, you know? He’s a simple guy, likes being domestic. I think he said one of his favorite things to do with you is just cook a meal together.”

“Aw, he’s so sweet.” She pouts. “I like doing that too.”

Harry was mingling with everyone that came out for his birthday. Everyone sang to him, a cake was made him too. The second he tasted it he knew Y/N had baked it. He thought at the least they could have their picture taken together, that wouldn’t look weird.

“Harry!” One of the faculty members, Constance, comes over to him, a young woman by her side. “There’s someone I want you to meet, this is my daughter, Angie.”

“Oh! Hi, I’ve heard a lot about you.” He politely shakes her hand.

“It’s nice to meet you too.” She blushes.

“I’ll leave you to it.” Constance winks and walks away.

“I’m so sorry about her. She conned me into coming here, hope I’m not crashing your birthday.”

“You’re not.” He looks back at Y/N and then to Angie. “So, this is a set up then?”

“She seems to think we have a lot in common.”

“And perhaps we might, but…I’m sort of seeing someone. It’s a…long distance thing, so she’s not here tonight, unfortunately.”

“Oh! She could have sworn you were single, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright. I’m sure you’re lovely, I just really like this woman and I don’t want to screw it up.” He smiles and she nods.

Harry finally makes his way over to Y/N and Louis.

“Do me a favor,” He says to Louis, taking out his phone. “Take a picture of us.”

“Are you sure?” Y/N asks.

“Positive.” He smiles and puts an arm around her shoulders. Louis snaps a couple of shots and hands Harry his phone back. “Sorry you won’t be able to post these…”

“Well, I could, my insta is private, but we can talk about it later.”

“Lou, could you drop Y/N off at my place when this is over, we drove together, but I don’t wanna risk anyone seeing us leave in the same car.”

“Course, mate.”

Harry nods and walks away to continue talking to other people.

“He acts like you’re his student. I don’t see anything wrong with you two doing what you’re doing.”

“I don’t either.” She sighs. “But he worked so hard to get where he is, I have to respect doing things his way. It was a long week, but I’m happy to be going back to his place later.”

Y/N’s lips were on Harry’s the second he let her through the door. He made sure to get home before her so they didn’t even leave at the same time. She had him pushed against the wall and his hands were all over her.

“Missed you so fucking much.” He says, walking her back towards the living room. “And I loved the watch you got me, you didn’t have to do that.”

“Wanted to.” She starts unbuttoning his shirt and pushes him down on the couch, straddling him in no time.

“Gonna let me lick it, angel?”

“Is that what you want?”

“You have no idea. You’re as sweet as the cake you made me.”

“How did-“

“Y/N, I know it’s only been a month, but I’d know your baked goods anywhere.” He smirks.

She giggles and stands up to unbutton her jeans. He yanks them down her legs along with her panties and she kicks them to the side. Harry lays down on the couch and Y/N hovers over his face. He liked it better this way. One, he didn’t have to get on his knees and suffer through the pain of being on the hardwood. Two, he liked the way Y/N would just ride his tongue.

Max was upstairs, thanks to the gate. So they didn’t have to worry about him coming down and jumping on them.

“Fuck, Harry.” She moans. “Your tongue feels so good.” She rocks her hips back and forth on him, the stubble from his chin feeling extra delicious. He moans against her, lapping up every drop. “You like that, birthday boy? Like having me on you like this?” She looks down at him and see his eyes rolling into the back of his head. He sucks on her clit harshly, and that pushes her over the edge. “Oh, fuck!”

Once she’s through, she climbs off him. Before she knows it, he’s throwing her over his shoulder to bring her upstairs. He gives her bum a smack and she squeals. Y/N left plenty of scratch marks on Harry that night.

//

Y/N was antsy for every weekend. The weeks dragged on, and the weekends went by in a flash. Then she remembered something wonderful.

“Spring break!” She says, bursting into their shared office.

“What about it?” Harry chuckles.

“Two weeks off without the students!” She leans a little closer to him. “Two weeks of me not being your TA.” She grins and then sits down in her seat.

“We’ll be grading, darling.” He says nonchalantly.

“This is a pet name free zone, remember?”

“Sorry.” He smirks. “Didn’t think ‘darling’ would get your knickers in twist.”

“Fuck off.” She rolls her eyes. “Do we seriously have to grade? Can’t we do fun things? I have time off from school, I don’t wanna do anything.”

“M’surprised you don’t want to go home or go with your friends somewhere.”

“I’ve done the whole go to Florida and get blitzed thing, I’m all set. And I may go home for a couple of days, but I don’t really like being home long. Somehow I get stuck doing chores, and I get aggravated.”

“I’ll tell you what, if we get through enough of the grading, we can do something really fun.”

“Deal.” She smiles.

Sometimes Y/N felt like this was only hard for her, but it killed Harry. He had fantasies of bending Y/N over his desk, or even just kissing her good morning. He even started letting her come over on Friday nights instead of Saturday because he just couldn’t wait any longer. He knew he was being overly careful, but he just couldn’t risk it.

//

Harry stayed true to his word. They got through a lot of the grading so drove them out to the coast for a walk on the pier at a large beach. It was still too chilly for real beach weather, but there were less people around this time of year, and some of the shops were open. Y/N clung to Harry’s arm and they both just enjoyed the fresh air and the scenery. He took her to a nice dinner, and then they walked for a bit to watch the sunset.

“This was the perfect day.” She sighs as they begin their drive back to his place.

“It really was.” His rests his hand on her thigh and gives it a squeeze. “I love you, Y/N.”

She whips her head to look at him. His eyes were focused on the road. Tears start to prick at her eyes. No one ever said that to her before. She had been in relationships, but she never really got to a point for such strong words, and she certainly never felt it back.

“I love you, too.”

“Aw, look at us.” He smiles. “Two people in love.”

“I wasn’t expecting you to say that…” She sniffles.

“Hey, no need to cry, darling.”

“I just…no one’s ever told me they loved me before.”

“What?!” He squeezes her leg tighter. “But there’s so much to love. You’re kind, caring, an incredible baker, witty, funny, brilliant-“

“Harry, please.” She chuckles. “When we get home we’re making love.”

“I’ve made love to you before, just didn’t say anything. Anytime we’re really soft and careful, I’m making love to you.”

“God.” Her face flushes, thinking of the many sensual times he’s touched her. “Well, I can’t wait to do it again.”

//

It was a Tuesday, which meant Y/N wouldn’t be in the office with Harry. She had class and then a shift at Bento’s. He wanted her to be able to nap in between. He saw that the open IDS position had been posted, and he emailed her immediately. He couldn’t wait to work on her resume and cover letter together.

“Harry?” Constance knocks on the outside of his door.

“Hey, Connie! Come on in.” He beams at her. She squints at his collar, seeing just the top of a love bite.

“Did you see that girlfriend of yours this weekend?” She asks, as she sits down.

“Sure did.” He smiles. “I saw her for a while over spring break too, told her I loved her, and she said it back. I’m on cloud nine. M’sorry things didn’t line up with your daughter, she’s a very pretty girl. My friend Lou is single, maybe-“

“Harry, Harry.” She chuckles. “No worries at all, she’s been dating around a bit. I shouldn’t have just assumed you were single, and that’s great that you two are doing so well. I think I thought you weren’t seeing anyone because with your last girlfriend…well…you had pictures of her on your desk, and you gushed about her. We don’t even know this one’s name.”

“You will soon enough.” Harry did have pictures of Y/N, they were just discrete. His lock screen was the picture of them at his birthday, and his wallpaper was just a picture of her. He could look at her whenever he wanted. “She’s, uh, finishing up grad school.”

“Oh, good for her! Anyways, I came here to chat with you about my sabbatical. Obviously it’s turned into a full year instead of just the fall semester. We’re going to have a department meeting, but I wanted to see how you’d feel about stepping in as department chair while I’m gone.”

“Are you serious?!” He perks up.

“Yes.” She chuckles.

“That would be a dream! I have so many ideas, and-“

“It would mean you wouldn’t be able to teach as many classes, and you’ll have more responsibilities over winter and summer break.”

“That’s no problem, honestly. I only go to London for a couple of weeks, I’m usually in the area for summer. I’d love to give it a go. I didn’t think I’d be next in line.”

“It’s coming from my own suggestion. I’ve been doing this a long time, and I think you’d be great at it. It would sort of be a trial, and then when I come back we could reflect on the experience.”

Harry was buzzing, absolutely buzzing. He needed to tell Y/N about his good news, so he hops in his car, and zips over to her apartment. She was vegging out in a t-shirt and panties with Nessa and Charlotte, who were both dressed in the same thing. They hear the bell on their door.

“Who the fuck is that? It’s nearly nine.” Nessa says.

“No idea.” Y/N says, getting up to check it out. She sees Harry through the peephole. Her eyebrows raise, but she opens the door. “Dr. Styles, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Y/N, I’m sorry for…” He looks her up and down. “This is how you open the door?!”

“I saw it was you.” She shrugs and steps aside to let him in.

“Hi, Harry.” Charlotte and Nessa say at the same time.

“Hi girls.” He smiles and looks at Y/N. “I got great news today and I just had to see you, can we got to your room?”

“Of course.” Once they’re both in there, they sit on her bed. “So what’s up? I got your email about the job, I’m really excited.”

“Good news for both of us today. Connie, my department chair, came by to see me today, and she wants me to be department chair while she’s on sabbatical next year while she’s gone. It would be like a trial run. Me! Department chair! I have so many ideas, this is the opportunity I’ve been hoping for.”

“Oh, Harry.” She throws her arms around him. “That’s incredible, I’m so happy for you.”

“Thanks.” He holds her in his arms for a moment and then lets her go so he can stand up. “Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Harry…” She whines.

“Don’t start, I just wanted to see your face when I told you.”

“You could have FaceTimed me.”

“Oh.” He shakes his head. “It’s been a long day.” He chuckles.

“You can stay.”

“No, I can’t.” He caresses one of her cheeks. “I want to, but I can’t. Soon, babe, so soon.”

“Um…” She stands up and looks down. “If I get this job…I mean…the lease for this place is up June first, and…well…the girls are going to be working in schools, and won’t need to live here anymore, and…I mean, I could find new roommate and sign a new lease...”

“Or, you could come move in with me.” He takes her hands in his and kisses her knuckles.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I want you to. I want you around all the time. Being apart from you during the week really fucks with how clingy I naturally am.” He smirks.

“I like it, though. We spend all weekend in your big, comfy bed.”

“Look forward to it every week.” He sighs happily. “Just gotta get through you walking across that stage, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright.” He kisses her cheek. “I love you, sweet dreams.”

“I love you too.”

//

Harry helped Y/N apply for the job, and after two nerve-wracking rounds of interviews, and two weeks of pure stress that even Harry’s cock couldn’t squash, she got the call that she got the job. Harry took Y/N out to celebrate, they both nearly cried when she got the call. She told her parents and they were ecstatic.

“In a few years, if you feel like it, you could get your PhD for free through the university.” He says to her as they’re laying in bed.

“Hm, three degrees from the same place.” She taps her chin. “Doesn’t seem like a great idea.”

“If you can do it for free, you should. It was the smartest thing I ever did. Well that, and giving into you.”

“Giving into me?!” She laughs. “You make it sound like I seduced you.”

“I fell for you so hard. You’re just so wonderful.” He pouts. “Are your parents excited to meet me in a couple of weeks? I’m excited to meet them.”

“They’re definitely curious to see who the guy I’m going to be moving in with is.”

“Are you going to miss the girls?”

“So much! They’ve been great to live with. Nessa’s moving in with Andy. She found a college in the city he works in to teach at. She’s so good at putting productions together, I’m excited for her. Charlotte may be in the area, though. Something tells me the school she’ll be teaching at is close by to Niall.”

“I’ve never seen him so smitten. He takes the more serious part of a relationship slow, but once he’s in he’s in.” He pulls her closer to him. “Everything’s falling into place. I’ve been working with Connie to get prepared for the fall, and I couldn’t be more excited.”

“I’m really proud of you.”

“I’m proud of you too, babe.”

//

The day they had both been waiting for was finally here. The graduate ceremony was in the evening, separate from the undergraduate ceremony. Y/N wouldn’t be able to see Harry until after the ceremony. She was busy with her parents and younger siblings. Harry may have clapped and cheered extra loud when she walked across the stage. Most people around him thought it was just because she had been his TA for an entire year. Literally no one suspected more was going on between them. After today it wouldn’t matter anyways.

There was a champagne reception after the ceremony. Y/N easily found her family.

“We’re so proud of you honey. Another degree, a new job, and you’re moving in with a guy!” Her mom says.

“I’m still not thrilled about the last part. We don’t even know him.” Her dad says.

“But I do, so it’s a good thing I’m the one living with him, not you.”

Harry makes his way through the crowd over to her and her family. He takes a deep breath, and when she spots him she squeals. She runs over and jumps into his arms. They kiss as he swings her around.

“You did it!”

“I did it!” They both jump up and down for a moment. “Come on.” She holds his hand to bring him over to everyone. “Harry, these are my parents, and my two younger siblings. Ellie is going to be a senior in college this fall, and Ryan is going to be a sophomore. He’s actually transferring here in the fall.”

“That’s great! Hi, it’s so nice to meet all of you.” He shakes everyone’s hands.

“Damn, a PhD.” Ellie whispers to her sister and winks. “Nice job.” The girls giggle together.

They all decide to go out to dinner together to get to know each other better. Harry and Y/N would be meeting up with Charlotte, Nessa, and the others at the bar once dinner was over. Y/N explains how they waited a while to make things official because Harry wanted to make sure things remained professional. Harry easily impressed her parents. He was incredibly smart and knew how to work people over. Even her dad was happy with him.

Y/N got pretty drunk at the bar with her friends, and Harry was able to keep his arms around her all night without a care in the world. When he got her inside his place, he couldn’t stop kissing her and telling her much he loved her over and over. She was excited to start her new job in a couple of weeks, and he was excited she genuinely wanted to stay, and wasn’t just doing this for him. They would spend the time before starting her job to get her all moved in. They even talked about getting a larger place at some point.

“I can’t wait to snuggle with Mac every night.” She giggles as she gets into bed.

“Hey, what about me?” He pouts.

“I guess you’re nice to snuggle with too.” She jokes.

“Mhm.” He kisses on her and hovers over her. “My girl’s got her master’s. You’re so fucking smart, it turns me on.”

“Really?”

“When we did those mock interviews in my office I couldn’t stop thinking about fucking you.”

“Does this mean we can get a little sneaky in your office now?” She raises an eyebrow at him. “Or are you staying firm with your open door policy?”

“Think I may have to reconsider it, but only for you.”

[calehenituseappreciation]

Ive seen a lot of Dream (and usually Techno and Phil too) as gods au (i have one too dw) but all of you are sleeping on the funniest option.

Tommy is the god.

Tommy.

hes the only one in that galaxy (other than drista ofc)

Just imagine how fucking funny it is like 

it would be so fucking hilarious

and tommy just doesnt tell them

so techno is just there making all these blood god jokes and jokingly telling tommy to serve him and tommys just laughing

imagine a god in the form of a chaotic 16 year old racoon gremlin just walts into your land commits arson and gets banned, only to come back with another person who he helps start a nation for drugs?

imagine how fucking funny it is

just

imagine tubbo banning a literal god from his lands and he just doesnt come back? he just plays by the rules? then goes and like sits in the corner all sad because some humans/dreamons told him to leave

ranboo, just joining the server: hi-  a chaotic gremlin god: wanna commit arson with me?  ranboo, just trying to vibe and maybe not disturb this god: sure 

Phil and Ranboo recongnize Tommy as a god on sight.

Everyone else just refuses to believe it. hes Tommy. Tommyinnit. hes just weird lol

And Drista being a fucking chaotic blood god? 

drista is open about her godhood and does not hesitate to spawn blocks

Drista finds Dream and decides she likes this small human, and dream just has to deal with it lmao.

drista and tommy are both born at the same time.

Tommy is a god of music, chaos, war and theivery (the last one bc he is a BITCH)

Drista is the blood god, chaos, deception, and theatre

okay but imagine the sbi interactions... like ig in this au tommy joins at like 12/13 years of age (in their minds) so he doesnt really grow much 

and like tommy, a literal god, just claiming phil as his father???

phil, in his house making eggs, assuming one of his sons woke up and came to the kitchen, not looking: hey son  tommy, from their couch, already deciding hes phils son now: whats up dad? phil: looks up at tommy who are you tommy: idk dad, who am i  phil: *stares at tommy for a second* eh i made extra eggs you can stay 

ASJIDGASUIOG IMAGINE TOMMY TELLING THEM HES A GOD BUT THEY THINK HES JOKING AND IGNORE HIM

everyone on the server: tommy is the youngest! tommy, as old as the universe: no im not!!!! im not a child!!!! he doesnt pout because pouting is for children and hes not a child but hes pouting tubbo: lol im older than you by a month tommy dont try to hide it tommy: im not a child!!!! techno: laughs

tommy doesn't try to hide that hes a god just its tommy

thats all the evedince anyone needs to think tommy isnt a god or powerful its like mcc hes good but only when he doesnt throw for content

quackity: sees drista written in bedrock lmao drista visited? tommy: yeah! i wrote that for her!  quackity: snorts yeahhhh sureee tommy

imagine like how fucking funny it is jsut like 

a fucking chaotic god breaks into your house androbs you makes a room under your house and decides to live in your floorboards

imagine dream like trying to manipulate tommy, and tommy a fucking anchient diety immeditly recongnizes what hes doing

but decides to play along for the angst and giggles and then actually gets mad when no one fucking cares for his theatrics

tommy, storming off to technos base to rob and build under: >:///// cant believe none of them acknoledged my  deppression 

i love that tommy stills robs everyone, he doesnt need to he can spawn in anything he wants

he just does it for the sport of robbery

JAKOGFSDOH

THE HOLY LAND

dream: im god actually tommy: thats so fucking funny lets make a cult about that :)  dream: see! look! im god! and jesus!  tommy: wheezing

imagine tommy getting stressed and letting go of his mortal form

Tommy, his human form peeling away, showing his actual form a bit: WH̸͘A͠T̷ ̶̢T͞H͢E ̡͘F̴̵͘Ù̧C͜K҉ ̶T͘͜͞E͟CHǸ͏Ǫ  Techno: HAH?

tommy just saw tubbo and got emotionally attached

Tommy, a literal god: hello Tubbo: oh hi do you like my pet bee? Tommy: you’re mine now Tubbo: im okay with this

tommy, a bored god: gives techno shapeshifting powers  techno, not even caring: changes into more human to pig-ishg forms as he wishes this is my life now ig 

phil lets tommy do fuck all in exile bc he knows hes a god hes fine

phil: IDC IF YOURE A GOD! YOU WILL DO THE DISHES NOW YOUNG MAN! tommy: grumbles but does them

phil is the only one who can control tommy

god... tommy... with star freckles... on his human form... (as well as his god one)

tommy: f̷͛͠a̵̋t̵̒̑h̸̚e̶̓͝r̸͊ ̸̐̒i̴ ̸̅̿d̷̉͆o̵͂͋ ̵̛̆ñ̸̾ő̶́t̸̎́ w̶͆͘i̴͠s̵̓̈́h̸͗́ ̵̯͗f̶͋́ő̴͑r̷̐̌ ̶͝é̵̽g̸͊͂g̵̒s̷͂̃  phil: idc, eat your goddamn eggs tommy: pouts

tommy, despite being able to get supplies himself by fucking spawning them in: hey tubbo? we need supplies 

In this au ig like if a god claims you you get a mark on your skin showing that. Drista’s would be like a green crown, Tommys would be a red and white disk (white as the outer ring and red as the center) (its different enough that if you don’t realise tommy is a god you wouldnt realise whos it is) (schlatt is the only one who never had one which shoulda been a sign dude :/)

Dream has two from the beginning, everyone else has only one, well until they meet drista. (sbi have had one since they met tommy, though they dont remember the first time they met tommy)

wait what if tommy like found them all as children one by one and later kinda pulled some strings to get them all in one kingdom. (he still joined sbi through forcing phil to adopt him) 

OKAY BUT IMAGINE IF TOMMY MET TECHNO WHEN TECHNO WAS YOUNG ENOUGH TO NOT REMEMBER

tommy would hang out with baby techno and tell him stories

once he told him the story of a man named thesus

another time he told him the story of a blood god

like for example tommys first time meeting techno would be like

(for context techno lived in a shitty village and was an orphan and it was kinda a dog eat dog place, he learned how to be strong because of it)(he was young enough that he doesn’t remember this well, just like learning about the blood god and someone giving him gold)

baby techno: sighs tommy, appearing out of nowhere: oh heyyy whyre you sad? techno: jumps turning around with a knife up ready for a fight who are you tommy: im tommy! :) techno: what do you want from me! you dont scare me! tommy: whats your name! techno: i have a knife! i'll use it! tommy: of course, thats a given, but its rude not to tell people your name techno, confused: t-technoblade? tommy: smiles thats a nice name techno: so. tommy: hm? techno: why're you here tommy: i don't have a reason. im just a traveller! techno: then why hole to this terrible village! theres nothing nice here! everyone is terrible and so are you! tommy: hmmmm i dont agree techno: what are you? a child? i thought adults were supposed to know that everyone is mean tommy: mmhmm looks at the bruise on technos face where'd you get that? techno: fight. i won. i'll win against you too! so don't try anything. tommy: of course. i would never win in a fight against a blood god techno, putting down his knife a bit, stars in his eyes: blood god? tommy: grins blood. god. i think she'd like you. techno, muttering: maybe i can give the blood god some of your blood tommy: laughs yeah, she'd defenitly find you intresting tommy: here tosses techno a golden crown at techno, he spawned it in in the moment techno: whats this? tommy: a crown, thought it suit you screams in the distance tommy: huh. i need to go. have fun lil piglin. ruffles technos hair before running off towards the screaming unbeknownst to the pig the blood god was actually the one waiting for the god he met. techno: stares at the crown 

Techno found a pouch of gold in his ‘house’ later that day. he didnt know who left it but it helped him get food for that night. (he kept the crown)

okay but imagine tommy not taking the war seriously at all, and only seeing it as a squabble between mortals, Like toddlers fighting

dream: SURENDER BY TOMMOROW OR WE'LL DECLARE WAR! wilbur: FUCK YOU WE'LL NEVER SURENDER AND JOIN YOUR SMP! Tommy: how cute

tommy doesnt realise that theyre serious until wilbur dies

tommy would usually go apeshit against anyone who dares messes with his humans, but what is he supposed to do when his humans are fighting Eachother?

wilbur: fucking goes insane and dies  tommy: hey- hey can you guys let me talk to wil for a sec? everyone else leaves tommy, unsually somber: sorry i didnt help you i forgot how easily breakable mortals are tommy: this time you wont die, and i'll make it so that you dont break again, okay? tommy: brings wilburs soul out of its body and enters his mindscape ghostbur: wakes up what- where am i? tommy: hi there ghostbur: who are you tommy: i go by a lot of names all, one, you, the world, the universe, god, but you can just call me tommy ghostbur: oh okay. who am i? tommy: you're name was wilbur soot. you were the son of philza minecraft and brother to Technoblade, Tubbo and myself. ghostbur: was? tommy: well you see, you died. ghostbur: oh... well what am i then? tommy: a ghost! well actually its your choice. would you like to continue your existance or fade away with your body? ghostbur: i dont want to fade away! tommy: smiles thats what i thought you'd say stretches his hand to wilbur ghostbur: grabs tommy hand tommy: lets go home

ghostbur doesnt remember that though

he only remembers the good

tommy wont let him remember the bad, what if he breaks again? mortals are so fragile

phil realises what tommy did as soon as he sees ghostbur 

drista, painting tommys nails (there both in god form btw) (after wilburs death btw): tommy shouldn't you of all gods realise how fragile they are?  tommy: i know just... forgot  drista: sighs and nods i get what you mean, especially with the ones we found... they act a lot like gods sometimes i forgot they arent  tommy: ikr? wait- drista here gets drista's hair out of her face you were gonna get it on my nails, anyways, don't judge me. we all know if dream died you would turn him into a ghost too drista: smirks not if you do it first, we all know you would tommy: you say that as if you wouldn't fight me to do it first  drista: .... tommy: ... drista: both of us when he dies? tommy: nods tommy: anyways my turn to do your nails 

or like tommy with ghostbur like

ghostbur: i don't like this :( tommy, a worried brother and god: whats wrong? ghostbur: everyone is mad at me and i d-dont know why- why are they mad at me tommy: theyre mad at something alivebur did ghostbur: b-but im not alivebur sniffs it hurts. i dont like it. tommy: spawns in some blue here ghostbur: whats that? tommy: its some blue! it'll help you not hurt anymore! ghostbur: how does it work? tommy: see how its blue? ghostbur: nods tommy: well its blue because it sucks up all the bad feelings! it'll help ghostbur: !!!!! ghostbur: presses the blue into his chest ghostbur: !!!!its working!!!! :D tommy: smiles good

wilbur fucking died and tommy went from annoying little brother to caring older brother

tommy just wants to help his brother :) though he doesnt realise that not letting ghostbur remember bad memories isnt good

*at logsted shire btw* ghostbur: who are you? tommy, chuckling: did you forget me already ghostbur? ghostbur: i didnt forget you! i think! you're tommy! i just... you're different tommy, looks over at ghostbur: different how? ghostbur: you're not normal are you? tommy: grins whaaaaat? you think im weirdddd? how heartbreaking... my own brother thinks im weird, this is terrible ghostbur: giggles tommy: but really, don't worry about it bur. ghostbur: you sure? tommy: yeah, dont worry about me ghostbur: smiles okay! do you want some blue anyways? tommy: giggles sure! ghostbur: grins

ghostbur isnt worried about tommy

he knows hes strong

phil having to tell tommy that he cant just not let wilbur remember the bad memories

and tommys like "what if he breaks again!" and phil hugs him and tells him to at least ask ghostbur if he wants to remember and tommys like ‘fine’

tommy: hey bur? ghostbur: yeah? tommy: do you like you're memories? ghostbur: i mean, yeah its hard not to when you only remember the good tommy, quietly: would you want to remember the bad? ghostbur: w-what brought this question on tommy: answer the question ghostbur: no- alivebur was badi shouldn't want to- tommy: but what do you want bur? wilbur, silent for a moment: yeah- yeah i do. not that i like the bad memories! they hurt... but i wish i could remember tommy: ... ghostbur: hey tommy? tommy: yeah? ghostbur, with tears in his eyes: do you think they'd be less mad at me if i could remember, maybe then i could repair my relationships, what the hell am i supposed to do when i dont even remember hurting them? tommy: what if they dont? what if you break again? ghostbur, saltily: we'll maybe i'll be able at least be able to say i know why everyone hates me tommy: i know how to get all of your memories back ghostbur, looks towards tommy in shock: you do??? tommy: nods ghostbur, voice wavering: for how long tommy: since the beginning ghostbur: and you didnt tell me tommy: i did what i thought was best. i just didnt want you to hurt anymore. ghostbur, angrily: WELL THAT CLEARLY WORKED DIDNT IT? tommy: sorry wilbur, sometimes i forget how to handle humans ghostbur: what- tommy: sighs and taps ghostbur on the forehead and ghostbur does the ghost equivilent of passing out tommy: wont hide any memories this time

ghostbur doesnt wake up, instead wilbur wakes up weither thats good or bad we'll see

wilbur, waking up with all his memories: HOLY SHIT TOMMY WASN'T KIDDING phil, who was reading beside the bed tommy placed wilbur into, which was in technos house. yes he broke into technos house with a passed out wilbur. move on.: hm? wilbur: holy shit phil: huh? yeah. wilbur: wait you knew? phil: yeah i recongnized him as soon as i saw him about 5 years ago now? wilbur: excuse me while i freak out because my little brother is an actual god

it really hits wilbur that tommy is a god later

wilbur: hey tommy? tommy: yeah? wilbur: how fucking old are you? tommy: snorts of course thats the first thing you ask wilbur: well? tommy: i dont really know the exact years since years are kind of a human thing that were invented recently wilbur: they were invented thousands of years ago- tommy: but it was around the beginning of this galaxy wilbur, softly: what the fuck

tommy telling wilbur stories about different heros and villains and different humans he met during his life.

Adsjbffsg what if Tommy made himself blonde and blue eyed and white bc thats hyow the first human he met looked like asjfhsd

and just didnt change that, despite meeting new humans, its just his defult settings.

he would totally do this tho im crying.

drista just based her human form off dream because she is his sister now. he must deal with this. trying disowning me when i look like you BITCH.

thats my take anyways later might continue this

[hohoz]

How RE Village (8) SOLVED almost every problem that I had with RE Series

Okay - a few weeks ago I made a post that was “The ones that suffer the most” where I showed and explained my main problems with Chris and Jill and the RE series in general 

RE 1 is my fav game of this series and probably one of my all time favs, I player every RE there is to be played except 4 (because I dislike Leon, sry) 

Recently, specially after 4, the franchise had a few problems, specially in writing/map design/lore 

Resident evil 5 for example (I love this game) but it has it flaws, Chris there is only driven by anger and action - Sheva is used as a tool for lore exposition and to be Chris’s new partner 

PLEASE: be aware that game at that generation didn’t have much lore - with some exceptions, like God of War 1 2 3 were a simply game with a simple lore, and the most recent GoW has evolved a little bit in the storytelling

Until we hit rock bottom in RE6 - I know a lot of people like this game, but this is only and action game, bad writing and generic stages. 

Chris there is so mistreated that makes me mad (if you want to read more about this go to my other post “the ones that suffer the most”)

Until RE7 appeared, Capcom had a new engine and they wanted to do a game that was more horror like - since RE is know for being a Survival horror game.

I liked 7 - some people complained about Ethan being without emotion and others complained about the mold, a few didn’t like the FEAR vibes from Eveline. 

I personally enjoyed the game, I thought RE series was going back on track, that game has it’s problems but it was really nice compared to what we had in 6.

After that game I had a conversation with my best friend and I said that I wanted a game that portrayed Umbrella’s fall since the only game that shows this is Umbrellas Chronicles (and that is most a resume of what happened)

And I said: “Bro, I wish that when they made that game, they could tie some mythological lore and human evolution before Umbrella - using Spencer, this would solve LOT OF STUFF and open new ways to handle this series”

and guess what - this happened in RE8 and kudos to the one writer that did that, i have my gratitude. 

RESIDENT EVIL 8 is probably one of the BEST RE games that we had IN YEARS

And I want to address all thing that I loved in this game and do some predictions to what will happen in the next games.

“WELL WELL IF IT ISN’T ETHAN WINTERS” (The Father of the year)

My father was not a great guy... really, so I want to be the best dad ever, I really want be like Ethan - a guy who is ready to sacrifice and fight every monster in the way to save my family. 

Ethan was a character that in RE7 was used to make us fell like that it was us in the Baker’s house, so that is why he didn’t had that much personality (in my opinion) but they changed that in RE8, here he has nice dialogues AND a diary 

He has one of the best story line in the whole REverse, a guy that did EVERYTHING in his power to save his daughter - and you saw that playing the game, every sentence line that he delivered, he tried to save others too and even tho Chris said to him stay put ... but he couldn’t, he had to go to the altar, he had to help Chris, he had to go forward and keep going, specially after having the tools to face Heisenberg. 

The plea from a father, that was his last wish, after he heard that Mia was alive he knew that someone had to stop that monster, he made a promise to his daughter “Daddy won’t let those weird fairy tale monsters get you” so he trusted Chris, to be the one that teaches his kid how to be brave and strong

I will not address Chris and Rose situation here because this is Ethans part and he deserves completely all the spotlight, his sacrifice was 100x times better than Steve (CV)/Piers(6)

My cheers to Ethan Winters - You have my respect !

Revelations -> RE8 

So leaks from earlier times said that RE8 sucked and Revelations 3 was amazing

Revelations FYI is know for using old tales in RE stories 

Revelations 1 - Dante’s Inferno 

Revelations 2 - Frans Kafka 

Revelations 3 - Dracula 

But since RE8 sucked, Capcom said to the REV3 team that they could make REV3 become RE8 and they accepted 

Revelations series is one of the best in the games, they handle Jill in a way that I love, Claire and even Barry - so they deserve all the spotlight for making this awesome game - you CLEARLY can see that they love this series and that they treat all the characters with the love that they deserve. 

Keeping that in mind, they are the same team that made Rev 2 and in REV 2 we have this file here 

So they had a plan for Jill and we can see that in RE8 - I will address that later but keep that in mind - this team cares for the old characters, they were the ones that brought Barry back to the games :V 

Chris Redfield 

This is a hard one, because he is my fav character and I usually have the most critics regard him, since I’ve expect a lot from Capcom 

In the latest games they made him kind dumb, only muscles type of guy and an alcoholic that let all the people in his surroundings die (RE5,RE6,Vendetta) 

RE6 treats him the WORST

But in RE8 he had an amazing part in the storyline, it was obvious that he wasn’t evil and they FIXED HIS EYE COLOR - FINALLY 

I still don’t like the model face that much but it’s way better than 7 - so I believe Capcom, I still feel that he need more jawline 

But let’s go to the most important thing - here he really feels like a squad leader and a veteran, he has his team but he is the one in the front line, he covers and ask for help when he needs, everything about his line delivery makes you feel like “Woah, this guy is a badass, he is not some stupid guy only driven by emotions”

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR FINALLY GETTING THIS RIGHT 

If you remember my post about the ones that suffer the most / Jill is also in that list and I will talk about her a little bit later but if my guess is right RE8 saved her character aswell

Another thing that I enjoyed here is the fact that he is kind of a mercenary / Neo Umbrella kind of guy, even tho he is one of the founders of the BSAA

So I will give you all my score to this game: 

9/10

I won’t give 10/10 because of some technical issues, the cursor lock didn’t work and mouse sensitivity was i dunno, not the best. 

RE8 and the future (PREDICTIONS)  - Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, BSAA, Neo Umbrella, Ada Wong and Rosemary

First let’s look Rose

The first time I saw Rose all grown up - I thought to myself : She has the same problem as Eveline (age a lot faster than normal) 

But she also absorbed Miranda’s power since the metalicite (something like this) thought that she was a better host. - so maybe she will live longer or something because I doubt that they will do a 14 years time skip. 

This is not the same as Terra Save logo (Claire’s job) but it kind reminds me of it - her shoes appeared at least 3 times in this cut scene so maybe they are trying to show some hints with this 

She really reminds me of Jodie (Beyond two souls, a game where a girl has a lot of power and the gov uses her in missions and stuff, but she also is learning how to be her own person) 

Another thing here is that they don’t have a logo in this car, it really reminds me the car that Chris as using in RE8 

This supports the theory that Chris’s organization is dealing with her instead of the BSAA, the she is a hot headed girl and that she had a lot of powers. 

So here you can say that she is just a kid because she is a teenager, but what if she actually grows older really fast (like Eveline) maybe this is just 1 year later / 2 yrs later. (after RE8)

So this is the tricky part, this is Chris’s guard/soldier, someone that Chris trust to stand by her side, in my mind I do believe that Chris is kind of a father figure to her, so when this guys says this he is thinking about hot head Chris but she replies “Yeah” thinking about Ethan - (she has the mold memories, so she can actually remember Ethan’s memories) 

Now let’s look at this 

BSAA 

So in REV1 is hinted that BSAA is not the best organization in the world, but since our heroes work there we think that they are the good guys right ? 

In REV 2 (it’s important to remember that the team that created RE8 is the same from the REVELATIONS and they had this file here in REV2)

This email is from Jill and what does Jill have ? T-Virus 

Wesker is a different case since he was a project and she had the vaccine but this would make a lot of sense if they had this tests with Jill to get the T-Virus

If that is the case, they explained Jill’s absence in the main games, could even explain why Chris left BSAA and opened a new window to a lot of possibilities 

My Predictions: 

- Chris had trouble dealing with BSAA and Jill’s case, he wanted to get her out of there, maybe he removed her from there but that resulted in him being expelled from the force

-Jill may or may not know what they are doing with her blood, but she will have a huge part in the BOW used by BSAA 

-Chris is married to Jill (sorry- I had to place this here, in a perfect world he has two kids with her and they all love aunt Rose) 

-Chris will hopefully be a father figure to Rose and they will be in a game together since in the end they came to get her

-Rebecca is still involved in BSAA activities (leak from new REV3) if you consider Vendetta canon, she maybe the one that used Jill’s sample of blood to create the virus soldiers

-Barry maybe retired 

-I don’t think Leon will be in this game, but he will get his RE4 Rmk 

- I do believe RE9 will be release after Code veronica rmk and MAYBE they will do a game about Umbrella’s Fall (Chris and Jill in Europe against Red Queen and BOWs) 

But that is it, you can see a lot of elements from old RE games in RE8, they tried to do something really smart and the game felt amazing to play, that was something else and it’s been a while since a player a RE game that made me feel that way <3

[dangerousstrawberryshark]

It was all a lie | Part 2

Possessive Father Shawn Mendes x Male Reader x Boyfriend Tom Holland.

P1

(couldn’t come up with a good title. also why does Tom look sick in the photo I picked?) 

Shawn is 32. You and Tom are 19. 

Warnings: Not that many. slight yandere behavior. 

Summary: your name is M/n Mendes and you are the son of Shawn Mendes. You thought he was like any other dad, but that changed when you turn 13. He began to tell you not to play with your friends and how they didn’t care about you. He began to isolate you so you could depend on him. Now you are 18, and your father’s obsession grew. But what he doesn’t know is that you have a boyfriend and his name is Tom Holland. 

M/n: Male Name

L/n: Last name

Word Count: 2256

Not a Poly-relationship by the way!

Hope you enjoy! sorry if it bad! This was rushed so there is going to be a lot of grammar mistakes!

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DISCLAIMER: I MEAN NO OFFENSE, DISRESPECT, OR HARM TO ANY OF THESE CELEBRITIES! THIS IS JUST FICTION.

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MINORS DNI. FEMALE READERS… I’LL ALLOW YOU TO READ MY FICS BUT DO NOT FETISHIZE ANY OF MY STORIES

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FLASHBACK (Nine Years ago. When the reader is 10 and Shawn is 23.)

Shawn’s POV

I was walking down the path, the autumn leaves were blowing in the wind, I could hear the dogs barking, probably at a squirrel they saw, and the cheers of kids playing in the playground. 

I always wanted a kid. A perfect kid, but I could never find the right girl. I was walking pasted the playground when I noticed a young boy who looked at least 10 years old. He was playing and I could see his parents watching him. 

I, of course, stopped staring or I’ll alert his parents who were looking around. ‘I want him… I want him to be my kid. But how, I’m going to deal with his parents?’

‘I’ll play a good guy for now.’ I walked over and sat down on the bench where his parents were. They look like nice people and they were. “Hey, there young man.” I heard the lady say. “Hey,” I said waving and giving my iconic smile.

Time skip (30 minutes)

I and the kid’s parents have been talking for at least 30 minutes. They told me all about their kid, how he is smart, and how he is responsible. ‘I knew he would be perfect.’

Then I heard little footsteps coming our way and a little kid’s voice. “Mom, Dad!” the kid said while running over to us panting. “Yes, sweetie?” the mom looked over at her my-- well almost my son, her son. 

“Can we go home--.” the kid stopped mid-sentence when he noticed me. He just stared, giving me that stank eye. I mean I don’t blame him, seeing a stranger talk to your parents, and then they have to introduce you to them. But I decided to talk.

“Hey, there kid! The name is Shawn. Shawn Mendes. Nice to meet you.” I gave my hand out. He hesitantly looked at me before shaking my hand. “My name is M/n. M/n L/n.” it looked like he didn’t want to see me. 

“Ahh, yes sweetie we can go home.” the mom said while walking to her car, the dad and the kid followed. I just watched while they walked away. 

Time skip (3 months)

It’s been 3 months since the last encounter we had. It has been 3 months since I’ve been plotting. And now today is the day I get to have you as my kid. 

I was getting ready. The sun’s rays didn’t peak through my window. I had pictures of the family with x’s on the parent’s faces. My main goal was to have a perfect family, and getting that kid is step one in the process of it becoming reality. I went as far as buying a house for my family 

After putting on my black attire, I grabbed my knife and put it in my pocket. I went downstairs to see boxes with my stuff in them, and they’ll be transported to the new house. I grabbed my car keys off the counter and made my way to my car with black tinted windows. Pulled out of the driveway and took a 2-hour drive 

Time skip (2 hours)

M/n POV

I and mom and dad are having my F/D. My mom’s cooking is the best, sometimes. We were just talking about random things like how I’m doing in school, and you know how your parents say, “Soooo, has anyone caught your eye.” like Mom, I’m only 10… why?

Anyways, we were just eating until we heard a knock on the door. “I’ll go see who is at the door.'' Dad got up and walked to the door. I could hear his footsteps getting closer. I just stared and she stared as we were wondering who was at the door.

Just then we heard something hit the ground, it sounded like a body. Then we heard footsteps coming closer, I could hear my mother come up from the chair and grabbed me. In the kitchen was a man dressed in all black. 

My mother quickly pulled me and we went to the master bedroom. “Sweetie, I need you to stay here. Whatever happens, you don’t come out until I tell you to. Okay?” I was already crying but I nodded. She pushed me into the closet and closed the door but she kissed me on the forehead. ���I love you, sweetie.” “I love you too mommy.” tears and snot were coming out. 

I looked through the little slit (is that the right word?) in the door. I could see my mother grab something out of the drawer. It looked like scissors.

Just then the door to the master bedroom busted open. “Ahhhh.” I could see mom trying to fight the man with the scissors. But it didn’t work, he stabbed her in the neck. Mother collapsed in front of the door. I could see the life in her eyes fading away. 

I held my breath trying not to attract the stranger. Then I heard the fire alarm go off. I still try to hold my breath but I hear the man’s footsteps getting closer. Then the door to the closet opened. The man grabbed me, knocking me out. 

FLASHBACK OVER

M/n POV 

I woke, finding myself in a room that looked like my old room, but the window was boarded up with steel. I got up and went to the door trying to open it. The door was also locked from the outside. I was in complete isolation. 

After an hour or two of looking at the ceiling, the door opened. Shawn walked in. I charged at him but he quickly pulled out a taser and he shocked me with it. “You shouldn’t disobey your dad like that. going into his room where he told time and time not to go in there. But what did you do? You went in there anyways. Now, look where you are now.” Shawn said just looking at me with an unreadable expression. He then pulled something out and put it around my neck. 

“What the hell is this?!” I yelled, touching the metal that wrapped around my neck. “Why, it’s a collar. But not just any collar. This collar cuts your head right off if it detects that you have left the house!” your mouth dropped at this and you looked at him with disgust. 

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” you yelled trying to get it off but it didn’t work. “Nothing is wrong with me. I’m just preventing you from leaving me.” he smiled like nothing was wrong, and then he just walked out. ‘Tom please come save me....’

Meanwhile with Tommy.

Tom POV.

It took an hour before I arrived. I made sure that M/n dad isn’t. Lucky his car wasn’t in the driveway. 

I got out of the car, beginning to walk up the stairs. The floor creaked as I walked giving an eerie vibe. I knocked on the door but I realized it was opened. ‘Weird… why is the door unlocked?!’ 

I walked in calling out. “HEY! M/n I’m here!” my voice echoed as I called out. I expected him to come running down the stairs, but he didn’t. ‘He’s in his room?’

I walked upstairs to go to his room but I noticed his father’s office room door was opened. ‘Weird. Why is it opened? Didn’t he say, he wasn’t allowed to go in there?’ I decided to investigate like how white people do in the movies. (This is not meant to be racist! It's just a joke!) 

I opened the door to see nothing but M/n’s phone on the ground. ‘What the-?’ when I walked to the desk, I saw pictures? It looked like M/n when he was young. Then I saw pictures of two unknown people. The more I look at it, the more these people look like M/n!

I always thought it was weird how M/n looks nothing like his father. I began to put the pieces together. These people were his real parents! I immediately called 911.

“911, what’s your emergency?” the operator said on the other line. 

“Ahh, I would like to report a kidnapping. My boyfriend, he's not here!” I said panicking.

“Alright calm down. What’s your address?” 

“Uhh, the address is [insert random address]” 

“Okay sir, help is on the way. Stay on the line for me.”

“Okay.” I was calming down a little but my anxiety was still soaring through the roof. My only thought was is M/n alright? ‘Don’t worry M/n I’ll find you.’

Time Skip (5 months)

No one POV

It's been 5 months since you were kidnapped by your “father”. 5 months and Tom was urging the police to continue the search. But during those 5 months, you were planning how to escape. 

Of course, you couldn’t escape physically cause the collar would kill you instantly. But you’ve been a “good boy” so Shawn would sometimes let you out. Only on certain days though. Today was Wednesday, the day he would let you out. 

He would leave for work and you have the house to yourself. You went downstairs to see Shawn’s phone sitting on the counter. ‘He left it here?’ you smiled as now you could call Tom, but you gotta hurry before Shawn realizes that he left his phone.

You dialled Tom’s number and the phone was calling him. “Hello, this Tom. who is this?” you felt at peace as you heard his voice after 5 months of being apart. 

“Tom it's me M/n!” I yelled through the phone. “M/n is this really? Oh my god! Are you alright? Where are you?” Tom said frantically as he finally heard your voice. “I’m alright Tommy. I can send you the location. Please send help.” you hung up and sent Tom your location. It turns out that you were only 5 hours away. (Plot purpose.)

You quickly went upstairs to pretend you’ve been there. 

Time skip (5 hours and 58 minutes later)

You heard the door open downstairs. Then footsteps running up the stairs, Shawn busted into your room. “You’ve been a bad boy. Don’t act like I knew what you did,” he said looking into your eyes. 

You began to cry fearing what was going to happen but then you heard it. Police sirens. Then arrived. “This is the police! Come out with your hands up or we will use force!” you could hear him shouting. 

“Shit!” Shawn said under his breath. He went outside into the hallways and opened the window to escape. You just sat there knowing. “This is your final warning!” the door busted open with policemen coming in. They scout the whole house looking for you and Shawn.

You see a policeman come into view and he alerts the others of his finding. You smiled as you were free but the only thing that was holding you back was the collar. You see Tom walk, and he immediately hugged you crying onto your shoulder, you hugged him back. 

“After 5 months, I finally found you! Come let's get you out of here.” Tom said grabbing your arm but you told him to stop. He looked at you wondering why you weren't coming with him. “Tom, I need you to get this collar off of me. If I go out… it will kill me!” Tom went down to get officers. 

He came back to you after 10 minutes. “Don’t worry, they said they’ll get a tech guy to come and get it off,” he said smiling at you. He put his head against your head. Then he pulled you in for a kiss reassuring that it's going to be alright. 

Time skip (7 months later)

It's been 7 months since the incident. They removed the collar after a good 2 hours. You decided you couldn’t live in the US anymore because you feared that Shawn would find you. 

Tom invited you to come to live with him in Britain. You gladly accepted his offer. Your life has returned to normal. 

You were far from the man that killed your parents and kidnapped you. But one day you got a call from the police. You were relieved at what they said. “Shawn Mendes has been found and he is being trialled for his crimes. But since there is a lot of evidence of his crimes, he’ll be found guilty.” 

You told Tom the news and he was glad that man got what he deserved. Even though you were lied to about your life. You wouldn’t let that stop you from living happily. 

THE END.

TOTAL WORD COUNT: 3362

[holycow99]

石田お寿司 12/9/21 stream translation Part 2

This is not the full translation of the stream. I only translated the parts I could understand & interpret or parts I found interesting/important. I’m still a beginner in Japanese, so the translations may not be accurate. If you want to repost, please repost at your own risk.

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*Someone asked about Choujin X.

I: I’ve given the manuscript for chp 8. It’ll be released in a few days. I don’t really have much to say about this. I wanna write this month’s goals for Osushi. The big plan is to fix(?) chp 8. Then, I wanna release another two chapters this month. Chp 8 has 20 something pages. I want to at least draw the chapters in a weekly pace. What I mean by that is I wanna draw 72 pages per month. If I could draw 72 pages a month, I drew 18 pages per week during Weekly Young Jump too. So, I wanna draw 18 pages per week, which is 72 pages per month. That’s the amount of pages for weekly publication. It’d be nice if I could draw at least this much by myself. If I drew 25 pages weekly for three weeks, It’d have a total of 75 pages. I can currently get it done. If I updated 3 chapters a month, I’d have a total of 70-something pages per month. Then, nobody will complain. It’s not like anyone is complaining. It’s so that I won’t complain to myself. This is directed towards me as a challenge. Of course, it’s okay if I couldn’t do it. It doesn’t matter if I can or can’t, I thought it’s better to have a goal.

C: And the fact that you’re streaming right now is amazing!

I: Right? I spent a lot of time at the end of August doing rectifications, plotting, etc. They’re all important things to do. Since I have a little bit of free time, I thought of streaming.

C: It’s okay to draw the chapters slowly. Do you concern about maintaining the quality?

I: The quality is as usual. I mean, that’s one of the reason. It’s also to match the quality of the work. The drawing style in Choujin X is different, so of course the drawing will be different too. There are things that have changed. I want to match the vibe of the work, and also, I wanna prioritise speed over the quality. By speed, I don’t mean I wanna write them in a hurry. I want them to have a quality that’s easy to balance. I’m still playing around with it.

C: Until what chapters do you plan to release the physical copy?

I: I can just release it. I do have a plan for it, like releasing 2 volumes altogether.

C: I’m okay with anything as long as you don’t collapse later on.

I: You’re exactly right. I’m doing it with ease. So that the serialisation will go well, I’m adjusting my pace. This is just my ideal, but I wanna serialise another manga. It doesn’t have to be serialised, I have another stuff I wanna release. I’m finding the time to make one. If I make it a rule to do other things after I’ve done 75 pages per month, I don’t have to draw more. I could use the time to do other stuffs.

C: Don’t push yourself.

I: I’m not.

C: Are you overworking?

I: Not at all. I have many hands.

C: Did you play JJ?

I: I played the game like hell.

C: Is it easier to not have assisstants?

I: That’s a good question. This is kinda weird, people say that your work will progress more if you have more assistants, but that’s not the case. I did TG without knowing that. People will ask you to check on their works. So, the more the people, the more the workload. There’s probably an appropriate number of people you should have. 4 people would probably be enough during TG. But there were more people, like the helpers, but they did regularly help. It was quite a lot. I won’t be able to do my own work when there’s a lot of staffs. I don’t have assistants for choujin X so that I can do it with ease, and umm… It’s the fastest way for me. Of course, I do think the quality of the work will increase if there are staffs. I’m trying to see if I can speed up my work to a certain extent without having to check on others’ works and consider about other people, while creating the quality contents I’m capable of.

C: Working alone or with assistants finish faster?

I: It depends on the stuffs you’re making. For choujin x, I think it’d be hard for me to draw them if I had assistants. It’ll be great if we can have divisions.

C: Are you gonna hire a care assistant? (t/n: The Japanese word is Meshistant, which means assistant who mainly takes care of the mangaka’s meal, chore, etc. So, I just put it as care assistant.)

I: Definitely no. I didn’t let my assistants do the chore. I even cleaned the toilet myself. I kinda hate it. I hate the label they give to such people. Meshistant. I don’t like people who call them that. I don’t mean you. I probably won’t be fond of mangakas who use that word. They’re your staffs, right?

C: Do you think of the story all by yourself?  

I: Yeah. Sometimes I do get ideas from my surrounding. But, most of it came from mine.

(t/n: I’m not sure if the last sentence is correct. I couldn’t really understand what he meant, but it’s something like that.)

C: I’m having a hard time to sleep. Recommend ways for me to sleep well.

I: Probably read books. It can make your eyes feel tired. Then, maybe by not sleeping? But you might think it’s better to sleep. I understand. I wanna keep trying to fall asleep, but then I’ll watch movies while lying down. I have trouble sleeping lately. I used to sleep a lot.

C: Meshistant is also an honourable job.

I: Then, why not just hire people who specialised in that. Like housekeepers. They have that, right? Something like a home helper. That is better, isn’t it? Using assistants who’re enthusiastic to draw manga to do stuffs like that is awkward for me.

*Someone commented about hiring maid.

I: Maid? Then, I’d like that. Hahaha. Should I hire a maid? I’m recruiting maids.

C: Even at the age of 250,000, you still have trouble falling asleep.

I: Yeah.

C: Are they hired to make meals?

I: Yeah. There’s various types of assistant in the manga industry. This one refers to an assistant in charge of meals.

I: What did I wanna talk about? Oh yeah, about Animal Rap. I’m thinking whether or not I should upload animal rap video during stream, but where is the file? I’ve decided to upload it after this stream ends. What was it that I wanna talk about? Can you tell me about my current status, such as about the Sui exhibition in Osaka and Nagoya, or about Ms. Towada’s illustrations?

C: How about a live rap?

I: Good idea.

C: About the plan for 30,000 subscribers.

I: That’s right 2x. We’re talking about what to do to celebrate 30,000 subscribers.

C: I can be your maid for free.

I: I’ll definitely pay you. If it’s for free, then you won’t feel your sense of duty. I’ll give a huge salary and pressure you so that you’ll work responsibly.

C: Ms. Towada can both write novels and draw. Amazing!

I: I also can. Hahaha. I also…ah, but I can’t write novels. I won’t lose to her.

C: Do you have double eyelids.

I: Mine is hidden one.

C: Appear in First Take.

I: I won’t.

C: Are your eyelashes long?

I: Yes. My eyelashes are long, I have hidden double eyelids, I am of medium build…but I’m already worn-out.

(t/n: He used the word ‘boroboro’. I couldn’t really find the proper word to translate it in this context. Worn-out is the only one I could think of that suits the context.)

C: Are you handsome?

I: Well…I’m pretty good looking.

C: Have you been going to the gym?

I: No, I haven’t, since I was busy with work. I wanna go though.

C: I wanted to go to Mr. Kunimitsu’s concert.

I: Me too.

C: Which one is more handsome? You or Kaneki?

I: Wouldn’t that be Kaneki?

C: How about another stream with Ms. Towada?

I: I re-listened to the stream with Ms.Towada. For some reason, she was laughing a lot in the stream. Though she always like that. It’s slightly embarrassing. She’s acting like she’s at home. It felt like she’s disclosing my family situation, so it’s a bit..., but I can do that again from time to time. When I wanna do something related to JJ, then I’ll call her. That’s the most suitable content.

*Someone asked him to invite his younger sister.

I: It’s impossible to invite my younger sister.

*People wanted Goubaru to be the guest.

C: Goubaru, huh?

C: Do you have someone you wanna invite?

I: No, I don’t. The corona is one thing, but I’m completely okay with not meeting people. I do talk to people I’m close with. I think that’s already enough. It’s not like I have someone I’m involved with. I do usually talk to Mr. Kunimitsu.

*People want Hanae Natsuki again.

I: Hanae? That’s definitely impossible.

*He’s talking about Japanese youtubers.

C: Can you beat boxing?

I: I’m practising at the moment.

*Currently taking about Japanese artists.

* Someone asked who he thinks could be the next popular artist.

I: Lately, I only listen to instrumentals. The one that I like recently is the girl band called Chai. The group’s vocalists are twins. The group is great. It’s not like I like the band because there’s someone who caught my intention. I listened to their songs first before I decided whether I liked them or not. I thought this kind of voice also exists.

C: Congrats for TG’s 10th anniversary.

I: Thank you. Thank you to Brazil as well. (t/n: Someone commented Brazil.)

*He pinned his Chai comment.

C: People who just came don’t understand what’s going on.

I: It’s okay if you don’t. Hehe.

C: Sensei, can you eat choco mint?

I: I can.

C: I thought the bgm was from Animal Crossing.

I: This is Yorushika’s Escape.

*Still talking about Japanese artists.

C: Have you seen Midsummer?

I: Yes, I have.

(t/n: He said something about the new evangelion movies. But I couldn’t really translate that part properly. He basically watched the Rebuild Evangelion movies from the start since he never watched it before. He planned to go to Yamaguchi prefecture, the birthtown of Evangelion’s author to watch the last movie.)

Y****: I’m reading Toro Hedoro! I recommend it!

I: I do read that. Don’t underestimate me! I do read One Piece as well, but half-way through.

C: You can watch the Evangelion movie on Amazon Prime.

I: I wanna watch the final movie at the cinema. Has the final movie come out? It has? But I’m still gonna watch at the cinema.

C: Have you read Tokyo Ghoul?

I: Nope.

C: I recommend Tokyo Ghoul!

I: Is that so? I have a story regarding TG, but it’s probably gonna be quite deep.

C: One Piece has reached 100 volumes!

I: That guy and Odacchi have reached 100 volumes, right? Hahaha. That guy is Luffy, while Odacchi is Oda sensei. Hahaha. I can’t call him that. Odacchi is Oda sensei and Kishikage is Kishimoto sensei. I see, that guy has reached 100 volumes? Way to go! Hahaha! No one is watching this anyway. I’ll properly lick his boots if he’s in front of me, since he’s the real deal. I’ll be very obedient and sucking up to him.

(t/n: Ishida was using the word ‘aitsu’ to refer Eichiro Oda. As far as I know, it’s an impolite way of calling someone older or in higher status than you in Japan.)

C: He’s scarier than Hikakin (a Japanese youtuber.)

I: Right. We are in the same industry after all. But I think Young Jump and Jump are different subsidiaries. Although, Hara sensei seems to have met with Odacchi, so maybe there’ll be an opportunity for me to meet him. But probably no. Someone like me won’t be able to meet Eichiro Oda sensei. I won’t meet him. He seems like a unique person.

*Ishida talking about an illustrator and youtuber called Saito Naoki.

(t/n: I couldn’t translate the first half of this part because they’re talking about something that had happened, and I don’t know the context of it.)

I: The name ‘Saito Naoki’ is very nice. Is it a pen name? It totally sounds like a real name though.

C: Are you close with Kishida Mel? (t/n: Kishida Mel is an illustrator and a character designer.)

I: I’ve never met him, but Kiyoppi, Kiyohara Hiro sensei and Melcchi are good friends. He’s like a friend of my friend. You have things like that, right? 

C: The name ‘Ishida Sui’ is cool!

I: I seriously wanna change my pen name. I wanna change to something like Gengoro. I wanna change to a manlier name. I didn’t give a thought about my name before. I used that name because I thought I was gonna be famous in the future, so I didn’t wanna use my real name. I seriously thought that I couldn’t become a mangaka if my real name was exposed. I was like “Since I’m gonna be famous, let’s avoid using my real name.” I was being vigilant about it, so I half-heartedly named my pen name.

I: The name Gengoro is nice. Tagami Gengoro. Tokyo Ghoul’s author, Tagami Gengoro. The Tokyo Ghoul’s author, Tagami Gengoro’s exhibition is now open. I’d definitely sounds like a bearded fatty. With round glasses to top it off. Isn’t Tagami Gengoro a character from a gay manga?

*Ishida searching for Tagami Gengoro.

I: Everyone, don’t search for it. I’m scared something dirty will appear. Is it not? Oh, it isn’t. what’s the name again? There is a character named something Gengoro, right? It’s Tagame Gengoroh! I got it now! Tagame Gengorohw as born in 1964 and a Japanese mangaka. He calimed himself to be a ‘Gay Erotic Artist’. This is the one! It’s Tagame Gengoroh sensei. 

*Ishida was looking at Tagame Gengoroh sensei’s illustrations.

I: This one. Wow, this is indeed gay! Hahaha.

C: I can’t believe it came out of your mouth.

I: Surprisingly, I do talk about these kind of stuffs. (t/n: I mean, he’s the man who wrote a whole R-18 chapter.)

I: So, I can’t use the name Gengoro, since there’s someone with this name.

C: Is the name ‘Ishida Sui’ an anagram of your Surname?

I: Yes, it is.

C: Are you gay?

I: Hahaha! Even if that’s true, you didn’t have to ask that kind of question! Let’s just say that I’m okay with both.

C: Kuso Miso. (t/n: Kusomiso is a gay manga.)

I: Of course, I’d be reading them (probably referring to gay manga). I mean, manga like Kuso Miso Technique are popular, right?

C: Ishida GayGoro.

I: Hahaha. That’s just gay.

C: You’ve been to a gay bar before, right?

I: Not at all. When I was hanging out with the staffs, Goubaru said he wanted to go to a Okama bar while crying.

(t/n: According to the internet, Okama is a term referring to guys who adapted female characteristics.)

C: I think it’s completely normal to be gay nowadays.

I: We’re talking about gay now. It’s not normal in the first place. It’s just a sexual orientation. If you pick on every little thing, everything will become a problem. Those who deliberately say they’re not prejudiced against gays are actually are. Even if you tell that to people, they’ll probably filter what they wanna say. They’d be conscious of every single thing they say. Things like that don’t matter.

C: Sensei, let’s talk about something else.

I: Why? I’m okay with it.

C: I’m bi.

I: Does it matter? It’s okay.

C: It’s difficult to say something regarding gender issues, right?

I: Well…It’s difficult, since it’s concerning your mindset. It doesn’t only apply to gender issues; you can hurt someone by making careless remarks.  It’s just that you sometimes accidentally let out your opinions. I also think I sometimes make unnecessary remarks, so I might do that.

C: I want to be embraced by Masataka Kubota. (t/n: Masataka Kubota is a Japanese actor who played as Kaneki in the live-action.)

I: That’s right. Must be nice. I want us to embrace each other.

Part 3

[teresa-moyocoyotzin]

short recap of my thoughts on 5x09

okay so i was gonna rewatch the whole episode and do a blow-by-blow reaction post but i’m not sure i’ll have time and i kinda wanna focus on watching my fave scenes from the show before tonight. also, everyone else’s reaction posts p. much sum up my thoughts lol 

nonetheless, i just wanted to give my main takeaways on the episode a week later, in case anyone cares where i’m at going into the finale! gonna go over the things i liked first, anyone who wants to just remain positive and not see any salty takes might wanna just stick to reading the first part b/c i definitely rant a bit at the end lmao. we’re still having a fun time tho 😂

THINGS I LOVED

- i mean... i think we know LOL

- obviously. i loved james and teresa’s i love you scenes, and kisses, and OOF THAT SEX SCENE. if someone had told me we were gonna get that scene back in like 2017??? i probably would have started literally floating. i totally respect that people had very specific ideas of what they wanted out of those scenes and could have different feelings about it but NOT ME BABES I AM ECSTATIC!!! i did go into the episode with a ~feeling~ that we were gonna get at least one ILY in the episode, and i just had a feeling it would be james, or at least that he would say it first. i’ve already explained in my meta about the scenes why i think it makes sense that he said it first and why i love it that he did, so i won’t go into that here. but i went in having really no expectations for it other than that it was gonna happen! i was debating about whether it would happen really casually while they’re talking, or in like a big action scene, or really dramatic or what, and what i would prefer, and i came to the conclusion that i would love it no matter what lol, but i was really into the idea of james just. fucking. saying it. while they’re just talking about something really casually. so therefore i was pretty happy with it when we got sort of a mix! they’re talking about teresa’s insane death trap of a plan so there’s that drama of “i don’t want to lose you esp. not before saying ILY” kinda thing, but it’s also just. so simple and sure! and then teresa’s i love you is like the perfect scene for me where one character is super focused on something else (in this case, trying to protect the woman he loves! agh!) and the other is just like.. i love you!!!! SO GOOD

- let’s see, what the hell else happened in this ep?

- oh okay i really liked james and teresa’s vibes this episode, they were so focused on each other and had this very ride-or-die feeling about them like they knew that each of their plans was increasingly stupid and desperate and might not even get them where they wanna go, but they were IN IT TOGETHER no matter what 😭i wish we had gotten a callback to that line but at this point, i’m p. sure they Know they’re in it together, and we do too. so it’s okay. i love that teresa still asks his input and considers his opinions even if she does her own thing anyways haha 

- oh on that note, i LOVED the moment where their plans to kill Kostya aren’t working and Teresa says something like “If I can meet with him in person, I can kill him myself” and James just has this LOOK that just is the epitome of the “I am in love with a women who is DESIGNED TO STRESS ME OUT” meme lol, it made me giggle, v classic QOTS moment 

- oh and of course, I LOVED that scene with devon and james at the end!!!!!!!! i was also confused about how james was showing all his emotions in that scene esp. since he tries to be stoic about his feelings for Teresa around Devon, but now that i’ve read a few people’s thoughts about, it i’m fully on board w the theory that james and teresa already knew this was coming, b/c they’re smart, and b/c james knows devon wouldn’t have let him walk away to save Teresa at the beginning of the season without motivation (like having him in place to kill her when she’s no longer useful to the CIA) and THEREFORE james was sort of “overacting” to make it believable to devon (and the audience lol) that he didn’t know this was coming, didn’t want to do it, but felt like he had to, rather than the fact that they were already plotting a fake death. that makes a lot of sense to me and makes me really love all the layers to that scene. it does give me a little bit of hope that the finale ~teresa’s not really dead~ reveal will be at least a little well executed and not just shoved in at the very end. we shall see though! 

- alright i think that’s what i loved about the episode, if u don’t wanna hear me bitching about the little things then u should probably stop here!! just have to get out some of my saltiness lol 

THINGS I WAS ANNOYED ABOUT

- i’m just gonna get it out of the way, yes, i too was supremely annoyed at the amount of KA and Pote take suburbia; it was all 1000% predictable down to the raccoon and the cookies, and the point could have been accomplished in exactly 1 scene, maybe 2, certainly not like 10 or however many we got. whatever. ugh. 

- okay. OKAY. chicho. we need to talk about chicho. i for one, am not mad that he called pote, my boy was stressed. I AM HOWEVER, mad at the writers for making pote come back after saying he trusted chicho to take care of teresa now. like. it totally devalued THE WHOLE THING!! imo, pote shoulda stayed his ass at home where we had to watch him settle all episode, and chicho should have gotten THE HERO MOMENT HE DESERVED (esp. cuz he’s on first name basis w teresa now??) which ALSO WOULD HAVE MADE THE SCENE WHERE TERESA GIVES CHICHO THE DISTILLERY AND THE BAR SO! MUCH! MORE! MEANINGFUL!!!!! or just made it make sense at all? like .... i’m just so confused by that whole plotline like what was the point? chicho does nothing but call pote and gets T’s whole legacy in NOLA? 

- and don’t even get me started on how it makes ZERO sense that pote would have had to charge in at the last minute to save teresa when JAMES THE SNIPER W AMAZING AIM WHO IS LITERALLY. IN LOVE WITH HER. is standing outside like. ur telling me james and chicho (who again, is supposed to be her #2 after james now) just stood there like “oh hey pote yeah you go ahead we’ll wait here good luck” like WHAT also.. how did pote get past all the guards that made james stay outside? are we meant to believe pote is that sneaky? y’all. it just. doesn’t make sense. this whole plot situation maddens me more than anythings tbh UGH JUST MAKE IT MAKE SENSE 

- oksana’s daughter..... what’s her name again? idk b/c we only MET HER THIS WEEK....okay this amuses me but i’m also annoyed b/c like. there were so many other women who could have taken that spot in the opening sequence... Lil T, Castel, hell even Isabela??? Like idk how they could have done it but they put so much effort into her plot in the first seasons that i really thought she was gonna end up w/ Teresa in the end.. idk that would have been kind cool, Camila’s two “daughters” eventually working their way out of the life together..again idk how they could have realistically done it but i really do wish it had been someone we met before. if it had to be someone new this season, they could have introduced her earlier instead of one of the seemingly dozens of random guys we knew for 1 episode before they died... like.. give her some depth please. is she even gonna be in the finale? honestly she better be after making us listen to pote welcome her into the family... like the family u were supposed to leave so u could have an actual baby pote? the family that’s literally dispersing as we speak? also.. since when did pote love oksana so much anyways? also...... just.. if teresa’s gonna have some sort of daughter figure or whatever she’s supposed to be, wouldn’t it make sense to have her be the one to give the big welcome to the family speech? idk y’all..... i’m amused but also baffled at the sheer lack of planning behind this. did no one realize they needed someone for the opening scene until like. halfway thru the season? did they plan to have it be castel but they couldn’t get her for filming (hence all the weird castel plots?) INQUIRING MINDS WOULD LIKE TO KNOW. it’s whatever tho lol 

- i just hope that what’s-her-name gets a lil bit of plot in the finale esp. since otherwise it might just be pote running around being pissy (i don’t actually think that haha but i am a lil nervous that teresa won’t come back until the last few mins and i’ll have to spend all episode looking at boaz and devon and pote and KA.. i haven’t looked at any spoilers tho so i’m still hopeful! i will probably make a post about my hopes going into the finale a lil later, both realistic and unrealistic :) 

[mega-bastard]

i was kidnapped by shiratorizawa ?!?!?!?!

this was painful to write, but like a masochist I did it anyway. this is my part of the the first Whorehouse Collab, located here. Finally getting back into writing fanfics since like 2015, this was oddly therapeutic.

I wrote this under the influence of magic grass after binging several wattpad fics, enjoy at your own risk-- by which I mean laugh alongside me LMAO

The ending is sososo rushed, in true wattpad fashion <3 this was 1.3K words of nonsense

When I woke up today, I didn’t think I’d end up in such a bind— bindings to be more specific. I’m just your average little miss no one, another everyday student easily lost in the in the crowd. Wearing glasses and being like super shy does that to u, yknow?

Now, blindfolded and tied up, I can’t help but wonder just how someone so unnoticeable had gotten snatched up so suddenly— perhaps that was had why you were taken (insert Liam neeson voice: I will find you, and I will kill you hehe >:3). Now, with the full throb in my head beginning to subside— I started to recount what had bringed me into such s predicament

~ rewind to earlier in the day ~

I’d only just waked up when I received a text from my best friend mina (bnha wink wonk) gushing about or schools volleyball match— to say she was crazy in love aoba Joshuas volleyball team would be selling it crazily underwhelmed. Especially their captain, oikawa tooru ! Most of our school did, but I was really observant of the people around me— he gives me weird vibes, like he puts on an act or something. But still, I keep that thoght to myself so no one comes for me. Seriously, he’s got fans like a Kpop star (a/n haha stan bts for clear skin uwu)

Either way, her dragging me to a volleyball game is nothing new— and as she’s blowing my messages up like the world is ending I know  what to expect this coming afternoon. What a pain, I had planned on watching naruto when I got home today :(

There was no telling Mina no, so when we enviably met to walk to school I was well aware I’d be attending the volleyball match today. Boring, but I’d manage— I don’t care much for sports but sweaty and muscley men are finer than fine, I’d at least have spank bank material hehe (a/n not to whore on main buuuuuut ;3).

The day flew by and suddenly I found my self seated on the stands, waiting for the game to begin. Mina was chatting away, so when the urge to go to the bathroom came I simply got up and left— I wouldn’t get a word in edgewise, everyone always runs at the mouth and I can never get a word in as a result.

Not paying attention on my way to the bathroom, I suddenly shivered— feeling watched. I looked up from staring at the floor and was brought face to face with...the Shiratorizawa Volleyball Team ?!?! At the head was the tank of a captain, japans number one ace Ushijima Wakayoshi (a/n a whole snack yumyum) was indomitable and a scary man to be faced with. Ushijima was still as fierce as ever; I say that because we’d gone to middle school together— we never spoke or anything like that but we’d been in the same classes. He scrutinized my small form with impassive olive eyes, I felt rooted in place at such a state.

I shook myself from my little reverie and quickly scurried off, heart beating a mile a minute. “ just find the bathroom and head back to Mina “ I murmured to myself, finally finding the bathroom after rounding a corner. The feeling of being watched finally lifting.

After using the bathroom and began to head back, I could hear someone...singing something? I began to head towards it out of curiosity, peeking around a corner to see a tall red haired guy and a grey haired guy— they were wearing the same uniform so they must also be a part of the team as well! Lost in my thoughts, I was only briefly able to dick away before the red haired guy turned around to where I was peeking.

Ok seriously, let’s head back ‘ I thought before scurrying back to Mina— who grilled me on my absence before becoming entranced in the starting game. I stayed on my phone for the most part, reading one direction fanfic— with the phone screen down waaay low (a/n who else has done this before ???). Id peek every now and again to watch, at one point catching the eye of the tall red head— a chill ran down my spin at his impish smile that I looked away immediately.

He was...cute. In a scary way.

A sudden hush flew across the crowd and I looked up in time to see oikawas serve hit clean across the net, received by some guy with brown hair before being set by some twat with shitty hair (a/n shirabus a twat, their I said it >:/) before the ball was spiked back with a force unmatched.

That was Match point. Shiratorizawa wins.

The air is oppressive, oikawas fan girls— mina included, are wailing. That’s my cue to exit, bidding a mina goodbye I began my way down the hail, the rush of the court fading into background.

Then suddenly, rushing feet and the crack of something hard against my skull.

Darkness consumed me.

~ back to the present ~

Now back to the hear and now, I hear murmerings-- voices I don’t recognize. I try to listen, try to focus in on their voices but I can’t as the throbbing in my skull takes my focus away. A whimper escapes me, and a silence sweeps across wherever I am like a breeze-- it’s scary.

“haha, is she awake?” it’s the sing=songy voice from before-- the red head probably then? I know I needed to say something, anything, but I was still to disoriented. The sound of shoes nearing me immeadiatly set me off, beginning to wiggle and move before I was held still vision suddenly assaulted with brightness as my blindfold is redmoved.

Standing before, me in all their glory, is the Shiratorizawa volleyball team??

It looks like I’m being held in...an empty dorm room? I’m trying to gather my bearings and cannot figure what to possibly ay before being yanked up harshly from a laying position. It’s the red head holding me up, wicked smile and everything as he crouches in front of me before opening his mouth.

“ You belong to us now, got it~” his voice is too cheery given the words he’s just said to me (a/n tendou owns my heart and soul <3333 ), and only now does my voice find me. “ B-but w-why m-m-me ? You c-can’t j-just do t-that, please just let me g-g-g-g-g-g-go !” by the time I finish blubbering, theres tears streaming down my cheeks like rushing rivers. Through my lashes, I look pitifully around at everyone-- landing on an umcomfortble looking kid with a bowl cut, but he looks away as soon as i stare up at him.

no, no ,no nononono no ones going to help me. the tears fall puddle on the floor, only growing in speed when ushijima speaks. “ You’ll be transfering here, become our manager, and be staying in this dorm room-- it’s already been settled” (a/n idk I’d be p happy to be shiratorizawa’s manager uwu) his voice is deep and leaves no room for any back talk, but my stomach drops at his next sentence “Semi, put it on her’ my head whips up, starring doe eyed at the grey haired guy from before as he approaches with...IS THAT A COLLAR AND LEASH??? (a/n insert debby ryan face)

my face heats up, embarrassed and ashamed at the idea of being collared like an animal. I try to wiggle away, annoying Semi, “Tendou hold her still damnit!” at that Tendou-- the red head, grips my face with one hand to keep me still, gripping it hard enough that hes smushing my cheeks (a/n tendou, t e n d o u, loml, how I cherish thee) . He mutters a quiet cute, so faint I think I’m hearing things, before the tightening of the collar breaks me from that train of thought. With that done, I’m released, falling to my hands and knees staring up at the entire team now gathered before me.

A tug on the leash tugs me forward without much effort, and the tears spring up once more at the humiliation. 

“This is gonna be fun~”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ok so I hoped you guys loved it <3 I’ll try my best to get out weekly updates, next chap I’m thinking I either focus on how ushijima and reader-chan actually do know eachother, shirabu and semi fiighting of reader-chans attention, or maybe tendou and reader-chan getting into trouble while draggin goshiki into it! SOund off in the comments and let me know what you think ?? anyway love you guys sm <33333

[the-fiction-witch]

Lovely Tag Thomas Brodie Sangster

A - Affection [How affectionate are they with you?]

He's very affectionate, when at home but never in public. He likes to be affectionate and a little weird with you he'll poke you and then just lick your nose for no reason but its so cute and adorable, he'll just walk behind you and cuddle you tightly while your looking in the fridge, and he'll spank your butt as you bend over just generally cute fun affection

B - Butter [How much do they coddle you, and how?]

He does like to coddle you a little, he keeps you away from the press, the internet and all the sorts of things that would upset you, and really anything that you could get hurt in anyway he will not allow it full stop not going to happen, he wasn't even that thrilled about you being on his bike for the first time but he bought you so much gear that if you where to have an accident you would be as okay as he could possibly make you, he very much stands as your night from all the bad things that could hurt you even if you whine about being allowed to do more then you are

"god damn it! I am not going to electrocute myself Thomas! I'm just changing the light bulb"

"I wasn't worried about you electrocuting yourself I'm worried about you falling off the chair.... and shocking yourself"

C - Confide [How easily do they confide to you?]

He was open to confiding with you, however it was sort of an unspoken thing that it was sort of tit for tat as it were, if you confided something in him he would confide something in you almost like a trade, he would never keep a secret from you or anything just didn't feel the need to tell you unless you asked really or if you had said something,

D - Defensive [How protective are they over you?]

He can get very defensive especially with the internet he knows the sorts of things they say about you and he tried so hard to protect you, he tries to make sure the press stay out of your business and away from you, hides you behind him a little when there is camera's around because he knows the sorts of things they will say about you so he tries very hard to protect you.

E - Exhausted [How do they take care of you when you're tired or feeling low?]

It takes him a little while to notice but once he's realized he'll make you something nice to eat that won't make you feel any worse, let you sit across his lap and tell him all about it or just fall asleep on him whichever you need at the time, he'll cuddle you as tight as you want make run his hands across anywhere that hurts, petting your hair and soothing you with kisses and reassuring lovely words

F - Fluffy [How sappily sweet can they get?]

He can get pretty sappy if he wants to. but its a rare thing its saved for date nights and celebrations, but you can tell he's in a sappy mode because he'll be leaning his head on his hand and looking at you with that stupid dorky smile and he'll tell you out of the blue how much he loves you.

G - Game [How much do they play around, and are they a tease?]

He loves to play around, licking your cheek, poking your nose, eating your hair, doing all the stilly childish things that make you laugh even if its just an awkward laugh of weirdness, picking you up and carrying you around on his shoulder like his personal damsel in distress,

H - Happy [What's their favourite thing to do with you, that makes them happy?]

He loves having you on the back of his bike, He likes wrapping you up in all the gear and in his spare helmet he loves feeling your arms around him as you hold him close as he speeds his motorbike though London, going a little fast as you go around round about's going super fast on the duel carriage ways, taking you off to little unknown beauty spots for you to lean on the bike and cuddle.

I - Initiate [Do they make the first move?]

He will always make the first move, unless your in public then he always waits for you. He'll wrap his arm around you and give you a little kiss as you watch tv or cuddle up and have some kisses as you make dinner.

J - Jealousy [How jealous can they get and how do they show it?]

He'll glare. If he starts to get jealous He'll get very quiet and just glare at whoever it is talking with you, One day you where out to dinner with Dylan while he was visiting London for press and the two of you where just having a nice chat getting along really well and you could have sworn Dylan was about to burst into flames the way Thomas was glaring at him.

L - Love [How do they react to you giving them affection?]

He blushes and giggles a little when you give him affection and he'll always give you some back ,if you give his cheek a sweet kiss then he'll give you one back, if you give him a cuddle he'll cuddle you even tighter, he loves giving you affection and it always makes him smile and go all giggly

M - Married [What's it like to be married to them?]

its lovely, he's very kind and sweet as well as playful so it never gets dull or boring. Luckily he likes to ticker so he's a very handy husband doing household tasks like fixing the sink or building furniture, he's a perfect husband and you wouldn't change it for the world.

N - Newborn [How are they with having kids, and how would they be as a parent?]

he got so happy, he wanted to show the whole world your baby bump, he told every human being he possible could that you where pregnant and that he did it! he treats you like a princess anyway and when you where pregnant he treated you as if you where his queen, he held your hand every moment from the second you knew to the moment your baby was born. you where worried due to his work that he would end up being a bit absent from your children's lives but he always makes time for them, taking you all with him or even turning things down when he can't have the time with you, you and his children became the priority above everything on earth, and he spoils them a lot, but not enough that they become spoilt little rich kids they still learn to work and a good ethics, and still have to earn there pocket money even if Thomas spoils them around Christmas and there birthdays. And your children respect him, as the man of the house and as there father likely because of this odd wise father sat in an old chair with a facial hair and a cigarette look that he sort of developed when you had children, they love him and he loves them all very much too.

O - Outdoors [How are they with you in public?]

He likes to hold your hand, keep you close but not so much with kissing and such like probably because London is a very busy place and he doesn't like people seeing you kissing and cuddling,

P - Propose [How would they propose, and where would that be?]

He did it quiet classic, with the beautiful ring in a little red velvet box, getting down on his knee telling you how much he loves you, he made sure to make sure you did your make up and your hair and wear a nice dress even if it was hard to make you do so without letting out something was happening. He took you to your date spot in hyde park and tricked you into looking for an ice cream cart so he had time to get the ring and get down on one knee before you turned back.

Q - Quarrel [How are they after a fight, and will they try to make amends right after?]

if there is a fight between you even if it is very rare he goes and sits in his shed for a while on his little stool pondering with his tools until he knows he was a dick or he did wrong and he goes out on his bike and returns with a bottle of wine, the biggest box of your favourite chocolates and a nice bunch of flowers or perhaps a little cute potted plant and he'll apologize a thousand times until you smile again

R - Romantic [How much of a hopeless romantic are they, and how do they show it?]

He's romantic with gestures, buying you plants and plushies, making you a nice dinner, helping you with your favourite crafting, putting on your shows and such, he likes spoiling you with whatever you ask for even stuff you don't ask for.

S - Snuggles [Do they like to cuddle, and how do they do it?]

He is okay with a cuddle its just never completely cuddly as he doesn't like trapping you or making you feel claustrophobic, and he likes to be the little spoon a lot just rests his head on your shoulder or your chest an arm around your waist while he nuzzles up and tells you he loves you before bed time.  

T - Touchy [How touch starved are they, and would they show it?]

He doesn't show it as its kinda his default state being away from you for work so much and often when he is home being off with jack on the bikes or at auditions and such being touch starved is actually pretty normal for Thomas, but you can always tell when he's got it bad because he'll just hold you for... well until you move yourself.

U - Urchin [What's one negative trait about them that hurts you?]

He at times gets lost in what he's doing he tends to focus on one thing like if he's in his shed working on his bike he won't respond to messages, he won't do anything else unless you literally go to the shed and poke him, which can be great when you get him focused on something you want him to do, like cleaning the house, he won't stop of change focus until it's spotless but if he gets stuck on something like playing his video game he will not move until you force him or he gets bored.

V - Vibe [What energy do they give off when you're with them?]

Just pure joy. Whenever he's with you he feels like a child in love, giddy, excited and full of joy.

W- Wedding [What are they like at their wedding?]

teary, He could barely get thought seeing you before he completely  bursting into tears, Barely though the vows before getting teary. but its okay it was all tears of joy and you kissed away all his tears after the ceremony.

X - Xtreme [What lengths would they go to for you?]

he would do anything you asked, and he would often offer if you wanted something off him. He'll do his best to do what you ask even if at times he can't help it, like if your sad and you miss him when he's away working. He'll do his best to call you up or skype you for a while maybe flight you out to visit him if possible, but even if he can't due to time zones or anything he'll make it all up to you buy taking you out and spoiling you when he's home.

Y - Yogurt [What's their ideal place for a date?]

Thomas loves taking you on a nice motorbike ride to the seaside or the beautiful grounds and gardens of a nice house or Park, a little dinner in a small not to busy restaurant and an ice cream before heading home for a cuddle and a glass of wine.  

Z - Zipper [What clothes do they like seeing you in?] His, he can't help but go bright red and almost verbally awww at you when he sees you in his clothes. But he also loves when you dress up as he says himself its fun to dress up so you always have a day once a month or so where you get fully dressed up in heels a dress, and he gets on a full suit and you have your own little red carpet trip in his vintage car, to go and get pizza.

[once-more-just-vibing]

I’m gonna rewrite the IBVS fic ‘cuz I no longer vibe with it

Same thing as the other but hopefully less ooc

IBVS is by @onebizarrekai

"What's up with him?"

The rain fell in droves, soaking him to the bone almost instantly. But that wasn't his main concern at the moment.

"He's been acting weird for weeks."

He couldn't afford to stop and catch his breath, he just needed to keep running.

Running.

Running.

R͙̜̱̈́u̬͚ͯͭͥ̀n̜͕̤͖͑́͛̚͜n̳̖̯̖͊͢ͅi͓̮̖̹̲̜͈̤ͧ̿̋͜ň̴̳̠̱͙̂g͔̺͉̭̗͖͍̏̄ͭ͗̀

"I hope he's OK."

Then the worst happened, he slipped and went sprawling into the pavement. After the shock wore off, he tried to scramble to his feet before he was caught by-

"Hello there Quinton."

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

"Chris, I know you mean well, but I'm not helping." Isaac said, taking another bite of his sandwich.

"C'mon, Isaac!" Chris responded, his own lunch forgotten, "You won't even try?"

The artist sighed, "Look, I get what you're saying and I'm glad you've got this heart of pure gold, but I'm. Not. Helping."

"Alright, I get it, you and Ed don't have the best relationship, but still! Besides, he's trying to get better too!"

Isaac hesitated for a moment, "Fine, I'll admit that he's more... Tolerable nowadays. But that doesn't mean I'm gonna' go sticking my nose in his business. Even if he wanted someone to bother him there's still the issue of-" he waved his hands for emphasis, "Neither of us like each other."

Chris huffed in annoyance, "Fine, I'll go figure it out myself."

"Good luck with that!" Isaac called after him as Chris left.

Chris had just walked through the door when he was tapped on the shoulder. He jolted and turned to see who did it, relaxing slightly when he saw that it was someone he didn’t know.

He looked at the other student in confusion, “Do I know you?”

The other student just shook his head, “No, sorry, I forget not everyone knows me sometimes.” he stuck out his hand, “Name’s Barry, I’m Edward’s friend.”

After a moment of hesitation, Chris reached out and shook his hand, “Alright, what did you need?”

"I believe you've noticed that something's up with Ed too." He said, his face unreadable.

"How did you know?" Chris asked, beginning to feel slightly nervous.

Barry just gave him a friendly smile, "Call it a hunch. Now, I assume I'm correct?"

Chris nodded slowly, "Yeah... What's it mean to you?"

"Well, I care about my best friend for one. There's also the fact that very little goes on in this school without me knowing so when there is, I like to know what I didn't before. No c'mon, we've got a lot of figuring out to do."

Chris didn't have a chance to speak before Barry was pulling him down the hall towards who know where.

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

Meanwhile, on the other side of the school, the answers Barry and Chris were looking for were revealing themselves.

"I-I haven't t-touched Drew!" Edward stuttered, backtracking quickly, "J-just leave me alone!"

"Don't treat me like I'm stupid," Nevin sneered, "I saw you two together. Now get over here."

"I-I... I'll do anything!" Edward pleaded, "I'll n-never even LOOK at him again!"

Nevin just stepped forward, "I warned you Quinton..." 

"P-please." He whispered, freezing as he hit the wall.

He was trapped.

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

Chris jumped as Barry slammed his hands on the table, "OK, what do we know?"

After recovering from the shock, Chris hesitantly responded, "I... Guess he's been avoiding people more often? I don't know, you probably noticed more."

Barry nodded, "That's the most noticeable change. Even his little gang hasn't seen much of him outside of class."

This was new to Chris, "Wait, not even they know what's up? I thought he told them everything."

Barry shook his head, "If he didn't tell me, he wouldn't tell anyone."

"I feel like there's more between you two than just being friends."

"I'll tell you later." Barry responded dismissively, "Now, back to what we know. So no one has seen him much which implies that he's avoiding people."

"The question is why."

Barry nodded, "And unfortunately, that's something I can't figure out."

"Do you know any reasons why he wouldn't want to be around people?"

"No, not really. He's always been very social so I don't understand why he wouldn't be around others even if something was bugging him."

Chris sighed, "Then we're back at square one."

They sat in silence for a while, both of them feeling frustrated and somewhat defeated. If they couldn't figure out what was wrong they couldn't do anything to help. And it wasn't like they could just ask since Edward wasn't really known for being an open book.

"I wish this was as easy as movies made it look." Chris muttered, "I wish this was like some detective movie or something where there's a clue or sign just magically seems to appear."

And of course at that moment, the universe decided that Chris had gone thre enough already and granted his wish.

The door burst open, causing Chris and Barry to jump in surprise. The door slammed again and they could hear the sound of something thudding against the cabinets in the kitchen. 

They shared a worried look before Barry stood up, "Who's there?"

There was a quiet mumble from the kitchen that neither of them could decipher.

Chris stood up next, "Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?"

There was no response this time and after sharing a wary look, the two teens crept towards the kitchen. At first, it looked like no one was there, but once they rounded the corner they saw the intruder. Sitting on the floor, knees tucked up in a defensive position, sat the very person they'd been talking about.

"Ed...?" Barry whispered.

"Go away." Edward rasped, seeming to draw even further into himself.

"Well," Chris said, a look of confusion on his face, "I think we've got even more questions to answer now."

---------

It took them about half an hour to get Edward to leave the kitchen, and even then. he refused to be near them or say anything. Barry eventually gave up on getting Ed to talk after another half hour of fruitless attempts. 

He sat down at the table with a groan, "Y'know, Ed's a good guy, but there are times where he is extremely frustrating. This is one of them."

Chris chuckled quietly and glanced out the window, "Oh geez, I didn't notice how dark it got. I wonder if my dad's wondering where I am yet."

Barry looked surprised, "Oh my gosh! You it's never told your parents!" he stood up and walked off, "I should tell Ed's mom he's spending the night."

Chris stood up after him, "Well, good luck with that. I gotta' head home before I get in more trouble than I'm definitely already in."

Barry nodded, "Alright, good luck to you too."

They waved goodbye to each other and Barry watched the other walk off until the last trace of color disappeared into the night. He shook his head, turning back to his phone as he pulled up Edward's mom's contact. Most people would consider it weird that he has the number of his best friend's mom but it made sense to him. After Ed had developed the habit of accidentally falling asleep at Barry's house, he just decided to help out and message Ed's mom for him. 

Speaking of which.

Edward had finally fallen asleep, slumped over with his knees still pressed to his chest. 

Barry sighed, "Wish you weren't so stubborn and let people help you..."

He walked to the kitchen, grabbed a towel, and returned to sit next to his friend. After moving Edward's arms away from his face, Barry began wiping off the tear stains. Shockingly, the jock didn't wake up, only shifting slightly. After carefully removing the other's jacket, Barry grabbed one of the blankets and practically tucked Edward in. And after a moments hesitation, he leaned down and gave his friend a soft kiss on the forehead and turned off the lights, finally heading off to get some sleep.

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

Thankfully, it was finally the weekend, meaning Barry didn't need to fight Ed to keep him home. Chris came over again, saying he wanted to help just as much as Barry did. It took an hour or so and lots of prying for Edward to finally open up. And when he did, the story he told definitely shocked the other two.

"I'll t-talk now." He mumbled.

Barry and Chris instantly started questioning him.

"What happened?"

"Are you OK?"

"Did someone do this to you?"

"How can we help?"

At this, Edward instantly shrank back into the blanket covering him, wide eyed and shaking slightly. The other two backed off upon seeing his reaction, giving him a minute to collect himself.

"Maybe don't do that next time." Was all he said, still tense but doing better.

Chris rubbed the back of his neck, visibly embarrassed, "Yeah, probably wasn't my smartest moment."

That got an annoyed scoff out of the other that caused Chris to perk up. 

Barry spoke up after a second, "Could you tell us what happened now?"

Ed flinched again, obviously not liking the conversation, "I... Guess..." he took a breath, steeling himself for the coming conversation, and finally spoke. "It started a couple weeks ago. Stupid-" His face scrunched up in disgust, "Stupid fuckin'... Emo kid said something 'bout me messing with his brother. Of course I wasn't 'cuz even if I was like, violent all the time, I'm not gonna' beat up a kid on crutches. That's just sick. But yeah, the asshole kept catching me after school and just pummeling me. I tried to fight back a couple times but that didn't work so I just tried avoiding him. That didn't work either so I just started avoiding people altogether. Didn't help that after the first few times any sort of contact freaked me out. But yeah, that's basically it."

Chris and Barry just sat there and stared at him, completely at a loss for words. Edward looked unnerved by the sudden attention, once again shrinking back into himself.

Chris snapped out of it first, "S-sorry, we didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. We're just... Surprised, I guess."

Edward raised an eyebrow, "Really? He already hated me, this shouldn't be too surprising."

Barry was still in a state of shock, just staring at his friend with a mixture of concern and anger.

Chris suddenly stood up, "That's it. I need to talk with him."

Edward looked panicked, "No way! He'll crush you!"

This didn't stop Chris who just continued towards the door, "I don't care, he's not getting away with this." and with that, the door shut and the house was silent.

Barry sighed, standing up, "I hope he doesn't get himself into too much trouble..."

Edward just kept staring at the door as if he was expecting Chris to walk back through at any moment. 

Barry noticed this and sat down next to his friend (Not close enough to touch mind you), “Hey, I’m sure he’ll be fine. You don’t need to worry so much.”

Edward scoffed, trying to mask his embarrassment, “I’m not worrying! I’m just... Waiting for him to come back and tell me about how he whooped Nightmare’s ass! Yeah!” he grinned, I’m so smooth.

Barry just chuckled, leaning back into the couch, “Whatever you say buddy. Want to watch something?”

“Sure, what are you thinking?” The jock responded and instinctively glanced at the TV as it flickered on.

“We could just see what’s on. That is unless you were thinking of something specific.”

“Nah, whatever is fine.”

And just like that, Edward quickly forgot about his worries in favor of intently watching the show that came on and criticizing the acting. Barry was glad he managed to take the other’s mind off of Chris, but now it was his turn to be worried.

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

Chris rapped on the door of the Jovel house, having to keep himself from just busting it down and scouring the place for any sign of Nevin. After a bit of shuffling from inside, the door opened, revealing none other than the emo disaster himself.

He gave Chris a bored look, “You want something?”

Needless to say, the urge to punt the boy in front of him increased.

Chris took a deep breath, reminded himself that other people might see him pummel what appeared to be an emo 12 year old (Height wise), and forced a fake smile.

“Hey Nevin,” He said, his voice slightly strained, “mind coming outside so we can talk?”

After surveying his tall friend for a moment, Nevin shrugged, stepping onto the porch and shutting the door, “I don’t see why not.”

“Cool.” Chris responded simply, turning to walk down the stairs when he was pushed down.

He quickly scrambled to his feet and spun around, a short knife resembling a blood red dagger appearing out of nowhere in his hand. Nevin was still standing on the porch, a smug smirk on his face.

“You really thought I was stupid enough to fall for that?” He sneered, “You weren’t even trying to pretend like this was just gonna’ be a normal conversation.”

Chris grit his teeth, “Kinda’ hard to play nice when you learn that your friend is secretly an asshole who beats up people who didn’t even do anything.”

Nevin scowled, stepping down the stairs, “Quinton has done more than enough to deserve what I did. I even warned him.”

Chris glared at him. This is going nowhere. Guess we’re doing this the hard way. Nevin suddenly jumped forward, snapping the other out of his thoughts. Chris managed to step out of the way right as Nevin swiped at the air where he had been moments before. Black crystal like structures had formed at the tips of the dark haired boy’s fingers, effectively forming crude claws. He made another swipe and Chris barely managed to block it with the flat of his knife. 

Nevin hissed, shaking his hand lightly before glaring at Chris, “I thought you were on my side Chris! Not that pompous bastard’s!”

Chris took the opportunity to go on the offensive, “That changed when you started being a jerk!” he grunted, making several slashes and stabs at his opponent.

Nevin quickly moved out of the way, “Then I hope you’re prepared for what you got yourself into!” he tried to grab the knife but cried out, an audible sizzle coming from the black liquid now coating his hands, “You little-”

Chris allowed himself a triumphant grin as Nevin reeled, holding his burned hand. His smile quickly faded however as the flow of black liquid just increased, the previously dull cyan glint in the shorter boy’s eye doubling in intensity. The liquid seemed to have a mind of its own, moving and bubbling with frantic intensity. Chris began to move back, starting to wonder why he thought this was a good idea as his once-friend gave him a hate filled glare slightly obscured by the black sludge.

“Now you really fucked up.” Nevin growled, flinging some of the sludge off his hands and exposing the now lengthened claws.

Chris swallowed, gripping his knife tightly as he willed it to grow. Oh shit. Was all he thought as the two stared each other down. Then, Nevin lunged, restarting the fight.

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

The show had been long forgotten and been reduced to background noise. Edward was splayed out on the couch, having taken it for himself in his sleep. Barry switched to one of the armchairs and was absentmindedly petting a random cat that had crawled into his lap. 

The relative quiet wasn’t meant to last though. 

The door burst open, startling the cat which caused it to leap off of Barry and dart off into the kitchen. As the boy was beginning to stand up to see who had barged in, his surprise guest stumbled into the living room.

“Chris?!” Barry said in shock.

The boy in question was covered in dirt, grime, and some unidentifiable black sludge with several leaves stuck to it. He had numerous bruises and scrapes along with a slight limp. All in all, he was a mess.

“Heya Barry.” Chris mumbled.

Barry immediately snapped out of his shock, “Holy- Chris go take a shower right now, you need to get all that gunk off. I’m gonna go get some bandages and anti-bacterial spray.”

Chris stood there for a moment, looking completely out of it, before nodding slowly and limping up the stairs. After a minute, the faint sound of falling water came from the upstairs bathroom. Somehow, this was more jarring than the door slamming open and woke Edward up.

“Barry...?” He called, his voice slightly hoarse.

“In here Ed!” Barry responded, eventually returning from one of the many closets with an armful of medical supplies.

Edward, who was still tired and groggy, just stared at his friend for a moment, “What’s all that for? I already told you I don’t need anything.”

“It’s for Chris.” Barry said, “He just got back. He was covered in dirt and all sorts of muck so I told him to take a shower before anything. I’m waiting for him to come back so I can patch him up.”

This obviously didn’t sit right with the school king, “He’s hurt?! What happened?”

“I don’t know but I’m assuming it’s Nevin’s fault.”

Edward scowled but before he could say anything, the water stopped and a voice came from the bathroom.

“Hey Barry!” Chris shouted, “I uh... I don’t have any extra clothes!”

Barry sighed, “Damnit, I should’ve thought of that.”

“You could give him some of my stuff I left here,” Edward suggested, “we’re close to the same size.”

“That could work.” Barry mused then called back to Chris, “Give me a minute! I’ll go get you something!”

He walked to the spare room and opened the closet, revealing Edward’s stash of spare clothes he kept there in case he slept over. After grabbing a plain T-shirt, sweatpants, and a sweater with the school emblem on it, Barry made his way up to the bathroom.

He knocked on the door, “I have some clothes that could work for you.”

After a moment Chris opened the door, only wearing a towel and looking incredibly embarrassed, “Sorry for taking your stuff, I didn’t think I’d get this messy.”

Barry waved a hand dismissively, “It’s no problem. Besides, Ed suggested I give you his spare stuff anyways so you don’t need to worry about taking my things.”

Chris only looked more embarrassed at this, “Oh my gosh, Isaac’s never going to let me live this down if he finds out.”

Barry just chuckled, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell. Now get dressed so I can patch you up.”

Chris nodded and took the pile of clothes, then proceeding to retreat back into the bathroom. After a minute, he came out, looking slightly flustered.

“It fits.” He mumbled, pulling at the sleeves of the sweater and avoiding eye contact.

Barry just smiled, “That’s good, now c’mon.” he grabbed the other’s hand and brought him downstairs.

At the sound of the two coming downstairs, Edward looked up from what he was doing on his phone. Upon spotting the incredibly flustered Chris, he immediately looked back down, feeling his face heat up slightly. Barry worked in silence, disinfecting and wrapping up all the scrapes and cuts Chris got from the fight. After that was done, the three sat in semi-awkward silence until Edward finally said something.

“Want to see what’s on TV?” He suggested, obviously uncomfortable with the silence.

Barry nodded, reaching for the remote and turning on the TV. After a few seconds, the screen lit up and the sound of voices and quiet music issued forth. It was some sort of Spanish drama if the music and stereotypical mustaches and sombreros were any indication. 

Right before Barry could change the channel, Edward reached out and stopped him, “No wait, this looks interesting.”

Barry gave him a confused look but just shrugged and set the remote aside. They all huddled on the couch, Edward on one end, Barry on the other, and Chris in the middle. It took a bit for them to understand what was happening since the episode was apparently in the middle of the season. Not to mention the fact that it took forever for them to figure out how to get English captions since Chris was the only one who could even sort of understand what they were saying. About an hour in, Edward and Chris were extremely invested, both of them immediately denying Barry’s request to find something actually good. An hour and a half later, the two were crying over a wedding scene.

Chris sniffled, tears streaming down his face, “S-she f-finally got her h-husbaaaand!” he trailed off into sobs.

Edward was too distraught to respond and just nodded aggressively, blowing his nose loudly. Barry just watched them, a look of concern on his face. When the villain crashed the wedding though, they became even more distraught. Chris leaned against Edward, hugging him for support as he cried. Edward noticeably flinched but after a moment, smiled slightly and awkwardly patted the other’s back.

“I-I-I c-can’t b-beli-ieve he dID THAT!” Chris sobbed, descending into distressed mumbling and tears.

Barry snorted and began laughing and so did Edward. Chris just weakly smacked Edward’s arm and tried to kick Barry, only succeeding in tapping the other with his foot.

“Y-you guys are mean.” He muttered, causing the other two to start snickering again.

It didn’t take long for him to pass out, having tired himself out with all the crying. It took Edward a bit to notice that there was now a deadweight leaning up against him.

“Uh, Barry?” He whispered, “There’s a problem.”

Barry looked over and upon noticing his friend’s predicament, he smiled, “Aww, that’s cute.”

Edward blushed slightly, sputtering something unintelligible, “No it’s not!” he hissed, “Now help me!”

Barry just grinned, “Nah, he looks comfortable.” his smile faltered after a moment though, “Are you uncomfortable? I’ll move him if this is making you uncomfortable.”

The jock hesitated then sighed, “No, I’m fine, I just need to move him a bit.”

He began shifting slightly, trying his hardest not to wake the other up. After moving so that he was laying on his back, he let Chris’s head fall onto his chest.

He glared at Barry who was smiling again, “Not a word.”

Barry held his hands up defensively, “Hey, I wasn’t gonna say anything.” he thought for a moment, “Actually, do you want to stay here or move to my room?”

Edward glanced at Chris, poked his head, and when the sleeping boy didn’t do anything, he nodded, “Yeah, the couch isn’t the most comfortable and one of us would probably roll off.”

“Alright.” Barry said, standing up, “You got him?”

As if on cue, Edward hoisted Chris up, holding him bridal style. He stumbled slightly at first but quickly regained his balance, shifting his sleeping load a bit before following Barry to the bedroom. They settled in, Chris in the middle again, and Barry turned off the light.

“Goodnight Ed.” He whispered.

“Night Barry.” Edward responded.

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

Chris woke up to a bright light shining onto his face and the sound of muffled talking and clanging. It took him a moment to register that he didn’t recognize the room he was in and another to begin panicking. 

He shot up and instantly groaned at the sudden soreness, “Aaaooooww shit-”

He looked around, trying to figure out where he was. He quickly pieced together that this must be Barry’s bedroom after remembering the events of last night. He swung his legs out of the bed (Also registering that he was still wearing Edward’s clothes) and after stretching a bit, left the room to see what was happening. He got to the bottom of the stairs and followed the noise to the kitchen. The source of the noise was Edward singing along to a random song that was playing from his phone along with Barry cooking some eggs and bacon.

“Ed I’m trying to cook-” Barry started but was cut off as Edward started singing again.

“Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah no I can't risk falling off my throne!" he sang, “La la la la la la la la love is something I don’t even know!”

Before he could stop himself, Chris slid in and started singing the next part as well, “Straight hair! Straight A’s! Straight forward, straight girl. Little Miss Perfect, that’s me!”

Edward noticed his new singing buddy and after a moment of embarrassed silence and surprise, the next verse came up and he decided to just go with it. They eventually convinced Barry to join them and they all had a sort of karaoke session before Barry finished the food. Breakfast was relatively quiet but instead of it being awkward, it was a comfortable quiet. Eventually, Chris and Edward needed to go home. Neither of them were too happy about that fact but they couldn’t just live at Barry’s house. Barry fussed over Edward for a bit, asking if he needed Barry to walk him home and if he was feeling alright. After managing to convince his friend that he was fine, Edward turned to the door.

He paused though, turning around to look at Chris, “Hey, umm...” he thought for a moment, not sure what to say, “Thanks.”

Chris just looked confused, “What for?”

Edward shrugged, “I dunno, beating up that jerk for me I guess. Figured it wasn’t right to just ignore what you did for me, so thanks.”

Chris was caught off guard, “O-oh! Oh yeah no problem, I couldn’t just let him get away with that.”

Barry jumped in, “Don’t you ‘no problem’ us, we saw what happened to you. You did more than you needed to and more.”

Chris felt his face heat up, “Oh, thank you.”

Edward patted him on the back, “No problem bud.”

After once again assuring Barry that they were both perfectly fine, Chris and Edward finally left. They waved goodbye to each other and went their separate ways, both smiling to themselves.

~~Extra~~

Chris opened the door, “Hey Isaac, come on in!”

The shorter artist walked in, glancing around, “Is your dad out?”

Chris nodded, “Yup. No need to worry about him. Now c’mon, we got a project to work on.”

Isaac groaned dramatically but followed his friend up to his room. The room was a bit messy but nothing Isaac wasn’t used to. It took them a minute to get set up and he decided to check out Chris’s room out of bored curiosity. It was pretty normal for a teenagers room, a messy desk against one of the walls, a bookshelf covered in books that were collecting dust, a sweater with the school logo on it, a couple socks on th-

Wait...

“What’s this?” He asked, picking up the sweater that had been partially hidden by a blanket. 

Chris instantly froze and began panicking, “Uh- I-it’s just some sweater I got at the beginning of the school year!”

Isaac gave him a suspicious look and then glanced at the tag on the back of the collar, “Funny, cuz right here it says ‘Edward Quinton’.” he smirked, “Now what does that mean?”

At that moment, Chris wished he could sink into the floor.